King of Uganda reviewing Colonel Congo’s Regiment.
which turned into a low kind of fever. I sent Bombay
to tbe king to tell him tbe news, and ask bim wbat be
tbougbt of doing next. He replied tbat be would pusb
for Grani direct; and sent back a pot of pombd for tbe
sick man.
16th.—Tbe king to-day inquired after my health, and,
strange to say, did not accompany bis message with a
begging request.
17th.—-My respite, however, was not long. At tbe
earliest possible bour in tbe morning tbe king sent begging
for things one hundred times refused, supposing,
apparently, that I bad some little reserve store which I
wished to conceal from bim.
18 th and 1 9 th.—I sent Bombay to tbe palace to beg
for pombd, as it was tbe only thing I bad an appetite for,
but the king would see no person but myself. He had
broken bis rifle washing-rod, and this must be mended,
tbe pages who brought it saying tbat no one dared take it
back to him until it was repaired. A guinea-fowl was sent
after dark for me to see, as a proof tbat tbe king was a
sportsman complete.
20 tk.—Tbe king going out shooting borrowed my
powder-born. Tbe Wangbana mobbed tbe but and
bulbed me for food, merely because they did not like tbe
trouble of helping themselves from tbe king’s garden,
though they knew I bad purchased their privilege to do
so at tbe price of a gold chronometer and tbe best guns
England could produce.
2 1 —I now, for tbe first time, saw tbe way in which
tbe king collected bis army together. Tbe highroads were
all thronged witb Waganda warriors, painted in divers
colours, witb plantain-leaf bands round their beads, scanty
goat-skin fastened to their loins, and spears and shield in
their bands, singing tbe tamburd or march, ending witb a
repetition of tbe word Mkavia, or Monarch. They surpassed
in number, according to Bombay, tbe troops and