took my leave to welcome my friend. ! How we" enjoyed
ourselves after so much anxiety and want of. one another’s
company, I need not describe. For my part, I" was j only
too rejoiced to see Grant could limp about a bit, and .was
able to laugh over the picturesque and amusing account
he gave me of his own rough travels.-
28th.—The king in the morning sent Budja, his ambassador,
with Kamrasi’s Kidgwiga, over to me for my men
and letters, to go to Kamrasi’s again and ask for the road
to Gani. I wished to speak to the king first, but they
said they had no orders. to stop for j that, and walked
straight away. I sent the king a present of a double-
barrelled gun and ammunition, and received in answer a
request that both Grant and myself would attend a levee,
which he was to hold in state, accompanied by his bodyguard,
as when I was first presented to him. In the afternoon
we proceeded to court accordingly, but found it
scantily attended; and after the first sitting, which was
speedily over, retired to another court, and saw the women.
Of this dumb show the king soon got tired; he therefore
called for the iron chair, and entered into conversation, at
first about the ever-engrossing subject of stimulants, till
we changed it by asking him how he liked the gun ? He
pronounced it a famous weapon, which he would use
intensely. We then began to talk in a general way about
Siiwarora and Bumanika,- as well as the road through
Unyamuezi, which we hoped would soon cease to exist,
and be superseded by one through Unyoro.
It will be kept in view that the hanging about at this
court, and all the perplexing and irritating negotiations
here described, had always one end in view—-that of reaching
the Nile where it pours out of the. N’yanza, as I was
long certain that it did. Without the consent and even
the aid. of this capricious barbarian I was' now talking to,
such a project was hopeless. I naturally' seized every
opportunity for putting in a word in the direction of my