their lives and services were his for ever. The regiment
now received orders to put down their faggots, and, taking
up their own sticks in imitation of spears, followed the
antics of their officers in charging and vociferating. Next,
Mkavia presented five harry Usoga goats, n’yanzigging and
performing the other appropriate ceremonies. On asking
the king if he had any knowledge of the extent of his
army, he merely said, “ How can I, when these you see
are a portion of them just ordered here to carry wood V’
The regiment was now dismissed; but the officers were
invited to follow the king into another court, when he
complimented them on assembling so many men; they,
instead of leaving well alone, foolishly replied they were
sorry they were not more numerous, as some of the men
lived so far away they shirked the summons; Maula,
then, ever forward in mischief, put a cap on it by saying,
if he could only impress upon the Waganda to listen to
his orders there would never be a deficiency. Upon which
the king said, “ If they fail to obey you, they disobey me;
for I have appointed you as my orderly, and thereby you
personify the orders of the king.” Up jumped Maula in
a moment as soon as these words were uttered, charging
with his stick, then floundering and n’yanzigging as if he
had been signally rewarded. I expected some piece of
cruel mischief to come of all this, but the king, in his
usual capricious way, suddenly rising, walked off to a
third court, followed only by a select few.
Here, turning to me, he said, “ Bana, I love you, because
you have come so far to see me, and have taught me so
many things since you have been here.” Rising, with my
hand to my heart, and gracefully bowing at this strange
announcement—for at that moment I was full of hunger
and wrath—I intimated I was much flattered at hearing
it, but as my house was in a state of starvation, I trusted
he would consider it. “ What! ” said he, “ do you want
goats ? ” “ Yes, very much.” The pages then received
orders to furnish me with ten that moment, as the king’s
farmyard was empty, and he would reimburse them as
soon as more confiscations took place. But this, I said,
was not enough; the Wangfiana wanted plantains, for
they had received none these fifteen days. “ W hat! ” said
the king, turning to his pages again, “ have you given
these men no plantains, as I ordered ? Go and fetch
them this moment, and pombe too, for Bana.”
The subject then turned on the plan I had formed of
going to Gani by water, and of sending Grant to Kara-
gfid by the lake; but the king’s mind was fully occupied
with the compass I had given him. He required me to
explain its use, and then broke up the meeting.
4 th.—Viarungi, an officer sent by Rumanika to escort
Grant to Uganda, as well as to apply to king Mtesa for
a force to fight his brother Rogdro, called on me with
Rozaro, and said he had received instructions from his
king to apply to me for forty cows and two slave-boys,
because the Arabs who pass through his country to Uganda
always make him a present of that sort after receiving them
from Mtdsa. After telling him we English never give the
presents they have received away to any one, and never
make slaves, but free them, I laid a complaint against
Rozaro for having brought much trouble and disgrace
upon my camp, as well as much trouble on myself, and
begged that he might be removed from my camp.
Rozaro then attempted to excuse himself, but without
success, and said he had already detached his residence
from my camp, and taken up a separate residence with
Viariingi, his superior officer.
I called on the king in the afternoon, and found the
pages had already issued plantains for my men and
pombd for myself. The king addressed me with great
cordiality, and asked if I wished to go to Gani. I answered
him with all promptitude,—Yes, at once, with
some of his officers competent to judge of the value of all I