point out to them for future purposes in keeping the road
permanently open. His provoking capriciousness, however,
again broke in, and he put me off till his messengers
should return from Unyoro. I told him his men had
gone in vain, for Budja left without my letter or my
men; and further, that the river route is the only one
that will ever be of advantage to Uganda, and the sooner
it was opened up the better. I entreated him to listen to
my advice, and send some of my men to Kamrasi direct,
to acquaint him with my intention to go down the river
in boats to him; hut I could get no answer to this. Bombay
then asked for cows for the Wanguana, getting
laughed at for his audacity, and the king broke up the
court and walked away.
5 th.—I started on a visit to the queen, but half-way
met Congow, who informed me he had just escorted her
majesty from his house, where she was visiting, to her
palace. By way of a joke and feeler, I took it in my
head to try, by taking a harmless rise out of Congow,
whether the Nile is understood by the natives to be
navigable near its exit from the N’yanza. I told him he
had been appointed by the king to escort us down the
river to Gani. He took the affair very seriously, delivering
himself to the following purport: “ Well, then, my
days are numbered; for if I refuse compliance, I shall lose
my head; and if I attempt to pass Kamrasi’s, which is
on the river, I shall lose my life; for I am a marked man
there, having once led an army past his palace and back
again. It would be no use calling it a peaceful mission,
as you propose; for the Wanyoro distrust the Waganda
to such an extent, they would fly to arms at once/’
Proceeding to the queen’s palace, we met Murondo, who
had once travelled to the Masai frontier. He said it
would take a month to go in boats from Kira, the most
easterly district in Uganda, to Masai, where there is
another N’yanza, joined by a strait to the big N’yanza,
which king Mtdsa’s boats frequent for salt; but the same
distance could be accomplished in four days overland,
and three days afterwards by boat. The queen, after
keeping us all day waiting, sent three bunches of plantains
and a pot of pombd, with a message that she was
too tired to receive visitors, and hoped we would call
another day.
6 th.—I met Pokino, the governor-general of Uddu, in
the morning’s walk, who came here at the same time as
Grant to visit the king, and was invited into his house
to drink pombd His badge of office is an iron hatchet,
inlaid with copper and handled with ivory. He wished
to give us a cow, but put it off for another day, and
was surprised we dared venture into his premises without
permission from the king. After this, we called at the
palace, just as the king was returning from a walk with
his brothers. He saw us, and sent for Bana. We entered,
and presented him with some pictures, which he greatly
admired, looked at close and far, showed to the brothers,
and inspected again. Pokino* at this time came in with a
number of well-made shields, and presented them grovelling
and n’yanzigging; but though the governor of an
important province, who had not been seen by the king
for years, he was taken no more notice of than any common
Mkungu. A plan of the lake and Nile, which I
brought with me to explain our projects for reaching
Karague and Gani, engaged the king’s attention for a
while; but still he would not agree to let anything be
done until his messenger returned from Unyoro. Finding
him inflexible, I proposed, sending a letter, arranging that
his men should be under the guidance of my men after
they pass Unyoro on the way to Gani; and this was
acceded to, provided I should write a letter to Petheriek
by the morrow. I then tried to teach the king the use of
the compass. To make a stand for it, I turned a drum on
its head, when all the courtiers flew at me as if to prevent