an outrage, and the king laughed. I found that, as the
instrument was supposed to he a magic charm of very wonderful
powers, my meddling with it and treating it as an
ordinary movable was considered a kind of sacrilege.
7 th.—I wrote a letter to Petherick, but the promised
Wakungu never came for it. As K’yengo was ordered to
attend court with Rumanika’s hongo, consisting of a few
wires, small beads, and a cloth I gave him, as well as a
trifle from Nnanaji, I sent Bombay, in place of going myself,
to remind the king of his promises for the Wakungu
to Gani, as well as for boats to Karaghó, but a grunt was
the only reply which my messenger said he obtained.
8 th.—Calling at the palace, I found the king issuing
for a walk, and joined him, when he suddenly turned
round in the rudest manner, re-entered his palace, and
left me to go home without speaking a word. The capricious
creature then reissued, and, finding me gone, inquired
after me, presuming I ought to have waited for him.
9 th.—During the night, when sleeping profoundly, some
person stealthily entered my hut and ran off with a box
of bullets towards the palace, but on the way dropped his
burden. Mahla, on the way home, happening to see it,
and knowing it must be mine, brought it back again. I
stayed at home, not feeling well.
10 ¿A—K’yengo paid his hongo in wire to the king, and
received a return of six cows. Still at home, an invalid,
I received a visit from Mèri, who seemed to have quite
recovered herself. Speaking of her present quarters, she
said she loved Ulédi’s wife very much, thinking birds of
a feather ought to live together. She helped herself to a
quarter of mutton, and said she would come again.
11th.—To-day Yiariingi, finding Rozaro’s men had
stolen thirty cows, twelve slaves, and a load of mbugu
from the Waganda, laid hands on them himself for Rfi-
manika, instead of giving them to king Mtésa. Such
are the daily incidents among our neighbours.
12th.—At night a box of ammunition and a bag of shot,
which were placed out as a reserve present for the king,
to be given on our departure, were stolen, obviously by
the king’s boys, and most likely by the king’s orders ; for
he is the only person who could have made any use of
them, and his boys alone know the way into the hut;
besides which, the previous box of bullets was found on
the direct road to the palace, while it was well known
that no one dared to touch an article of European manufacture
without the consent of the king.
13 ¿A—I sent a message to the king about the theft,
requiring him, if an honest man, to set his detectives to
work, and ferret it out; his boys, at the same time, to
show our suspicions, were peremptorily forbidden, ever to
enter the hut again. Twice the king sent down a hasty
message to say he was collecting all his men to make a'
search, and, if they do not succeed, the Mganga would be
sent; but nothing was done. The Kamraviona was sharply
rebuked by the king for allowing K’yengo to visit him
before permission was given, and thus defrauding the royal
exchequer of many pretty things, which were brought for
majesty alone. At night the rascally boys returned again
to plunder, but Kahala, more wakeful than myself, heard
them trying to untie the door-handle, and frightened them
away in endeavouring to awaken me.
14 th and 15 th.—Grant, doing duty for me, tried a day’s
penance at the palace, but though he sat all day in the
antechamber, and musicians were ordered into the presence,
nobody called for him. K’yengo was sent with all his
men on a Wakungu-seizing expedition,—a good job for
him, as it was his perquisite to receive the major part of
the plunder himself.
16 ¿A—I sent Kahala out of the house, giving her
finally over to Bombay as a wife, because she preferred
playing with dirty little children to behaving like a young
lady, and had caught the itch. This was much against