offences in defiling the royal seat, and "would have bound
them, had they not offered to return the articles to us.
23d—Early in the morning, hearing the royal procession
marching off on a shooting excursion, we sent Bombay
running after it with the mask and pictures, to
acquaint the king with our desire to see him, and explain
that we had been four days successively foiled in attempts
to find him in his palace, our object being an eager
wish to come to some speedy understanding about the
appointed journeys to the Salt Lake and KaraguA The
toys produced the desired effect; for the king stopped and
played with them, making Bombay and the pages don the
mask by turns. He appointed the morrow for an interview,
at the same time excusing himself for not having
seen us yesterday on the plea of illness. In the evening
Kaha.la absconded with another little girl of the camp in
an opposite direction from the one she took last time; but
as both of them wandered about not knowing where to
go to, and as they omitted to take off all their finery, they
were soon recognised as in some way connected with my
party, taken up, and brought into camp, where they were
well laughed at for their folly, and laughed in turn at the
absurdity of their futile venture.
24th.—Hoping to keep the king to his promise, I went
to the palace early, but found he had already gone to see
his brothers, so followed him down, and found him engaged
playing on a harmonicon with them. Surprised at
my intrusion, he first asked how I managed to find him
out; then went on playing for a while; but suddenly
stopping to talk with me, he gave me an opportunity of
telling him I wished to send Grant off to Karague, and
start myself for Usoga and the Salt Lake in the morning.
“What! going away?” said the king, as if he had never
heard a word about it before; and then, after talking
the whole subject over again, especially dwelling on the
quantity of powder I had in store at Karagud, he promised
to send the necessary officers for escorting us on
our respective journeys in the morning.
The brothers’ wives then wished to see me, and came
before us, when I had to take off my hat and shoes as
usual, my ready compliance inducing the princes to pass
various compliments on my person and disposition. The
brothers then showed me a stool made of wood after the
fashion of our sketching-stool, and a gun-cover of leather,
made by themselves, of as good workmanship as is to be
found in India. The king then rose, followed by his
brothers, and we all walked off to the pond. The effect
of stimulants was mooted, as well as other physiological
phenomena, when a second move took us to the palace by
torchlight, and the king showed a number of new huts
just finished, and beautifully made. Finally, he settled
down to a musical concert, in which he took the lead
himself. At eight o’clock, being tired and hungry, I reminded
the king of his promises, and he appointed the
morning to call on him for the Wakungu, and took leave.
25 th.—Makinga, hearing of the intended march through
Usoga, was pleased to say he would like to join my camp
and spend his time in buying slaves and ivory there. I
went to the palace for the promised escort, but was no
sooner announced by the pages than the king walked off
into the interior of his harem, and left me no alternative
but to try my luck with the Kamraviona, who, equally
proud with his master, would not answer my call,—and
so another day was lost.
2 6 th.—This morning we had the assuring intelligence
from Kaddfi that he had received orders to hold himself
in readiness for a voyage to Earagiib in twenty boats with
Grant, but the date of departure was not fixed. The
passage was expected to be rough, as the water off the
mouth of the Kitangulb Kagfira (river) always runs high,
so that no boats can go there except at night, when the
winds of the day subside, and are replaced by the calms