respect, and it was to prevent any chance of fighting that
we required so formidable an escort. His reply was that
he would tell the king; and he immediately rose and
walked away home.
K’yengo and the representatives of Usiii and Karague
now arrived by order of the king to bid farewell, and
received the slaves and cattle lately captured. As I was
very hungry, I set oif home to breakfast. Just as I had
gone, the provoking king inquired after me, and so
brought me back again, though I never saw him the
whole day. K’yengo, however, was very communicative.
He said he was present when Sunna, with all the forces
he could muster, tried to take the very countries I now
proposed to travel through; but, though in person exciting
his army to victory, he could make nothing of it. He
advised my returning to Karagud, when Rumanika would
give me an escort through Nkolb to Unyoro ; but finding
that did not suit my views, as I swore I would never
retrace one step, he proposed my going by boat to
Unyoro, following down the Nile.
This, of course, was exactly what I wanted; but how
could king Mtesa, after the rebuff he had received from
Kamrasi, be induced to consent to it ? My intention, I
said, was to try the king on the Usoga and Kidi route
first, then on the MaSai route to Zanzibar, affecting perfect
indifference about Kamrasi; and all those failing—
which, of course, they would—I would ask for Unyoro
as a last and only resource. Still I could not see the
king to open my heart to him, and therefore felt quite
nonplussed. “ Oh,” says K’yengo, “ the reason why you
do not see him is merely because he is ashamed to show
his face, having made so many fair promises to you which
he knows he never can carry out; bide your time, and
all will be well.” At 4 p .m ., as no hope of seeing the
king was left, all retired.
30 th.—Unexpectedly, and for reasons only known to
himself, the king sent us a cow and load of. butter,
which had been asked for many days ago. The new
moon seen last night kept the king engaged at home,
paying his devotions with his magic horns or fetishes in
the maimer already described. The spirit of this religion
—if such it can be called—is not so much adoration of a
Being supreme and beneficent, as a tax to certain malignant
furies—a propitiation, in fact, to prevent them bringing
evil on the land, and to insure a fruitful harvest. I t
was rather ominous that hail fell with violence, and lightning
burnt down one of the palace huts, while the king
was in the midst of his propitiatory devotions.
lsi.—As Bombay was ordered to the palace to instruct
the king in the art of casting bullets, I primed him well
to plead for the road, and he reported to me the results,
thus : First, he asked one thousand men to go through
Kidi. This the king said was impracticable, as the
Waganda had tried it so often before without success.
Then, as that could not be managed, what would the
king devise himself ? Bana only proposed the Usoga and
Kidi route, because he thought it would be to the advantage
of Uganda. “ Oh,” says the king, cunningly, “ if
Bana merely wishes to see Usoga, he can do so, and I
will send a suitable escort, but no more.” To this Bombay
replied, “ Bana never could return; he would sooner do
anything than return—even penetrate the Masai to Zanzibar,
or go through Unyoro;” to which the king, ashamed
of his impotence, hung down his head and walked away.
In the meanwhile, and whilst this was going on at the
king’s palace, I went with Grant, by appointment, to see
the queen. As usual, she kept us waiting some time, then
appeared sitting by an open gate, and invited us, together
with many Wakungu and Wasumbua, to approach, Very
lavish with stale sour pombe, she gave us all some, saving
the Wasumbua, whom she addressed very angrily, asking
what they wanted, - as they have been months in the