tion his name again, but wait until his fear of me had
vanished; for he quite forgot his true dignity as a host
and king in his surprise and fear, merely because we were
in a hurry and desired to see him.” He was reported today,
by the way, to be drunk.
As nothing could be done yesterday, in consequence of
change to West the king being in his cups, the Wakungh con-
End, ii t h . .. veyed my message to-day, but with the usual
effect, till a diplomatic idea struck me, and I sent another
messenger to say, if our residence was not changed at
once, both Grant and myself had made up our minds to
cut off our hair and blacken our faces, so that the king 0f
all kings should have no more cause to fear us. Ignoring
his claims to imperial rank, I maintained that his reason
for ill-treating us must be fear,—it could be nothing else.
This message acted like magic; for he fully believed we
would do as we said, and disappoint him altogether of the
strange sight of us as pure white men. The reply was,
Kamrasi would not have us disfigured in this way for all
the world; men were appointed to convey our traps to
the west end at once; and Kidgwiga, Vittagura, and
Kajunju rushed over to give us the news in all haste lest
we should execute our threat, and they were glad to find
us with our faces unchanged. I now gave one cow to the
head of Dr K’yengo’s party, and one to the head of Eh-
manika s men, because I saw it was through their instrumentality
we gained admittance in the country; and we
changed residence to the west end of Chagiizi, and found
there comfortable huts close to the Kafu, which ran immediately
between us and the palace.
Still our position in Unyoro was not a pleasant one.
In a long field of grass, as high as the neck, and half
under water, so that no walks could be taken, we had
nothing to see but Kamrasi’s miserable huts and a few
distant conical hills, of which one, Udongo, we conceive,
represents the Padongo of Brun-Bollet, placed by him in 1°
south latitude, and 35° east longitude. We were scarcely
inside our new dwelling when Kamrasi sent a cheer of two
pots pombd, five fowls, and two bunches of plantains,
hoping we were now satisfied with his favour; but he
damped the whole in a moment again, by asking for a
many-bladed knife which his officers had seen in Grant’s
possession. I took what he sent, from fear of giving
offence, but replied that I was surprised the great king
should wish to see my property before seeing myself, and
although I attached no more value to my property than
he did to his, I could not demean myself by sending him
trifles in that way. However, should he, after hearing my
sentiments, still persist in asking for the knife to be sent
by the hands of a black man, I would pack it up with all
the things I had brought for him, and send them by a black
man, judging that he liked black men more than white.
Dr K’yengo’s men then informed us they had been twice
sent with an army of Wanyoro to attack the king’s brothers,
on a river-island north of this about three days’
journey, but each time it ended in nothing. You fancy
yourself, they said, in a magnificent army, but the enemy
no sooner turn out than the cowardly Wanyoro fly, and
sacrifice their ally as soon as not into the hands of the
opponents. They said Kamrasi would now expect us to
attack them with our guns. Eionga was the head of the
rebels; there were formerly five, but now only two of the
brothers remained.
15 th.—Kamrasi, after inquiring after our health, and
how we had slept, through a large deputation of head men,
alluded to the knife question of yesterday, thinking it
very strange that after giving me such nice food I should
deny him the gratification of simply looking at a knife;
be did not intend to keep it if it was not brought for him,
but merely to look at and return it. To my reply of
yesterday I added, I had been led, before entering Unyoro,
to regard Kamrasi as the king of all kings—the greatest