painted in various colours, with full explanations of everything,
and asked permission to send two more of my men
in search of Bombay, who had now been absent twenty
days. The reply was, that if Bombay did not return
within four days, Kamrasi would send other men after
him on the fifth day; and, in the mean time, he sent one
pot of pombé as a token of his kind regard. '
13th.—The Kamraviona was sent to inquire after our
health, to ask for medicine for himself, and to inquire
more into the origin of his race. I, on the other hand,
wishing to make myself as disagreeable as possible, in
order that Kamrasi might get tired of us, sent Frij to ask
for fresh butter, eggs, tobacco, coffee, and fowls, every day,
saying, I will pay their price when I reach Gani, for we
were suffering from want of proper food. Kamrasi was
surprised at this clamour for food, and inquired what we
ate at home that we were so different from everybody
else.W
e heard to-day a strange story, involving the tragic
fate of Budja. On coming here, he had been bewitched
by Kamrasi’s frontier officer, who put the charm into a
pot of pombé. From the moment Budja drank it he was
seized with sickness, and remained so until he reached
the first station in Uganda, when he died. The facts of
the bewitchment had been found out by means of the
perpetrator’s wives, who, from the moment the pombé
was drunk, took to precipitate flight, well knowing what
effects would follow, and dreading the chastisement Mtésa
would bring upon their household. We heard, too, that
the deserters had returned to the place they deserted
from, with thirty Waganda, and a present of some cows
for me.
14th.—Kamrasi sent me four parcels of coffee, very
neatly enclosed in rush pith.
15 th.—Getting more impatient, and desirous to move
on at any sacrifice, I proposed giving up all claims to my
muskets, as well as the present of cows from Mtdsa, if
Kamrasi would give us boats to Gani at once; but the
reply was simply, Why be in such a hurry ?
16th.—The Kamraviona was sent to us with a load of
coffee, which Kamrasi had purchased with cowries, and to
inquire how we had slept. Very badly, was the reply,
because we knew Bombay would have been back long
ago if Kamrasi was not concealing him somewhere, and
we did not know what he was doing with deserters and
Waganda. Kamrasi then wanted us to paint his mbugu
cloths in different patterns and colours; but we sent him
instead six packages of red-ink powder, and got abused for
sauciness. He then wanted black ink, else how could he
put on the red with taste; but we had none to give him.
Next, he asked leave for my men to shoot cows before his
Kidi visitors, which they did to his satisfaction, instructing
him at the same time to fire powder with his own rifle;
when, triumphant with his success, he protested he would
never use anything but guns again, and threw away his
spear as useless. Bombay, we learned, had reached Gani,
and ought to return in eight days.
17 th and 18 th.—A large party of Chopi people arrived,
by Kamrasi’s orders, to tell the reason which induced them
to apply for guns to the white men at Gani, as it appeared
evident they must have wished to fight their king. The
Kidi visitors got broken heads for helping themselves from
the Wanyoro’s fields, and when they cried out against such
treatment, were told they should rob the king, if they
wished to rob at all.
19th.—N o th in g was done because Kamrasi was dismissing
his Kidi guests, 200, with presents of cows and
women.
20th.—Having asked Kamrasi to return my pictures,
he sent the book of birds, but not of animals; and said he
could not see us until a new hut was built, because the old
one was flooded by the Kafu, which had been rising several