and induced me to inquire how his purity of blood was
maintained “ Was the king of Unyoro chosen, as in
Uganda, haphazard by the chief men—or did the eldest
son sit by succession on the throne ? ” The reply was,
“ The brothers fought for it, and the best man gained the
crown.”
Kamrasi then began counting the leaves of the Bible,
an amusement that every negro that gets hold of a book
indulges in; and, concluding in his mind that each page
or leaf represented one year of time since the beginning of
creation, continued his labour till one quarter of the way
through the book, and then only shut it up on being told,
if he desired to ascertain the number more closely, he had
better count the words.
I begged for my picture-books, which were only lent
him at his request for a few days ; and then began a badgering
verbal conflict: he would not return them until I
drew others like them; he would not allow me to go to
the Little Liita Nzige, west of this, until Bombay returned,
when he would send me with an army of spears
to lead the way, and my men with their guns behind to
protect the rear. This was for the purpose of making us
his tools in his conflict with his brothers. I complained
that he had, without consulting me, ordered away the
men who had been sent, either to fetch me back to
Uganda, or else get powder from me, although they had
orders to carry out their king’s desire, under the threat
of being burnt with the fire logs they carried; and all
this Kamrasi had professed to do merely out of respect
for my dignity, as I was no slave, that Mtesa should
order me about. I argued, founding on each particular in
succession, that his conduct throughout was most unjustifiable,
and anything but friendly. He then produced an
officer, who was to escort my man Msalima to Karague,
giving him orders to collect the sixty men required' on
the way; five of Bumanika’s men could go with him, but