he was forced on, and in the next minute we found ourselves
confronted with the heads of the establishment.
The father of the house, surprised at our unexpected
manner of entrance—imagining, probably, we were the
king’s sorcerers, in consequence of our hats, sent to fight
“ the brothers ’’—without saying a word, quietly beckoned
us to follow him out of the gate by the same way as we
came. Preferring, however, to have a little talk where
we were, we remained.
The eldest son, a fine young man considerably above
six feet high, with large gashes on his body received
in war during late skirmishes with the refractory brothers,
now came in, did the honours, and, on hearing of
the importance of his visitors, directed us to some huts
a little distance off, where we could rest for the night,
for there was no accommodation for such a large party
in the palace. The red hill we were now on, with plantain
- gardens, fine huts neatly kept, and dense grasses
covering the country, reminded us of our residence in
Uganda. The people seemed of a decidedly sporting
order, for they kept hippopotamus-harpoons, attached to
strong ropes with trimmers of pith wood, in their huts j
and, outside, trophies of their toil in the shape of a pile
of heads, consisting of those of buffalo and hippopotami.
The women, anything but pretty, wore their mbiigu cut
into two flounces, fastened with a drawing-string round
the waist; and, in place of stockings, they bound strings
of small iron beads, kept bright and shining, carefully up
the leg from the ankle to the bottom of the calf.
Kidgwiga with our cattle arrived in the morning. A
To GttSni, n ., bundle of cartridges, stolen from one of the
men’s pouches, which we knew could only
have been done by some comrade, was discovered by
stopping the rations of flesh. The guilty person, to save
detection, threw it on the road, and allowed some of the
natives to pick it up. Strange as it may appear, the only
motive for this petty theft was the hope of being able to
sell the cartridges for a trifle at G-ani. Yaragonjo brought
us a present of a goat and plantains. He was sorry he
sent us back yesterday from his house; and invited us
to change ground to another village close by, where he
would make arrangements for our receiving other boats,
as the ones we had in possession must go back. Presuming
this to be a very fair proposition, and thinking we
would only have to walk across an elbow of land where
the river bends considerably, we gave him a return-present
of beads, and did as we were bid; but, after moving,
it was obvious we had been sold. We had lost om
former boats, and no others were near u s ; therefore,
feeling angry with Yaragonjo, I walked back to his palace’
taking the presented goat with me, as I knew that would
touch the savage in the most tender part; then flaring up
with the officer for treating the king’s orders with contempt,
as well as his guests, by sending us into the
jungles like a pack of thieves, whose riddance from his
presence was obviously his only intent, I gave him his
goat again, and said I would have nothing more to say
to him, for I should look to the king for redress.
This frightened him to such an extent that he immediately
produced another and finer goat, which he begged
me to accept, promising to convey all my traps to the
next governor’s, where there would be no doubt about
our getting boats. He did not intend to deceive us, but
committed an error in _pot informing us he had no boats
of his own; and, to show his earnestness, accompanied us
to the camp. Here I found the missing calf taken at
oki, and a large deputation of natives awaiting our
arrival. ' They told me that the Koki governor had taken
such fright in consequence of my anger when I refused
his proffered goat, that he had traced the calf back to
Kitwara, and now wished to take Kidgwiga a prisoner
to Kamrasi’s for having seized five cows of his, and a