natives .have got in their crops ? ” This, I said, so far as
I was concerned, was all nonsense. I merely had asked
liim for a guide and interpreter, for go I must. In a
huff he then absconded; and my men—those of them
who were not too drunk—came and said to me, “ For
Godsake let us stop here. Mahamed says the road is
too dangerous for us to go alone; he has promised to
carry all our loads for us if we stop; and all Kamrasi’s
men are running away, because they are afraid to go on.”
6 th.—Next morning I called Kidgwiga, and begged him
to procure two men as guides and interpreters. He said
he could not find any. I then went at Mahamed again,
who first said he would give me the two men I wanted,
then went off, and sent word to say he would, not be
visible for three days. This was too much for my patience,
so I ordered all my things to be tied up in marching
order, and gave out that I should leave and find out the
way myself the following morning. Like an evil spirit
stirred up, my preparations for going no sooner were heard
of than Mahamed appeared again, and after a long and
sharp contest in words, he promised us guides if I would
consent to write him a note, testifying that my going was
against his expressed desire.
This was done; but the next morning (7th), after our
things were put out for the march, all Kidgwiga’s men
bolted, and no guides would take service with us. It was
now obvious that, even supposing I succeeded in taking
Kidgwiga to Gondokoro, he would not have a sufficient
escort to come back with, unless, indeed, it happened that
Englishmen might be there who might wish ta carry out
my investigations by penetrating to the Little Liita Nzige,
and to pay a visit to Kamrasi. I therefore called Kidgwiga,
and after explaining these circumstances, advised
bim to go back to Kamrasi. He was loth to leave, he
said, until his commission was fully performed; but as I
thought it advisable, he would consent. I then gave him
a double gun and ammunition, as well as some very rich
beads which I obtained from Mahamed’s stores, to take
back to Kamrasi, with orders to say that, as soon as I
reached Gondokoro or Khartüm, I would send another
white man to him—not by the way I had come through
Kidi, but by the left bank of the Nile : to which Kidgwiga
replied, “ That will do famously, for Kamrasi will
change his residence soon, and come on the Nile this
side of Kionga’s palace, in order that he may cut in
between his brother and the Turks’ guns.”
After this, I gave a lot of rich beads to Kidgwiga for
himself, and a lot also for the senior officers at the Chopi
and Kamrasi’s palaces, and sent the whole set off as happy
as birds. When these men were gone, I tried to get up
an elephant-shooting excursion due west of this, with a
view to see where the Nile was, for I would not believe
it was very far off, although no one as yet, since I left
Chopi, either would or could tell me where the stream
had gone to.
8th.—Mahamed professed to be delighted I had made
up my mind to such a scheme. He called the heads of
the villages to give me all the information I sought for,
and went with me to the top of a high rock, from which
we could see the bills I first viewed at Chopi, sweeping
round from south by east to north, which demarked, the
line of the Asüa river. The Nile at that moment was, I
believed, not very far off ; yet, do or say what I would,
everybody said it was fifteen marches off, and could not
be visited under a month.* It would be necessary for me
to take thirty-six of Mahamed’s men, besides all my own,
to go there, which, he said, I was welcome to, but I should
have to pay them for their services. This was a damper
at once.
I knew in my mind all these reports were false, but,
* It will appear shortly that it was actually not more than two marches
to the northward of Faloro.