Ibrahim agreed to act with him against all his
enemies. It was arranged that Ibrahim now belonged to Kamrasi, and that
henceforth our parties should be entirely separate.
On February 21st Kamrasi was civil enough to allow us to quit the marsh.
My porters had by this time all deserted, and on the following day
Kamrasi promised to send us porters and to allow us to start at once.
There were no preparations made, however, and after some delay we were
honored by a visit from Kamrasi, who promised we should start on the
following day.
He concluded, as usual, by asking for my watch and for a number of
beads; the latter I gave him, together with a quantity of ammunition for
his guns. He showed me a beautiful double-barrelled rifle that Speke had
given him. I wished to secure this to give to Speke on my return to
England, as he had told me, when at Gondokoro, how he had been obliged
to part with that and many other articles sorely against his will. I
therefore offered to give him three common double-barrelled guns in
exchange for the rifle. This he declined, as he was quite aware of the
difference in quality. He then produced a large silver chronometer that
he had received from Speke. "It was DEAD," he said, "and he wished me to
repair it." This I declared to be impossible.
