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"The close of the year finds us, thank God, at peace in this country,
with every prospect of prosperity."
CHAPTER XXVI.
ARRIVAL OF M'TESE'S ENVOYS.
ON 15th January, 1873, the sentry on the rock citadel reported a party
arriving from the Unyoro road. Shortly after, the reports of guns were
heard, and it was made known that envoys had arrived from M'tese, the
king of Uganda, together with an escort of natives, and two of my
soldiers from Rionga. M'tese's people were armed with guns.
The envoys were quickly ushered into the new divan, which was a
circular, lofty building, twenty feet in diameter, neatly plastered, and
painted light grey with a mixture of wood-ashes.
Ali Jusef, the principal envoy, was a native of Sishuaali, on the coasts
of the Red Sea entrance, and the Indian Ocean. I had several officers
who were natives of the same country, including the gallant Ferritch
Agha and Said Agha: thus I had excellent interpreters.
The envoys were beautifully clean, in white Bombay cotton clothes, and
they were quite civilized, and as intelligent as Europeans. They
appeared to have a thorough knowledge of the route to India, and the
various tribes along the eastern coast of equatorial Africa.
