It Now
Rested With Himself To Remove These Obstacles.
Everybody
concerned in this matter left for the palace but Maula, who said
he must stop in camp to look after Bana.
Bombay no sooner
arrived in the palace, and saw the king upon his throne, than
Mtesa asked him why he came? "By the instructions of Bana," was
his reply - "for Bana cannot walk in the sun; no white man of the
sultan's breed can do so."
Hearing this, the king rose in a huff, without deigning to reply,
and busied himself in another court. Bombay, still sitting,
waited for hours till quite tired, when he sent a boy in to say
he had not delivered half my message; he had brought medicine for
the queen, and as yet he had no reply for Bana. Either with
haughty indifference, or else with injured pride at his not being
able to command me at his pleasure, the king sent word, if
medicine is brought for the queen, then let it be taken to her;
and so Bombay walked off to the queen's palace. Arrived there,
he sent in to say he had brought medicine, and waited without a
reply till nightfall, when, tired of his charge, he gave the
quinine into N'yamgundu's hands for delivery, and returned h
home. Soon after, however, N'yamgundu also returned to say the
queen would not take the dose to-day, but hoped I would
administer it personally in the morning.
Whilst all this vexations business had been going on in court -
evidently dictated by extreme jealousy because I showed, as they
all thought, a preference for the queen - Maula, more than tipsy,
brought a Mkungu of some standing at court before me, contrary to
all law - for as yet no Mganda, save the king's pages, had ever
dared enter even the precincts of my camp. With a scowling,
determined, hang-dog-looking countenance, he walked impudently
into my hut, and taking down the pombe-suckers the queen had
given me, showed them with many queer gesticulations, intended to
insinuate there was something between the queen and me. Among
his jokes were, that I must never drink pombe excepting with
these sticks; if I wanted any when I leave Uganda, to show my
friends, she would give me twenty more sticks of that sort if I
liked them; and, turning from verbal to practical jocularity, the
dirty fellow took my common sucker out of the pot, inserted one
of the queen's, and sucked at it himself, when I snatched and
threw it away.
Maula's friend, who, I imagined, was a spy, then asked me whom I
liked most - the mother or the son; but, without waiting to hear
me, Maula hastily said, "The mother, the mother of course! he
does not care for Mtesa, and won't go to see him." The friend
coaxingly responded, "Oh no; he likes Mtesa, and will go and see
him too; won't you?" I declined, however, to answer from fear of
mistake, as both interpreters were away. Still the two went on
talking to themselves, Maula swearing that I loved the mother
most, whilst the friend said, No, he loves the son, and asking me
with anxious looks, till they found I was not to be caught by
chaff, and then, both tired, walked away - the friend advising me,
next time I went to court, to put on an Arab's gown, as trousers
are indecent in the estimation of every Mganda.
5th. - Alarmed at having got involved in something that looked
like court intrigues, I called up N'yamgundu; told him all that
happened yesterday, both at the two courts and with Maula at
home; and begged him to apply to the king for a meeting of five
elders, that a proper understanding might be arrived at; but
instead of doing as I desired, he got into a terrible fright,
calling Maula, and told me if I pressed the matter in this way
men would lose their lives. Meanwhile the cunning blackguard
Maula begged for pardon; said I quite misunderstood his meaning;
all he had said was that I was very fortunate, being in such
favour at court, for the king and queen both equally loved me.
N'yamgundu now got orders to go to Karague overland for Dr
K'yengo; but, dreading to tell me of it, as I had been so kind to
him, he forged a falsehood, said he had leave to visit his home
for six days, and begged for a wire to sacrifice to his church.
I gave him what he wanted, and away he went. I then heard his
servants had received orders to go overland for Grant and
K'yengo; so I wrote another note to Grant, telling him to come
sharp, and bring all the property by boat that he could carry,
leaving what he could not behind in charge of Rumanika.
At noon, the plaguy little imps of pages hurried in to order the
attendance of all my men fully armed before the king, as he
wished to seize some refractory officer. I declined this abuse
of my arms, and said I should first go and speak to the king on
the subject myself, ordering the men on no account to go on such
an errand; and saying this, I proceeded towards the palace,
leaving instructions for those men who were not ready to follow.
As the court messengers, however, objected to our going in
detachments, I told Bombay to wait for the rest, and hurry on to
overtake me. Whilst lingering on the way, every minute expecting
to see my men, the Wazinza, who had also received orders to seize
the same officer, passed me, going to the place of attack, and,
at the same time, I heard my men firing in a direction exactly
opposite to the palace. I now saw I had been duped, and returned
to my hut to see the issue. The boys had deceived us all.
Bombay, tricked on the plea of their taking him by a short cut to
the palace, suddenly found himself with all the men opposite the
fenced gardens that had to be taken - the establishment of the
recusant officer, - and the boys, knowing how eager all blacks are
to loot, said, "Now, then, at the houses; seize all you can,
sparing nothing - men, women, or children, mbugus or cowries, all
alike - for it is the order of the king;" and in an instant my men
surrounded the place, fired their guns, and rushed upon the
inmates.
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