We Reached This In One Stretch, And Put Up In Our Old Quarters,
Where The Women Of Mlondo Provided Pombe, Plantains, And
Potatoes, As Before, With Occasional Fish, And We Lived Very
Happily Till The 10th, Shooting Buck, Guinea-Fowl, And Florikan,
When, Bombay And Kasoro Arriving, My Work Began Again.
These two
worthies reached the palace, after crossing twelve considerable
streams, of which one was the Luajerri, rising in the lake.
The
evening of the next day after leaving me at Kira, they obtained
an interview with the king immediately; for the thought flashed
across his mind that Bombay had come to report our death, the
Waganda having been too much for the party. He was speedily
undeceived by the announcement that nothing was the matter,
excepting the inability to procure boats, because the officers at
Urondogani denied all authority but the Sakibobo's, and no one
would show Bana anything, however trifling, without an express
order for it.
Irate at this announcement, the king ordered the Sakibobo, who
happened to be present, to be seized and bound at once, and said
warmly, "Pray, who is the king, that the Sakibobo's orders should
be preferred to mine?" and then turning to the Sakibobo himself,
asked what he would pay to be released? The Sakibobo, alive to
his danger, replied at once, and without the slightest
hesitation, Eighty cows, eighty goats, eighty slaves, eighty
mbugu, eighty butter, eighty coffee, eighty tobacco, eighty
jowari, and eighty of all the produce of Uganda. He was then
released. Bombay said Bana wished the Sakibobo to come to
Urondogani, and gave him a start with five boats, five cows, and
five goats; to which the king replied, "Bana shall have all he
wants, nothing shall be denied him, not even fish; but it is not
necessary to send the Sakibobo, as boys carry all my orders to
kings as well as subjects. Kasoro will return again with you,
fully instructed in everything, and, moreover, both he and Budja
will follow Bana to Gani." Four days, however, my men were kept
at the palace ere the king gave them the cattle and leave to join
me, accompanied with one more officer, who had orders to find the
boats at once, see us off, and report the circumstance at court.
Just as at the last interview, the king had four women, lately
seized and condemned to execution, squatting in his court. He
wished to send them to Bana, and when Bombay demurred, saying he
had no authority to take women in that way, the king gave him
one, and asked him if he would like to see some sport, as he
would have the remaining women cut to pieces before him. Bombay,
by his own account, behaved with great propriety, saying Bana
never wished to see sport of that cruel kind, and it would ill
become him to see sights which his master had not. Viarungi sent
me some tobacco, with kind regards, and said he and the Wazina
had just obtained leave to return to their homes, K'yengo alone,
of all the guests, remaining behind as a hostage until Mtesa's
powder-seeking Wakungu returned. Finally, the little boy Lugoi
had been sent to his home. Such was the tenor of Bombay's report.
11th. - The officer sent to procure boats, impudently saying there
were none, was put in the stocks by Kasoro, whilst other men went
to Kirindi for sailors, and down the stream for boats. On
hearing the king's order that I was to be supplied with fish, the
fishermen ran away, and pombe was no longer brewed for fear of
Kasoro.
12th. - To-day we slaughtered and cooked two cows for the journey-
- the remaining three and one goat having been lost in the
Luajerri - and gave the women of the place beads in return for
their hospitality. They are nearly all Wanyoro, having been
captured in that country by king Mtesa and given to Mlondo. They
said their teeth were extracted, four to six lower incisors, when
they were young, because no Myoro would allow a person to drink
from his cup unless he conformed to that custom. The same law
exists in Usoga.
Chapter XVI
Bahr El Abiad
First Voyage on the Nile - The Starting - Description of the River
and the Country - Meet a Hostile Vessel - A Naval Engagement -
Difficulties and Dangers - Judicial Procedure - Messages from the
King of Uganda - His Efforts to get us back - Desertion - The
Wanyoro Troops - Kamrasi - Elephant-Stalking - Diabolical
Possessions.
In five boats of five planks each, tied together and caulked with
mbugu rags, I started with twelve Wanguana, Kasoro and his page-
followers, and a small crew, to reach Kamrasi's palace in Unyoro-
-goats, dogs, and kit, besides grain and dried meat, filling up
the complement - but how many days it would take nobody knew.
Paddles propelled these vessels, but the lazy crew were slow in
the use of them, indulging sometimes in racing spurts, then
composedly resting on their paddles whilst the gentle current
drifted us along. The river, very unlike what it was from the
Ripon Falls downward, bore at once the character of river and
lake - clear in the centre, but fringed in most places with tall
rush, above which the green banks sloped back like park lands.
It was all very pretty and very interesting, and would have
continued so, had not Kasoro disgraced the Union Jack, turning it
to piratical purposes in less than one hour.
A party of Wanyoro, in twelve or fifteen canoes, made of single
tree trunks, had come up the river to trade with the Wasoga, and
having stored their vessels with mbugu, dried fish, plantains
cooked and raw, pombe, and other things, were taking their last
meal on shore before they returned to their homes. Kasoro seeing
this, and bent on a boyish spree, quite forgetting we were bound
for the very ports they were bound for, ordered our sailors to
drive in amongst them, landed himself, and sent the Wanyoro
flying before I knew what game was up, and then set to pillaging
and feasting on the property of those very men whom it was our
interest to propitiate, as we expected them shortly to be our
hosts.
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