Kamrasi Expected Us To Advance Next Day, When Some Men Would Go
On Ahead To Announce Our Arrival, And Bring A Letter Which Was
Brought With Beads By Gani Before Baraka's Arrival Here.
It was
shown to Baraka in the hope that we would come by the Karague
route, but not to Mabruki, because he came from Uganda.
Kidgwiga
informed us that Kamrasi never retaliated on Mtesa when he lifted
Unyoro cows, though the Waganda keep their cattle on the border -
which simply meant that he had not the power of doing so. The
twenty remaining Wanguana, conversing over the sudden scheme of
the deserters, proposed, on one side, sending for them, as, had
they seen the Wanyoro arrive, they would have changed their
minds; but the other side said, "What! those brutes who said we
should all die here if we stayed, and yet dared not face the
danger with us, should we now give them a helping hand? Never!
We told them we would share our fate with Bana, and share it we
will, for God rules everything: every man must die when his time
comes."
We marched for the first time without music, as the drum is never
allowed to be beaten in Unyoro except when the necessities of war
demand it, or for a dance. Wanyamuezi and Wanyoro, in addition
to our own twenty men, carried the luggage, though no one carried
more than the smallest article he could find. It was a pattern
Unyoro march, of only two hours' duration. On arrival at the end
we heard that elephants had been seen close by. Grant and I then
prepared our guns, and found a herd of about a hundred feeding on
a plain of long grass, dotted here and there by small mounds
crowned with shrub. The animals appeared to be all females, much
smaller than the Indian breed; yet though ten were fired at, none
were killed, and only one made an attempt to charge. I was with
the little twin Manua at the time, when, stealing along under
cover of the high grass, I got close to the batch and fired at
the larges, which sent her round roaring. The whole of them
then, greatly alarmed, packed together and began sniffing the air
with their uplifted trunks, till, ascertaining by the smell of
the powder that their enemy was in front of them, they rolled up
their trunks and came close to the spot where I was lying under a
mound. My scent then striking across them, they pulled up short,
lifted their heads high, and looked down sideways on us. This
was a bad job. I could not get a proper front shot at the boss
of any of them, and if I had waited an instant we should both
have been picked up or trodden to death; so I let fly at their
temples, and instead of killing, sent the whole of them rushing
away at a much faster pace than they came. After this I gave up,
because I never could separate the ones I had wounded from the
rest, and thought it cruel to go on damaging more. Thinking over
it afterwards, I came to the conclusion I ought to have put in
more powder; for I had, owing to their inferior size to the
Indian ones, rather despised them, and fired at them with the
same charge and in the same manner as I always did at rhinoceros.
Though puzzled at the strange sound of the rifle, the elephants
seldom ran far, packed in herd, and began to graze again. Frij,
who was always ready at spinning a yarn, told us with much
gravity that two of my men, Uledi and Wadi Hamadi, deserters,
were possessed of devils (Phepo) at Zanzibar. Uledi, not wishing
to be plagued by his Satanic majesty's angels on the march,
sacrificed a cow and fed the poor, according to the great Phepo's
orders, and had been exempted from it; but Wadi Hamadi, who
preferred taking his chance, had been visited several times: once
at Usui, when he was told the journey would be prosperous, only
the devil wanted one man's life, and one man would fall sick;
which proved true, for Hassani was murdered, and Grant fell sick
in Karague. The second time Wadi Hamadi saw the devil in
Karague, and was told one man's life would be required in Uganda,
and such also was the case by Kari's murder; and a third time, in
Unyoro, he was possessed, when it was said that the journey would
be prosperous but protracted.
3d. - Though we stormed every day at being so shamefully neglected
and kept in the jungles, we could not get on, nor find out the
truth of our position. I asked if Kamrasi was afraid of us, and
looking into his magic horn; and was answered, "No; he is very
anxious to see you, or he would not have sent six of his highest
officers to look after you, and prevent the unruly peasantry from
molesting you." "Then by whose orders are we kept here?" "By
Kamrasi's." "Why does Kamrasi keep us here?" "He thinks you are
not so near, and men have gone to tell him." "How did we come
here from the last ground?" "By Kamrasi's orders; for nothing
can be done excepting by his orders." "Then he must know we are
here?" "He may not have seen the men we sent to him; for unless
he shows in public no one can see him." The whole affair gave us
such an opinion of Kamrasi as induced us to think it would have
served him right had we joined Mtesa and given him a thrashing.
This, I said, was put in our power by an alliance with his
refractory brothers; but Kidgwiga only laughed and said,
"Nonsense! Kamrasi is the chief of all the countries round here -
Usoga, Kidi, Chopi, Gani, Ulega, everywhere; he has only to hold
up his hand and thousands would come to his assistance."
Kwibeya, the officer of the place, presented us with five fowls
on the part of the king, and some baskets of potatoes.
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