Seating
Them Both On Our Chairs, Which Amused Them Intensely, I Asked
Rumanika, Although I Had Heard Before The Whole Facts Of The
Case, What Motives Now Induced Him To Wish The Committal Of Such
A Terrible Act, And Brought Out The Whole Story Afresh.
Before their old father Dagara died, he had unwittingly said to
the mother of Rogero, although he was the
Youngest born, what a
fine king he would make; and the mother, in consequence, tutored
her son to expect the command of the country, although the law of
the land in the royal family is the primogeniture system,
extending, however, only to those sons who are born after the
accession of the king to the throne.
As soon, therefore, as Dagara died, leaving the three sons
alluded to, all by different mothers, a contest took place with
the brothers, which, as Nnanaji held by Rumanika, ended in the
two elder driving Rogero away. It happened, however, that half
the men of the country, either from fear or love, attached
themselves to Rogero. Feeling his power, he raised an army and
attempted to fight for the crown, which it is generally admitted
would have succeeded, had not Musa, with unparalleled
magnanimity, employed all the ivory merchandise at his command to
engage the services of all the Arabs' slaves residing at Kufro,
to bring muskets against him. Rogero was thus frightened away;
but he went away swearing that he would carry out his intentions
at some future date, when the Arabs had withdrawn from the
country.
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