He Also Sent A Message That He Had Just Shot Thirteen Birds
Flying.
14th. - Mabuki and Bilal returned with Budja and his ten children
from Unyoro, attended by a deputation of four men sent by
Kamrasi, who were headed by Kidgwiga.
Mtesa, it now transpired,
had followed my advice of making friendship with Kamrasi by
sending two brass wires as a hongo instead of an army, and
Kamrasi in return, sent him two elephant-tusks. Kidgwiga said
Petherick's party was not in Unyoro - they had never reached
there, but were lying at anchor off Gani. Two white men only had
been seen - one, they said, a hairy man, the other smooth-faced;
they were as anxiously inquiring after us as we were after them:
they sat on chairs, dressed like myself, and had guns and
everything precisely like those in my hut. On one occasion they
sent up a necklace of beads to Kamrasi, and he, in return, gave
them a number of women and tusks. If I wished to go that way,
Kamrasi would forward me on to their position in boats; for the
land route, leading through Kidi, was a jungle of ten days,
tenanted by a savage set of people, who hunt everybody, and seize
everything they see.
This tract is sometimes, however, traversed by the Wanyoro and
Gani people, who are traders in cows and tippet monkey-skins,
stealthily travelling at night; but they seldom attempt it from
fear of being murdered. Baraka and Uledi, sent from Karague on
the 30th January, had been at Kamrasi's palace upwards of a
month, applying for the road to Gani, and as they could not get
that, wished to come with Mabruki to me; but this Kamrasi also
refused, on the plea that, as they had come from Karague, so they
must return there. Kamrasi had heard of my shooting with Mtesa,
as also of the attempt made by Mabruki and Uledi to reach Gani
via Usoga. He had received my present of beads from Baraka, and,
in addition, took Uledi's sword, saying, "If you do not wish to
part with it, you must remain a prisoner in my country all your
life, for you have not paid your footing." Mabruki then told me
he was kept waiting at a village, one hour's walk from Kamrasi's
palace, five days before they were allowed to approach his
majesty; but when they were seen, and the presents exchanged,
they were ordered to pack off the following morning, as Kamrasi
said the Waganda were a set of plundering blackguards.
This information, to say the least of it, was very embarrassing -
a mixture of good and bad. Petherick, I now felt certain, was on
the look-out for us; but his men had reached Kamrasi's, and
returned again before Baraka's arrival. Baraka was not allowed
to go on to him and acquaint him of our proximity, and the
Waganda were so much disliked in Unyoro, that there seemed no
hopes of our ever being able to communicate by letter.
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