- Ever Anxious To Push On With The Journey, As I Felt Every
Day's Delay Only Tended To Diminish My Means
- That is, my beads
and copper wire - I instructed Bombay to take the under-mentioned
articles to Rumanika as a
Small sample of the products of my
country;[FN#11] to say I felt quite ashamed of their being so few
and so poor, but I hoped he would forgive my shortcomings, as he
knew I had been so often robbed on the way to him; and I trusted,
in recollection of Musa, he would give me leave to go on to
Uganda, for every day's delay was consuming my supplies.
Nnanaji, however, it was said, should get something; so, in
addition to the king's present, I apportioned one out for him,
and Bombay took both up to the palace.[FN#12] Everybody, I was
pleased to hear, was surprised with both the quantity and quality
of what I had been able to find for them; for, after the
plundering in Ugogo, the immense consumption caused by such long
delays on the road, the fearful prices I had had to pay for my
porters' wages, the enormous taxes I had been forced to give both
in Msalala and Uzinza, besides the constant thievings in camp,
all of which was made public by the constantly-recurring tales of
my men, nobody thought I had got anything left.
Rumanika, above all, was as delighted as if he had come in for a
fortune, and sent to say the Raglan coat was a marvel, and the
scarlet broadcloth the finest thing he had ever seen.
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