The Discovery of The Source of the Nile by John Hanning Speke  






 -   The court then broke up and
we went home.

To keep the king up to the mark, and seal our - Page 297
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The Court Then Broke Up And We Went Home.

To keep the king up to the mark, and seal our passage, in the evening I took a Lancaster rifle, with ammunition, and the iron chair he formerly asked for, as a parting present, to the palace, but did not find him, as he had gone out shooting with his brothers.

4th. - Grant and I now called together on the king to present the rifle, chair, and ammunition, as we could not thank him in words sufficiently for the favour he had done us in granting the road through Unyoro. I said the parting gift was not half as much as I should like to have been able to give; but we hoped, on reaching Gani, to send Petherick up to him with everything that he could desire. We regretted we had no more powder or shot, as what was intended, and actually placed out expressly to be presented on this occasion, was stolen. The king looked hard at his head page, who was once sent to get these very things now given, and then turning the subject adroitly, asked me how many cows and women I would like, holding his hand up with spread fingers, and desiring me to count by hundreds; but the reply was, Five cows and goats would be enough, for we wished to travel lightly in boats, starting from the Murchison Creek. Women were declined on such grounds as would seem rational to him. But if the king would clothe my naked men with one mbugu (bark cloth) each, and give a small tusk each to nine Wanyamuezi porters, who desired to return to their home, the obligation would be great.

Everything was granted without the slightest hesitation; and then the king, turning to me, said, "Well, Bana, so you really wish to go?" "Yes, for I have not seen my home for four years and upwards" - reckoning five months to the year, Uganda fashion. "And you can give no stimulants?" "No." "Then you will send me some from Gani - brandy if you like; it makes people sleep sound, and gives them strength." Next we went to the queen to bid her farewell, but did not see her.

On returning home I found half my men in a state of mutiny. They had been on their own account to beg for the women and cows which had been refused, saying, If Bana does not want them we do, for we have been starved here ever since we came, and when we go for food get broken heads; we will not serve with Bana any longer; but as he goes north, we will return to Karague and Unyanyembe. Bombay, however, told them they never had fed so well in all their lives as they had in Uganda, counting from fifty to sixty cows killed, and pombe and plantains every day, whenever they took the trouble to forage; and for their broken heads they invariably received a compensation in women; so that Bana had reason to regret every day spent in asking for food for them at the palace - a favour which none but his men received, but which they had not, as they might have done, turned to good effect by changing the system of plundering for food in Uganda.

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