N'yamgundu Then Turning To The Company, Said, What Would He Do
Now To Expiate His Folly?
If the matter was taken before Mtesa
he would lose his head; was it not better he should pay one
hundred cows All agreeing to this, the young man said he would
do so, and quietly allowed the skin to be untied and taken off by
the ruffians.
Next day, after crossing more of those abominable rush-drains,
whilst in sight of the Victoria N'yanza, we ascended the most
beautiful hills, covered with verdure of all descriptions. At
Meruka, where I put up, there resided some grandees, the chief of
whom was the king's aunt. She sent me a goat, a hen, a basket of
eggs, and some plantains, in return for which I sent her a wire
and some beads. I felt inclined to stop here a month, everything
was so very pleasant. The temperature was perfect. The roads,
as indeed they were everywhere, were as broad as our coach-roads,
cut through the long grasses, straight over the hills and down
through the woods in the dells - a strange contrast to the
wretched tracks in all the adjacent countries. The huts were
kept so clean and so neat, not a fault could be found with them -
the gardens the same. Wherever I strolled I saw nothing but
richness, and what ought to be wealth. The whole land was a
picture of quiescent beauty, with a boundless sea in the
background. Looking over the hills, it struck the fancy at once
that at one period the whole land must have been at a uniform
level with their present tops, but that by the constant
denudation it was subjected to by frequent rains, it had been cut
down and sloped into those beautiful hills and dales which now so
much pleased the eye; for there were none of those quartz dykes I
had seen protruding through the same kink of aqueous formations
in Usui and Karague; nor were there any other sorts of volcanic
disturbance to distort the calm quiet aspect of the scene.
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