I Begged For My Picture-Books, Which Were Only Lent Him At His
Request For A Few Days; And Then Began A Badgering Verbal
Conflict:
He would not return them until I drew others like them;
he would not allow me to go to
The Little Luta Nzige, west of
this, until Bombay returned, when he would send me with an army
of spears to lead the way, and my men with their guns behind to
protect the rear. This was for the purpose of making us his
tools in his conflict with his brothers. I complained that he
had, without consulting me, ordered away the men who had been
sent, either to fetch me back to Uganda, or else get powder from
me, although they had orders to carry out their king's desire,
under the threat of being burnt with the fire logs they carried;
and all this Kamrasi had professed to do merely out of respect
for my dignity, as I was no slave, that Mtesa should order me
about. I argued, founding on each particular in succession, that
his conduct throughout was most unjustifiable, and anything but
friendly. He then produced an officer, who was to escort my man
Msalima to Karague, giving him orders to collect the sixty men
required on the way; five of Rumanika's men could go with him,
but five must stop, until other Karague men came to say the road
was safe, when he would send by them the present he had prepared
for Rumanika.
Then, turning to us, he said, "Why have you not brought the
medicine-chest and the saw? We wish to see everything you have
got, though we do not wish to rob you." When these things came
for inspection, he coveted the saw, and discovered there were
more varieties of medicine in the chest than had been given him.
This he was told was not the case, because the papers given him
contained mixed medicines - a little being taken from every
bottle. "But there are no pills; why won't you give us pills?
We have men, women, and children who require pills as well as you
do." We were much annoyed by this dogged begging; and as he
said, "Well, if you won't give my anything, I will go," we at
once rose, hat in hand; when, regretting the hastiness of his
speech, he begged us to be seated again, and renewed his demands.
We told him the road to Gani was the only condition on which we
would part with any more medicine; we had asked leave to go a
hundred times, and that was all we now desired. At last he rose
and walked off in a huff; but, repenting before he reached home,
he sent us a pot of pombe, when, in return, I finished the farce
by sending him a box of pills.
30th. - I gave Msalima a letter in the Kisuahili or coast language
to convey to Rumanika, ordering all my property to be sent here,
his account of the things as they left him to be given to Msalima
to convey to the coast, while I sent him one pound of gunpowder
as a sort of agency fee.
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Words from 189230 to 189766
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