The Highroads Were All Thronged
With Waganda Warriors, Painted In Divers Colours, With Plantain-
Leaf Bands Round Their Heads, Scanty Goat-Skin Fastened To Their
Loins, And Spears And Shield In Their Hands, Singing The Tambure
Or March, Ending With A Repetition Of The Word Mkavia, Or
Monarch.
They surpassed in number, according to Bombay, the
troops and ragamuffins enlisted by Sultain Majid when Sayyid
Sweni threatened to attack Zanzibar; in fact, he never saw such a
large army collected anywhere.
Bombay, on going to the palace, hoping to obtain plantains for
the men, found the king holding a levee, for the purpose of
despatching this said army somewhere, but where no one would
pronounce. The king, then, observing my men who had gone to
Unyoro together with Kamrasi's, questioned them on their mission;
and when told that no white men were there, he waxed wrathful,
and said it was a falsehood, for his men had seen them, and could
not be mistaken. Kamrasi, he said, must have hidden them
somewhere, fearful of the number of guns which now surrounded
him; and, for the same reason, he told lies, yes, lies - but no
man living shall dare tell himself lies; and now, as he could not
obtain his object by fair means, he would use arms and force it
out. Then, turning to Bombay, he said, "What does your master
think of this business?" upon which Bombay replied, according to
his instructions, "Bana wishes nothing done until Grant arrives,
when all will go together." On this the king turned his back and
walked away.
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