I Sent The King A Present Of A Double-Barrelled Gun And Ammunition, And Received In Answer A Request That Both Grant And Myself Would Attend A Levee, Which He Was To Hold In State, Accompanied By His Bodyguard, As When I Was First Presented To Him.

In the afternoon we proceeded to court accordingly, but found it scantily attended; and after the first sitting, which was speedily over, retired to another court, and saw the women.

Of this dumb show the king soon got tired; he therefore called for his iron chair, and entered into conversation, at first about the ever-engrossing subject of stimulants, till we changed it by asking him how he liked the gun? He pronounced it a famous weapon, which he would use intensely. We then began to talk in a general way about Suwarora and Rumanika, as well as the road through Unyamuezi, which we hoped would soon cease to exist, and be superseded by one through Unyoro.

It will be kept in view that the hanging about at this court, and all the perplexing and irritating negotiations here described, had always one end in view - that of reaching the Nile where it pours out of the N'yanza, as I was long certain that it did. Without the consent and even the aid of this capricious barbarian I was now talking to, such a project was hopeless. I naturally seized every opportunity for putting in a word in the direction of my great object, and here seemed to be an opportunity.

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