To Push My Object Further, I Then Marched Off
To The Queen's To Bid Her Good-Bye, As If We Were Certain To
Leave The Next Day; But As No One Would Dare To Approach Her
Cabinet To Apprise Her Of Our Arrival, We Returned Home Tired And
Annoyed.
20th. - The king sent for us at noon; but when we reached the
palace we found he had started
On a shooting tour; so, to make
the best of our time, we called again upon the queen for the same
purpose as yesterday, as also to get my books of birds and
animals, which, taken merely to look at for a day or so, had been
kept for months. After hours of waiting, her majesty appeared
standing in an open gateway; beckoned us to advance, and offered
pombe; then, as two or three drops of rain fell, she said she
could not stand the violence of the weather, and forthwith
retired without one word being obtained. An officer, however,
venturing in for the books, at length I got them.
21st. - To-day I went to the palace, but found no one; the king
was out shooting again.
22d. - We resolved to-day to try on a new political influence at
the court. Grant had taken to the court of Karague a jumping-
jack, to amuse the young princes; but it had a higher destiny,
for it so fascinated the king Rumanika himself that he would not
part with it - unless, indeed, Grant would make him a big one out
of a tree which was handed to him for the purpose.
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