All These Creatures, I Was Assured, Would Afterwards Be Given
Away As Return-Presents For The Hongos Or Presents Received From
The King's Visitors.
No wonder the tribes of Africa are mixed
breeds.
Amongst the officers in waiting was my friend Budja, the
ambassador that had been sent to Unyoro with Kidgwiga, Kamrasi's
deputy. He had returned three days before, but had not yet seen
the king. As might have been expected, he said he had been
anything but welcomed in Unyoro. Kamrasi, after keeping him
half-starved and in suspense eight days, sent a message - for he
would not see him - that he did not desire any communication with
blackguard Waganda thieves, and therefore advised him, if he
valued his life, to return by the road by which he came as
speedily as possible. Turning to Congow, I playfully told him
that, as the road through Unyoro was closed, he would have to go
with me through Usoga and Kidi; but the gallant colonel merely
shuddered, and said that would be a terrible undertaking.
27th. - The king would not show, for some reason or other, and we
still feared to fire guns lest he should think our store of
powder inexhaustible, and so keep us here until he had extorted
the last of it. I found that the Waganda have the same absurd
notion here as the Wanyambo have in Karague, of Kamrasi's
supernatural power in being able to divide the waters of the Nile
in the same manner as Moses did the Red Sea.
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