"I have got no
orders to enter into black men's quarrels, and my mother" (the
Queen), "whom I see every night in my sleep calling me home,
would be very angry if she heard of it. Rumanika once asked me
to fight his brothers Rogero and M'yongo, but my only reply to
all had been the same - I have no orders to fight with, only to
make friends of, the great kings of Africa."
The game seemed now to be won. At once Kamrasi ordered Bombay to
prepare for the journey. Five Wanyoro, five Chopi men, and five
Gani men, were to escort him. There was no objection to his
carrying arms. The moment he returned, which ought to be in
little more than a fortnight, we would all go together. An
earnest request was at the same time made that I would not bully
him in the mean time with any more applications to depart. So
Bombay and Mabruki, carrying there muskets, and a map and letter
for Petherick, departed.
23d and 24th. - Kamrasi, presuming he had gained favour in our
eyes, sent, begging to know how we had slept, and said he would
like us to inform him what part of his journey Bombay had this
morning reached - a fact which he had no doubt must be divinable
through the medium of our books.
