How I Found Livingstone Travels, Adventures And Discoveries In Central Africa Including Four Months Residence With Dr. Livingstone By Sir Henry M. Stanley
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It Was Necessary To Be Very Politic With A Man Who Was So Surly,
And Too Powerful To Make An Enemy Of.
What if he made up his mind
to imitate the redoubtable Mirambo, King of Uyoweh!
The effect of
my munificent liberality was soon seen in the abundance of provender
which came to my camp. Before an hour went by, there came boxes
full of choroko, beans, rice, matama or dourra, and Indian corn,
carried on the heads of a dozen villagers, and shortly after the
Mtemi himself came, followed by about thirty musketeers and
twenty spearmen, to visit the first white man ever seen on this
road. Behind these warriors came a liberal gift, fully equal in
value to that sent to him, of several large gourds of honey, fowls,
goats, and enough vetches and beans to supply my men with four
days' food.
I met the chief at the gate of my camp, and bowing profoundly,
invited him to my tent, which I had arranged as well as my
circumstances would permit, for this reception. My Persian carpet
and bear skin were spread out, and a broad piece of bran-new
crimson cloth covered my kitanda, or bedstead.
The chief, a tall robust man, and his chieftains, were invited to
seat themselves. They cast a look of such gratified surprise at
myself, at my face, my clothes, and guns, as is almost impossible
to describe. They looked at me intently for a few seconds, and
then at each other, which ended in an uncontrollable burst of
laughter, and repeated snappings of the fingers.
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