My Vakeel Was To Explain That I Was A Much More
Powerful Chief Than Kamrasi, And That If He Required
My alliance, he
must treat with me in person, and immediately send fifty men to
transport my wife, myself, and
Effects to his camp, where we might, in a
personal interview, come to terms. I told my vakeel to return to me with
the fifty men, and to be sure to bring from Kamrasi some token by which
I should know that he had actually seen him. The vakeel and Yaseen
started.
After some days, the absconded guide, Rabonga, appeared with a number of
men, but without either my vakeel or Yaseen. He carried with him a small
gourd bottle, carefully stopped; this he broke, and extracted from the
inside two pieces of printed paper, that Kamrasi had sent to me in
reply.
On examining the papers, I found them to be portions of the English
Church Service translated into (I think) the Kiswahili language, by Dr.
Krapf! There were many notes in pencil on the margin, written in
English, as translations of words in the text. It quickly occurred to me
that Speke must have given this book to Kamrasi on his arrival from
Zanzibar, and that he now extracted the leaves, and sent them to me as
the token I had demanded to show that my message had been delivered to
him. Rabonga made a lame excuse for his previous desertion; he delivered
a thin ox that Kamrasi had sent me, and he declared that his orders
were, that he should take my whole party immediately to Kamrasi, as he
was anxious that we should attack Fowooka without loss of time; we were
positively to start on the following morning! My bait had taken! and we
should escape from this frightful spot, Shooa Moru.
On the following morning we were carried in our litters by a number of
men. The ox had been killed, the whole party had revelled in good food,
and a supply sufficient for the journey was taken by my men.
Without inflicting the tedium of the journey upon the reader, it will be
sufficient to say that the country was the same as usual, being a vast
park overgrown with immense grass. Every day the porters bolted, and we
were left deserted at the charred ruins of various villages that had
been plundered by Fowooka's people. It poured with rain; there was no
cover, as all the huts had been burnt, and we were stricken with severe
fever daily. However, after five days of absurdly slow marching, the
roar of the rapids being distinctly audible at night, we arrived one
morning at a deserted camp of about 3,000 huts, which were just being
ignited by several natives. This had been Kamrasi's headquarters, which
he had quitted, and according to native custom it was to be destroyed by
fire. It was reported that the king had removed to another position
within an hour's march, and that he had constructed a new camp.
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