I Made Each Of Them A Present Of A Bead Necklace, And Explained To Them
My Wish That There Should
Be no delay in my presentation to Kamrasi, as
Speke had complained that he bad been kept waiting fifteen days
Before
the king had condescended to see him; that, if this occurred, no
Englishman would ever visit him, as such a reception would be considered
an insult. The headman replied that he felt sure I was not an impostor;
but that very shortly after the departure of Speke and Grant in the
previous year, a number of people had arrived in their name, introducing
themselves as their greatest friends: they had been ferried across the
river, and well received by Kamrasi's orders, and had been presented
with ivory, slaves, and leopard skins, as tokens of friendship; but they
had departed, and suddenly returned with Rionga's people, and had
attacked the village in which they had been so well received; and upon
the country being assembled to resist them, about three hundred of
Kamrasi's men had been killed in the fight. The king had therefore given
orders that, upon pain of death, no stranger should cross the river. He
continued: that when they saw our people marching along the bank of the
river, they imagined them to be the same party that had attacked them
formerly, and they were prepared to resist them, and had sent on a
messenger to Kamrasi, who was three days' march from Karuma, at his
capital M'rooli; until they received a reply, it would be impossible to
allow us to enter the country.
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