With The Addition Of The Turks' Party We Were Now Twenty-Four Armed Men.
Although They Had Not Seen The
Real king Kamrasi, they had been well
treated since Ibrahim's departure, having received each a present of a
young slave
Girl as a wife, while, as a distinguishing mark of royal
favour, the vakeel Eddrees had received two wives instead of one; they
had also received regular supplies of flour and beef - the latter in
the shape of a fat ox presented every seventh day, together with a
liberal supply of plantain cider.
On the following morning after my arrival at Kisoona, M'Gambi appeared,
beseeching me to go and visit the king. I replied that "I was hungry and
weak from want of food, and that I wanted to see meat, and not the man
who had starved me." In the afternoon a beautiful cow appeared with her
young calf, also a fat sheep, and two pots of plantain cider, as a
present from Kamrasi. That evening we revelled in milk, a luxury that we
had not tasted for some months. The cow gave such a quantity that we
looked forward to the establishment of a dairy and already contemplated
cheese-making. I sent the king a present of a pound of powder in
canister, a box of caps and a variety of trifles, explaining that I was
quite out of stores and presents, as I had been kept so long in his
country that I was reduced to beggary, as I had expected to have
returned to my own country long before this.
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