Without Replying To This Wretched
Excuse For His Neglect, I Merely Told Him That I Was Happy To Have Seen
Him Before My Departure, As I Was Not Aware Until Recently That I Had
Been Duped By M'Gambi.
He answered me very coolly, saying that although
I had not seen him he had nevertheless seen me, as he was among the
crowd of native escort on the day that we left M'rooli.
Thus he had
watched our start at the very place where his brother M'Gambi had
impersonated the king.
Kamrasi was a remarkably fine man, tall and well proportioned, with a
handsome face of a dark brown colour, but a peculiarly sinister
expression; he was beautifully clean, and instead of wearing the bark
cloth common among the people, he was dressed in a fine mantle of black
and white goatskins, as soft as chamois leather. His people sat on the
ground at some distance from his throne; when they approached to address
him on any subject they crawled upon their hands and knees to his feet,
and touched the ground with their foreheads.
True to his natural instincts, the king commenced begging, and being
much struck with the Highland costume, he demanded it as a proof of
friendship, saying, that if I refused I could not be his friend. The
watch, compass, and double Fletcher rifle were asked for in their turn,
all of which I refused to give him. He appeared much annoyed, therefore
I presented him with a pound canister of powder, a box of caps, and a
few bullets.
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