The Discovery of The Source of the Nile [160]
Till this time the king had not heard one word about the defeat of the party sent for Petherick. His kingdom might have been lost, and he would have been no wiser; when the officer who led Mabruki came forward and told him all that had happened, stating, in addition to what I heard before, that they took eighty men with them, and went into battle three times successfully. Dismissing business, however, the king turned to me, and said he never saw anything so wonderful as my shooting in his life; he was sure it was done by magic, as my gun never missed, and he wished I would instruct him in the art. When I denied there was any art in shooting, further than holding the gun straight, he shook his head, and getting me to load his revolving pistol for him, he fired all five barrels into two cows before the multitude. He then thought of adjutant-shooting with ball, left the court sitting, desired me to follow him, and leading the way, went into the interior of the palace, where only a few select officers were permitted to follow us. The birds were wild, and as nothing was done, I instructed him in the way to fire from his shoulder, placing the gun in position. He was shy at first, and all the people laughed at my handling royalty like a schoolboy; but he soon took to it very good-naturedly, when I gave him my silk necktie and gold crest-ring, explaining their value, which he could not comprehend, and telling him we gentlemen prided ourselves on never wearing brass or copper.
He now begged hard for shot; but I told him again his only chance of getting any lay in opening the road onwards; it was on this account, I said, I had come to see him to-day. He answered, "I am going to send an army to Usoga to force the way from where your men were turned back." But this, I said, would not do for me, as I saw his people travelled like geese, not knowing the direction of Gani, or where they were going to when sent. I proposed that if he would call all his travelling men of experience together, I would explain matters to them by a map I had brought; for I should never be content till I saw Petherick.
The map was then produced. He seemed to comprehend it immediately, and assembled the desired Wakungu; but, to my mortification, he kept all the conversation to himself, Waganda fashion; spoke a lot of nonsense; and then asked his men what they thought had better be done. The sages replied, "Oh, make friends, and do the matter gently." But the king proudly raised his head, laughed them to scorn, and said, "Make friends with men who have crossed their spears with us already! Nonsense! they would only laugh at us; the Uganda spear alone shall do it." Hearing this bravado, the Kamraviona, the pages, and the elders, all rose to a man, with their sticks, and came charging at their king, swearing they would carry out his wished with their lives. The meeting now broke up in the usual unsatisfactory, unfinished manner, by the king rising and walking away, whilst I returned with the Kamraviona, who begged for ten more blue eggs in addition to my present to make a full necklace, and told my men to call upon him in the morning, when he would give me anything I wished to eat. Bombay was then ordered to describe what sort of food I lived on usually; when, Mganda fashion, he broke a stick into ten bits, each representing a differing article, and said, "Bana eat mixed food always"; and explained that stick No. 1 represented beef; No. 2, mutton; No. 3, fowl; No. 4, eggs; No. 5, fish; No. 6, potatoes; No. 7, plantains; No. 8, pombe; No. 9, butter; No. 10, flour.
16th.--To-day the king was amusing himself among his women again, and not to be seen. I sent Bombay with ten blue eggs as a present for the Kamraviona, intimating my desire to call upon him. He sent me a goat and ten fowls' eggs, saying he was not visible to strangers on business to-day. I inferred that he required the king's permission to receive me. This double failure was a more serious affair then a mere slight; for my cows were eaten up, and my men clamouring incessantly