The Discovery of The Source of the Nile [199]
Bana."
The subject then turned on the plan I had formed of going to Gani by water, and of sending Grant to Karague by the lake; but the king's mind was fully occupied with the compass I had given him. He required me to explain its use, and then broke up the meeting.
4th.--Viarungi, an officer sent by Rumanika to escort Grant to Uganda, as well as to apply to king Mtesa for a force to fight his brother Rogero, called on me with Rozaro, and said he had received instructions from his king to apply to me for forty cows and two slave-boys, because the Arabs who pass through his country to Uganda always make him a present of that sort after receiving them from Mtesa. After telling him we English never give the presents they have received away to any one, and never make slaves, but free them, I laid a complaint against Rozaro for having brought much trouble and disgrace upon my camp, as well as much trouble on myself, and begged that he might be removed from my camp. Rozaro then attempted to excuse himself, but without success, and said he had already detached his residence from my camp, and taken up a separate residence with Viarungi, his superior officer.
I called on the king in the afternoon, and found the pages had already issued plantains for my men and pombe for myself. The king addressed me with great cordiality, and asked if I wished to go to Gani. I answered him with all promptitude,--Yes, at once, with some of his officers competent to judge of the value of all I point out to them for future purposes in keeping the road permanently open. His provoking capriciousness, however, again broke in, and he put me off till his messengers should return from Unyoro. I told him his men had gone in vain, for Budja left without my letter or my men; and further, that the river route is the only one that will ever be of advantage to Uganda, and the sooner it was opened up the better. I entreated him to listen to my advice, and send some of my men to Kamrasi direct, to acquaint him with my intention to go down the river in boats to him; but I could get no answer to this. Bombay then asked for cows for the Wanguana, getting laughed at for his audacity, and the king broke up the court and walked away.
5th.--I started on a visit to the queen, but half-way met Congow, who informed me he had just escorted her majesty from his house, where she was visiting, to her palace. By way of a joke and feeler, I took it in my head to try, by taking a harmless rise out of Congow, whether the Nile is understood by the natives to be navigable near its exit from the N'yanza. I told him he had been appointed by the king to escort us down the river to Gani. He took the affair very seriously, delivering himself to the following purport: "Well, then, my days are numbered; for if I refuse compliance I shall lose my head; and if I attempt to pass Kamrasi's, which is on the river, I shall lose my life; for I am a marked man there, having once led an army past his palace and back again. It would be no use calling it a peaceful mission, as you propose; for the Wanyoro distrust the Waganda to such an extent, they would fly to arms at once."
Proceeding to the queen's palace, we met Murondo, who had once travelled to the Masai frontier. He said it would take a month to go in boats from Kira, the most easterly district in Uganda, to Masai, where there is another N'yanza, joined by a strait to the big N'yanza, which king Mtesa's boats frequent for salt; but the same distance could be accomplished in four days overland, and three days afterwards by boat. The queen, after keeping us all day waiting, sent three bunches of plantains and a pot of pombe, with a message that she was too tired to receive visitors, and hoped we would call another day.
6th.--I met Pokino, the governor-general of Uddu, in the morning's walk, who came here at the same time as Grant to visit the king, and was invited into his house to drink pombe. His badge of office is an iron hatchet, inlaid with copper and handled with ivory. He wished to give us a cow, but put it off
The subject then turned on the plan I had formed of going to Gani by water, and of sending Grant to Karague by the lake; but the king's mind was fully occupied with the compass I had given him. He required me to explain its use, and then broke up the meeting.
4th.--Viarungi, an officer sent by Rumanika to escort Grant to Uganda, as well as to apply to king Mtesa for a force to fight his brother Rogero, called on me with Rozaro, and said he had received instructions from his king to apply to me for forty cows and two slave-boys, because the Arabs who pass through his country to Uganda always make him a present of that sort after receiving them from Mtesa. After telling him we English never give the presents they have received away to any one, and never make slaves, but free them, I laid a complaint against Rozaro for having brought much trouble and disgrace upon my camp, as well as much trouble on myself, and begged that he might be removed from my camp. Rozaro then attempted to excuse himself, but without success, and said he had already detached his residence from my camp, and taken up a separate residence with Viarungi, his superior officer.
I called on the king in the afternoon, and found the pages had already issued plantains for my men and pombe for myself. The king addressed me with great cordiality, and asked if I wished to go to Gani. I answered him with all promptitude,--Yes, at once, with some of his officers competent to judge of the value of all I point out to them for future purposes in keeping the road permanently open. His provoking capriciousness, however, again broke in, and he put me off till his messengers should return from Unyoro. I told him his men had gone in vain, for Budja left without my letter or my men; and further, that the river route is the only one that will ever be of advantage to Uganda, and the sooner it was opened up the better. I entreated him to listen to my advice, and send some of my men to Kamrasi direct, to acquaint him with my intention to go down the river in boats to him; but I could get no answer to this. Bombay then asked for cows for the Wanguana, getting laughed at for his audacity, and the king broke up the court and walked away.
5th.--I started on a visit to the queen, but half-way met Congow, who informed me he had just escorted her majesty from his house, where she was visiting, to her palace. By way of a joke and feeler, I took it in my head to try, by taking a harmless rise out of Congow, whether the Nile is understood by the natives to be navigable near its exit from the N'yanza. I told him he had been appointed by the king to escort us down the river to Gani. He took the affair very seriously, delivering himself to the following purport: "Well, then, my days are numbered; for if I refuse compliance I shall lose my head; and if I attempt to pass Kamrasi's, which is on the river, I shall lose my life; for I am a marked man there, having once led an army past his palace and back again. It would be no use calling it a peaceful mission, as you propose; for the Wanyoro distrust the Waganda to such an extent, they would fly to arms at once."
Proceeding to the queen's palace, we met Murondo, who had once travelled to the Masai frontier. He said it would take a month to go in boats from Kira, the most easterly district in Uganda, to Masai, where there is another N'yanza, joined by a strait to the big N'yanza, which king Mtesa's boats frequent for salt; but the same distance could be accomplished in four days overland, and three days afterwards by boat. The queen, after keeping us all day waiting, sent three bunches of plantains and a pot of pombe, with a message that she was too tired to receive visitors, and hoped we would call another day.
6th.--I met Pokino, the governor-general of Uddu, in the morning's walk, who came here at the same time as Grant to visit the king, and was invited into his house to drink pombe. His badge of office is an iron hatchet, inlaid with copper and handled with ivory. He wished to give us a cow, but put it off