We marched for the first time without music, as the drum is never allowed to be beaten in Unyoro except when the necessities of war demand it, or for a dance. Wanyamuezi and Wanyoro, in addition to our own twenty men, carried the luggage, though no one carried more than the smallest article he could find. It was a pattern Unyoro march, of only two hours' duration. On arrival at the end we heard that elephants had been seen close by. Grant and I then prepared our guns, and found a herd of about a hundred feeding on a plain of long grass, dotted here and there by small mounds crowned with shrub. The animals appeared to be all females, much smaller than the Indian breed; yet though ten were fired at, none were killed, and only one made an attempt to charge. I was with the little twin Manua at the time, when, stealing along under cover of the high grass, I got close to the batch and fired at the larges, which sent her round roaring. The whole of them then, greatly alarmed, packed together and began sniffing the air with their uplifted trunks, till, ascertaining by the smell of the powder that their enemy was in front of them, they rolled up their trunks and came close to the spot where I was lying under a mound. My scent then striking across them, they pulled up short, lifted their heads high, and looked down sideways on us. This was a bad job. I could not get a proper front shot at the boss of any of them, and if I had waited an instant we should both have been picked up or trodden to death; so I let fly at their temples, and instead of killing, sent the whole of them rushing away at a much faster pace than they came. After this I gave up, because I never could separate the ones I had wounded from the rest, and thought it cruel to go on damaging more. Thinking over it afterwards, I came to the conclusion I ought to have put in more powder; for I had, owing to their inferior size to the Indian ones, rather despised them, and fired at them with the same charge and in the same manner as I always did at rhinoceros. Though puzzled at the strange sound of the rifle, the elephants seldom ran far, packed in herd, and began to graze again. Frij, who was always ready at spinning a yarn, told us with much gravity that two of my men, Uledi and Wadi Hamadi, deserters, were possessed of devils (Phepo) at Zanzibar. Uledi, not wishing to be plagued by his Satanic majesty's angels on the march, sacrificed a cow and fed the poor, according to the great Phepo's orders, and had been exempted from it; but Wadi Hamadi, who preferred taking his chance, had been visited several times: once at Usui, when he was told the journey would be prosperous, only the devil wanted one man's life, and one man would fall sick; which proved true, for Hassani was murdered, and Grant fell sick in Karague. The second time Wadi Hamadi saw the devil in Karague, and was told one man's life would be required in Uganda, and such also was the case by Kari's murder; and a third time, in Unyoro, he was possessed, when it was said that the journey would be prosperous but protracted.
3d.—Though we stormed every day at being so shamefully neglected and kept in the jungles, we could not get on, nor find out the truth of our position. I asked if Kamrasi was afraid of us, and looking into his magic horn; and was answered, "No; he is very anxious to see you, or he would not have sent six of his highest officers to look after you, and prevent the unruly peasantry from molesting you." "Then by whose orders are we kept here?" "By Kamrasi's." "Why does Kamrasi keep us here?" "He thinks you are not so near, and men have gone to tell him." "How did we come here from the last ground?" "By Kamrasi's orders; for nothing can be done excepting by his orders." "Then he must know we are here?" "He may not have seen the men we sent to him; for unless he shows in public no one can see him." The whole affair gave us such an opinion of Kamrasi as induced us to think it would have served him right had we joined Mtesa and given him a thrashing. This, I said, was put in our power by an alliance with his refractory brothers; but Kidgwiga only laughed and said, "Nonsense! Kamrasi is the chief of all the countries round here—Usoga, Kidi, Chopi, Gani, Ulega, everywhere; he has only to hold up his hand and thousands would come to his assistance." Kwibeya, the officer of the place, presented us with five fowls on the part of the king, and some baskets of potatoes.
4th.—We halted again, it was said, in order that Kwibeya might give us all the king had desired him to present. I sent Bombay off with a message to Kamrasi explaining everything, and begging for an early interview, as I had much of importance to communicate, and wished, of all things, to see the letter he had from Gani, as it must have come from our dear friends at home. Seven goats, flour, and plantains, were now brought to us; and as Kidgwiga begged for the flour without success, he flew into a fit of high indignation because these things were given and received without his having first been consulted. He was the big man and appointed go-between, and no one could dispute it. This was rather startling news to us, for Vittagura said he was commander-in-chief; Kajunju thought himself biggest, so did Kwibeya, and even Dr K'yengo's men justified Budja's speech.
5th and 6th.—Still another halt, with all sorts of excuses. Frij, it appeared, dreamt last night that the king of Uganda came to fight us for not complying with his orders, and that all my men ran away except Uledi and himself. This, according to the interpretation of the coast, would turn out the reverse, otherwise his head must be wrong, and, according to local science, should be set right again by actual cautery of the temples; and as Grant dreamt a letter came from Gani which I opened and ran away with, he thought it would turn out no letter at all, and therefore Kamrasi had been humbugging us. We heard that Bombay had shot a cow before Kamrasi and would not be allowed to return until he had eaten it.
At last we made a move, but only of two hours' duration, through the usual forest, in which elephants walked about as if it were their park. We hoped at starting to reach the palace, but found we must stop here until the king should send for us. We were informed that doubtless he was looking into his Uganga, or magic horn, to discover what he had to expect from us; and he seemed as yet to have found no ground for being afraid of us. Moreover, it is his custom to keep visitors waiting on him in this way, for is he not the king of kings, the king of Kittara, which includes all the countries surrounding Unyoro?
Chapter XVII. Unyoro
Invitation to the Palace at last—Journey to it—Bombay's Visit to King Kamrasi—Our Reputation as Cannibals—Reception at Court—Acting the Physician again—Royal Mendicancy.
We halted again, but in the evening one of Dr K'yengo's men came to invite us to the palace. He explained that Kamrasi was in a great rage because we only received seven goats instead of thirty, the number he had ordered Kwibeya to give us, besides pombe and plantains without limitation. I complained that Bombay had been shown more respect than myself, obtaining an immediate admittance to the king's presence. To this he gave two ready answers—that every distinction shown my subordinate was a distinction to myself, and that we must not expect court etiquette from savages.
9th.—We set off for the palace. This last march differed but little from the others. Putting Dr K'yengo's men in front, and going on despite all entreaties to stop, we passed the last bit of jungle, sighted the Kidi hills, and, in a sea of swampy grass, at last we stood in front of and overlooked the great king's palace, situated N. lat. 1° 37' 43", and E. long. 32° 19' 49", on a low tongue of land between the Kafu and Nile rivers. It was a dumpy, large hut, surrounded by a host of smaller ones, and the worst royal residence we had seen since leaving Uzinza. Here Kajunju, coming from behind, overtook us, and breathless with running, in the most excited manner, abused Dr K'yengo's men for leading us on, and ordered us to stop until he saw the king, and ascertained the place his majesty wished us to reside in. Recollecting Mtesa's words that Kamrasi placed his guest on the N'yanza, I declined going to any place but the palace, which I maintained was my right, and waited for the issue, when Kajunju returned with pombe, and showed us to a small, dirty set of huts beyond the Kafu river—the trunk of the Mwerango and N'yanza branches which we crossed in Uganda—and trusted this would do for the present, as better quarters in the palace would be looked for on the morrow. This was a bad beginning, and caused a few of the usual anathemas in which our countrymen give vent to their irritation.