12th.—Immediately after breakfast the king sent his pages in a great hurry to say he was waiting on the hill for me, and begged I would bring all my guns immediately. I prepared, thinking, naturally enough, that some buffaloes had been marked down; for the boys, as usual, were perfectly ignorant of his designs. To my surprise, however, when I mounted the hill half-way to the palace, I found the king standing, dressed in a rich filagreed waistcoat, trimmed with gold embroidery, tweedling the loading-rod in his fingers, and an alfia cap on his head, whilst his pages held his chair and guns, and a number of officers, with dogs and goats for offerings, squatted before him.
When I arrived, hat in hand, he smiled, examined my firearms, and proceeded for sport, leading the way to a high tree, on which some adjutant birds were nesting, and numerous vultures resting. This was the sport; Bana must shoot a nundo (adjutant) for the king's gratification. I begged him to take a shot himself, as I really could not demean myself by firing at birds sitting on a tree; but it was all of no use—no one could shoot as I could, and they must be shot. I proposed frightening them out with stones, but no stone could reach so high; so, to cut the matter short, I killed an adjutant on the nest, and, as the vultures flew away, brought one down on the wing, which fell in a garden enclosure.
The Waganda were for a minute all spell-bound with astonishment, when the king jumped frantically in the air, clapping his hands above his head, and singing out, "Woh, woh, woh! what wonders! Oh, Bana, Bana! what miracles he performs!"—and all the Wakungu followed in chorus. "Now load, Bana—load, and let us see you do it," cried the excited king; but before I was half loaded, he said, "Come along, come along, and let us see the bird." Then directing the officers which way to go—for, by the etiquette of the court of Uganda, every one must precede the king—he sent them through a court where his women, afraid of the gun, had been concealed. Here the rush onward was stopped by newly made fences, but the king roared to the officers to knock them down. This was no sooner said than done, by the attendants in a body shoving on and trampling them under, as an elephant would crush small trees to keep his course. So pushing, floundering through plaintain and shrub, pell-mell one upon the other, that the king's pace might not be checked, or any one come in for a royal kick or blow, they came upon the prostrate bird. "Woh, woh, woh!" cried the king again, "there he is, sure enough; come here, women—come and look what wonders!" And all the women, in the highest excitement, "woh-wohed" as loud as any of the men. But that was not enough. "Come along, Bana," said the king, "we must have some more sport;" and, saying this he directed the way towards the queen's palace, the attendants leading, followed by the pages, then the king, next myself—for I never would walk before him—and finally the women, some forty or fifty, who constantly attended him.
To make the most of the king's good-humour, while I wanted to screen myself from the blazing sun, I asked him if he would like to enjoy the pleasures of an umbrella; and before he had time to answer, held mine over him as we walked side by side. The Wakungu were astonished, and the women prattled in great delight; whilst the king, hardly able to control himself, sidled and spoke to his flatterers as if he were doubly created monarch of all he surveyed. He then, growing more familiar, said, "Now, Bana, do tell me—did you not shoot that bird with something more than common ammunition? I am sure you did, now; there was magic in it." And all I said to the contrary would not convince him. "But we will see again." "At buffaloes?" I said. "No, the buffaloes are too far off now; we will wait to go after then until I have given you a hut close by." Presently, as some herons were flying overhead, he said, "Now, shoot, shoot!" and I brought a couple down right and left. He stared, and everybody stared, believing me to be a magician, when the king said he would like to have pictures of the birds drawn and hung up in the palace; "but let us go and shoot some more, for it is truly wonderful." Similar results followed, for the herons were continually whirling round, as they had their nests upon a neighbouring tree; and then the king ordered his pages to carry all the birds, save the vulture—which, for some reason, they did not touch—and show them to the queen.
He then gave the order to move on, and we all repaired to the palace. Arrived at the usual throne-room, he took his seat, dismissed the party of wives who had been following him, as well as the Wakungu, received pombe from his female evil-eye averters, and ordered me, with my men, to sit in the sun facing him, till I complained of the heat, and was allowed to sit by his side. Kites, crows, and sparrows were flying about in all directions, and as they came within shot, nothing would satisfy the excited boy-king but I must shoot them, and his pages take them to the queen, till my ammunition was totally expended. He then wanted me to send for more shot; and as I told him he must wait for more until my brothers come, he contented himself with taking two or three sample grains and ordering his iron-smiths to make some like them.
Cows were now driven in for me to kill two with one bullet; but as the off one jumped away when the gun fired, the bullet passed through the near one, then through all the courts and fences, and away no one knew where. The king was delighted, and said he must keep the rifle to look at for the night. I now asked permission to speak with him on some important matters, when he sent his women away and listened. I said I felt anxious about the road on which Mabruki was travelling, to which I added that I had ordered him to tell Petherick to come here or else to send property to the value of one thousand dollars; and I felt anxious because some of the queen's officers felt doubtful about Waganda being able to penetrate Kidi. He said I need not concern myself on that score; he was much more anxious for the white men to come here than even I was, and he would not send my men into any danger; but it was highly improper for any of his people to speak about such subjects. Then, assembling the women again, he asked me to load Whitworth for him, when he shot the remaining cow, holding the rifle in both hands close to his thigh. The feat, of course, brought forth great and uproarious congratulations from his women. The day thus ended, and I was dismissed.
13th.—Mabriki and Bilal come into camp: they returned last night; but the Waganda escort, afraid of my obtaining information of them before the king received it, kept them concealed. They had been defeated in Usoga, two marches each of Kira, at the residence of Nagozigombi, Mtesa's border officer, who gave them two bullocks, but advised their returning at once to inform the king that the independent Wasoga had been fighting with his dependent Wasoga subjects for some time, and the battle would not be over for two months or more, unless he sent an army to their assistance.
I now sent Bombay to the king to request an interview, as I had much of importance to tell him; but the could not be seen, as he was deep in the interior of the palace enjoying the society of his wives. The Kamraviona, however, was found there waiting, as usual, on the mere chance of his majesty taking it into his head to come out. He asked Bombay if it was true the woman he gave me ran away; and when Bombay told him, he said, "Oh, he should have chained her for two or three days, until she became accustomed to her residence; for women often take fright and run away in that way, believing strangers to be cannibals." But Bombay replied, "She was not good enough for Bana; he let her go off like a dog; he wants a young and beautiful Mhuma, or none at all." "Ah, well, then, if he is so particular, he must wait a bit, for we have none on hand. What I gave him is the sort of creature we give all our guests." A Msoga was sent by the king to take the dead adjutant of yesterday out of the nest—for all Wasoga are expert climbers, which is not the case with the Waganda; but the man was attacked half-way up the tree by a swarm of bees, and driven down again.
14th.—After all the vexatious haggling for a house, I gained my object to-day by a judicious piece of bribery which I had intended to accomplish whenever I could. I now succeeded in sending—for I could not, under the jealous eyes in Uganda, get it done earlier—a present of fifteen pints mixed beads, twenty blue eggs, and five copper bracelets, to the commander-in-chief, as a mark of friendship. At the same time I hinted that I should like him to use his influence in obtaining for me a near and respectable residence, where I hoped he, as well as all the Waganda nobility, would call upon me; for my life in Uganda was utterly miserable, being shut up like a hermit by myself every day. The result was, that a number of huts in a large plantain garden were at once assigned to me, on the face of a hill, immediately overlooking and close to the main road. It was considered the "West End." It had never before been occupied by any visitors excepting Wahinda ambassadors; and being near, and in full view of the palace, was pleasant and advantageous, as I could both hear the constant music, and see the throngs of people ever wending their way to and from the royal abodes. I lost no time in moving all my property, turning out the original occupants—in selecting the best hut for myself, giving the rest to my three officers—and ordering my men to build barracks for themselves, in street form, from my hut to the main road. There was one thing only left to be done; the sanitary orders of Uganda required every man to build himself a house of parliament, such being the neat and cleanly nature of the Waganda—a pattern to all other negro tribes.
15th.—As nobody could obtain an interview with the king yesterday, I went to the palace to-day, and fired three shots—a signal which was at once answered from within by a double discharge of a gun I had just lent him on his returning my rifle. In a little while, as soon as he had time to dress, the king, walking like a lion, sallied forth, leading his white dog, and beckoned me to follow him to the state hut, the court of which was filled with squatting men as usual, well dressed, and keeping perfect order. He planted himself on his throne, and begged me to sit by his side. Then took place the usual scene of a court levee, as described in Chapter X., with the specialty, in this instance, that the son of the chief executioner—one of the highest officers of state—was led off for execution, for some omission or informality in his n'yanzigs, or salutes.