Irate at this announcement, the king ordered the Sakibobo, who happened to be present, to be seized and bound at once, and said warmly, "Pray, who is the king, that the Sakibobo's orders should be preferred to mine?" and then turning to the Sakibobo himself, asked what he would pay to be released? The Sakibobo, alive to his danger, replied at once, and without the slightest hesitation, Eighty cows, eighty goats, eighty slaves, eighty mbugu, eighty butter, eighty coffee, eighty tobacco, eighty jowari, and eighty of all the produce of Uganda. He was then released. Bombay said Bana wished the Sakibobo to come to Urondogani, and gave him a start with five boats, five cows, and five goats; to which the king replied, "Bana shall have all he wants, nothing shall be denied him, not even fish; but it is not necessary to send the Sakibobo, as boys carry all my orders to kings as well as subjects. Kasoro will return again with you, fully instructed in everything, and, moreover, both he and Budja will follow Bana to Gani." Four days, however, my men were kept at the palace ere the king gave them the cattle and leave to join me, accompanied with one more officer, who had orders to find the boats at once, see us off, and report the circumstance at court. Just as at the last interview, the king had four women, lately seized and condemned to execution, squatting in his court. He wished to send them to Bana, and when Bombay demurred, saying he had no authority to take women in that way, the king gave him one, and asked him if he would like to see some sport, as he would have the remaining women cut to pieces before him. Bombay, by his own account, behaved with great propriety, saying Bana never wished to see sport of that cruel kind, and it would ill become him to see sights which his master had not. Viarungi sent me some tobacco, with kind regards, and said he and the Wazina had just obtained leave to return to their homes, K'yengo alone, of all the guests, remaining behind as a hostage until Mtesa's powder-seeking Wakungu returned. Finally, the little boy Lugoi had been sent to his home. Such was the tenor of Bombay's report.
11th.—The officer sent to procure boats, impudently saying there were none, was put in the stocks by Kasoro, whilst other men went to Kirindi for sailors, and down the stream for boats. On hearing the king's order that I was to be supplied with fish, the fishermen ran away, and pombe was no longer brewed for fear of Kasoro.
12th.—To-day we slaughtered and cooked two cows for the journey—the remaining three and one goat having been lost in the Luajerri—and gave the women of the place beads in return for their hospitality. They are nearly all Wanyoro, having been captured in that country by king Mtesa and given to Mlondo. They said their teeth were extracted, four to six lower incisors, when they were young, because no Myoro would allow a person to drink from his cup unless he conformed to that custom. The same law exists in Usoga.
Chapter XVI. Bahr El Abiad
First Voyage on the Nile—The Starting—Description of the River and the Country—Meet a Hostile Vessel—A Naval Engagement—Difficulties and Dangers—Judicial Procedure—Messages from the King of Uganda—His Efforts to get us back—Desertion—The Wanyoro Troops—Kamrasi—Elephant-Stalking—Diabolical Possessions.
In five boats of five planks each, tied together and caulked with mbugu rags, I started with twelve Wanguana, Kasoro and his page-followers, and a small crew, to reach Kamrasi's palace in Unyoro—goats, dogs, and kit, besides grain and dried meat, filling up the complement—but how many days it would take nobody knew. Paddles propelled these vessels, but the lazy crew were slow in the use of them, indulging sometimes in racing spurts, then composedly resting on their paddles whilst the gentle current drifted us along. The river, very unlike what it was from the Ripon Falls downward, bore at once the character of river and lake—clear in the centre, but fringed in most places with tall rush, above which the green banks sloped back like park lands. It was all very pretty and very interesting, and would have continued so, had not Kasoro disgraced the Union Jack, turning it to piratical purposes in less than one hour.
A party of Wanyoro, in twelve or fifteen canoes, made of single tree trunks, had come up the river to trade with the Wasoga, and having stored their vessels with mbugu, dried fish, plantains cooked and raw, pombe, and other things, were taking their last meal on shore before they returned to their homes. Kasoro seeing this, and bent on a boyish spree, quite forgetting we were bound for the very ports they were bound for, ordered our sailors to drive in amongst them, landed himself, and sent the Wanyoro flying before I knew what game was up, and then set to pillaging and feasting on the property of those very men whom it was our interest to propitiate, as we expected them shortly to be our hosts.
The ground we were on belonged to king Mtesa, being a dependency of Uganda, and it struck me as singular that Wanyoro should be found here; but I no sooner discovered the truth than I made our boatmen disgorge everything they had taken, called back the Wanyoro to take care of their things, and extracted a promise from Kasoro that he would not practise such wicked tricks again, otherwise we could not travel together. Getting to boat again, after a very little paddling we pulled in to shore, on the Uganda side, to stop for the night, and thus allowed the injured Wanyoro to go down the river before us. I was much annoyed by this interruption, but no argument would prevail on Kasoro to go on. This was the last village on the Uganda frontier, and before we could go any farther on boats it would be necessary to ask leave of Kamrasi's frontier officer, N'yamyonjo, to enter Unyoro. The Wanguana demanded ammunition in the most imperious manner, whilst I, in the same tone, refused to issue any lest a row should take place and they then would desert, alluding to their dastardly desertion in Msalala, when Grant was attacked. If a fight should take place, I said they must flock to me at once, and ammunition, which was always ready, would be served out to them. They laughed at this, and asked, Who would stop with me when the fight began? This was making a jest of what I was most afraid of—that they would all run away.
I held a levee to decide on the best manner of proceeding. The Waganda wanted us to stop for the day and feel the way gently, arguing that etiquette demands it. Then, trying to terrify me, they said, N'yamyonjo had a hundred boats, and would drive us back to a certainty if we tried to force past them, if he were not first spoken with, as the Waganda had often tried the passage and been repulsed. On the other hand, I argued that Grant must have arrived long ago at Kamrasi's, and removed all these difficulties for us; but, I said, if they would send men, let Bombay start at once by land, and we will follow in boats, after giving him time to say we are coming. This point gained after a hot debate, Bombay started at 10 a.m., and we not till 5 p.m., it being but one hour's journey by water. The frontier line was soon crossed; and then both sides of the river, Usoga as well as Unyoro, belong to Kamrasi.