The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, And Explorations of the Nile Sources

by Sir Samuel White Baker

After winding through dense jungles of bamboos and interminable groves of destroyed plantains, we perceived the tops of a number of grass huts appearing among the trees. My men now begged to be allowed to fire a salute, as it was reported that the ten men of Ibrahim's party who had been left as hostages were quartered at this village with Kamrasi. Hardly had the firing commenced, when it was immediately replied to by the Turks from their camp, who, upon our approach, came out to meet us with great manifestations of delight and wonder at our having accomplished our long and difficult voyage.

My vakeel and Yaseen were the first to meet us, with an apology that severe fever had compelled them to remain in camp instead of returning to Shooa Moru according to my orders, but they had delivered my message to Kamrasi, who had, as I had supposed, sent two leaves out of a book Speke had given him, as a reply. An immense amount of news had to be exchanged between my men and those of Ibrahim; they had quite given us up for lost, until they heard that we were at Shooa Moru. A report had reached them that my wife was dead, and that I had died a few days later. A great amount of kissing and embracing took place, Arab fashion, between the two parties; and they all came to kiss my hand and that of my wife, with the exclamation, that "By Allah, no woman in the world had a heart so tough as to dare to face what she had gone through." "El hamd el Illah! El hamd el Illah bel salaam!" ("Thank God—be grateful to God"), was exclaimed on all sides by the swarthy throng of brigands who pressed round us, really glad to welcome us back again; and I could not help thinking of the difference in their manner now and fourteen months ago, when they had attempted to drive us back from Gondokoro.

On entering the village I found a hut prepared for me by the orders of my vakeel: it was very small, and I immediately ordered a fence and courtyard to be constructed. There were great numbers of natives, and a crowd of noisy fellows pressed around us that were only dispersed by a liberal allowance of the stick, well laid on by the Turks, who were not quite so mild in their ways as my people. A fat ox was immediately slaughtered by the vakeel commanding the Turks' party, and a great feast was soon in preparation, as our people were determined to fraternize.

Hardly were we seated in our hut, when my vakeel announced that Kamrasi had arrived to pay me a visit. In a few minutes he was ushered into the hut. Far from being abashed, he entered with a loud laugh totally different to his former dignified manner." Well, here you are at last!" he exclaimed. Apparently highly amused with our wretched appearance, he continued, "So you have been to the M'wootan N'zige! well, you don't look much the better for it; why, I should not have known you! ha, ha, ha!" I was not in a humour to enjoy his attempts at facetiousness; I therefore told him, that he had behaved disgracefully and meanly, and that I should publish his character among the adjoining tribes as below that of the most petty chief that I had ever seen. "Never mind," he replied, "it's all over now; you really are thin, both of you;—it was your own fault; why did you not agree to fight Fowooka? You should have been supplied with fat cows and milk and butter, had you behaved well. I will have my men ready to attack Fowooka tomorrow;—the Turks have ten men; you have thirteen; thirteen and ten make twenty-three;—you shall be carried if you can't walk, and we will give Fowooka no chance—he must be killed—only kill him, and MY BROTHER will give you half of his kingdom." He continued, "You shall have supplies tomorrow; I will go to my brother, who is the great M'Kammaa Kamrasi, and he will send you all you require. I am a little man, he is a big one; I have nothing; he has everything, and he longs to see you; you must go to him directly, he lives close by." I hardly knew whether he was drunk or sober—"my brother the great M'Kamma Kamrasi!" I felt bewildered with astonishment: then, "If you are not Kamrasi, pray who are you ?" I asked. "Who am I?" he replied, "ha, ha, ha! that's very good; who am I?—why I am M'Gambi, the brother of Kamrasi,—I am the younger brother, but he is the King."

The deceit of this country was incredible—I had positively never seen the real Kamrasi up to this moment, and this man M'Gambi now confessed to having impersonated the king his brother, as Kamrasi was afraid that I might be in league with Debono's people to murder him, and therefore he had ordered his brother M'Gambi to act the king.

I now remembered, that the woman Bacheeta had on several occasions during the journey told us that the Kamrasi we had seen was not the true M'Kamma Kamrasi; but at the time I had paid little attention to her, as she was constantly grumbling, and I imagined that this was merely said in ill temper, referring to her murdered master Sali as the rightful king.

I called the vakeel of the Turks, Eddrees: he said, that he also had heard long since that M'Gambi was not Kamrasi as we had all supposed, but that he had never seen the great king, as M'Gambi had always acted as viceroy; he confirmed the accounts I had just received, that the real Kamrasi was not far from this village, the name of which was "Kisoona." I told M'Gambi that I did not wish to see his brother the king, as I should perhaps be again deceived and be introduced to some impostor like himself; and that as I did not choose to be made a fool of, I should decline the introduction. This distressed him exceedingly; he said, that the "king was really so great a man that he, his own brother, dared not sit on a stool in his presence, and that he had only kept in retirement as a matter of precaution, as Debono's people had allied themselves with his enemy Rionga in the preceding year, and he dreaded treachery." I laughed contemptuously at M'Gambi, telling him that if a woman like my wife dared to trust herself far from her own country among such savages as Kamrasi's people, their king must be weaker than a woman if he dare not show himself in his own territory. I concluded by saying, that I should not go to see Kamrasi, but that he should come to visit me. M'Gambi promised to send a good cow on the following morning, as we had not tasted milk for some months, and we were in great want of strengthening food. He took his leave, having received a small present of minute beads of various colours.

I could not help wondering at the curious combination of pride and abject cowardice that had been displayed by the redoubted Kamrasi ever since our first entrance to his territory. Speke when at Gondokoro had told me how he had been kept waiting for fifteen days before the king had condescended to see him. I now understood that this delay had been occasioned more by fear than pride, and that, in his cowardice, the king fell back upon his dignity as an excuse for absenting himself.

With the addition of the Turks' party we were now twenty-four armed men. Although they had not seen the real king Kamrasi, they had been well treated since Ibrahim's departure, having received each a present of a young slave girl as a wife, while, as a distinguishing mark of royal favour, the vakeel Eddrees had received two wives instead of one; they had also received regular supplies of flour and beef—the latter in the shape of a fat ox presented every seventh day, together with a liberal supply of plantain cider.

On the following morning after my arrival at Kisoona, M'Gambi appeared, beseeching me to go and visit the king. I replied that "I was hungry and weak from want of food, and that I wanted to see meat, and not the man who had starved me." In the afternoon a beautiful cow appeared with her young calf, also a fat sheep, and two pots of plantain cider, as a present from Kamrasi. That evening we revelled in milk, a luxury that we had not tasted for some months. The cow gave such a quantity that we looked forward to the establishment of a dairy and already contemplated cheese-making. I sent the king a present of a pound of powder in canister, a box of caps and a variety of trifles, explaining that I was quite out of stores and presents, as I had been kept so long in his country that I was reduced to beggary, as I had expected to have returned to my own country long before this.