APPEARANCE OF THE KING.

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in his "mbugu" dress, for all the world like a pope in state, calm and actionless. One bracelet of fine-twisted brass wire adorned his left wrist, but his most conspicuous ornament was a single necklace of beads. His hair, half an inch long, had been worked up into small knobs like peppercorns by rubbing the hand in a circle over the crown of the head. His eyes were long, with a gentle expression, the face was narrow, and the nose prominent, according to the characteristics of his race; and though a finely-made man, considerably above six feet high, he was not so large as Rumanika. He was fair for an African, and seemed about forty years of age. In sitting he would often rest his head upon his hand, with his elbow on his knee; and, from the length of his arms, the position did not seem constrained. According to the custom of his country, all the lower incisors and the eyeteeth had been removed in his youth, for which operation the family dentist had received a hundred cows. As no tooth-drawing instruments were seen in the country, this might have been done by the aid of a spear-head or knife. His forehead was disfigured by black patches, where it had been cauterised for headache or other ailments, and he had a similar mark on his nose, which he was very anxious to have removed. He never seemed to wear calico or silks, and his only garment was the salmoncoloured gown, tied tightly round his body from the waist to the heels. It was dotted over with small black pieces of bark-cloth, sewn very neatly with a looping stitch. By his side a spear rested against the wall; its blade was neatly capped over with leather, laced like a shoe with two long stripes from the skin of a leopard. A cow-skin, stretched out and fastened to the roof, acted as a canopy to prevent dust from falling, and a curtain of mbugu concealed the lower parts of the hut, in front

T

290

FIRST INTERVIEW WITH KAMRASI.

of which, on both sides of the king, sat about a dozen of the chief men.

Speke and Grant entered and took their seats on their own iron stools, whilst Bombay placed all the presents on the ground before the throne. As no greetings were exchanged, Speke broke the death-like silence by inquiring about the king's health, and saying that he had journeyed six long years (by African computation of five months to the year) for the pleasure of this meeting, coming by Karagué instead of by the Nile, because the Bari about Gondokoro had defeated all former attempts made by white men to reach Unyoro. He proposed that his majesty should trade with England by the same route, exchanging ivory for European articles. He also advised reconciliation with Mtésa. Kamrasi, in a very quiet mild manner, instead of replying to the suggestions conveyed, alluded to the absurd stories he had heard. about Speke and Grant from the Waganda, such as that they drank up lakes and rivers, which he did not believe, or his own river would have run dry during their stay; and he thought that if they did eat hills and the more succulent parts of men, their appetites must have been satisfied long before they reached Unyoro. He was glad to see that, though their hair was straight and their faces white, they had hands and feet like other men.

The presents, spread on a red blanket, were received by Kamrasi with stoical indifference, and only an occasional remark; though a pair of spectacles which Bombay put on created a titter among the courtiers. Nothing was new to him but the gun, and a chronometer which he unluckily saw Speke take out of his pocket. The officers, mistaking it for the compass, said it was the magic horn by which they found their way everywhere, and Kamrasi said he must have it, though Speke said it was the only

GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION.

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thing with which he could not part, and offered to get him another from Gani. Changing the subject, to Speke's relief, he then asked, "Who governs England?" Answer, "A woman." "Has she any children?" "Yes," said Bombay with ready impudence, pointing to Speke and Grant, "there are two of them!" He then asked, not being able to disabuse himself of the notion that they were traders, whether they would do any business with him in cows. The interview ended as coldly as it had begun, but the king sent pombé after them, with a civil message.

Among the supplies they received the next day was a sack of salt, very white and pure, which was said to have come from an island in the Luta Nzigé, about sixty miles west from Kamrasi's Chaguzi Palace, where that lake was said to be forty or fifty miles wide. The people of the island of Gasi, a specimen of whom was seen in Karagué, sometimes came to visit Kamrasi. It was said that Ugungu, a dependency of Unyoro, was on the near side of the lake, and on the opposite Ulégga, beyond which, in 2° N. lat. and 28° E. long., was the country of Namachi, and further to the west the Wilyanwantu, or cannibals, who are said to bury cows and eat men. All these distant people paid homage to Kamrasi, though they had six degrees of longitude to travel over.

Another interview with the king sealed the fate of Speke's gold chronometer, which was worth £50, and went, chain and all, into his possession; though when he had got it he treated it as a plaything, and damaged it the first day. With all his greed, however, and scant courtesy, Kamrasi does not appear to have been an unkindly man. While his neighbour Mtésa butchered his subjects for slight breaches of etiquette, no such barbarous custom prevailed in Unyoro. Murderers only were

flogged or speared to death, and their bodies thrown into the river Kafu.

On the 22d of September Speke managed to despatch Bombay and Mabruki to the north with a map and a letter for Petherick. They were allowed to carry arms, and had an escort of five Wanyoro, five Chopi, and five Gani men. It was arranged that after their return a general forward move should be made. On the 25th Speke received a notice that he was to be honoured by a visit from the king, so he had everything made as smart as possible, hanging the room round with maps, horns, and skins, a large box covered with a red blanket being placed for a throne. A guard of honour fired three shots as he set foot on their side of the river, while Frij, with his boatswain's whistle, piped the 'Rogue's March' as a fitting prelude to the approach of royalty. He was pleased on this occasion to be complimentary, and remarked what fine men they were, as he assumed his seat of dignity. After having been duly received, he began begging for everything he saw, and when he got nothing but some medicines, left in some dudgeon, and did not send over the usual pot of pombé in the evening. He was reported to have said that they might have given him at least a bag of beads, when he took the trouble to pay them a visit. Speke now thought that to cut short future annoyances he would try a little bullying, so he tied up a bag of the commonest beads, and sent them to Kamrasi with a message that they were thoroughly disgusted with everything, that the beads were for the poor beggar who had come to their house yesterday, that they did not desire acquaintance with beggars, and that they had made up their minds never to call again, or receive his bread and wine any more. Kamrasi, taken aback at this decided message, said he meant no offence,

A DEPUTATION FROM MTÉSA.

293

that he was not a poor man, as he had many cows, but that when it was a question of beads, he could not withstand the temptation to beg. Two pots of pombé were sent as a peace-offering, and the chronometer for repair, which had been put out of order for the second time within a few days.

Nothing could have been more filthy than the state of the king's palace, and the lanes which led to it. The English officers were glad that they were never expected to go there, as without stilts and respirators it would have been a difficult business. The royal cows were kept in the palace enclosure, the calves actually entering the huts; and Kamrasi, like a farmer, walked among them up to his ankles in muck and issued his orders, personally inspecting and selecting the cattle intended for his guests.

About the end of September Speke's old friends, Budja and Kasoro, came with more messages from Mtésa, with fifty Waganda whom Mtésa had ordered to accompany the expedition any distance short of England. Kamrasi put his veto on their going to Gani, so they had to return. Mtésa was keeping the deserters in durance till further orders, and Speke repeated his wishes concerning them, with all kinds of civil messages. Kasoro asked Speke at parting to send Mtésa from England "some pretty things such as he had never seen," and carried back a tin cartridge-box as a proof that the deputation had been received. It now transpired that the reason why Speke and Grant were kept under a sort of police surveillance at Kamrasi's, and why he had had a palaver-house built to receive them privately, was the extreme distrust of his brothers, who believed them to be most dangerous sorcerers. They had shown this by turning their heads. away when Speke was showing the inner works of his chronometer. The trouble Kamrasi had with his brothers