t have trifled with the king; but the affair
created hardly any interest. I never heard, and there appeared no
curiosity to know, what individual human being the urchin had deprived
of life.

The Wakungu were not dismissed, and I asked to draw near, when the king
showed me a book I had given to Rumanika, and begged for the inspiring
medicine which he had before applied for through the mystic stick. The
day was now gone, so torches were lit, and we were ordered to go, though
as yet I had not been able to speak one word I wished to impart about
Petherick and Grant; for my interpreters were so afraid of the king they
dared not open their mouths until they were spoken to. The king was
now rising to go, when, in great fear and anxiety that the day would be
lost, I said, in Kisuahili, "I wish you would send a letter by post
to Grant, and also send a boat up the Kitangule, as far as Rumanika's
palace, for him, for he is totally unable to walk." I thus attracted his
notice, though he did not understand one word I uttered. The result was,
that he waited for the interpretation, and replied that a post would
be no use, for no one would be responsible for the safe delivery of the
message; he would send N'yamgundu to fetch him, but he thought Rumanika
would not consent to his sending boats up the Kitangule as far as the
Little Windermere; and then, turning round with true Mganda impetuosity,
he walked away without taking a word from me in exchange.

24th.--Early this morning the pages came to say Mtesa desired I would
send him three of my Wanguaga to shoot cows before him. This was just
what I wanted. It had struck me that personal conferences with me so
roused the excitable king, that there was no bringing plain matters of
business home to him; so, detaching seven men with Bombay, I told him,
before shooting, to be sure and elicit the matter I wanted--which was,
to excite the king's cupidity by telling him I had a boat full of stores
with two white men at Gani, whom I wished to call to me if he would
furnish some guides to accompany my men; and further, as Grant could not
walk, I wished boats sent for him, at least as far as the ferry on the
Kitangule, to which place Rumanika, at any rate, would slip him down in
canoes. At once, on arriving, Mtesa admitted the men, and ordered them
to shoot at some cows; but Bombay, obeying my orders to first have
his talk out, said, No--before he could shoot he must obey master and
deliver his me