rn was expected. Could I after that refuse him such a
mere trifle as a compass? I told him he might as well put my eyes out
and ask me to walk home, as take away that little instrument, which
could be of no use to him, as he could not read or understand it.
But this only excited his cupidity; he watched it twirling round and
pointing to the north, and looked and begged again, until, tired of
his importunities, I told him I must wait until the Usoga road was open
before I could part with it, and then the compass would be nothing to
what I would give him. Hearing this, "That is all on my shoulders; as
sure as I live it shall be done; for that country has no king, and I
have long been desirous of taking it." I declined, however, to give him
the instrument on the security of his promise, and he went to breakfast.

I walked off to Usungu to see what I could do for him in his misery.
I found that he had a complication of evils entirely beyond my healing
power, and among them inveterate forms of the diseases which are
generally associated with civilisation and its social evils. I could
do nothing to cure him, but promised to do whatever was in my power to
alleviate his sufferings.

24th.--Before breakfast I called on poor Usungu, prescribing hot coffee
to be drunk with milk every morning, which astonished him not a little,
as the negroes only use coffee for chewing. He gave my men pombe and
plantains. On my return I met a page sent to invite me to the palace.
I found the king sitting with a number of women. He was dressed in
European clothes, part of them being a pair of trousers he begged for
yesterday, that he might appear like Bana. This was his first appearance
in trousers, and his whole attire, contrasting strangely with his native
habiliments, was in his opinion very becoming, though to me a little
ridiculous; for the legs of the trousers, as well as the sleeves of the
waistcoat, were much too short, so that his black feet and hands stuck
out at the extremities as an organ-player's monkey's do, whilst the
cockscomb on his head prevented a fez cap, which was part of his special
costume for the occasion, from sitting properly. This display over, the
women were sent away, and I saw shown into a court, where a large number
of plantains were placed in a line upon the ground for my men to take
away, and we were promised the same treat every day. From this we
proceeded to another court, where we sat in the shade together, when