ff till his
messengers should return from Unyoro. I told him his men had gone in
vain, for Budja left without my letter or my men; and further, that the
river route is the only one that will ever be of advantage to Uganda,
and the sooner it was opened up the better. I entreated him to listen
to my advice, and send some of my men to Kamrasi direct, to acquaint him
with my intention to go down the river in boats to him; but I could get
no answer to this. Bombay then asked for cows for the Wanguana, getting
laughed at for his audacity, and the king broke up the court and walked
away.

5th.--I started on a visit to the queen, but half-way met Congow, who
informed me he had just escorted her majesty from his house, where she
was visiting, to her palace. By way of a joke and feeler, I took it in
my head to try, by taking a harmless rise out of Congow, whether the
Nile is understood by the natives to be navigable near its exit from the
N'yanza. I told him he had been appointed by the king to escort us down
the river to Gani. He took the affair very seriously, delivering himself
to the following purport: "Well, then, my days are numbered; for if
I refuse compliance I shall lose my head; and if I attempt to pass
Kamrasi's, which is on the river, I shall lose my life; for I am a
marked man there, having once led an army past his palace and back
again. It would be no use calling it a peaceful mission, as you propose;
for the Wanyoro distrust the Waganda to such an extent, they would fly
to arms at once."

Proceeding to the queen's palace, we met Murondo, who had once travelled
to the Masai frontier. He said it would take a month to go in boats from
Kira, the most easterly district in Uganda, to Masai, where there is
another N'yanza, joined by a strait to the big N'yanza, which king
Mtesa's boats frequent for salt; but the same distance could be
accomplished in four days overland, and three days afterwards by boat.
The queen, after keeping us all day waiting, sent three bunches of
plantains and a pot of pombe, with a message that she was too tired to
receive visitors, and hoped we would call another day.

6th.--I met Pokino, the governor-general of Uddu, in the morning's
walk, who came here at the same time as Grant to visit the king, and was
invited into his house to drink pombe. His badge of office is an iron
hatchet, inlaid with copper and handled with ivory. He wished to give
us a cow, but put it off for another day, and was