we should fight those little rascals,
for it is not the king's guest nor his men who do us injury, but the
king's own servants, without leave or licence." I observed that special
bomas or fences were erected to protect these villages against the
incursions of lions. Buffaloes were about, but the villagers cautioned
us not to shoot them, holding them as sacred animals; and, to judge from
the appearance of the country, wild animals should abound, were it not
for the fact that every Mganda seems by instinct to be a sportsman.

At last, after numerous and various reports about Grant, we heard his
drums last night, but we arrived this morning just in time to be too
late. He was on his march back to the capital of Uganda, as the people
had told us, and passed through N'yakinyama just before I reached it.
What had really happened I knew not, and was puzzled to think. To insist
on a treaty, demanding an answer, to the Queen, seemed the only chance
left; so I wrote to Grant to let me know all about it, and waited the
result. He very obligingly came himself, said he left Unyoro after
stopping there an age asking for the road without effect, and left by
the orders of Kamrasi, thinking obedience the better policy to obtain
our ends. Two great objections had been raised against us; one was that
we were reported to be cannibals, and the other that our advancing by
two roads at once was suspicious, the more especially so as the Waganda
were his enemies; had we come from Rumanika direct, there would have
been no objection to us.

When all was duly considered, it appeared evident to me that the great
king of Unyoro, "the father of all the kings," was merely a nervous,
fidgety creature, half afraid of us because we were attempting his
country by the unusual mode of taking two routes at once, but wholly so
of the Waganda, who had never ceased plundering his country for years.
As it appeared that he would have accepted us had we come by the
friendly route of Kisuere, a further parley was absolutely necessary,
and the more especially so, as now we were all together and in Uganda,
which, in consequence, must relieve him from the fear of our harbouring
evil designs against him. No one present, however, could be prevailed on
to go to him in the capacity of ambassador, as the frontier officer had
warned the Wageni or guests that, if they ever attempted to cross the
border again, he was bound in duty, agreeably to the orders of his king,
to ex