d.
"I have got no orders to enter into black men's quarrels, and my mother"
(the Queen), "whom I see every night in my sleep calling me home, would
be very angry if she heard of it. Rumanika once asked me to fight his
brothers Rogero and M'yongo, but my only reply to all had been the
same--I have no orders to fight with, only to make friends of, the great
kings of Africa."

The game seemed now to be won. At once Kamrasi ordered Bombay to prepare
for the journey. Five Wanyoro, five Chopi men, and five Gani men, were
to escort him. There was no objection to his carrying arms. The moment
he returned, which ought to be in little more than a fortnight, we would
all go together. An earnest request was at the same time made that
I would not bully him in the mean time with any more applications to
depart. So Bombay and Mabruki, carrying there muskets, and a map and
letter for Petherick, departed.

23d and 24th.--Kamrasi, presuming he had gained favour in our eyes,
sent, begging to know how we had slept, and said he would like us to
inform him what part of his journey Bombay had this morning reached--a
fact which he had no doubt must be divinable through the medium of our
books. The reply was, that Bombay's luck was so good we had no doubt
regarding his success; but now he had gone, and our days here were
numbered, we should like to see the palace, his fat wives and children,
as well as the Wanyoro's dances, and all the gaiety of the place. We did
not think our reception-hut by the river sufficiently dignified, and
our residence here was altogether like that of prisoners--seeing no one,
knowing no one. In answer to this, Kamrasi sent one pot of pombe and
five fowls, begging we would not be alarmed; we should see everything
in good time, if we would but have patience, for he considered us
very great men, as he was a great man himself, and we had come at his
invitation. He must request, in the mean time, that we would send no
more messages by his officers, as such messages are never conveyed
properly. At present there was a great deal of business in the palace.

We asked for some butter, but could get none, as all the milk in the
palace was consumed by the wives and children, drinking all day long, to
make themselves immovably fat.

25th.--In the morning, the commander-in-chief wished us to cast a
horoscope, and see where Bombay was, and if he were getting on well.
That being negatived, he told us to put our hut in order, as K