[The Discovery of the Source of the Nile by John Hanning Speke]@TWC D-Link book
The Discovery of the Source of the Nile

CHAPTER XII
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He was shy at first, and all the people laughed at my handling royalty like a schoolboy; but he soon took to it very good-naturedly, when I gave him my silk necktie and gold crest-ring, explaining their value, which he could not comprehend, and telling him we gentlemen prided ourselves on never wearing brass or copper.
He now begged hard for shot; but I told him again his only chance of getting any lay in opening the road onwards; it was on this account, I said, I had come to see him to-day.

He answered, "I am going to send an army to Usoga to force the way from where your men were turned back." But this, I said, would not do for me, as I saw his people travelled like geese, not knowing the direction of Gani, or where they were going to when sent.

I proposed that if he would call all his travelling men of experience together, I would explain matters to them by a map I had brought; for I should never be content till I saw Petherick.
The map was then produced.

He seemed to comprehend it immediately, and assembled the desired Wakungu; but, to my mortification, he kept all the conversation to himself, Waganda fashion; spoke a lot of nonsense; and then asked his men what they thought had better be done.

The sages replied, "Oh, make friends, and do the matter gently." But the king proudly raised his head, laughed them to scorn, and said, "Make friends with men who have crossed their spears with us already! Nonsense! they would only laugh at us; the Uganda spear alone shall do it." Hearing this bravado, the Kamraviona, the pages, and the elders, all rose to a man, with their sticks, and came charging at their king, swearing they would carry out his wished with their lives.


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