[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 XIV
13/62

On one occasion they sent up a necklace of beads to Kamrasi, and he, in return, gave them a number of women and tusks.

If I wished to go that way, Kamrasi would forward me on to their position in boats; for the land route, leading through Kidi, was a jungle of ten days, tenanted by a savage set of people, who hunt everybody, and seize everything they see.
This tract is sometimes, however, traversed by the Wanyoro and Gani people, who are traders in cows and tippet monkey-skins, stealthily travelling at night; but they seldom attempt it from fear of being murdered.

Baraka and Uledi, sent from Karague on the 30th January, had been at Kamrasi's palace upwards of a month, applying for the road to Gani, and as they could not get that, wished to come with Mabruki to me; but this Kamrasi also refused, on the plea that, as they had come from Karague, so they must return there.

Kamrasi had heard of my shooting with Mtesa, as also of the attempt made by Mabruki and Uledi to reach Gani via Usoga.

He had received my present of beads from Baraka, and, in addition, took Uledi's sword, saying, "If you do not wish to part with it, you must remain a prisoner in my country all your life, for you have not paid your footing." Mabruki then told me he was kept waiting at a village, one hour's walk from Kamrasi's palace, five days before they were allowed to approach his majesty; but when they were seen, and the presents exchanged, they were ordered to pack off the following morning, as Kamrasi said the Waganda were a set of plundering blackguards.
This information, to say the least of it, was very embarrassing--a mixture of good and bad.


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