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Dr K'yengo's men were very anxious to accompany us, even telling the king, if he would allow the road to be opened to their countrymen, all would hongo, or pay customs-duty to him; but the close, narrow-minded king could not be persuaded.
Whilst we were pitching our tents after sunset by some pools on the plain, Dr K'yengo arrived with the hongo of brass and copper wires sent by Suwarora for the great king Mtesa, in lieu of his daughter who died; so next morning we all marched together on to Uthenga.
I thought myself everything was going on as well as could be wished; but before entering the royal enclosures, I found, to my disagreeable surprise, that the men with Suwarora's hongo or offering, which consisted of more than a hundred coils of wire, were ordered to lead the procession, and take precedence of me.
Kidgwiga called on me to say Kamrasi so very much wanted the white men at Gani to visit him, he had sent a hongo of thirty tusks to the chief of that country in hopes that it would insure their coming to see him. He also felt sure if I went there his king would treat me with the greatest respect. This afforded an opportunity for putting in a word of reconciliation.
"In secret we met together, and promised never to forsake each other; and we pledged ourselves to each other by sucking blood from small cuts we made in our little fingers, and by exchanging written vows that we should love each other forever. "Before our pillows had yet become fixed , our new house in Hongo was built and made ready for us.
The reply was, of course, peace. At the same time Stanley hinted that his rifles would quickly give him the victory should war be declared. Notwithstanding this Mionvu demanded a hundred cloths as hongo. Ten were offered.
At length giving in, I entered Ruhe's boma, the poles of which were decked with the skulls of his enemies stuck upon them. Instead, however, of seeing him myself, as he feared my evil eye, I conducted the arrangements for the hongo through Baraka, in the same way as I did at M'yonga's, directing that it should be limited to the small sum of one barsati and four yards kiniki.
But when this little business had been transacted, to my surprise he said: "I have orders from Suwarora to be absent five days to doctor a sick relation of his, for there is no man in the country so skilled in medicines as myself; but whilst I am gone I will leave Karambule, my brother, to officiate in my stead about taking your hongo; but the work will not commence until to-morrow, for I must see Suwarora on the subject myself first."
The drum was beaten, as the public intimation of the payment of the hongo, and consequently of our release, and we went on to Mihambo, on the west border of the eastern division of Uzinza, which is called Ukhanga.
When Bombay was gone, Virembo then deputed Kariwami to take the hongo for both at once, mildly requiring 40 wires, 80 cloths, and 400 necklaces of every kind of bead we possessed. This was, indeed, too much of a joke.
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