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Updated: June 6, 2025
Early in the morning a great hue and cry was made because the Wanguana had been seen bathing in the N'yanza naked, without the slightest regard to decency.
In five boats of five planks each, tied together and caulked with mbugu rags, I started with twelve Wanguana, Kasoro and his page-followers, and a small crew, to reach Kamrasi's palace in Unyoro goats, dogs, and kit, besides grain and dried meat, filling up the complement but how many days it would take nobody knew.
The king, in his red coat and wideawake, conducted the arrangements, ordering all to their proper places the women, in certain boats, the Wakungu and Wanguana in others, whilst I sat in the same boat with him at his feet, three women holding mbugus of pombe behind.
I drew a large white and black hornbill and a green pigeon sent by himself; but he was not satisfied; he sent more birds, and wanted to see my shoes. The pages who came with the second message, however, proving impertinent, got a book flung at their heads, and a warning to be off, as I intended to see the king myself, and ask for food to keep my ever-complaining Wanguana quiet.
After this, I had scarcely swallowed by breakfast before I received a summons from the king to meet him out shooting, with all the Wanguana armed, and my guns; and going towards the palace, found him with a large staff, pages and officers as well as women, in a plantain garden, looking eagerly out for birds, whilst his band was playing.
The Wanguana still grumbled, swearing they would carry no loads, as they got no rations, and threatening to shoot us if we pressed them, forgetting that their food had been paid for to the king in rifles, chronometers, and other articles, costing about 2000 dollars, and, what was more to the point, that all the ammunition was in our hands.
At first the Wanguana attempted to track down the corporal; but finding he would not answer their repeated shots, and fearful for their own safety, they came into camp and reported the case. Losing no time, I ordered twenty men, armed with carbines, to carry water for the distressed porters, and bring the corporal back as soon as possible.
Had it been done with a common stick, it could have been overlooked; but the use of weapons is an offence, and both parties must go before the king." This, of course, was objected to on the plea that it was my own affair. I was king of the Wanguana, and might choose to dispense with the attendance.
Like the Waziwa, they had traded with Kidi, and they not only confirmed what the Waziwa had said, but added that, when trading in those distant parts, they heard of Wanguana coming in vessels to trade to the north of Unyoro; but the natives there were so savage, they only fought with these foreign traders.
The pages then received orders to furnish me with ten that moment, as the king's farmyard was empty, and he would reimburse them as soon as more confiscations took place. But this, I said, was not enough; the Wanguana wanted plantains, for they had received none these fifteen days. "What!" said the king, turning to his pages again, "have you given these men no plantains, as I ordered?
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