Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Slave trade -- Africa
"This was Kabba Rega, the son of Kamrasi, the sixteenth king of Unyoro,
of the Galla conquerors, a gauche, awkward, undignified lout of twenty
years of age, who thought himself a great monarch. He was cowardly,
cruel, cunning, and treacherous to the last degree. Not only had he
ordered the destruction of his brother, Kabka Miro, but after his death,
he had invited all his principal relations to visit him; these he had
received with the greatest kindness, and at parting, he had presented
them with gifts, together with an escort of his body-guard, called
bonosoora, to see them safe home. These men, by the young king's
instructions, murdered them all in the high grass during their return
journey. By these means he had got rid of troublesome relations, and he
now sat securely upon the throne with only one great enemy; this was
Rionga, the stanch and determined foe of his father, who had escaped
from every treachery, and still lived to defy him in the north-eastern
provinces of Unyoro.
"It was easy to understand that he would welcome my arrival with a force
sufficiently large to assist him against Rionga, and at the same time to
rid him of Suleiman's party. He made use of the latter force as
mercenary troops, to which he was obliged to allow boundless license;
otherwise he might be invaded by the whole power of the combined
companies of Fabbo, Faloro, Fatiko, and Farragenia. These companies
might at any time change sides and ally themselves with Rionga, thus,
could I clear the country of such doubtful allies, he would be relieved
from all cause of alarm."
Notwithstanding these advantages, the young king sat uneasily upon his
divan, and appeared timid and suspicious. According to Turkish
etiquette, a handsome chibouque, trimmed with blue silk and gold, was
handed to him. He examined the amber mouth-piece but declined to smoke,
as "tobacco would blacken his teeth;" this was a curious excuse from a
Central African dandy.
I begged him to accept the long pipe as a reminiscence of my arrival.
Coffee and sherbet were then handed to him, but he declined both, and
insisted upon two of his chiefs drinking the whole; during which
operation he watched them attentively, as though in expectation of some
poisonous effect.
This was conduct that boded no good for future relations. My wife tried
to converse with him through the interpreter, Umbogo. Kabba Rega then
explained that he recollected us both, as he was one of a crowd when a
boy on the day we started from M'rooli for the Albert N'yanza.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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