"There were bags and jars, bundles and baskets, almost without number. They contained samples, and large ones, too, of nearly all the edible things produced in the country. There were potatoes, yams, bananas (green and ripe), eggs, chickens, milk, melons, tomatoes, cocoa-nuts, cassava flour, banana flour, pombé, and several varieties of fruits unknown to us. We have the products of the tropics and some of those of the temperate zone, and if the king's bounty continues there is no danger that we will starve in Ugunda. "Now was the time to send our presents to the king, the etiquette of the court requiring that they shall be made as soon as possible after an interview. Accordingly we despatched Abdul with the cloth, beads, jewellery, hatchets, knives, and other things of that nature which we had intended for M'tesa, and with the announcement that we had some other things to deliver in person and explain their uses, whenever it pleased his majesty to receive them. [Illustration: NATIVE OF UGUNDA, WITH HUNTING SPEAR.] "Abdul returned with a message from the prime-minister that the king would receive us and our presents the next morning, at a less formal assemblage than the one we had attended that day. Soon after his return there came an additional present, in the shape of five cows, twenty sheep, and as many goats, which were intended to supply our camp with fresh provisions. "The cattle resemble the Durham breed of England, and are the finest animals of the kind we have seen in Africa. They are kept mainly for their milk, as the Wagunda rarely eat beef; their diet is principally vegetable, with the occasional addition of the flesh of sheep, goats, and chickens. The king has large herds of cattle, and he sometimes sells them to the Arab traders, who take them to regions where such animals bring higher prices than in Ugunda. "The next morning we went to deliver the presents, having received notice that his majesty was ready to receive us. We found him in the open space in front of his audience-hall, accompanied by his wives and court officials--about fifty of the latter, and at least a hundred of the former. Fred and I thought that a hundred wives was a good many, but Abdul said there were at least as many more whom we did not see. "M'tesa is a very pleasant man when in the midst of his family, and he laughed and talked with them as freely as if he had not been king at all, but only an ordinary citizen. Of course we could not understand what he said, as we don't know ten words of the language; but, to judge by the laughter that followed his remarks, there must have been a good deal of fun in them. "Our porters deposited the presents in a spot indicated by the prime-minister and then retired. We opened the parcels, and Doctor Bronson gave the things to M'tesa one after the other as the wrappings were removed.