I upheld their character as that of Englishmen, and I begged
them to state "if ever they had deceived them?" They replied, that
"there could not be better men." I answered, "You MUST trust me, as I
trust entirely in you, and have placed myself in your hands; but if you
have ever had cause to mistrust a white man, kill me at once!--either
kill me, or trust in me; but let there be no suspicions."
They seemed much pleased with the conversation, and a man stepped
forward and showed me a small string of blue beads that Speke had given
him for ferrying him across the river. This little souvenir of my old
friend was most interesting; after a year's wandering and many
difficulties, this was the first time that I had actually come upon his
track. Many people told me that they had known Speke and Grant; the
former bore the name of "Mollegge" (the bearded one), while Grant had
been named "Masanga" (the elephant's tusk), owing to his height. The
latter had been wounded at Lucknow during the Indian mutiny, and I spoke
to the people of the loss of his finger; this crowned my success, as
they knew without doubt that I had seen him. It was late, therefore I
begged the crowd to depart, but to send a messenger the first thing in
the morning to inform Kamrasi who we were, and to beg him to permit us
to visit him without loss of time.
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