68 TRAVELS IN THE 
this feigned compliance for a real intention, and taking me 
away from the company, told me, that he had always behaved 
towards me as if I had been his father and master ; and he hoped 
I would not entirely ruin him, by going to Maana ; adding, 
that as there was every reason to believe a war would soon take 
place between Kasson and Kajaaga, he should not only lose 
his little property, the savings of four years' industry, but should 
certainly be detained and sold as a slave, unless his friends had 
an opportunity of paying two slaves for his redemption. I saw 
this reasoning in its full force, and determined to do my utmost 
to preserve the blacksmith from so dreadful a fate. I therefore 
told the king's son that I was ready to go with him, upon con- 
dition that the blacksmith, who was an inhabitant of a distant 
kingdom, and entirely unconnected with me, should be allowed 
to stay at Joag, till my return ; to this they all objected, and 
insisted that as we had all acted contrary to the laws, we were 
all equally answerable for our conduct. 
I now took ray landlord aside, and giving him a small pre- 
sent of gunpowder, asked his advice in so critical a situation : 
he was decidedly of opinion that I ought not to go to the king: 
he was fully convinced, he said, that if the king should discover 
any thing valuable in my possession, he would not be overscru- 
pulous about the means of obtaining it. This made me the more 
solicitous to conciliate matters with the king's people; and I be- 
gan by observing, that what I had done did not proceed from 
any want of respect towards the king, nor from any wish to 
violate his laws, but wholly from my own inexperience and 
ignorance, being a stranger, totally unacquainted with the 
4 
