394 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
widely I had sprung had no home, and no country, but 
were wanderers on the face of the earth. Illusion has 
nothing too extravagant for these people’s conjectures 
as to the existence of the white man. 
One thing which they could not understand was that 
I came without a following of men. This was thought a 
marvel. 
During the following days my friend Da Costa did 
everything that lay in his power to help and explain 
away the many suspicions and awkward surmises which 
filled the king’s mind with regard to me. 
My friend the fat lady, who turned out to be the 
king’s sister, continued her visits, but she always shook 
her linger and nodded her head, as she spoke by the 
hour. 
At last the king sent- for me, saying to Da Costa, “ I 
want to see him speak. I do not believe he is your 
brother.”* 
Hearsay had made me acquainted with the sort of 
'man with whom I was about to deal. Had an execution 
been in order it could not have caused more excitement 
than the circumstance of my approaching the sanctified 
enclosure of his majesty did among those who were 
present. Truly mine was a strange case ! 
We found the king in a circular hut, and surrounded 
by courtiers and slaves. The walls and roof of the hut 
were formed of bamboo, thatched with long coarse grass. 
The plastered floor was of blackened, polished mud. 
There, on a cane mat, sat Chikuse, the despot in whose 
hands lay the destinies of thousands of human lives. He 
was apparelled in a blue calico sheet, which had been a 
gift from da Costa. I had a better opportunity of scan¬ 
ning the man than I had on the first ill-starred inter¬ 
view’, for I was now quite close to him. 
Chikuse was a young man of enormous dimensions, 
and with a light reddish-brown complexion. Although 
his expression had a vacant look, the appearance was 
deceptive, for I noticed on different occasions that he was 
of a very observant nature, and as easily impressed by 
* Among natives “ brother ” means one of the same kraal. 
