I made each of them a present of a bead necklace, and explained to them my wish that there should be no delay in my presentation to Kamrasi, as Speke had complained that he had been kept waiting fifteen days before the king had condescended to see him; that if this occurred no Englishman would ever visit him, as such a reception would be considered an insult. The headman replied that he felt sure I was not an impostor; but that very shortly after the departure of Speke and Grant in the previous year a number of people had arrived in their name, introducing themselves as their greatest friends. They had been ferried across the river, and well received by Kamrasi’s orders, and had been presented with ivory, slaves, and leopard-skins, as tokens of friendship; but they had departed, and suddenly returned with Rionga’s people, and attacked the village in which they had been so well received; and upon the country being assembled to resist them, about three hundred of Kamrasi’s men had been killed in the fight. The king had therefore given orders that upon pain of death no stranger should cross the river.