The boys had deceived us all.

Bombay, tricked on the plea of their taking him by a short cut to the palace, suddenly found himself with all the men opposite the fenced gardens that had to be taken--the establishment of the recusant officer,--and the boys, knowing how eager all blacks are to loot, said, "Now, then, at the houses; seize all you can, sparing nothing--men, women, or children, mbugus or cowries, all alike--for it is the order of the king;" and in an instant my men surrounded the place, fired their guns, and rushed upon the inmates.

One was speared forcing his way through the fence, but the rest were taken and brought triumphantly into my camp.

It formed a strange sight in the establishment of an English gentleman, to see my men flushed with the excitement of their spoils, staggering under loads of mbugu, or leading children, mothers, goats, and dogs off in triumph to their respective huts.

Bombay alone, of all my men, obeyed my orders, touching nothing; and when remonstrated with for having lead the men, he said he could not help it--the boys had deceived him in the same way as they had tricked me.
It was now necessary that I should take some critical step in African diplomacy; so, after ordering all the seizures to be given up to Maula on behalf of the king, and threatening to discharge any of my men who dared retain one item of the property, I shut the door of my hut to do penance for two days, giving orders that nobody but my cook Ilmas, not even Bombay, should come near me; for the king had caused my men to sin--had disgraced their red cloth--and had inflicted on me a greater insult than I could bear.