A few days after the reconciliation--the very morning Flad left for
England--his Majesty returned us our arms, and a portion of our
money; he also presented us at the same time with silver-mounted
shields, spears, and mules, and a few days later with horses. We
saw him on several occasions: twice he came to see us in our tents;
one day we went with him to assist at the trial of some guns made
by his European workmen; once duck-shooting with him on the lake;
another time to see him play the national game of goucks. He
endeavoured to appear friendly, supplied us with abundant rations,
and twice a day sent his compliments; he even fired a salute and
gave a feast on our Queen's birthday. Nevertheless, we felt unhappy:
our cage was gilt, but still a cage; and the experience we had had
of the King's treachery made us constantly fear a recurrence of it.
When we met him in Damot, and when we visited him before at Zage,
we had only seen the actor in his smiling mood; now all restraint
was thrown off: women were flogged to death close to our tents, and
soldiers laden with chains or beaten to death on the most trivial
pretexts. The true character of the tyrant became daily more apparent,
and we felt that our position was most dangerous and critical.
Theodore was still bent on building boats; seeing that everybody
seemed reluctant to help him he went to work himself; he made an
immense flat-bottomed bulrush boat of great thickness, and to propel
it made two large wheels worked by hand: in fact he had invented a
paddle steamer, only the locomotive agent was deficient.
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