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FRICA
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STANLEY
AND AFRICA
ALSO THE
Travels, Adventures, and Discoveries
OF
Captain John H. Speke, Captain Richard F. Burton,
Captain James JV. Grant, Sir Samuel and Lady Baker,
and other Distinguished Explorers.
LONDON:
WALTER SCOTT, 24 WARWICK LANE.
NEW YORK: 3 EAST Hrn STREET,
AND MELBOURNE.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
TAOE
IVogress of Christian 'Missions in South Africa — Moravian Church — London Missionary
Society — Wesleyan Missions — Church Missionary Society — Other Missions ... ... 1
CHAPTER II.
Livingstone goes clown to the Cape — Journeys from thence into the Interior — Reaches Lin-
yanti — Ascends the Leeambye and the Leeba — Visits Shinte — Arrives at Loanda ... 41
CHAPTER in.
Livingstone and the Makololo at Loando — Return Journey — Reach Linyanti — Departure
for Kiliraane — Victoria Falls — Native Tribes — Aniiuals — Tete and its Vicinity —
Descent of the Zambesi — x\rrival at Kilimane ... ... ... ... ... ... 71
CHAPTER IV.
Discoveries of Captain Speke — His Expeditions to the Somali Country — Returns to England
— Joins Captain Burton in an Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon — They reach
Zanzibar — Cross to Kaole — Arrive at Kazeh — Illness of Burton — Sight of the Tangan-
yika Lake and Mountains of the Moon — Goes up the Lake to TJjiji — Crosses the Lake
— Returns to Ujiji — Discovers Lake Nyanza — Rejoins Burton at Knzeh — They arrive
in England ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 97
CHAPTER V.
Speke's Third E.'cpedition — Accompanied by Captain Grant he Arrives at Zanzibar —
Organisation of the Expedition — They reach Uzararao — Usagara — Ugogo — Unyamwcsi
and the People — Troubles in TJzuza — Driven Back to Kazeh — Push on to Usui — Leave
the Inhospitable Districts ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ••■ 113
CHAPTER VI.
Karague — Runianika and his Court — History of the Wahuma — Uganda — Court Cere-
monies and Life — Departure from Uganda for the Nile ... ... ... ... ... 129
iv CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
PACE
Tlie Northern Slopes of Africa— Isaraba Rapids— PJpon Falls— TJnyoro—Kanirasi and his
Court — March to Madi — Meeting with Baker and with Petherick — Return to England 153
CHAPTER VIII.
Sir Samuel and Lady Baker — Their Arrival in Egypt — Cross the Nubian Desert — Berber
The Atbara — Cassala — Arab Tribes of Nubia — Junction of the Settite with the
Atbara — The Abyssinian Frontier 1G9
CHAPTER IX.
Residence in Sofi — Aggageers, or Haniran Sword Hunters — Leave Sofi — End of the Rainy
Season — Katariff — Hunting Large Game ... ... ... ... 183
CHAPTER X.
The River Royan — County of Mek Nimmur — Vultures — Gallabat — The Tokrooris — Rivers
Rahad and Binder — Arrival at Khartoum ... ... ... ... ... ... 195
CHAPTER XI.
Khartoum — Tiie "White Nile Trade — Departure froji Khartoum — The Shillooks — Sobat
River — Bahr el Gazal — Native Tribes — Arrival at Gondokoro — Meeting with Speke
and Grant ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .... ... ... 203
CHAPTER XIL
Further Stay at Gondokoro — A Plot among the Khartoum Escort — Start from Gondokoro —
Pass through Tollogo and EUyria — The Latookas — Camels and Elephants — Enter the
Obbo Country ... ... ••• ••• ••• ••• 213
CHAPTER XIIL
Life in Obbo— Return to Latooka— Visit Obbo again — Arrival at Shooa— Unyoro— Mrs.
Baker Receives a Sun-Stroke — Discovery of the Albert Nyanza — Voyage on the Lake —
The Murchison Falls 231
CHAPTER XIV.
The Island of Patooan — Confined in the Country — Kararasi's Tactics — Farewell to Kamrasi's
Territory — Arrival at Shooa — The Lira Tribe — Attack by the Bari Tribe — Reach
Gondokoro — Voyage down the Nile to Khartoum — From Khartoum to Berber —
Departure from Africa ... ... ... ... ..- ... ••• ••■ ■•• 2-17
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XV.
PACK
Livingstone's Second Expedition — The Mouths of tho Zambesi — Kebrabasa Rapids —
Murchison Cataracts — Effects of Rain — Lake Shirwa — Shire Marshes — Manganja
and its People — Discovery of Lake Nyassa ... ... ... ... ... ... 261
CHAPTER XVL
Off to Kongone — Return to Tette — Journey Westward — Kebrabasa Rapids and Chicova —
Arrive at Zumbo — The Batoka — Victoria Falls and Garden Island — The Makololo —
Livingstone Revisits Linyanti — Down again to Tette and the Kongone ... ... 279
CHAPTER XVIL
Arrival of the Pioneer — Bishop Mackenzie and his Mission — Death of Bishop Mackenzie
and Mr. Burnup — Lake Nyassa and its People — Arrival and Death of Mrs. Living-
stone — The Rovuma — The Expedition withdrawn — Livingstone's Voyage to Bombay,
and Return to England ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .,, 303
CHAPTER XVIIL
Livingstone's Third Visit to Africa — Arrival at Zanzibar — Re-ascends the Rovuma —
Horrors of the Slave Trader's Track — The Waiyau Country and People — Lake Nyassa
Revisited — Reaches the Loangwa — End of 1S66 ... .,, ... ... ... 327
CHAPTER XIX.
The New Year — Pushes for the Chanibeze — Chitapangwa and his People — Course for Lake
Tanganyika — Arrives at the Lake — Report reaches England of the Murder of Living-
stone on the Coast of Lake Nyassa, in I8G6 — Search Expedition of Mr. Young — News
of Livingstone's Safety — Meanwhile he Visits Lake Moero — Arrives at Casembe's
Town — Second Visit to Moero — Close of 1SG7 ... ... ... ... ... ... 345
CHAPTER XX.
New Year's Day — Further Exploration of Lake Moero — Ascent of the Rua Mountains —
Return to Casembis — Lake Bangweolo — Earthen Sponges — Cataracts of the Kalou-
gosi— The Imbozhwa— End of 1868 361
CHAPTER XXL
Beginning of 1869 — Dangerous Illness — Arrives at Tanganyika — Reaches Ujiji — Explores
Manyueraa — 1870 — The Soko — Continued Illness — Detention at Bambarre — Ivory —
Strange Diseases — Sufferings of Slaves ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 371
vi CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXII.
TAGE
The Year 1871 — Detention at Bambarre — Reaches the Lualaba — Life at Nyangwe — Ths
Bakuss — Slaughter of Women by the Arabs — Returns to Ujiji — Arrival of Mr.
Stanley — Livingstone and Stanley Visit Unyanyembe — Stanley leaves to Return to
England 385
CHAPTER XXIIL
Livingstone's Second Letter to Mr. Bennett — Stay at Unyanyembe — Further Explora-
tions — Rounds the South End of Tanganyika — Crosses Bangweolo — Returns North to
Ilala — Prolonged Affliction and Death — Homeward March with the "Master's"
Body — Arrival of the Body in England — Funeral in Westminster Abbey — National
Respect and Honour ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 417
CHAPTER XXIV.
Livingstone Congo Expedition under Lieutenant Grandy — Livingstone East Coast Aid
Expedition — Lieutenant Cameron's Journey from Unyanyembe to Ujiji — Explora-
tion of Lake Tanganyika — From Tanganyika to the West Coast and Home ... ... 447
CHAPTER XXV.
The "Daily Telegraph" and "New York Herald" Expedition — Stanley's Departure —
Zanzibar — A Slave Dhow — Organisation of the Expedition ... ... ... ... 471
CHAPTER XXVL
March from Bagamoyo to Mpwapwa — Through Northern Ugogo — Country of Urimi — Death
of Edward Pocock — Conflict with the Waturu — Iramba — Arrival at Lake Victoria
Nyanza — Exploration of the Lake — Visit to Mtesa, King of Uganda — Mtesa's Conver-
sion to Islamism — Desire for Christian Teachers — Interview between Colonel de Belle-
fonds and Stanley — Stanley's Departure from Uganda — Lake Victoria Nyanza an
Inland Sea — Missionary Response to Mtesa's Invitation ... ... 487
CHAPTER XXVIL
Stanley and Tippu-Tib — Consultation with Mr. Pocock — Starting of the Expedition —
Launching of the " Lady Alice" — Sickness in the Camp — Parting between the Zunibari
and the Arabs ... ... ... ... .. ... ... ... ... ... 545'
CHAPTER XXVIIL
The Great Mysterious River — The Stanley Falls — Making Canoes — Leaving the "Lady
Alice " — On the March — Difficulty of obtaining Food — Welcome Supplies — Arrival at
San Paulo do Loando ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 55S
CONTENTS. vH
CHAPTER XXIX.
PAOE
Expedition to the Congo — Founding of Vivi — Making Roads and Erecting Houses — Isangila
to Manyanga — Founding of Leopoldville ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 573
CHAPTER XXX.
Christmas Day at Iboko — Sacrifice of Slaves — Acting as Peace-maker — Arrival atTukunga —
DukoTown 58r.
CHAPTER XXXI.
Return from Africa — Accepts the Command of the Eniin Pasha Relief Expedition — Sails
again for Africa — Arrival at Cairo 695
CHAPTER XXXII.
Zanzibar — Sailing up the Congo River — Disembarking — Stanley Pool — On the Upper Congo
— The Camp of the Rear-Guard ,., 601
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Stanley leaves for Lake Albert — Gives Major Earttelot Instructions — Eighty-three Days'
March — No News of the Rear-Guard — Tippu-Tib — Murder of Major Barttelot — Death
of Mr. Jameson ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 615
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Stanley Making Ready for the March Forward — Letter to Sir "William Mackinnon — Story
of his Movements since June 28, 1887 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 62.3
CHAPTER XXXV.
Continuation of Stanley's Narrative — Indecision of Erain Pasha — Suffering's on the March
Arrival at Unyampaka ... ... .. ... ... ... ... .. . _ (535
CHAPTER XXXVL
The March to the Const — Arrival at Mslala — Summarising Casualties — Arrival at Bagamoyo
— Zanzibar — Cairo — Arrival in England ... ... ... ... ... ... ... G50
STANLEY AND AFRICA.
CHAPTER I.
Progress of Christian Ilissions in South Afriea — Moravian Cliurch — London Mis-
sionari/ Socictij — Wcslcyan Missions — Church Missionarjj Society — Other
Missions.
Speaking of his earlier discoveries, Dr. Livingstone said, nearly twenty
years ago, " The end of the geographical feat is but the beginning of
the missionary enterprise." It should ever be so. Commerce and science
have their claims ; but just in proportion as nations and tribes of men are
brought under our influence, we should seek to confer upon them the blessings
of Christianity. "We intend, therefore, before entering more fully upon the
discoveries of modern travellers in tlie regions of Southern and Central Africa
lying beyond our colonial settlements, to glance at the ciforts of Christian
men to plant the gospel in those settlements, and to point out some of the
blessed results by which those efforts have been crowned. During the early
ages of the Christian era, Africa had her churches, her colleges, her reposi-
tories of science and learning, her C}prian and other bishops of apostolic
renown, and her noble army of mart}rs ; but now the pall hangs over her
wide-spread domains, and the millions of her population are in a state of
spiritual death. Christendom has been enriched by her gold, her drugs, her
ivory, her cattle and corn, the bodies and souls of her people ; and what, up
to a few years back, has been her recompense ? A few crucifixes planted
around her shores, guarded by the military fort and the roar of cannon. Had
it not been for the zeal and compassion of Christian men in these later times
scarcely a ray of heavenly light would have reached the milHons of Africa,
sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. As it is, however, various sec-
tions of the church of Christ have vied with one another in their earnest and
self-denying labours to spread the blessings of the Christian religion through
our African colonies and the regions beyond.
The small, but brave and noble baud of Christians, known as the Mora-
vians, or United Brethren, were the first to send out men to seek the salva-
tion of the people of South Africa. The circumstances under which their
first missionary, George Schmidt, was sent forth, and his subsequent histor}-,
is well kno^vn to all interested in mission work. But we cannot forbear
quoting here the words in which th,; venerable Dr. Moffatt makes honourable
1
STANLEY AND AFRICA.
mention of this servant of the Lord : — ••' In July, 1730, George Schmidt,
with sometliing of that great zeal which fired the bosom of Egede, the pio-
neer of the mission to Greenland, left his native country for that of the Hot-
tentots. He was the first who, commissioned by the King of kings, stood in
the Vale of Grace (Genadenal), at that time known by the name of Bavian's
Kloof (the Glen of Baboons), and directed the degraded, oppressed, ignorant,
despised, and, so far as life eternal is concerned, the outcast Hottentots, to
the Lamb of God, who tasted death for them. It is impossible to traversi^.
the glen, as the writer has done, or sit under the gi'eat pear-tree which that
devoted missionary planted, with his own hands, without feeling something
like a holy envy of so distinguished a person in the missionary band. AVhen
we remember tliat actions receive their weight from the circumstances under
which they have been called forth, how exalted a glory must such an one as
George Schmidt possess in the heavenly world, where one star differeth from
another star in glory, compared with the great majority in the present clay,
who have doors opened to them, and a host of examples before them, with
the zeal and pra3'ei's of the whole Christian Church to animate and support
them. Though he could only address the Hottentots through an interpreter,
his early efforts wore crowned with success, and the attendance at the first
Hottentot school ever founded rapidly increased. The Hottentots, with all
their reported ignorance and apathy, justly regarded him with sentiments of
unfeigned love and admiration; and so evidently was the gospel made the
power of God that, in the course of a few years, he was able to add a num-
ber of converts to the church of the first-born."
The mission commenced by the Moravians so far prospered that, in 1799,
there was built a large church, capable of holding fifteen thousand persons.
At that period there were twelve hundred and thirty-four inhabitants in
Bavian's Kloof, of whom three hundred and four Avere members of the con-
gregation, whose temporal condition was greatly improved. Induced by the
example of the brethren, they diligently cultivated tlieir fields and gardens.
In 1800, a body of missionaries arriving, they were received about a mile
from the village by the natives, who joined in hymns of praise to God who
had thus graciously supplied their spiritual wants. A large and commodious
school-house was erected in 1814, and thus the brethren were enabled more
effectually to educate the young. In 1815, the Rev. C. J. Latrobe, Secretary
to the Moravian Church in England, was sent on a visit of inspection to Africa,
to ascertain the practicability of erecting a new station. This was accordingly
established in the district of the Witte River, on the confines of Caffraria, at
the distance of a fortnight's journey from their original sphere of labour. To
it the name of Enon was given ; and it was soon occupied by a band of faith-
ful missionaries. Other stations have, from time to time, been formed as
circumstances required and means afforded.
MORAVIAN MISSIONARY SETTLEMENTS.
These settlements in South Africa have frequently been visited by travel-
lers, who have highly extolled the neatness, order, and comfort, which reigned
in them all. As it may be interesting to some of our readers to know the
way in which the Moravian missionaries spend their time in their stations,,
we quote the words of Mr. Pringle, in reference to Enon: — "' At six o'clock
in the morning, the missionaries and their families are summoned together
by the ringing of a large bell, suspended in front of the mission-house. The
matin hymn is then sung, and a text of Scripture read for all to meditate
upon during the day ; and after drinking a single cuj) of coffee, they sepa-
rate to pursue their respective occupations. At eight o'clock the bell re-as-
sembles them to a substantial breakfast, consisting of fish, fruit, eggs, find
cold meat, each jjerson commonly drinking a single glass of wine. This
meal, as well as the others, is preceded and followed by a short hymn, by
way of grace, in which all the company join. As soon as breakfast is over,
they retire to their separate apartments for meditation or devotion, till nine
o'clock, when the active labours of the day arc again resumed, and continued
till noon. At twelve o'clock precisely the bell is again rung ; labour is inter-
rupted ; the school is dismissed ; and the brethren and their families assemble
in the dining-hall to the mid-day meal. The dishes are sometimes numerous,
esjieclally I presume, when they have visitors ; but the greater part consist
of fruit and vegetables of their own cultivation, variously dressed. The meal
is enlivened with cheerful conversation, and is closed with the customary
hymn of thanksgiving. All then rise and retire, to occupy or amuse them-
selves as each may be inclined. At two o'clock, a cup of tea or coffee is
drank, and all proceed again with alacrity to their various occupations, which
are prosecuted till six. This latter hour concludes the labours of the day ;
the sound of the hammer is stilled, and the brethren assemble once more at
the evening meal, which consists of light viands, and is soon over. After
supper they adjourn to the church, when a portion of Scripture is briefly
explained, or a homily delivered, either to tlic v/hole Hottentot congregation,
or to one of the several sections in whicli the people are classed, agreeably
to the progress they may have attained in knowledge and piety. All then
retire to rest, Avith an appearance of satisfaction, such as may be naturally
imagined to result from the habitual jjractlcc of industry and temperance,
unembittered by worldly c?res, and hallowed by the consciousness of having
devoted their mental and bodily faculties to the glory of God and the good
of man."
The same traveller also mentions the churchyard at this settlement : —
" Situate at some little distance from tlie village, yet not far from the house
of worship, and kept as neat as a pleasure garden, the burial-ground of Enon
formed a pleasing contrast to the solitary graves heaped with a few loose
stones, or the neglected or dilapidated churchyards usually met with in the
STANLEY AND AFRICA.
colony. The funeral service, too, of the Moravians is very solemn and
impressive. And still more solemn must be the yearly celebration of their
service on Easter morn, when the whole population of the settlement is con-
gregated in the burial ground, to listen to an appropriate discourse from the
most venerable of their pastors, accompanied by an affecting commemoration
of such of their friends and relatives as may have died within the year, and
followed by hymns and anthems sung by their united voices amidst the ashes
of their Idndred."
At the end of 1840, the United Brethren had in South Africa seven
stations, forty-five missionaries, and four thousand seven hundred and thirty-
nine converts belonging to the Hottentot, Caffre, Tambookie, and Fingoe
tribes, of whom about thirteen hundred were communicants. The most
recent accounts still speak hopefully of their establishments, as being gene-
rally in a flourishing condition. Brother Kunick, writing from Elim, August
18, 1874, says: — " In my last letter I believe I told you about the repairs
that we intended carrying out in the church. In February, a sufficient quantity
of sea-shells was carted fi'om the shore, and from these lime was prepared.
We had five or six masons at woi'k each day, and as many helpers, the latter
being volunteers. AVhen the church had been got into order and whitewashed,
our j:)eoplo asked permission to perform the same operation on the school,
that its shabby condition might not be too noticeable, by contrast, at the
coming jubilee. This was more than we had expected, and, of course, the
request was granted. The inside walls of the church also received a new
coating of paint, and Brother Hickel put the organ in good order. All
expenses have been covered by voluntary subscriptions and the collections at
the jubilee, leaving a surplus of £5. The membei's seemed much pleased
with the improvements made, and on several occasions expressed their
gratitude to us for our share in the work. We have also great cause for thank-
fulness for the manner in which the celebration of the jubilee passed oft".
Guests appeared from all quarters in no less than eighty-four vehicles of
every description, and the liberal hospitality with which they were welcomed
in spite of the hard times, exceeded even the German conception of this
virtue. The celebration was of such a nature as to give us great encourage-
ment for the future."
Another of these missionaries, Br. Meyer, writing in May, 1874, from
Entumasi, says : — " The change of heart that had taken jjlace in some of our
Pondos began to have effect in their outward appearance. The women soon
earned sufficient to buy for themselves, first skirts and then dresses. Many
of them have now Sunday-clothes as well as week-day suits, and one female
has as many as four dresses. The men also now go about in decent apjoarel.
Two more announced themselves as candidates, but in their case I feared
insincerity of purpose. Having received the money due to them for their
THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY'S AGENTS. 5
work, they immediately procured clothes with it. Not long afterwai-ds their
wives brought me a number of bundles of firewood, and on my inquiring as
to the price, one of them said — ' We do not want payment, we bring this wood
out of gratitude.' Tims m)^ suspicion was put to shame. I am glad to say
that all the Pondosaro now properly clothed. The old Caffre, who was form-
erly so much addicted to drunkenness, now meekly sits at the feet of Jesus.
It is a gladdening sight when the thirty-two candidates assemble for instruc-
tion or public worship, some of them from a distance of twelve miles, and many
a song of thanks and praise rises from my heart to the Lord for permitting
me to see so great fruits of my labours." Writing some months later, the
same missionary says : — " The Lord's blessing continues. Our new church
is soon to be opeiied for services ; another on Ludidi's land will soon be com-
menced, after which one on the banks of the Tinana will have to follow.
Many Sutus attend the services at Entumasi, and on the Tinana, their lan-
guage being used in church and school. Among the newly-awakened natives
is the principal (and now the only) wife of the chieftain Zibi ; she has re-
quested to be enrolled and instructed with tlie other candidates for baptism.
The work grows in dejoth as well as in breadth ; my own heart is warmed
and stirred up ; and my lips overflow with the praises of Him who has won-
derfully increased the children of the desolate."
Some of the most successful efforts for the evangelisation of Africa have
been made by the agents of the London Missionary Society. The first efibrts
of this Society were directed, in 1795, to the islands of the Pacific, in which
its missionaries have, after a long period of toil, witnessed the most signal
triumphs of the gospel, amongst tribes of bai'barians and cannibals, which it
has ever fallen to the province of history to record. The attention of the
Society was next directed to the vast and important field of Southern Africa.
The first missionaries sent out were Dr. John Theodore Van der Kemp, the
son of a pious minister of the Dutch Reformed Church at Rotterdam, and
Messrs Kicherer and Edmonds. Like all successful evangelists. Dr. Van der
Kemp was a man of extraoi'dinary energy. He was fifty years of age before
he set sail for Africa. Missions were then a novelty, and no missionary move-
ment had yet proceeded from the Netherlands. But the perusal of one of the
records of the London Missionary Society jDroduced such an impression on Van
der Kemp's mind that he made an ofi'cr of his services to that Society. Full of
Christian elasticity, and enthusiastically devoted to the race whose welfare
he sought, he shrank from no danger, and toil and hardship he rather seemed
to invite. During his sojourn in London, passing a brick-field, it struck him
that a great boon might bo conferred on the Hottentots by teaching them to
build better houses, in order to which it would first be needful to teach them
tl'.e art of brick-making. <- Accordingly he sought leave to join the labourers,
and for some weeks the venerable apprentice sweltered among thebrick-kihis,
STANLEY AND AFRICA.
lightening his labour by the thouglit of Africa. And when he arrived among
the people of his choice, he consecrated himself to their service, with the
ardour of a lover and the zeal of an apostle. Undismayed by their offensive
habits, he took up his abode in the midst of them, and often without any
Eui'opean comfort — sometimes without hat, or shoes, or stockings — ho not
only taught their children and preached to them the gospel, but labouring
with his own hands, he showed them how by their own industry they might
support themselves; and, as if in defiance of the prejudices of his Dutch com-
patriots, he threw in his lot entirely with these scorned outcasts by taking a
Hottentot woman for his wife. lie was a man of exalted genius and learning.
He had mingled with courtiers. He had been an alumnus of the Universities
of Leyden and Edinburgh. He had obtained plaudits for his remarkable
progi'ess in literature, in philosophy, divinity, physic, and the military art.
He was not only a profound student in ancient languages, but in many of the
modern European tongues, even to that of the Highlanders of Scotland, and
had distinguished himself in the armies of his earthly sovereign. Yet this
man, constrained by the love of Christ, could cheerfully lay aside all his
honours, mingle with savages, bear their sneers and contumely, condescend
to serve the meanest of his troublesome guests, take the axe, the sickle, the
spade, and the mattock, lie down on the jDlace where dogs repose, and spend
nights with his couch drenched with rain, the cold wind bringing his fragile
house about his ears. Though annoyed by the nightly visits of hungry
hyenas, though compelled to wander about in quest of lost cattle, and exposed
to the caprice of those whose characters were stains on human nature, whis-
perings occasionally reaching his ears that murderous plans were in progress
for his destruction, he calmly proceeded with his benevolent efforts ; and to
secure his object would stoop with the meekness of wisdom to please and pro-
pitiate those rude and wa} ward children of the desert whom he sought to
bless.
When the labours of the Doctor and his colleagues were beginning- to
tell on the Hottentots, the Dutch farmers took alarm. They feared that,
with the progress of instruction, they would lose the services of these poor
savages, whom they had hitherto treated very much as beasts of burden ; and
their representations were producing such an effect on the respectable Dutch
governor, Janssen, that he imposed very inconvenient restrictions on the
operations of the mission. Fortunately, at this period (1806), the colony
passed into the hands of the English ; and under the protection of Sir David
Baird the mission so prospered tJiat, in 1810, the settlement at Bethelsdorp
contained nearly a thousand inhabitants, all receiving Christian instruction.
Mats and baskets were made in considerable quantities and sold in the sur-
rounding country. Salt was also manufactured, and bartered for wheat ; and
b}' sawing, soap-boiling, and wood-cutting:, the peojole exerted themselves for
LONDON MISSION STATIONS.
an independent maintenance. Dr. Van der Kemp, who supported himself as
a missionary, -\vitli scarcely any charge to the Society, spent nearly a thou-
sand pounds of his patrimony in the purchase of slaves; and his representa-
tions to Lord Caledon were the first in a series of movements on behalf of the
opi^ressed aborigines which, in 1828, ended in their obtaining rights and pri-
vileges in all respects equal to those of the Dutch and English settlers. He
died in 1811 ; and althou^di his own exertions were not crowned with the im-
mediate and signal success which has attended some other labourers, he may
well be regarded as one of the greatest modern benefactors of Southern
Africa.
In March, 1813, tlie Rev. John Campbell arrived at Bethelsdorp, having
been deputed by the Society to visit their settlements in South Africa, and to
consider the best localities for new ones. The following year, a remarkable
revival of religion took place there. So intent were numbers in seeking sal-
vation that Mr. Read and liis fellow-labourers had scarcely time to take food ;
and often the fields might be seen covered with peo):)le pouring out their
hearts to God in prayer. Old and young were alike subjects of this gracious
influence ; and, in tlie course of a year, upwards of three hundred souls were
added to the Church. Accosted by the gracious accents of the gospel, the
poor abject Hottentots began to rejoice in the hope full of immortality, and
astonished their old taskmasters by their intelligence and industry. Under
the fostering wing of Christian missions, they congregated into little villages;
and the following description of one of these near Algoa Bay, from the pen of
Mr. Pringle, testifies to the effect the gospel had produced: — "I came in
sight of the village as the sun was setting. The smoke of the fires just lighted
to cook the evening meal of the home-coming herdsmen was curling calmly
in the serene evening air. The bleating of flocks returning to the fold, tlie
lowing of the kine to meet their young, and other pleasant sounds, recalling
all the pastoral associations of a Scottis'li glen, gave a very agreeable effect to
my first view of this missionary village. Wiicn I entered the jolace, however,
all associations connected with the rural scenery of Europe were at once dis-
pelled. The groups, of woolly-haired, swarthy-complexioned natives, many
of them still dressed in the old sheepskin mantle — the swarms of half-naked
children — the hovels of mud or reeds — tlie long-legged, large-boned cattle —
the broad-tailed African sheep, with hair instead of wool — the uncouth jib-
bering sounds of the Hottentot language — these, and a hundred traits of wild
and foreign character, made me feel that I was far from the glens of Cheviot
— that I was at length in the land of the Hottentot. Afterwards I attended
the evening service of the missionary in the rustic chapel. The place was
occupied by a very considerable number of the inhabitants of the villa"-e.
Their demeanour was attentive and devout ; and their singing of the mission-
ary hymns singularly pleasing and harmonious. Even among the rudest of
STANLEY AND AFRICA
the peoi^le there was an aspect of civility and decent respect — of quietude
and sober-mindedness, wliicli evinced that they were habitually under the
control of far other principles than those which regulate the movements of
other savage men. They appeared to be in general a respectable and reli-
gious native peasantry."
Among: the noble men who have laboured in Southern Africa, in connec-
lion with the London Missionary Society, we must make special mention of
Robert Moffat and his still more renowned son-in law, David Livingstone.
When Robert Moffat, with the consent of his pious Scotch parents, left his
gardening and set sail for the Cape of Good Hope, on the last day of October,
1816, he was only twenty years of age. But he was a mature man in self-
possession and in Christian faith ; and these are the main qualities required
in missionary enterprise. His first battle was not with the heathen, but with
the British Governor, who was loath to give his sanction to missionaries \^xo-
ceeding outside the Cape colony, as it was feared that, through want of dis-
cretion, they would get the tribes of the interior into broils and misunder-
standings. Permission being at length granted him, he set out for the Orange
River, to try to convert the notorious Africaner, who had made his name a
terror by his maraudings and murders. On the way, Moffat preached to the
Hottentots, wherever he could get opportunity. On all hands he was warned
against approaching Africaner. One old motherly lad}', wiping the tear from
lier eye, bade him farewell, saying, " Had you been an old man, it would
have been nothing, for you would soon have died, whether or no, but you are
young, and going to be eaten up by that monster !" But he and his party
went on — over desert plains, where sometimes the oxen would sink down
in the sand from their fatigue, and where the want of water was a terrible
infliction, and over rocky mountains, where the exposure to the scorching
heat of the hot season was like to induce fever every moment. Africaner's
welcome was not warm ; and Moffat was obliged to deal with the remorseless
chief and his blood-thirsty peoi^le as best he might. He dealt with them
wisely, and won a victory which is memorable. He was not unfrequently in
sore straits for his daily food ; but he only found himself the more disposed
for meditation. He wandered, and taught, and preached, without faltering,
for years. Often it seemed to him as if he was beating the air ; and his heart
sank. It was lucky for him that he had many I'esources. He could put his
hand to anything ; and that gained him respect from the Namaqua men more
than his learning. " My dear old mother," he tells us himself, "to keep me
out of mischief in the long winter evenings, taught me to knit and to sew.
When I would tell her I meant to be a man, she would say, ' Lad, ye diuna
ken whaur your lot may be cast.' She was right ; for I have often had
occasion to use the needle since."
At length the blessing came ; Africaner himself was the first convert.
A FRl CA NER'S CON VERSION.
Tlic cliange that came over the cliicf was marvellous. The wild Namaqua
■warrior was gentle as a cliild. And ho was very solicitous for the temporal
welfare of his friends — intently watchful that the missionary should want for
nothing that he or his people could give him. The man who hitherto had
only had one ambition — to lead his people to war and plunder, now directed
them to build a house for the missionary, made him a present of cows, regu-
larly attended the services, was assiduous in the study of the Scriptures, and.
sincerely mourned over his past life. His love for Moffat was deep and abid-
ing ; and on one occasion, he nursed him through the delirium of a bilious
fever. Mr. Moffat having to visit Cape Town, he proposed that Africaner
should accompany him. "The good man," Moffat says, "looked at me
again and again, gravely asking whether I were in earnest, and seemed fain
to ask if I were in my senses too ; adding, with great fervour, * I had thought
you loved me, and do you advise me to go to the Government to be hung up
as a spectacle of public justice ? Do you not know that I am an outlaw, and
that one thousand rix-dollars have been offered for my poor head ?' These
difficulties I endeavoured to remove, by assuring him that the results avouKI
be most satisfactory to himself as well as to the Governor of the Cape. Iloro
Africaner exhibited his lively faith in the gracious promises of God, by reply-
ing, * I shall deliberate, and roll my way upon the Lord ; I know he will
not leave me.' "
Ajy By many it was thought impossible that such a man as this African Rob
Roy — a freebooter, an outlaw, and a man of blood — could ever become a
meek, docile, and affectionate follower of the Lamb of God. Speaking of
their journey to Cape Town, Mr, Moffat says, " Some of the worthy j^eoplo
on the borders of the colony congratulated me on returning alive, having
often heard, as they said, that I had been long since murdered by Africaner.
Much wonder was expressed at my narrow escape from such a monster of
cruelty. "While some would scarcely credit my identit}^, my testimony as
to the entire reformation of Africaner's character, and his conversion, was
discarded as the effusion of a frenzied brain. At one farm a novel scene
exhibited the state of feeling resjDecting Africaner and m3'self, and likewi^se
displayed the power of Divine grace under peculiar circumstances. It was
necessary, from the scarcity of water, to call at such houses as lay in our
road. The farmer referred to was a good man in the best sense of tlie word^
and he and his wife had both shown me kindness on my way to Namaqua
Land. On approaching the house, which was on an eminence, I directed my
men to take the waggon to the valley below, while I walked toward the
house. The farmer, seeing a stranger, came slowly down tlie descent to
meet me. When within a few yards, I addressed him in the usual way, and,
stretching out my hand, expressed my pleasure at seeing him again. He put
his hand behind him, and asked me, rather wildly, who I was. I replied
10 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
that I was Moffat, expressing my wonder that lie should have forgotten nic.
* Moffat !' he rejoined in a faltering voice ; ' it is your ghost !' and moved
some stejis backwards. ' I am no ghost !' ' Don't come near me !' he exclaimed,
' you have been long murdered by Africaner.' ' But I am no ghost !' I said,
feeling my hands, as if to convince him and mj-sclf too, of my materialit\- ;
but his alarm only increased. ' Everybody says you Averc murdered, and a
man told me he hard seen your bones ;' and ho continued to gaze at me to the
no small astonishment of the good wife and children who were standing at
the door, as also to that of my jjeople, who were looking on from the waggon
below. At length he extended his trembling hand, saying, ' When did you
rise from the dead ?'
" As he feared my presence would alarm his wife we bent our steps
towards the waggon, and Africaner was the subject of our conversation. I
gave him in a few words my views of his present character, saj^ing, ' lie is
now a truly good man.' To which he replied, * I can believe almost any-
thing you say, but that I cannot credit. There are seven wonders in the
world; that would be the eighth.' I aj^pealed to the displays of Divine
grace in a Paul, a Manasseh, and referred to his own experience. He
i€plied, these were another description of men ; but that Africaner was one
of the accursed sons of Ham, enumerating some of the atrocities of which he
had been guilt3\ By this time we were standing with Africaner at our feet,
on whose countenance sat a smile, well knowing the prejudices of some of the
farmers. The farmer closed the conversation by saying, with much earnest-
ness, ' Well, if what you asseit be true respecting that man I have only one
wish, and that is, to see him before I die ; and when you return, as sure as
the sun is over our heads, I will go with you to see him, though he killed my
own uncle.' I was not before aware of this fact, and now felt some hesita-
tion whether to discover to him the object of his wonder ; but knowing the
sincerity of the farmer, and the goodness of his disposition, I said, ' This
is Africaner.' He started back, looking intensely at the man, as if he had
dropped from the clouds. ' Are you Africaner ?' he exclaimed. He arose,
doffed his old hat, and making a polite bow, answered, ' I am.' The farmer
seemed thunder-struck, but when, by a few questions, he had assured himself
of the fact that the former bugbear of the border stood before him, now meek
and lamb-like in his whole deportment, he lifted up his eyes and exclaimed,
* God, what a miracle of thy power ! what cannot th}^ grace accomplish 1'
The kind farmer and his no less hospitable wife, now abundantly supplied
our wants ; but we hastened our departure, lest the intelligence might get
abroad that Africaner was with me, and bring unpleasant visitors."
The closing scene of Africaner's life was most beautiful. When he found
his end approaching, he called all the peoj^le together, after the example of
Joshua, and gave them directions as to their future conduct. " We are not,"
MOFFAT AMONG THE BECIIUANAS. 11
said he, " wliat avo were — savages, but men professing to be taught accord-
ing to the gospeh Let us then do accordingly. Live peaceably with all
men, if possible ; and, if impossible, consult those Avho are placed over you
before you engage in anything, licmain together as you have done since I
knew you. Then, when the Directors think fit to send you a missionary,
you may be I'cady to receive him. Behave to any teacher you may have
«ent as one sent of God, as I have great hope that God will bless you in this
respect when I am gone to heaven. I feel that I love God, and that lie has
done much for me, of which I am totally unworthy. Jly former life is stained
with blood ; but Jesus Christ has pardoned me, and I am going to heaven.
Oh! beware of falHng into the same evils into which I have led you fre-
quently ; but seek God, and He will be found of you to direct you."
Whilst Moffat and Africaner were at the Cape, it was proposed that the
former should not return to Namaqua Land, but should proceed to the Bechu-
ana country, and found a mission there. To this Africaner consented, as he
had some hopes of removing, with his people, to a district not far distant,
from whence Moffat now proposed to settle. So the missionary, with his
newly-married wife, set forth for the new countiy, much strengthened by his
success with Africaner and his people, and encouraged by the thought, that
the station he was about to occupy was one of the foremost posts in heathen
soil, and that beyond it there were regions thickly populated hy races who
had never seen the face of a white man, and to whom Christianity, and its
attendant blessings, were as yet unknown. The missionary soon found it
bard work with the Bechuanas ; for though the chief had desired that a reli-
gious teacher should be sent among his people, it soon became evident that
they had more notion of trading and bartering than of hearing about the
gospel. When they found that Moffat had no goods, they were disposed to
yoke the oxen to his waggons and send him back again. He was often in
great trouble. At last he faced the chief and his attendants — said they
might do with him as they Would, but he would not leave their country. " Our
hearts are with you," he said; " you may shed my blood, or you may burn
our dwelling, but I know that you will not touch my wife or children. My
decision is made — I do not leave your country." Now then," he proceeded,
^' if you will, drive your spears to my heart; and when you have slain me,
my companions will know that it is time for them to depart." " These men,"
said the chief, turning to the attendants, " must have ten lives. When they
are so fearless of death, there must be something in immortalit3\" From
this time the hearts of the people began to turn to the truth. Moffat showed
them that he had no interests apart from theirs. The self-sacrificing conduct
of the missionaries so moved the chief, that he aided them in the laying out
of the new station at Kuruman, which was for so long Mr. Moffat's head-
quarters.
12 STANLEY AND AFRICA,
From Kuruman, Moffat made many journeys. He visited Makaba, king
of the Bauangketsi, some two hundred miles fuvtlier north, and was received
witli favour. News of his great work was soon carried far into the interior.
A very notable event was the appearance of two messengers from the Mata-
bele king, Moselekatse, who M-ishcd to know move of the work of the white
men. This potentate ruled a large portion of the territory now known as the
Trans Vaal Republic, was a great warrior, and a terror to all the surrounding
tribes. Moffat received these ambassadors with great kindness, and showed
them as much of civilised appliances as he could. Owing to some risk they
ran from the tribe whose territory they must pass on their return home, he
himself accompanied them on their way. Having gone so far with them they
urged that he should go on and see the king; and so at last he agreed to do.
Moselekatse took kindly to the missionary, and showed himself capable of
gratitude. Placing his hand on the missionary's shoulder one day, he ad-
dressed him by the title of "Father," saying, "You have made my heart as
white as milk. I cease not to wonder at the love of a stranger. You never
saw me before, but you love me more than my own people." Moffat did not
leave until he had got the king's consent that a mission should be established
there. In 1832, Moffat had completed his translation into Sechuana of the
Gospel of Luke. He went to the Cape, and got, liberty to use the official
press. He "set up" the matter Avith his own hands, and was soon able to
return in triumph to the station with copies of Luke's Gospel and his own
hymns. By 1840, tlie translation of the New Testament was completed ; and
before 1843 thousands of copies had been distributed, Moffat having super-
intended the printing in London, during a short visit home.
At this point Moffat's story gets interlaced with that of Livingstone.
David Livingstone was born at ]31antyre, in Lanarkshire, in the year 1813.
At the age of ten he went to work in a cotton-fiictory, and for many years was
engaged as an operative. An evening school furnished him with the oppor-
tunity of acquiring some knowledge of Latin and Greek ; and after attending
a course of medicine at Glasgow University, and the theological lectures of
the late Dr. Wardlaw, he offered himself to the London Missionary Society,
by whom he was ordained in 1840. In the summer of that year he landed on
the shores of South Africa. Circumstances made him acquainted with Moffat,
whose daughter he subsequently married. Moffat was then permanently
attached to Kuruman station, at that time the most distant outpost of the
missionaries ; but Livingstone at once penetrated two hundred miles further
north, as far as Kolobeng, animated by a desire to carry the blessings of
Christianity into the densely populated, but mysterious regions of the African
interior. While Livingstone was wandering among the Bakwains, in retire-
ment at Lepeloli, or labouring at Kolobeng, Moffat was i^ushing on with his
translation of the Old Testament, amid ill health and much loss of strength.
DA VI D LI VINGSTONE. 1 3
He worked without a pause, for the cause of the gospel was prospering, and
each fresh proof of its power was with him only an incentive to effort.
In 1849, Livingstone resolved to leave Kolobeng, the station he was then
occu2:)ying, and push his "way further into the interior. Taking, therefore,
a northerly direction, and pursuing it for about throe hundred miles, and at
no slight suffering to themselves and their cattle, from the difficulty of the
road and the want of water, they were not less surprised than delighted, on
emerging, at the end of a month, from a dreary region, the principal produc-
tions in which were the camel-thorn and other characteristic growtlis of tlie
African desert, to find themselves upon the banks of the Zouga, a noble and
exquisitely beautiful river, flowing south-east, richly fringed with fruit-bear-
ing and other trees, some of them of gigantic growth, and new to our
travellers. Keceived with a frank, and evidently cordial welcome from the
Bayeiye, the natives of tlie soil, and learning from tlieni that the Zouga
flowed out of the Lake N'gami, which was still three hundred miles distant,
Livingstone, while his waggon slowly followed the windings of the stream,
embarked in a rude native canoe, hollowed out of the trunk of a tree, and,
paddled by these inland sailors, lie proceeded up the Zouga, calling, on liis
way, at many of the villages wliich nestled in the broad bolt of reeds, or
amongst the limestone rocks which form its margin. As ho advanced, the
stream flowed wider and deeper, and the missionary's heart expanded witli
the hope that it w^ould jirove one of the highw^ays through which Christianity
and its attendants, civilisation and commerce, might find a free course into
the hitherto inaccessible interior of Africa. He jiursued his way until he
reached the much-desired Lake N'gami, and looked across its broad Avaters
to a shoreless expanse in one direction, and to the dim outline of the distant
coast in another, with the hallowed joy of a missionary discoverer. In the
following year, accompanied by his wife and family, and by Secliele, the
chief of the Bakwains, Livingstone paid his second visit to tliis newly-dis-
covered region ; but this time his leading design of reaching the country of
Sebituane was frustrated by the unexpected prevalence of marsh-fever, and
of the venomous fly called " tsetse," so destructive of cattle. Having acquired
Buch knowledge of the district as to satisfy him that neither would afford a
salubrious centre for a new mission, and as sickness began to prevail among
his party, he was reluctantly compelled to return to his station, and again
to postpone the accomplishment of his object.
In the spring of 1851, Livingstone once more left Kolobeng for the north.
Hoping and believing that he would be able permanently to remain and
labour in the remote, yet populous region he had discovered, he took with
him again his wife and their little ones, prepared, as some might have
regarded it, to bury himself and his family in the very depths of African
solitudes and savagism. It was a noble venture — Christian liercism in one of
14 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
its sublimest forms. At length they reached Linyanti. Here Sebituane
received them with the greatest kindness ; and proposed to bring their "wag-
gons across the Chobe, in his canoes, tliat they might be placed beyond tlio
reach of the marauding Matabele. It was impossible not to see the unbounded
delight which the chief felt in the presence of his visitors, or to question tlie
intensity of his desire for the residence of a missionary amongst his people.
Long before daylight, he was by Livingstone's fire, relating tlie adventures
and disasters of his eventful history. For many years lie had been anxious
for intercourse with Europeans ; and, with tliis view, had sent large presents
to chiefs residing at a distance, to induce them to promote this object. On
the day after Livingstone's arrival he conducted religious services amongst
tlie people. These proved the last as well as the first at which Sebituane
was present ; and upon this account the missionary looked back upon them
with mingled feelings of sorrow and satisfaction, for, just as the chief began
to see the accomplishment of his long-cherished desire, he was seized with
j^neumonia, and in a fortnight expired. Livingstone felt his loss severely ;
but the i^eople gathered round him, and said, "Do not leave us; though
Sebituane is dead, his children remain ; and you must treat them as you
would have treated him." The country at which he had now arrived pre-
sented, for hundreds of miles, a dead level, interlaced by a perfect labyrinth
of rivers, with their countless tributaries, and numerous entering and re-enter-
ing branches. But after a residence of two months, Livingstone was con-
vinced, that though rich and fertile in an extraordinary degree, the periodical
rise of its numerous streams, and the prevalence of the destructive " tsetse, "
formed fatal objections to it as a missionary centre.
It was during his stay here, that Livingstone first visited that magnificent
stream whose course to the Mozambique Channel he subsequently traced. In
difi'erent parts of its course, it bears the name of Secheke, Leeambj'e, and
Zambesi. ^Hio can describe the missionary's joy in thus finding what he
then believed, and has since proved to be, the key of Southern and Central
Africa ! Deep as was the interest he felt in the scenery now spread out before
him, that interest was chiefly concentrated upon the inhabitants of this fino
region. Having obtained so auspicious an introduction to them, he resolved
to cultivate their acquaintance, in the belief that the gospel, with its accom-
joanying 2:)0wer and results, would make them a great and prosperous jDeoplo.
Filled with these purposes, his heart swelling with large anticipations and
generous designs, he once more retraced his steps, partly over the weary way
he had previously traced, and partly upon the Tamunacle and the Zouga,
rejoicing as one who findeth great spoil.
On reaching the latter river, Livingstone thus refers to the future, under
date October 1, 1851 : — "You will see by the accompanying sketch what an
immense region God has in his Providence opened up I
BEGINNING OF LI VINGSTONE'S EIPL OR A TI ONS. 1 5
tliink it -will be impossible to make a fair commencement, unless I can secure
two years devoid of family cares. It has occurred to me that as we must send
our children to England soon, it will be no great additional expense to send
them now along with their mother. This arrangement would enable me to
proceed alone, and devote abuut two, or perhaps three years to this new
region. To orphanise my children will be like tearing out my bowels; but
when I can find time to write fully, you will perceive it is the only way,
except giving up the region altogether. "When we consider the multitudes
which, in the providence of God, have been brought to light in the country of
Sebiluane — the probability that, in our efforts to evangelise, we shall put a
stop to the slave-trade in a largo region, and by means of the highway into the
north which we have discovered, bring unknown nations within the sympathies
of the Christian world, if I were to choose my lot, it would be to I'educe this new
language, translate the Bible into it, and be the means of forming a church.
Let this be accomplished, I think I could then lay down and die contented."
In God's providence this was the beginning of Livingstone's explorations ; we
must now leave him, to be dealt with more at large in his character as a tra-
veller, in a subsequent jmrt of the work, and return to the Avork of MoffLit.
That the reports of Moffat's good work had already travelled far into
the unknown countries, was proved by the fact that, while Livingstone was
on the Zambesi, he learned from the natives there that the English had come
to Moselekatse, and told him that it was wrong to fight and kill ; and that
since the English had come he had sent out his men, not to kill and plunder,
but to collect tribute of cloth and money. There can be no doubt that this
rumour, spreading further inland, prepared the way for Livingstone's extra-
ordinary journeys. And whilst Livingstone was thus engaged, Moffat was
planning how to help him. His health had suffered from the close ap^^lica-
tion, continued now through years, to the translation of the Scriptures. Ho
was urged to return to England for a time. Instead, he resolved to recruit
himself by a trip to the Limj^opo district, several days' journey to the north
of Kolobeng, where Moselekatse and his people had settled when they were
driven from their old quarters. He was kindly received by the king, now
grievously ill of dropsy, and, after some time, obtained permission to preach
to the people. He also prescribed for the king's ailment, and secured his
interest in Livingstone's travels, getting him to forward men with letters and
supplies to Linyanti, on the Chobe River, two or three hundred miles to the
north, which letters and supplies, as we know, were received by Livingstone
from the Makololo people, who had taken them in charge, nearly a year aftex'-
wards. Livingstone's visit to England, in 1856, had the effect of wondrously
reviving the interest in African missions; and the London Society resolved
to establish missions among the Matabele and Makololo. Naturally Moffat
was overjoyed at receiving this news. It was what he had for forty j-oars
re STANLEY AND AFRICA.
been working for. His translation of the Scrijotures into the Sechuana tongue
— dialects of ■which, not varying much from each other, are spoken over almost
the wliolc of South Africa as far as the Equator — could now be cast abroad
to do its work. The undertaking had been a very trying one in the circum-
stances, and Moffat's healtli had suQ'ered from the close application which
for many years had been required from him. But now the task was finished
— a task which of itself would have been enough to give to Moff'at a place
among the greatest of human benefactors, even had he not been the adventu-
rous missionary he was.
The great missionary himself has given us a very remarkable instance of
the power of the Scriptures over the heathen mind — an instance which forms
quite a romantic episode. " In one of my early journeys," he says, " with
some of my companions, we came to a heathen village on the banks of the
Orange River, between Namaqua Land and the Griqua countr3\ Wc had
travelled far, and were hungry, thirsty, and fatigued. From the fear of being
exposed to lions, we preferred remaining at the village to proceeding during
the night. The people at the village rather roughly directed us to halt at a
distance. "\Vc asked water, but they would not supply it. I off'ered the
three or four buttons which still remained on my jacket for a little milk ; this
also was refused. "We had the prospect of another hungry night, at a distance
from water, though within sight of the river. We found it difficult to recon-
cile ourselves to our lot ; for, in addition to repeated rebuffs, the manners
of the villagers excited our suspicion. "When twilight drew on, a woman
approached from the heights beyond which the village lay. She bore on her
head a bundle of wood, and had a vessel of milk in her hand. The latter,
without opening her lips, she handed to us, laid down the wood, and returned
to the village. A second time she approached, with a cooking vessel on her
head, and a leg of mutton in one hand, and water in the other. She sat down
without saying a word, prepared the fire, and put on the meat. We asked
her again and again who she was. She remained silent till affectionately
entreated to give us a reason for such unlooked-for kindness to strangers.
The solitary tear stole down her sable check when she replied, ' I love Him
whose servants you are ; and surely it is my duty to give 5'ou a cup of cold
water in His name ; my heart is full, therefore I cannot speak the joy I feel
to see you in this out-of-the-way place.' " She was a lonelj^ disciple indeed,
and her only means of keeping the spiritual life awake within her was a copy
of the Dutch New Testament, which she had got years before, when in a
missionary school, previous to removing with her relatives far up the countr}-.
Realising the great opportunity that was now given to spread the
gospel in the interior, Moffat declined to seek the rest he so much needed ;
and in spite of the risks of African travel and his advanced years, resolved
to visit his old friend Moselekatse again, in order to further the proposed
C H A S I f< G ! H [ S T H I C H
THE MATABELE AND MAKOLOLO MISSIONS. 17
eettlenient of missionaries. He was this time received Avitli great enthusiasm,
both by king and people ; they had been longing for another visit from him.
The king was willing to receive the teachers, if Moffat would only stay with
them ; but when ho found that this Avas impracticable, he consented to receive
them on any condition. It was during this visit that Moffat's influence with
Moselekatse was so clearly shown by his obtaining the release of Macheng,
the son of the late king of the Bamangwatos. Macheng's father had been
killed In an engagement, and the child had been taken prisoner some time
afterwards, when he was under the care of the Bechuana chief, Sechele. Ho
had been so bereft for sevci-al years. Moffat accompanied him to. his own
country. There were great rejoicings over the deliverance of the young
chief. "Is it not through the love of God that Macheng is among us to-
day ?" said Sechele. "A stranger, one of a nation — who of you knows its
distance from us? — he makes himself one of us, enters the lion's abode, and
brings out to us our own blood." One of the Matabele, who had acccmpanied
Moffat and Macheng, now assured the assembled multitude that Moselekatse
desired nothing but to live in amity with them. Sechele and his people were
overjoyed to hear such words from the representative of a tribe which, though
distant from them, had been, till now, a terror to them both by night and
by day.
Moffat now proceeded to Cape Town to meet Livingstone, who was on
his w^ay to the Zambesi. They liad not seen each other for six years. And
the joy of the meeting may be imagined. But Livingstone's halt was short.
He proceeded on his great expedition ; and in a few months more Moffat was
once again at Cape Town, welcoming the new missionaries, among whom was
his own son. At Kuruman they divided into two bands. One party «'ent'
under charge of Mr. Helmore, Avho had been for many years stationed at
Likatloug, northwards to the land of Makololo ; the otiier went forward, in
the care of Mr. Moffat, to Moselekatse's country, where they were not only
received kindly, but met with a sort of triumphal reception. Thus auspici-
ously the missionaries reached the settlement oi Matabele. This mission has
been very successful. Moselekatse died some years after its commencement ;
but his successor, Lobengole, is as favourably disposed towards the mission-
aries as he was. The Makololo mission, however, did not fare so well. A
series of misfortunes awaited it, the story of which has been told very graphic-
ally by the Rev. John Mackenzie in his volume, " Ten Years North of the
Orange River." We must turn to him and his companions for a little space.
It had been one of the inducements to the establishment of these missions
that the chief of the Makololo had agreed with Livingstone to shift from
the swamps of Linyanti to the north bank of the Zambesi, on missionaries
being settled amongst them ; whilst, at the same time, it was believed tliat
Moffat's influence with Moselekatse was so strong as to be trusted to induce
3
18 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
him to desist from any kind of armed interference -with the Makololo. !Mr.
Mackenzie, and the appointed brctliren to tliis settlement, anticipated diffi-
culty in the accomplishment of tlie plan (for tlie removal of a tribe is a
hard matter, even thougli the chief has promised), just as they looked forward
to many sufferings in their journey ; and, indeed, it is doubtful whether tliey
would have been brave enough to have set out at all, liad it not been that
Livingstone had promised to meet them at Linyanti and to make them known
to the people. The journey proved trying beyond all their expectations. They
had their due share of disapjoointments and hindi'ances between Cape Town
and Kuruman ; but the last stage was little short of being only a succession
of misfortunes. Through Bushman's Land, where, on more than one occa-
sion, the track was lost, they proceeded slowly ; now waiting for guides, now
in terror of lions, now delayed by the breaking of waggon-wheels, the sinking
of the Avaggons in the sand, or the want of water. " I had to exercise my
skill as a waggon-mender," says Mr. Mackenzie. " I had to put in a false
nave in one of the wheels, which, with my materials, was a most difficult
undertaking. A shoemaker, or a cabinet-maker, making and inserting a sot
of false teeth, would be in a position somewhat analogous to mine." Now
and then, owing to the fact that, in some districts in the hot season, there may
be no water for hundreds of miles, the party had frequently to take indirect
roads. Often there were difficulties with the guides. Tliey would disappear
in search of water for themselves at the most critical points, and all that was
then left for the party was simply to unyoke the oxen and take such rest as
they could. When they reached the Zouga, they were warned against pro-
ceeding towards Linyanti because of the tsetse ; and they were told tliat all
the teachers who had gone last year to Makololo were dead save one. Thero
was now therefore nothing for it but that the missionaries should turn their
backs on Linyanti. They preached in various villages on their way, and, at
length reached Kuruman, glad to find themselves once more in a Christian
home.
Just when another journey to Makololo Land was being meditated by Mr.
Mackenzie, the news reached Kuruman of the chief's death. There was a
contest for the chieftainship, and much bloodshed followed. The tribe was
so decimated by internecine strife, that it soon became a prey to their weaker
neighboms, who had formerly been periodically despoiled by it, and who now
united to put an end to the existence of the common enemy. Mackenzie
then settled at Shoshong, the capital of the Bamangwatos country, on the
borders of the Kalihari Desert; and continued to labour here, with short
intervals of absence, during which he was engaged elsewhere, until 1870,
when he returned to England. After a brief season of repose he went back
to the scene of his many toils, and is still patiently pursuing his arduous
work. Speaking of his success, he says — " I am persuaded, that the new
THE WESLEYAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY. ![>
religion has taken such root at Shoshong as that, with a supply of Christian
literature, it would not readily disappeai', even if left to itself."
As for Moffat, Kuruman was with him henceforth but a centre for many
and varied points of interest. His son, Islv. John Moffat, who camo to Kuru-
man to act as his father's assistant in preaching and 2:)rinting, tells how liis
father, though then threescore and ten, shared with him tlie labour of riding
to distant villages to preach or hold jjrayer-mcetings. But the mitiring energy
of the noble veteran could not hold out for ever; and in 1870, he returned to
England, after a service in the most trying portions of the missionary field,
extending over ujDwards of fifty yeai's. Looking back over his life, it seems a
very marvellous one. lie himself can summarise the result of his labours
and that of his brother missionaries thus : — " Christianity has already accom-
plished much. AVhen first I went to Kuruman scarcely an individual could
go beyond. Now they travel in safety as far as the Zambesi. Then we were
strangers, and they could not miderstand us. "We were treated with indig-
nity as the outcasts of society, who, driven from among our own race, took
refuge with them. Bearing in remembrance what our Saviour underwent,
we persevered, and much success has rewarded our efforts. Now it is safe to
traverse any part of the country, and traders travel far bej^ond Kuruman
without fear of molestation. Formerly men of one native tribe could not
travel through another's territory, and wars were frequent. Where one
station was scarcely tolerated, now there are several. Very prosperous is our
advanced station with the Matebele, who, I quite expect, Avill one day become
a great nation. They sternly obey their OAvn laws ; and I have noticed that
when men of fixed principles become convinced of the truth of Christianity,
they hold firmly to the faitli and are not liglitly shaken." At present the
London Missionary Society has about thirty luiropean missionaries labouring
in South Africa, besides a number of native teachers, and, though they have
to complain of manj^ discouragements, they yet rejoice that their labour is
not in vain.
In the year 1814, the "Wesleyan Missionary Society began to take its
share in the evangelisation of Southern Africa, when the Rev. J. M'Kenny
was sent out as the first missionary. He arrived in Cape ToAvn on the 7th
of August; but such was the jealousy of the Government authorities at that
period that he was not allowed to open his commission, or to preach in the
colony, although he produced credentials of tlie most satisfactory character.
He was therefore instructed by th.e Missionary Committee to proceed to
Ceylon. They were not disposed, however, to relinquish their efforts for
the spiritual welfare of the degraded tribes of Soutliern Africa, in conse-
quence of the comparative failure of their first experiment, and next ap-
pointed the Rev. Barnabas Shaw to attempt tlio commencement of a mission
to the Cape colony. On his arrival at Cape Town, in 1815, he presented
20 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
his credentials to the governor, hut met with no hetter success than liis prede-
cessor. His excellency declined to give him permission to jjreach in Caj^c
Town, on the ground tliat the English and the Dutch colonists were provided
with ministers, whilst the owners of slaves were unwilling to have them
religiously instructed. £ Mr. Shaw naively says, " Having been refused the
sanction of the governor, I was resolved what to do, and commenced without
it on the following Sabbath, My congregations at first were chiefly composed
of pious soldiers; and it was in a room hired by them that I first preached
Christ and Him crucified in South Africa."
Although it would appear that the Government authorities took no
notice for the time being of tliis infringement of their regulations, yet the
spirit of prejudice against missionary eflorts prevailed among the colonists to
such an extent, that Mr. Shaw was much discouraged, as he saw little pro-
spect of good in Cape Town. Under these circumstances he longed for an
opening to preach the gospel to the heathen in the interior, where he would
not be subject to the annoyances and hindrances which he experienced in the
colony. At length an opj^ortunity was aff'orded of engaging in this enter-
prise. One of the agents of the London Missionary Society came to Capo
Town from Great Namaqua Land on a visit, and he made such representations
of the openings for missionary labour in that country, that Mr. Shaw and his
wife resolved to accompany him on his return, according to his kind invitation.
Leaving Cape Town, the missionary party had pursued their toilsome journey
-for nearly a month, and had crossed the Elephant River, when, by a remark-
able providence, Mr. Shaw found an opening for a suitable sphere of labour.
He actually met with the chief of Little Namaqua Land, accompanied by
four men, on his way to Cape Town to seek for a Christian teacher. Having
heard his afiectiug story, and being deeply impressed with the fact that the
finger of God was pointing in the direction in which he ought to go, the mis-
sionary agreed to accompany the chief to his mountain home, and to take up
his abode with him and his people. About three weeks afterwards, they
reached Lily Fountain, the principal home of the tribe of Little Namaquas ;
and the foundation of an interesting mission was laid, which, from that day
to this, has continued to exercise a most beneficial influence on all around.
- On reaching the end of their journey, and outspanning for the night, a
council was held by the chief and some of his head men resiDCcting the arrival
of the missionary, when they all entreated him to remain with them, and pro-
rSised to assist him in every possible way. He, therefore, immediately opened
his commission by proclaiming the glad tidings of salvation, and by teaching
both old and young the elements of religion, and the use of letters. It was
trying work, and required much patience ; but labour, prayei-, faith, jaerse-
verance, were eventually rewarded v/ith success. A number of children and
young people learned to read with tolerable facility ; and a native church
CIVILISING INFLUENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 21
\s'as formed of faithful members, who were a credit to their religious profes-
sion. At the same time the civilising influences of Christianity wore brought
to bear upon the people ; and, from year to year, their temporal condition
was materially improved. AVhilst the missionary was thus endeavouring to
instruct the people, he had to labour hard at intervals to build a house to live
in, and a humble sanctuary for the worship of God. In the accomplishment
of these undertakings many difficulties had to bo overcome. The people,
althougli willing to assist, had never been accustomed to continuous labour,
and ludicrous scenes were witnessed in the progress of the work. When the
buildings were ready for the roofs, no trees fit for timber could be found
within a day's journey of the statioii ; but when they arrived at the place,
the missionary produced for the first time his cross-cut saw, himself working
at one end and a Namaqua at the other. Great was the joy of the people on
beholding tlic result, and they could scarcely be restrained from cutting more
timber than was required,- on account of their delight at witnessing the per-
formance of the instrument as one tree after another fell to the ground. Nor
were their delight and surprise the less on seeing the first plough set to work,
whicli the missionary liad made chiefly with his own liands. The old chief
stood u2:)on a hill for some time in mute astonisliment. At length he called
to his councillors, at a short distance, saying, " Come and see the strange
thing. Look how it tears up the ground with its iron moutli ! If it goes on
so all the day, it will do more work than ten wives ! " Hitherto tlie worlc of
tilling the ground had been left to the women and slaves ; but the introduction ^
of the gospel into the country was destined to mark a new era in agricultural
pursuits, as well as in the moral condition of the j)eoiile. Mr. Shaw had
taken with him to Africa a few garden seeds, the rapid growtli of which
amused the natives very much ; but when they saw the use to which the let-
tuce and other salads were appropriated, they laughed heartily, saying, " If
the missionary and his wife can cat grass, they need never starve ! "
When the mission was- fully organised, Mr. Shaw required assistance,
and, in 1818, the Rev. E. Edwards was sent out from England to join him.
On his arrival at Cape Town, as there was no waggon to convey him and his
baggage to the scene of his future labours, lie performed the journey, a
distance of nearly four hundred miles, on horseback — a feat which gave good
promise that he was made of the true missionary metal, Avhich was amply
verified in after years. Scarcely any of the natives understood either Dutch,
or English, and the missionary had to preach through the medium of an
interpreter ; but now all the services are conducted in the Dutch language,
which is generally undei'stood both by old and young, whilst a few are
gradually becoming acquainted with English. A brief account of one or two
visits paid to this interesting station in recent years, will give some idea of
the progress that has been made. Speaking of a visit in the month of July,
22 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
1853, the Rev. W. Moistcr, says — "After a toilsome journey through the wil-
derness, we arrived at Bethel, on Friday, the 1-ith, and were glad to find that
the resident missionary, the Rev. J. A. Bailie, and the people of the station,
had already removed to the Underveldt for the winter months. Saturday
was spent in conversing with Mr. Bailie and a few of the head men on various
matters pertaining to the religious and temporal interests of the institution,
the result of which was very satisfactory. Towards evening, a nuraher of
natives arrived at the station from distant places, some in waggons and others
on horseback, to be ready for the services of the Sabbath. At an early hour
on Sunday morning, we were awoke by the singing of the natives, who had
already assembled iu the adjoining chapel to hold their usual prayer-meeting.
We immediately arose, and joined them in their devotions. The prayers
were offered partly in Dutch, and partly in Namaqua; and, although wo
could not understand all that was said, their suj^plications were apparently
so fervent and so sincere, that we felt it good to be there. At ten o'clock
the writer preached to an attentive congregation, of about two hundred
Namaquas, Mr. Bailie kindl}^ interpreting. There was an evident manifesta-
tion of Divine influence, and it was a season long to be remembered."
The same gentleman jiaid a second visit to this station, in the month of
October, 1855, and under more favourable circumstances for more thoroughly
examining its condition. The j^eople had just completed the erection of a
beautiful new chapel, capable of accommodating six hundred persons, built of
stone, in the Gothic style of architecture, at a cost of about £1000 ; and yet
it had been erected by their united efforts and contributions, without any
foreign aid, with the exception of the gift of the pulpit by a few friends in
Cape Town. It is a striking monument of the genius, zeal, and liberality of
both the missionary and his flock, as well as a tangible proof of the progress
of religion and civilisation among a people whom the gospel has raised from
a state of the deepest moral degradation. The new chapel was filled with a
congregation of deeply-attentive and well-dressed natives ; and at the first of
the opening services the collection amounted to £1G, 4s., although luoney is
but little used in that country. One hundred and eighty-four persons were
found united in church fellowship, and three hundred scholars are attending
the mission schools. Abundant evidences also aj^peared of material progress
and improvement in the temporal affairs of the people. About seven hun-
dred acres of land had been brought under cultivation; and the natives
belonging to the institution owned about one hundred ploughs, thirty wag-
gons, two thousand five hundred horned cattle, four hundred horses, and
seven thousand sheep and goats. The good work of civilisation and reli-
gious instruction has also been extended to Norap, Kaauewgoed, Vlekte,
Roodebergs, Kloof, and other out-stations, with much advantage to tho
jieopla.
MURDER OF THE REV. W. Til RE LF ALL. 23
In tlic year 1825, the way for the extension of the work to Great Nama-
qua Land seemed to open. The Rev. W. Threlfall, accompanied by two
native teachers, started thither on a journey of observation. They were
mounted on oxen, after the fashion of the country, and travelled without
molestation till they had got two or three days' journey beyond the Orange
River. At this point they came in contact with troublesome wandering
tribes of Bushmen. Although they had with them a few goods for barter,
they suffered mucli for want of food, the peoj^le being unfriendly and unwil-
ling to suppl}^ them. They obtained a guide at a certain Bushman's village;
but he and his companions formed a plot for the destruction of the whole
mission party, that they might take possession of their effects. The follow-
ing night, while Mr. Threlfall and his com2)anions were sleeping under a bush
as usual, without the slightest apprehension of danger, their foes came upon
them, and murdered them in cold blood. And although the principal culprit
was afterwards apprehended, tried, condemned, and executed for his crime,
the sad disaster cast a gloom over the mission cause, and put an end, for the
time, to any further attempts to establish a mission to the north of the
Orange River. In 1832, however, the way seemed to open once more, and
a mission was started, which has been continued, with various fluctuations, to
the present time.
The Wcsleyan Methodists have a considerable number of missionaries,
and some thousands of converts in the eastern province of the Cape colony.
They began their labours in 1820, and have continued them ever since,
seeking to benefit both the settlers and the native tribes. The Rev. W. Shaw
was honoured to labour in that part of the country, for nearly fifty years,
with remarkable success. The Rev. S. Kay was also among the success-
ful workers in this field. He describes, in his " History of Mission Work in
Caffraria," a missionary meeting, at which seven native chiefs, together with a
number of civil and military officers from the colony, were present. On this
occasion all the chiefs spoke with ardour and eloquence in favour of the
Christian religion— the " Great "Word," as they emphatically called it, and
expressed their full conviction that the labours of the missionaries, independ-
ently of their spiritual benefits, had tended greatly to joromote the peace and
prosperity of their country. The various stations of Wesleyville, Mount
Coke, Butterworth, Kew Morley, Clarkebury, Buntingville, Shawbury, Pal-
merton, form a continuous chain from Graham's Town to Natal ; and the
Christian traveller may now prosecute his jom-ney from the one extremity to
the other in perfect safety, and receive a welcome greeting, and the rites of
hospitality, at many a smiling home in the wilderness through which he is
obliged to j^ass, which was not the case in former times. Every one of the
mission stations is an asylum for the oppressed and afflicted, as Avell as a
school of Christ, in which may be learned the lessons of His love ; and every
24 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
missionary is a friend of the persecuted outcast. Often has tlio life of the
poor doomed victim been spared at the intercession of the man of God ; and
many a time has the homeless fugitive found shelter in the " city of refuge."
It is a pleasing fact that Christian schools for tlie instruction of the rising
generation have been established in connection with each station, where
many have been taught the word of God for themselves ; and it is a still
more pleasing fact that thousands Iiavc found forgiveness for their sins, and
everlasting life.
Far away in the Bccliuana country, something has been done also by Wes-
ley an missionaries. In the year 1822, they made their first attempt to plant
the standard of the cross in that region ; and, although it partly failed at the
commencement, in consequence of the sickness of the missionaries and the
unsettled state of the country, it was afterwards renewed with more favour-
able results. Remnants of various scattered tribes have, from time to time,
gathered around the missionaries, and, through their influence, liave settled
down and become a comparatively prosperous and happy 2oeople. A town
has gradually grown up, which now contains a population of ten thousand
— probably the largest assemblage of natives in one spot in any part of
Southern Africa.
In the colony of Natal tlic Wesleyan missionaries are laborious and suc-
cessful. At Marii'zburg, at D'Urban, at Ladysmith, at Verulam, at Umhlali,
and other places, they conduct services for the benefit of the English, and also
the natives. One feature of tlieir work in Natal is peculiarly interesting — we
allude to the Mission to the Indian Coolies settled there. To meet the alleged
demand for continuous labour on the sugar, coffee, and other estates, several
shiploads of Coolies were imported to the colony some years ago, to the num-
ber of six or seven thousand. These were collected from almost every town
of our Indian Empire, and spoke no fewer than ten different languages. Two
missionaries are constantly engaged in itinerating among the estates where
these Coolies are located, preaching to them in their own tongue Christ and
Ilim crucified at eighty difierent places, the extremes of which are one hun-
dred miles apart. While the work of the Wesleyan Missionary Society in
Natal is of this mixed cliaracter, it must be remembered that its i)rime object
is the evangelisation of the native Zoolas. Before we take leave of the efforts
of this Society in Southern Africa, we may just glance at the aggregate statis-
tical results of the joast half century, so far as they can be tabulated. There
are seventy missionaries jireaching the gospel in the vernacular tongues of
the people to whom they minister ; eleven thousand five hundred and twenty-
four churcli members of difierent nations and tribes of people ; and twelve
thousand three hundred and forty-three scholars receiving instruction in the
mission schools. It is a note-worthy fact also that the Holy Scriptures, hymn-
books, catechisms, and otlier religious publications, have been translated into
THE OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE MISSION. 25
five or six different languages, by the missionaries, for the use of the natives.
Some of these languages had never been written when they undertook the
task of reducing them to a grammatical form. To the Rev. W. B. Boyce
belongs the honour of compiling the first Caffre grammar, and of unravelling
the intricacies of one of the most difficult languages of Southern Africa.
The Oxford and Cambridge Central African Mission in connection with
the Church of England deserves a place in our chapter on mission work in
Southern and Central Africa. The geographical discoveries of Dr. Living-
stone, when told by himself on his visit to this countxy in 1856, awakened a
profound and wide-spread interest. The unaffected and simple bearing of the
great traveller, the evident high principles of the man, the resolute will, and
calm, conscious, self-possessed power that had carried him through the toils
and perils of his sixteen years' African research, opened all hearts to his
story. It had its side of interest for every one and for every class. For the
scientific, in the fresh materials it contributed to the geography of the great
terra incognito ; for the merchant, in the new regions it threw open to his
enterprise, and tlie highway of waters it revealed for the exchanges of com-
merce ; for the curious, in the narrative of strange adventures and hair-
breadth escapes, in regions and amongst tribes hitherto unknown ; and lastly,
and chiefly, for the Christian philanthropist, from the fresh hopes it insj^ired of
penetrating the solid darkness of the Central African continent, and striking
an effectual blow at its accursed traffic in its own children. Livingstone knew
how to turn the position he had gained to the account of the cause for which
his geographical researches had been prosecuted. He carried out his noble
maxim, which we quoted at the beginning of this chapter. With a mind
thoroughly unsectarian, he appealed to all sections of the Church, and alike
to Episcopalians and Nonconformists. His visit to Cambridge about a year
after his return was amongst the most remarkable events of his home life.
His reception was an ovation. His lecture on the occasion closed with words
that could not be forgotten in an assembly composed at once of the grave and
reflective, and of the impressive, ardent, and enterprising minds of the Uni-
versity. " I'll go back," said he, " to Africa to try to make an open path for
commerce and Christianity. Do you carry out the work which I have begun.
I leave it with you."
The seed which Livingstone sowed in that lecture ripened slowly. A
dead lull succeeded the storm of enthusiasm, and Livingstone and his Africans
seemed forgotten. He was not however to be altogether disaj^pointed. There
was labouring among the Caffres at the time an earnest devoted man, Charles
Frederick Mackenzie by name, who had taken a high place in Cambridge
University, and who had gone out some time before to preach among the
heathen the unsearchable riches of Christ. The energy and zeal of Mac-
kenzie were apostolic. In his wilderness home at Umhlali, in the Caffre school,
4
26 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
or In the midst of the Caffre village, and the native infant churches, he found
scope for his simple, earnest, Christian faith and work. There, as he rejoiced
in the abundance of his congenial labour, and thought of the brief twelve
hours of the Sabbath day on which it had mainly to be wrought, he wrote
home — " My only regret is, that I cannot make more of my Sunday than
what I do. I wish I could say, like Joshua, ' Sun, stand thou still.' " The
labours for which he would thus have stayed the too rapid sun, his sister has
chronicled. It is a roll of service, the bare reading of which is enough to
quicken all Christian labourers to greater diligence. " His Sunday labours,"
she says, " are very intense. He has short early Caffre prayers, then breakfast
at half-past seven. Full service at the camp for the soldiers at nine. It is
about two miles off. As soon as he comes back the congregation is assembling
here, and his horse is saddled for him to mount as soon as the service is over.
He has another service at Mount Moreland, about sixteen miles off, at three P. M.
In coming here he pointed out the spot where his horse always knows he
may walk instead of trotting, to allow him to eat his dinner of sandwiches.
This ride in the hot sun is very knocking-up, both for him and his horse,
lie told us he was in similar circumstances to Elijah, as the brook he used to
drink fi'om was now dried up. His horse is again ready for him when this
service is over, and he rides to Verulam, either four or six miles, where he has
service at six p. m. He goes to sup with a kind Dutch lady, and spends the
night with Mr. . This is Monday, and it is getting dark, and he has
not returned, and he tells us perhaps he may not always return home till
Tuesday, but do parish visiting work at that end of his parish while he is
there."
The missionary labours, and the brief residence of Mackenzie in South
Africa, were abruptly closed by his proceeding to England, in prosecution of
arrangements for the appointment of a Missionary Bishop to the Zoola
country. The Oxford and Cambridge Mission, which had been slowly organ-
ising since the period of Livingstone's visit, had received a fresh impulse at
the time of Mackenzie's return. An enthusiastic meeting had been addressed
at Cambridge by Mr. Gladstone, Sir George Grey, and the Bishop of Oxford ;
the Society had been constituted, and its objects defined. The field chosen
was South Central Africa ; and the object of the mission announced to be
the establishment of one or two more stations as centres of Christianity and
civilisation. With the Christian instruction of the natives, there was to be
kept specially in view the promotion of agriculture, lawful commerce, and
ultimate extirpation of the slave-trade. The mission was cast after the
conception of those early mission monasteries to which England and Germany
owed their Christianity and first lessons in civilisation, only free from their
monastic restraints. It was to be a settlement practically to illustrate
Christian life, and from whence, as a centre, to spread Christian truth. Six
BISHOP MACKENZIE. 27
•clergymen, with a bislioj) at their head ; a physician, surgeon, or medical
practitioner, and artificers skilled in building, husbandry, and especiall}' in
the cotton plant, were to constitute, at the starting, the missionary staflF. For
ways and means the Society proposed to raise £20,000 to meet the cost of
establishing the mission, and to guarantee, for five years, a subscription of
£2,000 per annum for its annual support. The scheme was planned on a
scale worthy of the Universities ; and if the ultimate choice of a location had
corresponded with the sagacity of the preliminary arrangements, its brief
history would have presented a less discouraging record of failure. The most
anxious of the preliminary steps was the selection of a leader for the enter-
prise. The difficult}^ was being keenly felt, when Mackenzie, re-appearing at
Cambridge like one, as it was said, who had dropped from the clouds, was
at once recognised as the man to head the mission. As a distinguished fellow
of Caius College, and a favourite with all classes of the University, he pos-
sessed no slight recommendations for the leadership of a mission to which it
was desired, from the first, to attach a distinctively academic character. His
personal character, in its strength of will and energy of purpose, his child-
like faith, and gentle qualities of heart, were well known. Three years of
African residence and missionary training, had added practical experience to
his natural and Christian qualifications ; while his tall, robust, manly form,
developed into increased strength during the years of his absence, presented
the model of the physical power before which savage natives instinctively
bow, and that promised endurance in conflict with the fever-shocks and
sustained hardshijos of an African wilderness settlement. No sooner was his
return known, than the invitation was given him to occupy the position of
leader in the new enterprise. He had been in the gallery of the Senate
House, in company with some friends, on the occasion of the enthusiastic
meeting at which the organisation of the Society had been arranged, and
in harmony with his calmer tone of mind, had remarked to one of them,
"I am afraid of this ; most great works of this kind have been carried on by
one or two men in a quieter way, and have had a more humble beginning."
If he did not share in the excitement of the meeting, he felt all the more
profoundly the claims of the new mission, and, when summoned to its head,
a brief season sufiiced for his decision.
Mackenzie accepted the leadership of the mission, and sailed for Africa.
At Cape Town, he was consecrated " Bishop of the Mission to the Tribes
dwelling in the Neighbourhood of the Lake Nyanza and the River Shire." By
arrangements with Dr. Livingstone, the missionary jjarty was conveyed up
the Zambesi and Shire in the small steamer which the Government had
placed at the command of the traveller. Eight weeks were spent in a voyage
of two hundred miles — the strength of the streams, the sharp bends of these
xivers. the sand-banks and other unlooked-for difficulties, retarding their
28 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
progress. During his ascent of the Shire, Mackenzie wrote — " My hands are
sore and cramped with hauling cables, and handling chains and anchors. The
fact is, that we have been aground as many hours as we have been afloat,
and the last stick has been the most troublesome of all." The emergencies
of the voyage brought out the finest traits of the bishop's character. Living-
stone was in admiration of the man, and speaks in the highest terms in his
letters of the period of his character, and fitness for the enterprise. The
termination of the river voyage at Chibisa was the commencement of an
arduous land exploration. A settlement on the higli lands, under the wing
of some friendly chief, had still to be sought out, and Livingstone, for a fort-
night, accomijanied them in the search. A powerful aggressive tribe, the
Aiawa, were in progress of overrunning that part of the country, settling on
the lands they wrested from the feebler occupants, and disposing of the
conquered tribes to the Portuguese slave-dealers. The chief of one of the
assailed and weaker tribes, who had been known to Livingstone on his former
visit, earnestly urged the settlement of the mission party in his territory, in
the hoj^e, as it afterwards appeared, of their assisting him against his encroach-
ing and powerful enemy.
The country thus chosen for the mission settlement presented many of
the grander features of the Alpine African region. From a hill, which be-
came the favourite resort of the members of the mission when their day's
work was over, the eye wandered over a vast plain, covered with luxui-iant
vegetation, broken occasionally by sharp conical heights, and skirted on all
sides with lofty mountains. To the north, Zomba, with its flat, table-like
top, rose to the elevation of eight thousand feet ; Chiradzuro, to the south-
west, with its gray peaks, shot up far above the clouds ; while, in a third
direction, the Milanji mountains were piled majestically, range on range.
The general temperature of the station, from its elevation, was not greater
than that of a fine June day in England, but unfortunately it was situated
below the level of the surrounding country, literally "in a hole." It seems
to have been chosen more for its capabilities as a place of defence in the
event of attack, than from its sanitary virtues. It lay along the semicircular
bend of a stream from which rose high banks, surrounded by a dense wood,
and was approachable from the land side only by a narrow pathway, through
trees and brushwood, in front of which a stockade could very easily be run
from one bank of the river to the other. But, from its low position, the air
was confined, and notwithstanding that the locality was four thousand feet
above the level of the sea, it was rendered unhealthy by the noxious exhala-
tions arising from the river. It was sixty miles from Chibisa, the station on
the Shire, from which all their sujoplies had to be drafted over a hill countr}^,
and with no other means of transport than the back of the negro. Worse
than all, it was in the heart of a region distracted by the Portuguese slave-
DEATH OF BISHOP MACKENZIE. 29
dealers, and kept in ceaseless alarms from the hostile and formidable Ajawa
tribes. They had scarcely taken possession of their station, when an embassy
from the surromiding Manganja chiefs implored their aid against the depre-
dations of the Ajawa, pillaging their crops, desolating their villages, and cai'-
rying away their wives and children, to be sold to the Portuguese slave-
dealers. The position of the mission was a perplexing one, and Mackenzie
hardly knew what reply to give to the urgent calls of the assailed chiefs. At
length, he resolved to comply with their request. The purity of his inten-
tion is transparent, whatever opinion may be formed of the wisdom of his
judgment in connection with the interests of the mission. That he might
mitigate the horrors of war, and turn its evil to good, he bound the Man-
ganja, as a condition of his help, that they should abstain in the future from
all slave-dealing, and reserve to himself the sole disposal of prisoners.
It was at the close of a day's pursuit of the Ajawas, when the mission
party re-assembled in the village, exhausted and foot-sore, that the bishop
came in, carrying a boy on his shoulder, whom he had picked up early in the
afternoon of the engagement, and along with him Charles, his black servant,
carrying a child, which had been found at the door of the hut of a deserted
village. The child was sickly, and by the time the village was reached it
was deadly cold. Mackenzie took him into his own hut, wrapped him in a
blanket, and tried, though in vain, to administer some brandy. He baptised
the little African, and laid him by his side all night, that he might watch
him, and repeat his attempts to administer some coi'dial. But in spite of his
kind nursing, in the morning the child died. The bishop had given him his
own name, Charles, and as he laid his remains in the grave which the chief
had assigned as a burying place, he read over this first baptised of the mission
the funeral service. In these acts of kindness to the children of an enemy,
a new lesson was taught to the African tribes. The boy carried on the
bishop's shoulder, and the sick child laid by his side, were the sermon they
needed, and the good bishop could not have preached a more impressive one
to his savage flock. It was not allowed to Bishop Mackenzie to mature the
plan of his mission settlement, or, in despair of success, to transfer its opera-
tions to another field. His strength was soon prostrated by severe succes-
sive attacks of fever. By an unfortunate accident, his canoe had been upset,
and his store of quinine and packet of medicine for combating fever swept
away. No substitutes were at hand, and nothing could be procured to sus-
tain the strength which the fever was striking down. He consequently fell
a victim to its power, and died in the midst of his work.
The history of the mission subsequent to the death of Mackenzie may be
told in a few sentences. The natural unhealthiness of the settlement quickly
drained the strength of the European members. Even the natives sank under
the fever air of its low position, fifty having died within the first twelve or
30 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
eigliteen months. From the distracted state of the country, the most scanty
supplies of provisions were with difficulty obtained, the greatest scarcity at
times prevailed, and the whole party was reduced to subsist iipon pumpkins
and unripe green fruit. When it was at length determined to abandon the
station and settle at Chibisa, the heat of the new settlement was found to be
intolerable. Mr. Scudamore, one of the clergy who accompanied the bishop,
sank under an attack of fever. Dr. Dickinson, the medical adviser of the
mission, died from the same cause some months after ; while Mr. Rowley, one
of the clei'gy, had to undertake a journey across the country to Tete in the
capacity of commissary, for the purchase of sheep and goats, to keep alive his
all but famishing brethren. Before the new bishop arrived, other two of the
members were so ill that the medical officer of Dr. Livingstone's expedition
had advised, as the only chance of saving their lives, that they should leave
the country, while a third soon after sailed for England, leaving the mission
stripped of all but one or two of the original staff. On the arrival of Bishop
Tozer with fresh auxiliaries, it was decided to abandon Chibisa, to break up
the colony of released slaves, retaining only the orphan boys, and to remove
the mission to a high mountain, the Morambala, about two miles nearer the
coast. Even this latter scheme was abandoned, and the entire mission on the
Zambesi and Shire broken up. Whatever the futui-e of the Universities Mis-
sion may be it is impossible to say ; but if it have no other story to tell than
the life of its first bishop, its work will not have been in vain. The lecord
of his simple self-dedication, noble unselfishness, heroism without display,
cheerfulness under all trials, and singular union of feminine gentleness with
calm energy of will, and loving, unfaltering submission to duty, will yet
summon many a soldier to the mission ranks, prepared to follow in self-sacri-
ficing love the footsteps of Charles Frederick Mackenzie. Our Universities
have been slow to move in this great work of Christian missions ; but the later
they have entered the field, the larger the volume of experience that lies
before them ; and who should be abler to read, mark, and inwardly digest its
many lessons for the practical guidance of their own enterprise ? The track
upon which thej^ have entered is studded with lights, and, not less helpful to
their course, it is strewn with wrecks. The Christian community does not
presume too much when it looks for their making a wise use of both.
In 1821 two missionaries, Messrs Thomson and Bennie, went out to South
Africa from Glasgow, under the direction of what was then called the Glasgow
Missionary Society, with the view of commencing a mission in Caffraria. They
were afterwards followed, from time to time, by other missionaries, and several
stations were established by them among the CaiFres. For several years, they
had to encounter, however, great difficulties, partly from the indifi'erent and
stupid character of the people, and partly from the unhappy disturbances
which prevailed between the Caff"res and the British Government. The situ-
THE GLA SGOW MISSION! R Y SOCIETY. 3 1
ation of the missionaries was at once difficult and perilous. Flushed with
success, or whetted by revenge, the Caffres would not bear to be spoken to ;
and when the British troops began to scour the country, and burn their kraals,
and seize their cattle, and make reprisals, they became excited almost to fury,
and charged the missionaries with being their enemies, because they did not
prevent the devastations of the soldiers. The missionaries stopped in the coun-
try as long as they could ; but they were, at length, obliged to esca2)e for
their lives. Parties of soldiers were sent to protect them on their way to the
English camp, and they afterwards escorted them to Graliam's Town. In
leaving CafFraria they sustained very heavy losses. Much of their property
they were compelled to leave behind them ; much of it they were obliged to
cast away on the road, that the waggons might not be im^oeded on their
journey. Mr. Chalmers saved little more than a Bible. Their private losses
were estimated at nearly a thousand pounds ; and the public projjerty lost or
destroyed, upwards of seven hundred and fifty pounds. In the latter part of
1835, peace was restored to the country, and they returned to the scenes of
their work. The mission premises at Chuinie and Burnshill, though not
destroyed, they found in a very dilapidated and ruinous condition. Doors
and windows were broken, furniture of every description was carried away,
the printing-press and t3^pes were destroyed, the gardens were laid waste, and
fragments of books and papers were lying scattered on the ground. At
Lovedale and Pirrie, the desolation was still more complete. Most of the
houses were burnt or otherwise reduced to a heap of ruins.
The missionaries, after their return, set themselves to repair their
dilapidated and ruined houses. They supplied the people with food; paid
them for their work with goats, spades, picks, seed-corn, and other useful
articles, deeming it their duty to make a vigorous effort to convince them
that, by a little exertion, they might save themselves from famine without
having recourse, and that in vain, to the rainmaker. The missionaries also
resumed their accustomed labours among them ; and everything, by degrees,
assumed much the same aspect as before the war. Schools were established
for imparting general instruction to the youth of both sexes, and also for
teaching the girls sewing, first by the wives of the missionaries, and after-
wards by female teachers sent out from this country. At most of the stations
many of the Caff"res had been baptised ; but the converts generally laboured
under many imperfections. They had also to bear much from the opposition
and reproaches of their countrymen, and often from their nearest relatives,
and in their own dwellings. They were looked on by the heathen Caffres as
men who had become mad, and who had foolishly renounced the customs
and manners of their fathers. The native teachers, in particular, were fre-
quently hooted and laughed at, when endeavouring to set before their
countrymen the truths of religion. The teacher of one school was debarred
32 STANLEY AND AFRICA
from making his usual visits to the neighbouring kraals, and the children
were not allowed a footpath to the school, because a child belonging to the
head man of the district had died, and it was said the teacher had killed it
with his prayers. Another of the teachers was prevented for a time from
visiting some kraals, because he dressed in European clothing, thereby giving
proof of his disposition to bewitch the people, and especially the children.
The mother of a family was charged with killing her children since she began
to pray and serve God. It was said that she had obtained such power as to
rule the lightning, and be able to infuse poison into them. Her own people
shunned her, and a piece of charmed wood was stuck up in every hut to ward
off the power she had acquired over the electric fluid. Indeed, there pre-
vailed in Caffraria great dread and mistrust of missionaries. Their stations
were regarded by man}^ as branch establishments of the Colonial Government,
for the wholesale murder of the natives, and for despoiling them of their
country. The jealousy of the CafFres was also, in some instances, raised to
a great height by the prevalence of disease in the country, and by the
mortality which it occasioned, even though the missionaries sought to
alleviate the calamity by supplying them with medicine. " The most
unfounded tales," writes Mr. Ross, the missionary at Pirrie, " are in circula-
tion among the people. It is said Mr. Laing brought the measles here in a
red handkerchief ; that he wrote to me that he had killed many at the
Keiskamma, and that I must kill the people here ; that Mr. Chalmers wrote
me, that he had killed many at Chumie, and that I must do so here ; that I
have smeared all the seats in the church with the measles, and that I am killing
the people."
In April, 1846, the British Government declared war against certain of
the Caffre chiefs. It was no longer safe for the missionaries to remain in
Caffraria; they therefore retired, with many of their converts, into the
colony. The mission stations were all broken up. Chumie, including the
church and other mission property, was burned to the ground ; Burnshill was
also destroyed by fire ; Pirrie was greatly injured ; and Lovedale was con-
verted into a garrison for the English troops. Though the Caffres gained, in
the first instance some considerable advantages over the English forces, yet
afterwards, the tide of war, as might have been foreseen, turned against
them ; their spirit was broken, and after some months, they were glad again
to sue for peace. The several stations were once more resumed by the
missionaries, and brighter days were anticipated ; but this proved a fallacious
hope. In December, 1850, hostilities again broke out between the English
and the CafFres. This was a more terrible war than any that had preceded
it, and was of much longer continuance. It spread far and wide, and the
devastations committed by both parties were fearful. All the mission
stations were again broken up ; nearly all the missionaries retired further
THE PARIS MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 33
into the colony, some of them amidst circumstances of great difficulty and
danger ; and the converts were for the most part scattered. Tims, in the
course of fifteen years, war had broken out three times between tlie Caflfres
and the English, and was attended, on each occasion, by the breaking up of
the mission and the destruction of the stations, including a large amount of
property. Subsequently the work was resumed, and has been carried on
with comparative success from that day to this.
The Paris Society for Evangelical Missions was instituted in September,
1827. Among the measures which it early adopted was the establishment of
a College for the education of 3'oung men as missionaries ; and as a result of
this, it was some years before it was in circumstances to undertake active ope-
rations among the heathen. In July, 1829, the Rev. Messrs Bisseux, Lemue,
and Rolland, the first missionaries of the Society, sailed for South Africa.
M. Bisseux settled in Wagenmaker Valley, about thirty miles from Cape Town,
among the descendants of the French refugees and their slaves ; but Messrs
Lemue and Rolland proceeded into the interior, for the purpose of selecting a
suitable station among one or other of the native tribes. After visiting vari-
ous parts of the country, they ultimately settled at a place called Motito, in
the Bechuana country. Other missionaries were afterwards sent out from
time to time, and various stations established. These stations extended over
a wide tract of country, and were generally remote from each other. Some
of them, as may naturally be supposed, were more prosperous than others;
but yet the success of the mission was, on the whole, highly pleasing. The
congregations were considerable ; numbers of the natives were baptised, many
of whom were also admitted as communicants. The influence of the mission
extended far beyond the stations, and was felt in a great part of the sur-
rounding country. Polygamy and circumcision were disappearing, though
many still kept up these practices, and it seemed as if it would be more diffi-
cult to get I'id of them than of most others of their customs. Many gave
pleasing evidence of piety, and were zealous to make known the gospel to
their countrymen. Schools were also established at the various stations, and
were attended by considerable numbers of the natives, both old and young.
The wives of the missionaries rendered valuable service in the work of educa-
tion, by superintending the schools for females ; by teaching both old and
young to read ; by inculcating on them habits of order, economy, and pro-
priety, and by giving them the first notions of the management and training
of infants.
The missionaries ti'anslated into the Sechuana language the Book of
Psalms and the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John. They also printed
schoolbooks, a catechism, a collection of hymns and prayers, and short tracts
on the chief doctrines and duties of religion. One of their number, M. Cas-
salis, also published a work, entitled Studies of the Sechuana Language, con-
5
84 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
taining a grammar and a collection of Sechuana poetry, with the view of
showing the genius of the language and the character of the people who
speak it. The people under the care of the missionaries made considerable
advances in some of the more common and necessary arts of civilised life.
Many of them built themselves convenient houses — some of them of stone —
instead of their old smoky, unhealthy huts. In place of the skins of animals,
which they used to throw over their bodies, the men adopted in part the
European dress, while the women who had learned to sew made decent
clothes for themselves and their daughters. Though they were previously
not simply a pastoral people, but cultivated millet and other produce, yet now
their husbandry was considerably extended. They obtained ploughs and
other agricultural implements, and manj^ of them occupied themselves in the
culture of corn, which they sold to the Dutch farmers for cattle, clothing,
soap, salt, and other useful articles. Vaccination also was introduced amongst
them ; and we trust that it may check in future the frightful ravages which
smallpox was accustomed to make among them. It was singularly pleasing,
on leaving deserts where the eye sought in vain for a few huts, or for the
sight of a human being, to come suddenly on a beautiful hill, crowned with
buildings, which were found, on a nearer approach, to form even a populous
town. It was like an oasis in the desert, and the traveller contemplated,
with admiration and delight, its grouj^s of habitations, its church and its
school-house, its gardens and its fields, its flocks and its herds — the whole
furnishing a striking example of the influence of Christian missions in im-
proving the condition of the most savage tribes. The missionary stations,
however, sufi"ered in common with other parts of the country from the depre-
dations which the native tribes carried on against each other, and the people
were led sometimes to remove with their cattle to distant parts. Of late
years, the state of the country has been more settled, and the missionaries
have been able to pursue their work under more favourable circumstances.
The Rhenish Missionary Society was constituted in 1828, by the union
of three previous existing associations at Elberfeld, Barmen, and Cologne ;
and they were soon after joined by other associations in the Rhenish Pro-
vinces and in Westphalia. The seat of the Society is Barmen, and it derives
its support chiefly from the territory between the Rhine and the Maase. In
July, 1829, Messrs J. G. Leipoldt, G. A. Zahn, Pr. D. Luchhoff, and Theo-
bald Von Wurmb, sailed from London for the Cape of Good Hope, with the
view of establishing a mission in South Africa. These were the first mis-
sionaries of the Society ; but they were afterwards followed by others, and
numerous stations were formed by them, both within and beyond the colony.
Some of them settled not only among the Namaquas, but in Daraaraland,
north of the tropic of Capricorn. In 1851, the numbers who had been baptised
at the various stations since the commencement of the mission, amounted to
THE BERLIN MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 35
four thousand three hundred and forty; and the communicants were then
one thousand six hundred and forty-seven.
In October, 1833, the Berlin Missionary Society was formed, and com-
menced its foreign operations, by sending four missionaries to Soutli Africa.
These were afterwards followed by othei's, and a number of stations were
formed in the Cape colony, Caffrai'ia, the Bechuana country, and Port Natal
colony. In 184:5, the Rev. Mr. Scholtz, who, with four other missionaries,
had lately arrived in South Africa, was murdered by two Caffres, when on
the way to the scene of their future labours. They had just entered the Cape
territory, and had outspanned for the night. Their men, among whom was
a servant of Mr. Shepstone, one of the Methodist missionaries, slept round
the fire, they themselves remaining in the waggon. About one o'clock in the
morning, the violent barking of their dogs led them to suppose that a hyena
was prowling around them ; but on some of the men advancing, two Caffres
sprung out of the bush and attacked them. Mr. Shepstone's servant was
stabbed with an assagai ; and on Mr. Scholtz, and another of the missionaries,
named Kropp, opening the curtain of the waggon, and looking out to ascer-
tain the cause of the noi?-^, the former received a stab from an assagai in the
stomach. They drew back, and Scholtz pulled out the weapon. The wound,
they thought, was not deep. Their men having run to several neighbouring
waggons for heli^, the Caffres in the meanwhile made off. A surgeon having
been obtained from Fort Peddie, he dressed Mr. Scholtz's wound, and it was
proposed to remove him to the Wesleyan missionary station ; but his suffer-
ings were too great to allow him to proceed far. His lips grew cold ; he
became unable to swallow ; and shortly after, he expired. The dead body
of the servant was found in the bush, and the remains of both were, on the
following day, committed to the grave.
Six missionaries sailed from Boston, in the United States, in December
1834, under the auspices of the American Board for Foreign Missions, for the
Cape of Good Hope, with a view to missionary operations in the Zoola coun-
try, half of them to labour in the interior, and half on the coast, at Port Natal
or its vicinity. On their arrival at the Cape, three of them, Messrs Lindley,
Wilson, and Venable, proceeded by way of Griqua Town and Kuruman to
Mosika, where the French missionaries had begun a station a few j^ears before
among the Baharutsi ; they were soon, however, compelled to leave the coun-
try, and to join their brethren, Messrs Champion, Grout, and Adams, at Port
Natal. The progress of this mission appeared for some years to be encoui-ag-
ing ; but, as the character of the Zoolas developed itself, the difficulties of
their conversion became more manifest. One which met the missionary on
the threshold of his labours, was their deep ignorance. It seems scarcely
possible to cast even one ray of light into minds so darkened and perverted
by sin. This was especially true of the female sex, whose condition, both
3Ci STANLEY AND AFRICA.
temporal and spiritual, seemed almost beyond the reach of improvement. Aa
the Zoolas obtained some knowledge of the nature and requirements of the
gospel, tliey appeared to become more settled in their conviction that it was
not the religion for them, and more resolved not to receive it. Their conduct
was characterised, not so much by hostility, as by stupid indifference, though
instances were not wanting of their showing the most determined and invete-
rate opposition.
Nor were the misssionaries without their difficulties and dangers of ano-
ther kind. Mr. Butler having occasion to go to Amahlongwa, to nvdke some
arrangements for the preservation of the house and premises, until he should
be able to remove thither, had to pass the river Umkomazi ; but, on coming
to it, there being no natives at hand to manage the boat, he ventured to cross
•on horseback, though it was then deep and turbid. As he got over safely,
when he returned the next day, he again ventured into the river in the same
manner. When about two-thirds of the way across, his horse suddenly kicked
and plunged, as if to disengage himself from his rider ; and the next moment,
a crocodile seized Mr. Butler's thigh with his horrible jaws. The river at this
place is about one hundred and fifty yards wide, if measured at right angles
to the current, but from the point at which one enters, to that which he comes
out, is three times as broad. The river at high tide, and when it is not swol-
len, is from four to eight or ten feet deep, and on each side the banks are
skirted with high banks and reeds. Mr. Butler, when he felt the sharp teeth
of the crocodile, clung to the mane of his horse with a deathlike hold.
Instantly he was dragged from tlie saddle, and both he and the horse were
floundering in the water, often dragged entirely under it, and rapidly going
down the stream. At first the crocodile drew them again into the middle of
the water ; but at last the horse gained shallow water, and approached the
shore. As soon as he was within reach, natives ran to his assistance, and
beat off the crocodile with spears and clubs.
Mr. Butler was pierced with five deep gashes, and had lost much blood.
He had left all his clothes, except his shirt and coat, on the opposite shore,
with a native, who was to follow him ; but when the struggle commenced, the
native returned, and durst not venture into the water again. It was now
dark, and without clothes, and weak from loss of blood, he had seven miles
to ride before he could reach the nearest missionary station. He borrowed a
blanket from a native, and, after two hours' riding, he succeeded in reaching
it more dead than alive. His horse also was terribly mangled; a foot square
of the flesh and skin was torn from his flanks. The animal, it was supposed,
first seized the horse, and when shaken off, caught Mr. Butler, first below the
knee, and then by the thigh. There were five or six wounds, from two to
four inches long, and from one half to two and a half inches wide. For eight
or ten days he seemed to recover as fast as could be expected ; but he was
SUCCESS OF MISSIONARY OPERATIONS. 37
then seized with fever, which threatened to be fatah There was a tendency
to lock-jaw. He, however, recovered so far, as to be able to return to his
family.
In 1838, James Backhouse and George W. Walker, two members of the
Society of Friends, visited South Africa, and prosecuted their pious and bene-
volent labours among all classes of the population. In the course of their
extensive journeyings they visited the stations of most of the Missionary
Societies to which we have referred, although they were scattered over a vast
extent of country, and often at a great distance from one another. By the
missionaries of the various denominations they were received in the most
friendly manner, and every facility was given them, and assistance afforded,
in addressing the people under their care. Though their addresses were not
free from the peculiarities of Friends, yet their declarations concerning the
way of salvation through Jesus Christ were such as to show the substantial
unity of all Evangelical Christians.
There is only one other missionary effort in South Africa to be noticed — •
that of the Norwegian Missionary Society. This Society was instituted in
1842, and sent its missionaries to the Zoolas in Natal. An estate was bought
near Maritzburg, for a station called Uitkompst. It is an interesting fact,
that the printing press has been introduced among several of the tribes of
South Africa — one among the Bechuanas, in connection with the London
Mission; one in the Basuto country, in connection with the Paris Society ;
one belonging to the Wesleyan Methodists ; and another in the Zoola coun-
try, belonging to the American Board. Of the Sechuana language we have
two grammars ; of the Caffre language, two ; and translations of vai-ious
books in both languages. It is estimated that upwards of twenty thousand
natives are regular accredited members of the various Christian churches —
admitted to the communion of the Lord's table ; that there are about twenty-
five thousand children in attendance at the various schools within and be-
3^ond the colonies ; and that, at least, one hundred thousand of the people,
old and young, may be regarded as more or less won over to Christianity.
These are results for which all Christians and philanthropists will give
thanks.
One great obstacle to the success of missionary operations, is the conduct
of Europeans who disgrace the Christian name. In many cases all that the
natives learn from Europeans are their vices. In his " Four Years in Southern
Africa," Lieutenant Rose says, speaking of Gaika — " It did not strike me
that the savage tribes are impi'oved by their intercourse with us. Gaika, the
neighbouring chief, dressed in an old regimental jacket, was in the hut with
his twenty-five wives ; and it was not without interest that I looked on one
of whom Barrow had prognosticated so highly. He was then nineteen ; he
is now fifty ; and melancholy is the change that has taken j^lace in the
38 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
interval. The English have given him their protection, and with it theii
vices ; and he is a sunk and degraded being — a wretched savage, despised
and suspected by his tribe, continually intoxicated, and ever ready to sell
his wives for brandy. Such are the fruits of our protection ! Such have ever
been the effects on the savage of the kindness of the civilised. If we find
them simple and trusting, we leave them treacherous; if we find them
temperate, we leave them drunkards ; and, in after years, a plea for their
destruction is founded on the very vices they have learned from us."
We shall close this chapter with testimonies from one or two competent
and independent witnesses as to the character of the missionaries, and the
value of their labours in South Africa. Mr. Thompson, who was eight years
a resident of the Cape, and who, during that time, travelled much in the
interior, and who was neither a missionary, nor connected with any mis-
sionary societ}', bears the following testimony to the character and results
of missionary labour there: — "Having now visited the whole of the mis-
sionary stations in Southern Africa, it may not be imjjroper to express, in
a few words, the opinion I have formed regarding them. The usual objec-
tions against them are, that the generality of the missionaries are a fanatical
class of men, more earnest to inculcate the peculiar dogmas of their different
sects than to instruct the barbarous tribes in the arts of civilisation ; that
most of them are vulgar and uninformed ; many of them injudicious ; some
of them imn,oral; and, finally, that their exertions, whether to civilise or
Christianise the natives, have not, hitherto, been followed by any commen-
surate results. Now, my observations have led me to form a very different
conclusion. It is no doubt true, that the missionaries labouring among the
tribes of the interior, are generally persons of limited education, most of
them having originally been common mechanics ; but it seems very doubtful
whether men of more refined and cultivated minds would be better adapted
to meet the plain capacities of unintellectual barbarians ; and were such
teachers ever so preferable, where could they be procured ? On the whole,
the missionaries I have been acquainted with in South Africa, appear to me
generally well adapted for such service. Most of them are men of good,
plain understanding, and industrious habits, zealously interested in the success
of their labour's, cordially attached to the natives, and willing to encounter,
for their improvement, toil, danger, and privation. A few instances, in a
long course of years, of indiscreet, or indolent, or immoral persons having
been found among the missionaries, proves nothing against the general
respectability of their characters, or the utility of their exertions. Imperfec-
tion will be found wherever human agents are employed. But such unfavour-
able exceptions are rare ; while among them many persons of sujjerlor
ability, and even science, are to be found ; and I may safely afiirm that, at
every missionary station I have visited, instruction in the arts of civilised
CHRIST! A N MISSIONS A ND CI VI LISA TION. 39
life, and in the knowledge of pure and practical religion, go hand in hand.
It is true that, among the more savage tribes of Bushmen, Korannas, and
Bechuanas, the progress of the missions has hitherto been exceedingly slow
and circumscribed. But persons who have visited these tribes, and are best
qualified to ajopreciate the difficulties to be surmounted in instructing and
civilising them, will, if they are not led away by prejudice, be far more
disposed to admire the exemplary fortitude, patience, and perseverance of the
missionaries, than to speak of them with contempt and contumely.
" These devoted men are found in the remotest deserts, accompanying the
wild and wandering savages from place to place, destitute of almost every
comfort, and at times without even the necessaries of life. Some of them
have, without murmuring, spent their whole lives in such service. Let those
who consider missions as idle, or unavailing, visit Gnadenthal, Bethels-dorp,
Theopolis, the Caflfre stations, Griqua Town, Kamiesberg, etc ; let them view
what has been effected at these institutions for tribes of the natives, oppressed,
neglected, or despised, by every other class of men of Christian name, and, if
they do not find all accomplished which the world had perhaps too sanguinely
anticipated, let them fairly weigh the obstacles that have been encountered,
before they venture to pronounce an unfavourable decision. For my own
part, utterly unconnected as I am with missionaries or Missionary Societies of
any description, I cannot, in candour and justice, withhold from them my
humble meed of applause for their labours in Southern Africa. They have,
without question, been in this country not only the devoted teachers of our
holy religion to the heathen tribes, but also the indefatigable pioneers of dis-
covery and civilisation. Nor is their character unappreciated by the natives.
Averse as they still are, in many places, to receive a religion, the doctrines
of which are too pure and benevolent to be congenial to hearts depraved by
selfish and vindictive passions, they are yet everywhere friendly to the mis-
sionaries, eagerly invite them to reside in their tei'ritories, and consult them
in all their emergencies. Such is the impression which the disinterestedness,
patience, and kindness of the missionaries have, after long years of labour
and difficulty, decidedly made even upon the wildest and fiercest of the South
African tribes with whom they have come in contact ; and this favourable
impression, where more has not yet been achieved, is of itself a most important
step towards full and ultimate success."
" I have seen," says Mr. Chapman, in his " Travels in the Interior of
Africa," a great deal of missionaries and missionary life, and have every
reason to sympathise with them. Their labours are difficult; their trials
many ; their earthly reward a bare subsistence. I believe that the real
causes of dislike to the missionaries in South Africa are the avarice of trade,
and jealousy of the influence they possess, and the check they are upon those
who would like to exercise an arbitrar}^ and unjust authority over the natives.
40 STANLEY AND AFRICA
The missionaries are a class of men, generally speaking, so irreproachable,
that the scandals of the unpi-incipled cannot affect them with well-thinking
men, nor do their characters require any further defence from me." Lord
Napier, the Governor of Madras, said a year or two ago, in a speech before a
large public assembly, " I must express my deep sense of the importance of
missions as a general civilising agency in the south of India." This is the
testimony of all right-minded men concerning the effect of Christian missions
tliroughout the entire heathen world.
CHAPTER II.
Livingstone goes down to the Cape — Journeys from thence into the Interior — Reaches
Linyanti — Ascends the Leeambyc and the Lecba — Visits Shinto — Arrives at
Loarida.
IN April, 1852, Livingstone went down to Cape Town, being the first time
during eleven years that he had visited the scenes of civilization. Having
placed his family on board a ship bound for England, and promised to rejoin
them in two years, he parted from them, as it subsequently proved, for nearly
five years. He then started, in the beginning of June, from Cape Town, on
a journey which extended from the southern extremity of the continent to
St. Paul de Loanda, the capital of Angola, on the west coast, and thence
across South Central Africa, in an oblique direction, to Kilimane, in
Eastern Africa ; and which lasted four years. He proceeded by waggon ;
his route to the north lying near the centre of the cone-shaped mass of land
which constitutes the promontory of the Cape. The parts of the colony
through which he passed were of sterile aspect. The landscape was uninviting ;
the hills, destitute of trees, were of a dark-brown colour, and the scanty vege-
tation on the plains gave the country a most desert appearance. When fii'st
taken possession of, these parts are said to have been covered with a coating
of grass, but that has disappeared with the antelopes which fed upon it, and
a crop of mesembryanthemums and crassulas occupies its place.
" It is curious to observe how, in nature, organisations the most dissimilar
are mutually dcj^endent on each other for their perpetuation. Here the
original grasses were dependent for dissemination ou the grass-feeding animals,
which scattered the seeds. When, by tlie death of the antelopes, no fresh
sowing was made, the African droughts proved too much for this form of vege-
tation. But even this contingency was foreseen by the Omniscient one ; for,
as we may now observe in the Kalahari Desert, another family of plants, the
mesembryanthemums, stood ready to neutralise the aridity which must other-
wise have followed. This family of plants possesses seed-vessels which re-
main firmly shut on their contents while the soil is hot and dry, and thus
preserve the vegetative power intact during the highest heat of the torrid sun ;
but when rain falls, the seed-vessel opens and sheds its contents just Avhen
there is the greatest probability of their vegetating. In other plants heat
and drought cause the seed-vessels to burst, and shed their charge. One of
G
42 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
this family is edible ; another possesses a tuberous root, which may be eaten
raw ; and all are furnished with thick fleshy leaves, having pores capable of
imbibing and retaining moisture from a very dry atmospliere and soil, so
that, if a leaf is broken during a period of the greatest drought, it shows
abundant circulating sap. The plants of this family are found much farther
north, but the great abundance of the grasses prevents them from making any
show. There, however, they stand, ready to fill up any gap which may
occur in the present prevailing vegetation ; and should the grasses disappear,
animal life would not necessarily be destroyed, because a reserve supply,
equivalent to a fresh act of creative power, has been provided.
"One of this family is so coloured as to blend in well with the hue of
the soil and stones around it ; and a gryllus of the same colour feeds on it. In
the case of the insect, the peculiar colour is given as compensation for the
deficiency of the power of motion, to enable it to elude the notice of birds.
The continuation of the species is here the end in view. In the case of the
plants the same device is adopted for a sort of double end — viz., perpetuation
of the plants, by hiding it from animals, with the view that ultimately its
extensive appearance will sustain that race. As this new vegetation is better
adapted for sheep and goats in a dry country than grass, the Boors supplant
the latter by imitating the process by which gramnivorous antelopes have
so abundantly disseminated the seed of grasses. A few waggon-loads of
mesembryanthemum-plants, in seed, are brought to a farm covered with a
scanty crop of coarse grass, and placed on a spot to which the sheep have
access in the evenings. As they eat a little every night, the seeds are dropped
over the grazing grounds, in this simple way, with a regularity which could
not be matched except at the cost of an immense amount of labour. The
place becomes in the course of a few years a sheep farm, as these animals
thrive on such herbage. As already mentioned, some plants of this family
are furnished with an additional contrivance for witlistanding droughts — viz.,
oblong tubers, which, buried deep enough beneath the soil for complete
pi'otection from the scorching sun, serve as reservoirs of sap and nutriment
during those rainless periods which recur perpetually in even the most
favoured spots of Africa."
In proceeding from Cape Town to Kuruman, Livingstone met with
obstacles and misadventures which, at the time, proved trying to his ardent
spirit, but in which he subsequently recognised the finger of God, for it was
(luring this detention that the Trans-Vaal Boors made a murderous attack on
tlie Bakwains, solely because their chief, Sechele, an admirable Christian
man, would not become their vassal, or secure for them a monopoly of the
traffic in ivory by prohibiting English traders from passing through his country
to the north. Ascribing this assertion of his undoubted right to the influence
of Livingstone, these ruthless men resolved to wreak their vengeance upon
LIVINGSTONE PROCEEDS TOWARDS LINYANTI. 43
the missionar}', and made no secret of their murderous design. Having,
therefore, desolated the native location at Kolobeng, and killed sixty of the
Eakwains, they hastened to the mission-house. On reaching the spot, the
commandant repeatedly expressed his disappointment at not capturing Living-
stone, and his determination to have his head. This design having: been
frustrated, they proceeded to appropriate or wantonly destroy his property.
Distressed as he was by these sad events, the following passage shows the
Christian estimate he had formed of them, and the important influence they
exerted upon his subsequent proceedings : — " The determination of the Boors
makes me more resolved than ever to open up a new way to the interior ; and
the experience of that kind Providence which prevented me from falling into
the hands of those who would, at least, have sadly crippled my efforts,
encourages me to hope that God graciously intends to make further use of
me. The losses we have sustained amount to upwards of £300. We shall
move the more lightly now that we can put all our goods into one waggon."
After some detention at Kuruman, Livingstone proceeded in a N.N.W.
direction across the desert towards Linyanti, the capital of the Makololo,
though by a different route from that taken on previous journeys, in order to
avoid the tsetse. This new path brought him into a densely-wooded coun-
try, where, to his great surprise, he found vines growing luxuriantly, and
yielding clusters of dark-purple grapes. " The necessity," says tlie traveller,
"of making a new j^ath very mucli increased our toil; we were, however,
rewarded with a sight we had not enjoyed the year before — namely, lai'ge
patches of grape-bearing vines. Here they stood before my eyes ; but the
sight was so entirely unexpected that I stood some time gazing at the clus-
ters of grapes with which they were loaded, with no more thought of pluck-
ing than if I had been beholding them in a dream. The Bushmen know
and eat them ; but they are not well-flavoured on account of the great astrin-
gency of the seeds, which are, in shape and size, like split peas. The ele-
phants are fond of the fruit, plant, and root alike." It was a weary journey
both for man and beast, as the grass was from eight to ten feet high, and
our traveller was compelled to perform the double duty of driver and road-
maker; "having," as he tells us, "either the axe or the whip in hand all
day long till we came to lat. 18° 4"." At this point he found himself ajjproach-
ing the Chobe ; but the state of things now differed widely from that which
existed on his former visit. Then the waters were at their lowest point, and
flowed in their ordinary channels, but now the country was flooded.
One evening he fell in with some Bushmen, from whom he learnt the
method by which they poison the arrows they use in the chase and in war.
" Our friends here," he says, " showed me the poison which they use on
these occasions. It is the entrails of a caterpillar called N'gwa, half an inch
long. They squeeze out these, and nlace them all I'ound the bottom of the
44 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
barb, and allow the poison to dry in the sun. They are very careful in
cleaning their nails after working with it, as a small portion introduced into
a scratcli acts like morbid matter in dissection wounds. The agony is so
great that the person cuts himself, calls for his mother's breast, as if he were
returned in idea to his childhood again, or flies from human habitations a
raging maniac. The effects on the lion are equally terrible. He is heard
moaning in distress, and becomes furious, biting the trees and ground in
,rage.
" As the Bushmen have the reputation of curing the wounds of this
poison, I asked how this was effected. They said that they administer the
caterpillar itself in combination with fat ; they rub fat into the wound, saying
that ' the N'gwa wants fat, and when it does not find it in the body, kills
the man ; we give it what it wants, and it is content' — a reason which will
commend itself to the enlightened among ourselves. The poison more gene-
rally employed is the milky juice of the tree Euphorbia (E. arborescens).
This is particularly obnoxious to the equine race. When a' quantity is mixed
with the water of a pond a whole herd oi' zebras will fall dead with the effects
of the poison before they have moved away two miles. It does not, however,
kill oxen or men. On them it acts as a drastic purgative only. This substance
is used all over the country, though in some cases the venom of serpents and
a certain bulb, Amaryllis toxicaria, are added, in order to increase the virulence.
Father Pedro, a Jesuit, who lived at Zumbo, made a balsam, containing a
number of plants and castor oil, as a remedy for poisoned arrow-wounds. It
is probable that he derived his knowledge from the natives as I did, and that
the reputed efficacy of the balsam is owing to its fatty constituent. In cases
of the bites of serpents," £i small key ought to be jDressed down firmly on the
wound, the orifice of the key being applied to the juncture ; until a cupping-
glass can be got from one of the natives. A watch-key pressed firmly on the
point stung by a scorpion extracts the poison ; and a mixture of fat and oil,
and ipecacuanha, relieves the pain."
The difficulties of the journey were now increased by the sudden illness
of all the attendants save one lad. Our traveller had therefore to work his
way to Linyanti almost unassisted, being compelled to leave invalids and
waggon behind. But he had a brave heart, and went forward. Having,
with some difficulty, crossed the smallest of these streams, he and his com-
panions reached the Sanshureh, half-a-mile broad, and abounding with hippo-
potami. Embarking in a small pontoon, which he had brought with him
from Cape Town, he proceeded across the flooded country in search of the
Chobe. After " splashing," as he terms it, " through twenty miles of an inun-
dated plain," he climbed some high trees, and was gladdened by a sight of the
much-desired river ; but, on approaching it, he found it a broad chevaux-de-
frise of papyrus, reeds, and other aquatic plants, interlaced with a creeper
ARRl VAL AT LIN YANTL 45
resembling the convolvulus, which rendered the Chobe almost unapproachable.
" It was not the reeds alone," he says, " we had to pass through ; a peculiar
serrated grass, which at certain angles cuts the hands like a razor, was mingled
with the reed, and the climbing convolvulus, with stalks which felt as strong as
whipcord, bound the mass together. We felt like pigmies in it, and often
the only way we could get on was by both of us leaning against a part, and
bending it down till we could stand upon it. The perspiration streamed off
our bodies, and as the sun rose high, there being no ventilatioir among the
reeds, the heat was stifling, and the water, which was up to the knees, feft
agreeably refreshing. After some hours' toil we reached one of the islands.
Here we met an old friend, the bramble-bush. My strong moleskins wore
quite worn through at the knees, and the leather trousers of my companion
were torn, and his legs bleeding. Tearing my handkerchief in two, I tied the
pieces round my knees, and then encountered another difficulty. We were
still forty or fifty j^ards from the clear water, but now we were opposed by
great masses of papyrus, which are like palms in miniature, eight or ten feet
high, and an inch and a half in diameter. These were laced together by twin-
ing convolvulus, so strongly, that the weight of both of us could not make
way into the clear water."
Three days were thus spent among that mass of reeds ; but, though
constantly wading, and wet up to the middle, he slept soundly at night ; and
on the fourth day was rewarded by reaching the river, and launching the
pontoon upon its bosom. Joyfully embarking in this frail craft, they paddled
down the Chobe about twenty miles, when they arrived at a village of the
Makololo. The natives stood aghast at this apparition. Intrenched, as they
supposed, by their rivers, they believed themselves ^unapproachable. Living*
stone's sudden arrival, therefore, was a great marvel to them, and the
achievement greatly exalted him in their eyes. "He has dropped among us,"
they exclaimed, " from the clouds, yet came riding on the back of a hij^po-
potamus (the pontoon). We Makololo thought no one could cross the Chobe
without our knowledge, but here he drops among us like a bird." In the
course of a few days, some of the head men of the Makololo came down
from Linyanti, with' a large party of Barotse, to take the traveller and his
party across the river. This they did in fine style, swimming and diving
among the oxen more like alligators than men; and taking the waggons to
pieces, and carrying them across on a number of canoes lashed together.
They were now in the midst of friends ; so, going about thirty miles to the
north, to avoid the still flooded lands on the north of the Chobe, they turned
westwards towards Linyanti.
The welcome Livingstone received at Linyanti was such as is given to
their highest chief. The whole population turned out en masse to see the
^waggons in motion. Sekeletu, the son, and in consequence of his sister's
4G STANLEY AND AFRICA.
abdication, successor of Sebituane, then only nineteen years of age, was
especially delighted. " I have now got another father," he said, " instead
of Sebituane." The court herald, an old man who occupied the post also in
Sebituane's time, stood up, and after some antics, such as leaping, and shout-
ing at the top of" his voice, roared out some adulatory sentences, as " Don't
I see the white man ? Don't I see the comrade of Sebituane ? Don't I see
the father of Sebituane ?" The people generally shared this feeling. The
idea seemed universal, that, with a missionary, some great, indefinite good
had arrived. Many expected to be elevated at once to a condition equal to
that of the Bakwains and inhabitants of Kuruman, of which they had
received very exaggerated accounts ; others imagined that they would very
soon be transformed into civilised men, possessing the clothes, horses, arms,
waggons, etc., of Europeans. We cannot enter into all the details of this
visit to Linyanti. There were some circumstances, however, which deserve
notice. There was a pretender to the chieftainship, from whose designs
Sekeletu apprehended danger ; and the sequel showed that there were solid
reasons for this fear. Having positively prohibited the sale of children,
Sekeletu's rival clandestinely brought a slave-trading party of Mambari into
his dominions, and received from them as a reward a small cannon. Armed
with this formidable instrument of death, and now confident of wresting the
power from its rightful possessor, he came to the jjlace where Sekeletu and
Livingstone were, having arranged with his followers that, while holding a
conference with the chief, they should, at a given signal, ham-string him
with a battle-axe. Without being aware of the conspiracy, the presence of
Livingstone, as he walked by the side of Sekeletu, jDroved the means of frus-
trating it ; and some of the conspirators during the same evening disclosed it
to the chief, who, satisfied with, the guilt of the pretender, ordered his imme-
diate execution.
It was a source of no ordinary satisfaction to Livingstone that his pre-
sence and influence at Linyanti effectually frustrated the purpose of others
who had come from the west to purchase slaves, and some of whom, hearing
that he had crossed the Chobe, fled back to their country with precipitation.
He also succeeded in restraining the Makalolo from attacking a stockade in
the valley of the Barotse, within which some slave-traders had entrenched
themselves, aud the consequences of which attack must have jjroved fatal to
many. Shortly after his return to Linyanti he was attacked by fever, when
his hosts exhibited the interest they felt for him by paying him every atten-
tion in their power. " Anxious," he says, " to ascertain whether the natives
possessed the knowledge of any remedy of which we were ignorant, I
requested the assistance of one of Sekeletu's doctors. He put some roots
into a pot with water, and, when it was boiling, placed it on a spot beueatli
a blanket, thrown around both me and it. Tiiis produced no immediate
MAKOLOLO HUTS. 47
effect ; he then got a small bundle of different kinds of medicinal woods, and,
burning them in a potsherd nearly to ashes, used the smoke and liot vapour
arising from them as an auxiliary to the other, in causing perspiration. I
fondly hoped that they had a more patent remedy than our own medicines
afford ; but, after being otewed in their vapour baths, smoked like a red her-
ring over green twigs, and charmed secundem artem, I concluded that I could
cui'e the fever more quickly than they can." He soon discovered that his
own remedies of a wet slieet and quinine were more successful than tha
smoke and vapour baths employed by the natives.
Having recovered from his fever, Livingstone, accompanied by Sekeletu
and about one hundred and sixty attendants, mostly young men, associates
of the chief, set out for Sesheke. The intermediate country was perfectly
flat, except patches elevated a few feet only above the surrounding level.
There were also numerous mounds, the work of termites, gigantic structures,
in which often the wild date trees were seen growing. The party looked
exceedingly picturesque as, the ostrich-feathers of the men waving in the
air, they wound in a long line in and out among the mounds. Some wore
red tunics, or variously-coloured prints, and their heads were adorned with
the white end of ox-tails or caps made of lions' manes. The nobles walked
with a small club of rhinoceros-horn in their hands, their servants carrying
shields, while the ordinary men bore burdens, and the battle-axe men, who
had their own shields on their arms, were employed as messengers, often hav-
ing to run an immense distance. Livingstone and Sekeletu had each a little
gipsy tent in which they slept. In some villages, the mice ran over their
faces and disturbed their sleep, or hungry prowling dogs would eat their shoes
and leave only the soles. At such times, they got the loan of a hut. The
best sort of Makololo huts consist of three circular walls, with small holes as
doors, each similar to that in a dog-house ; and it is necessary to bend down
the body to get in, even when on all-fours. The roof is formed of reeds or
straight sticks, in shape like a Chinaman's hat, bound firudy together with
circular bands, which are lashed with the strong inner bark of the mimosa-
tree. Whsn all prepared except the thatch it is lifted on to the circular wall,
the rim resting on a circle of poles, between each of which the third wall is
built. The roof is thatched with fine grass, and sewed with the same material
as the lashings ; and, as it jjrojects far beyond the wall, and reaches within
four feet of the ground, the shade is the best to be found in the country.
These huts are very cool in the hottest day, but are close in the night.
Reaching the village of Katonga, above Sesheke, on the bauks of the
Leeambye, some time was spent there in collecting canoes. During this
delay, Livingstone visited the country north of the village, where he saw
great numbers of buffaloes, zebras, elands, and a beautiful small antelope,
called the tiantjane. " This antelppe stands about eighteen inches high, is very
48 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
graceful in its movements, and utters a cry of alarm not unlike that of the
domestic fowl ; it is of a brownish-red colour on the sides and back, with the
belly and lower part of the tail white ; it is very timid, but the maternal
affection that the little thing bears to its young will often induce it to offer
battle even to a man apjjroaching it. When the young one is too tender to
run about with the dam, she puts one foot on the prominence about the
seventh cervical vertebra, or withers, the instinct of the young enables it to
understand that it is now required to kneel down, and to remain quite still
till it hears the bleating of its dam. If you see an otherwise gregarious she
antelope separated from the herd, and going alone anywhere, you may be
sure she has laid her little one to sleep in some cosy spot. The colour of the
hair in the young is better adapted for assimilating it with the ground than
that of the older animals, which do not need to be screened from the obser-
vation of birds of prey."
A sufficient number of canoes being at length collected, Livingstone and
his party commenced the ascent of the river. Although the rude children of
nature who dwelt there could but imperfectly estimate the importance to them
and to future generations of the object of their visitor, they regarded all his
movements with extraordinary interest. Upon the banks of the noble stream
many of them were gathered, watching with extravagant gesticulations and
discordant cries, the fleet which rendezvoused upon its waters. There,
beneath the bright sky of the tropics, thirty-three canoes, manned by one
hundred and sixty rowers, were awaiting the signal for their departure. Our
traveller having had the choice of this fleet, selected one twenty inches in
width and thirty-four feet long, with six experienced and athletic rowers.
Though the river rolled down in ample volume against them, no sooner was
the word of command given, than they swept through it at a rate which
showed that the skill and strength of these inland mariners were more than
equal to the force.
As they proceeded up the river, Livingstone was filled with admiration
at its magnificence and beauty. " It is often," he writes, " more than a mile
broad, and adorned with numerous islands, of from three to five miles in
length. These, and the banks too, "are covered with forests, and most of the
trees on the brink of the water send down roots from their branches like the
banian. The islands at a little distance seemed rounded masses of sylvan
vegetation of various hues, reclining on the bosom of the glorious stream.
Tlie beauty of the scene is greatly increased by the date palm and lofty
palmyra towering over tlie rest, and casting their feathery foliage against a
cloudless sky. The banks are rocky and undulating, and many villages of
the Banyeti, a poor, but industrious people, are situated upon both of them.
They are expert hunters of hippopotami and other animals, and cultivate
grain extensively."
THE MAKOLOLO PEOPLE. 49
Speakir.g of the population of this district, Livingstone says, "The
majority of the real Makololo have been cut off by fever. Those who remain
are a mere fragment of the people who came to the north with Sebituane.
Migrating from a very healthy climate in t^e south, they were more subject
to the febrile diseases of the valley in which we found them, than tlie black
tribes they conquered. In comparison with the Barotse, Batoka, and Banyeti,
the Makololo have a sickly hue. They are of a light-brownish yellow colour,
while the tribes referred to are very dark, with a slight tinge of olive. The
whole of the coloured tribes consider that beauty and fairness are asso-
ciated, and women long for children of light colour so much, that they some-
times chew the bark of a certain tree in hopes of producing that effect. To
my eye the dark colour is much more agreeable than the tawny hue of the
half-caste, which that of the Makololo ladies closely resembles. The women
generally escaped the fever, but they are less fruitful than formerly, and,
to their complaint of being undervalued on account of the disproportion of the
sexes, they now add their regrets at the want of children, of whom they are
all excessively fond.
" The Makololo women work but little. Indeed the families of tliat nation
are spread over the country, one or two only in each village, as the lords of
the land. They all have lordship over great numbers of subjected tribes,
who pass by the general name Makalaka, and who are forced to render cer-
tain services, and to aid in tilling the soil ; but each has his own land under
cultivation, and otherwise lives nearly independent. They are proud to be
called Makololo, but the other term is often used in rejDroach, as betokening
inferiority. This species of servitude may be turned serfdom, as it has to be
rendered in consequence of subjection by force of arms, but it is necessarily
very mild. It is so easy for any one who is unkindly treated to make his
escape to other tribes, that the Makololo are compelled to treat them, to a
great extent, rather as children than slaves. Some masters, who fail from
defect of temper or disposition to secure the affections of the conquered
people frequently find themselves left without a single servant, in consequence
of the absence and impossibility of enforcing a fugitive slave law, and the
readiness with which those who are themselves subjected assist the fugitives
across the rivers in canoes. The Makololo ladies are liberal in their presents
of milk and other food, and seldom require to labour, except in the way of
beautifying their huts and court-yards. They drink large quantities of boy-
aloa, or o-alo, the buza of the Arabs, which, being made of the grain called
holcus sorghum, or " durasaifi," in a minute state of subdivision, is very nutri-
tious, and gives that plumpness of form which is considered beautiful. They
dislike being seen at their potations by persons of the opposite sex. They
cut their woolly hair quite short, and delight in having the whole person
,shining with butter. Their dress is a kilt reaching to the knees ; its material
7
50 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
is ox-hide, made as soft as cloth. It is not ungraceful. A soft skin mantle
is thiov/n across the shoulders when the lady is unemployed, but when
engaged in any sort of labour she throws this aside, and works in the kilt
alone. Tlie ornaments most coveted are large brass anklets as thick as the
little finger, and armlets of both brass and ivory, the latter often an inch
broad. The rings are so heavy that the ankles are often blistered by the
weight pressing down ; but it is the fashion, borne as magnanimously as tight
shoes among ourselves. Strings of beads are hung around the neck, and the
fashionable colours being light green and pink, a trader could get almost any
thing he chose for beads of these colours.
" The Makololo are in the habit of shaving off a little from one side of
the horns of their cattle when still growing, in order to make them curve
in that direction, and assume fantastic shapes. The stranger the curvature,
the more handsome the ox is considered to be, and the longer this ornament
of the cattle-pen is spared to beautify the herd. This is a very ancient
custom in Africa, for the tributary tribes of Ethiopia are seen on some of the
most ancient Egyptian monuments bringing contorted-horued cattle into
Egypt.
" All are remarkably fond of their cattle, and spend much time in orna-
menting and adorning them. Some are branded all over with a hot knife,
so as to cause a permanent discolouration of the hair, in lines like the bands
on the hide of a zebra. Pieces of skin two or three inches long and broad
are detached, and allowed to heal in a dependent position around the head —
a strange style of ornament ; indeed, it is difficult to conceive in what their
notion of beauty consists. The women have somewhat the same ideas with
ourselves of what constitutes comeliness. They came frequently and asked
for the looking-glass ; and the remarks they made while I was engaged in
reading, and apparently not attending to them, on first seeing themselves
therein, were amusingly ridiculous. ' Is that me ?' ' What a big mouth I
have !' ' My ears are as big as pumpkin leaves.' ' I have no chin at all ! Or,
' I should have been pretty, but am spoiled by these high cheek bones.' ' See
how my head shoots wp in the middle !' laughing vociferously all the time at
their own jokes. They readily jDerceive any defect in each other, and give
nick-names accordingly. One man came alone to have a quiet gaze at his
own features once, when he thought I was asleep : after twisting his mouth
about in various directions, he remarked to himself, ' People say I am ugly,
and how very ugly I am indeed.'
" The Makololo use all the skins of their oxen for making either mantles
or shields. For the former, the hide is stretched out by means of pegs, and
dried. Ten or a dozen men then collect round it with small adzes, which,
when sharpened with an iron bodkin, are capable of shaving off the substance
of the skin on the fleshy side until it is quite thin ; when sufficiently thin, a
THE COUNTRY OF THE BAROTSE. 5t
quantity of brain is smeared over it, and some thick milk. Then an instru-
ment made of a number of iron spikes tied round a piece of wood, so tluit the
points only project beyond it, is applied to it in a carding fashion, until the
fibres of the bulk of it are quite loose. Milk or butter is applied to it again,
and it forms a garment nearly as soft as cloth.
' " The shields are made of hides partially dried in the sun, and then
beaten with hammers until they are stiff and dry. Two broad belts of a dif-
ferently-coloured skin are sewed into them longitudinally, and sticks inserted
to make them rigid and not liable to bend easily. The shield is a great pro-
tection in their way of fighting with spears, but they also trust largely to
their agility in springing aside from the coming javelin. The shield assists
when so many spears are thrown that it is impossible not to receive some of
them. Their spears are light javelins, and, judging from what I have seen
them do in elephant-hunting, I believe, when they have room to make a run
and discharge them with the aid of the jerk of stopping, they can throw
between forty and fifty yards. They give them an upward direction in the
discharge, so that they come down on the object with accelerated force. I
saw a man who in battle had received one in the shin ; the excitement of the
moment prevented his feeling any pain ; but, when the battle was over, the
blade was found to have sjDlit the bone, and became so impacted in the cleft
that no force could extract it. It was necessary to take an axe and press the
split bone asunder before the weapon could be taken out."
Amidst the beautiful scenery of the Leeambye, Livingstone pursued his
course on the first day, about fifty miles. Not far, however, above the
starting place, the bed of the river began to be rocky, forming a succession
of rapids and cataracts up to lat. 16°, two of which are dangerous. North of
this point the river passed through the country of the Barotse, which stretches
about one hundred miles north and south, and is bounded by two ranges of
hills which bend away from the river N.N.E. and N.N.W., until they are
from twenty to thirty miles apart. The intervening country is annually
overflowed, but, as the waters never rise above ten feet, the natives have
formed numerous mounds, upon which they build their.,villages and pasture
their cattle. The capital of this country, called Naliele, and containing
about a thousand inhabitants, stands upon one of these artificial elevations.
At the time of Livingstone's visit, the stream ran low, and the valley was
covered with coarse succulent grasses twelve feet high, and as thick as a
man's thumb, upon which he saw in every direction lai-ge herds of cattle
grazing. On visiting the higher lands, which form the boundaries of tlie
valle}', he found them covered with trees and gardens, which the industrious
natives had filled with sugar-cane, sweet potato, manioc, yam, bananas,
millet, etc. On the lower grounds, when the waters retire, they raise large
quantities of maize and Caffre corn. These productions, with abundance of
62 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
milk and fish, give to the Barotse country great celebrity as a land of plenty.
But, alas ! it is also a land of death.
The previously unknown region through which we have now been
tracking our traveller's course, like a large portion of the country watered by
the same noble river, abounds with game. Eighty-one buffaloes defiled in
slow procession before the fire of the travellers one evening within gunshot,
and herds of splendid elands stood at two hundred yards' distance, without
showing signs of fear. Lions, too, approached and roared at them. One
night, as they were sleeping on the summit of a large sand-bank a lion
appeared on the opposite shore, who amused himself for hours by roaring as
loudly as he could. The river was too broad for a ball to reach him, and he
walked off without suffering for his imjDcrtinence. Wherever the game
abounds, these animals exist in ^proportionate numbers. Birds are in great
numbers on the river, and the sand-martins never leave it.
A party of Arabs from Zanzibar were in the country at this time; and
two of them visited Livingstone at his camp. " They were quite as dark as
the Makololo," he says, " but, having their heads shaved I could not compare
their hair with that of the inhabitants of the country. When we were about
to leave they came to bid adieu, but I asked them to stay and help us to eat
our ox. As they had scruples about eating an animal not blooded in their
own way, I gained their goodwill by saying, I was quite of their opinion as
to getting rid of the blood, and gave them two legs of an animal slaughtered
by themselves. They professed the greatest detestation of the Portuguese,
because they eat pigs ; and dislike the English, because they thrash them for
selling slaves." On j^artiug with his Arab friends, Livingstone visited the
town of Ma-Sekeletu, or the mother of Sekeletu, where, as it was the first
visit the king had paid to this part of his dominions, he was received with
every appearance of joy. The head men of each village presented oxen,
milk, and beer, more than could be devoured. The people usually slrow their
joy, and work off their excitement in dances and songs. The dance consists
of the men standing nearly naked in a circle, with clubs or small battle-axes
in their hands, and each roaring at the loudest pitch of his voice, while they
simultaneously lift one leg, stamp heavily twice with it, then lift the other and
give one stanqj with that ; this is the only movement in common. Tlie arms
and head ax-e thrown about also in every direction ; and all this time the roar-
ing is kept up with the utmost possible vigour ; the continued stamping makes
a cloud of dust ascend, and they leave a deep ring in tlie ground where they
have stood. The women stand by, clapping their hands, and occasionally
one advances into the circle, composed of a hundred men, makes a few move-
ments and then retires.
Returning down the stream at a rapid rate, Livingstone, Sekeletu, and
their party, soon reached Linyanti. " I had been," remarks our traveller,
LIVINGSTONE DEPARTS FROM LINYANTI. 53
" during a nine weeks' tour, in closer contact with heathenism than I had ever
been before ; and though all, including the chief, were as kind and attentive
to me as possible, and there was no want of food (oxen being slaughtered
daily, sometimes ten at a time, more than suflficient for the wants of all), yet
to endure the dancing, roaring, and singing, the jesting, anecdotes, grumbling,
quarrelling, and murdering, of these children of nature, seemed more like a
severe penance than anything I had before met with in the course of my
missionary duties. I took thence a more intense disgust at heathenism than
I had before, and formed a greatly elevated opinion of the latent effects of mis-
sions in the south, among tribes which are reported to have been as savage
as the Makololo. The indirect benefits, which to a casual observer lie beneath
the surface and are inappreciable, in reference to the probable wide diffusion
of Christianity at some future time, are worth all the money and labour that
have been expended to produce them."'
On resuming his temporary residence at Linyanti, Livingstone did what
he could for the instruction of the Makololo. Amongst other things, he
endeavoured to induce some of them to learn to read. But this acquisition
appeared to them something supernatural. Long and profound, therefore,
were the solemn deliberations held to consider the proposal. At length it
was resolved that the experiment should be tried. Sekeletu's father-in-law
and his step-father were, therefore, appointed to acquire the marvellous art,
that, should any evil consequences result from it, their experience might
serve as a beacon to others. Although this plan showed the extreme of
African caution, these two pupils applied themselves so vigorously to the
task, that they, and others who followed their example, mastered the alphabet
perfectly in a single day.
Sekeletu and his followers agreed with Livingstone as to the desirableness
of his proposed expedition to the west, and took great pains to assist him in
the undertaking. Having ascertained the best route to Loanda, and made
all the preparations in his power for a journey so difficult and adventurous,
he only waited until the commencement of the rains would enable him to
proceed ujj the river. This period having arrived, on the tenth of November
1853, he bade farewell to the chief and people at Linyanti, with whom he
had now sojourned so long, and from whom he had received so much kind-
ness, and set out towards the north. As the natives who had accompanied
him from the Kuruman had suffered severely from fever, he deemed it
necessary for their safety to send them back to that station. But he had no
lack of willing and efficient attendants, as twenty-seven of the Barotse were
ready to accompany him. These men were not hired, but sent to enable
him to accomplish an object as much desired by the chief and most of his
people, as by Livingstone himself. They were eager to obtain free and
profitable trade with white men ; and this desire of theirs coincided exactly
54 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
with his own conviction, that no permanent elevation of a people can be
effected without commerce. What he thought and how he felt at this period,
tlie following extract from one of his letters will best show : — " I am again,
tlirough God's mercy and kindness, quite recovered from fever. I think 1
am rid of intermittent, too, and if spared will impart some knowledge of
Christ to many who never before heard his blessed name. There are many
and large tribes in the direction in which we go, all sitting in darkness and
the shadow of death. I hope God will, in mercy, permit me to establish the
gospel somewhere in this region, and that I may live to see the double influ-
ence of the spirit of commerce and Christianity employed to stay the bitter
fountain of Africaii misery."
On the 11th of November, 1853, he left the town of Linyanti, accompa-
nied by Sekeletu and his principal men, to embark on the Chobe. The spot
of embarkation was the identical island where he met Sebituane, first knoM'n
as the island of Maunku. " The Chobe is much infested by hippopotami; and
as certain elderly males are expelled the herd, they become soured in their
temper, and so misanthropic as to attack every canoe that passes near them.
The herd is never dangerous, except when a canoe passes into the midst of it
when all are asleep, and some of them may strike the canoe in terror. To
avoid this, it is genei'ally recommended to travel by day near the bank, and
b}' night in the middle of the stream. As a rule, these animals flee at the
approach of man. The ' solitaires,' however, frequent certain localities well
known to the inhabitants on the banks, and, like the rogue elephants, are
extremel}' dangerous." The part of the river called Zabesa, or Zabenza, the
travellers found spread out like a little lake, surrounded on all sides by
dense masses of tall reeds. The river below that, is always one hundred or
one hundred and twenty yards broad, deep, and never dries up so much as to
become fordable. At certain parts, where the partial absence of reeds affords
a view of the opposite banks, the Makololo have placed villages of observation
against their enemies, the Matebele. The banks of the Chobe, like those of
the Zouga, are of soft calcareous tufa, and the river has cut out for itself a
deep, jjerpendicular-sided bed.
Among the trees on the banks of the river are various light-green-
coloured acacias, the splendid motsintsela, and evergreen cyjjress-shaped
motsouri. The motsintsela is a very lofty tree, yielding a wcod of which
good canoes are made ; the fruit is nutritious and good, but, like many wild
fruits of the country, the fleshy parts require to be enlarged by cultivation,
as it is nearly all stone. The motsouri bears beautiful jiink-coloured plums,
which are chiefly used to form a pleasant acid drink. The course of the river
is so extremely tortuous that it carries the voyager on it to all points of the
compass every dozen miles. It took Livingstone and his men forty-two hours
and a half, paddling at the rate of five miles an hour, to go from Lin3anti to
PROGliESS UP THE LEEAMBYE. 55
the confluence of the Chobe and the Leeambye. After spending one night at
the Makololo village on MjDaria, they left the Chobe, and turning round
began to ascend the Leeambye, reaching, on the nineteenth, the town of
Scsheke.
There is no stated day of rest in any part of this country, except the
day after the appearance of the new moon, and the people then refrain only
from going to their gardens. A curious custom, not to be found among the
Bechuanas, prevails among the black tribes beyond them. They Avatch most
eagerly for the first glimpse of the new moon^ and, when they perceive the
faint outline after the sun has set deep in the west, they utter a loud shout
of " Kua !" and vociferate prayers to it. Livingstone gave many public
addresses to the people of Sesheke ; the congregations often amounting to
between five and six hundred souls. They were always very attentive ;
sometimes putting sensible questions on the subjects brought before them, at
other times introducing the most frivolous nonsense, immediately after hear-
ing the most solemn truths.
Their progress up the Leeambye was rather slow, which was caused, to a
great extent, by waiting opposite different villages for supplies of food. The
villages of the Banyeti contributed large quantities of mosibe, a bright-red
bean, yielded by a large tree. The pulp which encloses the seed is not much
thicker than a red wafer, and is the portion used. It requires the addition
of honey to render it at all palatable. Here they found several fresh varieties
of fruit. One, resembling a large yellow orange, and yielding, in the rind
and pips, a portion of nux vomica. The pulp between the pips is the part
eaten, and it is of a pleasant juicy nature, having a sweet acidulous taste. A
much better fruit is the mobola, which bears, around a large stone, as much
of the fleshy part as the common date. It is sweet, and has the flavour of
strawberries, with a touch of nauseousuess. The most delicious fruit of all is
the mamosho, or " mother of morning." It is about the size of a walnut, and,
unlike most of the other uncultivated fruits, has a seed no larger than that of
a date. The fleshy part is juicy, and somewhat like the cashew-apple, with
a pleasant acidity added.
Among the forest trees which line the banks of the rocky parts of the
Leeambye, several new birds were observed. Some are musical, and the
songs are pleasant in contrast with the harsh voice of the little green, yellow-
shouldered parrots of the country. Tliere are also great numbers of jet-
black weavers, with a yellowish-brown baud on the shoulders. " Here we
saw," says Livingstone, "for the first lime, a pretty little bird, coloured
dark-blue, except the wings and tail, which were of a chocolate hue. From
the tail two feathers are prolonged beyond the rest six inches. Also little
birds, coloured white and black, of great vivacity, and always in companies
of six or eight together, and various others. From want of books of reference,
56 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
I could not decide whether they were actually new to science. Francolins
and guinea-fowl abound along the banks ; and on every dead tree and piece
of rock may be seen one or two species of the web-footed Plotus, darter, or
snake-bird. They sit most of the day sunning themselves over the stream,
sometimes standing erect, with their wings outstretched ; occasionally they may
be seen engaged in fishing by diving, and, as they swim about, their bodies are
so much submerged, that hardly anytliing appears above the water but their
necks. Their chief time of feeding is by night, and, as the sun declines, they
may be seen in flocks flying from their roosting-places to the fishing grounds.
This is a most difficult bii'd to catch when disabled. It is thoroughly expert
in diving — goes down so adroitly, and comes up again in the most unlikely
places, that the people, though most skilful in the management of the canoes,
can rarely secure them. The rump of the darter is remarkably prolonged,
and capable of being bent, so as to act both as a rudder in swimming, and as
a lever to lift the bird high enough out of the water to give free scope to its
wings. It can rise at will from the water by means of this appendage.
" The fine fish-hawk, with white head and neck and reddish-chocolate-
coloured body, may also frequently be seen perched on the trees, and fish
are often found dead, which have fallen victims to its talons. One most
frequently seen in this condition is itself a destroyer of fish. It is a stout-
bodied fish, about fifteen or eighteen inches long, of a light-yellow colour, and
gaily ornamented with stripes and spots. It has a most imposing array of
sharp, conical teeth outside the lips — objects of dread to the fishermen, for it
can use them effectually. One, which we picked up dead, had killed itself
by swallowing ano*^her fish, which, though too large for its .stomach and
throat, could not be disgorged. This fish-hawk generally kills more prey
than it can devour. It eats a portion of the back of the fish, and leaves the
rest for the Barotse, who often had a race across the river when they saw an
abandoned morsel lying on the opjiosite sand-banks. The hawk is, however,
not always so generous ; for, as I myself was a witness on the Zouga, it
sometimes plunders the purse of the pelican. Soaring over head, and seeing
this large, stupid bird fishing beneath, it watches till a fine fish is safe in the
pelican's pouch ; then descending, not quickly, but with considerable noise of
wing, the pelican looks up to see what is the matter ; and, as the hawk comes
near, he supposes that he is about to be killed, and roars out ' Murder !' The
opening of his mouth enables the hawk to whisk the fish out of the i30uch,
upon which the pelican does not fly away, but commences fishing again; the
fright having probably made him forget he ever had anything in his purse."
On the 30th of November, Livingstone reached Gonye Falls. No rain
had fallen, so it was excessively hot. The trees had put on their gaj-est dress,
and many flowers adorned the landscape ; yet the heat made all the leaves
droop and look languid. The atmosphere was oppressive, botli in cloud and
THE FALLS OF GONYE. 57
sunshine, so that all the travellers felt great lassitude. The men, however,
paddled away most vigorously; the Barotse, being a tribe of boatmen, have
deeply-developed chests and shoulders. The falls of Gonye have not been
made by wearing back, like those of Niagara, but arc of a fissure form. For
many miles below, the river is confined in a narrow space of not more than
one hundred yards wide. The water goes boiling along, and gives the idea
of great masses of it rolling over and over, so that even the most expert swim-
mer would find it difficult to keep on the surface. The river rises at this
part, when in flood, fifty or sixty feet in perpendicular height. The islands
above the falls are covered with beautiful foliage, and the scenery altogether
is of the loveliest character. The peojjle of every village treated them most
liberally, presenting, besides oxen, butter, milk, and meal, more than they
could stow away in their canoes. At Libonta they were detained for days
together, collecting contributions of fat and butter, according to the orders of
Sekeletu, as presents to the Balonda chiefs. Libonta is the last town of tlio
Makololo ; when they left it, therefore, they had only a few cattle-stations and
an outlying hamlet in front, and then an uninhabited border country till
they came to Londa. After tliey had gone thirty or forty miles above Libonta,
Livingstone sent an explanatory message to the chief resident westward, called
Makoma. This caused them some delay ; but as they were loaded with pre-
sents of food from the Makololo, and the Avild animals were in enormous herds,
they fared sumptuously.
" We spent a Sunday," says Livingstone, " on our way up to the con-
fluence of the Leeba and Leeambye. Rains had fallen here before we came,
and the woods had put on their gayest hue. Flowers of great beauty and
curious forms grow everywhere ; they are unlike those in the south, and so
are the trees. Many of the forest-tree leaves are palmated and largely
developed ; the trunks are covered with lichens, and the abundance of ferns
which appear in the woods, shows we are in a more humid climate than any
to the south of the Barotse valley. The ground begins to swarm with insect
life ; and in the cool, pleasant mornings, the welkin rings with the singing of
birds, which is not so delightful as the notes of birds at home, because I have
not been familiar with tliem from infancy. The notes here, however, strike
the mind by their loudness and variety, as the wellings forth from joyous
hearts, of praise to Him who fills them with overflowing gladness. All of us
rise early to enjoy the luscious balmy air of the morning. We tlieu have
worship ; but amidst all the beauty and loveliness with which we are sur-
rounded, there is still a feeling of want in the soul in viewing one's poor com-
panions, and hearing bitter impure words jarring on the ear in the perfection
of the scenes of nature, and a longing that both their hearts and ours might
be brought into harmony with the Grreat Father of Spirits. I pointed out, in
as usual the simplest words I could employj the remedy which God has pre-
53 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
sented to us, iu the inexpressibly precious gift of His own Son, on whom Iho
Lord ' laid the iniquity of us all.' ''
On the 27tli of December, Livingstone reached the confluence of the
Leeba and Leeambye ; and now began to ascend the former river, directing
his course north-west towards Loanda in Angola. The water of the Leeba
he found of a dark colour, flowing placidly, and receiving numbers of small
rivulets from both sides. He passed trees covered with a profusion of the
freshest foliage, and that seemed planted in groups of such pleasant and
graceful outline, that art could give no additional charm. The grass, which
had been burned off and was growing again after the rains, was short and
green, and all the scenery was like that of a carefully-tended gentleman's
park. There were many beautiful flowers, and j^lenty of honey in the woods.
One tree in flower brought the pleasant fragrance of hawthorn-hedges back
to memory ; its leaves, flowers, perfume, and fruit, resembled those of the
hawthorn, only the flowers were as large as dog-roses, and the " haws" like
bo}s' marbles. The climbing plants displayed great vigour of growth. The
maroro was abundant in many parts ; it is a small bush, with a yellow, whole-
some fruit, sweet in taste, and full of seeds, like the custard-ajDple.
" On the 28th," our traveller says, " we slept at a spot on the rigiit bank,
from which had just emerged two broods of alligators. We had seen many
young ones as we came up, so this seems to be their time of coming forth from
their nests, for we saw them sunning themselves on sandbanks in company
with the old ones. We made our fire in one of the deserted nests, which
were strewed all over with the broken shells. At the Zouga we saw sixty
eggs taken out of one such nest alone. They were about the size of those of
a goose, only the eggs of tlie alligator are of the same diameter at both ends ;
and the white shell is partially elastic, from having a strong internal mem-
brane and but little lime in its composition. The distance from the water
was about ten feet, and there were evidences of the same place having been
used for a similar purj^ose in former years. A broad path led up from the
water to the nest ; antl the dam, it was said by my companions, after deposit-
ing the eggs, covers them up, and returns afterwards to assist the young out
of their place of confinement and out of the &gg. She leads them to the edge
of the water, and then leaves them to catch small fish for themselves. Assist-
ance to come forth seems necessary, for here, besides the tough membrane of
the shell, they had four inches of earth upon them, but they do not require
immediate aid for food, because they retain a portion of yolk, equal to that
of a hen's egg, in a membrane in the abdomen, as a stock of nutriment while
only beginning Independent existence by catching fish. Fish is the principal
food of both small and large, and they are much assisted iu catching them by
their broad scaly tails.
" Sometimes an alligator, viewing a man in the water from the opposite
A LLIGA TORS A ND THEIR YO UNG. 59
bank, rushes across the stream witli wonderful agility, as is seen by the liigli
rijjple he makes on the surface, caused by his ra2)id motion at the bottom ;
but, in general, they act by stealth, sinking underneath as soon as they see
man. They seldom leave the Avatcr to catch jirey, but often come out by
day to enjoy tlic pleasure of basking in the sun. In walking along the
banks of the Zouga once, a small one, about three feet long, made a dash at
my feet, and caused me to rush quickly in another direction ; but tliis is
unusvud, for I never heard of a similar case. A wounded leche, chased into
any of the lagoons in the Barotse valley, or a man or dog going in for the
purpose of bringing out a dead one, is almost sure to bo seized, though the
alligators may not appear on the surfoce. AVhen employed in looking out
for food they keep out of sight ; they fish chiefly by night. When eating,
they make a loud cham2:)ing noise, which, when once heard, is never for-
gotten. The young, Avhich had come out of the nests where we spent the
night, did not appear wary ; they were about ten inches long, with yellow
eyes, and pupil merely a perpendicular slit. They were all marked with
transverse stripes of pale-green and brown, half an inch broad. When
speared, tliey bit the weapon savagely, though their teeth were but partially
developed, uttering at the same time a sharp bai-k, like that of a whelp when
it first begins to use its voice. I could not ascertain whether the dam devours
them, as reported, or whether the ichneumon has the same reputation here as
in Egypt. Probably the Barotse and Bayeiye would not look upon it as a
benefactor ; they prefer to eat the eggs themselves, and be their own ichneu-
mons. The white of the egg does not coagulate, but the yolk does, and this
is the only part eaten.
" As the population increases the alligators will decrease, for their nests
will be oftener found ; the principal check on their inordinate multiplication
seems to be man. They are more savage, and commit more mischief in the
Leeambye than in any other river. After dancing long in the moonlight
nights, young men run down to the water to wash off the dust, and cool
themselves before going to bed, and are thus often carried away. One won-
ders they are not afraid ; but the fact is, they have as little sense of danger
impending over them as the hare has when not actually pursued by the
hound ; and in rencontres, in which they escape, they had not time to be
afraid, and only laugh at the circumstance afterwards."
In due time, the party reached the Balonda country, and received,
among other visits, one from a chieftainess, called Manenko, a tall strajjping
woman, covered with ornaments, and smeared over with fat and red ochre as
a protection against the weather. She invited them to visit her uncle Shinte,
the chief of the country. On the 11th of January, ISo-l, they set out in the
midst of a heavy drizzling mist, conducted by the lady, who proceeeded in
the lighest marching order, and at a pace that few of the men could keep up
GO STANLEY AND AFRICA.
with. In admiration of her pedestrian powers they every now and then
remarked — " Manenko is a soldier." Some of the people in her train carried
shields composed of reeds, of a square form, five feet long and three broad.
With these, and armed with broad swords and quivers full of iron-headed
arrows, they looked somewhat ferocious. Most of the party were glad when,
at length, the chieftainess halted on the banks of a stream, and preparations
were made for their night's lodging.
The farther north they travelled the more dense became the forests ;
and they were oftener in the deep gloom than in open sunlight. No passage
existed on either side of the narrow path made by the axe. Large climbing
plants ent\vined themselves around the trunks and branches of gigantic trees
like boa-constrictors. As it was the rainy season, great quantities of mush-
rooms were met with, some of them as large as the crown of a hat. The
edible ones, which were white, were eagerly devoured ; while of those not edible
some were of a brilliant red and others light blue. There was considerable
pleasure, in spite of rain and fever, in this new scenery. The deeji gloom
contrasted strongly with the shadeless glare of the Kalahari. Every now
and then they emerged from the gloom into a pretty little valley. The num-
ber of small villages seemed about equal to the number of valleys. When
they decided to remain for the night at any village, the inhabitants lent them
the roofs of their huts, which in form resemble those of the Makololo, and
can be taken off the walls at pleasure. They lifted them ofi", and when
Livingstone's i^arty had propped them up with stakes, they were safely
housed for the night. Every one who came to salute Manenko or Living-
stone, rubbed the ujjper parts of the arms and chest with ashes ; and those
who wished to show more profound reverence to them, put some also on the
face.
After detaining them several days on the journey, Manenko accom-
panied them on foot to Shinte's town. The chief's place of audience was
ornamented by two graceful banian trees, beneath one of which he sat on a
throne covered with a sort of leopard's skin. He wore a checked shirt and
a kilt of scarlet baize, edged with green, numerous ornaments covering his
arms and legs, while on his head was a helmet of beads, crowned with a
great bunch of goose feathers. Close to him sat three lads, with large
sheaves of arrows over their shoulders. Livingstone took his seat under the
shade of a tree opposite to the chief, Avhile the spokesman of the party, who
had accompanied them, walking backwards and forwards, gave, in a loud voice,
an account of the traveller and his connection with the Makololo. Behind
Shinte sat about a hundred women, clothed in their best, which happened to
be a profusion of red baize. His chief wife, one of the Matebele, sat in front,
with a cuiious red cap on her head. During the intervals between the speeches,
these ladies burst forth into a sort of plaintive ditty ; every now and then
LIVINGSTONE'S RECEPTION BY SHINTE,
they expressed approbation by clapping their hands, and laughing to different
ispeakers.
The party was entertained by a band of musicians, consisting of tliree
drummers and four performers on the " marimba," a species of piano. " The
drums are neatly carved from the trunk of a tree, and have a small hole in
the side covered with a bit of spider's web ; the ends are covered with the
skin of an antelope pegged on ; and when they wish to tighten it they hold
it to the fire to make it contract ; the instruments are beaten with tlie hands.
The marimba consists of two bars of wood placed side by side, sometimes
quite straight, at others bent round so as to resemble half the tire of a carriage
wheel ; across these are placed about fifteen wooden keys, each of which is
two or three inches broad, and fifteen or eighteen inclies long ; their thick-
ness is regulated according to the deepness of the note I'equircd, each of the
keys having a calabash beneath ; from the upper part of each, a portion is cut
off to enable them to embrace the bars, and form hollow sounding-boards to
the keys, which also are of different sizes, according to the note required ;
and little drum sticks elicit the music. RajDidiLy of execution seems much
admired among them, and the music is pleasant to the ear. In Angola, the
Portuguese use the marimba in their dances."
After nine speakers had concluded their orations, Shinte stood uji, and
so did all the people. He had maintained true African dignity of manner all
the while, but scarcely ever took his eyes off Livingstone for a moment.
About a thousand people were present, and three hundred soldiers. The
next day, our traveller met Shinte by appointment, for the purpose of hold-
ing a friendly interview. The chief seemed in good humour, and said he
had expected yesterday " that a man who came from the gods, would have
approached and talked to him. The remark confirmed Livingstone's belief that
a frank, open, fearless manner, is the most winning with all these Africans."
One night Shinte sent for his visitor and presented him with a slave girl of
about ten years old, wishing him to accept her as a token of his regard. The
chief was greatly surprised to find his proffered gift respectfully declined,
lie was most anxious to see the pictures of the magic lantern which Living-
stone carried with him ; and gathered a great crowd of his principal men, and
court beauties, to witness the exhibition. The first j^icture exhibited was
Abraham about to slaughter his son Isaac ; it was as large as life, and the
uplifted knife was in the act of striking the lad : the Balonda men remarked
that the picture was much more like a god than the things of wood or clay
they worshipped. Livingstone explained that this man was the first of a race
to whom God had given the Bible, and that among his children our Saviour
appeared. The ladies listened with silent awe ; but, when he moved the slide,
the u^ilifted dagger moving towards them, they thought it was to be sheathed
in their bodies instead of Isaac's, and off' they rushed helter-skeltei', tumbling
0,2 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
pell-mell over each other, and, in spite of all entreaties, refusing to return.
Shinte, however, sat bravely through the whole, and afterwards examined the
instrument with interest. It was the only mode of instruction of which a
repetition was requested ; and the peojile came long distances, for the express
purj)Ose of seeing the objects and hearing the explanations.
Before leaving Shinte to prosecute his journey, the chief presented the
traveller with a shell, on which he set the greatest value, observing — " There,
How, you have a proof of my affection." These shells, as marks of distinction,
are so highly valued that two of them will j)urchase a slave and five elephants'
tusks, worth ten pounds. The chief also provided a guide, to conduct the
party to the territory of the next chief, Katema. He gave them, too, an
abundant supply of food ; and, sending eight men to assist in carrying the
luggage, wished them a prosperous journey. They had now to quit the
canoes and proceed, on ox-back, taking a northerly direction. The morning
after their departure they had a fine range of green hills on their right, and
were informed that they were rather thickly inhabited by the people of Shinte,
who worked in iron, the ore of which abounded in the neighbourhood. Every
valley contained a village of twenty or thirty huts, each hut having its garden
of manioc, or cassava, which here is looked upon as the staff of life. Very
little labour is required for its cultivation. The plant grows to a height of
six feet, and every part of it is useful ; the leaves may be cooked as a vege-
table. Tlie roots are from three to four inches in diameter, and fi'om twelve
to eighteen inches long. There are two varieties of manioc ; one sweet and
wholesome, the other bitter and containing poison, which tlie natives extract
by a process of partial decomposition.
In the deep, dark forests, near each village, they found idols intended to
represent the human head, or a lion, or a crooked stick smeared with medi-
cine, or simply a small pot of medicine in a little shed ; while, in the darker
recesses, they met with human faces cut in the bark of trees, the outlines of
which, with the beards, closely resembled those seen on Egyptian monuments.
Frequent cuts were made on the trees all along the path, and offerings of
small pieces of manioc roots, or ears of maize, were placed on branches. It
teemed as if the minds of the people were ever in doubt and dread in these
gloomy recesses of the forest, and that they were striving to jjropitiate, by
their offerings, some superior beings residing there.
The dress of the Balonda men consists of the softened skins of small
animals, as the jackal or wild cat, hung before and behind from a girdle round
the loins. They have a reraai'kable custom for cementing friendship. Taking
their seats ojiposite one to the other, with a vessel of beer by the side of each,
they clasp hands. 'Ihey then make cuts on their hands, the pits of their
stomachs, their foreheads, and right cheeks. The point of a blade of grass
is then pressed against the cuts, and afterwards each man washes it in his
LIVINGSTONE SUFFERS FROM FEVER. G3
own pot of beer; exchanging pots, tlie contents are drunk, so that each man
drinks the blood of the other. Thus they consider that they become blood
relations, and arc bound in every possible way to assist each otlier.
After several days' journeying, the travellers reached the town of Katema,
a powerful chief of that district. Tlie morning after their arrival, they had
a formal jDresentation, and found Katema seated on a sort of throne, with
about three hundred men on the ground around, and thirty Avomen, who were
said to be his wives, close behind him. The main body of tlic people were
seated in a semicircle, at a distance of fifty yards. Each party had its own
head man stationed at a little distance in front, and, when beckoned by the
chief, came near him as councillors. The chief's head was ornamented with
a helmet of beads and feathers. He had on a snuff-brown coat, with a broad
band of tinsel down the arms ; and carried in his hand a largo bunch of gnus'
tails tied together. They were glad to get away from Katema. Several of
the party had suffered from fever; and Livingstone himself had eaten nothing
in consequence of the disease for two days ; and, instead of sleep, the
whole of the nights were employed in incessant drinking of water. Katema
sent guides to accompany them on their journey, who stayed with them
till they reached, on the 24th of February, the villages under the chieftainship
of Katende.
They had now reached the latitude of Loanda ; and henceforth their
course was westerly. The rains continued, and Livingstone suffered much
from having to sleep on the wet ground. He was constantly drenched with
such showers as compelled him to de2D0sit his chronometer watch (so essential
to his observations), in his arm-pit, while his lower extremities were wetted
twice or thrice daily in crossing marshy streams. Night after night, he had
to stretch himself in his damp clothes upon the saturated ground, suffering
from fever, which deprived him of rest, undermined his strength, and ren
dered the labour of each succeeding day more difficult.
The westerly course they were now taking brought them among people
who are frequently visited by the Mambari, as slave-dealers. They found
that the idea of buying and selling took the jilace of giving for friendship ;
and as Livingstone had nothing with which to purchase food except a parcel
of beads whicli he had preserved for worse times, he began to fear greater
suffering from hunger than they had yet endured. The people here demanded
gunj)0wder for everything. Next to that, English calico was in great demand,
and so were beads ; but money was of no value whatever, trade being carried
on by barter alone. On the 27th, they reached a part of the River Kasui, a
most beautiful river, and very much like the Clyde in Scotland. The slope
of the valley down to the stream is about five hundred yards, and finely
wooded. It is, perhaps, one hundred yards broad, and was winding slowly
from side to side in the beautiful green glen, in a course to the north and
o
C-i STANLEY AND AFRICA.
north-east. In Loth tlie du-ections from wliich it came and to which it went,
it seemed to be alternately embowered in sylvan vegetation, or '.ich meadows
covered with tall grass.
"While at the ford of the Kasai," says Livingstone, "we were subjected
to a trick of which we were forewarned by the people of Shinto. A knife had
been dropped by one of Kangonke's people in order to entrap my men ; it
was put down, near our encampment, as if lost, the owner in the meantime
watching till one of my men jjicked it up. Nothing was said until our party
Avas divided, one half on this, and the other on tliat bank of the river. Then
the charge was made to me that one of my men had stolen a knife. Certain
of my people's honesty, I desired the man, who was making a great noise, to
search the luggage for it ; the unlucky lad who had taken the bait, then came
forward and confessed that ho had the knife in a basket, which was already
taken over the river. When it was returned, the owner would not receive it
back unless accompanied with a fine. The lad offered beads, but these were
refused with scorn. A shell hanging round his neck, similar to that which
Shinte had given me, was the object demanded, and the victim of the trick,
as we all knew it to be, was obliged to part with his costly ornament. I could
not save him from the loss, as all had been forewarned ; and it is the uni-
versal custom among the Makololo, and many other tribes, to show whatever
they may find to the chief person of the company, and make a sort of ofi"er
of it to him. This lad ought to have done so to me ; the rest of the party
always observed this custom. I felt annoj-ed at the imposition, but the order
v/e invariably followed in crossing a river forced me to submit. Tiie head of
the part}" remained to be ferried over last ; so, if I had not come to terms, I
would have been, as I always was in crossing rivers which we could not swim,
completely in the power of the enemy. It was but rarely we could get a
headman so witless as to cross a river with us, and remain on the opposite
bank in a convenient position to be seized as a hostage, in case of my being
caught."
Thus, as they approached the civilised settlements, they found the habits
of the people changed much for the worse ; tricks of all sorts were played to
detain them and obtain tribute ; the guides also tried to impose on them. The
native tribes bordering on the Portuguese province of Angola had become so
demoralised by contact with Europeans, and their connection with the slave-
trade, that it was with no small difiiculty and danger Livingstone was able
to proceed. Payments were demanded upon the most frivolous pretences,
and both he and the Makololo were forced to part with every thing tiiey could
dispense with, even to their clothes, in payment for food, fines, and ferries;
and after they had parted with them all, rapacious mobs still surrounded
tliem, demanding what they had not to give and threatening violence on
tlieir refusal.
I
A KAFFIR WAR DANCE
UNFRIENDLY CONDUCT OF THE CIIIBOQUE. C5
The following extract from one of liis letters will illustrate his circum-
stances in this part of his journoy : — " Never did I endure such drcnchings ;
and all the streams being swollen, we had to ford many, the water flowing
on the rustic bridges waist deep. Others we crossed by sticking to the oxen
the best way we could, and a few we made a regular swim of. My Barotse —
for with them alone I travelled — did not know I could swim, and the first
Inoad stream we came to excited their fears on my account. ' Now, hold on
fast by the tail. Don't let go.' I intended to follow the injunction, but tail
and all went so deep I thought it better to strike out alone for the bank, and
just as I reached it I was greatly gratified to see a universal rush had been
made for my rescue. Their clothes were all floating down the stream, and
two of them reached me breathless with the exertion they had made. If we
could march I got on very well ; I don't care much for fatigue ; but when
compelled to stand still by pouring rains, then fever laid hold with his strong
pangs on my inner man, and lying in a little gipsy tent, with everything
damp or wet, was sore against the grain.
"As we approached the Portuguese settlements the people became worse,
and at last, instead of gifts of food, wg were offered knocks on the head.
The Chiboque, for instance, are most outrageous blackguards ; we were spend-
ing a Sunday on Peace Society principles, when a whole tribe surrounded us,
fully armed with guns, arrows, spears, and short swords. They were all
vociferating and brandishing their weapons simultaneously. I sat down, and
asked the chief to do the same, and then demanding silence, requested to
know what w^as the matter. Our crime consisted in one of our men, when
spitting, allowing a small drop of saliva to drop on them. I replied, if the
chief could seriously say such was a crime, I was willing to pay a fine. (On
such frivolous pretexts we had often to pay enormous fines.) He accepted
one, but his warriors rejected it, and demanded one after another, until, by
demanding one of our number to be sold as a slave, we saw their intention
was regular j^lunder, and armed ourselves for the worst. They feared my
ai'ms alone ; indeed, we were as a company unprepared for fighting ; but,
armed as we were, not a man of chiefs or councillors would have escaped the
first onset. We determined to let them shed the first drop of blood, and sat
looking at them in all their heathenish shouting. This resolute bearing
made them more reasonable, so they accepted an ox, and gave us two or
three pounds of the flesh, to show that they were of a generous dis^iosition
after all. We were often so treated, and at last no passage allowed us through
a town or village without paying for it. I paid away nearly all I had — -
oxen for provisions, riding clothes, razors, spoons, etc."
Continuing their W. N. W. course, they met many parties of native
traders, each carrying some pieces of cloth and salt, with a few beads to
barter for bees-w?s. They Avere all armed with Portuguese guns, and had
9
CO STANLEY AND AFRICA.
cartridges, with iron balls. On the 30tli of March, they came to a suddciv
descent from the high land, indented by deep, narrow valleys, over which
they had lately been travelling. It was genei'ally so steep, that it could only
be descended at particular points, and even then Livingstone was obliged to
dismount from his ox, though so weak that ho had to bo led by his com-
panions, to 2:)revent his topjoling over in walking down. Below them lay tho
valley of tho Quango. It is about a hundred miles broad, clothed with dark
forest, except where the light-green grass covers meadow lands on tho
Quango, which here and there glances out in the sun, as it wends its way
to the north. The opposite side of this great valley appears like a range of
lofty mountains, and the descent into it about a mile, Avhicli, measured per-
pendicularly, may be from a thousand to twelve hundred feet. As they
emerged from the gloomy forests of Londa, this magnificent prospect filled
their hearts with joy. There they met with the bamboo, as thick as a man's
arm, and many new trees. They rested beside a small stream, and their
hunger being severe, from having lived on manioc for many days, they slaugh-
tered one of their four remaining oxen. On the 4th of April, tlicy reached
the banks of the Quango, a river one hundred and fifty yards wide, and
very deep, flowing among extensive meadows, clothed with gigantic grass
and reeds, and in a direction nearly north.
The chief of the district — a young man, who wore his luiir in tho
shape of a cone, bound round with white and coloured thread — on their
refusing to pay him an extortionate demand, ordered his people not to ferry
them across the river, and actually opened fire on them. '' At this juncture
a half-caste Portuguese, a sergeant of militia, Cypriano Di Abreu, arrived,
and obtaining ferrymen, they crossed over into the territory of the Bangala,
who are subject to the Portuguese. They had some time before rebelled, and
troops were now stationed among them, Cj'priano being in command of a
party of men. Next morning he jjrovided a delicious breakfast for his guest,
and fed the Makololo with pumj^kins and maize, and supplied them with
farina for their journey to Kasenge, without even hinting at payment.
" The natives, thou;ih thev long have had intercourse with the Portu-
guese, are ignorant and superstitious in the extreme. Many parts of the
country are low and marshy, and they suffer greatly from fever. Of the
use of medicine they have no notion, their only remedies being charms
and cupping. The latter operation is performed with a small horn, Avhich
has a little hole in the upper end. The broad end is placed on the flesh,
when the operator sucks through the hole ; as the flesh rises, he gashes it witli
a knife, then replaces the horn and sucks again, till finally he introduces a
piece of wax into his mouth, to stop ujo the hole, when the horn is left to
allow the blood to gush into it."
After three days pretty hard travelling through the long grass, Living-
ARRIVAL AT KASENGE.
stone and his party readied Kasenge, the farthest inland station of the
Portuguese in Western Africa. They crossed several streams running into
the Quango ; and as the grass rose about two feet over their heads, it gene-
rally obstructed their view of the adjacent country, and sometimes hung over
the path, making one side of the body wet with dew every morning, or when
it rained, keeping them wet during the whole day. Kasenge is composed of
thirty or forty traders' houses, scattered about without any regularity. All
the traders are officers in the militia, and many of them have become rich.
Althougli Livingstone told them that he Avas a Protestant minister, they
treated . him with the greatest kindness and hospitality. As they were the
first white men the travellers had come to, they sold the tusks belonging to
Sekeletu, which had been brought to test the difference of prices in the Mako-
lolo and the white men's country. The result was highly satisfactory to the
Makololo, as the Portuguese give much larger prices for ivory tlian can
possibly be given by traders from the Cape. Two muskets, three small
barrels of gunpowder, English calico and baize sufficient to clothe the whole
party, with large bunches of beads, all for one tusk, rejoiced the hearts of
those who had been accustomed to give two tusks for one gun. With another
tusk they procured calico, which is here Ihe chief currency, to pay their
way down to the coast. The remaining two were sold for money to purchase
a horse for Sekeletu at Loanda.
They had yet about three hundred miles to traverse before they could
reach the coast. TJie merchants of Kasenge furnished Livingstone with
letters of introduction to their friends at Loanda, and with a black militia
corporal as a guide. He was a native cf Ambaca, and, like nearly all the
inhabitants of that district, known by the name of Ambakistas, could both
read and write. He had, however, the usual vices produced by slavery ; and
took care to cheat those whom he was sent to guide and pi'otect. They
found sleeping-places provided for travellers on the road about ten miles
apart ; and a constant stream of people going and coming from the coast,
carrying goods, either on the head, or on one shouldei', in a sort of basket.
The first comers took possession of the sleeping-places, those arriving last
having to make huts with long- grass for themselves. Women then came from
their villages with baskets of manioc meal, yams, garlic, and other roots, for
sale. As Livingstone had supplied himself with calico at Kasenge, he was
able to purchase whatever he needed.
On entering the district of Ambaca, the travellers found the landscape
enlivened by the appearance of lofty mountains in the distance, the grass
comparatively short, and the whole country looking gay and verdant. Every-
where there were signs of great fertility. Large numbers of cattle existed
on the pastures, which were well watered by flowing streams. The com-
mandant of Ambaca, Arsenio de Carpo, welcomed Livingstone most cordi-
CS STANLEY AND AFRICA.
ally, recommended wine for his debility, and gave him the first glass he had
taken in Africa. ' "When sleeping in the house of the commandant," he
sajs, " an insect, well known in the southern country by the name Tampan,
bit my foot. It is a kind of tick, and chooses by preference the parts
between the fingers or toes for inflicting its bite. It is seen from the size
of a pin's head to that of a pea, and is common in all the native huts in this
countr}-. It sucks the blood until quite full, and is then of a dark-blue
colour, and its skin so tough and yielding, that it is impossible to burst it by
any amount of squeezing with the fingers. I had felt the effect of its bite in
former years, and eschewed all native huts ever after; but, as I was here
again assailed in a European house, I shall detail the effects of the bite.
These are, a tingling sensation of mingled pain and itching, which com-
mences ascending the limb until the poison imbibed reaches the abdomen,
where it soon causes violent vomiting and purging. Where these effects do
not follow, as we found afterwards at Tete, fever sets in ; and I was assured
by intelligent Portuguese there, that death has sometimes been the result of
this fever. The only inconvenience I afterwards suffered from this bite, was
the continuance of the tingling sensation in the point bitten for about a
week."
Sunday, the l-±th of May, was spent at Cubinda, situated in a beautiful
glen, and surrounded by plantations of bananas and manioc. The country
became more and more picturesque the farther they proceeded west. In a
day or two they entered ujion a wild-looking mountainous district, called
Golungo Alto. The hills were bedecked with trees of various hues ; tower-
ing among them the graceful palm, which yields the oil of commerce and
palm-wine. Here Livingstone was kindly received by the commandant,
Lieutenant Antonio Canto e Castro, a young man, whose kindness and hos-
pitality overflowed towards the traveller. A few days' rest with this young
man enabled him to regain much of his strength. He was quite shut in
among green hills, many of which were cultivated up to their tops with
manioc, coffee, cotton, ground-nuts, bananas, pine-apples, guavas, papaws,
custard-apples, pitangas, and jambos, fruits brought from South America.
On the 24th of May, they left Golungo Alto. As they proceeded, they
])assed several streams and cascades, and through forests of gigantic timber.
Numbers of carpenters were converting the lofty trees which grew around
into planks, from which they made small chests, which they sold at Cam-
bondo. When furnished with hinges, lock, and key — all of their own manu-
facture — one costs only a shilling and eightpenco. Livingstone's men were
so delighted with them that they carried several of them on their heads all
the way to Linyanti. At Trombeta, the commandant had his garden orna-
mented with rows cf trees, with pine-apples and flowers growing between
them. A few years ago, he had purchased an estate for £16, on which he
LIVINGSTONE ENTERS LOAN DA. CD
had now a coffee plantation, and all sorts of fruit-froos and grape-vines,
besides grain and vegetables growing, as also a cotton plantation. All kinds
of food were here remarkably cheap.
The aspect of the country now gradually changed. The nearer they
approached the sea, th.e more level and unfruitful the country became. The
grandeur and beauty of tlie natural scenery were left behind. " Farther on,"
says our traveller, " we left the mountainous country, and, as wo descended
towards the west coast, saw the land assuming a more sterile, uninviting
aspect. On our right ran the river Senza, which, nearer the sea, takes the
name of Bengo. It is about fifty yards broad, and navigable for canoes. The
low plains adjacent to its banks are ^^rotected from inundation by embank-
ments, and the population is entirely occupied in raising food and fruits for
exportation to Loanda by means of canoes. The banks are infested by
myriads of the most ferocious mosquitoes I ever met. Not one of our party
could get a snatch of sleep. I was taken into the house of a Portuguese, but
was soon glad to make my escape, and lie across the path on the lee side of
the fire, where the smoke blew over my body. My host wondered at my
want of taste, and I at his want of feeling, for, to our astonishment, he, and
the other inhabitants, had actually become used to what was at least equal
to a nail through the heel of one's boot, or the tooth-ache."
They were now drawing near the coast ; and as they gradually appi'oached
it, Livingstone's companions were somewhat alarmed. When they first saw
the sea they looked at it, stretching away out to the distant horizon, with
wondering awe. Describing their feelings afterwards, they said: — "We
marched along with our father, believing that what our forefathers had told
us was true, that the world has no end ; but all at once the world said to us,
' I am finished ; there is no more of me ! ' " They were afraid of being kid-
napped ; and then they were apprehensive of want and hunger. But their
white leader assured them, that nothing should happen save what happened
to himself ; that as they had stood by each other hitherto, so they would stand
by each other to the last.
The westward journey was now over. On the 31st of May, 1854,
Livingstone and his Makololo entered the city of Loanda. From the time
be had come within Portuguese influence and rule, his journey had been com-
paratively pleasant. Through the kind and valued aid of the Portuguese
settler he happily met at Quango, he and his party had been safely escorted
to Kasenge. From this point he was treated with unbounded kindness and
hospitality by the Portuguese authorities, and by the pojoulation generally,
until he reached Loanda. And it was a merciful thing that he was thus
treated, for so extreme were his sufferings towards the termination of his
journey, from repeated attacks of fever, and from dysentery, that he could
not sit upon his ox longer than ten minutes at a time ; and when he entered
70 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
the mucli-desired city, he was reduced almost to a slceleton. Here, however,
warm-hearted friends awaited him, the most valuable of whoui was Edmund
Gabriel, Esq., Her Majesty's Commissioner at Loanda, and the only English-
man in the place. 13y him, he and his twenty-seven companions were most
generously received. "I shall never forget." he says " the delicious pleasure
of lying down on his bed after sleeping six months on the ground ; nor tiio
unwearied attention and kindness, through a long sickness, which Mr. Gabriel
invariably showed. ]\Iay God reward him ! "
CHAPTER III.
Livingstone and ihe Maltololo at Loanda — Return Journey — Reach Linijanti —
De])arture for Kilimanc — Victoria Falls — Native Tribes — Animals — Tcte and
its Vicinity — Descent of the Zambesi — Arrival at Kilimanc.
a Qfj^ PAUL DE LOANDA has been a very considerable city, but is now in
^ a state of decay. It contains about twelve thousand inhabitants, most
of whom are peojile of colour. There are various evidences of its former mag-
nificence, especially two cathedrals, one of which, once a Jesuit college, is
now converted into a workshop ; and in passing the other Livingstone saw with
sorrow a number of oxen feeding within its stately walls. Three forts continue
in a good state of repair. Many large stone houses are to be found. The
palace of the governor and govei-nment offices are commodious structures ;
but nearly all the houses of the native inhabitants are of wattle and daub.
Trees are planted all over the town for the sake of shade ; and the city pre-
sents an imposing appearance from tlie sea. It is provided with an effective
police ; and the custom-house department is extremely well managed. All
parties agree in representing the Portuguese authorities as both jjolite and
obliging; and, if ever any inconvenience is felt by strangers visiting the
port, it must be considered the fault of the system, not of the men.
"The harbour is formed by the low sandy island of Loanda, which is
inhabited by about one thousand three hundred souls, upwards of six hundred
of whom arc industrious native fishermen, who supply the city with abund-
ance of good fish daily. The space between it and the mainland, on which
the city is built, is the station for ships. When a high south-west wind blows,
the waves of the ocean dash over part of the island, and, driving large quan-
tities of sand before them, gradually fill up the harbour. Grreat quantities of
soil are also washed in the rainy season from the heights above the city, so
that the port, which once contained water sufficient to float the largest ships
close to the custom-house, is now at low water dry. The ships are compelled
to anchor about a mile north of their old station. Nearly all the water con-
sumed in Loanda is brought from the river Bengo by means of launches, the
only supply that the city affords being from some deep wells of slightly brack-
ish water ; unsuccessful attempts have been made by different governors to
finish a canal which the Dutch, while in possession of Loanda during the
72 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
seven years preceding 1G18, had begun, to bring water from the river Coanza
to the city."
At llic time of Livingstone's visit, tlicre was not a single English mer-
chant at Loanda, and only two Americans. This was the more remarkable,
as nearly all the commerce was carried on by means of English calico
brought via Lisbon. Several English houses attempted to establish a trade
about 1845, and accepted bills on Rio de Janeiro in payment for their goods,
but the increased activity of English cruisers had such an effect upon the
mercantile houses of that city, that most of them failed. The English mer-
chants lost all. " The Portuguese home government," says Livingstone,
" has not generally received the credit for sincerity in suppressing the slave-
trade which I conceive to be its due. In 1839 my friend, Mr. Gabriel, saw
tlurty-sevcn slave-ships lying in this harbour, waiting for their cargoes, under
the protection of the guns of the forts. At that time slavers had to wait many
months at a time for a human freight, and a certain sum per head was paid
to the government for all that were exported. The duties derived from the
exportation of slaves far exceeded those from other commerce, and, by agree-
ing to the su2:)pression of this profitable traffic, the government actually sacri-
ficed the chief part of the export revenue since that period. However, tlie
revenue from lawful commerce has very much exceeded that on slaves. The
intentions of the Portuguese home government, however good, cannot be
fully carried out under the present system. The pay of the officers is so very
small that they are nearly all obliged to engage in trade ; and owing to the
lucrative nature of the slave-trade, the temj^tatlon to engage in it Is so power-
ful that the philanthropic statesmen of Lisbon need hardly expect to have
their humane and enlightened views carried out."
Many days elapsed, after Livingstone's arrival at Loanda, before he
recovered from the fatigue and sufferings he had endured. His complaint
having been caused by long deprivation of proper food, and exposure to
malarious Influences, he became much more reduced than ever, even while
enjoying rest. All the time he was watched over with the most generous
sympathy by his kind host. The Portuguese Bishop of Angola, and numerous
other gentlemen, called on him and tendered their services. Her Majesty's
sill]! "Polyphemus" coming in, the surgeon, Mr. Cockin, afforded him the
medical assistance he so much required; and on the 14th of June he was
sufficiently recovered to call on the bishop, attended by his Makololo fol-
lowers. They had all been dressed In new robes of striped cotton cloth,
and red caps, presented by Mr. Gabriel. . The bishop, acting as head of the
provisional government, received them in form, and gave them permission
to come to Loanda and trade as often as they wished, with which they were
greatly pleased. The Makololo gazed with astonishment on every thing they
saw around them ; especially on the large stone houses and churches, having
THE MAKOLOLO ON BOARD SHIP. 73
never before seen a building larger than a hut. When invited on board ship,
they hesitated through fear of being kidnapped ; but when their leader told
them that if they entertained the least suspicion of foul play they need not
go, they felt re-assured, and nearly the whole party went. Pointing to the
sailors, Livingstone said — " Now, these are all my countrymen, sent by our
Queen for the purpose of putting down the trade of those that bu}' and sell
black men." They reijlied — " Truly they are just like you;" and all their
fears vanished. The sailors received them just the same as they would have
been received by the Makololo, handing them a share of the bread and beef
they had for dinner. They were allowed to fire off a cannon, at which they
were greatly pleased, especially when they were told that it was with that
the slave-trade was put down.
We have now ti'aced the missionary ti-aveller through a series of explor-
atory^ journeys of vast extent and almost inappreciable importance ; and had
he been an ordinary man, he would, at this jjoint, have terminated his toils
and dangers. But this was not his design. Though his j^ast sufferings had
been severe, and he was now lying emaciated upon a sick-bed ; though he
had been separated from his family for more than two weary years, and the
tempting opportunity of speedily rejoining them in England was presented
to him, he nevertheless resolved to retrace his steps to Linyanti, and, having
rested there for a season, to commence new explorations towards the east.
Two principal inducements led him to this determination — first, he felt that
his honour as an Englishman and a Christian missionary was pledged to do
his utmost to convey back to their country the confiding people who had
accompanied him to Loanda, and who had faithfully fulfilled their engagement
with himself. This motive would have sufiiced ; but there were other consider-
ations which shut him up to this course. He had not yet secured the great object
of all his previous labours. That object, as we have seen, was to ojoen from
the coast a pathway into the heart of Africa for commerce and Christianity.
Such a pathway, indeed, he had now discovered ; but it was one so beset with
difficulty and danger, as to preclude the hope that, by its means, the future
elevation and happiness of the people whom it was his aim to benefit would
be secured. He felt, therefore, that his work was not done, and he prepared
to press back, through hostile tribes and pestilential swamps, that, if possible,
he might attain the summit of his sacred ambition. "I feel," he writes, " that
the work to which I set myself is only half accomplished. The way out to the
eastern coast may be less difficult than I have found that to the west. If I
succeed we shall, at least, have a choice. I intend, God helping me, to go
down the Zambesi or Leeambye to Kilimane. If I cannot succeed I shall
return to Loanda, and thence embark for England."
These were the jilans and purposes which largely occupied Livingstone's
thoughts during his constrained sojourn at Loanda. But many weeks of
74 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
suffering passed, ereliecould preiDare for the great achievement upon which,
his heai't was set. ]\Ieanwhlle, his native companions patiently awaited his
recovery. During this detention, however, they had enough to engage their
thoughts and time in the new world by which tliey were surrounded.
Wisliing to take back to their country some of the wonderful and valu-
able articles they saw at Loanda, they employed themselves in going into
the country and cutting firewood, which they sold to the inhabitants of the
town. They sallied forth at ccck-crowing in the mornings, and by daylight
reached the uncultivated parts of the adjacent country, collected a bundle of
firewood, and returned to the city. It was then divided into smaller fagots ;
and as they gave larger quantities than the regular wood-carriers, they found
no difficulty in selling, and soon established a brisk trade. Mr. Gabriel also
found them employment in unloading a collier at sixpence a day. They
continued at this work for upwards of a month, and nothing could exceed their
astonishment at the vast amount of cargo one ship contained. At last they
gave it up in despair, having laboured, as they expressed it, every day from
sunrise to sunset for a moon and a half, unloading, as quickly as they could,
" stones that burn," and were tired out, still leaving plenty in her. With the
money thus obtained they purchased clothing, beads, and other articles to
carry home with tliem. In selecting calicoes they were well able to judge of the
best, and chose such pieces as appeared the strongest, without reference to
colour. These references to Livingstone's simple-minded attendants must
not be concluded without a quotation from one of his letters, which states a
fact equally honourable to them and to him. " Though compelled," he writes,
" to part with their hard-won earnings in Loanda for food, on our way home,
I never heard a murmur. The report they gave of the expedition, both iu
public and private, and their very kind expressions towards myself, were
sufficiently flattering."
We cannot stay longer with our traveller on the west coast than to state
j that what he saw there led him to form a very high estimate of the extreme
j beauty and fertility of the country, and satisfied him that, under proper
1 cultivation, few regions would prove more productive than the province of
\Angola. Here he found that the Mocha coffee, some seeds of which had
many years since been introduced there by the Jesuits, had so propagated
itself as to spread three hundred miles from the coast, where he met with it
growing wild. Its cultivation is so simple, and its productiveness so great,
that any one with ordinary energy, by merely clearing away the bush, could,
in a short time, raise large crops and amass a fortune. AVhile at Loanda he
also visited several extinct convents and dilapidated churches, with other traces
of a bygone period. His strength being now recruited, he prepared for his
departure, greatly refreshed by the unbounded kindness he had received, and
elate with the purpose and the prospect of the mighty achievement still before
THE FORT OF PUNGO ANDONGO. 75
him. He supplied liimself with ammunition and beads, and a stock of cloth,
and he gave each of his men a musket. He also purchased a horse for
Sekeletu. The LishojD furnished him with twenty carriers, and sent forward
orders to the commandants of the districts to the east to render him every
assistance. The merchants sent a present to Sekeletu, consisting of specimens
of all their articles of trade, and two donkeys, that the breed might be intro-
duced into his country, as the tsetse cannot kill those beasts of burden. His
friends of the "Philomel" fitted him out also with a new tent, and, on the
20th of September, 1854, he and his party left Loanda, escorted by Mr.
Gabriel, who, from his unwearied attentions and liberality to his men, had
become endeared to all their hearts.
The party passed round by sea to the mouth of the river Bengo. Ascend-
ing this river, they went through the district in which stand the ruins of the
convent of St. Antonio ; thence into Icollo-i-Bengo, so named from having been
the residence of a former native king. Mr. Gabriel now returned to Loauda,
and Livingstone and his party proceeded to Golungo Alto ; from which jjlace
he made a short excursion into some of the neighbouring districts, celebrated
for their coffee plantations. On his return, he found several of his men
suffering from fever, while one of them had gone out of his mind, who, how-
ever speedily recovered. While waiting for the recovery of his men, he
visited the deserted convent of St. Hilarion, at Bango, situated in a magni-
ficent valley, and now the residence of the Sova, or chief Bango, who still
holds a place of authority under the Portuguese. The horse which the
governor had kindly presented for Sekeletu was now seized with inflammation,
and afterwards died on its journey.
On the 14th of December the travellers proceeded on their way to
Ambaca. Owing to the weakness of the men who had been sick, they were
able to march but short distances. The whole country looked fresh and green
after recent rains, and everything so cheering^, that they could not but won-
der to find it so feverish. Leaving Ambaca, they crossed tlie Lucalla, and
turned toward the south, in order to visit the famous rocks of Pungo Andono-o.
" The fort of Pungo Andongo is situated in the midst of a group of curious
columnar-shaped rocks, each of which is upwards of three hundred feet in
height. They are composed of conglomerate, made up of a great variet}^ of
rounded pieces in a matrix of dark-red sandstone. They rest on a thick
stratum of this last rock, with very few of the pebbles in its substance. On
this a fossil palm has been found, and if of the same age as those on the
eastern side of the continent on whicli similar palms now lie, there may be
coal underneath this, as well as under that at Tete. The gigantic pillars of
Puugo Andongo have been formed by a current of the sea coming from the
S. S. E., for, seen from the top, they appear arranged in that direction, and
must have withstood the surges of tha ocean at a period of our world's liis-
76 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
toiy, when the relations of land and sea were totally different from what they
are now. The imbedded ijieces in the conglomerate are of gneiss, clay shale,
mica and sandstone schists, trap, and porphyry, most of which are large
enough to give the whole the appearance of being the only remaining ves-
tiges of vast primeval banks of shingle. Several little streams run amongst
these rocks, and in the central part of the pillars stands the village, com-
pletely environed by well nigh inaccessible rocks.
" In former times the Portuguese imagined that this place was particu-
larly unhealthy, and banishment to the black rocks of Pungo Andongo was
thought by their judges to be a much severer sentence than transportation to
any j^jart of the coast ; but this district is now well known to be the most
healthy part of Angola. The water is remarkably pure, the soil is light, and
the country open and undulating, with a general slope down towards the
Coanza, a few miles distant. That river is the southern boundary of the
Portuguese, and beyond, to the S. and S. W., we see the high mountains of
the Libollo. On the S. E. we have also a mountainous country, inhabited
by the Kimbonda or Ambonda, who are said to be a very brave and independ-
ent people, but hospitable and fair in their dealings. They are rich in cattle,
and their country produces much bees-wax, which is carefully collected, and
brought to the Portuguese, with whom they have always been on good terms."
Livingstone left Pungo Andongo on the 1st of January, 1855. His path
lay along the right bank of the Coanza. On reaching the confluence of the
Lombe, he left the river, and proceeded to the village of Malange. Leaving
Malange, he passed quickly, without deviation, along the path by which he
had come. He daily met long lines of carriers bearing large square masses
of bees-Avax, each about a hundred pounds' weight, and numbers of elephants'
tusks, the property of Angolese merchants. Many natives were also proceed-
ing to the coast on their own account, carrying bees-wax, ivorj*, and sweet
oil. They appeared to travel in perfect security ; and at different jjarts of the
road, he jDurchased fowls from them at a penny each. The Makololo were
now able to boast over the natives of these parts, who had endeavoured to
frighten them on their way down, because they had actually entered ships,
while these natives had only seen them at a distance. They were more than
ever attentive to their leader, and assiduous in their endeavours to make him
comfortable.
So far eastward as the authority of the Portuguese extended, our traveller
was able, slowly indeed, and with many interrujjtions, but yet with compa-
rative ease and safety, to jiursue his course to Kasenge. But, unlike those
travellers who are satisfied with a superficial survey of the regions thi-ough
A'hich they j^ass, he ascertained and recorded, as he went along, the latitude
and longitude of its many points, so as to make the way of those who suc-
ceeded him perfectly plain. Pie corrected the mnps of Angola and its adjoin-
FA NT A STIC A ND EL A BORA TE HE A D-DRESSES. 7 7
ing districts, whicli, framed more upon native reports than astronomical
observation, proved to be singularly erroneous. He fixed all the rivers lie could
])ossibly trace, and settled the confluence of their principal branches, and
loft no im2:)ortant place without fixing its position. These invaluable labours,
however, with the numerous detours Avhich he made from the direct path to
places not previously visited, and the additional observations he was con-
stantly taking, greatly retarded his progress.
On the 28tli of February, they reached the banks of the Quango, Avhere
they were again received by Cypriano. He acted Avith his wonted kindness,
though, unfortunately, drinking had got him so deeply into debt, that ho
was obliged to keep out of the way of his creditors. Crossing the Quango,
they passed on without visiting their friend of the conical head-dress, to the
residence of some Ambakistas, who had crossed the river in order to secure
the first chances of trade in wax. These Ambakistas, or half-caste Portu-
guese, are famed for their love of learning, and are keen traders ; and, as
they write a peculiarly fine hand, they are generally employed as clerks —
sometimes being called the Jews of Angola. The Bashinje, in whose
country they now were, seem to possess more of the low negro character
and physiognomy than either the Balonda or Easongo. " Their colour,"
says Livingstone, " is generally dirty black, foreheads low and compressed,
noses flat and much expanded laterally, though this is owing partly to the
alse spreading over the cheeks, by the custom of inserting bits of sticks or
reeds in the septum ; their teeth are deformed by being filed to points ; their
lips are large. They make a nearer approacli to a general negro aj^pearance
than any tribes I met." At one of their villages the head man attacked the
travellers, and a large body rushed upon them as they were passing through
a forest, and fired upon them. Livingstone's coolness and courage, however,
were more than a match for them, and they soon quietly returned home.
The travellers crossed the Loajima on the 30th of April. The people
in these jiarts seemed more slender in form, and their colour a lighter olive
than any they had before met. " They elaborately dress their hair in a
number of ways. It naturally hangs down on their shoulders in large masses,
wliicb, with their general features, give them a strong resemblance to the
ancient Egyptians. Some of them twist their hair into a number of small
cords, which they stretch out to a hoop encircling the head, giving it the
resemblance of the glory seen in pictures round the head of the Virgin Mary.
Others adorn their heads with ornaments of woven hair and hide, to which
they occasionally suspend the tails of buffaloes. A third fashion is to weave
the hair on pieces of hide, in the form of buffalo horns, projecting on either
side of the head. The young men twine their hair in the form of a single
horn, projecting over their forehead in front. They frequently tattoo their
bodies, producins a variety of figures, in the form of stars. Although their
78 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
heads are tlras elaborately dressed, tliciv bodies are almost destitute of
clothing-.''
After crossing two small streams, they reached Cabango, a A'illagc situ-
ated on the banks of the Cliihombo. The country was becoming more
densely peopled as they proceeded, yet its population was notliing compared
with what it could easily sustain. Provisions were so plentiful and cheap that a
fowl and a basket of meal were sold for a yard and a half of very inferior
cotton-cloth, worth not more than three pence. The chief vegetable food is
manioc and lotsa meal. These contain a very large proportion of starch,
and when eaten alone for any length of time, produce most distressing heart-
burn and weakness of vision. When these starchy substances, however, are
eaten along with a jDroportion of ground-nuts, which contain a considerable
quantity of oil, no injurious effects follow. Cabango is the dwelling place of
Muanzanza, one of Matiamvo's subordinate chiefs. The population consists
partlj' of natives, and partly of half-caste Portuguese from Anibaca, agents
for the Kasenge traders. The cold in the mornings was now severe to the
feelings, the thermometer ranging from 58° to 60°, though, Avhen protected^
sometimes standing as high as Gl°; at six a.m., when the sun is well up, the
thermometer, in the shade, rises to 80°, and in the evenings it is about 78°.
Leaving Cabango, they crossed several little streams running into the Chi-
hombo on their left, and in one of them saw, for the first time in Africa, tree
ferns. The trunk was about four feet high, and ten inches in diameter.
They also saw grass trees of two varieties, which, in damp localities, had
attained the height of forty feet. On crossing the Chihombo, about twelve
miles above Cabango, they found it waist-deep and rapid. As soon as they
got away from the track of the slave-traders, the more kindly spirit of the
southern Balonda appeared, and generally they were well received at the
villages.
On their arrival at the Kasai, most extortionate demands were made by
Kawawa, an important personage in these parts, as the toll for crossing that
river. A bullock, a gun, and a man, were the lowest terms upon which Living-
stone and his party could be ferried over to the east bank. " Very well,"
said Livingstone, in the calmest possible manner, "I am sorry for it. What
will you do with me ?" "I can't say," replied the chief, ''you must give mo
all you have got." Meanwhile, as the day was advancing, the chief, aware
that, without canoes, it would be impossible for the travellers to get across,
secretly ordered his people to convey them all away. Without, however,
giving the wily savage reason to suppose that his design had been discovered,
one of the party, while apparently looking with easy indifference in another
direction, was carefully watching one of the canoes into a distant creek of tlie
river, far, as it was supposed, beyond their reach. Night now gathered around
them, the chief and the people returned to their tents, and when all was dark-
FLORAL BEAUTY OF THE PLAINS. 79
ncss and silence, some of the Makololo, guided by their keen-eyed companion,
stealthily tracked their way to the creek where the canoe was hidden ; and,
when the morning dawned, the extortioner, with mortification and rage, found
his caplivcs free and far beyond his reach, though his canoe had been safely
returned.
After leaving the Kasai, they entered upon the vast level plains which
they had formerly found in a flooded condition. The water on them was not
yet dried up, but remained in certain hollow spots. Here they saw vultures
floating in the air. Jet-black larks, with yellow shoulders, enlivened the
mornings with their songs. " While passing across the interminable plains,"
writes our traveller, *' the eye rests with pleasure on a small flower, which
exists in such numbers as to give its own hue to the ground. One broad band
of yellow stretches across our path. On looking at the flowers which formed
this golden carpet, we saw every variety of that colour, from the palest lemon
to the richest orange. Crossing a hundred yards of this, we came upon ano-
ther broad band of the same flower, but blue, and this colour is varied, from
the lightest tint to daik-blue, and even purple. I had before observed the
same flower possessing difierent colours in difterent parts of the country, and
once, a great number of liver-coloured flowers, which elsewhere were yellow.
Even the colour of the birds changed with the district we passed through ;
but never before did I see such a marked change, as from yellow to blue,
repeated again ar.d again on the same plain. Another beautiful plant attracted
my attention so strongly on those plains, that I dismounted to examine it. To
my great delight, I found it to be an old home acquaintance, a species of
Drosera, closely resembling our own sun-dew [Droscra Ancjlia). The flower-
stalk never attains a height of more than two or three inches, and the leaves
are covei-ed with reddish hairs, each of which has a drop of clammy fluid at
its tip, making the whole appear as if spangled over with small diamonds. I
noticed it first in the morning, and imagined the appearance was caused by
the sun shining on drops of dew; but, as it continued to maintain its brilliancy
during the heat of the day, I proceeded to investigate the cause of its beauty,
and found that the points of the hairs exuded pure liquid, in, apparently,
capsules of clear glutinous matter. They were thus like dewdrops preserved
from evaporation. The clammy fluid is intended to entrap insects, which,
dying on the leaf, probably yield nutriment to the plant."
Soon after crossing the Kasai, Livingstone left behind him every un-
friendly native, and, to use his own words, was " at home, received with
enthusiasm at all the different towns and villages through which we passed,
and wanted for nothing the people had to give. Still," he remarks, " the
Africans are all deeply imbued with the spirit of trade. We found great
difficulty in getting past many villages ; every artifice was employed to detain
us that we might purchase our suppers from them." On the 1-ith of June,
80 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
tlicy readied tlie collection of straggling villages under tlic cliieftaiusliip of
Katema, and were thankful to see old familiar faces again. The chief and
liis people manifested the greatest kindness ; and assured them of all the
friendly assistance he could give them on their journey. On departing from
Livingstone's presence, he mounted on the shoulders of his spokesman, as
the most dignified mode of retiring. The spokesman being a slender man,
and the chief six feet high, and stout in proportion, there would have been a
break down, had ho not been accustomed to it.
On reaching the town of Shinto, they received a hearty welcome from
this friendly old man, and abundant provisions of the best he had. On
hearing the report of the journey, and receiving a j^iece of cotton cloth about
two yards square, he said, " These Mambarl cheat us by bringing little pieces
only ; but the next time you pass I shall send men with you, to trade for me
in Loanda." After leaving with him a number of jilants, among which were
orange, cashew, custard, apjile, and fig-trees, with coffee, acacias, and papaws,
to be planted out in the enclosure of one of his principal men, the travellers
left him on the sixth of July, and proceeded by their former path to the
village of his sister Nyamoana. From her they received the loan of five
small canoes, and, also, one of those they had left there before, to proceed
down the Leeba. The Makololo purchased also a number of small canoes
capable of carrying onl}' two persons, from the Balonda. The price jjaid
was a string of beads equal to the length of the canoe.
A short distance below the confluence of the Leeba and Leeambye, they
met a number of hunters belonging to the tribe called Mambowe, who had
with them dried flesh of hippopotami, buffaloes and alligators. " They stalk
the animals by using the stratagem of a cap made of the skin of a leche's or
poku's head, having the horns still attached, and another made so as to repre-
sent the upper white part of the crane called jabiru, with its long neck and
beak above. With these on, they crawl through the grass ; they can easily
put up their heads so far as to see their prey without being recognised until
they are within bow shot. They joined our party," says Livingstone, " and
on the following day discovered a hippopotamus dead, which they had pre-
viously wounded. This was the first feast of flesh my men had enjoyed, for,
though the game was wonderfully abundant, I had quite got out of the way
of shooting, and missed perpetually. Once I went with a determination of
getting so close that I should not miss a zebra. We went along one of the
branches that stretch out from the river in a small canoe, and two men,
stooping down as low as they could, paddled It slowly along- to an open space
near to a herd of zebras and pokus. Peering over the edge of the canoe,
the open space seemed like a patch of wet ground, such as is often seen on
the banks of a river, made smooth as the resting place of alligators. When
we came within a few yards of it, we found, by the precipitate plunging of
THE TEA VELLERS RE A ClI LI BON T A . 8 1
the reptile, that this was a Lirnc alligator itself. Although I had been most
careful to ap2:)roach near enough, I unfortunately only broke the hind leg of
a zebra. My two men pursued it, but the loss of a hind leg does not prevent
this animal from a gallop.
'' As I walked slowly after the men on an extensive plain covered with
a great crop of grass, which was laid by its own weight, I observed that a
solitary buffalo, disturbed by others of my own party, was coming to me at
a gallop. I glanced around, but the only tree on the plain was a hundred
yards off, and there was no escape elsewhere. I therefore cocked my rifle,
with tlic intention of giving him a steady shot in the forehead, Avhen he should
come witliin three or four yards of me. The thought flashed across my
mind, ' W hat if your gun misses fire ?' I placed it to my shoulder as he came
on at full speed, and that is tremendous, though generally he is a lumbering-
looking animal in his pace. A small bush, and a bunch of grass fifteen yards
off, made him swerve a little, and exposed his shoulder. I just heard the ball
crack there as I fell fiat on my face. The pain must have made him renounce
his purpose, for he bounded close past me on to the water, where he was
found dead. In expressing ray thankfulness to God among my men, they
were much offended with themselves for not being present to shield me from
this danger."
Our travellers reached the town of Libonta on July 27th ; and were
welcomed by the warmest demonstrations of joy, the women coming forth to
meet them, with dancing and singing. They were looked upon as men risen
from the dead, the diviners having pronounced them to have perished long
ago. They were conducted to the kotla, or house of assembly, where Pitsane,
one of the Makololo, delivered a long speech, describing the journey and the
kind way in which they had been received at Loanda, especially by Mr.
Gabriel. The next day Livingstone held a religious service, when his Mako-
lolo braves, arrayed in their red caps, and white suits of European clothing,
attended. During the service they all sat with their guns over their shoulders
and excited the unbounded admiration of the women and children. He
addressed them all on the goodness of God in preserving them from all the
dangers of strange tribes and disease. The men of Libonta gave them two
fine oxen for slaughter, and the women supplied them abundantly with milk,
meal, and butter. Strangers came flocking from a distance, and seldom
empty-handed. As they proceeded down the Barotse valley, they were
everywhere received in the same cordial manner.
They parted with their kind Libonta friends on the 31st of Jul}'-, and on
the 1st qf August reached Naliele. There they remained a fortnight. "I
left Naliele," says Livingstone, " on the 13th of August, and when proceeding
along the shore at mid-day, a hippopotamus struck the canoe with her fore-
head, lifting one-half of it quite out of the water, so as nearly to overturn it.
11
82 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
T]ie force of the butt she gave, tilted Mashauana out into the river ; the rest
of us sprang to the shore, which was only about ten yards off. Glancing
back, I saw her come to the surface a short way off, and look to the canoe,
as if to see if she had done much mischief. It was a female, whose young
one had been speared the day before. No damage was done, except wetting
person and goods. This is so unusual an occurrence, when the precaution is
taken to coast along the shore, that my men exclaimed, ' Is the beast mad T
There were eight of us in the canoe at the time, and the shako it received
shows the immense power of this animal in the water."
Resting for a few days at Seshcke, they jiroceeded to Linyanti, where
the waggon and everything that was left in it in November, 1853, was found
perfectly safe. A grand meeting was called to receive the traveller's report,
and the articles which had been sent as presents by the governor and mer-
chants of Loanda. The presents gave immense satisfaction ; and on Sunday,
Sekeletu made his ai:»2oearancc at church in his uniform, which attracted
universal attention. Prior to this, Livingstone was a most extraordinary
personage in the eyes of the Makololo ; but now he was more exalted than
ever. They expressed great satisfaction at the route which had been opened
up, and pro^josed moving to the Barotse valley, that they might be nearer
the great market. The unhealthiuess of the climate, however, was justly
considered a great drawback to the scheme. It was arranged that another
party should go down to Loanda with a load of ivory ; and Livingstone after-
wards heard that they arrived there in safety. It must have been a great
satisfaction to him to feel that he had thus ojDened out a way to the enterjDrise
of these industrious and intelligent people.
Livingstone now began to make arrangements for performing his adven-
turous journey to the East Coast. He resolved not to remain at Linyanti
longer than necessary ; still nearly two months elapsed before he could leave.
The preparations needful for such a journey were considerable; besides he
was advised to wait till the rains had fallen and cooled the ground ; and as it
was near the end of September, and clouds were collecting, it was expected
that they would soon commence. The heat was excessive ; the thermometer,
even in the shade of the waggon, stood at 100°, and if unprotected, rose to 110° ;
during the night it sank to 70°. Though compelled to wait so long, the mis-
sionary traveller was not idle ; he was fully occupied in attending to the sick,
and in preaching the gospel. His notes, made during the time, abound with
descriptions of the habits and customs of the people. His conclusion as to
their character was " that they are just a strange mixture of good and evil,
as men are everywhere else." The children strongly resemble in many respects
those of other nations. " They have merry times, especially in the cool oi
the evening. One of their games consists of a little girl being carried on th.e
shoulders of two others. She sits with outstretched arms as they walk about
THUNDER-STOPxM ON LEAVING LINYANTI. S^
with her, and all the rest clap their hands, and, stopping before each hut, sing
pretty airs, some beating time on their skirts of cow-skin, and others making
a curious humming sound between tlie songs. Excepting this and the skij)-
ping rope, the play of the girls consists in imitating the serious work of their
mothers — building little huts, midving small pots and cooking, pounding corn
in miniature mortars, or hoeing tiny gardens. The boys play with small
spears and shields, or bows and arrows, or make little cattle-pens and cattle
in clay, often showing much ingenuity in their imitations of the animals,
especially of their horns."
The reports made by Livingstone's companions to Loanda were so
favourable, and the desire to find a passage to the east coast so strong, that
as soon as he announced his intention of proceeding eastward, numerous
volunteers offered their services to accompany him. He selected from among
them a hundred and fourteen men ; and Sekeletu appointed two as leaders of
the company, one of whom had frequently travelled along the banks of the
Zambesi, and spoke the various dialects of the people residing on them, and
was, moreover, a man of sound judgment and prudence, and rendered great
service to the expedition. All being now ready, on the 3rd of November,
Livingstone bade adieu to his friends at Linyanti; and, acompanicd by
Sekeletu and about two hundred followx'rs, set out on his eastward journey.
They had scarcely started before a terrible storm burst upon them in all its
fury. At times the lightning spread over the sky, forming eight or ten
branches, like tliose of a gigantic tree. The light was such, although other-
wise the night was dark, that the whole country w^as distinctly visible. The
horses trembled, cried out, turning roimd to search for each other; while the
thunder crashed with tremendous roars, and the rain fell in torrents. At last,
they perceived a fire, left by some previous travellers, in the distance, and
turned aside to rest by it. They were wet and cold ; and Livingstone's
baggage having gone on before, he had to lie down on the cold ground, when
Sekeletu kindly covered him with his own blanket, remaining himself without
shelter. The act was only one of many, illustrating the generous nature of
this African chief.
After bidding farewell to Sekeletu, Livingstone and his companions
sailed down the river to its confluence with the Chobo. lie intended from
here to strike acrQss the country to the north-cast, in order to reach the
northern bank of the Zambesi. But he resolved, first of all, to visit the Falls
of Victoria, called by the natives Mozioatunya, or more anciently, Shongwe.
The following description of these falls is from the pen of our traveller him-
self: — " After twenty minutes' sail from Kalai, we came iir sight, for the first
time, of the columns of vai)our, appropriately called ' smoke,' rising at a dis
tance of five or six miles, exactly as when large tracts of grass are burned in,
Africa. Five columns now arose, and bending in tlie direction of the wind
84 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
tliey seemed placed against a low ridge covered with trees ; the tops of the
columns at this distance appeared to mingle ^yith the clouds. They were
white below, and higher up became dark, so as to simulate smoke very closely.
The whole scene was beautiful ; the banks and islands dotted over the river
are adorned with sylvan vegetation of great variety of colour and form. At
the period of our visit several trees were spangled over with blossoms. Trees
have each their own physiognomy. There, towering over all, stands the
great burly baobab, each of whose enormous arms would form the trunk of a
large tree, besides groups of graceful palms, which., with their feathery-shaped
leaves depicted on the sky, lend their beauty to the scene. As a hieroglyphic
they always mean ' far from home,' for one can never get over their foreign
air in a picture or landscape. The silvery mohonono, which in the tropics is
in form like the cedar of Lebanon, stands in pleasing contrast witli tlie dark
colour of the motsouri, whose cypress-forni is dotted over at present with its
pleasant scarlet fruit. Some trees resemble the great spreading oak, others
assume the character of our own elms and chestnuts ; but no one can imagine
the beauty of the view from an^-thing witnessed in England. It had never
been seen before by European eyes ; but scenes so lovely must have been
gazed upon by angels in their flight. The only want felt, is that of mountains
in the background. The falls are bounded on three sides by ridges three hun-
dred or four hundred feet in height, whicli are covered with forest, with the red
soil appearing among the trees.
" When about half a mile from the falls, I left the canoe by which we had
come down thus fai-, and embarked in a lighter one, with men well acquainted
with the rajwds, who, by passing down the centre of the stream in the eddies
and still j^laces caused by many jutting rocks, brought me to an island situated
in the middle of the river, and on the edge of the lip over which the water
rolls. In coming hither, there was danger of being swept down by the sti-eamg
which rushed along on each side of the island ; but the river was now low,
and we sailed where it is totally impossible to go when the water is high.
But though we had reached the island, and were within a few yards of the
spot, a view from which would solve the whole problem, I believe that no one
could perceive where the vast body of water went ; it seemed to lose itself in
the earth, the opposite lij^ of the fissure into which it disappeared being only
eighty feet distant. At least I did not comjirehend it until, creeping with awe
to the verge, I peered down into a large rent which had been made from bank
to bank of the broad Zambesi, and saw that a stream of a thousand yards
broad leajoed down a hundred feet, and then became suddenly compressed
j into a space of fifteen or twenty yards.
" The entire falls are simply a crack made in a hard basaltic rock from the
right to the left bank of the Zambesi, and then prolonged from the left bank
away through thirty or forty miles of hills. If one imagines the Thames filled
THE VICTORIA FALLS.
with low tree-covered hills immediately beyond Gravosend ; the bed of black
basaltic rock instead of London mud ; and a fissure made therein from one end
of the tunnel to the other, down through the keystones of the arch, and pro-
longed from the left end of the tunnel through thirty miles of hills; the
pathway being a hundred feet down from the bed of the river instead of what
it is, with the lips of the fissure from eighty to one hundred feet apart ; then
fancy the Thames leaping bodily into the gulf, and forced there to change its
direction, and flow from the right to the left bank, and then rush boiling and
roaring through the hills — he may have some idea of what takes place at this,
the most wonderful sight I had witnessed in Africa. In looking down into the
fissure on the right of the island, one sees nothing but a dense white cloud,
which, at the time we visited the spot, had two bright rainbows on it. (The
sun was on the meridian, and the declination about equal to the latitude of
the place.) From this cloud rushed up a great jet of vapour exactly like
steam, and it mounted two hundred or three hundred feet high ; there con-
densing, it changed its hue to that of dark smoke, and came back in a
constant shower, which soon wetted us to the skin. This shower falls chiefly
on the opposite siJe of the fissure ; and a few yards back from the lip, there
stands a straight hedge of evergreen trees, whose leaves are always wet.
From their roots a number of little rills run back into the gulf; but as they
flow down the steep wall there, the column of vapour, in its ascent, licks
them up clean ofi" the rock, and away they mount again. They are constantly
running down, but never roach the bottom.
"On the left of the island we see the water at the bottom, a white rolling
mass, moving away to the prolongation of the fissure, which branches off' near
the left bank of the river. A piece of the rock has fallen off" a spot on the
left of the island, and juts out from the water below, and from it I judged
the distance which the water falls to be about one hundred feet. The walls of
this gigantic crack are perjoendicular, and composed of one homogeneous mass
of rock. The edge of that side over which the water falls, is worn off two oi'
three feet, and pieces have fallen away, so as to give it somewhat of a serrated
appearance. That over which the water does not fall, is quite straight,
except at the left corner, where a rent appears, and a piece seems inclined to
fall off. Upon the whole, it is nearly in the state in which it was left at the
period of its formation. The rock is dark-brown in colour, except about ten
feet from the bottom, which is discoloured by the annual rise of the water to
that or a greater height. On the left side of the island we have a good view
of the mass of water which causes one of the columns of vapour to ascend, as
it leaps quite clear of the rock, and forms a thick unbroken fleece all the way
to the bottom. Its whiteness gave tlie idea of snow, a sight I had not seen
for many a day. As it broke into (if I may use the term) pieces of water,
all rushing on in the same direction, each gave off several rays of foam,
«0 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
exactly as bits of steel, when burnt in oxygen gas, give off rays of sparks.
'J'lie snow-white sheet seemed like myriads of small comets rushing on in one
direction, each of which left behind its nucleus rays of foam. I never saw
the appearance referred to noticed elsewhere. It seemed to be the effect of
"the mass of water leaping at once clear of the rock, and but slowly breaking
up into spray."
Having feasted his eyes long on what he considered the most wonderful
sight he had beheld in Africa, Livingstone returned to Kalai, from which,
bidding Sekcletu a final farewell, he set off northward to Keloue, through a
beautiful country, on the 20th of November. Travelling in the north-east
direction for about one hundred and forty miles, he rejoined the Zambesi at
its confluence with the Kafue. At the point which our traveller had now
attained, the junction of the two rivers, he came upon a fine range of hills,
stretching along the east bank of the Kafue, far away to the north. By
means of the boiling point of water (for he did not possess an aneroid baro-
meter), he ascertained that the elevation which almost imperceptibly he had
now attained, was four thousand feet above the level of the sea. The dis-
covery was an important one, and connecting it with his previous observa-
tions of another ridge on the continent, of about the same height, one of
the loftiest points of which is occupied by Lake Dilolo, he was irresistibly
led to the conclusion, that the centre of Africa was an extended hollow,
flanked by those two ridges, and that into the basin thus formed number-
less sti'eams flowed from these watersheds, which emptied themselves into
the Zambesi.
Here, too, at the junction of the Kafue with the Zambesi, the vegetation
differs from that which characterises the lowlands about Linyanti and
Sesheke ; but the most important fact is, that this is the commencement of a
healthy district, stretching eastward to Tete. Of all his discoveries up to
that time, Livingstone regai'ded this with the deepest interest, for he saw at
once how pregnant it was with momentous consequences to the countless
myriads of Africa. It was, moreover, the great object of which, through
nearly six years of privation, toil, and suffering, he had been in quest. On
the western ridge, indeed, he had traversed a district both salubrious and
productive ; but the difficulty of reaching it from the coast i-endered it an
unfit centre for missionary enterprise. But it was otherwise with the region
he had now reached. Though he had not yet traced the Zambesi to the
ocean, his inquiries and his reasonings on the point warranted the conclusion,
that it would furnish a comparatively easy pathway into the interioi". Filled
with gladness and hope, and Avithin sight of the noble stream, whose broad
bright waters, winding through the rich expanded valley on his right, im-
parted life and loveliness to the scenery, while it nourished countless multi-
tudes of creatures, called wild by us, but scarcely meriting that name in the
METHODS OF KILLING THE ELEPHANT. 87
regions tliey have so abundantly peopled and so long possessed, our traveller
pursued his elevated and pleasant path.
Tlic higli ground over which Livingstone now journeyed was the region
in which, after their migration from tlie south, the Mukololo first settled,
having subdued the negro races, the previous possessors of the soil, since
amalgamated with their conquerors. Here, the fatal fever which had decim-
ated them since they sought a refuge among the reed}^ valleys and malarious
swamps of the Chobe and the Scshekc, was scarcely known ; and to this
favoured district would they joyfully return, could they do so with safety.
But this was prevented by the vicinity of the Matebele, who people the
country to the south of the Zambesi. Our traveller clearly saw, however,
that if he and his family could dwell amongst the Makololo, they might re-
occupy this splendid region in security, as Moselekatse would never make
war upon a people with whom dwelt a daughter of his friend Moffat.
Ranges of hills ran parallel Avith the Zambesi, and -were about fifteen
miles apart; those on the north approaching nearest the river. "The in-
habitants on that side are the Batonga, those on the south side are the Banyai.
The hills abound in buffaloes, and elephants are numerous, and many are
killed by the people on both banks. They erect stages on high trees over-
hanging the paths by which the elephants come, and then use a large spear
with a handle nearly as thick as a man's wrist, and four or five feet long.
When the animal comes beneath they throw the s^iear, and if it enters be-
tween the ribs above, as the blade is at least twenty inches long by two
broad, the motion of the handle, as it is aided by knocking against the trees,
makes frightful gashes within, and soon causes death. Tliey kill them also
by means of a spear, inserted in a beam of wood, which, being suspended on
the branch of a tree by a cord attached to a latch fastened in the path, and
intended to be struck by the animal's foot, leads to the fall of the beam, and,
the spear being poisoned, causes death in a few hours." Livingstone was
struck with the fact that, as soon as he came between these ranges of lulls,
flanking the Zambesi, the rains felt warm. The thermometer stood at sunrise
at from 82° to 86° ; at midday, in the coolest shade, namety, in a little tent,
under a shady tree, at 96° to 98° ; and at sunset it was 86°. This was different
from anything he had experienced in the interior, the rains there always
bringing down the mercury to 72° or even 68°.
" Each village we passed," says Livingstone, " furnished us with a couple
of men to take us to the next. They were useful in showing us the parts
least covered with jungle. When we came near a village, we saw men,
women, and children, employed in weeding their gardens, they being great
agriculturists. Most of the men are muscular, and have large ploughmen
hands. Their colour is the same admixture, from very dark to light-olive,
tliut we saw in Loanda. Though all have thick lips and flat noses, only the
S8 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
more degraded of the population possess the ugly negro physiognomy. They
mark themselves by a line of little raised cicatrices, each of which is a quarter
of an inch long ; they extend from the tip of the nose to the root of the hair
on the forehead. The women here are in tlie habit of piercing the upper
lip, and gradually enlarging the orifice until tliey can insert a shell. The lip
then appears drawn out beyond the j^erpendicular of the nose, and gives
them a most ungainly aspect." Rings are sometimes inserted in these
orifices ; the commonest are made of bamboo, but others are of ivory or
metal. When the wearer tries to smile, the contraction of the muscles turns
the ring upwards, so that its upper edge comes in front of the eyes, the nose
appearing through the middle, while the whole front teeth are exposed by
the motion, exhibiting the way in which the}' have been clipped to resemble
the fangs of a cat or crocodile.
As the game was abundant and Livingstone's party very large, he had
still to supply their wants with the gun, and slaughtered the oxen only when
unsuccessful in hunting. He always entered into friendly relations with the
head men of tlie different villages, and found no difliculty in obtaining grain
and other food. One man gave him a basin full of rice, and when wished to
sell some more, he asked in return for a slave. This was the first symptom
of the slave-trade our travellers met on this side of the country. Selole, one
of these village chiefs, instead of receiving them in a friendly way, considered
them as his enemies ; and, having summoned his followers, jDrepared for an
attack. The reason of his acting in this manner was soon afterwards dis-
covered. It appeared that an Italian, named Simoens, had married the
daughter of a chief living north of Tete. Arming a party of fifty slaves with
guns, he had ascended the river in a canoe from Tete, and attacked several
inhabited islands beyond Makaba, taking large numbers of prisoners and much
ivory. As he descended again witli his booty, his party was disj)ersed, and he
himself was killed while attempting to escape on foot. Selole imagined that
the doctor was another Italian, hence liis alarm, and unfriendly reception.
Mburuma, another chief of the same tribe, who had on a previous occasion
plundered a party of traders bringing English goods from Mozambique, laid
a plan to plunder our travellers by separating them ; but Livingstone, sus-
pecting treachery, kept them well togetlicr.
On the 14th of January 1856, Livingstone and his party reached the
confluence of tlie Loangwa and the Z'.imbesi. Here he met with the first
traces of Europeans ; but they were traces merely, memorials of a by-gone
age. They consisted of some ruins of an old and long-deserted Portuguese
town, called Zumbo. The situation was well chosen, with lofty hills in the
rear, and a view of the two rivers in front. On one side of the church, which
stood in the midst of the ruins, lay a broken bell, with the letters I. H. S.
and a cross. Formerly this was the most westerly occupation of that nation ;
A MAN TOSSED BY A BUFFALO. F9
but formally years the tide of civilisation, Avliicli had risen so far, has receded
to the east, aiidTctc has taken its place. Speaking of the situation of Zunibo,
Livingstone remarks, that " the merchants, as they sat beneath the verandahs
in front of their houses, had a magnificent view of the two rivers at their con-
fluence — of their church at the angle, and of all the gardens they had on
both sides of the rivers. In these they cultivated wheat without irrigation,
and, as the Portuguese assert, of a grain twice the size of thatatTete. From
the guides we learnt that the inhabitants had not imbibed much idea of
Christianity, for they used the same term for the church bell, which they did
for a diviner's drum." Then giving utterance to the purpose which lay
dearest to his heart, he says, " It seemed such a pity that the important fact
of the existence of the two healthy ridges which I had discovered, should not
have become known in Christendom, for a refutation would thereby have been
given to the idea that Africa is not open to the Gospel. But I read that Jesus
said, ' All ]jowcr is given unto me in heaven and on earth : go ye, therefore,
and teach ail nations ; . . . . and lo, I am with you alwaij, even nnto the end
of the world.'' I took this as His word of honour, and then went out to take
observations for latitude and longitude."
When our traveller left the Lcangwa, he thought he had got rid of the
hills ; but he found that some still remained, though live or six miles from the
rivei'. Two riding oxen had been already killed by tsetse and the hills ; and
when the one that he now rode failed also, he was forced to march on font.
"The bush being ycry dense and high," he says, "we were going along
among the trees, when three buffaloes, which we had unconsciously passed
above the wind, thought that they were surrounded by men, and dashed
through our line. Mj^ ox set off at a gallop, and when I could manage to
glance back, I saw one of the men up in the air about iive feet above a buffalo,
which was tearing along with a stream of blood running down his flank.
When I got back to the poor fellow, I found that he had lighted on his face,
and, though he had been carried on the horns of the buffalo about twenty
yards before getting the final toss, the skin Avas not pierced nor a bone broken.
When the beasts appeared, he had thrown down his load and stabbed one in
the side. It turned suddenly upon him, and before he could use a tree for
defence, carried him oft". We shampooed him well, and then went on, and in
about a week he was able to engage in the hunt again."
Soon after this they found that they were approaching the European
settlements, for one morning a person came to meet them who had on a jacket
and hat. From him they understood that the Portuguese settlement of Tete
was on the other bank of the river, and that the inhabitants had been engaged
in war with the natives for some time past. This Avas disagreeable news, as
Livingstone wished to be at peace with both parties. He found himself under
peculiarly trying circumstances. He was no longer where the people tliought
U
00 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
a " missionary was not a thins: to be killed," but amone: tribes stranjre to liiin
as he was to them. Navigation was somewhat difBcult, partly through the
scarcity of canoes, and partly in consequence of the rapids in this part of the
Zambesi. Lions also were favoured and all but deified creatures ; for the
natives would not kill tliem, and, although they could not trust themselves
to their clemency by night, and therefore slept in trees; by day, when any-
where in sight, they would approacli them, though at a respectful distance,
clapping their hands in token of veneration. And to complete the sum of our
traveller's discomfort, he was now without an ox. It will not appear won-
derful, therefore, and especially if we recall the treatment he had received
from the natives of the west, when he reached a similar position relatively to
the Portuguese settlement on the opposite coast, that he should deem it
necessary to proceed with caution, almost amounting to stealtli, in order to
avoid collision with the ferocious and formidable bands who roamed uncon-
trolled over this region. " It was not likely," he writes, "I should know
our course well, for the countrj'^ there is covered with shingle and gravel,
bushes, trees, and grass, and we were often without path, skulking out of the
way of villages where we were expected to pay after the purse was empty.
It was excessively hot and steamy ; the eyes had always to be fixed on the
ground to avoid being tripped. After that, I say, let those who delight in
pedestrianism enjoy themselves. It is good for obesity, but for me, who had
become as lean as a lath, the only good I saw in it was to enable an honest
sort of fellow to realise completely the idea of the treadmill."
On his first coming into contact with the natives of this district they
mistook Livingstone for a Portuguese, and would have attacked his party
had they not been undeceived. As they approached the village of Mpende,
that chief sent out his people to inquire who the travellers were. The mes-
sengers, on drawing near, uttered strange cries, and waved some bright red
substance towards the strangers. Having lighted a fire, they threw charms
into it and hastened away, uttering fearful screams, believing that they
should thus frighten the travellers, and render them powerless. The Mako-
lolo, how^ever, laughed at their threats ; but Livingstone, fully believing that
a skirmish would take place, ordered an ox to be killed, to feast his men and
increase their courage. Mpende's whole tribe was assembled at about the
distance of about half a mile ; and every now and then a few came about
Livingstone and his party as spies, and would answer no questions. To two
of these he handed a leg of the ox on which his jDeople were feasting, and
desired them to take it to their chief. After waiting a considerable time in
suspense, two old men made their ajipearance, and said they had come to
inquire who he was. When he told them that he was an Englishman, and
.showed them his hair and white skin, they said, '' We never saw skin so
white as that. Ah ! you must be one of the tribe that loves (literally, has
so Uril AFRICAN G A ME LA WS. 9 1
hcari to) the black man." Finally the chief himself appeared, and expressing
his regret that he had not known sooner who they were, ultimately enabled
them to cross the river.
Proceeding on their journey, they met, on the 11th February, some
native traders, and, as many of liis men were in a state of nudity, Living-
stone bought some American calico with two small tusks, and distributed it
amongst the most needy. He now came to the Zingesi, a sand rivulet in
flood, and thus describes the attempt to cross it: — "It was sixty or seventy
yards wide, and waist-deep. Like all these sand-rivers, it is for the most
part dry ; but by digging down a few feet, water is to be found, which is
percolating along the bed on a stratum of clay. This is the phenomenon
which is dignified by the name of a ' river flowing under ground.' In trying
to ford this I felt thousands of particles of coarse sand striking my legs, and
the slight disturbance of our footsteps caused deep holes to be made in the
bed. The water, which is almost always very rapid in them, dug out the
sand beneath our feet in a second or two, and we were all sinking by that
means so d(;ep, that we were glad to relinquish the attempt to ford it before
we got half way over ; the oxen were carried away down the Zambesi. These
sand-rivers remove vast masses of disintegrated rock before it is fine enouo-h
to form soil. The man who preceded me was only thigh-deep, but the dis-
turbance caused by his feet made it breast-deep for me."
They found they had now reached a country where the game-laws were
strictly enforced. " The lands of each chief are very well defined, the
boundaries being usually marked by rivulets, great numbers of which flow
into the Zambesi from both banks ; and, if an elephant is wounded on one
man's land, and dies on that of another, the under-half of the carcase is
claimed by the lord of the soil ; and so stringent is the law, that the hunter
cannot begin at once to cut up his own elephant, but must send notice to the
lord of the soil on which it lies, and wait until that joersonage sends one
authorised to see a fair partition made. If the hunter should begin to cut
up before the agent of the landowner arrives, he is liable to lose both the
tusks and all the flesh. The hind-leg of a buffalo must alwa^'s be given to
the man on whose land the animal was grazing, and a still larger quantity of
the eland, which here, and everywhere else in the country, is esteemed right
royal food." The Makololo having killed an elephant, they had to send back
a considerable distance to give information to the person in charge of the
district, the owner himself living near the Zambesi. Their messenger re-
turned with a basket of corn, a fowl, and a few strings of beads, a thank-
offering to them for having killed it. The tusk of the side on which the
elephant fell, belonged to the owner, while the upper was the prize of the
sportsman. Had they begun to cut up the animal before receiving j^ermis-
sion they would have lost the whole. The men feasted on their half of tlie
92 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
carcase, and for two iiiglits an immense number of hyenas collected round,
uttcrin"' their loud laughter.
" Tlie people here build tlieir huts in gardens on high stages. This is
necessary on account of danger from the spotted hyena, which is said to be
very fierce, and also as a protection against lions and ele2)hanfs. Tlie hyena
is a very cowardly animal, but frequently approaches persons lying asleep, and
makes an ugly gash on the face. Cliildren, too, are sometimes carried off;
for, though he is so cowardly that the human voice will make him run away
at once, yet, Avhen his teeth are in the flcsii, he holds on, and shows amazing
power of jaw. Leg-bones of oxen, from Avliich the natives have extracted
the marrow and everytlung eatable, arc by this animal crunched up witli the
greatest of ease, whicli he apparently efl'ects by turning them round in his
teeth till they are in a suitable position for being split." The sun was now
so excessively hot that ten or twelve miles a day were a good march for both
Livingstone and his men ; and it was not the length of the marches, but con-
tinuing day after day to perform the same distance, that was so fatiguing.
The}^ found great numbers of wild grape-vines growing in this quarter. So
many of the vines had run across the little footpath they followed, that they
had to be constantly on the watch to avoid being tripped.
The people who inhabit this part of the country are known as the Banyai ;
their government is a sort of feudal republicanism. They elect their chief,
and choose the son of the deceased chief's sister in preference to his own off-
spring. When dissatisfied with one candidate, they even go to a distant tribe
for a successor, who is usually of the family of the late chief, a brotlicr, or a
sisler's son, but never his own sou or daughter. " A great many of the Banyai
are of a light coftee-and-milk colour, and indeed this colour is considered
handsome throughout the Avhole country — a fair complexion being as much a
test of beauty with them as with us. As they draw out their hair into small
cords afoot in length, and entwine the inner bark of a certain tree round each
separate cord, and dye this substance of a reddish colour, many of them put
me in mind of the ancient Egyptians. The great mass of dressed hair which
they possess reaches to the shoulders, but, when they intend to travel, thc}^
draw it up to a bunch, and tie it on the top of the head. They are cleanly
in their habits." The favourite weapon with them is a large axe, M'hich they
carry over the shoulder, and which is chiefly used for hamstringing the ele-
phant, in the same way as the Hamran Arab uses his sword. The Banyai.
however, steals on the animal unawares, while the Hamran hunter attacks it
when it is rushing in chase of one of his comrades, who gallops on ahead on
a well-trained steed.
Debilitated as he now was, and most anxious for a resting- place, Living-
stone could not pass from Zurabo to Tete without fixing the position of many
[jlaces lying in his route. At length he arrived within eight miles of the latter
LIVINGSTONE REACHES TKTK. 93
town, ■where he knew he should meet with a licaity welcome and some of the
comforts of that civilisation to which he had been so long a stranger. But so
exhausted was he, that ho could proceed no farther ; and, though every per-
suasive was urged by his companions to induce liiui to make one more effort to
attain the goal now in view, he was unable to rise from the ground for that
purpose. Intelligence, however, had reached the ears of the Portuguese gover-
nor of that place of his proximity to it, and, with great consideration, ho sent
"the materials of a civilised breakfast." Happily, though our traveller had
lost his strength, there was no failure of appetite ; he, therefore, did justice
to Portuguese hospitality, and, with the exception of the bed in which he slept
at Loanda, after lying six months on the damp ground, he never realised more
refreshment than from this welcome meal. Indeed, it so renewed his strength
as to enable him, without any further sense of fatigue, at once to push on and
complete the journey. He says, " I walked the last eight miles without the
least feeling of weariness, although the path was so rough tliat one of the
officers remarked to me, ' This is enough to tear a man's life out of him.' "
Livingstone reached Tete on the morning of March the 3rd, 1856. Ho
was most kindly received by the Commandant, Major Sicard, who did every-
thing in his power to restore the traveller from his emaciated condition ; and,
having ascertained that the season would not permit him safely to sail down
the unhealthy delta of the Zambesi, Livingstone gratefully accepted the prof-
fered hospitality of his kind host, and for a time took up his abode in this
place. " The village of Tete is built on a long slope down to the river, the
■ fort being close to the water. The rock beneath is grey sandstone, and has
the appearance of being crushed away from the river ; tiic strata have thus a
crumpled form. The hollow between each crease is a street, the houses being-
built upon the projecting fold. The rocks at the top of the slope are much
liigher than the fort, and of course completely command it. There is then a
large valley, and beyond that an oblong hill, called Karueira, The whole of
the adjacent countiy is rocky and broken, but every available spot is under
cultivation. The stone houses, in Tete are cemented with mud instead of lime,
and thatched with reeds and grass ; the rains having washed out the mud
between the stones, give all the houses a rough, untidy appearance. Tlicre
are about thirty European houses, the rest are native, and of wattle and daub.
A wall about ten feet high is intended to enclose the village, but most of the
native inhabitants prefer to live on dilTerent spots outside. There arc about
twelve hundred huts in all, which, with European households, would give a
population of about four thousand five hundred souls. Only a small proj>ortiou
of these, however, live on the sjjot ; the majority are engaged in agricultural
operations in the adjacent country."
While at Tete, Livingstone was ncith.cr unobservant nor idle. One thing
particularly struck and ever affected him — the noble river, so long the com-
94 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
paiiion of his travel, here, in a narrow part of it, one thousand yards broad,
and capable of bearing fleets and merchundise up to the ports of the interior,
flowing from hence three hundred miles idly towards the ocean. As he sur-
veyed the region around him, he ascertained that Tete stood in the centre of
an extensive coal-field, two seams of which (one of them fifty-eight inches
thick) he discovered in the bank of a river, which here falls into the Zambesi.
At another place, named Chicova, he found two other scams. It was reported
that silver Avas also obtained here ; but this statement he was unable to verify.
It had, however, long been known that a large gold-producing district (which
jjartly surrounded the coal-field) formerly yielded as much as a hundred and
thirty pounds weight a year, but was now comparatively unproductive and
iuefliciently Avorked. The precious metal has hitherto only been sought for
on the surface, where, however, in some districts, it is found in pieces as largo
as grains of wheat. Iron also, and a quality equal to the finest produced in
Sweden, is abundant here, and is so tough and fibrous, that Livingstone says
he has rej)eatedly seen the si^ear-heads of the natives, when they have been
hurled against the impenetrable crania of hippopotami, coiled round like the
proboscis of a butterfly, and then beat out again with stones into their previous
state without the slightest injury.
Besides the vegetable productions found here, in common with other dis-
tricts through which the traveller had passed, we may mention, as amongst
the most important of those that are either peculiar to the locality, or very
abundant in it, senna and cinchona. There are also numerous fibrous plants,
and a sj^ecics of cotton, which grows Avild in great abundance, and which,
under i^roper cultivation would doubtless yield a good return of capital and
labour'. Sugar and indigo, moreover, are indigenous to the country, and
might be raised to almost any extent. The Makololo had no idea of the fact,
that the cane with which they were so familiar could be made to yield its
crystallised sweets ; and Sekeletu, anxious to secure this, had intrusted our
traveller with a large number of elephants' tusks with which to purchase the
required machinery. In addition to the mineral and vegetable wealth of the
regions through which Livingstone travelled, he mentions bees-wax, and says
that, on passing through the country, the traveller is constantly addressed by
the inviting note of the honey bird, calling him to follow it to the nests of
the bee, but that the natives, while rifling the comb of its sweets, throw
away the wax, which might become an article of profitable commerce.
As soon as Livingstone had recovered his strengtli, and the season j^er-
mitted, he j^repared to resume his journey to the coast. He found it neces-
sary, however, to leave most of his men at Tete, and Major Sicard liberally
gave them a portion of land that they might cultivate it, supplying them in
the meantime with corn. He also allowed the young men to go out and
hunt elephants with his servants, that they might purchase goods with the
SENNA AND K I LI MANE. 95
ivory and dry meat, to take back with tlicni on returning to their own houses.
Sixteen of them our traveller retained as a crew, to convey him down the
river to Kilimane. He left Tetc on the 22nd of April, and arrived at Senna
on the 27th. He had thought tlic state of Tetc quite lamentable, but that of
Senna was ten times worse. The village stands on the right bank of the
Zambesi. There are many reedy islands in front of it, and there is much bush
in the adjacent country. The soil is fertile ; but the village, being in a state
of ruin, and having several pools of stagnant water, is veiy unhealthy. The
most pleasant sight witnessed here was the negroes building boats, after the
European model, without any one to superintend their operations. They had
been instructed by a European master, and had jDcrfected themselves in the
art. Some of the Makololo accepted employujent here to carry government
goods in canoes up to Tete, and were much pleased at getting the work ; the
rest, at their own earnest request, accompanied Livingstone to Kilimane.
He reached this village on the 20th of May, 1856, when it wanted but a few
days of being four years since he started from Cape Town.
In approaching the coast, he fixed the position of Senna, and every other
important point on his way ; and ascertained the fact that Kilimane, instead
of standing at one of the mouths of the Zambesi, as j^reviously believed,
stood upon an insignificant stream, while the navigable extreme of that river
was further south. At Kilimane, he M'as received into the house of Colonel
Nunes, one of the best men in the country, and there most hosjjitably enter-
tained. Referring to the kindness he thus received from various friends, he
says : — " One of the discoveries I have made is, that there are vast numbers
of good people in the world, and I do most devoutly tender my unfeigned
thanks to that Gracious One who mercifully watched over me in every posi-
tion, and influenced the hearts of both black and white to regard me with
favour."
As a severe famine had existed in the neighbourhood of Kilimane, and
food was very scarce, our traveller advised the Makololo who had accompanied
him down to the sea, to go back to Tete as soon as possible, and await his
return from England. I'hough they still earnestly wished to accompany
him, because Sekeletu had advised them not to part with him till they had
reached Ma-Robert, as they called Mrs. Livingstone, and brought her back
Avith them, yet, acting under the counsel of their leader, they consented to
return. With the smaller tusks he had in his possession, he purchased calico
and brass wire, and sent the former back as clothino- to those who remained
at Tete. The remaining twenty tusks he deposited with Colonel Nunes, in
order that, should he be prevented from revisiting the countr}^, it might not
be supposed that he had made away with Sekeletu's ivory. He instructed
Colonel Nunes, in case of his death, to sell the tusks and deliver the proceeds
to his men ; but he intended, if his life should be prolonged, to purchase the
9G STANLEY AND AFRICA.
goods ordered by Sekeletu in England with his own money, and pay himself
out of the price of the ivory.
" The village of Kilimana stands on a great mud bank, and is sui'-
roundcd by extensive swamps and rice-grounds. The banks of the river arc
lined with mangrove-bushes, the roots of which, and tlio slimy banks on
which they grow, are alternately exposed to the sun. It is almost needless
to say that Kilimane is very unliealthy. A man of plethoric temperament is
cure to get fever; and, concerning a stout person, one may hear the remark,
'All! he will not live long, he is sure to die.'" After Livingstone had
waited about six weeks at this unhealthy spot, II. M. Brig "Frolic" arrived
off Kilimane and he went on board, accompanied by Sekwebu, one of his
companions from Linyanti, whom he agreed to take to England.
On the 12th of July, the " Frolic" sailed for Mauritius. Poor Sekwebu
was greatly excited by the sight and motion of the sea. When they first put
ofi' to the sliip, at Kilimane, the sea was running high, and, as the boat rose
and sunk with every billow, he turned to Livingstone, and with a look and
tone indicative of no ordinary excitement, not unmixed with alarm, said, '"Is
this the way j-ou go ?" Though repeatedly assured that they were ajDproacli*
ing the ship, he often renewed the question. As they were entering the har-
bour of St. Louis on the 12th of August, the sight of a steamer, wliich came
out to tow the brig into harbour, so affected him, tliat during the night he
became insane, and threatened to drown himself. By gentle treatment, he
became calmer, and Livingstone tried to get him on shore, but he refused to
go. In the evening he grew more violent, and after attempting to spear one
of the crew, he leaped overboard, and pulling himself hand under hand
b}' the chain cable, disappeared. His body was never found. After remain-
ing at the Mauritius till he had recovered from the effects of his African fever,
our traveller sailed by way of the Red Sea for England, and arrived on the
12t]i of December, 1856. Already, he had accomplished more than any
previous traveller in Africa ; but it was only a small part of what he after-
wards achieved.
CHAPTER IV.
Discoveries of Captain SpcJce — His Expedition to the Somali Countrij — Bctiirns to
Engtand — Joins Captain Burtonin an Expedition to tlie Mountains of tJic Moon —
Tlicij reacli Zanzibar — Cross to Kao!c — -Arrive at Kazch — Illness of Burton — •
SiijM cf tlic Tanganjjiica Lake and Mountains of the Moon. — (Joes no the Lalce
to Ujiji — Crosses the LaJce — lie turns to Ujiji — Dizcovers Lake Nijanza —
llejoins Burton at Kascli — TIicij arrive in England.
riAPTAIN JOHN HANNING SPEKE, the son of a gentleman of property
^ in England, was an officer in the Indian army, and had taken part under
Lord Gough in several of the battles which have made the British name feared
in the East. At various intervals, during leave of absence from his military
duties, he had travelled in the Himalaya Mountains, as well as through other
parts of India and in Thibet, for the purpose of collecting specimens of the
fauna of those countries to form a museum in his father's house. These jour-
neys fostered his natural love of travel and adventure ; and while thus occu-
pied he resolved, as soon as he could obtain furlough, to go to Africa, intending
to visit tlie Mountains of the Moon, and descend the Nile. "At the end of
ten years' service, on obtaining furlough, hearing that an expedition was to
be sent by the Indian Government, under the command of Lieutenant Burton,
to explore the Somali country, a large tract lying duo south of Aden, and
separated from the Arabian coast by the Gulf of Aden, he offered his services
and was accepted. Two other Indian officers. Lieutenants Stroyan and Hernc,
silso joined the expedition. The Souuili arc Mohammedans, descendants of
Arabs who have married with Negroes. They are a savage, treacherous race,
noted for their cheating and lying projjensities ; in figure tall, slender, light,
and agile, scarcely darker than Arabs, with thin lips and noses, but woolly
heads like Negroes. Their ancestors, having taken possession of the country,
tlrove out its former Christian inhabitants, who retreated northward. Cara-
vans, however, pass through their country to their only port and chief
market, Berbera, which at the time of the fair is crowded witli people, though
entirely deserted for the rest of the year.
" It was proposed that the expedition should follow the route of tlicse
13
98 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
caravans, or accompany one of tlicm, and thus penetrate through the coun-
try into the interior. Considerable time was spent in making excursions
for short distances, during which Spoke shot a large number of wild animals ;
but unfortunately the ahhan, or petty chief, who undertook to be his protector
and guide, proved to be a great rascal, and cheated and deceived him in every
possible way. The Somali are keen and cunning sportsmen, and have various
methods of killing elephants, ostriches, and gazelles. They fearlessly attack
an elephant on foot, one man only being mounted on a horse, who gallops in
front, and while the animal pursues him, the others run in and hamstring
him with their knives. Ostriches are caught by throwing down poison at the
spots were they feed. The Somali also hunt them on the backs of their hardy
little ponies. The ostrich is a shy bird, and is so blind at night that it can-
not feed. A Somali knowing this, providing himself with provisions for two
or three days, sets off in search of them ; showing himself to the ostriches, he
is discovered, but takes care to keep at a distance. They stalk off, and he
follows at the same rate, but never approaches sufficiently near to scare them.
At night the birds, unable to see, stop, but cannot feed. He, meantime, rests
and feeds with his JJony, resuming the cha.?e the following day. He follows the
birds in the same way as at first, they, from constant fasting, becoming weaker,
till, after the second or third day, he is able to ride in among them, and knock
them down in succession.
" The party had at length secured, after considerable trouble, the camels
and horses they required, and were encamped at Berbei'a, which was com-
pletely deserted by its inhabitants, when they were surprised at night by a
large band of robbers. Lieutenant Stroyan was killed, and Speke was made
prisoner and desperately wounded, but, springing to his feet just as a robber
was about to run him through with his spear, he knocked over his assailant
with his hands, though bound together, and made his escape to the sea-shore,
to which the rest of the party had already fled. They were hex-e taken on
board a vessel, which had providentially put in the day befoi'e, and in her
returned to Aden." Such was the disastrous termination of Speke's first
expedition to Africa ; nevertheless, on his arrival in England, he again volun-
teered to accompany Lieutenant Burton on an expedition to survey that part
of the centre of Africa, in the neighbourhood of the Mountains of the Moon,
where an enormous lake, equal in size to the Caspian Sea, was supposed to
exist. Having obtained the necessary equipments in the scientific and other
departments in England and India during 1856, they set sail from Bombay
on the 3rd of December of that year, for Zanzibar, on board the H.E.LC.
Sloop of War, " Elphinstone." They were warmly welcomed at Zanzibar by the
British Consul, Colonel Hamerton ; and were also well received by the Sultan
Majid. As their arrival was during the dry season, they were unable, im-
mediately, to commence their journey, and therefore they spent some time
THE COUNTRY OF THE WAGOGO AND THE WANYAMUEZI. O'J-
in visiting different parts of the coast. They left Zanzibar at the end of June,
1857, in a vessel of war, lent by Sultan Majid, to convey them across to
Kaole, a village on the mainland, a little soutli of the Kingani River. Tlieir
caravan consisted of an Arab, called Sheikh Said, who was the Ra^i-cafila, or
head of the caravan ; some Belooch soldiers, lent tliem by the sultan ; some
porters of the Wanyarauezi tribe, negroes, who inhabit a large j^ortiou of
Central Africa, and a host of donkeys, for riding and carrying their spare
kit. Besides these, they hired a number of slaves, to carry muskets in the
manner of guards, as well as to do odd jobs. They had also their private
servants,. Valentine and Gaetano, Goa men, who spoke Hindostanee, and a
clever little liberated black slave, called Bombay, who had been captured
from his native place to the east of Lake Nyanza, and sold to an Arab mer-
chant, by whom he was taken to India. At the death of this master, he
obtained his liberty, and made his way to Zanzibar. Here he engaged in tlie
service of the sultan, and was so employed till he transferred himself to
Speke.
Leaving Kaole, the expedition passed through a low hilly tract of coast-
line, diversified with fiats and terraces, well-peopled and cultivated, and rich
in tree-forests and rich tropical vegetation. After travelling about one hun-
dred and ten miles, they came to the first great elevation of Eastern Africa,
a hilly district, about ninety miles broad, and composed chiefly of granite
and sandstone. It is occujned by tlie AVasagara tribe — a people who live
in lightly-construcled conical huts of grass and wicker-work, tend cattle,
and cultivate extensively, when not disturbed by the slave-hunters, who live
nearer the coast. On descending tlie western side of the hilly district, they
found an elevated plateau of rather jooor land, extending westward for two
hundred miles, and of an average altitude of from two thousand five hun-
dred to four thousand feet. Here live the Wagogo and the Wanyamuezi
tribes, in huts of a very civilised appearance, and far more comfortable than
those possessed by any other interior clans. The men are industrious, occu-
pying their time mostly in trafficing with the coast, or tilling ground and
tending cattle ; while many of them are rope-makei's, smiths, weavers, and
carpenters. At Kazeh, an Arab de^Dot, in the country of the latter tribe,
their porters took their discliarge, and dispersed to their homes. After wait-
ing a month or so reforming their caravan, they proceeded westwards in
the height of the monsoon, and passed througli a highly cultivated coun-
try, which, by determining with the thermometer the temperature at which
water boiled, Speke found gradually declined as they proceeded, and in a hun-
dred and forty-five miles made a remarkable descent of eighteen hundred feet.
In this region, rice, sugar-cane, and all Indian productions, grow in great pro-
fusion, and the people weave their cotton into loin cloths. After travelling
along this decline about one hundred and fifty miles, they began to ascend at
100 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
the eastern lioni of a large crescent-shaped mass of mountains overlianglng the
northern lialf of Lake Tanganyika.
Their line of march, about six hundred rectilinear geographical miles, had
been nearly due west from Zanzibar. Speke's condition was by this time
distressing in the exti-eme, and his disappointment bitter, after toiling through
so many miles of savage life, all tlic time emaciated by divers sicknesses, and
weakened by great privations of food and rest, to find, on approaching the
object of his ambition, nothing but mist and glare before his eyes. From the
mountain crest, the Tanganyika Lake could be seen in all its glory by every
body but himself. Tlie fact was that fevers, and the influence of a vertical
sun, had so reduced his system that inflammation, caught by sleeping on the
ground in the rainy season, attacked his eyes, brought on an almost total
blindness, and rendered every object before him encloudcd as by a misty
veik Descending the western slopes of the hill, they soon arrived at the
margin of the lake, and hired a canoe at a village called Ukaranga, to take
them to Ujiji. Speke describes the Tanganyika Lake as lying between 3'
and 8' south latitude, and in 29° east longitude, three hundred miles long,
from thirty to forty feet broad in the centre, but tapering towards each end.
It is sunk into the lap of the surrounding mountains, and drains all their
waters into its bosom. Its waters are very sweet, and abound with a great
variety of delicious fish. Numerous tribes of the true Negro breed thickly
inhabit its shores, amongst which the most conspicuous are the Wubembe
cannibals. The port Spoke and his party finally arrived at was Kawele, a
small village in the Ujiji district, the chief of which they found unfriendly
and unreasonable, who made them pay a heavy price for his protection.
Their first object on arrival was to get boats for the survey of the lake ;
but this they found a difficult task. The border tribes were all at war with
one another ; and the small canoes were liable to be driven ashore by the
slightest storm, and were of such limited capacity as to be of suiall service in
carrying supplies. The sailors therefore would not undertake an extended
voyage. y\.t length, Speke and a motley crew set out, on the 3rd of March,
18o8, in a long narrow canoe, hollowed out of the trunk of a single tree, leav-
ing Burton behind, wlio was too ill to move. Almost immediately after start-
ing, a storm came on, while they were encamped on the shore of the lake,
waiting for some of the party who were behind to come up. All next day
the storm continued. Even the hippopotami, to judge by the frequency of
their snorts and grunts, as they indulged in their devastating excursions
among the crops, seemed angiy at the unusual severity of the weather. On
the 5th, the sea subsided, they re-loaded their boat, and proceeded on their
voyage.
Speke thus describes the arrangement of himself and the crew in the
boat: — "To pack so many men together, with material, in so small a place
ON TANGANYIKA LAKE. 101
as the canoe affords, sccnis a difiicult}' almost insiirinountuble. Still it is
effected. I litter down amidships, with my bedding spread on reeds, in so
short a compass that my legs keep slipping of! and dangling in the bilge-
water. The cook and bailsman sit on the first bar, facing me ; and behind
them, to the stern, one-half of the sailors sit in couples; whilst on the first
bar behind me are Bombay and one Belooch, and beyond them to the bow,
also in couples, the remaining cre\\-. The captain takes post in the bows,
and all hands on both sides paddle in stroke together. Fuel, cooking appa-
ratus, food, bag and baggage, are thrown j^i'omiscuously under the seats.
But the sailors' blankets, in the shape of grass matting, are placed on the bars
to render the sitting soft. Once all properly arranged, the seventeen pad-
dles dash oft" with vigour, and, steering southwards, wc soon cross the mouth
of the Ruche."
Tliey paddled on all night, and in the morning landed in a secluded
nook, familiar to the men, for the purpose of having breakfast. Soon there
was a busy scene. Some collecting fuel, others preparing their fishing-rods
and nets, others searching for fungi (a favourite food), others kindling the
fires, and others arranging the cooking-pots. The cook-boy got into trouble,
by dipping his pot in the sea for water, greatly to the annoyance of the natives,
who declared that the dregs from it would excite the appetites of the croco-
diles, who would be sure to follow and, perhaps, board the boat. The sailors
here have as great an aversion to being followed by a crocodile as British sailors
have to be followed by a shark. After breakfast a cry of alarm arose, and
all fled to the boat. Then breathless silence followed ; and one after ano-
ther, they leaped on shore again, and stealthily moved and crept among the
bushes, till at last a single man was pounced upon, with an arrow jwlsed in
his hand. He was one of eight or ten men of a tribe whom the sailors
declared to be the general plunderei-s of honest navigators. They therefore
seized his weapons, broke them and let him go ; though some of the crew
advocated his death, and others 2:)roposed that the whole party should be
chased down and slaughtered. The sailoi's then returned to the canoe, each
boasting his part in this adventurous exploit. Starting again on their voyage,
they gained the mouth of the Malagarazi, the largest river on the eastern
shore of the lake. Here tall aquatic reeds diversified the surface ; and croco-
diles and hippopotami abounded, the latter grunting and snorting, as though
much A'exed at this intrusion on their privacy.
The deep blue waters of the lake contrasted with the verdure of the
vegetation and the large brown rocks along the coast, and formed everywhere
an object of immense attraction. On the morning of the Stli, they reached a
group of islands on the western shore of the lake, three only of which were
inhabited ; and a watch-boat belonging to Sultan Kasanga, the reigning chief
of the group, challenged them and asked their mission. When they lauded,
102 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
the islanders, receiving intelligence of their arrival, came down the hill of
which the island is formed in great numbers, and held a market; but as Speko
was unprovided with what they wanted, little business could be done. The chief
desideratum was flesh of fish or beast, next salt, then tobacco — in fact, any-
thing but what he had brought as market money — cloth and glass beads. The
day passed in rest and idleness ; and at night there was a violent storm.
When the storm subsided, a host of small black beetles appeared, evidently
atti'acted by the glimmer of the candle, which had been lit to re-arrange the
tent and its furniture. It seemed hopeless to try to brush them off the clothes
or bedding. They crawled up our traveller's sleeves and into his hair, and
down his back and legs. One of them penetrated his ear, and the result waa
most disastrous. " What to do," he says, " I knew not. Neither tobacco,
oil, nor salt, could be found; I thercfoi'e tried melted butter; that failing, I
applied the j^oint of a penknife to his back, which did more harm than good ;
for though a few thrusts kept him quiet, t!ie point also wounded my ear so
badly that inflammation set in; severe suppuration took place, and all the facial
glands, extending from that point down to the point of the shoulder, became
contorted and drawn aside, and a string of bubos decorated the whole length
of that region. It was the most painful thing I ever remember to have
endured ; but more annoying still, I could not open my mouth for several days,
and had to feed on broth alone. For many months the tumour made mo
almost deaf, and ate a hole between that orifice and the nose, so that when I
blew it, my ear whistled so audibly that those who heard it laughed. Six
■or seven months after this accident happened, bits of the beetle, a leg, a wing^
•or parts of its body, came away in the wax. It was not altogether an unmixed
■evil, for the excitement occasioned by the beetle's operations acted towards
ni}^ blindness as a counter-irritant, b}' drawing the inflammation away from my
eyes. Indeed, it operated far better than any other artificial appliance."
Kivira, where Speke was now encamped, is the largest island of the groap,
and consists of a massive, irregularly-shaped hill, about five miles long, by
two or three broad. The mainland immediately west is a promontory at the
southern end of the Uguhha mountains. " The population is considerable, and
they live in mushroom huts, situated on the high flats and easier slopes, where
they cultivate manioc, sweet potato, maize, millet, various kinds of pulse,
and all the common vegetables in general use about the country. Poultry
abounds in the villages. The dress of the people is simple, consisting of small
black monkey-skins, cat-skins, and the furs of any vermin they can get.
These are tucked under a waist-strap, and, according to the number they
possess, go completely or only half-way round the body, the animals' heads
hanging in front, and the tails always depending gracefully below. These
monkeys are easily captured when the maize is ripe, by a number of peojjle
stealthily staking small square nets in contiguous line all round the fields
THE ISLANDS OF KABIZIA AND KASENGE. 103
Avhich tliesG animals may be occupied in robbing, and then, with screams and
yells, flinging sticks and stones, the hunters rush upon the affrighted thieves
till, in their hurry and confusion to escape, they become irretrievably entan-
gled in the meshes. But few of these islanders carry spear or bow, though I
imagine all possess them."
Early on the morning of the 10th, they quitted Kivira, and paddled to
the little island of Kabizia, reaching the famous fish-market there, just in time
to breakfast on a fresh-caught fish, the celebrated singa — a large, ugly black-
backed monster, with white belly, small fins, and long barbs, but no scales.
In appearance it is a sluggish ground-fi.sh ; and though immoderately and
grossly fat, yet it is highly esteemed by the natives. There is only one village,
of twenty small huts, on the island. The inhabitants are chiefly fishermen, who
live on their spoils, and dispose of what they cannot consume to the neighbour-
ing islanders and the villagers on the mainland. The following day, Speke
and his party re-embarkcd, and after paddling for about an hour and a half,
arrived at the island of Kasenge, the place of his destination. Here Sheikh
Hamed, with many attendants, and a host of natives, was waiting to receive
him. This Arab merchant lived in a house built of good, substantial walls of
mud, and roofed with rafters and brushwood, the rooms being conveniently
]iartitioned off to separate his wife and other belongings, with an ante-room
for general business. His object in coming to this remote district was to
purchase ivory, slaves, and other commodities. His recejition of our travel-
ler was most generous and hospitable.
The island of Kasenge is about one mile long, a narrow high ridge of land
lying nearly due north and south, devoid of trees, and only partly cultivated.
The population is considerably more than that of the other ports. They are
extremely filthy in their habits, very inquisitive, and, from having no indus-
trial occupations, will stand for hours together, watching any strange object.
In appearance, they are not much unlike the Cafifre. The women are better
dressed than the men, having a cloth round the body, fastened under the
arms, and reaching below the knees, and generally beads, brass necklaces, or
other ornaments ; while the latter only wear a single goat-skin, slung game-
bag fasliion over the shoulder, or, when they possess it, a short cloth, tied
];ilt- fashion round the waist. " The mothers of these savage people," says
Speke, " have infinitely less affection than many savage beasts of my acquaint-
ance. I have seen a mother bear, galled by constant fire, obstinately meet
her death, by repeatedly returning under a shower of bullets, endeavouring
to rescue her young from the grasp of intruding men. But here, for a simjile
loin cloth or two, human mothers eagerly exchange their little offspring,
delivering them into perpetual bondage to my Belooch soldiers." Speke
found — what all African travellers have found — that the great curse of that
land is slavery. The true prosperity of Africa will commence only with tlie
101 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
cessation of the traffic in human flcsli. Let this be entirely suppressed, and
the country will soon yield a hundredfold more tlian it has ever yet done.
Speke took his final departure from Kivira on the morning of the 27th
and crossed the broad lake again in fourteen hours, two of them, as before,
being spent in smoking and rest. The following day he started early up the
coast ; but before noon was obliged to put in amongst some reeds opposite the
Luguvu River, as the Avind, rain, and waves, had very nearly swamped the
boat, and drenched them all from head to foot. He pitched the tent in the
canoe, to protect himself from the storm, but it only served to keep the wind
from blowing on his wet clothes and giving him a chill, for wave after wave
washed over the gunwale, and kept him constantly drenched. Three miser-
able hours wore j^assed in this fashion ; for there was no place to land in, and
they could not venture forward. In tlic afternoon the sea abated, and they
pursued their voyage. They arrived at Ujiji by breakfast-time on the 31st,
and found Captain Burton somewhat recovered. Thus ended Speke's first
independent travel in Central Africa.
Burton was still suffering much, yet as it was necessary that they should
proceed at once with the investigation of the lake, he could not endure to be
left behind. It was therefore settled that the party should go in two canoes —
Burton, with Kannina, the chief who had some commercial transactions with
the Sultan of Uvira, in a very large one, joaddled by forty men ; and Speke
in another, much smaller. After arriving, however, at Uvira, nothing could
induce Kannina to take them to the river at the end of the lake, although they
could have accomplished the distance in six hours. His reason was, that the
jjeople resident there and his own people were hostile to each other. They
learnt here, from the son of the Sultan of Uvira, that a large river, called Rusizi,
drained the high mountains encircling the immediate north, and discharged
its waters into the lake. On coming up the lake, they travelled the first half
up the east coast, then crossed over to the end of a long island, called Ubwari,
made for the western shore, and coasted up it to Uvira. It was very amus-
ing to see the two canoes racing together. The naked savages were never
tired of testing their respective strengths ; and dashing up the water whenever
they succeeded in coming near each other, delighted in drenching the travel-
lers with the spra}'-. Returning to Ujiji, after a rather protracted sojourn at
Uvira, occasioned by Kannina's not completing his work so quickly as bad
been anticipated, they found their stock of beads and cloth, which had been
left in charge of Sheikh Said, reduced so greatly, that they felt very anxious
about their future movements. Just at this crisis, however, by great good
fortune, some supplies were brought to them by an Arab, called Mohinna, an
old friend whom they had left at Kazeh, and who had now followed them to
Ujiji, to trade in ivory. This timely supply was one of the many strokes of
good luck A\ liich befell them upon their journey. Speke's health was now mucb
THE COUNTRY OF UNYAMUEZT. 105
improved, and carrying Burton, who was still unable to walk, in a hammock, ho
soon set out for Ujiji, in search of a lake said by the Arabs to be both broader
and longer than Tanganyika, and to which they gave the name of Ukerewe,
but which the negroes merely called Nyanza, or the lake. The weather was
very fine, and they marched raj^idly across the eastern horn of the mountains
back to the ferry on the Malagarazi. They reached this river early in June ;
and, after crossing it, they hurried along, and reached Kazch towards the end
of that month. Here they were hospitably received by Sheikh Snay, the
principal Arab merchant of the depot, and who, on their former visit, was the
first to tell them of the Nyanza, or, as he called it, the unknown sea. Ho
had travelled up its western flank to Kibuga, the capital of the kingdom of
Uganda. His statements were corroborated by a Hindi merchant, called Musa,
who also gave an interesting description of the country northward of the
line, and the rivers which flowed out of the lake.
On the 9th of July, Speke, leaving Burton behind, left Kazch, with his
caravan, to explore Northern Unyamuezi, and discover Lake Nyanza, which
he supposed was the fountain-head of the Nile. The caravan consisted of a
Kirangozi, or leader, twenty Pagazis, ten Belooches as guard, Bombay, Mabruk,
and Gaetano, escorting a kit suflicient for six weeks. The first day or two
the journey was rendered unpleasant, both b}' the character of the road, and
the discontent and grumbling of several members of the caravan. On the
third day, they passed two Wasukumas caravans, one of ivory, destined for
the coast, and the other conveying cattle to the Unyanyembe markets.
Though the country through which they passed was wild and uninhabited,
they saw no game but a ti'oop of zebras, which were so wild that they could
not get near them.
** Up to this point the villages, as is the case in all central Unyamuezi,
are built on the most luxurious principles. They form a large hollow square,
the walls of which are their huts, ranged on all sides of it in a sort of street
consisting of two walls, the breadth of an ordinary room, which is partitioned
cfi" to a convenient size by interior walls, of the same earth-construction as
the exterior ones, as our Sepoys' lines are made in India. The roof is flat, and
serves as a store place for keeping sticks to burn, drying grain, pumpkins, mush-
rooms, or any vegetables they may have. Most of these compartments contain
the families of the A'illagers, together Avith their poultry', brewing utensils,
cooking apparatus, stores of grain, and anything they possess. The remainder
contain their flocks and herds, principally goats and cows, for sheep do not
breed well in the country, and their flesh is not much approved of by the
people. AVhat few sheep there are appear to be an offshoot from the Persian
stock. They have a scraggy appearance, and show but the slightest signs
of the fat-rumpcd proportions of their ancestors. The cows, unlike the noble
Tanganyika ones, are small and short-horned, and of various colours. They
14
lOG STANLEY AND AFRICA.
carry a hump like the Brahminy bull, but give very little milk. In front of
nearly every house you see large slabs of granite — the stones on which the
jowari is ground by women, who, kneeling before them, rub the grain down
to flour with a smaller stone, which they hold with both hands at once. Thus,
rubbing and grinding away, their bodies sway monotonously to and fro,
while they cheer the time by singing and droning in cadence to the motion
of their bodies."
Towards the close of their day's journey, on the 12th, a laughable scene
took place between our traveller's caravan and an ivory caravan of Wasu-
kumas. As they ajoproached each other from opposite directions, the two
leaders slowly advanced, marching in front, their heads awry, their eyes
steadfastly fixed on each other, their bodies held motionless and strictly poised,
like rams preparing for a fight. All at once they rushed in with their heads
down, and kept butting one another till one gave way. The rest of the cara-
van then commenced a general melee. Speke, in his ignorance would have
attempted to separate the contending parties, but, as they were all black
together, he found it impossible to distinguish friend from foe. Stopping to
laugh at his excitement, they assured him that it was only a common custom
of the country when two strange caravan-leaders meet, and each doubts who
should take the supremacy in choice of side. In a minute or two they all
separated amid loud laughter, and each went his way. On the morrow, Speke
and his party entered a district governed by a sultana. She was the first
and onl}^ female whom he had seen in that position, though she succeeded to
it after the custom of the country. In the evening she sent a message to the
traveller, having heard of his approach, to request the pleasure of his company
at her house the next day. He wished to be allowed to go and see her at
once ; but the messenger replied that it would be impossible to reach her
abode till after dark, and she would not have the pleasure of seeing him suf-
ficiently well. The visit was therefore to be in the morning ; and in the
morning it took place.
After a walk of twelve miles, without breakfast, he had the satisfaction of
seeing the palisadoed royal abode. On entering the yard, he found it full of
cows, which were being milked at mid-day ; but though he had tasted nothing,
he was not able to get a drop. The negroes at once began beating a couple
of large drums, half as tall as themselves, made something like a beer-barrel,
covered on the top with a cow-skin stretched tightly over. This drumming,
which was an announcement of their arrival and a mark of royal respect,
lasted about ten minutes, when a body of slaves appeared, and requested the
strangers to follow them. They were led through various passages into the
centre of the sultana's establishment. A cow-skin was spread, and a wooden
stool set for Speke, that he might sit upon it, having his suite squatted in a
circle around liim. The lady's-maid first appeared. She was lame and dirty,
THE OPERATION OF BROTHER-MAKING. 107
but her happy-looking face encouraged the hungry and tlilrsty traveller to ask
for eggs and milk. These provisions were speedily procured, and devoured
with greediness. The maid, having retired, now re-appeared, bringing with
her her mistress, a short, stumpy old dame, over whose head at least sixty
summers must have passed. Her nose was short, squat, and flabby at tlie
end, and her eyes were bald of brows and laslies ; but her face beamed with
smiles, and her manner was full of energy. Her dress was an old coloured
cloth, dirtier even than her maid's. " The large joints of all her fingers were
bound with small copper wire, lier legs staggered under an immense accumu-
lation of anklets made of brass wire wound round elephant's tail or zebra's
hair ; her arms were decorated with huge solid brass rings, and from other thin
brass wire bracelets depended a great assortment of wooden, brazen, horn,
and ivory ornaments, cut in eveiy shape of talismanic peculiarity."
Squatting down by the traveller's side her royal highness at once shook
hands with him, and then began to examine every part of his clothing — his
shoes, his overalls, his waistcoat, more particularly the buttons, and then his
coat. She so much admired this latter garment, that she wished he would
present it to her that she might wear it herself. She then declared his hands
to be as soft as a child's, and likened his hair to a lion's mane. After this,
she withdraw into her privacy, and Speke retraced his steps, a good five hour's
walk. Proceeding on his journey, he came to the district of Msalala. At
this place he witnessed the odd operation of brother-making. It consists in
the two men desirous of a blood-tie being seated face to face on a cow's hide,
with their legs stretched out as wide to the front as their length will permit,
one pair overlapjiing the other. They then place their bows and arrows
across their thighs, and each holds a leaf ; at the same time a third person,
holding a pot of oil or butter, makes an incision above their knees, and
requires each to put his blood on the other's leaf, and mix a little oil with it,
when each anoints himself with the brother-salve. This operation over, the
two brothers bawl forth the names and extent of their relatives, and swear
by the blood to protect the other till death. The cattle of this district sur-
passed anything our traveller had seen in Africa. Large droves, tended by
a few men each, were to be seen in every direction over the extensive plains,
and at night every village was filled with them. The cultivation also was as
abundant as the cattle were numerous, and the climate was delightful. The
evenings and the mornings were j^articuUirly serene, but the middle of the
day, though ^^leasant in a hut, was too warm to be agreeable under hard
exertion.
By the 30th of the month, the caravan had reached a point from which,
about four miles beyond, a sheet of water was discerned, which ultimately
proved to be a creek, and the most southern point of the great Nyanza. Hei'e
-the country had a mixed and large population of smiths, agriculturists, and
108 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
lievdsmcn, icsiJiiig in the flats and depressions wliicli lie between the scattered
little hills. During the rainy season, when the lake swells, and the country
becomes super-saturated, the inundations are so great that all travelling is sus-
pended. Following down the creek, which, gradually increasing in breadth
as it extended northwards, became very considerable in its dimensions, they
saw many little islands, AvcU-wooded elevations, standing boldly out of the
waters, which, together with the hill-dotted country around afforded a most
agreeable prospect. Their tract lay partly through jungly depressions, where
they saw ostriches, florikans, and small antelopes, and partly between small
hills, the valleys of which were thickly inhabited by both agricultural and
pastoral people.
On the 3rd of August, the caravan, after quitting Isamiro, began wind-
ing up a long but gradually-inclined hill, until it reached the summit, when
the vast expanse of the pale-blue waters of the Nyanza suddenly burst upon
the traveller's gaze. "It was early morning," he says. "The distant sea-
line of the north horizon was defined in the calm atmosphere between the north
and west points of the compass ; but even this did not afford me any idea of
the breadth of the lake, as an archipelago of islands, each consisting of a single
hill, rising to a height of two or tlirec hundred feet above the water, inter-
sected the line of vision to the left; while, on the right the western horn of the
Ukercwo Island cut off any further view of its distant waters to the eastward
of north. A sheet of water — an elbow of the sea, however, at the base of the
low range on which I stood, extended far away to the eastward, to where, in the
dim distance, a hummock-like elevation of the mainland marked what I under-
stood to bo the south and east angle of the lake. The large and important
islands of Ukerewe and Mzita, distant about twenty or thirty miles, formed
the A'isible north shore of this firth. The name of the former of these islands
was familiar to us as that by which this long-desired lake was usually known.
It is reported by the natives to be of no great extent ; and though of no con-
siderable elevation, I could discover several spurs stretching down to the
water's edge from its central ridge of hills. Tlie other island, Mzita, is of
greater elevation, of a hog-backed shape, but being more distant, its physical
features were not so distinctly visible.
" In consequence of the northern islands before mentioned obstructing the
view, the western shore of the lake could not be defined ; a series of low hill-
tops extended in this direction as far as the eye could reach ; while below me,
at no great distance, was the debouchure of the creek, which enters the lake
from the south, and along the baidvs of which my last tln-ee days' journey had
led me. This view was one which, even in a Avell-known and explored coun-
try, would have arrested the traveller by its peaceful beauty. The islands,
each swelling in a gentle slojie to a rounded summit, clothed with wood
between the rugged, angular, closely-croj)ping rocks of granite, seemed mix--
LAKE VICTORIA NYANZA. 109
rored in tlic calm surface of the lake, on Avliich I licre and there detected a
small black speck, the tiny canoe of some Muanza fisherman. On the gently
shelving plain below, me, blue smoke curled about tlic trees, which hero and
there pai'tially concealed villages and hamlets, their brown thatched roofs con-
trasting with the emerald-green of the beautiful t;:ulk-busli, the coral branches
of which cluster in such profusion round the cottages, and form alleys and
hedgerows about the villages as ornamental as any garden-shrub in England.
But the pleasure of the mere A'iew vanished in the presence of those more
intense and exciting emotions whicli are called up by the consideration of the
commercial and geographical importance of the prospect before me. I no
longer felt any doubt that the lake at my feet gave birtli to that interesting
river, the source of which has been the subject of so much speculation, and
the object of so many explorers."*
Having named the magnificent sheet of water Victoria Nyanza, after our
gracious sovereign, Spcke descended to Muanza, on the shores of the lake,
having altogether performed a journey of two hundred and twenty-six miles
from Kazcli. Here he was kindly treated by the sultan of the village, and by
an Arab merchant, named JIansur, who had retainers belonging to the country,
who knew much about the lake, and were of very great assistance. The next
morning, taking a walk of three miles along the shores of the lake, accom-
panied by Mansur and a native, the greatest traveller of the place, he ascended
a hill whence he could obtain a good view across the expanse of water spread
out before him. Several islands were seen, but some so far off as scarcely
to bo distinguishable. Facing to the west-north-west was an unbroken
sea horizon, and he calculated that the breadth of the lake was over a hundred
miles. The native, when asked its length, faced to the north, and began
nodding his head at it, at the same time he kept throwing forward his right
hand, and, making repeated snaps with his fingers, endeavoured to indicate
something immeasurable ; and added, that nobody knew, but he thought it
probably extended to the end of the world. Speke proposed crossing the
lake to the island of Ukcrcwe ; but both the Sultan Mahaya and Mansur dis-
suaded-him from making the attempt, and, as boats were not obtainable, he
was compelled to give up his design. Having gained all the information he
could, and regretting that he was unable to extend his explorations, he bade
the sultan and his Arab friend adieu, and on the Gth of August commenced
his return journey.
" The fauna of this countrj'," he says, " is most disappointing. Nearly
all the animals that exist here, are also to be found in the south of Africa,
* In this conclusion Speke was -wrong. It has since been proved, by the later discoveries of Bater
nnd Livingstone, that Lake Kyanza is only one, and the least considerable of the Sources of the White
Nile.
no STANLEY AND AFRICA.
•where they range in far greater numbers. But then we must remember tliat
a caravan route usually takes the more fertile and i^rosperous tracks, and that
many animals miglit be found in the recesses of the forest not far off, although
there are so few on the line. The elephants are finer here than in any part
of the world, and have been known, I hear, to carry tusks exceeding five
hundred pounds the pair in weight. The principal wild animals besides these
are the lion, leopard, hyena, fox, pig. Cape buffalo, gnu, kudu, harte-beest,
pallah, steinboc, and the little madoka, or sultana gazella. The giraffe, zebra,
quagga, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus, are very common. The game-birds
are the bustard, ilorikan, guinea-fowl, partridge, quail, snipe, various geese
and ducks, and a very dark-coloured rock-pigeon or sand-grouse. The birds
in general have very tame plumage, and are much more scarce, generally
speaking, than one finds in most other countries." The inhabitants of these
districts are mostly agricultural ; and when a stranger comes among them,
they at once hail his advent as a good omen, and allow him to do and see
whatever he likes. They desire his settling amongst them, appreciate the
benefits of commerce and civilisation, and are not suspicious, like the plunder-
ing pastorals, of every one coming towards them with evil intentions.
Our traveller left the low land on the 9th, and rose to the higher ground,
where he had just gained a sight of the waters of the Nyanza, and now took
his final view. He left the place with great regret, disappointed at not being
able to push his investigations further northwards ; this feeling, however, was
not shared by his black attendants, the Belooches and the lazy Pagazis, who
were in much better humour on the return journey, as they were now going
home, and, since the country was well stocked with cattle, they could obtain
as much meat as was required. Travelling through the Nindo wilderness,
they were very much excited at the quantity of game they saw. Troops of
zebras, the quagga, and giraffe, several varieties of antelopes roaming about
in large herds, a buffalo, and one ostrich, were the chief visible tenants of
this wild ; but, though the party tried their best, they failed to kill any.
Crossing a second wilderness to Kahama, they found the houses completely
destitute of all domestic articles and commodities ; and on asking the people
the reason, they said they were afraid of the plundering Wamandas, and
that they only came there during the day to look after their crops, retiring
at night to a distant place of safe retreat in the jungles, where they stored all
their goods and chattels. The country was full of sweet springs ; no unplea-
sant exhalations polluted the atmosphere ; there were no extremes of tempe-
rature ; and wholesome food was everywhere obtainable. Flies and mosquitoes
are scarcely known, and the tsetse of the south nowhere exists. " Of diseases,"
says Spcke, " the more common are remittent and intermittent fevers, and
these are the most important ones to avoid, since they bring so many bad
effects after them. In the first place, they attack the brain, and often deprive
MODE OF BREWING POM BE. 1 1 1
one of one's senses. Then there is no rallying from the weakness they i^ro-
duce. A little attack, which one would only laugh at in India, prostrates
you for a week or more, and this weakness brings on other disorders — cramp,
for instance, of the most painful kind, very often follows. Wlien lying in
bed, my toes Lave sometimes curled round and looked me in the face; at
other times, when I have put my hand behind my back, it has stuck there
until, with the other hand, I have seized tlie contracted muscles, and warmed
the part affected with the natural heat, till, relaxation taking place, I was able
to get it back."
On their arrival at Senagongo, they had a triumphal entiy, which con-
sisted of a sham fight. Spears were flourished, thrust, and withdrawn ; arrows
were pointed, huge shields were held up for protection, sticks and stones flew
like hail ; then there was a slight retreat, then another advance, bodies sway-
ing here and bodies swaying there, until at length the whole fore-ground was
a mass of moving objects, all springs and hops, like an army of frogs advanc-
ing to a pond, after the first burst of rairi. Their great principle in warfare
appeared to be, that no one should be still. As the imaginary slain fell, they
were immediately trampled down and knelt upon, and repeatedly hacked
with knives, whilst the slayer continued to show his savage wrath, by worry-
ing his supposed victim with all the angry energy which dogs disjilay when
fighting. A similar scene was enacted a day or two after at Mgogwa. At
this latter place, pombe-brewing is the chief occupation of the women, and is
as regular as the revolution of day and night, and the drinking of it just
as constant. " It is made of bajeri and jowari (common millets), and is at
first prepared by malting in the same way as we do barley ; then they range
a double street of sticks, usually in the middle of the village, fill a number of
pots with these grains mixed in water, which they place in continuous line
down the street of sticks, and, setting fire to the whole at once, boil away
until the mess is fit to put aside for refining ; this they then do, leaving the
juits standing three da^'s, when fermentation takes place and the liquor is fit
to drink. It has the strength of labourer's beer, and both sexes drink it alike.
Tliis fermented beverage resembles pig-wash, but is said to be so palatable
and satisfying — for the dregs and all are drunk together — that many entirely
subsist upon it. It is a great help to the slave-masters, for without it they could
get nobody to till their ground ; and when the slaves are required to turn
tlie earth, the master always sits in judgment with lordly dignity, generally
under a tree, watching to see who becomes entitled to a drop."
On the evening of the 25th of August, under the influence of a cool night
and a bright full moon, our traveller entered Kazeh. As the caravan, according
to its usual march of single file, moved along the serpentine foot-path which
led to the place, firing muskets and singing " the return," the villagers — men,
women, and children — came running out, piercing the air with loud shrill noises,
112 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
accompanied with tlio lullabooiiig wliich, once heard, can uever be mistaken.
The crowd was composed in great part of relatives of those who composed
the caravan. The Arabs, one and all, came forth to meet them, and escort
Spoke into their depot. Their congratulations were extremely warm, for
they had been anxious for the safety of the cai-avan, in consequence of sundry
rumours abroad concerning the war-party which lay in its track. Captain
Burton, who had remained at Kazeh, was greatly restored in health, and had
everything about him in a high state of preparation for the journey home-
wards. Tlicy set off, therefore, together for Zanzibar, whence they shortly
afterwards returned to England. Thus ended Speke's second expedition to
Africa.
KAFFIRS r^fiRYING THEIR WnilNDED FROM THE WAR
CHAP TEH V.
Spelce's Third Expedition — Accompanied hj Captain Grant he arrives at Zanzibar — -
Organisation of the Expedition — Tliey reach Usaramo — Usagara — Ugogo —
Unyamuczi and tlic People — Troubles in Uzinza — Driven back to Kazcli — Push
on to Usui — Leave the Inhospitable Distriets.
ON the 27tli of April, 18C0, Captain Speke started on the third expedition,
which was avowedly for the purpose of proving that the Lake Victoria
Nyanza, which he had discovered in 1858, was the source of the Nile. Ho
was accompanied by Captain Grant, an old Indian brother-officer. The expe-
dition was undertaken with the help of Government, and granted at the
earnest solicitation of the Geographical Society. They sailed from Ports-
mouth in the new steam -frigate, "Forte," and arrived at the Cape of Good
Hope on the 4th of July. Here Sir George Grey, the Governor of the
Colony, who had been an old explorer himself, manifested a warm and intel-
ligent interest in the objects of the expedition. On the IGtli of July, they
sailed in the screw steam corvette, " Brisk," for Zanzibar; and after touching
at East London, Delagoa Bay, and Mozambique, arrived at Zanzibar on the
17th of August. After spending some time in collecting a sufficient band of
suitable followers, they left Zanzibar in a corvette placed at their disposal by
the sultan, and crossed over to Bagamoyo on the mainland, on the 25th of
September. Their party consisted, in addition to themselves, of ten men of
the Cape Mounted Rifles, who were Hottentots ; Sheikh Said, the leader of
Speke's former caravan, who was appointed to that post again; five old black
sailors, who spoke Hindostanee ; Bombay, Speke's former attendant, inter-
preter, and factotum ; a party of seventy-five Wanguanas, emancipated from
slavery ; and one hundred negro porters. The two chief men, besides Said,
were Bombay and Baraka, who commanded the Zanzibar men. Fifty car-
bines were distributed among the elder men of the party, and the sheikh was
armed with a double-barrelled rifle, given to him by Captain Speke. The
sultan also sent, as a guard of honour, twenty-five Belouchs, with an officer
to escort them as far as Uzaramo, the country of the Wazaramo. They had
also twelve mules to carry annnunition, asses for the sick, and twenty-two
goats.
The procession, which commenced its march on the 2nd of Ocluber, was
15
114 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
in this fashion : — " The kirangozi or leader, with a load on his shoulder, led
the way, flag in hand, followed by the pagazis, carrying spears or bows and
arrows in their hands, and bearing their share of the baggage, in the shape
either of bolster-shaped loads of cloth and beads covered with matting, each
tied into the fork of a three pronged-sticlc, or else coils of brass or copper-Avire,
tied in even weights to each end of sticks, which they laid on the shoulder ;
then helter-skelter came the Wanguana, carrying carbines in their hands, and
boxes, bundles, tents, cooking-jiots — all the miscellaneous property on their
heads ; next the Hottentots, dragging the refractory mules, with ammunition-
boxes, but very lightly, to save the animals for the future; and finally. Sheikh
Said and the Belooch escort; while the goats, sick women, and stragglers,
brought up the rear. From first to last, some of the sick Hottentots rode the
hospital donkeys, allowing the negroes to tug their animals ; for the smallest
ailment threw them broadcast on their backs."
Speke thus describes the process of camp-forming, and the daily occupa-
tion of Grant, himself, and their private servants : — " After traversing fields
of grass well clothed with green trees, we arrived at the little settlement of
Bomani, where a camj) was formed, and everybody fairly appointed to his jilace.
The process of camp-forming would be thus : — Sheikh Said, with Bombay
under him, issues cloths to the men for rations at the rate of one-fourth load
a-day (about fifteen pounds), amongst one hundred and sixty five ; the Hotten-
tots cook our dinners and their own, or else lie rolling on the ground over-
come with fatigue ; the Beloochs are supposed to guard the camp, but prefer
gossip and brightening their arms. Some men are told off to look after the
mules, donkeys, and goats, whilst out grazing; the rest have to pack the kit,
2)itch our tents, cut boughs for our huts and for fencing in the camp — a thing
rarely done, by the by. After cooking, when the night has set in, the ever-
lasting dance begins, attended with clapping of hands and jingling small bells
strapped to the leg. The whole being accompanied by a constant repetition
of senseless words, which stand in place of the song to the negroes ; for song
they have none, being mentally incapacitated for musical composition, though
as timists they are not to be surpassed.
"What remains to be told is the daily occupation of Captain Gi-ant, my-
self, and our private servants. Beginning at the foot : — Rahan, a very peppery
little negro, who had served in a British man-of-war at tlie taking of Rangoon,
was my vallet ; and Baraka, who had been trained much in the same manner,
but had seen engagements at Mooltan, was Captain Grant's. They both knew
Hindostanee ; but while Rahan's services at sea had been short, Baraka had
served nearly all his life with Englishmen — was the smartest and most intelli-
gent negro I ever saw — was invaluable to Colonel Rigby as a detector of slave-
traders, and enjoyed his confidence so completely that he said, on parting witii
him, that he did not know where he should be able to find another man to fill
UZARAMO AND ITS PEOPLE. Hi
his post. These two men had now charge of our tents and personal kit,
while Earaka was considered the general of the Wanguana forces, and Rahan
a captain of ten.
" My first occupation was to map the country. This is done l)y timing
the rate of march with a watch, taking compass-bearings along the road, or on
any conspicuous marks — as, for instance, hills of it, and by noting the water-
shed — in short, all topograjjhical objects. On arrival in camp, every day came
the ascertaining, by boiling a th'jrmometer, of the altitude of the station
above the sea-level ; of the latitude of the station by the meridian altitude of
a star taken with a sextant ; and of the compass variation by azimuth. Occa-
sionally, there was the fixing of certain crucial stations, at intervals of sixty
miles or so, by lunar observations, or distances of the moon, either from the
sun, or from certain given stars, for determining the longitude, by which the
original-timed course can be drawn out with certainty on the map by propor-
tion. Should a date be lost, you can always discover it by taking a lunar
distance and comparing it with the Nautical Almanac, by noting the time
when a star passes the meridian, if your watch is right, or by observing the
phases of the moon, or her rising or setting, as compared with the Nautical
Almanac. The rest of my work, besides sketching and keeping a diary, which
w^as the most troublesome of all, consisted in making geological and zoological
collections. With Captain Grant rested the botanical collections and ther-
mometrical registers. He also boiled one of the thermometers, kept the rain-
gauge, and undertook the photography ; but after a time I sent the instruments
back, considering this work too severe for the climate, and he tried instead
sketching with water-colours. The rest of our day went in breakfasting after
the march was over — a pipe, to prepare us for rummaging the fields and vil-
lages, to discover their contents for scientific purposes — dinner close to sunset,
and tea and pipe before turning in at night."
They were now in Uzaramo, a country without hills, well covered with
trees and large grasses, which, in the rainy season, are too thick, tall, and
green, to be pleasant, though in the dry season, after the grasses have been
burnt, it is agreeable enough. The villages are not large or numerous, but
widely spread, consisting generally of conical grass huts, while others are
gable-ended, after the coast-fashion ; a small collection of ten or twenty com-
prising one village. The Warazamo, who people the district, are strictly
agriculturists, having no cows, and but few goats. They are short and thick-
set, and their nature tends to be boisterous. Nowhere in the interior are natives
so well clad. They dress up their hair In fanciful styles, smear their bodies
with clay, and adorn themselves with shells and other ornaments. They
always keep their bows and arrows, which form their natural weapons, in
excellent order, the latter well poisoned, and carried in quivers nicely carved.
They jDiofess to be the subjects of the Sultan of Zanzibar; but often act with
110 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
an indepfiiidence of all authority. They demand tribute of travellers, always
demanding more than they expect to get, and generally using threats as a
means of extortion, not disdaining to commit robbery, when they can, by
open violence. Spcke says, tliat the result of experience is, that, ardent as
the traveller is to sec the interior of Africa, no sooner lias he dealings with
the natives, than his whole thoughts tend to discovering some road where lie
wont be molested, or a short cut, but long march, to get over the ground.
The men of this district have one good quality, not very general in Africa —
they treat the women with much attention — among other things dressing their
hair for them, and escorting them to the water, lest any harm should befal
them.
On the 14th of October, the expedition reached Kidunda, from which, on
the following day, the Belooch escort was sent back, with all the specimens
of natural history collected on the way for the Royal Geographical Society.
Proceeding along the Kingani River, they reached the country of Usagai'a, a
distiict of hills and valleys, and exhibiting manifold traces of volcanic action.
Granite and other igneous rocks are exposed in many places in the shape of
massive blocks ; while the hill-ranges are covered in the upper part with
sandstone, and in the bottom Avith alluvial clay. Where the hill tops and
sides are not cultivated, they are well covered with bush and small trees,
amongst which the bamboo is conspicuous ; whilst the bottoms, having a deeper
and richer soil, produce large fig-trees of exceeding beauty, and various trees
of other kinds. Cultivation would thrive abundantly, if wars and slave-hunts
did not disturb the industry of the people. The inhabitants are poor, meagre-
looking wretches, dingy in colour, spiritless, and shy. They generally fly to
the hill-tops as soon as the noise of the advancing caravan is heard, and so
much ground have they, from previous experience, to fear treachery, that no
persuasions will bring them down again. Whilst passing through this dis-
trict. Grant was seized with fever ; and, although restored for the time, it
kept recurring every fortnight until the journey ended. On the 30th, they
reached the first settlements of Mbuiga, from which could be seen a curious
blue mountain, standing up like a giant overlooking the rest of the hills. The
scenery here formed a strong and very 2:)leasing contrast to any they had seen
since leaving the coast. The valleys, watered by little brooks, were far
richer and prettier than the high lands above, being lined with fine trees and
evergreen shrubs ; while the general state of prosjjerity was such, that the
people could afford, even at this late season of the year, to turn their corn
into malt, to brew beer for sale; and goats and fowls were plentiful in the
market.
After leaving the valley district, and marching for some time over
elevated ground, covered with small trees and a rich variety of pretty bulbous
flowers, they reached the h.abitations of Muhanda. No sooner did the poor
UGOGO A ND 1 TS IN 11 A Bl TA NTS. 1 1 7
villagers espy tlicni than they immediately dispersed in tlic jungles. By diut
of great persuasion, however, they were induced to sell the travellers pro-
visions, though at a monstrous rate. The scenery through which the caravan
now passed was most interesting, with every variety of hill, plateau, and
ravine, wild and prettily wooded ; but they saw nothing of the people. Like
frightened rats, as soon as they caught the sound of the strangers' advancing
march, they buried themselves in the jungles, carrying off their grain with
them. Towards sunset on the 8th, they arrived at New Mbumi, a fertile
place, lying at the foot of a cluster of steep hills ; and, as this was reported
to be the only place where tliey could buy corn until they reached Ugogo, a
space of a hundred and forty miles, they pitched camp for three days to lay in
supjjlies for ten. The chief of the place was very affable, said he had often
been to Zanzibar, and would do anything they desired to help them. lie
knew the power of the English, and that they were opposed to slavery, tlic
terrible effects of which had led. him to abandon Old Mbumi, and come to
reside here.
By the 22nd of the month, fhey had left the hilly Usagara range quite
behind them, and reached the more level lands of the interior, Ugogo, the
region of country on Avhich they had now entered, lies under the lee side of
the Usagara hills, and is comparatively sterile and wild in its appearance.
Granite here and there crops through the surface. There arc numerous
acacias, and large prairies of grass. Immediately after the rainy season, the
country looks pleasant enough ; but it is brown and desert-looking during-
the rest of the year. The appearance of the people is somewhat in keeping
with that of the country. " The men, indeed, are never seen without their
usual arms — the spear, tlie shield, and the assagai. They live in flat-topped,
square, tembe villages, wherever springs of water are found, keep cattle in
j)lenty, and farm enough generally to suj^pl}' not only their own wants, but
those of the thousands who annually pass in caravans. They arc extremely
fond of ornaments, the most common of which is an ugl}' tube of the gourd
thrust through the lower lobe of the ear. Their colour is a soft ruddy brown,
with a slight infusion of black, not unlike that of a rich plum. Im2)ulsive by
nature, and exceedingly avaricious, they pester travellers beyond all concep-
tion, by thronging the road, jeering, quizzing, and pointing at them ; and,
in camp, by intrusively forcing their way into the midst of the kit, and even
into the stranger's tent. Caravans, in consequence, never enter their villages,
but camp outside, generally under the big, gouty-limbed trees ; encircling
their entire camp with a ring-fence of thorns to prevent any sudden attack."
"Water was so scarce that they had to pay for it the same price as for the
beer of the country ; and cows, goats, sheep, and fowls, were all selling at
high rates.
118 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
While encamping at Kanyenye, they heard that there were some bicornia
rhinoceros in the neighbourhood. Being informed that the best time to
find them was the night, when they came to visit certain pools not far off)
Speke, with a guide, and two boys, each carrying a rifle, set out at ten o'clock,
to am'ive at the place before the rising of the full moon. While waiting, the
moon at midnight arose, and shed her light on the desolate scene ; the guide
took fright, and bolted. Presently, a noble animal cautiously descended
towards the water. Spcke approached within eighty yards of him, when,
seeing that the moon shone full on his flank, he raised himself upright, and
jilanted a bullet behind his left shoulder, and thus killed his first rhinoceros.
After waiting a couple of hours longer, two more approached in the same
stealthy, fidgety way as the first. He at once planted a ball in the larger
one, and brought him round with a roar, and was about to give him a second
shot, when he found that the boys who were carrying the second rifle had
made off in terror, and were scrambling like monkeys up a tree. Fortunately
for Speke, the beast turned to the right-about, and made off also. The next
morning the parties of the exj^edition and the native Wagogo gathered around
the carcass of the rhinoceros like vultures. "A more savage, filthy, disgust-
ing, but at the same time grotesque scene than that which followed, cannot
be conceived. All fell to work, armed with swords, spears, knives, hatchets —
cutting and slashing, thumping and bawling, fighting and tearing, tumbling
and wrestling, up to their knees in filth and blood in the middle of the carcass.
When a tempting morsel fell to the possession of any one, a stronger neigh-
bour would seize and bear off the prize, in triumph. All right was now a
matter of pure might, and lucky it was that it did not end in a fight between
our men and the villagers. These might be afterwards seen, one by one,
covered with blood, scampering home each with his spoil — a piece of tripe,
or liver, or lights, or whatever else it might have been his fortune to get off
with."
On their arrival at Khoko, the last district in Ugogo, which they reached
on the 6th of December, the whole of the inhabitants, imagining that their
visit was one of revenge, because the Wagogo had attacked and plundered
an Arab camp a year ago, turned out to oppose them. As soon, however,
as the mistake was discovered, they allowed the travellers to pass on, and
encamp in the outskirts of the wilderness. Here they halted three days,
which time was employed in obtaining fresh men in place of the sick, in laying
in j^rovisions, in settling the hongo, and in sport. Speke describes an animated
scene which occurred here in connection with buffalo-stalking. He espied a
large herd feeding. " They were quite unconscious," he says, "of my approacli,
so I took a shot at a cow, and wounded her ; then, after reloading, put a ball
in a bull, and staggered him also. This caused great confusion among them;
but as none of the animals knew where the shots came from, they simply shifted
B UFFA L 0-STA LKING . 119
in a fidgety manner, allowing mo to kill the first cow, and even fire a fourth
shot, which sickened the great bull, and. induced him to walk off, leaving the
herd to their fate, who, considerably puzzled, began moving off also.
" I now called up the boys, and determined on following the herd down
before either skinning the dead cow or following the bull, who I knew could
not go far. Their footprints being well defined in the moist sandy soil, we
soon found the herd again ; but as they now knew they were pursued, they
kept moving on in short runs at a time, when, occasionally gaining glimpses
of their large dark bodies as they forced through the bush, I repeated my
shots and struck a good number, some more and some less severely. This
was very provoking; for all of them being stern shots were not likely to kill,
and the jungle was so thick I could not get a front view of them. Presently,
however, one with her hind leg broken pulled up on a white ant-hill, and toss-
ing her horns came down with a charge the instant I showed myself close to
her. One crack of the rifle rolled her over, and gave me free scope to improve
the bag, which was very soon done ; for, on following the spoors, the traces
of blood led us up to another one as lame as the last. He then got a second
bullet in the flank, and, after hobbling a little, evaded our sight and threw
himself into a bush, where we no sooner arrived, than he plunged headlong at
us from the ambush, just, and only just, giving me time to present my small
40-gauge Lancaster.
" It was a most ridiculous scene. Suliman by my side, with the instinct
of a monkey, made a violent spring and swung himself by a bough imme-
diately over the beast, whilst Faraj bolted away and left me single-gunned to
polish him ofi". There was only one course to pursue, for in one instant more
he would have been into me ; so, quick as thought, I fired the gun, and, as
luck would have it, my bullet, after passing through the edge of one of his
horns, stuck in the spine of his neck, and rolled him over at my feet as dead
as a rabbit." He now went in search of another, and fired, but without efi"ect.
" The great beast, from the thicket on the opposite side, charged down like
a mad bull, full of ferocity — -as ugly an antagonist as ever I saw, for the front
of his head was all shielded with horn. A small mound fortunately stood
between us, and as he rounded it, I jumped to one side and let fly at his
flank, but without the eft'ect of stopping him ; for, as quick as thought, the
huge monster was at my feet, battling with the impalpable smoke of my gun,
which fortunately hung so thick on the ground at the height of his head that
he could not see me, though I was so close that I might, had I been possessed
of a hatchet, have chopped off his head. This was a predicament which looked
very ugly, for my boys had both bolted, taking with them my guns ; but
suddenly the beast, evidently regarding the smoke as a phantom which could
not be mastered, turned round in a bustle, to my intense relief, and galloped
off at full speed, as if scared by some terrible apparitiou."
1-20 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
All along, the travellers had difficulties with their attendants. These
difficulties now increased. Intrigues were originated and fostered by the
native chiefs ; many decamped, and there was the greatest trouble in getting
their jilaces su]:)plicd. Thefts were perpetrated by the runaways ; and it
became necessary to inflict severe punishment on one or two who were detected,
in the hope of striking fear into the rest. It sometimes seemed as if supplies
of food would fail. The weather towards the close of the year was at times
most unpropitious, rain lasting for a fortnight together. The journey through
the wilderness was very dreary. Altogether British courage, endurance, per-
severance, and patience, were put to the tost. Thus closed the year 1860.
Grant and Speke spent the New Year's Day of 18(31 at Jiwa La Mkoa,
or Round Rock — a village occupied by a few Wakimbu settlers, who, by their
quiet, domestic manners, made them feel as though they were well out of the
wood. Provisions were now obtained by sending men to distant villages;
and they were able to supply the camp with their guns, killing rhinoceros,
wild boar, antelope, and zebras. On the 9th of January, having bought
two donkeys, and engaged several men, they left Round Rock and resumed
their march. On the 23rd, they reached tlie large and fertile district of
Unyanyembe, the centre of Unyamuezi — the land of the Moon, within five
miles of Kazeh. Their losses up to this date were as follow : — One Hottentot
dead and five returned ; one freeman sent back witli the Hottentots, and one
flogged and turned off; twenty-five of Sultan Majid's gardeners deserted;
ninetj'-eight of the original Wan^'amuezi porters deserted ; twelve mules and
three donkeys dead. Besides which, half their property had been stolen ;
Avhilst the travelling expenses had been unprecedented, in consequence of the
severity of the famine throughout the whole length of the march.
Unyamuezi is nearly as large as England, and veiy similar in shape. It
ranges from three to four thousand feet above the sea-level — a high plateau,
studded with small outcropping hills of granite, between which, in the valleys,
there are numerous fertilising springs of fresh water. In some parts are
found sandstone and rich iron-ore. The people, called Wanyamuezi, are
generally industrious ; they cultivate extensively, making cloth of cotton in
their own looms, smelt iron and work it up very expertly, build tembe houses
to live in over a large jiortion of their country, sometimes living in grass huts,
and keep large flocks and herds. They are among the greatest traders in
Africa, Their physical appearance is not very prepossessing, "though many
of their men are handsome and their women pretty ; neither are they well
dressed or well armed, being wanting in pluck and gallantrv. Their women,
generally, are better dressed than the men. Cloths fastened round under the
arm are their national costume, along with a necklace of beads, large brass
or copper Avire armlets, and a profusion of their circles, called Sambo, made
of the giraffe's tail-hairs bound round by the thinnest iron or copper wire ;
DIFFICULTIES OF TRAVELLING. \n
whilst the men at home wear h:>in-clotlis, but in the field, or whilst travelling-,
simply hang a goat-skin over their shoulders, exposing at least three-fourths
of their body in a rather indecorous manner. In all other respects they orna-
ment themselves like the women, only, instead of a long coil of wire wound up
the arm, thoy content tliemselves with having massive rings of copper or
brass on the wrist ; and they carry for arms a spear and bows and arrows.
All extract more or less their lower incisors, and cut a V between their two
upper incisors. The whole tribe are desperate smokers, and greatly given to
drink."
On the 24th, escorted by Spekc's old Arab friend Musa, who had come
out to meet them, they marched into Kazeh. Here Musa treated them with
the utmost courtesy and hospitality ; and begged they would reside with him,
until they could find men to carry their jjroperty on to Karague. They
found here also Sheikh Snay, who, with other Arab merchants, came at once
to call on tliem ; and from whom they learnt that fierce hostilities existed
between the Arabs and the natives throughout the district. Snay said that
he had an army of four hundred slaves prepared to march against one of the
chiefs, who was constantly attacking and robbing the caravans. Some time
was necessarily spent at Kazcli, in making preparations for their onward
journey ; the two travellers emploj'-ing themselves in gaining all the inform-
ation they could concerning the country.
After waiting for nearly two months at Kazeh, the travellers set out on
the 17tli of March, and on the 24th, entered the rich district of Mininga,
where the gingerbread-palm grows abundantly. Sirboko, an ivory merchant,
the greatest man in the district, received them, and gave them a good hut to
live in. Here they learnt that tlie continued hostilities between the Arabs and
the natives, rendered their journeying very perilous. The Hottentots, too,
continued to sufier so i luch from sickness that, as the only hope of saving
their lives, it was necess ry to send them back to Zanzibar. Speke therefore
found it necessary to return to Kazeh, which he reached on the 2nd of May,
leaving Grant, who was ill, behind at Mininga. Returning however, to Min-
inga, on the 15th, he was rejoiced to see Grant recovered. During his absence,
three villagers had been attacked by two lions ; two of them had escaped, but
the third was seized as he was plunging into his hut, and was dragged off by
the animals and devoured. The travellers' difficulties daily increased. Musa
did not keep faith with them. Porters could not be obtained. A leader was
at last secured, whose name was Ungurue, or the pig — who had taken several
caravans to Karague, and knew all the languages well ; but unfortunately he
afterwards proved himself to be what his name betokened — a very obstinate
and stupid fellow. They had the poor consolation of knowing that they had
companions in adversity. A large Arab caravan following them, could not
16
122 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
advance for want of men. They told Speke tliat it was the first time they
had come on that line, and they deeply regretted it ; for they had lost five
thousand dollars' worth of beads, by their porters running away with their
loads, and now they did not know how to proceed.
At length having obtained a part of the number he required, a camp was
formed at a jilace called Phunze, where Grant, with Bombay to attend on him,
remained in charge of part of the baggage, while Speke, with Ungurue as his
guide, and Baraka as his attendant, pushed on ahead. The chiefs of every
district through which they passed demanded hongo or tribute, without pay-
ment of which they could not move forward. This caused numberless pro-
voking delays, as the chiefs were seldom satisfied with what was offered them.
We gather from their experience some knowledge of the difficulties of an
African traveller. It is not only the caprices and disloyalty of his attendants
that he has to encounter, he is subjected to numberless forced detentions on
the route by the chiefs of the countries through which he has to pass. The
hongo, or transit-tax — or blackmail, which is imjoosed by these despots on
every traveller, is a cause of endless annoyance and delay. No sooner does
any one of these petty chiefs become aware of the approach of a travelling
party, then he forthwith considers how much he can make out of such an oppor-
tunity for plunder. Nor is it possible to evade this constantly-recurring tax.
If a travelling party should betray an intention to pass by, instead of through,
the territory of some black king, its leader sjieedily receives an invitation,
which is to be interpreted as a command, to the palace ; and if he should ven-
ture to decline the proffered attention, his porters and escort would speedily
be assailed by a flight of arrows, from some well-arranged ambush, and he
would find his further progress barred by a body of armed men.
On the 9th of June, Speke reached Msalala, a district governed by a
chief called Myonga, notorious for his extortions and infamous conduct, in
consequence of which no Arabs would pass that way. The inhabitants turned
out and fired their arrows at the strangers, and the war-drums were beat in
every village. Myonga demanded his tribute, and wished to see Speke, as
he had never yet seen a white man. Speke declined personally attendino- on
the chief, but sent Baraka to arrange the hongo. Baraka amused himself for
some hours, firing off volleys of ammunition, and it was not till evening that
the palace drums announced that the hongo had been settled. Speke imme-
diately gave orders to commence the march; but two cows had been stolen
from the caravan, and the men declared that they would not proceed without
getting them back. Our traveller knew that if he remained, more tax would
be demanded ; as soon, therefore, as the cows were found he shot them, and
gave them to the villagers. This raised a mutiny among his men ; the leader
would not show the way, nor would a single porter lift his load. Myonga
learning that there was dissension in the camp, immediately increased his
THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE OF UZINZA. 123
demands, and fresh tribute had to bo paid. Ultimately the caravan was ablo
to make a fresh start. For the first few miles they passed through villages ;
after that there was a long tract of jungle, inhabited chiefly by antelopes and
rhinoceros, and wilder in appearance than most parts of Unyamuozi. In this
jungle they crossed the boundary-line between the great country of the
Moon and the kingdom of Uzinza.
Uzinza, the country which they now entered, they found ruled by two
Wahuma chieftains, of Abyssinian descent. "The dress of the Wahuma is
very simple, composed chiefly of cow-hide tanned black, a few magic orna-
ments and charms, brass or coj3per bracelets, and immense numbers of sambo
for stockings, which look very awkward on their long legs. They smear them-
selves with rancid butter instead of macassai', and are, in consequence, very
offensive to all but the negro, who seems, rather than otherwise, to enjoy a
sharp nose-tickler. For arms, they carry both bow and spear ; more generally
the latter. Tiie Wazinza in the southern parts are so much like the Wanyam-
uezi, as not to require any special notice ; but in the north, where the country
is more hilly, they are much more energetic and actively built. All alike
live in grass-hut villages, fenced round by bomas in the south, but open in
the north. Their country rises in high rolls, increasing in altitude as it
approaches the Mountains of the Moon." Our travellers had to encounter here
greater difficulties than at any previous part of the journey. Ungurue, or
the pig, continued his obstinacy and malicious tricks ; they were heavily taxed,
too, and robbed at every step. Their porters refused to advance, declaring
that they should be murdered, as the Watuta, their great enemies, were out
on a foray, and would be sure to meet with them. These Watuta, they said,
were desperate fellows, who had invaded their country and killed their wives
and children, and had despoiled them of everything they held dear. As a
proof that they wei'e afraid to encounter them, they finally ran away and hid
themselves. Baraka also showed the white feather, and feared to proceed.
Speke, however, put on a bold front, and declared that he would return
to Kazeh, and collect a sufficient number of men, who would not be afraid to
accompany him to Usui. Without any delay, he put his plan into execution.
Leaving Grant behind, he set out for Kazeh ; and though suffering himself
severely from a cough which troubled him by day, and would not allow him
to lie or sleep on either side at night, he reached Kazeh on the 2nd of July.
After much bother and many disappointments, he got two men as guides — ■
one named Bui, a very small creature, with very high pretensions — the other,
a steady old traveller, named Nasib. These two guides, both of whom knew
all the chiefs and languages up to and including Uganda, promised him faith-
fully that they would go on to Usui, and bring back a sufficient number of
porters for Grant and himself to go on together.
124 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Makaka, one of tlio cliiefs of Uzinza, proved himself one of the most arro-
gant and insolent of tlic native rulers the travellers encountered. lie demanded
as his due a royal salute from the escort, Avhich was accordingly drawn up
in line to fire a volley in his honour. " I never felt so degraded," says
Speke, " as when I complied, and gave the word of command as he approached
uiy tent." He was by no means awed by this military display, but made
some remarks not very complimentary on the 2:)erformance of the men. His
attendants all fawned upon him, and snapped their fingers at him whenever
he sneezed. He examined Speke's guns, clothes, and everything he had ;
and begged for them in the most importunate manner. The bull's-eye lan-
tern he coveted so much that Speke had to pretend the hottest anger to stop
his importunities. He begged hard for lucifer-matches to aid him in his
magical rites ; but was quieted by the gift of a pair of slippers, into which
he had unceremoniously thrust his feet. From him, however, Speke obtained
the first authentic geographical information respecting the existence of the
Baringa Lake, supposed to be connected with the Victoria Nyanza.
On the 5th of July, Speke left Kazoh once more for the north. March-
ing slowly, as his men kept falling sick, he did not reach Grant again until
the 11th. As they could not obtain a sufficient number of fresh loorters to
carry on their baggage, he was obliged to part from Grant once more, and
urge his way forward. On entering the district under the rule of Lumeresi,
that chief insisted on his coming to his village, as he wished very much to
see a white man. Though our traveller knew what the invitation meant, and
would gladly have declined it, he was bound to comply. Lumeresi was not
in when he arrived, but on his return, at night, he beat all his drums to cele-
bi-ate the event, and fired a musket ; in re^Dly to which Speke fired three
shots. Like all his royal brethren, though he pretended to be ver}^ kind, he
soon began to beg for eveiything he saw. That very night, Speke was taken
alarmingly ill. ''The same night," he says, "whilst sitting out to make
astronomical observations, I became deadly cold, so much so, that the instant
I had taken the star, to fix my position, I turned into bed, but could not get
up again ; for the cough that had stuck to me for a month then became sa
violent, heightened by fever succeeding the cold fit, that before the next
morning I was so reduced I could not stand. For the last month, too, I had
not been able to sleep on either side, as interior pressure, caused by doing so^
provoked the cough ; but now I had, in addition, to be propped in position
to get any repose whatever. The symptoms, altogether, were rather alarm-
ing, for the heart felt inflamed and ready to burst, pricking and twinging
with every breath, which was exceedingly aggravated by constant coughing,
when streams of phlegm and bile were ejected. The left arm felt half para-
lysed, the left nostril was choked with mucus, and on the centre of the left
shoulder-blade I felt a pain as if some one was branding me with a hot iron j
CLOTHING OF FIG-TREE BARK. 125
and, in addition, I repeatedly felt severe pains — rather paroxysms of fearful
twinges, in the spleen, liver, and lungs."
He felt that his only chance of recovering from this severe illness was
change of air. He therefore resolved to proceed on his journey, and oi'dered
his men to prepare a hammock, in which he might be carried. Although he
had already given the chief a number of presents, by way of hongo, no sooner
did he begin to talk of proceeding than Lumeresi attempted to hinder him,
and declared he could not bear the idea of his white friend going to die in the
jungle. His real object, however, was to get a robe, which Speke had deter-
mined not to give him. Nevertheless, so persistent was the chief, that, rather
than be detained, Speke presented him with the onl}'- one which he had pre-
served for the great chief Rumanika, into whoso country he was about to
proceed. Scarcely had the greedy prince received it, before he insisted on a
further tribute — exactly double what had been previously given him. Tlie
traveller again yielded, and presented a number of brass-wire bracelets, six-
teen cloths, and a hundred necklaces of coral beads, which were to pay for
Grant as well as himself. He paid them down on the spot; the drums beat
the "satisfaction;" and, with a mind much relieved, he ordered the march.
But now arose a fresh difficulty. Just as they were about to march, the
two guides, Bui and Nasib, were not to be found. The shock nearly killed
him. He had walked all the way to Kazeh and back again for these men ;
had treated them kindly and paid them well ; and yet they chose to desert.
In the weak state of his body and mind, he cried over the matter like a child.
Here now for a season longer he was compelled to stop. On the 13th of
August, a caravan arrived from Karague. One of the porters in it was an old
acquaintance, of half- Arab breed. Like the rest of the porters in the caravan
he wore a shirt of fig-tree bark, called mbugu ; and ho informed Speke that
the people about the equator all wore this kind of covering, and made it uj)
of numerous pieces of bark sewn together, which they stripped from the trees
after cutting once round the trunk above and below, and then once more
down the tree from tlie upper to the lower circular cutting. The way they
softened the bark, to make it like cloth, was by immersion in water, and a
good strong application of a mill-headed mallet, wliich ribbed it like corduro}-.
The operation of barking the trees did not kill them, because if the wound
was well-covered over while fresh with plantain-leaves, shoots grew down
from above, and a new bark came all over it.
All this time, the two travellers were separated from each other — Grant,
in the jungles, near Myonga's village ; and Speke, who had gone on in
advance, detained by Lumeresi. At midnight, on the 16th of September,
while lying in a fearfull}' weak condition, reduced to almost a skeleton,
«Speke was startled out of his sleep, by hearing the hurried tramp of several
men. They proved to be Giant's porters, who, in short excited sentences,
1;36 " STANLEY AND AFRICA.
told him that they had left Grant standing under a tree witli nothing but a
gun in liis hand ; that his Wanguana porters had been either killed or driven
away, having been attacked by Myonga's men, who had fallen upon the cara-
van, and shot, speared, and plundered the whole of it. The next day, Speke
received from Grant the following letter, narrating the whole of his catas-
trophes : —
In the Jungles, neae Myonga's,
\%th Sept., 1861.
" My Dear Speke — The caravan was attacked, plundered, and the men
driven to the winds, while marching this morning into Myonga's country.
Awaking at cock-crow, I roused the camp, all anxious to rejoin you ; and
while the loads were being packed, my attention was drawn to an angry
discussion between the head men and seven or eight armed fellows sent by
Sultan Myonga, to insist on my putting uj) for the day in his village. They
were summarily told that as you liad already made him a present, he need
not expect a visit from me. Adhering, I doubt not, to their master's instruc-
tions, they officiously constituted themselves our guides till we chose to strike
off their path, when, quickly heading our party, they stopped the way,
planted their spears, and dared our advance I
" This menace made us firmer in our determination, and we swept past
the spears. After we bad marched unmolested for some seven miles, a loud
yelping from the woods excited our attention, and a sudden rush was made
upon us by, say two hundred men, who came down seemingly in great glee.
In an instant, at the caravan's centre, they fastened upon the poor porters.
The struggle was short; and with the thi-eat of an arrow or spear at their
breasts, men were robbed of their cloths and ornaments, loads were yielded
and run away with before resistance could be organised ; only three men of a
hundred stood by me, the others, whose only thought was their lives, fled
into the woods, where I went shouting for them. One man, little Rahan —
rip as he is — stood with cocked gun, defending his load against five savages,
with uplifted spears. No one else could be seen. Two or three were reported
killed ; some were wounded. Beads, boxes, cloths, etc., lay strewed about the
woods. In fact, I felt wrecked. My attempt to go and demand redress from
the sultan was resisted, and, in utter despair, I seated myself among a mass
of rascals jeering round me, and insolent after the success of the day. Several
were dressed in the very cloths, etc., they had stolen from my men. In the
afternoon, about fifteen men and loads were brought me, with a message
from the sultan, that the attack had been a mistalce of his subjects — that one
man had had a hand cut off for it, and tliat all the property would be restored I
Yours sincerely, "J. W. Geant."
After numerous and great annoyances, the two travellers were again
united. On the 2Gth, Speke was writing a letter to Grant, giving him in-
THE PROVINCE OF USUI. ' 12?
structions how to proceed, and urging him to resist the begging appeals of tlie
scoundrels who were attemping to bleed him on all sides, when, to his inex-
pressible delight, Grant himself walked into the camp ; and then they had a
good laugh over all their misfortunes. With their united forces they now set
out once more on their journey. On the 8th of October, they halted at
Muamba. Before them now lay a wilderness of five marches' duration ; and as
the few villages that once lined it had all been depoj^ulated by the Sorombo
people and the Watuta, they had to lay in a large store of provisions. The next
day, instead of the constantly-recurring outcrops of granite, as in Unyamuezi,
with valleys between, they saw only two lines of small hills, a good way
off; whilst the ground over which they travelled, instead of being confined
like a valley, rose in long high swells of sandstone formation, covered with
small forest-trees, among whicli flowers like primroses, only very much larger,
and mostly of a pink colour, were frequently met with. On the 19th, they
entered the province of Usui ; and here they had to suffer from the chief of
the province, Suwarora, and his officers, the same injustice as they had expe-
rienced all tlirough their journey. Niglit after night, their camp was attacked
by thieves. One night, as Speke was sitting out with his sextant observing
the stars, to fix his position, a party of these marauders accosted two of the
women of the camp, and ran away with their clothes. He now resolved to shoot
any of them who came near; and that night one was shot, who turned out
to be a magician, and was thought till then to be invulnerable. He was
tracked by his blood, and died afterwards of his wound. The next day some
of Speke's men were lured into the huts of the natives by an invitation to
dinner ; but when they got them inside, they stripped them naked, and let
them go again. After this another thief was shot dead, and two wounded.
In addition to all this, Bombay and Baraka, the two most reliable servants of
the travellers, gave them, by their misconduct, much trouble.
Usui was a most convulsed-looking country, of well-rounded hills, com-
posed of sandstone. In all the pai'ts not under cultivation they were covered
with bush wood. The little grass-hut villages were unfenced, and were hidden
in large fields of plantains. Cattle were numerous, kept by the Wahuma,
who would not sell milk to the strangers, because they ate fowls, and a bean
called maliarague. In this province they were detained nearly a month. On
the 15th of November, they found themselves approaching its end. The
population was thinly scattered in small groups of grass huts, where the scrub
jungle had been cleared away. On the road they passed cairns, to which
every passer-by contributed a stone. It struck Speke as curious that he should
find these cairns in the first country they entered governed by the Wahuma,
as he formerly saw the same thing in the Somali country, which, doubtless,
in earlier days, was governed by a branch of the Abyssinians. The following
day, they entered a fine forest. "We wended on through it," says Sjieke,
128 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
*'at a stiff pace, until we arrived at the head of a deep valley, called LohugatI,
which was so beautiful we instantly pulled up to admire it. Deep down its
well-wooded side below us was a stream, of most inviting aspect for a trout-
fisher, flowing towards the Nyanza. Just beyond it the valley was clothed
witli fine trees and luxuriant vegetation of all descriptions, amongst which was
conspicuous the pretty pandana palm, and rich gardens of plantains ; whilst
thistles of extraordinary size, and wild indigo, were the more common weeds.
The land beyond that again rolled back in high undulations, over which, in
the far distance, we could see a line of cones, red and bare on their tops,
guttered down with white streaks, looking for all the world like recent vol-
canoes ; and in the far back-ground, rising higher than all, were the rich
grassy hills of Karague and Kishakka. On resuming our march, a bird, called
khongota, flew across our path ; seeing which, old Nasib, beaming with joy
in his superstitious belief, cried out with delight, ' Ah, look at that good omeni
— Now our journey will be sure to be prospei'ous !' After fording the stream,
we sat down to rest, and were visited by all the inhabitants, who were more
naked than any people we had yet seen."
From this valley they rose over a stony hill to the settlement of Vihembe,
the last on the Usui frontier. The next day they passed out of Usui, and
entered on the border-land — a district uninhabited, and considered neutral —
which separates that country from Karague. Gradually descending from the
spur which separates the Lohugati valley from the bed of the Lake of Urigi,
the track led them first through a pleasant meadow, and then through a pas-
sage between the cones they had seen from the heights above Lohugati, where
a new geological formation attracted Speke's notice. He describes it thus : —
" From the green slopes of the hill, set up at a slant, as if the central line of
pressure on the dome top had weighed on the inside plates, protruded soft slabs
of argillaceous sandstone, whose laminae presented a b'^.'ef-sandwich appearance,
puce or purple alternating with creamy-wliite. Quartz, and other igneous
rocks, were also scattered about, lying like superficial accumulations in the
dips at the foot of the hills, and red sandstone conglomerates clearly indicated
the presence of iron. The soil itself looked rich and red, not unlike our owu
fine country of Devon." They had now left for a time their trials and sor-
rows behind.
CHAPTER VI.
Karague—Rumaniha and Ids Court — Ilidorrj of the Wahinna — Uganda — Court
Ceremonies and Life — Departure from Uganda for the Kite.
AFTER having passed through several countries, in all of which our travel-
lers were more or less plundered by the chiefs, Avho refused to order
tlieir drums to " beat the satisfaction," and release them from their virtual
imprisonment, until they had not only exhausted their patience, but provoked
an attitude of defiance, a remarkable contrast now presented itself to the con-
duct to which they had hitherto been subjected. It was as great a change as
could well be imagined. To their utter astonishment, they now reached a
country conspicuous for the humanity, hospitality, and what may be justly
termed good breeding, of both its sovereign and people. The territoi'y of the
\imvr of Karaffue is situated iti an elevated region two deijrees south of the
equator, to the west of the Victoria Nyanza, but separated from it by a small
intervening kingdom. This prince, hearing of the approach of white travel-
lers, sent officers with maces, the insignia of authority, which commanded
universal respect, to welcome the strangers to his kingdom, and to escort
them with all honour to his palace. Kachuchu, the chief officer of the escort,
informed them that the village authorities were everywhere instructed to
supply them with food at the king's expense, as there were no taxes gathered
from strangers in the kingdom of Karague.
The country was hilly and picturesque, wild but verdant, dotted here
and there on the higher slopes with thick bush of acacias, tlie haunts of both
the Avhite and black rhinoceros, whilst, in the valley, herds of hartebeests
and fine cattle roamed about. The further they proceeded in this country
tlie better fhey liked it ; and the village chiefs were so civil that they could
do wliat they liked. Game was very plentiful. Small antelopes occasionally
sprang up from the grass. On several occasions the rhinoceros were so nume-
i-ous and in)prudent as to contest the right of the road with them, and Speke
shot the first white rhinoceros he had ever seen. Sparrows were so abundant
that the people, to save themselves from starvation, were obliged to grow a
bitter corn, which the birds disliked. A beautiful lake which they espied, was
at fi'-st supposed to be a portion of the Nyanza ; but, on finding it a separate
17
130 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
sheet of water, Speke gave it the name of Little Windermere, because Grant
thought it looked so like our English lake of that name. They now attained
the height of between five and six thousand feet, and thence descended to the
Eozoka valley, and pitched their tents in the village. Kachuchu hero told
them he had orders to precede them, and prepare the king for their coming,
as he wished to know what jjlace they would i^refer to live at — the Arab depot
at Kufro, on the direct line to Uganda, in his palace with himself, or outside
his enclosures.
King Rumanika, though a barbarian, was a model of good manners and
good taste, and, in the truest sense of the word, a gentleman, ruling his people
with justice, mingled, perhaps, with a little African severity. Speke thus
describes the first introduction of himself and his fellow traveller to this
monarch : — " To do royal honours to the king of this charming land, I ordered
my men to lay down their loads and fire a volley. This was no sooner
done than, as we went to the palace gate, we received an invitation to come
in at once, for the king wished to see us before attending to anything else.
Now, leaving our traps outside, both Grant and myself, attended by Bombay
and a few of the seniors of my Wanguana, entered the vestibule, and, walking-
through extensive enclosures, studded with huts of kingly dimensions, were
escorted to a pent-roofed baraza, which the Arabs had built as a sort of govern-
ment ofiice, where the king might conduct his state aff"airs.
" Here, as we entei-ed, we saw sitting cross-legged on the ground Ru-
manika, the king, and his brother, Nnauaji, both of them men of noble
appearance and size. The king was plainly dressed in an Arab's black choga,
and wore, for ornament, dress stockings of rich-coloured beads, and neatly-
worked wrists of copper. Nnanaji, being a doctor of very high pretensions,
in addition to a check-cloth wrapped round him, was covered with charms.
At their sides lay huge pipes of black-clay. In their rear, squatting quiet as
mice, were all the king's sons, some six or seven lads, who wore leathern
middle-coverings, and little dream-charms tied under their chins. The first
greetings of the king were warm and affecting, and in an instant we both,
felt and saw we were in the company of men who were as unlike as they
could be to the common order of the natives of the surrounding districts.
They had fine oval faces, large eyes, and high noses, denoting the best blood
of Abyssinia. Ha ring shaken hands in true English style, which is the
peculiar custom of the men of this country, the ever-smiling Rumanika
begged us to be seated on the ground opposite to him, and at once wished to
know what we thought of Karague, for it had struck him his mountains were
the finest in the world ; and the lake, too, did we not admire it ? Then
laughing, he inquired — for he knew all the story — what we thought of
Suwarora, and the reception we had met with in Usui. Wlien this was ex-
plained to him, I showed him that it was for the interest of his own kingdom
SPEKE'S INTER VIE W T17 Til R UMA NIK A . 131
to keep a check on Suwarora, whose exorbitant taxations prevented the Arabs
from coming to see him, and bringing things from all parts of the world. He
made Inquiries for the purpose of knowing how wo found our way all over
the world ; for, on the former expedition, a letter had come to him for Musa,
who no sooner read It than he said I had called him, and he must leave, as I
was bound to Ujljl.
" This, of course, led to a long story, describing the world, the propor-
tions of land and water, and the power of ships, which conveyed even ele-
phants and rhinoceros — in fact, all the animals in the world — to fill our
menageries at home, etc., etc. ; as well as the strange announcement that we
lived to the northward, and had only come this way because his friend Musa
had assured me, without doubt, that he would give us the road on through
Uganda. Time flew like magic, the king's mind was so quick and inquiring ;
but as the day was wasting away, he generously gave us our option to choose
a place for our residence in or out of his palace, and allowed us time to select
one. We found the view overlooking the lake to be so charming, that we
preferred camping outside, and set our men at once to work cutting sticks
and long grass to erect themselves sheds.
" One of the princes — for the king ordered them all to be constantly in
attendance on us — happening to see me sit on an iron chair, rushed back to
his father and told him about it. This set all the royals in the palace in a
state of high wonder, and ended by my getting a summons to show off the
white man sitting on his throne ; for of course I could only be, as all of them
called me, a king of great dignity, to indulge in such state. Rather reluct-
antly I did as I was bid, and allowed myself once more to be dragged into
court. Rumanika, as gentle as ever, then burst into a fresh fit of merriment,
and after making sundiy enlightened remarks of inquiry, which of course
were responded to with the greatest satisfaction, finished off by saying, with
a very expressive shake of the head, * Oh, these Wazungu, these Wazungu !
they know and do everything !' "
Speke now informed the king that they had not been able to get a drop
of milk for love or money ; and wished to know what motive the Wahuma
had for withholding. It. He referred to the superstitious feai's of which he had
heard — that any one who ate the flesh of jilgs, fish, or fowls, or the bean called
maharague, if he tasted their milk or butter, would destroy their cattle. The
king said, that it was only the poor who thought so, and he would set apart
one of his cows expressly for their use. All their wants were now abundantly
supplied, for the king gave orders to his ofiicers throughout the country to
bring in supplies for them. The cold winds which prevailed here were found
trying to the men who had come up from the coast ; they all shivered greatly,
and suspected, in their ignorance, that they must be drawing near to England,,
the only cold place they had ever lieard of.
132 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
The morning after liis first introduction to the king, Speke called on him,
taking his revolver, as he knew he had expressed a strong wish to see it. As
Sie was greatly struck with it, and said he had never seen such a thing in his
Jifc, he was desired to accept it as a gift. They then adjourned to his private
Siut, which was kept in a state of surprising neatness. The roof was supported
l)y several clean poles, to which he had fastened a large assortment of spears
of excellent workmanship. A large standing-screen, of fine straw-plait work,
in elegant devices, partitioned off one part of the room ; and on the opposite
side, as mere ornaments, were placed a number of grapnels, and small models
of cows, made in iron, for his amusement, by the Arabs at Kufro.
On another visit, Speke told the king that if he would send two of his
children with him to England, he would have them instructed there ; for he
admired his race, and believed them to have sprung from the Abyssinians,
"who were friends of the English ; they were Christians, he said, like ourselves,
and had the Waliuma not lost their knowledge of God, they would be so also.
A long theological and historical discussion followed, which so pleased the
icing, that he said he would be delighted if Speke would take two of his sons
to England. He then inquired what could induce them to leave their country
and travel, when the traveller replied, that they had had their fill of the
luxuries of life, and that their great delight Avas to observe and admire the
Saeauties of creation ; but it was especially their wish to pay a visit to the
kings of Africa, and in particular his majesty. He then promised that he
would supply them with boats, to convey them over the lake with musicians
to lilay before them.
'* In the afternoon," says Speke " as I had heard from ]\Iusa, that the wives
of the kings and princes were fattened to such an extent that they could not
stand upright, I paid my respects to Wazezeru, the king's eldest brother — who,
iiaving been born before his father ascended his throne, did not come in the line of
succession — with the hope of being able to see for myself the truth of the stor}-.
Tliere was no mistake about it. On entering the Imt I found the old man
and his chief wife, sitting side by side on a bench of earth strewed over with
grass, and partitioned like stalls for sleeping apartments, whilst in front of
them were placed numerous wooden pots of milk, and hanging from the poles
that supported the beehive-shaped hut, a large collection of bows six feet in
length, whilst below them were tied an even larger collection of spears, inter-
mixed with a goodly assortment of heavy-headed assages. I was struck with no
small surprise at the way he received me, as well as with the extraordinaiy
diraensions, yet pleasing beauty, of the immoderately fat fair one, his wife.
She could not rise; and so large w-ere her arms that, between the joints, the
flesh hung down like large, loose-stuffed puddings. Then in came their
children, all models of the Abyssinian type of beauty, and as polite in their
manners as thoroughbred gentlemen. They had heard of my picture-books
RUMANIKA'S APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER. 133
from the king, anil all wLslicd to see them ; -which they no sooner did, to their
infinite delight, especially when they recognised any of the animals, than the
subject was turned by ni}' inquiring what they did with so many milk-pots.
This was easily explained by Wazezeru himself, who, pointing to his wife^
said, ' This is all the product of those pots : from early youth upwards we keep
those pots to their mouths, as it is the fashion at court to have very fat wives."*
Rumanika was delighted with the liberal presents he received, above all
with a coat of handsome scarlet broad-cloth, the finest thing-, he said, he bad
ever seen. He confessed that he was alarmed beyond measure, when he hoard
the travellers were coming to visit him, thinking they might prove some fear-
ful monsters that were not quite human ; but now he was extremely delighted
with what he saw of them. He told them they might visit every part of his
country; that a messenger should be sent at once to the king of Uganda to
inform him of their intention to visit him, with his own favourable report of
them ; and that, when the time arrived for them to proceed to that country,
he would escort them to the boundary. Altogether Rumanika was the most
intelligent and best-looking ruler the travellers met with in Africa. He liad
nothing of the African in his appeai-ance, except that his hair was short and
woolly. He was quite six feet two inches in height, and the expression of his
countenance was mild and open. He was fully clothed in a robe made of
.«mall antelope-skins and another of dark cloth, always carrying, when walk-
ing, a long staff in his hand. His four sons were favourable specimens of their
race, especially the eldest, named Chunderah. He was somewhat of a dandy,,
being more neat about his lion-skin covers and ornaments than his brothei-s.
From the tuft of wool left unshaven on the crown of his head to his waist he
was bare, except where his arms and neck were decorated with charmed horns,
strips of otter-skin, shells, and bands of wool. He was fond of introducing*
Friz, Speke's head man, into the palace, that he might amuse his sisters with
his guitar, and in return the sisters, brothers, and followers, would sing Kara-
gue music. The youngest son was the greatest favourite, and on one occa-
sion, the travellers having presented him with a pair of white kid gloves, were
much amused with the dignified way in which he walked off, having coaxed
them on to his fingers.
Contrary to the usual African custom, Kumanika was singularly abste-
mious, living almost entirely on milk and the juice of boiled beef. Although
the people were generally excessively fond of plantain wine or beer, the pea-
sants especially drinking it in large quantities, the king scarcely ever touched
it, and had never been known to be intoxicated. He was not only king, but
priest and prophet also ; indeed, his elevation to the throne was due, as his
friends asserted, to supernatural agency. After the death of his father, his twa
brothers and he claimed the throne. Their pretensions were to be settled by
an ordeal. They possessed a small magic drum, and, it being placed on the
134 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
•ground, he who could lift it was to take the crown. Ilis brothers were unable
■to stir it, though exerting all their strength, but Rumanika raised it witli his
little finger. This test, however, not satisfying the chiefs, they insisted on
Rumanika going through another trial. He was seated on the ground, and
it was believed that, if he was the ajipointed king, the portion of soil on which
he sat would rise up in the air, but if not, it would collapse, and he would be
dashed to pieces. According to the belief of his subjects, no sooner had
Rumanika taken his scat, than he was raised into the skj^, and Avas thei'efore
acknowledged king. One of the most curious customs which Rumanika holds,
in his character of high priest, is his New-Moon Levee, which takes place every
month, for the purpose of ascertaining the loyalty of his subjects. Speke gives
the following interesting description of the ceremony as he saw it performed : —
" In the afternoon, Rumanika invited Gi-ant and myself to witness his
-New-Moon Levee, a ceremony which takes jilace every month with a view of
ascertaining how many of his subjects are loyal. On entering his palace
enclosure, the first thing we saw was a blaue boc's horn, stuffed full of magic
powder, with very imposing effect, by Kyengo, and stuck in the ground, with
its mouth pointing in the direction of Rogero. In the second court, we found
thirty-five drums ranged on the ground, with so many drummers stand-
ing behind them, and a knot of young princes and officers of high dignity wait-
ing to escort us into the third enclosure, where, in his principal hut, we found
Rumanika squatting on the ground, half-concealed by the portal, but showing
his smiling face to welcome us in. His head was got up with a tiara of beads,
from the centre of which, directly over the forehead, stood a plume of red
feathers, and Ciicircling the lower face with a fine large white beard, set in a
stock or band of beads. We were beckoned to squat alongside Nnanaji, the
master of ceremonies, and a large group of high officials outside the porch.
The thirty-five drums all struck up together in very good harmony; and
when their deafening noise was over, a smaller band of hand-drums and reed
instruments was ordered in to amuse us.
" This second jDerformance over, from want of breath only, district officers,
one by one, came advancing on tip-toe, then pausing, contorting and quiver-
ing their bodies, advancing again with a springing gait and outspread arms,
which they moved as if they wished to force them out of their joints, in all
of which actions they held drum-sticks or twigs in their hands, swore with a
maniacal A'oice an oath of their loyalty and devotion to their king, backed
by the expression of a hope that he would cut off their heads if they ever
turned from his enemies, and then, kneeling before him, they held out their
sticks that he might touch them. "With a constant reiteration of these scenes
— the saluting at one time, the music at another — interrupted only once by a
number of girls dancing something like a rough Highland fling, whilst the
little band played, the day's ceremonies ended."
MARRIAGE CEREMONIES AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 135
Civilised as the country is in some respects, marriage is a matter of bar-
ter between tlie father and tlie intended husband, tl)e former receiving cows,
slaves, sheep, for his daughter. Sliould, however, a bride not approve of her
husband, she can regain her liberty, by returning the marriage gifts. The
chief cex'emony at marriages consists in tying up the bride in a skin, blackened
all over, and carrying her, with a noisy procession, toiler husband. The chief
object of the ladies is to get as fat as possible ; and, in consequence of their
peculiar constitution, or from the nutritiousness of their food, many of them
succeed wonderfully well. Five of Rumanika's wives were so enormous that
they were unable to enter the door of any ordinary hut, or move about with-
out being supported by a j^erson on either side. One of his sisters-in-law was
of even still greater proportions. Speke measured her, with the following
results : — Round her arm, one foot eleven inches; chest, four feet four inches;
thigh, two feet seven inches ; calf, one foot eight inches ; height, five feet
eight inches. Meanwhile the daughter, a girl of sixteen, sat before them,
sucking at a milk pot, on which the father kept her at work, by holding a
rod in his hand ; for, as fattening is the first duty of fashionable female life,
it must be duly enforced by the rod if necessary. The features of the damsel
were lovely, but her body was as round as a ball. The women turn their
obesity to good account ; for, in exchanging food for beads, it is usual to
purchase a certain quantity of food, which shall be paid for by a belt of beads
that will go round the waist ; therefore, the women being on an average twice
as large round the waist as those of other districts, food practically rises a
hundred per cent in price. Notwithstanding their fatness their features retain
much beauty, the face being oval, and the eyes fine and intelligent. The
higher class of women wear cow-skin petticoats, and a wrapper of black cloth,
with which they envelope their whole bodies, merely allowing one hand to
be seen.
Rumanika, like great men in other countries, had his private band. The
instruments were of a somewhat primitive character. The most common are
the drums, which vary greatly in size ; one hung to the shoulder is about four
feet long, and a foot wide, and is played with the fingers, like the Indian tom-
tom. The drums used at the New-Moon Levee are of the same shape, but very
much larger. The war-drum was beaten by women ; and at its sound the men
rush to arms, and repair to their several quarters. There are also several
stringed instruments. One of these was played by an old woman ; it had seven
notes, one of which was a perfect scale ; another, which had three strings,
was played by a man ; they were a full, harmonious chord. A third, formed
of dark wood, in the shape of a tray, had three crosses in the bottom, and
was laced with one string seven or eight times over bridges at either end.
They have two wind instruments, one resembling a flageolet, and another a
bugle. The latter is composed of several pieces of gourd, fitted one into
130 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
anotlicr, in telescope fashion, and is covered with cow-skin. The royal band
was composed of sixteen men, fourteen of whom had bugles, and the other two
hand-drums. On the march they form in three ranks, the drummers being
in the rear, swaying tlieir bodies in time to the music, while the leader
advances with a curiously active step, touching the ground alternately with
each knee. When the king rested on a march, or wlien out hunting, they
also played before him while he sat on the ground and smoked his pipe. The
king sent the best player to be found to entertain his guests. Tlie man
entered, dressed in a strange costume, having a wild and excited look. After
resting his spear against the roof of the hut, lie took his instrument from under
his arm and began playing, his wild yet gentle music and words attracting a
number of admirers. It was about a favourite dog, and for days afterwards
the people sang that dog song.
Although Rumanika displayed great intelligence in his inquii'ies relat-
ing to the European world and its wonders, yet the childishness of the African
character was characteristically shown in eagerness for toys. He was tran-
sported with delight at a " jumping-jack," which Captain Grant had made for
the amusement of his children, appropriated it to himself, and wished one
made as large as life. He begged, above all things, that he might be supplied
fi'om England with an American clock, in the form of a man, made to wind
up behind, and with eyes rolling at every beat of the pendulum. He wanted
also a "jack-in-the-box," a china milk-j^ot in the form of a cow, carriages and
horses, and — a railway. Having avowed that he had no idea of a God or a
future state, he was pressed to state what advantage he expected from sacri-
ficing a cow yearly at his father's grave. He laughingly replied that he did
not know, but hoped to be favoured with better crops if he did so. He also
placed pombe and grain, he said, befoi-e a large stone on the hill-side, although
it could not eat or make any use of it. No one in Africa, as far as he knew,
doubted the use of magic and spells.
The travellers were not only allowed to move about the country as they
liked, the king also sent his sons to attend on them, that they might enjoy
such sport as was to be found. They heard of no elephants in the district ;
harte-l3eests, rhinoceros, and hippopotami, were common. Several varieties
of antelope and the mountain gazelle were seen bounding over the hills, and
pigs abounded in the low grounds. One day Captain Grant saw two hartc-
beests engaged in a desperate combat, and halting calmly between each
round to breathe. He could hear, even at a considerable distance, the force of
every butt as their heads met, and as they fell on their knees, the impetus of
the attack sending their bushy tails over their backs, till, one becoming the
victor, chased the other out of the herd.
Describing one of their hunting excursions, Speke says — " On the 9th,
I went out shooting, as Rumanika, with his usual politeness, on hearing my
RHINOCEROS SHOOTING. 137
desire to kill sonic rhinoceros, ordered liis sons to conduct the field for me.
Off we started by sunrise to the Ij ottom of the hills overlooking the head of the
little "Windermere Lake. On arrival at the scene of action — a thicket of
acacia shrubs — all the men in the neigbourhood were assembled to beat. Tak-
ing post myself, by a direction in tlic most likely place to catch a sight of
the animals, the day's work began by the beaters driving the covers in my
direction. In a very short time, a fine male was discovered making towards
me, but not knowing exactly where he should bolt to. While he was in this
perplexity, I stole along between the bushes, and caught sight of him stand-
ing as if anchored by the side of a tree, and gave him a broadsider with Blis-
sett, which, too much for his constitution to stand, sent him off trotting, till^
exhausted by bleeding, he lay down to die, and allowed me to give him a
settler,
" In a minute or two afterwards, the good young princes, attracted bj
the sound of the gun, came to see what was done. Their surprise knew no
bounds ; the}' could scarcely believe what they saw ; and then, on recovering,
with the spirit of true gentlemen, they seized both my hands, congratulating
me on the magnitude of my success, and pointed out, as an example of it, a
bystander who showed fearful scars, both on his abdomen and the blade of
his shoulder, who, they declared, had been run through by one of these animals.
It was, therefore, wondei-ful to them, they observed, with what calmness I
•went up to such formidable beasts.
"Just at this time a distant cry was heard, that another rhinoceros was
concealed in a thicket, and off wc set to pursue her. Arriving at the place
mentioned, I settled at once I would enter, with only two spare men carrying
guns, for the acacia thorns were so thick that the only tracks into the thicket
were runs made by these animals. Leading myself, bending down to steal
in, I tracked up a run till half way through cover, when suddenly before me,
like a pig from a hole, a large female, with her young one behind her, came
straight down whoof-whoofing upon me. In this awkward fix I forced myself
to one side, though pricked all over with thorns in doing so, and gave her one
in the head, which knocked her out of my path, and induced her, for safety, to
make for the open, wdi ere I followed her down and gave her another. She
then took to the hills and crossed over a spur, when, following after her, in
another dense thicket, near the head of a glen, I came upon three, who so
soon sighted me, that all in line they charged down my way. Fortunately at
the time my gun-bearers were with me ; so, jumping to one side, I struck
them all three in turn. One of them dropped dead a little way on ; but the
others only pulled up wdien they arrived at the bottom. To jilease myself,
now I had done quite enough, but, as the princes would have it, I went on with
the chase. As one of the two, I could see, had one of his fore-legs broken, I
went at the sounder one and gave him another shot, which simply induced him
18
138 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
to walk over the lower end of the hill. Then turning to the last one, which
could not escape, I asked the Wanyambo to polish him off with their spears and
arrows, that I might see their mode of sport. As we moved to the animal, he
kept charging with such impetuous fury, they could not go into him ; so I gave
him a second ball, which brought him to anchor. In this helpless state the
men set at him in earnest, and a more barbarous finale I never did witness.
Every man sent his spear, assagai, or arrow, into his sides, until, completely
exhausted, he sank like a porcupine covered with quills. The day's sport
was now ended, so I went home to breakfast, leaving instructions that the
heads should be cut off and sent to the king, as a trophy of what the white
man could do.
" The next day, when I called on Rumanika, the spoils were brought
into court, and in utter astonishment he said — ' Well, this must have been
done with something more potent than powder, for neither the Arabs nor
Nnanaji, although they talk of their shooting powers, could have accomplished
such a great feat as this. It is no wonder the English are the greatest men in
the world.' "
The year 1861 closed and 1862 commenced, finding our travellers still
the guests of this polite, enlightened, and generous king. On Christmas day,
hearing that it was the custom of the English to celebrate the birth of our
Saviour with a good dinner of beef, he sent them an ox. The new year was
ushered in by the most exciting intelligence. News arrived which induced
them to believe that Mr. Petherick was on his road up the Nile, endeavouring
to reach them. Rumanika was highly delighted to hear this, since he was
especially anxious that white men should visit his country from the north.
On the night of January the 6th, as there was a partial eclipse of the moon,
all the Wanguana marched up and down from Rumanika's to Nnanaji's huts,
singing and beating their tin cooking-pots to frighten ofi" the spirit of the sun
from consuming entirely the chief object of reverence, the moon. At length,
after nearly two mouths' residence with Rumanika, the sound of the Uganda
drum called them to begin their journey to that country. Maula, a royal
officer, with a large escort of smartly-dressed men, women, and boys, leading
their dogs and playing their reeds, announced that their king had sent them
to call the strangers. Maula said that his master had heard that the white
nen were coming to be his guests, and was delighted at the prospect ; and had
told his officers to supply them with everything they wanted whilst passing
through the country, and that there would be nothing to pay.
There was now only one difficulty. Grant was worse, without hope of
recovery for at least one or two months. To get on as fast as possible was
the only chance of ever bringing the journey to a successful issue j the only
course open for the travellers was once more to separate, Speke going for-
ward, and Grant remaining till his health was bettei', in care of Rumanika.
HISTORY OF THE WAHUMA. 139
Spoke, having made all arrangements for his departure, went to the palace to
bid adieu to Rumanika, who forthwith appointed Rozaro, one of his officers,
to accompany him wherever he went in Uganda, to bring him safely back
again ; the king never supposing that it would be possible for him to go north
from Uganda.
Before accompanying Captain Speke to Uganda, we may advert briefly to
his theory and account of the Wahuma, whoso largely people and govern this
part of the Afi'ican continent. He is of opinion that they are an offshoot
of the Abyssinian stock. They differ in feature and in character from the
simjile negro type, although there has been a considerable intermixture of
races. Speke says that he founds his theory on the traditions of the several
peoples, as checked by his own observation of what he saw when sojourning
among them. It appears to him impossible to believe, judging from their
physical appearance, that they can be of any other race than the semi-
Shem-Hamitic of Ethiopia.
The story of the Wahuma nations is quaint and characteristic. Here is
that of Uganda. Many generations ago, a great kingdom of negroes, ruled
by Wahuma chiefs, was established in the country now divided among
Karague, Uganda, and Unyoro. That portion which bordered Lake Nyanza,
and is now called Uganda, was considered as the garden of the whole, and
the agriculturists who tilled it, were treated as slaves. Then a man named
Kimera, himself a Wahuma, who was also a great hunter, happened to fre-
quent, for his sport, the Nile, near its outflow from the Nyanza. The negro
natives flocked to him in crowds, to share the game he killed, and he became
so popular that they ended by making him their king. They said their own
sovereign lived far off, and was of no use to them. If any one sent him a
cow as a tributary present, the way to his palace was so long that the cow
had time to have a calf on the road, and the calf had time to grow into a
cow and to have a calf of its own. They were therefore determined to
establish a separate kingdom. Kimera became a powerful and magnificent
king, and formed the kingdom of Uganda. He built himself a large enclosure
of fine huts as a palace, and collected an enormous harem to fill them. He
made highways across the country ; built boats for war purposes on the lake,
organised an army ; legislated on ceremonies, behaviour, and dress ; and super-
intended hygiene so closely, that no house could be built in his country without
its necessary appendages for cleanliness. In short, he was a model king, and
established an order of things which has continued to the present day, through
seven generations of successors, with little change. He was embalmed when
he died, his memory is venerated, and his hunting outfit, the dog and the
spear, continue to be tlie armorial insignia of Uganda.
By his large establishment of wives, Kimera left, at his death, a consider-
able number of sons and daughters. The boys were sumptuously housed and
140 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
fed, and when they grew uj) were royally wived; but they were strictly watched
and kept asunder, lest they should intrigue. They chose from the number
the one whom they thought best suited for the government of the country
to be king. They were all to enjoy life until the prince-elect should arrive-
at the age of discretion and be crowned, when all but two of the princes would
be burnt to death. The two being reserved in case of accident as long as the
king wanted brother companions, when one woidd be banished to Unyoro, and
the other pensioned, with suitable possessions, in Uganda. By this measure,
the mother of the king became queen-dowager. She kept up a palace, only
little inferior to her son's ; possessed large estates ; guarded him in the govern-
ment of the country ; and remained, until the end of his minority, the virtual
ruler of the land. Under this strict system of artificial selection, the people
have been well ruled in their way, and the three Wahuma kings, as Speke saw
them, were every one of them more tlian six feet higli.
Uganda is described as a most surprising country, in the order, neatness,
civility, and politeness of its inhabitants. Its monarch's reign is, however, a
reign of terror. It is an established custom that there should be one execution;
daily. The ceremonies and rules of precedence of the court are minutely
defined, and are exacted under penalty of death. The first among the digni-
taries of state is the lady who had the good fortune to have cut the umbilical
cord at tlie king's birth. After her, follow the queen's sister and the king's
barber. Then come governors of provinces, and naval and military com-
manders ; then the guardian of the king's sisters, the executioners first and
second class, and the superintendents of tombs ; then the brewer and the cook.
In a lower grade are juvenile pages, to look after the women, and to run o\\
errands ; they are killed if they dare to walk. In addition to these, is an effec-
tive band of musicians — drummers, pea-gourd rattlers, flute-players, players
on wooden harmonicons and lap-harps, besides others who sing accompani-
ments, and others who whistle on their fingers.
Every person of distinction must attend court as constantly as possible,
or his estates and wives are liable to be utterly confiscated. He must be
decorously dressed in a sort of toga, made of mbugu, or the pounded bark of
the fig-tree ; neglect of this may ensure the loss of his head — certainly a heavy
fine. These bark cloaks are beautifully made, and look like the best corduroy;
they are worn under robes of small antelope skins sewn together with the best
art of the furrier. Every courtier's language must be elegant, and his deport-
ment modelled upon established custom. Even the king is not free ; Wahuma
taste exacts that whenever he walks he should imitate the gait of a vigilant
lion, by ramping with his legs and turning from side to side. "When ho
accepts a present from a man, or orders a man a whijiping, the favoured
individual must return thanks for the condescending attention, by floundering
flat on the ground, and wdiining like a happy dog. Levees are held on most
CO UK T GEREM ONIES AT VGA NDA . 141
daj's in the jialace, ■svliich is a vast enclosure full of life. It occupies the brow
of a hill, and consists of gigantic grass huts, beautifully thatclicd. The ground
is strewn with mats and Avith rushes in patterns, and is kept with scrupulous
care. Half-gorged vultures wheel over it, looking out for victims hurried
aside to execution. The three or four hundred wives of the king inhabit the
Imts.
There is plenty to do at the court-levees, in real work and in ceremony.
Orders are given, punishments are adjudged, presents are received. Military
commanders bring in the cattle and j)lunder they have taken; artisans bring
their j^ieces of workmanship ; and, as Kimera, the first kiog, established a
menagerie, hunters produce rare animals, dead and alive. '* The master of
the hunt," says Spcke, " exposes his spoils — such as antelopes, cats, porcupines,
curious rats, etc., all caught in nets, and placed in baskets — zebra, lion, and
buffalo skins being added. The fishermen bring their spoils ; also the gar-
deners. The cutlers show knives and forks made of iron, inlaid with brass
and copper ; the furriers, most beautifully-sewn patchwork of antelopes' skins ;
the habit maker, sheets of mbugu bark-cloth; the blacksmith, spears ; the maker
of shields, his productions, and so forth ; but nothing is given without rub-
bing it down, then rubbing the face, and going through a long form of salut-
ation for the gracious favour the king has shown in accepting it." AVhen
sitting in court holding a levee, the king invariably has in attendance several
women, Wabandwa, evil-eye averters, or sorcerers. They talk in feigned
voices, raised to a shrillness almost amounting to a scream. They wear dried
lizards on their heads, small goat-skin aprons trimmed with little bells, dimi-
uutive shields and spears ; and their functions in attendance are to administer
cups of niarwa, or jDlantain-wiue.
No one dare stand before the king whilst he is cither standinn: still or
sitting ; but must approach him with downcast eyes and bended knees, and
kneel or sit when arrived. To touch his throne or clothes, even by accident,
or to look upon his women, is certain death. An officer observed to salute
informally is ordered for execution, when everybody near him rises in an
instant, the drums beat, drowning his cries, and the victim of carelessness
is dragged off, bound by cords, by a dozen men at once. Another man,
perhaps, exposes an inch of naked leg whilst squatting, or has his mbugu
tied contrary to regulations, and is condemned to the same fate. Strict as
is the discipline of the exterior court, that of the interior is no less severe.
The pages all wear turbans of cord made from aloe fibi-cs ; and should a wife
commit a trifling indiscretion, either by word or deed, she is condemned to
execution on the spot, bound by the pages, and dragged out. When the king
is tired of a levee, he rises, spear in hand, and leading his dog, walks of?
without a word or comment, leaving his company, like dogs, to take care oi
themselves.
]42 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
His majesty has, however, some days for peace and enjoyment. On the
first appearance of the new moon every month, he shuts himself up for two
or three days, to attend to liis religious ceremonies. He possesses a collection
of magic horns, which at such times he ai'ranges and contemplates, and
thereby communicates with a spirit who lives deep in the waters of the
Nyanza. He also indulges in the interpretation of dreams. He has his pil-
grimages, too ; spends occasionally a fortnight yachting on the lake ; and at
other times goes out on special excursions of pleasure with his numerous
wives.
On the 10th of January, 1862, Speke crossed over the Weranhanje spur,
and put up with the Arabs at Kufro. Here, for the first time in this part of
the world, he found good English peas growing. The next day he encamped
at Luandalo. On the 12th, he entered the rich plantain gardens of Kisaho.
At this jDlace, all the people were in a constant state of intoxication, drinking
pombe all day and all night. He now descended from the Mountains of the
Moon, and crossed a long alluvial plain to the settlement of Kitangule, where
Rumanika keeps thousands upon thousands of cows. Formerly, the dense
green forests which grow in 8wam2:>y places about this plain, were said to have
been stocked by vast herds of elephants ; but since the increase of the ivory
trade, these animals have been driven oflf to the distant hills. On the 16th, he
reached the Kitangule River, which falls into the west side of the Victoria
Nyanza. It was only after a long contest with the superstitious boatmen that
they allowed him to cross in their canoe with his shoes on, as they thought
the vessel would either upset, or else the river would dry up, in consequence
of their Neptune taking offence at him. It was about eighty yards broad,
was sunk down a considerable dejDth below the surface of the land, and was
so deep that it could not be poled by the canoe-men ; while it runs at a velo-
city of from three to four knots an hour.
The country, as they marched on, was a perfect garden of plantains; the
soil was surpassingly rich ; and as fast as the peojjle sowed, they were sure of
a crop without much trouble. Everywhere the huts and the gardens were
in excellent order. The banks of the river, and the neighbouring forests, were
alive witb antelopes, principally harte-beests. On the 24:th, they came to a
village, where they were compelled to stay two or three days, and where
drumming, singing, screaming, yelling, and dancing, went on the whole time,
night and day, to drive the phepo, or devil, away. An old man and woman,
smeared with white mud, and holding pots of pombe in their laps, sat in front
of a hut, whilst other people kept constantly bringing them baskets full of
plaintain-squash, and more pots of pombe. Hundreds of people were collected
in the court-yard, all perfectly drunk, and making the most terrific uproar.
Mtesa, the king of Uganda, now sent messengers, urging the white man to
make haste and come to him ; and Speke sent back to Grant, earnestly press-
PLEASANTNESS OF THE COUNTRY. 143
ing him to follow on, if lie possibly could, as he had little doubt that they
would be able to proceed across the country to the northward.
Speaking of the country througli which they passed on the 31st, our tra-
veller says — "After crossing more of those abominable rush-drains, whilst in
sight of the Victoria Nyanza, wo ascended the most beautiful hills, covered with
verdure of all descrij^tions. At Meruka, where I put u]), there resided some
grandees, the chief of whom was the king's aunt. She sent me a goat, a hen,
a basket of eggs, and some plantains, in return for which I sent her a wire and
some beads. I felt inclined to stop here a month, everything was so pleasant.
The temperature was perfect. The roads, as indeed they were everywhere,
were as broad as our coach-roads, cut through the long grasses, straight over
the hills and down through the woods in the dells — a strange contrast to the
wi'etched tracks in all the adjacent countries. The huts were kept so clean
and neat, not a fault could be found with them — the gardens the same.
Wherever I strolled I saw nothing but richness, and what ought to be wealth.
The whole land was a picture of quiescent beauty, with a boundless sea in
the background. Looking over the hills, it struck the fancy at once that at
one period the whole land must have been at a uniform level with their pre-
sent tops, but that, by the constant denudation it was subjected to by fre-
quent rains, it had been cut down and sloped into those beautiful hills and
dales whicli now so mucli jileased the eye ; for there were none of those quartz
dykes I had seen protruding through the same kind of aqueous formations in
Usui and Karague ; nor were there any other sorts of volcanic disturbance to
distort the calm quiet aspect of the scene. From this, the country being all
hill and dale, with miry rush -drains in the bottoms, I walked, carrying my
shoes and stockings in my hands, nearly all the way."
The rush-drains were so numerous that many of the men suffered fever
from having so frequently to cross them. When they descended into the
Katonga valley, where, from what the Arabs had told him, Speke expected to
find a magnificent broad sheet of water, there was such a succession of them,
divided one from the other by islands, that it took him two hours, with his
clothes tucked up under his arms, to get througli them all ; and many of them
were so matted with weeds, that his feet sank down as though he were in a
bog. The Waganda said that, at certain seasons of the year, these drains were
all so flooded that no one could ford them ; though, strangely enough, they were
always lowest when most rain fell in Uganda. No one could account for this
singular fact.
After much weary travelling, Spcke reached the neighbourhood of the
palace of Mtesa, king of Uganda, on the 19th of February. He says it was
a magnificent sight. The whole hill was covered with gigantic huts, such as
he had never seen in Africa before. He expressed his wish to go at once to
the palace ; but the king's officers said this was against all rule and order.
in STANLEY AND AFRICA.
*■'■ Draw up your men," said they, '' and fire your guns ofip, to let the king know
you are hero. We will then show you your residence, and to morrow you
will doubtless be sent for." He was then shown some dirty huts for his
iiccommodation, similar to those appropriated to the Arabs when they visited
the place. In his indignation, he declared that, unless better quarters were
provided for him, he would return ; but the officer in attendance entreated him
aiot to be so hasty, as the king did not yet know him ; when he came to know
who and what he was things would be difi'erent.
The next day the king sent his pages of honour to announce his intention
of holding a levee in Speke's honour, " I prepared," he says, " for my first
presentation at court, attired in my best, though I cut a poor figure in com-
parison with the display of the dressy AVaganda. They wore neat bark
•cloaks, resembling the best yellow corduroy clotli, crimp and well set, as if
stiffened with starch, and over that, as u])per-cloaks, a patchwork of small
antelope skins, which I observed were sewn together as well as any English
glovers could have pieced them; whilst their head-dresses, generally, v/ere
abrus turbans, set off with highly -polished boar-tusks, stick-charms, seeds,
beads, or shells; and on their necks, arms, and ankles, they wore other charms
■of wood, or small horns stufied with magic jiowder, and fastened on by strings,
generally covered with snake-skin. The palace or entrance quite surprised
me by its extraordinary dimensions, and the neatness with which it was kept.
Tlie whole brow and sides of the liill on which we stood were covered with
gigantic grass huts, thatched as neatly as so many heads dressed by a London
barber, and fenced all round with the tall 3-ellow reeds of the common Uganda
rtiger-grass; whilst within the enclosure, the lines of huts were joined together,
or partitioned off into courts, with walls of the same grass. At each gate as
we passed, ofiiccrs on duty opened and shut it for us, jingling the big bells
which are hung upon them, as they sometimes are at shop-doors, to pre-
vent silent, stealthy entrance.
" The first court jjassed, I v»'as even more surprised to find the unusual cere-
jnonies that awaited me. There courtiers of high dignity stepped forward to
greet me, dressed in the most scrupulously neat fashion. Men, women, bulls,
■dogs, and goats, were led about by strings ; cocks and hens were carried in
men's arms ; and little pages, with rope-turbans, rushed about conveying mes-
sages, as If their lives depended on their swiftness, every one holding his
skin-cloak tightly round him, lest his naked legs might by accident be shown."
Our traveller was now desired, by the chief officers in waiting, to sit
■down on the ground outside, in the sun, with his servants, till the pleasure of
his majesty was known as to seeing him. Considering this an act of discour-
tesy, he refused to com^ily. After waiting five minutes, as the king did not
iippcar, he thought It right to walk home again, giving Bombay directions to
leave his present on the ground. Soon after, however, Bombay was requested
SPEKE'S INTRODUCTION TO MTESA 113
to follow liini, with the information that he might bring his own chair, as tho
king was anxious to show him every respect, although no one but the monarch
was allowed in Uganda to sit on an artificial seat. It was intimated to him
lliat ho would be expected to comply with the usual custom of prostration on
])resentation ; but, following the example of Lord Amherst at tlio Court of
Pckin, he declined to be received unless in a manner comformable to the
usages of his own countr}-, and this point of etiquette was graciously
waived.
He goes on to say — "After returning to the second tier of huts from
which I had retired, everybody appeared to be in a hurried, confused state of
excitement, not knowing what to make out of so unprecedented an exhibition
of temper. In the most polite manner, tho officers in waiting begged me to
be seated on my iron stool, which I had brought with mc, whilst others hur-
ried in to announce my arrival. But for a few minutes only I was kept in
susjDense, when a band of music, the musicians wearing on their backs long-
haired goat-skins, passed me, dancing as they went along, like bears in a fair,
and playing on reed instruments, worked out with pretty beads in various pat-
tei-ns, from which depended leopard-cat skins, the time being regulated by
the beating of long hand-drums.
"The mighty king was now reported to be sitting on his throne in the
state hut of the third tier. I advanced, hat in hand, with my guard of honour
following, formed in ' open ranks,' who, in their turn, were followed by tho
bearers carrying the present. I did not walk straight up to him, as if to shake
hands, but went outside tho ranks of a three-sided square of squatting Wakungu,
all habited in skins, mostly cow-skins ; some few of whom had, in addition,
leopard-cat skins girt round from the waist, the sign of royal blood. Here I
was desired to lialt and sit in the glaiing sun ; so I donned my hat, mounted
my umbrella, a phenomenon which set them all a-wondering and laughing,
ordered the guard to close ranks, and sat gazing at the novel spectacle. A
more theatrical sight I never saw. The king, a good-looking, well figured,
tall young man of twenty-iive, was sitting on a red blanket spread upon a
square platform of royal grass, encased in tiger-grass reeds, scrupulously well-
dressed in a new mbugu. The hair of his head was cut short, excepting on
the top, where it was combed up into a high ridge, running from stem to
.stern like a cock's comb. On his neck was a very neat ornament, a large ring,
of beautifully-worked small beads, forming elegant patterns by their various
colours. On one arm was another bead ornament, prettily devised ; and on
the other a wooden charm, tied by a string covered with snake-skin. On every
finger and every toe he had alternately brass and copper rings ; and above
the ankles, half way up to the calf, a stocking of very pretty beads. Every-
thing was light, neat, and elegant in its way ; not a fault could be found with
the taste of his ' getting up.' For a handkerchief he licld a well-folded jileco
19
14G STANLEY AND AFRICA.
of bark, and a piece of gold-enabroiderecl silk, which he constantly employed
to hide his largo mouth when laughing, or to wipe it after a drink of jol^n-
tain-wine, of which he took constant and copious draughts from neat little
gourd cui:)s, administered by his ladies-in-waiting, who were at once his
sisters and wives. A white dog, speai", shield, and woman, the Uganda cog-
nisance, were by his side, as also a knot of staff officers, with whom he kept
up a brisk conversation on one side ; and on the other was a band of Wich-
wezi, or lady-sorcerers.
'* I was now asked to draw nearer within the hollow squai'c of squatters,
where leopard-skins were strewed upon the ground, and a large copper kettle-
drum, surmounted with brass bells on arching wires, along with two other
smaller drums covered with cowrie-shells, and beads of colour worked into
patterns, were placed. I now longed to open conversation, but knew not the
language, and no one near me dared speak, or even lift his head, fi'om fear of
being accused of eyeing the women ; so the king and myself sat staring at
one another for full an hour — I mute, but he pointing and remarking with
those around him on the novelty of my guard and general appearance, and
even requiring to see my hat lifted, the umbrella shut and opened, and the
guards face about and show off their red cloaks ; for such wonders had never
been seen in Uganda."
At length his majesty got up, and walked away through the enclosure,
into the fourth tier of huts. His gait, in retiring, was intended to be very
majestic, and to represent the step of a lion; but the outward sweep of the
legs looked only like a ludicrous waddle. He quickly returned from his
breakfast, of which he had gone to partake, and Speke was again invited in,
with his men. He found the king standing on a red blanket, talking and
laughing to a hundred or more of his admiring wives, who were squatting
on the ground outside, in two groups. Mtesa then entered into conversation
with the traveller, but it was kept up with difficulty, as every answer had to
be jjassed through the interpreter, and then delivered to the king's chief
officer, and frequently another question was asked before the other was
answered. The most important business had reference to opening up a pas-
sage across the country.
After a considerable lapse of time, Speke obtained a residence at what
was considered the " west end " of the royal city. It was in a garden in
view of the palace, so that he could hear the constant music, and see the
throngs of people going to and fro. Having selected the best hut for him-
self, and given the other to his three officers, he ordered his men to build
barracks for themselves, in the form of a street, from his hut to the main
road. He could now visit the palace with more ease, and obtained better
opportunities for seeing the king and endeavouring to gain the imjDortant
ends he had in view. Speke won the royal favour by his medical skill, blis-
MTESA'S CHARACTER. 147
tering and doctoring the king to his great delight. He managed, at the
same time, to keep up his own dignity, by refusing to render improper sub-
mission, or to receive any treatment other than was due to the representa-
tive of tlie British nation.
The young king's character was a mixture of childish frivolity and
uncontrollable passion. It is a singular illustration of the state of society in
this portion of Africa, that no regular provision was made by the king for
the maintenance of his visitors. They were not even allowed to purchase
provisions for their daily wants ; but were told to help themselves from
whatever Uganda contained. Speke was thus placed under the painful alter-
native, either of starving himself or his men, or of sanctioning acts which
appeared to him like the plunder of a helpless population. The politeness of
this young barbarian king was often exhibited in striking contrast to his
ferocity. He even showed himself capable of friendshiiD, and came to treat
his guest with generosity and affection. Speke taught him to shoot, and
under his guidance he became a skilful sportsman. Taking his first lessons
on cows in the palace enclosure, he was able at length to bring down vul-
tures on the wing. The possession of fire-arms seems to have almost de-
prived him of reason. At one of his levees, he loaded a carbine with his
own hands, and, giving it to a page, told him to go out and shoot a man in
the outer court, which was no sooner done than the boy returned to announce
his success with a smile of glee, such as might be reflected in the face of a
boy who had just robbed a bird's nest, or caught a trout. On sending a
bullet from a Whitworth rifle through sixteen of the country shields, arranged
behind each other, a great idea was suddenly generated in the barbarian
mind. " I shall not go to war again," he said, addressing his attendants,
"with bows and arrows; I must have guns."
Savage life has probably never been seen in all its fantastical phases and
terrible realities more completely than during the compulsory residence of
Speke at the court of Uganda. In the midst of revelry, and while apparently
at the height of enjoyment^ he would, in a fit of sudden caprice, order a young
and beautiful wife for instant execution. During an excui'sion to the Lake
Nyanza, in which the king was accompanied by Speke, and as usual by a
choice selection of his wives, a scene of this kind transpired. Having crossed
over to a woody island some distance from the shore, the party sat down to
a repast. They then took a walk among the trees, the ladies apparently enjoy-
ing themselves and picking fruit, till unhappily, one of the most attractive of
them plucked a fruit and offered it to the king, thinking, probably, to please
him. He took it, however, as a dreadful off'ence ; and, declaring that it was
the first time a woman had had the audacity to offer him food, ordered the
pages to lead her off to execution. No sooner had the words been uttered than
they rushed at her like a pack of beagles, slljiping off their cord turbans and
148 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
throwing the ropes round her limbs. She, indignant at being touched, attempted
to beat them off, but was soon overcome and dragged away, calling on Spcke
for help and i^rotection. Tlie other women clasped the king round the legs,
imploring him to pardon their unhappy sister. His only reply was to bela-
bour the miserable victim with a thick stick. Speko had carefully abstained
hitherto from interfering with any of the king's acts of arbitrary cruelty. On
hearing, however, his own name imploringly pronounced, his English blood
was up ; and, rushing to the tyrant, he stayed his uplifted arm, and demanded
tlie 2)oor creature's life. He, of course, ran a great risk of losing his own; but
the novelty of the event seemed to tickle the capricious chief, and he at once
ordered the woman to be released.
After he had been some time in the palace, ho obtained an introduction
to the queen-dowager; and thus he describes it: — " To call upon the queen-
mother respectfully, as it was the opening visit, I took, besides the medicine-
chest, a present of eight brass and copper wires, thirty blue-egg beads, one
bundle of diminutive beads, and sixteen cubits of chintz, a small guard, and
my throne of royal grass. The palace to be visited lay half a mile beyond
the king's, but the high road to it was forbidden me, as it is considered un-
courteous to pass the king's gate without going in. So after winding through
back-gardens, I struck upon the high road close to her majesty's, where
everything looked like the royal palace on a miniature scale. The outer
enclosures and courts were fenced with tiger-grass ; and the huts, though
neither so numerous nor so large, were constructed after the same fashion as
the king's. Guards also kept the doors, on which large bells were hung to
give alarm, and officers in waiting watched the throne-rooms. All the huts
were full of women, save those kept as waiting-rooms, where drums and
harmoniums were placed for amusement. On first entering, I was required
to sit in a waiting-hut till my arrival was announced ; but that did not take
long, as the queen was prepared to receive me ; and being of a more affable
disposition than her son, she held rather a levee of amusement than a stiff
court of show. I entered the throne-hut as the gate of that court was thrown
open, with my hat off, but umbrella held over my head, and walked straight
towards her, till ordered to sit upon my bundle of grass.
"Her majesty — fat, fair, and forty-five — was sitting, plainly garbed in
mbugu, upon a carpet spread upon the ground, within a curtain of mbugu,
her elbow resting on a pillow of the same bark material ; the only ornaments
on the person being an abrus necklace, and a piece of mbugu tied round her
head, whilst a folding looking-glass, much the worse for wear, stood open b}'"
her side. An iron rod like a spit, with a cup on the top, charged with magic
jiowder, and other magic wands, were placed before the entrance ; and within
the room four Mabandwa sorceresses or devil-drivers, fantastically dressed,
and a mass of other women, formed the company. For a short while we sat
THE QUEEN-DOWAGER OF UGANDA. MO
at a distance, exchanging inquiring glances at one another, when the women
were dismissed, and a band of music, witli a court full of Wakungu, was
ordered in to chantje the scene. I also 2:ot orders to draw near and sit front-
ing her within the hut. Pombe, the best in Uganda, was then drunk by the
queen, and handed to me and to all the high officers about her, when she
smoked her pipe, and bade mo smoke mine. The musicians, di'cssed in long-
haired Usoga goat-skins, were now ordered to strike up, which they did with
their bodies swaying or dancing like bears in a fair. A great variety of
drums were then beat, and I was asked if I could distinguish their different
tones."
The queen-dowagor, like her roj'al son, required doctoring ; and the
effects of Spoke's physic astonished her beyond measure. lie had many
opportunities of seeing her ; and so completely won her regard that she in-
sisted on presenting him with various presents, among others a couple of
wives, greatly to his annoyance. She was a jovial and intelligent personage,
fond of pombe and fun. On one occasion our traveller, when introduced, found
her surrounded by her ministers, when a large wooden trough was brought
in, and filled with the favourite beverage. The queen put her head in and
drank like a pig from it, her ministers following her example. Musicians and
dancers were then introduced, exhibiting their long, shaggy, goat-skin jackets,
sometimes dancing iq^right, at others bending or striking the ground with
their heels like horn-pipe dancers.
Spcke's stay at the palace of Uganda, was prolonged from month to
month, much to his disappointment and annoyance, as ho wanted to be pusli-
ing on towards Nyanza and the Nile. On the 1st of April, Speke stayed at
home all day, because the king and queen had set it apart for looking at and
arranging their magical horns. This was something like an inquiry into the
ecclesiastical condition of the country, while, at the same time, it was a reli-
gious ceremony, and, as such, was approjiriate to the first day after the new
moon appears. The king was much pleased with a portrait Speke made of
him, but was still more delighted with some European clothes witli which he
was presented. He soon dressed himself in his new garments. The legs of
the trousers, as well as the sleeves of the waistcoat, were much too short, so
that his black feet and hands stuck out at the extremities as an organ-playei-'s
monkey's do, while the cock's comb on his head prevented a fez cap, which he
wore, from sitting properly.
One day towards the end of May, Speke had an oiDportunity of seeing
something like a military review. A battalion of the king's army arrived
before the palace, under the command of Congow, his chief ofHcer, The king
came out with spear and shield in hand, and took post in front of the enclo-
sure, encircled by his staff, all squatting. His troops were divided into three
companies, each containing about two hundred men. After passing in single
150 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
file at a long trot, they re-formed at the other end of the square. Nothing
conceivable could be more wild or fantastic than the sight which ensued.
The men, nearly naked, with goat or cat-skins depending from their girdles,
and smeared with war-colours according to the taste of each individual, one-
half of the body red or black, the other blue, in irregular order ; as, for instance,
one leg would be red, the other black, whilst the other part would be the
opposite colours, and so with the chest and arms. Each man carried two
spears and one shield, held as if approaching an enemy. They thus moved in
three lines of simple rank and file, at fifteen or twenty paces asunder, with
the same high action and elongated step, the ground leg only being bent to
give their strides the greater force. The captains of each company followed,
even more fantastically dressed. The great Congow, with his long, white-
haired goat-skins, fiddle-shaped leather shield, tufted with white hair at all
six extremities, bands of long hair tied below the knees, and the helmet
covered with rich beads of several colours, surmounted with a plume of crim-
fon feathers, from the centre of which rose a stem, tufted with goat-hair.
Finally, the senior officers came charging at their king, making violent pro-
testations of faith and honesty, for which they were ajDplauded. The parade
then broke up, and all went home.
Speke was now looking forward to the arrival of Grant. Oa the 27th of
May, guns in the distance announced his coming ; and, in a short time, the
two travellers once more joined company. Speke says, " I was only too
rejoiced to see that Grant could limp about a bit, and was able to laugh over
the pictui'esque and amusing account he gave me of his own rough travels."
Forthwith the travellers began to make arrangements for proceeding to
Unyoro, a country governed by a chief named Kamrasi, a man of despicable
character, and considered merciless and cruel, even among African poten-
tates, scattering death and torture around at the mere whim of the moment ;
while he was inhospitable, covetous, and grasping, yet too cowardly to declare
war against the king of the Waganda, who had deprived him of portions of his
dominions. The Waganda people were therefore very unwilling to escort the
travellers into his territory ; and Congow declared that, if compelled to go, he
was a dead man, for he was well known, as he had once led an army past
Kamrasi's palace, and back again. Speke's great object was to reach the spot
where he supposed the lake flowed out of Lake Nyanza, and pi'oceed down
the stream in boats ; but the fleet-admiral put a veto on this plan, on the
pretext that dangerous shallows impeded the navigation. The only course
which then remained was to proceed by land to the banks of the supposed
river, and then ascend to its point of departure from the lake. On the 28th
of June, news came that white men were at Gani, inquiring for the travel-
lers. Speke consequently informed the king, that all he required was a
large escort to accompany them through Usogo and Kidi to Gani, as further
PRE PA RA TIONS FOR LEA VI NG VGA NBA . 151
delay in communicating with Petherick and his companions at Gani might
frustrate the chance of opening the Nile trade with Uganda.
In answer to this request, the king said that he would assemble all his
officers in the morning and consult with them on the matter, as he wished to
further the travellers' views ; but when the next day came, although they
waited ujDon him, they could not obtain any audience. The following day,
as it was the time of the new moon, he spent in private, paying his devotions
with his magic horns. While he was in the midst of his worship, hail fell
with great violence, and lightning burnt down one of the palace huts ; this
was regarded as ominous of approaching evil. On the 1st of July, the tra-
vellers called by appointment on the queen-dowager. As usual, she kept
them waiting some time, then appeared sitting by an open gate, and invited
them to approach. They then entered into conversation with her majesty,
and endeavoured to secure her influence in favour of their speedy departure
irom Uganda. She promised to send a message to the king concerning the
matter. In a day or two after, she fulfilled her promise, and, at last, they
obtained the royal consent to leave the country.
A few days before leaving, Speke and Grant called together on the king,
and presented him with a Lancaster rifle, an iron chain, and some ammuni-
tion ; and thanked him for the favour he had done them by granting them the
road through Unyoro. Turning to Speke, he said, " So you really wish to
go." Speke said, Yes; he had not seen his home for a long time; he had
enjoyed his royal hospitality much ; biit he now wished to return to his own
country. The king then asked them what provision they wanted ; and when
Grant replied that they would not be long in Uganda, and as it was not the
custom of Englishmen, when they went visiting, to carry anything away with
them, five cows and five goats would be sufficient for their needs, he said,
"Well, I wish to give you much, but you won't have it." On their way
home, one of the king's favourite women overtook them, walking, with her
hands clasped at the back of her head, to execution, crying in the most pitiful
manner. A man was jDreceding her, but did not touch her ; for she loved to
obey the orders of her king voluntarily, and, in consequence of ^jrevious attach-
ment, was permitted, as a mark of distinction, to walk free.
The day of departure from Uganda at length arrived. By the 7th of
July, all the arrangements for tlaeir journey were made. The king presented
them with a herd of sixty cows, fourteen goats, ten loads of butter, a load of
coffee and tobacco, for their provisions ; and one hundred sheets of mbugu,
as clothes for the men. " Early in the morning," says Speke, "the king
bade us come to him to say farewell. Wishing to leave behind a favourable
impression, I instantly complied. On the breast of my coat I susi^ended the
necklace the queen had given me, as well as my knife, and my medals. I
talked with him in as friendly and flattering a manner as I could, dwelling
152 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
on liis sliooting, the pleasant cruising on tlio lake, and our sundry pic-nics, a.*
well as tlio grand prospect tliere was now of opening the country to trade, by
which his guns, the best in the world, would be fed with powder, and other
small matters of a like nature ; to which he replied with great feeling and
good taste. We then all rose, with an English bow, placing the hand on the
heart whilst saying adieu ; and there was a complete uniformity in the cere-
monial, for whatever I did, Mtesa, in an instant, mimicked with the instinct
of a monkey." They now exchanged their final farewells ; the king retired
to his harem, and the travellers proceeded on their way.
CIIAPTErt VII.
The NorlJicni Slopes of Africa — Isamla Rajmls — Ripon Falls — Unyoro — Kamrasi
and his Court — March to Madl — Electing iviUi Baker and with Fclhcrick —
Return to England.
OUR travellers now commenced tlieir march clown the northern slopes of
Africa, escorted by a band of Waganda troops, under the command of a
young chief, called Kasoro, or the cat. After a march of five days, the whole
distance accomplished being thirty miles from the capital, through a fine
hilly country, with jungles and rich cultivation alternating, they reached a
place which, in consequence of what afterwards happened there, they called
Kari. A halt of some days was necessary at this place, when one of Speke's
men, named Kari, was induced to accompany some of the Waganda escort on
a plundering excursion. The inhabitants rushed out ; the Waganda men took
to flight and esca23ed. Kari, whose gun was unloaded, stood still, pointing
it at the natives, who, however, speared him to death, and left him. From
this circumstance the place was called Kari. On the 18th, as Grant's leg
. was considered too weak for travelling fast, the ti-avellei's took counsel
together, and altered their plans. It was arranged that Grant should go to
Kamrasi's direct, with the property, cattle, and women, taking Speke's letters
and a map for immediate despatch to Petherick at Gani, whilst Speke should
go up the river to its source or exit from the lake, and come down again, navi-
gating as far as practicable.
On the 19th, they started all together ; but, after the third mile. Grant
turned west, to join the high road to Kamrasi's, whilst Speke went east for
Urondogani, crossing the Luajerri, a large rush-drain three miles broad, ford-
able nearly to the right bank, where they had to ferx-y in boats, and the cows-
to be swam over with men holding on to their tails. It took no less tlian twO'
hours to cross, mosquitoes in myriads biting their bare backs and legs all the
while. On the right bank they found the country covered with a most invit-
ing jungle for sport, with intermediate lays of fine grazing grass. Such is
the nature of the country all the way to Urondogani, except in some favoured
spots, kept as tidily as in any part of Uganda, where plantains grow in the
utmost luxuriance. From want of proper guides, they lost their way continu-
ally, so that they did not reach the boat-station on the river until the morning
of the 21st.
20
154 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
" Here at last," exclaims Speke, " I stood on the brink of tlie Nile ! Most
beautiful was the scene. Nothing could surpass it ! It was the very perfection
of the kind of effect aimed at in a highly-kept park ; with a magnificent
stream from six to seven hundred yards wide, dotted with islets and rocks,
the former occupied by fishermen's huts, tlie latter by sterns and crocodiles
basking in the sun ; flowing between fine liigli grassy banks, with rich trees
and plantains in the back ground, where herds of the nsunnu and harte-beest
could be seen grazing, while the hippopotami were snorting in the water, and
florikan and guinea-fowl rising at our feet. Unfortunately, the chief district
officer, Mlondo, was from home, but we took possession of his huts — clean,
extensive, and tidily kept — facing the river, and felt as if a residence here
would do one good.
"We were now confronting Usoga, a country which may be said to be
the very counterpart of Uganda, in its richness and beauty. Here the peo-
ple use such iron-headed spears with short handles, that, on seeing one to-
day, my people remarked that they were better fitted for digging potatoes
than piercing men. Elephants, as we had seen by their devastations during
the last two marches, were very numerous in the neighbourhood. Lions were
also described as very numerous and destructive to human life. Antelopes
were common in the jungle ; and the hijDpopotami, though frequenters of the
plantain-garden and constantly heard, were seldom seen on land." Here was
shot a remarkable specimen of the goatsucker (named afterwai'ds by Dr.
Sclater, Cosmetornis) SpeJcii) ; its peculiarity being the exceeding length of
some of its feathers floating out far beyond the rest in both wings. The
seventh pen feathers are double the length of the ordinaries, the eighth double
that of the seventh, and the ninth twenty inches long.
Marching up the left bank of the river, at a considerable distance from
the water, Speke came to the Isamba Rapids. The officer of the district,
having refreshed them with a dish of plantain-squash and dried fish, and
some pombe, accompanied them to see the nearest falls of the river — extremel_y
beautiful, but very confined. The water ran deep between its banks, which
were covered with fine grass, soft cloudy acacias, and festoons of lilac con-
volvuli ; whilst here and there, where the land had slipped above the rapids,
bared places of red earth could be seen, like that of Devonshire ; there, too,
the waters, impeded by a natural dam, looked like a huge mill-pond, sullen
and dark, in which two crocodiles, laving about, were looking out for prey.
From the high banks, as you look down, you see a line of sloping wooded
islets lying across the stream ; these divide its waters, and, by interrupting
them, cause at once both dam and rapids. Altogethei", the scene is fairy-
like, wild, and romantic in the extreme.
Continuing their journey, they reached, on the 28th, the RiiDon Falls.
*' We were well rewarded," Speke says, " for the * stones,' as the Waganda
THE RIPON FALLS. 155
call the falls, was by far the most interesting sight I had seen in Africa.
Everybody ran to see thcni at once, though the march had been long and
fatiguing, and even my sketch-book was called into play. Though beauti-
ful, the scene was not exactly what I had expected ; for the broad surface of
the lake was shut out from view by a spur of hill, and tlie falls, above twelve
feet deep, and four to five hundred feet broad, were broken by rocks. Still,
it was a sight that attracted one to it for hours — the roar of waters, the
thousands of passenger-fish, leaping at the falls with all their might — the
Wasoga and Waganda fishermen coming out in boats, and taking post on
all the rocks with rod and hook — hippopotami and crocodiles lying sleepily
on the water — the ferry at work above the falls, and cattle driven down to
drink at the margin of the lake — made, in all, with the jjretty nature of the
country — small hills, grassy-topped, with trees in the folds, and gardens on
the lower slopes, as interesting a j^icture as one could wish to see." Our
traveller spent two or three days in this delightful neighbourhood, and
christened the "stones" Ripon Falls, after the nobleman who presided over
the Royal Geographical Society when his expedition was got up. Here he
had arrived at what he considered the source of the Nile — that is, the point
from where it makes its exit from the Victoria Nyanza.
He now returned to Urondogani, which he reached on the 5th of August.
There was a difficulty in obtaining boats to continue the journey. At length,
with five boats of five planks each, tied together and caulked with mbugu
rags, he started on the voyage to reach Kamrasi's i:)alace in Unyoio ; taking
with him twelve Wanguana, Kasoro and his page followers, a small crew,
goats, dogs, and kit, besides grain and dried meat ; but how many days it
would take nobody knew. The river bore at once the character of river and
lake, clear in the centre, but fringed on both sides in most places with tall
rushes, above which the green banks sloped back like park-lands. The idle
crew paddled slowly, amusing themselves by sometimes dashing forwards, and
then resting. On the 14th they crossed the frontier line ; and then both sides
of the river, Usoga as well as Unyoro, belonged to Kamrasi. They had
not proceeded far when the}' saw an enormous canoe, full of well-dressed and
armed men, ajjproaching them. It turned, as if those on board were afraid,
and Speke's party gave chase. At length, however, it turned again, and the
shore was soon lined with armed men, threatening the expedition with de-
struction. Another canoe now appeai'ed. It was getting dark ; and the only
hope of escaping seemed by retreating. Speke ordered his fleet to keep
together, pi-omising ammunition to the men if they would fight. One of the
boats, however, got near shore, and was caught by grappling hooks. When
those on board found their lives endangered, they fired at their assailants, who
immediately fled, leaving one of their number killed and one wounded ; and
Speke and his party were allowed to retreat unmolested.
lofi STANLEY AND AFRICA.
After i^roceeding up the river some distance, Speke determined to con-
tinue the journey by land, following the track Grant had taken. Two or
three days were spent wandering about without guides, trying to keep Grant's
track after leaving tliem ; crossing at first a line of small hills, then traversing
grass and jungle, like the dak of India. Plantain-gardens were frequently
met, and the people seemed hospitably inclined. Buffaloes were about, but
tlie villagers cautioned them not to shoot them, as they wei'e held to be sacred
animals. Grant's camp was reached on the 20th, and that very day a mes-
senger arrived from Kamrasi, saying that he would be glad to see them ; and
so the following morning the march was ordered for Unyoro. Once more
they passed the frontier, and the country changed greatly for the worse.
The first march from this to the capital was a picture of the entire way — an
interminable forest of small trees, bush, and tall grass, with scanty villages,
low huts, and dirty-looking people clad in skins ; the plantain, sweet potato,
sesamum, and millet, forming the chief edibles, besides goats and fowls. No
hills, except a few scattered cones, disturbed the level surface of the land, and
no pretty views cheered the eye. Uganda was entirely left behind ; they
were increasing the distancefrom the equator and the rain-attracting influences
of the Mountains of the Moon, and vegetation proportionately decreased.
At the first place where they halted, the Wanyoro, who are as squalid-
looking as the Wanyamuezi, and almost as badly-dressed, came about them
to hawk ivory ornaments, brass and copper twisted wristlets, tobacco, and
salt, which they exchanged for cowries, with which they purchase cows from
the "Waganda. At several places the natives ran off as they approached,
believing them to be cannibals ; and in one instance, they supposed that the
iron boxes, which the porters carried on their shoulders, each contained a
couple of white dwarfs, which were allowed to fly off and eat people.
Their march on the 2nd of September was only of two hours' duration.
On their arrival at the end, they heard that elejDhants had been seen close by.
"Grant and I," says Speke, "then prepared our guns, and found a herd of
about a hundred feeding upon a plain of long grass, dotted here and there by
small mounds crowned with shrub. The animals appeared to be all females,
much smaller than the Indian breed ; yet, though ten were fired at, none were
killed, and only one made an attempt to charge. • I was with the little twin
Manua at the time, when, stealing along under cover of the high grass, I got
close to the batch and fired at the largest, which sent her round roaring. The
whole of them then, greatly alarmed, packed together, and began sniffing
the air with their uplifted trunks, till, ascertaining by the smell of the powder
that their enemy was in front of them, they rolled up their trunks, and came
close to the spot where I was lying under a mound. My scent was then strik-
ing across them ; they pulled up short, lifted their heads high, and looked
down sideways on us. This was a bad job. I could not get a proper front
KA MRA SI A ND 11 IS FA LACK 157
shot at the boss of any of them, and if I had waited an instant we should both
have been picked up or trodden to death ; so I let fly at their temples, and
instead of killing, sent the whole of them rushing away at a much faster pace
than they came. After this I gave up, because I never could separate the
ones I had wounded from the rest, and thought it cruel to go on damaging
more."
On the 8th, Kamrasi sent for them to visit his palace ; and the following
day they set out for it. Passing the last bit of jungle, they sighted the Kidi
hills, and, in a sea of swampy grass, they stood in front of, and overlooked the
king's palace, on a low tongue of land between the Kafu and Victoria Nile
rivers. It was a dumpy, large hut, surrounded by a host of smaller ones, and
the worst royal residence they had seen since leaving Uzinza. Some dirty
huts were offered to Speko for residence, but he insisted on being lodged in
the palace. The3^were kept however, waiting several days, till Speke sent to
say, that if the king did not wish to see the white men, they would proceed on
their journey to Gani. This had the desired effect. Kamrasi sent immediately
to say that he was busily engaged decorating his jDalace to give them a trium-
phant reception, for he was anxious to pay them more respect than anybody
who had ever visited him before. He would not hear of their leaving the
country without seeing him. The next day they were summoned to attend
his levee ; and, in their usual style, the Union Jack floating above their iieads,
and leading the way, they set out to attend on his majesty. At the forr}-,
three shots were fired, when, stepping into large canoes, tliey all went across
the Kafu together, and found, to their surprise, a small hut built for the
reception, low down on the opposite bank, where no strange eyes could see
them.
Here is a description of the interview:—" Within this, sitting on a low
wooden stool placed upon a double matting of skins — cows' below and leopards'
above, on an elevated platform of grass, was the great king Kamrasi, looking,
enshrouded in his mbugu dress, for all the world like a poj^e in state — calm
and actionless. One bracelet of fine-twisted brass wire adorned his left wrist,
and his hair, half an inch long, was worked up into small pcpper-corn-liko
knobs, by rubbing the hand circularly over the crown of the head. His eyes
were long, face narrow, and nose prominent, after the true fashion of his
breed. And though a finely-made man, considerably above six feet high, he
was not so large asRumanika. A cow-skin, stretched out and fastened to the
roof, ac':cd as a canopy to prevent dust falling, and a curtain of mbugu con-
cealed the lower parts of the hut, in front of which, on both sides of the king,
sat about a dozen head men.
" This was all. We entered and took seats on our own iron stools, whilst
Bombay placed all the presents upon the ground before the throne. As no
greetings were exchanged, and all at first remained as silent as death, I com-
15S STANLEY AND AFRICA.
menced, after asking about his health, by saying I had journeyed six long
years, by the African comjiutation of five months in the year, for the pleasure
of this meeting. The purpose of ray coming was to ascertain whether hia
majesty would like to trade with our country, exchanging ivory for articles
of Eurojjcan manufacture; as, should he do so, merchants would come here
in the same way as they went from Zanzibar to Karague. Kararasi, in a very
quiet mild manner, instead of answering the question, told us of the absurd
stories he had heard from the Waganda, said he did not believe them, else his
rivers, deprived of their fountains, would have run dry, and he thought, if we
did eat hills and the tender parts of mankind, we should have had enough to
satisfy our api^etites before we reached Unyoro. Now, however, he was glad
to see that, although our hair was straight and our faces white, we still pos-
sessed hands and feet like other men."
Kamrasi was as eager to obtain gifts as any of the other chiefs, and,
having heard of tlieir chronometer, which they had been observed using, he
was esjDGcially desirous to possess it, believing it to be some magic instrument,,
and the means by which the travellers guided themselves about the country.
Speke told him that it was not his guide, but a time-keeper, made for tlie pur-
pose of knowing at what time to eat his dinner. He told him it was the only
one he jDossessed ; that if he would patiently wait, he would send him up one
on his arrival at Gani. The king, however, was too eager to possess the won-
derful instrument to consent to wait ; and so the watcl), gold chain and all,
went into his possession.
One morning, soon after, they were informed that the king was about ta
pay them a visit. Accordingly they made their room as smart as possible for
his reception — hanging it round with maps, horns, and skins of animals, and
placing a large box, covered with a red blanket, as a throne for him to sit upon.
Their guard of honour fired tliree shots on his approach, and the travellers
received him, hat in hand, and, leading the way, showed him in. As soon as
he entered, he began to beg, wanting everything he saw — first, their gauze
mosquito curtains, then an iron camp-bed, nest the sextant and thermoiueter.
When some books of birds and animals were shown him he wanted them, and
was much surprised when he found that he could not fleece them of every-
thing.
Another morning they found that their rain-gauge had been removed, so
they sent to say that they wished a magician to come at once and institute a
search for it. The magician soon came. An old man, nearly blind, dressed in
strips of old leather fastened to the waist, and carrying in one hand a cow's horn
primed with magic powder, carefully covered on the mouth with leather, from
which dangled an iron bell. The old creature jingled the bell, entered their
hut, squatted on his hands, looked first at one, then at the other — inquired
what the missing things were like, grunted, moved his skinny arm round his-
KA MRA SI A ND HIS SISTERS. 1 59
liead, as if desirous of catching air from all four sides of the hut, then dashed
the accumulated air on the Jiead of his horn, smelt it to see if all was going
riglit, jingled the bell again close to nis ear, and grunted his satisfaction ; tlie
niissing articles must bofounci. To carry out the incantation more effectually,
however, all my men were sent for to sit in the open before the hut, when
the old doctor rose, shaking ".lie norn and tinkling the bell close to his ear
He then, confronting one of xhe men, dashed the horn forward, as if intending
to strike him on the face, then smelt the head, then dashed at another, and
so on, till he became satisfied that Speke's men were not the thieves. He
then walked into Grant's hut, inspected that, and finally went to the place
where the bottle had been kept. There he walked about the grass with his
arm wp, and jingling the bell to his ear, first on one side, then on the other,
till the track of a hyena gave him the clue, and in two or three more steps he
found it. A hyena had carried it into the grass and droj^ped it, he said.
Eut Speke knew that the king had taken it, and sent it back by the hands
of his magician.
Kamarasi was a thorough tyrant, and, at the same time, an infamous
coward. He kept up a most complete system of esj^iouage, by which he knew
everything going forward in the country. His guards, in order that they
might be attached to his person, were allowed to plunder at will the rest of
his unfortunate subjects, who, if they offended him, were put to- death with-
out mere}-. If an officer failed to give him information, he was executed, or
placed in the s-hoe- — an instrument of torture not unlike the stocks. It con-
sists of a heavy log cf wood, with an oblong slit through it; the feet are
placed in the slit, and a peg is then driven through the log between the
ankles, so as to hold them tightl}-. Frequently the executioner drives the
peg against the ankles, when the pain is so excessive that the victim gene-
rally dies through exhaustion. The king conducts all business himself,
awarding punishments and seeing them carried out. The most severe instru-
ment of torture is a knob-stick, sharpened at the back like that used in
Uganda for breaking a man's neck before he was thrown into the Nyanza.
His sisters were not allowed to marry ; they lived and died virgins in the
l)alace. Their only occupation in life consisted in drinking milk, of which
each one consumed the produce daily of from ten to twenty cows, and hence
they became so inordinately fat that they could not walk. AVhen they wished
to go outside the hut, it required eight men to lift any of them on a litter.
The brothers, too, were not allowed to go out of the king's reach. This con-
finement of the palace family was considered a slate necessity, as a j^reven-
tive to civil wars, in the same way as the destruction of the Uganda princes,
after a certain season, is thought necessary for the preservation of peace there.
The following curious customs in connection with the birth of twins,
will be read with interest: — "I was told," saj-s Speke, "how a negro
lOD STANLEY AND AFRICA.
woman, who bore twins that died, now keeps two small pots in her house,
as effigies of the children, into which she milks herself every evening, and
will continue to do so five months, fulfilling the time appointed by nature
for suckling children, lest the spirits of the dead should persecute her. The
twins were not buried, as ordinary people are buried, underground, but
placed in an earthenware pot, such as the Wanyoro used for holding pombe.
They were taken to the jungle and placed by a tree, with the pot turned
mouth downwards. Manua, one of my men, who is a twin, said, in Nguru,
one of the sister provinces to Unyanyembc, twins are ordered to be killed
and thrown into water the moment they are born, lest droughts and famines,
or floods, should oppress the land. Should any one attemjit to conceal
twins, the whole family would be murdered by the chief; but, though a
great traveller, this is the only instance of such brutality Manua had ever
witnessed in any country.
" In the province of Unyanyembe, if a twin or twins die, they are
thrown into water for the same reason as in Nguru; but, as their numbers
increase the size of the family, their birth is hailed with delight. Still there
is a souice of fear there in connection with twins, as I have seen myself;
for, when one dies, the mother ties a little gourd to her neck as a proxy,
and puts into it a trifle of everything which she gives the living child, lest
the jealousy of the dead spirit should torment her. Further, on the death
of the child, she smears herself with butter and ashes, and runs frantically
about, tearing her hair, and bewailing jiiteously; whilst the men of the
place use towards her the foulest language, apparently as if in abuse of her
person, but, in reality, to frighten away the demons Avho have robbed her
nest."
On the 29th of October, Speke presented Kamrasi with a Bible, explain-
ing all he fancied he knew about the origin and present condition of the
Wahuma branch of the Ethio^iians, in which account the Idng was greatly
interested. He then began counting the leaves of the book, an amusement
that every negro who gets hold of a book indulges in ; and, concluding in his
mind that each page or leaf represented one year of time since the beginning
of the creation, continued his labour till one quarter of the way through, and
then only shut the book on being told that, if he desired to ascertain the
number more closely, he could count the words.
The travellers were now in some anxiety about Bombay, whom they had
sent forward to Gani six weeks before, with a letter for Petherick, and to
make arrangements for their joroceeding thither themselves. At length, on
the 1st of November, he arrived in high glee, with his attendants, dressed in
cotton jumpers and drawers — presents given them by Petherick's outpost.
Petherick himself Avas not there. The journey to and fro was jDcrformed in
thirteen days' actual travelling, the rest of the time being frittered away by
CROSSING A STREAM IN SOUTH AFRICA
DEPARTURE FROM UNYORO.
the guides. Two hundred Turks, Speke was informed, were stationed at
Gani, and their commander had orders to wait for Speke, without any limit
as to time until he should arrive, when Petherick's name would be pointed
out to him cut on a tree. The Turks were all armed with elephant-guns, and
had killed sixteen elephants. Petherick had gone down the river, eight days'
journey, but was expected to return shortly.
Receiving this intelligence, Speko sent a farewell present to Kamrasi,
accompanied by a request to leave his country. The king, however, covetous
and never satisfied, instead of returning thanks and granting the leave asked
for, insisted on having something more, and even begged for the rings which
he saw on Grant's fingers, but without success. At last he promised to give
them a parting interview, and to send a large escort to accompany them to
Petherick's boats. The}'- had been ke^Dt the whole time of tlieir stay in
Unyoro almost as prisoners, without being allowed by the suspicious king to
move about the neighboui'hood, while no one had been permitted to visit
them. They were, therefore, thankful when, at last, they persuaded the
savage monarch to allow them to take their departure. Canoes had been
provided, and, on the 9th of November, they embarked in one of them on the
river Kafu. Crowds were collected on the banks to see them depart. After
going a short distance, they emerged from the Kafu, and found themselves
on what at first appeared a long lake, but which, was, in reality, the Victoria
Nile, down which they floated to the falls of Karuma.
The river was in some places two hundred yards broad, while in others
it spread to a thousand. Both sides were fringed with the huge papyrus
rush. The left one was low and swamp)-, whilst the right one, in which the
Kidi people and Wanzoro occasionally hunt, rose from the water in a gently
sloping bank, covered with trees and beautiful convolvuli, which hung in fes-
toons. Floating islands, composed of rush, grass, and ferns, were conti-
nually in motion, working their way slowly down the stream, which ran at
the rate of a mile an hour. On the third day, a strong breeze coming on,
these floating islands melted away, or were driven on shore. The travellers
landed every evening to sleep, having to push their way between a wide belt
of reeds, rushes, and convolvuli. The king having given his officers direc-
tions to supply them with food, they had some exciting chases after canoes.
No sooner was one overtaken than their Wangoro escort robbed her of bark,
cloth, liquor, beads, spears, and everything on board, the poor owners being
utterly helpless.
Pursuing their journey partly by boat, and partly on land, they reached,
on the 19th, the Karuma Falls. Nearing the falls, "the ground," says Speke,
" on the line was highly cultivated, and intersected by a deep ravine of running
water, whose sundry branches made the surface very irregular. The sand-paper
tree, whose leaves resemble a cat's tongue in roughness, and which is used iu
21
102 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Uganda for polishing their clubs and spear handles, was conspicuous ; but at
the end of the journey only, was there anything of much interest to be seen.
There suddenly, in a deep ravine of one hundred yards below us, the formerly
placid river, up which vessels of moderate size niiglit steam two or three
abreast, was now changed into a turbulent torrent. Beyond lay the land of
Kidi, a forest of mimosa trees, rising gently away from the water in soft
clouds of green. This, the governor of tlie place, Kija, described as a sport-
ing-field, where elephants, hippopotami, and buffalo, are hunted by the occu-
pants on both sides of the river. The elephant is killed with a new kind of
spear, with a double-edged blade a yard long, and a handle, which, weighted
in any way most easy, is pear-shaped. With these instruments some men
climb into trees and wait for the herd to pass, whilst others drive them under.
The hippopotami, however, are not hunted, but snared with lunda, the com-
mon tripping-ti-ap with sjjike-droi?, which is placed in the runs of this animal.
"The Karuma Falls, if such they maybe called, are a mere sluice or
rush of water between high syenitic stones, falling in a long slope down a
ten-feet drojj. There are others of minor importance, and one within ear-
sound, down the river, said to be grand. The name given to these falls arose
from the absurd belief that Karuma, the agent or familiar of a certain great
spirit, i^laced the stones that break the waters in the river, and, for so doing,
was applauded by his master, who, to reward his services by an appropriate
distinction, allowed the stones to be called Karuma."
They were still in the territories of Kamrasi. The governor of the dis-
trict, a great man, who sits on a throne only a little inferior to the king's,
called upon them with a present, and said that he thought the white men
were flocking this way to retake their lost country ; for tradition recorded
that the Wahuma were once half-black and half-white, with half the hair
straight and the other half curly ; and how was this to be accounted for,
unless the country formerly belonged to white men with straight hair, but
was subsequently taken by black men. Before starting to cross tlie Kidi
wilderness, some of their i^arty sacrificed two kids, one on either side of the
river, flaying them with one long cut each down their breasts and bellies ; the
animals were then spread eagle-fashion on the grass, that the travellers miglit
steji over them and obtain a prosperous journey. They continued their march
through the wilderness for some days, At first they had to toil through
dreadful swamps, but, at length, they found themselves unexpectedly stand-
ing on the edge of a plateau, on the west of which, for an interminable dis-
tance, the country opened out before them Elephants and buffaloes were
seen, and their guide, to make the journey j^ropitious, plucked a twig,
stripped off its leaves, and, waving it up the line of march and muttering
some unintelligible words to himself, broke it in two and threw portions on
citlior side of the patli.
THE QANI PEOPLE. ir,3
On the 29tli they reached a collection of conical huts on the ridge of a
small chain of granitic hills lying north-west. Tiiis was Koki in Gaiii. As
they ajjproached the southern extremity of this cliain, knots of naked men,
perched like monkeys on the granite blocks, were anxiously watching their
arrival. A messenger was sent to Chongi, tlie governor, who desi^atched the
principal people in the place to welcome tlie strangers. These people, covered
with war paint, and looking something like clowns in a fair, rushed down the
hill with their spears full tilt, and, performing vai-ious evolutions, conducted
them to the governor. Chongi received them most cordially, and, taking a
white hen by one leg, swayed it to and fro close to the ground in front of
them ; and then took a gourd of pombe, and with a little twig sprinkled the
contents all over them. He then retired to the Uganda, or magic house,
sjDrinkled pombe over it ; and, finally, spreading a cow-skin under a tree,
bade them sit down on it, and presented them with a bowl of pombe.
These people were entli'ely naked, their sole dress consisting of bead,
iron, or brass ornaments, with some feathers or cowrie-beads on the head.
Their hair was dressed in the most fantastic fashion ; and, like the Kidi peo-
ple, they carried diminutive stools to sit upon wherever they went. Their habi-
tat extends from Koki to the Asua river. Their villages are composed of
little conical huts of grass, on a frame-work of bamboo raised above low mud
walls. Each village appoints its own chief. The granitic hills, like those of
Unyamuezi, are extremely pretty, and clad with trees, contrasting strangely
with the grassy downs of indefinite extent around.
From the Gani people, the travellers, without any visible change, passed
into the country of Madi, who dress in the same naked fashion as their neigh-
bours, and use bows and arrows. Their villages were all surrounded with
fences, and the country, in its general aspect, resembled that of the Northern
Unyamuezi. On the 3rd of December, having pushed on in spite of the
friendly attempts made to detain them, they came in sight of what they sup-
posed to be Petherick's outpost. They hastened on, when they saw three
large flags heading a military procession, Avliich marched out of tlie camj)
with drums and fifes playing. The travellers halted, and allowed them to
draw near, when a very black man, named Mahamed, in full Egyptian regi-
mentals, with a curved sword, hastened from the head of his regiment (a
ragamuffin mixture of Nubians, Egyptians, and slaves of all sorts, about two
hundred in number), and throwing himself into Speke's arms, began to hug
and kiss him. Speke asked him who was his master ? " Petrik," was the reply.
"And where is Petherick now?" "Oh, he is coming." "How is it you
have not got English colours, then?" " The colours are Debono's." "Who
is Debono?" "The same as Petrik, but come along into my camp, and let
us talk it out there." Mahamed then led them to his huts, situated in a village
named Faloro, kept exactly in the same order as that of the natives. Giving
1C4 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
thom two beds to sit upon, lie orderel his wives to a(lvanc3 on thoir knees
and give tliem coffee, whilst some of his men brought pombe, and prepared
a dinner of bread and honey and mutton.
Their host, Maliamed, was little better than a land-pirate, who plundered
and shot down the natives without compunction. Among his troops there was
not one true Turk; they were adventurers, born from negro stock in the
most southern Egyptian dominions. They were all married to the women
of the country, whom they had dressed in cloths and beads. " Their children
were many, with a prospect of more. Temporary marriages however, were
more common than othei's ; as, in addition to their slaves, they hii-ed the
daughters of the villagers, who remained with them whilst they were trading
there, but went back to their parents when they marched to Gondokoro.
They had also many hundreds of cattle, which it was said they had plundered
from the natives, and now used for food, or to exchange for ivory, or other
purposes. The scenery and situation were perfect for health and beauty.
The settlement lay at the foot of small, well-wooded granitic hills, even pret-
tier than the outcrops of Unyamuezi, and was intersected by clear streams."
Mahamed, like the native chiefs, wished to detain the travellers ; being
desirous that they and their party might guard his camp, while he went off
on an expedition. He succeeded, by depriving them of their porters, and
then marched out with his army — drums and fifes playing, colours flying, a
hundred guns firing, officers riding, some on donkeys, others on cows. Speko
afterwards learnt that Chongi, of Koki, had invited Mahamed to fight against
an enemy of his, in whose territories immense stores of ivory were said to
be buried, and the people had an endless number of cattle. On the last day
of the year, Mahamed and his triumphant array, after having burned down
and plundered three villages, returned laden with ivory, and driving in five
slave girls, and thirty head of cattle. Two or three days afterwards, another
specimen of Turkish barbarity came under Speke's notice. The head man
of a village arrived with a large tusk of ivory, to ransom his daughter with ;
for she was one of those seized as a slave on this recent expedition. For-
tunately for him, it had been considered by the Turks wise to keep on good
terms with so influential a man, and therefore, on receiving the tusk, Mahamed
gave back the damsel, adding a cow to seal their friendship.
Weary of Mahamed's procrastination, Speke, on the 11th of January,
18C3, started forward himself, telling the Turk he would wait for him at
the next place, provided he did not delay more than one day. Their march
led them over long rolling downs of grass ; and after going ten miles, they
came to a village named Panyoro, where they tarried for the niglit. At
first the villagers, thinking they were Turks, ran off with their cattle and
what stores they could carry; but, after finding out who they were, they
returned again, and gave them a good reception. The next day the van-
ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE ONWARD MARCH. 103
g-uard of Maliamccl's I'arty camo up, and said they had orders to march on
V'itli Spcke as far as Apuddo, where all were to stop for ]\Iahanied. Tiiere
was a certain ti'ee near Apuddo, which was marked by an Englishman two
years ago, and this Mahanied thouglit would keep them amused. The next
march brought them to Paira, a collection of villages within sight of the
Nile. In appearance it was a noble stream, flowing on a flat bed from west
to east ; and immediately beyond it was the Kuku Hills, rising up to a height
of two thousand feet above the river. The next day they arrived at Jaifi,
a group of huts close to a deep nullah which drains the central portions of
Eastern Madi. At this place the Turks killed a crocodile, and ate him on
the spot, much to the disgust of Speke's men.
"When they reached Apuddo, Speke at once went to see the tree said to
have been cut by an Englishman some iime before. There, sure enough,
was a mark, something like the letters M. J., on its bark, but not distinct
enough to be ascertained, because the bark had healed up. A¥hen they reached
Goudokoro, they learnt that the individual who had thus left his mark was
an Italian, named Miani, who had gone further up the Nile than any one
else, but who retui'ned, because he was alarmed at the accounts the people
gave of the countries to the southward, and he did not like the prospect of
having to remain a whole rainy season with Mahamed at Faloro. They took
up their quarters in the village as usual ; but the Turks remained outside, and
carried off all the tops of the villagers' huts to make a camp for themselves.
There seemed nothing but misery in the place. Food was so scarce that the
villagers sought for wild berries and fruits ; whilst the Turks stole their cook-
ing-pots, and he]])ed themselves out of their half-filled bins — a small reserve
store to last up to the far-distant harvest. Speke and Grant, however, pro-
vided for themselves by shooting antelopes and other game. On the 31st,
Mahamed overtook them, and commenced to arrange for the march onwards.
"This, however, was no easy matter, for the Turks alone required six hun-
dred porters — half that number to carry their ivory, and the other half to
cai'ry their beds and bedding ; whilst from fifty to sixty men was the most
a village had to spare, and all the village chiefs were at enmity with one
another. The plan adopted by Mahamed was, to summon the heads of all
the villages to come to him, failing: which, he would seize all their belongings.
Then, having once got them together, he ordered them all to furnish him with
so many porters a-head, saying he demanded it of them, for the great govern-
ment's property could not be left on the ground. Their separate interests
must now be sacrificed, and their feuds suspended ; and if he heard, on his
return again, that one village had taken advantage of the other's weakness
caused by their employment in his service, he would then not spare his bullets
• — so they might look out for themselves."
On the 1st of February, they struck on the Nile, where it was running
IfiO STANLEY AND AFRICA.
like a fine Highland stream between the gneiss and mica-schist hills of
Kuku, and followed it down to near where the Asua river joined it. Here
they left it again as it arched round by the west, and forded the Asua river,
a stiff rocky stream, deep enough to reach the breast when waded, but not
very broad. On the 13th, they ai'rived at Marsan, in the Bari country. The
whole company now was a thousand strong. Speke wished still to put up iu
the native villages, but Mahamed so terrified all his men, by saying the Bari
would kill them in the night if they did not all sleep together in one large
cam}), that he was obliged to submit. The country was undulating and very
prettily wooded. Villages were numerous ; but as they ^Dassed them the inha-
bitants all fled, save a few men bolder than the rest. Both night and morn-
ing the Turks beat their drums ; and whenever they stopfjed to eat, they
sacked the villages.
At Doro, which they reached on the 14th, the natives turned out with their
arms, and war drums were beaten as a sign that they intended to attack the
camp. The Turks grew somewhat alarmed at this, and, as darkness began to
set iu, sent out patrols in addition to their nightly watches. The natives
tried to steal into the camp, but were soon frightened off by the patrols cock-
ing their guns. Seeing themselves defeated in this attempt, they collected
in hundreds in front of the camp, set fire to the grass, and marching up and
down, brandishing the burning grass in their hands, howled like demons, and
swore they would annihilate their enemies in the morning.
The next morning, Speke and Grant walked in to Gondokoro, where
Mahamed, after firing a salute, took them to see a Circassian merchant, named
Kurshid Aglia. Walking down the bank of the river, where a line of vessels
was moored, and a brick-built house represented the late Austrian Mission
establishment, they saw hurrying towards them tlie form of an Englishman,
who, for one moment, they believed to be Petherick; greatly to their delight,
they found themselves shaking hands with Mr., now Sir Samuel Baker, who
had bravely come out in search of them. A little boy of his establishment
had reported their arrival, and he in an instant came out to welcome them.
''What joy this was," says Speke, "I can hardly tell. We could not talk
fast enough, so overwhelmed were we both to meet again. Of course we were
his guests in a moment, and learned everything that could be told. I now
first heard of the death of H. E. H. the Prince Consort, which made me reflect
on the inspiring words he made use of in com2:)limcnt to myself, when I was
introduced to him by Sir Eoderick Murchison a short while before leaving
England. Then there was the terrible war in America, and other events of a
less startling nature, which came on us all by surj^rise, as years had now
passed since we had received news from tbe civilised world."
The travellers waited at Gondokoro till the 26th, when they proceeded
down the Nile, in Baker's boats (which he kindly lent them while he and his
A lUil VAL AT CA lEO. 1 G 7
devoted wife continued their journey southward,) to Khartoum. Before leav-
ing Gondokoro, tlie travellers found Petlierick, who offered Sj)eke an explana-
tion why he had failed in fulfilling his engagement to meet him, but which,
however, Speke considered unt-atisfactorj". He had gone away on a trading
expedition, and had made no attempt to succour his friends.
The voyage down the Nile to Khartoum took from the 2Gth of February
to the 30th of March, and was performed in a diabeah, the usual Nile boat ;
the after-part being covered with a deck, on which was built a comfortable
poop-cabin. They were hospitably entertained by Ali Bey, and by a num-
ber of European and Turkish inhabitants. " Among other interesting places
they visited at Khartoum was a Coptic church. In the centre was a desk,
at which a man was reading aloud to a number of other persons wearing-
large turbans, their shoes placed on one side, and several children, all sitting
on a carpet, listening devoutly. On the walls were draperies and pictures of
the Saviour ; and within a doorway was a high altar, covered with a cloth,
marked with the figure of a cross. The service was in Arabic. A handsome
old man entered, bearing a staff surmounted by a golden cross. After kneel-
ing at the altar he invited the strangers to his house to have coffee. Grant
says that he never saw a finer face than that of this venerable Copt — Gabriel
by name — who was at the head of the Coptic church at Khartoum."
They left Khartoum on the 15th of April, and continued their journey
down to Berber by water. Here they landed, and had a fatiguing camel
ride across the desert to a place called Korosko, whence they continued
by water to Cairo. At Cairo, they called by invitation on the Viceroy at his
Rhoda Island palace, and were much gratified with the reception ; for, after
hearing their story with marked intelligence, he most graciously offered to
help in any other undertaking which would assist to open up and develop
the interior of Africa. Here, they had to part from their " faithful children,"
for whose services they had no further occasion, and whom they had taken
so far from their own country. Speke had them all photographed. He next
appointed Bombay their captain, and gave him three photographs of all the
eighteen men, and three more of the four women, to give one each to the
British Consuls at Suez, Aden, and Zanzibar, by which they might be recog-
nised. He also gave them increased wages, equal to three years' pay each,
by orders on Zanzibar, which was one in addition to their time of service ; an
order for a freeman's garden to be purchased for them at Zanzibar ; and
another order that each one should receive ten dollars dowry-money as soon
as he could find a wife. Ultimately, after many adventures, they all reached
their destination.
The two brave men, whose adventures we have thus far followed, in a
journey that involved a walk of thirteen hundred miles through the equatorial
regions of Africa, embarked for England, on the 4th of June, on board the
IfiS STANLEY AND AFRICA.
" Pera," and hinJcJ safely oil tlioir native shores, after an absence of eleven
liundred and forty-six days. Captain Spoke's friends shortly afterwards had
to mourn liis untimely death, from his gun accidentally going off while out
shooting. His gallant companion, now Colonel Grant, still survives. Although
not, as he supposed, the discoverer of the remotest source of the Nile, Speke
was undoubtedly the first Eui'opean who saw the Victoria Nyanza ; while the
adventurous and dangerous joui'ney he and Grant performed together entitles
them to take place in the first rank of Afric:in travellers. They opened up
an extensive and rich district hitherto totally unknown, which it is hoped will
in a few years be enriched with the blessings of Christianity and civilization.
CHAPTER VIII.
Sir Samuel and Lady Baker — Tlieir Arrival in Eg/jpt — Cross the Niih'ian Desert —
Bcrler — lite Atbara — Cassala — Aral) Tribes of Nubia — Junction of I lie Scttiic
with the Atbara — The Abyssinian Frontier.
IN Marcli, 1861, Samuel, tlien Mr. Baker, a private English gentleman, aided
by no public resources, prompted by no public bodies, started in the exer-
cise of his own discretion to attempt the solution of a problem which had baf-
fled ages. He says — "In March, 1861, I commenced an expedition to dis-
cover the sources of the Nile, with the hope of meeting the East African
expedition of Captains Speke and Grant, that had been sent by the English
Government fi"om the south, via Zanzibar, for that object. I had not the pre-
sumption to publish my intention, as the sources of the Nile had hitherto
defied all explorers, but I had inwardly determined to accomplish this difficult
task, or to die in the attempt."
As we have already seen, Mr. Baker met Speke and Grant almost at the
outset of his journey, the subordinate motive, therefore, of affording help to
them, ceased, but his greater object still lay before him. With a manliness
of spirit equal to his own, they instanti}' ^^^^ced at his disposal the results of
their own explorations, and urged him to pursue the great task of perfectin<^
what they had well begun. He had already devoted several years to the
hardiest feats of a great hunter and a keen shot in the jungles cf Ceylon and
the highlands of Abyssinia, which had nerved his frame and quickened his
ftye. To these qualifications he added two years of jjatient preparation for
his great attempt — the acquisition of the power of scientific observation and
the Arabic language: — the purchase and adaptation of all the ???a^em^ necessary
for so protracted a campaign, and the attempt to discipline a numerous band of
followers. To the plots and treacher}^ of these beings, who repeatedly broke
out in open mutiny, and threatened him more than once with abandonment
and death, he opposed an iron and commanding will, which at last moulded
even these creatures to obey him. This moral authority was backed by a
strength of arm that never failed to crush the offender by a timely blow, and
to punish every insult and infraction of discipline. Yet in a land where blood
is poured out like Avater, where inhuman tortures are ruthlessly iufiicted by
the strong on the weak, and where every man who is not a slave himself is
170 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
seeking to enslave some one else, Mr. Baker allowed no deed of violence to
be committed which he could prevent ; he rescued numberless victims from
the lash of their tormentors, and, by a judicious and open-handed liberality,
he taught the natives the unknown lesson, that an Englishman is not to be
served by slaves, but by the fidelity of those whom he is ready to reward fur
their iabour.
One trait remains, and it is the most singular incident in this remarkable
narrative, which gives to the journey of Mr. Baker an unparalleled interest.
Through these regions where no Avhite woman had ever been seen, through
these tribes where woman is degraded by the grossest sensuality to be some-
thing below the beast of burden and the household drudge, he was accom-
panied by his wife. This lady, born of a good Hungarian family, and married
at an early age to the comjianion of her adventurous life, jiossessing uncom-
mon personal attractions, and still in the bloom of youth, not only shared with
her husband all the perils of this expedition, but by her quiet imperturbable
courage, her tact and activity, contributed most powerfully to its success. On
more than one occasion she said or did the thing that conquered the difficulty.
And above all, the presence, in the midst of whole races to whom the idea of
marriage in our sense of the term is unknown, of the one wife of the white
man, so ennobled this pair of travellers, and distinguished it so etfectually
from the marauding columns of ivory traders and man-stealers, that even the
savages of the White Nile acknowledged her influence.
Baker, accompanied by his wife, left Cairo on the loth of April, and
sailed up the Nile to Korosko, reaching there in twenty-six days. They started
thence on camels across the Nubian deserts, a most fatiguing journey, througli
a wilderness of scorching sand and glowing basalt-rocks — the simoom being
in full force, and the thermometer in the shade by the water-skins, standing
at 114° Fahrenheit. " A few hours from Korosko," Baker says, " the misery
of the scene surpassed description. , Glowing like a furnace, the vast extent
of yellow sand stretched to the horizon. Rows of broken hills, all of volcanic
origin, broke the flat plain. Conical tumuli of volcanic slag here and there
rose to the height of several hundred feet, and in the far distance resembled
the pyramids of Lower Egypt — doubtless they were the models for that
ancient and everlasting architecture ; hills of black basalt jutted out from the
barren base of sand, and the molten air quivered on the overheated surface of
the fearful desert. 114° Fahr. in the shade under the water skins; 137° in
the sun. Noiselessly the spongy tread of the camels, crept along the sand —
the only sound was the rattle of some loosely secured baggage of their packs.
The Arab drivers followed silently at intervals, and hour by hour we struck
deeper into the solitude of the Nubian desert.
"We entered a dead level plain of orange-coloured sand, surrounded by
pyramidical hills j the surface was strewn with objects resembling cannon shot
THE N UBIA N DESER T. 1 7 1
•and grape of all sizes from a 32-poiiiKlcr downwards — tlie spot looked like
the old battle-field of some infernal region ; rocks glowing with heat — not a
vestige of vegetation — barren, withering desolation. The slow rocking step
of the camels was most irksome, and, despite the heat, I dismounted to examine
the Satanic bombs and cannon shot. Many of them were perfectly round as
though cast in a mould, others were egg-sha^ied, and all were hollow. With
some difficulty I broke them, and found them to contain a bright red sand;
they were, in fact, volcanic bombs that had been formed by the ejection of
molten lava to a great height from active volcanoes ; these had become globu-
lar in falling, and, having cooled before they reached the earth, they retained
their forms as hard spherical bodies, precisely resembling cannon shot.
The exterior was brown, and ajDpeared to be rich in iron. The smaller sjjeci-
mens were the more perfect spheres, as they had cooled quickly, but many of
the heavier masses had evidently reached the earth when only half solidified,
and had collapsed on falling. The sandy plain was covered with such ves-
tiges of volcanic action, and the iofcrnal bombs lay as imjoerishable relics of
.a hail-storm such as may have destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
" Passins: through this wretched solitude, we entered upon a scene of
surpassing desolation. Far as the eye could reach were waves like a stormy
sea, grey cold-looking waves in the burning heat; but no drop of water; it
appeared as though a sudden curse had turned a raging sea to stone. The
simoom blew over this horrible wilderness and drifted the hot sand into the
crevices of the rocks, and the camels drooped their heads before the suffocat-
ing wind ; but still the caravan noiselessly crept along over the rocky undula-
tionSjUntil the stormy sea was passed; once more we were upon a boundless
plain of sand and pebbles. Here every now and then we discovered withered
melons fCuciaiiis colcoyntldsj ; the leaves had long since disappeared and the
shrivelled stalks were brittle as glass. They proved that even the desert had a
season of life, however short ; but the desert fruits were bitter. So intensely
bitter was the dry white inlu'ior of these melons, that it exactly resembled
quinine in taste ; when rubb«^d between the fingers, it became a fine white
powder. The Arabs use this medicinally ; a small jjiece placed in a cup of
milk, and allowed to stand for a few hours, rendered the draught a strong
aperient. The sun — that relentless persecutor of the desert traveller, sank
behind the western hills, and the long-wished-for night arrived ; cool, delicious
night ! The thermometer 78° Fahr., a difference of 36° between the shade of
day."
After a march of two days, the travellers readied Moorahd, or, " the
bitter well." " This," says Baker, "is a mournful spot, well known to the
tired and thirsty camel, the hope of reaching which has urged him, fainting
(On his weary way, to drink one draught before he dies ; this is the camel's
grave. Situated half way between Korosko and Abou Hammed, the well of
172 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
]\roora]ul is in an extinct crater, surrounded upon all sides but one by pre-
cipitous cliffs about three hundred feet high. The bottom is a dead flat, and
forms a valley of sand, about two liundred and fifty yards wide. In tliis
bosom of a crater, salt and bitter water is found at a depth of only six feet
from the surface. To this our tired camels frantically rushed upon being
unloaded. Tlic valley was a valley of dry bones. Innumerable skeletons
of camels lay in all directions ; tlie ships of the desert thus stranded on their
voyage. Withered heaps of parched skin and bone lay here and there, in tlie
distinct forms in which tlie camels had gasped their last; the dry desert air
had converted the hide into a coffin. There were no flies here, thus there
were no worms to devour the carcases, but the usual sextons were the crows,
although sometimes too few to perform their office. These Avere perched upon
tlie overhanging cliff's ; but no sooner had our overworked camels taken their
long draught and laid down exhausted on the sand, than by common consent
they descended from their high places and walked round and round each
tired beast.
"As many wretched animals simply crawl to this spot and die, the crows,
from long experience and constant practice, can form a pretty correct diag-
nosis ujDon the case of a sick camel ; they had evidently paid a professional
visit to my caravan, and were especially attentive in studying the case of one
particular camel that was in a very weakly condition and had stretched itself
full length upon the sand ; nor would they leave it until it was driven forward."
Throughout the route from Korosko, Baker counted the skeletons of camels at
about eight per mile, witli the exception of the immediate neighbourhood of
Moorahd, where they were double that number. In some places six or eight
were together in a heap ; and 3'et the Bishareen Arabs who were with our
travellers performed the entire journey on foot.
On the 23rd of May, the party reached Abou Hammed. The very sight
of the Nile was delightful, after the dreadful desert through which they had
passed. Having taken a day's rest, they started again. Their route lay
along the margin of the Nile ; marching one day ten hours, another fifteen,
another, through Mrs. Baker's illness, only five. The intensity of the heat
may be judged from two brief extracts: — " May 29^A. The simoom is fearful,
and t'le heat is so intense that it was impossible to draw the gun cases out of
their leather covers, which it was necessary to cut open. All woodwork is
warped ; ivory-knife handles are split ; paper breaks when crunched in the
hand, and the very marrow seems to be dried out of the bones by this hor-
rible simoom. One of our camels fell down to die." — '•'•May 30th. The
extreme dryness of the air induces an extraordinary amount of electricity in
the hair, and in all woollen materials. A Scotch plaid laid upon a blanket
for a few hours adheres to it, and upon being roughly witlulrawii by niglit a
sheet of flame is produced, accompanied by tolerably loud reports."
PLEA SANT ST A Y AT BERBER. 1 7 3
The following day, about 9.30 a.m., tlicy reached Berber, a considerable
town on the Nile, lying on the regular caravan route between Cairo and
Khartoum. Here Baker, finding his need of a knowledge of Arabic, resolved
to devote a year to the study of that language, and to spend the time in the
comparatively known regions to the north of Abyssinia, and exploring the
various confluences of the Blue Nile.
At Berber, they were kindly received by Halleem Eftendi, the ex gover-
nor, who gave them permission to pitch their tents in his gardens close to the
Nile. The spot had been reclaimed from the sandy waste ; and, irrigated by
numerous water-wheels, had been transformed into a fruitful garden, tliickly
planted with lofty date-groves and shady citron and lemon-trees, in whicli
countless birds sang their varied notes. In this charming place, they received
visits from their host and the governor, as well as from other persons of note
and official jjosition, all of whom expressed their astonislimcnt when they
heard the travellers' intention of proceeding to the head of the Nile, and
endeavoured to dissuade them fiom what was imagined to be so dangerous and
absurd an enterprise. Their host sent them daily j^resents of fruit ; and Mrs.
Baker, her husband having been requested previously to withdraw, was visited
one evening by a number of ladies so gaily dressed in silks of the brightest
dj-es of yellow, blue, and scarlet, that no bouquet of flowers could have been
more gaudy. At this pleasant spot they spent about a week ; and then, on
the 11th of June, attended by a guard of Turkish soldiers, who were to act
in the double capacity of escort and servants, they left Berber, and their explor-
ations began.
Their dragoman was called Mahomet — a man who was of a mcst angrv
disposition, and very conceited — who spoke very bad English — and who,
altliough he was almost black, declared his colour was liglit-brown. Their
principal guide was named Achmet. They left Berber at sunset, mounted
upon donkeys ; while their Turkish attendants rode upon excellent drome-
daries. Their way lay parallel with the Nile, and was marked by a fringe
of bush and mimosa along the border of the desert. There was no object
particularly noteworthy, and no sound but that of the bleating goats driven
homeward by the Arab boys, and the sharp cry of the desert saud-grouse as
they came in flocks to drink in the river. On the jom-ney they frequently
passed the Asdepias gigantca. Baker had frequently seen this plant in Ceylon,
Avhere the native doctors use it medicinally ; but here it was ignored, except
for the produce of a beautiful silky down, which is used for stuffing cushions
and pillows. This vegetable silk is contained in a soft pod about the size of
an orange. Both the leaves and the stem of this plant emit a highly poisonous
milk, that exudes from the bark when cut or bjuised, the least drop of which,
should it come in contact with the eye, will cause total blindness. Although
the poisonous qualities of the plant cause it to be shunned by all other animals,
174 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
yet goats groedil}' devour it, and sufler no harm. The Avood is extreme]}' light,
and is frequently tied into faggots, and used by the Arabs as a sujjport while-
swimming in lieu of cork.
In two days they reached the junction of the Atbara river with the Nile.
Here, crossing a broad surface of white sand, which at that season formed the
dry bed of the river, they encamped near a plantation of water-melons, with
which they refreshed themselves and their tired donkeys. The Atbara was-
here never less than four hundred yards in width, while in many places this
breadth was much exceeded. Its banks were from twenty-five to thirty feet
deep; these had evidently been overflowed during floods; but at the present
time not only was it partially dry, but so clear was tlie sandy bed, that
the reflection of the sun was unbearable. The dome-palm grew in great
numbers upon its banks. Tliis tree is of great service to the Arabs. The-
leaves supply them with excellent material for mats and ropes ; while the
fruit, which grows in dense clusters, numbering several hundreds, of the size
of an orange, is used both for man and beast, and is the chief support of both
when in times of drought and scarcity the supply of corn has failed. It is-
hard and uninviting to the teeth ; but the Arabs pound it between stones, and
thus detach the edible portion in the form of a resinous powder, which is either
eaten raw, or boiled into delicious porridge, with milk ; this has a strong
flavour of gingerbread. The rind of the nut which produces this joowder is-
about a quarter of an inch thick, and covers a strong shell, which contains a
nut of vegetable ivory, about the size of a large walnut. These nuts are soaked
in water for about twenty-four hours, after which they are heaped in large
piles upon a fire until nearly dry and thoroughly steamed ; then they are
broken into small jsieces, and form excellent food for cattle.
The travellers pursued their way along the banks of the river for some
days, sto23ping by the side of the pools which still remained. Many of these
pools were of great size and dej^th, and were full of crocodiles, hippopotami,,
turtles, and large fish of various kinds. Gazelles, hyenas, wild asses, and the-
flocks of the Arabs, v\-ere obliged to resort to these crowded drinking-places.
Innumerable birds of every variety were glad to escajoe from the burning
desert and take up their abode in the poor but welcome bushes that fringe
the Atbara river. Baker was able, in consequence of the abundance of game,^
to keep the whole camp well supplied with meat. At Collodabad, a place about
a hundred and sixty miles, or seven days' march from the Nile junction, they
pitched their tents among a large concourse of Bishareen Arabs, who had con-
gregated there with their flocks and herds. Here Baker was introduced for
the first time to the hippopotamus, and had the satisfaction of killing two. The
dead monsters were quickly surrounded by Arabs, who hauled them on shore,
and on receiving permission to take the meat, were soon at work with a hun-
dred knives, fighting to obtain the most delicate morsels. He and his wife
TURTLE FISHING. 175
. breakfasted that morning on hippopotamus flesh, M'liicli was destined to be
their general food during their journey among the Abyssinian tributaries
of the Nile.
Here lie had an interesting adventure with a turtle, which he thus
records : — " In a short time I had cauglit a respectable dish offish, but hither-
to no monster had paid me the slightest attention ; accordingly I changed my
bait, and upon a powerful hook, fitted upon treble-twisted wire, I fastened an
enticing strip of boulti. The bait was about four ounces, and glistened like
silver ; the Avater was tolerably clear, but not too bright, and with such an
attraction, I expected sometliing heavy. My float was a large-sized pike-float
for live bait, and this civilised sign had been only a few minutes in the wild
waters of the Atbara, when, bob ! and away it went ! I had a very large
reel, with nearly three hundred yards of line tliat had been specially made
for monsters ; down Avent the top of my rod as though a grindstone was sus-
pended on it, and, as I recovered its position, away went the line, and the reel
revolved, not with the sudden dash of a spirited fish, but witli the steady
determined pull of a trotting horse. What on eartli have I got hold of? In
a few minutes about a hundred yards of line were out, and as the creature was
steadily, l)ut slowly, travelling down the centre of the channel, I determined
to cry halt, if possible, as my tackle was extremely strong, and my rod was
a single bamboo. Accordingly, I put on a powerful strain, which was I'epliod
to by a sullen tug, a sliake, and again my rod was pulled suddenly down to
tlie water's edge. At length, after the roughest handling, I began to reel in
slack line, as my unknown friend had doubled in upon me, and upon once
more putting severe pressure upon him or her, as it might be, I perceived a
great swirl in the wafer about twenty yards from the rod. The tackle would
bear anything, and I strained so heavily upon my adversary that I soon
reduced our distance ; but the water was exceedingly deep, the bank pre-
cipitous, and he was still invisible.
"At length, after much tugging and counter tugging, he began to show.
Eagerly I gazed into the water to examine my new acquaintance, when I
made out something below, in shape between a coacb- wheel and a sponging
bath ; in a few more moments I brought to the surface an enormous turtle,
well hooked. I felt like the old lady who won an elephant in a lottery ; that
I had him was certain, but what was I to do with my prize ! It was at the
least a hundred pounds' weight, and the bank was steep and covei-ed with
bushes ; thus, it was impossible to land the monster that now tugged and
dived, with the determination of the grindstone, that his first jjull had sug-
gested. Once I attempted the gafi", but the trusty weapon that had landed
many a fish in Scotland, broke in the hard shell of the turtle, and I was help-
less. M)' Arab now came to my assistance, and at once terminated the
struggle. Seizing the line with both hands, utterly regardless of all remon-
17G STANLEY AND AFRICA.
strancc (which, being in English, he did not understand), he quickly hauled
our turtle to the surflice, and held it, struggling and gnashing its jaws, close
to the steep bank. • In a few moments the line slackened, and the turtle
disappeared. The fight was over ! Tlie sharp horny jaws had bitten through
treble-twisted brass wire as clean as though cut by shears. My visions of
turtle-soup had faded."
Disappointed in turtle-fishing, he went out in the evening gazelle-shoot-
ing, and returned with five fine buck-gazelles. " These beautiful creatures,"
he sa3's, " so exactly resemble the colour of the sandy deserts which they
inhabit, that they are most difficult to distinguish, and their extreme shyness
renders stalking upon foot very uncertain. I accordingly employed an Arab
to lead a camel, under cover of which I could generally manage to approach
within a hundred yards. A buck-gnzelle weighs from sixty to seventy
jiounds, and is the jjerfeciion of muscular development. No person who has
seen the gazelles in confinem'^nt in a temperate climate can form an idea of
the beauty of the animal in its native desert. Born in the scorching sun,
nursed on the burning sand of tlie treeless and shadowless wilderness, the
gazelle is among the antelojie tribe, as the Arab horse is among its brethren,
the high-bred and superlative beauty of the race. The skin is as sleek as
satin, of a colour difficult to describe, as it vai'ies between the highest mauve
and yellowish-brown ; the belly is snow-white ; the legs, from the knee down-
wards, are also white, and are as fine as though carved from ivory ; the hoof
is beautifully shajjed, and tapers to a sharp point ; the head of the buck is
ornamented by gracefully-curved annulated horns, perfectly black, and gene-
rally from nine to twelve inches long in the bend ; the eye is the well-known
perfection — the full, large, soft, and jet-black eye of the gazelle.
" Although the desert ajDpears incapable of supporting animal life, there
are in the undulating surface numerous shallow sandy ravines, in which are
tufts of a herbage so coarse, that, as a source of nourishment, it would be
valueless to a domestic animal ; nevertheless, upon this dry and wiry sub-
stance the delicate gazelles subsist ; and, although they never fatten, they
are exceedingly fleshy and in excellent condition. Entirely free from fat,
and nevertheless a mass of muscle and sinew, the gazelle is the fastest of the
antelope tribe. Proud of its strength, and confident in its agility, it will
generally bound perpendicularly four or five feet from the ground several
times before it starts at full speed, as though to test the quality of its sinews
before the race. The Arabs course the"n with grey-hounds, and sometimes
they are caught by running several days at the same time ; but this result
is from the folly of the gazelle, who, at first, distances his pursuers like the
wind ; but, secure in its speed, it halts and faces the dogs, exhausting itself
by bounding exultingly in the air ; in the meantime the grey-hounds are
closing up, and diminishing the chance of escape. As a rule, notwithstanding
THE DESCENT OF THE ATBARA. 177
this absurdity of the gazelle, it has the best of the race, tind the grey-hound.s
return crest-fallen and beaten. Altogether it is the most beautiful specimen
of game that exists, far too lovely and harmless to be hunted and killed for
the mere love of sport. But when dinner depends upon the rifle, beauty is
no protection ; accordingly, throughout our desert mai'ch, we lived upon
gazelles, and I am sorry to confess that I became very expert at stalking these
wary little animals. The flesh, although tolerably good, has a slight flavour
of musk ; this is not peculiar to the gazelle, as the odour is common to most
of the small varieties of antelopes."
On the 23rd of June, they were nearly suffocated by a whirlwind that
buried everything in the tents several inches in dust. The heat was intense ;
the night, however, was cool and pleasant. About half-past eight, as Baker
lay asleep, he fancied that he heard a rumbling like distant thunder. The
low uninterrupted roll increased in volume, till presently a confusion of voices
arose from the Arabs' camp, as his men rushed through the darkness shouting,
" The river ! the river !" Mahomet explained that the river was coming down,
and that the supposed distant sound was the approach of water. Many of
the peojile who had been sleeping on "the clean sand of the river's bed, wore
quickly awakened by the Arabs, who rushed down the steep bank to save the
skulls of two hippopotami Avhich were exposed to dry. The sound of the
torrent, as it rushed by amid the darkness, and the men, dripping with wet,
dragging their heavy burdens up the bank, told that the great event had
occurred — that the river had arrived like a thief in the night. The next morn-
ing, instead of the barren sheet of clear white sand, with a fringe of withered
bush and trees upon its borders, cutting the yellow expanse of desert, a mag-
nificent stream, the noble Atbara river, flowed by, some hundred yards i;i
width, and from fifteen to twenty feet in depth. Not a drop of rain ha I
fallen ; but the current gave the traveller a clue to one portion of the Nile
mystery. The rains were pouring down in Abyssinia — these were sources of
the Nile.
The tracks of wild asses had been frequent, but hitherto Baker had not
seen the animals, as their drinking hour was at night; however, on the morn-
ing of June the 29th, he saw three of these beautiful creatures — an ass, a
female, and a foal. " They were," he says, " about half a mile distant when
first observed, and upon our approach to within half that distance they halted
and faced about ; they were evidently on their return to the desert from the
river. Those who have seen donkeys in their civilised state have no concep-
tion of the beauty of the wild and original animal. Far from the passive and
subdued appearance of the English ass, the animal in its native desert is tlie
perfection of activity and courage : there is a high-bred tone in the deport-
ment, a high-actioned step when it trots freely over the rocks and sand, with
the speed of a horse when it gallops over the boundless desert. No animal
23
178 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
is more difficult of approach ; and, althougli they are frequently captured by
the Arabs, those taken are invariably the foals, which are ridden down by
fast dromedaries, while tlie mothers escape.
" The colour of the wild ass is a reddish cream, tinged with the shade
most prevalent of the ground that it inhabits; thus it much resembles the
sand of the desert. I wished to obtain a specimen, and accordingly I exerted
my uttermost knowledge of stalking to obtain a shot at the male. After at
least an hour and a half I succeeded in obtaining a long shot with a single
rifle, which jjassed through the shoulder, and I secured my first and last
donkey. It was with extreme regret, that I saw my beautiful pi-ize in the last
gasp, and I resolved rever to fire another shot at one of its race. This fine
specimen was in excellent conditii:)n, although the miserable pasturage of the
desert is confined to the wiry herbage of withered bush ; of this the stomach
was full, chewed into morsels like chopped reeds. The height of this male
ass was between thirteen and fourteen hands ; the shoulder was far more
sloping than that of the domestic ass ; the hoofs were remai-kable for their
size — they were wide, firm, and as broad as those of a horse of fifteen hands.
I skinned tliis animal carefull)', and the Arabs divided the flesh among them,
while Hadji Achmet selected a choice piece for our own dinner. At the close
cf our march that evening, the morsel of wild ass was cooked in the form of
rissoles ; the flavour resembled beef, but it was extremely tough."
On the 30th of June, they reached Gozerajup, a large village on the south
bank of the Atbara, and about two hundred and twenty miles from the junc-
tion of that river with the Nile. Here they remained for a few days to rest
the donkeys, and to engage fresh camels. Their route now was to cliange.
Hitherto they had followed the course of the Atbara; now they were to leave
that river on their right, and travel south-east about ninety miles to Cassala,
the capital of the Taka country, on the confines of Abyssinia. Having pro-
cured fresh camels, they started on the 5tli of July. In a short time they
came to where the desert ceased ; and no longer travelled upon sand and
stones, but stood upon a fertile loam, rendered soapy and adhesive by a recent
shower. They passed the limits of the Bishareen Arabs, and entered upon the
country of the Hadendowa tribe. As they approached the wells of Soojalup,
they passed several large villages surrounded by fenced gardens of cotton and
tobacco, both of which throve exceedingly. Every village possessed a series
of wells, with a simple contrivance for watering their cattle.
From Gozerajup to Cassala the entire country is a dead flat, without a
solitary tree large enough to shade a full-sized tent. The land is fertile, and
the Arabs grow cotton sufficient for the manufacture of their cloths. They
weave these themselves, the weaver sitting in a hole excavated in the ground
before his rude loom, shaded by a rough thatch about ten feet square, sujj-
ported upon poles. The quality of cotton is the same as that of Lower Egypt,
CASS A LA. 171)'
find the cloths, tliough conrso, arc remarkably soft. When ilicy came ■wiUiuii
twenty-five miles of Cassala, they found the country in many places flooded ;
find Mrs. Baker was seized Avith a sudden and severe attack of fever. One
evening several hundreds of Arabs arrived at their camp; and "no sooner
was the bustle of arrangement completed, than a grey old man stepped for-
ward, and, responding to his call, every man of the hundreds present, formed
in line, three or four deep. At once there was total silence, disturbed only
by the crackling of the fires, or by the cry of a child ; and with faces turned
to the east, in attitudes of profound devotion, the wild but fervent followers
of Mahomet rejDeated their evening prayer." The next morning, Mrs. Baker
had another attack of fever, and Avas obliged to rest for several hours under a
tree, on a bed of dry sand, until the paroxysm passed.
The next place at which they arrived Avas Cassala, a walled town, sui*-
rounded b}' a ditch and flanking towers, situated on the confines of the Taka
country, and containing about eight thousand inhabitants, exclusive of troops.
The houses and Avails were of unburnt brick, smeared Avith clay and cow dung.
They had ridden about seven hundred and ten miles from Korosko, six hun-
dred and thirty of which had been through scorching deserts during the hot-
test season ; they Avere, therefore, thankful to exchange the intense heat of
the tent for a solid roof, and to rest for a sh.ort time in the picturesque coun-
try of Taka. The bazaar here Avas poor, the articles for sale being of low
price, and adaj^jted to the wants of the Arabs who flock to the place. After
a fcAV days' halt at Cassala, they continued their march, bearing due Avcst
towards the Atbara. The country Avas an improvement on that through
which they had passed ; there were larger trees and vast jjlains of young grass,
while herds of antelopes and gazelles offered abundant sport. No sooner had
Baker shot one of these animals, than he heard a rushing sound like a strong
Avind, and down came a vulture Avitli its Avings collapsed, falling from an
immense height direct to its jirey. Before he was able to fasten the animal'
on the back of his camel, a number of vultures Avere sitting upon the ground
at a few yards distance, while others were arriving every minute; though-
before he fired, not one Avas in sight.
In sixteen hours' actual marching from Cassala, they reached the valley
of the Atbara. At the spot where they encamjoed the river was about three
hundred yards wide, about the thickness of pea-soup, and of a very dark
colour. In the stream, and on the oozy banks, Avere numerous crocodiles ;
they Avere of two kinds, one of a dark-brown colour, and much shorter and
thicker in proportion than the other, Avhich grows to an im.mense length, and
is generally of a pale-greenish colour. The Arabs assert that the dark-coloured
thick-bodied species is more to be dreaded than the other. Crossing the river,
they pitched their tents at the village of Goorashee, and \A'aited for fresh
camels.
ISO STANLEY AND AFRICA.
After leaving Goorashee, they found themselves upon the vast table-land
that stretches from tlie Atbara to the Nile. Here the country was dotted
with bushes, the hooked-thorn mimosas, in the young glory of their green
leaf, tempting the hungry camels. " Unless a riding-camel is perfectly trained,
it is the most tiresome animal to ride after the first green leaves appear;
every busli tcm])ts it from the patli, and it is a perpetual fight between the
rider and his beast throughout the journey." This Mr. Baker learnt by expe-
rience. " A magniticent specimen of a kittar," he says, " with a wide-spread-
ing head, in the young glor}^ of green leaf, tempted my hungry camel during
our march ; it was determined to i^rocure a mouthful, and I was equally
determined that it should keej^ to the straight path, and avoid the attraction
of the green food. After some strong remonstrance upon my part, the per-
yerse beast shook its ugly head, gave a roar, and started off in full trot straight
at the thorny bush. I had not the slightest control over the animal, and in
a few seconds it chai-ged the bush with the mad intention of rushing either
through or beneath it. To my disgust, I perceived that tlie wide-spreading
branches were only just sufliciently high to permit the back of the camel to
pass underneath. There was no time for furtlier consideration ; we charged
the bush ; I held my head doubled up between my arms, and tlie next moment
I was on my back, half stunned by the fall. The camel-saddle lay upon the
ground, my rifle, that had been slung behind, my coffee-pot, the water-skin
burst, and a host of other impedimenta, lay around me in all directions ; worst
of all, my beautiful gold repeater la}' at some distance from me, rendered
entirely useless. I was as nearly naked as I could be ; a few rags held
together, but my shirt was gone, with the exception of some shreds that
adhered to my arms. I was, of course, streaming with blood, and looked
much more as though I had been clawed by a leopard, than as having simply
charged a bush. The camel had fallen down with the shock after I had been
swept off by the thorny branches. To this day I have the marks of the
scratching."
In the course of their journey, they arrived at the camp of the great
Sheikh Achmet Abou Sinn, to whom Baker had a letter of introduction.
Having sent it forward by Mahomet, in a short time the sheikh appeared,
attended by several of his principal people. As he approached through the
green mimosas, mounted on a beautiful snow-white dromedary, his appearance
was remarkably dignified and venerable. He was about six feet three inches
high, with immense broad shoulders and chest ; and, although, upwards of eighty
years of age, was as erect as a lance. He had an arched nose, with eyes like an
eagle, beneath large, shaggy, but perfectly white eyebrows ; while a beard as
white as snow, of great thickness, descended below the middle of the breast.
He wore a large white turban, and a white cashmere robe reaching from the
throat to the ankles. Altogether he was the perfect picture of a desert patrl-
ARAB CUSTOMS. 1 51
p.rch. With tiie most generous hospitality, he insisted on the travellers
t'.ecompanying him to his camp, and would listen to no excuses. Ordering
]\hihomet to have their baggage re-packed, he requested them to mount two
superb white dromedaries, with saddle-cloths of blue Persian sheepskins ; and
thus tbey accompanied their venerable host, followed by his wild and splen-
didly-mounted attendants. Declining Abou Sinn's invitation to spend two
or three months at his camp, until travelling would be feasible farther south,
the rainy season by that time being over, our travellers resolved to journey to
the village of Sofi, about seventy-eight miles distant, where they purposed
for a time to take np their abode.
From Korosko to this jioint Baker had passed through several Arab
tribes — the Bedouins, Bisharecns, Hadendowas, Hallongas, and now he was
among the Shookeriyahs, one of the most powerful, and over which Abou Sinn
ruled. On the west of them were the Jalyns, and to the south, near Sofi, the
Dabainas. The customs of all the Arab tribes are nearly similar, one of their
distinctions being in the mode of dressing the hair. A Bishareen Arab wears
his hair in hundreds of minute plaits, wdiich hang down to his shoulders, sur-
mounted by a circular bushy top-knot upon the crown, about the size of a
large breakfast cup, from the base of which the plaits descend. Tlie great
desire with all the tribes, except tlie Jaiyn, is to have a vast quantity of hair,
arranged in their own peculiar fashion, and covered with fat. A dandy will put
at least half a pound of fat or butter on his head at once. Abou Sinn used
daily, outside and in, two pounds of melted butter. Sheep's fat is what is most
esteemed for hair-dressing.
The women bestow great attention on perfumery, various kinds of which
are brought by the travelling native merchants from Cairo. Oil of roses, oil
of sandal-wood, an essence from the blossom of a species of mimosa, essence
of nmsk, and oil of cloves, are most in demand. They use a hot air-bath for
the purpose of scenting both their persons and their clothes ; and suspend from
their necks a few pieces of the dried glands of the musk cat. In the Somali
tribe, and that of the Nuehr, they use a pigment for turning the colour of the
hair red. When an Arab lady's toilette is complete, her head is a little larger
than the largest-sized English mop, and her perfume is something between
the aroma of a perfumer's shop and the monkey-house at the Zoological
Gardens,
Although the tope or robe, loosely but gracefully arranged around the
body, appears to be the whole of the costume, the women wear beneath this
garment a thin blue cotton cloth, tightly bound round the loins, which de-
scends to a little above the knee ; beneath this is the last garment, the rahat,
which is the only clothing of young girls. The Arab girls are remarkably
good-looking till they become mothers. They genei'ally mai'ry at the ao-e of
thirteen or fourteen, but often earlier. Concubinage is not considered a brcacli
182 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
of morality ; neitlier is it regarded by the legitimate wives with jealous}-.
The Arabs are essentially a nomadic race, therefore tlieir customs are what
they were thousands of years ago. In the absence of a fixed home, without
a city, or even a village that is permanent, there can be no change of custom.
The unchangeable features of the Nile regions, and the unchangeable manners
and customs of the people who inhabit tlicm, invest that part of the world
with a strange fascination.
On the 25th of July, Mr. and Mrs. Baker left the camj) of Abou Sinn,
and in a few rapid marches arrived at Tomat, the commencement of the
Dabainas. Atalan Wat Said, the sheikh of that tribe, gave them a most cor-
dial reception; and, upon learning their plans, begged them to remain through
the rainy season at Tomat. When he found they were resolved to proceed
on their way the next morning, he promised them every assistance, and
offered to act as their guide. Here the grand river Settite, which is the
principal stream of Abyssinia, forms a junction with the Atbara. They had
now come to the western frontier of Abyssinia, but since the annexation of
the Nubian provinces to Egypt, there has been no safety for life or property
«lDon the frontier ; thus a large tract of country, actually forming a portioa of
Abyssinia, is uninliabited.
CHAPTER IX.
Hcsidcnce in Sofi — Aggagccrs, or Ilamran Sword Hunters — Leave Sofi — End oj the
Fiamij Season — Katariff- — Hunting Large Game.
ON the 29tli of Jul_y, the travellers reached Sofi— a small village of about
thirty straw huts, situated near the banks of the Atbara, on a jjlatcau of
about twenty acres, bordered on either side by two deep ravines, Avhile below
the steep cliff in front of the place flows the river. They were met by tlie
sheikh of the village, and by a German who had been a resident there for
some years. The name of this man was Florian; he was a stone-mason by
trade, and had come out attached to the Austrian Mission at Khartoum, but,
preferring a freer life, had become a great hunter. He had built himself a
small circular stone-house, with a roof thatched according to Arab fashion ;
it was the only stone building in the country. This man was delighted to
see Europeans, especially as they were conversant with his language. Subse-
quently, Baker engaged him as a hunter, and took his black servant, Richarn,
iiito his employ; he also engaged a former companion of Florian, one Jolumii
ischmidt, to act as his lieutenant in his proposed White Nile expedition.
Unfortunately Florian was soon after killed by a lion. The animal had been
wounded by a Tokroori hunter, one of his servants, and was under a bush
licking the wound. Florian fired at him, and missed ; the lion immediately
crouched for a spring, Florian fired his remaining barrel ; the ball merely grazed
the lion, who almost in the same instant bounded forward, and struck him upon
the head with a fearful blow of the paw, at the same time it seized him by
the throat. The Tokroori hunter, instead of flying from the danger, placed the
muzzle of his rifle to the lion's ear, and blew its brains out on the body of
bis master. The German had been struck dead, and great difficulty Avas
found in extracting the claws of the lion, which had penetrated the skull.
Baker had two or three huts built on a pleasant spot just outside Sofi,
and passed a season of enjoyment there for some time. He found an abundance
of sport, sometimes catching enormous fish ; at other times shooting birds to
supply his larder; but more frequently hunting elejshants, rhinoceros, giraffes,
and other large game. Before his arrival at Sofi he had heard of the Hamrans,
who are described as the most extraordinary hunters in the world. They
181 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
hunt and kill all wild animals, from the antclopo to the elephant, with no
other weapon than the sword. Four of these aggageers, as they are also called,
are more than a match for the most savage elephant. He had intended taking
some of these men with him during his exploration of the Abyssinian rivers,
and his intentions having become known, a party w^aited on him to engage
their services.
The Hamrans are distinguished from the other Arab tribes by an extra
length of hair, worn parted down the centre, and arranged in long curls ; in
other respects there is no perceptible difference in their appearance. They are
armed, as are all others, with swords and shields ; the latter being circular,
and generally formed by rhinoceros iiide. Tlie style of the shield, and the
material of wliich it is made, differs among the several Arab tribes, but
the form of the sword is invariably the same. The blade is long and straight,
two-edged, with a simple cross handle, having no other guard for the hand
than the plain bar, which, at right angles with the hilt, forms the cross. All
these blades ai-e made at Sollingen, and are exported to Egypt for the trade
of the interior. The only respect in which the swords of the aggageers differ
from those in general use, is that they are bound with cord very closely from
the guard, for about nine inches along the blade, to enable them to bo
grasped by the light hand, while the hilt is held by the left ; the weapon is
thus converted into a two-handed sword.
"In a long conversation with these men," says Baker, "I found a
corroboration of all that I had previously heard of their exploits, and they
described the various methods of killing the elephant with the sword. Those
hunters who could not afford to purchase horses hunted on foot, in parties not
exceeding two persons. Their method was to follow the tracks of an elephant,
so as to arrive at their game between the hours of 10 a.m. and noon, at which
time the animal is either asleep or extremely listless, and easy to approach.
Should they discover the animal asleep, one of the hunters would creep steal-
thily towards the head, and with one blow sever the trunk while stretched
upon the ground ; in which case, the elephant would start upon his feet,
while the huntei's escaped in the confusion of the moment. The trunk severed
would cause a hajmorrhage sufficient to ensure the death of the elephant with-
in about an hour. On the other hand, should the animal be awake upon their
arrival, it would be impossible to approach the trunk ; in such a case, they
would creep up from behind, and give a tremendous cut at the back sinew
of the hind leg, about a foot above the heel. Such a blow would disable the
elephant at once, and would render comparatively easy a second cut to the
remaining leg; the arteries being divided, the animal would quickly bleed to
death. These were the methods adopted by poor hunters, until, by the sale of
ivoiy, they could jiurchase horses for the higher branch of the art.
" Provided with horses, the party of hunters should not exceed four.
ELEPHANT HUNTING. 185
They start before daybreak, and ride slowly throughout the country in search
of elephants, generally keeping along the course of a river until they come
upon the tracks where a herd or single elephant may have drunk during the
night. "When once upon the tracks, they follow fast towards the retreating
game. The elei^hants may be twenty miles distant, but it matters little to
the aggageers. At length they discover them, and the hunt begins. The
first step is to single out the bull with the largest tusks ; this is the commence-
ment of the fight. After a short hunt, the elephant turns upon his pursuers,
who scatter and fly from his headlong charge until he gives up the pursuit ;
he at length turns to bay when again pressed by the hunters. It is the duty
of one man in particular to ride up close to the head of the elephant, and thus
to absorb its attention upon himself. This ensures a desperate charge. The
greatest coolness and dexterity are tlien required by the hunter, who now.
the hunted, must so adapt the speed of his horse to the pace of the elephant,
that the enraged beast gains in tlie race until it almost reaches the tail of the
horse. In this manner the race continues.
"In the meantime, two hunters gallop up behind the elephant, unseen
by the animal, whose attention is completely directed to the horse almost
within his grasp. With extreme agilit}-, when close to the heels of the ele-
phant, one of the hunters, while at full speed, springs to the ground with his
drawn sword, as his companion seizes the bridle, and with one dexterous two-
handed blow he severs the back sinew. He immediately jumps out of the
way and remounts his horse ; but if the blow is successful, the elephant be-
comes disabled by the first pressure of its foot upon the ground ; the enormous
weight of the animal dislocates the joint, and it is rendered helpless. The
hunter who has hitherto led the elephant immediately turns, and, riding to
within a few feet of the trunk, he induces the animal to attempt another charge.
This, clumsily made, affords an easy opportunity for the aggageers behind to
slash the sinew of the remaining leg, and the immense brute is reduced to a
stand-still ; it dies of loss of blood in a short time — thus positively/ killed hij one
man tvith two strokes of the sword .'"
Baker accompanied these hunters on numerous expeditions, and witnessed
with admiration their wonderful courage and dexterity. He grew thoroughly
tired, however, of Sofi ; and, after spending three months there, determined
to cross with his party to the other side of the Atbara, and camp there. On
the 15th of September, they crossed the river, Mrs. Baker performing the
voyage on a raft formed of her husband's large circular sponging bath, sup-
ported by eight inflated skins secured to the bedstead, the whole towed over
by hunters swimming in front. Shortly after they had completed their camp
a heavy shower of rain fell ; and this proved to be the last of the season.
From that moment the burning sun rapidly dried up, not only the soil, but
all vegetation. The grass soon began to turn yellow, and by the end of
21
ISO STANLEY AND AFRICA.
October tliore was not a green spot to bo seen. The climate now was exceed-
ingly unhealthy ; the canijj, however, had no invalids save Mahomet, who
had on one occasion so gorged himself with half-putrid fish, tliat he nearly
died.
Their life in camp was charmingly independent. They were upon
Abyssinian territory, but it was uninhabited, and no one interfered with
them. Much of the time was spent in fishing, some of the fish weighing
upwards of seventy pounds, and of fine flavour. Troops of baboons were
numerous, being forced to the river in dry weather for water. These afforded
much amusement. "It is very anmsing to watch the great male baboons
stalking majestically along, followed by a large herd of all ages, the mothers
carrying their little ones upon their backs, the latter with a regular jockey
scat riding most comfortably, while at other times they relieve the monotony
of the position by sprawling at full length, and holding on by their mothers'
back hair. Suddenly a sharp-eyed 3'oung ape discovers a bush well covered
with berries, and his greedy munching being quickly observed, a general
rush of youngsters takes place,' and much squabbling for the best places
ensues among the boys. This ends in great uproar, when down comes a
great male, who cuffs one, pulls another by the hair, bites another on the
liind quarters just as he thinks he has escaped, drags back a would-be deserter
by the tail, and shakes him thoroughly, and thus he shortly restores order,
preventing all further disputes by sitting under the bush, and quietly enjoy-
ing the berries himself.
On the 22nd of November, they prepared for their departure. It was
necessary to go from "Wat el Negur, their present halting-place, to Katarifi",
to engage men. Upon their arrival there, they were hospitably received by
a Greek merchant. The town was a miserable place, composed simply of
the usual straw huts of the Arabs. In the bazaar here are Manchester goods,
all kinds of perfmnery, glass beads, cowrie shells, various hardware articles
of German manufacture, looking-glasses, slippers and sandals, camel ropes
and bells, butter, groceries of all kinds, and saddlery. Camels, cattle, and
donkeys, are also exposed for sale. Obtaining the necessary number of men,
they left Katarlff" and returned to Wat el Xegur. On the 17th of December
they left Wat el Negur for Geera on the Settlte, where they bivouacked on
the sandy bed of the river. Exactl}' opposite were extensive encampments of
the Hamrans, who were congregated in thousands between this point and the
Atbara junction.
The first day of the New year (1862) was set apart to the sports of the field.
With four gun-bearers, and two camels, both of which carried water, a power-
ful body of hunters started in search of elephants. The immediate neigh-
bourhood was a perfect exhibition of gum arable-bearing mimosas. The gum
was in perfection, and the finest quality abounded in beautiful amber-coloured
CROCODILE HUNTING. 187
masses upon the stems and branches, vaiying from the size of a nutmeg to
that of an orange. They gatlicred a Uirge quantity, but threw it away again,
to follow, in a most exciting but unsuccessful chase, two rhinoceros. Moving
on, they encamped at a spot, known to the Arabs as Delladilla, and beyond
which no European had ever been. Through this romantic wilderness, the
Scttite flowed on a clear and beautiful stream, sometimes contracted between
cliffs to a width of a hundred yards, at others stretching to three times that
distance. The hippopotami were in great numbers ; many were lying beneath
the shady trees upon the banks, and splashed into the water on the approach
of the travellers ; others were basking in large herds upon the shallows ; while
the j'oung calves, supported upon the backs of their mothers, sailed about upon
their animated rafts in perfect security. The plentlfulness of this large game
furnished opportunity for the most adventurous sport, as the following descrip-
tion i^roves : —
" A little before sunrise I accomjoanied the howartis, or hippopotamus
hunters, for a day's sport. There were numbers of hippos in this part of the
river, and we were not long before wo found a herd. The hunters failed in
several attempts to harpoon them, but they succeeded in stalking a crocodile
after a most peculiar fashion. This large beast was lying upon a sandbank
on the opposite margin of the river, close to a bed of rushes.
" The howartis, having studied the wind, ascended for about a quarter
of a mile, and then swam across the river, harpoon in hand. The two men
reached the opposite bank, beneath which they alternately waded or swam
down the stream towards the spot upon which the crocodile was lying. Thus
advancing under cover of the steep bank, or floating with the stream in deep
places, and crawling like crocodiles across the shallows, the two hunters at length
arrived at the bank of rushes on the other side of which the monster was bask-
ing asleep upon the sand. They were now about waist-deep, and they kept
close to the rushes, with their harpoons raised, ready to cast, the moment they
should pass the rush-bed and come in view of the crocodile. Thus steadily
advancing, they had just arrived at the corner within about eight yards of the
crocodile, when the creature either saw them, or obtained their wind ; in an
instant it rushed to the water ; at the same moment, the two harpoons were
launched with great rapidity by the hunters. One glanced obliquely from
the scales ; the other stuck fairly in the tough hide, and the iron, detached
from the bamboo, held fiist, while the ambatch float, running on the surface
of the water, marked the course of the reptile beneath.
" The hunters chose a convenient place and recrossed the stream to our
side, apparently not heeding the crocodile more than we should fear a pike
when bathing in England. They would not waste their time by securing
the crocodile at present, as they wished to kill a hipjDopotamus ; the float
would mark the position, and they would be certain to find it later. "We
18S STANLEY AND AFRICA.
accordingly continued our search for hippopotami. Tliese animals appeared
to be on the qui vive, and, as the hunters once more failed in an attempt, I
made a clean shot behind the ear of one and killed her dead. At length we
arrived at a large pool in which were several sandbanks covered ■with rushes,
and many rocky islands. Among these rocks was a herd of hippopotami, con-
sisting of an old bull and several cows ; a young hippo was standing, like an
ugly little statue, on a protruding rock, while another infant stood upon its
mother's back that listlessly floated on the water.
"This was an admirable place for the hunters. The)' desired me to lie
down, and then crept into the jungle out of view of the river ; I presently
observed them stealthily descending the dry bed about two hundred j^aces
above the spot where the hippos were basking behind the rocks. They
entered the river, and swam down the centre of the stream towards the rock.
This was highly exciting — the hippos were quite unconscious of the approach-
ing danger, as, steadily and rapidly, the hunters floated down the strong cur-
rent ; they neared the rock, and both heads disappeared as they purjjosely
sank out of view ; in a few seconds later they re-appeared at the edge of the
rock upon which the young hippo stood. It would be difficult to say which
started first, tlie astonished young hippo into the water, or the harpoons from
tlie hands of the howartis ! It was the affair of a moment ; the hunters dived
directly they had hurled the harpoons, and, swimming for some distance under
Avater, they came to the surface, and hastened to the shore lest an infuriated
hippopotamus should follow them. One harpoon had missed ; the other had
fixed the bull of the herd, at which it had been surely aimed. This was
grand sport ! Tlie bull was in the greatest fury, and rose to the surface,
snorting and blowing in his impotent rage ; but as the ambatch float was
exceedingly large, and this naturally accompanied his movements, he tried
to escape from his imaginary j^ersecutor, and dived constantly, only to find
his pertinacious attendant close to him on regaining the surface. This was
not to last lo7ig ; the howartis were in earnest, and they at once called their
party, who, with two of the aggageers, Abou Do and Suleiman, were near
at hand ; these men arrived with long ropes that form a portion of the outfit
for hippo hunting.
" The whole party halted on the edge of the river, while two men swam
across with one end of the rope. Upon gaining the opposite bank, I observed
that a second rope was made fast to the middle of the main line ; thus upon
our side we held the ends of two ropes, while on the opposite side they had
only one; accordingly, the point of junction of the two ropes in the centre
formed an acute angle. The object of this was soon practically explained.
Two men upon our side now each held a rope, and one of these walked about
ten yards before the otlier. Upon both sides of the river the people now
advanced, dragging the rope on the surface of the water until they reached
EIPPOPOTA M US HUNTING. 1 89
the ambatch float that was swimming to and fro, according to the movements
of tlio hippopotamus below. By a dexterous jerk of the main line, the float
was now placed between the two ropes, and it was immediately secured in
the acute angle by bringing together the ends of these ropes on our side.
" The men on the opposite bank now dropped their line, and our men
hauled in upon the ambatch float that was held fast between the ropes. Thus
cleverly made sure, we quickly brought a strain upon the hippo, and, althougli
I have had some experience in handling big fish, I never knew one pull so
lustily as the amphibious animal that we now alternately coaxed and bullied.
He sprang out of the water, and gnashed his huge jaws, snorted with tremen-
dous rage, and lashed tlic river into foam; he then dived and foolishly
approached us beneath the water. We quickly gathered in the slack line, and
took a round turn upon a large rock, within a few feet of the river. The
hippo now rose to the surface, about ten yards from the hunters, and, jumping
half out of the water, he snapped his great jaws together, endeavouring to
catch the rope, but at the same instant two harpoons were launched into his
side. Disdaining retreat, and maddened with rage, the furious animal charged
from the depths of the river, and, gaining a footing, he reared his bulky form
from the surface, came boldly upon the sandbank, and attaclced tlie hunters
open-mouthed. He little knew his enemy ; they were not the men to fear a pair
of gajoing jaws, armed witli a deadly array of tusks ; but half a dozen lances
were hurled at him, some entering his mouth from a distance of five or six
paces, at the same time several men threw handfuls of sand into his enormous
eyes. This baffled him more than the lances ; he crunched them between his
powerful jaws like straws, but he was beaten by the sand, and, shaking his
Imge head, he retreated to the river. During his sally upon the shore, two
of the hunters had secured the ropes of the harpoons that had been fastened
in his body just before his charge ; he was now fixed with three of these
deadly instruments, but suddenly one rope gave way, having been bitten
through by the enraged beast, who was still beneath the water.
" Immediately after this he appeared on the surface, and, without a
moment's hesitation, he once more charged furiously from tlie water straight
at the hunters, with his huge mouth open to such an extent that he could have
accommodated two inside passengers. Suleiman was wild with delight, and
springing forward lance in hand, he drove it against the head of the formid-
able animal, but without effect. At the same time Abou Do met the hippo
sword in hand, reminding me of Perseus slaying the sea-monster that would
devour Andromeda, but the sword made a harmless gash, and the lance, already
blunted against the rock, refused to j^enetrate the rough hide ; once more
handfuls of sand were pelted upon his face, and again repulsed by this blind-
ing attack, he was forced to retire to his deep hole and wash it from his eyes.
Six times during the fight the valiant bull hippo quitted his watery fortress
100 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
and charged resolutely at his jDursucrs ; lie had broken several of their lances
in his jaws, other lances had been hurled, and, falling upon the rock, they
were blunted, and would not penetrate. The fight had continued for three
hours, and the sun was about to set, accordingly the hunters begged rae to
give him the coup de grace, as they had hauled him close to the shore, and
they fearcJ he would sever the rope with his teeth. I waited for a good
opportunity, when he boldly raised his head from the water about three
yards from the rifle, and a bullet from the little Fletcher between the eyes
closed the last act. This spot was not far from the pyramidical hill beneath
which I had fixed our camp, to which I returned after an amusing day's
sport." The following day the howartis secured the crocodile.
Out of the many descriptions of exciting sport, wc select one or two
more : — " The whole day passed fruitlessly ; I had crept t!i rough the thickest
thorns in vain. Having abundance of meat, I had refused the most tempting
shots at buffaloes and large antelopes, as I had devoted myself exclusively tO'
lions. I was much disappointed, as the evening had arrived without a shot
having been fired ; and as the sun had nearly set, I wandered slowly towards
home. Passing through alternate open glades of a few yards width, hemmed
in on all sides by thick jungle, I was carelessly carrying my rifle upon my
shoulder, as I pushed my way through the opposing thorns, when a sudden
roar, just before me, at once brought the rifle upon full cock, and I saw a
magnificent lion standing in the middle of the glade, about ten yards fi'om
me ; he had been lying on the ground, and had started to his feet upon hear-
ing me approach through the jungle. For an instant he stood in an attitude
of attention, as we were hardly visible ; but at the same moment I took a
quick but sure shut with the little Fletcher. lie gave a convulsive bound,
but rolled over backwards ; before he could recover himself, I fired the left-
hand barrel. It was a glorious sight. I had advanced a few steps into the
glade, and Hassan had quickly handed rae a spare rifle, while Taher Noor
stood by me sword in hand.
" The lion in the greatest fury, with his shaggy mane bristled in the air,,
roared with death-like growls, as open-mouthed he endeavoured to charge
upon us ; but he dragged his hind-quarters on the ground, and I saw imme-
diately that the little Fletcher had broken his spine. In his tremendous
exertions to attack, he rolled over and over, gnashing his horrible jaws, and
tearing holes in the sandy ground at each blow of his tremendous paws that
would have crushed a man's skull like an egg-shell. Seeing that he was hors-
de-comhat, I took it coolly, as it was already dusk; and the lion having rolled
into a dark and thick bush, I thought it would be advisable to defer the final
attack, as he would be dead before morning.
" On the following morning, before sunrise, I started with nearly all my
II UN TING THE LION. 1 9 1
people and a powerful camel, •with the intention of bringing the lion homo
entire. I rode my horse Tetcl, Avho had frequently shown great courage,
and I wished to prove whether he would advance to the body of a lion. Upon
arrival near the spot which we supposed to have been the scene of the encoun-
ter, we were rather puzzled, as there was nothing to distinguish the locality ;
one place exactly resembled another, as the country was flat and sandy,
interspersed with thick jungle of green nabbuk ; we accordingly spread out
to beat for the lion. Presently Hadji Ali cried out — ' There he lies, dead I
and I immediately rode up to the spot, together with the people. A tremen-
dous roar gi-eeted us, as the lion started to his fore-feet, and with his beauti-
ful mane erect, and his great hazel eyes flashing fire, he gave a succession of
deep short roars, and challenged us to figlit. This was a grand picture ; he
looked like a true lord of tlie forest ; but I pitied the poor brute, as he was
helpless, and although the spirit was game to the last, his strength was para-
lysed by a broken back.
" It was a glorious opportunity for the horse. At the first unexpected
roar, the camel had bolted with its rider; the horse had for a moment started
on one side, and the men had scattered ; but in an instant I had reined Tetel
up, and I now rode straight towards the lion, which courted the encounter
about twenty paces distant. I halted exactly opposite the noble-looking
boast, who, seeing me in advance of the party, increased his rage, and growled
deeply, fixing his glance upon tlie horse. I now petted Tetel on the neck,
and spoke to him coaxingly ; he gazed intently at the lion, erected his mane
and snorted, but showed no signs of retreat. ' Bravo ! old boy !' I said, and
encouraging him by caressing his neck with my hand, I touched his flank
gently with my heel ; I let him just feel my hand upon the rein, and with a
* Come along, old lad,' Tetel slowly, but resolutely advanced step by step
towards the infuriated lion, that gi'eeted him with continued growls. The
horse several times snorted loudly and stared fixedly at the terrible face before
him ; but as I constantly patted and coaxed him, he did not refuse to advance.
I checked him when about six yards from the lion.
" This would have been a magnificent picture, as the horse, with an
astonishing courage,, faced the lion at bay ; both animals kept their eyes fixed
upon each other, the one beaming with rage, the other with cool determina-
tion. This was enough. I di'opped the reins upon his neck; it was a signal
that Tetel perfectly understood, and he stood firm as a rock, for he knew that
I was about to fire. I took aim at the head of the glorious but distressed lion,
and a bullet from the little Fletcher dropped him dead. Tetel never flinched
at a shot. I now dismounted, and having petted and coaxed the horse, I
led him up to the body of the lion, which I also patted, and then gave my
hand to the horse to smell. He snorted once or twice, and as I released my
hold of the reins, and left him entirely free, he slowly lowered his head, and
192 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
sniffed the mane of the dead lion : he then turned a few paces upon one side,
and commenced eating the withered grass beneath the nabbuk buslies. My
Arabs were ^^erfcctly delighted with this extraordinary instance of courage
exhibited by the horse. I had known that the beast was disabled, but Tetel
had advanced boldly towards the angry jaws of a lion that appeared about to
spring. The camel was now brought to the spot and blindfolded, while we
endeavoured to get the lion upon its back. As the camel knelt, it required
the united exertions of eight men, including myself, to raise the ponderous
animal, and to secure it across the saddle.
"Although so aclive and cat-like in its movements, a full-grown lion
weighs about five hundred and fifty pounds. Having secured it we shortly
arrived in camp ; the coiq} d'' ceil was beautiful, as the camel entered the
enclosure with the shaggy head and massive paws of the dead lion hanging
upon one flank, while tlic tail nearly descended to the ground upon the oppo-
site side. It was laid at full length before my wife, to whom the claws were
dedicated as a trophy to be worn round the neck as a talisman. Not only
are the claws prized by the Arabs, but the moustache of tlie lion is carefully
preserved and sewn in a leather envelope, to be worn as an amulet : such a
charm is supposed to protect the wearer from the attacks of wild animals."
On another occasion, a large bull elephant was discovered drinking. The
country around was partly woody, and the ground strewed with fragments
of rocks, ill adapted for riding. The elephant had made a desperate charge,
scattering the hunters in all directions, and very nearly overtaking Mr. Baker.
The animal then retreated into a stronghold composed of rocks and uneven
ground, with a few small leafless trees growing in it. " Here the elephant
stood facing the party like a statue, not moving a muscle beyond the quick
and restless action of the eyes, which were watching on all sides. Two of
the aggageers getting into its rear by a wide circuit, two others, one of whom
was the renowned Rodur Sherrif, mounted on a thoroughly-trained bay marc,
rode slowly towards the animal. Coolly the mare advanced towards her wary
antagonist until about- nine yards of its head. The elephant never moved.
Not a word was spoken. The perfect stillness was at length broken by a snort
from the mare, who gazed intently at the elephant, as though watching for
the moment of attack, Rodur coolly sat with his eyes fixed upon those of the
ele2:)hant.
" With a shrill scream the enormous creature then suddenly dashed on
him like an avalanche. Round went the mare as though upon a pivot, away
over rocks and stones, flying like a gazelle, with the monkey-like form of
Rodur Sherrif leaning forward and looking over his left shoulder as the ele-
phant rushed after him. For a moment it appeared as if the mare must be
caught. Had she stumbled all would have been lost, but she gained in the
race after a few quick bounding strides, and Rodur, still looking behind him,
A GGA GEEKS HUNTING THE ELEPHA NT. I n
kept his distance, so close, however, to the creature, that its outstretched
trunk was within a few feet of the mare's tail.
"The two aggageers who had kept in the rear, now dashed forward
close to the hind quarters of the furious elephant, Avho, maddened with tlie
excitement, heeded nothing but llodur and his mare. When close to the tail
of the elephant, the sword of one of the aggagcers flashed from its sheath
as, grasping his trusty blade, he leaped nimbly to the ground, while his
companion caught the reins of his horse. Two or tliree bounds on foot, with
the sword clutched in both hands, and he was close behind the elephant. A
bright glance shone like lightning as the sun struck on the descending steel.
This was followed by a dull crack, the sword cutting through skin and sinew,
and sinking deep into the bone, about twelve inches above the foot. At the
next stride, the elephant halted dead sliort in the midst of his tremendous
charge. The aggagecr who had struck the blow, vaulted into the saddle
Avith his naked sword in hand. At the same moment Rodur turned shar])
rcand, and, again facing the elephant, stooped quickly from the saddle, to
pick up from the ground a handful of dirt, which he threw into the face of
tlie vicious animal, that once more attempted to rush upon him. It was
impossible ; the foot was dislocated, and turned up in front like an old shoe.
In an instant the other aggageer leaped to the ground, and again the sharj)
sword slashed the remaining leg. The great bull-elephant could not move !
The first cut with the sword had utterly disabled it ; the second was its death-
blow ; the arteries of the leg were divided, and the blood spouted in jets
from tlic wounds. We were obliged to return immediately to our distant
camp, and the Imnters resolved to accompany their camels to the S2:)ot upon
the following day. We turned our horses' heads, and rode direct towards
home, which we did not reach until nearly midnight, having ridden upwards
of sixty miles during the day."
The hunting of these men Avas beautiful ; and it was difficult to decide
wliich most to admire, the coolness and courage of him who led the elephant,
or the extraoi'dinary skill and activity of the aggahr who dealt the fatal blow.
The following day, the hunters started with camels and sacks to where they
left the dead elephantj but returned at night thoroughly disgusted. Some of
the natives had been before them, probably attracted to the carcase by the
cloud of vultures that had gathered in the air. Nothing remained but the
bones and skull, the flesh and the ivory had been stolen. The tracks of a
great number of men were left ujDon the ground, and the aggageers were for-
tunate to return without an attack from overwhelming numbers.
These hunting excursions sometimes exposed them to danger from other
animals than those of which they were in pursuit. Baker tells us how on one
occasion he determined to watch for elej^hants, as their tracks were numerous
throughout the bed of the river. His wife and two gun-bearers accompanied
19 t STANLEY AND AFRICA.
him, and they sat heliiiid an immense tree that grew on tlio bank, exactly
above the drinking-place. He watched for hours, until lie and his men fell
asleep. Ilis wife alone was awake, and a sudden tug at his sleeve attracted
his attention. The moon was bright, and she had heard a noise among the
branches of the tree above them ; there were no leaves, so that he quickly
observed some large animal upon a thick bough. Tlie men awoke and
declared it was a baboon ; but he knew this to be impossible, as the baboon
is never solitary. He was just preparing to fire, when down jumped a large
leopard within a few feet of them, and vanished before he had time to shoot.
It must have caught scent of the party, and quietly ascended the tree to recon-
noitre. Another night he received an audacious visit. He was asleep in his
tent, when he was suddenly awakened by a slight pull at his sleeve, which
was always the signal of his wife if anything was wrong. She whispered
that a hyena had been within the tent, but that it had just bolted out, as
these animals are so wary that they detect the slightest movement or noise.
As a rule, he never shot at hyenas, but, as he feared it might eat their saddles,
he just lay in bed with his rifle to his shoulder, pointed towards the tent-door,
through which the moon was shining briglitl}'. In a few minutes a grey-
looking object stood like an apparition at the entrance, peering into the tent
to see if all was right before it entered. He touched the trigger, and the
hyena fell dead, with the bullet through its head. It was a regular veteran,
as the body was covered with old scars frora continual conflicts with other
hyenas.
CHAPTER X.
The River Royan — Countij of 3Iek Niinmur — Vultures — Gallahat — Tlie Tol:rooris
— Rtvcrs Rahad and Binder — Arrival at Khartoum.
HAVIISTG- explored the Settitc into tlio gorge of the mountain chain of
Abyssinia, Baker turned south, and, at a distance of twelve miles,^
reached the River Royan. During the rainy season, this river is a terrific
torrent, and supplies a large body of water to the Settite ; but it runs dry
almost immediately upon the cessation of the rains. Descending the bank,
the travellers arrived at the margin of the river, ar.d continued their course
up the stream along the sandy bed, which formed an excellent road. They
camped in a forest of the largest trees tliey had as yet seen in Africa, and
joined themselves to a party of hunters Avho were scouring the country for
game. After hunting and exploring for some days in company witli this
party, Baker determined to follow the bed of the Royan to its junction witli
the Settite. He started at daybreak, and, after a long march, arrived at the
spot. The entire course of the Royan was extremely rapid, but, at this ex-
tremity, it entered a rocky pass between two hills, and leapt, in a succession
of grand falls, into a circular basin of about four hundred yards diameter.
This peculiar basin was surrounded by high cliffs, covered with ti'ees ; to the
left was an island, formed by a rock about sixty feet high ; and at the foot
was a deep and narrow gorge, tlirough which the Settite River made its exit
from the circle. From this point he traversed the country in all directions,
penetrating, upon one occasion, into the very heart of the Base, half-way
between the Settite and the River Gash. He visited the country of Mek
Ninm:iur, a powerful chief, whose stronghold was upon a lofty table mountain,
about five thousand feet high. Continuing his journey in a south-westerly
direction, he passed through a country ornamented by extensive cultivation,
and numerous villages, till he came to the junction of the two great rivers,
Angrab and Salaam. In this beautiful country he remained from the 29th
of March to the 14th April, during which time he was always in the saddle,
or on foot.
While hunting he had frequent opportunities of watching the habits of
the vulture and other birds of j^rey. " Throughout all the countries," he
190 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
remarks, " that I had traversed, these birds were in enormous numbers. A
question has been frequently discussed whether the vulture is directed to his
prey by the sense of smell, or by keenness of vision ; I have jDaid much
attention to their habits, and, although, there can be no question that their
power of scent is great, I feel convinced that all birds of prey are attracted
to their food principally by their acuteness of sight. If a vulture were blind,
it would starve ; but w^ere the nostrils plugged up with some foreign substance,
to destroy its power of smell, it would not materially interfere with its usual
mode of hunting. If birds of prey trusted to their nostrils, they would keep
as near the ground as possible, like the carrion crow, which I believe is the
exception which proves the rule. It is an astounding sight to witness the
.sudden arrival of vultures at the death of an animal when a few moments
before not a bird has been in sight in the cloudless sky.
" I have frequently lain down beneath a bush, after having shot an
animal, to watch the arrival of various species of birds in regular succession.
They invaiiably appear in the following order : — No. 1, the black and white
crow ; this knowing individual is most industrious in seeking for his food,
and is gcnerallj^ to be seen cither perched upon rocks, or upon trees; I
believe he trusts much to his sense of smell, as he is never far from the
ground, at the same time he keeps a vigilant look-out wdth a very sharp pair
of eyes. No. 2, is the common buzzard ; this bird, so well known for its
extreme daring, is omnijiresent, and trusts generally to sight, as it will stoop
at a piece of red cloth in mistake for flesh ; thus pi'oving that it depends
more upon vision than smell. No. 3, is the red-faced small vulture. No. 4,
is the large bare-throated vulture. No. 5, the marabou stork, sometimes
accompanied by the adjutant."
" When employed in watching the habits of these birds, it is interesting
to make the experiment of concealing a dead animal beneath a dense bush.
This I have frequently done ; in which case the vultures never find it unless
they have witnessed its death ; if so, they will already have pounced in their
descent while you have been engaged in concealing the body ; they will then,
upon near approach, discover it by the smell. But, if an animal is killed in
thick grass, eight or ten feet high, the vultures will seldom discover it. I
have frequently known the bodies of large animals, such as elephants and
buffaloes, to lie for days beneath the shade of the dense uabbuk bushes,
unattended by a single vulture ; whereas, if visible, they would have been
visited by these birds in thousands. Vultures and the marabou stork fly at
enormous altitudes. I believe that every species keeps to its own particular
elevation, and that the atmosphere contains regular strata of birds of prey, who,
invisible to the human eye at their enormous height, are constantly resting
upon their wide-spread wings, and soaring in circles, watching with telescopic
sight the world beneath.
KEEN VISION OF BIRDS OF PREY. 197
"If an animal bo skinned, the red surfac3 will attract the vultures in an
Instant; this proves that their sight, and not their scent, has been attracted
by an object that suggests blood. I have frequently watched them when I
liave shot an animal, and my people have commenced the process of skinning.
At first, not a bird has been in sight, as I have lain on my back and gazed
into the spotless blue sky; but hardly has the skin been half withdrawn,
than specks have appeared in the heavens, rapidly increasing. ' Caw, caw,'
has been heard several times from the neighbouring bushes; the buzzards
liave swept down close to my people, and have snatched a morsel of clotted
blood from the ground. The specks have increased to winged creatures, at
llie great height resembling flies, when presently a rushing sound buhind me,
like a whirlwind, has been followed by the pounce of a red-faced vulture,
that has fallen from the heavens in haste Avith closed wings, to the bloody
feast, followed quickly by many of his brethren. The sky has become alive
with black specks in the far-distant blue, with wings hurrying from all quar-
ters. At length a coronet of steady, soaring vultures, forms a wide circle far
above, as they hesitate to descend, but continue to revolve around the object
of attraction. Tlie great bare-necked vulture suddenly appears.
"The animal has been skinned, and the requii'ed flesh secured by tlio
men; we withdraw a hundred paces from tlie scene. A general rush and
descent takes place ; hundreds of hungry beaks are tearing at the offal.
The great bare-necked vulture claims respect among the crowd; but anotlier
form has appeared in the blue sky, and rapidly descends. A pair of long
ungainly legs, hanging down beneath the enormous wings, now touch the
ground, and Abou Seen (father of the teeth or beak — the Arab name for the
marabou) lias arrived, and he stalks proudly towards the crowds, pecking
his way with his long bill through tlie struggling vultures, and swallowiug
the lion's share of the repast. Abou Seen — last, but not least — had arrived
from the highest region, while others had the advantage of the start. This
bird is very numei'ous through tlie whole tributaries of Abyssinia, and may
generally be seen perched upon the rocks of the waterside, watching for
small fish, or any i-eptile that may chance to come within his reach. The
well-known feathers are situated in a plume beneath the tail."
On the afternoon of the 14th of April, Mr. and Mrs. Baker quitted their
camping ground, and in a few days reached Gallabat, the frontier market-
town of Abyssinia, in the bottom of a valley surrounded by hills. The day
of their arrival was market-day, and crowds of people were in and about the
town. As the party descended the hill and arrived on the scene below, with
their nine camels heavily laden, with the heads and horns of a multitude of
different beasts, they were beset by the throng, who were curious to know
whence so strange a caravan had come. Among their visitors was an Abys-
sinian merchant — an agreeable and well-informed man, who had boon to
19S STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Paris and London, and spoke French and English. The principal trade of
Gallabat is in cotton, coffee, bees-wax, and hides; it is tlie great centre of
commerce between Abyssinia and the Egyptian provinces. Here they met
an Italian merchant from Khartoum, wlio had come to purchase coffee and
bees-wax. Two German missionaries arrived also soon after, on their way
to preach the gospel in Abyssinia; one of them having, for his special object,
the conversion of the Abyssinian Jews to Christianity.
In Gallabat and the neighbourhood, there is a large colony of the Tok-
rooris, whose ancestors were natives of Darfur, converted to the Jlahom-
medan faith after the conquest of Northern Africa by the Arabs. The colony
"was first formed by pilgrims to Mecca, and has rapidly increased in the same
manner. As the number of settlers multiplied, permission was granted by
the King of Abyssinia that they should occupy this portion of his territory,
upon payment of taxes as his subjects. The Tokrooris are a fine, powerful
race, very black, and of the negro type. They are great drunkards, very
quarrelsome, and bad servants ; but when they work for themselves, are
exceedingly industrious. Tliey are very independent. They have culti-
vated cotton to a considerable extent, notwithstanding the double taxes
enforced by both Abyssinians and Egyptians ; and keep their gardens with
extreme neatness. They inhabit a district about forty miles long, and num-
ber about twenty thousand. They arm themselves with lances of various
patterns ; their favourite weapon being a horrible instrument, barbed with a
diabolical intention, as it can neither be withdrawn nor pushed completely
through the body, but, if once in the flesh, there it must remain. Another
curious weapon used by them, is the trombash, somewhat resembling the
Australian boomerang. It is a piece of flat, hard wood, about two feet in
length, the end of which turns sharply at an angle of about 30°. They
throw this with great dexterit}', and inflict severe wounds with the hard and
sharp edge ; but, unlike the boomerang, the weapon does not return to the
thrower. The women are very powerful, but very plain. They are good
workers, rarely idle, and remarkably clean.
Several slave merchants had their establishments at Gallabat. They
were arranged under large tents made of matting, and contained many young
girls of extreme beauty, ranging from nine to seventeen years of age. Their
features were delicately^ formed, of a rich brown tint, with eyes like those of
tlie gazelle. They were natives of the Galhi, on the borders of Abyssinia,
from which country they were brought by the Abyssinian traders to be sold
for the Turkish harems. . They are very elegant and graceful in form ; the
hands and feet are exquisitely delicate ; the nose aquiline, with large and
finely-shaped nostrils ; the hair black and glossy, reaching to about the
middle of the back, but rather coarse in texture. They are remarkably quick
at learning ; proud and high-sj)irited ; but most captivating in their manners,
TEE RIVERS RAIIAD AND BINDER. I'J9
and very affectionate and true. Several Eurojieans of high standing at Khar-
toum have married these Abyssinian girls, and have invariably found them
devoted and faithful wives. The price of one of these beauties of nature at
dallabat was from twenty-five to forty dollars.
From Gallabat our travellers pushed on to the River Rahad. At the place
where they struck ujjon it, it did not exceed eighty or ninety yards in breadth.
Its banks are in many places perpendicular, and are about forty-five feet
above the bed. This river flows through rich alluvial soil ; the course is
extremely circuitous ; it is free from rocks and shoals ; the stream is gentle,
and admirably adapted for small steamers. On the IGth of May, they
arrived at the river Binder, a river similar to the Rahad, but larger, the
average breadth being about a hundred and ten yards. The banks are about
fifty feet high. It is very deep in some places, though the bed in other parts
is almost dry ; and the many trunks of fallen trees are serious obstacles to
navigation. They continued their journey along the banks of the Dinder for
some days, when they made a direct cut across the flat country to cross the
Rahad, and reach Abou Plarraz on the Blue Nile.
"During the march," says Baker, " over a portion of the country that
had been cleared by burning, we met a remarkably curious hunting-party.
A number of the common black and white stork were hunting for grasshoppers
and other insects, but mounted on the back of each stork was a large copper-
•coloured fly-catcher, which, perched like a rider on his horse, kept a bright
look-out for insects, which, from its elevated position, it could easily discover
upon the ground. I watched them for some time ; whenever the storks per-
ceived a grasshopper or other winged insect, they chased them on foot, but, if
they missed their game, the fly-catchers darted from their backs and flew
after the insects like falcons, catching them in tlieir beaks, and then returning
to their steeds, to look out for another opjoortunit}^"
On the 23rd of May they arrived at the Rahad, close to its junction with
the Blue Nile. Upon arrival at Abou Harraz, four miles to the north of the
junction of the two rivers, tliey had marched two hundred and eighty miles
from Gallabat. They were now about one hundred and fifteen miles from
Khartoum, and stood upon the banks of the magnificent Blue Nile — the last
of the Abyssinian affluents. At Abou Harraz, Baker discharged his camels,
and endeavoured to engage a boat to convey Mrs. Baker and himself and
party to Khartoum, intending thus to avoid the dusty and uninteresting ride
of upwards of a hundred miles along the flat banks of the river. There was
not, however, a vessel of any kind to be seen, except one miserable affair, for
which the owner demanded fourteen hundred piastres for a joassage. He
accordingly procured fresh camels, and started, intending to march as rapidly
as ])ossible. It was intensely hot, and whenever they felt a breeze it was
accompanied by a sufiocating dust ; but the sight of the broad river was cool
200 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
and refrc'sliiiij?. During the dry season the Blue Nile is clear, and its broad
surface reflects the colour of the blue sky — hence the appellation; but at that
time it is extremely shallow, and in many j^laces is fordable at a depth of
three feet.
Throughout the route from Abou Harraz to Khartoum there is no object of
interest ; it is the same vast flat, decreasing rapidly in fertility until it mingles
with the desert; and once more, as our travellers journeyed to the north, they
left the fertile lands behind, and entered upon sterility. The glare of barren
plains, and the heat of the summer's sun, were fearful. On the 11th of June,
they arrived opposite to Khartoum. As the morning sun shone upon the
capital of the Soudan provinces, they were delighted with the view ; the
groves of date-trees shaded the numerous buildings, contrasting tlieir dark-
green foliage with the many coloured houses on tlie margin of the beautiful
river ; long lines of vessels and masts gave life to the scene, and they felt that
once more, after twelve months of utterly wild life, they had reached civilis-
ation. Crossing in the large ferry-boat which plied regularly to the town on
the south bank, they landed at Khartoum, and, having climbed up the steep
bank, inquired the way to the British Consulate. In the centre of a long
mud wall, ventilated by frameless windows, they perceived a large archway,
with closed doors ; above this entrance was a shield, with a device that glad-
dened their eyes — there was the British lion, and the unicorn! This was
the English Consulate. Mr. Petherick, the consul, had started from Khartoum
in the 23i'eceding March, expecting to meet Speke and Grant in the ujDper
portion of the Nile regions, on their road from Zanzibar, and had begged Mr.
Baker to occupy some rooms in the Consulate during his absence.
]\[r. Baker gives an amusing account of the state of matters within the
English Consulate, which was more like a menagerie than a civilised Euro-
pean's house. " We entered," he says, " a large courtyard, and were imme-
diately received by two ostriches that came to meet us. These birds enter-
tained us by an impromptu race, as hard as they could go round the court-
3'ard, as though ^^erforming in a circus. When this little divertissement was
linislKMi wo turned to the right, and were shown by a servant up a flight of
steps into a large airy room, that was to be our residence, which, being well
protected from the sun, was cool and agreeable. Shortly after our arrival,
a vessel arrived from Mr. Petherick's party with unfavourable accounts.
They had started too late in the season, owing to some difficulties in pro-
curing boats ; and the change of the wind to the south, with violent rain, had
caused great suffering, and had retarded their progress. This same boat
liad brought two leopards that were to be sent to England : these animals
were led into the courtyard, and, having been secured by chains, they
formed a valuable addition to the menagerie, Avhich consisted of two wild
boars, two leopards, one hyena, two ostriches, and a cijnocephalus, or dog-
RESIDENCE A T KHARTOUM. 201
faced baboon, who won my heart by taking an especial fancy to me, because
I had a beard like his master.
" Although I take a great interest in wild animals, I confess to having
an objection to sleep in the Zoological Gardens should all the wild beasts be
turned loose. I do not believe that even the Secretary of that learned Society
would volunteer to sleep witli the lions ; but as the leopards of the Khartoum
Consulate constantly broke their chains, and attacked the dogs and a cow ;
and as the hyena occasionally got loose, and the wild boars destroyed their
mud wall, and nearly killed one of my Tokrooris during the night, by carv-
ing him like a scored leg of pork with their tusks — the fact of sleeping in
the open air in the verandah, with the simple protection of a mosquito-net-
ting, was full of pleasant excitement, and was a piquantc entertainment that
prevented a reaction of ennui after twelve months passed in constant watch-
fulness. The shield over the Consulate door, with the lion and the unicorn,
was but a sign of the life within ; as the grand picture outside the showman's
wagon may exemplify the nature of his exhibition. I enjoyed myself ex-
tremel}' with these creatures, especially when the ostriches invited them-
selves to tea, and swallowed our slices of water-melons and the greater por-
tion of the bread from the table a few moments before we were seated.
These birds appeared to enjoy life amazingly : one kind of food was as sweet
as another. They attacked a basket of white porcelain beads that had been
returned by Mr. Petherick's men, and swallowed them in great numbers in
mistake for dhurra, until they wei'e driven off: they were the scavengers of
the courtyard, that consumed the dung of the camels and horses, together
with all other impurities."
For some months they resided at Khartoum, as it was necessary to make
extensive preparations for the White Nile expedition, and to await the arrival
of the north wind, which would enable them to start early in December.
Upon their first arrival in Khartoum, from 11th June until early in October,
the heat was very oppressive, the thermometer seldom below 95° Fahr. in the
shade, and frequently 100°, while the nights were 82° Fahr. In the winter,
the temperature was agreeable, the shade 80°, the night 62° Fahr But the
chilliness of the north wind was exceedingly dangerous, as the sudden gusts
checked perspiration and produced various maladies, more especiall}- fever.
They had been extremely fortunate, for although exposed for more than a
year in the burning sun, they had had remarkably good healtli, with the
exception of one severe attack which Mrs. Baker had at Sofi.
The first portion of their task was completed. They had visited all the
Nile tributaries of Abyssinia — the Atbara, Settite, Salaam, Angrab, Rahad,
Binder, and the gi-eat Blue Nile, that had been traced to its source by Bruce.
The difficult task still lay before them, of penetrating the unknown regions in
the distant south, to discover the White Nile source. Speke and Grant were
2G
203 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
on their road from Zanzibar, making their way across untrodden ground,
towards Gondokoro. Petherick's expedition to assist them had met with mis-
fortune, and been greatly delayed ; and Mr. Baker therefore hoped to reach
the equator, and perhaps to meet the Zanzibar explorers somewhere about
the sources of the Nile.
CHAPTER XI.
Khartoum — The White Nile Trade — Departure from Khartoum — The Shilloolcs —
Sohat River-— Bahr El Gazal— Native Tribes— Arrival at Gondokoro—Mcet-
ing tvith S2}cke and Grant.
KHARTOUM is the capital of the Soudan provinces, and is situated in lat.
15° 29', on the point of huid forming the angle between the AVhite and
Blue Niles at their junction. It has a population of thirty thousand inhabit-
ants. The dwellings are mostly huts of sun-burnt bricks. It extends over a
flat hardly above the level of the river at high water, and is occasionally
flooded. It has neither drains nor cesspools ; the streets are full of all sorts
of nuisances, and abound in offensive smells. It is impossible to imagine a
more wretched, filthy, and unh.ealthy spot. There are some respectable
houses, occupied by the traders of the country ; a few of whom are French,
German, and Italian. The general population is made up of Greeks, Copts,
Syrians, Armenians, Turks, Arabs, and Egyptians. In spite of its unhealthi-
ness, it is the general emporium for the trade of the Soudan, from which the
productions of the country, such as ivory, hides, senna, gum arable, and bees-
wax, are transported to Lower Egypt. These exports are all natural pro-
ductions ; and have nothing in tlicm to exhibit or promote the industry or
capacity of the natives of the Soudan.
Khartoum lives on what is called the White Nile trade, "Without the
White Nile trade," says Baker, " Khartoum would almost cease to exist ; and
that trade is kidnapping and murder. Tlie character of the Khartouniers
needs no further comment. The amount of ivory brought down from the AVhite
Nile is a mere bagatelle as an export, the annual value being £40,000. The
people for the most part engaged in the nefarious traffic of the White Nile
are Syrians, Copts, Turks, Circassians, and some few Europeans. So closely
connected with the difficulties of my expedition is that accursed slave-trade,
that the so-called ivory trade of the White Nile requires an explanation.
" Throughout the Soudan money is exceedingly scarce, and the rate of
interest exorbitant, varying, according to the securities, from thirty-six to
eighty per cent. ; this fact proves general poverty and dishonesty, and acts as
a preventive to all improvement. So high and fatal a rate deters all honest
enterprise, and the country must lie in ruin under such a system. The wild
201 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
f peculator borrows upon such terms, to rise suddenly like a rocket, or to fall
like its exhausted stick. Thus, honest enterprise being impossible, dishonesty
takes the lead, and a successful expedition to the White Nile is supposed to
overcome all charges. Thei'e are two classes of White Nile traders, the one
possessing capital, the other being penniless adventurers ; the same system
of operations is pursued by both, but that of the former will be evident from
the descrijition of the latter.
"A man without means forms an expedition, and borrows money for
this purpose at 100 per cent, after this fashion. He agrees to repay the lender
in ivory at one half its market value. Having obtained the required sum, he
hires several vessels, and engages from one hundred to three hundred men,
composed of Arabs and runaway villains from distant countries, who have
found an asylum from justice in the obscurity of Khartoum. He purchases
guns and large quantities of ammunition fm- his men, together with a few hun-
dred pounds of glass beads. The piratical expedition being complete, he
pays his men five months' wages in advance, at the rate of forty-five piastres
(nine shillings) per month, and agrees to give them eighty piastres j^er month
for any jjcriod exceeding the five months advanced. His men receive their
advance j^artly in cash and partly in cotton stuffs for clothes, at an exorbitant
price. Every man has a strip of pajDer, upon which is written by the clerk
of the expedition the amount he has received, both in goods and money ; and
this paper he must produce at the final settlement.
" The vessels sail about December, and on arrival at the desired locality,
the paity disembark and proceed into the interior, until they arrive at the
village of some negro chief, with whom they establish an intimacy. Charmed
with his new friends, the power of whose weapons he acknowledges, the negro
chief does not neglect the opportunity of seeking their alliance to attack a
hostile neighbour. Marching throughout the night, guided by their negro
hosts, they bivouac within an hour's march of the unsuspecting village doomed
lo an attack, about half an hour before break of day. The time arrives, and
quietly surrounding the village while its occupants are still sleeping, they
fire the grass huts in all directions, and pour volleys of musketry through the
flaming thatch. Panic-stricken, the unfortunate victims rush from their bui'n-
ing dwellings, and the men are shot down like pheasants in a battue, while
the women and children, bewildered in the danger and confusion, are kid-
napped and secured. The herds of cattle, still within their kraal or ' zareeba,'
are easily disposed of, and are driven ofi" with great rejoicing, as the prize of
victory. The women and children are then fastened together, the former
secured by an instrument called a sheba, made of a forked pole, the neck of
the prisoner fitting into the fork, secured by a cross piece lashed behind,
while the wrists, brought together in advance of the body, are tied to the pole.
The children are then fastened bv their necks with a rope attached to the
THE WHITE NILE TRADE. 20c
women, and thus form a living chain, in which order they are marched to tlie
head-quarters in company with the captured herds.
" This is the conimenccnicnt of business ; should there be ivory in any
of the huts not destroyed by the fire, it is appropriated ; a general plunder
takes place. The traders' party dig up the floors of tlie liuts, to search for
iron hoes, which are generally thus concealed, as the greatest treasure of the
negroes ; the granaries are overturned and wantonly destroyed, and the hands
are cut off the bodies of the slain, the more easily to detach the copper or
iron bracelets tliat are usually worn. With this booty, the traders return to
their negro ally ; they have thrashed and discomfited his enemy, which
delights him ; they present him witli thirty or forty head of cattle, which
intoxicates him with joy, and a present of a pretty little captive girl, of about
fourteen, corajjletes his happiness.
" But business is only commenced. The negro covets cattle, and tliD
trader has now captured, perhaps, two thousand head. They are to be had
for ivory, and shortly the tusks appear. Ivoiy is daily brought into camp
in exchange for cattle, a tusk for a cow, according to size— a profitable busi-
ness, as the cows have cost nothing. The trade proves brisk, but still there
remain some little customs to be observed — some slight formalities, well
understood by the White Nile trade. The slaves, and two-thirds of the
captured cattle, belong to the trader, but his men claim, as their perquisite,
one-third of the stolen animals. These having been divided, the slaves are
put up to public auction among the men, who purchase such as they require ;
the amount being entei-ed on the papers (serki) of the purchasers, to be
reckoned against their wages. To avoid the exposure, should the document
fall into the hands of the government or European consuls, the amount is
not entered as for the purchase of a slave, but is divided for fictitious sup-
plies. Thus, should a slave be purchased for one thousand piastres, that
amount would appear on the document somewhat as follows: —
(C
Soap 50 Piastres
Tarboash (cap) 100
Araki 500
Shoes 200
Cotton cloth 150
1,000
" The slaves sold to the men are constantly being changed and resold
among themselves; but should the relatives of the kidnapped women and
children wish to ransom them, the trader takes them from his men, cancels
the amount of purchase, and restores them to their relations for a certain
20G STANLEY AND AFRICA.
number of elephants' tusks, as may be agreed upon. Should any slave
attempt to escape, she is punished cither by brutal flogging, or shot, or
hanged, as a warning to others. An attack, or razzia, such as described,
generally leads to a quarrel with the negro ally, who, in his turn, is murdered
and plundered by the trader — his women and children naturally becoming
slaves. A good season for a party of a hundred and fifty men should pro-
duce about two hundred cantars (twenty thousand lbs.) of ivory, valued at
Khartoum at four thousand pounds. The men being paid in slaves, the
wages should be nil, and there should be a surplus of four or five hundred
slaves for the trader's own profit — worth, on an average, five to six pound*
each.
" The boats are accordingly jjacked with a human cargo, and a portion
of the trader's men accompany them to the Soudan, while the remainder
of the party form a camp or settlement in the country they have adopted,
and industriously plunder, massacre, and enslave, until their master's return
with boats from Khartoum in the following season, by which time they are
supposed to have a cargo of slaves and ivory ready for shipment. The busi-
ness thus thoroughly established, the slaves are landed at various points
within a few days' journey of Khartoum, at which places are agents, or
purchasers, waiting to receive them with dollars prepared for cash payments.
The purchasers and dealers are, for the most part, Arabs, The slaves are
then marched across the country to difterent places ; many to Sennaar, where
they are sold to other dealers, who sell them to the Arabs and Turks. Others-
are taken immense distances to ports on the l\ed Sea, Souakim, and Masowa,
there to be shipped for Arabia and Persia. Many are sent to Cairo; and, in
fact, they are disseminated throughout the slave-dealing East, the Wliite Nile
being the great nursery for the supply. The amiable trader returns from the
White Nile to Khartoum ; hands over to his creditor sufiicient ivory to liquidate
the original loan of £1,000, and, already a man of capital, he commences as
an independent trader."
Such was the White Nile trade when Baker jirejjared to start from Khar-
toum on his expedition to the Nile sources. The place was a nest of slave-
traders, who looked with jealous eyes upon every stranger venturing within
the precincts of their holy land, sacred, as Mr. Baker observes, to slaver}'
and to every abomination and villany that man can commit. The Turkish
ofiicers pretended to discountenance slavery ; yet every house was full of
slaves, and Egyptian ofiicers received part of their pay in slaves. The autho-
rities, therefore, looked upon the proposed exploration of the White Nile by
a European traveller as likely to interfere with their perquisites, and so threw
ever}' obstacle in his way. As the government of Soudan refused to com^Dly
with his request for an escort of properly-trained soldiers, the only men he
could get were the miserable cut-throats of Khartoum, who had been accus-
THE SHILLOOKS. 207
tonicd all their lives to murder and robbery in the "White Nile trade. On tho
ISth December, 18G2, Tliursday, one of tho most lucky days for starting,
according to Arab superstition, Mr. Baker and his wife left Khartoum.
Three vessels had been engaged, and were laden with large quantities of
stores, with four hundred bushels of corn, and twenty-nine transport animals,
camels, horses, and donkeys. Their party consisted of ninety-six souls,
including Joliann Schmidt and tho fliithful black, Richarn, and fifty-nine
"\\-cll-armed men.
On the 30th, poor Joliann Schmidt, who was ill at starting, departed this
life. Mr. Baker's entry concerning his death is very toucliing: — " GOtli Dec.
Johann is in a dj'ing state, but sensible ; all his hopes, poor fellow, of saving
money in my service, and returning to Bavaria, arc past. I sat by his bed
for some hours; there was not a ray of hope; he could speak with difficulty,
and tho flics walked across his glazed eyeballs without his knowledge.
Gently bathing his face and hands, I asked him if I could deliver any mes-
sage to his relatives. He faintly uttered, ' I am prepared to die ; I have
neither parents or relations; but there is one — she' — . lie faltered; he
could not finish his sentence ; but his dying tlioughts were with one he
loved — far, far away from this wild and miserable land, his spirit was trans-
ported to his native village, and to the object that made life dear to him."
New Year's day, 18G3, saw them at the village of Mahomed Her, in the
Shillook country. The Shillooks are the largest and most powerful black
tribe on the banks of the White Nile. They are wealthy, and possess
immense herds of cattle. Their dwellings are mud-huts, thatched, having
a very small entrance, looking at a distance like rows of button mushrooms.
They navigate the river on their raft-like canoes, formed of the ambatcli-
Avood, which is so light that they can very easily carry their vessels about.
The ambatch-tree is about the thickness of a man's waist, and tapers to a
point; it is therefore easily cut down; and several of them being lashed
l)arallel to each other, and the ends tied together, the raft is made.
Tho voyagers reached tho junction of the Sobat with the Nile on Jan.
8rd. Tliis river is not more than a hundred and twenty yards in breadtli ;
its stream is about two miles and a half an hour. The quality of the water
is superior, and suggests a mountain origin. "Within a few days' sail of the
junction it divides into seven branches, all shallow, and with a rapid current.
At the junction the depth is from twenty-six to twenty-eight feet. Gliding
along the dead water of the White Nile, they came to the Bahr el Gazal.
The junction of this river with the Nile has the appearance of a lake about
three miles long by one bi'oad. There is no stream from the Bahr el Gazal,
and it has the appearance of a backwater formed by the Nile. The water is
perfectly clear and dead. It extends due west for a great distance, and is a
system of marshes, stagnant water ovei'grown by rushes and ambatch-wood.
208 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
tliioug]i -\vliicli a channel requires to be cleared to permit the passage of a
boat.
As they ascended the Nile, the general appearance of tlie banks of tlie
river was uninteresting in the extreme. Sometimes they could see nothing
but vast marshes, and at others an immense expanse of sandy desert, with
huge ant-hills ten feet high rising above them. They stopped on the 13th,
near a village on the right bank, and here they saw the first natives. They
belonged to the Nuchr tribe. They were most unearthly-looking, naked as
they came into the world. Even the young women were destitute of clothing,
though the married had a fringe made of grass round their loins. The men
wore heavy coils of beads about their necks, two heavy bracelets of ivory on
the upper portions of their arms, copper rings upon the wrists, and a horrible
kind of bracelet of massive iron, armed with spikes about an inch in length,
like lco2)ards' claws. The v.'omen perforate the upper lip, and wear an orna-
ment about four inches long of beads upon an iron wire, which projects like
the horn of a rhinoceros. To show the use of the spiked iron bracelet, the
chief exhibited his wife's arms and back, covered with jagged scars. The
men are tull and jjowerful, armed with lances. They carry pipes that con-
tain nearly a quarter of a pound of tobacco, in which, when they have no
tobacco, the}' smoke simple charcoal, the carbonic acid gas of which produces
a slight feeling of intoxication that delights them. The chief's forehead was
tattooed in horizontal lines, and the hair was drawn back from the face.
At the Zareeba, or station of a White Nile trader, named Binder, an
Austrian subject, they were visited by the chief of the Kytch tribe and his
daughter, a giil of about sixteen, better-looking than most of her race. The
father wore a leopard-skin across his shoulder, and a skull-caji of white beads,
with a crest of white ostrich feathers. This was his entire clothing. The
daughter's clotliing consisted only of a piece of dressed hide hanging over
one shoulder, evidently more for ornament than use. The men, tliough tall,
were wretchedly thin ; the children were mere skeletons ; and the whole tribe
appeared thorougldy starved. Their miseiy is beyond description. They
will not kill their cattle, nor taste meat, unless an animal dies of sickness.
They will not work, existing only upon rats, lizards, snakes, and such fish as
they can spear. They will spend hours in digging out field-mice from their
burrows. Tliey devour both the skins and bones of dead animals ; pounding
the bones between stones till they are reduced to powder, and then boiling
them into a kind of joorridge. In every herd of cattle, they have a sacred
bull, who is supposed to have an influence over the prosperity of the rest.
Plis horns are ornamented with tufts of feathers, and frequently with small
bells, and he invariably leads the great lierd to pasture.
Passing Aboukooka, the establishment of a French trader, and the
Austrian mission-station of St. Croix, they arrived, on the 30th, at the country
--IP'S-!
1 R A V E L U N G OM A LI 11 E R.
THE SHIR TRIBE. 209
of the Shir tribe. The men of this tribe arm themselves with well-made
ebony clubs, two lances, a bow (always strung), and a bundle of arrows ;
their hands are completely full of weapons; and they carry a neatly-made
miniature stool slung upon their backs, in addition to an immense pipe. " The
women cany their children very conveniently in a skin, slung from their
shoulders across the back, and secured by a thong round the Avaist; in this
the young savage sits delightfully. The huts tliroughout all tribes are cir-
cular, with entrances so low that the natives creep both in and out on their
hands and knees. Tlie men wear tufts of cocks' feathers on the crown of the
head ; and the favourite attitude, when standing, is on one leg while leaning
on a speai', the foot of the raised leg resting on the inside of tlie other knee.
Their arrows are about three feet long, without feathers, and pointed witli
hard wood instead of iron, that metal being scarce among the Shir tribe. The
most valuable article of barter for this tribe is the iron hoe generally used
among the White Nile negroes. The finery most prized by the women are
polished iron-anklets, which they wear in such numbers that they reach
nearly half way ujd the calf of the leg : the tinkling of these lings is con-
sidered to be very enticing, but the sound reminds one of the clanking of
convicts' fetters." The women arc very clever in making baskets and mats
of the leaf of the dome-palm, and girdles and necklaces of minute i^icces of
mussel-shells, threaded upon the hair of the giraffe's tail. The}^ gather the
ripe pods of the lotus, and, grinding the seed into flour, make it into a kind of
l^orridge.
After a most uninteresting and wearisome voyage, our travellers reached
Gondckoro. Here Baker found a number of men belonging to the various
traders, wlio looked upon him with the greatest suspicion. They would not
belieA'e that his object was simply travel and discovery, but regarded him
as a spy upon their nefarious ivory business and slave-hunting. He found
Gondckoro a great improvement upon the interminable marshes through
which he had been sailing. Formerly it was a mission-station, and the ruins
of tlie brick establishment and church still remain, together with the wreck
of what was once a garden. Now, however, a few miserable grass huts arc
all that give the place a name. The climate is hot and unhealthy, and it is
merely occupied about two months in the year as a station by the ivory
traders.
As Baker heard that a party were expected there from the interior with
ivory in a few days, he determined to await their arrival, in the hojDe that
their porters would be ready to carry his baggage. He housed his corn, and
gave an order to deliver one-half to Speke and Grant, should they arrive
during his absence in the interior ; as he thought they might arrive by some
route without his knowledge, while he was penetrating south. While waitin"-
for the party from the interior, he rode about the neighbourhood, studvinf
27
210 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
tlic place and people. '• The native dwellings," he says, " are the perfection
of cleanliness ; the domicile of each family is surrounded by a hedge of the
imjjenetrable euphorbia, and the interior of the enclosure generally consists
of a yard neatly plastered with a cement of ashes, cow-dung, and sand. Upon
this cleanlj'-swept surface are one or more huts, surrounded by granaries of
neat wicker-work, thatched, resting upon raised platforms. The huts have
projecting roofs in order to aflfcrd a shade, and the entrance is usually about
two feet high.
" When a member of the family dies he is buried in the yard ; a few ox-
horns and skulls are susjjcnded on a pole above the spot, while tlie top of tlie
pole is ornamented with a bunch of cocks' feathers. Every man carries liis
weapons, pipe, and stool, tlie whole (except the stool) being held between his
legs when standing. Thtse natives of Gondokoro are the Bari: the men are
well grown, the women arc not prepossessing, but the negro type of tliick lips
and flat nose is wanting ; their features are good, and the -woolly hair alone
denotes the trace of negro blood. They are tattooed upon the stomach, sides,
and back so closely, that it has the appearance of a broad bolt of fish-scales,
more especially wlicn they are rubbed Avith red ochre, which is the prevailing
fashion. This pigment is made of a peculiar clay, rich in oxide of iron,
which, when burnt, is reduced to powdei-, and then formed into lumps like
pieces of soap ; both sexes anoint themselves with this ochre, formed into a
paste by the admixture of grease, giving themselves the appearance of new
red bricks. The cnly hair upon their persons is a small tuft upon the crown
of the head, in which they stick one or more feathers. The women are
generall}- free from hair, their heads being shaved. They wear a neat little
laj3pet, about six inches long, of beads, or of small iron rings, Avorkcd like a
coat of mail, in lieu of a fig-leaf, and the usual tail of fine shreds of leather
or twine, spun from indigenous cotton, pendant liehind. Both the lappet and
tail are fastened on a belt which is worn round the loins, like those in the
Shir tribe; thus, the toilette is completed at once. It would be highly useful,
could they only wag their tails to whisk off the flies, which are torments in
this countr}'."
"The cattle are very small; the goats and sheep are quite Lilliputian,
but they generally give three at a birth, and thus multiply quickl}-. The
people of the country were formerly friendly, but the Kliartoumers pillage
and murder them at discretion in all directions ; thus, in revenge, they will
shoot a j^oisoned arrow at a stranger unless he is powerfully escorted. The
effect of the poison used for the arrow-heads is very extraordinary. A man
came to me for medical aid ; five months ago he had been wounded by a
poisoned arrow in the leg, below the calf, and the entire foot had been eaten
away by the action of the poison. Tlie bone rotted through just above the
ankle, and the foot dropped off. Tlie most violent poison is the produce of
POISONED A RRO WS. 2 1 1
the root of a tree, whose milky juice yields a resin that is smeared upon tlio
arrow. It is brought from a great distance, from some country far west of
Gondokoro. The juice of the species of euphorbia, common in these coun-
tries, is also used for jooisoning arrows. Boiled to the consistence of tar, it
it is then smeared upon the blade. The action of tlie poison is to corrode
the flesh, which loses its fibre, and drops away like jelly, after severe inflam-
mation and swelling."
" The arrows are barbed with diabolical ingenuity ; some are arranged
with poisoned heads that fit into sockets ; tliese detach from the arrow on an
attemjDt to withdraw them ; thus the barbed blade, thickly smeared with
poison, remains in the wound, and before it can be cut out, the poison is-
absorbed into the system. Fortunately, the natives are bad archers. The
bows are invariably made of the male bamboo, and are kept perpetually
strung ; they are exceedingly stiff, but not very elastic, and the arrows are
devoid of feathers, being simple reeds or other light wood, about three feet-
long, and slightly knobbed at the base as a hold for the finger and thumb ; tljo
string is never drawn with the two fore-fingers, as in most countries, but is-
simply pulled by holding the arrow between the middle joint of the fore-
finger and the thumb. A stiff bow drawn in this manner has very little
power; accordingly, the extreme range seldom exceeds a hundred and ten
yards."
Gondokoro was a perfect hell — a mere colony of cut-throats. The
Egyptians might easily have sent a few ofiiccrs and two or three hundred
men from Khartoum to form a military government, and thus impede the
slave-trade ; but a bribe from the traders to the authorities was sufficient to
ensure an uninterrupted asylum for any amount of villany. The camps were
full of slaves, and the Bari natives assured Mr. Baker that there was a large
depot of slaves in the interior, belonging to the traders, that would be marched
to Gondokoro for shipment a few hours after his departure. He was looked
upon as a stumbling-block to the trade. Several attem2:)ts were made to shoot
him, and a boy was killed, by a shot from the shore, on board his vessel. His
men were immediately tampered Avith by the traders, and signs of discontent
soon appeared among them. They declared that they had not enough of
meat, and requested to be allowed to make a raszia upon the cattle of the
natives, that they might procure oxen. This demand being refused, they
became more insolent, and, accordingly, Mr. Baker ordered the ringleader,
an Arab, to be seized, and to receive twenty-five lashes. Upon Saat, his
vakeel, advancing to seize him, there was a general nmtiny. Many of the men
threw down their guns, and, taking up sticks, rushed to the Arab's rescue.
Mr. Baker, on this, sprang forward, sent the leader by a blow of his fist into
their midst, and then, grasping him by the throat, called to Saat for a rope
to bind him. The men, still intent on their object, surrounded Mr. Baker,.
212 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
when his wife, landing from the vessel, made lier way to the spot. Her sudden
iippcarance caused the mutineers to hesitate, when I\Ir. Baker, seizing the
moment of indecision, shouted to the drummer-boy to beat the drum, and
then ordered the men to fall in. Two-thirds obeyed, and formed in lino,
wliile the remainder retreated with their ringleader. At this critical mo-
ment Mrs. Baker implored her husband to forgive the mutineer, if he would
kiss his hand and beg his pardon. This compromise completely won tlie
men, who now called upon their ringleader to apologise, and all would be
right. This he did, and Baker, having made them rather a bitter speech,
dismissed them. It was now, however, apparent that his escort would give
him more trouble than the open hostility of the native tribes.
A few days afterwai'ds, on the 15th of February, guns were heard in
tlie distance, and news came that two white men had ai-rived from the se:i !
They proved to be Speke and Grant, who had just come from the Victoria
Nyanza. Both looked travel-worn. Speke was excessively lean, but in reality
in good condition. Grant's garments were well-nigh worn out ; but both of
them had that fire in the eye which showed the spii'it that had led them
through many dangers. They wislied to leave Gondokoro as soon as pos-
sible, but delayed their departure until the moon should be in a position for
an observation for determining the latitude. The travellers had much plea-
sant talk together ; Speke and Grant relating what they had discovered, and
what they thought remained to be done, and giving to Baker all the help in
their power; and Baker congratulating them on their achievements, and
expressing a hope that he might be able to complete the work. On the 20tli
(jf February, Mr. and Mrs. Petherick arrived, with their people and ivorj',
at Gondokoro, from the Niambara, a trading station seventy miles to the
west, and were surjDriscd <o see so large a party of English in so desolate a
spot. Six days afterwards, Speke and Grant sailed. " Our hearts," says
Baker, " were too full to say more than a short, ' God bless you !' They had
won their victory ; my work lay all before me. I watched their boat until it
turned the corner, and wished them, in my heart, all honour for their great
achievement. I trusted to sustain the name they had won for English perse-
verance, and I looked forward to meeting them again in dear old England,
when I should have completed the work we had so warmly planned together."
CHAPTER XII.
Further Stay at Gondolcoro — A Flot among tlie Khartoum Escort — Start from Gon-
dokoro — Pass through Tollogo and Ellgria — The Latookas — Camels and Ele-
phants — E7iter the Ohbo Country.
AFTER the departure of Spelce and Grant, Baker moved his tent to the
high ground above the river; the effluvium from the filth of some thou-
fsands of people was disgusting, and fever was prevalent in all quarters. His
animals were all healthy; "but the donkeys and camels," he says, "were
attacked by a bird, about the size of a thrush, which caused them great un-
easiness. The bird is a gi-eenish-brown colour, with a powerful red beak,
and excessively strong claws. It is a perfect post to the animals, and positively
cats them into holes. The original object of the bird in settling upon the
animal is to search for vermin, but it is not contented with the mere insects,
and industriously pecks holes in all j^arts of the animal, more especially on
the back. A wound once established, adds to the attraction, and the unfor-
tunate animal is so pestered that it has no time to eat. I was obliged to hire
some little boys to watcli the donkeys, and to drive off these plagues ; but so
determined and bold were the birds, that I have constantly seen them run
under the body of the donkey, clinging to the belly with their feet, and thus
retreating to the opposite side of the animal when chased by the watch-boys.
In a few days my animals were full of wounds, excepting the horses, whose
long tails were effectual whisks."
Notwithstanding the lesson Baker's men had received, they still exhibited
a mutinous disposition, and in every way neglected their duties. The don-
keys and camels were allowed to stray, were daily missing, and recovered with
difficulty ; the luggage was overrun with white ants instead of being attended
to every morning; the men absented themselves without leave, and were
constantly in the camps of the different traders. Happily for him, he had
among his attendants a little black boy, named Saat, who, having been
brought as a slave from the interior, had been for a time in the Austrian
mission, from which, with many other slaves, he was finally turned away. He
used to describe his capture as a child very vividly. He was about six years
old, minding his father's goats, when he was stolen by the Baggara Arabs.
He was forcibly seized and thrust Into a large gum sack, and slung upon the
!14 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
back of a camel. Upon scrcauiiiig for help, the sack was opened and an Arab
threatened him with a knife .should he make the slightest noise. Thus
■quieted, he was carried hundreds of miles through Kordofan to Dongola on
the Nile, at which place he was sold to slave-dealers, and taken to Cairo to be
sold to the Egyptian government as a drummer-boy. Being too young, he
was rejected. He then cscajjcd from his master, and having heard from
another boy of the Austrian mission at Cairo, he sought and found an as^dum
there. After he was turned out from that mission, because the authorities deter-
mined to be rid of all the children they had received on account of the appa-
rent impossibility of improving them, he heard of Mr. and Mrs. Baker, and
(making his way to their house, threw himself at the lady's feet and implored
to be allowed to follow them. Hearing at the mission that he was superior to
bis companions, they accepted him into their service. From that time he
considered himself as belonging entirely to Mrs. Baker, and to serve her was
his greatest pride. She, in return, instructed him in general knowledge and
the Christian religion.
Through this young Saat, Mr. Baker heard of a plot, on the part of his
escort, to desert him, and to fire at him should he attempt to disarm them.
The result of his discovery is thus given: — " One morning I had returned
to the tent after having, as usual, inspected the transport animals, when I
observed Mrs. Baker looking extraordinarily pale, and immediately upon
my arrival she gave orders for the presence of the vakeel (headman). There
was something in her manner so different to her usual calm, that I was utterly-
bewildered when I heard her question the vakeel, 'Whether the men were
"billing to march ?' ' Peifectly ready,' was the rejily. ' Then order them to
strike the tent, and load the animals; we start this moment.' The man
appeared somewhat confused, but not more than I. Something was evidently
on foot, but what I could not conjecture. The vakeel wavered, and to my
astonishment I heard the accusation made against him, that, ' during the
night, the whole of the escort had mutinously conspired to desert me, with
my arms and ammunition that were in their hands, and to fire simultancousl\-
at me should I attempt to disarm them.' At first this charge was indignantly
denied, until the boy Saat manfully stepped forward, and declared that the
conspiracy was entered into by the wdiole of the escort, and that both he
and Richarn, knowing that mutin}' was intended, had listened purposely to
the conversation during the night ; at day-break, the boy had reported the
fact to his mistress. Mutiny, robbery, and mm-der, were thus deliberaLely
determined.
" I immediately ordered an angarep (travelling bedstead) to be placed
outside tlie tent under a large tree ; upon this I laid five double-barrelled
guns, loaded with buck-shot, a revolver, and naked sabre as sharp as a razor.
A sixth rifle I kcj^t in my hands while I sat upon the angarcj), with Richara
JJUTINY OF THE KHARTOUM ESCORT,
and Saat, both with double-barrelled guns, behind me. Formerly, I had
supplied each of my men with a piece of Mackintosh waterproof, to be tied
over the locks of their guns during the march. I now ordered the drum to
be beat, and all the men to form in line in marching order, with their locks
tied up in the waterproof. I requested Mrs. Baker to stand behind me, and to
point out an}' man who should attempt to uncover his lock, when I should
give the order to lay down their arms. The act of uncovering the locks
would prove his intention, in which event I intended to shoot him imme-
diately, and take my chance with the rest of the conspiratoi's.
'' Upon assembling in line, I ordered them immediately to lay down
their arms. This, with insolent looks of defiance, they refused to do. ' Down
Avith your guns this moment,' I shouted, ' sons of dogs!' And at the sharp
click of the locks, as I quickly cocked the rifle that I held in my hands, the
cowardly mutineers widened their line, and wavered. Some retreated a few
paces to the rear ; others sat down, and laid their guns on the ground; while
the remainder slowly dispersed, and sat in twos, or singly, under the .various
trees about eighty paces distant. Taking advantage of their indecision, I
immediately rose and ordered my vakeel and Richarn to disarm them as they
were thus scattered. Foreseeing that the time had arrived for actual physical
force, the cowards capitulated, agreeing to give ujo their arms and ammuni-
tion if I would give them their written discharge. I disarmed them imme-
diately, and the vakeel having written a discharge for the fifteen men present,
I wrote upon each paper the word mutineer, above my signature. None of
them being able to read, and this being written in English, they unconsciously
carried the evidence of their own guilt, which I resolved to punish, should I
ever find them on my return to Khartoum.
" The boy Saat and Richarn now assured me that the men had intended
to fire at me, but that they were frightened at seeing us thus prepared, but
that I must not expect one man of the Dongolowas to be any more fliithful
than the Jalyns. I ordered the vakeel to hunt up the men, and to bring me
their guns, threatening that if they refused I would shoot any man that I found
with one of my guns in his hands. There was no time for mild measures.
I had only Saat (a mere child), and Richarn, upon whom I could depend ;
and I resolved with them alone to accompany Mahommed's people to tlie
interior, and to trust to good fortune for a chance of proceeding."
All; however, seemed in vain ; nearly the whole of the escort deserted, tak-
ing service with the traders, and the party was reduced to a very small band of
faithful adherents. A party of traders who had lately arrived from Latooka
and were about to return, not only refused to allow the travellers to accom-
pany them, but declared their intention of forcibly driving them back, should
tliey attempt to advance by their route. Baker was utterly heljiless; for him-
self personally he had no anxiety, but the fact of Mrs. Baker being with him
216 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
was a source of much concern. He dared not think of her position in iho
event of his death among savages such as tliose around her. These thoughts
"were shared by her ; but she, knowing her husband had resolved to succeed,
iiever once hinted an advice for retreat. A plan was formed to make a dtish
through the Bari tribe on swift dromedaries, but it proved to be impracticable.
The faithful Saat soon discovered another plot hatched by some of the dis-
affected escort who still hung about the place : — Tliey were to consent to
march forward, with tlie intention of deserting Baker at the station of a
trader named Chenooda, seven days' march from Gondokoro, in the Latooka
country, whose men were like themselves Dongolowas ; here they were to
mutiny and desert with their arms and ammunition, and shoot Baker should he
attempt to disarm them.
Nothing remained but to leave Gondokoro on a venture, to march east-
ward through the mountains of Ellj'ria to the Latooka country, and to attach
the small European party by force or bribery to a band of Turkish traders
who were about to march into the interior in search of ivory, although Iljrahirn,
the chief of the gang, had previously refused to have anything to do with the
f]uropean travellers. Resolved to accomplish their purpose, and with daunt-
less courage Mr. and Mrs. Baker started without a guide on this most unpro-
mising adventure. "The day arrived," he says, "for the departure of
Koorsliid's people. Tiiey commenced firing tlieir usual signals ; tlie drums
beat; the Turkish ensign led the way ; and they marched at 2 o'clock p.m.,
sending a polite message, daring me to follow them.
" I immediately ordered the tent to be struck, the luggage to be arranged,
the animals to be collected, and everything to be ready for the mai-ch.
Eicharn and Saat were in high spirits ; even my unwilling men were obliged
to work, and by 7 p.m. we were all ready. The camels were too heavily
loaded, carrying about seven hundred pounds each. The donkeys were also
overloaded, but there was no lielp for it, Mrs. Baker was well mounted on
my good old Abyssinian hunter, ' Tetel,' and was carrying several leather
bags slung to the pommel, while I was equally loaded upon my horse ' Filfil ;*
in fact, we were all carrying as much as we could stow.
"We had neitlier guide, nor interpreter. Not one native was procurable,
all being under the influence of the traders, who had determined to render
our advance utterly impossible, by preventing the natives from assisting us.
All had been threatened, and we, perfectly helpless, commenced the desperate
journey in darkness about an hour after sunset. ' Where shall we go ?' said
the men, just as the order was given to start. ' Who can travel without a
guide ? No one knows the road.' The moon was up, and the mountain of
Belignan was distinctly visible, about ten miles distant. Knowing that the
route lay on the east side of that mountain, I led the way, Mrs. Baker riding
by my side, and the British flag following close behind us as a guide for the
MARCH TO ELLYRIA.
caraTim of lieavily-ladcn camels and donkeys. Wo shook hands warmly withi
Dr. Miuie, who had come to sec us off, and thus wc started on our march Iul
Central Africa on the 26th of March, 1863."
After a silent march of two hours, they saw the watch-fires of the trader'i-s.
party blazing in the distance. As they passed them tliey were roughl^r
challenged by their sentries, and told not to remain in the neighbourhood..
Accordingly they passed on for about half a mile in advance, and bivouackod,
on some rising ground above a slight hollow, in which they found water. The
next morning was clear, and the mountain of Belignan, three or four mileis-
distant, was a fine object to direct their course. They started early, and
pushed on as fast as they could, hoping to reacli Ellyria before the trader's-
party could arrive, and jjoison the minds of the people there against tliem..
The men refused at first to load the camels, but at length reluctantly complied-
They had not gone far, led by a Bari guide, engaged at Belignan, wheii.
they were joined by two Latookas, who at once undertook to conduct theui.
the whole way to Latooka, about ninety miles distant. The country was-
cxceedingly dilHcult to pass through, especially for the camels, being full o£
thick thorny jungles ; and at last they were compelled to liglitcn the loads ofj
both camels and donkcj'S, leaA'ing much valuable merchandise and provision
on the road, before they could proceed at all.
When they reached the eminence that looks down upon the valley of Tol-
logo, the view was extremely picturesque. An abrupt wall of grey granite rose?
on the east side of the valley to a height of about a thousand feet: from this-
perjDcndicular wall huge blocks had fallen, strewing the base with a confused,
mass of granite lumps ten to forty feet in diameter; and among these natural
fortresses of disjointed masses were nvmierous villages. Tho bottom of the-
valley was a meadow, in which grew several enormous fig-trees by the side:
of a sluggish, and in some j^laces, stagnant brook. The valley was not more-
than half a mile wide, and was also Availed in by mountains on the west^
having the ajipearance of a vast street. Here some five or six hundred natives-
gathered around them; and one, a curiously ugly, humped-back dwarf, ad-
dressed them in broken Arabic. He acted as interpreter, and insisted that
Mrs. Baker was Mr. Baker's son. The chief proved to be a man the travellers,
had seen at Gondokoro, and to whom they had shown kindness. He received,
them cordially, and brought them a present of native beer, honey, and ivoi-y^
They were now within six miles of Ellyria. Starting afresh on their
journey, they threaded their way through a difficult pass, Tlie mountain.-
of Ellyria, between two and three thousand feet high, rose abruptly on their
left, while the base was entirely choked with enormous fragments of grey-
granite. The path was not only thus obstructed, but was broken by deep
ravines; and to increase the difficulties, many trees and bushes were growin^j;
from the interstices of the rocks, and the loads became jammed between theu>.
218 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
After turning a sharp angle of the mountain, they reached a spot whence
they commanded a lovely view. The valley of Ell^'ria was about four hun-
dred feet below, at about a mile distant. Beautiful mountains, some two or
three thousand feet high, of grey granite, walled in the narrow vale ; while
the landscape of forest and plains was bounded at about fifty or sixty miles
distance to the east by the blue mountains of Latooka. The whole country
was a series of natural forts, occupied by a large population.
In sjiite of his forced march, Baker found that the Turkish trading party
had kej^t up with him, and were likely to enter EUyria before him. Just at
the entrance to the place they passed him. As they were passing, Mrs. Baker
advised her husband to call Ibrahim, the leader, and make another attempt to
secure his friendship. He hearkened to the suggestion ; and, assisted by the
clever and earnest pleadings of Mrs. Baker, he succeeded in winning Ibrahim
over, and inducing him to render him all the assistance in his power. The
success of this measure our traveller gave entirely to his wife ; for he says had
he been alone, he would have been too proud to have sought the friendship
of tlie sullen trader, and the moment on which success depended would have
been lost.
No sooner did they reach Ellyria than crowds of natives issued from the
palisaded villages on the mountain, and gathered round them. They were
entirely naked, and precisely the same as tlie Bari. Their chief, Legge, was
among them, who received a present from Ibrahim of a large red cotton shirt,
and assumed an air of great importance. He immediately began to ask Baker
for the tribute he expected to receive as "black mail" for the right of entree
into his country. He had a most villanous countenance — ferocity, avarice,
and sensuality, being stamped upon it in every part ; and all his conduct corre-
sponded with his appearance. His formation of head was similar to that of
the rest of the tribe. The Bari, and the tribes of Tollogo and Ellyria, have
generally bullet-shaped heads, low foreheads, skulls heavy behind the ears
and above the nape of the neck ; altogether their appearance is excessively
brutal, and they are armed with bows six feet long, and arrows hon-ibly
barbed and j)oisoned. Legge is a large trader in ivory, sending iron hoes,
which they make in his country, into the Bari and Galla countries, to pur-
chase it. He then exchanges it with the Turks for cattle. Although he sells
it so dear that he demands twenty cows for a large tusk, it is a convenient
station for the traders, as, being near to Grondokoro, there is very little trouble
in delivering the ivory on ship-board.
On the 30th of March, they started from Ellyria. As they journeyed,
Ibrahim, in conversation, confirmed the report of Saat as to the intended
mutiny and desertion of Baker's men as soon as they reached Latooka. When
they arrived at the Kanieti river, although there had been no rain, the stream
was very rapid, and up to the girths of the horses at the ford. The banks
LA TOOK A A ND THE LA TOOK A S. 219
were abrupt and about fifteen feet deep, tlio bed, between forty and fifty
yards wide. The stream emptied itself into tUc Sobat, and so j^assed into
the Nile. Having scrambled up the bank, they crossed a field of dhurra, and
came to the village of Wakkala. Here, they found about seven hundred
houses, strongly protected by palisades, formed of the hard iron wood of the
country. Aruund the palisades was a hedge of impervious thorns, growing to
a height of about twenty feet. The entrance was a curious archway, about
ten feet deep, formed of the palisades ; the whole of the village thus fenced
is situated in the midst of a splendid forest of large timbers. The inhabit-
ants are governed by an independent chief, and ai^e great hunters ; and Baker
was able, in the immediate neighbourhood, to enjoy his favourite sport.
Going due east, they came to Latome, one of the principal places of Latooka,
and strongly palisaded, like Wakkala. Here, they found an ivory, or slave-
trading party, under the leadersliip of one Mahommed Her, and here, at
length, the mutiny broke out of which Baker had more than once been
warned. By his presence of mind, tact, and fearless courage, just at the
right moment, he entirely defeated the mutineers, and frustrated their plot,
though some of them deserted to Mahonuned Her. When he heard of their
desertion, he exclaimed, in the hearing of his own men, and Ibrahim's party,
" Inshallah, the vultures shall pick their bones !" and as they believed firmly
in the effect of curses, their superstitious fears were immediately excited.
The country was now very beautiful. They were at the base of the
Lafeet mountain, which rose abruptly on their left to the height of about three
thousand feet. The course of the valley was from south-east to north-west,
about forty miles long by eighteen miles wide ; the flat bottom was diversified
by woods, thick jungles, open plains, and forest. The south side of the val-
ley was bounded by a high range of mountains, rising to six or seven thou-
sand feet above the general level of Latooka, while the extreme end was
almost blocked by a noble but isolated mountain of about five thousand feet.
The road was sandy but firm, and they travelled with ease. Continuing their
march, they came to TarrangoUe, the chief town of Latooka, at which point
was the station of Ibrahim. They had marched thirteen miles from Latome,
the station of Mahommed Her, at which place Baker's men had deserted him,
and they were now a hundred and one miles from Gondokoro. Crowds of
people surrounded them, amazed to see camels, and people with a white
skin. '-
" The Latookas," says Baker, " are the finest savages I have ever seen.
I measured a number of them as they happened to enter my tent, and allowing
two inches for the thickness of their felt helmets, the average height was 5 feet
11^ inches. Not only are they tall, but they possess a wonderful muscular
development, having beautifully proportioned legs and arms ; and, although
extremely powerful, they are never fleshy or corpulent. The formation of
2:20 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Lead and general physiognomy is totally dlfl'erent from all other tribes tliat I
liave met with in the neighbourhood of the White Nile. They have higli
foreheads, large eyes, rather high cheek-bones, mouths not very large, m'cU-
sliapcd, and the lips rather full. They have all a remarkably jjleasing cast of
countenance, and are a great contrast to the other tribes in civility of manner.
Altogether their appearance denotes a Galla origin, and it is most jH-obablc
that, at some former period, an invasion by the Gallas of this country origi-
nated the settlement of the Latookas.
'• They are a fine, frank and warlike race. Far from being the morose
set of savages that I had hitherto seen, they were excessively merry, and
always ready for either a laugh or a fight. The town of Tarrangolle con-
tained about three thousand houses, and was not only surrounded by iron-
wood palisades, but every house was individually fortified by a little stock-
aded courtyard. The cattle were kept in large kraals in A'arious parts of the
town, and were most carefully attended to, fires being lit every night to pro-
tect them from flies ; and high platforms, in three tiers, were erected in
many places, upon which sentinels watched both day and night to give the
alarm in case of danger. The cattle are the wealth of the country-; and so
rich are the Latookas in oxen, that the natives are ever on the watch, fearing
the attacks of the adjacent tribes.
" The houses of the Latookas are generally bell-shaped, while others
are precisely like huge candle-extinguishers, about twenty-five feet high.
The roofs are neatl}' thatched, at an angle of about 75°, resting upon a cir-
cular wall about four feet high ; thus the roof forms a cap descending to
within two feet and a half of the ground. The door-way is only two feet
and two inches high, thus an entrance must be effected upon all-fours. The
interior is remarkably clean, but dark, as the architects have no idea of
windows. The town of Tarrangolle is arranged with several entrances, in
the shape of low archways through the palisades : they are closed at night
by large branches of the hooked thorn of the kittur bush (a species of
mimosa). The principal street is broad, but all the others are studiously-
arranged to admit of only one cow, in single file, between high stockades j
thus, in the event of an attack, these naiTOw passages could be easily de-
fended, and it would be impossible to drive ofi" their immense herds of cattle
unless by the main street. The large cattle kraals are accordingly arranged
in various quarters in connection with the great road, and the entrance of
each kraal is a small archway in the strong iron-wood fence, sufficiently
wide to admit one ox at a time. Suspended from the arch is a bell, formed
of the shell of the Dolape palm-nut, against which every animal must strike
either its horns or back on entrance. Every tinkling of the bell announces
the jiassage of an ox into the kraal, and they are thus counted every evening
■when brought home from pasture.
LATOOKA CUSTOMS. 221
" I had noticed, during the niarcli from Latome, that the vicinity of
every town was announced by heaps of human remains. Bones and skulls
formed a Golgotha within a quarter of a mile from every village. Some of
the.se were in earthenware pots, generally broken ; others lay strewn liere and
there ; while a heap in the centre showed that some form had originally been
preserved in their disposition. This was explained by an extraordinary
custom most rigidly observed by the Latookas. Should a man be killed in
battle the body is allowed to remain where it fell, and is devoured by the
vultures and hyenas ; but should he die a natural death, lie or she is bui-ied
in a shallow grave within a few feet of his own door in the little courtyard
which surrounds each dwelling. Funeral dances are then kept up in memory
of the dead for several weeks; at the expiration of whicli time, the body
being sufficiently decomposed, is exhumed. The bones are cleaned, and are
deposited in an earthenware jar, and carried to a spot near the town, which
is regarded as the cemetery. I observed that they were not particular in
regarding the spot as sacred, as signs of nuisances were present even upon
the bones, that in civilised countries would have been regarded as an insult.
" There is little difficulty in describing the toilet of the natives — that ot
the men being simplified by the sole covering of the head, the body being
entirely nude. It is curious to observe amongst these wild savages the con-
summate vanity displayed in their head-dresses. Every tribe has a distinct
and unchanging fashion for dressing the hair; and so elaborate is the coiffure
that hair-dressing is reduced to a science. European ladies would be startled
at the fact, that to perfect the coiffure of a man, requires a period of from eight
to ten years ! However tedious the operation, the result is extraordinary.
The Latookas wear most exquisite helmets, all of which are formed of their
own hair, and, are, of course, fixtures. At first sight it appears incredible,
but a minute examination shows the wonderful perseverance of years in pro-
ducing what must be highl}'- inconvenient. The thick, crisp wool is woven
with fine twine, formed from the bark of a tree, until it presents a thick net-
work of felt. As the hair grows tlirough this matted substance it is subjected
to the same process, until, in the course of years, a compact substance is
formed like a strong. felt, about an inch and a half thick, that has been trained
into the shape of a helmet. A strong rim, of about two inches deep, is formed
by sewing it together with thread ; and the front part of the helmet is pro-
tected by a piece of polished copper; while a j^iece of the same metal, shaped
like the half of a bishop's mitre, and about a foot in length, forms the ci'est.
The framework of the helmet being at length completed, it must be perfected
by an arrangement of beads, should the owner of the head be sufficiently rich
to indulge in the coveted distinction. The most in fashion are the red and
the blue porcelain, about the size of small peas. These are sewn on the sur-
face of the felt, and so beautifully arrenged in sections of blue and red that
222 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
the entire helmet api)eais to be formed of beads ; and the handsome crest of
polished copper, surmounted by ostrich jilumes, gives a most dignified and
martial ajipcarance to this elaborate head-dress. No helmet is supposed to be
complete w ithout a row of cowrie shells stitched around the rim, so as to form
a solid edge.
" The Latookas have neither bows nor arrows, their weapons consisting
of the lance, a powerful iron-headed mace, a long-bladed knife or sword, and
an ugly iron bracelet, armed with knife-blades about four inches long, by
half an inch broad ; the latter is used to strike with if disarmed, and to tear
with when wrestling with an enemy. Their shields are either of buffa-
loes' hide, or of giraffes', the latter being highly prized as excessively tough,
although light, and thus combining the two requisite qualities of a good
shield ; they are usually about four feet six inches long, by two feet wide,
and are the largest I have seen. Altogether, everything in Latooka looks
like fiffhtine:.
" Although the men devote so much attention to their head-dress, the
women are extremely simple. It is a curious fact, that while the men are
remarkably handsome, the women are exceedinglj' plain : they ai'C immense
creatures, few being under five feet seven inches in height, with prodigious
limbs. Their superior strength to that of other tribes may be seen in the
size of their water jars, which are nearly double as large as any I have seen
elsewhere, containing about ten gallons ; in these, they fetch water from the
stream about a mile distant from the town. They grind the corn, fetch the
water, gather firewood, cement the floors, cook the food, and propagate the
race ; but they are mere servants, and, as such, are valuable. The price of a
good-looking, strong young wife, who could carry a heavy jar of water,
would be ten cows."
While -waiting at Tarrangolle, they heard of a terrible disaster which
befel the party of Mahommed Her. Under his command, a party of one
hundred and ten armed men, in addition to three hundred natives, had made
a razzia upon a certain village among the mountains for slaves and cattle.
Having succeeded in burning the village and capturing a number of slaves,
they were re-ascending the mountain to secure another herd of cattle, of
which they had received information, when they were attacked by a large
body of Latookas, lying in ambush among the rocks on the mountain side..
In vain the Turks fought ; every bullet aimed at a Latooka struck a rock,
while rocks, stones, and lances, were hurled at them from all sides and from
above. Compelled to retreat, they were seized with a panic, and took to
flight. Hemmed in by their foes, who showered lances and stones on their
heads, they fled down the rocky and perj^endicular ravines. Ignorant of the
country, the}' mistook their road, and came to a precij^ice, from which there
was no retreat. The Latookas, with screams and yells closed around them^
DESTRUCTION OF MAIIOMMED JIER'S PARTY. 22i
and thrust them forward to the very verge of a prcciioice five hundred feet
high. Over it they were driven, hurled to destruction by the mass of savages
pressing onward. A few fought to the last; but all were at last forced over
the edge of the cliff, and met the just reward of their atrocities. No quarter
had been given, and upwards of two hundred of the natives, who had joined
the slave-hunters in the attack, had fallen with them. Mahommed Her had
not accompanied his party, and therefore escaped ; but he was utterly ruined.
The result of this terrible catastrophe was highly beneficial to Baker, as
the mutineers and deserters from his party were amongst those destroyed,
" Where are the men who deserted me ?" he asked of those who still remained
with him. Without speaking, they brought two of his guns, covered with clot-
ted blood, mixed with sand, that had been found on the scene of destruction.
Their owners' names were known to him by the marks on the stocks ; and he
mentioned them. " Are they all dead ?" he asked. " All dead," the men
replied. " Food for the vultures !" he observed; " better for them had they
remained with me and done their duty." He had before told his men that
the vultures would pick thd bones of the deserters ; and this seemed to them
a fulfilment of his words. From that moment an extraordinary change took
place in the manner, both of his own people, and tliose of Ibrahim, towards
him. They regarded him with veneration and awe. Unhappily, however,
the Latookas exhibited a change for the worse. The Turks, as usual, insulted
their women, and treated the natives with the greatest brutality, and, had he
not exercised much caution and vigilance, both his own party and Ibrahim's
would, in all probability, have been entirely cut off.
Ibrahim had been compelled to go back to Gondokoro for ammunition,
and Baker waited at Tarrangolle for his return. The day after Ibrahim's
departure, the Turks seized some jars of water by force from the women, on
their return from the stream. A row ensued, and ended by one of the women
being shamefully maltreated ; and a Latooka, who came to her assistance, was
severely beaten. This was repeated again and again, until the natives re-
solved to punish the offenders. They removed all the women and children to
the mountains, about two miles distant, and prepared for a regular battle.
Baker saw they would make no distinction between him and his party and
the Turks, and that they would all suffer together. Gaining information of
the intention of the natives, he took command of the Turks, and, with his own
men, showed so bold a front, that the natives saw clearly that there was little
chance of their being able to carry their purpose of destroying the strangers
into execution. Their chief, Commoro, had an interview with Baker, the
result of which was, that he agreed to persuade his people to abandon their
intention, and to act in a peaceable manner.
The Turks were much alarmed at what had transpired, and behaved better,
though they threatened that, when Ibrahim arrived ■\^ itli reinforcements and
22 1 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
ammunition, tliey would have tbcir revenge. After this, Baker moved ];i3
<jam2i to a secure position some distance from the town, near a stream of water.
ilere he formed a garden, and lived in a far more independent way than
{before. Thus he separated himself as much as possible from the Turks, whose
.presence was certain to create enmity. Although he was willing to purchase
■all supplies with either beads or copper bracelets, he found it was imjjossiblc
to procure meat. The natives refused to sell either cattle or goats. Not
-less than ten thousand head of catttle passed his camp every morning as they
^were driven to the town from pasturage, yet he could not obtain a steak.
Milk was cheap and abundant; corn was plentiful; but fowls were scarce, and
vegetables were unknown. In this latter article he provided for himself, by
•sowing his garden with onions, cabbages, and radishes. Fortunately there
<5i"as an abundance of small game in the shape of wild ducks, pigeons, doves ;
iiiid a great variety of birds, such as herons, cranes, and spoonbills. He fre-
-quently shot ten or twelve ducks, and as many cranes, before breakfast. Not
*)nly were the ducks and geese to him what the quails were to the Israelites
an the desert, but they enabled him to make presents to the natives that
^.ssured them of his goodwill.
The dreadfully low state of morality prevailing among the natives, was
<?xhibitcd in a variety of ways. On one occasion Adda, one of their chiefs,
■«ame to him and requested him to assist in attacking a village, for the pur-
gjose of jnocuring some iron hoes which he wanted. He asked the chief,
■^vliether it was in an enemy's country? "Oh, no!" was the reply; "it is
<-lcse here, but the people are rather rebellious, and it will do them good to
ikill a few. If you are afraid, I will ask the Turks to do it." " Human
Qiature," writes Baker in his journal, " viewed in its crude state, as jjictured
caiiiong African savages, is quite on a level with that of the brute, and not to
^X! compared with the noble character of the dog. There is neither gratitude,
fDity, love, nor self-denial ; no idea of dut}- — no religion ; but covetousness,
■ingratitude, selfishness, and cruelty. All are thieves, idle, envious, and ready
<<5 rob and enslave their weaker neighbours." On the west shore of the White
.Sxile there are tribes even more ferocious than those to the east of Gondokoro.
One of the traders described the Makkarikas as "remarkably good peo-
f)le, but possessing a peculiar taste for dogs and human flesh. They accom-
(paiiied the trading party in their razzias, and invariably ate the bodies of
^he slain. The traders complained that they were bad associates, as thev
cnsisted upon killing and eating the children which the party wished to
«ocjure. Their custom was to caich a child by its ankles, and dash its head
against the ground. Tims killed, they opened the abdomen, extracted the
stomach and intestines; and tying the two ankles to the neck, the}' carried
ithe body by slinging it over the shoulder, and thus returned to camj), where
<iliey divided it by quartering, and boiled it in a large pot."'
STUPIDITY OF THE CAMEL. 225
Slioitly after the encounter in wliich Ibraliim's party was defeated, a
funeral dance took place in honour of the natives who had been slain. The
<laneers were grotesquely got up. Each man had about a dozen ostrich fea-
thers in his helmet, a leopard or monkey-skin hung from his shoulders, while
a large iron belt was strapped to his loins, like a woman's bustle. This he
rang during the dance, by jerking the hinder part of his body in the most
absurd manner. All the time a hubbub was kept up by the shouting of the
crowd, the blowing of horns, and the bleating of seven nor/aras, or drums, all
of different notes, while each dancer also blew an antelope's horn suspended
round his neck, the sound partaking of the braying of a donkey and the
screeching of an owl. Meantime crowds of men rushed round and round,
brandishing their lances and iron-headed maces, following a leader, who
headed them, dancing backwards. Tlio women outside danced at a slower
pace, screaming a wild and inharmonious chant, while beyond them a strin"-
-of young girls and children beat time with their feet, and jingled numerous
iron rings which adorned their ankles. One woman attended upon the men,
running through the crowd witli a gourd full of wood-ashes, handfuls of
which she showered over their heads, powdering them like millers. Though
the leader among the women was immensely fat, she kept up the pace to the
last, quite unconscious of her general appearance.
During one of Baker's interviews with the chief Commoro, their conver-
sation was suddenly terminated by one of Baker's men running into the tent
with the bad news that one of the camels had dropped down and was djang.
*' The report," says Baker, " was too ti'ue. He was poisoned by a well-known
plant that he had been caught in the act of eating. In a few hours he died.
There is no more stupid animal than the camel. Nature has implanted in
most animals an instinctive knowledge of the plants suitable for food, and
they generally avoid those that are poisonous ; but the camel will eat indis-
criminately eveiything that is green ; and, if in a country where the jilant
exists, that is well known by the Arabs as the ' camel-poison,' watchers must
always accompany the animals while grazing. The most fatal jilant is a
creeper, very succulent, and so beautifully green, that its dense foliage is
most attractive to the stupid victim. The stomach of the camel is very subject
to inflammation, which is rapidly fatal. I have frequently seen them, after
several days of sharp desert marching, arrive in good pasture, and die, with-
in a few hours, of inflammation caused by repletion. It is extraordinary how
they can exist upon the driest, and apparently the most un-nutritious food.
When other animals are starving, the camel manages to pick up a subsistence,
eating the ends of barren, leafless twigs, the dried sticks of certain shrubs,
and the tough dry paper-like substance of the dome-palm, about as succulent
a breakfast as would be a green umbrella and a Times newspaper. With in-
tense greediness the camel, although a hermit in simplicity of fare in hard
29
22G STANLEY AND AFRICA.
times, feeds voraciously when in abundant pasture, always seeking the
greenest shrubs. The poison-bush becomes a fatal bait.
" The camel is by no means well understood in Europe. Far from being
the docile and patient animal generally described, it is quite the reverse, and
the males are frequently dangerous. They are exceedingly perverse, and are,
as before desciibed, excessively stupid. For the great deserts they are
■wonderfully adapted, and without them it would be impossible to cross certain
tracts of country for want of water. Exaggerated accounts have been written
respecting the length of time that a camel can travel without drinking. The
period that the animal can subsist without sufferering from thirst depends
entirely upon the season and the quality of food. Precisely as in Europe
sheep require but little water when fed upon turnips, so does the camel exist
almost without drinking during the rainy season, when pastured upon succulent
and dewy herbage. During the hottest season, when green herbage ceases to
grow in the countries inhabited by camels, they are led to water every alternate
day, thus they are supposed to drink every forty-eight hours ; but when upon
the march across deserts, where no water exists, they are expected to carry
a load of five to six hundred pounds, and to march twenty-five miles per day
for three days, without drinking, but to be watered on the fourth day. Thus
a camel should drink the evening before a start, and he will carry his load one
hundred miles without the necessity of drinking — not, however, without
suffering from thirst. On the third day's march, during the hot simoom, the
camel should drink if joossible ; but he can endure the fourth day.
" This peculiarity of constitution enables the camel to overcome obstacles
of nature that would otherwise be insurmountable. Not only can he travel
over the scorching sand of the withering deserts , but he never seeks the
shade. When released from his burden he kneels by his load in the burning
sand, and luxuriates in the glare of a sun that drives all other beasts to shelter.
The peculiar spongy formation of the foot renders the camel exceedingly sure,
although it is usual to believe that it is only adapted for flat, sandy jDlains.
I have travelled over mountains so precijiitous that no domestic animal but
the camel could have accomjilished the task with a load. This capability is
rot shared generally by the race, but by a breed belonging to theHadendowa
Arabs, between the Red sea and Taka. The average value of a baggage
camel is fifteen dollars, but a good Hygeen, or riding dromedary, is worth
from fifty to a hundred and fifty dollars. He is sujiposed to travel fifty miles
a day, and to continue this pace for five days, carrying only his rider and a
small water-skin or girba. His action should be so easy that his long ambling
trot should produce that peculiar movement adopted by a nurse when hush-
ing a child to sleep upon her knee."
Baker frequently joined the Latookas in elephant-hunting. "The
natives of Central Africa generally hunt the elephant for the sake of the flesh,
ELEPHANT HUNTING. 22:
and prior to the commencement of the White Nile trade by the Arabs, and
the discovery of the Upj^er White Nile to the 5° N. lat. by the expedition sent
by Mehemet Ali Pasha, the tusks were considered as worthless, and were
treated as bones. The death of an elephant proves a sj^lendid affair for the
natives, as it supplies flesh for an enormous number of people ; also fat, which
is the great desire of all savages, for internal and external purposes. There
are various methods of killing them. Pitfalls are the most common, but the
wary old bulls are seldom caught in this manner. The position chosen for the
pit is in the vicinity of a drinking-place. Should an elephant fall throi'.gh the
deceitful surface, it is im2)0ssible for him to extricate himself. If one animal
be thus caught, a sudden panic seizes the rest of the herd, and in their hasty
retreat one or more fall into some of the numerous pits in the neighbourhood.
Once helpless in the jiits, they are easily killed with lances.
" The great elephant hunting season is in January, when the high prairies
are parched and reduced to straw. At such a time, should a large herd of
animals be discovered, the natives of the entire district collect together to the
number of perhaps a thousand men ; surrounding the elej^hants, by embracing
a considerable tract of country, they fire the grass at a given signal. In a
few minutes the unconscious elephants are surrounded by a circle of fire,
which, however distant, must eventually close in upon them. The men
advance with the fire, which rages to a height of twenty or thirty feet. At
length the elephants, alarmed by the volumes of smoke and the roaring of
the flames, mingled with the shouts of the hunters, attempt an escape. They
are hemmed in on every side — wherever they rush, the}^ are met by aE
impassable barrier of flames and smoke, so stifling, that they are forced to
retreat. Meanwhile, the fatal circle is decreasing ; buffaloes and antelopes^
likewise doomed to a horrible fate, crowd panic-stricken to the centre of the
encircled ring, and the raging fire sweeps over all. Burnt, and blinded by
fire and smoke, the animals are now attacked by the savage crowd of hunters,
excited by the helplessness of the unfortunate elephants thus miserably sacri-
ficed, and they fall under countless spears.
" The next method of hunting is perfectly legitimate. Should many
elephants be in the neighbourhood, the natives post about a hundred men in
as many large trees ; these men are armed with heavy lances specially adapted
to the sport, with blades about eighteen inches long and three inches
broad. The elephants are driven by a great number of men towards the
trees in which the spearmen are posted, and those that pass sufliciently near
are speared between the shoulders. The spear being driven deep into the
animal, creates a frightful wound, as the tough handle, striking against the
intervening branches of trees acts as a lever, and works the long blade of the
spear within the elephant, cutting to such an extent that he soon drops froiE.
exhaustion.
2:28 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
" The best and only really great elephant hunters of the White Nile are
the Bagara Arabs. These men hunt on horseback, and kill the elephant in
fair fight with their spears. The lance is about fourteen feet long, of male
Jdamboo ; the blade is about fourteen inches long by nearly three inches broad :
ithis is as sharp as a razor. Two men, thus armed and mounted, form the
liunting party. Should they discover a herd, they ride up to the finest tusker
and single him from the others. One man now leads the way, and the ele-
jjhaiit, findinghimself pressed, immediately charges the horse. There is much
■art required in leading the elephant, who follows the horse with great deter-
snination, and the rider adapts his pace so as to keep his horse so near the
•elephant that his attention is entirely absorbed with the hope of catching hira.
The other hunter should by tliis time have followed close to the elephant's
lieels, and, dismounting when at full gallop, with wonderful dexterity, he
plunges his spear with both hands into the elephant about two feet below the
junction of the tail, and with all his force he drives the spear about eight feet
snto liis abdomen, and withdraws it immediately. Should he be successful
an his stab, he remounts his horse and flies, or does his best to escape on foot,
should he not have time to mount, as the elephant generally turns to pursue
liim. His comrade immediately turns his horse, and, dashing at the elephant,
in his turn dismounts, and drives his lance deep into his intestines. Generally,
if the first thrust is scientifically given, the bowels protrude to such an extent
that the elephant is at once disabled."
As soon as j^racticable, Ibrahim returned from Gondokoro, bringing
%vith him a large supply of ammunition. The object of Mr. Baker was con-
stantly to work round to the south-west, and so regain the Nile valley. At
length a native of the Obbo country arrived at Latooka, and, under his guid-
ance, the party set out, on the 2nd of May, 1863, to cross the chain of moun-
4ains which bound the Latooka valley. There was no other path than the
aiative track, which led over a range of low granite rocks, forming a ridge
:about four hundred feet high. It was with the greatest difficulty that the
loaded donkeys could be hoisted over the numerous blocks of granite that
formed an irregular flight of steps, like the ascent of a pyramid. However,
•they persevered. At length the great ascent was to be made ; and for two
;hours they toiled up a steep zig-zag pass. The air was most invigorating;
•beautiful wild flowers, some of which were very fragrant, ornamented the
ioute, and innumerable wild grape-vines hung in festoons from tree to tree.
In addition to the wild flowers, were numerous fruits — all good, especially a
variety of custard apjjle, and a full-flavoured yellow plum. TJic grapes were
in most j^i'omislng bunches, not unripe. When they reached the summit of
the pass, they were about two thousand five hundred feet above the Latooka
%-alley. The scenery was very fine. To the east and south-east, there were
(masses of high mountains j while to the west and south, were vast tracts of
THE NATIVES OF OBBO. 221>
paik-likc country, of intense green. All around were mountain peaks, on
each of which was a village, the position being evidently chosen for greater
security.
After a march of about twelve miles from the top of the pass, thcj^
arrived at the chief village of Obbo. They were now forty miles S. W. o?
Tarrangollc. The vegetation of Obbo, and the whole of the west side oF
the mountain range, is different from that u2)on the cast side. The soil is
exceedingly rich, producing an abundance of Guinea grass, with whicli the-
plains are covered. The country produces nine varieties of yams. Thero
are many good wild fruits. Ground-nuts are also abundant in the forests.
Tobacco grows to an exti'aordinary size, and a fine quality of flax grows
wild. Baker had never smoked till his arrival in Obbo, but, having sufferecS
much from fever, and the country being excessively damp, ho commenceii
with Obbo pijoes and tobacco.
" The natives of Obbo are entirelj' different to the Latookas, both \m
language and appearance. They are not quite naked, except when they aro
going to war, on which occasion they are painted in stripes of red and yel-
low; but their usual covering is the skin of an antelope or goat, slung like fi
mantle across the shoulders. Their faces are well formed, with peculiarly
fine-shaped noses. The head-dress of the Obbo is remarkably neat, tha
woolly hair being matted, and worked with thread into a flat foi-m, like a
beaver's tail, and bound with a fine edge of raw hide, to keep it in shape^
This, like the head-dress of Latooka, requires many years to complete.
Although the men of Obbo wear a skin slung across their shoulders and
loins, the women are almost naked, and, instead of wearing the leather apron
and tail of the Latookas, they are contented with a slight fringe of leather
shreds, about four inches long by two broad, suspended from a belt. Some-
of the Obbo women were very pretty. The caste of feature was entirely
different to that of the Latookas ; and a striking peculiarity was displayed ia
the finely-arched noses of many of the natives, which strongly reminded one
of Somauli tribes. It was impossible to conjectui-e their origin, as they had
neither traditions nor ideas of their past history."
Katchiba, the chief of Obbo, came with several of his head men to meet
the strangers. He was an extraordinary-looking man, about fifty-eight or
sixty years of age ; but, far from possessing the dignity usually belonging
to a grey head, he acted the buffoon for their amusement, and might have
been a clown in a jDantomime. A violent storm of wind and rain which had
been raging, and which had soaked every one, having cleared away, the
nogaras were ordered to be beaten, and the entertaining old chief determined
upon a grand dance. Pipes and flutes were soon heard gathering from all
quarters ; horns brayed ; and numbers of men and women began to collect
in crowds, while Katchiba, in a state of excitement, gave orders for the enter-
230 STANLEY AND. AFRICA.
tainment. About one hundred men formed a circle; each man held in his
left hand a small cup-shaped drum, formed of hollow wood, one end only-
being perforated, and this was covered with the skin of the elephant's ear,
tightly stretched. In the centre of the circle was the chief dancer, who wore,
suspended from his shoulders, an immense drum, also covered with the ele-
phant's ear. The dance commenced by all singing remarkably well a wild
but agreeable tune in chorus, the big drum directing the time, and the whole
of the little drums striking at certain periods witli such admirable precision,
that the effect was that of a single instrument. The dancing was most vigor-
ous, and far superior to anything that Mr, Baker had seen among either Arabs
or savages, the figures varying continually, and ending in a "grand gallop"
in double circles, at a tremendous pace, the inner ring revolving in a contrary
direction to the outer : the effect of this was most excellent.
The domestic establishment of Katchiba was very large. He kept a
certain number of wives in each of his villages ; thus, when he made a jour-
ney through his territory, he was always at home. He had no fewer than
one hundred and sixteen children living, and every one of his villages was
governed by one of his sons ; thus the entire government was a family affair.
One poor woman came to Baker in great distress, complaining that the chief
was very cruel to her because she had no children ; and said, she was sure
the white man possessed some charm that could raise her to the standai-d of the
other wives. The traveller could not get rid of her until he gave her the
■ first pill that came to hand in his medicine-chest, and with that she went
away contented.
CHAPTER XIII.
Iiife in Olio — Return to Latoolca — Visit Ohho again — Arrival at Shooa — Unj/oro
— Mrs. Baker receives a Sun-Stroke — Discovery of the Allert l>lyanza —
Voyage on the Lake — The Murchison Falls.
THE Obbo people never asked for presents ; in this respect they were a
great improvement on the Latookas. Their old chief, Katchiba, was
more like a clovrn than a king. He was regarded as a great sorcerer and
pain-maker, and thus had great power over his subjects. He was exceed-
ingly civil to our travellers, and proud that they had paid him a visit. Dur-
ing an excursion which Baker made to the country of Farajoke, he left Mrs.
Baker in Katchiba's care ; and when he returned, he found that the chief had
fully honoured the confidence placed in him. Mrs. Baker gave him an excel-
lent character ; he had taken the greatest care of her ; had placed some of
his own sons as sentries over her hut, both by day and night ; and provided
fat sheep and fowls, and beer, for a feast of welcome on Baker's return.
A curious custom was observed by the chief of Farajoke on Baker's
arrival at that place. He was met by the chief and several of the people
leading a goat, which was presented to him as an offering, close to the feet
of his horse. The chief carried a fowl, holding it by the legs, with its head
downwards ; he approached the horse, and stroked his fore-feet with the fowl,
nnd then made a circle around him by dragging it upon the ground. Mr.
Baker's own feet were then stroked with the fowl in the same manner as
those of the horse, and he was requested to stoop, so that the bird might bo
waved around his head. This completed, it was also waved around the
horse's head ; and then the knife put an end to its troubles, and it was handed
to one of Baker's men.
Not being able to proceed south, our traveller determined to return to
his head-quarters at Latooka, and to wait for the dry season. He had made
the reconnaisance to Farajoke, and saw his way clear for the future, provided
his animals should remain in good condition. On the 21st of May. therefore,
he started for Latooka in company with Ibrahim and his men, who were
thoroughly sick of the Obbo climate. Before leaving, a ceremony had to be
performed by Katchiba. His brother was to act as guide, and was to receive
232 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
power to control tlie elements as deputy-magician during the journey. Will*
great solemnity Katcliiba broke a branch from a tree, upon the leaves of
Avhich he spat in several places. This branch, thus blessed with holy Avater^
was liiid upon the ground, and a fowl was dragged around it by the chief \
the horses Mere then operated on precisely in the same manner as had beei>
enacted at Farajoke. This ceremony completed, he handed the branch to
liis brother, who received it with much gravity, in addition to a magic
whistle of antelope's horn that he suspended from his neck. All the natives-
wore whistles similar in appearance, by the use of which they considered!
they either drew the rain, or drove it away, as they desired.
On their arrival at Latooka, they found everything in much the same
condition as they left it. But the day after their arrival, a series of disasters
began, comprising the death of two of Mr. Baker's horses, besides several
camels and donkeys ; Mrs. Baker's illness of gastric fever, and his own illness
from daily attacks of ague ; and the breaking out of the small-pox among the
Turks. Among the natives of Obbo, who had accomj^anied them to Latooka,
was a man named Wani, who had formerly travelled far to the soutli. This
man had been engaged as their guide and interpreter. From him Mr. Baker
got his first real clue to the Albert Nyanza. He thus notes it in his journal
of the 2Cth of May, 1863 : — " I have had a long examination of Wani, the
guide and interpreter, lespecting the country of Magungo. According to his
description, Magungo is situated on a lake so large that no one knows its
limits. Its breadth is such, that, if you journey two days east and the same
distance west, there is no land visible in cither quarter, while, to the south,
its direction is utterly unknown. Large vessels arrive at Magungo from dis-
tant and unknown parts, bringing cowrie-shells and beads in exchange for
ivor}'. Upon these vessels white men have been seen.
"His description of distance places Magungo on about tlic 2° N. lat.
The lake can be no other than the Nyanza, which, if the position of Magungo
be correct, extends much further north than Speke had supposed. The ' white
men' must be Arab traders who bring cowries from Zanzibar. I shall take
the first opportunity to push for Magungo. I examined another native who
had been to Magungo to purchase cowrie-shells. He says that a white man
formerly arrived there annually, and brought a donkey with him in a boat ;.
that he disembarked his donkey and rode about the country, dealing with the
natives, and bartering cowries and brass-coil bracelets."
This information was the first clue, as we have said, to the facts that
Baker subsequently established, and the account of the white men (Ai'abs,
being simpl}^ brown, are called white men by the blacks of these countries)
arriving at Magungo, was confirmed by the people of that country twelve
months after he obtained this vague information at Latooka. On the 30th of
May, at Commoro's instigation, the Turks attacked the neighbouring town of
DISTRESS IN OBBO. 233
Kaj'ala ; but tlic Latookas fought so well, that thoy found it impossible to
ca^jture the pkice, and were driven back, carrying off, however, the cattle of
the natives. In consequence of the abominable conduct of the Turks, which
so irritated the natives that an attack from them was daily expected, it became
dangerous for the i^arty to remain any longer in Latooka.
On the 23rd of June, they started again for Obbo. Their joint j^arties
consisted of about three hundred men. On arrival at the base of the moun-
tains, instead of crossing them as before, they skirted the cliain to the north-
west, and then rounding through a natural gap, they ascended gradually
towards the south. On the fifth day thoy were within twelve miles of Obbo,
and bivouacked on a large mass of granite on the side of a hill, forming an
inclining plateau of about an acre. Here, while the natives were clearing the
grass, they came upon an immense puff-adder, five feet four inches in length,
and above fifteen inches in girth. The tail was, as usual in poisonous snakes,
extremely blunt, and the head j^erfectly flat, and about two inches and a half
broad. He had eight teeth, and five poison fangs, the two most prominent
being nearly an inch in length. Baker immediately pinned his head to the
ground, and severed it with one blow with his hunting-knife. He says he was
the most horrid monster he had ever experienced. As he stooped to skin him,
a thunder storm began, and he looked so Satanic with his flat head, and
minute cold grey eyes, and scaly hide, with the lightning flushing, and the
thunder roaring around him, that all the bystanders were horrified.
The Obbo country was noAV a land of starvation. Tiie natives refused
to supply provision for beads ; nor would they barter anything unless in
exchange for flesh. Here was literally nothing to eat except tullaboon, a
small bitter grain used by the natives in lieu of corn. Both Mr. Baker and
his wife were excessively ill with bilious fever, and neitlier could assist the
other. The old chief, Katchiba, hearing that they were dying, came to charm
them with some magic spell. He found them lying helpless, and immediately
procured a small branch of a tree, and, filling his mouth with water, squirted
it over the leaves and about the floor of the hut ; he then waved the branch
around their heads, and completed his ceremony by sticking it in the thatch
above the doorway ; he told them they would now get better, and, perfectly
satisfied, took his leave. The hut was swarming with rats and white ants, the
former racing over their bodies during the night. Now and again a snako
wouldbeseengliding within the thatch, having taken shelter from the pouring
rain. The small-pox was raging throughout the countr}', and the natives wero
dying like flies in winter. Innumerable flies appeared, including the tsetse,
and in a few weeks the donkeys had no hair left, cither on their cars or legs ;
they drooped and died one by one. At length Baker's last horse died. Flies by
day, rats and innumerable bugs by night, heavy dew. daily rain, and impene-
trable reeking grass, rendered Obbo a prison about as disagreeable as could exist.
30
234 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Mr. and Mrs. Baker recovered slowly, and were able, on the 30tli of
August, to make a morning call upon old Katchiba, by his express desire.
Subsequently, however, they had frequent relapses. Under Oct. 17th he thus
writes, describing the progress of the African fever: — " 1 expect an attack of
fever to-morrow or next day, as I understand, from constant and painful
experiences, every step of this insidious disease. For some days one feels a
certain uneasiness of spirits difficult to explain; no peculiar symptom ia
observed until a day or two before the attack, when great lassitude is felt,
with a desire to sleep. Rheumatic pains in the loins, back, and joints of the
limbs, are accompanied by a sense of great weakness. A cold fit comes on
very quickly ; this is so severe that it almost immediately affects the stomach,
producing painful vomiting, with severe retching. The eyes are heavy and
painful, the head hot and aching, the extremities pale and cold, pulse very
weak, and about fifty-six beats per minute ; the action of the heart distress-
ingly weak, with total prostration of strength. This shivering and vomiting
continues for about two hours, attended with great difficulty of breathing.
The hot stage then comes on, the retching still continuing, with the difficulty
of breathing, intense weakness, and restlessness for about an hour and a half,
which, should the remedies be successful, terminate in profuse perspiration
and sleep. The attack ends, leaving the stomach in a dreadful state of weak-
ness. The fever is remittent, the attack returning almost at the same hour
every two daj's, and reducing the patient rapidly to a mere skeleton ; the
stomach refuses to act, and death ensues. Any severe action of the mind, sucli
as grief or anger, is almost certain to be succeeded by fever in this country.
My stock of quinine is reduced to a few grains, and my work lies before me ;
my cattle are all dead. We are botli weakened by repeated fever, and tra-
velling must be on foot."
Thus, for months, they dragged on a miserable existence at Obbo. Baker
was heartily sick of the expedition, yet determined to succeed in his object,
or die in the attempt. His stock of quinine was exhausted. Porters were
hard to be jsrocured. In the weak state of his wife and himself, travelling on
foot was impossible. He therefore purchased and trained three oxen in lieu
of horses, and named them " Beef," " Steaks," and " Suet." " Beef" was at
first a noble beast ; but having lost his condition, through being bitten by the
flies, liis name was changed to " Bones." During the nine or ten months
that the travellers had been in connection with Ibrahim and his party, they
had succeeded in acquiring very great influence over them. The kindness of
Mrs. Baker, and her husband's good sensa and firmness, had created so favour-
able an impression on the minds of both Turks and natives, that they were
always referred to as unqnres in every dispute.
On the 5th of January, 1864:, tliey renewed their march, with one hun-
dred followers from the Turkish party, in the direction of Unyoro, the king-
JOURNEY TOWARDS UNYORO. 235
•dom lying on the east bank of the great lake. The services of these men were
obtained by guaranteeing to their leader Ibrahim ten thousand pounds' weight
of ivory — a pledge which was eventually redeemed more than threefold.
Mrs. Baker rode her ox ; but his animal being shy, was driven for about a mile
with the others to accustom him to the crowd, whereupon he bolted into tlie
high grass with the saddle upon his back, and was never seen again. Baker,
therefore, had to walk, in his weak state, about twenty-six miles before he waa
able to obtain another ox to carry him. After some days' march, they came
to the river Asua. At the spot where they struck it, it was a hundred and
twenty paces broad, and from the bed to the top of the perpendicular banks,
<was about fifteen feet. The bed was much obstructed by rocks. It forms
the great drain of the country, all its waters flowing into the Nile ; but during
the dry mouths it is most insignificant. Pursuing their journey they reached
Shooa, a lovely place. A fine granite mountain ascended in one block in a
sheer precipice for about eight hundred feet from its base, perfectly abrupt
on the eastern side, while the other portions of the mountain were covered
with forest trees, and picturesquely dotted over with villages. This country
formed a natural jjark, well watered by numerous rivulets, ornamented with
fine timber, and interspersed with numerous rocks of granite, which, from a
distance, produced the effect of ruined castles.
The altitude of Shooa was above a hundred feet higher than the Asua
River. They were now about twelve miles south of Faloro. There was no
great chief at Shooa. Each village had a separate headman. It was * a land
flowing with milk and honey.' Fowls, butter, goats, were in abundance, and
ridiculously cheap. The cultivation of the country was very superior ; and
large crops of sesame were grown and carefully harvested. Two days after
their arrival here, all tlieir Obbo porters absconded. They had heard that
tlie destination was Kamrasi's country, and as they feared that' monarch, they
determined to make an early retreat. Others were procured, and, on the 18th
of January, they left Shooa. The pure air of that country had invigorated
them, and they enjoj'ed the excitement of pushing on into unknown lands.
Eight miles of pleasant marching brought them to the village of Fatiko, situ-
ated upon a splendid plateau of rock upon elevated ground, with beautiful
granite cliffs, bordering a level table-land of fine grass that would have formed
a race-course. The high rocks were covered with natives, perched upon tlie
outline like a flock of ravens.
The natives soon assembled round the travellers, and insisted on a per-
sonal introduction. As each one was introduced, he performed the salaam of
his country, by seizing both hands of Baker, and raising his arms three times
to their full stretch above his head. The fatigue of this ceremony, gone
through with about one hundred Fatikos, was rather more than could be
endured. And as thej saw masses of natives streaming down the rocks, hurry-
2:5f) STANLEY AND AFRICA.
ing to be introduced, tliey mounted their oxen, and with acliinf^- shoulders
bade adieu to Fatiko. Descending the hill, they entered upon a totally dis-
tinct country — an interminable sea of prairies, covering to the horizon a series
of gentle undulations, inclining from east to west. There were no trees except
the dolape-jDalms ; these were scattered at long intervals in the bright yellow
suiface of high grass. On the fourth day they left the prairies, and entered
a noble forest. From an elevated position in the forest, they saw, on the
morning of January 22nd, a cloud of fog hanging in a distant valley, which
betokened the presence of tlie Somerset River, or Victoria White Nile.
While in Obbo, a slave-woman, named Bacheeta, who knew Arabic, bad
given Baker much information concerning Kamrasi's country, from which she
had come; he therefore had engaged her as interpreter and guide. She, how-
ever, had no desire to return to her own country, and endeavoured to mislead
them, by taking them to the country of Eionga, an enemy of Kamrasi. She
so far succeeded, although ]3aker suspected her for some time, that, when they
reached Somerset Eiver, they found they were in Rionga's territory. It was
fortunate for Mr. Baker that he detected her treachery in good time. Had
the news reached Kamrasi that he was in Rionga's country, all chance of his
travelling in Unyoro would have been cut off. They now started for Karuma.
Nothing could exceed the beauty of the march. Their course was through
the forest, parallel with the river, which roared beneath them on their right
in a succession of rapids and falls between high cliffs, covered with gi-oves of
bananas and varieties of palms. The river was about a hundred and fifty yards
Avide ; the cliffs on the south side were higher than those u2:)on the north,
being about a hundred and fifty feet above the river. At length, they
approached the Karuma Falls, close to the village cf Atada.
The heights were crowded with natives, Kamrasi's people. A number
of them soon crossed the river in a canoe to within a parleying distance, when
the woman Bacheeta, as directed, explained that Sfcke^s brother had arrived
from his countrj' to pay Kamrasi a visit, and had brought him valuable pre-
sents. Kamrasi's people, however, showed considerable suspicion on seeing
so many strangers, till Baker appeared dressed in a suit of tweed, something
similar to that Speke had worn, and they saw the resemblance of the beard
and general complexion. Tho}^ then at once manifested their welcome, by
dancing and gesticulating with their lances and shields in the most extravagant
manner. Baker and his party were, notwithstanding, not allowed to cross
till permission was obtained from Kamrasi. Persuasions and threats were
alike vain. Several of the head men explained to them, that the Turkish
party Speke and Grant had met at Faloro, had afterwards represented them-
selves as friends of these travellers, and had been welcomed by Kamrasi's
people as such, and had repaid the hospitality shown them, by plundering
and massacreiug their hosts. They, therefore, now suspected all strangers.
BAKER'S JOURNEY TO THE LAKE. 237
TIic cautious and cowardly Kamrasi, having heard of tlicir arrival in
his country, sent messengers to interview them. lie sent also his brother
to i^crsonate himself; and for some time Baker treated with this brother,
thinking he was treating with Kamrasi. This man's begging disposition and
powers were quite equal to those of the king; and he would have deprived
Baker of all he possessed, had he been foolish enough to listen to his solici-
tations, lie even proposed, in the coolest manner possible, that Mrs. Baker
should be left with him, when her husband went on to the lake. This was
more than Baker could stand ; so drawing his revolver quietly, he held it
within two feet of his chest, and looking at him Avitli undisguised contempt,
told him that, if he dared to repeat the insult, he would shoot him on the spot.
Ultimately this man became more friendl}", and gave orders to his people to
assist the stranger, granting him also permission to proceed westward to the
lake he was so anxious to visit.
A few women having been supplied to carry his luggage, he and his wife,
with their small party of attendants, at length set out. The country was a
vast fiat of grass land, interspersed with small villages and patches of sweet
potatoes. For about two miles, they continued on the bank of the Kafoor
River; the women who carried the luggage were straggling in disorder, and
the few men had as much as they could do in keeping them together. On
approaching a village of considerable size, about six hundred strangely dressed
men rushed out with lances and shields, screaming and yelling as if about to
attack them. Baker's men thought they were about to be slaughtered, and
entreated him to fire upon the strange assemblage. He knew, however, that
they were mistaken ; and that instead of having any hostile intentions, they
had simply come out on parade, and to indulge in a succession of sham fights.
They were dressed either in leopard or white monkey skins, with cows' tails
strapped on behind, and two antelope horns fixed on their heads, while their
chins were oi'namented with false beards, made of the bushy ends of cows'
tails. It turned out that they were a native escort, furnished by Kamrasi's
orders to accompany them to the lake. Both Mr. and Mrs. Baker, however,
preferred their room to their company ; and managed iu a short time to get
rid of them.
Baker's troubles seemed as if they Avere now going to culminate in the
threatened loss of his beloved and brave wife. Their track lay along the
right bank of the Kafoor River, to avoid the marshes on the ojjposite shore,
and it became necessary to cross the stream to regain the westerly course.
"The stream," he says, " was in the centre of a marsh, and although deep,
it was so covered with thickly-matted water-grass and other aquatic plants,
that a natural floating bridge was established by a carpet of weeds about two
feet thick ; upon this waving and unsteady surface the men ran quickly across,
sinking mcrcb' to the ankles, although beneath the tough vegetation there
23S STANLEY AND AFRICA.
was deep water. It was equally impossible to ride or to be carried over this
treacherous surface ; thus I led the way, and begged Mrs. Baker to follow mo
on foot as quickly as possible, precisely in my track. The river was about
eighty yards wide, and I had scarcely completed a fourth of the distance, and
looked back to see if my wife followed close to me, when I was horrified to
see her ^standing on one spot, sinking gradually through the weeds, while her
face was distorted and perfectly purple. Almost as soon as I perceived her,
she fell, as though shot dead. In an instant I was by her side ; and with the
assistance of eight or ten of ray men, who were fortunately close to me, I
dragged her like a corpse through the yielding vegetation, and up to our
waists we scrambled across to the other side, just keeping her head above the
water: to have carried her would have been impossible, as we should all have
sunk together through the weeds. I laid her under a tree, and bathed her
head and face with water, as for the moment I thought she had fainted ; but
she lay perfectly insensible, as though dead, with teeth and hands firmly
clenched, and her eyes open but fixed. It was a coup de soleil.
" Many of the porters had gone on ahead with the baggage ; and I started
ofif a man in haste to recall an angarej?, on which to carry her, and also for a
bag with a change of clothes, as we had dragged her through the river. It
was in vain I rubbed her heart, and the black women rubbed her feet, to
endeavour to restore animation. At length the litter came, and after chang-
ing her clothes, she was carried mournfully forward as a corpse. Constantly
we had to halt and support her head, as a painful rattling in the throat beto-
kened suffocation. At length we reached a village, and halted for the night.
I laid her carefully in a miserable hut, and watched beside her. I opened
her clenched teeth with a small wooden wedge, and inserted a wet rag, upon
which I dropped water to moisten her tongue, which was dry as fur.
'' There was nothing to eat in this spot. My wife had never stirred
since she fell by the coup de soleil, and merely respired about five times in a
minute. It was impossible to remain ; the people would have starved. She
was laid gently -a]}on her litter, and we started forward on our funeral course.
I was ill and broken-hearted, and I followed by her side through the long-
day's march, over wild park-lands and streams, with thick forest and deep
marshy bottoms — over undulating hills, and through valleys of tall papyrus
rushes, which, as we brushed through them on our melancholy way, waved
over the litter like the black plumes of a hearse. We halted at a village, and
again the night was passed in watching. I was wet, and coated with mud
from the swampy marsh, and shivered with ague ; but the cold within was
greater than all. Once more the march. Though weak and ill, and for two
nights without a moment's sleep, I felt no fatigue, but mechanically followed
by the side of the litter, as though in a dream. The same wild country, diver-
sified with marsh and forest.
MRS. BAKER'S ILLNESS. 239
"Again we halted. The niglit came, and I sat by her side in a miser-
able hut, with the feeble lamp flickering, while she lay as in death. She had
never moved a muscle since she fell. My people slept. I was alone, and no
sound broke the stillness of the night. It was past four o'clock. I had j^jassed.
the night in replacing wet cloths upon her head, and moistening her lips.
The morning broke ; my lamp had just bui-nt out, and, cramped witli the
night's watching, I rose from my low seat, and seeing that slie lay in the
same unaltered state, I went to the door of tlie hut to breathe one gasp of the
fresh morning air. I was watching the first red streak that heralded the
rising sun, when I was startled by the words, * Thank God,' faintly uttered
behind me. Suddenly she had awoke from her torpor, and with a heart over-
flowing I went to her bedside. Her eyes were full of madness I She spoke,
but the brain was gone.
" I will not inflict a description of the terrible trial of seven days of brain
fever, with its attendant horrors. For seven nights I had not slept, and although
as weak as a reed, I had marched by the side of her litter. Nature could
resist no longer. We reached a village one evening ; she had been in violent
convulsions successively — it was all but over. I laid her down on her litter
within a hut, covered her with a Scotch plaid, and I fell upon my mat insen-
sible, worn out with sorrow and fatigue. My men put a new handle to the
pickaxe that evening, and sought for a dry spot to dig her grave ! The sun
had risen when I woke. I had slept, and, horrified as the idea flashed upon
me that she must be dead, and that I had not been with her, I started up.
She lay upon her bed, pale as marble, and with that calm serenity that the
features assume when the cares of life no longer act upon the mind, and the
body rests in death. The dreadful thought bowed me down ; but as I gazed
upon her in fear, her chest gently heaved, not with the convulsive throbs of
fever, but naturally. She was asleep ; and when at a sudden noise she opened
her eyes, they were calm and clear. She was saved ! When not a ray of
hope remained, God alone knows what helped us. The gratitude of that
moment I will not attempt to describe." They rested, for two days, Mrs.
Baker taking nourishment, and gradually regaining her strength ; and then
by easy stages they pursued their journey.
Baker was now apj^roaching the great object of his search, and was des-
tined soon to reach the chief source of the Nile. On the ISth of March, his
guide Rabonga told him that they would be able to wash in the lake by noon.
That night he hardly slept. For years he and his wife had hoped, and prayed,
and striven through all kinds of difficulties, in sickness, starvation, and fatigue,
to reach the long-hidden source of the ancient and far-famed river ; and when
it had appeared impossible, they had both determined to die upon the road
rather than return defeated. Now the prize was within their grasp. Baker
sliall describe the discovery in his own words : —
240 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
" llic Will March. — The sun had not risen wlicn I was spurring my ox
after the guide, who, having been promised a double handful of beads on
arrival at the lake, had caught the enthusiasm of the moment. The day
broke beautifully clear, and having crossed a deep valley between the hills,
we toiled up the opposite slope. I hurried to the summit. The glory of our
prize suddenly burst before me ! There, like a sea of quicksilver, lay far
beneath the grand expanse of water — a boundless sea horizon on the south
and south-west, glittering in the noon-day sun ; and on the west, at fifty or
sixty miles distance, blue mountains rose from the bosom of the lake to a
height of about seven thousand feet above its level.
"It is impossible to describe the triumph of that moment. Here was
the reward for all our labour — for the years of tenacity with which we had
toiled through Africa. England had won the sources of the Nile ! Long
before I reached this spot, I had arranged to give tlu'ce cheers with all our
men, in English style, in honour of the discovery, but now that Hooked down
upon the great inland sea, lying nestled in the very heart of Afr-ica, and
thought how vainly mankind had sought these sources throughout so many
ages, and reflected that I had been the humble instrument permitted to
unravel this portion of the great mystery, when so many greater than I had
failed — I felt too serious to vent my feelings in vain cheers for victory, and
I sincerely thanked God for having guided and supported us through all
dangers to the good end. I was about one thousand five liundred feet above
the lake, and I looked down from the steep granite cliff upon those welcome
waters — upon that vast reservoir which nourished Egypt and brought fertility
where all was wilderness — upon that great source so long hidden from man-
kind — that source of bounty and of blessing to millions of human beings; and
as one of the greatest objects in nature, I determined to honour it with a
great name. As an imperishable memorial of one loved and mourned by our
gracious Queen, and deplored by every Englishman, I called this great lake
'■ The Albert Nyanza.' Tlie Victoria and the Albert lakes are the two sources
of the Nile.
" The zigzag path to descend to the lake was so steep and dangerous,
that we were forced to leave our oxen with a guide, who was to take them to
Magungo, and wait for our arrival. We commenced the descent of the steep
pass on foot. I led the way, grasj^ing a stout bamboo. My wife, in extreme
Avcakness, tottered down the pass, supporting herself upon my shoulder, and
stopping to rest every twenty paces. After a toilsome descent of about two
hours, weak with years of fever, but, for the moment, strengthened by success,
•we gained the level j^lain below the cliff. A walk of about a mile through
flat sandy meadows of fine turf, interspersed with trees and bush, brought us
to the water's edge. The waves were rolling upon a white pebbly beach : I
xushed into the lake, and, thirsty with heat and fatigue, with a heart full of
Sr OR TSMEN OF THE A LBER T N YA NZA . 241
gralitiulc, I drank deeply from the sources of the Nile. Within a quarter of
a mile of the lake, was a fishinj^ village named Vacovia, in which we now
established ourselves. Everything smelt of fish, and everything looked like
fishing— not the 'gentle art' of England, with rod and fly, but harpoons were
leaning against the huts, and lines, almost as thick as the little finger, were
hanging up to dry, to which were attached iron hooks, of a size that said
much for tlie monsters of the Albert Lake. On entering the hut, I found a
prodigious quantity of tackle ; the lines were beautifully made of tlie fibre of
the plantain stem, and were exceedingly elastic, and well adapted to witlistand
the first rush of a heavy fisli ; the hooks were very coarse, but well barbed,
and varied in size from two to six inches. A number of harpoons and floats
for hippopotami were arranged in good order, and the ioui ensemble of the hut
showed that the owner was a sportsman."
" Tlic harpoons for hippopotami were precisely tlie same pattern as those
used by tlie Hamran Arabs on the Taka frontier of Abyssinia, having a nar-
row blade of three quarters of an inch in width, with only one barb. The
rope fitted to the harpoon was beautifully made of j)lantain fibre, and the
float was a huge piece of ambatch wood, about fifteen inches in diameter.
They speared the hippopotamus from canoes, and these large floats were
iicccssaiy to be easily distinguislicd in the rough waters of the lake. My
men were perfectly astounded at the a2:)pearance of the lake. The journey
had been so long, and hope deferred had so completely sickened their hearts,
that they had long since disbelieved in the existence of the lake, and they
were persuaded that I was leading them to the sea. They now looked at
(he lake with amazement. Two of them had already seen the sea at Alex-
andria, and they unhesitatingly declared that this was the sea, but that it
^Yas not salt."
Vacovia was a miserable place. The soil was so impregnated with salt,
that cultivation was impossible; and in consequence of its damp and hot
position the whole party suffered fi-om fever. The latitude of the village
was 1° 15' N., and longitude 30° 50' E. Our travellers were noAV to turn
iheir faces towards the south, and every day's journey would bring them
nearer home. After a delay of eight days at this wretched spot, waiting for
canoes which had been promised, two were brought. Tiiey were merely
Jiollowed-out trunks of trees, the largest being thirty-two feet long. Tho
other, which Baker selected for himself, his wife, and their personal attend-
ants, was twenty-six feet long. • In this he fitted up a cabin for his wife,
which was both rain and sun-proof. Each canoe had four rowers, two at
cither end. Their paddles were beautifully shaped, hewn from one jDlece of
■\vood, the blade being rather wider than that of an ordinary spade, but con-
cave in the inner side, so as to give the rower a great hold upon the water.
With a few fowls and fishes on board, the party started in good spirits. The
31
243 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
rowers paddled bravely, and although heavily laden, they went along at the
rate of four miles an hour, directing their course northward, towards the part
out of which the Nile was supposed to flow.
The first day's voyage was deliglitful, the lake was calm, and the scenery
lovely. At times the mountains on the west coast could not be seen, and
the lake ajoj^eared of indefinite width. Sometimes they passed directly under
precipitous clififs of fifteen hundred feet in height, rising abruptly out of the
water. These rocks are all primitive, frequently of granite and gneiss, and
mixed in many places with red porphyry. From their deep clefts evergreens
of every tint appeared ; and wherever a rivulet ran, it was shaded by the
graceful and feathery wild date. The waters SAvarmed with hippopotami
and crocodiles ; but to avoid delay. Baker suppressed his sporting propensi-
ties, and left them unhurt.
But even here the expedition had its perils. After the first day, the
boatmen deserted. Not to be defeated, however, our traveller induced his
own people to take to the paddles, but he found it almost impossible to teach
them how to use them. He fitted a paddle to his own boat to serve as a rud-
der, but the men in the larger boat neglected to carry out his instructions.
Wliile he was at work, a tremendous storm of rain came down. His own
canoe being ready, he started, when, as he was about to cross from one head-
land to another, he saw the larger canoe spinning round and round, the crew
having no notion of guiding her. Fortunately it was calm, and, on reaching
the shore, he induced several natives to serve as his crew, while others went
off in their own boats to assist the men in the large canoe. They now began
to cross a dee]! bay about eight miles wide, and had gained the centre, when
a tremendous storm came on from the south-west, and threatened to over-
whelm them. Enormous waves broke over Baker's canoe, as it tore along
before the gale with a large Scotch plaid for a sail. Down came the rain in
torrents, while the wind swept over the surface with terrific force, nothing
being discernible except the high cliffs looming in the distance. The canoe
shipped much water, which was quickly baled out. Had this not been done,
it would inevitably have been swamped. Everything was soaked except the
gunpowder, which was in canisters ; and although the distance to the shore
was not great, it seemed impossible to reach it, and uncertain whether they
could land on it, if reached. The boatmen paddled energetically, and at last
a beach was seen ahead. As they were making for it, a wave struck the
canoe, washing over her. Just then the men jumped out, and, though they
were rolled over, they succeeded in landing all safely, and hauling the boat
up the beach. The other canoe also, and the crew, got safe to shore.
There was a village not far from where they landed ; but they could
procure nothing to eat, except a few dried fish, that, not having been salted, were
rather high in their flavour. On the following morning they were detained
VO YA GE ON THE LA KE. 243
by bad weather, as a heavy sea was still running, and they were determined
not to risk their canoes in another gale. It was a beautiful neighbourhood,
enlivened by a magnificent waterfall, that fell about a thousand feet from the
mountains, as the Kaugiri River emptied itself into the lake in a splendid
volume of water. The next day the lake was calm, and they started early.
The monotony of the voj^age was broken by the presence of several fine
herds of elephants, consisting entirely of bulls. Baker counted fourteen
of these grand animals, all with large tusks, bathing together in a small lake
beneath the mountains, having a communication with the mainland througli
a sandy beach. It was a scene in harmony with the solitude of the Nile
sources — the wilderness of rocks and forest, the Blue Mountains in the dis-
tance, and the great fountain of nature adorned with the mighty beasts of
Africa ; the ele^^hants in undisturbed grandeur, and hippopotami disporting
their huge forms in the great parent of the Egyptian river.
Thus they proceeded for thirteen days, coasting the east shore of the lake,
which gradually narrowed to a breadth of from fifteen to twenty miles. The
shore of the lake, as they paddled along it, was thinly inhabited, and the
people very inhospitable, till they reached a place called Eppigoya. Even
here, the inhabitants refused to sell any of their goats, though they willingly
parted with fowls, at the rate of about two hundred and fifty for a shilling.
Eggs were bought in baskets, containing several Iiundreds ; but Baker signi-
ficantly says they were all poultry. At each village, the voyagers changed
their boatmen, none being willing to go beyond the village next them. This
was very annoying, and occasioned constant delays.
" On the thirteenth day," says Baker, " we found ourselves at the end of
the lake voyage. The lake, at this point, was between fifteen and twenty
miles across, and the appearance of the country to the north was that of a
delta. The shores upon either side were choked with vast banks of reeds,
and as the canoe skirted the edge of that upon the east coast, we could find
no bottom with a bamboo of twenty-five feet in length, although the floating-
mass appeared like terra firma. On the west, were mountains of about four
thousand feet above the lake level, a continuation of the chain that formed
the western shore from the south ; these mountains decreased in height
towards the north, in which direction the lake terminated in a broad valley
of reeds.
" We were told that we had arrived at Magungo, and that this was the
spot where the boats invariably crossed from Malegga, on the western shore,
to Kamrasi's country. The boatman proposed that we should land upon the
floating vegetation, as that would be a short cut to the village or town of
Magungo ; but as the swell of the water against the abrupt raft of reeds
threatened to swamp the canoe, I preferred coasting until we should discover
a good landing-place. After skirting the floating reeds for about a mile, we
2U. STANLEY AND AFRICA.
turned sharp to the east, and entered a broad cliannel of water bounded on
cither side by the everlasting reeds. Tliis we were informed was the em-
bouchure of the Somerset River from the Victoria Nyanza. The same river
tSliat we had crossed at Karuma, boiling and tearing along its rocky course,
now entered the Nyanza, as dead water ! I could not understand this ; there
was not the slightest current ; the channel was about lialf a mile wide, and I
could hardly convince myself that this was not an arm of the lake branching
to the east. After searching for some time for a lai:ding place among the
wonderful banks of reeds, we discovered a passage that had evidently l)cea
used as an approach by canoes, but so narrow that one large canoe could with
difficulty be dragged through, all tlie men walking through the mud and
reeds and towing with their utmost strength. Several hundred paces of this
tedious work brought us through tlie rushes into open water, about eight feet
deep, opposite to a clear rocky shore. We heard voices for some time while
obscured on the other side of the rushes, and we now found a number of
natives, who had arrived to meet us with the chief of Magungo and our guide,
Ilabonga, whom we had sent in advance with the riding oxen from Vacovia.
The water was extremely shallow near the shore, and the natives ruslied in
and dragged the canoes by sheer force over the mud to the land. "We had
been so entirely hidden while on the lake on the other side of the reed bank,
that we had been unable to see the eastern or Magungo shore ; we now found
ourselves in a delightful spot, beneath the shade of several enormous trees on
a rapid incline to the town of Magungo, about a mile distant, on an elevated
ridge."
The chief of Magungo, and a large number of natives, were on the shore
waiting for them, having brought them down a plentiful supply of goats,
fowls, eggs, and fresh butter. Proceeding on foot to the height on which
Magungo stands, they thence enjoyed a magnificent view, not only over the
lake, but to the north, towards the point where its waters flow into the Nile,
and where they saw its exit plain enough. It was Baker's great desire to
descend the Nile in canoes, from the spot where it left the lake to the cataracts
in the Madi country, and thence to march direct, with only guns and ammu-
nition, to Gondokoro. He found, however, that this was a plan which it was
impossible to carry out. Before he could return from Magungo to the canoes,
he was laid prostrate with fever, and most of his men were also in a suffering
state. But he had heard of a magnificent waterfall up Somerset River, and
resolved to visit it. Tliey accordingly started in search, and when they had
got about eighteen miles above Magungo, they perceived a slight current.
Gradually the river narrowed to about a hundred and eighty yards, and now,
when the men ceased working their paddles, the roar of water could be dis-
tinctly heard. As they proceeded, the roar became louder. The sand-banks
on the sides of the river were crowded with crocodiles ; they lay like logs of
THE MURCIIISON FALLS. 045
timber close together, and upon one bank alone, Mr. Baker counted no fewer
than twenty-seven.
Ecaching a deserted village, llie crew at first refused to proceed further^
but, on our traveller explaiinng that he merely wished to see the falls, they
paddled u]^ the stream, Avhich was now strong against them. Upon rounding
a point, a magnificent sight burst u25on them. On either side of the river
were beautifully-wooded cliffs, rising abruj^tly to a height about three hundred
feet, rocks jutting out from the intensely green foliage, while, rushing through
a gap which cleft the rock before them, was the river, contracted from a grant!
stream, and pent up in a narrow gorge scarcely fifty yards wide. Roaring
fiercely through the rock-bound pass, it plunged in one leap of about a hun-
dred and twenty feet, perpendicularly into the dark abyss below ; the snow-
wliite sheet of water contrasting superbly with the dark clifi" that walled the
river, while the graceful 2:)alms of the tropics, and wild plantains, perfected
the beauty of the scene. This was the greatest waterfall of the Somerset or
Victoria Nile ; and, in honour of the distinguished President of the Royal Geo-
graphical Society, Baker named it the Murchison Falls. The appearance of
tiie Somerset River, as it reached the Albert Lake, was very perplexing to
him at first. The broad channel of dead water was in singular contrast with
the fine flowing, brawling river he had crossed below the Karuma Falls ; and.
he could not believe it was the same stream. The guide and the natives
laughed at his unbelief, and declared that it was dead water for a considerable
distance from the junction with the lake, but that a great waterfall rushed
down the mountain, and that beyond that fall the river was merely a succes-
sion of cataracts throughout the entire distance of six days' march to Karuma
Falls. All this was now ascertained to be true.
The boatmen, having been promised a present of beads to induce them
to approach the fall as near as possible, succeeded in bringing the canoe-
within about three hundred yards of the base, but the power of the current
and the whirlpools in the river, rendered it impossible to proceed farther.
The crocodiles slowly crept into the water as the canoe apjoroached them ; all,,
excepting one, an immense fellow, who lagged lazily behind, and immediately
dropped dead as a bullet from Baker's rifle struck him in the brain. The
boatmen were so alarmed at the unexpected report of the rifle, that they
immediately dropped into the body of the canoe, one of them losing his
paddle. Nothing would induce them to attend to the boat, as a second shot
had been fired at the crocodile as a "quietus," and they did not know how
often the alarming noise would be repeated. The result was, that they were
at the mercy of the stream, and the canoe was whisked round by the eddy
and carried against a thick bank of high reeds.
They had scarcely touched the reedy bank when a tremendous commo-
tion took place among the rushes, and in an instant a great bull hippopotamus
246 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
charged the canoe, and striking the bottom, with a severe shock lifted it half
out of the water. The natives who were in the bottom of the boat yelled
with terror, not knowing whether the shock was in any way connected with
the report of the rifle. The monster who had excited all this alarm soon
made his exit, and sank too rapidly to permit a shot. Crocodile heads of
enormous size were on all sides appearing and vanishing rapidly, as they
rose to survey the intruders : at one time they counted eighteen upon the
surface. Having recovered the lost paddle, which had floated some consider-
able distance down the rajiid current, Baker prevailed upon the boatmen to
keciD the canoe steady while he sketched the scene before them ; after which
they drifted down to the landing place, and spent the night amid the ruins
■of some deserted huta.
CHAPTER XIV.
^he Island of Patooan — Confined in the Countnj — Kumrasi^s Tactics — Fareivell to
Kdmrasi's Territory — Arrival at SJiooa — The Lira Tribe — Attack hj the Ban
Tribe — Reach Gondokoro — Voyage down the Nile to Khartoum — From Khar-
toum to Berber — Departure from Africa.
HAVING made a sketch of the Murchison Falls, Baker bade adieu to the
navigation of the lake and river of Central Africa. Clouds had threat-
ened rain, and down it came. By the next morning, however, it passed away,
and as the future travelling was to be on land, the riding oxen were called into
use. It was soon found that they had been so bitten by the tsetse-fly as to
be in a wretched condition, and not likely to live. Baker was obliged to
walk, although he was excessively weak. They continued along the Somer-
set, crossing many ravines and torrents, until they turned suddenly do\vn to
the left, and arriving at the bank were transported to an island called Patooan,
that was the residence of a chief. This island was about half a mile long by
one hundred and fifty yards wide, and was one of the numerous masses of
rocks that choke the river between the Karuma and the Murchison Falls.
The rock was entirely of grey granite, from the clefts of which beautiful
forest trees grew so thickly that the entire island was in shade. Once they
were safely landed on the island of Patooan, their guide and all their carriers
deserted them, so that they were prisoners, without knowing how they could
leave the spot.
It was now the 8th of April, and the boats on which they depended for
their return to civilisation would quit Gondokoro. It was therefore of the
ntmost importance that they should set out at once, and take a direct route
through the Shooa country. The natives, with their usual cunning, offered
to convey them to Shooa, provided they paid them beads in advance ; but
Baker discovered, in good time, that they simply meant to land them on the
north side of the river in an uninhabited wilderness, and leave them there to
die of hunger. Baker's own men were ill, as well as Mrs. Baker and himself
and there was a great scarcity of provisions. War was going on in the country
to the east, Patooan being in the hands of Kamrasi's enemies. It was on
this account that no Uuyoro porters could be found. At length they got
218 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
fenied over to the mainland. Here they might have starved, had they not
fomid, in a half-destroyed village, a granary of tullaboon seed, which, altliough
mouldy and bitter, was a great prize. This tliey ground into corn, and boiled
with two or tlirec varieties of wild plants. They were not able to obtain a
morsel of animal food, and tea and coffee were things of the past, the very
memory of which made their mouths water. They found a species of wild
thyme growing in the jungles, and this, when boiled, formed a tolerable sub-
stitute for tea ; sometimes they procured a little wild honey, with which to
sweeten it, and this they considered a great luxury.
■ This wretched fare, in their exhausted state from fever and the general
effects of the climate, so completely disabled them, that, for nearly two
months, Mrs. Baker lay helpless on one angarep, and he upon the other.
Neither of them could walk. They were worn to perfect skeletons. They
had now given up all liope of reaching Gondokoro, and felt sure they would
die on the desolate spot where they wei'c. Baker wrote instructions in his
journal, in case of death, and told his headman to be sure and deliver his
maps, observations, and papers, to the English Consul at Khartoum. After
more than two months of this wretchedness, it became evident that something
must be done. He sent his headman, and a native as a guide, with instruc-
tions to go direct to Kamrasi, and tell him that he felt much insulted by hii
conduct, desiring him to send at once fifty men to convey him to his royal
j^rcsence. The object, it appeared, of Kamrasi in tlius leaving them, was to
obtain their assistance against his enemies. Baker instructed his headman
to say that, if the king wished to enter Into an alliance with him, he must
have a personal interview. Tliis measure succeeded ; and presently Rabonga,
the guide, who had previous!}^ deserted the part}^, made his appearance,
having been ordered to convey them to Kamrasi's camp. He gave them a
thin ox that Kamrasi had sent to supply their present need. On the follow-
ing morning. Baker and his wife were carried in their litters by a number of
men. The ox had been killed, the wliole party had revelled in good food,
and a sufficient supply for the journey was taken by the men.
The country througli which they passed was like a vast park, overgrown
with immense grass. Every day the jiorters bolted, and they were left
deserted at the charred ruins of various villages that had been plundered by
Kamrasi's enemies. It poured with rain ; there was no cover, as all the huts
had been burnt, and they had rejjeated attacks of fever. After several days
of slow marching, they arrived one morning at a deserted camp, of about
three thousand huts, wliich were just being ignited by several natives. This
had been Kamrasi's head-quarters, wliich he had quitted, and, according to
native custom, it was to be destroyed by fire. It was reported that lie had
removed to another position, within an hour's march, and had constructed a
new camp. The neighbourhood was a mass of extensive plantain groves and
£A KER'S IN TROD UCTION TO KA MRA SL Zi.)
burnt villages, but every plantain-tree had been cut through the middle, and
recklessly destroyed, by Kamrasi's foes, who had retired on the advance of
his army. In spite of their weak state they continued their journey, till,
at length, they came to a village called Kisoona, where they found ten of
the Turks of Ibrahim's party, who had been left by him as hostages with
Kamrasi, while he returned lo Gondokoro. These Turks received them with
every mark of respect, and with manifestations of delight and wonder at
their having performed so difficult a journey. A Imt was built for their recep-
tion ; and an ox, killed by the Turks, was prepared as a feast for their people.
Baker now learnt that he had never yet seen the real Kamrasi, and that
the person who had previously introduced himself as such, was only that
chief's brother. He was greatly annoyed at the deception which had been>
practised upon him, but had no way of helping himself. The real Kamrasi
now notified his readiness to receive the traveller, who, attiring himself in a
Highland costume, which by some inconceivable chance he had still in his
portmanteau, suddenly appeared to the eyes of the astounded natives in
the heroic garb of a Scottish chief. A general shout of exclamation arose-
from the assembled crowd ; and taking his seat upon an angarep, he was
immediately shouldered by a number of men, and, attended by ten of his
people as escort, he was carried towards the camp of the great Kamrasi.
In about half an hour they arrived at the camp. It was composed of
grass huts, extended over a large extent of ground, and the approach was
perfectly black with the throng that crowded to meet the stranger. Women,
children, dogs, and men, all thronged at the entrance of the street that led
to the king's residence. Entering through a narrow passage, Baker found
himself in the presence of the actual king of Unyoro, the true Kamrasi. At
first the king received him coldly — hardly condescended to look at him.
Baker, determined not to humble himself like the attendants around, who
were crawling on their hands and knees to the monarch's feet, and touching
the ground with their forehead, took his seat upon his stool, which he had
ordered one of his men to carry with him. Not a word passed between
Kamrasi and himself for about five minutes, durinsr which time the king'
eyed him most attentively, and made various remarks to the chiefs who were
present. At length the king spoke, and conversation began. Immediately
he began to beg, wanting the Highland dress. He informed Baker that he
had made arrangements for his remaining at Kisoona, and ordered flour,
plantain beer, and a goat, to be forwarded thither as presents.
As now all hope of reaching Gondokoro in time for the boats had gone,
Mr. Baker yielded to necessity, and prepared to make himself at home. He
had a comfortable hut built, surrounded by a courtyard, with an open shed,
in which he and his wife could spend the best hours of the day. Kamrasi
sent him a cow, wliich gave plenty of milk, and every second day they were
32
250 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
enabled to make a small cheese, about the size of a six-pound cannon shot.
Every week also he sent them an ox, and a quantity of flour for themselves
and people, so that the whole party soon grew fat. They used the milk
native fashion, never drinking it until curdled. Taken in this form, it will
agree with the most delicate stomach, whereas, if used fresh in large quan-
tities, it induces biliousness. In hot climates, milk curdles in two or three
hours, if placed in a vessel that has previously contained sour milk. When
curdled, it should be well beaten together until it assumes the appearance of
cream ; in this state, if seasoned with a little salt, it is most nourishing, and
easy of digestion.
Baker says, " Although the fever had so completely taken possession of
me, that I was subject to an attack almost daily, the milk fattened me
extremely, and kej^t uja my strength, which otherwise must have failed.
The change from starvation to good food, produced a marvellous effect.
Curious as it may appear, although we were in a land of plantains, the ripe
fruit was in the greatest scarcity. The natives invariably eat them unripe,
the green fruit, when boiled, being a fair substitute for potatoes ; the ripe
plantains were used for brewing j)lantain cider ; but they were never eaten.
The method of cider-making was simple. The fruit was buried in a deep
hole and covered with straw and earth ; at tlie expiration of about eight
days, the green j^lantains, thus interred, had become rijje ; they were then
peeled and pulped within a large wooden trough resembling a canoe ; this
was filled with water, and the pulj) being well mashed and stirred, it was left
to fei-ment two days, after which time it was fit to drink.
" Throughout the country of Unyoro, jjlantains in various forms were
the staple article of food, upon which the inhabitants placed more dejDendence
than upon all other crops. T)ie green plantains were not only used as potatoes,
but when peeled they were cut in thin slices and dried in the sun uiitil crisp ;
in this state they were stored in the granaries, and when required for use they
were boiled into a pulp and made into a jDalatable soup or stew. Flour of
plantains was remarkably good ; this was made by grinding the fruit when
dried as described; it was then, as usual with all other articles in that country,
most beautifully packed in long narrow parcels, either formed of plantain bark
or of the white interior of rushes worked into mats. This bark served as
brown paper, but had the advantage of being water-proof. The fibre of the
plantain formed both thread and cord, thus the principal requirements of the
natives were supplied by this most useful tree. The natives were exceedingly
clever in working braid from the plantain fibre, which was of so fine a texture
that it had the appearance of a hair-chain ; nor could the difference be de-
tected without a close examination. Small bags netted with the same twine
were most delicate ; and in all that was produced in Unyoro, there was a
remarkably good taste displayed in the manufacture."
RESIDENCE AT KISOONA. 251
The natives were as clever and as cunning in tlieir bargains as somo
European tradesmen. Every morning, shortly after sunrise, men might bo
heard crying their wares thus: — "Tobacco, tobacco; two packets going
either for beads or salt!" "Salt to exchange for lance heads!" "Coffee,
coffee, going cheap for red beads !" " Butter for five red beads a lump !" A
dealer brought Mr. Baker one day a lump of butter, about the size of a cocoa-
nut, wrapped up carefully in a plantain leaf, with only the point at the toj)
exposed. He tasted from the exposed part, and approving the flavour, jDur-
chased. He was fairly cheated, as the butter dealer had. packed some old
butter under the leaf, and placed a small piece of fresh and sweet on the top
as a tasting point. As retailers, they took great pains to divide everything
into minimum packets, which they sold for a few beads, always declaring
that they had only one packet to dispose of, but immediately producing
another when that was sold.
The travellers were compelled to spend, several months at Kisoona, during
which time, in spite of rest and good food, they suffered much from fever.
They were continually troubled by Kamrasi sending messengers to request
their appearance before him ; but they excused themselves for non-attendance,
on the ground of their weak state. He then sent a messenger one day to say
that he should pay them a visit the following morning, and the following
morning, attended by a numerous retinue, he came. At once he began to
beg for everything he saw — watch, rifle, looking-glass, chair, beads, gunpow-
der, surgical instruments, combs, and medicines of all kinds. Some things
were given him, but others were positively refused. At his special request,
he received a dose of tartar-emetic, as he said he had been suffering from a
headaclie. He took it on his return home in the evening, and the next morn-
ing. Baker heard that he had considered himself poisoned by it, but was now
well.
From tbat day, the travellers received no supplies from the king. Baker
had refused to mix himself up with his quarrels, though he promised, that if
Fowooka and Rionga, Kamrasi's enemies, attempted to invade the country
while he remained in it, he would be most happy to lead the king his aid to
repel them. This was not enough for him ; and consequently he was affronted.
The weeks passed slowly at Kisoona. At length their stay was cut short, in
consequence of the invasion of the country by Fowooka's people, accom-
panied by a hundred and fifty Turks belonging to tlie trading party that had
attacked Kamrasi the preceding year. Kamrasi proposed at once taking to
flight; but Baker promised to hoist the flag of England, and to j^lace the
' country under British protection. He then sent a message to Mahommed, the
headman of the Turkish party, warning him, that should a shot be fired by
any of his peojDle, he would be hanged ; and ordering them at once to quit
the country. He also informed him, that he had promised all the ivory to
252 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Ibrahim, so that, contrary to the rules of the traders, they were trespassing
in the territory.
This letter had its due effect. Mahommed deserted his allies, and plun-
dered them of their cattle and slaves. Kamrasi oi'dered general rejoicings,
killed a number of oxen and distributed them among his people, and intoxi-
cated half the country with presents of plantain-cider. Forthwith, he fell
with his troops on Fowooka and his people, and cut them to pieces, while the
women and children were brought away as captives. A number of old women,
who could not walk sufficiently fast to keep up with their victors during the
return march, were killed on the road, by being beaten on the back of the
neck with a club. The younger women who were sjoared were, for the most
part, remarkably good looking, of soft and pleasing expression, dark-brown
com^^lexion, fine noses, woolly hair, and good figures. One woman had a
most beautiful child, a boy, about twelve months old.
At length, on the 20th of September, Ibrahim returned from Gondokoro,
bringing with him the post from England. The letters were of very old date,
none mider two years, with the exception of one from Speke. For a whole
(lay, the travellers revelled in the luxury of letters and newspapers. Ibrahim
also brought a piece of coarse cotton cloth, of Arab manufacture, which Baker
used for clothes for himself, and a piece of cotton print for a dress for Mrs.
Baker, besides honey, rice, and coftee. He made some presents, too, to
Kamrasi, which, in addition to the defeat of his enemies, jiut him in excel-
lent humour.
About the middle of November, the Turkish traders having collected a
large supjjly of ivory, were ready to return to Shooa ; and Mr. Baker, thank-
ful to leave the wretched country in which he had now spent ten months,
took his leave of Kamrasi, and commenced the return journey with his allies.
The quantity of ivory was so great, that they required seven hundred porters
to carry both tusks and pi-ovisions for the five days' march through an uninha-
bited country. This large quantity of ivory was the promised recompense to
the Turkish escort, which alone secured their fidelity, and enabled Mr. Baker
to effect his return. The entire party, including women and children, amounted
to about a thousand people. On the break of day of November 17th, they
started. After the first day's march, they quitted the forest and entered upon
the great prairies. From some elevated points in the route they could dis-
tinctly see the outline of the mountains running from the Albert Lake to the
north, on the west bank of the Nile, although they were about sixty miles
distant.
On the fifth day's march from the Victoria Nile, they arrived at Shooa ;
the change was delightful after the wet and dense vegetation of Unyoro ; the
country was dry, and the grass short and of good quality. They took pos-
session of a camp which had been prepared for them ; huts were built for the
THE LIRA TRIBE. 256
interpreters and servants, and quite a mansion for Mr. and Mrs. Baker them-
selves. The native women crowded to the camp in the evening to welcome
Mrs. Eaker home, and to dance in honour of her return. Several montlis
were passed at Sliooa, during which time Baker rambled about the neighbour-
hood, made duplicates of his maps, gathered information, and endeavoured to
turn his stay to the best account. The Turks had discovered a new country
called Lira, about thirty miles from Shooa; the natives were reported as
friendly, and tlieir country was said to be wonderfully fertile, and very rich
in ivory. The people " were the same type as the Madi, but wore their liair
in a difTerent form ; this was woven into a thick felt, wliich covered the
shoulders, and extended as low upon the back as the shoulder-blade. They
were not joarticular about wearing false hair, but were hajipy to receive sub-
scriptions from any source ; in case of death the hair of the deceased was imme-
diately cut off and shared among his friends, to be added to their felt. When
in full dress (the men being naked) this mass of felt was plastered thickly
with a bluisli claj^, so as to form an even surface ; this was eleborately worked
with the point of a thorn, so as to resemble the cuttings of a file ; white pipe-
clay was then arranged in patterns on the surface, while an ornament, made
of either an antelope's or giraffe's sinew, was stuck in the extremity, and
turned up for about a foot in length. This when dry was as stiff as horn,
and the tip was ornamented with a tuft of fur — the tip of a leopard's tail
being highly jorized."
The hour of deliverance from their long sojourn in Central Africa was at
hand. It was the month of February, 1865, and the boats would be at
Gondokoro. The day arrived for their departure from Sliooa ; and they turned
their backs fairly to the soutli. For several daj's they travelled tln-ough most
beautiful jiark-like lands, the verdant grass sometimes diversified by splendid
tamarind trees, the dark foliage of which afforded shelter for great numbers
of the brilliant yellow-breasted pigeon. Ascending a rocky mountain by a
stony and difficult pass, they found, upon arrival at the summit, that they
were about eight hundred, feet above the Nile, which lay in front at about
two miles distance, and they halted to enjoy the magnificent view. Hero
was the grand old river, fresh from its great source, the Albert Lake. They
could discern its course for about twenty miles, and distinctly trace the lino
of mountains on the west bank, that they had seen at about sixty miles dis-
tance, when on the route from Karuma to Shooa. Exactly opposite the sum-
mit of the pass from which they now scanned the country, rose the precipitous
mountain known as Gebel Kookoo, which rose to a height of about two thou-
sand five hundred feet above the level of the Nile. They were now on the
track by which Speke and Grant had returned. Descending the pass through
a thorny jungle, they arrived at the river, and turning suddenly to the north,
followed its course for about a mile, and then bivouacked for the evening.
251 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
When they came to the Asua River, about a quarter of a mile above its
junction with the Nile, they were able to cross it on foot, the water in the
deepest part reaching only to the middle of the thigh. Like other mountain
torrents, it is formidable during the rains, but exhausted in the dry season.
The crossing of this river was a signal of extra precaution in the arrangement
of their march, as they had entered the territory of the ever hostile Bari tribe,
and had been already warned that they could not pass to Gondokoro with-
out being attacked. In a short time the attack was made, and thus Baker
describes it : — " In these ravines grew dense thickets of bamboos. Having
no native guide, but trusting solely to the trader's people, who had travelled
frequently by this route, we lost the path, and shortly became entangled
amongst the numerous ravines. At length we passed a village, around which
were assembled a number of natives. Having regained the route, we observed
the natives appearing in various directions, and as quickly disappearing, only
to gather in our front in increased numbers. Their movements exciting
suspicion, in a country where every man was an enemy, our party closed
together. We threw out an advance guard — ten men on either flank — the
porters' ammunition and eflfects in the centre ; while about ten men brought
up the rear. Before us lay two low rocky hills covered with trees, high grass
and bushwood, in which I distinctly observed the bright-red forms of natives
painted according to the custom of the Bari tribe.
" We were evidently in for a fight. The path lay in a gorge between
the low rocky hills in advance. My wife dismounted from her ox, and
walked at the head of our party with me, Saat following behind, with the
gun that he usually carried, while the men drove several riding-oxen in the
centre. Hardly had we entered the pass, when whiz went an arrow over
our heads. This was the signal for a repeated discharge. The natives ran
among the rocks with the agility of monkeys, and showed a considerable
amount of daring in standing within about eighty yards from the ridge, and
taking steady shots at us with their poisoned arrows. The flanking parties
now opened fire, and what with the bad shooting of both the escort and the
native archers, no one was wounded on either side for the first ten minutes.
The rattle of musketry, and the wild appearance of the naked vermilion-
coloured savages, as they leajjt along the craggy ridge, twanging their bows
at us with evil, but inefiectual intent, was a charming picture of African life
and manners.
'' Fortunately the branches of numerous trees and intervening clumps of
bamboo, frustrated the good intentions of the arrows, as they glanced from
their aim; and although some fell among our party, we were as yet unscathed.
One of the enemy, who was most probably a chief, distinguished himself in
particidar, by advancing to within about fifty yards, and, standing on a rock,
he deliberately shot five or six arrows, all of which missed their mark ; the
ARRIVAL AT GONDOKORO. 255
men dodged them as they arrived in tlieir uncertain flight: the speed of the
arrows was so inferior, owing to the stiffness of the bows, that nothing was
easier than to evade them. Any halt was unnecessary. "We continued our
march through the gorge, tlie men keejiing up an unremitting fire, until we
entered upon a tract of high grass and forest. This being perfectly dry, it
would have been easy to set it on fire, as the enemy were to leeward ; but
althougli the rustling in the grass betokened the presence of a great number
of men, they were invisible. In a few minutes we emerged in a clearing,
where corn had been planted. This was a favourable position for a decisive
attack. upon the natives, who now closed up. Throwing out skirmishers, with
orders that they had to cover themselves behind the trunks of trees, the Bans
were driven back. One was now shot through the body and fell ; but reco-
vering, he ran with his comrades, and fell dead after a few yards. What
casualties had occurred during the passage of the goi'ge, I cannot say, but
the enemy were now utterly discomfited."
The following night, however, the travellers' camp was surrounded, and
poisoned arrows stealthily shot into it. In the morning, one of the natives
who had ventured nearer than the rest, and been fired at, was found killed.
His bow was in his hand, and two or three arrows were lying by his side.
When they searched the camp for arrows, they picked up four others in
various places, some within a few feet of their beds, and all horribly barbed
and poisoned, that had been shot into the camp gateway. This was the last
attack during their journey. Henceforth they marched well. The country
was generally jDoor, but beautifully diversified with large trees, the tamarind
predominating. In a few days they sighted the mountain of Belignian ; then
they had a splendid view of the Ellyria Mountain, and of the distant cone,
Gebel el Assul, between Ellyria and Obbo. At length, one day Saat exclaimed,
" I see the masts of the vessels !" They were apjiroaching Gondokoro. On
their arrival, they saw the Turkish flag emerge from the place, and a number
of the trader's people came to meet them, and fire salutes of welcome.
Dismounting from their tired oxen, their first inquiry was concerning
boats and letters. To their dismay, there were neither boats, letters, supplies,
nor any intelligence of friends or the civilised world. All the people at Khar-
toum had either given them up as dead, or thought they might have gone to
Zanzibar ; the former was the prevailing opinion. They discovered at last
that three boats had arrived from Khartoum — one diahbiah and two noggors
— although no one had been sent for them. The trading parties were in great
consternation because the report had reached them that the Egyptian autho-
rities were about to sujDpress the slave-trade, and that four steamers had
arrived at Khartoum for that purpose ; thus three thousand slaves then assem-
bled at Gondokoro would be utterly worthless. Tidings also had come up
that the plague was raging at Khartoum ; and, indeed, many belonging to
'250 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
the crews of the boats whicli had arrived had died on the passage. It then
Lroke out at Gondokoro, and the victims among the natives were dragged to
the edge of the cliff and thrown into the river. Taking advantage of the
state of affairs, Baker contracted for the diahbiah for four thousand piastres
(£40), and having fumigated it, set out for Khartoum. Silently and easily
they floated down the stream. The endless marshes, that looked so wretched
when they ascended, looked pleasant now as they passed them on their way
down. Baker had time to write his letters, and to look back on the results of
the last few years. He varied his literary occupation with antelope-shooting.
They had not yet escaped all their dangers. When they came to the
junction of Bahr el Gazal, and turned sharp to the east, they came to an
extraordinar}' obstruction, which had dammed up the river since their joas-
sage up in 1863. The nature of the obstruction is thus described : — " There
was considerable danger in the descent of the river upon nearing this pecu-
liar dam, as the stream plunged below it by a subterranean channel, with a
rush like a cataract. A large diahbiah, laden with ivory, had been carried
beneath the dam on her descent from Gondokoro in the previous year, and
Lad never been seen afterwards. I ordered the reis to have the anchor in
readiness, and two powerful hawsers ; should we arrive in the evening, he
•was to secure the vessel to the bank, and not to attempt the passage through
the canal until the following morning. We anchored about half a mile above
the dam. This part of the Nile is boundless marsli, jiortions of which were
at this season terra firma. The river ran from west to east; the south bank
was actual ground covered with mimosas, but to the north and west the flat
marsh covered with high weeds was interminable.
"At daybreak we manned the oars and floated down the rapid stream.
In a few minutes we heard the rush of water, and we saw the dam stretching
across the river before us. The marsh being firm, our men immediately
jumped out on the left bank and manned the hawsers — one fastened from the
stern, the other from the bow ; this arrangement prevented the boat from
turning broadside on to the dam, by which accident the shipwrecked diahbiah
had been lost. As we approached the dam I perceived the canal or ditch that
had been cut by the crews of the vessels that had ascended the river ; it was
about ten feet wide, and would barely allow the passage of our diahbiah.
This canal was already choked with masses of floating vegetation and natural
rafts of reeds and mud that the river carried with it, the accumulation of
which had originally formed the dam. Having secured the vessel, by carrying
out an anchor astern and burying it in the marsh, while a rope fastened from
the bow to the high reeds kept her stern to the stream, all hands jumped into
the canal and commenced dragging at the entangled masses of weeds, reeds,
ambatch wood, grass, and mud, that had choked the entrance. Half a day
was thus passed, at the expiration of which time we towed our vessel safely
ARRIVAL AT KHARTOUM. 257
into tlie ditcli, where she h\y out of danger. It was necessary to dischaa-go
all cargo from the boat, in order to reduce her draught of water. This tedious
operation completed, and many bushels of corn being piled upon mats spread
upon the reeds beaten flat, we endeavoured, to pusli her along the canal.
Although the obstruction was annoying, it was a most interesting object.
" The river had suddenly disappeared ; there was apparently an end to
the White Nile. The dam was about three-quarters of a mile wide ; it was
perfectly firm, and was already overgrown with high reeds and grass, thus
forming a continuation of tlie surrounding country. Many of the traders'
people had died of the plague at this spot during the delay of some weeks in
cutting the canal ; the graves of these dead were upon the dam. The bottom
of the canal that had been cut through the dam was perfectl}' firm, composed
of sand, mud, and interwoven decaying vegetation. The river arrived with
great force at the abrupt edge of the obstruction, bringing with it all kinds of
trash and large floating islands. None of these objects hitched against the
edge, but the instant they struck they dived under and disappeared. It was in
this manner tliat the vessel had been lost — having missed the narrow entrance
to the canal, she had struck the dam stern on ; the force of the current imme-
diately turned her broadside against the obstruction ; the floating islands and
masses of vegetation brought down by the river, were heaped against her, and
heeling over on her side she was sucked bodily under and carrited beneath the
dam ; her crew had time to save themselves by leaping upon the firm barrier
that had wrecked their ship. Tlie boatmen told me that dead hippopotami
have been found on the other side, that had been carried under the dam and
drowned. Two days' hard work from morning till night brought us through
the canal, and we once more found ourselves on the open Nile on the other
side of the dam."
Unhappily the plague, as might have been expected, broke out on
board, and several of their people died ; among the number, their faithful
little servant, Saat, the loss of whom they deeply deplored. A few miles from
the spot where they buried Saat, a head wind delayed them several days.
Losing patience, Baker engaged camels from the Arabs; and riding the whole
day, they reached Khartoum, about half an hour after sunset, on the 5th of
May, 1865. On the following morning, they were welcomed by the entire
European population of Khartoum, |and kindly offered a house by M. Lom-
brosio, the manager of the Khartoum branch of the Oriental and Egyptian
Trading Company. Here they heard the sad intelligence of the death of
Captain Speke. They were obliged to remain at this place two months. The
Blue Nile was so low that even the noggors, drawing three feet of water, could
not descend the river. A cattle and camel plague that had prevailed for two
years had destroyed all the camels. No corn could be procured. There was
a famine in the city — neither fodder for animals, nor food for man. The
33
25S STANLEY AND AFRICA.
])lague had run such riot among the population, that out of four thousand
black troops only a remnant of four liundrcd remained alive. It had been
introduced by the slaves landed from two vessels which had been captured,
and in which it had broken out. These vessels contained upwards of eight
hundred and fifty human beings; and nothing could be more dreadful than the
condition in which these unhappy beings were put on shore. The women had
afterwards been distributed among the soldiers, and, in consequence, the
pestilence had been disseminated throughout the place.
During the time the travellers remained at Khartcum, the heat was
intense, and the place was visited by a dust-storm, which, in a few minutes,
produced an actual pitchy darkness. At first, there was no wind, and when
it came, it did not come with the violence that might have been expected. So
intense was the darkness, that they tried in vain to distinguish their hands
placed close before their eyes ; not even an outline could be seen. This lasted
for upwards of twenty minutes, and then rapidly passed away. The Nile
had now risen sufficiently to enable them to make the passage of the cataracts
between Khartoum and Berber ; and on the 30th of June, they took leave of
their friends — sailing, the following morning, for Berber. On appi'oaching
the fine basalt hills, through which the river passes during its course from
Khartoum, they were surprised to see the great Nile contracted to a trifling
^^'idth of from eighty to a hundred and twenty yards. Walled by high cliffs
of basalt upon either side, the vast volume of the Nile flows grandly through
this romantic pass, the water boiling up in curling eddies, shov\ing what
rocky obstructions exist in its profound depths below.
Their voyage was very nearly terminated at the jDassage of the cataracts.
As it was Baker's last trial, he shall relate it himself: — " Many skeletons of
wrecked vessels lay upon the rocks in various places ; as we were flying along-
in full sail before a heavy gale of wind, descending a cataract, we struck
upon a sandbank — fortunately, not ujDon a rock, or we should have gone to
jDieces like a glass bottle. The tremendous force of the stream, running at
the rate of about ten or twelve miles per hour, immediately drove the vessel
broadside upon the bank. About sixty yards below us was a ridge of rocks,
upon which it appeared certain that we must be driven, should we quit the
bank upon which we were stranded. The reis and crew, as usual, in such
cases, lost their heads. I emptied a large waterproof portmanteau, and tied
it together with ropes, so as to form a life-buoy for my wife and Richarn,
neither of whom could swim ; the maps, journals, and observations, I packed
in an iron box, which I fastened with a tow line to the jDortmanteau. It
appeared that we were to wind up the expedition with shipwreck, and thus
lose my entire collection of hunting spoils. Having completed the jDrepara-
tions foT escape, I took command of the vessel, and silenced the chattering
crew.
DEPARTURE FOR ENGLAND. 250
"My first order was to lay out an anchor up stream. This was done:
the water was shallow, and the great weight of the anchor, carried on the
shoulders of two men, enabled them to resist the current, and to Avade hip-
deep about forty yards up the stream upon the sandbank. Thus secured, I
ordered the crew to haul upon the cable. The great force of tlie current
bearing upon the broadside of the vessel, while her head was anchored up
stream, bore her gradually round. All hands were now emjjloyed in clearing
away the sand, and deejiening a passage : loosening the sand with their hands
and feet, the powerful rajDids carried it away. For five hours we remained
in this 230sition, the boat cracking and half-filled with water; however, we
stopped tlic leak caused by the strain upon her timbers, and having, after
much labour, cleared a channel in the narrow sandbank, the moment arrived
to slip the cable, hoist the sail, and trust to the heavy gale of wind from the
west to clear the rocks, that lay within a few yards of us to the north. ' Let
go ! ' and all being prepared, the sail was loosened, and filling in the strong
gale with a loud report, the head of the vessel swung round with tlie force
of wind and stream.
"Away we flew ! For an instant we grated on some hard substance ; we
stood upon the deck, watching the rocks exactly before us, with the rapids
roaring loudly around our boat as she rushed upon what looked like certain
destruction. Another moment, and wo passed within a few inches of the
rocks within the boiling surf. Hurrah, we are all right ! We swept by the
danger, and flew along the rapids, hurrying towards old England."
On reaching Berber, they quitted the Nile, and crossed the desert to
Souakim over the Red Sea, where they found a steamer to convey them to
Suez. From Suez they proceeded to Cairo, where they left the faithful
Richarn and his wife in a comfortable situation, as servants at Shepherd's
Hotel, and Baker had the satisfaction of hearing that the Royal Geographical
Society had awarded him the Victoria Gold Medal, a proof that his exertions
had been duly appreciated. On his arrival in England, he received the
honour of knighthood. Th^se honours were well deserved ; for he had con-
ferred additional lustre on English discovery ; he had approached nearer than
any other traveller, to the solution of that great mystery of the Nile, which
had been the wonder of ages ; and he had accomplished this grand object by
his own sole resources, alone and unaccompanied by any European, except
the intrepid lady, who was the worthy mate of such a husband.
The results of his expedition to ethnography, the interests of trade, and
the prospects of civilisation, are not without importance. None of the results,
however, are more remarkable than the decisive confirmation given to the
theory propounded by Sir Roderick Murchison in 1852 — more than ten years
before any European had reached this region, as to the geological formation
of Equatorial Africa. No portion of the globe bears such undoubted marks of
2G0 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
the highest antiquity. All the rocks are primitive. This vast plateau, four
thousand feet above the sea, has never been submerged, nor does it appear to
have undergone any change, either by volcanic or by aqueous action. This
fact is one of the most curious and important made in our time to geological
science ; and in the Anniversary Address to the Royal Geographical Society,
delivered on the 28th of May, 18GG, Sir Roderick referred to the subject
in the following terms : —
" On former occasions I have directed your si^ecial attention to the strik-
ing phenomenon of tlie long S3'stem of water-basins, lakes, and rivers, flowing
there, which prevails in the elevated plateau-ground of Central Africa. Many
of the bodies of water lie, so far as we know, in shallow depressions, the edges
of which extend into marshy lands. Now, the Albert Nyanza of Baker is a
striking contrast to all such lakes ; for this enormous body of water, estimated
to be about as long as Scotland, is a deep excavation in hard granitic and
other cr3'stalline rocks. Looking at the simplicity and antiquity of the geolo-
logical structure of Central Africa, it is this result of the exjjloration of Mr.
Baker, or this profound excavation in hard rock, which has most interested
me, and must, I am sure, interest all my brother geologists as well as physical
geograjjhers. For, if this great depression in hard rocks be not due, as I
think, either to original conformation, or to some of the great movements to
wdiich those rocks may have been subjected, how else are we to account for
its existence ? I have j^reviously shown, from the absence of all marine deposits
of tertiary and detrital age, that Central Africa has not been submerged in
any of those geological periods during which we have such visible and clear
proofs of great subsidences, elevations, and denudations in other quarters of
the globe. Hence we cannot look to the sea as a denuding i:)ower in Central
Africa. Still more impossible is it to seek in the existence of former glaciers
an excavative power ; for here, under the equator, not only can no such
phenomenon ever have occurred, but even if the application of such a theory
Avere possible, it would be set aside by the fact of the entire absence in Cen-
tral Africa of any of those moraines or transported debris which were the
invariable accompaniments of glaciers, or the erratic blocks transported by
former icebergs. In short. Central Africa presents no existing natural agent
which, if it operated for millions of years, could have excavated the hollow in
which the great Albert Nyanza lies."
CHAPTER XV.
Livingstone's Second Expedition — The Mouths of the Zambesi — Keljrahasa Eapids —
Murchison Cataracts — Effects of Rain — LaJ:e Shinva — Shire JIarshes — Ifan-
(janja and its People — Disccvcry of Lake Ni/assa.
AFTER Dr. Livingstone's return from Africa in 1856, he spent rather more
than a year in Enghmd ; and then, on the 10th of March, 1858, he set
out again, on board Her Majesty's Steamer " Pearl," at the head of a Govern-
ment expedition for the purpose of exploring the Zambesi and the neighbour-
ing regions. He was accompanied by liis brother Charles, Dr. Kirk, Mr.
Thornton, and Mr. Baines. Mrs. Livingstone joined him after he had been
some time in the interior. At a farewell Livingstone Festival, which was held
in the Freemason's Tavern, London, on the 18th of February, under the pre-
sidency of Sir Roderick Murchison, the great traveller thus expressed his own
purposes and views in relation to the exijedition he was about to lead to
Africa: — "I expect to find for myself no large fortune in that country, nor
do I expect to explore any large portions of a new country ; but I do hope
to find in that part of the country which I have partially explored, a pathway
b}^ means of the River Zambesi, which may lead to highlands where Europeans
may form a healthful settlement, and where, by opening up communication
and establishing commercial intercourse with the natives of Africa, they may
slowly, but not the less surely, impart to the people of that country the know-
ledge and the inestimable blessings of Christianity.
" The success — if I may call it success — which has attended my former
efforts to open up the country, mainly depended upon my entering into the
feelings and the wishes of the people of the interior of Africa. I found that
the tribes in the interior of that country were just as anxious to have a path
to the seaboard as I was to open a communication with the interior, and I
am quite certain of obtaining the co-operation of those tribes in my next
expedition. Should I succeed in my endeavour — should we be able to open
a communication advantageous to ourselves with the natives of the interior of
Africa, it would be our duty to confer upon them those great benefits of Chris-
tianity which have been bestowed upon ourselves. Let us not make the same
mistake in Africa as we have done in India, but let us take to that country
our Christianity with us.
562 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
'• I confess that I am not sanguine enougli to hope for any speedy result
from this expedition, but I am sanguine as to its ultimate result. I feel con-
vinced that if we can establish a system of free labour in Africa, it will have
s. most decided influence upon slavery throughout the world. Success, how-
ever, under Providence, depends upon us as Englishmen. I look upon English-
men as perhaps the most freedom-loving people in the world, and I think that
the kindly feeling which has been displayed towards me sinc3 my return to
my native land, has arisen from the belief that my efforts might at some future
time tend to put an end to the odious traffic in slaves. England has, unfor-
tunately, been compelled to obtain cotton and other raw matex'ial from slave
states, and has thus been the mainstay and support of slavery in America.
Surely, then, it follows that, if we can succeed in obtaining the raw material
from other sources than from the slave States of America, we would strike a
heavy blow at the system of slavery itself. I do not wish, any more tlian
my friend, Sir Roderick, to ai'ouse expectations in connection with this expe-
dition which may never be realised, but what I want to do is to get in the
thin end of the wedge, and then leave it to be driven home by English energy
and English spirit."
In sending the traveller out, the purposes and views of the British
Goverment were in symjDathy with his own. " The main object of the Zam-
besi expedition," he says, in the narrative of the expedition, after his return,
"as our instructions from Her Majesty's Government explicitly stated, was
to extend the knowledge already attained of the geography and mineral and
agricultural resources of Eastern and Central Africa — to improve our acquaint-
ance with the inhabitants, and endeavour to engage them to apply themselves
to industrial pursuits, and to the cultivation of their lands, with a view to the
production of raw material to be exported to England in return for British
manufactures ; and it was hoped that, by encouraging the natives to occupy
themselves in the development of the resources of the country, a considerable
advance might be made towards the extinction of the slave-trade, as they
would not be long in discovering that the former would eventually be a more
certain source of profit than the lattei', The expedition was sent in accord-
ance with the settled policy of the English Government ; and the Earl of
Clarendon, being then at the head of the Foreign Office, the Mission was
organised under his immediate care. When a change of Government ensued,
we experienced the same generous countenance and sympathy from the Earl
of Malmesbury, as we had previously received from Lord Clarendon ; and, on
the accession of Earl Russell to the high office he has so long filled, we were
always favoured with equally ready attention and the same prompt assistance.
Thus the conviction was produced that our work embodied the principles,
not of any one party, but of the hearts of the statesmen and of the people of
England generally."
THE RIVER KONGONE. 2C3
The expedition jjroceeded to the Cape ; and, after enjoying the generous
liospitality of friends there, and receiving on board Mr. Francis Skead, R. N.,
as surveyor, they reached the East Coast in the following May. Their first
object was to explore the Zambesi, its mouths and tributaries, with a view to
their being used as highways for commerce and Christianity to pass into the
vast interior of Africa. The real mouths of the Zambesi were little known,
as the Portuguese Government had represented the Killimane as the only
navigable outlet of the river. This was done to induce English cruisers
employed in the supjoression of the slave-trade to watch the false mouth,
while slaves were quietly shipped from the true one; and this deception was
jjropagated, even after the publication of Livingstone's discoveries, in a map
published by the Portuguese colonial minister. The small steamer, called the
" Ma-Robert," in compliment to Mrs. Livingstone, w'hich was provided by the
Government for the navigation of the river, was put together and launched ;
and four inlets or mouths, known severally as the Milambe, the Luabo, the
Timbwe, and the Kongone, each of them superior to the Killimane, were
discovered and examined. The Kongone was selected by the expedition for
their purpose, as the most navigable.
As they steamed up the channel, the few natives whom they saw
retreated in terror at their approach, and concealed themselves in the man-
grove thickets which grew on either side of the river. In the grassy glades
buffaloes, wart-hogs, and antelopes, were abundant, so that, in a few hours,
meat enough was obtained to supply a score of men for several days. " The
first twenty miles of the Kongone," says Livingstone, ** are enclosed in man-
grove jungle; some of the trees are ornamented with orchilla weed, which
appears never to have been gathered. Huge ferns, palm bushes, and occa-
sionally wild date-joalms, peer out in the forest, which consists of different
species of mangroves ; the bushes of bright yellow, though scarcely edible
fruit, contrasting prettily with the graceful green leaves. In some spots the
Milola, an umbrageous hibiscus, with large yellowish flowers, grows in masses
along the bank. Its bark is made into cordage, and is especially valuable for
the manufacture of ropes attached to harpoons for killing the hippopotamus.
The Pandanus or screw-jjalm, from which sugar-bags are made in the Mauri-
tius, also appears. We find too a few guava and lime-trees growing wild, but
the natives claim the crojjs. The dark woods resound with the lively and
exultant song of the king-hunter [Halcyon striolata), as he sits perched on high
among the trees. As the steamer moves on through the winding channel a
pretty little heron, or bright kingfisher, darts out in alarm from the edge of
the bank, flies on ahead a short distance, and settles quietly down, to be
again frightened off in a few seconds as we approach. The magnificent fish-
hawk [Halietiis vocifer), sits on the top of a mangrove-tree, digesting his morn-
ing meal of fresh fish, and is clearly unwilling to stir until the imminence of
20 i STANLEY AND AFRICA.
tlio danger compels liim at last to spread his great wings for fliglit. The
glossy ibis, acute of ear to a remarkable degree, hears from afar the unwonted
sound of the paddles, and, springing from the mud where his family has been
quietly feasting, is off, screaming out his loud and defiant Ha! ha! ha! long
before the danger is near.
" The mangroves are now left behind, and are succeeded by vast level
plains of rich dark soil, covered with gigantic grasses, so tall that they tower
over one's head, and render hunting impossible. Beginning in July, the
grass is burned off every year after it has become dry. These fires prevent
the growth of any great amount of timber, as only a few trees from among
the more hardy kinds, such as the Borassus-palm and lignum-vitas, can live
through the sea of fire which annually roars across the plains. Several native
huts now peep out from the bananas and cocoa-palms on the right bank; they
stand on piles a few feet above the low damp ground, and their owners enter
them by means of ladders. The soil is wonderfully rich, and the gardens
are really excellent. Rice is cultivated largely ; sweet jDotatoes, pumpkins,
tomatoes, cabbages, onions, (shalots) peas, a little cotton, and sugar-cane, are
also raised." The natives were eager traders, and came off in light canoes,
with every kind of fruit and food they possessed ; a few brought honey and
bees-wax, wliicli are found in quantities in the mangrove forests. As the
ships steamed up, many anxious sellers ran along the bank, holding up fowls,
baskets of rice and meal, and shouting " Malonda, malonda" — "things for
sale ;" while others followed in canoes, which they sent through the water with
great velocity, by means of short broad-bladed jDaddles.
After they had proceeded up the river about forty miles from the bar, it
was found that the " Pearl's" draught was too great; they therefore landed
the goods she had brought out for the expedition on a grassy island, and
that vessel sailed for Ceylon, leaving the " Ma-Robert" to pursue her course
alone. At Mazaro, the mouth of a creek communicating with the Killimane,
the expedition hcaid that the Portuguese were at war with a half-caste, named
Mariano, who had built a stockade near the mouth of the Shire, and held
possession of all the intermediate country. He was a keen slave-hunter, and
kept a large number of men, well armed -with muskets. He had been in the
habit of sending out his armed bands on slave-hunting expeditions among
the helpless tribes to the north-west, selling the victims at Killimane, where
they were shipped as free emigrants to the French island of Bourbon. As
long as the robberies and murders were restricted to the natives at a distance,
the Portuguese did not interfere, but when he began to carry off and murder
the people near them, they thought it time to put a stop to his proceedings.
They spoke of him as a rare monster of inhumanity. He used to spear his
captives with his own hands, to make his name dreaded; and it is said that,
on one occasion, he killed in this manner forty poor wretches placed in a row
BONG A AND THE PORTUGUESE AT WAR. 265
before him. Having gone down to Killimano to arrange with the governor,
or, in other words, to bribe him, he was put in prison, and sent for trial to
Mozambique. The war, however, was continued under his brotlier Bonga,
and had stopped all trade on the river.
The expedition first came into contact with the rebels, as they were
called, on tlie 15th of June. They appeared as a crowd of well-armed and
fantastically-dressed people under the trees at Mazaro. On Livingstone and
his friends exclaiming that fhey were English, some at once came on board
and called to those on shore to laj- aside their arms. A liHle later, tlie expe-
dition witnessed a battle between Bonga and the Portuguese ; and Living-
stone, on landing to pay his respects to several of his old friends who had
treated him kindly on the occasion of his former appearance among them,
found himself in the sickening smell and among the mutilated bodies of tlio
slain. The governor was ill of fever, and Livingstone was requested to con-
vey him to Shupanga. Just as he gave his assent, the rebels renewed the?
fight, and the balls began to whistle about in all directions. After vainly
trying to get some one to assist the sick man down to the steamer, our tra-
A'eller himself half-supported and half-carried him ; and afterward, by his
skilful treatment, restored him to health.
"For sixty or seventy miles before reaching Mazaro, the scenery is tame
and uninteresting. On cither hand is a dreary uninhabited expanse, of the
same level grassy plains, with merely a few trees to relieve the painful mono-
tony. The round green top of the stately palm-tree looks, at a distance,
when its grey trunk cannot be seen, as though liung in mid-air. Many flocks
of busy sand-martins, which here, and as far south as the Orange River, do
not migrate, have perforated the banks two or three feet horizontally, in order
to place their nests at the ends, and are now chasing on restless wing the
myriads of tropical insects. The broad river has many low islands, on which,
are seen various kinds of waterfowl, such as geese, spoonbills, herons, and
flamingoes. Repulsive crocodiles, as with open jaws they sleep and bask in
the sun on the low banks, soon catch the sound of the revolving paddles, and
glide quietly into the stream. The hippopotamus, having selected some still
reach of the river to spend the day, rises from the bottom, where he has been
enjoying his morning bath after the labours of the night on shore, blows a
puff of sjDray out of his nostrils, shakes the water out of his ears, puts his
enormous snout up and yawns, sounding a loud alarm to the rest of the herd,
with notes as of a monster bassoon." '
The Mokundu-kundu tree abounds in the forests of Shupanga ; its bright
yellow wood makes good boat-masts, and yields a strong bitter medicine for
fever. The Gunda-tree attains to an immense size; its timber is hard, rather
cross-grained, with masses of silica deposited in its substance. At Shupanga,
a one-storied house, standing on the prettiest site on the river, i^ossesses .»
34
2GG STANLEY AND AFRICA.
melancholy interest, from having been associated in a most mournful manner
with the history of two English expeditions. Mr, Kirkpatrick died here of
fever, in 182G ; and here, in 1862, the beloved wife of Dr. Livingstone died
of the same fatal disease. Both are buried under a large Baobab-tree, a
hundred yards cast of the house. Here, the expedition obtained African
ebony and lignum-vitse for fuel, for the steamer. Caoutchouc, and calumba
root were found in abundance, while indigo propagated itself in large quart
titles close to the banks of the river.
On the 17th of August, they started for Tette. The navigation was
rather difiicult, and it was soon found out that the " Ma-Robert" was a failure.
Her furnaces were badly constructed, she lacked power, and from other
causes was ill-adajited for the work before her. It took hours to get up steam,
and she went so slowly that the heavily-laden native canoes passed up the
river more rapidly than she did. She, consequently, soon obtained the name
of the " Asthmatic." At Shamoara, just below the confluence of the Shire,
they landed to wood. They found, a small forest-tree, a species of poly-
gala, growing at this place abundantly. Its beautiful clusters of sweet-scented
flowers perfume the air with a rich fragrance; its seeds produce a fine drying
oil, and the bark of the smaller branches yields a fibre finer and stronger
than flax, Avith which the natives make their nets for fishing. Bonga, with
some of his principal men, visited the travellers, and assured them of their
friendly feelings, proving the sincerity of the assurance by sending them
a present of rice.
When they were within six miles of Senna, they anchored the steamer,
and walked up to the Portuguese settlement on foot. " The narrow winding
footpath, along which they had to mai'ch in Indian file, lay through gardens
and patches of wood, the loftiest trees being thorny acacias. The sky was
cloudy, the air cool and pleasant, and the little birds, in the gladness of their
hearts, poured forth sweet strange songs, which, though equal to those of the
singing birds at home on a spring morning, yet seemed, somehow, as if in a
foreign tongue. They met many natives on the road. Most of the men were
armed with spears, bows and arrows, or old Tower muskets ; the women had
short-handled hoes, and were going to work in the gardens ; they stepjied
aside to let the strangers pass, and saluted them politely, the men bowing
and scraping, and the women, even with heavy loads on their heads, curtsey-
ing — a curtsey from bare legs is startling."
Beyond Pita lies the little island of Nyamotobsi, where they met a small
fugitive tribe of hippopotamus hunters. They were all busy at work. They
form a separate people, and rarely — the women, it is said, never — intermarry
with any other tribe. They go out frequently on long expeditions, taking in
their canoes their wives and children, cooking-pots, and sleei^ing-mats. They
are rather comely in their personal appearance, having a very black smooth
AFRICAN SUPERSTITIONS. 2G7
■skin, and never disfiguring themselves with the frightful ornaments of some
of the other tribes. On the 18th of September, the " Ma-Robert" anchored
in the stream off Tette, and Livingstone went ashore in the boat. No sooner
did the Makololo, whom he had left there, recognise him, than they rushed to
the water's edge in frantic joy to give him welcome. They listened in sadness
to the story of poor Sekwcbu, wlio died at the Mauritius on his way to Eng-
land ; and then they told how thirty of their own number had died of small-
pox, and six had been put to death by Bonga.
The Portuguese at Tette kept numerous slaves, but, as a rule, were very
kind to them ; but the half-castes were cruel slave-holders. Livingstone
quotes a saying of a humane Portuguese, which indicates the reputation
they bear — " God made white men, and God made black men ; but the devil
made half-castes." Africans, generally, are very superstitious ; but those in
and about Tette are pre-eminently so. Belonging to many different tribes, all
the rays of the separate superstitions converge here into one focus. They
believe in numerous spirits dwelling in the air, and earth, and water ; and
seek to propitiate them by offerings of meat and drink. They worshij) the
serpent, and hang up hideous little images in the huts of the sick and dying.
The native medical profession is well represented. In addition to the genera)
practitioners, who know something of the nature and power of certain medi
cines, there are others who devote themselves to some speciality. There is
the elejjhant doctor, who prepares a medicine which the elephant-hunter
considers indispensable to success ; the crocodile-doctor, who sells a charm
which is believed to possess the power of protecting its owner from croco-
diles ; the dice-doctor, or diviner, whose business is to discover thieves ; gun-
doctors, who sell the medicine which professes to make good marksmen ; rain-
doctors, and others too numerous to mention.
Having heard of the Kebrabasa Rapids, the expedition resolved to make
a short examination of them. They seized the opportunity of the Zambesi
being unusually low, to endeavour to ascertain their character while uncovered
by the water. Speaking of these rajiids, in his letters to the Government, Liv-
ingstone says — " They were not seen by me in 1856, and, strange as it may
ajDpear, no one else could be found who could give an account of any part
except the commencement, about thirty miles above this. The only person
who had possessed curiosity enough to ascend a few miles, described it as a
number of detached rocks jutting out across the stream, rendering the channel
tortuous and dangerous, A mountain called Panda Mokua (Copper Mountain)
a mass of marble at the top, and containing joints of the green carbonic copper,
stretches out towards the range of hills on the eastern bank, so as to narrow
the river to sixty or eighty yards. This is the commencement of Kebrabasa.
We went about four miles beyond Panda Mokua, in the little steamer, and
soon saw that the difhculty is caused by the Zambesi being confined by moun-
208 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
tains to a bod scarcely a quarter of a mile broad. This bed, perceived from a
heiglit, appears covered with huge blocks of rock, interspersed ■with great
rounded boulders. Large patches of the underlying rock, which is porphyry,
and various metamorphic masses huddled together in wild confusion, are also
seen on the surface ; and winding from side to side in this upper bed there is
a deep narrow gorge, in which, when we were steaming up, the usual call of
the man at the lead was, ' No bottom at ten fathoms.' Though the perpen-
dicular sides of the channel are generally of hard poi'phyry or syenite, they
are ground into deep pot-holes, and drilled into numerous vertical grooves
similar to those in Eastern wells, where the draw-rope has been in use for ages:
(licse show the wearing power of the water when the river is full. The
breadth of this channel was from thirty to sixty yards, and its walls at low
water from fifty to eighty feet high. At six or eevcn points are rocky islands
in it, which divide the water into two or three channels for short distances."
Finding it in)possible to take steamer farther, the party started overland,
by a friglitfully-rough path among rocky hills, where no shade was to be
found. At last their guides declared that they could go no further; the sur-
face of the ground was so hot that the feet of the Makololo men became
blistered. The travellers, however, pushed on, clambering up and down the
heated blccks, at a pace not exceeding a mile an hour. Passing around a
steep promontory, they beheld the river at their feet, the channel jammed in
between two mountains with perpendicular sides, and lefs than fifty yards
wide. Here is the cataract of Morumbwa, a sloping fall of twenty feet in a
distance of thirty yards. When, however, the river rises upwards of eighty
feet perpendicularly, as it docs in the rainy season, the cataract may be
passed in boats. Returning to Tette, Livingstone wrote to the English
Government, informing them that it was impossible to take the "Ma-Robert"
through the Kebrabasa Rapids, and requesting that a more suitable vessel for
the ascent of the river should be sent out. In the meantime, he determined
on ascending the Shire, which falls into the Zambesi about a hundred miles
from its mouth. The Portuguese could give no information about it, except
that j^ears ago, an expedition of thiity liad attempted to ascci.d it, but had to
turn back on account of the impenetrable masses of duck-weed which grew in
its bed and floated in shoals on its surface. The natives on its banks were
reported to be treacherous, thievish, and bloodthirsty; and nothing but dis-
aster was predicted as the end of such a fool-hardy exjjedition.
It was now Christmas, and the difference between the season in Africa
and in Europe, especially Northern Europe, is so great and strange, that the
following description of an African Christmas reads like a romance from some
fairy-land: — "At the end of the hot season," says our traveller, "everything
is dry and dusty ; the atmosphere is loaded with blue haze, and very sultry.
After the rains begin, the face of the country changes with surprising rapidity
JN A FEW A N CHRIST MA S. 2 fiO
for the better. Though we have not the moist hothouso-like atmosphere of
the west coast, fresh green herbage quickly springs u]) over tlie hills and dales
so lately parched and brown. The air becomes cleared of the smoky -looking
haze, and one sees to great distances with ease ; the landscape is bathed in a
perfect flood of light, and a delighted sense of freshness is given from every-
thing in the morning before the glare of noon overpowers the eye. On asking
one of the Bechuanas once, what he understood by the word used for ' holiness'
(boitsepho) he answered, ' When copious showers have descended during the
night, and all tlic earth and leaves and cattle are washed clean, and the sun-
rising shows a drop of dew on every blade of grass, and the air breathes fresh,
that is holiness.' The young foliage of several trees, more especially on the
highlands, comes out brown, pale-red, or pink, like the hues of autumual leaves
in England ; and as the leaves increase in size they change to a pleasant fresh
light-green ; bright- white, scarlet, pink, and yellow flowers, are everywhere ;
and some few of dark crimson, like those of the kigelia, give warmth of colour-
ing to nature's garden. Many trees, such as the scarlet erythrina, attract the
eye, by the beauty of their blossoms. The white, full bloom of the baobab,
coming at times before the rains, and the small and delicate flowers of other
trees, grouped into rich clusters, deck the forest.
" Myriads of wild bees are busy from morning till night. Some of the
acacias possess a peculiar attraction for one species of beetle ; while the palm
allures others to congregate on its ample leaves. Insects of all sorts are now
in full force ; brilliant butterflies flit from flower to flower, and, with the
charming little sun-birds, Avhich represent the hummingbirds of America and
the West Indies, never seem to tire. Multitudes of ants ave hard at work
hunting for food, or bearing it home in triunph. The winter birds of pas-
sage, such as the yellow wagtail and blue drongo shrikes, have all gone, and
other kinds have come ; the brown kite, with his piping like a boatswain's
whistle, the spotted cuckoo, with a call like ' pula,' and the roller and horn-bill,
Avith their loud high notes, are occasionally distinctly heard, though gene-
rally this harsher music is half drowned in the volume of sweet sounds poured
forth from many a throbbing throat, which makes an African Christmas seem
like an English May. Some of the birds of the weaver kind have laid aside
their winter garments of a sober brown, and ajopear in a gay summer dress of
scarlet and jet black ; others have jDassed from green to bright-yellow, with
patches like black velvet. The brisk little cock-whydah bird, with a pink
bill, after assuming his summer garb of black and white, has graceful plumes
attached to his new coat ; his finery, as some believe, is to please at least seven
hen-birds, with which he is said to live.
" Birds of song are not entirely confined to villages; but they have in
Africa so often been observed to congregate around villages, as to produce the
impression that song and beauty may have been intended to please the ear and
270 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
eye of man, for it is only wlien we approach the haunts of men that we know
that the lime of the singing of l)irds is come. AVe once thought that the little
creatm-es were attracted to man only by grain and water, till we saw deserted
villages, the peojDle all swept off by slavery, with grain standing by running
streams, but no birds. A red-throated black weaver-bii'd comes in flocks a
little later, wearing a long train of magnificent plumes, which seem to be
greatly in his way when working for his dinner among the long grass. A
goatsucker or night-jar [Cometornis vexillarms), only ten inches long from head
to tail, also attracts tlie eye in November by a coujjle of feathers twenty-six
inches long in the middle of each wing, the ninth and tenth from the outside.
They give a slow wavy motion to the wings, and evidently retard his flight,
for at other times he flies so quick that no boy can hit him with a stone. The
natives can kill a hare by throwing a club, and make good running shots, but
no one ever struck a night-jar in common dress, though in tlie evening twilight
they settle close to one's feet. What may be the object of the flight of the
male bird being retarded we cannot tell. Tlie males alone possess these fea-
thers, and only for a time.
" It appears strange to have Christmas come in such a cheerful bright
season as this ; one can hardly recognise it in summer dress, with singing
birds, springing corn, and flowery plains, instead of in the winter robes of
bygone days, when the keen bracing air, and ground clad in a mantle of snow,
made the cozy fireside meeting-place of families doubly comfortable."
The expedition's first trip up the Sliire was in January, 1859. For the
first twentj^-five miles, a considerable quantity of duck- weed came floating
down the river ; though not sufficient to interrujit navigation with canoes, or
any other craft. The natives, as they passed, collected in large numbers in
their villages, armed with bows and poisoned arrows, threatening to attack
them. At the village of a chief called Tingane, as many as five hundred
natives collected together, and ordered them to stop. Livingstone, however,
went on shore, and exjjlaiued to the chief that they had not come, either to
take slaves, or to fight, but that they simply wished to open up a path by
which his countrymen could ascend to purchase cotton, and anything else
they had to sell, except slaves. On this Tingane became friendly at once.
After steaming up a hundred miles in straight line, although the wind-
ings of the river had fully doubled that distance, they found the further pro-
gress of the steamer arrested by a series of magnificent cataracts, known to
the natives as those of the Mamvira, but named by the exploring party, after
Sir Roderick Murchison, " The Murchison." They were prevented from
making any observations here, although they remained two or three days, in
consequence of continued rain ; and, after sending presents to one or two of
the chiefs, they returned at a rajiid rate down the river to Tette. In their
descent, the hippopotami always speedily got out of their way ; but the croco-
LAKE SffTRWA. 271
diles sometimes ruslicd at the steamer witli great velocltj, apparently tliink-
ing that she was some huge animal swimming clown the stream.
They started on a second trip up the Shire in the middle of Marcl), and
now found the natives friendly, and ready to sell them rice, fowls, corn, and
whatever else they had. Chibisa, the chief of a village about ten miles below
the Murchison cataracts, a remarkable shrewd man, and the most intelligent
chief in those parts, entered into friendly relations with them. He was a
firm believer in the Divine right of kings. " He was an ordinary man, he
said, when his father died, and left him the chieftainship ; but directly he
.succeeded to the high office, he was conscious of jDower passing into his head
and down his back ; he felt it enter, and Icnew that ho was a chief, clothed
with authority, aiid possessed of wisdom ; and people then began to fear and
reverence lam."
Leaving the steamer opposite Chibisa's village, Drs. Livingstone and Kirk,
with a number of the Makololo, proceeded on foot in a northerly direction to
Lake Shirwa. The natives turned out from their villages in a hostile mannei',
and sounded notes of defiance on their drums ; they came at last, however, to
understand and ajjpreclate the friendly intentions of the strangers. Through
the Ignorance of their guides, they were led far out of the right way, and
sometimes had to guess at the path for themselves. Their perseverance was
ultimately rewarded ; and, on the 18th of April, they discovered a consider-
able body of water, containing leeches, fish, crocodiles, and hippopotami. It
has no outlet, and probably, on that account, is slightly brackish. It has a
number of hilly Islands rising out of It, and several streams flowing Into It ;
and Is surrounded by lofty mountains, some of them, on the eastern shore,
eight thousand feet high. With Its broad, blue waters, and the waves dash-
ing on some parts of Its shore. It looked to the travellers like an arm of the
sea. The surrounding country Is beautiful, and clothed with rich vegetation.
Livingstone made frequent Inquiries among the people, with the view of
ascertaining If they had ever been visited by white men before, and Avas Inva-
riably answered in the negative. He therefore claimed for Dr. Kirk and
himself the discovery of Lake Shirwa.
On the 23rd . of June, they returned to Tette, and thence, after the
steamer had undergone some repairs, proceeded to the Kongone, to seek pro-
visions from one of Her Majesty's cruisers. Having received a supply from
the " Persian," and exchanged their Kroomen, who were found useless for
land journeys, for a crew picked out from the Makololo, who soon learned to
work the ship, and who, besides being good travellers, could cut wood, and
required only native food, they began their return voyage up the Zambesi.
Frequent showers fell, and, the vessel being leaky, the cabin was constantly
flooded, both from above and from below. Many of the botanical specimens
that had been collected with great labour, and carefully prepai-ed, were
272 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
thus destroyed, and tlie foundation of much subsequent fever was at this
time laid.
Another trip up the Shire was performed in the middle of August, the
object being, to become better acquainted with the people, and to make
another and longer journey on foot to the north of Lake Sliirwa, in search of
Ijake Nyassa, of wliich they had already received some information. The
Shire, though narrower than the Zambesi, is deeper, and more easy of naA'i-
gation. The valley which it drains is bounded by wooded hills on both sides.
One of them, a detached mountain, called Morambala, or " the lofty watch-
tower,'' is four thousand feet high, and about seven miles long. A small
village is perched about half-way up its side, where the people have a different
climate and vegetation from tliose of the plains. On the plain, near the north
end, is a hot fountain. It bubbles out of the earth, clear as crystal, at two
points, a few yards apart from each other, and sends off a fine flowing stream
of hot water. The travellers found the temperature to be \1^ Fahr., and
they boiled an Qg^ in it at about the usual time. It deposits on the stones
an incrustation which smells of sulphur. About a hundred feet off, the mud
is as hot as can be borne by the body. In taking a bath there, it makes the
body perfectly clean, and none of the mud adheres.
The Shire beyond Morambala winds through an extensive marsh. There
are abuudant marks of large game. Two j^ythons were observed coiled to-
gether among the branches of a large tree, and were both shot. The larger
of the two, a female, was ten feet long. As the steamer passed on, they saw
many gardens of maize, j^unipkins, and tobacco, fi'inging the marshy banks;
these gardens belong to natives of the hills, who come down and raise a crop
on jDarts at other times flooded. On their way up, they examined a lagoon,
called " the Lake of Mud," in which the lotus grows; and numbers of men
were filling their canoes with the root ; when roasted or boiled, it resembles
our chestnuts, and is extensively used as food. As the wretched little steamer
could not carry all the men needed for this lengthened voj-age, they were
compelled to put some of them in boats, and tow them astern. At the village
of Mboma, where the people raised large quantities of rice, and were eager
traders, they were entertained by a native musician, who played several
quaint tunes on a kind of one-stringed fiddle, accompanying the music witli
some wild songs. As he threatened to serenade them all night, he was asked
if he would not perish from cold, the thermometer having fallen to 47".
" Oh no," he rejilied, " I shall spend the night with my white comrades in the
big canoe ; I have often heard of the white men, but have never seen them till
now, and I must sing and play well to them." A small piece of cloth, how-
ever, bought him off', and he left on good terms with the strangers and with
himself.
A number of hippopotamus traps were seen on both banks of the river.
1UWi.ilUMij»»jJIMJWj»^
A WHIRLWIND OF SAND IN THE SAHARA
THE Sill RE MARSHES. 273
The animal feeds on grass only ; its enormous lip acting like a mowing
machine, and forming a path as it feeds. Over these paths the natives con-
struct a trap, consisting of a heavy beam, five or six feet long, with a spear-
head, at one end covered with poison. This weapon is hung to a forked pole
b}^ a rope which leads across the path, and is held by a catch, set free as tlie
animal treads upon it. " One got friglitened by the ship, as she was steaming
close to the bank. In its eager hurry to cscajDC it rushed on shore, and ran
directly under a traji, when down came tlie heavy beam on its back, driving
the poisoned spear-head a foot deep into its flesh. In its agony it plunged
back into the river, to die in a few hours, and afterwards furnished a feast for
the natives. The poison on the spear-head docs not affect the meat, except
the part around the wound, and that is thrown away."
The steamer now leaked worse than ever, and the cabin was scarcely
liabitable. The floor was always wet, and had. to be mopped many times a
day. Mosquitoes abounded, the ship's cabin becoming a favourite breeding-
jDlace for them ; so that the voyagers had both ship-bred and shore-bred
bloodsuckers. Going on, they came to Nyanja Mukulu, or the elejzihant-
marsh. Here they counted eight hundred elephants in sight at once : they
had chosen a stronghold where no hunter could, get near tliem, for tlie
swamps. At the first glimpse of the steamer they took to flight ; but a fine
young one was caught alive, as he was climbing up the bank to follow his
retreating mother. As the men were l:olding his trunk over the gunwale,
while the vessel steamed from the bank, a brave Makololo elephant hunter
drew his knife across it, in a sort of hunting frenzy, and from the force of
instinct and habit. Though the wound was skilfully sewn up, the breathing
prevented the cut from healing, and, unfortunately, the young animal died in
a few days from loss of blood.
" The Shire marshes support prodigious numbers of many kinds of
water-fowl. An hour at the mast-head unfolds novel views of life in an African
marsh. Near the edge, and on the branches of some favourite tree, rest scores
of plotuses and cormorants, which stretch their snake-like necks, and in mute
amazement turn one eye and then another towards the approaching monster.
Bj'-and-bye the timid ones begin to fly off, or take headers into the stream;
but a few of the bolder, or more composed, remain, only taking the precaution
to spread their wings ready for instant fiiglit. The pretty ardetta (IloroJias
hubulciis), of alight-yellow colour when at rest, but seemingly of a pure white
when flying, takes wing and sweeps across the green grass in large numbers,
often showing us where buffaloes and elephants are, by perching on their backs.
Flocks of ducks, of which the kind called ' Soriri' [Dcndrocygna personata) is
most abundant, being night-feeders, meditate quietly by the small lagoons,
until startled by the noise of the steam machinery. Pelicans glide over the
water, catching fish, while the Scopus {Scopus umbrciia) and large herons peer
35
271 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
intently into pools. The large black and white spur-winged goose (a constant
marauder of native gardens) springs up, and circles round to find out what
the disturbance can be, and then settles down again with a splash.
" Hundreds of Linongolos (Ana.stomus lamellir/erus) rise on the wing from
the clumps of reeds, or low trees (the EscJdnomena, from which pith hats are
made), on which they build in colonies, and are speedily high in mid-air.
Charming little red and yellow weavers (Ploceida) remind one of butterflies, as
they fly in and out of the tall grass, or hang to the mouths of their pendant
nests, chattering briskly to their mates within. These weavers seem to have
' cock nests,' built with only a roof, and a perch beneath, with a doorway on
each side. The natives say they are made to protect the bird from the rain.
Though her husband is very attentive, we have seen the hen-bird tearing her
mate's nest to jDieccs, but why we cannot tell. Kites and vultures are busy
overhead, beating the ground for tlieir repast of carrion ; and tlie solemn-
looking, stately-stepping Marabout, with a taste for dead fish, or men, stalks
slowly along the almost stagnant channels. Some men are standing in canoes,
on the weed-covered ponds, spearing fish, while others are punting over the
small intersecting streams, to examine their sunken fish-baskets. Towards
evening hundreds of jDretty little hawks (^Bri/tIiroj}us vespertinus) are seen flying
in a southerly direction, and feeding on dragon-flies and locusts. They come,
apparently, from resting on the palm-trees during the heat of tlie day.
Flocks of scissor-bills (lihz/ncojjs) are then also on the wing, and in search of
food, ploughing the water with their lower mandibles, which are nearly half
an inch longer than the upper ones.
"At the north-eastern end of the marsh, and about three miles from the
river, commences a great forest of palm-trees (^Borassus A^lhiojnum). It extends
many miles, and at one point comes close to the river. The grey trunks and
green tops of this immense mass of trees give a pleasing tone of colour to the
view. The mountain-range, which rises close behind the palms, is generally
of a cheerful green, and has many trees, with jjatches of a lighter tint among
them, as if spots of land had once been cultivated. The sharp angular rocks
and dells on its sides have the appearance of a huge crystal broken j and this
is so often the case in Africa, that one can guess pretty nearly at sight,
whether a range is of the old crystalline rocks or not. The Borassus, though
not an oil-bearing palm, is a useful tree. The fibrous pulp round the large
nuts, is of a sweet fruity taste, and is eaten by men and elephants. The ■
natives bury the nuts until the kernels begin to sprout ; when dug up and
broken, the inside resembles coarse potatoes, and is prized in times of scarcity
as nutritious food. During several months of the yeai', palm-wine, or sura,
is obtained in large quantities ; when fresh it is a pleasant drink, somewhat
like champagne, and not at all intoxicating, though, after standing a few
hours, it becomes highly so. Sticks, a foot long, are driven into notches in the
ROAD TO LAKE NYASSA.
liard outside of the tree — the Inside being soft or hollow — to serve as a ladder;
the top of the fruit-shoot is cut of, and the sap, pouring out at the fresh
wound, is caught in an earthen pot, which is hung at the point. A thin slice
is taken off the end, to open the pores, and make the juice flow every time
the owner ascends to empty the pot. Temporary huts are erected in the
forest, and men and boys remain by their respective trees day and night, the
nuts, fish, and wine, being their sole food. The Portuguese use the palm-wino
as yeast, and it makes bread so light, that it melts in the mouth like froth."
Beyond the marshes the country was higher, and the population nmch
greater. In many places the soil is saline, and the natives procure large
quantities of salt, by mixing the earth with water in a pot with a small hole
in it, and then evaporating the liquid, which runs through, in the sun. Tlic
cotton grown on this saline soil was found to be of larger and finer staple than
elsewhere. "When the party arrived at Chibisa's village, they saw two of the
men cleaning, sorting, spinning, and weaving cotton. This was a sight they
often saw in the villages on the Shire ; and as cotton of an excellent quality
can be grown there to any extent, if legitimate commerce could be substi-
tuted for slavery, the district might become tliriving and populous.
On the 28th of August, Livingstone and his three white companions,
accompanied by two guides and thirty-six Makololo men, left the vessel in
charge of the rest of the party, and started in search of Lake Nyassa. Cross-
ing the valley in a north-easterly direction, an hour's march brought them to
the foot of the Manganja hills, up which lay their toilsome road. As they rose,
vegetation changed; bamboos and various new trees and plants appeared.
Looking back from a height of a thousand feet, the beautiful country extend-
ing for many miles, with the Shire flowing through it, excited their admiration ;
while, as they approached the summit of the range, innumerable valleys opened
out to their admiring gaze, and majestic mountains reared their heads in all
directions. The natives on the road were uniformly kind, and were very
anxious to trade. As soon as they found that the strangers would pay for
their provisions in cotton cloth, women and girls were set to grind and pound
meal, and all the men and boys were seen chasing screaming fowls through
every village. The headman of one village brought some meal and peas for
sale ; a fathom of blue cloth was got out, when the Makololo headman, thinking
a portion was enough, was proceeding to tear it. On this, the native remarked
that it was a pity to cut such a nice dress for his wife, and he would rather
bring more meal. " All right," said the Makololo; " but look, the cloth is very
wide, so see that the basket which carries the meal be wide too, and add a
cock to make the meal taste nicely."
Among the hill-tribes women are treated as if they were inferior animals,
but in the upper part of the Shire valley they are held in great respect. In
one district a lady, named Nyango, exercises rule. The headman of one of
270 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
her villages always consulted his wife before concluding a bai'gain, and was
evidently influenced by her ojiinion. Ou entering a village, the travellers
went to the hoalo, or place of palaver, under the shade of lofty trees, Avhero
mats of split reeds or bamboo were usually spread for them to sit upon. The
guides then told the men who might be there, who the strangers were, and
•what their object was. This information was then carried to the chief, who,
sooner or later, made his aj^pearance, and business began.
" The Manganja, who inhabit this district, are an industrious race ; and
in addition to working in iron, cotton, and basket-making, they cultivate the
soil extensively. All the people of a village turn out to labour in the fields-
It is no uncommon thing to see men, women, and children, hard at work, with
the baby lying close by beneath a shady bush. When a new piece of wood-
land is to be cleared, they proceed exactly as farmers do in America, The
trees are cut down with their little axes of soft native iron; trunks and
branches are piled up and buriat, and the ashes spread on the soil. The corn
is planted among the standing stumps which are left to rot. If gi-ass land is
to be brought under cultivation, as much tall grass as the labourer can con-
veniently lay hold of is collected together and tied into a knot. He then
strikes his hoe round the tufts to sever the roots, and, leaving all standing,
proceeds until the whole ground assumes the appearance of a field covered
Avith little shocks of corn in harvest. A short time before the rains begin,
these grass shocks are collected in small heaps, covered with earth, and burnt,
the ashes and burnt soil being used to fertilize the ground. Large crops of
the mapira, or Egyptian dura, are raised, with millet, beans, and ground
nuts ; also patches of yams, rice, pumpkins, cucumbers, cassava, sweet pota-
toes, tobacco, and hemp or bang. Maize is grown all the year round. Cotton
is cultivated at almost every village.
In preparing the cotton for use, " it is first carefully separated from the
seed by the fingers, or by an iron roller, on a little block of wood, and rove
out into long soft bands without twist. Then it receives its first twist on the
spindle, and becomes about the thickness of coarse candle-wick ; after being
taken off and wound into a large ball, it is given the final hard twist, and
spun into a firm coj) on the spindle again ; all the processes being painfully
slow. Iron ore is dug out of the hills, and its manufacture is the staple trade
of the southern highlands. Each village has its own smelting-house, its char-
coal burners, and blacksmiths. They make good axes, spears, needles, arrow-
heads, bracelets and anklets. In villages near Lake Shirwa and elsewhere,
the inhabitants enter pretty largely into the manufacture of crockery or
pottery, making by hand all sorts of cooking, water, and grain jiots, which
they ornament with plumbago, found in the hills. Some find emj)loyment in
weaving neat baskets from split bamboos, and others collect the fibre of the
buaze, which grows abundantly on the hills, and make it into fish-nets. These
THE MANGANJA. 277
they either use themselves, or exchange with the fishermen on the river or
lakes for dried fish and salt. A great deal of native trade is carried on be-
tween the villages, by means of barter in tobacco, salt, dried fish, skins, and
iron.
"Many of the men arc intelligent-looking, with well-shaped heads,
agreeable faces, and high foreheads. They take a good deal of pride in the
arrangement of their hair : the varieties of style are endless. One trains his
long locks till they take the admired formoftlie buff"alo's horns; others prefer
to let their hair hang in a thick coil down their backs, like that animal's tail ;
while another wears it in twisted cords, which, stiff"ened by fillets of tlie inner
bark of a tree, wound specially round each curl, radiate from the head in all
directions. Some have it hanging all around the shoulders in large masses ;
others shave it off altogether. Many shave part of it into ornamental figures,
in which the fancy of the barber crops out conspicuously^ Both sexes adorn
the body extravagantly, wearing rings on their fingers and thumbs, besides
throatlets, bracelets, and anklets of brass, copper or iron." The women of
these regions all wear the pclcle, or lip-ring. An old chief, when asked why
such things were worn, replied — "For beauty; men have beards and whiskers,
women have none. AVhat kind of creature would a woman be without
whiskers and without the pelele P'
"The Manganja are not a sober people; they brew large quantities of
beer, and like it well. Having no hops, or other means of checking ferment-
ation, they are obliged to drink the whole brew in a few days, or it becomes
unfit for use. Great merry-makings take place on these occasions, and drink-
ing, drumming, and dancing, continue day and night, till the beer is gone.
The superstitious ordeal, by drinking the poisonous muave, obtains credit
here; and when a person is suspected of crime, this ordeal is resorted to. If
the stomach rejects the poison the accused is pronounced innocent; but if it is
retained, guilt is believed to be demonstrated. Death is inflicted on those
found guilty of witchcraft by this ordeal. The women wail for the dead two
days. Whatever beer is in the house of the deceased, is poured out on the
ground with the meal, and all cooking and water-pots are broken, as being of
no further use. Botli men and women wear signs of mourning for their dead
relatives. These consist of narrow strips of the palm-leaf wound round tlie
head, the arms, legs, neck, and breasts, and worn till they drop oif from
decay." They very rarely wash, and are consequently very dirty; and, as
might be expected skin, diseases are common. They believe in a Supreme
Being, and in a future state; but where or in what condition the spirit of the
dead exist, they do not know, as although the dead, they say, sometimes
return to the living, and appear to them in their dreams, they never tell them
how they fare, or whither they have gone.
When the travellers, as they calculated, were about a day's march fiom
278 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Lake Nyassa, the chief of the village assured them positively that no lake
liad ever been heard of there, and that the River Shire stretched on, as they
saw it, to a distance of two months, and then came out between two rocks,
which towered to the skies. The Makololo looked blank at this intelligence.
The party, however, journeyed on, and discovered the lake, on the 16th of
September, 1859. The travellers were now visited by the chief of a village
near the confluence of the lake and the river, who invited them to form
their camp under a magnificent banyan-tree, of which he seemed proud, and
among the roots of which, twisted into the shape of a gigantic arm-chair,
four of the party slept. This chief told them that a slave-party, led by
Arabs, was encamped near at hand ; and in the evening half-a-dozen of the
leaders, a villainous-looking set of fellows, armed with long muskets, brought
several young children for sale, but, when they learnt that the travellers were
English, they showed signs of fear, and during the night decamped.
Livingstone's stay at the lake was necessarily short. The people in whose
country they were showed some suspicion of their object, and he Avisely
judged that the best plan for allaying any suspicion was to pay a hasty visit
and then leave for a while. Besides, any indiscretion on the part of those
left in charge of the ship might have proved fatal to the character of the
expedition.
CHAPTER XVI.
Off to Kongonc — Return to Tette — Journey Wcstivard — Kehralasa liapids and
Chicova — Arrive at Zumho — The BaioJca — • Victoria Falls and Garden Island —
The Malcololo — Livingstone revisits Linijanti — Down again to Tette and tlic
Kongone,
LIVINGSTONE and Lis party, after a land-journey of forty days, returned
to tlieir ship, on the 6th of October, 1859, in u very exhausted condition.
They were reduced to this state, not so much from the ordinary fatigue of
travel, as from a sort of poisoning through eating so much of the cassava root.
One kind of this root is known to be poisonous in its raw state, but when
twice boiled, and strained off, the evil is destroyed. Their cook, however, in
his ignorance, boiled it as he would meat, allowing it to stand on the lire, until
the water had become absorbed and boiled away. This method did not expel
the poisonous properties ; and it was only after it had been tried Avith various
mixtures, and the whole party had suffered for days from its effects, that the
cause was discovered.
From the Shire, Dr. Kirk and Mr. Rae, the engineer, set off with guides
to go across the country to Tette, a distance of about one hundred miles.
The}'' suffered greatly from the heat and from want of water; while the tsetse
abounded. There was little or no shade from the sun, and the heat was so
great that their salt pork melted away till nothing was left but the fibre of
the meat. When they arrived at Tette, the two Englishmen were almost
dead. They found that the steamer with the other members of the expedition
had arrived there before them, and as the vessel leaked worse than ever, ant)
it was necessary to beach lier for repairs, had gone down to Kongone. As
the steamer passed the Elephant Marsh, they saw nine vast herds of elephants,
forming sometimes a line two miles long. They were supjjlied at Kongone
with stores from Her Majesty's ship " Lynx ;" but, unfortunately, one of the
boats conveying them was swamped in crossing the bar to enter the river,
and the mail bags, with despatches from Government, and letters from friends
at home, were lost. One can understand Livingstone's feelings as he says —
" The loss of the mail-bags, containing Government desiiatches and our friends'
letters for the past year, was felt severely, as we were on the point of starting
on an expedition into the interior, which might require eight or nine months •
and twenty months is a weary time to be without news of friends and family."
280 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
After returning to Tctte, where they stayed some time, enjoying the
hospitality of the Portuguese mercliants, Livingstone and his companions,
before proceeding inland to visit the Makololo country, sailed down the
Zambesi with Mr. Rae, who was about to return to England to superintend
the construction of a vessel that was to supersede the " Ma-Robert," that
wretched craft being of no further use for the j^urposes for which she was
intended. On the 31st of December they reached Shupanga, where they had
to remain eight days, awaiting the arrival of cotton cloth from Killimane.
Frequent rains now fell, and the river rose considerably ; their progress back
was so distressingly slow that they did not reach Tette again until the 2nd of
February, 1860. After this trip, the steamer broke down completely ; she
was therefore laid alongside the island of Kanyimbe, ojDposite Tette ; and
before starting for the country of the Makololo, Livingstone obtained a small
plot of land, to form a garden for the two English sailors who were to remain
in chai'ge of her during his absence. Several days were spent in busy pre-
paration for the westward journey ; the cloth, beads, and brass wire, for the
trij^, were sewn up in old canvas, and each package had the bearer's name
printed on it. The Makololo were paid for their services in connection v/ith
the expedition, and all who had come down with Livingstone from the inte-
rior rec odved a present of cloth and ornaments, in order to protect them from
the greater cold of their own country, and to show them that they had not
come in vain. As many of them had taken up with other women, they did
not leave willingly, and before the party had reached Kebrabasa Rapids,
thirty of them had deserted. Several of them had earned a good deal dur-
ing their stay at Tette, while Livingstone was absent in England ; but unfor-
tunately they had picked up a good many of the bad habits of the resident
population, and had squandered all their earnings.
On the 15th of May, the party started from the village where the Mako-
lolo had dwelt. They commenced, for a certain number of days, with short
marches, walking gently until broken in to travel. Li order to escape the
exactions of the Banjai tribes, who live chiefly on the right bank of the
river, and were said to levy heavy fines on travellers, the}^ crossed over and
proceeded up the left bank. Stopping one afternoon at a Kebrabasa vil-
lage, a man appeared, who pretended that he was a^o»c/oro-^that is, that he
could change himself into a lion whenever he chose, a statement fully believed
by his countrymen. Sometimes the pondoro hunts for the benefit of the
villagers, when his wife takes him some medicine which enables him to change
himself back into a man. He then announces what game has been killed,
and the villagers go into the forest to bring it home. The people believe also
that the souls of departed chiefs enter into lions. One night, a buffalo having
been killed, a lion came close to the camp, when the Makololo declared that
he was a pondoro, and told him that he ought to be ashamed of himself for
THE ZIBA II VALLEY. 281
trying to steal the meat of strangers. The Hon, however, disregarding their
addresses, only roared louder than over, though he wisely kept outside the
bright circle of the camp-fires. A little strychnine was placed on a piece of
meat and thrown to him, after which he took his departure, and was never
n seen.
After fording the rapid Luia, tliey left tlieir former path on the banks of
the Zambesi, and struck off in a north-west direction. Their route wound up
a valley along a small mountain stream, which was nearly dry, and tlien
crossed the rocky spurs of some lofty hills. The people were poor ; the men
spent a good deal of their time in hunting, having little ground on the hill-
side suitable for gardens, and but little certainty of reaping what might be
sown in the valleys. That evening they slept iu a little village near Sindabwe,
and breakfasted next morning under green wild date-palms, beside the fine
flowing stream which runs through the charming valley of Zibah. Proceed-
ing south-west up this lovely valley, in about an hour's time they reached
Sandia's village. The chief himself was said to be absent hunting ; but his
people showed great civility. " The inhabitants of Zibah are Badema, and
a wealthier class," says Livingstone, *' than those we have recently passed,
with more cloth, ornaments, food and luxui'ies. Fowls, eggs, sugar-canes,
sweet-potatoes, ground-nuts, turmeric, tomatoes, chillies, rice, mapira (holcm
sorff/aim), and maize, were cffared for sale in large quantities. The mapira
may be called the corn of the country. It is known as CafFre and Guinea
corn, in the south and west ; as dura in Egypt, and badjery in India ; the
grain is round and white, or reddish-white, about the size of the hemp-seed
given to canaries. Several hundred grains form a massive ear, on a stalk as
thick as an ordinary walking staff, and from eight to eighteen feet high.
Tobacco, hemp, and cotton, were also cultivated, as indeed, they are by all
the people in Kebrabasa. In nearly every village here, as in the Manganja
hills, men are engaged in spinning and weaving cotton of excellent quality."
Near this village of Sandia, six of the Makololo shot a cow elephant.
The men were wild with excitement, and danced round the fallen queen of
the forest with exultant shouts and songs. " The cutting up of an elephant
is quite a unique spectacle. The men stand round the animal in dead silence,
while the chief of the travelling party declares that, according to ancient law,
the head and right hind-leg belong to him who killed the beast — that is, to
him who inflicted the first wound; the left leg to him who delivered the
second, or first touched the animal after it fell. The meat around the eye to
the English, or chief of the travellers, and difi"erent parts to the headmen of
the fires, or groups, of which the camp is composed; not forgetting to enjoin
the preservation of the fat and bowels for a second distribution. His oration
finished, the natives soon become excited, and scream wildly, as they cut
away at the carcase with a score of spears, whose long handles quiver in the
36
282 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
air above their heads. Their excitement becomes momentarily more and
more intense, and reaches the cuhninating point when, as denoted by a roar
of gas, the huge mass is laid fairly open. Some jump inside, and roll about
there in their eagerness to seize the precious fat, wliile others run off, scream-
ing, with pieces of the bloody meat, throw it on the grass, and run back for
more ; all keej) talking and shouting at the utmost pitch of their voices.
Sometimes two or three, regardless of all laws, seize the same piece of meat
and have a brief fight of words over it. Occasionally an agonized yell bursts
forth, and a native emerges out of the moving mass of dead elephant and
wriggling humanity, with his hand badly cut by the spear of his excited
friend and neighbour ; this requires a rag and some soothing words to prevent
bad blood. In an incredible short time tons of meat are cut up, and placed
in separate heaps around."
The fore-foot of the elephant killed by the Makololo, Livingstone and
his white companions had cooked for themselves after the native fashion. A
fire is made in a large hole dug in the ground ; and, when this hole is tho-
roughly heated, the foot is placed in it, and covered over with the hot ashes
and soil, and another fire made above the whole and kept burning for several
hours. Thus cooked, the foot is found delicious. It is a whitish mass,
slightly gelatinous, and sweet, like marrow. A long march, to prevent bilious-
ness, is a wise precaution after a meal of elephant's foot. Elephant's trunk
and tongue too are good, when properly cooked ; but all the other parts are
tough and unsavoury.
Passing Kebrabasa, the travellers enjoyed the magnificent mountain
scenery in this neighbourhood. "The remainder of the Kebi'abasa path, on
to Chicova, was close to the compressed and rocky river. Ranges of lofty,
tree-covered mountains, with deep narrow valleys, in which are dry water-
courses or flowing rivulets, stretch from the north-west, and are prolonged on
the opposite side of the river in a south-easterly direction. Looking back,
the mountain scenery in Kebrabasa was magnificent ; cousjjicuous from their
form and steep sides, are the two gigantic portals of the cataract; the vast
forests still wore their many brilliant autumnal-coloured tints of green, yellow,
red, purple, and brown, thrown into relief by the grey bark of the trunks in
the background. Among these variegated trees were some conspicuous for
their new livery of fresh light-green leaves, t^s though the winter of others
was their spring. The bright sunshine in these mountain forests, and the
ever-changing forms of the cloud-shadows gliding over portions of the sui'face,
added fresh charms to scenes already surpassingly beautiful." From what
Livingstone saw of the Kebrabasa rock and rapids, it appeared to him evi-
dent that they must always form a barrier to navigation at the ordinary
low water of the river ; but the rise of the water in this gorge being as much
as eighty feet perpendicularlj^, he concluded that a steamer might be taken
THE CHICOVA PLAINS. 283
up at high flood, when all the rapids are smoothed over. The most foi'mid-
able cataract in it, Mormiibwa, has only about twenty feet of fall in a distance
of thirty yards, and it must entirely disappear when the water stands eighty
feet higher. The old chief Sandia, moreover, told them that in flood Kebra-
basa became quite smooth, and he had often seen it so.
They emerged from the Kebrabasa hills into the Chicova plains on the
7th of June. The cold nights caused some of the men to cough badly, and
colds in Africa almost invariably become fever. At Chicova, the Zambesi
suddenly expands and assumes the size and appearance it has at Totte. Near
this point they found a large seam of coal exposed in the left bank. Occasion-
ally they met with native travellers. " Those on a long journey carry with
them a sleeping-mat and wooden j^illow, cooking-pot and bag of meal, pipe
and tobacco-pouch, a knife, bow and arrows, and two small sticks, of from
two to three feet in length, for making fire, when obliged to sleep away from
human habitations. Dry wood is always abundant, and they get fire by the
following method. A notch is cut in one of the sticks, which, with a close-
grained outside, has a small core of pith, and this notched stick is laid hori-
zontally on a knife-blade on the ground ; the operator squatting, places his
great toes on each end to keep all steady, and taking the other wand, which
is of very hard wood, cut to a blunt jDoint, fits it into the notch at right angles ;
the upright wand is made to sjjin rapidly backwards and forwards between
the palms of the hands, drill fashion, and at the same time is pressed down-
wards ; the friction, in the course of a minute or so, ignites portions of the
pith of the notched stick, which, rolling over like live charcoal on to the
knife-blade, are lifted into a handful of fine grass, and carefully blown, by
waving backwards and forwards in the air. It is hard work for the hands to
procure fire by this process, as the vigorous drilling and downward pressure
requisite soon blister soft palms."
The weather was excellent for camping, the route well known, and game
abundant; so that travelling was very pleasant. Flocks of guinea-fowl and
other birds, were met with daily; and, as they were in good condition, the
party enjoyed a variety of flesh meat. In camping, the men by turns cut grass
for the beds of the three Englishmen — Dr. Livingstone being j^laced in the
middle. Dr. Kirk on the right, and Charles Livingstone on the left. Their
bags, revolvers, and rifles, were placed near their beds, and a fire was kindled
near their feet. On these grass beds, with their rugs drawn over them, the
three Englishmen slejDt soundly under some giant tree, through whose branches,
when awake, they could look ujd to the starry and moon-lit sky. A dozen
fires were kindled in the camp nightly. The attendants slept between mats
of palm leaves, which were sown together round three sides of the square, one
being left open to enable the man to crawl in between the two. These sleeping
bags or/umbas, as they are called, when all were all asleep, had the appearance of
281. STANLEY AND AFRICA.
sacks strewn round about the camp-fires. When food was plenty, there was
no lack of amusement in the camp. The men sat round the camjj-fires talk-
ing and singing till far into the night.
About five in the morning, or as soon as dawn, the camp was astir.
The Europeans took a cup of tea and a piece of biscuit. The blankets were
folded and stowed away in bags. 'Y\\q fumlas and cooking-pots were fastened
to each end of the carrying-sticks, which were borne on the shoulders. Before
sunrise all were on the march. At nine, breakfast was prepared at a con-
venient spot. There was a short rest in the middle of the day; and early in
the afternoon they pitched their camp, when two or more went off hunting,
more as a matter of necessity than pleasure. Their r-ate of progress was about
two and a half miles an hour as the crow flies, and their daily march lasted
about six hours. With this easy marching, the natives, after some days,,
began to complain of fatigue, even when well fed with fresh meat; and
Livingstone's experience was, that they lacked the stamina and endurance of
the white men, although travelling in their own country.
The Chicova plains are extremely fertile, and formerly supported a large
population ; but desolating wars and slavery had swept away most of th&
inhabitants. The chief of one of the Chicova villages brought the travellers-
food and drink, and expressed himself towards them in the kindest terms.
Generally the unsophisticated natives were afraid of them. The moment a
child saw them he would take to his heels in an agony of terror. The mother
would rush out of her hut, alarmed by the child's cries, and then dart back
again at the first glimpse of the fearful apparition. Dogs turned tail, and
scoured off in dismay ; and hens, abandoning their chickens, fled screaming
to the tops of the houses. They found themselves held up to little naughts-
children, as objects of which to be afraid, while the mammas exclaimed —
" Be good now, or I shall call the white man to bite you." Crossing the
stream Nyamatarara, they passed from Chicova into a region of sandstone
rocks. About Sinjere, Tette grey sandstone was common, fossil wood upon
it, and coal lying beneath. They halted here a couple of days, and exa-
mined the coal produced, astonishing the natives by showing them that the
black stones would burn.
Their camp on the Sinjere stood under a wide-sjjreading wild fig-tree,
"The soil," says Livingstone, " teemed with white ants, whose clay tunnels,
formed to screen them from the eyes of birds, thread over the ground, up the
trunks of trees, and along the branches, from which the little architect clears
away all rotten or dead wood. Very often the exact shape of branches is
left on tunnels on the ground, and not a bit of the wood inside. The first
night we passed here these destructive insects ate through our grass-beds, and
attacked our blankets, and certain large red-headed ones even bit our flesh.
On some days not a single white ant is to be seen abroad ; and on others, and
AFRICAN ANTS. 2S5
during certain hours, they appear out of doors in myriads, and work with
extraordinary zeal and energy in carrying bits of dried grass down to their
nests. During these busy reaping fits, the lizards and birds have a good
time of it, and enjoy a rich feast at the expense of thousands of hapless work-
men ; and, when tliey swarm, they are cauglit in countless numbers by the
natives, and their roasted bodies are spoken of in an unctuous manner, as
resembling grains of soft rice fried in delicious fresh oil.
" A strong marauding party of large black ants attacked a nest of white
ones near the camp. As the contest took place beneath the surface, we could
not see the order of the battle ; but it soon became apparent that the blacka
had gained the day, and sacked the white town, for they returned in triumi)h,
bearing off the eggs, and choice bits of the bodies of the vanquished. A gift,
analogous to that of language, has not been withheld from ants ; if part of
their building is destroyed, an official is seen coming out to examine the
damage, and, after a careful survey of the ruins, he chirrups a few clear and
distinct notes, and a crowd of workers begin at once to repair the breach.
When the work is completed, another order is given, and the workmen retire,
as will appear on removing the soft freshly-built portion. We tried to sleep
one rainy night in a native hut, but could not, because of attacks by the fight-
ing battalions of a very small species of formica, not more than one-sixteenth
of an inch in length. It soon became obvious that they were under regular
discipline, and even attempting to carry out the skilful plans and stratagems
of some eminent leader. Our hands and necks were the first objects of attack.
Large bodies of these little pests were massed in silence round the point to
be assaulted. We could hear the sharp shrill word of command two or three
times repeated, though, until then, we had not believed in the vocal power of
an ant ; the instant after we felt the storming hosts range over head and neck,
biting the tender skin, clinging with a death-grip to the hair, and parting
with their jaws, rather than quit their hold. On our lying down again, in the
hope of their having been driven off, no sooner was the light out, and all still,
than the manoeuvre was repeated. Clear and audible orders were issued, and
the assault renewed. It was as hard to sleep in that hut, as in the ti-enches
before Sebastopol.
" Tlic white ant, being a vegetable feeder, devours articles of vegetable
origin only, and leather, which, by tanning, is imbued with a vegetable
flavour. ' A man may be rich to-day and poor to-morrow from the ravages
of white ants,' said a Portuguese merchant. ' If he gets sick, and unable to
look after his goods, his slaves neglect them, and they are soon destroyed by
these insects !' The reddish ant, in the west called drivers, crossed our path
daily, in solid columns an inch wide, and never did the pugnacity of cither
man or beast exceed theirs. It is a sufficient cause of war if you only approach
them, even by accident. Some turn out of the ranks and stand with open
280 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
mandibles, or, charging with extended jaws, bite with savage ferocity. When
hunting, we lighted among them too often ; while we were intent on the
game, and without a thought of ants, they quietl}^ covered us from liead to
foot, then all began to bite at the same instant ; seizing a piece of the skin
with their powerful pincers, they twisted themselves round with it, as if deter-
mined to tear it out. Their bites are so terribly sharp that the bravest must
run, and then strip to pick off those that still cling with their hooked jaws, as
with steel forceps. This kind abound in damp places, and is usually met with
on the banks of streams. We have not heard of their actually killing any ani-
mal except the python, and that only when gorged and quite lethargic, but
they soon clear away any dead animal matter. This appears to be their princi-
pal food, and their use in the economy of nature is clearly in the scavenger
line."
The travellers started from the Sinjere on the 12th of June, and passed
through a district, where they found the women accustomed to transact busi-
ness for themselves. They accompanied the men into camj), sold their own
wares, and seemed to be both fair traders, and modest, sensible persons.
They did not come quite up to the women on tlie mountains near Kilimanjaro,
who, it is said, do all tne trading, have regular markets, and will on no
account allow a man to enter the market-place. On the 20th they encamped
at a spot Avhere Livingstone, on his journey from the west to the east coast,
was formerly menaced by a chief called Mpende ; he found out, howevei', that
Livingstone belonged to a peo^jle that loved the black man, and his conduct
changed from enmity to kindness. On the 23rd, they entered the village of
a chief named Pangola. In exchange for the food they needed, he demanded
a rifle, and refused to trade on any other terms. Two of the young men
belonging to the expedition had gone out, however, and shot a fine waterbuck,
and the provision market came down to the lowest figure. They were now
independent of the greedy savage, who was intensely mortified at seeing them
depart without his having traded with them in any way. On the 26th they
breakfasted at Zumbo, on the left bank of the Loangwa, and crossed the river
in the evening. They remained here a day, and continued their journey on
the 28th, Game was extremely abundant, and there were many lions. Leav-
ing the river, they proceeded ujj the valley which leads to the Mohano pass.
Here they felt the nights cold, and on the 30th they found the thermometer
was as low as 39° at sunrise. On account of the severe illness of Dr. Kirk,
they, remained here two days, when they again joined the Zambesi. They
slept on the night of the 6th of July on the left bank of the Chongwe, a river
flowing into the Zambesi, and twenty yards wide. The next day, as they
were passing through a dense thorn jungle, they got separated from one
another ; and a rhinoceros, with angry snort, dashed at Livingstone as he
stooped to pick up a specimen of the wild fruit morula ; he was fortunate
THE BAWE COUNTRY. 287
enough, howcvei', to make his escape. Hitherto, he had usually gone unarmed ;
but he always carried arms afterwards.
All the way between Zumbo and the Victoria Falls, game of all kinds
was so abundant, that the native attendants became quite fat, and very
fastidious at last in their choice of what they would eat ; rejecting antelope,
and preferring buffalo-flesh and guinea-fowl. Everywhere the natives were
Vospitablc, and their fearless bearing told that the country was beyond the
reach of the infamous slave-traders. Families were frequently met, march-
ing in single file. The man at the head carrying little, if anything, save his
weapons ; his wives and children following with their household goods. These
natives always come in for a portion of the white men's meat. Around the
foot of the great wild fig-tree of audience — the public meeting-place of every
village, or suspended from its branches, were collections of buffalo and ante-
lope horns and skulls, the trophies of the chase. The one thing in the way
of food which they lacked in this part of the country was vegetables. Now
and then they obtained a supply of sweet potatoes, for which they were thank-
ful bej'ond the power of exjiression.
On the 11th of July, they were ferried over the Kafue, a river that
reminded them a little of the Shire, and flowing between steep banks, with
fertile land on both sides. They were now in the Bawe country. The peo-
ple are of Batoka origin, and belong to the same tribe as several of the men
who left Linyanti with Livingstone. They were told that Moselekatse's chief
town was a month's distance (or three hundred miles) from where they were ;
and that the English had come to him, and taught him it was wrong to kill
people ; and that now he sent out his men to collect and sell ivory. This
report refen-ed to the arrival of Dr. Moffat, who had visited Moselekatse, and
established a mission among his people. Leaving the bank of the Zambesi
for a time, they travelled through the Batoka highlands, where they found
the air bracing and beneficial. Although the country was fertile, it was thinly
populated, Sebituane and Moselekatse having ravaged it in their numerous
forays.
The following interesting account of the Batoka country and its people
is from the pen of Mr. Charles Livingstone : — '* The country of the Batoka,
in Central Africa, lies between the 25th and 29th degrees of east longitude,
and the 16th and 18th of south latitude. It has the River Kafue on the north,
the Zambesi on the east and south, and extends west till it touches the low
fever-plains of the River Majeela, near Sesheke. But a few years since these
extensive healthy highlands were well peopled by the Batoka ; numerous
herds of cattle furnished abundance of milk, and the rich soil largely repaid
the labour of the husbandman. Now, enormous herds of buffaloes, elephants,
antelopes, zebras, etc., fatten on the excellent pasture which formeidy sup-
ported multitudes of cattle, and not a human being is to be seen. We travelled
288 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
from Monday morning to late in the Saturday afternoon (from Thabaclieu to
within twenty miles of Victoria Falls) without meeting a single person,
tliough constantly passing the ruined sites of Batoka villages. These people
were driven out of this, the choicest portion of their noble country, by the
invasion of Sebituane. Many were killed, and the survivors, except those
around the falls, plundered of their cattle, fled to the banks of the Zambesi,
and to the rugged hills of Mataba. Scarcely, however, had the conquerors
settled down to enjoy their ill-gotten riches when they themselves were
attacked by small-pox ; and, as soon as its ravages had ceased, the fighting
Matabele compelled them to abandon the country, and seek refuge amidst
the fever-swamps of Linyanti.
" The Batoka have a mild and pleasant expression of countenance, and
are easily distinguished from the other Africans by the singular fashion of
wearing no upper front teeth, all persons of both sexes having them knocked
out in early life. They seem never to have been a fighting race, but to
have lived at peace among themselves, and on good terms with their neigh-
bours. While passing through their country we observed one day a large
cairn. Our guide favoured us with the following account of it : — ' Once on a
time the ancients were going to fight another tribe ; they halted here and sat
down. After a long consultation they came to the unanimous conclusion
that, instead of proceeding to fight and kill their neighbours, and perchance
getting themselves killed, it would be more like men to raise this heaji of
stones as their earnest protest against what the other tribe had done, which
they accordingly did, and then returned quietly home again.' But, although
the Batoka appear never to have had much stomach for fighting with men,
they are remarkably brave hunters of buffaloes and elephants. They rush
fearlessly close up to these formidable animals, and kill them with their heavy
spears. The Banyai, who have long levied black-mail from all Portuguese
traders, were amazed at the daring bravery of the Batoka in coming at once
to close quarters with the elephant and despatching him. They had never
seen the like before. Does it require one kind of bravery to fight with men,
and another and different sort to fight with the fiercest animals ? It seems
that men may have the one kind in an eminent degree, and yet be without
the other.
"The Batoka having lived at peace for ages, had evidently attained to
a degree of civilization very much in advance of any other tribe we have yet
discovered. They planted and cultivated fruit-trees. Nowhere else has this
been the case, not even among the tribes which have been in contact with the
Portuguese for two hundred years, and have seen and tasted mangoes, oranges,
etc. etc. The natives round Senna and Tette will on no account plant the
stone of mango. They are firm believers in a superstition, that ' if any one
plants a mango, he will die soon afterwards.' In and around the Batoka
THE BATOKA PEOPLE. 28U
villages some of the most valuable timber trees have been allowed to stand,
but every worthless tree has been cut down and rooted out, and the best of
the various fruit-trees of the country have been carefully planted and pre-
served, and also a few ti'ees from whose seeds they extracted oil. We saw
fruit-trees which had been planted in regular rows, the trunks being about
three feet in diameter, also grand old Motsakiri fruit-trees still bearing abun-
dantly, which had certainly seen a hundred summers. Two of the ancient
Batoka, once travelled as far as the I'iver Loangwa. There they saw the
massan-tree in fruit, cai'ried some all the way back to the Great Falls, and
planted them. Two of the trees ai"e still standing, the only ones of the kind
in all that region.
" They made a near approach to the custom of even tlie most refined
nations in having permanent graveyards, either on the sides of sacred hills,
■or under the shady fig-trees near the villages. They reverenced the tombs
of their ancestors, and erected monuments of the costliest ivory at the head
of the grave, and often even entirely enclosed it with the choicest ivory.
Other tribes on the Zambesi throw the body into the river, to be devoured
by alligators, or, sewing it in a mat, place it on the branches of the baobab,
or cast it into some gloomy, solitary si^ct, overgrown with thorns and noxious
weeds, to be devoured by the foul hyena. But the Batoka reverently buried
their dead, and regarded the ground as sacred to their memories. Near the
confluence of the Kafue, the chief, accompanied by some of his headmen,
came to our sleeping-place with a present; their foreheads were marked with
white flour, and there was an unusual seriousness in their demeanour.
"We were infoi'med that, shortly before our arrival, they had been accused
of witchcraft. Conscious of innocence they accepted the terrible ordeal, or
off'ered to drink the poisoned niuavi. For this purpose they made a journey
to the sacred hill where reposed the bodies of their ancestors, and, after a
solemn appeal to the unseen spirits of their fathers to judge of the innocence
of these their children, drank the muavi, vomited, and were therefore declared
to be ' Not guilty.' They believed in the immortality of the soul, and that
the souls of their ancestors knew what they were doing, and were pleased or
not accordingly. . The owners of a large canoe refused to sell it because it
belonged to the spirits of their fathers, who helped them in killing the hipjjo-
potamus.
" Some of the Batoka chiefs must have had a good deal of enterprise.
The lands of one in the western part of the country lay on the Zambesi,
which protected him on the south; on the east and north was an impassable
reedy marsh, filled with water all the year round, leaving only his west border
unprotected and open to invasion. He conceived the bold project of digging
a broad and deep canal, nearly a mile in length, from the west end of this
reedy river to the Zambesi — and actually carried it into execution — thus
37
290 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
forming a large island, on which his cattle grazed in safety, and his corn
ripened from year to year, secure from all marauders. Another chief, who
died a number of years ago, believed that he had discovered a remedy for
tsetse-bitten cattle. His son showed us the plant, which was new to our
botanist, and likewise told us how the medicine was prepared. The bark of
the root is dried, and — what will be especially palatable to our homoeopathist
friends — a dozen tsetse are caught, dried, and ground with the bark to a fine
powder. The mixture is administered internally^ and the cattle are also smoked,
by burning the rest of the plant under them. The treatment is continued
some weeks, as often as symjjtoms of the poison show themselves. This, he
frankly said, will not cure all the bitten cattle, for cattle, and men too, die in
spite of medicine ; but should a herd by accident stray into a tsetse district
and get bitten, by this medicine of Kampakampa, his father, some of them
could be saved, while without it all would be sure to die.
" A remarkably prominent feature in the Batoka character is their en-
larged liospitality. No stranger is ever allowed to suffer hunger. They inva-
riably sent to our sleejjing-places large presents of the finest white meal, with
fat capons to give it a relish, and great pots of beer to comfort our hearts,
■with pumpkins, beans, and tobacco ; so that, as they said, we ' should not
sleep hungry or thirsty !' In travelling from the Kafue to Sinamanes, we
often passed several villages in the course of a day's march. In the evening,
deputations arrived from those villages at which we could not sleep, with
liberal presents of food. It evidently pained them to have strangers pass them
without partaking of their hospitality. Repeatedly were we hailed from huts,
asked to wait a moment and drink a little beer, which they brought with
alacrity.
" When we halted for the night, it was no uncommon thing for these
people to prepare our camp. Entirely of their own accord, some with their
hoes quickly smoothed the ground for our beds ; others brought bundles of
grass and spread it carefully over the spot ; some, with their small axes,
speedily made a brush-fence round to shield us from the wind ; and if, as
occasionally hapjoened, the water was a little distant, others hastened and
brought a pot or two of water to cook our food with, and also firewood.
They are an industrious people, and very fond of agriculture. For hours at
a time have we marched through unbroken corn-fields of nearly a mile in
width. They erect numerous granaries for the reception of the grain, which
give their villages the appearance of being unusually large ; and when the
water of the Zambesi has subsided, they j^lace the grain, tied up in bundles
of grass, well jilastered over with clay, on low sand islands, as a protection
against the attacks of marauding mice and men.
"Owing to the ravages of the weevil, the native corn can hardly be
preserved until the following crop comes in. However largely they ma\-
THE GO-NAKEDS. 291
cultivate, and abundant the harvest, it must all be consumed tlie same year
in which it is grown. This may account for their making so much of it into
beer. The beer they brew is not the sour and intoxicating kind found among
other tribes, but sweet, and highly nutritious, with only a slight degree of
acidity to render it a pleasant drink. We never saw a single case of intoxi-
cation among them, though all drank great quantities of beer. They were
all plump, and in good condition. Both men and boys were eager to work
for very small pay. Our men could hire any number of them to carry their
burdens for a few beads a-day, or a bit of cloth. The miserly and extra-
dirty cook had an old pair of trousers some of us had given him, and which
he had long worn himself. With one of the decayed legs of his trousers, he
hired a man to carry his heavy load a whole day ; a second man carried it
the next day for the other leg ; and what remained of the old trousers, minus
the buttons, procured the labour of another man for the third day.
" A peculiar order of men is established among them, the order of the
Endah Pezes (Go-Nakeds). The badge of this order, as the name suggests,
consists in the entire absence of the slightest shred of clothing. They are
in the state in which Adam is reported to have been before his invention of
the fig-leaf apparel. We began to see members of this order about two days
above the junction of the Kafue; two or three might be seen in a village.
The number's steadily increased, until in a very short time every man and
boy wore a badge of the Endah Pezes. The chief of one of the first villages,
a noble, generous fellow, was one, as were likewise two or three of his men.
In the afternoon he visited us in the full dress of his order — viz., a tobacco-
pipe, nothing else whatever, the stem about two feet long, wound round with
polished iron. He gave us a liberal present. Early next morning he came,
accompanied by his wife and daughter, witli two large pots of beer*, in order
that we might refresh ourselves before starting. Both the women, as comely
and modest-looking as we have seen in Africa, were well clothed and adorned.
" The women, in fact, are all well clothed, and have many ornaments.
Some wear tin ear-rings all round the ear; no fewer than nine olten in each ear.
There was nothing to indicate that they had the slightest idea of there being
anything peculiar in the no-dress-at-all-style of their order. They rub their
bodies with red ochre. Some plait a fillet two inches wide, of the inner bark
of trees, shave the wool off the lower part of the head to an inch above the
ear, tie this fillet on, having rubbed it and the wool which is left with the red
ochre mixed in oil. It gives them the appearance of having on a neat forage-
cap. This, with some strings of beads, a little polished iron wire round the
arms, the never-failing pipe, and a small j^air of tongs to lift up a coal to
light it with, constitute all the clothing the most dandified Endah Peze ever
wears.
" They raise immense quantities of tobacco on the banks of the Zambesi
^92 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
in the winter months, and are, perhaps, the most inveterate smokers in tiie
world. The pipe is seldom out of their hands. They are as polite smokers
as any ever found in a railway carriage. When they came with a present,
although it was their own country, before lighting their pipes, they asked it
we had any objections to their smoking beside us, which of course, contrar}-
to railway travellers, we never had. They have invented a novel mode of
smoking, which may interest those "who are fond of the weed at home. They
take a whiff, puif out the grosser smoke, then, by a sudden inhalation before
all is out, contrive to catch, as they say, and swallow the pure spirit of the
tobacco, its real essence, Avliich common smokers lose entirely. Their tobacco
is said to be very strong ; it is certainly very cheap ; a few strings of beads
will purchase as much as will last any reasonable smoker half a year. Their
government, whatever it may have been formerly, is now that of separate
and independent chiefs."
On the 4th of August, Livingstone and his party reached Moachemba,
the first of the Batoka villages owing allegiance to Sekeletu, and could dis-
tinctly see with the naked eye, in the extensive valley spread out before them,
the columns of vapour rising from the Victoria Falls, though upwards of
twenty miles distant. They learned that, through the failure of corn crops,
great scarcity and much hunger prevailed from Sesheke to Linyanti. Reports
of domestic trouble connected with the families of some of the men who had
accomjDanied Livingstone to the coast, and were now returning, and sad in-
telligence concerning the attempt certain missionaries had made to plant the
gospel at Linyanti, now came to their ears. Several of the missionaries and
their native attendants from Kuruman, had succumbed to the fever, and the
survivors had been compelled to retire. They remained a day with the old
Batoka chief, Mosliobotwane, the stoutest man they had seen in Africa. He
had a large herd of cattle, and a tract of fine pasture-land on the beautiful
stream Lekone. They now met several of the real Makololo ; they are lighter
in colour than the other tribes, being of a rich warm-brown ; and they speak
in a slow, deliberate manner, distinctly pronouncing every word. Among
others, they found Pitsane, who had accompanied Livingstone to St. Paul de
Loanda.
The expedition marched, on the 9th, eight miles to see the Victoria Falls.
The Makololo name of these falls is Mosi-oa-tunya, which means smoke-
sounding. Their more ancient name was Chongwe, or the place of the rain-
bow. " We embarked," says our traveller, "in canoes, belonging to Tuba
Mokoro, 'smasher of canoes,' an ominous name; but he alone, it seems, knew
the medicine which insures one against shipwreck in the rapids above tlie
falls. For some miles the river was smooth and tranquil, and we glided
pleasantly over water clear as crystal and past lovely islands densely covered
with a tropical vegetation. Noticeable among the many trees were the lofty
DANGEROUS RAPIDS. 293
Hyphajne and Eorassus palms ; the graceful wild date-palm, with its fruit in
golden clusters, and the umbrageous Mokononga, of cypress form, with its
dark green leaves and scarlet fruit. Many flowers peeped out near the water's
edge, some entirely new to us, and others, as the convolvulus, old acquaint-
ances. But our attention was quickly called from the charming islands to
the dangerous rapids, down which Tuba might unintentionally shoot us. To
confess the truth, the very ugly aspect of these roaring rapids could scarcely
fail to cause some uneasiness in the minds of new-comers. It is only when
the river is very low, as it was now, that any one durst venture to the island
to which we were bound. If any one went during the period of flood, and
fortunately hit the island, he would be obliged to remain there till the water
subsided again, if he lived so long. Both hippopotami and elephants have
been known to be swept over the falls, and of course smashed to pulp.
" Before entering the race of waters, we were requested not to speak, as
our talking might diminish the virtue of the medicine ; and no one with such
boiling eddying rapids before his eyes, would think of disobeying the orders
of a ' canoe-smashcr.' It soon became evident that there was sound sense in
this i-equest of Tuba's, although the reason assigned was not unlike that of
the canoe-man from Sesheke, who begged one of our party not to whistle,
because whistling made the wind come. It was the duty of the man at the
bow to look out ahead for the proper course, and when he saw a rock or snag-
to call out to the steersman. Tuba doubtless thought that talking on board
might divert the attention of his steersman at a time when the neglect of an
order, or a slight mistake, would be sure to spill us all into the chafing river.
There were places were the utmost exertions of both men had to be put forth
in order to force the canoe to the only safe part of the rapid, and to prevent
it from sweeping down broadside on, where in a twinkling we should have
found ourselves floundering among the plotuses and cormorants, which were
engaged in diving for their breakfast of small fish. At times it seemed as if
nothing could save us from dashing in our headlong race against the rocks
which, now that the river was low, jutted out of the water; but just at the
very nick of time, Tuba passed the word to the steersman, and then with
ready pole turned the canoe a little aside, and we glided swiftly past the
threatened danger.
" Never was a canoe more admirably managed. Once only did the medi-
cine seem to have lost something of its efficacy. We were driving swiftly
down; a black rock, over which the white foam flew, lay directly in our path ;
the pole was planted against it as readily as ever, but it slipped, just as Tuba
put forth his strength to turn the bow oti". We struck hard, and were half- full
of water in a moment. Tuba recovered himself as speedily, shoved off" the
bow, and shot the canoe into a still shallow place, to bail out the water. Here
we were given to understand that it was not the medicine which was at fault;
294 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
that had lost none of its virtue ; the accident was entirely owing to Tuba hav-
ing started without his breakfast. Need it be said we never let Tuba go
without that meal again. We landed at the head of Garden Island, which is
situated near the middle of the river and on the lip of the falls. On reach-
ing that lip, and peering over the giddy height, the wondrous and unique
character of the magnificent cascade at once burst upon us.
" It is rather a hopeless task to endeavour to convey an idea of it in
words, since, as was remarked on the spot, an accomplished painter, even by
a number of views, could but impart a faint impression of the glorious scene.
The probable mode of its formation may perhaps help to the concejition of its
peculiar shape. Niagara has been formed by a wearing back of the rock over
M'hich the river falls ; and, during a long course of ages, it has gradually
receded, and left a broad, deep, and pretty straight trough in front. It goes
on wearing back daily, and may yet discharge the lakes from which its river
— the St. Lawrence — flows. But the Victoria Falls have been formed by a
crack right across the river, in the hard, black, basaltic rock which there
formed the bed of the Zambesi. The lips of the crack are still quite sharjD,
save about three feet of the edge over which the river rolls. The walls go
sheer down from the lijjs without any projecting crag, or symptom of stratifi-
cation or dislocation. When the mighty rift occurred, no change of level
took place in the two parts of the bed of the river thus rent asunder, conse-
quently, in coming down the river to Garden Island, the water suddenly
disappears, and we see the opposite side of the cleft, with grass and trees
growing where once the river ran, on the same level as that part of its bed on
which we sail. The first crack is, in length, a few j^ards more than the
breadth of the Zambesi, which by measurement we found to a be Httle over
1860 yards, but this number we resolved to retain as indicating the year in
which the fall was for the first time carefully examined. The main stream
here runs nearly north and south, and the cleft across it is nearly east and west.
The depth of the rift was measui-ed by lowering a line, to the end of which a
few bullets and a foot of white cotton cloth were tied. One of us lay with
his head over a projecting crag, and watched the descending calico till, after
his companions had paid out 310 feet, the weight rested on a sloping projec-
tion, probably 50 feet from the water below, the actual bottom being still
further down. The white cloth now appeared the size of a ci'own piece. On
measuring the width of this deep cleft by sextant, it was found at Garden
Island, its narrowest part, to be 80 yards, and at its broadest somewhat more.
Into this chasm, of twice the depth of Niagara Fall, the river, a full mile wide,
rolls with a deafening roar ; and this is Mos-ioa-tunya, or the Victoria Falls.
" Looking from Garden Island, down to the bottom of the abyss, nearly
half a mile of water, which has fallen over that portion of the falls to our
right, or west of our point of view, is seen collected in a narrow channel
THE VICTORIA FALLS. 2'J5
twenty or thirty yards wide, and flowing at exactly right angles to its pre-
vious course, to our left ; while the other half, or that which fell over the
eastern portion of the falls, is seen in the left of the narrow channel below,
coming towards our right. Both waters unite midway, in a fearful boiling
whirlpool, and find an outlet by a CB'ack situated at right angles to the fissure
of the falls. This outlet is about eleven hundred and seventy yards from
the western end of the chasm, and some six hundred from its eastern end :
tlie whirljDool is at its commencement. The Zambesi, now apparently not
more than t-nent}^ or thirty yards wide, rushes and surges south, through the
narrow escape-channel for one hundred and thirty yards, then enters a second
chasm somewhat deeper, and nearly parallel with the first. Abandoning the
bottom of the eastern half of this second chasm to the growth of large trees,
it turns sliarply off to the west, and forms a promontory, with the escape-
channel at its point, of eleven hundred and seventy yards long, and four
hundred and sixteen yards broad at the base. After reaching this base, the
river runs abruptly round tlie head of another promontory, and flows away
to the east, in a third chasm, then glides round a third promontory, mucli
narrower than the rest, and away back to the west, in a fourth chasm ; and we
could see in the distance that it appeared to round still another promontory,
and bend once more in another chasm towards the east. In this gigantic,
zigzag, yet narrow trough, the rocks are all so sharply cut and angular, that the
idea at once arises that the hard basaltic trap must have been riven into its
present shape by a force acting from beneath, and this probably took place
when the ancient inland seas were let off by similar fissures nearer the ocean.
" The land beyond, or on the south of the falls, retains, as already
remarked, the same level as before the rent was made. It is as if the trough
below Niagara were bent right and left several times before it reached the
railway bridge. The land in the supposed bends being of the same height as
that above the fall, would give standing-places, or points of view, of the same
nature as that from the railway-bridge, but the nearest would be only eighty
yards, instead of two miles (the distance to the bridge) from the face of the
cascade. The tops of the promontories are in general flat, smooth, and studded
with trees. The first, with its base on the east, is at one place so narrow, that
it would be dangerous to walk to its extremity. On the second, however, we
found a broad rhinoceros path and a hut; but, unless the builder were a
hermit, with a pet rhinoceros, we cannot conceive what beast or man ever
went there for. On reaching the apex of this second eastern promontory we
saw the great river, of a deep sea-green colour, now sorely compressed, gliding
away, at least four hundred feet below us.
"Garden Island, when the river is low, commands the best view of the
Great Fall chasm, as also of the promontory opposite, with its grove of large
evergreen trees, and brilliant rainbows of three-quarters of a circle, two, three
2d6 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
and sometimes even four in number, resting on the face of the vast perpendicular
rock, down which tiny streams are always running, to be swept back again by
the upward rushing vapour. But as, at Niagara, one has to go over to the
Canadian shore to see the chief wonder — the Great Horseshoe Fall — so hero wo
have to cross over to Moselekatse's side of the promontory of evergreens, for
the best view of the principal falls of Mosi-oa-tunya. Beginning, therefore,
at the base of this promontory, and facing the cataract, at the west end of
the chasm, there is, first, a fall of thirty-six yards in breadth, and of course,
as they all are, upwards of three hundred and ten feet in depth. Then Boa-
ruka, a small island, intervenes, and next comes a great fall, with a breadth
of five hundred and seventy-three yards; a projecting rock separates this
from a second grand fall of three hundred and twenty-five yards broad ; in
all, upwards of nine hundred yards of perennial falls. Further east stands
Garden Island ; then, as the river was at its lowest, came a good deal of the
bare rock of its bed, with a score of narrow falls, which, at the time of flood,
constitute one enormous cascade of nearly another half-mile. Near the east
end of the chasm are two larger falls, but they are nothing at low water com-
pared to those between the islands. The whole body of water rolls over,
quite unbroken ; but, after a descent of ten or more feet, the entire mass sud-
denly becomes like a huge sheet of driven snow. Pieces of water leap off it
in the form of comets, with tails streaming behind, till the whole snowy sheet
becomes myriads of rushing, leajjing, aqueous comets."
Garden Island, and another island further west, also on the lip of the
falls, were used by the ancient Batoka chiefs as sacred spots, set apart for
divine worship. The ground for a number of miles above the falls is strewn
with agates ; but the fires, which burn off the grass every year, have injured
most of those on the surface. At the falls, Livingstone met an Englishman.
a Mr. Baldwin from Natal, who had succeeded in reaching them, guided only
by his pocket-compass. As he was being ferried over to the north side of the
river, he jumped in and swam ashore. "If," said Mashotlane, who ferried
him over, "he had been devoured by one of the crocodiles which abound
there, the English would have blamed us for his death. He nearly inflicted
a great injury upon us, therefore, we said, he must pay a fine ;" and, as the
gentleman had nothing with which to pay, they were taking care of him till
his waggon, which was two daj's distant, should arrive, that he might pay
them in beads. Leaving the falls, the party marched up the river and crossed
the Lekone at its confluence, about eight miles above the Island Kalai. They
spent Sunday, the 12th, at tlie village of Molele, an old Batoka chief, who
boasted in having formerly been a great favourite with Sebituaue. Tlie next
day they met a party from Sekeletu, who was now at Sesheke. On reaching
Sesheke, Livingstone found that Sekeletu was suffering from leprosy, and
had withdrawn himself from the sight of his people. A long-continued
LIVINGSTONE VISITS SEKELETU. 297
drought had ahiiost desfroycd the crops, and the country was suffering from
a partial famine. The illness, and consequent inactivity of Sekeletu, had
furnished occasion for, and indeed tempted, chiefs and headmen at a distance
to do as they liked ; and too often had they been induced to oppress their
immediate dependants, and plunder neighbouring and friendly tribes.
An unbroken stream of visitors poured in upon Livingstone the day after
his arrival at Sesheke, to jjay him their respects, and to tell him what had
befallen them during his absence. They were all much depressed. Sekeletu,
believing himself bewitched, had slain a number of his chief men, together
with their families ; subjected and friendly tribes at a distance were revolting;
famine was upon them ; and the power of the Makololo was passing away.
Sekeletu was found sitting in a covered waggon, which was surrounded by a
high wall of close-set reeds. His face was slightly disfigured by the thicken-
ing and discolouration of the skin where the leprosy had passed over it. The
doctors of his own tribe had failed to cure him, and a female doctor of the
Manyeti tribe was now trying her skill. After some difficulty she allowed
Dr. Kirk and Livingstone to operate upon the patient, and under their treat-
ment he was greatly benefited. Though it was a time of great scarcity, the
chief treated the travellers with much hospitality. Two horses that Living-
stone had left there in 1853 were still alive, notwithstanding hard usage and
perpetual hunting ; this the natives attributed to the fact that the Englishmen
loved the Makololo.
Sekeletu was delighted with the several articles the travellers had brought
for him. When informed that a sugai'-mill and other bulky and heavy goods
had been left at Tette, but would probably bo sent up as far as the falls by
a powerful steamer, though they could be conveyed no farther, he asked,
with a charming simplicity, if a cannon could not blow away the falls, so as
to allow the vessel to come up to Sesheke. Livingstone says that the Makololo
were by far the most intelligent and enterprising of the African tribes that he
had met. The practice of polygamy among them, though designed to in-
crease, really tended to diminish the tribe. Although the men indulge freely
in smoking bang, or Indian hemp, they do not like their wives to follow their
example ; some women, however, do smoke it secretly, and the jDractice causes
a disease known by a minute eruption on the skin, quite incurable unless the
habit be abandoned. The chief receives the hump and ribs of every ox
slaughtered by his people, and tribute of corn, beer, honey, wild fruits, hoes,
paddles, and canoes, from the Bai'otse, Manyeti, Matlotlora, and other sub-
ject tribes. The principal revenue, however, is derived from ivory. The
ancient costume of the Makololo consisted of the skin of some animal, worn
round and below the loins, and in cold weather a kaross, or skin mantle, was
thrown over the shoulders. The kaross is now laid aside, and the young men
of fashion wear a monkey-jacket and a skin round the hips ; but no trousers,
38
298 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
waistcoat, or shirt. The river and lake tribes are in general very cleanly,
bathing several times a day. The Makololo women use water rather spar-
ingly, rubbing themselves with melted butter instead ; this keeps off para-
sites, but gives their clothes a rancid odour.
" The children have merry times, especially in the cool of the evening.
One of their games consists of a little girl being carried on the shoulders of
two others. She sits with outstretched arms as they walk about with her,
and all the rest clap their hands, and stopping before each hut sing pretty airs,
some beating time on their little kilts of cowskin, others making a curious
humming sound between the songs. Excepting this and the skipping-rope,
the play of the girls consists in imitation of the serious work of their mothers,
building little huts, making small pots, and cooking, pounding corn in minia-
ature mortars, or hoeing tiny gardens. The boys play with spears of reeds,
2)ointed with wood, and small shields, or bows and arrows ; or amuse them-
selves in making little cattle-pens, or in moulding cattle in clay: they show
great ingenuity in the imitation of various-shaped horns. Some, too, are said
to use slings, but, as soon as they can watch the goats or calves, they are sent
to the field. Tselane, one of the ladies, on observing Dr. Livingstone noting
observations on the wet and dxy bulb thermometers, thought that he too was
engaged in play; for, on receiving no reply to her question, which was rather
difficult to answer, as the native tongue has no scientific terms, she said, with
roguish glee, ' Poor thing, playing like a little child !' "
Two packages, containing letters and newspajiers from Kuruman, were
lying at Linyanti, and a messenger was sent for them. He returned with
only one (the other being too heavy for him), on the seventh day, having
travelled two hundred and forty miles. As Livingstone wished to get some
more medicine and papers out of the waggon he had left at Linyanti, in 1853,
he determined to proceed there himself. On his arrival, he found everything
as safe as when he left it seven years before. The supply of medicine he
had left was untouched, and it was a melancholy reflection that Mr. Helmore,
the missionary, and the other members of the mission, should have died there,
with the medicines they needed lying within a hundred yards of their en-
campment. Taking with him a supply of this medicine, Livingstone re-
turned towards Sesheke, During his stay there, he was accustomed to teach
the people the truths of the Christian religion. On the last occasion of hold-
ing Divine service with them, they were invited to converse about the sub-
ject on Avhich they had been addressed — that subject being the future state.
They answered that they did not wish to ofl"end the speaker, but they could
not believe that all the dead would rise again. " Can those," said they,
"who have been killed in the field and devoured by vultures, or those who
have been eaten by the hyenas or lions, or those who have been tossed into
the river, and eaten by more than one crocodile — can they all be raised to
THE NGWESI AND KONOKONO. 299
life ?" They were told that a leaden bullet could be changed into a salt
(acetate of lead), which could be as completely dissolved in water as our
bodies in tlie stomachs of animals, and then re-converted into lead ; or that
the bullet could be transformed into the red and white paint which coloured
the waggons, and again re-converted into the original lead; and that if men
could do so much, how more could be done by the Creator of all ! They were
also told that Christians believed in a resurrection, not because thev under-
stood it, but because God declared it in His Book. The reference to the
Book and its Author told more powerfully on the native mind than the clever-
ness of the illustration.
Livingstone and his friends left Sesheke on the 17th of September, 1860,
Leshore, Pitsane, and other natives, accompanying them. Messengers were
sent with them to bring the merchandise left at Tette, and a supply of medi-
cine for Sekeletu, who by this time was nearly cured of his leprosy. That
evening they slept on the left bank of the Majeele, after having had all the
men ferried across. An ox was slaughtered, and the next morning not an
ounce remained. In this river, a beautiful silvery fish, with reddish fins,
abounds; some of the larger ones weighing fifteen or twenty pounds each.
Its teeth are exposed, and so arrayed that, when they meet, the edges cut a
hook like nippers. The Ngwesi, as this fish is called, is very ravenous; "it
often gulps down the Konokono, a fish armed with serrated bones, more than
an inch in length in the pectoral and dorsal fins, which, fitting into a notch
at the roots, can be put by the fish on full cock, or straight out : tliey can-
not be folded down, without its will, and even break in resisting. The
name ' Konokono,' elbow-elbow, is given it from a resemblance its extended
fins are supposed to bear to a man's elbows stuck from his body. It often
performs the little trick of cocking its fins in the stomach of the Ngwesi^ and
the elbows piercing its enemy's sides, lie is frequently found floating dead.
The fin-bones seem to have an acrid secretion on them, for the wound they
make is excessively painful. The Konokono barks distinctly when landed
with the hook."
Passing the Victoria Falls on the 27th, they reached the Kalomo, and
encamped there on the 1st of October; and found the weather much warmer
than when they crossed that stream in August. On the 5th, they rested at
the village of Simariango. The bellows of the blacksmith here arrested
their attention ; they consisted of two wooden vessels, like a lady's band-box,
the upper ends of which were covered with leather, and looked something
like the heads of drums, except that the leather bagged in the centre. They
were fitted with long nozzles, through which the air was driven by working
the loose covering of the tops up and down by means of a small piece of wood
attached to their centres. The following day they arrived at the islet called
Chilombe, belonging to Sinamaue, the ablest and most energetic of the Batoka
300 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
chiefs. His people cultivate large quantities of tobacco, which they manu-
facture into balls for the Makololo market. Twenty balls, weigliing about
three-quarters of a pound each, they sell for a hoe. They passed, on the 12tli,
through a wild, hilly country, with fine wooded scenery on both sides, but a
thin jDopulation.
Below the junction of the Kafue with the Zambesi, they met, on the 2-l:th,
a half-caste ivory hunter, named Sequasha, who, along with a large number
of armed slaves, had been hunting elephants. He told them that his men had
killed two hundred and ten elephants during their trip. This man was an
unscrupulous villain. Only a short time before this, he had entered into a
conspiracy to kill a chief near Zumbo; and with a party of picked men, armed
with loaded muskets, he had visited the unsuspecting chief, received his hos-
pitality, and then shot him and twenty of his people in cold blood. At the
Mburuma Rapids, the Makololo displayed great presence of mind and courage.
While passing the most dangerous of the rapids, the canoes filled with water,
and were in danger of being swamped, when of course the whole party must
have perished. Without a moment's hesitation, two men leaped out of each
of the canoes, and ordered a Batoka man to do the same, as " the white men
must be saved." " I cannot swim," said the Batoka man. " Jump out then,
and hold on to the canoo," which he instantly did. Swimming alongside,
they guided the canoes down the swift current to the foot of the rapid, and
then ran them ashore to bail them out. Although the scenery of this pass
reminded the travellers of Kebrabasa, yet they felt it was much inferior to
that.
They arrived at Zumbo on the 1st of November. On the 4th, there were
several thunderstorms, and the Zambesi rose several inches, and became
highly discoloured. Crocodiles abounded. In the Kakolole narrows, one of
these reptiles seized a water-buck, which had been wounded by a shot, and
dragged it into the river. The poor animal made a desperate resistance, and
hauling the crocodile several \'ards, tore itself out of its jaws. To escape the
hunter, the water-buck jumped into the river, and was swimming across, when
another crocodile gave chase, but a ball soon sent him to the bottom. At the
east end of Chicova, they entered Kebrabasa Rapids, and soon found the
navigation both difficult and dangerous. Dr. Kirk's canoe was swamped,
the occupants scrambling ashore with difficulty ; but unfortunatel}^ a chrono-
meter, a barometer, his notes of the journey, and various botanical drawings
of the fruit-trees of the interior, were lost. They had now to leave the river,
and proceed on foot. On their way, they met two large trading parties of
Tette slaves travelling to Zumbo, leading, to be sold for ivory, a number of
Manganjawomen, with ropes round their necks, and all made fast to one long
rope.
On the 23rd of November, they arrived safely at Tette, after being absent
ARRIVAL AT THE KONGONE. 301
a little more than six niontlis. The two English sailors whom they had left
in charge of the steamer, had behaved themselves well, and were in excellent
health. Tlieir gardening had been a failure. A hijopopotamus paid the
garden a visit one night, and destroyed their vegetables ; the sheep they had
broke into their cotton plantation, when it was in flower, and ate it all ; the
crocodiles devoui'ed their slieej); two monkeys they kept ate all the eggs their
fowls laid ; and the natives stole their fowls. They were jn-etty successful in
bargaining with the natives for food. Their purchases were all made on
board the steamer ; and when more was demanded than the market price,
they brought a chameleon out of the cabin, an animal of which the natives
have a mortal dread. This settled the matter in a moment ; for the moment
the exorbitant traders saw the creature, they sprang overboard and were
gone.
As the Zambesi was unusually low, they remained at Tette till it rose a
little ; and then left on December the 3rd, for the Kongone. They found it
hard work to keep the steamer afloat ; and on the morning of the 21st she
grounded on a sandbank and filled. It was im^jossible to empty her, or to
get her off. During the night the river rose, and all that was visible of her
the next day was about six feet of her two masts. Most of the pi'operty that
was on board Avas saved ; and the party encamped on the island of Chumba,
where they spent the Christmas Day, Having obtained canoes from Senna,
they reached that place on the 27th, and were hospitably entertained once
more by Senhor Ferrao. On the 4th of January, 1861, they reached the
Kongone ; and found that the Portuguese had erected dui-ing their absence a
custom-house there, and also a hut for a black lance-corporal and three men.
They took up their quarters in the custom-house — a small square floorless hut
of mangrove stakes, overlaid with reeds. Here, while waiting for a ship, they
had leisure to read the newspapers and periodicals they found in the mail
which was waiting their arrival at Tette, and several of which were a year
and a half old.
Their provisions began to fail ; and towards the end of the month, they
had only left a little hard biscuit and a few ounces of sugar. They were able,
however, to use roasted mapira as a tolerable substitute for coffee ; and fresh
meat they obtained from their antelope preserves on a large island made by
a creek between the Kongone and East Luabo. From drinking the brackish
water, and eating the fresh pasturage, which is saline near the coast, the flesh
of the antelopes was sweeter and more tender than in the interiorj where it is
dry and tough. The eggs of the pelican and turtle, too, were found in great
abundance, also several varieties of fish ; and thus they were able to supply
their daily wants. They were in the midst of a focus of decaying vegetation,
and nothing was so much to be dreaded as inactivity. They had therefore
to find what exercise and amusement they could. Among other curiosities
302 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
they observed in their wanderings, was the blenny-fisb, winch hurried across
the surface of tlie water, when it was alarmed, in a series of leaps. " It may
be considered amphibious, as it lives as much out of the water as in it, and
its most busy time is low water. Then it ajjpears on the sand or mud, near
the little pools left by the retiring tide ; it raises itself on its pectoral fins into
something like a standing attitude, and with its large projecting eyes keeps
a sharp look-out for the light-coloured fly, on which it feeds. Should the fly
alight at too great a distance for even a second leap, the blenny moves slowly
towards it like a cat to its prey, or like a jumping spider; and, as soon as it
gets within two or three inches of the insect, by a sudden spring contrives to
pop its underset mouth directly over the unlucky victim."
They found that the muddy ground under the mangrove-trees swarmed
with myriads of soldier-crabs; they discovered also a larger species of crab
that was musical. They seemed to sing in concert, and to imitate the song-
birds of the groves. The wart-hogs were fond of these large sound-producing
crabs, digging them out of the muddy swamps during the night, and devour-
ing them. The various kinds of mangrove furnished an interesting and in-
structive study. One kind stood at ebb-tide, on its fantastic roots high above
the ground ; while at flood-tide, the trunk seemed as if planted on the surface
of the water. The seeds of another kind are formed like arrow-heads, and,
in falling, are by their own weight shot into the soft ground, and self-planted.
They saw the natives pounding the woody stems of a poisonous climbing-
plant, and hanging it up in bundles. Having staked ofi" a portion of water
with bushes to prevent the exit of the fish that were in it, the poisonous
plants were placed in the water, and either killed the fish or stupified them, so
that they were easily secured. The poison is said to be injurious to man if
the water is drunk ; but not when the fish is cooked. During their stay on
the coast, in spite of all their care, they had some touches of fever; the
natives they had brought down with them from the interior sufifering almost
as much as they suffered themselves.
CHAPTER XVII.
Arrival of the Pioneer — Bishop Mackenzie and his Mission — Death of Bisliop Mac-
kensie and Mr. Burrup — Lake Nijassa and its People — Arrival and Death of
Mrs. Livingstone — The Rovuma — The Expedition withdraivn — Livingstone's
Voyage to Bomhag, and Return to England.
ON the 31st of January, 18G1, their new ship, the " Pioneer," arrived from
England, and anchored ontside the bar ; but owing to the stormy state
of the weather, she did not venture in till the 4th of February. At the same
time two of H. M. cruisers arrived, bringing Bishop Mackenzie, and the
Oxford and Cambridge Mission, to the tribes of the Shire and Lake Nyassa.
The Mission consisted of six Englishmen, and five coloured men from the
Cape; and as Dr. Livingstone and his party were under orders to explore the
Rovuma, about two hundred miles to the north of the Zambesi, and beyond
Portuguese territory, they scarcely knew what to do with them. Bishop
Mackenzie wished himself and his party to be conveyed at once to Chibisa's
village on the Shire, and left there; but Livingstone feared that, as they had
no medical attendant, they might meet the fate of Mr Helmore and his party
at Linyanti. At length it was arranged that the Bishop should proceed in
the "Lyra" to Johanna, and there leave the other members of the Mission^
while he himself should accompany Livingstone up the Rovuma, to ascertain
whether the country round its head-waters was a suitable place for a settle-
ment.
The "Pioneer" anchored in the mouth of the Rovuma on the 25th of
February. Unlike most African rivers, this one has a magnificent bay, and
DO bar. They waited for the Bishop till the 9th of March; and on his arrival
proceeded up the river. The scenery on the lower part of the Rovuma is
superior to that on the Zambesi. Eight miles from the mouth the mangroves
are left behind, and a beautiful range of well-wooded hills crowns each bank.
A tree resembling African blackwood, of finer grain than ebony, grows in
abundance, and to a large size. The few people that were seen were of
Arab breed, and did not appear to be in good circumstances. Though the
current of the Rovuma was as strong as that of the Zambesi, the volume
of water was very much less. They sailed uj) the river for thirty miles, but
were compelled to return, as the river was rapidly falling in volume, and
they were afraid that the ship might ground altogether, and have to lie
304 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
there until the next season. They touched at Mohilla, one of the Comoro
Islands, on their return, where they found a mixed race of Arabs, Africans,
iind natives of Madagascar. From them they went over to Johanna for
their friends; sojourned a few days at the Comoro Islands, and then sailed
for the Kongoue mouth of the Zambesi, and passed up the Shire.
The " Pioneer" was a very superior vessel, and, excepting her draught
of water, well suited for the purpose she was intended to serve. Her great
draught, however, occasioned a great deal of trouble and much loss of time.
Had she drawn but three feet she could have run up and down the river at
any time in the year; but, as it was, having once passed up over a few shal-
low banks, it was impossible to take her down again until the river rose in
December. In hauling her over the shallow places, Bishop Mackenzie and
some of his party were ever ready and ever anxious to lend a hand, and
worked as hard as any on board. On reaching Chibisa's village, they heard
that there was war in the Manganja country, and that the slave-trade was
going on briskl}'. Having hired as many men to carry the Bishop's goods
up to the hills as were willing to go, they started for the highlands, on the
loth of July, to show the Bishop the country, which, from its situation and
coolness, was most suitable for a station.
They halted the next forenoon at the village of Mbame, to obtain new
carriers, as Chibisa's men did not choose to go further. After resting a
little while, Mbame told them that a slave party, on its way to Tette, would
soon pass through the village. They resolved, at all risk, to do their pre-
sent duty in putting a stop to the abominable evil, which was following on
the footsteps of their discoveries. And this is how they acted: — •" A few
minutes after Mbame had spoken to us, the slave-party, a long line of man-
acled men, women, and children, came wending their way round the hill
and into the valley, on the side of which the village stood. The black
drivers, armed with muskets, and bedecked with various articles of finery,
marched jauntily in the front, middle, and rear of the line ; some of them
blowing exultant notes out of long tin horns. They seemed to feel that
they were doing a very noble thing, and might proudly march with an air of
triumph. But the instant the fellows caught a glimpse of the English,
they darted off like mad into the forest; so fast, indeed, that we caught but a
glimpse of their red caps and the soles of their feet. The chief of the party
alone remained; and he, from being in front, had his hand tightly grasped
by a Makololo ! He proved to be a well-known slave of the late Command-
ant at Tette, and for some time our own attendant while there. On asking
him how he obtained these captives, he replied, he bad bought them; but on
our inquiring of the jjeople themselves all, save four, said they had been
captured in war. While this inquiry was going on, he bolted too.
" The captives knelt down, and, in their wa}' of expressing thanks,
LIBERA TION OF SLA VES. 305
'dapped their hands with great energy. They were thus left entirely on our
hands, and knives were soon busy at work cutting the women and children
loose. It was more difficult to cut the men adrift, as each had his neck in the
fork of a stout stick, six or seven feet long, and kept in by an iron rod, which
was riveted at both ends across the throat. With a saw, luckily in the Bishop's
baggage, one by one the men were sawn out into freedom. The women, on
being told to take the meal they were carrying and cook breakfast for
themselves and the children, seemed to consider the news too good to be true ;
Ijut after a little coaxing went at it with alacrity, and made a capital fire by
which to boil their pots with the slave-sticks and bonds, their old acquaint-
ances through many a sad night and weary day. Many were mere children,
about five years of age and under. One little boy, with the simplicity of
childhood, said to our men, ' The others tied and starved us, you cut the
ropes and tell us to eat; what sort of people are you? — Where do you come
from ?' Two of the women had been shot the day before for attempting to
untie the thongs. This, the rest were told, was to prevent them from attempt-
ing to escape. One woman had her infant's brains knocked out, because
she could not carry her load and it. And a man was despatched with an
axe, because he had broken down with fatigue. Self-interest would have set
a watch over the whole rather than commit murder; but in this traffic we
invariably find self-interest overcome by contempt of human life and by-
blood-thirstiness.
" The Bishop was not present at this scene, having gone to bathe in a
little stream below the village; but on his return he warmly approved of
what had been done; he at first had doubts, but now felt that, had he been
present, he would have joined us in the good work. Logic is out of place
when the question with a true-hearted man is, whether his brother-man is to
be saved or not. Eighty-four, chiefly women and children, were liberated ;
and on being told that they were now free, and might go where they pleased,
or remain with us, they all chose to stay; and the Bishop wisely attached
them to his mission, to be educated as members of a Christian family. In
this way a great difficulty in the commencement of a mission was overcome.
Years are usually required before confidence is so far instilled into the natives'
mind as to induce them, young or old, to submit to the guidance of strangers
professing to be actuated by motives the reverse of worldly wisdom, and in-
culcating customs strange and unknown to them and their fathei's."
The good work thus begun was carried on. Eight other slaves were
freed in a hamlet on their path. Dr. Kirk and four Makololo followed a
party of traders with a hundred more, but they succeeded in making clear
off to Tette. Between fifty and sixty others were liberated in a few days
after, and most of them, being entirely naked, were clothed. Months after-
wards, at Tette, some merchants who were engaged in the slave-trade spoke
39
306 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
to Dr Livingstone of the governor's liberating slaves. His answer was, that
he had liberated several groups of slaves in the Manganja country; and this
was all that passed in regard to the matter.
Bishop Mackenzie having decided to settle at Magomero, it was thought
desirable to prevent the country from being depopulated by the Ajawa chief,
who was now waging war with the Manganja, and carrying off all the people
he could obtain to sell them for slaves. The party, therefore, determined to
visit liim, and endeavour to persuade him to abandon war and kidnapping,
and turn the energies of himself and his people to more peaceful pursuits.
They came upon the Ajawa just as they were in the act of sacking and burn-
ing a number of villages; and they heard the shouts of the marauders min-
gling with the wail of the Manganja women lamenting over their slain.
After engaging with the Bishop in fervent prayer, they sought an inter-
view with the Ajawa; but owing to a misunderstanding, unwittingly occa-
sioned by some expressions of the Manganja, they thought Livingstone and
his companions had come to fight, and therefore would not listen to them.
In a short time tlie Ajawa formed themselves into a body, and began to
shoot poisoned arrows at them, until they were reluctantly compelled, in self-
defence to fire upon their assailants, who fled, shouting back that they would
follow and kill them while they slept. This was the first time Livingstone
had ever been attacked by the natives, or come into collision with them; and
he and his friends grieved to think that their efi"orts at conciliation had failed,
and that reluctantly they had been compelled to adopt a course which would
tend to frustrate their great purpose, and expose them to misunderstanding
and misrepresentation.
It was proposed by Mackenzie that they should at once follow the tri-
umi^hant Ajawa, and drive them out of the countrj^, and liberate the captives
they might have in their possession. This proposal commended itself to all
ex.cept Livingstone, who saw clearly what would be the result of a Christian
missionary adopting such a step; and he cautioned them not to interfere by
force, under any circumstances, in any of these wars, even though the Man-
ganja in their extremity sought their aid. " You will be oppressed," said he,
"by their importunities; but do not interfere in native quarrels." With
this advice, Livingstone left the Bishop and his mission, and returned to the
ship, to prepare for his journey to Lake Nyassa.
In an earlier part of this work we have given a brief account of Bishop
Mackenzie's mission ; but the following summary of the fate of the leaders
of the mission, and the proceedings of Captain Wilson and Dr. Kirk, in tak-
ing Miss Mackenzie, Mrs. Burrup, and Mr. Hawkins, to the mission station on
the Shire, will be read with melancholy interest : — " At Shupanga, about ten
miles from Mozzaro, the ^Pioneer,' it was found, could proceed no further.
There was, therefore, no alternative but to prosecute the remainder of the
BISHOP MACKENZIE'S DEATH. 307
journey in the two boats, which were provisioned for ten days ; and as it was
sujiposed that their destination might be reached in four, the project did not
look very formidable. When we mention that, instead of four, twelve days
elapsed ere the boats made the junction of the Rua River, sixty miles from
their journey's end, and that, during this period, the ladies were in open
boats, exposed to all the extremes of a fearfully unwholesome atmosphere, to
the thousand insect-plagues which literally render existence almost unbearable,
and that the crews were, man after man, struck down by insidious disease, it
will be readily understood how wretched was their situation, and how heavily
those in charge felt their responsibility.
"At this part of the river it was that the Bishop and Mr. Burrup were
expected to be in readiness to receive them. But the natives would not give
any information; and Captain Wilson, knowing that j^i'ovisions would be
needed by the 'Gorgon,' sent one of the two boats back down the river on a
foraging expedition, while he pushed up with the other to leave the ladies at
Chibisa. The crew of the former suffered terribly from fever on their way,
and indeed, from all accounts, were most miraculously preseiwed, especially
as provisions and medicine were all used up ; and of stimulants, there were
none. Captain Wilson, in his boat, went on safely enough to Chibisa, the
nearest spot to the mission station ; there, he left the ladies in charge of the
doctor, and tried to get overland with Dr. Kirk and four men, but when
within two days' march of the place he was attacked by fever, which had
nearly proved fatal. Dr. Kirk had even looked out for a place in which to
bury him. Dr. Kirk too was struck down, but most providentially a messen-
ger, who had been despatched forward, returned with some of the mission
party. This may be said to have saved them from death. Then it was that
Captain Wilson and Dr. Kirk first learned the disastrous news which has
shocked and saddened so many. The natives at Rua had known of it, but
had kept silence, fearing lest they should be suspected of having caused the
deaths of the Bishop and Mr. Burrup, by witchcraft. One night, indeed, the
boat in which were Miss Mackenzie and Mrs. Burrup had anchored within a
hundred yards of the Bishop's grave.
"On the 14th of Februar}', 1862, it was known at the station, by the
arrival there of one of the Makololo, who reported the Bishop's death, and
intimated the approach of Mr. Burrup, who was carried on some rough
branches of trees by two Makololo, but so shrunk and ill as to be scarcely
recognisable. From Mr. Burrup it was gathered that, after leaving the station
on January 3rd, the Bishop and he had slept five nights on the road ; that, at
Chibisa, they obtained a small canoe with some men, who paddled them down
to the island of Malo. Unfortunately, they were upset, got wet through, and,
worst of all, lost a case in the water, containing clothes, powder, and medi-
cine. At first they were well received by chief Chikangi. Tlie Bishop had
308 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
an attack of low fever, which soon gained ground on a constitution wliich,
though naturally strong, had been weakened by exposure and suffering. It
soon became evident that he was sinking fast, as his speech was wandering,
and he was perfectly helpless. The same afternoon, on the other side of the
river, in a secluded spot, under a large tree, Mr. Burrup was reverently read-
ing the burial service, in the dim twilight, over his lost leader, with no one
near to share his affliction, save the Makololo who had dug the grave.
"On the next day, Mr. Burrup prepared to return to the station. No-
thing but death was before him. Leaving a letter for Dr. Livingstone, he
journe^^ed on to Chibisa. Thence to the station he was carried, being too
weak to walk. From the 14th of February, the day of his arrival, hopes of
his recovery were entertained for a short time ; but ere long diarrhoea ailded
to his weakness, and the fever was aggravated by the want of jiroper nourish-
ing food. On the morning of the 22nd he breathed his last; and on Sunday,
the following day, he was buried near the station. Neither Miss Mackenzie,
Mrs. Burrup, nor Mr. Hawkins, ever reached the station ; they returned to
the Cape in H.M.'s ship < Gorgon.'"
Drs. Livingstone and Kirk, and Mr. Charles Livingstone, started for
Nyassa, on August 6th, 186L They were attended by a white sailor and a
score of natives, and carried with them a light four-oared gig. They found
no difficulty in hiring people to carry the boat from village to village, along
the path past the forty miles of the Murchison Cataracts. A cubic of cotton
cloth a day was considered by the natives high wages, and more than twice
the number of men they required eagerly offered themselves on those terms.
The possession of a boat by the party, and their consequent independence of
canoes, had a powerful effect in making the inhabitants on both sides of the
river extremely civil and obliging. They found a wonderful contrast between
neighbouring villages. Some were prosperous and happy, others poor and
miserable. To avoid marauding parties of the Ajawa, on the left bank of the
Shire, they kept on the right side, coasting the shore of the lake Pamalombe,
while the land party walked by the bank. The unhealthiness of this lake,
however, and the immediate neighbourhood, soon constrained them to seek a
freer and healthier atmosphere.
" We hastened," says Livingstone, " from this sickly spot, trying to take
the attentions of the mosquitoes as hints to seek more pleasant quarters on the
healthy shores of Lake Nyasssa ; and when we sailed into it, on the 2nd of
September, we felt refreshed by the great coolness of the air off this large
body of water. The depth was the first point of interest. This is indicated
by the colour of the water, which, on a belt along the shore, varying from a
quarter to half a mile in breadth, is light green, and this is met by the deep
blue or indigo tint of the Indian Ocean, which is the colour of the great body
of Nyassa. We found the Upper Shire from nine to fifteen feet in depth;
LAKE NY ASS A. 309
but skirting the western side of tlie lake, about a mile from the shore, the
water deepened from nine to fifteen fathoms ; then, as wc rounded the grand
mountainous promontory, which we named Gape Maclear, after our excellent
friend, the Astronomer Royal at the Caps of Good Hope, we could get no
bottom with our lead-line of thirty-five fathoms. Wc pulled along the
western shore, which was a succession of bays, and found that, where the
bottom was sandy near the beach, and to a mile out, the depth varied
from six to fourteen fathoms. In a rocky bay, about latitude 11° 40', we had
soundings at one hundred fathoms, though outside the same bay we found
none with a fishing-line of one hundred and sixteen fathoms ; but this cast
was unsatisfactory, as the line broke in coming up. According to our present
knowledge, a ship could anchor only near the shore.
" Looking back to the southern end of LakcNyassa, the arm from which
the Shire flows was found to be about thirty miles long, and from ten to
twelve broad. Rounding Cape Maclear, and looking to the south-west, we
have another arm, which stretches some eighteen miles southward, and is
from six to twelve miles in breadth. These arms give the southern end a
forked appearance, and with the help of a little imagination it may be likened
to the 'boot-shape' of Italy. The narrowest part is about the ankle, eighteen
or twenty miles. From this it widens to the north, and in the upper third
or fourth it is fifty or sixty miles, broad. The length is over two hundred
miles. The direction in which it lies is as near as possible due north and
south. Nothing of the great bend to the west, shown in all the previous
maps, could be detected by either compass or chronometer, and the watch
we used was an excellent one. The season of the year was very unfavour-
able. The ' smokes ' filled the air with an impenetrable haze, and the
equinoctial gales made it impossible for us to cross to the eastern side. When
we caiight a glimpse of the sun rising from behind the mountains to the east,
we made sketches and bearings of them at difi'erent latitudes, which enabled
us to secure approximate measurements of the width. These agreed with
the times taken by the natives at the different crossing-places — as Tsenga,
and Molamba. About the beginning of the upper third the lake is crossed
by taking advantage of the island Chizumara, which name, in the native
tongue, means the ' ending ;' further north they go round the end instead,
though that takes several days.
" The lake appeared to be surrounded by mountains, but it was after-
wards found that these beautiful tree-covered heights were, on the west, only
the edges of high table-lands. Like all narrow seas encircled by high lands,
it is visited by sudden and tremendous storms. We were on it in September
and October, perhaps the stormiest season of the year, and were repeatedly
detained by gales. At times, while sailing pleasantly over the blue water
with a gentle breeze, suddenly, and without any warning, was heard the
310 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
sound of a coming storm, roaring on with crowds of angry waves in its wake.
We were caught one morning with the sea breaking all around us, and,
unable either to advance or recede, anchored a mile from shore, in seven
fathonitj. The furious surf on the beach would have shivered our slender
boat to atoms, had we tried to land. The waves most dreaded came rolling
on in threes, with their crests, driven into spray, streaming behind them. A
short lull followed each triple charge. Had one of these white-maned seas
struck our frail bark nothing could have saved us, for they came on with
resistless force ; seaward, in shore, and on either side of us, they broke in
foam, but we escaped. For six weary hours we faced those terrible trios,
any one of which might have been carrying the end of our expedition in its
hoary head. A low, dark, detached, oddly-shaped cloud came slowly from
the mountains, and hung for hours directly over our heads. A flock of night-
jars [Cometomis vcxillarius), which on no other occasion come out by day,
soared above us in the gale, like birds of evil omen. Our black crew became
sea-sick, and unable to sit up or keep the boat's head to the sea. The natives
and our land-party stood on the high cliffs looking at us and exclaiming, as
the waves seemed to swallow up the boat, ' They are lost! they are all dead!'
When at last the gale moderated, and we got safely ashore, they saluted us
warmly, as after a long absence. From this time we trusted implicitly to
the opinions of our seaman, John Neil, who, having been a fisherman on the
coast of Ireland, understood boating on a stormy coast, and by his advice we
often sat cowering on the land for days together, waiting for the surf to go
down. He had never seen such waves before. We had to beach the boat
every night to save her from being swamped at anchor ; and did we not
believe the gales to be peculiar to one season of the year, would call Nyassa
the ' Lake of Storms.'
" Lake Nyassa receives no great affluents from the west. The five
rivers we observed in passing did not at this time appear to bring in as much
water as the Shire was carrying out. They were from fifteen to thirty yards
wide, and some too deep to ford ; but the evaporation must be very consider-
able. These streams, with others of about the same size from the mountains
on the east and north, when swollen by the rains, may be sufficient to account
for the rise in the lake without any large river. The natives nearest the
northern end denied the existence of a large river there, though at one time it
seemed necessary to account for the Shire's perennial flow. Distinct white
marks on the rocks showed that, for some time during the rainy season, the
water of the lake is three feet above the point to which it falls towards the
close of the dry period of the year. The rains begin here in November, and
the permanent rise of the Sliire does not take place till January. The west-
ern side of Lake Nyassa, with the exception of the great harbour to the west
of Cape Maclear, is, as has been said before, a succession of small bays of
CURIOSITY OF THE PEOPLE, 311
nearly similar form, each having an oisen sandy beach and pebbly shore, and
being separated from its neighbour by a rocky headland, with detached rocks
extending some distance out to sea. The great south-western bay referred to
would form a magnificent harbour, the only really good one we saw to the
west.
" The land immediately adjacent to the lake is low and fertile, though
in some places marshy, and tenanted by large flocks of ducks, geese, herons,
crowned cranes, and other birds. In the southern part we have sometimes
ten or a dozen miles of rich plains, bordered by what seem high ranges of
well-wooded hills, running nearly parallel with the lake. Northwards the
mountains become loftier, and present some magnificent views, range tower-
ing beyond range, until the dim, lofty outlines, j^rojected against the sky,
bound the j^rospect. Still further north the plain becomes more narrow, until
near where we turned, it disappears altogether, and the mountains rise
abruptly out of the lake, forming the north-east boundary of what was de-
scribed to us as an extensive table-land, well suited for pasturage and agricul-
ture, and now only partially occupied by a tribe of Zulus, who came from
the south some years ago. These people own large herds of cattle, and are
constantly increasing in numbers by annexing other tribes.
" Never before in Africa have we seen anything like the dense pojoula-
tion on the shores of Lake Nyassa. In the southern part, there was an
almost unbroken chain of villages. On the beach of well nigh every little
sandy bay, dark crowds were standing, gazing at the novel sight of a boat
under sail; and wherever we landed we were surrounded in a few seconds by
hundreds of men, women, and children, who hastened to have a stare at the
' chirombo' (wild animals). To see the animals feed, was the greatest attrac-
tion ; never did the Zoological Society's lions or monkeys draw more sight-
seers than we did. Indeed, we equalled the hippopotamus on his first arrival
among the civilised on the banks of the Thames. The wondering multitude
crowded round us at meal times and formed a thicket of dark bodies, all looking
on, apparently, with the deepest interest; but they good-naturedly kept each
other to aline we made on the sand, and left us room to dine. They were
civil upon the whole. Twice they went the length of lifting up the edge of
our sail, which we used as a tent, as boys do the curtains of travelling men-
ageries at home. They named us indeed ' chirombo,' which means only the
wild animals that may be eaten, but they had no idea that we understood
their meaning. No fines were levied on us, nor dues demanded. At one
village only they were impudent, but they were 'elevated' by beer. They
cultivate the soil pretty extensively, and grow large quantities of rice and
sweet potatoes, as well as maize, mapire, and millet. In the north, however,
cassava is the staple product, which, with fish kept till the flavour is high,
constitutes the main support of the inhabitants. During a poi'tion of the year,
312 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
the northern dwellers on the lake have a harvest which furnishes a singular
sort of food. As we approached our limit in that direction, clouds, as of smoke
rising from miles of burning grass, were observed bending in a south-easterly
direction, and we thought that the unseen land on the opposite side was clos-
ing in, and that we were near the end of the lake. But next morning we
sailed through one of the clouds on our own side, and discovered that it was
neither smoke nor haze, but countless millions of minute midges, called
'kungo' (a cloud or fog). They filled the air to an immense height, and
swarmed upon the water, too light to sink in it. Eyes and mouth had to be
kept closed while passing through this living cloud; they struck upon the
face like fine drifting snow. Thousands lay in the boat when she emerged
from the cloud of midges. The peojDle gather these minute insects by night,
and boil them into thick cakes, to be used as a relish — millions of midges in
a cake. A kungo cake, an inch thick and as large as the blue bonnet of a
Scotch ploughman, was offered to us ; it was very dark in colour, and tasted
not unlike caviare, or salted locusts.
" Abundance of excellent fish are found in the lake, and nearly all were
new to us. The mpasa, or sanjika, found by Dr. Kirk to be a kind of carp,
was running up the rivers to spawn, like our salmon at home. The largest
we saw was one two feet in length. It is a splendid fish, and the best we
have ever eaten in Africa. They wei'e ascending the rivers in August and
September, and furnished active and {jrofitable employment to many fisher-
men, who did not mind their being out of season. Weirs were constructed
full of sluices, in each of which was set a large basket-trap, through whose
single tortuous opening the fish, once in, has but small chance of escape. A
short distance below the weir, nets are stretched across from bank to bank,
so that it seemed a marvel how the most sagacious sanjika could get up at
all without being taken. Possibly a passage up the river is found at night ;
and this is not the country of Sundays or close times for either men or fish.
The lake fish are caught chiefly in nets, although men, and even women
with babies on their backs, are occasionally seen fishing from the rocks with
hooks."
The first impression a stranger would receive of the Lake Nyassa men
is, that they are lazy. During the day you see them lying fast asleep under
the trees along the shore, as if they had nothing to do, or did not care to do
anything ; but when you come to know the facts of the case, you will find
that these morning sleepers have been working hard most part of the night.
They begin to bestir themselves in the afternoon, preparing their nets and
lines, and canoes, for their night's work. They paddle off in the evening to
the fishing stations, and then, through the greater part of the night, they are
dragging their nets. It is evident, from the quantity of native cotton cloth
worn, that many of the people must be employed in the cultivation of cotton.
BURIAL GROUNDS OF THE PEOPLE. 313
ftiid in preparing it for use. They are not handsome ; the women especially
arc very plain, and universally wear the pclcle, or lip-ornament. All the
natives are tattooed from head to foot, the figures being characteristic of the
tribes, aud varying with them. In character and disposition they are very
mucli like other people — good, bad, and indifferent. " It might be only a
coincidence," says Livingstone, " but we never suffered from impudence,
loss of property, or were endangered, unless among peoj^le familiar Avith
slaving."
"Some of the burying-grounds are very well arranged, and well cared for.
This was noticed at Chitanda, and more particularly at a viHage on the
southern shore of the fine harbour at Cape Maclcar. Wide and neat paths
were made in the burying-ground on its eastern and southern sides. A grand
old fig-tree stood at the north-east corner, and its wide-.«preading branches
threw their kindly shade on the last resting-place of the dead. Several other
magnificent trees grew around the hallowed spot. Mounds were raised, as
they are at home, but all lay north aud south, the heads apparently north.
The graves of the sexes were distinguished by the various implements which
the buried dead had used in their various employments during life ; but they
were all broken, as if to be employed no more. A piece of fishing-net and a
broken paddle told that a fisherman slept beneath that sod. The graves of
the women had the wooden mortar, and the heavy pestle used in pounding
the corn, and the basket in which the meal is sifted, while all had numerous
broken calabashes, and pots arranged around them. The idea that the future
life is like the present does not appear to prevail ; yet a banana-tree had been
carefully planted at the head of several of the graves, and, if not merely for
ornament, the fruit might be considered an offering to those who still possess
human tastes."
As Livingstone pursued his explorations, he found, oii the northern part
of the lake, that the people were more savage and lawless. Tiie Mazitu liv-
ing on the highlands were accustomed suddenly to invade the villages on the
plains, and pillage and destroy them. The travellers fell in with these peo-
ple on more occasions than one, and had several illustrations of their blood-
thirsty character. There were numerous elephants on the borders of the lake,
and hippopotami swarmed in tlie creeks and lagoons. On the 17th of October,
they were detained by a storm at the mouth of the Kaombe, aud were visited
by several men belonging to an Arab who had been fourteen years in the
interior. They had just brought down ivory, malachite, copper rings, aud
slaves, to exchange for cloth at the lake. Tlie slave-trade was carried on at
the lake with great vigour. Two enterprising Arabs had built a dhow, and
were running her, crowded with slaves, regularly across the lake. They were
informed, on the best authority, that nineteen thousand slaves from the Nyassa
coantry passed annually through tlie custom-house at Zanzibar
40
314 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Their exploration of Lake Nyassa extended from the 2iid of September
to the 27th of October, 1861; and, as they had spent or lost most of their
goods, they found it necessary to return to the ship. As tliey were descend-
ing the Shire, they found a number of Manganja families who bad been
driven from their homes by the Ajawa, concealed in the broad belt of papyrus
round the lakelet Pamalombe. The papyrus grew so thickly, that when beat
down it supported their small temporary huts, though, when they walked
from one hut to another, it bent beneath their feet. Between them and the
land there was a dense and impenetrable forest of the papyrus, and no one
passing by on the same side would ever have suspected that human beings
lived there. A few miles below this small lake is the last of the great slave-
crossings. At a place called Movunguti, a young man came in great state to
have a look at them. He walked under a large umbrella, and was followed
by five young women gaily dressed. One carried his pipe ; another his bow
and arrows ; a third his battle-axe ; a fourth one of his robes, while the last
was ready to take his umbrella when he felt tired. He sat and looked at tlie
strangers for a few minutes, the young ladies kneeling behind him, and then
retired. Opposite to this place, Livingstone had met on his first trip a middle-
aged woman of considerable intelligence, from whom he received his first
definite information concerning Lake Nyassa. She was the only Manganja
woman he had ever met who was ashamed of wearing the pelele, or lip-ring.
When they left the river, to avoid the cataracts, crowds of carriers offered
their services to convey the boat and their baggage. They found that the vil-
lage at the foot of the cataracts had increased in size and prosperity since
they passed it on their way ujd. They could not understand this, until they
discovered that the ^^lace had become a crossing for the slaves whom the Por-
tuguese agents were carrying to Tette, because they were afraid to take them
across nearer to where the shiji lay, about seven miles off.
The party reached the ship on the 8th of November, 1861, in a weak
condition, having suffered much from hunger.' The next day heavy rains
began, and continued several days, so that the river rose rapidly, and became
highly discoloured. On the 14th, Bishop Mackenzie came down to the ship,
with some of the "Pioneer's" men who had been left at Magomero for the
benefit of their health ; and on the same day Livingstone and he parted,
never to meet on earth again. The rains now ceased, and the river fell, even
more rapidly than it had risen. Twenty miles below Chibisa's, a shoal im-
peded their further progress, and they had to reniahi there five weeks, till
the permanent rise of the river. Here, the first death occurred in the exjoedi-
tion. Towards the close of December, the rains became pretty general, and
by the beginning of January, 1862, the Shire was in flood. On the 11th of
January, they entered the Zambesi, and steamed down towards the coast,
taking the side on which they had come up ; but, as it sometimes does, the
A ERl VAL A KJ) DBA TH OF MRS. LI VI NG STONE. 3 1 5
channel had been changed to the other side during the summer, and they soon
grounded. At length, they anchored at the Great Luabo moutli of the
Zambesi; clioosing tliis spot, because wood was much more easily obtained
there than at the Kongone. On the 30th, II. M.S. "Gorgon" arrl\-ed, towing
the brig which brought Mrs. Livingstone, Miss Mackenzie, and Mrs. Burrup ;
the former had come out to join her husband, while the others were on
their way to join their friends at Magomero, where they arrived, as we have
already seen, too late to see their friends alive. The brig also brought the
twenty-four sections of a new iron steamer intended for the navigation of
Lake Nyassa.
The "Pioneer" steamed up the river with the party, and a portion of
the sections of the newly-arrived steamer, on the 10th of February; but her
progress was so distressingly slow, in consequence of the current, and the
machinery having been allowed to get out of order, that Livingstone and his
friends determined to land and put the sections of the "Lady Nyassa" — the
name given to the new steamer — together atShupanga, while Captain WilsoE
and others went forward with the mission party in the gig of the "Gorgon."
Captain Wilson arrived at Shupanga on the 11th of March ; on the loth, the
"Pioneer" steamed with the gallant officers down to the Kongone; and on
April the 4th, he left for the Cape in command of his ship, taking all, except
one of the mission party, who had come with him in January.
During Livingstone's subsequent detention at Shupanga, he proceeded
as far uj) the Shire as the Upper Cataracts, and saw wiiat wretchedness pre-
vailed in the country. Instead of the dense population living in peace and
plenty which he first found there, only a few scattered fragments were left,
almost destroyed by famine and slave-hunting. Disease prevailed univer-
sally. On the 7th of April, there was only one man in connection with the
expedition fit for duty. About the middle of the month, Mrs. Livingstone was
prostrated by fever ; and notwithstanding that she received every attention
which affection and skill could render, she died on the 27th, and was buried
on the following day under the shade of a great baobab-tree, the Rev. James
Stewart, a minister of the Free Church of Scotland, reading the burial service.
The brave seamen of the " Gorgon " mounted guard for several nights over
her last resting-place. There she quietly sleeps, waiting the morning of the
resurrection to life eternal.
The "Pioneer" made several trips to the Kongone, and returned with
the last load of the " Lady Nyassa " on the 12th of June. On the 23rd, the
new steamer, having been put together, was launched in the presence of a
large assemblage of natives, who had come liom far and near to witness the
sight. They could not believe that a ship of ircn would float, and when they
saw her glide gracefully into the water, and float like one of their own canoes,
their astonishment was unbounded. The figure-head, which was the head
310 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
and bust of a female, was regarded by them as a wonderful work of art. As
it would be impossible to sail up the river until December, Livingstone and
his friends proceeded in the " Pioneer" to Johanna, to obtain a supply of
provisions and other requisites, and some oxen to carry the sections of the
" Lady Nyassa " past the Murchison Cataracts. Mr. Lumley, H. M. Consul
at Johanna, did all in his power to further their views, and gave them six of
his own trained oxen from his sugar plantation. On leaving Johanna and
tlieir oxen for a time, H. M, S. " Orestes " towed them thence to the mouth
of the Rovuma, at the beginning of September. Livingstone was anxious to
explore this river, as he was still of opinion tliat a better way to Lake Nyassa
might be found by ascending it. His hopes, however, were doomed to dis-
appointment. It was found to contain a smaller volume of water than many
of the tributaries of the Zambesi. Shallows were numerous; and ninety miles
from its mouth, a series of cataracts arrested the explorers, and there was
nodiinc for it but to return.
o
\\\ the following letter to Sir Roderick Murchison, Livingstone gives an
interesting account of the Rovuma, and the difliculties connected with its
navigation: — "The bed of the river is about three-quarters of a mile wide.
It is flanked by a well-wooded table-land, which looks like ranges of hills,
five hundred feet high. Sometimes the spurs of the highland come close to
the water, but generally there is a mile of level alluvial soil between them
and the bank. So few people appeared at first, it looked like a ' land to let;'
but, having walked up the edge of the plateau, considerable cultivation was
met with, though, to make a garden, a great mass of brushwood must be
cleared away. The women and children fled ; but calling to a man not to
be afraid, he asked if I had any objection to 'liquor with him,' and brought a
cup of native beer. There are many new trees on the slopes, j^lenty of ebony
in some places, and thickets of brushwood. The whole scenery had a light-
gray appearance, dotted over with masses of green trees, which precede the
others in putting on new foliage, for this may be called our winter. Other
trees showed their young leaves brownish-i'ed, but soon all will be gloriously
green. Further up we came to numerous villages, perched on sandbanks in
the river. They had villages on shore, too, and jDlenty of grain stored away
in the woods. Tliey did not fear for tlieir victuals, but were afraid of being
stolen themselves. We passed through them all right, civilly declining an
invitation to land at a village wliere two human heads had been cut off. A
lot of these river-pilots then followed us, till there was only a narrow passage
under a high bank, and there let drive their arrows at us. We stopped and
expostulated with them for a long time, then got them to one of the boats,
and explained to them how easily we could drive them off with our rifles and
revolvers, but we wished to be friends, and gave about thirty yards of calico
in presents in 2)roof of friendship. All this time we were within forty yards
THE ROVUMA. ;n7
of a considerable number of tlicm, armed with muskets and bows, on the high
bank.
" On parting, as we thought, on friendly terms, and moving on, wo
received a volley of musket-balls and arrows, four bullet-holes being made in
my sail; but finding that we, instead of running away, returned the fire,
they took to their heels, and left the conviction that these are the border
ruffians who at various points present obstacles to African exploration — men-
stealers, in fact, wlio care no more for human life than that respectable party
in London who stuffed the ' Pioneer's ' life-buoys with old straw instead of
cork. It was sore against the grain to pay away that calico; it was sub-
mitting to be robbed for the sake of peace. It cannot bo called 'black mail,
for that implies the rendering of important service by Arabs; nor is it 'custom
dues.' It is robbery perpetrated by any one who has a traveller or trader in
his power, and, when tamely submitted to, increases in amount till wood,
water, grass, and every conceivable subject of offence, is made occasion for a
fine. On our return we passed quietly through them all, and j^robably the
next English boat will be respected. Beyond these Makonde all were friendly
and civil, laying down their arms before they came near us. Much trade is
carried on by means of canoes, and we had the compan}^ of seven of these
small craft for three days. They bring rice and grain down to purchase salt.
When about sixty miles up, the table-land mentioned above retires, and we
have an immense plain, Avith detached granite rocks and hills dotted over.
Some rocks then ajjpear in the river, and at last, at our turning-point, the
bed is all rocky masses, four or five feet high, with the water rushing through
by numerous channels. Tlie canoes go through with ease, and we might
have taken the boats up also, but we were told that further up the channels
were much narrower, and there was a high degree of probability that we
should get them smashed in coming down.
" We were on part of the slave-route from the Lake Nyassa to Quiloa
(Kilwa), about thirty miles below the station of Ndonde, where that route
crosses the Rovuma, and a' little further from the confluence of the Liende,
v,'hich, arising from the hill on the east of the Lake Nyassa, flows into the
Rovuma It is said to be very large, with reeds and aquatic plants growing
in it, but at this time only ankle-deep. It contains no rocks till near its
sources on the mountains, and between it and the lake the distance is reported
to require between two and three days. At the cataracts, where we turned,
there is no rock on the shore, as on the Zambesi, at Kebrabasa, and Mur-
chison's Cataracts. The land is perfectly smooth, and, as far as we could see,
the country has the same flat appearance, with only a few detached hills.
The tsetse is met with all along the Rovuma, and the people have no cattle
in consequence. They produce large quantities of oil-yielding seeds, as the
sesame, or gerzelin, and have hives placed on tlie trees every few miles. We
318 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
never saw ebony of equal size to what we met on this river ; and as to its
navigability, as the mark at which water stands for many months is three
feet above what it is now, and it is now said to be a cubit lower than usual,
I have no doubt that a vessel, drawing when loaded about eighteen inches,
would run with ease during many months of the year. Should English trade
be established on the Lake Nyassa, Englishmen will make this their outlet
rather than pay dues to the Portuguese.
"We return to put our ships on Nyassa by the Sliire, because there we
have the friendship of all the people, except tliat of the slave-hunters. Form-
erly we found the Shire people far more hostile than are the Makonde of
Rovuma; but now they have confidence in us, and we in them. To leave
them now would be to open the country for the slave-hunters to pursue their
calling therein, and we should be obliged to go through the whole process of
gaining a people's confidence again. It may seem to some persons weak to
feel a chord vibrating to the dust of her who rests on the banks of the Zam-
besi, and thinking that the path thereby is consecrated by her remains. We
go back to Johanna and Zambesi in a few daj^s. Kind regards to Lady Mur-
chisou, and believe me ever affectionately yours."
Livingstone and bis companions returned to the " Pioneer" on the 9th
of October, and put to sea on the 18th. They touched at Johanna, obtained
a crew of Johanna men, and their oxen, and sailed for the Zambesi. Their
fuel failed, however, before they reached it, and they had to run into Killi-
mane for wood. About the end of November, they entered the Zambesi, and
found it unusually low, so that they did not go up to Shupanga till the 19th
of Decembei". In January, 1863, the "Pioneer" steamed up the Shire, with
the " Lady Nyassa" in tow, and they soon came upon traces of the whole-
sale ravages of the notorious and cruel Mariano. " The survivors of a small
hamlet, at the foot of Morambala, were in a state of starvation, having lost
their food by one of his marauding parties. The women were in the fields
collecting insects, roots, wild fruits, and whatever could be eaten, in order to
drag on their lives, if possible, till the next crop should be ripe. Two canoes
passed them, that had been robbed by Mariano's band of everything they had
in them ; the owners were gathering palm-nuts for their subsistence. They
wore palm-leaf aprons, as the robbers had stripped them of their clothing and
ornaments. Dead bodies floated past them daily, and in the morning the
paddles had to be cleared of corpses, caught by the floats during the night.
For scores of miles the entire population of the valley was swept away by
this savage Mariano, the great Portuguese slave-agent. It made the heart
ache to see the wide-spread desolation ; the river-banks, once so populous, all
silent ; the villages burnt down, and an oppressive stillness reigning where
formerly crowds of eager sellers appeared with the various products of their
industry. Here and there might be seen, on the bank, a small dreary deserted
ATTEMPT TO REACH LAKE NYASSA. 319
shed, where had sat, day after day, a starving fisherman, until the rising
waters drove the fish from their wonted haunts, and left him to die. Tingane
bad been defeated; his people had been killed, kidnapped, and forced to flee
from their villages. There were a few wretched survivors in one village ;
but the majority of the population was dead. Tlie sight and smell of dead
bodies was everywhere. Many skeletons lay beside the path where, in their
weakness, they had fallen and expired. Ghastly living forms of boys and
girls, with dull, dead eyes, were crouching beside some of the huts. A few
more miserable days of their terrible hunger, and they would be with the
dead."
During their detention on the shallow part of the river in March, ]\Ir.
Thornton, who had left them in 1859, to join Baron van der Decken in a sur-
vey of the Kilmanjaro mountains, rejoined them. He had assisted in the
ascent of the highest member of this mountain- range to a height of fourteen
thousand feet, discovering at the same time that the height above the level
of the sea of the highest peak, was twenty thousand feet. These mountains,
above eight thousand feet, are covered with perpetual snow. Mr. Thornton's pre-
sent mission was to examine the geology of the district in the neighbourhood
of the cataracts; but, before he had well begun his arduous labours, he was
attacked with fever and dysentery, which terminated fatally on the 21st of
April, 1863. He was buried on the 22iid, near a large tree, on the right
bank of the Shire, about five hundred yards from the lowest of the Murchison
Cataracts.
Livingstone, believing that, if it were possible to get a steamer on Lake
Nyassa, he could put a check on the slavers from the east coast, unscrewed
the "Lady Nyassa" at a rivulet just below the first cataract, and began to
make a road over the thirty or forty miles of land portage, by which to carry
her up piecemeal. While they were busy making this road. Dr. Kirk and
Mr. Charles Livingstone, after repeated attacks of fever and dysentery, were
compelled to leave for England ; the noble leader himself still remaining at
his post, though he also had had a severe attack of fever. After a few
miles of road were completed, they resolved to seek provisions by going in a
boat up the Shire, above the catai-acts, to the tribes at the foot of Lake
Nyassa, who were not yet assailed by the Ajawa. This attempt, however,
failed. A striking instance of the wonderful power of the human constitu-
tion to repair itself came at this time under their notice. On the 9th of June,
a canoe came floating down empty, and soon after a woman was seen swim-
ming near the other side, about two liundred yards distant. The native crew
manned the boat, and rescued her ; when brought on board, she was found
to have an arrow-head, eight or ten inches long, in her back, below the ribs,
and slanting up tlnough the diaphragm and left lung, towards the heart — she
had been shot from behind, stooping. Air was coming out of the wound,
320 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
and. there being but an inch of the barbed arrow-head visible, it was thought
better not to run the risk of her dying under the operation needful for its
removal. She was therefore carried to her hut. But one of her relatives
immediately cut out the arrow and part of the lung; and she not only be-
came well, but strong. On the 1st of July, they heard the phenomenon,
which Moffat and other travellers have noticed, of thunder with a clear sky.
That night several loud peals of thunder awoke them ; the moon was shining
brightly, and not a cloud to be seen. All the natives remarked on the clear-
ness of the sky at the time, and next morning, they said, " We thought it
was God."
The following day, on Livingstone's return to the "Pioneer" from the
unsuccessful attempt to get to the lake, he found a despatch from Earl
Russell, containing instructions for the withdrawal of the expedition. As it
was impossible to take the "Pioneer" down to the sea till the floods of
December, he determined again on a journey to the neighbourhood of Lake
N3'assa, selecting five of the Makololo men, who had settled near Chibisas's,
and several of the Johanna men and natives on the spot, making in all twenty
native assistants, to accompany him. In attempting to ascend the cataracts,
one of the boats, with valuable stores in it, was lost, through the foolish con-
duct of some of the Zambesi men, who were desirous of showing that the}'
could manage her better than the Makololo. As a punishment, these Zambesi
men were sent back to the ship for provisions, cloth, and beads ; and on their
return had to carry, during the ensuing journey, as heavy loads as they could.
Livingstone resolved to go on foot ; and on the 19th of August, he and
his companions were fairly on the march. His object was to get away to the
N. N. W., proceed parallel with the lake, but at a considerable distance west
of it; visit Lake Moelo, and collect farther information about the slave-trade.
They passed through a tract of country covered with mojjane trees, where
the hard-baked soil refused to let the usual thick crojDS of grass grow.
Many flowers were in blossom along their path ; the euphorbia, baobab, and
caparidaceous trees, were in full bloom. On the 26th, they had attained a con-
siderable altitude, " as was evident from the change in the vegetation. The
masuko-trce, with its large hard leaves, never met with in the lowlands, was
here covered with unripe fruit — fine rhododendrons — the trees (Coesalplneajj,
with piimated leaves, from which bark cloth is made — the molompi (Ptero-
carpus), which, when wounded, exudes large quantities of a red juice, so
astringent that it might answer the purpose of kino, and furnishes a wood as
elastic and light as ash, from which the native paddles are made. These
trees, with everlasting flowers, shaped like daisies and ferns, betokened an ele-
vated habitat, and the boiling-point of water showed that their altitude was
two thousand five hundred feet above the sea." As they pursued tiieir
way they came close up to a range of mountains, the most prominent peak
A RAIN POOL BY THE WAY
GUI y DING CORN. M\
of which was a great, bare, rounded block of granite. Far to tlicir right
extended a long green wooded countiy, rising gradually up to a ridge, orna-
mented with several detached mountains, which bounded the Shire valley.
To the north, in front of them, lay a valley thirty miles in length, with
combinations of open forest, sloping Avoodland, grassy lawns, and massive
clumps of dark grass foliage along the running streams, tliat formed as beau-
tiful a landscape as could be seen on the Thames.
The travellers were well received, after their intentions were made known.
In many places they were at first received with coldness, and the inhabitants
were in daily fear of a slave-stealing raid being made upon them, and natu-
I'ally looked with suspicion on an armed part}', headed by a white man ; but,
as they proceeded, the great bulk of the inhabitants of the districts through
which they passed showed them great kindness. Again and again Living-
stone had proofs, both in what he saw and what he hoard, that the native
tribes in the interior, who have not suffered from the introduction of the slave-
trade, are comparatively industrious and happy. It was a pleasant sight to
see men, women, and children, preparing the grovmd for their crops; or clear-
ing the crops of weeds, which were carefully gathered and burned, as in Eng-
land ; or grinding their corn in the stone mill, which " consists of a block of
granite, or mica schist, fifteen or eighteen inches square, and four or six inches
thick, with a piece of quartz or other hard rock, about the size of half a brick,
one side of which has a coarse surface, and fits into a concave hollow in the
large and stationar}' stone. The work-woman kneeling, grasps this upper
stone with both hands, and works it backwards and forwards in the hollow
of the lower stone, in the same way as a baker manipulates his dough, when
pressing and pushing it from him. The weight of the person is brought to
bear on the moveable stone ; and while it is pressed and pushed forwards and
backwards, one hand supplies every now and then a little grain, to be thus
bruised, and then ground, in the lower stone, which is placed on the slope, so
that the meal, when ground, falls on to a skin or mat spread for the purpose.
Before being ground, the corh is pounded in a large wooden mortar, exactly
similar to the method of the ancient Egyptians. The pestle is about six feet
long, and four inclics iu thickness. By this process the husk is removed from
the grain."
The greatest luxury with the people was beer, of which they drank largely,
often inviting their neighbours to visit them, and share in their jollification.
A common mode of praising the excellency of the beer was to say that the
taste reached right to the back of the neck. The laugh of the women was
brimful of mirth — no simpering smile, nor senseless loud guffaw, but a merry,
ringing laugh, the sound of wldch did the heart good. If, at his first intro-
duction to a chief, Livingstone observed a joyous twinkle of the eye acconi-
panv his laugh, he always set him down as a good fellow, and was never dis-
41
322 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
appointed in him afterwards. Everywhere he was struck with little touches
of human nature, which told him that blacks and whites, in their natural
ways, were very much the same. Sleeping outside a hut, but near enough to
hear what jDassed in the interior of it, he heard a native woman commence to
grind in the dark, about two o'clock in the morning. " Ma," said her little
daughter, " why grind in the dark ?" After telling her to go to sleep, she
said, " I grind meal to buy a cloth from the strangers, which will make you
a little lady."
The party reached Kota-kota Bay on the 10th of September. "At Kota-
kota Bay," says Livingstone, in an account of his journey which he wrote to
Sir Roderick Murchison, "we found two Arab traders busily engaged in
transjiorting slaves across the lake by means of their boats; they were also
building a dhow to supply the place of one which was said to have been
wrecked. These men said that they had now fifteen hundred souls in their
village, and we saw tens of thousands of people in the vicinity who had fled
thither fos jirotectioi^ Every disturbance amongst the native tribes benefits
the slave-trader. They were paying one fathom of calico, value one shilling,
for a boy, and two fathoms for a good-looking girl. Yet, profitable as it may
seem, the purchase of slaves would not pay, were it not for the value of their
services as carriers of the ivory conveyed to the coast by the merchants. A
trader with twenty slaves has to expend at least the price of one per day
for their sustenance; it is the joint ivoi'y and slave-trade which alone renders
the speculation profitable. It was the knowledge that I was working towards
undei'mining the slave-trade of Mozambique and Iboe by buying up the ivory,
that caused all their obstructive power. I trust that operations in the interior
under a more able leader, will not be lost sight of, for these will do more to
stop the slave-trade than all the cruisers on the ocean.
"Kota-kota Bay, which is formed by a sandy spit running out and pro-
tecting the harbour from the east wind, is the crossing-place for nearly all the
slaves that go to Kilwa, Iboe, and Mozambique. A few are taken down to
the end of the lake, and for cheaj^ness cross the Shire ; but at Kota-kota lies
the great slave-route to Katanga, Cazembe, &c. The Babisaare the principal
traders; the Manganja are the cultivators of the soil. The Arabs were very
civil when we arrived, and came forth to meet us, and presented us with rice,
meal, and sugar-cane. Amongst other presents they made us was a piece of
malachite.
" After leaving Kota-kota, we proceeded due west. In three days we
ascended the j^lateau, the eastern side of which has the appearance of a range
of mountains. The long ascent, adorned with hill and dale and running
streams, fringed with evergreen trees, was very beautiful to the eye, but the
steep walk was toilsome, causing us to halt frequently to take breath. The
heights have a delicious but peculiarly piercing air ;, it seemed to go through
RETURN TO THE "PIONEER." 323
us. Five Shupanga men, who had been accustomed all their lives to the
malaria of the Zambesi Delta, were quite prostrated by that which, to me, was
exhilarating and bracing. We travelled about ninety miles due west on the
great Babisa, Katanga, and Cazembe slave-route, and then turned to the
north-west. The country is level, but the boiling-point showed a slope in the
direction we were going. The edge of the plateau is three thousand four hun-
dred and forty feet above the sea-level. •
" As we were travelling in the direction whence a great deal of ivory is
draAvn by the traders on the slave-route, hindrances of various kinds were put
in our way. The European food we had brought with us was expended ; the
people refused to sell us food, and dysentery came back on us in force.
Moreover, our time was now expired. I was under explicit orders not to
undertake any long journey, but to have the " Pioneer" down to the sea by
the earliest flood. As the steward and myself were obliged to try our best
during the limited time at our disposal, it may be worth mentioning that we
travelled six hundred and sixty geographical miles in fifty-five travelling
days, averaging twelve miles per day in straight lines. The actual distance
along the wavy, ujD-and-down paths we had travelled, was of course much
greater. The new leaves on the trees of the j^lateau were coming out fresh and
green, and of various other hues, when we were there; and on reaching the
ship, on the 31st of October, we found all, except the evergreen ones by
streams, as bare of leaves as in mid-winter."
On their arrival at the ship, they were delighted and thankful to find all
those whom they had left in her in good health. The steward, after having
performed his part in the march right bravel}^, rejoined his comrades stronger
than he had ever been before. The first fortnight after their return to the
ship was employed in resting. The muscles of their limbs were as hard as
boards, and not an ounce of fat existed on any part of the body. About
the middle of December, they heard that Bishop Tozer, wlio had come out
as Bishop Mackenzie's successor, had determined to leave the country. In a
letter to Admiral Washington, Livingstone thus refers to the matter: — "The
Mission of the Universities has been a sore disappointment to me, but on
public grounds alone, for it formed no part of my expedition. Before I left
the Zambesi, I heard from Bishop Tozer, the successor to Bishop Mackenzie,
that he had determined to leave the country as early in the present year
(1864) as possible. He selected the top of an uninhabited mountain — Morain-
bala, at the mouth of the Shire — for his mission-station. Fancy a mission-
station on the top of Ben Nevis ! It is an isolated hill in the middle of a
generally flat country ; consequently all the clouds collect around the summit,
and the constant showers and fogs at certain times make the missionaries run,
to avoid being drenched, into the huts. Unlike the first, the second party has
been quite useless ; they never went near any population that could be taught.
3-24 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
and are now about to run away altogether. Wishing- to be strictly accurate
as to the incredible fact of a missionary bishop without a flock, I made minute
inquiry, and found that on the mountain there were three native huts at one
spot, four at another, and nine at a third ; but none, except the first three,
■witliin easy access of the station. Twenty-five bo3's whom we liberated, and
gave to the late Bishop Mackenzie, were very unwillingly received by his
successor, although without them he would have had no natives whatever to
teach. He wished to abandon certain poor women and children who were
attached to the mission by Bishop Mackenzie, but Mr. Waller refused to
comply with his proposal, and preferred to resign his connection with the
mission. The Bishop is off before me. I take the boj-s and children (forty
in number) whom he wished to abandon, and send them myself to the Cape.
Having once liberated them, I felt in honour bound to see them secure from
a return into slaverj^, and am sure that the gentlemen who sent out the mis-
sion would have done the same."
On the 19th of January, 18(J4, the Sldre suddenly rose several feet, and
Linngstone started at once for tUe ocean. In order to keep steerage way on
the " Pioneer," they had to go quicker than the stream, and unfortunately-
carried away her rudder in passing suddenl}^ round a bank. The delay re-
quired for the rejoairs prevented their reaching Morambala till the 2nd of
February. After a hurried visit to Senna, they proceeded down to the mouth
of the Zambesi, and were fortunate in meeting on the 13th with H.M.S,
"Orestes." She was joined next day by H.M.S. ^'Ariel." The "Orestes"
took the "Pioneer," and the "Ariel" the "Lady Nyassa" in tow, for Mozam-
bique. During the voyage to Mozambique, they encountered a terrible
storm; but through God's providence and good seamanship, they escaped
without loss of life, or much damage. Captain Chapman of the "Ariel,"
and his officers, pronounced the "Lady Nyassa" to be the finest little sea-
boat they had ever seen.
Tlie "Pioneer" was delivered over to the Government officials at Mozam-
bique; but Livingstone determined to proceed in the "Lady Nj'assa " to
Bombay, and sell her there. On the 16th of April, they steamed out from
Mozambique, and, the currents being in their favour, in a week they reached
Zanzibar. On the 30th, they started for Bombay, a voyage of two thousand
five hundred miles, which they accomplished in safety, arriving there on the
13th of June. The heroic explorer himself acted as navigator, his crew
consisting of three Europeans, seven native Zambesi men, and two boys.
Considering that the three European members of his crew were laid aside for
a month each, and liis native Zambesi men had to be taught the duties of the
ship, and that the "Lady Nyassa" was a tiny little craft, constructed for lake
and river navigation, the feat of sailing her across the Indian Ocean was
not the least marvellous of the many darinir undertakin2;s Livingstone sue-
VOYAGE TO BOMB A Y. 3:25
CGssfully carried tlirou^li. When tlicy steamed into the harbour of Bombay,
the vessel was so small that no one noticed their arrival. Yet sucli was the
modesty of the man, that this astounding feat in seamanship did not strike
him as being anything wonderful.
Writing from Bombay to his friend Sir Roderick, ho speaks thus of the
voyage, and of his disappointment as to the recall of the expedition before
greater results liad been secured: — "We arrived at Bombay on the 13th inst.,
after a passage of forty-four days from Zanzibar. From Zanzibar we crept
along the Afiican coast, in order to jirofit by a current of at least a hundred
miles a day. If Solomon's ships went as far south as Sofala, as some sup-
pose, they could not have done it during the south-west monsoon against such
a current. We went along beautifully till we got past the line; we then fell
in with calms, which continued altogether for twenty-four days and a half.
The sea was as smooth as glass; and, as we had but one stoker, we could not
steam more than nine or ten hours at a time. By patience and perseverance,
we have, at length, accomplished our voyage of two thousand five hundred
miles, but now I feel at as great a loss as ever. I came here to sell my
steamer, but with this comes the idea of abandoning Africa before accom-
plishing something against the slave-trade; the thought of it makes me feel
as though I could not lie in peace in my grave, with all the evils I know so
well going on unchecked. AVliat makes it doubly galling is, that while the
policy of our Goverinnent has, to a very gratifying extent, been successful
on the West coast, all efforts on the East coast have been rendered ineffectual
by a scanty Portuguese convict population. The same measures have been
in operation here, the same expense and the same dangers, the same heroic
services have been performed by Her Majesty's cruisers, and yet all in vain.
The Zambesi country is to be shut up now more closely than ever, and, un-
less we have an English settlement somewhere on the mainland, beyond the
so-called dominions of the Portuguese, all rejDressive measures will continue
fruitless.
"I would willingly hrive gone up some of the other rivers with my
steamer, instead of coming here, but I had only three white men with me — a
stoker, a sailor, anJ a carpenter, and seven natives of the Zambesi. The
stoker and the sailor had both severe attacks of illness on the way, and it
would have been imprudent to have ascended an unexplored river so short-
handed. Could I have entered the Juba, it would have been not so much to
explore the river, as to set in train opei-ations by merchants and others which
sliould eventuall}^ work out the destruction of the slave-trade."
Entrusting the two native boys, who were about sixteen years of age, and
called respectively Wekotani and Chumah, to Dr. Wilson, of Bombay, to be
educated, Livingstone left India, and arrived in England, in July, 1804. He
devoted himself to the preparation of a narrative of his recent travels for
326 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
the press, and to the consideration of plans for further efforts to ameliorate
the condition of the natives of Central Africa. He felt certain that no help
could be calculated on from the Portuguese Government, which, in spite of
the utter valuelessness of its possessions on the east coast of Africa, seemed to
wink at the devastation and depopulation of the country by slave dealers,
and threw every obstacle in the way of any one anxious to acquire information
regarding the tribes bordering on their territory, and the possible introduction
of legitimate commerce amongst them. The only hope for Africa, as it ap-
peared to him, was the action which an enlightened and aroused public opinion
in this country would adopt and sustain. All who have paid any attention
to the subject, and watched the course of events during the last few years,
must concur in the sound judgment of the heroic traveller. For every mani-
festation of the growth and quickening of principle in favour of universal
freedom, without regard to country or race, we thank Him who has made of
one blood all nations of the earth.
CHAPTER XVIIL
Livingstone's Third Visit to Africa — Arrival at Zanzibar — Re-ascends the Rovuma —
Horrors of the Slave-Trader's Track — The Waiijau Country and People —
LaJce Nyassa Re-visHcd — Reaches the Loangtva — End of 18G6.
ON Livingstone's arrival in England in 1864, the discoveries of Speke and
Grant were attracting universal interest ; and soon after, those of Baker
strengthened the desire to know yet more of a country which had for ages
been a mystery to the civilised world, but which was gradually becoming
more familiar. The centre of the vast African continent had been a great
blank on the map ; it had been assumed to be a vast sandy desert ; but now,
lakes, hill ranges, rivers, extensive and populous settlements, were fast filling
the blank up. Livingstone's discoveries in the south, and those of his con-
temporary explorers farther to tlie north, had proved beyond all dispute that
the centre of Africa was peopled by tribes who were capable, if the abomin-
able slave-trade was suppressed, and legitimate commerce with civilised
nations introduced amongst them, of great mental, social, and religious ele-
vation.
All the efforts of modern explorers, however, still left a vast tract of
country of which little or nothing reliable was known. Some questioned
Speke's conclusion that he had traced the Nile to its great soui'ce, when he
watched it flowing a noble stream from the Victoria Nyanza Lake, and
thought that Tanganyika, and not Nyanza, was the source of the mighty
river. There was a general desire to know something of the unknown coun-
try between lakes Tanganyika and Nyassa ; and all eyes turned to one man
as the man who should endeavour to unlock the secret. After his laborious
exertions during the preceding six years, Livingstone naturally looked for-
ward to a period of rest ; but henceforward there was to be no rest for him
this side the grave. Sir Roderick Murchison waited upon him, to convey
the opinion of the Royal Geographical Society, that another expedition ought
to be sent into the heart of Al'rica to solve the problem of the water-shed
between the Nyassa and the Tanganyika, and to ask him to recommend a
suitable man to take such expedition in charge. He recommended a man,
who, however, when applied to, declined. Ou this gentleman's refusal, Sir
22S STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Eodeiick prevailed on Livingstone liimself to go. Two thousand pounds
were subscribed for the expedition. Mr. Young, a friend of Livingstone's at
College, furnished one thousand ; the Government gave five hundred ; and
tlie Royal Geographical Society subscribed a like sum. As Livingstone, when
he reached Bombay, sold the "Lady Nyassa" steamer, and placed the amount
he received (two thousand pounds) in bank, to be drawn upon by him for
the expenses of the expedition, he actually subscribed one-half the entire sum
he believed he had at his disposal at starting. Months after he had passed
into the interior of Africa, the banker with whom he had deposited the money
became bankrupt, and the whole sum was lost. Lord John Russell renewed
Livingstone's appointment as H.M. Consul to the tribes in the interior of
Africa, and thus gave to his mission a scnii-ollicial character.
Livingstone left England on the 4th of August, 1865, for Paris. From
Paris he went to Bombay ; and, after a passage of twenty-three days from
Bombay, arrived at Zanzibar on the 28th of January, 18GG. Visiting the
slave-market there, he found about three hundred slaves, most of whom had
been brought from Lake Nyassa and the Shire River. As they were hawked
about for sale, their teeth were examined, the cloth around them was lifted
up to examine their lower limbs, and a stick thrown to a distance, that in
fetching it they might exhibit their paces. After being detained for some
time at Zanzibar, Livingstone started on the 19th of March, on board the
'' Penguin," for the Rovuma River. He had with him thirty-six men, including
Sepoys, Johannas, Nassick boys, Shupangas, and "Waiyaus. He had also
six camels, three buffaloes, and a calf, two mules, and four donkeys; and a
dhow for the carriage of the animals. The spirit in whicli the great traveller
set out may be learnt from the following entry in his diary, made on the day
of departure : — " 19//i March. We stait this morning at 10. a.m. I trust that
the Most High may prosper me in this work, gi-anting me influence in the
eyes of the heathen, and helping me to make my intercourse beneficial to
them."
They reached Rovuma Bay on the 22nd, but found it impossible to land
there safely. The mouth of the river had quite changed from what it was
when Livingstone first visited it. They went, therefore, to Mikindany,
which lies only about twenty -five miles to the north of Rovuma, and is a
good landing-place, and the finest port on the coast. Here the traveller and
his party landed, and the " Penguin" left them. Ho found the people, who
are chiefly half-caste Arabs, very civil. Under date of March 26th, he thus
writes of the effect of travel — African travel especially : — " Now that I am on
the point of starting on another trip into Africa, I feel quite exhilarated;
when one travels with the specific object of ameliorating the condition of the
natives, every act becomes ennobled. Whether exchanging the customary
civilities on arriving at a village, accepting a night's lodging, purchasing food
MIKIXDANY. 3;2'J
for the party, asking for information, or answering polite African inqiiirios
as to our objects in travelling, wc begin to spread a knowledge of tliat people
by whose agency their land will yet become enlightened and freed front
the slave-trade. Tlie mere animal pleasure of travelling in a wild unexplored
country is very great. When on lands of a couple of thousand feet elevation,
brisk exercise imparts elasticity to tlie muscles, fresh and healthy blood cir-
culates through the brain, the mind works well, the eye is clear, tlie step
is firm, and a day's exertion always makes the evening's repose thoroughl^r
enjoyable. Wo have usually also the stimulus of remote chances of danger, -
either from beasts or men, Our sympathies are drawn out towards our hum-
ble hardy companions by a community of interests, and, it may be, of perils.,
which make us all friends. Nothing but the most pitiable puer'lity would
lead any manly heart to make their inferiority a theme for self-exaltation ;
however, that is often done, as if with the vague idea that we can, by mag-
nifying their deficiencies, demonstrate our immaculate perfections. The.
effect of travel on a man wliose heart is in the right place, is that the mind is.-
made more self-reliant; it becomes more confident of its own resources — there
is greater presence of mind. The body is soon well knit ; the muscles of the
limbs grow as hard as a board, and seem to have no fat ; the countenance is-
bronzed, and there is no d^-spepsia. Africa is a most wonderful country for
appetite, and it is only when one gloats over marrow bones or elephant's feet
that indigestion is possible. No doubt much toil is involved, and fatigue,..
of which travellers in the more temj)erate climes can form but a faint con-
ception; but the sweat of one's brow is no longer a curse when one works for
God; it jDroves a tonic to the system, and is actually a blessing. No one
can tiuly appreciate the charm of repose unless he has undergone severe
exertion."
The harbour of Mikindany has somewhat tlie shape of a bent bow, the-
sliaft of the arrow being the enti'ance in; the passage is very deep, but not
more than one hundred yards wide, and it goes in nearly south-west; inside,
it is deep and quite secure, and protected from all winds. The people of tho
place speak the Swaheli language, and trade chiefly in gum-copal and Orchilhv
weed. After spending some days in exploring the immediate neighbourhood,
Livingstone proceeded inland, and began to descend the northern slope down
to the Eovuma, whicli he reached on the lith of April. His course now lay
westwards, sometimes wending his way round ranges of hills; sometimes ris-
ing over them, and descending their western sides, and then a great deal of
woodcutting was required. Gardens were abundant, and the supply of grain,
especially rice, large. All the rocks he had seen showed that the plateau
consisted of grey sandstone, capped by a ferruginous sandy conglomerate.
There now appeared blocks of silicificd wood lying on the surface, and so
like recent wood, that no one who had not handled it would have conceived
42
330 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
it to be stone; the outer surface preserved the grain or woody fibre, the inner
being generally silica.
The party spent Sunday, the 29th, on the banks of the Rovuma, at a
village called Macliuchu, nearly opposite Honajmraba. The gum-copal tree
grows in the vicinity of iliis village. The leaves arc in pairs, glossy green,
with the veins a little raised on both face and back; the smaller branches
diverge from the saine point. The bark of the tree is of a light-ash colour.
The gum oozes from the bark at wounded places, and drops on the ground
from the branches. On the 2nd of May, they came to a mountain called
Liparu, about seven hundred feet high, and found a river coming down from
its western base, which formed a lagoon on the meadow-land flanking the
Rovuma. The next day they rested in a Makoa village, the head of which was an
old woman. The Makoa people are known by a half-moon figui-e tattooed on
their forehead or elsewhere. Many of the men have their faces tattooed in
double raised lines of about half an inch in length. After the incisions are made,
charcoal is rubbed in, and the flesh pressed out, so that all the cuts are raised
above the level of the surface: this gives them a fierce and hideous look.
Continuing their westward course, they passed the mountain range, and
came first on sandstone hardened hj fire, then on masses of granite. With
the change in geological structure, they found a different vegetation. Instead
of the laurel-leaved trees of various kinds, they had African ebonies, acacias,
and mimos£B; the grass was shorter and more sparse, and they could move
along without woedcutting. On the 13th, they halted at a village, when a
pleasant-looking lady, with her face profusely tattooed, came forward with a
bunch of sweet-reed, or Sorghum saccha7-atum, and laid it at Livingstone's
feet, saying, "I met you here before." He then remembered her coming to
him, on the occasion of his former visit. His men were now only able to
make short marches daily, as there was a great scarcity of provisions, and
they suffered much from hunger. On the 18th, they came to the confluence
of the Rovuma and the Loendi, at a place called Ngomano. The first com-
munication of any importance received from Livingstone after his passage
into the interior, was dated from this spot, on the day of his arrival there,
and reached this country early in the following November. In it he says: —
"When we could not discover a path for camels through the mangrove
swamps of the mouth of the Rovuma, we proceeded about twenty-five miles
to the north of that river, and at the bottom of Mikindany Bay entered a
beautiful land-locked harbour, called Kinday or Pemba. The entrance seems
not more than three hundred yards wide; the reef on each side of the channel
showing so plainly of a light colour, that no sliips ought to touch. The har-
bour is somewhat of the shape of the spade on cards, the entrance being like
the short handle. There is nearl)^ a mile of space for anchorage, the southern
part being from ten to fourteen fathoms, while the north-west portion is
ROUTE TO THE ROVUMA. ;J31
«ha]low and rocky. It is a first-rate harbour for Arab dhows, the land rising
nearly all round from two to three hundred feet. The water is so calm,
Arabs can draw their craft to the shore to discharge and take in cargo. Tliey
are also completely screened by the masses of trees growing all round it
from seaward observation.
"Tlie population consists of coast Arabs and their slaves. The six vil-
lages in which they live are dotted round the shore, and may contain three
hundred souls in all. They seemed to be suspicious, and but for our having
been accompanied by H.M.S. Penguin, would have given trouble. The ordi-
nary precaution of placing a sentry over our goods caused a panic, and the
Sirkar, or head man, thought that he gave a crushing reply to my explan-
ations when he blubbered out, 'But we have no thieves here.' Our route
hence was S.S.N, to the Rovuma, which we struck at the spot marked on the
chart as that at which the 'Pioneer' turned in 1861. We travelled over the
same plateau that is seen to flank both sides of the Rovuma like a chain of
hills from four to six hundred feet high. Except when the natives, who are
called Makonde, have cleared si^aces for cultivation, the whole country within
the influence of the moisture from the ocean is covered with dense iuno-le.
The trees, in general, are not large, but they grow so closely togetlier as
generally to exclude the sun. In many places they may be said to be woven
together by tangled masses of climbing plants, more resembling the ropes
and cables of a ship in inextricable confusion, than the graceful creepers with
which we are familiar in northern climates.
"Trade paths have already been made, but we had both to heighten and
■widen them for camels and buff'aloes. The people at the sea-coast had de-
clared that no aid could be got from the natives. When we were seven miles
off, we were agreeably surprised to find that, for reasonable wages, we could
employ any number of carriers and woodcutters we desired. As they were
accustomed to clear away the gigantic climbers for their garden ground, they
whittled away with their tomahawks with, remarkable speed and skill. IJut
two days continuous hard labour was as much as they could stand. It is
questionable whether any j^eople (except possibl}^ the Chinese) who are not
meat-eaters, can endure continuous labour of a kind that brings so many
muscles into violent action as this work did. French navvies could not com-
pete with the English, until they were fed exactly like the latter. The Ma-
konde have only fowls, a few goats, and the chance of an occasional goro-e
on the wild hog of the country Such rocks as we could see
were undisturbed grey sandstone, capped by ferruginous conglomerate.
Upon this we often stumbled against blocks of silicified wood, so like recent
wood that any one would be unwilling to believe at first sight they were
stones. Tliis is a sure indication of coal being underneath, and pieces of it
•were met in the sands of the river.
332 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
" When about ninety miles from the mouth of the Eovuma, tlie geological
structure changes, and with this change we have more open forest, thinuir
vegetation, and grasses of more reasonable size. The chief rock is now
syenite, and patches of fine white dolomite lie upon it in spots. Granitic
masses have been shot up over tlie plain, which extends in front all the way
to Ngomano. the confluence of the Rovuma and the Loendi. In the diier
countr}^, we found that one of these inexplicable droughts had happened over
the north bank of the Rovuma, and a tribe of Mazitu, probably Zulus, had
come down like a swarm of locusts, and cariied away all the food above
ground, as well as what was growing. I had now to make forced marches
with the Makonde in quest of provisions for my party, and am now with
Matumora, the chief at Ngoniauo; and by sending some twenty miles to the
south-west, I shall obtain succour for them. This is the jDoint of confluence,
as the name Ngomano implies, of the Rovuma and the Loendi. The latter is
decidedly the parent stream, and comes from the south-west, where, in addi-
tion to some bold granitic peaks, dim outlines of distant highlands appear.
Even at that distance they raise the spirits, but possibly that is caused partly
by the fact, that we are now about thirty miles bej'ond our former turning
point, and on the threshold of the unknown.
" I propose to make this my head-quarters till I have felt my way round
the north end of Lake Nyassa. If prospects are fair there I need not return,
but trust to another quarter for fresh supplies ; but it is best to say little
about the future. Matumora is an intelligent man, and one well-known to
be trustworthy. He is appealed to on all hands for his wise decisions, but
he has not much real power beyond what his personal character gives him.
The Makonde are all independent of each other, but they are not devoid of
a natural sense of justice. A carrier stole a shirt fi'om one of my men; our
guide pui'sued him at night, seized him in his own house, and the elders of
his village made him pay about four times the value of the article stolen. No
other case of theft has occurred. No dues were demanded, and only one
fine — a very just one — was levied."
Livingstone left Ngomano on the 4th of June, and slept the following
morning at a village called Lamba, on the banks of the Rovuma, near a
brawling torrent of about six hundred feet, with many islets and rocks in
it. The country presented an open forest, with occasional patches of culti-
vation, but all dried up, partly from drought, and partly from the cold of
winter. Great hills of granite were seen towards the north. These hills were
covered with a plant having grassy-looking leaves and rough stalk. Tim-
ber-trees appear here and there, but for the most part the growth is stunted,
and few are higher than thirty feet. On the lith, two rounded mountain
masses were passed. They were nearly three thousand feet high, and almost
bare, having oifly the peculiar grassy plant just noticed. The people are
JtiOEROES OF THE SLA VE TRADE. 333
said to have stores of grain on them, and it was reported that water also was
found on one of them. The route of the party now became south-west.
Tliey now came upon some of the horrors of the slave-trader's track.
Tiiey passed a woman tied by the neck to a tree, and dead. She had been
unable to keep up with the other slaves, and her master had determined that
slic should not become the property of any one else, if she recovered after
resting for a time. Others were afterwards seen tied up in a similar manner;
and one was lying in the path, shot or stabbed, in a pool of blood. It was
said an Arab had done it, because she was not able to walk any longer. In
one j)lace, they came upon a number with slave-sticks on, abandoned by their
master from want of food. They were too Aveak to say who they were, or
M'here they came from : some of them were quite young. On asking the
natives why these people were tied to trees, and thus left on the path, Living-
stone got the usual answer, that the Arabs thus left them to perish, because
they were vexed, when tlie slaves could walk no further, that the}^ had lost
their money by them. The path was strewed also witli slave-sticks, and Living-
stone suspected, although the people denied it, tli;it they made a practice of
following slave caravans, and cutting off the sticks from tliose who fell out in
the march, and thus stealing them, to sell them again for cloth.
As our traveller approached Mtarika's place, on the 1st of Jul}-, they
found the land sloping down for a mile to the south bank of tlie Rovuma,
which was here about a hundred yards broad, and still keeping up its charac-
ter as a rapid stream, with sandy banks and islands. The country around
supported a large population. Some were making nev/ gardens by cutting
down trees and piling the branches for burning, and some were storing
quantities of grain. On the southern slope there were many oozing springs
and damp spots, where rice had been sown and reaped. " Every evening,"
says Livingstone, " a series of loud musket reports is heard from the dif-
ferent villages along the river; these are imitation evening guns. All copy
the Arabs in dress, and chewing tobacco Avith 'nora' lime, made from burnt
river shells, instead of betel-nut and lime. The women are stout, well-built
persons, with thick arms and legs; their heads incline to the bullet-shape ; the
lip-rings are small; the tattoo a mixture of Makoa and Waiyau. Fine blue
and black beads are in fashion, and so are arm-coils of thick brass wire. Very
nicely inlaid combs are worn in the hair ; the inlaying is accomplished by
means of a gum got from the root of an orchis called NangazuP
A series of forced marches brought them to the town of a chief called
Mataka. The town was situated in an elevated valley, surrounded by moun-
tains ; the houses numbered at least a thousand, and there were many villaf^-es
around. On their journey, they passed the burnt bones of a person poisoned;
he was accused of eating human flesh, and had been killed by poison, and then
burned. They found the country depopulated. The trees were about the
331 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
size of hop-poles, with abundance of tall grass. At night-time, there were
many lions roaring about their place of rest. Most of the houses in Mataka's
town were built square, in imitation of the houses of the Arabs. Tlie Arabs
had introduced the English pea, and the natives cultivated it largely ; maize
also, and tobacco, and cassava, were grown. There are two roads from this
place, loading to Lake Nyassa — one to Losewa, to the westward ; the other
to Makatu, further south : the first is five days, the other seven. An immense
tract of the surrounding country was uninhabited, though there were numerous
evidences that it had once been thickly peopled by an ingenious and indus-
trious population. The ridges, which had been planted with maize, beans,
cassava, and sorghum, were still standing. The clay pipes which were put
on the nozzles of their bellows, and inserted into the furnace, were met with
everywhere — often vitrified. Pieces of broken pots, with their rims orna-
mented with very good imitations of basket-work, were abundant.
The district west of Mataka's rises to about three thousand four hundred
feet above the sea, and catches a great deal of the moisture brought u^ by the
eastei'ly winds. Many of the trees are covered with lichens. The cattle of
the country, rather a small breed, black and white in patches, and brown,
with humjos, give milk which is much esteemed. The sheep are a large-tailed
variety, and generally of a black colour. Fowls and pigeons are plentiful.
" The Waiyau people — the people resident in the country — are far from a
handsome race, but they are not the prognathous beings one sees on the West
Coast either. Their heads ai'e of a round shape ; compact foreheads, but not
particularly receding; the alse nasi are flattened out; lips full, and with the
women a small lip-ring just turns them up to give additional thickness.
Their style of beauty is exactly that which was in fashion when the stone
deities were made in the caves of Elephanta and Kenora, near Bombay. A
favourite mode of dressing the hair into little knobs, which was in fashion
there, is more common in some tribes than this. Tiie mouths of the women
would not be so hideous with a small lip-ring if they did not file their teeth
to points, but they seem strong and able for the work which falls to their lot.
The men are large, strong-boned fellows, and capable of enduring great
fatigue ; they undergo a rite which once distinguished the Jews about the
age of puberty, and take a new name on the occasion ; this was not introduced
by the Arabs, whose advent is a recent event, and they speak of the time
before they were inundated with European manufactures in exchange for
slaves, as quite within their memory." After a stay of about a fortnight at
Mataka's town, the party started for Lake Nyassa. Mataka, who had jjroved
himself friendly and hospitable, furnished them with a good supply of flour
on their departure, and guides to the lake.
"The country," Livingstone says, "is a mass of mountains. On leaving
Mataka's, we ascended considerably, and about the end of the first day's
ROUTE TO LAKE NY ASS A. 335
march, near Magola's village, the barometer showed our greatest altitude,
about three thousand four hundred feet above the sea. There were villages
of these mountaineers everywhere, for the most part of a hundred houses or
more each. The springs were made the most use of that they knew; the
damp spots drained, and the water given a free cliannel for use in irrigation
further down ; most of these springs showed the presence of iron by the
oxide oozing out. A great many patches of peas are seen in full bearing and
flower. The trees are small, excejit in the hollows ; there is plenty of grass
and flowers near streams and on the heights. The mountain-tops may rise
two or three thousand feet above their flanks, along which we wind, going
perpetually up and down the steep ridges, of which the country is but a suc-
cession.
" Looking at the geology of the district, the plateaux on each side of the
Rovuma are masses of grey sandstone, capped with masses of ferruginous
congloirerate ; apparently an aqueous deposit. When we ascended the
Rovuma about sixty miles, a great many pieces and blocks of silicified wood
appear on the sui'face of the soil at the bottom of the slope up the plateaux.
This, in Africa, is the sure indication of the presence of coal beneath, but it
was not observed cropping out ; the plateaux are cut up in various dir-ections
by wadys, well supplied with grass and trees on deep and somewhat sandy
soil ; but at the confluence of the Loendi highlands, they appear in the far
distance. In the sands of the Loendi, pieces of coal are quite common.
" Before reaching the confluence of the Rovuma and Loendi, or say
about ninety miles from the sea, the plateau is succeeded by a more level
counti-y, having detached granitic masses shooting up some five or seven
hundred feet. The sandstone of the plateau has at first been hardened, then
quite metamorphosed into a chocolate-coloured schist. As at Chilole hill, we
have igneous rocks, apparently trap, capped with masses of beautiful white
dolomite. We still ascend in altitude as we go westwards, and come upon
long tracts of gneiss with horn-blende. The gneiss is often striated, all the
stria3 looking one way — sometimes north and south, and at other times east
and west. These rocks look as if a stratified rock had been nearly melted^
and the strata fused together by the heat. From these striated rocks have
shot up great rounded masses of granite or syenite, whose smooth sides and
crowns contain scarcely any trees, and are piobably from three to four thou-
sand feet above the sea. The elevated jjlains among these mountain masses
show great patches of ferruginous conglomerate, which, when broken, look
like yellow haematite, with madrepore holes in it : this has made the soil of a
red colour.
" On the watershed we have still the rounded granitic hills jutting above
the plains (if such they may be called) which are all ups and downs, and
furrowed with innumerable running rills, the sources of the Rovuma and
33fl STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Loendi. The liigliest rock observed with mica schist was at an altitude of
tliree thousand four hundred and forty feet. The same uneven country pre-
vails as wc proceed from the watershed about forty miles down to the lake,
and a great deal of quartz, in small fragments, renders travelling very diffi-
cult. Near the lake, and along its eastern shore, we have mica schist and
gneiss foliated, with a great deal of horn-blende ; but the most remarkable
feature of it is, that the rocks are all tilted on edge, or slightly inclined to tho
lake. The active agent in effecting this is not visible. It looks as if a sud-
den rent had been made, so as to form the lake, and tilt all these rocks
nearly over. On the east side of the lower part of the lake we have two
ranges of mountains, evidently granitic — the nearer one covered with small
trees and lower than the other, the other jagged aud bare, or of the granitic
form. But in all this country no fossil-yielding rock was visible, except the
grey sandstone previously referred to. The rocks are chiefly tlie old crystal-
line forms.
" One fine straight tall tree in the hollows seemed a species of fig : its
fruit was just forming, but it was too high for me to ascertain its species.
The natives don't eat the fruit, but they cat the largo grubs which come
out of it. The leaves are fifteen inches long by five broad : they call it
Unguengo."
As they were approaching the village of a chief called Pezimba, contain-
ing about two hundred houses and huts, an Arab party, hearing of their com-
ing, took a circuitous route among the mountains to avoid coming in contact
with them. The next day, another large Arab slave party was close to their
encampment; but, as soon as the}- heard the Englishman was near, they set
off in a pathless course across the country. This sort of thing was of frequent
occurrence. They had now passed through, at the narrowest part, a hundred
miles of depopulated countr}^, of which about seventy were on the north-east
of Mataka. Tlie greater part of the population had been driven down into
the Manganja country by war and famine combined, and eventually filled the
slave-gangs of the Portuguese, whose agents went from Tctte and Senna to
procure them. They reached the lake on the 8th of August. " We came
to the lake," writes the traveller in his Journal, " at the confluence of the
Misinje, and felt grateful to That Hand which had protected us thus far on
•our journey. It was as if I had come back to an old home I never expected
again to see ; and pleasant to bathe in the delicious waters again, hear the
I'oar of the sea, and dash in the rollers. Temperature 71° at 8 a.m., while the
air was C5°, I feel quite exhilarated."
Having reached the lake, Livingstone was anxious to cross to the other
side ; but found it impossible to persuade any one to take him over. Under
date August the 30tli, he writes: — "The fear which the English have inspired
in the Arab slave-traders is rather inconvenient. All flee from me as if 1 had
SKIRTING LAKE NYASSA. S37
the plague, and I cannot in consequence transmit letters to tlic coast, or get
across the hike. ^^'hey seem to think tliat if I get into a dliow I will be
sure to burn it. As the two dhows on the lake are used for nothing else but
the slave-trade, their owners have no hope of my allowing them to escape ;
so, after we have listened to various lies as excuses, we resolve to go south-
wards, and cross at the point of departure of the Shire from the Lake." At the
confluence of the Misinje, he saw numbers of the eatable insect "kungu;" and
further down, obtained a cake of them. Here he made good ink from the
juice of a berry, the fruit of a creeper. The juice, when expressed, was the
colour of port wine, and tlie addition of a little ferri carb. amnion, made the
ink. Here, too, he noticed the rapid change in the colour of his poodle dog's
hair — all the parts corresponding to the ribs and neck becoming red, the
colour of the majority of the dogs belonging to the country.
Proceeding along the east side of the lake in a southerly direction to
Ngombo Promontory, they reached Pathunda's village, on September the 6th.
Two brooks, here called respectively Libesa and Lilole, form the favourite
spawning grounds of the sanjika and mpasa, two of the best fishes of the
lake. The sanjika is very like our herring in shape and size ; the mpasa
larger every way; both live on green herbage formed at the bottom of the
lake and the rivers attached to it. On the 13th, they were within three
miles of the end of the lake, and could see the whole plainl}^ The sight
awakened in the great explorer's mind serious and sad thoughts. " There,"
he saj-s, " we first saw the Shire emerge, and there also we first gazed on the
broad waters of Nyassa. Many hopes have been disappointed here. Far
down on the ri"-ht bank of the Zambesi lies the dust of her whose death
changed all my future prospects ; and now, instead of a check being given to
the slave-trade by lawful commerce on the lake, slave-dhows prosper!" It
will be remembered that the Shire carries off the waters of the Nyassa and
joins the Zambesi ; and by this water-way Livingstone hoped there would be
I'ound easy access to Central Africa.
By the 15th, they were a sliort distance south of thj lake. Here they
found two kinds of bean ; one, with a pretty white mark on it, grows freely,
is easily cooked, and is good. The people call it Gwingiviza. The other is
called Tangarc. AViien planted near a tree it grows all over it, and yields
abundantly. It, however, possesses intoxicating qualities, and has to pass
through several processes of boiling, pounding, and washing, before it is fit
for use. Livingstone visited Mukato, a powerful AVaiyau chief residing here,
who, with other two, still carried on raids against the Manganja at the insti-
gation of the coast Arabs, and thus supplied the slave-traders. He had a
long discussion with him on the abominable traffic he was promoting, but
he endeavoured to turn off the matter with a laugh. From Mukate's village
the party went to the Lakelet Pamalombe, and, embarking here, went up the
43
838 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
water in canoes to the point of junction between it and the prolongation of
Lake Nyassa. Here, from Pima's village, they had a fine view of Pamalombe
and the range of hills on its western edge. A little further on, they found
three or four hundred people making salt on a plain that was impregnated
with it. They excoriate the soil, and boil the water which has filtered through
a bunch of grass in a hole in the bottom of a pot, till all is evaporated, and
a mass of salt left. The cattle of this place are very large ; the size of the
body is enormous ; and the liump seemed as if it would weigh a hundred
pounds. Here they met an Arab slave-party. Eighty-five slaves were en-
closed in a pen, the majority of whom were boys about eight or ten years of
age, though others were grown men and women. Nearly all were in the
taming stick ; a few of the younger ones were in thongs — the thong passing
round the neck of each.
They now marched westwards, making across the base of Cape Maclear.
The hills they crossed were about seven hundred feet above Nyassa, gene-
rally covered with trees. Continuing their journey, they came to the large
village of Marenga, situated on the eastern edge of the bottom of the heel of the
lake. The state of the soil here leads Livingstone to remark, that " the bogs,
or earthen sponges of this country, occupy a most important part in its phy-
sical geography, and probably explain the annual inundations of most of the
rivers. Wherever a plain sloping towards a narrow opening in hills or higher
ground exists, there we have the conditions requisite for the formation of an
African sponge. The vegetation, not being of a heathy or j^eat-forming kind,
falls down, rots, and then forms rich black loam. In many cases, a mass of
this loam, two or three feet thick, rests on a bed of pure river sand, which is
revealed by crabs and other aquatic animals bringing it to the surface. At
present, in the dry season, the black loam is cracked in all directions, and
the cracks are often as much as three inches wide, and very deep. The whole
surface has now fallen down, and rests on the sand; but when the rains come,
the first supply is nearly all absorbed in the sand. The black loam forms soft
slush, and floats on the sand. The narrow opening prevents it from moving
off in a landslip, but an oozing spring rises at that spot. All the pools in the
lower portion of this spring-course are filled by the first rains, which happen
south of the equator when the sun goes vertically over any spot. The
second, or greater rains, happen in his course north again, when all the
bogs and river-courses being wet, the supply runs ofi", and forms the inunda-
tion. This was certainly the case, as observed on the Zambesi and Shire, and,
taking the difi'erent times for the sun's passage north of the equator, it ex-
plains the inundation of the Nile."
The 26th of September, 1866, was a day to be remembered in Living-
stone's history ; for then the circumstances occurred, out of which grew the
report of Livingstone's murder by the natives, which so ^^lofoundly excited
MUSA, THROUGH FEAR, DECAMPS. 339
the public mind, and led to the sending out of the Livingstone Search Expe-
dition, under the command of Mr. E. D. Young. Under the above date we
have the following entry in the traveller's Journal: — "An Arab passed us
yesterday, his slaves going by another route across the base of Cape Maclear.
He told Musa that all the country in front was full of Mazitu ; that forty-
four Arabs and their followers had been killed by them at Kasungu, and he
only escaped. Musa and all the Johanna men now declared that they would
go no farther. Musa said, ' No good country that ; I want to go back to
Johanna to see my father and mother, and son.' I took him to Marenga, and
asked the chief about the Mazitu. He explained that the disturbance was
caused by the Manganja finding that Jumbe brought Arabs and ammunition
into the country every year, and they resented it in consequence ; they would
not allow more to come, because they were the sufferers, and their nation was
getting destroyed. I explained to Musa that we should avoid the Mazitu.
Marenga added, 'There are no Mazitu near where you are going,' but Musa's
eyes stood out with terror, and he said, ' I no can believe that m,an.' But I
inquired, 'How can you believe the Arab so easily?' Musa answered, 'I ask
him to tell me true ; and he say true, true.'
"When we started, all the Johanna men walked off, leaving the goods
on the ground. They have been such inveterate thieves that I am not sorry
to get rid of them ; for, though my party is now inconveniently small, I
could not trust them with flints in their guns, nor allow them to remain behind,
for their object was invariably to plunder their loads. I ought to mention
that the stealing by the Johanna men was not the effect of hunger ; it at-
tained its height when we had j^lenty. . . Musa knew it all, and connived
at it; but it was terror that drove him away at last." Such is Livingstone's
own account of the origin of the story which, at first, seemed too true. To
the effect of that story, and the prompt and vigorous measures taken to ascer-
tain if it was true, we shall refer hereafter.
At Kumisa's village, Livingstone remained some days. This chief was
very hospitable, and showed his visitor much kindness. From here the path
was an ascent, and in three hours and a quarter, they had risen to two thou-
sand two hundred feet above the lake. The country is thus described : —
" Qth October. Both barometer and boiling-point showed an altitude of up-
wards of four thousand feet above the sea. Tliis is the hottest month, but
the air is deliglitfully clear and delicious. The country is very fine, lying-
in long slopes, with mountains rising all round, from two to three thousand
feet above tliis ujjland. They are mostly jagged and rough (not rounded
like those near to Mataka's). The long slopes are nearly denuded of trees,
and the patches of cultivation are so large and often squarish in form, that
but little imagination is requisite to transform the whole into the cultivated
fields of England ; but no hedgerows exist. The trees are in clumps on the
3-1-0 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
tops of (lie ridges, or at the villages, or at the places of sepulture. Just now
the young leaves are out, but are not yet green. In some lights they look
brown, but with transmitted light, or when one is near them, crimson pre-
vails. A yellowish-green is met sometimes in the young leaves, and brown,
pink, and orange-red. The soil is rich, but the grass is only excessively
rank in spots; in general, it is short. A kind of trenching of the ground is
resorted to; they hoe deep, and draw it well to themselves: this exposes the
other earth to the hoe. The soil is burned too. The grass and weeds are
placed in flat lieajjs, and soil placed over them. The burning is slow, and
most of the products of combustion are retained to fatten the field. In this
way the people raise large crops.
" Men and women and children engage in field labour, but at present,
man)^ of the men are engaged in spinning buaze and cotton. The former is
made into a coarse sacking-looking stuff, immensely strong, which seems to
be worn by the women alone ; the men are clad in uncomfortable goat-skins.
No wild animals seem to be in the country, and, indeed, the population is so
large, they would have very unsettled times of it. At every turning we meet
people, or see their villages; all armed with bows and arrows. The bows
are vumsually long. I measured one made of bamboo, and found that along
the bow-string it measured six feet four inches. Many carry large knives of
fine iron ; and indeed the metal is abundant. Young men and women wear
the hair long; a mass of small ringlets comes down and I'csts on the shoulders,
giving them the appearance of the ancient Egyptians. One side is often cul-
tivated, and the mass hangs jauntily on that side; some few have a solid cap
of it. Not many women wear the lip-ring. The example of the Walyau has
prevailed so far ; but some of the young women have raised lines cros.sin^
each other on the arms, which must have cost great pain ; they have also
small cuts, covering, in some cases, the whole body. The MaraviorManganja
here may be said to be in their primitive state. We find them very liberal
with their food ; we give a cloth to the headman of the village where we pass
the night, and he gives a goat, or at least cooked fowls and porridge, at night
and morning."
The huts were well built. The roof, with the lower part plastered, is
formed so as not to admit a ra}^ of light, and the onl}^ visible mode of ingress
for it is by the door. The party now passed through many villages in quick
succession. In one they saw a smithy, and watched the founder at work,
drawing off slag from the bottom of his furnace. He broke through the har-
dened slag, by striking it with an iron instrument inserted in the end of a
pole, when the material flowed out of the small hole left for the purpose in the
bottom of the furnace. Tiie ore was like sand, and was put in at the top of
the furnace, mixed with charcoal. Only one bellows was at work, and the
blast was very poor. Some of the cluefs of these villages had the Assyrian
THE LOAKGWA COUNTRY.
type of face — a fine forehead and nose. At Cliiniuna's town, wliicU was largo
and surrounded by many villages, they found the men all on guard, watching
for the Mazitu, who were out on one of their murderous raids. A long line
of villagers Avas just arriving from the south, and the smoke of burning set-
tlements in that direction could bo plainly seen. The natives of this place
were very industrious and skilful. " The eldest inhabitant had never travelled
fax- fi'om the spot in which he was born, yet he had a good knowledge of soils
and rgriculture, hut-building, basket-making, pottery, and the manufiicture
of bark-cloth and skins for clothing, as also making of nets, traps, and cordage.
There was the greatest courtesy and politeness among them all."
Marching westwards, they came, on the 29th, to Makosa's village. In
the afternoon, there was a thunder shower, the first rain that had fallen for
some time, and all the people were off to their gardens to sow their seeds.
On the 1st of November, they reached the village of Kangenje, situated on a
mass of mountains. Kangenje was naturally a disagreeable man, and treated
the strangers with great incivility. They were now travelling on a level and
elevated country, though there were mountains all about; and they were on
the watershed, apparently between the Loangwa of Zumbo on the west, and
the lake on the east. Buffaloes, elephants, and lions, abounded. The people
of the country through which they passed showed great industry, combining
agriculture, and hunting with nets, with their trade as smiths. The hammer,
which was a large stone, bound with the strong inner bark of a tree, and loops
left for handles, was heard from dawn till sunset. Two pieces of bark formed
the tongs, and a big stone sunk into the ground the anvil. The metal was
good, and was made from yellow hjEmatite, which abounds all over the country.
The iron trade must have been carried on for a very long time; for it is im-
possible to go a quarter of a mile without meeting pieces of slag and broken
pots, calcined pipes, and fragments of the furnaces, which are converted by
the fire into brick. The people say that they were taught to smelt iron by
Chisumpi, which is the name of Mulungu (God).
They now descended-, and proceeded rapidly along a valley district
towards the Loangwa River. The following extracts from Livingstone's
Journal indicate the course at this time, and supply other interesting inform-
ation : — "30th JVoi'cmbcr. We are now near the Loangw'a country, covered
with a dense dwarf forest, and the people collected in stockades. They
are generally smiths. A mas of iron had just been brought in from some out-
lying furnaces. It is made into hoes, which are sold for native cloth down
the Loangwa." — •' onl Dcccmlcr. March through a hilly country covered with
dwarf forest to Kande's village. A continuous tap-tapping in the villages
shows that bark-cloth is being made. The bark, on being removed from the
tree, is steeped in water, or in a black muddy hole, till the outer of the two
inner barks can be separated; then commences the tapping with a mallet.
342 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
The head of this mallet is very frequently made of ebony, with the face
cut into small furrows, which, without breaking, separates and softens the
fibres." — '■'■ ^th D camber. Marclied westwards, over a hilly, dwarf forest co-
vered country; as we advanced, trees increased in size, but no inhabitants."
— " Will December. We are now detained in the forest, at a place called
Clionde Forest, by set-in rains. It rains every day, and generally in the after-
noon. This forest is of good sizcd-trecs, many of them mopane. The birds
now make much melody and noise — all intent on building." — " 13/A December.
A set-in rain came on after dark, and we went tlirough slush, the trees send-
ing down heavier drops than the showers; as we neared the Loangwa, we
forded a number of deep gullies, all flowing north or north-west into it. The
paths were running with water, and when we emerged from the large Mopane
Forest, we came on the plain of excessively adhesive mud on which Maranda's
stronghold stands, on the left bank of Loangwa, here a good sized river."
The people here were all afraid of them, and food was scarce. The
Mazitu had been there three times; and though they had been successfully
resisted, they had inspired such fear as to prevent agricultural operations from
being carried on. Not being able to obtain food at any price, Livingstone
crossed the Loangwa, and pushed on with his party through a busliy country
without paths, in which he found game abundant, though wild. He observed
that the people had placed corn-granaries at different parts of the forest,
and had been careful to leave no track to them — a provision in case of fur-
ther visits of Mazitu. The Babisa, who inhabit this part of the country,
have round bullet heads, snub noses, often high cheek-bones, an upwards
slant of the eyes, and look as if they had a lot of Bushmen blood in them ;
and a good many would pass for Bushmen or Hottentots. The teeth of the
women are filed to points, they wear no lip-ring, and the hair is parted so as
to lie in a net at the back part of the head. The mode of salutation among
the men is to lie down nearly on the back, clapping the hands, and making
a ratlier inelegant half-kissing sound with the lips. " Tlie population," he
says, "is very great and very ceremonious. When we meet any one, he
turns aside and sits down ; we clap the liand on the chest and say, ' Re peta
— re peta,' that is, ' we pass,' or ' let us pass.' This is responded to at once by
the clapping of hands together. When a person is called at a distance, he
gives two loud clajis of assent ; or, if he rises from near a superior, he does
the same thing, which is a sort of leave-taking."
"Clapping the hand in various wa3's is the polite way of saying, 'Allow
me,' ' I beg pardon,' ' Permit me to pass,' ' Thanks ;' it is resorted to in
respectful introduction and leave-taking, and also is equivalent to 'Hear, hear.'
When inferiors are called, they respond by two brisk claps of the hands,
meaning, ' I am coming.' They are very punctilious. A large ivory brace-
let marks the head man of a village ; there is nothing else to show differences
A RRI VAL AT CHI T EM BO'S VILLA G E. .•343
of rank. The morning was lovely, the whole country bathed in bright sun-
light, and not a breath of air disturbed the smoke as it slowly curled up from
the heaps of burning weeds, which the native agriculturist wisely destroys:
the people generally were busy hoeing in the cool of the day. One old man
in a village where we rested, had trained the little hair he had left into a tail,
which, well plastered with fat, he had bent on itself and laid flat on his crown;
another was carefully paring a stick for stirring the porridge, and others were
enjoying the shade of the wild fig-trees which are always planted at villages.
It is a sacred tree all over Africa and India, and the tender roots which drop
down towards the ground are used as medicine — a universal remedy. I like to
see the men weaving or spinning, or reclining under these glorious canopies,
as much as I love to see our more civilised peop)le lolling on their sofas or
ottomans. The part}^ still suffered much from hunger, and, on the niglit of
the 30th, Livingstone had had so little to eat, that he dreamed the night long
of dinners he had eaten, and might have been eating.
With the following entry, he closes the j^ear 1866: — "3l5^ December.
When we started this morning after rain, all the trees and grass dripping, a
lion roared, but we did not see him. A woman had come a long way and
built a neat miniature hut in the burnt-out ruins of her mother's house ; the
food-offering she placed in it, and this act of filial piety no doubt comforted
this poor mourner's heart. We arrived at Chitembo's village, and found it
deserted. The Babisa dismantle their huts and carry off the thatch to their
gardens, where they live till harvest is over. Chitembo was working in his
garden when we arrived, but soon came; and gave us the choice of all the
standing huts. Three or four women whom we saw performing a rain dance
at Moerwa's were here doing the same ; their faces smeared with meal, and
axes in their hands, imitating as well as they could the male voice. I got
some msere or millet here, and a fowl. We now end 1866. It has not been
so fruitful or useful as I intended. Will try to do better in 1867, and be bet-
ter — more gentle and loving ; and may the Almighty, to whom I commit my
way, bring my desires to pass, and prosper me ! Let all the sins of '66 be
blotted out for Jesus' sake."
Such was the spirit in which Livingstone endured all his hardships and
sufferings, and fulfilled his self-imposed and noble task. His heart was set
on the elevation of the African race, and the promotion of God's glory.
Writing to his brother John, some years after, he says — " If the good Lord
■above gives me strength and influence to complete the task, I shall not grudge
my hunger and toil; above all, if He permits me to jjut a stop to the enormous
evils of this island slave-trade, I shall bless His name with all my heart. The
Nile sources are valuable to me only as a means of enabling me to open my
mouth among men. It is this power I hope to apply to remedy an enormous
evil, and join my little helping hand in the great revolution that in His all-
341. STANLEY AND AFRICA.
embracing providence He has been cai-rying on for ages." Tlie notion thit
Livingstone had j^i'oved unfaithful to liis calling as a missionary when lie
.started ui;)on his career as an exjjlorer, is held by many otherwise good and
sensible j^eople even now. The various entries we have noted in his Journals,
and the above extract from his correspondence with his brother, put the mat-
ter in its proper light. He knew that the scientific men of the age, and the
great ones of the earth, would become interested in new peoples, living in
novel conditions, in hitherto unexplored territories, when they could not be
got to feel any great interest in savage tribes, living on the outskirts of civi-
lisation. In telling the wonderful story of vast and ^^opulous regions hitherto
unknown, ho had the opportunity, which he never let slip, of telling these par-
ties of the spiritual and physical needs of their inhabitants, and of pointing
out how easy a matter it would be for the people in more favoured countries
to render them assistance. His discoveries, while they were intense!}' interest-
ing to liinisolf, were most valuable in his sight, because, to use his own
words, they enabled him " to open his mouth among men.''
CHAPTER XIX.
The "New Year — Pushes for the Chamhezc — Chitapanjiva and his People — Course
for Luke TanganjjiJca — Arrive^ at the LaJcc — Report reaches England of the
Murder of Livingstone on the Coast of Lake Ngassa, in 186G — Search Expe-
dition of Mr. Young — Neivs of Livingstone' s Safetij — Mcamvhile he Visits
Lake Moero — Arrives at Casembc's Town — Second Visit to Moero — Close of
1867.
THE fii'st day of 1867 was spent at Chitembo's, for three reasons : — It was
the desire of the boys, as Livingstone calls his companions ; it was New
Year's day ; and last, tliough not the least of the three, because there they
could get some food. "We see, from a sentence or two in his Journal, how the
leader of the party began the year. " \st January, 1867. May He who was
full of grace and truth impress His character on mine. Grace — eagerness to
show favour; truth — truthfulness, sincerity, honour; for His mercy's sake !'^
The next four days they were weather-bound at the same place; but on the
6th, they resumed their journey. At first, they met no people except at wide
intervals, neither any animals. They passed gigantic timber trees and bam-
boos ; came to sj^ots of exceeding beauty — undulations that were masses of
green foliage — gay flowers, such as the scarlet mastagon ; bright blue or
yellow gingers; red, orange, yellow, and pure white orchids; pale lobelias,.
and many others. Eain fell daily ; food was scarce ; all the party suffered
much from hunger. On the 9th, Livingstone's personal stock of meal was
exhausted; and Simon, one of his boys, gave him some of his. The next day
he says — "Simon gave me a little more of his meal this morning, and went
without himself; I took my belt up three holes to relieve hunger. We got
some wretched wild fruit like that called 'jambos' in Lidia, and at mid-day
reached the village of Chafunga. Famine here too, but some men had killed
an elejjhant and came to sell the dried meat; it was high, and so were tlieir
prices ; but we are obliged to give our best from this craving hunger."
They had to cross frequently broad streams and rivers, and, in conse-
qurnce of the constant and continued heavy I'ains, all their travelling was
over sloppy ground. The water, when they were crossing the small Lake
Mapampa at its eastern end, where it was fully a mile wide, was waist-deep ;
44
34G STANLEY AND AFRICA.
the bottom was soft peaty stuff, with deep holes in it, and the northern side
was infested by leeches. Day after day, our traveller had his feet constantly
wet, while the famine grew worse. He writes on the 19th : — " Nothing but
famine and famine prices, the people living on mushrooms and leaves. Of
mushrooms, we observe that they choose five or six kinds, and rejected ten
sorts. One species becomes as large as the crown of a man's hat ; it is pure
white, with a blush of brown in the middle of the crown, and is very good
roasted. We get some elephant's meat from the people, but high is no name
for its condition. It is very bitter, but we use it as a relish to the msere
porridge. None of the animal is wasted ; skin and all is cut up and sold.
Not one of us would touch it with the hand if we had aught else, for the
gravy in which we dip our porridge is like an aqueous solution of aloes, but
it prevents the heartburn, which maere causes when taken alone. I take
mushrooms boiled instead ; but the meat is never refused when we can pur-
chase it, as it seems to ease the feeling of fatigue which jungle-fruit and fare
engenders. The aj^petite in this country is always very keen, and makes
hunger worse to bear. The want of salt probably makes the gnawing sensa-
tion worse."
On the day following this last-quoted entry, a calamity befell Living-
stone, the sad importance of which cannot be exaggerated. Two of his
attendants deserted him, and carried away, among other things, his medicine-
chest. They left him in the forest, and heavy rain came on, which obliter-
ated every vestige of their footsteps. Referring to the fact, he says — " The
forest was so dense and high, there was no chance of getting a glimpse of
the fugitives, who took all the dishes, a large box of powder, the flour we
had purchased dearly to help us as far as the Chambeze, the tools, two guns,
and a cartridge-pouch ; but the medicine-chest was the sorest loss of all ! I
felt as if I had now received the sentence of death, like poor Bishop Mac-
kenzie." It cannot be doubted that the severity of his subsequent attacks of
disease was muck owing to this loss, which rendered him powerless to meet
them with quinine and other aj^propriate medicines.
Hunger and famine were still their companions. " Mushroom diet,"
writes the leader, " in our experience, is good only for jJi'oducing dreams of
the roast beef of bygone days. The saliva runs from the mouth in these
dreams, and the pillow is wet with it in the mornings. In changing my dress
this morning, I was frightened at my own emaciation." On the 31st, they
reached a village called Molemba, and found it surrounded by a triple stock-
ade, the inner one being defended also by a deep, broad ditch and hedge of
a thorny shrub. It was about two hundred yards broad and five hundred
long ; the huts not planted very closelj^ Chitapangwa, the chief, sent to
inquire if Livingstone wanted an audience. On intimating assent, he was
conducted through the inner stockade, and then on to an enormous hut, where
JOURNEY TOWARDS TANGANYIKA. 317
sat Cliitapangwa, with three drummers and ten or more men, with two rattles
in their hands. The drummers beat furiously, and the rattlers kept time to
the drums, two of them advancing and receding in a stooping postui'e, with
rattles near the ground, as if doing the chief obeisance, but still keeping time
Avith the others. Here they were able to obtain food, and some fresh meat —
u thing they had not tasted for upwards of six weeks. Still, the chief was a
grasping and selfish man. He could not understand that Livingstone could
have any but a selfish object in view in travelling through the country; and
when told it was for a public benefit, he pulled down the underlld of the
right eye, as much as to say, "Do you see any green there?" During his
stay at this jDlace, Livingstone had his fir.^t attack of rheumatic fever, and
had now no medicine; but, in noting the fact, he adds — " I trust in the Lord,
who healeth His people."
After a delay of nearly three weeks the party left Molemba, on the 20th
of February, and shaped their course towards Lake Tanganyika. They soon
ascended the plateau which enclosed the village; and as they proceeded found
wild pigs abundant, and saw many marks of former cultivation. Three days
after starting they reached the village of a chief called Moamba, on the left
bank of the Merenge — a stream flowing north, and having its banks covered
with fine, tall, straight, evergreen trees. The village was surrounded by a
stockade, and a dry ditch some fifteen or twenty feet wide, and as many deep.
Livingstone found this chief intelligent and hearty. He was very anxious to
know why he was going to Tanganyika ; for what he came ; what he would
buy there ; and if he had any relations there. One day, " a case was in
process of hearing, and one old man spoke an hour on end, the chief listening
all the while with the gravity of a judge. He then delivered his decision in
about five minutes, the successful litigant going off luUilooiug. Each person,
before addressing him, turns his back to him, and lies down on the ground,
clapping the hands : this is the common mode of salutation. Another form
here in Solemba, is to rattle the arrows, or an arrow on the bow, which all
carry. A great deal of copper-wire is here made, the wire-drawers using
for one part of the process a seven-inch cable. They make very fine wire,
and it is used chiefly as leglets and anklets ; the chief's wives being laden
with them, and obliged to walk in a stately style from the weight: the copper
comes from Katanga,"
On leaving this place, they pursued a north-westerly course till they met
the Chikosho flowing west, and after that the Likombe. The country through
which they passed was one extensive forest, dense but scrubby. On. the 6th
of March, they came to a village on the Molilanga, flowing east into the
Loombe, where they met for the first time with bananas. They had now to
cross one river after another. The Loombe, at the time of crossing, was in
some parts up to the waist, and the water flowing fast. All the people were
13 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
busy transplanting their tobacco from the spaces under the eaves of the huts
into the fields. The leader now suffered mucli from fever, and was very
weak. He could scarcely keep up the march, though formerly he was always
first, and had to liold in his pace not to leave the people who were with him
altogether behind. The Balungu — the people who live in this part of the
country — are marked by three or four little knobs on the temples, and the
lubes of the ears are distended by a piece of wood, which is ornamented
with beads ; bands of beads go across the forehead and hold up tlie hair. On
the 20th, they reached a village belonging toKasonso, the chief of Lake Tan-
ganyika, and a very large tract of country all round it, and met the chief
himself there. Tlie suri'ounding country was very beautiful. Large green
valleys were scooi^ed out, and long wooded slopes were on every side. They
liad descended considerably into the broad valley of the lake, and felt it
warmer than on the heights. Livingstone says that, at this place, " a shower
of rain set the driver ants on the move, and about two hours after we had
turned in we were overwhelmed by them. To describe this attack is utterly
impossible. I wakened covered with them ; my hair was full of them. One
by one they cut into the flesh, and the more they are disturbed, the more
vicious are their bites ; they become quite insolent. I went outside the hut,
but there they swarmed everywhere ; they covered the legs, biting furiously."
We must now leave Livingstone for a Avliile, on the borders of the Tangan-
}ika, while we briefly advert to the report which at tliis time reached Europe
of his death ; and to the steps which were taken to ascertain the truth of the
sad news. In March, 1867, the whole civilised world was startled by the
intelligence that the great traveller had been slain in an encounter with a
party of Mazitu on the western side of Lake Nyassa, at a place called Kam-
punda. The intelligence came in a despatch from Dr. Seward, Acting Consul
at Zanzibar to Lord Stanley (now Earl Derb}^), then Secretary for Foreign
Affairs. By the same mail Sir Roderick Muichison received several letters
from Dr. Kirk, then Assistant Consul at Zanzibar, entering more fully into
the report which had reached Zanzibar, and expressing his own belief that
it was substantially true. A subsequent despatch to the Foreign Office, from
Jlr. Seward, greatly tended to the fostering of a hope that the sad report
was false. " I have the honour," he says, "to inform you, that, in pursuance
of an intention expressed in my last despatch concerning the asserted death
of Dr. Livingstone, I have personally made inquiries amongst the traders of
Kilwa and Kiringi, and have gathered information there which tends to throw
discredit on the statement of the Johanna men, who allege that they saw
their leader dead. The evidence of the Nyassa traders strengthens the sus-
picion that these men abandoned the traveller when he was about to tra-
verse a Mazitu-haunted district, and, for, ought they know to the contrary. Dr.
Livingstone may yet be alive." This suspicion, proved to be correct.
MR. YOUNG'S SEARCH EXPEDITION. 310
The letters of Mr. Seward and Dr. Kirk were read at a meeting of the
Royal Geographical Society, on the 25tli of March. That Livingstone should
fall by the hand of violence in his efforts to penetrate the interior of Africa,
was no unlikely circumstance; and the story was so circumstantial in detail,
that it was no matter of surprise that many should accept it as true. Still,
many of the traveller's friends declined to believe that he was yet dead; chief
of whom were Sir Roderick Murchison, Messrs E. D. Young, and Horace
Waller. The latter gentleman knew something of the Johanna men, and of
Musa their leader, and the chief agent in circulating the rumour, in particu-
lar; and. the grave doubts expressed by them as to the value of these people's
evidence, connnunicated itself to the public ; and within a very short space of
time, the hojoe was generally current that their statements were not worthy of
belief. In April, the Royal Geographical Society expressed an opinion that it
was desirable that an exj^edition should be sent out to ascertain if possible
the correctness or otherwise of the rei^ort, and a hope that the Government
would aid in the movement ; and, on the 27th of May, Sir Roderick was in a
position to intimate that the Government had agreed to co-operate with the
Society, and that an expedition was about to start for the neighbourhood of
Lake Nj-assa, by way of the Zambesi; which would set this perplexing matter
at rest.
The expedition went out under the command of Mr. Young, and reached
the Kongone mouth of the Zambesi, on the 25th of July. While putting
together, on the 29th of August, after they had passed the Murchison Cataracts,
the steel boat the}^ had taken out with them, they were informed by some
natives that a white man had been seen some time before in Pamalombi, a
small lake on the Shire, not far below its outlet from Nyassa ; and that he had
left there in a westerly direction. On the shores of Lake Nyassa they heard
of him again, and here they got a most graphic and accurate description
of Livingstone's person, apparel, and various belongings. All the natives
here remembered also the names of Chumah, Wekatoni, and Musa, and gave
a full account of the other members of his party. They knew now that they
Lad only to follow up his line of march to learn the truth or falsehood of the
report to which Musa had given circulation. Coming across the traveller's trail
on the western shore of the lake, at a place called Pacahoma, they found that
Musa and the Johanna men had not been with him there. They felt sure
now that it was a case of desertion on the part of these fellows, and that the
I'eport of his death had been circulated to cover their own misconduct. They
were informed that he had gone into the Babisa country.
At Marenga's village, Mr Young says that " a black mass of heads stood
far and wide on the shore to witness our approach. I stood up in the bow of
the boat, and, taking off my caj), to show that I was not an Arab, I called out
that we were English, who were about to visit the chief. This caused the
350 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
most friendly demonstration of hand-clapping and gesticulating, and our recep-
tion was as warm as if we had landed at Plymouth, instead of at a village on
this far lone lake in Africa, all but unknown even in name. We landed, and
on making our request to see Marenga, we were conducted by one of his-
wives to the old chief's hut. I found myself in the presence of a fat, jovial-
looking old fellow, the very picture of good living and good humour. With-
out further to do he seized me by the hand, and shook it most violently, clearly
demonstrating, not only his respect for my countrymen, but also for their
mode of salutation. This ended, he asked me at once if I had brought his old.
friend, the other Englishman, with me. On hearing that he was not with us,
and that, on the contrary, our object was to learn what had become of him,
the old fellow very frankly volunteered all the information in his power."
Marenga told Mr. Young that Livingstone had stayed with him a day, and.
that two days after his departure Musa and his comioanions had returned to his
village, giving the following as their reasons for having deserted their leader :
— "They were merely Arabs," they said, " who had come across Livingstone
in his wandei'iugs, and had consented to help him in his undertaking ; but
really there must be a limit to all things, and as they knew he was about to
enter a very dangerous country, they were not justified in further indulging
their disinterested natures in assisting a traveller ; and having, as it were,
torn themselves away from him with reluctance, they must get back to the
coast." Marenga further informed Mr. Young, that if anything had happened
to Livingstone, even at a long distance to the north, he would have heard of
it, as he had tidings of his well-being for a month's journey from his village.
On the 20th of September, after getting the latitude of Marenga's village, the
expedition bade him adieu. As they had satisfactorily established the false-
hood of Musa's story, their object was now accomplished. In sailing down
the lake, they encountered several storms. Descending the Shire, they visited
the graves of Bishop Mackenzie and his comi^anions. Arrived at Shupanga,
the native crew was paid off. Early in November, the party dropped down
to the Kougone mouth of the Zambesi, where H. M. S. "Eacoon" called for
them according to arrangement, on the 1st of December; and, on the 27th of
January, 1868, Mr. Young, and Mr. Faulkner, his companion, made their
rej)ort to the Royal Geographical Society.
The public now waited with impatience for news from Livingstone him-
self. The first account of his movements from himself, reached this country
in the shape of a letter to a friend in Edinburgh, about the 20th of Api-il.
The letter was written on the 10th of November, 1866, in the country of the
Chipeta — far to the north-west of the point to which the search-expedition
had traced him. In January, 1867, and February the 1st, he wrote again. In
the last communication he spoke of the loss of his medicine-chest, which he
called his sorest grief. His next communication was written on February 2nd,
NEWS OF LIVINGSTONE. 351
and was addressed to Sir Roderick Murchison. It and otlier letters were
read to the members of the Royal Geographical Society in April, 1868. Early
in October of that year, intelligence came to England that Livingstone was
on his way to the coast, and was, at the time of its transmission, within a
few miles of Zanzibar ; but on the 20th and 23rd, news reached London from
Dr. Kirk, that he had letters from him dated from Marenga. He had been
living for three months with friendly Arabs, and waiting for the close of a
native war before proceeding to Ujiji ; thus his progress northward had been
delayed. On the 14th of December, 1867, he wrote to Dr. Seward from
Casembe, and speaks of going to Ujiji in two days. On the 19th of April,
1869, news arrived in England that he had reached Zanzibar, and was on
his way home : this report, however, proved untrue. He was not on his way
home, nor thinking of it ; for, on the 24th of October, a telegram was received
here, to the effect that Dr. Kirk had had a letter from him, dated July 8th,
1868, from Lake Bangweolo, in which he said, " I have found the source of
the Nile between 10° and 12° south." He was in good health and spirits. A
caravan, which had recently arrived at Zanzibar, reported him at Ujiji on
Lake Tanganyika.
Li the "Times" of December 13th, 1869, the following letter appeared,
written by the traveller to Dr. Kirk. It is dated Ujiji, May the 30th, 1869,
and is as follows : — " This note goes by Musa Kamaals, who was employed
by Koraji to drive the buffaloes hither, but by over-driving them unmerci-
fully in the sun, and tying them up to save trouble in herding, they all died
before he got to Unyanyembe. He witnessed the plundering of my goods
and got a share of them ; and I have given him beads and cloth sufficient to
buy provisions for himself on the way back to Zanzibar. He has done no-
thing here. He neither went near the goods here, nor tried to prevent them
being stolen on the way. I suppose that pay for four months in coming,
other four of rest, and four in going back, would be amjjle, but I leave this
to your decision. I could not employ him to carry my mail back, nor can I
say anything to him, for he at once goes to the Ujijians, and gives his own
version of all he hears. He is untruthful and ill-conditioned, and would hand
over the mail to any one who wished to destroy it The people here are like
the Kilwa traders, haters of the English. Those Zanzibar men whom I met
between this and Nyassa were gentlemen, and traded with honoui'. Here, as
in the haunts of the Kilwa hordes, slavery is a source of forays, and they
dread exposure by my letters. No one will take charge of them. I have got
Thana bin Suelim to take a mail privately for transmission to Unyanyembe.
It contains a cheque on Ritchio, Stewart and Co., of Bombay, for two thou-
sand rupees, and some forty letters written during my slow recovery. I fear
it may never reach you. A party was sent to the coast two months ago.
One man volunteered to take a letter secretly, but his master warned them
352 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
all not to do so, because I might write something he did not like. He went
out with the party, and gave orders to the headman to destroy any letters he
might detect on the way. Tims, though I am good friends outwardly with
them all, I can get no assistance in procuring carriers ; and as you will see,
if the mail comes to hand, I sent to Zanzibar, for fifteen good boatmen to act
as carriers if required, eighty pieces of meritano, forty ditto of kinitra, twelve
farasales of the beads called jasain, shoes, etc. etc. I have written to Seyd
Majid, begging two of his guards to see to the safety of the goods here into
Thani bin Suelim's hands, or into those of Mohammed bin Sahib.
" As to the work done by me, it is only to connect the sources which I
have discovered, from five hundred to seven hundred miles south of Speke
and Baker, with their Nile. The volume of water which flows from latitude
120° south is so large, I suspect I have been working at the sources of the
Congo as well as those of the Nile. I have to go down the eastern line of
drainage to Baker's turning point. Tanganyika, Ujiji, Chowambe (Baker's),
arc one water, and the head of it is three hundred miles south of this. The
western and central lines of drainage converge into an unvisited lake west or
south-west of this. The outflow of this, whether to the Congo or Nile, I have
to ascertain. The people of this district, called Manyema, are cannibals, if
Arabs sjieak truly. I may have to go there first, and down Tanganyika, if
I come out uneaten, and find my new squad from Zanzibar ; I earnestly hope
that you will do what you can to kelp me with the goods and men. £400 to
be sent by Mr. Young must surely have come to you through Fleming Brothers.
A long box, paid for to Ujiji, was left at Unyan^^embe, and so with other
boxes."
Again the outside world lost sight of the renowned traveller. His fate
became enveloped in darkness and m3'ster3\ There was a very general im-
pression, that by some means or other he must have fallen a martyr to his
brave eudeavoui- to penetrate a country all but impregnably guarded by
disease, and the suspicions and cruelty of savage tribes. Tlie Government
shared in the anxiety felt by the public. In May, 1870, £1,000 was sent to
the Consul at Zanzibar, to be expended in efforts to discover and relieve him.
In January, 1871, intelligence arrived which excited the hojje that he was
yet alive; and in the following May this intelligence was confirmed. It was
reported that he was at a place called Manakosa, waiting for the caravans,
being himself without means, and with onl}' eight followers; that he could
not move elsewhere, or come down to Ujiji. The news that a war had broken
out between the Arab colony in the district of Unyanyembe, and a powerful
native chief between Ujiji and Kasagne, and that, consequently, the road to
the coast was effectually closed, added to the public anxiety. We now come
to the period when Mr. James Gordon Bennett, the proprietor of the " New
York Herald," sent out H. M. Stanley, with orders to "Find Livingstone."
LAKE TANGANYIKA. 353
Before, however, entering on that part of our worlc, wc shall, by the aid of
Livingstone's own Journals, furnish a narrative of his journey and experience
during all the anxious time, since the report of his death.
We left him at the end of March, 1867, on the coast of Lake Tanganyika.
Under date of April the 1st, he says — " We went up a low ridge of hills at
its lowest part, and soon after joassing the summit the blue water loomed
through the trees. I was detained, but soon heard the boys firing their mus-
kets on reaching the edge of the ridge, which allowed of an undisturbed
*'iew. This is the south-eastern end of Llemba, or, as it Is sometimes called,
Tanganj'Ika. We had to descend at least two thousand feet before we got
to the level of the lake. It seems about eighteen or twenty miles broad, and
we could see about thirty miles up to the north. Four considerable rivers
flow into the space before us. The nearly perpendicular ridge, of about two
thousand feet, extends with breaks all around, and there, embosomed in tree-
covered rocks, reposes the lake peacefully in the huge cup-shaped cavity. I
never saw anything so still and peaceful as it lies all the morning. About
iioon a gentle breeze springs up, and causes the waves to assume a bluish
tinge. Several rocky islands rise in the eastern end, which are inhabited
by fishermen, who capture abundance of fine large fish, of which they enume-
I'ate about twenty-four species. In the north, it seems to narrow into a gate-
way, but the people are miserably deficient in geographical knowledge, and
can tell us nothing about it. They suspect us, and we cannot get informa-
tion, or indeed much of anything else. I feel deeply thankful at having got
so far. I am excessively weak — cannot walk without tottering, and have con-
stant singing in the head, but the Highest will lead me further.
" After being a fortnight at this lake, it still appears one of surpassing
loveliness. Its peacefulness is remarkable, though at times it is said to be
lashed up by storms. It lies in a deep basin, whose sides are nearly perpen-
dicular, but covered well with trees; the rocks which appear are bright-red
argillaceous schist; the trees at jDresent all green. Down some of these rocks
come beautiful cascades, and buffaloes, elephants, and antelopes, wander and
graze on the more level spots, while lions roar by night. The level place
below is not two miles from the pei'pendlcular. The village ( Pambete), at
which we first touched the lake, is surrounded by palm-oil trees — not the
stunted ones of Lake Nyassa, but the real West Coast palm-oil tree, requir-
ing two nien to carry a bunch of the ripe fruit. In the morning and the
evening huge crocodiles may be observed quietly making their way to their
feeding grounds : hippopotami snort by night and at early morning. After I
liad been a few days here, I had a fit of insensibility, which shows the power
of fever without medicine. I found myself floundering outside my hut, and
unable to get in; I tried to lift myself from my back, by laying hold of two
|)Osts at the entrance, but when I got nearly upright I let them go, and fell
45
351 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
back heavily on my head on a box. Tlie boys had seen the wretched state I
was in, and hung a bkinket.at the entrance of the hut, tliat no stranger might
see my helplessness; some hours elapsed before I could recognise where I
was."
On the 30th, he began his return march, and reached Pambete, where
he first touched the lake. He had intended going in a north-westerly direc-
tion, but was deterred by the reported presence of the marauding Mazitu.
The people here cultivate tobacco and cotton : the former they lay in the
sun till it has undergone partial fermentation, then they pound it in a mortar,
and jiut it again in the sun to dry for use ; the latter they manufacture into
shawls. In going westwards on the upland country, he found it covered with
scraggy forest, and full of elephants. Returning to Chitimba's village in the
south, he waited for several weeks with a i^arty of Arabs before he could pur-
sue his westward journey to Lake Moero. The broad country between him
and the lake was in a disturbed state — the Arabs and the natives were at
war ; so travelling was unsafe. Nsama, the chief against whom the Arabs
were fighting, was said to be an enormously bloated old man, who could not
move unless carried ; and women were reported to be in constant attendance,
pouring pombo into him. Under date July the 28th, the traveller gives us
an episode of every-day occurrence in the wake of the slave-dealer. The
Arabs had burned some native villages, and brought away some of the people
as slaves. "A poor old woman and child are among the captives; the boy,
about three years old, seems a mother's pet. His feet are sore from walking^
in the sun. He was offered for two fathoms" (about four yards of unbleached
calico), " and his mother for one fathom ; he understood it all, and cried bit-
terly, clinging to his mother. She had, of course, no power to help him ;.
they were separated at Karungu afterwards."
After a delay of three months and ten days at Chitimba's village, Living-
stone and his men started, on the 30th of August, for Moero. On the 9th of
September, he visited Nsama: before entering the inner stockade of the chief's
village, the people felt the traveller's clothes to see that no fire-arms were con-
cealed about his person. " Nsama's people have generally small, well-chiseled
features, and many are really handsome, and have nothing of the West Coast
Negro about them, but they file their teeth to sharp points, and greatly dis-
figure their mouths. The only diflPerence between them and the Europeans is
the colour. Many of the men have finely-formed heads, and so have the
women; and the fashion of wearing the hair sets ofi" their foreheads to advan-
tage. The forehead is shaved off to the crown, the space narrowing as it goes
up ; then the back hair is arranged into knobs of about ten rows." Peace
having been made between the native chief and the Arabs, the former engaged
to give Hamees, the headman of the latter, his daughter to wife, by way of
cementing it. Her arrival is thus described — " She came riding ' pickaback*
JOURNEY TO LAKE MOERO. 355
on a man's shoulders ; a nice, modest, good-looking young woman, her hair
rubbed all over with nJcola, a redjjigment, made from the camwood, and mucli
used as an ornament. She was accompanied by about a dozen young and
old female attendants, each carrying a small basket with some provisions, as
cassava, ground-nuts, etc. The Arabs were all dressed in tlieir finery, and
the slaves, in fantastic dresses, flourished swords, fired guns, and yelled.
When she was brought to Hamee's hut she descended, and with her maids
went into the hut. She and her attendants had all small, neat features."
Continuing his journey towards Moero, our traveller crossed the Chisera
River on the 26th. It was more than a mile wide, and full of papyrus and
other aquatic plants, and was consequently very difficult to ford. It took an
hour and a half to cross it. Elephants, zebras, buffaloes, and other animals,
were grazing on its long sloping banks. On the 16th of October, they buried
an Arab who had been long ill. No women were allowed to come near, A
long silent prayer was uttered over the corpse when it was laid beside the
grave, after which it was committed to its last resting-place. A feast was
made by the friends of the departed, and portions sent to all who had attended
the funeral, A great many of the women of this district liave the swelled
thyroid gland caWed goitre, or Derbyshire neck; men, too, appeared with it,
and, in addition, had hydrocele of large size. Five hours travelling, on the
28th, brought them to the Choma River and the villages of Chifupa, They
rested for the remainder of the day on the banks of the Choma, which is
a muddy stream coming from the north and going to the south-west to join
the Chisera. It has worn itself a deep bed in the mud of its banks, and is
twenty yards wide, and in some spots waist-deep; at other parts it is unford-
able. It contains plenty of fish, and hippopotami and crocodiles abound.
Two days after, Livingstone found two ugly images in huts built for them,
which were used in rain-makiug and curing the sick. This, he remarks, was
the nearest approach to idol-worship he had seen in the country.
On the 8th of November, they approached Lake Moero. " It seems,"
says Livingstone, " of goodly size, and is flanked by ranges of mountains on
the east and west. Its banks are of coarse sand, and slope gradually down
to the water; outside these banks stands a thick belt of tropical vegetation,
in which fishermen build their huts. The country called Rua lies on the
west, and is seen as a lofty range of dark mountains ; another range of less
height, but more broken, stands along the eastern shore, and in it lies the
path to Casembe. We slept in a fisherman's hut on the north shore. They
brought a large fish, called ' monde,' for sale; it has a slimy skin, and no
scales, a large head, with tentaculae like the Siluridre, and large eyes ; the
great gums in its mouth have a brush-like surface, like a whale's in miniature ;
it is said to eat small fish, A bony spine rises on its back (I suppose for
defence), which is two and a half inches long, and as thick as a quill. They
350 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
are very retentive of life. The peojile liei-e are Babemba. They carry on a
trade in salt from different salt springs and salt mud to Lunda and else-
where. On the 12tli, they came to the Kalongosi River, about sixty yards
wide, and flowing fast over stones. It was deep enough, although the rainy
season had not commenced, to require canoes. Having crossed this river,
they were now in the Lunda country, the people being called Balunda. They
saw that the Kalongosi went north till it met a large meadow on the shores
of Moero, and, turning westwards, it entered there. The fishermen gave them
the names of thirty-nine species of fish in the lake, y
Having reached the town of Casembe, Livingstone was presented to
him on the 24th, in a grand reccjotion. Ho was a heav}', uninteresting look-
ing man, without beard or whiskers, his features somewhat of the Chinese
iyi:)e. He smiled but once during the day, and that was pleasant enough,
says our traveller, " though the crojiped ears and lopped hands, with human
skulls at the gate, made me indisposed to look on anything with favour.
His principal wife came with her attendants, after he had departed, to look at
the Englishman. She was a fine, tall, good-featured lady, with two spears
in her hand; the principal men who had come around made way for her, and
called on to me to salute. I did so ; but she, being forty yards off", I involun-
tarily beckoned her to come nearer ; this upset the gravity of her attendants ;
all burst into a laugh, and ran off. Casembe's smile was elicited by a dwarf
making some uncouth antics before him. His executioner also came forward
to look ; he had a broad Lunda sword on his arm, and a curious scissor-like
instrument at his neck for cropping ears. On saying to him that his was
nasty work, he smiled, and so did many who were not sure of their ears a mo-
ment ; many men of respectability show that at some former time they have
been thus punished. Casembe's chief wife passes frequently to her plantation,
carried by six, or more commonly by twelve men, in a sort of palanquin : she
has European features, but light-brown complexion. A number of men run
before her, brandishing swords and battle-axes, and one beats a hollow instru-
ment, giving warning to passengers to clear the v/ay: she has two enormous
pipes ready filled for smoking. She is very attentive to her agriculture;
cassava is the chief product ; sweet potatoes, maize, sorghum, penisetum,
millet, ground-nuts, cotton. The people seem more savage than any I have
3-et seen ; they strike each other barbarously from mere wantonness, but they
are civil enough to me."
Livingstone, after staying a month at Casembe's, was desirous to leave.
He had again and again resolved to prosecute his journey to the south end of
Moero, but Casembe continually advised him to remain, promising to send
guides with him at a future time. On the 19th of December, he said good-
bye to Casembe. Three days after, he crossed the Lunda River, and the
following day the Chungu. Christmas day was a day of drizzly showers, and
VISIT TO CASEMBE'S TOWN. 357
was speut cucampcd on a soil of black mud. On the 27tli, the I^Iandapala
was crossed, at a place where it was waist deep. The following is the last
entry in the traveller's journal for this year: — "28-31st December, 18G7.
Wo came on to the rivulet Chirongo, and then to the Kabukwa, where I wan
taken ill. Heavy rains kept the convoy back. I have had nothing but
coarsely-ground sorghum meal for some time back, and am weak ; I used to
be the first in the line of march, and am now the last; Mohamad presented
a meal of finely-ground porridge and a fowl, and I immediately felt the dif-
ference, though I was not grumbling at my coarse dishes. It is well that I
did not go to Bangweolo Lake, for it is now very unhealthy to the natives,
and I fear that, without medicine, continual wettings by fording rivulets,
might have knocked me uj) altogether. As I have mentioned, the people
suffer greatly from swelled thyroid gland or Derbyshire neck, and Elephanti-
asis scroti."
During his stay at Casembe's town, he prepared, among other writings, n
despatch to Lord Clarendon, which was afterwards found with a note at-
tached, to the efi"ect that it was not copied or sent, as he had no paper for the
purpose. From that despatch we give the following account of his visit to
Casembe: — "When at the lower end of Moero, we were so near Casembe
that it was thought well to ascertain the length of the lake, and see Casembe
too. We came up between the double range that flanks the east of the lake j
but mountains and plains are so well covered with well-grov/n forest, that wo
could seldom see it. We reached Casembe's town on the 28th November.
It stands near the north end of the Lakelet Mofvve ; this is from one to three
miles broad, and some six or seven long : it is full of sedgy islands, and
abounds in fish. The country is quite level, but fifteen or twenty miles west
of Mofwe we see a long range of tlie mountains of Rua. Between this range
and Mofwe, the Luapula flows past into Moero, the lake called Moerookata
— the great Moero, being about fifty miles long. The town of Casembe
covers a mile square of cassava plantations, the huts being dotted over that
space. Some have square enclosures of reeds, but no attempt has been made
at arrangement: it might be called a rural village, rather than a town. No
estimate could be formed by counting the huts, they are so irregularly planted,
and hidden by cassava ; but my impression from other collections of huts, was,
that the population was under a thousand souls. The court, or compound of
Casembe — some would call it a palace — is a square enclosure of three hun-
dred yards by two hundred yards. It is surrounded by a hedge of high reeds.
Inside, where Casembe honoured me with a gi-and reception, stands a gigantic
hut for Casembe, and a score of small huts for domestics. The queen's hut
stands behind that of the chief, with a number of small huts also. Most of
the enclosed space is covered with a plantation of cassava, Citrous jntrgaris^
and cotton.
358 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
" Casembe sat before Lis luit on a square seat, placed on lion and leopard
skins. lie was clothed in a coarse blue and white Manchester print, edged
with red baize, and arranged in large folds, so as to look like a crinoline put
on wrong side foremost. His arms, legs, and head, were covered with sleeves,
leggings, and cap made of various coloured beads in neat patterns: a crown
of yellow feathers surmounted his cap. Each of his headmen came forward,
shaded by a huge, ill-made umbrella, and, followed by his dependants, made
obeisance to Casembe, and sat down on his right and loft ; various bands of
musicians did the same. When called upon, I rose and bovred, and an old
counsellor, with his ears cropped, gave the chief as full an account as he had
been able to gather, during our stay, of the English in general, and my an-
tecedents in particular. My having passed through Lunda to the west of
Casembe, and visited chiefs, of whom he scarcely knew an3^thing, excited
most attention. He then assured me that I was welcome to his country, to
go where I liked, and do what I chose. We then went (two boys carrying
his train behind him) to an inner apartment, where the articles of my pre-
jscnt were exhibited in detail. He had examined them privately before, and
we knew that he was satisfied. They consisted of eight yards of orange-
coloured serge, a large striped table-cloth ; another large cloth made at Man-
chester, in imitation of West Coast native manufacture, which never fails to
excite the admiration of Arabs and natives, and a large richly-gilded comb
for the back hair, such as ladies wore fifty years ago : this was given to me
by a friend at Liverpool, and as Casembe and Nsama's people cultivate the
hair into large kiiobs behind, I was sure that this article would tickle the
fancy. Casembe expressed himself pleased, and again bade me welcome.
"I had another interview, and tried to dissuade him from selling his
peojile as slaves. He listened awhile, then broke off into a tirade on the
greatness of his country, his power and dominion, which Mohamad bin Saleh,
who has been here for ten years, turned into ridicule, and made the audience
laugh by telling how other Lunda chiefs had given me oxen and sheep, while
Casembe had only a poor little goat and some fish to bestow. He insisted
also, that there were but two sovereigns in the world, the Sultan of Zanzibar
and Victoria. When we went on a third occasion to bid Casembe farewell, he
was much less distant, and gave me the impression that I could soon become
friends with him ; but be has an ungainly look, and an outward squint in
each eye. A number of human skulls adorned the entrance to his courtyard,
and great numbers of his principal men having their ears cropped, and some
with their hands lopped ofi", showed his barbarous way of making his minis-
ters attentive and honest. I could not avoid indulging a prejudice against
him.
"The Portuguese visited Casembe long ago ; but as each new Casembe
builds a new town, it is not easy to fix on the exact spot to which strangers
PORTUGUESE TRAVELLERS' VISITS TO CASEMBE. 359
came. The last seven Casembes have had tlieir towns within seven miles of
the present one. Dr. Lacerda, Governor of Tette, on the Zambesi, was tlie
only visitor of scientific attainments, and he died at the river called Cliun^u,
three or four miles from tliis. The spot is called Nshinda, or lucliinda, which
the Portuguese wrote Lucenda, or Ucenda. The latitude given is nearly
fifty miles wrong, but the natives say that lie lived only ten days after his
arrival, and if, as is probable, his mind was clouded with fever when he last
observed, those who have experienced what that is will readily excuse any
mistake he may have made. His object was to accomplish a much-desired
project of the Portuguese, to have an overland communication between their
eastern and western possessions. This was never made by any of the Portu-
guese nation ; but two black traders succeeded partially with a part of the
distance, crossing once from Cassange, in Angola, to Tette, on the Zambesi,
and returning with a letter from the Governor of Mozambique. It is remark-
able that this journey, which was less by a thousand miles than from sea to
sea and back again, should have for ever quenched all white Portuguese aspi-
rations for an overland route.
" The different Casembes visited by the Portuguese seem to have varied
much in character and otherwise. Pereira, the first visitor, said (I quote
from memory) that Casembe had twenty thousand trained soldiers, watered his
streets daily, and sacrificed twenty human victims every day. I could hear
nothing of human sacrifices now, and it is questionable if the jiresent Casembe
could bring a thousand stragglers into the field. When he usurped power five
years ago, his country was densely peopled ; but he was so severe in his
punishments, cropping ears, lopping off the hands, and other mutilations,
selling the children for very slight offences, that his subjects gradually dis-
persed themselves in the neighbouring countries beyond his power. This is
the common mode by which tyranny is cured in parts like these, where fugi-
tives are never returned. The present Casembe is very poor. When he had
people who killed elephants, he was too stingy to share the profits of the sale
of the ivory with his subordinates. The elephant hunters have either left
him or neglect hunting, so he has now no tusks to sell to the Arab traders
who come from Tanganyika. Major Monteiro, the third Portuguese who
visited Casembe, appears to have been badly treated by this man's predecessor,
and no other of his nation has ventured so far since. They do not lose much
by remaining away, for a little ivory and slaves are all that Casembe ever
can have to sell. About a mouth to the west of this, the people of Katanga
smelt copper-ore (malachite) into large bars, shaped like tlie capital letter I.
They may be met with of from fifty pounds to one hundred pounds' weight
all over the country, and the inhabitants draw the copper into wire for arm-
lets and leglets. Gold is also found at Katanga, and specimens were lately
sent to the Sultan of Zanzibar."
300 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Livingstone was now growing much disheartened. Disease which, on
account of the loss of his medicines, he was not able to counteract — fatigue
of travel — lack of suitable and nourishing food — the desertion of his attend-
ants — all these things wei'C acting injuriously both on mind and body. He
complains, in a letter, that all his attendants, except four, had, on various
pretences, absconded. " The fact is," he says, " they are all tired of this
everlasting tramping, and so verily am I. Were it not for an inveterate dis-
like to give in to difficulties, without doing my utmost to overcome them, I
would abscond too. I comfort myself by the hope, that, by making the
country and the people better known, I am doing good ; and by imparting
a little knowledge occasionally, I may bo working in accordance with the
plans of an all-embracing Providence, which now forms part of the belief of
all the more intelligent of our race ; and my efforts may be appreciated in
the good times yet to come." Only a few years have passed away, and
already this self-sacrificing and philanthropic man is regarded as one of
Af)-ica's best friends, and his memory is cherished with grateful admiration.
CHAPTER XX.
Neio Year's Daij — Further Exploration of Lake Macro — Ascent of the Riia 3Ioun-
tains — Return to Cascmhc's — Lake Bangweoto — Earthen Spongcz — Cataracts
of the Kalongosi — The Imbozhtoa — End of 18G3.
LIVINGSTONE begins the year 18G8 by commending himself to God in
prayer. " \st Januarij, 1868. Ahiiighty Father, forgive the sins of the
past year, for Thy Sou's sake. Help me to be more profitable during tliis
year. If I am to die this year, prepare me for it." He now visited Lake
Moero several times with a view of getting a correct idea of its size. The
first fifteen miles in the north are from twelve to thirty-three miles in breadth ;
further south it was over fortj^, and even sixty miles broad. Land could not
be seen across with a good glass on the clearest day. The natives said Moero
was larger than Tanganyika, because, in the latter, they see the land on both
sides, while at Moero, nothing but sea horizon can bo seen when one looks
south-west of the Rua Mountains. Leaving the lake, on the 15th, and going
north, the party soon got on to a plain flooded by the Luao. They had to
wade through very adhesive black mud, generally ankle deep, and having
many holes in it much deeper. After four hours of tliis, they came to the
Luao itself, and wading up a branch of it waist deep, for at least a quarter of
a mile, crossed a narrow part by means of a rude bridge of branches and
trees. On the 26th and 27th, Livingstone was again ill with fever. On the
17th March, he ascended the Rua Mountains, and reached the village of
Mpweto, situated in a valley between two ridges, about a mile from the right
bank of the Lualaba, where it comes through the mountains. Not meeting
here with a welcome reception, he and his party soon left. At noon, on the
25th, they reached Kabwabwata. Here they were informed that the water
was so deep before them, that it was impossible to go north.
Seeing that it was likely there would be a detention of two months at
least before a passage could be made, Livingstone now thought of going to
Lake Bemba, or Bangweolo. ''I think," he says, on the 12th of April, ''of
starting to-morrow for Bangweolo, even if Casembe refuses a passage beyond
him ; we shall be better than we are here, for everything at Kabwabwata is
scarce and dear. There we can get a fowl for one string of beads, here it
costs six ; there fish may be bought, here none." Retracing their steps, they
46
3C2 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
crossed the Luao again, and had four hours of wading through three miles of
flooded jilain towards Lake Moero. The bottom was black tenacious mud ;
and as they came near Moero, the water became half-chest, and even whole-
chest deep; all perishable articles had to be put on the head. ^Vhen they
reached the lake, they found a party of fishermen on the sands ; Livingstone
got a hut, a bath in the clear but tepid waters, and a change of dress, and
felt quite refreshed. The water of the lake was 83° at three o'clock in the
afternoon. He noted that the lake was at least twenty feet higher now than
it was on his former visits, and that there were banks showing higher rises
even than this.
Making for the ford of the Kalongosi River, on the 24th, he observed
marigolds and foxgloves in full bloom all over the forest. The people here
chew the pith of the paj^yrus, which is three inches in diameter, and as white
as snow. The headman of the village to which they went was out cutting
wood for a garden, and his wife refused them a hut ; but, when he returned
home in the evening, scolded her, and all the women of the village, for such
treatment of strangei's, and then pressed Livingstone to come indoors. As,
however, he was well enough in his mosquito curtain outside, he declined
the invitation. On the 29th, they reached the Mandapala River again; and
after halting here for some days, started on the 4th of May for Casembe's
village, which they reached the following day. The chief would not, how-
ever, give the traveller an audience until the 15th. He then sent for him,
and told him that as he wished to go to Bangweolo, he was at liberty to go,
and he would furnish him with guides. There were yet tedious delays, and
it was not till the 11th of June that Livingstone was able to get quite clear
of Casembe, and start for Lake Bangweolo. On that day he crossed the
Mbereze, ten yards broad, and thigh deep, and, ascending a range of low
sandstone hills, covered with forest, directed his course south-east. After
this, he descended into a densely-wooded valley, in wlilch buffaloes and
elephants were numerous. A party of men passed him, carrying a lion slung
on a pole. It was a small, maneless variety, called " the lion of Nyassi^'' or
long grass. It had killed a man, and they killed it. They had its mouth
carefully strapped, and the paws tied across its chest, and were taking it to
Casembe. Two or three days after, he visited Moenempanda, Casembe's bro-
ther, on the Luluputa, a stream twenty yards wide, and flowing west.
He was at this time deeply affected by the condition of the poor wretches
who were held in slavery. One slave tried to break out of his slave-stick,
and actually broke half an inch of tough iron with his fingers; the end stuck
in the wood, or he would have freed himself. Six men-slaves were sing-incr
i DO
as if they did not feel the weight and degradation of the slave-sticks. He
asked the cause of their mirth, and was told that they rejoiced at the idea of
coming back after death, and haunting and killing those who sold them.
LAKE BANGWEOLO. 30:3
Descending the country near the Luongo, through which lie was then travel
ling, he says — " We went over flat forest, with patclies of brown haematite
cropping out; this is the usual iron ore, but I saw in a village pieces of spe-
cular iron-ore, which had been brought for smelting. The Luongo flowed
away somewhat to our right or west, and the villagers had selected their site
where only well-water could be found; we went ten minutes towards the Lu-
ongo and got abundance. The gardens had high hedges round to keep off wild
beasls. We came to a grave in the forest; it was a little rounded mound, as
if the occupant sat in it the usual native way. It was strewed over with flour,
and a number of the large blue beads put upon it. A little path showed that
it had visitors. This is the sort of grave I should prefer; to lie in the still,
still forest, and no hand ever disturb my bones. The graves at home always
seemed to me to be miserable, especially those in the cold damp clay, and
without elbow room ; but I have nothing to do but wait till He who is over
all decides where I have to lay me down and die." And then he adds,
alluding to the grave of his beloved wife — " Poor Mary lies on Shu^janga
brae, ' and beeks foment the sun,' "
On the 18th of July, he saw the shores of Lake Bangweolo for the first
time. The smaller 2)art of the lake is called Bemba, but that name is confus-
ing, because Bemba is the name of the country in which a portion of the lake
lies ; the more convenient and the more correct name for the whole is Bang-
weolo. " We w^ent down," he says, " to Masantu's village, which is on the
shore of the lake, and by a spring called Chlpka, which comes out of a mass of
■disintegrated granite. It is seldom that we see a spring welling out beneath
a rock: they are covered by oozing sponges, if indeed they exist. Here
we had as a spectator a man walking on stilts tied to his ankles and knees.
There are a great many Bablsa among the people. The women have their
hair ornamented with strings of cowries, and well oiled with the oil and fat
from the seeds of the Mosikisi trees. I sent the chief a fathom of calico, and
got an audience at once. The coutry around the lake is all flat, and very
■much denuded of trees, except the Motsikiri or Mosikisi, which has fine dark,
dense foliage, and is spared for its shade and the fatty oil yielded by its seeds.
We saw the people boiling large pots full of the dark-brown fat, which they
■use to lubricate their hair. The Islands, four in number, are all flat, but well
peopled. The men have many canoes, and are all expert fishermen ; they are
called Mboghwa, but are marked on the forehead and chin as Babisa, and file
the teeth to points. They have many cliildren, as fishermen usually have.
No hot fountains or earthquakes are known in this region. The bottom of the
lake consists of fine white sand, and a broad belt of strong rushes, say one
hundred yards wide, shows shallow water. In the afternoons quite a crowd
•of canoes anchor at its outer edge to angle; the hooks are like ours, but with-
out barbs. The fish are perch chiefly, but others similar to those that appear
364 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
in the otlicr lakes arc found, and tv/o wliicli attain tlie large size of four feet
by a foot and a half in tliickness; one is called sampa."
For sonic days the wind Avas very high, and consequently the lake so
rough, that it was imjiossiblc to navigate these ncwly-discovcred waters.
On the 2;jth, though there was a strong south-east wind still blowing, they
embarked in a fine canoe, forty-five feet long, four feet deep, and four
broad. The waves w^ere high, but the canoe was very dry, and five stout
men j^ropelled her quickly towards an opening in Lifunge Island. Here tliey
stopped a while to let the sea go down, and tlien started forMpabala, another
island, which tliey reached after dark. The canoe-men said they dared not
go to the island of Kisi, because they had stolen their canoe from thence.
The water was of a deep sea-green colour, probably from the reflection of the
fine white sand at the bottom. Only one shell was seen on the sliores. It
was bitterly cold when they reached Mpabala, from the amount of moisture
in the air. Here they tarried for the niglit. The next morning Livingstone
walked across the island, and found it to bo about a mile broad. He also
took bearings of Chirubi Island, which is the largest of the group, and con-
tains a large population, j^ossessing man)^ sheep) and goats. Tbe canoe-men,
liaving heard that tlie Kisi people had got an inkling of where their canoe
was, and were coming to take it, resolved to return, although two days of the
time for which Livingstone had engaged them still remained. He was, there-
fore, obliged to submit with patience, and return to Masantu's village with
them, lie set down, believing that he was considerably within the mark.
Lake Bangweolo as a hundred and fifty miles long by eighty broad. Not
a single case of Derbyshire neck, or of Elephantiasis, was observed any-
where near the lake, although the neighbourhood had been reported to him
as very nuhealthy.
They commenced their march back, on the 30th, and on the 5th of August
reached Kombokombo, who j^ressed them to stay a day with him. Living-
stone now resolved to go north by way of Casembe, and guides were read}'
to start ; but they were determined to divine, by means of a cock, to see if it
would be luck}' to go then, and it was decided not to go. The guides (Ban-
yamwezi) were employed now to smelt copper and balls for war. Rumours
of danger, arising out of disagreements still continued between the Arab
traders and the natives, became so circumstantial, that it was deemed necessary
to make all pre^oaration for the worst. In smelting, " the Banyamwezi use a
hammer shaped like a cone, without a handle. They have both kinds of bel-
lows, one of goatskin, the other of wood, with a skin over the mouth of a
drum, and a handle tied to tlie middle of it; with these they smelt pieces
of the large bars of C02)per into a pot, filled nearly full of wood-ashes. The
lire is surrounded by masses of ant-hills, and in these there are hollows made
to receive the melted metal. The metal is poured while the pot is held in the
EARTHEN SPONGES. 3G5
hands, protected by wet rags." While waiting here, lie notices that, " Bin
Omar, a SuaheH, came from Muabaso on Chambeze in six days, crossing in
tliat space twenty-two burns or oozes, from knee to waist deep."
The following description of these oozes or sponges will be read with
interest: — "In going to Bangweolo from Kizinga, I crossed twenty-nine of
these reservoirs in thirty miles of latitude, on a south-east course : this may
give about one sponge for every two miles. The word ' bog' conveys much
of the idea of these carthern sponges ; but it is inseparably connected in our
minds with peat, and these contain not a particle of jieat; they consist of
black porous earth, covered with a hard wiry grass, and a few other damp-
loving plants. In many places the sponges hold large quantities of the oxide
of iron, from the big jxatches of brown hnsmatite that crop out everywhere ;
and streams of this oxide, as thick as treacle, are seen moving slowly along in
the sponge like svnall red glaciers. When one treads on the black earth of
the sponge, though little or no water appears on the surface, it is frequently
squirted up the limbs, and gives the idea of a sponge. In the paths that cross
them, the earth i-eadily becomes soft mud, but sinks rapidly to the bottom
again, as if of great specific gravity : the water in them is always circulating
and oozing. The places where the sponges are met with are slightly de-
pressed vallej'S without trees or bushes, in a forest country, where the grass
being only a foot or fifteen inches high, and thickly planted, often looks like
a beautiful glade in a gentleman's park in England. They arc from a quarter
of a mile to a mile broad and from two to ten or more miles long. The water
of the heavy rains soaks into the level forest lands : one never sees runnela
leading it off, unless occasionally a footpath is turned to that use. The water,
descending about eight feet, comes to a stratum of yellow sand, beneath which
there is another stratum of fine white sand, which at its bottom cakes, so as
to hold the water from sinking further.
" It is exactly the same as we found in the Kalahari Desert, in digging
sucking places for water for our oxen. The water, both here and there, is
guided by the fine sand stratum into the nearest valley, and here it oozes
forth on all sides through the thick mantle of black porous earth, which forms
the sponge. There, in the desert, it ajDpears to damp the surface sands in
certain valleys, and the Bushmen, by a peculiar process, suck out a supply.
When Avc had dug down to the caked sand there years ago, the people begged
us not to dig further, as the water would all run away ; and we desisted,
because we saw that the fluid poured in from the fine sand all round the well,
but none came from the bottom or cake. Two stupid Englishmen afterwards
broke through the cake in spite of the entreaties of the natives, and the well
and the whole valley dried up hojDelessly. Here the water, oozing forth from
the surface of the sponge mantle, collects in the centre of the slightly depressed
valley which it occupies, and near the head of the depression forms a sluggish
30G STANLEY AND AFRICA.
stream ; but, further clown, as it meets with more slope, it works out for itself
a deeper channel, with perpendicular banks, with, say, a hundred or more
yards of sponge on each side, constantlj^ oozing forth fresh supplies to augment
its size. When it reaches rocky ground it is a perennial burn, with many
aquatic plants growing in its bottom. One peculiarity would strike any one;
the water never becomes discoloured or muddy. I have seen only one stream
muddied in flood, the Choma, flowing through an alluvial plain in Lopcre.
Another peculiarity is very remarkable ; it is, that after the rains have
entirely ceased, these burns have their largest flow, and cause inundations.
It looks as if towards the end of the rainy season the sponges were lifted up
by the water off their beds, and the pores and holes, being enlarged, are all
employed to give off fluid. The waters of inundation run away. When the
sponges are lifted up by superabundance of water, all the pores therein are
opened ; as the earthen mantle subsides again, the pores act like natural
valves, and are partially closed, and by the weight of earth above them, the
water is thus prevented from running away altogether ; time also being
required to wet all the sand through which the rains soak, the great supply
may only find its way to the sponge a month or so after the great rains have
fallen.
" I travelled in Lunda when the sponges were all supersaturated. The
grassy sward was so lifted up that it was separated into patches or tufts ;
and if the foot missed the row of tufts of this wiry grass, which formed the
native path, down one plumped up to the thigh in slush. At that time we
could cross the sponge only by the native paths, and the central burn only
where they had placed bridges; elsewhere they were impassable, as they
poured off the waters of inundation; our oxen were generally bogged — all
four legs went down up to the body at once. When they saw the clear sandy
bottom of the central burn they readily went in, but usually plunged right
over head, leaving their tail up in the air to show the nervous shock they
had sustained.
" These sponges are a serious matter in travelling. I crossed the twenty-
nine already mentioned at the end of the fourth month of the dry season, and
the central burns seemed then to have suffered no diminution; they were
then from calf to waist deep, and required from fifteen to forty minutes in
crossing; they had many deep holes in the paths, and when one plumps
therein every muscle in the frame receives a painful jerk. When past the
stream, and ajiparently on partially dry ground, one may jog in a foot or
more, and receive a sqtiirt of black mud up the thighs : it is only when you
reach the trees and are off the soft land that you feel secure from mud and
leeches. As one has to strij) the lower part of the person in order to ford
them, I found that often four were as many as we could cross in a day. Look-
ing up these sponges a bird's eye view would closely resemble the lichen-like
THE KALONGOSI RIVER. 367
vegetation of frost on window panes ; or tliat vegetation in Canada-balsam
which mad philosopliical instrument makers will put between the lenses of the
object-glasses of our telescopes.
" But few of tlio sponges on the watershed ever dry ; elsewhere many
do ; the cracks in their surface are from fifteen to eighteen inches deep, with
lips from two to three inclies apart. Crabs and other animals in clearing out
their runs reveal what I verified by actually digging wells at Kizinga and
Kabuire, and also observed in the ditches fifteen feet deep dug by the natives
round many of their stockades, that the sponge rests on a stratum of fine
whitewashed sand. The cracks aff"ord a good idea of the efi'ect of the rains ;
the partial thunder-storms of October, November, December, and January,
produce no effect on them; it is only when the sun begins to return from his
greatest southern declination that the cracks close their large lips. The whole
sponge is borne up, and covers an enormous mass of water, oozing forth in
March and Ajiril, forming the inundations."
Confusion now prevailed all over the country ; and Livingstone, though
maintaining a neutral position among the contending parties, was more than
once in circumstances of great peril. On one occasion, he was surrounded
by a party of furious Imbozhwa, who stood within fifteen or twenty yards,
with spears poised and arrows set in the bowstrings, and some even took aim
at him. The two Arab traders now in the country felt that they must unite
their forces, and thus endeavour to effect a safe retreat. Livingstone took
advantage of their protection. They marched from Kizinga on the 23rd of
September, and built fences every night to protect themselves. They were
not molested, however, and came nearly north to the Kalongosi. The coun-
try was all covered with forest, and thrown up into ridges of hardened sand-
stone, capped occasionally with fine-grained clay schist. Trees often appeared
of large size and of a species closely resembling the gum-copal tree. On the
heights there were masukos and rhododendrons. On the 7th of October, they
came to the Kalongosi, flowing over five cataracts made by five islets in a
place called Kabwerume. On the 12th, they crossed the Kalongosi, at the
ford called Mosolo. The river here was two hundred and forty yards broad,
thigh deep, and ran so strongly that it was with difficulty Livingstone kept
his feet. After crossing, they passed down between the ranges of hills on
the east of Moero, the path the traveller followed when he first visited Casembe.
A week later, he went to the chief village of Muabo, and begged that chief to
show him the excavations in his country. He declined to do so then, evidently
not wishing to let his strongholds be known. All his people could go into
them, though over ten thousand; they are all abundantly supplied with water,
and form the storehouses for grain. Muabo told him to go to Kabwabwata,
and wait awhile there, and meanwhile he would consider whether he would
show him his underground houses or not ; but although through various cir-
308 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
cumstauces he waited here for several weeks, Muabo refused to gratify his
request.
The wars between the Arabs and the natives continued, much to Living-
Btone's disgust and perih lie was powerless, however, to prevent them. Of
the many scenes he describes, one or two maybe given: — " Next morning we
were assailed by a crowd of Irabozhwa on three sides. We had no stockade,
but the men built one as fast as the enemy allowed, cutting down trees, and
carrying them to the line of defence, while others kept the assailants at bay
with their guns. Had it not been for the crowd of BanyamwezI which we
have, who sliot vigorously Avith their arrows, and occasionally chased the
Imbozhwa, we should have been routed. I did not go near the fighting,
but remained in my house to defend my luggage if necessary. The women
went uji and down the village with sieves, as if winnowing, and singing
songs, and luUilooIng, to encourage their husbands and friends who were
fighting; each had a branch of the FIcus Indica In her hand, which she waved,
I suppose, as a charm. About ten of the Imbozhwa are said to have been
killed, but dead and wounded were at once carried off by their countrymen.
They continued the assault from early dawn till 1 p.m., and showed great
bravery, but they Avounded only two with their arrows. Their care to secure
the wounded Avas admirable ; two or three at once seized the fallen man, and
ran off with him, though pursued by a great crowd of BanyamwezI with
spears, and fired at by the Suaheli. It was evident to me that the Suahell
Ai'abs were quite taken aback by the attitude of the natives; they expected
them to flee as soon as they heard a gun fired In anger, but Instead of this
we were very nearly being cut off, and should have been, but for our Banyam-
wezI allies." — " 2\ili December. The Imbozhwa came early this morning to
renew the fight. I have nothing to do with It, but feel thankful that I was
detained, and did not, with my few attendants, fall Into the hands of these
justly Infuriated men. They kept up the attack to-day, and some went out
to them, fighting till noon ; when a man was killed and not carried oft", the
BanyamwezI brought his head and put It on a jDole on the stockade — six
heads were thus placed."
Speaking of the superstitions of the district In which he was at this time
detained, Livingstone says — " A sort of idol Is found In every village In this
part; it Is of wood, and rei^rescnts the features, markings and fashions of the
hair of the Inhabitants ; some have little huts built for them, others are in
common houses. The Imbozhwa, or Babemba, call them Nkisi (' Saucau' of
the Arabs); the people of Rua name one Kaluhi ; the plural, Tuliibi ; and
they present pombe, flour, bhang, tobacco, and light a fire for them to smoke
by. They represent the departed father or mother, and it is supposed that
they are pleased with the oft'erings made to their representatives, but all deny
that they pray to them. Casembc lias very many of these Nkisi ; one with
JOURNEY TOWARDS UJIJI. ;3G9
long hair, and named. Moloinbo, is carried in front when he takes the field ;
names of dead cliiefs are sometimes given to them. I have not met with any
one intelHgent enough to explain if prayers are ever made to any one ; the
Arabs, who know their language, say they have no prayers, and think that,
at death, there is an end of the whole man, but other things lead me to be-
lieve this is erroneous ! Slaves laugh at their countrymen, in imitation of
their masters, and will not reveal their own thoughts : one said that tliey be-
lieved in two Superior Beings — Reza above, who kills people, and Reza below,
who carries them away after death."
Referring to the care which he had always taken to give the position of
places with the utmost accuracy, and the compliments paid to the success
with which he had done this on the Zambesi and the Sliire by scientific men,
he says — " It is not very comforting, after all my care and risk of health,
and even of life — it is not very inspiriting to find two hundred miles of
lake tacked on to the north-west end of Nyassa, and then two hundred miles
perched up on the upland region, and passed over some three thousand feet
higher than the rest of the lake ! We shall probably hear that the author of
this feat in fancyography claims therefrom to be considered a theoretical dis-
coverer of the sources of the Nile." After stating several instances In which
his positions had been unwarrantably changed, he says — " Tiie desecration
my positions have suffered Is probably unknown to the Council, but that is
all the more reason why I should adhere to my resolution to be the guardian
of my own observations until publication. I regret this, because the upsetting
of a canoe, or any accident happening to me, might lead to the entire loss of
the discoveries. My borrowed paper Is done, or I should have given a sum-
mary of the streams which, flowing into the Chambezi, Luapula, Lualaba, and
the lakes, maybe called sources. Thu'teen, all larger than tlie Isis at Oxford,
or the Avon at Hamilton, run Into one line of drainage, five into another, and
five into a third receptacle — twenty-three in all."
After a long and weary delay, our traveller was able to make a start, oa
the 11th of December, with the Arabs, who were bound eastwards for Ujiji.
On that day they marched four hours unmolested by the natives ; and the
next day crossed the Lokinda River, and its feeder, the Mookosi, travelling
between two ranges of tree-covered mountains — continuations of those on
each side of Lake Moero. The country was covered with cotton-grass and
brackens, showing its great humidity. Rain fell daily. A pretty little light-
grey owl, called " ukwekwe," was killed one day ; It had a black ring round
its face, and black ears, which gave it all the appearance of a cat, whose
habits it follows On the 22nd they crossed the Lofunso river, wading three
branches, the first of forty -seven yards, then the river itself, fifty yards, and
neck-deep to men and women of ordinary size. Two were swept away and
drowned ; other two were saved by men rescuing them. A crocodile bit one
47 -
370 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
person badly, but was struck and driven off. Two slaves escaped that night ;
a woman loosed her husband's yoke from the tree, and got clear off. On
Christmas day, they marched past Mount Katanga, leaving it on their left,
to the River Kapeta ; and, as they could buy nothing except the very coarsest
food — not a goat or fowl — Livingstone slaughtered a favourite kid to make a
Christmas dinner. The following day, they marched up an ascent for two
hours and a half, and got upon one of the mountain ridges. Three hours
along this ridge brought them to the Kibawe River. There were no people
on the height over which they travelled. The country, however, was very
fine, green and gay with varying shades of that colour. There were patches
of brackens five feet high, and gingers in flower. On the 30th they crossed
the Lokivwa River, twelve yards wide, and very deep, and travelled on till
they reached the Lofuko. The last entry in the traveller's Journal this year
is as follows — "31s# December. We reached the Lofuko yesterday in a pelting
rain ; not knowing that the camp with huts was near, I stopped and put on a
bernouse, got wet, and had no dry clothes. Remain to-day to buy food.
Clouds cover all the sky from N, W, The river, thirty yards wide, goes to
Tanganyika east of this. Scenery very lovely."
CHAPTER XXL
Bcffmnmff 0/1869 — Dangerous Illness — Arrives at Tanganyika — Reaches JJjiji —
Explores Manyucma — 1870 — The Solco — Continued Illness — Detention at Bam-
. barre — Ivory — Strange Diseases — Sufferings of Slaves.
THE year 1869 began gloomily. " I have been wet times without number,"
says our traveller, " but the wetting of yesterday was once too often. I
felt very ill, but fearing that the Lofuko might flood, I resolved to cross it.
Cold up to the waist, which made me worse, but I went on for two and a
half hours E." The day but one after he says of himself — " Very ill all
over." Two or three days further on, he writes — '•' Cannot walk. Pneu-
monia of right lung, and I cough all day and all night. Distressing weak-
ness." On the 9th of January, we have this entry — " Mohamad Bogharib
offered to carry me. I am so weak I can scarcely speak. We are in Marungu
proper now — a pretty, but steeply-undulating country. This is the first time
in my life I have been carried in illness, but I cannot raise myself to the sit-
ting posture. No food except a little gruel. Great distress in coughing all
night ; feet swelled and sore. I am carried four hours each day on a kitanda
or frame, like a cot ; carried eight hours one day. Then sleep in a deep
ravine."
The distressing illness continued. From day to day he was carried in
his kitanda; but even this method of travelling was painful to him. On the
14th of February, he arrived at Tanganyika. His cough and chest-pain now
diminished ; but his body was greatly emaciated. On the 26th, he embarked
on the lake, and, after seven hours' paddling, slept at Katonga. He was now
voyaging to Ujiji. Day after day they made various stages, some larger and
some shorter. Ill as he was, he did not fail to make his observations, as they
went along; thus — " March%th. On Kasanga islet. Cochin-China fowls and
Muscovy ducks appear, and plenty of a small milkless breed of goats. Tan-
ganyika l\as many deep bays running in four and five miles; they are choked
up with aquatic vegetation, through which canoes can scarcely be propelled.
When the bay has a small rivulet at its head, the water in the bay is de-
cidedly brackish, though the rivulet be fresh. It made the Zanzibar people
remark on the lake water, ' It is like that we get near the sea-shore — a little
salt ;' but as soon as we get out of the shut-in bay or lagoon into the lake
372 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
proper, tlic water is quite sweet, and sliows that a current flows tlirougli the
middle of the lake lengthways." He was now nearing Ujiji, but his patience
was greatly exercised, as the slaves who paddled were tired, and progress
was very slow. Speaking of his health, he says, " I have a good appetite
and slcej) well; these are the favourable symptoms; but am dreadfully thin,
bowels irregular, and I have no medicine. Sputa increases ; hope to hold
out to Ujiji. Cough worse."
He reached Ujiji on the 14th. He had arranged that supplies should
bo forwarded to that place by inland-bound caravans from Zanzibar ; but
most unfortunately, they were sent in all directions. The disappointment,
to a man shattered in health, and craving for letters and stores, must have
been very deep. The medicines, wine, and cheese, had been left at Unyan-
yembe, thirteen days to the east. Milk was not to be had, as the cows had
not calved ; but a present of Assam tea had come from Calcutta, in addition
to which he had his own coffee and a little suo:ar. Butter he boutiht, and
four-year old flour, with which he made bread. He found great benefit from
the tea and coffee, and still more fi-om flannel to the skin. By the 28th, his
cough had ceased, and he was able to walk half a mile. A large portion of
the month of April, was spent in writing letters home ; and he finished no
fewer than forty-two, all of which, however, must have been destroyed b}^
the Arabs, for not one arrived atZanzibai*. They must have suspected an ex-
posure of their conduct, and resolved that the information should not be given.
On the 20th of Ma}^, he received part of his goods from Unyanyembe; but,
though tlie cai'riage of them had been paid at Zanzibar, he had to paj' it over
again. Theft, and extortionate dealing, abounded on all hands. He says of
Ujiji — " This is a den of the woi'st kind of slave-ti'aders ; those whom I met
in Urungu and Itawa were gentlemen slavers; the Ujiji slavers, like the
Kilwa and Portuguese, are the vilest of the vile."
After a stay of some months at Ujiji, he contemplated visiting Man-
yuema. He had heard that Moenekuss, the paramount chief of the Man-
juema, was a vei'y good man, and that his people had not been spoiled b}-
contact with Arab traders. On the 12tli of July, he s'^t out for this new
country. After a journey of upwards of two months, he reached the chief
village and the seat of royalty. Tlie earlier part of the journey was by water;
the latter by land, in a northerly direction. The appearance of the country
varied much. In some places it was covered with ferns and gingers, and miles
and miles of cassava. In some parts it was very mountainous, and the dee23
dells were filled with gigantic trees. Livingstone measured one twenty feet
in circumference, and sixty or seventy feet high to the first branches. On
the 15th of Sei^tember, the vast valley of Mamba opened out before them;
very beautiful, and much of it cleared of trees. There they met a trader
carrjnng eighteen thousand pounds of ivory, purchased in this new field very
COUNTRY OF MANYUIiMA. 373
clicap]}', because no traders had been there before. The followhig day they
came to tlic first pahn-oil trees which they had seen in their way since they
liad left Tanganyika. Tliey had evidently been phmted at viHagcs. Light-
grey parrots, Avith red tails, also became common, whose name, kuss, gives
the cliief his name, Moenekuss (Lord of the Parrot). As they proceeded,
they found the country full of palm-oil palms, and very beautiful. The
people had their bodies tattooed with new and full moons, stars, crocodiles,
and gardens.
On the 20th, Livingstone thus writes — " Up to a broad range of high
mountains of light-grey granite, there are deep dells on the top filled with
gigantic trees, and having running rills in them. Some trees appear with
enormous roots — buttresses, in fact— like mangroves in the coast swamps, six
feet high at the trunk diameter. There arc many villages dotted over the
slopes Avhich we climbed ; one had been destroyed, and revealed the hard
clay walls and square forms of Manyuema houses. Our path lay partly along
a ridge, with a deep valley on each side ; one on the left had a valley filled
with primeval forests, into which elephants, when wounded, escaped com-
pletely. The forest was a dense mass, without a bit of ground to be seen,
except a patch on the south-west. The bottom of this great valley was two
thousand feet below us, then ranges of mountains, with villages on their bases,
rose as far as they could reach. On our right, there was another deep but
narrow gorge, and mountains much higher than on our ridge close adjacent.
One ridge looked like a glacier, and it wound from side to side, and took us
to the edge of deep precij)ices, first on the right, then on the left, till down
below we came to the villages of Chief Monandenda. The houses here are
all filled with firewood on shelves, and each has a bed on a raised platform in
an inner room. The paths are very skilfully placed on the tops of the ridges
of hills, and all gullies are avoided. If the highest level were not in general
made the ground for passing through the country, the distances would at least
be doubled, and the fatigue greatly increased. The paths seems to have been
used for ages : they are worn deep on the heights ; and in hollows a little
mound rises on each side, formed by the feet tossing a little soil on one side."
When they reached Bambarre, the chief village of Manyuema, on the
21st of September, they found that Moenekuss had lately died, and left his
two sons to fill his place. Moenembagg, the elder, was the most sensible, and
the sijokesman on all important occasions; but his younger brother, Moenem-
goi, was the chief — the centre of authority. They showed symptoms of
suspicion on the arrival of the strangers, and thought they had come to kill
them. Livingstone presented the two brothers with two table-cloths, four
bunches of beads, and one string of neck-beads, with which they were well
satisfied. They have but little of their father's power, but they try to behave
to strangers as he did. The men here build the houses ; but the women have
374 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
to keep them well filled with firewood, and supplied witli water. They carry
the wood, and almost everything else, in large baskets, hung to the shoulders,
like the Edinburgh fishwives. The men help to cultivate the soil. Small-
pox comes every three or four years, and kills many of the people. Tlie rite
of circumcision is general among all tlie Manyuema ; it is performed on the
young. If a headman's son is to be operated on, it is tried on a slave first;
certain times of the year are unpropitious, as during a drought, for instance;
but having by this experiment ascertained the proper time, they go into the
forest, beat drums, and feast as elsewhere. Contrary to all African custom,
they are not ashamed to speak about the rite, even befox'e women. One day
in October, two fine young men visited Livingstone in his house ; and after
putting several inquiries as to where his country lay, and so forth, they asked
him whether people died in his country, and where they went to after death.
They seemed very intelligent, and when told that English Christians prayed
, to the Great Father, and that He heard all who prayed to Him, they thought
"all this very natural and good. Ants constitute one item of food with the
people. When the white ants cast off their colony of winged emigrants, a
canopy is erected like an umbrella over the ant-hill. As soon as the ants riy
against the roof they tumble down in a shower and their wings instantly be-
come detached from their bodies. They are then helpless, and are swept up
in baskets to be fried, when they make a very palatable food.
Livingstone now determined on going to Lualaba, with a view of explor-
ing that river. His course was west and south-west, through a country sur-
passingly beautiful, having numerous well-built villages. " The streets often
run east and west, in order that the bright blazing sun may lick up the mois-
ture from off them. The dwelling-houses are generally in line, with public
meeting houses at each end, opposite the middle of the street ; the roofs are
low, but well thatched with a leaf resembling the banana leaf, but more tough:
it seems from its fruit to be a sj)ecies of Euphorbia. The leaf-stack has a
notch made in it of two or three inches lengthways, and this hooks on to the
rafters, which are often of the leaf-stalks of palms, split up so as to be thin ;
the water runs quickly off this roof, and the walls, which are of well-beaten
clay, are screened from the weather. In some cases, where the south-east
rains are abundant, the Manyuema place the backside of the houses to this
quarter, and prolong the low roof down, so that the rain does not reach the
walls. These clay walls stand for ages, and men often return to the villages
they left in infancy and build again the portions that many rains have washed
away." The country was very mountainous, and the tops were crowned
with graceful palms. In the forests, which were generally about five miles
broad, climbers as thick as a cable hung in great numbers among the gigantic
trees : many wild fruits were found, some as large as a child's head ; and
strange birds and monkeys abounded.
BEGINNING OF THE YEAR 1870. 375
As they penetrated the country into the interior, they found themselves
treated here and tliere with suspicion. Dugumbe, the slave-trader whom they
had met returning with such a largo quantity of ivory, had been there, and
his peojile had maltreated the natives ; and they looked upon Livingstone as
being in some way a connection of his. Wlien they reached one place, about
ten miles from the confluence of the Luamo River witli the Lualaba, they
learnt that all the people had been plundered, and some killed by Dugumbe's
slaves. The Luamo was two hundred yards wide, and very deep ; and the
people refused to ferry them over. They would not even sell them a canoe.
The women esj^ecially insisted on Livingstone's connection with the trader ;
and when one lady was asked to look if he was of the same colour with
Dugumbe, she replied with a bitter little laugh, " Then you must be his
father." The rainy season now came on, and this, coupled with the hostility
of the people, rendered any attempt at further progress unadvisable. They
consequently returned to Bambarre on the 19th of December.
Christmas day was spent at Bambarre ; and the following morning our
traveller started on his explorations again. He was suffering from fever, ii
still he set off, and kept marching, as he alwaj^s found that tlie best remedyl'
for fever was to keep moving, if possible. By the 28th they were near Luamo
River once more. A man passed them that day, who had a human finger
wrapped in a leaf: it was to be used as a charm, and belonged to a man
killed in revenge. On the last day of this year, they crossed the Luamo in
canoes.
There are repeated indications in Livingstone's Journal that he was now
getting anxious to complete the task he had set for himself. The first entry
for the year 1870 runs thus: — " \st January, 1870. May the Almighty help
me to finish the work in hand, and retire through the Basango before the year
is over. Thanks for all last year's loving-kindness." On the 3rd, they
marched five hours through forest, and crossed three rivulets and much stag-
nant water, which the sun could not reach to evaporate. They passed several
huge traps which had been laid for elephants. The women here do up their
hair in a novel style ; they i^lait it into the form of a basket behind : it is first
rolled into a very long coil, then wound x-ound something till it is about eight
or ten inches long, projecting from the back of the head. Their course now
was nearly due north, through wilderness and many villages and running
streams. The apjjroaches to the villages were all made as difficult as i^ossible.
The people were civil ; but, from the fact of their being unaccustomed to see
strangers, they were excited and uproarious : they ran alongside the travel-
lers, gazing at them and making loud and energetic remarks concerning
them to each other, like noisy children. Visitors came to see them from a
distance, bringing witli them their large wooden shields. Jlany of the men
were tall and liandsome ; but the women were mostly plain. In one district
•37G STANLEY AND AFRICA.
their course lay through a river covered with tikatika, a living vGgctable
bridge made by a species of glossy-leafed grass, which felts itself into a mat
capable of bearing a man's weight, but it bends in a foot or fifteen inches
every step. The lotus, or sacred lily, which grows in nearly all the shallow
waters of this country, sometimes spreads its broad leaves over the bridge so
as to lead careless observers to think that it is the bridge-builder ; the gi'ass,
however, is the i-eal agent.
Heavy rains and sloppy ground brought on repeated attacks of fever, and
the latter part of January was spent by our traveller in camp, resting through
sickness. Recovered somewhat, he renewed his journc}". Who can wonder
at his sickness, when reading such entries as the following, and remember-
ing that he was without medicine: — ^^ Zrd Fchruar)/. Caught in a drenching
rain, which made mo fain to sit, exhausted as I was, under an umbrella for
an hour trying to keep the trunk dry. As I sat in the rain a little tree-frog,
about half an inch long, leaped on to a grassy leaf, and began a tune as loud
as that of many birds, and very sweet : it was surprising to hear so much
music out of so small a musician. I drank some rain-water as I felt faint:
in the paths it is now calf-deep. I crossed a hundred yards of slush waist-
deep in mid channel, and full of holes made by elephants' feet, the path
hedged in by reedy grass, often intertwined and very tripping. I strij^ped
off my clothes on reaching my hut in a village, and a fire during night nearly
dried them. At the same time I rubbed my legs with palm oil, and in the
morning had a delicious breakfast of sour goat's milk and porridge. — 5tk
Fehruary. The drenching told on me sorely, and it was repeated after we
had crossed the good-sized rivulets of Mulunkula and many villages ; and I
lay on an enormous boulder under a Muabe palm, and slcjDt during the worst
of the pelting. I was seven days southing to Mamohela, Kalomba's camp,
and quite knocked ujd and exhausted. I went into winter quarters on 7th
February, 1870."
Rest, shelter from the rains, drinking only water which had been jire-
viously boiled, and above all, the use of a new species of potato, called ny-
umbo, much famed among the natives as a restorative, soon put him all right.
Speaking of this vegetable, he says that, but for a slightly medicinal taste,
which is got rid of by boiling in two waters, it would be equal to English
potatoes. The camp in which he Avas now staying was the camp of the head-
men of the ivory traders, who were now away for ivory. Wood, water, and
grass, the requisites of a camp, abounded ; and the Manyuema brought large
supplies of food every day : forty large baskets of maize for a goat ; fowls,
bananas, and nyumbo, very cheap. Iron bracelets were the common medium
of exchange, and coarse beads and cowries. The rains continued till June,
and by that time fifty-eight inches had fallen. On the 26th of June, Living-
.stone left the Arabs' camp, and set off, with only three attendants, to the
THE SOKO. .'577
north-west for tlie Lualaba. The journey in some places was tedious, throiip:h
the number of rivulets, as many as fourteen, some of them thigh deep, hav-
ing to be crossed in a day. On this journey, his feet failed him for the first
time in his life ; and, having only three attendants, he felt that it would be
unwise to go farther in that direction. Instead of healing quickly, as here-
tofore, when torn by hard travel, irritable eating ulcers fastened on both feet;
and, on the 22nd of July, he limped back to Bambarre. When he put his foot
to the ground, there was a discharge of bloody ichor, and the same discharge
happened every night, with considerable pain, that prevented sleep. The
sores eat through everything — muscle, tendon, and bone, and often produce
permanent lameness. Medicines have very little effect on such wounds; and
their periodic return seems to say that they are allied to fever. While at
Bambarre, the traveller learnt much of the barbarous character of the people
there. As they told of each other's deeds, they disclosed a horrid state of
bloodthirsty callousness. Kandahara, the brother of Moenekuss, killed three
women and a child ; and a trading man, who came over from Kasangangaye,
was murdered for no other reason than to eat his body. Though cannibalism,
connected with su^ierstitious notions, existed in other parts, in Bambarre alone
was it practised from a depraved taste.
Among the animals which Livingstone describes as abounding in some
parts of Manyuema, and which he saw at Bambarre, is the soke, which is
either a gorilla, or a species of chimpanzee. He gives the following account of
it: — " 24//« August. Four gorillas, or sokos, were killed yesterday: an exten-
sive grass-burning forced them out of their usual haunt, and coming on the
plain they were speared. They often go erect, but jjlace the hand on the
head, as if to steady the body. When seen thus, the soko is an ungainly
beast ; the most sentimental young lady would not call him * a dear,' but a
bandy-legged, pot-bellied, low-looking villain, without a jDarticle of the gen-
tleman in him. Other animals, especially the antelopes, are graceful, and it
is pleasant to see them, either at rest or in motion ; the natives also are well
made, lithe and comely to behold; but the soko, if large, would do well to
stand for a picture of the devil.
" He takes away my appetite by his disgusting bestiality of appearance.
His light-yellow face shows off his ugly whiskers, and faint apology for a
beard ; the forehead, villainously low, with high ears, is well in the back-
ground of the great-dog mouth; the teeth are slightly human, but the canines
show the beast by their large development. The hands, or rather the fingers,
are like those of the natives. The flesh of the feet is yellow, and the eager-
ness with which the Manyuema devour it leaves the impression that eating
sokos was the first stage by which they arrived at being cannibals : they say
the flesh is delicious. The soko is represented by some to be exceedingly
knowing, successfully stalking men and women while at their work, kidnap-
48
378 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
■ping children, and running up trees with them: he seems to be amused by
the sight of the young native in his arms, but comes down when tempted by
a bunch of bananas, and as he lifts that, drops the child : the young soko, in
such a case, would cling closely to the arm-pit of the elder. One man was
cutting out honev from a tree, and naked, when a soko suddenly appeared
and caught him, then let him go. Another man was hunting, and missed in
his attempt to stab a soko : it seized the spear and broke it, then grappled
with the man, who called to his companions, ' Soko has caught me.' The
soko bit off the ends of his fingers, and escaped unharmed. Both men are
now alive at Bambarre.
" The soko is so cunning, and has such sharp eyes, that no one can stalk
him in front without being seen, hence, when shot, it is always in the back ;
when surrounded by men and nets, he is generally speared in the back too,
otherwise he is not a very formidable beast : he is nothing as compared in
power of damaging his assailant, to a leopard or lion, but is more like a man
unarmed, for it does not occur to him to use his canine teeth, which are long
and formidable. Numbers of them come down in the forest within a hundred
yards of the camp, and would be unknown, but for giving tongue like fox-
hounds : this is their nearest approach to speech. A man hoeing was stalked
by a soko, and seized ; he roared out, but the soko giggled and grinned, and
left him, as if he had done it in play, A child caught up by a soko is often
abused by being pinched and scratched, and let fall.
" The soko kills the leopard occasionally, \>j seizing both paws, a.id
biting them so as to disable them ; he then goes up a tree, groans over his
wounds, and sometimes recovers, while the leopard dies : at other times, both
soko and leopard die. The lion kills him at once, and sometimes tears Iiis
limbs off, but does not eat him. The soko eats no flesh ; small bananas are
his dainties, but not maize. His food consists of wild fruits, which abound ;
one, Stafene, or Manyuema Mamwa, is like large sweet sop, but indifferent in
taste and flesh. The soko brings forth at times twins. A very large soko
was seen by Mohamad's hunters sitting picking his nails : they tried to stalk
him, but he vanished. Some Manyuema think that their buried dead rise as
sokos, and one was killed with holes in his ears, as if he had been a man. He
is very strong, and fears guns, but not spears: he never catches women, Sokos
collect together, and make a drumming noise. If a man has no spear, the
soko goes away satisfied, but, if wounded, he seizes the wrist, lops off the
fingers, and spits them out, slaps the cheeks of his victim, and bites, with-
out breaking the skin. He draws out a spear (but never uses it), and
takes some leaves and stuffs them into his wound to staunch the blood : he
does not wish an encounter with an armed man. He sees women do him no
harm, and never molests them : a man without a spear is nearly safe from
him, Manyuema say, ' Soko is a man, and nothing bad in him.' They live
MANYUEMA AN UNHEALTHY COUNTRY. 379
in communities about ten, each having his own female : an intruder frooi an-
other camp is beaten off with their fists and loud yells. If one tries to seize
the female of another, he is caught on the ground, and all unite in boxing and
biting the offender. A male often carries a child, especially if they arc pass-
ing from one patch of forest to another over a grassy sjjace ; he then gives it
to the mother."
Our traveller gives the following interesting description of a young soko
that he received as a present : — " Katomba presented a young soko or gorilla
that had been caught while its mother was killed ; she sits eighteen inches
high, has fine long black hair all over, which was pretty so long as it was
kept in order by her dam. She is the least mischievous of all the monkey
tribe I have seen, and seems to know that in me she has a friend, and sits
quietly on the mat beside me. In walking, the first thing observed is that
she does not tread on the palms of her hands, but on the backs of the second
line of bones of the hands ; in doing this the nails do not touch the ground,
nor do the knuckles ; she uses the arms thus supported crutch fashion, and
hitches herself along between them ; occasionally one hand is put down before
the other, and alternates with the feet, or she walks upright and holds up a
hand to any one to carry her. If refused, she turns her face down, and
makes grimaces of the most bitter human weeping, wringing her hands, and
sometimes adding a fourth hand or foot to make the appeal more touching.
Grass or leaves she draws around her to make a nest, and resents any one
meddling with her property. She is a most friendly little beast, and came
up to me at once, making her chirrup of welcome, smelled my clothing, and
held out her hand to be shaken. I slapped her palm without offence, though
she winced. She began to untie the cord with which she was afterwards
bound, with fingers and thumbs, in quite a systematic way, and on being
interfered with by a man looked daggers, and, screaming, tried to beat him
with her hands ; she was afraid of his stick, and faced him, putting her back
to me as a friend. She holds out her hands for people to lift her up and
carry her, quite like a spoiled child ; then bursts into a passionate cry, some-
what like that of a kite, wrings her hands quite naturally, as if in despair.
She eats everything, covers herself with a mat to sleep, and makes a nest of
grass or leaves, and wipes her face with a leaf."
Livingstone found Manyuema an unhealthy country. It was not so much
that fever prevailed, as that there was debility of the whole system, induced
by damp, cold, and indigestion. Rheumatism is common, and cuts the natives
off. Tape-worm too is frequently met with, and neither the Arabs nor the
natives know any remedy for it. For the irritable ulcers, of which many
die, he found lunar caustic useful. The Arabs use a plaster of wax, and a
little finely-ground sulphate of copper. There is an interesting fact to be
noted in connection with the affliction under which he was now suffering.
380 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Hidden away in the pocket of the note-book which he used at the time, there
was found after his death a small scrap of printed paper, which tells its own
tale. On one side there was written in his well-known hand — " Turn over,
and sec a drop of comfort found when suffering from irritable eatino- ulcers
on the feet in Manyuema, August 1870." On the other side is a printed
extract from a favourable review in the "British Quarterly" of his "Narrative
of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributai'ies." The extract is as follows
(and this is the "drop of comfort"): — " Few achievements in our day have
made a greater impression than that of the adventurous missionary who, un-
aided, crossed the Continent of Equatorial Africa. His unassuming simplicity,
his varied intelligence, his indomitable pluck, his steady religious purpose,
form a combination of qualities rarely found in one man. By common con-
sent, Dr. Livingstone has come to be regarded as one of the most remarkable
travellers of his own or of any other age."
By the 26th of Sej^tember, he was able to i-eport some improvement in
his health. For eighty days he had been laid up by the ulcers in his feet,
but they were now healing. Fever, however, came on again, and for twenty
days longer he was confined to his hut. His appetite was good, but the third
mouthful of any food caused nausea and vomiting — purging took place, and
profuse sweating ; it was choleraic, and many persons in Manyuema died of
it. On the 10th of October, he came out of his hut, and was thankful to
feel himself well. Well or ill, he was always seeking to gather information,
and noted down all he saw. The Manyuema, though blood-thirsty towards
one another, and as was natural full of ill-feeling towards the Ujijian traders,
were friendly towards himself. Their cultivation of the soil was very im-
perfect, yet it was so rich and soft, that there was no need for deep plough-
ing. The roots of maize, ground nuts, sweet potatoes, and dura, found their
way in easily ; and bananas, if only cleared of weeds, yielded abundantly.
One measure of rice would produce one hundred and twenty measures.
Moenekuss paid smiths to teach his sons, and they learned to work copper
and iron ; but he never could get them to imitate his own generous and oblig-
ing deportment ; when he died he virtually left no successor. The people
buy their wives from each other ; and a pretty girl fetches usually ten goats.
Week after week he longed to leave Bambarre, but no favourable oppor-
tunity presented itself. He waited for some ivory trader to come along,
under whose escort he might march. On the 6th of December, he says — "Oh,
for Dugumbe or Syde to come ! but this delay may be all for the best." Two
or three days after, he says again — " I am sorely let and hindered in this
Manyuema. Rain every day, and often at night ; I could not travel now,
even if I had men, but I could make some progress : this is the sorest delay
I ever had, I look above for help and mercy." On the 12th, he again writes
— "It mav be all for the best that I am so hindered, and compelled to inac-
VALUE OF IVORY.
381
tivity." Two elephants were killed at this time, which, though large, had
only small tusks ; although the flesh was eaten by the natives, to the trader
the chief value of these animals lay, of course, in the ivory.
The following items of information concerning ivory are not inappro-
priate here, and will prove interesting to our readers : their accuracy may be
relied on, as they are supplied by Mr. F. D. Blyth, whose long and large
experience qualifies him to speak upon the subject with authority: — " Eng-
land imports about five hundred and fifty tons annually — ^of this, two hun-
dred and eighty tons pass away to other countries, whilst the remainder is
used by our manufacturers, of whom the Sheffield cutlers require about one
hundred and seventy tons. The whole annual importation is derived from
the following countries, and in the quantities given below, as near as one can
approach to actual figures :—
Bombay and Zanzibar export 160 tons.
Alexandria and Malta 180 "
West Coast of Africa 140 "
Cape of Good Hope 50 "
Mozambique 20 "
" The Bombay merchants collect ivory from all the southern countries
of Asia, and the east Coast of Africa, and after selecting that which is most
suited to the wants of the Indian and Chinese markets, ship the remainder to
Europe. From Alexandria and Malta we receive ivory collected from Northern
and Central Africa, from Egypt, and the countries through which the Nile
flows. Immediately after the Franco-German war, the value of ivory in-
creased considerably ; and when we look at the prices realised on large
Zanzibar tusks at the public sales, we can well understand the motive power
which drove the Arab ivory hunters further and further into the country from
which the chief supjDly was derived when Dr. Livingstone met them.
In
1867 their
lorice
varied from
£39
to
£42
a
1868
li
u
ii
39
42
ct
1869
n
a
''
41
44
.'(
1870
ii
a
41
44
a
1871
a
it
41
44
a
1872
a
n
58
61
u
1873
ii
u
68
72
.';
1875
ki
"
53
58
" Single tusks vary in weight from one pound to one hundred and sixty-
five pounds : the average of a pair of tusks may be put at twenty-eight
382 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
pounds, and therefore forty-four thousand elephants, large and small, must
1)0 killed yearly to supply the ivory which comes to England alone ; and when
we remember that an enormous quantity goes to America, to India and China,
for consumption there, and of which we have uo account, some faint notion
may be formed of the destruction that goes on amongst the herds of elephants.
Although naturalists distinguish only two living species of elephants, viz.,
the African and Asiatic, nevertheless, there is a great difference in the size,
character, and colour of their tusks, which may arise from variations in climate,
soil, and food.
" The tusks from India, Ceylon, etc., are smaller in size, partly of an
opaque character, and partly translucent (or, as it is technically called,
'bright '), and harder and more cracked, but those from Siam and the neigh-
bouring countries are very ' bright,' soft, and fine-grained : they are much
sought after for ear-rings and ornamental work. Tusks from Mozambique and
the Cape of Good Hope seldom exceed seventy pounds in weight each: they
arc similar in character to the Zanzibar kind. Tusks which come through
Alexandria and Malta differ considerably in quality: some resemble those
fi'om Zanzibar, whilst others are white and opaque, harder to work, and more
cracked at the points; and others again are very translucent and hard, besides
being liable to crack: this latter description fetches a much lower price in
the market. From the West Coast of Africa we get ivory which is always
translucent, with a dark outside or coating, but partly hard and partly soft.
The soft ivory which comes from Ambriz, the Gaboon River, and the ports
fiouth of the equator, is more highly valued than any other, and is called
*■ silver grey :' this sort retains its whiteness when exjDOsed to the air, and is
hee from that tendency to become yellowish in time, which characterises Asiatic
and East African ivory.
" Hard tusks, as a rule, are proportionately smaller in diameter, shai-per,
and less worn than soft ones, and they come to market much more cracked,
fetching, in consequence, a lower j^rice. In addition to the above, a few tons
of mammoth ivory are received from time to time from the Arctic regions and
Siberia; and although of unknown antiquity, some tusks arc equal, in every
respect, to ivory which is obtained in tlie present day from elephants newly
killed. This, uo doubt, is owing to the preservative effects of the ice in which
the animals have been imbedded for many thousands of years. In the year
1799, the entire carcase of a mammoth was taken from the ice, and the ske-
leton, and portions of the skin, still covered with reddish hair, are preserved
in the Museum of St. Petersbui'g : it is said that portions of the flesh were
eaten by the men who dug it out of the ice."
One or two strange diseases V79re observed here by our traveller, and are
thus described: — " Safura is the name of the disease of clay or earth-eating
at Zanzibar. It often affects slaves, and the clay is said to have a pleasant
STRANGE DISEASES. 3S3
odour to the eaters ; but it is not confined to slaves, nor do slaves eat in order
to kill themselves ; it is a diseased appetite, and rich men, who have plenty to
eat, are often subject to it. The feet swell, flesh is lost, and the face looks
haggard ; the patient can scarcely walk for shortness of breath and weakness,
and he continues eating till he dies. Here many slaves are now diseased with
safura ; the clay built in walls is preferred, and Manyuema women, when
pregnant, often eat it. The cure is effected by drastic purges composed as
follows : — Old vinegar of cocoa-trees is put into a large basin, and old slag
red-hot cast into it ; then ' Moneye,' asafoetida, half a rupee in weight, cop-
peras sulph., ditto ; a small glass of this fasting, morning and evening, pro-
duces vomiting and purging of black dejections. This is continued for seven
days ; no meat is to be eaten, but only old rice or dura and water ; a fowl in
course of time ; no fish, butter, eggs, or beef, for two years on pain of death.
Mohamad's father had skill in the cure, and the above is his prescription.
Safura is thus a disease joer se ; it is common in Manyuema, and makes me in
a measure content to wait for my medicines. From the description, inspissated
bile seems to be the agent of blocking up the gall-duct and duodenum, and
the clay or earth may be nature trying to clear it away ; the clay appears
unchanged in the stools, and in large quantity. A Banyamwezi carrier, who
bore an enormous load of copper, is now by safura scarcely able to walk ; he
took it at Lualaba, where food is abundant, and he is contented with his lot.
Squeeze a finger-nail, and if no blood appears beneath it, safura is the cause
of the bloodlessness.
" The strangest disease I have seen in this country, seems really to be
broken-heartedness, and it attacks free men who have been captured and
made slaves. My attention was drawn to it when the elder brother of Syde
bin Habib was killed in Rua by a night attack, from a spear being pitched
through his tent into his side. S}de then vowed vengeance for the blood of
his brother, and assaulted all he could find, killing the elders, and making
the young men captives. He had secured a very large number, and they
endured the chains until they saw the broad River Lualaba roll between them
and their free homes: they then lost heart. Twenty-one were unchained,
as being now safe. However, all ran away at once; but eight, with many
others still in chains, died in three days after crossing. They ascribed their
only pain to the heart, and placed the hand correctly on the spot, though
many think that the organ stands high up under the breast-bone. Some
slaves expressed surprise to me that they should die, seeing they had plenty
to eat, and no work. One fine boy, of about twelve years, was carried, and
when about to expire, was kindlj' laid down on the side of the path, and a
hole dug to deposit the body in. He, too, said he had nothing the matter
with him, except pain in his heart : as it attacks only the free (who are cap-
tured, and never slaves), it seems to be really broken hearts of which they die."
384 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Some additional particulars were givea by Livingstone's servants, who
reached this country, of the dreadful sufferings of these captives. " The
sufferings endured by these unfortunate captives, whilst they were hawked
about in different directions, must have been shocking indeed; many died
because it was impossible for them to carry a burden on the head whilst
marching in the heavy yoke or taming-stick, which weighs from thirty to forty
pounds as a rule ; and the Arabs knew that, if once the stick were taken off,
the captive would escape on the first ojoportuiiity. Children, for a time,
would keep up with wonderful endurance, but it happened sometimes that
the sound of dancing, and the merry tinkle of the small drums, would fall on
their ears in passing near to a village, then the memory of home and happy
days proved too much for them ; they cried and sobbed, the ' broken heart '
came on, and they rapidly sank. The adults, as a rule, came into the slave-
sticks from treachery, and had never been slaves before. Very often the
Arabs would promise a present of dried fish to villagers if the)^ would act as
guides to some distant point, and as soon as they were far enough away from
their friends, they were seized and pinned into the yoke, from which there is
no escape. These poor fellows would expire in the way Livingstone men-
tions, talking to the last of their wives and children, who would never know
what had become of them. On one occasion, twenty captives succeeded in
escaping, as follows : — Chained together by the neck, and in the custody of
an Arab armed with a gun, they were sent off to collect wood ; at a given
signal, one of them called the guard to look at something, which he pre-
tended he had found ; when he stooped down they threw tliemselvea upon
him, and overpowered him, and after he was dead managed to break the
chain and make off in all directions."
OUNTAINS OF HOMBOR
CHAPTER XXII.
The Tear 1871 — Detention at Bamharre — Reaches the Lualaba — Life at Nyangwe —
The Bakuss — Slaughter of Women by the Arabs — Returns to Ujiji — Atrival
of Mr. Stanley — Livingstone and Stanley visit TJnyanyembe — Stanley leaves to
Return to England.
THE hindrances which Livingstone had to encounter in the prosecution of
his work — his frequent detentions and feeble health — were a sore trial.
He earnestly desired to be able to finish what he had been privileged to begin,
and so far to carry on. Hence he begins the year 1871 with this prayer: —
"O Father! help me to finish this work to Thy honour." He was still de-
tained at Bambarre ; but there was a report of a caravan on its way from the
coast, and he hoped it would bring him both men and goods. Early in Feb-
ruary the men arrived, but they all came with a lie in their mouth, and,
instead of being ready to accompany him, they all swore that they had or-
ders from Dr. Kirk, the consul at Zanzibar, not to go forward, but to force
him back ; and they spread the tale all over the country that a certain letter
had been sent to him with orders to I'eturn forthwith. Through fear, however,
they were constrained to obey Livingstone's will, and accompany him in his
further journeyings. On the 16th of February, he started from Bambarre;
and on the 24th, came to a village near Lolande River. From there, he went
to Mamohela, where he was welcomed by the Arabs who wei-e staying there,
and got various letters that were waiting for him. Leaving Mamohela on the
2ud of March, he travelled over fine grassy plains, having tree-covered moun-
tains on both sides, and crossing, in six houiS, fourteen running rills, from
three to ten or fifteen feet broad, and from calf to thigh deep. On the oth,
he came to some villages called Basilange. These villages he describes as
"very pretty, standing on slopes. Tlie main street generall}^ lies east and
west, to allow the bright sun to stream his clear hot rays from one end to the
other, and lick up quickly the moisture from the frequent showers which is
not drained off by the slopes. A little verandah is often made in front of the
door, and here, at dawn, the famil}?^ draws round a fire, and, while enjoying
the heat needed in the cold that always accompanies the first darting of the
light or sun's rays across the atmosphere, inhale the delicious air, and talk
over their little domestic affairs. The various shaped leaves of the forest all
49
386 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
around their village, and near their nestlings, are bespangled with myriads of
dewdrops. The cocks crow vigorously, and strut and ogle ; the kids gambol
and leap on the backs of their dams quietly chewing the cud ; other goats
make believe fighting. Thrifty wives often bake their new clay pots in a
fire, made by lighting a heap of grass roots; the next morning they extract
salt from the ashes, and so two birds are killed with one stone. The beauty
of this morning scene of peaceful enjoyment is indescribable."
In some cases, Livingstone found all the villages deserted. The people,
dreading a repetition of the outrages of the Arabs and their slaves, had fled
at the approach of him and his men ; and there were instances in which the
still smoking fires told the tale of recent flight from the slave-traders. Many,
however, found out that he did not belong to their number ; and he over-
heard them at times telling one another that he was the " good one." On
the 29th, he crossed the Kunda River, and seven miles more brought him to
Nyangwe. Here he reached the Lualaba, narrower at this place than it is
higher up, but still a mighty river, at least three thousand yards wide, and
always deep. It never can be waded at any point, or at an}' time of the year.
The banks are steep and deep, and the current is about two miles an hour
away to the north. The banks of the river are well peopled ; but it is neces-
sary to see the gathering at the market of Nyangwe to judge of their num-
bers. Sometimes as many as three thousand assemble on market-day. With
the market-women it seems to be a pleasure of life to haggle and joke, and
laugh and cheat. All carry very heavy loads of dried cassava and earthen
pots, which they exchange for palm-oil, fish, salt, pepper, and relishes for
their food. The men appear in gaudy lambas, and carry little save their
iron wares, fowls, grass, cloth, and pigs. White ants also roasted, and snails,
are among the marketable commodities.
Among other visitors to Nyangwe were several persons belonging to the
Kuss country. These j^eople, called Bakuss, live near Lomane. They use
large and very long spears, with great expertness, both in hunting and in
war. They " cultivate more than the southern Manyuema, especially Penni-
setum and dura, or Holcus sorghum. Common coffee is abundant, and they
use it highly scented with vanilla, which must be fertilised by insects : they
hand round cups of it after meals. Pine-apples, too, are abundant. They
bathe regularly twice a da}- : their houses are of two stories. The women
have rather compressed heads, but very pleasant countenances, and ancient
Egyptian round wide-awake eyes. Their numbers are prodigious ; the coun-
try literally swarms with people, and a chief's town extends upwards of a
mile. But little of the primeval forest remains. Many large pools of stand-
ing water have to be crossed, but markets are held every eight or ten miles
from each other, and to these the people come from far, for the market is as
great an institution as shopping is with the civilised. Illicit intercourse is
WOMEN SLA UGII TER ED B Y THE A RA BS. 3S 7
punislied by tlie whole of the offender's family being enslaved. They smelt
copper from the ore and sell it very cheaply to the traders for beads."
As an illustration of the barbarous way in which the Arab slave-traders
treat the natives, our traveller describes the following scene, which he wit-
nessed in the market of Nyangwe, on the lOtli of July: — " It was a hot,
sultry day, and when I went into the market I saw Adie and Manilla, and
three of the men who had lately come with Dugumbe. I was surprised to
see these three with their guns, and felt Inclined to reprove them, as one of
my men did, for bringing weapons into the market ; but I attributed it to
their ignorance ; and it being very hot, I was walking away to go out of the
market, when I saw one of the fellows haggling about a fowl, and seizing
hold of it. Before I had got thirty yards out, the discharge of two guns in
the middle of the crowd told me that slaughter had begun. Crowds dashed
off from the place, threw down their wares in confusion, and ran. At the
same time that the three opened fire on the heads of people npar the upper
end of the market-place, volleys were discharged from a party down near the
creek on the panic-stricken women, who dashed at the canoes. These, some
fifty or more, were jammed in the creek, and the men forgot their paddles in
the terror that seized all. The canoes were not to be got out, for the creek
was too small for so many. Men and women, wounded by the balls, poured
into them, and leaped and scrambled into the water, shrieking. A long line
of heads in the river showed that great numbers struck out for an island a
full mile off. In going towards it, they had to put the left shoulder to a
current of about two miles an hour. If they had struck away diagonally to
the opposite bank the current would have aided them on, and, though nearly
three miles off, some would have gained land ; as it was, the heads above
water showed the long line of those who would inevitably perish.
" Shot after shot continued to be fii-ed on the helpless and perishing.
Some of the long line of heads disappeared quietly ; whilst other poor creatures
threw their arms high, as if appealing to the great Father above, and sank.
One canoe took in as many as it could hold, and all paddled with hands and
arms. Three canoes got out in haste, picked up sinking friends till all went down
together, and disappeared. One man in a long canoe, which could have held
forty or fifty, had clearly lost his head ; he had been out in the stream before
the massacre began, and now paddled up the river nowhere, and never looked
to the drowning. By-and-by all the heads disappeared ; some had turned
down stream towards the bank, and escaped. Dugumbe put people into one
of the deserted vessels to save those in the water, and saved twenty-one, but
one woman refused to be taken on board from thinking that she was to be
made a slave of ; she preferred the chance of life by swimming to the lot of
a slave. The Bagenya women are expert in the water, as they are accustomed
to dive for oysters, and those who went down stream may have escaped; but
388 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
the Arabs themselves estimated the loss of life at between three hundred and
thirty and four hundred souls. The shooting party near the canoes were so
reckless they killed two of their own people ; and a Banyamwezi follower,
who got into a deserted canoe to plunder, fell into the water, went down,
then came up again, and down to rise no more."
It grieved our traveller sorely that he was powerless to prevent this mas-
sacre. He says, " The open murder perpetrated on hundreds of unsuspecting
women fills me with unspeakable horror." In another place he writes, "The
terrible scenes of man's inhumanity to man brought on severe headache, which
might have been serious, had it not been relieved by a copious discharge of
I blood. I was laid up all yesterday afternoon with the depression the blood-
! shed made — it filled me with unspeakable horror. ' Don't go away,' say the
' Manyuema chiefs to me ; but I cannot stay here in agony." On the 20th of
July, he started back from Ujiji. Crossing the river Kunda, he ascended
from the valley in which it flows to the ridge of Lobango, some three hun-
dred feet high, on which several villages are built. The path ran along the
top of the ridge ; and he could see the fine country below all spread out with
different shades of green, according to the different plantations. On the jour-
ney, four men jjassed him and his party in great haste, to announce the death
of a woman at their village, to her relations at another. After them came
twenty-two men, with large square black shields capable of completely hiding
the whole person, to receive the body of their relative that they might carry
her to her own home for burial. About twenty women followed, and the
men waited under the trees, till the women wound up the body and wept
over it. They smeared their bodies with clay and their faces with soot.
On the 31st, he passed through the defile between Mount Kimazi and
Mount Kijila. The party now went through a great many villages that were all
deserted, many of them burnt to the ground, till at last they came to Kittette.
Livingstone had often observed effigies of men made of wood in Manyuema ;
on asking about them at Kittette, he for the first time obtained reliable infor-
mation : they are called Bathata — fathers or ancients, and the name of each is
carefully preserved. On certain occasions the people offer goat's flesh to them ;
men eat it, and allow no young person or woman to partake. The flesh of
the parrot is only eaten by very old men ; the belief being that, if eaten by
young men, their children will have the waddling gait of the bird. On the
8th of August, Livingstone was in great peril. He came to a village, from
which the people all ran away ; they appeared in the distance armed, and
refused to come near ; then they came and threw stones at the travellers, and
afterwards tried to kill those who went for water.
Livingstone thus describes the scene and the circumstances of danger :
— " They would come to no parle3^ They knew their advantage, and the
wrongs they had suffered from Bin Juma and Mohamad's men" (slave-
RUNNING TEE GAUNTLET. 389
traders) "when they thi'ew down the ivory in the forest. In passing along
the narrow path, with a wall of dense vegetation touching each hand, we came
to a point where an ambush had been placed, and trees cut down to obstruct
us wliile they speared us ; but for some reason it was abandoned. Nothing
could be detected; but by stoopingdown to the earth, and peering up towards
the sun, a dark shade could sometimes be seen ; this was an infuriated savage,
and a slight rustle in the dense vegetation meant a spear. A large spear from
my right lunged past and almost grazed my back, and stuck firmly into the
soil. The two men from whom it came appeared at an opening in the forest
only ten yards off and bolted, one looking back over his shoulder as he ran.
As they, are expert with the spear, I don't know how it missed, except that he
was too sure of his aim, and the good hand of God was upon me.
" I was behind the main body, and all were allowed to j^ass till I, the
leader, who was believed to be Mohamad Boharib, or Kolokolo himself,
came up to the point where they lay. A red jacket they had formei-ly seen me
wearing was proof to them that I was the same that sent Bin Juma to kill
five of their men, capture eleven women and children, and twenty-five goats.
Another spear was thrown at me by an unseen assailant, and it missed me
by about a foot in front. Guns were fired into the dense mass of forest, but
with no effect; for nothing could be seen; but we heard the men jeering and
denouncing us close b}-. Two of our party were slain. Coming to a part of
the forest cleared for cultivation, I noticed a gigantic tree, made still taller
by growing on an ant-hill twenty feet high ; it had fire applied near its roots.
I heard a crack, which told that the fire had done its woi-k, but felt no alarm
till I saw it come straight towards me. I ran a few paces back, and down it
came to the ground one yard behind me and, breaking into several lengths,
it covered me with a cloud of dust. Had the branches not previously been
rotted off, I could scarcely have escaped.
" Three times in one day was I delivered from impending death. My
attendants, who were scattered in all directions, came running back to me,
calling out, ' Peace ! peace ! you will finish all your work in spite of these
people, and in spite of everything !' Like them, I took it as an omen of good
success to crown me yet; thanks to the Almighty Preserver of men. We had
five hours of running the gauntlet, waylaid by spearmen, wlio all felt that if
they killed me, they would be revenging the death of relations. From
each hole in the tangled mass we looked for a spear; and each moment
expected to hear the rustle which told of deadly weapons hurled at us. I
became weary with the constant strain of danger, and, as I suppose happens
with soldiers on the field of battle, not courageous, but perfectly indifferent
whether I were killed or not. When at last we got out of the forest, and
crossed the Liya, on to the cleared lands near the villages of Monanbundwa,
we lay down to rest."
390 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Fresh proof was furnished to Livingstone at this time of the cannibalism
of the Manyuema. There was a great fight, and some of the victims were
eaten. The meat was cut up, and cooked witli bananas. It is difficult to
know what originated this horrid custom. It could not have been want ; for
the country is full of food. Of farinaceous food, the people have maize, dura,
pennisetum, cassava, and sweet potatoes; of fatty ingredients, they have palm-
oil, ground-nuts, sessamum, and a tree whose fruit yields a fine sweet oil;
saccharine diet is found in the sugar-cane, bananas, and plantains. Goats,
sheep, fowls, dogs, pigs, abound in the villages ; whilst the forest affords
elephants, zebras, buffaloes, antelopes ; and in the streams there are many
varieties of fish. The nitrogenous ingredients are abundant; and they have
dainties in palm-toddy and tobacco. The only reason for their delight in
the taste of human flesh seems to be a depraved appetite. It is said that
they will bury a dead body for a day or two in the forest ; and then, when
through the heat of the climate it is quite decomposed, will dig it up, and
cook and eat it.
Our traveller continued his journey to Ujiji, though very wearied and
ill. The march sorely knocked him up. During the latter part of it, he
felt as if dying on his feet. Almost every step was in pain; his appetite
failed ; the least food caused violent diarrhoea, whilst his mind, greatly de-
pressed, re-acted on the body. He felt disappointed, thwarted, baffled, in
the great object of his pursuit. The great source of his support and comfort
was the Word of God. Under date October 3rd, he writes — '' I read the
whole Bible through four times while I was in Manyuema." At last, on
the 23rd of October, he reached Ujiji. He was reduced to a skeleton, and
was suffering from opthalmia, caused by the dust of the march ; and, to add
to his troubles, he found, on his arrival, that nearly all his property at Ujiji
had been stolen and sold. " I felt," he says, " in my destitution, as if I were
the man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves,
but I could not hope for priest, Levite, or good Samaritan, to come by on
either side. But when my spirits were at their lowest ebb, the good Sama-
ritan was close at hand ; for one morning Susi came running at the top of
his speed, and gasped out, ' An Englishman ! I see him !' and off he darted
to meet him The American flag at the head of a caravan told of the nation-
ality of the stranger. Bales of goods, baths of tin, huge kettles, cooking
pots, tents, etc., made me think, ' This must be a luxurious traveller, and
not one at his wits' end like me! (28ifA October.) It was Henry Moreland
Stanley, the travelling correspondent of the ' New York Herald,' sent by
James Gordon Bennett, junior, at an expense of more than £^1,000, to obtain
accurate information about Dr. Livingstone, if living, and, if dead, to bring
home my bones. The news he had to tell to one who had been full two
years without any tidings from Europe, made my whole frame thrill. Apjie-
STANLEY SENT IN SEA RGB OF LIVINGSTONE. 391
tite returned, and, instead of the spare, tasteless two meals a day, I ate four
times daily, and in a week began to feel strong. I am not of a demonstra-
tive turn — as cold, indeed, as we islanders are usually reputed to be, but this
disinterested kindness of Mi-. Bennett, so nobly carried into effect by Mr.
Stanley, was simply overwhelming. I really do feel extremely grateful, and
at tliG same time I am a little asliamed at not being more wortliy of the
generosity."
We must now break off for a little the thread of Livingstone's narrative,
to notice the circumstances in which the Stanley expedition originated, and
the way in which it was carried out. In October, 1869, Mr. James Gordon
Bennett, the proprietor of the " New York Herald," was in Paris, and stay-
ing at the Grand Hotel, when he resolved on attempting to succour Dr.
Livingstone. He had among his staff of travelling correspondents a Mr.
Henry M. Stanley, a young man, with an almost exhaustless fund of inform-
ation, of fertile exjoedients, determined courage, and unceasing perseverance,
who had represented his newspaper during the campaign against King Theo-
dore in Abyssinia, and had thus obtained considerable insight into the pecu-
liarities and dangers of African travel. It struck Mr. Bennett that this was
the man who could find the lost traveller, around whose fate a cloud of mys-
tery and darkness was once more enveloped, if he were alive. He therefore
telegraphed at once to Madrid, where Mr. Stanley was then staying, in the
prosecution of his duties, and requested him to come immediately to Paris.
Ml'. Stanley, not knowing what business was in hand, instantly left Madrid,
and, arriving at the Grand Hotel, Paris, at eleven o'clock at night, went
straight to Mr. Bennett's room. The interview which resulted we give in
Mr. Stanley's own woi'ds : — -"I went straight to the Grand Hotel, and
knocked at the door of Mr. Bennett's room. ' Come in !' I heard a voice
say. Entering, I found Mr. Bennett in bed. ' Who are you ?' he asked.
' My name is Stanlej^,' I answered. ' Ah, yes ! Sit down ; I have import-
ant business on hand for you ! After throwing over his should'ers his robe-
de-c/iambre, Mr. Bennett asked, ' Where do you think Dr. Livingstone is ?' —
' I really do not know, sir.' ' Do you think he is alive ?' — ' He may be, and
he may not be,' I answered. ' Well, I think he is alive, and that he can be
found; and I am going to send you to find him.' ' What !' said I. ' Do you
really think I can find Dr. Livingstone ? Do you mean me to go to Central
Africa ?' — ' Yes ; I mean that you shall go, and find him wherever you may
hear that he is, and to get what news you can of him, and perhaps' — de-
livering liimself thoughtfully and deliberately — * the old man may be in
want ; take enough with you to help him, should he require it. Of course,
you will act according to your own plans, and do what you think best — But
Find Livingstone.'
" Said I, wondering at the cool order of sending one to Central Africa
392 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
to search for a mau whom J, in common with almost all other men believed
to bo dead, ' Have you considered seriously the great exjDense you are likely
to incur on account of this little journey ?' ' What will it cost ?' he asked
abruptly. — ' Burton and Speke's journey to Central Africa cost between
£3,000 and £5,000, and I fear it cannot be done under £3,500.' Well, I will
tell you what you will do. Draw a thousand pounds now ; and Wiien you
have gone through that, draw another thousand ; and when that is spent,
draw another thousand ; and when you finish that, draw another thousand ;
and so on, but — Find Livingstone.' "
After some further conversation, Mr. Stanley asked if he was to go at
once. "No," said Mr. Bennett; "I wish you to go to the inauguration of
the Suez canal first, and then proceed up the Nile. Then you might as well
go to Jerusalem ; I hear Captain Warner is making some interesting dis-
coveries there. Then next to Constantinople, and find out about that trouble
between the Khedive and the Sultan. Then — let me see — you might as well
visit the Crimea and those old battle-grounds. Then go across the Caucasus
to the Caspian Sea ; I hear there is a Russian expedition bound for Khiva.
From thence you may go through Persia to India ; you could write an intei'-
esting letter from PersejDolis. Bagdad will be close on your way to India ;
suppose you go there and write up something about the Euphrates Valley
Railway; then, when you have come to India, you can go after Livingstone.
Probably you will hear by that time that Livingstone is on his way to Zanzi-
bar; but if not, go into the interior and find him. If alive, get what news
of his discoveries you can; and if you find he is dead, bring all possible j^roof
of his being dead. That is all ; good night, and God be with you."
That Livingstone's safety should be determined, and his wants supplied,
at tlie cost of a proprietor of a New York newspaper, and through the pluck
and daring of one of his subordinates, who went at his bidding to look for
Livingstone in Central Africa, just as he would have gone to collect news in
any of the great centres of European civilisation, was a singular way of ac-
complishing a great object, saddly puzzling for a time to many ; and fears
were entertained that the whole was an audacious canard, which only a Yan-
kee journalist would dare to perpetrate. By and by, as the original intelli-
gence of Livingstone's discovery came to be supplemented, it became apparent
that not only was Stanley's story true, but that this young journalist was one
who, in determined courage and resolute perseverance, was in every way
worthy to take his place among the heroes of African discovery and travel.
We may here properly devote a few pages to a brief narrative of the early
history of this daring and capable young man. He was born in 1841, in a
humble cottage on the site of the old castle of Denbigh, North Wales. His
father, John Rowlands, was the son of a small farmer; and his mother,
Elizabeth Parry, the daughter of a respectable butcher of that town ; and for
STANLEY'S EARLY HISTORY. 303
fifteen years he went by the name of his father and grandfatlicr, Julin Row-
lands. When five years of age, the child was left totally dependent upon
strangers, and was received into the workhouse at St. Asaph. For ten years he
was an inmate of that institution, where, amongst other experiences of much
use to him in after life, he received an admirable elementary education. He
was notable among his comjoeers in the class-room and the play-ground as a
lad of more than ordinary parts and pluck. In the class-room there was
only one lad who approached him in diligence and success; but in the play-
ground, whether in the amusements pro2)er to his years, or in a rough stand-
up fight, he was without a rival. Notwithstanding tliat he enjoyed at St.
Asaph comfort, and even indulgence, his adventurous disposition manifested
itself in moi-e than one attempt to escape from the house. "He burst the
trammels of beadledom," says Mr. Hughes, who knew him well, " three
times ! The widow of his uncle, Mrs. Parry, of Dale Street, Denbigh, tells
that on one occasion he presented himself at her house at an unusually late
hour, and without any companion — circumstances whicli, taken in connection
with his sheepish look, led her to suspect that something was wrong. On
asking him £ome questions, she found ho had run away. After consulting
some of her friends, John got supper and went to bed. Next morning he was
sent to St. Asaph in the coach, in charge of the guard, who had strict orders
to leave him at the school. Before he left, Mrs. Parry gave him a sixpence,
which gratified him much, and reconciled him to his return. Years after-
wards, in speaking of this incident of his life, he spoke of the feeling of
being rich, which the possession of that sixpence gave him."
When he was fifteen years of age, he left St. Asaph, and joined a cousin,
who was teacher of the National School at Mold, with whom he remained for
some time, acting as his assistant. The young man and the boy had nothing
in common, and quarrels and bickerings were the result. His residence at
Mold was therefore a period of much trial and discomfort. Speaking of him
at this time, Mr. Hughes describes him as being possessed of "an indomitable
will, that really knew no impediment to its purpose. His youthful struggles,
the character of his reading, and his bold, inflexible nature, eminently fitted
him for adventure." This being his character, and his cousin having become
jealous of his superior abilities, he endeavoured to crush his proud spirit, by
putting him to menial occupations, and by parading his authority over him ;
we need not wonder, therefore, that, after a year at Mold, John Rowlands
walked straight away into the great world, with only a few pence in his
pocket. He walked to Liveri^ool, and within a few hours engaged himself
as extra hand on board a New Orleans cotton shij), which carried passengers
on their outward voyages.
On landing at New Orleans, he parted with his shi2:)mates, and went his
way in search of what fortune might bring him. He was not long in learning
50
394 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
that a cotton-broker, of the name of Stanley, was in want of a youth to assist
him in the counting-house. He applied for the situation, and was fortunate
enough to get it. Mr. Stanley was a bachelor, and was noted for an eccentric
and kindly disjiosition. Our hero filled the situation to the entire satisfaction
of Mr. Stanley ; and the latter having induced him to tell the story of his
early years, his sympathies were excited in his favour, and within a very few
months, at his suggestion, he took the name of his friend and benefactor, and
adopted the name by which he is row so well known. Further intimacy so
•deepened the affection which the old merchant bore to his friendless assistant,
that he intimated to him that he would take the charge of his future while he
lived, and provide for him by will at his death. Unfortunately, Mr. Stanley's
death took place suddenly, before he had executed a will, and the relations,
who looked with no kindly eye on the young man who had so narrowly escaped
coming between them and what they would naturally suppose to be their
rightful inheritance, turned him adrift. He was now about nineteeen years
of age, and capable of looking after himself. The next two years were spent
in various commercial situations. When the American civil war broke out,
his adventurous sjiirit induced him to enlist in the Southern army. He took
part in several engagements, and at length was taken prisoner. While being
conveyed, with a number of others, to prison, he determined on making his
escajje ; and in the most daring manner burst through the armed escort, and,
plunging into a river, swam across, and got clear off. More than a dozen shots
were fired at him, but he escaped without a scratch.
After making his escape, he returned immediately to England, and visited
his mother in Wales. After a short stay, he went to Liverpool, where he
filled a situation as clerk for several months, living with some of his father's
relatives. Not agreeing with his friends, he shipped again for the United
States, and landed at New York. The war was still raging, and he, with
characteristic promptness and audacity, enlisted as a common seaman in the
Federal navy. His quality rapidly asserted itself, and within four months
we find him secretary to the Admiral, on board the " Ticonderoga," the flag-
ship. This apparently unwarlike appointment did not prevent him from em-
bracing opportunities of showing the stuff that was in him ; and his next
step in promotion was the most fitting reward for a most gallant and daring
exploit. In the heat of an action, he swam five hundred yards under the fire
of a fort mounting twelve guns, and fixed a rope to a Confederate steamer,
out of which the crew had been driven by the Federal fire, thus enabling the
" Ticondei'oga " to secure her as a prize. He was raised to the rank of
ensign on the spot. He fought in several engagements, both on sea and land,
in all of which he acquitted himself with great courage and heroism, and
concluded his fighting career as a naval ofiicer, by taking part in the attack
on Fort Fisher, on the 13th of January, 1865. Ten months after this decisive
STANLEY VISITS WALES 395
engagement, the " Ticonderoga " was sent on a cruise, and arrived at Con-
stantinople in the year 18G6.
Having obtained leave of absence, Rowlands, alias Stanley, visited Den-
bigh, and was well received by his relatives and friends. Visiting the old
Castle, the scene of his birth, and the first four or five years of his life, h(^
made the following entry in the visitor's book : —
December lifh, 1866.
John Rowlands, formerly of this Castle, now Ensign in the United States Navy,
in North America, helonginy to the U. 8. Ship " Ticonderoga,''^ now at Constantinople,
Turkey ; absent on furlough.
It is worthy of notice, that while he was known in the world as Henry
M. Stanley, and all his friends and acquaintances in and around Denbigh
knew that he had assumed that name, in the scene of his infant years, he
makes use of his baptismal name — John Rowlands. He called upon all his
old friends, and visited the workhouse at St. Asaph, and made a speech to
the children. Shortly after this, he resigned his commission.
Early in 1867, he returned to the United States, and acted for some time
as correspondent of the " New York Tribune" and the " Missouri Democrat,"
with General Hancock's expedition against the Kiowa and Cheyenne Indians.
On his return from this expedition, he and a companion constructed a raft,
and floated down the Platte River to its junction with the Missouri, a distance of
seven hundred miles. He now received the appointment of travelling corres-
pondent to the "New York Herald," and in this capacity he accomjjanied the
British forces to Abyssinia. On his return to England from Abyssinia, he
spent several weeks with his relatives in Wales, before starting for Spain, to
furnish an account of the revolution which resulted in the flight of Queen
Isabella. He was at Madrid, as we have seen, when Mr. Bennett sent for him
to Paris, for the purpose of despatching him in search of Dr. Livingstone.
With the foregoing brief sketch of Mr. Stanley's previous history, we
must now follow him in his search for Livingstone. He carried out the pro-
gramme Mr. Bennett chalked out for him, in all its details ; and chronicled the
incidents of his jourueyings in the " New York Herald." He thus sums up his
wanderings in his introduction to " How I found Livingstone :" — " There is no
need to recapitulate what I did before going to Central Africa. I went up
the Nile, and saw Mr. Higginbotham, chief engineer in Baker's Expedition,
at Philse, and was the means of preventing a duel between him and a mad
young Frenchman, who wanted to fight Mr. Higginbotham with pistols, be-
cause that gentleman resented the idea of being taken for an Egyptian, through
wearing a Fez cap. I had a talk with Captain Warren at Jerusalem, and
descended one of the pits with a sergeant of engineers to see the marks of the
396 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
T3^rian workmen on the foundation stones of the Temple of Solomon. I
visited the mosques of Stamboul with the I\Iinistcr Resident of the United States
and the American Consul-General. I travelled over the Crimean battle-
grounds with Kinglakc's glorious books for reference in my hand. I dined
with the widow of General Liprandi at Odessa. I saw the Arabian traveller
Palgrave at Trebizond, and Baron Nicolay, the Civil Governor of the Caucasus,
at Tiflis. I lived with the Russian Ambassador while at Teheran, and where-
ever I went through Persia I received the most hospitable welcome from the
gentlemen of the Indo-European Telegraph Company ; and following the
examples of many illustrious men, I wrote my name upon one of the Perse-
jDolitan monuments. In tlie month of August, 1870, I arrived in India." This
was a marvellous nine months' journey.
On the 12th of October, Stanley sailed from Bombay; and, on the 6th
of January, 1871, he arrived at Zanzibar. On tlie 5th of February, the expe-
dition having been fully organized set sail from Zanzibar to Bagamoyo.
Though the distance across is only about twenty-five miles, yet it took the
dull and lazy dhows ten hours to perform the voyage. The first caravan of
the expedition started from Bagamoyo on the 16th of March, and the last on
the 21st, each being under the escort of a certain number of soldiers. The
entire number of persons forming the expedition was one hundred and ninety-
two. About the middle of Ajaril, Mi*. Stanley reached the town of Slmbam-
wenni, which was the largest and most important town he came across in his
wanderings. "The town," he says, "may contain a population of three
thousand, having about one thousand houses ; being so densely crowded, per-
haps five thousand would more closely approximate. The houses in the town
are eminently African, but of the best type of construction. The fortifications
are on an Arabic-Persic model, combining Arab neatness with Persian jDlan.
Through a ride of nine hundred and fifty miles In Persia I never met a town
outside of the great cities better fortified than SImbamwennl. In Persia the
fortifications were of mud, even those of Kasvin, Teheran, Ispahan, and Shiraz;
those of SimbamwennI are of stone, pierced with two rows of loop-holes for
musketry. The area of the town is about half a square mile, its plan being
quadrangular. Well-built towers of stone guard each corner ; four gates, one
facing each cardinal point, and set half-way between the several towers, per-
mit Ingress and egress for its inhabitants. The gates are closed with solid
square doors made of African teak, and carved with the infinltesslmally fine
and complicated devices of the Arabs, from which I sus25ect that the doors
were made either at Zanzibar or on the coast, and conveyed to SimbamwennI
plank by plank j yet, as there is much communication between Bagamoyo
and SimbamwennI, It Is just possible that native artisans are the authors of
this ornate workmanship, as several doors chiselled and carved In the same
manner, though not quite so elaborately, were visible In the largest houses.
THE WAIIUMBA. 39?
Tlie i^alacc of the Sultan is after tlic style of those on the coast, with long
slo2:>ing roof, -wide caves, and verandah in front."
Two days' journey beyond Simbanweuni, Mr. Stanley had his first attack
of fever. On the Mpwapa slopes the party suffered from a plague of ear-wigs,
and also from the white ants. The population was very numerous, and at
every village hundreds of natives crowded to see the Masungu, or white men.
The Wahumba, a tribe of shepherds, excited our traveller's admiration ; and
he thus speaks of them : — " The men are joositively handsome, tall, with small
heads, the posteiior parts of which project considerably. One will look in
vain for a thick lip or a flat nose amongst them ; on the contrary, the moutli
is exceedingly well cut, delicately small: the nose is that of the Greeks; and
so universal was this peculiar feature, that I at once named them the Greeks
of Africa. Tlicir necks are long and slender, on which their small heads are
poised most gracefully ; athletes from their youth, shepherd-bred, and inter-
marrying among themselves, thus keeping the race pure, any of them would
form a fit subject for the sculptor who would wish to immortalise in marble
an Antinous, a Hyglas, a Daphnis, or an Apollo. The women are as beautiful
as the men are handsome. They have clear ebon skins, not coal-black, but
of an inky hue. Their ornaments consist of spiral rings of brass, pendent
from the ears, brass ring collars about the neck, and a spiral cincture of brass-
wire about their loins, for the purpose of retaining the calf and goat skins,
which are folded about their bodies, and, depending from the shoulder, shade
one half of the bosom, and fall to the knees."
In the Ugogo country Mr. Stanley's expedition was joined by the cara-
vans of two Arab traders, and he had ample opportunity of observing how
these traders are comjDelled to pay heavy black mail to every chief who is in
a position to demand it. While passing through Ugogo they had to force
their way at one time through thirty miles of swamp, and flooded streams
and moors ; but, as they reached the district of Unyanyembe, the heat of
the sun was all but unbearable, and they suffered much from hunger and
thirst. On the 21st of June, they entered Kwikuru, the chief Arab settle-
ment of Unyanyembe ; and, though they were hungry and jaded, they man-
aged to march in with banners flying and trumpets blowing, and the discharge
of fire-arms. From Kwikuru they proceeded to Tabora, the principal Arab
settlement in Central Africa. " It contains," says Stanley, " over a thousand
huts and tembes, and one may safely estimate the population, Arabs, Wang-
wana, and natives, at five thousand people. They were a fine, handsome
body of men, these Arabs. They mostly hailed from Oman ; others were
Wasawahih ; and each of my visitors had quite a retinue with him. At
Tabora they live quite luxuriously. The plain on which the settlement is
situated is exceedingly fertile, though naked of trees ; the rich pasturage it
furnishes permits them to keep large herds of cattle and goats, from which
398 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
they have an ample suppl}^ of milk, ci*eam, butter, and f^hee. Rice is grown
everywhere, sweet potatoes, yams, muhogo, holcus sorglium, maize, or Indian
corn, sesame, millet, field peas, or vetches, called choroko, are cheap, and
always procurable. Around their tembes the Arabs cultivate a little wheat
for their own purposes, and have planted orange, lemon, papaw, and man-
goes, which thrive here fairly wel). Onions and garlic, chilies, cucumbers,
tomatoes, and binijalls, may be procured by the white visitor from the more
important Arabs, who are undoubted epicureans in their way. Their slaves
convey to them from the coast, once a year at least, their stores of tea, coffee,
sugar, spices, jellies, curries, wine, brandy, biscuits, sardines, salmon, and
such fine cloths and articles as they require for their own personal use. Al-
most every Arab of any eminence is able to show a wealth of Persian carpets
and most luxurious bedding, complete tea and coffee services, and magnifi-
cently carved dishes of tinned copper and brass lavers. Several of them
sport gold watches and chains — mostly all a watch and chain of some kind.
And, as in Persia, Afghanistan, and Turkey, the harems form an essential
feature of every Ai'ab's household."
From Kwihara, in Unyanyembe, Mr. Stanley wrote to the " New York
Herald," giving a brief account of his journey.
"Kwihara, Unyanyembe, September 20th, 1871.
" The African expedition of the "New York Herald" arrived at Unyan-
yembe on June 23rd, 1871. It has suffered considerably in its personnel and
transport. One of tlie white men has died ; he but lived to reach half-way
here ; two of the armed escort, as well as eight pagazis, died also from dys-
entery and small-pox. Two horses and twenty-seven asses have also perished.
On arriving at Unyanyembe your correspondent wrote two letters and en-
trusted them to Said Ben Salim (Burton and Speke's former Rascafilah), now
Governor of Unyanyembe. One gave an account of our journey from the
coast here ; the other of our battle with Mirambo, who occupied the country
lying between the " Herald" expedition and the object of its search. I then
prepared for the second stage, viz., the journey to Ujiji and Manyuema. But
difficulties had been on the increase for about a month before our arrival
here.
"Mirambo, King of Ujowa, in western Unyamwezi, had been levjang
black-mail to an unconscionable amount upon all caravans bound westward
to Ujiji, the lake and the regions lying behind, to Urundi, to Kuragwah,
Uganda, and Unyoro. The road to these countries led through his country
— a serious misfortune, not only to the expedition, but to all caravans bound
anywhere westward. About the time the expedition arrived, Mirambo
capped his arbitrary course by taken from a caravan five bales of cloth, five
guns, and five kegs of powder, and then refusing it permission to pass, declar-
MIRAMBO'S WAR WITH THE ARABS. 399
ing that none should pass any more except over his body. This, of course,
led to a declaration of war on the part of the Arabs, which was given after 1
had secured new carriers and was almost ready for the journey.
"The Arabs were so confident of easy victory over the African king,
declaring that fifteen days at the most would suffice to settle him, that I was
tempted in an unlucky moment to promise them my aid, hoping that by this
means I should be enabled to reach Livingstone sooner than by stopping at
Unyanyembe awaiting the turn of events. Mirambo was but twenty-seven
hours' march from Unyamyembe. On the first day we burned three of his
villages, captured, killed, or drove away the inhabitants. On the second, I
was taken down with the ever-remitting fever of the country. On the third,
a detachment was sent out and audaciously attacked the fenced village where
the king was, and after an hour's fighting entered it at one gate while Mir-
ambo left it at another. In returning to our camp this detachment was way-
laid by Mirambo and his men, and a great slaughter of the Arabs took place,
Seventeen Arab commanders were slain, among them one or two personal
friends of mine who had travelled with me from the coast. Five of the
soldiers of the " Herald" expedition were killed. The fourth day was a frightful
retreat, from the simple cause of seeing smoke in the distance, which was
believed to be caused by Mirambo's advance, or Ruga Ruga's freebooters.
Without informing each other, the Arabs, followed by their slaves, rushed
out of their village, and I was left in my terabe alone, in a fever. My own
men, frightened by their isolation, lost courage and ran, all but six, my Arab
boy, Selim, and the Englishman, Shaw. With these I reached Mfuto, half-way
• to Unyanyembe, at midnight. After this graceless retreat, it became evident
to me that it was going to be a long aff'air between Arab and African.
Livingstone's caravan, which had gone to its first camp preparatory for tlie
journey, had been ordered back, and the goods had been safely lodged in my
house.
" The Arabs' cowardly retreat invited Mirambo to follow them to their
homes. While I was debating what to do (knowing that speed was a necessity
with the expedition), Mirambo entered Tabora, the Arab capital of Central
Africa, witli his ferocious allies, the Watuta. Tabora is one mile from Kwihara,
the place where I date this telegram. The Kazeh of Speke and Burton is not
known here, except as the fenced residence of an old Arab. The Arabs of
Kwiliara were in great alarm, and their thorough selfishness came out
strongly. The Governor and others were for running to the coast at once,
declaring Central Africa for ever closed to travel and trade. About one-fourth
of Tabora was burned ; five eminent Arabs were killed ; cattle, ivory, and
slaves, carried away. Expecting attack, I turned the Governor's house into a
little fort, in order to defend tire property of the expedition and that of
Livingstone, from the Watuta. All fugitives from Tabora who were armed
400 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
■were invited in, until I liad a hundred and fifty armed men -within tlic tenibe.
Provisions and water were brought, to last five days. At the end of that
lime, Mirambo and his allies retired with great booty. During the state of
siege the American flag was hoisted.
'' After this event I informed the Arabs that I could not assist them any
more, for if they ran away once, tliey would run away again ; and declared
my intention to travel at once to Ujiji by another road. They all advised
me to wait until the war was over — that I was going straight to death by
travelling during war lime. I'ut I was obstinate, and they looked on me
as a lost man. I engaged thirty men of Zanzibar at treble prices. The
effects of the expedition were reduced to the smallest scale consistent with
the actual necessities of the journey. As the day drew near, the restlessness of
the men increased, and Bombay (Burton and Speke's handy man, but always
my stumbling block) did his utmost to slacken the courage of the armed escort ;
the Englishman, Sliaw, even became so smitten with fear that he could not
assist in my jircparations. Tlic Arab reports of the wars along our road
were influencing the men of the expedition."
On the day when the foregoing letter was written, Stanley commenced
the march to Ujiji by a southern route, through a country comparatively
unknown. On the 28th of September, he and his party arrived at a small
snug village, embosomed within a forest, called Beuta, three hours and a
quarter from Ugunda. The road led through the corn-fields of the "Wagunda,
and then entered the clearings around the villages of Kisari. Leaving Kisari,
they marched through a thin jungle, over sun-cracked ground, with hero and
there a dried-up pool, the bottom of which was well tramped by elephants
and rhinoceros. Buffalo and zebra tracks were also frequent, and they were
buoyed up with the hope that before long they would meet game. The
next day, after travelling in a south-westerly direction, they reached Kikwru.
The march lasted for five hours over sun-cracked plains, growing the black
jack, and ebony and dwarf shrubs, above which numerous ant-hills, of light
chalky-coloured earth, appeared like sand-dunes. On the 1st of October, they
arrived at a large pool, known as the Ziwani. Here they discovered an old
half-burnt khambi, sheltered by a magnificent sycamore, the giant of the
forests of Unyamwezi, which, after an hour, they transformed into a splendid
cam]). The stem of the tree measured thirty-eight feet in circumference.
The diameter of the shadow it cast on the ground was one hundred and
twenty feet. A regiment might with perfect ease have reposed during a
noon halt under its enormous dome of foliage.
The following day, the}^ traversed the forest and plain extending from
the Ziwani to Manyara, which occupied them six hours and a half. The
sun was intensely hot, but the blended foliage of the trees which grew at
intervals formed a grateful shade. The path was clear and easj^, the firm red
HUNTING AT TIIK GOMBE. 401
soil offering no obstructions. The only provocation they suffered was from
the attacks of the tsetse, which swarmed here. Tliey knew they were ap-
proaching an extensive habitat of game. Two giraffes were already seen,
and plenty more awaited them at the Gombe River, where they intended to
halt. On the 4th, they came ia sight of a herd of noble zebras. Two hours
afterwards they had entered a grand expanse of park land, where a far-stretch-
ing carpet of verdure, darkly flecked here and there by miniature clumps of
jungle, with occasional spreading trees, constituted one of the finest scenes in
Africa. IIcTds after herds of buffalo and zebra, giraffe, and antelope, were
visible ; at last they had reached tlie hunter's paradise.
Our traveller thus describes the scene: — "Having settled the position
of the camp, whicli overlooked one of the pools found in the depression of the
Gombe creek, I took my double-barrelled smooth bore, and sauntered off to
the park-land. Emerging from behind a clump, three fine plump spring-bok
were seen browsing on the young grass just witlun one hundred yards. I knelt
down and fired; one unfortunate antelope bounded upward instinctively, and fell
dead. Its companions sprang high into the air, taking leaps about twelve feet
in length, as if they were quadrupeds jiractising gymnastics, and away they
vanished rising up like india-rubber balls, until a knoll hid them from view.
My success was bailed with loud shouts from the soldiers, who came running
out from the camp as soon as they heard the reverberation of the gun, and
my gun-bearer had his knife at the beast's throat, uttering a fervent ' Bismil-
lah !' as he almost severed the head from the body. Hunters Avere now
directed to proceed east and north to procure meat, because in each caravan
it generally liappens that there are fundi, whose special trade it is to hunt for
meat for the camp. Some of these are experts at stalking, but often find
themselves in dangerous positions, owing to the near approach necessary,
before they can fire their most inaccurate weapons with any certainty.
" After luncheon, consisting of spring-bok steak, hot corn-cake, and a
cup of delicious Mocha coffee, I strolled towards the south-west, accompanied
by Kalulu and Llnjwara, two boy gun-bearers. The tiny perpusilla started
up like rabbits from me as I stole along through the underbush ; the honey-
bird hoj^ped from tree to tree, chirping its call, as if it thought I was seeking
the little sweet treasure, the hiding-place of which it only kncAV. But no! I
neither desired perpusilla nor the honey. I was on the search for something
great this day. Keen-eyed fish-eagles and bustards, poised on trees above the
sinuous Gombe, thought, and probabl}' with good reason, that I was after them,
judging by the ready flight with which both species disappeared as tiiey
sighted my approach. Ah, no! Notliing but hartebeest, zebra, giraffe, eland,
and buffalo, this day ! After following the Gombe's course for about a mile,
delighting my eyes with long looks at the broad and lengthy reaches of
water to which I was so long a stranger, I came upon a scene which delighted
51
402 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
tlie innermost recesses of nly soul ; five, six, seven, eight, ten zebras switch-
ing their beautiful striped bodies, and biting one another within about one
hundred and fifty yards. The scene was so pretty, so romantic ! Never did I
so thoroughly realise that I was in Central Africa ; I felt momentarily proud
that I owned such a vast domain, inhabited by such noble beasts. Here I
possessed, within reach of a leaden ball, any one I chose of the beautiful ani-
mals, the pride of the African forests ! It was at my option to shoot any of
them! Mine they were without money and without price, yet, knowing this,
twice I dropped my rifle, loth to wound the royal beasts, but — crack ! and
one was on his back, battling the air with his legs. Ah, it was such a pity !
But, hasten ; draw the keen sharp-edged knife across the beautiful stripes which
fold around the throat, and — what an ugly gash ! It is done, and I have a
superb animal at my feet. Hurrah ! I shall taste of Ukonongo zebra to-
night.
" I thought a spring-bok and zebra enough for one day's sport, espe-
cially after a long march. The Gombe, a long stretch of deep water, winding
in and out of green groves, calm, placid, with lotus leaves slightly resting on
its surface, all pretty, picturesque, peaceful as a summer's dream, looked very
inviting for a bath. I sought out the most shady spot, under a wide-spreading
mimosa, from which the ground sloped smooth as a lawn, to the still, clear
water. I ventured to undress, and had already stepped in to my ancles in
the water, and had brought my hands together for a glorious dive, when my
attention was attracted by an enormously long body which shot into view,
occupying the spot beneath the surface that I was about to explore by a
« header.' Great heavens, it was a crocodile ! I sprang backward instinctively,
and this proved my salvation, for the monster turned away with the most dis-
appointed look, and I was left to congratulate myself upon my narrow escape
from his jaws, and to register a vow never to be tempted again by the treach-
erous calm of an African River."
Further on, he says — " The adventures of the day were over ; the azure
of the sky had changed to a dead grey; the moon was appearing just over the
trees ; the water of the Gombe was like a silver belt ; hoarse frogs bellowed
their notes loudly by the margin of the creek ; the fish-eagles uttered their
dirge-like cries as they wei-e perched high on the tallest trees ; elands snorted
their warning to the herds in the forest. Stealthy forms of the carnivora
stole through the dark woods outside of our camp. Within the high enclosure
of bush and thorn which we had raised around our camp, all was jollity,
laughter, and radiant, genial comfort. Around every camp-fire dark forms
of men were seen squatted ; one man gnawed at a luscious bone ; another
sucked the rich marrow in a zebra's leg-bone ; another turned the stick, gar-
nished with huge Kabobs, to the bright blaze; another held a large rib over
a flame ; there were others busy stirring industriously great black pots full of
NIGHT SCENE IN THE FOREST 40;3
ugali, and watching anxiously the meat simmering, and the soup bubbling,
■while the fire light flickered and danced bravely, and casta briglitglow over
the naked forms of the men, and gave a crimson tinge to the tall tent that
rose in the centre of the camp, like a temple sacred to some mysterious god :
the fires cast their reflection on the massive arms of the trees, as they branched
over our camp, and, in the dark gloom of their foliage, the most fantastic
shadows were visible. Altogether it was a wild, romantic, and impressive
scene. But little recked my men for shadows and moonlight, for crimson
tints and temple-like tents — they were all busy relating their various experi-
ences, and gorging themselves with the rich meat our guns had obtained for
them. One was telling how he had stalked a wild boar, and the furious on-
set the wounded beast made on him, causing him to drop his gun and climb
a tree, and the terrible grunt of the beast he well remembered, and the whole
M'elkin rang with the peals of laughter which his mimic powers evoked.
Another had shot a bufialo-calf, and another had bagged a hartebeest; the
Wakonongo related their laughable rencontre with me in the woods, and were
lavish in their description of the stores of honey to be found in them ; and all
this time Selim and his youthful subs were trying their sharp teeth on the meat
of a young pig which one of the hunters had shot, but which no one else
would eat, because of the Mohammedan aversion to pig, which they had ac-
quired during their transformation from negro slavery to the useful docility
of the Zanzibar freedman."
The camp was broken up on the 7th, much to the great regret of the
men, to whom flesh-pots full of meat were much more pleasant than the fa-
tigues of constant tramping. So reluctant were they to start, that at first they
mutinied, and refused to proceed ; and it was not till after their leader had
adopted the severest measures, and threatened their lives that he might pre-
serve his own, that the journey was begun. On the 9th, they made a long
march in a southerly direction, and formed their camp in the centre of a
splendid grove of trees. Water was very scarce on the road, which was a
great inconvenience. They had been travelling for several days in a soutli-
westerly direction, having made little more than one degree of latitude. They
were now in Ukonongo, having entered that district when they passed the
Grombe creek. By the 12tli they came to another creek, which, during the
wet season, flows into the Gombe. Here the feathered species were well repre-
sented by ibis, fish-eagles, pelicans, storks, cranes, several snowy spoonbills,
and flamingoes. Though they were yet twelve or fifteen marches from Lake
Tanganyika, they perceived its influence. Thejungles increased in densit}^,
and the grasses became enormously tall. In a narrow strip of marsh between
Mwaru and Mrera, they saw a small herd of wild elephants. It was the first
time Stanley had seen these animals in their native state, as the free and un-
conquerable lords of tlie forest and the marsh. Starting from Mrera on the
401 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
17tli, tbey continued their journey north-westward. The following da}', they
traversed at least a dozen marsliy ravines, the depth of mire and water in
which caused the utmost anxiety. Our traveller sank up to his neck in deep
holes caused by the elephants, and had to tramp through the oozy beds of
the Rungwa sources with his clothes wet, and black with mud and slime. A
march of nearly five hours, on the 20th, brought them to the Mpokwa River,
one of the tributaries of the Rungwa, and to a village lately deserted by the
Wazavira. The huts were almost all intact, precisely as they were left by
their former inhabitants. In the gardens were yet found vegetables, which,
after living so long on meat, were most grateful to them; and on the branches
of trees there still rested a number of large and exceedingly well-made earthen
pots.
On the 22nd, Stanley saw for the first time the home of the lion and the
leo^iard. Soon after encamjiing that da}-, tlie herd-keeper who attended the
goats and donkeys drove the animals to water, through a tunnel in the brake
caused by elephants and rhinoceros. ^f'hey had barely entered the dark
cavernous passage, when a black-spotted leopard sprang and fastened its fangs
in the neck of one of the donkeys, causing it, from the pain, to bray hideously.
Its companions set up such a frightful chorus, and so lashed their heels in
the air at the feline marauder, that the leopard bounded away through the
brake, as if in sheer dismay at the noisy cries which the attack had provoked.
The donkey's neck exhibited some frightful wounds, but the animal was not
dangerously hurt.
The brave young traveller was now approaching the place where the
object of his search was to be found. We give the first information of him
he received, in his own words: — " November 3rd. About 10 a.m., appeared,
from the direction of Ujiji, a caravan of eighty "Waguhha, a tribe which occu-
pies a tract of country on the south-western side of the Lake Tanganyika.
"We asked the news, and were told a white man had just arrived at Ujiji from
Manyuema. This news startled us all. 'A white man?' we asked. 'Yes, a
W'hite man,' they replied. 'How is he dressed?' 'Like the master,' they
answered, referring to me. ' Is he young, or old?' 'He is old. He has white
hair on his face, and he is sick !' ' Where has he come from ?' ' From a very
far country, away beyond Uguhha, called Manyuema.' ' Indeed ! and is he
stopping at Ujiji now ?' ' Yes, we saw him about eight days ago !' ' Do you
think he will stop there until we see him ?' ' Don't know.' 'Was he ever at
Ujiji before ?' ' Yes, he went away a long time ago.' "
Stanley felt sure that this white man was Livingstone. He set out at
once from the banks of the Malagarazi, for Ujiji, his men having agreed,
induced by the promise of a reward, to march thither without a single halt.
It was an agreement, however, which could not be fulfilled. There were
before them several days' hard and toilsome marching over a rough hilly
STA NLE Y FINDS LI VINGSTONE. 405
country ; and they had to endure patiently the obstacles thrown in their way
by the chiefs through whose districts the}' passed. The demands made upon
our traveller for tribute amounted to robbery, and left him comparatively
poor. At last they came to the base of a hill from the top of which they had
been told they would obtain a view of Lake Tanganyika. On reaching the
top, they beheld it — a great inland sea, bounded westward by an appalling
black-blue range of mountains, and stretching north and south, without
bounds. After feasting their eyes on this longed-for prospect, they hurried
on with eager footstei^s, three hours of rapid marching appearing to their
excited imagination to occupy only a fourth of that time. At length they
came within three hundred yards of the village of Ujiji. The rest shall bo
told in Stanley's own words : —
"Suddenly, I hear a voice on my right say, 'Good morning, sir!'
Startled at hearing this greeting in the midst of such a crowd of black people,
I turn sharply round in search of the man, and see him at my side, with tlie
blackest of faces, but animated and joyous — a man dressed in a long white
shirt, with a turban of American sheeting around his woolly head, and I ask,
'Who the mischief are you ?' 'lam Susi, the servant of Dr. Livingstone,'
said he, smiling, and showing a gleaming row of teeth. ' What ! Is Dr.
Livingstone here ?' 'Yes, sir!' ' In this village ?' ' Yes, sir.' ' Are you sure ?'
'Sure, sure, sir. Why, I leave him just now.' 'Good morning, sir,' said
another voice. 'Hallo,' said I, 'is this another one?' 'Yes, sir.' 'Well,
what is your name ?' ' My name is Chumah, sir.' ' What! Are you Chumah,
the friend of Wekotani?' 'Yes, sir!' ' And is the Doctor well ?' 'Not very
well, sir.' ' Where has he been so long ?' ' In Manyuema.' ' Now, you Susi,
run, and tell the Doctor I am coming.' ' Yes, sir,' and off he darted like a
madman."
Susi soon came running back, to ask Stanley his name. He had told
Livingstone a white man was coming, but he could not tell him his name.
Meanwhile the Doctor had come out from his vei'andah to discuss the matter
with the Arab magnates resident there, and to await the stranger's arrival.
Stanley shall speak for himself again : — " I pushed back the crowds, and, pass-
ing from the rear, walked down a living avenue of people, until I came in
front of the semicircle of Arabs, in the front of which stood the white man
with the grey beard. As I advanced slowly towards him, I noticed he was
pale, looked wearied, had a grey beard, wore a bluish cap, with a faded gold
band round it, had on a red-sleeved waistcoat, and a pair of grey tweed trow-
sers. I would have run to him, only I was a coward in the presence of such a
mob — would have embraced him, only, he being an Englishman, I did not
know how he would receive me ; so I did what cowardice and false jjride sug-
gested was the best thing — walked deliberately to him, took off my hat, and
said — 'Doctor Livingstone, I presume?' 'Yes,' said he, with a kind smile, lifting
400 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
liis cap slightly. 1 replaced my hat on my head, and he put on his cap, and we
both grasped hands, and tlien I said aloud — 'I thank God, Doctor, I have been
permitted to see you !' lie answered, •' I feel thankful that I am here to wel-
come you.'
" 1 turn to the Arabs, take off my hat to them in response to the saluting
chorus of ' Yambos ' I receive, and the Doctor introduces them to me by name.
Tlien, oblivious of the crowds, oblivious of the men who shared with me my
dangers, we — Livingstone and I — turn our faces towards his tembe. He
points to the verandah, or, rather, mud platform, under the broad overhang-
ing eaves; lie points to his own particular seat, which I see his ageandexpe- .
rience in Africa has suggested, namely a straw mat, with a goatskin over it,
and another skin nailed against the wall to prevent liis back from contact
with the cold mud. I protest against taking this seat, which so much more
befits him than me; but the Doctor will not yield — I must take it. We
are seated — the Doctor and I — with our backs to the wall. The Arabs take
seats on our left. More than a thousand natives are in our front, filling the
whole square densely, indulging their curiosity, and discussing the fact of two
white men meeting at Ujiji — one just come from Manyuema, in the west, the
other from Unyanycmbe, in the east. Conversation began. What about ? I
declare I have forgotten.
" The Arabs rose up, with a delicacy I approved, as if they intuitively
knew that Ave ought to be left to ourselves. I sent Bombay with them, to
give them the news they also wanted so much to know about the affairs at
Unyanyembe. I delivered into the Doctor's hands the letter-bag I found
waiting for him at Unyanyembe, and which had left Zanzibar a year ago.
Tlie Doctor kept the letter-bag on his knee, then presently opened it, looked
at the letters contained there, and read one or two of his children's letters,
his face in the meanwliile lighting up. He asked me to tell him the news.
' No, Doctor,' said I, ' read your letters first, which I am sure you must be
impatient to read.' ' Ah,' said he, ' I have waited years for letters, and I have
been taught patience. I can surely afford to wait a few hours longer. No,
tell me the general news. How is the world getting along?' 'You probably
know much already. Do you know that the Suez Canal is a fact — is opened,
and a regular trade carried on between Europe and India through it ?' * I
did not hear of the opening of it. Well, that is grand news ! What else?'
" Shortly I found myself enacting the part of an annual periodical to him.
There was no need of exaggeration — of any penny-a-line news, or of any
sensationalism. The world had witnessed and experienced much the last few
years. TJie Pacific Railroad had been completed ; Grant had been elected
President of the United States; Egypt had been flooded with savans ; the
Cretan rebellion had terminated ; a Spanish revolution had driven Isabella
from the throne of Spain, and a Regent had been appointed ; Genei'al Prim
LIVINGSTONE REFRESHED BY STANLEY'S VISIT. 407
was assassinated; aCastelar had electrified Europe with his advanced ideas upon
the liberty of worship ; Prussia had humbled Denniark. and annexed Scldes-
wig-Holstein, and her armies were now around Paris; the 'Man of Destiny'
was a prisoner at Wilhelmshohe ; the Queen of fashion and the Empress of
the French was a fugitive ; and the child born in the pux'ple had lost for ever
the Imjjerial crown intended for his head ; the Napoleon dynasty was extin-
guished by the Prussians, Bismarck and Von Moltke; and France, tlie proud
empire, was humbled to the dust,
"We kept on talking and talking, and prepared food was being brought
to us all that afternoon ; and we kept on eating every time it was brought,
until I. had eaten to repletion, and the Doctor was obliged to confess that he
had eaten enough. Still, Hilimah, the female cook of the Doctor's establish-
ment, was in a state of the greatest excitement. She had been protruding
her head out of the cook-house to make sure that there were reall}^ two white
men sitting down in the verandah, when there used to be only one, who
would not, because he could not, eat anything; and she had been consider-
ably exercised in her mind about this fact. She was afraid the Doctor did
not 231'operly appreciate her culinary abilities ; but now she was amazed at
the extraordinary quantity of food eaten. I had a healthy, stubborn diges-
tion — the exercise I had taken had put it in prime order ; but Livingstone
— he had been complaining that he had no appetite, that his stomach refused
everything but a cup of tea now and then — he ate also — ate like a vigorous,
hungry man ; and, as he vied with me in demolishing the pancakes, he kept
repeating, ' You have brought me new life. You have brought me new life.'
" Tliis day, like all othei's, though big with happiness to me, at last was
fading away. We, sitting with our faces looking to the east, as Livingstone
had been sitting for days preceding my arrival, noted the dark shadows
which ci'ept up above the grove of palms beyond the village, and above the
rampart of mountains which we had crossed that day, now looming through
the fast approaching darkness ; and we listened, with our hearts full of grati-
tude to the great Giver of good, and Dispenser of all happiness, to the sono-
rous thunder of the surf of the Tanganyika, and to the chorus which the
night-insects sang. Hours passed, and we were still sitting there with our
minds busy upon the day's remarkable events, when I remembered that tlie
traveller had not yet read his letters. ' Doctor,' I said, ' you had better read
your letters. I will not keep you any longer.' ' Yes,' he answered, ' it is
getting late, and I will go and read my friends' letters. Good night, and God
bless you.' ' Good night my dear doctor ; and let me hope that your news
will be such as you desire.' "
Mr. Stanley stayed with Livingstone for a considerable period ; and be-
fore they left for Unyanyembe, at which place Livingstone was to await
stores and assistance from Zanzibar, they set off for the head of the Tangan-
408 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
yika, to settle the question as to wlicthcr the Rusizi is an influent or an
cfiluent of the lake — a question ■which was greatly exciting the minds of
geographers at home. The following letter, sent by Stanley to the "New
York Herald," gives a brief account of tliis visit to Tanganyika.
"Ujiji, Lake Tanganyika, December 23rd, 1871.
" A few days after the arrival of the "Herald" Expedition at Ujiji, I asked
the Doctor if he had explored the head of the Tanganyika. He said he had
not ; that he had not thought it of so much importance as the central line of
drainage ; besides, when he had proposed to do it, before leaving for Man-
yucma, the Wajiji had shown such a disposition to fleece him, that he had de-
sisted from the attempt. Your correspondent then explained to him what
great importance was attached to the lake by geographers, as stated in the
newspapers, and suggested to him that it were better, seeing that he was
about to leave for Unyanembe, and that something might occur in the mean-
while to hinder him from ever visiting it, to take advantage of the offer I
made of putting myself, men, and effects of the expedition, at his service, for
tlie jDurpose of exploring the northern head of the Tanganyika. He at once
accejjted the offer, and like a hero, lost no time in starting.
"On the 20th of November, Dr. Livingstone and your correspondent,
witli twenty picked men of the "Herald" Expedition Corps, started. Despite
the assertion of Arabs that the Warundi were dangerous, and would not let
us pass, we hugged their coast closely, and, when fatigued, boldly encamped
in their countr3\ Only once were we obliged to fly, and this was at dead
of night — from a large party which we knew to be surrounding us on the
land side. We got to the boat safely, and we might have punished them
severely had the Doctor been so disposed. Once also we were stoned, but
wo paid no heed to them, and kept on our way along their coast until we ar-
rived at Mokamba's, one of the chiefs of Usigo. Mokamba was at war with
a neiahbourino- chief, who lived on the left bank of the Rusizi. That did not
deter us, and we crossed the head of the Tanganyika to Mugihewali, governed
by Ruhinga, brother of Mokamba. Mugihewali is a tract of country on the
right bank of the Rusizi, extending to the lake. With Mokamba and Ruhinga
we became most intimate ; they proved to be sociable, good-natured chiefs,
and gave most valuable information concerning the countries lying to the
north of Usige ; and if their information is correct. Sir Samuel Baker will be
obliged to curtail the ambitious dimensions of his lake by one degree, if not
more.
" A Mgwana, living at Mokamba's, on the eastern shore of the lake, had
informed us that the river Rusizi certainly flowed out of the lake, and after
joining the Kitangule, emptied into the Lake Nyanza (Victoria). When we
entered Ruhinga's territory of Mugihewali, we found ourselves but three
LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY AT TANGANYIKA. 4o;)
Imndred 3'ards from the river, about which a great deal has been said and
M-ritten. At Unyanyem'be, I Avas told that the Rusizi was an affluent. At
Ujiji, all Arabs but one united in saying the same thing, and within ten miles
of the Rusizi, a freedman from Zanzibar swore it was an affluent. On the
morning of the eleventh day of our departure fi-om Ujiji, we were rowed
towards the river. We came to a long narrow bay, fringed on all sides with,
tall, dense reeds, and swarming with crocodiles, and soon came to the mouths
of the Rusizi. As soon as we had entered the river, all doubt vanished before
the strong, turbid flood, against which we had to contend in the ascent.
After about ten minutes we entered what seemed a lagoon, but which was-
the result of a lake inundation. About an hour higher up, the river began
to be confined to its proper banks, and is about thirty yards broad, but very
shallow. Two days higher up, Ruhinga told us the Rusizi was joined by the-
Loanda, coming from the north-west.
" There could be no mistake then. Dr. Livingstone and myself had
ascended it, had felt the force of the strong inflowing current; the Rusizi
was an influent, as much so as the Malagarazi, the Linche, and Rugufu, but
with its banks full, it can only be considered as ranking third among the
rivers flowing into the Tanganyika. Though rapid, it is extremely shallow;
it has three mouths, up which an ordinary ship's boat, loaded, might in vain
attempt to ascend. Burton and Speke, though they ascended to within six
hours' journey by canoe from the Rusizi, were compelled to turn back by the
cowardice of the boatmen. Had they ascended to Meuta's capital, they could
easily have seen the head of the lake. Usige is but a district of Wumdi,
governed by several small chiefs, who owe obedience to Mwezi, the great
king of Wumdi. We spent nine days at the head of the Tanganyika, explor-
ing the islands and many bays that indent its shores. In returning to Ujiji, -
we coasted along the west side of the Tanganyika, as far as the country of-
the Wasansi, whom we had to leave on no amicable terms, owing to their
hostility to Arabs, and arrived at Ujiji on the IStli of December, having been,
absent twenty-eight days." They entered the port of Ujiji very quietly, and-
without the usual firing of guns, as they were short of powder and ball. As-
they landed, their soldiers and the Arab magnates came to the water's edo-e-
to meet them, and welcome them back.
This month's excursion had been a season of great enjoyment to both
travellers — especially to Livingstone. The visit of Stanley had been to him
like the visit of an angel. He was not a demonstrative man ; but his grati-
tude, both to the proprietor and to the correspondent of the ''New York,
Herald," was great. " I wish," he said to Stanley, '' I could embody my
thanks to Mr. Bennett in suitable words ; but if I fail to do so, do not, I beo-
of you, believe me the less grateful." The following letter, addressed to Mr.
Bennett shortly after Stanley's arrival, exjiresses his gratitude both to the
52
410 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
originator and to the leader of the Expedition. Ou this and on other accounts
it will be read with interest : —
" Ujiji-on-Tanganyika, November, 1871.
"My Dear Sir — It is, in general, somewhat difficult to write to one wo
have never seen. It feels so much like addressing an abstract idea ; but the
presence of your representative, Mr. H. M. Stanley, in this distant region,
takes away the strangeness I should otherwise have felt ; and in writing to
thank you for the extreme kindness that promjDtcd you to send liim, I feel
quite at home.
" If I explain the forlorn condition in which he found me, you will easily
perceive that I have good reason to use very strong expressions of gratitude.
1 came to Ujiji off a tramp of between four hundred and five hundred miles
beneath a vertical blazing sun, having been baffled, worried, defeated, and
forced to return, when almost in sight of the end of the geographical pai't of
my mission, by a number of half-caste Moslem slaves, sent to me from Zan-
zibar, instead of men. The sore heart made still sorer by the truly woeful
sights I had seen of ' man's inhumanity to man, ' re-acted on the bodily frame,
and depressed it beyond measure. I thought that I was dying on my feet. It
is not too much to say, that almost every step of the weary sultrj^ way I was
in pain and I reached Ujiji a mere ruckle of bones. Here I found that some
£500 worth of goods I had ordered from Zanzibar had unaccountably been en-
trusted to a drunken half-caste Moslem tailor, who, after squandering them for
sixteen months on the way to Ujiji, finished up by selling off" all that remained
for slaves and ivory for himself. He had divined on the Koran, and found
that I was dead. He had also written to the governor of Unyanyembe that
he had sent slaves after me to Manyuema, who returned and reported my
decease, and begged permission to sell off the few goods that his drunken
appetite had sj^ared. He, however, knew perfectly well from men who had
seen me, that I was alive and waiting for the goods and men ; but as for
morality, he is evidently an idiot ; and there being no law here except that
of the dagger or musket, I had to sit down in great weakness, destitute of
everything save a few barter cloths and beads I had taken the precaution to
leave here in case of extreme need. The near prospect of beggary among
Ujijians made me miserable. I could not desjDair, because I laughed so much
at a friend who, on reaching the mouth of the Zambesi, said * that he was
tempted to despair on breaking the photograph of his wife: we could have no
success after that.' After that, the idea of despair has to me such a strong
smack of the ludicrous, it is out of the question.
"Well, when I had got to about the lowest verge, vague rumours of au
English visitor reached me. I thought of myself as the man who went down
from Jerusalem to Jericho ; but neitlier priest, Levite, nor Samaritan, could
WATERSHED OF SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA. 411
possibly pass my way. Yet the good Samaritan was close at hand, and one
of my people rushed up at the toji of his speed, and in great excitement gasped
out, ' An Englishman coming ! I see him ;' and off he darted to meet him.
An American flag, the first ever seen in these parts, at the head of a caravan,
told me the nationality of the stranger. I am as cold and non-demonstrative
as we islanders are usually reputed to be, but your kindness made my frame
thrill. It was indeed overwhelming, and I said in my soul, ' Let the richest
blessings descend from the Highest on you and yours.'
" The news Mr. Stanley had to tell me was thrilling ; the mighty political
changes on the Continent, the success of the Atlantic cables, the election of
General Grant, and many topics, riveted my attention for daj's together, and
had an immediate and beneficial effect on my health. I had been without news
from home for years, save what I could glean from a few " Saturday Reviews"
and copies from "Punch" for 1868. The appetite revived, and in a week Ibegan
to feel strong again. Mr. Stanley brought a most kind and encouraging
despatch from Lord Clarendon, whose loss I sincerely deplore — the first I have
received from the Foreign Office since 1866 — with the information that Her
Majesty's Government had kindly sent £1,000 to my aid. Up to his arrival, I
was not aware of any pecuniary aid. I came unsalaried, but this want is now
happily repaired, and I am anxious that you and my friends should know that,
though uncheered by letters, I have stuck to the task which my friend Sir
Roderick Murchison set me, with John Bullish tenacity, believing that all
will come right at last.
" The watershed of South Central Africa is over seven hundred miles in
length. The fountains thereon are almost innumerable — that is, it would take
a man's lifetime to count them. From the watershed they converge into four
large rivers, and these again into two mighty streams in the great Nile val-
ley, which begins at 10°-12° south latitude. It was long ere light dawned on
the ancient problem, and gave me a clear idea of the drainage. I had to fee/
my way, and every step of the way, and was generally gro^jing in the dark;
for who cared where the rivers ran ? ' We drank our fill, and let the rest run
by.' The Portuguese who visited Cazembe, asked for slaves and ivory, and
heard of nothing else. I asked about the waters, questioned and cross-ques-
tioned, until almost afraid of being set down as afflicted with hydrocephalus.
" My last work, in which I have been greatly hindered from want of
suitable attendants, was following the central line of drainage down through
the country of the cannibals, called Manyuema, or shortly, Manyema. This
line of drainage has four large lakes in it. The fourth I was near when obliged
to turn. It was from one to three miles broad, and never can be waded at
any point or at any time of the year. There are two western drains. The
Lufira, or Bartle Frere's river, flows into it at Lake Kamalondo. Then the
great River Lomane flows through Lake Lincoln into it too, and seems to
412 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
form tlie western arm of the Nile on wliicli Pethcrick traded. Now, I know
about six hundred miles of the watershed, and, unfortunately, the seventh hun-
dred is the most interesting of the whole, for in it, if I am not mistaken, four
fountains arise from an earthen mound, and each of the four becomes, at no
great distance off, a large river. Two of these run north to Egypt, Lufira and
Lomane, and two run south into inner Ethiopia, as the Liambai, or Upper Zam-
besi, and the.Kafue. Are these not the sources of the Nile mentioned by the
secretary of Minerva, in the city of Sais, to Herodotus ? I have heard of
them so often, and at great distances off, that I cannot doubt their existence,
and in spite of the sore longing for home that seizes me every time I think of
my family, I wish to finish up by their re-discovery.
" Five hundred pounds' worth of goods have again unaccountably been
entrusted to slaves, and have been over a year on the way, instead of four
months. I must go to where they lie ( Unyanyembe), at Mr. Stanley's and
}our expense, ere I can put the natural completion to my work; and if my
disclosures regarding the terrible Ujijian slaving should lead to the suppres-
sion of the East Coast slave-trade, I shall regard that as a greater matter by
far than the discovery of all the Nile sources together. Now that you have
done with domestic slavery for ever, lend us your powerful aid towards this
great object. This fine country is blighted as with a cui-se from above, in
01 der that the slaving privileges of the petty Sultan of Zanzibar may not be
infringed, and that the rights of the crown of Portugal, which are mythical,
sliould be kept in abeyance till some future time, when Africa will become
another India to Portuguese slave-dealers.
" I conclude by again thanking you most cordially for your great gene-
rosity, and am, gratefully yours,
" David Livingstone."
Stanley thus describes the impression Livingstone made upon him, and
the estimate he had come to form of his character : — "Upon my first introduc-
tion to him, Livingstone was to me like a huge tome, with a most un23retend-
ing binding. Within, the work might contain much valuable lore and wisdom,
but its exterior gave no promise of what was within. Thus, outside, Living-
stone gave no token, except of being rudely dealt with by the wilderness, of
what elements of power or talent lay within. He is a man of unpretending
ajopearance enough, has quiet, composed features, from which the freshness
of youth has quite departed, but which retain the mobility of prime age, just
enough to show that there yet lies much endurance and vigour within his
frame. The eyes, which are hazel, are remarkably bright, not dimmed in the
least, though the whiskers and moustache are very grey. The hair, originally
brown, is streaked here and there with grey over the temples ; otherwise it
might belong to a man of thirty. The teeth alone show indications of being
STANLEY'S CHARACTER OF LIVINGSTONE. 413
■worn out ; the hard fare of Londa and Manajenia have made havoc in their
rows. His form is stoutlsh — a little over the ordinary heif>;ht, with sHglitly
bowed shoulders. "When walking, he has the heavy step of an over-worked
and fatigued man. On his head he wears the naval cap, with a round visor,
with which he has been identified throughout Africa. His dress shows that
at times he has had to resort to the needle to repair and re-place what travel
has worn.
"Dr. Livingstone is a truly pious man, a man deeply imbued with real
religious instincts. The study of the man would not be comjjleto, if we did
not take the religious side of his character into consideration. His religion,
any more than his business, is not of the theoretical kind, simply contenting
itself with owning all other religions as wrong or weak. It is of the true,
practical kind, never losing a chance to manifest itself in a quiet, practical
way — never demonstrative or loud. It is always at work. It is not aggres-
sive, which sometimes is troublesome, and often impertinent. In him reli-
gion exhibits its loveliest features. It governs his conduct towards his ser-
vants, towards the natives, and towards the bigoted Mussulmen even — all who
come in contact with him. Without religion, Livingstone, with his ardent
temperament, his enthusiastic nature, his high spirit and courage, might have
been an uncompanionable man, and a hard master. Religion has tamed all
these characteristics ; nay, if he was ever possessed of them, they have been
thoroughly eradicated. Whatever was crude or wilful, religion has refined ;
and it has made him — to speak the earnest, sober truth — the most agreeable
of companions, and indulgent of masters Every Sunday morn-
ing he gathers his flock around him, and he has prayers read, not in the
stereotyped tone of an English High Church clergyman, which always sounds
in my ear insincerely ; but in the tone recommended by Archbishop Whately^
viz., natural, unaffected, and sincere. Following these, he delivers a short
address, in the Kir^wahili language, about what he has been reading from the
Bible to them, which is listened to with great attention."
Livingstone, though he would not listen to Stanley's entreaties to return
with him to Europe — always urging that he had not yet accomplished his
work, resolved to accompany the young traveller to Unyanyembo, in order to
meet his stores, which had been forwarded from Zanzibar in 1870. After
spending Christmas at Ujiji, the two white men, escorted by forty Wanguana
soldiers, well armed, left for Un3-anyembe, on the 27th of December, 187L
In order to avoid the districts through which Mr. Stanley had passed, and, in
which he had been so heavily mulcted iu tribute, the party went south, along
the east coast of the lake, partly on foot, and partly by boat, to Urimba,
from whence they struck across country to Unyanyembe. For several days
theu- route lay through unexplored country. For long distances the dense
grass and brushwood, and the want of a path, made the progress tedious and
414 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
difficult. Oil the 17th of January, 1872, they reached Imrera, where Mr.
Stanley and his party had previously camped, on their march to Ujiji. Both
Livingstone and Stanley suffered from sore feet, which were cut and bleeding
from the long and trying march ; Livingstone's shoes were worn out, and cut
and slashed all over to save his blistered feet, and Stanley's were in no better
state. They rested for a day, and on the 19th, Stanley shot a male and
female zebra. As they had had no flesh-meat for a considerable time, the
possession of such an amount of meat had a wonderful effect in raising the
spirits of their tired-out followers.
On the 21st, Stanley shot a giraffe. This was the noblest animal which
had as yet fallen to his rifle ; but he could not feel in his heart that its death
was a ti'iumph. "I was rather saddened than otherwise," he says, "at see-
ing the noble animal stretched before me. If I could have given her her life
back, I think I should have done so. I thought it a great pity that such
splendid animals, so well adapted to the service of man in Africa, could not be
converted to some other use than that of food. Horses, mules, and donkeys,
die in these sickly regions ; but what a blessing for Africa would it be, if we
could tame the giraffes and zebras for the use of explorers and traders.
Mounted on a zebra, a man would be enabled to reach Ujiji in one month
from Bagamoyo ; whereas it took me over seven months to travel that dis-
tance." On the 27th, the party disturbed a huge swarm of bees, which stung
the men and animals frightfully. This is no unusual incident in African
travel. A kind of bee, which makes its nest among the long grass, when
disturbed rushes out in vast numbers, and stings every animal within reach.
There is nothing for it but flight in such circumstances, and men and beasts
rush from the enraged insects with all the speed they may.
Arrived at Unyanyembe, the two toil-worn travellers found welcome
letters and newspapers from home. When Livingstone's boxes came to be
opened, Stanley, who had been looking forward to luxuriating on all the
delicacies of civilisation, was grievously disappointed. We must let him tell
the result in his own words. It is a tine commentary on commercial morality,
and the watchful care of the traveller's friends. " The first box opened con-
tained three tins of biscuits, six tins of potted hare — tiny things, not much
larger than tliimbles, which, when opened, proved to be nothing more than
a tablespoonful of minced meat, plentifully spx'inkled with pejjper : the Doc-
tor's stores fell five hundred degrees below zero in my estimation. Next
were bi'ought out five pots of jam, one of which was opened. This was also
a delusion. The stone-jars weighed a pound, and in each was found a little
over a teaspoonful of jam. Verily, we began to think our hopes and expect-
ations had been raised to too high a pitch. Three bottles of curry were next
produced. But who cares for curry? Another box was opened, and out
tumbled a fat, dumpy Dutch cheese, hard as a brick, but sound and good,
STANLEY DEPARTS FOR THE COAST. 415
although it is bad for the liver in Unyamwezi. Then another cheese was
seen, but this was all eaten up : it was hollow, and a fraud. The third box
contained nothing but two sugar-loaves; the fourth, candles; the fifth, bot-
tles of salt, Harvey, AVorcester, and Reading sauces, essences of anchovies,
pepper, and mustard. Bless me ! what food were these for the revivifying of
a moribund such as I was ? The sixth box contained four sheets, two stout
pair of shoes, some stockings, and shoe-strings, which delighted the Doctor
so much when he tried them on, that he exclaimed, * Ricliard is himself
again !"
" The five other boxes contained potted meat and soups. But the twelfth,
containing one dozen of medicinal brandy, was gone ; and a strict cross-exa-
mination of Asmani, the head man of Livingstone's caravan, elicited the fact,
that not only was one case of brandy missing, but also two bales of cloth,
and four bags of the most valuable beads in Africa — sami-sami — which are
as gold with the natives. I was grievously disappointed after the stores had
been examined. Everything proved to be deceptions in my jaundiced eyes."
Asmani had also broken into Stanley's stores at Unyamyombe, and
abstracted cloth and other articles. It was evident that, if the two travellers
had been much longer in reaching Unyanyembe, the Doctor's stores would
have entirely disappeared. The stolen goods found in possession of Asmani
were taken from him, and he was at once discharged. Nearly one-half of
the stores which Stanley had brought from Bagamoyo were at Unyanyembe,
and the greater portion of them were handed over to Livingstone for use in the
work 3'et before him. On the 14th of March, Stanley departed for the
coast, and left Livingstone at Unyanyembe, to await there the sending of
carriers, and further stores for his future journey. The parting of these two
brave men must have been a serious task to both. The courageous young
man who had succoured the great traveller, could hardly avoid thinking that
possibly they who had met so opportunely in the heart of Africa might never
meet again ; and the dauntless explorer, when he looked his last upon the
lithe and active figure of the young man who had come to him in his great
need, would not fail to think that this might be to him the last glimpse — the
last visible embodiment of civilisation he was destined to see.
The night before Stanley's departure, he said to Livingstone, " To-mor-
row night. Doctor, you will be alone!" " Yes; the house will look as though
a death had taken place. You had better stop until the rains which are now
near, are over. " I would to God I could, my dear Doctor; but every day
I stop here, now that there is no necessity for me to stay longer, keeps you
from your work and home." " I know; but consider your health — you are
not fit to travel. What is it ? Only a few weeks longer. You will travel to
the coast just as quickly when the rains are over as you will by going now.
The plains will be inundated between here and the coast," " You think so;
416 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
but I will reach the coast iu forty days ; if not in forty, I will in fifty — cer-
tain. The thought that I am doing you an important service, will spur me
on."
On the morning of the following day, the two men had a sad breakfast
together. They could not eat, for their hearts were full. They found some-
thing to do which kept them longer together. Stanley thought to have left
at five o'clock, but he was not gone at eight. At last the hour came. Living-
stone accomjjanied him a part of the way, and then the moment of separation
was at hand. "Now, my dear Doctor," said Stanley, "the best of friends
must part. You have come far enough ; let me beg of you to turn back."
" Well, I will say this to you ; you have done what i^^ men could do — far
better than some great travellers I know. And I am grateful to you for what
you have done for mc. God guide you safe home, and bless you, my friend!"
" And may God bring you safe back to us all, my dear friend — Farewell!"
They wrung each other's hands, and Stanley tore himself away. " Good-bye,
Doctor — dear friend !" " Good-bye I"
CHAPTER XXIII.
Livingston^ s Second Letter to Mr. Bennett — Stay at TJnyanyemle — Further Explor-
ations — Rounds the South End of Tanganyika — Crosses Bangivcolo — Returns
North to Ilala — Prolonged Affliction and Death — Homeivard March tuith the
^'Master s" Body — Arrival of the Body in England — Funeral in Weslmnstcr
Alley — National Respect and Honour.
IN February, Livingstone liad written a second letter to Mr. Bennett, giving
his views of the slave-trade and other matters. It was forwarded by
Mr. Stanley, and appeared in the " New York Herald" on the following 27th
of July. On account of its importance, we in sert it here.
"South-Eastern Central Africa, February, 1872.
" My Dear Sir — I wish to say a little about the slave-trade in Eastern
Africa. It is not a very inviting subject, and to some I may appear as sup-
posing your readers to be very much akin to the old lady who relished her
paper for neither births, deaths, nor marriages, but for good racy, bloody
murders, I am, however, far from fond of the horrible — often wish I could
forget the scenes I have seen, and certainly never try to inflict on others the
sorrow which, being a witness of, ' man's inhumanity to man,' has often en-
tailed on myself.
" Some of your readers know that about five years ago I undertook, at
the instigation of my very dear old friend, Sir Roderick Murchison, Bart.,
the task of examining the watershed of South Central Africa. The work had
a charm for my mind, because the dividing line between North and South
was unknown, and a fit object for exploration. Having a work in hand, I at
first recommended another for the task ; but, oa his declining to go without
a handsome salary, and something to fall back on afterwards, I agreed to go
myself, and was encouraged by Sir Roderick saying, in his warm, jovial
manner, ' You will be the real discoverer of the sources of the Nile.' I
thought that two years would be sufficient to go from the coast inland across
the head of Lake Nyassa to the watershed, wherever that might be, and, after
examination, try to begin a benevolent mission with some ti-ibe on the slopes
53
418 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
reaching towards the coast. Had I known all the time, toil, hunger, hard-
shi^js, and worry, involved in that precious water-parting, I might have pre-
ferred having my head shaved, and a blister put on it, to grappling with my
good old friend's task. But, having taken up the burden, I could not bear
to be beaten by it. I shall tell you a little about the progress made by-and-
bye. At present, let me give you a glimpse of the slave-trade with which
the search and discovery of most of the Nile fountains has brought me face
to face. The whole traffic, whether on land or ocean, is a gross outrage of
the common law of mankind. It is carried on from age to age, and, in addi-
tion to the untold evils it inflicts, it jii-esents almost insurmountable obstacles
to intercourse between the different portions of the human family. This open
sore in the world is partly owing to human cupidity, and partly to ignorance
among the more civilised of mankind, of the blight which lights chiefly on the
, more degraded. Piracy on the high seas was once as common as slave-trading
is now. But as it became thoroughly known, the whole civilised world rose
against it. In now trying to make the Eastern African slave-trade better
known to Americans, I indulge the hojie that I am aiding on, though in a
small degree, the good time coming yet, when slavery as well as piracy shall
be chased from the world.
" Many have but a faint idea of the evils that trading in slaves inflicts
on the victims and on the authors of the atrocities. Most people imagine
that negroes, after being brutalised by a long course of servitude, with but
few of the ameliorating influences that elevate more favoured races, are fair
average specimens of the African man. Our ideas are derived from the
slaves of the West Coast, who have for ages been subjected to domestic bond-
age, and all the depressing agencies of a most unhealthy climate. These
have told most injuriously on their physical frames, while fraud and trade
rum have ruined their moral natures. Not to discriminate the difference is
monstrous injustice to the main body of the population living free in the
interior under their own chiefs and laws — cultivating their own farms, catch-
ing the fish of their own rivers, or fighting bravely with the grand old deni-
zens of the forests, which, in more recent continents, can only be reached in
rocky strata or under perennial ice. Winwoode Reade hit the truth when he
said the ancient Egyptian, with his large round black eyes, full luscious lijis,
and somewhat depressed nose, is far nearer the typical negro than the West
Coast African, who has been debased by the unhealthy land he lives in.
" Slaves generally — and especially those on the AVest Coast, at Zanzibar
and elsewhere, are extremely ugly. I have no prejudice against their colour;
indeed, any one who lives long enough among them forgets that they are
black, and feels that they are just fellow men. But the low retreating fore-
heads, prognathous jaws, lark heels, and other physical peculiarities common
among slaves and West Coast negroes, always awaken the same feelings of
AFRICAN WOMEN. 41 'J
aversion as those with which we view specimens of the ' Bill Sykes ' and
'bruiser' class in England. I would not utter a syllable calculated to press
down either class more deeply in the mire in which they are already sunk.
But I wish to point out that these are not typical Africans any more than
typical Englishmen, and that the natives of nearly all the high lands of the
interior of the continent are, as a rule, fair average specimens of humanity.
" I happened to be present when all the head men of the great chief
Insama, who lives west of the south end of Tanganyika, had come together!
to make jieace with certain Arabs who had burned their chief town; and I am'
certain one could not see more finely-formed intellectual heads in any assem-
bly in London or Paris, and the faces and forms corresponded with the finely-j
shaped heads. Insama himself had been a sort of Napoleon for fighting and
conquering in his younger days, was exactly like the ancient Assyrians sculp-
tui-ed on the Nineveh marbles, as Nimrod and others. He showed himself to
be one of ourselves by habitually indulging in copious potations of beer,
called pomhe, and had become what Nathaniel Hawthorne called * bulbous'
below the ribs. T don't know where the phrase, ' bloated aristocracy,' arose.
It must be American, for I have had glimpses of a good many English noble-
men, and Insama was the only specimen of a bloated aristocrat on whom I
ever set my eyes.
" Many of the women were very pretty, and, like all ladies, would have
been much prettier if they had only let themselves alone. Fortunately the
dears could not change their charming black eyes, beautiful foreheads, nicely
rounded limbs, well-shaped forms, and small hands and feet. But they must
adorn themselves ; and this they do — oh, the hussies ! — by filing their splen-
did teeth to points like cat's teeth. It was distressing, for it made their
smile, which has generally so much power over us great he-donkeys, rather
crocodile-like. Ornaments are scarce. "What would our ladies do, if they
had none, but pout and lecture us on ' women's rights ?' But these specimens
of the fair sex make shift by adorning their fine warm brown skins, tattooing
them with various prett}^ devices without colours, that, besides purposes of
beauty, serve the heraldic uses of our Highland tartans. They are not black,
but of a light warm brown colour, and so very sistcrish — if I may use the
new coinage — it feels an injury done to one's self to see a bit of grass stuck
through the cartilage of the nose, so as to bulge out the alee nasi (wings of
the nose of anatomists). Cazembe's Queen — a Ngombe, Moari by name —
would be esteemed a real beauty either in London, Paris, or New York, and
yet she had a small hole through the cartilage, near the tip of her fine slightly
aquiline nose. But she had only filed one side of the two fronts of her
superb snow-white teeth ; and then what a laugh she had ! Let those who
wish to know go and see her carried to her farm in her pony phaeton, which
is a sort of throne fastened on two very long poles, and carried by twelve
420 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
stalwart citizens. If they take ' Punch's' motto for Cazembe, * Niggers don't
require to be shot here,' as their own, they may show themselves to be men ;
but, whether they do or not, Cazembe will show himself a man of sterling
good sense.
" Now these people, so like ourselves externally, have genuine human
souls. Rua, a very large section of country north and west of Cazembe's,
but still in the same inland region, is j^eopled by men very like those of In-
sama and Cazembe. An Arab, Said Bin Ilabib, went to trade in Rua two
years ago, and, as the Ax'abs usually do where the natives have no guns. Said
Bin Habib's elder brother carried matters with a high hand. The Rua men
observed that the elder brother slept in a white tent, and pitching their spears
into it by night, killed him. As Moslems never forgive bloodshed, the younger
brother forthwith ran a muck at all indiscriminately in a large district. Let
it not be supposed that any of these people are like the American Indians —
insatiable, bloodthirsty ravages, who will not be reclaimed or enter into terms
of lasting friendship with fair-dealing strangers.
" Had the actual murderers been demanded, and a little time been granted,
I feel morally certain, from many other instances among tribes who, like the
Barua, have not been spoiled by Arab traders, they would all have been
given uj). The chiefs of the country would, first of all, have specified the
crime of which the elder brother was guilty, and who had been led to avenge
it. It is very likely that they would stipulate that no other should be pun-
ished but the actual perpetrator. Domestic slaves, acting under his orders,
would be considered free from blame. I know of nothing that distinguishes
the uncontaminated Africans from other degraded peojjles more than their
entire reasonableness and good sense. It is different after they have had
wives, children, and relatives kidnapped; but that is more than human nature,
civilised or savage, can bear. In the case in question, indiscriminate slaughter,
capture, and plunder, took place. A very large number of very fine young
men were captured and secured in chains and wooden yokes. I came near
the party of Said Bin Habib close to the point where a huge rent in the
mountains of Rua allows the escape of the great river Lualaba out of Lake
Moero. And here I had for the first time an opportunity of observing the
difference between slaves and freemen made captives. When fairly across
Lualaba, Said thought his captives safe, and got rid of the trouble of attend-
ing to and watching the chained gangs by taking off both chains and yokes.
All declared their joy and perfect willingness to follow Said to the end of
the world or elsewhere, but next morning twenty-two made clear off to the
mountains. Many more, on seeing the broad Lualaba roll between them and
the homes of their infancy, lost all heart, and in three days eight of them
died. They had no complaint but pain in the heart, and they pointed out its
seat correctly, though many believe that the heart is situated underneath the
SUFFERINGS OF SLA VES. 42 1
top of the sternum or breast-bone. This to me is the most startling death I
ever saw. They evidently died of broken heartedness, and the Arabs woa-
dered, 'seeing they had plenty to eat.' I saw others perish, particularly aj
very tine boy of ten or twelve years of age. When asked where he felt ill,!
he put his hand correctly and exactly over the heart. He was kindly carried, '
rnd as he breathed out his soul was laid gently on the side of the path. Thei
cajDtors were not unusually cruel. They were callous — slaving had hardened!
their hearts.
"When Said, who was an old friend of mine, crossed tlie Lualaba, ho
heard that I was in a village where a comjjany of slave-traders had been
furiously assaulted for three days by justly-incensed Babemba. I would not
fight, nor allow my people to fire if I saw them, because the Babemba had
been esjDecially kind to me. Said sent a party of his own people to invite
me to leave the village by night, and come to liim. He showed himself the
opposite of heard-hearted ; but slaving 'hardens all within, and petrifies the
feelings.' It is bad for the victims, and ill for the victimisers.
*' I once saw a party of twelve who had been slaves in their own country
— Lunda or Londa, of which Cazembe is chief or general. They were loaded
with large, heavy wooden yokes, which are forked trees about three inches
in diameter and seven or eight feet long. The neck is inserted in the fork,
and an iron bar driven in across from one end of the fork to the other, and
riveted ; the other end is tied at night to a tree or to the ceiling of a hut, and
the neck being firm in tlie fork, the slave is held off from unloosing it. It is
excessively troublesome to tlie wearer ; and when marching, two yokes are
tied together by their free ends, and loads put on the slaves' heads besides.
Women, having in addition to the yoke and load a child on the back, have
said to me on passing, ' They are killing me ; if they would take oft' the
yoke I could manage the load and child, but I shall die with three loads.'
One who spake thus did die, and the poor little girl, her child, perished of
starvation. I interceded for some ; but, when unyoked, off they bounded
into the long grass, and I was gently blamed for not caring to preserve the
owner's property. After a day's march under a broiling vertical sun, with
yokes and heavy loads, the strongest are exhausted. The party of twelve
above mentioned were sitting singing and laughing. ' Hallo !' said I, ' these
fellows take to it kindly ; this must be the class for whom philosophers say
slavery is the natural state ;' and I went and asked the cause of their mirth.
I had to ask the aid of their owner as to the meaning of the word ruJcha,
which usually means to fly or to leap. They were using it to express the
idea of haunting, as a ghost, and inflicting disease and death ; and the song was,
* Yes, we are going away to Manga, abroad, or white man's land, with yokes
on our necks ; but we shall have no yokes in death, and we shall return to
haunt and kill you !' The chorus then struck in with the name of the man who
422 STANLEY AND AFRICA,
bad sold each of them, and then followed the general laugh, in which at first
I saw no bitterness. Perembe, an old man of at least 104 years, had been
one of the sellers. In accordance with African belief, they had no doubt of
being soon able by ghost-power to kill even him. Their refrain might be
rendered —
«'0h, oh, oh!'
Bird of freedom, oh !
You sold me, oh, oh, oh !
I shall haunt you, oh, oh, oh !'
" The laughter told not of mirth, but of the tears of such as were
ojDiJressed, and they had no comforter. ' He that is higher than the highest
regardeth.'
" About north-east of Rua, we have a very large country, called Man-
yuema, but by the Arabs it is shortened into Manyema. It is but recently
known. The reputation which the Manyuema enjoyed of being cannibals,
prevented the half-caste Arab traders from venturing among them. The cir-
cumstantial details of the practices of the men-eaters, given by neighbouring
tribes, were confirmed by two Arabs, who two years ago went as far as Bam-
barre, and secured the jjrotection and friendship of Moenekuss — lord of the light
grey parrot with scarlet tail — who was a very superior man. The minute
details of cannibal orgies given by the Arabs' attendants erred through sheer
excess of the shocking. Had I believed a tenth part of what I was told, I
might never have ventured into Manyuema; but, fortunately, my mother
never frightened me in infancy with ' Bogie, ' and stuff of that sort, and I am
not liable to fits of bogiephobia, in which disease the poor jDatlent believes
everything awful, if only it is attributed to the owners of a black skin. I
have heard that the complaint was epidemic lately in Jamaica, and the plant-
ers' mothers have much to answer for. I hope that the disease may never
spread in the United States. The peo^Dle there are believed to be inoculated
with common sense. But why go among the cannibals at all ? Was it not
like joining the Alpine club, in order to be lauded if you don't break your
neck where your neck ought to be broken ? This makes me turn back to the
watershed, as I promised.
" It is a broad belt of tree-covered upland, some seven hundred miles in
length, from west to east. The genei'al altitude is between four thousand and
five thousand feet above the sea, and mountains stand on it at various points,
which are between six thousand and seven thousand feet above tlie ocean-
level. On this watershed springs arise, which are well-nigh innumerable —
that is, it would take half a man's lifetime to count them. These springs
join each other and form brooks, which again converge, and become rivers,
or, say streams, of twenty, forty, or eighty yards, that never dry. All flow
towards the centre of an immense valley, which I believe to be the valley
JOURNEY INTO MANYUEMA. 423
of the Nile. In i\v6 trough, we have at first three large rivers. Then all
unite into one enormous lacustrine river, the central line of drainage, which
I name Webb's Lualaba. In this great valley there are five great lakes. One
near the upper end is called Lake Bemba, or, more properly, Bangweolo, but
it is not a source of the Nile, for no large river begins in a lake. It is
supplied by a river called Chambezi, and several others, which may be con-
sidered sources ; and out of it flows the large River Luapula, which enters
Lake Moero and comes out as the great Lake River Lualaba to form Lake
Kamolondo. West of Kamolondo, but still in the great valley, lies Lake
Lincoln, which I named as my little tribute of love to the great and good man
America enjoyed for some time and lost.
One of the three great rivers I mentioned — Bartle Frere's, or Lufira —
falls into Kamolondo, and Lake Lincoln becomes a lacustrine river, and it,
too, joins the central line of drainage, but lower down, and all three united,
form the fifth lake, which the slaves sent to me, instead of men, forced me,
to my great gi'ief, to leave as the * unknown lake.' By my reckoning — the
chronometers being all dead — it is five degrees of longitude west of Speke's
position of Ujiji. This makes it probable that the great lacustrine river in
the valley is the western branch — or Petherick's Nile — the Bahar Ghazal,
and not the eastern branch, which Speke, Grant, and Baker, believed to be
the River of Egypt. If correct, this would make it the Nile only after all
the Bahar Ghazal enters the eastern arm.
" But though I found the watershed between 10° and 12° south — that is,
a long way further up the valley than any one had dreamed, and saw the
streams of some six hundred miles of it converging into the centre of the
great valley, no one knew where it went after that departure out of Lake
Moero. Some conjectured that it went into Tanganyika, but I saw that to
do so it must run uphill. Others imagined that it might flow into the
Atlantic. It was to find out where it actuall}^ did go that took me into
Manyuema. I could get no information from traders outside, and no light
could be obtained from the Manyuema within — they never travel, and it was
so of old. They consist of petty headmanships, and each brings his griev-
ance from some old feud, which is worse than our old Highland ancestor's.
Every head man of. a hamlet would like to see every other ruling blockhead
slain. But all were kind to strangers ; and, though terrible fellows among
themselves, with their large spears and huge wooden shields, they wei'e never
known to injure foreigners, till slavers tried the effects of gunshot upon them,
and captured their women and children.
" As I could get no geographical information from them, I had to feel
my way, and grope in the interminable forests and prairies, and three times
took the wrong direction, going northerly, not knowing that the great river
makes immense sweeps to the west and south-west. It seemed as if I were
424 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
running my head against a stone wall. It might after all turn out to be the
Congo ; and who would risk being eaten and converted into black man for
it ? I had serious doubts, but stuck to it like a Briton ; and at last found tliat
the mighty river left its westing and flowed right away to the north. The
two great western drains, the Lufira and Lomame, i-unning north-east before
joining the central or main stream — Webb's Lualaba — told that the western
side of the great valley was high, like the eastern ; and as this main is re-
ported to go into large reedy lakes, it can scarcely be ought else but the
western arm of tlie Nile. But, besides all this — in which it is quite possible
I may be mistaken — we have two fountains, on probably the seventh hundred
mile of the watershed, giving rise to two rivers — the Liambai, or Upper
Zambesi, and the Kafue, which flow into Inner Ethiopia ; and two fountains
are reported to rise in the same quarter, forming Lufira and Lomame, which
flow, as we have seen, to the north. These four full-grown gushing foun-
tains, rising so near each other, and giving origin to four large rivers, answer,
in a certain degree, to the description given of the unfathomable fountains of
the Nile, by the secretarj' of Minerva, in the city of Sais in Egypt, to the
father of all travellers, Herodotus. But I have to confess that it is a little
presumptuous in me to put this forward in Central Africa, and without a
single book of reference on the dim recollection of reading the ancient
historian in boyhood. The waters were said to well up from an unfathom-
able depth, and then joart — half, north to Egypt, and half, south to Inner
Ethiopia. Now, I have heard of the fountains aforementioned so often, I can-
not doubt their existence, and I wish to clear up the point in my concluding
trip. I am not to be considered as speaking without hesitation, but prepared,
if I see reason, to confess myself wrong. No one would like to be considered
a disciple of the testy old would-be geographer, who wrote Inner Africa Laid
Open, and swore to his fancies till he became blue in the face.
" The work would have been finished long ago had the matter of the
supplies of men and goods not been entrusted by mistake to Banians and
their slaves, whose efforts were all faithfully directed towards my failure.
These Banians are protected English subjects, and by their money, their
muskets, their ammunition, the East African Moslem slave-trade is mainly
carried on. The cunning East Indians secure most of the profits of the slave-
trade, and adroitly let the odium rest on their Arab agents. The Banians
will not harm a flea or a mosquito, but my progress in geography has led me
to the discovery that they are by far the worst cannibals in all Africa.
They compass, by means of Arab agents, the destruction of more human
lives for gain, in one year, than the Manyuema do for their flesh-pots in
ten. The matter of supplies and men was unwittingly committed to these our
Indian fellow subjects, who hate to see me in their slave-market, and dread my
disclosures on the infamous part they play. The slaves were all imbued with
MANYUEMA. 4;23
the Idea that they were not to follow but force me back ; and after rioting on
my goods for sixteen months on the way, instead of three, the whole remain-
ing stock was sold off for slaves and ivoiy.
" Some of the slaves who came to Manyuema so baffled and worried me,
that I had to return between five hundred and six hundred miles. The only
help I have received, except half a supply, which I despatched from Zanzibar
in 1866, has been from Mr. Stanley, your travelling correspondent, and cer-
tain remains of stores whicli I seized from tlie slaves sent from Zanzil^ar
seventeen months ago, and I had to come back three hundred miles to eft'ect
the seizure. I wait here — Unyanyembe — only till Mr. Stanley can send me
fifty free men from the coast, and then I proceed to finish up the geographical
part of my mission. I come back to the slavery question, and if I am per-
mitted in any way to promote its suppression, I shall not grudge the toil and
time I have spent. It would be better to lessen human woe than discover I
the sources of the Nile. When parties leave Ujiji to go westward into Man-'
yuema, the question asked is, not what goods they have, but how many guns
and kegs of gunpowder. If they have two hundred or three hundi-ed muskets,
and ammunition in proportion, tlrey think success is certain.
" No traders having ever before entered Manyuema, the value of ivory
was quite unknown. Indeed, the tusks were left in the forests, with the other
bones, where the animals had been slain ; many were rotten, others were
gnawed by a rodent animal to sharpen his teeth, as London rats do on leaden
pipes. If civilly treated, the people went into the forests to spots were they
knew elephants had been killed either by traps or spears, and brought the
tusks for a few copper bracelets. I have seen parties return with so much
ivory tliat they carried it by three relays of hundreds of slaves. But even
this did not satisfy human greed. The Manyuema were found to be terrified
by the report of guns; some, I know, believed them to be supernatural; for
when the effect of a musket-ball was shown on a goat, they looked up to the
clouds, and offered to bring ivory to buy the charm by which liglitniug was
drawn down. Wlien a village was assaulted, the men fled in terror, and
women and children were captured. Many of the Manyuema women, espe-
cially far down the Lualaba, are very light-coloured and lovely. It was
common to hear the Zanzibar slaves — whose faces resemble the features of
London door-knockers, which some atrocious ironfounder thought were like
those of lions — say to each other, ' Oli, if we had Manyuema wives, what
pretty children we should get.'
" Manyuema men and women were all vastly superior to the slaves, who
evidently felt the inferiority they had acquired by wallowing in the mire of
bondage. Man}^ of the men were tall, strapping fellows, with but little of
what we think distinctive of the negro about them. If one relied on the
teachings of phrenology, the Manyuema men would take a high place in the
64
426 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
human family. They felt their sujoerioritj^, and often said truly, ' Were it
not for the fire-arms, not one of the strangers would ever leave our country.'
If a comparison were instituted, and Manyuema, taken at random, placed
opposite, say, the members of the Anthropological Society of London, clad
like them in kilts of grass cloth, I should like to take my jjlace alongside the
Blanyuema, on the princij^le of prefei-ring the company of my betters ; the
philosophers would look woefully scraggy. But, though the ' inferior race,'
as wo compassionately call them, have finel3^-formed heads, and often hand-
some features, they are undoubtedly cannibals. It was more difficult to ascer-
tain this than may be imagined. Some think that they can detect the gnaw-
ings of the canine teeth of our cannibal ancestry on fossil bones, though the
canine teeth of dogs are pretty much like the human. For many a month all
the evidence I could collect amounted only to what would lead a Scotch jury
to give a verdict of ' not proven.' This arose partly from the fellows being
fond of a joke, and they like to horrify any one who seemed incredulous.
They led one of my people, who believed all they said, to see the skull of a
recent human victim, and he invited mc in triumph. I found it to be the
skull of a gorilla — here called soko — and for the first time I became aware of
the existence of the animal there.
" The country abounds in food of all kinds, and the rich soil raises every-
thing planted in great luxuriance. A friend of mine tried rice, and between
three and four mouths it yielded one hundred and twenty fold ; three measures
of seed yielded three hundred and sixty measures. Maize is so abundant that
I have seen forty-five loads, each about sixty pounds, given for a single goat.
The ' maize-dura ' — or Jiolcus sorc/kum Tcanisctum cassava — sweet potatoes, and
yams, furnished in no stinted measure the farinaceous ingredients of diet ;
the palm oil, the ground nuts, and a forest tree, afford the fatty materials of
food ; bananas and jDlantains, in great profusion, and the sugar-cane, yield
saccaharine ; the palm-toddy, beer of bananas, tobacco and bange, canahis
sativa, form the luxuries of life ; and the villages swarm with goats, sheep,
dogs, pigs, and fowls ; while the elephants, buffaloes, zebras, and sokes, or
gorillas, yield to the expert hunter plenty of nitrogenous ingredients of human
food. It was puzzling to see why they should be cannibals. New Zealanders,
we are told, were cannibals because they had killed all their gigantic birds
(moa, etc.), and they were converted from the man-eating persuasion by the
introduction of pigs.. But the Manyuema have plenty of pigs and other
domestic animals, and yet they are cannibals. Into the reason for their can-
nibalism I do not enter. They saj' that human flesh is not equal to that of
goats or pigs ; it is saltish, and makes tliem dream of the dead. Why fine-
looking men like them should be so low in the moral scale, can only be attri-
buted to the non-introduction of that religion which makes those distinctions
among men which phrenology and other ologies cannot explain.
MANYUEMA MARKETS. 427
" The religion of Christ is unquestionably the best for man. I refer to
it not as the Protestant, the Catholic, the Greek, or any other, but to the
comjorehensive faith which has sjDread more widely over the world than most
people imagine, and whose votaries, of wliatcvcr name, arc better men than
any outside the pale. We have, no doubt, grievous faults, but these, as in
Paris, are owing to the want of religion. Christians, generally, are better than
the heathens, but often don't know it, and they are all immeasurably better
than they believe each other to be. The Manyuema women, especially far
down the Lualaba, are very pretty and very industrious. The market is, with
them, a great institution, and they work hard and carry far, in order to have
something to sell. Markets are established about ten or fifteen miles apart.
There those who raise cassava, maize, grain, and sweet potatoes, exchange
them for oil, salt, i:)eppcr, fish, and other relishes ; fowls, also pigs, goats,
grass-cloth, mats, and other articles, change hands. All are dressed in their
best — gaudy-coloured, many-folded kilts, that reach from the waist to the
knee. When two thousand or three thousand are together they enforce jus-
tice, though chiefly women, and they are so eager traders, they set off in
companies by night, and begin to run as soon as they come within the hum
arising from hundreds of voices. To haggle, and joke, and laugh, and cheat,
seems to be about the dearest enjoyment of their life. They confer great
benefits upon each other.
" The Bayenza women are exjjert divers for oysters, and they barter them
and fish, for farinaceous food, with the women on the east of the Lualaba, who
prefer cultivating the soil to fishery. The Manyuema have always told us
"that women going to market were never molested. When the men of tu'o
districts were engaged in actual hostilities, the women passed through from one
market to another unharmed ; to take their goods, even in war, was a thing
not to be done. But at these market-women the half-castes directed their guns.
Two cases that came under my own observation were so sickening, I cannot
iillow the mind to dwell upon or write about them. Many of both sexes were
killed, but the women and children chiefly were made captives. No matter
how much ivory they obtained, these 'Nigger Moslems' must have slaves,
and they assaulted the markets and villages, and made captives, chiefly, as it
appeared to me, because, as the men run off at the report of guns, they could
do it without danger. I had no idea before how blood-thirsty men can be
when they can pour out the blood of fellow-men in safety. And all this car-i
nage is going on in Manyuema at the very time I write. It is the Banians,
our 2:)rotected Indian fellow subjects, that indirectly do it all. We have con-
ceded to the Sultan of Zanzibar the right, which it was not ours to give, of a
certain portion of slave-trading, amounting to from £12,000 to £20,000 a year.
As we have seen, these are not traded for but murdered for. They are not
slaves, but free people made captive. A sultan with a sense of justice would.
428 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
instead of taking head money, declare tliat all were free as soon as they
reached his territory. But the Banians have the custom-house and all the
sultan's revenue entirely in their hands. He cannot trust his Mahometan
subjects, even of the better class, to farm his income, because as they them-
selves say, he would get nothing in i-eturn but a crop of lies. The Banians
naturally work the custom house so as to screen their own slaving agents ;
and so long as they have the power to promote it, their atrocious system of
slaving will never cease. For the sake of lawful commerce, it would be po-
litic to insist that the sultan's revenue by the custom-house should be placed
in the hands of an English or American merchant of known reputation and
uprightness. By this arrangement the sultan would be largely benefited,
legal commerce would be exalted to a position it has never held since Ban-
ians and Moslems emigrated into Eastern Africa, and Christianity, to which
the slave-trade is an insurmountable barrier, would find an open door.
"David Livingstone."
On the march back, Mr. Stanley and his party suffered from the flooded
state of the country, as the rainy season was now on ; and more than once
they had extreme difiiculty in passing the swollen rivers. On the 27th of
March, they entered Kiayeh. At daAvn, when leaving Mdaburu River, the
solemn warning had been given that they were near Ugogo ; and as they left
Kaniyaga village, with trumpet-like blasts of the guide's horn, they filed into
the depths of an expanse of rustling Indian corn. The ears were ripe enough
for parching and roasting; there was, therefore, no fear of famine. They
soon entered the gum-tree districts, and knew they, were in Ugogo. The
forests of tliis country are chiefly composed of the gum and thorn species —
mimosa and tamarisk, with often a variety of wild fruit-trees. The grapes
were plentiful, though they were not quite ripe; and there was also a round,
reddish fruit, with the sweetness of the sultana grape, with leaves like a goose-
berry-bush. There was another, about the size of an apricot which was ex-
cessively bittter. Emerging from the entangled thorn-jungle, the extensive
settlements of Kiweh came into view ; and to the east of the chief's village,
they found a camping-place under the shade of a group of colossal baobabs.
On the 30th, they arrived at Khorize, which is remarkable for the mighty
globes of foliage which the giant sycamores and baobabs put forth above
the plain. That night the expedition reached Sauza. On the 1st of April,
they reached Myumi ; and the following day, the fields of Mapanga. On the
oth, they plunged into the depths of the wilderness; and for nine hours
held on their way, starting wdth noisy shouts the fierce rhinoceros, the timid
quagga, and the herds of antelopes which crowd the jungles. At length they
entered the valley of the Mukondokwa River. There the torrents thun-
dered and roared ; the river was a mighty brown flood, sweeping down-
EI VERS A ND S WA MPS. 429
ward -with an almost resistless flow. The banks were brimful, broad nullahs
were full of water, the fields were inundated, and still the rain came surg-
ing down. They urged their steps onward like men to whom every moment
was precious. Three times they crossed this awful flood by means of ropes
tied to trees from bank to bank.
" On the 13th," says Stanley, " we struck out of the village of Mvumi.
It bad rained the whole night, and the morniug brought no cessation. Milo
after mile, we traversed over fields covered with the inundation, until we came
to a branch river-side once again, where the river was narrow, and too deep
to ford in the middle. AVe proceeded to cut a tree down, and so contrived
that it should fall right across the stream. Over this fallen tree the men,
bestriding it, cautiously moved before them their bales and boxes ; but one
young fellow, Rojab — through over-zeal, or in sheer madness — took up the
Doctor's box, which contained his letters, and journals of his discoveries, on
his head, and started into the river. I had been the first to arrive on the oppo-
site bank, in order to superintend the crossing, when I caught sight of this
man walking in the river with the most precious box of all on his head. Sud-
denly he fell into a deep hole, and the man and box went almost out of sight,
while I was in an agony at the fate which threatened the despatches. For-
tunately, he recovered himself and stood up, while I shouted to him, with a
loaded revolver pointed at his head, ' Look out ! Drop that box, and I'll
shoot you.' All the men halted in their work while they gazed at their com-
rade who was thus imiierilled by bullet and blood. The man himself seemed
to regard the pistol with the greatest awe, and after a few desperate efforts
succeeded in getting the box safely ashore."
From this stream, they came, in about an hour, to the main river. Its
wild waters were such as to fill them with the greatest fear. They succeeded,
however, in crossing it ; the strongest man swimming over with a rope tied
round his waist, and the others being dragged through with ropes. This
was their method of travel from day to day until the 30th. On that day
they passed hurriedly through the jungle of Msuwa. " AVhat dreadful odours,"
exclaims Stanley, " and indescribable loathing this jungle produces ! It is
60 dense that a tiger could not crawl through it ; it is so impenetrable that
an elephant could not force his way ! Were a bottleful of concentrated miasma,
such as we inhale herein, collected, what a deadly poison, instantaneous in
its action, undiscoverable in its properties, would it be ! I think it would
act quicker than chloroform, be as ftital as prussic acid. Horrors upon hor-
rors are in it. Boas above our heads, snakes and scorpions under our feet.
Land-crabs, terrapins, and iguanas, move about in our vicinity. Malaria is
in the air we breathe ; the road is infested with * hot-water ' ants, which bite
our legs until we dance and squirm about like madmen. Yet, somehow, we
are fortunate enough to escape annihilation, and many another traveller miglit
430 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
also. Yet here, in verity, are tlic ten plagues of Egyj^t, through wliich a tra-
veller in these regions must run the gauntlet."
Stanley and his party reached Bagamoyo at sunset, May the 6th, and
were soon in communication with the heads of the " Livingstone Relief Expe-
dition," Lieutenant Henn, Rev. Charles New, and Mr. Oswald Livingstone.
Lieutenant Dawson, the chief of the expedition, had throv/n up his appoint-
ment on hearing of the approach of Stanley. Lieutenant Henn and j\L-.
New, on learning that Livingstone had been relieved, decided to retire from
the expedition, but Mr. Oswald Livingstone determined to go on with tlie
bearers and stores needed to completely equip his father for his further jour-
neyings ; a few weeks afterwards, however, he altered his purpose, and de-
cided not to go. The expedition sent to Livingstone consisted of fifty-seven
individuals, many of whom had accompanied Stanley to and from Ujiji. I\Iost
of them had accompanied Livingstone on his Zambesi journey. Six Nassick
boys (African lads, educated at the Nassick School, Bombay), who had been
brought by Livingstone from the Shire Valley in 1864, and had volunteered
to go with Lieutenant Dawson's expedition, were among the number. Their
names were Jacob Wainwright, Jolm Wainwright, Matthew Wellington,
Canas Ferrars, Richard Rutton, and Benjamin Rutton. The first of these-
was destined to accompany the remains of his great master to England, and
stand beside his grave in Westminster Abbey.
On the 29th of May, 1872, Mr. Stanley left Zanzibar for England, and
arrived here on the first of August. His half-brother and cousin from
Denbigh met him on Dover pier, and accompanied him to London. Petty
jealousy on the part of professional geographers, and certain newspapers,
prompted unwortliy doubts as to the truth of the story he had to tell ; and.
both in this country and in America it was broadly hinted that he had never
seen Livingstone at all. The day after his arrival, Lord Granville, and
Livingstone's son and daughter, bore testimony to the authenticity of the
letters and despatches he had forwarded to them. His first public appearance
was at the meeting of the British Association, held at Brighton during the
third week of August. On the 27th of August, Stanley received the follow-
ing letter from Earl Granville, accompanied by a valuable gold snuff-box, set
with brilliants : —
" Foreign Office, August 27th, 1872.
" Sir — I have great satisfaction in convej'ing to you, by command of the
Queen, Her Majesty's high appreciation of the prudence and zeal which you
have displayed in opening a communication with Dr. Livingstone, and reliev-
ing Her Majesty from the anxiety which, in common with her subjects, she
had felt in regard to the fate of that distinguished traveller.
"The Queen desires me to express her thanks for the service you have
thus rendered, together with Her Majesty's congratulations on your having
STANLEY'S RECEPTION IN ENGLAND. 431
so successfully canieJ out tlie mission whicli you so fearlessly undertook.
Her Majesty also desires mo to request your acceptance of the memorial
wliich accomjjanies this letter.
" I am, Sir,
" Your most obedient, humljlc servant,
" Granville."
" To Henry Stanley, Esq."
Nothing could exceed the warmth with which the general public gave
expression to their admiration of the jaluck and daring with which Mr.
Stanley had carried out liis splendid achievements. At banquets, luncheons,
and public meetings, he was received with the utmost enthusiasm. The free-
dom of the principal cities of the empire was conferred upon him at the
unanimous wisli of their corporations, and he had a personal interview witli
the Queen. After this, he accompanied the forces under Sir Garnet Wolesley
during the Ashantee Campaign, and gave the results of his observations in
the "New York Herald." We now leave for a time the brave man who
brought succour and relief to Livingstone, to return once more to the great
traveller himself, still in the heart of Africa.
Stanley, as we have already stated, urged Livingstone to return with him
and recruit himself; but after a touching allusion to Miss Livingstone, who
nobly set her father's mission before the longings of her own heart, he
exjDressed his resolution to complete the exploration of the sources of the
Nile before he retired from his work. No sooner had Stanley left him in
Unyanyembe, than he laid out the scheme of a last journey, by Bangweolo
to Katanga, the ancient fountains, and the underground dwellings. On the
19th of March, five days after Stanley's departui-e, the anniversary of his
birthday came round; and thus he notes it: — "Birthday. My Jesus, my
king, my life, my all ; I again dedicate my whole self to thee. Accept me,
and grant, O Gracious Father, that ere this year is gone, I may finish my
task. In Jesus' name I ask it. Amen, so let it be. David LIVINGSTO^fE."
On the 1st of May, he writes thus in his Journal: — " Finished a letter
for the 'New York Herald,' trying to enlist American zeal to stop the East-
coast slave-trade ; I pray for a blessing on it from the All-Gracious." Through
a coincidence, a singular interest attaches to this entry. The concluding
words of the letter he refers to are as follows: — " All I can add in my lone-
liness is, may Heaven's rich blessing come down on every one, American
English, or Turk, who will help to heal the open sore of the world." It was 1
felt that nothing could more truly represent the man than these words, and
the quotation has consequently been inscribed upon the tablet erected to his
memory, near his grave, in Westminster Abbey. It was noticed some time
43.2 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
after selecting it, that he wrote these words exactly one year before his deatli,
which, as we shall see, took place on the 1st of May, 1873. His habits of
observation continued as close as ever; hence, under date, May 11th, he
writes: — "A serpent of dark-olive colour was found dead at my door this
morning-, probably killed by a cat. Puss approaches very cautiously, and
strikes her claws into the head with a blow delivered as quick as lightning ;
then holds the head down with both paws, heedless of the wriggling mass of
coils behind it ; she then bites the neck and leaves it ; looking with interest
to the disfigured head, as if she knew that therein had bin the hidden power
of mischief. She seems to possess a little of the nature of the Ichneumon^
which was sacred in Egypt from its destroying serpents. The serpent is in
pursuit of mice when killed by puss."
A number of observations follow on successive days. These are speci-
mens: — " A family of ten Whydah birds (Vidua purjytirea) come to the pome-
granate-trees in our yard. The eight young ones, full-fledged, are fed by tl:e
dam, as young pigeons are. The food is brought ujj from the crop without
the bowing and bending of the pigeon. Tliey chirruji briskly for food; the
dam gives most, while the red-breasted cock gives one or two, and then knocks
the rest away." "Two Whydah birds, after their nest was destroyed several
times, now try again in another pomegranate-tree in the yard. They put back
their eggs, as they have the power to do, and build again. The trout has
tlie power of keeping back the ova when circumstances are unfavourable to
their deposit. She can quite absorb the whole, but occasionally the absorb-
ents have too mucli to do ; the ovarium, and eventually the whole abdomen,
seems in a state of inflammation, as when they are trying to remove a mortified
human limb; and the jjoor fish, feeling its strength leaving it, true to instinct,
goes to the entrance of the burn where it ought to have spawned, and, unable
to ascend, dies. The defect is j^robably the want of the aid of a milter,"
Our brave traveller had a long season of weary waiting for men and
stores from Zanzibar, and on August 24th, he started for the last time on his
heroic quest. He had not been out a month before dysentery attacked him.
On the 19th of September, he says, *' I am ill with bowels, having eaten
nothing for eight days." Two days after, he says, " Rest here, as the com-
jjlaint does not yield to medicine or time ; but I begin to eat now, which is
a favourable symptom." On the 30th October, he reached a village on the
shore of Lake Tanganyika, and afterwards skirted the lake for several days.
November 9th, he writes, " We got very little food, and killed a calf to fill
our mouths a little. A path east seems to lead out from these mountains of
Tanganyika. " We went on east this morning in highland open forest, then
descended by a long slope to a valley in which there is water. Many Milenga
gardens, but the people keep out of sight. The highlands are of a purple
colour, from the new leaves coming out. The donkey began to eat to my
FLOWERS OF THE FOREST. 433
great joy. Men sent off to search for a village return empty-handed, and
we must halt. I am ill, and losing much blood."
Drizzling rains continue to fall day after day, the ceaseless damp much
aggravating his complaint. He observes Christmas day thus — " I tliank the
good Lord for the good gift of His Son Christ Jesus our Lord. Slaughtered
an ox, and gave a fundo and a half to each of the party. This is our great
day, so we rest. It is cold and wet, day and night." From this time, ho
was rarely even comparatively well. It was a long stern struggle to endure
unto the end, and to wrest the prize he passionately longed for out of the
hand of death. Through perils of waters, perils of robbers, and perils of the
wilderness, in weariness and painfulness, in hunger and thirst, and at last in
mortal sickness, he pressed on. It is a deeply pathetic history. In tlie lake
region tremendous rains set in — rain rare even in that region of waters, and
his journey was through a continuous swamj^, often up to their necks. The
entries in his journal grew fewer and fainter ; but still there was no failure
in the tension of the heroic jDurpose, and no halting or trembling in the band
of followers whom his intense nature seems almost to have inspired. Through
incredible difiicultyhe struggled on to tlie southern borders of the lake round
which he was bent on forcing his way.
He still continues to note carefully the face of the country. On the llth
January, 1873, he says — " Went on dry S. E. and then S. two hours to River
Mozinga, and marched parallel to it till we came to the confluence of Kasir.
Mozinga, twentj^-five feet, waist deep, with a hundred and fifty yards of
sponge on right bank, and about fifty yards on left, Tiicre are many plots
of cassava, maize, millet, dura, ground-nuts, voandzeia, in the forest, all sur-
rounded with strong high hedges, skilfully built, and manured with wood-
ashes. The villagers are much afraid of us. After four hours and a half we
were brought up by the deep rivulet Mpanda, to be crossed to-morrow in
canoes. There are many flowers in the forest : Marigolds, a white jonquil-
looking flower, without smell ; many orchids ; white, yellow, and jjink aselepias,
with bunches of French- white flowers ; clematis — Methonica gloriosa ; gladiolus,
and blue and deep-purple poly galas; gi-asses, with white starry seed-vessels,
and spikelets of broWnish-red and yellow. Besides these, tliere are beautiful
blue-flowering bulbs, of pretty delicate form, and but little scent. To this list
may be added balsams, compositese, of blood-red colour, and of purple; other
flowers of liver-colour, bright canary yellow ; pink orchids on spikes, thickly
covered all round, and of three inches in length; spiderworts, of fine blue or
yellow, or even pink ; different-coloured aselepedials ; beautiful yellow and red
umbelliferous flowering plants ; dill, and wild parsnips; pretty flowery aloes,
yellow and red, in one whorl of blossoms ; peas, and many other flowering
plants, which I do not know."
Ou the 2ith, he gives us a description of the kind of country through
55
431 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
wliich he was passing : — " AVent on E. and N. E. to avoid the dcop part of
a large river, which requires two canoes, but the men sent by the chief would
certainly hide them. Went an hour and three quarters' journey to a largo
stream through drizzling rain, at least three hundred yards of deep water,
amongst sedges and sponges of a hundi'ed yards. One part was neck-deep
for fifty yards, and the water cold. We plunged in elephants' footprints an
hour and a half, and then came on one hour to a small rivulet ten feet broad,
but waist deep, bridge covered and broken down. Carrying mo across one
of the broad deep sedgy rivers is really a very difficult task. One we ci'ossed
was at least two thousand feet broad, or more than three hundred yards.
The first part, the main stream, came up to Susi's mouth, and wetted my seat
and legs. One held up my pistol behind, then one after another took a turn,
and when he sank into a deep elephant's footjDriut, he required two to lift
him, so as to gain a footing on the level, which was over waist deep. Otliers
went on, and bent down the grass, to insure some footing on the side of the
elephants' path. Every ten or twelve paces brought us to a clear stream,
flowing fast in its own channel, while over all a strong current came bodily
through all the rushes and aquatic plants. Our progress is distressingly slow.
Wet, wet, wet ; sloppy weather truly, and no observations, except that the
land near the lake being very level, the rivers spread out into broad firths
and sponges."
1/ March the 19th, was his last birthday. His work was nearly done, and
his rest was close at hand. " Thanks to the Almighty Preserver of men,"
he says, "for sparing me thus far on the journey of life. Can I hope for
ultimate success? So many obstacles have arisen. Let not Satan prevail
over me, Oh ! my good Lord Jesus." Six days afterwards, he writes — ' ' Nothing
earthly will make me give up my work in despair. I encourage myself in
the Lord my God, and go forward." Pale, bloodless from profuse h£emorr-
hage, he could hardly walk, and on April 12th, he consented to be carried
by his men. " So weak," he says, "I could hardly walk, but tottered along
nearly two hours, and then lay down quite done. Cooked coffee — our last —
and went on, but in an hour I was compelled to lie down. Very unwilling
to be carried, but on being pressed I allowed the men to help me along by
relays to Chinama, where there is much cultivation. We camped in a garden
of dura."
He was now unable to do more than make the shortest memoranda, and
to mark on the map which he was making, the streams which entered the
lake as he crossed them. On the 21st, he tried to ride, but was forced to lie
down, and they carried him back to the village from which they had started,
exhausted. The next day, " his servants say that, instead of rallying, they
saw that his strength was becoming less and less, and in order to carry him
they made a kitanda of wood, consisting of two side pieces of seven feet
IS EAR THE END. 43c
in length, crossed with rails throe feet long, and about four inches apart, the
whole lashed strongly together. This framework was covered with grass,
and a blanket laid on it. Shing from a pole, and borne between two strong
men, it made a tolerable palanquin, and on this the exhausted ti-avcller waS'
conveyed to the next village through a flooded grass plain. To render the
kitanda more comfortable, another blanket was suspended across the pole, so
as to hang down on either side, and allow tlie air to pass under, whilst the
sun's rays were fended off from tlie sick man. The start was deferred this
morning until the dew was off the heads of the long grass sufficiently ta
ensure his being kept tolerably dry. The excruciating pains of dysenteric
malady caused him the greatest exhaustion as they marched, and they were
glad enough to reach another village, in two hours and a quarter, having tra-
velled S.W. from the last jioint."
For three or four days, no entry was made now in his Journal except the
date. On April 27th, his dying hand wrote the last : — " Knocked uji quite,
and remain — recover — sent to buy milch goats. We are on the banks of the
Molilamo." His spirit was true to its mission, as the compass to the pole.
His last word, as his pencil dropped from his stiffening hand, was a geogra-
phical record. " From this point we have to trust entirely to the narrative
of the men. They explain the above sentence as follows : — Salimane, Amisi,
Hamsani, and Laede, accompanied by a guide, were sent off to endeavour, if
possible, to buy some milch goats on the upper part of the Molilamo. They
could not, however, succeed ; it was always tJie same story, the Mazitu had
taken everything. The chief, nevertheless, sent a substantial present of a
kid and three baskets of ground-nuts, and the people were willing enough to
exchange food for beads. Thinking he could cat some Mapira corn, pounded
up with ground-nuts, the Doctor gave instructions to the two women, j\Isozi
and Mtoweka, to prepare it for him; but he was notable to take it when they
brought it to him.
"On the 29th April, Kalunganjovu, and most of his people, came early to
the village. The chief wished to assist his guest to the utmost, and stated
that, as he could not be sure that a sufficient number of canoes would be
forthcoming unless he took charge of matters himself, he should accompany
the caravan to the crossing; place, which was about an hour's march from the
spot. ' Everything should be done for his friend,' he said. They were ready
to set out. On Susi's going to the hut. Dr. Livingstone told him that he was
quite unable to walk to the door to reach the kitanda, and he wished the
men to break down one side of the little house, as the entrance was too nar-
row to admit it, and in this manner to bring it to him where he was. This
was done, and he was quietly placed upon it, and borne out of the village.
" Their course was in the direction of the stream, and they followed it
till they came to a reach where the current was uninterrupted by the nume-
43G STANLEY AND AFRICA.
rous little islands, wliich stood partly in the river, and partly in the flood
on the upper waters. Kalunganjovu was seated on a knoll, and actively
superintended the embarkation, whilst Dr. Livingstone told Lis bearers to
take him to a tree at a little distance off, that he uiight rest in the shade till
most of the men were on the other side. A good deal of care was required,
for the river, by no means a large one in ordinary times, spread its waters in
all directions, so that a false stej:), or a stumble in any unseen hole, would
have drenched the invalid, and the bed also on which ho was carried. The
passage occupied some time, and then came the difficult task of conveying
the Doctor across, for the canoes were not wide enough to allow the kitanda
to be deposited in the bottom of cither of them. Hitherto, no matter how
weak, Livingstone had always been able to sit in the various canoes they had
used on like occasions, but now he had no power to do so. Taking his bed
off the kitanda, they laid it in the bottom of the strongest canoe, and tried to
lift him ; but he could not bear the pain of a hand being passed under his
back. Beckoning to Chuniah, in a faint voice he asked him to stoop down
over him as low as j^ossible, so that he might clasp his hands together behind
his head, directing him at the same time how to avoid putting any pressure
on the lumbar region of the back. In this way he was deposited in the bot-
tom of the canoe, and quickly ferried across the Mulilamo by Chowpcre,
Susi, Farijala, and Chumah. The same precautions were used on the other
side. The kitanda was brought close to the canoe, so as to prevent any un-
necessary pain in disembarking.
" Susi now hurried on ahead to reach Chitambo's village, and superintend
the building of another house. For the first mile or two, they had to carry
the Doctor through swamps and plashes, glad to reach something like a drj-
plain at last. It would seem that his strength Avas here at its lowest ebb.
Chumah, one of his bearers on these the last weary miles the great traveller
was destined to accomplish, says that they were every now and then implored
to stop and place their burden on the ground. So great were the pangs of
his disease during this day that he could make no attempt to stand, and if
lifted for a few yards a drowsiness came over him, which alarmed them all
excessively. This was specially the case at one spot where a tree stood in
the path. Here one of his attendants was called to him, and, on stooj^ing
doAvn, he found him unable to speak from faintness. They replaced him in
the kitanda, and made the best of their way on the journey. Some distance
further on great thirst oppressed him ; ho asked them if they had any water,
but, unfortunately, for once not a drop was to be jDrocured. Hastening on
for fear of getting too far separated from the party in advance, to their great
comfort they now saw Farijala approaching with some which Susi had thought-
fully sent off from Chitambo's village.
"Still wending their way on, it seemed as if they would not complete their
THE LAST HOURS. 43;
task, for again, at a clearing, the sick man entreated them to place him on
the ground, and to let him stay where he was. Fortunately, at this moment,
some of the outlying huts of tlie village came in sight, and fhcy tried to rally
him by telling him that he would quickly be in the house that the others Jiad
gone to build, but they were obliged as it was to allow him to remain for an
hour in the native gardens outside the town. On reaching their companions,
it was found that the work was not quite finished, and it became necessary
therefore to lay him under the broad caves of a native hut till things were
ready, Chitambo's village at this time was almost empty. When the crops
are growing, it is the custom to erect little temporary houses in the fields,
and the inhabitants, leaving their more substantial huts, pass the time in
watching their crops, which are scarcely more safe by day than by night.
Thus it was that the men found plenty of room and shelter to their hand.
Many of the people approached the spot where he lay, whose praises had
reached them in previous years, and in silent wonder they stood round him,
resting on their bows.
"Slight drizzling showers were falling, and as soon as possible his house
was made ready and banked round with earth. Inside it, the bed was raised
from the floor by sticks and grass, occupying a position across and near to the
bay-shaped end of the hut. In the bay itself bales and boxes were deposited,
one of the latter doing duty for a table, on whicli the medicine chest and
sundry other things were placed. A fire was liglited outside, nearly o2Dpositc
the door, whilst the boy Majwara slept just within to attend to his master's
wants in the night. On the 30th of April, 1873, Chitambo came early, to
pay a visit of courtesy, and was shown into the Doctor's i^resence, but he
was obliged to send him away, telling him to come again on the morrow,
when he hoped to have more strength to talk to him, and he was not again
disturbed. In the afternoon, he asked Susi to bring his watch to the bedside,
and explained to him the jDosition in which to hold his hand, that it miglit
lie in the palm whilst he slowly turned the key.
*' So the hours stole on till nightfall. The men silently took to their huts,
whilst others, whose duty it was to keep watch, sat round the fires, all feeling
that the end could not be far off". About lip. m. Susi, whose hut was close
by, was told to go to his master. At the time, there were loud shouts in the
distance, and, on ente-ring. Dr. Livingstone said, ' Are our men making tliat
•noise?' 'No,' rej^lied Susi; 'I can hear fi-om tlie cries that the people arc
scaring away a buffalo from their dura fields.' A few minutes after he said
slowly, and evidently wandering, ' Is this the Luapula ?' Susi told him they
were in Chitambo's village, near the Mulimalo, when he was silent for a while.
Again, speaking to Susi, he said (in Suaheli this time,) 'How many daj-s is
it to the Luapula?' Susi i-eplied, ' I think it is three days.' A few seconds
niter, behalf sighed, half said, 'Oh deai', dear!' and then dozed off again.
438 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
"It was about an liour later that Susi heard Majwara again outside the
door. ' Bwana wants you, Susi.' On reaching the bed the Doctor told him he
washed him to boil some water, and for this jiurpose he went to the fire out-
side, and soon returned with the copper-kettle full. Calling him close, he
asked him to bring him his niedicinc-chest, and to hold the candle near him,
for the man noticed he could hardly see. With great difficulty. Dr. Living-
stone selected the calomel, which he told him to place by his side; then,
directing him to pour a little water into a cup, and to put another empty one
by it, he said in a low feeble voice, ' All right ; you can go out now.' These
were the last words he was ever heard to speak. It must have been about
four A.M. when Susi heard Majwara's step once more. ' Come to Bwana; I
am afraid ; I don't know if he's alive.' The lad's evident alarm made Susi
run to arouse Chumah, Chowpcre, Matthew and Muauyasere, and the six men
went immediately to the hut. Passing inside, they looked towards the bed.
Dr. Livingstone was not lying on it, but appeared to be engaged in prayer,
and they instinctively drew backward for the instant. Pointing to him,
Majwara said, ' When I la}' down he was just as he is now, and it is because
I find that he does not move that I fear he is dead.' They asked the lad
how long he had slept. Majwara said he could not tell, but he was sure it
was some considerable time ; the men drew nearer.
" A candle, stuck by its own wax to the top of the box, shed a light suffi-
cient for them to see his form. Di-. Livingstone was kneeling by the side of
his bed, his body stretched forward, his head buried in his hands upon the
pillow. For a minute they watched him; he did not stir, there was no sign
of breathing; then one of them, Matthew, advanced softly to him, and placed
his hands to his cheek. It was sufficient; life had been extinct some time,
and the body was almost cold. Livingstone was dead. His sad-hearted
servants raised him tenderly up, and laid him full length on the bed, then
carefully covering him, they went out into the damp night-air to consult
together. It was not long before the cocks crew, and it is from this circum-
stance — coupled with the fact that Susi spoke to him some time shortly before
midnight — that we are able to state with tolerable certainty that he expired
early on the 1st of May.
" Before daylight, the men were quietly told in each hut what had hap-
pened, and that they were to assemble. Coming together as soon as it was
lioht enough to see, Susi and Chumah said that they wished everybody to
be present whilst the boxes were opened, so that in case money or valuables
were in them, all might be responsible. Jacob Wainwright (who could write,
they knew) was asked to make some notes which should serve as an inventory,
and then the boxes were brought out fropi the hut. It was not without some
alarm that the men realised their more immediate difficulties ; none could see
better than they what com^jlications might arise in an liour. They knew the
HONOURS SHOWN TO THE DEAD. 439
superstitious horror connected with the dead in the tribes around them, for
the departed spirits of men are universally believed to have vengeance and
mischief at heart as their ruling idea in the land beyond the grave. On
this account it is not to be wondered at that chief and people make common
cause against those who wander through their territory', and have the misfor-
tune to lose one of their party by death,"
Few situations could be imagined more utterly desolate than that of the
little band of followers, alone in the vast wilderness, in the heart of Africa,
at the farthest point of their wanderings, and the master whom they trusted
as a jirovidence taken away from their head. But his presence seemed to be
Avith them, his spirit still ruled their thoughts and deeds. The men met in
consultation. Susi and Chum ah, as his most experienced and trusted attend-
ants, were chosen as leaders, and the men promised to obey them implicitly.
To their knowledge of the country, of the tribes through which they were
to pass, but, above all, to the sense of discipline and cohesion which was
tuaintained throughout, their safe return to Zanzibar at the head of their men
must, under God's gracious guidance, be chiefl}^ attributed. They all agreed
that Cliitambo, the chief of the district, ought to be kept in ignorance of Dr.
Livingstone's decease. But the fact soon came to his knowledge ; and he
behaved with a noble consideration and generosity. He said, " You were
afraid to let me know, but do not fear any longer. I know that you have no
bad motives in coming to our land, and death often happens to travellers in
their journeys." They had previously decided that, come what might, the
body must be borne to Zanzibar ; and terrible as is the presence of a dead
body to an African, he did everything in his jDOwer to forward their melan-
choly work. The resolution which the men thus formed was simply heroic,
and showed an imaginative grasp of the interest and the bearings of the situ-
ation of which few, even among the highly cultured world, would have been
capable.
On the 2nd of May, following out a suggestion made by Cliitambo, " it
was agreed that all honours should be shown to the dead, and the customary
mourning was arranged forthwith. At the proper time, Cliitambo, leading
his people, and accompanied by his wives, came to the new settlement. He
was clad in a broad red cloth, which covered the shoulders, whilst the wrap-
ping of native cotton cloth, worn round the waist, fell as low as his ankles.
All carried bows, arrows, and spears, but no guns were seen. Two drummers
joined in the loud wailing lamentation, which so indelibly impresses itself on
the memories of peojDle who have heard it in the East, whilst the band of
servants fired volley after volley in the air, according to the strict rule of
the Portuguese and Arabs on such occasions. Early on the 3rd of May, a
special mourner arrived. He came with the anklets which are generally worn
on these occasions, composed of rows of hollow seed-vessels, fitted with
440 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
rattling pebbles, and in low monotonous chant sang, whilst he danced, as fol-
lows : —
'To-day the Englisliman is dead.
Who has different hair from ours :
Come round to see the Englishman.'
His task over, the mourner and his son, who accompanied liim in tlie cere-
mony, retired with a suitable present of beads."
The body was now to be preserved and prepared for convej'ance home.
"They say that his frame was little more than skin and bone. Through an
incision carefully made, the viscera were removed, and a quantity of salt was
placed in the trunk. All noticed one very significant circumstance in the
autopsy. A clot of coagulated blood, as large as a man's hand, lay in the
left side, whilst Farijala pointed to the state of the lungs, whicli they describe
as dried up, and covered with black and white patches. The heart, with the
other parts removed, were placed in a tin box, which had formerly contained
flour, and decently and reverently buried in a hole dug some four feet deep on
the spot where they stood. Jacob was tlien asked to read the Burial Service,
which he did in the presence of all. The body was left to be fully exposed to
the sun. No other means were taken to preserve it, beyond placing some
brand)^ in the mouth and some on the hair ; nor can one imagine for an in-
stant that any other process would have been available, either for Europeans
or natives, considering the rude appliances at their disposal. The men kept
watch day and night to see that no liarm came to their sacred charge. Their
huts surrounded the building, and had force been used to enter its strongly-
barred door, the whole camp would have turned out in a moment. Once a
day the position of the body was changed, but at no other time was any one
allowed to approach it.
" No molestation of any kind took place during the fourteen days' expo-
sure. At the end of this period preparations were made for retracing their
steps. The corpse, by this time tolerably dried, was wrapped round in some
calico, the legs being bent inwards at the knees to shorten the package. The
next thing was to plan something in which to carry it, and, in the absence
of planking or tools, an admirable substitute was found by stripping from a
Myonga tree enough of the bark in one piece to form a cylinder, and in it
their master was laid. Over this case a piece of sailcloth was sewn, and the
whole package was lashed securely to a pole, so as to be carried by two men.
" Jacob Wainwright was asked to carve an inscription on the large Moula
tree which stands by the place where the body rested, stating the name of
Dr. Livingstone, and the date of his death ; and before leaving, the men gave
strict injunctions to Chitambo to keep the grass cleared away, so as to save
it from the bush-fires which annually sweep over the country and destroy so
many trees. Besides this, they erected close to the spot two high thick posts,
THE HOMEWARD MARCH. 441
■\\ith an equally strong cross-piece, like a lintel and door-posts in form, wliicb
they painted thoroughly with the tar which was intended for the boat. Be-
fore parting with Chitambo, tliey gave hira a large tin biscuit-box, and some
newspapers, which would serve as an evidence to all future travellers that a
Avhite man had been at his village. The chief promised to do all that he
could to keep both the tree and the timber sign-posts from being touched;
but added, that he hoped the English would not be long in coming to see him,
\)ecause there was always the risk of an invasion of Mazitu, when he would
have to fly, and the tree might be cut down for a canoe by some one, and then
all trace would be lost. All was now ready for starting.
They now began their homeward march. Having formed the resolution
to transport the body to the coast, they carried it out with a courage, a steadi-
ness, a sagacit}^ which would have done honour to picked Europeans. That
nine months' march with the dead body of " the master," will live in African
story, with Livingstone's daring march across the continent ; and Susi and
Chumah will stand forth in vivid witness, whenever there is a question of the
high capacity of the African race. With a delicacy and tenderness rare, we
fear, in the homes of civilisation, the body was prepared for transport. The \
heart lies where it ought to lie, in the clods of the continent which Living-
stone so passionately loved. The body was lifted and borne tenderly by lov-
ing arms through months of hunger, toil, and danger, to find its last resting-
place among England's most honoured dead. The wisdom, the patience, the
resolution, with which the jooor Africans clung to their self-imposed, but noble
and beautiful task, reveal to the ej'es through which faith still looks forth, the
tokens of a Presence still liiglier than the master's, and the guidance of a
wiser and stronger hand.
Almost immediately after they began their journey, sickness appeared
among them. First one and then another dro^^ped out of the file, and, by
the third day of their departure, half their number were hors de combat. It
was impossible to go on. Two of the women died. It took them a mouth
to rally sufficiently to resume their journey. The first night of camping
beyond Luapula, Livingstone's faithful donkey was killed by a lion. Fot
many days they had to travel through incessant swamp and water, sleeping
at times, for the sake of a dry bed, on the hard earth of an ant-hill, rising
like an island amid the waters. At Chawende's village they had to fight for
their lives. They passed through many villages which Livingstone had al-
ready visited when jiursulng his explorations. Travelling now became easier^
As they came to the Likwa, they met a caravan bound for Fipa, to hunt ele-
phants and buy ivory and slaves. The new arrivals told them that the}' had
come strait through Unyanyembe from Bagamoyo, on the coast, and that the
Doctor's death had already been reported there by natives of Fipa. The
country here showed all the appearance of a salt-pan.
56
44.-2 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
When they reached Baula, Jacob Wainwright, the scribe of the party,
was commissioned to write an account of the distressing circumstances of the
Doctor's death ; and Chumah was requested to take three men with him, and
go forward to deliver it to Dr. Livingstone's son, and the other two English-
men, who were reported by the outward-bound caravan to be at Unyanyembe.
On October 23rd, Chumah and liis companions reached Unyanyembe. They
found that the reported arrival of Mr. Oswald Livingstone was not correct ;
but Lieutenant Cameron, Dr. Dillon, and Lieutenant Murphy, were put in
possession of the main facts of Livingstone's death. In spite of all attempts
to dissuade them from carrying the body of their dead master any fur-
ther, the men stuck to their original purpose to bear it home. Dr. Dillon
and Lieutenant Murphy quitted Cameron's party to accompany the men to
the coast. When they came to Kasekera, Dr. Dillon, suffering much from
dysentery, shot himself in his tent by means of a loaded rifle. " Some days
afterwards, as they wended their way through a i-ocky place, a little girl in
their train, named Losi, met her death in a shocking way. It appears that
the poor child was carrying a watei'-jar on her head in the file of people, when
an enormous snake dashed across the path, deliberately struck her in the thigh,
and made for a hole in the jungle close at hand. This work of a moment was
sufficient, for the poor girl fell mortally wounded. She was carried forward,
and all means at hand were applied, but in less than ten minutes the last
symptom (foaming at the mouth) set in, and she ceased to breathe."
In February, 1874, the men reached the coast. They bore their precious
burden safely to the beach at Bagamoyo ; and before many hours were over,
one of Her Majesty's cruisers convej^ed the Acting Consul, Captain Prideaux,
from Zanzibar to the spot which the cortege had reached. As the men handed
over the dead body of their master to his countrymen, five men only could
answer to the roll-call on the shore whence, eight years before, a numerous
band had followed their great leader's steps. Arrangements were quickly
made for transporting the remains of Dr. Livingstone to the Island of Zan-
zibar, some thirty miles distant ; and then the brave men learnt sadly, and
even painfully, that their work was done. Hardy and gallant spirits ! What
miserable blundering, or pitiful econoni}'' was it which forbade their following
the remains of the master whom they loved, and had served so faithfully,
and borne so bravely, to his home in England, and standing, not the least
noted and honoured mourners, by his grave among our greatest dead ? Their
heroic achievement, is, perhaps, the most striking witness to the power of
Livingstone's character and the depth of his influence; being dead, he yet
spake and wrought in these African hearts. We see that the Africans are a
race to be won by loving and wise men. If we compare the results of Living-
stone's intercourse with the peojjle, with the fruits of such martial expeditions
as "Ismalia" records — compare the fires of Masindi, and the bloody march
ADDITIONAL A CCOUNT OF LI YINGSTONE'S DBA TH. 443
to Gondokoro, with the death scene in the " Last Journals," and the heroic
march to the coast, we shall have a true key to what the two methods are
likely to accomplish for the regeneration of Africa.
We add here tlie following brief account of Livingstone's last days, from
the correspondent of the "New York Herald," because it notes one or two
circumstances of peculiar interest : — " The great traveller had been ill with
chronic dysentery for several months past, although well supplied with stores
and medicines, and he seems to have had a presentiment that this attack
would prove fatal. lie rode on a donkey at first, but was subsequently car-
ried, and thus arrived at Ilala, beyond Lake Bemba (Bangweolo), in Bisa
country, when he said to his followers, ' Build me a hut to die in.' The hut
was built by his men, who, first of all, made him a bed. It is stated that he
sulfered greatly, groaning night and day. On the third day he said, ' I am
very cold; put more grass over the hut.'
" His followers did not speak to or go near him. Chitambo, chief of
Bisa, however, sent flour and beans, and behaved well to the party. On the
fourth day Livingstone became insensible, and died about midnight. Maj-
wara, his servant was present. His last entry in the diary was April 27th.
He spoke much, and sadly, of home and family. When first seized, he told
his followers he intended to exchange everything for ivory to give to them,
and to push on to Ujiji and Zanzibar, and try to reach England. On the day
of his death these men consulted what to do, and the Nassick boys determined
to preserve the remains. They were, however, afraid to inform the chief of
Livingstone's death ; and the secretary therefore removed the body to another
hut, around which he built a high fence, to ensure privacy. Here they
opened the body, and removed the internals, which were placed in a tin box,
and buried inside the fence under a large tree. Jacob Wainwright cut an
inscription on the tree as follows : —
' Dk. Livingstone Died on May 4th, 1873;'
and superscribed the name of the head man. The body was then preserved
in salt, and dried in the sun for twelve days. Cliitambo was then informed
of Livingstone's death, upon whicli he beat drums, fired guns as a token of
respect, and allowed the followers to remove the body, which was placed in
a coffin formed of bark. The Nassick boys then journeyed to Unyanyembe
in about six months, sending an advance party with information addressed to
Livingstone's son, which met Cameron. The latter sent back a few bales of
cloth and powder. The body arrived at Unyanyembe ten days after the
advance party, and rested there a fortnight. Cameron, Murphy, and Dillon,
were together there. The latter was very ill, blind, and his mind was
afi"ected. He committed suicide at Kasekera, and was buried there. Here
Livingstone's remains were put in another bark case, smaller, done up as a
bale, to deceive the natives, who objected tc the passage of the corpse, which
4U STANLEY AND AFRICA.
was thus carried to Zanzibar. Livingstone's clothing, papers, and instruments,
accompanied the body. It may be mentioned that, when ill, Livingstone
prayed much. At Ilala, ho said, ' I am going home.' After Stanley's de-
parture, the Doctor left Unyanyembe, rounded the south end of Lake Tangan-
yika, and travelled south of Luke Bemba, or Bangweolo, crossed it south to
north, then along the east side, returning north, through marshes, to Ilala."
The Peninsular and Oriental Steamship, " Malwa," having Livingstone's
body on board, reached Southampton on Wednesday, tlio L5th of April, 1874.
Dr. Moffat, the famous African Missionary, and father-in-law of Livingstone ;
W. Oswald Livingstone, tlie Doctor's second surviving son ; Henry M. Stanley;
the Rev. Horace Waller, an old friend and fellow-traveller ; Mr. A. Laing,
of Zanzibar ; Mr. W. F. Webb, of Newstead Abbey, and Mr. James Young,
had been in Southampton since the preceding Sunday, for the pur^iose of re-
ceiving the body. Some of these gentlemen, accompanied by Admiral Hall,
went on board the ship, and were received by the officers and Mr. Thomas
Livingstone, the Doctor's eldest son, who had joined the "Malwa" at Alex-
andria. Jacob Wainwright, a squat little fellow, barely over five feet in
height, was warmly greeted by ail. The apartment in which the body lay
had been draped round with Union Jacks, and the coffin covered with the
Company's flag. With bared lieads the deputation stood round, as the chief
officer unlocked the door, and then, as each peeped into what really looked like
a neat little mortuary chapel, it was impossible not to feel that the gallant
sailor could not have done better with the means at his disposal. The short,
bulky external coffin, was found to be roughly made of native wood, stained
black, with a few uncouth attempts at ornamentation, though, no doubt, the
best that could be done at Zanzibar. There was an inner coffin, it was said,
of soldered zinc.
In the streets a procession, consisting of the Mayor and Corporation, the
friends of the deceased, the Deputation of the Geographical Society, and the
various public bodies in the town, accompanied the hearse containing the
remains to the Railway Station, where a special train was waiting to convey
it to London. While the procession was in progress, the Church bells rang a
muffled peal, and the Hants Artillery Volunteers fired minute guns from the
platform battery. At Waterloo Station, a hearse and three mourning carriages
were waiting to convey the body, and the friends of tlie deceased, to the Geo-
graphical Society's rooms in Saville Row. In the course of the evening, the
body was examined by Sir William Fergusson, who identified it as that of
Dr. Livingstone, from the ununited fracture on the left arm, caused by the
bite of a lion thirty years ago.
On Saturday, the 18th of April, the remains of Dr. Livingstone found a
resting place in Westminster Abbey — in that Valhalla of the greatest and best
of England's sons, in which there is no name more worthy of the nation's
LIVINGSTONE'S TOMBSTONE IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 445
honoui" thau that of David Livingstone — the procession and entombment of the
body being witnessed by thousands of spectators. The ceremony within tho
Abbey was observed by a vast number of people, many of whom were the
leaders in science, literature, art, and politics, throughout the land. Tho
grave is situated about the centre of the west part of the nave. The funeral
service was read by Dean Stanley. Tho pealing of tho organ, and the
musical portion of the service by the choir, added greatly to tho solemnity
of tho occasion. On tlic pall were placed wreaths and immortelles, one of
Avhich was sent by Her Majest}". On the Sunday following the funeral, the
lesson of Dr. Livingstone's life was enforced from thousands of pulpits
throughout the country. In Westminster Abbey special services were held.
In the afternoon Dean Stanley preached to a crowded congregation, and
alluded at some length, in an eloquent and impressive manner, to the services
the deceased had rendered to humanity.
Subsequently there was laid over the grave a large black marble tomb-
stone, bearing the following inscription, in gold letters: — "Brought by faith-
ful hands, over land and sea, here rests David Livingstone, Missionary, Tra-
veller, Pliilanthropist ; Born March 19th, 1813, at Blantyre, Lanarkshire;
Died May 1st, 1873, at Chitambo's Valley, Ilala. For thirty j-ears his life
was spent in an unwearied effort to evangelise the native races, to explore
the undiscovered secrets, and abolish the desolating slave-trade of Central
Africa; where, with his last words, he wrote, 'All I can do in my solitude is,
May heaven's rich blessing come down on every one — American, English,
Turk — who will help to heal this open sore of tho world.' On the right hand
edge of the stone, are the two following lines : —
' Tantus amor veri — Nihil est quod moscerc malim,
Quam Fluvii causas jjcr sa;cula tanta latciites.'
And on the left hand edge, the following text —
' Other sliQep I have, -wliicli are not of tliis folJ,
Them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice.'"
His body lies among the wisest, greatest, and noblest of our English
race, in that fair and stately shrine, where the men whom we delight to hon-
our are laid to their rest. He lies there great as the greatest
" Soldier, and priest, and statesman, around him ; when
Achieved they more 2"
But his heart sleeps, where it longed to sleep, in the forest-grave of
Africa ; and no rude hand will disturb its repose. It is recorded of the great
Douglas that, after the death of Bruce, he had his heart enclosed in a silver
446 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
casket, and hung it round his neck when he went to the wars against the
infidels in Spain. When the battle went hard against the soldiers of the
cross, he would unclasp it, and cast it far on, with the words, "Pass on, brave
heart I into the midst of the battle, as oft thou hast done — the Douglas will
follow thee, or die!" England has sent on the heart of her great traveller far
into the African wilderness. Rest thee there, great heart awhile ; thou art
not lost to us for ever. The ministries of mercy, liberty, charity, will follow
tlico — or die I
CHAPTER XXIV.
Livingstone Congo Expedition under Lieutenant Grandg — Livingstone East Coast
Aid Expedition — Lieutenant Cameron'' s Journeg from Umjangemhe to Ujiji —
Exploration of Lake Tanganyika — From Tanganyika to the West Coast and
Home.
WHEN it was supposed that Dr. Livingstone must have been in great dis-
tress in Central Africa, one of his old friends, Mr. James Young, of
Kelly, came forward, and, in the most munificent manner, offered to defray
the whole exjDenses of an expedition which should proceed up the Congo
from the West Coast, and endeavour to meet and afford relief to the great
traveller, if he sliould return to his native country by that route. Lieutenant
W. G. Grandy, R.N., was appointed Commander of the Expedition, which
left Liverpool on the 30th of November, 1872. After calling at Sierra Leone
to procure men, they proceeded to St. Paul de Loanda, where the outfit was
purchased; and finding that Arabriz would be the best place to obtain carriers
for the interior, they started for that port. After considerable difficulty in
obtaining the requisite number of men, they left on the 12 th of March, and,
passing round the east side of the swamp, proceeded in a north-easterly direc-
tion. On the 22 nd of March, they reached Bern be, where they were very
kindly received by the chief, who gave up a portion of the barracks for the
men, as well as a lock-up store for stowing away their cargoes. Bembe is
the most advanced jjort of the Portuguese, and from its command of the roads
to and from the interior, is of considerable importance.
While here, Lieutenant Grandy paid a visit to the copper mines, where
there seems still to be a considerable amount of ore. Formerly they had an
English manager here, and all requisite machinery ; but the manager died,
the persons who wrought the mines got into difficulties, and the whole plant
was eventually destroyed by fire. He also paid a visit to the caves, he says,
which are in the same valley as the mines, but a mile further to the south-east.
They are very interesting, and the rocks from which they have been scooped
form a strange feature amongst the surrounding soil of slate and shale, being
composed entirely of limestone. The entrance to the first cave is by a low
narrow jDassage, and having arrived at the end, you enter a circular vaulted
chamber, about thirty-five feet in diameter and forty feet high; beyond this
again is another chamber, nearly sixty feet in height, and also circular. lu
44S STANLEY AND AFRICA.
these caves, it is said, <lio natives deposited the copper ore tliey collected at
the mines before the Portuguese took possession. Passing round towards the
right, after emerging from the first two chambers, you enter a second cave,
of much greater extent, but not so singular in shape, the roof gradually slop-
ing to the ground. They found some few specimens of malachite in the
caves.
On the 8th of Ma}^, they left Bcmbe. " I was exceedingly sorry at part-
ing with the chief," says Grandy, " who, in his kindness to our men and
selves, has been almost as a brother. He pressed on me from his small store
some rice, wine, bread, etc., and accompanied me to the first village, where
he embraced me, and wished me God-speed and good fortune. Our men, I
am glad to state, fell in of their own free will, and one of them, acting as
spokesman for the rest, thanked the chief for his great kindness to them ; lie
seemed much moved at their expressions of gratitude, and said he had never
known black men thankfal before."
V>y the 15th of April, the expedition reached Congo, where Grandy had
an audience of the king, by whom he was received in great state, the old
kinff sittino- on a chair, under a huge state umbrella, habited in the uniform
of a Portuguese lieutenant, and surrounded by his sons and principal chiefs.
Chairs were placed for the accommodation of the strangers, and rugs and car-
pets spread in profusion ; salutations were exchanged amid a flourish of trum-
pets and tom-toms. He expressed his great joy at being visited by English-
men, and requested to bo allowed to salute them with a hundred guns ; hojjed
that they would remain a long time with him, and consider his town as their
home in that part of the world, and that many more would follow them, for
he was very fond of the white man.
" Congo," says Lieutenant Grandy, " or the San Salvador of the Portu-
guese, is situated on an elevated plateau fifteen hundred feet above the sea-
level ; it has formerly been an extensive fortified city, surrounded by a loop,
holed wall, averaging fifteen feet in height and three feet in thickness, por-
tions of which are still standing. There are also the ruins of a large church
or cathedral at the north-west portion of the town. The Portuguese held mili-
tary occupation for some years, but abandoned it in 1870, and their forts and
barracks are now ruins, completely overgrown with rank grass and shrubs.
The town is supplied with water from a beautiful spring, which issues in the
small streams from the clay soil half-way down the plateau on the east side of
the town. There are very few trees near the town ; bananas, plantains, and
fowls, are plentiful and cheap, and the farms of beans, cassava, and ground-
nuts, are well kept. There are three markets weekly held near tlie town.
The Congoese are great snuff-takers and smokers, are well clothed, and a
great many speak Portuguese ; they are dark-coloured, and of average height,
but not muscular ; indifi'erently armed with flint muskets and knives, and very
TEE KING OF CONGO. 449
fond of liuutiiig; they make free use of the knife in their quarrels, not using
it as a dagger, but giving long sweeping cuts across the back, breast, and
stomach. They are habitually lazy. The women arc decently clothed,
modest, virtuous, and exceedingly industrious. They tend the farms, look
after the house, and cook the meals, whilst the man sits quietly down and
smokes his pipe, Polygamy is general in the country, and a man is accounted
rich according to the number of his wives, who, as soon as married, select a
piece of ground, which they industriously farm, the produce being sold at the
markets for beads, cloth, etc.
*' Tiie King of Congo has two nephews, and, by the laws of the country,
one of them, who shall be the choice of the people, succeeds to the throne;
failing a nephew, the people elect a king themselves. The sons of the king
do not in any way participate, nor are they entitled to any of his property ;
but, during his lifetime, he can appoint them to chiefships of towns in his
kingdom as vacancies occur. The King of Congo commands the road from
the interior to the coast, and levies contributions on all ' chiboukas' of ivory.
He was once a very powerful chief, and, being supported by the Portuguese,
was much respected ; but since they withdrew from Congo, he has been
gradually sinking to the level of other chiefs, and, although he keeps up an
outward show of authority, he has very little i)Ovvor."
Notwithstanding the king's professions of friendship, he was utterly un-
able to secure a sufficient number of carriers to enable the expedition to pro-
secute their journey. It was not till after two months' delay that Lieutenant
Grandy was able to take his departure. Having succeeded in gathering to-
gether a sufficient number of carriers, on the 21st of June he left Congo.
"After, " he says," innumerable delays and vexations, enough to try the spirit
of any Job, we have at length succeeded in collecting and paying the carriers,
and managed at 5 r.M. to get away from Congo ; and after an easy march,
in a northerly direction, arrived at the small village of Kikembo. I began
to fear we never should get out of Congo, the disaffected people were con-
stantly bringing in reports that chiefs whose towns we were to pass had sent
word that they intended to fire upon and exterminate the whole party, and
therefore carriers had better not come with us. We went, before leaving, to
wish the king good-bye, and make him a parting present. He was very thank-
full ; and begged us to think that he was our great friend, and that ho had
done his best to get us forward ; but his people kept the carriers back by
circulating lies about the dangers of the road, and by saying that we would
eat them when we got them far away, and never allow any of them to return
to their country."
As the party continued their journey, the country improved in ap^jear-
ance, clumps of trees were met with more frequently, and the palm was
abundant. On the 2oth, they reached the town of Kilem-bella. Gi'andy
57
450 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
received an cxtraordlnaiy message from the king of this town, asking liim to
order his men to wear their trousers, as the people did not consider tlie
handkercliiefs, wliich the men usually wore on the march, sufficient clothing.
The traveller could not help smiling at this excess of modesty, but, neverthe-
less, satisfied the royal wniin. He was kept waiting an hour before admitted
to the king's presence, during which time it was evident, from his aj)pcar-
ance and manner, that his people had been priming him with palm-wine. He
was a fine, tall, muscular looking man, but being very drunk, was quite the
savage, dancing and cajiering round like a big baboon, and flourishing a rusty
old sword, declared that no man was to move out of his town under penalty
of death. The result of this was, that by 8 P. M. the carriers had all bolted
from the town, and not one was to be found. Finding he was trapped, Grandy
put the best face he could on matters, and told the king that, as they were
anxious to proceed, if he would collect the carriers without delay, he would
give him a handsome present. It was not, however, until the 5th of July,
that satisfactory terms were arranged, and the expedition left Kilem-bella.
Still going in a northerly direction, Grandy and his party passed through
several inconsiderable towns and villages ; and, having crossed the Quilo and
Louanga rivers, they at length arrived at Tungwa. " Tungwa," says our
traveller, "is by far the most populous and well-built town we have seen ; the
streets are regularly laid out and cleanly, the people are ivory traders, and
the whole place has an appearance of prosperity. Our interpreter said that
the chief had in his house chairs, tables, and every article of European manu-
facture that is traded with, and lives in comparative luxury; he looked upon
our presents as being very insignificant. The estimated population is about
sixteen hundred. The river, which rises from a fountain about eight miles to
the eastward of the town, flows round three sides of it, the fourth having a
background of hills, the slopes of which are cultivated. The banks of the
river are thickly wooded, and bananas and palm-trees abound round the town.
Since crossing the Qailo River we have noticed that the natives are smaller
in stature, and of a lighter colour, this being especially remarkable with the
Tungwa people. Banza Makouta, the residence of the king, is a large manu-
facturing town, lying in a valley to the northward of Tungwa ; it is noted for
pottery, pipes, mats, and grass-cloths. The surrounding country is very fer-
tile and well cultivated, producing sugar-cane, corn, ground-nuts, mandioca,
yams, beans, etc. ; poultry, sheep, and goats, are also plentiful. The river
Tungwa flows past the western portion of the town."
The travellers found the people of the country to be exceedingly timid,
superstitious, full of suspicion, and always imagining evil of them ; although
they acted in the most straightforward manner, concealed nothing of theii- in-
tentions, and mixed freely with them, in order to accustom them to the white
man. It was thoroughly believed at Tungwa that they had come to find out
MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. 451
about the ivory trade, and look for copper and silver at Sundi and Opombo,
as the Portuguese had done at Bembe.
" The marriage customs are rather peculiar. As soon as a young man has
built himself a house, and can assure the parents of the girl that he has suffi-
cient money to keep a wife, he can marry. Girls are betrothed at their birth,
and the intended husband continues to make presents to the parents, and give
clothes to the girl, until she arrives at tlie age of puberty, when she is handed
over to him. In the event of a married man dying, if he has a younger
brother, his estate and wives are handed over to him ; if there is no brother,
the wives go back to their parents, and the children are supported by the
deceased man's family, and his property sold. They keep no account of the
children's ages after they are two years old. A man is not allowed by ' fetish'
to cohabit with his wife after the birth of a child until it can walk alone. In
every village there is what is called a young man's house. When a boy is
about eleven or twelve yeai's old, he leaves his parents' house for this place
(only returning for his meals), wliere he lives with the other young men till
he marries. When chiefs are in mourning they never wash their faces; and,
according to the degree of relationship, the period extends from tluee to twelve
months. Pawning is carried on very extensively; a man will pawn his child,
his gun, or his knife, to procure cloth or beads when hard up, and, if the pawn-
broker does not choose to demand repayment, with interest, of what he has
advanced, the property becomes his absolutely. Palm-trees are abundant, and
average five bunches of fruit, equal to a gallon of oil, without taking into
account the nuts, and bear two crops annually. This is all wasted — they
say it is too much trouble to make it — and they are quite content with what
they make by their ground-nuts. The country, fi-om this to tlie north and
east, is more open, the valleys are not so deeply undulating, tlie soil is rich,
and, under cultivation, capable of producing anytliing."
On the 29th of August, they reached Congo, having been deserted by
the carriers three times on the road. Here they found a wretched state of
things; the king very ill, half the town dead, and everything looking very
desolate ; houses nearly all shut up. Tlie men had disajipeared, and the
women wandered about the town, neglecting their farms and plantations.
The town had been almost cleared out by small-pox. It was not till the 10th
of October, owing to the great mortality amongst the carriers, that they
were enabled to make a start from Congo for Banza Noki, where they arrived
on the 22nd of the same month, having had great trouble with the carriers on
the road. Eventually these carriers deserted them at Banza Vokay, and they
were compelled to employ fresh ones to reach the river. At Lucango, on the
river, they found themselves among friends, Mr. Pardo, of Boma, having a
factory at this place. They paid some visits to the neighbouring kings to
arrange carriers, but they all stated that the season was too far advanced.
45-2 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
the rains had already commenced, and they could not supply men until they
were over. Finding, after repeated attempts, that nothing could be done,
they commenced prepai'ing their winter quarters at this place ; but subse-
quently they were compelled to go down the river to Mussuco, where they
remained until the 10th of April.
Speaking of the River Congo, Lieutenant G randy says, " The Congo,
which is one of the grandest rivers of the universe, and still unexplored, is
navio-able for steamers to a distance of a hundred and ten miles from its mouth
even in the dry season ; it floods twice annually, the first and great rise taking
lilacc from 10th December to 23rd December, the second from the first week
in March till nea-'-ly the end of June. In 1873, it only rose nine feet six inches
with the first flooding, and two feet with the second. A very low run M'as
expected at the end of August of this year (1874), owing to the small quan-
tity of rain which fell. There are hundreds of canoes on the river, some of
them callable of carrying three tons of cargo ; and a very large trade in nuts
and oil is carried on with them between 13oma and the towns and markets
above the factories. The natives are very skilful in the handling of their
canoes, yet a great number of lives are lost annually through the swamj^ing
of their frail craft by whirlpools. They stand to jiaddle, singing the while;
the larger canoes have two men to steer and six to paddle. They choose the
early morning for descending the river, when there is no wind. The fisher-
men use nets shaped like a spoon ; they select dark nights for their work,
one man holding a lighted brand over the water, whilst the others dip up the
fish, attracted by the glare, with the net."
On the 17th of April, while still waiting on the Congo for the recur-
rence of the proper season to renew the attempt to proceed, for which arrange-
ments were now completed, the expedition heard with profound sorrow of the
death of Dr. Livingstone ; and Lieutenant Grandy, having received a letter
of recall from the Royal Gecgraphical Society, at once made i^reparations for
returning to England, deepl}^ regretting the idea of leaving his work un-
finished when all seemed so full of promise.
After Grandj'^'s return, he attended, on December 14th, 1874, a meeting
of the Geographical Society, when a report of his expedition was presented.
At that meeting, he said that it was almost an impossibility to obtain any
information about the interior from the natives, who are excessively suspicious
of Europeans. Immediately a question is put to them, they imagine that
there is some sinister motive connected with it, and either evade giving an
answer, pr tell a palpable untruth. The oidy traders are those who travel
with large caravans fromZombo, crossing the Congo somewhere in the neigh-
bourhood of Sundi, and advancing towards the Manyuema country. It was
evident that they are accustomed to encounter considerable opposition, because
they travel from five hundred to eight hundred strong, all armed. They
Tllh: EAST COAST EXPEDITION. 453
make their trip once a year, going and returning in the dry season. He met
one such caravan of five hundred, wliilst staying at Congo, and questioned
them particularly about the interior, but could get no satisfactory answers.
So long as an expedition is dependent upon the natives for carriers, failure
must ensue. Carriers should be obtained at Sierra Leone, or some other port
on the coast, and should be well armed. Unless such precautions were taken,
it was impossible to penetrate into the interior.
At t)ie same meeting, Sir Henry C. Rawlinson, the President of the
Society, said that, with regard to Lieutenant Grandy, he was sure the meet-
ing would return him tlieir very best thanks. Tliat he had not been more
successful in his attempt, was owing to no fault of his. He did all that a man
could do under the circumstances, but he met with the greatest possible diffi-
culties. He had gone over a good deal of new country, and the results of
his observations were of very great value. It really did seem as if it were
an absolute imjiossibility to pass into the interior to the south of the Congo,
unless the expedition were supported by independent porters and attendants.
Lieutenant Grandy, failing on the south side, had crossed over to the north,
and with better hopes of success, and was on the point of proceeding into
the interior, having made his arrangements for doing so, when he received
the letters recalling him.
When the Livingstone Aid Expedition was appointed to go to the great
traveller's relief by way of the West Coast and Congo, another was appointed
to proceed from the East Coast into the interior, under the command of Lieu-
tenant Lovett Cameron, R. N. This expedition unfortunately soon got into
difficulties, and when they reached Unyanyembe, they were detained there,
and in the neighbourhood, for some time, on account of the disturbed state of
the country, and the bad health of the European leaders. When they heard
the tidings of Dr. Livingstone's death, the party disbanded themselves; but
Lieut, Cameron continued the journey to Ujiji, to obtain the eff"ect3 of Living-
stone, and afterwards prosecuted his explorations on his own account, though
under the auspices of the Royal Geographical Society. After leaving Unyan-
yembe, ho selected a route to the soutli of that of Captain Burton, and to the
north of Mr. Stanley's route, which enabled him to explore a previously un-
known tract, and to make discoveries connected with the basin of the Mala-
garazi, the most important eastern tributary of Lake Tanganyika.
In the beginning of January, 1874, the expedition came to the River
Ngombe, and encamped on its west bank. The country was lovely, except
for its extreme flatness, with open glades of bright-green grass, interspersed
with numerous clumps of trees and shrubs. Water-lilies were abundant, and the
views of the reaches, with green turf down to the water's edge, and trees, dis-
posed as if planted by a landscape gardener, were enchanting. Most of the trees
grew on little eminences or ant-hills, but some on the water's edge, w'ith their
454 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
branches dipping in the stream. Tlicy crossed this river on January 5th, at
a place were there was a dry sandbank, about forty or fifty feet wide, and
sixteen or eighteen abov6 water. After very heavy rains the country around
is flooded for some ten or fifteen miles, and this road is then impassable.
The Ngombe begins near Unyanyembe and runs south south-westerly, curv-
ing very much, and falls into the Malagarazi. All the people in this district
seemed well armed, a large proportion having muskets. Their villages are
built in a mass of the thickest jungle, which is rendered more so artificially
by plantations of the milk bush. They are fond of umbrellas ; and it was an
amusing sight to see a man without a stitch of clotliing, except on his head,
where he had i)laced his loin cloth, holding up an umbrella, there being neither
sun nor rain to call for it.
Westward of the Ngombe, in the country of Ugara, the dead level con-
tinues for many miles, and then gradually rises toward a high range of hills.
Here the river Mtumbo, rising in the southern part of Utendi, drains tho
eastern slopes, receiving many smaller streams and brawling torrents of
beautifully clear water, and uniting with the Sindy close to its junction with
the Malagarazi. The two rivers, Mtumbo and Sindy, discovered and explored
by Cameron, are thus, with the Ngombe, the principal southern feeders of
the Malagarazi. On the 17th, Cameron notes an amusing incident in his jour-
nal : — " Some of the men have been ti-ying to take a hive of bees, but all the
combs had grubs in them, and there was no honey. To see a couple of men,
almost naked, up in a tree hacking and pulling at the trunk, surrounded by
swarms of bees, and only stopping occasionally to pull the stings out, but
apparently not fearing them a bit, was to me a marvellous sight : their skins
must be like that of the honey guide, almost impervious."
West of the river Mtumbo the country is more broken, but fertile and
well wooded. The soil is red loam. Often the trees are red half-way up,
from the earth carried up by the ants in forming their galleries. This is the
country of Uveiida. The course of the expedition now was tlirough a moun-
tainous region, with precipitous slopes of granite rock, and hills clothed with
trees to their summits. Cameron ascended to the summit-ridge of this range,
whence there was a splendid view stretching over rocky hills, expanses of
emerald plain, and masses of sombre forest. Here the villages are built on
the tops ot; precipices, or among the rocks, on account of the foray's of slave-
dealers, both Arab and Wavinza. Every village headman claims independ-
ence. The villages are all small ; the largest not containing more than
sevent}' or eighty men, and the smaller ones running down to five or six.
All the country here was well populated some few years ago, but the slave-
trade has depopulated it almost entirely. The people are mostly large in
size, and brown in colour, tattooed extensively, and with very little clothing ;
what they have consisting either of skins or bark cloth. The little food the
M ODES OF SA L UTA TION. 4 5 5
travellers obtained from them, the people said they allowed, because it was a
white man's caravan ; but they would sooner destroy the food, they said, than
sell it to the Arabs.
On the 2nd of February, the travellers crossed the river Sindy on a
natural grass-bridge, so firm as to appear solid ground, the river being a
hundred yards wide, and the growth forming a natural bridge about half a
mile long. It was quite easy, Cameron says, and nothing dangerous, as he
had been led to expect. Part of the middle was so firm, that one might have
thought one was on proper ground, more especially as earth had lodged on
the top of the grass, and ferns were growing there. However, there was the
water underneath, as he shoved a stick through to see ; and they say the
hippopotami pass underneath from one end to another. The hill-country
ends at the left bank of the Sindy, forming bluffs and capes that rise out of
the plain. On reaching the Malagarazi at the village of Ug.iga, which he
found to be three thousand and foi'ty-eight feet above the sea, Cameron came
upon the i-oute traversed by Burton and Speke in 1858, which route he fol-
lowed to Lake Tanganyika.
At Ugaga the chief paid Cameron a visit. " The Mutwari or chief," he
says, " here, rather amused me. He came to pay me a visit, and I was
lying down, and had taken off my boots and stockings; I sat up on the bed
and made room for him, and showed him guns, revolver, etc., and pictures in
natural history book, when he suddenly caught hold of my toes, and began
to examine them. He said he did not think my feet were made for walking,
they were too white and soft; and after that, he transferred his attention to
ray hands, which cei'tainly could not be called white, as they are tui*ned to
the colour of a dirty dog-skin glove ; however, he came to the conclusion
that I was a big chief, as I did not seem to have done much hard work. The
mode of salutation here is very ceremonious. First, two chiefs meeting,
the junior bends his knees, and places the palms of his hands on the ground
on each side of his feet, whilst the senior claps his hands six or seven times.
They then change rounds, and then the junior slaps himself, first under the
left arm-pit with the riglit-hand, and then under the right arm-pit with the
left hand. A chief and commoner do the same, except the second part. Two
commoners meeting, clap their bellies, then clap hands at each other, and
finally shake hands. They keep this up to an unlimited extent, so that the
sound of clapping hands is alwaj^s going on. I find all the people very
friendly, but bitter against the Arabs. I chaff them, and laugh at them when
I find a large crowd staring ; and they laugh also, and seem to enjoy the fun.
They like to have a look, but are not obtrusive, and will go away at once if
asked to do so ; they are a great deal better behaved than the people would
be in an English village, if a black man came travelling about in the same
way there. Some of the patterns of tattooing here are wonderfully compli-
45G STANLEY AND AFRICA.
cated and pretty ; the mother of the chief, especially, is decorated most ex-
tensively. No colouring matter is used, but the patterns are formed of small
cuts, like cupping cuts." ^
Thus far Cameron had discovered and explored, in this first part of his
journey, the principal southern feeders of the River Malagarazi, and an im-
portant range of mountains along the left bank of the river Sindy. His woik
there completed the examination of this part of the Malagarazi basin, and is
an important contribution to our knowledge of African geography. He ob-
tained his first sight of Lake Tanganyika " on the very same da}' in February
that Burton discovered it just sixteen years before; and reached Ujiji the
next day, being the 22nd of February, 1874. "After marching," he says,
about two hours and a half, I got my first sight of Tanganyika, but it was so
cloudy and gloomy that the view was not particularly good ; it is, however,
a grand sheet of water, and the mountains on the western side seem very
fine. After another two hours' march, part of which was over a flat, intersected
in every direction by hippopotamus-paths, we arrived at wlicre the canoes
were. They are fine large boats, and the men pull instead of paddling ; how-
ever, the joaddlcs are so short, that the stroke is almost like that ofapaddler."
On arriving at Ujiji, ho found that travelling on the other side was impracti-
able for two months to come, and so he resolved to sjiend his time in a cruise
round the lake.
One of the most interesting problems which remained to bo solved in
connection with African Geography was in connection with Lake Tanganyika.
Burton found the water of this lake to be deliciously sweet ; yet a careful
investigation led him to the boliof that it receives and absorbs the whole
river system of that portion of the Central African depression wliose water-
shed converges towards the great reservoir. He ascertained that the Rusizi
flowed into the lake at the northern, and the Marungu at the southern extre-
mity, while, on the eastern side, he had himself descended the incline for two
hundred and forty miles, until he came to the shores of the lake, and liad seen
that the Malagarazi and other rivers flowed into it. He, tlierofoi-c, conjectured
that Tanganyika had no outlet, suggesting that it maintains its level by an
exact balance of supply and evaporation, and that the freshness of its waters
is accounted for by the saline particles deposited in them being wanting in
some constituent which renders the salt evident to the taste. But the un-
certainty gave rise to endless discussion, and the solution of the question was
certainly one of the most important achievements which remained for future
African explorers. Some geogi'aphers maintained that the Rusizi flowed out
of the north end of the lake, and that consequently Tanganyika was the main
source of the Nile ; others suggested that the outlet was from the eastern
side, and that the waters were carried to the Indian Ocean ; while a third
school contended that the lake had no outlet.
CA ME RON A T TA NGA A' YIKA . 457
Livingstone added to Burton's knowledge of the subject. Hut the health
of the great explorer was completely worn out when he reached the soutliern
extremity of the lake in April, 18G7 ; and little reliance can be placed on his
observations, as he says that his head was out of order at the time. In March,
1869, he jjassed along tlie west coast of the lake, at a time when he was again
suffering from illness ; and during tlie fourteen hours of March 7th, making
the voyage against a head wind, and most of the time in darkness, he appears
to have passed that part of tlie coast where the outlet actually is. He crossed
the lake to Kasenge Island in July, 1869 ; and then he seems to have held
the opinion that it had no outlet ; for he says, were it not for the current,
the water would be salt. In November, 1871, he had not the slightest doubt
that the lake discharged somewhere, and says that the outlet is probably by
the Rogumba River into the Lualaba.
The question was thus left in a complete state of uncertainty, and the
larger portion of the lake was unsurveyed and unvisited when Cameron
reached its shores. After much difficulty he secured two suitable canoes, and
fitted one with mast and sail. He marked a lead-line up to sixty-five fathoms,
and contrived a waggon-roof awning for the stern sheets of the boat. The
larger canoe received the name of the " Betsy;" the smaller one, serving as a
tender, was christened the " Pickle. " Two guides were hired, who had a
knowledge of the lake, and the little expedition started in the afternoon of
the 13th of March, 1874. He shaped his course to the southward, along the
east coast of the lake, and describes the portion between Ujiji and the Cape
of Kabogo as very beautiful. The red cliffs and hanging woods reminded
him of Mount Edgecombe, at Plymouth. Tlie gorges and ravines were full
of trees, with red shingly beaches at intervals. The canoe-men could not be
induced to leave the shore, nor even to cross a bay from point to point,
through fear of the waves, so that they coasted along round every indenta-
tion, and while causing much delay, at the same time enabled a most complete
and detailed survey to be made.
Livingstone and Stanley had coasted along this side of the lake as far as
Urimba, where there is a great bay ; and the completely new work of Cameron
commenced at the Cape of Kungwe, which he rounded on the 23rd of March.
It was off Kungwe that he was first informed that a river, called the Lukuga,
on the opposite side, flowed out of the lake. Owing to the two shores over-
lapping to the south, it appeared like the extremity of the lake. Torrents
flowed down the sides of the hills, looking like silver threads dividing the
dark-green slopes ; and the opposite shore was much nearer, the width not
being more than fifteen miles. Cameron was several times attacked by fever,
was even delirious at one time, constantly in pain from boils and other ail-
ments, and in great discomfort. At Kinyori, he says: — "Very heavy rain
in the night, and very miserable, as everything got wet. I got on a water-
58
458 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
proof, and surveyed the dismal ruins — bed, books, chart, guns, and all flooded.
I put my head between my knees after having gathered what I could under
the cover of the waterproof, and sat like an old hen on a brood of chickens."
After this miserable night, he quietly observes — " I suppose it is good for
me to have these little bothers, as if everything went smooth there would be
little to do." Next day the canoes rounded Cape Kalewyi, about the nar-
rowest part of the lake.
" The results of his observations up to this point impressed Cameron
very strongly with the opinion that there must be an outlet to the lake. He
had seen such an amount of water flowing into it, that it seemed to him im-
possible to dispose, of all the surplus by evaporation. Besides which, so many
streams flow through salt soils that, if the water were disposed of by evapor-
ation, the lake would be as salt as brine. On the 28th, the canoes passed
through the strait between the island of Katogo and the mainland, across
the entrance of which a bar had formed. The island is well cultivated, and
fan-palms are numerous, the fruit of which is eaten ; but the peopLi do
not make toddy. On the opposite shore, at Ras Kafeesa, the village is
approached by a long canal in the rushes, and is populous and extensive.
The coast-line still trends to the eastward into a deep bay. This place seems
to be a centre of some trade with the Arabs in ivory and slaves, and the
people have cattle and plenty of provisions. The name of the village is
Karyangwina.
" On April 3rd, Cameron encamped at the mouth of a river called the
Musamwira, which he found to be the drain of the Likwa into the Tangan-
yika. His observations agree with those of Dr. Livingstone, that the lake is
encroaching along the eastern shore. The spit and shoal at the mouth of the
Musamwira occupy a spot where, a few years ago, there was a large village;
and a group of islands farther south was said to have been part of the
mainland within living memory. The discovery of the Musamwira, and that
it is the drain of the lake of Likwa, is noteworthy, inasmuch as it is an im-
portant link in the chain of evidence relating to Tanganyika hydrography.
On the 7th, Cameron reached the point where Livingstone first sighted this
part of the lake during his last journey. This promontory is formed of
enormous blocks of granite, overgrown with trees in the cracks and crevices.
A few days afterwards, on the 14th, the southern extremity of the lake
came in sight. There the islands are numerous off the shore, and the
scenery increased in beauty. The traveller thus describes it: — ' On the
outer side of Pulungu Island, the rocks are in enormous masses, scattered
and piled in the most fantastic manner, the whole overgrown with trees
jutting out from every crevice, whence hang green creepers, fifty or sixty
feet long. Through the festooning fringe thus formed, glimpses are caught
of dark hollows and caves. The scene appeared either as if designed for
THE RIVER LUKUGA, 459
testing the ca2;)abilities of a stereoscope, or else for some grand transform-
ation scene in a pantomime, and one almost expects the rocks to open, and
sprites and fairies to come out. As one pauses to look at the wondrous sight,
all is still, not a sign of life. Suddenly the long creepers begin to move, a
flash of brown, another and another, and there is a troop of monkeys swing-
ing themselves along. They stop and hang by one paw to chatter and gibber
at the sti'ange sight of a boat ; a shout, and they are gone. The glorious
lake, with its heaving bosom, lies bathed in trojoical sunshine, or darkened by
some passing squall.'
"The southern extremity of the lake was reached on the 17th. The
shore was lined with high cliffs, having all the appearance of ruined ram-
parts. On the 21st, the explorer reached Akahenga, one of the largest vil-
lages he had seen in Africa, and, shaping his course to the northward, he
commenced the examination of the western side of the lake. Two days after
he passed the mouth of the River Runangwa, between very high rocky hills,
covered with trees to their summits. The Runangwa was about eighty miles
from the southern end of the lake, and on the western shore. On the 26th,
the canoes sailed along a coast where there was much cultivation and small
villages without stockades, showing that the country enjoyed more quiet than
on the eastern side. After rounding Bas Tembwe the hills began to disap-
pear, and the land became low, the points being inconspicuous. On the 2nd
of May a river was approached, called the Lukuga. The next day, Cameron
entered this river, which he found flowing out of the lake, but which was
much obstructed by grass, so that the navigation was difficult. The chief who
was with him said that the river flowed from the lake into the Lualaba, and
that hii people travel for a month by it on their way to Nyangwa to trade.
" Cameron descended the Lukuga for five miles, and found it to be from
three to five fathoms deep, and five hundred to six hundred yards wide. Here
he was stopped by grass, but the chief said that a way for small canoes could
be cut through it. The Lukuga is a mile and a half wide at the entrance.
Grassy sand-banks, extending from the north side, leave only a clear entrance
at the south end, where there is a bar, or, more properly, a silt of nine feet,
on which the surf beats pretty heavily at times. Over the silt the water
immediately deepens to four or five fathoms. Five miles down the river,
and close to the obstructing grass, the depth was three fathoms. The canoe
was anchored inside the silt out of the wind, and she swung round quickly
to a current flowing out of the lake. Bits of wood thrown into the water
showed that the current was flowing out at a little over a knot an hour. There
had, however, been heavy breezes for some time up the lake from the south,
and for part of the time the wind was blowing right up the Lukuga. But
the traveller did not believe that the wind could set the current back to such
an extent; for he saw great pieces of drift wood, twenty to thirty feet long,
460 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
floating from the lake down the river until they disappeared in the obstruct-
ing grass. Another remarkable circumstance was, that whereas in all other
rivers flowing into the lake the water was perfectly sweet, in the Lukuga
the water had exactly the same taste as that of the lake, which he describes
as not salt, but peculiar. The coast consists of marsh and low flat plains,
with some small openings, with deep water in places, shoals, sand-banks, and
long grass inside. Cameron formed the opinion that this low, swampy bit
of coast, was formed of all the drift matter of the lake, gravitating toward its
outlet, and then, there not being a fair passage for it, forming the bank and
morass."
The traveller arrived at Kasenge on the 6th; crossed the lake where the
width was twenty -four miles, on the 7th ; and arrived at Ujiji on the 9tli,
after an absence of eighty-eight days. The most interesting part of this
survey was the discovery of the Lukuga outlet. Our explorer's strictly
geographical work, up to this time, may be summed up as follows : — He had
discovered and explored two of the chief southern tributaries of the Mala-
garazi, and the chain of mountains on the right bank of the Sindy ; he had
finally fixed the height (two thousand seven hundred and ten feet) of Lake
Tanganyika above the sea, by observation of the mercurial barometer; he
had explored and made a careful compass survey, checked by meridianal
altitudes, of five hundred and sixty miles of coast-line round the southern end
of Lake Tanganyika ; be had discovered the drain which connects the Likwa
with the Tanganyika, and had fixed its position ; and he had discovered the
outlet from Lake Tanganyika. In the words of Mr. Markham, whose summary
of Cameron's explorations we have just given, " Lieut. Cameron has thus
done most valuable and distinguished service to geographical science. He
has proved himself to be an able, a diligent, and a careful explorer, undaunted
by dangers, not to be deterred by illness or hardship, and admirably adapted,
by his tact and kindness, for the management of natives."
In March, 1874, Cameron left Ujiji with the view of tracing down the
outlet from Tanganyika to Lualaba, pursuing its course, supposing it to be
the Congo, as far as the Western Coast of Africa. For a year and eight
months nothing wp-s beard of the brave young ofiicer ; a cloud of darkness
hung over him. Neither Stanley, nor any traveller or trader had been able
to send home a gleam of good news about the unseen explorer, when sud-
denly, as is the way with African intelligence, a message reached our shores
at the close of 1875, saying that he had turned up, safe and sound, on the
West Coast ; being the only Englishman, except Dr. Livingstone, who ever
crossed the African continent from sea to sea. His telegram to the President
of the Royal Geographical Society ran thus : — ■" Loauda, Monday, Nov. 22. —
Turned up all safe ; forced by adverse circumstances to abandon Congo route,
but have followed water beds between Zambesi and Congo." The following
CAMERON ARRIVES AT THE WEST COAST. 461
message was also telegraphed by Her Majesty's Consul at Loanda to the
Foreign Office : — " Lieutenant Cameron, R.N., Livingstone East Coast Central
African Expedition, arrived in Loanda on the 19th of November. Came out
at Benguela, all well."
The following report of the third meeting of the Royal Geographical
Society, for the session of 1875-6, which was held on the 10th of January,
1876, in the hall of the University of London, for the purpose of hearing
read letters which had boon received from the brave ex2:»lorer on the subject
of his journey from Lake Tanganyika to the West Coast, will put our readers
in possession of all the facts of the journey as yet known. The chair was
taken by Major-General Sir Henry Rawlinson ; and there were also present
the Portuguese Ambassador, Sir Rutherford Alcock, Colonel Grant, Rev.
Horace Waller, and a very large attendance of members.
The Chairman, in opening the meeting, said: — " It is my pleasing duty
this evening to congratulate the fellows of this Society upon the result of one
of the most arduous and successful journeys which has ever been performed
into the intei'ior of the African continent. It is a further source of congratu-
lation that this geographical feat has been accomplished by an Englishman —
by one with whom the members of this Society are well acquainted, and who
has been acting under the auspices of the Royal Geographical Society. I
need hardly explain to you that I allude to the wonderful journey which has
just been accomplished by Lieutenant Cameron across the entire breadth of
the African Continent. You will remember that Lieutenant Cameron pro-
ceeded, in the first instance, to Africa on behalf of the Livingstone Search and
Relief Expedition. After Dr. Livingstone's death he undertook an explor-
ation on his own account, under the auspices of this Society, and we have
already had occasion to communicate his first important discovery — that of
an outlet from Lake Tanganyika, flowing apparently to the great Lualaba of
Livingstone. All these circumstances will be in your recollection from tlie
proceedings of last year. You may remember the last announcement which
I made in reference to Lieutenant Cameron, that he had left Ujiji in March,
1874, with the view of tracing down the outlet from Tanganyika to Lualaba,
pursuing its course, supposing it to be the Congo, as far as the Western Coast
of Africa.
" In the anniversary address which I delivered to the Society last May, I
find I stated that there was no concealing the fact that this projected journey
of Lieutenant Cameron, on which he had then entered with little preparation
except an ardent desire to exj^lore Africa, was one of extreme danger, and
that if he should, indeed, succeed, single-handed as he was, in crossing the
African continent through a country unknown, and beset by Mild and hostile
tribes, he would have accomplished a feat unparalleled in the annals of geo-
graphical discovery, and take his place in the first rank of African explorers.
4G2 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Now, he has not carried out the programme in its entirety: he has not followed
down the course of the Lualaba to the coast, but he has fairly crossed the
continent of Africa; and in making that transit he has traversed twelve hun-
dred miles of entirely new country. He has further been able to make a
series of most extensive and elaborate observations. He has laid down —
what we have now for the first time — a sound geographical basis for further
observations. I mention these facts to enable you to appreciate the extent
and value of the observations which he has made. Up to the present time we
have depended for our knowledge of the geography of Central Africa upon
one sino-le lunar observation. Now, Lieutenant Cameron has registered
nearly four hundred lunar observations, many of them very fine. No less
than one hundred and sixty lunar observations were made on one spot; con-
sequently he has accomplished what I before stated to be a sound geogra
phical basis for the future exploration of Africa. The chairman concluded by
saying that Lieutenant Cameron had also sent them an instalment of his
maps and observations, and that after the reading of his letters he would
read to them a statement from Mr. Keith Johnstone, comparing the geogra-
phical information we had before these researches with that we now pos-
sess."
Letters, of which the following are the principal portions, were then
read, the places referred to being pointed out on maps which were exhi-
bited : —
"British Consulate, Loanda, Nov. 22, 1875.
" My Dear Sir — " I have the honour to report the safe arrival of the
Livingstone East Coast Expedition at the West Coast. Letters which I wrote
and forwarded long ago, and overtook again, accompany this, and also a
tracing of part of my route, some sections and miscellaneous papers which I
made out in the interior. I am not able to write much now, as I am only
recovering from an attack of scurvy which came on the day I reached Katom-
bela, or Catumbella, according to Portuguese. M}' thermometers are all
right; of course, they must be re-tested at Kew when I return. I must
stop here till it is warmer weather in England, as, though I want much to
revisit the dear old mother country, it is no use for the sake of a month or
two risking being ill again. The interior is mostly a magnificent and healthy
country, of unspeakable richness. I have a small specimen of good coal ;
other minerals, such as gold, copper, iron, and silver, are abundant; and I
am confident that with a wise and liberal (not lavish) expenditure of capital,
one of tlie greatest systems of inland navigation in the world might be uti-
lised, and in from thirty to thirty-six months begin to repay any enterpris-
ing capitalists that might take the matter in hand. Whilst I am here I
intend to work, and therefore keep my journals, sketches, etc., so that when
I return to England the work will be in a forward state.
CAMERON'S LETTERS. 463
'' I have two private letters here which say that the Society had declared
its willingness to be answerable for the expenses incurred and to be incurred
by the expedition, and that a fund had been raised by subscription on my
behalf, or rather on behalf of the expedition. I risked everything, put all
down on the turn of the die. I said the British public and the Society will
never desert any one who tries to do his best, and I am proud and happy to
think that my confidence has not been misplaced, and that, beginning with
Her Most Gracious Majesty, all England has taken an interest in the work
to which I hope to devote my life. Another expedition I should be able to
carry out with twice the comfort and half the expenditure of this one. *Nut;-
megs, *coffee, *semsem, *ground-nuts, *oil-palms, the *mpafu (an oil-produc-
ing tree), *rice, wheat, cotton, all the productions of Southern Europe,
*Indiarubber, *copal, and *sugar-cane, are the vegetable productions which
may be made profitable. Those marked with an asterisk exist there nov/,
and wheat is cultivated successfully by the Arabs, as well as onions, and
fruit-trees brought from the coast. A canal of from twenty to thirty miles
across a flat level country would connect the two great systems of the Kongo
and the Zambesi, water in the rains even now forming a connecting link be-
tween them. With a capital of from £1,000,000 to £3,000,000 to begin
with, a great company would have Africa open, as I say, in about three
years, if properly worked. What the diplomatic diflSculties might be, I of
course cannot say, but I expect they would be far greater than the physical
ones.
** I remain. Dear Sir,
" Yours truly,
" V. LovETT Cameron."
"Sha Kelembe, on River Lumeji, Lovaie. Lat. 11° 31' S.,
Long. 20^ 24' E., Sept. 7, 1875.
" Dear Sir — I have to request that you will report to the President and
Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society the near approach of the expe-
dition under my command to the West Coast.
" I suppose you have long ago received my maps and letters from Ujiji,
so now will give a cursory statement of my work since then. First, from
Ujiji I went to Nyangwe, by what I suppose was nearly the same route as
that which Dr. Livingstone followed. I found that he had placed Nyangwe
ninety miles too far to the west, and that thence the Lualaba, far from leav-
ing its westing and turning to the north, really leaves its northing and turns
to the west. Farther down in its course it was reported to flow W.S.W.
Some of the Arabs had been far away to the N.N.E., into Ulegga, and had
464 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
heard of Egyptian traders from the natives, but had beard nothing of the
Albert Nyanza, tliough some of them knew of it wlien I asked about it, from
previous journeys to Karague, etc. I am disposed to think that it is much
smaller than it is drawn by Sir Samuel Baker. A river, said to be as large
as the Lualaba at Nyangwe, joins it a sliort way farther down from the north-
ward, besides other important rivers from the northward ; possibly this river
(the Lowa) may be the lower course of the Buri, The Lualaba at Nyangwe
is only one thousand four hundred feet above the sea, or five hundred below
the Nile at Gondokoro, and lies in the centre of an enormously wide valley,
which receives the drainage of all this part of Africa, and is the continuation
of the valleys of the Luapula and the Lualaba. I tried hard to get canoes at
Nyangwe, but without avail.
"I believe much of the trouble arose from my own people, who were
thoroughly funked by the stories of the Arabs and Wamerima there; and
after some time spent in vain attempts to get boats, I went with Hamed ibn
Hamed (alias Tipo-tipo), who had come to Nyangwe from his permanent
cam 23 to settle a war between the Nyangwe traders and Russuua — a chief, who
was a friend of his — to his camp to try and work my way from there to a
lake, Sankorra, of which I had also heard at Nyangwe, into Avhich the Lua-
laba falls, to which trouser-weariug traders are reported to come in large
sailing boats, to buy palm oil and dust packedin quills — which may be gold
dust. However, when I arrived at Tipo-tipo's camp, the chief on the other
bank of the Lomami, to whom I sent to ask leave to cross his territories (as
he had not previously allowed Tipo-tipo to go into his country), refused me
a passage, saying that if I came there he would make war against me. Find-
ing this road blocked, I set oflp to the southward with three Warua guides,
given me by Tipo-tipo, for Kasongo's (who is the big chief of all Urua, and
to whose town Portuguese traders were rejDorted to come), in the hope of
being able to make a road from there to the lake. When I arrived at Kasongo's
(Kuema) I found there an Arab, Jumah ibn Salim (Jumah Merikani), who
was most kind and hospitable to me ; and a black trader hailing from Bihe,
called Jose Antonio Alviz, who said, when I first arrived, that he wanted to
start in fourteen or fifteen days, but that some of his men were away with
Kasongo making war, and that, as I wanted to go and see some lakes near,
he would wait a month. I set ofi" then, and visited Mohrya, a small lake
which is fed by the rains, and is ajjparently isolated from the rest of the water
system, receiving only the drainage of a small basin, and sending out no
river, but which is interesting, as there are regular lake villages (like those in
'Realmah') on it. On my return from Mohrya, Alviz said he was still waiting
for Kasongo, so I set otf to try and reach Kassali (or Kikonja) and Kowamba,
two lakes on the true Lualaba, but I was not allowed to cross the Lovoi, and
liad to be contented with a distant view of the Kassali. On my return 1
LIOM HUNTING AT NIGHT
DELAYS IN THh JOURNEY 4(35
found that Kasongo had been and gone away again, and had left orders for
people to go to him when I arrived, as he said he wanted to see me. Alviz
I found with all his loads packed, and he said he was only waiting for the
return of Kasongo to start at once ; saying, that when Kasongo arrived, two
or three days would be required to take leave of him, and then he was going
to Bihe as fast as possible, as he was short of stores. He first of all said he
did not want to make any agreement with me, as he was the same as a
European, and that whatever he said was true, although in the sequel I found
him to be the most pei'sistent and causeless teller of falsehoods that it has
ever been my luck to come across."
Lieutenant Cameron describes the delays occasioned by Alviz, and con-
tinues: — " I tried very hard to get men or guns and powder to try and make
the road to Lake Sankorra ; but Kasongo refused to allow me to go there, and
the road was reported by people who had been that way to be impassable in
the rainy season, so I had to put up with the delay. Just before I left Jumah
ibn Salim's, I heard that a party belonging to Alviz was away at a place
called Kanyoka, and had been there for nine months, and that Alviz was
going to wait for them. At first he denied this, but of course it proved true
in the long run. We left Jumah ibn Salim's in the end of February, and
then made a dawdling march to Totela, making five camps and halting three
or four days on the road ; whilst by men with loads the distance might be
done in two days, and men with only guns constantly went from one place
to the other in one day. Arrived at Totela, some people were sent off to
Kanyoka to build a house, and I was told they should be back in twelve or
fourteen days. The Kanyoka people did not turn up till the end of May,
and in the meantime Alviz allowed Coimbra (who is a choice specimen of an
unmitigated rufiian) to go away on a plundering expedition with Kasongo to
get slaves, jjrotesting, however, that he would not wait for him if he was not
back when the Kanyoka people returned. When the Kanyoka people came
in, there was a short delay to wait for Kasongo, who came back a few days
after they arrived, leaving Kwarumba behind him.
" During this delay one of my men managed to set fire to the camp and
burnt down all our portion of it, and a few huts belonging to AJviz's people.
Luckily I saved all my maps and journals, though it was touch and go. After
this we started for Lunga Mandi's, a sub-chief of Kasongo's, which we reached
in ten days, and then I was told we were to wait for three days to buy food to
cross Ussambi." More delays occurred, " and after eighteen days at Lunga
Mandi's, by dint of putting the screw on sharp, we made a move ; but at the
first camp some slaves ran, and we were detained c day whilst their owneis
went to look for them, and then on the next morning I was told that news
had come from Kwarumba during the night that he would arrive in the course
of the day, and that we should wait for him. Kwarumba turned up that day
59
466 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
with a string of forty or fifty wretched women, whom he had collected from
different villages which he had destroyed, in company with Kasongo. Since
then we have travelled fairly, with occasional halts to look for runaway
slaves, to buy food, and for Alviz to trade. Alviz, although he protested to
the last to me that he was not waiting for Kwarumba, but for some other
people whose friends refused to start without them, claimed slaves from
Kwarumba to pay for his detention. I shall put the whole question of Alviz's
claims on me in the hands of Her Majesty's Consul at Loanda, and of the Por-
tuguese governor there, and be guided by their decision.
"Now for the geographical portion of the subject, which at present I am
only able to give a sketch of, and which, therefore, remains till my arrival in
England to be fully related. From Nyangwe to Kasongo's my route was
principally up the eastern side of the valley of the Lomami, which is a minor
valley in the gi-eat one of the Lualaba. The Lomami has no connection with the
Kassabe, as shown in the maj) published by Keith Johnstone, but is a separate
and independent stream. It receives many brooks from the eastward, but no
large rivers on that side ; on the west it receives the Luwembi, coming from
a lake called Iki, which is probably the Lake Lincoln of Livingstone, which
receives the Lubiranzi and Luwembi, both considerable rivers. The Lualaba
mentioned as such by the Pombeiros is the true Lualaba, and the position of its
sources as laid down from their route may be taken as fairly correct. It then
runs N. N E. through two large lakes, the Lohemba and Kassali, and in a
third of smaller size, called Kowamba, receives the Lufira from S. S. E. Be-
tween Lufira and true Lualaba lies Katanga, a district rich in copper and
gold, and with a marvellous abundance of game, if all reports be correct.
A short way above the junction of Lualaba and Lufira are two other lakes,
Kattara and Kimwera. Their connection and position with regard to the
rest of the water system I have not been able to make out very clearly, but I
believe Kattara to be to the west of the Lufira, and Kimwera to be between
it and the Lualaba.
"Above Lake Kassali, the Lualaba receives the Luburi, or Luwuli, and
Lufupa, and the Lovoi falls into the lower end of Kassali. Below Kowamba
the united rivers, now known indifferently as Kamorondo and Lualaba, flow
through a chain of small lakes, commencing from south, Kahanda, Ahimbe,
Bembe, and Ziwambo, and is then joined by the Lualaba of Livingstone,
which is properly called the Luvwa, but the Arabs usually call it the Lualaba;
below their junction the united rivers flow through Lake Lanji (the Ulenge
of Livingstone), and on past Nyangwe, where the name of Lualaba is cor-
rupted into Ugarrowwa by the Arabs. The Kamarondo receives from the
east, commencing from south, the Kalame Hongo (probably Cavula Ngango
of Pombeiros), Mana, Mkotwe, Kasaraba and Kisuvulungo ; and from the
west, Luvijo, Kuwi, Losanzi, Luvunguwi, all considerable streams. Below
THE WATER SYSTEM. 4f)7
the junction of the Luvwa and Kamorondo, the following streams fall into the
Lualaba before reaching Lake Lanji from the east ; the Lumbii, probably the
river passed by me as the Luwika on my road to Nyangwe; above their
junction the Liambanji and Lukuga, the latter from Lake Tanganyika. Below
Lake Lanji the Lualaba receives from the east the Luama and Lulindi, besides
many minor streams. Beyond Nyangwe from the north, the Lila, the Lindi,
and the Lowa ; the last is said to be as large as the Lualaba at Nyangwe, and
to receive two large streams, both called Lulu. Between Nyangwe and
Lomami, the Luvubu and Luwik, or Kasuku, fall into the main stream from
the south. Beyond the Lubiranzi, two largo rivers, the Luilhu and Buzimani,
flow north into Lake Sankorra. Since leaving Kasongo's, we have crossed
the Lovoi, the sources of the Lomami, Luwembi — in long 23° 20' the Lukoji,
in 23° 10' the Luwati — both large streams falling into the Lulua, whose
sources we passed in long. 23° ; close to the sources of the Lulua we came
upon water flowing to the second African river, the Zambesi, whose sources
may be placed in 23° E. long., and 11° 15' S. lat. ; the Lulua rising in 23° E.
and 11° S. Since then we have come across a great table land with numerous
streams, some going to Kassabe, and some to the Liambai, or Liambeji, as
it is also called by the natives.
" We have now for three marches been following the left bank of the
Lumeji, and have just come off the great plains. The Lumeji is a very con-
siderable stream, and an affluent of the Loena, the source of which I hope to
pass in front, and which falls into the Liambai. The Kassabe has been at a
distance of from seven or eight to twenty miles to the north of us for the last
eleven marches, during which we have maintained a generally westerly direc-
tion ; the Kassabe commences its northing in about 22° E., running up
between the frontiers of Lovale and Ulunda. I can scarcely trust to myself
to try and clear up the confusion of names arising from the frantic distortion
and mutilation of the native names by the half-caste Portuguese traders, but
think it best to leave it till my arrival in England. However, I may say
that Luvar of the Portuguese is our Urua, and the Urua of the natives also.
Lovale is an entirely different country lying between 20° and 22° east longi-
tude, peopled by a different race, speaking a very distinctly different language.
I can hear nothing of the Mosshamba Mountains, though I have asked
repeatedly about them, but am always told that there are no real hills this
side of the Kwanza (or Coanza), though the Kassabe in the middle part of
its course flows through a moderately hilly country. I leave this now to be
finished at our next halt, from whence Alviz is going to send men on in front.
"Sept. 17, 1875, Chikumbis, near Peho, country
of Kebokwe, lat. S., long. E.
" Since writing the above we have made five more marches, leaving Sha
408 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Kelembe's on the lOtli instant, and making rather a round on our way. We
passed two streams going north to the Kassabe, but the tracing of my route
up to tliis will show better than I can write all we have seen. We have now
just come into a hill}^ country, though before, since leaving Sha Kelembe's,
we had risen considerably, although to the eye the country seemed to main-
tain the same level.
" I hear that there are disturbances between Bihe and the coast, but all
the native stories are so vague, and usually so false, that I do not know what
to believe. One story asserts that a party with six thousand guns was turned
back and robbed by the Balunda ; but six thousand guns leaving such a
place as Benguela is false on the face of it, and equally false is the power of
any nation on this line in Africa to defeat such a body. To add to the im-
probability, a white trader is said to have fought his way through safely from
Benguela to Bihe, the most probable foundation of the story being that some
natives tried to steal from him at night, and that one or two were shot, if
there be any foundation at all. Of course, at present, I cannot tell how this
will affect my future movements, but the Balunda are said to be on the road
to Loanda, as well as on that to Benguela ; perhaps I may have to make a
round to get to Loanda, but I expect to find the direct road 0]3en to Benguela,
as there must be a road for trade, and the people of Bihe make caravans on
their own account to trade up here for bees-wax, and they must find a mar-
ket to sell this, or their trade would come to a dead-lock, and the only market
they know is Benguela.
" I have the honour to be, Sir,
" Your most obedient servant,
" V. LovETT Camekon,
" Lieut. B.N., Commanding Livingstone
East Coast Expedition. "
"P.S. — I don't expect to be at Benguela before the end of October, and
I hope you will be kind enough to move the Lords Commissioners of the
Admiralty to extend my leave, which now expires about the middle of
November, to the end of the year, or further if necessary."
The CiiAiKMAN then read the statement from Mr. Keith Johnstone, sup-
plementing it with remarks of his own. They would be glad to know that
Lieutenant Cameron had been well received by the Portuguese authorities at
Benguela and Loanda.
Mr. Monteira, Mr. Galton, and the Rev. Horace Waller, also spoke,
the latter calling attention to the exposure of the iniquities of the slave-trade
which Lieutenant Cameron had made, and adding the hope that the repre-
sentative of the Portuguese Government, whom he saw present, would, with
CAMERON'S WORK. 4G0
the wise vigilance he had always shown in regard to the honour of his coun-
try, not suffer the disclosures to go unnoticed.
The Chairman said it would be interesting to know that Lieutenant
Cameron had travelled on foot 2,953 miles — that was from Zanzibar to Bcn-
guela, trusting to mere accident for his livelihood as he went along. He
should also mention that, in consideration of the heavy expense incurred in
carrying out the expedition, the Council of the Royal Geographical Society
had passed a vote advancing £1,000 from their funds to meet, in some mea-
sure, this heavy cost.
While showing pluck and determination enough to merit the greenest
laurels of African discovery, lack of means and organisation compelled
Cameron to desert, on either side of him, routes which would have settled
questions of surpassing concern to ^ci-jnce, and to take a course which ac-
quaints us with much new country, but leaves the final revelations of this
wonderful continent yet to be made. After all, however, the journey as it
stands is one which reflects on the traveller the greatest honour — which
does credit to his country and his service, as well as to the Royal Geogra-
phical Society, under whose auspices he worked. He has charted for science
some twelve hundred miles of ground, most of it new, and of a very fertile
and promising character, acquainting us at the same time with the existence
of regular trade-routes across the central table-land. The ill-luck and baffled
purpose of the gallant Lieutenant, contrasted with the direct marches and
continuous results of Mr. Stanley, to which we shall presently refer, prove
that to travel witli success in Africa the explorer must be strong and well
equipped enough to take his own road. The system of raising loans, and
relying on native caravans, is not to be compared with that of journeying
with ready means and sufficient outfit.
Cameron has seen to the safe return home of his Zanzibar followers, and
would have gone with them, had not Captain Hopkins, Her Majesty's Consul
at Loanda, insisted on his proceeding direct to England. He and the consul
have bought a schooner at Loanda, and secured the services of a captain to
take them round to Zanzibar. During his detention at Loanda, the explorer
has been working hard at his sights and sections. Thanks to the intervention
of Viscount Duprat, the Portuguese governor has been most kind and civil,
and Cameron's people have been most comfortably housed in the fort. Great
interest will attach to the particulars which we trust he will soon be able to
give us with his own lips. He has deserved the hearty welcome he is sure
to receive ; and, though he has missed the grand prizes of geography, after
being nearer to their solution than any other man, his very failure renders
that ultimate discoveiy, which cannot now be long delayed, more exciting and
attractive than ever, even to those who have not watched with scientific de-
votion for the uplifting of the veil that shrouds the African Isis.
470 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Meanwhile the progress of discovery in Africa advances with sure and
quick step, various countries rivalling one another, in sending out some of
their best and bravest men to carry forward the work. Within the last few
years, we have had a galaxy of heroes enlightening the world as to the inte-
rior resources of that vast continent. The Germans have nobly performed
their part. The French are exploring the Gaboon, near the equator, for the
purpose of ascending the Ogowe. The Italians have sent out an expedition
to advance from Somali, through Abyssinia, to the White Nile. This work of
exploration is not accomplished without much peril and fatigue. Still it is a
needed work; and the men who are engaged in it deserve our heartiest sym-
pathy. They are the pioneers of commerce, civilisation, and Christianity ;
and are hastening on the day when the brotherhood of the nations shall
receive practical recognition, and
" All men's good
Be each man's rule, and universal Peace
Lie like a shaft of light across the land,
And like a lane of beams athwart the sea.
Thro' all the circle of the golden year."
CHAPTER XXV.
" The Daily Telegraph " and " New York Herald " Expedition — Stanley's Departure
— Zanzibar — A Slave Dhow — Organisation of the Expedition.
IN the summer of 1874, the proprietors of the " The Daily Telegraph " and
the "New York Herald" engaged Mr. Stanley to go out to Africa and
organise an expedition there, and lead it into the interior, for mere purposes
of exploration and discovery; they undertaking at the same time to bear the
entire charges. It was a bold and generous conception ; and, from the first,
it has been nobly carried out. It would have been impossible for them to
have entrusted the execution of their purpose to a more competent person
than the man who " found Livingstone." Mr. Stanley promptly undertook
(he responsible work with the fulfilment of which he was honoured; and left
England on the 15th of August, 1874. He arrived at Zanzibar on the 22nd of
September, and immediately began to make all necessary preparations for
his long and arduous explorations. In the following letter, which was pub-
lished in " The Daily Telegrafjh," dated Zanzibar, November 15th, 1874, he
gives us a most interesting and graphic description of the place, which is
already of acknowledged importance, and which bids fair to become the
Alexandria of the Eastern Coast : —
"For the last four or five years the island and town called Zanzibar have
been very prominently before the public. The rigorous measures pursued
by tks British Government for the suppression of the slave-trade on this
coast, and the appeals of Livingstone on behalf of the aboriginal African,
have made Zanzibar a well-known name. Previous to this time it was com-
parativel}^ unknown — as little known, indeed, as the polysyllabic name by
which it is described in the Periplus of Arrian. The mention of Zanguebar,
Zanjibar — or, as it is now called, Zanzibar — produced very little interest.
Some few people there were who remembered there was such a name in very
big characters on the map of the world, occupying a large strip on the east
side of Africa, seen during their school-boy days, but what that name indi-
cated or comprehended very few knew or cared. They thought that it might
be a very wild land, peopled with cannibals and the like, no doubt ; for I
remember well when I first returned from Africa, that a great number of those
472 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
gentlemen who frequent clubs and fashionable societies often asked me,
'Wliere the deuce is Zanzibar?' There were people, however, who prospered
and grew rich on the ignorance of their white brothers, so woefully deficient
in elementary geographical knowledge. These were the staid old merchants
of London, New York, Salem, and Hamburg, who had agents living at Zan-
zibar, unobtrusively collecting precious cargoes of African productions, and
shipping them home to their employers, who sold them again quietly and
unobtrusively to manufacturers at enormous profits. Great sums of money
were njade for many years by these old merchants until the slave-trade ques-
tion began to be agitated and Livingstone's fate became a subject of inquiry.
"At this date a committee of the House of Commons held a protracted
sitting, sifting every item of information relating to the island and its pros-
pects, its productions, commerce, etc., and the ' New York Herald' despatched
a special commissioner in search of Livingstone, one result of whose mission
was the publication of the name of Zanzibar far and wide. Captain Burton
has also written two large volumes, which bear the conspicuous title of
' Zanzibar,' in large gold letters, on their backs ; but very few copies of this
work, I imagine, have found their way among the popular classes. I mean
to try in the present letter to convey a descrij^tion of this island, its Prince,
and such subjects in relation to them, as will suit any mind likely to take an
interest in reading it. De Horsey's ' African Pilot' describes Zanzibar as
being an island forty-six miles in length, by eighteen miles in width at its
greatest breadth, though its average breadth is not more than from nine to
twelve miles. The ' African Pilot' and None's ' Epitome' place the island in
south latitude 6° 27' 42", and in east longitude 39° 32' 57", but the combined
navigating talent on board Her Majesty's surveying ship 'Nassau' locates
Zanzibar in south latitude 6° 9' 36", and east longitude 39° 14' 43". Between
the island and the mainland runs a channel from twenty to thirty miles in
width, well studded with coral islands, sand-bars, sand-banks, and coral
reefs.
" The firsi view the stranger obtains of Zanzibar is of low land, covered
with verdure. If he has been much informed concerning the fevers which
trouble the white traveller in equatorial Africa, he is very likely to be im-
pressed in his own mind that the low land is very suggestive of it ; but a
nearer view is more pleasing, and serves to dispel much of the vague fear or
uneasiness with which he has approached the dreaded region of ill-health and
sorrow. The wind is gentle and steady which fills the vessel's sail ; the
temperature of the air is moderate, perhaps at 70° or 75° Fahrenheit ; the
sky is of one cerulean tint ; the sea is not troubled, and scarcely rocks the
ship ; the shore is a mass of vivid green ; the feathery fronds of palm trees,
and the mango's towering globes of foliage, relieve the monotony; while the
gleaming white houses of the rich Arabs heighten the growing pleasure with
HARBOUR OF ZANZIBAR. AT6
the thought that the ' fever may not be so bad as people say it is.' Pro-
ceeding southward through the channel that separates Zanzibar from the
continent, and hugging tlie shore of the island, you will many times be gra-
tified by most pleasant tropical scenes, and by a strange fragrance which is
borne from the leaf-clad island — a fragrance which may remind you of
' Ceylon's spicy isle.' With a good glass you will be able to make out first
the cocoa palm, and the deep dark-green orb of foliage which the mango
raises above when the tree is in its prime, the graceful bombax, and the tall
tamarind, while numbers of gigantic trees of some kind loom over masses of
umbrageous shrubbery. Bits of cultivated land, clusters of huts, solitary
iembes, gardens, and large square white houses, succeed each other quickly,
until your attention is attracted by the sight of shipping in the distance; and
near by, growing larger and larger every moment, is the city of Zanzibar,
the greatest commercial mart on the East Coast of Africa. Arrived in the
harbour, you will find the vessel anchors about four hundred yards from the
town, close to a few more European ships, and perhaps a British man-of-war
or two ; while a number of queer-looking craft, which you will style native,
lie huddled between your own vessel and the shore. These native boats are
of various tonnage and size, from the unwieldy Arab trading dhow, with two
masts, leaning inelegantly and untrimly towards the bows, while the tower-
ing after-part reminds you of the pictures of ships in the Spanish Armada,
to the lengthy, low, and swift-looking mpete^ which, when seen going before
the wind, seems to be skimming the sea like a huge white sea-gull.
" Beyond the native fleet of trading Muscat dhows, Kilwa slavers, Pan-
gani wood-carriers, and those vessels which carry passengers to the main-
land, the town of Zanzibar rises from the beach in a nearly crescent form,
white, glaring, and unsymmetrical. The narrow, tall, white-washed house ot
the reigning Prince, Burghash bin Said, towers almost in the centre of the
first line of buildings ; close to it on the right, as you stand looking at the
town from ship-board, is the saluting battery, which numbers some thirty
guns or thereabouts ; and behind rises a mere shell of a dingy old Portuguese
fort, which might be knocked into pieces by a few rounds from Snider mus-
kets. Hard by the water battery is the German Consul's house, as neat as
clean whitewash can make an Arab building ; and next to this edifice rises the
double residence and offices of Her Britannic Majesty's Assistant Political Re-
sident, surmounted by the most ambitious of flag-stalfs. Next comes an Eiig
lish merchant's house, and then the buildings occupied by Mr, Augustus Spar-
hawk, the agent of the great house of John Bertram & Co. of Salem, Massa-
chusetts ; while between the English merchant's house and the Bertram
Agency, in neighbourly proximity, is seen the snow-white house of Mr.
Frederick M. Cheney, agent of Arnold, Hiues & Co., of New York; and
beyond all, at the extreme right, on the far end of the crescent, at Shangani
GO
474 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Point, appears, in isolated vastness, the English Residency, which was formerly
the house of Bishop Tozer and his scanty flock of youthful converts.
" If you start again from that central and prominent point, the palace
of His Highness, and intend to take a searching view of the salient objects
of observation along the sea-front of the town, you will observe that, to the
left of the water battery, are a number of sheds roofed with palm fronds, and
that in front of these is about the only thing resembling a wharf visible on
the beach. This, you will be told, is the Zanzibar Custora House. There
may be a native dhow discharging her cargo, and lines of burly, strong
labourers come and go — go and come — continually bearing to the Custom
House bales, packages, ivory tusks, and what not, and returning for fresh
burdens; while on tlie wharf turbaned Arabs, and long-shirted half-castes,
either superintend the work, or, from idle curiosity, stand by to look on.
Moving tlic eye leftward of the Custom House to a building of noble dimen-
sions, you will see that mixture of richness of woodwork with unkempt slo-
venliness and general untidiness or semi-decay, which attracts the traveller
in almost all large Turkish and Arab houses, whether in Turkey, Egypt, or
Arabia. This is the new palace of Prince Burghash. The dark-brown veran-
dah, with its open lattice-work, interlaced bars of wood, and infinitesimal
carving — the best work of an Arab artisan — strikes one as peculiarly adapted
for a glowing climate like this of Zanzibar. But if the eye surmounts that
woodwork, it will find itself shocked at observing the half-finished roof, and
the seams of light which fall through it, and the dingy whitewash, and the
semi-ruinous state of the upper part of the structure. A little left of this
stand two palatial buildings, which for size dwarf even the Bi'itish Residency.
One is the house of Nassur bin Said, the Prime Minister of His Highness;
the other is inhabited by the Sultan's harem. Beyond these large buildings
are not many more. The compact line of solid buildings becomes broken by
unsightly sheds, with thatched roofs. This is the Melinde quarter, a place
devoted to the sale of fish, fruit, etc., to which new European arrivals are
banished to seek residences among the few stone houses which are to be
found there. Port Melinde is the shallow Malagash inlet — the cause, I may
say the main, perhaps the only cause of the unhealthiness of the town of
Zanzibar — and beyond the Malagash inlet extends the country, like a rich,
prolific garden, teeming with tropical plants and trees, sloping gently up-
wards, as far as the purpling ridges of Elaysu.
" Such is Zanzibar and its suburbs to the new arrival, as he attempts to
note down his observations from shipboard. Descending the side ladder, he
is rowed ashore, and if he has a letter of introduction is welcomed by some
noble specimen of a British merchant, or an ' American merchant of thirty-
five or forty years' standing,' or a British official, or by one of those indescrib-
ables who have found their way into Zanzibar, and who patiently bide for the
TRADE OF ZANZIBAR. 475
good time that is believed and reported to be coming; for I find that Zanzibar,
instead of attracting tlie real merchant, has, since my last visit, but changed
its European inutiles. Wlien I was here before, I met a living specimen of
the happy and sanguine Micawber class. He is gone, but another fills his
place. One can scarcely dare say anything good of Zanzibar, or of any other
place, witliout attracting the wrong class of persons ; and, as I am on this
topic, I may as well specify what class can be benefited pecuniarily by immi-
gration to Zanzibar. To an enterprising man of capital, Zanzibar, and the
entire sea-line of the Sultan's dominions, oflfer special advantages. A person
with a capital of five thousand pounds might soon make his twenty thousand
out of it, but not by bringing his money and his time and health to compete
with great rich mercantile houses of many years' standing and experience,
and settling at Zanzibar, vainly attempting to obtain the custom of the natives,
who are perfectly content with their time-honoured white friends, when the
entire coast-line of the mainland invites his attention, his capital, his shrewd-
ness, and his industry. The new arrival must do precisely what the old
merchants did when they commenced business. He must go where there is
no rivalry, no competition, if he expects to have a large business and quick
returns for his money. He must bring his river-steamer of light draught, and
penetrate the interior, by the Rufiji, the Pangani, the Mtwana, or the Jub,
and purchase the native produce at first cost, and re-se'' to the large mercan-
tile houses of Zanzibar, or ship home.
" The copal of the Rufiji plain, accessible as I know by experience to a
light-draught steamer, is now carried on theshoulders of natives to Dar Salaam
and Mbuamjii, to be sold to the Banyans, who re-ship it to Zanzibar, and
there re-sell to the European merchant. The ivory trade of Unyamwezi is
brought down close to Mbumi Usagara, which is accessible in a light-draught
steamer by the Wami. The ivory trade of Masai, and the regions north, is
carried down through a portion of the Pangani Valley, and the Pangani for a
short distance is also navigable, and furnishes a means of enabling the white
merchant to overreach his more settled white brothers at Zanzibar. TJie Jub
River, next to the Zambesi, is the largest river on the east coast of Africa,
while it is comparatively unknown. Arab caravans penetrate the regions
south of it, and obtain large quantities of ivory and hides. Why should not
the white merchant attempt to open legitimate trade in the same articles by
means of the river. When John Bertram, of Salem, Massachusetts, came to
Zanzibar, some forty years ago, there was not a single European house here.
He was an ofl&cer of a whaling vessel when he saw this large town, with its
splendid opportunities for commencing a mercantile business. On arriving
liome, he invested the results of his venture in chartering a small vessel with
goods, such as would meet a ready sale in Zanzibar. The speculation tuinied
out to be a fine one j he repeated it, and then established an agency at Zan-
470 STANLEY AhW AFRICA.
zibar, while he himself resided at Salem to conduct the business at home, to re-
ceive the cargoes from Zanzibar, and ship cloth and other goods to his agency
out here. The business which the young whaler started continued to thrive.
Agent succeeded agent as each man went home after a few years' stay in Zan-
zibar to enjoy the fruit of his labours. Boys sent out to learn the business
became responsible clerks, then head agents, and subsequently opulent mer-
chants, and so on from year to year, until John Bertram can point witli just
pride to his own millions and the long list of men whom he taught, encouraged,
sustained by his advice, and enriched. The moral of all this is, that what
John Bertram, of Salem, did at Zanzibar, can be done by any large-minded,
enterprising Englishman or American on the mainland of Africa. Nay, as
there is a larger field on the mainland, and as he can profit by the example of
Bertram, he can do more.
" Men experienced in the ways of Oriental life need not be told in de-
tail how people live in Zanzibar, or how the town appears within, or what
the Arabs and half-castes and Wanguana know of sanitary laws. Zanzibar
is not the best, the cleanliest, or the prettiest town I have ever seen ; nor, on
the other hand, is it the worst, the filthiest, or the ugliest town. While there
is but little to praise or glorify in it, there is a good deal to condemn, and
while you censure it, you are very likely to feel that the cause for condemna-
tion is irremediable and hopeless. But the European merchants find much
that is endurable at Zanzibar. It is not nearly the intolerable place that the
smelted rocks of Aden have made Steamer Point, nor has it the parboiling
atmosphere of Bushire or Busrah, nor is it cursed by the merciless heat of
Ismailia or Port Said. If you expose yourselves to the direct rays of the
sun at Zanzibar for a considerable time, it would be as fatal for you as though
you did an unwise thing on the Aden isthmus. Within doors, however, life
is tolerable — nay, it is luxuriously comfortable.
" We — I mean Europeans — have numbers of servants to wait on us, to
do our smallest bidding. If we need a light for our cigars, or our walking-
cane, or our hats when we go out, we never think of getting these things for
ourselves, or of doing anything which another could do for us. We have
only the trouble of telling our servants what to do, and even of this trouble
we would gladly be relieved. One great comfort to us out here is, that there
is no society which compels us to imprison our necks within linen collars, or
half strangle ourselves with a silken tie, or to be anxious about any part of
our dress. The most indolent never think of shifting their night pyjamas
until nearly mid-day. Indeed, we could find in our hearts to live in them
altogether, except that we fear a little chafi" from our neighbours. Another
luxury we enjoy out here which may not always be obtained in Europe with-
out expense. What think you of a salt-water bath, morning, noon, and
evening, just before dinner ? Our servants fill our tubs for us, for our resi-
POPULATION OF ZANZIBAR. 477
dences stand close to the sea, and it is neither trouble nor expense, if we care
at all for the luxury, to undress in the cool room, and take a few minutes'
cooling in the tub.
" Though we are but a very small colony of whites, we resemble, micro-
scopically, society at home. We have our good men and true, and sociable
men ; we have large-hearted hospitable men, our peg-giving friends, our hail-
fellows-well-met, and perambulating gossips. Our houses are largo, roomy,
and cool; we have plenty of servants, we have good fruit on the island; we
enjoy health while we have it, and with our tastes, education, and natural
love of refinement, we have contrived to surround ourselves with such luxuries
as serve to prolong good health, peace of mind, and life; and Inshallah !
shall continue to do so while we stay in Zanzibar. The above is but the
frank outspoken description of himself that might be given by a dignified
and worthy Zanzibar merchant of long standing, and of European extrac-
tion. And your commissioner will declare that it is as near truth as though
the Zanzibar merchant of long standing and experience had written it him-
self.
" Now, we have had the Europeans of Zanzibar, their houses, and mode
and law of life described, let us get into the street and endeavour to see for
ourselves the nature of the native and Semitic residents, and ascertain how
far they differ from the Anglo-American sublimities. As we move away to-
wards the Seyyid's Palace, we gradually become conscious that we have left
the plastered streets with their small narrow gutters, which re-echoed our
footsteps so noisy. The tall houses where the Europeans live, separated by
but a narrow passage ten feet wide, shut out the heat and dazzling glare
which otherwise tlie clean white-washed walls would have reflected. When
we leave these behind we come across the hateful, blinding sunlight, and
our nostrils become irritated by an amber-coloured dust, from the 'garbling'
of copal and orchilla weed, and we are sensible of two separate smells which
affect the senses. One is the sweet fragrance of cloves, the other is the odour
which a crowd of slaves bearing clove bags exhale from their persi)iring
bodies. Shortly we come across an irregular square blank in the buildings
which had hemmed us in from the sunlight. A fetid garbage heap, debris of
mud-houses, sugar-cane leavings, orange and banana peelings, make piles,
which festering and rotting in the sun, are unsightly to the eye and offensive
to the nostrils. And just by we see the semi-ruinous Portuguese fort, a most
feeble and dilapidated structure. Several rusty and antique cannon lie strewn
along the base of its front wall, and a dozen or so of dusty and beggarly-
looking half-castes, armed with long straight swords and antique Muscat
matchlocks, affect to be soldiers and guardians of the gate. Fortunately, how-
ever, for the peace of the town and the reigning Prince, the prisoners whom
the soldiers guard are mild-mannered and gentle enough, few of them having
478 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
committed a worse crime than participating in a bloodless street brawl, or
being found intoxicated in the street.
"Passing the noisy and dusty Custom House, with its hives of singing
porters at work, and herds of jabbering busybodies, nobodies, and somebodies,
we shortly arrive at the palace, where we might as well enter, and see how
it fares with His Highneso Burghash bin Said, the Prince of Zanzibar and
Pemba. As we may have merely made an appointment with him, as private
citizens of a free and independent foreign Court, and are escorted only by a
brother citizen of the same rank, etiquette forbids that the Seyyid should
come down into the street to receive his visitor. Were we Her Britannic
Majcst}''s Consul or Political Resident, His Highness would deem it but due
to our official rank to descend into the street and meet us exactly twenty-four
steps from the palace door. Were we an Envoy Extraordinary, the Prince
would meet us some fifty or seventy-five paces from his gate. We are but
private citizens, however, and the only honour we get is an exhibition of the
guards — Beloochis, Persians, and half-castes — drawn up on each side of the
door, their uniforms consisting of lengthy, butter-nut-coloured dishdashehs,
or shirts, which reach from the nape of the neck to the ancles of each. We
have ascended a flight of deep wooden steps when we discover the Prince,,
ready to receive us with his usual cordial and frank smile and pleasant greet-
ing ; and during a shower of good-natured queries respecting our health we
are escorted to the other end of the barely-furnished room, where we are in-
vited to be seated.
" The Prince is now in the prime of life, probably about forty-two years
old, of vigorous and manly frame, and about five feet nine inches in height.
He is a frank, cordial, and good-natured gentleman, with a friendly brusque-
ness in his manner to all whom he has no reason to regard with suspicion.
He wears the usual linen dress of the Arabs, with his waist cinctured by a
rich belt of plaited gold, which supports the crooked dagger generally borne
by an Arab gentleman. Over his linen dress he wears a long black cloth
coat, the edges of which are trimmed with narrow gold braid. His head-
dress is the usual ample turban of the Arab, and completing in his person a
somewhat picturesque figure. It would be difficult to choose a Prince with
whom diplomatic relations could be carried on so easily, provided alway that
the diplomat remembered that the Pi'ince was an Arab and a Moslem gentle-
man. Politeness will always effect more than rudeness with a well-bred
Arab. In whatever school of deportment the old British Admirals, who, over
a steely firmness wear such urbanity, are brought up, it might be recom-
mended that diplomats charged with delicate negotiations should be sent
there too, to learn lessons of true politeness. There is, however, one phase
in Prince Burghash's character which presents a difficulty in dealing with
him, and that is his fanaticism. Ever since he undertook the journey to
ELA YSU. 479
Mecca, he has shown himself au extremely fervid Moslem, indisposed to do
anything, or attempt anything not recommended in the Koran. A Prince
of more liberal religious views miglit have had an opportunity during the late
diplomatic negotiation of bettering himself and his people ; but Burghash was
restrained by his extreme religious scruples from asking any aid of England.
" Before closing this letter, I should liki^ to ask the reader to accompany
me as far as the ridges of Elaysu. The path which we choose lies through culti-
vated tracts and groves of fruit trees that stretch on either side of it, thick-
ening as they recede, and growing intensely deep and umbrageous, even to
the depth and intensity of a forest. We note the sad effects of the hurricane
in the prostrate and fast-rotting trunks of the cocoa-nut palm, and the vast
number of trees which lean from the perpendicular, and threaten before long
to fall. We observe these things with a good deal of pity for the country,
the people, and the poor unfortunate Prince ; and we also think what a beau-
tiful and happy place this Isle of Zanzibar might be made under a wise and
cultivated ruler. If such a change as is now visible in Mauritius, with all its
peaks and mountains, and miles of rugged ground, can be eCected, what
might not be done with Zanzibar, where there are no mountains, or peaks,
or rugged ground, but gentle undulations and low ridges eternally clothed
in summer green verdure ! At every point, at every spot, you see something
improvable, something that might be made very much better than it now is.
And so we ride on with such reflections, which are somewhat assisted, no
doubt, by the ever-crooked path that darts towards all points of the compass
in sudden and abrupt windings. But the land and the trees are always beau-
tiful and always tropical. Palms and orange groves are everywhere, witli a
large number of plantains, mangoes, and fruit trees; the sugar-cane, the In-
dian corn, the cassava, are side by side with the Holcm sorghum, and there is
a profusion of verdure and fruit and grain wherever we turn our eyes.
"Shortly we arrive at the most picturesque spot on the Island of Zan-
zibar, Elaysu, or Illayzu, as some call it, every inch of which, if the island
were in the possession of the white man, would be worth a hundred times
more than it is now, for its commanding elevation, for the charming views of
sea and land and town its summit presents, for its healthiness, and its neigh-
bourhood to town, whence it is five or six miles distant. What cosy, love-
able, pretty cottages, might be built on the ridge of Elaysu, amid palms and
never-sere foliage, among flowers ar.d carols of birds, deep in shade of orange
and mango trees! How white men and white women would love to dream
on verandahs, with open eyes, of their far-away homes, made far pleasanter
by distance and memory, while palms waved and rustled to gentle evening
breezes, and the sun descended to the west amid clouds of all colours! Yes,
Elaysu is beautiful, and the receding ridges, with their precipitous ravines,
fringed with trees and vegetation, are extremely picturesque— nay, some
480 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
short bits of scenery which we view across tlie white glaring bars of sun-
light, are perfectly idyllic in their modest beauty."
It is i^ainf ul to contrast with the lovely scene so graphically described,
the capture of an Arab slave dhow in this part of the world. The capture
took place only a mouth or two before the writing of Stanley's letter. " The
last batch of slaves," says the person furnishing the information, "rescued
from Arab clutches arrived at Seychelles on Sunday, the 23rd of August,
1874. They were re-captured by H. M. S. "Vulture" — the same ship, by the
way, that so recently conveyed the remains of Livingstone from ths continent
to Zanzibar. The "Vulture " was steaming into Majungel, a port on the east
coast of Madagascar, when a large dhow was made out inshore of the ship.
When the " Vulture" was near enough, a boat, in charge of a young ofBcer,
was sent on board the Arab, whose true character, and the nature of his cargo,
were soon made known. On going below, the men found a framework of
bamboo constructed on each side of the hold, ranging fore and aft, in which
two hundred and thirty-eight human beings were packed, tier upon tier, like
bottles in a rack. The occupants of each tier were placed in the closest per-
sonal contact with each other — so much so in fact, that, to use the men's
homely phrase, they really ' were stowed away like herrings in a cask.'
" When taken out and placed upon the deck, their limbs were useless;
they were seized with vertigo, and fell from sheer inability to stand. Some
were found in a truly shocking condition. One or two young children were
found crushed to death. The lower tier had been laid upon the sand ballast
and was half-buried. One poor woman really was buried, with the exception
of her face ; her mouth was full of sand, and when taken out she was on the
point of suffocation. The mortality among a batch of negroes must be
sometimes frightful, not only on board the dhows, but also during their
journey down from the interior. There was a woman among this lot, who, if
her statement is to be credited, was the only survivor of a numerous band.
Six months since she roamed as free as air in her native village in the middle
of Africa. The Arabs went with fire and sword ; the village was burnt, and
the greater number of the women and children were made prisoners. Then
commenced a weary march of four months' duration. Fresh accessories of
slaves were made as they passed along on their way to the coast. Manacled
women fell by the way-side, and being unable to travel, were left to die in
the jungle. Young children withered like plucked leaves, and the Arabs, to
these more merciful, struck off their heads and threw them aside. The
woman has survived them all, but she is alone. Of all the baud captured
with her, she states that she only has escaped alive to tell the sickening tale."
From an account sent home, by a sailor on board tlie " Vulturo," to his
mother, describing the same scene, we extract the following heart-rending
picture: —
HUMAN CARGO OF A SLAVE DHOW. 481
" Then began the sickening task of transferring the poor captives from the
dhow to the ship. I must say I never saw men more noble in my life. Even
the constitutional grumblers forgot their complaints, and came forward to
assist in carrying the weak and helpless creatures from their prison. So
cramped and emaciated were they that some could not walk without assist-
ance, and most of them had to be carried in the arms of our men. Tenderly
and carefully did these strong, rough fellows, bear their helpless burdens, all
covered as they were with filth, the accumulation of their long imprisonment
in the pestilential hold. Now and then a baby came to some one's share.
There were seven on board, and as the little ones were borne along they
opened their eyes with wonderment. One of these babes was born on board
the dhow, and another lost its mother in that short but fatal voyage. Those
who had suffered most were children, whose ages ranged from three to seven
years. These had evidently been unable to hold their own against the stronger
ones in the scramble for food which must have taken place in the dhow at feed-
ing time. Of the one hundred and thirty-seven children at least thirty were at
death's door, and about thirty more were nothing but skeletons. It is almost
certain many of these had scarcely tasted food during their imprisonment in
the dhow. In they poured, a living stream, until our decks were covered
with a black mass of human beings of all ages, including women so old that
it is difficult to understand what object these dealers in human flesh could
have in shipping such worthless articles for the slave market. At last the
stream stopped. ' They are all out of the dhow, sir,' replied our jolly tars.
* Have another look, and make quite sure,' said our gallant captain. Well
was it they did, for in a dark corner of the hold, buried all but her head in
the sand which the dhow carried for ballast, lay a poor old woman. She
was dug out and borne on board. It made the blood tingle in our veins to
think these Arabs could be so inhuman. The greater part were suffering
from diarrhoea : forty-one men, fifty-nine women, and one hundred and thirty-
seven children, were taken out of the dhow from between her decks, where
they were packed, unable to move for the whole voyage."
In the following letter, written from Zanzibar the day after the one we
have inserted, only just before starting on his long journey into the interior,
Stanley gives some interesting and important information respecting the
organisation, prospects, and intentions of the expedition. " I never knew,"
he says, " how many kind friends I could number until I was about to sail
from England. The White Star line treated me in the most pi'incely fashion —
gave me free passages to America and back. The Peninsular and Oriental
Company and the British India, through their obliging agents^ showered
courtesy after courtesy on me. Testimonials from hundreds of gentlemen
were thrust on me, and invitations to dinners and dances, and to 'spend a
month or more in the country,' were so numerous, that if I could have availed
61
482 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
myself of tliem in succession years must elapse before any hotel need charge
a penny to my account. But though my preparations for the journey mono-
polised my time, and compelled me to decline, with thanks, these manifold
kindnesses, my numerous friends must believe that I am none the less grate-
ful. I departed from England on August 15th, loaded with good wishes,
keepsakes, photographs, favours of all kinds. At Aden I met my white assist-
ants, whom I had despatched from England, via Southampton, in charge of
the boats, etc. My young English assistants had quite got over all melan-
choly feelings and were in capital spirits, though they entertained a doubt
whether, if Central Africa were as hot as Aden, they should enjoy it very
much. On my assuring them that tliey need fear nothing on the score of
heat in Africa after Arabia, they expressed themselves much relieved from
their greatest fear. On the British Indian Steamer Euphrates, I was deliglited
to find that the Pocock brothers possessed several qualifications, beyond those
of sobriety, civility, and industry. I discovered that they were capital sing-
ers and musicians, having belonged to some choir in their native town, where
they were justly much esteemed. The delightful weather we experienced
between Aden and Zanzibar was most grateful after the intense heat of
Steamer Point, and we consequently arrived at Zanzibar on the 22nd of
September, almost as fresh and robust as when we left England.
" The next morning after I landed, some of my old friends of the former
expedition heard of my arrival, and I was much gi-atified by the good- will
they manifested towards one who had been so stern to them on certain occa-
sions when naught but sternness of the most extreme kind would liave sufficed
to overmaster a disposition they sometimes betrayed to be sullenly disobedient
and mutinous. But they remembered as well as I did, that, though I was
merciless when they were disposed to be stubborn, I was kind enough to them
when all went fair and well ; and they knew that, when the rewards were dis-
tributed, those who had behaved themselves like true men were not forgotten.
The report that I had come was soon bruited through the length and breadth
of the island, and Livingstone's and my own old dusky comrades gathered
quickly about my good host Mr. Sparkhawk's house, to pay their respects to
me, and, of course, to receive heshinieh, or presents, with which, fortunately,
I had provided myself before leaving England.
"Here was Ullimengo, the incorrigible joker and hunter of the Search
Expedition, with his mouth expanding gratefully on this day at the sight of
a gold ring which soon encircled one of his thick black fingers, and a silver
chain which held an ornament, and hung down his broad and muscular chest ;
here too, was Rojab, who narrowly escaped destruction for immersing Living-
stone's six years' journal in the muddy waters of the Mukondokwa, his ebony
face lighted up with the most extreme good- will towards myself for my muni-
ficent gift ; and Manwas Sera also, the redoubtable ambassador of Speke, and
STANLEY'S OLD COMPANIONS. 48i
my most faithful messenger, who had once braved a march of six hundred
miles with his companion, Sarmine, in my service, and Livingstone's most
devoted captain on his last journey. He was speechless with gratitude,
because I had hung a splendid jet necklace round his neck, and encircled one
of his fingers with a huge seal ring, which to his mind was a sight to see and
enjoy. Nor was the now historical Mabruki Speke — styled by Captain Bur-
ton ' Mabruki, the Bull-headed' — who has each time distinguished himself
with white men as a hawk-eyed guardian of their property and interests — less
enraptured with his presents than his fellows ; while the comely, valiant,
faithful Chowpereh — the man of manifold virtues, the indomitable and sturdy
Chowpereh — was pleased as any with the silver dagger and gold bracelet and
ear-rings which fell to his share. His wife, whom I had purchased from the
eternally wandering slave-gang, and released from the harsh cold iron collar
which chafed her neck, and whom I had bestowed upon Chowpereh, as a free
woman for wife, was, I discovered, the happy mother of a fine little boy, a
tiny Cliowpereh, who I hope will grow ujo to lead future expeditions in Africa,
and be as loyal to white men as his good father has proved himself. After
I had bestowed presents on his wife and child, Chowpereh, having heard
that I had brought a wondrous store of medicine, entreated me that I should
secure his son during his absence with me in Africa against any visitation of
the small-pox, and this I hope I have done by vaccination.
" Two or three days after my arrival a deputation of the ' Faithfuls '
came to me to learn my intentions and purposes. I informed them that I
was about to make a much longer journey into Africa than before, and into
very different countries from any that I had ever been into as yet, and I pro-
ceeded to sketch out to the astonished men an outline of the prospective journey.
They were all seated on the ground before me, tailor fashion, eyes and ears
interested, and keen to see and hear every word of my broken Kisawahili.
As country after country was mentioned, of which they had hitherto but
dimly heard, and river after river, lake after lake, named, all of which I hoped,
with their aid, to explore carefully and thoroughly, various ejaculations,
expressive of emotions of wonder, joy, and a little alarm, broke from their
lips ; but when I concluded, each man drew a long breath, and, almost
simultaneously, they uttered, in their own language, ' Ah, fellows, this is a
jom-ney worthy to be called a journey !'
" ' But, master,' said they, with some anxiety, ' this long journey will
take years to travel — six, nine, or ten years.' ' Nonsense,' said I. ' Six, nine,
or ten years ! What can you be thinking of ? It takes the Arabs nearly
three years to go to Ujiji, it is true ; but I was only sixteen months from
Zanzibar to Ujiji, and back to the sea. Is it not true ?' ' Ay, true,' answered
they. ' Very well. And I tell you further, that there is not enough money
in this world to pay me for stopping in Africa ten, nine, or even six years.
484 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
I have not come here to live in Africa. I have come here simply to see these
rivers and lakes, and after I have seen them to return home.' ' Ah, but you
know the big master (Livingstone) said he was only going for two years, and
that he was gone, altogether, nine years.' ' That is true enough. Neverthe-
less you know what I did before, and what I am likely to do again, if all
goes well.' ' Yes, we remember that you are very hot, and you did drive us
until our feet were sore, and we were ready to droiJ from fatigue. Wallahi !
but there never was such a journey from Uiiyanycmbe home ! No x\.rab or
white man came from Unyanyembe in so short a time as you did. It was
nothing but throw away this thing and that, and go on, go on, all the time.
Ay, master, that is true.' ' Well, is it likely, then, when I marched so quick
before, that I am likely to be slow now? Am I much older than I was then?
Am I less strong? Do I not know what a journey is now? When I first started
from Zanzibar to Ujiji I allowed the guides to show me the way; but when
we came back, who showed you the way ? Was it not I, by means of that
little compass, which could not lie like the guide?' 'Ay, true, master; true,
every word.' ' Very well, then, finish these foolish words of yours, and go
and get me three hundred men like yourselves, and when we get away from
Bagomoya I will show you whether I have forgotten how to travel.' ' Ay,
Wallah, my master ;' and ' they forthwith arose, and did as they were com-
manded.'
" The result of our polite 'talk' or 'palaver' was witnessed shortly, when
the doors and gates of the Bertram Agency and former Consulate were
thronged by volunteers, who were of all shades of blackness, and who hailed
from almost every African town known. Wahiyon, Wabera, Wagnido, Wan-
yanmezi, Wagogo, Wasegubba, Wasagara, Wabehe, Somali, Wagalla, Wan-
yassa, Wadirigo, and a score of other tribes, had their representatives, while
each day added to the number, until I had barely time to do anything more
than strive with calmness and well practised patience, to elicit from them
information as to who they were, what they had being doing, and whom
they had served. The brave fellows who had accompanied Livingstone on
his last journey, or myself, of course had the preference, because they knew
me, and fewer words were wanted to strike a bargain with them. Forty-
seven of those who marched with Livingstone on his last journey answered
to their names, along with two hundred strangers, on whose fidelity I waj
willing to risk my reputation as a traveller, and nearly £1,000 sterling in
advanced wages. These were finally enlisted and sworn as escort and ser-
vants. Many of them will naturally prove recreants and malcontents, brag-
garts, cowards, or runaways ; but it cannot be helped — I have done all that
I am able to do in providing against desertion and treachery.
" Among other things which I convey v/ith me on this expedition to
make our work as thorough as possible, is a large pontoon, named the 'Living-
EQUIPMENT FOR THE JOURNEY. 485
stone.' After long and anxious deliberation and sacrifice of much paper, I
sketched out a series of inflatable pontoon tubes, to bo two feet in diameter,
and eight feet long, to be laid transversely, resting on three separate keels,
and securely lashed to them, with two separate triangular compartments of
the same depth, eight feet at the base, which should form the bow and stern
of the inflatable craft. Over these several sections three lengthy poles were
to be laid, which should be lashed between each transverse tube to the three
keels underneath. Above these upper poles, laid lengthwise, were to be bam-
boo poles, laid transversely, upon which the passengers and baggage might
rest without danger of foundering. The design being fully matured the next
thing to do was to find a manufacturer intelligent enough to comprehend what
was required, and as Mr. Cording, of Piccadilly, had a good reputation among
travellers, I tried him, and after a few moments' conversation with the fore-
man of the shop, I was delighted to find that he perfectly understood what
unusually strong material was requisite, and every part and portion of the plan.
I need only add that within a month I had in my possession the usual fittings
and sections of this peculiar floating craft, beautifully and strongly made, in
as complete and efficient order as would please the most fastidious traveller.
All these sections, when put in the scales, weighed three hundred pounds,
which, divided into portable loads of sixty pounds each, require but five men
to carry the entire construction. No material can possibly equal this caout-
chouc. If the strong thick india-rubber cloth is punctured or rent, Mr. Cord-
ing has supplied me with the material to repair it, and if all turns out as well
with it as I strongly anticipate and hope, it must of course prove invaluable
to me.
" But an explorer needs something else — some other form of floatable
structure, to be able to produce results worthy of a supreme efi'ort at pene-
trating the unknown regions of Africa. I can now congratulate myself on
possessing a boat which I can carry any distance without distressing the por-
ters, competent to hold twelve men, rowing ten oars and two short paddles,
and able to sail over any lake in Central Africa. As this expedition is for a
different purpose from the former ono in which I discovered Livingstone, I am
well provided with the usual instruments which travellers who intend to bring
home results that will gratify scientific societies, take with them. I have
chronometers, sextants, artificial horizons, compasses, beam and prismatic ;
pedometers, aneroial barometers, and thermometers ; nautical almanacs for
three years, hand leads, and one thousand fathoms' sounding line, with a very
complete little reel, mathematical instruments, planisphere, and a complete
and most excellent photographic apparatus, and a large stock of dry plates.
I have also half a dozen good time-pieces, silver and gold, blank charts, and
all the paraphernalia and apparatus necessary to obtain satisfactory geo-
graphic observations.
48(5 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
*' The East Coast of Africa, from the mouth of the Juba River to that
of the Rovuma, possesses hundreds of good starting-points for the unexplored
interior ; but the best, for many reasons, is Bagamoyo. The present Expedi-
tion is a large and costly one, and promises to be the best organised and best
equipped of any that ever left the sea-coast of East Africa for the purpose of
exjDioration ; therefore, it would be a great pity if it were wrecked or ruined
just as it began to set out to fulfil its mission. To guard against the possi-
bility of such a sad collapse, I have, after much deliberation, decided to start
from Bagamoyo, and to proceed some distance along the well-known caravan
path, so as to give confidence to my men, and withdraw them as much as
possible from the temptation to desert, and afterwards, to plunge northward
into the Masai Land — a country, as yet, untrodden by white men — of the
state of which the best-informed among us are totally ignorant. It will be
a risky undertaking, but not half so dangerous as starting for that region
from some unknown seaport.
" My present intention is then to make my way westward to the Victoria
Nyanza, and ascertain -Ahether Speke or Livingstone's hypothesis is the
correct one — whether the Victoria Nyanza consists of one lake or five. All
the most important localities will be fixed by astronomical observations; and
whether the Victoria Lake consists of one or many pieces of water, we shall
discover it by complete circumnavigation. When this work is finished, I
intend to visit Mtesa or Rumanika, and then cross over to the Lake Albert
Nyanza, and endeavour to settle how far Baker is correct in his bold hypo-
thesis concerning its length and breadth. On this lake I expect to meet Gordon
and his party, by whom I hope to be able to send the first reports of my
travels and discoveries since leaving the Unyanyembe caravan road. Beyond
this, the whole future appears to me so vague and vast that it is impossible
to state at this period what I shall try to do next."
CHAPTER XXV L
March from Bagamoyo to Mpzvapwa — Through Northern Ugogo — Coimtrff of
Urimi — Death of Edward Pocock — Conflict with the Waturu — Iramha —
Arrival at Lake Victoria 'Nyama — Exploration of the Lake — Visit to Mtesa,
ILing of Uganda — 3Itesd!s Conversion to Lslaniism — Desire for Christian
Teachers — -Interviciv hetioccn Colonel de Bellefonds and Stanley — Stanley'' s
Departure from Uganda — Lake Victoria Nyanza an Tnland Sea — Missionary
Response to MtescDs Lnvitation.
FROM the district of Mpwapwa, in the country of Usagaru, Mr. Stanley
wrote, under date December 13, 1874, saying that he had had an unpre-
cedentedly successful march from the Indian Ocean, and that surprisingly
favourable influences had attended the Expedition ever since their departure
from Zanzibar. They had sufi"ered less sickness, less trouble, and altogether
had had more good fortune than any Expedition which had ever come into
Africa. The march from Bagamoyo to tlie place from which he was writing
had only taken him twenty-five days, although, on his previous Expedition in
search of Livingstone, the same march took him fifty-seven days ; and it
occupied Lieutenant Cameron's party four months. The outset of the Expe-
dition was not very favourable, as nearly all the attendants were overcome
by intoxication at Zanzibar ; and, after disembarking at Bagamoyo, matters
were not mended much. The men had not as yet expended all their advance,
and the consequence was, that they betook themselves into the liquor shops
of the Goanese at the port, and, after brutalising themselves with the fire-
water retailed there, they took to swaggering through the streets, proclaim-
ing that they were white men's soldiers, maltreating women, breaking into
shops and smashing crockery, some even drawing knives on the peaceable
citizens, and in other ways indulging their worst passions.
The march was resumed, however, on the fifth day ; and, on arriving at
the Kingani River, Stanley screwed together the sections of the "Lady Alice,"
and tested her powers of transportation and efficiency. He ascertained that
the utmost she could bear in ferrying across the river was thirty men and
thirty bales of cloth, or a weight of three tons, which was perfectly satisfac-
tory to him. The " Livingstone " pontoon was not uncovered, as the " Lady
Alice" proved expeditious enough in transporting the force across the river.
When the ferriage was completed they resumed the journey, and long before
488 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
sunset encamped at Kikoka. Tlie intense heat of the Kingani plains lyinj^
on either side told severely on those men who were unaccustomed to travel-
ling in Africa, and on the natives also who had indulged their vicious pro-
pensities at Zanzibar and Bagamoyo before departure. This compelled them
\o remain a day at Kikoka.
" During the afternoon of this day," Mr. Stanley says, " as I was pre-
paring my last letters, I was rather surprised by a visit paid me in my camp
from a party of the Sultan's soldiers, the chief of whom bore a letter from
the Governor of Bagamoyo, wherein he complained that my people had in-
duced about fifteen women to abandon their masters. On mustering the
people and inquiring into their domestic affairs, it was discovered that a
lai'ge number of women had indeed joined the expedition during the night.
Most of them, however, bore free papers, accorded to them by the political
agent at Zanzibar ; but eleven were, by their own confession, runaway slaves.
After being hospitably received by the Sultan of Zanzibar and the Arabs, it
was no part of a stranger's duty — unless authorised by some Government
likely to abide by its agent's actions — to countenance such a novel mode of
liberating the slaves. The order was therefore given, that the women should
i-eturn with the Sultan's soldiers ; but as this did not agree with either the
views of the women themselves, o: their abductors, the females set up a de-
termined defiance to the order, and the males seized their Snider rifles, vow-
ing that they should not return. As such a disposition, and demonstration of
hostility, was not j^olite, nor calculated to deserve my esteem, or to win for
me the Arabs' good- will, the manifestation was summarily suppressed, and
the women returned to their masters." The noble mastiff, Castor, which had
been presented to the traveller by the Baroness Burdett Coutts, died on the
journey, of apoplexy brought on by the heat.
The next intelligence of the intrepid traveller is conveyed in. a letter
written by him from the Lake Victoria Nyanza, which was published in
" The Daily Telegraph," Oct. 15. 1875. On account of its intense interest,
we give it here entire : —
" Village of Kagehyi, District of Uchambi, Usukuma,
on the Victoria Nyanza, March 1.
" The second part of the programme laid before me as Commander of
the Anglo-American Expedition ended successfully at noon on the 27th Feb-
ruary, 1875. The great lake first discovered by Captain Speke — the Victoria
Nyanza — was sighted and reached by us on that day ; and it is with feelings
of most devout gratitude to Almighty God for preserving us, amid manifold
perils, that I write these lines.
" It seems an age since we started from Mpwapwa of Usagara, whence
I despatched my last letter to you. We have experienced so much, seen and
THROUGH UGOGO. 189
sufl'ered go much, that I have carefully to recapitulate in my mind, and turn
to my note-book besides, to refresh my recollection of even the principal events
of this most long, arduous, and eventful march to the Victorian Lake. I pro-
mised 3'ou in my last letter that I would depart as soon as practicable from
the old route to Unyanyembe, now so well known, and would, like the patri-
arch Livingstone, strike out a new line to unknown lands. I did so. In our
adventurous journey north I imperilled the Expedition, and almost brouglit
it to an untimely end, which, however, happily for me, for you, and for geo-
graphers, a kindly Providence averted.
"On leaving Mpwapwa we edged northward across the Desert of the
Mgunda Mkali, or the Forest region, leaving the vain chief of Mbumi far to
the south, and traversed Northern Ugogo with the usual experiences attend-
ing travellers in Southern Ugogo. The chiefs practised the regular arts;
fleeced us of property, and black-mailed us at every opportunity. But oc-
casionally we met tribes more amiably disposed towards strangers, although
at times we had to pay heavier tribute in other chiefs' lands. We crossed
broad and bleak plains, where food was scarce, and cloth vanished fast, to
enter hilly districts where provisions were abundant, the people civil, and the
chiefs kind. We traversed troublesome districts where wars and rumours of
wars were rife, the people treacherous and hostile, to enter countries lying at
the mercy of the ferocious Wahumba on the north, and the Wahebu to the
south. Thus good and evil fortune alternated during our travels through
Ugogo — an epitome in brief of our after-experiences. Furious rainy tem-
pests accompanied us constantly, and some days Nature and man alike warred
against us, while on others both seemed combined to bless us. Under our
generally adverse fates my command seemed to melt away ; men died from
fatigue and famine, many were left behind ill, while many, again, deserted.
Promises of I'eward, kindness, threats, punishments, had no effect. The Ex-
pedition seemed doomed. The white men, though elected out of the ordinary
class of Englishmen, did their work bravely — nay, I may say heroically.
Though suffering from fev,er and dysentery, insulted by natives, marching
under the heat and equatorial rain-storms, they at all times proved themselves
of noble, manly natures, stout-hearted, brave, and — better than all — true
Christians. Unrepining they bore their hard fate and worse fare; resignedly
they endured arduous troubles, cheerfully performed their allotted duties, and
at all times commended themselves to my good opinion.
''We reached the western frontier of Ugogo on the last day of 1874.
After a r>.st of two days we thence struck direct north, along an almost level
plain, which some said extended as far as Nyanza. We found, by question-
ing the natives, that we were also travelling along the western extremity of
Wahumba, which we were glad to hear, as we fondly hoped that our marcii
would be less molested. Two days' progress north brought us to the con-
62
490 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
fines of Usandawi, a country famous for elephants ; but here our route inclined
iioith-west, and we entered Ukiaibu, or Uyanzi, at its north-eastern extremity.
AVe had hired guides in Ugogo to take us as far as Iramba, but at Muhalala,
in Ukimbu, they deserted. Fresh guides were engaged «t Muhalala, who
took us one day's mai-ch farther north-west, but wt niglit they also disappeared,
and in the morning we were left on the edge of a wide wilderness without a
single pioneer. On the roads the previous day the guides had informed us
that three days' march would bring us to Urimi, and, relying on the truth of
the report, I had purchased two days' provisions, so that this second deser-
tion did not much disconcert us, nor raise any suspicion, though it elicited
many unpleasant remarks about the treachery of the Wagogo. We there-
fore continued om- journey, but on the morning of the second day, the narrow,
ill-defined track which we had followed became lost in a labyrinth of ele-
phant and rhinoceros trails. The best men were despatched in all directions
to seek the vanished road, but they were all unsuccessful, and we had no
resource left but the compass. The next day brought us into a dense jungle
of acacia and euphorbia, through which we had literally to push our way by
scrambling and crawling along the ground under natural tunnels of embrac-
ing shrubbery, cutting the convolvuli and creepers, thrusting aside stout,
thorny bushes, and by various detours taking advantage of every slight open-
ing the jungle aff"orded. This naturally lengthened our journey and pro-
tracted our stay in the wilderness. On the evening of the third day the first
death in this dismal waste occurred.
" The fourth day we made but fourteen miles, and the march was three-
fold more arduous than the preceding tramp. Not a drop of water was dis-
covered, and the weaker people, labouring beneath their loads, and under-
going besides hunger and thirst, lagged behind the vanguard many miles,
which caused the rearguard under two of the white men much suffering. As
the last files advanced, they shouldered the loads of the weaker men, and
endeavoured to encourage them to resume the march. Some of these poor
fellows were enabled to reach camp, where their necessities were relieved by
medicine and restoratives. But five strayed from the path which the passing
Expedition had made, and were never seen alive again. Scouts sent out to
explore the woods found one dead about a mile from our road, the others
must have hopelessly wandered on until they also fell down and died.
" On the fifth day we arrived at a small village, lately erected, called
Uveriveri, the population of which consisted of four negroes, their wives, and
little ones. These people had not a grain of food to sjjare. Most of our
Expedition were unable to move for hunger and fatigue. In this dire extre-
mity I ordered a halt, and selected twenty of the strongest to proceed to
Sana, twenty -nine miles north-west from Uveriveri, to purchase food. In the
interval I explored the woods in search of game, but the quest was fruitless,
11 UNOER SA TI SPIED. 49 1
though one of my men discovered a lion's den, and brought me two young
lions, •uhich I killed and skinned. Returning to camp from the fruitless-
hunt, I was so struck with the pinched faces of my poor people that I could
have almost wept if I might have done so without exciting fear of our fate in
their minds ; but I resolved to do something towards relieving the pressing
needs of fierce hunger. To effect this, a sheet-iron trunk was emptied of its
contents, and, being filled with water, was placed on the fire. I then broke
open our medical stores, and took five pounds of Scotch oatmeal, and three
tins of Revalenta Arabica, with which I made gruel to feed over two hundred
and twenty men. It was a rare sight to see these poor famine-stricken peo-
ple hasten to that Torquay dress-trunk, and assist me to cook the huge pot
of gruel; to watch them fan the fire to a fiercer heat, and with their gourds
full of water stand by to cool the foaming liquid when it threatened to ovei-
flow ; and it was a still better sight to witness the pleasure steal over their-
faces as they ate the welcome food. The sick and weaker received a larger
portion near my tent, and another tin of oatmeal was opened for their sup-
per and breakfast. But a long time nmst elapse before I shall have the cou-
rage to express my feelings whilst I waited for the return of my people from
Suna with food, and fruitless would be the attempt to describe the anxiety
with which I listened for the musketry announcing their success. After
forty-eight hours' suspense, we heard the joyful sounds, which woke us all
into new life and vigour. The grain was most greedily seized by the hungry
people, and so animating was the report of the purveyors that the soldiers,
one and all, clamoured to be led away that afternoon. Nowise loath myself
to march from this fatal jungle, I assented; but two more poor fellows breathed
their last before we left camp.
"We pitched that night at the base of a rocky hill overlooking a broad
plain, which, after the intense gloom and confined atmosphere of the jungle,
was a great pleasure to us ; and next day, striking north along this plain,
after a long march of twenty miles under a fervid sun, we reached the dis-
trict of Suna, in Urimi. -At this place, we discovered a people remarkable
for their manly beauty, noble proportions, and utter nakedness. Neithei
man nor boy wore either cloth or skins ; the women bearing children alone
boasted of goat-skins. With all their physical comeliness and fine propor-
tions, they were the most suspicious people we had yet seen. It required
great tact and patience to induce them to part with food for our cloth and
beads. They owned no chief, but respected the injunctions of their elders,
with whom I treated for leave to pass through their land. The permission
was reluctantly given, and food was grudgingly sold ; but we bore with all
this silent hostility patientl}', and I took greau care that no overt act on the
part of the Expedition should change their suspicion into hatred. Our people
were so worn out with fatifjue that six more poor fellows died here, and the
492 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
sick list numbered thirty. Here also, Edward Pocock fell seriously ill of
typhoid fever. For his sake, as well as for the other sufferers, I halted in
Suna four days ; but it was evident that the longer we stayed in their country
the less we were liked by the natives, and it was incumbent on us to move,
though much against my inclination. There were many grave reasons why
we should have halted several days longer, for Edward Pocock was daily
getting worse, and the sick-list increased alarmingly; dysentery, diarrhoeii,
chest diseases, sore feet, tasked my medical knowledge to the utmost; but
prudence forbade a sta}^ The rear-guard and captains of the Expedition were
therefore compelled to do the work of carriers, and every soldier for the time
being was converted into a. pagavJ, or porter. Pocock was put into a hammock,
the sick and weakly were encouraged to do their utmost to move on with the
Expedition to more promising lands, where the natives were less suspicious,
where food was more abundant, and where cattle were numerous. Imbued
with this hope, the entire camp resumed its march across the clear, open, and
well-cultivated country of Urimi.
"Chiwyu was reached about ten o" clock, after a short walk, and here the
young Englishman, Edward Pocock, breathed his last, to the great grief of
us all. According to two rated pedometers, we had iinished the four hun-
dredth mile of our march fi-om the sea, and had reached the base of the water-
shed whence the trickling streams and infant waters begin to flow Nileward,
when this noble young fellow died. We buried him at night, and a cross,
cut deep into a tree, marks his last resting-place at Chiwyu. As we travelled
north we became still more assured that we had arrived in the dewy land
whence the extreme southern springs, rividets, and streams, discharge their
waters into the Nile. From a high ridge overlooking a vast extent of country,
the story of their course was plainly written in the deep depressions and hol-
lows trending northward and north-westward ; and as we noticed these signs
of the incipient Nile, we cherished the growing hope, that before long, we
should gaze with gladdened eyes on the mighty reservoir which collected
these waters that purled and rippled at our feet, into its broad bo.som, to dis-
charge them in one vast body into the White Nile. From Chiwyu we
journeyed two days through Urimi to Mangara, where Kaif Halleck — the
carrier of Kirk's letter-bag to Livingstone, whom I compelled to accompau)-
me to Ujiji in 1871 — was brutally murdered. He had been suffering from
asthma, and I had permitted him to follow the main body slowly, the rear-
guard being all employed as carriers because of the heavy sick-list, when he
was waylaid by the natives and hacked to pieces. This was the first overt
act of hostility on the part of the Warimi. Unable to fix the crime on any
particular village, we resumed our journey, and entered Ituru, a district in
Northern Urimi, on the 21st of January.
" The village near which we camped was called Vinyata, and was situ-
SIGNS OF WAR. 403
ated in a broad and populous valley containing, probably, some two or three
thousand souls. Here we discovered the river which received all the streams
that flowed between Vinyata and Chiwyu. It is called Lecwumbu, and its
flow from this valley is west. Even in the dry season it is a considerable
stream, some twenty feet in width and about two feet in depth, but in the
rainy season it becomes a deep and formidable river. The natives received
us coldly, but, as we were only two days' journey from Iramba, I redoubled
my exertions to conciliate the surly, suspicious peo{)le, and that evening
my effort seemed crowned with success, for they brought milk, eggs, and chick-
ens, for sale, for which I parted freely with cloth. The fame of my liberality
reached the ears of the great man of the valley, the magic doctor, who, in
the absence of a recognised king, is treated by the natives with the deference
and respect due to royalty. This important personage brought me a fat ox
the second day of my arrival at Vinyata, and in exchange received double its
value in cloth and beads, while a rich present was bestowed upon his brother
and son. The great man begged for the heart of the slaughtered ox, which
was also given him, and other requests were likewise honoured by prompt
compliance.
*■ We had been compelled to take advantage of the fine sun which shone
this day to dry the bales and goods, and I noticed, though without misgiving,
that the natives eyed them greedily. On the morning of the third day, the
magic doctor returned again to camp to beg for some more beads, to ' make
brotherhood with him.' To this, after some slight show of reluctance to
give too much, I assented, and he departed apjiarently pleased. Half an
hour afterwards the war-cry of the Waturu was heard resounding through
each of the two hundred villages of the Leewumbu valley. This war-cry
was similar to that of the Wagogo, and phonetically it might be spelt ' Hehu,
A Hehu,' the latter syllables drawn out in a prolonged cry — thrilling and
loud. As we had heard the Wagogo sound such war notes upon every slight
apparition of strangers, we imagined that the warriors of Ituru were sum-
moned to contend against some marauders like the warlike Waramba or other
malcontent neighbours, and nothing disturbed by it, we pursued our various
avocations, like peaceful beings, fresh from our new brotherhood with the
elders of Ituru. Some of our men were gone out to the neighbouring pool
to draw water for their respective messes ; others, again, were about starting
to purchase food, when suddenly we aaw the outskirts of the camp darkened
by about a hundred natives in full war costume. Feathers of the bustard,
the eagle, and tlie kite, waved above some of their heads ; the mane of the
zebra and the giraffe encircled other swarthy brows ; in their left hands they
held bows and arrows, while in their right they bore spears.
" This hostile gathering naturally alarmed us, for what had we done to
■occasion disturbance or war? Remembering the pacific bearing of Living-
494 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
stone when he and I were menaced by tlie cannibal Wabembe, I gave orders
that none should leave camp until we could ascertain what this hostile pro-
ceeding meant, and that none should by any demonstration provoke the
natives. While we waited to see what the Waturu intended to do, their
numbers increased tenfold, a;jd every bush and tree hid a warrior. Our
camp was situated on the edge of a broad wilderness that extended westward
many days' march ; but to the north, east, and south, nothing was seen save
villages and cultivated ground, which, with the careless mode of agriculture
in vogue amongst savages, contained acres of dwarf shrubbery. I doubt,
however, whether throughout this valley a better locality for a camp could
have been selected tlian the one we had chosen. Fifty or sixty yards around us
was open ground, so that we had the advantage of clear space to prevent the
approach of an enemy unseen. A slight fence of bush served to screen our
numbers from those witliout the camp, but having had no occasion to suspect
hostilities, it was but ill adapted to shield us from attack.
" When the Waturu had become so numerous in our vicinity that we no
longer doubted they were summoned to fight us, I despatched a young man
who knew their language to ascertain their intention. As he advanced to-
wards them six or seven warriors drew near to talk with him. When he
returned he informed us that one of our men had stolen some milk and butter
from a small village, and that we must pay for it in cloth. The messenger
was sent back to tell them that white men did not come to their country to
rob or quarrel ; that they had but to name the price of what was stolen to be
paid at once, and that not one grain of corn or millet-seed should be appro-
priated by us wrongfully. Upon this the principal warriors drew nearer, until
we could hear their voices plainly, though we did not understand the nature
of the conversation. The messenger informed us that the elders demanded
four yards of sheeting, which was about six times the value of the stolen
articles ; but at such a moment it was useless to haggle over so trifling a
demand, and the cloth was jjaid. When it was given to them the elders said
they were satisfied and withdrew.
" It soon became evident, however, though the elders were content, the
warriors were not, as they could be seen Imriying by scores from all parts of
the valley, and gesticulating violently in crowds. Still we waited patiently,
hoping that if the old men and principal warriors were really well disposed
towards us their voices would prevail, and that they would be able to assuage
the wild passions which now seemed to animate the others. As we watched
them we noted that about two hundred detached themselves from the gesticu-
lating crowds east of the camp, and disappeared, hurrying to the thick bush
west of us. Soon afterwards one of my men returned from that direction
bleeding profusely from the face and arm, and reported that he and a youth
named Sulieman were out collecting firewood when they were attacked by a
CONFLICT WITH THE NATIVES. 495
large crowd of savages, wlio were hidden in the bush. A knobstick had
crushed the man's nose, and a spear had severely wounded him in the arm,
but he had managed to escape, while Sulicman was killed, a dozen spears
having been plunged into his back.
" This report, and the appearance of their bleeding comrade, so excited
the soldiers of the Expedition, that they were only with the utmost difficdty
restrained from beginning a battle at once. Even yet, I hoped that xvar
might be prevented by a little diplomacy, wliile I did not forget to open the
ammunition-boxes and prepare for the worst. But much was meanwhile *-o
be done. The enclosure of the camp required to be built up, and something
of a fortification was necessary to repel the attack of such a large force.
While we were thus preparing without ostentation to defend ourselves from
what I conceived an imminent onslaught, the Waturu, now our declared
enemies, advanced upon the camp, and a shower of arrows fell all round us.
Sixty soldiers, held in readiness, were at once ordered to deploy in front of
the camp, fifty yards off; the Wanguana, or freemen of Zanzibar, obedient
to the command, rushed out of the camp, and the battle commenced. Im-
mediately after, these sixty men, with axes, were ordered to cut bushes and
raise a high fence of thorn around the camp, while twenty more were em-
ployed to throw up lofty platforms like towers within, for sharp-shooters. We
busied ourselves in bi-inging the sections of the 'Lady Alice' inside to make
a central refuge for a last resistance, and in otherwise strengthening the
defences. Every one worked with a will, and while the firing of the skir-
mishers, growing more distant, announced that the enemy was withdraw-
ing, we were left to complete our task unmolested. When the camp was pre-
pared I ordered the bugler to sound the retreat, in order that the savages
might have an opportunity to consider whether it was politic for them to
renew the fight.
"The skirmishers now returned, and announced that fifteen of the enemy
were killed, while a great many more were wounded and borne off by their
friends. All my men had distinguished themselves — even ' Bull,' my British
bull-dog, had seized one of the Waturu by the leg, and had given him a taste
of the power of the sharji canines of his breed before the poor savage was
mercifully despatched by a Snider bullet. We rested that day from further
trouble, and the next morning we waited events until nine o'clock, when the
enemy appeared in greater force than ever, having summoned their neigh-
bours all round to assist them, as I now felt assured, in our ruin. Though we
were reluctant to make war upon people whom I the previous day thought
might still be converted into friends, we were not slow to continue fighting
if the natives were determined on hostilities. Accordingly I selected four
experienced men to lead four several detachments, and gave orders that thej-
should march in different directions through the valley, and meet at some
496 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
high rocks distant five miles oflf; that they should seize upon all cattle, and
burn every village as soon as taken. Obedient to the command they sallied
forth from the camp, and thus began the second day's fight.
" They were soon vigorously engaged with the enemy, who fled fast and
clamorous before them to an open plain on the banks of the Leewumbu. The
detachment under Farjalla Christie became too excited, and because the enemy
ran imagined that they had only to show themselves to cause every native to
fly ; but once on the plain — having drawn them away into isolation some miles
from any succour — the negroes turned upon them and slaughtered the detach-
ment to a man, except the messenger, who had been detailed to accompany
the party in order to report success or failure. I had taken the precaution to
send one swift-footed man along with each detachment for this purpose. The
messenger came from Farjalla to procure assistance, which was at once de-
spatched, though, indeed, too late to aid the unfortunate men, but not too late
to save a second detachment from a like fate, for the victorious enemy, after
slaughtering the first division, had turned upon the second with the evident
intention to cut up in detail the entire force opposed to them. When the
support arrived they found the second detachment all but lost. Two soldiers
had been killed : the captain, Ferahan, had a deep spear-wound in his side ;
the others were hemmed in. A volley was poured into the rear of the aston-
ished enemy, and the party was saved. With their combined forces our
people discharged a second volley, and then continued their march almost un-
opposed to the northern and eastern extremity of the valley. Meanwhile
smoke was seen issuing from the south and south-east, informing us that the
third and fourth detachments were pursuing their way victoriously; and soon
a score or more villages were enwrapped in dense volumes of smoke. Even
at a distance of eight miles we beheld burning villages, and shortly the blaz-
ing settlements to the north and east announced our triumph on all sides.
Towards evening the soldiers returned, bringing cattle and an abundance of
grain to the camp; but when the muster-roll was called, I found I had lost
twenty one men who had been killed, while thirty five deaths of the enemy
were reported.
" The third day we renewed the battle with sixty good men, who received
instructions to proceed to the extreme length of the valley, and destroy what
had been left on the previous day. These came to a strong and large village
on the north-east, which, after a short resistance, they entered, loading them-
selves there with grain, and afterwards setting the village on fire. Long
before noon it was clearly seen that the savages had had enough of war, and
were quite demoralised, so that our people returned through the now silent
and blackened valley without molestation. Just before daybreak, on the
fourth day, we quitted our camp and continued our journey north-west, with
provisions sufiicient to last us six days, leaving the people of Ituru to ponder
SERIOUS LOSS OF MEN. 497
on the harsh fate they had drawn on themselves by their greed, treachery,
and wanton murderous attack on peaceful strangers.
" We were still a formidable force, strong in numbers, guns, and pro-
])erty, though, for an Expedition destined to explore so many thousand miles
of new countries, we had suffered severely. I had started from the coast with
over three hundred men ; but when I reviewed the Expedition at Mgongo
Tembo, in Iramba, which we reached three days after departing from the
scene of our conflict, I found that I had but one hundred and ninety-four
men left. In less than three months, I had already lost by dysenteiy, famine,
heart disease, desertion, and war, over one hundred and twenty men, natives
of Africa, and one Eurojjean. I have not now the time — for my work is but
beginning — to relate a tithe of our adventures, or how we suffered. You can
better imagine our perils, our novel and strange fortunes, if you reflect on the
loss of one hundred and twenty men out of a force so limited. Such a reduc-
tion even in a strong regiment would be deemed almost a catastrophe. What
name will you give it when you cannot recruit your numbers, when every
man that dies is a loss that cannot be repaired ; when your work, which is to
last years, is but commencing — when each morning you say to yourself, 'This
day may be your last ?'
" On entering Iramba we came upon a land where, to all strangers that
appeared, the natives called out ' Mirambo and his robbers are coming.' But
a vast amount of patience and suave language saved us from the doom that
everywhere threatens this now famous chieftain. Despite, however, the count-
less medicines and magic arts that have been made and practised against him,
Mirambo yet lives. He seems to make war on all mankind in this portion of
the African interior, and appears to be possessed of ubiquitous powers. We
heard of him advancing upon the natives in Northern Ugogo ; Ukimbu was
terror-stiicken at his name ; the people of Unyanyembe were still fighting
him, and here, in Iramba, he had been met and fought, and was again daily
expected. As we journeyed on through Iramba and entered Usukuma his
fame increased, for we were now drawing near some of the scenes of his wild-
est exploits. When we approached the Victoria Nyanza he was actually
lighting but a day's march from us with the people of Usanda and Masari,
and a score of times we came near being plunged into conflicts, because the
natives mistook our Expedition for Mirambo's force. Our colour, however,
saved us, before we became actually engaged in the struggle.
"Various were our fortunes in our travels between Mgongo Tembo, in
Iramba, and the Nyanza. We traversed the whole length of Usukuma, through
the districts of Mombiti, Usiha, Mondo, Sengerema, and Mai-ya, and, passing
through Usmaow, I'e-entered Usukuma by Uchambi, and arrived at the lake
after a march of seven hundred and twenty miles. As far as Western Ugogo
I may pass over the country without any attempt at description, since tlie
63
498 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
public may obtain a dstailed account of it in my work, " How I Found Living-
stone." Thence north is a new country to all, and a brief description may
be interesting to students of African geography.
"North of Muanza a level plain extends as far as the frontier of Usan-
dawi, a distance of thirty-five English miles. At Mukondoku the altitude, as
indicated by two first-rate aneroids, was 2,800 feet. At Mtiwi, twenty miles
north, the altitude was 2,825 feet. Diverging west and north-west, we as-
cended the slope of what was apparently a lengthy mountain wall, but upon
arriving at the summit we ascertained this to be a wide plateau, covered with
forest. The plateau has an altitude of 3,800 feet at its eastern extremity ;
but as it extends westward it rises to a height of 4,500 feet. It embraces all
Uyanzi, Unyanyembe, Usukunia, Urimi, and Iramba — in short, all that part
of Central Africa Ijdng between the valley of the Rufiji south and the Vic-
toria Nyanza north ; and the mean altitude of this broad upland cannot
exceed 3,500 feet. From Muanza to the Nyanza is a distance of nearly 300
geographical miles, yet at no part of this long journey did the aneroids indi-
cate a higher altitude than 5,100 feet above the sea.
" As far as Urimi fi-om the eastern edge of the plateau the laud is cover-
ed with a thick jungle of acacias, which by its density strangles other species
of vegetation. Here and there only mi the cleft of a rock a giant euphorbia
may be seen, sole lord of its sterile domain. The soil is shallow, and con-
sists of vegetable mould mixed largely with sand and detritus of the bnre rocks
which crown each knoll and ridge, and which testify too plainly to the vio-
lence of the pei'iodical rains. In the basin of Matongo, in Southern Urimi,
we were informed by the ruins of hills and ridges, relics of a loftier upland,
of what has been effected by Nature in the course of long ages. No savant
need ever expound to the traveller who views those rocky ruins the geolo-
gical history of this country. From a distance we viewed the glistening,
naked, and riven rocks, as a most singular scene ; but when we stood
among them, and noted the api^earance of the fragments of granite, gneiss,
and porphyry, peeled, as it were rind after rind, like an onion, or leaf
after leaf, like an artichoke, until the rock was wasted away, it seemed
as if Dame Nature had left these stony anatomies, these hilly skeletons,
to demonstrate her law? and career. It appeared to me as if she said,
' Behold my broad basin of Matongo, with its teeming villages, and herds
of cattle, and fields of corn, surrounded by these bare rocks — in primeval
time this upland was covered with water, it was the bed of a vast sea.
The waters were dried, leaving a wide expanse of level land, upon which I
caused heavy rains to fall five months out of each year during all the ages
that have elapsed since first the hot sunshine fell upon the soil. These rains
washed away the loose sand, and made deep furrows in course of time, until
at certain places the rocky kernel under the soil began to appear. The fur-
CENTRAL URIMI. 499
rows became enlarged, the water fritted away their banks, and conveyed the
earth to lower levels, through which it wore away a channel first throun-h the
soil, and lastly througli the rock itself, which you may see if you but descend
to the bottom of that basin. You will there behold, worn through the solid
rock, a fissure some fifty feet in depth; and, as you look on that, you will
have an idea of the power and force of tropical rains. It is through that
channel that the soil, robbed from these rocks, has been carried away towards
the Nyanza to fill its depths, and in time make dry land of it.' You may
ask how came these once solid rocks, which are now but skeletons of hills and
stony heaps, to be thus split into so many fragments. Have you never seen
the effect of water thrown upon lime ? These solid rocks have been broken
and peeled in an almost similar manner. The tropical sun heated the surface
of these rocks to an intense degree, and the cold rain then falling caused the
rocks to split and peel as we now see them.
" Such is really the geological history of this country. Ridge after
ridge, basin after basin, from Western Ugogo to the Nyanza, tell the same
tale ; but it is not until we enter Central Urimi that we begin to marvel at
the violence of the process by which Nature has thus transformed the face
of the land. For here the perennial springs and rivulets first unite and form
rivers, after collecting and absorbing the moisture from the watershed, and
these rivers, though but gentle streams during the dry season, become for-
midable during the rains. It is in Central Urimi that the Nile levies its ear-
liest tribute upon Equatorial Africa ; and if you look upon the map and draw
a line east from the altitude of Ujiji to longitude 35° east, you will strike
upon the sources of the Leewumbu, the exti'eme southern feeder of the Vic-
toria Nyanza. In Iraraba, between Mgongo Terabo and Morabiti, we came
upon what must have been in former times an arm of the Victoria Nyanza.
It is called the Lumamberri Plain, after a river of that name, and is about
forty miles in width. Its altitude is about 3,775 feet above the sea, and but
a few feet above the Victoria Nyanza. We were fortunate in crossing the
broad shallow stream in the dry season, for during the masika, or rainy sea-
son, the plain is converted into a wide lake.
" The Leewumbu River, after a course of one hundred and seventy
miles, becomes known in Usukuma as the Monangah River. After another
run of one hundred miles, it is converted into the Shimeeyu, under which
name it enters the Victoria east of this port of Kagehyi. Roughly, the Shi-
meeyu may be said to have a length of thi-ee hundred and fifty miles. After
penetrating the forest and jungle west of the Lumamberri, we enter Usu-
kuma — a country thickly-peopled, and rich in cattle. It is a series of rolling
plains, with here and there, far apart, a chain of jagged hills. The descent
to the lake is so gradual that I expect to find upon sounding it, as I intend
to do, that though it covers a vast area, it is very shallow.
500 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
" Now, after our long journey, the Expedition is halted a hundred yards
from the lake ; and as I look upon its dancing waters, I long to launch the
'■ Lady Alice,' and venture out to explore its mysteries. Though on its shore,
I am still as ignorant of its configuration and extent as any man in England
or America. I have questioned natives of Uchambi closely upon the subject
at issue, but no one can satisfy me — though they speak positively — whether
the lake is one piece of water or more. I hear a multitude of strange names,
but whether they arc of countries or lakes it is impossible to divine, for the
l^eople's knowledge of geography is very superficial. My impression, how-
ever, is that Speke, in his bold sketch and imagined outline, is nearer the
truth than Livingstone, who reported upon hearsay at a great distance from
its shores. As soon as I can finish my letters the sections of the 'Lady Alice'
shall be screwed together; the first English boat that ever sailed on the Afri-
can lakes shall venture upon her mission ; and I shall not rest until I have
thoroughly explored every nook and cranny of the shores of the Victoria. It
is with great pride and pleasure I think of our success in conveying such a
large craft safely through the hundreds of miles of jungle which we have tra-
versed ; and just now I feel as though the entire wealth of the universe could
not bribe me to turn back from my work. Indeed, it is with the utmost im-
patience that I contemplate the task of writing my letters before starting
upon the more agreeable work of exploring ; but I remember the precept,
'Duty before pleasure.'
" I hear strange tales about the countries on the shores of this lake,
which make me still more eager to start. One man talks about a territory
peopled with dwarfs, and another with giants ; while a third is said to pos-
sess such a breed of large dogs that even m}'' mastifi's are quite small com-
pared to them. All these may be idle romances, and I lay no stress on any-
thing reported to me, as I hope to be enabled to see with my own eyes all
the wonders of those unknown countries.
" It is unfortunate that I have not Speke's book with me ; but a map of
Central Africa which I carried here contains the statement in brackets that
the Victoria Nyanza has an altitude of only 3,308 feet above the ocean. If
this statement is on Speke's authority, either he is wrong, or I am, for my
two aneroids, almost fresh from England, make it much higher. One ranges
from 3,550 to 3,650; the other from 3,575 to 3,675. I have not boiled my
thermometers yet, but intend doing so before starting on the work of exploring
the lake. I have no reason to suspect that the aneroids are at fault, as they
are both first-class instruments, and have been carefully carried with the
chronometers. With regard to Speke's position of Muanza, I incline to think
that he is right ; but, as I have not visited Muanza, I cannot tell. The
natives point it out westward of Kagehyi, and but a short distance off". The
position of the j^ort of Kagehyi is south latitude 2° 31'., east longitude 33° 13'.
STANLEY IN UGANDA. 501
" I mustered the men of the Expedition yesterday, and ascertained it to
consist of three white men and one hundred and sixty-six Wunguana soldiers
and carriers, twenty-eight having died since leaving Ituru, thirty days ago.
Over one-half of our force has thus been lost by desertion and deaths. This
is a terrible fact, bui I hope tliat their long rest here will revive the weak and
strengthen the strong. The dreadful scourge of the Expedition has been
dysentery, and I can boast of but few patients cured of it by medicine, though
it was freely given, as we were possessed of abundance of medical stores. A
great drawback to their cure has been the necessity of moving on, whereas a
few days' rest, in a country blessed with good water and food, would have
restored many of them to health ; but good water and good food combined
could not be procured anywhere but here. The Arabs would have taken
nine months or a year to march this long distance, while we have performed
it in only one hundred and three days, including halts. As I vaccinated
every member of the Expedition on the coast, I am happy to say that not
not one has fallen a victim to small-pox.
" I leave this letter in the hands of Sungoro, a Msawabili trader, who
resides here, in the hope that he will be enabled shortly to forward it to
Unyanyembe, as he frequently sends caravans with ivory; but a copy of it I
shall take with me to Uganda, and deliver to Mtesa, the king, to be con-
veyed, if possible, to Colonel Gordon, Since leaving Mpwapwa I have not
met one caravan bound for Zanzibar ; and after leaving Ugogo it was impos-
sible to meet one, or to despatch couriers through such dangerous countries
as we have traversed. The letters containing the account of our exploration
of the Victoria Nyanza and our subsequent march to the Albert Nyanza I hope
to be able to deliver personally into the hands of Colonel Gordon, and in
this expectation I remain, yours obediently, Henry M. Stanley."
*' March 5. — The boiling point observed by one of Negretti and Zambra's
apparatus this day was 205° 6' ; temperature of air, 82° Fahrenheit. The
boiling point observed by another instrument by a different maker was 205°
5'; temperature of air, 81°. Fahrenheit. The barometer at the same time
indicated 26.90 inches. The mean of the barometrical observations at Zan-
zibar was 30.048. The mean of the barometrical observations during seven
days' residence here has been 26.138.''
Stanley's next letters are written from the capital of King Mtesa, in
Uganda. They were entrusted to the care of Colonel Linantz de Bellefonds,
whom he metatMtesa's capital on a mission from Colonel Gordon, the object
being to make a treaty of commerce between Mtesa f.i2d the Egyptian
Government. Subsequently, on his return, De Bellefonds' company were
attacked by the Bari tribe, and out of forty -one all but four were massacred.
Whether one of the survivors kept possession of the documents, or whether
602 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
they were flung aside in the forest by the Bari and afterwards found by thu
detachment sent on by Gordon, is not known ; bui their tattered, soiled, blood-
stained condition when they reached England, indicated that they had. been
thrown away by the ignorant and superstitious savages, and had lain for
some time in the African jungle. The particulars given regarding the King
of Uganda and his people cannot fail to inspire &L friends of Africa with
the liveliest interest. Our traveller thus writes : —
" Ulagalla, Mtesa's Capital, Uganda, E. long. 32^ 49' 45",
N. Lat. 0° 32', April 12, 1875.
" I write this letter in haste, as it is the record of a work begun, and
not ended — I mean the exjiloration of the Victoria Nyanza. But brief as it
necessarily must be, I am sure it will interest thousands of your readers, for
it solves the great question, ' Is the Victoria Nyanza one lake, or does
it consist of a group of lakes, such as Livingstone reported it ?'
" In answer to the query, I will begin by stating that 'I have explored,
by means of the ' Lady Alice,' nearly the whole of the southern, eastern, and
north-eastern shores of the Victoria Nyanza ; have penetrated into every bay,
inlet, and creek, that indent its shores, and have taken thirty-seven observa-
tions, so that I feel competent to decide upon the question at issue, with-
out bias or jjrejudice to any hypothesis. I have a mass of notes relating to
the countries visited, and ample means of making a {proper chart at my camp
at Usukuma, but I have with me at present neither paper, parallel rules, or
any instrument whatever to lay down the positions I have taken. I only
brought hither an artificial horizon, sextant chronometer, two aneroids, boil-
ing-point apparatus, sounding line, a few guns, ammunition, and some provi-
sions, as I wished to keep the boat as light as j^ssible, that she might work
easily in the storms of the Nyanza. But when I reach camp I jiropose to
draw a correct chart of the Nyanza, and to write such notes upon the several
countries I have visited as will repay perusal and study.
" I have already informed you that our camp at Kagehyi, in Usukuma,
is situated E. long. 33° 13', and S. lat. 2° 31'. Before starting on the explor-
ations of the lake, I ascertained that Muanza was situated a few miles west,
almost on the same parallel of latitude as Kagehyi. Now, Muanza is the
point whence Speke observed the Victoria Nyanza^ and where he drew his
imaginary sketch of the lake from information given to him by the natives.
If you will look at Speke's majD you will find that it contains two islands —
Ukerewe and Maziti. Looking at the same objects from Kagehyi I should
have concluded that they were islands myself; but a faithful exploration
of the lake has proved that the latter is not insulated, but a lengthy
promontory of land extending from E. long. 34° 45f to E. long. 32° 40' 15".
Tliat part of the lake which Speke observed from Muanza, is really an
COASTING VICTORIA NYANZA. 503
enormous gulf about twenty-five miles wide by sixty-five miles long. To
the noble Nyanza, discovered by him, Speke loyally gave the name of Victo-
ria, as a tribute to his Sovereign, which let uo man take away ; but in order
to connect for ever Speke's name with the lake which he then found I have
tliought it but simple justice to the gallant explorer to call the ia.iiiense inlet
Speke Gulf.
" If you look again on Speke's map you will observe how boldly ho has
sketched the Nyanza stretching eastward and north-eastward. Considering
that he drew it from mere native report, which never yet was exact or clear,
I must say that I do not think that any other man could have arrived so near
the truth. I must confess that 1 could not have done it myself, for I could
make little of the vague and mythical reports of the natives of Kagehyi.
"Proceeding eastward towards the unknown and fabulous distance in
the ' Lady Alice,' with a picked crew of eleven men and a guide, I coasted
along the southern shore of the lake round many a noble bay, until we
came to the mouth of the Shimeeyu, in E. long. 33°. 33', S. lut. 2° 35' — by
far the noblest river discliarging into the lake which we have yet seen-
Shimeeyu has a length of tliree hundred and seventy miles, and is the ex-
treme southern source of the Nile. Before emptying into the lake it unites
with the Luamberri River, along with which it issues in a majestic flood to
the Victoria Nyanza. At its mouth it is a mile wide, but contracts as we pro-
ceed up the channel to four hundred yards. Even by itself it would make
no insignificant White Nile. By accident our route through Ituru took us
from j.ts birthplace, a month's march from the lake, and along many a mile
of its crooked course, until, by means of the 'Lady Alice,' we were enabled to
see it enter the Nyanza, a river of considerable magnitude. Between the
mouth of the Shimeeyu and Kagehyi were two districts — Sima and Magu —
of the same nature as Usukuma, and inhabited by peoples speaking the same
dialect. On the eastern side of the river is Mazanza, and beyond Manasa.
" Coasting still along the southern shore of the lake, beyond Manasa, we
come to Ututwa, inhabited, by a people speaking a different language, namely,
that of the Wajika — as the Wamanasa are called here — a people slender and
tall, carrying formidable long knives, and terrible portentous spears. In E.
long. 33° 45' 45" we sailed to the extreme end of Speke Gulf, and then turned
northward as far as S. lat. 2° 5', whence we proceeded westward almost in a
straight line along Shashi and Iranbu, in Ukerewe. In E. long. 33° 26'
we came to a strait — the Rugeji Strait — which separates one half of Uke-
rewe from the other half, and by which there is a direct means of communi-
cation from Speke Gulf with the countries ly'ng north of Ukerewe. We did
not pass through, but proceeded still westward, hugging the bold shores of
that part of Ukerewe, which is an island, as far as E. long. 32° 40' 15",
whence, following the land, we turned north-west, thence north, until iu
504 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
S. lat. 1° 53' we turned east again, coasting along the northern shores of like
rewe Island until we came to the tabular- topped bluff of Majita (Speke mis-
called this Mazita, or Maziti, and termed it an island) in E. long 33° 9' 45", and
S. lat 1° 50', whence the land starts by trending northward of east. North of
Shizu, in Ukerewe, lies the large island of Ukara, which gives its name with
some natives to that part of the lake lying between it and Ukerewe. It is
about eighteen miles long by twelve wide, aud is inhabited by a people strong
in charms and magic medicine.
"From Majita we pass on again to the north shore of Sliashi, whose
south coast is bounded by Speke Grulf, and beyond Shashi we come to the
first district in Ururi. Ururi extends from Shashi in S. lat. \° 50' to 0° 40' 0"
S., and embraces the districts of Wye, Irieni, Urieri, Igengi, Kutiri, Shirati,
and Moluru. Its coast is indented most remarkably with bays and creeks,
which extend far inland. East of the immediate coast-line the country is a
level plain, which is drained by an important river called Shirati. All other
streams that issue into the lake along the coast of Ururi are insignificant.
" North of Shirati, the most northern district of Ururi, begins the coun-
try of Ugeyeya, whose bold and mountainous shores form a strong contrast to
the flats of Shirati and Moluru. Here are mountains rising abruptly from
the lake to a height of 3,000 feet and more. This coast is also very crooked
and irregular, requiring j^atient and laborious rowing to investigate its many
bends and curves. The people are a timid and suspicious race, much vexed bj'
their neighbours, the Waruri, south, and Wamasui, east; and are loth to
talk to strangers, as the Arab slave-dealers of Pangani have not taught them
to love people carrying guns. The Wageyeya, having been troubled by the
Waruri, have left many miles of wilderness uninhabited between their country
and that of their fierce neighbours. But Sungoro, the agent of Mse Saba —
who has prompted the Waruri to many a devilish act, and jDurchased their
human spoils — is constructing in Ukerewe a dhow of twenty or thirty tons
burden, with which he intends to prosecute more actively his nefarious trade.
Nothing would have pleased me better than to have been commissioned by
some government to hang all such wretches wherever found; and if ever a
pirate deserves death for inhuman crimes, Sungoro, the slave-trader, deserves
death. Kagehyi, in Usukuma, has become the seat of that inhuman slave-
trade. To that part they are collected from Sima, Magu, Ukerewe, Ururi,
and Ugeyeya; and when Sungoro has floated his dhow and hoisted his blood-
stained ensign, the great sin will increase tenfold, and the caravan road to
Unyanyembe will become hell's highway.
" On the coast of Ugeyeya I expected to discover a channel to another
lake, as there might be a grain of truth in what the Wanguana reported to
Livingstone ; but I found nothing of the sort excejit unusually deep bends
in the shore, which led nowhere. The streams were insignificant and unde-
CO UN TRIES ARC) UND N YA NZA . 505
Korving tlie name of rivers. A few miles from tlie equator I came upon two
islands formed of basaltic rock, and overgrown with a dense growth of tropi-
cal vegetation. One had a natural bridge of rock thirty feet long and fifteen
feet wide — the other showed a small cave.
" In E. longitude 34° 49', at Nakidlmo of Ugeye3^a, we came to the
furthest point east of the Victoria Nyanza. North of Ugeyeya begins Ba-
ringo, a limited country, extending over about fifteen miles of latitude. Its
coast is also remarkable for deej) indentations and noble bays, some of whicli
are almost entirely closed by land, and might well be called lakes by uncul-
tivated or vague Wanguana. Large islands also are numerous, some of
which- lie so close to the shore-line that if we had not hugged its edge closely
we should have mistaken them for portions of the mainland. North of Ba-
ririgo the land is again distinguished by lofty hills, coiles, and plateaus,
which sink eastward into jDlains, and here a new country commences —
Unyara — the language of whose people is totally distinct from that of Usu-
kuma, and approaches to that of Uganda and Usoga. Unyara occupies the
north-eastern coast of the Victoria Nyanza, and by observation the extreme
north-eastern point of the Nyanza ends in E. long. 34° 35' and N. lat. 33' 43".
As I intend to send you a chart of the Nyanza, it is needless here to enter
into minor details, but I may as well mention that a large jDOition of the
north-eastern end of the lake is almost entirely closed in by the shores of
Ugana and of two islands, Chaga and Usuguru, the latter of which is one of
the largest in the Nyanza. While Unyara occupies the north-eastern coast
of the Victorian Sea, Ugana commences the northern coast of the lake from
the east, and running south-west a few miles forms here a large bay. It then
trends westward, and the island of Chaga runs directly north and south for
eight miles at a distance of twelve miles from the opposite coast of Unyara.
With but a narrow channel between, Usuguru Island runs from the southern
extremity of Chaga, in a south-south-easterly direction, to within six miles
from the eastern shore of the mainland. Thus hereabouts almost a lake is.
formed separate from the Nyanza.
" North of Chaga Island, Usoga begins with the large district of Usowa.,
where we met with the first hostile demonstration — though not actual deed,
as the act was checked by show of superior weapons — on the part of the
natives. Thence, as we proceed westward, the districts of Ugamba, Uvira,
Usamu, and Utamba, line the coast of Usoga. Where Utamba begins, large
i:-lands again become frequent, the principal of which is Uvuma, an inde-
pendent country, and the largest in the Victoria Nyanza. At Uvuma, we
experienced treachery and hostility on the part of tlie natives. By show of
friendship on their part, we were induced to pass within a few yards of the
shore, wliere a mass of natives were hid in ambush behind the trees. While
sailing quietly by, exchanging fiicndly greetings with them, we were sud-
G4
500 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
denly attacked with a shower of lai'ge rocks, several of which struck the
boat ; but the hehn being quickly put ' hard up,' we steered from shore to a
safer distance, but not before the foremost of the rascals had to be laid dead
by a shot from one of my revolvers.
" After proceeding some miles we entered a channel between the islands
of Uvuma and Bugeyeya, but close to the shore of Uvuma. Here we dis-
covered a fleet of large canoes — thirteen in number — carrying over a hundred
warriors, armed with shields, spears, and slings. The foremost canoe con-
tained baskets of sweet potatoes, which the people held uji, as if they were de-
sirous to trade. I ordered my party to cease rowing, and as there was but
a slight breeze, we still held on with the sail, and permitted the canoe to
approach. While we were bargaining for potatoes with this party, the canoes
came up and blocked the boat, while the people began to lay surreptitious
hands on everything; but we found their purpose out, and I warned the
robbers away with my gun. They jeered at this, and immediately seized
their spears and shields, while one canoe hastened away with some beads its
crew had stolen, and which a man insolently held up to my view, mockingly
inviting us to catch him. At the dangerous example of this I fired, and the
man fell dead in his place. The others prepared to launch their sjiears, but
the repeating rifle was too much for the crowd of so-called warriors, who had
hastened like pirates to pillage us. Three were shot dead, and as they
retreated my elephant rifle smashed their canoes, the results of which we saw
in the confusion attending each discharge. After a few rounds from the big
gun we continued on our way, still hugging the shore of Uvuma, for it was
unnecessary to fly after such an exhibition of inglorious conduct on the part of
thirteen canoes, containing in the aggregate over one hundred men.
" In the evening we anchored in the channel between Uvuma and Usoga,
in E. long. 33° 40' 15" and N. lat. 0° 30' 9". Next morning the current per-
ceptibly growing stronger as we advanced north, we entered the Napoleon
Channel, which separates Usoga from Uganda, and then sailed across to the
Uganda shore. Having arrived close to the land, we took in all sail and
rowed towards the Ripon Falls, the noise of whose rushing waters sounded
loud and clear in our ears. The lake shoaled rapidly, and we halted to sur-
vey the scene at a spot half a mile from the first mass of foam caused by tlie
escaping waters. Spcke has been most accurate in his description of the out-
flowing river, and his pencil has done fair justice to it. The scenery around,
on the Usoga and the Uganda side, has nothing indeed of the sublime about
it, but it is picturesque and well worth a visit. A few small islets dot the
channel and lie close ashore ; while at the entrance of the main channel, look-
ing south, the large islands of Uziri and Wauzi stretch obliquely, or south-
west towards Uvuma. But the eye of the observer is more fascinated by the
ranks of swelling foam and leaping waters than by the uneven contour of the
MESSENGERS FROM MTESA. 507
land ; and the ear is attracted b}^ the rough music of tlie river's fierce play,
despite the terrors which the imugination paints, so tliat it absorbs all our
attention to watch the smooth, flowing surface of the lake, suddenly broken
into fury by the rocks of gneiss and hematite w^hicli jjrotrude, white and
rudd}-, above the water, and which tin-eaten instant doom to the unlucky
navigator who should be drifted among them. There is a charm, too, in the
scene which can belong to few such, for this outflowing river that the Great
Victoria Nyanza discharges from its bosom, becomes known to the world as
the WJiite Nile. Though born amid the mountains of Ituru, Kargue, and
Ugeyeya, it emerges from the womb of the Nyanzn, Ihe perfect and veritable
Nile which annually resuscitates parched Egypt.
" From the Ripon Falls we proceeded along the coast of Ikira soutli-west,
until, gaining the shore opposite Uziri, we coasted westerly along tlie irregu-
lar shore of Uganda, Arriving at the isle of Ki-iva, we secured guides, Avho
voluntarily offered to conduct us as far as Mtesa's capital. Halting a short
time at the island of Kibibi, we proceeded to Ukafu, where a snug horse-shoe-
shaped bay was discovered. From Ukafu we despatched messengers to
Mtcsa to announce the arrival of a white visitor in Uganda, after being most
hospitably received with fair words, but with empty hands, along the coast
of Uganda. I was anxious to discover the entrance of the ' Luajerri,' and
questioned the natives long and frequently about it, until, securing an inter-
preter who understood the Kisawahili, wo ascertained that there was no such
river at all as the Luajerri, that 'Luaserri,' however, meant still wafer, appli-
cable to any of the many lengthy creeks, or narrow inlets which indent the
coasts of Uganda and Usugo. From this I conclude that Speke was misin-
formed, and that his ' Luajerri ' is Luaserri, or a still water. At least we
discovered no such river, either sluggish or quick, flowing northwards; while
in the neighbourhood of ' Murchison Creek ' I did, indeed, find a long and
crooked inlet, called Mwaru- Luaserri, or the Quiet-water — which penetrated
several miles inland, and the termination of which we saw. I noticed a posi-
tive tide here, I should mention, during the morning. For two hours the
water of this creek flowed north, and subsequently, for two hours, it flowed
south ; while, on asking the i^eople if this were a usual sight, they said it was,
and was visible in all the inlets on the coast of Uganda.
" Arriving at Beyal we were Avelcomed by a fleet of canoes sent by
Mtesa to conduct us to ' Murchison Creek,' and on the 4th of April I landed
amid a concourse of two thousand people, who saluted me with a deafening
volley of musketry and waving of flags. Tvatakiro, the chief Mukungu, or
officer, in Uganda, then conducted me to comfortable quarters, to which shortly
afterwards were brought sixteen goats, ten oxen, an immense quantity of
bananas, plantains, sweet potatoes, besides eggs, chickens, milk, rice, ghee,
and butter. After such a royal and bountiful gift I felt more curiosity than
50S STANLEY AND AFRICA.
ever to see the generous monarch ; and in the afternoon, Mtesa, having
prepared beforehand for my reception, sent to say that he was ready to wel-
come me. Issuing out of my quarters I found myself in a broad street eighty
feet wide and half a mile long, which was lined by his personal guards and
attendants, his cajitains and their respective retinues, to the number of about
three thousand. At the extreme end of this street, and fronting it, was the
king's audience house, in whose shadow I saw dimly the figure of the king
sitting in a chair. As I advanced towards him the soldiers continued to fire
their guns. The drums, sixteen in number, beat out a fearful tempest of
sound, and the flags waved, until I became conscious that all this display was
far beyond my merits, and consequently felt greatly embarrassed by so flat-
tering a reception. Arrived before the audience house, the king rose — a tall
and slender figure, dressed in Arab costume — appi-oached me a few paces,
held out his hand mutely, while the drums continued their terrible noise, and
we stood silently gazing at each other during a few minutes, I indeed more
embarrassed than ever. But soon relieved from the oppressive noise of the
huge drums and the hospitable violence of the many screaming discordant
fifes, I was invited to sit, Mtesa first showing the example, followed by his
great captains, about one hundred in number.
" More at ease, I now surveyed the figure and features of this powerful
monarch. Mtesa is about thirty-four years old, and tall and slender in build,
as I have already stated, but with broad shoulders. His face is very agree-
able and pleasant, and indicates intelligence and mildness. His eyes are
large, his nose and mouth are a great improvement upon those of the com-
mon type of negro, and approach to the same features in the Muscat Arab,
when slightly tainted with negro blood. His teeth are splendid, and gleam-
ing white. As soon as Mtesa began to speak, I became captivated by his
manner, for there was much of the jjolish of a true gentleman about it — ^it
was at once amiable, graceful, and friendly. It tended to assui'e me that in
this potentate I had found a friend, a generous king, and an intelHgent
ruler. He is not personally inferior to Seyd Burghash, the Arab Sultan of
Zanzibar, and indeed appears to me quite like a coloured gentleman who has
visited European Courts, and caught a certain ease and refinement of man-
ner, with a large amount of information. If you will recollect, however,
that Mtesa is a native of Central Africa, and that he had seen but three
white men until I came, you will, perhaps, be as much astonished at all this
as I was. And if you will but think of the enormous extent of country he
rules, extending from E. long. 34° to E. long. 31°, and from N. lat. T to S.
lat. 3° 30', you will further perceive the immense influence he could wield
towards the civilisation of Africa. Indeed, I could not regard this king, or
look at him in any other light than as the possible Ethelbert by whose means
the light of the Gospel may be brought to benighted Middle Africa. Un-
AT THE CAMP OF MTESA. 509
doubtedly the Mtesa of to-day is vastly superior to the vain youth whom
Spcke and Grant saw. There is now no daily butchery of men or women ;
seldom one suffers the extreme punishment. Speke and Grant left him a raw,
vain youth, and a heathen. He is now a gentleman, and, professing Islani-
ism, submits to other laws than his own erratic will, which we are told led to
such severe and fatal consequences. All his captains and chief officers ob-
serve the same creed, dress in Arab costume, and in other ways affect Arab
customs. He has a guard of two hundred men — renegadoes from Baker's
Expedition, Zanzibar defalcators, a few Oraani, and the elect of Uganda.
Behind his throne, an arm-chair of native manufacture, the royal shield-
bearers, lance-bearers, and gun-bearers, stand erect and staid.'. On cither
side of him are his grand chiefs and courtiers, sons of governors of his pro-
vinces, chiefs of districts, etc. Outside the audience house, the lengthy
lines of warriors begin with the chief drummer and the noisy goma-beaters ;
next come the screaming fifers, the flag and banner bearers, the fusiliers, and
so on seemingly ad infinitum, witli spearmen and attendants.
" Mtesa asked a number of questions about various things, thereby
showing a vast amount of curiosity, and great intelligence. The king had
arrived at this camp — Usavara — fourteen days before my arrival, with all
that immense army of followers, for the purpose of shooting birds. Ho now
proposed to return, after two or three days' rest, to his capital at Ulagalla,
or Uragara. Each day of my stay at Usavara was a scene of gaiety and
rejoicing. On the first day after my arrival, we held a grand naval review ;
eighty-four canoes being under way, each manned by from thirty to fortv
men, containing, in the aggregate, a force of about two thousand five hun-
dred men. We had excellent races, and witnessed various manoeuvres by
water. Each admiral vied with the others in extolling aloud the glory of
their monarch, or in exciting admiration from the hundreds of spectators on
shore. The king's three hundred wives were present en grande tenue, and
were not the least important of those on shore. The second day the king
led his fleet in person, to show me his prowess in shooting birds. We rowed,
or were rather paddled, up ' Murchison Creek,' visiting en route a dhow he is
building for the navigation of the lake, as well as his place of residence dur-
ing Ramadan, and his former capital, ' Banda,' where Speke and Grant
found him.
" En passant, I may remark that Speke could not possibly have seen the
whole of the immense bay he has denominated ' Creek.' It is true that from
a short distance west of Dwaga, the king's Ramadan Palace, up to Mngono,
the extremity of the water, a distance of about eight miles, it might be termed
a creek, but this distance does not approach to one-half of the true bay. In-
deed, I respectfully request geographers — Messrs Keith Johnston and Stan-
ford especially — to change the name of Murchison Creek to Murchison Bay,
510 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
as one nioro worthy the largo area of water now known by the former in-
appreciative title. Murchison Bay extends from N. lat. 0'^ 15' to N. lat. 0^ 27',
and from E. long. 32° 53' to 32° 38' in extreme length. At the moutli the bay
contracts to a width of four miles, but within its greatest breadth is twelve
miles. Surely such a body of water — as terms go — deserves the more ap-
propriate name of ' bay,' but I leave it to fair-judging geographers to decide.
For the position of Mtesa's capital I have taken three observations, on three
different days. My longitude agrees pretty closely with that of Speke's,
while there is but four miles' difference of latitude.
*• The third day the troojjs of Mtesa were exercised at target practice,
and on the fourth we all marched for the Grand Capital, the Kibuga of
Uganda, Ulagalla or Uragara. Mtesa is a great king. He is a monarch who
would delight the soul of any intelligent European, as he would see in lii»
black Sliijesty the Hope of Central Africa. He is king of Karagwe, Uganda,
Unyoi'o, Usoga, and Usui. Each day I found something which increased my
esteem and respect for him. He is fond of imitating Europeans and what he-
has heai'd of their great personages, which trait, with a little tuition, would
prove of immense benefit to his country. He has prepared broad highways
in the neighbourhood of his capital for the good time that is coming when
some charitable Eurojjean will send him any kind of a wheeled vehicle. As
we approached the capital, the main road from Usavara increased in width
from twenty feet to one hundred and fifty feet. When we arrived at this
magnificent breadth we viewed the capital crowning an eminence command-
ing a most extensive view of a picturesque and rich country, all teeming with
gardens of plantations and bananas, and beautiful pasture land. Of course,
huts, however large, lend but little attraction to a scene, but a tall flagstaff
and an imniense flag jH'oved a decided feature in the landscape. Arrived at
the capital, I found that the vast collection of buildings crowning the emi-
nence were the royal quarters, round which ran five several palisades and
circular courts, between which and the city was a circular road, ranging from
one hundred to two hundred feet in width, and from this radiated six or
seven imposing avenues, lined with gardens and huts. The next day after
arrival I was introduced to the Royal Palace in great state. None of the
primitive scenes visible in Speke's book was now visible there. The guards,,
clothed in white cotton dresses, were by no means comical as then. The chiefs
were very respectable-looking people, dressed richly in the Arab costume. The
palace was a huge and lofty structure, well built of grass and cane, while tall
trunks of trees ujjheld the roof, which was covered with cloth sheeting inside.
"On the fourth day after my arrival news came that another white man
was approaching the capital from the direction of Unyoro, and on the fifth
day I had the extreme pleasure of greeting Colonel Linant de Bellefonds, of
the Egyptian service, who had been despatched by Colonel Gordon to Mtesa,
ARRIVAL OF COLONEL DE BELLEFONDS. 511
to make a treaty of commerce between liim and the Egyjotian Government,
Tlie rencontre, tliough not so exciting as my former meeting with the
venerable David Livingstone, at Ujiji, in November, 1871, still may be said
to be singular and fortunate for all concerned. In Colonel dc Bellefoiids I
met a gentleman extremely well-informed, energetic, and a great traveller.
His knowledge of the countries between Uganda and Khartoum was most mi-
nute and accurate, from which I conclude that but little of the geography of
Central Africa between the cataracts of the Nile and Uganda is now unknown.
To that store of valuable geographical acquisitions must now be added my
elxploration of the Nile sources, which pour into the Nyanza; and also the
new countries I have visited between the Nyanza and the Unyanyembe
road. In Colonel de Bellefonds' arrival I also jDcrceived my great good for-
tune, for I now had the means to despatch some reports of my geographical
discoveries, and the long-delayed letters. The day after to-morrow I intend
to return to Usukuma, jDrosecuting my geographical researches along the
western shore of the Victoria Nyanza. After this I propose to march the
Expedition to the Katonga valley, and thence, having paid another visit to
Mte?a, I trust to march directly west for Lake Albert Nyanza, where I hope
to meet with some more of the gallant subordinates of Colonel Gordon, by
whom I shall be able, through their assured courtesy, to send several more
letters descriptive of discoveries and adventures.
" I might protract this letter indefinitely by dwelling upon the value of
the service rendered to science and the world by Ismael Pasha, but time will
not allow me, nor, indeed, is it necessary, as I dare sa}^, by this time, you
have had ample proofs of what has been done by Gordon. Sir Samuel Baker,
unfortunately, ajDpears to be in bad odour with all I meet. His severity and
other acts receive universal condemnation ; but far be it from me to add to
the ill report, and so I leave what I have heard untold. Then, briefly, thus
much remains to be said. Livingstone, in his report of the Nyanza consist-
ing of five lakes, was wrong. Spoke, in his statement that the Nyanza was
but one lake, was quite correct. But I believe that east of the Nyanza, or
rather north-east of its coasts, there are other lakes, though they have no
connection whatever with the Nyanza ; nor do I suppose tliey can be of any
great magnitude, or extend south of the equatoi". If you ask me why, I can
only answer that in my opinion the rivers entering the Victorian Sea on the
north-eastern shore do not sufficiently drain the vast area of country lying
between the Great Lake and the western versant of the East-African moun-
tain range. From the volume of the Nyanza feeders on the north-eastern
side I cannot think that they extend farther than E. long. 3G°, which leaves a
large tract of country eastward to be drained by other means than the Nyanza,
But this means may very probably be the Jub, which empties its waters into
the Indian Ocean. The Sobat cannot possibly approach near the equator ; this,
512 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
however, will bo decided definitely by Gordon's officers. Colonel de Bello-
fonds informs me that the Assua, or Asha, is a mere torrent.
'•' When you see my chart, which will trace the course of the Luamberri
and the Shimeeyu, the rivers which drain the whole of the south and south-
east countries of the Nyanza, you will be better able to judge of their import-
ance and magnitude as sources of the Nile. I expect to come upon a con-
siderable river south-west ; but all of this will be best told in my next
letter. Heney M. Stanley."
" P.S. — I had almost forgotten to state, that the greatest depth of the
Nyanza as yet ascertained by me is two hundred and seventy -five feet. I have
not yet sounded the centre of the lake ; this I intend to do on my return to
Usukuma south."
" Mtcsa's Capital, Uganda, April 14th, 1875.
" I must not forget to inform you and your readers of one very interest-
ing subject connected with Mtesa, whicli will gratify many a philanthropic
European and American.
"I have already told you that Mtesa and the whole of his court profess
Islamism. A long time ago — some four or five years — Khamis Bin Abdul-
lah (the only Arab who remained with me three years ago, as a rearguard,
when the Arabs disgracefully fled from Mirambo) came to Uganda. He was
wealthy, of noble descent, and a fine, magnificent personal appearance, and
brought witli him many a rich present for Mtesa, such as few Arabs could
afford. The king became immediately fascinated with him, and really few
white men could be long with the son of Abdullah without being charmed by.
his presence, his handsome proud features, his rich olive complexion, and liis
liberality. I confess I never saw an Arab or Mussulman who attracted me so
much as Khamis Bin Abdullah, and it is no wonder that Mtesa, meeting a
kindred spii-it in the noble youth of Muscat, amazed at his handsome bearing,
the sp)lendour of his apparel, the display of his wealth, and the number of his
slaves, fell in love with him. Khamis stayed with Mtesa a full year, during
which time the king became a convert to the creed of his visitor — namely,
Mohammedanism. The Arab clothed Mtesa in the best that his wardrobe
offered ; he gave him gold embroidered jackets, fine white shirts, crimson
shippers, swords, silk sashes, daggers, and a revolving rifle, so that S[3eke and
Grant's presents seemed of necessity insignificant.
Now, until I arrived at Mtesa's Court, the king delighted in the idea
that he was a follower of Islam ; but by one conversation I flatter myself that
I have tumbled the newly-raised religious fabric to the ground, and, if it
were only followed by the arrival of a Christian mission here, the conversion of
CHlUbTlANlTY IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 513
Mtesa and his Court to Christianity wouhl, I think bo complete. I ha^ve,
indeed, undermined Islamism so much hero, that Mtesa has determined hencc-
fortli, until ho is better informed, to observe the Christian Sabbath as well as
the Moslem Sabbath, and the great captains have unanimously consented to
this. He has further caused the ten commandments of Moses to be written
on a board for his daily perusal — for Mtesa can read Arabic — as well as the
Lord's Prayer and the golden commandment of Our Saviour, ' Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself.' Tiiis is great progress for the few days that
I have remained with him, and, though I am no missionary, I shall begin to
think that I might become one if such success is feasible. But, oh that some
pious, practical missionar}^, would come here! What a field and a harvest
ripe for the sickle of civilisation ! Mtesa would give him anything he de-
sired — houses, lands, cattle, ivory, etc. ; he niiglit call a province his own in
one day. It is not the mere preacher, however, that is wanted hero. The
Bishops of Great Britain collected, witli all the classic youth of Oxford and
Cambridge, would effect nothing by mere talk with the intelligent people of
Uganda. It is the practical Christian tutor, ^^ ho can teach people how to be-
come Christians, cure their diseases, construct dwellings, understand and ex-
emplify agricultiu'e, and turn his hand to anything, like a sailor — this is the
man who is wanted. Such an one, if he can be found, would become the
saviour of Africa. He must be tied to no Church or sect, but profess God and
His Son and the moral law, and live a blameless Christian, inspired by liberal
principles, charity to all men, and devout faith in heaven. He must belong
to no nation in particular, but the entire White race. Such a man, or men,
Mtesa, King of Uganda, Usoga, Umgoro and Karagwe — a kingdom three
hundred and sixty geographical miles in length by fifty in breadth — invites
to repair to him. He has begged me to tell the white men that if they will
only come to him he will give them all they want. Now, where is tliere in
all the Pagan world a more promising field for a mission than Uganda ?
Colonel Linant de Bellefonds is my witness that I speak the truth, and I know
he will corroborate all I say. The colonel, though a Frenchman, is a Cal-
vinist, and has become as' ardent a well-wisher for the Waganda as I am.
Then why further spend needlessly vast sums upon black Pagans of Africa
who have no example of their own people becoming Christians before them ?
I speak to the Universities' Mission at Zanzibar, and to the Free Methodists
at Mombasa, to the leading philanthropists, and the pious people of England.
Here, gentlemen, is your opportunity — embrace it ! The people on the shores
of the Nyanza call upon you. Obey your own generous instincts, and listen
to them ; and I assure you that in one year you Avill have more converts to
Christianity than all other missionaries united can number. The population
of Mtesa's kingdom is very dense j I estimate the number of his subjects at
two millions. You need not fear to spend money upon such a mission, a
G5
6J4 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Mtcsa is sole ruler, and will repay its cost tenfold with ivory, coffee, otter
skins of a very fine quality, or even in cattle, for the wealth of this country
in all these products is immense. The road here is by the Nile, or tia Zan-
zibar, Ugogo, and Unyanyembe. The former route, so long as Colonel Gor-
don governs the countries of the Up2:)er Nile, seems the most feasible.
"With all deference I would suggest that the mission should bring to
Mtesa as presents three or four suits of military clothes, decorated freely with
gold embroidery ; together with half-a-dozen Fi-ench kepis, a sabre, a brace of
pistols, and suitable ammunition ; a good fowling-jwece and rifle of good
quality, for the king is not a barbarian; a cheap dinner-service of Britannia
ware, an iron bedstead and counterpanes, a few pieces of cotton print, boots,
etc. For trade it should also bring fine blue, black, and grey woollen cloths,
a quantity of military buttons, gold braid and cord, silk cord of different
colours, as well as binding ; linen and sheeting for shirts, fine red blankets,
and a quantity of red cloth, with a few chairs and tables. The profit arising
from the sale of these things would be enormous.
" For the mission's use it should bving with it a supply of hammers, saws,
augers, chisels, axes, hatchets, adzes, carpenters' and blacksmiths' tools, since
the Waganda are apt pupils; iron drills and powder for blasting purposes,
trowels, a couple of good-sized anvils, a forge and bellows, an assortment of
nails and tacks, a plough, spades, shovels, pickaxes, and a couple of light
buggies as specimens, with such other small things as their own common sense
would suggest to the men whom I invite. Most desirable would be an assort-
ment of garden seed and grain ; also white-lead, linseed oil, brushes, a few
volumes of illustrated journals, gaudy prints, a magic lantern, rockets, and a
photographic apparatus. The total cost of the whole equipment need not
exceed five thousand pounds sterling. Henky M. Stanley."
Stanley refers in the foregoing letter to his interview with Colonel de
Bellefonds at Mtesa's capital. The following interesting report was made
officially to the Ministry of War at Cairo, and has reference to the same inter-
view. It appears in the form of an "Extract from Notes made by M. Linant
de Bellefonds, of the staff of General Gordon, Governor-General of the
Egyptian Provinces of the Equator, respecting his visit to Mtesa, King of
Uganda, and his meeting of Mr. Stanley."
"Sunday, April 11, 1875.
" We are camped at Mtesa's capital. His residence is scarcely more than
a kilometre from the house which he has placed at my disposal. But let me
not anticipate events.
" This morning a constant rain, which had fallen all the night, prevented
us from setting out. At eiglit o'clock the rain ceased, but the wind arose,
COLONEL DE BELLEFOND'S REPORT. 515
making tlio trees shake tlicir leaves and branches, so that we should have
been wet through at the end of a walk of ten minutes, especially under the
plantain trees, the huge arms of which are porfcct reservoirs. of water, whicli
discharge themselves all at once with every blast of wind, and make perfect
shower-baths for the unfortunate people who have to walk beneath. The
natives of the Soudan are very much afraid of rain, and suffer greatly from
it. At nine o'clock, therefore, we set forth on the march. We had to tx-averse
many ravines where the rain water had gathered, rendering the passage
somewhat difficult. We waded through muddy water above our knees. At
the end of an hour of this experience we came up with the estates of the
mother of king Mtesa ; but the ruin obliged us to seek a shelter. Besides
that, we wished to make our toilette before entering the metropolis of Uganda.
We therefore took possession, without any scruple, of some huts upon the side
of the road.
" It was noon. The rain had ceased. An emissary from Mtesa came
to bring me messages of welcome on the part of the king. Our toilette was
complete. My Soudan soldiers produced the finest possible effect with their
red tunics, their cartridge-cases made of leopard-skin, and their white trousers.
We passed in column along the high road, the trumpets and the drums beat-
ing a lively movement. In front of us the Mtongalis echoed this with theii'
nogaras, and waved their flags. A po^iulation of more than ten thousand
people surrounded us, running hither and thither, singing, shouting, and
dancing about. The cfi"ect produced was one of the most extraordinary I
had ever seen. We went forward along an avenue with a breadth of from
thirty to forty metres, the population still accompanying us, cross low hills
and gardens. By and bye we arrived at an immense square, where a com-
pact crcwd, some, sitting, others standing, waited our approach in solemn
silence. Upon our arrival the nogaras, in incalculable number, united in a
deafening peal. We were in the residence of the Queen Mother, and mes-
sengers succeeded each other every five minutes to bring me the salaams of
Her Majesty. My own trumpets welcomed them, and it was an uproar, an
inconceivable charivari, which did not want the cliarm of originality. One
could see the whole country was en fete.
" The crowd which attended our footsteps increased more and more, but
offered us no inconvenience upon our road ; they left the way quite free,
while dancing on either side of us, or flowing in tumultuous waves of huma-
nity across the hillocks and cultivated places. It was one of the gayest and
most festive spectacles to see this crowd, in the most curious and varied cos-
tumes, swarm all over the uplands, and then precipitate themselves like a
living torrent into the streets below. Along tlie road a multitude of women
were ranged in front of the houses, evidently admiring our cortege. A
sorcerer, covered with a thousand odd charms, came up and harangued me^
51 G STANLEY AND AFRICA.
and every now and then a courier would arrive completely out of breath,
from King Mtesa. He brought me the royal salaam, which, being delivered,
he would hurry. back again like an arrow, not daring to stop till he laid my
response at the feet of the king. At last the palace of Mtesa came in sight,
built upon the north flice of a hill, from which it commands a grand land-
scape. They told me tliat Mtesa was following our course with a telesco^^e.
We traversed for a quarter of an hour the avenue which led up to the royal
residence, and presently arrived at the houses that were set apart for our use.
All these habitations have a common fence. They contain many interior
courts. My abode, specially raised for me, was exceedingly comfortable.
Mtesa quite fatigued me with his salutations. Ha^Dpily ho now began to
accompany them with something more substantial, for he sent me eggs,
bananas, rice, onions, sugar-cane, and two kids — materials for a repast wliich
outdid the best dinners of Auric at Cairo.
" Monday, April 12.
" My reception by King Mtesa was fixed for this morning, but the rain,
which never ceased to fall up to noon, delayed the ceremony. At two o'clock,
the weather having grown favourable, Mtesa sent me a messenger to let me
know that he was ready to give me audience. Having warned my camp,
every one proceeded to ]Dut on his fi-eshest dress. When we were ready my
private Soudan soldiers appeared quite superb in their red jackets and their
white pantaloons. I placed myself at their head, the trumpets and drums
resounding. We followed an avenue from eighty to one hundred metres
broad, which led directly from north to south, and ended at the palace-gate
of Mtesa. This palace now appeared in front of us, built upon an eminence
which overtopped those around. On either side of the avenue were gardens
surrounded by enclosures, within which were the habitations of the great
cajjtains and high functionaries. At the end of twenty-five minutes' walking
we came to the true gate of the palace. We passed, one after the other, five
courts, full of an endless crowd of Mtongalis, soldiers, and others. The last
court serves as the habitation of the Royal executioners, whose badge of
office consists of a cord of banana fibres exquisitely plaited. Upon entering
this last court, a perfectly frightful hubbub of music received us ; a thousand
instruments, each more barbarous than the others, brayed out in our ears the
most discordant and deafening sounds. The body-guard of Mtesa, equipped
with guns, jDresented arms to me.
" The king was standing at the entrance of his reception hall. I ap-
proached him, and made the Turkish salutation. He stretched out his hand,
which I took; and then I saw to the left hand of the king a European
countenance tanned brown. It was a traveller, and I concluded that it must be
Cameron. We observed each other without at present exchanging a word.
King ]\Itesa now rose and walked into an inner apartment, where we followed
MEETING OF STANLEY AND DE BELLEFONDS. 517
liim. It was a corridor twelve metres in length, and four metres broad, the
floor of which sloped from ilic entrance, the roof being supported by a series
of columns of palm-wood in a central row dividing it into tlirco aisles. The
central part was occupied by the king's throne. The two side aisles were
filled by the great dignitaries and the chief officers. Against each column
leaned one of the king's guards, wearing a great red cloak and white turban
adorned with monkey skin, white breeches, and black blouse with red bands,
and all alike carrj'ing muskets. Mtesa took his place upon the throne, which
was made of wood, in the form of an office sofa. His feet rested upon a stool,
which again stood upon a leopard's skin, underneath which was spread a
Smyrna carpet. In front of the king an elephant's tusk, brilliantly polished,
served as a royal sign, while at his feet were deposited two boxes containing
fetiches. On each side of the throne was placed a lance, one made of copper
and one of iron. These are the attributes of Uganda; the dog, of whicli
Spcke makes mention, appears to have been suppressed. The Grand Vizier
and two scribes squatted at the feet of the king.
" Mtesa possesses much dignity, and was not without a real personal dis-
tinction. His costume was elegant. He wore a white caftan fringed with
red ; he had stockings, slippers, a vest of black cloth embroidered with gold,
and a tarboosh with a silver plate on its top. He carried a sabre with an
ivory handle encrusted with silver — a Zanzibar-made weapon — and a wand.
I proceeded to exliibit my presents, which Mtesa pretended scarcely to glance
at, his dignity not permitting him to appear inquisitive. I addressed myself
then to the strange European who was sitting in front of me at the left of the
king: — 'Have I the honour to speak to Mr. Cameron?' 'No, sir; I am
Stanley.' ' Permit me to introduce myself as M. Linant de Bellefonds, a
member of Colonel Gordon's Ex2)edition.' We saluted each otlier with a low
bow, as if we had met in a salon and not in the heart of Africa. This meet-
ii^g with Mr. Stanley profoundly surprised me. He was far from my thoughts.
Indeed, I was comj^letely unacquainted with the plan of his journey.
" I took farewell of the king, who had been amusing himself with putting
my soldiers througli their exercise and hearing my bugles blow. I shook
hands warmly with Mr. Stanley, and begged him to do me the honour of
sharing my dinner.- A few moments after reaching my house, Mr. Stanley
arrived there. After having mutually expressed the j^leasure caused us b}-
this rencontre, Mr. Stanley informed me that Cameron had written from Ujiji
that he had quitted that place for the Congo. Mr. Cameron, he said, had
been very much troubled by the question of supplies, having exceeded the
credit allowed him by the Royal Geographical Society. At Ujiji he must
have left behind all his companions, and have been quite alone. Mr. Stanley
spoke in the highest possible terms of Lieutenant Cameron, and earnestly
hoped to see him succeed in his undertaking.
518 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
"As for Mr. Stanley, lie was travelling as tlie representative of 'Tlio
Daily Telegraph' and 'New York Herald.' He had left Zanzibar four months
before I met him, to explore the Victorian Lake. He had penetrated through
the country of the Masai, and had certified the existence of a great watershed
discharging into the lake from the eastern slope. Leaving at Usuvuma his
camp and followers, he had embarked with ten men in a little vessel which
he had conveyed along with him upon the Victoria Nyanza. He had followed
and explored all the eastern side of the lake, penetrating every bay, gulf, and
creek, and surveying the islands and the cajies. I have studied the results
of Mr. Stanley's explorations, Avhicli are very considerable. He has shown
me his sketches of some extremely curious islands that he discovered. There
are a bridge island, a cave island, and an island of the Sphynx. The first
presents a natural bridge of granite, with all the appearance of a work con-
structed by the hand of man. The second contains an enchanted grotto, like
Calypso's. The third offers the aspect of the Sphynx of Egypt. We talked
together until eleven o'clock at night. Stanley is a first-rate traveller — a
brave, light-hearted gentleman, a good comrade, a patient explorer, taking
everything as it comes. I derived the truest pleasure from his instructive and
varied conversation. He has travelled far and wide, and seen a great deal.
He knows the whole wcrld. It was four months since I had heard a single
French w^ord pronounced. It was a great pleasure, therefore, to hear Stanley
talking, for, without, expressing himself with joerfect accuracy, he yet talked
French sufficiently well to enable us readily to converse. This meeting of
two white men in the heart of Africa, was well nigh as delightful as to meet
a compatriot there, and the pleasure was quite inexj)ressible in discovering,
ill my unexpected friend, a man so well known and so entirely agi-eeable.
According to what Mi*. Stanley told me, Mtesa is extremely proud of finding
his capital thus visited by white men, nor does he think that the e\-ent can be
accidental."
A second part of this report was afterwards forwarded to the Egyptian
Minister of War ; and by his authority it was transmitted to this country,
and published, like all the rest of these documents, in "The Daily Tele-
grajjh." It gives a graphic and touching description of the parting scene
between the two travellers : —
" Uganda, Thursday, April 15, 1875.
" Mr. Stanley is leaving us in order to accomplish the work of exploring
the western side of the lake, thereafter intending to return to Usuvuma, to
pick up his followers and the goods left at Kagehyi. I had arranged to
accompany him as far as Usovara, the point of embarkation in Murchison
Bay. We start together, tlierefore, this morning, I having lent one of my
mules to my friend, and ordered ten of my soldiers to escort us.
"' We commence the journey by rounding the hill upon which His Majesty
STANLEY LEA YES TO EXPLORE THE LAKE. 519
resides, and thou bend our steps southward with a sliglit easterly inclination.
All the way along our route we see gardens luxuriant with the banana and
sweet potato. We have to cross a canal, into which all the mud of the coun-
try appears to have gathered; it has a breadth of forty metres at the point
where we cross, and there is a bridge of rough-cut logs and branches thrown
over it ; but, though people on foot may find the passage rendered easier by
this construction, it is badly adapted to our mules, which lose their balance on
the smooth and shifting trunks, with the result of pitching into the mud and
water. However, we managed to haul them out and to get ourselves over,
and then, after two hom-s' march, we climb a hill with a steep incline. The
road is bordered on both sides by impenetrable thickets, the hiding-place of
leopards and hyenas, where certaiidy no one is likely to interfere much
with the digestion of their prey. Arrived at the top of this eminence, the
beautiful view makes us quickly forget all the fatigues of the ascent. Under
our feet the magnificent lake stretches out, sparkling like a cloth of silver;
numerous green islands, softly rounded and indented, shut in the bay with
a girdle as of emeralds; while along the shox-e are masses of darker green
dotted about, these being groves of huge timber trees, which bathe their
roots and branches in the fresh and limpid wavelets of the Victoria. East-
wards a silvery riband hurries to lose itself in the lake ; that is the canal
which we have lately crossed. The scene is enchanting, absorbing ! The
heart must swell with pleasure within the breast of any admirer of natural
beauty who gazes upon it. We feel a keen desire to descend and approach
nearer to this lovely coast whose charms ravish us, and after a quick advance
of less than an hour the ripples of the quiet Nyanza are breaking at our feet.
Everybody stoops to drink of the clear water, and Mr. Stanley and I toast
our respective countries in the refreshing liquid.
" We are here at Usovai'a, a hunting station of King Mtesa, who fre-
quently repairs to the spot in order to exercise his shooting-powers upon the
crocodiles. Numberless huts and gardens ajipear around us, and among them"
His Majesty has a 'shooting-box' which covers an area of several kilometres.
There is a broad approach, which Mr. Stanley christens the ' Avenue des
Champs Elysees,' lined on each side by the dwellings of the royal guards,
and it leads to the king's abode. This approach is more than a kilometre
in length, Mtesa's lodge turning out to be a collection of huts, each encircled
by a fence, while all around are scattered the lodgings for his escort. Cer-
tainly, to judge by the precautions here displayed for the royal security,
His Majesty must sleep rather uneasily. We examine the king's premises
minutely, for there is nobody about, not even a watchman ; and we take pos-
session for a time of the best of the huts reserved for the royal suite when
Mtesa comes to Usovara. Mr. Stanley has been promised by the king the
use of thirty canoes to accompany him to Usuvuma and to bring back to
520 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Usovara his expedition and equipments. The Iligh-Admiral of Uganda in
person is to accompany them, but it is already four o'clock, and we see no-
il ling either of the fleet or the officinl. News presently arrives that the delay
is caused by a sad domestic calamity which has befallen the chief of the
Uganda Nav}^, and it turns out that, having arrived overnight near Usovara
with all his female establishment, the admiral has had all his wives fetched
back by order of the king, His Majesty declaring that it was highly irregular
to make a pleasure-party of that which was intended as a matter of important
service. To-morrow, they say, all will be in readiness.
"Mr. Stanley and I devote ourselves accordingly to a promenade along
ihe lake, in the course of which we behold with admiration enormous trees, that
might afford cover with their thick shade to five hundred people at once. Pari-
sitical plants climb over the trunks and branches of these Titans of the forest,
and if you make an incision into the bark or roots there exudes a resinous
pum, which appears very similar to the 'mastic' that the Cairo women chew.
The soil at the edge of the lake is a mineral detritus, rich in oxide of iron,
and upon it grows closely a thick and soft moss, of yellowish green, com-
posing a carpet as agreeable to the eye as to the foot.
" Friday, April 16.
" My bed last night left much to desire. It was made of dry grass, with
a bag of potatoes for the pillow. Such was my simple couch, for, as I had
intended to return before nightfall, I did not take with me the least thing in
the way of coverlet. Mr. Stanley most kindly pressed upon me his ' engareb'
and railway rug, but I could not think it right to rob him of them. Impei*-
fect, however, as my sleeping arrangements were, I reposed soundly, and
that in spite of mosquitoes and fleas, of which there were a few of the former,
but {perfect hordes of the latter.
" At four in the morning, the squadron which was to escort my friend
down the lake made its appearance, and assuredly the vessels of King Mtesa
are cui-ious, if not imposing. Each canoe is about ten to twelve metres in
length, with a beam of one or one and a half. It is made up of many lengths
of hewn plank, fastened by withes of osier, the seams being caulked with
bark and mud. As a consequence of this very defective method of construc-
tion, the Wagandas have never been able to make themselves masters of the
island of Uvuma. As soon as any war-canoe approaches that place, the
islanders rush forth into the water, armed with knives, swim to the vessel,
dive under it, and cut the withes which hold the affair together. - The canoe
thus falls apart, and its crew perish, either by drowning, or by the weapons
of the Wavumas. The shape of these Waganda canoes resembles that of the
Venetian gondola. The stern has a high sheer, and forms the seat of the
helmsman who steers with a paddle, sweeping it now to the right, now to
the left, according to the course which he desires to take. The stem-piece is
ON LAKE NYAKZA. 50 ]
rounded and gracefully bent into the form of a swan's neck, two antelope
horns being fixed upon it, so that, what with the long curved neck and the
horns, a ver}^ strange effect is produced, especially when the boat is coming
on; almost, in fact, as if some antediluvian creature were gliding towards
you over the waters, and raising its head watchfully on high to follow some
prey upon which it means to dart. None of these craft carries sails, and,
indeed, the use of the latter is unknown among the Waganda. The boats
are i^ropelled by paddles, the crew sitting two by two, and varying in number
from fourteen to twenty-four, in accordance with the size of the boat.
" A considerable division of the promised fleet having now arrived, we
resolved to make a preliminary excursion upon the bay. Mr Stanley ordered
Ids vessel, the 'Lady Alice,' to be got in readiness. She is a beautiful little
craft, built of cedar, and constructed in water-tight sections, so as to be readily
taken to jiieces and put together again. I went on board with my companion,
and all the canoes started at the same time, vying with each other to be ahead.
They soon outstripped us, and then set to Avork paddling round the 'Lady
Alice,' like so many tritons. On board one of them was the admiral, and
the official drum of that magnate kept noisily beating, at one time command-
ing the fleet to gather about the 'flag-canoe,' at another sending them ofl",
helter-skelter, in all directions. On one side stretched the boundless surface
of the Nyanza, on the other extended the shore which we had just left, pre-
senting together the gayest and most charming spectacle imaginable. The
knolls and hillocks round the lake, each covered with a robe of tender green,
and bathing its base in the shining waves, suggested so many water-god-
desses reclining on the sunlit grass, and dabbling their feet in the cool and
limpid ripples. I, indeed, was off and away in fancy, a thousand leagues
from life's realities; and both Stanley and myself sat wrapped in a long
silence, trying to satiate our eyes and minds — without succeeding — upon those
prodigal glories of Nature whicli stretched far and wide about us.
" Unha^jpily, after returning to camj), I was seized with a frightful
attack of neuralgia, and am sadly afraid that I must have proved a far from
agreeable associate for my good friend during the remainder of that day.
Mr. Stanley and the Admiral of the Uganda fleet had fixed upon the follow-
ing morning for their start, but that naval worthy was meanwhile in despair,
not having heard a word about his confiscated wives. It w^as too much
to be feared, indeed that his Majesty had added them pell-mell to that divi-
sion of his forces in whicli the effective list perpetually exceeds the esti-
mates."
"April 17.
" I have passed a horrible night. A most pitiless headache prevented
me from snatching a moment of repose until daybreak. From the time when
1 lay down to three in the morning I tried to get sleep, reclining upon the
CO
5:22 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
moss by the side of the lake, and breathing the cool air from the water. The
night was glorious, and my soldiers spent most of it in chatting and joking
by the shore, or taking dips in the calm surface in spite of the crocodiles;
they had, in truth, a lively interest in a certain hind-quarter of mutton which
they were roasting whole over a fire upon a sharpened stake. At three in the
morning their banquet was about ready, and just then I rose and went back
to the huts, where Stanley was sleeping soundly ; shortly afterwards, fatigue
overpowering my headache, I too managed to close my eyes, and slumbered
till five o'clock.
" At that hour the drums woke me, striking up on board the Waganda
fleet, which was assembling to convoy my friend. He and I very soon made
our toilettes; the 'Lady Alice' was got ready, the luggage, sheep, kids, chick-
ens, and everything placed onboard. It only remained to hoist tlie Anglo-
American flag, and turn the vessel's head to the far South. I went down with
him to the side of his craft, and then we pressed hands together and mutually
commended each other to the protection of Heaven. Stanley stepped on
board and took the helm ; the ' Lad}' Alice' curveted and danced like a highbred
steed, and then darted away, with the Victorian wavelets foaming white un-
der her l)ows. The flag over my friend's head flew proudly out in the African
breeze, and I saluted it with all my guns. If not an imposing salvo, let me
sa)'- that it never was saluted with more hearty good-will. Farther and far-
ther flew the pretty ' Lady Alice.' We waved our hands and handkerchiefs in
token of last adieu, and — I confess it — my heart was full. I felt as one that
has parted with a brother, for I had already grown fond of Stanley as a fine-
hearted fellow, a frank, excellent comrade, and a first-rate traveller. In his
society I had forgotten my fatigues ; and then, too, till I met him, I had not
spoken one single word of French for four months. Our encounter had thus
produced for me almost the effect of a return to my native land. His conver-
sation — amusing, 2:)leasant, and instructive — made the hours of our friendship
pass like minutes. I do hope to see him again, and to spend many a happy
day with him.
" We turned aside from the waters which had just borne him far away,
and nobodv seemed in the mood for chatter, so that we all followed in silence
the road to Ulagala. I arrived at Dubaga at eleven o'clock, and there heard
that the greater part of my soldiers were down with fever — that no provisions
had been sent during my absence, and that four of our cows had been lost by
the herdsmen. The chief offender received a hundred blows of the stick, as
he was suspected of having sold the animals, and I wrote to Mtesa that my
people were suffering of hunger. I demanded at the same time an authoriza-
tion to return to Foweira ; an answer to which soon came in the form of twelve
cows and a quantity of Q>g^i. My headache returning, I went directly to
bed.''
7ISIT TO MTESA. 523
" April 18.
" This morning I visited Mtesa. Audience was given me in private
within one of the side huts of the royal enceinte. I had brought with mc a
pair of shoes, for which the king had particularly begged; it was the only
spare pair I possessed, and I presented them with concealed regret. A distin-
guished deputation arrived while I was there. It was composed of Wagan-
das, who had been brought up along with His Majest}^, in number about two hun-
dred. These personages drew themselves together in line before the king's
hut, each bearing a bundle of dry reeds, which he rattled while uttering noisy
compliments. Their leader, armed with two spears and a shield, ran up and
down the line meantime ; capering and flying hither and thither amid the
most grotesque gambadoes. This exercise lasted a quarter of an hour, after
which the entire company prostrated tliemselves flat on their bellies, and vio-
lently ' nyanzigged.' Then the chief performer, trailing himself along upon
his abdomen like a reptile, humbly entered the hut, and approached to kiss
the feet of the king ; after which he made a dumb-show of devoted valour by
wildly advancing and retiring, attacking and defending, as if in deadly com-
bat. These signs of lo^'alt}^, it is true, looked wonderfully like an impending
assault upon His Majesty, but such is the fashion ; and when the troop had
gone through the same movements, it withdrew precipitately.
" A man was next introduced into the presence, who led a magnificent
leopard, a cord being attached to the neck of the creature. He halted in
front of Mtesa, and went through various exercises common to beast-tamers.
The leopard was, in truth, wonderfully trained ; but I told the king that our
lion-tamers go boldly into the dens containing wild beasts, quite loose, and
then and there put them through all kinds of tricks. This seemed greatly to
astonish him, for he had counted apparently upon quite surprising me by
the sight of this tamed leopard. In the course of the audience the sister of
Mtesa made her appearance. She had arranged for a special interview, in
order to study at leisure the white man, and for this purpose took up a re-
cumbent position at the feet of His Majesty. Mtesa asked me, among other
things, if he could have a house of stone built for his use in Uganda. Now,
the Uganda stone will not do for building, as I replied ; but I explained to
liim the nature of mason's work, and all about lime and mortar. I told him
that lime might be had from the innumerable shells which cover the soil, and
that he could have a brick palace built. Upon that the dialogue thu^ con-
tinued : — ' How long would it take to make me such a residence ?' — ' Ton or
twelve months.' ' But, if I give you plenty of people, could you not budi
me one in a single month ?' — ' No, kinr; ! " You can make a boat in a month,
yet, if you were to set going ever so many workmen, could you finish it off
in one hour ?' — ' No ! I could not.' ' It is the same, then, with a house.' I
then claimed from Mtesa the ' Khotarias' of Abou Bekr, who ran away; for
524 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
I could not leave about the king sucli rebels as would cheat him to-morrow,
as they deserted their leaders yesterday. His Majesty promised to send them
to my camp, whither in the afternoon he forwarded a good supply of ban-
anas, eggs, and flour."
Stanley's next communication was written in May, 1875, after ho had
circumnavigated Lake Victoria Nyanza, and proved it to bo what Speke, the
lirst of modern travellers who sighted it, considered it to be, but what Living-
stone doubted, one vast inland sea. The little ' Lady Alice,' dancing joy-
ously over those pale-blue waves, after her long and unnatui-al journey through
the thick forest, has at length settled the question for ever; and science knows
now, that Speke's discovery was one of the grandest ever made in Africa.
Stanley's chart of the lake, based on his voyage, presents a sea of rhomboidal
outline, about two hundred and thirty miles long by some one hundred and
eighty broad, the coasts of which, going eastward from the extreme south at
Kagehyi, riglit round to S.S.W., are perfectly defined, and thickly filled in
with names of districts, villages, and rivers. The result of this notable voy-
age is, as we have said, that the Victoria Nyanza stands displayed as one
large and splendid inland sea, receiving from the raoutli of the Shimeeyu,
and from the west by thelvitangule, the drainage of an enormous watershed;
and that the gallant Speke obtains, by the present revelation, that posthum-
ous honour which he so well deserved. Brave as a lion, patient as a lamb,
gentle and modest as he was true and good, he is now placed for ever in the
iirst rank of the pioneers of civilisation. Stanley's letter will be read with
ihe deepest interest: —
" Village of Kagehyi, District of Uchambi,
Country of Usukuma, May 15, 1875. ^
" By the aid of the enclosed map, you will be able to understand the
])ositions and places of the countries mentioned in my last, and of some
which I shall be obliged to describe in this letter. It is needless to go over
the same ground I described in my letter from Uganda; but since I send you
a map, it will be no labour lest again to sketch briefly the characteristics of
the countries lying east between Usukuma and Uganda.
" Between the district of Ucliambi, which is in Usukuma, and the Shi-
meeyu River, the principal affluent of the Nyanza, lie the jDretty districts of
Sima and Magu, governed by independent chiefs. On the eastern side of
the Shimeeyu is Maganza, a rugged and hilly country, thinly populated, and
the -resort of the elephant hunters. Beyond Maganza the coast is formed by
Manasu, a country similar in feature to Maganza, abounding in elephants.
This extends to the eastern extremity of Speke Gulf, when we behold a com-
})lete change in the landscape. The land suddenly sinks down into a flat
marshy country, as if Speke Gulf formerly had extended many miles inland,
and I have little doubt, but rather feel convinced, it did. This country is
STANLEY COASTING NYANZA. 525
called Wiregedi, peopled by savages who have little or no intercourse witli
Usukunia, but are mostly morosely exclusive, and disposed to take advantage
of their strength to rob strangers who visit them. Wiregedi is drained by
the Ruana, which discharges itself into Spckc Gulf by two mouths. It is a
powerful stream, conveying a vast quantity of water to the Gulf, but in
importance not to be mentioned in the same category as the Shinieeyu and
the Kagera, the two principal affluents of Lake Victoria. Spcke Gulf at its
eastern extremity is about twelve miles in width. Opposed to the hilly I'anges
of Manasu and Maganza are the sterile naked mountains and plains of Shah-
shi, Uramba, and Ururi. The plains which separate each from the other are
as devoid of vegetation as the Isthmus of Suez ; a thin line only, bordering
the lake, is green with bush and cane. The gulf, as we proceed west from
Ururi, is shored by the gi'cat island of Ukorcwe, a country blessed with verdure
and plenty, and rich in herds of cattle and ivory. A narrow strait, called the
Rugeshi, separates Ukerewe from Ururi. The Wakereweh are an enterpris-
ing and commercial people, and the king, Lukongeh, is a most amiable man.
The Wakereweh possess numerous islands — Nifuah, Wezi, Irangara, Kamas.si,
etc., are all inhabited by them. Their canoes are seen along Ugeyeya, Uso;i-
gora, and Uzuiza ; and to the tribes in the far interior they have given, by
their activity and commercial fellowship, a name to the entire Victoria
Nyanza.
" Rounding Ukerewe, we pass on our left the island of Ukara, and sail-
ing past Shizu and Kivcru, come to the northern end of Rugoslii Strait, from
which we see the towering table mountain of Majita, orMazita, a little north-
east of us, the mountains of Ururi and Iramba rising in our front. I men-
tioned to you in one of my letters that Speke described Majita as an island,
and that I, standing on the same spot, would do so likewise, if I had no other
proof than my own conjecture. As we approached Majita we saw the reason
of this delusion. The table mountain of Majita is about three thousand feet
in altitude above the lake, while on all sides of it, except the lake side at the
base, are low brown plains, which rise but a few feet above the water. It is
the same case with Ururi, Uramba, and Shashi. At a distance I thought them
islands, until I arrived close upon them. On the northern side of this emi-
nence the brown plain extends far inland, and I do believe a great plain or a
series of plains bounds the lake countries east, for we have similar landscapes
distant or near, everywhere. In endeavouring to measure the extent of this
plain I am compelled to think of Ugogo, for as we traversed its northern fron-
tier we saw each day, stretching north, the barren thorn-covered plain of
Uhumba. On leaving Iramba we came again in view of a portion of it, more
recently covered with water, under the name of the Luwamberri Plain. As
we journeyed through Usmaow we saw from many a ridge the plain extend-
ing north. That part of the plain lying between Ururi and the lake is, of
52^ STANLEY AND AFRICA.
course, drained by the Luwanibcni, the Monunguh, and llic Dmna rivci-3,
and discharged into theNyanza under the name of the Shimeeyu. But north-
east of the Shimeeyu's mouth imagine the land heaved into a low, broad, and
lengthy ridge, forming another basin drained by the Ruana, and still another
drained by tlie Mara, and again another by the Mori, etc. If we ask the natives
what lies beyond the inunediate lake lands, wo are assured, unhesitatingly,.
' Mbuiga tu,' ' Only a plain.'
" From Majita north we sail along the coast of Uruii, a country remark-
able fcr its wealth of cattle and fine pastoral lands. It is divided into several
districts, whose names you will find marked on the map. Molunu and Sliirati^
low, flat, and wooded districts of Ururi, separate tliis country from Ugeyeya,
the land of so many fables and wonders, the Eldorado of ivory seekers, and
the source of wealth for slave hunters. Our first view of it, while we cross tlia
Bay of Kavirondo, is of a series of tall mountains, and of a mountainous pro-
jection, which latter from a distance we take to be a promontory, but which
on a nearer view turns out to be an island, bearing a tall mountain on its
back. At the north-eastern extremity of this bay is Gori River, which rises
north-east, near Kavi — no important stream, but one that grows during th&
rainy season to large breadth and depth. Far east beyond the Nyanza, for
twenty-five days' march the country is here said to be one continuous plain,,
low hills rising now and again dotting the surface, a scrubby land, though
well adapted for pasture and cattle, of which the natives possess vast herds.
About fifteen days' marcli cast, the jieople report a region wherein low hills
spout smoke, and sometimes fire. This wonderful district is called Susa, and
is situated in the Masai Land. All combine in saying that no stream runs-
north, but that all waters come into the Nyanza — for at least twenty days'
march. Beyond this distance the natives report a small lake, from which
issues a stream flowing towards the (?) Pangain.
" Continuing on our way north we pass between the Island Ugingo and
the gigantic mountains of Ugeyeya, at whose base the ' Lady Alice ' seems to
crawl like a tiny insect, while we on board admire the stupendous summits,
and wonder at the deathly silence which prevails in this solitude, where the
boisterous winds are hushed, and the turbulent waves are as tranquil as a
summer's dream. The natives as they pass regard this spot with superstition,
as well they may, for the silent majesty of those dumb tall mountains awes
the very storms to jicacc. Let the tempests bluster as they may on the spa-
cious main, beyond this cape, in this nook, sheltered by tall Ugingo Isle and
lofty Goshi on the mainland, they inspire no fear. It is this pleasant refuge
which Goshi promises the distressed canoe-men, that causes them to sing
praises of the bold headland, and to cheer one another, when wearied and
benighted, with the cry, that ' Goshi is near to protect them.'
" Sailing between and out from among the clustering islands, we leave-
UNDER THE EQUATOR. 527
"Wategi behind, and steer towards two low isolated islands not far from the
mainland, for a quiet night's rest; and there, under the overspreading branches
of a mangrove tree, we dream of unquiet waters and angry surfs and threat-
ening rocks, to find ourselves next morning tied to an islet which, from its
peculiarity, I have named Bridge Island, though its native name is Kiiiwa.
While seeking a road to ascend the island to take bearings, I discovered there
a natural bridge of basalt, about twenty feet in length by twelve in bicadth,
under which the traveller might repose comfortably, and from one side see
the waves lashed to fury, and spending their strength on the stubborn rocks
that form the foundation of the arch, while from the other he could behold
his boat secure under the lee of the land, resting on a serene and placid sur-
face, and shaded by mangrove branches from the hot sun of t]io Equator. Its
neighbour is remarkable only for a small cave, the haunt of fishermen. From
tlie summit of Bridge Island the view eastward takes in all Masavi as far as
Nakidimo, and discovers only a flat and slightly-wooded district, varied at
intervals by isolated cones ; while northward, at the distance of twenty miles
or more, we remark that the land makes a bold and long stretch eastward.
Knowing now, however, by experience, that the appearance of the coast is
deceptive, we hoist our sail, and scud merrily before a freshening breeze, by-
and-by hugging the coast again, lest it should rob us of some rarity or won-
der. At noon I found myself under the Equator, and four miles north I came
to discoloured water and a slight current flowinn: south of west. Seeing a small
bay of sufficient breadth to make a great river, and no land at its eastern extre-
mity, I made sure I had discovered a river which would rival the Shimeeyu ;
but within an hour land all round revealed, the limit and extent of the Bay of
Nakidimo. We anchored close to a village, and began to court the attention
of some wild-looking fishermen, but the nude barbarians merely stared at ua
from under penthouses of hair, and hastily stole away to tell their wives and
relatives of how suddenly an apparition in the shape of a boat with white
wings had come before them, bearing strange men with red caps on their
heads, except one — a pale skinned man, clad in white, Avhose face was as red
as blood — and he, jabbering something unintelligible, so frightened them that
they ran away. This will become a pleasant tradition, one added to the
many marvels now told in Ugeyeya, whicli, with the art of embellishment in-
herent in tlie tongue of the wondering awe-struck savage, may grow in time
to be the most Avonderful of all wonders.
" Perceiving that our proffered courtesies were thus rudely rejected, we
also stole out of the snug bay, and passed round to another much larger and
more important. At its extremity a river issued into the bight, which, by
long and patient talk with tlie timid natives, we ascertained to bo the
Ugoweh. In this the hippos were as bold as the human savages were timid,
and to a couple of the amphibious monsters we had to induce the ' Lady
5,;!S STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Alice ' to show lighter heels in retreat than even the savages of Nakidinio
had shown to us. These hippopotami would afford rare sport in a boat spe-
cially built for killing them ; then they might splinter her sides with their
tusks, and bellow and kick to their utmost; but the 'Lady Alice,' if I can
help it, with her delicate skin of cedar and ribs of slender hickory, shall
never come in close contact with the iion-liard ivory of the rude hippopo-
tamus ; for she would bo splintered into matches, and crushed up like an ^^^
before one could say a word, and then the hungry crocodiles would leisurely
digest us. The explorer's task, to my mind, is a far nobler one than hunting
sea-horses; and our gallant cedar boat has many a thousand miles to travel
yet before she has performed her task. The still unknown expanse of the
Victoria Nyanza, northward and westward, and again south-westward, still
invited us and her to view its delights and wonders of Nature. The stormy
Lake Albert, and the stormier Tanganyika, though yet distant, woo us to
ride on their waves ; and far Bangweolo, Moero, and Kamolondo, with the
Lincoln Lakes, promise us fair prospects, and as rich rewards, if we can only
bide the buffets of the tempests, the fevers of the swamp and forest, and the
brunt of savage hostility and ignorance till then. Shall we forego the van-
tage of all this rich harvest and acquisition of knowledge for an hour's fierce
pleasure with the ugly but formidable hippojjotamus ? Not by my election
or cousent. Let the admirers of ' sport at any price' call it faint-heartedness,
or even a harsher name, if they will — I call it prudence. Yet I have for them
an adventure with a river-horse — a cowardly, dull-witted, fat-brained hippo.
I can abuse him savagely in your columns — for his brothers in Europe,
thank Fortune, do not read ' Tlie Telegraph' or the 'Herald' — without fear
of a civil or criminal suit for libel. I say I have a story of one to tell some
day, when I have no higher things to write of, which will warm all your
young bloods; and I have had another interview with a lion, or I might put
it, a herd of lions, just as exciting. But these must remain untold, until I
camp under the palms of Ujiji again, with half my work done, and my other
half still beckoning me forward. Let us pass on, therefore, to our subject,
and the place where I left olf — namely, cowardlike running away from a
pair of bull hippos. I am not certain they were bulls eitlier, though they
were big ones, sure enough.
" We flew away with a bellying sail along the coast of Mahata, where
we saw such a dense population, and clusters of large villages, as we had not
beheld elsewhere. We thouglit we would make one more effort to learn of
the natives the names of some of these villages, and for that purpose steered
for a cove on the western shore of Mahata. We anchored within fifty yards
of the shore, and so paid out our cable that but a few feet of deep water sepa-
rated us from the beach. Some half-a dozen men, wearing small land-shells
above their elbows, and a circle of them round their heads, came to the brink.
NORTH-EASTERN EXTREMITY OF NYANZA. 529
Witl: tlicse wo opened a friendly conversation, during which they disclosed
the name of the country as ' Mahata ' or ' Mabcta' in Ugeyeya; more thoy
would not conniiunicate until wo should land. Wo prepared to do this, but
the numbers on the shore increased so fast that we were compelled to pull off
again until they should moderate their excitement and make room. They
seemed to think we were about to pull off altogether, for suddenly appeared
out of the bush, on each side of the spot where we had intended to land, such
a host of spears that we hoisted our sail, and left them to try their treachery
on some other boat or canoe more imprudent than ours. The discomfited
people were seen to consult together on a small ridge behind the bush lining
the lake, and no doubt they thought we were about to pass close to a small
point at the north end of the cove, for they shouted gleefully at the prospect
of a prize; but, lowering the sail, we pulled to windward, far out of the reach
of bow or sling, and at dusk made for a small island, to which we moored
our boat, and there camjied in security.
" Next day we continued on our course, coasted along Nidura and Wan-
gano, and sailed into the bay which forms the north-eastern extremity of
Lake Victoria Nyanza. Manyara, on the eastern side of the bay, is a land of
bold hills and ridges, while the very north-eastern end, through which issues
the Ygama River into the Nyanza, is flat. The opposite coast to Munyara is
that of Muwanda and the promontory of Chaga, while the great slug-like
island of Usuguru, standing from west to east across the mouth of the bay,
shuts the bay almost entirely in. At Muwanda we again trusted our fortunes
with the natives, and were this time not deceived, so that wo were enabled
to lay in quite a stock of vegetables and provisions at a cheap rate. Tliey
gave us all the information we desired. Baringo, they said, is the nams ap-
plied by the jicople of Ugana to Nduru, a district of Ugeyeya, and the bay
on which our boat rode, the extreme end of the lake; nor did they know,
nor had they heard of any lake, large or small, other than the Nyanza. I
have described the coast from Muwanda to Uganda, and my visit to Mtesa,
together with my happy encounter with Colonel Linant de Bellefonds, of
Gordon's staff, at some length, so need not go over the same ground. Tlio
day after my last letter was written I made arrangements with the king of
Uganda, by which he agi-eed to lend me thirty canoes, and some five hun-
dred men, to convey the Expedition from Usukuma to tlie Katonga River.
With this pi'omise, and ten large canoes as an earnest of it, I started from
Murchison Bay on April 17. We kept company as far as the Katonga River,
but here the chief captain of the Waganda said that he should have to cross
over to Sasse, distant twelve miles from the mainland, and the largest island
in the Lake Nyanza, to procure the remaining twenty canoes promised by
Mtesa. The chief gave me two canoes to accompany me, promising that I
should be overtaken by the entire fleet before many days. I was impatient
67
530 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
1o continue my survey of the kilcc, and to reach Usukunia, liaving been so
long absent from the Expedition, during wliicli time many things contrary
to my success and peace of mind miglit have occurred.
" I took my observations twice a day, with a sea horizon — one at noon for
latitude, and one in the afternoon for longitude — and I am sorry to say tliat if I
am right, Speke is about fourteen miles wrong in his latitude along the whole
coast of Uganda. The mouth of the Katongo River, for instance, according
to his map, is a little south of the Equator. I have made it by meridian alti-
tude, observed April 20, to be in N. latitude 0° 16' 0". Thus it is nearly witli
all his latitudes. His longitudes and mine vary but little ; but this is easily ac-
counted for. The longitude of any position can be taken with a chronometer,
sextant, and artificial horizon, with the same accuracy on land as on sea. If
there is any difference it is very likely to exist in the error of the chronometers.
What instruments Speke ^^ossessed to obtain his latitudes I know not, but if
he found the altitude of the sun ascending above Co'^ he could never obtain it
with an ordinary sextant except by double altitude, and that method is not
so exact as taking a simple meridian on a quiet lake, with an ample horizon of
Avater. But ther^^ are various metliods of determining one's latitude, and
Sjieke was familiar with many. My positions all round the lake have been
detei-mined with a sea horizon, AVhen near noon my plan was, if tlie lake
was rough, to seek the nearest island or a quiet cape at the extremity of a bay
and there take my observations as deliberately as though my life depended
on their accuracy. But this task was, indeed, a work of jdeasure for mo, and
I have found a rich reward for most of my pains and stormy life on this lake
in looking at the fair extent of chart- work on the blank space of my map,
with all its bends, curves, inlets, creeks, Lays, capes, debouchures of rivers,
now surely known by the name of Victoria Nyanza. Any errors which may
have crept into my calculations will be determined by competent authorities
on my return from Africa, or on the arrival of my papers in Europe. Mean-
time I send my map as I have made it.
*' The Katonga is not a large river, and has but one mouth. The Amionzi
River empties itself into the Nyanza, about eight miles W.S.TV. of the Ka-
tonga. Uguuga stretches to the Kagerah, situated in S. lat. 0° 40'. On the
south side of the river begins Usongora, extending to S. lat. 1°. South of
1° is Kamiru, extending to S. lat. 1° 15'. Thence is Uwya, with a country
folk similar in enterprise to Ukerewe's people. Beyond Uwya is Uzinja, or
Uzinza, called by the Wanyamwezi, Mweri. Uzinja continues as far south as
Jordan's Nullah, and east of it is Usukuma again, while one day's sail from
Jordan's Nullah we pass Muanza, Avhich Speke reached in 1858, and this
brings us home to Kagehyi, and to our camp, where we are greeted joyfully by
such as live, having, however, to mourn the poor fellows who, in our absence,
have been hurried by disease to untimely graves. I must be brief in what I
LEA Til OF FREDERl CK BA RKER. 5 3 1
liavo to say now. I did tliiuk to mako tills a long letter, but Singoro's sl.ive,
Avlio carries it, is in a Iiurry to go, as his caravan lias already started. My
next letter must continue tins from the Kagera River, called in Karagwc the
Kitangule, and it shall describe some foul adventures that we went through,
■which caused us to appear in a wretched condition to our Expedition. Tiiougli
our condition was so wretched, it was not half so bad, nevertheless, as it
would have been had we returned two days latei-, for I doubt much whether
I should have had an Expedition to command at all. I had been absent too
long, and our fight with the Wavuma had been magnitied and enlarged by
native rumour to such a jiitch that Wolseley's victory at Ardahsu was as no-
thing to ours, for it had been said that we had destroyed a whole fleet of
canoes, not one of which had escaped, and that some other tiibe or tubes
had collected a force, overtaken us, and destroyed us in like manner — an incre-
dible story, which had, however, so won upon a faction of my soldiei's, that
they had determined to return to Unyanyembe, and thence to Zanzibar. But
God has been with us here, and on the lake, and, though wo have suffered
eome misfortunes, he has protected us from greater ones.
" We had been absent from camp fifty-eight days, during which we had
surveyed in our brave little boat over one thousand miles of lake shores; but
a part of the south-west coast has yet to be explored. We shall not leave the
N3^anza, however, until we have thoroughly done our work. I returned to
find also that one of my two remaining wliitc companions, Frederick Barker,
of the Langham Hotel, London, had died on the 23rd April, twelve days be-
fore I reajjpeai-ed at Kagehyi. His disease was, as near as I can make it out
from Frank Pocock's description, a congestive chill — that at least is the term
applied to it in the United States. Pocock calls it ' cold fits ' — a term every
wliit, I believe, as appropriate. I have known several die of these ' cold fits,' or
aguish attacks — the preliminary symptoms of very severe attacks of intermit-
tent fever. These aguish attacks, however, sometime,:; kill the patient before
the fever arrives which generally follows the warning. Tlie lips grow blue,
the face bears the appearance of one who is frozen, the blood becomes as it
were congealed, the pulse stops, and death ensues. There are various Uvjthods
of quickening the blood and reviving the patient, however ; an excellent one
is to plunge him into a vapour or hot water and mustard bath, and apply re-
storatives — brandy, hot tea, etc. ; but Pocock was not experienced in this case,
though ho gave Barker some brandy when first he lay down, after feeling a
slight nausea and chill. It appears by his comrade's report that he did not
afterwards live an hour. Frederick Barker suftered from one of these severe
aguish attacks in Ururi, but brandy and hot tea quickly given to him soon
brought him to that state which promises recovery. Thus two out of my
four white men are dead. I wonder, who next? Death cries. Who next? and
perhaps our several friends will sadly and kindly ask. Who next ? No matter
532 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
■\vlio it is. We could not better ourselves by atteinpting to fly from tliis fatal
land; for between us and the sea are seven hundred miles of as sickly a coun-
try as any in Africa. The prospect is fairer in front, though there are in that
direction some three thousand miles more to tramp. We have, however, new
and wonderful unknown tracts before us, whose marvels and mysteries shall
be a medicine which will make us laugh at lever and death.
"Henky M. Stanley."
The following communication from Captain George, the Curator of Maps
and Instruments to the Royal Geograpliical Society, concerning the height of
Lake Victoria Nyauza, as determined by Mr. Stanley, agrees so closely with
Captain Speke's result, that it must create a favourable impression on scientific
geographers : — " Height of Lake Victoria Nyanza — The great pleasui-e every
geograijher will naturally take in the new discoveries of Mr. H. Stanley has
induced me at once to look into his observations for the height of the lake.
The readings of his instruments, though few, are very satisfactory. The
aneroids appear to have rather a large index error, but as it is not pre-
cisely given, they must stand over for the present. The boiling- jDoint
observations, by two instruments of different makers, are to be preferred.
From the fact of Captain Spcke and Mr. Stanley observing near the same
spot, and with the same class of instruments, their observations can fairly bo
compared. The same method and tables have therefore been used for both
observers — viz., the Meteorological Taljles by A. Guyot — with the following
results : —
Captain Speke, on his map, gives 3,740 feet.
Mr. Stanley's observations give 3,808 " '
Difference 68 ''
And this difference may be greatly reduced when the Kew verification has
been ascertained.
C. Geoege, Staff Commander, R.N., Curator of Maps and
Instruments to the Royal Geographical Society."
Referring to Stanley and his work, as it is recorded in tlie letters he has
sent home, the " Christian World" says : — " Mr. Stanley, the newspaper cor-
respondent who was at one time treated with such supreme contempt by a
section of learned society here in England, had, doubtless, certain features
pertaining to his character, as well as to his culture, which exposed him some-
what to the barbed shafts of scientific scorn. But the meeting with the
greatest of African travellers seems to have excited in his bosom a generous
ambition; and wo suspect that the jealousy provoked among the savants by
STANLEY'S HEROISM.
Ills discovery of Dr. Livingstone did not a little to spur liim on in ]iis new-
l.'orn purpose to become himself a great African explorer. B3 this as it may,
ho would appear to be in the fair way, should his life be spared, of doing
much good work, and of rising to a position of such real eminence as few of
his former detractors are ever likely to attain. When he set out on his pre-
sent Expedition, Mr. Stanley had for his earliest object the exploration of
the Victoria Nyanza, which still remains but very partially known. "We now
knrn that he has reached that great reservoir of the Nile, and the account of
his remarkable journey thither, across the uplands of Central Africa, has an
interest not only for the general public, but also for geographers and other
students of science. From Mpapwa, on the Unyanyembe road to Kagehyi,
the village in Northern Usukuma where he encamped beside the Great Lake,
the route chosen by him, lying far eastward of the patli pursued by Speke,
was until to-day a blank upon our maps. He has the merit of bringing into
the light a great tract of country previously unknown to science; and this
j'eat he has not achieved without forcing his way through fearful obstacles.
"We knew from the first that he must be a brave and enterprising man, not
easily daunted by difficulty ; but we now learn tliat he is the possessor or
still higher qualities, uniting an organising and ruling faculty of a high order
ijvvith rare magnanimity. Through deadly jungles, and still deadlier tribes of
jealous and covetous natives, he had to storm his way, every mile almost
costing a life. Dysentery, famine, fevers, and fighting, laid low one hun-
dred and fifty-four men out of a force of about three hundred ; and we regret
to learn that among those who succumbed was tlie young Kentish sailor,
Edward Pocock, one of two brothers who went with Mr. Stanley, and whose
ii!>cle perished with Sir John Franklin in the Arctic regions, being at tlie
time tlie great explorer's coxswain.
" If the Expedition had not been led with remarkable dexterity, it seems
probable that not one of the three hundred would ever have reached the Vic-
torian Sea; and when we read of all the dangers that beset them on the way,
we marvel to learn that the stores and equipments were still ample, and that
1 hey had cari'-ied the little steamship, the 'Lady Alice,' in safety, through the
seven hundred and twenty miles of African wilderness. That swift and
adventurous march across the Forest Plateau, is one of the heroic deeds that
will live in history. It was achieved, including all baitings and fightings, in
one hundred and three days, being, for one thing, the swiftest bit of work of
the kind that was ever done. Leaving his camp at Kagehyi, under Francis
Pocock, Mr. Stanley explored all the eastern and northern coasts of the great
lake around to Mtesa's city, at the mouth of the Victoria Nile. Returning by
the west shore, he found that another of his white companions, Frederick
Barker, had died. His observations, taken with great care, showed that the
Victoria Nyanza lies at an altitude even exceeding that estimated by Speke—
531 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
ii correction wliicli strengthens the likelihood that it is one of the great foun-
tains of the Nile, and nuikcs it certain that Speke's discovery was one of the
grandest ever made in Africa, Mr. Stanley calculates that the sea is two
hundred and thirty miles long by one hundred and eighty broad ; and in the
map which he has constructed and sent home the coast-line is studded with
names of districts, villages, and rivers. This map will be exhibited and dis-
cussed at the first meeting of the Royal Geographical Society. After ' set-
tling ' the south-western corner of the great inland sea, it was Mr. Stanley's
purpose to transport his men and stores to the Kagera or Kutongo River, on
its western shore, and thence, crossing the Unyoro country, to address him-
Kelf to the fresh task of solving the great problem of the Albert Nyanza, of
"which only a mere fragment has been mapped. At his latest writing, on the
loth of May last, he reports himself as well equipped for at least two years
more. His next letter, if we are ever to hear from Stanley again, will be
looked for with anxious expectancy by the people, both of England and
America."
The Royal Geographical Society has again and again noticed in a very
marked and flattering manner the labours of the distinguished traveller. At
the opening of the forty-sixth session, the chairman, Sir H. C. Rawlinson, said,
in the course of his address, whicb was received with great enthusiasm, " In
my anniversary address of last May, I ventured to anticipate, from Mr. Stan-
ley's well-known intrepidity and determination, that being once launched into
the interior of Africa, with means and appliances of the most extensive and
efficient character, it would not be long before he had resedved the doubts
which have existed since the first discovery of the Victoria Nyanza as to the
true nature of that great Nile reservoir — that is, as to whether it was one
large sea studded with islands, as maintained by the first discoverers. Captain
Speke and Colonel Grant, or whether it was a mere collection of lagoons, as
suggested by Captain Burton and Dr. Livingstone, on the strength of native
information. This anticipation has now been realised, and I am enabled,
through the kindness of the proprietors of ' The Daily Telegraph ' and 'New
York Herald,' to exhibit to this evening's meeting a complete chart of the
lake, as delineated by Mr. Stanley, who for the first time has almost cir-
cumnavigated its shores. The narrative of Mr. Stanley's cruise round
the northern and western shores of the lakes, which was entrusted to M.
Linant elc Bellefonels, whom he met at Mtesa's capital on a mission from Co-
lonel Gordon, has been published in the columns of ' The Daily Telcgi-aph '
only this morning. The other letters, however, despatched via Zanzibar, and
published some weeks ago, have acquainted us with all the main features of
this most remarkable jom-nej', which I proceed accordingly to recapitulate.
Mr. Stanley, it appears, did not follow the high road from the coast to Unyan-
ycmbe, but struck a track further to the east, probably the same by which
o
CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF VICTORIA NYANZA. 53.-.
Mtesa's messengers had previously travelled from Uganda to Zanzibar, and
thus reached in one hundred and three days, including halts, tlie southern
shore of the lake, distance seven hundred and thirty miles from Bagamoyo,
having fought a severe battle with the natives on the way, and having als
discovered and followed to the lake a new river, the Shimecyu, which rises
some three hundred miles beyond the Victoria Nyanza, and is thus, as far as
our present information extends, the true southern source of the White Nile.
"Embarking at a short distance to tlie cast of the Jordan's Nulhih of Speke
ill a portable boat, called tlie 'Lady Alice,' which accompanied the Expedition
from England, Mr. Stanley, with a portion of his followers, succeeded in trac-
ing the sinuous shores of the lake along its southern, eastern, and northern
sides to Mtesa's cajjital at Uganda. His description of this very considerable
extent of new country — for we knew nothing of it before except from native
information — is full of interest to the geographer, and would have entitled
Mr. Stanley to a very high place among African discoverers if his explorations
had been confined to this single voyage. From Mtesa's capital at Uganda
Mr. Stanley followed the western shores of the lake to the River Kagora, the
Kitangule of Speke, and then seems to have struck across direct to his station
on the shore of Usukuma, leaving the south-western corner of the sea for sub-
sequent explorations. His circumnavigation of the Victoi-ia Nyanza covered
about one thousand miles, and seems to have been verified throughout by a care-
ful series of observations for latitude and longitude. Pending the examination
of the register of these observations we cannot affirm that the positions, as
laid down on the map, and which differ slightly from Speke's j^ositions, are
rigidly correct ; but, for all practical purposes, Stanley's delineation of the
lake may be accepted as sufficiently accurate, and as a great boon to African
geography. AVith regard also to his hypsometrical observations, it is inte-
resting to note that whereas there was a difference of more than four hun-
dred feet in Speke's calculations of height for the northei-n and southern por-
tions of the lake respectively — a difference which first led geographers to sus-
pect that the lake might be comjjosed of separate basins of varying elevation
— Mr. Stanley's measurement by boiling water at his station, east of Jordan's
Nullah, gave a result within seventy feet of Speke's observation near the same
spot ; so that the height of the Victoria Nyanza may now be considered to be
determined at about three thousand eight hundred feet above the sea. Mr.
Stanley intended, after completing his survey of the Victoria Nyanza, to cross
the intervening country to the Albert Nyanza, where he lioped, by means of
the ' Lady Alice,' to make a second voyage of discovery round this liitherto
almost unvisited lake; but more recent intelligence from the Upper Nile leads
us to expect that he will have been anticipated in this second achievement by
Colonel Gordon, or by some officers of the Upper Nile command, as it appears
that a steamer has at length forced its way to a point above the principal
530 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
rnplds, from whence tlie passage to the Albert Nyanza is tolerably free fron:
iinjjediment.
" Before I close this brief account of Mr. Stanley's exploration of the
Victoria Nyanza — an exploration which does infinite credit to his energy and
skill, and whicli will be explained to you more in detail by the veteran tra-
veller, Colonel Grant, at our next meeting — I am desirous of drawing atten-
tion to the extraordinary munificence of the proprietors of the London ' Daily
Telegraph ' and the ' New York Herald,' in fitting out tliis Expedition en-
tirely at their own expense. Such munificence far transcends the efforts of
private individuals in the cause of science, and even puts to sliame our public
institutions, enabling, as it did, the undaunted Mr. Stanley to take the field
with four Europeans and three hundred natives, amply provided with arms,
instruments, and supplies, and assured of continued support, until he had
fairly accomplished his work. And I may add, tliat the courtesy which has
placed at my disposal Mr. Stanley's map of the Victoria Nyanza for the gra-
tification of the fellows of the Greographical Society, and for the general in-
struction of the public, is a graceful sequel to tlie liberality of Mr. Stanley's
English and American patrons in preparing the original Expedition. I feel
assured, then, that I only express the feelings of the fellows of the Society
in recording our warmest thanks to the proprietors and staff of ' The Daily
Telegraph ' and ' New York Herald ' for the service they have rendered to
the cause of geography, and in wishing the most comj^lete success to Mr.
Stanley's further operations."
Not man}^ days after that of the above meeting, a special meeting of the
Society was held for the consideration of African questions, Major-Greneral
Sir H. C. Rawlinson, the President, again in the chair. A paper was read
by Lieutenant-Colonel J. A. Grant, C.B., on 'Mr. H. I\[. Stanley's Explora-
tion of Lake Victoria Nyanza.' Tlie theatre of the University of London
was crowded by ladles and gentlemen, amongst them being the Baroness
Burdett-Coutts, Sir T. Fowell Buxton, Bart., Sir Samuel Baker, Captain Bur-
ton, Rev. Dr. Moffutt, Rev. Horace "Waller, etc. etc. On the table, in front
of the president's chair, was, under a glass shade, the map of Victoria Nyanza
district executed by Mr. Stanley in Africa.
The President, in opening the proceedings, said theyhnd met to discuss
the question of Central or Equatorial Africa. At the last meeting he had the
honour of representing to the Society how much It was Indebted to Mr. Stan-
ley for his recent circumnavigation of the Victoria Nyanza. On the present
occasion the meeting would have the advantage of hearing Mr. Stanley's dis-
coveries illustrated by his great predecessor. Colonel Grant. . As they were
also honoured by the pi'esence of Sir Samuel Baker and of Captain Burton,
they had all the great authorities on the question present, and he therefore
lioped they would have an interesting discussion on this most Important sub-
COLONEL GRANT ON STANLEY. 537
ject. He should only notify to the meeting tliat there were two subjects for
discussion that evening — one relating to the Victoria Nyanza, the otiicr to
the Albert Nyanza — but the two subjects would be kept as distinct as pos-
sible. After the first discussion he should road a few extracts of letters from
Colonel Gordon r^ lative to his survey of the Nile, and his labours in the vici-
nity of the Albert Nyanza.
Colonel Grant, who was louJly cheered, then road his paper. He said —
" The journey recently made by Mr. H. M. Stanley, the commissioner of
' The Daily Telegraph' and ' New York Herald,' is one of the most import-
ant and brilliant that has ever been made in Central Africa, oi', indeed, in
any otlier country; for, when we consider that lie accomplished it so quickly,
taking only sixteen 2-18 months from the time he left England, it seems at
first as incredible as was his famous discovery of the late Dr. Livingstone. It
is not alone the short time, but the great geographical question which he has
finally settled — namely, he has confirmed Speke's discovery, that the Victo-
ria Nyanza was one vast inland fresh water ; he has navigated its shores for
a thousand miles, thereby proving that its waters are continuous. In 1860,
Speke and I started from Zanzibar with two hundred followers. It will give
some idea of the fickle African race when I tell you that we had only forty
men of the two hundred when we readied Kazeh, four hundred and thirty
miles west of the sea-coast. Three-fourths had deserted us. We need not,
therefore, be alarmed by the report of Mr. Stanley, that one-half of his men
were non-effective. He will enlist otliers, or do with fewer. Months of
weary delay again took place on tlie way between Kazeh and the hilly
region of Karagweh, on account of the difficulties thrown in the way by the
inhabitants. We wished to get on quickly, and ti-ied to march near the lake,
but were told that the ordinary route via Usui must be kept. We accordingly
went that way, and crossed the watershed at two and a-lialf degrees S. lat.
From this position we descended the northern incline of Equatorial Africa,
and never left Nile-land till we reached the Mediterranean. The route may
be likened to the teeth of a saw, the points being plains and the depressions
swamps. We had extensive views of the lakes from these plains. The bays
and long inlets of water or friths seen by us on the western and northern
shores were M'werooka, Katonga, Murchison, etc. Some were completely
land-locked, and twenty miles in length. I allude to the one seen near our
camp at Uganda capital. It is here, probably, that Colonel Long, of the
Khedive's service, found himself the other day, when he reported that Speke's
Victoria Nyanza was merely a small affair of thirty miles in extent.
" The greatest river on the route between the most southern point of the
lake, round its western and northern sliores, is the Kitangule Kagoera, in the
district of Karagweh. In appearance it has a slow, majestic, winding course,
which is navigable for thirty to forty miles from its mouth ; vessels drawing
68
538 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
twenty -five feet of water could, I believe, float at the ferry where we crossed.
Speke and I had to conjecture this depth at the ferry, because we were for-
cibly prevented from dropping our lead-lines into it ; the king would not be
pleased ; it was not ' canny ' to take soundings. I should not be the least
surprised to hear that Mr. Stanley selects this noble river as a point for ex.
ploration. With the ' Lady Alice ' he can ascend this stream for the lake up
almost to King Rumanika's door ; or he can cross over the mountains of Ruanda
and Uruudi and descend to the spot oa Lake Tanganyika where Livingstone
and he had such a pleasant pic-nic; or he may select the Albert Nyauza as his
field for exploration. All will be new to us ; either route would interest geo-
graphers intensely, for the country, its people, and its animals, are all unknown
The area of the lake, according to Speke, is six hundred and forty-five geo-
graphical miles in circumference ; and if we add to this the circumference of
Lake Bahr-ingo, we have nine hundred and ten geographical miles. Many
will remember the enthusiastic reception given in old Burlington House where
Speke and I were received after telegraphing that the ' Nile was settled,' tliat
' the Victoria Nyanza was the source of the Nile.' Such a reception certainly
awaits Mr. Stanley when he appears here ; and if he sliould make more dis-
coveries — which he undoubtedly will, if God spares him — there is no honour
which this Society can bestow that he will not have earned over and over
again. He, as an observer, a traveller in its real sense, a provider of true and
pleasant pictures from unknown lands, has confirmed the discoveries made by
Speke, and to him the merit is due of having sailed on the broad waters of
the lake, and sent home a map, and descriptions so vivid and truthful that
the most sceptical cannot fail to be satisfied. Here it may be as well to ex-
plain that some geographers never accepted Speke's lake as one great ocean,
although the geographical world did. The foremost of unbelievers, and the
one who ajipeared first in the field, was Captain Burton, the companion at
one time of Speke. He did not seem to have any reason for bis ai-gument.
He said there must be several lakes, lagoons — anything, in fact, except the
lake. Even the late Dr. Livingstone and Mr. Stanley made out there must
be several lakes. Livingstone wrote in a very patronising tone, ' Poor Speke
had turned his back upon the real sources of the Nile ' — ' his river at Ripon
Falls was not large enough for the Nile '—and was disparaging to Speke's
discoveries. The work of Dr. Schweinfurth, ' the Heart of Africa,' has fallen
into the greatest blunder. About three years ago a map, constructed without
authority iu our map-room, was suspended from these walls, but on my pro-
test the President, Sir Henry Rawlinson, ordered that it be altered to the de-
lineation of the lake by Speke. This was done. Numbers of other writers
and map-makers. Continental and English, have gone on disintegrating the
lake from book to book, map to map, and from year to year ; but I think the
public will now perceive how unjust the above critics have been, how firmly
COLONEL GRANT ON STANLEY. 539
the fame of Speke has been established, and will not fail to accord him that
place in their opinions which he may have lost for a time. (The Colonel here
enumerated a series of maps, in which the Nyanza is divided into two or
more lakes, and resumed.) It is now my place to make some comments on
Mr. Stanley's journey. Starting from Zanzibar, in 1874, with three hundred
followers, he made a rapid journey of sevoi hundred and twenty miles to the
south-east corner of Victoria Nyanza, performing this distance in one hundred
and three days, inclusive of halts. Through forests, across deserts and rivers,
he conveyed the boat, ' Lady Alice,' in sections, and launched her on the lake.
The forethought and energy required to convey this boat must command the
fullest admiration, for in doing so he has navigated the inland ocean, and
given us a thrilling account of its extent, its rivers and shores, and its beauti-
ful islands. He experienced almost stunning losses and privations in his land
journey. Having to travel through sterile, unhealthy regions, the want of
food and water was felt severely ; his men suffered from sickness — death was
rife amongst them — and he had to contend against the Waturu race, who
sounded their war drums, and killed twenty-one of his men. After contesting
with them for three days, and clearing a way for his advance, he continued
his march towards the lake. On the 27th of February last he obtained his
first view of the great sea, and it can be imagined how impatient he must
have been, and how hard he and his men must have worked to put the ' Lady
Alice ' together, to have a short trial on the lake before taking to sea in her.
" There are many questions which we should like to ask Mr. Stanley here
— namely, what crew had he ? who were they ? how did they all manage
for food ? and was it ever rough weather ? But we must be content with his
map now before us, with its rivers, islands, and broad expanse. It seems as
if the great brown plains, which Mr. Stanley speaks of as bounding the lake
to the east, drank up all the rain that falls upon them, for there are no rivers
on that side. Everywhere he heard of plains to the east. The mountains of
Ugeyeya, are called gigantic, for Mr. Stanley says, ' We pass between the
island of Ugingo and the gigantic mountains of Ugeyeya, at whose base the
' Lady Alice ' seems to crawl like a tiny insect, while we on board admire
the stupendous summits.' There is nothing as to size or summit on the other
side of the lake to compare with this description of the equatorial mountains of
Ugeyeya. Having abstracted all the notes on the mountains of the east coast,
we can say that there are no mountains, no volcanic cones, to be compared
with them as to their height and proximity to the lake on the west coast.
I therefore cannot but conclude that the fairway of the lake will be found on
the east coast, and that the miles of swamps and shallow water in the west
do not exist to the same extent on the other shore. But this interesting ques-
tion will, I trust, soon be settled when we receive Mr. Stanley's observations
on depths. No fewer than sixty islands may be counted upon Mr. Stanley's
540 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
map, dotted f^enorallyin clusters all round the shores, at distances of two and
three miles from the mainland. Tlie largest in the whole lake is Scsseh,
which Ave made forty miles in length. Sesseh — or, as Mr. Stanley calls it,
Sasse — has an area of about seven hundred English square miles ; the dimen-
sions of this one island will give some idea of the importance of this inland
sea, which is probably the largest body of fresh water — at this altitude — in
the known world. Regarding the altitudes taken by Mr. Stanley, we fmd
that, in leaving the desert plain of Ugogo, he ascended to another plateau,
three thousand eight hundred feet ; again, as he proceeded north-west, he
came on a still higher one of four thousand five hundred feet, and his great-
est altitude was five thousand one hundi'ed feet, which is the watershed be-
tween the lake and the sea-coast. This last height corresponds with the
highest inhabited country Speke and I traversed in our journey — namely,
the capital of Karagweh, which approaches to witliin fifty miles of the
W.S.W. end of the lake. The height of the Nyanza above the sea was
three thousand five hundred and fifty to three thousand six hundred and
iifty feet by one aneroid, and three thousand five hundred and seventy-
five to three thousand six hundred and seventy-five by another. A fui-ther
observation by Mr. Stanley, with two boiling thermometers, made the alti-
tude, subject to correction, similar to Speke's — namely, three thousand eight
hundred and one, or sixty-eight feet in excess of Speke's observations. The
difi'erence is insignificant, and we may accept them as the established alti-
tude of Victoria Nyanza. The area of Victoria Nyanza, as made known to
us by Mr. Stanley, j^roves that Speke far underrated its extent. I have care-
fully measured the maps of both travellers with compass to ascertain their
existing difi'erence, measuring every ten miles, and the result by this rather
rough means obtained is as follows : — Circumference of Speke's lake, six hun-
dred and forty-five geographical miles; circumference of Stanley's lake, eight
hundred and ninety geographical miles. If we add two hundred and sixty-
five geographical miles, the circumference of the Bahr-ingo Lake in Speke's
map, we get nine hundred and ten miles as one body of water — a curious
similarity, in circumference, to Stanley's single lake — only twenty miles of
difi'erence. Mi'. Stanley thinks the mode of spelling Nyanza is objectionable,
because, he says, the natives do not pronounce it in this way. Let me first
explain that, in using the expression, Lake Victoria Nyanza, we actually say
Lake Victoria Lake — Nyanza signifying ' lake.' All that is necessary when
using the word is to call it the Victoria Nyanza, or Victoria Lake. As to the
spelling and pronunciation of the word, we finci that it is sounded diffei-ently
in difi'erent localities." In conclusion, Col. Grant said — " These few remarks
on Mr. Stanley's journey, I may state, are made on my own authority, by
request of the President of the Geographical Society, for I felt that it was
not for me to come forward as the champion of Speke. He required no such
Slli SAMUEL BAKER. 541
bolstering. In fact, I should have preferred that some other and more com-
petent hand wrote a comment on Mr. Stanley's journey. However, I have
great jilcasure in complying, for it has opened up to me an old love, and
given me tliis opportunity of congratulating the Society on the great achieve-
ment before them. AVho amongst us would have had his energy ? Wlio
would undertake a cruise in an open boat, and absent himself from his camp
for fifty-eight days ? Who would risk such danger to life, and exposure to
an African sun in the month of April ? AVho of us are able to guide, provide
for, lead, and attend to a little army successfully, and, in the midst of all
this, take their observations for latitude and longitude? I think him a worthy
re^jresentative of the energy which sent out such an Expedition."
Sir Samuel Baker, who was cheered, said " that, even when old African
travellers were placed upon the retired list, there was a pleasure which re-
mained to them still, and that was to watch the efforts and endeavours, and
to praise the energies, of those younger travellers who were filling up the
paths the older ones had cut out. He had come that evening from the south
of England, at some personal inconvenience, jjersonally to render all the
praise an old African traveller could to the energy displayed by their friend,
Mr. Stanley. At the same time it was such a pleasure to add his testimony
to the indomitable perseverance Mr. Stanley had shown, and it was so grati-
fying to meet old African travellers — and they had in Captain Burton the
oldest living African discoverer — that he should have been sorry not to have
been present at tliat meeting. He had always advocated ' Fair play and no
favour,' among African travellers, and although, unfortunately, there had
been some little rivalry amongst them, he was perfectly certain every tra-
veller who started from this country started with one great aim — to carry out
his duty to the Society, and to represent the integrity and determination of
England. Captain Burton started with Speke, Aviien he (Sir S. Baker) was
comparatively a young man, and Speke a very young man, and he had owed
most of his success to the map Speke had given him. The original map was
among the records of the Society, and it was not only recognised, but j^roved
almost to the letter by Mr. Stanle}'. In these days of geographical triumph,
they all grieved that Speke was no more; and he was sure his fellow-travel-
ler. Colonel Grant, was only too happy to feel that this day would add to his
dead friend's undying reputation. Speaking of Mr. Stanley's letters, he (Sir
S. Baker) must say that everybody must be struck with the candour of his
descriptions. There were people in England fond of sitting down to criti-
cise, who said Mr. Stanley need not have fought or occasioned bloodshed.
But it was most unfair for any person who had no knowledge of the state of
the case or of the country, in which there was no law but the law of force,
to speak or write in this way. He felt certain no person travelling for the
Society would commit an act of force, except through necessity ; but still
642 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
there were many people who, for the sake of cavilling, ignored the state of
the country, and the difficulties travellers had to endure. When natives
would not sell food it must be got, or travellers starved. If the travellers
tried to take the food the natives would try to kill them, and to prevent this
travellers had to use force. Mr. Stanley did so, and got his food. With re-
sjDect to the difficulties as to carrying the boat surrounding Mr. Stanley, the
feat was to be admired more, perhaps, than any other. Ho (Sir S. Baker)
and his party took out boats, but they never had any one to carry them, and
never got one of them near the lake. Even when Mr. Stanley was navigat-
ing the lake in the ' Lady Alice,' he encountered much hostility from the
natives." After an exhaustive address upon certain geographical points in
the district referred to in the paper, Sir Samuel Baker concluded amid cheers.
Captain Burton, who was very warmly received, said he had already
complimented Mr. Stanley for his undaunted perseverance ; and he quoted
former statements of his own in tliat room with respect to the Victoria Nyanza,
which had now been actually proved by Mr. Stanley to have been correct.
The existence of lakes to the north, north-east, and possibly to the east
of the Victoria Nyanza, was still, he thought, extremely possible.
The President — " The meeting is aware that it is to the proprietors of
' The Daily Telegrajjh' and the 'New York Herald,' we are indebted for the
highly important and interesting particulars upon which the paper of to-night
and the discussion are founded. Mr. Arnold, who is a friend of Mr. Stanley, is
amongst us to-night, and I shall call upon him to acknowledge the hearty enco-
miums passed upon his friend."
Mr. Edwin Arnold said — " It is because the President does not desire to
leave any blank in the records of an evening so important to geographical
science as this is, that I rise to detain you a moment after hearing orators so
illustrious. Since the whole discussion this evening lias constituted one mag-
nificent encomium upon the labours of my friend Mr. Stanley, it may seem
good that I should tender a brief form of thanks, which I trust he may one
day fill up in this hall. If he could have heard the generous words by which
his work has been described — 'the southernmost sources of the Nile' — words
the import of which most of you in this room can well recognise — it would
cheer him beyond any material aid which could be sent him. I wish I could
help the gentleman who uses that wand upon the map to point with it to the
spot where Mr. Stanley now is. If we could do that, we should not wish to
send him beads, brass wire, money, or provisions, so nmch as copies of the
speeches delivered in this hall, which would cheer him more and carry him
forward better than aught else could do. There is a stoiy of an African
architect who was commissioned to build the Pharos at Alexandria, and who
wrote his king's name ujjon the plaster and his own upon the stone under-
neath. I am here to reverse that process. I inscribe brief and fleeting
MI SSI ON A li Y RESPONSE TO M TESA S'S IN VI TA TION. 543
thanks, withpassing words, and underneath them I hope Mr. Stanley will
some day write down his enduring gratitude. I thank you very earnestly in
his name, and, as far as I may speak at all for those two allied journals which
have been so happy as to commission Mr. Stanley, I thank you also most sin-
cerely. I may indeed conclude with some of Mr. Stanley's own words con-
tained in a letter addressed to me personally, and of the same date as that
affixed to the last letters you have seen. He says — ' I am in perfect health,
thank God. The Nile sources and their atmosphere make me stronger and
stronger, and increase my energy. My last word to you is, Un avant.'' "
The Rev. Mr. Hutchinson, Secretary to the Church Missionary Society,
remarked that it miglit be expected he would say something respecting the
noble call — the Christian appeal made by Mr. Stanley. The subject had
long occupied the attention of the Society, and it was due to the Clmrcli Mis-
sionary Society that geographical expeditions were started in Eastern Africa.
There were, of course, great difficulties in the way of canying out the pro-
posal, but every possible precaution would be taken ; and in accepting King
Mtesa's invitation, which they expected was sincere, thoy did not anticipate
any of the dangers which some peo^jle spoke of The Society thought and
believed that half the energy, fortitude, and indomitable perseverance which
had been displayed by Geographical explorers would suffice to bring the Gos-
pel to the shores of the Nyanza. What the Society was now considering was,
what was the best route? They knew that a combination of circumstances
should direct them in what they were about to undertake. From one friend
they had already got £5,000, and another friend had that morning promised
to give them £3,000. Surely that showed there was a feeling in this country
which would bring to the poor wretches of Africa that Gospel which made
the people of this land what they were. In conclusion he should, for the
attainment of this object, bespeak sympathy of all lovers of geographical
science.
It must be gratifying to all true lovers of Africa to know that the appeal
to the friends of Christian Missions on behalf of that land has not been in vain.
Two Societies at least have resolved to respond to it in a practical way; to
one of which reference is made in the speech just reported. At a Special
General Committee of the Church Missionary Society, summoned to consider
the subject of the invitation conveyed from the capital of Uganda in Mr. Stan-
ley's despatches, the following letter was submitted and read by the Honorary
Clerical Secretary, after alluding to the interest aroused by King Mtesa's in-
vitation : —
" Dear Mr. Hutchinson — My eyes have often been strained wistfully
towards the interior of Africa, west of Mombasa, and I have longed and prayed
for the time when the Lord would by his providence open there a door of en-
trance to the heralds of the Gospel.
5U. STANLEY AND AFRICA.
" The ajipeal of the energetic exjilorer Stanley to tlie Cliristian Church
from Mtesa's capital, Uganda, taken in connection with Colonel Gordon's
occupation of the upper territories of the Nile, seems to me to indicate that
■the time has come for the soldiers of the cross to make an advance into that
region.
" If the Committee of the Church Missionary Society are prepared at
once and with energy to organise a mission to the Victoria Nyanza, I shall
account it a high privilege to place £5,000 at their disposal as a nucleus for
the expenses of the undertaking.
" I am not so sanguine as to look for the rapidity of success contemplated
by Mr. Stanle}'; but if tlie mission be undertaken in simple and trustful depend-
ence upon the Lord of the Harvest, surely no insurmountable difficulty need
be anticipated, but Ilis presence and blessing be confidently expected, as we
go forward in obedience to the indications of His Providence and the com-
mands of His Word.
" I only desire to be known in this matter as
" An Unpeofitacle Seuvaxt.
(Luke xvii. 10).
" Edward Hutchinson, Esq."
The Secretaries then laid before the Committee the information furnished
by the travels of Speke, Grant, Colonel Long, Mr. Stanley, and the Rev. J.
Wakefield, with regard to the circumstancos of tlie tribes adjoining Lake
Nyanza, and full discussion having ensued, the following resolutions were
passed : — " L Tliat this Conunittee, bearing in mind that the Church Mission-
ary Society is primarily commissioned to Africa and the East, and recognising
a combination of providential circumstances in the present opening in Equa-
torial Africa, thankfully accepts the offer of the anonymous donor of £5,000,
and undertakes, in dependence upon God, to take steps for the establishment
of a mission to tlie vicinity of the Victoria Nyanza, in the prayerful hope that
it may prove a centre of light and blessing to the tribes in the heart of Africa.
2. That a sub-committee be appointed to consider and report to the Com-
mittee on the best mode of carrying this resolution into cft'ect. 3. That a
tnecial fund be opened for meeting the expenditure connected with the pro-
j;oscd mission."
N A t( G A
M > N Q 11 N E
CHAPTER XXVII.
Slanlcy and Tippii-Tib — Consultation zvith Illr. PococJc — Start in^^ of tJie
Expedition — Latmching of the ''Lady Alice "■ — Sicl-ness in the Camp — -
Parting between the Zanzibari and the Arabs.
IT was a crisis in Stanley's life when he saw that the task before him was to
explore the haunting river which had beckoned, and then eluded, every
traveller before him. It may be said to be indeed his own river, for it owes
everything to him, while he owes to it the grandest work of his manhood.
Did he dream of all that it might be on that never-to-be-forgotten evening
which he has himself so graphically described when he and Frank Pocock
talked the matter over together in their hut at Mwana Mamba .'' It was after
dinner, and the only light they had was from the wicks in a couple of saucers
filled with palm oil. The dangers of the river had not been hidden from him,
but they could not quench his desire. Tippu-TIb, whom Cameron had seen
and mentioned as Tipo Tipo, and who had conducted him across the Lualaba
as far as Utotera, an Arab trader of good circumstances, visited Stanley and
told him of Cameron, explaining how it was that he had been unsuccessful in
solving the great problem of African geography, and had left it where
Livingstone also had been compelled to leave it. He could not get canoes,
nor persuade the men to risk the dangers of the unknown. Stanley asked
Tippu-Tib if he would help him as he had helped Cameron. The Arab
hesitated ; he told Stanley there would be great risk, and he who explored the
country for ivory could not understand the white men, who seemed only looking
out for rivers, lakes, and mountains. His wonder at Dr. Livingstone had
never ceased, for the old man who travelled further than any one had yet,
bought no slaves, collected no ivory, nor seemed to have any money.
When Stanley appealed to Tippu-Tib, however, he announced his willing-
ness to go a journey of sixty camps, each camp to be a distance from the other
of four hours' march, for the sum of five thousand dollars, Stanley to find
provisions for Tippu Tib's men, who were nearly one hundred and fifty in
number. Stanley was, however, to return to Nyangwe for the protection of
Tippu-Tib, and he was to have his money, no matter what happened, unless
he proved faint-hearted and refused to go on.
It was then that Stanley and Frank Pocock had their memorable
69
546 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
consultation, and Mr. Pocock proposed that they should toss up, and let two
out of the three tosses decide the matter. So Stanley took a rupee from his
pocket, and Mr. Pocock said, " Heads for the north and the river, tails for the
south and Katanga." So they tossed, and it was tails ; then they tossed again,
and it was tails that time also, and so on for six successive times the tails won.
Then they tried straws, the short straws for the south and the long ones for the
river, and all the short straws were drawn first.
But of course these signs were not regarded. Stanley was more and more
convinced that his destiny called him up the Lualaba river ; and he told
Pocock that if he would stand by him he would make the venture. His friend
— a faithful friend indeed, faithful unto death — assured him that he would stand
by him whatever came.
So the contract between Henry M. Stanley on the one hand, and Tippu-
Tib on the other, was signed in the presence of witnesses. Stanley then
summoned the Wangwana chiefs of his party, and announced to them the
arrangements that had been made. They were perfectly willing to go on with
their master, since Tippu-Tib with seventy Wamgamwezi spearmen and one
hundred and forty guns were going too. They were to travel for sixty camps,
and then, if the country was hostile, return ; but if they met Portuguese or
Turkish traders who would travel with them, and so strengthen their party,
they would go on still further. The Wangwana chiefs heartily approved, and
declared that the presence of Tippu-Tib would prevent the desertions that
often greatly harassed Stanley as they had done his predecessors.
The next day, the 24th of October 1876, the Expedition started on its
ever memorable journey.
As it passed out of Mwana Mamba, many strangers asked to be allowed
to join, and the numbers were considerably swelled when they reached the first
halting-place, eleven miles on the road. The first few days were very
pleasant ones, for the route lay through a beautiful country, with hills to the
north-east of them, and to the west "a rolling, grassy land," the grass being
of gigantic proportions. A very rapid march was made via Marimbu and
Kankumba, through Manyema to the Kunda river, across which they were
ferried, and so on to Nyangwe, at which place Abed bin Salim met the
Expedition, and offered Stanley the use of his house.
Nyangwd is a town of some importance to the Arabs, who up to Stanley's
arrival had made it the end of their journeys westward. It is built on a cliff
overlooking the river known hitherto as the Lualaba, and is forty feet above
it. An Arab trader founded it, and it was in the possession of three or four
Arabs and their followers.
The "Lady Alice" was rebuilt, and floated on the Lualaba at Nyangw6, at
which place the width of the river is nearly five thousand yards. The water
was at that time very low, but often it rises so high as to overflow its banks.
THE BLACK FOREST. 547
At Nyangwd Mr. Stanley made the acquaintance of a tribe of fisher-folk called
the Wenya, who were the aborigines of the place.
Tippu-Tib and his force reached Stanley on the 2nd of November, and
on the 5th the grand start was made. Stanley's muster was 146 only, but
Tippu-Tib brought 700 people with him, and this fact put courage into the
hearts of all.
Their first halt was made at the villages of Naskasimbi, and there Stanley
made acquaintance with some of Tippu-Tib's companions. Sheikh Abdallah,
an Arab, who had a flint-lock musket of which he was proud ; Muina Ibrahim,
his bosom friend, was a coast man and more like a negro than an Arab ;
Jumeh, who had told the story of the dwarfs — of whom Stanley was to know
more than enough during other portions of his life ; Muina Hamadi, and
others. Tippu-Tib's confidential man, " the master of the axe," was Bwana
Shakka, a person of great strength and renown, who was not, however, to go
all the way with Stanley, but to branch off presently on an expedition for his
own master.
On the day after their start they entered the black forest-mass which
had been visible from Nyangw6. It was dark and chill, and most forbidding
from the first. Tippu-Tib's people were in front, and the march was not as
rapid as Stanley would have chosen, and a great deal more uncomfortable.
All the sunshine and brightness was past, and the forest was dense and damp.
Our travellers soon got wet as they went slowly on, " in a feeble, solemn
twilight, through a path of stiff clay, so wet that each man splashed himself
and his neighbour." Immense trees were about them, and the thick under-
growth was twenty feet high. Sometimes they descended into ditches, and
then climbed on to banks, where the leaves struck their faces, and all the
time their clothes were being; saturated with the moisture from the trees, while
the atmosphere was suffocating.
On November 7th they rested at Mpotira, for the boatmen who were
carrying the sections of the boat through the forest were quite worn out, and
indeed every one suffered frightfully from fatigue. The guide, who had been
along that way before, declared that it would be worse the further they went ;
but this seemed impossible. Stanley ordered his men to try to cut a road
through the mass of foliage ; but even when that was done there were still the
fallen trees which lay everywhere to obstruct them. No idea can be formed
by those who merely read the story of the difficulties they had to encounter.
"The toes grasp the path, the heads bear the load, the hand clears the
obstructing bush, the elbow puts aside the sapling."
In Uregga, the home of the Waregga tribe, who live in this forest, the
Expedition halted for a rest. These people in their wood-homes were civil to
the strangers, who wondered how they could manage to exist at all in such a
country ; but they knew nothing of the Lualaba, though they were near to it.
548 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Here Stanley's troubles began to be augmented by the complainings of his
men. The Wangwana and the boatmen became savagely rebellious, urging
Stanley either to burn the boat so that it need not be carried, or to return to
Nyangwe. He was resolved to do neither; and the next day Tippu-Tib
waited uj^on him to cancel his engagement. The sufferings were such as he
could not bear — though of course they were not more than Stanley's, whose
shoes were worn out, so that he was now marching with naked feet. Tippu
said that he did not know there could be such a place as this forest in the
world, and that it was killing his men.
Stanley upbraided him for his dishonourable breach of contract, and
besought him for his own credit's sake to continue the journey. Indeed our
brave e.xplorer felt that if Tippu-Tib went back it would be the downfall of
his own hopes and expectations ; so for two hours he plied him with
arguments, censures, and entreaties, promising that if he would continue they
would cross over to the other side of the river, where, though the tribes were
said to be dangerous, the country was more open. Tippu-Tib at last
consented to keep on for twenty marches further.
There was much that was interesting at Wane-Kirumbu, where at present
their camp was formed. There was a large forge and smithy, in which a
dozen blacksmiths were at work making spears and knives of all shapes and
sizes, and of good quality. The smelting furnace had four double-handled
bellows, which were worked up and down by four men. The blast could be
heard half a mile away. The furnace was a hollow excavated in a great
mound of clay. There were apertures in the sides, into which funnel-shaped
earthenware pipes were fitted. Sacks of charcoal were at hand, and boys fed
the fire with it.
Stanley here saw some widowers mourning for their wives, which they do
for two and a half years, the widows deploring the loss of their husbands for
the same length of time. The symbol of mourning, which is worn all the
time, is a thick daub of charcoal paste, which covers the face ; the women
further disfiguring themselves with bands of faded banana leaves across their
foreheads.
The next halt of the E.xpedition was at Kampunzu, a long village of one
street, with low, gable-roofed houses on either side. This village was chiefly
remarkable for its collection of skulls, placed in two rows three or four yards
apart, running all through the village, and placed about two inches deep in
the ground, the tops of them showing white and bleached above.
Livingstone had reported of these to Stanley, who was at once much
interested in them. He thought they looked like human skulls, but the
people said they were "meat," and parts of the "Sokos," who live in the
forests and steal the bananas, and are themselves hunted and slain by the
people of Kampunzu. Stanley thought he had found the missing link, and he
THE LIVINGSTONE RIVER. 549
succeeded in i^urchasing two of the skulls, a male and a female, which he
subsequently sent to Professor Huxley.
On the 19th of November 1S76, after a journey of forty-one geographical
miles from Nyangwe, Mr. Stanley reached the river. Livingstone had given
to it the name Lualaba ; but Stanley here altered it, and gave it the name of
The Livingstone River.
He pitched his tent about thirty feet from the river, which was twelve
hundred yards from bank to bank. There were no people within a mile, and
very soon the scene was one of busy activity, which was, however, a rest
after their long and most toilsome march. The boat was being put together
by Mr. Pocock and the Wangwana chiefs, and the cook was preparing the
breakfast of the captain of the Expedition, when an inspiration came to them.
The broad brown river was very gentle as it flowed onward between the
great forests on either side. Mr. Stanley looked at it, and wondered what
mysterious scenes were in the unexplored regions through which the great
river silently ran. " Something strange must surely lie in the vast space
occupied by total blankness on our maps between Nyangwe and ' Tuckey's
Farthest.' " The master let his imagination dwell on all that he had heard
and read of the land of dreams, and which might be unfolded to the adven-
turous travellers now. " I seek a road to connect these two points," so ran
his musings. " We have laboured through the terrible forest, and manfully
struggled through the gloom. My people's hearts have become faint. I seek
a road. IV/iy, here lies a broad zvatery avenue cleaving the nnknoivn to
some sea like a path of light I Here are woods all around, sufficient for a
thousand fleets of canoes. Why not build them I "
With Stanley to think was to act, and he at once had the drum sounded
which called to muster; and immediately Mr. Pocock and the chiefs appeared,
and the people followed and surrounded their leader with wonder and
expectancy on all their faces.
And now occurred one of those opportunities when it behoves a man to
be eloquent and persuasive in the highest degree. Mr. Stanley could well be
this, on occasion ; and he lifted his hat and stood erect before the people with
his face aglow with feeling, and the resolute purpose of his heart seen in every
line of his face and curve of his body.
His voice rang out as he addressed them — "Arabs ! Sons of Unyamwezi!
Children of Zanzibar ! listen to me." He referred to the troublous journey
they had endured, and spoke of his wish to find a path that should take him to
the sea. " By that Salt Sea, on which the great ships come and go, live my
friends and your friends." "Yes, yes," cried the people. " I have found the
path to the Salt Sea ; it is by the broad flowing River which you see before
you, and which has flowed on thus in silence and darkness day by day. But
no man has ever penetrated the distance lying between this spot and our white
550 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
friends by the Salt Sea. Why ? Because it has been left us to do."
Murmurs of " No, no," and desponding shakes of the head greeted this
statement. " Yes, my friends," continued Stanley, " it has been left from the
beginning of time until to-day for us to do. It is our work. It is the voice of
the one great God ! " Then he addressed the Wany wana and the Arabs with
words that were intended to go straight to their hearts. " You who have
followed me through Turu, and sailed around the great lakes with me, who
have followed me like children following their father, through Unyoro and
down to Ujiji, and as far as this wild, wild land, will you leave me here to die
alone, or will you bind me and take me back by force ? Speak, Arabs !
Where are my young men with hearts of lions .'' Speak, Wangwana, and
show me those who dare follow me."
There was a pause, and then Uledi, the coxswain, came forward, and
declared he would follow his master even to the death. And so said all the
boat's crew. At that Stanley asked the men that all who were on his side
should stand forth and let him count them. Thirty-eight stood forward, and
ninety-five made no response.
Stanley thanked the brave men, and prophesied that the others would
yield presently, and then the assembly was dispersed.
Tippu-Tib, Sheikh Abdallah, and Muina Ibrahim remained to endeavour
to shake the resolution of this unreasonable adventurer. They talked to
him of cataracts and cannibals, and murderous tribes, before whom the
Wangwana would prove cowards, and from whom they would run away.
But Stanley assured them that they were mistaken, and that these were free-
men, and not slaves with their spirits broken, and that he believed they would
prove true to him. He cautioned his three Job's comforters to abstain from
pouring forth their doleful prognostications before the Wangwana, and so
trying to discourage them ; and he ended by promising that if they obeyed
him they would know him henceforth as " the white man with the open hand."
A canoe with two men approached while they had been talking, and
Stanley called his interpreter to speak to them kindly and ask them to bring
their canoes and convey the Expedition to the other side. " Who are you ? "
demanded the occupants of the canoes ; and when they heard they answered,
" Ah, you are bad, you are bad ; we do not want you to cross the river. Go
back ; go back ! " And they uttered a wild, weird cry, which the interpreter
thought meant war.
But Stanley, as soon as his"LadyAlice"was launched, rowed up and down
the river before the people, examining an island, and looking at the shores, the
natives gazing on him all the time with great curiosity. After a while they
went across to the shore, and then the interpreter, in a quiet voice, invited
the people to look at the white men who had come to visit their land, and
whom they might trust, for he would do no violence to any, nor have a leaf
TROUBLE WITH THE NATIVES. 551
touched that would not be paid for, but would give them an abundance of
shells.
The natives held a consultation, and then said that if the strangers would
make blood-brotherhood between them, there should be no further trouble.
They were thanked, and an arrangement made for Mr. Pocock and ten men
to go to the island to perform the ceremony.
Mr. Stanley was not sure that treachery was not intended though, and so
he gave orders to " the detective of the Expedition, the faithful and gallant
Kachehd," to take twenty men across in the night, and hide in the brushwood
of the island in case they should be wanted. This was done, and early the
next morning Mr. Pocock and his men went to the island. Stanley entered
the boat on its return, and rowed near so as to be within call if anything
desperate should happen. He saw several canoes full of men paddle to the
island. After a time the peculiar cry of the natives rang through the air, and
Stanley hurried up. Mr. Pocock told him the natives seemed all at once to
grow suspicious and violent, but were quiet when they saw Kachehe, and
again when Stanley appeared. The master thought it would be best to be
bold, so he took Kachehe and his men across the river into the wood, and,
landing them above the village of the natives, ordered the men to cut down
some trees with their axes, and proceed to form a camp.
Stanley then rowed back to the village, and by the help of an interpreter
informed the natives that he had already placed thirty men in their country,
and they would be wise, therefore, to be friendly, and ferry the others across,
in which case they would be well paid for their services. While they hesitated
the wise master tossed a small bag of beads across, and money proved as
powerful as it usually does, for the canoes were soon forthcoming, and the
Expedition was speedily conveyed across the river, and spent their first night
in Wenya land.
In the morning all the inhabitants had fled, leaving the villages totally
unguarded, with canoes at the landing-stages, and fruit on the trees ; but
Stanley gave orders that nothing was to be touched, because he knew if they
helped themselves to anything swift retribution would follow them.
He took Tippu-Tib and about thirty other persons in his boat, and went
down the river, toward a village where it was hoped they might purchase food.
As they drew near to each place they heard the cry again and again repeated,
which seemed to be the signal for every one to flee. At last they came to an
uninhabited forest, extending along the river for several miles, and next to
that a plantation of bananas. They saw also the huts of the village to which
the plantation belonged ; but as the people did not see them they got quite
near the shore, and might have landed, when a little child cried out to its
mother, " The Wasambye ! The Wasambye are coming." This name meant
" The bad uncircumcised stranger." At this cry everybody rushed away from
552 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
the market which they were holding, and, penetrating the jungle, hid in it,
evidently frightened beyond all power of self-control. Stanley went on, and
on, but at every village, as soon as he had requested the people to sell them
food, their only response was their peculiar cry, " Ooh-hu-hu" — three times in
succession.
At last, in the afternoon, they reached the Ruiki river, a black slow
stream, with a wide mouth. On the 23rd November they halted and built a
strong camp, so that they might wait until those who were travelling by land
should overtake them. There were thirty-six of them altogether, and all the
food they had was a few bananas. It was therefore necessary to try to break
through the reserve of the aborigines. While waiting, Stanley explored the
Ruiki, and found the waters were black as ink, in consequence of moisture
exuded from some tree. On returning from this little trip, taken really in
hopes of meeting the marching party, they were alarmed to hear the rapid
firing of guns in the camp. They hurried on, and found the river blocked
with canoes full of fighting men. The boat was urged on, and at sight of
it the savages fled away, crying " Ooh-hu-hu." No one was hurt in the camp,
but they had been attacked, and had fired. All that night they wailed in
silence in the camp, ho2:)ing the rest of their party would come, but as they did
not, Uledi, the coxswain, was sent with five other young men to search for
them. He brought them in the afternoon, looking very wretched and tired,
and with doleful stories to tell of how they had been attacked with arrows.
The Expedition was now reduced to such straits by hunger that Stanley was
compelled to allow them to get food for themselves in any way that was
possible.
They next floated down the river to Nakampmba, those who had to
march walking as near the bank as they could. When the path led through
jungle, each party sounded a gun, so that the other might guess their where-
abouts, and be the happier for the companionship. They passed several
beautiful islands in the river, which was here 1 700 yards wide. The thick
forests were still on both sides of it, and everywhere the people fled, showing
by their cries of " Wasambye " and " Bvvana Muhala," or " Mtagamoyo," that
some bad characters had been that way before, and stolen the people to sell
into slavery, thus making the task of all future strangers a very hard one.
Those who were in the boat fared better than the men who were still —
with little food and great discomfort — struggling through the forest, and at
length they succumbed to small-pox and dysentery. On their feet and legs
came dreadful ulcers, the result of the thorns which had pricked them.
Happily they came upon half-a-dozen canoes which, having become unsound,
had been abandoned; and a floating hospital was made of them, so that the
sick people could be taken with them and tended in the best way possible.
On the 27th they heard the sound of rapids, and saw some canoes shoot
STANLEY AND TIPPU-TIB. 553
down the river and disappear. The rapids of Ukassawerc soon after reached,
which rapids are caused by a ledge of rock jutting into the river from the
Ukassa hills. They took the hospital into a quiet nook, and Mr. Stanley went
on to reconncjitre, taking ten young men with him. He left orders that all the
men were to remain where he had left them, and then went two miles to
discover what they could about the river. At one spot they came upon a
creek filled with forty or fifty canoes, in which were men silently watching the
river. Our travellers did not disturb them, but hurried back to the camp.
There Mr. Stanley found that he had been disobeyed, for Manwa Sera and
five others had taken two of the canoes which formed the hospital and gone off
down the rapids on their own account. Stanley sent fifty men after them
down the creek, but that now was empty. Uledi and Shaumari therefore
went to try to find the missing men, shouting as they went. Presently they
found them sitting on the keels of their canoes, which had got turned upside-
down, and a number of natives attacking them. Uledi and those who were
with him had fired upon the natives, and thus saved the lives of the disobedient
Wangwana, who were safely brought back, but who had lost four Snider rifles.
The story they had to tell was that they had been drawn into a whirlpool and'.
then tossed out of it.
Mr. Stanley was very angry at being disobeyed, and he said so in language-
so strong that Manwa Sera sent Tippu-Tib with his resignation, which,
however, Stanley did not accept ; but he told Mr. Pocock that it was a matter
of life and death that his instructions should be invariably carried out to the
letter.
Then Tippu-Tib and the Arabs waited upon Stanley to urge him to go-
back. How could he go on 1 they asked. Everything was hostile ; and
small-pox, rapids, sulky Manwa Sera, and cannibalism were all brought to-
bear in their arguments. But Stanley was not to be moved to go backward.
The "Lady Alice" was carried overland past the rapids, and the hospital taken
safely through them, and again they were on the smooth waters of the Living-
stone river. Stanley went on to explore; and the next day they all moved
down another four miles to Mburri, opposite a settlement of Wenya villages.
There they pitched their tent, and prepared to spend the night. Two canoes
came cautiously down, the occupants of which were promptly secured and
taken to Stanley. The one was an old man and the other a young one ; but
neither was amenable to the kind smiles and soft conversation of the white
man, though he gave them beads which they snatched eagerly. Next day
three canoes came from the opposite bank, and Stanley tried to make friends
with them, asking them to sell food. They requested that the drum might
be beaten ; so Mtesa's page Kadu performed upon it to their great delight.
They expressed their admiration, and then went away home.
Next day Stanley went down the river, past some beautiful islands, and
70
551 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
there encamped at Usako Ngongo by the market-place. These market-places
were considered neutral ground by the natives, so that all might meet there ;
on this part of the river they were about three miles apart. They were wide
open spaces covered with grass, and under the shade of beautiful trees.
Stanley could not help looking forward to a possible time when goods from
Manchester and Liverpool and Birmingham should be bought and sold in
them. The scene would afford an artist a worthy subject, with the brown
river in the foreground, and the dark forest at the back. At present on
market days the people came up the river, and through the forest and over
the hills, bringing their produce and exchanging it for that of their neighbours;
and a very miscellaneous collection was here bought and sold. The market
only lasted during the morning ; at miJ-day the people vanished as rapidly as
they came, and left the place to the eagle, the ibis, the grey parrot, and the
monkey.
The Expedition moved on the 30th farther down the river, and reached
another market-place at Ukongeh, a place of which Livingstone had heard on
the loth of March 1871, while staying at Nyangwe. In this neighbourhood
the tribes had won for themselves the character of being exceedingly warlike ;
and the Arabs who had attempted to penetrate into the interior had always
been savagely repulsed.
It was on the 4th of December that they reached Muriwa Creek, and the
town of Ikondu, which is on the north bank of it. This town consisted of one
large street, with houses on either side of the broad thoroughfare, thirty-two
feet wide, and two miles in length ! At the back of the village were groves of
bananas and palms. The houses were semi-detached, and though they were
only huts they were picturesquely made of panicun grass canes ; and they
were exceedingly cosy and comfortable. Ikondu was deserted, though it was
full of eatables and wines, which our travellers would very gladly have bought.
They wondered what had become of the people, for there must have been a
large population ; and they were very grieved and disappointed at their
determination all along the river to hold no communication with them.
The time was a very sad one. There was so much sickness in the camp,
and of such terrible types that every day several died. The leader and Mr.
Pocock did their best, but they were themselves utterly weary and worn with
the sorrows of others. They found an abandoned canoe, not sound but very
large, which might be repaired and used to convey the sick men. So Uledi
and others set to work, and kept at it day and night, mending it with new
boards and wooden pins, and banana corks. The Wangwana launched it, and
the sick men were put in it ; and though it leaked, it was safe.
A small native was found suspiciously near the camp with a bow and
poisoned arrows — he was only four feet six inches high, and measured round
the chest thirty inches, and round his waist twenty-four. He was chocolate
SICKA^ESS IN CAMP. 555
coloured, and had a scraggy beard ; and when in conversation he spoke of the
" Watwa," Stanley recognised him as belonging to the Dwarfs. His arrows
were tipped with something smelling like cantharides, and Stanley pretending
to prick him with a point, he cried out in great terror. The fact, therefore,
was established that the poison was of a very virulent kind. He told Stanley
of an island called Maturu, where everything had been destroyed by lightning ;
and of the Wasongora tribe — " the people of the filed teeth."
With these people the Expedition had a battle when they had moved
down the river to Unya-N'singd. They came out in half-a-dozen canoes, and
challenged the strangers to meet them in mid-stream. Stanley told them they
did not want to fight, as many of the people were sick ; but, with their
numbers greatly augmented, they dashed into them, and began shooting their
poisoned arrows at the strangers. Stanley was obliged to retaliate with his
guns, which soon settled the matter. Three of the Expedition were wounded
by the arrows, but the application of caustic prevented further mischief At
this place nine persons died
Indeed the sickness was now so great that it gave every one grave
anxiety, and Stanley was almost at his wits' end. If he should live to be a
very old man indeed he will never forget that month of December 1876; and
but that his courage was indomitable, he must have given up in despair before
such fearful odds. But he kept his resolution through all ; and used his eyes
in order to learn and communicate as much as possible. There was a creek
filled with plants that bore a strong resemblance to asparagus, from which the
natives made salt by drying and burning them, and then collecting the ashes,
and allowing water to run over them. The liquid was evaporated, and then
a sediment was found which had become salt.
Mpika, a populous island, which figured in subsequent works of Stanley's,
was reached on the i8th, and here, by means of some people who had come
to the market, the Expedition had not to win by force of arms the right to
remain ; but the strangers were treated kindly, and when they left it was to
the pleasant sound of a farewell which meant " Go in peace."
But the peace did not last long. They had not rowed far before a man
who was one of the guards of the hospital canoes cried out that he was shot
by an arrow, and almost immediately a cry from the jungle and the crack of
the Sniders proclaimed the fact that a sharp contest had commenced. Then
followed a night of terror. The natives kept up a horrible noise of ivory
horns and yells intermingled ; but Stanley had had a fence of brushwood
hastily made, and though " it rained arrows all night," not many men were
wounded. There was a hand-to-hand fight once, and so much vigilance was
necessary that the master ordered kettles of cold water to be thrown upon any
able bodied man who should try to go to sleep.
In the morning, after a breakfast of bananas and coffee, Mr. Stanley went
55G STANLEY AND AFRICA.
down the river to explore, and found another large town, formed, as all these
river-side places were, by a string of villages. Things had become desperate
with him ; and feeling that he must house his sick people, and procure a fresh
supply of food, he resolved to occupy the first of these villages. Accordingly,
he had the boat and canoes brought down to the spot ; and they rushed up
the bank, and finding the village deserted, they at once took possession,
cutting down some trees to block up the end. The natives arrived with their
arrows, but the sharp-shooters answered them ; and when evening came they
had their seventy-two hospital patients in one part of the village and the
healthy people in another, while all round the village were defences formed of
weeds and grass. Guards were placed at each approach to protect the village,
and their temporary home was now completed. One thing cheered Stanley
greatly in the midst of his trouble, and that was the courage and determination
which the people began to show ; they realised that they must be brave or
die, and they rose to the occasion.
At one time their village was only saved by a desperate fight all around
it, but Tippu-Tib and the party that had been travelling by land arrived just
in time to augment their forces and discourage the enemy. The canoes which
had brought the people whom Stanley called " the river savages " were all
paddled away, and disappeared behind an island a little distance off.
Stanley rewarded the forty defenders of his camp, and then proposed that
when night came they should go out and cut the canoes adrift, and in this way
stop the resources of the enemy. This they did, and thirty-six canoes were
soon gliding down stream toward Stanley's camp, where they were secured.
The next day they went back to the island to ascertain what the natives
thought of this, but the place was nearly deserted. One or two remained,
however, and these were invited to become peacemakers, and tell their friends
that if they would send two canoes with their chiefs to meet the same from
Stanley's party, and in mid-stream would make brotherhood, some of their
canoes should be returned, and the travellers would pay them for the others.
This was eventually done, and Sageni and the chief Yinya-Njara becoming
brothers on behalf of the rest, peace was secured.
Tippu-Tib had arrived at the conclusion that he could endure no more,
but that he would return to Nyangwe immediately after Christmas. Stanley
agreed to this, although the Arab owed him eight marches more, but sickness
had so told upon his people that nothing would have induced them to go
farther. Payments and gifts were therefore awarded them, and Tippu-Tib
promised to use his influence to get the people of the Expedition to go on
with Stanley instead of returning with him.
The master then called the assembly together, and gave them a stirring
address. " Into whichever sea this great river emjjties, there shall we follow
it;" so he commenced his appeal, and he ended it with words of the same
PARTING WITH TIP PU- TIB. 557
significance, reminding the men tliat they were now In tlie middle of the
continent, and it would be just as dangerous to go back as forward. " We
shall continue our journey, and toil on, and on, by this river and no other to
the Salt Sea." The address was received with applause, and Manwa Sera
and Uledi, speaking for the others, declared they would follow Stanley.
After this they had a merry Christmas. In the morning they named the
canoes they had bought, and the 'Livingstone,' 'Stanley,' 'Telegraph,' 'Herald,'
'Glasgow,' 'London Town,' and the rest, numbering together twenty-three, were
manned ; and they held a regatta, which gave them great delight. Also
races were run for prizes, the great event of the day being a race between Mr.
Frank Pocock and Tippu-Tib. It was won by the latter, who carried off the
prize, a richly-chased silver goblet, which had been given to Stanley in
England.
The next day the Expedition had orders to embark, and Mr. Stanley
found, to his great joy, that every one of his people was faithful to him, and
that he had still a company of 149 souls. Frank Pocock, the loyal friend and
devoted servant of Stanley, asked a question of the master as to their future,
and received a confident answer. The blank space on the African map was
going to be filled in, and Stanley believed that at the latest they would get
over their difficulties and reach the ocean some time in March.
There was a pathetic parting between the men of Zanzibar and the Arabs
and Wanyamwezi, who returned with Tippu-Tib. They sang a farewell song
to our people which touched their hearts. Some of the men were sobbing, and
Stanley himself felt lonely and sad when he took his last look at the companions
who had on the whole served him well ; and then with as much cheer as they
could muster they set their faces toward the new year and the unknown river-
road to the sea.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
The Great Mysterious River — Tlie Stanley Falls — Making Canoes — Leaving
the ''Lady Alice" — On the March — Difficulty of obtaining Food —
Welcome Supplies — Arrival at San Paulo de Loando.
ON New Year's Day, 1877, Stanley found himself in smooth water floating
by an uninhabited tract of forest. The height and size of the trees were
remarkable, and the undergrowth consisted of masses of ferns, palms, dates, cap-
sicums, vines, and creepers. The only paths through them all had been trodden
by the elephants ; and the orchids, mosses, and delicate ferns grow in beauty for
no eyes to see them. There is plenty of insect life in the mysterious shades —
the myriapedes ; the ants, brown, black, and yellow ; the mantis, five inches in
length, "gaunt, weird, and mysterious;" the caterpillar, the lady-bird, the
cricket, the frog, and a host of other creatures large and small, find in it a home.
Stanley had eyes and ears for everything ; and the hush of nature calmed him,
for " the forest was all beauty, solemn peace, and soft, dreary rest." But the
man's thoughts were busy looking back and forth, seeing such dangers as few
men had ever had to meet behind, "ind dreading lest the future had something
even worse in store for him.
The Expedition was now in the midst of hostile foes of a very repulsive
character, for they were cannibals of the worst description, and no sooner did
they see the travellers than they began to laugh, and to say that they would
have "much meat." Stanley had two cannibals with him, interpreters from
Ukusu who had been persuaded to join the Expedition by Tippu-Tib, and they
rendered some service by calling out " Sennenneh ! sennenneh I " " Peace,
peace." But the natives did not want peace ; and although the first day of the
year passed without a contest, the second did not, for Mwana Mamba's people
challenged them, and for three hours a sharp fight went on. So it was through
much of the journey. Now and then they captured a man, and, by treating
him kindly, made him friendly enough not only to negotiate with their fellows
on behalf of the Expedition, but also to answer questions, and thus convey the
information for which Stanley was ever seeking. One question which he
always put was, " What is the name of this river of yours ? " To this he
received many answers, and so it became evident to his mind that the people
called the river by various names, according to the openings which happened
to be near to their own place of residence.
FRIENDLY NATIVES. 559
They glided on between the banks, thankful whenever they passed a
village without winning their right of way by battle. The Peace-word,
" Sennenneh," was loudly uttered by Katembo with as much pathos as possible,
and sometimes to their joy the word was repeated by a hundred voices,
" Sen-nen-neh, sen-nen-neh ! " each vieing with the other in an endeavour to
give forth the Peace-word as loudly as ever. At Kankord they passed a grove
and a bank lined with men and women who watched the flotilla with friendly
faces, and kept up the cry of " Sennenneh." Seeing them so friendly, Stanley
invited them to come and talk to him, assuring them of friendship, and asking
their help for the strangers. The men did not venture, and the scene that
followed .was so amusing that it must be told in Stanley's inimitable way.
" We held up long necklaces of beads of various colours to view : blue,
red, white, yellow, and black.
" ' Ah-h-h,' sigh a great many admiringly, and heads bend toward heads
in praise and delight of them.
" ' Come, my friends, let us talk. Bring one canoe here. These to those
who dare to approach us.'
" There was a short moment of hesitation, and then some forms disappear,
and presently come out again bearing gourds, chickens, bananas, and vege-
tables, etc., which they place carefully in a small canoe. Two women step in
and boldly paddle towards us, while a deathly silence prevails among my
people as well as among the aborigines on the bank.
" I observed one or two coquettish airs on the part of the two women, but
though my arm was getting tired with holding out so long in one position
those necklaces of glorious beads, I dared not withdraw them lest the fascina-
tion might be broken. I felt myself a martyr in the cause of public peace, and
the sentiment made me bear up stoically.
" ' Boy,' I muttered in an undertone to Mabruki, my gun-bearer, ' when
the canoe is alongside, seize it firmly and do not let it escape.'
" ' Inshallah, my master.'
" Nearer the canoe came, and with its approach my blandness increased,
and further I projected my arm with those beads of tempting colours.
"At last the canoe was paddled alongside. Mabruki quietly grasped it.
I then divided the beads into sets, talking the while to Katembo — who trans-
lated for me — of the happiness I felt at the sight of two such beautiful women
coming out to see the white chief, who was so good, and who loved to talk to
beautiful women.
" ' There ! These are for you ; and these are for you,' I said to the
steerswoman and her mate.
" They clapped their hands in glee, and each woman held out her presents
in view of the shore people ; a hearty hand-clap from all sides testified to their
grateful feelings.
fifiO STANLEY AND AFRICA.
" The women then presented me with the gourds of palm-wuie, the
chickens, bananas, potatoes, and cassava they had brought, which were
received by the boat's crew and the interested members of the Expedition with
such a hearty clapping of hands that it sent the shore people into convulsions
of laughter."
Stanley found that these people were friendly because they had been
watching his behaviour, and had found him honest and kind. They had sent
up a canoe of provisions to tempt him. If it had been seized it would have
meant war ; but it had been unmolested, so peace was assured. These were
the people of Kankore, and they tattooed their bodies. The women wore
large necklaces of bits of wood round their necks, and iron rings around their
legs and arms.
At Mwana Ntabar they were attacked by a tribe who came out covered
with war-paint, one half of the body being white and the other half red, with
broad black bars across the body ; and these men were in enormous canoes.
They beat drums and blew trumpets, and yelled until the noise was deafening.
But one of the canoes came near the "Lady Alice," and was promptly captured
by Stanley, who christened it the "Great Eastern" of the Livingstone River.
He gave the natives two small canoes for it, and went off as speedily as
possible. It was at this point that Stanley discovered a river, about two
hundred yards wide, which he called the Leopold River, after the King of the
Belgians.
And now they were drawing near to the series of cataracts which will be
known for ever as the " Stanley Falls on the Congo." They could hear the
thunder of the water before them, and on either side of them the yells of the
savages, and scarcely knew which risk would be the greater. It seemed a
choice of deaths by knives or drowning. Eventually they made a stockade of
brushwood, and threw themselves down behind it half dead with fatigue.
In the morning Stanley explored the first cataract, and found "beautiful
cascades and foaming sheets of water " on the one side, and on the other " a
scene of indescribable confusion, a horror of whirling pools, and a mad con-
fluence of tumbling water." Here he discovered the "Young's River" of
Livingstone flowing into the great river ; and here too they " blazed " a path,
along which they carried the canoes for a mile or two past the first cataract.
No sooner was the trouble of this over, and they had spent a little time
afloat on the calm water, than they began to hear the roar of the second cataract,
and were afraid to go on for fear of being drawn down the terrible cascade.
The natives were full of angry threatening ; but Stanley's men drove the boat
ashore and made a camp, protecting it as well as they could. They found no
one there but an old woman whose wounds they dressed, and who told them
that the island on which they were was Cheandoah, and belonged to the
Baswas tribe. Questioned about the river, she replied that the left branch was
THE STANLEY FALLS. 501
called Lumami, and the right branch Lowvva. The island was very populous
and very large, and there was upon it a remarkable collection of articles in
ironware, many of them exceedingly well made ; there were also baskets made
of palm fibre. The houses were gable-roofed and comfortable, and plenty was in
them — among other things great jars of dark-red butter made of the palm-oil.
Stanley was considerably worried to know how he was to get by this
cataract. He launched an old and condemned canoe above the fall, and saw
it shoot down like an arrow, and then whirl, tumble, and disappear, coming up
again far away bottom upward. He saw they must not attempt to go over
the fall, but must brave the Bakumu, the savage cannibals of whom he had
been several times warned. Some fights were inevitable ; but of course
Stanley won.
A w'orse trouble than the natives came to him opposite the south end of
Ntunduru Island when the canoes were being taken down. A chief named
Zaidi was in one when the canoe was upset. Two of the men swam down the
stream and were rescued, but Zaidi clung to the overturned canoe, and was
.swept down towards the fall. The waters just before their leap were divided
by a rock, and here the canoe got split in two, and one end of it stuck up.
Zaidi clung to this, and sat upon the rock holding on for dear life, with the
abyss immediately under him. This was in front of the camp, so that all were
aware of the perilous condition of their companion. " To his left, as he faced
upstream," wrote Stanley in his diary, " there was a stretch of fifty yards of
falling water ; to his right were nearly fifty yards of leaping brown waves,
while close behind him the water fell down six to eight feet through a gap ten
yards wide between the rocky point on which he was perched and a rocky islet
thirty yards long." But the man of resources thought of a plan. A rope was
formed to which a canoe could be fastened, but the water broke it up as soon
as it was tried. Poles were lashed together, but they could not reach him.
Then a canoe was fetched and cables fastened to it, to be held by the men on
land so as to steady it, and pull it back when necessary. Two brave volunteers,
Uledi, the coxswain, and Marzouk, sprang into the canoe and paddled across
to the roaring falls ; and those who held the ropes allowed the canoe to go
within ten yards of Zaidi. They threw him a cable, and he grasped it just in
time, and was dragged out of the seething waters. Even then the peril was
not nearly over, for the rush of water carried them into most dangerous places;
but at last they reached a small islet, where they remained for the night, and
the next morning they were rescued by means of cane-ropes, over which they
came hand-over-hand, one after another, safely ashore.
It was not until the end of January that they were clear of the Stanley Falls.
On the 26th they got over the Seventh Cataract and were once again in clear
water, with the canoes safely carrying them instead of having to be carried as
they had been overland until the falls were safely passed. They hurried away
71
563 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
from the sounds which for three weeks had been like roaring thunder in their
ears. The last cataract had been the most furious. " I have seen many
waterfalls," wrote Stanley, " in my travels in various parts of the world, but
here was a stupendous river flung in full volume over a waterfall only five
hundred yards across. The river at the last cataract of the Stanley Falls
does not merely fall — it is precipitated downwards."
The entire surroundings of the Seventh Cataract are interesting. The
Wenya people are industrious and clever. They had put down poles into the
falls, to which they affixed baskets in which great quantities of fine fish were
caught ; and Stanley saw some beautiful specimens of woodwork and banana
fibre.
That they were all alive after their great dangers and their exertions was
reason for joy and thankfulness. They were not left long in peace, for
through the whole length of their journey the savages, resenting their
presence upon their river, attacked them with terrible ferocity. At Aruwimi
an enormous force bore down upon them, in half a hundred tremendous war-
canoes, and Stanley, grown sick of the weary fighting, poured his shot upon
them, and then pursued them to their village. Here, though he found signs
of cannibalism, he also saw many proofs of the powers of these people if only
they could be brought under civilisation. They had a temple of ivory over an
idol ; their paddles were beautifully carved, the iron-work was fine, and the
earthenware very superior ; and Stanley pronounced the people on the banks
of the Aruwimi river at its confluence with the Livingstone, " more advanced
in the arts than any he had hitherto seen since he began the descent of the
river."
Stanley considered the Aruwimi to be the most important affluent of the
Livingstone, and he identified it with the Welle of Schweinfurth. It empties
itself into the Livingstone at a point three hundred and forty geographical
miles north of Nyangw^.
As they hurried away from Aruwimi, Stanley remembered that the
desperate combats which had been forced upon him had now numbered
twenty-eight, and there were not now thirty persons in the Expedition who
had not been wounded. He had become utterly weary and disheartened, and
almost ready to die rather than again fight for life. " Livingstone called
floating down the Lualaba a foolhardy feat," he wrote in his diary ; "so it has
proved indeed, and I pen these lines with half a feeling that they will never be
read by any man."
But a few days later, having had short spells of quiet in which to rest and
commune with nature, and having slept well, free from alarms and terrors,
Stanley was himself again, and the Expedition in good spirits. The natives
of Rubunga were friendly ; but they were very ugly, for every bit of their
bodies was tattooed. They showed Stanley four old Portuguese muskets^
THE LIVINGSTONE FALLS. 563
which caused his people to hope that they were really in a path that would
lead to the sea. They gave Stanley a list of the places which he would pass
further down the river.
At Urangi the people welcomed the strangers with much demonstration ;
and the great chief came to see them, and declared that Stanley was his
brother. At Marunja,. the natives had never seen a white man before, so they
did not kill Stanley, as they would otherwise have done. At Bangala sixty-
three canoes came out, and*a murderous outrage was made on the Expedition.
But Stanley says they are a very superior tribe, and he greatly regrets their
singular antipathy to strangers. At Bolobo they were frightened, but not
hurt. At Chumbiri the people were very cordial, and the king sent them a
royal present, and then paid them a visit. He invited Stanley to stay in his
village, and treated him most hospitably. He boasted that he had " four tens
of wives," and every wife wore large brass collars. The women were good-
looking, of a rich brown colour ; their eyes were large and lovely, and their
forms altogether graceful. Our travellers very much enjoyed their visit to
Chumbiri, and when they left the king sent them an escort of forty-five men.
On March 8th they discovered a rapid river of a very light colour, to
which Stanley gave the name of the Lawson River. (Was it after Sir
Wilfrid .-*) On the 12th they reached a long row of white cliffs, with a green
grassy tableland above them, which Frank Pocock at once called Dover
Cliffs ; and here was that expanse of water to which the name of Stanley Pool
was given — a name that has since become exceedingly well known all over
the world. They did not remain there then, and soon came into a repetition
of some of their old troubles, not with the savages, but with the river.
On the 15th of IVIarch they reached the confluence of the Gordon-Bennett
River ; and they were then within reach of the roar of the Livingstone Falls.
They had heard much of these rapids from Itsi the King of Ntamo and his
people, also from Mankoueh, the chief of the Batekd. Itsi told them there
were three cataracts, named severally Child, Mother, and Father, the last
being the most wild. Of course they had to drag the canoes overland, and
had the usual difficulties ; but there was a worse piece of river even than the
Father, which bore the significant name of The Cauldron. Here they lost
the canoe "London Town," and the "Glasgow" was very nearly swept away also,
and the "Crocodile" had a narrow escape. Here Kalulu was drowned in the
falls which are now called by his name ; and indeed, before they got clear
away from the place, other accidents followed, and the master had to record
sorrowfully the fact that nine men had been lost in one afternoon.
On the 3rd of April they had some more rapids to pass, and a canoe was
upset which contained fifty tusks of ivory and a sack of beads, while the men
were only saved from drowning by the brave Uledi. The Whirlpool Narrows
were reached on the 8th, and the "Lady Alice" having been taken safely through
5Gi STANLEY AND AFRICA.
the tempestuous water, the canoes followed. Next they came to a worse place
still, to which Stanley gave the name of the Lady Alice Rapids, where they
had a narrow escape from death. On the 24th they reached the terrific falls
of Inkisi, where the river is forced through a chasm of only five hundred yards
in width. Stanley hoped these would prove the cataract of which he had heard,
named after Tuckey, and that he was getting near the end of his troubles ; for
he was growing e.xceedingly weary of the endless roar and turbulence of these
cataracts. The natives were curious to learn how the Expedition would get
past, and surprised to hear that the canoes were going to be hauled over the
mountain. When they heard that they looked up at the towering crags in
horror, and then went to spread the report that " the white man was going to
fly over the mountain." The white man only wished he could ; but failing
that he got the natives to bring up six hundred men to help with the work,
and that which had seemed impossible was accomplished.
The next camp was at a cove called Nzabi ; and here the trees were so
remarkable that Stanley conceived the idea of hollowing one out for a canoe.
The chief told him he might select his own ; and on the first of May they had
a festival of work, and a tree was felled — a green frankincense tree, which was
ten feet round at the base, and had forty feet of " branchless stem." In a week
it was ready to launch, and they called it the " Stanley." Then they cut down
another magnificent tree, this time a teak, which was thirteen feet in circumfer-
ence, and fifty-five feet in length ; this was made into a canoe, which was called
the " Livingstone." While they were at Nzabi creek they had some heavy
thunder-storms.
The next camp was at Mowa, and here they spent seven quiet, restful
days, which Mr. Stanley will always remember with a pathetic pleasure, for
they were the last he had with the faithful servant who had become a loved
and trusted friend, Frank Pocock. He was very happy, and sang some of the
hymns he loved ; for he was a good singer, and had been in the choir of
Rochester Church. He was very cheerful, though suffering from some bad
ulcers on his feet which compelled him to be less active than usual. For
thirty-four months he had been the constant companion of Stanley, who had
grown to love him as a brother.
On the 3rd of June Stanley hurried to Zinga, in order to meet the chiefs
and arrange for a camp there. He promised to send a hammock for Frank,
who could not walk, and he ordered Manwa Sera to see that the "Jason" was
manned, and tell the crew to go carefully down the river to Massassa. When
they reached this point Uledi was to ascertain whether it would be possible to
go on over the Massassa Falls in canoes, or whether they must take them over
the rocks.
Stanley was well received by the chiefs, and after he had made arrange-
ments for the camp he ascended a rock above the falls and watched for Uledi.
DEATH OF FRANK POCOCK. 505
He had a good view of the Massassa Falls, and he had not looked long before
he saw in the rapids an overturned canoe. The men clung to it for a time,
but they could not right it ; and presently they let it go and swam ashore, and
the canoe shot past Stanley. It was the "Jason" which was swept over the
cataract. He hastened to the rescue of his men, and called others to help ; but
Kachdhe hurried to tell him that only eight of the eleven men were saved, and
that one of the three who were drowned was the liltle inaslcr.
Frank had insisted on going with Uledi, whom then he urged to try the
falls. The co.xswain had been most unwilling, knowing them to be dangerous;
but Pocock had so put him on his mettle, by taunting him with cowardice, that
he made the fatal attempt. When they were all in the abyss together Uledi
had tried to save Frank, and nearly lost his own life.
Stanley was terribly shocked and grieved. He had never felt so lonely
and sad before, and this s;reat sorrow brought other worries. The Wangwana
completely lost heart and hope, and refused to work, and great horror of the
river came over them all ; the Mowa natives told them that they were all
doomed to death, for the " Spirit of the Falls " had willed it. The people
mutinied, and declared they would serve Stanley no longer.
He felt so utterly ill and miserable that, as he told the men, he could "lie
down smiling and die." The men deserted, and had to be brought back by
force, if persuasion did not answer. And when they were getting away from
Zinga they lost another man, a ship's carpenter, who was carried over the
cataract and drowned, the large canoe, the " Livingstone," being lost also.
On June 26th the brave leader, whose heart was almost breaking, made
this entry in his diary : — "A month ago we descended the Upper Mowa Falls :
it is still in sight of me, being only three miles off Three miles in thirty days,
and four persons drowned even in this short distance ! "
The next day they were battling with the Mbelo Falls ; and again In the
presence of death, for an accident happened to the boat, and they were tossed
into the fierce and swift river. But Stanley's work was not yet finished ; and
again he was saved.
He had suffered almost everything ; and the terrible battles with the
savages, the awful difficulties of the cataracts, the loss of friends, and sickness
of many kinds had followed each other more swiftly surely than troubles had
ever done before ; but afcer all there is no chapter in Stanley's wonderful book,
" Through the Dark Continent," which it is so Impossible to read without tears
as that which describes the last month of their journey — namely, that of July
1S77, when they were dying of starvation.
It was absolutely necessary, if they were ever to reach heme again, that
they must hasten on, and yet their strength was exhausted. The troubles of
the river were not yet quite over, but they were drawing near to the end of
them. Mbelo Falls were passed, and then others, and they looked forward to
506 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Isangila. But every day made it increasingly difficult to obtain food, and
every man was dreadfully bony and weak. Stanley knew where he was, and
that a few days more would bring them to the sea. He told his men so, and
Safeni, one of the Wangwana, actually became mad with joy, and ran off,
saying that he would go and tell the brothers of Stanley that he was coming.
On the 28th they had a bit of pleasant sailing, but the next day the roar
of the rapids was again upon them. The thing, however, that pressed them
the most sorely was the terrible hunger from which they suffered day by day.
Stanley's men were so sallow and gaunt that it made him miserable to look at
them ; and once, at Kilolo, they were goaded to steal some of the food, of
which there was plenty. They were immediately fired at, and came running
back to camp, some of them covered with wounds. Stanley had scarcely
strength to reproach them, when they cried, " Master, we are dying of hunger;
we left our beads and moneys on the ground." The natives came up, strong
and hearty, with loaded guns in their hands, and offered to fight, but after a
long talk Stanley managed to make peace between them.
They went on towards Rock Bluff Point, and on the way the natives had
very little to sell, only a few ground-nuts and some cassava ; but they bought
what they could. There were more rapids, but they passed them safely, and
presently came near the cataract of Isangila. This is a very fine crescent-
shaped fall, having a drop of ten feet, and below that another of eight feet.
The scenery at this point is rocky and mountainous, and the steep slopes and
high tableland are covered with grass.
The natives came from the three nearest villages to look at the strangers,
but they had very little food to sell, and for that they asked an enormous price.
They, however, gave Stanley the good news that Embomma was only five
days away.
"Are there any cataracts below Isangila.''" inquired the master of the
Expedition.
"Yes, indeed; there are three great ones, larger than Isangila, and a
great many small ones."
" Is not one called Sangella .'' "
" Yes — no ; we are not sure."
" Perhaps it is Sanga Yellala. That is what Captain Tuckey called it."
"Yes ; but we cannot speak that name."
" But try to say this — Nsongo Yellala. A traveller who came many years
ago called it thus."
But the natives were not able to give much information, and Stanley
turned his thoughts to the journey which still lay before him.
And he resolved that, as there were still four cataracts to be overcome if
they kept to the waterway, he would leave the great river and take to the
land. He had, through stress of storm, fierce hunger, and savage encounters,
SCARCITY OF FOOD. 567
accomplished the task which he beh'eved had been set before him. lie had
navigated the mighty river of Africa, and there would no more be a blank
space on the future maps of that country. He had settled the fact for ever
that the Lualaba of Livingstone was the Congo of Tuckey ; and though now
he was faint and weary and thoroughly sick of the land which had been so lone
and so sorrowful to him, there would come a time when he would realise the
glory of his achievement, and know that all the world realised it too.
His faithful Wangwana were rejoiced to know that the river was now to
be left, and that a march of a few days would take the Expedition to the end
of the long journey. Stanley tried to put them into good spirits by dividing
among them everything he had ; his money, medicine, clothes, knick-knacks
were given to the people in order that they might exchange them for the food
for which they were perishing. " Take the things, and do the best you can
with them," he said, " and eat the food you can get so as to have strength to
march to Embomma."
The people raised a cheer, though a feeble one. They had grown to
love their master, and knew his anxiety for them was that of a father. Very
disappointed looks were upon the people's faces, however, when they had
made their purchases. It was easy to dispose of their goods; but it seemed
impossible in that desolate region to get their money's worth for the money.
The good boat which had rendered such splendid service, the " Lady
Alice," which had navigated Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganika, and the wonderful
Congo, had to be left there by the roaring waters of Isangila, and they hauled
her to the top of the rocks and left her to her fate.
Forty men were on the sick list, suffering terribly from dysentery, ulcers,
and scurvy, when they started on their march. After a mile or two they had
to leave the ass behind, for he was too weak to go with them. Before they
had gone far they were stopped by a man who said he was the king, and he
would not allow them to pass through the country without paying him, and he
demanded a bottle of rum.
They were asked for rum at the next village, where some scarlet-coated
chiefs appeared. These would not sell food for beads, or wire, or cloth, but
they would have taken rum in exchange If Stanley had possessed any.
The second day's march was a difficult one for the poor hungry caravan ;
and though they were only three days' march from Embomma, Stanley feared
that they would not live to reach the place.
At last the hero, who, weakened though he was, and near to death, was
still a man of resources, had another good idea.
" Do you know Embomma ? " he inquired of a young man who visited
him.
"Yes, I know it well. Have I not often taken Nguha ground-nuts there
and sold them? They pay me in rum at Embomma."
508 STANLEY AND AFRICA,
" Will you carry to Embomma a letter for me, and let three of my men
go with you that they may learn the way ? "
" What will you pay me ? "
" Almost anything you like, for there we shall find friends who will
help us."
The man looked doubtful, and Stanley urged him by appealing to his
kindly feelings, his love of rum, and everything else that he could think of.
He would not consent until Stanley had spent four hours in entreating him ;
but at last he said that two of his young men should go.
So that evening, after partaking of his dinner, which consisted of " three
fried bananas, twenty roasted ground-nuts, and a cup of muddy water,"
Stanley wrote the following letter, which ought to belong to the nation if
possible, and be preserved for ever in the British Museum : —
" Village of Nsanda, August 4, 1S77.
" To any gentleman who speaks English at Embomma.
" Dear Siu, — I have arrived at this place from Zanzibar with one
hundred and fifteen souls, men, women, and children. We are now in a slate
of imminent starvation. We can buy nothing from the natives, for they laugh
at our kinds of cloth, beads, and wire. There are no provisions in the country
that may be purchased, except on market days, and starving people cannot
afford to wait for these markets. I therefore have made bold to despatch
three of my young men, natives of Zanzibar, with a boy nam.ed Robert Feruzi,
of the English Mission at Zanzibar, with this letter, craving relief from you.
I do not know you, but I am told there is an Englishman at Embomma, and
as you are a Christian and a gentleman, I beg you not to disregard my request.
The boy Robert will be better able to describe our lone condition than I can
tell you in this letter. We are in a state of great distress, but if your supplies
arrive in time I may be able to reach Embomma within four days. I want
three hundred cloths, each four yards long, of such quality as you trade with,
which is very different from what we have ; but better than all would be ten
or fifteen man-loads of rice or grain to fill their pinched bellies immediately, as
even with the cloths it would require time to purchase food, and starving
people cannot wait. Supplies must arrive within two days, or I may have a
fearful time of it among the dying. Of course I hold myself responsible for
any e.xpense you may incur in this business. What is wanted is immediate
relief, and I pray you to use your utmost energies to forward it at once. For
myself, if you have such little luxuries as tea, coffee, and biscuits by you, such
as one man can easily carry, I beg you on my own behalf that you will send a
sinall supply, and add to the great debt of gratitude due to you upon the
timely arrival of the supplies for my people. Until that tims I beg you to
believe me, yours sincerely, " H. M. Stanley.
ARRIVAL OF SUPPLIES. 5G'J
" P.S. — You may not know me by name ; I therefore add, I am the
person who discovered Livingstone in 1S71."
This letter was written in French and Spanish, and after a wtrarisome
delay in getting the guides to start they set off, accompanied by the three
faithful servants Uledi, Kachehe, and Muini Pembe, and last, but not Igast
in importance, the boy Robert, who went that the white man in Embomma
might more readily understand and assist them.
The next day, having obtained a few ground-nuts, the Expedition
manas:ed to struoQr]e on for a few miles, so as the sooner to meet the relief
which they hoped would speedily arrive. They met with opposition from
other chiefs who wanted payment for allowing them to pass through their
lands ; but they escaped without much trouble, and on the 6th of August they
reached Banza Mbuko.
All eyes were turned in the direction from which the men must come, and
old and young were strained to the utmost. It was given to a boy to catch
the first glimpse of the deliverers, and he screamed out that Uledi and
Kachehe were coming, and a company of men with them. Instantly the cry
was taken up, and " Food, food ! Thank God we are saved ! " rang along the
lines in a joyful shout.
Stanley hurried forth and saw Uledi holding up a letter in his hand, and
coming along running and jumping in his eagerness. " Here we are, Master!
We found the white men, and they were good to us. We have plenty I
plenty I See ! "
The Wangwana stepped forward to take the burdens from the men, and
soon the camp was a scene of busy and most joyous excitement. Men and
women hurried to fetch water, fires were lighted, and the heads of the
families waited with aprons or bowls for the rice and fish and sweet potatoes.
The officers gave all a most generous supply, and then Murabo, a boy, struck
up an impromptu ode, all about the journey, with its cataracts and cannibals,
its wastes and lakes, its battles and victories, and added a chorus, which
everybody joined, to the effect that the Great Salt Sea was reached and all
their troubles were over. Some of the people were too hungry to cook their
food, and began to eat it raw ; and almost everybody had at once a taste of
something, which cheered and invigorated them wonderfully. And when the
master had seen all his people supplied, he went to his tent to find his own
special supplies, which Kachehe had set out ready to greet his eyes.
" Here, Master I Do you see the bottles ? The white people are good,
good ! They have sent you many things. And now you can feast."
And so indeed he could, for there were port wine, champagne, enough of
wheaten bread made into delicious loaves to last a week, butter, tea, coffee,
white sugar, salmon and sardines, plum-pudding, and several kinds of jam.
72
S70 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
The letter which he had received was in itself a thing to delight the heart
e>r the man who had lately been so companionless and lonely.
" Boma, 6th August 1877, 6.30 a.m.
•"Embomma, English Factory.
" H. M. Stanley, Esq.
" Dear Sir, — Your welcome letter came to hand yesterday at 7 p.m. As
^jon as its contents were understood, we immediately arranged to despatch to
you such articles as you request, as much as our stock on hand would permit,
and other things that we deemed would be suitable in that locality. You will
see that we send fifty pieces of cloth, each twenty-four yards long, and some
;sicks containing sundries for yourself; several sacks of rice, sweet potatoes,
also a few bundles of fish, a bundle of tobacco, and one demijohn of rum. The
carriers are all paid, so that you need not trouble yourself about them. That
3s all we need say about business. We are exceedingly sorry to hear that you
Slave arrived in such a piteous condition, but we send our warmest congratula-
aions to you, and hope that you will soon arrive in Boma (this place is called
Boma by us, though on the map it is Em bomma). Again hoping that you
>avill soon arrive, and that you are not suffering in health, believe us to remain
your sincere friends, " Hatton and Cookson.
" (Signed) A. la Motta Veiga.
J. W. Harrison."
Stanley's gratitude may be better imagined than described. As soon as
lie couldj he wrote his thanks, and despatched them, out of the fulness of his
iieart, as follow : —
" Banza Mbuko, Sept. 6, 1877.
""^ Messrs. A. la Motta Veiga and J. W. Harrison,
Embomma, Congo River.
" Gentlemen, — I have received your very welcome letter, but better than
all, and more welcome, your supplies. I am unable to express just at present
Slow grateful I feel. We are all so overjoyed and confused with our emotions
at the sight of the stores exposed to our hungry eyes — at the sight of the rice,
ihe fish, and the rum, and for me, wheaten bread, butter, sardines, jam, peaches,
grapes, beer (ye Gods ! just think of it — three bottles of pale ale !), besides tea
and sugar — that we cannot restrain ourselves from falling to and enjoying this
sudden bounteous store ; and I beg you will charge our apparent want of
filaankfulness to our greediness. If we do not thank you sufficiently in words,.
Biest assured we feel what volumes could not describe.
" For the next twenty-four hours we shall be too busy eating to think of
anything else much ; but I may say that the people cry out joyfully, while
eheJr mouths are full of rice and fish, ' Verily, our master has found the sea,
SAN PAULO DE LOANDA. 571
and his brothers ; but we did not believe him until he showed us the rice and
the pombd We did not believe there was any end to the great river ; but,
God be praised for ever, we shall see white people to-morrow, and our wars
and troubles will be over.'
" Dear Sirs, though strangers, I feel we shall be great friends, and it will
be the study of my lifetime to remember my feelings of gratefulness when I
first caught sight of your supplies, and my poor, faithful, and brave people
called out, ' Master, we are saved! food is coming!' The old and the young
■ — the men, the women, and the children — lifted their wearied and worn-out
frames, and began to chant lustily an extemporaneous song, in honour of the
white people by the great salt sea (the Atlantic) who had listened to their
prayers. I had to rush to my tent to hide the tears that would issue, despite
all my efforts of composure.
" Gentlemen, that the blessing of God may attend your footsteps whither-
soever you go is the very earnest prayer of yours faithfully,
" H. M. Stanley,
" Commanding Anglo-American Expedition."
They had been just one thousand days from Zanzibar when they were
met by some white people, or those who were nearly white, and greeted by
the representatives of civilisation. Stanley had forgotten what a white face
looked like, and he was almost overcome by the warmth of their friendship
and their appearance. They conducted the poor forlorn Expedition into the
town, and offered Stanley the freedom of Bornea.
At Bornea they stayed two days, and " three little banquets " were given
to the hero, all the Europeans doing him the honours which he deserved.
On the 9th they embarked on a steamer, and were taken to Kabinda,
where they were housed and treated with great kindness for a week. Here
the people fell into what was almost a state of coma, for, now that there was
no more necessity for them to struggle, it seemed as if they would die from
the reaction. Everybody became silent and drowsy, and Stanley was obliged
to rouse himself in order to counteract this feeling in others, so that rest should
not mean death.
On the 27th of September they arrived at San Paulo de Loanda, through
the kindness of the commander of the Portuguese gunboat " Tamega," who
had taken them thither from Kabinda. At Loanda they were f^ted and
feasted, and the poor sick folk were most tenderly nursed and cared for by
Portuguese doctors and nurses, Serpa Pinto giving the Wangwana money
that they might purchase anything they pleased in the markets. These men
were causing Stanley some anxiety, for he felt that by some means they must
be conveyed to their homes in Zanzibar, on the other side of the continent.
But the officers of the English Royal Navy offered to take the Expedition to
572 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Cape Town in H.M.S. "Industry," an offer which was gratefully accepted,
and on the 21st October they arrived at Simon's Bay, Cape of Good Hope.
Every kindness was shown to them there, and the Wangwana will never
forget the " Great Lady," as they called the wife of the Governor, Lady
Frere, nor all the wonderful things which they saw. They were downhearted,
however, because they thought their master would send them to Zanzibar
without him ; but the brave and faithful Stanley actually went with them to
their homes, and had his reward in seeing the glad meetings that occurred.
Everybody was paid, everybody was happy, and Stanley not less than any
man.
A few days before Christmas the brave hero entered the state-room on
the " Pachumba," which Mr. Rlackinnon had ordered for him, and was
steaming away from Zanzibar, thinking more of his " heroes," as he called
them whom he had left behind, than of his own memorable achievements, and
sure of the hearty hand-grasps that awaited him from a thousand of his fellows
in the old home land.
CHAPTER XXIX.
Expedition to the Congo — Founding of Vivi — Makins; Roads and Erecting
Houses — Isangila to Manyanga — Founding of Leopoldville.
WHEN Stanley returned from "The Dark Continent," and told its story
in his own graphic way, many people believed what he himself had
previously stated, that the Congo would open a new and a very fine field for
commercial enterprise in the future. Almost every one who listened to his
lectures, or read his book, was won over to the opinion of the great explorer.
But everybody felt that there was only one possible leader of such an
enterprise, and that was the intrepid Stanley himself. Accordingly, he was,
in January 1878, interviewed by two commissioners of the King of the
Belgians, who informed him that King Leopold wanted his assistance in an
expedition to Africa. At first, being ill and weary, he declined ; but after a
time of rest in France, and a few weeks of mountaineering in Switzerland,
"the ruling passion" within him became strong again, and he was ready to
turn his thoughts to the best way of utilising the great Congo highway into
Africa whicji he had himself opened.
It was at the end of the year 1878 that the plan took shape and life.
King Leopold II. was throughout the ruling spirit of the enterprise, which he
intended should be not only of a commercial and acquisitive character, but also,
to a great extent, philanthropic, and should be of service not only to Belgium
and the rest of Europe, but especially to Africa. Several meetings were held
at the Royal Palace in Brussels, in which Englishmen, Germans, Frenchmen,
and Dutchmen also took part, and at which several resolutions were passed,
pledging these representatives of the various countries of Europe to the work
of further opening up and developing the Congo. At the initial meeting no
less a sum than ^20,000 was subscribed in order that proceedings might at
once be commenced. A society was then and there formed, with the title of
" Comitd d'Etudes du Haut Congo," and Colonel Strauch of the Belgian army
was appointed President. To Stanley was given the post that no one else
could have filled, of leader, director, and manager of the entire Expedition ;
and he, with the promptness which is his great characteristic, at once set about
its organisation. Two steamers were chartered, the "Albion" and the
" Barga," and the first of these at once started for the Mediterranean, Stanley's
574 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
intention being to get to Zanzibar as soon as possible, and there secure the aid
of some of the men who had been his former companions.
Several commissions were entrusted to him besides the chief one in which
he was engaged. An African International Association had been formed two
years previously, and its first Expedition was reported to be in distress some-
where in East Central Africa, its commander being involved in a difficulty with.
Mirambo of Unyamwezi, one of the kings. Stanley was requested to collect
information, to help with his advice, and, if necessary, to rescue the Expedition.
He therefore, soon after the arrival of the "Albion " at Zanzibar, wrote a letter
containing very valuable advice (which was acted upon) to Lieutenant Cambier,
the commander. Stanley also organised a second International Expedition to
Interior Africa, and instructed the commander, Captain Popelin.
In the meantime he was energetically preparing for his great Undertaking
of Search. The Sultan of Zanzibar proved a true friend of the Expedition,
and generously supplied the larder of the " Albion " with all sorts of good
things. The American Consul also, and a French merchant who was there,
did all they could to show their interest in the Expedition ; and, best of all,
some seventy men of Zanzibar, many of whom had travelled with Stanley
before in his "New York Herald" and "Daily Telegraph" Expedition,
offered to serve the brave commander again on the Congo. His policy was
clearly defined. "We go," he said in a letter to Colonel Strauch, "to spread
what blessings arise from amiable and just intercourse with people who hitherto
have been strangers to them ; " and the natives of any country are keen enough
to appreciate such helps. They would pay for all that they obtained, whether
of land or produce or service, and would by patience, tact, and generosity teach
the people the advantages to be derived from commercial dealings with white
men. They were to obtain permission to make roads and cultivate lands ; and
they were to establish stations which should be occupied by free negroes.
On the route from Zanzibar to Aden the " Albion " met with an accident
which obliged the captain to take the ship into the port of Sierra Leone for
repairs; but in August 1879 Stanley reached the mouth of the Congo, bent on
one of the most remarkable missions of our own time.
The majestic river is at its mouth more than seven miles wide. The twO'
points. Banana and Shark's, guard it at the south and the north. At its
entrance, on Point Padron, is a monumental stone pillar, set up by Portuguese
navigators so long ago as 1570; and from this point the river stretches some
two hundred miles in an easterly direction.
In Banana Haven many friends and well-wishers awaited the arrival of the
"Albion." The " Barga " had discharged her cargo, which consisted, among
other things, of a flotilla of steamers, seven in number, which were soon on the
water, ready to undergo inspection. Even at that time Banana Point was a
place of considerable business. The managers of the " Dutch House " of the
THE CONGO RIVER. 575
African Trading Company of Rotterdam, whose buildings cov^er an enormous
space, and who employ a large number of persons, and have dealings with the
whole world, occupy the first position ; but there arc other companies helping
to make this place a very thriving one.
After testing the boats, and arranging difficulties with their engineers,
and attending to a thousand and one details, the flotilla steamed away in sight
of an admiring crowd on the morning of August 21st, and had soon entered
the Congo river, here about three miles wide.
The broad stream was as peaceful as a lake ; and on either bank the dark
woods were as silent as death. Kissanga was the first place of interest which
was reached. Here they found several factories and dwellings. Next they
gained Ponta da Lenha, about thirty miles from Banana Creek. Here there
is a Dutch wharf, and several buildings where the natives barter their live-
stock, palm oil, and nuts for cotton cloth, cutlery, powder, and other products
from Europe and America. The next stopping-place was Boma, the principal
trading place on the Congo, where there are depots belonging to Dutch,
English, and other traders, who keep their own river and coast steamers,
which collect the African produce kept in the various stores between Banana
and Boma, and take them down to the sea, where they are shipped in the
large ocean steamers belonging to England, Holland, Portugal, and other
countries. Boma was at one time thickly populated ; but thousands of the
natives had been caught in the neighbourhood and sold into slavery by white
men, who for the sake of making money had committed all sorts of abominable
crimes. Two slave-owners of the place, in order to punish some of the blacks
for theft and incendiarism, put chains around their necks, tied their hands
behind them, rowed them out into the middle of the river, and there had thena
drowned. But a beneficent change has taken place in Boma, where the great
slave market of the Congo is changed into a place of barter, where British
dealers sell their blankets, knives, crockery, beads, and other commodities —
gin and rum, alas I being among them — in exchange for ivory, oil, kernelsy
and india-rubber. The missionaries are at work there, and the International
Association has established a hospital. There are comfortable homes andi
gardens cultivated with care, which care is paid for by the production of
potatoes, tomatoes, onions, cabbage, and almost all other English vegetables,
as well as oranges, citrons, limes, guavas, and pine-apples. Stanley himself
did a considerable business at Boma. The " Albion " discharged her cargcp
and went down the river for wooden huts, machinery, and hardware, and
then took a small exploring party up the river on the look-out for another
camp. The "Albion" and the "Belgique" were then kept busily employed
in moving the effects belonging to the Expedition from Banana Point and
Boma to Massuko, where they were stored until they could be moved further
up the river ; after which the " Albion " was sent back to Europe, carrying
57 G STANLEY AND AFRICA.
with her the eagerly looked-for letters and reports, which announced the
good news that in little more than a month the Expedition had advanced
ninety miles up the river, that everything was in good order, and there was
every prospect of success.
The river scenery of this part of the Congo is not particularly interesting;
Stanley declared, indeed, that it was almost desolate. The river is deep,
broad, and brown, and on either side of it are monotonous hills. Here and
there are palm trees and rocks, and in some places the banks are steep, while
the current is very swift and strong.
Stanley was anxiously looking for some suitable spot on which to establish
the headquarters of the Expedition. He had secured the services of a chief
whose acquaintance he had made in 1877, and whose name was D6-de-d6,
to assist in the search for a station. Accompanying this chief was Nsakala,
an interpreter. De-de-de undertook to conduct the search to a successful
issue, and suggested a place called Vivi, which took at once a very remarkable
character.
The site was not adopted without great consideration, and after a some-
what minute examination. Stanley wanted to be among people who were
friendly, in a spot that was healthy, and from which both the interior and the
sea were accessible. But Vivi answered all requirements as well as any spot
could have done ; and the five chiefs to whom it belonsred acrreed to let
Stanley have it, yielding all rights to him in exchange for ^32 paid in cloth,
and a rental of ten shillings per week. Stanley thought it dear, but con-
sidered that with a little alteration of the shore it would answer his purpose,
and that it might accommodate a city of twenty thousand inhabitants.
Stanley's Story of the Founding* of Vivi is a romance of labour which every
young man should read. The region of Vivi was hard and gloomy in the
extreme, " a chaos of stones, worthless scrub, and tangled grass ; " but the
intrepid explorer and leader of men had great faith in the miracle-power of
toil, and in the mastership of man over nature, and as he stood on the height,
which he afterwards called Castle Hill, his imagination saw the plain below
peopled with men, and alive with industry.
And he at once set to work to make the dream a reality. One of the
steamships, the " Experience," was sent back to Massuko to bring up men
and provisions, and when these had arrived it again went for tools and more
men and provisions. It was on the morning of the first day of October
in that year so eventful to the Congo, 1S79, that the men went to v/ork with
picks and hoes, sledge-hammers and crowbars, and the district became filled
with the noises of industry. The chiefs and their men stood gazing in
* "The Congo, and tlie Founding of its Free State," by Henry ]\I. Stanley. London:
Sampson Low, ^L^rslon, Searle, and Rivington.
FOUNDING OF VI VI. 577
wonder, which was increased when the interpreter made them understand
that the white men wanted more workers, and that if these natives would go
and clear the ground of stones and grass there were bales of cloth and
handkerchiefs with which they would be paid. The statement and the
invitation were received at first with considerable caution, if not suspicion,
but at last between sixty and seventy Vivi people, men, women, and children,
came forward to work for the white man.
In less than a fortnight some sort of a road was made, and the site was
cleared. Then four other white men — Mr. John Kirkbright, of Birmingham ;
Mr. A. B. Swinburne, of London ; Mr. A. H. Moore ; and Mr. Sparbank, of
Boston^-came up to render their assistance. The master-mind among them
directed everything. The site of every house and store was mapped out by
Stanley. He arranged that in the midst of the place there should be a garden,
for which purpose an oval basin of two thousand feet was excavated, the rotten
stone on the surface being removed and used to make uniform the foundations
of the houses. To the hollow which was to form the garden the natives
brought many tons of rich alluvial soil from one of the valleys in the neigh-
bourhood, being paid at so much per load. When enough of this hothouse
soil had been deposited, narrow paths were made, and the garden was planted
with carrots, onions, lettuce, and all sorts of vegetables, and also with mangoles,
oranges, pears, and limes. Then it was enclosed by a palisade, and kept well
watered and tended, and very soon presented a lovely green oasis in the midst
of the new town. This was meanwhile springing up with amazing rapidity.
A two-storeyed chalet was erected for the chief of Vivi station, in such a position
as to command a view of the garden. Next, stables for the mules, sheds for
bricklayers and carpenters, and yards for the pigs and goats, were also prepared.
Then wooden huts for the men and iron stores for the goods were erected.
Everybody worked from six to eleven, and then from one to six, Stanley as
hard as any of them. It was because he taught the men how to use a sledge-
hammer, and illustrated his instructions, that the chiefs gave him the name of
Bula Matari, which means "A Breaker of Rocks."
On Saturday, the 24th of January iSSo, the lower station of Vivi was
completed ; the roads were made, the garden was in excellent order, the stores
were filled, and the houses were not only erected, but painted inside and out,
the whole having taken three months and twenty-four days. Mr. Stanley
gave all hands two days' holiday and four yards of cloth ; for he wanted them
to have a rest before beginning the next part of their work. All the Europeans
were invited to a banquet, at which they drank the health of the King of the
Belgians, Queen Victoria, and the contributors to the E.xpedition du Haut
Congo.
After this they commenced making a road into the interior, which Stanley
foresaw would be a difficult matter, for it was to be fifty-two miles long, and
16
578 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
much of it lay through thick brushwood and rock. He waited to see it com-
menced, and then made over the Vivi station to Mr. Sparbank, whom he
appointed chief, and himself started off to make new discoveries.
His desire was to establish a waggon route past the Lower Livingstone
Cataracts, which might be used by the traders, but which was absolutely
necessary in order that the steamboats and launches of the Expedition might
be conveyed overland, and again set afloat above the Cataract of Isangila.
Accordingly, he left Vivi on the 21st of February 1880 with a trusty escort,
going first into the Nkusu Ravine, then to the village of Chinsalla, on to the
top of Vivi Mountain, which is 1350 feet above the Congo. Over the mountain
he took his course, and down the southern slope to the Loa, then to the village
Banza Nvana, and through by Banza Nimpunsu to the Muzonzila Gorge,
where the important person rejoicing in the name of Dd-dd-d6 lived, in whose
town Stanley met in conference the chiefs of the district. There were thirty
chiefs, and they represented a population of 12,000 persons. They brought
with them many retainers, and altogether there was a large assembly, whose
appearance was remarkable, because they all wore cast-off coats and other
clothing from the London and Paris clubs, or the English or French armies.
They all brought presents to the white man, and expected some from him in
return. Stanley told them he wanted to make a road through their countries,
over which heavy waggons might pass, and that it would probably go through
some of their states, and he wished to know if they would give him authority
to do this, and would also allow their young men to work for him at a fair
price, and protect him in case of war. They took time to discuss the matter
among themselves, and then declared that as it would be good for trade, and
they were traders, he might make the road without fear of consequences.
After that, on the 24th, Stanley and his men left, well pleased that a good and
serviceable impression had been made.
In 1877 Stanley had trodden the same road full of gloomy forebodings ; but
now, with the good-will of the natives and his own map to help him, he began
to see the great possibilities of the route, and to take heart. He explored Inga
and Ngoma, making copious notes of the river and its scenery, and at length
reached Isangila, and bought of the natives the right to build there a town on
the river-side. He had proved the possibility of making a waggon-road from.
Vivi to Isangila, and he foresaw the time when a railroad would unite the twa
places, and so greatly facilitate the progress of commerce.
On the 14th March Stanley returned to Vivi, having travelled nearly two
hundred miles in eighteen days. He saw that in endeavouring to make the
road he put his hand to a very stubborn bit of work ; but since the task, though
difficult, was not impossible, he resolved that it should be accomplished.
On the 1 8th of March 1S80 accordingly the work was commenced. He had
to help him a force of one hundred and six men. These were marched up to
ILLNESS OF STANLEY. 57l>
the Loa River, with provisions. There a line of road was traced with a cord,
and the men were set to work to hoe up the grass, which there grows as high
as ten feet. By night a clear roadway, fifteen feet wide and 2500 feet long,
was made. So they proceeded day by day, rapidly lengthening the road, and
moving up their camp. By the 30th of July they had reached Makeya
Manguba, and recorded the fact that they had 1^5 miles of road-making yet ta
do before Stanley Pool was reached.
Stanley returned to Vivi, himself and his men suffering from illness ; and
after a few days' stay, again set to work, and soon everything was moved to
the new camp on the Bundi River. In October he wrote to the Coniitd
reporting progress, and never was there a more graphic summary than this : —
" We have made three bridges, filled up a score of ravines and gullies at the
crossings, graded six hills, cut through two thick forests of hard wood, and
made a clear road thirty-eight miles long." With the small force which the
intrepid leader had at his command, this accomplishment is little less than
a miracle ; and when the steepness of the roads in many places is remembered,
the wonder grows that even after the road had been made, they succeeded in'
pulling up the ships and heavy machinery without accident.
On the 6th of November the camp was moved to the Bula River. From
thence the difficulty was greater than ever, for rocks blocked their way ; but
these rocks were utilised for the building of a wall for the river, for the cross-
ing of ravines, and the making of a roadway over the rocks. When the year
ended they had nearly reached Isangila, and in February their camp was there
by the side of the rapids, and the road-making was so far accomplished.
From Isangila to Manyanga was a stretch of navigable water, and here
the little flotilla was kept busily at work. By the 26th of February the Isangila
camp was cleared. Kuvoko was the next camping place, from which they
went on to Kimbanza, where is some of the finest scenery of the Congo ;.
and next they moved to Ndunga, where by the rapids, and in the gloomy
trough of the Congo, all suffered from depression, and many from sickness.
Stanley says in his book that at this Congo gorge " Nature has begrudged life,
animal as well as vegetable."
At the end of April Manyanga was reached, at which place they were-
140 miles above Vivi; 436 days had been absorbed between the two places.
They were still nearly a hundred miles from Stanley Pool, but, as they made
their camp beside the cataract, the thought of what had been accomplished
must have furnished hope for the future. The same ceremony of meeting the
chiefs of the neighbourhood for palaver had to be gone through, but after the
first meeting Stanley was prostrated by a virulent fever, and for a fortnight he
lay between life and death. On the 20th of May the brave man felt so sure
he was dying that he had his friends summoned in order that he might bid
them farewell. The curtains of the tent were lifted, and the people gazed
5S0 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
sorrowfully upon the white face of their master, who was so weak that he
could not lift the glass of medicine to his lips. On the 21st of May he
brought himself to yield to what he believed the inevitable, and gave up
taking the quinine and hydrobromic acid, of which enormous doses had been
administered to him ; but after twenty-four hours of utter unconsciousness he
took some soup, and began slowly to mend. He had been very ill for a
month, but on June the fourth such good news came that it helped his
recovery. A small body of picked men and a large number of recruits had
come to his assistance, and were already near at hand. The brave heart of
the leader filled with joy, and he began to hope that success would really
attend the Expedition. He was terribly weak and thin, scarcely weighing 100
lbs., but when his new helpers arrived, some of them proving to be old
comrades, strength came back to him, and he mended apace. It had been
weary work, this endeavour to do with a few men that which would have been
difficult even with a multitude.
Stanley was needed in a dozen places at once. There were several
scenes of violence at the great Manyanga market, which made him anxious
lest his people should be drawn into any fracas. On July 15th the Expedi-
tion started for Stanley Pool, and on the 19th goods and waggons, having
been conveyed over six miles of road, were launched above the cataract.
Stanley gave to Herr Lindner the superintendence of the conveyance by
water of their waggons and goods, and Stanley and others marched overland.
His visit in 1877 had made a deep and lasting impression, and almost every-
where he was received with glad welcomes ; especially was this the case at
Zinga, where the people well remembered the white man of the many canoes.
There were, however, a few exceptions to this rule, notably at Malima ; some
lies had been circulated, the result of which was that orders were given to the
people not to speak to the white man nor sell him anything.
Fortunately a message came to say that a very great man named
Ngalyema, the chief of Ntamo, wished to see him, and accordingly the white
man went to him, and he eventually gave Stanley his staff to show that he
regarded him as a brother. He proved a very expensive brother to Stanley,
who gave him some valuable presents. He returned very little, so that once
when Stanley reckoned up the exchanges on both sides he found that he had
presented the chief with goods to the amount of ;^900, and received in return
the value of ^66.
Besides this, Ngalyema was altogether a false friend. He made great
professions of friendship to Stanley, but it was merely for the sake of gaining
his own ends. On several occasions It became necessary to frighten him. He
continually brought armed men to the camp, and once Stanley received the
news that Ngalyema and all the chiefs of Ntamo, with a hundred guns, had
arrived. Stanley gave orders to his men to have their guns and cartridges
FOUNDING OF LFOPOLDVILLE. 581
ready, to scatter themselves in all directions, and then lie in ambush. They
were not to stir unless they heard the gong sound, but at this signal they were
all to rush up, and, yelling like madmen, flourish their guns about wildly.
Ngalyema went into Stanley's tent, and tried to raise a quarrel, asking him
why he had come into the country. Stanley told him what he already knew,
and also that Makoko had promised him some land in Kintamo. Ngalyema
said that he (Stanley) should not go to Kintamo ; they did not want any white
men in their country to injure their trade. Stanley replied that the white men
would not harm them, and that he intended to build a village of his own. The
chief got very angry, but glancing at the large gong suspended near the tent
door, he asked what it was. Stanley replied that it was the war fetish. The
chief told him to strike it, and as he did so out came the men from their hidine-
place, giving vent to such hideous yells that all the chief's army fled in terror,
and the chief himself implored Stanley to protect him. But though a peace
was patched up for the moment, the trouble was not ended until some time
afterwards, Stanley in the meantime having given the chief several lessons.
The great work in which Stanley was now engaged was the founding of a
new town, to which the name of Leopoldville was given, in honour of the Kino-
of the Belgians, the founder of the E.xpedition. It was placed on the river
bank near Kintamo, and there, during the end of the year 1881 and the begin-
ning of 18S2, the town was built. One peculiar feature of it was an immense
block house, to build which several thousand small trees were cut down. The
walls were twenty-two feet high and two feet thick. It was intended to be a
stronghold for the safety of the people, in case of a rupture with the natives.
It was surrounded by gardens, terraces, and huts. As soon as they were safely
ensconced, Stanley commenced a sale of some of the goods he had brought,
and in two days nearly a thousand pounds' worth was sold.
The situation of Leopoldville was well chosen ; water and fuel were
plentiful, as were also fruits and vegetables. The Wambundu, the tribes to
whom the land belonged, were quiet and friendly. The view from Leopold
Hill was very fine ; and not only was the district pleasant to look upon, but the
soil was rich and fertile, and watered by many streams.
All around was a population almost starving, the labour of whose hands
might make Leopoldville the centre of wealth and happiness.
When Stanley had made all arrangements for the supply of provisions and
the protection of the little colony, he, accompanied by fifty-three men, four of
whom were whites, pursued his way higher up the river, hoping to find shortly
another convenient place to establish a station.
The party started on the 19th of April, and on the 26th they halted at a
native village called Mswata. They remained on the steamer, trying to make
friends with the people before landing. When the distrust of the tribe had
been dissipated by the pacific words of the new-comers, their chief Gobila
582 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
signified his desire to treat with tliem. It was, however, useless to make any
arrangements with Gobila, as he merely held the land by permission of a more
powerful chief called Gandelay. A message was sent to him, and he at once
obeyed the summons, escorted by servants, who announced his approach with
much noise. Also a chief on the opposite bank, named Ganchu, had himself
rowed over to the conference, and announced his intention of taking the
colonists over to his part of the country if Gandelay did not want them, for,
said he, "We shall have plenty of trade with them." This was sufficient to
decide Gandelay to grant permission to Stanley to choose a place for a
settlement.
Lieutenant Janssen was left to inaugurate the building of a house, and
Stanley returned to Leopoldville to obtain men and stores for the new station.
A messenger had been sent to the chief of Vivi, asking him to send the
white men who had been destined for the service of this part of the river ; but
as Stanley knew that they could not reach him before a month, he determined
to see if any good could be extracted from the knowledge of the dwellers on
the banks of the Kwa river.
This river presents a singular appearance, having grey waters on one side
and black on the other. The white or grey waters flow from the river r^Ibih^,
and the black from the river Mfini. He found that the south bank would
afford a fine opportunity for dairy farms. There is in the midst of the river the
Holy Isle, which forms the burial-place of the kings and queens ofWabuma.
Musye is a collection of villages belonging to the Wabuma tribe. They had a
queen whose name was Gambaki, and as the steamer passed the settlement she
came in a canoe to meet it. She was a fine-looking woman, and evidently
accustomed to command. She was anxious that Stanley should stay at Ngete
that day and accompany her to Musye on the morrow. When he refused she
declared that if he went without her past Ngete he would be killed. He told
her that he had already been to Musye, and that her people had refused to
allow him to remain. Finally he arranged to go with her as far as the village,
where she got him a goat and some bananas. She then went on to Ngete,
thinking he would wait for her : but knowing her imperious character, he
determined to make his escape ; so they got up steam and dashed past,
watched by the disappointed Gambaki, who tried to stop them with threaten-
ing gestures.
On the seventh day of this journey Stanley and his companions found
themselves entering a lake, to which they gave the name of Leopold II.
This lake Stanley desired to circumnavigate ; but they were short of food for
themselves and fuel for the steamer, and to crown their misfortunes, Stanley
was taken ill, and had to leave the crew in charge of two of his lieutenants.
They obtained food from some of the natives, and turned the prow of the boat
towards Leopoldville. When it reached Musye, Stanley was compelled to be
STANLEY RETURNS TO EUROPE. 583
indebted to Gambaki for hospitality. After a stay of two or three days, as
they were anxious to reach Leopoldville, they departed, and in due course
arrived, Stanley being so ill that he had to be carried from the vessel.
Soon after the men whom he expected arrived, and Mr. Comber of the
Baptist Mission wrote to him for advice respecting the feasibility of establish-
ing a mission at Leopoldville, and Stanley gave it as his opinion that it would
probably prove successful, as indeed it has done. Stanley, in his book on the
Congo, pays a very high tribute to Mr. Comber, of the Baptist Mission, and
Dr. Sims, of the Livingstone Inland Congo Mission, which is undenomi-
national.
Stanley was taken back to Vivi from Leopoldville, where he saw Dr.
Peschuel-Loesche, who showed him a sealed commission from the President
of the Association, which gave him the command of the Expedition if Stanley
should be invalided. Stanley was glad to avail himself of this substitute, for
he was extremely ill. So he left at once, and went just as far as Loando,
the capital of Angola, in which place he had to wait for a ship. He arrived at
Lisbon on the 21st September 1882 ; and in October he met the "Comite of
the Association Internationale du Congo," "in order to report to them the
present state of the Upper Congo." The Expedition had constructed five
stations, had launched a steamer and sailing boat on the Upper Congo, and
had a light steamer keeping up communication between the stations, while
waggon-roads had been made between Vivi and Isangila, and from Manyanga
to Stanley Pool. Most of all, the fact had been entirely established that a
communication between the Upper Congo and the sea was practicable.
It now remained to consolidate the work that had been accomplished,
by so establishing the rights of the Association as to secure future benefits to
those who had taken the initial risk.
Stanley remained six weeks in Europe, and then, at the urgent wish of
the Comite, he sailed for the Congo on the 23rd of November 1882 in the
steamer " Harkaway," which had been despatched from England with four-
teen officers and six hundred tons of miscellaneous goods for the Expedition.
Poor Stanley found, when he reached Vivi in December, that many things had
gone wrong in his absence. The chief of Vivi had left altogether, and
most of the chiefs whom Stanley had appointed were disappointingly either
inefficient or careless — indeed, nothing but bad news met him. Very
stern and unpleasant duties awaited the leader, who, however, took them
one by one, and discharged them with that rare ability for which he was
remarkable.
He next equipped an expedition to the Kwilu-Niadi district, commanded
by Captain Elliott, who was to establish a line of stations between that river
and Isangila. This was to secure to the Association land which was necessary
for their purpose.
581 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
On January 22nd, 1SS3, Stanley again left Vivi, and on February 15th
Lieutenant Van de Velde sailed for the Kwilu. Stanley went on to Manyanga,
where his intervention was required on several accounts, and on February
27th he reached the Inkissi river. Here he was informed that the station at
Leopoldville had no food, so he had to despatch some to the chief. He was
very disappointed with the state of Leopoldville, which he expected to find "a
fair land of order and plenty;" but when he went to look into things for
himself, he found everything most confused and depressing, for which he
thought the Europeans chiefly to blame. What was wanted was men ; a few
more Stanleys would have changed the whole aspect of things. A conference
was held, at which Ngalyema stated the reason for the unfriendly relations
which had sprung up between the white men and the native chiefs. He said
the white men had treated them as if they were common slaves, had shouted
at them, pushed them, and threatened to kill them. The commander had
been especially haughty, and at last all the natives had kept away and refused
to sell them food. The officer who had been accused then stated his side of
the quarrel, and he did so in a very passionate way ; but Bula Matari — the
" breaker of rocks" — established peace between the contending parties, and
set them all to work to make Leopoldville look worthy of its name. On May
9th the Upper Congo Expedition started. The steamers " En Avant," the
" Royal," and the " A. LA.," a new steam launch, conveyed the Expedition,
which consisted of eighty men and about six tons of goods. The river was
high and the travelling pleasant. When they reached Kimpoko, Stanley said
it ought to be called " Good View Station," so pleasant were its surroundings.
Here they halted a day, and then entered the Upper Congo at the head of
Stanley Pool. A little later they reached Mswata Station, which Lieutenant
Janssen had completed. Here they purchased food to last them until they
reached Bolobo, which was their next stopping-place. The journey was
through extremely fertile lands, and Stanley enjoyed it, especially after his
former experiences as told in his book, " Through the Dark Continent."
They reached Bolobo May i6th, 1883, finding a population on the river front
of about 10,000, under the sway of Ibaka, an important chief, who at once came
to visit them. Stanley was immediately called upon to settle a quarrel, and
he only barely escaped a war by expressing himself more ready to fight than-
he really was.
On the 2Sth of May Stanley again departed to seek sites for two more
towns. He took with him three guides, Msenne from Mswata, and two mea
from Foaka who were acquainted with the countries of Uyanzi and Ubangi.
Bolobo would be very suitable for a settlement if one could count upon the
friendship of the natives ; but until that time Stanley felt they must be content
with villages where the chiefs understood that the accommodation was mutual..
A little distance beyond Bolobo the Congo broadens, and its banks are thickly
BLOOD-BROTHERHOOD. 5S5
wooded with all kinds of equatorial vegetation. The scenery surpasses that
of any known river.
The explorers had seen few signs of any inhabitants until after they
passed lyumbi ; but having been forced to turn back by the difficulties of
navigation, they perceived that a number of people were putting cut from the
shore to meet them. When, however, they saw the steamer near them they
fled, and the occupants of the canoes, who were women, sprang among the
reeds and scrambled to shore.
On June ist they neared a native village, and as their stores were nearly
exhausted they exchanged their merchandise for eatables to last several days.
Finding, the natives friendly, Stanley promised to call again on the return
journey. The men of Lukolela hatch crocodiles by artificial means, and when
the young come out of the eggs they are put in a net-covered pond, and kept
till they are of a saleable size, when they are taken to market.
At Butunu and Usindi the travellers were warmly welcomed by the
natives, who, it appeared, had many of them seen Leopoldville and Kintamo.
The chief Juka gave them a warm invitation to stay and build. The chief of
Irebu was Mangombo, and he sought an interview with Stanley, to whom he
presented many gifts. With this chief, as with many others, Stanley made
what he calls " blood-brotherhood." This was accomplished in the following
manner: — The fetish man pricked the right arm of each, then pressed the
blood out, and put into the arms a little pinch of salt and dust ; then rubbed
the black and white wounded arms together. A litany of incantations was
muttered over them, and after this solemn interchange of blood each v/as
consecrated to the service of the other.
Mangombo at once sought Stanley's aid. He and his people had a
quarrel with Magvvala the chief of Lower Irebu and Mpika the chief of
Central Irebu, which was likely to end in great slaughter, and he therefore
besought Bula M atari to intercede and make peace between them. Stanley
said that he would gladly do it, but he had pressing business on hand. He
proposed, however, that they should stop fighting for fifteen days, when he
hoped to be back and able to give them his assistance. To this they
consented.
Stanley got some amusement from the conversation which he overheard
at Irebu. On one occasion they were discussing the difference between
Stanley and Bula Matari, coming to the conclusion that the latter was the
greater man of the two. Also they wished much to know the charm by which
Stanley increased his wealth. They were curious too to know what turned
the paddle-wheels of the steamers, and what was in the " big pot " (the boiler).
They thought whatever it was that it took a long time to cook, and decided
that it must be some very strong medicine.
On the 8th of June Stanley reached Ikengo, and was eagerly welcomed
74
586 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
by the people, who asked him to stay there. He chose I Uganda as a tem-
porary stopping-place, and tried to gather information about the meeting of
the rivers. He was especially anxious to discover the name and character of
a broad tea-coloured stream, one of the greatest tributaries of the -Congo.
This was the Baruki, which he said might be called the African Styx. This
river had piqued his curiosity on his former visit, and he was glad to see it
again. The river also bore the name of Mohindu, meaning "black."
When they reached a place called Wangata, from which they could see
the junction of the three channels of the river, the people came to talk to him ;
and he found they belonged to the Bakuti tribe, who soon made friends with
him, and offered him land on which to build. Stanley resolved to do so,
though it was difficult to evade the people of Inganda, and here the Equator
Station was formed, of which Lieutenant Vangele was appointed chief, assisted
by Lieutenant Coquilhat.
On the 22nd of June Stanley met in council the chief elders of Upper
Irebu, and decided that the war between Mangombo, Mpika, and Magwala
must cease. Mangombo stated his grievances ; but he had most of the blame.
The united cry, however, was for peace ; and Stanley's order was, " Give the
pledge of peace, and bury the war." This was done with all due ceremony.
Two pieces of unbleached calico, a gourd of palm wine, a keg of damp
gunpowder, and a broken musket from each party formed the pledges, and
these were taken charge of by eight neutral elders, who dug a hole and buried
them. Each company of the combatants fired salvoes of musketry over the
grave, and so the strife was ended and peace settled upon the tribes. After
this Stanley had to visit them all, and this gave him the opportunity to
examine Irebu, which consists of a number of villages so close together that
they make a large town of about 15,000 persons.
On the 23rd they went up the Lukanga River to Mantumba Lake, passing
through very picturesque scenery, and winding among sedges, water lilies, and
papyrus. They navigated the lake, and ascertained its greatest depth to be
thirty-two feet. The western beach was strewn with round Ironstone, quartz,
and reddish pebbles. At a village on the lake called Ikenge the natives are
potters, and show their skill in this and various other manufactures.
CHAPTER XXX.
■Christmas Day at Iboko — Sacrifice of Slaves — Acting as Peace-maker —
Arrival at Ttthmga — Duke Town.
DURING its outward journey the Expedition had confined its course and
observations mainly to the right bank of the Congo, and it was therefore
deemed advisable to follow the left bank in returning'. Going with the stream
is much easier than going against it, and the flotilla steamed bravely along.
The first camp was set up at Yakondd, or rather where Yakonde ought to be,
for it had shared the fate of so many other villages in that region, and nothing
remained of it but the ruins. Here the explorers again fell in with the Arab
slave-traders whom they had met, and with some of the results of whose
presence in that district they were only too sadly familiar. As Stanley could
not use force against them, he persuaded some of their most reliable men to
accompany him to the coast, thinking that the evidences of civilisation that
were rapidly becoming so widespread, and bringing in their train law and
order, might be beneficial to them, and through them to the community at
large. They would learn by observation what no words could teach them —
that where white men w^ere in power the kind of trade in which they were
engaged had to cease, and that where example was not sufficient force was
adopted. This effort on Stanley's part to prevent the continued recurrence of
the horrors related in the previous chapter he regarded as part of his mission,
and there is no doubt it had a salutary effect.
A little delay was caused on arriving at Ikassa by an accident which
happened to the steam-launch " Royal." It was proposed that at this point
the flotilla should again cross to the right bank of the stream, that explorations
might be again continued there ; but while crossing the steamer struck against
the extremity of an island, and her hull was battered, so that a halt had to be
made until she could be repaired.
After repassing the hills of Upoto the navigation by the right bank was
rendered difficult by the force of the flood towards the left bank, and the
flotilla had therefore to somewhat change its course again. The cold winds
which here prevailed were very trying to the travellers, and Stanley and some
of the crew suffered rather severely for a few days.
Christmas Day was spent at Iboko, where was the landing-place of that
5SS STANLEY AND AFRICA.
newly-made but enthusiastic friend and admirer, the chief Mata Bwyki. The
thieving propensities of the Ibol-:o tribe had been manifested in a very practical
manner at their previous visit, and it soon became plain that if the explorers
wished to retain any of their belongings they must be on the alert. Mala
Bwyki was, as before, absent when his visitors arrived, and his sons were
occupied in various ways. One especially, who had only the day before lost
four of his children by drowning, was trying to forget his sorrows in a way only
too well known to Europeans.
The thefts were so numerous and so continuous that at last a reward was
offered to the man who should first catch a thief, while the next who so
neglected his possessions as to allow any of them to be stolen was to receive
punishment. After this a captive was soon made, who was borne to the steamer
and there bound fast, while orders were given to prepare to get the vessel
under weigh. Presently another thief was observed actually endeavouring to
make off with the boat's flag ; but despite desperate efforts to secure him he
succeeded in making his escape. When the news of this disgraceful conduct
on the part of his father's subjects reached the ear of Kokoro, one of the sons
of Mata Bwyki, he was much incensed, and paddled up and down the river,
near the shore, in a menacing attitude, and threatening the thieves with
vengeance. He went to see the prisoner, and to his great dismay discovered
him to be his son. He was, however, conscious enough of the meaning of
the word justice, and made no attempt to obtain the release of his misguided
son, unless it was at his instigation that a few hours later his cousin Njuga
went to offer two tusks of ivory and two slaves as ransom. This, however,
was not accepted, Stanley declaring that if the stolen goods were not at once
restored Kokoro's son would be carried away to Bakuti, and not returned to
his tribe for several days, and then only in exchange for the lost property.
The greetings which Stanley received on his voyage down stream were
very different from those with which he was accosted on his upward journey.
The appearance of the flotilla was a welcome sight to all the tribes on both
banks of the river. Those who had already had intercourse with the leader of
the Expedition were most enthusiastic in their welcomes ; and those who had
not had that privilege, having heard of his beneficent intentions from meeting
with their neighbours at the markets, were eager to become acquainted with
him. At Ukumira and Uranga this was especially the case, and from the
former j^lace seventy canoes laden with natives came forward to exjDress their
delight at seeing Bula Matari, and all clamouring for the promise that he would
visit them in their respective villages.
Equator Station was called at on December 29th, and Lieutenants Vangele
and Coquilhat congratulated on the many improvements they had made to this
already " ideal station," after which it was time to restore the grandson of
Mata Bwyki to his friends, and the flotilla steamed back to Iboko with
NATIVE CUSTOMS. 589
Lieutenant CoquIIhat on board. Mata Bvvyki could not find words to express
the indignation which he felt at the treatment which the white men had
received at the hands of his people. He urged Stanley not to give up
Kokoro's son, saying, " Keep him safe until all your goods are restored ; it
will do him good, and he will be an example to the rest." Further efforts
were made to recover the missing property, and more captives taken — not,
of course, simply for their value, but that the aborigines might receive a
lesson — and in all Mata Bwyki declared himself Bula Matari's supporter.
Finally, the grand old chief announced that if every article stolen were not
brought back he would give Bula Matari permission to deal with his prisoners
exactly as he willed, even to the cutting of them up into little pieces. This
awful threat had the desired effect, and finally every one of the various things
abstracted was returned.
Many customs very strange to Europeans, and some of them of a cruel
and repulsive nature, prevail among the peoples of uncivilised lands, and M.
Vangele and his friend witnessed one of the most horrible of these at Equator
Station. It happened in this way. The death had occurred of a great chief,
and the custom was to sacrifice slaves to bear him company to the spirit
world. The friends of the deceased thereupon set about collecting slaves ;
and, regarding the well-trained soldier-labourers of Lieutenant Vangele in
that light, consulted him in regard to their purchase. This was of course
indignantly refused, and the garrison showed their disapproval of such a pro-
ceeding on the part of the natives by chasing them with sticks outside the
limits of the station.
However, fourteen martyrs were obtained, and M. Vangele was present
at their execution. They were first partially hanged upon a tree ; while In this
position their heads were cut from their bodies by an executioner, and these
were boiled until the flesh came off the skulls, so that the latter fixed upon
poles might adorn the grave of the deceased chief. The bodies of the martyrs
were cast into the river, and the blood-besprinkled soil was buried with the
chief. With the advance of civilisation it is to be hoped that such sanguinary
customs will soon be things of the past.
From Equator Station the Expedition proceeded to Usindi for the
purpose of restoring the guide Yumbila to his master ; and from thence to
Lukolela, where Mr. Glave was in charge. Aftairs here were not progressing
very rapidly ; but all was satisfactory, except that while Stanley was here
news was received that Bolobo Station had been again ruined by fire. As
there appeared to be a little difficulty in the management of this station, the
reconstruction and subsequent control of it were transferred from its present
chief to Lieutenant Liebrechts. Good times were in store for the people of
Bolobo in the future, for not only would their material welfare be largely
benefited by the settlement that was to be constructed, but it was reported that
590 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
the chief of the Livingstone Inland Congo Mission had selected a site near for
the erection of a mission station.
The Expedition returned to Leopoldville on the 20th of January 1884,
after an absence of 146 days, and a voyage of 3050 miles on the Upper Congo.
Leopoldville continued to be one of the most flourishing of stations ; and the
state of perfection at which houses, gardens, and people had arrived aroused
much wonder and admiration in the Arab slave-traders, who had thus far been
Stanley's guests on the down voyage.
But as if to counterbalance the encouragement given to Stanley by the
success of the Upper Congo Expedition, news of a very depressing character
awaited him at Leopoldville. This was from Vivi, the chief station on the
Lower Congo, which was still in a very unsettled state. The government
of Vivi had been undertaken by one chief after another, but none seemed able
to bring it into perfect control. Stanley had 120 letters awaiting him after his
146 days' absence, and by far the greater number contained reports of the
condition of the settlements on the Lower Congo, which were far from cheer-
ing. It seemed as if nothing but the constant presence and effort of the
Great Leader himself could ensure the prosperity of any scheme for the
advancement of civilisation and trade in this part of the country. His only
hope lay in the sending by the Comitd of a second leader ; but there was no
prospect of this at present. Stanley therefore, after arranging for the carrying
out of his promise to the Arabs, and after planning an expedition to the
Stanley Falls, to be conducted by Captain Hanssens, set out for Vivi.
The caravan, by means of which men and materials to meet all kinds of
need were conveyed from Leopoldville to the coast, left that station on the 20th
of March, amid much cheering and assurances on all sides that those left in
charge of the various branches of work would do their utmost to further its
o
prosperity. All along the road leading from Leopoldville the natives had
collected to bid farewell to Stanley and his noble band. Large jars of palm-
juice had been set out for their refreshment, and everywhere there were signs
of kindly feeling. These evidences of the love and esteem which the
aborigines and his white followers as well possessed for Bula INIatari cheered
him greatly, showing as they did that his labours among them were not in
vain, and kindling new hope in his heart, and giving new strength for future
work.
The caravan made its first halt at Ngomas, a village which nestled in the
shade of lyumba Mountain; thence the way was over mountain and valley,
through dark forests and again into bright sunlight, by " fertile glades " and
groves of palm trees, then across a plateau from which the travellers could see
on their right the waters of the Congo. Kinyila was passed, the river Lulu
crossed, and opposite Nsangu they rested and gazed on all the loveliness of
wood, mountain, and stream which met the eye on every side.
STANLEY AS PEACE-MAKER. 591
As the Expedition continued on Its way groups of natives from the villages
around came out with pleasant greetings. Bula Matari and his people were
known in this region, and joy and hope occupied the place of the fear which
was so characteristic a feature of the tribes of the Upper Congo on Stanley's
outward voyagoi. From village to village the glad news was passed on of the
coming of Bula Matari ; and at Nselo the chiefs who were in receipt of monthly
pay from the Association Internationale Africaine were most assiduous in their
attentions.
A stretch of comparatively level country was next traversed and Mbimbi
reached, where provision was at once made by the natives for the comfort of
their guests. Here Stanley had to play the not unusual r61e of peace-maker.
A dispute had arisen between the villages of Ngombi and Mbimbi, and the
chiefs of the latter place were eager to fight, but such an idea was not for a
moment to be encouraged by Bula Matari ; he must show himself the friend of
all the tribes, for strife meant not only a hindrance of present time, but perhaps
closed roads and much future difficulty. Stanley therefore earnestly admonished
the incensed chiefs to preserve the peace ; and to help them to keep their
promises to him, a treaty was drawn up, which they were required to sign.
Similar treaties were made with all the chiefs on the journey.
Having satisfactorily settled matters at Mbimbi, the company pushed on
through a country of most luxuriant fertility by Mani, Ngoma, Kimbenza, and
Mpika, all of which were made picturesque by the banana groves which over-
shadowed them, past Nzungi and Kimpemba, into the plain of the Mulwassi
River, and then again into the higher regions of Ngombe and Sutete. The
chief of Sutete was in 1SS2 very eager to obtain possession of one of the agents
of the Expedition which then visited the district. He was a man of brutish
disposition, and boldly declared his wish to cut the agent's throat. This was
the price asked for permission to pass through his village unmolested, and it is
needless to say it was not paid. This same chief only two years later was
dwelling in peace but a mile away from the station, interfering in no way with
the governor or his twelve men ; indeed he was so far subdued as to permit his
people to become carriers and table-servants for the white men, while his
children had become regular attendants at the Baptist school. This we are
glad to know is only one of many equally striking incidents which are the
happy result of Stanley's work of exploration, combined with the eftorts of
Christian missionaries.
The station at North Manyanga was found to be in a rather unsatisfactory
condition. In spite of the ^10,000 which the society had allowed for its con-
struction, the houses were poor and tumble-down, and things presented such a
disorderly appearance generally that Stanley ordered the new chief to entirely
rebuild the place.
On April the 2nd the party arrived at Lukunga, where they were hospitably
592 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
welcomed by Mr. and Mrs. Ingham, of the Livingstone Mission. This
station was a sight truly worth seeing ; it was Livingstone's own work, with the
assistance only of a handful of men. The residence of the missionary was quite
unique in its daintiness, and the garden and premises for stores, schools, etc.,
left nothinof to be desired. The children were jrathered about in the shade of
the mission-house, and all things looked happy and homelike ; and to Stanley
this meeting with such kindred spirits as the missionary and his wife was
intensely pleasing. In writing of his visit to Lukunga, Stanley speaks in
highest terms of Mrs. Ingham ; to her artistic skill, prompted by devotion to
the cause of her fellow-creatures, were due all the little adornments which made
the place so inviting. The expenditure of perhaps ^loo had made this a
perfect station, with which Manyanga could in no wise compare.
Through a district which Stanley longed to see turned into cornfields,
instead of yielding only tall grasses which grew in profusion but added nothing
to the comfort of man, and by the Lulma river, the explorers journeyed towards
the station of Bauza Manteka. The keen eye of the leader here saw between
the valleys of the Luima and Lunionzo a good position for a road from
Voonda towards Isangila ; and no doubt such a scheme will one day be
accomplished, and the heart of the " Dark Continent " rendered as easy of
access as our great metropolis.
Isangila presented an appearance far from encouraging. The men who
had been placed in charge of it seemed to have grown careless, and having
no good chief, had sadly neglected their duty. From here a stiff climb soon
brouo-ht the travellers to the rido;e of a forest-covered mountain, from whence
could be viewed Pallaballa, Nokkl, and Vivi, with the irregular canon of the
Congo stretching beyond the last-named place. Here very rapid progress
cannot be made ; the hills are difficult to climb, and the valleys with their tall
grasses, among which the traveller is completely lost to view, and the heated
atmosphere of which almost choke him, are extremely trying. Stanley says,
however, that the woful descriptions of the climate of this part of the continent,
as given by some Europeans, are due to the fact that in the first place they
want to see too much, and so go too quickly ; and in the second, they are not
prudent in their way of living. If they would but be deliberate in their
movements, and content themselves with the light food which is all they
require, they would find Africa as healthful to live in as England.
On the Pallaballa Mountain, at a height of 1700 feet above the sea, is a
native station with an Engrlish mission attached, and there too is a lodglnof-
house for travellers which the hospitable old chief Nozo has erected. Here
the travellers rested for one night, and the next morning set out for Vivi.
Stanley's forebodings as to the condition of this station were not at all
exaggerated ; and as he viewed it through his glass from a hill opposite to it,
lie was much saddened by the signs of lethargy and even ruin which were only
DUKE TOWN. 593
too apparent. As far as he could see, no attempt whatever had been made at
improvement, and all his efforts to secure its prosperity had thus far been
fruitless. From the hill a descent was made to Mpozo Station, where a boat
was taken and the Congo crossed to Vivi.
One of the first sights which attracted Stanley's attention on arrivino-
at Vivi was a fine-looking house, with store-room attached, which was the
residence of the accountant. To build this a frame mansion-house, which had
been sent from Europe to be used as an hotel for the residents, had been
literally pulled to pieces, and of the whole building, which had been worth
^2000, not more than sufficient remained to build quite a small cabin, and
that was left lying neglected and rotting through exposure to the weather.
Vivi is less favourably situated than many of the more prosperous stations
on the Upper Congo. Its vegetation is scanty, and instead of hills luxuriantly
clothed with pines and banana groves, the naked rock comes to the surface
and gives the whole an appearance of barrenness. Stanley thought that this
barrenness had imparted itself to the inhabitants, making them hopeless of
ever seeing much fruit from their labours.
There can have been no excuse for the general aspect of neglect which
characterised even the houses, gardens, and roads of Vivi, and the only reason
could be that the white men stationed there had succumbed to the influences
about them ; and having no Stanley to stimulate them to earnest endeavour,
had ceased to take any interest in the work about which they had at first been
so enthusiastic — viz., the making of this a useful and prosperous station.
But Stanley was not the man to give up any task he had once under-
taken, let the difficulties be ever so great ; and so, though Vivi at present
seemed altogether a failure, he at once set about the work of restoring it. He
determined to remove it from the site it now occupied to a larger plateau, and
preparatory to this a new road was made sloping gradually to the river Nkusu,
which was crossed by a bridge. Then a railroad was constructed between the
plateau on which the Vivi of the present day stood and that on which the Vivi
of the future was to be built. ,
Not only was a new station required, but competent men to take charge
of it were greatly needed. Indeed the person who could undertake the
management of a station occupied by white men of almost every nation in
Europe as well as natives must possess no mean ability. Some of the
difficulties that Vivi laboured under arose from the fact that it had no good
chief for any length of time.
One of the principal places of interest on the voyage was Duke Town, on
the Old Calabar or Cross River. Stanley obtained permission to explore this
river, upon which a great trade in oil is carried on, and several of the pas-
sengers on board the " Kinsembo " accompanied him. Duke Town bore a
strong resemblance to the Upper Congo ; indeed so much were the two places
75
594 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
alike, that Stanley says that if he had been carried by night in the " En
Avant" and placed on the Calabar River near Ikintu, he should scarcely have
known the difference. But there was one feature of Duke Town which
surprised and delighted him, and that was the sight of houses for the chiefs
made of corrugated iron of English manufacture, and furnished also in English
style. Some of these were costly mansions, valued at from ^2000 to ;^4000
each, and they were the result of the successful trade in palm-oil in which the
natives were engaged. If such was the issue of fair trade on the Calabar
River, there was much to hope for on the Lower Congo, when once its riches
were known, and the difficulties of the march from Vivi to Stanley Pool were
overcome.
Bonny, where the " Kinsembo ' anchored on June 28th, is another
prosperous town. Its climate is far from salubrious — indeed it is as dismal as
it well can be ; but the people seem to be too busy to consider it, and they are
fairly healthy.
A flourishing trade is also carried on on the Benin River, and the cargoes
from it and the Bonny River almost filled the " Kinsembo," which anchored
next at Sierra Leone. Only three hours, however, were spent here, for the
captain gathered that there was a pestilence in the town, and hastily pushed
out of port. Then the steamer turned her head homewards, and soon
leaving Africa far beyond the reach of the bodily eye, but bearing it constantly
in mind, Stanley was landed at Plymouth on July the 29th, 1884, and hastened
at once to Ostend to report to the King of the Belgians, who was spending
the summer there, the great success, beyond all expectations, which had
attended his mission to the Congo Basin. " And," says he, " I have no
reason to believe that His Majesty was displeased with the results of those
long years of bitter labour."
CHAPTER XXXI.
Return from Africa — Accepts the Command of the Eviin Pasha Relief
Expedition — Sails again for Africa — Arrival at Cairo.
IT is not to be supposed that a man like Stanley would be allowed to rest
quietly for any length of time together. He had, in founding the Free
States, accomplished one of the most remarkable achievements of the century,
and for that work, as well as for his successful journey across the dark land in
search of Livingstone, he would be ever held in men's memories as the man
for any great emergency that should arise, especially in regard to Africa. He
was more than content, if not to be idle, at least to enjoy a change of labour,
which is the nearest approach to rest which some natures allow themselves ;
but he had not long returned from the Congo when his services were again
called into requisition.
It was on the 29th of July 1884 that he landed at Plymouth, and
immediately went to report himself to King Leopold at Ostend ; after which
he relaxed the strain that had been so long upon him, and gave himself to the
literary pleasures of preparing his book on "The Congo Free States," which
was at once published by Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington,
of Fleet Street, London. Naturally, every one was eager to see the man who
had brought Africa to our very doors, and in the autumn of 1886 he was
about to respond to the invitation of the large towns of America to deliver a
series of lectures on Africa.
But that country was again the cause of considerable uneasiness in the
minds of English people, who had already suffered so much for it in the
person of one of the noblest of his race — General Gordon. The new anxiety,
like the old, centred in or near to the Soudan. At length the following letter
brought matters to a crisis : —
" British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 55 New Broad
Street, London, E.G., Nov. 8, 1886.
" To the Right Honourable the Earl of Iddesleigh, etc., Her Majesty's
Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
" My Lord, — At a meeting of the Committee of this society, held on the
5th instant, I had the honour to lay before them a letter addressed to myself
590 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
by Emin Bey, and one from him to Dr. Felkin, a former traveller through the
equatorial provinces governed by Dr. Emin Bey, and a member of this
committee. Dr. Emin Bey, who was appointed by General Gordon to
administer, on behalf of the Egyptian Government, the equatorial provinces
on the Upper White Nile, has long been cut off from all help from the
civilised world, and is now, as shown by his letter, in a very precarious
position. After considering the subject-matter of the two letters (of which I
have the honour to enclose a proof copy), the following resolution was passed
unanimously, and I was directed to forward a copy to your lordship. — I have
the honour to remain, your lordship's obedient servant,
Charles H. Allen, Secretary.
'''Resolved — That in view of the services rendered by Dr. Emin Bey,
both in the suppression of the slave-trade and in administering for a consider-
able period a settled and peaceful government in the equatorial provinces of
Egypt, the committee consider that the position of Dr. Emin Bey presents a
very strong claim upon Her Majesty's Government. While not suggesting
any measure of a military character for his relief, the committee hold that
both Her Majesty s Government and that of Egypt are bound to be
sparing of neither exertion nor expense in order to rescue him from the
destruction which seems to await him, or by the supply of money and
goods to enable him to hold a friendly position among the natives of his
province.' "
This letter found an echo in many minds, and both through articles and
letters In the press and the conversation of the people It was manifested that
something would have to be done. The public heart ached over the delays to
relieve Gordon which had occurred, to the everlasting pain if not the shame of
England, before the Government was aroused to send Lord Wolseley to the
Soudan. And this fact caused the conviction to grow that another brave man's
life ought not to be sacrificed. Soon, therefore, the cry, " Stanley to the
rescue I " was raised, and raised with such resolution that it reached hrni in
America.
Before he had left England, the Geographical Society of Edinburgh had
voted a large sum toward the Emin Relief Fund; and Sir William Macklnnon,
Bart., had asked Stanley to advise him as to the best person to whom such an
Expedition could be entrusted, and In reply our traveller had mentioned the
names of Messrs. J. and H. H. Johnson. "Failing them," he added, "I
would suggest myself."
"Would you be willing to lead such an Expedition?" inquired Sir
William.
" If you are really In earnest, and choose me for the post,' was the
magnanimous reply, " I will accept the command at once, and gratuitously;
EMIN PASHA RELIIiF EXPEDITION. 597
but if you choose Mr. Thompson, I shall be happy to contribute ^500 toward
the expenses."
Sir William Mackinnon, who had been elected chairman of the Relief
Committee, subsequently sent the following telegram to America : —
" Your plan and offer accepted. Authorities approve. Funds provided.
Business urgent. Come promptly. Reply."
To this came the speedy answer —
"Just received Monday's cablegram. Many thanks. Everything all
right. Will sail per 'Eider' 8 o'clock Wednesday morning. If good
weather, and barring accidents, arrive 22nd December, Southampton."
It was Christmas when he reached London, and by that time _;^20,ooo
had been subscribed, of which the Egyptian Government had contributed half.
Much remained to be done before the start could be absolutely made.
There was no lack of help volunteered ; and Mr. Stanley might have had
a company of English gentlemen numbering several hundred to serve under
him. But he had to disappoint nearly all the eager aspirants who came for-
ward, and he selected as his companions the following few and well-tried
men : — Major Edmund Barttelot, of the 7th Fusiliers, an officer distinguished
for service in Afghanistan and on the Nile ; Lieutenant W. G. Stairs, of the
Royal Engineers, experienced in Survey Service ; Captain R. H. Nelson,
who had served in Zululand and against the Basutus ; Surgeon T. H. Parke,
A.M.D., one of the survivors of the Abu Klea fight under Sir Herbert
Stewart ; Mr. William Bonny, of the A.M.D. ; Mr. John Rose Troup, son of
Sir Colin Troup, an Indian general of distinction ; Mr. Herbert Ward, a
wanderer in Borneo and New Zealand ; and two gentlemen often mentioned,
Mr. Jephson and Mr. Jameson.
Of course the English people could not let him go without a little feasting
and a few speeches ; and at the Mansion House, on January 13, iSS;, he
made an interesting speech in answer to the toast proposed by the Lord
Mayor.
He said that he was about to step upon a platform in a town in Massa-
chusetts to commence a lecture when he received a cablegram calling him to
Europe. So many kind things had been said about his African travels that he
need not himself refer to them, and he had now received the great honour of
having the freedom of the City of London presented to him. He was now
asked to make an effort to carry assistance to an officer who might be called the
last white captain in the Soudan, who, owing to the catastrophe that had
happened there, was cut off from civilisation by forces that barred the way to
his return, and was shut up with officers and some thirty women and fifty
children, whose return to Egypt it was desired to effect. There had been many
speculations as to what the chances of rescue were, and the demands upon his
time had rendered it impossible for him to refer to these speculations, or make
598 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
any statement of the facts which would determine the course or affect the
fortunes of the Expedition between Zanzibar and the beleaguered garrison of
Emin Pasha. From the information that had been liberally supplied to him, he
thouo-ht that although the Massai route appeared to be the shortest, there were
difficulties in that route which had not been taken into account by many specu-
lators. It was the arrival of an explorer and his mysterious disappearance that
at first precipitated Uganda into all this trouble, and made it so dangerous for
white men. Then between the farthest known part attained by the white
man and Emin Pasha there were the murderous Wakedi and other tribes
who had decimated Emin Pasha's foraging expeditions. By these very
successes they had become strengthened, and could present a formidable front.
Even his appearance with a powerful caravan in that direction would still more
endanger the position of Mackay, the English missionary, and that of the
two French missionaries, whose situation was a subject of anxiety with
the French Government. Then there was the fact that the Germans
had made extensive annexations in that direction, and it was as likely as not
that they might suspect the motives for this Expedition, although we here
knew well enough that its sole object was to rescue Emin Pasha, and to
withdraw with him non-combatants, who, on account of the failure of the
supply of ammunition, could not now be despatched to the coast. If the
Expedition took the central route it would have to front Uganda with
150,000 warriors. In the days of iNItesa, the father of the present King
]\hvanga, it would have been very easy to have negotiated for a safe passage
through his territory. It was even likely that RItesa would have said, " I
will go with you, or, if you wish it, we will go and take the white man, and bring
him to you." But Rlwanga, the son, was a person of different disposition : he
got drunk upon bhang ; he had already distinguished himself by the atrocious
murder of Bishop Hannington, and the sight of a valuable convoy going to
Emin Pasha would without doubt excite his cupidity. If, on the other hand,
the Expedition took the south-western route, it would encounter the brave
and valorous Wahuma, who were the aristocrats of that part of Africa, who
furnished the royal blood of all the chiefs in Equatorial Africa, and who
would bar the way to Emin Pasha. Just at this critical time the King of the
Belgians came forward and generously offered the free use of the whole stock
of steamers belonging to the Upper Congo State for ninety days for the rescue
of the brave Egyptian officer, and of the helpless women and children in his
camp, for whom the Congo offered the best route. If the Expedition were
to return to Zanzibar by the other route, it would be burdened not only with
the weight of the ammunition, but also with the anxiety attending the
transport of women and children through the factious tribes between
Wadelai and the Indian Ocean. This, then, was the position of affairs :
for the one side there was the river to fioat down and take these women
STANLEY'S DEPARTURE. 599
and children straight to the Atlantic without any trouble, with the
prospect of being hospitably received all the way. This would be a
one month's journey, or forty days at the most, to the sea. The other route
would involve 1200 miles of march through combative tribes, against whom
women and children would have to be guarded. This statement of facts put
the matter in a nutshell, and people could judge for themselves which was the
best route. He would proceed from England on the 20th inst. to Zanzibar,
and if he found there a steamer for the Congo, he would take the Congo route ;
but if he did not find a steamer there, he proposed to take the risks of the
inland journey. The Expedition would be in perfect order for the taking of
either route, and for going to the west coast or the east coast. For the sake
of the Expedition itself it did not matter what route was taken, but for the sake
of the women and children and the safety of the ammunition it did matter
greatly. In conclusion, he wished the Lord Mayor and company a happy and
prosperous year, and sincerely thanked all for the cordial manner in which he
had been received, and for the good wishes which had been so kindly expressed
for the success of the Expedition.
From this speech of Stanley's it will be seen that he was as cautious as he
was courageous, and did not in the least undervalue the difficulties in the way,
though at the same time he had energy and hopefulness enough to make him
sanguine as to the result.
He paid a hasty visit to the King of the Belgians, who had ever been one
of his best friends, and who repeated now the kindness shown on former
occasions.
Mr. Stanley left London and started on his journey by the evening
Continental mail train on Friday, January 21st, 1887. There was a large
gathering of people in the station, and when Mr. Stanley arrived on the
platform, shortly before eight o'clock, he was greeted by a hearty cheer. No
special arrangements had been made for the traveller, for !\Ir. Stanley's fellow-
travellers and baggage had gone on from Gravesend in the " Navarino," and
he was alone, even his rescued slave-servant, Baruti, having gone forward.
A large company attended Mr. Stanley to the carriage, among them being
General Brackenbury, Sir Lewis Felly, Sir S. Rowe, the United States Consul
{General Waller), Mr. C. T. Russell, Mr. J. Rose Troup, who, with Captain
C. Troup, joined Mr. Stanley at Lisbon, Colonel Grattin, Sir Francis de
Winton, Mr. G. F. MacKenzie, Mr. E. L. Sheldon, Major Kavanagh, Mr.
Walter Wood, and Mr. J. R. MacKinnon of the United Steamship Company.
Lord Wolseley and Lord Charles Beresford were expected, but letters from
them were brought to Mr. Stanley expressing regret that they could not
witness his departure, and wishing him success In his enterprise. In the few
minutes which elapsed between the entry to the station and the departure of
the train, Mr. Stanley's friends gathered about him to wish him God-speed and
coo STANLEY AND AFRICA.
to have a last word. A compartment was reserved, and with him, as far as
Cannon Street, went some of the members of his committee who had assisted
in raising part of the ;^2i,ooo necessary for the enterprise. Some one called
out in a cheerful tone, " When will you be back ? " and the traveller replied
with a laugh, "As soon as I can." The signid was given for the train to
move, and then a loud cheer greeted the hero, who bowed his acknowledg-
ments from the window.
All the newspapers had articles both on the Man and the E.xpedition,
and many thousands of the English people gave a kindly God-speed to Stanley
in their thoughts, and compared his readiness to depart on this errand to that
of Gordon when he went out to the Soudan. Although the British Govern-
ment had abstained from furnishing him with supplies, private generosity had
done so, and the Government had requested the British Consul at Zanzibar,
Mr. Thompson, to render him every assistance.
Stanley arrived in Cairo on the 27th of January. On reaching that place he
drove to the house of Sir E. Baring, who accompanied him on a visit to Nubar
Pasha. He told the people of Cairo that his Expedition was solely for the
relief of Emin Pasha, that he was takings him ammunition and clothinof, and
felt sure that he would have no difficulty in reaching him by either the Zanzibar
or the Congo route. But it was seen that he preferred the Congo route, and
thought it less dangerous. Eventually Stanley decided to prosecute his
journey by the Congo.
On the 2Sth it was reported that he had seen Dr. Junker. The latter had
been opposed to the Congo route, but Stanley talked him round to his ideas
respecting it. It was thought at Cairo that Stanley would reach Emin before
the end of June.
On the 29th Stanley sent a telegram to say that at Cairo everything was
succeeding satisfactorily. Uniforms were being made for Emin Pasha, and all
hands were working loyally.
On the 6th of February he was at Suez, on his way to Zanzibar. Dr.
Parke was with him, and sixty-one trained black soldiers who had volunteered
from the Egyptian Army.
Dr. Edward Schnitzer, or Emin Pasha, is worthy of the Expedition, for
he is an able and honest man. He was born in 1840, of Jewish parents, in
Prussian Silesia. He studied medicine in Berlin, Paris, and Vienna. In 1869
he entered the service of the Turkish Government. When General Gordon
went to Khartoum he accompanied him as a medical officer, and in 1879 Gordon
made him Governor of the Khedive's Province of the Equator.
CHAPTER XXXII.
Zanzibar — Sailing tip the Congo River — Disembarking — Stanley Pool — On
the Upper Congo — The Camp of the Rear-guard.
THEY reached Zanzibar in February, and here Stanley gathered his followers
together. He also secured the services of Tippu-Tib, because, being
himself a famous Arab chief of the cruel Manyemas, and an extensive trader in
ivory and slaves, his influence was great among the pitiless Arab raiders of the
Upper Congo. He was to be established as Governor at Stanley Falls in the
service of the Congo Free State, and undertook in the treaty between himself
and the King of the Belgians, the sovereign of the Free State, to protect the
force from the schemes of the slave-dealers and the attacks of unfriendly tribes.
He also agreed to furnish six hundred men to assist in carrying the loads
across the country, from the Falls Station to the Albert Lake or even to
Wadelai.
The Expedition was embarked on February 25th, in the steamship
" Madura." Besides the Europeans, it consisted of Zanzibaris, Soudanese, a
few Somalis, three interpreters, and Tippu-Tib with some of his men.
Sailing round South Africa, they reached the mouth of the Congo on the
i8th of March. At the commencement of the voyage one disturbing incident
occurred. The Zanzibaris and some of Tippu's men, taking possession of the
most comfortable quarters available, forced the Soudanese into a close, uncom-
fortable part of the ship between the decks. After protesting vainly in their
unknown tongue, the afflicted Soudanese lost their temper, and with unmistak-
able vigour heaped reproaches and insults on their en.croaching neighbours.
These were received as a challenge to combat, and presently a fight began
between them, anything that came to hand serving as a weapon. Quiet was
however restored, the Zanzibaris were compelled to retire, and the Soudanese
removed to other quarters. The voyage from this time was a prosperous one,
the coloured people behaving well, and the Europeans proving invaluable
helpers by their cheerful readiness and capacity for work. There was very
little sickness on board ; only three natives died. A few others were unable to
continue the journey ; but the rest, including all the Europeans, were in good
health.
From Banana Point five steamboats, furnished by the Congo Free State,
76
602 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
carried the force up the river. At Boma, the headquarters of the Free State
Government, the President visited Mr. Stanley and imparted the serious news
that food was scarce in the district as far as Stanley Pool, and as an additional
discouragement it appeared likely that when they reached that place there
would be a great difficulty in securing sufficient steamboats for their further
conveyance.
Having arrived at Matadi, the whole Expedition disembarked to follow
the course of the river by land, since, as will be remembered, for many miles
navigation is impossible by reason of cataracts. It is proposed to connect
Matadi and Leopoldville by a railway, and so render the district of the Upper
Congo easy of access ; but along these weary miles the men marched, carrying
the loads of stores on their heads.
Between Matadi and Lukunga Mr. H. Ward joined the Expedition as a
volunteer. The following account of his meeting with Stanley, and his
description of the caravan on the route, appeared in the " Illustrated London
News" : —
" After completing my term of service for the Congo State in March
18S7, I proceeded down country for the purpose of embarking for Europe.
But then I heard that Stanley was on his way out in command of the Emin
Pasha Relief Expedition. I at once became anxious to accompany him on
that interesting mission. I was able also to render him a timely service by
engaging and taking clown country some hundreds of natives for the transport
of the loads of merchandise and ammunition which the Expedition was taking
into Central Africa for the succour of Emin Pasha. I had broken camp early
one morning, and was marching rapidly along, when, in the distance, coming
over the brow of a hill, I saw a tall Soudanese soldier bearing Gordon
Bennett's yacht flag. Behind him, and astride of a magnificent mule, whose
silver-plated trappings shone in the bright morning sun, was Mr. Stanley,
attired in his famous costume. Following immediately in his rear were his
personal servants (Somalis), with their braided waistcoats and white robes.
Then came Zanzibaris with their blankets, water bottles, ammunition belts,
and guns ; stalwart Soudanese soldiery, with great hooded coats, their rifles
on their backs, and innumerable straps and leather belts around their bodies ;
Waswaheli porters, bearing boxes of ammunition, to which were fastened
axes, shovels, and hose lines, as well as their little bundles of clothing, which
were invariably roUed up in old threadbare blankets.
" Stanley saluted me very cordially and dismounted. ' Take a seat,'
said he, pointing to the bare ground. We squatted down, and he handed me
a cigar from the silver case given to him by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales on
the night before Stanley left London. As concisely as possible I told him
of my great desire to join him on his journey, and after a few minutes'
conversation Mr. Stanley said that, partly in recognition of the fact that I had
STANLEY'S CAVALCADE. G03
rendered him such valuable help in obtaining the natives, he would accept
me as a volunteer in his Expedition. He then expressed his surprise at my
healthy appearance, considering that I had been so long in Africa. Having
directed me to hurry on with my natives, bring up the loads, and as
expeditiously as possible overtake him at Stanley Pool, where we should all
embark together, we parted.
" Passing along, I became further acquainted with the constitution of
Stanley's great cavalcade. At one point the whale-boat was being carried in
sections, suspended from poles, which were each borne by four men.
Donkeys, heavily laden with sacks of rice, were next met with, and a little
farther on the women of Tippu-Tib's harem, their faces concealed, and their
bodies draped in gaudily-coloured cotton cloths. Then, now and again, an
English officer, with whom, of course, I exchanged friendly salutations. A
flock of large horned goats next came along, and then the dignified form of
the veritable Tippu-Tib came into view as he strutted majestically in his
flowing Arab robes and large turban, and carrying over his right shoulder a
jewel-hiked sword — an emblem of office from his Highness the Sultan of
Zanzibar. Behind him, at a respectful distance, followed several Arab
sheikhs, whose bearing was grave and dignified.
"In response to my salutation, they bowed most gracefully.
' Haijambo,' said I. ' Sijambo,' they replied. ' Jambo sana,' I answered.
' Jambo sana,' also said they. 'Sana, sana,' I added ; and 'Sana, sana,' they
repeated. ' Khabari gani ? ' (What news ?) I inquired. ' Khabari Ngema '
(Good news) was the reply. And in that way I passed along the line of
seven hundred men, which embraced, in addition to the nationalities I have
already mentioned, Assyrians, Malagasies, and others, each wearing the
distinguishing garb of his own country. As the Expedition filed along the
narrow, rugged path, it produced an effect no less brilliant than striking. Its
unbroken line extended over a distance of probably four miles."
On April 9th Stanley wrote to Sir William Mackinnon as follows — and
as this was the first letter received from him, it was at once published in the
" Times" and read with intense interest, June 6th : — ■
" Lukungu, Congo River, April 9th, 1887.
" We arrived here yesterday, after an intolerably slow journey from the
Lower Congo. Nevertheless, we feel grateful that we have done so much.
This journey of one hundred and ten miles is performed, generally, by native
carriers in nine or ten days ; it has occupied us fourteen days. The carriers only
have their loads of sixty-five pounds each, with some native provisions. Our
people have been loaded with similar weights, and then have to carry their rifles,
ammunition, kit, and rations, making their load up to one hundred pounds
each. Taken at their ease from Zanzibar, and from on board a comfortable
C04 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
ship, we had to make very short marches at first, to inure them by degrees to
the long tasks of marching which He before them. The poor baggage animals
were also unfit for several days to travel ; nor were we ourselves in any better
state. But I had promised to leave the Lower Congo on the 2 7lh, and in
order to make ourselves as fit as possible for the journey we began the forward
march on the 25th, two days previous, otherwise we should have been six
days behind time.
" We shall improve, as in other expeditions, our marching pace. Daily
the marches will become longer, and the people more fit, until even they will
look back with surprise on the early days when they thought eight miles a
fatiguing journey. Our extra loads of cloth, beads, and ammunition are being
forwarded, with tolerable rapidity, by our agents on the Lower Congo, and
a few days after our arrival at Stanley Pool I hope to have all goods, officers,
and men together.
" I have no encouraging news from the Pool as yet. I cannot tell whether
there are any steamers ready. All rather tends to make me think that we
have appeared while every vessel is in a very unfortunate state of unprepared-
ness. There are the " Stanley," of the carrying capacity of two hundred men
and four hundred loads; the "En Avant," thirty men and thirty loads; two
lighters, aggregate capacity seventy men and seventy loads; the A. LA. are
safe at Bangala station, five hundred miles up river.
" Besides all these, there are the Baptist Mission steamer the "Peace,"
capacity fifty men and fifty loads, and the American INIission steamer " Henry
Reed," of similar carrying power. But the " Peace," I am told, will not be
loaned to us by the Baptist Committee of London ; and of the " Henry Reed "
there is no certain sign as yet that we shall have the loan of her services.
" But the worst news remains to be told. There are no provisions at the
Pool. The traders and their workmen and followers have absorbed all the
provisions the natives can raise, and prices have run up to sheer famine rates.
If prices are already so high, what may they not amount to when the Expedi-
tion — seven hundred and fifty strong — has arrived to swell the numbers of
those for whom food must be secured at all cost ?
" Yet somehow, for the life of me, I cannot feel so gloomy as I no doubt
ought to do. My men must not die for want of food, and I must not be
detained at the Pool for any unreasonable period.
" Four days by steamer up river there is a region of abundance, where
thousands of people could be supplied. If there were any steamers ready it
would be for the interest of the State, the missions, and the traders to assist
me in getting this possible mob of hungry men away from the neighbourhood
of their establishments.
"One day's residence at the Pool will suffice to make exi^licit and clear
what is extremely hazy in my mind, viz.. How many days will it be before I
LETTER FROM STANLEY. 005
can get away from the foodless region ? If I can only procure a sufficient
number of men to carry the loads, I can march the rifle-armed members of the
expedition almost as fast as the steamers can breast the stream. If I can
lighten the heavily weighted people of their loads, I shall no doubt be able to
prove what fast goers they are.
" In this state of doubt, surmise, and anxiety, calculating and planning
nightly after each march, I am likely to remain until I arrive at the Pool,
when one view of the actual state of things there will enable me to tell you
freely and frankly in my next letter what is and must be done by us.
" I ought not to conclude without saying that none of our officers have
suffered a day's sickness since they left Europe in January. They work well,
and endure Africa as if they were natives of the tawny and torrid continent,
surpassing all my expectations ; and with all they have to bear they are always
gentlemen. " H. M. Stanley."
This letter was speedily followed by another, also published in the
" Times " of J une 17: —
" Camp near Leopoldville, Stanley Pool, April 26th.
" My Dear Mackinnon, — I arrived at this place on the 21st inst., after
twenty-eight days' march from the Lower Congo. The rainy season and the
flooded rivers have Impeded us greatly. The latter have been deep and
impetuous, detaining us two days at each unfordable stream, and causing great
anxiety. The country suffers from great scarcity of food, and I have had to
feed this large caravan with rice brought from the coast. Considering all
these unfortunate circumstances, we have no great reason to complain. At
Stanley Pool they say that we have arrived wonderfully quick. Had the season
been more propitious they would have had still further cause for saying so.
" But bad as is the condition of the famine-stricken country below, in the
neighbourhood of Stanley Pool it is worse. I have been here five days, and
the people with me have only managed to secure a few bananas, just sufficient
to feed two hundred men one day, and I have seven hundred and fifty souls
with me. It is a period of great anxiety with us, and whether we shall be
able to tide it over without breach of order I know not. The Zanzibaris are
very loyal, very obedient ; the officers, who are all English gentlemen, are
super-excellent. With such good qualities the Expedition may be expected
to do all that is required by human nature. My duty however is not to put
too severe a strain on such admirable qualities, and relieve these people from
the temptation to be otherwise than they ought to be.
" The State, the English missions, and traders are in the same difficulties
of provisioning their dependants as we are. You can imagine how great the
stress is here when the State, after sending foraging parties round about the
district, can only secure food enough for a third of its force. The other two-
606 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
thirds live on hippopotamus meat which their hunters provide. We have also
sent out our hunters. We have had one hippopotamus within five days for
seven hundred and fifty souls. There are four parties of hunters searching
Stanley Pool to-day for hippo meat. The missions have but few men with
them, so it is not such an extreme case with them. But, strange to say, not
one mission station can supply its own people. They have not planted a
single banana plant since I was here three years ago. I should say that they
were in a worse state than when I left. They live on what is provided for
them in Europe and America. ' Let be everything, struggle no longer,'
seems to me to be their motto. It is not the fault of the soil or the climate.
The soil is rich, and adapted for the cultivation of bananas and maize and
dhowrra and rice.
"In iSSi I relieved two missionaries, named Clarke and Lanceley.
They had suffered a misfortune — a fire had consumed all their effects. They
sent me an appeal for provisions. I provided them with a fair allowance from
our own stores. They belonged to the Livingstone Inland Mission.
" In 1S83 a missionary named Sims applied for a site at Stanley Pool to
establish a mission of the Livingstone Inland Mission. His colleagues had
vainly striven without aid from me to obtain permission from the natives. I
gave an order to the Chief of Leopoldville to locate Dr. Sims on a site in the
neighbourhood of the station, so that, times being unsettled then, the mission
could be under our immediate protection. In 1884 I extended the grounds
of this mission at the Equator, subject of course to confirmation at Brussels.
"By a curious event, on arriving at Stanley Pool this time I found
myself in the position of an abject supplicant for favour. His Majesty the
Sovereign of this Congo State had invited me to take the Congo River route
to relieve Emin Pasha at Wadelai. Provided the steamers and boats were at
Stanley Pool in time, without doubt this route was by far the cheapest and
best, even though food was not over-abundant. I therefore accepted the
invitation and came here. But I had not anticipated this distressful scarcity
of food, nor the absence of steamers and boats.
" To every one at Stanley Pool it was clear that a disaster would be the
consequence of this irruption of a large caravan upon a scene so unpromising
as this foodless district. The only remedy for it was immediate departure up
river. Long before arrival I had sent letters of appeal to the English Baptist
Mission, owners of the steamer ' Peace,' and to the Livingstone Inland
Mission, which is now American, and owners of the steamer ' Henry Reed,'
for aid to transport the Expedition to Bolobo immediately upon arrival at
Stanley Pool. Reports confirmatory of the state of famine in that district
were daily reaching me, and immediate departure was our only means of
saving life and preventing a gross scandal.
"A few days later I received a letter from a Mr. Billington, in charge of
CRITICAL SITUATION. (i07
the ' Henry Reed,' saying he could not lend the steamer for such purposes,
as he wanted to go down river — i.e., overland to the Lower Congo — for
some purpose; and next month the Livingstone Inland Mission expected
some missionaries, and in the interval the steamer ' Henry Reed' was to be
drawn up on the slip to be repainted.
" You will observe, as we did, that there was no question of urgency ; the
steamer was to lie idle on the slip for repainting, while Mr. Billington should
go down river to be comfortably married to some young lady whose photograph
he had seen, for this was the purpose that was taking him from the Pool.
" Meanwhile, the starving people would be tempted to force from every
native or white the food which they could not obtain by purchase, and no one
knew to what extent disorder would spread. If I did my duty I should have
to repress it sternly. Still, whether my people or the natives would suffer
most, it is clear that the condition of things would be deplorable.
" From the English Baptist Mission I received a letter from its chief,
that unless orders to the contrary should arrive from home he would lend me
the steamer and be happy to help me.
" Arriving at the Pool, and seeing more distinctly how greatly the district
was suffering from scarcity of food, I sent Major Barttelot and Mr. Mounteney
Jephson to represent our desperate position to the Livingstone Inland Mission.
They saw Messrs. Billington and Sims. They tell me they urged the mission-
aries by all the means within their power for over an hour to reconsider their
refusal, and to assist us. They were said to have declined. Mr. Billington
argued that he had consulted the Bible, and found therein a command not to
assist us; besides, he must get down river to meet 'his wife that was to be,'
Dr. Sims echoed this as resolutely.
" I consulted the Governor of Stanley Pool district, Monsieur Liebriechts,
and represented to him that a great scandal was inevitable unless means were
devised to extricate us from the difficulty. I told him I could not be a dis-
interested witness to the sufferings which starvation would bring with it, that
therefore a formal requisition should be made by him on the missions for the
use of their steamers for a short term, of say forty days. That the ' Henry
Reed,' according to Mr. Billington's letter, was to lie idle for a period of over
two months ; that this period could be used by us in saving hundreds of lives;
that their objections were frivolous, and those of Dr. Sims were the result of
a refusal by me to employ him on this Expedition, while Mr. Billington was
only hungering after the pleasure of marriage with a person whom he never
saw. Monsieur Liebriechts admitted that the position was desperate and
extreme, and that the State was also in a painful uncertainty as to whether
provisions would be secured for its people each day.
" The next morning Major Barttelot and Mr. Mounteney Jephson were
sent over again to the Livingstone Inland Mission to try a third appeal with
fiOb STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Wr. Billington, who only replied that he had ' prayerfully wrestled even unto the
third watch ' against the necessity there was of refusing the ' Henry Reed.'
He was confirmed in his opinion that he was acting wisely and well.
Meantime, it was reported to me that Mr. Billington had furtively abstracted
the valves and pistons of the eirgines for the purpose of hiding them. I
therefore hesitated no longer, but sent a guard of Soudanese down to the
steamer, and another with Major Barttelot to demand the immediate surrender
of the steamer and her belongings. Major Barttelot kept his guard outside
the boundary of the mission, and walked in alone with the letter.
" The Commissaire of the State, seeing matters becoming critical, ordered
a guard to relieve the Soudanese at the steamer, and went in person to the
missionaries to insist that the steamer should be surrendered to the State.
" Our guard was withdrawn upon an assurance being given that no article
should be taken away or hidden. For two days the matter remained in the
Hands of M. Liebriechts, who at last signed a charter in due form, by which the
mission permits the hire of the steamer ' Henry Reed ' to us for the sum af
^loo sterling per month, which is at the rate of 30 per cent, per annum on her
estimated value.
" But what ungrateful people some of these missionaries are ! Faith they
may have in superabundance — in hope they no doubt live cheerfully ; but
of charity I do not find the slightest trace.
"The 'Stanley' steamer left here yesterday for Mswata with the first
detachment of one hundred and fifty-three, and will return the day after
to-morrow. We have now remaining for departure next Friday, or Saturday
at furthest, the following transport vessels: — 'Stanley,' 160 men, 400
loads, 6 donkeys; hull of 'Florida,' 160 men, 100 loads, 6 donkeys;
'Peace,' 50 men, 100 loads; ist barge, 35 men; 2nd barge, 60 men;
' Henry Reed,' 50 men, 100 loads ; 3rd barge, 50 men ; 4th barge, 35 men.
— Total, 590, 700 loads, 12 donkeys. There will be none remaining at
Stanley Pool. We shall push on as fast as the steamers can tow the barges,
which will be probably the rate the slow paddle-boat ' En Avant ' ascended
in 18S3. Near Stanley Falls, or at the rapids of the Bryerre River, I will
form an entrenched camp, and must use every precaution to make this camp
safe. During the ascent of the Congo I shall have leisure to study this
question. Having formed a safe camp, I shall push on, lightly equipped, and
make forced marches through the unknown territory.
" Until we have reached the site of our camp on the Upper Congo, and
the 'Stanley' descends to bring up the detachment which will be left at
Bolobo under Major Barttelot, you cannot receive any further direct news
from us. — Yours very sincerely, " H. M. Stanley."
On May the ist the Expedition started from Kinshassa for the Upper
BOAT DISASTERS. 009
Congo. The Livingstone inland steamer, " Henry Reed," so grudgingly
yielded up, took the lead, carrying one hundred and thirty-one men ; the
" Stanley," having the " Florida " in tow, followed with three hundred and
sixty-four men, five hundred loads of baggage and goods, nine riding
asses, and a flock of goats. In the rear came the " Peace," the steamer of the
English Baptist Mission, drawing two boats with 117 people.
The "Henry Reed" and "Stanley" accomplished the appointed
distance for the day without mishap, but, as ill luck would have it, the head
of the rudder of the " Peace " broke straight off only two miles above
Kinshassa, and as the Captain had now no control over the boat he threw out
two anchors and drew up suddenly in the middle of a strong current, to get
free from which it was found necessary to cut the chains. They managed to
get safely back to Kinshassa, and here they had to wait till the rudder was
made fit for use again. This necessitated a journey to the State workshops
at Leopoldville, six miles farther down the river.
After this delay the voyage was continued for three days. It seemed
impossible, however, to keep the " Peace " running at a proper speed, and the
passage to Mswata, a course of only eighty-eight miles, took two days longer
than the usual time allowed for it. After leaving this latter place, matters
became worse and worse. When nearing Bolobo the boat not only made
no headway, but her feeble efforts being utterly unable to resist the current,
she began to be carried down the stream. Once more she was anchored, her
passengers landed, and a messenger sent by boat to Bolobo requesting help
from the " Henry Reed." When nearing Bolobo the gallant leader was
astonished and horrified to find the " Stanley " and " Henry Reed " lying idle
at a landing-place in the middle of the day. It was then found that the former
had met with disaster in the attempt to investigate some low rocks on her
own account. She had rushed upon them, with the result that the second of
her fore sections was broken up. The helpless " Peace " reached Bolobo
towed in the wake of the " Henry Reed," and after a careful examination of
the injured vessel, the " Stanley," the engineers found that it could be made
efficient once more by patching it underneath with plates.
All set themselves to the task with the utmost ardour and goodwill, and in
two days the work was completed. When all were securely landed at Bolobo
the " Stanley " was sent off to Kwamouth, with a word of caution to refrain from
all rash enterprises, to fetch Major Barttelot and his men, who had made their
way from the Wamboko river to Kwamouth on foot, so as to avoid unnecessary
delay, as so much time had been already lost.
To the credit of the captain the steamer returned to Bolobo with gratifying
promptitude in three days.
During this pause in the journey the engineer of the " Peace," deeply
conscious of the sorry performance of his charge, and vexed in his soul at the
77
610 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
general recognition of its worthlessness — evident enough though silent — took
counsel with the engineer of the " Henry Reed," a shrewd Scotchman, as to
the possibility of getting more effective work done in the future. They came
to the conclusion, after careful consideration, that the proper thing to be done
was to screw down one of the safety-valves, and so retain some of the power
for service which had before been generated only to expend itself without
result. The belief had been previously held that it was unsafe to work the
engine with less than two safety-valves ; but in accordance with the decision
they had arrived at, the top of the upper valve was secured. The result was
entirely satisfactory, for the " Peace " now led the way, as the commander's
ship should do, instead of laboriously bringing up the rear.
Mr. John Rose Troup had been left at Leopoldville in charge of the stores.
Messrs. Ward and Bonny remained at Bolobo, and encamped there with one
hundred and twenty-five men. The remaining six hundred and forty men,
with five hundred loads of goods, proceeded in the boats up the river. Now
ensued a period of smooth advance, when everything went well, and good
fortune accompanied them with health, plenty, and consequent contentment — a
time in which the memory was lost of the hardships endured from the dearth
of food on the lower course of the river. The natives all met them as friends ;
no accident befell people or stores; no discomfort or disquiet approached them.
The only source of uneasiness was the increase in weight of the men con-
sequent on the plentiful food supplies ; it became a question whether the boats
would prove capable of bearing the additional burden. They did not fail
however.
Tippu-Tib and his people were to be conveyed to Stanley Falls, according
to the treaty between that chief and the King of the Belgians, represented by
Stanley, one clause of which ran as follows : — " Tippu-Tib binds himself to
hoist the flag of the Congo State on the station near Stanley Falls, and to
make respected the authority of the State on the river Congo and all its
tributaries, as well at his station as down the river as far as to the river
Aruwimi. He undertakes to prevent the Arabs and the tribes there established
from carrying on the slave trade."
Major Barttelot with forty Soudanese on board the " Henry Reed" were
entrusted with the escort of the Arab chief and his followers ; and as the
Stanley Falls station was higher up the Congo than the entrance to the
Aruwimi River, the goal of the steamers, orders were given that the " Henry
Reed " should proceed at a higher rate of speed, and, having accomplished its
mission, should return with the escort the next day, and join the main body
on the Aruwimi River as soon as possible. On reaching the first rapids near
the head of this river, a point 1380 miles distant from the Atlantic Ocean, the
Expedition was to disembark, and here a camp, enclosed by palisades, was
to be built, and held by a considerable force under Major Barttelot and Mr.
ROUTING THE NATIVES. Gil
Jameson ; while Stanley, accompanied by Lieutenant Stairs, Captain Nelson,
Dr. Parke, and Mr. Mounteney Jephson, with nearly four hundred natives,
pressed forward to the Albert Nyanza.
Stanley had hoped and believed that the journey from Zanzibar to
Wadelai by the Congo could be accomplished in one hundred and fifty-seven
days, but already it was becoming doubtful whether this hope would be
fulfilled. Many delays had been experienced through various accidents and
imperfect machinery, and time had been occupied in the completion and launch
of a new steel steamer. The most difficult part of the way still lay before
them. Three hundred and sixty miles of country stretched between the point
of disembarkation and the Albert Lake, and Stanley now anticipated that
possibly only thirty days of the estimated time would remain in which to
perform the distance. But even in the prospect of a toilsome and prolonged
march, by uncertain paths, through an unexplored and perilous region, peopled
by strange and probably hostile tribes, speaking an unintelligible language, the
resolute commander held firmly to the hope that by strenuous endeavour they
might still reach the desired goal not greatly later than had been first expected,
and in time to succour Emin Pasha.
The advance party arrived at the Aruwimi Rapids on the 19th of June, a
little more than a week later than the appointed time — not a serious loss,^
though every day was precious.
They found themselves obliged to take forcible possession of the village
of Yambuya, for during a three hours' parley no argument or persuasion could
induce the natives to receive the new-comers amicably, and when at last they
began to assume threatening attitudes, they were put to rout by the hideous
and unearthly din of the steamers' whistles, and fled in a body. They ventured
back at night, gathered together their possessions, and the next morning had
disappeared, taking with them all their live stock, goats, and fowls, which
would have been gladly purchased as provision for the garrison. There
remained, however, a large stretch of Kassava gardens for its necessities.
Lieutenant Stairs at once set to work to prepare the Camp, while Mr.
Jameson was occupied in putting up a house which was to serve as storehouse
as well as dwelling. Captain Nelson and Mr. Jephson foraged for fuel to
supply the engine -fires of the "Stanley" and "Florida," that they might be
started off as soon as possible on their return journey. The " Henry Reed "
had not yet joined them.
The Yambuya village contained one hundred and ninety-four small cone-
shaped huts, arranged in two lines, and forming a wide street; and these
would serve to shelter the force. For miles along the river lay other small
villages, consisting of from fifteen to thirty huts, behind them a thick growth of
low trees, in front a steep bank eighty feet high bordering the river. Many
different tribes apparently had settlements in the district. The village
C13 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
occupied by Stanley's force had been formed by the Watunga, while round
about were Baburn and Batega villages, and dwellings of numerous other
tribes. A few natives found prowling about were now and again seized by
the scouts and brought into the camp, but all were dismissed with kind words
and some little offering, which it was hoped would lay the foundations of
confidence and goodwill. The presence of a considerable number of settle-
ments on the soil was assurance that there must be plenty of food produced in
the neighbourhood ; and the most sanguine hopes arose in Stanley's mind
with regard to those he would leave behind there, that they would soon become
a thriving colony, living on terms of mutual amity with the neighbouring
tribes, if Major Barttelot should prove to have sufficient tact and forbearance
in his dealings with them.
Several days passed before the " Henry Reed " made its appearance,
bringing up the Major and the Soudanese from Stanley Falls. Their
failure to arrive in due time — they had been expected June 19th — had caused
much annoyance and anxiety. It had been decided that a search party, under
Lieutenant Stairs, must go down the river, when on the evening of the third
day the sails of the eagerly looked-for vessel were descried, and every feeling
of vexation gave way to thankfulness.
It may easily be imagined with what interest the accounts brought by the
Major of the incidents of the way, and the state of affairs at Stanley Falls,
would be received. He related that at the village of M'bunga an attack was
made on a party of Tippu-Tib's men in his charge, and seven of them were
wounded. This was the occasion of a slight skirmish. The Soudanese landed
to avenge them, compelled the natives to abandon the place, and then set fire
to it.
The burning village had attracted the attention of the main force as they
came up to it a few hours later ; but when, compassionating the natives for the
loss of their homes, they inquired the origin of the fire, and were told it was
a native quarrel, no one guessed what had really taken place, or attributed
any share in the ruin to their comrades. Major Barttelot also told that
Tippu-Tib had been received very heartily by many of the people at the
Falls.
At a place called Yaracombe he had found a large gathering of slavers
making ready for a descent upon the unfortunate natives. Many of them
were under the orders of a well-known chief spoken of by Livingstone, Said-
bin-Hubub. As soon as possible Tippu-Tib had proclaimed himself the
authorised Governor of the Stanley Falls district, and had forbidden the
plunder and capture of natives within his borders.
There was no doubt that the prohibition would be respected by his own
followers, but apparently the chief Said-bin-Hubub was determined neither to
recognise the right of Tippu-Tib to rule, nor to regard any commands issued
THE REAR-GUARD CAMP. r.L'j
by him. Mis bad example would probably embolden other Arabs to pursue
their horrid work.
The new Governor had, through Major Barttelot, represented the position
of affairs in a letter which was at once sent on to the Belgian authorities. He
asked that the State should furnish him with thirty soldiers and two ofificers to
support his demands. " I presume," says Stanley, " he feels considerable
reluctance to enter at once into a warfare with men who are his countrymen
and co-religionists, and who were yesterday his friends ; that he requires a
stimulus to urge him to a duty which seems somewhat unpleasant. That
eventually he will prove himself worthy of the trust reposed i.n him I have no
doubt. That he will restrain his own people is of course certain ; and with a
small force of soldiers such as he asks for, and with Europeans to supervise,
advise, and encourage him, Tippu-Tib will make the very best Governor that
could be found for that distant station."
It remained to send back the "Henry Reed" and "Peace" as soon as
sufficient stores of wood had been gathered for their engine fires ; and after
that it would be impossible for some time to transmit any news of how they
Were faring to Europe.
On board the " Henry Reed " going down the river was a cow, a present
from Tippu-Tib to a native chief near Leopoldville. No doubt many longing
eyes were cast upon the animal by the garrison at Yambuya, as her flesh
would have been a great luxury to them ; but any lurking temptation to
confiscate the prize was resisted, and she was allowed to depart to her rightful
owner.
Near the spot where the new camp was being formed, Stanley, in 1877,
had encountered some of the fierce tribes who dwelt in the neighbourhood, and
had been obliged to attack a native village, and though on repassing the locality
in 1883 he had been able, with the assistance of a strong-voiced interpreter of
imposing appearance, to pacify the warriors gathered against him, his previous
experiences in the district determined him to take precautions against any
sudden onslaught, by fencing round the camp with palisades and by keeping
soldiers continually on guard,
Mr. Werner, an engineer from the Congo Free State, visited it in 1888,
and describes it as being on the top of a steep bank at a height of at least fifty
feet. The fort, which was about thirty yards square, was enclosed by a strong
stockade, the diameter of the poles forming it being from two to three inches,
and the height from twelve to fifteen feet. They were placed very near
together, the spaces between them being only sufficient to allow the muzzle of
a gun to enter. Where it fronted the river the palisade was fixed on the brink
of a precipitous descent of fifty feet, and thus afforded security from attack on
that side. On each of the landward sides platforms were constructed about
six feet above the ground. By this arrangement two ranks of men could be
614 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
stationed on these sides, who could shoot under cover of the pahsade, which
was sufficiently high to shelter the upper row.
Against an assault made by natives, whose only weapons were spears and
arrows, these protective measures would have been enough. To provide
against a possible conflict with Arabs, who are armed with rifles and double-
barrel guns, a further defence was prepared. A trench was dug all round the
camp, and the clay thrown out in digging it was heaped in an embankment
five feet high against the outside of the stockade. The rain, which falls
frequently in that part of the country, generally every few days, would collect
in the trench, which would thus serve the further purpose of a reservoir of
water for the supply of the camp, should they be prevented from reaching
the river.
Within the fort five huts were raised ; three were used as dwellings for
the Europeans, and also as storehouses ; another for their mess-room and as a
tool-house ; while the fifth served as a hospital when Mr. Werner was at the
camp during Mr. Troup's illness. In addition to these buildings the enclosure
contained a kitchen, and four smaller huts for the accommodation of the
servants and others. The openings into the fort, two in number, were
occupied by wooden doors, the materials for which were supplied by the
planks which had formed the bottom of some of the canoes. The doors were
hung from the top, and such was their weight that the united strength of four
or five men was needed to lift them. By day they were propped open by
strong poles, and during the night guards were stationed at them.
The trench was bridged by planks removable at pleasure.
The men's camp lay on the south side of the stronghold, and was enclosed
also by the palisade and trench, except where it adjoined the fort ; on this side
was a palisade only. The men's huts were of grass, and among them were
the few left after the village had been fired by the natives. All round the
camp the ground was cleared of the low thick shrubs which might conceal
from view the approach of foes by land, a considerable distance by the river
side being opened up.
Such was the camp of the rear-guard.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Stanley leaves for Lake Albert — Gives Major Barttelot Instructions — Eighty-
Three Days' March — No Nczvs of the Rear-Guard — Tippu-Tib — Murder
of Major Barttelot — Death of Mr. Jameson.
I E FORE Stanley left for the Albert Lake he gave written instructions to
Major Barttelot. Some of these are given below : —
Paragraph 5. " The interests now entrusted to you are of vital importance
to this Expedition. All the men (Zanzibaris) who shortly will be under your
command will consist of more than a third of the Expedition. The goods
are needed for currency through the regions beyond the Lakes. The loss of
these men and goods would be certain ruin to us, and the advance force itself
would need to solicit relief in its turn."
Paragraph 6. " Our course from here will be true East, or by Magnetic
Compass, E. by S. The paths may not exactly lead in that direction at times,
but it is the S.W. corner of Lake Albert, near or at Kavalli, that is our
destination. . . , Our after conduct must be guided by what we shall learn of
the intentions of Emin Pasha."
Paragraph 7. " We shall endeavour by blazing trees and cutting saplings
to leave sufficient traces of the route taken by us."
Paragraph 8. "It may happen, should Tippu-Tib send the full comple-
ment of men promised (600 men), and if the 126 men have arrived by the
' Stanley,' that you will feel competent to march your column along the route
pursued by me. In that event, which would be most desirable, we should meet
before many days. You will find our bomas, or zerlbas, very good guides."
Paragraph 9. "It may happen also that Tippu-Tib has sent some men,
but he has not sent enough. In that event you will of course use your
discretion as to what goods you can dispense with to enable you to march."
(List of classes of goods, according to their importance, here given,
Nos. I, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, the highest numbers to be first thrown away.)
"If you still cannot march, then it would be better to make double
marches than throw too many things away — if you prefer marching (moving
on) to staying for our arrival."
These were supplemented by verbal explanations.
On September 17th, 18S7, Mr. Stanley wrote to Major Barttelot from
GIG STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Ugarrowa's to inform him of their progress, and to assist him and his fellow-
officers by describing the road they had taken, the opposition met with from
the natives, and the impediments in their course.
They had travelled 340 geographical miles in their eighty-three days
march, and estimated the distance yet to be accomplished as about 230
English miles, which they hoped would be covered in fifty-five days. They
had marched as far as Panga Falls without losing a man, or meeting any
serious hindrance to their canoes. The district beyond Mugwe's as far as
Engweddeh they had found to be a barren, almost foodless region, and here
their losses began. Thirty men died from the poisoned arrows of the natives,
dysentery, and ulcers. The ulcers often originated in a tiny pimple or trifiing
wound on the foot or leg, but soon assumed a horrible character, spreading
over two or three inches and reaching downward to the bone. The canoes
were of great use ; they served to convey the sick, and carry some of the
loads, and so lighten the labours of the others. They had paddled up the river
from rapid to rapid, and on reaching the parts where the current was swift had
unloaded and dragged the boats through with long poles or creepers, loading
again as soon as it was safe to do so.
Mr. Stanley warned the Major against accepting any statements made by
returning members of the advance force — (twenty-six had deserted in the
track of a Manyuema caravan going down the river) — for no verbal message
would be sent.
In the thirty fights forced upon them fifty of their men had been wounded,
and Lieutenant Stairs severely, but only four had died.
Their slow rate of progress was due to the dense forest and bush they
had traversed, through which they had to cut their way.
Finally Major Barttelot was instructed to keep close by the river if
he had started, and to follow carefully in the track of the forward column.
As nothing had been heard of the rear-guard during eight months, Mr.
Stanley wrote a second letter, February 14th, 1888, from Fort Bodo, a place
only 126 English miles distant from Kavilli, the station on the Albert Nyanza
where they hoped to meet Emin Pasha. So great was the anxiety felt with
regard to the part of the Expedition so long separated from them, that, after
consulting with his officers, Mr. Stanley decided to entrust the letter to the
charge of twenty volunteer couriers, who were to take it if necessary as far as
Yambuya, and to receive ;^io reward each on their return.
In it he enclosed a tracing showing their line of march, and indicating the
six chief places between Yambuya and the Nyanza, where they might count
on finding food in plenty. These were given in the order in which they would
be reached, as follows : —
Mugwe's five villages, distant 124 hours' march from Yambuya. Here
Indian corn, manioc, and bananas were largely grown.
IN SEARCH OF FOOD. 017
Aveysheba villages fifty-nine miles further on, and ten miles further up
on the other side of the river, another fruitful settlement ; these places would
afford abundant supplies of large bananas.
The third place was at the junction of the Nepoko river with the
Aruwimi, thirty-nine miles beyond Aveysheba. There would be little like-
lihood of their mistaking any other affluent for the Nepoko, the latter being a
broad stream nearly as large as the main river here.
Ugarrowa's Arab settlement, ninety-three miles higher up the river.
Here they would get provisions, but would have to pay a high price for them,
and give cloth as exchange.
Fort Bodo, where the advance column was at this time encamped. Here
were cattle, goats, six tons of Indian corn, also plantations of corn, beans, and
bananas. The houses were clean and comfortable, and all their people
thriving and well fed ; the distance between this place and Ugarrowa's was
one hundred and sixty-two miles.
The last place mentioned was the high plain overlooking the Albert
Nyanza. Between the two last places they would not be likely to suffer from
scarcity of food.
Next followed an account of the journey from Ugarrowa's to the Nyanza,
with sufficient details to give to the leaders of the rear-guard a true idea of
their position and surroundings in the various stages of the march, and to
enable them, from the knowledge so hardly gained by their predecessors, to
avoid some at least of the ill endured by the pioneers of the expedition.
On September 19th a party of two hundred and eighty-five left Ugarrowa's;
fifty-six remained behind in charge of the Arabs, being too ill to travel.
Till October 6th the country through which they passed had been
laid waste by Ugarrowa's relentless Arab raiders ; no human being save
themselves were to be seen ; every growing crop had been destroyed ; so
little could now be found to satisfy the pangs of hunger, that in sixteen days
eight men died and fifty-two became too exhausted to go on. Captain Nelson,
himself crippled by ulcers, was left in charge of the sick and eighty-two loads,
at a place by the side of the river ; the rest pushed on in search of food for
themselves and comrades. For twelve days they wandered through a dreary
forest, meeting no one, and subsisting on wild fruit and fungi. At last on
October iSth they found a village belonging to the Manyuema, but by this
time twenty-two of their number had died or deserted, and those who still
lived were in a pitiable condition, most of them being reduced to living
skeletons.
When the Relief Party reached Captain Nelson, only five of his party of
fifty-two were left. Some were dead, others had deserted, and of twenty who
had started off to seek for food only ten came back.
On the 2Sth of October they pursued their march through a further
7b
618 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
desolated tract, till at the end of twelve days they came to Ibwiri. Here they
found a land of plenty, and stayed to recover strength.
From Ibwiri they had started on November 24th, having lost seventy-
three by desertion and death since their departure from Ugarrowa's. In these
last stages, between Ibwiri and the lake, they had found themselves in a
district as yet unvisited by the plundering, destroying Arab hordes, and
suffered no more from hunger. December 13th saw them at the Albert Lake.
From the time of their leaving Ibwiri to their return, January 7th, 1888, five
men had died — three of them from the hardships endured in the region of
"the Shadow of Death" through which they had come — making a total of
one hundred and eighteen since their meeting with the Manyuema. The
Expedition had suffered as much in the Manyuema Camp as in the forest
solitudes, for the cupidity of the Arabs wrung from the necessities of the
almost starving people nearly everything entrusted to their use, or that they
could steal from their officers ; and then they received so little food in
exchange that they profited nothing by their unprincipled conduct. Not
content with this, the Arabs practised many cruelties on the hapless creatures,
even killing one by their barbarities.
Notwithstanding all they had endured and might expect from their
tormentors, it seemed impossible to inspire some of them with hope and
courage to continue their march, and they utterly refused to believe that
presently they would come upon happier regions. Thirty-eight were left at
the camp, and of these only sixteen had rejoined the Expedition.
Dr. Parke and Captain Nelson were left behind at Kilinga Longa's in
charge of the boat and seventy loads, the men being too enfeebled to carry
them, and it was hoped that a canoe might be obtained at the lake, or tree
large enough to provide one. In this hope they were disappointed, and
turned their steps once more to Fort Bodo, there to wait the arrival of their
own boat from the Manyuema Settlement. Two days before the letter was
written Lieutenant Stairs and one hundred men had come into camp with the
boat and thirty-seven loads.
" You will understand, then," continued Mr. Stanley, " that Emin Pasha
not being found or relieved by us made it as much necessary that we should
devote ourselves to this work as it was imperative when we set out June 28,
18S7, from Yambuya. And you will also understand how anxious we are all
about you. We dread your inexperience and your want of influence with your
people. If with me people preferred the society of the Manyuema blackguards
to me, who am known to them for twenty years, how much more so with you,
a stranger to them and their language ! Therefore the cords of anxiety are
strained to exceeding tension. I am pulled east to Emin Pasha, and drawn
west to you, your comrades, people, and goods.
"According to my calculation we shall ba on the lake April loth. All
TIPPU-TIB'S TREACHERY. G19
about Emin Pasha will be settled by April 25th. On the 13th of May we
shall be back here, and on the 29th we shall be at Ugarrowa's, if we have not
met you. We shall surely, I hope, meet with the return messenger. Re
these messengers, I should advise your keeping two of them as guides — Ruga,
Rugu — in front, but they should be free of loads. Send the eighteen and
two others back to me as soon as you can, because the sooner we hear
from you the sooner we will join hands ; and after settling the Emin Pasha
question we shall have only one anxiety, which will be to get you safely up
here."
Mr. Stanley then gave positive orders that in the event of Tippu-Tib
having failed him the Major was to take his force to one of the three first
places marked on the sketch-map, Mugwes, Aveyshebas, or Nepoko con-
fluence, whichever he found himself nearest ; then fortify his position, and
await the coming of relief.
It is now necessary to describe the fortunes of the rear-guard, about
■whom Stanley had so many anxieties.
In June 1887 the officers, men, and stores left at Bolobo embarked on the
" Stanley " steamer, and on August 1 7th joined the camp at Yambuya. Tippu-
Tib's porters had not come in ; but in spite of Mr. Stanley's express verbal
instructions to Major Barttelot to move, if possible, the next day after the
arrival of the " Stanley," and not to wait for Tippu-Tib, who would be there
by that time if he intended to keep faith with them at all, it was decided to
wait on in the hope of his coming — an error followed by the most disastrous
results.
Weeks and months passed, and hope was still deferred. Instead of send-
ing the promised help, it is plain to see that the Arab chief, for his own
reasons, was doing all that lay in his power to hinder the advance.
During this period of dreary inactivity sickness fell upon the camp.
Dysentery and fever carried off many of their men. Mr. Rose Troup, " in
a terrible condition of debility," was obliged to be sent home. Some of them
actually died of starvation, for Salim-bin-Mahomed, Tippu's representative,
established a strong Arab camp in the immediate neighbourhood of Major
Barttelot's camp, and prohibited the natives from selling food to them. He
also ordered his men to break up the canoes of the white men, and claimed
for his use the stores of the Expedition. It is probable that he was restrained
from further mischief by the knowledge that Mr. Ward had been sent down
the river to the coast to send messages by telegraph to England. In con-
sequence of the news transmitted, a message was received from home by the
British Consul at Zanzibar, and in response to the representations made by
him to Tippu-Tib, Salim-bin-Mahomed was withdrawn.
Mr. Jameson was sent to Tippu-Tib to rouse him to perform his engage-
ment, and extracted from him fair promises, but no written contract.
620 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Major Barttelot joined Mr. Jameson at Stanley Falls at the end of May
1888, for a conference with Tippy. He now offered the services of 400 men
just brought up from Kasengo, who could start at once, as soon as their loads
were prepared. He also introduced the Arab, Muni Somai, who volunteered
to accompany the Expedition as head man of the Manyema carriers, to be
responsible for them and their loads. The Major accepted his services, and
returned to Camp Yambuya May 3rd.
On June 4th Tippu-Tib arrived himself at the camp, and professed
himself unable to supply any additional carriers, except thirty men of Muni
Somai.
The next opportunity of impeding progress offered itself in apportioning
the loads. In writing to the President of the Relief Committee at this time,
Major Barttelot says : — " This morning I had the loads for Tippu-Tib's and
Muni Somai's men stacked, and Tippu-Tib himself came down to see them prior
to issuing. However, he took exception to the loads, said they were too heavy
(the heaviest was forty-five pounds), and his men could not carry them. Two
days before he had expressed his approbation of the weight of the very same
loads he refused today. I pointed out to him that he as well as I knew the
difficulty of getting any load other than a bale to scale the exact weight, and
that the loads his men carried were far above the prescribed weight of sixty
pounds. We were to have started to-morrow, so we shall not now start
till the nth or 12th of June, as I am going to make all his loads weigh
exactly forty pounds. The average weight over due was about two pounds,
some loads being two pounds under. But it is not the weight of the
loads he takes exception to — in reality it is having to perform the business
at all."
There is little doubt that the real object of Tippu-Tib was to possess
himself of some of the ammunition of the Expedition, for it was the loads
containing powder and cartridges whose weight appeared to him so
oppressive. In the same letter referred to above. Major Barttelot says : —
" I am sorry to say our loss of ammunition by the lightening of the loads — for
it was the ammunition they particularly took notice of — is something enormous."
The Major's intention was to follow Mr. Stanley's route, and if he heard
nothing of him to march as far as Kavalli ; failing news there, to Kibero. As
soon as he could discover his whereabouts, he would do his best to reach him.
If he could gain no information about him at the Nyanza, he would go on to
Wadelai to inquire of Emin Pasha for news of him, and would make every
effort to find and aid him wherever he might be. If nothing else remained for
him to do, he would offer himself and force as escort to Emin Pasha, if he
were willing to come away.
The rear column started June iith, and reached Banalya July i8th.
Here they halted, and in the evening the natives indulged in noisy merriment.
MURDER OF MAJOR BARTTELOT. G21
It appears from the story of Mr. Wauters that the Major was unable to bear
the noise, and gave orders for the singing and dancing to cease. For some
hours there was silence in the camp, but soon after midnight the discordant
sounds were heard again. Major Barttelot, too indignant at this open neglect
of his orders to regard Mr. Bonny's attempts to dissuade him from interference,
strode off to the carriers' quarters, and finding a woman singing and tomtoming
before one of the huts, threatened to have her punished. On this her husband,
Sanga, one of the Manyema, raised his gun and fired, and the Major fell
lifeless ; and Mr. Bonny, alarmed by the report, rushed out to find the men
flying hither and thither, and crying, " The white man is dead."
This account confirms the almost incredible statement made to Mr.
Werner by one of his own people, and also by several of Tippu-Tib's people,
that Tippu had told his Manyema to shoot the Major if he did not treat them
well.
As nearly all the carriers had taken flight, Mr. Bonny and Mr. Jameson,
the only two officers left, decided that one must go to Stanley Falls and get
fresh carriers, if possible, while the other remained at the camp.
The murderer, who had been seized at once, was given in charge of Mr.
Jameson, to be delivered into the hands of the authorities of the Free State at
Stanley Falls, and was afterwards tried and executed.
When Mr. Jameson had concluded his business at Stanley Falls, he left
for Bangala to meet Mr. Ward, who had been sent to the coast to receive any
instructions which might be telegraphed from England. The boat's crew were
Manyemas, and after a two or three days' voyage, some natives on the river
banks perceiving them, and supposing them to belong to a party of Arab raiders,
made ready to attack them. The men therefore told Mr. Jameson, who, feeling
very unwell, was lying down under a mat in the bottom of a canoe. He rose at
once, and stood in the blazing sun waving his hat to the natives. At the sight
of the white man they ceased to molest them, but Mr. Jameson was seized
with fever, the consequence of exposure, and during the eight days and nights
which elapsed before Bangala was reached, lay helpless in the bottom of the
canoe, his clothes saturated with water which had gathered there, with nothing
to quench his thirst but river water. He lived two days only after his arrival
at Bangala, having kept himself alive, as Mr. Ward said, "by sheer pluck."
He had held out by force of will till he had found Ward, and then, worn out
with suffering, had died.
On the day of Mr. Jameson's death Mr. Stanley was at Banalaya, about
600 miles east from Bangala, in the midst of the sorrowful remnant of the rear-
guard.
The fearful state of the place is described in Mr. Stanley's own words : —
"We witnessed," he says, "in that crowded pestful village wherein the
unfortunate remnant of the rear column was housed, enough of the miseries
622 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
that they had endured. The small-pox was raging ; there were six bodies
uninterred in the village ; the reek of the crowded village was overpowering ;
dozens of disfigured men passed constantly before our eyes ; and if any
member of the rear column presented himself to us for recognition, we saw
only a living skeleton, a creature stricken with anaemia, or a poor man whose
pitiful state of mind and body was most awfully expressed by hollow cheeks,
woe-begone face, and eyes brimful of grief or anxiety."
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Stanley Making Ready for the March Forward- — Letter to Sir William
Mackinnon — Story of his Movements since June 28, 1887.
DISMAYED as he must have been by the accumulation of misfortunes
now disclosed to him, Mr. Stanley at once set to work, with Mr. Bonny's
help, to make ready for the march forward. The same day he wrote his
letter to Tippu-Tib, through which the first news of his safety reached Europe.
In that letter he told the faithless and wily chief that his search for the two
white men had been successful, that the Pasha possessed stores of wealth in
ivory, cattle, sheep, goats, and fowls, with all kinds of food, and that his
generosity was great in bestowing gifts on the white and black men who had
assisted him. He then asked Tippu-Tib if he were prepared to accompany
him on his return journey, and tried to encourage him to do so by showing
that it would not be such a difficult undertaking, as the route was now
well known.
The letter was taken to Stanley Falls by a messenger, and from thence
forwarded to Brussels, reaching that place January 15th, 18S9.
But Tippu-Tib was not to be persuaded. Probably he was not at all
desirous of meeting Stanley after so grossly breaking faith with him.
The following letter addressed to Sir William Mackinnon contains a brief
account of Mr. Stanley's proceedings up to January 17th, 1S8S : —
" Sir, — I propose to relate to you the story of our movements since June
28th, 1887.
" I had established an intrenched and palisaded camp at Yambuya, on
the Lower Aruwimi, just below the first rapids. Major Edmund Barttelot,
being senior of those officers with me, was appointed commandant. Mr. J. S.
Jameson, a volunteer, was associated with him. On the arrival of all men
and goods from Bolobo and Stanley Pool, the officers still behind, INIessrs.
Troup, Ward, and Bonny, were to report to Major Barttelot for duty. But no
important action or movement (according to letter of instructions given by me
to the major before leaving) was to be made without consulting with Messrs.
Jameson, Troup, and Ward. The column under Major Barttelot's orders
mustered two hundred and fifty-seven men.
C24 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
" As I requested the major to send you a copy of the instructions issued
to each officer, you are doubtless aware that the major was to remain at
Yambuya until the arrival of the steamer from Stanley Pool with the officers,
men, and goods left behind ; and, if Tippu-Tib's promised contingent of
carriers had in the meantime arrived, he was to march his column and follow
our track, which, so long as it traversed the forest region, would be known by
the blazing of the trees, by our camps and zaribas, etc. If Tippu-Tib's
carriers did not arrive, then, if he (the major) preferred moving on to staying at
Yambuya, he was to discard such things as mentioned in letter of instructions,
and commence making double and triple journeys by short stages, until I
should come down from the Nyanza and relieve him. The instructions were
explicit, and, as the officers admitted, intelligible.
" The advance column, consisting of three hundred and eighty-nine
officers and men, set out from Yambuya June 28th, 1887, The first day we
followed the river bank, marched twelve miles, and arrived in the large district
of Yankonde. At our approach the natives set fire to their villages, and under
cover of the smoke attacked the pioneers who were clearing the numerous
obstructions they had planted before the first village. The skirmish lasted
fifteen minutes. The second day we followed a path leading inland, but
trending east. We followed this path for five days through a dense popula-
tion. Every art known to native minds for molesting, impeding, and wounding
an enemy was resorted to ; but we passed through without the loss of a man.
Perceiving that the path was taking us too far from our course, we cut a
north-easterly track, and reached the river again on July 5th. From this date
until October i8th we followed the left bank of the Aruwimi. After seventeen
days' continuous marching we halted one day for rest. On the twenty-fourth
day from Yambuya we lost two men by desertion. In the month of July we
made four halts only. On August ist the first death occurred, which was
from dysentery ; so that for thirty-four days our course had been singularly
.successful. But as we now entered a wilderness, which occupied us nine days
in marching through it, our sufferings began to multiply, and several deaths
occurred. The river at this time was of great use to us ; our boat and several
canoes relieved the wearied and sick of their loads, so that progress, though
not brilliant, as during the first month, was still steady.
"On August 13th we arrived at Air-Sibba. The natives made a bold
front ; we lost five men through poisoned arrows ; and to our great grief
Lieutenant Stairs was wounded just below the heart ; but, though he suffered
greatly for nearly a month, he finally recovered. On the 15th Mr. Jephson,
in command of the land party, led his men inland, became confused, and lost
his way. We were not re-united until the 21st.
" On August 25th we arrived in the district of Air-jeli. Opposite our
camp was the mouth of the tributary Nepoko.
ARAB DEVASTATION. G25
"On August 31st we met for the first time a party of Manyuema
belonging to the caravan of Ugarrowwa, alias Uledi Balyuz, who turned out
to be aTormer tent-boy of Speke's. Our misfortunes began from this date, for
I had taken the Congo route to avoid Arabs, that they might not tamper wuh
my men and tempt them to desert by their presents. Twenty-six men
deserted within three days of this unfortunate meeting.
"On September 16th we arrived at a camp opposite the station at
Ugarrowwa's. As food was very scarce, owing to his having devastated an
immense region, we halted but one day near him. Such friendly terms as I
could make with such a man I made, and left fifty-six men with him. All the
Somalis. preferred to rest at Ugarrowwa's to the continuous marching. Five
Soudanese were also left. It would have been certain death for all of them to
have accompanied us. At Ugarrowwa's they might possibly recover. Five
dollars a month per head was to be paid to this man for their food.
" On September iSth we left Ugarrowwa's, and on October i8th entered
the settlement occupied by Kilinga-Longa, a Zanzibar! slave belonging to
Abed-bin-Salim, an old Arab, whose bloody deeds are recorded in ' The
Congo and the Founding of its Free State.' This proved an awful month to
us ; not one member of the Expedition, white or black, will ever forget it.
The advance numbered two hundred and seventy-three souls on leaving
Ugarrowwa's, because out of three hundred and eighty-nine we had lost sixty-
six men by desertion and death between Yambuya and Ugarrowwa's, and had
left fifty-six men sick in the Arab station. On reaching Kilinga-Longa's we
discovered we had lost fifty-five men by starvation and desertion. We had lived
principally on wild fruit, fungi, and a large, flat, bean-shaped nut. The slaves of
Abed-bin-Salim did their utmost to ruin the Expedition short of open hostilities.
They purchased rifles, ammunition, clothing, so that when we left their station
we were beggared and our men were absolutely naked. We were so weak
physically that we were unable to carry the boat and about seventy loads of
goods ; we therefore left these goods and boat at KIlInga-Longa's, under
Surgeon Parke and Captain Nelson, the latter of whom was unable to march,
and, after twelve days' march, we arrived at a native settlement called Ibwiri,
Between Kilinga-Longa's and Ibwiri our condition had not improved. The
Arab devastation had reached within a few miles of Ibwiri — a devastation so
complete that there was not one native hut standing between Ugarrowwa's and
Ibwiri, and what had not been destroyed by the slaves of Ugarrowwa's and
Abed-bin-Salim the elephants destroyed, and turned the whole region into a
horrible wilderness. But at Ibwiri we were beyond the utmost reach of the
destroyers ; we were on virgin soil, in a populous region abounding with food.
Our sufferings from hunger, which began on August 31st, terminated on
November 12th. Ourselves and men were skeletons. Out of three hundred
and elohty-nlne we now only numbered one hundred and seventy-four, several
79
G2G STANLEY AND AFRICA.
of whom seemed to have no hope of life left. A halt was therefore ordered
for the people to recuperate. Hitherto our people were sceptical of what we
told them. The suffering had been so awful, calamities so numerous, the
forest so endless apparently, that they refused to believe that by-and-by we
should see plains, and cattle, and the Nyanza, and the white man, Emin Pasha.
We felt as though we were dragging them along with a chain round our necks.
' Beyond these raiders lies a country untouched, where food is abundant, and
where you will forget your miseries ; so cheer up, boys ; be men, press on a
little faster.' They turned a deaf ear to our prayers and entreaties, for, driven
by hunger and suffering, they sold their rifles and equipments for a few ears of
Indian corn, deserted with the ammunition, and were altogether demoralised.
Perceiving that prayers and entreaties and mild punishments were of no avail,
I then resolved to visit upon the wretches the death penalty. Two of the
worst cases were accordingly taken and hanged in presence of all.
"We halted thirteen days in Ibwiri, and revelled on fowls, goats, bananas,
corn, sweet potatoes, yams, beans, etc. The supplies were inexhaustible, and
the people glutted themselves ; the effect was such that I had one hundred and
seventy-three — one was killed by an arrow — mostly sleek and robust men
when I set out for the Albert Nyanza on November 24th.
" We were still one hundred and twenty-six miles from the Lake ; but,
given food, such a distance seemed nothing.
" On December ist we sighted the open country from the top of a ridge
connected with Mount Pisgah — so named from our first view of the land of
promise and plenty. On December 5th we emerged upon the plains, and the
deadly, gloomy forest was behind us. After one hundred and sixty days'
continuous gloom we saw the light of broad day shining all around us and
making all things beautiful. We thought we had never seen grass so green or
country so lovely. The men literally yelled and leaped with joy, and raced
over the ground with their burdens. Ah ! this was the old spirit of former
expeditions successfully completed all of a sudden revived.
" Woe betide the native aggressor we may meet, however powerful he
may be ; with such a spirit the men will fling themselves like wolves on sheep.
Numbers will not be considered. It had been the eternal forest that had
made the abject, slavish creatures, so brutally plundered by Arab slaves, at
Kilinga-Longa's.
" On the gth we came to the country of the powerful chief Mazamboni.
The villages were scattered over a great extent of country so thickly that there
was no other road except through their villages or fields. From a long
distance the natives had sighted us and were prepared. We seized a hill as
soon as we arrived in the centre of a mass of villages about 4 p.m. on December
9th, and occupied it, building a zariba as fast as billhooks could cut brushwood.
The war-cries were terrible from hill to hill ; they were sent pealing across the
WAR DECLARED BY NATIVES. 027
intervening valleys ; the people gathered by hundreds from every point ; war-
horns and drums announced that a struggle was about to take place. Such
natives as were too bold we checked with but little effort, and a slight skirmish
ended in us capturing a cow, the first beef tasted since we left the ocean. The
night passed peacefully, both sides preparing for the morrow. On the morning
of the loth we attempted to open negotiations. The natives were anxious to
know who we were, and we were anxious to glean news of the land that
threatened to ruin the Expedition. Hours were passed talking, both parties
keeping a respectable distance apart. The natives said they were subject to
Uganda; but that Kaba Rega was their real king, Mazamboni holding the
country for Kaba Rega. They finally accepted cloth and brass rods to show
their King Mazamboni, and his answer was to be given next day. In the
meantime all hostilities were to be suspended.
" The morning of the nth dawned, and at 8 a.m. we were startled at hear-
ing a man proclaiming that it was Mazamboni's wish that we should be driven
back from the land. The proclamation was received by the valley around our
neighbourhood with deafening cries. Their word ' kanwana ' signifies to
make peace, ' kurwana ' signifies war. We were therefore in doubt, or, rather,
we hoped we had heard wrongly. We sent an interpreter a little nearer to
ask if it was kanwana or kurwana. ' Kurwana,' they responded, and, to
emphasise the term, two arrows were shot at him, which dissipated all doubt.
Our hill stood between a lofty range of hills and a lower range. On one side
of us was a narrow valley two hundred and fifty yards wide. On the other
side the valley was three miles wide. East and west of us the valley
broadened into an extensive plain. The higher range of hills was lined with
hundreds preparing to descend ; the broader valley was already mustering its
hundreds. There was no time to lose. A body of forty men were sent,
under Lieutenant Stairs, to attack the broader valley. Mr. Jephson was sent
with thirty men east ; a choice body of sharpshooters was sent to test the
courage of those descending the slope of the highest range. Stairs pressed on,
crossed a deep and narrow river in the face of hundreds of natives, and
assaulted the first village and took it. The sharpshooters did their work
effectually, and drove the descending natives rapidly up the slope until it be-
came a general fight. Meantime Mr. Jephson was not idle. He marched
straight up the valley east, driving the people back, and taking their villages
as he went. By 3 p.m. there was not a native visible anywhere, except on
one small hill about a mile and a half west of us.
"On the morning of the 12th we continued our march; during the day
we had four little fights. On the 13th marched straight east; attacked by
new forces every hour until noon, when we halted for refreshments. These
encounters we successfully overcame.
"At I P.M. we resumed our march. Fifteen minutes later I cried out.
628 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
' Prepare yourselves for a sight of the Nyanza.' The men murmured and
doubted, and said, ' Why does the master continually talk to us in this way ?
Nyanza, indeed ! Is not this a plain, and can we not see mountains at least
four days' march ahead of us ? ' At 1.30 p.m. the Albert Nyanza was below
them. Now it was my turn to jeer and scoff at the doubters ; but as I was
about to ask them what they saw, so many came to kiss my hands and beg my
pardon that I could not say a word. This was my reward. The mountains,
they said, were the mountains of Unyoro — or, rather, its lofty plateau wall.
Kavalli, the objective point of the Expedition, was six miles from us as the
crow flies.
"We were at an altitude of 5200 feet above the sea. The Albert
Nyanza was over 2900 feet below us. We stood in i deg. 20 min. N. lat. ;
the south end of the Nyanza lay largely mapped about six miles south of this
position. Right across to the eastern shore every dent in its low, flat shore
was visible, and traced like a silver snake on a dark ground was the tributary
Laniliki, flowing into the Albert from the south-west.
" After a short halt to enjoy the prospect, we commenced the rugged and
stony descent. Before the rear-guard had descended one hundred feet, the
natives of the plateau we had just left poured after them. Had they shown
as much courage and perseverance on the plain as they now exhibited we
might have been seriously delayed. The rear-guard was kept very busy
until within a few hundred feet of the Nyanza plain. We camped at the foot
of the plateau wall, the aneroids reading two thousand five hundred feet above
sea-level. A night attack was made on us, but our sentries sufficed to drive
these natives away.
"At 9 A.M. on the 14th we approached the village of Kakongo, situate
at the south-west corner of the Albert Lake. Three hours were spent by us
attempting to make friends. We signally failed. They would not allow us to
go to the lake because we might frighten their cattle. They would not
exchange blood-brotherhood with us because they never heard of any good
people coming from the west side of the lake. They would not accept any
present from us because they did not know who we were. They would give
us water to drink, and they would show us our road up to Nyam Sassic. But
from these singular people we learnt that they had heard there was a white
man at Unyoro, but they had never heard of any white men being on the
west side, nor had they seen any steamers on the lake. There were no canoes
to be had, except such as would hold the men, etc.
"There was no excuse for quarrelling ; the people were civil enough, but
they did not want us near them. We therefore were shown the path, and
followed it a few miles, when we camped about half a mile from the lake.
We began to consider our position, with the light thrown upon it by the
conversation with the Kakongo natives. My couriers from Zanzibar had
MAZAMBONFS COUNTRY. G2;)
evidently not arrived, or, I presume, Emin Pasha with his two steamers
would have paid the seuth-west side of the lake a visit to prepare the natives
for our coming. My boat was at Kilinga-Longa's, one hundred and ninety
miles distant. There was no canoe obtainable, and to seize a canoe without
the excuse of a quarrel my conscience would not permit. There was no tree
anywhere of a size to make canoes. Wadelai was a terrible distance off for
an expedition so reduced as ours. We had used five cases of cartridges in
five days of fighting on the plain. A month of such fighting must exhaust our
stock. There was no plan suggested which seemed feasible to me, except
that of retreating to Ibwiri, build a fort, send a party back to Kilinga-Longa's
for our boat, store up every load in the fort not conveyable, leave a garrison
in the fort to hold it and raise corn for us, march back again to the Albert
Lake, and send the boat to search for Emin Pasha. This was the plan which,
after lengthy discussions with my officers, I resolved upon.
" On the 15th we marched to the site of Kavalli, on the west side of the
lake. Kavalli had years ago been destroyed. At 4 p.m. the Kakongo natives
had followed us and shot several arrows into our bivouac, and disappeared as
quickly as they came. At 6 p.m. we began a night march, and by 10 a.m. of
the 1 6th we had gained the crest of the plateau once more, Kakongo natives
having persisted in following us up the slope of the plateau. We had one
man killed and one wounded.
" By January 7th we were in Ibwiri once again, and, after a few days'
rest, Lieutenant Stairs, with one hundred men, was sent to Kilinga-Longa's
to bring the boat and goods up; also Surgeon Parke and Captain Nelson. Out
of the thirty-eight sick in charge of the officers only eleven men were brought
to the fort ; the rest had died or deserted. On the return of Stairs, with the
boat and goods, he was sent to Ugarrowwa's, to bring up the convalescents
there. I granted him thirty-nine days' grace. Soon after his departure I was
attacked with gastritis and an abscess on the arm, but after a month's careful
nursing by Dr. Parke I recovered, and forty-seven days having expired,
I set out again for the Albert Nyanza, April 2nd, accompanied by Messrs.
Jephson and Parke. Captain Nelson, now recovered, was appointed com-
mandant of Fort Bodo in our absence, with a garrison of forty-three men
and boys.
" On April 26th we arrived in Mazamboni's country once again, but iliis
time, after solicitation, Mazamboni decided to make blood-brotherhood with
me. Though I had fifty rifles less with me on this second visit, the example
of Mazamboni was followed by all the other chiefs as far as the Nyanza, and
every difficulty seemed removed. Food was supplied gratis : cattle, goats,
sheep, and fowls were also given in such abundance that our people lived
royally. One day's march from the Nyanza the natives came from Kavalli
and said that a white man named 'Maleiia' had given their chief a black
<330 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
packet to give to me, his son. Would I follow them ? ' Yes, to-morrow,' I
answered, 'and if your words are true I will make you rich.'
"They remained with us that night, telling us wonderful stories about
' big ships as large as islands filled with men,' etc., which left no doubt in our
minds that this white man was Emin Pasha. The next day's march brought
us to the chief of Kavalli, and after a while he handed me a note from Emin
Pasha, covered with a strip of black American oil-cloth. The note was to the
effect that as there had been a native rumour to the effect that a white man
had been seen at the south end of the lake, he had gone in his steamer to
make inquiries, but had been unable to obtain reliable information, as the
natives were terribly afraid of Kaba Rega, King of Unyoro, and connected
every stranger with him. However, the wife of the Nyam Sassic chief had
told a native ally of his named Mogo that she had seen us in Mrusuma
(Mazamboni's country). He therefore begged me to remain where I was
until he could communicate with me. The note was signed ' (Dr.) Emin,' and
■dated March 26th.
" The next day, April 23rd, Mr. Jephson was despatched with a strong
force of men to take the boat to the Nyanza. On the 26th the boat's crew
sighted Mswa station, the southernmost belonging to Emin Pasha, and Mr.
Jephson was there hospitably received by the Egyptian garrison. The boat's
crew say that they were embraced one by one, and that they never had
such attention shown to them as by these men, who hailed them as brothers.
" On April 29th we once again reached the bivouac ground occupied
by us on December i6th, and at 5 p.m. of that day I saw the 'Khedive'
steamer about seven miles away steaming up towards us. Soon after 7 p.m.
Emin Pasha and Signor Casati and Mr. Jephson arrived at our camp, where
they were heartily welcomed by all of us.
" The next day we moved to a better camping place, about three miles
above Nyam Sassic, and at this spot Emin Pasha also made his camp ; we
were together until May 25th. On that day I left him, leaving Mr. Jephson,
three Soudanese, and two Zanzibaris in his care, and in return he caused
to accompany me three of his irregulars and one hundred and two Madi
natives as porters.
" Fourteen days later I was at Fort Bodo. At the fort were Captain
Nelson and Lieutenant Stairs. The latter had returned from Ugarrowwa's
twenty-two days after I had set out for the lake, April 2nd, bringing with
him, alas ! only sixteen men out of fifty-six. All the rest were dead. My
twenty couriers whom I had sent with letters to Major Barttelot had safely
left Ugarrowwa's for Yambuya on March i6th.
" Fort Bodo was in a flourishing state. Nearly ten acres were under
cultivation. One crop of Indian corn had been harvested, and was in the
granaries ; they had just commenced planting again.
THE REAR COLUMN. 631
"On June i6th I left Fort Bodo with one hundred and eleven Zanzibaris,
and one hundred and one of Emin Pasha's people. Lieutenant Stairs had
been appointed commandanl of the fort, Nelson second in command, and
Surgeon Parke medical officer. The garrison consisted of fifty-nine rifles. I
had thus deprived myself of all my officers, in order that I should not be
encumbered with baggage and provisions and medicines, which would have to
be taken if accompanied by Europeans, and every carrier was necessary for
the vast stores left with Major Barttelot. On June 24th we reached Kilinga-
Longa's, and July 19th Ugarrowwa's. The latter station was deserted.
Ugarrowwa, having gathered as much ivory as he could obtain from that
district,, had proceeded down the river about three months before. On leaving
P'ort Bodo I had loaded every carrier with about sixty pounds of corn, so that
we had been able to pass through the wilderness unscathed.
" Passing on down river as fast as we could go, daily expecting to meet
the couriers, who had been stimulated to exert themselves for a reward of ;^io
per head, or the Major himself leading an army of carriers, we indulged
ourselves in these pleasing anticipations as we neared the goal.
" On Aueust loth we overtook Uo;-arrowwa, with an immense flotilla of
fifty-seven canoes, and to our wonder our couriers, now reduced to seventeen.
They related an awful story of hairbreadth escapes and tragic scenes. Three
of their number had been slain, two were still feeble from their wounds, all
except five bore on their bodies the scars of arrow wounds.
"A week later, on August 17th, we met the rear column of the Expedi-
tion at a place called Bunalya, or, as the Arabs have corrupted it, Unarya.
There was a white man at the gate of the stockade who I at first thought was
Mr. Jameson ; but a nearer view revealed the features of Mr. Bonny, who left
the medical service of the army to accompany us.
" 'Well, my dear Bonny, where is the Major?'
" ' He is dead, sir ; shot by the Manyuema about a month ago.'
" ' Good God ! And Mr. Jameson } '
" ' He has gone to Stanley Falls to try and get some more men from
Tippu-Tib.'
'"And Mr. Troup.?'
" ' Mr. Troup has gone home, sir, invalided.'
" ' Hem 1 Well, where is Ward ? '
" ' Mr. Ward is at Bangala, sir.'
" ' Heavens alive ! then you are the only one here ? '
" ' Yes, sir.'
" I found the rear column a terrible wreck. Out of two hundred and
fifty-seven men there were only seventy-one remaining. Out of seventy-one
only fifty- two, on mustering them, seemed fit for service, and these mostly
were scarecrows. The advance had performed the march from Yambuya to
632 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Bunalya in sixteen days, despite native opposition. The rear column per-
formed the same distance in forty three days. According to Mr. Bonny,
during the thirteen months and twenty days that had elapsed since I had left
Yambuya the record is only one of disaster, desertion, and death. I have not
the heart to go into the details, many of which are incredible ; and indeed I
have not the time; for, excepting Mr. Bonny, I have no one to assist me in
re-organising the Expedition. There are still far more loads than I can carry,
at the same time articles needful are missing. For instance, I left Yambuya
with only a short campaigning kit, leaving my reserve of clothing and personal
effects in charge of the officers. -.' In December some deserters from the
advance column reached Yambuya to spread the report that I was dead.
They had no papers with them, but the officers seemed to accept the report of
these deserters as a fact, and in January Mr. Ward, at an officers' mess
meeting, proposed that my instructions should be cancelled. The only one
who appears to have dissented was Mr. Bonny. Accordingly my personal
kit, medicines, soap, candles, and provisions were sent down the Congo as
' superfluities ' ! Thus, after making this immense personal sacrifice to relieve
them and cheer them up, I find myself naked, and deprived of even the
necessaries of life in Africa. But, strange to say, they have kept two hats
and four pairs of boots and a flannel jacket, and I propose to go back to Emin
Pasha and across Africa with this truly African kit. Livingstone, poor fellow,
was all in patches when I met him, but it will be the reliever himself who will
be in patches this time. Fortunately not one of my officers will envy me, for
their kits are intact — it was only myself that was dead.
" I pray you to say that we were only eighty-two days from the Albert
Lake to Bunalya, and sixty-one from Fort Bodo. The distance is not very
great — it is the people who fail one. Going to Nyanza we felt as though we
had the tedious task of dragging them ; on returning each man knew the road,
and did not need any stimulus. Between the Nyanza and here we only lost
three men — one of which was by desertion. I brought 131 Zanzibaris here, I
left 59 at Fort Bodo — total, 190 men out of 389; loss, 50 per cent. At
Yambuya I left 257 men, there are only 71 left, ten of whom will never leave
this camp — loss, over 70 per cent. This proves that though the sufferings of
the advance were unprecedented, the mortality was not so great as in camp at
Yambuya. The survivors of the march are all robust, while the survivors of
the rear column are thin and most unhealthy-looking.
" I have thus rapidly sketched out our movements since June 28th, 18S7.
I wish I had the leisure to furnish more details, but I cannot find the time. I
write this amid the hurry and bustle of departure, and amid constant interrup-
tions. You will, however, have gathered from this letter an idea of the nature
of the country traversed by us. We were one hundred and sixty days in the
forest — one continuous, unbroken, compact forest. The grassland was
A SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAIN. G33
traversed by us in eight days. The limits of the forest along the edge of the
grassland are well marked. We saw it extending north-easterly, with its
curves, and bays, and capes, just like a sea-shore. South-westerly it pre-
served the same character. North and south the forest area extends from
Nyangwe to the southern borders of the Monbuttu ; east and west it embraces
all from the Congo, at the mouth of the Aruwimi, to about east longitude 29
deg. — 40 deg. How far west beyond the Congo the forest reaches I do not
know. The superficial extent of the tract thus described — totally covered by
forest — is 246,000 square miles. North of the Congo, between Upoto and
the Aruwimi, the forest embraces another 20,000 square miles.
"Between Yambuya and the Nyanza we came across five distinct
languages. The last is that which is spoken by the Wanyoro, Wanyankori,
Wanya Ruanda, Wahha, and people of Karangwe and Ukerewe.
"The land slopes gendy from the crest of the plateau above the Nyanza
down to the Congo river from an altitude of 5500 feet to 1400 feet above the
sea. North and south of our track through the grassland the face of the land
was much broken by groups of cones or isolated mounts or ridges. North we
saw no land higher than about 6000 feet above the sea; but bearing 215
degrees magnetic, at the distance of about fifty miles from our camp on the
Nyanza, we saw a towering mountain, its summit covered with snow, and
probably 17,000 feet or 18,000 feet above the sea. It is called Ruevenzori,
and will probably prove a rival to Kilmanjaro. I am not sure that it may not
prove to be the Gordon Bennett Mountain in Gambaragara, but there are two
reasons for doubting it to be the same— first, it is a little too far west for
the position of the latter as given by me in 1876 ; and, secondly, we saw no
snow on the Gordon Bennett. I might mention a third, which is that the
latter is a perfect cone apparently, while the Ruevenzori is an oblong mount,
nearly level on the summit, with two ridges extending north-east and south-
west.
" I have met only three natives who have seen the lake towards the
south. They agree that it is large, but not so large as the Albert Nyanza.
" The Aruwimi becomes known as the Suhali about one hundred miles
above Yambuya ; as it nears the Nepoko it is called the Nevoa ; beyond its
confluence with the Nepoko it is known as the No-Welle ; three hundred
miles from the Congo it is called the Iteri, which is soon changed into the
Ituri, which name it retains to its source. Ten minutes' march from the Ituri
waters we saw the Nyanza, like a mirror in its immense gulf.
" Before closing my letter let me touch more at large on the subject
which brought me to this land— viz., Emin Pasha.
"The Pasha has two battalions of regulars under him — the first, consist-
ing of about 750 rifles, occupies Duffle, Honyu, Lahore, IMuggi, Kirri,
Bedden, Rejaf; the second battalion, consisting of 640 men, guard the
bO
G34 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
stations of Wadelai, Fatiko, Mahagi, and Mswa, a line of communications
along the Nyanza and Nile about iSo geographical miles in length. In the
interior west of the Nile he retains three or four small stations — fourteen in all.
Besides these two battalions he has quite a respectable force of irregulars,
sailors, artisans, clerks, servants. 'Altogether,' he said, 'if I consent to go
away from here we shall have about 8000 people with us.'
" ' Were I in your place I would not hesitate one moment, or be a second
in doubt what to do.'
" ' What you say is quite true, but we have such a large number of women
and children, probably 10,000 people altogether. How can they all be brought
out of here .'' W^e shall want a great number of carriers.'
" ' Carriers ! carriers for what ? ' I asked.
" ' For the women and children. You surely would not leave them, and
they cannot travel.'
" ' The women must walk. It will do them more good than harm. As for
the little children, load them on the donkeys — I hear you have about two
hundred of them. Your people will not travel very far the first month, but
little by little they will get accustomed to it. Our Zanzibar women crossed
Africa on my second expedition. Why cannot your black women do the
same ? Have no fear of them ; they will do better than the men,'
" ' They would require a vast amount of provision for the road.'
" ' True, but you have some thousands of cattle, I believe. Those will
furnish beef The countries through which we pass must furnish grain and
vegetable food.'
" ' Well, well, we will defer further talk till to-morrow.'
"May ist, 1888. — Halt in camp at Nsabe. The Pasha came ashore
from the steamer ' Khedive' about i p.m., and in a short time we commenced
our conversation again. Many of the arguments used above were repeated,
and he said : —
" ' What you told me yesterday has led me to think that it is best we
should retire from here. The Egyptians are very willing to leave. There
are of these about one hundred men, besides their women and children.
Of these there is no doubt, and even if I stayed here I should be glad to
be rid of them, because they undermine my authority and nullify all my
endeavours for retreat. When I informed them that Khartoum had fallen
and Gordon Pasha was slain, they always told the Nubians that it was a
concocted story ; that some day we should see the steamers ascend the river
for their relief But of the regulars who compose the ist and 2nd battalions
I am extremely doubtful ; they have led such a free and happy life here that
they would demur at leaving a country where they have enjoyed luxuries
they cannot command in Egypt. The soldiers are married, and several of
them have harems. Many of the irregulars would also retire and follow me.
STANLEY AND EMIN PASHA. 633
Now, supposing the regulars refuse to leave, you can imagine that my
position would be a difficult one. Would I be right in leaving them to their
fate ? Would it not be consigning them all to ruin ? I should have to leave
them their arms and ammunition, and on returning all discipline would be at
an end. Disputes would arise, and factions would be formed. The more
ambitious would aspire to be chiefs by force, and from these rivalries would
spring hate and mutual slaughter until there would be none of them left.'
" ' Supposing you resolve to stay, what of the Egyptians }' I asked.
" ' Oh, these I shall have to ask you to be good enough to take with you.'
" ' Now, will you, Pasha, do me the favour to ask Captain Casati if we
are to have the pleasure of his company to the sea, for we have been instructed
to assist him also should we meet ? '
" Captain Casati answered through Emin Pasha —
" ' What the Governor Emin decides upon shall be the rule of conduct
for me also. If the Governor stays, I stay. If the Governor goes, I go.'
" ' Well I see, Pasha, that in the event of your staying your responsibilities
will be great.'
"A laugh. The sentence was translated to Casati, and the gallant
captain replied —
" ' Oh, I beg pardon, but I absolve the Pasha from all responsibility
connected with me, because I am governed by my own choice entirely.'
" Thus day after day I recorded faithfully the interviews I had with
Emin Pasha ; but these extracts reveal as much as is necessary for you to
understand the position. I left Mr. Jephson thirteen of my Soudanese, and
sent a message to be read to the troops, as the Pasha requested. Everything
else is left until I return with the united Expedition to the Nyanza.
" Within two months the Pasha proposed to visit Fort Bodo, taking Mr.
Jephson with him. At Fort Bodo I have left instructions to the officers to
destroy the fort and accompany the Pasha to the Nyanza. I hope to meet
them all again on the Nyanza, as I intend making a short cut to the Nyanza
along a new road. — Yours respectfully,
"Henry M. Stanley."
CHAPTER XXXV.
Continuation of Stanley s Narrative — Indecision of Emin Pasha — Sufferings,
on the March — Arrival at Unyampaka.
T
HE story is continued in Stanley's own words : —
"Camp at Kizinga, Uzinja, August 17th, 18S9.
" To the Chairman of the Emin Pasha Rehef Committee.
"Sir, — On February 17th Emin Pasha and a following of about sixty-
five people, inclusive of Selim Bey, or Colonel Selim, and seven other officers,
who were a deputation sent by the officers of the Equatorial Province, arrived
at my camp on the plateau near Kavalli's village. The Pasha was in mufti,
but the deputation were in uniform, and made quite a sensation in the
country; three of them were Egyptians, but the others were Nubians, and
were rather soldierly in their appearance, and, with one or two exceptions,
received warm commendations from the Pasha. The divan was to be held
the next day.
"On the 1 8th Lieutenant Stairs arrived with his column — largely aug-
mented by Mazamboni's people— from the Ituri River, and the Expedition
was once more united, not to be separated, I hoped, again during our stay in
Africa.
"At the meeting which was held in the morning, Selim Bey, who had
lately distinguished himself at Dufild by retaking the station from the
Mahdists and killing about two hundred and fifty of them it was said, — a tall,
burly, elderly man, of fifty or thereabouts, — stated on behalf of the deputation
and the officers at Wadelai that they came to ask for time to allow the troops
and their families to assemble at Kavalli.
"Though they knev^ what our object in coming to the Nyanza was — or
they ought to have known — I took the occasion, through the Pasha, who is
thoroughly proficient in Arabic, to explain it in detail. I wondered at the
ready manner they approved of everything, but I have since discovered that
such is their habit, though they may not believe a word you utter. I then
told them that, though I had waited nearly a year to obtain a simple answer
to the single question whether they would stay in Africa or accompany us ta
Egypt, I would give them before they departed a promise, written in Arabic,
SURGEON PARKE. 037
that I would stay a reasonable time — sufficient to enable them to embark
themselves and families, and all such as were willing to leave, on board the
steamers, and to arrive at the lake shore below our camp.
" The deputation replied that my answer was quite satisfactory, and
they promised, on their part, that they would proceed direct to Wadelai,
proclaim to all concerned what my answer was, and commence the work of
transport.
"On the 2 1st the Pasha and the deputation went down to the Nyanza
camp on account of a false alarm about the Wanyoro advancing to attack the
camp. A rifle was stolen from the Expedition by one of the officers of the
deputation. This was a bad beginning of our intercourse that was promised
to be.
"The two steamers 'Khedive' and 'Nyanza' had gone in the mean-
time to Mswa, to transport a fresh lot of refugees, and returned on the 25th,
and the next day the deputation departed on their mission ; but before they
sailed they had a mail from Wadelai, wherein they were informed that another
change of Government had taken place. Selim Bey, the highest official under
the Pasha, had been deposed, and several of the rebel officers had been
promoted to the rank of Beys. The next day the Pasha returned to our camp
with his little daughter Ferida, and a caravan of one hundred and forty-four
men.
" In reply to a question of mine, the Pasha replied that he thought twenty
days was a sufficiently reasonable time for all practical purposes, and he offered
to write it down in form. But this I declined, as I but wished to know
whether my idea of a 'reasonable time' and his differed ; for, after finding what
time was required for a steamer to make a round voyage from our old camp on
the Nyanza to Wadelai and back, I had proposed to myself that a month
would be more than sufficient for Selim Bey to collect all such people as desired
to leave for Egypt. The interval devoted to the transport of the Egyptians
from Wadelai could also be utilised by Surgeon Parke in healing our sick. At
this time the hardest-worked man in the Expedition was our surgeon. Ever
since leaving Fort Bodo, in December, Surgeon Parke attended over a hundred
sick daily. There were all kinds of complaints ; but the most numerous, and
those who gave the most trouble, were those who suffered from ulcers. So
largely had these drained our medicine chests that the surgeon had nothing
left for their diseases but pure carbolic acid and permanganate of potash.
Nevertheless, there were some wonderful recoveries during the halt of Stairs's
column on the Ituri River in January. The surgeon's ' devotion '-^there is
not a fitter word for it — his regular attention to all the minor details of his
duties, and his undoubted skill, enabled me to turn out two hundred and eighty
able-bodied men by April ist, sound in vital organs and limbs, and free from
all blemish ; whereas, on February ist, it would have been difficult to muster
638 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
two hundred men in the ranks fit for service. I do not think I ever met a
doctor who so loved his ' cases.' To him they were all ' interesting,' despite
the odours emitted and the painfully qualmish scenes. I consider this
Expedition in nothing happier than in the possession of an unrivalled
physician and surgeon, Dr. T. H. Parke of the A.M.D.
" Meantime, while ' Our Doctor' was assiduously dressing and trimming
up the ulcerous ready for the march to Zanzibar, all men fit for duty were
doing far more than either we or they bargained for. We had promised the
Pasha to assist his refugees to the Plateau Camp with a few carriers — that is,
as any ordinary man might understand it, with one or two carriers per Egyptian
— but never had people so grossly deceived themselves as we had. The loads
were simply endless, and the sight of the rubbish which the refugees brought
with them, and which were to be carried up that Plateau slope, up to an
altitude of 2800 feet above the Nyanza, made our people groan aloud. Such
things as grinding-stones, ten- gallon copper cooking pots, some two hundred
bedsteads, preposterously big baskets — like Falstaff's buck basket — old Sara-
toga trunks fit for rich American mammas, old sea-chests, great clumsy-looking
boxes, little cattle-troughs, large twelve-gallon pombe jars, parrots, pigeons,
etc. These things were pure rubbish, for all would have to be discarded at
the signal to march. Eight hundred and fifty-three loads of these goods,
however, were brought up with the assistance of the natives, subject, as they
were, to be beaten and maltreated by the vile-tempered Egyptians each time
they went down to the Nyanza. But the Zanzibaris now began to show an
ugly temper also. They knew just enough Arabic to be aware that the
obedience, tractability, and ready service they exhibited were translated by the
Egyptians into cowardice and slavishness, and after these hundreds of loads
had been conveyed they refused point blank to carry any more, and they
explained their reasons so well that we warmly sympathised with them at
heart ; but here, by this refusal, they came in contact with discipline, and
strong measures had to be resorted to to coerce them to continue the work
until the order to 'Cease' was given. On March 31st we were all heartily
tired of it, and we abandoned the interminable task. One thousand three
hundred and fifty-five loads had been transported to the Plateau from the Lake
Camp.
" Thirty days after Selim Bey's departure for Wadelai a steamer appeared
before the Nyanza Camp bringing in a letter from that officer, and also one
from all the rebel officers at Wadelai, who announced themselves as delighted,
at hearing, twelve months after my second appearance at Lake Albert, that
the ' Envoy of our Great Government ' had arrived, and that they were now
all linanimous for departing to Egypt under my escort.
" When the Pasha had mastered the contents of his mails, he came to me
to impart the information that Selim Bey had caused one steamer full of
CONFERENCE OF OFFICERS. C39
refugees to be sent up to Tunguru from Wadelai, and since that time he had
been engaged in transporting people from Dufil^ up to Wadelai. According
to this rate of progress it became quite clear that it would require three
months more — even if this effort at work, which was quite heroic in Selim
Bey, should continue — before he could accomplish the transport of the people
to the Nyanza Camp below the Plateau. The Pasha, personally elated at
what he thought to be good news, desired to know what I had determined
upon, under the new aspect of affairs.
" In reply I summoned the officers of the Expedition together — Lieutenant
Stairs, R.E., Captain R. H. Nelson, Surgeon T. H. Parke, A.M.D.,
Mounteney Jephson, Esq., and Mr. William Bonny — and proposed to them
in the Pasha's presence that they should listen to a few explanations, and
then give their decision, one by one, according as they should be asked.
" ' Gentlemen, — Emin Pasha has received a mail from Wadelai. Selim
Bey, who left the port below here on February 26th last, with a promise that
he would hurry up such people as wished to go to Egypt, writes from Wadelai
that the steamers are engaged in transporting some people from Dufild to
Wadelai ; that the work of transport between Wadelai and Tunguru will be
resumed upon the accomplishment of the other task. When he went away
from here we were informed that he was deposed, and that Emin Pasha and
he were sentenced to death by the rebel officers. We now learn that the
rebel officers, ten in number, and all their faction, are desirous of proceeding
to Egypt. We may suppose, therefore, that Selim Bey's party is in the
ascendant again.
" ' Shukri Aga, the chief of Mswa Station — the station nearest to us —
paid us a visit here in the middle of March. He was informed on March i6th,
the day that he departed, that our departure for Zanzibar would positively
begin on April loth. He took with him urgent letters for Selim Bey
announcing that fact in unmistakable terms.
" ' Eight days later we hear that Shukri Aga is still at Mswa, having
only sent a few women and children to the Nyanza Camp, yet he and his
people might have been here by this if they intended to accompany us.
" ' Thirty days ago Selim Bey left us with a promise of a reasonable
time. The Pasha thought once that twenty days would be a reasonable time.
However, we have extended it to forty-four days. Judging by the length of
time Selim Bey has already taken in only reaching Tunguru with one-
sixteenth of the expected force, I personally am quite prepared to give the
Pasha my decision. For you must know. Gentlemen, that the Pasha, having
heard from Selim Bey "intelligence so encouraging," wishes to know my
decision, but I have preferred to call you to answer for me.
" ' You are aware that our instructions were to carry relief to Emin Pasha,
and to escort such as were willing to accompany us to Egypt. We arrived at
010 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
the Nyanza, and met Emin Pasha in the latter part of April iS88, just twelve
months aeo. We handed him his letters from the Khedive and his Govern-
ment, and also the first instalment of relief, and asked him whether we were to
have the pleasure of his company to Zanzibar. He replied that his decision
depended on that of his people.
" ' This was the first adverse news that we received. Instead of meeting
with a number of people only too anxious to leave Africa, it was questionable
whether there would be any except a few Egyptian clerks. With Major
Barttelot so far distant in the rear, we could not wait at the Nyanza for this
decision, as that might possibly require months ; it would be more profitable
to seek and assist the rear column, and by the time we arrived here again,
those willing to go to Egypt would be probably impatient to start. We
therefore, leaving Mr. Jephson to convey our message to the Pasha's troops,
returned to the Forest Region for the rear column, and in nine months were
back again on the Nyanza. But instead of discovering a camp of people
anxious and ready to depart from Africa, we find no camp at all, but hear that
both the Pasha and Mr. Jephson are prisoners, that the Pasha has been in
imminent danger of his life from the rebels, and at another time is in danger
of being bound on his bedstead and taken to the interior of Makkaraka
country. It has been current talk in the province that we were only a party
of conspirators and adventurers, that the letters of the Khedive and Nubar
Pasha were forgeries concocted by the vile Christians Stanley and Casati,
assisted by Mohammed Emin Pasha. So elated have the rebels been by
their bloodless victory over the Pasha and Mr. Jephson, that they have
confidently boasted of their purpose to entrap me by cajoling words, and strip
our Expedition of every article belonging to it, and send us adrift into the
wilds to perish. We need not dwell on the ingratitude of these men, or on
their intense ignorance and evil natures, but you must bear in mind the facts
to guide you to a clear decision.
"'We believed when we volunteered for this work that we should be
met with open arms. We were received with indifference, until we were led
to doubt whether any j^eople wished to depart. My representative was made
a prisoner, menaced with rifles ; threats were freely used, the Pasha was
deposed, and for three months was a close prisoner. I am told this is the
third revolt in the province. Well, in the face of all this we have waited
nearly twelve months to obtain the few hundreds of unarmed men, women,
and children in this camp. As I promised Selim Bey and his officers
that I would give a reasonable time, Selim Bey and his officers promised to
us there should be no delay. The Pasha has already fixed April loth, which
extended their time to forty-four days, sufficient for three round voyages for
each steamer. The news brought today is not that Selim Bey is close here,
but that he has not started from Wadelai yet.
STANLEY'S DECISION. 04 1
" ' In addition to his own friends, who are said to Ije loyal and fjbcdient
to him, he brings the ten rebel officers and some six or seven hundred
soldiers, their faction.
" ' Rememberins: the three revolts which these same officers have
inspired, their pronounced intentions towards this Expedition, their plots
and counter-plots, the life of conspiracy and smiling treachery they have led,
we may well pause to consider what object principally animates them now —
that from being ungovernably rebellious against all constituted authority,
they have suddenly become obedient and loyal soldiers of the Khedive and
his " Great Government." You must be aware that, exclusive of the thirty-
one boxes of ammunition delivered to the Pasha by us in May 1888, the
rebels possess ammunition of the Provincial Government equal to twenty
of our cases. We are bound to credit them with intelligence enough to
perceive that such a small supply would be fired in an hour's fighting among
so many rifles, and that only a show of submission and apparent loyalty will
ensure a further supply from us. Though the Pasha brightens up each time
he obtains a plausible letter from these people, strangers, as we are, may
be forgiven for not readily trusting these men, whom we have such good
cause to mistrust. Could we have some guarantee of good faith, there could
be no objection to delivering to them all they required — that is, with the
permission of the Pasha. Can we be certain, however, that, if we admit them
into this camp as good friends and loyal soldiers of Egypt, they will not rise
up some night and possess themselves of all the ammunition, and so deprive
us of the power of returning to Zanzibar? It would be a very easy matter
for them to do so, after they had acquired the knowledge of the rules of the
camp. With our minds filled with Mr. Jephson's extraordinary revelations of
what has been going on in the Province since the closing of the Nile route,
beholding the Pasha here before my very eyes — who was lately sujDposed to
have several thousands of people under him, but now without any important
following — and bearing in mind "the cajolings" and " wiles " by which we
were to be entrapped, I ask you, would we be wise in extending the time of
delay beyond the date fixed — that is, April loth .'' '
" The officers, one after another, replied in the negative.
"'There, Pasha,' I said, 'you have your answer. We march on April
lOth.' The Pasha then asked if we could 'in our consciences acquit him of
having abandoned his people,' supposing they had not arrived by April loth.
We replied, ' Most certainly.'
"Three or four days after this I was informed by the Pasha, who pays
great deference to Captain Casati's views, that Captain Casati was by no
means certain that he was doing quite right in abandoning his people.
According to the Pasha's desire, I went over to see Captain Casati, followed
soon after by Emin Pasha.
81
642 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
"Questions of law, honour, duty were brought forward by Casati, who
expressed himself clearly that 'Moralmente' Emin Pasha was bound to stay
by his people. I quote these matters simply to show to you that our principal
difficulties lay not only with the Soudanese and Egyptians ; we had some with
the Europeans also, who for some reason or other seemed in no wise inclined
to quit Africa, even when it was quite clear that the Pasha of the Province
had few loyal men to rely on, that the outlook before them was imminent
danger and death, and that on our retirement there was no other prospect
than the grave. I had to refute these morbid ideas with the A B C of
common-sense. I had to illustrate the obligations of Emin Pasha to his
soldiers, by comparing them to a mutual contract between two parties. One
party refused to abide by its stipulations, and would have no communication
with the other, but proposed to itself to put the second party to death. Could
that be called a contract ? Emin Pasha was appointed Governor of the
Province. He had remained faithful to his post and duties until his own
people rejected him, and finally deposed him. He had been informed by his
Government that if he and his officers and soldiers elected to quit the
Province, they could avail themselves of the escort of the Expedition which
had been sent to their assistance or stay in Africa on their own responsibility,
and that the Government had abandoned the Province altogether. But when
the Pasha informs his people of the Government's wishes — the officers and
soldiers declare the whole to be false, and decline to depart with him, will
listen to no suggestion of departing — but lay hands on him, menace him with
death, and for three months detain him a close prisoner. Where was the
dishonour to the Pasha in yielding to what was inevitable and indisputable ?
As for duty, the Pasha had a dual duty to perform — that to the Khedive
as his chief, and that to his soldiers. So long as neither duty clashed, affairs
proceeded smoothly enough ; but the instant it was hinted to the soldiers that
they might retire now if they wished, they broke out into open violence and
revolted, and thus absolved the Pasha of all duty towards them, and I denied
that he had any duty to perform to them ; consequently the Pasha could not
be morally bound to care in the least for people who would not listen to him.
"I do not think Casati was convinced, nor do I think the Pasha was
convinced. But it is strange what a strong hold this part of Africa has
upon the affections of European officers, Egyptian officers, and Soudanese
soldiers 1
" The next day after this Emin Pasha informed me that he was certain
all the Egyptians in the camp would leave with him on the day named, but
from other quarters reports reached me that not one-quarter of them would
leave the camp at Kavalli's. The abundance of food, the quiet demeanour of
the natives, with whom we were living in perfect concord, seemed to them to
be sufficient reasons for preferring life near the Nyanza to the difficulties of
MALCONTENTS IN CAMP. 64^
the march, Besides, the Mahdists, whom they dreaded, were far away, and'
could not possibly reach them.
" On April 5th, Serom, the Pasha's servant, told me that not many of the
Pasha's servants intended to follow him on the loth. The Pasha himself
confirmed this. Here was a disappointment indeed I Out of the ten thousand
people there were finally comparatively very few willing to follow him to
Egypt. To all of us on the Expedition it had been clear from the beginning
that It was all a farce on the part of the Wadelai force. It was clear that the
Pasha had lost his hold over the people — neither officers, soldiers, nor servants
were ready to follow him ; but we could not refute the Pasha's arguments, nor
could. we deny that he had reason for his stout, unwavering faith in them,
when he would reply, ' I know my people. For thirteen years I have been
with them, and I believe that when I leave all will follow me.' When the
rebels' letters came announcing their intention to follow their governor, he
exclaimed, ' You see, I told you so.'
" But now the Pasha said, ' Never mind. I am something of a traveller
myself. I can do with two servants quite as well as with fifty.'
" I did not think I should be drawn into this matter at all, having formed
my own plans some time before ; but it intensified my feelings greatly when I
was told that, after waiting forty-four days, building their camps for them, and
carrying nearly one thousand four hundred loads for them up that high Plateau
wall, only a few out of the entire number would follow us. But on the day
after I was informed that there had been an alarm in my camp the night
before ; the Zanzibari quarters had been entered by the Pasha's people, and
an attempt made to abstract the rifles. This it was which urged me to imme-
diate action.
" I knew there had been conspiracies in the camp, that the malcontents
were increasing, that we had many rebels at heart amongst us, that the people
dreaded the march more than they feared the natives ; but I scarcely believed
that they would dare to put into practice their disloyal ideas in my camp.
" I proceeded to the Pasha to consult with him, but the Pasha would
consent to no propositions, not but what they appeared necessary and good,
only he could not owing to the want of time, etc. Yet the Pasha the evening
before had received a post from Wadelai, which brought him terrible tales of
disorder, distress, and helplessness among Selim Bey and his faction, and the
rebels and their adherents.
" I accordingly informed him that I proposed to act immediately, and
would ascertain for myself what this hidden danger in the camp was, and as a
first step I would be obliged if the Pasha would signal for a general muster of
the principal Egyptians in the square of the camp.
" The summons being sounded, and not attended quickly enough to
satisfy me, half a company of Zanzibaris were detailed to take sticks and
044 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
route every one from their huts. Dismayed by these energetic measures,
th(jy poured into the square, which was surrounded by rifles.
" On being questioned they denied all knowledge of any plot to steal
the rifles from us, or to fight, or to withstand, in any manner, any order. It
was then proposed that those who desired to accompany us to Zanzibar should
step on one side. They all hastened to one side except two of the Pasha's
servants. The rest of the Pasha's people, having paid no attention to the
summons, were secured in their huts and brought to the camp square, where
some were flogged, and others ironed and put under guard.
" ' Now, Pasha,' I said, ' will you be good enough to tell these Arabs that
these rebellious tricks of Wadelai and Dufile must cease here .-• for at the first
move made by them I shall be obliged to exterminate them utterly.'
" On the Pasha translating, the Arabs bowed, and vowed that they would
obey their father religiously.
" At the muster this curious result was returned. There were with us
134 men, 84 married women, 187 female domestics, 74 children (above two
years), 35 infants in arms — 514.
" I have reason to believe that the number was nearer six hundred, as
many were not reported, from a fear, probably, that some would be taken
prisoners.
" On April loth we set out from Kavalli's in number about one thousand
five hundred, for three hundred and fifty native carriers had been enrolled
from the district to assist in carrying the baggage of the Pasha's people, whose
ideas as to what was essential for the march were very crude. On the 12th
we camped at Mazamboni's ; but in the night I was struck down with a
severe illness, which well-nigh proved mortal. It detained us at the camp
twenty-eight days, which, if Selim Bey and his party were really serious in
their intention to withdraw from Africa, was most fortunate for them, since it
increased their time allowance to seventy-two days. But in all this interval
only Shukri Aga, the chief at INIswa station, appeared. He had started with
twelve soldiers, but one by one they disappeared until he had only his
trumpeter and one servant. A few days after the trumpeter absconded.
Thus only one servant was left out of a garrison of sixty men, who were
reported to be the faithfulest of the faithful.
" During my illness another conspiracy, or rather several, were afloat, but
one only was attempted to be realised ; and the ringleader — a slave of Awash
Effendi's, whom I had made free at Kavalli's — was arrested, and after court-
martial, which found him guilty, was immediately executed.
" Thus I have very briefly summarised the events attending the with-
drawal of the Pasha and his Egyptians from the neighbourhood of the Albert
Nyanza. I ought to mention, however, that through some error of the native
couriers employed by the Egyptians with us, a packet of letters was intercepted
ON THE MARCH. 645
which threw a new h'ght upon the character of the people whom we were to
escort to the sea-coast at Zanzibar. In a letter written by Ibrahim Effendi
Elham, an Egyptian captain, to Selim Bey, at Wadelai, were found the
words — ' I beseech you to hurry up your soldiers. If you send only fifty at
once we can manage to delay the march easily enough, and if you can come
with your people soon after, we may obtain all we need.' Ibrahim Effendi
Elham was in our camp, and we may imagine that he only wrote what was
determined upon by himself and fellow-officers, should Selim Bey arrive in
time to assist them in carrying out the plot.
"On May 8th the march was resumed, but in the evening the last
communication from Selim Bey was received. It began in a very insolent
style — such as, ' What do you mean by making the Egyptian officers carry
loads on their heads and shoulders ? What do you mean by making the
soldiers beasts of burden .? What do you mean by,' etc., all of which were
purely mythical charges. The letter ended by abject entreaties that we
should extend the time a little more, with protestations that if we did not
listen to their prayers they were doomed, as they had but little ammunition
left, and then, concluding with the most important intelligence of all — proving
our judgment of the whole number to be sound — the letter announced that the
ten rebel officers and their adherents had one night broken into the store-
houses at Wadelai ; had possessed themselves of all the reserve ammunition
and other stores ; and had departed for Malkaraka, leaving their dupe,
Selim Bey, to be at last sensible that he had been an egregious fool, and
that he had disobeyed the Pasha's orders, and disregarded his urgent
entreaties for the sake of ingrates like these, who had thrust him into a deep
pit, out of which there was no rescue — unless we, of course, should wait
for him.
"A reply was sent to him, for the last time, that if he were serious in
wishing to accompany us we should proceed forward at a slow rate, halting
twenty-four days on the route, by which he would easily overtake us with his
two hundred soldiers. This was the last we heard of him.
" The route I had adopted was one which skirted the Balegga Mountains,
at a distance of forty miles or thereabouts from the Nyanza. The first day
was a fairish path, but the three following days tried our Egyptians sorely,
because of the ups and downs and the breaks of cane-grass. On arriving at
the southern end of these mountains we were made aware that our march was
not to be uninterrupted, for the King of Unyoro had made a bold push, and
had annexed a respectable extent of country on the left side of the Semliki
River, which embraced all the open grass-land between the Semliki River and
the forest region. Thus, without making an immense ddoiir through the
forest, which would have proved fatal to most of the Egyptians, we had no
option but to press on, despite Kaba Rega and his Warasuras. This latter
•C46 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
name is given to the Wanyoros by all natives who have come in contact with
them.
" The first day's encounter was decidedly in our favour, and the effect of
it cleared the territory as far as the Semliki River free of the Warasuras.
" Meantime we had become aware that we were on the threshold of a
region which promised to be very interesting, for daily as we advanced to the
southward the great snowy range which had so suddenly arrested our attention
and excited our intense interest on May ist, i88S, grew larger and bolder in
view. It extended a long distance to the south-west, which would inevitably
take us some distance off our course, unless a pass could be discovered to
shorten the distance to the countries south. At Buhoho, where we had the
skirmish with Kaba Rega's raiders, we stood on the summit of the hilly range
which bounds the Semliki Valley on the north-west and south-west sides. On
the opposite side rose Ruwenzori, the snow mountain, and its enormous
eastern llank, which dipped down gradually until it fell into the level, and was
seemingly joined with the table-land of Unyoro. The humpy western flank
dipped down suddenly, as it seemed to us, into lands that we knew not by
name as yet. Between these opposing barriers spread the Semliki Valley, so
like a lake at its eastern extremity that one of our officers exclaimed that it
was the lake, and the female followers of the Egyptians set up a shrill 'lululus'
on seeing their own lake — the Albert Nyanza — again. With the naked eye
it did appear like the lake, but a field-glass revealed that it was a level grassy
plain, white with the ripening of its grass. Those who have read Sir Samuel
Baker's ' Albert Nyanza ' will remember the passage wherein he states that to
the south-west the Nyanza stretches ' illimitably.' He might be well in error
at such a distance when our own people, with the plain scarcely four miles
away, mistook it for the Nyanza. As the plain recedes south-westerly the
bushes become thicker ; finally acacias appear in their forests, and beyond
these, again, the dead-black thickness of an impenetrable tropical forest ; but
the plain, as far as the eye could command, continued to lie ten to twelve
miles wide between these mountain barriers, and through the centre of it,
sometimes inclining towards the south-east mountains, sometimes to the
south-western range, the Semliki River pours its waters towards the Albert
Nyanza.
"In two marches from Buhoho we stood upon its banks, and, alas for
Mason Bey and Gessi Pasha, had they but halted their steamers for half-an-
hour to examine this river, they would have seen sufficient to excite much
geographical interest, for the river is a powerful stream, from eighty to one
hundred yards wide, averaging nine feet in depth from side to side, and
having a current from three and a half knots to four knots per hour, in size
about equal to two-thirds of the Victoria Nyanza.
" As we were crossing this river the Warasuras attacked us from the
THE AWAMBA COUNTRY. 647
rear with a well-directed volley, but, fortunately, the distance was too great.
They were chased for some miles, but fleet as greyhounds, they fled, so there
were no casualties to report on either side.
"We entered the Awamba country on the eastern shore of the Semliki,
and our marches for several days afterwards were through plantain planta-
tions which flourished in the clearings made in this truly African forest.
Finally, we struck the open again immediately under Ruwenzori itself. Much,
however, as we had flattered ourselves that we should see some marvellous
scenery, the snow mountain was very coy, and hard to see. On most days
it loomed impending over us like a tropical storm-cloud, ready to dissolve
in rain and ruin on us. Near sunset a peak or two here, a crest there, a ridge
beyond, white with snow, shot into view, jagged clouds whirling and eddying
round them, and then the darkness of night. Often at sunrise, too, Ruwenzori
would appear fresh, clean, brightly pure, profound blue voids above and
around it, every line and dent, knoll and turret-like crag, deeply marked
and clearly visible, but presently all would be buried under mass upon mass
of mist, until the immense mountain was no more visible than if we were
thousands of miles away. And then also the snow mountain being set deeply
in the range, the nearer we approached the base of the range the less we
saw of it, for higher ridges obtruded themselves and barred the view. Still
we have obtained three remarkable views, one from the Nyanza Plain,
another from Kavalli, and a third from the South Point.
" In altitude above the sea I should estimate it to be between 18,000 and
19,000 feet. We cannot trust our triangulations, for the angles are too small.
When we were in positions to ascertain it correctly, the inconstant mountain
gathered his cloudy blankets around him and hid himself from view ; but a
clear view from the loftiest summit down to the lowest reach of snow,
obtained from a place called Karimi, makes me confident that the height is
between the figures stated above.
"It took us nineteen marches to reach the south-west angle of the range,
the Semliki Valley being below us on our right, and which, if the tedious mist
had permitted, would have been exposed in every detail. That part of the
valley traversed by us is generally known under the name of Awamba, while
the habitable portion of the range is principally denominated Ukonju. The
huts of these natives — the Bakonju — are seen as high as 8000 feet above
the sea.
" Almost all our officers had at one time a keen desire to distinguish
themselves as the climbers of these African Alps, but unfortunately they were
in a very unfit state for such a work. The Pasha only managed to get 1000
feet higher than our camp, but Lieutenant Stairs reached the height of 10,677
feet above the sea ; but had the mortification to find two deep gulfs between
him and the snowy mount proper. He brought, however, a good collection of
G43 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
plants, among which were giant heather, blackberries, and bilberries. The
Pasha was in his element among these plants, and has classified them.
" The first day we had disentangled ourselves of the forest proper and its
outskirts of straggling brush, we looked down from the grassy shelf below
Ruwenzori range, and saw a grassy plain, level seemingly as a bowling green,
the very duplicate of that which is seen at the extremity of the Albert Nyanza,
extending southerly from the forests of the Semliki Valley. We then knew
that we were not far from the Southern Lake, discovered by me in 1877.
" Under guidance of the Wakonju, I sent Lieutenant Stairs to examine
the river said to flow from the Southern Nyanza. He returned next day,
reporting it to be the Semliki River, narrowed down to a stream forty-two
yards wide and about ten feet deep, flowing, as the canoe-men on its banks
said, to the Nyanza Utuku, or Nyanza of Unyoro— the Albert Nyanza.
Besides native reports, he had other corroborative evidences to prove it to be
the Semliki.
" On the second march from the confines of Awavela we entered Uson-
gora — a grassy region as opposite in appearance from the perpetual spring of
Ukonju as a droughty land could well be. This country bounds the Southern
Nyanza on its northern and north-western side.
" Three days later, while driving the Warasuras before us — or, rather, as
they were self-driven by their own fears — we entered, soon after its evacuation,
the important town of Kative, the headquarters of the raiders. It is situated
between an arm of the Southern Nyanza and a salt lake about two miles long
and three-quarters of a mile wide, which consists of pure brine of a pinky
colour, and deposits salt in solid cakes of salt crystals. This was the property
of the Wasongora, but the value of its possession has attracted the cupidity of
Kaba Rega, who reaps a considerable revenue from it. Toro, Aukori,
Mpororo, Ruanda, Ukonju, and many other countries demand the salt for
consumption, and the fortunate possessor of this inexhaustible treasure of salt
reaps all that is desirable of property in Africa in exchange with no more
trouble than the defence of it.
" Our road from Kative lay east and north-east to round the bay-like
extension of the Nyanza, lying between Usongora and Unyampaka, and it
happened to be the same taken by the main body of the Warasuras in their
hasty retreat from the Salt Lake. On entering Uhaiyana, which is to the
south of Toro, and in the uplands, we had passed the northern head of the
Nyanza, or Beatrice Gulf, and the route to the south was open — not, however,
without another encounter with the Warasuras.
"A few days later we entered Unyampaka, which I had visited in
January 1876. Ringi, the king, declined to enter into the cause of Unyoro,
and allowed us to feed on his bananas unquestioned. After following the
lake-shore until it turned too far to the south-west, we struck for the lofty
THE ALBERT EDWARD NYANZA. 049
uplands of Aukori, by the natives of whom we were well received, preceded,
as we had been, by the reports of our good deeds in relieving the Salt
Lake of the presence of the universally obnoxious Warasuras.
" If you drew a straight line from the Nyanza to the Uzinja shores of the
Victoria Lake, it would represent pretty fairly our course through Aukori,
Karagwe, and Uhaiya to Uzinja. Aukori was open to us, because we had
driven the Wanyoros from the Salt Lake. The story was an open sesame ;
there also existed a wholesome fear of an expedition which had done that
which all the power of Aukori could not have done. Karagwe was open to us,
because free trade is the policy of the Wanyambu, and because the Waganda
were too much engrossed with their civil war to interfere with our passage.
Uhaiya admitted our entrance without cavil out of respect to our numbers, and
because we were well introduced by the Wanyambu, and the Wakwiya
guided us in like manner to be welcomed by the Uzinja. Nothing happened
during the long journey from the Albert Lake to cause us any regret that we
had taken this straight course, but we have suffered from an unprecedented
number of fevers. We have had as many as one hundred and fifty cases in
one day. Aukori is so beswept with cold winds, that the Expedition wilted
under them. Seasoned veterans like the Pasha and Captain Casati were
prostrated time after time, and both were reduced to excessive weakness like
ourselves. Our blacks — regardless of their tribes — tumbled headlong into the
long grass to sleep their fever fits off. Some after a short illness died ; the
daily fatigues of the march, an ulcer, a fit of fever, a touch of bowel complaint,
caused the Egyptians to hide in any cover along the route, and, being unper-
ceived by the rear-guard of the Expedition, were left to the doubtful treatment
of natives of whose language they were utterly ignorant. In the month of
July we lost one hundred and forty-one of their number in this manner.
" Out of respect to the first British Prince who has shown an interest
in African geography, we have named the Southern Nyanza — to distinguish
it from the other two Nyanzas — the Albert Edward Nyanza. It is not a
very large lake. Com^Dared to the Victoria, the Tanganika, and the Nyassa,
it is small, but its importance and interest lies in the sole fact that it is the
receiver of all the streams at the extremity of the South-Western or left
Nile Basin, and discharges these waters by one river — the Semliki — into
the Albert Nyanza ; in like manner as Lake Victoria receives all streams
from the extremity of the South-Eastern or right Nile Basin, and pours
these waters by the Victoria Nile into the Albert Nyanza. These two
Niles, amalgamating in Lake Albert, leave this under the well-known name
of White Nile. — Your obedient servant,
" Henry INI. Stanley."
82
CHAPTER XXXVI.
The March to the Coast — Arrival at Mslala — Summarising Casualties —
Arrival at Bagamoyo — Zanzibar— Cairo — Arrival in England.
THE letter brought by the three Peacock Dervishes from Omar Saleh,
General of the Mahdi's forces, to Emin Pasha, arrived October 17th,
1888. It was intercepted and opened by Emin's rebel officers, himself and
Mr. Jephson being at the time prisoners at Dufile.
As no information could be extracted from the envoys, they were cruelly
tortured, but to no purpose. They were afterwards beaten to death with
clubs, and their bodies thrown to the crocodiles.
To obtain the letter the son of Osman Effendi Satif, vakul of the province,
■secretly entered the rebels' divan at night and copied the letter for Mr,
Jephson, and Emin Pasha made a translation of it. The original letter was
destroyed in the burning of Dufil6.
The letter commences, " From the Servant of God, Omar Saleh, officer
of the Mahdi, to whom we give reverential greetings, appointed for con-
ducting affairs in the Province of Hatalastiva. To the honoured Mohamed
Emin, Mudir of Hatalastiva. May God lead him in the path of His gifts.
Amen." After much pious talk about the Mahdi, the letter says : — " The first
army which fought against the Mahdi had for its chief Abu Soud Bey, who came
-with a steamer at the time when the Mahdi was at Abba, but though he was
hard pressed, God killed all his enemies. Then the Prophet ordered him
to go to Gedir, and he went, but he was followed by Raschid I mem, Mudir
xof Fashodo, and many people with him. Then followed Yuseph Pasha el
Shilali, Mohamed Bey Sulieman el Shaiki, and Abdullah Wad el Deffallah,
one of the Kordofan merchants, and with them another army of great
strength, and God killed them all. Then came the army of Hicks, a
Tenowned man, and with him Al-ed-in Pasha, Governor-General of the
Soudan, and many officers, and with them a very large army composed of
the people of different coimtries — no one but God knows their number — and
■many Krupp guns, and they were all killed in less than an hour, and their
strongholds were taken right up to Khartoum, the residence of the Governor-
iGeneral, a very strong place between the two rivers.
"In Khartoum were killed Gordon Pasha, the Governor, and with him
LETTER FROM OMAR SALEH. G51
the Consuls Hansal and Nicola, Leontidos, the Greek, and Azor, the Copt,
and many others of the Christians, and many of the rebellious Mohamedans,
Farratch Pasha Ezzeim, Mahomet Pasha - Hassan, Bachit, Butraki, and
Achmet Bey el Dgelab. And whoever was killed by the Mahdi's followers
was at once consumed by fire, and this is one of the greatest wonders happen-
ing to confirm what is written is to come to pass before the end of the world.
There is just another wonder — the spears carried by the Mahdi's followers had
a flame burning at their points, and this we have seen with our eyes and not
heard only.
"And so event followed event near Suakim and Dongola until General
Stewart Pasha, Gordon's second in command, died, and with him some
consuls, and this happened in Wady Kama. Then the other Stewart in Abu
Teleah. He had come with an English army to relieve Gordon Pasha, but
many were killed, and God drove them back ignominiously. And then the
whole Soudan and its dependencies accepted the Mahdi's rule, and submitted
to the Imam the Mahdi, and gave themselves to him with their children
and possessions, and became his followers ; and whoever opposed him was
killed by God, and his children and their property became the prey of the
Moslems.
" The armies of the Mahdi, under the command of our friend Wad el
Nedgumi, are beleaguering Egypt near Wady Haifa and Abu Hamed. Near
Aksar Abu el Hudjadg is our friend Osman Digna. Abyssinia is in the hands
of our friend Hamdan Abu Gaudja. In an encounter with the Abyssinians
God helped him, and he killed them ; and amongst those killed was the chief
of their army, who was called Ras Adrangi ; some of his children were killed,
and some made slaves. Our people reached the great church in the town of
Gondar, which is one of the most remarkable things among the Christians.
In Darfour, Shakka, and Bahr el Ghazal is our friend Osman Aden, and with
him Keremallah and Zebehr el Fahal. The whole country is in the hands of
God's soldiers, who war against the foes of God who deny the Imam the
Mahdi. They are always victorious by God's strength and might, as He
promised by His word, 'Ye who believe, if ye fight, God will give you the
victory.' And again, 'God is with us, and the victory is to the believers.'
And yet again, ' God is well pleased by those who are slain in His service ;
they are like reared-up strongholds.'
" So now we have come in three steamers and in sandals, and nuggers
filled with soldiers from God's army, under our orders sent to you from his
Mightiness the Great Chief of all the Moslems, the ever victorious in his
religion, who relies on God the Lord of the world, the Khalifa, the Mahdi —
may God be gracious unto him ! — with his sacred orders, which are the orders
of God and His Prophet ; and it is your duty to obey them by reason of their
religious teaching, you and whoever may be with you, whether Moslems,
G52 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Christians, or others — and we bring you such news as will ensure your welfare
in this world and in the next, and to tell you what God wishes, He and His
Prophet, and to assure you of a free pardon to you, and to whomsoever is with
you, and protection for your children and property from God and His Prophet,
on condition that you submit to God.
" There are with us some letters written, by permission of our master, by
some of your brethren who wish you well ; they are from Abdul Kader Slatin,
who was formerly Mudir of Darfour ; Mohamed Said, who was formerly called
Georgi Islamboulia ; Ismail Abdullah, who was formerly called Bolos Salib, a
Copt ; and many others who sympathise with you, and are now honoured
by the Mahdi's grace. There are also letters from your companions —
Abdullah Lupton, who was Mudir of Bahr el Ghazal ; Ibrahim Pasha Fanzi ;
Nur Bey Ibrahim, Mudir of Senaar ; Leyd Bey Inmah, Mudir of Fashor ;
and Eskender Bey, Commander of Kordofan. God has helped them all
with His blessing, and they are now well-to-do and free from care, and
God has given them more than they ever possessed in worldly goods and
Heavenly favour. When they became friends of the Mahdi God rewarded
them.
" Now the Khalifa, the Mahdi, out of compassion for your forlorn state,
left alone in the land of the negroes — for there has been no news of you for a
long long time, and you must have lost all hope — has sent us to you with an
army, as I before told you, to take you out of the land of the infidels to join
your brethren, the Moslems. Submit, therefore, with gladness to God's wish,
and come at once to see me, wherever I may be, for I am now so near you
that I may honour you with the sacred orders. You will find them full of
wonderful things, on which depend your salvation in this and the next world,
and you will find in them the contentment of God, the ruler of the world. I
have to add I am ordered by his Highness — whom no one can deny — that I
am to honour you and take care of you, and when we meet you will have all
your wishes fulfilled, and you will become one of the true believers, as our
Master wishes.
" And now be of good cheer, and do not delay. I have said enough for
one whose intelligence is bright, and now we pray God to lead you towards
our Master, for we believe you are one of those who hear good advice and
follow it — and in truth it is God's gift. Amongst the things in your favour in
the hands of the Khalifa, the Mahdi, was the arrival of your letter brought by
our friend Osman Erbal, intimating your submission. He received this letter,
and was well pleased with it, and because of this and the Khalifa (the Mahdi's)
compassion for you, we have come here as I told you before.
" May God bless and assist you In all that you do. "Salaam."
The last of Stanley's letters informed us that the Expedition had reached
THE ORDER OF MARCH. C53
Uzinja. At this place he made another important geographical discovery.
As they marched away from Uzinja along the south of the great Lake Victoria
Nyanza, through a hitherto unvisited region, he discovered that the lake
stretches much farther in the southward direction than he thought. What he
previously took to be the line of the shore he now saw to be a number of
islands in the lake lying close together. He had estimated the superficial area
of this wonderful lake to be 21,500 square miles ; but his last estimate makes
It 26,900, and this is more nearly that of Speke.
The forward march of the Expedition was in the direction of the
Usambiro country. It will be interesting to read a description of it as repre-
sented in the picture. First there were about a dozen men who acted as
guides or scouts. Next came Mr. Stanley himself riding on his donkey, and
supported by a donkey boy and two gun-bearers. Following him was Uledi,
Stanley's orderly, who bore the Expedition flag, which is the Khedivial flag
with three stars. After this, another chief with the flag of the first company ;
this flag was yellow, and had Arabic characters upon it. In Indian file,
immediately behind their flag, followed the No. i Company formed of the
picked men of the Expedition. Mr. Jephson, the commander, accompanied
his corps. Next came either No. 2 Company or No. 3 ; for these companies
did rear-guard duty alternately. They were commanded by Lieutenant
Stairs, R.E., and Captain Nelson respectively. No. 4 Company marched
next, commanded by Surgeon Parke ; and the Nubians in charge of Mr.
Bonny followed. Next to the Nubians came an interesting personage, the
little daughter of Emin Pasha, Ferida by name, reposing in a hammock borne
by two trustworthy Zanzibaris. After her came her father, the Pasha, and
Captain Casati, his friend and companion, Signor Marco, and Hawashi Effendi,
a major in the Khedive's army. The Pasha's people came behind these, the
strongest keeping close up, and the weaker gradually getting left behind ; and
sometimes they delayed so much that they made the column three miles long,
and the last of it did not get into camp until three hours after Stanley had
arrived. But protecting the very last of the Expedition was the company on
rear-guard duty, suiting its pace to that of the weakest. For many months,
when they were passing through a country that was open and friendless, this
was the order of the march.
On the 28th of August the Expedition reached Mslala, and saw, rising
above a grove of banyan trees, the Cross ; and they knew that soon the
thatched roof of a Christian church would be to them a sign that they had
reached a true sanctuary. The clergyman, the Rev. A. M. Mackay, came
forward to welcome them ; and the Expedition made itself comfortable and at
home, for a three weeks' rest.
As soon as they had arrived, Emin Pasha wrote the following letter to
the Relief Committee : —
654 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
" Mslala, August 23rd, 1889.
"Sir, — Having reached, under the escort of Mr. Stanley's Expedition,
to-day, this place, I cannot but hasten to write just two words to tell you how
deeply we all appreciate the generous help you have sent us. When, in the
stress of adversity, I first ventured to make an appeal to the world asking
assistance for my people, I was well aware of such an appeal not passing
unheard, but I never once fancied the possibility of such kindness as you and
the subscribers of the Relief Fund have shown us.
" It would be impossible to tell you what has happened here after Mr.
Stanley's first start ; his graphic pen will tell you everything much better than
I could. I hope also, the Egyptian Government permitting it, some future
day to be allowed to present myself before you, and to express to you then
the feelings of gratitude my pen would be short in expressing, in a personal
interview.
" Until such happy moments come, I beg to ask you to transmit to all
subscribers of the fund the sincerest thanks of a handful of forlorn people, who
through your instrumentality have been saved from destruction, and now hope
to embrace their relatives.
" To speak here of Mr. Stanley's and his officers' merits would be
inadequate. If I live to return I shall make my acknowledgments. — I am.
Sir, with many and many thanks, yours very obliged, " Dr. Emin.
"W. MACKINNON, Esq., Chairman of Committee
of the Relief Expedition Fund."
They found at Mslala a large supply of all necessaries that had been sent
to the place ready for them by the Relief Committee. Letters and news-
papers had also arrived, and some cuttings of the latter, written by idle people
at home, who, having nothing better to do, had criticised the workers, as their
manner is, gave Stanley the trouble of replying to their foolish strictures ; but
even these could not make the traveller other than glad to find himself where
he was, though he felt keenly the wrong done to him when he was blamed for
Major Barttelot's death,
"We arrived here on the 28th inst, and found the modern Livingstone,
Mr. A. M. Mackay, safely and comfortably established at this Mission Station.
I had always admired Mackay. He had never joined the missionaries' attacks
on me, and every fact I had heard about him indicated that I should find him
an able and reliable man. When I saw him, and some of his work about
here, then I recognised the man I had pleaded in the name of Mtesa should
be sent to him in 1875 ; the very type of man I had described as necessary
to confirm Mtesa in his growing love for the white man's creed."
It is sad to think that this man, " a brave and resourceful Scotchman,"
who had befriended Dr. Junker, and who had been trusted by King Mtesa's
FRESH DIFFICULTIES. 055.
successor, should soon after Stanley left him have passed away from the
sphere where he had laboured so successfully, having fallen a victim to fever.
But happily no premonition of this came to spoil the visit of Stanley^
or sadden the intercourse which was so pleasant to both men ; and our
travellers used these well-won days of leisure to read and answer their
correspondence, and to prepare for the long march that was yet before them.
To Emin Pasha and Captain Casati the time was full of most thrilling-
discoveries. They had received no news for two years, and had been entirely-
cut off from the world of civilisation. They now learned how much sympathy
there had been for them in Europe, by what means Emin Pasha's appeal had
reached England, and how anxiously those who were his friends were looking
for further news of him.
Dr. Parke had a very busy time at Mslala, for many people were ill^
and sorely needed more rest and attention than they could possibly get during-
the march. But the kind and clever doctor soon restored them with his
medicines ; and when the time came for them to leave the hospitable Missiorr
Station at Mslala, and say good-bye to their truly Christian host, the Expedition,
presented a really splendid appearance, for the women had become strong
and the children fat, while the men were happy at the thought that they were
going'home.
The good missionary sent one of his own people to guide them througb
Neva; and on the i6th of September the caravan moved off in the direction
of Zanzibar. They passed along the route usually taken by strangers who
come to the country for trade or research, and therefore the natives were not
so alarmed or suspicious as they might otherwise have been ; and they com-
pleted a good part of their journey without mishap. This enabled the
members of the Expedition to retain the good spirits in which they left
Mslala, and to hope that all the troubles, of which indeed they had endured,
plenty, were now behind them.
This, however, was not to prove the case, for no sooner had they reached
Usukuma than fresh difficulties and dangers menaced them.
" The natives," says Stanley, " took such an unaccountable prejudice to^
the Soudanese of the Equatorial Province, for their intense black colour and
ugly cicatrices on their cheeks, that they attacked the column on its arrival
near the king's village. Usukuma is exceedingly populous, and the people
are warlike and brave. They are accustomed to caravans, but as their
demands are at once complied with there is seldom much trouble. One Arab
caravan was lately massacred because its leader was unwilling to yield to the
extortionate demands made on him. Two missionaries were lately imprisoned
until they were ransomed by their friends.
" The Wasukuma, from these experiences and the instant compliance with
their rough humours, probably judged that they had but to rush on our
C5G STANLEY AND AFRICA.
column to see it collapse, and In a mood to yield, after injury and insult, to
their caprices ; but having charged myself with the care of the Pasha and his
people we promptly resented the attack, and the consequence was serious
to the Wasukuma. They gathered in immense numbers, and for five days
disputed every mile of our advance through their territory. They frequently
advanced by hundreds on either flank of the column, and were most wonder-
fully active ; but the breechloaders restrained them from reaching the line of
march. We requested a parley, gave presents to the head men, and during
the short truce one of our men was killed with a spear. This was the only
casualty that occurred with us. After a five days' struggle we entered on
friendly territory."
The Zanzibaris were better able to bear the fatisfues of the march than
the Pasha's people, who were spiritless and weary, and could with difficulty be
got along at all. Stanley was anxious and worried about them. He said,
" Until I can get these unfortunates on board a steamer there will be no peace
for me. And the most disheartening thing about it is, that after all the toil
and trouble we have had in carrying them twelve hundred miles, and In fighting
for them to protect their lives, we see so many of them die just as we are in
sight of port."
The death-roll Indeed was very large. It may be given in Mr. Stanley's
own words : —
"According to a muster made at Kavalli on April 5th, 1S89, 570 refugees
from the Equatorial Province had placed themselves under our protection for
convoy to the sea. . . . We arrived at Bagamoyo with only 290 souls. The
loss en ro7ile was therefore 2S0 — nearly one-half — during a journey of 1400
miles. Of these 2S0 missing about 200 have been cared for by various native
chiefs through whose territory we passed.
" If the head of a family suffered from a virulent ulcer, in a country which
furnished no carriers, and he could not possibly travel, there was no option left
us but to leave him in some safe place, and, as his family and servants preferred
to stay with him, we were forced to yield to their entreaty. Probably eighty
perished from ulcers, fever, fatigue, and debility, and one old lady, the mother
of the Vakeel of the Equatorial Province, from sheer old age ; she was nearly
eighty years old. Of the thirteen Somalia engaged by Major Barttelot at
Aden, only one survived the journey ; three of them were killed by natives,
■while foraging for food ; nine died from fever and debility ; of the sixty
Soudanese enlisted at Cairo, only twelve returned to the coast," seven having
been already sent home from Yambuya ; thus nineteen out of sixty leaves a
loss of forty-one, two of whom suffered the death penalty for mutiny and
murder, and one deserted. Of the six hundred and twenty Zanzibaris, only
two hundred and twenty-five were returned by us to Zanzibar. Fifty-five were
killed in the skirmishes which took place between Yambuya and the Albert
ARRIVAL AT MPWAPWA. C57
Nyanza ; two suffered capital punishment for selling their rifles and ammuni-
tion to our declared enemy ; two hundred and two died of starvation, ulcers,
dysentery, and exhaustion ; the rest deserted."
Of Stanley's European companions. Major Barttclot was murdered,
Jameson died of fever. Ward and Troup returned to Europe via the Congo ;
but Stairs, Nelson, Jephson, and Parke survived all perils, and reached the
East Coast in safety with Mr. Stanley.
The refugees joined Mr. Stanley at their own wish, and there is no doubt
that they would have fared no better had they elected to remain ; because they
would probably have become captives of the Mahdi, and sent to be imprisoned
in Khartoum.
The march was continued through South Usukuma, and they were
met by some messengers who had been sent from the French Mission
on Lake Victoria. They brought a letter from Bishop Mgr. Livimbar,
requesting Stanley to give his protection and escort to two invalids, Peres
Girault and Schintze. " Having replied," says Stanley, " instantly in the
affirmative, and despatched the couriers, we shortened our marches, proceeding
by easy stages to Ikungu, where we soon had the pleasure of welcoming the
Algerian Peres in our camp. The strictly humanitarian character of the
Expedition was never better illustrated than during our journey from Usukuma
to Bagamoyo. Besides German, French, Italian, Greek, and Egyptians for
whom we acted as escort, almost every district between Usukuma and
Mpwapwa sent to us new accessions of Africans who were unable to reach the
coast, or feared oppression by the way, and therefore solicited permission to
attach themselves to the Expedition, until we numbered about a thousand."
So far they knew little of what had taken place between them and the
coast. But before long they " heard of missionaries murdered and mission-
houses burnt, of German officers killed, and coast towns levelled to the ground
in retaliation ; and it seemed to us that the barbarism of the wild interior was
more acceptable, judging from the details given us, than the barbarism of the
coast."
A little later, and they saw these things for themselves at Mpwapwa, a
station of the German East African Company, distant from Bagamoyo one
hundred and fifty miles. Some German officers had arrived to rebuild the
ruined fort ; and through them Stanley was able to hear the news, and send
on some telegrams, which were most anxiously looked for in England. These
were the messages that were received in due course, to the intense relief of
the people, vvho were longing for a break in the silence : —
"Arrived at Mpwapwa loth November. Expect to leave 12th November
for East Coast via Simbamwenni. Europeans all well. Bringing about three
hundred Soudanese. Expect me to arrive any day at coast. Have discovered
83
658 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
Victoria Nyanza extends south-west, bringing it to within one hundred and
fifty-five miles of Lake Tanganika ; length of Victoria Nyanza now two
hundred and seventy miles ; area, twenty-seven thousand square miles."
This telegram was received by Sir William Mackinnon, who at once sent
it to the press. On the same day the Foreign Office received the following
telegram from the Consul-General at Zanzibar : —
"Zanzibar, Nov. 2i, 1889.
" Following news from Stanley : — Arrived at Mpwapwa November 10,
fifty-five days from Victoria Nyanza, and one hundred and eighty-eighth from
Albert Nyanza. Europeans present — Stairs, Nelson, Jephson, Parke, Bonny,
Hoffmann, Emin Pasha and daughter, Casati, Marco, and Fathers Girault and
Schintze, of Algerian Mission. Proposed leaving 12th; reach coast via
Heuber Mivemi. Stanley says has made unexpected discovery of real value
to Africa in extension of Victoria Nyanza to the south-west. The utmost
southerly reach of the extension is south latitude 2° 48', and brings Victorian
Sea within one hundred and fifty-five miles from Lake Tanganika ; and the
area of Lake is twenty-six thousand nine hundred square miles. All letters
and news pass through German hands."
Public anxiety was at once calmed, for the mention of Dr. Emin's name
gave the assurance that he had been successfully rescued from his perilous
position. And at Bagamoyo and Zanzibar the excitement was very great.
From the former place the German Imperial Commissioner sent a number of
carriers with all sorts of good and comfortable things to meet the Expedition.
They got as far as Msiva, where Stanley halted to receive the kindly greetings
of Mr. Stevens, the representative of the " New York Herald." Here he was
made glad with presents of food, clothing, and cordials from friends both
English and German. So that from Mswa the brave deliverer wrote : — " I
am in perfect health, and feel like a labourer of a Saturday evening returning
home with his week's work done, his week's wages in his pocket, and glad
that to-morrow is the Sabbath."
He saw no reason for regret or discontent, for he knew that everything
had been as well done as it was possible to do it. He himself reviewing the
work, says : — "Over and above the happy ending of the appointed duties, we
have not been unfortunate in geographical discoveries. The Aruwimi is now
known from its source to its bourne. The great Congo forest, covering as
large an area as France and the Iberian peninsula, we can now certify to be
an actual fact. The Mountains of the Moon, this time beyond the least
doubt, have been located ; and Ruwenzori, the Cloud King, robed in eternal
snow, has been seen, and its Hanks explored, and some of its shoulders
ascended, the Gordon-Bennett and Mackinnon cones being but giant sentries
warding off approach to the inner area of the Cloud King. On the south-east
ENTRY INTO BAGAMOYO. C50
of the range the connection between the Albert Edward Nyanza and the
Albert Nyanza has been discovered, and the extent of the former lake is
now known for the first time. Range after range of mountains have been
traversed, separated by such tracts of pasture land as would make the cow-
boys out West mad wiih envy; and right under the burning Equator we have
fed on blackberries and bilberries, and quenched our thirst with crystal water
fresh from the snow-beds."
Of his companions he has spoken and written most generously. "The
uncomplaining heroism of our dark followers, the brave manhood latent in
such uncouth disguise, the tenderness we have seen issuing from nameless
entities, the great love animating the ignoble, the sacrifice made by the
Sasmire for one more unfortunate, the reverence we have noted in barbarians
who, even as ourselves, were inspired with nobleness and incentives to duty —
of all these we could speak if we would."
Of his European companions he says : — " Words fail to express my deep
feelings of thankfulness that it was my fortune to be blessed with such noble
companionship ; men of higher intelligence and of superior attainments may
enter this darkest zone of that darkest Africa traversed by us, and perform
more valuable services to science and humanity; but never, while human
nature remains as we know it, will there be four gentlemen so matchless for
their constancy, devotion to their work, earnest purpose, and unflinching
obedience to honour and duty. In brief, in all that belongs to thorough and
noble manliness, these four will stand prominent above all I have met, or ever
can hope to meet, within the limits of the African Continent."
The Expedition took its time in the march from Mswa. There were
many invalids ; for their sakes it was necessary to walk slowly and by easy
stages. They halted at Mbugani and Bigiro, and when they had reached the
Kingani River Major Wissmann met them. It took a long time with one
ferry-boat to get all the people over ; but at last it was accomplished, and soon
after they came to their great delight in sight of the sea.
On the next day, December the 5th, 1S89, they arrived at Bagamoyo,
into which place they made a most triumphal entry. The German troops
were drawn up as a guard of honour, and salutes were fired from all the ships
of war. Every vessel in the harbour was gay with bunting, arches of foliage
were placed across the street, and palm branches were waved from every
window.
At Major Wissmann's headquarters they were breakfasted. "As I saw
Emin Pasha," says Stanley, "before the well-spread table, his face all aglow
with pleasure, and bronzed Captain Casati bowing and nodding, with a goblet
of sparkling wine in hand, to his consul, M. Beucetti, both of whom we had
rescued after laborious toil from a harsh fate, and knew that the Expedition
was filing in by happy hundreds, it became verv clear to me that here my duty
CGO STANLEY AND AFRICA.
ended. Whatever might happen afterwards was beyond my control. The
Pasha was amongst his friends. Captain Casati was with his consul, the
English officers were surrounded by their countrymen, the faithful Zanzibar!
were in their own land, and would presently disperse each to his home, and I
was once more free and responsible to none."
During their stay at Bagamoyo a banquet was given in honour of Stanley,
at which were present all the foreign consuls, judges, and the principal naval
and military officers. Major Wissmann, in a very happy speech, proposed the
toast of the evening, and spoke in highly eulogistic terms of "his master in
African exploration." As the Major is himself an explorer of very great
achievements, Stanley felt this to be high praise. But in his reply it was
evident that he was thinking more of the brave men whose bones were
bleaching in the African forests than of his own accomplishments.
Unfortunately these festivities were checked suddenly by the catastrophe to
Emin Pasha. Whilst chatting with one of the guests, Emin stepped out of
the window on to a balcony, and, being half-blind from cataract, missed his
footing and fell some twenty feet below. He sustained most serious injuries,
for his head was cut, his right eye closed, he was bruised from head to foot,
and blood came from his ears, while internal mischief was feared. He was at
once carried off to the German hospital, and at first the doctors declared his
case hopeless, but Dr. Parke, who had been with the Expedition throughout,
would not lose heart, and nursed Emin devotedly back to life.
This event naturally distressed Mr. Stanley, and cast a gloom over his
departure the next day. The German vessel "Sperber" was placed at his
disposal, and in it he went to Zanzibar, where, as might have been expected,
his welcome was most enthusiastic. Indeed, from the moment he landed Mr.
Stanley was kept busy receiving and returning congratulatory visits and
messages, and acknowledging telegrams from nearly all the European
sovereigns. The King of the Belgians' telegram had awaited him for some
days ; then came a most affectionate message from the German Emperor
complimenting the explorer on his " tenacity of purpose and indomitable
courage," and, later, the following letter from the Queen : — " My thoughts are
often with you and your brave followers, whose dangers are now at an end.
Once more I heartily congratulate all, including the survivors of the gallant
Zanzibaris, who displayed such devotion and fortitude during your marvellous
Expedition." The Sultan of Zanzibar was not behind his fellow-rulers in
cordiality, feting both the explorer and his followers with much warmth, and
rewarding the Zanzibaris who had remained loyal to Mr. Stanley throughout.
Indeed, Mr. Stanley's whole stay at Zanzibar was a succession of com-
plimentary festivities. Colonel Euan Smith, the British Consul, entertained
him at a splendid banquet, when all the ships in the harbour were illuminated ;
and another noteworthy gathering was a lunch to Mr. Stanley and the British
STANLEY IN CAIRO. GGl
Consul given by the representatives of the British Indian Steam Navigation
Company on board the " Arawatta," inaugurating the new direct service
between England and East Africa.
The British sailors were so delighted to have him among them at
Zanzibar that they asked him to give them a speech.
During his three weeks' sojourn at Zanzibar Mr. Stanley did not lose
sight of the business side of his Expedition. He sent home many interesting
letters, and began an action in the Consular Court against Tippu-Tib for
breach of contract and bad faith to the Expedition. This action charged
that shifty Arab with breaking his contract in order to confiscate the stores
and ammunition belonging to the Expedition, alleged that his nephew
prevented the natives from bringing food to the Zanzibaris, thus causing great
mortality to the members, and that Tippu fully intended to desert Mr. Stanley.
Ten thousand pounds are claimed as damages. This action will not be
heard, however, before September, to allow Tippu time to appear in defence.
Having given his evidence, Mr. Stanley travelled in the "Turquoise" to
Mombassa to join the mail steamer for Egypt, where the European Colony-
gave him a hearty farewell and a serenade from the Highland bagpipes.
At Mombassa Dr. Parke was able to join Mr. Stanley, and bring the
report of the convalescence of Emin Pasha. But the Doctor was himself so
ill from bilious fever that it was his turn to require nursing. They went on
to Cairo, and there made a considerable stay, in order to recruit their health,
also that Stanley might finish his book, " Darkest Africa." Of course all
sorts of honours were showered upon the brave adventurer ; the Khedive and
the Egyptian Cabinet entertained him with great ceremony. At the banquets
given in his honour Mr. Stanley again and again declared that the Congo
route was the only one he could have taken. In all his speeches too he
referred to the sad accident to Emin Pasha, which had thrown a cloud over
the festivities.
Mr. Stanley took a house, the Villa Victoria, and there he worked
hard at his books, as soon as he was allowed to be quiet. He attacked
the mass of notes, sketches, maps, and photographs as resolutely as he
had attacked other difficulties, and by the end of March he had succeeded
in reducing them to order. It was wise of him to spend the early
spring in Egypt, for he had reached Cairo very thin, worn, and
weary. But by Easter he was himself again ; and with his book
finished, and the calls of friends in Brussels and London reaching him every
day, he resolved to start from Cairo on Easter Monday. Before he left,
however, at a special meeting held in the hall of the Legislative Assembly,
with all the ministry and every celebrated foreigner in the place present, the
diploma of membership of the Khedivial Geographical Society was presented
to him by Ahbate Pasha, the aide-de-camp to the Khedive. The diploma
C62 STANLEY AND AFRICA.
was exquisitely inscribed in Arabic, and the casket in which it was enclosed
was of beautiful workmanship. It was amid every expression of esteem and
good-will that the great explorer left Egypt and turned his face to Europe,
where he was awaited with the anxiety born of deep regard and admiration.
All sorts and conditions of men were again longing to do him honour who
had so triumphantly fulfilled the wise man's aphorism — "Seest thou a man
diligent (skilful) in his business ? he shall stand before kings : he shall not
stand before mean (obscure) men."
THE END.
THE WALTER SCOTT PRESS, NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNEL
REWARD BOOKS.
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4 LIFE OF GENERAL GORDON
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7 NEW WORLD HEROES
8 LIFE OF GARIBALDI
9 LIFE OF DR. MOFFAT
10 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
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12 LIFE OF RICHARD COBDEN
13 LIFE OF JOHN BRIGHT
14 LIFE OF H. W. BEECIIER
15 LIFE OF DR. LIVINGSTONE
£6 LIFE OF GRACE DARLING
17 FAMOUS ENGINEERS
18 THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD
19 THE PRINCE OF THE HOUSE
OF DAVID
20 THE BOOK OF MARTYRS
21 THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS
AND HOLY WAR
22 THE WIDE, WIDE WORLD
23 VILLAGE TALES
24 BEN-HUR •
25 GOLDEN GLEAMS
26 MEMORABLE SHIPWRECKS
27 TALES AND SKETCHES OF
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28 UNCLE TOM'S CABIN
29 ROBINSON CRUSOE
30 ELITAII, THE DESERT
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31 THE YOUNG WOMAN'S
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32 THE YOUNG MAN'S
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33 CHRISTIAN HEROINES
34 THE ANGELS' WHISPERS
35 A JOLLY FELLOWSHIP
36 IVANHOE
37 JACOB FAITHFUL
38 ETHEL LINTON
39 THE SCOTTISH CHIEFS
40 MOUNTAIN DAISY
41 HAZEL; OR, PERILPOINT
LIGHTHOUSE
42 BARNABY RUDGE
43 OLD CURIOSITY SHOP
44 PICKWICK PAPERS
45 NICHOLAS NICKLEBY
45 OLIVER TWIST
47 MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT
48 SKETCHES BY BOZ
49 HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN
50 OLD MORTALITY
51 TALES OF THE BORDERS
52 VALENTINE VOX
53 CHARLES O'MALLEY
54 CRUISE OF THE MIDGE
55 UNA MONTGOMERY
The above can also be had bound in half morocco.
London : Walter Scott, 24 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row.
By OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast- Table.
The Poet at the Breakfast-Table.
The Professor at the Breakfast-Table.
3 Volumes, Crown 8vo, Cloth, Gilt Top, in Shell
Case. Price 4s. 6d.
3 Volumes, Crown 8vo, Cloth, Gilt Top, in Cloth
Pedestal Case, 5s.
Also in Half Polished Morocco, Gilt Top, Antique
(in a variety of new reproductions of old tints).
London : Walter Scott, 24 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row.
D 000 296 687 7
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