THE GIFT OF FLORENCE V. V. DICKEY TO THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES THE DONALD R. DICKEY LIBRARY OF VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA FROM COAST TO COAST BY JAMES BARNES Illustrated by Photographs by CHERRY KEARTON NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY MCMXV in: FOREWORD ^S this book details a specific journey for a specific X\^ purpose, the plans for which were laid lon^ in advance and carried out quite to the letter, barring some disappointments bound to occur in the further- ance of even the best laid plans, it is well to begin at the beginning; and, as it is also the personal story of the experiences and work of two men, it might be well to term them in advance, the Scribe and the Photographer. The Scribe had it in his mind during the year 1912, that as soon as he could arrange his private affairs, and get them into condition for a long absence, he would journey to East Africa in quest of game pictures, and being very unskilful with the camera — having developed little of the patience and none of the technique — he was most anxious to secure a com- panion who would supply his own defects. In the fall of 1912 the New York papers announced that Mr. Cherry Kearton, whose work in the field of natural history photography is known in America as well as in England, was in the city. " If I could only get hold of Cherry Kearton," said the Scribe to himself, "I would have the man I would like to go with." And shortly afterwards, exactly like a happening 49G515 VI FOREWORD in a story book, the Scribe was seated in a restaurant lunching, when he was approached by a friend. "Going abroad this winter?" asked the friend casually. "Farther than that," the Scribe replied. "If 1 can arrange it, I am going to Africa." "Just met a chap who knows all about it," observed the friend, turning, "his name is Kearton." "You know him! How can I get hold of him?" The friend pointed, "There he is at that table in the corner. Come over and I'll introduce you." So the Scribe and the Photographer spent that afternoon together, and the whole of the next day, up in the Bronx, rambling through the botanical gardens and zoological park, and before they parted they sealed with a handshake the partnership that resulted in a year's stay in East Africa, Uganda and the Congo, and the cinema journey from coast to coast. There were many things to be considered in the preliminaries and arrangements made before departure, and one was that the pictorial results they would try to obtain would be different from the exhibition films or the illustrations for books that had heretofore appeared. Imprimis, it was resolved that there would be no wounded, trapped or harassed animals taken, that slaughter would be conspicuous by its absence, and that, so far as possible, animals would be seen moving undisturbed in their natural habitat, and that the native life would be represented unstaged and truthfully. FOREWORD vii So if the reader expects detailed accounts of big game bags, measurements of supposedly record beads, and accounts of terrific wounds by soft-nosed or solid bullets, be bad better put tbis volume down on the bookseller's counter, or if he has had the good for- tune to buy it, place it back on bis shelves unread. And there was another object also. Attached to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City is a large lecture ball, where free entertainments are given to the public, and, lately with great success, moving picture films of animals in their natural surroundings have l:>een shown there. Now, it is the idea of the Scribe and the Photographer to present to the great natural history museums of the world a duplicate set of the pictures obtained on tbis expedition, to form, as it were, the nucleus of a "film library" for free exhibition only, in order that the public may see at least some of the mounted specimens staring out of their glass cases moving naturally in the freedom of prairie, veldt or forest, for before long some of them may be as ex- tinct as the dodo. A glance at the map that accompanies this volume will show the extent of the photographic wanderings. In April, 1913, the expedition started from London, and as the preparations had all been made long in advance for the first safari, they waited only two days at Nairobi, and the month of May found them skirting the Abadares in British East Africa, bound for the wide stretches of sand and thornbush north of the Uashu Neru. It was at the water-holes up towards Vlll FOREWORD the Abyssinian border, where the only inhabitants are nomadic tribes of RandiU, Samburra and Boran, that many of the pictures were secured. The story of taking them mals.es up the first part of the book; but it had always been the intention to go on to the west- ward, through Uganda, and thence down the Ituri and the Aruwimi to the Congo, following, practically, at least from the Rewenzori Mountains, Stanley's trail on the Emin Pasha relief expedition of 1887. There svas a faint hope that it might be possible to secure photographs or perhaps moving pictures of some of the rarer animals, only a few of which are represented in the collection of mounted specimens in the larger museums. It may not be the best policy to preface a book with an apology, and yet it is rather necessary in this case, in order to explain the lack of animal pictures in the later chapters of the book. No sooner had we left the wide-spreading Irumu plains, and entered the depths of the forest, when diffi- culties began. In the deep shade of the towering trees and dense undergrowth the moving picture cameras were at an utter discount. The six- or eight-inch lenses were absolutely useless. It required the exposure of from one-fifth of a second to a full second's time to obtain any result at noonday. In the morning and evening it was a perpetual gloom. The only chances for photographic work were along the rivers, in the few open glades that were encountered, and in the cleared spaces and the plantations near the native vil- lages. Try our best we did. For many days we were FOREWORD ix in the country wliere the okapi had been netted or killed by the wambuti or pygmies but a short time before. We saw tlie footprints of this mysterious and lately discovered animal, and that is all. We had the jiygmies around us and tried to make moving pictures with a wide-open shutter and a slow turning of the handle, but only secured results when the subjects could be enticed out into the open. In the Scribe's diary will be found this despairing sentence: "The forest is im- possible as a field for moving photography." We were close to elephants more than once ; in one instance one of the partners found himself in the middle of a herd of at least a hundred. They were all around. One could hear the flappings of the great ears, and that strange stomachic rumbling that can only be heard when elephants are near to, yet not a photograph could have been taken, for the great beasts were as invisible as if they were miles away. It was disappointing and not wholly agreeable, in fact, the time spent in getting out of such rather uncomfortable positions was hardly worth mentioning. The Scribe on two occasions was compelled to shoot in self-defence, and each time managed to put a bullet in one of the few vital spots that would stop an oncoming and hostile beast — the brain. On another occasion, in the deep forest, a beautiful leopard crossed the path in one swift bound, leaving the fleeting im- pression on the retina of tawny spots and straignt-held tail. What a picture would he have made if the camera had been gifted with X-ray quality to pene- trate the curtains of thick foliage. X FOREWORD So the trip down to the Congo will record mostly canoe life, river and village scenes, with occasional glimpses of the forest where the percolating light was sufficient to make record possible by means of time exposure. Anyone who has read Stanley's book "In Darkest Africa" might follow with interest this perhaps unexciting narrative, for the expedition met natives who remembered him, old men now, long past the age when most savages have gone the way of African flesh, which mayhap is a little different from other flesh, in that very little is wasted. The records of impressions of this part of the journey will be found in the book. There was very little time for close investi- gations or analyses of native customs, for, lurking behind everything was the fear that the dampness, the intense heat and humidity might already be act- ing disastrously on the films already taken, and that it was necessary to carry along. There were troubles with deserting porters, rows with rebellious and trucu- lent paddlers during the long river journey, and nights spent at villages where death and disease were rampant. When at last the Scribe and the Photographer arrived at the head of steamer navigation, after paddling down the river in hollowed-out log canoes through half the night to Basoko, they caught the Congo river boat with only fourteen minutes to spare. Now, looking back over it all, both the Scribe and the Photographer are very glad they went, but there are certain portions of the journey that they would not care to do again. CONTENTS Foreword PAce V CHAPTER 1. On the Trail from Nairobi . 2. Along the Uashu Neku from Rumuruti to Archer's Post ..... 3. Picture Land — The Little Back Room in Noah' Ark 4. The March Past Kenia .... 5. The Well-known Hunting grounds 6. From B. E. A. to Uganda : The Departure . 7. In the Kabaka's Country 8. Into the Congo Belge . 9. The Tall Grass Country 10. Irumu ..... 11. Entering the Forest 12. Our Expedition South of Loya into the Pygmv Country .... 13. Alone in the Cannibal Country 14. On Stanley's Trail 15. Penghe to Avakubi 13 24 50 56 72 83 103 115 125 133 144 154 16S 179 Xll CONTENTS CHAPTER i6. Down the River . 17. The Talking Drums 18. The Congo at Last ig. The Lower Reaches 20. The Last Adventure 21. Some Notes and Figures 22. Retrospect - PAGE 191 200 218 229 238 251 260 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Sunset on the Arlwimi. Colour Froii/ispit'cc !■ AUNG I'AI.K Sketch Map Showing Route of the Expeijition across Afric The Start from Town . Down the Trail .... Fording a Shallow Stream . What Two Days' Rain Will Do Through the Hunter's Paradise Skirting Lake Olgolositt . Heavy Going ..... The Camp in the Park-like Countr\ Grevy Zebra Mare and Foal On the Edge of the Plateau The Famous Neumann's Camp . The Chanler Falls Rapids of the Uashu Neru A Close View of the Rapids The Base Camp Watching Game from the Hili.-side The Little Back Room in Noah's Ark The Work of One Elephant Grevy Zebras and Giraffes Oryx and Vultures at the Water-hoij'S xiii 8 H) ID 14 14 14 16 16 20 20 20 28 28 28 28 3<^ 32 xlv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING pac;e Greetings from Wonderobo 42 Ellen, the Stray Camel 42 A Drama of Greed 46 The Juggernaut Rock 52 Thomson's Gazelle 60 On the Trek with Oxen 60 A Halt in Scanty Shade . . . . . . .64 Coke's Hartebeeste Drinking 64 Rhinoceros Photographed at Close Quarters ... 70 Scavengers of the Veldt ....... 72 The Scribe and Bakale ....... 78 Inspection of the s:s. "Clement Hill" .... 80 The Kabaka's Courtyard: Entrance to the Royal Enclosure ......... 86 The Kabaka's Drums 86 Stringed Instruments and Chorus ..... 86 The Champion Wrestler of Uganda . . ... 88 A Buganda Warrior in his War Paint .... 92 A Bridge on the Highway 96 In Sight of the Foothills: A Halt near Toro ... 96 Lake Llonga-Llonga 98 On Lake Llonga-Llonga 98 The Mirrored Shores of Lake Llonga-Llonga ... 98 The Deserted Country ....... 102 Crossing the Foothills of the Rewenzori . . . 102 A Village Built in Half an Hour 102 After the Rain: The Watched Pot that would Never Boil 102 A FoRTY-NiNER ON Rewexzori : The Scribe and Charles Malloy 102 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS XV I' \\ Ml' Pointing the Way to thi- Skmi.iki Crossing THE Semliki: View from tih. Uii.cian S The Haunt of tiii: Crocodile A Goliath among " Crocs " . The Well-cleared Avenue Approach to a \'ii.i Serving the Scanty Rations Market Place, Bog a Interview with Chii;f or thi: Hii.i.-k Presents from the Chii;i's Ciari)i:n After the Storm . . . . What the Hurricane Left of Our C Bah em A Belles .... The Chief's Hut in a Bahema N'illage A Walese Village in the Woods Babira Women in the Market Place Black Troops at Irumu An Irumu Woman, showing Cicatrisation A Government Rest-house . The " Entente Cordiale " . Nearing Kifiku .... An Ivory Caravan on the March Ivory Trader's Yard Entering a Village: The Dwarf Leads the W Women Running Out to Meet the Column The Loya River near Mamakupi Crossing the Loya Rivi;r Our Camp at Mamakupi Huts of the Forest Peoi>le Some Little Cannibals The Belle of the \'illage KAi-iNi; PAGE 104 104 104 108 I ]2 116 116 116 120 120 126 126 128 128 K\2 136 138 138 142 142 144 144 148 148 148 XVI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE " He resembled an organ-grinder's monkey " A Young M'buti Hunter .... A Walese M'buti Chief .... A Light Lunch: An Elephant's Forefoot A Chief on the Loya River On the Edge of the Village A Family Group in a Forest Village A Scowling Welcome from a Lady Cannibal The Two Head Trackers . . . Mentoni's Brother Re-tailing the Big Elephant Cutting up an Elephant near Mentoni's Village . The Scribe with Trophies of the Big Tusker . A MoNGWANA Mohammedan Teacher and his Wives Ex-Slave Raiders ..... MoNGWANA Women Singing . A MoNGWANA Dance .... Upper Waters of the Ituri near Kifiku A Path through the Second Growth A Tree that Lives on the Surface of the Ground . The Photographer Catching Butterflies in a Forest Glade ...... The Armadillo . . . . . A Horned Viper ..... A Trunk no Native will Climb . A Typical Ant's Nest of Central Africa An Edible Lizard Pounding Rice The House of a Spirit Chief A Clay Totem at the Hut of a Dead Chief Porters Waiting to Leave Penghe LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xvu The Porter who Became a Headman The Boy who was Nearly Killed and Eaten h\ Caw The Hiim'o that Nearly Caused a Rior Cutting up the Hippo The Landing Place A Ferry Across the Ituri River, near A\akliu The Departure from Avakubi River Scene below Avakubi A Halt for Luncheon .... Canoemen of the Aruwtmi .... Hauling a Canoe against the Current Setting Fish Traps The Curious Crowd Women Carrying the Loads Shooting the Rapids at Bassobangi A River Family on the Move Taking a Sun Bath Men and Women Porters Waiting for their L( Wife of the Chief at Mokangula Unconscious Poses Chief with Parrot Feather Headdress and O Bandolier ...... A River Man and a Forest Hunter Bartering for a Native Sword The Village Flour Mill .... As it Was in the Beginning: A Primitive Ri\f The African "Wireless": A Village Stri;i-t Drummer ....... Panga Falls on the Aruwimi On Stanley's Island, below the Falls Skix R \'ii.i.\(;i snow IXG FAIING l'A<.E 182 182 184 184 188 90 90 [92 192 192 'J4 'M 104 04 98 198 ')8 :98 i<,8 198 [98 [98 200 200 204 204 XVIU LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS An Evening Sky Lightning at Mupele The Goats' Highway into the Forest Issuing Rice to a Sleeping Sickness Victim Banalia Women Offering Wood for Purchase Near Yambuya, where Stanley's Reargltaru al Starved Old Lupo, Stanley's Guide on the Aruwimi Watching the Canoes come in . . . Starvation Camp . . . . . . A Bamboo Pipe Full Speed Ahead ...... Placid Reflections The Fortified Post of Basoko At Basoko Gate: The End of the Canoe Journey Basoko Types, showing Cicatrisation . Barumba, where we Joined the Steamer . A Congo Mission Station .... The Steamer Tied Up for the Night The Forward Deck ..... Women at a Landing Place The Docks at Matadi ..... An Avenue Planted by Stanley . The Ladies who Would Dress for Their Portr Glave's Lonely Grave ..... On Stanley's Route through the Jungle Oryx and Impalla Searching for Water . A Herd of Oryx with some Record Heads . Common Zebra ...... Oryx and Zebra Stampeding \ITS MOST PAGE 208 210 210 210 210 214 214 214 216 216 216 216 218 222 222 222 222 228 236 238 238 242 258 264 264 266 266 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA 3U 20 / lu <-<~l'TJ / / // V A T L A X t/i ,C /V 10 20 M LoDJiituJ.; I't) W'e-t SKETCH MAP SHOWING ROUTE OF THE EXPEDITION ACROSS AFRICA Through Central Africa FROM COAST TO COAST CHAPTER I ON THE TRAIL FROM NAIROBI SOME old Latin once recorded that "All things new come from Africa," but there are certainly some things that have come from there (indirectly perhaps) that are not new, and these are books. It seems to me that everyone who has ever gone there, no matter his excuse, incentive, or provocation, has perpetrated at least one volume, and some have had the temerity to repeat the dreadful experiment. Almost all the books that I have read contain photo- graphs and descriptions of Nairobi, that busy little centre of about eleven hundred whites, and four times that quantity of blacks, and where the Indian Fundi and bazaar merchant have the monopoly of the contractor's calling and trade. Suffice it, therefore, that, having reached this usual starting-point in the usual way by train from Mombasa, all of our thoughts were concen- trated upon getting off on Safari* and away from the haunts of men. Nairobi irked us. * Safari = Caravan : route of march. 2 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA It was, luckily, the off season, and the visiting "big game hunters" — mostly armed tourists out to kill — were not much in evidence. There was a land boom on; everyone was anxious to sell a farm or buy one — the latter class being the great minority. Perhaps it was for this reason that porters were easy to obtain. We were fortunate also to secure, for our first trip, the services ot Mr. S. H. Lydford, a young white hunter who possessed both knowledge and interest in photo- graphic work, and who knew well the country into which it was our intention to penetrate — the little- known and waterless tracts north of the Uashu Neru up toward the Abyssinian border. It was an old story to Kearton. It was his third visit to British East Africa. He had been through it all before. From the train window he had pointed out places where, on a previous visit, he had done photographic work, but it was all new to the Scribe, although he was familiar with the suhiect at second hand, having read so many of his friends' effusions and having listened to so many stories told at "Camp Fire" dinners at luxurious metropolitan hotels. But despite this mental preparation, and the recollection of much carefully garnered advice, there was a feel- ing of keen excitement and pleasure that came to both Kearton and myself, as, clad in our very new khaki outfits, we looked down the lines of black nondescripts who were to be our companions for nearly three months. When the column started, to the tooting of antelope horns and much shouting, out into the ON THE TRAIL FROM NAIROBI 3 Nairobi streets from the yard of the tradiiij^ company that had charge of equipiiing our expedition, 1 con- fess that it was with a thrill of deliglit that I slapped Kearton on the shoulder and said: "We're oii at last!" Our destination was the railway station, hut word had come in, that owing to the heavy rains the trails to Fort Hall and northward around Mount Kenia were almost impassable, so under advice we decided to leave the railway and. take to the "leather express" at Gil-Gil, some six or seven hours' distance up the road. Nothing delights an American negro so much as a railway journey — (whoever saw an unhappy porter on a Pullman train?) — and I found that this held true with his untutored and mostly unclad brother on his native stamping ground ; perhaps it is the fact that he is moving without exertion that gives the negro a sort of exultation, but, whatever the reason, no jollier or more contented lot of human beings have I ever seen than these Kikuyus, Wakambas, Kavirondos, and black tramps generally, who were crowded like herrings into two open cars at the end of the train. Like the Hours described by the bored poet, they were forced to "loll in each other's laps" to the journey's end. Never- theless, they chatted, sang, and in general wore the aspect of a black boys' boarding school going home for the holidays. Poor thoughtless devils, there was hardship enough ahead for some of them. To a certain degree, the safari porter is a ward 4 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA of the local authorities at the point from which he starts, and there all responsihility ends. According to law, each one has to be provided with a black sleeved jersey, a blanket, and a tin water-bottle. Now, how some of those ex-warriors had found time to sell their new jerseys and new blankets and make appear- ance at the train in ragged substitutes was perplexing, and the number of second-hand canteens and water- bottles that appeared was beyond counting. The blankets, that I think are made mostly of cotton waste and paper stock, could not have brought much in the way of trade or ready-money, and as for the tin water-bottles, those that did not leak at the end of the first week's marching were discarded as use- less incumbrances, yet what a row there would have been if every man had not received his own at the point of starting ! Besides the porters, we were provided with a head man or n'mpara, of whom I will write hereafter, a cook, and a private servant apiece. The cook had come with a written recommenda- tion from a former employer. We had picked him out because I insisted that he had an honest face, despite the fact that his worn and dog-eared letter was dated some two years back ; he sorrowfully averred that he had lost the others. However, at the hotel where we stayed for two days, I ran across the man who had most recently employed him, and whose name he had proudly mentioned. " Yes," remarked the gentleman thoughtfully, ON THE TRAIL FROM NAIROBI 5 "Amassi is a good cook, perhaj^s the best in East Africa, but he is also one of the worst thieves and most arrant scoundrels I have ever met. He is a gambler and a general waster, but if you deal every- thing out to him carefully, and watch him like a suspicious constable, and beat him about once a week, he will serve you very well. He professes to be a Christian," my new found friend smiled slightly; *' but the only Christian principle that he has im- bibed is never to let his left hand know what his right hand is doing." Be it therefore recorded, after this warning, witliout beating, we got on with Amassi fairly well. Kearton's personal boy, Abadie, was the Uriah Heep of all personal boys. He was that humble that he was afraid to assert himself by touching anything of his master's until ordered to do so, and so shy and retiring was he, that I am firmly convinced he blushed when spoken to, although it could not be detected. In my personal boy, Juma, I thought I had discovered a jewel. He was a Mohammedan with rather a shifty eye, but he certainly ditl know his business. He could wait on the table, clean and press clothes like a duke's valet. He could also mend things very well, after you had given them to him, and as for packing things breakable and un- breakable, he could have got a job in a glass warehouse. At making beds he proved to be an adept. In fact, he began after the fashion of the traditional new broom, and stayed so until the latter 6 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA end of the journey, when he departed with an over- coat, a suit of clothes and two pairs of hoots, and failed to come hack for a letter of recommendation. Oh! those letters! Those precious barruas, for which there must be a native clearing-house among personal hoys, with fixed prices and an adept trans- lator, w^ho, however, occasionally lets some of the slyly worded ones get past. Lydford, the most experienced of the three of us, had drawn the worst card in the deck. I have forgotten the indi- vidual's name, but he was consigned to limbo after a few weeks' trial, and the work that he was supposed to do was practically divided between the retiring Abadie and the omniscient Juma. I have mentioned casually the head man, the ii^mpara, and I here record that if ever I go to Africa again I will do much searching until I find him. He was tall, of Herculean build, with a voice like that of a first mate on a river steamboat, and he could have taken the two biggest porters and dangled them like two-pound dumb-bells. He mentioned his name several times to me in a very husky voice, but I always failed to catch it, otherwise I would be glad to recommend him to anyone in need of such services as he could render. While I am on this digression, I must mention a little incident which rather disproves the theory held by some irascible travellers that the African black is neither loyal nor faithful. Kearton had often told me stories of his former trips, and how he wished that he ON THE TRAIL FROM NAIROBI 7 could get hold of his old camera boy who had accom- panied him on his lion-spearing trip, and when he was taking the moving pictures for the Huifalo Jones expedition, a Kikuyu named Killenjui, hut how to find him Kearton did not know. The very morning of our start, however, as he was walking down Cjovern- ment Road, a little half-naked individual carrying the old haft of a spear smilingly saluted him. It was Killenjui himself! When he heard that his old hwana was going ofT immediately on safari, there was no hesitation — he dropped all and followed him. Killenjui, it seemed, was prosperous and owned cattle and sheep and goats, and possessed a family; but nothing counted ! Sending out w^ord to his kraal, which was a day's journey from the tow^n, that he would be gone for some time, he threw in his lot with us; and a more faithful, trustworthy, brave little chap never trod the long stretches of the game trails. But to return to the train puffing up the heavy grades to the westward. We had purchased three mules, and they were in a horse-box ahead of the crowded trucks containing the tightly-wedged-in blacks. The train was late, and it was dark when we drew into Gil-Gil station, which we found consisted of two tin shanties presided over by a turbaned Indian, his tiny wife, and three roly-poly children. Nairobi itseit lies at an altitude of some 6,000 feet, and during the afternoon's journey we climbed over two thousand more. It was cold. The shelter offered by the tin rest-house was seductive, and I thought almost with 8 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA pity of the unclad porters in their little cotton tents that they had pitched beside the track. A stroll over in their direction after we had made some shift at a supper convinced me that my sympathy was wasted. Great fires were roaring, and laughter and song, joke and story seemed to be going the round. Commend me for an example of contentment with mundane exis- tence to the African porter with a full stomach; he is the one man who regrets no past, fears no future, and completely enjoys what the gods provide for the present fleeting moment, with the proviso that it is food and fire. We were up betimes in the morning ; a glorious crisp day was coming on. I ached to try my new boots (and I actually did before the day went out), so I disdained the services of my mule and started along the well-defined trail to the north, at the head of the shouting and singing line of porters. By eleven o'clock it had grown hot, and I had become convinced that I would boast no longer of the perfections of my London footgear, I decided not to waste that mule, and waited for him. It was just after I had mounted that we got our first sight of game close to. A half dozen kongoni looked over the brow of a hill at us. The two dogs that we had commandeered at Nairobi started full tilt, as if let go from a leash. Following to the brow of a hill, I turned back disgusted. There was a tin farmhouse with a wooden verandah not half a mile away ! It was somewhat of a shock. The kongoni were private property. For the next few hours, THE START FROM TOWN * >• DOWN Tin-. TKAIL ■ f^u K .• •..*?F^ N.1*- **» ■ '■' -'■ ■ ■ 1 FORDING A SHALLOW STREAM WHAT TW^O DAYS' RAIN WILL DO ON THE TRAIL FROM NAIROBI 9 I kept looking; tor more larins, hut this was tlic last hahitation seen until \vc came to the ahandoued (iovern- inent post at Rumuruti li\e days later. 'I'he eoiuitry through which we passed still teems witii hartebeeste, both Coke's and Jackson's, steinbuck, thomi, granti, and zebra roaming in large herds ; bushhuck, reedbuck and waterbuck were frequently to be seen. But in a few years it will all be farm-land — there will be dozens of tin houses, instead of one. The game will go. Although the rainy season was suj^posed to be oxer, it rained every evening, a cold, penetrating downpour. Two porters had decided by the third tiay that the constantly increasing altitude and cold nights ditl not agree with them, and had left us, one taking the pre- caution to break open his box and drink a bottle of bay rum in order to tone up his system, and the other — a careless beggar this — leaving his blanket and water- bottle behind him. We saw a fine cheetah sunning himself on a rock, a long distance ofT, but he vanished before wx could get near enough to take a picture of him. A mangy old hyena ambled awkwardly ahead of us across the trail. Both the greater and the lesser bustards were plentiful, yet too wary were they for the photographer. Prolific rains had turned everything to a vivid green. There was none of the burnt and i:)arched effect that I had always pictured as part of the African landscape. Charm has been aptly defined as the "capacity for infinite surprise," and it is the jirincijial reason lor Africa's hold upon both resident and \isitor. As we 3 10 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA climbed up from our camp on the shores of Lake Olgolositt, we turned and looked back. The rains had increased the lake to almost twice its usual size, the safari had waded and paddled for hours on the day before through the overflowed meadow lands. From the high ground, we could see a little bunch of hippo- potami skirting the reeds on the far-off shore. Thou- sands of strange herons and flamingoes were wading about in the marshes, and water-fowl of all descriptions, mallard, teal and beautiful Egyptian geese traded from one end of the lake to the other. To the north, the heavily-wooded slopes of the Abadares, the haunts still of herds of elephants, lifted their massive crests into the depths of the opaque white clouds. But we had not gone a mile across the rising table-land when we stopped in surprise and delight. There, seventy or eighty miles to the eastward, rose the peak of Kenia against the clear blue sky. It glistened like a great diamond at the apex, and the white of glacier and snow line faded into a delicate hazy blue, beneath which showed the darker line of the forest, and up to its very base swept the undulating fair green of the veldt. In the space between the Abadares and the great mountain, the thin veil of a morning shower fell slantwise, moving like a trailing feather to the west. Quite close, in almost every direction, were herds of game. Kongoni sentinels, alert and watchful, gazed at us from what they deemed safe distance. A herd of zebra mares with their foals galloped away and wheeled THROUGH THK HUNTERS I'ARAUISl:. .^^'»'?^i*)^'^^f5[^j^, r h^} l^P -KIRTING LAKl'; ULGULOSITT ON THE TRAIL FROM NAIROBI ii as if at a word of command, and stood as tlioii^li at a review watching our approach. Little steinhuck bmst out of the grass hke rabbits out of tlieir burrows and flourished off, doubhng and tw'isting. The aii was crisp and cool ; it was a day in which to enjoy the essence of existence. We had started early, and we made some nineteen miles before evening, iiead- ing due north, all in good spirits, the porters sing- ing, and " Mack " and " Lady," the two dogs, returning from a dozen futile chases with as much joy as if they had brought their quarry to the ground. I cannot tell where the change began, but sud- denly w^e noticed that the grass was not so green, that the reddish brown earth was giving w^ay to sandy stretches, and that the thorn trees had a dimmed and dusty appearance. In the nineteen miles, we had stepped into an entirely different country. The game had been left behind, and we camped that night on the edge of a waterless brook, whose hot grey stones had known no rain for weeks. Our guide had ex- pected to find it running full, but it did not flow from the Abadares for we had crossed the watershed. We had expended our last drop in making tea for luncheon, and search w^as made for a pool that might give us enough water for our needs that evening. At last we found one — a little pebbly spring at the base of a great rock. A porter had found it also ; he was standing ankle deep in it giving himself a bath. Not only that, but his discarded single garment and a cake of soap proved that he was a man of cleanly habits. 12 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA A half mile farther on, we found another smaller pool, before a porter had come across it. It was green and slimy, but after filtering and boiling, the water served its purpose. We were learning much about the African country, and not a little about the African himself! Away to the south some eight or ten miles, it was pouring torrents, and just at sunset the cloud efifects were grand and marvellous beyond description, but only a few drops fell where we were, although one could almost have sworn that he heard the descent of the deluge so near by. It was one of the surprises that we got quite used to before the year was out. chaptf:r II ALONG THK I'ASHU NERU FROM RrMlRUTI TO archer's post RUMURUTI had once been an important Govern- ment post and fort in the days when tlie Masai had inhabited the country, but now that great tribe of herdsmen have made an exodus under Government promises and supervision to the south of the Uganda Railway line, an exchange that was fair robbery in the minds of a few people to-day, who insist they know something about it. So Rumuruti has fallen from its high state, to become the residence of a lonely and much sun-burned white man who holds the important position of Inspector of horses, cattle and camels. Here were gathered an encampment of Somalis, those prideful, wealthy and self-satisfied nomads who consider themselves far above the blacks and several rounds in the social ladder above the Englishman. The Somali is a combination of the Jew, the Gipsy and the Seminole Indian. You cannot beat him at a bargain, he will do you at a horse trade, and he has all the arrogance of the still unwhijiiied. We were in the land of the lions now, and it was at Rumuruti that we first heard them roaring in the distance. The inspector had shot a large lioness 13 14 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA inside the Government boma, while she was firmly attached to the nose of a cow, and was endeavouring to drag it out through a hole, through which she had just scraped her own lean body. A big black-maned male had taken a haunch of beef out of a tree within twenty feet of the inspector's window the night be- fore we arrived. Another visitor put in appearance at the post about the same time we did. He was the Game Ranger, whose jurisdiction covers some hun- dreds of square miles north-west of Nairobi. Newly opened countries bring forth strange charac- ters. Extremes meet in most natural, if most un- expected places. I can well imagine G in white spats and a grey topper at Ascot (sans his luxuriant golden grey whiskers), or sitting in the corner at White's Club detailing his turf winnings or losses im- perturbably, in the same high accents of Belgravia that he used in describing the shortcomings of his half- naked personal boy or the good qualities of his saddle mule, on the tumble-down verandah of the inspector's house. I suppose, in the first instance, his eye-glass would have been attached to his person by a silk cord instead of a shoe-string, but his personality would have remained unchanged. I have been subsequently told that like " a trooper of the forces, he had run his own six horses," with the usual results. But if any man ever showed con- tentment at his present lot by his demeanour, it was our friend the ranger. Leaving Rumuruti, we pressed on to the north- i-tr. HEAVY GOING -1 THE CAMP IN THE PARK-LIKE COUNTRY ALONG THE UASHU NERU i5 west, skirting the long swamp, heading tor the ruin Peaks, near which the trail leads down from the tahle- land to the valley of the Uashu Neru. The coinitry kept constantly ciianging, those marvellous transitions so common to Africa. It is a curious thing to mark also the sudden changes in the animal life. In a day's march, you may leave the land of kongoni, and come into that of the oryx. Cross the river and the common wide-striped Burchall's zebra are left behind, while his more beautiful and larger brother, the Grevy zebra, is seen in abundance. Almost every night we heard the lions now, far away, while the hyenas wailed close round our camp, as soon as darkness had settled. The game continued plentiful. We got our first glimpse of eland and giraffe, a mag- nificent bull crossing in front of us with his rocking- horse gait, graceful for all his ungainliness. The flora was changing with every mile we made. We crossed beautiful little valleys with tall grass, springs, and high trees in which played and frolicked troops of long- tailed monkeys. Herds of the beautiful impalla gazelle were on every side of us, and a great rock rising sheer and straight like a castle some two hundred feet was peopled by a colony of large baboons. Twice we had to ford two swollen rivers, felling trees and hauling the mules across by ropes. There were no trails now except those made by the game, but we made good time along the rhino paths, and saw one or two of the big beasts in the distance as they disappeared into the thorn bush. i6 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA On Monday, the second of June, we made our longest and our hardest march, over twenty-two miles without water, and arrived on the bank of the Uashu Neru. Never will any of us forget the sight as the safari wended its way down the steep path from the upland. It was like marching into a painting. To the north rose mountain after mountain in fantastic form. In the first mile, we descended 900 feet. Buffalo and rhino spoor were plentiful, rock rabbits abounded, but we saw not another living thing until in the afternoon we sighted a troop of girafle in the distance. Four days later, following the river, we came to Neumann's historic camp, where he had once built a big grass house and laid out a garden while he trafficked with the natives for ivory. Poor Neumann, who came to such a tragic end, became too powerful, and the Government banished him, forbidding his return to the land that he really must have loved. We were in the land of the palm tree now, and the river banks were fringed with the gracefully drooping fan-like branches. It was growing warmer, almost too hot to march at noonday, but we pressed ahead, and on the 7th arrived at Archer's Post, the main crossing of the Government trail to its outlying military post at Marsabit. We had sent runners ahead three weeks before to see if camels could not be purchased or arranged for at this point, in order to take us with greater comfort into the waterless district north of the river, but no camels v^JtS» THK I'AMOUS NKUMANNS CAMP ALONG THE UASHU NERU i? were procurable. The tew that were there were sickly, for a disease was rile among them and their Somali owners woidd not undertake the journey. We found at the post a young Englishman li\ing all alone. He had been there for fourteen months in practical solitude. Except for the visit of an oc- casional hunting safari during the season, and a monthly mail, he might have been living on a desert island. 1 was amused to see a bag of goH clubs leaning against the pole of his palm-leat hut, and a course of three holes laid out on' a sandy flat. On the table was an American talking machine and a score of disc records. His name was Claydon, and of him more hereafter, for he figures quite largely in one nearly tragic story that will be told in a later chapter. Noticing that our attention was drawn to the pickled music, he smiled. "Have a concert every evening," he said. "I think that old machine has saved me from going mad at times." "Yes, it is a bit lonely. Do any of you chaps play golf?" It was a new course, and I am sorry to say that I did not distinguish myself. I lost one of the precious balls, and nearly killed a Meru porter, who tried to stop a long low drive with the back of his head. The ferry across the river here had been an old pontoon that was hauled across by means of pulleys, on a wire, but the aflfair had gone out of commission, and the pontoon was now sunk in midstream, and with 4 i8 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA it had ^one down two Somalis, one of whom had been saved by Claydon swimming out to him with a rope, a pkicky thing to go, as the river here is full of crocodiles of the very worst reputation. The rescued Somali was disconsolate at the loss of his friend, and he was still hanging about the banks as if he expected him to come up again. His grief was very genuine, and well understood when it was disclosed that the missing one had sixty pounds in gold on his person, forty of which the bereaved brother claimed to be his own ! It was now a case of waiting until the river should go down, or getting the pontoon over to the bank. A\e were making plans to do the latter when a detachment of the King's African Rifles arrived on their way south, under charge of a young captain who was certainly the best looking young fellow that I had seen in many a day. As they were on the north bank and had to cross over, we let them get the pontoon out for us. These black soldiers wTre a finely set up, sturdy lot from down towards Nyassaland, After two hours' work they had the ferry running. I might here record that it was this detachment that had had the bru h with the Abyssinian raiders up near the border, and a very interesting story they had to tell. From all accounts, that band of marauders will raid no more. The King's African Rifles had l(jst one white officer killed and one wounded, and a number or their men. I wonder if a full account of these skirmishes ever appears m ALONG THE UASHU NERU 19 the Government Blue Hook. As an old war corres- pondent, I would like to tell the story just as it was told to me, hut it has no place here. On the afternoon the ferry was put in order we crossed to the north hank, nearly drowning a mule in the process, and went into canij). I'hree days later, after three lon^ marches, we pitched camp and raised a lar^e palm thatched hut in which to leave a good deal of our supplies and estahlish a base. Owing to the lack of water, it was necessary to press on quickly to the north, and carry light loads. Five large canvas bags had been made, holding from forty to fifty gallons, that could be carried shmg on poles on the porters' shoulders. While these pre- parations were made, Kearton, Lydford, and myself, with a small detachment, made a little trek down along the Lorian Swamp trail to Chanler Falls, that beau- tiful cascade discovered by an American explorer only a few years before. The Uashu Neru is a mysterious stream. Although broad and deep, and running in places with great swiftness, it pours its waters into the great Lorian Swamp and disappears, for so far as is know^n at the present time there is no outlet to the sea. Like Lake Navassha, in Western British East Africa, that figures in one of Rider Haggard's stories, it may ha\e some subterranean outlet. The falls themselves are peculiar and picturesque. The river seems to disappear in the great ledge of porous limestone and gushes forth 20 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA as if |-)()nriii.ii from separate culverts in the face of tlie ^reat rock. At the time we visited it one could cross almost dry shod from shore to shore, although the great mass of water fiowing underneath shows plainly in the photograph. On the 18th of June, we started north by moon- light in the early hours of the morning, and before we camped for the night had covered some twenty- six miles. It was fortunate that the moon was at the full, tor the midday sun was fairly scorching. The barometer showed that we were constantly descending. The character of the country became more parched and barren, and there was notliing but the scantiest forage on the thorn bushes. On the third day, we began to see signs of game— oryx, gerenuk, impalla, and many dik-dik. On the 23rd, we arrived at the "picture ground." We had passed one oasis where there was some water, mucli impregnated with soda, and hardly drinkable, but here we found a large encampment of Samburra, and a very fair supply of good water in the wells that they had dug down to a depth of seven or eight feet, and where they watered their herds of donkeys, sheep, and goats. Nine miles away lay the stretch of sandy river bed where the animals came to drink at tfie hples dug by rhinos and elephants. Far away on either hand as we progressed lay stretches of great hills and high mountains, the tops of some of the latter shrouded in clouds. It had been our great fear that rain would fall. A week's hard downfall would THE RAPIDS OF THE UASHU NERU A CLOSE VIEW QV THE RAPIDS ALONG THE UASHU NKRU 21 have absolutely destroyecl any ehaiice ol ^ettin^ tlic game belore the eaniera, unless by tli;a most dilliciilt of all methods, stalkintjj, that we tried so maiiv times in vain, but no rain to speak ot had fallen lor a twelvemonth, and sometimes there is no rain reeorded here for two years or more. \\ here the water comes from it is hard to imagine, but at certain spots in the sandy stream bed it can be procured by di^^in^, and in a very few places it showed above the surface. The tall escarpment lined with a j^rowth ol thorn trees rose in a slieer ascent about a mile away to the eastward, and down the steep sides the eleiihant and rhino had worn clearly defined paths that would have done credit to a construction gang in charge of a clever engineer. The Samburra visited our camp on the night of our arrival, bringing milk in leather bottles, but it had all been singed or burnt by thrusting a burning ember into it, and it was attractive neither to look nor taste. Howxver, before many days went by I, at least, for one, was glad to get it. The next day w^e started searching for the best places to put up our blinds, or hide-ups. To our joy we found evidences that there was an abundance of game in the neighbourhood. Fresh elephant and rhino spoor and hoofprints of oryx, impalla, gerenuk, giraffe, and, to our surprise, buffalo, were apparent. Beautiful Grevy zebra abounded everywhere, and 1 am sure that there were two or three different species of the smaller gazelle commoidy known as dik-dik. Leopards and lions had left the impress of their soft 22 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA pads in the yielding sand, and the night of our arrival we were greeted by a concert, two males shouting and roaring at each other not a niile from the tent. But up to this moment, although we had been on the look-out, and had heard them times without number, we had not seen a single lion. We were to get quite close enough to them before our stay was over. The second day we found the place we were looking for, which was, as I have stated, nine miles from the camp. We had also laid out our plan of campaign, the two principal ideas of which were these : that we would do no shooting while the photographs were being taken, and, if there was any to be done, — and, of course, meat had to be secured — it would be miles in the opposite direction from where we had located our hide-ups. For years, the Wanderobo, those prowling hunters of low caste that are to be found all through East Africa, and correspond in habits to the Bushman of the far south, the Wambuti of the forest country, and the Batwa of the hills, have been wont to dwell in little clefts or caves in the rocks on the banks of the dead and dusty river. Lydford had picked out one of these, that, with a little work, could be made into a shelter sufficient to accommodate four men. We bridged it over with some thorn bushes and slabs of palm wood. It did not look very secure when we had finished, and Kearton said, as he surveyed it: " Now if a lion jumps on that, the whole thing ALONG THE UASHU NFRU 23 will come to smash ami he can jiick us out at his leisure." Not a comforting thought, take it altogether, when we came to reason it out. Nevertheless, in this nar- row little cleft in the rocks, we subsequently passed some very exciting, if not adventurous nights, and from here we set out every morning for the hide-ups, where, under a grilling sun, with a temperature rang- ing between 120 and 130, we waited for the animals to come down to the water. There were many days when we drew complete blanks, and others when the excitement and reward of accomplished purpose repaid us for the fierce grilling and all the attendant discomforts to which we were subjected. CHAPTER III picture land the little back room in noah's ark CURIOSITY and caution are strangely blended in all wild beasts, but the latter element is mainly predominant, and perhaps the curiosity shown is but another name for the extremest caution; that is, the animal seems bent upon making a close and still closer inspection of anything that appears to be strange and out of its usual experience, a cautious testing as to whether the unusual object, be it stationary or moving, is harmless or harmful. Every wild four- footed animal unacquainted with the death -dealing power of firearms will turn after a few swift bounds, or a frightened burst of speed, and gaze all alert at the intruder before making a swift mental decision as to the best means of self-preservation. It is the hunter's opportunity, and that sudden pause and look back has cost many a naturally wary animal its life. It is not stupidity, as some thoughtless and casual writers have observed. It is exactly the reverse. It is the instinct, the ingrained nature of the beast who depends upon eyesight, sense of smell and swiftness of foot, to escape from manifold dangers. Now, to place a strange and possibly obtrusive object 24 PICTURE LAND 25 suddenly in the view of animals that are preyed upon by others would serve the same purpose as erecting a scarecrow in a field of standing corn. It would take them a long time to get used to it, but if it gradually assumes proportions, they become accustomed to it b}^ degrees, and finding always by a close investigation that it is harmless, dismiss it from their minds and forget it altogether. Having chosen the best positions for our hide-ups, it took us a full week to finish them, although eacli could have been completed in possibly an hour's time. After they had received the finishing touches, they were not visited by us for three or four days, and in every case we found that they had been subjected to a thorough inspection. The wary baboons had climbed in and out of them. The Grevy zebra had walked all around them. The elephants had passed their trunks inside. The rhino alone had displayed no interest in their presence, but he is perhaps the least suspicious of all the great beasts whose size and strength pre- cludes them fearing any foe but man. "His brain is small, his bulk immense, His sight is dim, his hearing tense. He's lacking most in common sense." The first week was anything but encouraging. Whether it was the fact that we had shown ourselves too openly, or perhaps our scent remained too strong in the neighbourhood of our hiding-places, we could not at first determine. At all events we got no pic- 26 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA tures worth recording, and we returned to the Sainhurra camp tired and disheartened. Three days, or at the best four, we found were quite suflficient. It required the remainder of the week to rest up. We found that we were not the only occupants of the cleft in the rocks. Lizards, beetles, wasps, spiders, in fact, biting insects of all kinds, insisted upon sharing our lodging, and also a most objectionable tick, that when he once got ht^ld of you, buried his head in your tender flesh, and produced a dark red swelling about the size of a shilling, that burned and itched like a coal of fire. Entomology was not one of our pursuits, but we had found a capital place in which to pursue a few elusive and possibly rare specimens. After a con- sultation, we concluded that we would no longer light any fire down by the hide-ups, and that we would have our food brought from the Samburra camp, and left at a big tree a mile above the cave, sending for it in the early morning, every other day. Our second attempt was more encouraging and prolific of experience. We discovered that we must get up earlier. We must be at the hide-ups before the animals began to move, and this meant daybreak. Another thing we learned, there were too many of the little wells pawed out by those capital hydraulic engineers, Messrs. Kifaru, Tembo, and Co., the rhino and elephant, so we employed our- selves in stopping many of the outlying ones with heavy stones and thorn bush branches, and covering the whole with sand. We did navvy's work at this for PICTURE LAND 27 some days, and our efforts were rewarded. We be^an to learn much about the drinking habits of animals, at what time we might expect the oryx, when the impalla quench their thirst, the time to look for the baboon, and the Grevy zebra, or the j^iratile. Some only drank in the morning, some in the evening, some twice a day, and the giraffe was satisfied with once every five days, but he was as regular as a clock. Every now^ and then we had unexpected visitors, a water buck, for instance, and Heaven only knows what he was doing up in that hot, parched country. Jackal, wnld pig, and w^art-hog put in oc- casional appearance. We also saw gerenuk, those long-necked, uncanny-looking gazelle, near the water holes, but not once did we see one drinking. It is the popular idea, even among the natives, that they do not drink at all. This can hardly be so, but they feed late into the evening after the dew has fallen and are moving before sunrise. Perhaps they are noc- turnal drinkers. I am sufficiently convinced that they can see well in semi-darkness. The elephants, to our great mortification, only came down at night. We could see them in the faint light, moving sometimes within less than a hundred yards from our little back room in Noah's Ark. They screamed and trumpeted, blowing sand and water over their huge bodies, but only once did one linger long enough for us to get a good sight of him by daylight. He was a huge lone bull with small tusks, and as it was the first wild elephant that 28 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA I had clearly seen I compared liini with my recol- lection of the famous Jumbo, and Jumbo sutJered by comparison. It is not always the largest elej")hant that carries the heaviest ivory, and I doubt if this big bull's tusks would have gone over thirty or thirty-five pounds. It was early dawn when we discovered him, wander- ing about the sandy river bed, and very cautiously, with the cameras ready, we began to stalk him. I do not doubt but what we could fiave secured some pictures had it not been for the irritating habits of the baboons, whose different colonies in the neighbourhood would have made a population of thousands. Whether they had made a compact with the elejohant to play sentry for him we never could determine, but at a single bark from a watchful old female baboon, who was observing us from a tree-top, he was off, ears spread out like spinnakers. Having been thus disclosed, we started after him hot foot, but as he easily went eiglit miles to our five, we were soon distanced and gave it up. He must have been a rampageous old fellow possessed of great strength and a vile temper, for he had needlessly wrecked the scenery, overturning fiuge trees, some two feet in diameter, and tossing them about all over the place. He did not belong to the escarpment herd, that consisted mainly of cows with calves, and very young bulls. He was just a pestiferous old bachelor, or, perhaps, a disgruntled widower. At all events, he disdained the company of his kind, and wfien he was down, and the desire for drink was f lltti^^"'"'* " ' illli!'li|i'ii"ii»"*MMHP< > E ^U o cc; a ^ ^il'I^S^^ PICTURE LAND 31 might have been from the appearance of him, sitting in dignified solemnity by the side of a water hole. Every now and then he scratched himself in the neighbour- hood of the lower ribs. "He's looking for a match," said Kearton, in a whisper. " He'll light his pipe presently." We got in such fits of silent laughter sometimes that it was almost impossible to photograph. A little baby bab who was still in the crawling, or, better, toddling stage, fell into the water hole near where the old man was sitting. In a very leisurely manner the old fellow hauled him out, looked him in the face reprovingly, turned him upside down, administered a slap, and called the mother's attention to what the young one was about. Mind you, all this is not exaggeration. It is absolute fact. They never appeared at odd hours, but generally towards nine o'clock, and their stay never lasted longer than forty minutes. A lone bark sounded, followed by a series of others, and slowly they retreated to their rocky castles, perhaps two or three miles away. In five minutes after that signal sounded there would not be a baboon in sight. The vultures were almost always there. There were four or five varieties of them, and frequently some eagles. The baboons — in fact, all the game — strolled in and out amongst them in most friendly fashion. These ugly scavengers and birds of prey were regulai topers. They lounged about the water holes all day, occasionally drinking, and frequently having little rows among themselves. Right under the eye of the camera 32 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA on one occasion (it is recorded on the rtlm), a hi^ bull oryx walked up to a ^roup and scattered them with his horns. It was just like a policeman saying: " Here, you loafers, move on. You've hung around here long enough." When the game was coming, we in the hide-up forgot the broiling heat and the crawling things that persisted in working their way under our clothing. It was quite fascinating to watch the timid impr.lla approach. The ewes shy and frightened— perhaps, being females, it was half pretence — being herded along bv their lord and master, and he, jealous as an old Turk with his harem, making frequent rushes at the gay and unattached Lotharios who hung about the flanks of his polygamous family. The Grevy zebra would come trotting down, clattering along like detachments of cavalry. Prerogatives they insisted on ; the stallions drank before the mares, and the mothers before their off- spring. We were much amused by watching a tidy little mare teach her foal manners. The young one, a beau- tiful creature, insisted on putting his nose into his mother's drink, and having repeated the offence, received a good slam in the ribs by way of admonition, not a hard kick that would do any harm, but just a little lesson in family etiquette that appeared to be taken to heart. Sometimes as we peered out through the peep holes in our hide-ups, we had the satisfaction of seeing many different animals gathered at the same time. Oryx and impalla, Grevy, wild pig and vvdture were wandering about, and slowly we were accumulating our photo- ORYX AND VULTURES AT THE WATER HOLES PICTURE LAND 33 grapliic treasures, those we had come so many miles to get, and then, after we had heen in the neighhourhood over a month, came our two red letter days. We had several nights that are firmly impressed on our memory, and I had one experience perhaps worth recording, for the reason of its varied sensations, hut these two days stand out above the others, and, luckily enough, the moving picture films have recorded both occasions. By the time we were ready to begin actual work the brilliant moon, under whose light we had marched up from the river, had disappeared, and the nights were cloudy. It seemed as if all the lions in the neighbour- hood had come to the vicinity of the water hole. We kept no fires, and the meeting ground they had chosen was but thirty or forty yards from our sleeping place. We did not discover until later that there was a large cave or den in the rocks but a few yards to the rear of the cleft we had chosen, and that a lioness had evidently whelped there not long before. It was filled with bones, among which zebra and giraffe predominated, two complete skulls of the latter lying near the mouth. Anyone who has attended feeding time at the Zoo when old Leo Africanus is at his vocal best, can recall the peculiar vibrating sensation that seems to run through tlie whole body when facing an ()|:)en- mouthed and full grown male, and more than once Kearton, Lydford, and myself, and old Harmonica, the gun bearer, who slept on the rocky floor with us, have experienced the same vibration, only there were no intervening bars, nothing but a few slabs of palm 34 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA wood, and some tliorn branches, none too thick or sturdy. They met, these serenaders, under our rock, raised perhaps some twenty feet above the river bed, but in two bounds a hon could have reached the top of it. We lay there with our rifles in our hands listening to the grand, if somewhat disturbing, chorus. It was pitch dark outside, and we had no light except a feebly-glowing electric battery lamp, which we kept hid beneath a blanket, ready for emergency. 1 kept thinking of the photographer's comforting suggestion as to what might happen if one of the big cats, after the fashion of his domesticated and smaller cousins, should attempt to gain the vantage point of our ridgepole. Some nights we actually got no sleep at all. One evening they began at about eight, and continued without intermission until nearly seven in the morning. Experienced readers may wonder why these lions, or, in fact, any of the other animals, never got our wind. The explanation is simple. What air there was stirring blew constantly and without change in one direction, from the south-east, steady as any trade. Our hide-ups had been built to take full advantage of this fact, and in every case our scent was blown away from the water holes. We had even found that by going at it very carefully, we could smoke sparingly while taking pictures, without disturbing our subjects. One of the lions wandered up out of the sandy stretch that was all marked with their footprints each morning, and somehow did get oiu" wind one PICTURE LAND 35 night. He had been imimblin.u, and talking to him- self good-huinouredly enough, hut now lie ga\e a sudden snort of anger and astonishment, and then commenced low and rather threatening grumblings, and very hoarse, gurgling notes deeji in his throat. The others — and we judged there was a ciuartetce ot them just below us — stopped and ai)peared to be listening. We thought the attack, if they ever would attack, was coming. I heard Lydford ask old Har- monica if he had the spare rifle, and 1 remember the little black man's calm, " N'dio bwana. Nina tayari " — "Yes, master, I am ready." There followed a dead silence, and then we heard the rattling of some old biscuit tins that we had thrown into a hollow at the base of the rock. Another gasping snort, and a silence, and we heard our friends ex- pressing their feelings, and voicing our relief, a hundred yards away to tlie left. It was the next morning l)ut one that Kearton got a strange picture by accident. From the upper hide-up a large herd of impalla could be seen grazing down toward the water hole, and moving very slo\.]y, when suddenly the well known deep-toned roar ol a male lion was heard a short distance away to the right. It was coming nearer, and then, most surprising sight, a full-grown, black-maned fellow came walking, or, better, half trotting, along the edge of the river bank, heading toward the ramp that led down to the sandy stretch, and as he came on he kept re- peating those rasping half grunts, hall barks, that 36 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA always follow the deep-toned bellowing note. With- out an intake of breath, he repeated this over twenty times. And the impalla, not a hundred yards beyond him, did not raise their heads! They kept on quietly feeding. It was a lesson in natural history, and a moment of intense dramatic in- terest, and Kearton, although the light was not brilliant, had all the time kept turning the handle of the Newman silent camera, and we have that picture on the film. Although the beautiful black-maned male presented a fair target, not a rifle was pointed at him, and after another roar he walked sedately into the bush. The behaviour of the impalla was contrary to all ideas of what animals would do under the circumstances, and the obvious lesson was this : Those timid gazelles knew one of three things, or perhaps knew all of them. The fact that the lion was roaring may have been a sign of truce, it maybe was proof to them that he had already made his kill and had fed, and was exulting over his perfect digestion ; they may have recognised the fact that he was not hunting, and bore them person- ally no ill-will ; or that seeing him in broad daylight, trusting to their swiftness of foot, that they could escape at any time if he made a move in their direction. This happened between seven and eight o'clock in the morning. A few hours later the light would have been more brilliant, and it would have made a better picture, but there it is, a witness to this story. The day before we left the water holes, we secured PICTURE L\ND 37 a movnnff picture of no fewer lli;iii twelve ^iralTe. Tt took them nearly two hours to eoine down to the water, but no sooner were they there, when the other animals, perceivinji them, abandoned all their own cautious scoutiniji; and approaching, and came I airly galloping down, helter-skelter, as if saying to themscKes: "The giraffes are here, boys and girls, everything's safe. Come on." 'I'he giraffe has probably the keenest eyesight and is, moreover, tiie timitiest oi all living creatures. It w^as fascinating to see them, some reaching to the height of twenty feet or more, feeding from the tops of the trees, and then when they had reached the water, straddling out their tore-legs awkwardly, and sucking up the liquid through their hose pipe of a neck. Kearton ran ott all the film that he had in both cameras that morning, and probably no better picture of giraffe will ever be secured. Not far back in this chapter, I threatened to put in a story dealing with sensations. Not a sensational story, by any means, mark you, but as the feelings and impulses that governed me u ere my own at the moment, perhaps I have the right to record them. It was some time after the new moon w^as grow- ing to brilliancy, and our friends the lions seemed to have deserted the neighbourhood. Their voices w^ere few and far away, which was conducive to rest, and soothing to the nerves. I had started out one morn- ing, taking the small calibre rifle, much with the same feeling toward it that a suburban householder has for 6 38 THROUGH GEiNTRAL AFRICA the revolver he shps under his pillow, that it might be useful "in case." As the "case" had never arrived, perhaps 1 had grown careless ; on this occasion I had thoughtlessly left my cartridge belt behind, and there were but two shots in the magazine. Kearton and Lydford were at the upper water hole, and I had proceeded hardly a lialf mile beyond wlien I heard the warning bark of tlie baboons. Looking across the dried river bed I perceived that every man jack of them all, ladies and children included, were up the trees, and plainly quite disturbed about something. It was an opportunity to get close to them, so ploughing through the heavy sand, I reached the farther bank, and walked over towards some thorn trees a short distance ahead of me ; and now my sen- sations began, and I quite envied the position of the baboons. From very close to there came a challenging, snarl- ing grunt, followed by the appearance over the brow of a little rise of ground, about sixty or eighty yards away, of a big male lion, and, almost immediately, a lioness ap- peared on his left, while a third, a year old cub, of what sex I don't know, came out of the bushes on his right. Whether they had been watching me or not I am un- certain, but one thing I am sure of is that I wished I were some place else. The lion, making a very dis- agreeable noise, made a short rush in my direction and then stood there, continuing the noise. The lioness then took a few steps and laid down head towards me. The cub stood at the top of the hill watching me over PICTURE LAND 39 his shoulder. Of coiiisc, it 1 had hccn looking foi an opportunity lor a ^ood " ri^^ht and Icll. " hcic it was. I had two carhid^ics, and the tub nii.ij.ht ha\c made oft. but then a^ain I nii^ht have missed. 01 only woLuuled one ot them, and then what? llavin*^ [)ut down these sujipositions, I must honestly eontess that I never thought of shooting at all. although automat- ically 1 slid oft the safety catch and brought my rille up to the ready. All I wanted ol those lions was lor them to go away, peaceably antl cjuietly, and to li\e the rest ot their li\es in health and plenty. U here was nothing to do but stand there. If 1 had retreated, I dare say they would have come on. 1 had not the comfort of believing in "the power of the human eye," and although 1 had heard that "music hath charms, etc.," 1 had no ins- trimient with me, and do not think I could have struck up a note if 1 had possessed the voice of a Mario. The whole aspect of the peaceful scene seemed to change. It was no longer the same place inhabited by gentle gazelle and timid girafte. I seemed to have been transported miles away from the scene, and quite dominating every other feeling was one of sell accu- sation. I acknowledged to myself that I was more kinds of an adjective fool than 1 had ever acknow- ledged before. In the first place, for leaving home and being there at all ; in tlie second, for not having filled my magazine and having left my cartridges l)ehi nd ; and the third feeling was an incipient regret that, if anything did happen, 1 would never be able to 40 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA tell about it, or offer any excuse for my sudden and peculiar defection ! Tfiese were absolutely my sensations. I shall always feel grateful to that year old cub, for he was the first one to make a move. He apparently suddenly lost interest in the state of affairs, and slowly walked over the top of the hill. The male seemed tc be for a moment undecided, and then he trotted oft with that easy loose-jointed way of all great cats. The lioness for a time remained where she was, then jumj^ing up, she followed him out of sight. From the bottom of my heart, I wished them God- speed ! No sooner had tliey reached the other side of the hill than they put up a terrible row. I think there were others there, perhaps there was a troop of them, but by this time I had reached the other bank. I had gone but a little way back towards the cave, when I met old Harmonica, the gun bearer, coming down at a trot with the express rifle and my cartridge belt. Together we approached the hide-up, where Kearton and Lydford, who had heard the noise, were doing a bit of wondering as to what part I had in it, as they knew I was down in that direction. Kearton tells a story of my trying to \\'histle as I came up. It's a good story, but I don't remember trying to do any- thing so rash. We armed ourselves and went after the loud-voiced ones, but they had moved on. The bird life of the country is not exceedingly varied. We missed the brilliant-hued warblers, weaver birds, hornbills and kingfisliers that we had seen PICTURE LAND 41 farther to the south. The hirds here were mostly dull in colour, and appeared to be the size of Enjjjlish sparrows. There were many varieties of shrikes and hawks. But if a lover of shooting had been there, for two hours of the day he could have kept his loader busy, and his gun as hot as he ever had shoot- ing driven grouse from the butts. At about eight in the morning the sand grouse and pigeon began to arrive by the thousand, and the same thing occurred between five and six in the evening. Flying low% they hurtled past our heads so close that we could almost have knocked them down with sticks. The sound of their wings kept up a continuous whistling and whirring. They seemed to come from all directions, flock following flock; after a long drink and a moment's pluming of their feathers they were otif, but while they were there, which hardly lasted three-quarters of an hour, the sand absolutely seemed to be moving with them. The horned guinea fowl lived all about the water holes ; they seldom flew unless they were disturbed, but trooped down to the water, hundreds and hundreds of them, scuttling back to the bush when they had quenched their thirst. The boys caught them and the pigeons and doves by scores in little traps of cord and twigs, but it was seldom that they snared a sand grouse, I think for the reason that these birds walk with their heads very upright. One day a secretary bird came to visit us and stalked round on his stilted exaggerated legs like a 42 THROUGH GKNTRAL AFRICA Hessian Grenadier. An occasional marabout would walk down for a gulp of water, standing about looking tor all the world like a character from " Pickwick." We caught a falcon in the traps one day and it grew quite tame, but becoming tired of our society, it sailed off one fine morning and never came back. Once I saw some geese travelling north, heading for the Nile perhaps, from their haunts in the Lorian Swamp, far to the south. There were plenty of snakes of various kinds near the water holes, and on our way back when we stopped at the first oasis we found four varieties up the branches of one single tree; three of these snakes were "beya," as the natives called them, or probably very poisonous. Time and provisions were both running short, and it was necessary soon to get back to sources of supplies, but before we leave the Samburra camp there is a little story that might be related that goes to show that the black brother, supposedly so simple and childish, may possess a wily mind, and be capable of deceptions, that prove both enterprising and inventive. I possessed a Masai " syce," or pony boy, w^ho had sole charge oi my mule. Kearton's patient animal had died, pos- sibly from a broken heart, injured back, or a snake bite, so we were one short. I had taken a great fancy to my particular syce, 'or he was intelligent, and pos- sessed a sense of humour, and moreover apparently understood my Swahili. He hatl li\ed in his earlier youth close to the Uashu Neru, and understood GREETINGS FROM WONDEROBO ELLEN THE STRAY CAMEL PICTURE LAND 43 enough of the Sambiirra tongue to act as interpreter in our dealings with the local chief, and with any other people with whom we wished to hold communication. One day, there had drifted into our camp a stray Randili camel, or maybe it belonged to the Boran, who were also in the neighbourhood. It was a female camel, and bore such a strong resemblance to an aged and unmarried domestic who had once been in the employ of an aunt of mine that I called her *' Ellen." Well, Ellen would have made quite an acquisition to our forces. She could forage for herself, drank but little, and could carry four or five men's loads, so she was quite welcome to stay with us, as long as she liked, for her simple board and lodging. We made quite a pet of Ellen, but one afternoon, when we were all in camp except Lydford and the n'mpara, who had gone down to superintend the boys who were cleaning out one of the wells, my syce, who answered to the name of Peto, appeared and informed me that some Boran had arrived who had lost a camel, and that they claimed Ellen as their own. I asked him to bring the Boran up. Four natives carrying spears appeared, and the following colloquy took place : "Ask them, Peto," said I, "if they are sure it is their camel." He turned and said something in a tongue that no one but himself understood, and then showing his fine white teeth in a charmingly amiable smile, he said : 44 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA "N'dio, bwana, they say she belongs to them. See. she lias a mark on her leg that they know." "Well, then, tell them, Peto, if she's theirs they can have her," 1 said. " We do not wish to keep a camel that does not belong to us." I spoke, 1 recol- lect, with all the manner of the '' honest and upright judge." It seemed to me he took a long time saying this; then the Boran said something more and walked of? with Ellen. That was all there was to it. Now, what do you suppose that open, frank-faced rascal was doing all the time? We found out later. They were not Boran at all. They were merely Samburra from the neighbouring kraal. He was tell- ing them that we wished to sell the camel, and would take four goats, two sheep and a kid for it, if they wished to make a bargain, which they grate- fully did. But we saw nothing of the sheep, goats, or even the kid. Peto collected them by instal- ments, and he and his boon companions held nocturnal feasts up among the rocks, while we were down at the water holes. There's enterprise for you ! Peto should really not have been a Masai but a Somali. Not content with this, he used to ride my mule up to the Samburra encampment, and indulge in some sort of native gambling game, at which he was probably a card sharp. He was caught galloping the mule back one evening. Ellen was found at the kraal, the story came out, and Peto was reduced to the ranks as a porter. Not liking this, he deserted PICTURi: LAND 45 when we ^ot back to tlic river, siucccded soiiulinw in working his wav hack to civilis itioii, and, nndci l)a(l advice, had the temerity to sue tor his wa^es when we returned to Nairohi. Tliat was the lirst had break I'elo made. The case went against hnn. and he w.is sentenced to thirty days' imprisonment, hom which he probably emerged sleek and lat and happ\. 1 am told they feed the natives very well at the jail ; at least, their meals are regular, which is more than can be said for them when enjoying their freedom. Let us take up the trail once more. With our precious films stowed away in air-tight boxes, we packed up our belongings, and marched southward to the Uashu Neru. The river was no longer in flood, and we forded it at the same place where we had crossed before in the pontoon, taking the precaution to fire a few shots into the water, for a man-eating crocodile had taken a Somali here a few days previously. As he had no money on his person, his companions had soon re- covered from the shock of his loss and gone on their way. A big black lion had been repeatedly seen here in the bush by the natives, and in company with Claydon we went on a hunt tor him, as some of our own boys had reported seeing him while out gather- ing wood. He had disappeared vvhen we got there, but a few weeks later Claydon succeeded in finding him, or, better, the lion found Clavdon. Being wounded, the beast mauled the pooi ciiap so severely that at first hfe was despaired of. His rifle had 46 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA jammed, and he was rescued by a Somali who bravely came up close and fired both barrels of a shot gun into the lion's body, and they only succeeded in get- ting him to the hospital just in time, where he spent three months recovering. After a two days' stay at the post we pressed on southward for Kenia, heading for Nyeri, that lies but a six days' march north of Nairobi. Before we had reached the slopes where the wild olive begins, and while we were still in the land of the acacia and euphorbia trees, we had the good fortune to be witnesses to a little drama that it falls to the lot of but few ever to see. And at very close quarters, not more than fifteen yards, we got photo- graphs of the whole thing. It was really divided into three acts with a pro- logue, and I have termed it a "Drama of Greed." Before the safari had fairly started for the day's march we came to a lion kill, a Grevy zebra, not more than three-quarters of a mile from camp. The animal had been killed the evening before and was but partly devoured, down the flanks scoring the skin were the claw marks, each cut plainly discernible and stretching fully an inch wider than the extent of a man's hand between thumb and little finger. It was evident that the animal had been attacked from behind. We frightened away two or three hyenas as we approached. Close to the body grew a large thorn bush. It required very little work with a "panga" — the heavy knife for cutting through the undergrowth — to clear out the THE JACKAL KKKFS THE BIRDS AT BAY THE AFFKOACHING VULTURES A DRAMA OF GREED PICTURE LAND 47 middle of the slirubbery. It made an ideal liide-iij"), and soon we were enseoneed within, the silent camera in place. It was our hope that perhaps the hyenas, or Qvtn the lion, nii^ht return. At all events, we were certain to ^et ^ood pictures of vultures before the morning hatl passed. The light broadened initil it was just right tor photographic work, and our lirst visitor appeared. It was a male jackal, a very large one, and in the pink of condition So close were we that we could see every hair, and even the colour of his eyes. For a time he had it all to himsell, and then a big vulture with a stretch of seven or eight feet dropped down out of the sky. Presently others came, until there were a score or more of them sitting round exactly as if they were waiting to be asked to draw up and pitch in. Emboldened at last, four or five of the largest strutted up closer, but tfie jackal would admit of no disturbance. He charged at them and drove them back. More began to arrive ; they came out of the sky from all directions, but the plucky little jackal waded into them like a constable breaking up a crowd. More came, and soon they were too many for him. With the courage of numbers they fairly smothered him, beating at him with wing, and fight- ing with claw and beak. There is an old saying that "A hive of bees will whip a bull." To stretch the simile a bit, the bees in this case were quite as large as their antago- nist, who at last gave up the fight and beat a retreat. 48 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA Still they came, until there were possibly two hundred of them, scrawny-necked, bald-headed cloud fliers, and smaller ones of all degrees. Tliey fought and scrambled, cackled and screamed, amid a cloud of dust and feathers. Then quickly they started off, many of the larger hopping some length along the ground, rising with difficulty like heavy aeroplanes. To our surprise we heard human voices, and two almost naked Wanderobo appeared. They looked at what the birds had left — and even in that short time there was mighty little of it— and began to pick up the scattered feathers, talking and laughing all the time, unconscious that their every movement was being recorded on the film. They came so close that we could not understand how they missed see- ing us in the bush, for actually at one time the taller of the two savages was within eight feet of the camera. A whisper and a nod passed between us, and Lydford fired his rifle up into the air. The Wanderobo were nonplussed. Where had the shot come from? They gathered together whispering, looking round in every direction, for they had never' located the sound. Even a second shot failed to give them the informa- tion of our hiding-place, but the third, fired when they were within five or six feet, started them. With a wild howl they fled, and so far as we know they are running yet. We packed up our things and left. The porters were far ahead of us, and it was over two hours before we caught up with them. PICTURE LAND 49 This day we heard a lion roaring at noon, a rather unusual occurrence. Once we just caught a glimpse of two big males making off from the water toward the hillside. Mack, our dog, was a long way ahead, and took after them; he soon returned, however, looking a hit foolisli, but endeavouring to impress us that he liad made a mistake, and it was all imagination — there were no lions there at all. Even when we pointed out their very fresh tracks, neither he nor Lady displayed the slightest interest. By the evening we reached the foot-hills. CHAPTER IV THE MARCH PAST KENIA AT the water holes, the barometer had shown that we were but 1,060 teet above the sea level. Now we were constantly ascending and on August 2nd we had reached the altitude of 5,280 feet and the temperature was delightful, the thermo- meter registering 78° at eleven o'clock as against 120° in the hide-ups. Our camp was pitched amidst the grandest trees that we had yet seen, immense thorns, some five feet and more in diameter, growing on the banks of a clear stream. The whole country had a well kept appearance, like a gentleman's park, the tall lush grass was almost waist high in the meadows, and there were spaces smooth as lawns. Kenia was growing clearer and clearer, the immense glacier shining in the sun with the shadows of the pinnacles slanting across it. We were nearing the Equator, but the nights were very cold. Kearton, while out with old Harmonica and a few porters late in the even- ing, saw five lions down in a little hollow gathered about a recent kill, and sent word back to the camp. Lydford and I ran out to him, with the two gun- bearers and the rifles, and we went after them, but 50 THE MARCH PAST KENIA 51 as in all our lion luiiitiii^ so tar, w c a^aiii drew a blank. They disappeared into tlic tall i^rass like snakes. Earlier in the day, we had found a man's skull and some human bones beside the trail, and when we reached Nyeri were told that no fewer than live Mciu natives had been killed by lions in that viciuitv within the previous month. There was a boy in the doctor's hands there severely mauled. Possibly the man-eaters were among the lot that Kearton saw that evening. In the next few days, we were skirting the forest, and well could I imagine that I was in the woods of New Brunswick or Nova Scotia. Moss-grown larches and cedars had taken the place of palm and thorn trees. Dashing brown trout streams tumbled down the steep gorges. Buffalo spoor was everywhere. We were proceeding along the trail that leads from Meru to Nyeri when we made a strange discovery, and ran across the record of a most unusual and tragic episode. The accompanying photograph shows plainly what had happened. This great rock, rising some seventy feet, had stood there since the glacial period. Under its bulging and overhanging front, the natives of the neighbourhood had found shelter times in- numerable. Now, just three days before we came to this spot, a Meru caravan, trading through their own country, had reached here as night overtook them, and crawl- ing under the rock that must have extended some fifteen or eigfiteen feet, had lit great lircs to keep them- 52 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA selves warm, for shortly after sunset the temperature lowers very suddenly ; in the early morning it is often only 42°. The fierce sun of noonday had beaten on the great stone until it had probably been heated like a biscuit in an oven. Then as the temperature fell there had come an icy rain. The fires the natives built had kept up the heat underneath, and in a little fissure that we could easily trace water must have gathered. At all events, without a word of vvaining, the huge slab, 60 feet high, 70 feet long, and 18 feet thick by actual measurement, had fallen down upon them, leaving a clean straight line of cleavage. Eighteen men and nine women were crushed to death in a frac- tion of a second. Their bodies, at least most of them that were farther in, were ground deep into the earth, safer from possible disturbance than any royal Cheops in his pyramid. The numbers of those thus crushed to death and entombed we learned from the three survi- vors whom we met the day afterwards. We could see the place where the men who escaped had been sleep- ing, just outside of the perimeter of the fallen mass of stone. The hyenas had already been at their ghastly work and had dug out two or three of the bodies on the edge, and the evidence that there were more still half exposed was plain to the senses. Scattered all round were blankets, spears, and bows and arrows, and over two hundred pounds of native tobacco neatly wrapped in banana leaves lay on the ground. Although it might hav^e been considered a windfall for the natives, not a boy of our safari could be persuaded to touch THE MARCH PAST KENIA 53 a single thing. It was difiicult indeed to get them to approach the phice, and tiie three survivors asserted that they would never go near the neighhourhood again. Both the Kikuyu and the Meru consider that the person or belongings of a dead man are "taboo." If there is a death in a village the people move away, tearing holes in the hut where the body lies, so that the hyenas can easily get at it. Not until it is thus removed will they return, when everything belonging to the dead is burnt. Not feeling any of this superstition ourselves we gathered up some handsome bow^s and spears and trinkets, and so far have suffered no evil effects from their possession. This discovery was made on Monday, August 4th, the day that the Mohammedan Lent or Ramadan begins. Mysterious and w^onderful are the contents of an African's ditty bag. We discovered that beside Juma and the n^mpara both our gun- bearers and four of the porters were devout Moham- medans. As the new moon rose they appeared clad in immaculate white, and stood there muttering prayers and slowdy genuflecting. Where they had kept those white garments I do not know, but I shall never forget the sight of the huge figure of our head man in a white worsted sweater and flannel tennis trousers standing there in the faint moonlight. It is said that Ramadan is a time of fasting, but, so far as could be detected, the Mohammedans ate as much as anyone else, at least they drew their full rations. A day or two later I find this entry in my diary: 54 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA "Three more days' marching and we will be in Nyeri. Ho! for fresh eggs and milk! " It was time that we had reached some place where we could replenish our supplies, for the very day that we got there we finished our last pound of tea, the sugar had run out, and we were on the last tin of jam. Nyeri is a very beautiful Government post where everything is as neat as a new pin, and although there are only fifteen white residents all told, including three women, wives of officials, there are flower gardens and tennis courts and a very well laid out golf links. Thus does the Englishman make a place to follow his home pursuits and customs. Geographical position counts for nothing. Here is the spot, here is a ball, let's toss or roll, kick, knock or bowl it ! A few years before, it would have taken us six days to get into Nairobi, for the distance is 103 miles. We did it in less than ten hours over a good Government road in an automobile. The safari followed on foot. Our gun-bearers and the cook, carrying no loads, walked in in three days, which quick going averaged over thirty miles a day. It seemed quite exciting to be in a town again, with the streets filled with automobiles, motor cycles, and tooting trains going by on the track before the hotel verandah, but, above all, it was good to get fresh eggs and vegetables, and to see the newspapers and read our accumulated letters. Nairobi was much dis- turbed over the presence in the neighbourhood of the plague of meningitis that was sweeping ofT the natives, THE MARCH PAST KENIA 55 principally the Kikuyii'> and tlie Wakambas, by tliousands. It had also attacked the whites, and there were a number of cases being taken care of in the town. The Government native hospitals were full to overflowing. Although not much was said about it in the home papers, a man who should be weli informetl told me that probably forty thousand of the black population had perished in seven months. I have seen no Govern- ment statistics on the subject and only give this for what it is worth. Africa is a land of peculiar and mysterious maladies that assail both man and domestic animals. Even the game is not proof against them, as mark the mortality among the great herds of buflfalo when the rinderpest was rife. We paid ofT our safari as soon as the men arrived, and I am glad to say that they left us happy and contented, but I regret also to record that beside the deserters who had run, when it was still safe for them to do so, w^e were short of three men. Why the head man had not reported their absence before, I cannot tell, nor the dates and places w^hen it was first dis- covered they were missing. No one had gained any flesh on the journey. Kearton had lost twenty-four pounds and I seventeen. Six days were sufficient to feed me up on town life, and, an opportunity coming, I embraced the chance to go out on safari again, the reason being that I met " Fritz," a most remark- able character, known to everyone who had lived in or visited Nairobi during the past eight years, and of him, as the old writers used to say, "more anon." CHAPTER V THE WELL-KNOWN HUNTING-GROUNDS THE next five weeks were spent in efforts to obtain photographs on the well-known hunting- grounds within a few days safari from Nairobi. Hunting- grounds that will soon disappear before the encroaching farms, the coffee and sizel plantations, and the armed march against poor helpless nature which civilisation always entails. When the fences go up and the cattle arrive wild game has had its day. Of course, on the reserves, they may exist for a half century to come. Look at South Africa as we find it now. Within the memory of men not yet old, it teemed with species of antelope and gazelle now almost extinct. When I was there during the Boer War in 1900-1901, every Boer farm-house was a museum of skulls and horns, but the living representatives had already passed away. Let East Africa take a lesson and a warning. Before it was discovered that good coffee could be raised in paying quantities (and this industry is as yet in a more or less experimental state, although its success seems well assured), game was her greatest asset. It brought the men with money there. It gave thousands of natives employment, and kept many commercial enter- prises on their feet. In one month a very big safari 56 WELLKNOWN HUNTING-GROUNDS 57 spent more money than twenty well-to-do taniilics would in the same space of time. It is possible to go to Nairobi now with a hand-bag and obtain an outfit as complete in every detail as if the sporting tourist were in London. Both the Photographer and the Scribe wished very much to visit and spend some time in the southern game reserve that extends almost to the town limits of Nairobi. The Belgian Government and the French Government, upon being informed of our intended visit to their colonial possessions, had extended every courtesy in their power, and had offered to the expedition every facility and every help, and I cannot put down what I am going to write without a smile. Oh! great is the province of British red tape ! and quite amusing is the rule of small officialdom. We applied to the held game ranger for a permit, not to shoot, mind vou, for that was not our object. We simply requested permission to enter the supposedly forbidden country, spend a few days and return. The head game ranger, who was most interested and amicable, referred the matter to the Government House, and, to our aston- ishment, the authorities declined to grant it, on the ground that "a precedent would be established." We had ofifered to go in without arms, trusting to a few native spearmen for any necessary protection, but it made no difference. We could not go. We were absolutely denied ! Now, this w^ould have been all right, and there would have been no demurring at officialdom's de- cision, but on this same reserve there was being 58 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA Iniilt a railway that made a junction with the Uganda road and extended south-west to the great Magadi soda lake. A pipe line which supplied the spur road with W'ater was also being constructed, and Fritz Schindler, to whotn I referred in the previous chapter, had charge of the transport on the pipe line, so 1 en- gaged my services to him as consulting engineer at four rupees a month (surely a man has a right to Hx his own salary) and repaired to the game ranger's office. "Well," said the latter, when I had announced my new position. "You can't be stopped now." And that's how we circumvented red tape ! As consulting engineer, I could have taken in as many assistants as I liked, and there were forty-two white employees on the pipe line and railway, who were allowed to take rifles, and they had the privilege of shooting certain kinds of game within a zone of li\e miles on either side of their respective fields of labour, and great slaughter they were making of it. I know that from personal observation. Yet an innocent and harmless photographic expedition was denied entry, for fear " it w^ould establish a precedent." However, it turned out that the portions of the game reserve visited would have been very disappointing, whether it was owing to the privileged shooting, or the veldt fires that were raging, is a question. At all events, the vast herds of game were not to be seen, but I visited one of the most remarkable sights of the world, the Magadi lake of solid soda, seven miles long and WELL-KNOWN HUNTING-GROUNDS 59 nearly two miles wide. It is a place where I would not have worked for a thousand jiounds a month, and the labour question will be a bi^ one lor the company to tackle. Imagine this great glaring sheet of white crystals shimmering under a torrid sun, and a constant miasma rising from it, that reminded me onl}^ of the chemical laboratory of my c(^llege days and the smell of CH.JO4. There is soda enough there to supply the world for iiv-e hundred years. There is not space here to go into a description of the lake, but I should advise all visitors to East Africa to go, smell it, and see it, as it certainly ranks with the world's great natural wonders. On returning to Nairobi, Kearton and I deter- mined to go out to the edge of the Kumiti swamp, where there was an opportunity, so we were in- formed, to get photographs of buffalo. It was only twenty-one miles to the eastward of the town, and Mr. John Boyes, who owned a large farm in that direction, had offered us the use of a commodious tin house, so we took no tents, and gathering a party of twelve or fifteen boys, which included gun-bearers and personal servants, we departed by automobile, the safari going on foot, and we expected to be snugly ensconced by evening. Nairobi, like all new to\vns and new countries, was full of strange characters, and perhaps none was more justly celebrated than Mr. John Boyes, "the White King of the Kikuyus." He has written a book about himself, and his adventurous career, and some critics 6o THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA have been unkind enough to say that he did not tell a hall of what he might have told. Whether this came from natural secretiveness, or from modesty, 1 am not prepared to state, but Mr. Boyes did not tell half what he could about that house. In the first place, he did not tell us that it was inhabited, but it most certainly was, and the occupants did not in- tend to leave without making a fight for it, and a means to oust them was beyond our power. That tin house was very neat and prepossessing as we viewed it from a distance, but it was not a house at all in the proper sense of the word. It was one huge bee-hive! The African bee must have very little space in which to carry honey, for he seems to be nothing but one big sting with a wing on either side of it. No one could approach within a hundred yards of Mr. Boyes's apiary, without being aware that he was treading on very dangerous ground. Within twenty yards of the door lay a dead mule that had incautiously gone too near, and had been stung to death in no time. We decided that was warning enough, and spent the night in a cotton shelter tent that a neighbouring farmer had erected for the use of some Indian fuiidis who were building a dipping tank. We returned to town for our own shelters the following day, and started out again with a wagon and ox team. The " King of the Kikuyus," when informed of the state of affairs, replied in broad Yorkshire: "Aye, the bees, I forgot to tell you about them bees." He then offered suggestions as -*g---^iacg g ^>....m THOMSONS GAZELLE ON THE TREK WITH OXEN WELL-KNOWN HUNTING-GROUNDS 6t to how they might he smoked out, hut \vc (hd uot take on the contract, and made our caiiii") down hy the river bank. This herd of buffalo that we were after in the papyrus swamp on the Kumiti was renowned, and justly so. An epic might be written about these particular " buffs." They had been shot at and chivied about so much that each single member has developed the testiness of an Andalusian bull in the arena, and they are animated as a whole by all the charging and fighting spirit of the Light Brigade. Colonel Roosevelt once had an adventure with this pack of bovine fiends that nearly put him out of the running for any position, except for one under a monument, and he tells about it in his book. We had been warned of all this beforehand, so we were prepared for anything, but at the end of con- siderable experience we reached the conclusion that the proper way to approach them would be in an armoured train with a battery of gatlings. The herd, numbering perhaps one hundred and twenty or more, did not wait to be driven out or called out. They came of their own accord, and generally they all came together ! Even the natives gave the swamp a wide berth. A black teamster driving a buck wagon and eighteen oxen had gone too near only a short time before we decided to see what we could do, and the herd had signified their desire for seclusion by coming out en masse, killing five of the oxen, and the voorlooper or leading boy, and 62 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA smashing up the wagon in such fashion that it was quite useless to attempt to do anything with it. To go down there and ask them to sit for their pictures was utter foolishness. Our cameras were very valuable and we still had some use for our remaining years. Attempts had been made to photograph them, but so far, unsuccessfully. Kearton had tried it a year or two before, and had given it up. A brilliant idea occurred to us, and after talking it over we determined to put it into execution. It was not the armoured train, but it w^as somewhat like it. Nothing less than taking down a big sheet- iron water-tank, and sinking it on the edge of the swamp, hiding it in the papyrus, and filling it full of earth and stones, and then getting on top. After some search, we found the very thing we were looking for, a big tank, ten feet high, with a dia- meter of about six feet. Of course, we would have to choose the proper time for putting it in position, an hour when the buffalo were elsewhere than in the vicinity of our engineering efforts. It was the intention to sink the tank two or three feet in the ground, and we figured that when full of earth and stones it would weigh about ten tons. So far, so good. We brought the tank down in an ox wagon, and then carefully scouted the swamp from a dis- tance in order to get the proper bearings and position of the enemy's forces. It was easy to do this if the buffalo were mov- ing. They never straggled, but held closely together WELL-KNOWN HUNTING-GROUNDS 63 in a compact mass, and above them, constantly hovered and fluttered their close companions, the cow herons, those beautilul white birds who feed on the ticks that infest the buffalo's tough hide. We had chosen the proi)er place to erect our safety tower, and one of our black scouts had reported that the herd was up in the end of the swamp some three or four miles away. All was safe, apparently, so we proceeded with the ox cart, followed by a lot of boys with picks and spades. Our party had been augmented by two white volunteers, the farmer on w Ikjsc jilace we had pitched our camp, and a missionary who was travelling through the country. In all, we coiuited five rifles — quite a formidable force. As the wagon thumped and bumped along over the rough, uneven ground, the big tank boomed and banged like a hun- dred bass drums. It could have been heard a mile I Slowly we approached the spot where we planned to get to work, and all was merry and bright. We were going down a slight incline, and were about two hun- dred yards from the edge of the swamp, when suddenly a flock of white birds fluttered up from directly in front of us, and at the same instant — the beasts had probably been waiting for us — there stepped into view the whole array; over a hundred of them! There they stood, their ugly black muzzles stretched out at us, and the great horns laid back against the massive shoulders. Kearton jumped for the camera and climbed on up the wagon. The rest of us nervously fingered our rifles. " Good-bye, wagon," said the farmer, " we 64 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA are in for it now," and he began cuttinjjj the oxen loose with his knife, not stopping to unyoke them. The driv^ers made shift to assist him. The digging party seemed uncertain as to what course to follow, and some of them crawled in between the wheels. All this time, the black beasts had stood there abso- lutely motionless, and then a bull with magnificent horns came forward a few steps. It looked as if they were coming. Kearton had got the moving picture machine working by this time, and then quickly something happened! A cow and a young bull that were on the extreme left flank of the phalanx suddenly took alarm, and turned, heaving their awkward and unwieldy bodies down the front of the line. In an instant the wdiole lot turned with them, and wheeled to the right, and with the cow herons fluttering above them in a white cloud, they followed the line of the swamp for some distance and then plunged into the papyrus. Much relieved, we watched their course for a few minutes, and judged that when they stopped they had probably covered two miles or more, so wc went down and put the tank in position. On the top of that tank we passed many weary waiting hours, but when the buffalo were around it w^e could not go down and get on top, and when we were there first they seemed to give the place a wide berth. After all our preparation, we succeeded in getting but two pictures of buffalo, although w^e got many of other animals that lived in the swamp. Quite close to it, the Scribe was lucky enough to K,f^r:-^:-mW' In^^^^^A ^0 ^ A HALT IN SCANTY SHADE COKE'S HARTEBKKSTE DRINKING WELL-KNOWN HUN TLNG-GROUNDS 65 get a lioness one day while walking along ilic edge of the swamp. Not with the camera nnlortimately, but with the rifle. We had another and jierhajis a better hiding place farther down the stream, where we secured some very beautiful pictures of hartebeest, wildebeeste, gazelle, and wild ostriches. Having done our best with the buffalo, and secured some results, although not what we had hoped for, it was determined to move on past Donaysapuk, down the Athi river, and thence to cross to the uplands between the Thika and the Tana, a favourite place for rhino and lion, and there was also a chance of getting eland and roan antelope. Our party had now been joined by Fritz, who had given up his position on the Magadi road, and gone back to his former occupation, which was, as we soon discovered, princi- pally that of risking his life. Poor Fritz, he did it once too often. After having assisted in the death of perhaps sixty lions, he was fatally mauled by one in January, 1914. An old hunter once observed to me : "Yes, it's a good life, but keep after lion and elephant long enough, and one of them will get you sooner or later." In the bleak walled cemetery at Nairobi there are ten or twelve graves of men who didn't quit soon enough, the lion (and in every case, so far as I could ascertain, a wounded one) being responsible for the wording of the epitaphs. While we are on the subject of lions it might be well to gather in a few words the result of our own 66 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA experience and other people's opinion on the subject. There are two ways to exterminate the Hon of British East Africa — and let us grant at the start that from the settlers' and farmers' point of view the wiping out of both the lion and the leopard would be a good thing; it would enable the herds of cattle, sheep and goats to feed at night ; it would do away with the semi- cruelty of tying trek oxen to a long chain and making them fast to a wagon every evening when on the march. The poor trek ox when at work has his feeding hours cruelly curtailed. The native herders, the most suc- cessful of whom are the Masai, would no longer have to gather their cattle into closely packed kraals. I have said that there are two absolutely sure methods — and they are poison and dogs. We were in good lion country for nearly six months, and during that time Kearton and I together saw twelve lions. We got photographs of two, and I shot a lion and a lioness. But mind you, we were looking for them, searching for them a great part of the time. When an armed tourist goes out without dogs for a month, or sometimes only half that time, and returns with fourteen or fifteen lion pelts, the knowing ones greet the news with tongue in cheek. I spoke to a professional hunter in Nairobi, whose name I will not mention, about a certain wealthy hunter's luck. He gave a shrug to his shoulders. "A little while ago," said he, "if any sporting millionaire wished to make a big lion bag and did not care how he got them, it could easily enough be arranged. Of course," said WELL-KNOWN HUNTING-GROUNDS 67 he, "if you get on a good fresh Hon trail with a jiack of dogs, that Hon is yours unless you wish to let him go. But I am referring to even a surer way. If you are where the lions are plentiful, and put down ten or fifteen kills a day, and your strychnine holds out, you can make a hig bag ; and you may find some of the lions before they are entirely dead, at least they may be able to get up on their feet and growl at you." "I know a man," he continued, "who went out with a wealthy foreigner, and came hack with eight lions to show for a fourteen days' trip, and every skin had a bullet hole in it, and sometimes two. I think it was prussic acid on this occasion. They say it is quicker than strychnine, but a little more expensive." I knew from my own experience that what this man was saying was absolute fact. This unsportsman- like procedure is more often resorted to than re- ported. Kearton and I came across the body of a zebra on a farm not far from Nyeri, and close to it were lying the dead bodies of no fewer than seven jackals. A lion had also visited the kill that night, and was pro- bably lying dead or dying not far away. It is the preference of the King of Beasts for carrion that makes him fall an easy prey to the animal "Pritchard." We met the watchman on this farm going down to look at his poison trap. He told us he had got already two lions and a lioness that way, and had sold their skins for a good price. Another one he had found 68 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA too late ; the poison had done its work entirely too well, and the hair would not stay in the hide. It is not everyone who visits East Africa who sees a live lion. I know a man who for eight years has been a resident of an outlying district, and has never yet seen one, although he has heard them a-plenty, shouting in the night. It is curious that as the settlers' houses increase the lion gives up roaring, and they say that a man-eater, though he may haunt a district for a long time, is always silent. The Government have now placed a limit on the number of lions that may be shot. It would pay them well to look into some of these suspected poison cases. I myself was with a farmer, who lives not far from Nairobi, when he shot and poisoned no fewer than seven kongoni in one morning on his own ground. I suppose as he owned the property he had a perfect right in his own mind to do this; but it wasn't the first occasion, as there were many carcasses dotting the plain, and scores of dead vultures and a few marabout lying near. Needless to say, the valuable feathers of the latter had all been taken. To my mind, getting rid of animals this way is about as good sport as poisoning your neighbour's cat or dog. Schindler, the hunter, was killed while helping to assist in the taking of a sensational lion-hunting cine- matograph film for an American who holds the lion record, and owns a famous pack of dogs. The beast had been chivied about from one donga to another for a whole morning, had been pelted with stones WELL-KNOWN HUNTING-GROUNDS 69 and sticks, and was probably in a furious state, when the luckless and reckless hunter rode almost ujion him, with the result that the pony that he was riding — one that I had once owned myself by the way — was severely mauled, and he was bitten so badly that he lived but a few hours. Fritz was a "card" if there ever was one. If a man who had never shot or hunted very much wished for sensations he had but to engage the services of this adventurous Austrian. He was a compound of four favourite characters in fiction — Natty I^umpo, Alan Breck, Tartarin of Tarascon and d'Artignan the musketeer. He was a born actor, and the best raconteur I have ever listened to. As a white hunter he was reckless to the verge of mad- ness, and as a shot he was erratic. Excitable as a Frenchman, and of a very nervous disposition, he needed but the incentive ot an audience to perform the most foolhardy feats. To hear him recount sonic of his hairbreadth escapes was positively thrilling. He "acted it all out." He was the hunter one moment and the hunted the next. He was horse, foot, dragoon and brass band of the engagement. To see him stalking the supposed position of a dangerous animal was a de- light. He sniffed the air like a pointer dog feeling for a scent. He crouched and pointed and beckoned and cautioned with those wonderful long fingers, picked up bits of grass and leaves, shaded his eyes with his hand, and his whisper upon these occasions was thrill- ing to the very marrow of your bones; but once let 70 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA the action begin and Fritz went off like a Catherine wheel. We had bought some ponies, and one day we rode a fine big male lion out of a donga into the open. 1 can see Fritz now, digging his heels into the little Somali pony, shouting like a Comanche Indian, screaming himself hoarse, but keeping closer to the lion than was necessary for any purpose, except that of tempting Fate, and when the beast was shot and lying dead, Fritz's emotions still had the better of him. He took the big head in his lap, caressed and talked to it, called it pet names, and then, jumping to his feet without a word of warning, fired two shots into the carcass. Taking out his skinning knife afterwards, he searched for the animal's heart, cut off a piece of it and ate it raw ! "An old Masai taught me that," said he. "It is lucky to do, and keeps you brave." Yes, poor Fritz was erratic almost to the breaking point, but he had many friends; and Nairobi, by his death, lost one of its most picturesque and taking characters. On the plains at the foot of the rocky needles, we secured pictures of two rhinos. At this very place, some three years before, Kearton had photographed two others. On the very top of Donaysapuk, the great wooded hill that rises sheer out of the plains some two or three thousand feet, we also got the moving picture of another, " the rhino that turned eagle." From his eyrie he could look down on the encroach- ing farms and plantations, and there he had sought WELL-KNOWN HUNTING-GROUNDS 71 sanctuary in company with a little herd of hiillalo that still lived on the slope. Lon^ may he dwell there in peace, for of all the animals that are i)i()hably doomed to destruction in the near futme the rhiiuj will be the first to go. He has no place in civili- sation. He belongs to a bygone age, and 1 doubt not soon lie will disappear. His blunt-noseil brother of the South Sahara district may survive much longer, but in British East Africa the black rhinoceros is becoming rarer and rarer. CHAPTER VI FROM B. E. A. TO UGANDA I THE DEPARTURE IT is a Strange thing how the merest sign of the presence of civiHsed man sweeps back the ages. A single hne of telegraph posts or barbed wire fencing transforms the open veldt, that for centuries has been unchanged, into the most modern of back pastures. A railway thoroughly commercialises the most primitive of landscapes, and as one travels in the train from Nair- obi out toward the Victoria Nyanza, passing farm and plantation, and stopping at the crowded platforms of the wayside stations, it is hard to realise how young the country really is, that the oldest white child living in British East Africa born of English parents is but eight- teen years of age, that the geographers of twenty-five years ago had made their maps principally by guesswork or imagination when it came to presenting the rivers and mountains of this prosperous and promising new land. In British East Africa the Home Government has a peculiar problem that surely in the future will have to be dealt with on a less narrow basis than the one that the present Government seems committed to pursue. There is a growing feeling among the somewhat dis- contented settlers who make up the majority of the 7a FROM B. E. A. TO UGANDA 73 population — and here I refer to those whose connection with business or industry compels them to acknowledge Africa as their permanent home — they feel that tlicre should be a more representative governing hotly deal- ing with their immediate concerns, and that Downing Street, wath a superb indifference to actual needs, has exercised too much the prerogatives of a very busy and very distant parent, paying very little attention to advice or suggestion. Given another ten thousand, or j-jcrhaps five thousand, of able-bodied male inhabitants and 1 should say that British East Africa was ripe for a trial of self-government. They would face, however, from the outset the same difficulties that exist everywhere where the black man is in overwhelming majority. If a prize were offered for the best treatise on how to make the black man a worker, or one who looks for labour, the candidates would belong to two classes. Most writers would treat the proposition as a joke, and the others would in all probability belong to the stern old-fashioned believers in forced service and bodily chastisement. Perhaps there might be a few theorists who still believe that by early education, leading and teaching, the black could be so instructed as to see the dignity of strenuous exertion. Their effusions would be more amusing than those of the professed humorists. The truth is, the White Man's Burden no more loves the prospect of hard work than does his pale-faced brother who has been initiated into the luxurious holi- day system of an up-to-date labour organisation. I have had farmers tell me that a good w hitc labourer 74 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA could do the work of elev^en black men, and some have even asserted that if he was young and active, he would accomplish the work of twenty. Having watched the field hands, and the freemen employed in digging the trench for the Nairobi sewage system, I quite believe the latter. Let us look at the black in his own par- ticular sphere. Where would the white man be found who would carry for eight hours sixty to eighty pounds on his head, or by a band round liis forehead with the load resting against his hips, and be content at the same time with one meal a day, with an unvaried menu ? That white man does not exist. The black man is what he is and nothing more. I remember seeing a book entitled, if I remember correctly: " First lessons in Ki-Swaliili," and it brought to my mind those charmingly ridiculous French primers of early schooldays: Translate " The porters are lazy" — " The cook will steal the salt " — " The cook will steal sugar " — (and so on, through the rest of the dry grocery list). "He is a good boy" — "He does not take much from his master" — "He will take from his master's friends all that he can " — " Can the gun-bearer shoot ? " —"Yes, he can shoot you in the leg," nnd so on. It was amusing, and conveyed a lot of useful information. After a great deal of experience with the black man at home, in America, and in Africa, I have come to the conclusion that there is very little difiference in the methods of reasoning between the over-educated product of the American Southern schools and the lad in the bark cloth breech clout. If he is kindly disposed to- FROM B. E. A. TO UGANDA 75 wards you, lie wishes to please you: cyi^o, il yon ask liini a question, lie will j^ive you an answer thai he thinks you would like to get, generally withont the least re- gard to its hearing on the actual situation. 11 he pos- sesses anything, he wants you to see it, he it a learned vocabulary, a silk hat and a diamond pin, or a yard of red calico. He hides none of his light under a hushel, and if "imitation is the sincerest flattery," he doesn't stop at half measures. You let yonr heard or whiskers grow, divide them, brush them back, up or down, or trim them to a point, and your gun-bearer will try to emulate your efforts. If you shaved half of your head and appeared to be proud of the result, your safari would come back after two months looking like a hand of black convicts from Siberia. I have met many men long resident in Africa w ho have had hardly a good word to say for the black man, and who, in summing up his manifold delin- quencies, have overlooked many qualities that are interesting, amusing, essentially human, and quite endearing. Someone has observed that "human life is like a book." Taking that for granted, it must be acknowledged that a book is not what is written there, but what the reader brings to it, and though many phases and workings of the black man's mind are inscrutable, quite as inscrutable as the Oriental face, behind which it is believed no Occidental can pene- trate, the qualities to be brought to the reading are patience, forbearance, firmness, and a sense of humonr. Out of the ninety odd porters, who returned from 76 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA the northern trip with us, hoth Kearton and myself coiilcl have picked perhaps twenty between whom and ourselves there existed a really friendly attachment, an anxiety on one side to prove worthy of trust and de- serving of commendation, and on the employer's part a feeling of active interest and a desire to help and to reward. There was Murango, for instance, a very black and intelligent Wakamba. He carried the heaviest load, although he was not half the size of some of the big lazy ones. He was always first into camp, and the first to go out and get wood for the fires. He was first into the water at the swollen streams ; the only one who could be sent with a message with the abso- lute assurance that he would delay not in his going or his coming, and when the Scribe was taken with an attack of fever at Nairobi it was Murango who sat outside all day, although he had been discharged and paid oflf, to see if the hivaiia might have use for him. It was Murango who kept bringing badly muti- lated butterfiies and beetles for our inspection when he found that we were collecting them on our march. He would drag them forth, wrapped in leaves, from the folds of his blanket, show his fine pointed teeth in a grin, and depart without a word. Three days after a safari is jiaid otT it is safe to say that not one porter in ten has a cent to his name ; that they have had money to spend is apparent at a glance. I knew a boy who bought two cheap watches, and wore them hanging down on the outside of a pair FROM B. E. A. TO UGANDA T] of lavender trousers, yet to save liis life lie eoiiidn't learn how to tell the time. The porter sqiiee/es his horny-soled feet into hro\\ ii hutton hoots or jiatent leather shoes and sufTfers agonies, and like a true spendthrift, patronises the most expensive places, and cheerfully pays douhle the white man's prices. How often have we smiled at the incongruities of costume ! Broad, muscular hacks, that out on safari had stood the fierce heat of the sun without a hiister, would he protected in town with spine pads worn wrong side out so that the red lining would show. I shall not forget the appearance of one of our old hoys, a stocky little Kikuyu, a consistent loafer and malingerer, whom I saw on the streets. He must have, hy mistake, drifted into a ladies' furnishing store, for he had on a cheap lace chemise, gathered with pink rihhons, tucked into a pair of very tight duck trousers, around which, at the knee, he had drawn on two hand-emhroidered elastic garters. Pea-green silk socks and carpet slippers completed his make-up, and he dangled from his helt behind, like a tail, a sky blue parasol! Murango was one of the few exceptions; he did none of these foolish things. Although I had given him a shirt when I last saw him, he wore but his old red blanket, knotted at the shoulder, and a pair of zebra skin sandals. From the belt which every boy must w^ar there hung a new skinning knife. That was all. Perhaps he was saving up to buy a melodeoii, who knows? Murango was one of those \\\\o came down to the station to see us ofif the day we departed 78 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA for Uganda. There were perhaps a dozen of the old guard, Killenjui among them. He also had been very sensible in his purchases, and was neatly dressed in khaki knickers and a greyish green tail coat, with a semi-military fez on his shaved black head. "Hiya! Quahira, bwana," they exclaimed crowd- ing about us, and neither Kearton nor myself are ashamed to say that we shook each one of them by the hand. Killenjui lingered until the moment the train started. We had tried to persuade him to come with us. "Wakukuyu watakufa kule huko," he said, point- ing to the west. "Nina engoja hapa." (The Kikuyus die out there. I must stay here.) Just as the train was starting he ran up quickly to Kearton and myself. He fumbled with my thumb as he shook hands with me. There were tears in his eyes. He did not trust himself to speak! Now, after this, who can say that an African does not feel, and has no sense of loyalty ? A white man standing by noticed the farewell. " He tried to give you the shake of friendship," he said to me. "It's done by clasping the thumbs tightly and then pulling the hands apart." If I ever meet Killenjui again, I will be the first to reach for his sturdy Uttle thumb. Nevertheless, we brought on two boys with us, who were destined to share our fortunes for the next five months; one, indeed, accompanied us all the way across, and is at the moment of writing in London. THE SCRIBE AND BAKALE FROM B. E. A. TO UGANDA 79 As thev limine in oui" siihscc]iK'iit ach ciiliiics, it might he well to nitiodiice tlicni. l^rnesti, Kearton s boy, in every way li\eci \.\\^ to the good reputation and the letters that he had brought with him. lie was a Buganda of a good hniiily, the son ot a small chief, and had been educated in a mission school. He spoke English and three or h)ur native dialects. He could read and \\rite, and jMoved to be both trustw orthv and intelligent; well trained as a servant, he also possessed knowledge of the white man's ways and requirements. To Kearton he proved quite indispensable belore the trip was out. Bakale, my new boy, came from (jerman East Africa. He had no letters, and I knew nothing of him when I engaged him at a porter's wages in Nairobi; but he, too, proved to have been well trained and took an exceeding interest in all my affairs, and was soon promoted, and his pay increased proportion- ately. Bakale was no end of a swell. He was a good looking, in fact quite a handsome, brown-skinned lad of that uncertain age that might have been nine- teen or twenty-nine. His face w^as very slightly scarred ; he had rings of light blue tattooing on his temples; his features were not of negroid character — his nose quite small and thin, his lips well formed — and he had the figure of an Egyptian athlete, narrow in the waist, broad at the shoulders, with slender, well- formed limbs. Not only was he no end of a swell, and a perfect "divvil" with the ladies, but he was a natural-born fighter, and could use his fists like a professional welterweight. It was the way he man- 8o THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA handled a quarrelsome M'pagazi half again his size that first drew my attention to him. He was always neat, and dressed in the most becoming style from his own standpoint. In fact he had a much larger assortment of clothing than the average white man. At first I counted my own things very care- fully, but up to the time of his leaving I missed nothing. So I have spoken of leaving Nairobi. There was with us in the same compartment as we went west Stewart Edward White, the American writer, bound up the line to look for Bongo, and a young Aus- tralian named Strong, who was to accompany us down the Ituri and the Congo. W. H. Strong had been in the employ of the Fourminiere Company, an exploitation and mining company with headquarters in Brussels, although the stock is principally owned in America. He had spent two years in the Congo some time before, but so greatly had conditions altered in that short space of time that it was a new country to him when he again entered it. The finest view on the Uganda road is that when the train pulTs up to the brow of the Great Divide, the Mau escarpment, and drops by gravity past gorge and steep descent into the valley beyond. To the south lies an almost waterless tract for miles. Vol- canic formations, extinct craters, low-lying hills and lava stone, interspersed with a scant growth of thorn, it used to be a famous lion country, and there are INSPECTION ON THE S.S. "CLEMENT HILL" LAKE VICTORIA NYANZA FROM B. E. A. TO UGANDA 8i some there yet, but it is not an easy coiintrv to lumt in, and not often visited by safaris. To the nc)rth of the road hes a distinctly different land. Attracted by the lii^li mountains, the rainfall is quite plentiful, and as the train nears Lake Navassha, the settlers' farms are seen on both sides, and aj^ain the country chanj^^es to grassy slopes, as the railway comes closer to the great lake. Komassi, or Port Florence, is the starting point of the steamers for Entebbe. When it is reasoned that these vessels have been built piece by piece and mostly with Indian labour at the shops and shipyards, the visitor is sur- prised at the size and capacity of craft like the Clement Hill, rating nearly 1,200 tons, where everything is " shipshape and Bristol fashion," and the crew as well trained as on any liner that sails from Southamp- ton. The meals served on board the Clement Hill were the best we had tasted since leaving London, and the service was excellent. We went on board at ten on a Sunday morning and arrived at Entebbe at 9.30 the next day, anchoring near one of the islands for the night, as the shore has no lighthouses and at the present time is entirely depopulated, for it was here that the sleeping sickness swept away the inhabitants like one of the plagues of the Old Testament. Careful watch has to be maintained to see that the natives do not return. A light or the sign of a fire is immediately reported, and the Government launch sets forth to oust and punish tlie intruders on the forbidden ground. Most beautiful is the scenery in 82 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA this region, very much indeed iike the coast of New England, and there were places that reminded me of "The Thoroughfare," that wonderful inland route through the islands of the Maine coast. But, alas, when it comes to the evidences of life the resem- blance ceases entirely. It is a land of desolation. Here and there showed above the trees the steeples of missionary churches, or well built stone and con- crete stores and magazines, slowly being overgrown with vines and creepers. Not a canoe did we meet w ith on the voyage — nor did we sight a human habitation on the shores. Uganda was a missionary stronghold nearly thirty years ago. It has been the scene of one great native rebellion, and the railway that now connects this land of a great future with the coast, was built in order to suppress the slave trade, whose outlet from the Congo districts ended at the Great Lakes, which were the distributing points. The Arab influence has now dis- appeared, leaving its trace, however, in the Moham- medan religion that has counteracted the efforts of the missionary more than the apathy of the natives themselves. Entebbe we found to be a beautiful little town, clean, neat, and attractive, and everything evinced the fact that the government here was in the hands of men who had all thought for the good of the land and its people. But impressions of Uganda that we gathered will make another chapter. CHAPTER VIT. IN THE KABAKA's COUNTRY UGANDA is a country that is boiiiul to impress even the most casual ot visitors. Although it is, strictly speaking, but a Protectorate of the Crown, it is assuredly as much of a possession as any one of the scattered islands or the wide lands mapped out in red that gird the earth. It should be a most prideful possession from the British standpoint, and may prove a rich one also. It struck us in the first place that every man we met was there for a purpose, and was doing his work, whatever it might be, to the top of his bent. There are no remittance men, loafers, or land gamblers in Uganda. At present there is no place for them ; everyone seems to have a job and all are busy. Each Government department and each industry shows organisation and efficient management. They have studied questions and worked out problems ; everything reflects the wide knowledge and close attention of a real administrative head. It is a pleasure to see it. It was a pleasure to meet tlie people who are responsible for it all. The very aspect and manners of the natives bear out this good work. For certainly the Buganda, take them by and large, are ro 8.^ 84 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA the most intelligent, wealthy, and industrious, the best looking, and most polite of the many tribes with whom we came in contact. There is little of the heavy-featured negroid type among them. In their blood there must be a large mixture of the Northern and Semitic strains that tend to make the dark-skinned man who possesses them a leader and ruler among his fellows. The paramount chiefs, called kings in the past, ruled over vast stretches of magnificent country, and counted their subjects by the million. That the present prestige of the white man is due in large measure to missionary influence must be acknowledged at the outset. Uganda is not a conquered country; it is one that has been acquired by the influence of sterling character, singleness of purpose, and great devotion to a cause. It is a beautiful, and, when once away from the ffy- infected districts, a healthy country, despite the dreadful toll exacted by the sleeping sickness. It is commercially productive also. The cofifee has the same good qualities as that raised in British East Africa, and the cotton industry holds promise of a successful future, and cattle thrive there. Alas, it is no country for the polo player and the racing man. Horses do not survive long. I think there was only one in the length and the breadth of the land in the year 1913. Mules and donkeys also are few and far between. The country can get along without them now as it has in the past. IN THE KABAK/VS COUNTRY .^5 Kcarton had tlic honour to iiuinhcr amoiijj; his African friends the Governor, Sir Fretlcrick Jackson, and we had tlie pleasine ot calling u\u)\] him at Governnient House. As we sat in the httle arhour having tea it was hard to imagine that we were not at home in England. Enghsh flowers hloomed and blossomed in the garden, the lurt was green and fresh, a wide sweep of lawn led up to a very modern English-looking mansion of red brick and stone, and on the near-by tennis court a game was in |-)rogress. The present Governor is not one who has been moved on from some far distant post in the West Indies, Straits Settlement, or India; he is, so to speak, one of the pioneers of the country itself, a man who has seen it grow, and who understands the needs and requirements of its people. He is also a natiualist, and ornithologist, and Kearton and he met on common ground. He was interested in our projects and in our work, and promised every aid that he could give, an aid that we were very grateful to acknowledge. We stopped but a day at Entebbe, just long enough, in fact, to clear us with tlie Customs, and de- parted by automobile for Kampala, making the twenty- five mile journey in some fifty minutes over the best road in Africa. Our goods and chattels followed us by motor van the same afternoon. Somebody had given us the name of an hotel there. It was a very high sounding and distinguished name ; it might be better to let the matter drop at that, but facts demand its mention. 86 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA At Entebbe a visitor, if be bas sufficient money, can stop at a very beautiful hostelry that once was the old Government House, down near the lake, neat and comfortable, with wide verandahs and good service. If he happens to be a prospective resident in Uganda he may be able to get settler's rates, in which case, if he possesses a good letter of credit, he can stop there longer. We were not settlers, and, having regard to economy as I say, we went on to Kampala. But there are worse things than spending money. As we walked down the narrow verandah of the one storey *' hotel " with the aristocratic name I peered into the six by eight apartments. In one of them a lonely man sat disconsolately on a broken-down chair. I felt very much like asking him what he was in there for, and if he had any friends to go to when he came out. I felt there must be some mistake somewhere, and expressed my views, whereupon Kearton asked our ragged black guide, who was demanding matabeesh for having carried a small bag some thirty-six and a half feet from the road, if this really was the hotel. The boy did not understand, so I tried him in Swahili. Kearton had addressed him in English. The boy looked doubtful. Very soon an Indian steward appeared and our fears were set at rest. It was the hotel, that is, one could go in and go out of it whenever one liked. I registered a vow to go out as often as possible. There were no locks to the doors, no glass in the windows. There were no windows now I recollect ; there were no sheets on the beds; in fact, I once found a n IHK KABAKAS DRUMS >"M.'- ':».« STRINGED INcTRUMKNTS AND CIJORUS IN THE KABAKA'S COUNTRY 87 better hotel eight hundred miles up the Orinoco River where a real white man was a curiosity. But what was lacking in quantity was made up in quality, human quality this time. By live o'clock in the afternoon young men began to arrive dressed in foot- ball knickers, and we found that there was a match on between the two local teams. When the referee was included you had practically the whole list of Kampala's able-bodied males under the age of forty. They ranked from the apothecary to the Resident P. M.O. ; they were not in the least standoflRsh, and we soon scraped acquaintance, with the, result that we witnessed the game, were entertained at the club, and attended an impromptu sing-song in the evening in the hotel dining- room. Our acquaintances soon turned into friends, and our stay at Kampala was made pleasant through the hospitality extended to us by these fine young re- presentatives of the English sporting spirit. The golf links were almost at the door, and every evening between four and six there were plenty of people on the links, and a game of football or hockey was always in progress on the field of the sports club. Kampala is some two or three hundred feet higher than Entebbe, and is built up the sloping sides of two ranges of hills. Within the next year the railway will connect it with Jinja, at the end of lake navi- gation, and I can say for prospective visitors that a real hotel is being built. We did not stay long in the row of cells, but 88 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA pitched our tents ujion the hill-side about half a mile from the main street of the town, and went into housekeeping as it were, engaging the services of a cook, and taking on two or three extra boys. The house or palace of the Kabaka was about three-quarters of a mile away on the top of another hill, and the hospital of the three brothers Cook, medical mission- aries, was about ten minutes' walk. They are the two points of interest in Kampala and worthy of full description. Everyone in England remembers the visit of the Kabaka of Uganda to London in 1913, and his person- ally conducted tour to various points of interest, where he was accorded most flattering receptions. The news- papers at the time referred to him as the "Young King of Uganda," but Daudi is not a king in any sense of the word, and doubtless he will never be hailed as one. This tall, mild-mannered Buganda comes of what might be called the royal line, for he numbers among his forebears and forerunners Mtesa, and the despotic Mwanga, kings if you like, in that they were a law unto themselves and held the power of life and death over both subjects and visitors to their country. And this is what being a king in Africa means. Things have changed somewhat. Daudi is a Christian and a Protestant, some of his uncles and cousins are Roman Catholics, and I was informed, so far as their living goes, a few of his relations lean toward the practices of Mohammedanism. The present Kabaka was chosen when he was very •-■sflBBPRl*^ THE CHAMPION WI^ESTLKK Ol' UGANDA IN THE KABAKA'S COUNTRY 89 young, and has been educated, almost one might say over-educated, by Enghsh tutors, and preceptors, until he has more or less assimilated rules, precepts, re- strictions and regulations, and has adopted a stand- point toward lite that more or less corresponds witli that of a very dutiful Oxford undergraduate whose wealthy parents pay his bills, and purchase for him whatever his fancy may desire. He is quite tied to his (adoptive) mother's apron strings. Wisely, those in authority over him have encouraged him to maintain a certain prestige \\ith liis j^cople by keeping up a show of old African customs and regal prerogatives. His drums are booming all day, and at the most unchristian-like hours in the morning. He presides over a Court of Chiefs, and administers justice, but there is a calm, low -voiced Englishman beside him, and back of the carved chair in which he sits hang almost life-sized portraits of the present King and Queen. He attends the receptions and entertainments that he gives where African sports, wrestling, dancing, drum and wooden xylophone orchestra, keep up the traditions of the past, and he watches languidly the proceedings. The adulation of his subjects, who ap- proach him on bended knees, gives him no jileasure. The whole Earl's Court atmosphere that pervades these affairs, and interests the casual visitor, bores Daudi half to death. He had much rather be spinning along the road driving his 40 h.p. motor or pottering about with his expensive cameras and his own mo\ing picture machine. But it is good policy and it pays. The 90 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA fact is that this young scion of the "rule absokite " does what is suggested to fiim, or as he is told to do, and talks and acts as he has been instructed to talk and act since infancy. What he thinks is a different matter. I do not know, and I am quite sure that nobody else does. At any time, if he should kick over the traces, or display too much individuality, any old uncle of his would take his job at a moment's notice, for the increased emoluments alone. They are all pen- sioners or prisoners, so to speak, as are the members of most royal families, and back of their maintenance and luxury and semi-idleness are policy and politics. We had the pleasure of meeting the Kabaka on a number of occasions. We lunched with him at his tutor's house, and he kindly arranged for us a native entertainment of sports and dances, including a sham fight. We were pleased and were most grateful, and enjoyed ourselves, and we also took photographs: We found the young black hostage of policy to be an intelligent, gentle-voiced young man of supremely good manner, with that diffident shyness of good breeding, and possessed of a certain culture. He reminded me of a tall young Eton boy done in dark sepia. His training and education seemed to have taken the lines of Ethiopia out of his countenance and expression. The traces of his head-hacking, malwa- drinking ancestors are eliminated entirely. Externally he is a product, a product of up-to-date civilisation. He has about as much relation to his own past family IN THE KABAKA'S COUNTRY qi history as the Edinburgh professor 1 once met to the wild, skin-clad McLeans of loiia, honi wlioni he sprang. Only in the Kahaka case it has been the work of a single generation, and not the result ol centuries of environment. We discussed, if I remember, golf, football, and cameras. In a lull in the conversation his tutor asked him quite audibly it he had read the three chapters that he had marked for him, " had finished his sum," as it were, to which the grandson of the great Mtesa replied quite gently and simply that he had finished two, and would do the other before the evening. He visited us at our camp that we had pitched on the site of the old Kamj^ala fort, took the greatest interest in the moving picture machines, and brought a camera and some films of his own for Kearton to put in order for him. The sports that had been arranged for us took place on the royal football ground. The i resence of the goal-posts, an obtrusive bicycle, a line of telephone wire, and the array of white spectators sitting in camp chairs, the ladies in their best frocks and lace parasols, were not the only jarring notes in the barbaric festival. The wrestlers for the most part, with an overdoing of modesty, appeared in striped chintz or cotton shirts or even kansas, the long nightgown arrangement, the survi\ al of Arab influence. They were more or less di- shevelled at the end of some of the bouts, it must be acknowledged, and 1 could not help smiling at the champion dancer's make-up. He performed a 92 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA solo with much wild motion, snorting, stamping, and face-making, hut dangling round his neck, and ever ohtrusive, was a silver and gilt crucifix at the end of a long chain. The Earl's Court stage manager would never have permitted that ! The presence of four or five long-bearded White Fathers in their cassocks and rosaries added another somewhat jarring note. The whole afifair was most interesting, and inter- esting no less so for the juxtaposition of tradition and present influence. But it differed greatly from the dances and ceremonies that we subsequently witnessed and recorded, where the white man's presence was still an intrusion. A curious incident happened during the sham fight of the painted warriors, who used, however, for the most part long reeds in place of spears. It was unexpected and called for roars of laughter and applause, and yet it made me think, and gave for an instant a semblance of reality to the pro- ceedings. The black man is a good actor and exponent of the school of realism. The players in the little war drama entered into it with a spirit that was most commendable. Macready at his best in the role of the Gladiator never died more dramatically or realis- tically than did the supposed-to-be-stabbed fighter on the outskirts of the mock engagement. He rose to his elbows, half struggled to his knees, fell back and gasped his last, and lay there face upwards to the broiling sun while the battle drifted down toward A BUGANDA WARRIOR IN HIS WAR-PAINT II IN THE KABAKA'S COUNTRY 93 the farther goal-posts, and out of tlic sky a big vulture dropped down like a bullet and hovered over him. The man arose quickly and beat at it with his wand of elephant grass. The audience both white and black burst into shouts of laughter and rapturous applause. Now vultures live to a good age, like eagles, w^ho have been known to exist for half a century. Per- haps, in the not very far distant past, this same bird had shot down from the blue on the edge of some real battlefield. Who knows? I mentioned the football field. The Kabaka is an expert Association player, and has a team that has defeated the best that the whites can put against it. He has also won the silver cup on the golf links, and is a fair hand at tennis, I was told. I once saw some natives playing "soccer," and to see a big Buganda lift a heavy football some thirty-five or forty yards, from the point of his bare toes, made me ache from ankle to hip joint, but they played thus bare- footed all day long. At scientific heading of the ball I have never seen their equal. In this chapter I have made mention of the three brothers Cook, medical missionaries, who have built in Kampala a hospital and sanatorium. It is not only a credit to their faith and work, but to the great nation to which they belong. Could the people in England know of the magnificent work and devoted self-sacrifice of these three eminent surgeons and medical men, the work they are doing would never lack for financial 94 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA sui")p()rt from home. It is this practical side of Chris- tianity tliat leaves its lasting impression on a country. Uganda ever since the days of Mr. A. M. Mackie, and of Messrs. Walker, Deakes, and Cyril Gordon, seems to have called out the best to arduous labours in this far otlf field. In justice to my own experience I cannot but say that I have seen times and places where missionary effort seems to have been missj e it or mis- directed, but certainly here the efforts have borne and are bearing fruit. White people come from all over Africa to the Cooks' sanatorium and hospital, and wealthy or poor they are treated just the same. The charge is nothing, merely what can be given to further the general work for good. My heart warms within me when I think of what these splendid men are doing. At home in Harley Street one could imagine that fashionable people would have thronged their waiting rooms. Emoluments and honours might have been pressed upon them, but out here, on the top of one of the Uganda hills, a greater and better thing is being done than gaining wealth or honour. Quietly and unostentatiously they are working out their own and the country's problem. The modest yearly report conveys little idea of the immense good of their in- fluence over the natives. The neatness and complete- ness of their hospital, and the numbers of their grateful patients, prove not only their scientific knowledge but their powers of organisation. They have combined the teaching of precepts and object lessons of faith. IN THE KABAKA'S COUNTRY 95 Our stay in Kampala had been an enforced one to a certain extent, owing to the fact that supphes that we had sent on from Mombasa had by some mistake been forwarded to Masindi. From there we had ordered them to be taken by porters to meet us at Fort Portal or Toro, whicii was to be our starting point for the Belgian Congo. At last we received word that sufficient porters had been gathered through the eflforts of our friend Mr. Knowles, the P. C. at Kampala, and that the first instalment of our supplies had left Masindi. We had taken on now a new cook, who subsequently proved to be all kinds of a bad one, and had engaged a big nine ton motor van to carry us and our belongings to Mbendi, some hundred and five miles due west. Captain Riddick, the chief of police at Kampala, had wired on for two Askaris or native police to meet us at this point, and convoy the porters we were to pick up there as far as Toro, a march of seven days. The road was excellent and every minute of it was enjoyal:)le. We found that we could go on farther than Mbendi, and ended our motor journey at Cacagua, where we gathered a safari of some eighty porters to take us the seventy odd miles that lay before us. We travelled rather slowly, stopping at the well- appointed Government rest houses, and at every place, owing to our military escort, w^e found no difficulty in obtaining food. At Kehara we came across ele- phant spoor, the big beasts had been within a mile of our camp and had crossed the road above it. 96 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA We were travelling through a clear and cultivated country with an agricultural population, and at Kehara we pitched canip near the French Mission. The White Fathers kindly sent down to us fruit and vegetables. Now in the far distance we could see the moun- tains of the Rewenzori, but the tops were always shrouded in clouds. On the 17th December we arrived at Toro at last and found that none of our supplies had arrived. It was only a twelve days' march from Masindi, but as the porters had no white men with them they took eighteen days to make the journey. Toro is a military post of considerable importance, and in the near future it may be more so, when the military road is quite completed. Here we were re- ceived with all hospitality by the resident officers, and, though they numbered but four or five all told, here were the golf links again and the tennis courts. We were informed that porters were difficult to obtain, but that in the course of a fortnight or so it might be possible to procure them. This was rather a heart- breaker, as we wished to press on into the Belgian territory as fast as possible. How we got out of the difficulty makes quite a good story, I have said that Kearton's personal boy, Ernesti, came from Uganda and spoke English. He heard us discussing our difficulty, and came to our relief with a suggestion. In fact, it was not a suggestion, it was a most astounding declaration. He said he A BRIDGK ON THE HIGHWAY IN SIGHT OF THE FOOTHILLS; A HALT NEAR TORO IN THE KABAKA'S COUNTRY 97 thought he could get us all the porters we needed in two days, and, when questioned how this would be possible, went on to state that his mother was a sister of the local chief, and that his own father was a chief of importance in the Hoima district not far away. Armed with credentials and a present, Ernesti started on his mission, and in two days, true to his word, returned with eighty burden-bearers. But his mother's brother must have robbed the cradle and the grave, for they ranged apparently from boys of sixteen to old men of sixty. The D.C. at the post was astonished. Usually all porters at this time of the year were gathered by Government. He wondered how we had accomplished it, and I dare say he is won- dering still ; faintly he expressed the hope that we had not engaged in wholesale bribery, as he feared it might interfere with the current prices paid for labour. We really got them cheaper than the Government could. It was one of those occasions when a personal pull beats red tape. As the dawdlers from Masindi had not all arrived, we determined to make use of Ernesti's contribution, and decided to go on a fort- night's expedition down toward Lake George, where, we had been told, it was possible to get photographs of elephants in the open. That trip takes but a short space to describe. It was " go farther and fare worse." As we progressed we found it more and more difficult to obtain food, for crops had failed and the too well protected elephants had raided the plantations. When 98 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA we reached the spot where we were told we would find the herds in the open country, we discovered we were three days late ; the natives had fired the grass, and miles and miles of hurned and blackened veldt confronted us. The elephants had all gone back into the forests and the hills. Sadly disappointed we retraced our steps. But two days on this journey will ever linger in our mind — Christmas and New Year's Days. We spent them at the same place, one of the most beautilul spots that human eye has ever seen. We reached there on Christmas Eve on our outward journey, and on New Year's Day on our return. Lake Llonga-llonga is one of those liquid gems that Nature seems to have placed in exactly the sort of setting to display its beauty. It is a little sheet of light blue crystal lying in the depths of what must have been once an old volcanic crater. It was comparatively a new discovery. The first sight of it held us entranced, for we had been travel- ling through a broken, hilly country, burnt and parched from the lack of recent rains, and there from the top of a hill we looked down and saw the blue sparkle of the waters surrounded by a fringe of forest trees, palms and hard wood mingled — a perfect sanctuary for bird and beast and man. How it rested the eye to look at the deep shadows, the changing hues of green, and the blue of the water. We camped on the steep hillside, and, following thence a narrow path, went down through the forest to the water's edge. Here we found a little hollowed- ^-:t.-*1 LAKE LLONGA-LLONGA ON LAKE LLONGA-LLONGA IN THE KABAKA'S COUNTRY 99 out log canoe. The lake and the shores teemed with life, waterfowl of all kinds fluttered and swam over the surface, mallard and teal, geese, grebes, coots, dabchicks, cormorants and snake birds, antl liigh up in the great branches the white-headed iish eagles had built their nests. The lake was lull of Iish resembling silver perch, and ranging from a quarter to two pounds in \veight ; most excellent eating they were. They jumped clear of the water and played like lake trout. 1 am sure they would have taken the fly, but they were not backward in dashing at the grasshoppers and crickets that we used for bait. A family of hippopotami lived at the eastern end and swam about in the morning and evening. Not a gun had been fired here, and 1 am glad to say we did not break the stillness and desecrate this little corner of Eden, but we got some beautiful photographs that more than repaid us for what we lost in the Christmas goose or duck that might have adorned our table. Slowly paddling along the shore we got very close to Nature's heart. Snake birds waited with outspread wings until we were so close that we could see their yellow eyes, hornbills planed from one tree to another, with a flight much like that of a small boy's paper dart. Birds like magpies scolded and chattered overhead, and the most brilliant little kingfishers, feathered like humming birds, flashed past us. The grebes and little waterfowl scuttled ahead of the canoe into their 100 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA hiding places in the reeds. We had two ahnost per- fect days that repaid us for the scorching, Iruitless journey through which we had just passed. On this trip we got our first touch of the forests, for going and coming we passed through one of the arms of the great wood that extends from along the foothills of the Rewenzori Mountains, and one day for the space of twenty minutes the enshrouding clouds lifted, and, mirahile dictu, we caught a glimpse of the gleaming peaks way above the high, forest- covered, blue-grey hills. There lay, exposed for that fleeting space of time, nearly thirty miles of gleaming ice and snow! Then the clouds closed down and no one would have known that there was a mountain within a thousand miles. Only once again did we see them, and that was when we had crossed the northern and eastern spurs into the valley of the Semliki River, when once again the cloud - lifting phenomenon occurred, but even for a shorter space of time. It was thus that Stanley had first seen them twenty-six years before : the far-famed and mysterious Mountains of the Moon, the Lunae Montes of Herodotus. Every member of the safari was tired. 1 would not have been surprised if some of the old men who had accompanied us had gone • much against their will. Food had been scarce, hui they were experts on the trail, and each night when we had reached a new camping place their little village of grass huts would rise like mushrooms out of the ground. Inside half an IN THE KABAKA'S COUNTRY loi hour from the time ot halting our tculs wouhl he surrounded with tliem. When we ^ot hack to Toro tlie rest of our hizy porters had arriv'ed from Masindi, and, usin^ om- per- sonal pull again, we secured nearly a hundred men and started on the trail for Irumu. Hut hefore we leave Toro let me relate a little incident that thoroughly relutes the theory of a renowned medical gentleman and j^rofessor who proclaimed it his helief that the man who passes his fortieth year had better be knocked on the head and consigned to tlie scrap heap. It is most encouraging to relate it when one has passed that baleful climacteric. There had drifted into our camp, on the second night after our arrival, a sturdy little figure, with a grey stubble on a very determined chin. That the Emerald Isle could claim him as a wandering son w^as evident from the first words he spoke, as he asked if there was not "a jintleman from New York in the party." Charles Malloy was our visitor's name, and he had gone to California with the "forty-niners" to look for gold, and, bless your soul, he was born in the year 1828, and he was still looking for gold on the slopes of Rewenzori ! He referred to all men of sixty as "bhoys," and, ascertaining the date of my birth, pro- claimed that I was a child in arms. We cultivated Mr. Malloy, in fact made a hobby of him during our stay at Toro. He was a living encyclopaedia of things that had passed away. His memory was absolute, his opinions dogmatic, and 102 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA his exi^tressions both virile and picturesque. To hear him he^in " In 1852 when I was up in Vancouver I had a great experience with Siwash Indians," and then how he crossed the Isthmus of Panama in fifty- four, and liow in the late 'sixties and early 'seventies he built houses in New York was like reading the dustv back numbers of some ancient periodical. He brought the past up to date, and resurrected people dead and gone with a startling quality that seemed to make them still alive. He had been in Africa since 1875 "Sure," said he, "they know me from Cape Town to Kilo." And I dare say they did. When the angular gentleman with the scythe and the long grey chin whisker finds Charlie Malloy, he will find him with a prospector's kit on his back, a hammer in one hand and a rock drill in the other. But we must get out of Toro, and leave him and our good friends the Government's representatives to their labours, their golf and good fortunes. There is a long journey ahead. ^^J^ THE DESERTED COUNTRY CROSSING THE FOOTHILLS OK THE REWENZORl A VILLAGE BUILT IN HALl-' AH HOUR AFTER THE RAIN. THE WATCHED POT THAT WOULD NEVER BOIL A FORTY-NINER ON REWENZORI . THE SCRIBE AND CHARLES MALLOY CHAPTER VIII INTO THP: CONCiO BELGE IN three days we had crossed the north-eastern slopes of the Rewenzori and had bc^un tlie de- scent into the low-lying plains of the Sendiki. In one day's march we dropped some two thousand five hundred feet. The valley is overflowed at the time of the great rains, and is at best hardly more than marshland, and must in times past have been the bottom of a lake. The acrid soil grows a rough, hardy, and not very succulent grass; a few scattered specimens of euphorbia and acacia, with occasionally a rather sickly palm lifting up its lonely head, were the only objects that broke the monotonous view, for the slopes to east and west were hidden in the low- hanging mists. We saw here a very beautiful species of cob, an antelope with golden hide, and beautiful curving horns, akin to the poko of Rhodesia. Traces of the black buffalo were evident, but once across the Semliki they are few, if any, their place being taken by the smaller brown and red buffalo, whose habitat extends into the Haut Ituri. The weather was dreadfullv hot — a damp heat that made it more distressing than the torrid weather we had experienced at the \Nater holes. 103 I04 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA We crossed the river at the old ferry on the Irumu highway. I dare say that the canoes that took us over were older than the memory of man, at least any man thereahouts. They were simply aged and decaying logs, through whose rotting sides it seemed possible to poke one's finger. The river that connects Lake Albert Edward with Lake Edward Nyanza is a swift muddy stream that pursues its snake- like course through the ancient lake bottom, and for many miles runs close to the foothills of the Rewenzori. Its steep, muddy banks are constantly being undermined and washed away. The river teems with crocodile. After pitching our camp on the Belgian side we made up our minds to secure if possible some pic- tures of these famous Semliki "crocs," and w^e fairly beHeved that we secured pictures of the largest ever taken. There was a sand-spit not far below our camping place where they were wont to congregate, and here Kearton put up a blind and placed the camera. Crested cranes, heron, and sandpipers were running along the water's edge, when suddenly the first saurian appeared. He was a big fellow, perhaps eighteen feet long, and rested with his mouth wide open while the birds strutted all round him. Then another appeared, some three or four feet longer, and then a third a trifle bigger yet, but all at once the grandfather of all crocodiles emerged ; he made those that were basking there look like shillings compared to a crown piece. He heaved himself up from the water on all fours with his tail lifted clear and curving POINTING THK WAY TO THE SKMI.IKI ,..K.*»«*a>'' ^irJ>- ^ CROSSING THE SEMLIKl : VIEW !■ ROM THE BELGIAN SIDE y" C^ .. THE HAUNT OI'~ THE CROCODH.E A GOLIATH AMONG ■CRCCS." INTO THE CONGO BELGE 105 upward, at least two Icet of sjiacc between \\\^ immense hulk ami the sand. He was like some antediluvian monster of the reptilian epoch. As far as could be judged, by comparing his measurements with objects near by, he was close to thirty feet in length. For the sake of natural science I woidd like to have applietl a tape to his proportions. After seeing him one could well believe the story of a drinking rhinoceros being caught and dragged beneath the surface by crocodiles, as Selous has recorded in one of his books. Hearing that elephant were in the vicinity we decided to send part of the caravan on to Irumu, and with some forty men we moved north-west, a day's journey, to where the forests converged on both sides to the river bank. We did get a few feet of film, and possibly if we could liave remained in the vicinity we could have secured some fine pictures, but there were reasons why our stay was shortened. The people who live in this neighbourhood are very poor; their life is a constant struggle for existence. The scanty gardens that they cultivate in the poor soil grow sparse crops of yams and sweet potatoes. They possess but few banana trees, and trade with the hill natives, exchanging the muddy, coarse-tasting river fish for the nutritious endesis. There are no villages worth the name — scattered collections of four or five reed huts, where the combined inhabitants do not number over twenty or thirty — and their herds are a mere handful of scrawny goats and kids. io6 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA We pitclied camp near one of these little hamlets, and althoujrii the petty chief did his best to provide food for our forty men it was easy to see that we would soon have eaten him out of house and home. "An army," said Napoleon, "travels on its stomach," and so does the smallest expedition in Central Africa, although a civilised army, forced to live on the country, would starve to death in what might appear to the native a land of comparative plenty. We despatched a contingent to the hills to the westward, to see if they could not purchase or secure a few days' supply, but as no white man went with them they decided to regard the excursion as a holiday, and I dare say forgot entirely what they were sent for. At all events as a foraging expedition it was a failure. About three miles from the camp the forest began, and our guides took us to a little glade about a mile from the river that the elephants crossed each day on their way to the water. It was comparatively open, but as it was the grass-burning season the veldt fires had invaded the edge of the forest, and the ground was covered with a thick carpet of feathery, grey-blue ash. In some places light streamers of smoke were still rising up from the hardy bush tb.at would seem to be im- pregnable to the hottest fire. The prospects looked bad, indeed, but what was our surprise to find every- where through the still warm ashes the great round INTO THE CONGO BELGE 107 footprints that proved that a herd ot elephant had crossed there that very morning. A few big trees grew in the ghide, alforchiig space in their great lower branches for a hide-up for the cameras, and a vantage point from which we could watch almost the whole length of this little opening in the forest. After some difficulty we ensconced ourselves there, making a platform of reeds, and put the picture machines in place, telling the camera bearers to re- turn to camp and come back for us in four hoius. It was early it the morning, and as yet the sun had not lifted above the tops of the trees. Before we had been there an hour two discoveries were made, one by ourselves and the other by a naked savage who lived at the hamlet where our camp was pitched. The first discovery was that we were not alone in that tree ; there were some ants, and to our dismay we found that they were the belligerent, never-say-die, count-no-odds variety, that bury their short, sharp nippers in one's flesh and have to be picked ott piece- meal, the nippers being the last to go, leaving a red, stinging reminder of their presence. Kearton was below me on the branch, and acted as a sort of bulwark. He was busy as a boy picking berries for a wager, and I was not altogether idle, when we noticed the native at the bottom of the tree. He was pointing towards the forest, and making frantic gesticulations. We could not understand his hoarse whisper, but suddenly he dropped his spear 13 io8 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA and began a pantomime. It was the best imitation of an elephant that I have ever seen ; he swayed from side to side with botli arms held straight in front of him, fingers close together, and we saw that he meant ito convey the idea that there was a large bull ele- phant near by. He jwinted to the express rille that I had placed in th€ crotch of the tree, and by gestu'-e implored us to get it and come with him. What we w^ere doing up there wath all those tunny looking boxes he could not imagine. All white men to the native's mind fear nothing, and consequently when a native is with the Musungo qua hnnduki, the "white man with a gun," he is also comparatively fearless. I am afraid that the "pale face" fell to zero in this particular savage's estimation. For climbing farther up the tree I could see a splendid bull standing half in and half out of the forest, about two hundred yards aw^ay, and out of range of the camera. He had magnificent tusks that would probably go over a hundred pounds apiece. It was a rare chance for the ivory hunter, for the wind was blow^ing from his direc- tion, and it would have been quite possible with the surrounding cover to have got within a hundred feet of him unobserved. We could not get that con- founded native to go away. I indulged in some pantomime on my ow n part, but he could not under- stand. Still beckoning, he disappeared in the direction oi the big bull ; we could see him emerge at intervals, waving his hand above the bushes imploringly. The idea seized me that perhaps he was going to attack Si THE WELL-CLEARED AVENUE APPROACH TO A VILLAGE INTO THE CONGO BELGE 109 the animal with a spear alone. At all events he stood a good chance of driving the herd hack into the wood, for there were others with the hull, a fact that we were now certain of, from the crashing and tearing of branches, that was distinctly audible. After live minutes' absence the thick-headed numskull appeared again, grinned at us contemptuously, and with a disdainful gesture shouldered his spear and marched ofi in the direction of the village, probably to spread a report of our cowardice. "I don't know that I can stand this much longer," whispered Kearton to me, as I looked down at him. He was apparently afflicted with St. Vitus's dance in every limb and portion of his anatomy, and before long I had caught it also. It was pick, slap, scratch, search, and still they came. Those ants were all over us ; they worked their way into the most unexpected crevices and openings; they poured up our sleeves, down our backs, into our hair; it seems almost as if they came through the soles of our boots; and bite, my aunt, didn't they bite! In the midst of it four or five young cow elephants emerged from the forest and placidly shuffled toward a little patch of bushes not thirty yards away. The heroism displayed by the Photographer was worthy of a medal of the first class. With ants on his whiskers, and ants on his nose, and ants at every buttonhole, he stood up and started the aeroscope, and did secure a few feet of film. Whether the cows heard the slight purring of the instrument, it might be hard to state, no THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA but they accelerated their pace, and guiding the Httle ones with their trunks they disappeared into a donga behind the bushes. If they had been a herd of wild bulls it would have made no difference, we could not stay in that tree ! Kearton went first and I followed him, and no two small boys arriving late at a swimming hole were ever swifter or more -care- less in discarding outer habiliments than we were when we reached the ground. We did not reckon dangers, we counted nothing, least of all the ants that we swept from various portions of our anatomy. Leiving some of our belongings up the tree, we went back to camp. Next morning we were there again before sunrise, armed with two bottles of parafBn, mixed with salt and pepper, with which we carefully painted the tree in the hopes of creating a neutral zone between us and the ants, who were bound to be stirring as the heat of the day came on, and the heat did come along before nine o'clock ; the limbs of that sparsely-fledged tree resolved themselves into the bars of a gridiron, and like slices of bacon we fairly began to curl up at the edges. Our friends the ants were at first a little nonplussed by the paraffin and salt and pepper. Up the base of the tree they had arrayed themselves by brigade, battalion, quarter column, en echelon^ and in all military formations. Then they called up the sappers, miners, and engineers, bridged and mined the obstructions, and were on us again, and just as INTO THE CONGO BELGE iii they be^an their attack a herd of ei^ht voiin^ hulls and five or six cows emerged from the forest. Heroically we made ready to ^et our pictures, foi they were coming nearer. Suddenly they stopped out of camera range, stood there in line, and then like great grey ghosts shuffled noiselessly hack, and disappeared. We had lost that chance also, the reason for which we discovered when we found that a member of our party, who had come down to the tree with us in the morning, had sheltered himself under an umbrella, and was lying there, in fidl view, fast asleep. The elephants had approached within forty feet of him, and both seeing and winding the strange object had decided to take another wav to the water. Disgusted, tired, and thoroughly beaten, we gave it up, broke camp, and took up the trail to Irumu. Although the trail was good, it was hard going ; there was no shade, and it was up hill and down dale all the way. I felt sorry for the heavilv-laden porters. They had been practically on half rations, and although there w^as plenty of food waiting for them at the end of the journey they showed no dis- position to press on. In the mornings it was hard work to get them together for an early start, and no effort of ours prevented them from straggling and dropping behind. When we reached Boga, that was once :- — : " U^ - , v^ THE CHIEF'S HUT IN A BAHEMA VU LACK IRUMU 127 The men, who do not scar or disfigure themseh^es at all, appeared hy far the hetter looking. Ocklly enough, during the whole of the trip we saw hut two or three children undergoing the process of trihal marking, and there is no question but in certain districts cicatrisation and disfigurement are some- what dying out. But away from the routes of travel the custom is as frequent as ever. We soon met with on the road some members of the smaller forest tribes that are closely allied to the M'buti or pygmies; they are well-built little people, the men carrying bows and arrows, and frequently a very gracefully fashioned throwing-spear with a narrow- bladed head. The women, who also are well-built and strong, carry all the loads, and both sexes anoint their bodies with a mixture of palm oil and a red pigment formed of clay and the bark of a forest tree. The paths to their villages led ofT from the main travel route, and if the people caught sight of us at long distance they would frequently avoid us by diving into the forest ; if they had to pass near to us they hustled by half frightened. Leaving the Bahema villages, we passed through several miles of what we thought to be impenetrable woods, but not until we reached the Ituri River did we learn what the Central African forest really was in growth and dimension. The next tribe that we encountered was the Walese, a widely spread people, who are divided and subdivided into many tribes and villages that have 15 128 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA little inter-commiinication, although they come from the same parent stock, having similar customs, methods of hair-dressing and body marks. The Walese are warlike and very truculent. The great majority dis- dain any open allegiance to the Belgian authority, and for some time past have paid no tribute to the Government. We were informed by the authorities at Irumu, when we reached there, that these warrior people were quite out of hand, and that a war might be expected at any time. The Walese are still cannibals. We had quite a little to do with them afterwards, and we liked neither their ways nor their manners. Taken altogether they are about as bad a lot of savages as we encountered, and, living as they do in the forest, a complete subjuga- tion of these people would be quite impossible with any force at least that the Government could now bring to meet them. Next to the Walese come the Babira, who, while warlike also, indulge to a much greater extent in tilling the soil, and their plantations are quite extensive. So many caravans were then entering the Congo Beige through Uganda and along this route, that in many of the larger villages regular markets had been established ; at other places the natives would not part with a bunch of bananas, or condescend to barter for a fowl. Considering that up to the present time the supplies for all the expeditions and the up-keep of the mining companies of Kilo and the Haut Ituri have to be brought BABIRA WOMEN IN THE MARKET PLACE IRUMU 129 in over this roujj^h trail, wliicli is in very bad coiulilioii, the aiiiount ol coiniiRice is remarkable. An African of his own accord will never take the trouble to lift, or throw out of the way, any obstacle that may have fallen in the path. He will walk round it. Ten minutes', sometimes two minutes' work would save him a hundred yards' marciiin^, but he never thinks of it. Even in the open country the well-trodden paths wander aimlessly. 1 was told that on the old slave route this was accounted tor by the fact that many slaves died, and as they were not buried the path was changed to avoid the bodies. Truly they must have died by hundreds. We had another little shauri with the porters when but half a day's march from Irumu. We halted for luncheon at quite a populous village, where there was plenty of food, and indications of beer-brewing. This time we all pretended to be hard of hearing, and the spokesman was quite exhausted before he had finished. In reply I made a long speech in English, w^hich in- cluded all I could remember of the Declaration of In- dependence, Goldsmith's " Deserted Village," and " Spartacus's Address to the Gladiators." They seemed much impressed, and when we started on they reluct- antly followed us. We ran into a big thunderstorm, and at last arrived at Irumu in the afternoon, wet through, and tired, having this day covered some eighteen miles. Irumu is the most imj")ortant post in the Haut Itiuai. Here are placed the custom-house, the Government 130 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA stores, and the prison, but no hospital. The native court is held here, and there are stationed about two hundred well-drilled black troops under a commandant, a lieutenant, and a white sous-officier. The white Gov- ernment officials in all muster some fourteen or fifteen. As is the case with most Belgian posts, they are made up of all nationalities but English. There v/ere here, if I remember rightly, two Germans, three Frenchmen, two Danes, two Hollanders, a Norwegian, and a Swede, and to complete the polyglot population the man most influential in securing porters and native labour was a Boer from South Africa. Having settled with the Customs and presented the letters that had been given us by the Government officials at Brussels asking courtesies for our expedition, we discharged the Baganda porters and pitched our tents in the camping ground. Irumu is badly located for a frontier post. It is on a river, the waters of which are muddy and unhealthy, and the white officials have to send nearly two miles for their drinking water. The post is com- posed of two broad intersecting avenues along which are the well-built commodious offices and dwellings of the officials. One of these streets, running to the east, ends in the wide parade ground surrounded by the quarters of the native troops. At the end of the other avenue is the market-place. The Indian traders have obtained a firm foothold here, and there are several decent shops and stores ; also the magazines of one or two European trading houses. When one IRUMU 131 thinks tliat all of these suiiiiiies, as well as the machinery and equipment ot the (joxernment ^jjold mines at Kilo, three days' marcli to the north, and the mines ol the Fourminiere Company, have heen carried here over that rough path on men's hacks, it is a cause for wonder. We were told that nearly two thousand porters a month enter or start from Irumu. There was a large caravan just setting out when we arrived, loaded with wheel-barrows, picks and shovels for the mines. Mr. Van Marke, the Inspector of Customs, received us most cordially, and lent us assistance in every way. He was a Hollander, but his mother was a Yorkshire woman, and he spoke English perfectly. He gave us much interesting information in regard to our route, and told us a great deal about the natives, but, alas! we were promised no porters, and it looked as if our stay might be protracted. A storm came up on the second day after our arrival, and blew us down again, smashing the tent- poles and scattering our lighter goods and chattels all over the country. Here practically ended our tent life, for we pitched camp but twice more. Henceforward we were to live in Government " rest-houses," or native dwellings. We employed our spare time in taking photographs, and secured some very interesting moving pictures of the black troops drilling. Our relations with the oflficers was a source of amazed curiosity to the rank and file. Owing to a hitch in the proceedings 132 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA two or three manceuvres had to be repeated, and one of our party, being interested in the guns carried by the soldiers, examined one carefully. They were single shot rifles with heavy hammers of about the period of the early 'seventies, and used black pov^^der. Subsequently Ernesti, our source ot general information, informed us that a rumour had spread through the battalion that the English were soon to take the Congo. He had held conversation with a black sergeant, who spoke as follows. " Lo, behold," sa'd he, "here come two English- men. They tell our oflfiicers what to make us do. Then we do it over and over again. They look at our rifles that only shoot once ; theirs shoot many times ; you do not have to load them at all. The English will take the country." "Well," asked Kearton, "do you think they would object?" Ernesti shrugged his shoulders. "They would not care," said he, " as long as they were fed ; they would not fight white men." To make a long story short, at the end of a week we had secured some thirty or forty porters and started on toward Kifiku, the first stopping-place on the edge of the forest, dividing the column into two divisions. Another thirty were to follow in two days. B BLACK TROOPS AT IRUMU A GOVERNMENT REST-HOUSE THE ENTKNTI': CORPIAI.K CHAPTER XI ENTERING THK FORKST 4 T the head of the first division I set out to the J^\^ westward with the sun hehind my hack. Although it was quite early the market-place was crowded with chattering groups of hlacks selling bananas, yams, sugar-cane, native tobacco, some curious dried roots and firewood. A few native traders who had amassed enough wealth to buy salt and sugar had their wares spread out on the ground in little piles, like children's mud pies, on the fresh, broad palmated banana leaves. The women were doing most of the marketing. Some of them wore toga- like garments of cheap print cloth and others wxre dressed mostly like the September morning. A few wore great disks, two or three inches in diameter, fitting into incisions in their upper lips. They looked hideous, especially when they talked or laughed. What was my surprise to see a woman take one of these disfiguring objects out, probably the better to adjust it, and to see that the lip regained its natural shape, leaving only a small triangular scar. Catching my eye she appeared quite as embarrassed as would a lady who had been caught unawares removing her false teeth. She turned her back upon me, and then, 134 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA presto ! the disk, as large as a mustard pot, was in place again ; reassured, she smiled. It was a painful smile. I fled. It was a grand day for walking, the heat had not yet come on, and by noon the gun-bearer and I were three or four miles ahead of the lagging column. We were still in open country — wide, ranging plains covered w^ith the coarse reed-like grass. Directly before us lifted the slope of a hill broken along the ridge by sharp pointed, lofty pinnacles. Half-way up the path ran through a native village. As we entered a middle-aged man came forward with his hand out- stretched. " Bon jo," he said. Near the posts the natives have picked up an approach to the Belgian words of greeting. He began to jabber something at me, and then I discovered he wanted me to follow him toward the largest of the huts. The place contained not more than fifteen or twenty at the most. Wondering what was to do, I followed. Bending down he pulled aside a screen of woven grass and bade me enter. The close odour of the place made me feel almost faint as 1 thrust in my head, but distinctly I saw a woman lying there on a couch of goat-skin. It needed but a glance to see that she was dying, and but a second look to decide what was the matter. I had once before seen a case of small-pox in its most virulent stage. Hastily I withdrew. ENTERING THE FOREST il5 The chief, lor such I jiidu^cd liiin, looked at ine sorrowfully. I guessed that he was asking it 1 eoidd do nothing for the sufferer — I caught the word "dowa." I shook ni}' head, waved a slow hand and left him leaning there against the side of the hut. I'he place was quite deserted, and I well understood the reason. I saw but one old woman antl a \ery old man, seated in the shade of a grass shelter. They scarcely looked up as I passed. Anxious to get to the top of the hill, where the wind was blowing, I fairly ran up the steep slope, ami soon found myself amid the outcropping of stone. 1 stopped to hght my pipe. There was still another rise of ground between me and the sky line ; in a few hundred yards the summit was reached, and there I paused. It was a great sight, a sight worth coming many thousands of miles to see. To the west, at the foot of a slightly undulating slope, only five or six miles away, rose the green walls and ramparts of the great forest. The line of demarcation was as clear as a timber claim on the American prairie. Eight hundred miles and more it stretched away to the westward like a dark green high- land, with capes and promontories extended here and there into the smooth sea of the open grass country, or better, to change the simile entirely, it was like a great inundation that was flowing out on to a sedgy, rolling beach, an inundation that had been arrested and held motionless for all time. I cannot describe my sensations as I looked at it. 136 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA To north and south, as well as westward, it held pos- session of the eye. I turned to the east, there, billow- ing far away miles and miles uncountable, swept the grey-green ocean of the open country. But it was the forest that drew me. In that blue vast- ness westward were people that knew no sunlight, here to the east dwelt people who could find no shade. Differing in customs and modes of life, they were born, existed — died ! I stood on the summit of the barrier-land. I forgot the sick and mangy village just below, and the thoughts that came to me I wish I could record. No doubt I looked over a land — for the air was clear and I could see many miles -a land into which no white man had ever gone, and I knew that not far away, only a few hours' march beyond the wall of that great prison of foliage, flowed an estuary of the mighty river that poured its muddy volumes into the Atlantic, and yet we were not half- way across the continent. There were months be- fore us ere we could see the great waters. There, like a Titan's contour map stretched out in front of me, lay the home of pygmy tribes perhaps undiscovered ; of savages who still ate human flesh; the haunt of sorcery and witchcraft, of cruelty and slavery and death. For countless ages it has been like this. It tempted one to enter and explore its mysteries. In a short two hours I stood in the very gate, and then a plunge through some few hundred feet of heavy bush, and the curtain dropped behind me. NEARING KIFIKU ENTERING THE FORi:ST 137 The change from the heat of the \^\a\\\ was the first sensation, and tlieii a thousand odours reached the senses. From some storehouse o( my memory there came to me tlie reminiscent scents of a great mushroom celhir that I liad once visited as a boy, tfie damp eartli, and yet the feehng of near-by growing things that loved tlie darkness; things that sprang up and died so quickly that their living and their decaying unfragrances were mingled. I wished to go in deeper, and yet half fearfully, and half regretfully, I turned and looked back at the little ray of sunshine that filtered past the curtain I had drawn aside. A few more steps and that ray was gone. For an instant the temptation came to me to rush back again into the sunlight. Twenty-seven years before, Stanley, travelling eastward in his expedition to the relief of Emin Pasha, had pushed aside the last gloomy veil of the forest, and "emerged upon a rolling plain, green as an English lawn, into the broadest, swxetest daylight." Well could I imagine his sensations. Our path led now in the opposite direction towards the setting sun. It was to be a long, long time before we saw the wide open spaces again. The trail to the Ituri w^as well defined. Abdul, the gun-bearer, and I pressed on, and after passing one 01 two overgrown clearings where old villages had once been, we came out suddenly on the bank of a swift- flowing, muddy stream some eighty yards in wndth. On the farther bank could be seen some well-built native 138 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA houses, and a ferry, consisting of a large canoe hollowed from a single log, was moored under the overhanging branches of a tree. At a call the ferryman responded, skilfully punting his way across, and in a few minutes he had taken us aboard and left us at the end of the Mongwana village of Kifiku, that in the native language means "The place of landing." We had met at Irumu, a few days before, the chief of the Congo Oriental Company, the most im- portant of all the trading companies that deal directly with the natives of the Haut Ituri, and he had invited us to stay at his headquaters at Kifiku, while we sought opportunity to get pictures of elephants, the neighbouring mbiiti, or pygmies, and perhaps to get a glimpse of the okapi, the forest animal half antelope, half giraffe, that not more than two or three white men have ever seen alive. Few people stay very long in the unhealthy districts of Central Africa without showing the effects of the climate, and certainly the plucky little Frenchman, who had lived there for eight years, was the sickest-looking man I have ever seen. Once strong and robust, he had wasted away absolutely to mere bones. Successive fevers and long illnesses had marked him. Nothing but indomitable will and courage had kept him going. Now he was completing his service, and going to retire for good and all from the country that had sapped him so cruelly. Yet during the time we were his guests Monsieur Delporte worked from ten to fourteen hours a day. He was virtually the white ruler of a far-flung AN IVORY CARAVAN ON Till-, MARCH -Sw *.. ^':>!iv- IVORY TRADER'S YARD ENTERING THE FOREST 139 district, and old Lonibura, or Gondolo, as he was sometimes called, the paramount chicl. with whom he had much to do, was but his henchman and prime minister. In fact here, at Kihku, we entered into the traders' dynasty. It was a curious insij^ht that we obtained during our stay into the commercial possi- bilities of a trading company, that under competent hands had secured a foothold stronger than any government, and a sway that required no upkeep of armed force to prolong its power. Kitiku is the most important ivory trading post in the Ituri district, and the leading representative of the company has here installed a system that on a larger scale would be the greatest money-making project that ever could exist. It was as if b}^ planting a few francs in the ground money-bearing trees had sprung into existence ; one had hardly to shake the branches and they blossomed from one year's end to another. M. Delporte was the planter. He was perfectly frank about it, and there was no secrecy at all in the method, and it was as simple as ABC. Money was in circulation — francs, five franc pieces, and smaller currency represented by tokens in the decimal system that went down to half a centime. The usual smaller coin current with the natives represented in value the tenth of an English penn}^, and was called a makuta. A few sovereigns' worth of them strung on stout string through the holes in the centre would make a good load for a man. Now, the Congo Oriental Company owned all the 140 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA stores where the money could be spent, and fixed its own prices for ivory, rubber, labour and trade goods. As soon as a native was paid cash for anything, either as an advance or for services rendered, he hastened hot-foot to the company's stores and bought anything from an harmonica to a second-hand gold- braided uniform, and as the profit in these articles ran from a hundred to two hundred and fifty per cent., it can easily be seen where the money trees came in. The man who had brought in ivory w^as paid for it in cash, at a rate that ensured a profit of about one hundred and fifty per cent., and immediately he repaired to the store where he bought things he had no use for, giving another profit of cent, per cent, at least. The money was sent from the store to the company's offices, where the native was paid for carrying the ivory on the first stage of its long journey to the coast; the money received was the same that had been paid for the ivory in the first place, and the bearer would surely come back and spend his wages at the store again. It w^as a lovely system, and the only real chance for loss was the wear and tear on the money itself, and the expense of book-keeping. If the native demanded an extra price for ivory or labour there was very little trouble made over it, the extra cost was added to the articles in the store. Quite simple, is it not ? I shrewdly suspect that old Lombura was a silent partner in the enterprise, for the attempt of any Indian ENTERING THE FOREST 141 trader, or tlie representative of any other company, to do any business in the neighbourhood of the numerous villages under his control received an instant quietus. Had it not been for our friend the trader's Gallic enthusiasm, and the sanguine expectations he held out, we might not have taken so great an amount of stock, as it were, in Lombura's promises, ami most certainly we would not have delayed so long in his bailliewick. Monsieur Deli)orte had recom- mended Lombura very highly, and then had taken his departure. Lombura had imbibed so much of the trading company's methods and ideas that he knew a good thing when he saw it. We were that good thing. What a bland, plausible old scoundrel he proved to be, and yet withal a man of dominance and quiet force. Never did we see him that we could remember without a smile on his face, an inscrutable, joke-on- the-universe smile that was quite unfathomable. It had been suggested that we make Lombura a present as a good way to secure his interest. We made him one to the extent of one hundred francs. He suggested that we should carry on the good work by giving him further presents that he could present to his sub- chiefs. This we did in trade stuff, iron jumbies, or native hoes, wire, and blue cotton cloth, called kaiiiki, so dear to the Congo native's heart. From what Lombura told us, the native and tributary chiefs would, in return for all this advance ^^ matabeesh,'* or tribute, round up a herd of fine elephant in the 142 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA open so that we could photograph them, and enlist the services of a trained corps of pygmy trackers, who would bring us face to face with the okapi ; he promised that we would be given such opportunities of seeing the people and the customs of the country that never before was the lot of white men. All we had to do was to sit down and wait, and when everything was ready he would let us know. So we sat and waited, and when we met Lombura he smiled such an encouraging smile, it had all the promised divulgence of mystery; but nothing happened. The native messengers sent out into the surrounding country with the tribute never came back. It was time to force old Lombura's hand, if such a thing could be done. After following him up pretty closely he told us that everything was ready. That he would provide us with porters at so much per head, an escort from his own personal staff, and a guide who would take us south of the Loya River where the mysteries of the forest would be unfolded. The guide was no other than a sub-chief himself, a half pygmy, half Walese, and a most curious little figure he was when we first saw him. He was dressed in a cheap German military cap with a wide gold braid, a pair of trousers that were not rolled, but furled in successive turns at the ankle and confined under his armpits with a gaudy cricket belt. He could speak, or pretended he could speak, a little Swahili, and from politeness, or from not understanding the questions addressed to him, he always replied in the ENTERING A VILLAGE: THE DWARF LEADS THE WAY WOMEN RUNNING OUT TO MEET THE COLUMN ENTERING THE FOREST i43 affirmative, N'dio. He was about the size of a boy of eleven years of age, and I judged him to be very young, imtil subsequently it was dexeloped that he had a number of wives and some very promising families. When first Ave met Iiim, in the presence of Lom- bura, we had a most satisfactory interview. Would we find elephants down in this country? ''N'dio." Many? "N'dio." In the open where we could take pictures of them? "N'dio." Pygmies? "N'dio." Okapi? "Oh, N'dio, n'dio." So at last when tfie day came for setting out we w^ere in very high spirits. Old Lombura had secured for us two canoes in which Kearton and I were to descend the river, half a day's journey, taking some of our supplies with us. At a certain point we were to meet the porters, who had started earlier with the rest of our necessary belongings. The expedition formed one of the most interesting chapters in our African experience. CHAPTER XII OUR EXPEDITION SOUTH OF LOYA INTO THE PYGMY COUNTRY OLD Lombura came down to the landing to see us off. We demurred very much at the leaky old canoe which had been provided for our trip down the river, and after some conversation, during which the wily old chief never lost his inscrutable smile, he gave us the large ferry canoe, and to our surprise drew what subsequently proved to be a fairly accurate map of the country into which we were going, with a point of his stick in the wet sand. With our personal boys, gun-bearers, and cameras we shoved off at last into the river. Within three hundred yards we had rounded a bend, and all signs of human habitation had disappeared. The great forest rose on either hand in towering palisades of green. The water wa^ very low, and the skill dis- played by our paddlers would have won the admiration of an expert Canadian voyageur ; they avoided the many rocks and shoals, sometimes skirting the bank, and sometimes holding to mid -stream, with all the certainty of a Micmac pilot on a Labrador stream. "This beats walking," remarked the Photographer, who was lolling back in the camp arm-chair that exactly fitted into the narrow space between the gun- 144 CROSSING THE LOYA RIVER OUR CAMP AT MAMAKUPI INTO THE PYGMY COUNTRY 145 wales, and most certainly it did. 1 here was a sense ot real enjoyment and novelty. We could see that our escort were happy. They all belonged to inland tribes of the plains, and hills, and it was their first ex- perience of canoeing. If they could have understood they would have subscribed heartily to Kearton's remark. A voluble chattering had risen among them that was interrupted by the bowman turning quickly, with upraised hand, and enjoining silence. The two pad- dlers and the steersman began searching the shores with what appeared to me rather anxious faces. I turned and asked what was the matter. There was some more whispering in very low tones, and then Ernesti gave us the following rather cryptic information. "It comes out from the river bank over the water; they are afraid of it; we must make no noise." "What?" asked Kearton. "What comes?" "I don't know, bwana," replied Ernesti, "but if it does come we must jump into the water." The bowman made another gesture imploring silence. The paddlers were using great caution as they softly swept their paddles through the water. It was quite uncanny. I thought it better to be pre- pared, and slipped the big rifie out of its cover. For fully three minutes we drifted in this way, and then an idea seized Kearton and myself at the same time. The superstitious savages were afraid of spirits that were supposed to haunt this part of the river. I was almost tempted to give a loud halloo, to break 146 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA the silence. It was rather well that I did not yield, for now we observed the bowman pointing, and this time to the branches of the great trees that over- hung the water. There depending from a limb was a huge bees' nest of mud and leaf fibre some fifteen feet long, and a little way btlow there was another quite as large. The African bee must possess an acutely nervous temperament. Not only does he attack objects that offend his sight, but those that offend his sense of hearing. Had there been much noise from the canoe the bees would have come out and attacked us. It was no foolish superstition, it was a "condition not a theory" that confronted us. These intensely bel- ligerent insects do not live entirely on the honey that they may gather from the flowering trees and shrubs, they eat carrion, decaying fungi, and haunt the offal heaps of the villages. I have never heard of any attempts at their domestication. We had soon passed the danger zone, a fact that was signalled by a loud whoop from the bowman, and a splash and a clatter of the paddles against the sides of the canoe. Our speed increased, and after some three hours of sudden spurts, followed by lazy drifting, the steersman headed us in for shore. A green tunnel showed where a steep, muddy path came down the bank at the water's edge, and half hidden here was a hollowed log canoe in rather a leaky state. On the opposite bank was a correspond- INTO THE PYGMY COUNTRY 147 ing opening in the foliage. A little way in the forest there was a collection of leafy huts. The sun was now hot out on the river, and dis- embarking we waited for the porters who v\ere to make tlie journey on foot. In another iioiu and a half they had arrived, and were ferried across. The trail led south through the forest. A narrow footpath at the best, it climbed up and down slijipery gullies, over masses of fallen trees and debris, and although it was past noon, only here and there did a stray ray of sunlight filter through the canopy that stretched above us. Our little half-pygmy guide had discarded liis town fin ry and was much the better looking in consequence. There is a certain dignity that the well-built savage seems to possess in naturalibiis that he loses entirely in store clothes. From somewhere the guide had pos- sessed himself of a spear, and I noticed that he had a porter of his own carrying liis somewhat heavy bundle. We had gone on some five or six miles when we came to the first village that old Lombura had in- dicated on his rough map. There was a meagre plantation of banana trees, and a collection of some ten or a dozen huts. Our entrance created not a little commotion. The local chief aj^peared, hastily putting on a red tunic, whose remaining brass buttons pro- claimed it to be of British Army origin. He shook hands, and asked for some cloth in exchange for the privilege of passing through his little domain. A word from Lombura's representative seemed to 148 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA answer, however, and ours being to a certain extent a personally conducted party we passed through without paying tribute. This happened with the second small village as well, and it was late afternoon when we arrived at Mentoni, Of all the disagreeable, and ugly looking natives, this Walese village seemed to possess the pick. The chief, of whom not a little hereafter, was a one-eyed old rascal of a most villainous cast of countenance. All of the men, who scarcely stirred at our entrance, were armed with bows and arrows, the bow being between three and four feet in length, and the arrows of very light construction, tipped with barbed iron points, and most probably poisoned. Upon making inquiries as to the whereabouts of elephant we were informed that there w^ere several herds in the vicinit}^, and that one old bull raided the plantations every night, but he was too wary to be caught in traps or pitfalls, and we were told that he had killed two of the best elephant hunters that he had caught in the high grass while they were tracking him. They would be very grateful if we w^ould stop and rid the community of the big beast's presence. Now this section of the Haut Ituri is supposed to be closed to white elephant hunters, although the natives are allowed to kill the animals in any way they possibly can, for the good reason, I dare say, that they could not be prevented. The Belgian Govern- ment, through the Minister of the Colonies, had kindly w CL o w CL H o Ui X H o H D DC SOME LITTLE CANNIBALS THE BELLE OF THE VILLAGE INTO THE PYGMY GOUiNTRY 149 presented our expedition witli a ^anie licence that allowed us to shoot in any part ol the Con^o Bel^e, and included elephant to the number of four. While we w^ere talking to the chief, and our tents were being pitched, a native came in with the news that the big bull was on the outskirts of a neighbour- ing village helping himself to a field of potatoes. We started alter him, and having followed a very rough trail for some three or four miles we got close enough to hear him as he crashed through the under- brush disdaining all attempts to hide his presence. It was growing very dark, too dark indeed to see the rifle sights, and photographing had long been out of question. We let him alone. Night had fallen before we got back to our camp. Next morning we made another reconnaissance and actually got a good glimpse of the huge beast, but so rough was the going it was doubtful if we could come up to him, as he was travelling fast. We returned to the village, and, breaking camp, we went on to the Loya River, and at last arrived at Mama- kupi, the home of our half mhiiti guide. On the trail we had followed we had passed many deserted dwellings of the little forest people, but not a sight of one did we get. Mamakupi was a large and to all appea ances a jMosj^erous cominunitv. The clearing would have occupied an extent of nearly one hundred acres; the plantations seemed to be in a flourishing condition. The little chief, who had accompaiucd us, donned 150 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA all his regalia, which this time consisted of an old Belgian uniform, originally made for a man who must have stood nearly six feet. He presented a curious and amusing figure. His dignity had left him, and he resemhled an organ-grinder's monkey more than anything else. There w^as a pygmy encampment in the forest only two or three miles away that we were informed was occupied, and guided by one or two of the head men, and bringing the cameras with us, we visited it that afternoon. All of the men were absent, ofif hunting we were told, and most of the women on seeing us scuttled out of sight into the bushes, only a very few remained, mostly rather elderly females. But they seemed to possess intelligent faces, and n- stead of being black were of a brownish, coppery hue. Their little village was in a glade in the forest, and there w^as not sufficient light to obtain good photographic results. We left presents of cloth, beads and iron hoes, and returned there the next morning. This time the people did not appear so shy, or frightened, and there were a number of the younger women, and eight or ten of the hunters. The chief, whether from contact with the Walcse, or some other tribe, was decorated with iron and copper wire, and wore a peculiar feathered head-dress. The older men were hairy and bearded, and the striplings and younger hunters were really rather pleasing to look at; they all had large, soft -'•^rTj-' -HE RESEMBLED AN ORGAN-GRINDERS MONKEY" i8 'J -^^' \/r"^ !.-'>«-'■* ^iK. >•' I A YOUNG M'BUTI HUNTER INTO THE PYGMY COUNTRY 151 brown eyes, and tlie younger women also were well proportioned and quite graceful. After some trouble we got the men to go through their tracking mauceuvres, and even to let fly their arrows at an imaginary foe, but, alas! the results were most discouraging when we came to make tests of the film, and it was this day that I wrote in my diary, "The forest is impossible as a field for moving photography." With some diflRculty we persuaded the chief, and a few followers, to come into the open, and thus at last we secured a few feet of quite excellent pictures. These pygmies are altogether different from those to be found north of the Ituri ; they seem to be stronger and better built, slightly higher perhaps in the human scale. They stand from three feet eight inches to about four feet two in height when full grown. I do not believe that their communities consist of more than fifty or sixty. They possess no permanent homes, and are con- stantly moving from one part of the forest to another. Probably they are the very oldest race of people on the earth. The little chief of Mamakupi had arranged to give us. a dance in the afternoon, but it was late in the evening before the drums began to call the people together, and when they had all assembled and the dance had begun again there was not sufficient sun- light to obtain any pictures. We were beginning to get used to disappointments. 152 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA In the afternoon of tlie third day word had come in that elephants were near, and having followed their tracks through the deep forest we got very close to them. It was not a large herd, and it was almost im- possible to penetrate through the deep undergrowth without following directly in their footsteps. For ten minutes we were within forty feet of a young bull and a cow, occasionally getting gUmpses of their huge bulks through the screen of the leaves, but it was not clear enough to see whether they were facing us or not. They shifted their position a little, and we came on them again. This time I was obliged to fire, as it was evident that they intended to investigate us in their turn. It was a lucky shot, and the first big beast came down, burying its tusks in the ground not thirty eet away. The rest of the herd made otT. On our return we passed through the pygmy village. They had heard the shooting, and were coming out to meet us. Before darkness had completely descended elephant meat was arriving at Mamakupi in basketfuls. They brought us the tusks the next morning ; they weighed under forty pounds. Having supplied the village larder, we were quite popular, and could have remained as Mamakupi's guests as long as we desired, but unfortunately Kearton was far from well, and we decided to make haste back to Kifiku. The evening of the next day found us once more at Mentoni. Having heard that we had shot an elephant, the P\:. v«9,. ...tvT. ■e:' \v^ ■5?*' .«»i*'Ti«-^^*v> A WALESE M'BUTI CHIEF A LIGHT LUNCH. AN ELEPHANT'S FOREFOOT INTO THE PYGMY COUNTRY 153 villagers here begged us to stay and rid tliciii of their particular pest, the big tusker, and after a consultation it was decided that I should stay, with four or five of our escort, while Kearton and the rest cf the party went on to the river. CHAPTER XITI ALONE IN THE CANNIBAL COUNTRY MENTONI, the old one-eyed chief, after whom the village was named, bothered me so the next morning by constantly hanging round and point- ing out the various belongings of mine that he would be glad to receive, that I decided to move on to another small collection of huts about two miles away, whose plantations were receiving the particular atten- tion of the big bull. So I pitched my tent in the squalid little hamlet of five or six huts, and tried, without being too precipitant, to make friends with the inhabitants. As with children so it is with savages. It is really best to be entirely unsuspicious, and to have the appearance of being perfectly at home. The men were all armed ; they did not seem to move, even from one hut to the other, without carrying their bows and arrows. On their left wrist was a little bag of monkey skin stuffed with dried grass, a guard against the sharp recoil of the fibre that took the place of bow-string. I had no method of direct communication with them except by signs, but 1 was told that there were several parties of hunters looking for elephant. 154 ^^ 7J \- A CHIEF ON THE LOYA RIVER IN THE CANNIBAL COUNTRY 155 I took a book, and, sitting under a tree, began to read. There was no evidence of race suicide at this place ; every hut contained five or six children, from babes in arms to stark naked little boys and girls of ten or twelve. They stood silently about at a respectful distance and gazed at me. The first really friendly overture came from a woman, who brought an infant of some five or six months ot age with a very sore and much neglected foot, the result of tick bite. Before evening 1 had tied up or anointed every juvenile thumb or toe in the place. Africa is a land of sores and ulcers. A slight cut, sometimes a mere scratch, will develop into an ulcerated spot, and even the elder natives do not seem to be immune. How they recover from wounds in battle, or their self-inflicted scars, I do not understand. They are very fond of their children. I have seen a proud young father dandle and play with his baby by tlie hour, or walk down the village street with two young toddlers hanging to his hands. The women also take good care of their little ones, and a girl child of ten or twelve is an expert nurse to her little brothers and sisters. Their family life seems to be most affectionate and kindly. They are nearly always good humoured, and, barring occasional squab- bles, are laughing and chattering most of the time. Yet these people, certainly ttiose with whom I was 156 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA stopping, were still cannibals, and although they would deny the fact to strangers, they still bartered and traded in human flesh. There was no tribal war, but if a death took place by accident, or through natural causes, the body was eaten. 1 was told tliat it was customary to sell it to the next village. I am quite positive that while 1 was there a woman was thus disposed of at the next little village to the one in which I was stopping. No elephants were reported the first day. I had succeeded in purchasing a couple of scrawny fowls and some eggs. Why the inhabitants of Central Africa keep fowls is a mystery, for I have never heard of one being eaten by their black owners. Eggs they never touch, and, having found that I would give beads and wire in exchange for them, 1 had plenty offered me. It did not make any difference to the would-be barterers whether they were stale or fresh — an egg was an egg: that's all there is to it. They used to watch me testing them against the light with the greatest interest, and could not imagine why I accepted some and refused others. The first night I spent here was not in the least enjoyable. There was much horn-blowing, singing and shouting from a village not far away, and in the morning men and women appeared with their bodies oiled and blackened, some of them quite under the influence of the intoxicating brew, malwa. The little head man had now become very friendly, and I noticed that the spears and bows and arrows IN THE CANNIBAL COUNTRY 157 were no loiiij^cr carried, hut \\crc Icit Icaiuii.ij^ a^anst the sides of the huts. The htllc chihhcu had got over their fear of me entirely. During the somewhat noisy niglit I had heen rather touched and surprised by finding Hakale fast asleep at the door of my tent, and I noticed that he had placed both rifies against my cot, with spare cartridges under the pillow. About eleven o'clock on the third day two Walese hunters appeared with the news that they had found the elephants. The big bull had not put in an appearance in his wonted haunts, but now I was told that there were many elephants off to the east. In the little party that sta3^ed with me there were two young Mongwanas from Lombura's village, and excellent fellows they proved to be. I found out to my delight that one could speak a little Swahili, As we were about to depart Bakale came up and asked to go also. I sug- gested that he had better stay with the tent and take care of things. His reply was quite characteristic. "These people are all bad," he said; "they eat men and are liars, but they will not steal. Let me carry the big gun and go with you." So Bakale came. We must have gone five or six miles beyond the farthest one of the little chain of villages before we came across the track of the herd. It was very large, for the grass and undergrowth of the swamp in which we found ourselves looked as if a tornado had been through it. The footprints and the spoor were \ ery 158 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA fresh. When we reached the edge of this swampy ground and had entered the forest agaui, one of the native hunters — there were about a dozen of them with us — cautioned me to wait, and disappeared. In about two minutes he came back again ; all the others had gathered with him. They pointed oft to the left. Walking very care- fully we had gone about a quarter of a mile when the leader stopped, and then motioned me to go forward. I stepped ahead of him, and looking round an instant later, found I was practically alone ; and then I listened — -something was moving not more than twenty or thirty feet away on the left. Without any warning but a rustle of the leaves the huge head of an elephant, with a trunk reaching and feeling for the wind, appeared directly in front of me. It was a cow, I could tell by the small brownish tusks, and actually I could look down her throat ! Backing slowly, I got out of that before she saw or winded me. My friends the trackers were not five yards ofT. They could not understand my not having shot, but I tried to explain that the ivory was not big enough. And now arose a strange sound of blowing, and a curious rumbling oft to the right and the left ; then the crashing of a branch. The herd was coming in our direction. All the men turned, silently looking over their shoulders at me. Then one of them started, walking quickly, and in single file we moved off to- ward the swamp. IN THE CANNIBAL COUNTRY 159 We liad almost rcacheil tlie ed^c of the very deep- est wood when there came a shrill trum]-)etin^ scjueal. It was exactly as if some giant had severed a sheet of cloth, a tearing, ripping sort of sound. A big branch crashed behind us, and another in front. The loom of a great shape moving black through the leaves appeared now on the left. The herd was all around us ! 1 can- not say that it was a pleasant position. Bakale shook the little bag of flour that a gun-bearer carries at his belt, in order to find the direction of the wind. There seemed to be not a breath of air stirring. There was a cracking of twigs, and a little elephant, not more than four or five feet high, shuffled by us within a few yards. Almost instantly a large cow burst through the leaves, and so close was she that she did not stop an instant. She saw us. With trunk stretched straight out, on she came, her great ears sweeping the branches on either side of our head. As I fired, aim- ing directly at her skull, about live or six inches above where the great reaching trunk joined it, I saw that there was another one behind her. As she crashed down I fired the left barrel at a young bull, and man- aged to turn him so that he passed by. The cow never moved after falling. It was exactly five short steps to where she lay. At the sound of the two shots pandemonium rose; squealing and trumpeting, and a great crashing and breaking of branches, all round us. Two of the native hunters ran to where I was standing and knelt beside me. Bakale, who had the second gun, had dodged i6o THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA behind a tree, his nerve had de>^erted him, and when he came up I could see he was badly frightened. The negro does not grow pale, but under great ex- citement his colour seems to change ; he turns a sort of ash colour round the lips. Afterwards Bakale con- fessed that he had never gone out for elephant before, and he never asked to go again. 1 should say it was fully two or three minutes before the smashing and crashing subsided entirely- As for my own immediate sensations they had better be left undescribed. I sat down on the dead cow's shoulder — thus covering myself with elephant ticks which I did not discover until later — and wiped my perspiring forehead. The jabbering natives now came up, and without more to do began to hack at the body. Staggering under a^ much meat as they could carry, they led the way back to the villages. Immediately w^e arrived there was a great commotion, everybody seemed ready to start to the place where the elephant lay. 1 came back to my tent, drank four cups of tea, and ate a half raw^ and very tough chicken. But this was not to be my only experience for the twenty- four hours. The moon rose quite early and was at the full, and I was just about to turn in when I heard the sound of some excited whispering outside the tent. One of the Mongwanas, who had accompanied me in the morning, entered with Bakale. " Tembo, mingi, mingi, caribu maginni bwana." (There are many elephants round the village, master.) A FAMILY GROUP IN A FOREST VILLAGE A SCOWLING WELCOME FROM A LADY CANNIBAL IN THE CANNIBAL COUNTRY i6i " Teiiibo niakuhwa hapa." (The l)i^ cicpliaiit is here.) I stepped outside. The moonhglit was so bright that even the colours showed plainly. The green of the leaves, the grey thatch of the hut, and the red blossoms of some flowering shrub could be made out distinctly. Testing the rifle I found that I could see the sights well enough for close shooting. It was rather a foolish thing to do, but I went after the elephants. Following the three or four guides down a path through the overgrown plantation, it was quite exciting. The two Mongwanas were with me, and one of them took the spare rifle. I carried the big rifle myself. I do not think that a better gun-bearer can be found than the average native tracker. His faith in the white man and in the weapon itself is so certain that he is absolutely sure not to desert you, and he is never tempted to do what a professional gun-bearer is often led to do by excitement, he never fires himself. Bakale had better sense than I had, and staved in the village. To make a long story short, when we got into the deep underbrush it was quite as dark as one might have expected to find it; the moonlight did not penetrate the overhanging boughs. But siill the guides pressed ahead, and we emerged at last into the open space of an old plantation. It was very pleasant to get out of the dark green tunnels through which we had been passing. 1 breathed a sigii ol relief. i62 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA Other natives now appeared, they came up grin- ning, somewhat excited. After consultatioii among them we started forward again. A reedbuck burst forward with a snort and a bark out of the bushes, and dashed in front of us. The horns were blow- ing now in all the villages, for the presence of the elephants was known. We passed by the ruins of some abandoned huts, plunged into the undergrowth again, and came out once more on the edge of an old clearing, and there we stopped. One of the Mongwanas, he who was carrying the spare gun, touched my arm, and pointed. Against the moonlit sky, crossing the path by which we had come, there could just be made out the backs of two or three big elephants, tlie rounded tops of their ears laid close against their shoulders. They were, perhaps, some fifty yards away. When they reached our fresh tracks they stopped and began blowing. I could see their big trunks waving in the air. A little man with a spear, who stood in front of me, took liold of my sleeve and pointed forward. There were some shrubs and bushes ten or fifteen feet high through which the path led, and, plain to be seen, there was something white gleaming there. 1 did not like the elephants being behind us, but went forward until we reached the edge of the under- growth. There the little spearman knelt and pointed again. In the corner of the old potato field stood the big bull, certainly not more than sixty or seventy IN THE CANNIBAL COUNTRY 163 feet away. It was the ^leain of his tusks thai 1 had caught a miiuitc or so hcfore. He was really a inaguilicent sight in the bright moonlight. The ivory points nearly swept the ground. He did not appear to be in the least alarmed, yet he was listening as he stood swaying, for his great ears were standing out on either side of his head like the steering sails of an old-fashioned frigate. I knelt down, it was a good chance for a head or a heart shot, and I raised the express. A branch of the bushes surrounding me caught the gun barrel and prevented me Irom getting a sight at his head. Lift- ing his ponderous feet the bull began to turn. 1 fired two shots as quickly as I could, one at the point of the shoulder and the other at the hip. The huge beast staggered, and plunged forward into the bushes. The Mongwana who was carrying the spare rifle thrust it into my hand. The elephants who were be- hind us had turned into the path; I could just make out a big head and outstanding ears above the bushes, and again fired quickly. The animal swerved to the right, and with his two companions passed by us. There must have been a number in the neighbour- hood, for we could hear them crashing oti. One, we were told later, went by within a few yards of the village where I had pitched my tent. The horns had stopped blowing, and when we got back the whole place was excited. The women and chil- dren were out, and the men who had accom|Kinicd me began to relate the story. 1 could hear them imitating i64 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA the sound of the gun. The calm that they had shown while following the elephants was missing. They cackled and gesticu'ated, and long after I had gone to my tent and laid down on the cot, suffering a little from the reaction myself, I could hear them still at it. The human mind is a strange thing, and Nature takes care of herself ; as soon as I had removed my boots I fell fast asleep, and was only awakened when Bakale touched me on the shoulder. To my surprise I found it was almost nine o'clock in the morning. As I took the cup of coffee Bakale offered he in- formed me that Mentoni, the chief, had come over from the village, and wanted to • see me. The old rascal was alone ; there was not another man to be seen round the place. Through the medium of my Mongvvana boy and Bakale, the chief informed me that all the elephants had left ; they had gone far away. His men had searched everywhere, and could find no trace of them. He expressed his gratitude, and said that if I wished to go on to Kifiku he now could provide me with porters for the journey. I was certain of three things : the first was that the big bull elephant was badly hit. and would not go far ; that the upraised trunk of the second elephant had probably protected his brain, or he would have dropped instantly; and that old Mentoni was lying. He wanted the ivory for himself. So I quietly informed him that I intended to remain until the big elephant vvas found ; that he was lying dead not far away, and ^ THE TWO HEAD TRACKERS M-< ^, MKNTONl S BROTHER RE-TAH.ING THE BIG ELEPHANT IN THE CANNIBAL COUNTRY 165 I intended to search for him. I knew tliat the me:i of this httle village were very friendly toward nic, and that it was merely a question of time hefore I should get news. So I quietly seated myself and hegan a breakfast of some carefully chosen eggs. Mentoni squatted there scowling. Just before noon the little sub -chief appeared carrying the elephant's tail. Calling my own small force, I picked up the camera, and with the tw^o Mongwanas, who did not show any surprise at what had happened, we followed the guide through the plantations and the bushes we had traversed the night before, and came upon a jab- bering crowd of nearly a hundred surrounding the body of the big tusker. As I had suspected he had not gone three hundred yards. Mentoni, who had accompanied us, was a little chagrined, but I pretended not to notice him. They had already begun cutting up the elephant. The light w^as very bad for taking photographs, but I secured one or two, one of which shows Mentoni's brother holding the elephant's tail in place. The tusks were magnificent specimens, the longest one, measured round the curve, being nine feet four inches, and the other but three or four inches shorter. Now, my interest in all this is easy to exjilain ; lor the nonce I had turned professional elephant iuintcr. Our friend the trader at KiHku had told us lie would take all the ivory that we got ofT our hands at a good market price. A remittance that we had expected to get from London before we left civilisation had not i66 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA arrived, and the truth was that we needed the money. The resiUts of this shooting trip netted us in the neighbourhood of £100. Before the afternoon was over the tusks were de- livered at my tent. I also tasted some elephant's meat from the foot. 1 think I preferred the tough chicken on the whole. But I was not through yet with Mentoni. That evening about dusk two men from his village walked in, deliberately shouldered the tusks that weighed some- thing under one hundred pounds apiece, and walked ofif with them. The villagers were grouped about, evidently waiting to see what I would do. There were some men from Mentoni's village there with bows and spears, I laughed as if it was all a good joke, and sat down to a quiet pipe. The next morning the ivory was returned. But twice more was it taken. In every case 1 behaved in the same way and received it back again. Now, I cannot truthfully say that I enjoyed all these proceedings. I sent word to the chief of the big village that I was now ready for the porters that he had promised me, but he sent back no answer. There was evidently a big pow-wow going on at headquarters. In the meantime I had divided my stock of trade stufT, cloth, coloured undershirts, wire, beads, and jumbies among the men of the little village, that was gorging itself with elephant meat. I could do what I pleased there now. 1 succeeded in stopping one or kki^ t . fP?! THE SCRIBE WITH TROPHIES OF THE BIG TUSKER IN THE CANNIBAL COUNTRY 167 two little fights that arose, and out ot curiosity visited the body of the big elephant. Not a vestige of meat of any kind was left, only the skull and the huge pelvis bone. There was actually hardly enough for the Hies. By this time the news had spread through the whole countryside. Two or three other chiefs had sent in messengers asking me to come and shoot elephant for them. I believe I could have stopped in the neighbourhood a month with perfect safety. But we had got what we were after, and had shot all that our licences allowed for, and 1 was anxious to get ofif. My ivory was left unmolested that evening, and at a call for volunteers in the early morning the whole village responded, men, boys and children. Before evening we had reached the river landing in safety. The news that I had shot the big loull was in Kifiku ahead of us. The ivory was weighed and promptly paid for by the trading company in Belgian Congo notes, and miscellaneous five franc pieces, that ranged from Napoleon I. and Louis XVIII. to Leopold U. But now another trouble awaited us. Despite all of old Lombura's promises, and the kindly offices of the superintendent who had taken M. Delporte's place, we could not get porters to take us on to Penghe, a fortnight's marching to the westward. CHAPTER XIV ON Stanley's trail THE continued irritations that we suffered with the unobhging native in the form of porter, paddler, and petty chief, would, if recorded verbatim and seriatim, read Hke a series of complaints ; and were it not for the bright spots occasioned by the rare chances lor taking good pictures, and the novelty of several situations, the account of the first fortnight of our march through the forest and much of it thereafter might be gloomy reading. Travelling in a wild country where life is hard and time counts for nothing with the native — and mean everything to the traveller — has the effect of limiting to a certain extent not only one's enjoyment, but one's mental vision. There is very little time for making careful notes or recording interesting obser- vations. One lives up to an insistent schedule. It is: up at earliest dawn with so many miles ahead to the next resting place, so many hours to travel in, and, arriving at last, dominated by the desire to lie down and sleep, only by the sheerest will power can one summon enough energy to write a few words in the diary. There is the constant worry whether all the loads A MONGWANA MOHAMMEDAN TEACHER AND HIS WIVES EX-SLAVE RAIDERS MONGWANA WOMKN SINGING A MONGWANA PANCI', ON STANLEY'S TRAIL 169 will come in before dark, or whether some tired and irresponsible black will chuck his burden in the forest and fail to report at all. There is, moreover, a growing sense of depression in the deep forest that in the open country does not follow even the longest and hardest march — sunlight is essential to the white man. Owing to old Lombura's broken promises we had been delayed at Kifiku for five days. ^Vitll()ut his help we could secure no porters, and were forced at last to start leaving eight loads behind us, loads that were supposed to catch us up as soon as porters could be secured. As we had already paid exorbitantly we refused to give more matabeesh, knowing that it was not for lack of men in his village that he kept us waiting, for there were plenty of idle loafers loll- ing about in the shade of the huts. The Mongwanas and the Manyuemas are not fond of labour. In the first place tiiey are almost without exception Mohammedan, and were the slave raiders and ivory stealers, who under the Arab traders' influence and the regime of Tippu-Tib, had wrought havoc and destruction among the Central African tribes for nearly a quarter of a century. It is only during the past twelve years or so that their power has begun to wane. The day before we left Kifiku we had visited Lombura's village, and, hearing the sound of drimis and singing, had entered a courtyard, at the back of one of the larger houses, surprising a native dance in full swing. 170 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA Although our presence had not interrupted the proceedings, we were not welcome guests. In fact by the scowls cast in our direction we were evidently considered intruders, and after taking a few pictures we were glad to withdraw. What the dance was meant to represent or the occasion for it, we could not make out. The dancers themselves were mainly women, and appeared to be in a state of maudlin frenzy; stamping, whirling about, and bumping into one another, without any concerted action, but paying some attention nevertheless to the wild rhythm of the tom-toms. We were informed that already the dance had been going on for some twelve or fourteen hours. Often, the trader informed us, these wild orgies were kept up for days. As I have stated, we needed but eight porters to complete our full quota, and there were thrice that number of able-bodied young men in the crowded courtyard, but dancing for twenty-four hours at a stretch was probably easier than marching for five or six hours, at least to the minds of the ex-raiders. We were travelling against time now, for we knew approximately the date on which the steamer that left Stanleyville would pass by Basoko at tlie mouth of the Aruwimi, some two hundred miles to the westward, and failure to catch that steamer meant another month added to the time it would take us to reach the end of our long journey to where the murky Congo swept out into the salt waters of the Atlantic. ON STANLEY'S TRAIL 171 If men remembered on'y hardships there are certain portions of their lives, and experiences, tluit nothing could induce them to go through again, but luckily for human nature the mind endeavours to erase the recollection of the disagreeable. Painful impressions are but transient compared to the mental records of the pleasurable, or even of the amusing. A group of old campaigners at a regimental reunion seldom dwell on the dangers or discomforts through which they have passed. Time tempers all these things ; the close touch with them seems to be for- gotten. I intend to pick out henceforth the brighter portion of a very toilsome and difficult time, abandon- ing search in the pages of my uninspiritive diary for any assistance to memory. But if a little uncheerful- ness creeps in it must be remembered that these things are very recent at this present writing. The effects even yet are with the Scribe and the Photographer in tangible form. In the first place, over nine months of constant moving and working on the Equator had borne results. Both Kearton and myself had begun to show symptoms of tropical disturbances. Sometimes it was a bit of a fight to keep up. Our dispositions seemed ruined, conversation waned at meal time, and quip and jest were conspicuous by their absence. Curiously enough it was along this very route that Stanley made this observation — "Some facts had already impressed them- selves upon us. We observed that the mornings were muggy and misty — that we were chilly and inclined to 172 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA be cheerless in consequence ; that it required some moral courage to leave camp to brave the cold, damp, and fogginess without, to brave the mud and slush, to ford creeks up to the waist in water ; that the feelings wxre terribly depressed in the dismal twilight from the want of brightness and sunshine warmth ; and the depression caused by the sombre clouds and dull grey river which reflected the drear daylight. The actual temperature on these cold mornings was but seventy to seventy-two degrees — had we judged of it by our cheerlessness it might have been twent}^ degrees less." I think on the whole we had better luck with the weather than did the great explorer whose footsteps we were now retracing. We did not have to fight our way, and when at last we reached water navigable for canoes, we were going down stream and not up, a fact decidedly to our advantage. But the country had not changed for thousands of years, and it will not change for a thousand years to come. Whether there are now more people along the route than there were in 1888, when Stanley's dead and dying left their sickly bones along this very route, it is hard to tell. Possibly they were more then than they are at present, but who could ever take the census of the dwellers in a forest land that without a single break covers an extent, compactly and closely grown, of three hundred and twenty-five thousand square miles ? Who can describe this vast area where the new life, that takes ages to grow, springs up from the decay of the life that has taken ages in dying? THE PHOTOGRAPHER CATCHING BUTTERFLIES IN A FOREST GLADE THE ARMADILLO •^- L L^'f A HORNED VIPER ON STANLEY'S TRAIL 173 Yet it is not witliout its beauties, nor is it without those feathered antl furred inhabitants wlio revel in its solitutles, those lucky ones who can seek the warmth and sunlight of the upper strata and higher altitudes of green. Invisible inhabitants they are for the most part, yet their voices continually reached us ; hoarse barks and chatterings, and the swaying of lofty branches told us of the presence of the monkeys. Occasionally we saw them, and not a moment of day- light but what w'as filled with the calling and the chat- tering of the birds. How many times we sought to find the where- abouts of those unseen ventriloquists; how seldom were we rewarded ; yet they w^ere there above us, while close to us down the pathways, elusive and fast-ffying, were the brilliant butterflies, seemingly aware by instinct of the sweeping net. When near the clearings where villages existed, or once had been, we got clearer glimpses of the parrots, swifts, sunbirds, finches, shrikes, whip-poor-wills, bee-eaters, pigeons, jays, and hornbills. Over tlie larger streams we saw% in flight, fish eagles, and kites of various kinds, herons and ibis, but ducks and geese we seldom saw, possibly because they are too easy prey for lurking crocodile. Underfoot, and along the paths, the ground seemed full of insects, ants and beetles, scorpions, and centi- pedes, and there were many poisonous snakes. Kear- ton t ad had a very narrow escape on the Thika River from being bitten, having stepped on a sleeping puff 174 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA adder as big as a man's arm, that had struck at him, and missed by a few inches. In searching for a dropped key to my box at Kifiku I had lifted the ground cloth, and found my fingers within an inch of the head of a horned viper that had crawled under, and had been my companion possibly for days and nights. Oh this forest, pulsating with omnipresent life, yet so redolent of death and decay ! As it was in the beginning so shall it be. I recall what Stanley wrote, and so vivid is it I feel that I must put it down. Thus he speaks of the insect armies, of the denizens and inhabi- tants of almost every foot of ground: "That mighty mass of dead tree, brown and porous as a sponge, is a mere semblance of a prostrate log. Within it is alive with minute tribes. Put your ear to it, and you hear a distant murmurous hum. It is the stir and move- ment of insect life in many forms, matchless in size, glorious in colour, radiant in livery, rejoicing in their occupations, exultant in their fierce but brief life, most insatiate of their kind, ravaging, foraging, fighting, des- troying, building, and swarming everywhere and explor- ing everything. Lean but your hand on a tree, measure but your length on the ground, seat yourself on a fallen branch, and you will then understand what venom, fury, voracity, and activity breathes around you. Open your notebook, the page attracts a dozen butterflies, a honey-bee hovers over your hand ; other forms of bees dash for your eyes, a wasp buzzes in your ear, a huge hornet menaces your face, an army of pismires Ik m '^ u M'l-f-f^' AN EDIBLE LIZARD ON STANLEY'S TRAIL 175 come marching to your feet. Some are already crawl- ing up and will {presently he digging their scissor-like mandihies in your neck." The patlnv'ay ran continually through the thick lower covering ot dwarf hush, amoina and phiynia, whose blossoms and hright herries added a touch of colour against the everlasting, hut constantly changing, shades of green. Sometimes the scents that were diffused from the huds and blossoms were almost over- powering. Had there been a botanist in the party he could have reaped rich reward. Mushrooms and fungi of all sorts protruded from the rotting masses of dead foliage, but no sooner did one spring into existence than the insects claimed it. The great snake-like vines, and convolvuli, seemed bent on throttling out of existence even the larger trees. At times the parasitic growth was so twisted and em- bedded round the trunk and limbs of the supporting fabric, that there appeared nothing left but the bodies of huge seipents standing erect, and reaching, and ever reaching for further holds, for more to strangle. Orchids depended from overhanging limbs, and lichens and hanging beards of moss gave gnome-like aspect to some growths apparently stimted in their youth. Along the edges of the river and the streams there was a chance for the larger trees to grow out horizont- ally, as if exulting in their elbow room, delighted to be free of their near-by neighbours. We ha\e seen great limbs, almost the same size as the parent stem, 176 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA sweeping out some fifty or sixty feet, where they could find freedom to grow, and air and sunlight. Occasionally as we progressed we would come across old clearings where populous villages had been. After three years of abandonment they were nothing but a wild and almost impossible jungle. The path crossed great logs, and led along extending branches ; it dived under huge stems, and appeared lost at times in an intricate maze of debris and growing things. Sometimes we would hear the "chip-chop" of native axes where the inhabitants were clearing out new spaces in which to plant their scanty orchards of bananas. The trunks of the trees were always cut some ten to fifteen feet above the ground, the men working from scaffoldings, and the severed trees being allowed to fall pell mell in all directions. On this route to Penghe we made fourteen camps ; not camps exactly, but stopping places in native villages. In some we found fairly good rest-houses, in others tumble-down shacks teeming with ticks, and requiring much sweeping out before they were habitable. We were taking a new route to Avakubi, the old Mawambi trail having been abandoned for some months. There was little food to be found for the porters. At every stopping place they could be seen searching and digging for manioc roots and potatoes. Many times the local chiefs came to us and complained that they had but little food themselves, and that our men were despoiling them. They accepted mataheesh with bad grace. It did not take the place of their much needed POUNDING KICE THE HOUSE OF A SPIRIT CHIEF A CLAY TOTEM AT THE HUT OF A DEAD CHIEF ON STANLEY'S TRAIL 177 food. In some of the new villages the |")laiit;iiiis ami endesis had not begun to hear. Rice was a hixury. Sometimes we would find womer. iiounding it in mor- tars made of hollow logs, and securing a lew haiuHuls of white rice ffour. We saw but very few specimens of [ a^m trees, although the tree fern was very pre\aknt. When transportation reaches the great forest there may be fortunes to be found in the hard wood growth, tor there is an everlasting supply of mahogany, teak, lig- num vitae, ebony, camwood, and the valuable copal. Although we saw^ evidence ot the presence of elephant and the forest buffalo, and once the foot- prints of a large okapi, our guns were never taken from their cases. At Campi na Mambuti we met a strange character — a sub-chief named Musa. He claimed to be originally a Manyuema, but in my opinion he was a Zanzibar! who had deserted from Stanley's caravan, as to oiu^ surprise he spoke a few words in English, and could call some of Stanley's companions by name. Especi- ally did he remember Dr. Parke, whom he described, in fluent Sw^ahili, as a " Musuiigo Musiiri Sana " — a very good white man indeed. He was the only head man who disj'»layed any real generosity, for of his own free will he presented us with three fat fowls, and allowed us to puicliase a goat without haggling. At last we reached Penghe, the head of canoe navi- gation, and here we were met with another smprise. 17^ THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA The chef de poste, a youiij^ Belgian, informed us that there were no canoes available for at least a fortnight, and as we had to dismiss our Kifiku bearers here, we were further dismayed by being told that it would take ten days to drum up enough porters to take us over the foot trail into Avakubi. Since leaving Lombura's village we had stopped at the following places, the names of which I had set down, and had camped at one or two others that seemed to have no names at all : Campi na Mambuti, Djapanda, Makoko, Campi na Bulongo, Umali, Pene- mafupu, Kingombe, Fundi Kitima, Mana Pela, Pene- kiluvu, Penghe. We had also forded or been ferried across three rivers — the Etito, the Epulu, and the Epini. The anticipation of having to wait at Penghe was far from pleasant. It behoved us to stir and see what could be done. CHAPTER XV P E N G H E T O A \ A K U B I THE Belgian officials, whom wc had met at Irumii, had been more than kind to us, extending aid in every way, and it might be in place here to express our gratitude to all the others whom we met on our long journey. But it did not take a close observance to perceive that the power of the Belgian authority was on the wane with the native. Only two or three years before, so Stronge had informed us, the officers of the Belgian posts had charge of all transport service, either by land or by water, and there was a fixed rate for transportation throughout the whole of the Belgian Congo. Now it seemed that all this was changed, the native appeared to be in a position to ask any price he liked for his time, and it was a case of "take him or leave him " — it did not matter much, so far as he was concerned. The chef de poste at Penghe was a very young man who was just completing his first term of ser- vice, and I do not think that he had the slightest in- tention of returning to Central Africa. Penghe was a dreary place, a comparatively new clearing on the right bank of the river, that here was not more than a hundred yards in width, and very 179 i8o THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA shallow. At Irumu we had been told that canoes were available, but owing to low water the landing place had been moved to a considerable distance down stream, and there were no canoes. At Penghe we ran across a Mr. Reid, one of the earliest and most successful of the Congo gold seekers, he having discovered the deposits that led to the for- mation of the Fourminiere Company, whose head- quarters were at Brussels. I had met him there in February, 1913. Mr. Reid had a camp on the other side of the river. When we arrived he was seated on a rock, fishing. To our surprise he informed us that fish were quite plentiful, and, though full of bones, were very good eating ; some ran to twenty pounds and over. I mention this fact for the reason that only in two or three of the river villages did we see any evidence that the natives appreciated the fact of this easily available food supply. We saw fish traps along the river; and at some of the rapids they caught many about the size of whitebait, but we witnessed no attempt to spear them, or to use large nets in the river. Mr. Reid had had the good fortune while out in the woods, a short time before our arrival, to shoot a fine male okapi. I know of but two other white men who can truthfully say they have ever had this opportunity. Mr. Reid had shot it by a lucky accident. It was in very thick cover, and towards evening he fired at an indistinct object that he took to be a bufifalo, but walking forward to see the result of his shot found a magnificent okapi bull, the skin PORTERS WAITING TO LEAVE PENGHE PENGHE TO AVAKUBI i8i and skeleton of which he jiresented to Dr. Christy, the well-known collector tor tlie Belgian Cjon eiinncnt and the British Mnsenni. There was hardly a mile of the surrounchii^ coun- try into which Mr. Reid had not ventured, aiul liis knowledge of wild animal and native lite is c]uite wonderful. Sliould the Hel.iiian Congo at any time change hands, from his intimate knowledge of the geographical formations and the mineral jiossiliilities Mr. Reid would prove a very important man. On the journey from Kifiku we had marked one of the porters who was carrying a heavy load ot iK)ls and pans and kitchen paraphernalia, as a man to jnit a trust in. He was always ready, always up in his work, and always busy. His face had none of the vacuous, animal-like expression of the average Congo hlack. Ernesti informed us that he lived in Penghe, and, in his way, was a man of some imi")ortance. On the route he had dressed no differently from the other porters; in fact, he was hardly dressed at all, w^earing merely the usual loin-cloth ; hut we had ob- served that the other men had treated him with marked respect. I wish that I could recall liis name, for it w^as through him, princii:)ally, that we were re- lieved from the disagreeable situation of waiting in- definitely, when every day counted. 1 hardly recognised our kitchen retainer when he presented himself at our camp. A brilliant red cloth was wound about his head, and lie wore a toga-like garment of kaniki cloth, the fold of which he carried i82 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA in tlie hollow of his arm. His first question showed that, besides his ab.lity and a certain dignity, he possessed commercial spirit. How much would we pay per head? It was really what we might call a "hold up" in American vernacular. I mentioned a price; he mentioned his; we split the difference. Sixty porters were ready the next morning, and our friend presented himself as head man. His word was law, as we soon discovered. On the march to Avakubi he was general, adjutant, and staff. It would be hard to say where he had got his training, but if we could have kept him with us thereafter we would have been saved a great deal of trouble and, to put it mildly, some disturbance. On the very first camp we made the men arrived on time. They were lined up with their loads, and stood in almost military formation. The little head man looked down the line with the eye of an inspecting general officer as he counted the boxes and bales. One of the porters who disputed for an instant his authority received a crack on the head that sent him reeling into the bushes. The chief of the little village where we had stopped produced food on our head man's orders at once ; there was no question of mataheesh. The next morn- ing when we rose shortly after daybreak we found that the porters were already on their way. The head man himself brought up the rear guard, and no one lagged behind. Shortly after our arrival at the first camp the chief '•Smyf. PENGHF TO AVAKUHI 183 came to us and announced that there was a \ 2o8 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA the stream, the pilot's crew working fiercely, their bodies swaying from their hips, backwards and for- wards, putting in every ounce of their weight and strength, then suddenly they turned sharply to the right, the four men in the bow using their big punt- ing poles ; missing the entrance to the chute where the water ran the swiftest, they took a narrow little passageway and, with much fending off and bumping, slid along to the edge of the little fall and plunged down into the pool below. As they passed us the noise of their excited voices could be heard above the waters. The second canoe that was following quite fast behind the first one, made even a better passage, but the third — the new one procured at Panga — was not so fortunate. Half way down, one of the strong punting poles broke ; the bow swung to the left and in an instant she had run on to a flat submerged rock going half of her length clear of the water. Although the accident might have been a dangerous one it had a most funny side. There had been seven or eight men in that canoe when she struck ; so great was the impetus that one after another, much as a "caterpillar" of children's blocks falls at a push, they went over the bow into the water. All managed to scramble back but one man, who made a personally conducted trip of it over the falls and was rescued by the canoe ahead. Often along the rivers we passed the wrecks of canoes, large and small, piled up high and dry at the dangerous places. In the days of the heavy river traffic, THE GOATS' HIGHWAY INTO THE FOREST THE TALKING DRUMS 2oq it must have been a very ordinary occurrence, hut for us to lose a canoe at this juncture wonhl have been very seriou-i for the expedition, and that hoMow h)^ now swaying and balancing on its centre of ^ra\itv was our best and biggest craft. The \u:u who had managed to reach hrm footing l^egan to woik theii way back to where slie lay; some of them had a'l this time retained hold of their jioles or paddles, and now followed a bit of head work that made us metaphorically and actually take otT our hats. Making use of the help of the current, they swinig the canoe around as if on a pivot, gave her a push, jumped in, and made the rest oi the descent stern foremost. We had begun to notice the numbers of deserted villages and, in those that were inhabited, the prej^on- derance of untenanted huts. Smallpox had been rife, but we w^ere now about to enter the region that possesses and offers the great c]uestion of Central Africa — the disease area of the so-called " sleeping sickness." It was at Banalia that we first saw^ signs of its presence and the attempt to combat its spread- ing, for here w^as stationed the first doctor that we had met since leaving the British outpost in Uganda, and it was he who told us of the insidious creeping of the disease up the Aruwimi, for thj Tturi River had for some distance past changed its nam^ and added another syllable. Banaha ! What a flood of mental pictures came to my mind as 1 recalled those exciting chapters in the great explorer's book. It was here that the ill- 210 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA fated leader of the rear column, Major Barttelot, met his death at the hands of a treacherous native. And it was to this spot that Stanley alone brought back his searching party on its three months' return trip from the forest edge. Here perhaps, under the shade of that very tree near the shore, sat poor "Bonny," on whom had devolved the command of the dwindUng rearguard. Like one or two other places we had passed, Banalia could once have laid claim to importance ; in fact, it had been built with the lavish belief in its future — a belief that will never be realised. And in the short life of man's handiwork on this devouring continent, it may gradually disappear. Above the post there is a large native village, and strolling up there in search of material the Scribe and the Photographer were rewarded. The chief of the village was old Lupo, whom Stanley mentions, and who was his guide up the river. He was a tall old man ; his face deeply pitted with smallpox, he had, nevertheless, a remarkable dignity. But he was slowly going blind, and on this very day was turning over the chieftainship of the village to a younger and more active man. The sub-chiefs and headmen were all assembled, and we took photographs of part of the ceremony. The Banalia tribe are experts in ironwork, and here we saw a smith at work making spearheads, and knives, and swords. But the most interesting sight was the welding of the massive iron armlets on the wrists and forearm of the new chief. Unconscious that this act was being recorded NKAR YAMBUYA WHERE STANLEY'S Rl-.AKGUAKD ALMOST STARVED OLD LUPO. STANLKYS GUIDE ON THK AKUWIMl 27 THE TALKING DRUMS 211 by the moving picture (ilin, neither he nor the man who was so deftly wrapping the metal binding over the bare fiesh paid the slightest attention to us. In the photograph one may notice the folding camp-chairs of European and very modern appearance on which the two men are seated ; these are to be fountl throughout all of the river region and are of native workmanship. All are replicas, 1 was told, of a half- dozen chairs that were brought in by a Portuguese trader some ten or twelve years previously. Now, no African of importance ever travels without one. Every chief has his chair boy, and even the kapita who was to take us on from Banalia brought his with him. It was at Banalia that we had to make a very im- portant decision. The time was pressing and none of us was in the best of health. I remember waking one night after a very dreadful dream — it was that we had missed that monthly down -stream steamer and were consigned to another long wait and the further possibility of not making connection with a vessel bound for Europe, at the coast. I awoke to the realisation that this was not only a dream but an actual possibility. We were advised at Banalia to consider making the long walk overland to Bengamisa and Kaparata, and thence by canoe to Stanleyville, the head of direct steamer navigation from Kinshassa near the Congo mouth. It was a toss up whether we could, everything working in our favour, recruit enough porters and get there before the steamer sailed, or by hard work and long hours of paddling reach 212 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA Basoko in time to head the same steamer off on its down trip. A little vessel that used to ply between the last-named place and Yambuya, on the Aruwimi, some three or four days below us, had long since been discontinued. We decided to trust ourselves to the paddlers again. By this time we could handle them b«:rtter, and so once more we took to the river. It seems, as I look back, that I have made a rather bitter arraignment of the various tribesmen who served us in any capacity along the rivers, and in a measure I should like to have qualified the impression that it must have left. We were not with any of them long enough to get to know them, and the black takes some knowing. For generations and generations they had lived a constant life of suspicion — suspicion of their neighbours — suspicion of strangers — and the oppression and terrorism of the slave- raiders who had only a decade or so before ceased their man-stealing and rapine through this very country. Then had come the rule of the rubbei industry, with all its exactions of forced labour and tribute ; and following this, with great suddenness, a total abandonment of all traffic and the crumbling and practical decay of the most exacting monopoly in the world, and the loss of all white authority. The Congo Beige, at this present time, is going through an interregn \m of disorder ; it has ceased to pay. The new mining and commercial enterprises that are now merely in an experimental state, if worked to a successful conclusion, may help to lift it THE TALKING DRUMS 213 out of this period of chaos; at prcscni it is a coiiiin- driim to which no one has found an answer. 1 he sohing is coniphcated by many side issues, hut the principal thin^ to which study and tliouj^jht nuist he devoted, and to which liv^es must be sacrificed, is the combating of the devastating disease that has swept away a quarter of a million of inhabitants in the last ten years. In spots the virulence of sleejMug sickness is almost unbelievable ; on the best of authority we were informed that in one small section of five or six thousand square miles, out of twenty-live thousand inhabitants who had lived there eight years ago, it was estimated that there w^ere but five hundred now alive. But to return to our story: There was no white man at Yambuya, only a negro clerk ; but he w as possessed with a sense of his importance, and he ruled the cnce populous station with an iron hand. We had noticed some fowls in the little village above the fa'ls w^here we had landed, but the natives had refused to sell any. Mentioning this fact to the black major- domo, he departed immediately, and came hack with not only the two we had requeited, but an additional two. Whether or no he ever divided the matabeesh that we gave him; I cannot say, hut it is very doubtful. Yambuya was a sad place ; the last white man who had lived there had died of fever but a few weeks previously. His effects occujiied the corners of the room of the only habitable house. This was 214 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA "Starvation Camp" of Stanley's ill-fated rearguard. It was here that they had died like flies, and had suffered untold misery waiting for the porters that had been promised them by that wily old rascal Tippu Tib — the porters who never came. We were counting practically the hours now, for the delay of half a day in the necessary schedule meant missing the ".teamer. By dint of great exertions we got ofif promptly at daylight and reached Lakini, having done between thirty-five and forty miles — the best work of the trip. There were no more rapids now. The character of the huts of the river villages had changed from the pointed, narrow dwellings made of phrynia leaves to wattled dwellings plastered with mud. At Lakini we were given a very neat and new dwelling for our resting-place — a house that had been built for the chief's two youngest and, evidently, most popular wives, who, with their infants, turned out and gave us place. I remember this night well, for both Kearton and myself were very much under the weather. The fever had gripped me especially hard, and with it had come a raging, thumping headache. But no sooner had I turned in, hoping to sleep, after a large dose of quinine, than the village drummer began sending out the local news to anybody within hearing of his booming log, not ten feet from our doorway. At last I could stand it no longer, and sent for the one who was summoned whenever we were in trouble — Ernesti. At the moment when he arrived the WATCHING THl', CANOKS COMK IN STARVATION CAMP A BAMBOO PIPE THE TALKING DRUMS 215 drummer had ceased his disturhaiice, hut 1 could liear the distant notes from up and down tlie river as the villages talked hack and forth. Having received instructions to do what he could to prevent our local performer from again joining \n the discussion, Ernesti departed. He was successful, as usual, for the hig drum made no further row that night ; hut the next morning, as we were about to get into the canoes and depart, there was trouble. The chief, with several of fiis counsellors and a crowd of women and children, were gathered at the water's edge. They seemed quite angry — some one had stolen the town drumsticks ; it was like taking the clapper out of their one and only bell. My conver- sation with Ernesti had entirely slipped my mind ; it never occurred to me to suspect him, and, under directions, the sleeping mats and personal baggage of our escort and the paddlers were thoroughly searched, without result. With a satisfied conscience we were about to shove ofif when somebody pointed. There, sticking out of my own blanket roll that had already been put into the canoe, were the handles of the missing drumsticks. Much chagrined I handed them over with an extra gift for the drummer, who, I must confess, took it with small grace and a snort of derision. I said nothing to Ernesti until we were well out into the stream, then I asked him quietly why he had done it. "The b'wana asked me to," he replied. I faintly remember now telling him to get those 2i6 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA drumsticks, to smash the drum up with an axe, kill the drummer, to commit any crime he pleased, but to *'stop that noise." So much for faithful performance of orders! Oh, that last day on the river! th it last night, rather! Never will we forget it. At five o'clock in the afternoon the paddlers wished to put into a village for the night. At seven o'clock, when darkness was descending, they wished to put into another. By dint of threats and urging, and a little physical violence, we succeeded in getting them by. An hour later they were in a mutinous state and would have jumped overboard but for the darkness and the uncertainty of knowing where they could land. At ten o'clock in the evening they were still wearily and fitfully pad- dling, and at eleven a faint moon had broken through the clouds and we could see the outline of the tree- tops on the shore — a blacker mass rising above the water. In half an hour we sighted a faint light. One of the paddlers pointed and in a wearied voice said, *'Basoko." We had reached the Congo waters at last; at least we were in striking distance of the great river. We had had nothing to eat since noon ; the pad- dlers had had nothing at all, all day. In the dim light we crept up to the landing beach. There was a fleet of canoes hauled up there, and close to the place where we got out, stiff and tired, was a large sheet- iron whale boat. We could just make out a great gateway, guarded on each side by loop-holed tovrers ; for this was Stanley's military base when he was FULL SPEED AHEAD PLACID Ri:i- LIXTIONS THE FORTIFIED POST OF BASOKO AT EASOKO GATE; THE END OF THE CANOi'. JOURNEY THE TALKING DRUMS 217 governor of Equatoria, and liad been built to stand a siege. AVe broke open some tinned meat and biscuits, and having satisfied our luinger, we went through the gate into the old fort. Not a living being could we see until at last we came across a sleepy native soldier, who, half frightened at the sight of strange white men at that time of the night, kept standing at salute while he answered our questions in an unintelligible jargon. We gave him up at last, and returned to the beach, where our boys had lit a fire, and we had been there hardly five minutes when we saw a lantern approaching. There were two figures coming through the gateway, and to our relief we found one was a white man. He was a pale-faced, anaemic person, literally eaten up with the ravages of fever, but he was kindness and hospitality itself. He took us into his house and emphasised his hospitality by leaving us alone to try to get our much-needed rest, departing to his own couch to shake himself to pieces for the rest of the night. He told us that the negroes had informed him by the drums that some white men were coming down the river, but he had not expected us so soon. There was one bit of news that he gave us, however, that was consoling, the steamer would not arrive at Barunda, the stopping place, for another day. So long as we had arrived in time we did not care whether or no it delayed a week. 28 CHAPTER XVIII THE CONGO AT LAST BASOKO was a live place compared with the other posts that we had seen ; it was linked to civili- sation by a tall wireless telegraph pole, and was in charge of the able executive in the person of M. Enge, the commissioner of the district. We called the next morning at his office, and he kindly invited us to dine with him that night. This post, the most important on the Upper Congo, next to Stanleyville, was a revelation to us ; here were government build- ings in good repair; traders' stores; well-kept walks and even ffower gardens. It seemed to us like a populous metropolis. There were perhaps in all, some twelve white men and a force of eighty native soldiers. A few weeks before there had been a white woman there also, the wife of the district com- missioner, but she had died, and, as we discovered, had left him a lonely and broken-hearted man, whose only relief was the faithful performance of his duty. It was with a curious feeling that we sat down at a table with white linen and napkins and silver ware, cut glass and beautiful china : everywhere were the signs of a feminine presence. There was a touch of home in it all, for the late mistress of the house had been an American. I noticed on the walls of the big 218 THE CONGO AT LAST 219 sitting-room the college pennants of Yale and Har- vard and Cornell. The books and knick-knacks brought back a feeling of homesickness. On a table, littered with dainty, feminine belongings, was a photo- graph in a silver frame. The commissitHier caught my glance in its direction. "My wife," he said; "she lived here. She would not go fiome." Yes, and she was Hving there yet; her presence was all around us as the big-hearted, sorrowful-faced man spoke. It was she who was responsible for the well- trained servants, and the neatness and care which showed everywhere. I glanced again at the picture ; it was the face of one that men and women and children would have loved. But Central Africa is no place for a woman. The Photographer, who was very sick this evening, had gone back early to the house by the river, but not to get the much-needed rest, as it subsequently turned out. About eleven o'clock, when I came in, he was found sitting on the edge of his cot patching up bruises and cuts on various portions of his anatomy; he was in anything but an agreeable frame of mind. Ernesti, looking also the worse for wear, was unrolling some bandages from the medicine chest. The place smelled like the ward of a hospital, it reeked with the odour of iodoform. The reason for all this was soon learned ; it all came through the Photographer's keen desire to carry out the spirit of one of the Beatitudes: "Blessed are the peacemakers," etc. 220 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA The cook who had accompanied us on our river trij) was a bit of a Lothario, after the African fashion, and had tried fiis wiles and fascinations on the wife of our host's private servant, with such ardour that he had succeeded in arousing a keen feeHng of jealousy, and a desire to slay, in the bosom of her lord and master. Kearton, who had just crawled into his blankets, was awakened by the noise and excitement and shouts of murder. Never again will he try to stop negroes from fighting in the dark; after all his experi- ences he should have known better, anyhow. Running out of the house barefooted, he found himself in the thick of it, and in about half a minute had accumu- lated from unknown sources an assortment of cuts and bruises that, luckily, were not of a serious character. Ernesti had left the house with him to aid in the suppression of the tumult. In the darkness and confu' sion Kearton had caught somebody by the throat, and was using his peace persuader to some advantage when he suddenly discovered that the one whom he had singled out as a special subject for education was no other than the luckless Ernesti. As Kearton was telling us the story Ernesti kept up one remark: "The b'wana, he knock me down, he pick me up; he pick me up, he knock me down ; he nearly knock my head ofif. I got no chance to try to stop fight at all." It was rather fortunate that this mistake had occurred, for the other combatants, who were now behind the bars of the "choky," were suffering from knife cuts. THE CONGO AT LAST 221 Hardly had we blown out the candle and settled down when we were roused by a message troin the commissioner. The steamer from Stanleyville would reach Barumba at about daylight instead of noon ; it had tied up for the night but a short distance above the point where the Aruwimi flowed into the greater river. Arrangements had been made for a crew for the iron whale boat, and we would have to leave at four o'clock in the morning. Dawn was just breaking when we paddled out beyond the headland, and found ourselves on the Congo at last. In about two hours we arrived at Barumba. We had hardly got out on the shore when we heard the blast of a whistle, and the steamer, La Reine Elizabeth, came round the bend. She was not a passenger boat, and the five little cabins were already taken by Congo officials who were returning home for their furloughs to Europe. The captain at first did not wish to take us as deck passengers. I was trying to explain, in French, the urgency of our case, when suddenly with a grin, he said: "Oh, well, come along ; get your things on board. But why don't you speak United States?" Literally I fell on his neck. He was breaking the rules of the company, which forbid white men from travelling on deck, but he could not resist our appeal. Had we been forced to wait much longer it might have gone hard, for \\e were about at the end of our tether so far as health and spirits were concerned. Kearton had lost forty- two pounds since starting ; and I was lighter in weight 222 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA than I was in my schoolboy days, having dropped nearly thirty pounds somewhere along the Equator. Although the captain did everything he could for us— and although the four Belgian officials, who were all Swedes, and a Jesuit White Father who occupied the staterooms, made us welcome — there was very little comfort for us during the next fourteen days down the river. No matter where we sought to put our cots, we could not find a single secluded or com- fortable corner. It was sleeping out of doors with a vengeance. When it rained, as it often did, we were wet, and when the wind blew we were constantly in draughts of all kinds, and the ticks and ants that came up out of the fuel wood were pestiferous to a degree. On the lower deck there were some seventy or eighty black passengers, and twelve cases of sleep- ing sickness among them. Altogether it could not be called a pleasure excursion, but it was interesting none the less. Every evening we would tie up to the bank at some wood post or village, and late into the night the noise and racket of loading fuel continued. The way those furnaces ate up logs and cord-wood was a caution. It would be piled high as the deck beams in the morning, and by night-time would have vanished. Sometimes we would stop in the middle of the day and load on some fifty or sixty cords. The rest of the cargo consisted of copal and palm-oil nuts. I do not think there were fifty bags of rubber in the lot. The river had a tremendous interest to me for BARUMBA. WHERt: Wl, Jo:;,l,ij liU, Sll-.AMLR A CONGO MlSSiu:.: SlAi THE STEAMER TIED UP FOR THIC NIGHT THE FORWARD DECK THE CONGO AT LAST 223 man}' reasons. As the days went on, as we passed by the many httle villages and posts and the stretches of abandoned sites and plantations, now denuded of their inhabitants owing to the ravages of the sickness, I was looking forward to arriving at one place of special interest — Lukellia. The captain told us that we would tie up there for the night, and would possibly spend most of the day taking on cargo. Why did this one little river village hold an in- terest above all others? Simply for the reason that for years 1 had pictured it in my mind without thinking that my eyes would ever behold it. Here was enacted a story that I had listened to more than once, and here had lived one of the best friends that I ever had in my life, and one of the finest and manliest human beings that had ever left home and comfort and battled with the wilderness. The story of E. J. Glave is known to very few. It will do to tell it. I had met him in 1891 in New York, and in a lifetime that had known many close and intimate friendships, never had there been one that had meant so much to me, for his was the most com- pelling and winning personality that up to that time I had ever met. He was a knight without fear and without reproach, and his life from the time of late boyhood had been filled with the romance of ad- venture and successful accomplishment of tasks before which many men would have quailed or surrendered. When Henry M. Stanley was in England in the 224 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA early 'eighties, arranging the personnel of his new government of Equatoria, among the many applicants for positions was E. J. Glave, then hardly twenty years of age. When Stanley met the young man, de- spite his youth, there must have been something about fiim that impressed Stanley, for when his force of men, picked for their promise of ability, had all been chosen, Glave was among them, and Lukellia was his station. And here for three years he had lived — for over two of them alone, and all those who had known him and all who had ever heard of him, had supposed him dead. It was a strange story, and well did I re- call it as the steamer swung into the bank and I gazed at the huts ashore, at the towering forest, and the wide stretch of the silently flowing river. Many times had his eyes searched that expanse looking to the west for the relief and assistance that never came. When he had first been left at the station he had with him a companion, a young Englishman. The natives, although cannibals, had received them kindly. Glave's force and adaptability had won ascendancy over the native mind at once, but it was not long be- fore he and his companion were both sick with the fever that so few white men ever escape. They nursed each other through successive attacks and at last reached that state of being permanently half well which is the usual condition of men of even the strongest physique in the fever belts of Africa. One day Glave's companion had crossed the river in a canoe to shoot buffaloes, and as my friend stood THE CONGO AT LAST 225 on the shore, watching the canoe returning in the evening, he saw that there was a long space hetwcen the paddlers and no hgure sitting in the middle. That space contained the mangled body of the only white man within some seven hundred miles, crushed beyond recognition by a wounded bulfalo bull. 1 re- called the dramatic scene of the funeral as Glave had told it to me ; I pictured it to myself — the grave under the big tree, and that brave-hearted boy — for he was hardly more — reading the simple burial service from the prayer-book his mother had given him. 1 re- member his telling of naked blacks seated on the ground watching the proceedings, and how, suddenly, he noticed that all of their eyes were directed at the branch of the big tree overhead. Glancing up, Glave saw three great hornbills looking down upon the scene as if held by curiosity. But the strange thing was that they were silent, and the hornbill is the noisiest of all noisy feathered things. Seldom do its calls and squawkings cease, but these birds made no sound, no movement. Through the whole of the ceremony they remained there motionless, and when all was finished and the mound of earth completed, without a cry they sailed ofif on their broad wings across the river. For days, for reasons which need not be explained, Glave watched the mound and sat near it at night. And now comes the dramatic part of the story. News travels strangely along the Equator; where the drums do not talk it out into the air it seems to go by word 226 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA of mouth, or rumour, through ahnost uninhabited tracts. Slowly word came to the mouth of the river that both white men at LukelUa w^ere dead. It reached a quiet httle home in England and caused great sorrow ; a grieved mother and sisters put on the black garb of mourning, and for two years a young man upon that lonely river shore waited for news of the outside world. Then suddenly a little steamer had pufifed into sight battling its way up stream, and a lonely figure whose clothes were patched with bark cloth came down to the shore and signalled. Glave was relieved at last ! But the story is not ended yet. When I first knew him he had just returned from an expedition into the wilds of Alaska. It was he and his companion, Dalton, who had first found gold there. And there is the last chapter to add : In '93, alone and unaccompanied by another white man, he had answered the call of Africa again, and on a trip to investigate the conditions of the dwindling slave trade, he had crossed the continent from oppo- site Zanzibar, much of the way along the same route that we had followed, and alas, had died of the fever at Matadi, where he lies buried. I had told all this to the Photographer, and no sooner had the steamer tied up than we were ofT with the cameras to try to find Glave's old village. We had been informed that it was not at the steamer landing-place, but some three or four miles below on a trail that followed the water's edge through the forest. So we started out. The miles seemed to lengthen ; THE CONGO AT LAST 227 the hour or so that we expected to walk grew to two hours and no signs of habitation. Then we found a small path leading to the right and we came to a spot where a village once had been, and farther on a collection of two or three miserable little huts, three or four black men and half a dozen women. "Lukellia?" They nodded, but that was all we could get out of them. There were lots of big trees and branches extend- ing overhead, and probably in the clearing that was now being overgrown there had once been room for a village of two hundred huts or more. The women and men were all young, and even if they could have understood our questions there would not have been found a single human being alive who would have remembered the white man who lived there so many years ago. Yet here, perhaps, he had stood and watched that canoe slowly crossing with the ominous space between the paddlers ; and here he had waited day after day. Was it just as I had depicted it in my mind's eye ? Somewhat, and yet not quite. Those mental places that we possess so vividly and that never fade, seldom bear semblance to locations of reality. A sudden darkening of the sky warned us of a coming storm, and just as we got back to the steamer landing it burst in a drenching downpour accompanied by fierce thunder and lightning, but it cleared away about ten o'clock to one of the most brilliant starlit nights that 1 have ever seen. 29 228 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA I was leaning over the rail of the steamer when a figure joined me. It was the tall White Father, who had told me in a conversation that he had been out there for nineteen years. His hair and beard were snow white, but he was hardly more than fifty years of age. For one of his calling he was very broad-minded, and he spoke French and English and a half a dozen native dialects fluently. Knowing that all the official passengers, including ourselves, were bound for Matadi and for the steamer that would take us away from Africa, I asked him if he were going to Europe also. He looked up at the sky and out at the dark shore line. " No," he said, rather sadly, ** we do not go back. You remember what Livingstone, the great English missionary, said, when urged to return ? ' My work lies here.'" I tried to recall the last words written by the great man whose name he had mentioned which ran some- what as follow: "May blessings fall upon the head of that man, be he Jew, Mohammedan, or Christian, who brings relief to the sufferings of these unhappy people." Yes, under that bright star-spotted sky lay one of the sore spots of the earth. Along the plague-swept banks of the great river lies work for men, not creeds or propaganda. The best results — the only lasting good— will be performed by those who, entering on their labours, will not turn back because the task seems hopeless. WOMEN AT A LANDING PLACE CHAPTER XTX THE LOWKR REACHES BESIDES Ernesti, the only one of onr hoys who had joined us in British East Africa and who came to London with us in the end, we had kept on a well-trained personal servant who had joined us at Irumu. I have forgotten his native name, but he answered to Pete, as well as anything else, so it stuck, by him. Pete and Ernesti had stowed themselves away somewhere on the lower deck, keeping watch over our belongings. Neither of them had ever travelled on a river steamer before. They would sit there watching the engine by hours, following the thrust of the great sliding piston rods, lost in wonderment at the never-ceasing energy. One day, I noticed Pete standing below on the lower deck and looking up at the steering bridge or platform. His attitude was one of such astonishment, the expression of his face showed such awe and plea- sure, that going back a little way, and ascending the wooden ladder I tried to see what attracted his attention, and then, suddenly, I understood it all. The pilot at the wheel of the steamer was a black man. He was dressed in an old cotton shirt and the rem- nants of a pair of yellow dungaree trousers. Pete, 229 230 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA who was attired in a cast-off suit, was much the better dressed, but what evidently impressed him was that a man of his own colour, of his own race, should know the magic methods by which the big boat turned from one bank towards the other and followed the winding channel. He probably felt a mingled pride and rejoicing in the responsibility that had been en- trusted to one of his own kind. A little turn of the steering wheel and the vessel's bow swung to the right, another turn she straightened out down the centre of the stream. Pete couldn't understand ; it fascinated him. The black pilot glanced down and saw him. Their eyes met and as politely as he ever lifted his hat to a miisungo, Pete saluted and bowed to that wonderful black brother, a bow that was re- warded by a cold and self-important stare. But altogether the whole affair tended toward the uplifting of Pete. At Volobo there is quite an important post of the Baptist Missionary Society, and here we met a Mr. Scrivener who remembered Glave and Stanley very well. There is a hospital here in charge of a young medical missionary, Dr. Curling, who, while we were there, had a number of cases of sleeping sickness under observation. The doctor expressed the great hope that some day there would be found, if not an absolute cure, a method of preventing the spreading of the disease. The fly, or flies — for it is now thought there is more than one^ — that carry it, and whose bites infect, live in the low bush and generally in the THE LOWER REACHES 231 vicinity of water. They do not travel far froin tlie shelter and apparently abhor the v^'ide and empty spaces; in bad areas the government is clearing away the underbrush, and has made some progress in planting lemon grass, for it is said that the tsetse fly will not cross ground so planted. However, the efficacy of this has been denied. Both Kearton and myself had been bitten a number of time by this per- nicious insect, and I can vouch for the fact that the after effect is quite different from that of an ordinary bite ; it produces a burning red spot that in some cases will last for months. It is asserted by those who have made a study of the subject that in the bad districts only four out of every thousand flies are infected. But once the germ obtains access to the blood, the doom of the person w^ho has been bitten, is sealed. In the Congo region as the death rate increased the birth rate has decreased. We were informed that where the sickness was particularly bad it was hard to get the people to take the slightest interest in any occupation or industry; they simply sit round expecting to die. This curious fatalism is characteristic of the African races. If a black man makes up his mind that he is going to ' Kufa ' no power of medicine can save him — he departs on his own pre-arranged date. I remember the day when rounding a bend, in- stead of the monotonous forest, there could be seen in the distance the rounded tops of hills. The coimtry changes as suddenly on the west side as it does on the east. This is due most probably to the soil con- 232 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA ditions, and not to any work of clearing. Although we passed patches of woods of a respectable size, the green ramparts in their everlasting monotony no longer rimmed the banks. Through the middle reaches, where the Congo is at its widest and in its most sluggish period, the main channel runs in and out of the green, half water-swept islands, the channel sometimes appearing to turn almost diagonally across the stream. Although the pilot had to depend upon memory for a great part of the journey, sign-posts pointing the way were as frequent here as in any well-motored district in America or the Continent. Great white arrows visible at two or three miles were nailed to the trunks of the trees, and although there are no lighthouses, and Congo river traffic is re- stricted to the day time, a steamer could hardly lose her way. Clearing after clearing, empty of habitation or human life showed where the sleeping sickness had done its work ; deserted or half-deserted villages were on either hand. When we got into the meadow land and the country of the rolling hills, evidences of human occupation were farther and farther apart. Great flocks of little birds flew up out of the reeds; occasionally a diver or grebe scuttled out of sight. Once only did we see a crocodile raising its ugly snout, and it was not until we had nearly reached Stanley Pool that we saw any hippopotami ; there a herd of a dozen or so popped up their heads and pointed their inquisitive ears at the passing steamer. THE LOWER REACHES 233 We had taken on board at one of the jiosts a company of native sokliers under a while oHieer, bound on a punitive expedition against a httle trilie whose village lav up one ot the Congo tributaries that flowed out of the marshy country to the south. Little vengeance would they reek on the chief. They would burn down his grass huts; he and his people would hide until the soldiers had gone away, and inside of a week build another town. At least that is what was told to me by the officer in charge, who said he did not look forward to any lighting. The natives are almost entirely unarmed now, for the im- portation of powder and firearms is restricted, and what they possess are useless against modern rifles. Almost all of these soldiers, although they only ex- pected to t^e gone a month or less, had brought their families with them, for to move an African regiment or company — in fact, to keep them together in order — the wives have to be taken into account. I noticed that each prepared her lord and master's food, arranged his sleeping mat, and when they went ashore carried all his impedimenta, and in some cases even his rifle. They made the fires, and even filled and lit and set going their husbands' pipes. There was a curious figure to be seen on deck and much in evidence at every landing-place, a pure albino, who came, I am told, from one of the river tribes above Stanleyville. His flesh was a pink white, much whiter than any white man's ; his hair was the 234 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA lightest yellow wool, almost golden ; and while his features were pure negroid, his eyes, evidently suffer- ing from the sunlight, were squinted to narrow slits, and were blue in colour. He was a great swimmer, and it was his province to go overboard with the bow line that towed the mooring cable to the shore. The pink white of his flesh, his shoulders only slightly freckled, made him stand out in marked contrast to the black crowds in which he sometimes mingled on the banks. Once on the march while making a long portage, we had met an albino woman in one of the villages. The dead white of her skin and her hair made her appearance most uncanny, while the pinkness of her eyes was as vivid as that of any white rabbit that one ever saw. The albino freak, we were told, occurs more commonly with the male sex than it does with the female. It was regarded as quite lucky to have one in the village. This boatman was a well-known character, and the captain said that he was one of the best workers he ever had. We steamed into Stanley Pool one Sunday, and as we crossed the wide expanse we could see budd- ings showing through the trees. Soon we tied up to the bank at Kinshassa. Our river journey was over. As we went ashore, the first thing that we stumbled on was a railway track. The sight of these two metal lines of the road that runs down to Matadi, three hundred miles away, swept us into the present, and when we found ourselves in the cafe of the Hotel THE LOWER REACHES 235 Cosmopolite we realised that the lon^ journey was practically at an end. Between Kinshassa and the port of ocean steamer traffic, Matadi, lies a succession of great rapids, im- passable, and for a long time the barrier that prevented explorers from penetrating into the mysteries of the dark, continent. Past them Stanley had dragged his boats on his first trip, and until the railway was ccmi- structed (the work was performed mostly b}^ coolie labour at the cost of four lives for every mile), it was the longest and most wearisome portage in the world. But now one boards the train that runs every other day from Leopoldville, through Kinshassa, to Matadi ; stopping for the night at Thysville, where there is an excellent hotel. The three hundred mile trip is made in about sixteen hours — not very rapid going. The railroad is a very good bit of engineering work; in many cases, on the steep descent from the hills, it winds along the sides and loops over itself, and de- scending into the valley above a roaring muddy torrent, reaches the Congo bank again. Kinshassa and Leopoldville will be important places of the Congo, but the former, which is the starting- point for all the up-river steamers and the head- quarters and base for many of the trading companies of French, German and Belgian Equatoria, is bound to become the most important. The pipe-line system, that will soon be pumping oil from Matadi, parallels the railway. When this is completed, the occupation of the people who remain along the river — that of 236 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA wood cutting— will be gone entirely, but navigation will be improved and a deck passage will probably be more comfortable. The contrast of a clean, dry room at a well-ordered hotel, and the comfort of everything was so sharp and sudden that, speaking for myself, it took me some days to get used to it. The first night at Kinshassa, I remember, I slept very badly. I was trying too hard to enjoy it. We met here a party of three or four American engineers who were going up country for a mining company. One of them was very glad to take on the services of Pete, but Ernesti was bound for London with us, to return to his own country, British East Africa, by the steamer from Southampton to Mombasa ; never in the world could he have retraced our journey by himself. There were a number of white ladies, wives of officials, living at Kinshassa, and every evening, at tea time, there was quite a social gathering at the cafe of the Hotel Cosmopolite. It was quite curious to meet negroes who spoke English with an English accent, but here we found several from Nigeria and the Gold Coast. They came up and introduced themselves in very easy and democratic fashion. Every other black we met wished to engage himself to us as cook or personal boy. Matadi, when at last we reached there, reminded me of a score of other places I had met with about the world, and yet I could not place any one of its reminiscent airs distinctly. It was Tangier ; it was Q < < H < en -X u o p w X THE LOWER REACHES 2^ La Guira, on the Spanish Main coast; it was Jamaica, Trinidad, Colon, Cape Town ; it was one of the httle hilly towns on the Bay of Naples. But the principal thing that caught our eye as we descended from the train, was the great grey ocean steamer moored to the iron pier that stretched out heyond the railway yards. It spelt Home ! It was two days before we would sail, however, and on one of these days I had promised myself to make an excursion with a particular object in view it was to find Glave's grave. After making many inquiries I was referred, at last, to the missionary at the head of the B.M.S. Mission that lay outside the town, a mile or two away on a hill over- looking a bend in the river. This gentleman knew a black missionary worker, a Jamaican negro, who, he said, could possibly direct us ; and furthermore, he promised us the use of the mission boat to niake the trip down the river the following morning. It would have been a curious thing if this short, Httle excursion had proved to be the most disastrous of any we had made ; it nearly did so, however, and gave us some rather exciting moments. CHAPTER XX THE LAST ADVENTURE EARLY the next morning the Photographer and the Scribe were at the mission. The missionary himself could not see us, giving the excuse that is always taken in Central Africa — he was down with the fever, and could not leave his bed. But Gordon, the black mission worker, was there, and the crew for the whale-boat, which had been pulled up on the bank, were ready. Our guide, counsellor, and friend was an im- pressive figure. He was dressed in a black broadcloth coat, white shirt and collar, and a clerical tie. Though Africa claimed his progenitors, all the African but the colour had been squeezed out of his system. I had seen his type in the United States, but never had we encountered it m our trip from the Mombasa to the Congo mouth. His English was perfect, and his enunciation that of an Oxford professor. He hastened to inform us that he was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and was a graduate of an English University, but having heard the "call of the Word" he had come out "to labour in the vineyard." From his sleekness and general appearance of good health, the labour had agreed with him. "Having heard of you gentlemen's intention of 238 AN AVMNU1-: PLANTKU BY STANI.KY Lf^--^-""^. THE LADIES WHO WOULI; 1>U 30 I SS I ' ilv 1 ;il- IR I'OKTKAl 1 THE LAST ADVENTURE 239 searching for the place of intennent of your {jcp.iited friend, as one capahle of putting you in liic riglit direction of fhuHng his final resting-place, I respoiulcd with alacrity at the chance of ottering assistance. I do not know the exact position of the monument erected to the memory of your friend, but doubtless we can find it." We went down to the shore where the crew were waiting. Ttiey were dressed in blue trousers and calico jumpers cut in sailor fashion, with a regular sailor-hat as headgear. In a hollowed-out canoe they might have done very well, but what they knew about handling a whale-boat you could have jiut in your waistcoat pocket. And the boat itself was something of a snare and a delusion. Years before she might have been capable of any work exacted of her ; and certainly she went back to the days of the old sperm- whale industry. No sooner had we got out into the current than she began to leak. Little fountains of water spurted over our feet, and those seams that were not gushing wept weakly. There was not a tight strake in her composition. Under the after thwarts were a number of tins. While the two bowmen kept rowing to keep the boat's head down the stream, the rest of the har.ds began to bail industriously. Mr. Gordon, sitting in the stern sheets, was muttering, "Oh dear, oh my!" And then suddenly he ex- claimed, "I can't keep her straight at all," the reason for which was plainly discernible. He had the tiller ropes crossed. 240 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA After half an hour of rowing, drifting and baiHng, we rounded the point and, with an extra effort of the bowmen, got the boat turned in toward shore. We landed at a little strip of sand in a valley between two high hills. The grass was shoulder high, and in many places higher. Following a little rocky stream bed through which crystal-clear water was slowly trickling, we made our way for some three hundred yards and then, climbing a steep bank, we found ourselves amid the gravestones of a little cemetery. Years before when Matadi consisted of a few houses and some large buildings that, in the still older day, had been the head-quarters of the white slavers who shipped their cargoes to America and the West Indies, this ground had been a mission station. No fewer than eight or ten members of British, Swedish and American missions were buried here ; five of them were women, one hardly more than a girl, for her age was placed on the rough -hewn tombstone as but twenty-two years. Glave's resting-place was not among them ; we searched for another half-hour before we found it. Evidently no one had visited this lonely mound for years. We cleared the grass away and took a photograph. The bronze tablet that had been sent out in 1896 by a returning missionary was in place on the granite headstone, and the wording ran as shown on the opposite page. No finer epitaph could a man wish for than this, and no better setting for a man of his calibre could be found than this lonely Congo hillside with the THE LAST ADVENTURE 241 great river sweeping past and the wild thorn and the elephant grass shroiuling hini. There was one thing I knew, that if he had been alive and accessible he would have been with us on this triji. How much more successful it would have been! How much more we would have seen and understood ! Many thoughts went through my mind. Truly he was "a man who IN LOVING MEMORY OF E. J. GLAVE Born London, EngLind September 13th, 1862 Died Underhill, Matadi May 12th, 1895 A man who relishes a task for its bigness ^^i^ and takes to it with a fierce joy '"^ OTANLFV relished a task for its bigness," ours was much smaller, he would have enlarged it. The black mission worker, his broadcloth coat and trousers filled with burrs and grass spears, now in- formed us that we had better start, as it was a long pull against a swift current back to the landing-place. So we returned to the shore. The crew had plugged up some of the worst holes in the whale-boat with wooden pegs and had caulked some of the seams with bits of cloth torn from the stern sheets covering. We 242 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA shoved off. On our way down we had had no real idea of the strength of tlie current, but now we could see that it was running like a mill race. For minutes at a time we remained almost stationary. By hard work we rounded the first point. Above, there was a still greater force to the water and some in-shore rocks set the stream out toward the middle of the river. Just as we caught this eddy, one of the men pulling port stroke jerked his oar out of the rowlock and went over backwards into the lap of the man behind him. The force of the running water almost swept the bow round. Two of the plugs had come out and little streams began to spurt from under the thwarts and from along the keel. We had to do the ba ling now, for we could not spare the man from the oars. Our one idea was to get to shore. As the water gained, the boat became heavier and heavier. Twice we were within ten feet of the shore and were beaten back. As long as we kept th:it distance in we were all right, for if the worst came to the worst and the boat sank, we could still get to safety ; but there was always the chance of being swept out again, and against the current in the centre no swimmer could have fought. Noticing from the ripples that there were some shallows ahead we urged the rowers on, pushing against their oars as they pulled. The water was almost up to our knees when the two bowmen bundled over and held us from drifting back. Again we had to bail the old tub out, and trust ourselves to the GLAVi: S LONELY GRAVE THE LAST ADVENTURE 243 river once more. We were nearly over the worst of it when we noticed a pecuhar phenomenon. The water near the shore and farther out in the river seemed at regular intervals to spout high in the air, as if some huge animal were trying to force its way up stream. It puzzled us for the moment, and then we saw the reason. A mile or so below Matadi a tele- graphic cable stretches across the river, high enough for the masts of the steamships to pass beneath it. It had been all right when we went down, but for some unaccountable reason must have parted within the last hour or so. Now it sagged down into the current and when dragged to its full length would come whipping out as if some gigantic fisherman were trying to make a wheel cast across the wide expanse of water. Had that steel cable caught us when we were floundering in the deeper water we should have capsized to a certainty. We passed un- derneath in safety, and after nearly three houts' work reached the landing-place. I do not think that the old boat will ever make that trip again. Tired and bedraggled we made our way back to the hotel. With all our belongings on board the Anversville we stood looking over the rail the next morning, our adventures and hardships, such as they were, behind us. The last passengers were coming on board. I could not but notice how, in the majority of cases, Africa had stamped its mark on most of their frames and faces. The really healthy-looking man was a rare exception. Many of our fellow voyagers were invalids 244 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA returning home. I noticed a poor woman being helped down the dock ; she had evidently come from the hospital. Her feet were in hospital slippers, and she still wore a hospital dressing sacque, soiled and worn. But from somewhere she had resurrected a frayed picture hat with dangling flowers ; it made her yellow face, in which suffering was plainly marked, much more wan and sickly. She was making a brave front of it; for if the ship's doctor, who was examin- ing all passengers, decided that her case was hopeless or very bad, she would not be allowed to board the steamer. The doctor looked at her critically. She tried to smile, even to laugh, and pushed away the friend's arm which was supporting her. One could see that her fate was hanging in the balance ; but she had friends, had that sick woman, and two now came to her rescue and began to plead her cause. One was a sallow-faced young man with budding mous- tache and soft, flufTy beard just beginning to darken his cheeks and chin. What arguments he used 1 do not know, but eventually the doctor waved them toward the companion-way. Bravely the woman walked up the many steps, and when she reached the deck collapsed and was helped into a steamer chair. She sat there drawing long, painful breaths, but in her eyes and on her lips was a smile of peace and hope ! They have a right to be careful, these ships' doctors. On the voyage previous to the one on which we were embarking, they had dropped eight shotted bundles over the side before the vessel THE LAST ADVENTURE 245 reached the Grand Canaries. On this voyage the engines were stopped and the hells were tolled for two. Not for the youn^ woman, 1 am ^lad to say, for she improved daily, and I saw her j^rcct her friends on the quay at Antwerp. She j^rew younger also, and when the hospital clothes had been replaced by others she used to walk the deck with the youn^ man with the soft beard. She was a widow, I was told, whose husband had died but recently up country. The young man was his friend who had promised to see her back to her people. But the romance I was building ended on the quay, for he was met, in his turn, by a pretty Belgian girl, who threw her arms round his neck and wept her welcome on his shoulder. It is too bad that we can never follow these things out. She may have been his sister, and — but we are dealing with facts, and I am anticipating ; we have not yet cleared the Congo mouth. In Portuguese West Africa, which is just across the river from the little town of Boma, which was our next stopping - place, the blacks had been in revolt since early in March — a war was on, and many refugees had crossed into Belgian territory. From the steamer we could see the smoke of burn- ing shambas and white men's houses and plantations. Twenty-one white men had already been killed in the uprising. We spent a day taking in cargo at the iron wharf, and Kearton and 1 called on the governor at Government Mouse. We were both 246 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA impressed with him, and he struck us as being a strong and able man. "The Congo," said he, "is not what once it was, some people think ; its commercial future is problematical. But look at the new discoveries of gold, and, recently, of diamonds. The attention of America and England is being drawn to its great possibilities, but this dread disease of sleeping sick- ness is our question just at present. It is the one thing that confronts us. Whether the solution will be found in this year or next, it must be the thing before the mind of every official who has the future of the country and the welfare of his people in his trust." What the governor said but echoed the report of every one of the thinking people, both missionaries and officers, whom we have met. I remember that in the days of the so-called Congo atrocities the whole world was stirred and all eyes were centred on the Congo. There were committees of investigation, and vast sums were subscribed in aid of the cause that finally wrought great changes in the lives and destinies of the blacks. Here was a question much greater and more vital. And yet except for the efforts of a few dovoted men of science and some medical missionaries maintaining with difficulty these struggling hospitals, the world hardly knows of the extent of this great scourge. Even should a cure be found the method of its administration over so vast a territory and among so many diflferent tribes would be a problem. The governor got out a map and followed our THE LAST ADVENTURE 247 route witli the greatest interest. His knowleil^e ot the trihes and their eliaracteristics was accurate, and he was able to give us a great deal of information. 1 le spoke of the difficulties of photographing in so damp a climate, and told us a story of a friend of his who had taken many photographs whose heart was almost broken on finding on his return that almost every- thing was spoiled. It made us a little nervous and more anxious than ever to assure ourselves tfiat our reels of film had not suffered the same fate. In the back yard of the house of the American Consul, Mr. McBride, was the famous baobab, the autograph tree of Boma Some ten or twelve feet in diameter, its smooth bark was covered with the names of ships that had visited the station, and of travellers and officers who had gone ashore. Some of these dates were back in the late 'fifties and early 'sixties. Stanley himself is supposed to have carved his name there, on his first visit. Hut as his initials, " H. M. S.," were the usual prefix meaning " Her Majesty's Ship," and as there were quite a number of such, one cannot be certain wdiether the great explorer left a record of his visit. Mr. McBride possessed a most interesting chimpanzee, who, although sometimes very cross, made friends with us. He had a little table and chair at which he used to sit, would |miII the cork out of a bottle of sweetened water, pour the contents into a glass, and was an adept \n the use of knife and fork. With a napkin tied rouiul his neck, he was a most ridiculous figure. His table 248 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA manners were excellent except for a habit of holding the edge of the plate with one of his hind feet. When captured very young these large simians can be taught anything, but as they grow older and their strength increases they become rather dangerous pets, and are liable to sudden and violent fits of temper. We had been told a story up the river of one that had been taught to wait at table and was cele- brated for miles round. He was owned by a man at Thysville. But one day having taken a sudden aver- sion to a white guest, the beast attacked him so fiercely that the man had to be sent to hospital, and from that moment the chimpanzee relapsed into bar- barism and ended his days behind the bars of a cage, refusing even to make friends with the master for whom he had shown so much affection. On the steamer there was quite a menagerie being taken to Antwerp, two little "chimps" among the lot. Strange to say they were the only ones who suffered from sea-sickness, the other monkeys were apparently not disturbed by the motion of the vessel. The lading having been completed, the Anversville proceeded down the river, stopping near the mouth to put off the hundred or so black stevedores that had been gathered at the town of Banana. Rest, regular meals and comfortable quarters began to work miracles before we had been two days out at sea We began to pick up our lost flesh in the most surprising man- ner. The days held warm and clear. The long, low coast of Africa on our starboard hand was visible for THE LAST ADVENTURE 249 most of the journe}' — our thoii^lits were of home. Yet one day we found ourselves talkinjij of some day returning ; we began phinning future trips, and so great is the fascinating hold of the mysterious continent that Kearton decided that in another year or so British East Africa would claim him as a resident. Even those wearied officials going home on furlough spoke of coming back to the Congo As one of them put it tersely : "No matter where you go, no matter what you do, Africa calls you." We went ashore at Dakar, on the Senegal coast, and spent an evening at the little Frenchified African town, but were glad to be back on the steamer again. The days passed quickly, and the next port the steamer touched was La Pollice. It was cold, stormy and rainy when we reached Antwerp. Our voyage was finished, with the exception of the little trip across the Channel. As I looked out of the window of my hotel on the same view of Trafalgar Square on which 1 had gazed some fourteen months before, it seemed all a dream. The weather was exactly the same as when I had left it — cold and rainy — although it was now springtime. The same old man was selling papers at the corner ; the be-medalled porter at the dooi stood in the same place. Despite the sizzling coals in the grate, I felt chilled to the marrow of my bones. I felt the call! I would have given some- 250 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA thing for the sight of the wide stretch of the grey- green plains dotted with thorn trees, the warmth of the spreading sunshine, and the gleaming pinnacle of Kenia rising above the belt of white clouds! Then, again, I thought of the gloom of the forest, of the cold, damp mornings, and of the prospect of the long trudge through the muddy ooze ; of the many painful sights and the sickening villages ; and I was glad to be back safe with it all behind me. Experience is something that one can only buy with experience! CHAPTER XXI SOME NOTES AND FIGURES WHEN Henry M. Stanley emerged at the Congo mouth in August, 1877, he had been nine hundred and ninety-nine days crossing from a point on the shore of the Indian Ocean opposite Zanzibar ; he had travelled, in all, some seven thousand miles ; by many thousand the greatest inland exploring trip of all time. Before he had entered, all on the west coast v^as a mystery beyond the first cataracts that begin but a short distance above Matadi, and although he brought the first light to the world of the vast interior, it was only slowly that the actual facts and figures, the distances, contours, and information of the lives and conditions of the people became known. The geographical knowledge is now so extended as to be almost complete, but the history of the in- habitants will remain to the end the great unwritten volume. Their numbers will never be known ; those authorities who have pretended to investigate, and who have studied all sources of information, vary in their estimates by millions. Not one is lower than fifteen millions, and some of them as high as forty. The general consensus of opinion is that there must be at least thirty million dark-skinned people in scattered 31 251 252 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA tribes and racial divisions, and that there are more different dialects spoken, perhaps, than in all the rest of the world together. It is the land of Babel, for over two hundred separate tongues have been recorded. Dictionaries have been compiled of but five ; the Bible has been translated into but four. The bewilder- ing figures compiled and collated in the libraries of the world, having reference to other continents, cover the records of centuries ; but all figures are new in relation to the Dark Continent, They are none the less bewildering, however, despite the fact that the harvest of facts and information is just beginning to be garnered, Stanley travelled over seven thousand miles, and a great portion of it on foot. Yet in the great Congo basin there are over twelve thousand miles of navi- gable river waters. Up and down all these highways the white man has gone ; but vast tracts of land that lie between the giant streams and tributaries to the main artery are unexplored to-day. In the basin proper, that is, roughly speaking, one million five hundred thousand square miles, all the whites taken together would not make up tlie population of a New England village ; should they be called to their colours, not a civilised nation in the world would be unrepresented. I kept a notebook of the nationalities of the people whom we met in the Congo Beige alone, and they footed up to twenty-two. Hailing Belgium as the mother country — for since October, 1908, the old SOME NOTES AND FIGURES 253 Congo Free State has become a colony of Helgiuni — the Belgians represent but little over one half of the population. Let us look at the make-up of the rest of this \'anguard of civilisation, this army of adven- turers. Where have they come from ? Great Britain is well represented by over six Inmdred. Every one of her larger colonies has sent its small coniingcnt. The United States is there, in constantly increasing numbers; and the rest? Let us look at the names of the countries they call their fatherlands : Germany, France, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Russia, Austria, Canada, Italy, Turkey, Switzerlantl, Greece, Finland, India, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania: "From all the red - mapped lands they come." What have they brought out ? Who knows ? Some have succeeded, but many of them have failed in their ventures, many have never returned; they will con- tinue to fail, they will continue to find their graves there. The land with whose destinies they have thrown in their lot has been called by one writer "The Coming Continent." "Coming" it may be, but this generation will pass away and its sons may be old incn before the great land has "arrived." Poor little Bel- gium, when she took upon herself to join the ranks of the great landed estate holders assumed, with the title, obligations that must now be disheaitening. The handsome blue Hag with the golden star is her guerdon of responsibility. Never yet has the venture paid. The lowest deficit in her colonial year-book has been 254 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA approximately £1,250,000, the highest three or tour times this. What is to be done ? At the present moment no one is so wise, no one is so far-seeing as to prophesy. The government under the old Free State, which was really but an international association, was first recognised as a great power by the United States of America in a convention signed on the 22nd of April, 1884. Thence onwards it was nothing but a history of a series of mismanagement and perversion of power. Stanley who had lifted the veil and was the best qualified to judge of the needs and requirements of native government, and who had a personal loyalty to Leopold II., wrote in 1896 of the policy then in force, that it was "erring and ignorant"; he said that to go back to the Congo "would be to disturb a moral malaria injurious to the reorganiser." It was indeed, a black page, until the so-called Free Estates became a Belgian colony and the concession com- panies were made to regard the laws not only of trade, but of humanity. So many times I have referred to Stanley and the Emin Pasha expedition in the pages that deal with our route of march after leaving Uganda that I have assumed, apparently, a knowledge on the part of the reader of that most wonderful book which tells ot a triumph over hardships, the victory over disheartening circumstances. I refer to Stanley's " In Darkest Africa," a book that has been translated into no fewer than six languages. A particular reference has SOME NOTES AND FIGURES 255 been made in more than one case to places and persons mentioned in this wonderful story. Perhaps in a chapter given to notes and figures, a short n'sume of this expedition might not be amiss. Emin Pasha, a German subject and a man of much learning and education, although of humble origin, had taken up service under the Khedive of Kgv|)t. The Mahdist uprising in 1881-85 had left him cut ofi from the world in the equatorial province of Egypt of which he was then governor. Stanley had become deeply interested in the ideas and schemes of William Mac- kinnon, chairman of the British India Steam Navigation Company, who had long proposed a plan for establish- ing a British protectorate in East Equatorial Africa. It was believed that this object could be furthered by an expedition that was nominally for the relief of Emin Pasha. Stanley, after some negotiations, agreed to head a certain expedition that, although it was English in backing and composition, was placed at the service of the Khedive and carried the ffag with the crescent moon. The English committee in charge, of which Mr. Mackinnon (afterwards Sir William), was chairman, supj^lied the major j^ortion of the funds, although Egypt was a stockholder, so to speak. Stanley, as chief, accompanied by four or five volun- teer Englishmen, carefully selected from a long list of applicants, left Europe in January, 18S7. Instead of choosing the direct route by Zanzibar or Mombasa, Stanley decided to go by way of the Congo. He hoped thus to assist in solving some of the difiiculties 256 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA of the Congo State, then in its infancy and having great difficulties with the Zanzibar Arabs estabHshed on the centre and upper portions of the great river. At Zanzibar Stanley entered into an agreement with Tippu Tib, the chief of the Congo Arabs, and whether he erred in judgment or not, he appointed him governor of Stanley Falls Station on behalf of the Congo State. He had been armed with powers to treat from no less a person than King Leopold himself. He contracted with this wily old Arab for a supply of carriers and porters for the expedition, who were to meet him at the mouth of the Aruwimi River where it joined the Congo. With most of the expedition, and accompanied by Tippu Tib and his personal staff, Stanley went by steamer round the Cape of Good Hope to the Congo mouth. Above the cataracts, steamers and boats were procured with great difficulty, but on the 30th of May the station of Bangala was reached and Tippu Tib went on to Stanley Falls, while the great white leader prepared for the journey to Albert Nyanza where he expected to meet Emin. On the 15th of June Yambuya, on the lower Aruwimi, was reached, and here Stanley left his rear- guard under command of Major E. M. Barttelot and Mr. J. S. Jameson. On the 28th Stanley and the advance guard started for Albert Nyanza, "and until the 5th of December, for 160 days, we marched through the forest, bush and jungle, without ever having seen a bit of greensward of the size of a cottage chamber floor. Nothing but miles and miles, SOME NOTES AND FIGURES 257 endless miles of forest." StaiAation, fever, the lios- tilitv of tlie tribes were daily iiuiclents of this terrible march, during which Stanley lost nearly hfty per cent, of his men. On the \'Mh of December Albert Nvanza was reached, and, after some delay, communication was opened with Emin, who came down the lake from the Nile in a steamer, the two chiefs meeliiis^ on the 29th of April, 1888. Disquieted by the non- arrival of his rearguard, Stanley all alone retraced his steps, and on the 17th of August, a short distance above Yambuya, found that Tippu Tib had broken faith, that Barttelot had been murdered, that Jameson (who died afterwards of fever) was absent at Stanley Falls, and that only one European, William Bonny, was left in the camp. Collecting those of the rear- guard who survived, Stanley for the third time traversed the primeval forest towards Fort Bodo, his head-quarters in the Ituri forest, and in January, 1889, all tiiat was left of the expedition was assembled at Albert Nyanza. Of 646 men with wdiom he entered the Congo, but 246 remained. In April the return journey to Zan- zibar by way of Uganda was begun, Emin reluctantly accompanying Stanley. On this homeward journey Stanley discovered Rewenzori (the Mountains of the Moon), traced the course of the Semliki River, dis- covered Albert Edward Nyanza and the great south- western gulf of Victoria Nyanza. During his stay in the Congo forests he had also obtained much informa- tion concerning the mbiUi, or pygmy tribes. As to the political results of the expedition, Stanley's pro- 258 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA posals to Emin to hold the Equatorial Province for the Congo State or to move nearer Victoria Nyanza and enter the service of Mackinnon's British East Africa Company had not been accepted, but he con- cluded agreements with various chiefs in the lake regions in favour of Great Britain, agreements which were handed over to the East Africa Company. On the 6th of December, 1889, Zanzibar was reached and the expedition was at an end. Stanley, better than anyone, has portrayed the hard- ships and difficulties of the forest. It was certainly a greater trial of courage and endurance in his day, for he was travelling as an explorer through a new country, and he had to fight and battle his way along from one resting-place to another, a drawback that the wise traveller nowadays avoids by keeping away from the very bad country or treating generously with the native chiefs who, I can promise you, get all they can and much more than they deserve. Let us see how the forest afifected another modern traveller who went through this same region. The Duke of Mecklenburg, in his book, "In the Heart of Africa," pays tribute to the great green dungeon: " This darksome forest, indeed, with its storms and rains, famine, disease and deadly attacks, nearly proved fatal to the whole caravan, and reduced it to a condition of utter desperation and madness. The first patch of green grass appeared to us a token and promise, as the olive branch in the mouth of the dove did to Noah of old. ON STANLEYS ROUTE THROUGH THE JUNGLE SOME NOTES AND FIGURES 25Q " Wc were travelling alonj^ jiatlis wliicli had already been made; we knew in advance wlure we should lay our heads to rest from day to day ; we weie well siipphed with stores ; we journeyed more comfortably here than we did at first in the steppe country, or in the volcanic region, and yet wc experienced that oppressiveness which is always felt in this gigantic forest. The conditions of travelling were different ; the forest remained the same in its immeasurable and inexorable lonesomeness." Further on this writer says: "I believe a long stay in this forest would lead to heavy mental depres- sion in sensitive men. The unutterable feeling of oppression which makes itself felt in the course of time lies in the absence of any free view^ the im- possibility of permitting the eye to rove freely across a wide space, or of once catching a glimpse of sky and earth merging in the far horizon." We can subscribe to this. I have remarked before how conversation languished ; one felt no more like laughing and joking than one does in the dusk of evening in the damp gloom of the unlighted nave of some cathedral. Our voices, when we did talk, were subdued ; our spirits sunk to zero. So the pleasant part of our recollections lives with the sunlit countries, they will return many times as pleasant dreams. One does not care of one's own accord to be uncomfort- able, or to dwell too much even on the lesser night- mares of the past. Let the forest rest. We shall not disturb its solitudes. CHAPTER XXTI RETROSPECT THE Scribe, as he reviews these pages, feels some- what apologetic. A book on Africa is expected to deal with hunting and shooting exploits, or to contain profound scientific data relative to the fauna and flora, or people of the country through which the travellers passed. Of the making of such African travel books, however, "there is no end." Ours was neither a hunting nor a scientific expedition in the ordinary sense of those terms. The results of our hunting are shown in the photographic illustrations to our book: our adventures, such as they were, were relative almost entirely to that quest for materials for camera operation. Had a dozen other books cover- ing the same ground and following the same route been illustrated by photographic reproductions in the generous manner that the publishers have seen fit to embellish this volume, there would have been nothing to say, the last word would have been spoken. The small effort — for labour it should scarcely be called — of writing these pages and compiling the vokmie, has been interrupted and the publication delayed for a season. Both the Photographer and the Scribe, since returning, have visited much more 260 RETROSPECT 261 dangerous places than when the}^ were crossinj]^ from coast to coast of Africa. The Photoj^jrajihcr has taken pictures of giuis in action and ol huislinjr shells, and the Scribe has seen the smoke risinjj; oxer the blackened villaji^es of Belgium; has watched tiic gre3'-green lines of the German troops marching out to kill the little blue-clad men in the heavy overcoats; has seen the helpless bundles of grey and blue lying motionless on the sunny slopes and meadows of what was the most happy and peaceful little country in the world. And down there in the Congo white men are fighting white men, and the black soldiers who arc employed to fight anyone whom they are called ujion to fight, are slaying each other joyfully. No steamers run from Antw^erp to the Congo now , no mail from home reaches the men on the up-river stations. Central Africa is cut of^ from the worhi in a way that it has not been for years. And what is to be the fate of this country? Was it with the gift of prophecy that months ago, long before war was ever thought of, at least by England, France and Belgium, the Scribe wrote as follows : — " Curiously enough, there are rumours spreading among the natives, especially in the Eastern districts, that the conduct of affairs will soon pass out of the hands of their present masters. ''There is Germany with a line of railways from the south-east to Tanganyka ; there is England with a railway from the coast, and a steamer line to the 262 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA western shore of Lake Victoria Nyanza ; thence to the Congo border stretches a great m'litary road now ahnost completed ; France, and Germany again in the Kamerun, lies to the north and east, and if the lure is strong enough, who knows ? Politics at the present moment may be stirring, complications may arise and war clouds may gather. All presages toward the passing of the Congo Beige." Since the company failed, it has been nothing but a well into which Belgium has poured millions of money. The great war that may change the map of Europe may change that of Africa also ; but political changes, the altering of boundary lines, can never change Africa into anything but a task for the white man. This land of contradictions, of puzzling freaks of nature, of dank, gloomy forests where the ground is never dry, of billowing sandy deserts, of grassy upland plains, of disappearing rivers and vanishing lakes, of active volcanoes and icy pinnacles, will re- main as alluring and inscrutable as ever. I remember one of my boys, Marengo, saying, with no query in his tone, when we parted : " B'wana, u tarudi hapa, ne taona uwe." (" Master, you will come here again. I will see you.") Perhaps he spoke the truth. Many time when feel- ing the oppression and depression of brick-and-mortar walls, the gloom of the narrow streets and the deaf- ening roar of traffic, I have longed for the open spaces. 1 call back to my mind's eye just one spot to which, were I Aladdin, I would go this instant. It is to the Valley RETROSPECT 263 of the Twin Peaks up towards the Uasliii Neru. The grass is green from the recent rains ; it slopes gently down to the river bank ; thorn trees, wliose brandies stretch out so evenly that from a distance they look like great green mushrooms, rise to the right ; along the river bank flourishes the great Dom jialms At the end of the valley one sees the peaks, so exactly alike in their contour that it appears that they were made from the same mould. They look to be only some six or eight miles off, but they are nearer forty, so clear is the air. Quite near stands a female giraffe with her little one; he is frolicking about, kicking his long ungainly legs like a colt in the pasture. A troop of oryx is coming down the valley headed for the water ; with their long horns gleaming in the sunlight, they look like a squadron of cavalry with drawn sabres. A herd of zebra stands about under the thorn trees, and by himself, firm on his short stumpy legs, is an old rhino fast asleep ; he has not moved for an hour. The tick birds running up and down his sides do not seem to disturb him in the least. Walk down into the valley. The animals will not run from you. For a wager, if you studied the wind and used great caution, you could go up to that sleep- ing survival of things that lived l:)elore the Flood and slap him with your hat. I wouldn't advise you to try to hang it on the top of his ugly-looking horn ; in fact, I wouldn't advise you even to slap him but you could. Pd like to see this place and this sight again. Pd like to have once more the experience that 264 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA I had one morning down near the Tana river: There was a herd of kongoni, a few wildebeeste and zebra among them and some Httle Thomson's gazelles. I tried an experiment. Where game has not been shot at they seem by some peculiar divination to know whether your errand is a bloodthirsty or a peaceful one. If you walk steadily on, paying no attention to them, they will lift their heads, look at you, and go on with their feeding. Stop an instant and they be- come suspicious. I walked towards that herd of mixed game slantingly, so to speak, never facing them directly, never turning my head, only watching them sideways. I do not know whether any hunter or sportsman had this experience before, but I actually got amongst them ; suiting my pace to theirs, I drifted along with some of the animals not more than thirty or forty yards away — not one started to run. I longed for a camera, but I am afraid that if I had made any unnatural movements they would have been off. Two or three days after, in just the same country, it was necessary to shoot to get some meat for the camp. I could not get within two hundred and fifty yards of anything that possessed horns or hoofs ; they seemed to know my intention. Most of the gazelles and ante- lopes are capable of being tamed or domesticated. The eland, the largest of the antelope, has been broken to harness. I was told that there was a white settler who had two that would draw a light plough. Near the hill of Donaysapuk, at the edge of the Athi Plains, there is a small herd of roan antelope that F i ORYX AND IMPALLA SEARCHING FOR WATER 32 A HERD OK ORYX WITH SOME RECORD HEADS RETROSPECT 265 have been thoroii^jjlily protected, and rdthoii^li there has been nuieh shooting in the neiu^hboiii hood and they are naturally among the most timid ol animals — they seem to know that they are exemjn, (or, appar- ently, they have little fear of man. 1 ha\e never heard of any attempt in Africa to domesticate the buffalo, but I remember at Kampala there was a young cow buffalo that ha.l joined a herd of cattle and went into the kraal with them at night. That nothing practical can be maJe of the zebra is most strange ; they are immme from the fiy and from many diseases that inflict both mules and horses, and although they scamper and run in the roughest and most stony places, seldom is one found whose hoofs are not in the finest condition. Ihey have been trained both to harness and saddle, but they break down very easily and have no spirit, so, at least, I was told by a man who made the experiment. The time when I longed for a camera was paralleled by one case where I did not have my rille ; my gun- bearer was with me with only a shot gun. There were some guinea-fowl in the bushes near camp ; I was gunning for the evening meal. We had not gone far; in fact, we were close enough to heai- the voices of the boys who were bringing in firewood. Suddenly I looked up astonished ; there about sixty yards oft stood that most desired of all trophies — a fine male koodoo, the tips of his spiral horns shining like ivory. From force of habit John thrust the shot gun into my hands ; he might as well have given 266 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA me a pea-shooter. That magnificent head fascinated me. I coufd not take my eyes oflf it. For fully twenty seconds that koodoo and I stood looking at each other, then with a snort and a bound he was ofT, and I never saw him or his like again. It is one of the chance encounters in which " the land of footprints" abounds! I was told a story while in Nairobi, of a lady walking down to the gate of her garden in the evening and seeing what she thought to be her hus- band's big setter dog lying in the flower bed. She stopped and whistled to him, and suddenly to her astonishment a large leopard took the place of the supposed dog and stood there watching her, not ten feet away. She said it seemed to be hours that they stood there, then the leopard turned and in a bound cleared the hedge. The lady walked into the kitchen, locked the door, and then does not remember any- thing until she came to, with her back against the kitchen range, which fortunately had no lire in it. That very night the child of one of the negro servants of a neighbour was taken. Whether this is the same leopard that became so celebrated that the govern- ment and the settlers finally offered the prize of one hundred pounds for him, "taken dead or alive," could not be stated, but the story of this last- mentioned beast is a most remarkable one, and it was told to me by the man who finally got him, and as the Photo- grapher properly comes in, too, I will tell it here. Mr. Harris, the manager of the Kamiti estate, had COMMON ZEBRA ORYX AWU ZkCKA i.TAMi'l.-.Di:;U RETROSPECT 267 invited Kearton to pay him a visit ; the quarters assigned liiin were a Httle separate house or cabin of one room. It was one of a large number of out- buildings surrounding a larger dwelling. During the evening Harris had told of the depredations of a very large leopard that had taken no fewer than eight of the best imported English hogs out of a pen with a fence twelve feet high, over which it had managed to scramble and haul its heavy booty. The native vil- lages in the immediate vicinity had lost twenty-six children taken presumably by this same beast. He was absolutely fearless, and although he had exposed himself in a reckless way, he had never been shot at. He seemed by instinct to avoid all the traps that had been set for him, and he always succeeded in getting ofi with the bait. For over a year that leopard had terrorised the neighbourhood. One day he had been tracked and held up by a pack of ten large dogs ; out of the lot but three escaped, the rest were killed or had to be shot on account of the severity of their wounds. Kearton had reached his little house that evening and was just entering when in the light coming from the window he saw the leopard. He was inside the door and closed it behind him before he knew how he got there. The leopard sprang to the tin roof and was on it for a good part of the night, evidently watching the door. A few days later he performed his most astonishing bit of iminidence. Mr. Harris and Mr. Heatley and two other gentlemen were drinking tea on the veranda of the big house. 268 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA A fox-terrier lay asleep under the table. It was not dark, only approaching dusk. Suddenly the fox-terrier gave a growl. The gentlemen looked up just in time to see, only a few yards off, the form of the big leopard coming like an arrow shot out of a bow ; he took the dog from under the table, jumped almost across one of the men who were sitting in the chairs, and disappeared in the shrubbery. In telling this part of the story Harris remarked, "There are four wit- nesses to that; I'd hardly dare to go it alone." Poor Fritz Schindler, who was fatally mauled by a lion a year or so ago, had an adventure with this same leopard. Three children had been taken in one week from a little cluster of a dozen or so huts. The animal would come right through the wall of one of these flimsy dwellings, pick up a child and go off. He generally seemed to choose those that were under eight years. Schindler moved out in order to try and get him; he knew the headman and was quite a friend of his. Of course, fires were kept burning all night; the leopard did not seem to mind them in the least. Although he intended to keep awake, Fritz must have fallen asleep ; he was awakened by a great outcry. The headman, with a couple of distracted women, rushed into the hut that Fritz was occupying. The leopard had taken another, a little child of three, and the son of the headman himself! Fritz got his rifle, and with men and torches and spears, went down to where the leopard had jumped over a low wall and had entered the bushes. They could hear the child's RETROSPECT 269 cries very plainly. He evidently was not badlv liint, and the leopard was carryin^j him in his mouth. It was a very dark night and the hush very thick. Half a dozen times the leopard with the shriek ingj infant allowed them to come within a dozen yards ot him before he moved on, hut he never put the child down. At last the child's cries ceased, and they had no way of locating the animal at all. Daylight came and they found one of the poor little victim's hands on the opposite side of the road — a very well travelled high- way. The leopard had simply walked round the village and had never gone more than a hundred yards away. The reward the government had offered was now in- creased by private persons to the amount of a hundred pounds. Traps had been set all over the place, some- times they were found sprung with nothing in them. Harris had built a very strong box trap which he had lined with sheet iron ; it had an iron door that dropped down behind any beast that entered. The bait at the end of the long box was a young pig. What was Harris's joy to find that the very first night he had made his capture — the leopard was inside. Contrary to expectation it was not very old, but was in the prime of condition, and very large and heavy. I be- lieve his skin was afterwards mounted by Mr. Rowland Ward, of London. At this point in his story Mr. Harris observed, "1 know what you are going to ask me. 'Did I get the reward?' I did not. They said I'd have to prove that this was the leopard that took all the children, which was a hard thing to do. But 270 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA whether it was the villain himself or not, the killings all stopped, and there have been no man-eaters since in this neighbourhood." When one takes into account that human prey is the easiest that a lion or a leopard can take, it is wonderful that there are not more man-eaters or children-eaters, for the trails between the villages are filled with perfectly helpless and unarmed people all day long. Up in the Samburra country, where the lions were plentiful, we have seen flocks and herds tended by women and many children apparently un- afraid. But once let a lion or lioness or leopard taste human flesh and it becomes a confirmed killer; and if it is old and its teeth worn it will touch nothing else. The same is told of the Indian tiger and the jaguar of South America. They generally fall to the experienced hunter's rifle, for they cease their roaming and confine their crimes to one neigh- bourhood. Although both lion and leopard are less often met with, and undoubtedly more have been killed in British East Africa in the last five years than have been killed in all the years before, it will be a long time before they disappear completely, unless poisoning is resorted to on the game reserves. Still, Africa would not be the same if it were not for the thrill one gets at night when lying in one's tent or seated round a roaring camp fire, when the stillness is broken and out of the dark comes that magnificent voice shouting its challenge to the world. The RETROSPECT 271 hyena's wailing howl, weird and discordant, coin^eys no thrill ; the grunt of a hunting leopard holds some threat of danger, but only the lion can stir the pulses. The shout of "Siniba! Siinha!" to the hunter is the most exciting call. I would hate to go hack to the hunting grounds were the lion left out of the reckon- ing. It would not be the same land at all, e\en though my adventures with him hav^e been few and far between. Oh, the sensation of that leg-weariness ; that cer- tainty of almost dreamless sleep. After a hard day through the forest, I remember looking across the river at a new clearing and the house where we were going to rest for the night. We had gone through a drenching rain, and as we came to the river bank the sun had come through the clouds ; those thatched huts looked like palaces. Our one idea of happiness was to be dry and warm and under cover. Every day was a voyage ; every resting-place was a harbour made. Do not interlard a book of travel with too much advice is a good motto for the sportsman or photo- grapher who "takes pen in hand"; yet one could not have covered so many miles in so many months, as did the Photographer and the Scribe, without picking up a little knowledge that might be useful. There are some do's and some dont's that might well fit in the last words of the chapter of a retrospect ; somehow, most naturally, dont's come first, for that is the way advice is generally given. And lirst and foremost 1 would say, don't try to do it on the cheap. 272 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA One need not go in so luxurious a fashion that is will discount that of civilisation, but don't try to rough it in the way one can on the western plains or in the woods of Canada. It cannot be done in Africa. For a white man, it is necessary to live as much of a white man's normal life as possible. He must keep dry, warm, clean, and well fed. He must be protected from that fierce equatorial sun in the v/ay that is not necessary on the plains of Arizona or Texas. He cannot expose himself recklessly in any way and expect to live. So don't ever be without a good supply of tinned things if you can get them, of good wheat flour, condensed milk and butter, jams, dried fruit and sauces. Don't buy a second-hand tent unless you have had it passed by an expert. Don't fail to wear an abdominal belt, and in the open country if you are to be out between ten in the morning and four in the afternoon, never leave your red flannel spine pad behind. The sun's rays have a bad effect on the white man's marrow. Get the best and most expensive pith helmet, and see that it is lined with red also. Don't try to shoot in a Stetson or a wideawake ; you'll come to grief some day and end in the hospital. Don't fail to take a warm bath (never take a cold one if you can help it) as soon as you come in from your day's work. Change all your clothes, and have your boy examine your feet — it is part of a good boy's business — for you may harbour a chigger for several days without knowing it, until the sudden consequences are painful if not RETROSPECT 273 disastrous. These arc little parasites that work in from the ground even through the hoots, and hurrow under the nails. Don't, when you are in the lly and niosciiiito country, fail to sleep under the net at night. Don't fail to have 3'our drinking water hoiled, and, if i)os- sible, filtered. Don't let your cook have the run of the chop boxes; deal out to him, yourself, what is necessary for his kitchen. Don't drink too much tea or coffee, and of strong liquors, little, if any, and never before sundown. Go to bed early and sleep warm. The boys will see to it that you are up with the siui, and one requires a lot of sleep on the Equator. If you adhere to these rules you will keep well, anti probably not need even those simple remedies which, of course, you can buy all neatly packed in a tropical medicine chest. And now for a few "(/o's." If you are shooting get as close as you can, so that there will be little excuse for not putting down your game. More animals are maimed and wounded in three months by people taking long and risky shots than are killed clean and outright in a year. Besides in these long shots, a few of which (julv come off, the fun of stalking is lost. In Africa any stumbhng blockhead can get within five or six hundred yards of game, even in a well-shot country. It takes a hunter and a sportsman to get within a hundred and thirty, and if you can get closer, do so. As to a battery, you want one good repeating rille, one express, and a shot gun. I, myself, used a Ross rifle and found it the best weapon I've ever put to my 274 THROUGH CENTRAL AFRICA shoulder. Its flat trajectory and hard-hitting power make it absolutely deadly on all game but elephants, rhino and hippo. With a new sporting bullet it will stop any lion or put down even the largest of the antelopes to a surety. The 450 Express will knock down anything. There is no necessity for carrying any heavier calibre. I carried also a Mannlicher carbine for smill game. But there are so many good rifles in the market that it is a matter of taste. Ammunition of all kinds and character can be purchased at Nairobi. Take a good camera with you and learn how to use it, it is more productive of pleasure in after years than anything else. With regard to cameras, they, too, like rifles, are a great deal a matter of taste. A good lens is, of course, a sine qua non. If moving pictures are the objective, one thing is necessary, that is to take plenty of film, for it is impossible to get it out there. In picking a gun-bearer get one who has gone out with a real sportsman and not the average armed tourist. Impress upon him exactly what you want him to do and have done, and keep him up to the mark. Don't fail to get a good fundi or skinner; many trophies are lost through careless work. So far as the safari goes try to get interested in your men and get them interested in you. Things will work twice as easy. In choosing a headman find somebody with whom he has served, if it is possible, and dis- cuss his points. In taking a white hunter, if you have to take one, ask all the questions about him RETROSPECT 275 that 5-^011 can, and see as nuicli as you can of liiin yourself before you start. No matter what liappcns, keep your temper in Africa. Somebody lias spoken of the country as "the grave of reputations"; there is not the least doubt of it. Many have failed here who have succeeded elsewhere. But it is a mausoleum of sweet dispositions. In all this I am speaking of ihc high jilateaus, of the country of grass and hill and sunshine, and of this I have only one more thing to say. Go there if you get the chance; you'll never regret it. From the country of the sickness, of the fly, of the dirt and disease, of the dank solitudes, choking downpours and starvation keep away. As the Scribe remarked in the preface, and the Photographer will back him up, ''We are very glad we went, but there are certain portions of the journey that we would not care to do again." INDEX ABADARES. IO, II Acacia, 46, 103 Adder, puff, 174 Africa, British East, youth of, 72 Central, climatic effects on health, 138; forests of, 127; paucity of food supplies in, 106 ; " sleeping sickness " in, 209 ; tribes of, suffer havoc, 169 East, black rhinoceros of, 71 ; lions scarce in, 68 ; wild beast scour L;e in, 66 hints to travellers in, 271-5 nationalities in, 253 Portuguese West, native revolt in,245 South, and civilisation, 56 the land of maladies, 55 Albert Edward Nyanza, 104, 257 Albert Nyanza, 256, 257 Albino, 233, 234 Amoma, 175 Animal life, changes in, 15 Animals, curiosity and caution in wild, 24 drinking habits of wild, 27 water-holes of, 26, 27 wild, methods of killing, 66 Ant, 107, 109, 173 Antelope, almost extinct, 56 cob, 103 protected herd of, 264 roan, 65 Anversville, the, 243, 248 Arab influence in Africa, 82, 169 Arabs, Stanley's troubles with Zanzi bar, 256 33 ^77 Archer's Post, 16 Aruwimi, The, 170, 196, igS, 209, 212, 221, 256 Athi Plains, 264 River, 65 Avakubi, 176, 178, 182, 187, 189, 190, 191. 193 Babira, 128 Baboon, 15, 25, 27, 38 Baboons, elephant warned by, 28 habits of, 29 et seq. Bagualipa, 197 Bahema, 125, 126 Bambamga, 204 Banalia, 198, 209, 210, 211 Banana, 133, 176, 249 Bangala, 256 Baobab, 247 Barttelot, Major E- M., 210, 256, 257 Barumba, 197, 221 Barunda, 217 Basoko, xviii, 170, 187, 192, 197, 212, 216, 218 Bassobanzi, 193 Batwa, 22 Bebengo, 204 Bee, African, 60, 146 -eater, 173 honey-, 174 Beetles, 173 camp infested by, 26 Belgian Government, 57 Bengamisa, 198, 211 Boga, 1 1 1 Boma, 245, 247 278 INDEX Bomtli, 190, IQ2, 196, 197, 198, 200 Bonny, William, 257 Boyes, Mr. John, 59, 60 British East Africa and civilisation 56 and self-government, 73 lion and leopard in, 270 British East African Company, 258 Buffalo, 21, 51, 59, 61, 65, 71, 103, 224 forest, 177 non-domestication of, 264-5 rinderpest causes mortality among, 55 spoor of, 16 Bufuaiabo, 204 Buganda, 79, 83, 93 Bumbua, 207 Burchall's zebra, 15 Bushbuck, 9 Bushman, 22 Bustard, greater, 9 lesser, 9 Butterflies, 173, 174 Cacagua, 95 Campi na Bulongo, 178 Campi na Mambuti, 177, 178 Camwood, 177 Cannibalism, 128, 156 Cedar, 51 Centipedes, 173 Chanler Falls, 19 Chapin, Mr., 188, 189, 191 Cheetah, 9 Chimpanzee, 247 Christy, Dr., 181. 188 Cicatrisation, 127, 200 Civilisation, rhinoceros the enemy of, the ages and, 73 Claydon, Mr., 17, 18, 45 Clement Hill, the, 81 Coffee, 56, 84 Coke's hartebeeste, 9 Congo Beige, 128, 149; atrocities in the, 246; condition of, 212; nation- alities represented in, 252; passing of, 261-2; quarantine regulations on frontier of, 115; sleeping sick- ness in, 213, 246 Free State, 253; Stanley on, 258; Stanley in, 256 Oriental Company, 138, 139 River, 170, 216, 218, 221, 232, 235, 251, 252, 255, 256 Convolvuli, 175 Cook, the brothers, 88, 93 Cooks' sanatorium and hospital, 94 Coot, 99 Copal, 177 Cormorant, 99 Cotton, 84 Crane, crested, 104 Crocodile, 104, 105, 173, 232 Dabchick, 99 Dakar, 249 Dance, native, 91, 169, 170 Daudi, Kabaka of Uganda, 88 et seq. Deakes, Mr., 94 Delporte, M., 138, 139, 141, 167 Diamonds, 246 Dik-dik, 20, 21 Ditty bag, 53 Diver, 232 Djapanda, 178 Dogs, lions killed by, 66 Donaysapuk, 65, 70, 264 Dove, 41 Drum message, 20i, 202, 214, 215, 217 Duck, 173 B EAGtE, 99 fi.sh, 173 Ebony, 177 Edward Nyanza, Lake, 104 INDEX 279 Eland, 15, 65 broken to harness, 264 Elephant, xvii, 10, 21, 25, 26, 27, 95, 97, 98, 105, 106. 107, 108, III, 122, 123. 138, 148, 149, 152, 158, 159, 164, 177 drinking habits of the, 27 Eniin Pasha, 137, 254, 255, 256, 257, 258 Endesis, 177, 196 Enge, M., 218 Entebbe, 81, 82. 85, 86, 87 Epulu, River, 178 Equatoria, 217, 224 Etito River, 178 Euphorbia, 46, 103 Fai,con, 42 Fern, tree, 177 Finch, 173 Flamingoes, 10 Forest, African, 133 et seq., 174. 258 Fort Bodo, 257 Hall, 3 Portal, 95 Fourminiere Company, 131, 180 French Government, 57 Fundi Kitima, 178 Fungi, 175 Gazelle, 15, 21, 27. 56, 65 almost extinct, 56 tameability of, 264 Thomson's, 263 Geese, 10, 42, 99 Egyptian, 10 George, Lake, 97 Gerenuk, 20, 21, 27 Gil-Gil, 3. 7 Giraffe, 15, 16, 21, 27, 37, 263 drinking habits of the, 27 Glave, Mr. E. J.. 223, 224, 225. 226, 230. 237, 240, 241 Gold, 246 Gohl Coast, 236 Goose, 1 7 3 Gordon, Mr. Cyril, 94 Granti, 9 Great Divide, 80 Grebe, 99, 232 Grt'vy zebra, i;;, 21, 25, 27, 32 drinking habits of the, 32 Grouse sand, 41 Guinea fowl, horned, 41 Gurliug, Dr., 230 H Harris, Mr., and man-eating leopard, 266, 269 Hartebeeste, 65 Coke's, 9 Jackson's, 9 Haut Ituri, The, 103, 128, 129, 138, 148, 187 Hawk, 41 Heatley, Mr., 267 Heron, 10, 104, 173 the cow, 63, 64 Hide-ups, and animals, 25 Hippopotamus, 10, 99, 183, 23a Honey bee, 174 Hornbill, 99, 173, 225 Hornet, 174 Horses, scarcity of, in Uganda, 84 Hunting and fatality, 65 civili.sation and, 56 the opportunity in, 24 Hurricane, African, 119 ei seq. Hyena, 9, 15. 46, 47. 52. 270 Ibis, 173 Impalla, 20, 21, 27, 32, 35, 36 drinking habits of, 32 lion ignored by, 36 " In Darkest Africa," xvii. 7, 254 " In the Heart of Africa," by the Duke of Mecklenburg, 258 28o INDEX Insect life of African forest, 174 Irumu, loi, 104, 105, III, 124, 128, 129, 130, 131, 138, 179, 180, 229 Iruwimi, The, 183 Ituri, The, 127, 137, 151, 183, 185, 193