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 THE 
 
 AFRICAN SKETCH-BOOK 
 
 Vol. L
 
 THE 
 
 AFRICAN SKETCH-BOOK 
 
 BY 
 
 WINWOOD READE 
 
 WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 
 Vol. L 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 51 WATERLOO PLACE 
 
 1873 
 
 All rights reserved
 
 DT 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 This work contains a brief recapitulation of my pre- 
 viously published travels in Equatorial Africa, Angola, 
 and Senegambia during 1862 and a part of 1863 ; 
 essays on the slave trade, African exploration, and 
 the progress of Islam in Negroland ; several tales in- 
 tended to illustrate the manners and customs of the 
 natives ; and, finally, my recent travels. 
 
 In 1868 I visited Africa a second time, spent some 
 months on the Gold Coast and Slave Coast, and then 
 made a ten months' exploring journey from Sierra 
 Leone, opening a new country and obtaining im- 
 portant geographical results. I also made two trips 
 to the backwoods of Liberia, which is almost un- 
 written ground, and carefully studied the Negro 
 Republic. I returned home in 1870, having passed 
 two years on the coast or in the interior, indus- 
 triously working, with my note-book always in my 
 
 653228
 
 vi PREFA CE 
 
 hand, and engaged in no other pursuit but that of 
 collecting information. If, therefore, I have introduced 
 the tales, essays, and restnne of previous travels, men- 
 tioned above, it has not been from want of material, 
 but from a desire to render this work comprehensive 
 and complete. It is not only a narrative of travel I 
 offer to the public, but a sketch-book of African life ; 
 and though the texture of the work is light, the labour 
 bestowed upon it has been immense. Since my return 
 from the coast, in 1863, I have never ceased to study 
 African literature ; and, setting aside my three years' 
 travels in that country, I have devoted to the perusal 
 of African books as much time and toil as most men 
 devote to the study of a profession. If all the extracts 
 I have made with a view to this work were to be 
 printed, they would equal in bulk the common-place 
 book of Buckle, recently published. I enter into these 
 personal details, as readers are apt to suppose that if a 
 book of this kind is light it cannot be solid ; and I 
 therefore give these facts as my credentials. Eleven 
 years I have studied Africa : three years from the life 
 and eight years from books. 
 
 The tales contain much material drawn both from 
 books and from life, but are otherwise entirely ficti-
 
 PREFACE vii 
 
 tious. I must beg to observe that no fiction exists 
 outside the tales ; my narrative of travel is true, ev^ery 
 word, and, like most true narratives, does not abound 
 in startling incidents or remarkable adventures. 
 
 I hope to have many lady readers, and therefore 
 reserve for a future publication much matter of a 
 purely scientific nature. In a popular work the man- 
 ners and customs of a savage people cannot be fully 
 described ; and many problems of importance for the 
 Science of Man are not yet interesting to the public at 
 large.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE FIRST VOLUME 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 THE GORILLA GOV 
 
 A Carthaginian Log-Book 
 
 The Coast 
 
 The Forest 
 
 The Witch 
 
 Turtle 
 
 The Creditor . 
 
 The Tornado , 
 
 The Cannibals . 
 
 The Elephant . 
 
 The King of the Rembo 
 
 The Gorilla 
 
 Detained , 
 
 \TRV 
 
 II 
 
 i8 
 44 
 56 
 61 
 72 
 
 87 
 120 
 
 131 
 
 144 
 
 154
 
 X CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME 
 
 BOOK 11. 
 
 THE SOUTH COAST 
 
 PAGE 
 
 HoLLOWAYPHOBiA. A Tale 169 
 
 The ' Emilia ' . . . , 202 
 
 The Slave Trade. An Essay 217 
 
 The Capuchin of the Congo. A Tale 229 
 
 The Ruins of the Portuguese 250 
 
 Ananga. a Tale 264 
 
 BOOK III. 
 SENEGAMBIA 
 
 Moslem Africa 295 
 
 The Story of Solima. A Tale 320 
 
 The African Pioneers. An Essay ' . 407
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 TO 
 
 THE FIRST VOLUME 
 
 MAPS 
 
 The Gorilla Country 
 
 The Slave Trade of Africa 
 
 Portuguese Africa . 
 
 Senegambia 
 
 The Religions of Africa . 
 
 The Pioneers of Discovery in Africa 
 
 to face 
 
 217 
 
 251 
 
 313 
 
 407 
 
 WOODCUTS 
 
 Elephant * Frontispiece 
 
 The Tornado to fcue 82 
 
 Gorillas and Nest ,, 152 
 
 By Ox and Hammock ,,258 
 
 The DjiKijUNKA ,, 308 
 
 A Flood in Senegambia ,,311
 
 THE GORILLA COUNTRY. 
 
 40 6o 8o 300 EngKsh Mies Stonrhrds Geog Istail6&: 7 Cheering Cross. 
 
 Lf>udon; Smith, KIder & C?
 
 THE 
 
 AFRICAN SKETCH-BOOK 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 THE GORILLA COUNTRY. 
 
 A CARTHAGINIAN LOG-BOOK 
 
 I WAS staying at a country-house in the autumn 
 of 1 86 1. The harvest had been gathered in, and the 
 stubbles were being ploughed, yet the heat was that 
 of summer, and we were lying at full length in the 
 shade of ancient elms. Above us the black rooks 
 flapped and fluttered, and painted leaves floated down- 
 wards through the air. Faintly the distant church-bell 
 tolled, and the servants, starched and bedizened, were 
 crossing the park in the direction of the sound. Then 
 came the decree of Fate. My young host proposed 
 
 that we should drive over to Farm, and see a 
 
 friend of his who had just returned from his first voyage 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 A CARTHAGINIAN LOG-BOOK [Book I 
 
 as surgeon on board a mail steamer to the West coast of 
 Africa. I said ' Yes,' and my future was decided. 
 
 The doctor received us in his shirt-sleeves, coast- 
 fashion. Tea and toast, home-baked bread and home- 
 brewed beer, yellow butter and rich milk, jars of tobacco 
 and churchwarden pipes, all the luxuries of rural life, 
 were placed upon the table, and as soon as we were 
 settled down for the evening, Africa was introduced. 
 The doctor's descriptions were picturesque, and as he 
 discoursed on the wonders of a country which resembles 
 no other in the world, a sudden fancy came into 
 my head, and I declared I would go to Africa myself. 
 He said that it was just the place for a literary man, 
 and that I should be able to write a capital book 
 when I came back — if I ever did. Next we discussed 
 as to which region of the coast should be honoured with 
 my investigations, and possibly with my remains. 
 
 Just at that time a controversy was raging in the 
 * Athenaeum ' respecting M. Du Chaillu's book ; and 
 it had become painfully apparent that nobody in London 
 knew anything about the matter. The truth could be 
 only ascertained by a trip to Gorilla-land itself, and so 
 I determined to begin my African rambles with a 
 critical journey on Du Chaillu's route, and an ex- 
 amination of his native companions and guides. My 
 destination was, therefore, the Gaboon — a West African 
 river near the Equator, belonging to the French. The 
 African mail steamers did not go farther than Fer- 
 nando Po, but thence to Gaboon a passage could always
 
 Book I] A CAHTHAGINIAN LOG-BOOK 3 
 
 be procured in some trading vessel, or a French man- 
 of-war. 
 
 I left Liverpool with the December mail, which 
 touched at all the British settlements along the coast — 
 Gambia, Sierra Leone, Cape Coast Castle, Accra, and 
 Lagos ; also at certain rivers still belonging to the 
 natives — Benin, Bonny, the Calabars, and Camaroons, 
 where the traders dwell on shipboard, and pay customs 
 to the kings as in the olden time. 
 
 The Settlements were originally fortified factories, 
 half-castle, half-shop, constructed by the Royal African 
 Company for the protection of their servants and the 
 warehousing of their slaves. When the Company was 
 dissolved these forts became the property of Govern- 
 ment, and were garrisoned by black regiments imported 
 from the West Indies by rotation. The command- 
 ant was governor, chief justice, and commander-in- 
 chief ; he made treaties with the neighbouring Powers, 
 adjudicated between the negroes and the traders, and 
 sometimes conquering a turbulent chief, put a slice of 
 coast into the Downing Street larder, unnoticed by the 
 nation. As the settlements expanded, civilians were 
 appointed — governors, judges, collectors of customs, and 
 colonial surgeons ; gaols, post offices, bonding warehouses, 
 and other public buildings were erected ; the factories 
 increased in number, the church and mission-house 
 appeared. A few years ago the Governor of Sierra 
 Leone was made the Governor-in-Chief, and the other 
 
 B 2
 
 4 A CARTHAGINIAN LOG-BOOK [Book I 
 
 governors ceased to be styled ' Your Excellency,' and 
 were named Administrators. 
 
 The trade of West Africa is important and rapidly 
 increasing; in 1862 steamers ran to the coast once a 
 month ; they now run once a week, and yet their saloons 
 are often half-filled v/ith cotton bales, and their decks 
 choked up with barrels of palm oil. 
 
 The first part of our voyage was delightful : we rose 
 in the early morn and watched the outline of the coast ; 
 we sat beneath the awning and imbibed refrigerating 
 drinks ; the ice had not all melted, the South Downs and 
 Dorkings had not all been ,eaten ; our appetites were 
 unimpaired. We breakfasted at eight, lunched at twelve, 
 and dined at four ; these repasts being served on dishes 
 and plates adorned with a beautiful design — a negress 
 offering fruit to an angel, and underneath the words 
 Spero meliora. The angel represented the African 
 Steam Ship Company, the motto a humane wish for 
 larger profits. 
 
 There was a missionary on board who had been 
 ordained by colonial hook or crook,- and whose sweet 
 simplicity endeared him to us all. Among other things 
 he anxiously enquired of the captain whether the anchor 
 went to the bottom, and then wished to know how 
 it was kept there : was it tied with a piece of string } 
 
 With such a companion we could not fail of entertain- 
 ment ; and twice a week or so we touched at a settle- 
 n>ent and were able to go on shore. No hotels were
 
 Book I] A CARTHAGINIAN LOG-BOOK 5 
 
 to be found, but all houses were open on the arrival 
 of the steamer, and all of them resembled taverns. 
 
 But when we had passed Lagos, we only lay off the 
 mouths of rivers, and took in palm oil. Never shall 
 I be able to forget those latter days on board the 
 steamer. Unhappily the memory is in some mysterious 
 manner connected with the sense of smell, and so 
 whenever I pass a dead cat or a foul drain I think of 
 S. S. ' Armenian.' 
 
 At last we arrived at Fernando Po, which is not a 
 river, as some authors have supposed, but an island, and 
 the only settlement the Spaniards possess in Western 
 Africa. It has been chosen, like Cayenne, on account 
 of its salubrity, for the reception of political* offenders, 
 who are imprisoned in the harbour on board a man-of- 
 war. 
 
 This method of confinement in a hot climate seems 
 to be severe, but it is only fair to state that it is seldom 
 protracted for any length of time. The prisoners, as a 
 rule, are soon released, and when the happy day arrives 
 nothing can equal the attention and politeness which 
 they then receive. The drum beats to quarters, military 
 music plays, a priest recites prayers on their behalf, 
 and they are lowered over the side in a long narrow 
 box which the carpenter has been ordered to make 
 expressly for their accommodation. In other words, 
 it is Death, and Death alone, that sets them free. 
 
 Who that possesses an imagination and a heart can 
 look without a shudder on that Ship of Woe } Men
 
 6 A CARTHAGINIAN LOG-BOOK [Book I 
 
 of intellect and birth are there, guilty perhaps of an 
 indiscretion and no more, torn away from their loved 
 ones and their fatherland. Never more will they behold 
 the orange orchards of their childhood, or the balconies 
 sacred to music and to love. On pallets they lie in 
 their wooden cells, and hear the washing of the waters 
 against their prison walls, and gaze through the port- 
 holes on a mass of lifeless green, and so drift down the 
 sad stream of existence and over the rough bar into 
 the boundless sea. 
 
 That dark green mass filling up the prisoners' range 
 of view so that only when the ship rolls can they see a 
 strip of blue sky above and a strip of blue sea beneath, 
 is the Peak of Fernando Po, a pyramid of granite, 10,000 
 feet above the level of the ocean, and clothed to its 
 summit with gigantic trees. On the mainland opposite, 
 twenty miles across, is the Peak of Camaroons. These 
 two mighty columns form TJie Gate of the Equator, a 
 portico worthy of the new heavens and the new earth 
 beyond the Line. 
 
 When I arrived at Fernando Po, Captain Burton, its 
 consul, was climbing the Camaroons, which is the loftiest 
 mountain in West Africa, being higher than the Peak 
 of Tenerifife. It is a volcano, and has been lately in 
 eruption ; but Burton found it quietly smoking, its head 
 powdered with snow.^ By some it is supposed to have 
 been the Burning Mountain which Hanno, the Captain 
 Cook of Carthage, mentions in his Log — a document 
 
 * See Burton's ' Abbeokuta and the Camaroons.'
 
 Book I] A CARTHAGINIAN LOG-BOOK 7 
 
 of great antiquity and value, the sole relic of those 
 archives which the Romans when they took the city 
 presented to their allies the Berber chiefs. 
 
 But not in the latter days of Carthage was that 
 Periplus indited, not in the days of her weakness and 
 her shame. When Rome was merely a Latin town, 
 Carthage was a great commercial city, the metropolis 
 of the West. Her temples were adorned with Greek 
 statues, trophies of the Sicilian wars ; her nobles kept 
 their elephant studs, and were waited on by slaves in 
 herds ; her streets were lined with workshops of weavers 
 preparing the celebrated purple cloth ; asses and mules 
 laden with the timber of the Atlas drew up before the 
 glowing glass-houses in which were manufactured the 
 blue bugles and the speckled beads. Merchants of all 
 nations met in her Exchange ; ships from all countries 
 lay at anchor in her port. She levied soldiers wherever 
 she had enemies or friends ; she forced or bribed all 
 people to serve beneath her flag. In the great market- 
 square might be seen Greek mercenaries dressed in 
 bronze, Spaniards in white tunics edged with purple, 
 and wearing the short broad-pointed swords aftenvards 
 adopted by the Romans ; blue-eyed, red-haired Gauls 
 naked to the waist, and armed with cutlasses of soft 
 iron which had to be straightened after every blow ; 
 the slingers of Majorca and Minorca, and the Ber- 
 ber horsemen galloping to and fro upon their barbs 
 without saddle or bridle, mantles of bearskin floating 
 from their shoulders, long spears in their hands, and
 
 8 A CARTHAGINIAN LOG-BOOK [Book I 
 
 shields of elephant-hide strapped to their left arms. 
 The war-galleys of Carthage destroyed the Etruscan 
 rovers, drove back the Greek ships into Eastern waters, 
 protected the colonies and merchant-marine. Her vessels 
 traded to the ice-creeks of the Baltic, and obtained from 
 Alexandria the riches of the East. Elba fed Carthage 
 with iron, Spain supplied her with silver ; Malta was her 
 cotton plantation, Sicily her olive orchard. The lands 
 around the city were covered with vineyards and mea- 
 dows and fields of waving corn. Agriculture was studied 
 as a science, but Carthage was a gigantic city, her 
 population overflowed, and a system of Government 
 emigration was organised in consequence. Thousands 
 of the humbler classes were sent out west along the 
 coast and down south into the interior, where they 
 founded cities and intermarried with the Berbers, who 
 were white people like themselves and possibly of a kin- 
 dred, that is to say of a Shemitic race. Emigrants were 
 also sent away by sea, and Hanno, it seems, had charge 
 of such an expedition. He commanded sixty vessels 
 of fifty oars each, containing altogether thirty thousand 
 souls ; and his orders were to establish colonies along 
 the Morocco coast beyond the straits. 
 
 This coast is fertile and watered by rivers as low 
 down as the latitude of the Canary Isles. But there 
 the Sahara begins, dividing Barbary from Guinea ; and 
 there Hanno, having landed in various places the emi- 
 grants entrusted to his care, altered the character of 
 his expedition, and commenced that grand exploring
 
 Book I] A CARTHAGINIAN LOG-BOOK 9 
 
 voyage which has immortaHsed his name. He struck 
 boldly to the south ; on his left a waste of sand without 
 water, without life ; on his right a sea of darkness which 
 at that time was supposed to have no end. But on 
 went the Carthaginian explorers, and at length saw 
 trees in the distance as if standing in the water ; they 
 passed the Senegal river, which divides the brown men 
 of the Desert from the black men of the Soudan ; 
 and heard the night music of the natives, and saw the 
 hill-fires burning down the withered grass ; they passed 
 the Cape Verde with its two round hills which resemble 
 a woman's bosom, and which sailors call ' The Paps ;' 
 and the prairie land of Senegambia, and the moun- 
 tains of Sierra Leone, and the forest-covered shores of 
 the Grain Coast and the Gold Coast, and the muddy 
 marsh through which by many mouths the Niger flows 
 forth, polluting the sea and poisoning the air. They 
 came to the Camaroons by night : its flaming head 
 seemed to touch the stars, and they called it the Chariot 
 of the Gods. Passing onwards still, they discovered 
 an island in a lagoon, and encountered some hairy men 
 and women, who defended themselves with stones. 
 Three of the females were killed, and their skins sus- 
 pended in a temple at Carthage as an offering or trophy. 
 These creatures the interpreters called Gorillas (To piXKas). 
 When the great ape of the Gaboon was discovered 
 and described by Savage and Wyman, they sought 
 for a name, and this one was suggested by the Periplus 
 of Hanno. Thus it has come to pass that cabmen and
 
 lo A CARTHAGINIAN LOG-BOOK [Book I 
 
 costermongers employ in their familiar discourse a word 
 which was uttered in the streets of Carthao-e. 
 
 o 
 
 It is more than two thousand years since that voyage 
 was accomplished, and Western Africa remains un- 
 changed. Here and there, indeed, a few forts and factories 
 have been erected. Manchester cottons are worn by the 
 natives instead of the bark or palm-fibre country cloth ; 
 muskets are used instead of spear and bow ; crockery- 
 ware sometimes instead of gourds. But the people in 
 their manners and customs are the same ; and often as 
 I have travelled in the dry season along the sea-coast 
 in my canoe I have heard their flutes and tusk-trumpets 
 and drums, I have seen their bush-fires on the hills, 
 exactly as Hanno describes them in his Log. 
 
 But where is the Great City that sent forth that ex- 
 pedition .? Where are its castles, its temples, and its 
 palaces resplendent with the wealth of the West and of 
 the East — with the tin of Cornwall, the amber of the 
 Baltic, the ostrich-plumes of the Sahara, the gold dust 
 of Soudan, the tapestry of Babylon, the calicoes of 
 Coromandel, the fine muslins of Bengal } Alas ! Car- 
 thage is no more. Even her ruins are denied to us : 
 she has no remains. She was utterly destroyed, and 
 nothing was left of her. She was cruelly and traitor- 
 ously murdered, then her body was burnt, and her 
 ashes scattered to the winds.
 
 II 
 
 7 HE COAST 
 
 Captain Burton's house being open to all comers, 
 I was there received, and found a library, into which 
 I immediately plunged. Its rich and varred contents 
 sufficed to prove that the Consul of Fernando Po was 
 no ordinary man ; for in Africa books are a faithful 
 index to their owner's mind. They are brought out not 
 as furniture but as friends, and are selected not for that 
 beauty which is only calf-skin deep, but for those inner 
 qualities which improve upon acquaintance. Whatever 
 good looks they may have soon disappear in this 
 climate. Their covers fall off and their pages turn 
 yellow ; they are cracked and shrivelled by the Har- 
 mattan or desert-wind, mildewed by the moisture of 
 the rains, inhabited by cockroaches, and devoured by 
 white ants. It is even said that they become deposi- 
 tories of disease, infecting the reader, as he turns their 
 pages, like the poisoned manuscript of the Arabian 
 Nights. Open a book which has been for some time 
 shelved in the tropics, and there rises from it a peculiar 
 musty smell. This, says a theorist, is caused by invisible 
 fungous spores or vegetable germs, and these it is which 
 produce the fever of the swamps. In the same way 
 it is dangerous to lie in unaired sheets, to enter a room
 
 12 THE COAST [Book I 
 
 which has long been darkened and disused, or to turn 
 up the virgin soil ; such being the very dens of death 
 where the Malaria like a wild beast sleeps throughout 
 the day. But when the night descends, and the bright 
 sun has disappeared, it rises from its secret places, and 
 steals along the river shore, and floats on the land- 
 breeze to the vessels that are lying in the roads, and 
 winds its way up the mountain, and creeps into the 
 town and through the windows that are open to many 
 a swinging hammock, to many a bedside. Sleep, sweet 
 sleep, in England the restorer, is in Africa a peril and a 
 snare. 
 
 This fungous theory has not been well received ; the 
 causes of malaria are as yet undiscovered, but its effects 
 are sufficiently well known to those who have lived 
 upon the coast At Fernando Po I experienced my 
 first attack of fever, and many a time I have since 
 been 'down.' Having always taken notes, and some- 
 times experimentalised upon myself, I may be con- 
 sidered an authority upon this subject, which has a 
 special interest for certain people in Great Britain. 
 Those who may intend exchanging into a black regi- 
 ment, to the grief and horror of their tailors — those who 
 are applying for a civil appointment on the coast — 
 those who have the opportunity of obtaining a three 
 years' clerkship in the palm-oil, ivory, or gold-dust 
 line of business, and are requested to give an early 
 reply — must be desirous to hear something reliable and 
 precise about the climate, and such information will
 
 Book I] . THE COAST 
 
 13 
 
 also be acceptable to the families of persons residing 
 in West Africa, to their heirs-at-law, creditors', and 
 friends, and to all money-lenders, insurance societies, 
 and other benevolent corporations for the relief of suf- 
 fering humanity. A few remarks on miasma will also 
 be read by the general public with a kind of ghastly 
 delight, as I infer from the frequency with which I 
 have been asked, ' Did you often have the fever ? Do 
 you ever get it now? Is the Coast really so bad as 
 people say ? ' 
 
 To this last question I unhesitatingly reply, * It is.' 
 There are many districts in tropical and semi-tropical 
 countries which are as unhealthy as any part of Western 
 Africa. But the Coast is distinguished by being 
 uniformly bad. From the Senegal River to Little Fish 
 Bay, from the Desert of the Moors to the Desert of 
 the Hottentots, from latitude 15° N. to latitude 15° S. 
 — a sinuous coast-line of several thousand miles — there 
 is not a single cubic inch of air which is not in the 
 night-time impregnated with malaria. No European 
 resident escapes the fever, and even natives suffer from 
 it, though in a less degree. 
 
 Next to sea-sickness fever is perhaps the most 
 facetious of diseases ; it always comes on like a prac- 
 tical joke. A. B. on a certain evening is in unusually 
 high spirits ; his imagination is active, he feels inclined 
 to exercise his brain, and begins to write a long letter 
 home, saying, among other things, that he has not had 
 the fever yet, and does not think he will. But somehow
 
 14 THE COAST [Book I 
 
 he finds it difficult to settle down to his task for any 
 length of time. Conversation is more to his humour : he 
 becomes excited in the course of it, drinks a little, goes 
 to bed, sleeps with difficulty, has a series of dreams, and 
 awakes feeling anything but well. He does not eat much 
 breakfast, but thoroughly enjoys his cup of tea. At 
 twelve o'clock he is seated with his friends in the piazza, 
 suffering like themselves from the intense heat. Pre- 
 sently he puts on his coat, he gives a shudder, he 
 becomes pale, his features shrink, his hair bristles up, 
 his nails turn blue. He is taken off to bed, blankets 
 are piled upon him, hot-water bottles are applied to his 
 feet, warm drinks are poured down his throat, but the 
 bed shakes with his shiverings, and his teeth chatter 
 so loudly that they can be heard across the room ; he 
 is transported to the arctic regions. Suddenly he is 
 whisked back to Africa, and then from Africa into the 
 hottest room of the hottest Turkish bath that ever was 
 invented. The cold stage is over, and the hot stage 
 has begun. Putting your hand on his forehead is like 
 putting it on a stove. Often delirium intervenes. There 
 is always an agonising thirst, which should be freely 
 indulged with fresh lemxonade, or with cold water, if 
 nothing else is to be had. 
 
 Then comes the grateful stage of resolution. The 
 pores at length open, and shed an abundant and re- 
 freshing rain on the surface of the skin. The paroxysm 
 is over, and the patient feels himself weak, but other- 
 wise as well as before. Let us suppose that he does
 
 Book I] THE COAST 15 
 
 not act the fever, as it is called. The next day passes ; 
 the feebleness about the knee-joints is departing ; he 
 believes that he has nothing more to fear. On the 
 day after that he is again in the piazza ; it is again 
 the sultry hour of noon ; he is again imbibing his 
 favourite beverage and smoking his cigar ; and again 
 comes that mysterious shudder ; again he is alternately 
 iced and roasted like the souls in Dante's ' Inferno ; ' 
 and so on indefinitely : unless the usual medicine be 
 administered — viz. Peruvian bark in the compact form 
 of sulphate of quinine. 
 
 The African fever is exaggerated ague, and is chiefly 
 dangerous from repetition. It gradually weakens and 
 depraves the system, preparing the way for other 
 diseases, and sometimes creating complaints of its own. 
 No precautions can save the resident from fever, but 
 a well-regulated life can certainly diminish the frequency 
 and virulence of the attacks. The mid-day sun and the 
 night air should be avoided, the clothing should be 
 warm, and the diet generous ; for an empty stomach is 
 an open sepulchre, and the policy of total abstinence 
 is doubtful. Many awful cases of teetotallers pre- 
 maturely carried off are cited on thq^ Coast. On the 
 other hand, temperance is essential to health ; whatever 
 in England would produce a morning headache, or a 
 state of nervous debility and languor, will in Africa 
 be attended with very serious results. Occupation is 
 the best preventive. I have remarked that the busiest 
 men are those who suffer least ; but no one, I repeat,
 
 1 6 THE COAST [Book I 
 
 entirely escapes, and no one enjoys in Africa that 
 elasticity and buoyancy of body which is felt at home. 
 Women almost invariably lose their beauty ; children 
 almost invariably lose their lives. 
 
 I do not think I should ever advise a friend to 
 accept an appointment, commercial or official, in West 
 Africa. The days of mercantile adventuring are past ; 
 fortunes may be quickly lost upon the Coast, but 
 they cannot be quickly won ; the trade is regular, 
 competition is severe, and profits are small. In Africa, 
 as elsewhere, a young man must patiently work for 
 several years before he can hope to gain an inde- 
 pendence. As for the officials, their salaries may be 
 nominally large, but so are their expenses. There is 
 very little money to be saved, and promotion beyond a 
 certain point is not to be easily obtained. If a man 
 can bear the climate and the Liberated Africans, the 
 Colonial Office appreciates those rare and rhinoceros- 
 like qualities too well to transfer them to another 
 sphere. 
 
 But though West Africa has few rewards for the 
 trader and official, it is for an explorer the land of 
 lands. In no part of the world are so many new things 
 to be found. There are regions of the Coast where, 
 on the beach itself, the traveller is surrounded by awe- 
 struck natives, who have never seen a white man 
 before. Even in those places which have been fre- 
 quented by Europeans for the last four hundred years, 
 little is really known of the people that inhabit them.
 
 Book i] THE COAST 17 
 
 The surface features of African life have often been 
 described, and vary little from the Niger to the Nile ; 
 but in the ideas and feelings of the negroes a new world 
 of thought remains to be discovered. It is my purpose 
 in this work not only to relate the wanderings of my 
 younger years, and the explorations of a later time, 
 but also, to expound the continent of Africa : to show 
 in what way it is connected with the history of the 
 world, to chronicle tlie achievements of which it has 
 been the theatre, and to paint the inner life of its 
 people, among whom I so long resided, not as a foreigner 
 but as one of themselves. 
 
 And now let us pass through those gigantic portals 
 tow^ering on either side like pyramids of green marble 
 — the Peak of Fernando Po and the Peak of Cama- 
 roons. Let us enter the region of the Line, the border- 
 land of the hemispheres, where the broad and bulging 
 earth whirls round more swiftly than at home — where 
 the stars of both skies are visible, and the hours are 
 equally divided into day and night — and the zodiacal 
 light tapers upwards to the zenith — and the winds blow 
 faintly — and the forests of the Gorilla Country look 
 across the ocean to the forests of Brazil. 
 
 VOL. 1.
 
 i8 
 
 THE FOREST 
 
 I MADE the acquaintance of a trader from Gaboon, 
 who was returning to that river, and who gave me a 
 passage in his vessel. We sailed along the shores of 
 equatorial Africa, a gloomy region of forest-covered 
 hills, and after a fortnight's voyage reached our desti- 
 nation. i\Iost of the African rivers have difficult and 
 savage bars : they foam at the mouth, as if they were 
 dragons guarding the golden fruit of an enchanted 
 land ; but the Gaboon is an exception to the rule : it 
 is a broad, calm expanse of water, with sluggish current 
 and strong salt-tides, resembling an arm of the sea. It 
 is an excellent harbour, for which reason it is used as 
 a coaling station by the French, We saw their white 
 buildings on the kft as we entered tlie river, but sailed 
 on to Gluss, the English settlement, which is a little 
 higher up, and consists of several factories lining the 
 water-si4^, a brown cluster of native huts, and the 
 frame-ho»ses <Qf the American mission perched on the 
 rising ground behind th^ town. 
 
 The country people, who are called Mpongwe, soon 
 swarmed round u5 in canoes, ^d.\x\^ traders came on 
 board, asked the news, and east gbttonous eyes upon 
 myself, hoping that I was somebody out of whom some-
 
 Book I] THE FOREST " 19 
 
 thing could be made. They wore European clothes 
 of the kind usually denominated ^ slops,' but their feet 
 were bare. Next came off the factory boat, manned by 
 negroes of quite a different type from the slim, graceful, 
 almost feminine Mpongwe, being strong, stalwart men, 
 with muscles like those of the Farnese Hercules. These 
 were the Krumen, a laborious race who inhabit the 
 wilder parts of the Liberian coast, and hire themselves out 
 to Europeans for a three years' spell, their employers en- 
 gaging to return them to their own country when they 
 have done their time. They also serve as sailors on 
 board English men-of-war. On my way down the 
 Coast I had engaged half a dozen of these people, who, 
 bending over the vessel's side, conversed eagerly with 
 their compatriots, chiefly in ejaculations, till we stepped 
 into the boat and were rowed ashore. 
 
 I was now in the Gorilla Country, as soon became 
 apparent, for a skin of that ape was hanging out to dry 
 on the factory palings, and a young one w^as kennelled 
 in the yard. It was quite tame, but died shortly after- 
 wards, sincerely lamented by its owner, who, could he 
 have carried it to England alive, would have realised a 
 fortune. The gorilla is not so common as the chim- 
 panzee, and does not seem to bear captivity so well. 
 However, there is little doubt that some day or other 
 this renowned ape will make its appearance at the 
 Zoological Gardens, to brighten the holiday of the 
 artisan and to alleviate the Sabbath of the fashionable 
 world.
 
 20 THE FOREST [Book I 
 
 Dinner was served in the factory piazza or verandah, 
 the candles being screened by large glass barrels open 
 at the top. We were joined by moths and other winged 
 members of the insect world, including fireflies, which 
 were lighted under their tails and vented flame in rhyth- 
 mical pufls. Behind each chair stood a footman arrayed 
 in the black livery of Nature. The banquet was therefore 
 animated and picturesque. The soup was followed by ex- 
 cellent river fish, and these were succeeded by fowls and 
 goat — sheep being scarce in the Gaboon, and bullocks 
 entirely unknown, though on most other parts of the 
 Coast they are plentiful enough.' The vegetables were 
 plantains, a kind of banana, which, eaten in its unripe 
 state, yields a mealy food, the staff of life for the 
 Mpongwe ; yams, or bread-roots, as the Germans call 
 them ; batatas, or sweet potato ; and cassada, or manioc, 
 from which the tapioca of commerce is prepared. These 
 indigenous products are by no means pleasant to the 
 palate of the newly-arrived European, and I was not 
 sorry that tinned peas and French beans were also 
 placed upon the board. 
 
 I shall now attempt to convey some idea of trading- 
 life in the Gaboon. My friend's factory is a house all 
 ground-floor, built of a kind of palm vulgarly called 
 bamboo. Behind the verandah is the parlour, and 
 beyond that again the store, which is deliciously cool 
 and dark, and fragrant with native spices, placed therein 
 
 ' The tsetse exists in certain regions of Western Africa. Horses and 
 bullocks cannot live where this insect is found.
 
 Book I] THE FOREST 21 
 
 to keep away the moth. In this deep cave-Hke recess 
 may dimly be descried strings of beads hanging down 
 from the rafters in festoons, huge piles of cotton cloth, 
 chiefly romals and satin-stripe, crates of earthenware, 
 bundles of American tobacco in the leaf as smokers 
 bought it in the Elizabethan age, boxes of pipes, casks 
 of Coast o' Guinea rum, barrels of coarse powder, bags 
 of flints, and Birmingham trade guns, long as the ancient 
 matchlocks, with shining barrels, and stocks painted a 
 bright red. At six o'clock the store-keeper opens the 
 wide-folding doors, and the natives throng in to make 
 small purchases, and imbibe their morning dram. The 
 clerk sits down to his accounts. The factor examines 
 his books, or writes letters to his employers, or bargains 
 with the native traders, or superintends the sturdy 
 Krumen as they- row to and fro from the ship to the 
 shore. Canoes come sailing down the river with the 
 land-breeze of the early morn, bringing their petty 
 cargoes of produce from the bush, while others are 
 being filled with European goods ready to start for 
 the interior. Commerce here is carried on by means 
 of middle-men. • The Europeans purchase, the bush- 
 tribes produce, and the Mpongwe, or coast-people, 
 monopolise the trade between the two. If the natives 
 of the interior come down to the sea-side they are not 
 allowed to go on board ship, to visit the factory, or in 
 any way to traffic directly with the white man. As a rule 
 they remain quietly at home, and are' visited by some 
 Mpongwe trader, who, having obtained goods on credit
 
 22 THE FOREST [Book I 
 
 from a factory, sails up the river to a bush-village, where 
 he is boarded and lodged at the public expense. He 
 shows the villagers his goods : not till they have seen 
 them will they begin to work. They then go into the 
 forest ; they cut ebony and camwood into billets ; they 
 pluck the golden nuts of the palm tree, boil them, crush 
 them, and squeeze out the oil ; they collect bees-wax ; 
 they bleed a creeping plant, the creamy sap of which 
 dries into cakes of an inferior india-rubber or caout- 
 chouc ; the inhabitants of other villages are sometimes 
 allowed to bring their contributions ; while elephants' 
 tusks, which descend from the interior, bought and re- 
 bought from tribe to tribe, at length arrive into the 
 hands of the Mpongwe. As soon as his goods are 
 bartered away, he fills up his canoes, sails back to the 
 factory, and receives a large commission in cloth, rum, 
 and tobacco — the money of the Gaboon. Followed by 
 slaves carrying his barrels and his bales, he returns to 
 his own house, and is at once surrounded by relatives 
 and hostile friends. He is treated to his face as if he were 
 a rich man suddenly become defunct. Women dance in 
 his honour, and sing verses complimentary as epitaphs ; 
 a council of the next of kin is held for the division of 
 his goods, over which they quarrel bitterly, and full 
 display is made of those emotions which with us are 
 felt, but concealed, at the reading of a will. Yet such is 
 the character of the negro that he would rather give up 
 all that he has earned than run the risk of being called 
 * a stingy fellow.' That epithet amongst a people such
 
 Book I] THE FOREST 23 
 
 as the Mpongwe is the most opprobrious of all ; coward, 
 liar, and thief being comparatively terms of endearment 
 and esteem. However, the unfortunate rich man is 
 allowed to keep something for himself, that he may 
 be encouraged to go and trade again : this money he ex- 
 pends on wives and slaves, builds a house with a ' deck,' 
 or planked floor, in imitation of the factories ; makes 
 a collection of crockeryware, as we do of old china, and 
 occasionally gives a champagne breakfast to the traders. 
 There are many people in England who suppose that 
 ' the treacherous natives ' are always in a state of latent 
 hostility, regarding white men as intruders, and yearning 
 to shake off the foreign yoke. It would, however, be 
 just as reasonable to imagine a conspiracy of landlords 
 to drive away the English from Paris and the Rhine. 
 Whether we are beloved on either continent is doubtful, 
 but in each our presence is ardently desired. The 
 negroes are dependent upon us for the clothes which 
 they wear, the rum which they drink, the tobacco which 
 they smoke, the weapons and powder which they use 
 in war, hunting, and festivities : our beads are their 
 jewellery ; we import iron for their spearheads ; even the 
 idols which they worship are often manufactured at 
 Birmingham. In out-of-the-way parts, where trade is 
 intermittent and uncertain, the natives have recourse to 
 the Black Art to draw vessels to their river, and some- 
 times human sacrifices are made upon the bar that the 
 ship may pass over it in safety. When this has been 
 accomplished, the whole town breaks out into dance
 
 24 THE FOREST [Book I 
 
 and song. ' Now,' they cry, ' we shall have beads ! 
 Now we shall have tobacco ! Now we shall have rum ! ' 
 The old voyagers speak of the Mpongwe as a rude 
 and savage people, but several generations of intercourse 
 with Europeans have rendered them refined in their 
 appearance, courteous and persuasive in their manners. 
 Even their language has been changed ; it is soft and 
 melodious, differing much from the harsh guttural dialects 
 of the bush-people, who are nevertheless their kinsmen. 
 The Mpongwe have slaves to do the wood-cutting and 
 garden-work, which kind of labour among the poorer 
 tribes devolves upon the squaws. Hence the coast 
 ladies are genteel, and can give due attention to the 
 business of the toilette. They paint their cheeks (and 
 sometimes their chins) with rouge extracted from the 
 root of the camwood tree, and chalk their necks in 
 patterns, so that a little way off they appear to be 
 dressed in lace. They part their hair down the middle, 
 and ridge it over frizzettes of cloth to make it appear 
 abundant, and form it into fantastic shapes. They place 
 little rosettes of artificial hair above their ears, and insert 
 a hair-pin of ebony or ivory delicately carved, and use 
 for perfume the scrapings of a fragrant bark. Round 
 their necks are strings of variously coloured beads, while 
 their legs are clothed in enormous rings manufactured by 
 themselves from staircase rods, and of such a weight that 
 some of the women can scarcely walk, and if they fall into 
 the water (as sometimes happens) these victims of fashion 
 sink to rise no more.
 
 Book I] 
 
 THE FOREST 
 
 The native gentleman is not less dandified ; he may 
 be seen lying for hours with his head in his wife's lap, 
 being coijfc by her experienced hands ; he ties a string 
 round his upper arm to make it full and round ; he 
 delights to put on much cloth, and to hear it trailing 
 
 behind him as he walks along the street with a mixture 
 of the lounge and swagger not unfamiliar to London 
 eyes ; above all, he rejoices in an old umbrella stick, 
 which gives forth a jingling sound sweet to his ears, as 
 the tinkling of spurs to ' gents ' who never ride. 
 
 ]My host kindly invited me to remain altogether at 
 his factory, but wishing to live as much as possible 
 among the natives I determined to rent a house and 
 make it my head-quarters as long as I remained in the 
 Gaboon. A tenement was shown me, situated by the
 
 26 THE FOREST [Book I 
 
 river-side, and built on wooden piles, a consideration of 
 some importance where the soil exhales disease. It con- 
 sisted of three rooms, throughout which a sofa, a chest of 
 drawers, and four chairs were tastefully distributed. In 
 the smallest room I found the proprietor suffering from 
 fev^er and surrounded by his wives. After a little con- 
 versation I broached the subject of my visit, for which 
 he seemed to be prepared. Having expatiated at some 
 length on the size of the mansion, its commodious 
 position, the elegance of its furniture, and his own re- 
 luctance to leave it — especially when he was so ill and 
 required all the comforts of a home — he asked me a rent 
 w^hich would have been exorbitant for a set of chambers 
 in the Albany. I went off without vouchsafing a reply, 
 and in my innocence supposed the affair was at an 
 end. But a day or so afterwards he called upon me at 
 the factory, and apologised for having asked so much. 
 He had fever at the time and had wandered in his 
 speech. I was a great white man : he was only a poor 
 negro. I wanted his house ; that was sufficient : I must 
 have it— at twelve dollars the month. 
 
 To this I agreed, and afterwards ascertained it was 
 not more than double what I ought to have paid. \ 
 moved in at once with my articles of outfit, which the 
 Krumen scattered at random throughout the apartments. 
 Surrounded by bullock-trunks, saddles, tents, gun-cases, 
 cooking utensils, tool-chests, and the fragments of a 
 cast-iron stove, I felt very much as if I had been ship- 
 wrecked. The young men of the village came in
 
 Book I] THE FOREST 27 
 
 playing- on musical instruments and uttering the salu- 
 tation. Many of them had beautiful forms, and their 
 faces were often gentle and benignant ; yet I could 
 not but remark that the features of each seemed to 
 be fashioned in the likeness of some animal — a monkey, 
 a fox, a sheep, a deer, or a bird. At this moment the 
 fever of Fernando Po returned : I became giddy and 
 confused ; I could not control my words ; and all the 
 faces around me grew miOre and more animal in their 
 appearance, till at last the scene resembled that which 
 Landseer has portrayed in his picture ' The Defeat of 
 Comus.' 
 
 The head wife of my landlord arrived, and, per- 
 ceiving that I was ill, sent away my visitors, brought 
 a cup of tea, and, sitting down by the sofa, chatted 
 to me in the kindest manner. She was what they call 
 on the Coast a frock lady — had been educated by the 
 missionaries and wore an English cotton dress. 
 
 At length came the night. My portable bed, with a 
 rug and the sofa pillow, were laid upon the floor ; a 
 lantern and a cup of water by my side. The fever- 
 paroxysm was past ; my head Kruman wished me good- 
 night and went away, and I was dropping off to sleep, 
 when T heard a low sighing sound, which gradually 
 swelled into a roar, mingled with the shouts of the 
 villagers as they scampered to their huts. It was a 
 tornado. The salt river waves beat furiously against 
 the rocks beneath my windows. Feeling rain upon my 
 face, I looked upwards and saw the naked air ; part of
 
 28 THE FOREST . [Book I 
 
 the grass-thatch had been blown away. I tucked up my 
 bed under my arm and hunted with the lantern for a 
 dry plank, wdiich I finally discovered in the outer room. 
 
 The next morning I received a visit from one of the 
 American missionaries, who invited me to lodge at his 
 house, observing, w^ith a twinkle in his eye, that I was 
 not very comfortable where I w^as, and that I need not 
 rough it before I went into the bush. I confessed that 
 I had come to a similar conclusion, but feared that I 
 should put him to some inconvenience. ' On the con- 
 trary,' said he. 'As you have never been in a hot 
 country before, you will be sure to have a bad fever, 
 and it will be more convenient for me to nurse you 
 m my own house than to come all the w^ay down here.' 
 
 So my dwelling was degraded to a lumber-room, 
 and I was domiciled in a delicious little chamber, from 
 which I could see twenty miles of blue river and trees 
 shadowy in the distance. 
 
 These New England Presbyterians are earnest, frugal, 
 pious men, living without pleasure and almost without 
 hope — at least as regards this side of the grave — speaking 
 the native dialects with admirable fluency and precision, 
 and labouring patiently on a stubborn soil. They do 
 good in a variety of ways, not only to the natives, but 
 also to their white parishioners ; and many an English- 
 man has had reason to bless the mission house at 
 Baraka. 
 
 It was now time for me to think of a trip Into the 
 Bush, and first I had to engage a dragoman or ' stew^ard.'
 
 Book I] THE FOREST 29 
 
 One day I was accosted by a ven- plain negro, who told 
 me that his name was Mongilomba. He had been in the 
 sen-ice of ]\1. du Chaillu, or ^Ir. Paulo, as he called 
 him, could clean guns, skin birds, read and write, and 
 possessed several other valuable accomplishments. A 
 short conversation proved him to be intelligent, and I 
 accordingly engaged him. In the afternoon he came, 
 and said his brother wished me to write out an agree- 
 ment. I did so. The next morning he brought it back 
 to me, and said his brother wished me to insert the date. 
 Mongilomba was fat and youthful. His skin was 
 bronze colour, pleasantl}- mottled with black spots, for 
 the pigment is sometimes laid on by Nature with eccen- 
 tricity. Like many men of genius he was indolent, but 
 an excellent storyteller (in both senses of the word), an 
 ornithologist, and a rhetorician. It was said of Pericles 
 that even when thrown in the wrestling-place at the 
 gymnasium he would argue so skilfully as to persuade 
 his opponent that he (Pericles) had been victorious ; so 
 when Mongilomba lost (or, more probably, stole) my best 
 scalpel he proved to me that it had glided from his hand 
 in such a stealthy and unexpected manner that no one 
 in his place could possibly have intercepted its escape. 
 Again, when I directed him to dry my Shetland stock- 
 ings, and he brought them back to me in ashes, he 
 explained that the Fire had done it. and that mortals 
 were unable to control the fury of the elements. When 
 enraged by some negligence of this Ethiopian phi- 
 losopher, I assaulted him with words, he remained
 
 30 THE FOREST [Book I 
 
 imperturbable, and gave me those soft answers which do 
 not turn away wrath. But if he saw that I was not 
 quite sure of my ground he would deliver majestic 
 soliloquies in Mpongwe, looking at me sternly from 
 head to foot. For that matter he was always rather 
 haughty, and only shook hands with me in the morning 
 when he awoke in a good humour. . 
 
 The villages of the bush-people are situated on the 
 banks of the river, its tributaries, and its creeks, these being 
 the roads of the natives, and canoes their carriages and 
 carts. Mongilomba arranged that I should visit a certain 
 village of the Shekani tribe, and hired a canoe with 
 paddles, rudder, mast, and matting sail ; also a guide 
 to show us the way among the streets of water, which 
 are as numerous and labyrinthine as those of a great 
 town. More than once in these African deltas I have 
 taken the wrong turning and spent the night out of 
 doors. 
 
 We started with the tide and sea-breeze, keeping 
 well out in the middle of the stream. Flocks of snow- 
 white birds gleamed upon the surface of the water, which 
 was ruffled here and there by shoals of fish. We could 
 also see canoes in the distance, looking intensely black, 
 and resembling buoys : they were motionless and appa- . 
 rently unoccupied ; but when we came close we found in 
 each of them a negro lying at full length, with a foot 
 dangling over each gunwale, and a fishing-line tied to 
 each great toe. Towards the afternoon the wind changed 
 and the tide turned, and then other canoes came drifting
 
 Book I] THE FOREST ' 31 
 
 downwards with the ebb, their owners also being fast 
 asleep. In one of these a bush was stuck in the prow, 
 and acted as a mast and sail — no doubt the earliest 
 contrivance of its kind. 
 
 We now diverged from the main road into a narrow 
 creek, lined with mangrove bushes, beneath the tangled 
 arcades of which was a floor of black mud, inhabited by 
 crabs with brightly painted claws, and burrowing like 
 rabbits ; also by curious creatures, half newt, half fish, 
 which skipped along with a duck-and-drake motion 
 curious to behold. More curious still were the oysters 
 growing on trees ; for the outside mangroves stood in 
 the water up to their waists, and their lower parts were 
 encrusted wath these molluscs, which the ebb exposed 
 to view, and which thus led an amphibious existence, 
 half in the water ^nd half in the air. 
 
 Behind the mangroves rose a high green wall of
 
 32 THE FOREST [Book I 
 
 forest trees, with open sunlit spaces like windows, 
 here and there. Monkeys chirped from their hiding- 
 places in the leaves, or jumped with a crash from tree 
 to tree. Parrots, with their red tails flaming in the sun, 
 flew high above us, uttering the whistle so familiar to 
 our ears. As the trees shut out the wind, the mast was 
 taken down, and the Krumen, seating themselves on the 
 gunwale, seized their paddles, and burst, according to 
 their custom, into song. The water was so smooth that 
 the spray-drops from the paddles danced along the 
 surface like globules of quicksilver ; a sweet-voiced bird 
 warbled from the mangroves ; and a kingfisher flew be- 
 fore us as if to show the way. 
 
 Presently we heard a banging of pistols, and a large 
 canoe came in sight. Within it was a native gentleman 
 very drunk, who saluted us with the cry, * My brother 
 dead ! Have some rum ! ' He treated us all round 
 out of a small calabash, informing us every time he filled 
 it of his relative's decease, and always in the same joyous 
 tone. Funerals are festive in Africa, partly out of com- 
 pliment to the deceased and to propitiate his ghost ; 
 partly, perhaps, to drive away, the gloomy feelings which 
 are naturally felt on such occasions, and to drown sorrow 
 m the (vegetable) bowl. 
 
 It was after six o'clock, and, therefore, dark, when 
 we arrived at the landing-place of the Shekani village, 
 and we had some difficulty in making the natives appear. 
 War is chronic in these regions, and. night attacks are 
 often made under semblance of a friendly visit. How-
 
 Book I] THE FOREST 33 
 
 ever, the repeated cries of the guide, 'We bring white 
 man ! ' or in other words, * We bring money ! ' had the 
 desired effect. W^e were at first reconnoitred, and a 
 voice spoke to us from the darkness. Being satisfied 
 with the reply, it gave a shout, which was faintly echoed 
 from the village in the distance : lights flashed among 
 the trees, and presently two young women stood beside 
 the landing-place, holding torches of gum wrapped in 
 plantain leaves, spluttering sparks into the air and 
 diffusing a pleasant fragrance around. These damsels 
 lighted me along a rough footpath to the village, where 
 I was greeted by the chief He at once led me to his 
 hut, which I entered on all fours, the door being only 
 three feet high. 
 
 I was now in the hearth and home of savage life. 
 Nets, spears, bows and quivers were hanging from 
 wooden pegs upon the walls. In one corner of the 
 room was a large earthen jar filled with water, and 
 a calabash or gourd floating on its surface ; in another 
 was a pile of billets, the house-wife's pride ; and in 
 another were three clay pots and a sitting hen. In the 
 centre was the fire, which is the candle of the Africans, 
 and warms their unclothed bodies and purifies the mias- 
 matic air. There being no windows or chimney, the 
 smoke had lined the inside of the roof with soot, but 
 otherwise the hut was scrupulously clean. It contained 
 an inner apartment with a bamboo couch, on which my 
 bed (made of India rubber and filled with cork) was rolled 
 out, with an air pillow of gutta percha, and a w^oollen 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 THE FOREST [Book I 
 
 rug, of imitation tiger skin, much admired by the natives, 
 who supposed it to be real. 
 
 I ordered two eggs for my dinner : they were taken, 
 as I afterwards discovered, from under the sitting hen, 
 and put in a clay pot on the fire. A discussion now 
 arose between Mongilomba and the chief, the former 
 asserting that I would not eat the eggs because they 
 were hard-set : he argued a posteriori, having seen 
 other white men reject them for that reason. The chief 
 argued a priori that, as white men ate eggs (which the 
 natives seldom do), and also ate fowls, it was only" 
 rational to infer that they would eat them in the inter- 
 mediate condition. Meanwhile the dinner was served, 
 and just as the chief had brought his argument to a 
 triumphant close, one of the eggs whizzed past his ear 
 like a bullet and broke against the wall. However, my 
 wrath was pacified with an apology, on which light meal 
 I retired to my couch. The joy created by my arrival, 
 and the cloth and tobacco which would thence result, 
 began to be displayed in the usual way ; but with the 
 self-confidence of youth I at once constituted myself 
 chief of the village, and bawled out to them * to stop 
 that cursed drum ; ' whereupon, with much humility, they 
 did so, and went to bed. But when all else was silent, 
 what strange sounds proceeded from the forest ! — hoot- 
 ings, bowlings, and plaintive cries, with all kinds of 
 insect noises, metallic in their character, and resembhng 
 machinery. Such a whirring and clicking and clinking 
 I had never heard before ; and one little creature that
 
 Book I] THE FOREST 35 
 
 was actually in the hut seemed to wind itself up and 
 run down like an alarum, ever}^ five minutes. It is said ^ 
 that of 'all live things in the tropics frogs produce the 
 most curious vocal effects ; and outside my door was a 
 colony which cawed like rooks. In addition to these 
 various sounds, I heard to my horror a thin shrill hum, 
 which announced the presence of mosquitoes. I had 
 no net, they, therefore, dealt with me at their pleasure, 
 singing and drinking all the night. After a time it 
 seemed to me that their humming became incoherent, 
 and at last, to my diseased fancy, it began to resemble, 
 ' We won't go home till morning ; ' and they did not. 
 
 As soon as I saw the first grey gleams of dawn through 
 the chinks and cracks of the wall, I passed into the 
 public room, and stepping over the black bodies which 
 lay spoke-wise round the fire, with their feet towards it, 
 I removed the hurdle which was placed before the ' hut- 
 mouth,' and stepped out into the open air. I found 
 that the village consisted of a single street, with a gutter 
 at the side to carry off the rain. The huts were built of 
 wattle-and-dab (hurdle-work covered with clay), and 
 were roofed with a heavy grass thatch. Broad-leaved 
 plantains encompassed the village, and behind them 
 towered up some huge forest trees, on which parrots 
 and pigeons were still at roost. The foliage was 
 drenched with dew, and the atmosphere was cold and 
 dank : all now was silent, for the Night had died and 
 the Day was not yet fully born. 
 
 ' Hooker's ' Himalayan Journals.' 
 
 D 2
 
 36 THE FOREST [Book I 
 
 But as soon as the first rays of sunshine appeared, 
 the parrots whistled, the pigeons cooed, the leaves turned 
 towards the light, the dew-drops pattered down in a 
 shower on the ground, the flowers opened their beautiful 
 eyes and received the morning calls of butterflies and 
 bees. The forest began to buzz and hum like a great 
 factory awaking to its work. 
 
 The villagers now arose, rolled up the mats on which 
 they had slept, placed aside the round logs Avhich had 
 served them as pillows, replenished the fire, and liberated 
 the fowls from the inverted baskets under which they 
 were confined. 
 
 The women shouldered their hoes and strode off to 
 the plantation, which was situated at some little distance 
 from the village, or went with their black clay pots to 
 the public brook, where they took a sociable bath, con- 
 versing loudly on their domestic cares. The men went 
 away to the forest with their flint-and-steel guns, the 
 locks of which were covered with guards of monkey- 
 skin to keep the priming dry. The old men and boys, 
 having nothing else to do, inspected my proceedings. 
 They saw me boil some water in my camp-kettle, throw 
 in a handful of withered leaves, pour out in an enamelled 
 iron cup a brownish liquid like the stagnant water of the 
 swamps, and finally flavour it, as they supposed, with 
 lumps of salt. Next uncasing my double-barrelled 
 rifle, I fired off a couple of caps, at which everybody 
 laughed, as if I had said something facetious. I then 
 marched into the bush, attended by Mongilomba and
 
 Book I] THE FOREST yj 
 
 a native hunter. Passing through that pecuHar shrubby 
 vegetation which always springs up on ground that has 
 been cleared, we crossed a mangrove swamp and entered 
 the primeval forest. 
 
 I then experienced an impression similar to that which 
 I have felt on passing from the garish modern streets of 
 some Italian town into a vast cathedral, with avenues of 
 dusky pillars, and lamps faintly glimmering through the 
 dark and perfumed air. For now I no longer saw the 
 bright and brazen sun : strange odours stole upon me : 
 a profound silence weighed upon my ears ; and before 
 me glided, with a noiseless step, the naked figure of 
 my savage guide. 
 
 We walked in a road which elephants had made, 
 and sometimes the hunter turned round, and, taking me 
 by the hand, led me on one side ; then showed me a 
 huge log suspended point downwards in the air, and 
 connected with a creeper which was trailed across the 
 track : when the elephant, passing by, tripped over this 
 creeper, the log of wood fell upon his neck and killed 
 him on the spot. 
 
 The bottom of the forest was open, with only a brake 
 of bushes here and there, and was floored with leaves 
 and dry wood, slowly decaying into vegetable mould. 
 Creeping plants like cordage united the trees together, 
 and sometimes a withered trunk was suspended in its fall, 
 as a mast when cut away is sometimes entangled in the 
 ^iggi^g- So mighty were some of these primeval trees 
 that a bird on the loivest bough was out of shot. Often
 
 38 THE FOREST [Book I 
 
 we came to brooks flowing in the channel of natural 
 ravines, bridged over simply by a tree cut down. I had 
 then to take off my boots, and walk over as best I could, 
 holding the gun like a balancing pole in my hands. 
 
 Now and then we came to small prairies or meadows, 
 like bright green lakes am_id the forest ; in these buffaloes 
 and antelopes feed at morn and eve. 
 
 When the sun was high we sat down by the side of 
 a brook and ate some roasted plantains. The hunter, 
 seeing that I wished to drink, brought me water in a 
 folded leaf. Then we rested for awhile, and I fell into 
 a reverie. 
 
 I used when I was a boy to look forward to bedtime, 
 for as soon as the light was put out and my eyes were 
 closed, the scenes of which I had read would appear 
 like pictures to my mind. And now here I was, in the 
 great wild forest of my waking dreams ; and here was 
 the hunter with his bow and arrow, and here was the 
 vast footprint of the elephant, impressed in the red 
 clay, by the margin of the stream : it all seemed familiar 
 to me, rather as a memory than something new. And 
 at first the forest had for me a wondrous charm, but I 
 soon began to weary of it : nothing is more depressing 
 than to pass many days in these gloomy halls of verdure, 
 with walls and ceilings of a sombre green, with nev^er 
 an horizon, and but seldom a glimpse of the blue sky ; 
 without sound or motion, save the rustling of a squirrel 
 or a lizard, the chirp oi a monkey, or the grating 
 voice of the cicada. My hopes of sport were quickly dis-
 
 Book I] 
 
 THE FOREST 
 
 39 
 
 sipated, for in the recesses of the virgin forest, as in the 
 dark depths of the ocean, animal Hfe is rare. Water is 
 plentiful, fruits abound, yet all is silent and deserted. 
 There are few flocks or herds ; antelopes and buffaloes 
 are usually found singly or in pairs ; the elephants go 
 in twos and threes. The grazing animals being few in 
 number, beasts of prey are also scarce. There are no 
 lions ; the leopard is the monarch of the forest, and is 
 said to sleep in a hollow tree through the season of the 
 
 heavy rains. It appears strange that game should be 
 found in such enormous quantities on the withered 
 plains of Southern Africa, and yet be so scanty in a 
 land where vegetable life is luxuriant and never fails. 
 But in the forest there is little pasture, and perhaps 
 the moist, miasmatic, dimly-lighted air is injurious to 
 quadrupeds as well as men. But whatever the cause
 
 40 THE FOREST ^ .[Book I 
 
 may be, the fact is universal, and has been observed, 
 not only in Equatorial Africa, but also in Brazil.^ 
 
 When I returned to the village at eleven o'clock, 
 the old men were seated on logs, smooth and glassy 
 from use, in a large open shed — a roof supported on 
 poles — in the centre of the village. Public buildings 
 in savage Africa are ahyays thus constructed, for the 
 sake of light and air, and from these bare poles the 
 column is descended. The Palaver-House serves as 
 the village club, where ladies are not permitted to in- 
 trude ; it is also employed on great occasions as the hall 
 of justice, and chamber for the council of the elders. 
 The questions discussed at these meetings are not 
 always of a trivial kind ; for though this village only 
 contained thirty or forty souls, it was nevertheless an 
 independent State, with a territory of its own, making 
 laws, contracting alliances, and waging foreign wars. 
 
 I sat down among these venerable senators and 
 conversed with them via IMongilomba. Presently boys 
 came in from the bush, carrying vegetable bottles 
 frothing over with palm-wine, which is the sap of a 
 tree, tapped in the evening and running all night into 
 a bottle suspended under the incision. In the early 
 morn it is simply a luscious syrup, but when left awhile 
 in the sun, it ferments into an intoxicating liquor, 
 which drinks like gingerbeer, and afterwards affects the 
 brain like military' port. 
 
 This beverage preceded the siesta. It was now the 
 
 ' Darwin's ' Naturalist's Voyage.'
 
 Book I] THE FOREST 41 
 
 Noon, the period of silence and tranquillity, the hour 
 which the Portuguese call The Calm. The sun sat en- 
 throned on the summit of the sky and poured its white 
 rays upon the earth ; the street and the house-roofs shone 
 under the light, as if they were covered with snow. The 
 old men retired, the children were called in by their 
 mothers, and the huts were closed. Even the fowls and 
 the twittering birds took refuge in the shade. 
 
 The hunters returned in the afternoon, and the 
 others ran to meet them, and welcomed them as if 
 they had been gone for years, murmuring to them in 
 a baby language, calling them by their names of love, 
 patting their breasts, and laying arm upon arm, shaking 
 their right hands, caressing their faces, and embracing 
 them in every possible way, except with the lips ; for 
 these poor benighted creatures have never discovered 
 our civilised niethod of endearment. 
 
 An interesting memoir might be composed on 
 ' The Geographical Distribution of Kisses.' The New 
 Zealanders, Tahitians, Papuans, Australians, and Es- 
 quimaux are unacquainted with the practice,^ but it is 
 Africa which possesses the sad distinction of being the 
 largest non-kissing area in the world. Whether this fact 
 is due to the African women having black lips (some- 
 times, though rarely, the under lip is red) is an inter- 
 esting speculation. The origin of kissing may, perhaps, 
 occupy, as it deserves, the attention of some future 
 
 ' Tylor's ' Researches into the Early History of Mankind,' 2nd edit. 
 ■1870, p. 51, quoted in Darwin's 'Expression of the Emotions,' p.* 216.
 
 42 THE FOREST [Book I 
 
 Darwin. Was it discovered by a man or a woman ? 
 Is the table-land of the Oxus and Jaxartes, or that of 
 the Tigris and Euphrates, the cradle of the custom ? 
 For my part I am inclined to believe that the first kiss 
 proceeded not from a lover's, but a mother's lips. In 
 the backwoods of Liberia I saw a woman nursing her 
 baby, and placing her mouth against the child's — it 
 was not quite a kiss, but it was very nearly one ; and is 
 it not natural to suppose that our tenderest embrace has 
 sprung with our tenderest feelings, from the deep pure 
 sources of maternal love 1 
 
 The original organ of kissing was probably the nose, 
 for in the South Seas they rub noses together as a mark 
 of aftection ; and though the Africans cannot do this 
 because their noses are so flat, an analogous custom 
 prevails in Senegambia : when a Mandingo wishes to 
 announce his passion, he takes the hand of his sweet- 
 heart and sniffs it ardently three times. 
 
 But let not my lady reader despise the poor un- 
 tutored African, or judge him too severely on account 
 of an ignorance for which he is not to blame. He is 
 ever willing to adopt the customs of a higher race. A 
 converted negro in the Gaboon assured me with honest 
 pride that, though the heathen did not know how to 
 kiss, the Christians were proficient in the art ; and once 
 in a village on the Grain Coast, a young Kruman, 
 sitting with his wife, called out to me, ' Lookee, massa, 
 I sabby kiss ! ' and forthwith suited the action to the 
 word, while the lady seemed to be much amused, and
 
 Book I] THE FOREST 43 
 
 not altogether displeased with this novel application 
 of the lips. 
 
 The kiss has been a powerful agent in the annals of 
 the human race. There have been kisses, like those 
 of Antony and Cleopatra, of Henry VIII. and Anne 
 Boleyn, which have shaken an empire or destroyed a 
 religion. If we knew the secret history of Courts, we 
 should probably learn that nations have been created 
 or erased by the magic touches of a woman's lips. A 
 great problem, therefore, rises before us : * Has this dis- 
 covery proved an affliction or a blessing to mankind .'' 
 Probably the latter ; for it has certainly increased the 
 influence of women, and the influence of women is em 
 ployed more for good than for ill. Beloved, tender 
 hearted women, companions and consolers of our life ! 
 With a kiss you welcome the infant to the world ; with 
 a kiss you bestow on soft-cheeked youths the raptures 
 of first love ; with a kiss you alleviate the agony of death. 
 And what, alas ! are the kisses which men too often give 
 you in return .^ Judas-kisses, treacherous and fatal, which 
 poison innocent hearts, and turn to curses on painted and 
 despairing lips. Happy are those who can remember 
 without remorse the kisses of their vouth !
 
 44 
 
 THE WITCH 
 
 I SPENT a week at this village, rambling in the forest 
 throughout the day, at night listening to the conversa- 
 tion of the natives, and taking down their legends, 
 fables, and songs. I especially studied their religious 
 rites, which made Mongilomba shake his head and say, 
 ' Ah, Mr. Reade, you fond of fetish too much ! ' evidently 
 suspecting me of a secret inclination towards paganism. 
 However, he assisted me in my researches, and informed 
 me that a celebrated fetishman lived in a neighbouring 
 village. I sent him a message, -and he came the next 
 day, attended by half a dozen of his disciples. He was 
 a tall man, dressed in white, with a girdle of leopard's 
 skin, from w^hich hung an iron bell of the same shape 
 and size as our sheep-bells. He was covered with horns 
 and shells, and many other kinds of amulets, which 
 dang-led about him as he walked. He had two white 
 marks over his eyes, and various cabalistic dabs of paint 
 on his arms and breast. I told him that I was a great 
 fetishman in ' my country, took some of my own hair, 
 frizzled it with a burning glass, and gave it him. He 
 popped it with alacrity into his little grass bag, for white 
 man's hair is fetish of the first order. Then I poured 
 some raspberry vinegar into a glass, and offered it to
 
 Book I] THE WITCH 45 
 
 him, saying that it was blood from the brains of great 
 doctors. Upon this he received it with much reverence, 
 and dipping his fingers into it, as if it were snapdragon, 
 sprinkled with it his forehead, both feet between his first 
 toes, and the ground behind his back. I then requested 
 to see some of Jiis fetish, but he demanded such an ex- 
 orbitant sum for the trouble of trying to take me in, 
 and asked me so often to gWQ him my burning glass, 
 that I was glad to pay him his fee and send him away ; 
 after which I was solemnly warned by the natives 
 against the cunning and avarice of fetishmen. 
 
 These spiritual pastors are neither beloved nor 
 esteemed by their flocks, but contrive to shear them 
 closely all the same. The Africans may hate the 
 fetishmen, but never doubt their supernatural authority 
 and power. They are general practitioners in prayer and 
 physic, deliver oracles, heal diseases, predict the future, 
 detect thieves, exorcise the possessed, and superintend 
 all rites, sacrifices, and ceremonies of religion. In their 
 mysteries they employ a wooden whistle, its orifice 
 covered with a bat's wing, which gives forth sounds 
 not unlike those produced by comb and brown paper, 
 and firmly believed by the people to be 'voices from 
 the spirit world.' The looking-glass serves them as a 
 magic mirror, in which they exhibit the images of the 
 absent and the dead. But their chief ottiice is that of 
 Witchfinder and Administrator of Ordeals, and then the 
 farce of superstition becomes a tragedy, as will presently 
 be seen.
 
 4e) THE WITCH [Book I 
 
 On my return to Baraka I met another member of 
 the mission, Mr. Mackey, who lived at Corisco, a little 
 sea-island near the mouth of the Gaboon. He sug- 
 gested that I should pay him a visit, and make trips 
 to the neighbouring mainland. I gladly accepted his 
 proposal, remaining only at Gaboon a few days to 
 write up my diary and memoranda. But before I went 
 away I had what is called a Palaver with my Krumen. 
 The vagabond life of the traveller was by no means to 
 their taste ; they preferred— and nobody can blame 
 them — their regular daily work, with food in measured 
 quantities at stated hours, and in the evening the com- 
 pan}^ of their countr)'men, with the dance and music of 
 their native land. So now, hearing that I was about to 
 leave the comparatively civilised Gaboon, they marched 
 up to the house in single hie, Smoke-Jack, as head man, 
 leading the way. Bottle o Beer, Straw Hat, Dry Toast, 
 Corkscrew, &c., bringing up the rear. Such humorous 
 appellations are bestowed upon Krumen by the captains 
 and agents who engage them, native names being diffi- 
 cult to remember and pronounce. 
 
 * What is the matter now } ' said I. 
 
 Smoke-Jack picked up a piece of wood with his toes, 
 took it in his hand, looked at it with a perplexed air, 
 and flung it away. I repeated the question. Then he 
 came out all in a burst : — 
 
 'Mass'r! We go bush with you. Paddle plenty. 
 Mosquito bite we too much. We no catch good chop 
 (get good living) there. S'pose Kruman no chop fine, 
 he no fit work fine — for true.'
 
 Book I] THE WITCH ■ ' 47 
 
 ' Well ? ' 
 
 Smoke-Jack (gathering courage). — ' Now you want 
 catch Corisco ! (With scorn j Corisco no place at all ! 
 No factory^ lib there. Xo Kru-boy lib there. Only bush- 
 nigger lib, no more. Gaboon, he fine place. I like sit 
 down here long time — for true. But Corisco no place 
 at all.' 
 
 As I liked my Krumen and did not wish to part 
 with them, and did not understand why they should 
 object to a place because it was not a commercial em- 
 porium, I at first declined to consider their objections, 
 telling them gently but firmly to mind their own busi- 
 ness, to go to . . . with various other expressions 
 of the same nature. Upon which, strange to say, they 
 became exceedingly impertinent ; insinuated that I had 
 no more worldly goods than a mere missionary-man, and 
 in fact openly rebelled. ' For the Gaboon they had been 
 engaged, and in the Gaboon they would remain. Accord- 
 ingly I paid them off, obtained them another master, 
 and saw them a few days afterwards with red bargee 
 caps on their heads, and new cloths round their loins, 
 rolling casks in the midday sunshine, glistening with 
 perspiration, and as merry as grigs ; though what a grig 
 may be I have not yet been able to ascertain, and 
 probably never shall. 
 
 Mongilomba hired for me a stout canoe with Mpongwe 
 paddlers, and we sailed to Corisco, which, even in this luxuri- 
 ant land, is distinguished for its beauty. It is a little world 
 in miniature, with its miniature forests, miniature prairies.
 
 4S THE WITCH [Book I 
 
 miniature mountains, miniature rivers, miniature lakes, 
 and miniature cliffs on the sea-shore. The natives are 
 called Bengas, and are closely allied to the Mpongwe. 
 Missionaries are the only white men on the island, and 
 congratulate themselves upon the fact ; for their precepts 
 are not counteracted by the example of the traders, and 
 the Church is not overshadowed by the Factory, as always 
 happens when they both stand side by side. Wealth is 
 a virtue in savage life : ' good ' and ' rich ' are synonyms. 
 Not only are rich men courted and flattered, they are 
 really esteemed. The natives do not respect a poor 
 man whatever his private character may be, and in such 
 settlements as Gaboon the missionaries are poor in com- 
 parison with the traders. But in Corisco they appear to 
 be rich, and they are, in a certain sense, the lords and 
 masters of the island. The influence thus obtained is 
 employed, it is needless to say, for the advantage of 
 the natives themselves, and it is only to be regretted 
 that the missionaries have not more. While I was at 
 Cerisco an incident occurred which showed how power- 
 less are verbal arguments to extirpate old customs, or, 
 in other words, to change the constitution of the native 
 mind. 
 
 One evening as we sat in the parlour of the mission- 
 house with the window open, we heard a wild and piteous 
 cry arising from a village near at hand. My friends 
 immediately became grave and silent, and two girls in 
 the school-room adjoining burst forth into clamorous 
 lamentations. They were called in and told they might
 
 Book I] THE WITCH 49 
 
 go home, for they belonged to the village from which 
 the cry had come. This, I was informed, was the death- 
 wail, and would be the knell of more lives than one. A 
 chieftain had been lying for some time in a hopeless 
 state ; a woman had been found guilty of bewitching 
 him ; and her son, who was seven years old, had been 
 included in the verdict, lest he should become the 
 Avenger of Blood when he grew up to be a man. 
 
 Although the Africans understand that death can 
 never be escaped, as is shown by their song — 
 
 Rich man and poor fellow, all men must die : 
 Bodies are shadows ; why should I be sad ? 
 
 — yet they do not seem to regard it altogether as a natural 
 event, and when a person of. importance dies, the fetish- 
 man is summoned to make a post-mortem examination, 
 and to declare the cause of the death. He mutters 
 incantations, casts down knotted cords, and looks in-- 
 tently in his glass. Sometimes he says a Spirit killed 
 the man for having neglected to make him presents 
 (through the fetishman) and to consult Him on his 
 affairs. Sometimes he says the death came from a witch. 
 Then the village drum is beaten, that the people who 
 are in the plantations may hear it and return. For the 
 drum has its language. With short lively sounds it 
 summons to the dance ; it thunders forth the alarm of 
 fire or war, loudly and quickly, with no intervals between 
 the beats ; it rattles for the marriage ; it tolls for the 
 death ; and now it says in deep and muttering sounds : 
 Come to the ordeal ! come to the ordeal! come ! come ! come ! 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 THE WITCH [Book I 
 
 The people assemble and stand round in a ring. The 
 fetishman begins to sing, and then he walks about with 
 a tiger-cat skin in his hand. He lays the skin at the 
 feet of the witch, singing all the while. When the soiig 
 is done the people seize the witch (I use this word in a 
 general sense), and then the ordeal is administered. The 
 accused is usually a slave of no value, or some one against 
 whom the fetishman has a grudge, or some one whorn 
 the people have already suspected, and are ready to 
 condemn. 
 
 The ordeal is administered in all cases of suspected 
 crime, and the method varies in different regions of the 
 Coast. In some parts the accused plunges his hand into 
 a scalding mixture. In Bonny he is made to swim across 
 the creek, in which, every day, the sacred sharks are fed. 
 In another kind of ordeal (which I have witnessed my- 
 self) something is put into the prisoner's eye to dim his 
 sight ; several grains of Malaquetta pepper are cast upon 
 the ground before him, and he must pick them all up 
 without missing one. In the Delta of the Niger the 
 Calabar bean is given. But the commonest kind of 
 ordeal is the Draught, which is usually prepared from 
 the bark of some poisonous tree. The accused drinks, 
 and then, turning towards the four quarters of the 
 heavens, calls upon the demons to attest his innocence. 
 He is ordered to walk backwards and forwards, and to 
 step over branches that are laid upon the ground. If 
 the poison acts as an emetic, he preserves his senses, 
 and is acquitted, but if the draught is retained it speedily
 
 Book I] ■ THE WITCH 51 
 
 affects the head ; the prisoner becomes drunk ; the 
 branches rise up before him Hke the great trunks of 
 trees ; h% Hfts his legs high as if to straddle over them, 
 and at last falls down. He is usually killed upon the 
 spot. But the Corisco woman, who was found guilty 
 in this manner, was remanded, her victim being still 
 alive. Had he recovered she would not have been 
 punished, for the Africans do not consider sorcery in 
 itself a crime — in fact, all white men are supposed to be 
 magicians — but punish a person for killing by means 
 of sorcery, just as they would punish any other kind of 
 murder. 
 
 The woman in question had confessed her guilt, and 
 as she had been flogged for some hours beforehand, there 
 was nothing mysterious in the avowal. But witches do 
 frequently accuse themselves when not compelled, and 
 will even enter into minute details — such as directing the 
 people to look in some particular place where they will 
 find the witch-power, which is usually a buried spider 
 or a bundle of dried plants. These self-accusations 
 were common enough in the middle ages, as everybody 
 knows, and have usually been attributed to hallucina- 
 tion. But the fact is that such people were actually 
 witches — by intent. Wherever sorcery is a general 
 belief some people will practise it, as they suppose. 
 They cannot indeed have intendews with Satan, or 
 ride through the air on broom-sticks, except in their 
 dreams. But they can do certain things which they ^ 
 believe will cause sickness, calamity, and death to those
 
 52 THE WITCH [Book I 
 
 against whom they are directed. They can mix hell- 
 broths, and mutter imprecations, and make little waxen 
 images of their intended victims, whose lives \^ill waste 
 away as their images waste away when buried in the 
 ground. Such arts as these are perhaps practised in 
 England by ' white witches ' at the present day : they 
 are certainly rife in Africa and other savage lands. 
 
 The next morning I went up with Mr. Mackey to 
 the village. The man was still alive ; he had become 
 suddenly speechless in the night, which had made them 
 suppose that he was dead. We found him lying in a 
 state of stupor on the bamboo couch. The hut was 
 completely filled with women, who had taken off their 
 gay clothing and shaved their heads, in token of grief. 
 Sometimes one of them would sit down by the sick 
 man, throw her arms round him, and implore him not 
 to die ; while others, believing that the soul had actually 
 left the body, but w^as still hovering round it and might 
 be persuaded to return, called to it by his name, and 
 eagerly beckoned with their hands, and cried in earnest 
 accents, ' Come back, Adonga : come back into your 
 body. O do not abandon us ; do not go away ! ' 
 
 In grave contrast to their shrill sorrrow sat the men, 
 also naked, in the chief house of the town, silent and 
 fasting. On the ground in their midst crouched the 
 child, his waists tied together, and the marks of a severe 
 wound visible upon his arm. The woman was not there ; 
 she had been scourged in such a manner that she was 
 not fit to be seen.
 
 Book I] THE WITCH . 53 
 
 Mr. Mackey said that he had come to speak to Okota, 
 the nearest of kin. Okota issued from the crowd, and, 
 seating himself at Mr. Mackey's feet, hstened to him 
 with an attentive and respectful air. 
 
 ' Death,' said the missionary, * must come to all. It 
 is foolish to think that if a man dies he has been be- 
 witched.' 
 
 ^ Death must come to all,' replied Okota, 'but not 
 always from God. Sometimes it comes from the hand 
 of men.' 
 
 ' But how do you know that this comes from the 
 hand of men?' 
 
 ' The woman was given qtiai (the ordeal drink), and 
 qiiai says that she has done it.' 
 
 ' But qiiai can sometimes be wrong. When Isambo 
 went to the Muni he was lost a long time. All people 
 thought that he was dead. One man, you said, was the 
 witch ; that man you gave quai, and qiiai said he had 
 killed Isambo. But Isambo came back after all. and 
 qiiai was wrong.' 
 
 At this there was a roar of laughter. 
 * It is not only qiiail said Okota. ' The woman con- 
 fesses she has done this thing. What man comes to you 
 and says, / have stolen your fowl, if he has not stolen it ? 
 That woman is killing my brother, and when he is dead 
 I will kill her.' 
 
 It was the first time, so Mr. Mackey informed me, 
 that he had received such a candid answer from the 
 natives. They usually pretended to be convinced by
 
 54 THE WITCH [Book I 
 
 his arguments, promised to liberate the witch, and after- 
 wards killed her as secretly as they could ; but never 
 had that excellent man (whose earthly labours are now 
 at an end) been able to save a single life. 
 
 The woman was taken out to sea and drowned : the 
 boy was burnt alive. Bags of powder were tied to his 
 legs, and, as an eye-witness described it, made him 'jump 
 like a dog.' When I asked why the b£)y had been put to 
 death in a more cruel manner than the woman, my inform- 
 ant seemed to be astonished, and replied that burning and 
 drowning were all the same.* From this one might infer 
 that the barbarity of the negro is mere ignorance and 
 thoughtlessness, like that of the schoolboy spinning a cock- 
 chafer ; which, by the way, I have seen a full-grown negro 
 do with a certain kind of beetle, and watching the opera- 
 tion with ludicrous delight as if it were a toy. But negro 
 barbarity is not ignorance alone. It cannot be denied that 
 the Africans are connoisseurs in cruelty, that murder is 
 one of their fine arts, that executions with them are enter- 
 tainments, which they vary with a view to artistic effect. 
 The scenes which take place when they kill their 
 criminals or prisoners of war, and in which women 
 and children take an active part, are too horrible to 
 be described. And yet these same people are timid 
 and gentle in their ordinary moments ; they seldom ill- 
 use their wives, their children, or their slaves ; they are 
 frightened by the severity which prevails on board a 
 man-of-war ; and I have seen them start with horror at 
 our pictures of battle-fields covered with the wounded
 
 Book I] - THE WITCH 55 
 
 and the dead, and cry, ivhite man, too cruel, too cruel I 
 Such are the anomaHes of human nature. The gay, 
 light-hearted Parisians, the mild, peace-loving negroes, 
 are transformed to monsters when their evil passions 
 are aroused.
 
 56 
 
 TURTLE 
 
 CoRISCO Bay abounds with grey mullet and green 
 turtle. The former are taken in casting-nets, made of 
 the pine-apple fibre, which is soft and glossy as the finest 
 silk. When the mullet are seen splashing in the shal- 
 lows the fisherman steps through the water as silently 
 as he can, lifting his feet high, and with a dexterous 
 movement of the wrist throws the net so that it 
 spreads out in the air as it descends. It is drawn in 
 full of shiny, dancing bodies, which are dried in the 
 sun, and when they are 'ripe,' or, in other words, 
 putrid, are used as a sauce piquante for plantains and 
 cassada. 
 
 The turtle are speared by moonlight, and as I wished 
 to see something of the sport Mr. IMackey introduced me 
 to a skilful turtler named Abauhi, who told me it was 
 now full moon, and so, if it did not rain, I could accom- 
 pany him that very night. At sunset I watched the 
 dark mountains on the Main across the bay. Not a 
 cloud appeared above them. At eight o'clock I went 
 to Abauhi's hut ; he said that when the moon rose above 
 the plantains we could go. 
 
 It was one of those nights in which, say the natives, 
 it is impossible to catch fish because the sky has too
 
 Book I] TURTLE 57 
 
 many eyes. When the moon had risen above the green- 
 leaved trees Abauhi, came forth, carrying a couple of long 
 spears, and followed by two men with paddles in their 
 hands. He led the way down to the beach, and pushed 
 a small canoe into the waten He then asked me if I 
 could swim, as canoes were often upset in the turtle- 
 spearing business. I was obliged to reply that I could 
 not. He seemed surprised at my venturing at all on the 
 water in such a case, and advised me to go home again. 
 Finding that I was not inclined to do this, he placed 
 me in the bottom of the canoe, holding the sides with 
 my hands, and told me not to stir after we had once 
 started. 
 
 His injunction was quite unnecessary, for, as we 
 wobbled along in this tiniest of vessels, it seemed to 
 me that only a succession of miracles kept it from 
 capsizing. But after a little while I saw and admired 
 how cleverly these men preserved its equilibrium with 
 delicate touches of the paddle and inclinations of their 
 bodies. 
 
 Now Abauhi stood up in the prow, with a foot on 
 each gunwale, and the moon shone on his swelling arms 
 as he threw himself into vigorous and graceful attitudes. 
 We came to the lonely side of the island, where no lights 
 glimmered on the shore, and no voices or music could be 
 heard. Softly we glided through the shallow waters out- 
 side the dark shadows of the rocks and trees. The 
 sweet and balmy air breathed lightly on our cheeks ; the 
 night-earth uttered its mysterious sounds : hushed and
 
 58 TURTLE [Book I 
 
 Still lay the sea, and seemed to smile in the moonlight 
 as it slept. 
 
 Two mortal hours, and nothing had been seen. 
 Clouds encircled, and threatened to obscure the moon. 
 My joints became horribly cramped ; and when I looked 
 at the dim water over which we passed, I could not 
 believe that it was possible to see a turtle where I could 
 see only the reflections of the stars. 
 
 But the two men continued to paddle without saying 
 a word. Abauhi remained as attentive as ever, his Q.y^?> 
 lowered and his spear upraised. 
 
 Suddenly the spear was hurled into the water. The 
 men gave a yell. Something large and black leapt 
 through the air, and fell into the sea with a prodigious 
 splash. Abauhi snatched up a spare paddle, and the 
 canoe seemed to fly. In front could be seen a cloud 
 of white foam skimming along the surface of the sea. 
 This I supposed to be the turtle itself ; it was, however, 
 the staff of the spear : the turtle was in the water under- 
 neath. The iron spear-head, which is small, with an 
 almost imperceptible barb, is tied by a string to the staff 
 or butt. When the spear is thrown, and the turtle is 
 struck, the spear-head remains in the flesh, and the staff, 
 separated from it but retained by the string, floats on 
 the surface of the water, prevents the turtle from diving 
 beyond the length of the string, and marks its course. 
 
 As soon as he had caught the staff, which, drawn by 
 the turtle, was hissing along the surface of the sea, 
 Abauhi drew the creature towards the canoe, playing
 
 Book I] 
 
 TURTLE 
 
 59 
 
 it like a salmon. He then gave it the second spear : 
 again it sprang from the sea, looking black against the 
 moon ; and we had another burst, but this time much 
 shorter than the last. The turtle was now 'distressed,' 
 and with 2. yo hee yo ! (borrowed from English merchant 
 sailors) was hauled into the canoe, when Abauhi wel- 
 comed it by patting its head, and spitting down its 
 mouth. This he told me was ' play,' and showed me a 
 
 scar on his arm which a turtle had inflicted in sportive 
 retribution. 
 
 We hunted an hour longer w^ithout a find, and then 
 returned to Corisco. The turtle lying in the bottom of 
 the canoe uttered the most extraordinary sounds, all 
 of which caricatured humanity. Sometimes it was a 
 harsh, dry, consumptive cough ; sometimes the hawking 
 sound emitted by Yankees previous to expectoration ; 
 sometimes a deep-drawn, gasping, .eructative, apoplectic,
 
 6o TURTLE [Book I 
 
 after-dinner sigh. I carefully noted down these vocal 
 peculiarities, with the view of writing a memoir upon this 
 interesting Batrachian ; and the next day, having caused 
 the animal to be dissected, I made three scientific ex- 
 periments, all of which were attended with complete 
 success. The first resulted in an excellent soup ; the 
 second in a dish of cutlets ; and the third in liver fried. 
 Of these I ate in the evening to repletion, and dreamt 
 that I was alderman soup in the infernal regions, being 
 lapped up by plethoric green turtle in scarlet robes.
 
 6i 
 
 THE CREDITOR 
 
 Some time after this event, as I was writing in my little 
 chamber near the sea, I heard a peculiar song, which I 
 at once recognised as that of Krumen, mingled with the 
 sound of oars. I looked out of window, and saw a 
 large boat coming towards the beach, with a white man 
 seated in the stern. He was the carpenter of a vessel 
 trading off the Bapuku River, at a little distance from 
 Corisco, and had come over in the long boat to buy 
 fowls and plantains. Here was an opportunit}' of passing 
 over to the Main. I asked for a passage, and obtained 
 it ; put money in my purse, or, in other words, cloth and 
 tobacco in my box, and engaged Abauhi, w^ho could 
 speak a little English, as assistant to Mongilomba. 
 
 We started the next day. The sea-breeze was due 
 at noon, but on this occasion it was late, and we lay, as 
 I have lain many a time in that terrible bay, a white- 
 hot unclouded sun above, a calm implacable sea below. 
 Sometimes the sea-breeze does not blow at all, so the 
 Krumen were ordered to their oars, and languidly dipped 
 them in the sullen deep. Others stood up, shading 
 their eyes with their hands, and trying to detect the 
 first ripple on the brink of the horizon. Presently one 
 of them turned the wetted palm of his hand seawards.
 
 62 THE CREDITOR [Book I 
 
 Wind come ! was the cry, and in a moment all faces 
 brightened ; the oars were shipped and the sail set. At 
 first it flapped dubiously against the mast, but soon, 
 coyly expanding, opened its white bosom to the breeze. 
 The boat bowed gracefully up and down, and then 
 began to ' speak,' as the sailors say : there came a 
 pleasant sound from underneath the prow, and the bub- 
 bles floating past us showed that we were off. The 
 Krumen sat down to plait grass hats and mend their 
 shirts, which they held' between their toes, while they 
 worked away with perforated fish-bone for needle, and 
 plaintain fibre for thread. 
 
 Butterflies were roaming about in the middle of the 
 bay. Some of them passed overhead with a swift hawk- 
 like flight, giving two or three strokes with their broad 
 and powerful wings, and then skimming through the 
 air. Others fluttered close to the surface of the sea, on 
 which they perched, as if sipping the salt water. Their 
 fragile bodies floating by showed that there was danger 
 in the practice, and sometimes these shipwrecked crea- 
 tures of the air took refuge on board the boat. One of 
 them settled on the shoulder of a Corisco man, who 
 shook it off (as a bad omen) in terrible dismay. I 
 always took pleasure in watching these insects, for 
 their ways are not as the ways of butterflies in England. 
 They often collect in swarms arid migrate, flying over 
 the tops of the highest trees, and darkening the air.^ In 
 
 ' Compare Andersson's 'Lake Xgami,' p. 274. Lander's ' Niger Ex- 
 pedition,' vol. i. p. 62. Bates' 'Amazon,' ch. vi.
 
 Book I] THE CREDITOR 63 
 
 the dry season they resort to the brook side and perch 
 on the mud, apparently to drink, incessantly opening 
 and shutting their wings, as the Spanish ladies with 
 their fans. And in the darkest, deepest regions of the 
 forest, where no flowers are found, where no bird-songs 
 are heard, where no sunbeam can ever penetrate, where 
 perpetual twilight reigns, a beautiful blue butterfly may 
 frequently be seen flashing through the dusky shades, 
 and feasting on the corpses of vegetable life. 
 
 The breeze was continuous, but was not fresh enous-h 
 for the long-boat, which had been built for heavy seas. 
 We therefore sailed but slowly, and in the evening the 
 wind left us, and the men took to the oars. At sunset 
 no ship was visible, and the carpenter became alarmed. 
 The bark, he told me, was lying close under the shore, 
 in a small bay, so that the trees shut out the light. 
 There was now no moon, and he feared that we should 
 miss her. The second mate had passed her one black 
 night a matter of five miles, and was never the same 
 man a'terwards. Dead } Yes, he was dead, and most on 
 'em there as wasn't dead was dying. 
 
 The sun set red and angrily ; the clouds began to rise 
 overhead. The spring rains v.-ere now at their height, 
 and fell mostly after dark. I was therefore disgusted, 
 but not surprised, to see a flash of lightning just above 
 the trees. The carpenter put on some old-fashioned 
 oil-skins, I ' the pocket reversible coat, weighing twelve 
 ounces ' — w^aterproof no doubt in an English shower, but 
 not suited to African rain, which went through it at 
 once by sheer weight.
 
 64 THE CREDITOR [Book I 
 
 The rain thickened the air ; no mast-head light had 
 been hoisted ; and, had it not been for the Hghtning, we 
 should not have found the ship, especially as the car- 
 penter was so afraid oi passing her that at first he would 
 not let us approach her at all. 
 
 But when a happy gleam showed us the naked masts 
 in the distance, the Krumen gave a cry of delight, and 
 pulled together w^ith a will. Soon we glided under her 
 dark side ; the ladder fell clattering, and a lantern held 
 by a sailor poured its yellow light upon us. 
 
 The master was lying on the after-lockers in his shirt 
 and trousers : he welcomed me heartily, introduced me to 
 the mate, and apologised for the absence of the mast-head 
 light. Here I noticed that the carpenter and the mate 
 glanced significantly at each other. A Malay steward, 
 with a villanous expression of face, brought me some salt 
 junk and ship's bread, and a bottle of beer ; and, when 
 my supper w^as finished, showed me to a bunk. The 
 skipper came to see if I was comfortable, and told me 
 in confidence that he w^as much troubled with the 
 drunken habits of the mate. He hoped that I would 
 stay on board, as my presence might be a check upon 
 him ; but I said that I intended to live on shore. 
 
 The next morning I examined the bark. She had 
 been sent out to the Brass River — in the Delta of the 
 Niger— but, not being able to fill with palm-oil, had 
 taken to coasting for a cargo, and had come to these 
 out-of-the-way parts to load with ivory and dye-woods. 
 Goods had been given out on trust, but no produce had
 
 Book I] THE CREDITOR 65 
 
 been received ; and so the vessel was high, and the hold 
 was bare. Day after day the creditor-ship lay there, 
 mouldering in rusty chains, suffering the sickness of 
 hope deferred ; every day the captain went on shore to 
 dun the village chief, and always with the same result. 
 
 The decks, fore and aft, were covered with awnings, 
 from which were hung pumpkins, bunches of plantains, 
 specimens of bladder-fish, and other curiosities. Cages 
 ingeniously made of rope, or of old soap boxes with bars 
 of hoop iron, were filled with grey parrots, which, scream- 
 ing incessantly, reminded me of the Pantheon. Against 
 the mainmast was nailed a small dove-cot, from which 
 the pigeons made short and timorous flights. A tame 
 rabbit was running about on the poop, licking the moist 
 planks, and sometimes visiting the steward's pantry below 
 in quest of more substantial food. And on the forecastle- 
 head were four sickly wretches, the remnant of the 
 crew : two of them were playing at chequers with pieces 
 made out of a shark's back-bone ; another was fondling 
 a green monkey with a white spot on its nose ; the last 
 was sitting with his head in his yellow hand, and his 
 eyes fixed on the sea, which afterwards became his 
 grave. All the work of the ship was done by Krumen, 
 as frequently happens on the Coast ; and it is difficult to 
 understand how the trade could ever have been carried 
 on without them. It frequently happens that every 
 white man on board a Coast o' Guinea ship is ' down,' and 
 cases have occurred in which, there being no Krumen on 
 board, all hands have died, and a vessel containing a 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 THE CREDITOR [Book I 
 
 valuable cargo has remained upon the waters like a wreck 
 or castaway.^ 
 
 I took a hut on shore, and found myself among a 
 wild and savage-looking, but not ungentle race. Their 
 villages, like those of the ancient Germans, were com- 
 posed of huts or clusters of huts, each belonging to a 
 family, and each separated from the others. These 
 families were united into a Commune, and presided over 
 by a Patriarch, who had no regal power, being merely 
 ' primus inter pares.' Each paterfamilias was a despot 
 as regarded his own family ; a republican as regarded 
 the State or Commune. Houses, gardens, women, and 
 children were recognised as private property, though not 
 in so rigid a manner as with us ; while the goods ob- 
 tained from foreigners by trade or service, hire of 
 canoes, house rent, &c., were divided equally amongst 
 the Fathers. 
 
 Now, just at present the village was under a cloud. 
 The Fathers were in debt to the ship, and did not mean 
 to pay : first, because they saw that the vessel was 
 a bird of passage; and secondly, because they were 
 little accustomed to trade, and did not appreciate the 
 marketable value of a good name and the policy of 
 meeting their engagements. Under these circumstances 
 they wanted the ship to go away, for savages resemble 
 civilised people in not liking to be dunned. They re- 
 fused to sell fowls and plantains to the captain, plead- 
 
 ' ' The " Ann Grant" has been laden for some time, but cannot come 
 down the river, all hands being dead.' — Letters of a Lady from Sierra Leone.
 
 Book I] THE CREDITOR 67 
 
 ing poverty as their excuse ; nor was the statement 
 entirely without foundation. These people grow only 
 enough for their actual wants ; if they sell food for 
 beads and tobacco they have to go on short commons, 
 and if they sell too much they have to starve. A 
 Portuguese commandant on the Zambesi bought all the 
 rice that was offered him for sale at harvest-time ; but 
 when '■ the hungry season ' came the natives were forced 
 by famine to go and buy it back from him at double 
 and treble the price which he had paid.^ 
 
 The captain procured provisions from Corisco, and 
 dunned the village every morning : he went up the 
 river and dunned the villages along its banks ; for there 
 was not a hamlet in the neighbourhood which was not 
 in his debt. At last he resorted to a plan which is 
 common enough upon the Coast, especially in the Delta 
 of the Niger. He arrested one of the villagers who had 
 comp on board, and put him into irons. This answers 
 well in a Commune where all the citizens stand by one 
 another. But the captain made a serious mistake ; he 
 continued to go on shore. One morning he met a debtor 
 on the beach. ' Well,' said the captain, ' have you any 
 wood for me 1 ' ' Yes,' said the man, ' I have got ten 
 pieces. Would you like to go and see them V The captain 
 thought he would like to go and see them. They let 
 him look at the wood : two or three others sauntered 
 up : a rope was thrown over him, and his hands tied 
 behind him in a trice. However, at the intercession of 
 
 ' Gamitto, ' O Muata Cazembe,' p. 67. 
 ? 2
 
 68 THE CREDITOR [Book I 
 
 the village interpreter, a Corisco man, he was released, 
 and Jack, his head Kruman, taken in exchange. ' Black 
 man,' moralised Mongilomba, 'always listen to other 
 man's palaver ; if palaver be good, he take him ; but 
 white man have hot head, hot hand, hot tongue, and ear 
 be cold.' 
 
 When afterwards I came out of my hut into the 
 village, I noticed how polite everybody was. No one 
 passed me without giving the salutation and shaking 
 hands ; and afterwards, when I wanted a canoe to take 
 me off to the ship, they let me have one for nothing — 
 the first and last incident of that kind which occurred 
 to me in Africa. All this the kind-hearted people did 
 to show that their quarrel Vv'as net with me. I went to 
 the hut, and found Jack in durance vile, One foot was 
 passed through a hole in a heavy log of wood — the 
 native stocks. Now this contrivance was unknown in 
 the Kru country, and therefore Jack felt aggrieved.. In 
 his country he Avould have been lodged on a kind of 
 platform or loft, just under the roof, and over the fire ; 
 and for my part, having seen both methods, I should 
 decidedly prefer the stocks. But there is a great deal 
 in habit ; and Jack considered himself an ill-used man. 
 He did not complain of being imprisoned in another 
 man's stead ; that was ' all in the month,' as the sailors 
 say : it was a ship palaver, and he belonged to the ship. 
 But the Wood was a novelty he could not get over. 
 * I no sabee this thing,' said he ; * this no fashion in we 
 country.'
 
 Book I] THE CREDITOR 69 
 
 The prisoners were soon exchanged, and the palaver 
 ' set.' The captain, as may be supposed, was very 
 bitter on the subject, and accused the natives of 
 cowardice and treachery, forgetting that he had seized 
 a man who came peaceably on board his vessel. It was 
 fortunate for him that he had done no worse : the natives 
 are timid, patient, and forbearing, and eager for the 
 white man's trade ; but the avenging of death is with 
 them a sacred duty ; the ghost of the murdered man 
 would never cease to haunt them if they left it un- 
 performed ; his blood would cry to them from the 
 ground. 
 
 A little to the south of Bapuku is the Muni river, and 
 in front of its mouth some sandbanks, which are called 
 the Alobi, or Mosquito Isles. Upon one of these islands 
 a Captain Stewart built a factory, and traded with the 
 people of the Main. He was a violent man, who never 
 treated the natives well, and when he was drunk baited 
 them with bull terriers. All this was borne without 
 resistance, but not without resentment. 
 
 It happened that he had a debtor, who openly declared 
 that Stewart should never get a billet of wood or a cake 
 of rubber out of him. The man took care not to venture 
 within his power ; but Stewart arrested two of his rela- 
 tions, who were fishing out at sea, chained them hand 
 and foot, and placed them on board one of his vessels, 
 lading off Alobi. Somebody foolishly untied their hands, 
 and they, being probably in fear of their lives, jumped 
 overboard and tried to swim across to the Main. Both
 
 70 THE CREDITOR [Book I 
 
 were drowned, their bodies were washed up on the 
 beach, and some marks were found upon them, which 
 might have been caused by the rocks, but which re- 
 sembled gun-shot wounds. In any case, Captain Stewart 
 had indirectly caused their death. 
 
 That same day he was tried by a council of chiefs, in 
 the presence of all the people. The cause was argued as 
 fairly as if he had been arraigned before an English 
 court of law. There were some who pleaded for him, 
 attempting to prove that no wilful murder had been 
 committed, and pointing out the risk they ran of losing 
 altogether, by an act of violence, the white man's trade. 
 But the two corpses lying in their midst, the death-wail 
 of the women ringing in their ears, the bitter memories 
 of past brutality, spoke with a voice too stern to be 
 silenced by motives of prudence and calculation. The 
 verdict was given ; the sentence was passed ; the execu- 
 tion was prepared. 
 
 The moody looks of the people, their whisperings, 
 their grand council, and the consciousness of his own 
 cruelty made Stewart feel he was in danger. Before he 
 went to sleep he set a guard of Krumen at his door. 
 
 It was a large room with a glass window. In one 
 corner was the bed : here Mrs. Stewart slept ; he himself 
 slept on a mat in the middle of the floor. A cotton 
 wick, floating in a saucer of palm-oil, lighted the room 
 sufficiently for that which was to follow. 
 
 Now imagine, in the dead of night, the long black 
 canoes creeping slowly over from the Main, with soft
 
 Book I] THE CREDITOR 71 
 
 muffled touches of the paddle ; the sound of footsteps 
 stealthily approaching ; a whispered threat, and the Kru- 
 men flying from their post ; something dark behind the 
 window, a blaze of fire, a crash of shivered glass, a loud 
 report, the room filled with smoke, and a poor woman 
 awaking to see the blood streaming from her husband's 
 breast. 
 
 When she found that he was still alive she called the 
 Krumen, and sent them over to Corisco for Mr. iMackey. 
 The morning came ; she was kneeling by Stewart, try- 
 ing to staunch the wound, when the door was burst 
 violently open, a band of naked men poured into the 
 room, their foreheads blackened with the war-paint, and 
 brandishing weapons in their hands. She flung herself 
 upon the body of her husband ; two powerful arms tore 
 her from him, and held her, struggling, as she saw a gun 
 muzzle placed to his breast. When the deed was done 
 they went away without mutilating the corpse or insulting 
 the widow. It was a judicial assassination. The English 
 consul came over to the Muni, arrested two of the mur- 
 derers (or rather executioners), and handed them over to 
 the Spanish authorities at Fernando Po. They were 
 acquitted, and with justice. If white men act like 
 savages, let them be judged by savage laws.
 
 THE TORNADO 
 
 I MADE a little trip into the Bapuku country, ascending 
 the river thirty miles. It was a bright swift stream, 
 with as many turnings as an English lane, so that we 
 were always coming to a corner, and thus took many 
 an aquatic bird or troop of monkeys by surprise. I 
 sat in the bow with my double-barrelled smooth-bore 
 in my hands, and blazed away, greatly delighting my 
 canoe-men, to whom any kind of noise was music, and 
 any kind of fiesh was food. 
 
 Sometimes the sun was on the right hand, sometimes 
 on the left, for the river, like a serpent, seemed to turn 
 upon itself The creeping plant from which india- 
 rubber, is obtained sometimes stretched from tree to 
 tree across the water, its narrow stem being gashed 
 and scarred. The river murmured pleasantly ; little 
 whirlpool dimples danced round and round upon its 
 surface ; snags stood up in the water and nodded to us 
 as we passed : on these a kind of blue martin was usually 
 perched. The villages were numerous along the banks, 
 and before we saw the pale green plantains in which 
 they were embosomed, we could always hear a shouting 
 and screaming, as if a fight were going on, but it was 
 only negro conversation. At last our progress was
 
 Book I] THE TORNADO 73 
 
 completely stopped by an enormous tree which had 
 fallen, as I supposed, by accident right across the river. 
 But this had been done by the natives of the village 
 just above, when the captain came up to dun them ; it 
 was their manner of ' sporting the oak.' However, as 
 I was not a creditor, they showed me the way by land ; 
 and as soon as I was seen approaching, the king came 
 to greet me apparelled in his regal robes — an old pea 
 jacket and a pair of white duck trousers. He led me 
 to his own hut, which contained a table and a chair, and 
 ordered some plantains to be brought for my men. I 
 had shot a monkey in the morning, and Mongilomba 
 persuaded me to lay aside all prejudice and try it with 
 odika. This odika is the fruit of a wild mango : the 
 kernels of the stones are roasted like coffee, pounded, 
 and poured into a mould of basket-work lined with 
 plantain leaves. When cooked with meat it gives a 
 rich gravy ; a specimen may be seen in the South 
 Kensington Museum. 
 
 The king offered to join our repast, and we dined 
 in state. The table was covered with a scarlet cloth. 
 Two w^ash-hand basins smoked upon the board ; in 
 one boiled plantains were served, in the other monkey 
 and odika. There was a dingy salt-cellar, from which 
 we helped ourselves to dingier salt. Mongilomba opened 
 my chest, in which he kept his own clothes, and put on 
 a clean shirt (publicly) with a dignity becoming the 
 occasion. The dinner went off, or rather went down 
 (and kept down) very well. The monkey was more
 
 74 THE TORNADO [Book I 
 
 than a success. It seemed to me that all that there is 
 most exquisite in the hen pheasant, the ortolan, the 
 canvas-back duck were united in the little creature 
 I was eating. When the meal was ended, and sweet 
 digestion crept upon me, I sank into a voluptuous reverie, 
 which gradually deepened into sleep. Then I had a 
 gastronomic dream. The discovery of a new dish, 
 says Brillat Savarin, does more for mankind than the 
 discovery of a new star, and I began to regard myself as 
 a benefactor of my species. I had not only discovered 
 a new vegetable gravy, but also that monkey had a 
 game flavour, I read Jocko a Vodika in all the cartes 
 of the London restaurants ; I saw myself invested with 
 the freedom of the City by a grateful Corporation. 
 
 Awaking, I beheld a man who was eating voraciously. 
 The stomach is a region of sympathy (Van Helmont). 
 I watched him at first with good-natured appreciation ; 
 secondly, with curiosity ; thirdly, with envious desire. 
 What was he eating 1 A greyish coloured mess piled 
 in a calabash. Into this he dipped his wooden spoon 
 with movements so rapid that they would have excited 
 my admiration had they not aroused my fear. In a 
 few moments it would all be gone. 
 
 I had seen nothing like it before. Perhaps it was 
 the wondrous haschish with which Monte Christo re- 
 galed his guests in the palace-cave. It would at least 
 be something better than monkey a Vodika^ this dainty 
 which the man continued to eat with wide-open jaws 
 and glaring eyes.
 
 Book I] THE TORS^ADO 75 
 
 Success in experiment had made me rash. I tapped 
 him on theshoulder, gave an amiable smile, and took the 
 huge glutinous mouthful which he had intended for him- 
 self Bah ! PJiezu ! out it came again, accompanied with 
 many objurgations. ' Bring me some water, ]\Iongi- 
 lomba,' I spluttered ; * this infernal fool has been eating 
 soap and red pepper ! ' And as I rinsed out my mouth 
 I quite wondered that it was not in a lather, while 
 the pepper burnt it like a flame. ' He no be soap, sir,' 
 replied Mongilomba ; ' he grow for bush ; what time you 
 see soap grow for bush } ' 
 
 Mongilomba was right ; the article in question is a 
 fruit or root which tastes like yellow soap, and which 
 is highly relished by the natives, who eat it boiled and 
 seasoned as aforesaid : a fact which may be interesting 
 to botanists, but which sadly interfered with my diges- 
 tion. 
 
 I arranged v/ith the king that we should go out net- 
 hunting the next day, retired to bed on a mat, with a log 
 for my pillow, awoke early, and went out in the brief twi- 
 light of the early morn. The first object that met my eye 
 was Mongilomba, with a calabash of hot water, engaged 
 in some mysterious operation. I drew near enough to 
 see that he had been boring his ears. Through the 
 holes he was passing two little wooden pegs smeared 
 with palm oil. The wood distended the apertures ; the 
 oil alleviated the pain. 
 
 "Having accomplished this, with many grimaces, which 
 serv'ed to illustrate the proverb II fmit soiijfrir pour etre
 
 76 THE TORNADO [Book I 
 
 belle, he vigorously rubbed his teeth with a piece of stick, 
 one end of which was chewed into a pulp. He then took 
 up a small looking-glass, and stared at his extremely ugly 
 face with a simple earnestness comical to behold. A 
 gradual grin spread over his features, and he laid the 
 mirror down with a perfect guffaw of self-complacency. 
 
 I thought that this would be the right moment to 
 remind him that he had a master, and that his master 
 had an appetite. He seemed displeased at this ill-bred 
 interruption, and imperiously ordered the king's women 
 to clean a pot and get a fire ready. A white cock was 
 offered for sale, and after much haggling bought for some 
 tobacco. As these birds can only be caught at roosting 
 tim.e I shot it with my rifle, on which one of the natives 
 exclaimed, ' Heigh ! dis be debbil man ! He no take 
 flint, and he kill wid one ball in 'm gun !' 
 
 I now went to superintend the cuisine, for Mon- 
 gilomba, who was subject to fits of abstraction, had 
 once forgotten to remove from a fowl that which we 
 appreciate only in woodcock and snipe. 
 
 The women assembled in a shed which served as the 
 public kitchen, and prepared the fire. Four half-burnt 
 logs were placed with their charred ends radiating towards 
 a common point. At this point the hollow space was 
 filled with live ashes, dry leaves, and sticks. A woman's 
 breath served as bellows, and soon kindled a brisk flame. 
 A clay pot, half filled with water, was then produced ; 
 the bottom was lined with plantain leaves, which saved 
 the trouble of cleaning it ; the fowl was plucked, drawn,
 
 Book I] THE TORNADO *j*j 
 
 quartered, and thrown in. Meanwhile, another royal lady 
 was pounding the kernels of a certain nut into a paste, 
 using as mortar a thick slab of wood, and as pestle a 
 round hard fruit about double the size of an orange. 
 Another went off to a bush near at hand, and picked off 
 some peppers, which glittered like fuchsia buds upon it : 
 the paste and peppers were thrown in and stirred ; and 
 then it was dished up in the wash-hand basin, this article 
 of crockeryware being used in Africa exclusively for the 
 service of the table. 
 
 A cup of tea concluded my repast, and I then en- 
 quired if my companions were ready for the chase ; but 
 they had been so intently watching my breakfast that 
 they had not yet thought of their own, for the making of 
 tea was always a public entertainment. As soon as they 
 had despatched their plantains and cassada, we started 
 for the bush, accompanied by two dogs with wooden 
 rattles round their necks, and by a woman who was 
 painted a bright red from top to toe, and who carried a 
 basket on her head. I was just going to ask what she 
 was for, when I saw a stranger being still. This was a 
 man so completely crippled that he could move only on 
 all-fours ; and yet he carried the seven nets and scrambled 
 along as quickly as the others walked. There was some- 
 thing so eager and even anxious in his manner — it was 
 so evident he wished to prove he was as good a man as 
 the others, in spite of his infirmity, that I turned to 
 Mongilomba, and said with a missionary air, * Is it not 
 good of that poor fellow, instead of staying idle at home.
 
 78 HIE TORNADO [Book I 
 
 to work just as hard as an able-bodied man ?' 'I should 
 think he does,' replied Mongilomba ; * this people would 
 very soon kill him if he did not.' And he looked at me 
 out of the corner of his eye, as much as to say, ' How 
 very green you are ! ' 
 
 Such is the primitive Commune ! Nobody is allowed 
 to exist unless he makes himself useful. The weakly 
 infant is suppressed ; the diseased or disabled adult is re- 
 moved ; and as for the old people, as soon as they begin 
 to tell long stories, and can no longer gather sticks 
 or draw water, they are put to death. Among these 
 economical tribes the only hospital, the only poorhouse, 
 is the grave. 
 
 The toils were set so as to form a barrier several 
 hundred yards in length, and the men beat up towards 
 it with the dogs. Then the nets were taken up and 
 pitched in another place. Thus many trials were made 
 without result. I had not seen a single head of game, 
 and expressed my contempt of African sport in no 
 measured terms. ' Softly, softly, and we go catch 
 monkey,' said Mongilomba. ' But I don't want to catch 
 monkey,' I replied. However, he explained to me that 
 he had spoken in a parable, and that success was not 
 yet to be despaired of. Again the toils were spread, and 
 I took out my note-book, like the younger Pliny, in 
 the hope of, at all events, bagging an idea. ^ 
 
 • ' Whilst I sat at my nets you would have found me not with my spear, 
 but my pencil and tablet by my side. I mused and wrote, being resolved, 
 if I returned wiih my hands empty, at least to come home with my memo- 
 randa full.' — Book i. Letter vi.
 
 Book I] THE TORNADO 79 
 
 However, at last there was a cry of triumph, and, 
 hastening to the spot, I found a reddish-coloured doe 
 struggling in the net, sometimes giving a short bark and 
 snapping its teeth with rage. I had ordered that nothing 
 should be killed till I had seen it ; but I had no desire 
 to undertake the taming of a shrew, and so at once gave 
 the signal of its death. It was slain with an axe : the 
 head w^as tucked through the fore legs and tied to the 
 hind legs,'and thus being made a bundle, it was crammed 
 into a basket and strapped on the back of the Scarlet 
 Lady, who had attended us, it seems, in case of such a 
 contingency. So menial an occupation as the porterage 
 of game is not relished by the noble savage. On one 
 occasion a man at Bapuku refused to guide me to a plan- 
 tation, about three miles distant from the village, for fear 
 I should kill some game on the way and compel him to 
 carry it. And yet it has often been asserted that the 
 negroes are incapable of foresight ! 
 
 It was to one of those plantations that I went on my 
 return, which took place next day, as the hunters refused 
 to go out again while there was meat in the town. I had 
 been informed by the people of Bapuku that the elephants 
 came every night to pluck the plantains and root up the 
 cassada, and that thereby the villagers were reduced 
 almost to starvation. 
 
 An African plantation is formed on the principle of a 
 backwood clearing, but in a very incomplete manner ; 
 and this is perhaps the only part of the world where a 
 man goes up a tree to cut it down. Passing a hoop,
 
 So THE TORNADO [Book I 
 
 made of a creeper, round the tree and his own waist, he 
 slowly jerks himself up to a height of twelve feet or so 
 from the ground, where the trunk of the tree is com- 
 paratively small, hacks it in two with his rude axe, and 
 jumps down nimbly, the tree descending in one direction, 
 the woodman in the other. The trees lie where they fall : 
 all that is done is to burn off the branches ; then come 
 the women, who prod holes in the ground, plant plan- 
 tains and cassada, and Nature does the rest. 
 
 There are usually two or three huts on a plantation, 
 where the women sleep in the hole-prodding season. 
 Having arrived at the plantation with Abauhi and a 
 native of Bapuku, I took possession of a hovel, much to 
 the disgust of two aged hags dwelling therein. However, 
 I gave them tobacco, Abauhi gave them polite words, and 
 the ogresses, appeased, went off to another' hut. My 
 cork bed was laid out, and on it a native pillow stuffed 
 with fragrant herbs ; so that, as Abauhi remarked, * When 
 you go to sleep you hear the sweet smell.' Night ap- 
 proached, and I took my dinner — a handful of parched 
 ground-nuts and a cup of tea. 
 
 I had already walked round the plantation, and found 
 but one elephant's track, a week old. I was clearly the 
 victim of African exaggeration ; but that had happened 
 so often that I was now inured to it. I had by this time 
 discovered that black men are fond of telling white lies ; 
 I never believed anything, and so was never disap- 
 pointed. T also consoled myself with the reflection 
 that I should enjoy a better night's rest where I was
 
 Book I] THE TORNADO 8i 
 
 than in the town : even at that distance I could hear the 
 regular steam-hammer-like thumping of the eternal 
 drum. 
 
 At first, owing to the strength of my tea, or the 
 lightness of my repast, I did not feel inclined for bed. 
 Seating myself on the trunk of a fallen tree, I listened 
 to the tiger-cat's melancholy cry, and the hooting of 
 the forest birds. Presently these sounds were hushed ; 
 the sea-breeze, which had rustled the leaves of the forest, 
 died away : all Nature held her breath, and above the 
 trees, which stood black against the sky, arose a red 
 and sullen moon. 
 
 The atmosphere was hot and close : I breathed with 
 difficulty : a dull drowsy feeling fell upon me, and, going 
 to bed, I fell asleep at once. 
 
 I was awoke by the rumbling of thunder, and the 
 wind howling in the distance. The men opened their 
 sleepy eyes, rubbed them, and hastily made up the 
 fire. We could see the lightning through the chinks, 
 and the tornado approached us with a dreadful sound. 
 As it burst upon us there was a report like a musket 
 shot close to the door. I could have sworn it was a 
 gun. ' Who that?' cried Abauhi, starting up. He was 
 answered by a loud struggling crash, and the squeeshing 
 of innumerable leaves. The two men gave a yell and 
 tore out of the hut, I after them, though I knew not 
 why. The first moment in the open air nearly took 
 my breath away, so fiercely fell the rain. It was as 
 heavy as a douche, and the large violent drops made 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 THE TORNADO [Book I 
 
 my hands and face smart as if they had been hailstones. 
 Meantime I continued to follow my men through brake 
 and bramble at a tearing pace, till I became curious to 
 know the cause of our stampede. But as soon as I 
 stopped, Abauhi cried out, * Do you love me ? Do you 
 love me ? Do not stay there ! ' 
 
 'Why not?' said I sulkily, for I had just fallen 
 among thorns. 
 
 ' Look ! ' he said with a superb gesture ; ' you no see 
 that tree ? ' 
 
 I looked, and saw a tree torn in half by the wind, the 
 upper part falling to the ground, while the lower part 
 remained standing, gaunt and bare as a sepulchral stone. 
 
 The tree must have been cut half way through, in 
 the manner above described, and the woodman's work 
 completed by the wind. This explanation did not 
 occur to me at the time, and an incident which seemed 
 at defiance with natural laws was startling enough. 
 
 The thunder was terrific. Sometimes it encircled the 
 horizon with a long, continuous, booming sound, as if 
 something was rolling round the firmament. Some- 
 times it burst into sharp, stunning reports, with a sound 
 like the whizzing of shot and shell a few yards above 
 our heads, or as if ten thousand cartloads of stones had 
 been thrown down in mid air. These awful crashes 
 of the clouds, unlike anything one hears in England, 
 made me tremble in spite of myself, and the natives, 
 flinging their clenched hands towards the sky, ex- 
 claimed : * Njambi ! Njambi ! let us live ! '
 
 
 HI 
 
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 invov- W' ^^ '^^s^^^^^^^m 
 
 i^^^l 
 
 
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 Book I] THE TORNADO 83 
 
 Abauhi was not the less sedulous of the two in these 
 pagan prayers. In fine weather a good Christian, he 
 returned to heathenism when it blew tornadoes. 
 
 The air was one great flame. The lightning seemed 
 to stay in the sky. It was of all colours, white, red, 
 yellow, blue, and of all kinds. Sheet lightning in a 
 broad lurid blaze ; chain lightning in its most fantastic 
 forms ; forked lightning, as it carried livid death from 
 sky to earth — all these we saw in several parts of the 
 heavens at the same time. Abauhi, who feared thunder, 
 looked at the lightning with indifference ; but his terror 
 on finding blue sparks in his companion's wool defies 
 description. 
 
 Tornadoes happily do not last long, and we soon 
 returned to our hut. Then the men took off their waist- 
 cloths, wrung them out, rubbed themselves down, and 
 were as well as ever. But I shivered in my wet clothes. 
 
 We waited for the dawn. At times a sturdy branch 
 would fall to the ground, yielding only when the foe 
 had passed. Then we heard shouts and reports of 
 guns. This was being done at a neighbouring planta- 
 tion to frighten away the elephants — the plantation, by- 
 the-by, to which I should have been taken, had not my 
 guide, preferring a short walk, remained at the one that 
 was nearest to the town. As soon as day broke I went 
 out. An enormous branch had fallen within three yards 
 of our hut, so that we had had a narrow escape. While 
 I was looking at the tree, an animal, which I supposed 
 to be a bat, flew from it and perched upon another tree 
 
 G 2
 
 84 THE TORNADO [Book I 
 
 at twenty yards' distance, giving a peculiar curve when 
 it alighted, as the flying fish does on entering the sea. 
 To my amazement it then changed into a four-footed 
 creature, which ran up and down the tree with incredible 
 rapidity. It was a flying squirrel. 
 
 When we came near the town, some women washing 
 in the brook rushed off" with hideous yells. An English 
 holloa brought them to, and they explained to us, 
 laughing, that being at war with a neighbouring clan 
 they had taken us for skirmishers. Ambuscades are often 
 laid to capture women at the brook, and the African 
 braves are not above making a pot shot in such a case : 
 for if women do not fight, they produce those who do ; 
 thus, by shooting a few young and possibly prolific 
 females, the warriors diminish the number of males their 
 children will have to contend with — which is very 
 thoughtful and considerate. 
 
 No wonder that the hunters at the Shekani village 
 were welcomed so tenderly when they returned from 
 the forest ! These bush-people, like the wild beasts, 
 live in continual danger, for they are always at war. 
 The men who go out hunting, the women who go with 
 their pitchers to the brook, are never sure that they will 
 return. 
 
 But, besides their real and ordinary dangers, they 
 believe themselves to be encompassed by evil and 
 malignant spirits, who may at any moment spring upon 
 them in the guise of a leopard, or cast down upon tliem 
 the branch of a tree. In order to propitiate these in-
 
 Book I] THE TORXADO 85 
 
 visible beings, their liv^es are entangled with intricate 
 rites, and turned this way or that way as oracles are 
 delivered, or omens appear. It is difficult to describe, 
 or even to imagine, the tremulous condition of the 
 savage mind, yet it can clearly be seen from their 
 aspect and manners that they exist in a state of never- 
 ceasing dread. 
 
 Not only the existence of the individual is precarious 
 in these savage clans or communes, but also the existence 
 of the clan itself The people who now inhabit the 
 lowlands of the Coast originally came from the hills of 
 the interior, and are rapidly decreasing in their new 
 abode. The curse of barrenness falls upon their villages ; 
 they number the names of clans which have died away, 
 and from their melancholy fate anticipate their own. 
 Then in their peril and distress they call upon their 
 ancestors to save them. Assembling on the brink of 
 a mountain brow or on the skirt of some dense forest, 
 and extending their arms to the sky, while the women 
 are wailing and the very children weep, they cry to the 
 spirits of those who have passed away. 
 
 We found the plantains of the village gardens torn 
 up by the roots, and half the houses flat upon the 
 ground. No one would have supposed that those 
 prostrate masses of wood, misshapen and blackened by 
 rain, had once been human dwellings. Nor would one 
 have supposed that those were the owners who were 
 chattering, laughing, and evidently appreciating all that 
 was ridiculous in their own misfortunes as keenly as
 
 86 THE TORNADO [Book I 
 
 their dearest friends could have done. What an old writer 
 said of the negroes is perfectly true : ' In weal and in 
 woe they are always the same, and it is only by their 
 clothing one can tell whether they are mourning or 
 rejoicing.' Providence, it seems, has given gaiety to 
 these poor wretches to enable them to bear their 
 miserable Hves. 
 
 My hut had not been blown down, but the rain had 
 entered through the roof. In Africa the sun is a tyrant ; 
 yet, like all tyrants, he bestows some blessings. I longed 
 for his warmth and light, but the clouds would not 
 move away. The ground was wet, the bed was wet, 
 the wood was wet. I cowered over a few spluttering 
 sticks, and presently fell into a restless slumber. I went 
 to sleep a man, and awoke — a child. The captain of 
 the bark came in, and, seeing my pale face, invited me 
 aboard ; I opened my mouth to answer, talked a little 
 gibberish, and fainted. A cup of water dashed into my 
 face brought me round, and I was carried by four 
 Krumen to the beach in a chair. As I was being helped 
 into the boat, Mongilomba crept up to me mysteriously, 
 and whispered in my ear, 
 
 * Sir, Mr. Reade, if that captain give you medicine, 
 just ask him to drink a little first himself.'
 
 87 
 
 THE CANNIBALS 
 
 The great dramatist relates that when Don Juan was 
 carried off to the infernal regions, his faithful attendant 
 Sganarelle displayed his grief at that event by exclaim- 
 ing, 'AJiy mes gages ! mes gages ! The tender solicitude 
 which Mongilomba displayed on my behalf was due to 
 the same disinterested motives. If I happened to die, 
 he would probably lose the wages that were due to 
 him, and also the person from whom wages in the future 
 were to come. Hence the advice which he gave me, 
 and which made me laugh when I thought of it after- 
 wards, as being so characteristic of the African. On all 
 parts of the Coast a negro never ofters a drink without 
 tasting of it first to show it is not poisoned. But there 
 was more in Mongilomba's warning than I then sup- 
 posed. 
 
 I passed a week on board the vessel, and by that 
 time was convalescent, though rather shaky in the knees. 
 It seemed to me strange that the captain still remained 
 at Bapuku. The natives, he knew, had spent the ' trust,' 
 and could not now buy the native produce if they 
 wished. I therefore enquired why he did not go away. 
 When I asked this question of the mate, he looked at 
 the carpenter : the carpenter looked back at the mate, 
 and I received no reply.
 
 88 THE CANNIBALS [Book I 
 
 The captain was in the habit of speaking against the 
 mate with a pertinacity which I could not understand. 
 He would call me aside at every available moment, and 
 tell me how much trouble he had with him, and what 
 a curse it was to have a drunken officer on board. * You 
 would not think, sir,' said he, 'that 'Mr. Jones had been 
 a master, but he has. Yes, sir, that man's had a ship 
 of his own — a ship of his own. Oh, what a curse is 
 drunkenness \ It was only the other day that I told 
 him if he went on so, I couldn't give him a character to 
 the owners. Then he'd have to go before the mast, as 
 many and many a drunken officer has done before him ; 
 and I asked him what his wife and his poor children 
 would do then. And he burst out a-crying, and said 
 he would give it up — yes, he would give it up. What is 
 the matter, steward t ' 
 
 Here the Malay showed his master a key, and said that 
 he had found it in Mr. Jones's berth, while he was clean- 
 ing it out : he thought that it was the key of the locker. 
 
 ' That can't be, for I have the key of the locker in 
 my pocket. Why, it's a duplicate key ! Ah ! sir, he's' 
 a bad man — a bad man. Steward, see whether there is 
 any beer gone.' 
 
 The steward opened the locker with the duplicate 
 key, and said that all the beer was gone. The captain 
 turned up the whites of his eyes at a large pumpkin 
 hanging over his head. ' May the Lord forgive him ! 
 Three dozen of beer that man must have drunk. It's a 
 wonder he's alive. But if his liver ain't jaundiced here.
 
 Book I] THE CANNIBALS 89 
 
 it's because it must frizzle down below for ever and ever 
 and amen ! Oh ! sir, is it not indeed awful, the revenge 
 of the Almighty ? ' 
 
 The mate was a red-faced, bottle-nosed old tar, with 
 a rough-and-ready way about him which might have 
 been assumed (nothing is oftener assumed by artful 
 knaves), but which certainly prepossessed me in his 
 favour. His grog blossoms had sprung from a moist 
 soil, no doubt ; but I had always seen him sober : and 
 this was the answer I invariably made when harassed 
 wnth the captain's confidences. To which he would 
 reply that Mr. Jones had now brought his health to such 
 a state that he could not drink any spirituous liquors. 
 
 The skipper himself was a short, pale-faced man, with 
 a dull eye, and his mouth always a little open, like a 
 fish. I knew that he was Scotch or north country by 
 his drawling tone and his manner of relieving dorsal 
 irritation. He drank nothing but water, and had a 
 shaking hand — probably the result of repeated fevers. 
 
 He was frequently ill, and after I had seen his method 
 of treatment I could only wonder that he remained 
 alive. It was the most ludicrous and painful sight I ever 
 witnessed. He 'had given himself a colic with some 
 medicinal poison, and was lying on the after-lockers, with 
 / The Companion to the Medicine Chest ' before him. 
 
 At first he could not find colic, which happened in 
 that book to be spelt cJiolic. But he was not to be 
 baulked ; he turned to diarrhoea, and treated himself 
 for that. Scon afterwards, while turnino; over the leaves
 
 90 • THE CANNIBALS [Book I 
 
 in case anything might strike his fancy, he fell upon 
 cholicy and immediately had the prescription mixed. 
 Finding no relief within the space of an hour he adopted 
 the second treatment. This went on for two days. 
 At short intervals we would hear a sepulchral voice from 
 below, * Steward, bring me the medicine-book, and my 
 eye-glass.' Then it would be, ' Steward, I think I'll 
 take a little so-and-so,' or ' Steward, I'll try a glass of 
 such-and-such a medicine to-day.' Sometimes it was 
 quinine, sometimes rhubarb, sometimes laudanum or 
 ether, or antibilious pills (eight to a dose), and once — 
 only once — it was croton oil. I was surprised to see 
 him come on deck again ; but the mate assured me that 
 this time his treatment had been comparatively mild. 
 Unhappily his patients had not such strong ' physical ' 
 constitutions. 
 
 One evening a sailor came to him and said that he 
 was teased with spitting of blood. * I never heard of 
 such a thing,' growled the captain, and looked upon the 
 man as a hisiis natures. ' Have you got pains any- 
 where } ' The man replied that he had pains in his 
 head. ' Well, if you have pains in the head, that shows 
 it comes from the head;' and, turning to me, he explained 
 that the bleeding came down from the head into the 
 mouth by channels. ' Ah ! ' thought I to myself, ' there 
 is only one Channel you understand.' 
 
 Shortly after this the carpenter was down, and de- 
 clined the captain's tenders of quinine with a polite 
 firmness, which at first amused and then astonished me.
 
 Book I] THE CANNIBALS 91 
 
 I offered him some of my own, and he accepted it at 
 once. Now I remembered Mongilomba's advice, and 
 now I remembered, that though the mate and carpenter 
 had never spoken to me against the captain, they did 
 not address him except when duty required. And every 
 evening they would stand by the main-shrouds, talking 
 together in a low voice, and always stopping when I 
 approached them in my walk to and fro upon the poop. 
 There was some myster}- in all this, from which that 
 IMalay, with his sinister eyes and soft cat-like steps, I 
 felt sure could not be absent. But soon these thoughts 
 were driven from my mind. The Bapuku people starved 
 the captain out at last ; the blue peter was hoisted, 
 and a gentle wind bore us to Corisco, where I was wel- 
 comed with bright faces, and blackberry jam, from 
 Pennsylvania, was brought out in my honour. The 
 captain also came on shore, and I was much edified 
 with his attitude at family prayers. His eyes reveren- 
 tially closed, and, one hand before his face, he seemed 
 to drink in the holy words, and joined in the responses 
 with a voice as unlike that in which he swore at the 
 Krumen as one can w^ell conceive. 
 
 One morning Mongilomba came and said that a 
 ' Gaboon boy ' was outside, and requested an interview. 
 He wished to be my cook, a vacancy in my retinue of 
 which ]\Iongilomba, the temporary substitute, had fre- 
 quently reminded me. The young man's names were 
 Cabinda and Robert, for all civilised negroes have a 
 European cognomen. He had been ship's cook in a
 
 92 THE CANNIBALS [Book I 
 
 voyage to Liverpool, and another to New York, He 
 had seen air balloons, railways, and snow. He garnished 
 his discourse with nautical oaths, and professed a love of 
 adventure, an indifference to danger, and a great predilec- 
 tion for myself 
 
 Such a man was irresistible. I engaged him at 
 three dollars a month, on the agreement that I would 
 double his pay if he accompanied me among the canni- 
 bals of the Upper Gaboon (which Mongilomba had 
 declined to do), and that he should forfeit the whole of 
 his previous pay if he refused. 
 
 I now crossed over to the Muni, went up that river 
 about fifty miles, and found myself amongst the most 
 squalid set of savages that I had ever seen. They lived 
 in low filthy huts, and many of them wore only fresh 
 plucked leaves — a mode of apparel which excited the 
 disgust of the refined Cabinda. None of them had seen 
 a white man before ; but they had not even curiosity. 
 It rained almost incessantly ; I was nearly always in 
 the open air ; and when sometimes I slept in the bush 
 I would wake so giddy that I could scarcely stand. 
 My boots turned to black pulp, and my feet, being 
 continually soaked in putrid water, began to give way. 
 All this was in the hopes of meeting a gorilla ; and all 
 was in vain. That ape is rare in the Muni Country-, 
 and Bapuku is said to be the northern boundary of its 
 habitat, so far as the Coast regions are concerned. But 
 the sea-board between Gaboon and Camaroons is utterly 
 unknown in a scientific sense.
 
 Book I] THE CANNIBALS 93 
 
 When I returned to the village, I found little to re- 
 compense me for the fatigues and disappointments which 
 I had undergone. There were no songs or merry dances 
 to the sound of the drum and the clapping of female 
 hands. The night was twelve hours long; and hard 
 were they to pass. Even vegetable food was scarce ; 
 and I remember Robert's face as he came to me one 
 day with a plantain mashed up in a doughy state, not 
 unhke the stick-jaw of old-fashioned schools. ' Eat 
 this, sir,' said he ; 'he no good for mouth, but he fill 
 'm belly.' 
 
 Lastly, before we went away my powder flask was 
 stolen. I took my double-barrel and went up to the 
 palaver-house, and threatened (being young) to destroy 
 the town if it was not immediately restored, but I 
 suspect that this hostile declaration was not faithfully 
 interpreted. I was given to understand that ray prese^ity 
 or, in other words, the payment I offered for my board 
 and lodging, was not esteemed sufficient : I must make 
 it more, and then my powder-flask would be returned. 
 This accordingly was done, and I left the Muni Country 
 without regret. Robert and I had each of us a slight 
 attack of fever at the same time and to the same extent. 
 
 Captain Stewart's successor lived on board a hulk 
 just off the island on which the tragedy had taken 
 place. We found the bark also lying there ; for trust 
 had been given in the Muni as well as at Bapuku. I 
 had left some of my things on board, so went to fetch 
 them away. The captain was on board the hulk : I went
 
 94 THE CANNIBALS [Book I 
 
 down into the cabin, handed over my travel-battered 
 canister to the steward, and requested him to make me 
 some tea. 
 
 When he brought it me he said there had been ' an 
 awful row,' and spun a long yarn. As he spoke in a low 
 voice, for fear of being overheard, and as I, not caring 
 for servants' scandal, did not listen, it was thrown away 
 upon me. Presently the mate came down and said, 
 ^ Have you any trade powder with you, Mr. Reade } ' 
 ' I have one barrel,' said I. ' Then look after it, sir, 
 whatever you do ; for that man has said he'll blow up 
 the ship.' 
 
 I looked in mild astonishment at the Malay. His 
 thin lips were pinched together. 
 
 ' There is my report of the matter, carpenter,' said 
 the mate to that dignitary, who had just come below. 
 * If you think it'll do, why I'll copy it into the log-book, 
 now I'm about it' 
 
 The carpenter took the slate out of the chief officer's 
 hand and read it out in an under-tone. It was as nearly 
 as I can remember as follows : — 
 
 ' April 2Z. — The mate having given the steward an 
 order in the absence of the captain, the steward answered 
 that he would see him damned first. When the mate 
 repeated the order and called him a saucy fellow, he 
 ran into his bunk, where he had two guns ready loaded, 
 and aimed one of them at me, but providentially it 
 missed fire. I had him put into irons. At tvv'o o'clock, 
 P.M., the master came on board m a state of beastly
 
 Book I] THE CAXNIBALS 95 
 
 intoxication, and ordered the steward to be taken out 
 of irons, although he had threatened to shoot me and 
 blow up the ship as soon as he was loose. As they 
 were taking the irons off him, the master, seeing he 
 was mad-drunk, asked where he had got the liquor 
 from, and when he found the steward had stolen some 
 rum which he kept for his private use, he snatched up 
 an axe, and would have killed the man on the spot, had 
 not the ship's carpenter canted off the blow with his 
 arm.' 
 
 Having taken my tea, and expressed my sympathy 
 with the mate and carpenter, under these trying circum- 
 stances, I paddled over to the hulk, where the last doubts 
 I might have had as to who was the drunkard were 
 dispelled. The master was lying on a sofa with an empty 
 brandy bottle by his side. He explained to me that he 
 was prevented, by some mysterious impediment, from 
 rising, as politeness suggested, and that there were sen- 
 sations in his head which- he was at a loss to understand. 
 Muttering something about his poor steward who had 
 been put into irons by his drunken mate, and asking me 
 if I had shot any ' gurril-l-las,' he dropped off into a 
 swinish sleep. 
 
 Afterwards the bark went on to Gaboon ; and then 
 the officers and crew declined the further pleasure of 
 their captain's company. It seems that while they were 
 in Brass, the second mate, who had quarrelled with the 
 captain, and had threatened to expose his goings on, was 
 taken with the fever ; and the captain gave him, by way
 
 96 THE CANNIBALS [Book I 
 
 of a composing draught, a tumbler of laudanum and 
 brandy, half and half The captain acknowledged that 
 he \vas drunk when he administered the medicine, but 
 the carpenter and mate politely maintained that on that 
 occasion he was sober. They were all against the poor 
 calumniated man except the Malay — even supposing the 
 affair of the axe had not altered that youth's affections. 
 The captain was advised to leave the ship while he could : 
 he did so, and the mate took her home. 
 
 I now left the island of Coi^isco and returned to Baraka. 
 I intended to visit the Fans or Panwe, a tribe of cannibals 
 who dwell on the banks of the Ncomo, or Upper Gaboon, in 
 the bosom of the Crystal Mountains. These people came 
 out of the interior in 1852, and are gradually spreading 
 down towards the coast. A few years ago an incident oc- 
 curred which proved their cannibal propensities beyond a 
 doubt, and obtained them the hatred of the Coast tribes. 
 The Mpongwe bury their dead in a prairie or savannah, 
 by the water-side, some distance up the Gaboon, and, in 
 accordance with a custom almost universal amongst 
 savages, they place within the graves the favourite 
 weapons or ornaments of the deceased, with a good stock 
 of clothes and domestic utensils by way of outfit for the 
 Under-world. Now, a party of Fans came by night to 
 the burying-ground, opened all the graves, took out all 
 the ^treasures, and happened to find a newly-buried 
 corpse. This also they purloined, and having come to a 
 convenient place, under the shelter of some mangroves, 
 boiled the body in one of the pots they had just dis-
 
 Book I] THE CANNIBALS 97 
 
 interred, and ate it on the very spot where I was first 
 told the story. ^ 
 
 This proceeding led to a palaver and a war : the 
 Fans became proverbial for all that was fierce and dis- 
 gusting. Women threatened their naughty children that 
 the Panwe should come and eat them ; and many a tale 
 of their savage prowess was related at the fireside. 
 Mongilomba gave up a good place rather than go with 
 me among them ; and Robert now became my steward. 
 
 Like all men suddenly raised to distinction, he had 
 a host of enemies, who soon contrived that I should 
 learn his antecedents. ' Robert,' I said to him one 
 day, at the Gaboon, ' I thought that Cabinda was your 
 country name V 
 
 ' Yes. sir ; my country name Cabinda.' 
 
 ' How is it that everybody calls you OsJmpu here } 
 I never hear anyone call you Cabinda.' 
 
 (With a puzzled face) ' Oshupu, sir.?' (Brightening) 
 ' Oh, yes ! — Oshupu — that one name of play my friends 
 like to call me. I not know why they no call me 
 Cabinda, because Cabinda my proper name, for true.' 
 
 ' Were you ever cook at a white man's factory, 
 Robert.?' 
 
 * No, sir,' replied Robert, coldly. 
 
 ' When a man runs away with another man's wife, 
 what do you think of that man, Robert t ' 
 
 ' I think him bad man, sir.' 
 
 ' Very well ; and why do you think him a bad man .■* ' 
 
 ' This incident was mentioned by M. Du Chaillu. 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 THE CANNIBALS [Book I 
 
 * When white man want wife, sir, he go look, he see 
 girl he hke, he go take him. Same way, s'pose little 
 dog want wife : he go town, he see other little dog ; he 
 like him ; other little dog say, " I like you ;" they say that 
 with nose, sir. Then palaver set ! (the affair arranged). 
 But we country fashion (here Robert drew himself up) no 
 same as that. S'pose I want wife ; I go to man and say, 
 " I want marry your son " ' 
 
 * His son !' 
 
 * No, sir, him you call — not him son — when him son 
 be girl ' 
 
 * Daughter.' 
 
 * Yes, sir, him — him — da-ughter. Well, he say, '* Gib 
 me plenty money, my friend, and you can have 
 him." So I pay plenty dash ; my wife come ; she go 
 work my garden ; she go cook my dinner ; she go give me 
 son that be girl ; and I sell him when he get big, for plenty 
 dash too. Black man's wife same as white man's money. 
 S'pose man take wife he take money ; he bad man too 
 much.' 
 
 ' I shall ask you one more question, Robert. Why 
 did you say the other day that Corisco was a bad place, 
 and that you were glad to get away .'' ' 
 
 * I can't tell you lie, sir, because you clever too much. 
 Why I no like Corisco, those Benga boys frighten me. 
 They say, " You Gaboon boy, you come we country ; 
 you take our white man. Some day you get palaver 
 you no like." ' 
 
 ' Now, Robert,' said I, ' your country name is not
 
 Book I] THE CAXXIBALS 99 
 
 Cabinda, but Oshupu. You are guilty of an alias. (Here 
 
 Robert looked ashamed.) You were cook at 's 
 
 factory. You were caught stealing, and sent to prison 
 at the French fort. When you came out you ran off 
 with another man's wife, and had to hide yourself in 
 Corisco. When you were at Corisco you had another 
 " wife palaver," and it was only by the husband's for- 
 giving you (for one dollar) that you were able to get 
 away at all. Now, I don't care how much you stole 
 before I took you, or how much you steal after I leave 
 you, but if I lose anything while you are my steward, I 
 shall take it out of }'Our wages. Secondly, you may 
 get into wife palavers if you like, but don't think that I 
 shall get you out of them. We are going to the Bush 
 now ; if a Bushman catches you, what does he do .^ ' 
 
 ' Locks me up in house, sir, and puts my feet in 
 Wood. Then my friends pay plenty dash.' 
 
 ' What do you call plenty dash .^ ' 
 
 'One gun,' said Oshupu, in the tone of a man reading 
 out an inventory, 'one chest, three pieces satin-stripe, 
 six brass rods, two mugs, one basin, one half-barrel 
 powder.' 
 
 * Very good ; and if your friends don't pay ? ' 
 
 ' Then the Bushman kill me,' said Oshupu. 
 
 ' Well, he may kill you and eat you afterwards, for 
 all I care, my dear Robert,' said I ; ' so now I think we 
 understand each other.' 
 
 There is an African proverb, that if you pull out of 
 the fire every stick that does not burn well, you will
 
 loo THE CAAWIBALS [Book I 
 
 soon have no fire left ; and the moral is to this effect, 
 that if you turn off a servant for a single offence or a 
 single defect, you will soon be without any servants. 
 Refusing to engage a negro because he had once com- 
 mitted theft would be absurd ; it would be like leaving 
 comfortable lodgings because a little tea and sugar had 
 disappeared from the caddy. The negroes do not think 
 it wrong to steal from the white man, and steal they 
 must ; the best way is to look well after property of 
 value, and to let them pilfer little things, such as beads 
 and tobacco, Oshupu's taste for intrigue occasioned 
 me more annoyance. I did not so much object to his 
 making presents with my beads — though he was always 
 the soul of liberality — as to a palaver among the Fans. 
 It was all very well to threaten, but I could not desert 
 my interpreter ; and that, doubtless, he knew as well as 
 myself However, he gave me no trouble in the above 
 respect, and, all things considered, stole with moderation. 
 We could not get any Mpongwe canoemen, so 
 Oshupu brought me four strangers from Cape Lopez, 
 who were on a visit to Gaboon. I asked them if they 
 would be afraid to go with me among cannibals. They 
 said they would go with me wherever I chose. Accord- 
 ingly I made out an agreement, whereby they were to 
 receive a shilling a day (current goods), but to forfeit 
 the whole of their wages if they refused to enter the 
 country of the Fans. At the foot of this document I 
 wrote their names, and, after they had signified before 
 witnesses their full comprehension of its contents, I put
 
 Book I] THE CANNIBALS loi 
 
 a pen between their fingers, and guided them to form 
 a cross. This being done, each man glared awe-struck 
 at the work of his own hand, and went off loudly 
 discussing the mysteries of black and white. 
 
 As I felt confident of safety among savages who had 
 never seen a white man, I did not arm myself, taking 
 only a huge duck gun (unloaded), to be borne behind 
 me as an emblem of dignity and power. It was my 
 desire to discover the rapids of the Ncomo, or upper 
 main stream of the Gaboon, which a French naval 
 officer and an American missionary had attempted to 
 reach, without success ; and also to examine the cannibal 
 question, though the missionaries assured me that there 
 v.-as no question about the matter ; and they, had had a 
 station for some time on the borders of the Fan country. 
 The mission had not been a success : and the cannibals 
 had gutted the mission house, on account of some 
 grievance, real or assumed. 
 
 Their station was on a little island, Nen2^e-Xeno;e. 
 I found the mission house still standing ; and three 
 white tombs among the grass. Such are the only 
 monuments upon 'the Coast, and in the Settlements a 
 thriving and well-populated cemetery is always shown 
 to visitors as one of the sights. Before a new arrival has 
 finished his dessert at his first dinner ashore, somebody 
 is sure to bend over the table, and ask him with a grin 
 if he would like to go and see the graves. 
 
 Nenge-Nenge was sixty miles up the Gaboon, which 
 here loses its name Orongo, and is called the Ncomo,
 
 102 THE CANNIBALS [Book I 
 
 It also receives a tributary, the Boque, which Burton 
 had traced to its source close by, a short time before.* 
 
 The island stood at the confluence ; and here was 
 the frontier of the Fans. We were in the Bakele 
 country ; and it was necessary to engage two Bakele 
 who could not only speak their own language, but 
 also Mpongwe and Fan ; and who would assist in 
 paddling the canoe against the difficult stream we should 
 have to encounter. There were some Christian Bakele 
 who said that they w^ould be most happy to go on the 
 morrow, but did not wish to break * him Sabby day.' 
 I accordingly agreed to wait ; but on explaining to my 
 pious friends that they would have to paddle for some 
 days with©ut intermission, they speedily backed out. 
 Like many other people \\\\o are not Bakele, however 
 severely they may read the injunction, * On the seventh 
 day ye shall rest,' they close their eyes to the first com- 
 mand, * Six days shall ye labour.' 
 
 And now my four Cape Lopez men canle up and 
 tendered their resignation. I asked them the reason. 
 They had just heard, they replied, that the people of the 
 Ncomo 'chopped man ;' they did not like that fashion, 
 and they would rather not go. All this was said as 
 coolly as if I had not told them beforehand we were 
 going among cannibals ; as if they had not been engaged 
 for that express purpose, and because Mpongwe men could 
 not be obtained. However, I knew that to argue with 
 
 ' See his excellent paper, ' A Day among the Fans,' in the Transactions 
 of the Ethnological Society.
 
 Book I] THE CAXAVBALS 103 
 
 them would be useless, and said they could go where they 
 pleased. ' Would I take them back ? ' said they. ' Take 
 them back ! ' said I, raising my eyebrows, ' oh dear no, I 
 am going the other way.' 'Would I give them chop .!*' 
 * No, why should I give chop to men who did not belong 
 to my canoe V This severe logic discomfited them rather ; 
 they had no means of getting food. 
 
 But, after all, the interpreter was the difficulty ; if one 
 could not be found, I should not be able to go among the 
 Fans, and it would then be said that I had turned back 
 from fear. In the midst of my dismal cogitations, I saw 
 a small canoe push off from the south side of the 
 river. As soon as it touched the land, a young slave 
 sprang out, and handed me a letter. It was an invita- 
 tion to dinner, written in good English, and signed Jo/m 
 Ragcuji. He was sub-trader to one of the Gaboon 
 agents ; I immediately ordered my canoe, and was pad- 
 dled up to the factory door. 
 
 Ragenji was seated in his bamboo piazza, in com- 
 pany with another small trader. He had a good-natured 
 mouth, a sweet voice, and sly, small eyes. He welcomed 
 me with a grand show of cordiality, and requested me 
 to look upon his house and furniture as my personal 
 property, and upon himself as my devoted slave. 
 
 The other man's name was Tibbett. He was an 
 American negro, who had returned to his mother-land, 
 and had gracefully conformed to her customs by marr>^- 
 ing fifteen times. He was in charge of a factor}^ up the 
 Boque, and had been Captain Burton's cicerone. He
 
 104 ■ THE CANNIBALS [Book I 
 
 wished me also to go up the Boque, that he might make 
 something out of the job/ Ragenji, for similar reasons, 
 preferred me to go up the Ncomo. 
 
 John did the honours in great style, but fell into the 
 common error of apologising *for the meagreness of a 
 better dinner than he usually served, and perhaps took 
 too much trouble to impress upon my mind that if I had 
 dined with him in Glass Town he would have given me 
 champagne. ' Hospitality,' writes some pompous fool, 
 ' among civilised nations loses its purity from the os- 
 tentation which enters into all its actions.' Now, the 
 hospitality of the savage is precisely that of an hotel. 
 The hospitality of the half-civilised man is bestowed 
 with the ne plus ultra of vulgarity. I have met with 
 hospitality from negroes in the position of Ragenji, but 
 they had learnt it from Europeans. 
 
 After the dinner was over, we drank bottled beer till 
 John became quite 'laughful,' as he expressed it. This I 
 thought a propitious moment to request his assistance 
 and advice. * I want two Bakele,' said I, * who can talk 
 Mpongwe and Fan between them.' He sent out a slave 
 to make enquiries. 
 
 Tibbett had grown as sad over his beer as John had 
 grown merry. ' You should not go up the Ncomo,' said 
 he, * the Panwe there are very wild. You had much 
 better come up my river.' I laughed at him, and John 
 poured me out some more beer. 
 
 ' Yes, we are gay now,' said Tibbett, gloomily ; ' I 
 hope we shall all be happy to-morrow.' 
 
 Here Ragenji blew his nose with his fingers, and
 
 Book I] THE CAXXIBALS 105 
 
 then passed a cambric handkerchief Hghtly across his 
 nostrils, 
 
 ' It grieves me to the heart; continued the specious 
 Tibbett, ' to see you going amongst those people ; they 
 will be sure to make you trouble.' 
 
 What with his forebodings and John's genteel man- 
 ners I spent a very pleasant evening, in the course of 
 which John whispered to me not to mind Tibbett, ' who 
 talk nonsense plenty because he wish you in his river ; ' 
 while Tibbett observed to me, in the momentary absence 
 of his host, that John was a good man, but was not my 
 friend in helping me up the Ncomo. 
 
 In the morning the two Bakele were ready. John 
 and I did a little business, which paid him for the 
 dinner. Aly Cape Lopez men returned to their allegi- 
 ance, and we started at midday. After tw^elve miles the 
 Sierra del Crystal from blue became green, and the current 
 from the source began to struggle with the tide from the 
 sea ; or rather there were two streams — one in the middle 
 going up, one under the bank coming down. Here a 
 Fan called to us from the right-hand bank, and said that 
 we must not pass without trading at his town. The 
 Bakele interpreter replied that we were not come to trade, 
 but to see the river. The Fan said that he would ex- 
 amine our goods and go with us as far as the next village, 
 to know if what we said was true. This far-sighted indi- 
 vidual was soon alongside of us in a rude little wobbling 
 canoe. When he had proved by inspection that my 
 stock of merchandise was small, I told him in English —
 
 io6 
 
 TflE CAAWIBALS 
 
 [Book I 
 
 which was translated into Mpongwe, which was trans- 
 lated into Dikele, which w^as translated into Fan — that he 
 was a fine young man, and paddled exceedingly well. 
 We were going to the end of the river, and if he liked 
 to join us I would give him a brass rod a day ; on 
 w^hich he assented, with a grin which exposed two rows 
 o^ villanous filed teeth. 
 
 He w^ent on in his own canoe to the village of Olenga, 
 
 where I intended to pass the night. A large crowd 
 collected at the landing-place. The sight of these Fans 
 reminded me of the pictures of Red Indians which I 
 had seen in books. They wore coronets on their heads 
 adorned with the tail feathers of the touraco. Their 
 figures were slight : their complexion coffee-colour ; 
 their upper jaws protruding gave them a rabbit-mouthed
 
 Took I] THE CAXXIBALS 107 
 
 appearance. Their hair was longer and thicker than 
 that of the Coast tribes ; on their two-pointed beards 
 were strung red and white bead's. Their only covering 
 was a strip of goat skin, or sometimes that of a tiger- 
 cat hanging tail downwards : more often still, a kind 
 of cloth made from the inner bark of a tree ; on the 
 left upper arm a bracelet of fringed skin, and sometimes 
 a knife therein. Some of them carried paddles, perhaps 
 from affectation, as the water is not their element ; others 
 had cross-bows made of ebon\-. 
 
 In their possession of these weapons,^ and also a 
 currency of iron a la Sparta, in their cannibal prac- 
 tices, their ingenious method of entrapping elephants 
 alive in a ;/^/^/ or decoy — presently to be described — and 
 lasth', in their physical appearance, the Fans difter from 
 the other tribes of the Gaboon. One might, therefore, 
 fairly infer that they belong to a family of tribes dis- 
 tinct in origin from the Shekani, Bakele, and Mpongwe. 
 But the evidence of language completely overthrows 
 
 ^ The cross-bow is said to have been unknown to the Saracens before the 
 Crusades. It was afterwards adopted by the Moors of Spain, and employed, 
 according to Leo Africanus, by the Arab merchants who crossed the Sahara 
 to Soudan. Burton, in his ' Wit and Wisdom of Western Africa,' quotes a 
 proverb, which shows that it was once used in Yoruba, and probably gave 
 place to fire-arms, as happened in Europe, and as will soon be the case 
 among the Fans, for the only specimen I obtained in the Xcomo was broken 
 and disused, the musket having come into vogue. A currency of iron, 
 resembling the currency among the Fans, is used in the Delta of the Niger 
 (Baikie). The Fans cultivate tobacco, and unless thatplant be indigenous in 
 Africa, which is exceedingly improbable, it must have come to them in- 
 directly from Barbar}' or Egj-pt. It is largely cultivated on the Niger 
 plateau, and also in the backwoods of Liberia; and its culture falls into 
 disuse whenever American tobacco can be easily obtained.
 
 io8 rilE CAXXIBALS [Book I 
 
 such a supposition. Their dialect is akin to the other 
 dialects of the Gaboon. Fan, as a missionary once 
 observed to me, is like Mpongwe cut in half: for in- 
 stance, njiiia (gorilla) in Mpongwe, is njim Fan. We must, 
 therefore, conclude that the Coast tribes were originally 
 a people like the Fans, and that, in consequence of their 
 migration from the mountains to the plains, and their 
 adoption of European weapons and goods, their customs 
 have been' changed. But how is it that these Fans, so 
 nearly related, as their language proves, to the tribes 
 of the alluvial regions, should yet differ from them in 
 physical appearance ) How is it that their skins are 
 lighter in complexion, their hair longer, their features 
 more aquiline, approaching the European type } It 
 here first occurred to me that the black skin, protruding 
 muzzle, and woolly hair of the negro, as commonly de- 
 scribed, were not the rule in Africa, but the exception, and 
 had been produced by conditions peculiar to low-lying 
 lands. I came to the conclusion that the true or typical 
 Africans are a copper-coloured race of the Egyptian 
 type, with full lips, broad nostrils, no.se somewhat de- 
 pressed, and curly hair. Several years of study and 
 travel have confirmed me in this belief, and Livingstone 
 recently observed that ' I had hit the truth.' ^ 
 
 I was conducted as usual to the chief's house, and 
 
 ' ' Winwood Reade hit the truth when he said the ancient Egyptian, 
 with his large round black eyes, full luscious lips, and somewhat depressed 
 nose, is far nearer the typical negro than the West Coast African, who has 
 been debased by the unhealthy land he lives in.' — Dr. Livingstone's Second 
 Letter to the 'New York Herald.'
 
 Book I] THE CAXXIBALS 109 
 
 it was soon surrounded by cannibals four deep. The 
 small modicum of light which native architecture per- 
 mits to come in by the door was intercepted by heads 
 and feathers. At the same time every man talked as 
 if he had two voices. 
 
 Oshupu obtained me a short respite by explaining 
 to the crowd that it was the habit of the animal to come 
 out and air itself, and to walk to and fro in the street 
 of the village. 
 
 Being already hardened to this sort of thing, I went 
 out at sunset, and sat before the door. Oshupu, squatting 
 beside me and playing on a musical instrument, gave 
 this proceeding the appearance of a theatrical entertain- 
 ment. Never did simple yokels coming up to ' Lunnon ' 
 enjoy a better treat, and I was not less amused, for 
 the spectators were themselves a sight. Here stood 
 two men with their hands on each other's shoulders, 
 staring at me in mute wonder, their eyes starting from 
 their heads, and their mouths stationary yawns ; there 
 an old woman in a stooping attitude, with her hand-s 
 on her knees, like a cricketer fielding out ; and girls 
 stood giggling and whispering together ; and a man 
 was dragging up his frightened wife to look at me ; and a 
 child cried bitterly, with averted e)'es. 
 
 Night came, and when the full moon began to 
 rise, a dance was celebrated in her honour. Two mu- 
 sicians came out to the middle of the street. One of 
 them beat an instrument called Jiandja by the Fans, 
 balafoit in Senegambia, inariniba in Angola. It is on
 
 no THE CAXNIBALS [Book I 
 
 the principle of an harmonicon : pieces of hard wood 
 being struck with a stick, and the notes issuing from 
 Gfourds of various sizes fastened below. The other had 
 a drum in the shape of an hour-glass, which stood upon 
 a pedestal, its skin made from an elephant's ear ; it 
 was beaten with the hand. The dancers, summoned by 
 the music, came singing in procession from the forest. 
 Their dance was uncouth : their song a solemn tuneless 
 chaunt ; they revolved in a circle, clasping their hands 
 as if in prayer, adoring the moon, on whom their eyes 
 were fixed, and sometimes stretching out their arms 
 towards her. 
 
 The measure changed, and two women, covered with 
 green leaves and the skins of wild beasts, danced into 
 the midst. They accompanied their intricate steps with 
 marvellous contortions of the body. The bystanders 
 every now and then put some beads into their hands, 
 and always in a stagy manner, as if they were acting 
 to the moon. All night long the dance and the music 
 did not cease. The musicians were relieved from time 
 to time ; but when I went down to my canoe in the 
 morning, the same two women were performing, appa- 
 rently with unabated ardour. Such strength and agility 
 are due to training from the earliest years. I have seen 
 a little girl scarcely old enough to walk, who could yet 
 manage to wriggle her tiny body, and do a step or two, 
 while the women sat round her, clapping their hands, 
 and singing over and over again : Fear the he-goat, yah ! 
 yah ! yah ! Fear the he-goat, yah ! yah ! yah !
 
 Book I] THE CANNIBALS in 
 
 Before I left the village I engaged another man, which 
 gave me a crew of eight. I also purchased a smooth- 
 skinned sheep ; and upon this poor animal, as it lay 
 shackled in the prow, many a hungry eye was cast. 
 When it bleated the whole crew burst into one broad 
 carnivorous grin. 
 
 Bushmen can sometimes enjoy a joint of stringy 
 venison, an elephant's foot, a boiled monkey, or a grilled 
 snake ; but a sheep— a real domestic sheep— which had 
 long been looked upon as the pride of the village, the 
 envy of their poorer neighbours, which they had been 
 in the habit of calling 'Brother!' — it was almost as good 
 as eating a man ! That a kind fate should have placed 
 this delicacy within their reach was something too 
 strong and unexpected for their feeble minds. They 
 suddenly darted to the shore. To keep up appearances 
 I ordered them to kill the sheep, for I saw they were 
 going to do it without my consent. There was a yell 
 of triumph, a broad knife steeped in blood, a silent 
 struggle, then three fires blazed forth, three clay pots 
 were placed thereon, and filled with the bleeding limbs 
 of the deceased. On such occasions the neg-ro is 
 endowed with the energy and promptitude of the 
 European. 
 
 In the evening we arrived at the village of Itchongue, 
 and, having seen on the way the remains of a raft which 
 had been used by the Fans in their migration, I resolved 
 to collect as much information as I could about the 
 country from which they had come. Summoning the-
 
 112 THE CANNIBALS [Book I 
 
 oldest man of the village, I gave him a little tobacco, 
 promising him more when he had answered my ques- 
 tions. He told me that his tribe came from a country 
 called Vinja, far away : the gorilla was there so com- 
 mon that you might hear its cry from the town. The 
 people of that country wore the skin of goats. Fowls 
 and goats were plentiful there. It was with them that 
 the young men bought their wives. That was the 
 country where the iron came from and the ivory 
 too. Some of it was obtained, as in the Ncomo, by 
 killing the elephants in a 7ighdl, but most of it as 
 follows : — There was a large marsh or lake where, in 
 the rainy season, the elephants came to bathe. They 
 ' would often sink in the mud, and being unable to 
 extricate themselves would die there. In the dry 
 season the natives would collect the teeth, and send 
 them down to the white men of the sea. The manner 
 in which the Fans had migrated was on foot through 
 the forest. They prepared large quantities of dried 
 plantains, cassada, and various kinds of fruits. While 
 they were travelling, the moon became dark eleven 
 times. Their custom was to walk three days, to remain 
 encamped about two days, and so on. The direction of 
 Vinja, as I tested by the compass, was N.E. It is pro- 
 bable that the Fans had migrated along the mountain 
 range parallel to the sea. But there is nothing in the 
 above which would not be true of Livingstone's tribes 
 to the west of Tanganyika. 
 
 Although the missionaries had been much among
 
 Book I] THE CANXIBALS 113 
 
 the Fans, they never obtained a confession of canni- 
 balism from them. But the Fans did not deny it of 
 the Fans as a tribe ; they merely denied it as re- 
 garded their own clan ; they never ate men, but 
 the people in the next village did. I accordingly ex- 
 ercised a little finesse in the investigation of the matter, 
 and said nothing on the subject till we had passed the 
 villages which had been previously visited by Euro- 
 peans. I now asked the old man some questions about 
 the people who lived beyond the mountains to the east.. 
 At last I said, ' Do they eat men t ' ' Oh yes,' he re- 
 plied, ' they all ate men. And I eat 7ne7i myself !' As 
 he volunteered this statement he burst into a loud roar 
 of laughter, which we all joined very heartily. I then 
 asked him if Man was good. He replied with a rapturous 
 gesture that it was ' like monkey, all fat.' I asked him 
 what was his favourite cut. He said that he had no 
 choice. His words were precisely those which Charles 
 Lamb employed in his glowing eulogy on sucking pig. 
 ' He is good throughoiit. No part of him is better or 
 worse than another! I then wished to learn the class 
 of persons he had been in the habit of discussing. He 
 said, only prisoners of war : some of his friends ate 
 witches (when condemned to death), but he, for his 
 part, did not think them wholesome. I asked him if 
 the Fans ate their own relations when they died ; he 
 said that they could not do such a thing as that. 
 
 He now began to cross-examine me, for he thought 
 that I also was a cannibal ; a behef which is general 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 ^-^-^^ CANNIBALS [Book I 
 
 in the bush, first suggested by the slave trade, and 
 artfully disseminated by the Coast people, to keep the 
 tribes of the interior away from the white men. When 
 Iwas in the Camma country, a Bakele slave, who had 
 been brought down from the far interior, squatted be- 
 fore me a long time, staring with all his might, and 
 finally exclaimed, with a gasp of wonder, 'And are 
 these the men that eat 7is ? ' 
 
 The old Fan was anxious to know why we took the 
 trouble to send such a long way for people to eat. 
 Were the black men nicer than the white men ? My 
 answer was dictated by motives of policy. I said that 
 the flesh of the white man was a deadly poison, and 
 that, therefore, we were obliged to import our supplies. 
 
 The practice of cannibalism is widely diffused upon 
 the earth, and was probably at one time universal : its 
 various kinds may be classified as follows : — i. The 
 cannibalism of necessity. 2. The cannibalism of desire. 
 3. The cannibalism of theology. 4. The cannibalism of 
 discipline or education, 5. The cannibalism of revenge. 
 
 1. The cannibalism of necessity belongs to all Coun- 
 tries and to all times. Sieges, shipwrecks, and famines 
 afford examples in horrible profusion, which may be 
 studied in a multitude of narratives, from Josephus to 
 Don Juan. No doubt the eating of human flesh origi- 
 nated in necessity, and, like many other kinds of food, 
 was afterwards relished for itself alone. 
 
 2. There have undoubtedly existed many nations 
 with whom, cannibalism had become a practice of
 
 Book I] THE CANNIBALS 115 
 
 gotcrmandisej purified by sentiment and consecrated by 
 affection. Herodotus mentions an Indian people who 
 killed their relatives as soon as they fell sick, lest 
 their flesh should be spoiled. This custom is purely 
 gastronomical, and appears unfeeHng. But Heeren, in 
 his * Asiatic Nations,' mentions another tribe with whom 
 this curious custom prevailed. As soon as^a man had 
 arrived at a certain age, he called together his relations 
 and climbed up a tree : his children shook the tree, 
 saying, ' The fruit is ripe and must be shaken down.' 
 The old man then descended, and was eaten by his 
 family at a solemn repast Among such people as 
 these nothing appears so loathsome as being buried 
 and eaten up by worms. 
 
 3. Pagan priests were always wont to partake of the 
 animals offered to the gods, and the animal called man 
 was frequently sacrificed upon the altars. These priests 
 were, therefore, cannibals by virtue of their vocation ; 
 and this may be termed the cannibalism of theology. 
 
 4. The cannibalism of discipline or education pre- 
 vails in Ashanti. It is commonly believed by savages 
 that people acquire the qualities of the animals on which 
 they feed. In Ashanti, where much attention is given 
 to the art of war, the raw recruits, especially those who 
 have shown timidity in battle, are made to eat the hearts 
 of those who have died fighting with braver}/- against 
 them. 
 
 5. The cannibalism of revenge is not so common as 
 is generally supposed. Savages usually eat men, not
 
 1,6 THE CANNIBALS [Book I 
 
 because they hate them, but because they like them. 
 However, it cannot be doubted that some do devour 
 their enemies and drink their blood from a feeling of 
 ferocity. With these people the end of a fray is always 
 the beginning of a feast. 
 
 In 1 870 1 visited some cannibal tribes in the backwoods 
 of Liberia. As among the Fans, only prisoners of war were 
 eaten, and, therefore, the practice was rarely indulged 
 in ; moreover, these people never ate women, declaring 
 that they were tough \ This no doubt is one of many 
 calumnies invented against the sex. More instances of 
 cannibalism occur in the Delta of the Niger than in any 
 other part of the continent ; for in that region men are 
 cheap, and human sacrifices frequent. 
 
 I left Itchongue m the morning, and was told that 
 it would take me two days to reach the rapids, and that I 
 should see no more towns. Whereupon I laid in a stock 
 of plantains, torches, &c., which was just what they 
 desired. I found, as I went on, the river banks more 
 populated than below, w^hich proved that the Fans were 
 still streaming towards the west, and that the people of 
 Itchongue were consummate liars. Whenever we passed 
 a village, the natives rushed to the edge of the bank 
 above our heads, and implored the Fans to stop and 
 show the white man. But the white man bawled and 
 gesticulated with such energy whenever they rested on 
 their paddles, that they went resolutely on. At last a 
 village called out that it would give me a fowl if t
 
 Book I] THE CANNIBALS 117 
 
 would land and show myself. As fowls are not to be 
 had every day, I closed with the ofter at once, landed, 
 and walked about for a quarter of an hour. Then 
 Oshupu claimed the fowl, and an altercation arose. 
 The natives appeared to be demanding something against 
 which Oshupu and the Bakele expostulated, some- 
 times bursting into roars of laughter, I humbly re- 
 quested an explanation. Oshupu said that it was only 
 ' them dam niggers' nonsense.' I reiterated my request, 
 and he told me, with a little diffidence, that the natives 
 protested against my clothes. If I would remove the 
 skin of the sea animal which I wore, keeping on, if I 
 pleased, an apron of goat's skin, or a couple of plantain 
 leaves, or anything in reason, they would pay me the 
 fowl. But as it was I surreptitiously concealed my 
 skin. Was I ashamed of it because I was not black } 
 
 I could not consent to this pose plastique exhibition, 
 and, thinking it useless to argue about the matter, re- 
 turned to my canoe, and we proceeded. The last village 
 we passed was called Fotum. The stream now became 
 so swift that if my canoe had not been well manned we 
 could not have made way against it. Presently we came 
 to a little island, where a tributary, called the Juba, 
 joined the Xcomo. Upon this islet, which is called 
 Ncomo-Juba, I discovered the traces of hippopotami. 
 They are not found elsewhere in the Gaboon, and I was 
 surprised to find them in a torrent only ten yards wide. 
 They had doubtless been driven upwards by trap and 
 gun. Close to their huge footmarks were the broken
 
 ijg THE CANNIBALS [Book I 
 
 shells of crocodiles' eggs, which showed the fallacy of an 
 assertion, frequently made, that these animals will not 
 live -together. In the Fernand Vaz, however, the river 
 horses frequent only the lower, and the crocodiles the 
 upper river. 
 
 Now the scenery began to repay me for the monoto- 
 nous hours of my little voyage. We glided into the 
 bosom of the mountains, which rose beside us abrupt 
 and vertical, as green walls. Through the mass of green 
 leaves I could see here and there pale, slender branches, 
 or some giant trunk looking down upon us from above. 
 And out of the recesses of these precipice-forests came 
 all manner of strange bird-cries — like the sawing of 
 wood, the gurgling of water, the scream of a child. 
 
 Now the stream came round a bend of the river with 
 such fury that we remained struggling for several minutes, 
 sometimes gaining, sometimes losing a yard. At length, 
 with the aid of long punting poles, we doubled the point, 
 and there before us were the rocks, rearing their dark heads 
 among the foam. The roaring of the waters, the excited 
 cries of the boatmen, the sight of a higher mountain 
 than I had yet beheld, gave me a glimmering of what it 
 is an explorer feels when he achieves a triumph. I could 
 now look round, and say, * Here have white men striven 
 to come, and none have succeeded but myself For the 
 first time the breath of a European mingles with this 
 atmosphere ; for the first time a leathern sole imprints 
 its pressure on this soil ; for the first time a being who 
 has heard Grisi, and who faintly remembers the day when
 
 Book I] THE CANNIBALS 119 
 
 he wore kid gloves, invades this region of the cannibal 
 and the ape.' 
 
 As for my Lopez men, they had been so firmly 
 imbued with a geographical theory of their own that 
 rivers have no end, that these rapids, though not the end 
 of the river, were sufficient to make them believe me a 
 magician. They clapped one another's hands and breasts 
 with boisterous laughter, and sang a song in honour of 
 Reedee and the Ncomo. 
 
 Oshupu whispered to me his conviction that he was 
 the greatest "Mpongwe that had ever breathed, and 
 reminded me that I had promised him a dollar in case 
 we arrived at the rapids. I walked a little way up the 
 river-bank. Above the rocks was a swift and savage 
 stream which no canoe could stem. I sat down and 
 looked at the water, which descended the rocks in a 
 snowy cascade, flashing like a sunbeam through the 
 sombre trees. Below me was the green and gliding 
 river, with the bronze figures of my men upon its banks ; 
 and I listened to the music of their song as it mingled 
 sweetly with the roaring of the Falls. Altogether it 
 was a very happy day, and perhaps, if the truth be told, 
 happy days in African travelling are rare and remarkable 
 events.
 
 I20 
 
 THE ELEPHANT 
 
 In the East Indies elephants have been captured and 
 tamed from time immemorial. There are hunters so 
 courageous and^ skilful that they steal up to the wild 
 elephant as he is feeding, or asleep, and tie his legs with 
 a rope of buffalo hide to a tree : then building a shelter 
 to protect him from the sun, and a wigwam for them- 
 selves, they remain upon the spot till they have reduced 
 their captive by hunger to docility.^ But the usual 
 method of taking these animals is by driving them into 
 an enclosure or corral. Certain persons who make it 
 their profession tie them to trees, assisted by tame 
 female elephants, which engage the attention of the 
 prisoners, push them into the right position, and intercept 
 all movements of the trunks towards the rope until the 
 process is completed. At present elephants are tamed 
 only for purposes of labour ; but formerly they were 
 chiefly employed in pageant and in war. Covered with 
 trappings of gold, jugglers performing upon them, and 
 pictures painted on their ears, they marched in the 
 retinues of princes, to the wonder and amusement of the 
 people. Clad in coats of Indian mail, with companies of 
 archers in towers on their backs, they charged the troops 
 
 * Sir Emerson Tennent's 'Natural History of Cevlon.'
 
 Book I] THE ELEPHANT 121 
 
 or embankments of the enemy ; and sometimes scythes 
 were fastened to their trunks, and they mowed down 
 armies as they marched along. 
 
 These strange and prodigious creatures — moving 
 mountains, with tails for hands — were first seen by Euro- 
 peans ^ at the famous battle of Arbela, in the neighbour- 
 hood of ancient Nineveh, where Alexander fought his 
 third and last great battle with the Persians. Elephants 
 were again opposed to him in the Punjaub ; and there 
 he organised an elephant brigade, taking with him, 
 no doubt, a number of Indians to serve as drivers and 
 grooms. The successors of Alexander, who established 
 their thrones on the banks of the Tigris, and aftenvards 
 at Antioch, procured elephants from India. The kings 
 of Macedonia also employed these animals in war ; and 
 the Ptolemies obtained theirs from Abyssinia, where the 
 famous sword-hunters were already in existence. These 
 elephants were shipped at ports on the Red Sea, and 
 drilled at Alexandria. They met the elephants of India 
 on the Syrian plains, and Polybius has described the 
 awful combat which then took place — how they twisted 
 their trunks together and strove to gore one another in 
 the flank. The Indian elephant is said to have been 
 the larger animal and better soldier of the two ; on this 
 point the classical authorities are all agreed.^ 
 
 ' Grote. 
 
 - According to most modern authorities the African species is the larger; 
 but Sir Samuel Baker says that he has killed monster ' rogues ' in Ceylon, 
 as large as any that he saw in Africa; and Colonel Grant, in his ' Walk 
 across Africa,' p. 275, describes the elephants he saw as being 'none so 
 large as the Indian breed, but short, stumpy, handy-looking animals. '
 
 122 THE ELEPHANT [Book I 
 
 The employment of elephants in war was therefore 
 universal in the Greek and Graeco-Asiatic world, and 
 Pyrrhus took a squadron into Italy when the Greek 
 colonists of Naples called him over to protect them 
 from the Romans. The Carthaginians, who were then 
 allied with the Romans against him, had thus an op- 
 portunity of observing this species of cavalry; and 
 whether they adopted the idea from Pyrrhus, or whether 
 they had already taken lessons from the Greeks of 
 Alexandria, cannot be decided ; ' but this we know, that 
 twelve years afterwards the Carthaginians had elephants 
 of war, and the drivers were called Indians.^ At that 
 time elephants abounded in the forests of the Atlas.^ 
 
 The Romans, as soon as they conquered the Car- 
 thaginians and the Greeks, suppressed their military 
 elephants.'* In Abyssinia they were employed by the 
 ancestors of Theodore until the seventh century or so, 
 for the year of Mahomet's birth was called TJie Year 
 of the Elephant, the Negus of Abyssinia having invaded 
 ^lecca, with an elephant in his train. Just as the half- 
 
 ' Heeren takes the former view; but Armandi, in his admirable mono- 
 graph, ' Hist, militaire des Elephants,' disputes it, and I think with justice. 
 But no doubt the invasion of Pyrrhus gave an impulse to elephantine 
 operations, and suggested the idea of transporting them by sea to Sicily. 
 
 - Polybius. 
 
 ^ This curious fact is supported by a multitude of authorities which will 
 be found in Armandi. But what Pliny alone says on the subject is ab- 
 solutely conclusive. 
 
 •• The Romans themseh-es rarely used elephants in war. Gibbon has 
 collected much information on this subject. But African elephants were 
 frequently exhibited at Rome, dancing on the tight rope, and performing 
 feats like those of the learned pig.
 
 Book 1] THE ELEPHANT 123 
 
 Arab, half-negro kings of Ethiopia kept up the taming 
 of elephants long after they had been abandoned by 
 the Ptolemies, who had introduced the art, so the 
 princes of Barbary continued to use elephants in war 
 for some time after the fall of Carthage. Jugurtha 
 employed them against Sylla ; Juba employed them 
 against Caesar. In the East Indies they never ceased 
 to be employed till musketry came into fashion. 
 
 The question now remains to be considered. How 
 were these elephants captured in Africa ? We have 
 already seen that the drivers in Carthage were Indians ; 
 and it may reasonably be inferred that the drivers among 
 the Greeks were Indians also. It is not altogether 
 impossible that a caste or guild of elephant-experts 
 brought over from India to Africa the art of the corral. 
 Respecting the manner in which the Alexandrine 
 elephants were taken we have no evidence whatever : 
 pits are now dug for elephants in Abyssinia ; and they 
 might have been taken in that manner, as elephants are 
 sometimes taken in India at the present day ; but the 
 method is a bad one, the elephant being often injured by 
 the fall.^ The corral, perhaps, might have been used. 
 Respecting the /\tlas elephants which the Romans 
 captured for the amphitheatre (emplo3nng, doubtless, the 
 Carthaginian method), we learn from Pliny that they 
 were driven into natural enclosures.^ 
 
 ' Emerson Tennent. 
 
 - Pliny says (Book viii. c. lo) — In Africa (i. e. Barbary) they are taken 
 in pitfalls, or are killed only for the sake of their ivory; but ' it was for- 
 merly the practice to take them by driving the herds with horsemen into a
 
 124 THE ELEPHANT [Book I 
 
 Now there is a passage in Leo Africanus which 
 shows that the corral was employed in the regions of the 
 Niger, not for the purpose of taking elephants alive, but 
 merely of killing them ; the words in Pory's translation 
 are as follows : 
 
 ' And although it be a mightie and fierce beast, yet 
 there are great store of them caught by the Ethiopian 
 hunters in manner following : These hunters being ac- 
 quainted with the woodes and thickets where they 
 keepe, use to make among the trees a rounde hedge of 
 strong boughes and rafters, leaving a space open on 
 the side thereof, and likewise a doore standing upon the 
 plaine ground, which may be lift up with ropes, whereby 
 they can easily stoppe the said open place or passage. 
 The elephant, therefore, coming to take his rest under 
 the shady boughes, entereth the hedge and inclosure, 
 when the hunters, by drawing the said rope and fasten- 
 ing the door, having imprisoned him, descend downe 
 from the trees, and kill him with their arrows, to the 
 end they may get his teeth, and get sale of them. But 
 if the elephant chanceth to break through the hedge, he 
 murthereth as many men as he can find.' 
 
 This method of killing elephants by means of the 
 corral is also practised by the Fans, and it was my good 
 fortune to see a wild elephant in the enclosure or nghdl. 
 Soon after my return to Baraka from the rapids of the 
 
 narrow defile, artificially made in such a way as to deceive them by its 
 length, and when thus enclosed by means of steep banks and trenches, they 
 were rendered tame by the effects of hunger. As a proof of which, they 
 would quietly take a branch that was extended to them by one of the men.'
 
 Book I] THE ELEPHANT 125 
 
 Ncomo, my host informed me that some elephants had 
 been enclosed by a clan or family of Fans on Mpongwe 
 land. I at once ordered my canoe, went up the main 
 stream for fifteen miles, and then turned off into the 
 by-ways of water, and arrived at a plantation village 
 belonging to a chieftain of Gaboon, surrounded by farms, 
 and inhabited by agricultural slaves. 
 
 The next morning I set out for the nghdl, which was 
 only two miles off, taking with me some white beads, 
 my price of admission to the menagerie of the bush. 
 
 The affair had thus been brought about. Some Fan 
 hunters, having found that three elephants frequented 
 this part of the forest, paid some money to the 
 Mpongwe owners of the land, built their ngkdl, and 
 succeeded in enclosing the elephants therein. 
 
 I found three or four acres of ground enclosed by 
 that kind of fence which is called a ha-ha. Round it at 
 intervals were the huts of the hunters and their families : 
 very primitive dwellings were these — roofs of dry leaves, 
 supported by four poles, and bamboo settles within. 
 
 The ground enclosed was one of those comparatively 
 open patches which are sometimes met with in the 
 equatorial forests (probably the sites of ancient clear- 
 ings), covered with a thick shrubby vegetation, and a 
 large tree standing here and there. It formed a kind of 
 dale ; and no doubt there was a pond of water at the 
 bottom. 
 
 The showmen pointed out a tree under which they 
 said the elephants were sleeping. I wished to go inside
 
 126 THE ELEPHANT [Book I 
 
 the fence, and to creep up close to them to have a 
 good look. This the Fans would not hear of, though I 
 offered them beads ad libitum. They feared my white 
 face would frighten the elephants, and cause them to 
 break away. ' If they do that,' whispered Oshupu, ' these 
 people make you pay plenty for that palaver.' 
 
 While we were disputing, there was a great com- 
 motion, and a crowd of young men came running round. 
 The elephants were awake. I ran round with the rest, 
 mounted on the railings, and there, only a hundred 
 yards off, I saw an elephant with enormous tusks. He 
 was standing on three feet, swinging himself to and fro, 
 and sometimes lazily raising his trunk to the tree above 
 him, just as if he were in the middle of the forest. Now, 
 the elephant is shy and retired in its habits, and exceed- 
 ingly averse to the presence of man.^ The more I looked 
 the more I was surprised. Here was a great wild 
 elephant, who paid no more attention to us than a cow 
 in a field to people looking over the hedge. I had often 
 heard of this, but I did not realise how extraordinary it 
 was until I had seen it with my own eyes. 
 
 I asked how the elephants came there. The reply 
 which I received was this. The elephants were in the 
 neighbourhood. The nghdl was built. (Rude as it was 
 it must have taken these savages much time.) A gap 
 was left open, which they showed me, for they had not 
 
 ^ ' They evince the strongest love of retirement and a corresponding dis- 
 like to intrusion.' — E. Tennent. 'The elephant entertains an extraordi- 
 nary horror of man, and a child can put a hundred of them to flight by 
 passing at a quarter of a mile to windward.' —Gordon Gumming.
 
 Book I] THE ELEPHAN7 127 
 
 even closed it ; it was just large enough for an elephant 
 to pass through. 
 
 But why did the elephants stay ? The fence was 
 not strong enough to keep in a calf that wanted to get 
 out. The Fans grinned, and looked mysterious. All 
 the information I could obtain was this : 'The medicine- 
 man made fetish for the elephants to come in. They 
 came in. The medicine-man made fetish for them to 
 remain ; and they remained. When they were being 
 killed fetish would be made that they might not be 
 angry. In a fortnight's time the new moon would 
 appear, and the elephants would then be killed. Before 
 that time all the shrubs and high grass would be cut 
 down ;' (this, just inside the fence, had already been 
 begun) * the fence would be strengthened and interlaced 
 with boughs ; the elephants would be killed with guns, 
 cross-bows, and spears.' 
 
 At this moment a man came round singing a melan- 
 choly tune, and dabbing the fence with a rag steeped in 
 a dark brown liquid. The chief of the hunters informed 
 me that this was the fetish ; that it was held every day 
 when the sun was in that quarter of the sky, and that it 
 would be rendered null and void by the presence of 
 a white man. He would be happy to see me at the 
 new moon. 
 
 I took this hint, which was accompanied by much 
 broad laughter ; but my trip to Camma prevented me 
 from accepting his invitation. The kilHng of the ele- 
 phants would have been a ver>- exciting scene ; but not
 
 ,28 THE ELEPHANT [Book I 
 
 in any way remarkable. The two great mysteries were 
 these : first, how the elephants came into the enclosure ; 
 secondly, and chiefly, how they were kept, so to speak, 
 in the middle of a village, for such a length of time. 
 
 This puzzled me for several years, but I recently read 
 again the full and interesting account of the corral which 
 is given by Sir Emerson Tennent in his ' Natural History 
 of Ceylon.' When I laid down the book I felt as if a ' 
 weight had been taken from my mind. I could now 
 understand the conduct of the elephant, which at first 
 seemed to me to be contrary to nature. This animal 
 has whims and fancies of his own ; and one of these is 
 a curious reluctance to break through a fence. In Ceylon 
 the corral is made beforehand, as in the Gaboon. The 
 wild elephants are surrounded, and are gradually driven 
 towards the enclosure ; they enter through the gates ; in a 
 .few moments the corral is surrounded, and the gates are 
 closed. The elephants dash towards the fence : fire- 
 brands in the night or white willow wands in the day- 
 time are thrust in their faces, and they then wheel round. 
 Charge follows charge, and always with the same result. 
 The Ceylon fence is stronger than that of the Fans, yet 
 could not resist for a moment the rush of an infuriated 
 elephant. But the captives recoil with a kind of super- 
 stition from the fence, and the torches, and the out- 
 stretched wands ; and at last they gather together in 
 che centre of the corral, and stand still as if in despair. 
 
 Then the tame elephants and the men with ropes 
 are introduced. But with this part of the business we are
 
 Book I] THE ELEPHANT 129 
 
 not concerned. Let us suppose instead, that the Ceylon 
 elephants are left alone. There can be no doubt that 
 if they found food and water in abundance they would 
 remain quietly in the same place, charging less and less 
 frequently at the fence, and at last becoming recon- 
 ciled to their imprisonment within the rules. 
 
 Such, I have no doubt, was the history of the ngJial. 
 First it was built ; then the elephants were driven to- 
 wards it with the noise of tom-toms, and the waving 
 of torches ; then the fence was surrounded, and the 
 elephants frightened back into the secluded space in 
 the centre of the nghal 
 
 It is also possible that the brown liquid which was 
 sprinkled on the fence might have had some odour 
 which the elephants disliked ; and it was suggested 
 to me by a missionary who had also seen elephants 
 in a nghdl, that they were fed on poisoned plantains, 
 to make them weak and stupid when the day of 
 slaughter comes. That is probable enough, and would 
 explain why the elephants are kept so long in the 
 enclosure ; a practice attended with much trouble and 
 also some risk of their breaking away. A slave, who 
 came from the kingdom of Matiamvo, a country 
 south-west of Tanganyika Lake, told me, when I was 
 in Angola, that the hunters of his country drugged 
 the wild elephants by placing poisoned food in their 
 haunts before they attacked them. But he had never 
 heard of elephant-enclosures, and the corral appears 
 to be extinct in the regions visited by Leo Africanus 
 VOL. I. K
 
 I30 THE ELEPHANT [Book I 
 
 It may be that the nghdl of the Fans is the old Cartha- 
 ginian enclosure, derived through the country of the 
 Niger ; but I am inclined to think it an original in- 
 vention of the negroes. By attacking elephants in the 
 ordinary way they could only kill one of a family or 
 herd, while by this system of enclosing they are able to 
 kill them all.^ 
 
 ' It has often been alleged, as a proof of the negro's mental inferiority, 
 that he has never learnt to tame the elephant. But tamed elephants have 
 existed in the Soudan. Duncan says, he saw two in the country behind 
 Dahomey. Riley mentions one on hearsay ; so do Edrisi and other Ara- 
 bian writers. The best instance is to be found in Mohammed-el-Tounsy's 
 ' Voyage au Wadai.' He relates that the Sultan of Darfur gave a young 
 elephant to a tributary Arab tribe to rear; the elephant soon began to eat 
 them out of house and home, and they sent their sheik to beg that it might 
 be taken back. The sheik was so confused at the sight of the Sultan, that 
 he asked for another elephant, and it was given him. The reason that 
 elephants have never been regularly used by the people of Soudan is this: 
 that elephants are very expensive luxuries, and that the negroes are always 
 poor on account of their isolation from the great centres of commerce, 
 John Ragenji told me he had thought of taming a young elephant to send to 
 England, and said it could easily be done. There is no difficulty whatever 
 in taming an elephant; the difficulty is to feed him.
 
 THE KING OF THE REMBO 
 
 My first object in visiting the Gorilla Country had been 
 to investigate the statements of M. du Chaillu. But I 
 found that in the Gaboon itself little was known about 
 him, and that the chief scene of his supposed exploits 
 was the region of the Fernand Vaz, or Camma Country^, 
 especially a town called Ngumbi. There were no white 
 men in the Fernand Vaz, Captain Lawlin, an American, 
 who had colonised it, having died six months before. I 
 wished, therefore, to go on to that river. But there was 
 no regular communication between it and the Gaboon. 
 To go by land was almost impossible, on account of 
 intervening swamps, and at that time of the year the 
 wind blows steadily from the south-west, and one can- 
 not sail in a canoe against the wind. 
 
 But it happened that a Captain Johnson had been 
 sent out to take charge of the factory vacated by the 
 death of Captain Law^lin. He was in Gaboon, and 
 about to sail to Camma in a fine surf-boat, sloop- 
 rigged. He was glad of a companion, I of a passage, 
 and so we agreed to go together. On May i'^ we set 
 sail, and stole slowly from the river into the broad and 
 swelling sea. 
 
 During five days we enjoyed the romantic freedom
 
 132 THE KING OF THE REM BO [Book I 
 
 of ocean life, which poets have so often sung, and which 
 consists in being confined to a small conveyance at the 
 mercy of the wind and current. However, we managed 
 to enjoy ourselves tolerably well. We breakfasted at 
 sunrise off a piece of salt beef, soaked and boiled over- 
 night, with a dish of plantains, a pot of coffee, Durham 
 mustard, chutney, and pickled onions. After our 
 meals — the events of the day — we dipped our hands 
 in the g-reat fino;er basin over the boat's side, and dried 
 them in the air, with flourishes like the Normans in 
 ' Ivanhoe.' 
 
 . I never drank spirits in these excursions. Johnson, 
 on the contrary, lived upon gin. He had a large green 
 case, on which he leaned his elbow by day and his head 
 by night. He had two china mugs, which he filled at 
 short intervals, one with Hollands, the other with water, 
 emptying the gin mug first, the water mug afterwards. 
 He had a method in his madness — but madness it was ; 
 and he died soon after his return. 
 
 In the prow was a tub half-filled with sand, wherein 
 blazed a fire, which, like that of the vestal.«J, was never 
 suffered to go out. Round this squatted or lay four 
 Krumen, two Camma men, the boat's cook, and Os- 
 hupu. 
 
 Sometimes when there was no wind, we ran in and 
 anchored near the shore. Then the anchor-watch slept 
 like a dormouse, the captain like a hare. At the first 
 puff of wind this w^onderful man would spring into full 
 life, and cr>^ * Now then, hurry up, hurry up there !
 
 Book I] THE KING OF THE REMBO 133 
 
 Now, Captain Jack, wake your boys there — give them 
 hell.' And Captain Jack, the head Kruman, having 
 waked up his boys, and given them hell in the language 
 of the Grebboes, the anchor would be hauled up with a 
 hoarse rattle, we would dash along through the morning 
 dusk, the spray faUing over us, the ruddy glare of the 
 tub-fire on the sail, the water bubbling music beneath 
 us, while Johnson, in a nautical ecstacy, would cry, ' Go 
 it Sal, and Fll hold your bonnet ! ' 
 
 It was the first week of the dry season, and we did 
 not have a single shower. Nor did we suffer from the 
 sun : for though no rain falls at this time of year, the 
 sky is always covered with clouds. The natives had 
 begun to burn the little grass prairies, which crowned 
 the hilly shore between Gaboon and Cape Lopez. At 
 night these resembled burning mountains, and reminded 
 me of the narrative of Hanno. 
 
 We did not double Cape Lopez, but entered the 
 delta of the Ogowai or Nazareth River, which communi- 
 cates with the Fernand Vaz. After ten miles we left 
 the mangroves behind us, and passed through a mass 
 of marshy undergrowth, from which rose graceful palms, 
 their hard leaves rustling like the pattering of rain. 
 The countr}^ seemed to be one vast swamp, in which 
 locomotion could only be achieved on stilts. The birds 
 were chiefly of the aquatic kind, and we often saw 
 perched on a lightning-blasted tree a large black-and- 
 white fishino; eao:le. It was dull in its attitude, and 
 heavy in its flight, and Johnson looked upon it with
 
 134 THE KIXG OF THE REMBO [Book I 
 
 contempt. ' Ah,' said he, ' they can't raise such eagles 
 here as we do in the States.' 
 
 In the daytime the voyage was more pleasant than 
 by the weary process of * beating ' out at sea. There 
 was always something to look at, and our progress was 
 steady and sure. But with the night came misery 
 upon our heads. Then the mosquitoes swarmed around 
 us. Then from the swamps rose the grey deadly vapour, 
 which, breathing poison, enveloped us like a shroud. In 
 the morning we would wake and look curiously at each 
 other's pale faces, but the salt beef was an excellent 
 restorative, and we soon recovered from the effects of 
 sleep. 
 
 On the afternoon of the seventh day we emerged 
 into a beautiful river, its banks lined with villages and 
 meadows of green grass. Down to the beach poured 
 men and women w^hen our sail was seen, and cried 
 'Trade come! Lawli's soji ! LawlissonT There had 
 been no business doing in the river for several months, 
 so the waist-cloths of these people were ragged, and 
 they had no tobacco. They took it for granted that 
 Johnson was Captain Lawlin's son ; for having seen but 
 few white men, they suppose that we are all of us re- 
 lated to one another. 
 
 We had entered the river ten miles from the mouth, 
 and ten miles more brought us to the factory, which was 
 in excellent repair and under the charge of Retimbo, 
 a native headman or king. He came to meet us, and 
 with his battered beaver hat, a spotted kerchief round
 
 Book I] THE KING OF THE REMBO 135 
 
 his neck, and a short stick in his hand, looked just like 
 the comic Irishman of music-halls. After dinner we 
 went to Captain Lawlin's grave. 
 
 This man deserves a public epitaph. He was an 
 American, and had spent much of his life in the Fer- 
 nand Vaz. His factory had formerly been on the 
 south side of the river : he had called it New York. 
 In '57 he received this island, which he named Brooklyn, 
 as a gift from the natives ; it was then surrounded by 
 a belt of trees, enclosing a prairie in the centre ; his 
 first step was to cut down and uproot the trees on the 
 south side. He built a large factory of bamboos, floored 
 it with planks sawn from native timber, and built a 
 v/harf or pier adjoining. The bamboo huts of his 
 Krumen and his Camma labourers made quite a little 
 hamlet, which he built like a college — a quadrangle of 
 sand in the midst. In this sand-square was a large bell, 
 upon which were chimed the sea-bells half hourly, while 
 a Kruman, always on guard with a musket, chaunted 
 * All's Well' 
 
 Behind his village was the prairie, in which a family 
 of antelopes might be seen feeding ; he allowed no one 
 to molest them. River-horses sported round the island, 
 raising their huge brown heads and spouting forth jets 
 of foam. And the social grosbeak had formed their 
 republic like a miniature rooker}* in the trees round 
 the house. 
 
 He was so much beloved and honoured by the 
 natives that they made him a Makaga, or chief, a
 
 136 THE KING OF THE REM BO [Book I 
 
 member of the Camma confederation. He obtained 
 the passing of a most important law, which was the 
 means of saving me from a serious dilemma, as will 
 presently be seen. 
 
 He was buried in the prairie at his own request. A 
 Spanish carpenter made a wooden tomb, painted white 
 to resemble stone, and on it this was inscribed, I know 
 not by whom — 
 
 SACRED TO THE MEMORY 
 OF 
 
 Capt. RICHARD E. LAWLIN, of N. Y. 
 
 DIED ON THE 6tH OF DECEMBER, 1861. 
 
 'One soweth and another reapeth.' 
 
 ' John iv. 37. 
 
 i^° Reapers behold the sower ! ! 
 
 We sat down and looked at the tomb a little while : 
 we were then joined by a man named Mafuk. 
 
 The Camma language differs little from that of the 
 Gaboon ; but I wished to engage a counsellor and 
 guide, and this was the man recommended by Retimbo. 
 
 He was very short, with a yellower face and more 
 of a beard than is usually found among these people. 
 Like most small men he was rather self-sufficient, in- 
 quired after my family, and called me his dear friend. 
 
 I put a stop to this familiarity, and spoke about his 
 wages. I agreed to give him four dollars a month; 
 and ordered a canoe and four men. Next morning at 
 daylight we were off.
 
 BoaK I] THE KING OF THE REMBO 137 
 
 The preparations which I made were these : my 
 canoe was furnished with mast and sail, spare paddles, 
 and poles for punting in the shallows ; a cask of water 
 for my men — the lower river being salt — and a small 
 stone jar for myself ]\Iy bed was spread in the stern, 
 so that I could lie down when I wished, and my rug 
 was folded as a seat in the bow of the boat, where I 
 sat, gun in hand, looking out for a specimen or some- 
 thing for the dinner. 
 
 My men's provisions were plantains at a shilling 
 the bunch, or at least its equivalent in currency — a 
 fathom of cloth, or two heads of tobacco, or ten strings 
 of beads, or one brass rod, or a red cap, such as is worn 
 by bargees. They had also long rolls of cassada cooked 
 in a peculiar way, and possessing a strong acrid taste, 
 which fortunately for mankind is not to be found in 
 any other kind of food. 
 
 This was all I was obliged to find ; but when harder 
 work than usual was required, I used to buy them dried 
 fish, and sometimes gave them tobacco as well. 
 
 One tin box, water-proof, and not too hea\y, con- 
 tained my ammunition, a bottle of chlorodyne, another of 
 quinine, one spare shirt, two pairs of socks, a measuring 
 tape, twine, a pair of scissors, a hunting knife, some kind 
 of book which required study, a pound of tea, a few 
 ditto of sugar, two or three tins of prepared cocoa, and 
 a bottle of oil to protect my gun-locks from rust, which 
 in this country accumulates in a manner surpassing all 
 belief
 
 138 THE KING OF THE REMBO [Book I 
 
 Another tin box, similar in size and make, contained 
 my cash, that is to say, my cloth, tobacco, and beads. 
 The cloth is measured into fathoms by the steward, 
 who stretches both arms out straight from the shoulder, 
 which comes to six feet or thereabouts. If the pur- 
 chaser has longer arms than the steward, he calls it 
 short measure ; if his arms are shorter, he laughs in his 
 sleeve, or would if he had one. My stewards, how- 
 ever, had never afforded them much gratification that 
 way. Mongilomba had short dumpy arms, and Oshupu 
 a method of * palming,' which the natives often dis- 
 covered, and which I had strictly forbidden him to 
 practise ; but though he gained nothing thereby, do it 
 he would, from a pure love for deceit : the chivalry of 
 fraud. 
 
 The men take their wages in cloth ; of all imports 
 it has the most important sale, for Manchester dresses 
 Africa. It is considered more genteel to wear a dirty 
 rag of English cotton, such as we use for a duster, than 
 the grass-kilts of the country, which are often beautifully 
 made. 
 
 As soon as w^e were started, the Camma men played 
 off all kinds of antics, singing furiously and capering 
 about. They slapped the water with the blade of the 
 paddle, and holding it over them point downwards 
 let a single drop cf water fall into their mouths. After 
 which they seemed better, and paddled steadily till the 
 afternoon. 
 
 We were passing a large village when Mafuk told
 
 EooK I] THE KING OF THE REMBO 139 
 
 me that the king of the Rembo, or upper Fernand Vaz, 
 was staying there, and as we were going to his town, 
 it would not be etiquette to pass him by. 
 
 Accordingly I went ashore, and was introduced to 
 King Quenqueza, a fine old man, with features differing 
 much from the ordinary negro type, as is usually the 
 case among men of intelligence and rank, A few com- 
 pliments having passed between us, I told him that I 
 was going to Ngumbi ; and that if I was satisfied he 
 would be my friend, I would set up a factory there. 
 Quenqueza warmly approved of this scheme, and said 
 that he himself would accompany me there on the 
 morrow or the day after. Now I never yielded to 
 negro procrastination, or delayed a single unnecessary 
 moment, and it was only by adhering to this rule 
 that in five months of the Gorilla Country I covered 
 so much ground. I therefore said that I could not 
 wait. The king declared that he could not go that 
 evening, and that I should not go, save in his com- 
 pany. I then threatened to return to the factory, and 
 to go up the Ogowai the next day. I ordered my men 
 into the canoe, and, seating myself in the stern, cried 
 ' Kabbi ! ' (paddle) in a resolute voice. Quenqueza, see- 
 ing that I was in earnest, begged me to listen to him. I 
 could not leave the lower river without the permission 
 of the King of Camma, who lived close by, A swift 
 messenger would be sent to him at once. The king 
 would come. I would give him a glass of rum, and 
 he would give me permission to enter the Rembo, I
 
 I40 
 
 THE KING OF THE REMBO 
 
 [Book I 
 
 would give him (Quenqueza) also a glass of rum, and 
 he would take me to his town. I acquiesced in these 
 conditions, bought a fowl, had it cooked, and dined 
 there surrounded by spectators. I had just finished 
 my repast when the King of Camma arrived with his 
 retinue. I shook hands, and offered him the glass of 
 
 rum. He seemed to want it, but looked uneasily 
 around him. Somebody handed him my Turkish 
 towel : he hid his face and the glass of rum behind 
 it : and when he removed it, his eyes were slightly 
 bloodshot, and the rum was gone. I inquired what 
 this might mean, and they told me it was forbidden
 
 Book I] THE KIXG OF THE REMBO 141 
 
 to see the king drink.i I then asked permission to go 
 on, which was given in a husky voice. 
 
 Quenqueza came into my canoe, and sat beside me 
 on a mat spread out in the stern. Next day the river 
 narrowed, and its fringe of swamp disappeared ; the 
 banks became high, of red or yellow clay, with the 
 roots of trees protruding through them like enormous 
 fossil bones. The villages were perched above us. 
 On the third day the river had become as narrow as 
 the Ncomo at Fotum. The sun was sinking behind 
 the trees, and the glare of daylight softening into 
 dusk when we saw a light twinkling in the distance. 
 This was Ngumbi, the capital of the Rembo, and 
 residence of the King Quenqueza. 
 
 When the men saw this light they uttered a murmur 
 of joy, and bent low over their swift paddles. Then 
 Quenqueza rang an iron bell, which he carried always 
 at his waist, and, raising his hands, he cried, ' Spirit 
 of my father ! protect this white man who comes to 
 visit us. Preserve him from sickness while he stays. 
 Make his heart good towards us when he goes away.' 
 
 ' In many parts of Africa the king is a puppet in the hands of tl^te priests, 
 and is never seen by the people, who are taught to believe that he neither 
 eats, drinks, sleeps, nor dies. In other parts the king is visible, but it is 
 not permitted to see him eat, drink, &c. , and it would no doubt be high 
 treason to assert that he required food like other men. ' Where does the 
 King sleep?' asked a white man of a Dahomey native. 'Where does 
 God ?' was the reply. The case in point is an excellent instance of what 
 are technically called Survivals, that is to say, of customs outlivmg their 
 purpose and becoming irrational observances. Invisible kings exist or have 
 existed in Benin, Wadai, Abyssinia, and even it is said, in the days of 
 darkness, in Yemen
 
 142 
 
 THE KING OF THE REMBO 
 
 [Book ! 
 
 He then addressed some remarks to a little idol, 
 which he always carried with him, and which he nursed 
 with great care. It had a piece of glass in the middle 
 of its abdomen ; and Quenqueza 
 believed that when that glass 
 broke he would die. 
 
 We landed as usual in a 
 crowd, and I went with the king 
 to the palaver-house. Then Quen- 
 queza, in the presence of all the 
 people, solemnly bade me wel- 
 come. I briefly returned thanks 
 in my character as trader, which 
 I had been compelled to assume, 
 for these people of the P'ernand 
 Vaz had never seen white men who 
 were not traders, such as Lawlin, 
 Du Chaillu, &c. Had I said that 
 I was travelling simply for amuse- 
 ment they would not have believed it, and would have 
 suspected me of some sinister design. 
 
 Now the interests of Mafuk and the interests of the 
 king were not the same. Quenqueza wished me to build 
 my factory at Ngumbi ; Mafuk, who belonged to the 
 lower river, would rather have had it established there. 
 Accordingly Quenqueza was distrustful of Mafuk, and, 
 opening his mouth, he spake a parable as follows : — 
 
 * There was a man named Njabi, who had four sons, 
 Eye, Nose, Mouth, and Skin. And he had one daughter
 
 Book I] THE KING OF THE REMBO 143 
 
 whose name was Heart, who was never at rest, and she 
 made him visit countries far away. Then he went to 
 see his brother Quaqua. There was one man, Seringila, 
 a great Har and tale-bearer, and he tried to make these 
 two brothers enemies ; but they remained friends and 
 burnt this liar and tale-bearer Seringila. Then were 
 their towns joined together ; the town of Njabi and the 
 town of Quaqua became one ; but Njabi was the chief.' 
 
 The king explained that I was Njabi, and that he 
 was Quaqua, and that if any man made mischief be- 
 tween us he would burn him. Here he gave a stern 
 look at Mafuk, who trembled exceedingly. Quenqueza 
 was pleased when he saw me wTiting this in my pocket- 
 book, and when I had finished, asked me to put down, 
 TJie Kijig of the Rembo told mc this story. 
 
 One of the king's wives now brought a calabash to 
 wash my feet, according to a custom ancient and hospi- 
 table. i\Iy boots and stockings sadly puzzled the royal 
 dame ; and these Oshupu took oft" with many sneers 
 against her ignorance. 
 
 Sandals being here unknown, the sole of the foot is 
 horny and hard, and quite incapable of titillation. The 
 lady at first took hold of mine in fear, as if afraid it 
 would crumble to pieces between her hands. Then 
 finding it felt like other feet, she rubbed the sole in the 
 ordinary manner. Upon which I laughed hysterically, 
 and kicked the calabash into her face.
 
 144 
 
 THE GORILLA 
 
 The naturalists of the last century were acquainted with 
 two species of anthropoid or man-like apes, the chim- 
 panzee of Western Africa, and the ourang-outang of the 
 Indian Archipelago. In both Countries these animals 
 are regarded by the natives as members of the human 
 family,^ and even the great Linnaeus, misled by travellers' 
 tales, appears at one time to have supposed that they 
 were men.^ Buffon, who possessed a young chimpanzee, 
 dispelled the popular illusions on this subject, much to 
 the distaste of Lord Monboddo, who maintained that 
 the apes differed only from ourselves in being less ac- 
 complished in learning and the arts.^ 
 
 ' In Liberia, the Chimpanzees are supposed to be a tribe so lazy and filthy 
 in their habits, that they gradually degenerated into their present condition. 
 When the natives go to war they make it unlawful to kill a Chimpanzee, 
 hoping by this act of virtue to obtain good luck. 
 
 2 He confused the Chimpanzee and the Albino. See his letter to Ellis 
 in Sir J. E. Smith's 'Correspondence of Linnaeus,' vol. i. p. 89, and 
 Buffon on the Chimpanzee. 
 
 ^ In a letter to Linnaeus (vol. i. loc. cit. p. 555), he says * . . . whereas in 
 the history of animals there is nothing more important to us than what is 
 related of such as most nearly approach our own genus, differing from us 
 only in being less accomplished in the arts and learning, I speak of the 
 wild man of the woods, vulgarly called the ouran outang, yet, on this sub- 
 ject, Buffon is eminen^^ly culpable. ... He will not believe that such a 
 creature, though, as he allows, endowed with a human shape, can either 
 speak or think.'
 
 Book I] THE GORILLA 145 
 
 Travellers had often spoken of an ape larger than 
 the chimpanzee existing in the forests of Gaboon,^ and 
 in 1846 it was discovered by the American mission- 
 aries. Dr. Savage, who belonged to the mission at Cape 
 Palmas in Liberia, was already acquainted with the apes, 
 and had written, in conjunction with Professor Jeffries 
 Wyman of Har\''ard, an excellent paper on the habits 
 and characters of the chimpanzee.^ It happened that 
 he paid a visit to Gaboon, and was there shown by the 
 Rev. Leighton Wilson^ an ape's skull, which he at once 
 perceived, by its size and peculiar conformation, to be 
 that of a new species. This greater ape the natives 
 called njina, while the chimpanzee they called nshiego^ 
 Dr. Savage compiled an account of the njina's habits 
 from the hunters of Gaboon, and also obtained a 
 skeleton which he and Wyman described together,- as 
 they had previously described the chimpanzee. 
 
 But although the gorilla (as Savage and Wyman 
 named their new species) created a sensation among 
 comparative anatomists, and for some time monopolised 
 the attention of Professor Owen and Geoffroy St. Hilaire, 
 it was still unknown to people in general, and ouraitg- 
 outaiig was still a favourite term of abuse. But the year 
 
 ' Battel Ib Purchas. Monboddo, ' Origin and Progress of Language,' 
 i. p. 281. Dr. Traill in ' Wemerian Transactions.' ' Mission to Ashanti,' 
 Bowditch. 
 
 - ' Boston Journal of Natural History,' vol. iv. 
 
 3 The gorilla is mentioned in. Wilson's ' Western Africa, ' 
 
 ■• Sometimes written enceego, which was corrupted into enjocko. Buffon 
 took off the en, and hence the word jocko came into use. 
 
 '" ' Boston Journal of Natural Histor)',' vol. v. 
 
 VOL. L L
 
 146 THE GORILLA [Book I 
 
 1 86 1 proved fatal to the fame of the Indian .ape, for 
 then M. du Chaillu came over from the States with a 
 number of stuffed gorillas, which were exhibited in the 
 rooms of the Geographical Society, and afterwards in 
 the windows of the ' Field ' Office. They were stared at 
 through gold eye-glasses by languid ladies of fashion 
 gathered by Sir Roderick Murchison at dinners and con- 
 versaziones, and invited to view the wonder of the day, 
 while crowds blocked up the side-walk in the Strand. 
 
 And then appeared the celebrated book, composed 
 in the Defoe style, by a New York journalist, from 
 M. du Chaillu's original MS. The word gorilla was on 
 everybody's lips, and caricatures everywhere appeared., 
 Mudie's was besieged for copies, and all London read 
 with thrilling interest the adventures of the new Jules 
 Gerard and his description of the monstrous and ferocious 
 ape, which advanced to the attack en se poitrinant, thump- 
 ing its breast like a tom-tom, roaring so loudly that it 
 could be heard three miles, and squaring up in the P. R. 
 style, one well-planted blow being sufficient to tear out 
 thepoor negro's entrails, break his breast-bone, or crush 
 his scull. 
 
 The geographers swallowed Du Chaillu whole, ^and he 
 safely passed through the gauntlet of reviewers. Pro- 
 fessor Owen also accepted his account of the habits of 
 the gorilla, for he himself had announced to a London 
 audience, two years before,^ that the gorilla often attacked 
 the elephant, hitting him over the trunk with a stick, 
 
 ' Pi-oceedings of the Royal Institution, 1S59.
 
 Book I] THE GORILLA 147 
 
 was more than a match for the lion (which does not 
 exist in gorilla-land at all), and furthermore indulged in 
 the unseemly habit of sitting in the trees, lowering its 
 hind foot to catch the passing negro by the neck, 
 drawing him up to the higher branches, choking him to 
 death, and then letting him fall down again. It may 
 therefore be easily supposed that he saw no reason to 
 doubt the comparatively commonplace statements of Du 
 Chaillu. But most of the leading zoologists disbelieved 
 him from the first, and Dr. Gray attacked him in the 
 ' Athenaeum.' 
 
 Here, at this town of Ngumbi, or Goumbi, I was on 
 the arena of M. Du Chaillu's astonishing achievements ; 
 and they did astonish his native hunters and com- 
 panions. Soon after my arrival I announced my inten- 
 tion of going out after gorillas, upon which there was an 
 outcry of wonder and remonstrance. Whoever heard of 
 white men shooting gorillas } Why could I not do like 
 Mr. Paulo } Their hunters w^ould go out and kill m.e 
 gorillas, and I could buy them with cloth and tobacco, 
 and take off their skins. A roar of laughter followed 
 my announcement that M. Du Chaillu had shot gorillas 
 himself He had shot birds and small monkeys, they 
 said, but that was all. 
 
 However this may be, one thing at least is certain, 
 that I\I. Du Chaillu's account of the apes is incorrect, 
 and his book should be placed entirely aside by those 
 who are studying the Simice of Africa. The memoir 
 of Dr. Savage must still be considered the classical
 
 148 THE GORILLA [Book I 
 
 authority on the ape which he discovered. But I do 
 not wish the reader to suppose that M. Du Chaillu is 
 merely a composer of spurious adventures. His early 
 trips to the interior, though without geographical import- 
 ance, were highly creditable to him, for at that time he 
 was only a trader : from the first he was full of courage 
 and enthusiasm : and after he had made his reputation, 
 he took lessons in practical astronomy, returned to the 
 Fernand Vaz, and made a gallant though ineffectual 
 attempt to penetrate into the heart of Africa. 
 
 The gorillas and chimpanzees are exceedingly wary 
 in their habits, and keen of hearing and smell ; even the 
 native hunters find it difBcult to kill them. Yet these 
 men go naked, and often on all fours, and their black 
 bodies seen through the foliage resemble those of the 
 wild animals whose movements they imitate. But the 
 white sportsman can only hope to get a shot by accident, 
 for as he blunders along through the bush, creepers 
 entangle his feet, branches catch in his clothes, and twigs 
 snap under his feet. The hunters of Ngumbi told me 
 that I should never be able to see a gorilla as long as I 
 persisted in wearing boots, which were very ornamental 
 in the town, but altogether out of place in the forest. I 
 came to the conclusion that to shoot a gorilla (or chim- 
 panzee) a twelvemonth at least would be required, and 
 was not disposed to give up that amount of time. Of 
 course it might so happen that another sportsman would 
 see a gorilla he very first time he went into the forest
 
 BouK I] THE GORILLA 149 
 
 but this at least may safely be affirmed, that no Euro- 
 pean will ever be able to study the habits of the African 
 manlike apes in their wild state. Full information on this 
 point can be obtained from native hunters alone. Dr. 
 Savage examined the Mpongwe hunters of Gaboon, and 
 I also examined the Fan hunters of the Ncomo, the 
 hunters of the Muni, and the hunters of the Fernand 
 Vaz, which latter region may be considered the metro- 
 polis of the gorilla. The evidence which I collected 
 differs from that of Savage on one point alone. It seems 
 to me that his informants, as is natural enough, had 
 exaggerated the ferocity of the gorilla. For instance, 
 he says, ' The natives stand greatly in fear of it, and 
 never attempt its capture except in self-defence! But 
 gorilla skins are now a regular article of trade, and the 
 supply has -always equalled the demand. Again he says, 
 ' They are exceedingly ferocious, and always offensive in 
 their habits, never rimning from men as does the cJiim- 
 panzee! Now such statements as these were frequently 
 made to me, but when I cross-examined the hunters, the 
 true slayers of gorillas, I found that the ape was not 
 so formidable as it was reported. We all know that 
 the leopard is less to be dreaded than the tiger, or 
 even the lion.^ Now when I asked the hunters which 
 they feared most, the gorilla or the leopard } they 
 one and all answered, the leopard ! They have also a 
 
 * Barrow and Livingstone have both aspersed the character of the hon. 
 It looks like a mastiff, and cannot roar any better than an ostrich. At 
 least, it is certain that the tiger is far its superior in ferocity and streno-th.
 
 150 THE GORILLA [Book I 
 
 proverb, ' Leave the njina alone and njina will leave you 
 alone.' But the best proof I have that the gorilla runs 
 away from man is derived from personal experience. I 
 was on the tracks of a male gorilla in the neighbourhood 
 of Ngumbi, and we approached near enough to hear him 
 breaking the branches as he moved along about thirty 
 yards ahead. I crept up towards him as softly as I 
 could, but he heard me, and rushed away. 
 
 Dr. Savage says, of the chimpanzee, that ' the carmies 
 are early developed and evidently de sighted to act the impor- 
 tant part of weapons of defence. When i7i contact with 
 many almost the first effort of the animal is to bite' He 
 also says, that he had seen one man who had been 
 severely bitten in the feet by a chimpanzee. Now, 
 although the gorilla has strength enough in its enormous 
 arms to tear a man asunder, it uses them merely in 
 arboreal gymnastics, and, like the chimpanzee, bites when 
 it attacks. In neither the Muni, Gaboon, nor Fernand 
 Vaz has any one been killed by a -gorilla within the 
 memory of man. But at Ngumbi, the chief hunter of 
 the town, who was named Etia, had been wounded by 
 one of these apes. His left hand was crippled, and the 
 dents of two teeth were plainly visible upon his wrist. 
 He told me that the gorilla when shot at or wounded 
 always charged, and that the hunter usually escaped. 
 But on this occasion, the gorilla seized him by the hand, 
 carried it to his mouth 'like a plantain,' gave it a 
 bite, then dropped it and ran away. The charge was 
 made on all fours.
 
 Book I] THE GORILLA 151 
 
 I once saw a large male gorilla just after it had been 
 killed. The face had an expression of horrible ferocity, 
 which is partially lost when the animal is stuffed. The 
 arms were full and symmetrically formed, human in 
 appearance, but gigantic, and the whole trunk as far as 
 the waist was that of an enormous man. And then 
 came a pair of short, withered, shrunken, stunted legs, 
 like those of an old woman. A mere glance at the body 
 was sufficient to show that the gorilla cannot zualk. But 
 when it wishes to see something more distinctly, as, for 
 instance, the hunter who approaches, it rises to the erect 
 position, holding on however by a branch, by way of 
 support. I have noticed in monkeys, that whenever they 
 stand up (which several species can do with ease), it is to 
 look at some object, and thus it is Curiosity which first 
 induces quadrupeds to stand on their hind legs. 
 
 There is certainly a difference in character between 
 the gorilla and the chimpanzee. The gorilla frequents 
 the darkest, densest regions of the forest ; the chim- 
 panzee the more open parts and the neighbourhood of 
 prairies. The chimpanzee is less fierce and more intel- 
 ligent than the larger ape. The na^tives, as Savage has 
 recorded, compare the gorilla to a bushman, and the 
 chimpanzee to a coastman. ' If you throw a spear at 
 the nsJiicgol said Etia, ' it will catch it and throw it back 
 at you, but the nji7ia does not know how to do that/ 
 
 I am also inclined to think that the chimpanzee fre- 
 quents the trees more than the gorilla, which lives- 
 entirely upon the ground, merely ascending the trees ta
 
 !52 THE GORILLA [Book I 
 
 gather fruit, or sometimes to sleep in the branches, or 
 possibly upon its nest. 
 
 ' TJiese dwellings I says Dr. Savage, ' if they may so be 
 called, are similar- to those of the chimpanzee, consisting 
 simply of a few sticks and leafy branches, supported by 
 the crotches and limbs of trees ; they afford no shelter, 
 and are occupied only at night. . . . The natives ridicule 
 this habit of the Engeena. They call hifn a fool to make 
 a honse without a roof in a country where they have so 
 much rain' ^ 
 
 The nests are here correctly described. I have seen 
 those of the chimpanzee and those of the gorilla, the 
 latter being the larger of the two. But, as regards their 
 use, I am not so clear. The ourang-outang makes a 
 sleep-nest for itself every night.^ Dr. Savage appears 
 to have been informed that these nests of the African 
 apes were made for a similar purpose. But I was told 
 that they were made as birds' nests are made — for the 
 confinement of the female. No doubt they are often 
 used as sleeping-places, as birds roost in old nests ; but 
 if they were always used for that purpose, would not the 
 
 * 'The trees. . . are so closely planted that I have heard gorillas, here called 
 '^ sokes," growling about fifty yards off without getting a glimpse of them. 
 His nest is a poor contrivance ; it exhibits no more architectural skill than 
 the nest of our cushat dove. Here the "soko" sits in pelting rain with his 
 hands over his head. The natives give him a good character, and from what 
 I have seen he deserves it ; but they call his nest his house, and laugh, at 
 him for being such a fool as to build a house and not go beneath it for 
 shelter.' — Livingstone to Lord Stanley, from the Manyema Country, No- 
 vember 15, 1870. 
 
 * Wallace's ' Indian Archipelago.' This book is the best authority on 
 the habits of the ourang-outang.
 
 Gorillas and Nest.
 
 Book I] THE GORILLA 153 
 
 gorilla hunters merely lie in wait near the nest and shoot 
 the ape as he went to bed ? But this I know they are 
 not in the habit of doing, and I fully believe in Water- 
 ton's maxim, that the 'monkeys have no home.' 
 
 The chimpanzee ranges along the whole coast from 
 Senegambia on the north to Angola on the south, but 
 the gorilla is found only to a little distance on each side 
 of the Equator, so far as the coast-regions are concerned. 
 But Schweinfurth alludes to its existence in the country 
 north of the Albert Nyanza ; and Livingstone has shown 
 that they are found in the country west of Tanganyika. 
 Now, as the gorilla frequents only the primaeval forest, 
 we may hence infer that a vast belt of virgin forest 
 extends across the African plateau from the Gaboon to 
 the Albert Lake; and certainly the tribes which Schwein- 
 furth and Livingstone describe in the most distant 
 countries w^hich they reached, closely resemble the bush- 
 tribes of Gaboon.
 
 154 
 
 DETAINED 
 
 Having given up all hopes of bagging a gorilla within 
 a reasonable time, and having satisfied my curiosity 
 respecting M. du Chaillu's statements, I determined to 
 visit some other region of the coast. I accordingly 
 informed Quenqueza that I intended to depart. He 
 begged me to wait till the next day, and he would 
 then accompany me in person to Brooklyn. Much as I 
 might have felt flattered by this offer, I at first declined 
 it ; for I wished to reach the Gaboon in time to sail to 
 Fernando Po by the vessel which went to meet the 
 monthly mail, and negro princes do not love rapid 
 travelling. However, the old man was so polite, so 
 humble even, that I graciously yielded, and agreed to 
 wait another day. 
 
 The next morning I had my boat loaded, and an- 
 nounced to the king that I was ready. He replied that 
 he must go with me because he was my dear friend. I 
 requested him to come then at once. He said that he 
 would eat his breakfast, and then he would go. (All 
 this while he had fully made up his mind that I should 
 not leave the town for a considerable time.) After 
 he had finished breakfast I reminded him that my 
 canoe was waiting. He said I must please speak to his
 
 Book I] DETAIXED 155 
 
 cousin before I went. I asked him where his cousin was. 
 He repHed in the plantation. I said in broad English 
 that I would see his cousin farther before I waited for 
 him. This was translated by iMafuk into polite Mpong- 
 we. Then the king promised to come down to the canoe 
 as soon as he had arranged some domestic matters with 
 his steward. I w^ent down before him and waited half 
 an hour in a boiling fidget. The king did not come; this 
 increased my exasperation, and I cried Kabbi ! in a 
 savage voice. Mafuk and Oshupu began to remonstrate, 
 but I would not listen to them. The men grinned, and 
 bent forward on their paddles ; we shot out to the 
 middle of the stream ; a cluster of natives on the 
 bank looking on at us with open mouths. When the 
 first turning hid Ngumbi from sight I felt like a 
 prisoner who had escaped. A black-and-white eagle 
 was perched upon a withered branch, and surveyed 
 the stream below, digesting the heads of fishes (his 
 favourite bo7ine boiiche), or devising a second course to 
 his repast. I put my rifle to my shoulder and knocked 
 away the branch from under him. 
 
 On we w^ent through the water, shadowed by the 
 high trees, while the other side shone like silver in the 
 sun. I lay at full length on the mat, with my pith 
 helmet over my eyes, collarless, coatless, comfortable, 
 cosy, building castles in the air. Suddenly my men 
 stopped paddling, and looked at one another with 
 anxious eyes. Lazily raising myself upon my elbows, 
 I looked back, and could see, at a great distance, a
 
 156 DETAIiVED [Book 1 
 
 black spot and something rising and falling like a 
 streak of light. The men put their hands to their 
 ears : I listened and could hear now and then a faint 
 note borne towards us on the wind. 
 'What's that, Mafuk ? ' 
 
 * King, sir.' 
 
 ' Oh, he's coming, is he .? ' said I, laughing. ' Well, 
 he can easily catch us now he is so near. Kabbi ! ' 
 
 My stewards gave an uneasy smile and did not 
 answer. The canoemen dipped their paddles into the 
 water, and that was all. Every man was listening with 
 bent head, as if trying to detect the words or the tune. 
 I looked round again. I could now see that it was a large 
 canoe, manned by about twenty hands, with a kind of 
 thatched house in its stern. The song still continued, 
 and could now be plainly heard. My men flung their 
 paddles down, and began to talk to one another in an 
 excited manner. 
 
 * What is the matter now t ' said I, pettishly. 
 Mafuk wiped his forehead. 
 
 * It is the war song! 
 
 On came the canoe, black with men, the paddles 
 tossing- the white water in the air. On it came, shot 
 swiftly past us, arched round, and lay up to us close 
 alongside. Then rose a storm of angry voices, Quen- 
 queza's raised above the rest. They were more than 
 double our numbers, but were not armed, and I de- 
 termined that they should not take us back. I had just 
 begun to bawl and gesticulate as madly as the rest, and
 
 Book I] DETAINED 157 
 
 was going to hold up my rifle in order to elucidate my 
 meaning, when, happening to look round (I cannot 
 imagine why I did so), I saw something which made 
 me gracefully sink back in my seat and put up my 
 umbrella. A canoe, filled with well-armed men, came 
 up on the other side, and two of the enemy, springing 
 into our canoe, began to paddle her round towards 
 Ngumbi. Oshupu's ire being stirred by this invasion, 
 he snatched up a musket, ran forward, and hit a man 
 with it in the face. Then his friends held his hands, 
 and his foes knocked him down with their paddles 
 edgewise. My men were taken out of the canoe and 
 assigned places in those of our captors'. Ouenqueza 
 came into my canoe, sat down beside me on the 
 mat, and tenderly embraced me. I shook my head 
 surlily, and said Nyawhi — the negative in Mpongwe. 
 But with the exception of Oshupu, who was sulky over 
 his wounds, and I over my indignity, everybody was 
 joking and laughing. It was wonderful how quickly 
 good humour was restored. The men, who had still the 
 black paint on their foreheads, were affably patting the 
 breasts of those who were now their prisoners of war. 
 
 On arriving at the town, I set two men to sleep in 
 the canoe and guard its contents. This was intended 
 to show that I did not intend to stay long at Ngumbi. 
 But I now began to understand that my movements no 
 longer depended on myself When I went up into the 
 town, I expected to find a crowd in the palaver-house ; 
 but the building was empty, the streets deserted, and
 
 158 DETAINED [Book I 
 
 the king- asleep. This reliance in their power, and my 
 inability to escape, hurt my pride more than if they 
 had chained me hand and foot I returned to the 
 canoe and made Oshupu (who was so fond of fighting) 
 an insensate offer of going off again and contesting any 
 attempt to bring us back. But this time it was Oshupu 
 who. was wise. His blood-letting had wonderfully cooled 
 him down, and rising from the ebony on which he had 
 been seated, he shook his head and replied : * These 
 people hurt we probably if we go again.' 
 
 The next morning a grand palaver was held. The 
 king and his cousin, who was the heir apparent, sat upon 
 stools, the rest squatting on their heels. The king had 
 a long staff in his hand. After he had spoken he handed 
 it to his cousin, who passed it on in the same manner. 
 No one interrupted the man who held the staff, and the 
 meeting was conducted in the most orderly manner. 
 All spoke without that hemming and hawing by which 
 the mass of our orators are distinguished ; those who 
 were not speaking listened with attention ; and when 
 one honourable member differed from another he did not 
 crow like a cock, or laugh like a hyaena. But then they 
 were savages, and did not understand the arts of par- 
 liamentary debate. 
 
 After the king had spoken, his cousin rose and de- 
 claimed with great energy. Mafuk, Oshupu, and I were 
 sitting together at a little distance from the palaver- 
 house, and I observed that they seemed to attend with 
 much interest to the prince's speech. When they ex-
 
 Book I] DETALVED 159 
 
 plained its purport to me I was not astonished that 
 they should. He was proposing that ]\Iafuk and 
 Oshupu should be killed. He represented that this 
 was a deep-laid scheme of theirs to take me away 
 from the town and to set me up at the mouth of the 
 river. The shot which I had fired at the eagle he said 
 had been fired by them, in contempt and defiance of 
 the town. As for myself, he seemed to think I was not 
 in any way responsible ; and that was the general 
 belief. Oshupu did not show any signs of discomposure, 
 for he was really a courageous man ; I had watched him 
 in danger more than once, and he seemed never to be 
 afraid. Besides, being a native of Gaboon, he looked 
 down upon these provincials with contempt, and did 
 not believe that they would dare to injure him. But 
 with ]\Iafuk it was quite another matter. He remem- 
 bered the fable of Njabi, and the fate of Seringila. 
 
 When all the fathers of families had spoken, I went 
 into the midst of the assembly, and through the mouth 
 of the impassible Oshupu informed the king, his cousin, 
 and their people, that I was the master of these two 
 men, and that in leaving the town they had only obeyed 
 my commands. * If you must kill some one,' said I, 
 addressing myself pointedly to the king's cousin, ' you 
 must kill me.' Here I gave a lofty kind of laugh, as if 
 the slaying of a white man was too absurd an idea to be 
 entertained for a moment. Upon this the fathers 
 laughed too. 
 
 ' Now,' said I to the king, ' you wish me to stay here
 
 i6o DETAINED [Book I 
 
 because I am your dear friend, and because you wish 
 to give me and my men goats and plantains to eat. I 
 wish to go away that I may bring you cloth, and tobacco, 
 and white beads for your women. Listen to a story I 
 will tell you. A man lived with his wife. His wife 
 loved him because he had plantains, cassada, and ground 
 nuts plenty.' (This was a touch of nature, and there was 
 a murmur of applause.) ' But she loved him so much 
 that she never wished him to leave her. One day he 
 said to her, " My heart, I must go to the plantation to- 
 day ; I must get ground nuts from my slaves who work 
 there." And she said, '* You must not go yet," But he 
 said, " I must go ; " and he went. Then she was angry, 
 and said to her two brothers, " Go bring back my hus- 
 band ; he wants to see another woman." They brought 
 him back, and he stayed. But one day she said to him, 
 " Sir, I am very hungry- ; nothing lives in my stomach. 
 Please go and get something for me to eat from your 
 plantation." But he said, '' My wife, this plantation it is 
 far away. In three days I go, in three days I come 
 again," So he went ; but when he came back he found 
 her dead from hunger. 
 
 ' So, my friends, the plantation where I get cloth and 
 tobacco is far away. I go now ; in a moon I come 
 back. But if I stay here you will smoke all your tobacco, 
 you will wear out all your cloth. Then you will say Go. 
 and I will go. But while I am gone you will have no 
 tobacco, and you will die.' 
 
 The fathers applauded this fable, but did not allow it
 
 Book I] DETAINED i6i 
 
 to alter their views. As regarded Mafuk, the counsels 
 of the peace party prevailed, and it was agreed that he 
 should be in no way molested. At the close of the 
 palaver I sent him to ask when I could go. Ouenqueza 
 replied that I could go to-morrow. To-morrow ! a 
 negro's to-morrow ! The morrow came, and with it the 
 same promise. The chief of a neighbouring village 
 came to Ngumbi with a goat. Quenqueza introduced 
 him to me, and made me a present of the animal. I 
 must not think, he said, that he kept me there because 
 he was angry with me ; it was because he loved me 
 and wished to introduce me to his friends. 
 
 The fact of my being at Ngumbi increased the im- 
 portance of Ouenqueza ; people would come from a 
 great distance to see his white ma7i, as he called me ; 
 and none would come without presents and praise. I 
 now saw that he intended to keep me at Ngumbi as 
 long as I continued to ' draw ;' and that might last some 
 weeks, or even months. 
 
 I had resigned myself to my fate when the aspect 
 of affairs suddenly changed. Twelve men had entered 
 the town and were assembled in the palaver-house. 
 Their features were ferocious, their hair thick and 
 rough, and they were armed with spears. They formed 
 a deputation from a neighbouring tribe of Bakele. At 
 a meeting of rive-rchieftains some time before, Captain 
 Lawlin had brought in a Bill for the extinction of those 
 intestine wars which are so fatal to commercial interests. 
 The law enacted, that whatever chieftain shed blood, or 
 VOL, I. M
 
 i62 DETAINED [Book I 
 
 caused blood to be shed, should pay a fine to all the 
 others. These Bakele belonged to the confederation ; 
 they had heard of our little skirmish and the shedding of 
 Oshupu's blood — chiefly from the nose — and they came to 
 demand sundry fathoms of cloth and articles of crockery 
 ware. If these were not immediately paid they would 
 burn the town. 
 
 Ouenqueza unlocked his chests and paid the fine, and 
 I was once more free, as, of course, he would not dare 
 to interfere with me again. He asked me when I de- 
 sired to go, and I said I should go the next morning. 
 He then walked through the town, ringing his iron bell, 
 and crying in a loud voice that the next day he intended 
 to escort his white man to Camma, and that all men 
 must subscribe plantains and cassada for his use upon 
 the journey. But poor Quenqueza was under a cloud, 
 and his subjects refused to do anything of the kind. 
 
 The next day I again made a start. Quenqueza 
 wished to sit with me in my canoe. I said I would have 
 nothing more to do with him ; he might go in the canoe 
 he brought me back with. He accordingly took his big 
 canoe which he could now man only with a few slaves, 
 for none of the free men would go with him. He dogged 
 me all the way down the river ; but I forbad my men to 
 speak to his. At every village which we passed a crowd 
 was collected on the bank. At each we were requested 
 to stop and bear witness to the infraction of the law ; 
 and at each Quenqueza was duly informed that he was 
 fined so many fathoms, dishes, and mugs. A charming
 
 Book I] DETAINED 163 
 
 unanimity prevailed as to the question of his guilt ; 
 there was no party spirit ; each community was en- 
 titled to its mulct, and each put in its claim on the spot. 
 
 At every village, Quenqueza requested me to stay and 
 pass the night ; at ever>' village I refused in the most 
 decided terms. Mafuk was all for conciliatory measures. 
 Quenqueza had the reputation of being a powerful ma- 
 gician, and Mafuk acknowledged that, so long as he 
 remained in the Rembo, he (Mafuk) was a boy although 
 he was an old man. I pointed out to him what an 
 excellent reason this was for getting out of the Rembo. 
 I told the men that I was well acquainted with the 
 king's magic arts, and that they would be ineffectual 
 against us so long as we kept moving. 
 
 That night, as I sat with my rifle across my lap, not 
 daring to sleep, I saw the great canoe creep stealthily 
 past us ; a little time after I saw a light ahead, gleam- 
 ing among the trees. It was the king's encampment, 
 and we passed close to it. The sight of those cheerful 
 fires, and of the men who lay round them eating their 
 suppers, was a powerful temptation to my weary crew. 
 Ouenqueza's stately figure rose in the midst, the ruddy 
 glare of the flames playing on his face. ' Come,' he 
 cried, 'you are tired. Here are mats spread on the 
 ground and the supper is prepared.' 
 
 And then arose the voices of the king's girls, melo- 
 dious and enticing as those of the sirens in the ancient 
 days, as softly singing they entreated us to come. My 
 men wavered, but I would not yield. ' You must paddle 
 
 K 2
 
 1 64 DETAINED [Book I 
 
 till daybreak,' I said ; ' and if you sleep it shall be in the 
 canoe, and I will keep watch.' Upon this they regained 
 their courage, and cried out that they were not bushmen 
 to sleep in the wood. Then the song ceased, and the 
 king cursed us heartily. Mafuk trembled. I laughed 
 at him. * Ah ! ' said he, ' to-morrow I shall be a man ; 
 but to-night I am a rat.' 
 
 I thought we were now fairly rid of our man, and was 
 beginning to doze, when I heard again the low plashing 
 of the paddles, and the king's canoe, grey in the moon- 
 light, again shot by. This pertinacity perplexed me at 
 the time, but its object no doubt was reconciliation. On 
 reaching the open river we hoisted mast and sail, and as 
 the land-breeze was blowing, soon left him far behind. 
 I was obliged to remain a day at Brooklyn in order to 
 obtain a seaworthy canoe, and in the course of that day 
 Quenqueza arrived. We met near the water. He held 
 out his hand ; I looked at him fixedly and cut him 
 dead. This civilised manoeuvre puzzled him exceed- 
 ingly. He then, through Mafuk, requested an interview. 
 I assented, and asked him what it was he wanted. He 
 said he wished to know why I would not speak to him. 
 I said, because he had come after me with war. He 
 declared that I was mistaken. * What ! ' said I, * did 
 not your men sing the war-song and wear the war-paint 
 on their foreheads 1 ' ' And did they not knock me down 
 with their paddles,' said Oshupu, ' and wound me in very 
 many places t ' To all this Quenqueza replied with 
 looks of bewilderment, and the most solemn protestations
 
 Book I] DETAINED 165 
 
 that nothing of the kind had occurred. He certainly 
 had come after me, and out of his love and affection 
 induced me to return ; but that was all. 
 
 This almost shook my gravity, but only for a moment, 
 My heart was full of bitterness, and young men do not 
 readily forgive. I refused to speak to him again, and 
 that same evening he started for Xgumbi, having made 
 his tedious voyage in vain. I had gone to bed early, 
 and when I heard the shout of his canoemen (an imita- 
 tion of hip ! hip ! hurrah !) as they pushed from the 
 shore, I felt a savage exultation. * An eye for an eye, a 
 tooth for a tooth.' He had put me to shame, and I had 
 put him to shame. We were quits. 
 
 At that time I was unable to look at the question 
 from Quenqueza's point of view, but now that I have 
 lived more among the Africans, I can see that I was 
 too hard upon him. He meant no harm by forcing me 
 back to his town, and before we met at Brooklyn he 
 had already been punished enough. I might at least 
 have shaken hands and given him a few kind words. 
 That parting shout often rings in my ears, and often I 
 see the poor old man going to his chest and taking out 
 the goods to pay the Bakele on my account — those goods 
 which it had taken him so long to save. That visit ot 
 mine, which he thought would bring him honour and 
 gladness, had brought him only sorrow and shame ; and 
 when I read of his death, in ]\I. du Chaillu's second work, 
 all this came again before me. I experienced a feeling 
 of actual remorse. I remembered only that which was
 
 i66 DETAINED [Book I 
 
 good and kindly in his character, and thought of the 
 prayer which he had offered up as we approached his town : 
 ' Spirit of my father ! protect this zvhite inmt who comes 
 to visit 2is. Preserve him from sickness zvJiile he stays. 
 Make Ids heart good toivards us zvheii Jie goes away! 
 
 As the south wind blows, during the dry months, 
 almost without intermission, I resolved to take the open 
 sea and attempt to round Cape Lopez — an enterprise at- 
 tended with some little danger in a crank canoe under 
 heavy winds ; but I was too much pressed for time to 
 adopt the usual route — viz., by paddling through the 
 creeks and running up under land. 
 
 At every village we passed, on our way down the 
 river, the people came down to the bank and cried out 
 to us that we could not cross the bar, as the sea-breezes 
 had for some days been so strong that it was in a 
 dangerous condition. In the afternoon we made a 
 small sandy point on the southern lip of the river. 
 Here my men landed, spread my rug under some 
 shrubs, and told me that we must wait till the bar had 
 subsided, which would probably be by five o'clock or 
 so the next morning. 
 
 A more abominable place there could not have been. 
 During four hours I should certainly be exposed to 
 a burning sun, and during a whole night to mosquitoes, 
 if I stayed ; if I did not stay, I should probably be 
 drowned. I preferred taking my chance, ordered the 
 rug to be put back in the canoe, and told the men that
 
 Book I] DETAINED 167 
 
 there was not the least danger, and that across the bar 
 we must go. They looked at one another in a very 
 perplexed manner, and ended by yielding to the superior 
 mind. We paddled round the point. 
 
 As we approached the bar, the frightful roaring of 
 the waters, and the foam which was dashed incessantly 
 into the air, where it hung like a white mist, made me 
 doubt my chances of escape ; and this doubt was not 
 removed by the conduct of my men, who looked at the 
 bar attentively, and then, with much deliberation, pro- 
 ceeded to take off their shirts and to bind them tightly 
 round their waists, evidently preparing for a swim. 
 As I could not swim, I was, at all events, saved that 
 trouble. 
 
 I had often observed the skill displayed by the 
 canoemen in crossing bars.; on the other hand, I knew 
 that they sometimes lost their nerve. In Oshupu I 
 placed the greatest confidence, but he did not know 
 the channel. Mafuk, on the other hand, knew the bar ; 
 but his face was already of a bluish-grey. There were 
 sharks about this river, and he was therefore uneasy on 
 his owui account. 
 
 The men disputed loudly as we neared the white 
 water, probably maintaining the impossibility of getting 
 through it. I told them to hold their tongues. They 
 waited for a favourable moment, and then darted into 
 the breakers. Wave after wave we surmounted : I 
 thought that they would never have done. By the skilful 
 management of the boatmen we had almost got through
 
 1 68 DETAINED [Book I 
 
 when a sfieantic roller loomed before us. It was a third 
 wave, which is always the worst. Wrenching the rudder 
 from Mafuk, who had begun to tremble, I cheered the 
 men to their work ; they dashed along to meet it as fast 
 as they could go, giving short sharp cries. It was a race 
 for life, so far as I was concerned : if it broke before we 
 topped it the canoe would be capsized. I put her head 
 straight at it, like a horse at a fence. She sprang to- 
 wards it in great leaps, like a horse's gallop. I never 
 had a minute of such glorious excitement. Now the 
 wave was above us like a cliff. Up, up, we went, as if 
 we were mounting to the sky, and then down, down, 
 down, on the dark smooth glassy water, like sliding 
 down a mountain slope. Behind us there was a terrific 
 crash ; the wave had broken just after we had passed it, 
 and now we were skimming through the open sea. 
 
 The men put on their shirts again, and, turning 
 round towards me, clapped their hands. We had a 
 fair wind all the way, and were only three days upon 
 our voyage. I arrived at Baraka on a Saturday, slept 
 between sheets once more, rested devoutly on the 
 Sabbath, and sailed on Monday in the bark ' Guilford,' 
 bound for Fernando Po.
 
 BOOK IL 
 
 THE SOUTH COAST. 
 
 HOLLO WA yPHOBlA 
 
 In the weary hours of the night, in the rambles of the 
 fresh and dewy morn, or at noon as I sat in the 
 forest on the trunk of a fallen tree, my rifle across my 
 lap, and the black hunters sleeping like spaniels at my 
 feet, I used often to tell myself stories, and to people 
 the scenes round me with the phantoms of my brain. 
 
 It is not a custom of our literature to intersperse a 
 narrative of exploration with avowedly fictitious tales ; 
 but it seems to me that these novelettes, which occurred 
 to me when travelling, lawfully belong to the story of 
 my travels : they are part of my impressions de voyage. 
 Let not the man of science pass them over in disdain, 
 for, although their design may be fantastic, their mate- 
 rials are facts ; and, perhaps, it will be found that a more 
 vivid and correct idea of savage life maybe derived from 
 them, than from many a ponderous journal and learned 
 dissertation. 
 
 It is true that these tales deal to some extent with
 
 I70 HOLLOWAYPIIOBIA [Book II 
 
 European characters and scenes, but even in this they 
 faithfully reflect the African traveller's personal expe- 
 rience. He does not exclusively exist among the palms 
 and the parrots, and the negroes, but flies to fairer 
 lands in his dreams and reveries — sits by the blazing fire- 
 side — watches the redbreast on the snow-lined window- 
 sill — gathers cowslips in the sunny meadows, goes out 
 to dinner parties, lounges along the boulevards, and is 
 regaled with many a vision of memory and hope. It is 
 only by such means we travellers keep ourselves alive ; 
 our bodies are detained in savagedom, but our minds 
 range freely through the world : and why should we treat 
 our readers more severely than ourselves } Are they 
 not as exiles when they read our books, and shall we 
 not sometimes indulge them with an interlude of home } 
 The first chapter in a book of travels or an. Eastern 
 tale, is like the first day in a foreign land. All is 
 curious and new ; but by the time that the middle of the 
 book is reached an ordinary mortal begins to get ter- 
 ribly fatigued. How delightful it is, in such stories as 
 'Hadji Baba' and ' Anastasius,' to meet with an En- 
 glish character, or even an allusion to the customs of the 
 West ! But African explorers never think of this : they 
 make their unfortunate reader trudge after them through 
 interminable chapters of swamp and sahara, till at 
 last he drops (the book) down exhausted, and obtains 
 relief from his sufferings in sleep. It is an awful thing 
 to say, but I am firmly convinced of its truth, that 
 there are some African travels which, like Africa itself.
 
 Book II] HOLLOWAYPHOBIA iji 
 
 have never been thoroughly explored — waste regions of 
 print which no human eye has surveyed ; and many 
 works of travel undoubtedly there are, which have been 
 traversed only by a few geographers and anthropologists, 
 courageous, patient, long-suffering, determined men, 
 capable of enduring the greatest privations in order to 
 gather scientific facts. 
 
 But in this book the reader shall not be so harshly 
 served. His path I strew with flowers, artificial ones 
 to be sure, and poorly manufactured, but still the best 
 that I can make — and offered with the best inten- 
 tions to cheer him on his journey. I hope, therefore, 
 that my innovation may be excused, and without further 
 apology or preface shall usher into the book Mr. Archi- 
 bald Potter of the United Kingdom. 
 
 The address, it may be observed, is somew^hat vague, 
 the reason being that my hero changed his abode as 
 often as a Bedouin of the desert, or a Tartar of the 
 steppes. He removed from one part of the British 
 islands to another in search of peace and happiness, 
 which he never found. He had excellent physical 
 health, plenty of money, few relations — nothing was 
 wanting to make him happy, had it not been for a 
 chronic disorder of his mind. As a child, he had always 
 been fidgety and fanciful, which faults had been aggra- 
 vated by injudicious treatment in the nursery. When 
 he grew up to be a boy, he was not sent to school, but 
 passed his time alone or among persons whom he dis- 
 liked ; and so he became taciturn and gloomy, brooded
 
 172 HOLLO IVAYPIIOBIA [Book II 
 
 over his thoughts, and nursed his real or imaginary 
 wrongs. But, above all, he took peculiar antipathies ; it 
 made him wretched to see certain sights or to hear cer- 
 tain sounds, and, instead of struggling against these 
 peculiar feelings, he indulged them and nourished them, 
 till finally they became his masters. 
 
 For instance, if he went out walking and saw a man 
 with his hat sideways on his head, or a woman dressed 
 in discordant colours, he fell into a fit of nervous irrita- 
 tion, which lasted an hour or even the whole day. He 
 especially detested the barking of a dog, and the whist- 
 ling of a boy. Some voices affected him so disagreeably 
 that he would rush frantically from them. He could 
 not bear to look upon ivy or other creeping plants, 
 which he declared to be the reptiles of the vegetable 
 kingdom. He gave up his club because, like all other 
 clubs, it was habitually frequented by an old gentleman 
 with a purple nose. He could not live long in one place, 
 as he was sure to find something in the neighbourhood 
 which troubled him, tormented him, and drove him 
 away. His life was in a great measure occupied in 
 flying from his aversions. As for his appearance, it was 
 singular and distressing ; his eyes glanced anxiously 
 from side to side ; his brow was always contracted, and 
 his hands were never at rest, sometimes opening and 
 shutting, sometimes raised in a nervous manner to his 
 lips. When he heard or saw anything which annoyed 
 him he used to mutter to himself, and sometimes ges- 
 ticulated in an extraordinary manner. As may be sup-
 
 Book II] HOLLOWAYPHOBIA 173 
 
 posed, he went little into society, and when he was forty 
 years of age, an incident occurred which removed him 
 from it altogether. 
 
 At that time the genius of advertising was in its in- 
 fancy, and one of the first who developed it was HOL- 
 LOWAY. j\Ir. Potter was at first much amused at the 
 number of his advertisements ; then he began to get 
 tired of seeing the same thing so often, and at last the 
 antipathy was formed. To such a pitch did he work 
 himself up, by continually thinking and soliloquising 
 upon the subject, that at last he could not see the name 
 of HoUoway without a shudder. Yet, see' it he did at 
 every hour of the day, in every newspaper he read, in 
 every omnibus he entered, at every railway station, on 
 ever\^ boarding and blind wall. He looked down as he 
 walked and found it written on the paving stones ; he 
 shut himself up at home, and it came to him as a pros- 
 pectus by the post, and dropped out of the books which 
 were brought from the circulating library. All this made 
 him so wretched that his life became a burden, and he 
 left England altogether. Rut, alas ! how could he hope 
 to escape from HoUoway, who advertised in every news- 
 paper and placarded all the reading regions of the earth .-^ 
 It was in vain that he fled from land to. land. On the 
 Pyramids of Egypt and the Rocky Mountains, in the 
 tea-houses of China and the bazaars of Hindostan, 
 posters or inscriptions announced the triumphs which 
 had been accomplished by the pills. He found them 
 the subject of conversation among men of all nations,
 
 174 HOLLO WAYPHOBIA [Book II 
 
 and in all climes. Driven by despair, he determined to 
 plunge into the heart of Africa, and there seek a refuge 
 from the persecution (as he called it) to which he was 
 subjected. 
 
 Between the Fernand Vaz and the great river Congo, 
 or Zaire, is the kingdom of Loango. It is an agreeable 
 country, mountainous and wooded, with a soil sometimes 
 light and sandy, sometimes of a deep red clay. It is 
 the southernmost point at which the gorilla is found, so 
 far as the coast regions are concerned. Formerly the 
 king of Loango was one -of the vassals of the great 
 Congo Empire; but the country is now, like Congo itself, 
 divided into petty principalities. On the seaboard at 
 that time were two Portuguese establishments dealing in 
 slaves ; and .an English factory, in connection with a 
 Bristol house, which purchased ivory and red wood from 
 the natives. 
 
 To this strange and isolated spot cam.e Archibald 
 Potter, in a brig belonging to the Bristol firm. He 
 had landed at Sierra Leone, intending to remain there a 
 few weeks, before he set off for the interior. But as he 
 was walking through the streets he saw posted up on 
 some palings a crimson sheet, with Holloway's Pills upon 
 it, in letters of gigantic stature. He at once left the 
 town, although he had accepted an invitation to dinner 
 with the Governor, and finding that there was a vessel 
 which would sail that evening for the south coast, went 
 on board and engaged a passage to Loango. 
 
 As soon as he arrived there he engaged a steward, or
 
 Book II] HOLLOWAYPHOBIA 175 
 
 interpreter, with a number of bearers and porters, pur- 
 chased a large outfit of cloth and beads, and started off 
 into the bush, after making arrangements with the factor 
 respecting his future supplies. 
 
 He travelled for three days, and then came to a 
 range of granite hills, where he had to go through a 
 narrow pass. He was stopped by a chieftain, who was 
 called the King of the Gate, and who forced him to pay 
 a heavy toll. Having clambered up these hills, he found 
 himself on an open plateau, about two thousand feet 
 above the level of the sea, and a hundred and fifty 
 miles distant from the coast. He then journeyed quietly 
 along, till he came to a village beautifully situated upon 
 a rising ground, and watered by a brook, which, rushing 
 over rocks, made continual music in the air. The natives 
 appeared industrious and gentle ; their cottages were 
 surrounded with cassada gardens, and they brought their 
 children to him that he might give them his blessing. 
 Now the reader ought to be informed that ]\Ir. Potter 
 was not insensible to agreeable impressions, and some- 
 times took extraordinary likings. Had our planet been 
 more kindly composed, he would have been a man dis- 
 tinguished, not for his antipathies, but for his predilec- 
 tions. As it was, his disposition had its brighter side ; 
 and now, as he walked out in the soft and balmy air, 
 with two pretty children holding his hands, and looking 
 up towards his face with their deep and tender eyes, 
 — as the sun, sinking behind the forest, shone dimly 
 through the trees, and thus created an artificial twilight.
 
 176 IIOLLOWAYPHOBIA [Book II 
 
 which reminded him unconsciously of home, — as he 
 Hstened to the murmur of the waters — as he gazed 
 upon the sweet blue sky — as the perfumes of the night- 
 flowers rose slowly from the earth, there came upon him 
 a feeling of calmness and tranquillity, his eyes filled 
 with tears, he sat down in the long grass and took the 
 children in his lap, and resolved that he would roam 
 no farther, but remain in this peaceful village, where the 
 boys did not know how to whistle, and the dogs did not 
 know how to bark, and purple noses were unknown, and 
 nobody advertised, and the arts of the hatter and tailor 
 had not rendered human beings offensive to the eye. It 
 is true that the negroes wore strange and repulsive trin- 
 kets in their noses and their lips, and their music was a 
 concert of atrocious sounds ; they were also inquisitive 
 and noisy ; and, in fact, their manners were such as to 
 drive the inexperienced European into a state of distrac- 
 tion and despair. But, strange enough, this man who 
 was infuriated by the little annoyances of civilised life, 
 which other people disregard, had endured the dawdling, 
 and mendacity, and pilferings of his attendants with all 
 the patience and equanimity of a seasoned African 
 explorer. Such was his delight in having escaped from 
 HoUoway s advertisements that it pervaded his whole 
 being, and his character appeared no longer the same. 
 For the first time in his life he resisted his disinclinations, 
 and, whenever he caught himself muttering, recalled to 
 his mind the happy release which he enjoyed from all 
 the serious troubles of existence. As for bad food and
 
 Book II] HOLLOWAYPHOBIA 177 
 
 lodging he had always been a stoic in such matters, and 
 it therefore cost him nothing to adopt the African 
 mode of life. 
 
 The next morning he summoned the elders of the 
 village and announced his intention of residing among 
 them. The elders went to the palaver-house ; the people 
 were assembled, and the news announced. Then, all risino- 
 together, they gave a cry of joy and carolled a hymn of 
 welcome : the rest of the day was given up to music and 
 festivity. He was lodged in the chief's house ; but the 
 villagers, under the direction of Quissiquashi, the inter- 
 preter, a most intelligent person, built a large wooden 
 house on piles, so that there might be a free current of 
 air underneath, with a planked floor and a verandah. 
 Several acres of ground were assigned to the white man 
 as his plantation, and these were cleared by the men 
 and women of the town. He purchased poultry and 
 goats ; the hunters were ordered to bring him the choice 
 parts of all that they killed. The village was thronged 
 with visitors from other towns and hamlets, and most of 
 these brought presents, so that the people became 
 wealthy, the village expanded to a town. Potter was 
 in reality its king, and the people called him their 
 Father. This position he owed to his wealth and gene- 
 rosity. He relieved the poor, liberated and pensioned 
 certain ancient slaves, and assisted the young men who 
 wished to marry the daughters of their neighbours but 
 could not afford to pay the requisite amount. When- 
 ever a child was born it was placed under his protection, 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 IIOLLOIVAYPHOBIA [Book II 
 
 and he made the usual gifts to its parents. It soon 
 became a proverb in the neighbourhood, * as rich as a 
 native of Kakongo.' Many persons migrated to that 
 town, and were admitted to the rights of citizenship. 
 The people looked up to the white man with veneration ; 
 his vnshes were at once obeyed ; certain persons of 
 whom he had conceived a dislike were banished from 
 the town, but he consoled them with handsome presents 
 when they went away. They had an Albino, who, ac- 
 cording to the custom of the country, was highly prized 
 and esteemed as being a favourite of the gods, and 
 therefore useful to the town. But Potter objected to 
 him as a caricature of the European, and the obe- 
 dient villagers sold him to a neighbouring chief for a 
 tract of excellent hunting land contiguous to their own 
 estates. 
 
 While Mr. Potter remained at Kakongo he lived up 
 to his income, which was nearly two thousand a year ; 
 every month bearers from Loango arrived with bales 
 of goods, and also occasionally with books, clothing, and 
 other articles from Europe. His manner of life was as 
 follows : — At daybreak he took a cup of coffee, and 
 went to the brook to bathe. At ten o'clock he break- 
 fasted on game, goat, and poultry, with cassada and 
 bananas. During the heat of the day he read books, 
 wrote his diary, and studied the native language. In 
 the afternoon he went out for a good long walk, dined 
 at six o'clock, and passed the evening in conversation 
 witn tne elders, or in looking at the dances of the
 
 Book II] ' HOLLOWAYPHOBIA 
 
 179 
 
 village girls. He had some slight attacks of ague, but 
 on the whole enjoyed good health, and for two years 
 was happier than he had ever been before. But then 
 unluckily an incident occurred which reopened his old 
 wounds and again drove him forth upon the world. 
 
 The agent at Loango had delayed sending for some 
 boots which he had ordered, so that those which he pos- 
 sessed were quite worn out before the new ones arrived. 
 Ouissiquashi, who could turn his hand to anything, made 
 him some sandals of goat-skin, and in these he shuffled 
 about as well as he could. However, he had heard 
 from the agent that the boots had been ordered some 
 months, and would therefore soon arrive ; as soon as 
 they came to hand one pair would be despatched to 
 him by a special messenger. The whole village was 
 acquainted with their Father's distress, and looked for 
 the arrival of the boots almost as anxiously as he did 
 himself One evening as he was sitting out of doors in 
 front of the house, eating his dinner from a gourd, he 
 saw the people dancing and clapping their hands, and 
 then a man, covered with dust and bearing a package on 
 his head, ran swiftly up the little street, and prostrated 
 himself before him, touching the ground with the ends 
 of his fingers ; and then, sitting on his heels, rever- 
 ently clapped his hands. Potter gravely returned his 
 salutation, bowing and clapping his hands. The people 
 gathered round them. Potter, before he opened the 
 parcel, which he saw from its shape and size con- 
 tained the boots, asked the man how long he had 
 
 >* 2
 
 i8o JIOLLOWAYPHOBIA [Book II 
 
 been on the journey, and thanked him for the speed 
 with which he had travelled. He also ordered the in- 
 terpreter to clothe him in a handsome piece of satin- 
 stripe, upon which the people sang a song : * Oh, how 
 generous is our white man ! Oh, how benevolent is our 
 Father ! Blessed be the day which gave him to the 
 earth ! Blessed be the day which brought him to our 
 town ! ' Then Potter told Quissiquashi to throw some 
 beads among the women, and stooping down he untied 
 the parcel. When he had taken oft" the canvas wrapper, 
 he found that the boots were folded up in some red 
 paper, and as he took them out of this he saw in large 
 letters, Hollozuay s Pills, and instantly swooned away. 
 
 When he recovered his senses he found himself sur- 
 rounded by natives, who were looking at him with 
 anxious eyes ; some of the women were weeping ; and 
 the fetishman of the village was ringing his iron bell, 
 and commanding all evil spirits to depart, and never again 
 to assail the noblest and most generous of men. He 
 had all the people sent away, and searched for the 
 crimson poster that he might tear it into shreds. But 
 it was nowhere to be found. The boots and the canvas 
 wrapper were lying on the ground in the place where he 
 had left them, but the red paper had disappeared. He 
 called his interpreter and asked him where it was : 
 Quissiquashi answered that he could not say : he had 
 been at the brook when his Father had fainted, and had 
 afterwards no eyes to see anything but him. He said 
 he would have it looked for at once, but returned in an
 
 Book II] HOLLO WAYPHOBIA i8r 
 
 hour's time to say that no one knew anything about it. 
 Potter offered a great reward for its discovery, but 
 in vain. Ouissiquashi maintained that nothing of the 
 kind had ever existed, except in his master's imagina- 
 tion. Potter called him a madman and a fool. Ouissi- 
 quashi brought forward the bystanders, who, one and 
 all, affirmed that they had seen nothing of a red colour 
 in the parcel when it had been opened. Potter was 
 perplexed, and finally began to doubt the evidence of 
 his senses, and to think that after all it had been a 
 waking dream. The mystery in which this unhappy 
 circumstance was now involved impressed it more deeply 
 and painfully upon his mind. He could think of nothing 
 else from morning to night. He had always kept his 
 antipathy a secret, for he knew well enough how ridicu- 
 lous it would make him appear ; he was therefore 
 ashamed to write to the agent at Loango and tell him 
 not to pack up such posters ; but he endured inde- 
 scribable torments whenever a parcel came to him from 
 the coast. And now the village, and all that it contained, 
 became an abomination in his eyes : the murmuring 
 of the brook, which could plainly be heard at his house, 
 and the crowing of the cocks sounded always like 
 Holloways Pills ! Holloways Pills ! He resolved to 
 leave Kakongo, to travel far away inland, to cut himself 
 off from all communication with Loango, to barter away 
 his goods for slaves and cattle and land, and to end 
 his days in peace and seclusion, as a patriarch among 
 the Africans. The people of Kakongo, as may well be
 
 1 82 HOLLOWAYPHOBIA [Book II 
 
 supposed, were aghast at this determination, and when 
 they had exhausted every species of persuasion, a council 
 of elders was summoned, and it was anxiously debated 
 whether he should not be detained by force. Quissi- 
 quashi was privately conferred with, but, as he was 
 tired of Kakongo, did not encourage the idea. He 
 pointed out that if they prevented the white man from 
 going on, it would soon become known ; they could not 
 hope to keep it secret ; and the neighbouring towns, 
 through which he would have to pass, would lose a 
 wealthy guest. They would, therefore, consider them- 
 selves aggrieved, and would combine to make war upon 
 Kakongo, which in any case they would be glad to do 
 on account of its extraordinary w^ealth. The elders could 
 not but acknowledge the force of his objections, and also 
 understood that he would take some pains to make his 
 words come true, if they disregarded his advice. A 
 large quantity of goods, suited to the inland people, were 
 sent up by the agent from the coast to Mr. Potter, and 
 rich farewell presents were bestowed on the people of 
 Kakongo. The caravan again set forth, and travelled 
 for several weeks in an easterly direction. Everywhere 
 Potter was enthusiastically welcomed ; his reputation 
 for generosity had spread throughout the country ; 
 and in Africa the open-handed man is regarded as a 
 saint. At last he arrived on the borders of a marshy 
 and thickly-wooded region, and halted for a time in the 
 town of Cabua. He was there informed that the people 
 to the east were savage and poor, dwelling in clusters
 
 Book II] HOLLOIVAYPHOBIA 183 
 
 of squalid huts, or even on platforms in the trees. Quissi- 
 quashi recommended him to settle down in Cabua ; and 
 Potter told him to superintend the building of a house, 
 and to take charge of the goods, while he himself, with a 
 few attendants, and some pounds of beads, would make 
 a short journey in the forest region, to see if what the 
 people of Cabua had alleged was true. He found the 
 country as they had informed him, inhabited by savages 
 living in small communities, at war with one another 
 and the world, but fortunately too timid and super- 
 stitious to attack a man w^ho had the appearance which 
 they ascribed to their spirits and their gods. He was 
 absent about two months, and determined, on his return, 
 to make Cabua his permanent abode. He had not, it 
 is true, been agreeably impressed with the aspect- of the 
 people; they seem.ed greedy and distrustful ; they boasted 
 much of their deeds in war ; and they had a curious taste 
 for adorning their town with the sculls of strangers. He 
 lamented the hard fate which had driven him away from 
 his beloved village. However, he had never found pre- 
 sents and sweet words fail to obtain him friends among 
 the Africans, and he hoped in time to make himself as 
 much beloved in Cabua as he had been at Kakongo. 
 
 When he entered the town, he saw the people, gaily 
 painted and apparelled, thronging out towards the other 
 side. He also saw^, by the number of persons in the 
 street, that the town was full of strangers. Slaves, with 
 covered baskets beside them, were seated in the palaver- 
 house, where guests are always received ; and, as he looked
 
 i84 HOLLOWAYPHOBTA [Book II 
 
 towards the plain, he saw it filled with people coming 
 across it in single file, and bearing burdens on their 
 heads. 
 
 He also observed that many of these visitors were 
 suffering from sickness : some with hideous diseases of 
 the skin ; some with their feet in bandages ; some were 
 carried by slaves in baskets ; while others were dread- 
 fully emaciated, with protruding shiny eyes, as if in 
 the last stages of consumption. 
 
 He followed the people outside the town by the 
 western road, and saw at some distance the crowd col- 
 lected round a great tree. He remembered having 
 noticed this tree on his arrival. Its branches were hung 
 with human sculls and with streamers of white cloth. 
 It was therefore a Fetish, and he supposed that some kind 
 of religious ceremony was being carried on beneath it — 
 possibly a human sacrifice. As he approached it, he 
 heard the music of the minstrels and the tinkling of the 
 anklets which the dancing women wore, and the voices 
 of the natives as they sung. He saw the waving 
 feathers of the fetishmen, and, as the crowd opened for 
 a moment, he caught a glimpse of somiething red upon 
 the trunk of the tree. He pushed quickly through the 
 people, who made way for him to pass ; he stood before 
 the tree, and his worst suspicions v/ere confirmed. It 
 was the crimson poster in which the boots had been en- 
 veloped, which had so strangely disappeared, and the 
 remembrance of which had poisoned his existence. He 
 gnashed his teeth with rage, and then springing forwards
 
 Book II] HOLLO IVAYPHOBIA i^ 
 
 pulled it from the tree, and tore it up into a hundred 
 fragments. The people rushed upon him ; the town- 
 chief shouted an order ; the young men carried him off, 
 bruised and bleeding, to a hut, where his hands were 
 manacled, and his feet put within the log. 
 
 The mystery of the poster must now be explained. 
 When Quissiquashi found his master in a swoon, and 
 learnt that the red paper was its cause, he inferred that 
 the poster was the physical form or habitation of a 
 powerful spirit who was hostile to jMr. Potter. All 
 white men, it is supposed by the negroes, have inter- 
 course with the spirit-world, and writing is regarded as a 
 kind of magic. Quissiquashi therefore believed that the 
 poster was a fetish of the first order, and determined to 
 keep it in his possession. His master's anxiety to find 
 it, and the large reward which he offered for its appre- 
 hension, only serv^ed to strengthen Quissiquashi in his 
 determination, and to convince him that he possessed a 
 treasure of inestimable value. He ordered the natives 
 who had been present when the parcel was opened to 
 declare they had not seen it, and they did not dare dis- 
 obey the white man's interpreter, who had more real 
 power than the white man himself 
 
 Quissiquashi kept the poster in his girdle, and every 
 night used to carefully unfold it and to say his prayers, 
 imploring it to give him slaves and wives, and cattle and 
 children, and to enable him to cheat his master with 
 success, and to keep them both in good health. When 
 Potter was absent from Cabua, Quissiquashi secretly
 
 i86 HOLLO WAYPHOBIA [Book II 
 
 informed the priests of the mighty fetish which he 
 carried in his girdle, and spread it out before them. 
 They were startled and awestruck by the appearance of 
 an object so different from anything they had seen 
 before. The beautiful crimson colour, the great black 
 stripes, the crisp rustling of the paper, which they sup- 
 posed to be the voice of the demon from within, power- 
 fully affected their imagination. With Ouissiquashi's 
 permission, they applied it to a stubborn case of neu- 
 ralgia which had hitherto resisted their medicaments and 
 charms ; and the patient having faith in the medicine, his 
 mind acted on his body and he was cured. The fetish- 
 men reported this event to the council, and it was 
 resolved to purchase the poster, and to make it the 
 tutelary spirit of the town-. Quissiquashi was offered a 
 hundred newly captured slaves, which were lying in 
 fetters ready for the market. With these and some pro- 
 perty belonging to his master he at once set off for the 
 Congo, and never set foot in his native land again, to the 
 great disappointment of his relations, with whom, ac- 
 cording to the custom of the country, he ought to have 
 shared the proceeds of the plunder. 
 
 The crimson poster made some astonishing cures, and 
 had already enriched the town by the influx of stran- 
 gers, who were attracted by its fame. Those who were 
 about to marry came to pray that their wives might be 
 fruitful and obedient ; those who were going on a trad- 
 ing journey came to pray that their slaves might not 
 sicken or die upon the road ; those who were ill, or in
 
 Book II] HOLLOWAYPHOBIA 187 
 
 any kind of tribulation, came to pray for recovery and 
 relief All such people brought with them macoiitas, or 
 rolls of grass-cloth and bark-cloth, which formed the 
 currency of the countr)^ and laid them beneath the tree 
 on which the poster, during certain hours, was affixed. 
 It will, therefore, be easily understood how great in 
 their eyes was the crime which Potter had committed. 
 The garment or dwelling of the Spirit was destroyed, 
 and now it would float off into other worlds, and abandon 
 them for ever. Such was the burden of the songs which 
 were chanted all the night to the melancholy music of 
 the flute, and the beating of the drum. In the morning 
 the grand palaver was held. It was at once decided that 
 the white man should be put to death ; but they passed 
 some hours in debating upon the manner in which it 
 should be done. One senator proposed that the culprit 
 should be rubbed with honey, and hung by his feet from 
 a branch of the great tree. Another suggested that 
 he should be hung by the neck and cut down again, 
 half drowned and resuscitated incessantly for three days, 
 which would make him suffer innumerable deaths. A 
 third proposed that he should be crammed with rice till 
 he died of repletion. This last proposal was at once rejec- 
 ted on account of the expense ; and finally it was decided 
 that, after a few preliminary tortures for the amusement - 
 of the women and children deputed to inflict them, Mr. 
 Potter should be killed in the good old-fashioned way 
 of the Cabuas — namely, by interment in the nest of 
 the white ant. The fathers having all signified their
 
 i88 HOLLO IVAYPHOBIA [Book II 
 
 approbation by clapping their hands, and uttering the 
 word Yo ! two slaves appeared bearing a huge calabash 
 frothing over with palm wine. This it was the office of 
 the king or chief to drink, in order to ratify the decree 
 which had been passed. The slaves raised it to the 
 royal lips, the fetishmen rang their bells and cried out in 
 a loud voice, Prostrate yotirselves or retire ! the elders 
 threw themselves upon the ground, and in another 
 moment Potter's fate would have been sealed, when a 
 young fetishman hastily entered the palaver-house, and 
 whispered in the ear of the high priest, who, placing his 
 hand on the sacred vessel, requested the king to abstain 
 from the wine. The elders arose ; and the priest ex- 
 plained the reason of this interruption. 
 
 There was a merchant who went about the coun- 
 try exhibiting a young gorilla, a dwarf, and some 
 other curiosities of nature. He had been attracted to 
 Cabua by the fame of the Fetish, and in the hopes of 
 gaining money in a town that was so crowded ; he 
 lodged with one of the priests. He had taken great 
 interest in the trial of the white man ; and when his 
 landlord came to inform him that the council had 
 decided that he should be put to death, he had 
 shown signs of fright, had called his slaves together, 
 and was now packing up his goods. To all the ques- 
 tions of the host he had returned no definite reply ; 
 but it was evident that his departure was connected 
 in some way with the execution of the white man ; and 
 it was also evident, from his agitated manner, that he
 
 Book II] HOLLOWAYPHOBIA 189 
 
 dreaded some terrible disaster. The council thereupon 
 resolved that the merchant should be summoned before 
 them, and required to give some explanation of his 
 conduct. The man at first would not reply, except in an 
 evasive manner ; but on being repeatedly assured that he 
 should not be punished or molested for anything he might 
 say, and that afterwards he should be allowed full free- 
 dom to depart, he told them that he was a native of the 
 Congo, and that he had been brought up in a town at no 
 great distance from the factories of the white men ; that 
 in the town next to theirs a white man who was trading- 
 in slaves had shot a native gentleman, and had been 
 justly executed for his cripie. But unhappily the ghosts 
 of white men are furious and powerful, and they have 
 many friends and allies among the evil spirits. Two 
 months afterwards the chief of the town was seized with 
 a sudden sickness and expired. 
 
 The chief of Cabua rose up, and said it was well 
 known that white men were powerful magicians ; in- 
 deed, there were some who believed them to be spirits, 
 whom they resembled in complexion, and in the posses- 
 sion of superhuman power. The Fathers had all heard 
 the statement of the merchant. Would it not be better 
 to let the white man go 1 It was dangerous to injure a 
 man who did not hesitate to attack the gods. If the 
 Red Spirit had power to punish his enemy, let him do 
 so ; but if he did not possess that power, then certainly 
 he would not be able to protect them from the avenging 
 ghost.
 
 190 HOLLOWAYPHOBIA [Book II 
 
 The nephew of the chief, who was the heir-apparent, 
 rose and said that he could not agree to the amendment. 
 It w^as by no means clear to him that the town chief in 
 question had been killed by the white man's ghost. 
 There were many kinds of death. Some came from 
 God, some from demons, some from witches, some from 
 poison. It certainly appeared strange that the chief 
 should have died so soon after the execution of the 
 white man, but that might have been merely a coin- 
 cidence. 
 
 This speech was received with a hum of applause, 
 and the merchant, on being requested to give his opinion, 
 replied that the chief's deatl; might have been an acci- 
 dent. Had he alone died, he (the merchant) would not 
 have attached much importance to the fact ; but as soon 
 as the heir-apparent mounted on the throne, the roof of 
 the palace fell upon him and dashed out his brains. 
 
 The heir-apparent of Cabua rose again, and said, that 
 having heard the full circumstances of the case, he felt 
 himself no longer justified in opposing the amendment 
 of his royal brother. He was still of opinion that one 
 death might fairly have been considered accidental ; but 
 two deaths — and the second of such a prodigious and 
 lamentable kind — could not be accounted for in such a 
 manner. He therefore also proposed that the w^hite man 
 should be set free. 
 
 However, the chief had only the casting vote, and 
 the heir-apparent voted as the others. The Council in 
 general were not inclined to adopt the opinions of their
 
 Book II] HOLLOWAYPHOBIA 191 
 
 leaders, and after some whispering had passed between 
 them, a very aged man rose up and spoke as follows : — 
 The town was placed in a m.ost unfortunate dilemma, 
 for, if they killed the white man, they exposed their 
 honoured chief and his nephew to the anger of his ghost ; 
 but, on the other hand, if they allowed the white man 
 to go free, the Red Spirit would remain unavenged, and 
 would pour out its wrath upon them all. He therefore 
 considered that of the two evils they should choose the 
 lesser (here the chief and his nephew began to sweat 
 profusely), and do that which was plainly and palpably 
 right that they should do. The benefactor of their town 
 had been injured in their town ; it was their duty to 
 avenge that injury, whatever the cost might be. He 
 acknowledged that the cost was very great ; but life at 
 the best was short and uncertain ; and he felt sure that 
 their revered chief and his honourable nephew would 
 abstain from resisting a measure which, though not 
 gratifying to themselves, was necessary for the welfare 
 of the public. 
 
 This speech was applauded by the elders ; the chief 
 and his nephew were silent ; the High Priest beckoned 
 to the slaves, and again they brought up the sacred 
 gourd frothing over with palm wine. But the merchant 
 rose up, and humbly desired the Council that the white 
 man should not be put to death till he himself was fairly 
 out of the town and its environs. His request was 
 accorded ; and he was turning to depart, when the High 
 Priest said that he wished to ask him one question :
 
 192 HOLLOIVAYPHOBIA [Book II 
 
 * Why, O merchant, do you desire to leave us ? and 
 what have you to fear, since you are neither the reigning 
 monarch nor yet the heir to the crown ? ' To this the 
 merchant replied that it was not the two kings alone who 
 had suftered from the fury of the white man's ghost ; 
 after the palace had fallen, other calamities had taken 
 place. A thunderbolt had struck the temple and rolled 
 down the images oi the gods from their pedestals, 
 and had slain the High Priest as he ministered at the 
 altar. Then had come the Blue Sickness (the Small 
 Pox), and had carried off the wise men and elders, and 
 had made the handsome women hideous, and had made 
 the strong men weak. And when the sickness had 
 passed away, their enemies, seeing them diminished 
 and defenceless, had fallen upon them and sold them all 
 to the white men at the Congo. It might have been 
 an accident, it might not have been owing to the white 
 man's ghost ; what his opinion might be upon that 
 point he was not called upon to declare ; he had not 
 the honour of belonging to the Council ; only this he 
 would say, that he wished to leave Cabua as quickly as 
 possible, and his feet should not rest till he had safely 
 passed beyond their lands. 
 
 Not only the elders heard these dreadful words, but 
 also the people who were crowded round the palaver- 
 house, sitting on their heels. The town fell into lamen- 
 tation ; the strangers who had remained to see the 
 execution at once took up their bundles and prepared 
 to depart ; the elders crowded round the merchant and
 
 Book II] HOLLOWAYPHOBIA 193 
 
 implored him to take- away the white man, and to turn 
 him loose into the sea, that he might swim off to his 
 own native land, and leave them in peace. At first 
 the merchant refused to accept so dangerous a com- 
 panion ; but when they offered him the property of the 
 white man also (for they were afraid to keep it them- 
 selves) he consented, though with evident reluctance. 
 Mr. Potter was accordingly set free, and accompanied 
 the merchant, whose slaves were staggering under the 
 weight of goods which had been given him. Our hero, 
 as may be supposed, was bewildered at his sudden re- 
 lease, and still more by the behaviour of his companion ; 
 who as soon as they were clear of the town told his slaves 
 to stop, and then, lying on the ground, rolled over and 
 over in convulsions of laughter, till the tears ran down 
 his cheeks. He then got up and walked slowly on ; 
 but sometimes, when his eyes rested on Potter or the 
 goods which had once belonged to him, he burst out 
 again, and said to his slaves, who seemed to understand 
 his merriment, and joined in it with equal heartiness — 
 ' O the people of Cabtca, they are wise, they ai'e very wise ! 
 venerable elders, the wisdom of a goat is nothi^ig to 
 your wisdom I ' And so he went on, rubbing his eyes, and 
 holding his sides, and only laughing the more when 
 Potter (who could now speak the language) asked him 
 the reason of his hilarity. 
 
 They travelled in a south-westerly direction, through 
 a land of large and flourishing warrior towns, which en- 
 riched themselves by annual forays among the degraded 
 VOL. I. O
 
 194 
 
 HOLLOWAYPHOBIA [Book II 
 
 natives of the forests and the swamps. No white 
 man had ever appeared in that country before, which 
 circumstance the merchant turned to account. He 
 told Potter that he saw how much he was annoyed 
 when the people crowded round to see him, and that 
 in future he should not be stared at except by the mer- 
 chant's personal friends. He ordered a litter to be 
 made and curtained round with cloth, and in this he 
 concealed his captive whenever they approached a town. 
 He then marched in solemn procession through the 
 street, the dwarf on his right hand, the young gorilla on 
 his left, and two of his slaves with masks on their faces 
 gambolling before him. Behind him marched a loud- 
 voiced youth, who rang a bell, and cried from time to 
 time, ' Behold, O my brothers, the wise and learned 
 Kafuka, the greatest of magicians. He understands the 
 voices of the beasts and the birds ; he gathers wonders 
 out of every land. Behold this ape, whose ancestors 
 were men degraded to this bestial shape because of their 
 idleness and filthy habits. Behold this dwarf, which he 
 purchased from the king of Urugu for three hundred 
 macoutas, four hundred goats, and five hundred virgins 
 of a spotless black. In that closed litter is the white 
 man of the sea, whom Kafuka drew forth from the salt 
 water by means of his magic arts, and whom he will 
 exhibit this evening to the princes of the people and the 
 elders of the town.' 
 
 And then Kafuka would say in a deep calm voice, *My 
 children, all that this young man has told you is the
 
 Book II] HOLLOWAYPHOBTA 195 
 
 truth. I am the wisest of magicians : it cannot be dis- 
 puted ; and in that litter is the greatest of all earthly 
 marvels.' 
 
 As soon as a hut had been assigned to the merchant, 
 he concealed Potter in the inner chamber. On the 
 first day he showed him to the patriarchs, and in this 
 manner paid the tribute which was always demanded of 
 travellers in return for permission to pass, and for 
 accommodation in the town. On the second day he 
 showed him to the people, who made payment in poultry, 
 vegetables, cloth, and goats, according to their means. 
 He thus journeyed slowly along, buying a slave here 
 and a slave there, with Potter's goods, till at last he had 
 collected a considerable number. But in the mean time 
 he remarked that the white man was wasting away ; he 
 refused his food, and was scarcely able to drag himself 
 along. Kafuka therefore determined to push on at 
 once to the Congo, and there to dispose of his slaves, 
 and to obtain a ransom for his captive. He halted in a 
 town called Makondo, near the Falls, and leaving Potter 
 in charge of the chief, took his slaves to the factories, 
 sold them to the Portuguese, and then spoke to them of 
 a white man he had seen imprisoned at Makondo. He 
 found to his delight that Potter was perfectly well 
 known, as a rich eccentric character, and that his credit 
 was unbounded. The Portuguese factors wrote the 
 prisoner a letter to say that they would be happy to 
 advance the ransom upon his note of hand as soon as 
 the amount was fixed, and that if they paid the ransom
 
 196 IIOLLOWAYPHOBIA [Book II 
 
 they would take care that he should be at once set free. 
 But until the ransom had been demanded and paid they 
 were powerless to help him. They sent with this letter 
 some wine and spirits, coffee, and tinned meats. 
 
 As soon as Kafuka returned to Makondo, he arranged 
 with the chief that the ransom should be shared between 
 them. He then ordered two natives of the town to go 
 into Potter's hut, to bind him hand and foot, to give him a 
 flogging, and afterwards to light a smoky fire of red 
 peppers and damp wood. 
 
 A few hours afterwards he went to see his captive, 
 who was in a miserable state, spluttering and coughing, 
 with the tears running down his eyes. Kafuka also 
 wept, wherein he was assisted by the smoke, and 
 lamented the cruel fate to which his dearest friend was 
 now exposed. A woman, he said, had died in the town, 
 and the priests had declared it was owing to the pre- 
 sence of the white man. Hence the treatment to which 
 he had been subjected, and he (Kafuka) feared that it 
 would be his turn next. He then unloosed Potter's 
 hands, and put out the fire, and gave him the letter of 
 the Portuguese (the liquors and provisions he had con- 
 sumed upon the road). Potter inquired how much 
 the people of Makondo demanded for the ransom. Ka- 
 fuka replied that they demanded goods to the value of 
 a thousand pounds. At the sam.e time the chief, who 
 had been privately instructed by Kafuka, came into the 
 hut attended by two young men with whips of hippo- 
 potamus skin in their hands. * Who,' cried the chief, ' has
 
 Book II] HOLLOWAYPHOBIA 197 
 
 presumed to loose the murderer's hands ? Who has 
 dared to extinguish the fire ? ' Kafuka humbly entreated 
 him to listen. The white man, he was sure, would at 
 once order the ransom to be paid. One or two blows 
 from the devilish weapons which the young men brought 
 with them dissipated any doubts that Potter himself 
 might have entertained upon the subject. He at 
 once called for ink and paper, which was supplied by 
 an educated native, the secretary of the town. He 
 wrote the order for the ransom ; the goods were paid, 
 and the prisoner was received by the Portuguese on 
 neutral ground, all parties being bound by oath to 
 fulfil the terms of the contract, and to separate in 
 peace. 
 
 The ransom was paid to the chief, for Kafuka had 
 no legal position or power in the country-, and, when 
 he demanded his part, was tied up and fiogged, and 
 smoked, as the white man had been before him, on a 
 charge of having broken some law enacted for the occa- 
 sion. He was declared a criminal, his goods were con- 
 fiscated, while he himself was sold as a slave, and ended 
 his miserable life in Brazil. 
 
 As for the people of Makondo, the im.mense riches 
 which they obtained from the ransom and the confisca- 
 tion were quite out of proportion to their power. As 
 they had trumped up an accusation against Kafuka, so 
 the neighbouring towns trumped up one against them, 
 declared war, seized all the booty, and destroyed the 
 town. But these people also quarrelled about the division
 
 198 HOLLOWAYPHOBIA [Book II 
 
 of the spoil ; they all went to war with one another, and 
 in ten years time a fertile and well-populated region 
 became a lonely wilderness inhabited only by the jackal 
 and hyaena, with here and there a pile of ashes marking 
 the place where a town had been. 
 
 In the meantime Mr. Archibald Potter returned 
 to England, and was placed under medical care. His 
 constitution appeared to be broken up, but he was still 
 more seriously affected in his mind. It would natu- 
 rally be supposed that the hardships and indignities, 
 the torture and starvation, he had endured would have 
 made him forget his absurd antipathy to HoUoway's 
 advertisements. But they were now associated in his 
 mind with the remembrance of his unexampled suffer- 
 ings. He did not venture to go out for fear of seeing 
 an advertisement ; he could not even bear to see the 
 letter H, and was therefore unable to read a newspaper 
 or a book. When an old friend came to see him and 
 said, * Hollo ! old fellow, how are you } ' he fell into a 
 convulsive fit, and his doctor having said that he would 
 send him some Pills, he was seized with a similar attack. 
 But, strangely enough, all other aversions seemed to 
 have been swallowed up in this one. The dog of the 
 house barked ; the son of the landlady whistled ; and 
 his hired nurse had a very purple nose. All this he did 
 not mind ; it was only HoUoway that he abhorred. 
 
 This went on for at least three years, and then he 
 was suddenly, speedily, and completely cured. He took
 
 Book II] HOLLO WAYFHOBIA 199 
 
 the Pills, and from that time forth he was an altered 
 man ; his physical health was completely restored ; his 
 manner was calm and self-possessed ; he was never 
 troubled with nervous agitation of any kind ; and 
 nothing could be alleged against him except that he 
 was a little too fond of praising Holloway's Pills, and 
 of taking the boxes from his waistcoat pocket and 
 expatiating on their merits, and also of reciting the 
 advertisements, a selection of which he always carried 
 with him. Respecting his recovery a long and inter- 
 esting correspondence appeared for some weeks in the 
 ' Finsbury Gazette,' between the homoeopathists on the 
 one hand, and the advocates of Holloway's Pills upon 
 the other. The latter maintained that these Pills were 
 able to cure every disease under the sun, mental or 
 physical, at any stage of that disease. They had 
 cured Mr. Potter of his complaint, as they had cured 
 thousands before him, and would cure thousands that 
 were yet to come. There is only one medicine, they 
 said, and HoUoway is its distributor. To this the 
 homoeopathists replied that Mr. Potter's case attested 
 the truth of the homoeopathic dogma, Similia similibus 
 acrantiir. Holloway had made him ill, and Holloway 
 had made him well. The pills had only been beneficial 
 because they had previously been injurious. Any fetid 
 and poisonous matter would, under similar circum- 
 stances, have had the same effect. 
 
 The advocates of Holloway were not slow in pointing
 
 200 HOLLOWAYPHOBIA [Book II 
 
 out the flaw in this argument. It was not the pills which 
 had made Potter ill — the pills never made any one ill — 
 but the advertisements. According to the principles 
 of homoeopathy he ought to have been placed in a room 
 padded with the advertisements ; or he ought to have 
 had them read to him all day long. To this the homoeo- 
 pathists somewhat lamely replied by an appeal to the 
 intimate connection which exists between the affections 
 of the body and the mind. 
 
 As for Mr. Potter's medical attendant, who had 
 made a hundred guineas by him every year, and had 
 set up a brougham upon the strength of it, he can ill 
 afford to lose so good a patient, and flies into a rage when- 
 ever his opinion is asked about the case. The disease, 
 he declares, is not removed ; it has merely taken a new 
 phase. Potter always had been a madman, and he 
 always would be one ; and those who believed in Hollo- 
 way's pills, or homoeopathy, were very little better. There 
 ought to be an act of parliament to put down such 
 abominable quackery ; it was a crying shame that 
 qualified practitioners should have the bread taken from 
 their mouths in this scandalous and unseemly manner. 
 Never does the worthy doctor, who is now straitened in 
 his circumstances, pass by the establishment of Holloway 
 without shaking his fist through the window of his 
 brougham, which vehicle will soon convey him into 
 the insolvent court if he does not give it up ; never 
 does he read one of their advertisements without a 
 curse. The firm still advertise immensely ; he there-
 
 Book II] HOLLOWAYPHOBIA 201 
 
 fore curses very often, and his family and friends are 
 beginning to fear that this continual irritation will 
 affect his brain, and that he will become a victim to 
 that strange disease which forms the title of this story, 
 and from which Mr. Archibald Potter was so happily 
 released.
 
 THE ^EMILIA' 
 
 The bark ' Guilford ' dashed merrily along with a fair 
 wind towards Fernando Po. A man-of-war visits that 
 island from the South Coast every month to meet the 
 mails, and I intended to beg a passage in her to the 
 River Congo, or to the city of San Paolo de Loanda. 
 
 But it so happened that a passenger on board had 
 left a portmanteau at Principe, a Portuguese island 
 which lay at no great distance from our course. The 
 agent conferred with the master, and it was agreed that 
 the ' Guilford ' should touch at the island. We reached 
 it in less than twenty- four hours, and immediately went 
 on shore. The portmanteau was recovered ; we paid 
 our visits to the six white men who inhabited the 
 colony, and were about to return, when some one 
 observed that \i I wished to go down to the South 
 Coast, my best plan would be to cross over to the 
 neighbouring island, San Thome, which I could do in 
 a vessel that was lying in the harbour. Steamers ran 
 once a month from Lisbon to Loanda, touching at San 
 Thome. I accepted the suggestion, and bade farewell 
 to my friends of the ' Guilford.' But when that vessel 
 had sailed, I suddenly remembered that one of my 
 objects in going to Fernando Po was to cash a bill.
 
 Book II] THE 'EMILIA' 203 
 
 As it was I had only twenty pounds with me ; I could 
 not speak Portuguese ; I had letters for no one in 
 Loanda ; I had but little baggage, having left my 
 bulky matters in Gaboon ; my wearing apparel was 
 by no means of the best ; and, in short, I felt assured 
 that wherever I might go appearances would be very 
 much against me. However, it was useless to waste 
 thought on future troubles, so I took my companion's 
 arm and went with him to his house. 
 
 This gentleman was a mulatto, to whom I had been 
 introduced by the passenger of the portmanteau, who had 
 himself previously been his guest. I believe that this worthy 
 mulatto had surreptitiously detained the luggage, and 
 
 that Mr. had handed me over to his tender mercies 
 
 partly out of a feeling of disregard for myself, and partly 
 from a spirit of magnanimity, to show that he bore no 
 grudge. My host kept a small shop, and had two plan- 
 tations with seventy slaves. Their labour enabled him 
 to live on the produce of his farm : he drank his own 
 coffee and cocoa, and ate baked yams as a substitute 
 for bread, with quantities of fari?iha or cassada flour, 
 which closely resembles sawdust. He occasionally regaled 
 himself with poultry or goat-mutton, but his food was 
 chiefly vegetables. His shop contained clothing, furni- 
 ture, and liquors ; and I, having led a life of extreme 
 self-denial for some time, took a sudden fancy for a 
 glass of champagne. I asked my friend if he had any ; 
 he at once replied in the affirmative, and, opening a 
 champagne bottle with a corkscrew, poured me out a
 
 204 THE 'EMILIA' [Book II 
 
 still, muddy wine, which I recognised at sight as a vino 
 branco of the lowest order. To all my protestations 
 that this was not champagne, or anything like it, he 
 replied by pointing to the label on the bottle. The 
 label certainly was correct enough, and the price was 
 that of the very best Clicquot. 
 
 A young lad, who acted as my guide, on hearing of 
 my wish, told me champagne was not to be bought upon 
 the island, but the collector of customs had some, and 
 would be sure to open a bottle if I paid him a visit, 
 which, in any case, he said I ought to do. The next 
 morning we inspected the barracks, the churches, and 
 the cemetery, and then, walking through the town in 
 the opposite direction, crossed a stream by stepping- 
 stones, on which washerwomen were pounding chemises 
 in the picturesque but destructive manner of the tropics. 
 We then passed through a lovely grove of cocoa-nut 
 trees, ascended a hill-path skirted by plantations, and 
 entered the dwelling of the collector. He asked me at 
 once whether I would take gin or champagne, and on 
 receiving my answer brought in a pint bottle, on which 
 was inscribed Fine Crab Apple Cider. There is acidity 
 in the very name of this abominable liquor, and although 
 I had not to pay for it like the vino branco, I had to 
 drink it, which was worse. The word for cider in Por- 
 tuguese is cidra. The collector, therefore, must have 
 known what it was, but as it came from the States, he 
 probably imagined that the label was written in Ame- 
 rican, and that I did not understand that language. My
 
 Book II] THE 'EMILIA' 205 
 
 readers may smile, but the ignorance of the Latin race 
 respecting the great Republic can scarcely be exag- 
 gerated. 'Ah, cest line gra^ide ville, V Amerique ! ' said a 
 polite French tradesman to a Transatlantic friend of 
 mine who had announced his nationality. 
 
 My last adventure with champagne in the Portuguese 
 possessions was in the interior of Angola. I was break- 
 fasting with a mulatto planter who called for that wine 
 in honour of the Englishman, much to my annoyance, 
 as there w^ere thirteen persons at the table, whose glisten- 
 ing eyes betokened an intention of drinking as much as 
 they could get. Champagne on the coast is always 
 poured out in tumblers, and I feared that my generous 
 host would incur considerable expense on my account. 
 But I was rather astonished when only a pint bottle was 
 brought in, and still more when liqueur glasses were 
 served. The pint went merrily round, and the guests had 
 two or three bumpers apiece. 
 
 The collector gave us an excellent dinner, and it was 
 dark before we returned to the town. It was a feast- 
 day, or rather feast-night, and the streets were tastefully 
 illuminated by means of oranges hollowed and filled 
 with palm oil and a cotton wick. We met a procession 
 of girls with handkerchiefs in turban fashion round 
 their heads, and flowing cotton robes, playing on mu- 
 sical instruments, and singing as they went. They were 
 exceedingly handsome, with large brown antelope eyes 
 which would have bewitched a saint : imagine their 
 effects upon a sinner ! We followed them into the upper
 
 2o6 THE 'EMILIA' [Book II 
 
 chamber of a house where they danced all night before 
 the image of the Virgin. 
 
 And why should not religion attend us in our mirth 
 as well as in our sadness ? In an Arabic MS. which a 
 negro translated to me at Sierra Leone, Allah is made 
 to say, ' There are three things which I love — the heart 
 that fears me ; the body that is never weary of adoring 
 me ; and the eyes that are never dry from tears.' But 
 those are servile and unkindly minds by v/hich this 
 gloomy god has been created. The Bon Dieu of France 
 appears to me a more correct interpretation of the Un- 
 known Power. There is indeed a divinity in sorrow, but 
 are not smiles and laughter also heaven-born } Surely, 
 just as much so as the sunshine and the flowers. True 
 reliction is but another name for love — love of our fellow 
 men and women — love of the poor weak animals which 
 sustain our wants — love of the Power who governs and 
 disposes of our lives. And while certain natures are 
 equally hardened by happiness, or soured by misfortune, 
 the truly religious heart pours forth its sweets whenever 
 it is touched by an emotion ; its sorrow is tenderness ; its 
 joy is geniality, and both are but another name for love. 
 
 Upon this delightful little island morality and misery 
 seemed to be equally unknown. These laughter-loving 
 girls were slaves in name, but they pined hot for liberty, 
 and were free from certain social restrictions by which 
 European women are enslaved. They were sinful 
 according to our ideas, but they were sinless according 
 to their own, and therefore they were happy. Their
 
 Book II] THE 'EMILIA' 207 
 
 easy morals and their light attire were authorised by 
 the customs of their country. They did not offend 
 against their consciences, and in this consists the dif- 
 ference between a savage and a civilised community. 
 Those freethinkers in morals who suppose that the suf- 
 ferings of women betrayed and forsaken can be removed 
 by the abrogation of existing social laws, sadly mis- 
 understand the history of man ; as well attempt to revive 
 the innocent nudity of our barbarous ancestors as the 
 harmless license of a former age. Dress began as de- 
 coration ; female virtue was at first a kind of property ; 
 but both are now equally established, and to attack 
 either is not to advocate progress but retrogression. 
 Every vice is in fact a vestige of animal or savage life. 
 The sexes may yet be placed on an equal footing in this 
 respect, not by granting to women the dangerous liberty 
 of men, but by subjecting men to the severe and salu- 
 tary discipline of women. It is needless to say that we 
 are still very far from that ; but it was only the other day 
 that drunkenness and ganibling, and ruining tradesmen, 
 were fashionable peccadilloes, and dissipation may, per- 
 haps, in the twentieth centur>^ be no longer a la mode. 
 How many men there are, mastered and ruined by their 
 passions, attempting in vain to tear these Laocoon- 
 serpents from their souls, who look back with a sigh 
 to their innocent days, and wish that their youth-time 
 had been more sternly supervised. 
 
 On the fourth day the vessel was ready to sail, and I 
 bade farewell to my hospitable friend, who in one way
 
 2o8 THE ' EMILIA ' [Book II 
 
 or another had managed to obtain a considerable part of 
 my twenty pounds. The ' Mondego ' was a craft of most 
 fascinating appearance, with slim black hull, rakish 
 tapering masts, and a topsail fluttering like a white 
 bonnet. She was the property of the famous Senhor 
 Pereira, to whom four days afterwards I was introduced 
 at San Thome. 
 
 He had begun life as mate or master of a slave-ship, 
 which was taken by an English cruiser, and he was set 
 ashore, according to rule, at the first convenient spot, 
 which happened to be the island of Principe. He had 
 two dollars in his pocket, and he had only his pocket in 
 the world. He came over to San Thome, and speculated 
 so cleverly in ' bales,' black ivory, or ' dry goods,' and 
 applied himself so closely to business — never touching 
 wine or taking any kind of pleasure — that he was now 
 a rich man, the owner of many slaves and of two fine 
 vessels, and (in dollars) a millionaire. 
 
 He kept open house and an excellent table, to which 
 I was invited once, and only once, for I was down in 
 the black books of the Portuguese. Hotels did not 
 exist, and the residents would not receive me in their 
 houses. No people are more hospitable than these 
 planters, but they supposed me to be a spy. It was 
 certain I was not a missionary ; I was not a trader ; I 
 was not a consul ; I had brought no letters of any kind ; 
 my movements were mysterious. They could not be- 
 lieve my own story, that I was travelling upon the west 
 coast of Africa for my amusement ; it was therefore
 
 Book II] THE 'EMILIA' 209 
 
 certain that I had been sent by Pahnerston to watch the 
 operations of the slave trade, and. perhaps to commu- 
 nicate secret inteUigence to the commanders of the 
 squadron. 
 
 Principe was peaceful and secluded ; slavery there 
 existed in a gentle patriarchal form. But San Thome 
 being situated on one of the world's highways, good 
 business was done there in the produce of the plantations. 
 Slaves were necessary to the welfare of the island, and 
 these were brought over in cutters and large canoes from 
 Cape Lopez and the Fernand Vaz. This method of 
 running cargoes had hitherto escaped the attention of 
 the cruisers, and it was not desired that I should find it 
 out. Hence I was detained on board the ' Mondego,' a 
 prisoner in a polite way, and continued to joke and ask 
 questions about the slave trade, for at that time I had no 
 idea of the suspicions which had been formed against 
 me. 
 
 One day the captain pointed to a schooner lying in 
 the harbour, and informed me that she was about to sail 
 for San Paolo de Loanda. The mail would not arrive 
 for three weeks to come, and by that time the ' Emilia ' 
 would have reached Loanda. It would be more econo- 
 mical for me to go by her ; and I would not find it more 
 dull in one ship than in the other. I at once adopted 
 the suggestion, which indeed I could scarcely reject, 
 and took my luggage on board the ' Emilia.' In the even- 
 ing the vessel got under weigh, and at the same time 
 the dinner-bell rang. I could plainly see the captain 
 VOL. I. P
 
 219 THE ' EMILIA ' [Book II 
 
 and first officer walking up and down on the poop 
 of the ' Mondego.' When they saw me they took off 
 their hats, and waved them in the air, and shook their 
 handkerchiefs, and made me many profuse bows ; after 
 which they turned round to each other, and it seemed to 
 me that they were laughing. I went down to dinner, 
 and, when it was over, read a book for some little time. 
 It was now nearly dusk, and I thought I would go on 
 deck, and have a last look at the island of San Thome. 
 To my horror I found it was a stark calm ; the vessel 
 had scarcely sailed a hundred yards ; the captain and 
 the chief officer were still on the poop of the ' Mondego,' 
 and they again saluted me with many bows, and 
 again burst into fits of laughter. This merriment 
 perplexed me, but I discovered its meaning before 
 we arrived at Loanda. By putting me on board the 
 * Emilia,' they had put me out of the world for a con- 
 siderable space of time. The voyage, which the steamer 
 made in four days, occupied us fifty-six, and these two 
 months were not the most agreeable I ever spent. The 
 bunks were without bed linen, and so infested with cock- 
 roaches that I preferred to sleep in the open air ; and 
 the deck being choked up with water-casks and planks, I 
 could not even enjoy the usual sailor's promenade. We 
 finished our provisions on the way, and would have been 
 starved had we not caught some shark and albicore. 
 But evil lodgings and scanty fare were slight hardships 
 compared with the vacancy and weariness of such a 
 life.
 
 Book II] THE ' EMILIA' 211 
 
 The ' Emilia ' was a slow and awkward vessel ; but 
 our tardy progress was chiefly owing to the fact that we 
 were off the road. There are regular routes across the 
 ocean, from which ships do not usually stray, and in 
 which they are never becalmed for any length of time. 
 These sea-roads, lying in the channels of the wind, are 
 covered with vessels passing to and fro. But such pub- 
 licity was not desired by the bashful and retiring * Emilia,' 
 who did not wish to be seen, and whose modesty espe- 
 cially shrank from the idea of being searched. In other 
 words, she was a slaver, and therefore, instead of sailing 
 along close under the coast, or keeping well out to sea, 
 she held a middle course between the two. But it so 
 happened that neither the ma-ster nor mate were very 
 brilliant observers, and every day when they took the 
 sun arrived at a different result. One afternoon we 
 sighted land, quite an unexpected pleasure, and it was 
 hailed with outcries and gesticulations. We were now 
 on the cruisers' ground. Presently a man cried out that 
 there was a sail in sight, and we could see from the deck, 
 without a glass, the masts of the vessel, which looked like 
 tiny twigs above the horizon. A quarter of an hour 
 afterwards, something rose above them like a small cloud. 
 The captain uttered a savage oath, and gave an order. 
 The men, also swearing, ran to the yards. The ' Emilia ' 
 turned, and moved quickly through the waters, with her 
 stern towards San Paolo de Loanda. 
 
 I now beean to understand. The distant sail was a 
 cruiser; she had seen us and got up steam, which is done
 
 212 THE 'EMILIA' [Book II 
 
 only when these vessels chase. We had no slaves on 
 board, and the ship's papers were correct ; but, according 
 to the treaty, vessels may be captured if they are found 
 to be 'equipped for the traffic,' such articles of equipment 
 being a slave deck laid, or a quantity of planks fit to be 
 used for that purpose ; shackles and handcuffs ; bolts or 
 bars used for securing the hatchways ; hatches with open 
 gratings, so as to give air to the unfortunate beings con- 
 fined below ; more divisions or bulkheads than are 
 necessary for merchant vessels ; a larger quantity of 
 farinha or rice, of water or water-casks, and of mess-kits 
 or wooden bowls than is required for the crew ; also a 
 boiler of great size ; medicines in excess ; many dozens 
 of tin or wooden spoons ; casks of vinegar ; syphons or 
 long tin suckers, used by the slaves to drink from the 
 leaguers, so as to avoid the waste of water occasioned by 
 their struggling and pushing when permitted to drink 
 out of iron cups; wooden clappers, used instead of a bell 
 to summon the slaves to their meals, and to warn them 
 to desist when quarrelling or making a noise. ^ 
 
 Now, as I have already mentioned, the deck was com- 
 pletely filled with water-casks and planks. If, therefore, 
 we were boarded in the daylight we should certainly be 
 seized ; but if boarded after dark we might escape. It 
 was now late in the afternoon. 
 
 The man-of-war crept towards us ; we could see the 
 white sails above her black thin hull, which resembled 
 the body of a snake. But the wind was fresh, and the 
 
 ' ' Letters of a Lady from Sierra Leone.'
 
 Book II] THE 'EMILIA' 213 
 
 ' Emilia,' as ii' aroused from her usual apathy, sent the 
 bubbles flying past at clipper speed. 
 
 Suddenly the wind dropped. The captain, who was 
 steering us himself, gave a horrible look and bent his 
 head close down upon the wheel, and covered his face 
 with his arm. The sailors collected in a group, and 
 looked at the coming ship in blank dismay. Some of 
 them glanced at me ; they thought that . I was in the 
 trade ; and they knew that American and English slavers 
 were pirates according to the law. 
 
 We could see the white water dashed up by the 
 paddles. Then a sailor gave a cry ; the captain spun the 
 wheel round ; the wind revived ; the ' Emilia ' clove the 
 sea ; the sun disappeared ; the stars rushed forth ; and 
 night came on swift and sudden as the night of the 
 stage, when the gasman turns a screw and the footlights 
 are extinguished. 
 
 And then looming through the dim air we saw a 
 magnificent sloop of war, which grew upon our eyes 
 without perceptible sound or motion. When she came 
 nearer we heard the splashing of her paddles and the 
 water dashing from her bows. A lantern was hung over 
 our stern that she might not run into us. She glided 
 past, her hull blazing with lights, and winding gracefully 
 round, abated her speed. The captain asked me to act 
 as spokesman ; upon which I went up and stood by the 
 gang-way. 
 
 Then came a clear commanding voice out of the 
 darkness —
 
 214 ^^^-^ ' EM^LTA ' [Book II 
 
 ' What vessel's that ? ' 
 
 ' The " Emilia " of Lisbon.' 
 
 * Heave to ! ' 
 
 Brief and explicit, thought I, and signified to the 
 captain that he had better square his yards. We heard 
 the harsh barking voice of the boatswain, and the rattling 
 of ropes, as a boat was lowered from the davits, and the 
 thud with which it fell into the water. Then the sound 
 of oars, and something dark which approached us 
 through the blazing phosphorescent sea. The lantern 
 was hung over the side, and an officer sprang upon the 
 deck, his sword-hilt gleaming in the light. 
 
 I showed the lieutenant the way to the cabin, where 
 the captain had gone down to get the papers ready. 
 The water-casks were not visible. A small midshipman, 
 with a book under his arm, who had followed the 
 lieutenant, said in rather a faint voice, ' Shall I come 
 down too, sir } ' and received a gruff ' Yes ' in reply. 
 Poor little fellow ! I dare say he thought that slavers' 
 cabins were places where naval officers were quietly 
 disposed of. 
 
 The papers were shown to the lieutenant, who ex- 
 amined them very carefully, especially the custom-house 
 clearance. He then took the boarding book from the 
 midshipman and filled up the usual forms, the vessel's 
 name and port, tonnage, number of crew, and cargo, 
 asking especially what ports she had touched at, and 
 whether she had any guns. 
 
 This being over, and the Emilia honourably acquitted
 
 Book II] THE 'EMILIA' 215 
 
 for want of the necessary evidence, and the Ueutenant, 
 no doubt, inwardly damning his bad luck, the captain 
 desired me to ask where we were. The lieutenant 
 turned round to the midshipman and said, ' What was 
 
 the latitude and longitude at noon, Mr. V The young 
 
 gentleman gave the position, which the lieutenant marked 
 in pencil on our chart : upon which the captain called 
 the mate the son of a something, and the mate replied 
 with a volley of adjectives anything but complimentary. 
 The captain had supposed that we were more to the 
 north, the mate had supposed we were more to the south 
 — neither of them anywhere near the mark. 
 
 Having discharged my duty as interpreter, I asked 
 the lieutenant the name of his ship, and what Burton was 
 doing, and moreover enquired after various commanders 
 whose acquaintance I had made in the Bights. To these 
 questions the officer replied with the utmost circumspec- 
 tion. He plainly supposed that I was connected with 
 the ' Emilia,' which, of course, he knew to be a slaver, 
 though not seizable, and attributed my curiosity to 
 anything but disinterested motives. His mistake was 
 natural enough, and the laugh on his side, not mine. By 
 no means wishing to be taken for a slaver, I asked more 
 questions, and he became .more reticent, though always 
 in a courteous and gentlemanly manner. At last I told 
 him my name, and said that I had been lately spending 
 a few months after the gorilla. 
 
 This was too much for any man to bear. His face
 
 2i6 THE 'EMILIA' [Book II 
 
 gleamed with sudden intelligence, and he said, with an 
 ah !-you-can't-take-?;2^-in kind of smile, ' Well, I don't 
 think gorillas are likely to come in your way, but ' (here 
 his face beamed with triumph) ' you may pick up a few 
 bits of black ivory ! '
 
 THE SXATE TRADE OF AFRICA. 
 
 Cruiuljy hjxriiML over- ior S'lrtve-i- 
 
 Jtculi^s by whicJvthe, S/avcv at-e 
 
 convey rtl to f/ic mfti^-ets. . 
 
 IV (k 0-I.Gt. 
 
 40 
 
 ■Sta7t^brd&. Geocf^siaJt^ 6 & 7 Charing CrxkM 
 
 London; Smith. El.lor & ('?
 
 THE SLAVE TRADE 
 
 The preceding incident has at least this value, that 
 nothing like it will ever happen to a traveller again. 
 The European Slave Trade is at an end. The nature 
 of that traffic is so singular, and its history so important, 
 that a few pages must here be given to the subject. 
 Those who do not like essays can pass on to the next 
 chapter, which is of a very different kind. 
 
 Black Africa or the Soudan may roughly be described 
 as an insular table-land surrounded on all sides by the 
 Sahara or the sea. It is divided into agricultural re- 
 gions, pastoral regions, and dense forest mountains or 
 dismal swamps, where the natives ever remain in a 
 savage and degraded state. These hills and fens are 
 the slave-preserves of Africa, and are hunted every year 
 by the pastoral tribes with whom war is often a profes- 
 sion. The captives are bought by the agricultural tribes 
 and are made to labour in the fields. This indigenous 
 slave-trade exists at the present time, and has probably 
 existed during thousands of years. ^ 
 
 , In the negro countries adjoining Abyssinia and the 
 Desert, a foreign slave trade was also in3tituted before 
 
 * See, for a good instance of indigenous slave trade, Magyar, ' Reisen 
 in Siid-Africa,' p. 298, and also my exploring journey in the second volume.
 
 2i8 THE SLA VE TRADE [Book n 
 
 history begins. The armies of the Pharaohs penetrated in- 
 to the Soudan, and captured negroes, as the monumental 
 pictures show.^ The Abyssinians, themselves a Shemitic 
 race, darkened by intercourse with concubines from 
 Central Africa, have always hunted the black people. 
 The Tuaricks and tawny Moors, the rovers of the desert, 
 made frequent forays into Negroland for the purpose of 
 obtaining slaves, exacted them as tribute from con- 
 quered chiefs, or sometimes bought them fairly with 
 horses, salt, and woollen clothes. When the Cartha- 
 ginian empire was established, a mighty impulse was 
 given to this trade, for on one occasion the government 
 purchased no less than five thousand slaves for their 
 galleys of war.^ Negro slaves were also imported into 
 Greece and Rome, and were prized as articles of luxury 
 on account of their singular appearance, their docile 
 behaviour, and their affectionate disposition. 
 
 In the middle ages Arab settlements were planted on 
 the east coast of Africa ; negroes hunted negroes in the 
 bush, and thousands of slaves were exported in dhows 
 to India and the countries of the Persian Gulf, and were 
 formed into regiments by the Caliphs of Bagdad.^ 
 
 Mahometan kingdoms were also established almost 
 across Africa, a little above the parallel io°. These 
 kingdoms, beginning from the west, were Melli and 
 Songhay (since deceased), Haussa, Bornou, Waday, 
 Darfur, Kordofan, and Sennaar. All of them hunted 
 
 ' Wilkinson's 'Ancient Egyptians.' Letters of Lepsius. 
 - Heeren's * African Nations.' 
 ^ Guillain, ' Afrique orientale. '
 
 Book II] THE SLAVE TRADE 219 
 
 the pagan countries to the south, and sent coffles or 
 caravans across the desert to Egypt or the Barbary 
 States.^ The Venetians bought Hve cargoes in TripoH 
 and Tunis, and sold them to the Moors of Spain. 
 When the Moors were expelled from that country, the 
 trade was continued, and negroes were still to be seen 
 in the markets of Seville. 
 
 The Portuguese sailed to the slave-land itself, and 
 imported ten thousand negroes a year before the voyage 
 of Columbus.^ 
 
 America was discovered ; the mines of St. Domingo 
 were opened, and as the Spaniards had often negro 
 slaves in their possession, it so happened that some of 
 these were also set to work. It being ascertained that a 
 negro could do as much work as four Indians, it ap- 
 peared philanthropic, and it was certainly profitable, to 
 spare the poor Indians (who nevertheless soon after- 
 wards became extinct) and import negroes. Thus the 
 slave trade of Europe and Asia was extended to the 
 New World. When other European nations obtained 
 plantations, they also required negro labour, and for that 
 purpose alone established settlements in Guinea. Elmina 
 supplied Manhattan and Surinam ; Cape Coast Castle 
 supplied Barbadoes, Jamaica, and Virginia; the Senegal 
 supplied Louisiana and the Antilles. Even Denmark 
 had an island or two in the W^est Indie's, and a fort or 
 
 ' Denham and Clapperton, Barth, and especially Mohammed el Tounsy, 
 * Voyage au Wadai. ' 
 
 2 Stanley's ' Voyages of Vasco da Gama,' in Hakluyt Society's Collec- 
 tion.
 
 220 THE SLA VE TRADE [Book II 
 
 two upon the Gold Coast. The Spaniards alone had no 
 establishments in Guinea, and were supplied by a con- 
 tract or assiento, which at one time was enjoyed by the 
 British crown. 
 
 This one fact is sufficient to show what immense pro- 
 gress has been made in morals during less than two 
 hundred years. Slavery appeared to the Greeks a na- 
 tural institution, and even Aristotle believed that certain 
 barbarous people had been created to be slaves.^ The 
 Christians of the middle ages denounced the practice of 
 enslaving Christians, and Moslems were always forbidden 
 to enslave Moslems ; ^ but the idea that slavery in itself 
 was wrong had not yet dawned upon the world, though 
 it may have been entertained by a few ecclesiastics ac- 
 quainted with the Roman law of nations. So far as 
 theology is concerned, slavery must always have re- 
 mained an insoluble enigma ; for while the anti-slavery 
 party might quote vague maxims — such as the golden 
 rule — and maintain with perfect truth that slavery is 
 opposed to the spirit of Christianity, on the other hand 
 the pro-slavery theologians could show that slavery was 
 undoubtedly of Divine origin, since Jehovah Himself had 
 enacted laws for its regulation ; and the proof that it 
 had not been annulled in the New Dispensation might 
 be found in the writings of St. Paul, who had ordered 
 
 ' The passage is alluded to in Mill's ' Subjection of Women.' 
 - Slave-traders in Central Asia, according to Vambery, and in Central 
 Africa, according to Mohammed el Tounsy and Escayrac de Lauture, 
 often violate this law of the Koran. The slave trade has been formally 
 condemned by Mohammedan doctors of the law.
 
 Book II] THE SLAVE TRADE 221 
 
 slaves to be obedient, and had sent back a runaway 
 slave to his master. But when scepticism had en- 
 lightened the eighteenth century, and men were taught 
 to seek for moral guidance, not in the customs of a 
 barbarous people, but in fixed principles of right and 
 wrong, negro slaver}^ could no longer be supported by 
 Sinai laws and fabulous legends,^ and the philanthropists 
 were enabled to complete the work which the philoso- 
 phers had begun. The slave trade was at first abolished 
 by the King of Denmark in 1792 ; secondly, after a long 
 struggle, by the British Parliament in 1807 J ^.nd thirdly, 
 in 181 5, by Napoleon, when he returned from Elba, for 
 the Bourbons had always rejected abolition as a revolu- 
 tionary measure. From that time England has never 
 ceased to negotiate against the exportation of negroes 
 from their own country. At the time of my voyage 
 (1862) Cuba alone imported slaves, and the Southerners 
 were fighting for a great Slave Republic of which Cuba 
 would probably have formed a state. But the issue of 
 the war plainly showed that emancipation would soon 
 reach that island in its turn, and the planters, assembling 
 together, agreed to import no more slaves. Thus ended 
 the European slave trade, not abolished by the squadron, 
 as commonly asserted, but by the army of the Northern 
 States. So long as slaves were in demand at Cuba, so 
 
 ' The mediaeval doctrine that the negroes were children of Ham, and 
 that their black colour was owing to Noah's curse, is on a par with the 
 legend of the negroes that white men are descended from Cain, who turned 
 white when accused of murdering his brother. The curse was pro- 
 nounced on Canaan, and the Canaanites were as white as the Romans and 
 the Greeks.
 
 222 THE SLAVE TRADE [Book II 
 
 long they would have been supplied. But the squadron 
 was always of service, for, though powerless to destroy 
 the slave trade, it certainly kept that traffic within 
 bounds. It increased the risk of the venture, and thus, 
 by raising the price of slaves, lessened the demand. 
 
 The attention of the British Government has recently 
 been directed to the Oriental trade. Baker revealed the 
 system of razzias above Gondokoro ; and the Govern- 
 ment of Egypt, once itself a slave-hunting power, is now 
 taking measures to suppress these expeditions. The 
 slave hunts of the Nyassa and Tanganyika regions have 
 also been exposed by Livingstone, and the Zanzibar 
 trade will soon be abolished, at least, in name. But the 
 old proverb should always be remembered, 'As long 
 as there are receivers there will be thieves.' It is impossible 
 to blockade the East Coast, and the surest way to abolish 
 the trade is to inspect the ports where the stolen men 
 are received. 
 
 Finally, the caravans from Bornou to Fezzan should 
 also be supervised, for this branch of the trade is in- 
 ferior to none in its magnitude and horrors. The slaves, 
 marching always on foot — not excepting the children 
 and girls — are forced to traverse the Sahara, a journey 
 so terrific that in every caravan a number of camels 
 always die. Even the ships of the desert founder on 
 this voyage, and the fate of the slaves is only too plainly 
 to be read upon the way. The route is literally marked 
 by skeletons, lying in posture^ of agony, and some- 
 times clasping each other with their fleshless arms : the
 
 Book II] THE SLAVE TRADE 22j 
 
 feet of the camels crunch on the bleached and brittle 
 sculls, while the Arabs laugh and say, * They are only 
 black men ; damn their fathers ! ' ^ However, this also 
 will come to an end : the trade is contraband, and the 
 appointment of a British Consul at Mourzuk (which is 
 within the Turkish dominion) would probably secure 
 the enforcement of the laws. 
 
 Let us now consider what have been the effects of 
 slavery in Africa. With bush-people of the lowest 
 type the women only are the slaves, and it will usually 
 be found in such tribes or clans that they are muscular 
 and ugly. Just as poor men select their domestic 
 animals merely for use, so these people select their 
 wives, not for beauty but for strength. The women 
 are often forbidden in this period of history to decorate 
 their bodies or to wear long hair. 
 
 Tribes of a higher standard domesticate their prisoners 
 of war, and so slaves were originally called in Latin the 
 ' spared ' or * preserved ' {servi, from servare, to save). 
 The women are now emancipated, are married for their 
 beauty, and are allowed to pass their time in sedentary 
 occupations. Long hair being universally admired, long- 
 haired wives are selected by the chiefs ; and thus, in the 
 course of countless generations, a new species of woman 
 is produced, and the delicate beauty of the sex thus 
 indirectly proceeds from slavery. 
 
 In Africa itself this institution is not unkindly in its 
 nature. The lord of the household is called Father by 
 * Denham and Clapperton, vol. L
 
 224 THE SLA VE TRADE [Book II 
 
 his slaves as well as by his sons : the home-born slaves 
 are never sold ; they always have property and often 
 slaves of their own, frequently obtain their freedom, and 
 sometimes inherit the fortunes of their masters. But 
 when slaves are actively demanded, and fetch a high 
 price for the foreign trade, no greater calamity can fall 
 upon a country. The slave traders stir up wars between 
 tribe and tribe : kid-napping is frequent ; and false 
 charges of crime are constantly made in order that the 
 accused, with all his children and clients and slaves, 
 may be sold. No man's liberty is safe, and no tribe is 
 secure from war. 
 
 The countless caravans and dhow-loads of negroes 
 which have been imported into Egypt and Asia have 
 not produced, so far as we know, any historical results ; 
 but the slaves exported to America have profoundly 
 influenced Civilization. The political history of the 
 United States is the history of the negro slave. It 
 is these men with black skins and woolly hair who 
 created the planter aristocracy of the South, and oc- 
 casioned that long series of parliamentary combats 
 which culminated at last in a prodigious war. America 
 commenced its career as a League of sovereign and in- 
 dependent States : it is owing to the negro that the 
 League has already become a Nation. 
 
 The noble movement for the Abolition of the Slave 
 Trade proceeded from an age already inspired by 
 Voltaire and Rousseau to attack oppression wherever 
 it existed. But this agitation, so strongly resisted in
 
 Book II] THE SLA VE TRADE 225 
 
 England, and prolonged through so many years, un- 
 doubtedly reacted on the age which gave it birth. It 
 widened European sympathies, and admitted naked 
 savages within the brotherhood of man. The material 
 development of England was also aided greatly by the 
 slave trade. By means of negro labour sugar and to- 
 bacco were produced ; by means of sugar and tobacco 
 British commerce was increased ; by means of increased 
 commerce the arts of culture and refinement were de- 
 veloped. Again, in the present century a similar phe- 
 nomenon may be observed. The rapid growth and 
 unparalleled prosperity of Manchester are partly owing 
 to the cotton supply of the Southern States, which 
 could not have risen to its present state without the 
 labour of the slave. 
 
 Thus then it appears that this iniquitous trade has 
 indirectly been the means of making us wealthier^ 
 happier, and better men. And, if we study the past,, 
 we shall discover that such is Nature's ordinary me- 
 thod. She uses evil as the raw material of good ; 
 her aim is always noble, but her means are often base 
 and cruel. The history of animated life is one con- 
 tinued development or progress. But when we study the 
 laws by which the asceat of species has been achieved, 
 we shrink with horror ; we look again and again on the 
 tear-stained, blood-stained pages of life, hoping that we 
 have not read aright : for there we learn that animals 
 have mounted in the scale on a ladder of corpses, that 
 all live beings are at war, and that those which are the 
 VOL I. Q
 
 226 THE SLA VE TRADE [Book II 
 
 most closely allied contend the most fiercely together. 
 We learn that even the affections were originally weapons 
 with which herd fought against herd, the victory falling 
 to those which were most closely and lovingly united. 
 
 The origin of Man must always remain obscure ; but 
 we can dimly perceive that it must have been owing to 
 misfortune. Imagine a herd of naked and almost hairless 
 animals, neither swift in their movements nor provided 
 with natural weapons of defence, existing at first under 
 specially favoured conditions, and afterwards exposed to 
 climatic changes, or attacks from other wild beasts. How 
 then in this access of calamity, how in their struggle for 
 existence, will they be able to preserve their lives } 
 Only by close combination with its consequent develop- 
 ment of the intelligence and the affections. This would 
 naturally lead to frequent conversation, for without such 
 intercourse there can be no concerted action, and hence 
 a language of natural gestures and imitative sounds, and 
 finally of conventional signs and sounds, will gradually 
 grow into use, and the ape-period of history is over, and 
 the human period begins. 
 
 And now, what is the meaning of these stones which 
 men are grinding to a point } and these twigs which 
 they form into a snare t and these logs which they hollow 
 out to float upon the water .? and these ores from which 
 they are burning the metal } and these medicines which 
 they extract from plants } and these trenches, and 
 dykes, and complex machines which they construct to 
 irrigate their fields .'' All these mean hunger and the
 
 Book II] THE SLAVE TRADE 227 
 
 fear of death. The battle of life is still continued. Men 
 are ever contending either with their fellow men or 
 with the malignant forces of nature, — flood and tempest, 
 pestilence and famine. 
 
 The necessities of life are satisfied ; the fields are 
 tilled with art ; the wild animals have been domesticated ; 
 and men have only to labour, and they may live in plenty 
 and peace. But no, this may not be allowed : the law 
 of life is progress, and the law of progress is calamity and 
 crime. Gaunt Hunger has been conquered, but now a 
 dark and powerful spirit appears upon the scene, and in- 
 stigates men to make war on one another. Ambition seizes 
 the hardy mountaineers, they descend upon the fruitful 
 lands, and degrade the people they have conquered into 
 serfs. Thus empires, aristocracies, and caste systems 
 are established. They in time grow aged and decay; 
 new nations invade them ; the Egyptians cede to the 
 Persians, the Persians to the Greeks, the Greeks to the 
 Romans, the Romans to the Arabs. But each of these 
 conquering people gives an impulse to the world, each 
 commences its reign with energies which create some- 
 thing new for mankind. 
 
 It is not, therefore, strange that the slave trade should 
 have played a similar part in history to that already 
 performed by famine and war. It is evident that Evil in 
 the scheme of nature is not an excrescence, but part of 
 the regular machinery ; crime and misfortune are no 
 less necessary for the growth of mankind than unpleasant 
 weather for the growth of crops ; and if we reside in 
 
 Q2
 
 228 THE SLAVE TRADE [Book II 
 
 comfortable houses, and enjoy the luxuries of culture, it 
 is because our predecessors led such miserable lives. 
 
 Many who read these pages will acknowledge that 
 they owe their happiness of heart, or integrity of con- 
 science, or even in some cases the fortunes they have 
 made, to the afflictions of their earlier days. So if we 
 regard mankind as a single unit — an Eternal One — and 
 if we can imagine that One as an organised being, 
 reviewing his past career, he would undoubtedly confess, 
 that although Dame Nature had used him harshly in his 
 childhood, and often made him suffer hunger and sick- 
 ness, and left him to get food and find out medicines for 
 himself, yet on the whole it has turned out for his good, 
 and adversity has been his education. At the same 
 time he would probably express a wish that Nature had 
 selected some more agreeable and gentle method of 
 developing his youthful mind. 
 
 However, it is some consolation to perceive that the 
 good is gradually mastering the evil in this Manichsean 
 world. Famine, pestilence, war, and slavery are fading 
 from the scene ; the nations are becoming better friends ; 
 and it may fairly be hoped that virtue will be finally 
 triumphant, and happiness reign upon the earth.
 
 229 
 
 THE CAPUCHIN OF THE CONGO 
 
 We had been at sea about a month when the water 
 around us became discoloured, and on lowering buckets 
 w^e found that it was fresh, although we were far away 
 from land. Then we knew that we were off the mouth 
 of the Congo, the great river of the south coast. 
 
 Four hundred years ago, when this river was dis- 
 covered, it flowed through a powerful kingdom, the ruler 
 of which entered into alliance with the King of Portugal, 
 sent ambassadors to Lisbon, and embraced the Christian 
 faith. During more than two hundred years the Catholic 
 missionaries laboured in the Congo. They covered the 
 land with their chapels and convents, baptised thousands 
 and thousands of the natives, subjected kings to their 
 authority, exercised more than royal power, altered the 
 fundamental laws, and even the domestic customs of the 
 people, procured the banishment of the native priests, 
 and prohibited all pagan practices under penalty of cas- 
 tigation with the scourge, public penance, or excom- 
 munication. This enormous power they obtained by 
 means of supposed miracles and providential interposi- 
 tions. When the Portuguese first entered the Congo 
 country, they assisted the king in his wars, and their 
 victories were ascribed to St. James, the Blessed Virgin, 
 and a cavalry of angels. The Congo region is subject
 
 230 THE CAPUCHIN OF THE CONGO [Book II 
 
 to drought, and the fetishmen profess to bring down 
 rain by means of incantations. The missionaries became 
 their rivals, and their prayers were at first successful. 
 But of necessity they often failed, and fell into dis- 
 grace, and the ancient religion was restored. Then the 
 native priests would in their turn fail, an epidemic or 
 invasion would afflict the land, sent, as it was sup- 
 posed, by the white man's God, and again the Christians 
 would be petitioned to return. Thus went on these 
 missions with fluctuating success, till the power of the 
 Portuguese upon the Congo declined. The city of San 
 Salvador fell into ruins, the missionaries died off and 
 were not replaced. Time has left few traces of their 
 gigantic and honourable labours ; for although scarcely 
 less superstitious than the natives themselves, they were 
 earnest and self-devoted men. But it is said that Jesus 
 and Mary are still numbered with the Congo gods, that 
 a rosary or Agnus Dei may often be found among the 
 pagan amulets and charms, and that the women yet mark 
 their foreheads with a cross. 
 
 The following letters will serve to exhibit the cha- 
 racter of a missionary monk, and also to some extent 
 the manners and customs of the Congoese. 
 
 Letter I. ^^^^ 
 
 I have obtained the permission of the superior to 
 
 write to thee, my dearest sister. Art thou startled to 
 
 see this letter dated from the convent of the Capuchins } 
 
 or hast thou already heard from our family of the step
 
 Book II] THE CAPUCHIN OF THE CONGO 231 
 
 which I have taken ? But in any case I will relate to 
 thee myself what it was that made a gay and dissolute 
 young man renounce the vanities of wealth and the 
 world, and become a humble servant of the Lord. 
 
 I was in a tavern at midnight with the young Prince 
 Colonna. A dispute arose between us — I will not tell thee 
 its cause — and we fought by the light of torches. Mad- 
 dened by rage and wine, we plunged our swords into 
 each other. I was grievously wounded, and he was 
 killed. 
 
 As I lay on a bed of sickness, and thought of death 
 and judgment, and of the soul I had despatched in the 
 midst of impurity, unshriven, unforgiven, before the 
 most terrible of all tribunals — ah, me ! I cried, what guilt 
 is mine ! At night I saw fearful images, and hell-fire 
 seemed before me. 
 
 And after I had passed through much agony and 
 pain, and all thought that I was dying, the last sacra- 
 ments were administered unto me, and this gracious 
 ceremony seemed to bring me peace. That same night 
 the Blessed Virgin came to my bed-side, and bade me 
 repent of my sins, and do penance that I might be for- 
 given. In the morning I sent for my confessor, who 
 advised me to vow myself to the service of the church 
 and to enter a religious order. This then I pledged 
 myself to do, if I should recover from my wound, and 
 from that time, as if by a miracle, my sickness began to 
 pass away ; the fever no more returned ; a divine calm 
 took possession of my being. I heard sweet voices in
 
 232 THE CAPUCHIN OF THE CONGO [Book II 
 
 the night ; I saw the features of the blessed. In a few 
 weeks my health was restored, and behold the scar 
 which the wound had left was in the image of a cross ! 
 
 Then I summoned the lawyers and bequeathed my 
 fortune to my brother. I called my servants and bade 
 them adieu. I laid aside my robes of velvet and gold ; 
 I forsook the marble palace of my fathers, and clothing 
 myself in a grey garment with a cord about my waist, I 
 entered this cell from which now I write to thee. O 
 pious and beloved sister ! dost thou remember the days 
 of our childhood, those innocent and happy days ? Dost 
 thou remember how in the purple autumn we wandered 
 through the vineyards, or dipped our bare feet in the 
 flowing river, and dried them with the long green grass ? 
 Dost thou remember how we knelt down side by side in 
 the little country church upon the hill behind the villa. 
 It was from thee I learnt to pray to the Virgin, and to bow 
 myself before her shrine. It was by thee my heart was 
 trained to turn towards its Maker, whom afterwards I 
 deserted and betrayed. Yet often, in the midst of blas- 
 phemy and sin, my thoughts reverted to those blessed 
 days ; and often, dearest Angiola, when I received thy 
 letters overflowing with a sister's love, I resolved to 
 renounce my abominable life. I gave up reading Machi- 
 avelli and Lucretius ; I shunned the society of those wath 
 whom I had been Avont to jest on sacred things ; I 
 attended complines and vespers — but in vain. The most 
 beautiful and touching passages in the Imitation of a 
 Kempis, or the Introduction to a Holy Life, or the
 
 Book II] THE CAPUCHIN OF THE CONGO 233 
 
 Confessions of St. Augustine, the Psalms of David, the 
 Divine Story of the Passion, were read by me without 
 emotion. A demon of doubt domineered me ; I cavilled 
 and criticised ; I could not believe : and so I returned to 
 those horrible haunts where, calling one another by clas- 
 sical names, we offered sacrifices to a bust of Epicurus, 
 and travestied before a Venus the adoration of the 
 Virgin. 
 
 O blessed sorrow ! nay, even I will say, O blessed 
 sin ! — beata culpa ! — which has thus saved me from 
 eternal wrath. For now I am again as a little child ; I 
 doubt no more ; the divine mysteries which perplex the 
 narrow-minded votaries of reason are now by faith 
 made manifest unto me. My whole life is one sweet and 
 powerful emotion ; the sight of the crucifix upon the 
 wall ; the voices and footsteps of the brethren ; the grey 
 calm cloisters ; the solemn tolling of the bell, fill me with 
 delicious rapture. This cell is to me a celestial abode, 
 where I think only of divine things, and where I dwell 
 by faith in the presence of my Saviour, until the hour 
 Cometh when He shall take me to Himself in verity 
 and truth. May His providence ever attend thee, my 
 sweetest Angiola, and preserve thee from trial and 
 temptation. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
 and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. 
 
 LETTER n. Lisbon. 
 
 The letter which I wrote thee I gave to the Superior. 
 Having read it, he said it should be sent; but I saw that
 
 234 THE CAPUCHIN OF THE CONGO [Book II 
 
 his face was clouded, and that he looked anxiously 
 upon me. The next day he called me to him, and bade 
 me beware of spiritual pride, which was one of Satan's 
 most successful snares. He reminded me that I had 
 passed years in sin, and as yet only a few brief months 
 in piety and faith. He ended his admonitions by ten- 
 derly embracing me, and bidding me be of good heart, 
 but yet to be ever on the watch against myself. I 
 thanked him heartfully and humbly for his counsel, and 
 prayed to God that He would illuminate me with His 
 wisdom, and teach me to understand my own frail heart. 
 That same night, as I lay upon my bed, a shadow 
 darker than the darkness passed across the cell, and 
 I heard a terrible voice, which cried, ' self-deceiving 
 and complacent fool ! Is this a life of pain and penance 
 thou art leading ? ' Then for many days I fasted and 
 scourged myself and prayed. But no consolation came 
 upon my soul. I went to the hospitals, and attended 
 those who were afflicted with loathsome and contagious 
 diseases ; I suffered the jeers and gibings of my former 
 friends as they passed me in the streets. But all these 
 things were light and easy, and I felt that I was not 
 doing penance. I implored the Superior to find me 
 some work to do, which might try me more severely. 
 He replied that the Pope had received envoys from the 
 ruler of Congo, a country on the Guinea coast, pray- 
 ing that missionaries might be sent to his kingdom. 
 The Pope proposed to send out some Capuchins, and I 
 might, if I pleased, be among the number. But the
 
 Book II] THE CAPUCHIN OF THE CONGO 235 
 
 Congo, he said, was a terrible land, from which it was 
 seldom any one returned. The climate was deadly, and 
 the nations treacherous. Had I sufficient courage to 
 spend my dearest blood for the Saviour's sake, and to 
 endure with patience the many sufferings I should be 
 forced to undergo ? I answered that, with God's assis- 
 tance, I would try. He then applied to the Sacred Col- 
 lege, and procured me my commission. Shortly after- 
 wards I embarked at Civita Vecchia, with two other 
 brethren of the order, on ^ vessel bound for this port of 
 Lisbon. To-morrow we sail in another ship for San 
 Paolo de Loanda. 
 
 And now farewell, beloved Europe ! Farewell, my 
 countrymen ; and thou, my Angiola. Never more, never 
 more shall I see thee on earth again. I %o to the 
 wilderness to expiate my sins, to seek for the sheep 
 that are lost, and to bring them to God as a ransom for 
 my soul — my poor guilty soul — condemned eternally to 
 die. Pray for me, Angiola, and also for him whom I 
 have slain. 
 
 Letter HI. 
 
 San Paolo de Loanda, 
 
 Since I wrote to thee last, dear sister, we have made 
 a great voyage. At first we met with evil winds, and 
 were driven back into the Tagus ; but aftenvards the 
 weather became fair. We sailed rapidly past [Madeira 
 and the Peak of Teneriffe, celebrated by the ancients ; 
 we entered the tropics, where the sky and sea of a deli- 
 cious blue — the glorious sunsets — the beautiful birds that
 
 236 THE CAPUCHIN OF THE CONGO [Book II 
 
 floated round us on wings that were never weary, or 
 which seemed to walk, like St. Peter, on the sea — the 
 flying fish, sparkling in the air — the huge fountain- 
 spouting monsters of the deep— all these, with many 
 other wonders, excited our astonishment, and filled us 
 with reverence for the works of the Creator. 
 
 Every morning we sang the Rosary, and in the even- 
 ing the Litany. On holidays we preached a sermon. 
 The ship was dedicated to our Saviour, the Blessed 
 Virgin, and St. Joseph, which made us celebrate the 
 Holy Nativity with more than the usual solemnity. The 
 merchants not only adorned the altars with the richest 
 things they had, but likewise hung the outside of our 
 ship with several carpets and rich clothing, the air being 
 at that time serene, and the sea calm. 
 
 We arrived safely in Loanda, which is one of the finest 
 harbours I have ever seen. The bishop met us on the 
 quay, near to which is a marble throne, whereon he sits 
 when the ships are being laden, and blesses the slaves, 
 one by one, as they pass to go over to Brazil. We went 
 to the cathedral, a great building, where the fathers 
 sang Te Deum for our safe arrival. In a few days I 
 depart for San Salvador, upon the Congo. How my 
 heart bounds with joy, not unmixed with melancholy, 
 when I think of the souls which, by God's grace, I may 
 rescue from the demons whom they worship, and with 
 whom, if they enter not the Church, they will be con- 
 demned to torments everlasting ! 
 
 And thou wilt enquire. How is it with myself.' Alas !
 
 Book II] THE CAPUCHIN OF THE CONGO 237 
 
 Angiola, it is not always well. I have had on board the 
 ship many hours of ecstasy and transport. Three days 
 I passed without touching meat or drink, wrapped in 
 contemplation on the Trinity. But at times I have suf- 
 fered from a spiritual dryness; and often, like the blessed 
 Augustine, I am tormented by the memory of past plea- 
 sures ; and sometimes, in the night, I am subject to a 
 marvellous and fearful vision. I awake from sleep with 
 a sensation of extraordinary cold ; my body becomes 
 rigid ; I feel my wound open, and my blood stream 
 forth ; the clock strikes twelve ; torches flash around me ; 
 I hear the clinking of swords ; and before me passes the 
 Colonna, his features distorted with anguish, and his 
 pale arm stretched towards me. Every day I repeat a 
 mass for his soul, and pray that he may be released 
 from his torments. But ah ! dearest sister, often I fear 
 that his guilty spirit is buried in the pit from which 
 there is no escape. And then, what have I done } I 
 have murdered his soul. I have robbed him of eternal 
 life. Yes, verily, I see it is only by preaching the Gospel 
 to the heathen, by saving others from hell-fire, that I 
 can expiate this fatal and superhuman crime. 
 
 Letter IV. s^„ 5^,^^,^^ 
 
 I have journeyed in a litter from Loanda to this 
 town, which is the capital of the Congo and the resi- 
 dence of its kings. We travelled slowly, and were two 
 months upon the road. Every night we halted at a 
 libatte or village, where the people brought me beans
 
 238 THE CAPUCHIN OF THE CONGO [Book II 
 
 and millet. My poor body soon began to feel the 
 want of bread and wine. I became weak, and then 
 the fever fell upon me. In such cases the Portuguese 
 of Angola always bleed themselves abundantly, and 
 indeed they maintain that no man can have health in 
 this climate until he has lost his European blood, and 
 his veins have been replenished with new blood from 
 the country food. I therefore called a native, one of my 
 people, who was accustomed to the use of the lancet, and 
 he took a large dishful from me, which he said would be 
 sufficient to begin with. On arriving at the convent 
 in this town the brethren applauded my treatment, and 
 said that thus only had their lives been saved. But 
 indeed scarcely they seem to be alive : their voices are 
 weak and broken, and they look as if they had been 
 dug from their graves. 
 
 San Salvador contains many hundred houses : the 
 king's palace is a league round. There are three 
 churches and a convent. In one of the churches is a 
 statue of the Virgin Mary, which is worshipped every 
 Sunday by thousands of negroes from the neighbouring 
 towns. 
 
 Yesterday I was taken to the king. He sat upon 
 an ivory throne, and was dressed entirely in scarlet, with 
 a plume of feathers in his hat and a rapier at his 
 side. The brethren informed him I should presently go 
 as missionary to the province of Sundi, which belongs 
 to his kingdom, and is governed by a count. Brother 
 Alphonso had resided there a twelvemonth, but had
 
 Book II] THE CAPUCHIN OF THE CONGO 239 
 
 died a few weeks ago. The king offered me his hand, 
 and thanked me for coming to his country, and promised 
 that one of his nobles should escort me to Sundi as soon 
 as I was ready to depart. 
 
 Letter V. Sundi. 
 
 Many months have passed since I wrote to thee, my 
 Angiola, and now I am deep in the wilderness, and it 
 is but seldom I can find an opportunity of communi- 
 cating with the world. Sundi is the frontier province of 
 the Congo Empire. Its ruler or Count, as the Portu- 
 guese call him, is in name a vassal of the king, and 
 sends him as tribute every year a hundred slaves ; but 
 he receives in return rich presents of European cloth, 
 and is in reality an independent prince. Beyond Sundi, 
 towards the east and the north, is a wild desolate region 
 inhabited by squalid tribes, and often devastated by 
 the Giaghas, who are the Huns of Africa, and whose 
 invasions are dreaded by the Congoese, and especially 
 by the natives of this province, which must first bear 
 the brunt of their attacks. But the people say that so 
 long as I am with them they have nought to fear. 
 They know that my prayers will protect them, and 
 that God will have mercy on His children. Edifying is 
 indeed the faith of these poor people, who are now 
 brought into the fold ; for I have been permitted to 
 complete the work of my noble predecessor, and to 
 extinguish those errors which he also would doubtless 
 have conquered had he lived.
 
 240 THE CAPUCHIN OF THE CONGO [Book II 
 
 Ah, dearest sister ! how can I describe the feehngs 
 which entered my bosom when first they led me to the 
 hut which he had built. It consisted of one room : a cruci- 
 fix was on the wall ; a bamboo settle covered with a skin 
 was his bed ; a large chest raised upon logs served him 
 as a table, and on this was a palm-oil lamp made of 
 clay, resembling those which the pilgrims bring home 
 from the Holy Land. Such was his simple furniture 
 and such is mine. I have altered or added nothing. I 
 have enquired of this good man's life, and endeavour 
 to imitate his actions. He rose at daybreak, and worked 
 in the garden, where he had planted some vines and 
 fruit trees and herbs from Europe : the rest of the day 
 he passed without remission in teaching the children, 
 visiting the people in their homes, and celebrating the 
 offices in the little wooden chapel which the natives 
 had built at his request. 
 
 I ascertained on my arrival that many pagan prac- 
 tices still survived among the people. They hung 
 amulets and charms on the fences round their fields 
 to preserve them from robbers and wild beasts. Certain 
 rites were observed at the birth and weaning of 
 children, and in the burial of the dead. I conferred 
 with the Count, and persuaded him to pass a law that 
 those who offended in such a manner should be flogged, 
 and, in case of repetition, deprived of their property, and 
 banished from the kingdom. The Count's people were 
 animated with zeal on behalf of the faith, and brought 
 me many persons, especially women, whom they found
 
 BouK II] THE CAPUCHIN OF THE CONGO 241 
 
 wearing secretly beneath their aprons fetishes com- 
 posed of horns, feathers, and other abominations. I 
 flogged them with the cord of my order, and sent them 
 away weeping and repentant, with rosaries and images 
 of the Agnus Dei, which they promised me ahvays to 
 wear. I also gave the people consecrated palms to 
 hang upon their fences instead of the charms. But, 
 alas ! how hard it is to turn these poor benighted 
 creatures from the worship of the Evil One. One 
 evening as I was walking in the grove near the town, 
 wrapped in godly meditation, I heard the beating 
 of a drum in the thickest part of the wood, and 
 creeping through the bushes as softly as I could, dis- 
 covered a clean-swept place, and a multitude of men 
 and women dancing round a great tree, at the foot 
 of which a fire was lighted, and a sheep bound ready 
 for the sacrifice. Among them was the Count himself. 
 The next day I summoned all the people to the church. 
 Having gone there before them, I placed an image of 
 the Virgin, covered, on the altar, with a blood-smeared 
 dagger in its breast. I then told the people that by 
 their impious conduct they not only ofi*ended their 
 loving Saviour, but also did great evil to His Immacu- 
 late Mother. At the same time I uncovered the image, 
 and they, seeing it so wounded and bloody, began to 
 lament and cry. I ordered the Count to stand forth 
 in the middle of the church, and to flog himself before 
 the people while I was saying mass. The next evening 
 I heard a doleful sound : it was the people, who sang 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 THE CAPUCHIN OF THE CONGO [Book II 
 
 t he * Salve Regina/ and were doing penance of their 
 own accord. I went into the chapel, and prepared the 
 altar. They came, bearing huge logs of wood upon 
 their shoulders. I then put out the lights, and they 
 flogged themselves for many hours with fibrous cords 
 and scourges of bark. 
 
 I believed that the faith was firmly established, and 
 my heart abounded with joy ; but still another trial was 
 at hand, another battle to be fought, as if to proclaim 
 more loudly to the heathen that God is the Lord, and 
 that there are no other gods but He. There fell a fierce 
 drought upon the country ; the sky was of brass and 
 the land iron. Then came into the town a man with 
 painted face and plumes upon his brow, and the people 
 ran to welcome him, and knelt down before him, saying, 
 * O master, give us rain, give us rain ! ' I went to the 
 palace and enquired who this man might be. The 
 Count replied that he was called the Shepherd of the 
 Clouds. He dwelt in a distant land, and journeyed 
 from town to town, followed by the clouds, which came 
 to his call, and rained at his command. Then I said 
 such power belonged by right to God alone and to his 
 servants ; and that it was evil to purchase the blessings 
 of this life from the demons, for thus they obtained 
 possession of human souls. I ordered that the magician 
 should be sent away ; but the Count shrugged his 
 shoulders, and replied it was not in his power to grant 
 my request. If he commanded the people to send 
 away this man who had so often given them rain
 
 Book II] THE CAPUCHIN OF THE CONGO 243 
 
 they would not obey him, for they feared the drought, 
 which brought famine and pestilence and death. I 
 therefore closed the chapel and returned to my hut. 
 During seven days I remained within, praying to God 
 that He would not suffer the rain to descend. During 
 all that time I heard, day and night, the singing of 
 voices and the beating of drums. But no rain fell. 
 Then the Count and the elders came and beseeched 
 me to pray for rain. I ordered a procession to the 
 chapel, and offered up prayers before the people. 
 Immediately the sky was covered with clouds, and 
 the rain abundantly poured down. The people brought 
 me the magician bound hand and foot with cords. I 
 ordered him to be taken to the Congo and embarked 
 on the ships for Brazil ; but he escaped upon the road, 
 assisted by Satan, who could protect him on earth, but 
 who will not be able to save him from the wrath to 
 come. 
 
 Thus then, my Angiola, the province of Sundi has 
 been converted to the Christian faith. No signs of the 
 ancient worship are anywhere to be seen. The children 
 are taught to repeat the Ave Maria and Paternoster, every 
 day. The people sing the Rosary as they labour in 
 the fields, now flourishing and green. Their year is a 
 sabbath, their life is a prayer, the Lord reigneth among 
 them as a king. Rejoice with me, beloved sister, rejoice 
 with me, that I have saved these wandering souls^ and 
 have made atonement for my sins ! 
 
 Often I suffer from the sickness of the countr}^ but 
 R 2
 
 244 THE CAPUCHIN OF THE CONGO [Book II 
 
 I am not afflicted, for my heart is at rest. Nay, the 
 danger to which I am exposed, my labours and priva- 
 tions, are the inexhaustible springs of spiritual joys. I 
 remember not ever to have enjoyed such interior de- 
 lights, and these consolations of the soul are so exquisite, 
 so constant, and so pure, that they take from me all 
 sense of my corporeal sufferings, and exalt me to an 
 ecstasy of beatitude and bliss. 
 
 Letter VI. 
 
 Sundi. 
 
 I sit down to write this, my beloved, at a strange and 
 critical time, but messengers are being sent to San 
 Salvador, and I wish not to lose the opportunity. More- 
 over, who can tell what may happen in the next few 
 days } The Giaghas are upon us. They have already 
 destroyed a village on the frontier, and to night our 
 army marches forth against them. 
 
 On such occasions as these, in the olden days, the 
 sorcerers and priests were wont to deliver oracles, to 
 wash and paint the bodies of the warriors, and to sell 
 them amulets and charms. But now they came to 
 me, the servant of the Lord. The Giaghas demanded 
 a thousand cattle and five hundred slaves ; if these 
 should be paid, they swore by the ghosts of their 
 fathers and their mothers' tears that they would pass 
 in peace. Should Sundi accept these terms, or try 
 the event of war t I bade them wait till the morrow, 
 and I would give them a reply. Having prayed all
 
 Book II] THE CAPUCHIN OF THE CONGO 245 
 
 the night, I fell into a trance, and heard a voice 
 which said, ' Let them fight m My name and they shall 
 co7iquer! Then in the morning I said that God com- 
 manded them to fight, and promised them the victory. 
 At once the great drum was beaten : messengers were 
 despatched to the villages and the plantations : in two 
 days the army was collected in the town ; each company 
 beneath its captain, with its banner and its drum. These 
 banners I blessed in the church, and also the drums, 
 having first removed the sculls and jawbones with 
 which they were encircled. I gave holy water to the 
 soldiers one by one. Great is their faith, my Angiola ; 
 already their features are elate with triumph, already 
 they sing the songs of victory and joy. 
 
 It was the custom of the fetishmen to go in front of 
 the army, as do those of the Giaghas likewise. This 
 duty, therefore, devolves also upon me. The warriors 
 on either side never attack the priests for fear that the 
 gods should avenge themselves on those by whom their 
 favourites are slain. If it happens that one is killed by 
 a stray arrow or spear, propitiatory sacrifices are offered 
 up. I have, therefore, little to fear from the weapons 
 of the Giaghas ; calm, then, thy anxiety, my Angiola, 
 nor dread the issue of the battle-day. Hath not the 
 Lord spoken t and will He permit His enemies to con- 
 quer } He will scatter their armies like dust before the 
 wind ; the demons shall be humbled and know that He 
 is God.
 
 246 THE CAPUCHIN OF THE CONGO [Book II 
 
 LETTER VII. sundi. 
 
 The Giaghas have routed us in battle ; their watch- 
 fires encircle the town. Our cattle they have taken, and 
 destroyed our crops. They demand a thousand women 
 and children as the price of peace. Each family must 
 surrender not only its slaves, but its own flesh and blood, 
 for thus only can they save the town from flames, and 
 their bodies from destruction. I send this letter by my 
 catechist, who returns to San Salvador at once. He 
 alone remains in the Catholic faith ; the others have 
 abjured. 
 
 Letter VIII. gundi. 
 
 The tribute has been paid; the Giaghas have de- 
 parted, and the town is left bare and bereaved. The 
 people come to me and say, * O deceiver ! where is now 
 thy God } Where is the woman that thou badest us to 
 worship } Where is that Jesus whom thou didst call the 
 Saviour } Could He save us from the Giaghas } ' 
 ******** 
 
 The King of Congo has sent to order or request that 
 my life shall be spared, because he fears the Portu- 
 guese. The magicians have returned ; the church is 
 destroyed ; the people bring me no food ; I go into the 
 woods for berries and roots. The women cry to me as 
 I pass, ' Give us back our men whom the Giaghas have 
 slaughtered ! Give us back our children they have 
 taken ! '
 
 Book II] THE CAPUCHIN OF THE CONGO 247 
 
 I know not, Angiola, whether these fragments that 
 I write will ever come within thy hands. It would 
 perhaps be well if they did not, for they will trouble 
 thee with sorrow and shame ; yet I have so often 
 vaunted myself before thee I may not conceal my guilt. 
 As I sat one evening in my hut and listened to the cries of 
 the people, who were calling on the demons to return 
 and dwell again within the town, I reflected with sadness 
 on the punishment they would receive in the future life 
 because of their idolatry. And then some evil spirit 
 whispered in my ear, ' What have these poor savages done 
 that they should suffer eternal pain ? Didst thou not 
 deceive them and thyself as well f That voice thou didst 
 hear was a chimera, the audible expression of thy inmost 
 thoughts. These people with their demofts and thou with 
 thy God are but as ojie. The events of life are not to be 
 swayed by the words or gestures of ma7i, but are due to a 
 fixed and all-pervadijig law! 
 
 I lighted my lamp and attempted to read, but found 
 myself reciting some verses from Lucretius. I began to 
 transcribe the seven Penitential Psalms, but wrote down 
 instead some speculations on the existence of the Deity. 
 At length I threw off all restraint, and abandoned myself 
 to my thoughts. I recalled the memory of past plea- 
 sures : I sang, I danced, I shouted blasphemies; I acted 
 as if at an orgie, saluting my friends by their names, and 
 bidding them welcome to the feast. I drank from an 
 invisible goblet, and embraced imaginary forms. 
 
 The next morning my doubts flew away as phantoms.
 
 248 THE CAPUCHIN OF THE CONGO [Book II 
 
 I recovered my senses, and was seized with remorse. 
 For many days past I have been unable to read or write. 
 Fain would I confess my sins, and do penance, that I 
 might be absolved. But no priest is here ; I am cut off 
 from the mercy-seat of God. I cannot return to San 
 Salvador, my body is exhausted. I am afraid to sleep, 
 for fearful visions afflict me in the night ; I see my father 
 and mother weeping over me. Even when I am awake 
 I hear strange noises, sometimes sighs and groans, at 
 other times mingled with the sound of stifled laughter. 
 Hands pluck me by the sleeve ; often I take a light and 
 search for these persecutors of my sleeping and waking 
 hours. My life is anguish and torment ; my prayers 
 seem to bring me no relief ; often and often I lift up my 
 hands and cry, ' My God, my God, why hast Thou for- 
 saken me .'' ' 
 
 Alas ! it was I who forsook Him. I see it all clearly 
 now ; the disaster of the Giaghas was sent to try my 
 faith. O miserable man, I have failed, and am for ever 
 lost ! 
 
 The people have deserted the town, for their priests 
 have told them that the ground is accursed. They have 
 left me here alone to die. 
 
 I can no longer crawl to the forest for the roots and 
 berries on which I subsist. The fever will soon come 
 upon me again. I go now to lie upon that bed, knowing 
 I shall never rise from it again. I place the ink and
 
 Book II] THE CAPUCHIN OF THE CONGO 249 
 
 paper by my side. My last words, Angiola, shall be 
 
 thine. * Of thy charity pray for me.' 
 
 ******** 
 
 It is night, and the hour is at hand ; I feel it coming. 
 I am cold ; I see the torches ; the swords are clinking ; 
 my blood flows, my body stiffens — I faint, I die. Before 
 me passes the Colonna, striding like a wild beast to and 
 fro. * Thou hast sinned,' he cries, ^and hast not been absolved. 
 Unshriven, unforgive^i, to-morrozv thy sotd shall be as 
 mine!
 
 250 
 
 THE RUINS OF THE PORTUGUESE 
 
 Our ingenious navigators contrived to pass Loanda a 
 matter of forty miles ; however, we quickly returned 
 with a fair wind. A black pilot came on board, and 
 took us into the harbour, which is spacious and secure, 
 and is formed by an island lying opposite the town. 
 This island was once famous for the cowries it produced, 
 which shells were formerly current as coins in the 
 countries of the Congo. It is now inhabited by fisher- 
 men, and is a pleasure-garden for the citizens, who 
 light it up on their fete days, and thither resort for 
 music and dancing, coffee and orgeade. 
 
 The possessions of the Portuguese are extensive, 
 stretching along the coast to the Congo, on one side, 
 and on the other to Mossamedes, near Little Fish Bay, 
 on the borders of the waterless tract, which thence ex- 
 tends to the Cape of Good Hope. The eastern limit of 
 the province is Cassange, three hundred miles from the 
 sea. 
 
 In the sixteenth century San Paolo de Loanda was 
 one of the finest seaports in the world. It has declined, 
 as Lisbon has declined. The college of the Jesuits is a 
 workshop ; and oxen feed within the old cathedral. At
 
 PORTUGUESE AFRICA. 
 
 The region comprised in this map is Por- 
 tuguese. The Congo is neutral ground. An- 
 gola is a true colony. This country possesses 
 rich mines of copper. No Moslems ever seen. 
 Food. Chiefly cassada. Authorities. For the 
 Congo, Tuckey. For Angola, Livingstone. 
 For Benguela, Ladlslaus Magyar. Now that 
 the slave trade is abolished, the commerce of 
 Congo will become important From Great 
 Fish Bay, or thereabouts, to the Orange River 
 is a waterless tract of coast, its interior in- 
 habited chieflyT)y Hottentot tribes. •Authori- 
 ties. Gallon, Aiidersson, &c. But this 
 belongs tu Southern Africa. 
 
 ^ 
 
 120E Gr. 
 
 IB" 
 
 o 10 *o 60 80 100 Bluish Maejs 
 
 ■'^Icrrfcrd!! CkoqTslaif.S S: 7 Ckarijna Cross. 
 
 Loudon; Smith. Kkler \- C'*.'
 
 Book II] THE RUINS OF THE PORTUGUESE 251 
 
 first, the Portuguese commenced to colonise Angola on 
 a mighty scale ; they fought great battles and subdued 
 nations. They projected an overland route to India, 
 across the continent, from Loanda to Mozambique, in 
 order to avoid the voyage round the Cape.^ But the 
 superior wealth of India and Brazil proved fatal to 
 Angola, which was at last used only as a mine of men. 
 The fall of the slave trade has, therefore, ruined the 
 merchants, for the traffic in ivory and wax is unimpor- 
 tant ; and though much coffee is grown in the province, 
 it cannot compete as a plantation with the gigantic 
 estates of the New World. Yet even in its present 
 decayed condition Angola is a true colony, and 
 far in advance of our wretched sea-coast settlements. 
 Loanda is still a great city, with many vessels in its 
 harbour, and with fine stone houses and public buildings, 
 cafes and billiard-rooms, churches and jails. It is gar- 
 risoned by convicts, who wear the uniform of soldiers, 
 while the commandants of the inland stations are often 
 political exiles. But the Governor-General is always a 
 noble of the highest rank, and is always recalled in a 
 few years, lest he should become ambitious for a crown, 
 and proclaim Angola an empire, after the manner of 
 Brazil. In the olden days the colonists were sometimes 
 inclined to be rebellious, but never thought of casting 
 off their allegiance to the crown. If they did not like 
 their governor, they requested the king to recall him ; 
 
 * Gamitto, ' O Muata Cazembe,' p. 48.
 
 252 THE RUINS OF THE PORTUGUESE [Book II 
 
 and if the king declined to do so, they put him on board 
 a ship, and sent him home. When the new governor 
 came out, they would not let him land unless he had 
 brought with him a general amnesty for all offences.' 
 
 The anchor went into the sea with a splash ; the 
 cable rumbled through the hawse-hole ; my days on the 
 ' Emilia ' were ended. But the joy I felt on my arrival 
 was somewhat damped by the reflection that I only pos- 
 sessed three and sixpence, and that there was only one 
 Englishman residing in the town. If he happened to be 
 absent, my position would not be delightful. However, 
 I learnt, when the agents came on board, that the Senhor 
 Gabriel was at home. He was the British Consul and 
 Commissioner of the slave trade ; and, at all events, I 
 was sure of eatables and drinkables, and a forecastle 
 passage somewhere or other as a distressed British sub- 
 ject. But the high praise which Dr. Livingstone had 
 bestowed upon this gentleman, beneath whose roof he 
 had lived for seven months, and whom he called ' his 
 good angel of Loanda,' made me hope he would assist 
 me ; and I expected to find some letters at his house 
 which might serve me as credentials in a pecuniary way. 
 
 The captain of the ' Emilia ' apparently understood 
 my position, for he called me aside, and said that if I 
 could not get lodgings on shore to my fancy, I must 
 come and stay with him on board, and he would give 
 me better dinners than we had upon the voyage. * Pro- 
 mise me to come,' said he ; * as my friend, you under- 
 
 » Merolla.
 
 Book II] THE RUINS OF THE PORTUGUESE 253 
 
 Stand, as my friend.' I have had a kindly feeUng for 
 slave traders ever since. 
 
 As soon as I landed on the quay, I was surrounded 
 by the bearers of palanquins. Being despondent and eco- 
 nomical, I said that I would walk ; but some Portuguese 
 gentlemen who were present would not hear of such a 
 thing. They called a couple of bearers ; I crawled with 
 some difficulty on to a hanging board covered with a 
 carpet, a pillow at the end, and curtains at the sides ; 
 and off went my men at a jog-trot, while I, with a 
 moody air, turned over my three and sixpence in my 
 pocket, and wondered how long it would last. 
 
 Mr. Gabriel was out. The secretary asked me what 
 was my business. I said it was nothing particular (!), and 
 mentioned my name and occupation. He then informed 
 me that some letters had come for me ; but having seen 
 my return to England erroneously announced in one of 
 the papers, he had sent them back to Fernando Po. 
 Alas, for my credentials ! At this moment Mr. Gabriel 
 returned, and at once told me to make my house his 
 home. A few days afterwards, I mentioned the state of 
 my finances, and, without hesitation, he cashed my bill 
 for a hundred pounds, which I spent on a journey to 
 Ambaka, an inland station, a hundred and fifty miles 
 from the coast. 
 
 To me, an amateur of exploration, this little journey 
 had a peculiar interest and charm. No Englishman had 
 been over this road but Dr. Livingstone and myself. 
 Wherever I went the planters discoursed with upraised
 
 254 THE RUINS OF THE PORTUGUESE [Book II 
 
 eyes and hands of that wonderful man who came in upon 
 them from the dark deep heart of Africa, riding on an 
 ox. All of them had some little anecdote to tell, and at 
 Golungo Alto the commandant showed me the latitude 
 and longitude which the Doctor had marked with a red- 
 hot poker on the floor. 
 
 The palanquin is too elegant a conveyance for a 
 journey of this kind, and the hammock is used in its 
 stead. I hired a number of bearers, and made a stray 
 Swiss, who was out of employ and could speak Por- 
 tuguese, my headman and interpreter. He also was 
 accommodated with a hammock. I paid my expenses 
 with copper coins, filling two large bags, the weight of 
 which caused many a remonstrance from the bearers. 
 However, I consoled them with the assurance that the 
 bags would grow lighter every day, as indeed they did 
 with wonderful rapidity. 
 
 The men shuffled swiftly over the road, the ham- 
 mock creaking like a saddle, and as they went along the 
 leader flourished a stick in his hand with the gestures 
 of a bandmaster and sang, the others joining in the 
 chorus : — 
 
 Shove him on ! 
 But is he a good man ? 
 No, I think he's a stingy fellow. 
 
 Shove him on ! 
 Let him drop in the road then. 
 No, he has a big stick. 
 
 Shove him on ! 
 Oh, matar-bicho, matar-bicho ! 
 Who -wall give me matar-bicho ?
 
 Book II] THE RUINS OF THE PORTUGUESE 255 
 
 Matar-bicho, in the Angolese patois, means kill-worm, 
 the natives supposing that their entrails are tormented 
 by a small worm which it is necessary to destroy with 
 raw spirits. From the frequency of their demands, it 
 would seem that this is the worm that ever gnaws, and 
 that their thirst is the fire that is never quenched. 
 
 We journeyed through a beautiful country unlike any- 
 thing I had seen on this continent before. Most people 
 seem to think that because Africa is hot and large the 
 scenery must be magnificent ; but I have usually found 
 it monotonous and tame. The dismal forests of the 
 Gaboon have no variety or life, and in North-Western 
 Africa one travels over interminable plains covered with 
 short and stunted trees. But Angola possesses moun- 
 tainous districts, which reminded Livingstone of the 
 Highlands, and my Swiss of the minor Alps ; the air 
 is elastic and bright. Often as we gained the summit of 
 a hill we saw before us a valley covered with maize 
 fields and plantations of coffee and cocoa, with white 
 houses glimmering among the trees ; and we passed neat 
 cottages of stone which were closed throughout the day, 
 as they are in England at harvest time — men, women, 
 and children being all at work in the fields. Some of 
 the rivers were completely dry, their course being marked 
 by pebbles and shining quartz ; but others flashed 
 across our path — bands of silver edged with green ; 
 and sometimes we saw a boat filled with oranges, in 
 heaps of gleaming gold, floating down towards the sea. 
 We usually passed the night at a fort or a plantation.
 
 256 THE RUINS OF THE PORTUGUESE [Book II 
 
 but in the desert regions we halted at the government 
 caravanserais, rude buildings of clay with three com- 
 partments, each containing a wooden bed, with a bill of 
 regulations posted on the wall. In these establishments 
 a policeman is stationed, whose duty it is to have fire 
 and water always ready, and from the ceiling hangs the 
 fruit of the baobab, the glutinous pith of which is 
 used as sealing-wax by the Angolese. Sometimes these 
 places were infested by rats, and then I preferred to 
 sleep in the open air. The high grass of the plains made 
 us excellent straw beds. 
 
 I visited this colony at an unpropitious time. The 
 Portuguese were at war with the natives of the frontier, 
 and their officers scoured the country, seizing cattle and 
 provisions, and dragging men in irons to the seat of war. 
 The peasants often fled at my approach, supposing that 
 I was one of their oppressors. As for the planters and 
 officials, they were not less firmly convinced that I was 
 sent to inspect and report upon the colony previous to 
 its seizure or purchase by Great Britain. That we 
 should take their country seemed to them a very natural 
 proceeding, and quite in accordance with the history of 
 the past ; all that they desired was that they should 
 receive compensation for their slaves. At first, of course, 
 I assured them they were entirely mistaken ; I had 
 nothing whatever to do with the Government ; * Palmer- 
 ston ' did not even know of my existence, and I was 
 travelling merely for my pleasure. These replies were 
 very ill received ; in one house the mosquito curtains
 
 Book II] THE RUIXS OF THE PORTUGUESE 257 
 
 were privately abstracted from my bed before I retired 
 for the night, and my Swiss assured me that, if I did not 
 mend my ways, I ran a good chance of being poisoned. 
 I accordingly adopted a formula, which satisfied my 
 conscience and gave intense satisfaction to my hosts. 
 ' Senhor so-and-so,' I would say, ' I give you my word 
 that I am not sent by the Government, and that the 
 English have no desire for Angola.' Here Senhor 
 so-and-so would nod and wave his hand, much as to 
 say, * I understand ; private mission ; instructions, &c/ 
 * But', I continued, ' I can safely promise you this, that 
 if our Government takes Angola (mind, I say it won't, 
 but if it does), every planter shall receive the full value 
 of his slaves ; and, if my humble opinion is taken on the 
 matter (I don't think it will be, but still if it is), yotir 
 interests, my dear and honoured friend, shall not be 
 neglected.' Here I would look at the Senhor in a very 
 knowing manner, his face would become radiant, and he 
 would be happy for the rest of his days ; whereas, if I 
 had told him nothing but the truth, he would have lived 
 in a continual state of anxiety and alarm. 
 
 The reader will, no doubt, smile at the allusion to 
 the poisoning, and certainly I had no fears on that 
 account. But poisoning must be common in Angola, 
 for it is the stock subject of conversation, as the weather 
 is in England, and fever at Sierra Leone. I will relate 
 one instance out of several which happened upon this 
 journey. I was at breakfast with a planter in Angola. 
 The Swiss and I drank the coffee of the country. 
 VOL. I. S
 
 258 THE RUINS OF THE PORTUGUESE [Book II 
 
 which is raised from Mocha-berries imported by the 
 Jesuits. The Angolese prefer to drink stale, musty tea, 
 which a British washerwoman would not touch. When 
 our host perceived that we alone were drinking coffee, 
 he said to one of his poor relations, * Make haste, 
 Antonio, finish your tea, and then take a cup of coffee, 
 so that if the Englishman gets poisoned on the road, 
 he will know it was not here.' 
 
 At Ambaka I bought an ox, and rode home on it 
 part of the way. When these hard-mouthed animals 
 are broken in, a stick of peculiar shape is passed 
 through the nose, and the bridle reins fastened to each 
 end. Owing to the looseness of the creature's skin, the 
 rider rocks to and fro, unless the saddle be very tightly 
 girthed. It is also placed well forward on the shoulders, 
 so that when the ox backs you feel as if you were going 
 to slip over his head. However, the bceuf-cheval is a 
 capital beast for a long journey. He is slow, but hardy 
 and patient, goes over rough ground better than a 
 horse, and will leap well if you give him time.^ 
 
 As for my other beasts of burden, the bearers, they 
 had troubled us sadly by the way. I had been obliged 
 to pay them a sum of money in advance, and so long 
 as they remained in my debt I dared not offend them, 
 knowing they would run away, if they had only the 
 
 ' The Portuguese discoverers found the natives of South Africa riding 
 upon oxen ; and Kolben tells an extraordinary tale tibout Hottentot oxen 
 being used in war like the dog regiments of the ancient Persians. Before 
 the introduction of the camel, pack oxen were employed, according to 
 Earth, for the transport of goods and produce across the Sahara.
 
 Book II] THE RUINS OF THE PORTUGUESE 259 
 
 shade of an excuse. So during the first two weeks or 
 so they did precisely as they pleased ; if they came to 
 a wayside tavern, where dried meat and palm wine were 
 exposed for sale, they stopped without asking my 
 permission, and enjoyed a feast while I sat brooding 
 in the sun. They were often impertinent, and, in fact, 
 behaved just as schoolboys would behave to the master, 
 if they knew that he could not punish them in any way. 
 But Time the Avenger marched on ; the money I 
 advanced was spent, and at length my Swiss brought 
 me the welcome tidings that I owed them each about 
 three half-pence. There now was no fear of their 
 deserting ; they would never leave their debtor, but 
 would cling to him through danger and ill-usage with 
 unchangeable fidelity. We therefore arranged that, as 
 soon as an opportunity occurred, we would pay them 
 out for their previous offences. A keen sense of justice 
 suggested this proceeding, but I must own that the idea 
 of thrashing a creditor was not altogether without its 
 charm. We had not to wait very long. One morning 
 I told the men that I would stay to breakfast with the 
 commandant of the station where we had passed the 
 night, and that after breakfast they must be ready with 
 the hammock. The men idled about as usual till I was 
 ready to go, and then began to cook their morning 
 meal. Having waited a considerable time, we went to 
 look after our attendants, and found them seated in a 
 circle, eating their breakfast in the slow and genteel 
 manner of the Africans. The Swiss approached them
 
 26o THE RUINS OF THE PORTUGUESE [Book II 
 
 stealthily with upraised stick, and laid into them right 
 and left. Never did sweeter music greet my ears than 
 the whacks of the cudgel, and the cries of the men, and 
 the rattling of the gourds overturned. From that time 
 I had nothing to complain of, at least when my major- 
 domo was at hand. But to me they showed no deference 
 whatever ; and this, the Swiss explained, was on account 
 of my inveterate mildness. He had more than once 
 assured them that beneath my gentle demeanour was 
 concealed a ferocious and blood-thirsty disposition, but 
 they would not believe him, and he assured me that if 
 I persisted in my meekness, we should never be able to 
 get on. I bore his advice in mind ; and one day, the men 
 in the hammock having bumped me against a rock, and 
 then burst into an impudent laugh, I jumped out of my 
 hammock, with rage in all my limbs, kicked them first, 
 thrashed them afterwards, and then returned to the 
 hammock, which they held ready for me with many 
 obsequious bows and deferential smiles. After this 
 little incident I was loved and honoured by my people, 
 and never chastised them again. So long as they 
 supposed that I had not got it in me to give them a 
 flogging, they set me down as a poor creature ; but 
 when they knew that I could do so and spared them, 
 they felt gratitude to me for my forbearance. These 
 bearers, it must be understood, were little better than 
 slaves ; they had the intellects of children, and corporal 
 punishment caused them no shame. But with Africans 
 of a higher type it would be useless and dangerous
 
 Book II] THE RUIXS OF THE PORTUGUESE ■- 261 
 
 to inflict a blow. A friend of mine once struck his 
 interpreter, who looked at him calmly and said, 
 
 * Gentleman no do that, ]\Ir. ' 
 
 In travelling through this province of Angola I was 
 surprised to find how many hundreds of the negroes 
 could read and write in Portuguese. The roads were well- 
 ordered, and patrolled by a rural police. The forts were 
 numerous. Everything showed that here the experiment 
 of colonisation had once been tried on a gigantic scale. 
 I looked with interest upon the ruins of convents, 
 covered with roses and embowered in foreign trees, 
 and my thoughts recurred to the Portuguese of old. 
 Our sailors still preserve in their traditions the exploits 
 of those sea-pioneers ; and should not we, who have our 
 histories before us, touch with a gentle hand the con- 
 dition of a fallen people, and gratefully recall the service 
 they have rendered to mankind .^ In the genealogy of 
 intellect and enterprise they must be enrolled among 
 our ancestors ; we have inherited their possessions and 
 virtues. Let us, therefore, commemorate their glories 
 as if they were our own. 
 
 In the beginning of the fifteenth centur}' a solitary 
 castle stood near Cape St. Vincent, on a bleak and 
 desolate headland. A few juniper trees were scattered 
 here and there ; all other vegetation was withered by 
 the spray. ^ Here dwelt Prince Henry the Navigator^ 
 where the sight of the ocean continually inflamed his 
 
 ' Major's ' Life of Prince Henry.'
 
 262 • THE RUIXS OF THE PORTUGUESE [Book II 
 
 thoughts.^ Here he established the first naval school, 
 and laid the foundations of naval science.^ His court 
 resembled a convent. No ladies were there, but only 
 men of science — mathematicians from Germany, cosmo- 
 graphers from Italy, the famous Maitre Jacques from 
 Minorca, and knights-errant from all parts of Europe, 
 who came to join his exploring expeditions. Henry 
 was Grand Master of the Order of Christ, and had, 
 therefore, ample revenues at his disposal. His vessels 
 went forth from the neighbouring port of Lagos with 
 the cross of the order painted on their sails,^ and their 
 instructions were to coast the Sahara till they came to 
 a land of flowing rivers and green trees. Many years 
 passed, much money had been expended, many widows 
 and orphans had been made, yet the Black Country had 
 not been discovered. Henry was bitterly attacked by 
 the ecclesiastics and the people, who declared that he 
 was wasting holy money and human lives on a chimera 
 and a dream. But at length the Senegal was reached, 
 and before Prince Henry died he became the most 
 popular man in his country. 
 
 A fleet of caravels off the Cape of Good Hope ; a 
 gale blowing ; the atmosphere dark ; the sea running 
 mountains high ; a mutiny on board the admiral's ship. 
 Vasco da Gaina defies them all, and swears he will never 
 turn back, but to India he will go. A few months after- 
 wards he marches in triumph through the streets of 
 Lisbon ; the chief mutineers follow him in chains ; the 
 
 ' Barros. 2 Hallam, ^ Azurara, 'Chronica de Guine,' p. 185.
 
 Book II] THE RUINS OF THE PORTUGUESE . 263 
 
 sea-route to India has been found ; Venice is ruined ; 
 the fortunes of Portugal are made ; the Mediterranean 
 thenceforth declines, and the Atlantic becomes the com- 
 mercial basin of the world. 
 
 Oh, thou divine poet ! whose verses, composed in 
 misery and exile, immortalise the ancient grandeur of 
 Portugal, must thy life illustrate her shame and her 
 decay ? Camoens w^as not one of those exiles who 
 refuse their tears to the misfortunes of their country, 
 or their bodies to her soil. He sailed from India to 
 Lisbon, and wrote, * The world shall witness how 
 dearly I have loved my country. I have returned, not 
 merely to die in her bosom, but to die with her.' 
 
 His last days were spent in a hovel, and his servant, 
 a native of Java, kept him alive by begging in the 
 streets. One day a noble paid him a visit, perhaps to 
 order a sonnet for his mistress. ' Alas ! ' said Camoens, 
 ' when I was a poet I was young and happy, and blest 
 with the love of ladies, but now I am a forlorn, deserted 
 wretch. See, there stands my poor Antonio, vainly 
 supplicating four-pence to purchase a few coals.' 
 
 The noble went away without giving him the money, 
 and soon afterwards the poet died. One of his friends 
 inscribed upon his tomb the truest epitaph that ever 
 was composed : — 
 
 Here lies Luis de Camoens, 
 
 He excelled all the poets of his time. 
 
 He lived poor and miserable, 
 
 and he died so 
 
 MDLXXIX.
 
 264 
 
 ANANGA 
 
 To wander on the heights of Cintra chanting stanzas of 
 the Lusiad which he knew by heart — to read on long 
 winter nights the old historians of Portuguese India, 
 Faria y Souza, Barros, and Osorio — to gaze on the relics 
 of chivalry, and to build feudal castles in the air— such 
 were the delights of Antonio d'Almeida. 
 
 As a child is sometimes born unlike either of its 
 parents, but in the im.age of some ancient ancestor 
 whose portrait has been preserved, so by the same law 
 of Atavism or Reversion, human minds are occasionally 
 reproduced in the mould and manner of a former age. 
 Antonio was one of these revived antiques. Had a 
 knight-errant risen from his grave into the nineteenth 
 century, he could scarcely have found himself more ill 
 at ease than the hero of our tale. He took no interest 
 in the progress of the age ; he did not read the * Revue, 
 des Deux Mondes ; ' he had no admiration for the 
 products of the period — liberal institutions, parliamen- 
 tary representation, philanthropy, atheism, go-aheadism, 
 steam, and manufactures. His mind resided in the ruins 
 of the past. His intellect was retrospective. In dreams, 
 vivid as memories, he saw the Lisbon of the ancient 
 days — the nobles riding through the streets attended by 
 their retainers — the populace chequered by negroes and
 
 Book II] A.VA.VGA 265 
 
 Hindoos — the semi-Oriental maidens peeping from their 
 latticed windows — the king blazing with jewels on his 
 throne, and surrounded by courtiers upon their knees — 
 the dimly-lighted cathedrals thronged with devotees — 
 the monks chanting in the streets — the caravels weigh- 
 ing anchor for the East, to the sound of the trumpet 
 and the drum. 
 
 D'Almeida was a student at the University of Co- 
 imbra, and distinguished for his knowledge of the 
 classics, which he pursued with mediaeval ardour. When 
 he had taken his degree, his relatives wished him to enter 
 at the Bar, but he determined to become a gentleman 
 adventurer, and cast his eyes over the world. One day 
 he read in the ' A7tJiaes Maritinws e Colojiiaes' the nar- 
 rative of a mulatto trader, who had been sent on a mis- 
 sion by the Governor-General of Angola to Matiamvo, a 
 great king of the African interior. The traveller men- 
 tioned in his journal that beyond Matiamvo's kingdom 
 resided a powerful monarch who had never been visited 
 by any European, His kingdom was called TJie Ivory 
 Land, for the inhabitants made their hedges and cattle- 
 pens of elephants' tusks. Gold was also said to be 
 abundant, and the women of surpassing beauty. D'Al- 
 meida's imagination was at once kindled to a flame. 
 Here was a new world for him to discover. Unfolding 
 the map of Africa, he viewed with a kind of ecstasy the 
 blank space which occupied its centre. Who can tell, 
 thought he, what strange and monstrous races exist in 
 that unknown land t There unicorns and tailed men
 
 266 ANANGA [Book II 
 
 may yet be found. Or perhaps it may be a lofty and 
 salubrious plateau, inhabited by a cultivated race, 
 resembling the Egyptians, the Chinese, or the Incas of 
 Peru. Were not the ruins of stone cities discovered in 
 East Africa by the explorers of the past t Have not 
 the negroes often spoken of a white nation dwelling in 
 the far interior .'' He read the old voyagers, and plunged 
 into the archives of the Torre del Tombo. He consulted 
 with merchants who did business on the coast, sold them 
 his patrimony for calicos and beads, and sailed to San 
 Paolo de Loanda. 
 
 The Governor informed him that the road to Mati- 
 amvo was open. The envoy whose journal he had read 
 had been appointed to a post in the Mozambique; but his 
 steward and interpreter, who was also a mulatto, could 
 be engaged. This was done at once, and D'Almeida 
 likewise hired some of the carriers his predecessor had 
 employed. He started without delay, and his journey, 
 though long and tedious, was accomplished without mis- 
 hap. He was troubled nc^ and then, especially at fer- 
 ries, by the little village chiefs, who came riding to him 
 in state on the shoulders of their slaves ; but in the first 
 part of the journey, after leaving Cassange, the people 
 feared the Portuguese, and in the latter part they feared 
 Alatiamvo. On arriving at the capital, he announced 
 his intention of staying three months, and of then pass- 
 ing on to the Ivory Land, or kingdom of Cazembe. 
 Matiamvo replied that the thing was unheard of, and 
 impossible. No Portuguese had ever been there. An-
 
 Book II] ANANGA 267 
 
 tonio replied, that was just his reason for wishing to go. 
 But the king could not, or would not, understand his 
 taste for exploration. He wished the inland country 
 kept dark, for thence he obtained the ivory which he 
 sold to the Portuguese at cent, per cent. ; and if the 
 road was opened up, this broker business would be 
 taken from his hands. When three months had passed, 
 D'Almeida refused to return, and Matiamvo refused to 
 let him go on. At this juncture a messenger arrived 
 from the King of Cazembe, with a present of ivory and 
 gold-dust. ' He had heard that the white man who was 
 staying with his brother desired to come and see hbn. 
 He knew that his brother would leave the road open, 
 as they had always been friends.' This message was 
 equivalent to a declaration of war if D'Almeida should 
 riot be allowed to pass. The nobles and captains begged 
 Matiamvo to give in. He did so, with much reluctance ; 
 but concealed his pique, made the envoy a handsome 
 present of English cotton cloth, and gave D'Almeida a 
 guard of honour to the banks of the Ankona, a swift- 
 flowing river which bounded his dominions on the East. 
 The mulatto interpreter had stipulated at Loanda 
 that he should not be required to go beyond Matiamvo's 
 land. D'Almeida was sorry to lose him, but could now 
 speak the language fluently enough. Before they parted, 
 the interpreter said that he wished to give him some 
 advice. ' All African kings,' said he, ' like to keep a 
 white man at their courts as a human curiosity, just as 
 they like to keep dwarfs, hunchbacks, and albinoes.
 
 268 ANANGA [Book II 
 
 With Matiamvo one is safe, because he has trade connec- 
 tions with the Portuguese, but this man neither fears nor 
 loves anyone outside his kingdom. You found it dif- 
 ficult to pass Matiamvo ; you will find it more difficult to 
 return from Cazembe.' Antonio replied that he knew 
 there was a risk, but he would take his chance. The 
 mulatto finding him determined to go on, continued as 
 follows : — * The king will keep you a year, and then if 
 you wish to return (he will never let you pass him), he 
 will not be able to detain you. Kings are governed by 
 customs, and it is not usual to detain a stranger beyond 
 that time against his will. But, for the love of Heaven, 
 bear this in mind. If ever you marry a daughter of the 
 king, your nationality is changed ; you are no longer a 
 white man, no longer a stranger ; you become the king's 
 son, or, in other words, his servant ; you enter his house, 
 and the people will no longer be able to interfere on 
 your behalf You will then belong to the king, and with 
 him you must remain till you die.' 
 
 D'Almeida laughed, and said there was no fear of 
 his marrying in Africa. He then wrote out for the 
 interpreter a certificate of good conduct, and gave him 
 letters for the Governor of Angola, and for the European 
 mail. The mulatto went off" with his men, and D'Al- 
 meida crossed the river in a bark canoe, while his goods 
 were floated over in rafts made of a wood which is 
 lighter than cork. He was soon met by the king's 
 guard, and by musicians who blew him a welcome on 
 elephants' tusks of enormous size manufactured into
 
 Book II] ANANGA 269 
 
 trumpets. He was received in the town with the usual 
 honours. The king put on his robes of state, which 
 were made of bark cloth, soft and flexible as satin, and 
 covered all over with shreds of looking glass, so that no 
 one could bear to look at him in the sunshine. The 
 courtiers crept towards him, throwing dust on their heads 
 and clapping their hands ; and when they spoke, turned 
 their backs towards him. Ornaments of gold were pro- 
 fusely worn ; the lintel and door-posts of the palace were 
 of ivory curiously carved, but the cattle pens of tusks, 
 if they ever existed, had been sold. 
 
 When a month had elapsed a messenger called D'Al- 
 meida to the king, who took him to an inner apartment 
 of the palace, and drawing a curtain showed him a young 
 girl sleeping on a couch. ' Behold,' he said, * the young- 
 est of my daughters. You are my white man, and I love 
 you ; pray do me the honour to take her for your wife.' 
 D'Almeida thought it best to reply that he had a wife 
 in his own country, and that it was forbidden by law and 
 by religion for a white man to take more wives than 
 one. The king shrugged both shoulders, after the 
 manner of the Africans, and did not reply. 
 
 The next day one of the courtiers came to Antonio, 
 and said, ' Oh, illustrious white man ! our lord loves you 
 dearly ; why then should you vex him and put shame 
 upon his head t If Ananga's face did not please you, 
 why could you not tell the truth } the king would 
 not have been offended. But how could you suppose he 
 would believe so foolish a story that white men take
 
 270 
 
 ANANGA [Book II 
 
 only one wife. It is contrary to reason. You might as 
 well say that white men eat only one kind of food. A 
 poor man we know must be content with one wife alone, 
 just as he eats nothing but cassada. But white men are 
 richer than kings.' 
 
 D'Almeida assured him he had told the truth, and 
 affirmed it with an oath. At length the man believed 
 him, and looked quite aghast. 
 
 * Cannot you see,' said D'Almeida, ' that we white men 
 are different from you .^ I have no wife here, and I 
 shall not take one while I remain. If I marry at all, I 
 promise to marry Ananga, and none but her. Now, 
 where do you see a black man who is not married } ' 
 
 * That is true,' said the other. ' Even our slaves have 
 wives, and if we give them none they run away.' 
 
 ' I will tell you something more,' said D'Almeida ; 
 * in my country are men w^ho never get married, and 
 women who never get married, and live by themselves 
 all their lives.' 
 
 The officer put his hand to his mouth — a gesture 
 of surprise — and walked slowly and thoughtfully away. 
 In the evening D'Almeida was called to the king, who 
 sat upon a couch, surrounded by his wives. 
 
 * My guest,' he said, ' we have heard strange new^s, that 
 in your country there are women who never get married. 
 Is it true .? ' 
 
 * It is true, O King,' he replied. 
 There was silence for a little while. 
 
 ' Oh, white man,' said one of the queens, in a low, sad
 
 Book II] ANANGA 271 
 
 voice, 'your words go through me to my heart. I 
 think of these poor women Hving all alone — all alone. 
 We know what men are ; they can hunt, they can go to 
 the war. But what is a woman that hath not a man } 
 A woman is like unto the climbing yam, that must wind 
 its young arms around the pole before it can shine into 
 its flower, and yield its rich fruit to the world. Take 
 away its support, and it lies on the ground, withered 
 and barren, trampled under foot. My sisters, speak I 
 not true } ' 
 
 Then the queens replied, * It is true ! ' and clapped 
 their hands softly, and warbled some words to a melan- 
 choly air. 
 
 Antonio attempted to make them understand the 
 purity of the unwedded state, but they only laughed 
 at him, and said, * What is good to do, all should do ; 
 what is good to abstain from, all should abstain from. 
 If, then, it is good not to marry, no one should marry ; 
 and then only the wild beasts would be left.' 
 
 Antonio gave up that part of the question, and 
 proceeded to defend monogamy. * God,' he said, * had 
 made men and women in almost equal numbers ; it 
 was, therefore, intended that one of each sex should be 
 married to each other.' 
 
 The king hastily replied, ' That as men were subject 
 to be killed by war, a surplus of women would always 
 be left' 
 
 But when Antonio proceeded to explain the power 
 and prerogatives of the European wife — how she sat
 
 27: 
 
 ANANGA [Book II 
 
 with her husband at meals, and was treated by him as 
 an equal, and had him all to herself, it was curious to 
 see how attentively the queens listened to his words, 
 and how they whispered to one another, that the white 
 man's country was not such a bad place for women after 
 all. And as he went on, they crept up towards him, 
 fanned him as he spoke, plucked burrs from his trousers, 
 dusted his boots, and uttered many exclamations of 
 approval, till at last the king, rising up, ordered them 
 off to their respective huts, and then, half-frowning, 
 half-smiling, begged D' Almeida not to talk to them like 
 that again. 
 
 ' I have trouble enough with them as it is,' said he. 
 * Oh, my brother, they are difficult to rule ; they take 
 everything from me ; they are never content. I cannot 
 trust one of them. Others they may love ; but as for 
 me, I am not a man for them ; I am a garden, I am 
 gold-dust. Give ! give ! give ! give ! that is their cry 
 from morning till night.' 
 
 The king spoke no more about Ananga, but 
 D'Almeida often met her on the path to the brook. 
 Sometimes she glanced at him furtively, sometimes 
 she turned her head aside. 
 
 Hitherto, strange to say, he had not had a single 
 day's illness, and began to believe that he was fever- 
 proof. But now came the first attack, and, as always 
 happens in such cases — for malaria seems to be a 
 cumulative poison — the attack was the more severe for 
 having been so long delayed. He took large doses of
 
 Book II] ANANGA 273 
 
 quinine without effect. The natives steamed him over 
 green sticks, and administered decoctions of an as- 
 tringent bark, for they too suffer from the ague ; but 
 for many days his condition was desperate, alternating 
 between stupor and delirium. At length the poison 
 was eliminated, and the patient began slowly to recover. 
 The first person whom he saw was Ananga seated 
 by his side ; and he was told that she had nursed him 
 unremittingly. Her hollow eyes and wasted form told 
 their own sad tale of anxious and unresting days and 
 nights. As time passed on, he regained his strength, 
 but she became more haggard and careworn ; her 
 complexion lost its beauty, her movements their grace ; 
 her smile was very sad. He asked one of the king's 
 wives what was the matter with Ananga. 
 
 ' Is it you who ask that question } ' she replied. 
 ' Have white men no eyes ? have white men no hearts ? 
 Before you came here Ananga was reputed the loveliest 
 girl in the town. The maidens sang her praises as they 
 went with their pitchers to the brook. The wealthiest 
 chieftains, the bravest warriors sued for her hand. But 
 now you have refused her, and no one desires her in 
 marriage. The girls jeer at her, and the children point 
 at her with the thumb. You are now almost well, and 
 she will no longer be permitted to remain in your hut. 
 She will go — ah ! where will she go } ' And the woman 
 burst into tears. 
 
 ' O white man,' she continued, 'we people of Cazembe 
 can bear the torture of the scourge without uttering 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 ANANGA [Book II 
 
 a groan ; but we cannot endure shame. If our chieftains 
 are defeated in battle, they die by their own hand. 
 [f the gods are cruel to our women, and refuse them 
 a child, they go into the forest and return no more. 
 These unfortunates are buried apart, for we regard 
 them as accursed. Their souls pass not with ours to 
 the Under-world ; for ever and ever they wander in 
 the Land of Night, and behold not the gods, nor the 
 
 • spirits of the dead.' 
 
 D' Almeida knew that she spoke the truth, and that 
 these sensitive and affectionate Africans will sometimes 
 kill themselves on account of an unkind word. He went 
 and sat in the mouth of the hut, and called Ananga to 
 his side. He took her hand in his, and passed his arm 
 round her emaciated form. It was the sweet evening 
 hour, when the fires flame brightly on the hearths, and 
 the tinkling of the harp is heard. The ineffable delights 
 of convalescence pervaded the body of Antonio, and 
 softened his heart, and gilded his life with a fictitious 
 charm. Why, thought he, should I not remain here 
 after all t My money is gone, and if I return to 
 Portugal I shall have to drudge in an office, or to serve 
 as a military slave in these poor days of peace, without 
 hope of glory or distinction. Here I am honoured, and 
 here I may be happy.' 
 
 There are times when such thoughts as these occur 
 
 • to all who have travelled in savage lands, even to those 
 who know that a splendid success awaits them on return. 
 
 -, 's it wonderful, therefore, that Antonio should have
 
 Book II] ANANGA 275 
 
 yielded ? He pressed Ananga to his bosom, and drank 
 deep looks from her tender eyes; her love streamed into 
 his heart, for she had learnt to love him as he lay long 
 hours helpless in her arms ; he whispered some words in 
 her ear, and called the people of the king, and took the 
 vow of betrothal. Then the town burst into revelry ; 
 bonfires were lighted ; oxen were killed — oxen rare and 
 precious in that country, possessed by the king alone. 
 The feast continued for seven days ; then the elders and 
 priests were assembled ; Ananga and Antonio drank 
 palm wine together in their presence, and so they were 
 married. The carriers of Loanda were paid their wages 
 in ivory, and returned to the coast; D' Almeida remained 
 
 in Cazembe alone. 
 
 ******** 
 
 Two years passed. Antonio had adopted the cus- 
 toms of the people, had a seat in council on the king's 
 right hand ; he possessed immense plantations, and was 
 served by innumerable slaves. He distinguished himself 
 in hunting and war, and had acquired the grave and 
 urbane manner of an African prince. But, as may well 
 be imagined, he was by this time weary to the death. 
 He did not wish to return to Europe, but he languished 
 for action and change. One day he opened his heart to 
 Ananga, but soon regretted he had done so. She was 
 startled and amazed, for, according to her ideas of life, he 
 had gained the summit of human felicity. Not only was he 
 the greatest chieftain of the land — there was good reason 
 to believe that the king would name him his successor.
 
 276 
 
 ANANGA • [Book II 
 
 She coldly advised him, if he cared for life, never to speak 
 such a word again. He was not now a white man, but a 
 prince of Cazembe, and it would be treason in him to 
 desert his country. When he began to reply she placed 
 her hands to her ears, and, looking at him angrily, passed 
 from the house. 
 
 Then he felt that he was doomed to eternal captivity, 
 and all hope went from him. He was struck to the heart, 
 and began to pine away, and gave up hunting, and sat 
 from dawn to dusk brooding on his couch. The fever 
 fell upon him again and again. He bowed himself down : 
 * Let it take me,' he cried ; * I wish for nothing better.' 
 Ananga overheard him, for he had taught her Portuguese. 
 Then her eyes were opened ; she perceived that he was 
 dying. 
 
 Thus, by a singular caprice of fate, she was placed in 
 precisely that position which he had occupied two years 
 before. He had been forced to give up his country in 
 order to save her life, and now it was her turn to do the 
 same. But for her the struggle was harder, the sacrifice 
 more severe. It is impossible even for patriots to under- 
 stand how these people love their native land. It is with 
 them indeed a religion, for in abandoning their country 
 they abandon their gods. Yet the ardent love of 
 Ananga triumphed over all. She promised her husband 
 that she would aid him to escape, and go with him 
 where he pleased, as soon as an opportunity occurred. 
 He shook his head sadly. * An opportunity will never 
 come,' said he. When she saw that he did not believe
 
 Book II] AA^AATGA 277 
 
 her, she led him through the forest to a meadow covered 
 with ornaments and weapons. It was the cemetery of 
 the town. Ascending a green mound in the centre of 
 the field, she lifted up her hands and said, ' I, Ananga, 
 standing on the graves of my ancestors, do hereby swear 
 that before the moon shall be dark three times I will 
 take my' husband from this country.' 
 
 She then told him that to escape by the road to Mati- 
 amvo was impossible. As soon as they were missed 
 they would be followed in that direction. Besides, 
 Matiamvo himself would give them up rather than incur 
 the danger of a war. But towards the east ran a large, 
 swift river ; on its banks were a ferryman's hut and a 
 couple of canoes. If they took these and paddled down 
 the river, they would soon be safe from pursuit, for the 
 people of Cazembe had no large canoes. 
 
 Antonio again began to hunt, and strengthened his 
 limbs for the journey that was before him. He and- 
 Ananga had often amused themselves with paddling in 
 a lake that was situated near the town ; they now 
 practised this art ever\' day. On several occasions 
 they went out to the forest together, and remained 
 absent two or three days. The natives had no sus- 
 picion, for they did not suppose that Antonio wished 
 to go from them, and they looked upon Ananga as 
 his guard ; it never entered their heads that a woman 
 could desert her tribe for a stranger. It was, there- 
 fore, easy for them to escape. On the eve of their 
 departure, Ananga made various excuses to visit- her
 
 278 ANANGA [Book II 
 
 father and all the playmates of her girlhood. She 
 went down to the brook and drank from its waters 
 for the last time. Stretching forth her beautiful arms, 
 she prayed the spirits of the town to forgive her, and 
 bade them tenderly farewell. As they left the town 
 in the grey dusk of morning she covered her face with 
 her robe, that she might not see the homes of those 
 whom she loved. She passed through the groves and 
 plantations weeping and singing, and spoke to all the 
 trees by name. But on passing the limits of the town 
 she recovered her firmness, and, dashing away the tears 
 with her hand, walked swiftly along. In the evening 
 they reached the river, and encamped near the ferry- 
 man's hut, and as soon as it was dark stole down to the 
 bank, seized the two canoes, and paddled all the night. 
 They hid themselves beneath the bushes and slept 
 throughout the day. There was no moon, and they 
 passed village after village without being observed ; 
 it was the end of the rainy season, and the stream 
 was swift, so that in five nights they had travelled 
 far beyond the limits of Cazembe. The boar's flesh 
 and cassada with which they had stored the canoes 
 was by this time nearly consumed, and rocks 
 appeared in the river, which made them fear that 
 rapids were at hand. They therefore determined to 
 land at the next village, and to strike by land for 
 the Zambesi. D'Almeida had received much gold as 
 tributary gifts, and Ananga's ornaments were of value. 
 On these they hoped to live a considerable time.
 
 Book II] ANANGA 
 
 279 
 
 D'Almeida had often written charms for the people 
 of Cazembe. If their gold would not pass, he thought 
 that thus he might earn food upon the way. 
 
 The wonder of the natives was unbounded when 
 they saw a white man dressed in strange garments, and 
 a girl who was covered with gold, and whose haughty 
 features and delicate form showed her to be of noble 
 birth. The canoes and paddles of the strangers were 
 differently made from their own ; the people believed 
 they had come down from heaven, and pointed to the 
 sky with inquiring looks. However, with the aid of 
 gestures, they made themselves understood in the 
 Cazembe tongue, for the languages of Central Africa 
 are closely related. They told the villagers that they 
 were passing to the great salt water in the East, \\here 
 white men dwelt in houses of stone. The villagers gave 
 them food without attempting to detain them, and 
 D'Almeida, in return, wrote them some charms. In 
 this manner they travelled for several weeks in a south- 
 easterly direction, through a land of marsh and primeval 
 forest. They met with no great towns ; the natives 
 dwelt in petty villages independent of one another. 
 Some of these were pictures of neatness, the fields like 
 gardens, and the streets swept clean ; while in others the 
 inhabitants w^ere untidy and indolent, so that the pointed 
 roofs were scarcely visible above the grass that grew in 
 the streets. The character of the people varied much 
 in other ways : by some they were welcomed and kindly 
 speeded on their way, even their presents being often
 
 28o 
 
 ANANGA [Book II 
 
 refused ; while perhaps in the next village they were 
 subjected to extortion, and the people crowding round 
 Ananga would fix their greedy eyes on her golden brace- 
 lets and rings, till she found it best to conceal them in her 
 girdle. At last they arrived on the banks of a river a 
 little to the north of Lake Ngami. The country opened 
 out ; they passed from the land of the evergreen to the 
 land of the thorn ; cattle became abundant. Finding 
 themselves in a region where gold was dug, and had a 
 fixed value— the people selling it in quills plugged with 
 cotton — they purchased three slaves and a couple of 
 oxen, which D'Almeida broke in to the saddle. He 
 then had the choice of the road to the Zambesi and the 
 road to the Cape. Having heard that the Portuguese 
 were at war with the natives, he chose the latter route ; 
 and now, mounted on their oxen and attended by their 
 slaves, they travelled through the land of the Northern 
 Bechuanas without let or hindrance, for the custom of 
 paying the road is not known in Southern Africa. 
 
 But before they could reach the colony frontier they 
 had to traverse the great Kalahari Desert, sometimes 
 called the Sahara of the South. It is a vast tract of 
 riverless land, but covered v/ith plants, for the most part 
 having bulbs in which, as in reservoirs, moisture is stored. 
 Water-melons are found, and on these the natives sub- 
 sist when they cross the desert. But it happened in 
 the year of D' Almeida's arrival that less rain than 
 usual had fallen ; the water-melons were scarce, and the 
 wells were dry. A friendly chieftain advised D'Almeida
 
 Book II] AA'AA^GA 281 
 
 not to attempt the journey that season, and offered him 
 and Ananga a home in his town. However, D' Almeida 
 preferred to push on, and arrived in a village bordering 
 the desert. 
 
 He requested the chief to furnish him with guides ; 
 the chief demanded a price which took all they had — 
 not even Ananga's earrings were saved, and they were 
 forced to sell their slaves as well. The guides, who 
 were Bushmen, were then produced. They differed 
 entirely from the negroes in appearance, and belonged 
 to another race. They were dwarfish in stature, with 
 high cheek bones, oblique eyes, and light-coloured 
 complexion. Their hair grew in little woolly tufts 
 separate from one another. Sheep's entrails were 
 wound round their heads, and in these poisoned arrows 
 were inserted, forming a kind of crown. The men 
 carried bows, the women ostrich eggs for water and 
 a basket, and sometimes a child. 
 
 Antonio and Ananga rode into the wilderness, the 
 Bushmen marching before them. Large leathern bags 
 filled with v\-ater, and also bags of Indian meal, hung 
 over their oxen. D'Almeida therefore felt no uneasiness. 
 The Bushmen, he knew, were well acquainted with the 
 desert, for it was their home. They lived within it, 
 roaming from spot to spot, and killing ostriches and 
 antelopes and the golden jackal, the skins of which 
 they delivered to the Bechuana tribe, who held them 
 subject, and who gave them a little tobacco in re- 
 turn. D'Almeida could not understand a word of their
 
 282 ANANGA [Book II 
 
 language, which had curious clicking and croaking sounds ; 
 however, he knew that Bechuanas lived on the other 
 side of the desert, and the settlements would then be 
 close at hand. One evening they came to a pool where 
 the water was insufficient for the oxen, which wandered 
 about moaning ; the two chief Bushmen made signs 
 to D'Almeida that they would take the oxen to another 
 pool beyond some rising ground about a mile away. 
 The two men accordingly went off, the others with the 
 women remaining by the fireside. Night came on, 
 and the men did not return ; the others made signs 
 that the pasture-ground was distant, and that they would 
 be back in the early morn. But when D'Almeida 
 awoke in the morning he saw only the ashes of the 
 fire before him. The Bushmen had stolen his oxen 
 and had run away. 
 
 He awoke Ananga and told her what had happened. 
 A few words only passed between them, and one long 
 brave look. They determined to struggle for their 
 lives, and not to give up as long as they could walk 
 a step. Fortunately he had his compass, and knew 
 in which direction to go. 
 
 But how could they go far, poor souls, in that 
 terrible desert, without water, without food 1 — above 
 them the sun ascending and descending in a steel-blue 
 sky ; beneath them the adamantine earth ; the grass so 
 dry that it crumbled to dust between their fingers ; the 
 mimosae with their leaves closed at midday as if it 
 were the night.
 
 Book II] ANANGA 283 
 
 Yet, incredible as it may seem, they walked three 
 days ; antelopes frequently passed them, and kept their 
 hopes alive, for they did not know that there are certain 
 kinds of animals which can live without water, feeding 
 upon bulbs. On the evening of the third day, when 
 their strength was almost exhausted, they espied a belt 
 of trees lining the horizon. Perhaps water might be 
 there ; they would go so far at least, and then if water 
 there was none, they would lay them down and die. 
 They toiled on wearily, and just as the day closed they 
 caught sight of a large lake which the copse had con- 
 cealed till they were close upon it. O joy ! joy ! j^y ! 
 they saw the sun shining on the water with its red and 
 golden rays. They looked at each other and smiled, 
 and tried to speak ; but their tongues, hardened by 
 thirst, clattered in their mouths like stones. They 
 drew nearer and nearer till they could plainly see the 
 waves rolling along, and the trees reflected with their 
 green heads downwards in the water. They tottered 
 on and on ; Ananga looked again upon Antonio's face 
 with her dimmed but loving eyes. Then she saw his 
 lips turn white and tremble : he groaned, and, throwing 
 up his arms, fell heavily upon the ground. Snatching 
 his grass cap, she ran swiftly to the lake — she who but 
 a moment before could scarcely walk. Then she be- 
 came as if rooted to the spot. Before her was nothing 
 but a piece of ground covered with a white crust. It 
 was a saltpan which had produced in the slanting sun- 
 shine the false mirage of the desert.
 
 284 ANAA^GA [Book II 
 
 She crawled back to Antonio, and laid his head upon 
 her lap. So the night passed A little dew fell ; she 
 wrung out her cloth into his mouth, and afterwards 
 chewed the rag between her teeth. This gave them 
 some relief ; at least they could speak to each other once 
 again. 
 
 The day began to dawn. 
 
 'Ananga,' he said, * we must die.' 
 
 * Yes, Antonio, we must die — together.' 
 
 ' Do you love me, Ananga, since I have brought you 
 to this } ' 
 
 * I would rather die with you than live with another, 
 my Antonio.' 
 
 Then she lifted up her eyes and said, ^ I see a white 
 animal approaching us.' 
 
 ' It is a rhinoceros.' 
 
 ' It is larger.' 
 
 * Then it is a white elephant.' 
 
 ' It is larger than an elephant.' 
 
 * There is no animal larger than an elephant.' 
 
 * But I see it, my Gold — I see it. It is coming 
 near.' 
 
 ' It is Death on the grey horse,' said Antonio. 
 
 ' Oxen are before it, my beloved,' cried Ananga. * A 
 man issues from its bowels. If thou art the spirit of 
 Death, take us with thee ; we are ready.' 
 
 They both fainted. Two great hairy dogs came up 
 and sniffed them. On the brink of the saltpan sat a 
 man on an English horse. His gigantic arms were bare
 
 Book II] ANANGA 285 
 
 to the shoulder, a double-barreled rifle was slung across 
 his back. ' What a sell ! ' he cried, ' and what a fool I 
 was to think this could be Lake Ngami ; we must be 
 two or three hundred miles off it yet, according to the 
 Doctor s map.' 
 
 He turned his horse from the saltpan, saw his dogs 
 busy with something, and rode up to the spot where 
 Antonio and Ananga lay senseless in each other's arms. 
 He fired both barrels and threw his pith helmet high up 
 in the air. A Hottentot, no larger than a jockey, came 
 up on a blood-horse at racing speed. 
 
 When Antonio recovered his senses, he found himself 
 lying in a white-tilted waggon in a comfortable cot ; 
 Ananga was bending over him and moistening his lips 
 with a sponge. She would let no one touch him but 
 herself, not even their preserver. 
 
 This was Mr. Reginald Morris, of the E. I. C. S., who 
 was spending his holidays as a hunter in South Africa, 
 and was now bound for Lake Ngami, which Dr. Living- 
 stone had discovered a few years before. By the time 
 that Antonio was recovered they had reached the inha- 
 bited country and the borders of the lake. They then 
 rambled in various directions, following the spoor of the 
 elephants. Antonio joined the gallant judge in his dan- 
 gerous sports, and soon learned, in the language of his 
 tutor, ' to appreciate the beauties of a grooved barrel' 
 What splendid sport they enjoyed — sports which our 
 Nimrods of the future will read of in books with 
 admiration and despair, as the golden age of hunting
 
 286 ANANGA [Book II 
 
 departed never to return ! And then their dinners — they 
 were only suitable to giants— ostrich egg omelets, giraffe 
 marrow puddings, elephants' pettitoes, hippopotami 
 rumpsteaks ! Add to this a life in the saddle, the 
 healthy excitement of danger, a climate unrivalled in the 
 world. 
 
 Yet even their Elysian life was not without its cares. 
 The serpent has entered this hunter's Eden in the form 
 of a little fly, which does not harm human beings even 
 when it stings them, but slays horses and oxen with 
 marvellous celerity. One day in a region frequented 
 by the tsetse nearly ruined the expedition. Morris lost 
 his best horses and all his spare oxen, and was forced at 
 once to return. He crossed the Kalahari desert not 
 without anxiety, but was then able to purchase draught 
 oxen from the Boers. Next came rivers swollen by the 
 rains, and his waggons, freighted with ivory, more than 
 once nearly foundered, which would have lost him a 
 large sum of money. These dangers being passed, they 
 arrived in safety at Beaufort, where they remained 
 a few weeks, and then went on by easy stages to the 
 Cape. 
 
 The pleasure which D'Almeida felt on returning to 
 civilisation was not unmingled with embarrassment. To 
 him was now presented that dreadful problem. How am 
 I to live? He had not a penny in the world. He felt 
 himself lawfully married to Ananga, and intended on 
 arriving at the Cape to be married again by a priest. 
 And then what were they to do t Alas ! the civilised world
 
 Book II] ANANGA 287 
 
 is often a great Kalahari desert to those who have 
 neither oxen nor slaves. 
 
 He confessed his troubles to Morris, whose clear and 
 vigorous intellect at once devised the proper plan for 
 him to pursue. On arriving at the Cape he should draw 
 up a report of his travels, and despatch it through the 
 Portuguese consul to the Government at Lisbon, at 
 the same time requesting a colonial appointment. In 
 the meanwhile he should proceed to San Paolo de 
 Loanda, in the first English man-of-war, and there wait 
 for a reply. The governor of Angola would doubtless 
 give him some acting appointment ; in any case he was 
 sure of board and lodging in that hospitable land. 
 
 D'Almeida determined to act on this advice. He 
 could not think for a moment of parting from Ananga, 
 and even were it possible to take her to Lisbon, he knew 
 that she would be miserable there, while at Loanda she 
 would feel almost at home. 
 
 But Ananga herself was far from being happy. Her 
 heart was all in her husband, and though he was always 
 loving and kind, she perceived plainly enough that she 
 no longer occupied the same position in his thoughts as 
 before. While they were living at Cazembe, Antonio 
 had taught her Portuguese, and had trained her mind to 
 a level with the language. Compared with the others 
 he had found her an intellectual companion, and had 
 been intimate with her alone. Throughout their jour- 
 ney it is needless to say that they were all in all to one 
 another. But now the long honeymoon was over, the
 
 288 ANANGA [Book II 
 
 delightful monopoly was ended. Her first rival was 
 Morris, but he was always courteous and kind, and in 
 the evening used to give her lessons in English. But 
 when they entered the settlements, Morris and her 
 husband left her much to herself, and spent a great part 
 of their time smoking and chatting with the Boers. She 
 also read in the eyes of the white men more than one 
 look of aversion and contempt. The Dutch farmers 
 despised all people of colour, and the missionaries did 
 not recognise her marriage. Now, Ananga was a lady 
 in manners and in feeling. It is true that she had been 
 accustomed to cook, to beat the rice or corn in a mortar, 
 to go with her pitcher to the stream — such was the 
 custom of her country, in which not even the queens 
 and princesses were exempt from work. But she had 
 always been treated with courtesy by the elders, and 
 with deference by the people of the town. These in- 
 jurious looks, and some words which came more than 
 once to her ears, filled her with shame and indignation. 
 
 However, this trouble might have passed away in 
 time. It was a more serious evil that the new world 
 which she had entered began to bewilder and oppress 
 her brain. The crowds that they met upon the road, 
 the horses and waggons and carts, the great two-storied 
 houses with windows (at first she thought they were 
 mountains with caves), the shops filled with enormous 
 piles of cloth, the curious objects which Morris borrowed 
 from his friends for her amusement, such as telescopes 
 magic lanterns, &c. — all these astonished and alarmed
 
 Book II] A.YAA^GA 289 
 
 her. She could not understand Antonio's explanations 
 of the wonders which she saw ; it seemed to her more 
 natural that they were supernatural ; and she firmly be- 
 lieved that she had come to a land of magicians such as 
 she had heard of in the legends of her tribe. Her husband 
 and his friend often burst out laughing at her stunned 
 and stupefied expression when they showed her some 
 new marv^el, and little thought that in all this there was 
 danger to her mind. 
 
 They were not far from the Cape when they came 
 upon two shining iron bars laid side by side on logs of 
 wood, and stretching across the plain in either direction, 
 as far as the eye could reach. She asked what they 
 were for, and Antonio replied, 'To-morrow, Ananga, we 
 will show you something more wonderful than anything 
 we have shown you yet.' 
 
 They stopped at a Boer's house close by, and were 
 just in time for the mid-day meal. Antonio brought out 
 her portion of soup and dumplings ; for she never would 
 eat with him, even when they were travelling together 
 According to the ideas in which she had been brought 
 up, it was not proper for the women to eat with the men, 
 
 A mysterious feeling prompted her to go and look 
 again at the iron bars, and to see where they came to 
 an end. She followed them several miles towards the 
 south, yet still she could see them stretching away, far 
 away. The sun had now set, and the brief twilight was 
 over ; she remembered that Antonio would miss her and 
 be anxious, so at once set off to return, running between 
 VOL. I. U
 
 290 
 
 ANANGA [Book II 
 
 the iron bars, which served to guide her through the 
 darkness. 
 
 Presently a sound rose behind her like the humming 
 of bees. She lay down, placed her ear to the earth, and 
 heard a booming rattling noise. Then raising her head, 
 and looking to the south, she saw something large and 
 black coming swiftly upon her ; she uttered a cry, and 
 as if in echo to that cry came a loud whistling shriek, 
 like that of an infuriated elephant, and as she sprang on 
 one side the demon rushed past her with a terrible sound. 
 Its breath, like a wind, struck her backwards, and the 
 ground trembled underneath her feet. 
 
 Thus Ananga described the passing of the engine ; 
 and her nervous system then received a shock from 
 which it never afterwards recovered. 
 
 On arriving at the Cape they found that an English 
 gun-boat was just about to sail for San Paolo de Loanda. 
 Morris called upon the commander and obtained a pas- 
 sage for D'Almeida and Ananga, who were married in 
 the Catholic Church the day after their arrival, she 
 having been first baptized. 
 
 When Ananga saw the ships she thought that they 
 were animals, and asked how they w^ere fed. Antonio 
 told her they were only large canoes. When she came 
 on board the gun-boat she lifted up her hands and said, 
 ' It is not a canoe ; it is a town ! ' She ran about from 
 deck to deck, prying into everything with the prettiest 
 looks and gestures in the world ; and there was not a face 
 in the ship which did not brighten with pleasure at the
 
 Book II] ANANGA 291 
 
 sight. But when the steam was got up, and the engines 
 began to move, she cried out that * It was in the town/ 
 and, shrieking loudly, sprang into the sea. 
 
 She was picked up by Morris's boat, and taken on 
 shore. The voyage was abandoned. 
 
 Mr. Morris placed an apartment in his house at the 
 disposal of Antonio, and here was the closing scene of 
 poor Ananga's life. 
 
 When her husband was absent, she sat quite still, 
 with her hands folded in her lap, and her head drooping 
 a little on one side, motionless and mute. 
 
 When he w^as with her she sat in the same attitude 
 and manner, but with her eyes fixed on him, for hours 
 and hours — eyes never wavering, never closed, never for 
 a moment turned away. 
 
 She sometimes called for her father, and said she 
 wanted to go home. Antonio furnished the room with 
 mats, and gourds, and wooden stools, and a hearth in the 
 midst, so that it resembled their hut in Cazembe. He 
 bought a Cafifre drum, and, tapping it gently, sang to her 
 the songs of her native land. 
 
 In a few weeks her reason was restored, but she still 
 drooped and declined, and became so weak that she was 
 unable to rise from the mat. Yet the physician could 
 detect no symptom of bodily disease. 
 
 By the verdict of her conscience she was guilty of a 
 crime, for she had abandoned her kindred, her country, 
 and her gods. She knew that she was dying, and 
 dreaded the life beyond the grave. She prayed Antonio 
 
 u 2
 
 292 ANANGA [Book II 
 
 never to leave her in the evening, for she said that 
 when the sun had disappeared and dusky hours de- 
 scended on the earth, the kings of Cazembe passed 
 by her couch with their caps on their heads and their 
 staves in their hands, and looked upon her sternly. 
 She feared they would beat her after she was dead. 
 
 The physician departed and the priest came. He 
 hung around her neck a rosary and crucifix, and told 
 her that now she belonged to Jesus, who would protect 
 her from the demons. His sweet and tender voice 
 allayed her fears, and she believed that he had given 
 her a charm to take her after death to the land of 
 the white people. But when he attempted to describe 
 the felicity of paradise — the city of precious stones — the 
 music of the angels — the majesty of God, she shrugged 
 her shoulders, and said, * What do I care for these 
 things ? Will my Antonio be there } ' 
 
 She asked her husband to wear a rosary and a 
 crucifix made like her own ; her last action was to hang 
 it round his neck. This effort, slight as it was, extin- 
 guished her feeble flickering life : she gave him a faint 
 smile, sunk back upon her mat, and expired, whispering 
 his name. 
 
 Antonio d'Almeida never saw Portugal again. Soon 
 after his arrival at Loanda he received an appointment in 
 the Mozambique, and in course of time became Governor 
 of Tete. He soon fell a victim to the climate, for his 
 spirits were depressed by inaction ; and, perhaps, there
 
 Book II] ANANGA 
 
 293 
 
 was another cause as well. It was generally supposed 
 that he had something on his mind, and the natives 
 remarked that he had never been seen to smile. A French 
 traveller arrived at Tete just after his decease, and the 
 following extract from his book may interest the 
 reader : — 
 
 ' The natives under Portuguese rule are divided into 
 two classes or conditions : first, the coloni, who have land 
 of their own, but pay tribute to the Government, and 
 are forced to render ser\dce, and to do work, and to 
 entertain the soldiers when required ; and, secondly, 
 the slaves. The religion of the former class is com- 
 pounded in equal proportions of Catholic and Pagan 
 elements. This mixed or mulatto faith is also prevalent 
 among those Portuguese who have lived for some time 
 in this country. The people of Lisbon, as every one 
 knows, are still in the eighteenth century, but when they 
 visit Africa they become mediaeval. It is quite common 
 to meet with merchants out here who believe implicitly 
 in witchcraft ; and the obsequies of the Governor of 
 Tete, which I witnessed myself, were not precisely 
 European. A rosary and a crucifix suspended from the 
 neck of the deceased would have led one to suppose 
 that he died in the Catholic faith, but in the coffin, at his 
 own request, certain fetishes and charms were placed ; as, 
 for instance, a girdle of beads, a sleeping mat, some hair- 
 pins, armlets and trinkets of various kinds. It is strange 
 that such articles of ordinary life could be consecrated 
 by an idle superstition. The name of this gentleman
 
 294 ANANGA [Book II 
 
 was Antonio d'Almeida. He is said to have made a 
 great journey from San Paolo de Loanda to Cazembe, 
 and thence to the Cape of Good Hope ; and a brief allu- 
 sion to which will be found in the Anjiaes Maritimos e 
 Coloniaes, vol. xxi., but no account of his travels has 
 ever been given to the world. He was certainly a 
 superior man, for I found upon his bookshelf not only 
 a well-thumbed ' Lusiad ' of Camoens, but also a Homer, 
 a Virgil, and a Horace, all of which showed signs of 
 havii^ been diligently used. I could find no manu- 
 scripts of any kind ; but all over his books, on fly- 
 leaf and margin, was everywhere scribbled one word — 
 A nanga'
 
 SENE GAMBIA. 
 
 R.Caseanfcacb 
 
 m 
 
 RCwcheo. 
 
 BISSAGOS 
 
 I N G O E 3 I 
 Authoriiies are Dnmeroui-{ 
 For the Senegal and Sa-| 
 hara, Cadamosto, Adan-i 
 son, Golberry, Caillie.and! 
 Mage. For the Gambia,' 
 Mungo Park. For theL, 
 Bissagos, Beaver. Rdi- 
 gion. The Mahometan 
 religion is dominant, and 
 spreading fast by means 
 of religious wars waged 
 by converted Mandin- 
 goes against pagan Man- 
 dingoes, and also in the 
 forest districts by Moslem 
 traders, who act 'as mia- 
 Blonaries. The French 
 have most power. 
 
 14 
 
 ^S 
 
 Country, even on the coast, for the 
 most part open as low down as the 
 Casemanche ; then the coast forest re- 
 gion begins. Jnliabitants. Jalofis, 
 Mandingoes, with scattered shepherd bands of Fou- 
 las ; on the coast, from Casemanche to Sierra Leone, _ 
 are many tribes of a low type, as the Feloops and'J'^^'-^'*^^-^^ 
 Bagt^as. /'ood Rice, maize, and millet. Cattle plen- 
 tifui. Tiadt. Oiiefly gruund-nuts ; also gum Sene-SJERRA 
 gal, bides, and beeswax. Wild coffee exported from , „ ^^^ ^yt($^ town 
 ^Ue Nunez. Palm oil begins with the forest reg ion. ' V^\ 
 
 otsunfardJs GeoqJLstcu^BSc 7 Qi/irvm CroSi 
 
 811 loii F.ii^isli Miles 
 
 Lcindon; Smith. Klder $i C
 
 295 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 SENEGAMBIA. 
 
 MOSLEM AFRICA 
 
 I NOW left the South Coast, and took the steamer for 
 the islands of the Cape de Verde, where I intended to 
 recruit my health, and then cross over to the countries 
 of the Senegal and Gambia. 
 
 I landed at St. Jago, the chief island of the group. 
 The steamer remained there a few days, and so I re- 
 solved to visit the interior — not a very formidable under- 
 taking, but, nevertheless, I failed, as will be seen. Walk- 
 ing through the streets of Praya in search of an hotel, I 
 at last found a building, apparently designed for the 
 entertainment of English visitors, for above the door 
 was painted in large yellow letters, HOUSE, Billiards, 
 Coffee. I hired horses and a mulatto guide, filled a 
 large bag with boxes of sardines, preserved fruit, and 
 penny loaves, and then, having mounted my degenerate 
 barb, cantered over the sandy road towards the hills. 
 
 My guide, of course, commenced the conversation, 
 by asking me if my father and mother were alive ; and 
 then went a step further than his negro forefathers
 
 296 MOSLEM AFRICA [Book III 
 
 would have done, by requesting to be informed what 
 was their age, how much they had a year, and whether 
 they were good Catholics. In spite of my silence, he 
 persisted in urging these enquiries. I attempted to turn 
 the conversation, and desired him to inform me what 
 were the resources and population of St. Jago ; how 
 the oil was prepared from the pulga nuts ; what 
 amount of coffee was produced to the acre ; and so on. 
 He disposed of these important subjects in a few words, 
 and returned to his previous queries. At last, I 
 solemnly warned him that if he did not leave off I 
 would send him back to the town. He remained silent 
 for a few minutes, and then commenced again. Accord- 
 ingly, I took the bag, and gave him the sack — not in 
 the gentlest manner. He rode off with a terrified look, 
 evidently supposing I was mad ; and, in fact, it was 
 not a very sane proceeding. 
 
 Here I was, in a semi-civilised country, which is 
 often more dangerous than a savage one, without arms, 
 and with a bag which had all the appearance of 
 containing valuable property. I could not speak a 
 word of Creole, the semi-negro patois of these islands, 
 which can scarcely be understood by the Portuguese 
 themselves. I had already met with a charming speci- 
 men of St. Jago customs : having asked for a drink 
 of water at a house by the way-side, I was told that 
 I could not have it unless I paid a penny. 
 
 Prudence suggested return, but pride bade me go 
 on. So, resolving to avoid mulattoes, and to defend
 
 Book III] MOSLEM AFRICA 297 
 
 myself, if necessary, with the sardine corner of the 
 bag, I rode along at the swiftest pace of which my 
 gifted steed was capable. When it was nearly dark, 
 I saw a cluster of cottages at a little distance from 
 the road, and on riding in amongst them, observed 
 a fat, mature, good-natured looking negress standing 
 at one of the doors. I tied my horse to a pulga tree, 
 approached the lady with an amiable smile, made 
 signs that I wished to sleep, and gave her a silver coin, 
 to signify that my lodging would be paid for. But 
 the woman quite misunderstood the nature of my 
 request, looked at me angrily, pocketed the money 
 (they always give it back on the stage), and sent a 
 little girl around the corner as fast as her thin black 
 legs would carry her. She soon came back, followed 
 by a man with glaring eyes and a drawn knife. 
 Without allowing myself to be embarrassed by this 
 circumstance, I nodded to the man with a friendly air, 
 entered the hut, sat down upon a bench, and became 
 very intent upon my bag. How well I understand the 
 negro ! Curiosity at once overpowered every other 
 feeling. They all drew towards me on tiptoe. The 
 mouth of the bag being sewn up, I beckoned to the 
 man, took the knife from his reluctant but unresisting 
 hand, opened the bag, drew out some coffee, gave it 
 to the woman ; and then, turning to the negro, pointed 
 to the floor, and made signs that I wanted a shake- 
 down. This time my pantomime was more successful, 
 and they all gave an exclamation of assent. The man
 
 298 MOSLEM AFRICA [Book III 
 
 sheathed his knife ; the girl made up the fire ; and the 
 boy, leading my horse to a shed, put him up for the 
 night. The master of the house shortly afterwards 
 came in. He had been a sailor, and could speak a 
 little English. Some kernels from the pulga nut, strung 
 upon a stick, were lighted as a lamp. We supped 
 together on bread, coffee, and sardines. A mattress 
 was placed upon the floor ; and covering myself 
 with a ragged blanket, I lay down. The girl and 
 boy repeated to their father a prodigiously long 
 prayer, interspersed with yawns and genuflexions ; 
 after which the whole family strewed themselves around 
 me. But this proceeding was not so indecorous as it 
 seems. In Africa people dress to go to bed, and 
 undress when they get up. So now, my companions 
 covered themselves from head to foot with shawls of 
 cotton, to keep out the wind, which entered freely 
 through crevices in the walls. Then they slept the 
 sleep of the peasant and the pig ; the pulga light cast 
 a flickering flame; and a sandy-coloured cat marched 
 to and fro, protecting us from rats, disturbers of noc- 
 turnal rest. 
 
 In the miorning I drank a cup of milk, warm and 
 frothing from the goat, and having had sufficient of 
 the gesture language, with its double entendres, rode 
 back towards the town. And now I tested, not for 
 the first time, the truth of that axiom, * Give a nigger 
 the ship, and he'll ask you for the long-boat.' In ad- 
 dition to some money, I bestowed on my rustic
 
 Book III] MOSLEM AFRICA 299 
 
 entertainers all the fruits and sardines and bread and 
 coffee in the bag, keeping only for myself a small box 
 of figs. At first they were almost struck dumb at 
 such unprecedented generosity, and then burst into 
 a yell of gratitude, and called upon the Virgin and all 
 the saints and the angels to reward me ; but I had 
 not ridden ten yards from the house before the girl 
 with the thin legs came after me, and asked if I would 
 not give them half the figs ! 
 
 From St. J ago the steamer went on to St. Vincent's, 
 the coaling station of the Brazilian steamer lines, I was 
 hospitably received by the English consul, who sug- 
 gested I should make a little sailing trip, and pass some 
 days on the healthy island of St. Nicholas. He gave me 
 a letter of introduction to a gentleman farmer, and as- 
 sured me of a hearty welcome. I embarked on board 
 the ' Aurora,' which landed me at the port of St Nicho- 
 las, which is only a hamlet, the town being in the 
 centre of the island. These waters were once infested 
 by pirates ; and the inhabitants, to escape their depre- 
 dations, retired to the interior. 
 
 A merchant lent me a horse. A stalwart mulatto 
 girl put my heavy portmanteau on her head, and then 
 led off at a trot, sometimes breaking out into a 
 canter, and would not hear of my riding slowly on her 
 account. We came to a mountain path, where she sprang 
 like an ibex from ledge to ledge, while my horse — which 
 was quite the inferior animal of the two — followed her 
 example as well as it could. Having gone about four
 
 300 MOSLEM AFRICA [Book III 
 
 miles, I saw the capital of the island, which is called 
 ' The Town of the Wild Stream,' in a valley or ravine 
 beneath us ; and the farmer's house, to which we were 
 bound, on the summit of a hill beyond. 
 
 The town, with its narrow streets, grey houses, and 
 rough paving-stones, reminded me of Lerwick ; the 
 gaunt barren hills, and the fields enclosed by stone 
 walls, were also suggestive of the Shetlands ; and the 
 women (who were mostly mulattoes) w^ere dressed in 
 much the same fashion as the northern blondes — bare 
 arms, bare legs, petticoat, and chemise. They were also 
 equally industrious. In Shetland they carry peat, and 
 knit stockings as they walk along — here they carry 
 pulga nuts, and spin cotton. 
 
 I spent a fortnight in the mountain house, breathing 
 an European atmosphere, sleeping in a cool bed, and 
 eating good wholesome fare — cheese, milk, butter, eggs, 
 fruit, beef-steaks, and legs of mutton — all from the farm. 
 A clover field in the valley gave me an hour's quail- 
 shooting every day. As for my hosts, they were good 
 simple people, who knew about as much of Europe as 
 we know of the moon ; and once asked me, with an 
 anxious air, whether it was really true that in England 
 we had our dinner plates warmed before the fire. I told 
 them that we never failed to do so, even in the height 
 of summer. Upon which they shuddered, and their 
 faces shrivelled up with sympathy, and they rubbed 
 their hands, exclaiming, ' Oh, very cold— -very cold 
 indeed ! '
 
 Book III] MOSLEM AFRICA 301 
 
 I left this Island for St. Vincent's in another little 
 schooner, the 'Alerta,' and this time had a fellow pas- 
 senger — a Frenchman, bound for Boa Vista. On arriv- 
 ing at that island, I found that the vessel was to remain 
 twenty-four hours in the roads, and was rolling. I there- 
 fore felt inclined to go ashore, and jumped down into the 
 custom-house boat. The officer asked me for my pass- 
 port. I waved my hand placidly, and said that I had 
 none, except for St. Vincent's. Then followed this col- 
 loquy, which they little thought that I understood, as I 
 had only spoken French on board : — 
 
 ' Is it worth while to take him ashore t ' 
 
 ' Yes, I think so,' said the Frenchman (who a few 
 hours before had sworn eternal friendship} ; * I fancy 
 that he is a fool with money.' 
 
 ' Has he any luggage 1 ' 
 
 * Oh, yes, he has luggage.' 
 
 ' I think, sir, you had better stay on board,' said a 
 sailor, in English, putting his hand over the side. 
 
 The officer guessed at the meaning of this remark ; 
 told him, savagely, to mind his own business and shut 
 up, and drew me, in a caressing manner, close to his 
 side. The Frenchman told me it was all right, and that 
 I did not require a passport for merely landing on the 
 island. 
 
 He put me up in his house ; and the next morning I 
 was summoned before the mayor, and fined 4/. \os. 
 The Frenchman cursed the perfidy and injustice of the 
 Portuguese ; but I saw him before I went away in close
 
 302 MOSLEM AFRICA [Book III 
 
 confabulation with the mayor and the custom-house 
 official. They seemed to be dividing money. 
 
 The next day we reached Sal. Its wealth is a salt- 
 marsh, with a tramway to the town, along which cars are 
 sailed ; and the pumps are worked in a similar manner, on 
 the principle of windmills. This contrivance is well-suited 
 to these islands, where the wind seems seldom to fail. 
 
 Returning to St. Vincent, I went across in the French 
 mail steamer to Goree, an islet near the main-land. It re- 
 ceived its name from the Dutch, belonged to the English 
 in the days of Mungo Park, and is now a French town. 
 M. Rapet, a merchant, who had been my fellow pas- 
 sencrer, invited me to go with him to his house on the 
 Casemanche, a river south of the Gambia. We em- 
 barked on board one of the vessels belonging to his 
 firm, and a voyage of two days brought us to the 
 mouth of the river. We had to beat across the bar, 
 the schooner stirring up the sand with her keel and 
 leaving a yellow wake behind. Then we sailed up 
 the river with the sea-breeze, anchoring during the 
 land-wind, and often grounding on the mud. The 
 lower regions of the Casemanche or Cazamanza are 
 inhabited by the Felloops, a people of degraded 
 type. They resemble in their customs such tribes as 
 the Bapuku, but have one matrimonial arrangement 
 which I have not met with or heard of elsewhere. 
 When a marriage takes place the husband presents 
 the bride with a waistcloth and a shift. When the 
 shift is worn out she is free to marry another man if she
 
 Book III] MOSLEM AFRICA 303 
 
 likes, and is taught to believe that if she is unfaithful 
 before that time an evil sp^irit will carry her off. The 
 wives, therefore, are virtuous ; but it is not unusual to see 
 one pounding her shift between two stones. 
 
 On the sixth day we arrived at Sedhu, a hundred 
 miles up the river. I found that Rapet had a fine stone 
 house with a flat roof encircled by a terrace in the 
 Eastern style. He had also a library in which I found 
 the works of Corneille, Moliere, Racine, Pascal, Voltaire, 
 and Rousseau. I had not beheld such a glorious sight 
 as those well-filled shelves for many a long day ; for 
 there is no country, I believe, in the world where men 
 read so little as upon the West Coast of Africa. I 
 remember even now — it is just ten years ago — with 
 what impatience I waited for the dinner to be over, 
 and with what rapture I found myself alone in my 
 chamber, lying between the soft white sheets, with a 
 lamp burning brightly on the table and the ' Pensees ' 
 of Pascal before me. Every phrase awoke an idea; 
 I soon became too excited to read any more, and ex- 
 tinguishing the light, abandoned myself to my turbulent 
 thoughts. I was like a man who has gone so long with^ 
 out wine that he is intoxicated by a glassful. How 
 often in London, where the author is obliged to read 
 by way of business, where the noblest works will at 
 times fall dead on the cloyed and sated brain, I have 
 longed again for that book-thirst of the desert ! 
 
 The country about Sedhu is inhabited by the Man- 
 dingoes, a tall, handsome, light-coloured race, Moslems
 
 304 MOSLEM AFRICA [Book III 
 
 In religion, possessing horses and large herds of cattle, 
 but also cultivating cotton, ground-nuts, and various 
 kinds of corn. I made a trip of three days amongst 
 them, and was much pleased with their kind and 
 hospitable manners, the grave and decorous aspect 
 of their women, the cleanliness and silence of their 
 villages, and the abundance of milk which they pre- 
 sented to their guests. When they saw me reading 
 a book they crowded round and watched me atten- 
 tively as I turned the pages. It was a volum.e of the 
 ' Dictionnaire philosophique,' which my interpreter 
 told them was the Koran of my country ; whereupon 
 I was applauded by the elders for my piety. 
 
 The Mandingoes are strangers in the Casemanche, 
 and told me they had no country of their own. As a 
 nation they appear to lead a semi-migratory life, and as 
 individuals they are intensely fond of travel. I met 
 with men who described to me countries far away, 
 which I little thought at the time it would be after- 
 wards my fortune to visit and describe ; they told me 
 of the great war-city, Falaba ; and of Boure, with its 
 golden mines ; and of the strange race on the banks of 
 the Niger, who could pass hours under water and catch 
 crocodiles alive. They spoke also of the Fang Jani, 
 or self-burning tree, which had the habit of exploding 
 with a loud report and bursting into flames. M. Rapet 
 was acquainted with the plant, and wished to grow one 
 near his house for the purpose of experiment ; but the 
 natives had refused to allow it, declaring that it
 
 Book III] MOSLEM AFRICA 305 
 
 would infallibly burn down their village : they had 
 often shown Rapet the plant all black and charred. 
 Mungo Park, who fully believed in the story of its 
 self- ignition, had sent a specimen to Sir Joseph 
 Banks, and it was found that the charred appearance 
 was due to a kind of fungus, and thus the m\-th had 
 taken rise.^ 
 
 It often happens, I believe, that the traveller who 
 passes a few days in a country, discovers facts which 
 have escaped the notice of the oldest residents. A 
 curious instance of this kind occurred to me here. I 
 saw some lumps of yellow earth drying on the roof ot 
 a hut, and found on enquiry that it was used as medicine.. 
 I mentioned the fact to Rapet on my return, and he 
 declared that I must be mistaken. Now he had lived 
 in the Casemanche twenty years : he spoke the native 
 language to perfection ; he was a man of remarkable 
 intelligence, and took an interest, as few traders do, in 
 the customs of the people. If we had been arguing the 
 matter in Paris, who would not have believed him in 
 preference to me ^ But we were in the Casemanche, 
 the natives were around us, ajid with infinite difficulty 
 I persuaded him to ask them the question. Since then 
 I have met with earth-eaters on the Gold Coast. In 
 this latter case the clay is of a milky colour, and is 
 used as whitewash for the houses. The warkmen chew 
 pieces as they are at work, and I have seen them with 
 their lips all stained. The young people use it in fact 
 
 • Appendix No. VI. to Mungo Park's 'Travels.' 
 VOL. I. X
 
 1 
 
 3o6 MOSLEM AFRICA [Book III 
 
 as a comfit ; but the old people also take it as a medicine 
 for palpitation of the heart.^ 
 
 I spent my Christmas at Sedhu, and witnessed a 
 curious ceremony on the Eve. The natives marched 
 \\\ procession, with hollowed pumpkins lighted up, and 
 with the model of a ship in paper also lighted within. 
 They then began to sing, and my astonishment may 
 be imagined when I found that the tune and the words 
 were those of an old English carol. The explanation 
 which I received was this : — In the days when the 
 Senegal was English, the natives had been taught to 
 sing carols on Christmas Eve ; these songs had come 
 down from generation to generation, and had spread 
 far and wide. So excellent is the memory and so fine 
 is the ear of these people, that although they did not 
 understand the meaning of the words, they pronounced 
 them correctly after all that lapse of time. 
 
 The gun-boat that brought the mails came in, and 
 I bade farewell to my kind-hearted host, and took my 
 passage to the Gambia. The first sight which attracted 
 my attention on landing at Bathurst was a number of 
 negro policemen, who strutted about with staves in their 
 hands and an air of inexpressible pomposity. As they 
 "never told anyone to move on, and as cooks in Africa 
 are masculine, I was at a loss to understand for what 
 purpose they had been organised. However, I was 
 
 ' In cases of famine, earth is eaten to appease the cravings of hunger ; 
 but it has been proved by Ehrenberg that the edible earths are not foods. 
 See also Mr. David Forbes' admirable paper on the Amyamara Indians.
 
 Book III] MOSLEM AFRICA 
 
 307 
 
 afterwards informed that Anglo-Africans ride home upon 
 them after dinner. Now what an interesting fact is 
 this ! What a touching instance of special dispensation ! 
 In winter a moss grows on the Lapland rocks for the 
 sustenance of the reindeer. In the dreary depths of 
 the Sahara the pilgrim discovers green oases and spark- 
 ling springs. So here in this desolate and benighted 
 land, where neither cabs nor wheelbarrows can be found, 
 Providence has furnished policemen. 
 
 The heat at Bathurst is severe, and the solar rays 
 reflected from the sandy soil produce an intense and 
 agonising thirst which water is unable to alleviate, and 
 which can only be quenched by certain fluids artificially 
 prepared. In other words a great deal of hard drinking 
 goes on. A late governor of the settlement declared, 
 at the end of the banquet v/ith which he had been 
 welcomed, that the Gambia must be the healthiest ■ 
 place in the world, for that nowhere else could men 
 drink in such a manner, and continue to exist. How- 
 ever, the present generation in the Gambia — a genera- 
 tion on the coast lasts about ten years — is not so 
 much given that way, and drinking on the coast, as 
 in the mother country, is rapidly going out of fashion. 
 It is true that there are still to be found some young 
 3taff"-3ssistant surgeons, and some of those extraordinary 
 members of the profession called ' palm-oil doctors,' 
 who maintain that a diet of brandy is in West Africa 
 essential to health ; but this is a case of the drunk 
 leading the drunk, and of both falling into the grave ;
 
 3o8 MOSLEM AFRICA [Book III 
 
 and the sooner such medical men remove themselves 
 into another world, the better it will be for this one. 
 
 A steamer belonging to the settlement was going 
 up the river as far as the Falls of Barraconda, and I 
 was allowed to join the expedition. The voyage was 
 diplomatic, presents being made for the benefit of trade 
 to the chiefs along the river banks. The country was 
 one great grassy plain, with clumps and copses like 
 islands in a sea : and here for the first time I saw game 
 in something like abundance. We went out partridge- 
 shooting, and often as we were walking through the 
 grass trod up antelopes, which were squatting in their 
 forms like hares. 
 
 In this region is found the Oreas Derbianus, a kind 
 of eland larger than the Cape species, and therefore the 
 largest antelope in the world. I had heard of its exist- 
 ence at the Casemanche, but failed to procure a speci- 
 men ; but one was afterwards sent to me by M. Rapet, 
 and was the first perfect skin that had ever been brought 
 to Europe. 
 
 From Gambia I went to Goree and thence to St. 
 Louis on the Senegal. Here the French have an 
 Algeria on a smaller scale, and it is their ambition to 
 unite the two by a line of forts and artesian wells. 
 Their progress in Algeria has been already discussed 
 with anxiety at the tea-parties of Timbuctoo ; ' and in 
 Senegal the war-system is also in vogue, and was 
 carried out for a time with marvellous vigour by Faid- 
 herbe — a name that has become historical, I went 
 
 ' Earth.
 
 Book III] MOSLEM AFRICA 
 
 309 
 
 up the river as far as Podor, passing many block-houses, 
 which had often been besieged by the natives ; and 
 in these obscure and lonely spots, prodigies of valour 
 had been achieved, worthy of being celebrated by MM. 
 Erckmann and Chatrian. But yet I found on my 
 second visit to the coast that this system of war had 
 not proved a success, and it was not even safe to go 
 along the beach from St. Louis to Goree. Campaigns 
 can only be made during two or three months in 
 the year ; the natives are as brave and stubborn as 
 the Arabs, and possess ' a terrible ally in the climate. 
 And of what use is it to conquer these half-naked 
 people and their clusters of mud huts } And how can 
 white men occupy this fever-stricken land ? European 
 Powers in the present generation should be content to 
 take such measures as will serve to secure and facilitate 
 trade. The coast should everywhere be occupied ; this 
 we know is of advantage, for the trade of Lagos has 
 mightily increased since its cession to Great Britain 
 in 1 861. The next object of Government should be to 
 suppress the native wars which so frequently interfere 
 with trade, and to remove those obstacles to intercourse 
 between the white man and the natives of the interior 
 which are always interposed by the natives of the 
 coast. The Fantis, for instance, vvill not allow the 
 gold-producing Ashantis to come down to Cape Coast 
 Castle. The natives of the Niger Delta attack the 
 steamers which ascend the river. Such people have 
 always gained their living by acting as middle-men
 
 3IO MOSLEM AFRICA [Book III 
 
 between the producers and consumers, and it can hardly 
 be expected that they will consent to starve. But the 
 remedy is very simple. Let annual stipends be paid 
 to all chiefs who have the power to injure Euro- 
 pean trade, and let the stipend be suspended or with- 
 drawn whenever the ciiiefs obstruct native caravans, 
 or make war upon their neighbours. This system is 
 not a theory : it has been put into practice at Sierra 
 Leone, and has proved a complete success. Every 
 year a number of chiefs repair to Government House 
 and receive their pay ; and thus, without a soldier being 
 stationed 'outside the Peninsula, a large region of the 
 interior is to all intents and purposes under British rule. 
 It is not the money that these chieftains care for, but 
 the honour of an alliance with the white man. This 
 .system is also self-supporting, for the expenses of pay- 
 ment are more than defrayed by the development of 
 trade and the revenues thence received. In this manner 
 Africa might be conquered, by money, not by arms. 
 
 The Senegal divides the Sahara from the Soudan. On 
 the one side, as Cadamosto related long ago, are the 
 brown men of the desert, the tawny Moors, with lean 
 haggard faces, hawk-like startled eyes, wandering with 
 camels from well to well ; in the dry season approaching 
 the river, in the rains retiring to the desert, which then 
 has a green season, brief as the summer of the Arctic 
 Circle. On the other side, are the black, stout, comely 
 Jaloffs, dwelling in fixed towns, and cultivating fields 
 of corn.
 
 Book III] MOSLEM AFRICA ' 311 
 
 The trade of this region is chiefly in gum, which 
 exudes from a kind of acacia growing in copses on the 
 border of the desert. 
 
 The Senegal rises in rainy mountains, and floods its 
 low-lying lands in an extraordinary manner. Here and 
 there the summit of a hill alone appears above the water, 
 and becomes an island. But the short stunted trees are 
 completely covered by the water, and a commander of a 
 gunboat assured me that he had once steamed over a 
 forest. Now, if my friend's vessel had run aground and 
 the waters had suddenly abated, the singular spectacle 
 would then have been observed of a steamer dr}^-docked 
 in the upper branches of a tree. 
 
 In these floods the wild beasts are often driven to 
 strange straits. Swimming in all directions, they take 
 refuge on floating trees or on the island-hills. Too 
 much alarmed by the flood to follow their amiable in- 
 stincts and dine on one another, lions, leopards, jackals, 
 antelopes, serpents, and monkeys are often found hud- 
 dled together, as depicted in the illustration. 
 
 These wanderings of mine in Senegambia were with- 
 out geographical value, or incidents of interest ; but, 
 as Bacon says, ' Travel in the younger sort is a part of 
 education,' and here I learnt a lesson in the history of 
 Islam. I found that religion spreading in all directions, 
 and producing an extraordinary revolution in the minds 
 and manners of the blacks. I found mosques and 
 schools, and the languages of the country written in 
 Arabic characters, as English and French are written in
 
 312 MOSLEM AFRICA [Book III 
 
 Roman characters ; and negroes reading the Koran, 
 the ' Traditions of Mahommed,' the Psalms of David, 
 and various Arabic works on law, grammar, history, 
 and logic. When afterwards I pursued the subject in 
 Caillie, Denham and Clapperton, Lander, Barth, and 
 Mahommed el Tounsy, I found that Islam prevailed 
 over an area of Negroland equal in extent to Europe,^ 
 and was yearly, daily, hourly increasing; and that this 
 extraordinary movement, though due in part to religious 
 wars, had everywhere commenced in pure missionary 
 preaching, and may yet be observed under that aspect 
 in many regions of the coast and the interior. 
 
 The Arabic MSS. which I brought home were re- 
 cognised at once by Captain Burton as being written 
 in the Moghreb (or western) dialect. This alone would 
 suffice to prove that the Soudan had been converted 
 from Barbary, not from Egypt, and historical docu- 
 ments 2 exist, which though scanty and imperfect, enable 
 us to trace the origin and nature of the movement. 
 
 When the Romans conquered Carthage they were 
 assisted by the native chiefs ; and at first it appeared 
 as if Africa would become a civilised province in the 
 fashion of Spain and Gaul. Berber regiments served 
 in the army ; Berber princes were educated at Rome, 
 
 ^ A man might travel across Africa from St. Louis on the Senegal to 
 Cairo, or in another direction from Lagos to Tripoli, sleeping in a village 
 every night (except in the Sahara), and in every village he would find a 
 school. This will give the reader some idea of the population and culture 
 of Soudan 
 
 - See 'Notes et Extraits de la Bibliotheque du Roi,' tom. xii., the 
 * Travels of Ibn Batuta,' and Leo Africanus.
 
 THE RELIGIONS OF AFRICA. 
 
 .^dvfxc of_ CafM^Lcprrti 
 
 \ J Moslem 
 
 ■Hi Pa^an 
 L-_J Chrisliaa 
 
 WGr OE.Gr. 
 
 20 
 
 40 
 
 Stanforyj^ Geoff listiib^.Channg Cn\iS. 
 
 Loudon; Smith KUIr-i- ,'1: ('?
 
 Book III] MOSLEM AFRICA 313 
 
 and soon became distinguished as historians and phi- 
 losophers. But the desert was impregnable, and con- 
 tinually poured fresh hordes upon the Tell, or cultivated 
 land. In Algeria the Romans were strongly established, 
 and the ruins of their outposts are yet to be seen far 
 away inland.^ But in Morocco they were settled only 
 on the coast.2 Algeria was wisely and temperately 
 governed under the Republic ; and Cicero describes it 
 as a peaceful province ; but when the bad days of the 
 Empire came, it was degraded to a corn-field, and was 
 forced to feed, at its own expense, the Roman lazzaroni. 
 The governors became satraps, the great landowners 
 were accused of conspiracy, that their estates might 
 escheat to the Crown, and the people were made agri- 
 cultural serfs. Moreover, the wild region between the 
 Tell and the Sahara contained the game-preserves of 
 Rome. The lion was a royal beast licensed to feed on 
 the cattle of the shepherd, and on the shepherd himself 
 if it preferred him. 
 
 When the Arabs invaded Africa, they did not 
 merely settle on the coast. This people, accustomed 
 to deserts, conquered the whole country ; but they also 
 added persuasion to force, recognised the Berbers as 
 their kinsmen, declared them to be Arabs in their 
 origin, and allured them to accept the mission of the 
 Prophet. The two races mingled, and thus the nation 
 of the Moors was formed. At that time Jews abounded 
 in Barbary ; their brethren across the Straits were 
 
 1 Barth. ■ Gibbon.
 
 314 MOSLEM AFRICA [Book III 
 
 being persecuted by the Christian Goths ; and the 
 African Jews, it is said, instigated the invasion of Spain.^ 
 The Moors treated with indulgence the Europeans 
 whom they conquered, and acquired the arts of the 
 Romans and the Greeks. Andalusia civilised Africa ; 
 and the city of Morocco became the rival of Cordova 
 and Seville. Between the literary men of the two 
 countries an amiable controversy would often arise as 
 to which might claim pre-eminence in learning and the 
 arts, and it appears to have been allowed that Morocco 
 was not inferior to Spain. ^ 
 
 The existence of a civilised North Africa soon made 
 its influence felt across the desert. The camel was 
 unknown in Carthage, and but rarely employed in the 
 Roman days ; ^ but now these animals were introduced 
 in thousands, and the Sahara voyage could be made 
 with comparative facility. Arab travellers of piety and 
 learning took up their abode in the Soudan, and the 
 Moslem mission work commenced. Mosques and 
 schools, palaces Vv^ith glass windows and painted walls,'* 
 sprang up on the banks of the Niger, and the glories of 
 Granada were reflected at Timbuctoo. 
 
 Negro nations were speedily converted ; crusades 
 were waged against the Pagans ; and negro Moslems, 
 in turban and tobe, converted Pagan kingdoms, as the 
 Arabs had converted Timbuctoo. Thus the work was 
 continued from century to century, and thus it is still 
 
 ' Gayangos, ' Mahommedan Dynasties in Spain.' ^ Ibid. 
 
 ^ Ritter. Barth, ' Wanderungen.' ^ Edrisi.
 
 Book III] MOSLEM AFRICA 315 
 
 going on. In Cairo and Constantinople Islam may 
 appear to be decaying ; but in the heart of Africa it is 
 young, vigorous, victorious, as in the early days. 
 
 The negroes, under the influence of this religion and 
 its accompanying code of laws, appear to be an altered 
 people. Restrictions are placed on polygamy and 
 slavery ; the position of the wife is elevated ; drunken- 
 ness and gambling are abolished ; clusters of wretched 
 huts have given place to walled towns, with municipal 
 governments ; and immense regions have been opened 
 up to travel and to trade. A large part of the Soudan 
 has, in fact, ceased to be African, and has become 
 Asiatic. The inhabitants are blacky but their laws, 
 manners, and religion are no longer those of the negroes, 
 but of the Arabs. Their minstrels are men who go 
 about chanting verses of the Koran through the nose ; ^ 
 their fetishmen are saintly adventurers, who travel 
 from chief to chief, and from city to city, writing 
 phylacteries and charms. Thousands of pious negroes 
 make every year the pilgrimage to Mecca. Many 
 perish on the road, and many return from the Holy 
 City in a very unholy frame of mind ; for, as the Tartars 
 say of Mecca,2 ' The torch is dark at its foot ; ' and, 
 it was written ^ by the Ovid of Arabia : — 
 
 ' I set out in the hopes of lightening my sins, 
 And returned bringing home with me a fresh load of transgi-essions.' 
 
 But the very wickedness of Mecca deepens real en- 
 
 ' CaiUie. '^ Vambery. 
 
 ^ Quoted by Palgrave. All pilgrim cities, according to Wolff, are cor- 
 rupt.
 
 3i6 MOSLEM AFRICA [Book III 
 
 thusiasm into seventy and wrath ; and every year there 
 is a steady back-water of bigotry into Tartary, British 
 India, and the Soudan ; the most distant lands being 
 always the most devout, as in Oriental empires the out- 
 lying provinces always pay most taxes to the crown. 
 
 To Mecca may be traced those mighty religious 
 revivals and political revolts which more than once have 
 set the East in a flame ; and at the end of the last 
 century two pilgrims went forth from the Holy City, as 
 Luther went forth from Rome, shaking the dust off 
 their feet, and resolving to reform the age. 
 
 The first was Abd-el-Wahab, who established a 
 sect, preached a' Holy War, took Mecca and Medina, 
 and was defeated only by the genius of Mehemet Ali 
 and his semi-European troops. The sect, however, is^ 
 still in existence, and still remains an element of power 
 and disturbance in the East. 
 
 The other pilgrim created a nation. His name was 
 Danfodio : he was a Foula from Soudan. The Foulas 
 are a people of Berber origin, and were driven by 
 war across the Sahara into the country of the blacks. 
 In some parts of the Soudan they are light-coloured, 
 and their hair is long ; in other parts they resemble 
 negroes, through repeated intermarriages with the females 
 of the land. But however black they may appear, they 
 call themselves white men, and look upon the natives 
 with disdain. 
 
 A hundred years ago they were, for the most part, a 
 miserable people, herdsmen by occupation, occupying
 
 Book III] MOSLEM AFRICA 317 
 
 pastures by the favour of the native rulers, migrat- 
 ing from chiefdom to chiefdom, defenceless, and fre- 
 quently ill-treated by the negroes. In this condition 
 they may yet be seen in the upper regions of the 
 Gambia, and are called by the English the Gipsies of the 
 country. 
 
 Danfodio preached tenets similar to those of Abd-el- 
 Wahab. He forbade the worship of saints, the practice 
 of masses for the dead, and the undue veneration 
 of the Prophet ; but especially inveighed against the 
 besetting sins of the Soudan — the unveiled faces of 
 the women : the immodest dances and the music 
 of the drum ; the use of palm wine and millet beer ; 
 the wTiting of amulets and charms ; the wearing of 
 silk, scarlet, and gold ; and the substitution of customary 
 law for the Koran code. He sent letters to the kings 
 of Timbuctoo, Haussa, and Bornou, commanding them 
 to reform their lives and those of their subjects, or he 
 would chastise them in the name of God. They re- 
 ceived these letters from an unknown man, as the 
 Persian king received the instructions of Mahommed, and 
 their fate was the same. Danfodio united the scattered 
 Foula clans into an army, conquered the negroes far 
 and wide, and established a mighty empire, the capital 
 of which is Sockatoo. This empire is decaying, but 
 the Foulas or Felatahs are rapidly extending their 
 power in the Delta of the Niger. 
 
 The following tale, ' The Story of Solima,' is entirely 
 fictitious ; but there really was an Oumar the Pilgrim, a
 
 3i8 MOSLEM AFRICA [Book III 
 
 Foula by birth, who obtained the reputation of a pro- 
 phet, and conquered the regions west of the Johba. At 
 one time he reigned from the Senegal to Timbuctoo. 
 But Faidherbe defeated him upon the Senegal ; and a 
 few years ago he was taken prisoner by the Sheik of 
 Timbuctoo, sewed up in the skin of a black ox, and cast 
 into the Niger.^ 
 
 Thus it may be seen that Negroland is not cut off 
 from universal history, as Hegel and others have so 
 frequently affirmed. In a previous chapter I showed 
 that the slave trade has influenced the progress of man ; 
 and now it may be seen that a large tract south of the 
 Sahara is included in the Eastern question. Whatever 
 may be the future of Egypt and Morocco, will also be 
 the future of Segou, Timbuctoo, Haussa, Bornou, Bagir- 
 mi, Waday, and Darfur. 
 
 It will be a blessed day for civilisation when the 
 Russians take Constantinople, for then waste places will 
 be tilled, mines that are now hidden will be opened, the 
 commerce of the Mediterranean will be developed, and 
 thus all Europe will be enriched. When that event does 
 take place, the Sultan will probably establish his throne 
 at Cairo, and the great work which Mehemet AH com- 
 menced will be brought to consummation. The Turkish 
 power is already advancing towards the Western Soudan, 
 
 ' The last item of information, which may or may not be true, was ob- 
 tained by me in Boure. The Hadji's capital was Segou, where his son 
 yet reigns. A sketch of Oumar's life is given in ' Mage, Voyage d'Explo- 
 ration dans le Soudan occidental.'
 
 Book III] MOSLEM AFRICA 319 
 
 or basin of the Niger, from two bases, Tripoli and Cairo, 
 and by two routes, that of Fezzan and that of Kordofan. 
 The kingdoms of Darfur, Waday, and Bornou will in 
 time be clasped between two armies, as between two 
 arms. Abyssinia, we may hope, will soon be rescued 
 from its robber chiefs ; and Baker's expedition is con- 
 quering for Egypt the countries of the Upper Nile. Let 
 us observe with pleasure these triumphs of the Turks, 
 for they are acting as our pioneers. When Mehemet 
 AH came to power the Nubian Desert was haunted by 
 bandit tribes ; those tribes are now companies of car- 
 riers, who let out camels for the use of tourists.^ At 
 the confluence of the Blue and White Niles were a few 
 miserable huts. Ali touched it with his enchanter's 
 wand, and Khartoum sprang into life, as Rhacotis be- 
 came Alexandria ; and now a railway is being laid down 
 to it from Cairo. The next terminus will be Gondo- 
 koro ; and the next — who can say 1 Perhaps Ujiji or 
 Timbuctoo. 
 
 ' Hoskin's ' Ethiopia.' Baker's * Nile Tributaries.'
 
 320 
 
 THE STORY OF SO LIMA 
 In the name of God the compassionate^ the merciful 
 I WAS born and bred in a village in the country of the 
 Foulas. When I was seven years old, I was taught to 
 say my prayers and to curse infidels. When I was twelve 
 years old, I became the pupil of a priest or marabout, 
 who held his school every day beneath a silk-cotton tree 
 in the centre of the village. To each of us boys were given 
 a red cap and a white robe, to show that we were scholars 
 — an honour which soothed us for our weary labours in 
 the heat of the day. We had each a wooden board, on 
 which were written the Arabic letters. When we had 
 mastered the alphabet, the marabout wrote down some 
 simple words, and the ninety-nine names of God, and 
 finally ' Al Falthah.' This prayer we were made to learn, 
 chanting it aloud, and rocking our bodies backwards 
 and forwards to assist the memory. In this manner we 
 learned the whole Koran by heart, without understanding 
 a single word, and then our education was completed. 
 
 My father died when I was very young. He had 
 been the chieftain, or Al Mami of the village, and my 
 mother had determined that I should receive an educa- 
 tion in accordance with my birth. Nothing delighted 
 her so much as to hear me recite the sacred and myste-
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 321 
 
 rious words. I would stand before her in the humble 
 attitude prescribed by the manners of our country, my 
 left hand covered by my right, and would chant till my 
 voice grew hoarse and weak. And then she would wind 
 her arms round me, and lay my head upon her breast, and 
 relate to me the legends of our tribe. How our fathers, 
 in years gone by, came over the Sand, driven from their 
 homes by a foreign race ; how thousands died upon the 
 road from thirst, or were killed by poisonous winds, or 
 buried in the whirling clouds of dust ; how, at last, they 
 came into this country, and drove its people to the dis- 
 tant West, and took their daughters captive, and seized 
 their herds of cattle, and from that time multiplied and 
 prospered. 
 
 Then I felt proud of being a Foula, and despised in my 
 heart the people by whom we were surrounded ; the 
 men of the hills, who were dwarfs in stature, and went 
 naked, and dwelt in rocky caves ; and the blacks of the 
 West, who were often brought to our villages as slaves ; 
 and the Moors of the sandy plain, whose long hair fell to 
 their waists, and whose faces were muffled to the eyes — 
 whose hearts were perfidious and cruel — who lived by 
 plunder, like beasts of prey. 
 
 I loved to recline at my mother's feet, to feel her soft 
 hand as it caressed my face, the fire of the evening flick- 
 ering upon us, and the voice of some scholar chanting 
 in the distance. And sometimes she would tell me tales 
 of the battle and the chase, till my blood turned to fire, 
 VOL. I. Y
 
 322 THE STORY OF SOLIMA . [Book III 
 
 and I could feel my forehead burn. But when she ob- 
 served this, she became sorrowful and grave. She would 
 speak of the horrors of war and the dangers of the 
 forest, of towns burning, of men slain, of women weep- 
 ing over graves. Often she would attempt to tell me 
 how my father died, but tears would always interrupt 
 her words ; and then she would beat her breast, and 
 pluck her hair, and throw dust upon her head. 
 
 On one of these occasions, when her grief had been 
 even more violent than usual, she sent for my master^ 
 the marabout. He arrived, clad in a white surplice^ 
 with a staff in his hand and a red cap upon his head. 
 ' Father,' said she, ' I am resolved that the son of Hassan 
 shall never become a shepherd. Let others defend our 
 flocks and herds from the jaws of the leopard and the 
 weapons of the Moors. I wish you to make him a wise 
 and holy man.' 
 
 Then I lifted up my voice and wept ; but my mother 
 only shook her head. ' These tears,' said she, * may, 
 perhaps, some day save mine.' And the marabout 
 crossed his hands upon his staff, and repeated a proverb 
 of our tribe : ' The tears of the young are water, but 
 the tears of the old are blood.' The next day he gave 
 me the wooden board, and showed me how to copy 
 some letters of the alphabet. I soon learned to write, for 
 I was naturally clever, and I feared to vex my mother, 
 who enquired every day what progress I had made. Yet, 
 all the while that I was working, my heart was in the 
 forest and the field. When the grey mxOrning dawned.
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 323 
 
 I would watch with longing eyes the shepherds as they 
 drove the herds from the town. Their songs, and the 
 sound of their flutes, would ring in my ears all the day. 
 But my chief delight was to see the hunter when he 
 started for the bush. In the evening I would secretly 
 leave the town, and wait for him by the brink of the 
 jungle. If he had a gazelle upon his shoulder, I would 
 beg him to place it upon mine ; and if the blood trickled 
 on my breast, I felt proud and glad. But I washed it 
 carefully away before returning to my mother ; for when- 
 ever she saw blood she shuddered and cried, and some- 
 times swooned away. 
 
 One day I said to the huntsman, ' I wish I could go 
 with you instead of writing in the town. I would bear 
 your weapons, and assist you to carry the game ; for you 
 are old now, my father, and often I see that you are 
 weary,' 
 
 * It is true,' he replied, * my hand sometimes shakes, 
 and at night my feet are cold. But I must not yet re- 
 pose beneath the shadow of my roof There is no one 
 here who has eyesight for a trail, or strength to hurl a 
 spear. Who is to come after me t Who is to kill game 
 for the town when I am gone V , . 
 
 * Ah, if I might !' I cried. 
 
 ' That cannot be,' he said. ' Your mother will never 
 allow you to lead a life of danger.' 
 
 ^ And why is she so timorous for my sake V asked L 
 
 * Do you not know how your father died V 
 
 Y 2
 
 324 THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 ' No,' said I ; * for when she speaks of him she sobs, 
 and her words are turned to tears.' 
 
 ' Listen,' said the huntsman. * The Moors descended 
 on our pasture-grounds, and drove away hundreds of our 
 cattle. Then our chieftains held council ; the war-drum 
 was beaten ; the young men were gathered ; we followed 
 up the trail. Your father was a huntsman ; it was he 
 who led the march. In two days we overtook them, for 
 they were heavy with the plunder. We scattered them 
 like dust before the wind, and regained our herds. But 
 when the fight was over, two bodies were lying on the 
 ground ; their hands clutched each other's throats ; their 
 knives were buried in each other's hearts ; blood flowing 
 from their mouths had matted their grey beards together. 
 We could not separate them ; together they had died, 
 together they were buried. One of those men was the 
 chieftain of the robbers ; the other man was Hassan, Al 
 Mami of Missera, and father of the young Solima.' 
 
 ' I should like to die Hke that,' I said. 
 
 He placed his wrinkled hand upon my head, and I 
 felt it tremble there. 'Your father,' he said, 'was my 
 friend, and I see that his heart is in your body. 
 You shall never be a marabout. Meet me here every 
 evening an hour before the sun goes down. I will take 
 you to a little meadow near at hand ; there no one will 
 see us, and there I will teach you to shoot the arrow 
 and to hurl the spear. At the same time be patient ; do 
 not oftend the marabouts ; and when the proper time 
 comes I will try to change your mother's heart.'
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SO LIMA 325 
 
 Every evening I stole out to the appointed spot, and 
 was not detected ; but although I was diligent in my 
 studies, the marabout seemed to suspect that my 
 thoughts were often far away, and tried to rouse within 
 me a love for my profession. 
 
 * It is a noble calling,' he said. ' The marabout is 
 the king of men. He stands at the right hand of the 
 chieftain, and whispers counsels in his ears. In the 
 mosque he raises his voice, and all men prostrate them- 
 selves before him. When people are sick they come to 
 him that he may heal them. Go they to war or to hunt, 
 or on a journey, they pay the marabout, and he sells them 
 charms. He has power and he has wealth. If he is 
 young and wishes to travel, all paths are open to him. 
 He loads his asses with merchandise, and journeys 
 selling it from place to place. Everywhere he is received 
 with joy and kindness, because he is a holy man. And 
 when his limbs grow weary, and his hair turns grey, 
 and he desires to repose beneath the shadow of his 
 roof, a home is always ready to receive him. Never 
 need he want for rice from the pasture, or milk from the 
 cow.' 
 
 I listened to such speeches as these in a silence 
 which he mistook for approbation. I bore in my heart 
 the words of the old huntsman : ' Be patient, and do not 
 offend the marabouts.' I preserved that outward com- 
 posure which is an attribute of our race, and waited for 
 the day when my mother's heart should be changed. 
 He whom I now called my father had said that I should
 
 326 THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 never be a marabout. I placed a profound and childish 
 
 faith in his words. 
 
 I obser\^cd that the huntsman spoke little. His life 
 
 was divided into thoughts and deeds. I followed his 
 
 example, became taciturn and grave, and devoted my- 
 self with such zeal to the exercises of the craft that my 
 father would sometimes burst forth into exclamations of 
 delight. 
 
 One evening he said, * Your arms and ^yo-S are 
 sufficiently trained ; you can shoot the arrow and you 
 can hurl the spear better than I could at your age. But 
 this is only the beginning. You oughtjto go with me to 
 the forest every day.' 
 
 At these words my heart bounded to my throat. 
 ' Every day ! ' I cried. Then I became sad, and for the 
 first time began to doubt. 'My mother!' I said, 'my 
 mother ! Will she ever let her heart be changed .-^ ' 
 
 * It is not to be changed by reason,' he replied. 'A 
 v\'oman's head is wood ; but her heart is honey. You 
 must speak to her with your eyes. You m.ust sit by her 
 side without saying a word, and giving now and then a 
 sigh ; you must neglect your lessons, not as if from 
 stubbornness, but as if from a feeling which you are 
 unable to control. When your mother is near you, and 
 believes that you are sleeping, you must murmur, as if 
 in a dream, "■ O my mother, you are killing me ; why do 
 you wish me to be a marabout .'* Give me air ; give me 
 freedom ; give me the life of my father." Then she will 
 bend over you, and look closely in your face, and then
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA • 327 
 
 let tears fall upon your cheeks. And if she asics you 
 afterwards of what it was you dreamt, say that you do 
 not know — that it was a foolish dream, which would only 
 give^ier pain. Assure her that you are happy, and that 
 you wish to be a marabout. Be always sad when she 
 is watching you, and she will watch you as animals 
 watch their young. Be always cheerful when she speaks 
 to you. Pretend to hide your sorrow from her, and let 
 not a day pass without revealing it.' 
 
 I had never heard my father say so much before. 
 When he had ended he relapsed into his customar}^ 
 silence. I followed his instructions with that cunning 
 which boys often possess in a feminine degree. ?vly 
 mother said nothing, but her sighs would echo mine 
 When I cried in my pretended dreams, she would 
 come and sit by me, and wipe away my tears, and take 
 my head into her lap. Then I would really sleep, and 
 on awaking I would find that she had thus sat till the 
 dawn, and that her weak and weary eyes were unable to 
 meet the light. 
 
 Her distress pleased and encouraged me. She did 
 not speak to me about the cause of my dejection, but I 
 observed that she frequently drew the marabout aside, 
 and conversed earnestly with him. She redoubled those 
 caresses which she had always lavished on me. She 
 would make me sit at her feet, as if I were still a child, 
 and told me of monstrous people in remote and savage 
 lands ; of the people in the far East who had tails 
 like goats ; and of others who lived in the great river.
 
 328 THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 feeding upon fish. Above all, she used to tell me of the 
 white-skinned cannibals. Far away towards the West, 
 she said, was a river, so broad that one could not see 
 the opposite shores, and so salt that its waters were tinfit 
 to drink. Beyond it dwelt a race of giants ; their skins 
 were as white as cotton, their hair was of strange and 
 varied hues. By means of a contract with Satan, they 
 were given the riches of this world, and although oxen 
 and sheep did not exist in their country, they could 
 easily procure them from foreign lands. But they loved 
 the flesh of men better than anything besides, and by 
 means of their wealth obtained great numbers of slaves 
 from the country of the blacks. These white men had 
 v^isited the borders of the Foula country, and it was 
 feared that they would leave their own barren shore, 
 and, aided by the Evil One, take possession of the 
 whole country from the salt river to the sandy 
 plain. 
 
 One day some villagers of the neighbourhood came 
 running into the town, and told us that a white man 
 had arrived at Ghadima, a large Foula town about three 
 days' journey from our own. I obtained permission of 
 my mother to go and see him, my master taking me 
 under his protection. We found Ghadima alive with 
 people, who were assembled in the square. To me 
 there seemed to be more men in that one place than 
 I had ever seen in all my life before. After some hours 
 in the hot sun, I at length pushed my way into the 
 front row of the circle which was formed round the
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 329 
 
 great tree. Beneath that tree sat the cannibal. He 
 was dressed in clothes which fitted close to his body, of 
 which they left nothing bare except the face and hands. 
 These w^ere of a sickly white colour, inexpressibly 
 loathsome to behold. His eyes were blue, like those 
 of the hyaena ; his hair was straight and long, like that 
 of a goat. His movements were awkward, and his 
 whole appearance was rather that of some hideous ape 
 than of a man. His feet were black and hoofed. 
 Sometimes protruding his lips, he uttered a sharp 
 whistling sound ; and sometimes taking a cloth from 
 his pocket, he concealed his nose within it, and made a 
 noise like that of a horn. He was quite tame, and, 
 though surrounded by so great a multitude, did not 
 seem to be alarmed. I had turned away for a moment, 
 when a murmur uttered by the crowd recalled my 
 attention to the white man. His hands had disappeared ! 
 At first I supposed that, like the claws of wild beasts, 
 they could be drawn in or put out at pleasure, but 
 afterwards discovered that his dress was provided with 
 two holes, in which he placed them when he chose. 
 From the care he showed to hide his skin, even inventing 
 this contrivance for the concealment of his hands, it 
 was evident that he was ashamed of his deformity ; and 
 my master asserted that this repulsive whiteness of the 
 skin was the mark which Satan placed upon his 
 slaves. 
 
 The next day there was, if possible, a still greater 
 crowd in the centre of the town. The tree itself was
 
 330 THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 covered with boys, who had climbed up and were 
 perched among its branches. The white man stood in 
 the midst, holding in his hand a small piece of hollow 
 iron. A goat was tied to a stake a few yards off, and I 
 heard the people say that he had promised to kill the 
 goat with that iron tube, which was the bow and arrow 
 of his country. When all was ready he pointed his 
 weapon at the goat ; a flame shot forth, followed by a 
 cloud of smoke and a sound like thunder. When the 
 smoke cleared away, the white man stood smiling ; 
 the iron had disappeared, and the goat was lying dead 
 upon the ground. 
 
 He then passed through the crowd to his hut, and 
 returned in a short time with something wrapped up in 
 a cloth. He cast off the cloth, and we saw a piece of 
 stuff which dazzled our eyes, for it shone like silver in 
 the sun. A cry of admiration rose from the people. 
 Then silence was proclaimed, and the chieftain an- 
 nounced in a loud voice that this garment would be 
 given by the white man to that youth who exhibited 
 most skill in the shooting of the arrow and the hurling 
 of the spear. The dead goat was suspended from one 
 of the branches of the great tree. The crowd cleared 
 away on one side. Bows, arrows, and spears were thrown 
 upon the ground. One by one the young men ad- 
 vanced, some choosing the bow, and some the spear. 
 But they showed no skill. They complained that the 
 sun shone upon the mark, that the weapons were badly 
 made, and that they were not those to which they
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 331 
 
 had been accustomed. The white man curled his thin 
 Hps, and said the Foulas of our country should remain 
 always at peace, and till the ground, for that the Foulas 
 of other parts would conquer them in war. On this 
 the chief of Ghadima cried out in wrath : * Is there no 
 one to gladden the eyes of the white man, who loveth 
 war } Is there no one to win this raiment which is the 
 mantle of the moon t Oh, her./ me, youths ! To him I 
 will give a coronet of honour, and also the sturdiest 
 spear, and a bow and quiver of arrows, and all that the 
 hunter and warrior needs.' 
 
 I felt something force me through the people and 
 press me to the front. ' But he,' cried the chief, ' who 
 comes here to make the white man laugh, shall be tied 
 to the great tree, and flogged till he bleeds.' 
 
 I stepped out into the open space. When the people 
 saw my cap, which showed I was the scholar of a 
 marabout, they scornfully laughed, and cried, ' Does 
 your back itch for the rod, O silly boy.^' And above 
 them all I could hear the angry voice of my master, 
 who, hedged in by the crowd, could not get nearer to 
 me. * Are you moon-mad, O Solima } What will your 
 mother say to me when I go back .' She will spit on 
 my beard because I did not save you from disgrace.' 
 
 I chose a stout spear, and hurled it through the 
 goat. * Look to it,' I said ; * you will find it in the heart.' 
 I shot an arrow, and it pierced the brain. The white 
 man clapped his hands, and placed the robe upon my 
 shoulders. The chief of the town crowned me with
 
 332 THE STORY OF SO LI MA [Book III 
 
 flowers. The bow and quiver were slung across my 
 back ; I took the spear in my hand. Instantly I wished 
 to return home. My fellow-townsmen on the way sang 
 songs in my honour, and at every village related the 
 istory of my deeds. But my master was angry, and 
 continually taunted me upon the road, calling me the 
 hunter and the warrior, and asking me to go into the 
 bush and kill him a gazelle, for he was hungry. But 
 the honours I received enabled me to despise these 
 insults, as they deserved. When we came near to 
 Missera, my native town, the Manii and patriarchs 
 met me outside the walls, and conducted me through 
 the gates, while the minstrels played the ballafoo. The 
 old huntsman threw his arms round my neck, and wept 
 over me with joy. And under the silk-cotton tree I 
 met my mother. Her face beamed with delight when 
 she saw the silver robe ; but when she observed the 
 weapons that I carried, she turned away, and when the 
 lowering face of the marabout met her eyes, she took me 
 by the hand, and, looking at me sternly, she said, 
 ' Solima, you have deceived your mother.' 
 
 The aged huntsman drew to my side ; the marabout 
 stood at my mother's right hand. I saw that in a few 
 moments the fate of my life would be sealed. 
 
 * I hid my heart from you,' I said, * for fear that 
 you should hate it.' 
 
 'A mother cannot hate her son's heart,' she 
 replied ; ' but she despises deceit, which is the vice of a 
 slave.'
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SO LIMA 333 
 
 ' And is he not a slave,' said the huntsman, ' since 
 you force him from his father's Hfe ? ' 
 
 ' He is her only son,' retorted the marabout. ' May 
 she not save him from his father's death ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, yes, yes,' cried my mother ; ' I must save 
 his life ; before- all I must save his life. Solima, you 
 shall swear now, this very moment, on this very spot, 
 that you will never be a hunter. Bring forth the sacred 
 salt, O marabouts, and administer the oath without 
 delay.' 
 
 A young virgin passed through the crowd. It 
 was she who offered the sacrifice upon the altar, and 
 who bore the banner in the battle-field. Kneeling 
 before me, she held out a knife with three grains of salt 
 upon its blade. 
 
 I took off my silver robe, while the tears streamed 
 down my cheeks. ' My mother,' said I, ' to save me 
 from imaginary dangers, you condemn me to life-long 
 death.' I flung the bright garment down, and trampled 
 it into the dust. ' Thus,' I said, '■ I strip myself of 
 happiness at your commands, and tread it under foot. 
 The laws of the Foulas compel me to obey you : I 
 obey.' 
 
 She raised her eyes, and looked long and tenderly 
 upon me. I turned my face away, and falling on my 
 knees to take the oath, I lifted up my hands, and cried, 
 ' O spirit of my father, release me from this life, and 
 take me to the shadow-world ! No joy is there, but 
 neither is there sorrow. But here my affliction is more 
 than I can bear.'
 
 334 THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 All was silent. And then rose the song of triumph 
 from a distant part of the town. The voices of the 
 girls were loud and clear, and we could plainly hear the 
 words : 'SoUma, the son of Hassan, Al Mami of Missera — 
 Solima shall kill game for the hungry of the town ! ' 
 
 The Mami approached my mother. ' Daughter of 
 the Foulas,' he said, 'the elders of the people have 
 considered this matter, and find that no one except 
 Solima is fit to succeed yon aged man. They pray 
 you, therefore, to leave him free, that his services may 
 avail the town.' 
 
 My mother drew herself up, and turned her black 
 and scornful eyes upon the- chieftain. 
 
 ' And think you,' said she, ' that I would give the 
 town what I could refuse to my own boy's tears and 
 prayers .? I would see you all starve rather than he 
 should know a moment's grief. If his hand is scratched 
 by a thorn, that is more to me than all your miserable 
 lives.' 
 
 Then she turned to the marabout. ' And you want 
 him as a knife to cut your fruit ! You shall not have 
 him. Yoti hate Solima: I saw it in your eyes just 
 now.' 
 
 She turned towards me, and her face, from dark 
 and scowling, became suddenly bright, as if the sun were 
 shining on it. ' Come hither, my child,' she said. I 
 knelt before her feet. She took my head between her 
 hands. All the people bent forward, and there were 
 tears in many eyes.
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 335 
 
 ' Dear Solima,' she said, ' I have been cruel to you 
 through wishing to be kind. I did not know that you 
 dreaded this Hfe so much. But do not be afraid, my 
 darling ; it shall now be as you desire. Huntsman, you 
 were the friend of my beloved ; before these people I give 
 you his son, with power to command, and with power to 
 chastise. Solima, behold your father ; henceforth you 
 owe him the duties of a son.' 
 
 She rose to return to her own house. The people 
 made way for her to pass, and murmured, with one 
 voice, * May God sweeten your life, my mother ! ' and 
 bent their heads, and folded their hands upon their 
 breasts. 
 
 My father embraced me, and the people cried 
 loudly, ' It is well I ' But the marabout tapped him on 
 the shoulder, and said with a sneer, * Do you think he 
 will be content to lead your life, to go out in the 
 morning and return at night, to walk in the same paths 
 until he knows the woods by heart, and to play the 
 town butcher all his life } Look at his eyes — they are 
 bright and restless as a bird's ; soon they will want to 
 see strange and distant lands. I wish you joy of your 
 new son, huntsman. You will not keep him very 
 long.' 
 
 But my father and I smiled lovingly upon each 
 other, and walked together without speaking to the 
 jungle edge. At that spot, where I had so often waited 
 his return from hunting, we sat till it was dark, and 
 discoursed upon our future plans. Every day he took
 
 336 THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 me to the forest, and taught me the tracks of animals, 
 and how to find my way by the moss upon the trees. 
 And then he instructed me in the deeper mysteries of 
 woodcraft. A blade of grass crumpled, a leaf drooping, 
 a twig snapped off, a pool disturbed, a bird's startled 
 cry, an insect's hurried flight — such formed the alphabet 
 of a language which I found more intricate than the 
 Arabic of the marabouts. But I studied it heart and 
 soul, for I had determined that I would succeed — that 
 the forest should become my Koran, and the spear my 
 pen. 
 
 In a few months I had learned the craft, and my 
 father reposed beneath the shadow of his roof Dressed 
 in my silver robe, I was formally proclaimed as his 
 successor ; and, according to the custom of the country, 
 the women brought rice and milk to my mother, and 
 sang songs in her honour, no longer as the widow of 
 Hassan, Al Mami of Missera, but as the mother of 
 Solima, the huntsman of the town. 
 
 During more than a year I continued to exercise 
 this calling. When my mother saw that my life was 
 without danger, and that I had only to contend with 
 antelopes and gazelles, or, at the worst, with buffaloes 
 and boars, she became quite reconciled to my mode 
 of life, and thanked God that the elephants and beasts 
 of prey had been driven from the jungle. 
 
 How happy we were together then ! We lived in 
 the same house. Every day I returned at dusk, and 
 she placed before me the evening meal. Sometimes she
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 337 
 
 fed me with her hands, as if I were a child ; she was 
 never weary of caressing- me, and called me by the 
 fondest names. My father made me tell him my 
 adventures, and praised my perseverance and my ripen- 
 ing skill. But the marabout shook his head, and gave 
 a cunning smile, and said, ' He has changed his paint 
 once, and he will change it twice.' 
 
 While scorning the idea that I should ever tire of a 
 huntsman's life, I often found myself longing for more 
 noble game. I had tasted applause, that dangerous 
 food which torments the mind with insatiable cravings. 
 I had observed that the girls no longer sang of me when 
 they went in the evening to fetch water from the brook, 
 and had discovered that, to preserve one's fame, one must 
 be ever doing something new. I yearned for an occasion 
 to distinguish myself again, and this occasion came to 
 me in a sudden and extraordinary manner. 
 
 One day the Mami of Ghadima rode into our town, 
 accompanied by twelve elders whose beards were white 
 as salt. They entered the council-house, where they 
 were received by the ancients and our chief Having- 
 conversed together for some time, they sent for me. I 
 went and stood before them, my hands humbly muffled 
 in my sleeves. A few moments passed in silence ; then 
 the Mami of Missera handed his staff to the Mami of 
 Ghadima, who arose and said : ' Solima bea Hassan, 
 during many weeks past, a lion has descended from the 
 distant hills, and has preyed upon our folds. Our 
 huntsmen search the jungle, snares have been laid 
 VOL. I. Z
 
 338 THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 and pitfalls hollowed out ; but all has been in vain, 
 for our enemy is wary as he is strong. I have offered 
 my daughter Fatima to the man who shall destroy this 
 scourge of the land. Yet although my daughter can 
 only be purchased with a herd of bullocks and a moun- 
 tain of rice, although her husband will become my son, 
 and on my death will be made Al Mami of Ghadima, 
 no one has at present gained the prize ; and we are 
 forced to believe that no one amongst us has the hand 
 or the heart to succeed in this enterprise, which we 
 confess to be most dangerous and strange. So, remem- 
 bering the skill which you displayed when merely a boy 
 before the white man at our town, and having heard 
 that you are now a practised huntsman, we resolved 
 to come I hither to Missera, and, having obtained the ap- 
 proval of its chieftain and elders, to invite you to contest 
 among us in earnest as once you did in sport. How 
 say you, Solima ben Hassan } Will you stay or will 
 you go .? ' 
 
 ' I will go,' I replied. 
 
 Then cried our chieftain, ' Go fetch my own horse, 
 that Solima may ride forth as befits the pillar of the town. 
 A youth ran to the door, then suddenly stepped back. 
 We heard the tinkling of a woman's anklets, and my 
 mother crossed the threshold It was the first time 
 that a woman had entered the council-house. The 
 Mami rose and pointed with his staff to the door. 
 
 * You transgress against the laws of the Foulas,' 
 he exclaimed.
 
 Book IIIJ THE STORY OF SOLIMA 339 
 
 ' I am obeying those of God,' she replied. ' Solima, 
 I want you ; come with me.' 
 
 I felt sick, and my knees bent beneath me. I 
 turned my imploring eyes towards her. She looked 
 at me fondly but firmly, and, stepping backwards across 
 the threshold, beckoned me to come. 
 
 ' Soon our herds will be destroyed,' said the Mami 
 of Ghadima ; 'your son alone can save them. If you 
 forbid him to assist us, what shall we do t ' 
 
 ' Eat roots,' said she. 
 
 ' Solima will cover his name with glory,' said the 
 Mami of Missera, * and the women of two towns will 
 bring you bowls of rice.' 
 
 ' I have food enough to fill me,' said my mother, 
 * and what you call glory dries no tears.' 
 
 I rose and tottered to the door, drunk with my mis- 
 fortune. My mother took my hand in hers. Then a 
 tall form came beside us. I looked up. The aged 
 huntsman was confronting my mother with a jeering 
 smile upon his lips. 
 
 ' Stay a while,' he said, ' daughter of the Foulas. 
 Why pluck away your son in such a hurr>^ as if he were 
 a calabash of sweet milk that would spoil in the sun } ' 
 
 ' Elders of Missera,' he continued, turning to the 
 council, ' and ye of Ghadima who are our guests to- 
 day, well know ye the laws of the Foulas. The son, 
 until he is married, is the ser\^ant of his father, and if his 
 father should be dead, the mother receives the self-same 
 powers. Since the brave Hassan is no more, this woman 
 
 z 2
 
 340 THE STORY OF SO LI MA "[Book III 
 
 claims over Solima those rights which a father exercises 
 on his son, and a master on his slave.' 
 
 * Such is the law,' replied the elders. 
 
 My mother tossed her proud and beautiful head. 
 I attempted to pass out ; the huntsman placed his 
 heavy hand upon me. 
 
 * But,' said he, ' it is also decreed that the mother 
 shall be able to make over her ricrhts to a man who is 
 
 o 
 
 of age and of standing in the tribe ; and this right when 
 once made over cannot be revoked.' 
 
 I felt my mother's hand, which still grasped mine, 
 turn cold as that of a corpse. 
 
 * The father who adopts becomes the same as the 
 father who begets. Authority can only return to the 
 mother should the father of adoption die before the son 
 be married.' 
 
 Then I felt the hand turn suddenly hot, and thrilling 
 pains darted up my arm. This hand frightened me with 
 its dumb eloquence : I did not dare look at my mother's 
 face. 
 
 ' It is enough,' I heard her say. ' I did it in a 
 foolish moment, and in ignorance of the hearts of men. 
 I did not know they were so hard. Solima, this man is, 
 it seems, your father by the law, and you must obey 
 him while he lives. I am only your mother. It is true 
 I bore you in my womb, and with pain I brought you 
 forth, and with love I fed you at this breast, and have 
 cherished you without ceasing for nineteen years ; but 
 he has taught you to throw spears.'
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 341 
 
 She released my hand and walked composedly 
 away. I opened my lips to tell her to return, but the 
 hand of the huntsman closed my voice. 
 
 * Never follow the first impulse of the heart,' said 
 he, ' or you will afterwards regret it ; nor think that I 
 will ever use my rights as a father except to secure the 
 fulfilment of your own desires. Rest here till sundown 
 in silence and thought. The elders of Ghadima will 
 then ask for your reply.' 
 
 A few moments of reflection convinced me of his 
 wisdom. I speedily forgot my mother's grief, and longed 
 for the hour of sunset to arrive. It came at last ; I sprang 
 upon the horse's back, and followed the elders at a gallop 
 through the town. 
 
 On arriving at Ghadima I summoned the huntsmen 
 of the town, and asked a number of questions about the 
 lion, whom they called the Father of Severity, and of 
 whom they never spoke without some pious exclamation. 
 I found them disinclined to give any information, and 
 they affected to treat me with contempt. When I asked 
 them where the lion went at night, they said ' Every- 
 where.' When I asked them where he slept by day, they 
 said ' Nowhere.' However, when I was alone in my hut, 
 a little boy came to me and said, ' Huntsman, if you 
 really wish to find the Father of Severity, I think that 
 I can show you where to look. But as for our fellows 
 here, who go to the woods with their bows and spears, 
 he is the last acquaintance they desire to make. In a 
 jungle which I will show you, they came across his
 
 342 THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 tracks one day when I was with them, and they all 
 agreed to keep it a secret and never to go near that 
 jungle again.' 
 
 I agreed to meet the boy next morning outside the 
 town ; he took me a considerable distance to the edge 
 of a thick wood which was surrounded by a grassy 
 plain. I gazed for some time upon the black and 
 menacing mass of trees ; then I drew a deep breath. 
 
 ' Let us return to Ghadima,' said I. 
 
 ' You will not go in there,' said the boy with a 
 malicious look. 
 
 * I will go in there to-morrow,' I replied. 
 
 'The Father of Severity eats by night,' said the 
 boy with a shrill laugh, ' but to-morrow he may dine in 
 the middle of the day.' 
 
 I picked up a plant as he spoke. 
 
 * Yes,' answered I, ' and I will begin to cook it 
 for him.' 
 
 * What is that .'' ' he asked, becoming grave with 
 curiosity. 
 
 ' Sauce for spearheads,' I replied. ' A drop of the 
 juice of this plant would kill an elephant if it entered 
 his skin — at least, so my father, the old huntsman of 
 Missera, has often told me.' 
 
 The next day I went to the jungle, but without 
 success. I could only find the footsteps of the lion. A 
 whole month passed. The people broke out into laughter 
 when they saw me returning at night ; the griot or public 
 minstrel composed a satire against me, and the boy
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 343 
 
 declared the poor lion would starve before I offered him 
 my carcase. 
 
 I had searched the jungle through' and through, 
 but had never walked across the plain, in the midst of 
 which a few bushes rose above the grass. One day I 
 saw a vulture rise from the midst and fly heavily away. 
 I supposed some aged antelope had gone there to breathe 
 its last, and I slowly sauntered towards the spot. When 
 I was near the bushes, I observed that they clothed the 
 sides of a deep hollow, and at the same time I smelt 
 a curious stench. I crept to the edge of the pit ; its 
 bottom was lined with bones and putrid flesh. The 
 lion lay sleeping in the midst, surrounded by hideous 
 birds begrimed with blood. I could not hurl my spear 
 on account of the bushes that were between us, and 
 crept round the side of the pit to a clear place on the 
 other side, when a bird perceived me and gave a shrill 
 cry : the vultures arose ; the lion awoke ; his green eyes 
 caught mine ; he bounded up the side of the pit. I 
 hurled my spear, but it only ruffled the hairs of his 
 back, and he seized me in his enormous jaws. 
 
 I swooned away, and when I was recovered, found 
 myself lying at the bottom of the pit with my hand in a 
 puddle of my own blood. The lion was beside me. In- 
 stinctively I crawled away ; he let me go a few steps,, 
 then sprang after me, pulled me back, buff"eted me with 
 his paws, uttering a low grunting sound. I lay still as if I 
 were dead ; he rolled upon his back and struck me several 
 times, scooping pieces of flesh away. Then I saw that
 
 344 THE STORY OF SO LIMA [Book III 
 
 he was not hungry, and that he would play with me 
 till he had slowly killed me. Once I felt inclined to 
 rise and struggle with him, and so to make him kill me 
 at once. But the hope of life is strong in man. I lay 
 still ; he rolled over me several times, almost crushing 
 me beneath his weight I did not move. He whined, 
 thinking that his plaything was dead. Then he saw the 
 blood which was flowing from my wounds, and lapped 
 it with his prickly tongue. 
 
 Presently he ceased, and I heard him groan. I 
 looked into his face ; his eyes were coated with a grey 
 film ; flakes of froth fell from his mouth ; long convulsive 
 shudders ran through his frame. He curled his tail 
 -round continually, as if trying to brush something from 
 his back. Then I remembered that the spear had 
 grazed his back ; it must have cut the skin, and he 
 was dying from the poison. His moans became feeble 
 and dwindled to sighs. Suddenly he raised his head 
 and gave a dolorous cry, then let it fall lifeless on my 
 breast. 
 
 I tried to move away from beneath his body, but in. 
 vain, and I felt my life pouring from me in my blood. 
 I passed my arms round the lion's neck, and felt happy, 
 for I was dying like my father. I tried to think, 
 but felt something going from my brain, then a weak- 
 ness and a dizziness, and I can remember nothing 
 more. 
 
 It came to pass, by a happy fortune, that the Mami 
 of Missera had sent to Ghadima a messenger, requesting
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SO LIMA 345 
 
 that I should return, as the town wanted meat. The 
 chief of Ghadima was glad to receive this request. The 
 laws of hospitality, so strictly observed among the 
 Foulas, prevented him from giving me the least hint to 
 go ; but he had long since abandoned all hopes of my 
 success, and he was not unwilling to part with a guest 
 who occasioned him considerable trouble and expense. 
 Accordingly he sent men after me at once. They were 
 guided by the boy to the jungle he had shown me, and 
 they tracked my footsteps to the pit. I was carried to 
 the town ; fresh butter was poured on my wounds. As 
 soon as I recovered my senses, I asked for my mother ; 
 and when I had gained a little strength they took me 
 home, by easy stages, in a grass-woven hammock. 
 
 My mother, who was famed for her knowledge of 
 herbs, placed dressings on my wounds to extract the 
 poison of the lion's claws. In a month my life was out 
 of danger, and, though very weak, I began slowly to 
 recover. 
 
 One day I was lying on the lion's skin, which had 
 now become my couch ; my mother was seated by 
 my side weaving a grass mat, and sometimes stooping 
 to embrace me. A Ghadima man entered, and whis- 
 pered in her ear. She whispered back again. Then 
 they both of them smiled, and looked at me. * What is 
 \\.V I asked. She patted my cheek, and ran from the 
 house. Then I heard the tinkling of anklets, and my 
 mother returned, leading by the hand a young girl. It 
 was Fatima, the daughter of the Mami of Ghadima. She
 
 J46 THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 was adorned with trinkets of silver, and with pieces of 
 transparent amber in her hair. Her father came next, 
 and gave me his blessing. He was followed by the 
 elders of Ghadima, who offered me the usual compli- 
 ments. Although I could not take part in the festivity, 
 it was arranged that the betrothal should take place at 
 once. Goats were killed, and calabashes were filled 
 with palm-wine. The griot sang a song in honour of 
 the occasion, and the young people danced in the open 
 square all nig"ht. 
 
 The laws of the Foulas demand that the betrothal 
 shall last a year, and that the marriage shall be broken 
 off if either declare in public, and with certain forms, 
 that he or she * repents of the betrothal' It is also 
 usual for the betrothed to dwell a part of this time 
 beneath the same roof ; and Fatima remained with us. 
 She assisted my mother to pound the rice in the mortar, 
 to draw water from the brook, to cook, and to clean the 
 house. In a few days she had won my mother's heart, 
 and they slept upon the same mat. 
 
 The first day that I was well enough to sit beneath 
 the shadow of the roof, my father came to see me. My 
 mother did not bid him welcome ; she had not spoken 
 to him, I was told, since the day of my departure for 
 Ghadima. And although to myself she uttered no 
 word of reproach, it was certain that she had a bitter 
 recollection of that event ; for once, when I was about 
 to speak of it in order to ask her forgiveness, she held 
 up her hand, and told me almost sternly to be silent.
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SO LIMA 347 
 
 * Heigh ! heigh !' cried the huntsman ; ' you are up 
 then ! It is well. New sport is waiting for you. Ele- 
 phants are in the thorn jungle over the hills there, and 
 they shall not be disturbed till you can go after them. 
 But, O youth, be steady of hand and nimble of foot, for 
 a wounded elephant is worse than a wounded lion, espe- 
 cially if he happens to lie on top of you.' 
 
 * What ! ' cried my mother, at length breaking her 
 silence ; * would you have my son again go into danger } 
 Are you not content with what he has suffered } Are 
 not those wounds a sign that the life of the hunter is not 
 for him ? Do you wish then to kill him outright .'' ' 
 
 To this string of questions my father replied with his 
 accustomed coldness : * Woman, your son has suffered 
 no more than many a huntsman before him. He has 
 gained a few scars, and a young man can wear no finer 
 ornaments. Time enough to think of his leaving the 
 craft when he is maimed or crippled, should God so will 
 it, or when he becomes old and useless like myself 
 
 My mother retorted, and the discussion became a 
 bitter one. It was ended by the old man saying, * I am 
 the boy's father, and I choose that he shall remain a 
 huntsman. Should I die before he is married to this 
 girl, it is then in your power to make him a shepherd, a 
 marabout, a weaver, a blacksmith, or what you please.' 
 
 My mother shrugged her shoulders, and busied her- 
 self about the house. Two weeks passed, and the hunts- 
 man came again. He found me with my head in my 
 mother's lap, and Fatima's fingers caressing my hair.
 
 348 THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 ' You are a sluggard,' he said. ' You ought to be tasting 
 the fresh air and exercising your Hmbs. So you would 
 gradually gain your strength, and be able to go after 
 those elephants whom fortune still keeps for you.' 
 
 As he said these words he looked at my mother 
 with a sneer. To my surprise, she said, smiling and in 
 her sweetest voice, * What you say is right, O my 
 father. Would it not be well if Solima were to drive 
 the herds out to pasture till his strength is entirely 
 recovered ?' 
 
 ' You speak wisdom, O daughter of the Foulas,' he 
 repHed. ' Solima must go to the fields, and Fatima can 
 keep him company.' 
 
 At this Fatima smiled, and gave me a furtive 
 glance. My mother asked the huntsman to join us in 
 our morning meal. He consented, and praised the 
 manner in which it was cooked. She asked him to 
 forgive her the words she had formerly used ; she was 
 only a foolish woman, and had not known what was best 
 for her son. Henceforth he should have no reason to 
 complain, and she would leave my happiness entirely 
 within his hands. 
 
 * And, my father,' she said as he rose to go, ' since 
 you order my children to go to the fields, I shall have 
 to eat my morning meal alone. Deign to give me the 
 honour of your presence. I am the mother of Solima, 
 and you are his father. Is it not right that we should 
 sit upon the same mat, and that our hands should 
 min^/le in the bowl } '
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SO LIMA 349 
 
 The huntsman cheerfully assented. Every morning 
 he ate and drank with my mother ; and I was delighted 
 to behold the reconciliation of those two whom I loved 
 and honoured most. 
 
 Every day, at the first gleam of dawn, Fatima and 
 I drove the cattle to the pasture. Our feet were 
 sprinkled with the cold dew, and we drew our cotton 
 robes around us tightly. On arriving in the fields, the 
 bullocks eagerly cropped the moist herbage, while we 
 nestled close to each other, and watched the eastern sky. 
 
 When the red clouds appeared, and the sun rising 
 below them darted bright beams across the earth, every 
 tree sent forth its voice ; birds and insects fluttered to 
 and fro ; lines of antelopes crossed the plain. 
 
 And when the fiery ball rose higher in the heavens, 
 the air began to dazzle and swim ; the dew was scorched 
 up ; the grasses drooped ; the antelopes retreated to the 
 forest ; the birds flew into thick bushes ; the cattle lay 
 down beneath shady trees. Scarce a sound could be 
 heard, unless it was the rustling of a lizard, or the hum 
 of those insects that only live in heat. And then, 
 taking off our upper robes, we reclined in the fragrant 
 grass. Fatima played some plaintive melody upon her 
 flute, while I clapped my hands to the measure, 
 and murmured to it words of war, of hunting, or of 
 love. 
 
 When the sun had touched the tree-tops to the 
 west, we rose and gathered the herd together, uttering 
 cries which they were accustomed to obey. We drove
 
 350 THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 them to the village, and penned them safely in ; we 
 then entered the house to eat our evening meal, which 
 my mother had always ready for us. 
 
 One day we returned earlier than usual, and found 
 her sitting over the fire, watching some herbs which 
 were boiling in an earthen pot. She gave a start 
 as we came in, and seemed for a moment to be 
 confused. 
 
 * What is that, my mother ? ' cried Fatima, who 
 was inquisitive as a gazelle ; and she stretched her 
 lovely neck to peep into the pot. 
 
 *It is some medicine I am making,' replied my 
 mother. 
 
 * Some medicine ! and for whom } It is not for 
 yourself Oh, tell me, dear mother, are you sick } ' 
 cried the affectionate girl, winding her arms about her 
 neck. 
 
 ' No, no, it is not for me. Never mind for whom 
 it is. You and Solima eat your supper, or it will be 
 cold.' 
 
 ' But you will eat with us,' said Fatima, in a 
 coaxing voice. ' Ah, mother ! it is you who are 
 sick.' 
 
 ' I am not sick, and I am not hungry. I am busy. 
 Eat your supper.' 
 
 Fatima said no more. She spread the mat upon 
 the ground, and placed the calabash between us. We 
 dipped our hands in water, and then mingled them 
 together in the bowl. Sometimes Fatima chose a
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 351 
 
 morsel, and placed it in my mouth ; sometimes I did 
 the same to her, and she pretended not to want it, and 
 turned her mouth aside when I approached it with my 
 hand. So we laughed and played ; but my mother 
 continued to sit before the fire, her head on her breast, 
 her hands on her knees, and her eyes on the simmering 
 herbs. 
 
 Then she gave a deep sigh, and said in a gentle 
 voice, but without turning her face towards us, * My 
 children, bear with me ; I am indeed sick, and it is for 
 myself that I am making this medicine, though I said 
 it was not. I wish to be alone a little while. Go out 
 to the great fire, and talk with the young people.' 
 
 We went out, and sat by the great fire, which was 
 kindled every night in the square, and round which 
 gathered all who wished to talk over the news, or 
 to tell stories, or to listen to the minstrel's songs. 
 
 When we went back to the house, my mother 
 received us in her usual manner. She had taken the 
 medicine, she said, and the pains that had troubled her 
 were gone. 
 
 Two days afterwards, Fatima and I, as we sat in 
 the pasture-ground, conversed upon our marriage. We 
 sang a song to the sun, praying it to travel more swiftly 
 through the sky ; and when in the noontime Fatima 
 slept with her beautiful face upon my arm, I reflected 
 on the approaching change in my life. I should soon 
 be a Man, with land and cattle of my own, and a vote 
 in the council of the fathers. I feared I should feel
 
 352 THE STORY OF SOLI MA [Book III 
 
 unhappy when I could not see my mother every day ; 
 and I should have to go from Missera, my native town. 
 But then I thought how grand it would be to become 
 the Mami of Ghadima, as I should be when Fatima's 
 father died ; and how pleasant it would be to have a 
 son whom I could teach to shoot the arrow and to hurl 
 the spear, or a daughter as beautiful as Fatima, who 
 should marry the son of a great chief. 
 
 The evening came, and we arose to return. We 
 had reached the brink of the jungle — that spot which I 
 knew so well — when we heard a loud, dismal cry 
 rising from the town. We stopped, and looked at one 
 another. 
 
 ' It is the death-w^ail ! ' cried Fatima. 
 
 'You drive the beasts in,' said I, 'and I will run 
 
 on.' 
 
 ' No, no ; do not leave me,' said Fatima. 
 
 We drove the cattle as fast as we could. It seemed 
 to us they had never been so obstinate and slow. 
 Every time that we heard the cry of death, unconsciously 
 we hastened our steps. 
 
 Through the shades of the drooping night came 
 men and women towards us singing and weeping. This 
 proved that the calamity was ours. Embracing each 
 other, we sank upon the ground. The song of mourning 
 floated to our ears, and told us the sad tidings — my 
 father w^as no more. 
 
 His bed was surrounded by women, and chief 
 among them was my mother. She was covered with
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 353 
 
 ashes, and had cut her forehead with a knife. The 
 hfeless head of the huntsman lay upon her knees, and 
 her tears rained upon his face. She sang in a broken voice 
 his virtues, and his deeds of love ; she reproached herself 
 for the ill words that had passed between them long ago. 
 
 I enquired the cause of his death, but no one knew 
 what it was. A young man happened to enter his 
 house that afternoon, and found him dying in convul- 
 sions. My master, the marabout, declared that his life 
 had been taken by an Evil Spirit. I stripped myself, 
 and shaved my head, and covered myself with dirt, and 
 entered the house of the male mourners. Three days 
 we sat together, and neither ate nor spoke. Then 
 the body ol my father was buried, with his weapons 
 and his dog ; a white cock was sacrificed upon the 
 grave ; and a feast was held, at which the mourners 
 gorged themselves with goats' flesh, and became drunk 
 with palm-wine. 
 
 But I mourned him not only from custom but from 
 love. For many days I would scarcely speak to my 
 mother or to Fatima. Then the violence of my grief 
 was abated ; a sweet and tender melancholy took pos- 
 session of my being. I placed rice and milk by the 
 grave, and, invoking the spirit of the dead, I prayed 
 him to come and eat with me. I conversed with him, 
 as if he were alive, and told him the news of the town. 
 
 But I had now another cause for grief Fatima 
 was changed towards my mother, avoided her company, 
 made excuses for sleeping on a separate mat, and 
 VOL. I. A A
 
 354 . THE SrORY OF SOU MA [Book III 
 
 never addressed her except in answer to a question. To 
 me she was still more loving than before ; but when 
 I asked her to explain this strange behaviour, she 
 answered me only with affectionate caresses. One day 
 she told me she was going home, and I went with her 
 half a day's journey on the road. 
 
 As soon as I returned, my mother looked at me 
 sternly, and said, ' It is over at last then ; very welL 
 Your father is dead, and you are once more my son. I 
 command you to swear upon the sacred salt that you 
 will never hunt again.' I said it was impossible. She 
 called the marabout. He entered the house with the 
 broad knife extended, and the salt upon its blade. He 
 was grave and silent, but I could see triuniph lurking 
 in his eyes, and around the corners of his lips. I had 
 then recourse to entreaties, but they were useless. 
 'The time has been,' said my mother, 'when I en- 
 treated you. But all that is past. You are now my 
 slave, my dog. I command you to take the oath.' 
 
 Then kneeling, I dipped my forefinger in the salt, 
 pointed to heaven, pointed to the earth, placed the salt 
 between my lips, and swore that I would never hunt 
 again. 
 
 I went to bed, and covering my face, I gave 
 myself up to thought. I was young, happy, and of a 
 sanguine disposition ; I could look at all things from 
 their brighter side. During the period of my mourning, 
 the elephants had gone away, and I felt little inclination 
 for the tame sport of the Mi.ssera jungles after my
 
 Book III] THF STOBY OF SOLIMA 355 
 
 glorious adventure with the lion. Dull and monotonous 
 as the life of a herdsman might be, it could be little 
 worse than that of the town hunter. Besides, in three 
 months I should become a citizen of Ghadima, and I 
 might distinguish myself as a warrior against the ]\Ioors 
 of the sandy plain, who had lately invaded the neigh- 
 bourins^ lands. 
 
 But the people of Missera were wroth against my 
 mother, for they had to purchase the serx^ices of a ycung 
 huntsman from another town. They gave him a wife, 
 a house, and land. All this my mother had cost them. 
 She was called to the house, and publicly upbraided by 
 the ^lami ; the griot composed a satirical poem, in 
 which he described how a she-hyaena had drawn the 
 teeth and claws of a young lion ; and this the girls sang 
 every morning and evening as they went with their 
 pitchers to the brook. 
 
 She spoke to no one except myself, and to me 
 only as a slave. When I returned from the pasture, she 
 made me perform the work of a woman, such as 
 sweeping the house and cleaning the pots. She cooked 
 my evening meal in such a manner that it could not be 
 eaten, or gave me none at all. If I spoke, she struck me 
 on the mouth with her sandal : if I was silent, she called 
 me a dumb beast. She took a pleasure in reminding 
 me that once I had humbled her, and cast her off 
 before the people. She asked me in a jeering tone if I 
 was not very sorry that my father was dead. Some- 
 times, indeed, she reproached herself for her barbarity,
 
 356 THE STORY OF SO LIMA [Book III 
 
 and suddenly seizing me between her arms, covered me 
 with caresses and tears. But these fits of repentance 
 soon passed away. However, I consoled myself with 
 the reflection that she had not the power to prevent 
 my marriage, and that I had only a little while to bear. 
 She seemed to read this in my face, for often she said, 
 * Ah, yes ! I know what you are thinking of ; when you 
 are married, you will be free.' And then she treated me 
 worse than before. 
 
 It will not appear surprising that I began to enjoy 
 my herdsman's life My only tranquil moments were 
 passed in the fields ; and this repose, which at other 
 times would have been wearisome, now constituted all 
 my happiness. I had no friends in Missera, for I was 
 envied and hated by the young men of the town. 
 Besides, I had never cared for their company, which, 
 even when a boy, I had deserted for that of old men. 
 I lived in the strictest solitude, and my mind,- being 
 no longer occupied by the business of hunting, or the 
 conversation of Fatima and of my mother, was driven 
 within itself Compelled to dive into my own heart, 
 I rose with my hands full of pearls. I discovered within 
 me a new sense, a new power ; sighs rose to my lips, and 
 tears to my eyes, without a cause. By day, lying 
 among deep shadows, I would give myself up to a 
 torrent of confused and shapeless thoughts. At night, 
 leaving my mother's house, I would wander forth into 
 the wide and silent plain, and gaze upwards at the 
 glorious sky. I began, in my savage ignorance, to 
 speculate on the marvels of the world.
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA y^-j 
 
 ' Who has touched the stars with his hands ? ' I 
 said. ' On what pillars do they rest ? 
 
 * The waters are never weary ; they flow without 
 ceasing all the night and all the day. 
 
 * I cannot see the wind, but I can hear it roar. 
 What is that strange power, and whence does it 
 come } 
 
 'What makes the corn to grow.? Who has given 
 the earth the wisdom to produce } ' Then I buried my 
 face in my hands. 
 
 And then there came upon me wild and obscure 
 ideas, which sweetened yet tormented my existence — 
 germs of that passion which is of all the most enduring, 
 the most insatiable, the most sublime — the thirst of 
 knowledge, the yearning after the unknown. 
 
 My body being idle, my mind became excited. I 
 loitered round the great tree, and listened to the 
 scholars in the fields. I chanted verses of the Koran 
 to myself. There were m.oments when I felt inclined 
 to take the sacred oaths, to put on the white robe and 
 red cap of the marabout. But I knew all that they could 
 teach, and I desired to learn more. 'Are there men 
 more wise than my master ? ' I said to myself. Then I 
 thought of the white cannibal, and the hollow iron 
 which gave forth thunder and smoke and fire and death. 
 I thought of Timbuctoo, and of the tales which wander- 
 ing marabouts had related of the wealth and learning 
 of its inhabitants. ' There are marvels to be seen in 
 foreign lands,' said I. ' Oh, if I could but go to them ! *
 
 358 THE STORY OF SO LI MA [Book III 
 
 And as this wish passed across my mind, the words of the 
 marabout came back upon my ear : ' If he is young, and 
 wishes to travel, he loads his asses with 7neixha?idise, and 
 journeys, selling it from place to place. Everywhere he is 
 received zuith joy and kindness, becanse he is a holy man! 
 I must therefore become a marabout, thought I, if I 
 wish to travel into foreign lands. After turning this 
 over in my mind, I began to contemplate the prospect 
 with pleasure. But suddenly I recollected my betrothal. 
 If I travelled far away, I could not marr}^ Fatima ; I 
 should never become Al Mami of Ghadima. Poor 
 Fatima ! And I had already almost forgotten her ! 
 These vague hopes had half erased her image from my 
 mind. I began to hesitate and doubt, and almost 
 repented of my betrothal. Yet no doubt I should have 
 married her ; the age of curiosity and romance would 
 have passed away ; and I should have fallen back into 
 ordinary life, had it not been for a strange event, unlike 
 anything that had occurred in our country before. 
 
 In the beginning of this history, I said that I was 
 brought up in the Mahommedan faith ; and yet I have 
 described my countrymen performing Pagan rites, and 
 crediting Pagan fables. This apparent contradiction 
 shall now be explained. The Foulas are Moslem in 
 name, but have retained many heathen customs. They 
 worship the heavenly bodies, and make use of charms 
 to protect them from evil spirits ; they practise the art 
 of magic ; and vestiges of the old animal worship are 
 preserved among them. When their youth are circum-
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SO LIMA 359 
 
 cised they are taken to the bush, and subjected to 
 painful and mysterious rites, which a fearful oath binds 
 them never to reveal. Besides this, they neglect the 
 laws of the Koran ; in their towns is a mosque, but 
 it is little used ; they seldom pray ; they drink palm- 
 wine ; the rich men marry more than four wives ; the 
 women do not veil their faces ; they know nothing of 
 God but His name; they^are ignorant of the mysteries 
 which the Koran reveals — the creation of the world, the 
 succession of prophets, the mission of Mahommed, whom 
 they suppose to have been a warrior chief. They know 
 nothing of heaven and hell, but believe that the spirits 
 of the dead go to a land of ghosts beneath the ground, 
 and sometimes arise to hover around their sepulchres 
 and homes. 
 
 My master, however, had taught me when I prayed 
 to turn my face towards the East. In that direction lay 
 the city of Mecca, the birthplace of Mahommed. He 
 told me it was far away. The road thereto was through 
 burning deserts, infested with genii, serpents, and 
 robbers. But if the pilgrim reached the city, he was 
 rewarded for all that he had undergone. The houses 
 wece of silver, and its streets were strewed with gold ; 
 there was no sickness within its walls ; and in the Great 
 Mosque might be seen four angels, who held in their 
 hands the true Koran (from which all others were 
 copies), and who were relieved every seven days by 
 four other angels, to the sound of celestial miisic. 
 
 I had always believed that the pilgrimage to Mecca
 
 36o THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 from our country was impossible. I once asked my 
 master if a Foula had at any time ever made the attempt. 
 He replied that about fifteen years ago a young man 
 named Oumar had left the country for that purpose, in 
 spite of the entreaties of his friends. Since then no 
 tidings of him had been received, and there could be 
 little doubt that he was dead. His family had long 
 since ceased to mourn for him ; they had indeed looked 
 upon his departure as his death, and had stripped their 
 bodies and shaved their heads, and celebrated the 
 funeral rites, as soon as the horizon had concealed him 
 from their sight. 
 
 Such was the account my master gave me of 
 Oumar, who had been surnamed the Rash and the 
 Unfortunate. Judge then of our surprise when the news 
 came to us that he had returned from Mecca, where he 
 had gained enormous wealth ; that he travelled every- 
 where, preaching the true faith, and war against the 
 heathen ; and that in a few days he would arrive at 
 Ghadima. 
 
 As soon as messengers announced that he had 
 reached that town, Missera became empty. The old 
 men went on horseback, the young men went on foot. 
 The excitement was greater than when the white man 
 had been there, and in a short time I was almost the 
 only man left in the town. But in spite of my earnest 
 entreaties my mother would not let me go. Mad with 
 rage, I was rushing to the wood, when my master met 
 me, and made me return. At first I resisted, but he
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 361 
 
 said, in a solemn voice : ' Solima, do nothing foolish. 
 I swear by the sacred salt that this day you shall go 
 with me to Ghadima.' I went back, but did not believe 
 his promise, and felt a bitter joy in being able to taunt 
 him with a broken oath. We entered the house together, 
 and found my mother in her usual attitude of gloom. 
 Squatting before the fire, which had gone out, she was 
 staring fixedly at an earthen pot, which hung over the 
 grey ashes. When the marabout spoke, she turned 
 quickly round, and when she saw that I was with him, 
 hardened her face. 
 
 * Mother,' he said, * Solima wishes to go and see 
 Oumar the pilgrim. All the other young men are gone, 
 as you know. To-day I am going myself; may I take 
 him with me } ' 
 
 My mother had turned her back upon him as soon 
 as he began to speak. When he had finished, she said, 
 without looking at him, ' No ! ' 
 
 ' Solima,' said the marabout, ' I wish for a little 
 conversation with your mother. I have some arguments 
 which I think will remove her objections ; but as they 
 relate exclusively to yourself, I prefer that you should 
 not hear them, at least, just now. Retire to a little 
 distance, my son, and in a few moments you shall be at 
 liberty to return.' 
 
 I went, and sat under the great tree. Thence I 
 could see plainly through the open door the figures of 
 my mother and the marabout. I could tell by his 
 outstretched palms that he was still expostulating and
 
 362 THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 entreating, while she, with her back towards him, 
 seemed to preserve an insulting silence. Suddenly she 
 turned, and pointed to the door. He replied with the 
 same placid gestures. She rose and placed her hand 
 upon his shoulder. I could see that she was com- 
 manding him to quit the house. But he stepped across 
 the room, and placed his hand upon the pot that was 
 hanging over the ashes. Then I passed my hand across 
 my eyes. What ! did I see my mother kneeling at his 
 feet .'' He looked over his shoulder, saw me, and closed 
 the door. Some time afterwards he called me. My 
 mother was outwardly calm, but did not speak in her 
 natural voice. She told me briefly that her fears for 
 my safety had made her refuse to let me go to Ghadima, 
 but as my master was willing to take charge of me, her 
 objections were removed. Only this I must promise, 
 that during my absence I would obey him as a 
 father. 
 
 I ran to saddle the horse, which the elders of 
 Missera had given me for my services as huntsman of 
 the town. What I had seen perplexed me ; but I 
 supposed that in some way or other he had worked 
 upon her superstitions, as marabouts so well know how 
 to do. He and I were now good friends, and on the 
 way I opened my heart, and confessed that, were 
 it not for my betrothal I should like to become a 
 marabout, and to travel far away. 
 
 * Yes,' said he, * were it not for that you might join 
 Oumar, and go to the war.'
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SO LIMA 363 
 
 ' Yes, were it not for that ; but now it is impossible.' 
 I gave an involuntary sigh, and I thought I saw him 
 smile. 
 
 When we entered Ghadima we went to the Mami. 
 While he and my master were talking together, I felt a 
 soft hand placed upon my shoulder. I turned round, 
 and saw Fatima. She led me into an adjoining house, 
 which happened to be empty, and then flinging her 
 arms round my neck, she said : ' O Solima, I have 
 been so lonely, so sad, and when they told me your 
 mother was ill-treating you, I felt as if my heart would 
 die. But I have you now in my arms, O my gold ! 
 You pretended to come and see the Pilgrim, but it was 
 really Fatima — was it not } Speak to me ! speak to me ! 
 let me hear your voice.' 
 
 I was about to reply, when a loud, harsh voice 
 sounded from without — ' Come to pi'ayers ! Come to 
 prayers ! Come to Security ! God is great. There is 710 
 God but one God, and MaJwmmed is the messenger of 
 God! 
 
 At the same time the marabout entered the house. 
 ' The Pilgrim is going to preach,' said he. ' Will you 
 come and hear him, or would you rather stay with 
 Fatima .^ ' 
 
 She took my hand, but I drew it away, and whis- 
 pered, * Soon I will return ; ' then hastened from the 
 house. 
 
 The Pilgrim stood upon a high stone in the centre 
 of the town, for the mosque was not large enough to
 
 364 THE STORY OF SO LI MA [Book III 
 
 contain the congregation. He told us that the world 
 was made by God, a great King who dwelt above the 
 sky ; and that after this life was over, those who had 
 done good would dwell with Him in happiness eternal, 
 and those who had done evil would be tormented in a 
 fire which would never be extinguished. And in order 
 that men might know what they should do to please 
 their Sovereign and Creator, He had sent down upon 
 the earth from time to time prophets or messengers, to 
 instruct men, and to turn them from their sins. One of 
 these prophets was Abraham ; another was Moses ; 
 another was Jesus, whom the Christians profanely 
 worshipped as a god ; but the best and greatest was 
 Mahommed. To him God had given a Book, in which 
 was written, in words of divine beauty, all that was 
 necessary for the guidance of man upon the earth. The 
 laws and precepts of this book were imperfectly obeyed 
 and imperfectly understood by the children of the 
 Foulas ; and so God had put it into Oumar's heart to 
 leave the Holy City, to abandon those dear and sacred 
 places hallowed by the memory of the prophets, and to 
 revisit the land of his childhood, that he might save his 
 countrymen from the fire and the death. He told us 
 that this life was but a journey, a probation ; and that 
 the real life of man would be passed in the eternal land 
 beyond the grave. Then he revealed the joys of 
 heaven, and the horrible torments of hell. He stretched 
 out his hands, and implored us to fast and pray, and 
 give alms, and to abandon the forbidden pleasures of
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SO LI MA 365 
 
 this life, that we might inherit the joys of paradise. 
 His burning and passionate words went straight as 
 arrows to the heart. In all the crowd before him there 
 was not one who did not weep. But as for me, who 
 had been prepared for his words, as a harp is tuned for 
 the hands of the musician, how can I describe the 
 emotions which I felt } When his voice ceased, I 
 hstened and listened, hoping that I might hear him 
 speak again. I ran forth into the fields ; I knelt and 
 prayed to God, no longer for me a name and a dream, 
 but a great and living Person enthroned above the 
 sky. I spent the whole night thus, and at day- 
 break I returned home to the hut, vrhere I fell into a 
 slumber, disturbed by frightful dreams. I felt on fire, 
 and cried out I was in hell. When I awoke I 
 found myself surrounded by the people of the house. 
 Fatima was weeping. Her father and the marabout 
 looked at me with anxious eyes. My skin was 
 burning ; I was covered with pain as with a gar- 
 ment ; and for three days the fever never left me. 
 Fatima nursed me, but I called her by opprobrious names. 
 I asked her how she dared to look upon me with 
 her naked face. I called for water, that I might make 
 the ablutions. I became delirious ; and ail m.y ravings 
 were prayers. 
 
 I recovered my senses, but yet I seemed to be mad : 
 for when Fatima began to sing one of those songs which 
 I had loved so much, I ordered her with curses to be 
 silent ; and sending for the marabout, I prayed him to
 
 366 THE STORY OF SO LI MA [Book III 
 
 chant some verses of the Koran, that the unhallowed 
 sounds might be taken from my ears. 
 
 The fever was severe, but it quickly passed away ; 
 and as soon as I was well, I began to think how I 
 could best break off my engagement with Fatima. As 
 if conjecturing my thoughts, she knelt to me, and said 
 that if I wished to follow the Pilgrim, she would leave 
 her home and go with me. But this I knew^ her father 
 would not allow ; and, moreover, I no longer wished her 
 to be mine. I know not how it was that my heart had 
 been estranged from hers without a cause ; but so it was. 
 My affection had become indifference, and my indiffer- 
 ence was now changed into aversion. I hungered for 
 an ascetic and pleasureless life. 
 
 As soon as I was able to travel, the marabout told 
 me he was ready to return. I had not yet broken off 
 with Fatima, and determined to do so at once. The 
 marabout gave me a hint, which I followed, little 
 knowing to what it would lead. When Fatima came to 
 bid me farewell, she asked me in piteous tones why it 
 was that I had treated her so badly. I accused her of 
 insulting my mother. She trembled from head to foot, 
 and asked me to forgive her. I insisted on knowing 
 the reason of her conduct. She said it was impossible 
 to tell me. I charged her w'th deceit ; she did not 
 reply. But then seeing by my face that I would surely 
 part from her in anger if she did not vindicate herself, 
 she said that she would tell me all, if I promised that I 
 would never speak of it at any future time ; and then
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA i^e-j 
 
 sitting at my feet, and looking on the ground, she 
 said : — 
 
 * Dear Solima, you remember that night when your 
 mother was boiling herbs, how strange her manner was. 
 The next day I found some stems and leaves thrown 
 out behind the house. We girls are curious in herbs. 
 I had never seen that kind before, so I stooped down 
 and took them in my hand. Just then the marabout 
 came by. "What are these .^ " said I to him. "A 
 poison," he replied; "six drops of the juice would kill 
 the strongest man that ever breathed." " A poison ! " I 
 cried, in the surprise of the moment ; " but what could 
 our mother want with that } " " Oh, has she been using 
 it ^ " he said. '' W^ell, you must know, my little girl, 
 that all poisons are medicines if you use a little, and all 
 medicines are poisons if you use too much." 
 
 ' Next day, Solima, your father died. The mara- 
 bout came to me and said, ''Be silent!' I obeyed his 
 commands, but I could not altogether dissemble. I 
 could not sleep with your mother, nor pretend to love 
 her as before.' 
 
 I felt that what she said was true. I remembered 
 my mother's hatred of the huntsman, and her sudden 
 reconciliation ; and besides, the scene with the marabout 
 was now explained. My resolution was at once taken. 
 ' Fatima,' I said ; * if you really loved me you would 
 not have told me this. Henceforth we are parted. 
 / repejit of my betrothal! 
 
 I heard her give a low cry, rise to follow me, and
 
 368 THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 fall upon the ground. I ran from the house without 
 looking back, sprang upon my horse, and telling the 
 marabout to follow me, galloped out of the town. 
 
 My face must have shown my mother that I knew 
 all ; and from that hour we changed parts. But while 
 her cruelty had known intervals of fondness, mine 
 knew none. She became humble and resigned ; but I 
 was inexorable. She addressed me in a low, sweet 
 voice ; I remembered how sweetly she had spoken to 
 the huntsman. At night, when she thought that I was 
 sleeping, she caressed me with her trembling hands, 
 and I felt the hot tears as they dropped upon my 
 cheeks ; but I remembered how she had sat by the 
 corpse singing his praises, and raining tears upon him. 
 
 I passed all my time in chanting the Koran, in 
 ablutions, and in prayers. A messenger arrived from 
 the Pilgrim to say that he would shortly leave Ghadima 
 to march against the Pagans of the west. He invited 
 all good Moslems to join him in the Holy War. 
 
 My old master was willing and anxious I should go. 
 I was now regarded as his chief pupil and his son : my 
 glory would be his. Besides, my piety and zeal were 
 placing me above him in the popular esteem. I told 
 him to take my horse, and to meet me at the brink 
 of the jungle. Exalted by sorrow and religion, I spoke 
 to him as if I were the master, and he the novice. He 
 bowed his head, and said that I would find him there. 
 The messenger went before me to Ghadima with the 
 news. I went at evening to the appointed spot.
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SO LIMA 369 
 
 'Have you told her?' said he, pointing with his 
 chin towards our house. 
 
 * No,' said I ; ' will you do so for me ? ' 
 
 * Yes,' he answered ; ' I will tell her of it softly — a 
 little at a time.' 
 
 I felt a pang of remorse when I thought of the 
 torture and suspense this man would make my mother 
 undergo. He hated her because she had insulted him 
 before the people. Me also he hated in his heart ; but 
 I was useful to him as a weapon of revenge. I hesi- 
 tated for a moment ; at least I might tell her where I 
 had gone. But I was now on the brink of the jungle, 
 where my father and I had so often sat together ; 
 every sound among the trees, every perfume that rose 
 from the earth, reminded me of him. I drove the 
 stirrups into my horse's flank, and galloped swiftly 
 away. But soon the shades of descending night obliged 
 me to ride more slowly. I became calm, and throwing 
 the reins upon my horse's neck, thought only of the 
 Pilgrim and the Holy War. 
 
 But as I approached Ghadima a fresh anxiety tor- 
 mented me. I should now be compelled to meet 
 Fatima, to call the elders of Ghadima together, to de- 
 mand in public a divorce, and to dishonour her before 
 them all. When I remembered that her conduct to- 
 wards me had been faultless, and her fidelity unchanged, 
 I felt grief and pain ; yet I resolved to do it, whatever 
 might be the cost. 
 
 I arrived in the town at midday, and found that 
 VOL. I. B B
 
 370 THE STORY OF SO LI MA [Book III 
 
 the streets were full. I observed that every one looked 
 at me in a strange manner, then turned towards 
 one another, and laughed. A troop of girls met 
 me — they burst into merriment ; and one of them 
 pointed at me with her thumb. A little farther on I 
 saw Fatima seated beneath the great tree in the centre 
 of the square. I half stopped my horse, but could not 
 turn back. She was surrounded by girls, one of whom 
 anointed her with oil, while another decorated her hair 
 with flowers. A tall young man, one of the shepherds 
 of the town, was leaning against the tree and playing 
 on a flute which I recognised as hers. When Fatima 
 saw me she said something to her companions, and they 
 sang aloud the love-song which I had forbidden her to 
 sing. 
 
 I was received in the usual manner by the slaves 
 of the Mami, one of whom led away my horse, while 
 another brought me a bowl of rice and milk. When I 
 had finished my repast, I was informed that the elders 
 wished to see me in the council-house. I found the 
 building encircled by a dense crowd of people, principally 
 women, who tittered as I passed through. Fatima was 
 standing before the elders, in a haughty attitude, and 
 elegantly adorned. In her hand was a thorny plant. 
 Her father having ordered silence, asked her what she 
 had to say. 
 
 ' Father of my love,' she said, ' and Mami of Ghadima 
 the son of Hassan is no longer that Solima to whom I 
 was betrothed. Then he was a brave huntsman ; now
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 2>1^ 
 
 he does nought but wash himseh' and pray. Therefore 
 / rcpe7it of my betrothal ; and I pray you to hberate me 
 from him.* 
 
 According to custom, the Mami asked her three 
 times if her mind was still the same, and three times she 
 answered as before. He then bade her give me the 
 thorny plant, and cast three handfuls of dust upon 
 my head. To have avoided this disgrace I would have 
 married her, and abandoned the course I had determined 
 to adopt. I was at that age when one can sacrifice every- 
 thing to escape from shame. But her eyes would not 
 meet mine, with which I offered to espouse her. She 
 came towards me, looking vacantly before her, with a 
 smile upon her lips. As she placed th.^ plant of bitterness 
 within my hand, I felt that hers was cold. As she dropped 
 the dust upon my head she breathed nervously and 
 hard. Then with a gasp, which was heard by me alone, 
 and laughing loudly, she sprang back among the crowd, 
 and hastened to her father's house. The m.en shouted 
 after her some sarcasms, but the women gave a loud yell 
 of derision ; and the town griot, dancing into the circle, 
 sang a ballad which he had composed in ridicule of the 
 rejected. 
 
 I was now completely severed from the past. My 
 master led me to the Pilgrim, and explained that I 
 wished to become his disciple, and a holy man. Taking 
 off my silver robe, I laid it at his feet, expressing a 
 regret that I had no better present to bring. But as it 
 was esteemed of priceless value among the Foulas, I 
 
 B B 2
 
 372 THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book IIIJ 
 
 secretly hoped that Oumar would be dazzled by its 
 splendour. He looked at it, however, with careless eyes, 
 and showed only curiosity to hear how I had obtained 
 it. He then rose, and drawing a short curved sword, cut 
 the precious garment into shreds. 'Young man,' he 
 said, turning towards me, and smiling very sweetly, ' I 
 praise the skill which merited this prize, and thank the 
 heart which would bestow it upon me. But know that 
 the Holy Prophet (all-praised be his name) has forbidden 
 his followers to adorn themselves with such vanities as 
 these. Only infidels and bad Moslems wear this glitter- 
 ing garb, which is called silk, and which is no stranger 
 to my eyes. It is also forbidden to wear red cloth and 
 rings of gold. For God observes not the body of man 
 but his heart, which should be clothed in pious thoughts, 
 and embellished with acts of godliness and faith.' 
 
 He looked at me keenly ; and when he saw that my 
 only emotion was regret in having worn that which was 
 forbidden, he took a surplice and cap of his own, and 
 placed them upon me. * Henceforth,' he said, * you are 
 a marabout. I ordain you a servant of the Most High ; ' 
 and he placed his hands upon my head. 
 
 We spent the whole day together ; and when we 
 were alone, I cast myself at his feet, and related my life, 
 and especially my mother's crime, and implored his 
 guidance. He reproved me severely for having left her 
 without saying farewell, and ordered a messenger to be 
 sent to her with a filial greeting from myself; and a 
 promise that, with God's permission, she should see me
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SO LI MA 
 
 373 
 
 as soon as I returned from the war. He told me, in a 
 gentle voice, how Alahommed being asked to which of a 
 man's relations he owed the most love and obedience, 
 replied, ' The mother — the mother — the mother !' 
 
 ' You think, Solima,' he continued, ' that the blood 
 of that old man is on your mother's head alone. But 
 no, it is also^on yours; also on his own. Sins have their 
 parentage, and hers was the offspring of his and your 
 deceit. He taught you to assume sorrow, to shed false 
 tears, to carry two tongues between your lips, to make 
 your life a lie ! He trained you to treachery, and by 
 treachery he died. 
 
 ' Your mother's crime is terrible, but it may yet be 
 pardoned, for God is merciful and just. What says 
 the prophet David in the Psalms 1 '* A humble and con- 
 trite heart He will not despise." And the holy Koran 
 teaches us that those who repent of their sins will 
 be forgiven. Solima, it shall be the duty of your life 
 when this campaign is ended, to return to your mother, 
 to lead her to repentance and to save her soul. Even 
 now I would send you from me, but as yet you 
 know not Islam. I must teach you to read that Book, 
 of which you have learnt nothing but the outward 
 words.' 
 
 He then read to me passages from the Koran, 
 translating them into the Foula language, and en- 
 couraged me to speak boldly, and to tell him what I 
 thought. When I confessed that there were doctrines 
 which I did not comprehend, and which even appeared
 
 374 THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 to mc incredible, he replied that I must have faith, and 
 that then all things would be made easy to my mind. 
 I asked him what was faith. He took me by the hand 
 and led me to one of the huts which the Mami had 
 assigned for his slaves. 
 
 * Mustapha, come hither,' he said. 
 
 An aged negro came forth from the smoky interior 
 of the room. At first I thought that he had been 
 drinking palm-wine, for he tottered as he walked, and 
 felt the air with his hands stretched out before him ; 
 but when I looked at his eyes I saw that they were all 
 white and crusted over, except the edges, which were of 
 a bright scarlet. I was alarmed at his appearance, for 
 blindness is little known in the Foula country, in which 
 are shady trees, pure waters, and no large tracts of sand. 
 I shrank back as he approached us ; but when Oumar 
 reproved me with a look, I stepped forward and took his 
 hand in mine, and assisted him to sit down upon a mat 
 which his master spread upon the floor. 
 
 ' Mustapha was born blind,' said the Pilgrim. ' Those 
 beautiful things which delight our eyes are unknown to. 
 him. Tell me, Mustapha, who am I } ' 
 
 When his master addressed him, a smile came upon 
 his lips. 
 
 'You are Oumar, the Messenger of God,' he said, 
 ' and the master of Mustapha's life.' 
 
 * How do you know me } ' asked Oumar, seating him- 
 self also on the mat. 
 
 * I know you b}- your voice ; I know you by your
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 375 
 
 breathing ; I know you by your footsteps.' He passed 
 his hand over the Pilgrim's face. ' And I know you by 
 that,' he said. 
 
 ' Mustapha,' said the Pilgrim gently, * will it pain 
 you if I speak of those things which you do not 
 know t ' 
 
 ' Oh, master,' he cried, ' how can your voice give me 
 pain 1 Whenever you speak my heart feels warm. 
 Sometimes it feels cold, cold, cold, and I say to myself, 
 " Poor Mustapha ! soon, a little while, and you will not 
 trouble your master any more." But when you speak, 
 heigh ! heigh ! my blood runs, my heart dances, and I 
 say, " Mustapha will never die so long as he can hear 
 his master speak." ' 
 
 * You know, Mustapha, that we have something which 
 you have not. When we go to a strange place we lead 
 you by the hand. Now I will tell you how this is. It 
 is because you cannot see the light.' 
 
 • ' What is light > ' said Mustapha. 
 
 * Solima,' said the Pilgrim, ' explain it to him.' 
 
 I tried to make him understand that it was some- 
 thing which made us see, but all my efforts were in 
 vain. He only shook his head doubtfully, and stretched 
 out his hands to feel this light which I attempted to 
 describe. 
 
 Then I said, ' It is plain to me, oh my father, that 
 since Mustapha has been blind from his birth he cannot 
 comprehend the light or those objects which the light 
 displays. Could he behold this speck of dust he could
 
 376 THE STORY OF SO LIMA [Book III 
 
 imagine the rest. But he can see nothing, and therefore 
 he can understand nothing.' 
 
 Then Oumar turned towards me. 
 
 * As Mustapha understands not the things of this 
 world, so we understand not the things of the world 
 above the sky. And as Mustapha by faith believes 
 that there is light, which yet appears to him to be 
 impossible by reason of his infirmity, so do we believe 
 also in those mysteries which by reason of our spiritual 
 blindness we cannot comprehend.' 
 
 The next morning we left Ghadima, Oumar riding 
 before us on a beautiful grey horse which he had brought 
 from the neighbourhood of Mecca. We were only fifty 
 in number, and the Pilgrim intended to travel for a month 
 through the Foula country, preaching in the mosques 
 and gathering recruits. He no longer preached charity 
 and fasting and prayer, but took always as the text of 
 his sermon that passage in the Koran : ' Oh prophet ! stir 
 up the faithful to war! It was his intention first to collect 
 an army, and to invade the blacks of the West, and the 
 country of the Golden King. Enriched with the spoils 
 he would return and unite the scattered Foula tribes, 
 and conquer the princes of Bornou and Baghirmi, who 
 were nominally Moslem, but who did not follow strictly 
 the precepts of the Koran. Having established a great 
 and holy empire, having restored the true religion in its 
 purity, he would then invade the possessions of the 
 infidel white men, and drive them into the sea. 
 
 We had arrived at the third town, and it was now
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 377 
 
 the sixth day of our departure. Few recruits came 
 in, and the Pilgrim was much discouraged by the 
 apathy and slowness of the Foulas. We were seated 
 together in his house, and he was reading to me from 
 the Koran. It was deep in the night, and all the town 
 people were asleep. Suddenly we heard a noise outside 
 the door ; it was like a faint sigh, and was followed by a 
 moan. I ran and opened the door : a human body fell 
 heavily against me : I staggered : Oumar came to my 
 assistance, and we laid her on a mat, for we found it 
 was a woman. She was almost naked ; a few rags 
 hung round her, and her body was covered with dirt 
 and her feet with blood. So horrible was her appear- 
 ance that I looked at her with as much repugnance as 
 compassion. But Oumar raised her head, and beckoned 
 to me for the light. I brought it and recognised my 
 mother. 
 
 God only knows what she had suffered on the way, 
 and what strange instinct had led her after me to 
 Oumar's house. . I looked and looked again, scarcely 
 able to believe that she could so have changed. From 
 her soft and rounded limbs the flesh had wasted, and 
 had left her bones angular and protruding. Her cheeks 
 were two deep hollows, her lips of a bluish white, and 
 her eyes, which had once been so beautiful, were small 
 and dim, and sunk deeply in the head. 
 
 When she saw me standing before her an expression 
 passed across her lips too horrible to be called a smile. 
 She said Solima in a hoarse whisper, and held out her
 
 378 THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 bony hand. When I took it she fainted. Oumar 
 sprinkled water in her face ; awaking his slaves, he 
 bid them kill a goat and boil some of the meat into 
 a broth. As soon as she had drunk this her eyes 
 became bright, and she began to speak. But Oumar 
 bade her be silent, and directed the slaves to bathe 
 her wounds. Then he touched me on the shoulder, 
 and we left the house. 
 
 There is a period in all men's lives when a film falls 
 from the mind, and we then look back with new eyes 
 into the past. We read therein the brutalities of our 
 boyhood : the insects we have tortured and killed in 
 sport ; the perverseness with which we have wounded 
 the hearts of those who loved us ; the blind unthanking 
 selfishness with which we have received the tenderest 
 tokens of affection Till this faculty of reason or con- 
 science is awakened we can continue sinning in cruel 
 ignorance, without scruple and without shame ; but 
 when once it has made its voice heard it is never silent 
 again ; and within the heart is established a divine and 
 terrible tribunal. 
 
 When I saw the naked and wounded body of my 
 mother, when she placed her emaciated hand in mine, 
 I felt that I had been ungrateful and cowardly and cruel. 
 I felt that were she to die, her only son would be her 
 murderer. I looked nervously at Oumar, who strode 
 through the silent street, his lips pressed tightly to- 
 gether, and his eyes upon the ground. I clasped his
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SO LIMA 379 
 
 robe and prayed him to speak. He turned and looked 
 fixedly into my face. 
 
 ' Ah, Solima,' he said, ' if that sight had not moved your 
 heart I would have driven you from me for ever. The 
 other day when I told you of your wickedness and your 
 deceit, I saw that you did not understand me. But now 
 you are saved.' 
 
 ' And my mother 1 ' I asked. 
 
 He was silent for a little while ; then he said, ' You 
 have been guilty of wrongs towards your mother ; but 
 she has committed an abominable crime ; and until she 
 has purified herself by penitence and prayer I may not 
 join your heart to hers. Do not hope then to see her 
 again at present. Go to another house to sleep, and 
 meet me at daybreak at the western gate. This night 
 I will pass with her, and will direct her in the right 
 way, and will instruct her how she must live, to be 
 reconciled with God in heaven and with you on earth.' 
 
 He pressed my hand and returned. I went to 
 ]\Iustapha's hut, and lying down beside him embraced 
 him tenderly. I felt a sudden love for him because, 
 like my mother, he was unfortunate. When I spoke 
 he detected a peculiar tone in my voice, and asked 
 me what had happened. I told all my troubles to 
 this poor negro, whom a few days before I would 
 have scorned to address ; and my confidence was 
 repaid, for he consoled me. ' No one,' he said, 
 * could resist the Pilgrim's words : my mother would 
 do whatever he advised ; and then after he had
 
 38o THE STORY OF SO LIMA [Book III 
 
 destroyed the enemies of the Prophet he would bring 
 me back to her again.' So contagious is faith that 
 I went to sleep feeling happy and calm. The next day 
 Oumar said to me smiling, * Fear not, Solima, your 
 mother is converted.' 
 
 As we rode from the town a man galloped up, his 
 horse covered with foam. 
 
 ' The Moors are upon us,' he cried ; * they have 
 driven our herds away.' 
 
 * Where is their camp } ' asked Oumar. 
 
 * It is behind that hill.' 
 
 * Why have you not attacked them } ' 
 
 * They are too strong for us,' replied the man. 
 
 The Moors inhabit the great sandy desert, and make 
 sudden forays on the Soudan. They are mounted on 
 horses and camels, swift as the wind. They are armed 
 with a spear, and sword, and a shield, on which is painted 
 the image of a cross. Their faces are bandaged under- 
 neath their eyes with a cloth, sometimes black, some- 
 times white ; it is put on early in boyhood — it is never 
 removed, and is only raised a little when they eat. 
 These people are terrible in war. The Foulas dare not 
 meet them in the open field. But Oumar assured us of 
 the victory, and his courage kindled a fire in our hearts. 
 We rode to the top of the hill, and saw beneath us a 
 camp of leatlicrn tents, and men walking to and fro, and 
 the plain co\crcd with the stolen cattle. We galloped 
 swiftly down the hill through the trees, and almost took 
 them unawares. But they uttered cries, their horses ran
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 381 
 
 to them, and they sprang upon their backs. We charged 
 at full speed. I fixed my eyes on one man, and gal- 
 loped straight towards him. He did not see me coming, 
 for his eyes were fixed on Oumar. There was a crash, 
 and we sprawled upon the ground. I rose first, and 
 found that his horse had fallen upon him. I stabbed 
 him in the breast, and the blood spurted from his 
 mouth. At this sight I howled with rage, and stabbed 
 him again and again. Then I suddenly felt sick, but 
 only for a moment. Looking round me, I saw the 
 bodies of the Moors — not one had escaped. Here and 
 there I saw some Foulas staunching a companion's 
 wounds, while Oumar was searching amongst the corpses 
 for that of the chieftain. When he found it was I who 
 had killed him, he raised his voice, and said: 'O Foulas ! 
 honour Solima, the son of Hassan. While we rushed on 
 these dogs, blinded with rage, he singled out the chief- 
 tain. Solima, I appoint you the lieutenant of my 
 army.' 
 
 The temptation was strong, but I resisted it. * O 
 Pilgrim ! ' I answered, ' I dare not lie. I knew not that 
 it was the chieftain ; and his horse fell on him, so that a 
 child could have taken his life.' 
 
 Then Oumar's eyes filled with tears, and he raised 
 them towards heaven. * O God ! ' he cried, * this soul, 
 which was reared in deceit, I restore to Thee pure as the 
 water of the living rock. Solima, you have shown more 
 courage than if you had slaughtered ten chieftains. 
 Remain my Heutenant, and become my son.'
 
 382 THE srORY OF SO LI MA [Book III 
 
 When it was known and spread abroad that Oumar 
 had conquered the Moors, hitherto regarded as invin- 
 cible, warriors crowded to him from all quarters, and 
 prayed him to lead them against the Golden King. It 
 was now the month of the Fast, or Rhamadan, and 
 Oumar announced that he would set forth as soon as it 
 was over. He made me live with him in the same hut ; 
 our mats were spread side by side upon the floor. This 
 month was the happiest period of my life. From dawn 
 to dusk we might neither eat nor drink ; but I rejoiced 
 in the torments of hunger and thirst, for now I tasted 
 the sublime joys of sacrifice and self-denial. My whole 
 being was elevated and refined ; I dwelt not on earth, 
 but in the land above the sky. I sought to do things 
 to which I was naturally disinclined, that I might enjoy 
 the benedictions which Oumar and my conscience after- 
 wards bestowed. I went and sat amongst the lepers ; I 
 assisted the slaves to draw water at the wells ; I begged 
 alms of the elders, and distributed them amongst the 
 poor. I looked forward to the future with tranquillity, 
 for if I died in battle should I not awake in Paradise } 
 And if my life was spared, I would devote it to my 
 mother. How delightful it was to sit beside Oumar, and 
 to hear him discourse of the happiness of heaven, and 
 on the joys of gazing on the countenance of God. The 
 life of that noble man was ever before me as an ex- 
 ample. I saw with what patience he endured the priva- 
 tions and disappointments q{ his Hfe, the hardness of 
 heart, the ingratitude and coldness to which he was con-
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 383 
 
 tinually exposed. Never did I hear a \\\)rd of anger or 
 complaint issue from his lips. The Prophet, he would 
 say, suffered more than this ; he was mocked and 
 jeered by the women, and pelted by the children in the 
 streets. His kinsmen even refused to believe him ; and 
 his enemies sought for his life. 'O SoHma,' he said, 
 * God sees all that we endure for His sake upon the 
 earth ; and He will console us in the life to come.' 
 
 Yet I obser\'ed that Oumar was sometimes gloomy 
 and depressed — not on account of the troubles that were 
 present, but in silent and solitary hours, or when he 
 had been speaking of his younger days. Once he said 
 to me, ' God is just, my son ; God is just ; but He is 
 also compassionate and merciful.' Then he gave a deep 
 sigh, and added, 'happily for us.' One night I heard 
 him groaning. I stirred the fire, and bent over him, 
 thinking he was ill. Then I saw that he was sleeping. 
 But his face was distorted, and his hands were clasped ; 
 and he murmured, in melancholy accents, * Have pity 
 upon me, O Lord ; have pity upon me — forgive me my 
 sin.' Then the fire flamed up. He awoke, and gave it a 
 horrible look. ' Oh bring me the Koran ! ' he exclaimed ; 
 and he read it till the hour of the morning prayer. 
 
 The Rhamadan was over. The troops were assem- 
 bled, and we marched towards the setting sun. In two 
 months we had passed the country of the Foulas, and 
 had entered the land of the ]\Iandingoes ; who also were 
 Moslems, and rode on horses, and dwelt in walled 
 towns. We then reached the borders of the Lowlands.
 
 384 THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 The last Moslem town was situated on the verge of the 
 Plateau. Beneath us lay a wide expanse of forest land, 
 with rivers here and there, like silver threads. We 
 descended the mountains with toil, on account of the 
 rocks and ravines ; and when we had once more reached 
 the level land, we saw behind us the steep and gloomy 
 hills, which, covered entirely with trees, resembled a 
 high green wall. But all was hope and gladness among 
 us, and the army presented a beautiful appearance. In 
 front rode Oumar, distinguished by his turban and his 
 fine grey horse. Above the mass of heads and shining 
 spears arose green banners, embroidered with texts of 
 the Koran in letters of gold. Every man carried a 
 wallet, containing kania, a kind of cake made of millet 
 flour ; also ground nuts, and kolas, a nut which keeps 
 hunger away for hours, or even days. Our journey was 
 enlivened by the sound of horns and drums ; and when 
 these were silent, the red-capped marabouts sang canti- 
 cles of battle, glory, and religion. 
 
 The Mandingoes of the plateau and the Pagans of 
 the valley plain were almost incessantly at war, and 
 between them was a tract of neutral ground inhabited 
 only by wild beasts. On the evening of the third day 
 our scouts returned and informed us that they had 
 discovered a negro town upon the banks of a river 
 that descended from the mountains. Oumar ordered 
 me to approach it as nearly as I could, and to find 
 out, if possible, whether it was fortified, and what 
 might be the number of inhabitants. A scout ofiered
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 385 
 
 me his company, but I preferred to go alone as soon 
 as I had been told the direction of the town. Stripping 
 myself naked, with a cloth round my loins, and a spear 
 in my hand, I crawled through the forest, choosing the 
 thickest parts, as if I was stalking game, until I found 
 myself on the banks of the river and close to the town. 
 Canoes frequently passed me ; they were chiefly plied 
 by women, and were filled with plantains and with 
 fruits which I had never seen before. The sound of 
 voices guided me on ; and as soon as I could see the 
 green leaves of the plantains and the smoke rising 
 above them, I climbed up a high tree whence I could 
 clearly view the town. It was not like those of my own 
 country. It was encircled b}^ no walls ; there was no 
 open square in the centre, and it consisted of one long 
 street. The houses were built not of clay but of wood ; 
 they were not round in shape but square ; and the roofs, 
 which with us are pyramidal in shape, were on an in- 
 clined plane. 
 
 I sat there till it was almost dark. It was a beautiful 
 sight. The blue river rippling gently past and lapping 
 the grassy banks ; the palm trees bending gracefully 
 forwards as if to look at themselves in the stream ; the 
 sun sinking in a green lake of foliage ; and the town 
 itself embedded in the broad-leaved plantains, and 
 mottled by shadows from the tall forest trees. 
 
 Now came canoes every moment to the landing- 
 place with men carrying fish strung on long stems of 
 grass, and women bearing loads of firewood or fruit 
 VOL. I. . C C
 
 386 THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 upon their heads. From the forest came the hunters 
 one by one, armed with spears or bows and arrows ; 
 some of them had killed monkeys and gazelles. Each 
 man as he arrived was saluted by his friends, who placed 
 their hands upon his breast. And now the women were 
 all busy preparing the evening meal : some ran down 
 to the river to fill their clay pitchers ; others with their 
 arms full of wood made up fires in their houses. They 
 uttered loud cries and spoke in a language which I did 
 not understand, and sang and danced and embraced one 
 another as they worked. Never had I seen a people so 
 noisy and so affectionate. I continued to watch them 
 till the last ray of light died away, and then crept back 
 to the encampment. 
 
 We made short work of this village. Before it was 
 light we galloped into the street, placed a guard on the 
 canoes, set fire to the houses, and attacked the people 
 as they came out. Some of them escaped into the 
 forest ; others were taken prisoners. They agreed at 
 once to become true believers, and to guide us to the 
 city of the Golden King. 
 
 But these perfidious people (may they be for ever 
 cursed) led us astray in the mighty forest, and buried 
 us in quagmires. Some of them loosed their bonds in 
 the night and made off; others flung themselves into 
 the rivers ; others we killed, and they sang the death- 
 song with laughter as they stretched out their necks 
 to the sword. We marched and marched in eternal 
 twilight, for the forest was like a covered house, and
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SO LI MA 387 
 
 we seldom saw the sky. The rainy season now came 
 on ; fever broke out among us ; our provisions were 
 exhausted. One by one the horses were killed for 
 food, till Oumar s grey Arab mare alone was left. The 
 Pilgrim loved her as other men love their wives ; he 
 passed hours in caressing her and in singing to her in 
 the Arabic tongue, which she seemed to understand. 
 When he heard the murmuring of voices and saw the 
 hungry eyes of the men, he gave the order for her 
 death. He made her lie down, and then, passing his 
 arms round her neck, placed his lips upon her velvet 
 nostrils, and cutting some hairs from her mane thrust 
 them in his breast. When I drew my knife he shuddered 
 and said, ' Not you ! not you I I should hate you for ever 
 afterwards.' 
 
 At last we fell upon footpaths ; we were again in 
 the neighbourhood of men. But when we came to 
 the plantation or the town, we found that houses 
 and crops had been burnt. The famine increased, 
 and men died every day ; some took the earth of the 
 ant-heaps and devoured it to appease the cravings of 
 the stomach. 
 
 And now we found tliat our movements were observed: 
 the forest was alive with warriors whom we could never 
 see. At night, when the darkness descended on the 
 forest, yells and shrieks rose all around, and arrows flew 
 into our camp : we dared not light fires ; we shivered 
 all the night with the wet and cold. Those who were 
 struck by the arrows were soon seized with a violent
 
 388 THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 thirst, and as soon as they drank they died, the blood 
 bursting from their mouths and ears. 
 
 By day as we marched, men fell into pits and were 
 impaled ; others trod on splints that were poisoned 
 like the arrows ; and on others fell logs of wood from 
 the trees. 
 
 However, it was evident that we were approaching 
 the city of the Golden King ; we saw the holes which 
 had been used by the miners ; the paths were frequent ; 
 and every day we passed villages and plantations, all of 
 them in ashes. 
 
 Our leader continually assured us that our only hope 
 was in reaching the town ; the natives would then be 
 forced to give us battle, and though we were weakened 
 in strength and diminished in numbers, we should yet be 
 able to put them to the rout. We all saw it was im- 
 possible to retreat, and pushed on as quickly as we 
 could. One evening we arrived at a small conical 
 rocky hill. On this we encamped, and for the first 
 time for many nights no arrows fell among us ; no 
 corpses met our eyes when the dawn appeared. 
 
 We descended the hill, and entered the path towards 
 the west. But now flames flashed on all sides ; the 
 wood was filled with thunder and smoke, and men 
 dropped as if stricken by an unseen hand. , ' O Solima,' 
 said Oumar, ' we are lost ! God has g-iven to these 
 people the weapons of the white men ! ' 
 
 We retreated to the hill ; the enemy came forth. 
 We now saw that we were surrounded by thousands of
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 3S9 
 
 negroes, naked and painted, carrying hollow tubes in 
 their hands. The day passed, and the night. We saw 
 their camp fires all around, like one continuous flame. 
 
 Alustapha was a native of an adjoining country, and 
 could make himself understood to these people, as he 
 had discovered by speaking to the prisoners. 
 
 Next morning, instructed by Oumar, I took him to 
 the enemy's camp, and we were courteously received 
 by the captain of the blacks. I confessed that we saw 
 resistance to be useless ; but at least we could die with 
 our arms in our hands, and we should not die alone. If 
 they would give us a few provisions, and let us go in 
 peace, we would then return to our land without doing 
 any more harm. 
 
 1 he captain said it was not in his power to grant 
 our request. His orders from the Idng were these : to 
 bring alive as many of us as he could, but to kill all if 
 we stubbornly resisted. I asked him if he would 
 promise us our lives. He replied that great kings 
 often showed mercy ; he could say no more. 
 
 We returned to Oumar, who privately consulted 
 with Mustapha, and then sent us back to say that his 
 men would leave their weapons on the hill and give 
 themselves up, if the captain promised that none of us 
 should be bound, or in any way ill-used, before our 
 arrival in the town. To this the captain assented ; and 
 all that he did was to separate us from one another, 
 and to place six guards over each man. Thus we were 
 led into the city, which was close at hand.
 
 390 THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 Wc were taken through the streets, which were 
 thronged with people, to the palace of the king. It was 
 a cluster of buildings surrounded by three palisades. 
 In each palisade was a gate, and at each of these gates 
 the captain of the army took off a garment, and 
 crawled in before us naked to an inner apartment. 
 We were ordered to follow, and beheld before us a 
 curtain, and behind it something dark, like the outline 
 of a human form. The captain prostrated himself 
 upon the ground, and cast dust upon his body. A 
 naked foot was protruded from underneath the cur- 
 tain. 
 
 Then the captain spoke : ' O King, father of the 
 people and ruler of the Golden Town, never-eating, 
 never-drinking, never-sleeping, never-dying King ! these 
 people, some of whom you see, belong to a rash and 
 io-norant race dwelling beyond the Green Mountains ; 
 and they believed that it was possible to conquer your 
 land, which has no beginning and which has no end, which 
 the swiftest birds cannot traverse in their flight, the 
 inhabitants of which are more numerous than the trees 
 in the forest, and their children more numerous than the 
 leaves upon the trees. But a few only of the soldiers 
 went forth. Some of these people they have slain, and 
 the rest they have driven in like goats.' 
 
 The foot disappeared, and we were taken back to an 
 outer apartment of the palace, where the priests and 
 nobles were assembled. They privately conferred a 
 little while ; then a crier arose and proclaimed one by
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOL/MA 391 
 
 one the names of those people who should take us to 
 their houses, and who should be answerable for us with 
 their lives. They then called us to follow them, each 
 one taking the Foula billeted upon him. Mustapha 
 only was ordered to remain. Oumar told him to 
 answer all their questions, and to speak the truth. 
 
 We were detained in the town, but were not chained 
 or confined, or beaten or abused ; twice a day we 
 received plantains and cassada cooked in palm oil, 
 and, as if we were guests, they offered us girls, for such 
 is the shameful custom of the country. While some of 
 the Foulas fasted and prayed, and sang verses of the 
 Koran, others delivered themselves up to pleasure. We 
 could see these unfortunate men sitting before their hut 
 doors, drinking palm-wine, with their arms round the 
 waists of the women, crowning themselves with garlands 
 and singing blasphemous songs. * The sun is shining, O 
 Foulas ! ' they sang ; ' the sun is shining, and the earth 
 is sweet. O let us make merry, for the night is at 
 hand.' 
 
 Not a day passed without bringing new comers to 
 the town. So great was the influx of strangers, that 
 soon a large town of huts was erected outside. W^hen 
 we asked what these people had come for, some of the 
 natives replied that a feast was about to be held in 
 honour of the King. 
 
 I passed every day with the Pilgrim, for no restraint 
 was placed upon our actions ; it was only forbidden that 
 we should go outside the town. I found him one day with
 
 392 HIE STORY OF SO LI MA [Book III 
 
 Mustapha, who was weeping, and whose tears Oumar 
 wiped away with his robe. When I entered he grasped 
 me by the hand. 
 
 * To-day,' he said, ' the great feast is to be held, 
 and our bodies will be offered to the Demons. But the 
 king has decreed that twelve men shall be spared, and 
 conducted back to the Mandingo frontier, in order that 
 they may tell the Foulas of the fate which we have 
 suffered, and explain to them the power of the Golden 
 King. Of these men, Solima, you are one.' 
 
 * And you, my father ? ' I said. 
 
 He glanced with compassion at Mustapha. * It is 
 just that I should die,' said he ; 'it is what I ardently 
 desire. I hope that my sufferings may expiate my sins. 
 Now listen to what I have to say. You are a man of a 
 restless heart, hungering and thirsting after knowledge ; 
 the Foula country is too small for you. I will place it 
 in yoLir power to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, and to 
 visit the tomb of the prophet at Medina ; to see Cairo 
 and Istamboul, and even to travel in the west, and to 
 study the learning of the Christians. But first stay 
 three months with your mother ; and wherever you may 
 go, desert not your God, and listen not to the words of 
 philosophers and magicians. 
 
 ' When you have returned to Ghadima, go out in the 
 night-time by the western gate, and take the path into 
 the forest. Three hundred paces in the wood is a tree 
 blasted by the lightning. On the south side of this tree 
 is a large stone ; raise it up, and dig underneath. You
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SO LI MA 393 
 
 will find a bundle of cloth ; it is filled with gold rings 
 and with shining stones. Take the two largest of these 
 stones ; open your skin with a knife, and place them in 
 the wound ; the skin will grow over them, and they will 
 be concealed. Hide the gold rings and the other stones 
 as well as you can upon your person. The gold will 
 enable you to travel to Bornou ; there you can purchase 
 a camel, and ride with the caravan which goes to Cairo 
 once a year. When you come to Cairo, you will ask 
 for a merchant named Abdullah Ben Ali. He will give 
 you in money the value of the stones, and you will find 
 that you are rich.' 
 
 I spoke again of himself, and again he interrupted 
 me. * God,' he cried, ' has rightly punished me for my 
 presumption and hypocrisy. Instead of doing His holy 
 work, my heart lusted after the wealth of this city. 
 Deluded by the Arab tales, I believed that its roofs were 
 of massive gold, and that its treasures could never be 
 exhausted. When you have seen the riches of Cairo, 
 you will smile as I do at the poverty of this miserable 
 people.' 
 
 In order to turn his thoughts to happier days (as I 
 supposed), I asked him where he had found these shin- 
 ing stones of which he had spoken. At this question he 
 shuddered, and covered his face with his robe. Then, 
 taking my hand, he said : ' Once, Solima, you confessed 
 your life to me, and I reproved you for your sins. Ah, 
 would that mine were no worse. I have sinned, Solima, 
 — I have grievously sinned. And though I treasure
 
 394 
 
 THE STORY OF SOLI MA [Book III 
 
 above all earthly things your reverence and your 
 esteem, I will yield them up, for they are stolen. I 
 have gained them by fraud. You know not what I am. 
 
 God, assist me to humble myself before this youth, 
 and deprive me not wholly of his love. 
 
 ' When I was fifteen years old, Solima, I was curious 
 and restless, like yourself, desiring to see strange lands. 
 A marabout passed through our village, on his way to 
 Timbuctoo. He wanted a boy, and persuaded me to 
 • run away from home, promising to take me to the Holy 
 City. I was overtaken, and brought back ; but hence- 
 forth I could think of nothing but Mecca, the birthplace 
 of the Prophet ; and as soon as I became a man, I bade 
 farewell to my relations, and took the road towards the 
 East. 
 
 * I will not relate to you the sufferings I endured 
 upon the way. Soon you also will learn what they are. 
 
 1 arrived safely at Mecca, and took up my abode in the 
 Mosque. I gained enough to eat and drink by gather- 
 ing firewood on the hills, and selling it through the 
 streets. 
 
 ' I had begun my travels from curiosity ; but the 
 company of holy men upon the road, and the Koran, 
 which they had taught me to read, soon brought another 
 feeling to my heart. I learned to love God. I passed 
 days and days in an ecstasy of contemplation, touching 
 neither food nor drink. Sometimes in the Mosque, 
 when I had drunk of the water of Zem-zem, and kissed 
 the Black Stone, I fell into a wondrous state. My body
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 395 
 
 seemed to be filled with air, ?o that I danced and 
 sprang, and shrieked and wept, and often fell on the 
 pavement in convulsions. Sometimes I would pass the 
 day, crying, ** God is gi-eat ! God is great I " till another 
 kind of frenzy seized me, and, stripping off my clothes, 
 I ran through the town. I became celebrated as a saint, 
 and people gave me money, with which I purchased an 
 entrance into the Caaba itself; for, to the shame of the 
 Meccans be it said, everything is shown for money ; and 
 pilgrims are esteemed, not for their piety, but for their 
 wealth. 
 
 * But now I suddenly became rich. A pious Egyp- 
 tian died in Mecca, and left me all his goods by will. 
 At this time the character of my enthusiasm was changed. 
 I purchased books, and studied them from morning till 
 night. Henceforth I saw no visions, and left for ever 
 the ecstatic state. 
 
 * One night I was reading a certain " Life of Ma- 
 hommed," which contains an excellent description of 
 the Arabs in the days of darkness, before the appear- 
 ance of the Prophet. I was struck by the similarity 
 which existed between them and the Foulas. Like 
 the Foulas, they spoke one language, and believed in 
 God ; but were divided into petty clans, almost always 
 at war, and were given up to idolatry. The idea flashed 
 upon me that I should become the Mahommed of the 
 Soudan, and combine the Foulas into a great nation, and 
 restore the purity of the Moslem faith. I confided my 
 plans to several pious Arabs who were acquainted with
 
 396 THE STORY OF SO LI MA [Book III 
 
 the country, having dwelt at Kano, Kuka, or Timbuctoo. 
 They replied that my project was not impracticable, but 
 that it required money. I, therefore, began to consider 
 how this money might be obtained. 
 
 * There is a certain people called the Persians, who 
 claim to be Moslems, as the Foulas do, but who are 
 little better than they ; for they have cursed doctrines 
 of their own contrary to the true faith. One of these 
 men was in Mecca ; he was enormously rich and osten- 
 tatious. He dressed himself in gorgeous apparel, and 
 his hands were covered with precious stones. I per- 
 suaded myself that it would not be a sin to take these 
 from him, and to employ them in my holy work. He 
 was about to leave Mecca in the Cairo caravan. 
 
 ' I had spent most of the money which had been left 
 me by the Arab in purchasing books, and giving alms 
 to poor pilgrims. The rest I distributed among certain 
 evil and desperate tribes in the neighbourhood of 
 Mecca. We arranged to attack the caravan as soon 
 as it had left the holy ground ; and they promised me 
 that no one but the Persian should be robbed. 
 
 VBut, alas ! there was a battle. Many good and pious 
 men were slain. The caravan was completely spoiled 
 by my fierce allies ; who then, to escape the vengeance 
 of the Turkish Government, migrated across the Red 
 Sea, and obtained the protection of an Abyssinian chief. 
 With the riches that fell to my share I purchased camels 
 and slaves, and journeyed to the Soudan ; but a certain 
 quantity of gold and the precious stones I carried with
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 397 
 
 me, so that if my projects failed I might be able to 
 return to Cairo. The rest of my life you know.' 
 
 He ended, and cast a timid look upon me. I was 
 about to throw myself into his arms, when his eyes 
 dilated and became fixed. I looked behind me, and 
 saw standing at the door a hideous being. He was 
 naked, and his skin was of a reddish white, all sore, and 
 cracked by the sun. His head was hairless, and his 
 eyes were small and red, and flickered continually. Fan- 
 tastic figures were drawn in charcoal on his breast, and 
 in his hand he carried an enormous axe covered with 
 the rust of blood. At the same moment there burst 
 forth in the street outside screams and yells, and the 
 beating of drums. The feast had begun. Oumar gave 
 me his Koran ; then his hands were tied. 
 
 The scene which followed is too horrible to be re- 
 lated. Even after all these years I cannot think of it 
 without a shudder. Two hundred Foulas were beheaded 
 by the Albino ; but Oumar was tortured in the most 
 shocking manner throughout the whole day. When 
 life was almost extinct, the king called for Mustapha. 
 He was dressed in the robes worn by the king's ser- 
 vants; his life had been spared because he was a 
 blind man, and a negro. The king gave him a knife, 
 and ordered him to kill his master. Oumar told 
 him to obey. It was his last command. Mustapha 
 approached him. The Pilgrim sank upon his knees 
 and raised towards heaven his bound and bleeding 
 hands. Mustapha stabbed him, and then fell upon
 
 398 THE STORY OF SO LI MA [Book III 
 
 the mutilated corpse. When they raised him, they 
 found that the knife was buried in his own breast. 
 
 This was the end ; the negroes silently dispersed, and 
 the next day the town had resumed its ordinary aspect. 
 These people who, maddened by fury and drink, had 
 resembled demons rather than men, were now as soft 
 and gentle in their manners as before. They never 
 spoke of our murdered comrades, and treated us with 
 a kindness which was almost anxious ; the women as 
 they brought us food looked at us with tender and 
 sympathising eyes. We were detained till the rainy 
 season was over and the waters had abated. We were 
 then escorted to the frontier; we passed the ashes of 
 the villages which had been destroyed, but the negroes 
 made no remarks, and when we parted from them they 
 pressed our hands in theirs, and provided us with food 
 for the journey across the desolate land. 
 
 We passed through it without harm, though much 
 terrified by the roaring of wild beasts. When we saw 
 the red walls of the first Mandingo town and the conical 
 roofs above them, and the cotton trees rising like green 
 towers, we embraced one another and wept with joy. 
 
 W^e then parted and went on our various ways. 
 When I entered the well-known fields which encircled 
 Ghadima, I sat down by the path and covered my head 
 with my soiled and ragged robe. 
 
 Presently I heard the sound of a flute. Then the 
 hot blood came to my forehead, for I knew it was 
 Fatima. The high grass parted, and she came towards
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SO LI MA 
 
 399 
 
 me with the reed to her Hps and her eyes on the ground. 
 As I looked at her I saw that she was changed. She 
 was stouter and coarse-looking ; her hair, though covered 
 with rich ornaments, was less carefully dressed than of 
 yore, and the white band of the virgin was no longer 
 on her brow. 
 
 * Fatima ! ' said I. 
 
 She raised her eyes, started back, and gave a shriek. 
 She sprang forward, but checked herself; paused and 
 said almoat calmly, 
 
 * Is it, indeed, you, Solima } We all thought that you 
 were dead. Are any men saved from Ghadima ] ' 
 
 * Not one,' I replied. 
 
 We were both silent, and glanced at each other 
 furtively. Then we heard footsteps. 
 
 ' That is my husband,' she said quickly, and cried 
 out at the top of her voice, ' Master, master, come here.' 
 
 It was the young shepherd whom I had seen with 
 Fatima in the town square on the day of the divorce. 
 He offered me his hand in a friendly manner, and we 
 all sat down together. I related the history of our 
 expedition. They asked me to go with them to the 
 town and to stay with them there awhile. But I had 
 no desire to be the messenger of evil tidings. Besides, 
 whenever Fatima caught my eye she would throw her 
 arms round her husband's neck, or place her hand 
 upon his breast. This parade of an affection which 
 probably was not sincere, wounded and disgusted me. 
 I left them, saying I would go on to Missera at once
 
 400 • THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 When the night came I went to the dead tree as 
 the Pilgrim had directed, lifted up the stone, and 
 found the treasure. I then tore down some branches 
 and made a bed upon the ground. At daybreak I 
 started to go home. 
 
 I passed through those meadows and groves which 
 three times in my life I had passed before — twice in 
 victory — once in sorrow — and now almost in despair. 
 It was not at such a time as this, exhausted by 
 hunger and fatigue, that I could think with pleasure 
 of w^andering forth upon the world. I longed for 
 repose and tranquillity and peace. 
 
 I avoided the plantation villages, and when I heard 
 people coming along the road hid myself among the 
 bushes till they were gone. As I drew nearer and 
 nearer to the town I slackened my pace, and lingered 
 by the way. I felt my heart sink. Three other men 
 from Missera besides myself had joined the army of 
 the Pilgrim, but they were dead. I saw the Mami 
 and the grey-bearded elders receiving me coldly and 
 gravely in the council-house : I saw the widows and 
 the fatherless mourning for the lost ones, and looking 
 wdth envy on him who had escaped : I saw the marabout 
 with his taunting smile ; and my mother, she from whom 
 I should hope for pity and protection, would not she 
 avenge herself for all that I had made her suffer .** 
 
 When I entered the jungle in which I had passed 
 the happiest days of my boyhood, I left the beaten path 
 and loitered through the trees towards the town. The
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 401 
 
 air was laden with memories ; every object was a re- 
 collection. I wandered on in a dream, no longer living 
 in the present but the past. 
 
 While looking vacantly before me something that 
 was new and unaccustomed met my eyes. It was a 
 small hut. I thought at first it was one of those hovels 
 which the huntsmen build in the rainy season to shelter 
 them during the night. But when I came nearer I saw 
 that it was neatly constructed, and that close to it was 
 a little patch of garden ground planted with millet and 
 rice. Before the door was a pestle and mortar and a 
 hoe. Stooping my head, I entered the cottage, and saw 
 a mat upon the ground, and at its head a leathern 
 pillow. In one corner was a large earthen jar of un- 
 baked clay, and a calabash covering its mouth ; in the 
 middle was a smouldering fire of green wood, and a 
 hatchet beside it on the ground. A clay pot, two 
 wooden spoons, and a stool completed the simple 
 furniture. 
 
 It was evident that this hut was" a real dwelling- 
 place, and that its inmate was not far away. But who 
 among the affectionate and sociable Foulas could have 
 determined to live like a wild beast in the jungle t Never 
 had such a thing been heard of before. I examined the 
 soil round the cottage with as much care as if I had 
 been searching for a trail. I found always the same 
 footprint ; and I was still more astonished when I saw 
 from its shape and size it was a woman's. My curiosity 
 VOL. I. D D
 
 4^2 THE STORY OF SO LIMA [Book III 
 
 was roused. I resolved to remain till she returned, and 
 sitting down on a stone by the door I watched the little 
 path scarcely larger than an antelope's, which her feet 
 had trodden out in the wood. 
 
 The sun sank low behind the trees, and still the 
 mistress of the hut did not return. It became dusk. 
 Grey clouds like spectres swept across the sky : strange 
 shadows waved around me ; from the deep forest rose me- 
 lancholy cries. The wind moaned among the branches, 
 and the dark night came down. At such an hour as 
 this, when the air is cold and keen, the Foulas love to 
 crouch around their fires, and to tell of genii and the 
 spirits of the dead. And as I thus sat waiting for I 
 knew not whom the most fearful of these narratives 
 came back upon my mind. I tried to shake off these 
 horrors : I murmured verses of the Koran ; but every 
 sound that I heard resembled a hollow and unearthly 
 voice. I thought I saw forms moving through the trees ; 
 the forest frightened me ; I ran back into the hut, and 
 stirred the fire to a flame. It blazed up and lighted 
 the hut ; then I heard a rustle, and looking over my 
 shoulders beheld a frightful apparition. A tall figure 
 stood within the door ; it was dressed entirely in white ; 
 its face was covered with a thick veil or mask with two 
 holes left for the eyes. I shrieked with fear ; and raising 
 a flaming brand, I sprang upon the spirit. Then I dropped 
 it, and staggered back. I had recognised the eyes. It 
 was my mother. 
 
 She pulled down her veil and clasped me in her
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SOLIMA 403 
 
 irms. Long, long we remained thus embracing each 
 other, and uttering inarticulate cries of joy. 
 
 Then she cooked some rice, and we ate together, 
 having said the word Bismillah. We united in the 
 evening prayer, and she explained the mystery of 
 her appearance. When the Pilgrim had returned that 
 night she had fallen on her knees, and had prayed him 
 to give her a charm to regain my love. He had said 
 that if she would follow his instructions he would give 
 her that, and even more. He had then spoken of her 
 crime, and had explained that her sufferings were a 
 punishment from God. He had directed her how she 
 should live to obtain the forgiveness of her Maker, and 
 had placed her in the charge of a marabout, a truly 
 pious man, whom sickness had prevented from following 
 the army. He had taught her the prayers and the 
 required rites, and had made for her a dress such as 
 that which is worn by the wives of the faithful in Mecca 
 and the cities of the East. This was the last labour of 
 his hands, and he died exhorting her to obey the com- 
 mands of the Pilgrim and to remain faithful to her God. 
 
 But when she returned to Missera, wearing the 
 yashmak or veil, the women cried out savagely against 
 her, and the marabout, her old enemy, persuaded the 
 Mami to drive her from the town. She had built this 
 hut, and planted the garden w4th the assistance of her 
 slaves, whom she had then set free ; and here she had 
 remained, supplying her own frugal wants, and passing 
 her days in prayer.
 
 404 THE STORY OF SOLIMA [Book III 
 
 The next day the sun shone brightly ; we went into 
 the forest and sat beneath the trees. How sweet was 
 the scene ! What calm and holy feelings entered my 
 breast ! What joy to receive my mother's caresses, 
 and to hear the fond names which she had given me in 
 childhood ! ' Here, dearest mother,' said I, * we shall 
 always reside. Never, never will I part from you 
 again.' 
 
 Her countenance became troubled, and her eyes 
 floated in tears. 
 
 ' What was it you said last night, Solima } Did not 
 the Pilgrim tell you to stay with me three months, and 
 then to journey on to Mecca and Medina } ' 
 
 ' Enough I have wandered, dear mother,' said I. 
 ' God dwelleth not in Mecca alone. Here I can live 
 with you a pious and a godly life.' 
 
 She shook her head mournfully, and answered, 
 'Your sins were but small, and they have been forgiven; 
 but I have committed an abominable crime, for which 
 a whole life of penance is insufficient to atone. But 
 I put my trust in the mercy of God. Stay with me 
 these three months ; it is a greater happiness than I 
 deserve.' 
 
 I gave her the Koran which I had received from 
 Oumar, and taught her to read it, that she might 
 have a counsellor and friend. It was thus we passed 
 the days. In the evening we often spoke about Oumar, 
 and I repeated his holy and beautiful sayings. Once 
 only I alluded to his crime, and lamented that even he
 
 Book III] THE STORY OF SO LI MA 405 
 
 had committed so great a sin, and had received a 
 punishment so terrible. 
 
 But my mother would not listen to these words. 
 ' He is my Saviour,' she cried ; ' he has rescued my soul 
 from the hands of the Evil One. And out of all those 
 that perished, did he not preserve you to me by his 
 prayers } Nay, nay, Solima, when Oumar died it was 
 not as a punishment but a reward. For in this life 
 there is care, and sorrow, and pain ; alas ! I know it well ; 
 but in the next life is eternal joy.' 
 
 I write these words in the great city of the West. 
 Many years, many years I have sojourned amongst 
 strangers, who scoff at my faith, and even at their own. 
 Cold-blooded, sneering, stony-hearted men, ponder a 
 moment on this which you have read. What was this 
 ardent and elevating Faith, which made that poor sinful 
 woman's life one long, piteous, ever-tearful prayer. 
 Those countless supplications which she offered up 
 before she died — those days and nights of solitude and 
 pain — were they all wasted on the air .? 
 
 O doleful and melancholy day, when I parted from 
 my mother, never again to see her upon earth ! O 
 dolorous dawn ! heart-breaking hour ! She gave me my 
 shroud, without which no Moslem travels ! I have it 
 before me now ; and soon it will wrap these aged and 
 emaciated limbs. 
 
 Again and again we said farewell. We parted 
 and returned once more, to fall into each other's 
 arms. All day I wandered in the jungle ; at evening I
 
 4o6 THE STORY OF SO LI MA [Book III 
 
 crept near the cottage, and climbed up a tree. I saw 
 her come out. The veil covered her face ; never more 
 would it be raised again. She stooped upon the 
 ground, and gathered some grass I had trodden with 
 my feet. Then I cried with anguish, and placing my 
 bundle on my head, journeyed by moonlight on the 
 road towards the East.
 
 THE PIONEERS 
 
 DISCOVKRY LN AFRICA
 
 407 
 
 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 
 
 In this chapter I shall describe how a few heroic men, 
 animated by a spirit of the purest chivalry, laid open 
 Central Africa, that extraordinary land which has 
 been explored without intermission for a hundred 
 years, and which still can offer something new, 
 
 A hundred years ago Shaw had examined the 
 monuments of Barbary, and Bruce had drunk to his 
 sweetheart from the sources of the Nile, as he supposed ; 
 but of Negroland itself — the true Africa — little was 
 known beyond the coast. The best maps of the day 
 were based on those of Ptolemy and Edrisi ; the most 
 reliable authority was Leo Africanus, a Morisco of 
 Granada. 
 
 When Herodotus was at Memphis in Egypt taking 
 notes on his w6oden tablets, he heard of a great river 
 beyond the sandy Sahara, flowing from west to east, 
 and conjectured that it was a tributary of the Nile. 
 At a later date this river obtained an appellation of its 
 own, but Greeks and Romans still believed that the 
 so-called Niger joined with its waters the Egyptian 
 stream. Thus ^schylus in his ' Prometheus Unbound : ' 
 
 Avoid the Arismanian troops, 
 
 Approach them not, but seek 
 A land far distant where the tawny race 
 Dwell near the fountains of the sun, and where
 
 4o8 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 The Niger pours his dusky waters ; wind 
 Along his banks till thou shalt reach the fall, 
 Where from the mountains with papyrus crown'd 
 The venerable Nile impetuous pours 
 His headlong torrent. 
 
 Ptolemy divided the two rivers ; but while his map of 
 the White Nile has anticipated modern explorations, 
 his map of the Niger served only to mislead geo- 
 graphers. 
 
 Arab travellers visited the Niger, yet Edrisi as- 
 serted that the river flowed towards the west. Many 
 modern geographers maintained that the Senegal was 
 the mouth of the Niger ; and the French, to whom the 
 Senegal belonged, were much attached to this hypo- 
 thesis. Others preferred to follow Herodotus and 
 Pliny ; and thus two parties arose, which hated each 
 other with the usual ferocity of scientific sects. But in 
 this, at least, they were agreed, that it would be an 
 excellent thing if some one would visit the river, 
 and settle the dispute by ocular inspection. 
 
 Now the close of the eighteenth Century was the 
 very time for such an undertaking. The great voyage 
 of Captain Cook had excited a taste for expeditions of 
 adventure. The ocean had been conquered, except at 
 the Poles ; and hungry eyes were now being cast on the 
 barren places of the map, which geographers, abhorring 
 a vacuum, had industriously stocked with elephants 
 and lions. Chief among the new enthusiasts of travel 
 was Sir Joseph Banks, who, in spite of a large fortune, 
 endured the hardships of exploration, and devoted his
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 409 
 
 life faithfully to science. He felt that the state of 
 African geography was a stigma on the age. Here was 
 a mighty river, and no one knew where it rose, where it 
 terminated, or even the d-irection in which it flowed ; 
 yet great cities were said to exist upon its banks, and 
 masted vessels swam upon its waters. 
 
 So Sir Joseph founded The African Association, 
 which may be considered the earliest Geographical 
 Society in Europe. To find a?id follow the Niger 
 was the task which it first took up, and for many 
 years steadily pursued, till at length its labours were 
 crowned with success. 
 
 The first emissary of the Association did nothing 
 in African travel, but he died on African soil : and 
 his life is so strange, and his character so noble, 
 that he should not be omitted from the list of 
 pioneers. 
 
 John Ledyard was the son of a sea-captain in New 
 England, and not liking the law, to which he had been 
 bred by his parents, entered a missionary college for the 
 conversion of Red Indians, established in Hanover, 
 New Hampshire, amidst the wild forests which then 
 clothed the banks of the Connecticut River. As if 
 fascinated by the wilderness, he ran away to savage 
 life, and wandered among the Six Nations to the 
 borders of Canada. He returned to his studies for a 
 short time, but his passion for adventure seized him 
 again. He cut down a tree, and dug it out into a 
 canoe, fifty feet long and three wide. With a bear-skin
 
 4IO THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 for his covering, and a Greek Testament and an Ovid 
 for his companions, he floated down the river to 
 Hartford, where he had relations. This was a true 
 exploring voyage of a hundred and thirty miles, and 
 exceedingly dangerous on account of the rapids. He 
 was then only nineteen years of age. 
 
 Giving up the idea of the church, he sailed as seaman 
 from New London to Gibraltar. There he disappeared, 
 and was discovered by his captain in the red coat and 
 black gaiters which shortly afterwards became the 
 targets of American militia. He had enlisted as a 
 soldier, but the captain procured his release, and 
 he returned home without further misadventure. 
 
 Next he worked his passage from New York to 
 London, to discover the rich and noble family from 
 which he was descended ; a favourite pursuit of colonists 
 at that time, and hardly altogether obsolete. He was 
 not received with open arms by the Ledyards of 
 London ; and hearing that Captain Cook was about to 
 sail on his third and last great voyage, enlisted in the 
 marines, that he might be qualified to volunteer. He 
 obtained an interview with Cook, who consented to take 
 him, and made him a corporal, and employed him 
 during the voyage on various trips of exploration. 
 
 Having vainly endeavoured to get up an American 
 fur-trading expedition, he came again to London, and 
 visited Sir Joseph Banks, with a project for crossing 
 America from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Sir Joseph 
 gave him some money, and he then determined to go
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 411 
 
 overland to Kamschatka, whence to the north-west coast 
 of America a passage could be easily obtained in some 
 trading vessel. With ten guineas in his pocket he 
 started to cross two continents. He went over to 
 Ostend, and thence to the capital of Sweden via Den- 
 mark and the Sound. He attempted to cross the 
 Gulf of Bothnia on the ice, by way of a short cut to 
 Kamschatka ; but when he came to the middle he 
 found that the waters were not frozen, and accordingly 
 returned to Stockholm ; and walking into the Arctic 
 Circle, went round the head of the Gulf, and descended on 
 its eastern side to St. Petersburgh. There he was soon 
 noticed as an extraordinary man. Without shoes or 
 stockings, he was invited to dinner by the Portuguese 
 Ambassador, and went. He drew a bill on Sir Joseph 
 for twenty guineas, and obtained permission from the 
 Government to accompany a detachment of stores 
 which were being sent to Yakutz, in Siberia, a distance 
 of six thousand miles. From Yakutz he went on to the 
 coast, to procure a passage across to America ; but the 
 ice being about, he was obliged to return and wait for the 
 termination of the winter. Such was his situation when 
 he was seized, in the name of the Empress, by two sol- 
 diers, who placed him in a sledge, and conveyed him 
 in the depth of winter through the deserts of Northern 
 Tartary and the Russian Steppes, and left him at last 
 on the Polish frontier. They told him that if he re- 
 turned to Russia he would certainly be hanged ; but 
 if he chose to go back to England, they wished him a 
 pleasant journey.
 
 412 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 It is probable that commercial jealousy on the part 
 of the fur-traders was the cause of this arbitrary act. Be 
 that as it may, Ledyard's project of exploration was at 
 an end. In the midst of poverty, covered with rags, 
 worn by hardship, exhausted by disease, without friends, 
 without credit, unknown, and full of misery, he found 
 his way to Konigsberg. There he drew another bill for 
 five guineas on Sir Joseph Banks, and returned to 
 London. 
 
 The question now will suggest itself to the reader. 
 How, with so little money, did he manage to go so far } 
 ' All that I have learned from him,' writes Mr. Beaufoy, 
 the Secretary of the Association, * on this subject was, 
 that his sufferings were excessive ; and that more than 
 once he owed his life to the compassionate temper of 
 women.' It was during this journey he composed his 
 famous eulogy on the sex. 
 
 ' I have observed among all nations,' says he, * that 
 the women ornament themselves more than the men ; 
 that wherever found, they are the same kind, civil, oblig- 
 ing, humane, tender beings ; that they are ever inclined 
 to be gay and cheerful, timorous and modest. They do 
 not hesitate, like man, to perform a hospitable or gene- 
 rous action ; not haughty, nor arrogant, nor supercilious, 
 but full of courtesy, and fond of society ; industrious, 
 economical, ingenious ; more liable in general to err 
 than man, but in general, also, more virtuous, and per- 
 forming more good actions than he. I never addressed 
 myself in the language of decency and friendship to a
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 413 
 
 woman, whether civih'sed or savage, without receiving a 
 decent and friendly answer. With men it has been 
 often otherwise. In wandering over the barren plains of 
 inhospitable Denmark, through honest Sweden, frozen 
 Lapland, rude and churlish Finland, unprincipled Rus- 
 sia, and the wide-spread regions of the wandering 
 Tartar, if hungry, dry, cold, wet, or sick, woman has ever 
 been friendly to me, and uniformly so ; and to add to 
 this virtue, so worthy of the appellation of benevolent, 
 these actions have been performed in so free and so 
 kind a manner, that if I was dry I drank the sweet 
 draught, and if hungry ate the coarse morsel with a 
 double relish.' 
 
 He called upon Sir Joseph, who had duly honoured 
 his drafts, and w^ho said he believed he could recommend 
 him to an adventure almost as perilous as the one from 
 which he had returned. How would he like to go across 
 Africa from Cairo and Sennaar, in the supposed latitude 
 of the Niger .'' Ledyard replied that he had always 
 intended to cross Africa after he had crossed America. 
 Sir Joseph gave him a letter to Mr. Beaufoy, who, before 
 he knew the business of his visitor, was struck with the 
 manliness of his person, the breadth of his chest, the 
 openness of his countenance, and the inquietude of his 
 eye. The matter having been discussed, Mr. Beaufoy 
 asked him when he would be ready to start, and he said, 
 ' To-morrow morning' No time, in fact, was lost. The 
 Association was founded early in June, and Ledyard 
 started for Cairo before the end of the month.
 
 414 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 ' I am accustomed,' said he, in his last conversation 
 with Mr. Beaufoy, on the morning of his departure, ' I 
 am accustomed to hardships. I have know both hunger 
 and nakedness, to the utmost extremity of human suffer- 
 ing. I have known what it is to have food given me as 
 charity to a madman ; and I have at times been obHged 
 to shelter myself under the miseries of that character 
 to avoid a heavier calamity. My distresses have been 
 greater than I have ever owned, or ever will own, to any 
 man. Such evils are terrible to bear ; but they never 
 yet had power to turn me from my purpose. If I live, I 
 will faithfully perform, in its utmost extent, my engage- 
 ment to the society ; and, if I perish in the attempt, my 
 honour will be safe, for death cancels all bonds.' 
 
 He was detained a considerable time at Cairo, wait- 
 ing for the departure of the Sennaar caravan ; and died 
 of a bilious fever, which he treated with violent medi- 
 cines. The last letter which he wrote was to Jefferson 
 at Paris. ^ 
 
 Almost at the same time, a Mr. Lucas was sent by 
 the Association to Tripoli, that he might penetrate into 
 Central Africa by Fezzan and the Sahara route ; but a 
 rebellion of the wandering Arab tribes prevented him 
 from travelling inland. 
 
 The fame of the African Association had already 
 spread over Europe, and Hornemann, a pupil of Profes- 
 sors Blumenbach, Heeren, and Heyne, came over to 
 
 ' ' Life of Ledyard,' by Jared Sparks. Proceedings of the African As- 
 sociation.
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 415 
 
 England as a volunteer. He was sent to Cairo, and 
 arrived there just before the French, was imprisoned by 
 the Mamelukes, but soon liberated by the men of 
 science attached to the expedition, and taken to General 
 Buonaparte, who offered him money and assistance, 
 gave him passports, and forwarded his letters to the 
 Association, under his own seal. Hornemann made an 
 excellent journey from Cairo to Fezzan, by a route 
 which had been used before the days of Herodotus, and 
 which the Father of History describes. Hornemann 
 then set off across the Desert for Bornou, and was never 
 heard of again. 
 
 Central Africa had thus been attacked from two 
 points, Tripoli and Cairo ; but Negroland had not yet 
 been reached. The next attempt was made from the 
 Western Coast. Major Houghton, who had served at 
 Goree, volunteered to conduct an expedition to the 
 Niger and Timbuctoo, of which city and its golden 
 roofs the strangest accounts had been received from the 
 negroes and the Arabs. He passed through Bambouk, 
 the farthest country which had been previously reached 
 by Europeans ; but fell into the power of the Sahara 
 Moors, was robbed of all that he possessed, and left 
 naked and alone to die. 
 
 The next geographical missionary who appears upon 
 our list narrowly escaped a similar fate, but returned in 
 safety to England, to charm all Europe with the 
 narrative of his adventures. MUNGO PARK (born 1771) 
 was the son of a Scotch farmer, and received his
 
 4i6 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 education at the grammar school of Selkirk, where he 
 was remarked as a silent, studious, and thoughtful 
 boy. His father wished him to enter the church, but 
 he preferred the medical profession, was bound an 
 apprentice to a Mr. Anderson at Selkirk, and remained 
 with him three years. In 1789 he went to the 
 University at Edinburgh, and in due course obtained 
 his diploma. He took a liking to botany, and made 
 a tour in the Highlands with his brother-in-law, 
 Mr. J. Dickson, who was proficient in that science. He 
 then went to London in search of employment, and 
 was introduced by Dickson to Sir Joseph Banks, who 
 procured him the appointment of assistant-surgeon on 
 board the * Worcester,' an East Indiaman. In the 
 course of his voyage he collected botanical and zoo- 
 logical specimens, and when he came home read a 
 paper before the Linnaean Society on eight new fishes 
 from Sumatra.^ Sir Joseph suggested to him an 
 African career, and he entered the service of the 
 Association. He had hopes when he took this step 
 that he would make himself more famous than any 
 man who had gone before him ; ^ and he was not 
 disappointed. 
 
 ' ' Linnffian Transactions,' vol. iii. p. 33, Nov. 4, 1794. 
 
 ^ ' The "Worcester" and the other three ships are to go out this season, but 
 as the same surgeons go in them there is no preferment. I have, however, 
 got Sir Joseph's word that if I wish to travel he will apply to the African 
 Association, and I shall go with their Consul to Fort St. Joseph, on the 
 River Gambia, where I am to hire a trader to go with me to Timbuctoo 
 and back again. 
 
 ' The Association pays for everything, and they allow 2CO guineas to the
 
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAX PIONEERS 417 
 
 His instructions were to start for the Gambia, and 
 to look for the Niger and Timbuctoo. He sailed to 
 Bathurst in a trading vessel, and ascended the river 
 to Pisania, where Dr. Laidley, a friend of Houghton, 
 had a factory. With this excellent and hospitable man 
 Park resided several months, and studied the Mandincro 
 language, which is spoken over a large area, and 
 which, in the countries between the Senegal and Niger, 
 is gradually extending its dominion. He then engaged 
 a negro named Johnson, who could speak English, and 
 Dr. Laidley also gave him a boy called Demba. Hav- 
 ing purchased a horse and two donkeys, with a small 
 assortment of beads, am.ber, and tobacco, he started 
 for Bambara, which country was traversed by the Niger, 
 or Joliba (the Great River), according to the statements 
 of the natives. 
 
 The region which lay upon his path belonged to 
 various independent chiefs, who, like the barons of the 
 middle ages, obtained a living from the passing caravans 
 or companies of traders, who went down to the coast 
 with slaves, \\oxy, and gold dust, and returned with salt, 
 
 trader who goes as my guide and interpreter, when we return to Fort St. 
 Joseph. I shall write more paiticularly in my next ; but it is a short 
 expedition, and will give me an opportunity of coming to Scotland before 
 I set off, besides the hope of distinguishing myself— for if I succeed I shall 
 acquire a greater name than any ever did, and at present I see no reason 
 against my accepting it — write soon. 
 
 ' I am, dear brother, yours, 
 London : May 20, 1794. ' MuNGO Park.' 
 
 Extract of an unpubhshed letter in the possession of J. B. Maxton, Esq. 
 of 4 Sun Street, Finsbury. 
 
 VOL. I. E E
 
 4i8 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 powder, muskets, and cotton goods. The leaders of 
 these caravans had to pay for their food and lodging, 
 for the use of wells, for bridges or ferries, and for the 
 right of way. In some districts there was a regular 
 tariff, but more frequently a present was made to the 
 chief by the travelling merchants, according to their 
 wealth. If the present was not deemed sufficient, it 
 was politely returned, locks were placed on the wells, 
 and the travellers detained until they had made it 
 more. But if they were unable to pay their expenses, 
 a part of their goods, or, if they had none, some of 
 their slaves, would be seized. 
 
 As Mungo Park was a white man, the chiefs of the 
 countries through which he passed expected larger 
 payments than usual; and, as he was a poor man, they 
 were disappointed. It is not therefore surprising that 
 the strong hand of the law was put into force against 
 him. The officers of the king of Bondou took half his 
 goods, and another chieftain appropriated half of the 
 remainder. When he arrived in Kaarta he had very 
 little left. But now he w^as close to Bambara, and hoped 
 •soon to reach the banks of the Niger. 
 
 But it so happened that the road was stopped by a 
 native war. The King of Bambara had sent a message 
 to the King of Kaarta, saying that in the course of the 
 dry season he intended to visit Kemmoo (the capital of 
 Kaarta) with nine thousand men, and desired that he 
 would direct his slaves to sweep the houses and have 
 everything ready for their accommodation. The envoy
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 419 
 
 concluded his message by presenting the king with a 
 pair of iron sandals, and said that until he had worn 
 them out in flight, he would never be secure from the 
 arrows of Bambara. 
 
 The King of Kaarta would not allow Park to pass 
 on to the Niger direct , but said that he might go to 
 Ludamar, a Moorislj province which belonged to his 
 friend Ali, and thence, with All's permission, could pass 
 on to Segou, the capital of Bambara. 
 
 Ludamar was a tract of land situated on the borders 
 of the Desert, and taken from the negroes by a tribe of 
 Moors, who dwelt partly in tents and partly in the 
 towns of the people they had conquered. They were 
 mulattoes, resembling those of the West Indies, but 
 with a peculiar vindictive expression and wild staring 
 eyes, which made them look like a nation of lunatics. 
 In the negro countries through which he had travelled, 
 Park had suffered from extortion, but had always been 
 robbed in a civil way. With the ]\Ioors it was a very dif- 
 ferent affair. They detested and despised the Christians, 
 of whom they knew nothing, and whom they ranked with 
 the Pagan blacks. In Jarra, the first town of Ludamar, 
 the population was chiefly negro, and Park was not 
 troubled by the Moors. He took up his abode with a 
 Gambia slave-trader, an acquaintance of Dr. Laidley, 
 and sent a present to Ali, the Moorish chief, who was 
 encamped at Benown, requesting permission to pass 
 through to Bambara. In a fortnight one of All's 
 slaves returned with a favourable reply. He had orders, 
 
 E E 2
 
 420 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 he said, to escort Park through Ludamar to Goomba on 
 the Bambara frontier. Johnson would not venture 
 among the Moors, and Park gave him his papers to 
 take back to the Gambia. The boy Demba consented 
 to go on, and the slave-trader lent him a man. 
 
 They travelled from Jarra to Deena, a large town 
 filled with Moors, who now displayed their amiable 
 character. Gathering round the hut of the negro where 
 Park was lodged, they hissed, shouted, and abused him, 
 and even spat in his face, with a view to irritate him, 
 and afford them a pretext for seizing his baggage. But 
 finding such insults had not the desired effect, they had 
 recourse to the final and decisive argument, that as he 
 was a Christian, his property was therefore a lawful 
 plunder to the disciples of Mahommed. They ac- 
 cordingly opened his bundles, and took \\;hatever they 
 fancied. His attendants finding that every one could 
 rob him with impunity, determined to go back, and Park 
 mounting his horse went on alone. He started at two 
 o'clock in the morning, and had ridden in the moonlight 
 about half a mile, when he heard a halloo behind him, 
 and on looking round saw his boy Demba running after 
 him. Ali's messenger, he said, had gone back to the 
 camp, and the slave-trader's negro, he thought, might 
 be persuaded to come on, if Park would consent to 
 wait a little while. Accordingly he waited, and in about 
 an hour Demba returned with the negro. They jour- 
 neyed on through Ludamar, and were not far from the 
 Bambara frontier, when a party of Moors overtook
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIOXEERS 421 
 
 them, and said they had orders to take Mungo Park to 
 the camp, as Fatima, AH's wife, wanted to look at a 
 Christian. The negro from Jarra ran away. Park and 
 Demba were carried off together, and in five days 
 arrived at the camp. 
 
 It presented to the eye a great number of dirty- 
 looking tents, scattered without order over a consider- 
 able space of ground, and among these tents appeared 
 large herds of camels, cattle, and goats. Park's arrival 
 was no sooner observed than the people who drew water 
 at the wells threw down their buckets, those in the tents 
 mounted their horses, and men, women, and children 
 came running or galloping towards him. Surrounded 
 by such a crowd that he could scarcely move, he at last 
 reached the chief's tent. Ali was seated on a black 
 leathern cushion clipping a few hairs from his upper lip, 
 while a female attendant held up a looking glass before 
 him. He was an old man, of the Arab cast, with a long 
 white beard, and had a sullen and malignant aspect. 
 He surveyed Park with some attention, and enquired of 
 the Moors if he could speak Arabic. Being answered 
 in the negative, he appeared much surprised, and 
 continued silent. The ladies, however, were more 
 inquisitive ; they asked a thousand questions, inspected 
 every part of his apparel, searched his pockets, made 
 him unbutton his waistcoat to show the whiteness of 
 his skin, and even counted his toes and fingers, as if 
 they doubted whether he was in truth a human being. 
 The Moor, who acted as interpreter, now informed
 
 422 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 Park that Ali was about to give him something to eat, 
 and looking round he saw some boys bringing a wild 
 hog, which they tied to one of the tent strings, and Ali 
 made signs that Park should kill it and dress it for his 
 supper. Though he felt very hungry he did not think 
 it prudent to eat any part of an animal so much detested 
 by the Moors. They then untied the hog in hopes that 
 it would immediately run at him, for they suppose 
 that the bitterest animosity exists between swine and 
 Christians. In this, however, they were disappointed, for 
 no sooner had the beast regained its liberty than it began 
 to attack without discrimination every person that came 
 in its way. Park and the hog were ultimately lodged 
 together, and in the night a man creeping into the hut 
 to steal something from the prisoner tumbled over the 
 boar and was bitten in the face. 
 
 Fatima was absent from the camp, and Park was 
 detained there a considerable time. He was appointed 
 barber to Ali, but contrived to shave so badly, that he 
 was deprived of his office, which was just what he 
 wanted. He laid it down as a rule to make himself 
 as insignificant and useless as he could, as the only 
 means of recovering his liberty. Demba was employed 
 to cut grass for the horses, and Johnson also made his 
 appearance, having been arrested at Jarra and brought 
 on to the camp. 
 
 Our traveller was much annoyed by the curiosity of 
 the Moorish ladies, who kept him dressing and undress- 
 ing, buttoning and unbuttoning, all day long ; while the
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIOXEERS 423 
 
 men often galloped round him as if they were baiting 
 a wild beast, twirling their muskets round their heads, 
 and exhibiting feats of activity and horsemanship. A 
 wedding took place in the camp, and an old woman 
 entered the tent with a wooden bowl in her hand, 
 signified that she had brought him a present from 
 the bride, and flung the contents of the bowl full in 
 his face. Finding that it was the same kind of holy 
 water with which, among the Hottentots, a priest is 
 said to sprinkle the newly-married couple, he began 
 to remonstrate, but was earnestly assured that it was 
 a complimentary gift, which was always received by 
 young bachelors among the ]\Ioors as a distinguished 
 favour. Accordingly he wiped his face and sent his 
 acknowledgments to the lady. No one would infer 
 from this curious custom that the ]\Ioors were delicate 
 and prudish in their manners, but they considered Park's 
 nankeen breeches exceedingly indecent, and made him 
 cover himself with a robe when he entered the presence 
 of ladies of rank. 
 
 ^Meanwhile the captives suffered terribly from hunger 
 and thirst. Park describes hunger as at first a very 
 painful sensation, but when it has continued for some 
 time it is succeeded by debility and languor. Johnson 
 and Demba passed the day stretched on the sand in a 
 torpid slumber, from which even when the dish of cous- 
 cous arrived Park found it difficult to wake them. But 
 when Ali moved his camp further to the north, that is 
 to say, nearer to the Desert, the heat became almost
 
 424 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 insiipportabJe ; even the negroes, with their horny feet, 
 could not pass at mid-day from one tent to another 
 without putting on sandals, like people in a Turkish 
 bath ; water was scarce ; day and night the wells were 
 crowded with cattle, fighting to get at the troughs, or 
 devouring the black moist mud from the gutters by the 
 wells, Vv'hich often proved fatal to them. Sometimes 
 Park begged a little water from the negro slaves, and 
 sometimes he drank like the cattle from the troughs. 
 
 Fatima came to the camp and showed Park more 
 kindness than he had yet received ; but he was still 
 detained, though Ali had often promised that as soon 
 as Fatima had seen him he should be allowed to go on 
 to Bambara. The chief now took Demba as his own 
 slave, and prepared to send him away. Park offered an 
 angry remonstrance, whereupon Ali, with a haughty air 
 and malignant smile, told the interpreter that if Park 
 did not instantly mount his horse (for they were now 
 going to Jarra) he would send him away likewise. But 
 ' the old fool,' as they called Johnson, might stay with 
 him if he pleased. The poor faithful boy came to Park 
 to say farewell ; they shook hands together and both of 
 them cried ; and they parted never to meet again. 
 
 At Jarra, Park returned to his old lodgings. John- 
 son was now free, and made arrangements for returning 
 to the Gambia, but Park heard that he himself would be 
 taken back to the camp. He therefore determined to 
 effect his escape, not towards the Gambia, as ninety-
 
 Book III] THE AFRICA X PIOXEERS 425 
 
 nine men out of a hundred would have done, but in the 
 direction of the Nig-er. 
 
 About midnight he prepared his bundle, which con- 
 sisted of two shirts, two pairs of trowsers, two pocket 
 handkerchiefs, an upper and under waistcoat, a hat, a 
 pair of half boots, and a cloak. He had not a single 
 article of value to serve him as money. About day- 
 break Johnson came to him and vrhispered that the 
 Moors were all asleep. The awful crisis was now 
 arrived when he was again either to taste the bless- 
 ing of freedom or languish out his days in captivity. 
 A cold sweat moistened his forehead as he thought 
 on the dreadful alternative, and reflected that one way 
 or the other his fate must be decided in the course of 
 the ensuing day. But to deliberate was to lose the only 
 chance of escaping ; so taking up his bundle he stepped 
 gently over the negroes who were sleeping in the open 
 air, and mounting his horse, bade Johnson farewell, 
 desiring him to take particular care of his papers, and 
 to inform his friends at the Gambia that he had left 
 him in good health on his way to Bambara. 
 
 He had ridden about two miles when he saw three 
 Moors on horseback coming after him at full speed : 
 they seized him and said he must go back to Ali. He 
 prepared to accompany them with the indifference of 
 despair ; but they took him aside into some bushes, 
 examined his bundle, robbed him of his cloak as the 
 only article worth taking, and let him go. He turned
 
 426 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 his horse's head again towards the east, and in three 
 days arrived at the frontier town of Bambara. 
 
 The Bambara people took him for a Moor, and 
 laughed much at him and at his horse, which the jMoors 
 had not deigned to take from him. ' He has been to 
 Mecca,' said one, ' you may see that by his clothes.' 
 Another enquired if his horse was sick. Another offered 
 to purchase it. But he was now again among negroes, 
 and was not interfered with. 
 
 On July 20, 1796, a day ever memorable in the 
 annals of geography, Mungo Park arrived on the banks 
 of the Niger ; he found it a great river, broad as the 
 Thames at Westminster, and flowing slowly to the east- 
 ward. He hastened to the brink, and having drunk of 
 the water, lifted up his fervent thanks in prayer to the 
 Great Ruler of all things for having thus far crowned 
 his endeavours with success. 
 
 On the opposite side of the river was the great city of 
 Segou. The King's slaves were taking over the people 
 in crowds, and though the fare was only a halfpenny 
 a-head, the revenue derived per annum from the ferry 
 amounted to a considerable sum. The numerous canoes 
 upon the river, the crowded population, and the culti- 
 vated state of the surrounding country, formed alto- 
 gether a prospect of civilisation, which he little ex- 
 pected to find in the bosom of Africa. 
 
 But he was not allowed to enter Segou. The king 
 having heard that a white man from the sea was coming 
 over to pay him a visit, at once sent some of his people
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIOXEERS 427 
 
 to say that he could not possibly see Park till he knew 
 what he had come for. The messenger told him he 
 must not cross the river without permission, and advised 
 him to pass the night in a village which they showed 
 him in the distance. He went off to this villao-e, but 
 found to his mortification that no one would admit him 
 into a house. He was regarded with astonishment and 
 fear, and obliged to sit all day without food in the shade 
 of a large tree. Towards evening the wind rose, it 
 began to rain, and there was every prospect of his 
 passing an exceedingly uncomfortable night. But at 
 sunset a woman returning from the labours of the field 
 stopped to observe him, and perceiving he was weary 
 and dejected, enquired into his situation, which he briefly 
 explained ; whereupon, with looks of great compassion, 
 she took up his saddle and bridle, told him to follow her, 
 and conducted him into her hut, where she lighted a 
 lamp and spread a mat on the floor. She went out and 
 returned in a short time with a very fine fish, which 
 she broiled on the embers and gave him for his supper. 
 He then lay down on his mat, while she with the other 
 females of the family resumed their task of spinning 
 cotton, in which they continued to employ themselves 
 during a great part of the night. One of the young 
 women sang a song, the rest joining in a chorus or 
 refrain. The air was sweet and plaintive ; and the words 
 literally translated were these : The zuinds roared and 
 tJie rain fell. The poor white man faint and zueary 
 came and sat beneath onr ti^ee. He has no motha- to bring
 
 428 THE AFRICA^f PIOiVEERS [Book III 
 
 hint milky no wife to grind his corn. Chorus. Let tis 
 pity the poor white man ; no mother has he to bri)ig him 
 milk, no wife to grind his corn. 
 
 He was so oppressed by this unexpected kindness 
 that sleep fled from his eyes. In the morning he gave 
 his compassionate landlady two of the four brass buttons 
 which remained on his waistcoat, the only compensation 
 he could make her. 
 
 After two or three days the king sent him a present 
 of five thousand cowries, and earnestly requested him to 
 go away. Perhaps he feared that Park would bewitch 
 him, or that he might not be able to protect a Christian 
 from the Moors ; or that he had come as a spy. It can 
 hardly be supposed that the Banibara people would 
 appreciate the objects which the African Association 
 had in view. A native, when Park informed him that 
 he had come from a great distance and through many 
 dangers to look at the Joliba, enquired whether there 
 were no rivers in his own country, and whether one 
 river was not like another. 
 
 In accordance with the instructions which he had re- 
 ceived, Mungo Park started for Timbuctoo. He went down 
 the bank of the river as far as Silla ; then, his funds 
 being nearly exhausted, and the Moors becoming more 
 numerous and more influential as he went on, he thought 
 it best to return. This was a most fortunate determina- 
 tion, for had he gone on to Timbuctoo he would certainly 
 have been either killed or enslaved. An old negro told 
 him that when he first went to that city he took up his
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIOXEERS 429 
 
 lodgings at a sort of public inn, the landlord of which 
 spread a mat on the floor and laid a rope upon it saying, 
 * If you are a IMussulman you are my friend, sit down ; 
 but if you are a Kafir you are my slave, and with this 
 rope I will lead you to market.' 
 
 He returned towards the South and went up the 
 river side as far as Bammakoo. He had some intention 
 of passing through Kong to the Gold Coast, and this 
 would have led him through a country which yet re- 
 mains to be explored. However, he thought it best to 
 go back to the Gambia ; and this, indeed, was difficult 
 enough. His cowries were spent, and he therefore had 
 nothing left but his clothes and his horse. Even these 
 were taken from him by some Foula bandits, who at 
 first stripped him stark naked, but after^vards gave him 
 back the worst of his two shirts, a pair of trowsers, and 
 his hat, in the crown of which he kept his memoranda. 
 After they were gone he sat for some time looking 
 round him with amazement and terror, \^'hichever way 
 he turned nothing offered but danger and difficulty. 
 He saw himself in the^ midst of a vast wilderness, in 
 the depth of the rainy season ; naked and alone ; sur- 
 rounded by savage animals, and b}- men still more 
 savage. He was five hundred miles from the nearest 
 European settlement. All these circumstances crowded 
 at once upon him, and his spirits began to fail. He 
 considered his fate as certain, and that he had no 
 alternative but to lie down and perish. The influence 
 of religion, however, aided and supported him. He
 
 430 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 was, indeed, a stranger in a strange land, yet he was 
 still under the protecting eye of that Providence who 
 has condescended to call himself the stranger's friend. 
 At this moment, painful as his reflections were, the 
 extraordinary beauty of a small moss in fructification 
 caught his eye. From what trifling circumstances the 
 mind will sometimes derive consolation ! for though 
 the whole plant was not larger than the top of one of 
 his fingers, he could not contemplate the delicate con- 
 formation of its roots, leaves, and capsule without 
 admiration. Can that Being (thought he) who planted, 
 watered, and brought to perfection in this part of the 
 world a thing which appears of so small importance, 
 look with unconcern upon the situation and sufferings 
 of creatures formed after his own image ; surely not ! 
 Reflections like these would not allow him to despair. 
 He started up and, disregarding both hunger and 
 fatigue, travelled forwards, assured that relief was at 
 hand ; and he was not disappointed.' 
 
 And now poor Mungo Park, his discoveries being 
 ended, began his long homeward march on foot, clothed 
 in rags, and carrying a spear in his hand. He had 
 to beg for every meal ; in some of the towns he was 
 received with kindness, while others closed their gates 
 against him. There was a famine in the land, and 
 women, emaciated with hunger, were selling their chil- 
 dren for corn. He frequently suffered from fever, and 
 
 * I have related the foregoing narrative, as much as possible, in Mr. 
 Park's own words.
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 4jr 
 
 under one attack was confined to his hut for several 
 days. He heard the house-master remark to his wife 
 that they were Hkely to find him an expensive guest, as 
 in his sickly state they would be obliged for the sake of 
 their good name to maintain him until he recovered or 
 died. 
 
 In a town called Kamalia he met with a neero 
 named Karfa Taura, who informed Park that he in- 
 tended when the rains were over to take a coffle of 
 slaves to Gambia. He said that Park had better wait 
 and go with him, and that if he could eat the common 
 victuals of the country he could have as much of them 
 as he wanted, and a hut to sleep in ; and that after he 
 had been conducted in safety to the Gambia, he might 
 make what return he thought proper. Park asked 
 Karfa if he would be satisfied with the value of one 
 prime slave : he replied in the affirmative, and ordered 
 one of the huts to be swept for his guest's accommoda- 
 tion. 
 
 In the meantime Mr. Dickson had been appointed 
 curator of the Garden of Experiment at that time 
 attached to the British Museum. Paying it a visit 
 early one morning he found that the gate had been 
 left open all the night, and that a man had walked 
 in and was strolling about the grounds. He went up 
 to this intruder and found that it was IMungo Park, 
 of whom nothing had been heard for years, and who 
 had been given up as dead. He had reached the 
 Gambia in safety and returned to England via the
 
 432 THE AFRICAN PIOXEERS [Book III 
 
 West Indies in a trading vessel, and having arrived 
 early in the morning he was waiting in the garden 
 till the servants opened Mr. Dickson's house. 
 
 The excitement in London was immense, and the 
 Sunday evenings at Sir Joseph's house in Soho Square 
 were crowded with people of fashion anxious to get a 
 glimpse of the explorer. Major Rennell, the famous 
 geography, at once went to work on Park's dead 
 reckonings and memoranda. Bry^an Edwards, the his- 
 torian of the West Indies, and now the Secretary of 
 the African Association, wrote a brief account of the 
 traveller's adventures for private circulation. Park him- 
 self went home to Fowlshiels on the banks of the Yarrow, 
 where one of his brothers had inherited his father's farm. 
 He spent his mornings in hard work upon his narrative, 
 and then coming to London passed it through the press. 
 Again returning home he married the daughter of the 
 surgeon to whom he had been apprenticed. We may 
 imagine if we please that Mungo Park w^ooed her in his 
 boyhood and won her with his fame, and that her name, 
 though not mentioned in his book, was often in his 
 heart, in the tent of Ali or by the waters of the Niger. 
 But certain it is that he was not a domestic man. While 
 his name was .on everybody's lips, and his book in every- 
 body's hands, he had become a surgeon in the country, 
 and was thoroughly weary of his life. Walter Scott, 
 who was sometimes his neighbour, called upon him 
 one day, and not finding him at home, walked in 
 search of him along the banks of the Yarrow, which
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 433 
 
 in that part is a romantic stream, running among rocks 
 and forming deep eddies and pools. He found the 
 traveller plunging large stones into the river, and watch- 
 ing with anxious attention the bubbles as they rose to 
 the surface. On being asked by his friend why he per- 
 severed so long in this singular amusement, he replied 
 that it was the way in which he used to ascertain the 
 depth of a river in Africa before he ventured to cross 
 it ; judging whether the attempt would be safe by the 
 time which the bubbles took to ascend. It was not then 
 known that he had any thoughts of undertaking a second 
 expedition ; but this circumstance left no doubt in IMr. 
 Scott's mind about the matter. In fact, Park soon an- 
 nounced his intention of going back to Africa ; and when 
 one of his nearest relations expostulated with him on the 
 risk, he calmly replied that a few inglorious winters of 
 country practice was a risk as great, and would tend as 
 effectually to shorten life as the journey which he vv'as 
 about to undertake. 
 
 He had suggested to the Government, on his return, 
 that a commercial and military station should be esta- 
 blished at Segou. This was afterAvards a favourite project 
 of Faidherbe's, and may yet some day be carried out by 
 the French. Mungo Park's proposal received serious at- 
 tention ; and, at all events, it was determined to equip 
 an expedition to ascertain the course and termination of 
 the Niger. Henceforth the explorations of Africa were 
 conducted by Government, and immense sums of money 
 were expended. 
 
 VOL. I. F F
 
 434 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 Park one day called on Walter Scott, who had taken 
 a country house near Fowlshiels, and informed him that 
 he was about to start to London, and thence to Africa, 
 and had come to say ' Good-bye.' The next morning 
 Scott accompanied him part of the way home, and they 
 rode together over the wild chain of pastoral hills which 
 divide the Yarrow and the Tw^eed. They arrived on the 
 top of William-hope ridge, a lofty hill which overlooks 
 the course of the Yarrow ; and the autumnal mist, which 
 floated heavily and slowdy down the valley beneath 
 them, presented to the poet's imagination a striking 
 emblem of the troubled and uncertain prospect which 
 Park's undertaking afforded. They came to the spot 
 where it had been agreed that they should separate. A 
 small ditch divided the moor from the road ; and in 
 going over it Park's horse stumbled and fell. * I am 
 afraid, Mungo,' said Scott, * that is a bad omen ; ' to 
 which Park answered, smiling, ' Freits follow those who 
 look to them.' ^ 
 
 Five thousand pounds were placed at Park's dis- 
 posal, and he started from Goree with forty white sol- 
 diers. When he reached the Niger at Bammakoo, 
 three-fourths of these men had died. 
 
 He travelled, partly by land and partly by water, 
 past Segou to a town called Sansanding. His men died 
 fast. He sent his interpreter, Isaacs, wdth a handsome 
 
 ^ Thame luiks to freits my master dear, 
 Then freits will follow them. 
 ; Ballad of Edom O'Gordon.
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN- PIONEERS 435 
 
 present to the king, and obtained permission to build a 
 boat and sail down the Niger. Taking a native canoe, 
 he improved it into a two-masted boat, forty feet by 
 six, and called it the * Joliba ; ' he then sent Isaacs to 
 the Gambia with his journals, and sailed down the 
 stream. His companions w^ere, Lieutenant Martyn and 
 three English soldiers, one of whom soon afterwards 
 died ; three slaves, and a man named Amadi Fatouma, 
 who agreed to go as far as Haoussa. This man relates 
 that their canoe was frequently attacked, and that they 
 killed great numbers of the natives ; that in some places 
 he, Amadi Fatouma, went on shore to buy provisions, 
 but that no one else left the canoe ; that when they ar- 
 rived in Haoussa he parted from them, according to 
 agreement ; and that a chief, or king, being angry that 
 the white men had passed without making him a pre- 
 sent (although they had plenty), sent an armed force to 
 Boussa, where the river is narrow, and attacked them ; 
 that, after resisting for some time, they sprang into the 
 river and were drowned. 
 
 The fact of Mungo Park's death was doubted for a 
 long time ; and his son afterwards went to look for him, 
 as Telemachus went in search of Ulysses, and died at a 
 very short distance from Accra. The accounts collected 
 by subsequent travellers confirmed the truth of Amadi's 
 report. Park shot his way down the Niger, firing right 
 and left at the natives, who crowded to the banks of the 
 river, often without intentions of hostility. The prow of his 
 vessel was furnished with an iron hook, like the rostrum 
 
 F F 2
 
 436 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 of the ancients ; and guns were fitted to the sides of the 
 * JoHba.' He killed and wounded many of the Tuaricks, 
 who attacked him in canoes. It must be confessed that 
 Park's conduct was reckless and inhuman, and dims 
 the lustre of his reputation. Upon his head must be the 
 blood of Major Laing, who was the first European to 
 reach Timbuctoo, near which town he was killed by a 
 tribe of Tuaricks, in revenge for the slaughter inflicted 
 upon them by The Wild Beast, as they called Mungo 
 Park. Even when Barth visited that country, and en- 
 countered that same tribe, he ran no slight risk of being 
 murdered ; for one of the men whom Park had wounded 
 was still alive, and it had not been forgotten how many 
 had been killed. 
 
 Laing's papers were not recovered, and Timbuctoo 
 remained a mystery till it was visited by Rene Caillie, 
 in 1828. Caillie was a Frenchman of humble birth, 
 who, by reading ' Robinson Crusoe,' was excited to the 
 love of travel ; he went out to Senegal, toqk up his abode 
 among the Tawny Moors of the Sahara, adopted the 
 Mahommedan garb and religion, and returned to St. 
 Louis so altered in appearance that his most intimate 
 friends took him for a Moor. Disappointed of assistance 
 from the Governor, he went to Sierra Leone, where the 
 English Governor gave him eighty pounds for purposes 
 of exploration. He put on again the turban and the 
 tobe, alleged himself to be an Arab, and, starting from 
 the Nunez river, crossed the continent of Africa to 
 Morocco via Timbuctoo. His description of that city
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIOXEERS 437 
 
 destroyed one of the popular illusions respecting Africa 
 and its golden joys. * I looked around me,' he says, 
 ' and found that the sight before me did not answer my 
 expectations. I had formed a totally different idea of 
 the grandeur and wealth of Timbuctoo. The city pre- 
 sented at first view nothing but a mass of ill-looking 
 houses built of earth. Nothing was to be seen in all 
 directions but immense plains of sand of a yellowish 
 white colour. The sky was a pale red as far as the 
 horizon. All nature wore a dreary aspect, and the most 
 profound silence prevailed — not even the warbling of a 
 bird was to be heard. This mysterious city, which has 
 been an object of curiosity for so many ages, and of 
 whose population, civilisation, and trade with the Sou- 
 dan, such exaggerated notions have prevailed, is situated 
 in an immense plain of white sand, having no vegetation 
 but stunted trees and shrubs, such as the Mimosa fer- 
 riigina which grows no higher than three or four feet.' 
 
 Timbuctoo is, in truth, a seaport, situated on the 
 shores of the Dry Ocean, or the Sandy Sea. When 
 i\Iorocco was a civilised country, Timbuctoo shared its 
 importance, became the market of gold-dust from Bam- 
 bara and Boure, and of salt dug up in slabs from the 
 neighbouring mines of Toudeyni, in the Desert. The 
 city could boast of public buildings, the ruins of which 
 are yet to be seen, and produced scholars and authors 
 of considerable note. With the decline of Morocco it 
 also declined, and Kano became the commercial metro- 
 polis of the Soudan. Timbuctoo is a kind of Harar or
 
 438 THE AFRICAX PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 Bokhara ; it has always been infected with the bigotry of 
 the Moors. In the days of Caillie, it was ruled by the 
 Tuaricks, who encircled the city with their camps, and 
 levied tribute on the passing caravans. But now, accord- 
 ing- to Barth, the Foulas have driven the Tuaricks back 
 into the Desert, and hold the town in their possession. 
 These Puritans of Africa have made it even more reli- 
 gious than before, and inflict fines and floggings on those 
 who fail in their regular attendance at the mosque. 
 
 Caillie received a pension and the cross for his mar- 
 vellous journey, and in 1870 a monument was erected to 
 his honour by the French Government on the banks of 
 the Nunez. In England he was treated with much in- 
 justice by geographers and critics. But Barth has con- 
 firmed the accuracy of his descriptions as regards Timi- 
 buctoo ; and, in fact, he is one of the most sober and 
 faithful, though not one of the most agreeable, of 
 writers. 
 
 Denham and Clapperton crossed the Desert from 
 Tripoli via Fezzan to the great kingdom of Bornou, 
 and discovered Lake Tchad. For the first time since 
 the days of Leo Africanus, the information of an eye- 
 witness was received from this extraordinary country. 
 Here, in the heart of Africa, where it w^as supposed that 
 only savages existed ; here, in the land beyond the 
 Desert, was revealed the existence of enormous cities, 
 with weekly markets, at which a hundred thousand 
 poople were sometimes assembled, and in which the 
 cotton goods of Manchester, the red cloth of Saxony,
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 439 
 
 double-barrelled guns, raw silk, razors, tea and sugar, 
 Nuremberg fancy ware, and writing-paper, were exposed 
 for sale. Here negroes might be seen riding on horse- 
 back, clad in mail, while others studied Aristotle and 
 Plato in Arabic translations. The most active inter- 
 course was kept up with the Barbary states ; cloths, san- 
 dals, and Korans, beautifully written, were exported to 
 those countries ; and legal suits in the Soudan were 
 often decided on appeal by the Tripoli Ulemas, or Doc- 
 tors of the Law.^ 
 
 But the journeys of Caillie and Denham did not 
 throw any light on the African problem of the day — the 
 termination of the Niger. Mungo Park had settled an 
 important point, namely, that the river flowed towards 
 the east, and was entirely distinct from the Senegal and 
 Gambia. But his journey rather increased, than other- 
 wise, the curiosity of the public and the confusion of 
 geographers. * Since Park's discovery of the Joliba,' 
 wrote a ' Quarterly Reviewer,' ' every point of the com- 
 pass has been assumed for the ulterior course and direc- 
 tion of that river.' Some geographers believed that it 
 joined the Nile, according to the ancients. Major Ren- 
 nell assumed that it ran into a swamp. Park himself 
 was of opinion that the Congo was its mouth ; and, as 
 is shown by a letter from Martyn, he held that belief 
 at the moment of his starting on his voyage from 
 Segou. In the midst of all these conjectures, a German 
 
 * Denham and Clapperton, Earth, Mohammed el Tounsy.
 
 440 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 geographer, Reichard of Weimar, advanced the curious 
 hypothesis that the Niger, after flowing for some distance 
 towards the Nile, turned sharp round, passed through 
 the Kong mountains or Ghauts of Western Africa, and 
 emptied its waters in the Bight of Benin. He based 
 this opinion upon the vast alluvial deposits existing in 
 the swamps of the Oil Rivers, as they are called — Benin, 
 Brass, the Nun, and New Calabar. This theory was at 
 first rejected with unwonted accord and unanimity by 
 all scientific men ; and Mannert said it was contrary to 
 Nature. However, it gradually gained ground, and 
 was confirmed by an explorer, as will presently be 
 seen. But first some other expeditions must be men- 
 tioned. Roentgen went in from, Morocco, and w^as 
 killed near Mogadore. NichoUs was sent to the New 
 Calabar, which is actually one of the mouths of the 
 Niger, but died three months after landing. The King 
 of the River enquired if he had come from Mr. Wilber- 
 force, and assured him that he would kill him if he had. 
 Belzoni, the Egyptian excavator, made an attempt via 
 Benin, and died not far from the coast. A great expe- 
 dition was sent from the Nunez, under Major Gray, 
 and came to nought. Another expedition was sent to 
 the Congo, under Tuckey, and nearly every one died. 
 African travel became a mania which infected all enter- 
 prising minds. Leyden was nearly volunteering, but 
 gave up the project, much to the relief of the Edinburgh 
 coterie. Carsten Niebuhr, the Arabian explorer, had 
 similar intentions, but remained at home and produced
 
 Book III] THE APRTCAN PIOXEERS 441 
 
 an historian. Burckhardt's famous tour in Syria, Nubia, 
 and his pilgrimage to Mecca, were merely trips of pre- 
 paration for a great African journey, and he died just as 
 he was ready to begin. In 1825 Clapperton went in 
 from Badagry, near Lagos, struck the Niger at Boussa, 
 and went on to Sockatoo, the capital of the Foula Em- 
 pire. But why, when he found the river, did he not 
 descend it } He had a conviction, it appears, that who- 
 ever went down the river would be killed ; but he could 
 not expect to find the mouth of the river by travelling 
 in an opposite direction. He died at Sockatoo, and his 
 servant, Richard Lander, returned to the coast by an- 
 other route. 
 
 Lander brought with him information which left 
 little doubt that the Niger debouched into the Bight of 
 Benin, and Government sent him out again to trace the 
 stream down to the sea. Accompanied by his brother 
 John, he travelled from Badagry to Boussa, where he 
 found some books and guns belonging to Mungo Park ; 
 but the traveller's papers had disappeared. 
 
 Lander requested permission from the king to go 
 down the river. The king said he must first consult the 
 Dark Water, as they call the Niger. This was done 
 with much solemnity and care, and the answer was 
 favourable. The river promised to take care of the 
 white men. 
 
 Even at Boussa it was not positively known where 
 the Niger came to an end, for the Moslems had not 
 penetrated far into the Delta : the natives did not invite
 
 442 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 their trade, as they obtained all that they required from 
 the ships ; and the swamps were impregnable to the 
 cavalry of the Foulas or Felatahs. 
 
 Whatever may have been the true story of Park's 
 death at Boussa, it is certain that the Landers were 
 kindly received by the king and his people. As they 
 went down towards the river, to start upon their voyage, 
 the Moslems lining the wayside fervently implored on 
 their behalf the protection of Allah and the Prophet. The 
 eyes of many were streaming with tears, and all saluted 
 them and blessed them as they passed. They paddled 
 down the river, and before long had sufficient proofs 
 that it was taking them towards the ocean. One day 
 they saw a cocoa-nut tree, a sure sign that they were 
 approaching the coast ; on another day a sea-gull flew 
 over their heads. Next they observed that the people 
 on the banks often wore European clothes ; and once a 
 man in a soldier's jacket called out from the banks, 
 * Hollo, you Englishman, you come here ! ' 
 
 One morning they perceived about fifty canoes 
 coming up the river. These craft appeared to be very 
 large, and full of men, and the appearance of them at a 
 distance was very pleasing. They had each three long 
 bamboo canes, with flags flying from them, one fixed at 
 each end of the canoe, and one in the middle. In 
 several the Union Jack waved on high, while other 
 flags, which were white, had figures on them of a man's 
 leg, chairs, tables, decanters, glasses, and all kinds of 
 such devices. The people in them, who were very
 
 Book III] 1 HE AFRICAN PIONEERS 443 
 
 numerous, were dressed in European clothing, with the 
 trifling exception of trowsers, which might be worn only 
 by kings, and for which pocket handkerchiefs were 
 substituted. 
 
 Lander felt quite overjoyed at the sight of the 
 English flags and of people in European clothes. But 
 when the canoes came closer, he observed that they had 
 certain curious raised platforms, also six-pounders in 
 the bows, and that the natives were armed to the teeth. 
 The foremost canoe being now close to them, some men 
 mounted the platform, and covered Lander's canoe with 
 their muskets, while other canoes swept up alongside, 
 and with astonishing rapidity our hero found himself 
 deprived of his luggage and various articles of personal 
 apparel. 
 
 These people were the Eboes, and a grand palaver 
 was afterwards held in a neighbouring town as to what 
 should be done with the prisoners and their canoemen. 
 There happened to be among these savages a few well- 
 dressed Mahommedan priests, who had come there to 
 trade. Although they themselves were strangers, they 
 entered the council, and accused the people of cowardice 
 and cruelty. Many times they turned to the Landers, 
 and blessed them with compassionate faces and uplifted 
 hands, exclaiming ' God is king ! ' The Landers were 
 taken to the King of Eboe, and were ransomed from 
 him by King Boy of Brass, who was staying Avith the 
 former. King Boy paid the King of Eboe goods to the 
 value of twenty slaves ; and Lander agreed to give a
 
 444 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 ' book ' or bill for the amount, and in addition the value 
 of fifteen slaves, that King Boy might be requited for 
 his trouble. There was an English brig, called the 
 ' Thomas,' lying in Brass river, and the natives placed 
 so much faith in the character of the English, that no 
 one doubted for a moment but that the captain would 
 honour the bill. 
 
 In sorrow and weariness Park had discovered the 
 Niger, and in captivity Lander discovered its mouth. 
 King Boy, leaving John Lander and the canoemen in 
 his own house, took Lander on board the English brig. 
 The vessel was in a melancholy state. Four sailors had 
 just died of fever ; the remaining four were sick in their 
 hammocks, and the captain appeared to be in the last 
 stage of illness. But on Lander relating his story, and 
 presenting the bill, with the remark that, as it was a 
 government expedition, there was no risk in advancing 
 the goods, the captain became vigorous with rage, made 
 use of many offensive and shameful oaths, and declared 
 that he would not advance a farthing. ' If you think,' 
 
 said this interesting invalid, ' that you have a fool 
 
 to deal with, you are mistaken. I '11 not give a 
 
 flint for your bill. I would not give you a 
 
 for it.' Lander then asked King Boy to take him on to 
 Bonny, and get the money there ; but King Boy replied, 
 ' No, no, dis captain no pay. Bonny captain no pay ; I 
 won't take you any further.' It was in vain that Lander 
 told the captain he had a brother in King Boy's power. 
 The mere mention of the bill brought up another vomit
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAX PIOXEERS 445 
 
 of oaths and abuse. So King Boy returned with empty 
 hands and anger in his heart. 
 
 John Lander was informed of this before he saw the 
 king, and awaited his arrival with some little apprehen- 
 sion. He heard the monarch quarrelling with his women, 
 and afterwards walking through their apartments. He 
 entered Lander's room, and stood still. His dark eye 
 was flashing with anger, whilst his upturned lip, which 
 exposed his white teeth, quivered with passion. No face 
 in the world could convey more forcibly to the mind the 
 feeling of contempt and bitter scorn than the distorted 
 visage of the king. It was dreadfully expressive. 
 Drawing up the left angle of his mouth on a parallel 
 with his eyes, he broke silence with a sneering, long- 
 drawn ' Eh ! ' and almost choking with rage, he said, 
 * You are thief man ; English captain no will ! You 
 told me when I took you from the Eboe country that 
 he would be glad to see me, and give me plenty of beef 
 and rum. I got neither one nor the other. Eh ! English 
 captain no will. I gave you a quantity of goods to free 
 you from slavery. I took you into my own canoe. You 
 were hungry, and I gave }"ou yam and fish ; you were 
 almost naked, I was sorry to see you so, because 
 you were white men and strangers, and I gave each of 
 you a rea cap and a silk handkerchief But you are no 
 good — you are thief man. Eh ! English captain no 
 will ; he no will. You also told me your countrymen 
 would do this (taking off his cap, and flourishing it in 
 circles over his head), and cry " Hurra ! hurra ! " when I
 
 446 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 came on board their vessel. You promised my wife a 
 necklace, and my father four bars. But eh ! English 
 x:aptain no will ; I tell you he no will. Yes, I will 
 satisfy your hunger with plenty more of my fish and 
 yams, and your thirst will I quench with rum and palm- 
 wine. Eh ! you thief man, you are no good ; English 
 captain no will ! ' He then stamped on the ground, and 
 gnashed at Lander with his teeth like a dog, and cursed 
 him again and again. 
 
 However, after some days King Boy, hoping against 
 hope, took John Lander and his people on board the 
 brig. The captain would not relent. The brothers 
 scraped together all the little property they had left, 
 and gave it to the king. It was not worth much ; and 
 Boy called one of his men, to show him what had been 
 imposed upon him instead of his bars ; then both of 
 them turned away with scorn and indignation, and 
 would not speak or even look at the Landers again. 
 However, he was afterwards repaid by Government, and 
 poetical justice was administered to the captain of the 
 brig. He offered the Landers a passage home from 
 Fernando Po ; but they had no desire to put themselves 
 into his power again, and declined his offer — happily for 
 them. He had not sailed more than a mile from the 
 anchorage, when a large vessel, with raking masts, 
 suddenly appeared from behind a part of the island, and 
 made all sail in chase, firing guns at him, till at last he 
 lay to. The brig ' Thomas ' was never heard of again ;
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIOXEERS 447 
 
 and it was generally believed that the stranger was a 
 pirate, and that the benevolent captain had been made 
 to * walk the plank ' — a method of execution not in those 
 days entirely extinct. 
 
 The course and termination of the Niger had at last 
 been ascertained. This river rises among the mountains 
 at the back of Sierra Leone, inhabited by savage Pagan 
 tribes, but soon flows forth into the broad calm breast of 
 the plateau, with the walled cities of the Moslems on its 
 banks. It then takes its Mandingo name of the Joliba, 
 or Great River. Flowing towards the north-east, it 
 passes two great towns, Segou and Jenne, and runs close 
 by Timbuctoo. In this part of its course it is sur- 
 rounded by extensive plains, and has, in fact, entered 
 the Sahara, which it fertilises with its inundations. At 
 Timbuctoo, changing its direction, it turns to the right, 
 and flows towards the east, skirting the border of the 
 Desert, and apparently intending to effect a junction 
 with the Nile ; but on reaching the country of Haussa, 
 the eccentric river, now called the Ouorra (with many 
 other appellations), again curves round, doubles back 
 upon itself, flows towards the ocean near which it rose, 
 passes through the latitude of the birth, and having 
 thus described three-quarters of a circle, pours itself 
 into the Bight of Benin. About two hundred miles 
 from its mouth it receives an enormous tributar>% called 
 the Binue, the source of which is entirely unknown, but
 
 448 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 which doubtless exists at no great distance from the 
 sources of the rivers which feed the Nile from the 
 west. 
 
 As soon as Lander returned to England, the enter- 
 prising Laird fitted out a steamer expedition, which was 
 joined by Richard Lander, and it was found that the 
 Niger could be navigated in the rainy season to a con- 
 siderable distance from the sea. The natives of the 
 Delta, as may be supposed, resisted the attempt to pass 
 their towns, and Lander was killed in a skirmish. The 
 attempts which have been made to establish settlements 
 upon this river have not been attended with success ; 
 but every year steamers ascend to the confluence of the 
 Quorra and Binue, and do a good trade. The country 
 which lies beyond the Confluence is one of the largest 
 cotton-growing areas in the world. Kano is its Man- 
 chester ; and at present the people dress themselves. 
 But when the Niger trade is once established, our cheap 
 cotton goods will soon destroy the native industry, and 
 the people will export their raw cotton, instead of weav- 
 ing it themselves. The Niger plateau is also covered 
 with the shea-butter or tallow tree of Park ; and this 
 unguent is said to be superior in value to palm-oil. The 
 population of the Niger is immense, and possesses an 
 oriental civilisation. It may, therefore, be affirmed that 
 a great market for European goods has been opened up 
 by those African explorers, whose lives and labours I 
 have sketched. 
 
 The history of African exploration may be divided
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 44.9 
 
 into two epochs — that of the Niger and that of the Nile. 
 The first epoch concludes with the Landers. Since 
 then it is true that Laird, and Oldfield, and Baikie, have 
 added much to our knowledge of the Lower River and 
 the Binue. Barth spent three years among the negroes, 
 went over the ground of Denham, visited Timbuctoo, 
 and added to geography the intervening portion of the 
 Niger, which Mungo Park had navigated, but which had 
 never been described. Gerhard Rohlfs crossed the con- 
 tinent, via Lake Tchad, from Tripoli to Lagos. Nach- 
 tigal has been to Bornou, and Vogel perished in Wadai. 
 But, after all, these magnificent journeys have added 
 little to our knowledge of Soudan. The days of dis- 
 covery in this part of Africa are over ; the Niger has 
 gone out of fashion, and the present generation has been 
 interested only in the story of the Nile. 
 
 The Sources of the Nile are contained in the rain- 
 clouds of the Equator, which pour themselves down on 
 the forest-plateau, form into a thousand rivers, and 
 finally collect in enormous lakes, .the precise number 
 and importance of which are yet to be determined. 
 From Baker's Albert Nyanza — the most northerly in 
 latitude, and lowest in level, of these inland seas — the 
 Nile runs towards Europe, and plunges- into the Sahara. 
 From its great equatorial reservoirs it receives a suffi- 
 ciency of water to maintain its existence throughout 
 this land of fire, where all other rivers are speedily 
 VOL. I. G G
 
 450 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 extinguished. But the Nile not only flows through the 
 Sahara ; it also overflows the flat country lying near its 
 mouth, and, casting mud on the surface of the sand, 
 creates that meadow which is called Egypt. 
 
 Now this black mud does not come from the lands 
 of the Equator ; the waters of the Nile are clear, or 
 white ; and although the Lakes can keep the Nile alive 
 in its journey through the Desert, they cannot make it 
 overflow. Whence then proceed these rich soil-laden 
 and redundant waters to the weary Nile 1 
 
 On the right hand side of that flowing river, between 
 its waters and the Red Sea, a cluster of mountains rises 
 in the air. These are the Highlands of Ethiopia — the 
 romantic Abyssinia, the Switzerland of Africa ; and 
 down these hilly slopes, at a certain season of the 
 year, rush two noisy streams — the Blue or Black Nile, 
 and the Atbara — which, stripping their country of its 
 black upper soil, fall into the Nile, and bestow upon it 
 such a wealth of w^ater, that as soon as it escapes from 
 the rocky walls which line its course in the Nubian 
 Desert, it is forced to overflow. 
 
 Thus the Nile is created by the rainfall of the equa- 
 tor, and Egypt by the rainfall of the tropics. If the 
 White Nile did not exist, the Black Nile would be 
 nothing — it would perish in the sand. But if the Black 
 Nile did not exist, the White Nile would be merely a 
 barren river in a sandy plain, with some Arab encamp- 
 ments on its banks. 
 
 When the Hyksos or Bedouins conquered Egypt
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 451 
 
 and ruled it from a camp, the Pharaoh, with his family 
 and court, fled across the Desert, and established the 
 city of Meroe. The shepherd kings being afterwards 
 expelled from Egypt, and the Pharaohs triumphantly 
 restored, Ethiopia became a military province, which, in 
 the days of Egyptian decline, obtained its independence, 
 and even conquered for a time the Mother Land. 
 
 After the Persian conquest, Ethiopia was separated 
 from Egypt, and fell into an African condition. In the 
 third century the Abyssinians were converted to Chris- 
 tianity, and joined the Jacobite persuasion. The Patri- 
 arch of Alexandria, and afterwards of Cairo, became 
 their Pope, and sent them their Aboona, or Archbishop^ 
 charging six thousand dollars for the same. This pri- 
 mate is not allowed to smoke, and one of his episcopal 
 functions is to spit, by way of benediction, upon the 
 clergy and the people. 
 
 In the middle ages it was rumoured that a great 
 Christian king existed in some unknown country, and 
 that his name was Prester John. At first he was sup- 
 posed to be a king of the Tartars, or the Emperor of 
 China, but afterwards the name was applied to the 
 Negus of Abyssinia. Covilham, a Portuguese, was the 
 first European to reach his court, where he was kindly 
 received, but detained for life, according to the ancient 
 law, that no stranger shall be allowed to go out of 
 A byssinia. 
 
 The Jesuits converted Ethiopia for a time, but were 
 G G 2
 
 452 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 afterwards expelled, and the country remained dark till 
 it was revealed to the civilised world by a traveller 
 whose name has become a proverb, and whose fame, 
 undimmed by time, promises to become eternal. 
 
 James Bruce was the son of a Scotch laird, who sent 
 him to Harrow, and afterwards into the wine trade. 
 Bruce had a passion for languages, and during his 
 travels on the continent in the way of business, he learnt 
 French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, kept up his 
 Latin and Greek, collected Oriental MSS., made some 
 progress in Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Ethiopic or Geez, 
 and Arabic ; which last language he afterwards mastered. 
 He had also a taste for art, and was an excellent 
 draughtsman. He investigated the antiquities of Rome, 
 and made a catalogue of Italian paintings. When he 
 came into his estate, on his father s death, he thought 
 at first of retiring to the country ; Lord Halifax how- 
 ever urged him not to bury himself alive, but to follow 
 up Shaw's work in Barbary, and obtained him the con- 
 sulate of Algiers. He discharged with courage and 
 fidelity his duties at that pirate court, and only resigned 
 his post in order to travel in the East and finally to 
 search for the sources of the Nile. 
 
 In the course of his tour he was shipwrecked off 
 Benghazi, made some fine drawings of Baalbec and Pal- 
 myra, studied medicine under the famous Dr. Russel at 
 Aleppo, and at last arrived in Egypt, wearing the cos- 
 tume of the East. He procured letters of introduction 
 from the Patriarch of Cairo to the priests of Abyssinia,
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 453 
 
 and proceeded to Gondar, the capital, where he was 
 received with honour and distinction. He soon became 
 the Alcibiades of Abyssinia, was honoured for his learn- 
 ing and medical skill, reputed as the best horseman and 
 shot in the country, and admired as a dandy and a beau. 
 He enjoyed many bonnes fo7'tnnes \ which indeed is easy 
 enough in Ethiopia, where the ladies are not prudes, 
 and the husbands are not Othellos. 
 
 In course of time he was permitted to visit the 
 sources of the Blue Nile ; these consist of two or three 
 fountains of different sizes, enclosed within mounds of 
 earth by the natives, who hold them sacred, and sacrifice 
 bullocks around, them on holy days and festivals. 
 
 Bruce now desired to return to Europe ; but the 
 ancient law of the country, though not always en- 
 forced, was not yet obsolete, and the king found it 
 impossible to part from so agreeable a guest. It was 
 only when the health of the traveller gave way, and it 
 was feared that he would die, which would bring ill-for- 
 tune to the land, that he was allowed to depart ; but 
 then he was made to take * a very solemn oath ' that he 
 would return as soon as he was well. 
 
 Bufifon met the great man at Marseilles, and they 
 went to Paris together, where Bruce figured for a time 
 in those salons which have become famous in the history 
 of France. But his happiness and triumph were not 
 unmingled with disaster. When he discovered the foun- 
 tains of the Nile, he filled a gourd, and drank — To Maria ; 
 and now he found that the lady had married in his
 
 454 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 absence. Nor did the course of glory run more smoothly 
 than that of untrue love, for when he met Danville, the 
 famous geographer, he was informed first, that a Jesuit, 
 named Payz, had already discovered and described the 
 sources of the Blue Nile ; and secondly, that the Blue 
 Nile was merely a tributary stream. In London he was 
 laughed to scorn. His tales of the sword-hunters ham- 
 stringing elephants, and of the Abyssinians cutting live 
 steaks from oxen and eating them raw, were universally 
 disbelieved by the magnates of the literary coffee-houses 
 ^nd taverns, with Dr. Johnson at their head. George 
 Selwyn made him the victim of a mot. There was not 
 a hack in Grub Street who did not write a paragraph 
 against him. ' The Surprising Travels and Adventures 
 of the Baron Munchausen ' were composed in his honour 
 and dedicated to him ; and Peter Pindar indited nume- 
 rous satirical couplets, of which the following will suffice 
 as an example — 
 
 Nor have I been where men (what loss, alas !) 
 Kill half a cow and turn the rest to grass. 
 
 Bruce retired to Scotland ; but even there was not 
 safe from insult. One day, when he was visiting at the 
 house of a relation in East Lothian, a gentleman present 
 bluntly observed, it was impossible that the natives of 
 Abyssinia could eat raw meat ! Bioice did not reply, 
 but shortly afterwards left the room, and returned with 
 a piece of raw beefsteak, peppered and salted in the 
 Abyssinian fashion. ' You will eat that, or fight me,' he 
 said. When the incredulous gentleman had finished the
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 455 
 
 beef, Bruce calmly observed, ' Now, sir, you will never 
 again say it is impossible ! ' ^ 
 
 Many years passed before he brought out his book, 
 which Horace Walpole defined as dull and dear. He 
 took much interest in the early proceedings of the 
 African Association, but died before the achievement of 
 his countryman, Mungo Park. At a party which he 
 gave, he observed an old lady going out, unattended, to 
 her carriage. He hastened after her to offer his arm, 
 missed his footing, fell down stairs, and never spoke 
 again — a strange conclusion to his adventurous career. 
 
 From the death of Bruce, in 1794, till 1830, the 
 Niger monopolised African geography. But when Lander 
 had discovered the mouth of that river, the African 
 Association was dissolved, or rather embodied itself 
 within the Geographical Society. 
 
 This potent and honourable body, of which, with all 
 its defects, our country has reason to be proud, will be 
 associated for many years to come with the name of Sir 
 Roderick Murchison, who may be regarded as a con- 
 tinuation of Sir Joseph Banks. There was certainly 
 much in common between these two celebrated baronets. 
 Both were men of fortune, yet true devotees of science, 
 
 ' To eat raw flesh is a custom in Abyssinia; but to cut live steaks from 
 oxen is only practised in cases of emergency, that is, when people are 
 hungry, and have an ox which they do not wish to kill. Mr. Mansfield 
 Parkyns does not doubt that Bruce actually saw what he described. Dio- 
 dorus Siculus describes the Ethiopians hamstringing the elephant and 
 feasting from the body of the animal as it lay living but helpless on the 
 ground.
 
 456 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 — Banks as a botanist, and Murchison as a geologist. 
 The former, without knowing anything of mathematics, 
 ruled over the Royal Society forty-one years, seated in 
 the chair of Newton, and, though often reviled as an 
 amateur, it was he who first made the F.R.S. a diploma 
 of scientific worth. The latter, without knowing any- 
 thing of geography, governed for a shorter period of 
 time, but with not less despotic sway, the Geographical 
 Society, and raised it to wealth, honour, and fashion. 
 No man of science could hope to be elected a Fellow of 
 the Royal Society, unless first introduced to Sir Joseph, 
 inspected and approved. No distant traveller could be 
 praised, or his letters fairly brought before the public, if 
 he had incurred Sir Roderick's displeasure. Sir Joseph 
 was the friend and correspondent of many African tra- 
 vellers, especially of Mungo Park. Sir Roderick was 
 the friend and correspondent of many African travellers, 
 especially of David Livingstone. Murchison was a cour- 
 teous and dignified foe, a faithful and warm-hearted 
 friend, and, in spite of his little foibles, his weakness 
 for rank and title, his passion for newspaper notoriety, 
 and his bland facility for suppressing facts which were 
 hostile to his fancies, he will ever be remembered by 
 his associates with esteem, and almost with affection. 
 
 We now arrive at the epoch of the Nile, in which Sir 
 Roderick and the Geographical Society played the same 
 part which Sir Joseph and the African Association had 
 already performed in the epoch of the Niger. 
 
 The commencement of White Nile exploration is
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 457 
 
 somewhat obscure. Mehemet Ali conquered countries 
 in Soudan, founded Khartoum, and formed regiments 
 of negroes. Cailliaud and Werne accompanied these 
 expeditions. Petherick, and other ivory traders, opened 
 up new lands for commerce. An Austrian Catholic 
 mission was established at Gondokoro ; and Miss Tinne 
 was the first to navigate a steamer to that distant point. 
 Gondokoro was long the terminus of exploration ; the 
 jealousy of the slave-hunters, and the hostility of the 
 slave-hunted, made further ingress apparently impos- 
 sible, and Central Africa was entered by a side-door. 
 
 Dr. Beke, who had travelled in Abyssinia, claims to 
 be the first who suggested that the Nile sources might 
 be discovered by a search inland from the neighbour- 
 hood of Zanzibar ; but the exploration of Eastern Africa 
 was first commenced by the Geographical Society, in 
 consequence of the Mombas Mission Map. Messrs. 
 Krapf and Rebmann, who were stationed at Mombas, in 
 the service of the Church Missionary Society, made 
 several journeys into the unknown interior, and dis- 
 covered the snow-topped mountains of Kenia and Kili- 
 mandjaro ; the latter of which was afterwards ascended 
 by the Baron Van der Decken, and still more recently 
 by the Reverend Mr. New. The Mombas missionaries 
 also heard of an enormous lake in the centre of Africa, 
 and sent to the Geographical Society a map, in which 
 this inland sea was portrayed. 
 
 The Geographical Society resolved to send an expe- 
 dition in search of the lake, and Lieutenant Burton, of
 
 45S THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 the Bombay army, was appointed to conduct it. Burton 
 had distinguished himself in the early part of his Indian 
 career by his intense application to linguistic studies, 
 and was not less various in his accomplishments than 
 Bruce himself He mastered the lore of the Sufi's, and 
 the art of fence, and obtained a diploma as Dervish, and 
 a brevet as Maitre d'Armes. In 1853, being then thirty- 
 three years of age, he accomplished an extraordinary 
 enterprise, which at once made his name a household 
 word in India and the East. Disguised in Oriental 
 garb, he took his passage to Alexandria in the P. and O., 
 kept a shop at Cairo for some little time, selling sweet- 
 meats and drugs, and then, joining the annual caravan, 
 made the pilgrimage^ to Mecca and Medina, as Burck- 
 hardt had done before him. He complied with all the 
 customary rites, entered the town bare-headed, per- 
 mitted vermin to dwell upon him (it being forbidden to 
 kill aught within the limits of the Sacred Land), drank 
 of the waters of Zem-zem, kissed the Black Stone, and 
 pelted the Devil in the valley of Mina. At Medina he 
 viewed the Prophet's tomb ; and on his return to Eng- 
 land published a work, the value of which will be in- 
 creased by time. 
 
 The system of travelling under false pretences is 
 uncongenial to English ideas, and has recently been 
 much condemned. Certainly, if a traveller assumes a 
 disguise, he must act in the spirit of that disguise ; and 
 as Arabs never conduct philosophical investigations, and 
 are blind to the beauty of statistics, it follows, as a
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 459 
 
 matter of course, that the traveller is precluded from 
 seeking as much information as he could at least en- 
 deavour to obtain if he wore a European dress. But, on 
 the other hand, it is better that a town or country should 
 be visited by persons in disguise, than that they should 
 not be visited at all. The Bokhara, described by Vam- 
 bery, no longer exists ; and had he not resided within 
 it in disguise, we should have lost a curious and in- 
 teresting work. Caillie, with the small means at his 
 disposal, could not have reached Timbuctoo except in 
 Moslem disguise. Barth was protected by powerful 
 friends in that Puritan city, which so closely resembles 
 the Bokhara of the past ; but even he was obliged to 
 call himself a Mahommedan, in order to pass through 
 some fanatical Tuarick tribes. And finally, as regards 
 Mecca and Medina, no infidels ever are admitted ; there- 
 fore, had not Burckhardt and Burton put. on sheep's 
 clothing, told an infinity of lies, mumbled false prayers 
 on rosaries, and pounded the Arabian soil with their 
 foreheads, those interesting cities would to this day have 
 remained entirely unknown. The time is at hand when 
 a frock coat and pantaloons will be the traveller's best 
 protection in the most dangerous parts of the world ; 
 but, in the meantime, it need not be feared that the 
 ' dervish dodge,' as Mr. Palgrave ^ calls it, will ever be 
 carried to excess. There are not so very many 
 
 ' Mr. Palgrave says in his * Travels in Arabia,' i. 259 : 'To feign a 
 religion which the adventurer himself does not believe, to perform with 
 scrupulous exactitude, as of the highest and holiest import, practices which
 
 46o THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 Europeans with sufficient knowledge to speak an 
 Oriental language like a native, or with sufficient en- 
 durance to pass months in dirt and devotion, chastity 
 and rags. 
 
 Burton's next proceeding was to intrude himself 
 into Harar, in North-eastern Africa, also an exclusive 
 city. He considers this the most dangerous of all his 
 undertakings. On the shores of the Red Sea he met 
 Lieutenant Speke, who had explored, as a sportsman, 
 some rough regions in the Himalayas, and who was 
 seeking to kill strange beasts for the adornment of his 
 father's hall in Somersetshire. They travelled together 
 among the Somaulis, were attacked one night by that 
 fierce people, and narrowly escaped, Speke receiving 
 eleven w^ounds. When Burton w^as made commander 
 of the great Zanzibar expedition, he obtained permis- 
 sion for Speke to go with him ; and now commences the 
 story of the Sources of the Nile. 
 
 The east coast of Africa resembles the west coast, 
 with its alluvial seaboard belt of virgin forest, mangrove 
 swamps, and small unnavigable rivers — with its range of 
 Ghauts or Kong mountains — and with its vast inner 
 plateau, sometimes dry and desert, sometimes marshy 
 and lacustrine. But while the Portuguese discoverers 
 
 he inwardly ridicules . . . All this seems hardly compatible with the 
 character of a European gentleman, let alone that of a Christian,' 
 
 In his ' Essay on Eastern Questions,' p, 126, the same Mr. Palgrave 
 says, ' I have been twice myself invested (for the nonce) with the character 
 and duties of Imam, and as such have conducted the customary congrega- 
 tional worship ... I was in their eyes a Moslem,' (S:c.
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 461 
 
 only encountered, on the Guinea coast, naked savages, 
 paddling hollow trees and dwelling in miserable huts, 
 they found, on the eastern side, large Arab towns, with 
 stone houses embowered in groves of the orange and 
 the lime ; an active trade being carried on with Indians 
 at the period of the monsoons ; and the waters of the 
 ocean whitened with cotton sails. 
 
 The Indian Ocean was in fact a basin of commerce 
 when the waters of the Mediterranean were desolate 
 and bare. The Chinese were once a great maritime 
 nation, and discovered America ; at least, so they say.' 
 In their vast junks, which were sometimes sheathed with 
 iron,2 they opened up the spice trade of the Indian 
 Archipelago, doubled Cape Comorin, ascended the coast 
 of Malabar, and sailed even as far as the Persian Gulf 
 and the Red Sea. Chinese bottles have been found in 
 the Egyptian tombs,-^ and even at a comparatively 
 recent date the junks were seen in the Indian harbours, 
 their large wooden anchors dangling from their bows. 
 
 It is probably from these people that the Chaldeans 
 of Babylon, the Arabs of Yemen, and the Indians of 
 Guzerat acquired the arts of shipbuilding and naviga- 
 tion. It is certain that in very ancient times a sea- 
 trade was carried on between the coasts of Africa and 
 India. The ships of Solomon, Hiram, and Co., returned 
 from these southern waters with peacocks and gold. 
 The peacocks could only have been obtained from 
 
 ^ See Galvano's 'Discoveries of the World,' p. 19 (Hakluyt Society). 
 A very curious passage. 
 
 2 Purchas, vol. i. lib. 4. ' Wilkinson.
 
 462 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 India ; the gold could only have been brought from 
 Africa, for the Indians have always imported but never 
 exported the precious metal. . In the days of the Ptole- 
 mies, the Arabs of Yemen conducted the Indian trade, 
 and were the Dutch of the Indian Ocean ; but the 
 Romans destroyed Aden, and the Greeks of Alexan- 
 dria, who had already discovered the monsoons, carried 
 on the trade in their own vessels. When the religion 
 of Mahommed arose, and the empire of the Caliphs was 
 established, the Arabs again ruled the waters of The 
 Green Sea, and some exiles from Oman colonised various 
 cities on the eastern coast of Africa, and also the island 
 of Zanzibar. 
 
 Vasco de Gama and Albuquerque made the Indian 
 Ocean a Portuguese lake, on which no dhow could sail 
 without a passport from the Indian viceroy or his sub- 
 ordinate officials ; but the Arabs afterwards reconquered 
 the coast north of Cape Delgado. The sultan of Zanzibar 
 rules over this region, and claims sovereignty far into the 
 interior, where the Arab travelling merchants dwell in 
 fortified towns. But Eastern Africa has not been 
 Moslemised like the country of the Niger ; the govern- 
 ment wages no religious wars ; the merchants do not 
 attempt to convert the negroes to the faith ; partly, 
 perhaps, because they are all slave-traders, and it is 
 forbidden to enslave the true believer. These Arab 
 merchants, however, have done good service to the 
 cause of exploration by opening up caravan routes to 
 Lake Tanganyika; it was by these that Burton and 
 Speke travelled to the shores of that distant lake,
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 463 
 
 On their return journey, Burton invalided at Taborah 
 or Kazeh, an Arab settlement between Tanganyika and 
 the coast, and despatched Speke to seek for another 
 great lake which was reported to the north. Thus the 
 Victoria Nyanza was discovered, and Speke declared 
 when he returned to Kazeh that he had found the 
 head-waters of the Nile. Burton rejected this theory, 
 which is at least partially true ; but it was approved 
 by the Geographical Society, and Speke, accompanied 
 by Grant, went out again to the Lake Regions, and 
 crossed the continent from Zanzibar to Alexandria. 
 They arrived at Gondokoro, exhausted by fever and 
 reduced to poverty by the avarice of native chiefs. 
 Miss Tinne ^ had been to Gondokoro in her steamer, 
 and was searching for them in the upper tributary 
 streams ; during which voyage she w^as forced to burn 
 her cabin furniture for fuel. However, they met at 
 Gondokoro, a Mr. Samuel Baker, author of the * Rifle 
 and Hound in Ceylon,' who, with his young and pretty 
 wife, were just about to start for the interior, also to 
 look for the sources of the Nile. Baker relieved with an 
 open hand the necessities of Speke and Grant, and gave 
 them his sincere congratulations. At the same time 
 he could not but feel somewhat disheartened and de- 
 pressed. He had passed a twelvemonth in Abyssinia, 
 
 ' This lady, who possessed a true love of exploration, started from Tri- 
 poli for Timbuctoo, and was murdered by the Tuaricks near Mourzuk. She 
 fell a victim to the reputation of her wealth, for the Tuaricks supposed 
 that her iron water-tanks were filled with gold.
 
 464 TH^ AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 learning Arabic, and preparing himself for this under- 
 taking, and now he supposed that there was nothing 
 left for him to do. But Speke cheered him with the 
 assurance that a great discovery was still to be made, 
 for he had heard of another inland sea, which he had 
 wished himself to reach, but had been prevented by a 
 war. Mr. Baker and his wife determined to find this 
 lake, and, joining a company of Egyptian slave-hunters, 
 passed through the difficult districts immediately south 
 of Gondokoro ; finally, after great dangers and priva- 
 tions, they reached the shores of the Albert Nyanza, 
 for which they claim at the least an equal importance 
 with the Victoria Nyanza, in forming the head-waters 
 of the Nile. 
 
 But now another African traveller, greater than 
 Burton, greater than Speke, greater than Baker, appears 
 upon the scene, and discovers new lakes, and declares 
 that the true sources of the Nile exist far to the south 
 of the Nyanzas. 
 
 Combine Moffat and Mungo Park and the result 
 would resemble DAVID LIVINGSTONE. The long 
 and arduous years which he spent as a missionary at 
 Koloberg entitle him to our esteem, and as an explorer 
 he stands entirely alone. Other travellers, eminent as 
 they may be, have merely made campaigns in Africa ; 
 but Livingstone has passed his life in that country ; he 
 speaks English with a strong Sichuana brogue : and 
 only twice in his life since he was a youth has visited 
 England, returning after a while to his true home in
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 465 
 
 the wilderness with his health shattered by the toils 
 of literary composition. 
 
 Livingstone began life as an artisan, and at the age 
 of ten was put into a factory as ' piecer ; ' his working 
 hours were from six in the morning till eight at night, 
 with intervals for breakfast and dinner. He went to 
 evening school from eight to ten, after which hour he 
 used to read by himself till his mother snatched the book 
 from his hands and sent him off to bed. Out of his 
 first week's wages he bought Ruddiman's ' Rudiments of 
 Latin,' and at nineteen, promoted to a ' spinster,' he used 
 always to put a book on the spinning jenny and read 
 it as he worked. He devoured all kinds of books except 
 novels and works of theology, and the last flogging his 
 father gave him was on account of his obstinate refusal 
 to read Wilbefforce's ' Practical Christianity.' How- 
 ever, he was after^vards delighted with the works of 
 Dr. Thomas Dick — ' Philosophy of Religion,' and 
 ' Philosophy of a Future State.' 
 
 His religious feelings were now awakened, and ' in 
 the glow of love,' which Christianity inspires, he resolved 
 ' to devote his life to the alleviation of human misery.' 
 It was his intention to study medicine, and then to go 
 out as a missionary to China. 
 
 He attended medical classes at Glasgow, and was 
 admitted a Licentiate of the Faculty of Physicians 
 and Surgeons. But the Opium War having closed 
 China, the fame of Moffat turned him towards South 
 Africa. He entered the service of the London Mission- 
 VOL. I. H H
 
 466 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 ary Society, and in 1840 embarked for the Cape, and 
 went up at once to Kuruman, where Moffat's station 
 had been estabHshed about thirty years before. 
 
 The South African Plateau commences underneath 
 the parallel 20° South. It is built of granite, and 
 raised to a considerable height above the level of 
 the sea ; while its base is washed by furious and lofty 
 waves continually raised to turbulence by gales of wind. 
 The greater part of this region lies outside the Tropic 
 of Capricorn, and though the heat is often intense, 
 snow falls in certain parts of the interior. Here and 
 there a moist valley produces the African fever ; but 
 the climate, on the whole, is superb, and chronic dis- 
 eases vanish from the resident. South Africa lies in 
 the latitude of Australia, and resembles that country in 
 many respects. We find the same sandy deserts ; the 
 same rivers, fierce and foaming in the rains, and dry 
 watercourses in the summer ; the same wool-producing 
 pastures and mineral-abounding hills. But while Aus- 
 tralia offers nothing to the sportsman but kangaroos 
 and dingoes or wild dogs, the South African plateau 
 is one of Nature's best preserves. 
 
 Sometimes the wide and withered plains are covered 
 for miles with the springbok migrating, and the air 
 seems alive with their quivering horns ; these moving 
 herds are variegated with zebras and giraffes, and lions 
 run in among them like dogs in a pack of sheep. The 
 pools are trodden all around like a village horsepond 
 in England, and the ivory hunter, digging a hole near
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN- PIONEERS 467 
 
 the water, lies down inside to await his prey. The 
 sun sinks beneath the rim of heaven ; the cry of the 
 ostrich ceases ; in the distance may be heard the roaring 
 of the Hon ; and now from all quarters the hunter 
 observes dusky and uncouth forms drawing near to 
 the water, and animals of many kinds drinking each 
 in a manner of its own. But still the one of which he 
 is in quest has not appeared ; he remains silent, and 
 with his head peering from his hole watches with 
 curiosity the habits of the beasts around. The moon 
 rises in the sky and lights up the rocks, which are 
 formed in the image of castles and cathedrals ; at a 
 little distance is a grove of thorns to which he often 
 gives an impatient glance, like a lover who waits 
 near the house of his mistress and gazes at the win- 
 dow or the door. Presently he starts, his cheeks 
 flush, and his hand flies to the huge gun which is 
 lying by his side. Symptoms of uneasiness appear 
 among the animals that are drinking at the pool. 
 The giraffe begins to sway its long neck to and fro ; 
 the zebra utters subdued and plaintive cries ; the gnu 
 glides away with a noiseless step ; even the ponderous 
 and quarrelsome black rhinoceros goes off a little 
 way, then turns and listens, and finally departs, giving 
 vent to its fear and rage in vicious and peculiar snorts.^ 
 
 And now a great black mountain of moving flesh 
 moves slowly towards the water, and stands motionless 
 upon the brink, its form reflected in the shining pool. 
 
 • Andersson's ' Lake Ngami.' 
 H H 2
 
 468 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 A rustle of the clothes, a sigh, would be sufficient to scare 
 the scout away ; but it hears nothing, and gives a signal ; 
 the rest of the herd come out of the grove, and then 
 entering the pool splash about in the water and give 
 themselves shower-baths with their trunks. The hunter 
 picks out the finest tusker and aims at it behind the 
 ear. As he fires, it utters a shrill cry, and goes off 
 with drooping trunk. The next morning the hunter 
 takes his dogs and searches for the carcase in the 
 mimosa grove. 
 
 The natives of this country are, firstly, the Bush- 
 men, a pigmy race about four feet high, with bodies 
 so obscenely and grotesquely formed that they can- 
 not be described except in scientific publications. 
 They live entirely by hunting, and when game is 
 scarce dine upon grasshoppers. They also steal the 
 cattle of the settlers and Caffres, and are shot down 
 like the hyenas which they resemble in their habits. 
 These people are not confined, as was at first sup- 
 posed, to the South African Plateau. It can scarcely 
 be doubted that they are the true aborigines of Africa, 
 and that the negroes have driven them into a corner of 
 the continent ; as the Celts and Germans drove the 
 dwarfish Finns to the upper parts of Europe, and the 
 Red Indians drove the dwarfish Esquimaux into 
 the Arctic circle. But a few tribes of Bushmen are still 
 found in the recesses of inner Africa, as the aborigines 
 of India still exist in the hills of the Deccan. These 
 isolated Bushmen, called pigmies or dwarfs by the
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 469 
 
 negroes, are mentioned by Battel in his account of 
 Loango ; Du Chaillu found them inland of the Fer- 
 nand Vaz ; Krapf saw one upon the Eastern Coast ; 
 and Schweinfurth had one in his possession on the 
 Upper Nile. 
 
 The Hottentots appear to be Bushmen in a more 
 elevated state, tending cattle, but never tilling the 
 ground ; and as for the Caffres, they are merely a 
 branch of the great Bechuana tribe,^ and the Bech- 
 uanas are certainly a negro race. It has been asserted 
 by many ethnologists that the Caffres are different from 
 the negroes ; but that supposition I believe to be erro- 
 neous. Never yet have I seen the portrait of a Cafifre, 
 Bechuana, &c., which did not remind me of some negro 
 I had seen in Western Africa. In character and customs 
 the Bechuanas differ in no respect from the negroes. 
 The history of their lives is precisely the same — always 
 keeping cattle when permitted by the tsetse, but like- 
 wise always tilling the ground ; selling their daughters 
 to husbands, trj'ing witches by ordeal, making long 
 palavers, eloquent in speech, subtle in argument, de- 
 taining strangers, eager for trade ; such are the Bech- 
 uanas and such are the negroes. In both the prevailing 
 colour is bronze ; the hair is always woolly, the nostrils 
 are always expanded, and the forehead is always rounded 
 in the centre. But am.ong the negroes, as among the 
 Caffres, the hands and feet are often small, and the 
 calf of the leg fully curved, the nose aquiline, and 
 
 » Moffat.
 
 470 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 the lips thin, and the cast of features sometimes 
 almost European. It is probable enough that the 
 Cafifres on an average are a finer people than the 
 negroes of West Africa ; but surely that might be ex- 
 pected since they have wandered from Central Africa 
 into a healthy climate, and beyond the limits of the 
 tropics. 
 
 Let us now return to Livingstone, who, shortly after 
 his arrival, cut himself off from all the delights of society 
 at Kuruman, and retired for six months to the wilder- 
 ness that he might learn the language of the Bechuanas. 
 He afterwards married Mr. Moffat's daughter, and founded 
 the station Kolobeng far away inland. In such a country 
 the missionary must be a Jack of all trades, and his wife 
 a servant of all work. Under the tuition of his father-in- 
 law he had already learnt something of carpentering and 
 gardening ; a native smith taught him to w^eld iron ; he 
 became expert in the compound fractures of waggons, 
 and in setting a tire of a wheel ; he built a brick house, 
 and in order to make the bricks, had to cut down a tree 
 and saw the timber into moulds. His wife turned an 
 ant-hill into an oven, with a slab of stone for the door, 
 made soap out of wood-ashes, and manufactured 
 candles. 
 
 As regards the missionary work, his success as a 
 theologian may not have been great ; but he must have 
 succeeded among them as a man. ' Show kind atten- 
 tion,' he says, * to the reckless opponents of Christianity 
 on the bed of sickness and pain, and they never can be-
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 471 
 
 come your personal enemies. Here, if anywhere, love 
 begets love.' 
 
 His affection and friendship for the natives got him 
 into trouble with the Boers, or Dutch Creole peasant 
 farmers, who are descended from the original settlers of 
 the country. 
 
 The Portuguese did not make use of the Cape of 
 Good Hope as a half-way station to the Indies ; for they 
 found it more convenient to sail at once to Mozambique, 
 and there to wait for the monsoon. The Dutch were 
 the first to utilise the Cape, and at first used it only as a 
 letter-box. When a ship was outward bound it entered 
 Table Bay, and its mails were deposited on shore, be- 
 neath a pillar-post or stone; these letters were excavated 
 by the captain who \vas homeward bound, and delivered 
 to their address at Amsterdam.' The Cape was after- 
 wards colonised by the Dutch, and girls were sent out 
 from orphan houses and charitable foundations, that the 
 settlers might not neglect that mandate for increase and 
 multiplication, which, of all scriptural injunctions, has 
 been the most faithfully obeyed. 
 
 While the harbour of Cape Towii w^as useful to the 
 ships of the East India Company for provisions and re- 
 pairs, the Boers spread into the interior. Learning and 
 the arts have not yet deprived these people of their 
 primitive simplicity. Barrow observed a schoolmaster 
 yoked with an ox to the plough, and driven by a Hot- 
 tentot ; and even at the present day, the doctrine that 
 
 ' Kolben.
 
 472 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 the earth is round is a novel and startling heresy, which 
 the clergy dare not announce from their pulpits.^ The 
 Boer sits all day with his pipe in his mouth, removing it 
 only to welcome a guest, to drink a glass of ' Cape 
 smoke,' or to eat his various and frequent meals. His 
 wife sits all day with her naked feet on a perforated 
 footstool filled with live charcoal, and a coffee-pot brew- 
 ing at her side. Before dinner a girl comes in and 
 washes the family and the guests all round. They eat 
 dumplings and pieces of meat floating in a greasy 
 soup ; which diet fattens them exceedingly, the adipose 
 tissue chiefly collecting in the same manner as it does 
 with the Hottentots, and the sheep of the land. The 
 Boers meet once a year at the nearest town, to take 
 the Sacrament, to trade, and to marry their young 
 people. Though not refined or intellectual, they would 
 be a very estimable people, were it not for their treat- 
 ment of the natives. They maintain that their own 
 position is analogous to that of the Israelites in Canaan ; 
 that they are the chosen people of God, and that the 
 heathen have been given them for an inheritance. Their 
 war-policy is regulated by the instructions revealed to 
 the Hebrew warriors in Deuteronomy xx. 10-14. They 
 act indeed much in the manner of their worthy proto- 
 types, robbing and butchering the natives, and never 
 attempting to convert them. They do not even admit 
 their Hottentot servants to family prayers ; as if they 
 
 ' Mackenzie's * Ten Years North of the Orange River,' p. 51.
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 473 
 
 supposed that God cared only for Dutchmen, as In former 
 times He was supposed to care only for Jews. 
 
 When the English took the Cape and deprived them 
 of their slaves, this pious people performed an Exodus, 
 and occupied a land flowing with milk and honey, be- 
 longing to the Bechuanas. Dr. Livingstone's parishioners 
 excited their hostility, and he was regarded as a Balaam, 
 or false prophet. They attacked his settlement in his 
 absence, carried off two hundred of his school children 
 into slavery, plundered his house, and destroyed his 
 library — the solace of his solitude. When he came 
 home, he found that his furniture and clothes had been 
 taken as an inheritance ; that his medicine bottles were 
 smashed to pieces, and that his books were scattered 
 and torn. 
 
 The fact is, that the Boers were afraid that this Eng- 
 lish missionary would open up the country to English 
 trade ; but by their violent proceedings they left him 
 free to carry out his projects of research and explora- 
 tion. Accompanied by Messrs. Oswell and INIurray, he 
 crossed the Great Kalahari Desert, which hitherto had 
 hindered the progress of travellers, and discovered Lake 
 Ngami on the other side. This was his first great 
 journey. 
 
 As it was evident the Boers would not permit the 
 Kolobeng mission to be established again ; and as the 
 region of Lake Ngami, the border-land of Central Africa, 
 was too unhealthy for a station, he determined to take 
 his family to the Cape, and then to return to the interior.
 
 474 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 and to seek beyond Ngami and the banks of the Zam- 
 besi a healthy region where he might plant a missionary 
 settlement. This region he never discovered ; for through- 
 out Central Africa the fever everywhere prevails. But 
 he made, as will be seen, the greatest exploring journey 
 that had ever been achieved. 
 
 He waggoned it down to the Cape, placed his wife 
 and children in the care of friends, took lessons in astro- 
 nomy from Mr. Maclear at the Observatory, waggoned 
 it back again to Lake Ngami, took up his abode with 
 the Makololo tribe, learnt their language, acquired the 
 friendship of their chief, and then offered, if he, the chief 
 would give him men, to open up a road to the Portu- 
 guese possessions on the west coast, by which means the 
 Makololo w^ould obtain a market for their ivory. The 
 chief placed twenty-seven men at his disposal, and he 
 prepared to start. 
 
 Nothing can better illustrate the character of Living- 
 stone than this arrangement with the Makololo. Here, 
 in the centre of Africa, was a savage, war-making people, 
 who had never seen a European, and who probably 
 supposed that white men had tails, and lived under the 
 water, and dined upon negroes. Livingstone comes 
 among them, and is at first received with some little dis- 
 trust ; but in course of time so completely wins their 
 confidence and their esteem, that a number of free and 
 independent citizens consent to go with him to the 
 country of the white man ; although they know that he 
 could there sell them, if he chose, and although neither
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN' PIONEERS 475 
 
 he nor they are acquainted with the land and people 
 through which they have to pass. Their chief anxiety, 
 it seems, was on his account, and their chief dread that 
 they might lose their good name. * In the event of your 
 death,' said they, 'will not the white people blame us 
 for having allowed you to go away into an unhealthy 
 unknown country of enemies V Livingstone reassured 
 them on this point, and then, in his narrative, proceeds 
 to say : * The prospect of passing away from this fair 
 and beautiful world thus came before me in a pretty 
 plain matter-of-fact form ; and it did seem a serious 
 thing to leave wife and children — to break up all con- 
 nection with earth, and enter on an untried state of 
 existence ; and I find myself in my journal pondering 
 over that fearful migration which lands us in eternity ; 
 wondering whether an angel will soothe the fluttering 
 soul, sadly flurried, as it must be, on entering the spirit 
 world; and hoping that Jesus might speak but one word 
 of peace, for that would establish in the bosom an ever- 
 lasting calm. But as I have always believed that if we 
 serve God at all, it ought to be done in a manly way, I 
 wrote to my brother, commending my little girl to his 
 care, as I was determined to succeed or perish in the 
 attempt to open up this part of Africa. The Boers, by 
 taking possession of all my goods, had saved me the 
 trouble of making a will ; and, considering the light heart 
 that now leapt in my bosom, and some faint efforts to 
 perform the duty of Christian forgiveness, I felt that it 
 was better to be the plundered party than one of the 
 plunderers.'
 
 476 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 This brave and good man, attended by his faithful 
 Makololo, then worked his way with infinite difficulty 
 through savage tribes to the Portuguese possessions ; he 
 was received by Mr. Gabriel at San Paolo de Loanda, 
 and remained with him seven months. He then returned 
 to the country from which he came, and, instead of strik- 
 ing southward to the Cape, continued straight on to the 
 East, discovered the African Niagara, which he named 
 the Victoria Falls, and descended the Zambesi to the 
 sea, having thus crossed Africa from West to East. 
 
 He returned to England in 1856, having been absent 
 sixteen years. In 1858 he was entrusted with the charge 
 of a Government steamer expedition, went up the Zam- 
 besi and other rivers, and assisted to establish the Uni- 
 versities Mission on the highlands of the interior. This 
 Mission was composed of splendid human materials. It 
 is impossible to read the melancholy narrative of Rowley 
 without perceiving that Bishop Mackenzie and his com- 
 panions were men of gold. But the climate killed them, 
 one by one, and the Mission was abandoned. The fact 
 is, that Central Africa, except within the southern pla- 
 teau, is not fit for white men to live in ; the miserable 
 dwellings, the meagre and unwholesomxe food, the isola- 
 tion from civilised life, the continual anxiety, the fre- 
 quent disappointment, too faithfully combine with fever, 
 dysentery, and other diseases of the soil. It is one 
 thing to travel in Africa ; it is another to settle down 
 for life in miasma and monotony amongst a people who 
 anxiously inquire of the missionary how much tobacco
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 477 
 
 he will give them if they consent to be baptized, and 
 who beHeve that he has arranged with the white man's 
 god to receive a commission on their souls. 
 
 The Zambesi expedition lasted six years, and Dr. 
 Livingstone was then recalled. For some time he saw 
 no prospect of visiting Africa again, and used facetiously 
 to talk about taking to a * pike.' However, he obtained 
 the nominal post of consul to Central Africa, without 
 salary from Government ; but only the sum of five 
 hundred pounds. Happily he had private friends, who 
 placed large sums at his disposal, and thus he was en- 
 abled to start for the interior on a pure exploring expe- 
 dition. He had not long been absent, when some of his 
 men appeared on the coast, and announced that he was 
 dead. A Search Expedition was despatched upon his 
 trail, and ascertained that he was alive, and that the 
 men were runaways. The noblest of motives prompted 
 the sending of this expedition, and therefore it should 
 not be harshly condemned. But, nevertheless, it was 
 money thrown away. No one supposed that Living- 
 stone had been detained. Either he was dead, or had 
 proceeded on his journey. In the former case he could 
 not be assisted ; in the latter case he could not be over- 
 taken, and in course of time letters would arrive (as 
 they did) to say where he was. 
 
 From time to time letters came to Zanzibar from 
 Livingstone, and stores were sent up to him by the 
 English consul. It was known that he had reached 
 Ujiji, a town on the shores of the Tanganyika Lake,
 
 478 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 and that he had gone to explore the unknown regions 
 west of that lake. Then came an interval of silence. 
 Months and months passed by; no letters were received ; 
 and the Arab traders who came down from Ujiji to the 
 coast brought rumours of his death. 
 
 Now was the proper time to send an expedition. 
 There was reason to believe that the goods despatched 
 from the coast had not arrived in his hands. If so, he 
 was probably in a dilemma ; for people cannot travel 
 moneyless in Africa, any more than they can travel 
 moneyless in Europe. Every African village is an hotel, 
 and the landlord, or king, must be paid for board and 
 lodging ; to say nothing of tribute for right of way. 
 The money with which the East African traveller must 
 pay his expenses consists of cloth, wire, and beads ; 
 men must be hired to carry these commodities, and to 
 these men also wages must be paid. If, therefore, 
 Livingstone had spent his goods, he could not continue 
 his explorations ; and possibly he might be detained for 
 debt by some savage chief A Search Expedition would 
 not only relieve the anxiety of the public to learn his 
 fate, but would also enable him to go on with his travels ; 
 or, if he preferred it, to return home. 
 
 Yet, strangely enough. Sir Roderick Murchison, a 
 sincere friend of the absent man, would not organise 
 such an expedition, firmly believing that the Doctor's 
 wants could best be relieved by means of native carriers, 
 despatched with goods to the interior. It was not till
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAX PIONEERS 479 
 
 after Sir Roderick's death that the council of the Geo- 
 graphical Society was able to equip an expedition. 
 
 In the meantime, however, another man was before 
 them in the field. American papers, in point of literary 
 workmanship, editorial dignity, and influence with the 
 public, are inferior to those of our large provincial 
 towns ; but surpass even the journals of London in their 
 enterprise for collecting news. The editor of the ' New 
 York Herald,' I\Ir. James Gordon Bennett, junior, re- 
 marking what interest was felt in both hemispheres in 
 the fate of Dr. Livingstone, authorised one of his corres- 
 pondents, who, though young in years was old in travel, 
 to go and look for the absent explorer; placing funds ad 
 libitinn at his disposal. Mr. Stanley proceeded to Zan- 
 zibar, purchased goods, hired carriers, and set out for 
 the interior. The first point he had to make was Ujiji, 
 on the Lake Tanganyika. Burton and Speke had been 
 before him ; and though the journey in any case must 
 have been troublesome and tedious, still it was not new 
 ground, and the Arab traders were always travelling to 
 and fro. But when he arrived at the Arab settlement 
 Taborah, or Kazeh, an unexpected obstacle arose. Mi- 
 rambo, a native chieftain, cut the road. The Arabs went 
 to war, Mr. Stanley joined them, and ]\Iirambo was vic- 
 torious. News arrived on the coast, and aftenvards in Eng- 
 land, that Mr. Stanley had been stopped ; and also that 
 he was very dangerously ill. The Geographical Society 
 thereupon very properly proceeded with the Relief and 
 Search Expedition. But Stanley was not a man to be
 
 48o THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 easily turned back. He formed ' a flying caravan,' 
 dashed headlong into the bush, weiit rou7id the war, as 
 the natives say, opened up a road of his own, and safely 
 arrived at Ujiji, to which Livingstone had just returned 
 from his journey to the west. 
 
 The Doctor was almost penniless ; he was exhausted 
 by disease ; a thousand pounds worth of goods, sent up 
 to him from Zanzibar, had been embezzled by the 
 Arabs and the natives ; his letters to the coast had been 
 again and again destroyed. His position, therefore, was 
 desperate. Without money, or armed men, he could 
 not have reached Zanzibar, on account of the Mirambo 
 war. He would, therefore, have been forced to remain 
 inactive, and to be inactive in Africa is like sleeping in 
 the snow — it is death. 
 
 The arrival of the gallant American is best described 
 by Livingstone himself : — ' A vague rumour,' he says, 
 ' reached Ujiji, in the beginning of last month, that an 
 Englishman had come to Unanyembe, with boats, 
 horses, men, and goods in abundance. It was in vain to 
 conjecture who this could be ; and my eager inquiries 
 were met by answers so contradictor}^ that I began to 
 doubt if any stranger had come at all. But one day, I 
 cannot say which, for I was three weeks too fast in my 
 reckoning, my man, Susi, came dashing up in great ex- 
 citement, and gasped out, "An Englishman coming — 
 see him ! " and off he ran to meet him. The American 
 flag at the head of a caravan told me the nationality of 
 the stranger. It was Henry M. Stanley, the travelling
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 481 
 
 correspondent of the " New York Herald," sent by the 
 son of the editor, James Gordon Bennett, junior, at an 
 expense of 4,000/., to obtain correct information about 
 me, if hving ; and if dead, to bring home my bone?. 
 The kindness was extreme, and made my whole frame 
 thrill with excitement and gratitude/ ^ 
 
 With this romantic meeting, the history of African 
 exploration is concluded for the present ; but Living- 
 stone is still at work, and Baker Pacha in the midst of a 
 campaign. An expedition has been sent to the Congo, 
 and another to the Victoria Nyanza ; while in Germany 
 an African Association has been formed. It is certain 
 that for many years to come Central Africa will main- 
 tain its geographical pre-eminence. We may hope to 
 hear more of the dwarfish aborigines; of people living in 
 caves and burrowing underground ; of cannibals eating 
 their prisoners of war. New lakes, mountain ranges, 
 and rivers, will be described ; the water-partings of the 
 Nile, Binue, and Congo, will be correctly laid down 
 upon the maps ; and in the great central forest-plateau 
 other species of the genus gorilla will probably be found. 
 But it is doubtful whether anything of a startling and 
 sensational description remains to be discovered. The 
 heroic age of African travel is drawing to a close, and 
 the days are already past when every journal of explo- 
 ration was devoured as soon as it . was offered to the 
 public. Future travellers in Africa will be placed under 
 
 ' Dr. Livingstone to Earl Granville. Ujiji, December 18, 1871. 
 VOL. L I I
 
 482 THE AFRICAN PIONEERS [Book III 
 
 the same conditions as those who relate their adventures 
 in China, New Guinea, and Brazil. Their books, to 
 attain popularity, must be composed with literary skill, 
 or stored with scientific observations ; they must either 
 belong to the school of Chateaubriand and Lamartine, 
 Warburton and Kinglake, or to that of Humboldt, Dar- 
 win, Hooker, Wallace, and Bates. 
 
 And now it may be asked, What has been the use of 
 all this exploration ? What has been purchased with 
 the blood and the treasure expended on African soil ? 
 To this I reply, that owing to the travels of Park, Den- 
 ham, Clapperton, and Lander, a new market has been 
 opened to British manufactures ; and that the Oriental 
 slave-trade in negroes has been suppressed by two 
 African explorers — Livingstone and Baker. 
 
 Bread and butcher's meat to thousands of women 
 and children in England ; life, peace, and security to 
 thousands of women and children in Africa — such are 
 the results of exploration. 
 
 When we remember that the earth was once a mise- 
 rable wilderness, inhabited by savages, whose imple- 
 ments and weapons were chipped flints, or stakes har- 
 dened in the fire, it is surely not unreasonable to believe 
 that the wastes of Africa will some day be reclaimed 
 and colonised by civilized men ; and it is certain that 
 before a country can be improved, it must be known. 
 But even if cold-hearted sceptics should deny that travel- 
 lers act as the pioneers of progress, or should, perhaps, 
 deride progress itself, then I would maintain that Adven-
 
 Book III] THE AFRICAN PIONEERS 483 
 
 ture is a moral agent; that noble deeds have always their 
 utility ; and that the career of a man like Livingstone 
 radiates virtue throughout the world. 
 
 When the illusions of youth are departed ; when the 
 fancies that brightened the morning of existence have 
 faded and vanished away ; when we too plainly perceive 
 that life, at the best, is insufficient, that our dearest 
 hopes can never be realised, or having been realised 
 cease to be hopes — what a melancholy languor at times 
 falls upon us ; what dull despair takes possession of our 
 souls ! 
 
 But if in these dreary and despondent hours we take 
 up the biography of a self-made man, and read of his 
 noble and persistent struggles, his fortitude, his patience, 
 and his ultimate success, we are nerved and animated to 
 our daily work. It matters not who the man may be, or 
 what was the object of his life — all heroes are benefac- 
 tors of the human race. The artisan in a London garret 
 may derive strength and consolation from the storj- of 
 an African explorer, as many a traveller in the weary 
 waste has been supported by the memory of those who, 
 at the desk or the workshop, in the parish and the pulpit, 
 in the studio, the laboratory, or the gas-lighted office, 
 have battled bravely with temptation or defeat,*and re- 
 mained true to the spirit of Duty, which the Unknown 
 Power has placed within their hearts. 
 
 END OF FIRST VOLUME.
 
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