stanley continues the reading.—bad news at ujiji.—small-pox and its ravages.—desertions by wholesale.—departure of the expedition.—crossing lake tanganika.—travellers' troubles.—terrifying rumors.—people west of the lake.—singular head-dresses.—cannibalism.—description of an african village.—appearance of the inhabitants.—in manyema.—story about livingstone.—manyema houses.—donkeys as curiosities.—kiteté and his beard.—the luama and the lualaba.—on the banks of the livingstone.
mr. stanley was heartily applauded as he paused at the end of what we have recorded in the previous chapter. under the stimulus of the applause, and with a reassuring glance at his watch, he continued the story of his march through the dark continent, occasionally reading from the book, but for the greater portion of the time holding the volume closed in his hands.
"the sky was of a stainless blue, and the slumbering lake faithfully reflected its exquisite tint, for not a breath of wind was astir to vex its surface. with groves of palms and the evergreen fig-trees on either hand, and before us a fringe of tall cane-grass along the shores, all juicy with verdure, the square tembés of ugoy and the conical cotes of kawelé, embowered by banana and plantain, we emerged into the bay of ujiji from the channel of bangwé.
"the cheery view of the port lent strength to our arms. an animating boat-song was struck up, the sounds of which, carried far on the shore, announced that a proud, joyous crew was returning homeward.
"long-horned cattle are being driven to the water to drink; asses are galloping about, braying furiously; goats and sheep and dogs are wandering in the market-place—many familiar scenes recur to us as we press forward to the shore.
"our wangwana hurry to the beach to welcome us. the usual congratulations follow—hand-shakings, smiles, and glad expressions. frank, however, is pale and sickly; a muffler is round his neck, and he wears a greatcoat. he looks very different from the strong, hearty man to whom i gave the charge of the camp during my absence. in a few words he informs me of his sufferings from the fever of ujiji.
in council: the courtyard of our tembé at ujiji.
(from a photograph by mr. stanley.)
"'i am so glad you have come, sir. i was beginning to feel very depressed. i have been down several times with severe attacks of the horrible fever. yesterday is the first time i got up after seven days' weary illness, and people are dying[pg 175]
[pg 176] round me so fast that i was beginning to think i must soon die too. now i am all right, and shall soon get strong again.'
central african goat.
"the news, when told to me in detail, was grievous. five of our wangwana were dead from small-pox; six others were seriously ill from the same cause. among the arab slaves, neither inoculated nor vaccinated, the mortality had been excessive from this fearful pest.
"at rosako, the second camp from bagamoyo, i had foreseen some such event as this, and had vaccinated, as i had thought, all hands; but it transpired, on inquiry now, that there were several who had not responded to the call, through some silly prejudice against it. five of those unvaccinated were dead, and five were ill, as also was one who had received the vaccine. when i examined the medicine-chest, i found the tubes broken and the lymph dried up.
"the arabs were dismayed at the pest and its dreadful havoc among their families and slaves. every house was full of mourning and woe. there were no more agreeable visits and social converse; each kept himself in strict seclusion, fearful of being stricken with it. khamis the baluch was dead, his house was closed, and his friends were sorrowing. mohammed bin gharib had lost two children; muini kheri was lamenting the deaths of three children. the mortality was increasing; it was now from fifty to seventy-five daily among a population of about three thousand. bitter were the complainings against the hot season and close atmosphere, and fervent the prayers for rain!
"frank had been assiduous in his assistance to our friends. he had elevated himself in their opinion by his devotion and sympathy, until sickness had laid its heavy hand on him. the wangwana were now his sincere admirers, and the chiefs were his friends. formerly, while ignorant of the language, he and they were, perhaps of necessity, mutually distant; they now fraternized warmly.
"our messengers had not returned with our letters from unyanyembé, but, to[pg 177] escape the effects of the epidemic, it was necessary to move and resume our journey westward. the wangwana were therefore ordered to prepare, and my last letters were written; but, though i hoped to be ready on the 17th to strike camp, i was attacked by a serious fever. this delayed me until the evening of the 25th.
"when, on the morning of the 25th of august, the drum and bugle announced that our travels were to be resumed, i had cause to congratulate myself that i had foreseen that many desertions would take place, and that i was prepared in a measure for it by having discarded many superfluities. but i was not prepared to hear that thirty-eight men had deserted. thirty-eight out of one hundred and seventy was a serious reduction of strength. i was also told by the chiefs of the expedition, who were almost beside themselves with fear, that this wholesale desertion threatened an entire and complete dissolution of our force; that many more would desert en route to kabogo, as the people were demoralized by the prospect of being eaten by manyema cannibals. as neither frank nor i relished the idea of being compelled to return to zanzibar before we had obtained a view of the lualaba, i mustered as many as would answer to their names; and out of these, selecting such as appeared unstable and flighty, i secured thirty-two, and surrounded our house with guards.
m'sehazy haven and camp, at the mouth of m'sehazy river.
"after preparing the canoes and getting the boat ready, those who did not bear a good character for firmness and fidelity were conducted under guard to the transport canoes; the firm and faithful, and those believed to be so, were permitted to march on land with myself towards kabogo cape, or m'sehazy creek, whence the crossing of the tanganika was to be effected. out of the one hundred and thirty-two men, of whom the expedition now consisted, only thirty were intrusted with guns, as my faith in the stability of the wangwana was utterly[pg 178] destroyed, despite their protestations to the contrary. i could afford to lose weak, fearful, and unworthy men; but i could not afford to lose one gun. though we had such a show of strength left, i was only too conscious that there were barely forty reliable and effective in a crisis, or in the presence of danger; the rest were merely useful as bearers of burdens, or porters.
"when we resumed our journey the second day from ukaranga, three more were missing, which swelled the number of desertions to forty-one, and reduced our force to one hundred and twenty-nine. after we had crossed the tanganika and arrived in uguha, two more disappeared, one of whom was young kalulu, whom i had taken to england and the united states, and whom i had placed in an english school for eighteen months.
"induced to do so by the hope that i should secure their attachment to the cause of the expedition, i had purchased from sultan bin kassim six bales of cloth at an enormous price, ￡350, and had distributed them all among the people gratuitously. this wholesale desertion, at the very period when their services were about to be most needed, was my reward! the desertion and faithless conduct of kalulu did not, as may be imagined, augment my hopes, or increase my faith in the fidelity of my people. but it determined me to recover some of the deserters. francis pocock and the detective of the expedition, the ever faithful and gallant kachéché, were therefore sent back with a squad to ujiji, with instructions how to act; and one night kachéché pounced upon six fellows, who, after a hard and tough resistance, were secured; and after his return to uguha with these he successfully recovered the runaway kalulu on kasengé island. these seven, along with a few others arrested in the act of desertion, received merited punishments, which put an end to misconduct and faithlessness, and prevented the wreck of the expedition.
"it must not be supposed that i was more unfortunate than other travellers; for to the faithlessness of his people may be attributed principally the long wanderings of poor livingstone. cameron also lost a great number at unyanyembé, as well as at ujiji. experience had taught me on my first journey to central africa that wangwana would desert at every opportunity, especially in the vicinity of the arab depots. it was to lessen these opportunities for desertion that i had left the unyanyembé road, and struck through ituru and iramba; and though my losses in men were great from famine, the ferocity of the natives, and sickness, they did not amount to half of what they certainly would have been had i touched at unyanyembé. by adopting this route, despite the calamities that we were subjected to for a short season, i had gained time, and opened new countries hitherto unexplored.
"unless the traveller in africa exerts himself to keep his force intact, he cannot hope to perform satisfactory service. if he relaxes his watchfulness, it is instantly taken advantage of by the weak-minded and the indolent. livingstone lost at least six years of time, and finally his life, by permitting his people to desert. if a follower left his service, he even permitted him to remain in the same village with him, without attempting to reclaim him, or to compel that service which he had bound himself to render at zanzibar. the consequence of this excessive mildness was that he was left at last with only seven men, out of nearly seventy. his noble character has won from us a tribute of affection and esteem,[pg 179] but it has had no lasting good effect on the african. at the same time, over-severity is as bad as over-gentleness in dealing with these men. what is required is pure, simple justice between man and man.
huts and store-house.
"the general infidelity and instability of the wangwana arises, in great part, from their weak minds becoming a prey to terror of imaginary dangers. thus, the johanna men deserted livingstone because they heard the terrible mafitté were in the way; my runaways of ujiji fled from the danger of being eaten by the manyema.
"the slaves of sungoro, the coast trader at kagehyi, usukuma, informed my people that lake victoria spread as far as the salt sea, that it had no end, and that the people on its shores loved the flesh of man better than that of goats. this foolish report made it a most difficult matter to man the exploring boat, and over a hundred swore by allah that they knew nothing of rowing.
"a similar scene took place when about to circumnavigate the tanganika, for the arab slaves had spread such reports of muzimus, hobgoblins, fiery meteors, terrible spirits, such as kabogo, katavi, kateye, and wanpembé, that the teeth of wanyamwezi and wangwana chattered with fright. but no reports exercised such a terrible effect on their weak minds as the report of the manyema cannibals; none were so greedily listened to, none more readily believed.
"the path which traders and their caravans follow to manyema begins at mtowa, in uguha, and, continuing south a few miles over a series of hills, descends into the plain of the rugumba river about half-way between the lukuga river and the traders' crossing-place.
"the conduct of the first natives to whom we were introduced pleased us all. they showed themselves in a very amiable light, sold their corn cheaply and without fuss, behaved themselves decently and with propriety, though their principal men, entertaining very strange ideas of the white men, carefully concealed themselves[pg 180] from view, and refused to be tempted to expose themselves within view or hearing of us.
sub-chief, west of lake tanganika.
"their doubts of our character were reported to us by a friendly young arab as follows: 'kassanga, chief of ruanda, says, "how can the white men be good when they come for no trade, whose feet one never sees, who always go covered from head to foot with clothes? do not tell me they are good and friendly. there is something very mysterious about them; perhaps wicked. probably they are magicians; at any rate, it is better to leave them alone, and to keep close until they are gone."'
"from ruanda, where we halted only for a day, we began in earnest the journey to manyema, thankful that the tanganika was safely crossed, and that the expedition had lost no more of its strength.
"on the third day, after gradually ascending to a height of eight hundred feet above the lake, across a series of low hilly ridges and scantily wooded valleys, which abound with buffalo, we reached the crest of a range which divides the tributaries of the lualaba from those of lake tanganika. this range also serves as a boundary between uguha and ubujwé, a country adjoining the former northwesterly. the western portions of uguha, and southeastern ubujwé, are remarkable for their forests of fruit-trees, of which there are several varieties, called the masuku, mbembu (or wood-apple), singwé (wild african damson), the matonga (or nux-vomica), custard-apple, etc. a large quantity of honey was also obtained;[pg 181] indeed, an army might subsist for many weeks in this forest on the various luscious fruits it contains. our people feasted on them, as also on the honey and buffalo meat which i was fortunate in obtaining.
heads of men of manyema.
"our acquaintance with the wabujwé commenced at lambo, or mulolwa's, situated at the confluence of the rugumba with the rubumba. in these people we first saw the mild, amiable, unsophisticated innocence of this part of central africa, and their behavior was exactly the reverse of the wild, ferocious, cannibalistic races the arabs had described to us.
"from our experience of them, the natives of rua, uguha, and ubujwé appear to be the élite of the hair-dressed fashionables of africa. hair-dressing is, indeed, carried to an absurd perfection throughout all this region, and among the various styles i have seen, some are surpassing in taste and neatness, and almost pathetic from the carefulness with which poor, wild nature has done its best to decorate itself.
natives of ubujwé.
"the waguha and wabujwé, among other characteristics, are very partial to the arts of sculpture and turning. they carve statues in wood, which they set up in their villages. their house doors often exhibit carvings resembling the human face; and the trees in the forest between the two countries frequently present specimens of their ingenuity in this art. some have also been seen to wear wooden[pg 182] medals, whereon a rough caricature of a man's features was represented. at every village in ubujwé excellent wooden bowls and basins of a very light wood (rubiace?), painted red, are offered for sale.
"beyond kundi our journey lay across chains of hills, of a conical or rounded form, which enclosed many basins or valleys. while the rugumba, or rubumba, flows northwesterly to the east of kundi, as far as kizambala on the luama river, we were daily, sometimes hourly, fording or crossing the tributaries of the luama.
a native of uhyeya.
"adjoining ubujwé is uhyeya, inhabited by a tribe who are decidedly a scale lower in humanity than their ingenious neighbors. what little merit they possess seems to have been derived from commerce with the wabujwé. the wahyeya are also partial to ochre, black paints, and a composition of black mud, which they mould into the form of a plate, and attach to the back part of the head. their upper teeth are filed, 'out of regard to custom,' they say, and not from any taste for human flesh.
"when questioned as to whether it was their custom to eat of the flesh of people slain in battle, they were positive in their denial, and protested great repugnance to such a diet, though they eat the flesh of all animals except that of dogs.
"simple and dirt-loving as these poor people were, they were admirable for the readiness with which they supplied all our wants, voluntarily offering themselves, moreover, as guides to lead us to uvinza, the next country we had to traverse.
"uvinza now seems to be nothing more than a name of a small district which occupies a small basin of some few miles square. at a former period it was very populous, as the many ruined villages we passed through proved. the slave-traders, when not manfully resisted, leave broad traces wherever they go.
one of the wahyeya of uhombo.
(back view.)
"a very long march from kagongwé in uvinza brought us to the pleasant basin of uhombo, remarkable for its fertility, its groves of guinea-palms, and its beauty. this basin is about six miles square, but within this space there is scarcely a two-acre plot of level ground to be seen. the whole forms a picture of hilltops, slopes, valleys, hollows, and intersecting ridges in happy diversity. myriads of cool, clear streams course through, in time united by the lubangi into a pretty little river, flowing westerly to the luama. it was the most delightful spot that we had seen. as the people were amiable, and disposed to trade, we had soon an abundance of palm-butter for cooking,[pg 183]
[pg 184] sugar-cane, fine goats and fat chickens, sweet potatoes, beans, pease, nuts, and manioc, millet and other grain for flour, ripe bananas for dessert, plantain and palm wines for cheer, and an abundance of soft, cool, clear water to drink!
a valley among the hills.
"subsequently we had many such pleasant experiences; but as it was the first, it deserves a more detailed description.
"travellers from africa have often written about african villages, yet i am sure few of those at home have ever comprehended the reality. i now propose to lay it before them in this sketch of a village in the district of uhombo. the village consists of a number of low, conical grass huts, ranged round a circular common, in the centre of which are three or four fig-trees, kept for the double purpose of supplying shade to the community, and bark-cloth to the chief. the doorways to the huts are very low, scarcely thirty inches high. the common fenced round by the grass huts shows plainly the ochreous color of the soil, and it is so well trodden that not a grass blade thrives upon it.
going a-fishing.
"on presenting myself in the common, i attracted out of doors the owners and ordinary inhabitants of each hut, until i found myself the centre of quite a promiscuous population of men, women, children, and infants. though i had appeared here for the purpose of studying the people of uhombo, and making a treaty of friendship with the chief, the villagers seemed to think i had come merely to make a free exhibition of myself as some natural monstrosity.
"i saw before me over a hundred beings of the most degraded, unpresentable type it is possible to conceive, and though i knew quite well that some thousands of years ago the beginning of this wretched humanity and myself were one and the same, a sneaking disinclination to believe it possessed me strongly, and i would even now willingly subscribe some small amount of silver money for him who could but assist me to controvert the discreditable fact.
[pg 185]
"but common-sense tells me not to take into undue consideration their squalor, their ugliness, or nakedness, but to gauge their true position among the human race by taking a view of the cultivated fields and gardens of uhombo, and i am compelled to admit that these debased specimens of humanity only plant and sow such vegetables and grain as i myself should cultivate were i compelled to provide for my own sustenance. i see, too, that their huts, though of grass, are almost as well made as the materials will permit, and, indeed, i have often slept in worse. speak with them in their own dialect of the law of meum and tuum, and it will soon appear that they are intelligent enough upon that point. moreover, the muscles, tissues, and fibres of their bodies, and all the organs of sight, hearing, smell, or motion, are as well developed as in us. only in taste and judgment, based upon larger experience, in the power of expression, in morals and intellectual culture, are we superior.
"i strive, therefore, to interest myself in my gross and rudely-shaped brothers and sisters. almost bursting into a laugh at the absurdity, i turn towards an individual whose age marks him out as one to whom respect is due, and say to him, after the common manner of greeting:
"my brother, sit you down by me on this mat, and let us be friendly and sociable and as i say it i thrust into his wide-open hand twenty cowries, the currency of the land. one look at his hand as he extended it, made me think i could carve a better-looking hand out of a piece of rhinoceros-hide.
"while speaking i look at his face, which is like an ugly and extravagant mask, clumsily manufactured from some strange, dark-brown, coarse material. the lips proved the thickness of skin which nature had endowed him with, and by the obstinacy with which they refused to meet each other the form of the mouth was but ill-defined, though capacious and garnished with its full complement of well-preserved teeth.
"his nose was so flat that i inquired in a perfectly innocent manner as to the reason for such a feature.
[pg 186]
village forge and idol.
"'ah,' said he, with a sly laugh, 'it is the fault of my mother, who, when i was young, bound me too tight to her back.'
"his hair had been compelled to obey the capricious fashion of his country, and was therefore worked up into furrows and ridges and central cones, bearing a curious resemblance to the formation of the land around uhombo. i wonder if the art grew by perceiving nature's fashion and mould of his country?
"descending from the face, which, crude, large-featured, rough-hewn as it was, bore witness to the possession of much sly humor and a kindly disposition, my eyes fastened on his naked body. through the ochreous daubs i detected strange freaks of pricking on it, circles and squares and crosses, and traced with wonder the many hard lines and puckers created by age, weather, ill-usage, and rude keeping.
"his feet were monstrous abortions, with soles as hard as hoofs, and his legs, as high up as the knees, were plastered with successive strata of dirt; his loin-cover or the queer 'girding tackle' need not be described. they were absolutely appalling to good taste, and the most ragged british beggar or neapolitan lazzarone is sumptuously, nay, regally, clothed in comparison to this 'king' in uhombo.
"if the old chief appeared so unprepossessing, how can i paint without offence my humbler brothers and sisters who stood round us? as i looked at the array of faces, i could only comment to myself—ugly—uglier—ugliest.
"and what shall i say of the hideous and queer appendages that they wear about their waists; the tags of monkey-skin, and bits of gorilla-bone, goat-horn, shells—strange tags to stranger tackle? and of the things around their necks—brain of mice, skin of viper, 'adder's fork, and blind worm's sting?' and how strangely they smell, all these queer, manlike creatures who stand regarding me! not silently; on the contrary, there is a loud interchange of comments upon the white's appearance; a manifestation of broad interest to know whence i come, whither i am going, and what is my business. and no sooner are the questions asked than they are replied to by such as pretend to know. the replies were followed by long-drawn ejaculations of 'wa-a-a-antu!' ('men!') 'eha-a, and these are men!'
"now imagine this! while we whites are loftily disputing among ourselves as to whether the beings before us are human, here were these creatures actually expressing strong doubts as to whether we whites are men!
ready for fighting.
"a dead silence prevailed for a short time, during which all the females dropped their lower jaws far down, and then cried out again 'wa-a-a-a-a-antu!' ('men!') the lower jaws, indeed, dropped so low that, when, in a posture of reflection, they put their hands up to their chins, it really looked as if they had done so to lift the jaws up to their proper place and to sustain them there. and in that position they pondered upon the fact that there were men 'white all over' in this queer, queer world!
[pg 187]
"the open mouths gave one a chance to note the healthy state and ruby color of the tongues, palates, and gums, and, above all, the admirable order and brilliant whiteness of each set of teeth.
"'great events from trivial causes spring'—and while i was trying to calculate how many kubaba (measure of two pounds) of millet-seed would be requisite to fill all these hutch-oven mouths, and how many cowries would be required to pay for such a large quantity of millet, and wondering at the antics of the juveniles of the population, whose uncontainable, irrepressible wonder seemed to find its natural expression in hopping on one leg, thrusting their right thumbs into their mouths to repress the rising scream, and slapping their thighs to express or give emphasis to what was speechless—while thus engaged, and just thinking it was time to depart, it happened that one of the youthful innocents already described, more restless than his brothers, stumbled across a long, heavy pole which was leaning insecurely against one of the trees. the pole fell, striking one of my men severely on the head. and all at once there went up from the women a genuine and unaffected cry of pity, and their faces expressed so lively a sense of tender sympathy with the wounded man, that my heart, keener than my eyes, saw, through the disguise of filth, nakedness, and ochre, the human heart beating for another's suffering, and i then recognized and hailed them as indeed my own poor and degraded sisters.
"under the new light which had dawned on me, i reflected that i had done some wrong to my dusky relatives, and that they might have been described less harshly, and introduced to the world with less disdain.
"before i quitted the village they made me still more regret my former haughty feelings, for the chief and his subjects loaded my men with bounties of bananas, chickens, indian corn, and malafu (palm-wine), and escorted me respectfully far beyond the precincts of the village and their fields, parting from me at last with the assurance that, should i ever happen to return by their country, they would endeavor to make my second visit to uhombo much more agreeable than my first had been.
"on the 5th of october our march from uhombo brought us to the frontier village of manyema, which is called riba-riba. it is noteworthy as the starting-point of another order of african architecture. the conical style of hut is exchanged for the square hut with more gradually-sloping roof, wattled, and sometimes neatly plastered with mud; especially those in manyema. here, too, the thin-bodied and long-limbed goat, to which we had been accustomed, gave place to the short-legged, large bodied, and capacious-uddered variety of manyema. the gray parrots with crimson tails here also first began to abound, and the hoarse growl of the fierce and shy 'soko' (gorilla?) was first heard.
"from the day we cross the watershed that divides the affluents of the tanganika from the head-waters of the luama, there is observed a gradual increase in the splendor of nature. by slow degrees she exhibits to us, as we journey westward, her rarest beauties, her wealth, and all the profligacy of her vegetation. in the forests of miketo, and on the western slopes of the goma mountains, she scatters with liberal hand her luxuries of fruits, and along the banks of streams we see revealed the wild profusion of her bounties.
"as we increase the distance from the tanganika we find the land disposed in graceful lines and curves; ridges heave up, separating valley from valley, hills[pg 188] lift their heads in the midst of the basins and mountain-ranges, at greater distances apart, bound wide prospects, wherein the lesser hill-chains, albeit of dignified proportions, appear but as agreeable diversities of scenery.
"over the whole, nature has flung a robe of verdure of the most fervid tints. she has bidden the mountains loose their streamlets, has commanded the hills and ridges to bloom, filled the valleys with vegetation breathing perfume; for the rocks she has woven garlands of creepers, and the stems of trees she has draped with moss; and sterility she has banished from her domain.
"yet nature has not produced a soft, velvety, smiling england in the midst of africa. far from it. she is here too robust and prolific. her grasses are coarse, and wound like knives and needles; her reeds are tough and tall as bamboos; her creepers and convolvuli are of cable thickness and length; her thorns are books of steel; her trees shoot up to a height of a hundred feet. we find no pleasure in straying in search of wild-flowers, and game is left undisturbed, because of the difficulty of moving about, for, once the path is left, we find ourselves over head among thick, tough, unyielding, lacerating grass.
"at manyema the beauty of nature becomes terrible, and in the expression of her powers she is awful. the language of swahili has words to paint her in every mood. english, rich as it is, is found insufficient. in the former we have the word pori for a forest, an ordinary thickly-wooded tract; but for the forests of manyema it has four special words—mohuro, mwitu, mtambani, and msitu. for mohuro we might employ the words jungly forest; for mwitu, dense woods; but for msitu and mtambani we have no single equivalent, nor could we express their full meaning without a series of epithets ending with 'tangled jungle' or 'impervious underwood, in the midst of a dense forest'—for such is in reality the nature of a manyema msitu.
"i am of opinion that manyema owes its fertility to the mountains west of the tanganika, which by their altitude suddenly cool and liquefy the vapors driven over their tops by the southeast monsoon; for while uguha west was robed in green, its lake front was black with the ashes of burned grass.
"we left riba-riba's old chief, and his numerous progeny of boys and girls, and his wonderful subjects, encamped on their mountain-top, and journeyed on with rapid pace through tall forests, and along the crests of wooded ridges, down into the depths of gloomy dingles, and up again to daylight into view of sweeping circles of bearded ridges and solemn woods, to ka-bambarré.
african owls.
"even though this place had no other associations, it would be attractive and alluring for its innocent wildness; but, associated as it is with livingstone's sufferings, and that self-sacrificing life he led here, i needed only to hear from mwana ngoy, son of mwana kusu,[7] 'yes, this is the place where the old white man stopped for many moons,' to make up my mind to halt.
[pg 189]
a village in manyema.
[pg 190]
"'ah! he lived here, did he?'
"'yes.'
"by this time the population of ka-bambarré, seeing their chief in conversation with the white stranger, had drawn round us under a palm-tree, and mats were spread for us to seat ourselves.
"'did you know the old white man? was he your father?'
"'he was not my father; but i knew him well.'
"'eh, do you hear that?' he asked his people. 'he says he knew him. was he not a good man?'
"'yes; very good.'
"'you say well. he was good to me, and he saved me from the arabs many a time. the arabs are hard men, and often he would step between them and me when they were hard on me. he was a good man, and my children were fond of him. i hear he is dead?'
"'yes, he is dead.'
"'where has he gone to?'
"'above, my friend,' said i, pointing to the sky.
"'ah,' said he, breathlessly, and looking up, 'did he come from above?'
"'no; but good men like him go above when they die.'
"we had many conversations about him. the sons showed me the house he had lived in for a long time, when prevented from further wandering by the ulcers in his feet. in the village his memory is cherished, and will be cherished forever.
"it was strange what a sudden improvement in the physiognomy of the native had occurred. in the district of uhombo we had seen a truly debased negro type. here we saw people of the ethiopic negro type, worthy to rank next the more refined waganda. mwana ngoy himself was nothing very remarkable. age had deprived him of his good looks; but there were about him some exceedingly pretty women, with winsome ways about them that were quite charming.
a youth of east mamyema. a manyema adult.
"mwana ngoy, i suppose, is one of the vainest of vain men. i fancy i can see him now, strutting about his village with his sceptral staff, an amplitude of grass-cloth about him, which, when measured, gives exactly twenty-four square yards,[pg 191]
[pg 192] drawn in double folds about his waist, all tags, tassels, and fringes, and painted in various colors, bronze and black and white and yellow, and on his head a plumy head-dress.
the valley of mabaro.
"what charms lurk in feathers! from the grand british dowager down to mwana ngoy of ka-bambarré, all admit the fascination of feathers, whether plucked from ostriches or barn-door fowl.
"mwana ngoy's plumes were the tribute of the village chanticleers, and his vanity was so excited at the rustle of his feathered crest that he protruded his stomach to such a distance that his head was many degrees from the perpendicular.
"on the 10th of october we arrived at kizambala, presided over by another chief called mwana ngoy, a relative of him of ka-bambarré.
"up to this date we had seen some twenty villages, and probably four thousand natives, of manyema, and may therefore be permitted some generalizations.
"the manyema, then, have several noteworthy peculiarities. their arms are a short sword scabbarded with wood, to which are hung small brass and iron bells, a light, beautifully balanced spear—probably, next to the spear of uganda, the most perfect in the world. their shields were veritable wooden doors. their dress consisted of a narrow apron of antelope-skin, or finely-made grass-cloth. they wore knobs, cones, and patches of mud attached to their beards, back hair, and behind the ears. old mwana ngoy had rolled his beard in a ball of dark mud; his children wore their hair in braids, with mud fringes. his drummer had a great crescent-shaped patch of mud at the back of the head. at kizambala the natives had horns and cones of mud on the tops of their heads. others, more ambitious, covered the entire head with a crown of mud.
"the women, blessed with an abundance of hair, manufactured it with a stiffening of light cane into a bonnet-shaped head-dress, allowing the back hair to flow down to the waist in masses of ringlets. they seemed to do all the work of life, for at all hours they might be seen, with their large wicker baskets behind them, setting out for the rivers or creeks to catch fish, or returning with their fuel baskets strapped on across their foreheads.
a young woman of east manyema.
"their villages consist of one or more broad streets, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet wide, flanked by low, square huts, arranged in tolerably straight lines, and generally situated on swells of land, to secure rapid drainage. at the end of one of these streets is the council and gossip house, overlooking the length of the avenue. in the centre is a platform of tamped clay, with a heavy tree-trunk sunk into it, and in the wood have been scooped out a number of troughs, so that several women may pound grain at once. it is a substitute for the village mill.
"the houses are separated into two or more apartments, and on account of the compact nature of the clay and tamped floor are easily kept clean. the roofs are slimy with the reek of smoke, as though they had been painted with coal-tar. the[pg 193]
[pg 194] household chattels or furniture are limited to food-baskets, earthenware pots, an assortment of wickerwork dishes, the family shields, spears, knives, swords, and tools, and the fish-baskets lying outside.
village scene in southeast manyema.
"they are tolerably hospitable, and permit strangers the free use of their dwellings. the bananas and plantains are very luxuriant, while the guinea palms supply the people with oil and wine; the forests give them fuel, the rivers fish, and the gardens cassava, ground-nuts, and indian corn.
"the chiefs enact strict laws, and, though possessed of but little actual power either of wealth or retinue, exact the utmost deference, and are exceedingly ceremonious, being always followed by a drummer, who taps his drum with masterly skill born of long and continued practice.
"on the 11th we crossed the luama river—a stream two hundred yards wide and eight feet deep in the centre at the ferry—called the rugumba in ubujwé. below the ford, as far as the lualaba, its current is from three to six knots an hour, and about five feet deep, flowing over a shaly bed.
"on the western side of the luama the women at once fled upon the approach of our caravan—a certain sign that there had been trouble between them and arabs.
"my predecessors, livingstone and cameron, had, after crossing the stream, proceeded west, but i preferred to follow the luama to its junction with the lualaba, and thence to nyangwé.
"the luama valley is about twenty miles wide, furrowed with many water-courses; the soil is poor, abounding with yellow quartz, but resting upon soft shale. the ridges are formed of dykes of granite, which peep out frequently in large masses from among the foliage of trees.
"the people appeared to be very timid, but behaved amiably. over fifty followed us, and carried loads most willingly. three volunteered to follow us wherever we should go, but we declined their offer.
"our riding-donkeys were the first ever seen in manyema, and effected a striking demonstration in our favor. they obtained more admiration than even we europeans. hundreds of natives ran up to us at each village in the greatest excitement to behold the strange, long-eared animals, and followed us long distances from their homes to observe the donkeys' motions.
"one donkey, known by the name of muscati, a high-spirited animal from arabia, possessed braying powers which almost equalled the roar of a lion in volume, and really appeared to enjoy immensely the admiration he excited. his asinine soul took great delight in braying at the unsophisticated africans of the trans-luama, for his bray sent them flying in all directions. scores of times during a day's march we were asked the name of the beast, and, having learned it, they were never tired of talking about the 'mpunda.'
"one must not rashly impute all the blame to the arabs and wa-swahili of the zanzibar coast for their excesses in manyema, for the natives are also in a way to blame. just as the saxon and dane and jute, invited by the britons, became their masters, so the arabs, invited by the manyema to assist them against one another, have become their tyrants.
house of an arab merchant, central africa.
"bribes were offered to us three times by manyema chiefs to assist them in destroying their neighbors, to whom they are of near kin, and with whom they have almost daily intimate relations. our refusal of ivory and slaves appeared to[pg 195]
[pg 196] surprise the chiefs, and they expressed the opinion that we white men were not as good as the arabs, for—though it was true we did not rob them of their wives and daughters, enslave their sons, or despoil them of a single article—the arabs would have assisted them.
house of a manyema chief.
"one really does not know whether to pity or to despise the natives of manyema. many are amiable enough to deserve good and kind treatment, but others are hardly human. they fly to the woods upon the approach of strangers, leaving their granaries[8] of indian corn, erected like screens across the streets, or just outside the villages, in tempting view of hungry people. if the strangers follow them into the woods to persuade them to return and sell food, the purpose of the visit is mistaken, and they are assailed from behind depths of bush and tall trees. they are humble and liberal to the strong-armed arab, savage and murderous and cannibalistic to small bands, and every slain man provides a banquet of meat for the forest-natives of manyema. livingstone's uniform gentle treatment of all classes deserved a better return than to have his life attempted four times. his patience finally exhausted, and his life in danger, he gave the order to his men, 'fire upon them, these men are wicked.'
"on the 13th, after a march of thirteen miles in a west-southwest direction, along a very crooked path, we arrived at kabungwé.
"at this settlement we observed for the first time spears all of wood, having their points sharp and hardened in fire and shafts eight to ten feet long. as each[pg 197] warrior possesses a sheaf of these weapons, besides a vast wooden shield, he is sufficiently armed against a native enemy, and might, by a little boldness, become a dangerous foe to an arab.
"the currency throughout manyema consists of cowries. six cowries formed the ration money of the wangwana, three cowries purchased a chicken, two procured ten maize-ears, one cowrie obtained the service of a native to grind the grain, two cowries were a day's hire for a porter; so that the wangwana and wanyamwezi were enjoying both abundance and relief from labor while we were travelling through manyema.
"at kabungwé i was alarmed at an insufferable odor that pervaded the air we breathed, for, whether in the house or without, the atmosphere seemed loaded with an intolerable stench. on inquiring of the natives whether there was any dead animal putrefying in the neighborhood, they pointed to the firewood that was burning, and to a tree—a species of laurel—as that which emitted the smell. upon examination i found it was indeed due to this strange wood, which, however, only becomes offensive under the action of fire.
"between kabungwé and mtuyu, our next camp, the country is extremely populous. were all the villages we passed inhabited by brave men, a brigade of european troops could not move without precaution. the people, however, did not attempt to molest us, though an enormous number came out to stare at us and our donkeys.
"the natives are quick to adopt nicknames. in some places the arabs were known by the name of mwana ngombé, 'lords of cows.'
"the sarmeen of my first expedition received from his comrades, for his detective qualities, the name of kachéché, or the 'weasel.'
"sambuzi received the title of mta-uza, or the 'spoiler;' and one of his subordinates was called kiswaga, or 'fleet-foot.'
"kalulu's name was formerly ndugu mali, 'brother of money.'
"wadi safeni had a young relative in the expedition entitled akili mali, or 'one who is wise with his money.'
"in the same manner countries receive appellations distinctive of peculiarities, such as,
unya-nyembé, land of hoes.
u-yofu, land of elephants.
unya-mbewa, land of goats.
unya-nkondo, land of sheep.
u-konongo, land of travellers.
unya-nguruwé, land of hogs.
u-nguru, land of mountains.
u-kusu, land of parrots.
u-ganda, land of drums.
u-lungu or u-rungu, plain land.
ma-rungu, plateau land.
u-kutu, land of ears (long ears?).
u-karanga, land of ground nuts.
u-lua, or u-rua, land of lakes.
u-emba, lake land.
u-bwari, land of food.
[pg 198]
"mtuyu is the easternmost settlement of the country of uzura. on arrival we perceived that all their women were absent, and naturally inquired what had become of them. they replied, in pathetic strains, 'oh, they are all dead; all cut off, every one. it was the small-pox!'
"we sympathized with them, of course, because of such a terrible loss, and attempted to express our concern. but one of our enterprising people, while endeavoring to search out a good market for his cowries, discovered several dozen of the women in a wooded ravine! they had been concealed under the supposition that we were slave-hunters.
"skirting the range of hills which bounds the luama valley on the north, we marched to mpungu, which is fifteen miles west of mtuyu. kiteté, its chief, is remarkable for a plaited beard twenty inches long, decorated at the tips with a number of blue glass beads. his hair was also trussed up on the crown of his head in a shapely mass. his brother possessed a beard six inches long; there were half a dozen others with beards of three or four inches long. kiteté's symbol of royalty was a huge truncheon, or hercules club, blackened and hardened by fire. his village was neat, and the architecture of the huts peculiar, as the picture below shows.
kiteté, the chief of mpungu.
"the luama valley at uzura at this season presents a waving extent of grass-grown downs, and while crossing over the higher swells of land we enjoyed uninterrupted views of thirty or forty miles to the west and south.
village near kabungwé.
"from mpungu we travelled through an interesting country (a distance of four miles), and suddenly from the crest of a low ridge saw the confluence of the luama with the majestic lualaba. the former appeared to have a breadth of four hundred yards at the mouth; the latter was about fourteen hundred yards wide, a broad river of a pale gray color winding slowly from south and by east.
"we hailed its appearance with shouts of joy, and rested on the spot to enjoy the view. across the river, beyond a tawny, grassy stretch towards the south-southwest, is mount kijima; about one thousand feet above the valley, to the south-southeast, across the luama, runs the luhye-ya ridge; from its base the plain slopes to the swift luama. in the bed of the great river are two or three small islands, green with the verdure of trees and sedge. i likened it even here to the mississippi, as it appears before the impetuous, full-volumed missouri pours its rusty-brown water into it.
"a secret rapture filled my soul as i gazed upon the majestic stream. the great mystery that for all these centuries nature had kept hidden away from the world of science was waiting to be solved. for two hundred and twenty miles i[pg 199]
[pg 200] had followed one of the sources of the livingstone to the confluence, and now before me lay the superb river itself! my task was to follow it to the ocean."
native houses at mtuyu.
"it is getting late," said mr. stanley, glancing at his watch, "and i will leave you at this point where you can dream of the great river and its course to the sea. to-morrow you shall hear about some of the difficulties we encountered in going forward with the expedition."
as mr. stanley retired he was loudly applauded, and it was evident that the little audience were greatly pleased to hear from his own lips the account of his journey through the african wilderness.
[pg 201]
ants'-nest in manyema.
