difficulties of livingstone and cameron with their followers.—personal appearance of tippu-tib.—negotiations for an escort.—tippu-tib arranges to go with stanley.—the wonders of uregga.—gorillas and boa-constrictors.—their remarkable performances.—a nation of dwarfs.—how stanley decided what route to follow.—heads or tails?—"shall it be south or north?"—signing the contract with tippu-tib.—a remarkable accident.—entering nyangwé.—location and importance of the place.—its arab residents.—market scenes at nyangwé.—ready for the start.
the forenoon of the next day was passed as usual; and in the afternoon the party assembled for the continuation of the story of the journey across the dark continent. it was fred's turn to read, and the young man was promptly in his place at the table, and with the open volume before him.
hill and village on the road to nyangwé.
"mr. stanley left us, last evening," said fred, "on the banks of the great river which he called the livingstone, but which is more familiar to us as the congo. early the next day after his arrival he resumed his march, pressing forward in the direction of nyangwé, the farthest point[pg 202] reached by livingstone and afterwards by cameron. both these travellers greatly desired to explore the mysterious river which flowed past nyangwé, but were unable to do so. neither could induce his men to advance beyond that point; they tried to purchase or hire canoes with which to descend the river, but none could be obtained.
"the same fate threatened to fall upon stanley, and compel him to turn back to ujiji just as had been the case with livingstone. but it was his good-fortune to meet one hamed bin mohammed, or tippu-tib, an arab trader of great influence, who is well known throughout central africa. he has a large force of arabs under his control, and is a sort of migratory king among the people where he moves. he can easily assemble a thousand arab fighting-men at a few days' notice, and at almost any moment he can command the services of two or three hundred of them. here is a description of him as given by mr. stanley:
"he was a tall, black-bearded man, of negroid complexion, in the prime of life, straight, and quick in his movements, a picture of energy and strength. he had a fine, intelligent face, with a nervous twitching of the eyes, and gleaming white and perfectly formed teeth. he was attended by a large retinue of young arabs, who looked up to him as chief, and a score of wangwana and wanyamwezi followers whom he had led over thousands of miles through africa.
"with the air of a well-bred arab, and almost courtier-like in his manner, he welcomed me to the village, and his slaves being ready at hand with mat and bolster, he reclined vis-à-vis, while a buzz of admiration of his style was perceptible from the on-lookers. after regarding him for a few minutes, i came to the conclusion that this arab was a remarkable man—the most remarkable man i had met among arabs, wa-swahili, and half-castes in africa. he was neat in his person, his clothes were of a spotless white, his fez-cap brand-new, his waist was encircled by a rich dowlé, his dagger was splendid with silver filigree, and his tout ensemble was that of an arab gentleman in very comfortable circumstances.
"the person above described was the arab who had escorted cameron across the lualaba as far as utotera, south latitude 5°, and east longitude 25° 54'. naturally, therefore, there was no person at nyangwé whose evidence was more valuable than tippu-tib's as to the direction that my predecessor at nyangwé had taken. the information he gave me was sufficiently clear—and was, moreover, confirmed by other arabs—that the greatest problem of african geography was left untouched at the exact spot where dr. livingstone had felt himself unable to prosecute his travels, and whence he had retraced his steps to ujiji never to return to nyangwé."
"after a long conference," said fred, "mr. stanley asked tippu-tib if he would accompany the expedition in the exploration of the great river. the arab at first declined the proposal, but after several interviews and a considerable amount of negotiation, it was arranged that, in[pg 203] consideration of five thousand dollars, tippu-tib with one hundred and fifty of his followers would accompany mr. stanley for a distance of sixty marches from nyangwé in any direction the latter should choose to take. the contract between them was very carefully drawn, and a considerable time was spent in arranging it.
waiting to be photographed.
"while these negotiations were in progress mr. stanley obtained all the information possible from arabs and others relative to the region he proposed to visit. one arab who claimed to have followed the course of the river for a great distance said it flowed 'to the north, to the north, always to the north, and there is no end to it till it reaches the salt sea.' he had, he declared, travelled to the north along the banks of the river till he reached the country of the dwarfs, a journey of nine months. they were a powerful people, although they were so small; the men were only a yard high, with big heads and long beards. his party had a terrible fight with these dwarfs, who fought with poisoned arrows that cause death almost instantly by the slightest scratch. every man that was killed was immediately eaten by the dwarfs, who have the reputation of being the worst cannibals in all africa. out of two or three hundred arabs that went on this expedition, only about thirty remained to return to nyangwé.
[pg 204]
"after listening to this wonderful story mr. stanley asked the arab if he saw any other curious things on his journey.
a young soko (gorilla).
"'oh, yes!' he answered. 'there are monstrous large boa-constrictors in the forest of uregga, suspended by their tails to the branches, waiting for the passer-by or for a stray antelope. the ants in that forest are not to be despised. you cannot travel without your body being covered with them, when they sting you like wasps. the leopards are so numerous that you cannot go very far without seeing one. almost every native wears a leopard-skin cap. the sokos (gorillas) are in the woods, and woe befall the man or woman met alone by them; for they run up to you and seize your hands, and bite the fingers off one by one, and as fast as they bite one off, they spit it out. the wasongora meno and waregga are cannibals, and unless the force is very strong, they never let strangers pass. it is nothing but constant fighting. only two years ago a party armed with three hundred guns started north of usongora meno; they only brought sixty guns back, and no ivory. if one tries to go by the river, there are falls after falls, which carry the people over and drown them. a party of thirty men, in three canoes, went down the river half a day's journey from nyangwé, when the old white man (livingstone) was living there. they were all drowned, and that was the reason he did not go on. had he done so, he would have been eaten, for what could he have done? ah, no. master, the country is bad, and the arabs have given it up. they will not try the journey into that country again, after trying it three times and losing nearly five hundred men altogether.'
"before closing his contract with tippu-tib mr. stanley consulted frank pocock, his only remaining white companion, in order to obtain his views of the matter. i will read his account of the consultation and what followed it.
"at 6 p.m. a couple of saucers, filled with palm-oil and fixed with cotton-wick, were lit. it was my after-dinner hour, the time for pipes and coffee, which frank was always invited to share.
"when he came in the coffee-pot was boiling, and little mabruki was in waiting[pg 205] to pour out. the tobacco-pouch, filled with the choicest production of africa—that of masansi, near uvira—was ready. mabruki poured out the coffee, and retired, leaving us together.
"'now frank, my son,' i said, 'sit down. i am about to have a long and serious chat with you. life and death—yours as well as mine, and those of all the expedition—hang on the decision i make to-night.'
blacksmiths at work.
"and then i reminded him of his friends at home, and also of the dangers before him; of the sorrow his death would cause, and also of the honors that would greet his success; of the facility of returning to zanzibar, and also of the perilous obstacles in the way of advance—thus carefully alternating the pro with the con, so as not to betray my own inclinations. i reminded him of the hideous scenes we had already been compelled to witness and to act in, pointing out that other wicked tribes, no doubt, lay before us; but also recalling to his memory how treachery, cunning, and savage courage had been baulked by patience and promptitude; and how we still possessed the power to punish those who threatened us or murdered our friends. and i ended with words something like these:
"'there is, no doubt, some truth in what the arabs say about the ferocity of these natives before us. livingstone, after fifteen thousand miles of travel, and a lifetime of experience among africans, would not have yielded the brave struggle without strong reasons; cameron, with his forty-five snider rifles, would never have turned away from such a brilliant field if he had not sincerely thought that they were insufficient to resist the persistent attacks of countless thousands of wild men. but while we grant that there may be a modicum of truth in what the arabs say, it is in their ignorant, superstitious nature to exaggerate what they have seen. a score of times have we proved them wrong. yet their reports have already made a strong impression on the minds of the wangwana and wanyamwezi. they are already trembling with fear, because they suspect that i am about to attempt[pg 206] the cannibal lands beyond nyangwé. on the day that we propose to begin our journey, we shall have no expedition.
native trap for game.
"'on the other hand, i am confident that, if i am able to leave nyangwé with the expedition intact, and to place a breadth of wild country between our party and the arab depot, i shall be able to make men of them. there are good stuff, heroic qualities, in them; but we must get free from the arabs, or they will be very soon demoralized. it is for this purpose i am negotiating with tippu-tib. if i can arrange with him and leave nyangwé without the dreadful loss we experienced at ujiji, i feel sure that i can inspire my men to dare anything with me.
"'the difficulty of transport, again, is enormous. we cannot obtain canoes at nyangwé. livingstone could not, cameron failed. no doubt i shall fail. i shall not try to obtain any. but we might buy up all the axes that we can see between here and nyangwé, and travelling overland on this side the lualaba, we might, before tippu-tib's contract is at an end, come across a tribe which would sell their canoes. we have sufficient stores to last a long time, and i shall purchase more at nyangwé. if the natives will not sell, we can make our own canoes, if we possess a sufficient number of axes to set all hands at work.
"'now, what i wish you to tell me, frank, is your opinion as to what we ought to do.'
"frank's answer was ready.
"'i say, "go on, sir."'
"'think well, my dear fellow; don't be hasty; life and death hang on our decision. don't you think we could explore to the east of cameron's road?'
"'but there is nothing like this great river, sir.'
"'what do you say to lake lincoln, lake kamolondo, lake bemba, and all that part, down to the zambezi?'
"'ah! that is a fine field, sir; and perhaps the natives would not be so ferocious. would they?'
"'yet, as you said just now, it would be nothing to the great river, which[pg 207] for all these thousands of years has been flowing steadily to the north through hundreds, perhaps thousands, of miles, of which no one has ever heard a word.'
canoes on the river.
"'let us follow the river, sir.'
"'yet, my friend, think yet again. look at all these faithful fellows whose lives depend on our word; think of our own, for we are yet young and strong and active. why should we throw them away for a barren honor, or if we succeed have every word we said doubted, and carped at, and our motives misconstrued by malicious minds, who distort everything to our injury?'
"'ah, true, sir. i was one of those who doubted that you had ever found livingstone. i don't mind telling you now. until i came to zanzibar, and saw your people, i did not believe it, and there are hundreds in rochester who shared my opinion.'
"'and do you believe, frank, that you are in manyema now?'
"'i am obliged to, sir.'
"'are you not afraid, should you return to england, that when men say you have never been to africa, as no doubt they will, you will come to disbelieve it yourself?'
"'ah, no, sir,' he replied. 'i can never forget ituru; the death of my brother in that wild land; the deaths of so many wangwana there; the great lake; uganda; our march to muta nzege; rumanika; my life in ujiji; the tanganika; and our march here.'
"'but what do you think, frank? had we not better explore northeast of here, until we reach muta nzege, circumnavigate that lake, and strike across to uganda again, and return to zanzibar by way of kagehyi?'
"'that would be a fine job, sir, if we could do it.'
"'yet, if you think of it, frank, this great river which livingstone first saw, and which broke his heart almost to turn away from and leave a mystery, is a[pg 208] noble field too. fancy, by and by, after buying or building canoes, our floating down the river day by day, either to the nile or to some vast lake in the far north, or to the congo and the atlantic ocean! think what a benefit our journey will be to africa. steamers from the mouth of the congo to lake bemba, and to all the great rivers which run into it!'
"'i say, sir, let us toss up; best two out of three to decide it.'
"'toss away. here is a rupee.'
"'heads for the north and the lualaba; tails for the south and katanga.'
"frank stood up, his face beaming. he tossed the rupee high up. the coin dropped.
"'what is it?' i asked.
"'tails, sir!' said frank, with a face expressive of strong disapproval.
"'toss again.'
"he tossed again, and 'tails' was again announced—and six times running 'tails' won.
"heads for the north and the lualaba; tails for the south and katanga."
"we then tried straws—the short straws for the south, the long straws for the river lualaba—and again we were disappointed, for frank persisted in drawing out the short straws, and in leaving the long straws in my hands.
"'it is of no use, frank. well face our destiny, despite the rupee and straws. with your help, my dear fellow, i will follow the river.'
"'mr. stanley, have no fear of me. i shall stand by you. the last words of my dear old father were, "stick by your master." and there is my hand, sir; you shall never have cause to doubt me.'
"'good; i shall go on, then. i will finish this contract with tippu-tib, for[pg 209] the wangwana, on seeing him accompany us, will perhaps be willing to follow me. we may also recruit others at nyangwé. and then, if the natives will allow peaceful passage through their countries, so much the better. if not, our duty says, "go on."'
a follower of tippu-tib.
"the next night tippu-tib and his friends visited me again. the contract was written, and signed by the respective parties and their witnesses. the wangwana chiefs were then called, and it was announced to them that tippu-tib, with one hundred and forty guns and seventy wanyamwezi spearmen, would escort us a distance of sixty camps, when, if we found the countries hostile to us, and no hopes of meeting other traders, we should return with him to nyangwé. if we met portuguese or turkish traders, a portion of us would continue the journey with them, and the remainder would return with tippu-tib to nyangwé. this announcement was received with satisfaction, and the chiefs said that, owing to tippu-tib's presence, no arab at nyangwé would dare to harbor a runaway from the expedition.
"cowries and beads were then counted out and given that evening to tippu-tib, as ration money for ten days from the day of his departure from mwana mamba.
"the next morning, being the 24th of october, the expedition left mwana mamba in high spirits. the good effect of the contract with tippu-tib had already brought us recruits, for on the road i observed several strange faces of men who, on our arrival at the first camp, marimbu, eleven miles northwest from mwana mamba, appeared before my tent, and craved to be permitted to follow us. they[pg 210] received an advance in cloth, and their names were entered on the muster-list of the expedition at the same rate of pay as the other wanyamwezi and wangwana.
"through a fine rolling country, but depopulated, with every mile marked by ruined villages, we marched in a northwesterly direction, and on the 25th of october arrived at kankumba, crossing the mshama stream by the way.
"about one mile from our camp was the marshy valley of the kunda river, another tributary of the lualaba, which rises in uzimba; to the east-northeast of us, about eight miles off, rose some hilly cones, spurs of the manyema hills; on the west stretched a rolling grassy land extending to the lualaba.
"the grass (genus panicum) of manyema is like other things in this prolific land, of gigantic proportions, and denser than the richest field of corn. the stalks are an inch in diameter, and about eight feet high. in fact, what i have called 'grassy land' is more like a waving country planted with young bamboo.
"young kalulu, who, since his recapture at the uguha port on lake tanganika, had been well behaved, and was in high favor again, met with a serious and very remarkable accident at kankumba. a chief, called mabruki the elder, had retained a cartridge in his snider, contrary to orders, and, leaving it carelessly on the stacked goods, a hurrying mgwana kicked it down with his foot, which caused it to explode. kalulu, who was reclining on his mat near a fire, was wounded in no fewer than eight places, the bullet passing through the outer part of his lower legs, the upper part of his thigh, and, glancing over his right ribs, through the muscles of his left arm.
"though the accident had caused severe wounds, there was no danger, and, by applying a little arnica, lint, and bandages, we soon restored him to a hopeful view of his case.
"on the morning of the 27th we descended from our camp at kankumba to the banks of the kunda, a river about forty yards wide, and ten feet deep at the ferry. the canoe-men were wagenya, or wenya, fishermen under the protection of sheik abed bin salim, alias 'tanganika.'
a canoe of the wenya, or wagenya, fishermen.
"a rapid march of four miles brought us to the outskirts of nyangwé, where we were met by abed bin salim, an old man of sixty-five years of age, mohammed bin sayid, a young arab with a remarkably long nose and small eyes, sheik abed's fundis or elephant-hunters, and several wangwana, all dressed in spotless white shirts, crimson fezzes, and sandals.
"sheik abed was pleased to monopolize me, by offering me a house in his neighborhood.
pot-pourri.
1. fish-spear. 2,3. spears. 4,5,6. arrow-heads. 7,8,9. modes of stringing bows. 10,11,12. knives. 13,14. walking-sticks. 15. charm. 16,17,18. drums. 19. iron gong. 20,21. iron bells. 22. musical instrument. 23. marimba. 24. sticks for playing marimba. 25. rattle.
"the manner that we entered nyangwé appeared, from subsequent conversation, to have struck sheik abed, who, from his long residence there, had witnessed[pg 211]
[pg 212] the arrival and departure of very many caravans. there was none of the usual firing of guns and wild shouting and frenzied action; and the order and steadiness of veterans, the close files of a column which tolerably well understood by this time the difference between discipline and lawlessness with its stragglers and slovenly laggards, made a marked impression upon the old arab.
"another thing that surprised him was the rapidity of the journey from the tanganika—three hundred and thirty-eight miles in forty-three days, inclusive of all halts. he said that the usual period occupied by arabs was between three and four months. yet the members of the expedition were in admirable condition. they had never enjoyed better health, and we had not one sick person; the only one incapacitated for work was kalulu, and he had been accidentally wounded only the very night before. between the tanganika and the arab depot of nyangwé neither frank nor i had suffered the slightest indisposition.
view in nyangwé.
"nyangwé is the extreme westernmost locality inhabited by the arab traders from zanzibar. it stands in east longitude 26° 16', south latitude 4° 15', on the right or eastern side of the lualaba, on the verge of a high and reddish bank rising some forty feet above the river, with clear open country north along the river for a distance of three miles, east some ten miles, south over seventy miles, or as far as the confluence of the luama with the lualaba. the town called nyangwé is divided into two sections. the northern section has for its centre the quarters of muini dugumbi, the first arab arrival here (in 1868); and around his house are the commodious quarters of his friends, their families and slaves—in all, perhaps, three hundred houses. the southern section is separated from its neighbor by a broad hollow, cultivated and sown with rice for the arabs. when the lualaba rises to its full amplitude, this hollow is flooded. the chief house of the[pg 213] southern half of nyangwé is the large and well-built clay banda of sheik abed bin salim. in close neighborhood to this are the houses and huts of those arab wangwana who prefer the company of abed bin salim to muini dugumbi.
"between the two foreign chiefs of nyangwé there is great jealousy. each endeavors to be recognized by the natives as being the most powerful. dugumbi is an east-coast trader of sa'adani, a half-caste, a vulgar, coarse-minded old man of probably seventy years of age, with a negroid nose and a negroid mind. sheik abed is a tall, thin old man, white-bearded, patriarchal in aspect, narrow-minded, rather peevish and quick to take offence, a thorough believer in witchcraft, and a fervid muslim.
"close to abed's elbows of late years has been the long-nosed young arab, mohammed bin sayid, superstitious beyond measure, of enormous cunning and subtlety, a pertinacious beggar, of keen trading instincts, but in all matters outside trade as simple as a child. he offered, for a consideration and on condition that i would read the arabic koran, to take me up and convey me to any part of africa within a day. by such unblushing falsehoods he has acquired considerable influence over the mind of sheik abed. the latter told me that he was half afraid of him, and that he believed mohammed was an extraordinary man. i asked the silly old sheik if he had lent him any ivory. no; but he was constantly being asked for the loan of ten frasilah (three hundred and fifty pounds) of ivory, for which he was promised fifteen frasilah, or five hundred and twenty-five pounds, within six months.
"mohammed, during the very first day of my arrival, sent one of his favorite slaves to ask first for a little writing-paper, then for needles and thread, and, a couple of hours afterwards, for white pepper and a bar of soap; in the evening, for a pound or two of sugar and a little tea, and, if i could spare it, he would be much obliged for some coffee. the next day petitions, each very prettily worded—for mohammed is an accomplished reader of the koran—came, first for medicine, then for a couple of yards of red cloth, then for a few yards of fine white sheeting, etc. i became quite interested in him—for was he not a lovable, genial character, as he sat there chewing betel-nut and tobacco to excess, twinkling his little eyes with such malicious humor in them that, while talking with him, i could not withdraw mine from watching their quick flashes of cunning, and surveying the long, thin nose, with its impenetrable mystery and classic lines? i fear mohammed did not love me, but my admiration was excessive for mohammed.
a bowman.
"'la il allah—il allah!' he was heard to say to sheik abed, 'that old white man daoud (livingstone) never gave much to any man; this white man gives nothing.' certainly not, mohammed. my admiration is great for thee, my friend; but thou liest so[pg 214] that i am disgusted with thee, and thou hast such a sweet, plausible, villainous look in thy face, i could punch thee heartily.
"the next morning muini (lord) dugumbi and following came—a gang of veritable freebooters, chiefest of whom was the famous mtagamoyo—the butcher of women and fusillader of children. tippu-tib, when i asked him, a few weeks after, what he thought of mtagamoyo, turned up his nose and said, 'he is brave, no doubt, but he is a man whose heart is as big as the end of my little finger. he has no feeling; he kills a native as though he were a serpent—it matters not of what sex.'
"this man is about forty-four years of age, of middle stature and swarthy complexion, with a broad face, black beard just graying, and thin-lipped. he spoke but little, and that little courteously. he did not appear very formidable, but he might be deadly, nevertheless. the arabs of nyangwé regard him as their best fighter.
"dugumbi the patriarch, or, as he is called by the natives, molemba-lemba, had the rollicking look of a prosperous and coarse-minded old man, who was perfectly satisfied with the material aspect of his condition. he deals in humor of the coarsest kind—a vain, frivolous old fellow, ignorant of everything but the art of collecting ivory, who has contrived to attach to himself a host of nameless half-castes of inordinate pride, savage spirit, and immeasurable greed.
camp scene.
"the arabs of nyangwé, when they first heard of the arrival of tippu-tib at imbarri from the south, were anxious to count him as their fellow-settler; but tippu-tib had no ambition to become the chief citizen of a place which could boast of no better settlers than vain old dugumbi, the butcher mtagamoyo, and silly sheik abed; he therefore proceeded to mwana mamba's, where he found better society with mohammed bin sayid, sayid bin sultan, msé ani, and sayid bin mohammed el mezrui. sayid bin sultan, in features, is a rough copy of abdul aziz, late sultan of turkey.
an escort of gunners and spearmen.
"one of the principal institutions at nyangwé is the kituka, or the market,[pg 215]
[pg 216] with the first of which i made acquaintance in 1871, in ujiji and urundi. one day it is held in the open plaza in front of sheik abed's house; on the next day in dugumbi's section, half a mile from the other; and on the third at the confluence of the kunda and the lualaba; and so on in turn.
"in this market everything becomes vendible and purchasable, from an ordinary earthenware pot to a slave. from one thousand to three thousand natives gather here from across the lualaba and from the kunda banks, from the islands up the river, and from the villages of the mitamba, or forest. nearly all are clad in the fabrics of manyema, fine grass-cloths, which are beautifully colored and very durable. the articles sold here for cowries, beads, copper and iron wire, and lambas, or squares of palm-cloth,[9] represent the productions of manyema. i went round the market and made out the following list:
sweet potatoes. eggs. basket-work.
yams. fowls. cassava bread.
maize. black pigs. cassava flour.
sesamum. goats. copper bracelets.
millet. sheep. iron wire.
beans. parrots. iron knobs.
cucumbers. palm-wine (malofu). hoes.
melons pombé (beer). spears.
cassava. mussels and oysters from bows and arrows.
ground-nuts. the river. hatchets.
bananas. fresh fish. rattan-cane staves.
sugar-cane. dried fish. stools.
pepper (in berries). whitebait. crockery.
vegetables for broths. snails (dried). powdered camwood.
wild fruit. salt. grass cloths.
palm-butter. white ants. grass mats.
oil-palm nuts. grasshoppers. fuel.
pineapples. tobacco (dried leaf). ivory.
honey. pipes. slaves.
fishing-nets.
"from this it will be perceived that the wants of nyangwé are very tolerably supplied. and how like any other market place it was! with its noise and murmur of human voices. the same rivalry in extolling their wares, the eager, quick action, the emphatic gesture, the inquisitive look, the facial expressions of scorn and triumph, anxiety, joy, plausibility, were all there. i discovered, too, the surprising fact that the aborigines of manyema possess just the same inordinate ideas in respect to their wares as london, paris, and new york shopkeepers. perhaps the manyema people are not so voluble, but they compensate for lack of language by gesture and action, which are unspeakably eloquent.
slave offered in the market.
"during this month of the year the lualaba reached its lowest level. our boat, the lady alice, after almost being rebuilt, was launched in the river, and with sounding-line and sextant on board, my crew and i, eager to test the boat on the gray-brown waters of the great river, pushed off at 11 a.m., and rowed for an[pg 217] island opposite, eight hundred yards distant, taking soundings as we went. the soundings showed a mean depth of eighteen feet nine inches.
nyangwé heads.
"the easternmost island in mid-river is about one hundred yards across at its widest part, and between it and another island is a distance of from two hundred and fifty to three hundred yards. from the second island to the low shore opposite nyangwé is about two hundred and fifty yards, and these channels have a slightly swifter flow than the main river. the mean depth of the central channel was twelve and a half feet, the westernmost eleven feet, and the entire width of clear water flow was about thirteen hundred yards. during the months of april, may, and june, and the early part of july, the lualaba is full, and overspreads the low[pg 218] lands westward for nearly a mile and a half. the lualaba then may be said to be from four thousand to five thousand yards wide opposite nyangwé.
"the arabs, wherever they settle throughout africa, endeavor to introduce the seeds of the vegetables and fruit-trees which grow in their beloved island of zanzibar. at unyanyembé, therefore, they have planted papaws, sweet limes, mangoes, lemons, custard-apples, pomegranates, and have sown wheat and rice in abundance. at ujiji, also, they have papaws, sweet limes, pomegranates, lemons, wheat, rice, and onions. at nyangwé their fruit consists of pineapples, papaws, and pomegranates. they have succeeded admirably in their rice, both at nyangwé, kasongo's, and mwana mamba's.
nyangwé pottery.
"the wagenya, as the arabs call them, or wenya—pronounced wainya—as they style themselves, are a remarkable tribe of fishers, who inhabit both banks of the lualaba, from the confluence of the kamalondo, on the left bank, down to the sixth cataract of the stanley falls, and on the right bank, from the confluence of the luama down to ubwiré, or usongora meno.
"the wenya were the aborigines of nyangwé, when the advanced party of muini dugumbi appeared on the scene—precursors of ruin, terror, and depopulation, to the inhabitants of seven hundred square miles of manyema. considering that the fertile open tract of country between the luama and nyangwé was exceedingly populous, as the ruins of scores of villages testify, sixty inhabitants to the square mile would not be too great a proportion. the river border, then, of manyema, from the luama to nyangwé, may be said to have had a population of forty-two thousand souls, of which there remain probably only twenty thousand. the others have been deported, or massacred, or have fled to the islands or emigrated down the river.
"tippu-tib arrived at nyangwé on the 2d of november, with a much larger force than i anticipated, for he had nearly seven hundred people with him. however, he explained that he was about to send some three hundred of them to a country called tata, which lies to the east of usongora meno.
muini dujambi's followers attacking nyangwé.
"on the 4th of november the members of the expedition were mustered, and we ascertained that they numbered one hundred and fifty-four, and that we possessed the following arms: sniders, 29; percussion-lock muskets, 32; winchesters, 2; double-barrelled guns, 2; revolvers, 10; axes, 68. out of this number of sixty-four guns only forty were borne by trustworthy men; the others were mere pagazis, who would prefer becoming slaves to fighting for their freedom and lives.[pg 219]
[pg 220] at the same time they were valuable as porters, and faithful to their allotted duties and their contract, when not enticed away by outside influences or fear. the enormous force that tippu-tib brought to nyangwé quite encouraged them; and when i asked them if they were ready to make good their promise to me at zanzibar and muta nzege lake, they replied unanimously in the affirmative.
"'then to-night, my friends,' said i, 'you will pack up your goods, and to-morrow morning, at the first hour, let me see you in line before my house ready to start.'"
[pg 221]
antelope of the nyangwé region.
