WE LAND IN AFRICA.
And now to resume my own more simple narrative.
The barque _Princess_, which, until we touched at Ascension, had been
favoured with singularly fine weather, now encountered strong
head-winds. She was driven out of her course, and had to run well
in, on the African coast.
After long beating about, on the 2nd of August we saw the great
continent on the southern shore of the Gulf of Guinea.
The winds had become light and the weather cloudy. On this day I
remember the crew were variously employed, and the carpenters were
busy in making two new topgallant masts, to replace those injured in
the rough weather we had so recently encountered.
About six P.M. the weather became squally. Captain Baylis ordered
the studding-sails to be taken in, and the chain-cables bent to the
anchors. At midnight we took in the royals and flying-jib.
At four o'clock on the morning of the 3rd, as we required fresh
water, we came to anchor in a little sheltered bay of the Rio Gabon,
which lies between the Bight of Benin and Cape Lopez Gonsalvo.
The wondrous transparency of the atmosphere here exceeded all I had
seen--even in the pure region of eternal ice; for amid the clear
splendour of the heavens, the eye could observe without a telescope
many a lesser star unseen in the north; and on this morning when we
were coming to anchor, two of the fixed planets shone with a
refulgence so brilliant as to cast the shadow of the ships far across
the estuary.
By this time, the hot vertical sun of the tropics had peeled all the
paint off the blistered sides of the _Princess_. Her anchors and
ironwork had become mere masses of red rust, her once white paint had
been turned to orange colour, and her tar to dirty yellow, while the
caulking and pitch had boiled out from her planks and seams.
Captain Baylis had no intention of remaining here longer than he
could avoid, as the climate is unhealthy. Though the hills which
overlook the river are of considerable height, the land between it
and them is but a series of swamps, where the gigantic water-weeds of
Africa and the wild mangrove-trees flourish in rank luxuriance, and
where the hideous crocodile squatters in the slime, or crawls along
the sand, where its eggs are hatched by the hot sun, if they are not
previously stolen by the ichneumon.
While the chief mate went off in the long-boat to the Pongos--as the
little isles at the mouth of the estuary are named--to fill several
casks with fresh water, Captain Baylis proposed a visit to a negro
village on the coast, for the purpose of procuring some elephants'
teeth and leopard skins, and having a _palaver_ with the natives,
many of whom, though extremely savage, have picked up a little
English by the frequent visits of our ships, particularly those of
the African squadron.
With a view to barter, he placed in his gig four old rusty muskets,
some well-worn table knives, old coats, pots and kettles, while, to
be prepared for any emergency, four rifles, carefully loaded and
capped, were concealed in the stern sheets, and Mrs. Baylis, Hartly,
and I accompanied him on this expedition, which was the commencement
of a series of disasters, that ended in the destruction of nearly all
concerned.
For the lady's comfort, an awning was rigged over the stern of the
gig, which, being rowed by eight oars, ran rapidly close in shore,
where we saw a number of black fellows in a state of semi-nudity,
gabbling, gesticulating violently, and watching our arrival with
considerable interest.
Some of their actions seeming to indicate hostility as they
brandished long spears and asseguys, Captain Baylis stood up in the
boat and displayed his old pots and kettles, making signs that he
wished to trade or barter with them. On this they uttered a
simultaneous yell, and disappeared among the mangroves, which fringed
all the bank of the river, and formed a species of natural arcade by
their branches arching over from the solid soil, and taking root in
the slimy water.
Of this unsatisfactory result we could make nothing; but in no way
daunted, Captain Baylis (though saying that he "wished he had left
his good wife on board") steered for a little creek, on entering
which, we lost sight alike of the Pongo islets and the _Princess_,
which lay at anchor in the estuary, about four miles off.
Beaching partly the sharp-prowed and handsome gig in the soft sand,
Baylis, Hartly, and I sprang ashore, and looked in every direction
among the tall weeds and mangroves for our sable traders; but all was
silent and still. The breast of the broad river was undisturbed by a
ripple, and seemed to sleep in the sultry sunshine; the silence of
the mighty forests that grew along its banks was unbroken by a sound;
and the vast baobab or calibash trees, with their gigantic yellow
fruit and wondrous horizontal branches, covered by foliage, were
drooping listlessly in the hot and breathless atmosphere of the
tropical noon.
"I don't understand this, and, moreover, I don't much like it," said
Captain Baylis, in a low voice to Hartly and me; "for when I was here
before I found the darkies ready enough to 'make friends,' as they
term it, and to exchange their elephants' tusks, panther skins, and
camwood for any rubbish we could collect on board."
But he knew not that, at this time, one of the crew of an American
ship which sailed on the previous day had wantonly shot the fetisher,
or priest of a village, and thus inspired the people with hostility
to all white strangers; and it is not improbable that they conceived
the Yankee and the _Princess_ to be one and the same vessel.
After looking about us for some time, and finding that none of the
natives returned, Baylis proposed that we should pull a little higher
up the stream, to the village of the Rio Serpientes--or Snake River,
as it is called in the charts--a tributary of the Gabon.
The giant size of the plants, shrubs, and trees, their wonderful
greenness and luxuriance, the brilliance of the flowers, the loud hum
of insect-life, where insects are as large as birds at home, the
depth of the forest dingles, and the overpowering heat of the
atmosphere, all served to impress me with novelty and strangeness;
while mingled emotions of wonder, pleasure, and apprehension filled
my breast.
With deep interest I trod this wondrous soil, of which so little is
known. "For three centuries," says some one, "our ships have
circumnavigated Africa, and yet, with a few exceptions, our knowledge
of its districts is very incomplete; while the interior presents to
the eye a _blank_ in geography--an unsolved problem, in moral as well
as physical science." Though nearly four thousand years ago the
valley of the Nile was the cradle of art and commerce, we know no
more about the Mountains of the Moon than old Ptolemy himself knew.
We were about to re-embark, when the united yells of more than a
hundred negroes rent the clear welkin, and starting from the leafy
seclusion of the mangroves into the blaze of sunlight, a horde of
black and naked savages rushed upon us with long asseguys, bows,
clubs, and knives; and in a moment we found ourselves their prisoners.
Two seamen in the bow of the gig, while attempting to shove her off,
were struck through the body with poisoned spears, and slain on the
instant; the rest were dragged out, the gig itself was lifted fairly
out of the water, hoisted on the brawny shoulders of nearly twenty
men, and borne with yells of derision and exultation up the bank,
where they hurled it high and dry ashore among the mangroves; while
at the same moment, poor Baylis with horror saw his shrieking wife
dragged by others into the jungle.
After being beaten with asseguy-shafts until we were nearly
senseless, our clothes were rent from us roughly, and in a state
nearly approaching nudity, covered with bruises, and in some
instances with blood, we were dragged into a thicket, and brought
before the King of the village, who was seated on a grass matting,
which was spread under the umbrageous shadow of a baobab-tree, where
he was smoking a great wooden pipe.
All this passed in less than five minutes; and I was so stunned by
the rapidity of the transaction, as well as by several blows received
on the head from lance-shafts, that the whole affair resembled a
terrible dream!