ON THE OFOUBOU RIVER.—ELEPHANTS BATHING.—PURSUIT THROUGH THE
SWAMP.—ESCAPE OF THE ELEPHANTS.
If you could have visited me, you would have found me on the banks of
the Ovenga River, at the village of my Bakalai friend Obindji.
Numbers of canoes, made each from the trunk of a single tree, are on the
river-bank. My friend Quengueza is giving his orders for the comfort of
Ntangani: “his friend Paul” is going away with him.
We are going to leave, for there is nothing more to eat at friend
Obindji’s. Game has become scarce, elephants and gorillas have destroyed
their plantations, and disappeared. We are too kind-hearted, however, to
tell good Obindji that we are obliged to leave his village because we
are hungry every day.
We are going to ascend the Ofoubou River, which is one of the affluents
of the Ovenga, and are bound for the village of Njali-Coudié. This is a
strange name to give to a town, but there are many strange names in this
country. I hope you will be able to pronounce them according to the
African standard, and that you will remember them.
[Sidenote: _THE DEPARTURE._]
Obindji is on the beach, beating his _kendo_ (the royal sceptre) and
invoking the spirits of his ancestors to protect his friend Quengueza,
and his Ntanga (white man). He is covered with fetiches, and has rubbed
his body with the chalk of the Alumbi.
The _kendo_ is the badge of royalty in some of these tribes of Africa. I
will give you a description of the _kendo_. It is a rude ball of iron,
fashioned with a long handle, also of iron, and of the same piece. The
sound which with us announces the vicinity of a herd of cows or sheep,
in Africa precedes the advent of the sovereign, who uses the _kendo_
only when on visits of state or on business of importance.
When they wear the _kendo_ it is on the shoulder, and there is put over
it the skin of a genetta, in which some of the Alumbi powder is kept.
In this case friend Obindji thought it was very important that the
spirits of his ancestors should follow us. He wanted good wishes to
precede us. Hence he said, he hoped we would have plenty to eat, and
that I would kill all the game I wanted.
Obindji was really in earnest, and jabbered away in a manner and with an
eagerness that was laughable; he had certainly plenty of faith in the
powers he was invoking.
The canoes were ready, and soon friend King Quengueza gave the order for
our departure. His Majesty was in his royal travelling costume. He had
on a coat which I had given him, but no shirt; he had a cravat round his
neck, and instead of pantaloons, which, by the way, I had never been
able to make him wear, he had a cloth round his waist. His bag hung over
his shoulder, and in this was his _ogana_ (idol); there also he had a
good supply of tobacco, his pipes, and several other things, among which
were articles for the toilet of his Majesty, such as a little calabash
of palm-oil to rub on his skin to soften it, and to give to some of his
wives when he wished to be particularly amiable.
In this journey his Majesty thought he would have ten wives to accompany
him, and to provide for his comfort; and though King Quengueza was, I
should judge, at least seventy-five, the oldest among these ten wives
could not have been more than fourteen years of age, and he had left a
few behind still younger than these.
Quengueza and I, with two of the favorite wives, including a Bakalai
one, were in the royal canoe, at the head of which was a drummer. I
fired a salute, and soon a bend of the river hid us from Obindji’s view.
The drums were beating, and all the men were singing. All the other
canoes paddled in front of us except one, which kept in the rear.
The starry flag floated gracefully in the royal canoe. Quengueza was
wonderfully pleased with the flag. We entered the Ofoubou River and
fired another gun, the echo of which resounded from hill to hill, and
started the roar of a gorilla, which could not have been half a mile
distant from where we were. That fellow was certainly a large male
gorilla.
The Ofoubou was a narrow river, but deep at that time of the year: trees
and palm lined its banks, which it had overflowed, spreading its waters
over the strip of lowlands which bounded it, and which separated it from
the hills.
[Sidenote: _A HERD OF ELEPHANTS BATHING._]
Njali-Coudié was situated about ten miles distant from the banks of the
Ofoubou. By-and-by the singing ceased, and we paddled silently along,
when suddenly one of the canoes ahead made us a sign to be very quiet.
“What is going on?” I whispered to Quengueza. Quengueza in a low voice
replied, “I know not.” Every man looked carefully at his gun. The canoe
ahead had stopped, neither retreating or advancing. What could it be? We
pulled with the utmost care; our paddles, as they dipped into the water,
made no noise at all, and at last we all met.
Then Adouma, the king’s nephew, came and whispered low—“Elephants are
here, they are bathing in the river. I have heard them.”
“Are you sure they are elephants?”
“Are they not hippopotami?” I asked.
“No,” he replied, “they are elephants.”
The countenances of all the fellows brightened up; the ivory tusks of
the noble beast were, they thought, already in their possession—they
were selling the skin of the fox before having killed the animal.
We let all our canoes pass down the stream a little way, in order that
we might hold a grand palaver. Adouma, Quabi, Rapero, all Quengueza’s
nephews, were present. Querlaouen and Malaouen, the two most redoubtable
warriors of the Bakalai of the Ovenga, were also there; these five, with
Quengueza and myself, formed the Grand Council.
Quengueza, being an old man, was to remain where he was with all the
party, while myself and the five others were to move in a canoe and make
land near where the elephants were.
Immediately the fellows covered themselves with their fetiches;
Querlaouen and Malaouen bled their hands, and then we looked carefully
at our guns. Though we were more than one hundred men altogether, the
falling of a leaf could have been heard by any one of us, the silence
was so profound.
The canoe that was to take us came. Adouma and Quabi paddled, and onward
we went until we reached a bend of the river, and I could distinctly
hear the elephants. So we thought best to land inside of the bend, which
we did without uttering a whisper for fear of alarming the elephants.
After landing the great difficulty was how to gain the other side. The
country was overflowed, it was all bog land, yet to the elephants we
must go. We could not possibly follow the edges of the forest that
bordered the Ofoubou, for we should have soon found ourselves in twenty
feet of water, and in the middle of a strong current. These bog-lands
are always dangerous things on the banks of the overflowed African
rivers.
I hung my powder-flask close to my neck, and also my watch, in case the
water should be deep, for I am not tall. My men took the same precaution
with their bags, and then Malaouen took the lead. Where we landed there
was no dry spot, and as we advanced through the woods we immediately
found ourselves entangled in the midst of the roots of the trees, with
the water above our waists, sinking knee deep into the mud, ignorant at
every step whether the next might bring us into water up to our necks or
above our heads. That was about as difficult a tramp as I ever had had
in all my travels. Suddenly Querlaouen’s foot caught under some roots,
and down he went into the water, gun and all. He immediately swore in
Bakalai that somebody had bewitched him, and did not want him to kill an
elephant. Finally we came to a place where the water reached my neck, I
being the shortest of all; so I took my watch and powder in one hand and
my gun in the other, raising both arms as high as I could, and at every
moment I fully expected to go down. One step more and the water just
reached my mouth, but happily the next step took me on higher ground.
[Sidenote: _WE ARE TOO LATE._]
At last we succeeded in crossing the bend, and came in sight of the
elephants, who did not observe our approach.
They were seven altogether. What a huge beast the male was! The other
six were all females, so said Malaouen. They were perfectly unconscious
of our presence, and swam to and fro in the narrow river. Unfortunately
they were very far from us, being very nearly half a mile off, and to
come to a good shooting distance in this awful swamp would take some
time.
[Illustration: HUNTING ELEPHANTS.]
Their large ears contrasted singularly with the small ears of their
Asiatic brethren; they were also somewhat smaller. Several of them had
huge tusks of ivory; those of the bull were gigantic. They were bathing,
and evidently enjoying themselves.
We now followed with great care the banks of the river about ten or
fifteen yards inside of them, until at last the water became so deep
that we came to a halt. How sorry we felt! I would have given much if I
could have come near the elephants; but as we approached the banks we
saw the elephants leaving the river. What monsters they seemed! I
shouldered my long-range rifle, aimed at the big male, with but little
hope of killing it, as I must have been several hundred yards off. I
fired, heard the bullet strike one of the tusks, when the animals
plunged into the forest, breaking down every thing before them.
[Illustration: [Fleuron]]
[Illustration: [Fleuron]]