Footsteps of Moses. Geology of Manyuema land. "A drop of
comfort." Continued sufferings. A stationary explorer.
Consequences of trusting to theory. Nomenclature of Rivers and
Lakes. Plunder and murder is Ujijian trading. Comes out of hut
for first time after eighty days' illness. Arab cure for
ulcerated sores. Rumour of letters. The loss of medicines a
great trial now. The broken-hearted chief. Return of Arab ivory
traders. Future plans. Thankfulness for Mr. Edward Young's
Search Expedition. The Hornbilled Phoenix. Tedious delays. The
bargain for the boy. Sends letters to Zanzibar. Exasperation of
Manyuema against Arabs. The "Sassassa bird." The disease
"Safura."
Bambarré, _25th August, 1870._--One of my waking dreams is that the
legendary tales about Moses coming up into Inner Ethiopia with Merr his
foster-mother, and founding a city which he called in her honour
"Meroe," may have a substratum of fact. He was evidently a man of
transcendent genius, and we learn from the speech of St. Stephen that
"he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in
words and in deeds." His deeds must have been well known in Egypt, for
"he supposed that his brethren would have understood how that God by His
hand would deliver them, but they understood not." His supposition could
not be founded on his success in smiting a single Egyptian; he was too
great a man to be elated by a single act of prowess, but his success on
a large scale in Ethiopia afforded reasonable grounds for believing that
his brethren would be proud of their countryman, and disposed to follow
his leadership, but they were slaves. The notice taken of the matter by
Pharaoh showed that he was eyed by the great as a dangerous, if not
powerful, man. He "dwelt" in Midian for some time before his gallant
bearing towards the shepherds by the well, commended him to the priest
or prince of the country. An uninteresting wife, and the want of
intercourse with kindred spirits during the long forty years' solitude
of a herdsman's life, seem to have acted injuriously on his spirits, and
it was not till he had with Aaron struck terror into the Egyptian mind,
that the "man Moses" again became "very great in the eyes of Pharaoh and
his servants." The Ethiopian woman whom he married could scarcely be the
daughter of Renel or Jethro, for Midian was descended from Keturah,
Abraham's concubine, and they were never considered Cushite or
Ethiopian. If he left his wife in Egypt she would now be some fifty or
sixty years old, and all the more likely to be despised by the proud
prophetess Miriam as a daughter of Ham.
I dream of discovering some monumental relics of Meroe, and if anything
confirmatory of sacred history does remain, I pray to be guided
thereunto. If the sacred chronology would thereby be confirmed, I would
not grudge the toil and hardships, hunger and pain, I have endured--the
irritable ulcers would only be discipline.
Above the fine yellow clay schist of Manyuema the banks of Tanganyika
reveal 50 feet of shingle mixed with red earth; above this at some parts
great boulders lie; after this 60 feet of fine clay schist, then 5
strata of gravel underneath, with a foot stratum of schist between them.
The first seam of gravel is about 2 feet, the second 4 feet, and the
lowest of all about 30 feet thick. The fine schist was formed in still
water, but the shingle must have been produced in stormy troubled seas
if not carried hither and thither by ice and at different epochs.
This Manyuema country is unhealthy, not so much from fever as from
debility of the whole system, induced by damp, cold, and indigestion:
this general weakness is ascribed by some to maize being the common
food, it shows itself in weakness of bowels and choleraic purging. This
may be owing to bad water, of which there is no scarcity, but it is so
impregnated with dead vegetable matter as to have the colour of tea.
Irritable ulcers fasten on any part abraded by accident, and it seems to
be a spreading fungus, for the matter settling on any part near becomes
a fresh centre of propagation. The vicinity of the ulcer is very tender,
and it eats in frightfully if not allowed rest. Many slaves die of it,
and its periodical discharges of bloody ichor makes me suspect it to be
a development of fever. I have found lunar caustic useful: a plaister of
wax, and a little finely-ground sulphate of copper is used by the Arabs,
and so is cocoa-nut oil and butter. These ulcers are excessively
intractable, there is no healing them before they eat into the bone,
especially on the shins.
Rheumatism is also common, and it cuts the natives off. The traders fear
these diseases, and come to a stand if attacked, in order to use rest in
the cure. "Taema," or Tape-worm, is frequently met with, and no remedy
is known among the Arabs and natives for it.
[Searching in his closely-written pocket-books we find many little
mementoes of his travels; such, for instance, as two or three tsetse
flies pressed between the leaves of one book; some bees, some leaves and
moths in another, but, hidden away in the pocket of the note-book which
Livingstone used during the longest and most painful illness he ever
underwent lies a small scrap of printed paper which tells a tale in its
own simple way. On one side there is written in his well-known hand:--]
"Turn over and see a drop of comfort found when suffering
from irritable eating ulcers on the feet in Manyuema,
August, 1870."
[On the reverse we see that the scrap was evidently snipped off a list
of books advertised at the end of some volume which, with the tea and
other things sent to Ujiji, had reached him before setting out on this
perilous journey. The "drop of comfort" is as follows:--]
"A NARRATIVE OF AN EXPEDITION TO THE ZAMBESI AND ITS
TRIBUTARIES,
"And the discovery of Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa.
"_Fifth Thousand. With Map and Illustrations_. 8vo. 21s.
"'Few achievements in our day have made a greater impression
than that of the adventurous missionary who unaided crossed the
Continent of Equatorial Africa. His unassuming simplicity, his
varied intelligence, his indomitable pluck, his steady religious
purpose, form a combination of qualities rarely found in one
man. By common consent, Dr. Livingstone has come to be regarded
as one of the most remarkable travellers of his own or of any
other age.'--_British Quarterly Review_."
[The kindly pen of the reviewer served a good turn when there was "no
medicine" but the following:--]
I was at last advised to try malachite, rubbed down with water on a
stone, and applied with a feather: this is the only thing that has any
beneficial effect.
_9th September, 1870._--A Londa slave stole ten goats from the Manyuema;
he was bound, but broke loose, and killed two goats yesterday. He was
given to the Manyuema. The Balonda evidently sold their criminals only.
He was shorn of his ears and would have been killed, but Monangoi said:
"Don't let the blood of a freeman touch our soil."
_26th September, 1870._--I am able now to report the ulcers healing. For
eighty days I have been completely laid up by them, and it will be long
ere the lost substance will be replaced. They kill many slaves; and an
epidemic came to us which carried off thirty in our small camp.[8]
[We come to a very important note under the next date. It may be
necessary to remind the reader that when Livingstone left the
neighbourhood of Lake Nyassa and bent his steps northwards, he believed
that the "Chambezé" River, which the natives reported to be ahead of
him, was in reality the Zambezi, for he held in his hand a map
manufactured at home, and so conveniently manipulated as to clear up a
great difficulty by simply inserting "New Zambezi" in the place of the
Chambezé. As we now see, Livingstone handed back this addled
geographical egg to its progenitor, who, we regret to say, has not only
smashed it in wrath, but has treated us to so much of its savour in a
pamphlet written against the deceased explorer, that few will care to
turn over its leaves.
However, the African traveller has a warning held up before him which
may be briefly summed up in a caution to be on the look out for constant
repetitions in one form or another of the same name. Endless confusion
has arisen from Nyassas and Nyanzas, from Chiroas and Kiroas and
Shirwas, to say nothing of Zambesis and Ohambezés. The natives are just
as prone to perpetuate Zambezi or Lufira in Africa as we are to multiply
our Avons and Ouses in England.]
_4th October, 1870._--A trading party from Ujiji reports an epidemic
raging between the coast and Ujiji, and very fatal. Syde bin Habib and
Dugumbé are coming, and they have letters and perhaps people for me, so
I remain, though the irritable ulcers are well-nigh healed. I fear that
my packet for the coast may have fared badly, for the Lewalé has kept
Musa Kamaal by him, so that no evidence against himself or the dishonest
man Musa bin Saloom should be given: my box and guns, with despatches, I
fear will never be sent. Zahor, to whom I gave calico to pay carriers,
has been sent off to Lobemba.
Mohamad sowed rice yesterday, and has to send his people (who were
unsuccessful among the Balégga) away to the Metambé, where they got
ivory before.
I cannot understand very well what a "Theoretical Discoverer" is. If
anyone got up and declared in a public meeting that he was the
theoretical discoverer of the philosopher's stone, or of perpetual
motion for watches, should we not mark him as a little wrong in the
head? So of the Nile sources. The Portuguese crossed the Chambezé some
seventy years before I did, but to them it was a branch of the Zambezi
and nothing more. Cooley put it down as the New Zambesi, and made it run
backwards, up-hill, between 3000 and 4000 feet! I was misled by the
similarity of names and a map, to think it the eastern branch of the
Zambezi. I was told that it formed a large water in the south-west, this
I readily believed to be the Liambai, in the Barotsé Valley, and it took
me eighteen months of toil to come back again to the Chambezé in Lake
Bangweolo, and work out the error into which I was led--twenty-two
months elapsed ere I got back to the point whence I set out to explore
Chambezé, Bangweolo, Luapula, Moero, and Lualaba. I spent two full years
at this work, and the Chief Casembe was the first to throw light on the
subject by saying, "It is the same water here as in the Chambezé, the
same in Moero and Lualaba, and one piece of water is just like another.
Will you draw out calico from it that you wish to see it? As your chief
desired you to see Bangweolo, go to it, and if in going north you see a
travelling party, join it; if not, come back to me, and I will send you
safely by my path along Moero."
The central Lualaba I would fain call the Lake River Webb; the western,
the Lake River Young. The Lufira and Lualaba West form a Lake, the
native name of which, "Chibungo," must give way to Lake Lincoln. I wish
to name the fountain of the Liambai or Upper Zambesi, Palmerston
Fountain, and adding that of Sir Bartle Frere to the fountain of Lufira,
three names of men who have done more to abolish slavery and the
slave-trade than any of their contemporaries.
[Through the courtesy of the Earl of Derby we are able to insert a
paragraph here which occurs in a despatch written to Her Majesty's
Foreign Office by Dr. Livingstone a few weeks before his death. He
treats more fully in it upon the different names that he gave to the
most important rivers and lakes which he discovered, and we see how he
cherished to the last the fond memory of old well-tried friendships, and
the great examples of men like President Lincoln and Lord Palmerston.]
"I have tried to honour the name of the good Lord Palmerston, in fond
remembrance of his long and unwearied labour for the abolition of the
Slave Trade; and I venture to place the name of the good and noble
Lincoln on the Lake, in gratitude to him who gave freedom to 4,000,000
of slaves. These two great men are no longer among us; but it pleases
me, here in the wilds, to place, as it were, my poor little garland of
love on their tombs. Sir Bartle Frere having accomplished the grand work
of abolishing slavery in Scindiah, Upper India, deserves the gratitude
of every lover of human kind.
"Private friendship guided me in the selection of other names where
distinctive epithets were urgently needed. 'Paraffin' Young, one of my
teachers in chemistry, raised himself to be a merchant prince by his
science and art, and has shed pure white light in many lowly cottages,
and in some rich palaces. Leaving him and chemistry, I went away to try
and bless others. I, too, have shed light of another kind, and am fain
to believe that I have performed a small part in the grand revolution
which our Maker has been for ages carrying on, by multitudes of
conscious, and many unconscious agents, all over the world. Young's
friendship never faltered.
"Oswell and Webb were fellow-travellers, and mighty hunters. Too much
engrossed myself with mission-work to hunt, except for the children's
larder, when going to visit distant tribes, I relished the sight of fair
stand-up fights by my friends with the large denizens of the forest, and
admired the true Nimrod class for their great courage, truthfulness, and
honour. Being a warm lover of natural history, the entire butcher tribe,
bent only on making 'a bag,' without regard to animal suffering, have
not a single kindly word from me. An Ambonda man, named Mokantju, told
Oswell and me in 1851 that the Liambai and Kafué rose as one fountain
and then separated, but after a long course came together again in the
Zambezi above Zumbo."
_8th October, 1870._--Mbarawa and party came yesterday from Katomba at
Mamohela. He reports that Jangeongé (?) with Moeneokela's men had been
killing people of the Metamba or forest, and four of his people were
slain. He intended fighting, hence his desire to get rid of me when I
went north: he got one and a half tusks, but little ivory, but Katomba's
party got fifty tusks; Abdullah had got two tusks, and had also been
fighting, and Katomba had sent a fighting party down to Lolindé; plunder
and murder is Ujijian trading. Mbarawa got his ivory on the Lindi, or as
he says, "Urindi," which has black water, and is very large: an arrow
could not be shot across its stream, 400 or 500 yards wide, it had to be
crossed by canoes, and goes into Lualaba. It is curious that all think
it necessary to say to me, "The Manyuema are bad, very bad;" the Balégga
will be let alone, because they can fight, and we shall hear nothing of
their badness.
_10th October, 1870._--I came out of my hut to-day, after being confined
to it since the 22nd July, or eighty days, by irritable ulcers on the
feet. The last twenty days I suffered from fever, which reduced my
strength, taking away my voice, and purging me. My appetite was good,
but the third mouthful of any food caused nausea and vomiting--purging
took place and profuse sweating; it was choleraic, and how many Manyuema
died of it we could not ascertain. While this epidemic raged here, we
heard of cholera terribly severe on the way to the coast. I am thankful
to feel myself well.
Only one ulcer is open, the size of a split pea: malachite was the
remedy most useful, but the beginning of the rains may have helped the
cure, as it does to others; copper rubbed down is used when malachite
cannot be had. We expect Syde bin Habib soon: he will take to the river,
and I hope so shall I. The native traders reached people who had horns
of oxen, got from the left bank of the Lualaba. Katomba's people got
most ivory, namely, fifty tusks; the others only four. The Metamba or
forest is of immense extent, and there is room for much ivory to be
picked up at five or seven bracelets of copper per tusk, if the slaves
sent will only be merciful. The nine villages destroyed, and 100 men
killed, by Katomba's slaves at Nasangwa's, were all about a string of
beads fastened to a powder horn, which a Manyuema man tried in vain to
steal!
Katomba gets twenty-five of the fifty tusks brought by his people. We
expect letters, and perhaps men by Syde bin Habib. No news from the
coast had come to Ujiji, save a rumour that some one was building a
large house at Bagamoio, but whether French or English no one can say:
possibly the erection of a huge establishment on the mainland may be a
way of laboriously proving that it is more healthy than the island. It
will take a long time to prove by stone and lime that the higher lands,
200 miles inland, are better still, both for longevity and work.[9] I am
in agony for news from home; all I feel sure of now is that my friends
will all wish me to complete my task. I join in the wish now, as better
than doing it in vain afterwards.
The Manyuema hoeing is little better than scraping the soil, and cutting
through the roots of grass and weeds, by a horizontal motion of the hoe
or knife; they leave the roots of maize, ground-nuts, sweet potatoes,
and dura, to find their way into the rich soft soil, and well they
succeed, so there is no need for deep ploughing: the ground-nuts and
cassava hold their own against grass for years, and bananas, if cleared
of weeds, yield abundantly. Mohamad sowed rice just outside the camp
without any advantage being secured by the vicinity of a rivulet, and it
yielded forone measure of seed one hundred and twenty measures of
increase. This season he plants along the rivulet called "Bondé," and on
the damp soil.
The rain-water does not percolate far, for the clay retains it about two
feet beneath the surface: this is a cause of unhealthiness to man. Fowls
and goats have been cut off this year in large numbers by an epidemic.
The visits of the Ujijian traders must be felt by the Manyuema to be a
severe infliction, for the huts are appropriated, and no leave asked:
firewood, pots, baskets, and food are used without scruple, and anything
that pleases is taken away; usually the women flee into the forest, and
return to find the whole place a litter of broken food. I tried to pay
the owners of the huts in which I slept, but often in vain, for they hid
in the forest, and feared to come near. It was common for old men to
come forward to me with a present of bananas as I passed, uttering with
trembling accents, "Bolongo, Bolongo!" ("Friendship, Friendship!"), and
if I stopped to make a little return present, others ran for plantains
or palm-toddy. The Arabs' men ate up what they demanded, without one
word of thanks, and turned round to me and said, "They are bad, don't
give them anything." "Why, what badness is there in giving food?" I
replied. "Oh! they like you, but hate us." One man gave me an iron ring,
and all seemed inclined to be friendly, yet they are undoubtedly
bloodthirsty to other Manyuema, and kill each other.
I am told that journeying inland the safe way to avoid tsetse in going
to Meréré's is to go to Mdongé, Makindé, Zungoméro, Masapi, Irundu,
Nyangoré, then turn north to the Nyannugams, and thence to Nyémbé, and
so on south to Meréré's. A woman chief lies in the straight way to
Meréré, but no cattle live in the land. Another insect lights on the
animals, and when licked off bites the tongue, or breeds, and is fatal
as well as tsetse: it is larger in size. Tipo Tipo and Syde bin Ali
come to Nyémbé, thence to Nsama's, cross Lualaba at Mpwéto's, follow
left bank of that river till they cross the next Lualaba, and so into
Lunda of Matiamvo. Much ivory may be obtained by this course, and it
shows enterprise. Syde bin Habib and Dugumbé will open up the Lualaba
this year, and I am hoping to enter the West Lualaba, or Young's River,
and if possible go up to Katanga. The Lord be my guide and helper. I
feel the want of medicine strongly, almost as much as the want of men.
_16th October, 1870._--Moenemgoi, the chief, came to tell me that
Monamyembo had sent five goats to Lohombo to get a charm to kill him.
"Would the English and Kolokolo (Mohamad) allow him to be killed while
they were here?" I said that it was a false report, but he believes it
firmly: Monamyembo sent his son to assure us that he was slandered, but
thus quarrels and bloodshed feuds arise!
The great want of the Manyuema is national life, of this they have none:
each headman is independent of every other. Of industry they have no
lack, and the villagers are orderly towards each other, but they go no
further. If a man of another district ventures among them, it is at his
peril; he is not regarded with more favour as a Manyuema than one of a
herd of buffaloes is by the rest: and he is almost sure to be killed.
Moenékuss had more wisdom than his countrymen: his eldest son went over
to Monamyembo (one of his subjects) and was there murdered by five spear
wounds. The old chief went and asked who had slain his son. All
professed ignorance, whilst some suggested "perhaps the Bahombo did it,"
so he went off to them, but they also denied it and laid it at the door
of Monamdenda, from whom he got the same reply when he arrived at his
place--no one knew, and so the old man died. This, though he was
heartbroken, was called witchcraft by Monamyembo. Eleven people were
murdered, and after this cruel man was punished he sent a goat with the
confession that he had killed Moenékuss' son. This son had some of the
father's wisdom: the others he never could get to act like men of sense.
_19th October, 1870._--Bambarré. The ringleading deserters sent Chuma to
say that they were going with the people of Mohamad (who left to-day),
to the Metamba, but I said that I had nought to say to them. They would
go now to the Metamba, whom, on deserting, they said they so much
feared, and they think nothing of having left me to go with only three
attendants, and get my feet torn to pieces in mud and sand. They
probably meant to go back to the women at Mamohela, who fed them in the
absence of their husbands. They were told by Mohamad that they must not
follow his people, and he gave orders to bind them, and send them back
if they did. They think that no punishment will reach them whatever they
do: they are freemen, and need not work or do anything but beg.
"English," they call themselves, and the Arabs fear them, though the
eagerness with which they engaged in slave-hunting showed them to be
genuine niggers.
_20th October, 1870._--The first heavy rain of this season fell
yesterday afternoon. It is observable that the permanent halt to which
the Manyuema have come is not affected by the appearance of superior men
among them: they are stationary, and improvement is unknown. Moenékuss
paid smiths to teach his sons, and they learned to work in copper and
iron, but he never could get them to imitate his own generous and
obliging deportment to others; he had to reprove them perpetually for
mean shortsightedness, and when he died he virtually left no successor,
for his sons are both narrowminded, mean, shortsighted creatures,
without dignity or honour. All they can say of their forefathers is that
they came from Lualaba up Luamo, then to Luelo, and thence here. The
name seems to mean "forest people"--_Manyuema_.
The party under Hassani crossed the Logumba at Kanyingéré's, and went
N. and N.N.E. They found the country becoming more and more mountainous,
till at last, approaching Moreré, it was perpetually up and down. They
slept at a village on the top, and could send for water to the bottom
only once, it took so much time to descend and ascend. The rivers all
flowed into Kereré or Lower Tanganyika. There is a hot fountain whose
water could not be touched nor stones stood upon. The Balégga were very
unfriendly, and collected in thousands. "We come to buy ivory," said
Hassani, "and if there is none we go away." "Nay," shouted they, "you
come to die here!" and then they shot with arrows; when musket-balls
were returned they fled, and would not come to receive the captives.
_25th October, 1870._--Bambarré. In this journey I have endeavoured to
follow with unswerving fidelity the line of duty. My course has been an
even one, turning neither to the right hand nor to the left, though my
route has been tortuous enough. All the hardship, hunger, and toil were
met with the full conviction that I was right in persevering to make a
complete work of the exploration of the sources of the Nile. Mine has
been a calm, hopeful endeavour to do the work that has been given me to
do, whether I succeed or whether I fail. The prospect of death in
pursuing what I knew to be right did not make me veer to one side or the
other. I had a strong presentiment during the first three years that I
should never live through the enterprise, but it weakened as I came near
to the end of the journey, and an eager desire to discover any evidence
of the great Moses having visited these parts bound me, spell-bound me,
I may say, for if I could bring to light anything to confirm the Sacred
Oracles, I should not grudge one whit all the labour expended. I have to
go down the Central Lualaba or Webb's Lake River, then up the Western or
Young's Lake River to Katanga head waters and then retire. I pray that
it may be to my native home.
Syde bin Habib, Dugumbé, Juma Merikano, Abdullah Masendi are coming in
with 700 muskets, and an immense store of beads, copper, &c. They will
cross Lualaba and trade west of it: I wait for them because they may
have letters for me.
_28th October, 1870._--Moenemokata, who has travelled further than most
Arabs, said to me, "If a man goes with a good-natured, civil tongue, he
may pass through the worst people in Africa unharmed:" this is true, but
time also is required: one must not run through a country, but give the
people time to become acquainted with you, and let their first fears
subside.
_29th October, 1870._--The Manyuema buy their wives from each other; a
pretty girl brings ten goats. I saw one brought home to-day; she came
jauntily with but one attendant, and her husband walking behind. They
stop five days, then go back and remain other five days at home: then
the husband fetches her again. Many are pretty, and have perfect forms
and limbs.
_31st October, 1870._--Monangoi, of Luamo, married to the sister of
Moenékuss, came some time ago to beg that Kanyingeré might be attacked
by Mohamad's people: no fault has he, "but he is bad." Monangoi, the
chief here, offered two tusks to effect the same thing; on refusal, he
sends the tusks to Katomba, and may get his countryman spoiled by him.
"He is bad," is all they can allege as a reason. Meantime this chief
here caught a slave who escaped, a prisoner from Moene-mokia's, and sold
him or her to Moene-mokia for thirty spears and some knives; when asked
about this captive, he said, "She died:" it was simply theft, but he
does not consider himself bad.
_2nd November, 1870._--The plain without trees that flanks the Lualaba
on the right bank, called Mbuga, is densely peopled, and the
inhabitants are all civil and friendly. From fifty to sixty large canoes
come over from the left bank daily to hold markets; these people too
"are good," but the dwellers in the Metamba or dense forest are
treacherous and murder a single person without scruple: the dead body is
easily concealed, while on the plain all would become aware of it.
I long with intense desire to move on and finish my work, I have also an
excessive wish to find anything that may exist proving the visit of the
great Moses and the ancient kingdom of Tirhaka, but I pray give me just
what pleases Thee my Lord, and make me submissive to Thy will in all
things.
I received information about Mr. Young's search trip up the Shiré and
Nyassa only in February 1870, and now take the first opportunity of
offering hearty thanks in a despatch to Her Majesty's Government, and
all concerned in kindly inquiring after my fate.
Musa and his companions were fair average specimens for heartlessness
and falsehood of the lower classes of Mohamadans in East Africa. When we
were on the Shiré we used to swing the ship into mid-stream every night,
in order to let the air which was put in motion by the water, pass from
end to end. Musa's brother-in-law stepped into the water one morning, in
order to swim off for a boat, and was seized by a crocodile, the poor
fellow held up his hand imploringly, but Musa and the rest allowed him
to perish. On my denouncing his heartlessness, Musa-replied, "Well, no
one tell him go in there." When at Senna a slave woman was seized by a
crocodile: four Makololo rushed in unbidden, and rescued her, though
they knew nothing about her: from long intercourse with both Johanna men
and Makololo I take these incidents as typical of the two races. Those
of mixed blood possess the vices of both races, and the virtues of
neither.
A gentleman of superior abilities[10] has devoted life and fortune to
elevate the Johanna men, but fears that they are "an unimprovable race."
The Sultan of Zanzibar, who knows his people better than any stranger,
cannot entrust any branch of his revenue to even the better class of his
subjects, but places all his customs, income, and money affairs, in the
hands of Banians from India, and his father did before him.
When the Mohamadan gentlemen of Zanzibar are asked "why their sovereign
places all his pecuniary affairs and fortune in the hands of aliens?"
they frankly avow that if he allowed any Arab to farm his customs, he
would receive nothing but a crop of lies.
Burton had to dismiss most of his people at Ujiji for dishonesty:
Speke's followers deserted at the first approach of danger. Musa fled in
terror on hearing a false report from a half-caste Arab about the
Mazitu, 150 miles distant, though I promised to go due west, and not
turn to the north till far past the beat of that tribe. The few
liberated slaves with whom I went on had the misfortune to be Mohamadan
slaves in boyhood, but did fairly till we came into close contact with
Moslems again. A black Arab was released from a twelve years' bondage by
Casembe, through my own influence and that of the Sultan's letter: we
travelled together for a time, and he sold the favours of his female
slaves to my people for goods which he perfectly well knew were stolen
from me. He received my four deserters, and when I had gone off to Lake
Bangweolo with only four attendants, the rest wished to follow, but he
dissuaded them by saying that I had gone into a country where there was
war: he was the direct cause of all my difficulties with these liberated
slaves, but judged by the East African Moslem standard, as he ought to
be, and not by ours, he isa very good man, and I did not think it
prudent to come to a rupture with the old blackguard.
"Laba" means in the Manyuema dialect "medicine;" a charm, "boganga:"
this would make Lualaba mean the River of Medicine or charms. Hassani
thought that it meant "great," because it seemed to mean flowing greatly
or grandly.
Casembe caught all the slaves that escaped from Mohamad, and placed them
in charge of Fungafunga; so there is little hope for fugitive slaves so
long as Casembe lives: this act is to the Arabs very good: he is very
sensible, and upright besides.
_3rd November, 1870._--Got a Kondohondo, the large double-billed
Hornbill (the _Buceros cristata_), Kakomira, of the Shiré, and the
Sassassa of Bambarré. It is good eating, and has fat of an orange tinge,
like that of the zebra; I keep the bill to make a spoon of it.
An ambassador at Stamboul or Constantinople was shown a hornbill spoon,
and asked if it were really the bill of the Phoenix. He replied that he
did not know, but he had a friend in London who knew all these sort of
things, so the Turkish ambassador in London brought the spoon to
Professor Owen. He observed something in the divergences of the fibres
of the horn which he knew before, and went off into the Museum of the
College of Surgeons, and brought a preserved specimen of this very bird.
"God is great--God is great," said the Turk, "this is the Phoenix of
which we have heard so often." I heard the Professor tell this at a
dinner of the London Hunterian Society in 1857.
There is no great chief in Manyuema or Balégga; all are petty headmen,
each of whom considers himself a chief: it is the ethnic state, with no
cohesion between the different portions of the tribe. Murder cannot be
punished except by a war, in which many fall, and the feud is made
worse, and transmitted to their descendants.
The heathen philosophers were content with mere guesses at the future
of the soul. The elder prophets were content with the Divine support in
life and in death. The later prophets advance further, as Isaiah: "Thy
dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake,
and sing, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs.
The earth also shall cast out her dead." This, taken with the sublime
spectacle of Hades in the fourteenth chapter, seems a forecast of the
future, but Jesus instructed Mary and her sister and Lazarus; and Martha
without hesitation spoke of the resurrection at the last day as a
familiar doctrine, far in advance of the Mosaic law in which she had
been reared.
The Arabs tell me that Monyungo, a chief, was sent for five years among
the Watuta to learn their language and ways, and he sent his two sons
and a daughter to Zanzibar to school. He kills many of his people, and
says they are so bad that if not killed they would murder strangers.
Once they were unruly, when he ordered some of them to give their huts
to Mohamad; on refusing, he put fire to them, and they soon called out,
"Let them alone; we will retire." He dresses like an Arab, and has ten
loaded guns at his sitting-place, four pistols, two swords, several
spears, and two bundles of the Batuta spears: he laments that his father
filed his teeth when he was young. The name of his very numerous people
is Bawungu, country Urungu: his other names are Ironga, Mohamu.
The Basango, on the other hand, consider their chief as a deity, and
fear to say aught wrong, lest he should hear them: they fear both before
him and when out of sight.
The father of Meréré never drank pombe or beer, and assigned as a reason
that a great man who had charge of people's lives should never become
intoxicated so as to do evil. Bangé he never smoked, but in council
smelled at a bunch of it, in order to make his people believe that it
had a great effect on him. Meréré drinks pombe freely, but never uses
bangé: he alone kills sheep; he is a lover of mutton and beef, but
neither goats nor fowls are touched by him.
_9th November, 1870._--I sent to Lohombo for dura, and planted some
Nyumbo. I long excessively to be away and finish my work by the two
Lacustrine rivers, Lualaba of Webb and Young, but wait only for Syde and
Dugumbé, who may have letters, and as I do not intend to return hither,
but go through Karagwé homewards, I should miss them altogether. I groan
and am in bitterness at the delay, but thus it is: I pray for help to do
what is right, but sorely am I perplexed, and grieved and mourn: I
cannot give up making a complete work of the exploration.
_10th November, 1870._--A party of Katomba's men arrived on their way to
Ujiji for carriers, they report that a foray was made S.W. of Mamohela
to recover four guns, which were captured from Katomba; three were
recovered, and ten of the Arab party slain. The people of Manyuema
fought very fiercely with arrows, and not till many were killed and
others mutilated would they give up the guns; they probably expected
this foray, and intended to fight till the last. They had not gone in
search of ivory while this was enacting, consequently Mohamad's men have
got the start of them completely, by going along Lualaba to Kasongo's,
and then along the western verge of the Metamba or forest to Loindé or
Rindi River. The last men sent took to fighting instead of trading, and
returned empty; the experience gained thus, and at the south-west, will
probably lead them to conclude that the Manyuema are not to be shot down
without reasonable cause. They have sown rice and maize at Mamohela, but
cannot trade now where they got so much ivory before. Five men were
killed at Rindi or Loindé, and one escaped: the reason of this outbreak
by men who have been so peaceable is not divulged, but anyone seeing the
wholesale plunder to which the houses and gardens were subject can
easily guess the rest. Mamohela's camp had several times been set on
fire at night by the tribes which suffered assault, but did not effect
all that was intended. The Arabs say that the Manyuema now understand
that every gunshot does not kill; the next thing they will learn will
be to grapple in close quarters in the forest, where their spears will
outmatch the guns in the hands of slaves, it will follow, too, that no
one will be able to pass through this country; this is the usual course
of Suaheli trading; it is murder and plunder, and each slave as he rises
in his owner's favour is eager to show himself a mighty man of valour,
by cold-blooded killing of his countrymen: if they can kill a
fellow-nigger, their pride boils up. The conscience is not enlightened
enough to cause uneasiness, and Islam gives less than the light of
nature.
I am grievously tired of living here. Mohamad is as kind as he can be,
but to sit idle or give up before I finish my work are both intolerable;
I cannot bear either, yet I am forced to remain by want of people.
_11th November, 1870._--I wrote to Mohamad bin Saleh at Ujiji for
letters and medicines to be sent in a box of China tea, which is half
empty: if he cannot get carriers for the long box itself, then he is to
send these, the articles of which I stand in greatest need.
The relatives of a boy captured at Monanyembé brought three goats to
redeem him: he is sick and emaciated; one goat was rejected. The boy
shed tears when he saw his grandmother, and the father too, when his
goat was rejected. "So I returned, and considered all the oppressions
that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were
oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their
oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter."--Eccles. iv. 1.
The relations were told either to bring the goat, or let the boy die;
this was hard-hearted. At Mamohela ten goats are demanded for a captive,
and given too; here three are demanded. "He that is higher than the
highest regardeth, and there be higher than they. Marvel not at the
matter."
I did not write to the coast, for I suspect that the Lewalé Syde bin
Salem Buraschid destroys my letters in order to quash the affair of
robbery by his man Saloom, he kept the other thief, Kamaels, by him for
the same purpose. Mohamad writes to Bin Saleh to say that I am here and
well; that I sent a large packet of letters in June 1869, with money,
and received neither an answer, nor my box from Unyanyembé, and this is
to be communicated to the Consul by a friend at Zanzibar. If I wrote, it
would only be to be burned; this is as far as I can see at present: the
friend who will communicate with the Consul is Mohamad bin Abdullah the
Wuzeer, Seyd Suleiman is the Lewalé of the Governor of Zanzibar,
Suleiman bin Ali or _Sheikh_ Suleiman the Secretary.
The Mamohela horde is becoming terrified, for every party going to trade
has lost three or four men, and in the last foray they saw that the
Manyuema can fight, for they killed ten men: they will soon refuse to go
among those whom they have forced to become enemies.
One of the Bazula invited a man to go with him to buy ivory; he went
with him, and on getting into the Zulas country the stranger was asked
by the guide if his gun killed men, and how it did it: whilst he was
explaining the matter he was stabbed to death. No one knows the reason
of this, but the man probably lost some of his relations elsewhere: this
is called murder without cause. When Syde and Dugumbé come, I hope to
get men and a canoe to finish my work among those who have not been
abused by Ujijians, and still retain their natural kindness of
disposition; none of the people are ferocious without cause; and the
sore experience which they gain from slaves with guns in their hands
usually ends in sullen hatred of all strangers.
The education of the world is a terrible one, and it has come down with
relentless rigour on Africa from the most remote times! What the African
will become after this awfully hard lesson is learned, is among the
future developments of Providence. When He, who is higher than the
highest, accomplishes His purposes, this will be a wonderful country,
and again something like what it was of old, when Zerah and Tirhaka
flourished, and were great.
The soil of Manyuema is clayey and remarkably fertile, the maize sown in
it rushes up to seed, and everything is in rank profusion if only it be
kept clear of weeds, but the Bambarré people are indifferent
cultivators, planting maize, bananas and plantains, and ground-nuts
only--no dura, a little cassava, no pennisetum, meleza, pumpkins,
melons, or nyumbo, though they all flourish in other districts: a few
sweet potatoes appear, but elsewhere all these native grains and roots
are abundant and cheap. No one would choose this as a residence, except
for the sake of Moenékuss. Oil is very dear, while at Lualaba a gallon
may be got for a single string of beads, and beans, ground-nuts,
cassava, maize, plantains in rank profusion. The Balégga, like the
Bambarré people, trust chiefly to plantains and ground-nuts; to play
with parrots is their great amusement.
_13th November, 1870._--The men sent over to Lohombo, about thirty miles
off, got two and a half loads of dura for a small goat, but the people
were unwilling to trade. "If we encourage Arabs to trade, they will come
and kill us with their guns," so they said, and it is true: the slaves
are overbearing, and when this is resented, then slaughter ensues. I got
some sweet plantains and a little oil, which is useful in cooking, and
with salt, passes for butter on bread, but all were unwilling to trade.
Monangoi was over near Lohombo, and heard of a large trading party
coming, and not far off; this may be Syde and Dugumbé, but reports are
often false. When Katomba's men were on the late foray, they were
completely overpowered, and compelled by the Manyuema to lay down their
guns and powder-horns, on pain of being instantly despatched by bow-shot:
they were mostly slaves, who could only draw the trigger and make a
noise. Katomba had to rouse out all the Arabs who could shoot, and when
they came they killed many, and gained the lost day; the Manyuema did
not kill anyone who laid down his gun and powder-horn. This is the
beginning of an end which was easily perceived when it became not a
trading, but a foray of a murdering horde of savages.
The foray above mentioned was undertaken by Katomba for twenty goats
from Kassessa!--ten men lost for twenty goats, but they will think twice
before they try another foray.
A small bird follows the "Sassassa" or _Buceros cristata_. It screams
and pecks at his tail till he discharges the contents of his bowels, and
then leaves him; it is called "play" by the natives, and by the Suaheli
"Utané" or "Msaha"--fun or wit; he follows other birds in the same
merciless way, screaming and pecking to produce purging; Manyuema call
this bird "Mambambwa." The buffalo bird warns its big friend of danger,
by calling "Chachacha," and the rhinoceros bird cries out, "Tye, tye,
tye, tye," for the same purpose. The Manyuema call the buffalo bird
"Mojela," and the Suaheli, "Chassa." A climbing plant in Africa is known
as "Ntulungopé," which mixed with flour of dura kills mice; they swarm
in our camp and destroy everything, but Ntulungopé is not near this.
The Arabs tell me that one dollar a day is ample for provisions for a
large family at Zanzibar; the food consists of wheat, rice, flesh of
goats or ox, fowls, bananas, milk, butter, sugar, eggs, mangoes, and
potatoes. Ambergris is boiled in milk and sugar, and used by the Hindoos
as a means of increasing blood in their systems; a small quantity is a
dose; it is found along the shore of the sea at Barawa or Brava, and at
Madagascar, as if the sperm whale got rid of it while alive. Lamoo or
Amu is wealthy, and well supplied with everything, as grapes, peaches,
wheat, cattle, camels, &c. The trade is chiefly with Madagascar: the
houses are richly furnished with furniture, dishes from India, &c. At
Garaganza there are hundreds of Arab traders, there too all fruits
abound, and the climate is healthy, from its elevation. Why cannot we
missionaries imitate these Arabs in living on heights?
_24th November, 1870._--Herpes is common at the plantations in Zanzibar,
but the close crowding of the houses in the town they think prevents it;
the lips and mouth are affected, and constipation sets in for three
days, all this is cured by going over to the mainland. Affections of the
lungs are healed by residence at Bariwa or Brava, and also on the
mainland. The Tafori of Halfani took my letters from Ujiji, but who the
person employed is I do not know.
_29th November, 1870._--_Safura_ is the name of the disease of clay or
earth eating, at Zanzibar; it often affects slaves, and the clay is said
to have a pleasant odour to the eaters, but it is not confined to
slaves, nor do slaves eat in order to kill themselves; it is a diseased
appetite, and rich men who have plenty to eat are often subject to it.
The feet swell, flesh is lost, and the face looks haggard; the patient
can scarcely walk for shortness of breath and weakness, and he continues
eating till he dies. Here many slaves are now diseased with safura; the
clay built in walls is preferred, and Manyuema women when pregnant often
eat it. The cure is effected by drastic purges composed as follows: old
vinegar of cocoa-trees is put into a large basin, and old slag red-hot
cast into it, then "Moneyé," asafoetida, half a rupee in weight,
copperas, sulph. ditto: a small glass of this, fasting morning and
evening, produces vomiting and purging of black dejections, this is
continued for seven days; no meat is to be eaten, but only old rice or
dura and water; a fowl in course of time: no fish, butter, eggs, or
beef for two years on pain of death. Mohamad's father had skill in the
cure, and the above is his prescription. Safura is thus a disease _per
se_; it is common in Manyuema, and makes me in a measure content to wait
for my medicines; from the description, inspissated bile seems to be the
agent of blocking up the gall-duct and duodenum and the clay or earth
may be nature trying to clear it away: the clay appears unchanged in the
stools, and in large quantity. A Banyamwezi carrier, who bore an
enormous load of copper, is now by safura scarcely able to walk; he took
it at Lualaba where food is abundant, and he is contented with his lot.
Squeeze a finger-nail, and if no blood appears beneath it, safura is the
cause of the bloodlessness.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] A precisely similar epidemic broke out at the settlement at
Magomero, in which fifty-four of the slaves liberated by Dr.
Livingstone and Bishop Mackenzie died. This disease is by far the most
fatal scourge the natives suffer from, not even excepting small-pox.
It is common throughout Tropical Africa. We believe that some
important facts have recently been brought to light regarding it, and
we can only trust sincerely that the true nature of the disorder will
be known in time, so that it may be successfully treated: at present
change of air and high feeding on a meat diet are the best remedies we
know.--ED.
[9] Dr. Livingstone never ceased to impress upon Europeans the utter
necessity of living on the high table-lands of the interior, rather
than on the sea-board or the banks of the great arterial rivers. Men
may escape death in an unhealthy place, but the system is enfeebled
and energy reduced to the lowest ebb. Under such circumstances life
becomes a misery, and important results can hardly be looked for when
one's vitality is preoccupied in wrestling with the unhealthiness of
the situation, day and night.--ED.
[10] Mr. John Sunley, of Pomoné, Johanna, an island in the Comoro
group.