The Chitoka or market gathering. The broken watch. Improvises
ink. Builds a new house at Nyañgwé on the bank of the Lualaba.
Marketing. Cannibalism. Lake Kamalondo. Dreadful effect of
slaving. News of country across the Lualaba. Tiresome
frustration. The Bakuss. Feeble health. Busy scene at market.
Unable to procure canoes. Disaster to Arab canoes. Rapids in
Lualaba. Project for visiting Lake Lincoln and the Lomamé.
Offers large reward for canoes and men. The slave's mistress.
Alarm of natives at market. Fiendish slaughter of women by
Arabs. Heartrending scene. Death on land and in the river.
Tagamoio's assassinations. Continued slaughter across the river.
Livingstone becomes desponding.
_1st April, 1871._--The banks are well peopled, but one must see the
gathering at the market, of about 3000, chiefly women, to judge of their
numbers. They hold market one day, and then omit attendance here for
three days, going to other markets at other points in the intervals. It
is a great institution in Manyuema: numbers seem to inspire confidence,
and they enforce justice for each other. As a rule, all prefer to buy
and sell in the market, to doing business anywhere else; if one says,
"Come, sell me that fowl or cloth," the reply is, "Come to the
'Chitoka,' or marketplace."
_2nd April, 1871._--To-day the market contained over a thousand people,
carrying earthen pots and cassava, grass cloth, fishes, and fowls; they
were alarmed at my coming among them and were ready to flee, many stood
afar off in suspicion; some came from the other side of the river with
their goods. To-morrow market is held up river.
_3rd April, 1871._--I tried to secure a longitude by fixing a weight on
the key of the watch, and so helping it on: I will try this in a quiet
place to-morrow. The people all fear us, and they have good reason for
it in the villainous conduct of many of the blackguard half-castes which
alarms them: I cannot get a canoe, so I wait to see what will turn up.
The river is said to overflow all its banks annually, as the Nile does
further down. I sounded across yesterday. Near the bank it is 9 feet,
the rest 15 feet, and one cast in the middle was 20 feet: between the
islands 12 feet, and 9 feet again in shore: it is a mighty river truly.
I took distances and altitudes alternately with a bullet for a weight on
the key of the chronometer, taking successive altitudes of the sun and
distances of the moon. Possibly the first and last altitudes may give
the rate of going, and the frequent distances between may give
approximate longitude.
_4th April, 1871._--Moon, the fourth of the Arabs, will appear in three
or four days. This will be a guide in ascertaining the day of observing
the lunars, with the weight.
The Arabs ask many questions about the Bible, and want to know how many
prophets have appeared, and probably say that they believe in them all;
while we believe all but reject Mohamad. It is easy to drive them into a
corner by questioning, as they don't know whither the inquiries lead,
and they are not offended when their knowledge is, as it were, admitted.
When asked how many false prophets are known, they appeal to my
knowledge, and evidently never heard of Balaam, the son of Beor, or of
the 250 false prophets of Jezebel and Ahab, or of the many lying
prophets referred to in the Bible.
_6th April, 1871._--Ill from drinking two cups of very sweet malofu, or
beer, made from bananas: I shall touch it no more.
_7th April, 1871._--Made this ink with the seeds of a plant, called by
the Arabs Zugifaré; it is known in India, and is used here by the
Manyuema to dye virambos and ornament faces and heads.[14] I sent my
people over to the other side to cut wood to build a house for me; the
borrowed one has mud walls and floors, which are damp, foul, smelling,
and unwholesome. I shall have grass walls, and grass and reeds on the
floor of my own house; the free ventilation will keep it sweet. This is
the season called Masika, the finishing rains, which we have in large
quantities almost every night, and I could scarcely travel even if I had
a canoe; still it is trying to be kept back by suspicion, and by the
wickedness of the wicked.
Some of the Arabs try to be kind, and send cooked food every day: Abed
is the chief donor. I taught him to make a mosquito-curtain of thin
printed calico, for he had endured the persecution of these insects
helplessly, except by sleeping on a high stage, when they were unusually
bad. The Manyuema often bring evil on themselves by being untrustworthy.
For instance, I paid one to bring a large canoe to cross the Lualaba, he
brought a small one, capable of carrying three only, and after wasting
some hours we had to put off crossing till next day.
_8th April, 1871._--Every headman of four or five huts is a mologhwé, or
chief, and glories in being called so. There is no political cohesion.
The Ujijian slavery is an accursed system; but it must be admitted that
the Manyuema, too, have faults, the result of ignorance of other people:
their isolation has made them as unconscious of danger in dealing with
the cruel stranger, as little dogs in the presence of lions. Their
refusal to sell or lend canoes for fear of blame by each other will be
ended by the party of Dugumbé, which has ten headmen, taking them by
force; they are unreasonable and bloody-minded towards each other: every
Manyuema would like every other headman slain; they are subjected to
bitter lessons and sore experience. Abed went over to Mologhwé Kahembé
and mixed blood with him; he was told that two large canoes were
hollowed out, and nearly ready to be brought for sale; if this can be
managed peaceably it is a great point gained, and I may get one at our
Arabs' price, which may be three or four times the native price. There
is no love lost among the three Arabs here.
_9th April, 1871._--Cut wood for my house. The Loéki is said by slaves
who have come thence to be much larger than the Lualaba, but on the
return of Abed's people from the west we shall obtain better
information.
_10th April, 1871._--Chitoka, or market, to-day. I counted upwards of
700 passing my door. With market women it seems to be a pleasure of life
to haggle and joke, and laugh and cheat: many come eagerly, and retire
with careworn faces; many are beautiful, and many old; all carry very
heavy loads of dried cassava and earthen pots, which they dispose of
very cheaply for palm-oil, fish, salt, pepper, and relishes for their
food. The men appear in gaudy lambas, and carry little save their iron
wares, fowls, grass cloth, and pigs.
Bought the fish with the long snouts: very good eating.
_12th April, 1871._--New moon last night; fourth Arab month: I am at a
loss for the day of the month. My new house is finished; a great
comfort, for the other was foul and full of vermin: bugs (Tapazi, or
ticks), that follow wherever Arabs go, made me miserable, but the Arabs
are insensible to them; Abed alone had a mosquito-curtain, and he never
could praise it enough. One of his remarks is, "If slaves think you
fear them, they will climb over you." I clothed mine for nothing, and
ever after they have tried to ride roughshod over me, and mutiny on
every occasion!
_14th April, 1871._--Kahembé came over, and promises to bring a canoe;
but he is not to be trusted; he presented Abed with two slaves, and is
full of fair promises about the canoe, which he sees I am anxious to
get. They all think that my buying a canoe means carrying war to the
left bank; and now my Banian slaves encourage the idea: "He does not
wish slaves nor ivory," say they, "but a canoe, in order to kill
Manyuema." Need it be wondered at that people, who had never heard of
strangers or white men before I popped down among them, believed the
slander? The slaves were aided in propagating the false accusation by
the half-caste Ujijian slaves at the camp. Hassani fed them every day;
and, seeing that he was a bigoted Moslem, they equalled him in prayers
in his sitting-place seven or eight times a day! They were adepts at
lying, and the first Manyuema words they learned were used to propagate
falsehood.
I have been writing part of a despatch, in case of meeting people from
the French settlement on the Gaboon at Loéki, but the canoe affair is
slow and tedious: the people think only of war: they are a bloody-minded
race.
_15th April, 1871._--The Manyuema tribe, called Bagenya, occupy the left
bank, opposite Nyañgwé. A spring of brine rises in the bed of a river,
named Lofubu, and this the Bayenga inspissate by boiling, and sell the
salt at market. The Lomamé is about ten days west of Lualaba, and very
large; the confluence of Lomamé, or Loéki, is about six days down below
Nyañgwé by canoe; the river Nyanzé is still less distant.
_16th April, 1871._--On the Nyanzé stands the principal town and market
of the chief, Zurampela. Rashid visited him, and got two slaves on
promising to bring a war-party from Abed against Chipangé, who by
similar means obtained the help of Salem Mokadam to secure eighty-two
captives: Rashid will leave this as soon as possible, sell the slaves,
and leave Zurampela to find out the fraud! This deceit, which is an
average specimen of the beginning of half-caste dealings, vitiates his
evidence of a specimen of cannibalism which he witnessed; but it was
after a fight that the victims were cut up, and this agrees with the
fact that the Manyuema eat only those who are killed in war. Some have
averred that captives, too, are eaten, and a slave is bought with a goat
to be eaten; but this I very strongly doubt.
_17th April, 1871._--Rainy.
_18th April, 1871._--I found that the Lepidosiren is brought to market
in pots with water in them, also white ants roasted, and the large
snail, achetina, and a common snail: the Lepidosiren is called
"_sembé_."
Abed went a long way to examine a canoe, but it was still further, and
he turned back.
_19th April, 1871._--Dreary waiting, but Abed proposes to join and trade
along with me: this will render our party stronger, and he will not
shoot people in my company; we shall hear Katomba's people's story too.
_20th April, 1871._--Katomba a chief was to visit us yesterday, but
failed, probably through fear.
The chief Mokandira says that Loéki is small where it joins Lualaba, but
another, which they call Lomamé, is very much larger, and joins Lualaba
too: rapids are reported on it.
_21st April, 1871._--A common salutation reminds me of the Bechuana's "U
le hatsi" (thou art on earth); "Ua tala" (thou lookest); "Ua boka," or
byoka (thou awakest); "U ri ho" (thou art here); "U li koni" (thou art
here)--about pure "Sichuana," and "Nya," No, is identical. The men here
deny that cannibalism is common: they eat only those killed in war, and,
it seems, in revenge, for, said Mokandira, "the meat is not nice; it
makes one dream of the dead man." Some west of Lualaba eat even those
bought for the purpose of a feast; but I am not quite positive on this
point: all agree in saying that human flesh is saltish, and needs but
little condiment. And yet they are a fine-looking race; I would back a
company of Manyuema men to be far superior in shape of head and
generally in physical form too against the whole Anthropological
Society. Many of the women are very light-coloured and very pretty; they
dress in a kilt of many folds of gaudy lambas.
_22nd April, 1871._--In Manyuema, here Kusi, Kunzi, is north; Mhuru,
south; Nkanda, west, or other side Lualaba; Mazimba, east. The people
are sometimes confused in name by the directions; thus Bankanda is only
"the other side folk." The Bagenya Chimburu came to visit me, but I did
not see him, nor did I know Moené Nyañgwé till too late to do him
honour; in fact, every effort was made to keep me in the dark while the
slavers of Ujiji made all smooth for themselves to get canoes. All
chiefs claim the privilege of shaking hands, that is, they touch the
hand held out with their palm, then clap two hands together, then touch
again, and clap again, and the ceremony concludes: this frequency of
shaking hands misled me when the great man came.
_24th April, 1871._--Old feuds lead the Manyuema to entrap the traders
to fight: they invite them to go to trade, and tell them that at such a
village plenty of ivory lies; then when the trader goes with his people,
word is sent that he is coming to fight, and he is met by enemies, who
compel him to defend himself by their onslaught. We were nearly
entrapped in this way by a chief pretending to guide us through the
country near Basilañgé; he would have landed us in a fight, but we
detected his drift, changed our course so as to mislead any messengers
he might have sent, and dismissed him with some sharp words.
Lake Kamolondo is about twenty-five miles broad. The Lufira at Katanga
is a full bow-shot wide; it goes into Kamolondo. Chakomo is east of
Lufira Junction. Kikonzé Kalanza is on the west of it, and Mkana, or the
underground dwellings, still further west: some are only two days from
Katanga. The Chorwé people are friendly. Kamolondo is about ten days
distant from Katanga.
_25th April, 1871._--News came that four men sent by Abed to buy ivory
had been entrapped, and two killed. The rest sent for aid to punish the
murderers, and Abed wished me to send my people to bring the remaining
two men back. I declined; because, no matter what charges I gave, my
Banian slaves would be sure to shed human blood. We can go nowhere but
the people of the country ask us to kill their fellow-men, nor can they
be induced to go to villages three miles off, because there, in all
probability, live the murderers of fathers, uncles, or grandfathers--a
dreadful state truly. The traders are as bloodthirsty every whit as the
Manyuema, where no danger exists, but in most cases where the people can
fight they are as civil as possible. At Moeré Mpanda's, the son of
Casembe, Mohamad Bogharib left a debt of twenty-eight slaves and eight
bars of copper, each seventy pounds, and did not dare to fire a shot
because they saw they had met their match: here his headmen are said to
have bound the headmen of villages till a ransom was paid in tusks! Had
they only gone three days further to the Babisa, to whom Moene-mokaia's
men went, they would have got fine ivory at two rings a tusk, while they
had paid from ten to eighteen. Here it is as sad a tale to tell as was
that of the Manganja scattered and peeled by the Waiyau agents of the
Portuguese of Tétte. The good Lord look on it.
_26th April, 1871._--Chitovu called nine slaves bought by Abed's people
from the Kuss country, west of the Lualaba, and asked them about their
tribes and country for me. One, with his upper front teeth extracted,
was of the tribe Maloba, on the other side of the Loéki, another comes
from the River Lombadzo, or Lombazo, which is west of Loéki (this may be
another name for the Lomamé), the country is called Nanga, and the tribe
Noñgo, chief Mpunzo. The Malobo tribe is under the chiefs Yunga and
Lomadyo. Another toothless boy said that he came from the Lomamé: the
upper teeth extracted seem to say that the tribe have cattle; the
knocking out the teeth is in imitation of the animals they almost
worship. No traders had ever visited them; this promises ivory to the
present visitors: all that is now done with the ivory there is to make
rude blowing horns and bracelets.
_27th April, 1871._--Waiting wearily and anxiously; we cannot move
people who are far off and make them come near with news. Even the
owners of canoes say, "Yes, yes; we shall bring them," but do not stir;
they doubt us, and my slaves increase the distrust by their lies to the
Manyuema.
_28th April, 1871._--Abed sent over Manyuema to buy slaves for him and
got a pretty woman for 300 cowries and a hundred strings of beads; she
can be sold again to an Arab for much more in ivory. Abed himself gave
$130 for a woman-cook, and she fled to me when put in chains for some
crime: I interceded, and she was loosed: I advised her not to offend
again, because I could not beg for her twice.
Hassani with ten slaves dug at the malachite mines of Katanga for three
months, and gained a hundred frasilahs of copper, or 3500 lbs. We hear
of a half-caste reaching the other side of Lomamé, probably from Congo
or Ambriz, but the messengers had not seen him.
_1st May, 1871._--Katomba's people arrived from the Babisa, where they
sold all their copper at two rings for a tusk, and then found that
abundance of ivory still remained: door-posts and house-pillars had been
made of ivory which now was rotten. The people of Babisa kill elephants
now and bring tusks by the dozen, till the traders get so many that in
this case they carried them by three relays. They dress their hair like
the Bashukulompo, plaited into upright basket helmets: no quarrel
occurred, and great kindness was shown to the strangers. A river having
very black water, the Nyengeré, flows into Lualaba from the west, and it
becomes itself very large: another river or water, Shamikwa, falls into
it from the south-west, and it becomes still larger: this is probably
the Lomamé. A short-horned antelope is common.
_3rd May, 1871._--Abed informs me that a canoe will come in five days.
Word was sent after me by the traders south of us not to aid me, as I
was sure to die where I was going: the wish is father to the thought!
Abed was naturally very anxious to get first into the Babisa ivory
market, yet he tried to secure a canoe for me before he went, but he was
too eager, and a Manyuema man took advantage of his desire, and came
over the river and said that he had one hollowed out, and he wanted
goats and beads to hire people to drag it down to the water. Abed on my
account advanced five goats, a thousand cowries, and many beads, and
said that he would tell me what he wished in return: this was debt, but
I was so anxious to get away I was content to take the canoe on any
terms. However, it turned out that the matter on the part of the headman
whom Abed trusted was all deception: he had no canoe at all, but knew of
one belonging to another man, and wished to get Abed and me to send men
to see it--in fact, to go with their guns, and he would manage to
embroil them with the real owner, so that some old feud should be
settled to his satisfaction. On finding that I declined to be led into
his trap, he took a female slave to the owner, and on his refusal to
sell the canoe for her, it came out that he had adopted a system of
fraud to Abed. He had victimized Abed, who was naturally inclined to
believe his false statements, and get off to the ivory market. His
people came from the Kuss country in the west with sixteen tusks, and a
great many slaves bought and not murdered for. The river is rising fast,
and bringing down large quantities of aquatic grass, duckweed, &c. The
water is a little darker in colour than at Cairo. People remove and
build their huts on the higher forest lands adjacent. Many white birds
(the paddy bird) appear, and one Ibis religiosa; they pass north.
The Bakuss live near Lomamé; they were very civil and kind to the
strangers, but refused passage into the country. At my suggestion, the
effect of a musket-shot was shown on a goat: they thought it
supernatural, looked up to the clouds, and offered to bring ivory to buy
the charm that could draw lightning down. When it was afterwards
attempted to force a path, they darted aside on seeing the Banyamwezi's
followers putting the arrows into the bowstrings, but stood in mute
amazement looking at the guns, which mowed them down in large numbers.
They thought that muskets were the insignia of chieftainship. Their
chiefs all go with a long straight staff of rattan, having a quantity of
black medicine smeared on each end, and no weapons in their hands: they
imagined that the guns were carried as insignia of the same kind; some,
jeering in the south, called them big tobacco-pipes; they have no fear
on seeing a gun levelled at them.
They use large and very long spears very expertly in the long grass and
forest of their country, and are terrible fellows among themselves, and
when they become acquainted with firearms will be terrible to the
strangers who now murder them. The Manyuema say truly, "If it were not
for your guns, not one of you would ever return to your country." The
Bakuss cultivate more than the southern Manyuema, especially Pennisetum
and dura, or _Holeus sorghum;_ common coffee is abundant, and they use
it, highly scented with vanilla, which must be fertilized by insects;
they hand round cups of it after meals. Pineapples too are abundant.
They bathe regularly twice a day: their houses are of two storeys. The
women have rather compressed heads, but very pleasant countenances; and
ancient Egyptian, round, wide-awake eyes. Their numbers are prodigious;
the country literally swarms with people, and a chief's town extends
upwards of a mile. But little of the primeval forest remains. Many large
pools of standing water have to be crossed, but markets are held every
eight or ten miles from each other, and to these the people come from
far, for the market is as great an institution as shopping is with the
civilized. Illicit intercourse is punished by the whole of the
offender's family being enslaved.
The Bakuss smelt copper from the ore and sell it very cheaply to the
traders for beads. The project of going in canoes now appeared to the
half-castes so plausible, that they all tried to get the Bagenya on the
west bank to lend them, and all went over to mix blood and make friends
with the owners, then all slandered me as not to be trusted, as they
their blood-relations were; and my slaves mutinied and would go no
further. They mutinied three times here, and Hassani harboured them till
I told him that, if an English officer harboured an Arab slave he would
be compelled by the Consul to refund the price, and I certainly would
not let him escape; this frightened him; but I was at the mercy of
slaves who had no honour, and no interest in going into danger.
_16th May, 1871._--Abed gave me a frasilah of Matunda beads, and I
returned fourteen fathoms of fine American sheeting, but it was an
obligation to get beads from one whose wealth depended on exchanging
beads for ivory.
_16th May, 1871._--At least 3000 people at market to-day, and my going
among them has taken away the fear engendered by the slanders of slaves
and traders, for all are pleased to tell me the names of the fishes and
other things. Lepidosirens are caught by the neck and lifted out of the
pot to show their fatness. Camwood ground and made into flat cakes for
sale and earthen balls, such as are eaten in the disease safura or
earth-eating, are offered and there is quite a roar of voices in the
multitude, haggling. It was pleasant to be among them compared to being
with the slaves, who were all eager to go back to Zanzibar: some told me
that they were slaves, and required a free man to thrash them, and
proposed to go back to Ujiji for one. I saw no hope of getting on with
them, and anxiously longed for the arrival of Dugumbé; and at last Abed
overheard them plotting my destruction. "If forced to go on, they would
watch till the first difficulty arose with the Manyuema, then fire off
their guns, run away, and as I could not run as fast as they, leave me
to perish." Abed overheard them speaking loudly, and advised me strongly
not to trust myself to them any more, as they would be sure to cause my
death. He was all along a sincere friend, and I could not but take his
words as well-meant and true.
_18th May, 1871._--Abed gave me 200 cowries and some green beads. I was
at the point of disarming my slaves and driving them away, when they
relented, and professed to be willing to go anywhere; so, being eager to
finish my geographical work, I said I would run the risk of their
desertion, and gave beads to buy provisions for a start north. I cannot
state how much I was worried by these wretched slaves, who did much to
annoy me, with the sympathy of all the slaving crew. When baffled by
untoward circumstances the bowels plague me too, and discharges of blood
relieve the headache, and are as safety-valves to the system. I was
nearly persuaded to allow Mr. Syme to operate on me when last in
England, but an old friend told me that his own father had been operated
on by the famous John Hunter, and died in consequence at the early age
of forty. His advice saved me, for this complaint has been my
safety-valve.
The Zingifuré, or red pigment, is said to be a cure for itch common
among both natives and Arab slaves and Arab children.
_20th May, 1871._--Abed called Kalonga the headman, who beguiled him as
I soon found, and delivered the canoe he had bought formally to me, and
went off down the Lualaba on foot to buy the Babisa ivory. I was to
follow in the canoe and wait for him in the River Luéra, but soon I
ascertained that the canoe was still in the forest, and did not belong
to Kalonga. On demanding back the price he said, "Let Abed come and I
will give it to him;" then when I sent to force him to give up the
goods, all his village fled into the forest: I now tried to buy one
myself from the Bagenya, but there was no chance; so long as the
half-caste traders needed any they got all--nine large canoes, and I
could not secure one.
_24th May, 1871._--The market is a busy scene--everyone is in dead
earnest--little time is lost in friendly greetings; vendors of fish run
about with potsherds full of snails or small fishes or young _Clarias
capensis_ smoke-dried and spitted on twigs, or other relishes to
exchange for cassava roots dried after being steeped about three days in
water--potatoes, vegetables, or grain, bananas, flour, palm-oil, fowls,
salt, pepper; each is intensely eager to barter food for relishes, and
makes strong assertions as to the goodness or badness of everything: the
sweat stands in beads on their faces--cocks crow briskly, even when
slung over the shoulder with their heads hanging down, and pigs squeal.
Iron knobs, drawn out at each end to show the goodness of the metal, are
exchanged for cloth of the Muabé palm. They have a large funnel of
basket-work below the vessel holding the wares, and slip the goods down
if they are not to be seen. They deal fairly, and when differences arise
they are easily settled by the men interfering or pointing to me: they
appeal to each other, and have a strong sense of natural justice. With
so much food changing hands amongst the three thousand attendants much
benefit is derived; some come from twenty to twenty-five miles. The men
flaunt about in gaudy-coloured lambas of many folded kilts--the women
work hardest--the potters slap and ring their earthenware all round, to
show that there is not a single flaw in them. I bought two finely shaped
earthen bottles of porous earthenware, to hold a gallon each, for one
string of beads, the women carry huge loads of them in their funnels
above the baskets, strapped to the shoulders and forehead, and their
hands are full besides; the roundness of the vessels is wonderful,
seeing no machine is used: no slaves could be induced to carry half as
much as they do willingly. It is a scene of the finest natural acting
imaginable. The eagerness with which all sorts of assertions are
made--the eager earnestness with which apparently all creation, above,
around, and beneath, is called on to attest the truth of what they
allege--and then the intense surprise and withering scorn cast on those
who despise their goods: but they show no concern when the buyers turn
up their noses at them. Little girls run about selling cups of water for
a few small fishes to the half-exhausted wordy combatants. To me it was
an amusing scene. I could not understand the words that flowed off their
glib tongues, but the gestures were too expressive to need
interpretation.
_27th May, 1871._--Hassani told me that since he had come, no Manyuema
had ever presented him with a single mouthful of food, not even a potato
or banana, and he had made many presents. Going from him into the market
I noticed that one man presented a few small fishes, another a sweet
potato and a piece of cassava, and a third two small fishes, but the
Manyuema are not a liberal people. Old men and women who remained in the
half-deserted villages we passed through in coming north, often ran
forth to present me with bananas, but it seemed through fear; when I sat
down and ate the bananas they brought beer of bananas, and I paid for
all. A stranger in the market had ten human under jaw-bones hung by a
string over his shoulder: on inquiry he professed to have killed and
eaten the owners, and showed with his knife how he cut up his victim.
When I expressed disgust he and others laughed. I see new faces every
market-day. Two nice girls were trying to sell their venture, which was
roasted white ants, called "Gumbé."
_30th May, 1871._--The river fell four inches during the last four days;
the colour is very dark brown, and large quantities of aquatic plants
and trees float down. Mologhwé, or chief Ndambo, came and mixed blood
with the intensely bigoted Moslem, Hassani: this is to secure the nine
canoes. He next went over to have more palaver about them, and they do
not hesitate to play me false by detraction. The Manyuema, too, are
untruthful, but very honest; we never lose an article by them: fowls and
goats are untouched, and if a fowl is lost, we know that it has been
stolen by an Arab slave. When with Mohamad Bogharib, we had all to keep
our fowls at the Manyuema villages to prevent them being stolen by our
own slaves, and it is so here. Hassani denies complicity with them, but
it is quite apparent that he and others encourage them in mutiny.
_5th June, 1871._--The river rose again six inches and fell three. Rain
nearly ceased, and large masses of fleecy clouds float down here from
the north-west, with accompanying cold.
_7th June, 1871._--I fear that I must march on foot, but the mud is
forbidding.
_11th June, 1871._--New moon last night, and I believe Dugumbé will
leave Kasonga's to-day. River down three inches.
_14th June, 1871._--Hassani got nine canoes, and put sixty-three persons
in three; I cannot get one. Dugumbé reported near, but detained by his
divination, at which he is an expert; hence his native name is
"Molembalemba"--"writer, writing."
_16th June, 1871._--The high winds and drying of soap and sugar tell
that the rains are now over in this part.
_18th June, 1871._--Dugumbé arrived, but passed to Moené Nyañgwé's, and
found that provisions were so scarce, and dear there, as compared with
our market, that he was fain to come back to us. He has a large party
and 500 guns. He is determined to go into new fields of trade, and has
all his family with him, and intends to remain six or seven years,
sending regularly to Ujiji for supplies of goods.
_20th June, 1871._--Two of Dugumbé's party brought presents of four
large fundos of beads each. All know that my goods are unrighteously
detained by Shereef and they show me kindness, which I return by some
fine calico which I have. Among the first words Dugumbé said to me were,
"Why your own slaves are your greatest enemies: I will buy you a canoe,
but the Banian slaves' slanders have put all the Manyuema against you."
I knew that this was true, and that they were conscious of the sympathy
of the Ujijian traders, who hate to have me here.
_24th June, 1871._--Hassani's canoe party in the river were foiled by
narrows, after they had gone down four days. Rocks jut out on both
sides, not opposite, but alternate to each other; and the vast mass of
water of the great river jammed in, rushes round one promontory on to
another, and a frightful whirlpool is formed in which the first canoe
went and was overturned, and five lives lost. Had I been there, mine
would have been the first canoe, for the traders would have made it a
point of honour to give me the precedence (although actually to make a
feeler of me), while they looked on in safety. The men in charge of
Hassani's canoes were so frightened by this accident that they at once
resolved to return, though they had arrived in the country of the ivory:
they never looked to see whether the canoes could be dragged past the
narrows, as anyone else would have done. No better luck could be
expected after all their fraud and duplicity in getting the canoes; no
harm lay in obtaining them, but why try to prevent me getting one?
_27th June, 1871._--In answer to my prayers for preservation, I was
prevented going down to the narrows, formed by a dyke of mountains
cutting across country, and jutting a little ajar, which makes the water
in an enormous mass wheel round behind it helplessly, and if the canoes
reach the rock against which the water dashes, they are almost certainly
overturned. As this same dyke probably cuts across country to Lomamé, my
plan of going to the confluence and then up won't do, for I should have
to go up rapids there. Again, I was prevented from going down Luamo, and
on the north of its confluence another cataract mars navigation in the
Lualaba, and my safety is thereby secured. We don't always know the
dangers that we are guided past.
_28th June, 1871._--The river has fallen two feet: dark brown water, and
still much wreck floating down.
Eight villages are in flames, set fire to by a slave of Syde bin Habib,
called Manilla, who thus shows his blood friends of the Bagenya how well
he can fight against the Mohombo, whose country the Bagenya want! The
stragglers of this camp are over on the other side helping Manilla, and
catching fugitives and goats. The Bagenya are fishermen by taste and
profession, and sell the produce of their nets and weirs to those who
cultivate the soil, at the different markets. Manilla's foray is for an
alleged debt of three slaves, and ten villages are burned.
_30th June, 1871._--Hassani pretended that he was not aware of Manilla's
foray, and when I denounced it to Manilla himself, he showed that he was
a slave, by cringing and saying nothing except something about the debt
of three slaves.
_1st July, 1871._--I made known my plan to Dugumbé, which was to go
west with his men to Lomamé, then by his aid buy a canoe and go up Lake
Lincoln to Katanga and the fountains, examine the inhabited caves, and
return here, if he would let his people bring me goods from Ujiji; he
again referred to all the people being poisoned in mind against me, but
was ready to do everything in his power for my success. My own people
persuaded the Bagenya not to sell a canoe: Hassani knows it all, but
swears that he did not join in the slander, and even points up to Heaven
in attestation of innocence of all, even of Manilla's foray. Mohamadans
are certainly famous as liars, and the falsehood of Mohamad has been
transmitted to his followers in a measure unknown in other religions.
_2nd July, 1871._--The upper stratum of clouds is from the north-west,
the lower from the south-east; when they mix or change places the
temperature is much lowered, and fever ensues. The air evidently comes
from the Atlantic, over the low swampy lands of the West Coast. Morning
fogs show that the river is warmer than the air.
_4th July, 1871._--Hassani off down river in high dudgeon at the cowards
who turned after reaching the ivory country. He leaves them here and
goes himself, entirely on land. I gave him hints to report himself and
me to Baker, should he meet any of his headmen.
_5th July, 1871._--The river has fallen three feet in all, that is one
foot since 27th June.
I offer Dugumbé $2000, or 400_l._, for ten men to replace the Banian
slaves, and enable me to go up the Lomamé to Katanga and the underground
dwellings, then return and go up by Tanganyika to Ujiji, and I added
that I would give all the goods I had at Ujiji besides: he took a few
days to consult with his associates.
_6th July, 1871._--Mokandira, and other headmen, came with a present of
a pig and a goat on my being about to depart west. I refused to receive
them till my return, and protested against the slander of my wishing to
kill people, which they all knew, but did not report to me: this refusal
and protest will ring all over the country.
_7th July, 1871._--I was annoyed by a woman frequently beating a slave
near my house, but on my reproving her she came and apologized. I told
her to speak softly to her slave, as she was now the only mother the
girl had; the slave came from beyond Lomamé, and was evidently a lady in
her own land; she calls her son Mologwé, or chief, because his father
was a headman.
Dugumbé advised my explaining my plan of procedure to the slaves, and he
evidently thinks that I wish to carry it towards them with a high hand.
I did explain all the exploration I intended to do: for instance, the
fountains of Herodotus--beyond Katanga--Katanga itself, and the
underground dwellings, and then return. They made no remarks, for they
are evidently pleased to have me knuckling down to them; when pressed on
the point of proceeding, they say they will only go with Dugumbé's men
to the Lomamé, and then return. River fallen three inches since the 5th.
_10th July, 1871._--Manyuema children do not creep, as European children
do, on their knees, but begin by putting forward one foot and using one
knee. Generally a Manyuema child uses both feet and both hands, but
never both knees: one Arab child did the same; he never crept, but got
up on both feet, holding on till he could walk.
New moon last night of seventh Arab month.
_11th July, 1871._--I bought the different species of fish brought to
market, in order to sketch eight of them, and compare them with those of
the Nile lower down: most are the same as in Nyassa. A very active
species of Glanis, of dark olive-brown, was not sketched, but a spotted
one, armed with offensive spikes in the dorsal and pectoral fins, was
taken. Sesamum seed is abundant just now and cakes are made of
ground-nuts, as on the West Coast. Dugumbé's horde tried to deal in the
market in a domineering way. "I shall buy that," said one. "These are
mine," said another; "no one must touch them but me," but the
market-women taught them that they could not monopolize, but deal
fairly. They are certainly clever traders, and keep each other in
countenance, they stand by each other, and will not allow overreaching,
and they give food astonishingly cheap: once in the market they have no
fear.
_12th and 13th July 1871._--The Banian slaves declared before Dugumbé
that they would go to the River Lomamé, but no further: he spoke long to
them, but they will not consent to go further. When told that they would
thereby lose all their pay, they replied, "Yes, but not our lives," and
they walked off from him muttering, which is insulting to one of his
rank. I then added, "I have goods at Ujiji; I don't know how many, but
they are considerable, take them all, and give me men to finish my work;
if not enough, I will add to them, only do not let me be forced to
return now I am so near the end of my undertaking." He said he would
make a plan in conjunction with his associates, and report to me.
_14th July, 1871._--I am distressed and perplexed what to do so as not
to be foiled, but all seems against me.
_15th July, 1871._--The reports of guns on the other side of the Lualaba
all the morning tell of the people of Dugumbé murdering those of Kimburu
and others who mixed blood with Manilla. "Manilla is a slave, and how
dares he to mix blood with chiefs who ought only to make friends with
free men like us"--this is their complaint. Kimburu gave Manilla three
slaves, and he sacked ten villages in token of friendship; he proposed
to give Dugumbé nine slaves in the same operation, but Dugumbé's people
destroy his villages, and shoot and make his people captives to punish
Manilla; to make an impression, in fact, in the country that they alone
are to be dealt with--"make friends with us, and not with Manilla or
anyone else"--such is what they insist upon.
About 1500 people came to market, though many villages of those that
usually come from the other side were now in flames, and every now and
then a number of shots were fired on the fugitives.
It was a hot, sultry day, and when I went into the market I saw Adie and
Manilla, and three of the men who had lately come with Dugumbé. I was
surprised to see these three with their guns, and felt inclined to
reprove them, as one of my men did, for bringing weapons into the
market, but I attributed it to their ignorance, and, it being very hot,
I was walking away to go out of the market, when I saw one of the
fellows haggling about a fowl, and seizing hold of it. Before I had got
thirty yards out, the discharge of two guns in the middle of the crowd
told me that slaughter had begun: crowds dashed off from the place, and
threw down their wares in confusion, and ran. At the same time that the
three opened fire on the mass of people near the upper end of the
marketplace volleys were discharged from a party down near the creek on
the panic-stricken women, who dashed at the canoes. These, some fifty or
more, were jammed in the creek, and the men forgot their paddles in the
terror that seized all. The canoes were not to be got out, for the creek
was too small for so many; men and women, wounded by the balls, poured
into them, and leaped and scrambled into the water, shrieking. A long
line of heads in the river showed that great numbers struck out for an
island a full mile off: in going towards it they had to put the left
shoulder to a current of about two miles an hour; if they had struck
away diagonally to the opposite bank, the current would have aided them,
and, though nearly three miles off, some would have gained land: as it
was, the heads above water showed the long line of those that would
inevitably perish.
Shot after shot continued to be fired on the helpless and perishing.
Some of the long line of heads disappeared quietly; whilst other poor
creatures threw their arms high, as if appealing to the great Father
above, and sank. One canoe took in as many as it could hold, and all
paddled with hands and arms: three canoes, got out in haste, picked up
sinking friends, till all went down together, and disappeared. One man
in a long canoe, which could have held forty or fifty, had clearly lost
his head; he had been out in the stream before the massacre began, and
now paddled up the river nowhere, and never looked to the drowning.
By-and-bye all the heads disappeared; some had turned down stream
towards the bank, and escaped. Dugumbé put people into one of the
deserted vessels to save those in the water, and saved twenty-one, but
one woman refused to be taken on board from thinking that she was to be
made a slave of; she preferred the chance of life by swimming, to the
lot of a slave: the Bagenya women are expert in the water, as they are
accustomed to dive for oysters, and those who went down stream may have
escaped, but the Arabs themselves estimated the loss of life at between
330 and 400 souls. The shooting-party near the canoes were so reckless,
they killed two of their own people; and a Banyamwezi follower, who got
into a deserted canoe to plunder, fell into the water, went down, then
came up again, and down to rise no more.
My first impulse was to pistol the murderers, but Dugumbé protested
against my getting into a blood-feud, and I was thankful afterwards that
I took his advice. Two wretched Moslems asserted "that the firing was
done by the people of the English;" I asked one of them why he lied so,
and he could utter no excuse: no other falsehood came to his aid as he
stood abashed, before me, and so telling him not to tell palpable
falsehoods, I left him gaping.
After the terrible affair in the water, the party of Tagamoio, who was
the chief perpetrator, continued to fire on the people there and fire
their villages. As I write I hear the loud wails on the left bank over
those who are there slain, ignorant of their many friends now in the
depths of Lualaba. Oh, let Thy kingdom come! No one will ever know the
exact loss on this bright sultry summer morning, it gave me the
impression of being in Hell. All the slaves in the camp rushed at the
fugitives on land, and plundered them: women were for hours collecting
and carrying loads of what had been thrown down in terror.
Some escaped to me, and were protected: Dugumbé saved twenty-one, and
of his own accord liberated them, they were brought to me, and
remained over night near my house. One woman of the saved had a
musket-ball through the thigh, another in the arm. I sent men with our
flag to save some, for without a flag they might have been victims,
for Tagamoio's people were shooting right and left like fiends. I
counted twelve villages burning this morning. I asked the question of
Dugumbé and others, "Now for what is all this murder?" All blamed
Manilla as its cause, and in one sense he was the cause; but it is
hardly credible that they repeat it is in order to be avenged on
Manilla for making friends with headmen, he being a slave. I cannot
believe it fully. The wish to make an impression in the country as to
the importance and greatness of the new comers was the most potent
motive; but it was terrible that the murdering of so many should be
contemplated at all. It made me sick at heart. Who could accompany the
people of Dugumbé and Tagamoio to Lomamé and be free from
blood-guiltiness?
I proposed to Dugumbé to catch the murderers, and hang them up in the
marketplace, as our protest against the bloody deeds before the
Manyuema. If, as he and others added, the massacre was committed by
Manilla's people, he would have consented; but it was done by
Tagamoio's people, and others of this party, headed by Dugumbé. This
slaughter was peculiarly atrocious, inasmuch as we have always heard
that women coming to or from market have never been known to be
molested: even when two districts are engaged in actual hostilities,
"the women," say they, "pass among us to market unmolested," nor has one
ever been known to be plundered by the men. These Nigger Moslems are
inferior to the Manyuema in justice and right. The people under Hassani
began the superwickedness of capture and pillage of all
indiscriminately. Dugumbé promised to send over men to order Tagamoio's
men to cease firing and burning villages; they remained over among the
ruins, feasting on goats and fowls all night, and next day (16th)
continued their infamous work till twenty-seven villages were destroyed.
_16th July, 1871._--I restored upwards of thirty of the rescued to their
friends: Dugumbé seemed to act in good faith, and kept none of them; it
was his own free will that guided him. Women are delivered to their
husbands, and about thirty-three canoes left in the creek are to be kept
for the owners too.
12 A.M.--Shooting still going on on the other side, and many captives
caught. At 1 P.M. Tagamoio's people began to cross over in canoes,
beating their drums, firing their guns, and shouting, as if to say, "See
the conquering heroes come;" they are answered by the women of Dugumba's
camp lullilooing, and friends then fire off their guns in joy. I count
seventeen villages in flames, and the smoke goes straight up and forms
clouds at the top of the pillar, showing great heat evolved, for the
houses are full of carefully-prepared firewood. Dugumbé denies having
sent Tagamoio on this foray, and Tagamoio repeats that he went to punish
the friends made by Manilla, who, being a slave, had no right to make
war and burn villages, that could only be done by free men. Manilla
confesses to me privately that he did wrong in that, and loses all his
beads and many friends in consequence.
2 P.M.--An old man, called Kabobo, came for his old wife; I asked her if
this were her husband, she went to him, and put her arm lovingly around
him, and said "Yes." I gave her five strings of beads to buy food, all
her stores being destroyed with her house; she bowed down, and put her
forehead to the ground as thanks, and old Kabobo did the same: the tears
stood in her eyes as she went off. Tagamoio caught 17 women, and other
Arabs of his party, 27; dead by gunshot, 25. The heads of two headmen
were brought over to be redeemed by their friends with slaves.
3 P.M.--Many of the headmen who have been burned out by the foray came
over to me, and begged me to come back with them, and appoint new
localities for them to settle in again, but I told them that I was so
ashamed of the company in which I found myself, that I could scarcely
look the Manyuema in the face. They had believed that I wished to kill
them--what did they think now? I could not remain among bloody
companions, and would flee away, I said, but they begged me hard not to
leave until they were again settled.
The open murder perpetrated on hundreds of unsuspecting women fills me
with unspeakable horror: I cannot think of going anywhere with the
Tagamoio crew; I must either go down or up Lualaba, whichever the Banian
slaves choose.
4 P.M.--Dugumbé saw that by killing the market people he had committed a
great error, and speedily got the chiefs who had come over to me to meet
him at his house, and forthwith mix blood: they were in bad case. I
could not remain to see to their protection, and Dugumbé, being the best
of the whole horde, I advised them to make friends, and then appeal to
him as able to restrain to some extent his infamous underlings. One
chief asked to have his wife and daughter restored to him first, but
generally they were cowed, and the fear of death was on them. Dugumbé
said to me, "I shall do my utmost to get all the captives, but he must
make friends now, in order that the market may not be given up." Blood
was mixed, and an essential condition was, "You must give us chitoka,"
or market. He and most others saw that in theoretically punishing
Manilla, they had slaughtered the very best friends that strangers had.
The Banian slaves openly declare that they will go only to Lomamé, and
no further. Whatever the Ujijian slavers may pretend, they all hate to
have me as a witness of their cold-blooded atrocities. The Banian slaves
would like to go with Tagamoio, and share in his rapine and get slaves.
I tried to go down Lualaba, then up it, and west, but with bloodhounds
it is out of the question. I see nothing for it but to go back to Ujiji
for other men, though it will throw me out of the chance of discovering
the fourth great Lake in the Lualaba line of drainage, and other things
of great value.
At last I said that I would start for Ujiji, in three days, on foot. I
wished to speak to Tagamoio about the captive relations of the chiefs,
but he always ran away when he saw me coming.
_17th July, 1871._--All the rest of Dugumbé's party offered me a share
of every kind of goods they had, and pressed me not to be ashamed to
tell them what I needed. I declined everything save a little gunpowder,
but they all made presents of beads, and I was glad to return
equivalents in cloth. It is a sore affliction, at least forty-five days
in a straight line--equal to 300 miles, or by the turnings and windings
600 English miles, and all after feeding and clothing the Banian slaves
for twenty-one months! But it is for the best though; if I do not trust
to the riffraff of Ujiji, I must wait for other men at least ten months
there. With help from above I shall yet go through Rua, see the
underground excavations first, then on to Katanga, and the four ancient
fountains eight days beyond, and after that Lake Lincoln.
_18th July, 1871._--The murderous assault on the market people felt
to me like Gehenna, without the fire and brimstone; but the heat was
oppressive, and the firearms pouring their iron bullets on the
fugitives, was not an inapt representative of burning in the bottomless
pit.
The terrible scenes of man's inhumanity to man brought on severe
headache, which might have been serious had it not been relieved by a
copious discharge of blood; I was laid up all yesterday afternoon, with
the depression the bloodshed made,--it filled me with unspeakable
horror. "Don't go away," say the Manyuema chiefs to me; but I cannot
stay here in agony.
_19th July, 1871._--Dugumbé sent me a fine goat, a maneh of gunpowder, a
maneh of fine blue beads, and 230 cowries, to buy provisions in the way.
I proposed to leave a doti Merikano and one of Kaniké to buy specimens
of workmanship. He sent me two very fine large Manyuema swords, and two
equally fine spears, and said that I must not leave anything; he would
buy others with his own goods, and divide them equally with me: he is
very friendly.
River fallen 4-1/2 feet since the 5th ult.
A few market people appear to-day, formerly they came in crowds: a very
few from the west bank bring salt to buy back the baskets from the camp
slaves, which they threw away in panic, others carried a little food for
sale, about 200 in all, chiefly those who have not lost relatives: one
very beautiful woman had a gunshot wound in her upper arm tied round
with leaves. Seven canoes came instead of fifty; but they have great
tenacity and hopefulness, an old established custom has great charms for
them, and the market will again be attended if no fresh outrage is
committed. No canoes now come into the creek of death, but land above,
at Ntambwé's village: this creek, at the bottom of the long gentle slope
on which the market was held, probably led to its selection.
A young Manyuema man worked for one of Dugumbé's people preparing a
space to build on; when tired, he refused to commence to dig a pit, and
was struck on the loins with an axe, and soon died: he was drawn out of
the way, and his relations came, wailed over him, and buried him: they
are too much awed to complain to Dugumbé!!