Down in a gorge, just below the spot where Harold Seadrift and his men
lay concealed, a strange sight met the eyes of the two Englishmen, in
regard to which, despite all that they had heard and seen, and were
prepared to see, they were as much shocked as if it had never been
presented even to their imaginations up to that moment.
It was a gang of slaves winding its way slowly but steadily through the
gorge.
The head of the dusky procession was just emerging on the open ground
beyond the gorge when the travellers first came upon it. The slaves
advanced towards the spot where they lay, passing under it so closely
that they could see the very expressions on the faces of the men, women,
and children who composed the gang. These expressions were varied and
very terrible. Our travellers had now reached the fountain-head whence
the perennial stream of "Black Ivory" flows out of Africa. The process
of manufacture, although considerably advanced, had not yet reached that
perfection of callous subjection and settled despair which had struck
our Englishmen so forcibly in the slave-market of Zanzibar. There was
anxiety not unmingled with faint hope in the faces of some of the women;
and a few of the more stalwart and courageous among the men wore a
fierce, determined aspect which told of manhood not yet absolutely
prostrated in the dust of abject servility, while, in regard to some of
the children, surprise at the peculiar circumstances of their
surroundings had not yet been swallowed up in a condition of chronic
terror.
They marched in a long line, fastened to each other by chains and ropes
and heavy "gorees" or slave-sticks. The latter implements were poles
from six to seven feet long, with a fork at the end of each, in which
the necks of the men were fitted and secured by means of an iron bolt,
passing across the throat and riveted at both ends. To render marching
possible with such encumbrances, the men went in couples, one behind the
other, so that the slave-stick of the leading man could be tied to the
stick of his fellow behind, which was slewed round to the front for the
purpose. Their wrists were also tied, some in front, others behind
their backs. Secured thus, Hercules himself might have been reduced to
obedience, especially if he had felt the frequent sting of the cruel
lash that was laid on these captives, a lash whose power was made
manifest by the numerous seams and scars which crossed and recrossed
their backs and limbs. The women and children were deemed sufficiently
secure by being fastened to each other with ropes and iron rings round
their necks. All were naked, with the exception of a little piece of
cloth round the loins, and some of the women had infants of a few weeks
old strapped to their backs by means of this shred of cloth, while
others carried baskets on their heads containing meal for the sustenance
of the party during their journey.
In advance of the line marched a tall, powerfully-built half-caste,
armed with a musket and small axe, and clad in a loose coat, short
drawers reaching the knees, and straw hat. He was obviously the
commander of the band. Behind him came several negroes, also armed with
muskets, and with thick wands for the purpose of flagellation. These
wore loin-cloths and turbans or red caps, but nothing more. They
laughed, talked and strutted as they went along, forming a marked
contrast to the silent and depressed slaves.
At intervals along the line, and in rear, there were stationed one or
two of these drivers, who urged on their "cattle" with more or less
cruelty, according to their individual impulses or natures.
We need scarcely say that this sight filled Harold and Disco not only
with feelings of horror and pity, but with sensations of towering
indignation that almost suffocated them. Those who only read of such
things at home can form but a faint conception of what it is actually to
behold them.
"We must fight!" muttered Harold between his teeth.
Disco could not speak, but he looked at his companion, and gave a nod
that plainly indicated the state of his feelings.
"'Sh!" hissed Chimbolo, creeping up at that moment and laying his hand,
which trembled violently, on Harold's shoulder, "Marizano!"
"What! the scoundrel in advance?"
Chimbolo pointed to the leader of the slave-gang, and almost foamed at
the mouth with suppressed rage.
At that moment their attention was attracted to a woman who walked
immediately behind the slavers. She was a young and, according to
African ideas, a comely girl, but was apparently very weak--so weak that
she panted and stumbled as she went along, a circumstance which was
accounted for by the little infant tied to her back, which could not
have been more than a couple of weeks old. Stumbling against the fallen
branch of a tree, she fell at last with a low wail to the ground, and
made no effort, as on previous occasions, to recover herself.
The whole gang stopped, and Marizano, turning back, pushed the woman
with his foot.
A fine-looking young man, who was the leader in a couple secured by a
slave-stick, seemed to regard this woman with a degree of interest that
argued near relationship. He started forward half involuntarily when
the Portuguese half-caste kicked her. He had forgotten for an instant
his fellow in rear, as well as the bar of the goree across his throat,
which checked him violently; at the same time one of the drivers, who
had observed the movement, laid a supple wand across his bare back so
sharply as to draw forth a terrific yell of agony.
This was too much for Disco Lillihammer. Unable to restrain himself, he
leaped up, seized his rifle by the muzzle with both hands, and, swinging
it round his head, rushed upon Marizano with a bursting shout of rage
and defiance.
It is probable that the half-caste leader, who was by no means destitute
of courage, would have stood his ground had his assailant been a man of
colour, but this unexpected apparition of a white man with a fiery
countenance and blue eyes that absolutely flashed as he rushed forward
with irresistible fury, was too much for him. Firing hastily, and with
bad aim, Marizano turned and fled into the woods, followed by all his
men. There was however a large band of Ajawa savages in rear, armed
with bows and poisoned arrows. When he encountered these the Portuguese
chief halted, and, rallying his men, took shelter behind trees and began
to fire at the advancing enemy.
Seeing this, Harold drew his men together and made them fire a united
volley, which had the effect of utterly routing the slavers. Disco
meanwhile, finding that he could not overtake Marizano, at last did what
he ought to have done at first--kneeled down, took deliberate aim at
him, and fired. His agitation prevented accuracy of aim; nevertheless
he succeeded in sending a bullet through the fleshy part of the man's
arm, above the elbow, which effectually put him to flight.
Returning to the slaves, who had been left standing where they were
first stopped, in a state of great surprise and perplexity, he assisted
his companions in freeing them. This was easy enough in regard to the
women and children, but the gorees on the men were very difficult to
remove. Being riveted, as we have said, it became necessary to split
the forks with hatchets, an operation which endangered the heads of the
poor captives and hurt their galled necks considerably. It was
accomplished however in the midst of a deal of excitement and hurried
conversation, while Jumbo and his comrades kindled fires, and Harold
bade the women cook the meal--which they had hitherto carried--for
themselves and their children. They seemed to consider this too good
news to be true, but on being encouraged, began with alacrity.
"Don't be afeared, lass," cried Disco, patting a young woman on the
head, "eat as much as 'ee like. You need it, poor thing, an' stuff the
childer till they can't hold no more. Bu'st 'em if 'ee can. The
slavers won't come back here in a hurry. Ha! I only wish they would,
an' let us have a brush with 'em. But there's no such luck. Cowards
never fight 'xcept w'en they're sure to win.--Now, piccaninny, here you
are," he said, stuffing some raw mapira meal into the open mouth of a
thin little girl of about six or seven, who was gazing at him in
open-eyed surprise; "don't put off time, you're half-starved already!"
The little black skeleton began to chew the dry meal with evident
satisfaction, but without taking her eyes off her deliverer.
"Who are _you_?" asked a somewhat older girl of Harold, whom she
regarded with looks of reverence and wonder.
Of course Harold did not understand her, but he immediately called
Antonio, who translated.
"Who are you?" she said; "the other people tied and starved us, but you
cut the ropes and tell us to eat; what sort of people are you? Where
did you come from?"
To this Harold replied briefly that he was an Englishman, who hated
slavers and slavery, but he said nothing more at that time, as he
intended to have a palaver and explanation with the freed captives after
their meal was over.
There was a great clapping of hands among the slaves, expressive of
gratitude, on hearing that they were free.
About a hundred sat down to that meal, most of whom were women and
children, and the manner in which they devoured the food set before
them, told eloquently of their previous sufferings. At first they
timidly held back, scarce venturing to believe that their new captors,
as they thought them, were in earnest. But when their doubts and fears
were removed, they attacked the mapira porridge like ravening wolves.
Gradually the human element began to reappear, in the shape of a comment
or a smile, and before long the women were chatting together, and a few
of the stronger among the young children were making feeble attempts to
play.
When the oldest man of the party, who appeared to be between twenty and
thirty, was brought forward and questioned, he gave some interesting and
startling information.
"Tell him," said Harold to Antonio, "that we are Englishmen; that we
belong to the same nation as the great white man Dr Livingstone, who
travelled through this land some years ago--the nation which hates
slavery because the Great God hates it, and would have all men to be
free, to serve each other in love, and to do to other people as they
would have other people do to them. Ask him, also, where he comes from,
and who captured him and his companions."
To this the negro replied--"What the white man says may be true, but the
white men seem to tell lies too much. The men who killed our warriors,
burned our villages, and took our women and children away, came to us
saying that they were friends; that they were the servants of the same
people as the white man Livingstone, and wanted to trade with us. When
we believed and trusted them, and were off our guard, they fired on us
with their guns. We know not what to think or to believe."
Harold was much perplexed by this reply, for he knew not what evidence
to cite in proof that he, at least was not a deceiver.
"Tell him," he said at length, "that there are false white men as well
as true, and that the best proof I can give him that I am one of the
true is, to set him and his friends at liberty. They are now as free to
go where they please as we are."
On receiving this assurance the negro retired to consult with his
friends. Meanwhile Antonio, who seemed to have been touched by the
unvarying kindness with which he had been treated by his employers,
opened his mind to them, and gave them a good deal of information, of
which the substance is as follows:--
At that time the merchants of the Portuguese inland town of Tette, on
the Zambesi, were carrying on the slave-trade with unusual vigour, for
this reason, that they found it difficult to obtain ivory except in
exchange for slaves. In former years they had carried on a trade in
ivory with a tribe called the Banyai, these Banyai being great
elephant-hunters, but it happened that they went to war with another
tribe named the Matabele, who had managed to steal from them all their
women and children. Consequently, the forlorn Banyai said to the Tette
merchants, when they went to trade with them as they had been accustomed
to do, "We do not want your merchandise. Bring us women and children,
and you shall have as much ivory as you wish."
These good people of Tette--being chiefly half-caste Portuguese, and
under Portuguese government, and claiming, as they do, to be the
possessors of that region of Africa--are so utterly incapable of holding
their own, that they are under the necessity of paying tribute to a
tribe of savages who come down annually to Tette to receive it, and who,
but for that tribute, would, as they easily could, expel them from the
land. These merchants of Tette, moreover, in common with all the
Portuguese in Africa, are by the laws of Portugal prohibited from
engaging in the _export_ slave-trade. They are not, however, forbidden
to engage temporarily in the "domestic slave-trade," hence they had sent
out slaving parties--in other words, robbers, kidnappers, murderers--who
hired the warlike Ajawa tribe to aid them in killing the Manganja men,
and robbing them of their wives and little ones, by which means they
were enabled to supply the demand for such "cattle" among the Banyai,
and thus obtained the desired supply of ivory! So vigorously had this
slave traffic been carried on, at the time of which we write, that no
fewer than two hundred people--mostly women and children--were carried
out of the hill-country every week. [See _The Universities' Mission to
Central Africa_, page 112.]
In a short time the negro returned to the place where Harold and Disco
were seated, and said that he believed his white deliverers were true
men, but added that he and his people had no home to go to; their
village having been burnt, and all the old people and warriors killed or
dispersed by Marizano, who was a terribly cruel man. In proof of this
assertion he said that only the day before, Marizano had shot two of the
women for attempting to untie their thongs; a man had been killed with
an axe because he had broken-down with fatigue; and a woman had her
infant's brains dashed out because she was unable to carry it, as well
as the load assigned to her.
"It is difficult to decide what one should do in these circumstances,"
said Harold to Disco. "You know it would never do to leave these
helpless people here to starve; but if we take them on with us our
progress will be uncommonly slow."
"We'd better take 'em back," said Disco.
"Back! Where to?"
"W'y, to the last village wot we passed through. It ain't more than a
day's march, an' I'm sure the old feller as is capting of it would take
care o' the lot."
"There is good advice in that, yet I grudge to go back," said Harold;
"if there were a village the same distance in advance, I would rather
take them on."
"But there ain't," returned Disco. "Hallo! I say, wot's wrong with
Tony?"
The interpreter came forward with a look of much excitement as he spoke.
"What now, Antonio?"
"Oh! it's drefful," replied the interpreter. "Dey tells me have hear
Marizano speak ob anoder slaving party what go straight to Kambira's
village for attack it."
"Who told you that? Are they sure?" asked Harold hastily.
"Two, t'ree mans tole me," replied Antonio. "All say same ting. Too
late to help him now, me's 'fraid."
"Never say too late," cried Disco, starting up; "never say die while
there's a shot in the locker. It may be time enough yet if we only look
sharp. I votes that we leave nearly all the provisions we have with
these poor critters here; up anchor, 'bout ship, clap on all sail, and
away this werry minit."
Harold agreed with this advice heartily, and at once acted on it. The
arrangements were quickly made, the provisions distributed, an
explanation made, and in less than an hour the travellers were retracing
their steps in hot haste.
By taking a straight line and making forced marches, they arrived in
sight of the ridge where they had last seen Kambira, on the evening of
the third day. As they drew near Harold pushed impatiently forward,
and, outrunning his companions, was first to reach the summit. Disco's
heart sank within him, for he observed that his companion stood still,
bowed his head, and covered his face with both hands. He soon joined
him, and a groan burst from the seaman's breast when he saw dense
volumes of smoke rising above the spot where the village had so recently
lain a picture of peaceful beauty.
Even their followers, accustomed though they were, to scenes and deeds
of violence and cruelty, could not witness the grief of the Englishmen
unmoved.
"P'raps," said Disco, in a husky voice, "there's some of 'em left alive,
hidin' in the bushes."
"It may be so," replied Harold, as he descended the slope with rapid
strides. "God help them!"
A few minutes sufficed to bring them to the scene of ruin, but the
devastation caused by the fire was so great that they had difficulty in
recognising the different spots where the huts had stood. Kambira's hut
was, however, easily found, as it stood on a rising ground. There the
fight with the slavers had evidently been fiercest, for around it lay
the charred and mutilated remains of many human bodies. Some of these
were so far distinguishable that it could be told whether they belonged
to man, woman, or child.
"Look here!" said Disco, in a deep, stern voice, as he pointed to an
object on the ground not far from the hut.
It was the form of a woman who had been savagely mangled by her
murderers. The upturned and distorted face proved it to be Yohama, the
grandmother of little Obo. Near to her lay the body of a grey-haired
negro, who might to judge from his position, have fallen in attempting
to defend her.
"Oh! if the people of England only saw this sight!" said Harold, in a
low tone; "if they only believed in and _realised_ this fact, there
would be one universal and indignant shout of `No toleration of slavery
anywhere throughout the world!'"
"Look closely for Kambira or his son," he added, turning to his men.
A careful search among the sickening remains was accordingly made, but
without any discovery worth noting being made, after which they searched
the surrounding thickets. Here sad evidence of the poor fugitives
having been closely pursued was found in the dead bodies of many of the
old men and women, and of the very young children and infants; also the
bodies of a few of the warriors. All these had been speared, chiefly
through the back. Still they were unsuccessful in finding the bodies of
the chief or his little boy.
"It's plain," said Disco, "that they have either escaped or been took
prisoners."
"Here is some one not quite dead," said Harold,--"Ah! poor fellow!"
He raised the unfortunate man's head on his knee, and recognised the
features of the little man who had entertained them with his tunes on
the native violin.
It was in vain that Antonio tried to gain his attention while Disco
moistened his lips with water. He had been pierced in the chest with an
arrow. Once only he opened his eyes, and a faint smile played on his
lips, as if he recognised friends, but it faded quickly and left the
poor musician a corpse.
Leaving, with heavy hearts, the spot where they had spent such pleasant
days and nights, enjoying the hospitality of Kambira and his tribe, our
travellers began to retrace their steps to the place where they had left
the rescued slaves, but that night the strong frame of Disco Lillihammer
succumbed to the influence of climate. He was suddenly stricken with
African fever, and in a few hours became as helpless as a little child.
In this extremity Harold found it necessary to encamp. He selected the
highest and healthiest spot in the neighbourhood, caused his followers
to build a rude, but comparatively comfortable, hut and set himself
diligently to hunt for, and to tend, his sick friend.