They are far from being a generous people. Hassani, a Moslem trader,

told Dr. Livingstone that no Manyuema had ever presented him with a

mouthful of food, not even a potato or banana, though he had made many

presents to them. They are untruthful as a people, but very honest.

No articles are even purloined by them. If a fowl or goat be lost or

anything else, it may be known that an Arab slave is the thief. It is a

somewhat remarkable fact that Livingstone and the Arab merchants kept

their fowls in the Manyuema villages, to prevent their being stolen by

their own slaves. A conscientious, rigorous sense of justice, allied

with their blood-thirstiness, is a singular feature in the character of

this tribe.

The Manyuema have great fear of guns. Often a man will borrow one to

help him settle a dispute. Going with it on his shoulder he can readily

adjust the difficulty by the fear the weapon inspires, even though it

is known by his opponent that he could not use it.

Though the presence of guns will always awaken such terror, yet if

their enemies be armed only with spears, however numerous, these men

are brave. It is a common expression “The Manyuema are bad.” They are

exceedingly cruel among themselves, but their reputation for badness is

in no small degree caused by the representations of the Arab traders,

who plunder them in every possible way. It is no wonder that some

badness should be manifested when their huts are appropriated without

leave, compensation, or thanks. Firewood, pots, baskets, food, in

fact everything is taken that they fancy. The women usually flee into

the forest, to return only after the invaders have gone, but to find

their possessions plundered or destroyed. If treated kindly, they make

overtures of friendship by gifts of provisions and fruits. The Arabs

will eat up all they can lay hands on, and then say, “The Manyuema are

bad, very bad.”

In respect to cannibalism, it is the fact that the Manyuema eat only

their foes and those who are killed in war. Some have alleged that

captives also are eaten, and that a slave is bought with a goat to be

eaten, but there is doubt of the truth of this assertion. From the most

careful observation, Livingstone concluded that it is only those slain

in battle who are eaten, and this in revenge. Mokandira said, “The meat

is not nice; it makes one dream of the dead man.”

On the west of Lualaba it is thought that men eat those bought for the

purpose of a feast. All unite in saying that human flesh is saltish,

and needs very little condiment.

At the market a stranger appeared who had ten human under-jaw bones

hung on a string over his shoulder. When interrogated he professed to

have killed and eaten the owners, and he showed with his knife how

he had cut them up. When disgust was expressed at his recital he and

others laughed.

A great fight had taken place at Muanampunda’s, and Livingstone saw

the meat cut up to be cooked. The natives betrayed a shame about the

matter, and said, “Go on, and let our feast alone.” They eat their

foes to inspire courage. It will seem very remarkable that this custom

prevails, for there is no want of food of all kinds. The country is

full of it, overflowing with farinaceous products, with meat and every

variety of fish, and they have stimulating luxuries in palm-toddy,

tobacco or _bange_. With nature so lavish of her gifts, showing that

cannibalism is not the result of want or starvation, it must be merely

a depraved appetite that craves for meat that we call “high.”

“They are said to bury a dead body for a couple of days in the soil

in a forest, and in that time, owing to the climate, it soon becomes

putrid enough to regale the strongest stomachs.”

The great necessity of this people is some bond of union or national

life. But there is no supreme chief in Manyuema or Balegga, and thus

the tribe is disintegrated. Each head man regards himself as _mologhwe_

or chief, however small his village, even if only four or five huts,

and so is independent. This explains the fact of no political cohesion

among the people. Jealousy and fear of each other among the head men

are the great obstacles to their uniting for the common welfare. With

no unity of interest, no concert of action, no ruler to whom all must

pay allegiance, it is inevitable that offences must come, and feuds and

wars will follow. Crimes against person or property cannot be punished

except by revenge, reprisal, war, in which blood is shed. Enmities are

thus caused between neighboring villages that last for generations,

resulting in a vast amount of rapine and suffering. In this condition

of mutual hostility they become the easy prey of the Arab adventurers,

succumbing to their extortion and rapacity with only the feeblest

resistance.

No progress or improvement is made among this tribe; they seem to have

come to a permanent stand-still. The influence of intelligent and wise

chiefs does not avail to start them out of the degradation into which

their character and life have crystallized. Moenékuss was a sagacious

ruler, ambitious to improve the condition of his people. He paid smiths

to teach his sons how to work in copper and iron, but he could never

inspire them with his own generous and far-seeing spirit. They could

not emulate his virtues, being devoid of all magnanimity, sagacity, or

ambition.

The disease called _safura_, the result of clay or earth eating, is

quite common among the Manyuema. Though slaves are more addicted to

this habit, yet it is not confined to them. They do not eat clay in

order to end their lives and their sufferings. The Manyuema women eat

it when pregnant, and many who do not lack food will form this fatal

appetite. The disease shows itself in swollen feet, loss of flesh, and

haggard face. The victim walks with great difficulty on account of

shortness of breath and weakness, and yet persists in eating till death

terminates his life. Only by the most powerful drastics and entire

abstinence from clay-eating can a cure be effected after one has become

diseased with _safura_.

The Manyuema country is unhealthy, not so much from fevers as from a

general prostration caused by the damp, cold, and indigestion. This

debility is ascribed by some to the maize, which is the common food,

producing weakness of the bowels or choleraic purging. Ulcers form on

any part of the body that is abraded, and they are like a spreading

fungus, for the matter adhering to any part of the body forms a fresh

centre of propagation. These ulcers will eat very rapidly if not

allowed quiet. They are exceedingly difficult of healing, eating into

the bone, especially on the shins. Many slaves die of them. Rheumatism

is frequent, and many of the natives die of it. Tape-worm is common,

and no remedy is known to the Arabs or natives.

One of the animals found in Manyuema is so remarkable as to require

some special notice. It is undoubtedly a new species of the chimpanzee,

and not the gorilla. The stuffed specimen of the latter in the British

Museum was seen by Susi and Chuma, Livingstone’s men, and they,

familiar with the sight of sokos, pronounced them unlike the gorilla,

yet as large and as strong.

The description, by Livingstone, of this animal is so graphic and

interesting that we give it below in full:--“They often go erect, but

place the hand on the head, as if to steady its body. When thus seen

the soko is an ungainly beast. The most sentimental young lady would

not call him a ‘dear,’ but a bandy-legged, pot-bellied, low-looking

villain, without a particle of the gentleman in him.

“Other animals, especially the antelopes, are graceful, and it is

pleasant to see them, either at rest or in motion. The natives also are

well-made, lithe, and comely to behold, but the soko, if large, would

do well to stand for a picture of the devil.

“He takes away my appetite by his disgusting bestiality of appearance.

His light-yellow face shows off his ugly whiskers and faint apology for

a beard; the forehead, villainously low, with high ears, is well in the

background of the great dog-mouth; the teeth are slightly human, but

the canines show the beast by their large development.

“The hands, or rather the fingers, are like those of the natives. The

flesh of the feet is yellow, and the eagerness with which the Manyuema

devour it leaves the impression that eating sokos was the first stage

by which they arrived at being cannibals. They say the flesh is

delicious. The soko is represented by some to be extremely knowing,

successfully stalking men and women while at their work, kidnapping

children and running up trees with them.

“He seems to be amused by the sight of the young native in his arms,

but comes down when tempted by a bunch of bananas, and as he lifts that

drops the child; the young soko in such a case would cling closely to

the armpit of the elder. One man was cutting out honey from a tree, and

naked, when a soko suddenly appeared and caught him, then let him go.

A man was hunting, and missed in his attempt to stab a soko; it seized

the spear and broke it, then grappled with the man, who called to his

companions, ‘Soko has caught me!’ The soko bit off the ends of his

fingers and escaped unharmed. Both men are now alive at Bambarré.

“The soko is so cunning, and has such sharp eyes that no one can stalk

him in front, without being seen; hence, when shot, it is always in the

back. When surrounded by men and nets, he is generally speared in the

back too; otherwise, he is not a very formidable beast. He is nothing,

as compared in power of damaging his assailant, to a leopard or lion,

but is more like a man unarmed, for it does not occur to him to use his

canine teeth, which are long and formidable.

“Numbers of them come down in the forest within a hundred yards of our

camp, and would be unknown but for giving tongue like fox-hounds: this

is their nearest approach to speech. A man hoeing was stalked by a soko

and seized. He roared out, but the soko giggled and grinned, and left

him as if he had done it in play. A child caught up by a soko is often

abused by being pinched and scratched and let fall.

“The soko kills the leopard occasionally by seizing both paws and

biting them so as to disable them; he then goes up a tree, groans

over his wounds, and sometimes recovers, while the leopard dies. At

other times both soko and leopard die. The lion kills him at once, and

sometimes tears his limbs off, but does not eat him. The soko eats no

flesh; small bananas are his dainties, but not maize. His food consists

of wild fruits, which abound. One, staféné, or Manyuema mamwa, is like

large, sweet sop, but indifferent in taste and flesh. The soko brings

forth at times twins. A very large soko was seen by Mohamad’s hunters

sitting picking his nails. They tried to stalk him, but he vanished.

“Some Manyuema think that their buried dead rise as sokos, and one was

killed, with holes in his ears, as if he had been a man. He is very

strong and fears guns, but not spears; he never catches women.

“Sokos collect together and make a drumming noise, some say with hollow

trees, then burst forth into loud yells, which are well imitated by the

natives’ embryotic music. When men hear them, they go to the sokos; but

sokos never go to men with hostility. Manyuema say, ‘Soko is a man, and

nothing bad in him.’

“If a man has no spear the soko goes away satisfied; but if wounded he

seizes the wrist, lops off the fingers and spits them out, slaps the

cheeks of his victim, and bites without breaking the skin. He draws out

a spear (but never uses it), and takes some leaves and stuffs them into

his wound to staunch the blood. He does not wish an encounter with an

armed man. He sees women do him no harm, and never molests them; a man

without a spear is nearly safe from him.

“They live in communities of about ten, each having his own female.

An intruder from another camp is beaten off with their fists and loud

yells. If one tries to seize the female of another he is caught on the

ground, and all unite in boxing and biting the offender. A male often

carries the child, especially if they are passing from one patch of

forest to another over a grassy space; he then gives it to the mother.”

Sometime after the soko hunt, which gave rise to the striking portrait

of the beast that Livingstone has left, Katomba presented to him a

young soko that had been caught when its mother was killed. “She sits

eighteen inches high; has fine, long black hair all over, which was

pretty, so long as it was kept in order by her dam. She is the least

mischievous of all the monkey tribe I have seen, and seems to know

that in me she has a friend, and sits quietly on the mat beside me. In

walking the first thing I observed is, that she does not tread on the

palms of her hands, but on the backs of the second line of bones of

the hands; in doing this the nails do not touch the ground, nor do the

knuckles. She uses the arms thus supported crutch-fashion, and hitches

herself along between them; occasionally, one hand is put down before

the other, and alternates with the feet, or she walks upright, and

holds up a hand to any one to carry her; if refused she turns her face

down and makes grimaces of the most bitter human weeping, wringing her

hands, and sometimes adding a fourth hand or foot to make the appeal

more touching. Grass or leaves she draws around her to make a nest,

and resents any one meddling with her property. She is a most friendly

little beast, and came up to me at once, making her chirrup of welcome,

smelled my clothing, and held out her hand to be shaken. I slapped her

palm without offence, though she winced. She began to untie the cord,

with which she was afterward bound, with fingers and thumbs in quite a

systematic way, and on being interfered with by a man, looked daggers,

and screaming, tried to beat him with her hands. She was afraid of his

stick and faced him, putting her back to me as a friend. She holds out

her hand for people to lift her up and carry her quite like a spoiled

child, then bursts into a passionate cry, somewhat like that of a

kite, wrings her hands quite naturally, as if in despair. She eats

everything, covers herself with a mat to sleep, and makes a nest of

grass or leaves, and wipes her face with a leaf.”

A soko alive is thought by the natives to be a good charm for rain.

There being a drought, one was caught; but the captor met with the

usual fate of those men who, without weapons, contend with this animal;

he lost the ends of his fingers and toes.

CHAPTER CLXV.

AFRICA--_Continued_.

UNYAMWEZI.

SIGNIFICATION OF UNYAMWEZI -- EXTENT OF ITS TERRITORY -- CHARMING

SCENERY -- STANLEY’S DESCRIPTION -- TREES OF FOREST -- FRUIT-BEARING

TREES -- THE “MEDICINE MAN” -- CREDULITY OF THE PEOPLE -- DISEASE --

PEN-PORTRAIT OF A MNYAMWEZI -- THE YANKEE OF AFRICA -- LOVE OF MUSIC

-- SINGULAR CUSTOMS IN REGARD TO BIRTH AND BURIAL -- OLD AGE SELDOM

SEEN -- PROBABLE EXTINCTION OF THIS TRIBE.

Although an extended and interesting account of the people of Unyamwezi

has been given in a former portion of this work (see page 386), we

think our readers will be grateful for the additional sketch of them

compiled from Stanley’s “Travels and Adventures in Central Africa,”

resulting from his romantic and successful expedition in search of

Livingstone.

The name Wanyamwezi, or Banyamwezi, as Livingstone gives it, is

derived, he says, from an ivory ornament of the shape of the new moon,

hung to the neck, with a horn reaching round over either shoulder.

The tradition is that their forefathers came from the sea coast, and

when people inquired after them they said, “We mean the men of the

moon ornament.” This ornament is worn very extensively now and a large

amount of ivory is used in its manufacture. Sometimes, however, the

curved tusks of hippopotami are substituted for ivory.

If the name referred to the “moon ornament” as the people think, the

name would be Ba or Wamwezi, but Banyamwezi means probably Ba, _they or

people_, Nya, _place_, Mwezi, _moon_, people of the moon locality or

moonland.

NOTE.--M is a prefix to denote a person of any country, as, for

example, M-jiji, a native of Jiji. U is a prefix to denote the

country, as U-jiji, meaning the country of the Jiji. Wa denotes

persons, thus, Wa-jiji, means people of the Jiji. Wa-nya-mwezi, the

people of Mwezi.

The pronunciation of this word, Unyamwezi, by the natives is

Oo-nya-mwezi. Its meaning, according to the African explorers, Krapf,

Burton, Speke, is “Country of the Moon.” Mr. Desbrough Cooley thinks

it means “Lord of the World,” and its orthography, he thinks, should

be Monomoezi. Mr. Stanley, however, differs from them all, and gives

the following as the reason for his interpretation: There once lived

a powerful and successful king in Ukalaganza, the original name of

the country as known to the western tribes. His name was Mwezi, and

after his death his sons contended for the possession of his power.

The portions they secured as the result of their wars were named from

them. The people of the central portion, Ukalaganza, accepting the one

whom the old king had appointed his successor, came to be known at

length as Children of Mwezi, and the country as Unyamwezi, while the

other districts were called Konongo, Sagozi, Gunda, Simbiri, etc. This

theory, so in conflict with the opinion of other travellers, Stanley

bases upon a tradition related to him by the old chief of Masangi,

which lies on the road to Mfuto. He confirms it also by the fact that

the name of the king of Urundi is Mwezi, and the name of almost every

village in Africa is named from some chief either living or dead.

This country contains about 24,500 square miles, and is divided into

districts known as Unyanyembe, the most populous, Ugunda, Usagara,

Ugara, Nguru, Usongo, etc.

No portion of East or Central Africa equals Unyamwezi in beauty of

scenery. The blending of its forests with the clearings and plains,

the rocky elevations here and there seen rising above the vari-colored

leafage that lies like a carpet widely extended, constitute a view

of unusual attraction. Though there are no majestic mountains, no

picturesque or startling scenes, and a journey through the country does

not awaken the emotion of sublimity, yet the landscape, as far as the

eye can stretch in every direction, is one so lovely as to be forever

remembered.

Stanley in describing it says, “The foliage is of all the colors of

the prism; but as the woods roll away into the distance, the calm,

mysterious haze enwraps them in its soft shroud, paints them first a

light blue, then gradually a deeper blue, until, in the distance, there

appears but a dim looming, and on gazing at its faded contour we find

ourselves falling into a day-dream, as indistinct in its outline as

the view which appears in the horizon. I defy any one to gaze on such

a scene without wishing his life would fade away as serenely as the

outlines of the forests of Unyamwezi.”

These forests abound with a great variety of trees, the wood of which,

according to the peculiarity of each, is made useful by the natives.

The mkurongo is harder and more lasting than hickory and is susceptible

of a very high polish. The pestle for pounding grain is made of this

tree.

The bark from which their cloth is made comes from the mbugu. After

being thoroughly soaked, it is pounded and then dried and rubbed, so

that it resembles felt. The natives sometimes make ropes from this

bark, and also round boxes for storing grain. These they ornament in

various ways.

Another tree, called the imbite, is capable of being ornamentally

carved, when made into the shape of doors and pillars. As it also emits

an agreeable odor, this quality, with its beautiful color, makes it a

choice and favorite wood. Stanley mentions some twenty other varieties,

most of which are made subservient to some useful purpose. These trees

abound everywhere in equatorial Africa.

From the Guinea palm-tree the natives extract an intoxicating liquor,

called “tembo.” A toddy which they call “zogga” is made from plantains.

There are various fruit-bearing trees in Central Africa, and the kinds

of grapes, some of which are poisonous, are numerous. The common

articles of food among the different tribes are sorghum, sesame,

millet, and maize or Indian corn, pulse, beans, and rice, with many

kinds of fish. There is one kind called “dogara,” which, though one

of the smallest, contributes more than any other to the food of the

people. It is minute, a kind of white-bait, and is caught in nets in

great quantities, in Lake Tanganyika. They are then dried in the sun or

salted, and often become an article of commerce as far as Unyanyembe.

Belief in the power of the “medicine man” is almost unlimited. The

natives thought Stanley was able to make rain; that, with some

preparation, he could kill all the people of Mirambo, a hostile chief

who was making frequent raids upon them. They would carry their sick

to him, believing he could cure them. It was only by his most earnest

and positive assertion that he possessed no such power that he could

satisfy them. One old man took to him a fine, fat sheep and a dish of

vegetables, to enlist his services in curing a chronic dysentery, but

he refused them, disclaiming any ability to help him.

This credulity of the people is the basis of the wide and sometimes

terrible sway of the “medicine man” in Africa. Says Stanley, “No

hunting expedition of Wanyamwezi starts without having consulted the

_mganga_ (medicine man), who, for a consideration, supplies them with

charms, potions, herbs, and blessings. A bit of the ear of a zebra, the

blood of a lion, the claw of a leopard, the lip of a buffalo, the tail

of a giraffe, the eyebrow of a harte-beest, are treasures not to be

parted with save for a monetary value. To their necks are suspended a

bit of quartz, polished and of triangular shape, and pieces of carved

wood, and an all-powerful talisman in the shape of a plant, sewed up

jealously in a small leathern pouch.”

The same diseases to which civilized peoples are subject prevail in

Central and East Africa. The most terrible scourge of all is the

small-pox; its ravages are seen everywhere on the line of caravans and

in the depopulation of villages. A rigorous quarantine is attempted,

yet multitudes die by this foul and fearful disease. If any of a

caravan become sick with it, they are left in the wilderness, as the

caravan can not stop. The poor sufferers will not be received into any

village. They therefore betake themselves to the jungle, with store of

food and water, and there await the issue of recovery or death,--most

frequently the latter. The skulls bleaching in the air on the line of

every caravan indicate the ravages made by this loathsome disease.

Mr. Stanley thinks the Wanyamwezi are the most remarkable tribe in

Central Africa. His fine characterization of them, given below, is

taken from his interesting book, “How I found Livingstone.”

“A beau ideal of a Mnyamwezi to me will be a tall, long-limbed black

man, with a good-natured face, always with a broad smile upon it;

displaying in the upper row of teeth a small hole, which was cut out

when he was a boy to denote his tribe; with hundreds of long, wiry

ringlets hanging down his neck; almost naked, giving me a full view

of a form which would make an excellent model for a black Apollo. I

have seen many of this tribe in the garb of the freedmen of Zanzibar,

sporting a turban of new American sheeting, or wearing the long

_diskdasheh_ (shirt) of the Arab, presenting as fine and intelligent an

appearance as any Msawahili from the Zanzibar coast,--but I cannot rid

myself of my ideal.

“A Mnyamwezi is the Yankee of Africa; he is a born trader and

traveller. From days immemorial his tribe has monopolized the carrying

of goods from one country to another. The Mnyamwezi is the camel, the

horse, the mule, the ass, the beast of burden to which all travellers

anxiously look to convey their luggage from the coast to the far

African interior. The Arab can go nowhere without his help; the white

traveller, bound on an exploring trip, cannot travel without him....

He is like the sailor, having his habitat in certain sailors’ boarding

houses in great seaport towns, and, like the sailor, is a restless

rover. The sea-coast to a Mnyamwezi is like New York to an English

sailor. At New York the English sailor can re-ship with higher pay; so

can the Mnyamwezi re-hire himself on the coast, for a return trip, at

a higher rate than from Unyamwezi to the sea. He is in such demand,

and during war time so scarce, that his pay is great, ranging from

thirty-six to one hundred yards of cloth. A hundred of these _bites de

somme_ will readily cost the traveller 10,000 yards of cloth even as

far as Unyanyembe, a three months’ journey, and 10,000 yards of cloth

represent $5,000 in gold.

“The Wanyamwezi, weighted with the bales of Zanzibar, containing

cottons and domestics from Massachusetts, calicoes from England, prints

from Muscat, cloths from Cutch, beads from Germany, brass wire from

Great Britain, may be found on the Lualaba, in the forests of Ukawendi,

on the hills of Uganda, the mountains of Karagwah, on the plains of

Urori, on the plateau of Ugogo, in the park lands of Ukonongo, in the

swamps of Useguhha, in the defiles of Usagara, in the wilderness of

Ubena, among the pastoral tribes of the Watuta, trudging along the

banks of the Rufigi, in slave-trading Kilwa,--everywhere throughout

Central Africa.

“While journeying with caravans they are docile and tractable; in their

villages they are a merry-making set; on trading expeditions of their

own they are keen and clever; as Ruga-Ruga they are unscrupulous and

bold; in Ukonongo they are hunters; in Usukuma they are drovers and

iron smelters; in Lunda they are energetic searchers for ivory; on the

coast they are a wondering and awe-struck people.”

The Wanyamwezi are very industrious and quite ingenious. They

smelt their iron, and make their weapons of war and implements of

agriculture. They are ready to exchange their hatchets, bill-hooks,

spears, bows, etc., for cloth. It is a common sight,--the peddler

endeavoring to make a barter trade with his various wares. He will sell

a first-class bow for four yards of sheeting, and two yards will buy a

dozen arrows.

They are quite clever smiths and manufacture iron and copper wire. The

process is as follows: a heavy piece of iron with a funnel-shaped hole

is firmly fixed in the fork of a tree. A fine rod is then thrust into

it and a line attached to the first few inches which can be coaxed

through. A number of men haul on this line singing and dancing in tune

and thus it is drawn through the first drill; it is subsequently passed

through others to render it finer. Excellent wire is the result.

Love of music is one of the characteristics of this tribe, as of almost

all Africans. Though the music is rude, yet those who hear it are not

usually the most accomplished and fastidious critics. It therefore has

its uses and merits. Sometimes it is made the vehicle of satire or

humor. The latest scandal or sensation is incorporated into the song,

for many of the people have the faculty of the improvisatore, and so

contribute to the amusement or interest of their villages by these

allusions to or criticisms of matters of public concern or personal

gossip.

The women are generally very homely and coarse, unlike those of the

Batusi who are very often beautiful. Their chief ornament is of the

half-moon shape. They are not generous having learned the Arab adage

“nothing for nothing” yet they are respectful in deportment.

This tribe have some very singular customs in regard to birth and

burial. “When a child is born,” says Mr. Stanley, “the father cuts the

caul, and travels with it to the frontier of his district, and there

deposits it under the ground; if the frontier be a stream, he buries

it on the banks; then taking the root of a tree, he conveys it, on his

return, and buries it at the threshold of his door. He then invites his

friends to a feast that he has prepared. He kills an ox or half a dozen

goats, and distributes pombe. The mother, when approaching childbirth,

hastens to the woods, and is there attended by a female friend.

“After death the Wanyamwezi remove the body into the jungle, or, if a

person of importance, bury it in a sitting posture, or on its side, as

in Wagogo. On the march the body is merely thrown aside and left for

a prey to the hyena, the cleanest scavenger of the forest. When death

has taken away a member of a family, it is said by the relatives of the

deceased, that the ‘Miringu has taken him or her,’ or, ‘He or she is

lost,’ or, ‘It is God’s work.’”

Very few old men are seen in Central Africa. There are the evidences in

every village of premature age, such as gray hair and bent forms. The

Wanyamwezi seem to be diminishing in numbers. What with emigration to

other tribes, the hardships of the life of travel and burden-bearing to

which many of them are exposed, and the ravages of the slave wars in

which their chiefs are engaged, this people is evidently dying out. It

is a saddening spectacle, this decay and disappearance of one of the

most intelligent and capable tribes of Africa.

It is the testimony of Stanley that “eight out of ten of the bleached

skulls along the line of commerce in the interior are those of the

unfortunate Wanyamwezi, who succumbed to the perils and privations

attending the footsteps of every caravan. What a power in the land

might not a philanthropic government make of these people! What a

glorious testimony to the charity of civilization might they not

become! What docile converts to the gospel truths through a practical

missionary would they not make!”

CHAPTER CLXVI.

AFRICA--_Continued_.

UVINZA AND UHHA.

UVINZA, ITS LOCATION -- MODE OF SALUTATION -- GREAT MUTWARE OF

KIMENYI -- HIS EXTORTION -- THE CARAVAN STOPPED -- LONG PARLEY WITH

CHIEF MIONVU -- MIONVU’S SPEECH -- STANLEY’S REPLY -- MIONVU’S DEMAND

FOR TRIBUTE -- THE CHIEF INFLEXIBLE -- STANLEY ENRAGED, BUT POWERLESS

-- CONSULTATION WITH HIS MEN -- THEIR COUNSEL OF PEACE ADOPTED --

ENORMOUS BONGA PAID -- STANLEY’S STORES SADLY REDUCED -- BOLD PLAN TO

ESCAPE THE ROBBERS -- ITS SUCCESS -- LIVINGSTONE FOUND.

On the north of Unyanyembe is Uvinza, a rugged and somewhat

mountainous country. Its numerous ravines and ridges, while imparting

picturesqueness to the views, do not however contribute to its

productiveness. It is but poorly watered, the banks of Malagarazi

River being almost the only portion of great fertility. It has many

salt pans, from which the people manufacture their salt. Crossing the

Malagarazi, new customs and peculiarities greet the traveller. The

method of salutation is singular and tiresome. As persons approach,

they stretch out both hands to each other, uttering the words “Wake,

wake!” They then seize each other by the elbows, and rubbing each

other’s arms, say rapidly, “Wake, wake, waky, waky!” and finally

terminate the tiresome formula with grunts of “Huh, huh!” as token

of satisfaction. They dress in cloth when able to purchase it of the

caravans; but if poor, they use “goat-skins, suspended by a knot

fastened over the shoulder and falling over one side of their bodies.”

After many perils and delays Stanley entered the Uhha country. The

boundary between Uvinza and Uhha, is a narrow, dry ditch. Numerous

small villages could be seen, without the usual defence of a stockade,

indicating that the people were living in quiet and without fear of

marauders. Halting at Kawanga he soon learned from the chief that he

was “the great _Mutware_ of Kimenyi under the king, and therefore the

tribute-gatherer for his Kiha majesty.” As an illustration of the

African character and the difficulties of travelling in the interior,

we give the narrative in Stanley’s own words:--

“He declared he was the only one in Kimenyi, an eastern division of

Uhha, who could demand tribute, and that it would be very satisfactory

to him and a saving of trouble to ourselves if we settled his claim of

twelve _doti_ of good cloth at once. We did not think it the best way

of proceeding, however, knowing as we did the character of the native

African; so we at once proceeded to diminish the demand, but after six

hours’ hot argument the _mutware_ only reduced it by two. This claim

was then settled upon the understanding that we should be allowed to

travel through Uhha, as far as Rusugi River, without being further

mulcted.

“Leaving Kawanga early in the morning and continuing our march over

the boundless plain we were marching westward, joyfully congratulating

ourselves that within five days we should see that which I had come

far from civilization and through so many difficulties to see, and

were about passing a cluster of villages with all the confidence which

men possess against whom no one has further claim or word to say, when

I noticed two men darting from a group of natives, who were watching

us, and running toward the head of the expedition, with the object,

evidently, of preventing further progress.

“The caravan stopped, and I walked forward to ascertain the cause from

the two natives. I was greeted politely by the two Wahha with the

usual _yambos_, and was then asked, ‘Why does the white man pass by the

village of the King of Uhha without salutation and a gift? Does not the

white man know that there lives a king in Uhha to whom the Wangwana and

Arabs pay something for the right of passage?’

“‘Why, we paid last night to the chief of Kawanga, who informed us he

was the man deputed by the King of Wahha to collect the toll.’

“‘How much did you pay?’

“‘Ten _doti_ of good cloth.’

“‘Are you sure?’

“‘Quite sure. If you ask him he will tell you so.’

“‘Well!’ said one of the Wahha, a fine, handsome, intelligent-looking

youth, ‘it is our duty to the king to halt you here until we find out

the truth of this. Will you walk to our village and rest yourselves,

under the shade of the trees until we can send messengers to Kawanga?’

“‘No, the sun is but an hour high, and we have far to travel; but in

order to show you we do not seek to pass through your country without

doing that which is right, we will rest where we now stand, and we will

send with your messenger two of our soldiers, who will show you the man

to whom we paid the cloth.’

“The messenger departed; but in the meantime the handsome youth, who

turned out to be a nephew of the king, whispered some order to a lad,

who immediately hastened away, with the speed of an antelope, to the

cluster of villages we had just passed. The result of this errand,

as we soon saw, was the approach of a body of warriors, about fifty

in number, headed by a tall, fine-looking man, who was dressed in a

crimson robe, called _joho_, two ends of which were tied in a knot over

the left shoulder; a new piece of American sheeting was folded like a

turban around his head, and a large, curved piece of polished ivory was

suspended to his neck. He and all his people were armed with spears and

bows and arrows, and their advance was marked with a deliberation that

showed they felt perfect confidence in any issue that might transpire.

“The gorgeously-dressed chief was a remarkable man in appearance. His

face was oval in form, with high cheek-bones, eyes deeply sunk, a

prominent and bold forehead and a well-cut mouth; he was tall in figure

and perfectly symmetrical.

“When near to us he hailed me with the words ‘Yambo, bana?’ (How do you

do, master?) in quite a cordial tone.

“I replied cordially also, ‘Yambo, mutware?’ (How do you do, chief?)

“We, myself and men, interchanged _yambos_ with his warriors, and there

was nothing to indicate that the meeting was of a hostile character.

“The chief seated himself, his haunches resting on his heels, and

laying down his bow and arrows by his side, his men did likewise. I

seated myself on a bale, and each of my men sat down on their loads,

forming quite a semi-circle. The Wahha slightly outnumbered my party,

but while they were armed with only bows and arrows, spears and

knob-sticks, we were armed with rifles, muskets, revolvers, pistols,

and hatchets.

“All were seated, and deep silence was maintained by the assembly. Then

the chief spoke: ‘I am Mionvu, the great _Mutware_ of Kimenyi and am

next to the king, who lives yonder,’ pointing to a large village near

some naked hills, about ten miles to the north. ‘I have come to talk

with the white man. It has always been the custom of the Wangwana and

the Arabs to make a present to the king when they pass through his

country. Does not the white man mean to pay the king’s dues? Why does

the white man halt in the road? Why will he not enter the village of

Lukomo, where there are food and shade, where we can discuss this thing

quietly? Does the white man mean to fight? I know well he is stronger

than we are. His men have guns, and the Wahha have but bows and arrows

and spears; but Uhha is large and our villages are many. Let him look

about him everywhere: all is Uhha, and our country extends much farther

than he can see or walk in a day. The King of Uhha is strong, yet he

wishes friendship only with the white man. Will the white man have war

or peace?’ A deep murmur of assent followed this speech of Mionvu from

his people and disapprobation, blended with uneasiness, from my men.”

Stanley replied as follows:--

“‘Mionvu, the great _Mutware_, asks me if I have come for war. When did

Mionvu ever hear of white men warring against black men? Mionvu must

understand that white men are very different from the black. White men

do not leave their country to fight the black people, neither do they

come here to buy ivory or slaves. They come to make friends with the

black people; they come to search for rivers and lakes and mountains;

they come to discover what countries, what peoples, what rivers, what

lakes, what forests, what plains, what mountains and hills are in your

country, that when they go back they may tell the white kings and

men and children. The white people are different from the Arabs and

Wangwana, the white people know everything and are very strong; when

they fight the Arabs and Wangwana run away. We have great guns which

thunder, and when they shoot the earth trembles; we have guns which

carry bullets further than you can see. Even with these little things

(pointing to my revolvers) I could kill ten men quicker than you could

count. I could kill Mionvu now, yet I talk to him as a friend. I wish

to be a friend to Mionvu and to all black people. Will Mionvu say what

I can do for him?’

“As these words were translated to him, imperfectly I suppose but still

intelligibly, the faces of the Wahha showed how well they appreciated

them. Once or twice I thought I detected something like fear, but

my assertions that I desired peace and friendship with them soon

obliterated all such feelings.”

Mionvu replied,--

“‘The white man tells me he is friendly: why does he not come to our

village? Why does he stop on the road? The sun is hot. Mionvu will not

speak here any more. If the white man is a friend he will come to the

village.’

“‘We must stop now. It is noon. You have broken our march. We will

go and camp in your village,’ I said, at the same time rising, and

pointing to the men to take up their loads.

“We were compelled to camp, there was no help for it; the messengers

had not returned from Kawanga. Having arrived at his village, Mionvu

cast himself at full length under the scanty shade afforded by a few

trees without the _boma_. About 2 P. M. the messengers returned, saying

it was true the chief of Kawanga had taken ten cloths, not however for

the King of Uhha, but for himself.

“Mionvu, who, evidently, was keen-witted and knew perfectly what he was

about, now roused himself and began to make miniature fagots of thin

canes, ten to each fagot, and shortly he presented ten of these small

bundles, which together contained one hundred, to me, saying, ‘Each

stick represents a cloth.’ The amount of the _bonga_ required by the

King of Uhha was _one hundred cloths_,--nearly two bales.

“Recovering from our astonishment, which was almost indescribable,

we offered _ten_. ‘Ten to the King of Uhha! Impossible. You do not

stir from Lukomo until you pay one hundred,’ exclaimed Mionvu in a

significant manner.

“I returned no answer, but went to my hut, which Mionvu had cleared

for my use, and Bombay, Asmani, Mabruski, and Chowpereh were invited

to come to me for consultation. Upon my asking them if we could not

fight our way through Uhha, they became terror-stricken, and Bombay,

in imploring accents, asked me to think well what I was about to do,

because it was useless to enter on a war with the Wahha. Said he, ‘Uhha

is a plain country; we cannot hide anywhere. Every village will rise

all about us; and how can forty-five men fight thousands of people?

Think of it, my dear master, and do not throw your life away for a few

rags of cloth.’

“‘Well, but, Bombay, this is robbery. Shall we give the fellow

everything he asks? He might as well ask me for all the cloth and all

my guns without letting him see that we can fight.’

“‘No, no, dear master; don’t think of it for a moment. Pay Mionvu what

he asks and let us go away from here. This is the last place we shall

have to pay, and in four days we shall be in Ujiji.’

“‘Did Mionvu tell you that this is the last place we should have to

pay?’

“‘He did, indeed.’”

Each of the others whom Stanley had chosen as counsellors advised him

to yield to the extortion of Mionvu and pay rather than provoke a fight.

“‘Pay, _bana_,’ said Chowpereh. ‘It is better to get along quietly in

this country. If we were strong enough they would pay us.’

“‘Well, then, Bombay and Asmani, go to Mionvu, and offer him twenty; if

he will not take twenty, give him thirty; if he refuses thirty, give

him forty; then go up to eighty, slowly; make plenty of talk; not one

_doti_ more. I swear to you, I will shoot Mionvu if he demands more

than eighty. Go, and remember to be wise.’

“I will cut the matter short. At 9 P. M. sixty-four _doti_ were handed

over to Mionvu for the King of Uhha, six _doti_ for himself, and five

_doti_ for his sub,--altogether seventy-five _doti_, a bale and a

quarter.

“No sooner had we paid than they began to fight amongst themselves over

the booty. At dawn we were on the road, very silent and sad.”

After a four hours’ march, crossing the Kanengi River, they entered

the _boma_ of Kahirigi, and were told that the brother of the King of

Uhha lived there. This roused the apprehension that another exaction

of _bonga_ would be made, despite Mionvu’s assertion that his was

the last. The king’s brother demanded thirty _doti_, or half a bale.

Stanley was in a rage, ready and willing to fight and die rather than

be “halted by a set of miserable, naked robbers.”

He was also informed that there were five more chiefs about two hours’

distance apart from each other. This intelligence led him to adopt a

plan of evading this extortion. Accordingly, arrangements were secretly

made for leaving the usual route and taking to the jungle; and though

the plan came near being defeated several times, yet at length success

crowned the adventurous undertaking, and Stanley “had passed the

boundary of wicked Uhha and entered Ukaranga,--an event that was hailed

with extravagant shouts of joy.”

He saw inevitable ruin before him if his cloth was to be filched

from him at this rate by other chiefs. Beggary or bravery was the

alternative. He chose the latter. In a few days afterward he found

Livingstone at Ujiji.

CHAPTER CLXVII.

AFRICA--_Continued_.

THE MONBUTTOO.

DR. SCHWEINFURTH, THE DISCOVERER OF THIS TRIBE -- THEIR LOCALITY --

THEIR GOVERNMENT -- KINGS DOGBERRA AND MUNZA -- BONGWA AND HIS WIFE

VISIT DR. SCHWEINFURTH -- RECEPTION OF SCHWEINFURTH BY IZINGERRIA --

PIPES OF THE MONBUTTOO -- THEIR ACCURACY OF JUDGMENT -- WONDERFUL

BEAUTY OF THE COUNTRY -- KING MUNZA’S COURT -- ARROWS OF THE

MONBUTTOO -- DRESS AND MARTIAL EQUIPMENTS -- NEGLECT OF AGRICULTURE

-- SPHERE OF THE WOMEN -- SUBJECTION OF THE MEN -- UNCHASTITY OF BOTH

SEXES -- THEIR CANNIBALISM.

Dr. G. A. Schweinfurth, a young German explorer, having received

a grant of money from the Humboldt Institution in 1868, landed in

Egypt and thence penetrated the “heart of Africa.” Following out the

footsteps of Sir Samuel Baker, he took a westerly course and passing

through the country of Niam-niam (of which there is an account on

pages 440-444) he visited the hitherto unknown kingdom of Monbuttoo.

His scientific and ethnological discoveries have placed his name among

the eminent explorers of the African continent, and the results of his

explorations, published under the title, “In the Heart of Africa,” are

given to the public in a style that is rarely equalled.

On the south of the Niam-niam territory, between the parallels of 3°

and 4° north lat. and 28° and 29° east long. there is a district of

some 4,000 square miles inhabited by a people differing widely from

the usual type of the negro race. They are of a brownish complexion,

and are in many respects superior to the tribes of Central Africa.

They are generally called Monbuttoo, though the name of Gurrugurroo is

applied by the ivory traders. It is derived from the custom universal

among this people of piercing their ears. The density of population,

estimated from the observations of Dr. Schweinfurth, is probably not

exceeded by any portion of the continent. If the average be, as he

thought, at least two hundred and fifty inhabitants to a square mile,

the aggregate must be about a million people.

The government of this tribe, when Dr. Schweinfurth visited it, was in

the hands of two chieftains who had divided the sovereignty between

them. Dogberra was the king of the Eastern Division, while the Western

was under the sway of Munza, a more powerful and capable man. His

father was Tikkibah, who was the sole ruler of the Monbuttoo country,

but had been murdered by Dogberra, his brother, some thirteen years

before.

Nembey, a local chieftain under Dogberra, was visited by Schweinfurth

as soon as he entered the Monbuttoo territory, and showed his friendly

disposition by going to the hut of the explorer with his wives and

carrying a present of poultry. Schweinfurth was treated in the same

friendly way by Bongwa, another chief whose district he entered. This

Bongwa was subject to pay tribute to Munza and Dogberra alike, as his

possessions were contiguous to those of the rival kings.

Bongwa, attended by his wife, made a visit to the camp of Schweinfurth

and permitted him the unusual privilege of taking a sketch of both

himself and his better-half. Madame Bongwa took her seat on a Monbuttoo

bench, clad in nothing save “a singular band like a saddle-girth

across her lap, in the fashion of all the women of the country.” Her

complexion was several shades lighter than that of her husband. The

tattooing upon her person was quite remarkable and consisted of two

different kinds. A portion ran over the bosom and shoulders, forming a

line and ornament just where our ladies wear their lace collars, which

terminated in large crosses on the breast. The other pattern was traced

over the stomach, and stood out in such relief that it must have been

made by a hot iron. “It consisted of figures set in square frames,

and looked like the tracery which is sculptured on cornices and old

arches. Bodkins of ivory projected from her towering chignon, which was

surmounted by a plate as large as a dollar, fastened on by a comb with

fine teeth manufactured of porcupine-quills.”

The reception of Dr. Schweinfurth and his party by Izingerria, King

Munza’s viceroy and brother, was so hospitable as to be worthy of

narration. It was somewhat late in the afternoon that they made their

entrance into the viceroy’s mbanga. Both sides of the roadway were

thronged with wondering people who were attracted by curiosity to see

the white strangers. The officials were arrayed in full state, their

hats ornamented with plumes waving in the air. Their shield-bearers

accompanied them, and benches were brought so that they might receive

their guests with ease and sit comfortably to observe their appearance

in the interview.

When Schweinfurth visited Izingerria in the evening at his dwelling,

he found him sitting on his bench in the open space, surrounded by

his chief men. It is a custom of the country that all persons of any

distinction, heads of families and officials, when they pay a visit,

take with them their slaves who carry their benches, because, unlike

the Turks, the Munbuttoo consider it very unbecoming to sit upon the

ground even though it be covered with mats. The bench is indispensable.

The women sit on stools having only one leg. Having been made

acquainted with this custom, Schweinfurth always gave instructions that

some of his party should accompany him carrying his cane chair.

In this interview they sat opposite each other, and by a double

translation were enabled to confer together till late in the night.

There were none of the usual expression of hospitalities. Even the

explorer’s cigars did not attract the natives, though they smoke

tobacco excessively, nor did they offer the accustomed eleusine beer.

The Monbuttoo pipes, though of a primitive character are ingenious and

serviceable. They are made of the mid-rib of a plantain leaf generally,

though the upper classes often use a metal tube, some five feet long

and made by their smiths. “The lower extremity of the pipe is plugged

up and an opening is made in the side, near the end, into which is

inserted a plantain leaf twisted up and filled with tobacco. This

extemporized bowl is changed as often as requisite, sometimes every few

minutes, by the slaves who are kept in attendance. The only tobacco

that is known here is the Virginian.” Pipes constructed in this novel

way have a decided merit in modifying the rankness of the tobacco as

perfectly as if it had been inhaled through the water-reservoir of a

narghileh.

It excited the wonder of Dr. Schweinfurth that the natives could so

accurately, by the indication of the finger, point to any particular

place. Their skill in telling the hour of the day by the elevation of

the sun was equally surprising. He could rarely detect an error of

more than half an hour in their conjectures. On the plains and deserts

like those of Nubia a straight course is often pursued for many miles

without the least variation. The exactitude of their estimate is so

remarkable that if a lance be laid upon the ground the path to which

it directs will lead with scarcely a hair’s-breadth deviation to the

destination desired. This singular precision of judgment has been

observed and mentioned by other African travellers.

Munza’s kingdom which Schweinfurth at length entered lies about midway

between the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean in the “heart of Africa.” The

description of this remote region, hitherto unvisited by the white man,

we give in his own language:--

“Nothing could be more charming than that last day’s march, which

brought us to the limit of our wanderings. The twelve miles which

led to Munza’s palace were miles enriched by such beauty as might be

worthy of Paradise. The plantain groves harmonized so perfectly with

the clustering oil-palms that nothing could surpass the perfection of

the scene; whilst the ferns that adorned the countless stems in the

background of the landscape enhanced the charms of the tropical groves.

A clear and invigorating atmosphere contributed to the enjoyment of it

all, refreshing water and grateful shade being never far away. In front

of the native dwellings towered the splendid fig-trees of which the

spreading coronets defied the passage of the sun. The crowds of bearers

made their camp around the stem of a colossal _Cordia Abyssinica_,

which stood upon the open space in front of the abode of the local

chief and reminded me of the Abyssinian villages, where this tree is

cultivated.... These trees with their goodly coronets of spreading

foliage are the survivors from generations that are gone, and form a

comely ornament in well-nigh all the villages of the Monbuttoo.

“And then, finally, conspicuous amidst the massy depths of green was

descried the palace of the king. Halting on the hither side of a

stream at a place clear of trees they fixed their camp. In front was

visible a sloping area covered with a multitude of huts, some in a

conical shape and others like sheds. Surmounting all with ample courts,

broad and imposing, unlike anything we had seen since we left the

edifices of Cairo, upreared itself the spacious pile of King Munza’s

dwelling.”

The king is invested with large prerogatives, and always appears in

great state, accompanied with a numerous body of courtiers. Whenever he

leaves his residence he is attended by hundreds of his retinue, besides

his special body-guard, and a large number of trumpeters, drummers, and

subordinates with great iron bells lead the procession. Munza had three

viceroys in the persons of his brothers, and next to them were the

sub-chiefs who were governors of the provinces, and generally selected

from the numerous members of the blood royal.

The subordinate chiefs, to whom are assigned separate and well-defined

portions of the Monbuttoo territory, are accustomed to surround

themselves with the tokens of authority and state, little inferior to

those of their respective kings.

Next to them in rank are the chief officers of state, five in number.

“These are the keeper of the weapons, the master of the ceremonies, the

superintendent of the commissariat stores, the master of the household

to the royal ladies, and the interpreter for intercourse with strangers

and foreign rulers.” Besides, there is a vast number of civil officers

and overseers in various districts of the land to guard the interests

and maintain the prerogatives and dignity of the sovereign. In addition

to the courtiers there are numerous officials assigned to special

duties, such as private musicians, trumpeters and buglers, eunuchs and

jesters, ballad singers and dancers, who are retained to give splendor

to the court and furnish amusement on public and festal occasions.

There are also stewards whose duty is to maintain order at the feasts,

and they are authorized to inflict bodily chastisement if any be guilty

of disturbance and indecorum.

The arrows of the Monbuttoo differ from those of other tribes except

the A-Banga, by being furnished at the extremity of the shaft with

two wings. These are made either of pieces of plantain leaves or of

hairs of the tail of the genet. The points, when not of iron, are made

of a kind of wood that is almost as hard as iron. The shaft consists

of the firm, reedy steppe-grass, and is about the size of a common

lead-pencil. Schweinfurth says, “by a cruel refinement of skill, which

might almost be styled diabolical, they contrive to place one of the

joints of the reed just below the barbs, with the design that the

arrow should break off short as soon as it has inflicted the wound,

making it a very difficult matter to extract the barbs from the flesh.

The usual method of extracting a lance head is to take a knife and make

a sufficiently large incision in the wounded muscle for the barb to be

withdrawn, but, in fact, the result generally is that very jagged and

troublesome wounds are inflicted.”

The Monbuttoo resemble the A-Banga in their dress and martial

equipments. They have the custom of piercing the ears of both sexes so

that quite a large stick can be run through the opening. In order to

effect this the concave portion of the ear is cut out. This tribe, as

well as the A-Banga, have by this peculiarity received the name from

the Nubians of Gurrugurroo (derived from the word gurgur, which means

“bored,”) to distinguish them from Niam-niam. Both the first-mentioned

tribes practise circumcision, while the latter allow no mutilation of

the human body.

This people, living in so remote and secluded a region, and having no

intercourse with Mohammedan or Christian nations, have never learned

the art of weaving. Accordingly their clothing is made of the bast from

the bark of the fig-trees, which are so much prized that they may be

seen contiguous to almost every hut. The custom of wearing skins, which

obtains among the Niam-niam, does not exist among this tribe save when

a fancy dress is needed for dancers. There is a singular absence of

domestic animals among the Monbuttoo, with the exception of the little

dogs known as the “nessey,” and their poultry. They do not engage in

cattle-breeding, and have only one specimen of the swine family, the

potamochoerus, which they keep in a half-tame state.

Their supply of meat for food is obtained in their hunting expeditions,

their taste giving preference to the flesh of elephants, buffaloes,

wild boars, and antelopes. As they understand the art of preserving

meat they are not under the necessity of keeping cattle or resorting

constantly to the field to supply their ever-recurring wants.

There is very little that can be called agriculture among them, the

soil producing very abundantly and without the need of much care or

cultivation. Besides, it is somewhat remarkable that what is the

common feed of the tribes in the interior of Africa, viz. sorghum and

pencillaria, are entirely disregarded by this people. They are too

idle to devote any time to the raising of cereals. The cultivation of

plantain, which is common, requires very little attention; all that

is requisite is to let the old plants die down where they are and

simply stick the young shoots in the ground after it has been softened

by rain. The Monbuttoo exhibit a remarkable discrimination in the

selection of plants, being able to tell whether a shoot will bear fruit

or not, and thus avoid those not worth the trouble of planting,--a

faculty that would be of great service to gardeners everywhere. There

are only a few plants that they cultivate at all, and these are such

as require but the least possible exertion. The sesame, earthnuts,

sugar-canes, and tobacco constitute the bulk of their products from the

soil.

This work of tillage and of gathering the harvest is the sphere of the

women, the men spending the day in lounging, talking, and smoking,

except when engaged in war or the hunt. They avoid all labor. In the

morning they may be seen reclining under the shade of the oil-palms

upon their carved benches and regaling themselves with tobacco. In the

middle of the day they betake themselves to the cool halls where they

can give utterance to their opinions with entire freedom. These groups

form an animated picture of the social life of these distant people.

Their vivacity and gesticulation are truly visible in all these noonday

gatherings of the Monbuttoo men.

The manufacture of pottery is also here confined exclusively to the

women as in other parts of Africa. The men however are the smiths, and

they share the work of basket-making and wood-carving with the women.

The greater portion of the manual labor, it will be seen, is performed

by the weaker sex. While, however, they are subjected to this servile

labor, the relation of wives to their husbands is one of independence

and authority.

The subjection of men was illustrated by the answer made when they

were solicited to sell anything: “Oh, ask my wife; it is hers.”

Polygamy prevails among this people, and very little regard is paid

to the obligations of marriage. Considering their intelligence and

general improvement in some of the arts of civilization, rendering

them superior to most other tribes, the character of the women, in

respect to deportment and chastity, is an anomaly. They suffer greatly

in comparison with the Niam-niam women, who are modest and retiring.

The conduct of the men and women toward each other is one of offensive

laxity. Many of the latter indulged in gross obscenity, and the

immodesty of this sex, generally, far exceeded anything Schweinfurth

had seen among other tribes, even the lowest. The contrast of this

general freedom and unchastity, with so much that is commendable and

interesting in the character of the Monbuttoo, excited his surprise.

In the culinary arts they exhibit a very considerable superiority

over the African tribes. Yet blended with this higher culture in the

mode of preparing their food there is another horrid anomaly. Human

fat is in universal use among them, and this leads us to consider

their cannibalism. Among no people of the continent is the eating

of human flesh so much a recognized and systematic custom as among

the Monbuttoo. The testimony of Dr. Schweinfurth we give in his own

language: “Surrounded as the Monbuttoo are by a number of people

who are blacker than themselves, and who, being inferior to them in

culture, are consequently held in great contempt, they have just the

opportunity which they want for carrying on expeditions of war or

plunder that result in the acquisition of a booty which is especially

coveted by them, consisting of human flesh. The carcasses of all who

fall in battle are distributed upon the battle-field, and are prepared

by drying for transport to the homes of the conquerors. They drive

their prisoners before them without remorse, as butchers would drive

sheep to the shambles, and those are only reserved to fall victims on

a later day to their horrible and sickening greediness. During our

residence at the court of Munza, the general rumor was quite current,

that nearly every day some little child was sacrificed to supply his

meal. It would hardly be expected that many opportunities would be

afforded to strangers of witnessing the natives at their repast, and

to myself there occurred only two instances when I came upon any of

them whilst they were actually engaged in preparing human flesh for

consumption. The first of these happened by my coming unexpectedly upon

a number of young women who had a supply of boiling hot water upon

the clay floor in front of the doorway of a hut, and were engaged in

the task of scalding the hair off the lower half of a human body. The

operation, so far as it was effected, had changed the black skin into a

fawny gray, and the disgusting sight could not fail to make me think of

the soddening and scouring of our fatted swine. On another occasion I

was in a hut and observed a human arm hanging over the fire, obviously

with the design of being at once dried and smoked.

“Incontrovertible tokens and indirect evidence of the prevalence of

cannibalism were constantly turning up at every step we took. On one

occasion Mohammed and myself were in Munza’s company, and Mohammed

designedly turned the conversation to the topic of human flesh, and put

the direct question to the king, how it happened at this precise time,

while we were in the country, there was no consumption of human flesh?

Munza expressly said, ‘that being aware that such a practice was held

in aversion by us, he had taken care that it should only be carried on

in secret.’”

There was no opportunity granted to any of Schweinfurth’s caravan of

seeing the Monbuttoo at their meals. The Nubians had conscientious

scruples which forbade their partaking food with these cannibals. The

others, belonging to inferior native tribes, as the Mittoo or Bonga

servants, were regarded as unworthy, being uncircumcised and savages,

to sit at meal with the Monbuttoo.

Schweinfurth bought, with pieces of copper, quite a number of human

skulls, that are now in the Anatomical Museum, in Berlin,--the

unquestionable proofs that this people are unsurpassed in their

devotion to this degrading and horrible practice; yet they are a

remarkable and in many respects a noble race of men, “who display a

certain national pride, and are endowed with an intellect and judgment

such as few natives of the African wilderness can boast, men to whom

one may put a reasonable question and who will return a reasonable

answer.”

CHAPTER CLXVIII.

AFRICA--_Continued_.

THE PYGMIES.

A TRADITION OF THE CENTURIES -- AN ETHNOLOGICAL QUESTION SETTLED --

DR. SCHWEINFURTH’S DISCOVERY OF THE AKKA RACE -- HIS INTERVIEW WITH

ADIMOKOO -- WAR-DANCE OF THE LITTLE PYGMY -- CORPS OF AKKA WARRIORS

-- DR. SCHWEINFURTH’S PYGMY PROTEGÉ, NSEWUE -- PHYSICAL PECULIARITIES

OF THE AKKA -- THEIR RESEMBLANCE TO THE BUSHMEN -- DR. SCHWEINFURTH’S

CONCLUSIONS IN REGARD TO THE ORIGIN OF THE PYGMIES.

One of the chief results of Dr. Schweinfurth’s travels in Africa is

the solution of a problem that for thousands of years has remained

without any satisfactory answer. The ethnological question respecting

the existence of a dwarf race in Central Africa, which has occasioned

so much discussion, this traveller has forever settled. The classical

writers of the centuries gone make mention of the Pygmies. The poet of

the Iliad alludes to them as though the fact of their existence had

been long and well-known. Historians like Herodotus and Aristotle, as

well as the poets, give similar testimony. For three or four centuries

before the Christian era, the Greeks seem to have fully believed in the

existence of a dwarf race in equatorial Africa.

So, too, modern travellers on the Nile have much to say about these

small people. Du Chaillu asserts that he met them in Ashango Land.

Knapf says he saw one on the eastern coast. But despite all the ancient

traditions from the earlier ages and the testimony of recent explorers,

the existence of such a race has been stoutly denied. It has been

regarded as the “immortal myth of poetry,” over which scholars and

travellers have fought a long and, till recently, only a drawn battle.

To Dr. Schweinfurth is to be ascribed the credit of having turned the

tide of this conflict and caused victory to perch on the banners of

those who have believed in the veritable existence of the Pygmy race.

This traveller found that his Nubian attendants never wearied of

talking about the Automoli or dwarfs, whose country they were daily

approaching. It seemed strange that they should be so thoroughly

possessed with the conviction of the existence of such a people. They

would state, with the utmost confidence, that south of the Niam-niam

land lived a race not more than three feet in height and wearing beards

so long as to reach to their knees. They described them as armed with

lances and accustomed to creep beneath the bellies of elephants and

kill them, so adroitly managing their own movements as to avoid any

injury from the trunk of the infuriated beasts. This skill, it was

represented, made them of great service to the ivory traders. The

name assigned them was “Shebber-diginto,” meaning the growth of the

elongated beard.

That those of Dr. Schweinfurth’s attendants and servants who had been

attached to the Niam-niam expedition should be such firm believers in

the fact of a dwarf race that they never described the wonders and

splendors of the court of the cannibal kings without referring to and

describing the Pygmies who filled the office of court buffoons, excited

the surprise of the traveller, and awakened the keenest desire to

solve, if possible, the vexed question of the ages. He could not resist

the impression that there must be some substantial basis for these

unequivocal and positive assertions of the natives. The way in which

his doubts were all dispelled and this ethnological problem of the

centuries solved is graphically described by him:--

“Several days elapsed after my taking up my residence by the palace

of the Monbuttoo king without my having a chance to get a view of the

dwarfs, whose fame had so keenly excited my curiosity. My people,

however, assured me that they had seen them. I remonstrated with them

for not having secured me an opportunity of seeing for myself, and

for not bringing them into contact with me. I obtained no other reply

but that the dwarfs were too timid to come. After a few mornings my

attention was arrested by a shouting in the camp, and I learned that

Mohammed had surprised one of the Pygmies in attendance upon the king,

and was conveying him, in spite of a strenuous resistance, straight to

my tent. I looked up, and _there_, sure enough, was the strange little

creature, perched upon Mohammed’s right shoulder, nervously hugging his

head, and casting glances of alarm in every direction. Mohammed soon

deposited him in the seat of honor. A royal interpreter was stationed

at his side. Thus, at last, was I able veritably to feast my eyes upon

a living embodiment of the myths of some thousand years.

Eagerly, and without loss of time, I proceeded to take his portrait.

I pressed him with innumerable questions, but to ask for information

was an easier matter altogether than to get an answer. There was the

greatest difficulty in inducing him to remain at rest, and I could

only succeed by exhibiting a store of presents. Under the impression

that the opportunity before me might not occur again, I bribed the

interpreter to exercise his influence to pacify the little man, to set

him at his ease, and to induce him to lay aside any fear of me that he

might entertain. Altogether we succeeded so well that in a couple of

hours the Pygmy had been measured, sketched, feasted, presented with

a variety of gifts, and subjected to a minute catechism of searching

questions.

His name was Adimokoo. He was the head of a small colony, which was

located about half a league from the royal residence. With his own

lips I heard him assert that the name of his nation was Akka, and I

further learned that they inhabit large districts to the south of the

Monbuttoo, between lat. 2° and 1° N. A portion of them are subject

to the Monbuttoo king, who, desirous of enhancing the splendor of

his court by the addition of any available natural curiosities, had

compelled several families of the Pygmies to settle in the vicinity.

My Niam-niam servants, sentence by sentence, interpreted to me

everything that was said by Adimokoo to the Monbuttoo interpreter, who

was acquainted with no dialects but those of his own land.

In reply to my question put to Adimokoo as to where his country was

situated, pointing toward the south-south-east, he said, “Two days’

journey and you come to the village of Mummery; on the third day you

will reach the River Nalobe; the fourth day you arrive at the first of

the villages of the Akka.”

The patience of Adimokoo having been exhausted by the persistent and

prolonged questioning of Dr. Schweinfurth, he made a sudden, violent

effort to escape from his curious inquisitor, but being surrounded by

so many in the tent his attempt was fruitless. After some persuasion

he was prevailed upon to go through with some of the war-dances

characteristic of his race. His dress was like that of the Monbuttoo,

and he was armed with a small lance and a bow and arrow. The height of

this interesting representative of the Pygmies was four feet and ten

inches, which is about the average measurement of these small people.

Dr. Schweinfurth was familiar with the war-dances of the Niam-niam,

and they had excited his astonishment by the wonderful evolutions

displayed; but the exhibition that this dwarf gave surpassed all he had

ever seen. Notwithstanding his bandy legs and large, bloated belly and

his age, his rapid and dexterous movements were simply marvellous. The

spectators were convulsed with laughter at the grotesque expressions

that accompanied the leaps and various attitudes assumed by this little

fellow.

Dr. Schweinfurth won the confidence of Adimokoo, and loading him with

presents sent him away, expressing the desire to see others of his

people, and promising that they should lose nothing by making him

a visit. Having overcome their fear of the stranger, some of them

visited him almost every day. It is to be regretted that Schweinfurth’s

sudden departure from the Monbuttoo territory interrupted his study of

this singular and interesting race, and prevented him from learning

all their peculiarities. A somewhat amusing incident occurred which

corroborates Dr. Schweinfurth’s discovery. Mummery, brother and viceroy

of King Munza, was returning from a campaign against the Momvoo. Among

his soldiers was a corps of Akka warriors, the Akka being tributary to

him. Dr. Schweinfurth had occasion to pass through the village where

these troops were halted. Just as he reached the open space in front

of the royal halls he found himself surrounded by what he supposed to

be a throng of rude, insulting boys. They pointed their arrows at him

and made a show of fight, and treated him with so much disrespect as

to excite his indignation. But his Niam-niam attendants immediately

corrected his misapprehension. “They are Tikkitikki” (the Niam-niam

word for Akka), said they. “You imagine that they are boys, but in

truth they are men; nay, men that can fight.” Mummery discovering the

situation, at once relieved Schweinfurth’s fears. The strange spectacle

of such a company of trained warriors, yet all so small, deeply

impressed the mind of the traveller, and he resolved to inspect their

camp the next morning. But his purpose was defeated, for Mummery and

all his followers took an early departure; and thus, as Schweinfurth

says, “‘like the baseless fabric of a vision,’ this people, so near

and yet so unattainable, had vanished into the thin obscurity of the

innermost continent.”

None of the measurements taken of these Pygmies much exceeded four

feet and ten inches, except in instances in which they were descended

from the Monbuttoo by intermarriages. Dr. Schweinfurth secured one of

these little men and made him his _protégé_, departing from an hitherto

invariable rule, allowing Nsewue (this being the name of the little

Akka), to be the companion of his meals, a privilege he never allowed

to any other native African.

The race of dwarfs does not differ materially from surrounding tribes,

except in size. They have a redder or brighter complexion, and reports

of travellers vary in regard to the growth of the hair. The Niam-niam,

however, uniformly represent the Pygmies as having long beards, and yet

Schweinfurth never found this characteristic in any of the Akka who

came under his notice.

The head of the Akka is disproportionately large and is balanced on

a weak, thin neck. The upper portion of the body is long; the chest

being flat and much contracted, widens out in the lower part, to

support the huge belly. From behind, their bodies seem to form a curve

that resembles the letter S. Turning their feet inward, unlike other

Africans, who walk straight, they have a waddling gait. Nsewue could

never carry a dish without spilling a part of its contents, as every

step was a kind of lurch, and he was a good representative of the

physical peculiarities of his race.

The structure of their hands is singularly delicate and handsome. The

most marked peculiarity of these people is the shape of the skull and

head. The prognathous character of the face is developed to a large

degree, the facial angles in the two portraits that Schweinfurth gives,

being 60° and 66° respectively. “The snout-like projection of the jaw,

with an unprotruding chin and a wide, almost spherical skull and gaping

lips, suggest a resemblance to the ape. In these peculiarities the

Akka and Bushmen of South Africa exhibit undeniable resemblances. We

conclude this account of the Pygmies with the summary into which their

discoverer has briefly embodied his opinion in regard to the origin of

the Akka and their relationship to other African peoples.

“Scarcely a doubt,” says he, “can exist but that all these people,

like the Bushmen of South Africa, may be considered as the scattered

remains of an aboriginal population now becoming extinct; and their

isolated and sporadic existence bears out the hypothesis. For centuries

after centuries, Africa has been experiencing the effects of many

immigrations; for thousands of years one nation has been driving out

another, and as the result of repeated subjugations and interminglings

of race with race, such manifold changes have been introduced into the

conditions of existence that the succession of new phases, like the

development in the world of plants, appears almost, as it were, to open

a glimpse into the infinite.

“Incidentally, I have just referred to the Bushmen, those notorious

natives of the South African forests who owe their name to the

likeness which the Dutch colonists conceived they bore to the ape,

as the prototype of the human race. I may further remark that their

resemblance to the equatorial Pygmies is in many points very striking.

Gustav Fritsch, the author of a standard work upon the natives of

South Africa, first drew my attention to the marked similarity between

my portraits of the Akka and the general type of the Bushmen, and so

satisfied did I become in my own mind, that I feel quite justified (in

my observations upon the Akka) in endeavoring to prove that all the

tribes of Africa, whose proper characteristic is an abnormally low

stature, belong to one and the self-same race.”

CHAPTER CLXIX.

AFRICA--_Continued_.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AFRICAN RACE.

BEADS AS CURRENCY -- MOST POPULAR KINDS -- MODE OF BECKONING --

NATIVE SURGERY -- RELIGION -- IDOLS, REPRESENTING DECEASED KINDRED --

COMMUNION WITH DEPARTED SPIRITS -- THEIR RETURN TO AVENGE INJURIES

-- SINGULAR CUSTOMS -- THE MILANDO -- WOMEN THE PRINCIPAL CAUSE --

THE DREAD OF RIDICULE -- POLITENESS A TRAIT OF THE AFRICANS -- MODES

OF SALUTATION -- THE NATURAL KINDNESS OF AFRICAN TRIBES -- THEIR

BARBARITY CAUSED BY WRONGS AGAINST THEM -- THEIR KINDNESS TOWARD

LIVINGSTONE -- MISTAKE OF SPEKE -- CHILD SELLING -- EDUCATION OF THE

WORLD -- AFRICANS QUICK TO RECOGNIZE GOODNESS.

In concluding the description of the tribes of Eastern and Central

Africa of which we have learned from the pages of Livingstone,

Schweinfurth and Stanley, we present some general features and

characteristics not confined merely to one tribe.

It is well-known to our readers that beads are a most important part

of the currency throughout Africa; but it is not so well-known that

great judgment must be exercised in the selection of them in regard to

size and color. These are far from being matters of indifference to the

natives, and fashions obtain among them as inexorable and fatal to the

trader oftentimes as the fashions among civilized peoples. With few

exceptions the beads used in Africa are manufactured in Venice. If not

informed in regard to the prevalent fashion among a people whom the

traveller is intending to visit, he will be likely to load himself with

what cannot be exchanged at all, and will prove utterly valueless.

The following nomenclature and description of the most valuable and

popular beads are derived from Chuma and Susi, those faithful servants

of Dr. Livingstone who came to England bearing the precious remains of

their beloved master.

“The beads that the Waiyau prefer are exceedingly small, the size of

a mustard seed and of various colors, but they must be opaque; among

them, dull, white chalk varieties called ‘catchokolo’ are valuable

besides black and pink named respectively ‘bububu’ and ‘sekundereché,’

(the dregs of pombé). One red bead of various sizes, which has a

white centre, is always valuable in any part of Africa. It is called

‘samisami’ by the Suahélé, ‘chitakaraka’ by the Waiyau, ‘mangazi’

(blood) by the Nyassa, and was found popular even among the Manyuema,

under the name of ‘masokantussi,’ (birds’ eyes). It is interesting

to observe that one peculiar, long bead, recognized as common in the

Manyuema land, is only sent to the west coast of Africa, and never to

the east. On Chuma’s pointing to it as a sort found at the extreme

limit explored by Livingstone, it was at once seen that he must have

touched that part of Africa which begins to be within the reach of the

traders in the Portuguese settlements.

“‘Machua kangu’ (guinea fowls’ eyes) is another popular variety; and

the ‘moiompio’ (new heart), a large, pale-blue bead, is a favorite

among the Wabisa; but by far the most valuable of all is a small,

white, oblong bead which when strung looks like the joints of the

cane-root, from which it takes its name ‘salami’ (canes). Susi says

that one pound weight of these beads would buy a tusk of ivory at the

south end of Tanganyika, so big that a strong man could not carry it

more than two hours.

“Africans all beckon to a person with the hand in a way very different

from that of Europeans and Americans. We beckon with the hand _supine_,

or the palm up, but they with the palm down. This mode arises from

their idea of beckoning, which is to lay the hand on the person and so

draw him toward them. If the person wished for be near, the beckoner

puts out his right hand on a level with his heart and makes the motion

of catching the other, by shutting the fingers and drawing him to

himself. If the person be farther off, this motion is increased by

lifting the right hand as high as he can; he then brings it down with

a sweep toward the ground, the hand being held prone during all the

operation. Their method of assent is entirely opposite from ours.

We nod assent bringing the chin down: they lift it to signify their

concurrence. This raising of the chin, though not appearing so strange

after becoming familiar with the custom, is yet not so natural as the

use of the hand in beckoning.”

As the servants of Livingstone were faithfully bearing his dead body

from the interior of Africa to the coast, they reached a village of the

Kawendé people. A present of a cow was made to the caravan; but she

must be caught. These animals being very wild, a hunt was undertaken.

Saféné, firing recklessly, unfortunately wounded one of the villagers,

fracturing his thigh-bone. The process adopted for setting the broken

limb is so peculiar that we give its description as an illustration of

native surgery.

“First of all, a hole was dug, say two feet deep and four in length,

in such a manner that the patient could sit in it with his legs out

before him. A large leaf was then bound round the fractured thigh, and

earth thrown in, so that the patient was buried up to the chest. The

next act was to cover the earth which lay over the man’s legs with a

thick layer of mud; then plenty of sticks and grass were collected and

a fire lighted on the top, directly over the fracture. To prevent the

smoke from smothering the sufferer, they held a tall mat as a screen

before his face, and the operation went on. After some time the heat

reached the limbs under ground. Bellowing with fear and covered with

perspiration, the man implored them to let him out. The authorities,

concluding he had been under treatment a sufficient time, quickly

burrowed down and lifted him from the hole. He was now held perfectly

fast, while two strong men stretched the wounded limb with all their

might. Splints duly prepared were afterward bound round it, and we must

hope that in due time benefit accrued; but as the ball passed through

the limb, we must have doubts on the subject. The villagers told Chuma

that after the Banyamwezi engagements they constantly treated bad

gun-shot wounds in this way with perfect success.”

In respect to religion of the African tribes, it is the belief that

there is a power superior to man, which is sometimes beneficent, and

sometimes evil, and to be dreaded. This is the elementary belief,

arising from the feelings of dependence on a divine or unseen power,

yet with a vague conception of the attributes of this power, and

so idols may come to be regarded as the modes or channels for its

manifestation.

In Central Africa an idol may be found in almost every village. It

is made of wood, and resembles the people in features, marking, and

fashion of the hair. Some are in the houses, others have little huts

made for them. They are called _Nkisi_ by the Bahemba, and _Kalubi_ by

the people of Rua. Presents of pombé, flour, bhang, tobacco are made to

the idol and a fire is lighted for it to smoke by.

They represent the departed father or mother, and it is thought that

they are gratified by the offerings made to their representatives.

Casembe has many of these _nkisi_; one with long hair, named Motombo,

is carried in front when he takes the field. Sometimes the names of

dead chiefs are given to them. It is doubtful whether prayers are

ever offered to these idols. The Arabs, who are familiar with their

language, assert that they have no prayers and think that death is the

end of the man. There are, however, evidences of a belief in a Superior

Power. Some think there are two Superior Beings,--Rua above, who kills

people, and Rua below, who carries them away after death.

The existence of and communion with departed spirits is deeply imbedded

in the faith of the African and has been from time immemorial. The

keenest distress is felt in the prospect of any bodily mutilation or

burning of the body after death. They regard these as bars to their

intercourse with relatives that survive; they think they would thereby

be unable to aid those they love or retaliate upon those who have

wronged them. As we have seen, this hope inspires the slaves to sing

in their bondage, giving them a kind of enjoyment in their anticipated

revenge upon those who have captured or cruelly treated them.

This is a prevalent belief among the tribes in the interior. Their

conception of the future state is that a desire for vengeance upon

enemies still alive on earth is the ruling purpose and passion,

and hence there is a superstitious horror connected with the dead.

This was one of the most serious dangers imperilling the success of

Livingstone’s faithful servants, in their endeavor to bring the dead

body of their master out of Central Africa and deliver it up to his

kindred and his native land.

The religion of the African is therefore an effort to propitiate those

who show that they are able to revisit the earth and torment and work

mischief by any unfortunate accident or the opening of a war. All their

ceremonies hinge upon this belief. Accordingly chief and people make

common cause against those who, in going through their territory, lose

any of their number by death. Such events are regarded as most serious

offences, and therefore excite the strongest apprehension of the

natives and unite them as one in hostilities against those who thus are

brought into conflict with their superstition.

In some of the villages a singular custom prevails in regard to the

dead. When a child or relative dies, a small miniature hut, about two

feet high, is built and very neatly thatched and plastered. If any food

especially palatable be cooked, or beer be brewed, a portion of it is

placed in this tiny hut for the departed soul, that is believed to

enjoy it.

Another peculiarity of these uncivilized Africans is not without some

counterpart among more intelligent and self-styled civilized people.

A chief whose town Livingstone entered was absent on some _milando_.

Livingstone writes in connection with this circumstance that “these

_milandos_ are the business of their lives. They are like petty

lawsuits; if one trespasses on his neighbor’s rights in any way it

is a _milando_, and the head men of all the villages are called to

settle it. Women are a fruitful source of _milando_.” If an intelligent

African traveller should visit this country to learn the customs and

traits of the people he might possibly conclude that the truth of

Livingstone’s last statement is not applicable only to equatorial

Africa. A few ears of Indian corn had been taken by a person, and

Chitikola had been called a full day’s journey off to settle this

_milando_. He administered muave[2] and the person vomited; therefore

innocence was clearly established. In cases of _milando_ they rely on

the most distant connections and relations to plead their cause, and

seldom are they disappointed, though time at certain seasons is felt by

all to be precious.

[2] The ordeal poison.

Another characteristic of the African is that he cannot withstand

ridicule and sneers. He is extremely sensitive to any manifestations of

derision, and is restive under criticism. Livingstone describes this

trait in this way:--

“When any mishap occurs in the march (as when a branch tilts a load

off a man’s shoulder), all who see it set up a yell of derision; if

anything is accidentally spilled or one is tired and sits down, the

same yell greets him, and all are excited thereby to exert themselves.

They hasten on with their loads and hurry with the sheds they build,

the masters only bringing up the rear and helping any one who may be

sick. The distances travelled were quite as much as the masters or we

could bear.”

Sensitive as Africans are to anything like derision or depreciation,

they are naturally mindful of what is due to others. Such a disposition

is the foundation of politeness. Livingstone, passing through a village

of Manyuema, saw a newly-married couple standing with arms around each

other very lovingly, but “no one joked or poked fun at them.”

The Africans, as a race, are distinguished for politeness, and their

modes of salutation indicate courtesy and deference. In Ulungu, the

custom “among relations is to place the hands around each other’s

chests, kneeling; they then clap their hands close to the ground. Some

more abject individuals kiss the soil before the chief. The generality

kneel only, with the forearms close to the ground and the head bowed

down to them, saying ‘O Ajadla, chiusa, Mari a bwéno!’

“The Usanga say ‘Ajé senga.’ The clapping of hands to superiors and

even equals is in some villages a perpetually occurring sound. Aged

persons are usually saluted. How this extreme deference to each other

could have arisen, I cannot conceive; it does not seem to be fear of

each other that elicits it. Even the chiefs inspire no fear, and those

cruel old platitudes about governing savages by fear seem unknown; yet

governed they certainly are, and upon the whole very well. The people

were not very willing to go to punish Nsama’s breach of public law;

yet, on the decision of its chiefs, they went, and came back,--one

with a wooden stool, another with a mat, a third with a calabash of

ground-nuts or some dried meat, a hoe or a bow,--poor, poor pay for a

fortnight’s hard work, hunting fugitives and burning villages.”

The African people have naturally a great deal of kindness of

disposition. They are not treacherous, savage, and blood-thirsty

without some cause. Their bitter and sore experience from the Arab

traders has made them suspicious of all strangers, and has transformed

their native kindness into sullen hatred and a desire for vengeance

upon their enemies.

Moenemokata, an Arab who had travelled among African tribes more

extensively than any of his race, said to Livingstone, “If a man go

with a good-natured, civil tongue, he may pass through the worst people

in Africa unharmed.” It is a remarkable fact that Livingstone, who

traversed so large a portion of the great continent of Africa, and

visited so many tribes widely differing in spirit and character, never

resorted to violence. In no instance during his long wanderings and his

manifold perils among these heathen people did he use his weapon to the

injury of the natives.

Even in Manyuema, among the people that all said “are bad, very bad,”

blood-thirsty cannibals, if none of them had been wronged by the Arab

traders, plundered and spoliated, they would not be so inspired with

feelings of malice and revenge. Livingstone had little difficulty in

obtaining what he needed. He says, “None of the people are ferocious

without cause.” It was a quite frequent occurrence for old men to come

forward to him with bananas as a present, saying as he passed, with

trembling accents, “Bolongo, bolongo!” (Friendship, friendship). If

he paused to return the favor by some gift, others ran for plantains

or palm-toddy. The Arabs would seize what they wished, demand food

peremptorily, and eat it without one word of thanks, and then say to

Livingstone, “They are bad. Don’t give them anything.” “Why, what

badness is there in giving food?” Livingstone replied. “Oh! they like

you, but hate us.”

Much of the barbarity and badness of these African tribes may be

ascribed to the heartlessness, falsehood, pillage, and murder by the

Mohammedan slave-dealers. Livingstone gives in his journal these

incidents to show the characteristic kindness of the African race:--

“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 hands imploringly, but Musa and

the rest allowed him to perish. On my denouncing his heartlessness,

Musa replied, ‘Well, no one tell him to 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 both with Johanna men and Makololo, I take these incidents

as typical of the two cases. Those of mixed blood possess the vices of

both races and the virtues of neither.”

Speke, at Kasangé Islet, made this statement, viz., “The mothers of

these savage people have infinitely less affection than many savage

beasts of my acquaintance. I have seen a mother-bear galled by frequent

shots, obstinately meet her death by repeatedly returning under fire

while endeavoring to rescue her young from the grasp of intruding

men. But here, for a simple loin-cloth or two, human mothers eagerly

exchanged their little offspring, delivering them into perpetual

bondage to my Beluch soldiers.”--SPEKE, pp. 234, 235.

Livingstone contradicts this statement as a general one, and thinks it

was only a single and exceptional case. His inquiries, put to Arabs

who have travelled most extensively among the African tribes, failed

to elicit any corroboration of this assertion of Speke, except in the

very infrequent case of a child cutting the upper front teeth before

the under, and because such a child is thought to be _moiko_ (unlucky),

and certain to bring death into the family. It is called an Arab child,

and sold to the first Arab, or even left at his door. The Arabs knew of

no child-selling except under these circumstances, which seldom occur,

and the transaction, accordingly, grows out of a superstition. “Speke

had only two Beluch soldiers with him, and the idea that they loaded

themselves with infants stamps this tale as fabulous. He may have seen

one sold,--an extremely rare and exceptional case, but the inferences

drawn are just like that of the Frenchman who thought the English so

partial to suicide in November that they might be seen suspended from

trees in the common highways.”

Livingstone well says, “The education of the world is a terrible one,

and it has come down on Africa with relentless vigor from 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 that which it was of old,

when Zerah and Tirhaka flourished and were great.”

Among the reflections inspired by his desire for the redemption of

Africa which the missionary explorer was in the habit of recording from

time to time in his journal, we find tributes to the character of these

benighted men. The following is one of these testimonies by him who,

better than any other man, knew the African race:--

“No jugglery or sleight-of-hand, as was recommended to Napoleon III,

would have any effect in the civilization of Africa. They have too much

good sense for that. Nothing brings them to place thorough confidence

in Europeans but a long course of well-doing. They believe readily

in the supernatural as effecting any new process or feat of skill,

for it is part of their original faith to ascribe everything above

human agency to unseen spirits. Goodness or unselfishness impresses

their minds more than any kind of skill or power. They say ‘You have

different hearts from ours; all black men’s hearts are bad, but yours

are good.’ The prayer for a new heart and right spirit at once commends

itself as appropriate.”

NOTE.--These facts offer a solution of a great national problem

in regard to an uncivilized race on this continent. Selfish,

unscrupulous government traders, whiskey-venders, etc., all say that

the “Indian is bad, very bad,” a remorseless savage, and should be

summarily exterminated. The Arab merchants and slave-dealers say the

Manyuema are bad. The parallel is close and not complimentary to

the conduct of the civilized race that has plundered the Red Man,

debauched him with fire-water, and provoked retaliation and war by

its breach of treaties and its seizure of the lands solemnly pledged

to the Indians as their permanent home. See pages 1331, 2.

CHAPTER CLXX.

AFRICA--_Concluded_.

THE SLAVE-TRADE.

THE UNLIKENESS OF RACES -- LIVINGSTONE’S PROTEST AGAINST MAN-SELLING

-- DISCUSSIONS WITH AFRICAN CHIEFS -- THEIR EXCUSES FOR SLAVE-TRADE

-- HORRORS OF THE TRAFFIC -- ARAB RAGE AND ATROCITIES -- A STRANGE

DISEASE -- BROKEN-HEARTEDNESS -- AN ENGLISH SAILOR’S OPINION --

BARBARITIES OF SLAVE-TRADE NOT OVERSTATED -- THE GELLAHBAS -- THE

PETTY SLAVE-TRADERS -- WHOLESALE MERCHANTS -- THE FAKIS -- COST

OF SLAVES -- TERRITORIES AND TRIBES THAT SUPPLY THE SLAVE-MARKETS

-- PROFITS OF THE TRAFFIC -- STANLEY’S TESTIMONY -- LIVINGSTONE’S

GREAT DESIRE -- NO HOPE FOR AFRICA WHILE SLAVE TRADE EXISTS --

WESTERN COAST EMANCIPATED -- WORK TO BE DONE -- GRAND FUTURE OF

AFRICA -- DUTY OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA -- THE OPEN SORE OF THE WORLD

-- LIVINGSTONE’S LAST APPEAL -- MEMORABLE WORDS ON HIS TABLET IN

WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

The unlikeness of races that in many respects are similar, and the

tenacity with which peculiar ideas and customs are maintained are facts

abundantly verified in this work. The strange fantasy that one can

have property in his fellow-man, which includes the right to control

his thoughts, conduct, life, and sell him to another as a slave, is

cherished by some tribes and wholly repudiated by others. The Arabs

excluded, the Manganja and Waiyau are the only two families of slavers

in that part of Central Africa which finds its outlet at the great

slave-market of Zanzibar. No idea of slavery exists among the Kaffirs

or Zulus and Bechuanas.

Livingstone, the heroic and world-renowned explorer, availed himself

of every opportunity to protest against the selling of their people

by the African chiefs. He sought to educate them by kindly counsels

and arguments, so that they would be able to see the wrong and ruin

they were bringing upon themselves and their subjects by wars with

neighboring tribes, and the selling of captives to the mercenary Arabs.

When among the Waiyau he had long discussions with the chief, Mukatè.

To counteract the effect of Livingstone’s influence the slave-drivers

had represented to the natives that his object in capturing and

releasing their slaves was to make them of his own religion; but the

terrible evils of the slave trade, the ruined villages, the numerous

bones and skulls bleaching in the sun along every path, the fearful

sufferings of those who falter and perish on the journey to the coast,

the rapine, plunder, and wholesale murder of neighboring tribes in

order to secure captives for sale to Arab merchants, all these direful

evidences of the terrible curse of the country Mukatè could not deny.

He would often end the discussion by dismissing these facts with

a laugh. A headman, who was Livingstone’s guide for a mile or two,

whispered to him, “Speak to Mukatè to give his forays up.”

The chiefs and people were fertile in excuses for their participation

in the slave traffic. One said that the Arabs, who come and tempt them

with fine clothes, are the cause of their man-selling. Livingstone

replied, “Very soon you will have none to sell. Your country is

becoming a jungle, and all the people who do not die on the road

will be making gardens for Arabs at Kilwa and elsewhere.” The common

argument in defence of the business by African chiefs was, “What could

we do without Arab cloth?” “Do what you did before the Arabs came

into the country,” was Livingstone’s answer. But the greed for cloth,

which the natives are too indolent to spin and weave, overmasters all

the latent humanity and reason of the chiefs, and keeps up a chronic

condition of war and spoliation, decimating the population of the

country and transforming some of its fairest districts into deserts.

In order to have the means to buy the coveted cloth, one village makes

an incursion upon another, and thus there is almost perpetual pillage,

kidnapping, and murder. The village whose chief is victorious at one

time is, in its turn, sacked and burned by a stronger party. And so the

traveller through the country often passes the ruins of what were once

populous and pleasant villages of unoffending people.

From village to village the missionary traveller carried his lessons

and appeals, sowing the good seed, with confidence that it would

sometime bear fruit in the regeneration of his beloved Africa. “It is

but little we can do,” is his sad reflection when among the Waiyau;

“but we lodge a protest in the heart against a vile system, and time

may ripen it.” His counsels to those unenlightened, tempted, and

misguided people were not all lost, however impervious they seemed,

generally, to moral considerations and appeals. Visiting Kimsuma, a

chief on the Nyassa, he received this gratifying testimony. Kimsuma

told him it was by following the advice given in his former visit, and

not selling the people as slaves, that his village had grown to three

times its former size.

Women faint, starving, dying by the roadside--the dead bodies of those

of former gangs who could not march longer--were the frequent and

painful sights that Livingstone beheld as he moved on toward Central

Africa.

A slave-gang is usually composed of men and women, and children of

a tender age. The adults are fastened into the heavy slave-sticks,

weighing from thirty to forty pounds. From these there is no escape.

The younger are secured by thongs that pass around the neck of each.

Multitudes die on the journey to the coast, overpowered by the burden

of the slave-stick. The following fact illustrates how thoroughly all

sentiments of sympathy and humanity, and every idea of justice are

destroyed by this traffic in human life. In reply to Livingstone’s

inquiry why people were tied to trees and left to die, as he had

seen on his way, there was the usual answer that this was the work

of the Arabs, because they are enraged when their slaves can go no

farther, and prefer they should die rather than have their freedom

if they should, perchance, be succored and recover. The numerous

empty slave-sticks scattered along the road led Livingstone to the

conviction, though the natives denied the charge, that they make it

a practice to follow the slave-caravans, and cut off the sticks from

those who falter in the march, in order to steal and sell them over

again, and so obtain an additional quantity of cloth. Another fact,

revealing the atrocious wickedness of these Arab man-stealers, is

also stated by Livingstone. Those who sink under the burden of the

slave-stick, or from sickness fall by the way, are not unfrequently

murdered. In vexation and rage at the loss of the money value of the

slaves, the Arab drivers will shoot or stab them. It was no uncommon

sight which met the eye of the philanthropic traveller, that of some

dead or dying African, weltering, perhaps, in a pool of blood, or tied

to a tree by the neck.

“The strangest disease,” says Livingstone, “I have seen in this country

is broken-heartedness, and it attacks free men who have been kidnapped

and made slaves.” Of a large gang that had been captured by Syde bin

Habib, many died three days after they crossed the Lualaba. Enduring

their chains till then, when they saw the broad river rolling between

them and their old homes, they lost all spirit and hope. They ascribed

their only pain to the heart, and placed their hands on their breasts,

exactly over that organ. Some slavers expressed surprise that they

should die, seeing that they had plenty to eat and no work. “Children

would keep up with remarkable endurance; but if, perchance, passing

near a village, and hearing the sound of dancing and the merry tinkle

of the small drums, the memories of home and happy days would prove too

much for them; they cried and sobbed, the ‘broken heart’ came on, and

they rapidly sank.”

The atrocity of the system was forcibly expressed by an English sailor,

who had opportunity of seeing the slave-traders in their business.

“Shiver my timbers, mate, if the devil don’t catch these fellows, we

might as well have no devil at all!”

“The Ujiji slavers,” he says, “like the Kilwa and Portuguese, are the

vilest of the vile. It is not a trade, but a system of consecutive

murders. They go to plunder and kidnap, and every trading-trip is

nothing but a foray.” His idea at first that there were degrees in

the atrocities and sufferings inflicted upon the slaves, and that the

barbarities perpetrated by the Portuguese of Tette are absent from the

slave traffic, as conducted by the Arabs, was wholly corrected. The

better he came to know the system, the more convinced was he that it is

everywhere and by whomsoever pursued only a story of murder, horror,

and destruction.

“While endeavoring to give some account of the slave-trade in East

Africa,” says Livingstone, “it was necessary to keep far within the

truth in order not to be thought guilty of exaggeration. To overdraw

its evils is simply an impossibility. The sights I have seen, though

common incidents of the traffic, are so nauseous that I always

strive to drive them from memory. In the case of most disagreeable

recollections, I can succeed in time in consigning them to oblivion;

but the slaving scenes come back unbidden, and make me start up at

dead of night horrified by their vividness.” After an assault upon a

village, in which several were killed and women and children captured,

he writes in his diary these words: “I am heart-sore and sick of human

blood.”

The Gellahbas, as the slave-dealers of Equatorial Africa are called,

are first the petty traders, who, with a small stock of goods, start

forth each with his ass or bullock, on which he rides from village to

village. His cloth will purchase two or three slaves, and exchanging

the donkey for one or two more, the return is commenced on foot. His

slaves are compelled to carry all the articles needed on the journey.

His stock in trade, worth perhaps $25, has been exchanged for four or

five slaves, that will bring in Khartoom $250. And yet the journeys of

these speculative traders are not always lucrative to the peddler. If

the donkey chance to die, the enterprise is a failure, as his goods

have to be sold at a ruinous sacrifice. The slaves also frequently

escape, and thus loss is entailed. Schweinfurth says of them, “Their

powers of endurance are wonderful. I repeatedly asked them what induced

them to leave their homes to suffer the greatest hardships in a strange

land, for the sake of pursuing an occupation attended with so much

pecuniary hazard. ‘We want groosh,’ they would reply. Too lazy to work

at home, it is the irresistible propensity to traffic in human beings

that impels them to this toilsome life.

Besides these travelling traders, there are also wholesale

slave-merchants, who have their agents or partners permanently

established in the large Scribas. These traverse the country protected

by a large retinue of armed slaves, and with long trains of oxen and

asses, loaded with goods for exchange, they are able to purchase

large numbers of slaves. Generally these agents are priests or Fakis,

though this name is usually applied to those who interpret the

Scriptures. Strange as it may seem, and almost incredible, it is an

incontrovertible fact that this slave business is included among the

secondary occupations of these Fakis, and with very few exceptions

they are more or less involved in the iniquitous traffic. To multiply

facilities for securing slaves, they act as retail dealers, brokers,

quacks, match-makers, and school-masters. The richer and more

intelligent class act as directors of schools, or are proprietors of

inns, where they have sub-agents to advance their interests. “The

doctrines of the Prophet,” says Schweinfurth, “are taught in their

schools, and the merissa-shops are dedicated in a large degree to the

worship of Venus. But in spite of everything, these people are held in

the greatest veneration.

“A few words will suffice to exhibit these holy men in their true

colors. With the _Suras_ of the Koran in hand, they rove all over the

country, leading what might be termed a life of perpetual prayer.

But the wide difference between faith and practice is exemplified in

the unrighteous dealings of these Fakis. Never did I see slaves so

mercilessly treated as by these fanatics, and yet they would confer

upon the poor souls, whom they purchased, like stolen goods, for a mere

bagatelle, the most religious of names, such as _Allagabo_ (_i. e._,

‘given of God’).” Schweinfurth, who had witnessed their abominable

cruelties, adds that their treatment of the sick and dying was “such as

a common scavenger would not inflict upon a dying dog.”

He mentions another hideous atrocity connected with their business--the

emasculation of boys so as to fit them for the position of the eunuch.

It is perpetrated as soon after capture as convenient, and though

attempted only upon children of a tender age, it is said that four

fifths of those thus mutilated perish from the injuries they receive.

This infernal crime,--which is committed principally by the Fakis, who

traverse the country with the Koran in one hand and the operating-knife

in the other, is peculiar to Moslem slavery alone, and specially

entitles it to be called an accursed system, deserving to be swept from

the earth in the fiery indignation of all civilized peoples.

There is another class who supply the slave-markets of the East.

This consists of the colonized slave-dealers, who live on their own

property. These are the only ones who penetrate beyond the Scribas into

the negro countries with bands of armed men, and return with great

caravans of slaves.

The price paid for slaves varies of course, according to the difficulty

of obtaining them, and as cotton, the principal medium of exchange,

fluctuates in value. In 1871 Schweinfurth found that _sittahsi_

(literally six spans high), that is children eight or ten years of

age, were bought for £1 10_s._, or about $7.00 in our currency. Women

slaves, if specially attractive, cost double this price.

As an illustration of how cheap is human life among some tribes,

Livingstone mentions the case of an elderly woman and her son, about

three years old, who were bought for six yards of calico, the child

being regarded twice as valuable as the mother. After the raids of

slave-dealers, when the villages are pillaged and famine succeeds,

boys and girls are often bought for a few handfuls of maize. Vigorous

and healthy women who are ugly are cheaper than young girls, and old

women have little value, and are bought for a trifle. Men are seldom

purchased, because more difficult to manage or to transport. It will be

remembered that the principal object for which slaves are held in the

East is not their capability for labor.

Nationality, also, is an element affecting the price of slaves. Of

those brought from the Bahr-el-Ghazal districts the Bongo are most

in demand, because they are easily taught, faithful, good-looking,

and industrious. The Niam-niam girls are more costly than the Bongo

slaves, but they are so rarely in the market it is not easy to state

their price. The Mittoo are of the least value, because so ugly, and

the Babucker are so spirited and resolute that they are rarely sought.

No kindness and no appeals avail to subdue their love of freedom or

repress their struggles to escape. The Loobah and Abaka tribes are like

them in this respect. The demand for slaves by the Mohammedan residents

of the Western territories, as the Kredy Golo and Sehre, who greatly

exceed the aboriginal population, is sufficient of itself to sustain a

very considerable slave-trade. The number of the private slaves owned

by the Moslems who have settled in various portions of Northern Africa

Schweinfurth estimated to be about sixty thousand.

But this number is small compared with those who, along all the

highways, are brought out of the interior to the great slave markets

to supply the insatiable and licentious demands of Egypt, Arabia,

Persia, and Asiatic Turkey. It is these, the prey of Arab rapacity or

the pitiable and powerless victims of the selfishness and inhumanity of

their fellow Africans, that form the numerous caravans moving toward

the coast. It is these that drain and depopulate the tribes of Eastern

and Central Africa. It is thus their very life blood is sacrificed to

the luxurious caprices and sensuality of the Moslem race.

The territories that supply the slave-trade in northeastern Africa

(Nile district) are the Galla countries to the south of Abyssinia,

between latitude 3° and 8° north, the region between the white and blue

Niles, Azoa, in the centre of Abyssinia, and its northwestern frontier,

and the upper district of the Bahr-el-Ghazal. But the most fruitful

sources of supply are the negro countries to the south of Darfoor.

During the last forty years there has been an exodus from the numerous

and unprotected Kredy tribes of 12,000 to 15,000 annually, to minister

to the lust or laziness of the Mohammedans of the East. And the

territories west of the Niam-niam tribe have been the principal supply

in the northern part of Africa. This energetic race, under their king

Mofio, has made constant raids upon their neighbors, thus furnishing

vast numbers for exchange with Arab slave-merchants.

There is a portion of the country called Mrima or Sawahili, and

formerly Zanguebar. The latter name will be recognized by older readers

as that of a strip of sea coast from the mouth of Jub to Cape Delgado,

or from the equator to S. lat. 10° 41´. This part of Eastern Africa now

attracts the attention of the civilized world because of its connection

with the slave-trade. By means of its ports three fourths of the slaves

kidnapped or purchased in the interior are shipped abroad. Here is the

famous port of Kilwa, “the hornets’ nest,” as Stanley names it, the

great _entrepot_ of slave-traders, who have received such scathing

condemnation in Livingstone’s journals.

Zanzibar, an island near the east coast in lat. 6° S., is, however, the

principal mart to which the ivory and slave merchants gather from the

interior of Africa. The Banyans, who are among the more influential

residents, are the principal traders in slaves, and have accumulated

great wealth. Here tens of thousands of Africans are annually sold,

some to be transported to the Spanish West Indies, but the great

majority to Arabia.

The profits of this infamous traffic are so enormous as to offer

a resistless temptation to the cupidity of the unscrupulous. The

lucrative character of a business, though fraught with terrible evils

and wrongs, has, not unfrequently, overcome the conscience, humanity,

and even the religion of those acknowledged to be civilized if not

Christian. The statements of the most trustworthy travellers in

regard to the profitableness of the slave-trade tax the credulity of

the most sceptical. The estimate that Mr. Stanley has given, as the

result of a careful observation, must, we think, be accepted. “We will

suppose,” says he, “for the sake of illustrating how trade with the

interior is managed, that the Arab conveys by his caravan $5,000 worth

of goods; at Unyanyembe, the goods are worth $10,000; at Ujiji they

are worth $15,000, or have trebled in price. Seven dollars and fifty

cents will purchase a slave in the markets of Ujiji, who will bring in

Zanzibar thirty dollars. Ordinary men slaves may be purchased for six

dollars who will sell for twenty-five dollars on the coast. We will

say he purchases slaves to the full extent of his means; from these

he will realize about $14,000, leaving a net profit of $9,000 from

an investment of $5,000, in one trip from Zanzibar to Ujiji. It is

from such a traffic that the Banyans have come to be ranked among the

wealthiest of the 200,000 residents of Zanzibar.”

Livingstone was intensely absorbed with the passion for exploration,

and longed to be the discoverer that should solve the great

geographical problem which has enlisted the curiosity and toil of

centuries, viz., the sources of the Nile. During eight years in his

last expedition, he traversed Central Africa, enduring sufferings and

sacrifices inexpressible, holding on with a fortitude and inflexibility

never surpassed, till he sank down in death at Ilala, May 1, 1873. But

this most illustrious of African explorers, when in weariness he was

journeying toward Bangweolo for the last time, eager to learn some

fact that would settle the great enigma with which Africa has baffled

the nations and the ages, writes, “The discovery of the true source of

the Nile is nothing to me except as it may be turned to the advantage

of Christian missions.” So, too, in a letter that he sent by Stanley

to Mr. Bennett, of New York, he writes, “If my disclosures regarding

the terrible Ujijian slavery should lead to the suppression of the

East Coast slave-trade, I shall regard that as a greater matter by far

than the discovery of all the Nile sources together. This fine country

is blighted as with a curse from above, in order that the slavery

privileges of the Sultan of Zanzibar may not be infringed.”

It may safely be asserted that, had it not been for the slave-trade,

this indomitable, sagacious, philanthropic traveller would have

succeeded in laying the foundation for Christian missions in Central

Africa, and also have given to the civilized world the discovery it has

so laboriously sought. No progress can be made in the arts or commerce,

no social and moral development among the African tribes can be secured

so long as this system, the offspring of Moslem cupidity and lust, is

permitted to desolate this fair land.

Stricken, suffering Africa! Despoiled and desolated by stronger and

more civilized nations for centuries, her youth, her strength, her

life-blood on the Western Coast, subsidized by force and barbarities

unspeakable to minister to the comfort and affluence of England, Spain,

and America! But the awful scourge that freighted the slave-ships of

the Great Republic and caused the horrors of “the middle passage” has

been, through the combined agency of England and America, inspired

by the appeals of the philanthropic spirit of the last half-century,

utterly suppressed. The Western Coast of that great continent has been

emancipated, and is fast being regenerated. Instead of slave-ships in

the lagoons and harbors waiting for the return of their armed crews

from raids upon the villages along the coast and in the interior, thus

stealing annually in the middle of the last century not less than

100,000 human beings, there are now populous villages springing up, the

inhabitants of which are engaged in peaceful pursuits, and making rapid

progress in all the arts and comforts of civilized life. The slave-ship

is exchanged for the school-house, and with this most formidable

barrier removed, the redemption of Western Africa has begun.