CHAPTER XI.

THROUGH THE FOREST TO MAZAMBONI'S PEAK.

In the country of the Balessé--Their houses and clearings--Natives

of Bukiri--The first village of dwarfs--Our rate of progress

increased--The road from Mambungu's--Halts at East and West

Indékaru--A little storm between "Three o'clock" and Khamis--We

reach Ibwiri--Khamis and the "vile Zanzibaris"--The Ibwiri

clearing--Plentiful provisions--The state of my men; and what they

had recently gone through--Khamis and party explore the

neighbourhood--And return with a flock of goats--Khamis captures

Boryo, but is released--Jephson returns from the relief of Captain

Nelson--Departure of Khamis and the Manyuema--Memorandum of charges

against Messrs. Kilonga-Longa & Co. of Ipoto--Suicide of

Simba--Sali's reflections on the same--Lieutenant Stairs

reconnoitres--Muster and re-organisation at Ibwiri--Improved

condition of the men--Boryo's village--Balessé customs--East

Indenduru--We reach the outskirts of the forest--Mount Pisgah--The

village of Iyugu--Heaven's light at last! The beautiful

grass-land--We drop across an ancient crone--Indésura and its

products--Juma's capture--The Ituri river again--We emerge upon a

rolling plain--And forage in some villages--The mode of hut

construction--The district of the Babusessé--Our Mbiri

captives--Natives attack the camp--The course of the Ituri--The

natives of Abunguma--Our fare since leaving Ibwiri--Mazamboni's

Peak--The east Ituri--A mass of plantations--Demonstration by the

natives--Our camp on the crest of Nzera-Kum--"Be strong and of a

good courage"--Friendly intercourse with the natives--We are

compelled to disperse them--Peace arranged--Arms of the

Bandussuma.

We marched for two hours to Yumbu, and in four and a quarter hours on the

following day to Busindi.

We were now in the country of the Balessé. The architecture was peculiar.

Its peculiarity consisted in a long street flanked by a long low wooden

building, or rather planked building, on either side, 200, 300, or 400

feet long. At first sight one of these villages appeared like a long

gable-roofed structure sawn in exact half along the ridge of the roof,

and as if each half house had been removed backward for a distance of 20

or 30 feet, and then along the inner sides been boarded up, and pierced

with low doors, to obtain entrance into independent apartments. The light

wood of the Rubiacæ affords good material for this kind of house. A

sizeable tree, 1 foot 18 inches, or 2 feet in diameter, is felled, and

the log is cut into short pieces from four to six feet in length; the

pieces are easily split by hard wedges, and with their small neat adzes

they contrive to shape the plank smooth, tolerably even, and square. They

are generally an inch or an inch and a quarter thick. For what is called

the ceiling or inner boarding, the boards are thinner and narrower. When

a sufficient number of boards and planks are ready, the inner ceiling is

lashed to the uprights, frequently in as neat a fashion as a carpenter's

apprentice might do it with saw, nails and hammer; on the outer side of

the uprights are lashed the thicker planks, or broad slabs, the hollow

between the inner and outer frame is then stuffed with the phrynia, or

banana leaves. The wall facing the street may be 9 feet high, the back

wall facing the forest or clearing is 4 or 4-1/2 feet high, the width of

the house varies from 7 to 10 feet. Altogether it is a comfortable and

snug mode of building, rather dangerous in case of fire, but very

defensible, with trifling labour.

[Illustration: SHIELDS OF THE BALESSÉ.]

Another peculiarity of the Balessé is the condition of their clearings,

and some of these are very extensive, quite a mile and a half in

diameter, and the whole strewn with the relics, débris, and timber of the

primeval forest. Indeed I cannot compare a Balessé clearing to anything

better than a mighty abattis surrounding the principal village, and over

this abattis the traveller has to find his way. As one steps out of the

shadow of the forest, the path is at first, may be, along the trunk of a

great tree for 100 feet, it then turns at right angles along a great

branch a few feet; he takes a few paces on the soil, then finds himself

in front of a massive prostrate tree-stem 3 feet in diameter or so; he

climbs over that, and presently finds himself facing the out-spreading

limbs of another giant, amongst which he must creep, and twist, and crawl

to get footing on a branch, then from the branch to the trunk, he takes a

half turn to the right, walks along the tree from which, increasing in

thickness, he must soon climb on top of another that has fallen across

and atop of it, when after taking a half-turn to the left, he must

follow, ascending it until he is 20 feet above the ground. When he has

got among the branches at this dizzy height, he needs judgment, and to be

proof against nervousness. After tender, delicate balancing, he places

his foot on a branch--at last descends cautiously along the steep slope

until he is 6 feet from the ground from which he must jump on to another

tapering branch, and follow that to another height of 20 feet, then along

the monster tree, then down to the ground; and so on for hours, the hot,

burning sun, and the close, steamy atmosphere of the clearing forcing the

perspiration in streams from his body. I have narrowly escaped death

three times during these frightful gymnastic exercises. One man died

where he fell. Several men were frightfully bruised. Yet it is not so

dangerous with the naked feet, but with boots in the early morning,

before the dew is dried, or after a rain, or when the advance-guard has

smeared the timber with a greasy clay, I have had six falls in an hour.

The village stands in the centre. We have often congratulated ourselves

on coming to a clearing at the near approach to camping-time, but it has

frequently occupied us one hour and a half to reach the village. It is a

most curious sight to see a caravan laden with heavy burdens walking over

this wreck of a forest, and timbered clearing. Streams, swamps,

watercourses, ditches are often twenty to twenty-five feet below a

tapering slippery tree, which crosses them bridge-like. Some men are

falling, some are tottering, one or two have already fallen, some are

twenty feet above the ground, others are on the ground creeping under

logs. Many are wandering among a maze of branches, thirty or more may be

standing on one delicate and straight shaft, a few may be posted like

sentries on a branch, perplexed which way to move. All this, however, is

made much harder, and more dangerous, when, from a hundred points, the

deadly arrows are flying from concealed natives, which, thank Heaven,

were not common. We have been too cautious for that kind of work to

happen often, though we have seldom been able to leave one of these awful

clearings without having some man's foot skewered, or some one lamed.

On the 29th we marched to Bukiri or Myyulus, a distance of nine miles in

six hours.

A few natives having been tormented and persecuted to submission to the

Manyuema, greeted us with cries of "Bodo! Bodo! Ulenda! Ulenda!";

greetings which they accompanied with a flinging motion of the hand, as

though they jerked "Away! away!"

The chief was styled Mwani. They wore much polished ironwork, rings,

bells, and anklets, and appeared to be partial to many leglets made of

calamus fibre, and armlets of the same material, after the manner of

Karagwé and Uhha. They cultivate maize, beans, plantains, and bananas,

tobacco, sweet potatoes, yams, brinjalls, melons, gourds. Their goats are

fine, and of good size. Fowls are plentiful, but fresh eggs are rare.

Among some of these villages there is generally a dome hut of ample size,

after the manner of Unyoro, with double porches.

[Illustration: GYMNASTICS IN A FOREST CLEARING.]

The following day we halted, during which the Manyuema guides took

particular care to show our people that they should have no doubt of

their contempt for them. They would not allow them to trade with the

natives for fear some desirable article would be lost to themselves, they

also vociferated at them loudly if they were seen proceeding to the

clearing to cut plantains. As I told them, they did not advance in their

favour in the least by abandoning the whites, and turning a deaf ear to

our adjurations to be manly and faithful. A word, or even a defiant look,

was visited with a sharp cut on the naked body with a rattan from slave

boys of the six Manyuema guides with us. What awful oaths of vengeance

were uttered for all these indignities they suffered!

On the 31st we came across the first village of Dwarfs, and, during the

day, across several empty settlements belonging to them. We marched nine

miles in five and a quarter hours, and camped in a dwarf's village in the

woods.

Stealing continued steadily. On examining the pouches, there was one

cartridge out of three pouches. The cartridges were lost, of course!

Hilallah, a boy of sixteen, deserted back to Ipoto with my cartridge

pouch, and thirty cartridges in it. A man who carried my satchel ran away

with seventy-five Winchester cartridges.

The next day we entered the extensive clearing and large settlement of

Mambungu's or Nebassé.

Khamis, the chief of the guides, left Ipoto on the 31st, and arrived at

this place with seven men, according to agreement with Ismaili, my

Manyuema brother.

The track which we followed has enabled us to increase our rate of

progress per hour. Along the river bank, by dint of continued work, and

devoting seven, eight, nine hours--sometimes ten hours--we could travel

from 3 to 7 miles. We were now enabled to make 1-1/2 to 1-3/4, and even 2

miles per hour; but the pace was still retarded by roots, stumps,

climbers, llianes, convolvuli, skewers, and a multitude of streams, and

green-scummed sinks. We could rarely proceed a clear hundred yards

without being ordered to halt by the pioneers.

Each day towards evening the clouds gathered, the thunder reverberated

with awful sounds through the echoing forest; lightning darted hither and

thither, daily severing some tree-top, or splitting a mighty patriarch

from crown to base, or blasting some stately and kingly tree; and the

rain fell with a drowning plenty which chilled and depressed us greatly

in our poor blooded and anæmic state. But during the march, Providence

was gracious; the sun shone, and streamed in million beams of soft light

through the woods, which brightened our feelings, and caused the aisles

and corridors of the woods to be of Divine beauty, converted the graceful

thin tree-shafts into marbly-grey pillars, and the dew and rain-drops

into sparkling brilliants; cheered the invisible birds to pour out, with

spirit, their varied repertory of songs; inspired parrot flocks to vent

gleeful screams and whistlings; roused hosts of monkeys to exert their

wildest antics; while now and then some deep, bass roar in far-away

recesses indicated a family of _soko_ or chimpanzees enjoying some savage

sport.

The road from Mambungu's, eastward, was full of torments, fears, and

anxieties. Never were such a series of clearings as those around

Mambungu, and the neighbouring settlement of Njalis. The trees were of

the largest size, and timber enough had been cut to build a navy; and

these lay, in all imaginable confusion, tree upon tree, log above log,

branches rising in hills above hills; and amongst all this wild ruin of

woods grew in profusion upon profusion bananas, plantains, vines,

parasites; ivy-like plants, palms, calamus, convolvuli, etc., through

which the poor column had to burrow, struggle, and sweat, while creeping,

crawling, and climbing, in, through, and over obstacles and entanglements

that baffle description.

On the 4th November we were 13-3/4 miles from Mambungu's in the

settlement of Ndugubisha, having passed, in the interval, through five

deserted forest villages of pigmies.On this day I came near smiling--for

I fancied I observed the dawn of happier days foretold by Uledi. Each

member of the caravan received one ear of corn, and 15 plantains as

rations.

Fifteen plantains and one ear of corn make a royal ration compared to two

ears of corn, or a handful of berries, or a dozen fungus. It was not

calculated, however, to make men too cheerful, though our people were

naturally light-hearted and gay.

"But never mind, my boys," I said, as I doled the spare diet to the

hungry creatures; "the morning is breaking; a week more, and then you

shall see the end of your troubles."

Verbal reply was not given to me; only a wan smile lightened the

famine-sharpened features. Our officers had borne these privations with

the spirit ascribed by Cæsar to Antony, and as well as though they were

to the manner born. They fed on the flat wood beans of the forest, on the

acid wild fruit and strange fungus, with the smiling content of Sybarites

at a feast. Yet one of them paid £1,000 for this poor privilege, and came

near being thought too dainty for rough African life. They had been a

living example to our dark followers, many of whom had probably been

encouraged to strive for existence by the bright, hopeful looks our

officers wore under our many unhappy afflictions.

On the following day we crossed the watershed between the Ihuru and Ituri

rivers, and we now plunged into cool streams flowing to leftward, or

towards the Ihuru. Hills rose to the right and left in wooded and ridgy

mounts, and after a march of nine and three-quarter miles, we halted for

the night at West Indékaru, at the base of a hill whose top rose 600 feet

above the village. Another short march brought us to a village perched

half-way up a tall mount, which may be designated as East Indékaru, and

by aneroid we were 4,097 feet above the ocean. From this village we

enjoyed a first view of our surroundings. Instead of crawling like

mighty bipeds in the twilight, 30 fathoms below the level of the white

light of the day, compelled to recognize our littleness, by comparison

with the giant columns and tall pillar-like shafts that rose by millions

around us, we now stood on the crest of a cleared mount, to look upon the

leafy world below us. One almost felt as if walking over the rolling

plain of leafage was possible, so compact and unbroken was the expanse,

extending to a lovely pale blueness as the eyesight followed it to the

furthest limits of distinctness--away, far away to an unknown distance

the forest tops spread round about a variegated green of plushy texture,

broad red patches of tree flowering, and rich russety circles of leaves,

not unfrequent. How one envied the smooth, easy flight of the kites and

white-collared eagles, sailing gracefully without let or hindrance

through the calm atmosphere! Ah! that we had the wings of kites, that we

might fly and be at rest from these incorrigibly wicked Manyuema! Whose

wish was that? Indeed, I think we all of us shared it, more or less.

On the 7th, while we halted on the mount, the Manyuema monopolizing the

village, and our men in the bush, unworthy to be near their nobility,

there was a little storm between Saat Tato (Three o'clock), the hunter,

and Khamis, the chief of the Manyuema guides. It threatened, from the

sound of words, to explode hurtfully at one time. Khamis slapped him in

the face. Both were tall men, but Saat Tato was two inches taller, a good

soldier, who had seen service in Madagascar and with Sultan Barghash as a

sergeant, but who, from his habits of getting drunk by the third hour of

each day, was nicknamed "Three o'clock," and dismissed. He was an

excellent man, faithful, strong, obedient, and an unerring shot. Given

the benefits of twenty-five pounds of food, Saat Tato, at a hint, would

have smilingly taken hold of Khamis, and snapped his vertebrae across his

knee with the ease that he would have broken a spear staff. I observed

Saat Tato closely, for it must be remembered that it had become fully

impressed on my mind that my men were quite too broken-spirited. Saat

Tato looked at him a second severely; then, lifting his forefinger, said

to Khamis, "It is well, but I should like to see you repeat that blow a

little time hence, after I have a little food in me, and filled this

stomach of mine. Strike me again, do; I can bear it."

Advancing, and touching Khamis on the shoulder, I said, "Khamis, do not

do that again. I do not allow even my officers to strike my men like

that."

The ill-humour was increasing, and, little as the Manyuema imagined, they

were assisting me to restore the spirit of the Zanzibaris by their

cruelty. There were signs that the Christians would prevail after all.

The mutual affection expressed between the Moslem co-religionists at the

altar of which our men were ready to sacrifice our lives and liberties

and their own freedom, had been cooled by the cruelty, perverseness, and

niggardliness of the Manyuema. All we had to do was to watch it, bear

patiently, and be ready.

To our great comfort Khamis confessed that West Indékaru was the utmost

limit of his master Ismaili's territory.

We, however, were not to part from him until we reached Ibwiri.

We marched eleven miles on the 8th of November through a much more open

forest, and we could see further into the interior. The road was better,

so much so that our rate of marching increased to two miles per hour. The

gritty and loamy soil had absorbed the rain, and walking became pleasant.

The llianes were not so riotously abundant, only a strong creeper now and

then requiring severance. At several places there were granite

outcroppings of a colossal size, which were a novelty and added a kind of

romantic and picturesque interest to the woods, darkly suggestive of

gitanos, bandits, or pigmies.

A march of nine and a half miles on the 9th of November took us to a

Pigmies' camp. Until noon a mist had hung over the land. Towards the

latter part of the tramp we passed through several lately deserted

villages of the dwarfs, and across eight streams. Khamis, the guide, and

his followers, and about half-a-dozen of the pioneers proceeded to

Ibwiri, which was only one and a half mile distant, and on the next day

we joined them. This was one of the richest and finest clearings we had

seen since leaving Yambuya, though had the Expedition been despatched

eight months earlier, we should have found scores in the same prosperous

condition. Here was a clearing three miles in diameter abounding in

native produce, and hitherto unvisited by the Manyuema. Almost every

plantain stalk bore an enormous branch of fruit, with from fifty to one

hundred and forty plantains attached. Some specimens of this fruit were

twenty-two inches long, two and a half inches in diameter, and nearly

eight inches round, large enough to furnish Saat Tato the hunter, with

his long desired full meal. There was an odour of ripe fruit pervading

the air, and as we climbed over the logs and felt our way gingerly along

the prostrate timber, I was often asked by the delighted people to note

the bunches of mellow fruit hanging temptingly before their eyes.

Before reaching the village Murabo, a Zanzibari headman, whispered to me

that there were five villages in Ibwiri, and that each hut in every

village was more than a fourth full of Indian corn, but that Khamis and

his Manyuema had been storing corn in their own huts, which, according to

right of preemption, they had reserved for themselves.

On entering the street of the village, Khamis met me with the usual

complaints about the wickedness of the "vile Zanzibaris." Looking down on

the ground I saw many a trail of corn which went to corroborate Murabo's

story, and as Khamis proposed that the Expedition should occupy the

western half of the village, and he and his fifteen Manyuema would occupy

the eastern half, I ventured to demur to the proposition on the ground

that as we had departed out of his master's territory we claimed all the

land to the eastward, and would in future dispense with any suggestion as

to what we should do, and that furthermore not a grain of corn, nor

plantain, banana, or any other native product in the land would leave

the country without my permission. He was told, no people on earth could

have borne so uncomplainingly such shames, affronts, and insults as had

been put upon the Zanzibaris, and that in future they should be permitted

to resent all such injuries as they best knew how. Khamis assented

submissively to all this.

The first thing after storing goods, and distributing the men to their

quarters, was to give fifty ears of corn per man, and to arrange with the

natives as to our future conduct towards one another.

Within an hour it was agreed that the western half of the Ibwiri clearing

should be granted to us for foraging; that the eastern half, from a

certain stream, should be the reserve of the natives. Khamis, the

Manyuema, was also induced to enter into the pact. In return for a packet

of brass rods, Boryo, the principal chief of the Balessé of the district,

presented us with five fowls and a goat.

This was a great day. Since August 31st not one follower of the

Expedition had enjoyed a full meal, but now bananas, plantains ripe and

green, potatoes, herbs, yams, beans, sugar-cane, corn, melons in such

quantities were given them that were they so many elephants they could

not have exhausted the stock provided for them in less than ten days.

They could gratify to the full the appetite so long stinted and starved.

As we were compelled to wait for Mr. Jephson and some sixty

Zanzibaris--forty of the relief party, boat's crew, and convalescents

from Ipoto--the good effect of this abundance would be visible in a few

clays. It was also one of those settlements we had been anxiously

searching for as a recuperating station. On this date the men were

hideous to look upon, because of their gaunt nakedness. They were naked,

for they had stripped themselves to obtain food from the slaves of the

Manyuema at Ugarrowwa's and Ipoto; of flesh they had none, for they had

been reduced to bones by seventy-three days of famine and thirteen days

of absolute want; of strength they had but little, and they were

ill-favoured in every respect; their native colour of oiled bronze had

become a mixture of grimy black and wood ashes; their rolling eyes

betrayed signs of disease, impure blood, and indurated livers; that

beautiful contour of body, and graceful and delicate outlines of

muscles--alas, alas!--were all gone. They more befitted a charnel-house

than a camp of men bound to continually wear fighting accoutrements.

Khamis, the Manyuema guide, offered the next morning to proceed east to

search out the road from Ibwiri, for, as he informed me, Boryo, the

chief, had told him of a grass-land being not many days off. He thought

that with a few of Boryo's natives, and thirty of our riflemen, he could

discover something of interest. Calling Boryo to me, he confirmed, as

well as we could understand him, that from a place called Mandé, which he

said was only two days' good marching--say forty miles--the grass-land

could be seen; that herds of cattle came in such numbers to the Ituri

river to drink that the river "swelled up." All this chimed with my eager

desire to know how far we were from the open country, and as Boryo said

he was willing to furnish guides, I called for volunteers. Twenty-eight

men came forward, to my surprise, as willing and as eager for new

adventures as though they had been revelling in plenty for the last few

months. Khamis and his party departed shortly after.

Despite strict prohibition to touch anything on the native reservation of

Ibwiri, one of our raiders paid it a visit, and captured nineteen fowls,

two of which he had already despatched, the remaining seventeen he had

decapitated, but our detectives pounced upon him and his stock, as he and

his chum were debating what they should do with the feathers. The flesh

and bones did not promise to be any trouble to them. Close by them two

men had despatched an entire goat, excepting the head! These facts serve

to illustrate the boundless capacity of Zanzibari stomachs.

The natives of Ibwiri had behaved most handsomely, and personally I felt

a sense of shame at the ingratitude of my followers. The chief and his

family were living with us, and exchanged their greetings of "Bodo, Bodo,

ulenda, ulenda," half-a-dozen times a day. Yet our men had undergone

such extremes of wretchedness during the last two and a half months that

we might have well anticipated some excesses would be committed upon the

first opportunity. No other body of men in the wide world that I am

acquainted with could have borne such a period of hunger so meekly, so

resignedly. Not a grain or a bit of human food discoverable anywhere,

their comrades dying at every camp, or falling dead along the track,

others less patient plunging into the depths of the wilderness maddened

by hunger, leaving them to fare as they might under the burdens of

war-munitions, and baggage. Goaded by the protracted hunger, and fierce

despair, and loss of trust in their officers, they might have seized

their Remingtons and, by one volley, have slain their white chiefs, and

fed on them, and shaken off power, and, in a moment, the clutch of

authority which, so far as they knew, was only dragging them down to

certain doom.

While I pitied the natives who had lost their property when they least

deserved it, I could not remove from my memory that extended fast in the

area of desolation and forest wilderness stretching between the Basopo

Rapids and Ibwiri, on the edge of which we were even now located, or

their patient obedience--thefts and small practices notwithstanding,

their unfaltering fidelity, their kindness to us while we were starving,

in bestowing upon us the choicest and finest of the wild fruit they had

discovered, and their altogether courageous bearing and noble hopefulness

during the terrible days of adversity; all these virtues must needs

extenuate their offences, and it was best to await fulness and reflection

to assist us in reclaiming them into tractableness and good order. Every

mile or two almost of that hungry forest solitude between the Ihuru and

Ituri confluence and Ipoto had been marked by the dead bodies of their

comrades; there they lay fast mildewing and rotting in the silent gloom,

and, but for the fidelity of the survivors, none of those capable of

giving intelligent testimony of the stern trials endured during

September, October, and the half of November, would have lived to relate

the sad and sorrowful details.

The more experience and insight I obtain into human nature, the more

convinced do I become that the greater portion of a man is purely animal.

Fully and regularly fed, he is a being capable of being coaxed or coerced

to exertion of any kind, love and fear sway him easily, he is not averse

to labour however severe; but when starved it is well to keep in mind the

motto "Cave Canem," for a starving lion over a raw morsel of beef is not

so ferocious or so ready to take offence. Rigid discipline, daily

burdens, and endless marching into regions of which they were perfectly

ignorant, never seemed to gall our men much when their stomachs were

pampered, and abundant provender for their digestive organs were

provided; but even hanging unto death was only a temporary damper to

their inclination to excessive mischief when pinched with hunger. The

aborigines also of Ibwiri surrounded by plenty are mild and meek enough

through pure sleekness, but the dwarfish nomads of the forest are, I am

told, as fierce as beasts of prey, and fight till their quivers are

empty.

I received word on the 12th that Khamis, the Manyuema who was supposed to

have gone for my gratification to explore the country ahead, and to make

friends with the aid of the natives, had, owing to perverseness, been

unable to accomplish his mission; that he was greatly disappointed, and

that he had been attacked by the natives of East Ibwiri and had lost two

men. I sent word to him to return.

The fleas of Ibwiri became so intolerable that in order to obtain rest, I

had to set my tent in the open street.

On the 13th of November, while taking an inspection of the village camp,

and examining into the condition of the men, I was amazed at the busy

scene of eating I beheld. Almost every man was engaged in pounding corn,

reducing dried bananas into flour, or grinding mouthfuls of food with

their fine teeth, making amends for the compulsory fast of September,

October and November.

Khamis returned on the 14th with a large flock of goats obtained from

somewhere. He was gracious enough to allow us sixteen head. This inclined

us to suspect that the real object of his design was not to explore but

to extend the conquests of his master, Ismaili, farther east through our

assistance, and to reduce the natives of Ibwiri into the same state of

poverty as the neighbourhood of Ipoto, for instance. But though Khamis

possessed force sufficient to have accomplished even this last, the silly

fellow's greed caused him to behave with such reckless disregard of the

poisoned shafts of the natives that he lost three of his men. It seems

that as soon as a flock of goats was sighted, Khamis forgot his design to

explore, urged his Manyuema to their capture, and retained our people by

him. Our men by these tactics returned uninjured without having been

engaged in this disgraceful action. Then, as Khamis was returning to our

village, mourning the loss of three of his most active comrades, he

suddenly met Boryo, the Chief of East Ibwiri, and without a word made him

a prisoner. Before reporting to me, Khamis, on arrival, ordered his men

to strangle the chief in revenge for the death of his men. Happening to

hear of it, I sent a guard to take him by force out of Khamis' hands, and

placed him in a hut out of harm's way, and bade Boryo rest quiet until

Khamis had departed.

We luxuriated during our days of rest. There had been discovered such an

abundance of food that we might safely have rested six months without

fear of starving. We enjoyed ripe plantains made into puddings with

goats' milk; fritters, patties and bread, sweet potatoes, manioc, yams,

herbs, fowls and goat meat without stint. On the evening of this day the

_menu_ for dinner was--

Kid soup.

Roast leg of kid, and baked sweet potatoes.

Boiled sweet manioc.

Fried bananas.

Sweet cake of ripe plantain.

Plantain fritters.

Goats' milk.

Already I noted a change in the appearance of ourselves and followers.

There was certainly more noise, and once or twice I heard an attempt at

singing, but as there was a well recognised flaw in the voice, it was

postponed to another day.

At 3 P.M. of the 16th Mr. Jephson appeared, having performed his mission

of relief most brilliantly. As will be seen by Mr. Jephson's letter

descriptive of his success, he had been able to proceed to the relief of

Captain Nelson, and to return with him to Ipoto within seven days, after

a journey of about a hundred miles. Judging from Captain Nelson's letter,

he seemed to have been delivered out of his terrible position to fall

into a similar desperate strait in the midst of the plenty of Ipoto.

The next day Khamis and his Manyuema returned homeward without taking

leave. I despatched a letter to the officers at Ipoto, sent Khamis' ivory

and a present of cloth with it to Indékaru, whence the Manyuema might be

able to obtain assistance from their own natives. I was never so

dissatisfied with myself as when I was compelled to treat these men thus

so kindly, and to allow them to depart without even the small

satisfaction of expressing my private opinion of Manyuema in general and

of the gang at Ipoto in particular. At all points I was worsted; they

compelled a generous treatment from me, and finally trapped me into the

obligation of being the carrier of their stolen ivory.

Yet I felt grateful to them somewhat that they had not taken greater

advantage of my position. With Captain Nelson and Dr. Parke and about

thirty men in their power, they might have compelled a thousand

concessions from me, which happily they did not. I hoped that after a

season of forbearance divine justice would see fit to place me in more

independent circumstances. When the Doctor and Nelson and their sick men

were recovered and in my camp, and the 116 loads and boat left at Ipoto

been conveyed away, then, and not till then, would I be able to cast up

accounts, and demand a peremptory and final settlement. The charges were

written plainly and fairly, as a memorandum.

Messrs. Kilonga Longa and Co., Ipoto.

_To Mr. Stanley, officers and men of the E. P. R. Expedition,_

_November 17th, 1887._

_Dr._

To having caused the starvation to death between the }

Lenda River and Ibwiri of 67 men: because we had }

crossed that river with 271 men--and in camp with } 67

those due here shortly there were only 175, and 28 }

inclusive of Captain Nelson and Dr. Parke--therefore }

loss of men. }

To 27 men at Ipoto too feeble to travel, many of whom

will not recover.

To spearing to death Mufta Mazinga. 1

To flogging one man to death. 1

To flogging Ami, a Zanzibari, 200 lashes.

To attempting to starve Captain Nelson and Dr. Parke.

To instigating robbery of two boxes of ammunition.

To receiving thirty stolen Remington rifles.

To various oppressions of Zanzibaris.

To compelling Sarboko to work as their slave.

To various insults to Captain Nelson and Dr. Parke.

To devastating 44,000 square miles of territory.

To butchery of several thousands of natives.

To enslaving several hundreds of women and children.

To theft of 200 tusks of ivory between May, 1887, and

October, 1887.

To many murders, raids, crimes, devastations past, present

and prospective.

--

To deaths of Zanzibaris 69

To mischiefs incalculable!

During the afternoon of the 17th we experienced once again the evils

attending our connection with the Manyuema. All Ibwiri and neighbouring

districts were in arms against us. The first declaration of their

hostilities took place when a man named Simba proceeded to the stream

close to the camp to draw water, and received an arrow in the abdomen.

Realizing from our anxious faces the fatal nature of the wound, he cried

out his "Buryani brothers!" and soon after, being taken into his hut,

loaded a Remington rifle near him, and made a ghastly wreck of features

that were once jovial, and not uncomely.

The reflections of the Zanzibaris on the suicide were curious, and best

expressed by Sali, the tent boy.

"Think of it, Simba! a poor devil owning nothing in the world, without

anything or anybody dear to him, neither name, place, property, or

honour, to commit suicide! Were he a rich Arab now, a merchant Hindu, a

captain of soldiers, a governor of a district, or a white man who had

suffered misfortune, or had been the victim of dishonour or shame, yea, I

could understand the spirit of the suicide; but this Simba, who was no

better than a slave, an outcast of Unyanyembé, without friends on the

face of the earth, save the few poor things in his own mess in this camp,

to go and kill himself like a man of wealth! Faugh! pitch him into the

wilderness, and let him rot! What right has he to the honour of a shroud

and a burial?" This was the sentiment of the men who were once his

comrades--though not so forcibly expressed as was done by little Sali in

his fierce indignation at the man's presumption.

Early on this morning Lieutenant Stairs and thirty-six rifles were

despatched to make a reconnaissance eastward under the guidance of Boryo,

and a young Manyuema volunteer, as we had yet a few days to wait for the

arrival of several convalescents who, wearied of the cruelties practised

at Ipoto on them, preferred death on the road to the horrible servitude

of the Manyuema slaves.

On the 19th Uledi, the coxswain of the _Advance_ with his boat's crew,

arrived, reporting that there were fifteen convalescents on the way. By

night they were in the camp.

On the 21st the reconnoitering party under Lieutenant Stairs returned,

Boryo still accompanying them; nothing new about the grass land had been

obtained, but they reported a tolerably good path leading steadily

eastward, which was as comforting news as we could expect.

On the 23rd, the last day of our stay at Ibwiri, there was a muster and

reorganization:--

No. 1 company, Jephson 80 men.

No. 2 " Stairs 76 "

Soudanese 5 "

Cooks 3 "

Boys 6 "

Europeans 4 "

Manyuema guide 1 "

---

175 "

===

Inclusive of Captain Nelson and Dr. Parke there were twenty-eight at

Ipoto; we had left to recuperate at Ugarrowwa's fifty-six. Some from

Nelson's starvation camp under Umari, the headman, probably ten, might

return; so that we reckoned the number of the advance column to be 268

still living out of 389 men who had departed from Yambuya 139 days

previously, and put down our loss at 111. We were greatly mistaken,

however, for by this date many of the sick at Ugarrowwa's had died, and

the condition of the sick at Ipoto was deplorable.

Since our arrival at Ibwiri the majority of our followers had gained

weight of body at the rate of a pound per day. Some were positively huge

in girth; their eyes had become lustrous, and their skins glossy like

oiled bronze. For the last three nights they had ventured upon songs;

they hummed their tunes as they pounded their corn; they sang as they

gazed at the moon at night after their evening meal. Frequently a hearty

laugh had been heard. In the afternoon of this day a sparring match took

place between two young fellows, and a good deal of severe thumping was

exchanged; they were always "spinning yarns" to interested listeners.

Life had come back by leaps and bounds. Brooding over skeletons and

death, and musing on distant friends in their far-away island, had been

abandoned for hopeful chat over the future, about the not far distant

grass land with its rolling savannahs, and green champaigns, abounding in

fat cattle; and they dwelt unctuously on full udders and massive humps,

and heavy tails of sheep, and granaries of millet and sesame, pots of

zogga, pombe, or some other delectable stimulant, and the Lake Haven,

where the white man's steamers were at anchor, appeared distinctly in

their visions.

They all now desired the march, for the halt had been quite sufficient.

There were twenty perhaps to whom another fortnight's rest was necessary,

but they all appeared to me to have begun recovery, and, provided food

was abundant, their marching without loads would not be hurtful.

At dawn of the bright and sunny day, 24th of November, the Soudanese

trumpeter blew the signal with such cheery strains that found a ready

response from every man. The men shouted their "Ready, aye ready,

Master!" in a manner that more reminded me of former expeditions, than of

any day we had known on this. There was no need of the officers becoming

exasperated at delays of laggards and the unwilling; there was not a

malingerer in the camp. Every face was lit up with hopefulness. A

prospective abundance of good cheer invited them on. For two days ahead,

the path was known by those of the reconnaissance, and the members of the

party had, like Caleb and Joshua, expatiated upon the immense and pendent

clusters of plantains effusing delicious odours of ripeness, and upon the

garden plots of potatoes, and waving fields of maize, &c. Therefore, for

once, we were relieved from the anxiety as to who should take this load,

or that box; there was no searching about for the carriers, no

expostulations nor threats, but the men literally leaped to the goods

pile, fought for the loads, and laughed with joy; and the officers faces

wore grateful smiles, and expressed perfect contentment with events.

We filed out of the village, a column of the happiest fellows alive. The

accursed Manyuema were behind us, and in our front rose in our

imaginations vivid pictures of pastoral lands, and a great lake on whose

shores we were to be greeted by a grateful Pasha, and a no less grateful

army of men.

In forty-five minutes we arrived at Boryo's village (the chief had been

released the day before), a long, orderly arrangement of a street 33 feet

wide, flanked by four low blocks of buildings 400 yards in length.

According to the doors we judged that fifty-two families had formed

Boryo's particular community. The chief's house was recognized by an

immense slab of wood four feet wide and six feet long, and two inches

thick; its doorway being cut out of this in a diamond figure.

The height of the broad eaves was 10 feet above the ground, and the

houses were 10 feet in width. The eaves projected 30 inches in front,

and 2 feet over the back walls. Outside of the village extended, over

level and high ground, the fields, gardens, and plantations, banked all

round by the untouched forest, which looked dark, ominous, and unwelcome.

Altogether Boryo's village was the neatest and most comfortable we had

seen throughout the valley of the Aruwimi. One hundred yards from the

western end ran a perennial and clear stream, which abounded with fish of

the silurus kind.

After a short halt we resumed the journey, and entered the forest. Four

miles beyond Boryo's we passed over a swamp, which was very favourable to

fine growths of the Raphia palm, and soon after lunched. In the afternoon

I undertook, as an experiment, to count my paces for an hour, and to

measure a space of 200 yards, to find the number of inches to a pace, and

found that the average rate in a fair track through the forest was 4800

paces of 26 inches long = 3470 yards per hour. At 3 o'clock we camped in

an extensive pigmies' village. The site commanded four several roads,

leading to villages. There is no doubt it was a favourite spot, for the

village common was well tamped and adapted for sport, gossip, and

meetings. The bush around the camp was quite undisturbed.

On the 25th, after 8-1/4 miles march, we reached Indémwani. Our track led

along the water-parting between the Ituri and Ihuru rivers. The village

was of oval shape, similar in architecture to Boryo's. A wealth of

plantains surrounded it, and Indian corn, tobacco, beans, and tomatoes

were plentiful. In passing through the clearing, over a fearful confusion

of logs, one of our men toppled over, and fell and broke his neck.

From Indémwani we moved on the 26th to West Indenduru, through a most

humid land. Streams were crossed at every mile; moss, wet and dripping,

clothed stems from base to top. Even shrubs and vines were covered with

it.

A peculiarity of this day's march was a broad highway, cut and cleared

for 3 miles through the undergrowth, which was terminated by a large

village of the pigmies, but recently vacated. There were ninety-two

huts, which we may take to represent ninety-two families, or thereabouts.

There was one hut more pretentious than the others, which possibly was

the chief's house. We had seen now about twenty villages of the forest

pigmies, but as yet we had only viewed the pretty little woman at

Ugarrowwa--the miniature Hebé.

Lieutenant Stairs, during his reconnaissance from Ibwiri, had reached

West Indenduru, and had left the village standing; but because he had

occupied it, the natives had set fire to it after his departure. We

observed also that the Balessé seldom ate of the produce of a field

twice, and that a plantain grove, after bearing fruit once, is abandoned

for another; and a corn plot, after being tilled, sown, and harvested, is

left to revert to wilderness. They appear to be continually planting

bananas and preparing ground for corn, which accounted for the immense

clearings we had passed, and for the thousands of trees that littered the

ground in one great ruin. For the bananas or plantains, they simply cut

down the underwood and plant the young bulbs in a shallow hole, with

sufficient earth to keep it upright. They then cut the forest down, and

let the trees lie where they fall. In six months the Musa bulbs have

thriven wonderfully under shade and among roots and débris, and grown to

8 feet in height; within a year they have borne fruit. The Indian corn or

maize requires sunshine. The trees are cut down well above the buttress,

by building scaffolds 10, 15, or even 20 feet high. The logs are cut up,

and either split for slabs or lining for the inner and outer walls of

their huts, or scooped out for troughs for the manufacture of plantain

wine. The branches are piled around the plot to rot; they do not burn

them, because that would impoverish the soil, and as the surface is rich

in humus, it would burn down to the clay.

Considering what great labour is involved in the clearing of a portion of

primeval forest, we were tempted to regard the Balessé as very foolish in

burning their villages for such a trivial cause as one night's occupation

of them by strangers; but it is an instance of the obstinate sullenness

of these people. Boryo's village, for instance, could scarcely be

constructed under a twelvemonth. The population of the largest village we

saw could not exceed 600 souls; but while we wonder at their prejudices,

we must award credit to them for great industry and unlimited patience to

produce such splendid results as we observed.

East Indenduru was also an exceedingly well-built village, and extremely

clean, though the houses within swarmed with vermin. The street, however,

was too narrow for the height of the buildings, and a fire occurring in

the night might easily have consumed half the inhabitants. For the huts

were higher than at Boryo's, and as the buildings were a few hundred

yards in length, and had only one principal exit at the eastern end, the

danger of a fire was such that we did not occupy it without having taken

many precautions to avoid a possible disaster in what appeared to be a

perfect trap.

Field-beans, of a dark variety, were gathered by the bushel, and our men

revelled in the juice of the sugar-cane.

We were now in S. Lat. 1° 22-1/2' and south of the watershed, all streams

flowing towards the Ituri.

On the 28th we halted in East Indenduru, and sent three separate

reconnoitering parties to obtain a knowledge of the general direction of

the routes leading out of the settlement. We had tested the task of

forming our own track through the forest long enough, and having

discovered one which had been of such service to us, we were loth to

revert to the tedious labour of travelling through jungles and

undergrowth again.

Jephson's party proceeded S.S.E., and finally S., and at noon turned back

to report. This road would not do for us. Rashid's party took one leading

E.N.E., and finally north, through two small villages, one path returning

southerly, another going north-easterly. Continuing his explorations

along the latter, he came to a native camp. There was a slight skirmish;

the natives fled, and he obtained a prize of nine fat goats, only five of

which they brought to camp. This road would not suit us either.

A third search party was led by a famous scout, who discovered one path

heading easterly. We resolved to adopt this.

On the 29th we left Indenduru and journeyed to Indepessu by noon, and in

the afternoon sheered by a northerly path to the settlement of the

Baburu, having accomplished a distance of ten miles in five hours, which

was exceedingly fair walking.

On the next morning, after a march of an hour and a half along a

tolerably good path, we emerged in front of an extensive clearing of

about 240 acres. The trees were but recently cut. This marked the advent

of a powerful tribe, or a late removal to new ground of old settlers of

some numerical force, resolved upon securing many creature comforts. A

captive woman of the Waburu led the way through the middle of this wide

abattis, the very sight of which was appalling. An hour later we had

crossed this, not without bruised shins and much trembling, and the path

then led up an easy ascent up a prolonged span of a hill. The hollows on

either side of it showed prodigious groves of plantains and many gardens,

ill-kept, devoted to herbs and gourds. Within thirty minutes from the

summit of the ascent we had reached an altitude that promised to give us

shortly a more extended view than any we had been lately accustomed to,

and we pressed gladly upwards, and soon entered a series of villages that

followed the slope. A village of these parts always gave us a highway

well trodden, from forty to sixty feet wide; in a series of this type of

villages we should soon be able to pace a mile. We had passed through

several fine separate long blocks of low structures, when the foremost of

the advance guard was seen running swiftly down to meet me. He asked me

to look towards the sunrise, and, turning my eyes in that direction, they

were met by the gratifying sight of a fairly varied scene of pasture-land

and forest, of level champaigns and grassy slopes of valleys and hills,

rocky knolls and softly rounded eminences, a veritable "land of hills and

valleys, that drinketh the rain of heaven." That the open country was

well watered was indicated by the many irregular lines of woods which

marked the courses of the streams, and by the clumps of trees, whose

crowns just rose above their sloping banks.

The great forest in which we had been so long buried, and whose limits

were in view, appeared to continue intact and unbroken to the N.E., but

to the E. of it was an altogether different region of grassy meads and

plains and hills, freely sprinkled with groves, clusters, and thin lines

of trees up to certain ranges of hills that bounded the vision, and at

whose base I knew must be the goal whither we had for months desired to

reach.

[Illustration: VIEW OF MOUNT PISGAH FROM THE EASTWARD.]

This, then, was the long promised view and the long expected exit out of

gloom! Therefore I called the tall peak terminating the forested ridge,

of which the spur whereon we stood was a part, and that rose two miles E.

of us to a height of 4600 feet above the sea, Pisgah,--Mount

Pisgah,--because, after 156 days of twilight in the primeval forest, we

had first viewed the desired pasturelands of Equatoria.

The men crowded up the slope eagerly with inquiring open-eyed looks,

which, before they worded their thoughts, we knew meant "Is it true? Is

it no hoax? Can it be possible that we are near the end of this forest

hell?" They were convinced themselves in a few moments after they had

dropped their burdens, and regarded the view with wondering and delighted

surprise.

"Aye, friends, it is true. By the mercy of God we are well nigh the end

of our prison and dungeon!" They held their hands far out yearningly

towards the superb land, and each looked up to the bright blue heaven in

grateful worship, and after they had gazed as though fascinated, they

recovered themselves with a deep sigh, and as they turned their heads,

lo! the sable forest heaved away to the infinity of the west, and they

shook their clenched hands at it with gestures of defiance and hate.

Feverish from sudden exaltation, they apostrophised it for its cruelty to

themselves and their kinsmen; they compared it to Hell, they accused it

of the murder of one hundred of their comrades, they called it the

wilderness of fungi and wood-beans; but the great forest which lay vast

as a continent before them, and drowsy, like a great beast, with

monstrous fur thinly veiled by vaporous exhalations, answered not a word,

but rested in its infinite sullenness, remorseless and implacable as

ever.

From S.E. to S. extended a range of mountains between 6,000 and 7,000

feet above the sea. One woman captive indicated S.E. as our future

direction to the great water that "rolled incessantly on the shore with a

booming noise, lifting and driving the sand before it," but as we were in

S. Lat. 1°. 22', on the same parallel as Kavalli, our objective point, I

preferred aiming east, straight towards it.

Old Boryo, chief of Ibwiri, had drawn with his hand a semicircle from

S.E. to N.W. as the course of the Ituri River, and said that the river

rose from a plain at the foot of a great hill, or a range of hills. To

the S.E. of Pisgah we could see no plain, but a deep wooded valley, and

unless our eyes deceived us, the forest seemed to ascend up the slopes of

the range as far as its summits. Five months of travel in one continuous

forest was surely experience enough; a change would therefore be

agreeable, even if we varied but our hardships. This was another reason

why I proposed to decline all advice upon the proper path leading to the

"great water."

In the village of the Bakwuru, in which we now prepared to encamp, we

found sleeveless vests of thick buffalo hide, which our men secured, as

fitting armour against the arrows of the tribes of the grass land.

[Illustration: VILLAGES OF THE BAKWURU ON A SPUR OF PISGAH.]

On the 1st of December we retraced our steps down the spur, and then

struck along a track running easterly. In a short time we ascended

another spur leading up to a terrace below Pisgah peak, where we obtained

the highest reading of the aneroid that we had yet reached. We then

followed a path leading from the terrace down another spur to the average

level. A number of well-defined and trodden roads were crossed, but our

path seemed to increase in importance until, at 11.15 A.M., we entered

the large village of Iyugu, which, of course, was quite deserted, so

quickly do the natives of the forest seem to be apprised of new arrivals.

The street of this village was forty feet wide.

We observed a considerable dryness in the woods between Pisgah base and

Iyugu, which was a great change from that excessive humidity felt and

seen between Indenduru and Ibwiri. The fallen forest leaves had a

slightly crispy look about them and crackled under our feet, and the

track, though still in primeval shade, had somewhat of the dusty

appearance of a village street.

[Illustration: A VILLAGE AT THE BASE OF PISGAH.]

Alter the noon halt we made a two hours' march to a small village

consisting of three conical huts, near which we camped. Though we had

travelled over ten miles we might have been hundreds of miles yet from

the open country for all we could gather from our surroundings. For they

were, as usual, of tall dense woods, of true tropic character, dark,

sombrous and high, bound one to the other with creepers and vines, and a

thick undergrowth throve under the shades. We, however, picked up a

strange arrow in one of the huts, which differed greatly from any we had

as yet seen. It was twenty-eight inches in length, and its point was

spear-shaped,and three inches long. Its shaft was a light reed cane,

beautifully and finely notched for decoration, a thin triangular-shaped

piece of kid leather directed the arrow, instead of a leaf or a piece of

black cloth as hitherto. A quiver full of forest-tribe arrows was also

found, and they were twenty inches long, and each arrowhead differed from

the other, though each was murderously sharp and barbed.

[Illustration: CHIEF OF THE IYUGU.]

On the 2nd of December, soon after leaving the camp, we lost the native

road, and had to pick our way amongst a perplexing number of buffalo and

elephant tracks. A stupid fellow, who had been out wandering, had

informed us that he had reached the plain the night before, and that he

could easily guide us to it. Trusting in him, we soon lost all signs of a

track, and began a crooked and erratic course through the woods, as in

times past. After nearly three hours' travelling N. by E. we stumbled

upon a village, whose conical roofs were thatched with grass. This was a

grand discovery, and was hailed with cheers. One fellow literally rushed

to the grass and kissed it lovingly. Already there were two

characteristics of pasture-land before us, the cone hut and the grass

thatch. We halted for a noon rest, and a few young men took advantage of

it to explore, and before the halting-time was expired brought to us a

bunch of green grass, which was hailed with devout raptures, as Noah and

his family may have hailed the kindly dove with the olive branch.

However, they reported that the way they had followed led to a swamp, and

swamps being a horror to a laden caravan, our afternoon march was made in

a S.S.E. direction, which in ninety minutes brought us to Indésura,

another village, or rather a district, consisting of several small

settlements of cone huts thatched with grass. Here we halted.

Having occasion to repair a roof a man mounted to the top of a house, and

looking round languidly was presently seen to lift his hand to his eyes

and gaze earnestly. He then roared out loud enough for the entire village

to hear, "I see the grass-land. Oh, but we are close to it!"

"Nay," said one in reply, mockingly, "don't you also see the lake, and

the steamer, and that Pasha whom we seek?"

Most of us were, however, stirred by the news, and three men climbed up

to the roofs with the activity of wild cats, others climbed to the tops

of trees, while a daring young fellow climbed one which would have tasked

a monkey almost, and a chorus of exclamations rose, "Aye, verily, it is

the truth of God, the open land is close to us, and we knew it not! Why,

it is merely an arrow's flight distant! Ah, when we reach it, farewell to

darkness and blindness."

As a man went to draw water from the stream, close by, an ancient crone

stepped out of the bush, and the man dropped his water-pot and seized

her. She being vigorous and obstinate, like most of her sex just previous

to dotage, made a vigorous defence for her liberty. A Countess of

Salisbury could not have been more resolute, but the man possessed

superior strength and craft and hauled her into camp. By dint of smiles

and coaxing and obsequiously filling a long pipe for her, we learned that

we were in Indésura, that the people were called Wanya-Sura, that the

villagers quenched their thirst with the waters of the Ituri. "The

Ituri?" "Ay, the Ituri; this stream close by;" that many days east of us

was a great broad river, ever so much broader than the Ituri, with canoes

as wide as a house (ten feet) which would carry six people (_sic_); that

a few days north there was a mighty tribe called the Banzanza, and east

of them another people called the Bakandi, and both of these tribes

possessed numerous herds of cattle, and were very valorous and warlike,

and who were rich in cattle, cowries, and brass wire.

[Illustration: IYUGU; A CALL TO ARMS.]

Our ancient captive, who was somewhat peculiar for her taste in personal

decoration by having a wooden disk of the size of an ulster button

intruded into the centre of her upper lip, was now seized with another

fit of obstinacy and scowled malignantly at all of us except at a bashful

smooth-faced youth upon whom she apparently doted, but the foolish youth

ascribed the ugliness of agedness to witchcraft, and fled from her.

Indésura--and, as we discovered later, all the villages situated on the

edge of the forest--was remarkable for the variety and excellent quality

of its products. Mostly all the huts contained large baskets of superior

tobacco weighing from twenty to fifty pounds each, such quantities,

indeed, that every smoker in the camp obtained from five to ten pounds.

The crone called it "Taba;" in Ibwiri it was called Tabo. Owing to the

imperfect drying it is not fragrant, but it is extremely smokable. Fifty

pipefuls a day of it would not produce so much effect on the nerves as

one of the article known as Cavendish. But here and there among the

leaves there were a few of rich brown colour, slightly spotted with nitre

which produced a different effect. Two of our officers experimented on a

pipeful of this, which they deemed to be superior, and were inconceivably

wretched in consequence. When, however, these leaves are picked out, the

tobacco is mild and innocuous, as may be judged by the half-pint

pipe-bowls peculiar to this region. In every district near the grass-land

the plant is abundantly cultivated, for the purpose of commerce with the

herdsmen of the plains in exchange for meat.

The castor-oil plant was also extensively cultivated. Requiring a supply

of castor-oil as medicine, the beans were roasted, and then pounded in a

wooden mortar, and we expressed a fair quantity, which proved very

effective. We also required a supply for rifles, and their mechanisms,

and the men prepared a supply for anointing their bodies--an operation

which made them appear fresh, clean, and vigorous.

[Illustration: PIPES.]

Having discovered that four of our scouts were strangely absent, I

despatched Rashid bin Omar and twenty men in search of them. They were

discovered and brought to us next morning, and to my surprise the four

absentees, led by the incorrigible Juma Waziri, were driving a flock

of twenty fine goats, which the chief scout had captured by a ruse. I

had often been tempted to sacrifice Juma for the benefit of others,

but the rogue always appeared with such an inoffensive, and

crave-your-humble-pardon kind of face, which could not be resisted. He

was of a handsome Abyssinian type, but the hypocrisy on his features

marred their natural beauty. A Mhuma, Masai, Mtaturu, or Galla must

have meat, even more so than the Englishman. It is an article of faith

with him, that life is not worth living without an occasional taste of

beef. I therefore warned Juma again, and consoled myself with the

reflection, that his career as a scout could only be for a brief

time, and that he would surely meet natives of craft and courage equal

to his own some day.

We had made an ineffectual start on this day, had actually left the

village a few hundred yards when we were stopped by the depth of a river

forty yards wide and with a current of two and a half miles an hour. The

old crone called this the Ituri. Marvelling that between Ipoto and Ibwiri

a river 400 yards wide could be narrowed to such a narrow stream, we had

returned to Indésura for a day's halt, and I had immediately after sent

Lieutenant Stairs and Mr. Jephson with sufficient escort back along

yesterday's path to find a ford across the Ituri.

At 4 P.M. both officers returned to report a successful discovery of a

ford a mile and a half higher up the stream, and that they had set foot

upon the grass-land, in proof of which they held a bunch of fine young

succulent grass. Meantime, Uledi and his party had also found another

ford waist deep, still nearer Indésura.

On the evening of this day a happier community of men did not exist on

the face of the round earth than those who rejoiced in the camp of

Indésura. On the morrow they were to bid farewell to the forest. The

green grassy region of which we had dreamed in our dark hours, when

slumbering heavily from exhaustion of body and prostration from hunger

during the days of starvation, was close at hand. Their pots contained

generous supplies of juicy meat; in the messes were roast and boiled

fowls, corn mush, plantain flour porridge, and ripe bananas. No wonder

they were now exuberantly happy, and all except ten or twelve men were in

finer condition than when they had embarked so hopefully for the journey

in the port of Zanzibar.

On the 4th of December we filed out of Indésura and proceeded to the

ford. It was waist deep, and at this place fifty yards wide. Two of the

aneroids indicated an altitude of 3050 feet above the ocean--1850 feet

higher than the level of the river at the landing-place of Yambuya, and

2000 feet higher than the Congo at Stanley Pool.

From the Ituri we entered a narrow belt of tall timber on its left bank,

and, after waiting for the column to cross, marched on, led by Mr.

Mounteney Jephson along a broad elephant track for about 600 yards, and

then, to our undisguised joy, emerged upon a rolling plain, green as an

English lawn, into broadest, sweetest daylight, and warm and glorious

sunshine, to inhale the pure air with an uncontrollable rapture. Judging

of the feelings of others by my own, we felt as if we had thrown all age

and a score of years away, as we stepped with invigorated limbs upon the

soft sward of young grass. We strode forward at a pace most unusual, and

finally, unable to suppress our emotions, the whole caravan broke into a

run. Every man's heart seemed enlarged and lifted up with boyish

gladness. The blue heaven above us never seemed so spacious, lofty, pure,

and serene as at this moment. We gazed at the sun itself undaunted by its

glowing brightness. The young grass, only a month since the burning of

the old, was caressed by a bland, soft breeze, and turned itself about as

if to show us its lovely shades of tender green. Birds, so long estranged

from us, sailed and soared through the lucent atmosphere; antelopes and

elands stood on a grassy eminence gazing and wondering, and then bounded

upward and halted snorting their surprise, to which our own was equal;

buffaloes lifted their heads in amazement at the intruders on their

silent domain, heaved their bulky forms, and trooped away to a safer

distance. A hundred square miles of glorious country opened to our

view--apparently deserted--for we had not as yet been able to search out

the fine details of it. Leagues upon leagues of bright green pasture land

undulated in gentle waves, intersected by narrow winding lines of

umbrageous trees that filled the hollows, scores of gentle hills studded

with dark clumps of thicket, graced here and there by a stately tree,

lorded it over level breadths of pasture and softly sloping champaigns;

and far away to the east rose some frowning ranges of mountains beyond

which we were certain slept in its deep gulf the blue Albert. Until

breathlessness forced a halt, the caravan had sped on the

double-quick--for this was also a pleasure that had been long deferred.

[Illustration: EMERGING FROM THE FOREST.]

Then we halted on the crest of a commanding hill to drink the beauty of a

scene to which we knew no rival, which had been the subject of our

thoughts and dreams for months, and now we were made "glad according to

the days wherein we had been afflicted and the period wherein we had seen

evil." Every face gloated over the beauty of the landscape and reflected

the secret pleasure of the heart. The men were radiant with the

fulfilment of dear desires. Distrust and sullenness were now utterly

banished. We were like men out of durance and the dungeon free and

unfettered, having exchanged foulness and damp for sweetness and purity,

darkness and gloom for divine light and wholesome air. Our eyes followed

the obscure track, roved over the pasture hillocks, great and small,

every bosky islet and swarded level around it, along the irregularities

of the forest line that rose darkly funereal behind us, advancing here,

receding there, yonder assuming a bay-like canoe, here a cape-like point.

The mind grasped the minutest peculiarity around as quick as vision, to

cling to it for many, many years. A score of years hence, if we live so

long, let but allusion be made to this happy hour when every soul

trembled with joy, and praise rose spontaneously on every lip, and we

shall be able to map the whole with precision and fidelity.

After examining the contour of the new region before us with the

practical view of laying a course free from river or swamp, I led the

Expedition N.N.E. to a rocky knoll which was about four miles from us, in

order to strike the southern base of a certain hilly range that ran E. by

S. from the knoll. I imagined we should then be able to travel over

upland, trending easterly, without much inconvenience.

We reached the base of the rock-heap that stood about 300 feet above the

valley to our right, then perceiving that the obscure game track we had

followed had developed into a native highway running N.E., we struck

across the grassy upland to retain our hold upon the crown we had gained,

the short young grass enabling us to do so without fatigue. But near noon

the tall unburnt grass of last season interrupted our too-easy advance

with its tangle of robust stalks of close growth; but we bore on until

12.30, and after an hour of serious exercise halted by the side of a

crystal stream for refreshments.

In the afternoon we breasted the opposing grassy slope, and, after an

hour and a half of rapid pacing, selected a camp near the junction of two

streams, which flowed south-easterly. Relieved from their burdens, a few

tireless fellows set out to forage in some villages we had observed far

below our line of march in the valley. The suddenness of their descent

among the natives provided them with a rich store of fowls, sugar-cane,

and ripe branches of bananas. They brought us specimens of the weapons of

this new land: several long bows and lengthy arrows; shields of a heavy

rectangular form, formed of a double row of tough rods crossed, and

tightly bound together with fibre and smeared with some gummy substance.

They presented very neat workmanship, and were altogether impenetrable to

arrows or spears. Besides shields the natives wore vests of buffalo hide,

which appeared to be quite impervious to pistol shots.

Our course as far as the rocky knoll already described was nearly

parallel with the edge of the forest, our path varying in distance from

it from a half mile to a mile and a half. As a sea or a lake indents its

shore, so appeared the view of the line of forest.

The trend of the Ituri that we had crossed, which we must call West

Ituri, was E.S.E.. I should have estimated the source of the river to

have been distant from the crossing about 25 geographical miles N.N.W.

On the next day we advanced up a long slope of short grass land, and on

the crest halted to arrange the column with more order, lest we might be

suddenly confronted by an overwhelming force, for we were as yet ignorant

of the land, its people, and the habits of those among whom we had

dropped so suddenly. Marching forward we chose a slight track that

followed the crest leading E. by S., but soon all traces of it were lost.

However, we were on a commanding upland, and a score of miles were

visible to us in any direction out of which we might select any course. A

village was in view N.E. of us, and to it we directed our steps, that we

might avail ourselves of a path, for the closely-packed acreages of reedy

cane and fifteen-feet-high grass, that we stumbled upon occasionally,

were as bad as the undergrowth of the jungle. The very tallest and

rankest grass impeded us, and prevented rapid advance. We crossed jungly

gullies, on whose muddy ground were impressed the feet of lions and

leopards, and finally entered a tract of acacia thorn, which was a sore

annoyance, and out of this last we emerged into the millet fields of

Mbiri. In a few seconds the natives were warned of our approach, and fled

instinctively, and, Parthian-like, shot their long arrows. The scouts

dashed across every obstacle, and seized a young woman and a lad of

twelve, who were the means of instructing our poor ignorance. No long

conversation could be maintained with them, owing to our very imperfect

knowledge of any dialect spoken near this region, but a few names of

nouns assisted by gestures brought out the fact that we were in the

district of Mbiri, that the main road easterly would take us to the

Babusessé country, that beyond them lay the Abunguma, all of which

naturally we heard with supreme indifference. What did such names convey

to dull senses and blank minds? They had never heard of Shakespeare,

Milton, or even of Her Majesty the Queen.

"Had any of them heard of Muta, or Luta Nzige?"

A shake of the head.

"Of Unyoro?"

"Unyoro? Yes. Unyoro lies a great way off," pointing east.

"Of a great water near Unyoro?"

"The Ituri, you mean?"

"No, wider; ever so much wider than the Ituri--as wide as all this

plain."

But instead of confining themselves to monosyllables, which we might

easily have understood, the wretched woman and boy, anxious to convey too

much information, smothered comprehension by voluble talk in their

dialect, and so perplexed us that we had recourse to silence and

patience. They would show us the way to Babusessé at least.

The mode of hut construction is similar to that seen all over East and

Central Africa. It is the most popular. A cone roof occupies two-thirds

of the height; one-third is devoted to the height of the walls. Huts of

this pattern, scattered amongst the banana groves, are found every few

dozen yards. Paths lead from one to the other, and are most baffling to

the stranger, who without a local guide must necessarily go astray. To

every group of huts there are attached outhouses for cooking sheds, for

gossip, to store fuel, and doing chores; also circular grass-walled and

thatched little granaries raised a foot or so above the ground as

protection against vermin and damp.

Our people obtained a large quantity of ripe plantains and ripe bananas,

out of which the aborigines manufacture an intoxicating wine called

_marwa_. A few goats were also added to our flock, and about a dozen

fowls were taken. All else were left untouched according to custom, and

we resumed our journey.

The path was well trodden. Traffic and travel had tamped it hard and

smooth. It led S.E. by E. up and down grassy hills and vales. Near noon

we halted for refreshments, shaded by fine woods, and close by boomed a

loud cataract of the Ituri, we were told. This was rather puzzling. We

could not understand how the Ituri, which we had forded the day before,

could be roaring over precipices and terraces at this high altitude, and

after we had purposely struck away from its valley to avoid it.

A march of an hour and a half in the afternoon, apparently not very far

from the river, brought us to the populous district of the Babusessé. The

banana plantations were very extensive, reminding me of Uganda, and

their deep shades covered a multitude of huts. Fields of millet and

sesame, plots of sweet potatoes, occupied the outskirts of these

plantations, and there was ample evidence round about that the land was

thickly peopled and industriously cultivated.

Before entering the banana shades we repaired our ranks, and marched in

more compact order. A strong body of men armed with Winchesters formed

the advance guard; a similar number of men armed with Remingtons, under

the command of Stairs, closed the rear of the column. But however well

cautioned the men were against breaking rank, no sooner had the advance

guard passed safely through a dangerous locality than the main body

invariably despatched scores of looters into huts and granaries to hunt

up booty and fowls, bananas, goats, sugar-cane, and trivial articles of

no earthly use. These plantations hid a large number of natives, who

permitted the advance to pass because their files were unbroken, and

their eyes on the watch, but those straggling looters soon gave the

aborigines the opportunity. Some arrows flew well aimed; one pinned a

man's arm to his side, another glancing from a rib admonished its owner

of his folly. A volley from rifles drove the men away from their covert

without harm to any of them.

[Illustration: SHIELDS OF BABUSESSÉ.]

At the easternmost settlement we camped. There were only two large

conical huts and other outhouses in it, and around these the huts for the

night were arranged hastily, put up with banana leaves sufficient to shed

rain and dew.

At dusk I called the captives to me again, and attempted, during half an

hour, to gain a lucid answer to the question as to whether there was a

great body of water or great river east of us. When one of the headmen

who were assisting us demanded to know which was the largest Nyanza, that

of Unyoro, or that of Uganda--

"Nyanza!" cried the native boy--"Nyanza? Ay, the Nyanza lies this way"

(pointing east) "and extends that way" (north-east) "a long distance;"

and when asked how many "sleeps" intervened between the Babusessé, held

up three fingers on his dexter hand, and answered "three."

It was now dark, and we were suddenly startled by a shriek of pain, and a

sequent yell singularly weird, and with a note of triumph in it, and in

the silence that followed we heard the hurtling of arrows through the

banana leaves above our heads.

"Put out the fires! Keep cool. Where are the sentries? Why are they not

at their posts?" were the next words uttered.

The natives had stolen on us at the very hour when the camp was least

watched, for it was supper-time, and the guards, except on unusual

occasions, were permitted to feed before going out on guard duty for the

night. We soon ascertained that one arrow had penetrated the thigh of a

man named Salim to the depth of four inches, another had pierced the

roast leg of a kid before the fire, several others had perforated banana

stalks. Salim, after a little coaxing, bravely drew out the shaft until

the barbed point was seen, when, with a wrench, I extracted it with a

pair of pincers. Eucalyptine was then applied to the wound, and the man

was sent to his quarters.

Half an hour later, all the guards being now on duty, however, the

natives essayed another quarter of the camp, but the rifle-shots rang out

quickly in reply, and there was a scamper and a rustle heard. In the

distance we heard two rifles fired, and an agonised cry, by which we knew

that there were some of our incorrigible looters abroad.

Our force was weak enough, in all conscience, not in numbers, but in real

strength, for defence and capacity for bearing ammunition, and these

wanderers were always a source of great anxiety to me. It was useless to

reason and expostulate; only downright severity restrained them, and as

yet, so fresh were we from the horrors of the forest, that I had not the

moral courage to apply the screw of discipline; but when I assumed

mildness, their own heedless imprudence incurred punishments far more

severe than any of us would ever have thought of inflicting.

A heavy rain fell on us during the night, which detained us next morning

until eight o'clock. I employed the time in extracting something

intelligible respecting the character of the natives in front, but we

were all so profoundly ignorant of the language that we could make but

little headway. In the endeavour to make herself clear, the woman drew on

the ground a sketch of the course of the Ituri. This illustrated one of

the strangest facts in African geography that one could imagine. The

river was represented as going up to the crest of the watershed, flowing

steeply upward parallel with Lake Albert, and finally lifting itself over

to be precipitated into the Nyanza! Stupefied by what she said, I kept

her by me as we marched out of camp into the open. From the crown of a

hill she pointed out, half a mile below, the Ituri River flowing

eastward. The stretch in view was an east by south course.

Now here was a deep puzzle. We had crossed from the right bank to the

left bank of the Ituri two days previously, in N. Lat. 1° 24': we were

now in N. Lat. 1° 28'. Yet the Ituri we saw flowed E. by S. and E.S.S.,

and my route to Kavalli was obviously south of east.

I declined to perplex myself any more with the problem, or in trying to

understand what the woman meant, that the river we had ascended for 600

miles from the Congo flowed to the Nyanza. The only solution possible was

that there were two Ituris, one flowing to the Congo, the other into the

Nile basin; but both she and her brother stoutly maintained that there

was only one Ituri.

We continued on our journey, following a path which dipped down into the

valley. We presently stood on the banks of the stream, and the solution

was at hand. It was the main Ituri River, flowing south of west! We are

all wise after the event.

There was a clumsy, misshapen canoe in the river, and as Saat Tato was an

expert canoeist, he was detailed to ferry the caravan over for a reward

of 20 dollars. The river was 125 yards broad, about seven feet average

depth, with a current of two knots. It was a cataract of this stream

whose low thunder we had heard near Mbiri.

The natives of Abunguma, on the left side of the river, watched our

operations from a hill-top a mile off, with an air of confidence which

seemed to say, "All right, friends. When you are through, you will have

to reckon with us." Nothing could be done in such an open land as this

without "all the world knowing it." The Abunguma shook their spears

bravely at us; the Babusessé occupied every prominent point on the right

side of the river. It appeared once or twice as if our manhood was about

to be tested on an important scale. There was the comfort, however, that,

knowing the natives to be alert and active, we could not be surprised on

a pasture slope where the grass around the camp was but three inches

high.

Since we had entered Ibwiri we had fared luxuriously--for Africa. We had

enjoyed meat and milk daily. We had lived on fowls, young and dried

beans, sugar-cane, sweet potatoes, yams, colocassia, tomatoes, brinjalls,

melons, plantains, and bananas. On the people the effect was wonderful.

They were men in every respect superior both in body and spirit to the

gaunt and craven wretches whom the Arab slaves of Ipoto scourged and

speared without more than a mild protest. On the whites also the effect

had been most beneficial. Though spare, we were no longer meagre and

haggard; a little wine would have completed the cure.

A gentle grassy slope, on the next morning, took us, in the course of an

hour, to the crown of one of those long undulations so characteristic of

this region. It furnished us with another all-round view peculiarly

interesting to us. Our intended direction was southeast, as we were

bearing for a high conical peak at the end of a range of grass-covered

mountains, which afterwards became known to us as Mazamboni's Peak. We

dipped down into delightful vales, watered by cool and clear brooks.

Close to these were small clusters of native homesteads, with their

fields of unripe sorghum, sweet potato, and sugar-cane patches, &c. But

the homesteads were all abandoned, and their owners were observing us

from the sky-line of every superior hill. Finally we passed an empty

cattle zeriba, the sight of which was loudly cheered, and cries of "Ay,

the master is right, and every word comes to pass. First will come the

grass-land, then the cattle with brave men to defend them, then hills,

then the Nyanza, and lastly the white man. The grass-land we have seen,

here is the cattle yard, yonder are the mountains, the brave men and the

Nyanza and the white man we shall yet see, please God."

We bore on our way to a valley through which another river rushed and

roared. On our left was a rugged line of rocks that rose in huge and

detached masses, on the top of which a dozen men might be seated

comfortably. Connecting these huge rock masses was a lower line of rocks,

more uniform, forming the bare spine of a ridge. At some places we passed

so close to the base of this hill that we were within easy stone's throw

of the summits. But though we were prepared for a demonstration, the

natives remained singularly quiet. The path we followed halted at a

suspension bridge across a third "Ituri," which had better be

distinguished as East Ituri to prevent misunderstanding. This last river

was thirty yards wide, deep and swift as a rapid. Spanned by a bridge of

such fragile make that we could only pass one at a time in safety, it

required one hundred and twenty seconds for a single person to cross the

ninety-feet span, and the caravan was not on the other side entirely

before 6 P.M. As the crossing was in a position of great disadvantage,

riflemen had been on the look-out all day.

In the afternoon we saw a fine black cow and her calf issue out of a

defile in the rocky ridge just described, and clamours of "Beef,

beef--ay, beef, how are you? we have not seen you since we were young!"

rose loud. The Abunguma had hidden their cattle among the rocky hills,

and these specimens had probably been refractory.

[Illustration: SUSPENSION BRIDGE ACROSS THE E. ITURI.]

Leaving the picturesque valley of East Ituri on the 8th, we ascended an

easy slope to the top of a hill where we obtained a long view of the

crooked and narrow valley of the East Ituri, and were able to observe

that it came from an east-south-east direction. Shortly after, something

more like a plain opened before us, extending over a score of miles to

the south, bordered on the north by the stony ridge and valley we had

just left behind, while to the eastward rose Mazamboni's mountain range,

whose northern end, conspicuous by the tall peak, was our present

objective point.

At 9.30 A.M. we had approached several miles nearer this mountain range,

and before descending into the valley of a streamlet flowing northward,

we observed with wonder that the whole intervening space as far as the

mountains was one mass of plantations, indicative of a powerful

population. Here then, we thought, "will be the tug of war. The Abunguma

have left their settlements in order to join this numerous tribe, and

meet us with a fitting reception." No more populous settlements had been

seen since we had departed from Bangala on the Congo. A suspicion that

these were among the confederation of tribes who hemmed in the poor

anxious governor of Equatoria also crept into our minds, as we looked

upon this huge display of numbers and evidence of wealth and security.

With the view of not provoking the natives, and of preventing the

incorrigible looters of the column from the commission of mischief, we

took a south-east track to skirt the district. We were able to steer our

course between the plantations, so that no cover was afforded to an

enemy. At 11.30 we had reached the eastern extremity of the district, and

then rested for the noon halt and refreshment, under the shadow of a tree

whose branches rustled before a strong cool breeze from the Nyanza.

Resuming the march at 1 P.M. we entered the depths of banana plantations,

marvelling at the great industry evinced, and the neatness of the

cultivated plots. The conical homesteads were large and partitioned

within, as we observed while passing through a few open doorways, by

screens of cane grass. Every village was cleanly swept, as though they

had been specially prepared for guests. Each banana stalk was loaded with

bananas, the potato fields were extensive, the millet fields stretched

away on either side by hundreds of acres, and the many granaries that

had lately been erected manifested expectations of a bountiful harvest.

We finally emerged from the corn-fields without being once annoyed. We

thought the natives had been cowed by exaggerated reports of our power,

or they had been disconcerted by our cautious manoeuvre of leaving a fair

open margin between the line of march and the groves; but much to our

surprise we encountered no opposition, though large masses of the

aborigines covered the eminences bordering our route.

The broad and well-trodden path towards the mountains which we were now

rapidly approaching bisected an almost level plain, three miles wide,

rich with pasture grass in flower. The Eastern Ituri was not far off on

our left flank, and on the other side of it another populous settlement

was in view.

At 3 P.M. we arrived at the base of the Mountain of the Peak. Many of its

highest points were crowned with clusters of huts. The cotes of the

natives were in the folds of the mountain fronting us. The people

gathered in large groups on the nearest summits, and when we were near

enough the shouts of defiance were uttered with loud and strident voices.

We estimated the average height of the hills nearest to us at about 800

feet above the plain, and as the slopes were particularly steep we judged

their distance to be between 800 and 1000 yards from us.

Much to our pleasure and relief the path, instead of ascending those

steep slopes, skirted their base, and turned east, pursuing the direction

we wished being now in, North Lat. 1° 25' 30". A valley unfolded to our

view as we rounded the corner of the Peak Range, with a breadth of one to

two miles wide, which was clothed with luxuriant sorghum ripening for the

sickle. On our right, rising immediately above us, was the north side of

Mazamboni's range; to our left, the ground, hidden by crops of grain,

sloped gradually to a rapid branch of the East Ituri, and beyond it rose,

an easy slope to a broad horse-shoe shaped grassy ridge, studded with

homesteads, green with millet and corn, and rich in banana groves. One

sweeping view of our surroundings impressed us with the prosperity of the

tribe.

[Illustration: OUR FIRST EXPERIENCES WITH MAZAMBONI'S PEOPLE.

VIEW FROM NZERA KUM HILL.]

On entering this rich crop-bearing valley a chorus of war-cries pealing

menacingly above our heads caused us to look up. The groups had already

become more numerous, until there were probably 300 warriors with shield,

spear, and bow, shaking their flashing weapons, gesturing with shield and

spear, crying wrathfully at us in some language. Waxing more ungovernable

in action they made a demonstration to descend; they altered their

intentions, returned to the summit, and kept pace with us--we along the

base, they along the crest of the fore hills, snarling and yelling,

shouting and threatening, which we took to be expressive of hate to us,

and encouragement to those in the valley.

Issuing out of the first series of cornfields, we heard the war-cries of

the valley natives, and comprehended that they were taking position in

favourable localities--the hill natives warning and guiding them. It was

now near 4 P.M., a time to pick out camp, to make ready for the night in

the midst of a population overwhelming in its numbers. Fortunately, close

at hand rose the steep hill of Nzera-Kum with a spur, whose level top

rose a hundred feet above the general face of the valley. It stood like

an islet in the valley, distant from the river 500 yards, and from the

base of Mazamboni's range 200 yards. From the crest of Nzera-Kum we could

command a view east and west of all the northern face of the high range,

and away over the summit lines of the horse-shoe ridge, across the Ituri

branch. Fifty rifles could hold a camp on such a position against a

thousand. We hurried up towards it, the warriors on the range slopes

converging downward as if divining our intentions; a mass of noisy

belligerents hastening towards the line of march from the river banks.

The scouts in the advance fired a few solitary shots to clear the front,

and we succeeded in reaching the islet hill and scrambled up. The loads

were thrown down, a few picked skirmishers were ordered to either flank

of the column to assist the rear-guard, others were directed to form a

zeriba around the crown of the spur; a body of thirty men was sent to

secure water from the river. In half an hour the column was safe on the

hill, the zeriba was near completion, there was water for the thirsty,

and we had a few minutes to draw breath and to observe from our

commanding elevation what were our surroundings. The bird's-eye view was

not a bit encouraging. About fifty villages were sprinkled through the

valley; plantation after plantation, field after field, village after

village met our vision in every direction. What lay on the mountains we

did not know. The swarms of lusty-voiced natives on the slopes now

numbered over 800. The air seemed filled with the uproar of the shouts.

The mountaineers appeared disposed to try conclusions at once. We were

fatigued with the march of 13 miles; the hot sun and weight of burdens

had weakened the physical powers of the men. Some of the best, however,

were picked out and sent to meet the mountaineers, while we stood and

watched to weigh the temper of our opponents. Four of the scouts were

foremost. An equal number of the mountaineers, not a whit loth for the

encounter, bounded gallantly to meet them. They intuitively felt that the

courage of our four men was not of the highest order. They approached to

within 100 yards of them, and prepared their bows against the rifles. Our

men delivered their fire harmlessly, and then backed; the mountaineers

advanced, with fingers on their bow-strings. Our four men fled, while a

hundred voices from our camp, looking down upon the scene, execrated

them. This was a bad beginning for our side; the natives accepted it as a

favourable omen to them, and yelled triumphantly. To check this glow, our

riflemen sought cover, and seriously annoyed the natives. Some at the

extremity of the hill of Nzera-Kum did execution among the mountaineers

on the slope of the range opposite, at 400 yards distance; others crept

down into the valley towards the river, and obtained a triumph for us;

others, again, working round the base of Nzera-Kum, effected a diversion

in our favour. Saat Tato, our hunter, carried away a cow from her owners,

and we thus obtained a taste of beef after eleven months' abstinence. As

night fell, natives and strangers sought their respective quarters, both

anticipating a busy day on the morrow.

Before turning in for the night, I resumed my reading of the Bible as

usual. I had already read the book through from beginning to end once,

and was now at Deuteronomy for the second reading, and I came unto the

verse wherein Moses exhorts Joshua in those fine lines, "Be strong and of

a good courage; fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, He

it is that doth go with thee; He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee."

I continued my reading, and at the end of the chapter closed the book,

and from Moses my mind travelled at once to Mazamboni. Was it great

fatigue, incipient ague, or an admonitory symptom of ailment, or a shade

of spiteful feeling against our cowardly four, and a vague sense of

distrust that at some critical time my loons would fly? We certainly were

in the presence of people very different from the forest natives. In open

our men had not been tested as they were to-day, and what my officers and

self had seen of them was not encouraging. At any rate, my mind was

occupied with a keener sense of the danger incurred by us in adventuring

with such a small force of cowardly porters to confront the tribes of the

grass land than I remember it on any previous occasion. It seemed to me

now that I had a more thorough grasp of what might be expected. Whether

it followed a larger visual view of land and population, or that I was

impressed by the volume of human voices, whose uproar yet seemed to sound

in my ears, I know not. But a voice appeared to say, "Be strong and of a

good courage: fear not, nor be afraid of them." I could almost have sworn

I heard the voice. I began to argue with it. Why do you adjure me to

abandon the Mission? I cannot run if I would. To retreat would be far

more fatal than advance; therefore your encouragement is unnecessary. It

replied, nevertheless, "Be strong and of a good courage. Advance, and be

confident, for I will give this people and this land unto thee. I will

not fail thee nor forsake thee; fear not, nor be dismayed."

Still--all this in strict confidence--before I slept I may add that

though I certainly never felt fitter for a fight, it struck me, that both

sides were remarkably foolish, and about to engage in what I conceived to

be an unnecessary contest. We did not know even the name of the land or

of the people, and they were equally ignorant of our name and of our

purpose and motives. I sketched out my plans for the morrow, adjured the

sentries to keep strict watch, and in sleep became soon oblivious of this

Mazamboni--lord of the mountains and plains.

December 9th was a halt. In the morning we completed our thorn-bush

fence, distributed cartridges, and examined rifles. By 9 o'clock the

chill of early day retired before the warmth of a hot sun, and shortly

after the natives mustered in imposing numbers. War-horns, with the weird

notes heard in Usoga and Uganda in 1875, sounded the gathering, and over

twenty drums boomed from each mountain top. There were shouts and cries

flying in currents from mountain to valley, and back again, for we were

quite surrounded. About 11 a.m. some few natives descended close enough

for one Fetteh, a man of Unyoro, to distinguish what was said, and he

exchanged a hot abuse with them, until there was quite a wordy war.

Hearing that one of our people understood the language, I directed the

wrathful tongues in the interests of peace, and a more amicable language

resulted.

"We on our side," was said, "only fight in defence. You assail us while

quietly passing through the land. Would it not be better to talk to each

other, and try to understand one another first, and then, if we cannot

agree, fight."

"True, those are wise words," a man replied. "Tell us who you are. Where

you are from, and where you are going."

"We are of Zanzibar, from the sea, and our chief is a white man. We are

bound for the Nyanza of Unyoro."

"If you have a white man with you, let us see him, and we shall believe

you."

Lieutenant Stairs promptly stepped out of the zeriba and was introduced

by Fetteh.

"Now you tell us who you are," said Fetteh. "What land is this? Who is

your chief? And how far is the Nyanza?"

"This land is Undussuma, the chief is Mazamboni. We are Wazamboni. The

Ruweru (Nyanza) is reached in two days. It will take you five days. It

lies east. There is only one road, and you cannot miss it."

This began the exchange of friendly intercourse. Strangerhood was broken.

We then learned that there were two chiefs in Undussuma, one of whom

would not be averse to peace, and exchange of friendly gifts, if it were

agreeable to us. We gladly assented, and several hours were passed

without a hostile cry being heard, or a shot fired, except at the river,

the natives on whose shores were obstinate, and declined listening to

anything but war proposals.

In the afternoon a message came from Mazamboni saying he would like to

see the pattern and quality of our monies. We sent two yards of scarlet

uniform cloth, and a dozen brass rods, and a promise was given that early

next morning the chief himself would appear and go through the ceremony

of brotherhood with me.

The next day we were refreshed after an undisturbed night, and fondly

indulged in anticipations that in a few hours, perhaps, our camp would be

filled with friendly natives. We had been requested not to depart until a

return gift should arrive from Mazamboni. We accordingly had resolved on

another day's halt. The morning was still raw and cold, for we were 4,235

feet above the sea. A mist covered the tall mountain tops, and a slight

drizzle had set in, which excused our friends from a too early

appearance; but at the third hour the mist cleared away, and the outline

of the entire range was clear against a pale blue sky. Lieutenant Stairs,

Mr. Jephson, and myself, were out at the extreme west end of the spur

enjoying the splendid view, admiring the scenery, and wondering when such

a beautiful land would become the homesteads of civilized settlers.

Stairs thought that it resembled New Zealand, and said that he would not

mind possessing a ranche here. He actually went so far as to locate it,

and pointed out the most desirable spot. "On that little hill I would

build my house"--"Shebang" he called it. I wonder if that is a New

Zealand term for a villa--"There I would herd my cattle; my sheep could

browse on the mountain slope behind, and----"

But meantime the natives had appeared on the crests of the mountain in

lengthy columns, converging towards a common centre--a butt end of a

truncated hill--a thousand yards in an air line from where we stood, and

a voice like that of a mob orator, clear and harmonious, broke on our

ear. It proceeded from a man who, with a few companions, had descended to

about 300 feet above the valley. He was ten minutes speaking, and Fetteh

had been brought to listen and translate. Fetteh said that he commanded

peace in the name of the king; but strange to say, no sooner had the man

concluded his speech than loud, responsive yells rose from the valley in

a hideous and savage clamour, and then from every mountain top, and from

the slopes there was a re-echo of the savage outburst.

We surmised that such forceful yelling could not signal a peace, but

rather war; and in order to make sure, sent Fetteh down into the valley

below the speaker to ask him. The replies from the natives left us no

room to doubt. The two sounds--Kanwana, "peace," and Kurwana, "war," were

so similar that they had occasioned Fetteh's error.

"We do not want your friendship," they cried. "We are coming down to you

shortly to drive you out of your camp with our herdsmen's staffs." And a

treacherous fellow, who had crawled under cover of low bush, came near

causing us a severe loss--our interpreter especially having an

exceedingly narrow escape. Fetteh picked up the arrows and brought them

to us, and delivered his news.

There was then no alternative but to inflict an exemplary lesson upon

them; and we prepared to carry it out without losing a moment of time,

and with the utmost vigour, unless checked by proffers of amity.

The companies were mustered, and fifty rifles were led out by Lieutenant

Stairs towards those obstinate and fierce fellows on the other side of

the Ituri branch. A party of thirty rifles were sent under Mr. Jephson to

skirmish up the slopes to the left; and twenty picked men were sent with

Uledi to make a demonstration to the right. Rashid was ordered with ten

men to the top of Nzera-Kum to guard against surprise from that quarter.

Jephson and Uledi would be marching to their positions unobserved by the

mountaineers, because the crowns of the forehills would obstruct the

view, and would approach to them within 200 yards without being seen,

while Lieutenant Stairs' company, being further out in the valley, would

absorb their attention.

In a few minutes Stairs' company was hotly engaged. The natives received

our men with cool determination for a few minutes, and shot their arrows

in literal showers; but the Lieutenant, perceiving that their coolness

rose from the knowledge that there was a considerable stream intervening

between them and his company, cheered his men to charge across the river.

His men obeyed him, and as they ascended the opposite bank opened a

withering fire which in a few seconds broke up the nest of refractory and

turbulent fellows who had cried out so loudly for war. The village was

taken with a rush and the banana plantations scoured. The natives broke

out into the open on a run, and fled far northward. Lieutenant Stairs

then collected his men, set fire to the village, and proceeded to the

assault of other settlements, rattling volleys from the company

announcing the resistance they met.

Meanwhile, Uledi's party of chosen men had discovered a path leading up

the mountain along a spur, and after ascending 500 feet, led his men up

into view on the right flank of the mob observing and cheering their

countrymen in the valley. The Winchesters were worked most handsomely. At

the same time Mr. Jephson's party came out of the left ravine, and

together they had such a disastrous effect on the nerves of the natives

that they fled furiously up the slopes, Uledi and his men chasing them.

Mr. Jephson, after seeing them in full flight, faced eastward, and pushed

on for two miles, clearing every inhabitant out. By 1 P.M. all our men

were in camp, with only one man slightly wounded. Every man had behaved

wonderfully well; even the four cowards, who had been marked men, had

distinguished themselves.

At 2 P.M., the natives in the valley having returned, each party was

despatched once again. Stairs led his men across the Ituri branch, and

followed the running fugitives far northward, then veered sharply round

to join Jephson, who had continued his way eastward. Uledi's scouts were

sent up to the very summit of the mountain range; but on observing the

immense number of homesteads that dotted it, he prudently halted.

Until the afternoon the contest continued; the natives were constantly on

the run, charging or retreating. By evening not one was in sight, and the

silence around our camp was significant of the day's doings. The

inhabitants were on the mountains or far removed eastward and northward.

In the valley around us there was not a hut left standing to be a cover

during the night. The lesson, we felt, was not completed. We should have

to return by that route. In the natural course of things, if we met many

tribes of the quality of this, we should lose many men, and if we left

them in the least doubt of our ability to protect ourselves, we should

have to repeat our day's work. It was, therefore, far more merciful to

finish the affair thoroughly before leaving a tribe in unwhipped

insolence in our rear. The natives must have entertained an idea that we

could not fight outside our bush fence, which accounts for their tall

talk of driving us out with sticks, and that they were safe on the

mountains. We were compelled to root out the idea that they could harm us

in any way.

A cow neglected by her owner was burnt in one of the villages close by,

and furnished us with a second limited ration of roast beef.

On the 11th it rained again during the early morning, which kept us

indoors until 10 A.M. Some natives having then come out to demonstrate

their hostility on the mountains, Stairs, Jephson and Uledi led their men

up the mountain slopes in three separate small columns to the attack, and

made a successful tour among their stronghold. A small flock of goats was

captured, and distributed to the men, and our experiences of this day

satisfied the natives that they had nothing to gain by fighting.

[Illustration: SHIELD OF THE EDGE OF THE PLAINS.]

At one time it appeared as day would end with reconciliation, for a

native stood on a high hill above our position after all had reached

camp, and announced that he had been sent by Mazamboni to say that he

received our gifts, but that he had been prevented from visiting us

according to promise by the clamour of his young men, who insisted on

fighting. But now, as many of them had been killed, he was ready to pay

tribute, and be a true friend in future.

We replied that we were agreeable to peace and friendship with them, but

as they had mocked us, kept our peace presents, and then scornfully

called us women, they must purchase peace with cattle or goats, and if

they held up grass in their hands they could approach without fear.

It should be mentioned that when the warriors descended the mountain

slopes for the fight, every little squad of men was accompanied by a

large hound, of somewhat slender build, but courageous, and prompt to

attack.

The arms of the Wazamboni consisted of long bows five and a half feet

long, and arrows twenty-eight inches long, besides a long sharp spear.

Their shields were long and narrow generally, but there were many of the

true Uganda type. The arrows were cruelly barbed, and the spear was

similar to that of Karagwé, Uhha, Urundi, and Ihangiro.

[Illustration: VIEW OF THE SOUTH END OF ALBERT NYANZA. (_See page

306._)]