AMONG THE SHILLOOK NEGROES.--ARRIVAL AT FASHODA.--EXPLORERS OF THE NILE.
On the second day from Khartoum, Doctor Bronson told the boys they were
in the country of the Shillooks. The natural inquiry that followed this
announcement was,
"Who are the Shillooks?"
"They are a large tribe of negroes, living along the White Nile,"
replied the Doctor, "and are thought to number nearly, if not quite,
three millions. For more than two hundred miles their villages are
scattered along the river, forming an almost continuous line. They live
partly by hunting and fishing, and formerly they made quite a revenue by
selling slaves to the dealers who came from Khartoum and other parts of
Egypt.
"They made war upon neighboring tribes farther back from the river, and
sold their prisoners into slavery; and sometimes they sold their own
people. It was not unusual for a Shillook to sell his own children when
a good price was offered, especially if his family was large and his
affairs were not prosperous."
Frank asked if they could land among the Shillooks and see how they
lived. Doctor Bronson said it was not altogether safe to go among them,
as they have been badly treated by the Turks and Egyptians, and are not
specially friendly.
As the Doctor was speaking the steamer rounded the point of an island,
and the dragoman called their attention to a number of conical huts of
grass among the low trees near the shore. "That is a Shillook village,"
said Abdul, "and several of the inhabitants are standing by the edge of
the river."
The boys ran below for their glasses, and were back again in a few
moments. They made out the negroes to be tall, well-formed men, most of
them fully six feet in height, and entirely without clothing, with the
exception of two, who had strips of cloth around their waists. Abdul
said the full dress of the Shillooks was a waist-cloth and a string of
beads, but they were not always particular about arraying themselves.
[Illustration: A BIRD OF THE WHITE NILE.]
Back of the village was a field of cotton and another of beans, and
there was every indication that the Shillooks had a fertile soil to
cultivate. Abdul said their products were the same as near Khartoum, but
they had very few fruit-trees, and their gardens were not carefully
tilled.
The steamer stopped near one of the villages to take wood, and after a
consultation with the captain Abdul said the boys could go on shore, but
must not wander from the immediate vicinity of the boat. The Shillooks
are apt to be treacherous, and sometimes a lance or an arrow is sent
from the bushes when there is nothing to indicate the presence of
danger. When kindly treated their confidence is easily secured, but
they have been subject to so much ill-usage at the hands of the
slave-dealers that it is no wonder they are suspicious.
They are said to be honest in their dealings, though excellent hands at
a bargain, and as ready to tell a deliberate falsehood as the most
accomplished shopkeeper in London or New York. They have no
manufactures, and the articles most in demand among them are cheap
cotton cloths and pieces of iron, from which they make the heads of
their spears. As the steamboat neared the landing several natives
paddled out to meet it, and the boys were much interested in the rafts,
which the Shillooks manage with a great deal of skill.
"Those rafts are made from the ambatch plant," said Abdul. "It is a reed
like the bamboo, with hollow spaces between the joints, and is very
light and strong. The ambatch narrows toward the top, and to make a raft
of the plants all that is necessary is to fasten a couple of dozen of
them together at the ends and turn the smaller extremity upward.
[Illustration: AN AMBATCH CANOE.]
"The ambatch raft or canoe," he continued, "is in use all along the
White Nile, and it would be difficult to find a more serviceable craft.
It cannot be sunk, and if a man balances himself properly there is
little danger of an upset."
"They are useful in war as well as in peace," remarked Doctor Bronson,
who was listening to the conversation. "Dr. Schweinfurth, in the account
of his travels in Africa, tells how he was pursued by a whole fleet of
Shillook canoes, and had a very narrow escape. He said not less than
three thousand canoes were in motion along the river and pursuing the
boat on which he was travelling.
[Illustration: AN ADVENTURE ON THE NILE.]
"The wind left them while the canoes were approaching, and for a while
his position was very critical. Only the previous year five boats,
coming down the river on their way to Khartoum, had stopped at the
village they were passing and endeavored to buy some provisions. The
natives brought fowls, honey, and other things to sell, and while the
negotiations were going on a large fleet of canoes suddenly came around
the point of land and attacked the strangers.
"The captain of one boat and a sailor from another managed to escape by
jumping into the river and swimming to a place of concealment among the
reeds. The rest of the party, some eighty in all, were killed, and the
vessels were plundered and burned.
"Of course this incident was fresh in the mind of Dr. Schweinfurth, and
you can imagine his despair when the wind ceased while the canoes were
approaching. But 'all's well that ends well:' the wind suddenly blew
again, their sail was unfurled, and they were carried out of danger in a
little while. The disappointed Shillooks returned to the shore, and
nothing more was seen of them.
"Bayard Taylor visited the Shillooks in his journey here in 1852," the
Doctor continued. "He came from Khartoum, with a single boat, manned by
half a dozen sailors, and accompanied only by his dragoman. The only
arms he carried was an old pistol, and he was represented by the captain
of the boat to be a son of the Sultan of Turkey, who had come on a
peaceful visit to the chief of the Shillooks."
Frank asked if he was kindly received by them.
"They were very surly at first," said Doctor Bronson, "and came down to
the river-bank armed with spears and clubs. After some parley their
chief stepped forward and asked if he wanted to fight. Mr. Taylor
declared he was anxious for peace, and for that reason had come on shore
without arms. The chief was not assured of his good intentions for some
time, and there was an angry controversy among the men, which threatened
for a while to result in open hostility; but nothing of the kind was
attempted. Mr. Taylor stayed a couple of hours on shore, and just as the
Shillooks began to show a familiarity bordering on insolence he suddenly
returned to his boat and steered down the river the way he had come."
"Then this was the southern limit of his journey, was it not?" Fred
asked.
"Yes; he came to the island of Aba, which lies about latitude 12° north,
or two hundred and fifty miles from Khartoum. He was very anxious to
push on to the south, but his contract with the owner of the boat was
only for a journey to this island. At that time the highest point on the
Nile to which any Europeans had ascended was about latitude 4° north, or
four hundred and eighty miles beyond the island of Aba. Nothing was
known about the sources of the Nile, and the general impression among
geographers was that the river rose at the base of Mount Kilimandjaro,
in the third degree of south latitude. Some geographers had thought it
possible that the Nile flowed from Lake N'yassi, but the idea was
generally rejected. 'Since Columbus first looked upon San Salvador,'
wrote Mr. Taylor in his journal, 'the earth has but one emotion of
triumph left in her bestowal, and that she reserves for him who shall
first drink from the fountains of the White Nile, under the snow-fields
of Kilimandjaro.'"
"What great progress has been made since Mr. Taylor's time in the
exploration of Africa!" Frank exclaimed, as the Doctor finished his last
remark.
"Yes," was the reply, "the progress in the last half of the nineteenth
century has been greater than in the preceding twenty centuries. From
the days of Herodotus--two thousand years ago--till within the present
generation exploration of the valley of the Nile had accomplished very
little. Syene, at the first Cataract of the Nile, was a city in the days
of the ancient dynasties of Egypt; three thousand years ago the kingdoms
of Ethiopia flourished, and their rulers had a prominent place in
history. Time and time again men sought in vain to solve the mystery of
the source of the Nile, and it was reserved for men of our day to make
the great discovery."
One of the boys asked to whom the honor belonged of ascertaining the
source of the Nile.
"That question is a conundrum," replied the Doctor, with a smile, "and a
conundrum that needs an explanation before answering. The honor belongs
to several explorers, and not to one alone. Each has made discoveries
peculiarly his own, and these discoveries have supplemented the work of
the rest.
"As I have before told you, it was long supposed that the Blue Nile was
the parent stream, and its sources were ascertained by James Bruce. The
error of this belief was set forth after the death of Bruce, as the
White Nile was found to be of greater volume than the Blue, and was
explored to a point more distant from the junction of the two streams
than were the springs of the Blue Nile. Mohammed Ali sent three
expeditions to find the sources of the White Nile, but they failed in
their efforts. Private expeditions were sent every few years, but with
the same results. The heat, the fevers, the hostility of the natives,
the difficulty of penetrating marshes and tropical forests, all
conspired to frustrate their efforts. The first expedition of Mohammed
Ali reached latitude 6° 30' north; the second went to 4° 42' north; and
the third stopped at about 5° north. Dr. Knoblecher, in 1849, went to
4° 10' north, which was farther than any one else had gone. Miani, an
Italian traveller, went to a point about 3° 32' north, and about the
same time Dr. Schweinfurth explored the Bahr-el-Gazal, one of the
tributaries of the White Nile, in the expectation that it might turn out
to be the main stream. Miss Tinné, a Dutch lady, also explored that
river, and spent more than a year in its valley."
"What!" exclaimed one of the youths, "a lady going on an expedition in
Africa! She must have been fond of adventure. Who was she?"
"Miss Tinné was born in 1835, and was the daughter of a baroness, who
had a large fortune. She was fond of travel, and in 1861 went to Cairo
with her mother. She was so enamored of the East that she determined to
remain there, and announced to her friends that she should not return to
Europe to live. In 1862 she started from Khartoum with a steamboat,
several sailing-boats, a large party of attendants, and so many beasts
of burden of various kinds that the natives everywhere believed she was
the daughter of the Sultan of Turkey. The only Europeans of her party
were Dr. Steudner and Baron Von Henglin, and also her mother. The latter
died of fever, and so did Dr. Steudner, before the return to Khartoum,
which occupied some fourteen months after the departure of the
expedition.
"Miss Tinné on this journey explored the Bahr-el-Gazal, and made a great
many notes and observations, which have been very useful to those who
followed her. She had previously visited the White Nile as far as
Gondokoro, and altogether she passed nearly three years in the work of
exploration. In 1869 she organized an expedition at Tripoli, intending
to pass through Moorzook and Bornoo, and reach the Nile by way of
Kordofan, a route which up to that time had never been followed by a
European. She had fifty attendants and seventy camels on this
expedition, and her only European companions were two Dutch sailors.
From Moorzook she went on a side-journey to the country of the Touaregs,
and was treacherously murdered by her escort. The sailors who
accompanied her were also murdered, and her native attendants were sold
into slavery.
"Let us return to the exploration of the White Nile," said Doctor
Bronson. "While these discoverers were at work from the north others
were approaching the Nile from the south, and it was from that direction
the great secret was revealed. In 1856 Captains Speke and Burton, of the
British army, started from Zanzibar for a journey into Africa, and on
the 30th of July, 1858, Captain Speke discovered the Victoria N'yanza.
"N'yanza is a native word, meaning lake, and, reduced to English, the
body of water discovered by Speke may be called the Victoria Lake of
Africa. Captain Speke was alone at the time of the discovery, his
companion Burton being engaged in an exploration farther to the south.
Speke was of the opinion that the lake he had found was the source of
the Nile, but was unable to find its outlet, and so demonstrate the
correctness of his theory.
[Illustration: SPEKE AND GRANT IN CENTRAL AFRICA.]
"In 1862 he revisited the lake, accompanied by Captain J. W. Grant, and
this time he explored its northern part and found its outlet. A large
river flowed northward from the lake, and at its head was a cataract, to
which the explorer gave the name of Ripon Falls. The stream is now known
on the maps as the Victoria Nile, or Somerset River, and may be
considered the beginning of the great river of Egypt."
"Then the Nile has its beginning at the outlet of the Victoria N'yanza?"
said one of the boys.
"Not exactly," was the reply. "The Somerset River, or Victoria Nile,
flows northward into another lake, the Albert N'yanza, discovered in
1864 by Sir Samuel W. Baker. The Albert N'yanza is smaller than the
Victoria N'yanza, and its outlet is the White Nile, on which we are now
travelling.
[Illustration: GROUP OF GANI MEN.]
"You know what the showman said when the little girl asked which were
the monkeys and which the hyenas?"
"Yes," said Frank: "'Whichever you please, my dear. You pays your money,
and you takes your choice.'"
"It is somewhat that way with the origin of the Nile," answered the
Doctor. "If the Victoria N'yanza is the source of the great river, you
can give the credit of its discovery to Captain Speke; and if the outlet
of the lake is technically the head of the river, the honor is divided
between Speke and Grant. If the Albert N'yanza, and not the Victoria, is
the source of the Nile--since the Bahr-el-Abiad, or White Nile, issues
from it--then you must set Speke and Grant aside and award the palm of
merit to Sir Samuel Baker."
"But how about the rivers that flow into the Victoria N'yanza?" said
Fred. "There must be several affluents of the lake, and the largest and
longest of them might be called the true source of the Nile."
"That is a matter which is not yet fully determined," was the reply.
"Stanley circumnavigated the Victoria N'yanza in 1875, and found several
streams flowing into it; but, as they have not all been traced to their
sources, we cannot say with exactness which is the longest. Until this
point is settled there will be a question in the minds of some very
exact people as to the source of the Nile, but for all practical
purposes the matter is determined already. To my way of thinking the
Victoria N'yanza is the source of the Nile; and it is hardly worth our
while to consider the streams that feed it, unless one of them should be
found to be larger than all the others, as in the case of the Somerset
River, flowing into the Albert N'yanza.
[Illustration: KARUMA FALLS, ON THE VICTORIA NILE (SOMERSET RIVER).]
"There is another lake, called Tanganyika, which lies south of the
Victoria N'yanza, and was discovered by Burton and Speke in February,
1858. It was supposed that this lake discharged into the Victoria
N'yanza, and this supposition was sustained by Dr. Livingstone against
the opinions of other geographers. It is known that the level of
Tanganyika is lower than the Victoria and Albert lakes, and therefore it
cannot be the source of the Nile."
The conversation came to an end as the plank was put to the shore, and
the party stepped from the boat in the country of the Shillooks.
The natives straggled slowly to the landing-place, but were evidently
averse to an intimate acquaintance with the strangers. The majority were
in the same airy costume that the boys had observed through their
glasses, but some of them had added a veneering made of a paste of ashes
mixed with water. This did not enhance their beauty; but as it was a
fashion among them, and they evidently considered it correct, the
strangers had no business to object. A few had rubbed their faces and
necks with red ashes, which gave a ferocious tinge to their
countenances, and was evidently regarded as an indication of bravery.
Nearly every one wore an armlet of metal or untanned leather above the
elbow, and the most of the crowd were armed with spears. Some had
strings of beads around their necks, and one, who seemed to have
authority, was decorated with beads larger than those of his companions.
The boys endeavored to make a trade for some of the arm-rings and
spear-heads, but did not meet with much success. The natives refused to
part with their spears, and the Doctor said that, like most savages,
they probably had a superstition about selling their weapons, believing
that by so doing they would bring misfortune upon themselves and their
tribes. After some bickering, however, Frank secured an arm-ring of
metal, while Fred bought one made of elephant-hide. The price in each
case was a string of small beads, but the offers were refused half a
dozen times before they were accepted. Trade is a slow business among
people to whom time has no value.
The whistle of the steamer brought the negotiations to an end, and in a
few minutes the boat was under way again. Nothing of moment occurred
from this point to Fashoda, the first military post above Khartoum, and
the station of a _mudir_, or provincial governor. It is situated on a
bluff sloping gently from the river. The Egyptian portion is surrounded
by a mud-wall, and contains comfortable barracks for the officers and
soldiers. There is a Shillook village just outside, the conical huts
forming a marked contrast to the flat roofs of the substantial buildings
erected by the government.
[Illustration: VIEW OF FASHODA.]