_Anum Mountain--The Basel Mission--A beautiful spot--An old Ashanti
raid--A desolate rest-house--Alone and afraid; also hungry--A long
night--Jakai--Pekki Blengo--The unspeakable Eveto Range--Underpaid
carriers--A beautiful, a wealthy, and a neglected land--Tsito--The
churches and the fetish--Difficulties of lodging in a cocoa-store--The
lonely country between Tsito and the Border--Doubts of the
hammock-boys--The awful road--Butterflies--The Border._
Frankly, my sympathies are not as a rule with the missionaries,
certainly not with African missionaries. I have not learned to
understand spiritual misery, and of material misery there is none in
Africa to be compared with the unutterable woe one meets at every turn
in an English city. But one thing I admire in these Swiss and German
teachers is the way they have improved the land they have taken
possession of. Their women, too, make here their homes and bear their
children. “A home,” I said as I stepped on to the wide verandah of the
Mission Station at Anum; “a home,” as I went into the rooms decorated
with texts in German and Twi; “a home,” as I sat down to the very
excellent luncheon provided by the good lady whom most English women
would have designated a little scornfully as a _haus-frau_. Most
emphatically “a home” when I looked out over the beautiful gardens that
were nicely planted with mangoes, bananas, palms, and all manner of
pretty shrubs and bright-foliaged trees. It seems to me almost a pity to
teach the little negro since he is so much nicer in his untutored state,
but since they feel it must be done these Basel Mission people are going
the very best way about it by beautifying their own surroundings.
From their verandah over the scented frangipanni and fragrant orange
trees you may see far far away the winding Volta like a silver thread
at the bottom of the valley, and the great hills that control his
course standing up on either side. It is an old station, for in the late
sixties the Ashantis raided it, captured the missionary, Mr Ramseyer,
his wife and child, and held them in captivity for several years. But
times are changed now. The native, even the fierce Ashanti warrior, has
learned that it is well for him that the white man should be here, and
up in the rest-house on the other side of the mountain a white woman may
stay alone in safety.
Why do the powers that be overlook Anum mountain? The rest-house to
which my kind friend from Labolabo escorted me after we had lunched
at the Basel Mission was shabby and desolate with that desolation that
comes where a white man has been and is no longer. No one has ever tried
to make a garden, though the larger trees and shrubs have been cleared
from about the house and in their stead weeds have sprung up, and the
vigour of their growth shows the possibilities, while the beauty of
the situation is not to be denied. Away to the north, where not even a
native dwells, spreads out the wide extent of the Afram plain, a
very paradise for the sportsman, for there are to be found numberless
hartebeests, leopards, lions, and even the elephant himself. It lies
hundreds, possibly thousands of feet below, and across it winds the
narrow streak of the Volta, while to the north the hills stretch out as
if they would keep the mighty river for England, barring its passage to
the east and to German territory.
And here my friend from Labolabo left me--left me, I think, with some
misgivings.
“Come back,” he said; “you know I'll be glad to see you. Mind you come
back. I know you can't get through.”
But I had my own opinion about that.
“What about the carriers Mr Olympia is going to send me to-morrow
morning?”
And he laughed. “Those carriers! don't you wish you may get them? I know
those carriers black men promise. Why, the missionary said you needn't
expect them.”
The Basel missionary had said I might get through if I was prepared to
wait, and as I said good-bye I was prepared to wait.
The rest-house was on top of a mountain in the clouds, far away from
any sign of habitation. The rooms were large, empty, and desolate with a
desolation there is no describing. There was a man in charge living in a
little house some way off, the dispenser at the empty hospital which
was close to the rest-house, and the Basel missionary spoke of him with
scorn.
“He was one of my boys,” he said; “such a fool I sent him away, and why
the Government have him for dispenser here I do not know.”
Neither do I, but I suspect he was in a place where he could do the very
minimum of harm, for very few people come to Anum mountain. There is a
Ju-ju upon it, and my first experience was that I could get no food.
No sooner were we alone than Grant appeared before me mightily
aggrieved.
“This bush country no good, Ma. I no can get chop.”
I hope I would have felt sorry for him in any case, but it was brought
home to me by the fact that he could get no chop for me either.
I had come to the end of my stores and there was not a chicken nor an
egg nor bread nor fruit to be bought in the village down the hill. The
villagers said they had none, or declined to sell, which came to the
same thing. I dined frugally off tea and biscuits, and I presume Grant
helped himself to the biscuits--I told him to--tea he hated--and then as
the evening drew on I prepared to go to bed.
Oh! but it was lonely, and fear fell upon me. A white mist came softly
up, so that I could not see beyond the broad, empty verandahs. I knew
the moon was shining by the white light, but I could not see her and
I felt shut in and terrified. Where Grant went to I don't know, but he
disappeared after providing my frugal evening meal, and I could hear
weird sounds that came out of the mist, and none of the familiar chatter
and laughter of the carriers to which I had grown accustomed. It was
against all my principles to shut myself in, so I left doors and windows
wide open and listened for the various awful things that might come out
of the bush and up those verandah steps. What I feared I know not, but
I feared, feared greatly; the fear that had come upon me at Labolabo
worked his wicked will now that I was alone on Anum mountain, and the
white mist aided and abetted. I could hear the drip, drip, as of water
falling somewhere in the silence; I could hear the cry of a bird out in
the bush, but it was the silence that made every rustle so fraught with
meaning. It was no good telling myself there was nothing to fear, that
the kindly missionaries would never have left me alone if there had
been.
I could only remember that on this mountain had raided those fierce
Ashanti warriors, that terrible things had been done here, that terrible
things might be done again, that if anything happened to me there was no
possibility of help, that I was quite powerless. I wondered if a Savage,
on these occasions one spells Savage with a very large “S,” did come on
to the verandah, did come into my bedroom, what should I do. I felt that
even a bush-cat would be terrifying, and having got so far I realised
that a rabbit would probably send me into hysterics. At the thought
of the rabbit my drooping spirits recovered themselves a little, but
I spent a very unpleasant night, dozing and listening, till my own
heart-beats drowned all other sounds. But I never thought of going back.
I don't suppose I should have given up in any case, it is against
family tradition, but if I had, there was the Volta behind me, and those
preventive service men made it imperative to go on.
But when morning dawned I felt a little better. True, I did not like the
thought of tea and biscuits for breakfast, but I thought hopefully of
the Basel Mission gardens. I was sure, if I had to stay here, those
hospitable people would give me plenty of fruit, and probably a good
deal more than that, so I was not quite as depressed as Grant when I
dressed and stood on the verandah, looking across the mysterious mist
that still shrouded the valley of the Volta.
And before that mist had cleared away, up the steps of the rest-house
came the Basel missionary, and at their foot crowded a gang of lightly
clad, chattering men and women. My carriers! Mr Olympia had been as good
as his word, the missionary kindly came to interpret, and I set out for
Pekki Blengo, away in the hills to the east.
It was all hill-country through which we passed; range after range
of hills, rich in cocoa and palm oil, while along the track, that we
English called a road, might be seen rubber trees scored with knives, so
that the milky rubber can be collected. Very little of this rich country
is under cultivation, the vegetation is dense and close, and the vivid
green is brightened here and there by scarlet poinsettas and flamboyant
trees, then at the beginning of the rains one mass of flame-coloured
blossom. It was a tangle of greenery, like some great, gorgeous
greenhouse, and the native, when he wants a clearing, burns off a small
portion and plants cocoa or cassada, yams, bananas, or maize, with
enough cotton here and there, between the lines of food-stuffs, to give
him yarn for his immediate needs. When the farmer has used up this land,
he abandons it to the umbrella trees and other tropical weeds, and with
the wastefulness of the native takes up another piece of land, burning
and destroying, quite careless of the value of the trees that go to feed
the fire. Such reckless destruction is not allowed by the Germans, but
a few miles to the east. There a native is encouraged to take up a farm,
but he must improve it year by year. Our thrifty neighbours will have no
such waste within their borders.
In the course of the morning I arrived at Jakai, and the whole of the
village turned out to interview me, and I in my turn took a photograph
of as few as I could manage of the inhabitants under the principal tree.
That was always the difficulty. When they grasped I was going to take
a picture, and there was generally some much-travelled man ready to
instruct the others, they all crowded together in one mass in front of
the camera--if they did not object altogether, when they ran away--and
I always had to wait, and perjure myself, and say the picture was taken
long before it was done. But always they were kindly. If I grew afraid
at night I always reminded myself of the uniform goodwill of the
villages through which I passed; their evident desire that I should be
pleased with my surroundings. And at Jakai Grant, with triumph, bought
so many eggs that I trembled for my future meals. I foresaw a course of
“fly” egg, hard-boiled egg, and egg and breadcrumbs, but after all that
was better than tea and biscuits, and when I saw a pine-apple and a
bunch of bananas I felt life was going to be endurable again.
At Pekki Blengo, an untidy, disorderly village, where the streets
are full of holes and hillocks, strewn with litter and scarred with
waterways, Mr Olympia met me, and conducted me to an empty chiefs house,
where I might put up for the night. It was a twostoried house of mud,
with plenty of air, for there were great holes where the doors and
windows would have been, and I slept peacefully once more with the hum
of human life all around me again. But I can hardly admire Pekki Blengo.
It is like all these villages of the English Eastern Province. The
houses are of mud, the roofs of thatch, and fowls, ducks, pigs, goats,
and little happy, naked children alike swarm. That is one comfort
so different from travelling in the older lands--these villagers are
apparently happy enough. They are kindly and courteous, too, for though
a white woman was evidently an extraordinary sight equal in interest to
a circus clown, or even an elephant, and they rushed from all quarters
to see her, they never pushed or crowded, and they cuffed the children
if they seemed likely to worry her.
And beyond Pekki Blengo the road reached its worst. Mr Olympia warned
me I should have to walk across the Eveto Range as no hammock-boys could
possibly carry me, and I decided therefore that the walking had better
be done very early in the morning, and arranged to start at half-past
five, as soon as it was light.
The traveller is always allowed the privilege of arranging in Africa. If
he does not he will certainly not progress at all, but at the same time
it is surprising how seldom his well-arranged plans come off. True to
promise my hammock-boys and carriers turned up some time a little before
six in the morning, and the carriers, swarming up the verandah, turned
over the loads, made a great many remarks that I was incapable
of understanding, and one and all departed. Then the hammock-boys
apparently urged me to get into the hammock and start, as they were in a
hurry to be off and earn the four shillings they were to have for taking
me to Ho in German territory. I pointed out, whether they understood I
did not know, that I could not stir without my gear, and I went off to
interview Mr Olympia, who was sweetly slumbering in his house about a
mile away. He, when he was aroused, said they thought I was not giving
them enough; that they said they would not carry loads to Ho for one
shilling and sixpence and two shillings a load. I said that that was the
sum he had fixed. I was perfectly willing to give more; and he set out
to interview the Chief, and see if he could get fresh carriers, but he
was not very hopeful about getting any that day. I retired to my
chiefs house, grew tired of making mental notes of the people and the
surrounding country, and got out a pack of cards and solaced myself with
one-handed bridge, which may be educational, but is not very exciting.
My hammock-boys again pleaded to be taken on, but I was firm. It was
useless moving without my gear; and finally when I was about giving
up hope Mr Olympia returned. He had found eight men and women who
were bound across the Eveto Range to get loads at Tsito. Sixpence, he
explained, was the ordinary charge for a load to Tsito, but if I would
rise to say ninepence for my heavier loads--he hesitated as if such an
enormous expenditure might not commend itself to my purse. But naturally
I assented gladly, and off went my loads at sixpence and ninepence
a head. For a moment I rejoiced, and as usual began to purr over my
excellent management. Not for long though. It was my turn now, and where
were my hammock-boys? Inquiry elicited the awful fact that they had gone
to their farms and could not be prevailed upon to start till next day;
Mr Olympia was sure I could not hope to move before to-morrow morning.
The situation was anything but comfortable. I had had nothing to eat
since earliest dawn. I had now not even a chair to sit upon, nor a pack
of cards to solace the dull hours. I dare not eat and, worse still,
dare not drink. Then I sent word to Mr Olympia that if he would get me a
couple of men to carry my hammock I would walk.
I sat on the steps of that house and waited, I walked down the road and
waited, and the tropical day grew hotter and hotter, the sun poured down
pitilessly, and I was weary with thirst, but still I would not drink
the native water. At last, oh triumph, instead of two, eight grinning
hammock-boys turned up, and about 1.30 on a blazing tropical afternoon
we started. Ten minutes later I was set down at the foot of the
unspeakable Eveto Range, and my men gave me to understand by signs they
could carry me no longer.
I cannot think that the Eveto Range is perpendicular, but it seemed
pretty nearly so. It was thickly wooded, as is all the country, and the
road was the merest track between the walls of vegetation, a track that
twisted and turned out of the way of the larger obstacles, the smaller
ones we negotiated as best we might, holes, and roots, and rocks, and
waterways, that made the distance doubly and trebly great. In five
minutes I felt done; in ten it was brought home to me forcibly that I
was an unutterable fool ever to attempt to travel in Africa. In addition
to the roughness there was the steepness of the way to be taken into
consideration, and the constant strain of going up, up compelled me
again and again to lie down flat on my back to recover sufficient
strength and breath to go on. What matter if the view was delightful--it
was--when I had neither time, nor strength, nor energy to raise my eyes
from the difficulties that beset my feet. But there was nothing to
be done except to crawl painfully along with the tropical sun pouring
pitilessly down, and not a breath of wind stirring.
And I was dead with thirst. We came across a bunch of bananas, laid
beside the track, and my men offered me one by way of refreshment, but
I was too done to eat, and I thought what a fool I was not to carry a
flask. When I had given up all hope of surviving, and really didn't much
care what became of me so long as I died quickly, we reached the top
where were native farms with cotton bushes now in full bloom planted
among the food-stuffs, and I rested a little and gathered together my
energies for the descent. And if the going up was bad, the going down
was worse. There were great rocks and boulders that I would never
have dared in England, and when I could spare time from my own woes I
reflected that the usual charge for taking a load to Tsito was sixpence,
and decided between my own gasps it was the most iniquitous piece of
slave-driving I had ever heard of. Twenty pounds, I felt, would never
pay me for carrying myself across this awful country, and there were
those wretched carriers toiling along for a miserable sixpence, or at
most ninepence. I was thoroughly ashamed of myself. And the view was
beautiful. Before us, in the evening light, lay the wealthy land where
no white man goes, and the beautiful, verdure-clothed hills dappled with
shadow and sunshine. The light was going, but, weary as I was, I had to
stop and look, for never again might I see a more lovely view.
And at last, just as the darkness was falling, we had crossed the range,
and I thankfully and wearily tumbled into my hammock and was carried
through the village of Tsito to the trader's store. It was a humble
store, presided over by a black man who spoke English, and here they
bought cotton and cocoa, and sold kerosene and trade gin, cotton cloths,
and the coarsest kinds of tinned fish. I had a letter from Mr Olympia
to this black man, and he offered me the hospitality of the cocoa-store;
that is to say, a space was cleared among the cocoa and cotton and
other impedimenta, my bed and table and bath set up. Grant brought me
something to eat--hard-boiled eggs, biscuits, and bananas, with tea to
drink. How thankful I was for that tea! I dined with an admiring crowd
looking on, and I remembered my repentance on the mountain and sent for
my carriers and paid them all double. I still think it was too little,
but in excuse it must be remembered that I was alone and hardly dared
risk a reputation for immense wealth.
There are difficulties connected with lodging in a cocoa-store,
especially when you are surrounded by a population who have never seen
a white woman before. I needed a bath, but how to get it I hardly knew,
with eyes all over the place, so at last I put out the lights and had it
in the dark, and I went to bed in the dark, and as I was going to sleep
I heard the audience dispersing, discussing the show at the top of their
voices. As I did not understand what they said I did not know whether
they had found it satisfactory. At least it was cheap, unless Swanzy's
agent charged them.
I was not afraid now, curiously enough, right away from civilisation,
entirely at these peoples' mercy. I felt quite safe, and after my hard
day I slept like the dead. It is mentally very soothing, I notice, to
say to oneself, “Well done!” and our mental attitude has a great effect
upon our physical health. At least I found one thing--I had pitied
myself most unnecessarily. My exertions had done me no harm, and I never
felt in better health than when I waked up next morning in Swanzy's
cocoa-room and proceeded to get dressed in the dark. That was necessary,
because I knew the sound of my stirring would bring an interested
audience to see how the white woman did things. I really don't think the
White City rivalled me as a provider of amusement for the people in the
eastern district of the Volta and the western district of Togo in the
end of April and beginning of May last.
[Illustration: 0349]
I had picked up a discarded map on the floor of the rest-house at Anum,
and here I saw that many of the villages were marked with crosses to
show that there was a church, but I saw no church here in Tsito, though
I doubt not there was one. What I did see, not only in Tsito but at the
entrance to every village I passed through, was a low, thatched shed,
under which were the fetish images of the village. These were generally
the rough-cut outline in clay or wood of a human figure seated.
Sometimes the figure had a dirty rag round it, sometimes a small
offering in front of it, and dearly should I have liked to have had a
picture, but the people, even Swanzy's agent, objected, and I did not
like to run counter to local prejudice. And yet Swanzy's agent is by
way of being a Christian, but I dare say Christianity in these parts of
Africa, like Christianity in old-time Britain or Gaul, conforms a good
deal to pagan modes of thought.
I met a picturesque gentleman starting out for his farm, and him I
photographed after he had been assured that no harm could possibly
happen to him, though he begged very anxiously that he might be allowed
to go home and put on his best cloth. I think he is a very nice specimen
of the African peasant as he is, but I am sure he would be much troubled
could he know he was going into a book in his farm clothes.
It was just beginning to get hot as I got back to the store after
wandering round the village, and I found Grant and the carriers with
all my gear had already started and were nowhere to be seen. It was,
perhaps, just as well that it never occurred to Grant that I might be
afraid to be left alone with strange black men. But to-day my strange
black men were not forthcoming. I had expected them to come gaily
because, to celebrate the crossing of the Eveto Range, while I had paid
the carriers double, I had given the hammock-boys, who had had a very
easy time, a couple of shillings to buy either gin or rum or palm wine,
whichever they could get. It stamped me as a fool woman, and now, after
a long delay, they came and stood round the hammock without offering to
lift it from the ground.
“There is trouble,” said the black agent sententiously.
I had come out into the roadway, prepared to get into the hammock.
“What is the matter?”
“They say Ho be far. Four shillings no be enough money to tote hammock
to Ho.”
I was furious. They had made the agreement. I had given exactly what
they asked, but where I had made the mistake was in doing more. Now what
was to be done? I did not hesitate for a moment. I marched straight back
to the cocoa-store.
“Tell them,” I said, “they can go home and I will pay them nothing. I
will walk.”
Now if either the agent or those hammock-boys had given the thing a
moment's thought, they must have seen this was sheer bluff on my part.
It would have been a physical impossibility for me to walk, at least I
think so; besides, I should have been entirely alone and I had not the
faintest notion of the way. However, my performance of yesterday had
apparently not impressed them as badly as it had impressed me, and just
as I was meditating despairingly what on earth I should do, for I felt
to give in would be fatal, into the store came those men bearing the
hammock, and it did not need Swanzy's interpreter to tell me, “You get
in, Mammy. They go quick.”
We were out of the village at once and into the country. It was
orchard-bush country, thick grass just growing tall with the beginning
of the rains, and clumps of low-growing trees, with an occasional
patch of miniature forest that grew so close it shut out the fierce sun
overhead and gave a welcome and grateful shade. We passed the preventive
service station on the Border--an untidy, thatched hut, presided over
by a black man, who looked not unlike a dilapidated, a very dilapidated
railway porter who had been in store for some time and got a little
moth-eaten--and I concluded we were at the end of British territory; but
not yet. The road was bad when we started, and it grew steadily worse
till here it was very bad indeed. It became a mere track through the
rough, grass country on either side, a track that admitted of but one
man walking singly, and my boys dropped the hammock by way of intimating
that they could carry me no farther. They could not, I could see that
for myself, for not only was the track narrow, but it twisted and turned
and doubled on itself, so that a corkscrew is straight in comparison
with the road to Ho.
And once more fear fell upon me. I was alone with men who could not
understand a word that I said, who could not speak a word that I could
understand, and since only in a Gilbertian sense could this track be
called a road at all, that it could lead to anywhere seemed impossible.
There were no farms, no villages, not a sign of habitation. A fool-bird
called cynically, “Hoo! hoo! hoo!” and I hesitated whether I would
rather these eight men walked in front of me or behind me. I decided
they should walk in front, and they laughingly obeyed, and we walked
on through the heat. Many-coloured butterflies, large as small birds,
flitted across the track. Never have I seen such beautiful butterflies,
blue as gentian, or as turquoise with a brilliancy the turquoise lacks;
purple, red, yellow, and white were they, and it was only the utter
hopelessness of keeping them prevented my making any attempt to catch
them. Evidently I was not as afraid as I thought I was because I could
reflect upon the desirability of those butterflies in a collection. But
I was afraid. Occasionally people, men or women, in twos or threes, came
along with loads upon their heads, and I tried to speak to them and
ask them if this really was the road to Ho, but I could make no one
understand and they passed on, turning to stare with wonder at the
stranger. There were silk-cotton trees and shea-butter trees and many
another unknown tree, but it seemed I had come right out into the wilds
beyond human ken or occupation, and I had to assure myself again and
again that these carriers were decent peasants, just earning a little,
something beyond what came from cocoa or palm oil, with wives--probably
many wives--and children, and the strange white woman was worth a good
deal more to them safely delivered at her destination than in any way
else. We came to a river, and by a merciful interposition of Providence
it was dry, and we were able to ignore the slippery, moss-grown
tree-trunk that did duty as bridge, and, scrambling down into its bed,
cross easily to the other side, and there, in the midst of a shady clump
of trees, was Grant with all the carriers.
So it was the road to Ho after all, and, as usual, I had worried myself
most unnecessarily. I sat down on my precious black box that contained
all my money, and Grant got out a tumbler, squeezed the last orange
I possessed into it, filled it up from the sparklet bottle, and I was
ready to laugh at my fears and face the world once more.
Again we went along the tortuous path, and then suddenly the Border!