Lokolobolo's First Fight
"I am afraid we are in for it now," said Jack, as he sat with Barney,
when the camp had become quiet, discussing the situation. "Elbel will
know well enough who played the bogie, and he has now another grievance
against me. I wonder what he will do."
"I would not disthress meself about it at all, sorr," said Barney. "He
had a peep at a Pepper's ghost widout paying for a ticket, and 'tis
himself that ought to be plased."
"Don't you ever have a fit of the dumps, Barney? You seem to live
always in the top of spirits."
"What would be the good uv doing anything else, sorr? I've too little
flesh on me bones now; what would I be if I grizzled?"
"I'm glad enough, I assure you. I don't know what I should have done
without you. Uncle little imagined what he was leaving me to. Do you
think anything has happened to him? It is three months since he went
away, and five weeks since I had any news of him. I am getting
anxious."
"'Tis true he is behind, like the cow's tail, sorr. An 'tis meself can
explain it. Ye see, sorr, I've noticed wan thing about these niggers.
Time is not much to an Irishman, to be sure, but 'tis less than nothing
to a nigger. They don't keep count uv the days; an almanac would be
clean beyond them; and 'tis my belief Nando has just put the master
back a month, sorr, unbeknown."
"That's an original explanation, at any rate. But by Jove! here's
Samba again. What does he want now?"
"Him say mudder lib for plenty sick, sah," said Lepoko, called in to
interpret. "Mudder plenty tired fust; muss stand all de night in hut;
no gib no food; her no can go no more; tumble down in forest. Samba
say please massa, let fader and mudder come; please, please, massa,
please, massa, him say please massa plenty too much all time."
"We must have them in, I suppose," said Jack, unable to resist the
appeal in Samba's eyes and gestures. "I didn't want them here, they
only add to our dangers and difficulties. Let him fetch them, Lepoko;
he must be careful; if they are captured again they are sure to be
shot."
Samba's face shone with delight. He scampered away. An hour passed
before he returned. Mboyo was carrying his wife in his arms; she was
in the last stage of exhaustion. They were given shelter in Lepoko's
hut; and that night, when Samba curled himself up to sleep with Pat,
for the first time for many weeks he was a happy boy.
Jack had but just finished his breakfast next morning when a note was
brought him from Elbel.
MONSIEUR,--
On m'a fait informer que les deux individus echappes de ce village sont
a present refugies dans votre camp. J'ai l'honneur de vous sommer de
rendre ces individus immediatement, en outre le petit garcon dont j'ai
deja demande la reddition. Au cas que lesdits sujets de PEtat du Congo
ne soient pas ramenes dans ce village avant midi cejourd'hui, je serai
oblige de faire a leur egard des demarches qui me sembleront bonnes.
Agreez, monsieur, l'assurance de ma
consideration distinguee,
ELBEL,
_Agent de la Societe cosmopolite
du Commerce du Congo_.
"What do you think of this, Barney? He says he's been told that the
two persons who escaped from Ilola are now in my camp. He has the
honour to request that I will give them up at once. Listen: 'In case
the said subjects of the Congo State are not brought back to this
village by noon to-day, I shall be compelled to take such steps in
regard to them as may seem to me good.' Very precise and formal. My
answer shall be a little shorter."
He lost no time in penning his reply. He wrote:
SIR,--
The three people you mention are with me. I shall be glad to learn the
offence with which they are charged, and by what authority you take it
upon yourself to try them and punish them.
Yours truly,
JOHN CHALLONER.
"We shall get no answer to that, Barney."
But he was mistaken. A second note was brought him in which Elbel
refused to explain or justify his actions to Monsieur Challoner. He
was responsible to his Societe and to the administration of the Free
State. He repeated his threat that at twelve o'clock, failing
compliance with his demand, he would take steps to recover the
fugitives, and concluded by saying that Monsieur Challoner must be
answerable for the consequences.
"The fat's in the fire now, sorr," said Barney, when Jack had
translated this letter to him. "I suppose you'll just say 'Go and be
hanged' in answer to that?"
"No. I shan't answer it on paper. The crisis has come at last,
Barney. I couldn't attack Elbel yesterday and be responsible for the
first blow. But things are changed now. His action in regard to these
poor people is sheer persecution; they've sought my protection, and no
Englishman that I ever heard of has given up a wretch fleeing from
persecution. We'll have to stand firm now, Barney. Elbel shan't get
hold of them if I can prevent it."
"I'm wid ye, sorr, heart and soul. Sure an Irishman is not the man to
stand by and see poor people ill-treated. What'll we do to get ready
for him, sorr?"
"You can go and get some of the men to rig up platforms at several
points inside the stockade. What a lucky thing it was we taught 'em
how to board and floor the huts! Those planks will come in handy now.
And stay: set two or three men to bore loopholes in the stockade--not
our riflemen; the men who've lost their right hands can manage that,
perhaps, with their left if they try. Meanwhile, parade the riflemen.
I'll come out to them in a few minutes."
When the men were paraded, Jack felt very proud of his little company.
They were all alert, eager, ready. Jack explained to them through
Lepoko what the difficulty was.
"I don't want you to fight against your will," he said. "If any man is
unwilling to fight he may leave the camp if he chooses, or remain and
do any other work required. But if he elects to fight he must obey
orders, do his best, and never give in. You understand that: never
give in!"
The men responded with loud cries of approval. Not a man of them fell
out of the ranks. The exercise and drill they had undergone had filled
them with military ardour; they were proud of their new
accomplishments, and evidently eager to test them in earnest. And the
white officials were so well hated that the opportunity of setting one
at defiance was in itself a sufficient motive. Jack paid them a
compliment on their readiness to serve--the negro dearly loves
praise--and after inspecting each man's rifle and ammunition, dismissed
them to various duties in the camp until the moment for action arrived.
The day's water supply had scarcely been got in, and there were no
vessels at hand for storing a large quantity. The stock of food in the
camp was sufficient to keep the whole population for three days on full
rations, and might be eked out for a week or more if each man's
allowance was reduced. It was inevitable that the idea of a siege
should cross Jack's mind, and he foresaw that the difficulty about
water would prove serious. Meanwhile, he could at least send out a few
men to obtain supplies of food from the chief's other villages. He
chose for this errand the men least likely to be useful as fighters,
and impressed on them the necessity of avoiding Elbel's men. It would
not be long before Elbel had the surrounding country closely patrolled,
and then no man would be able to approach without taking his life in
his hand. What supplies they should succeed in collecting were to be
held concealed in the forest until there was an opportunity of
conveying them into the camp without danger.
There were now within his stockade, besides himself and Barney,
twenty-two men armed with rifles; the chief Mboyo, with his wife and
Samba; fifteen men, ten women, and twenty-five children who had sought
asylum with him; and the livestock of the natives--a few goats and
fowls. Pat was one by himself. There were rifles for twenty men
besides the twenty-two, but the fugitives were too much maimed, or too
much reduced in strength by their sufferings, to make it seem worth
while to arm them. Four or five, however, had recovered very rapidly,
and seemed likely to prove useful recruits. They had at any rate
enough reason for fighting well; not only on behalf of their chief, but
in memory of their own sufferings. Pending an opportunity of teaching
them the use of the rifle, Jack armed them with spears and employed
them as sentries. A careful watch was kept to guard against surprise,
which was little likely to occur in broad daylight across the wide open
space between the two settlements.
Jack awaited with no little anxiety the approach of noon, trying to
forecast Elbel's course of action. The Belgian had, so far as he had
been able to gather, about sixty men armed with Albini rifles, with
probably as many hangers-on; but the natives' conceptions of arithmetic
are so vague that this information could not be relied on; the actual
number might be larger or smaller. It was not likely that the
followers of the forest guards could be utilized as fighting men; but
the guards themselves were well armed and full of confidence, for they
had become accustomed to lording it over the virtually unarmed and
helpless populace from whose forced labour the Congo Free State derives
its profits. Jack was quite prepared to find that Elbel, knowing that
his opponent's men had but recently been armed, and were not, like his
own men, to all intents professional soldiers, would think himself
strong enough to rush the camp, especially as, since the day of his
arrival, the Belgian had appeared to show no further interest in the
force at Jack's disposal.
"Perhaps he thinks we've drilled them merely for parade," he remarked
with a smile to Barney. "But I think he'll find we can hold our own.
I'm not afraid of a direct attack. But if he tries to starve us out
it'll be a different matter. I'm bothered about the water."
"Be aisy, sorr. Whin I was a bhoy me mother often did not know at
breakfast time where the supper was coming from; but I only went to bed
wance widout it, and that was whin I'd eaten it before the time, and
was put to bed early as a punishment."
Soon after twelve o'clock the sentries reported that the white man was
approaching from the direction of the village. Jack hastened to the
platform near the gate, which he had had barricaded, and saw Elbel at
the head of about forty men, at his side a negro bearing a white flag.
About fifty yards from the stockade he halted, and formally demanded
the surrender of the fugitives. In phrases as formal as his own Jack
replied that they would not be given up.
While this brief exchange of courtesies was going on, the sentries
stationed on similar platforms within the stockade had turned round
with natural curiosity to see what was passing, and withdrew their
attention from the ground they were supposed to be watching. All at
once Jack felt a tug at his arm, and looking round, saw Samba excitedly
pointing to the rear of the camp. A score of Elbel's riflemen were
scurrying across the open ground. To Jack's surprise they were headed
by a white man in military uniform. Was this the Captain Van Vorst, he
wondered, who, Elbel had told him, was coming up the river? Had he to
contend with a regular officer of the State as well as an official of
the Concession? One thing was clear, that while his attention was
being held by the parade of the men in front, an attempt was being made
to rush the camp from the rear.
Jack gave no sign of his discovery, but quietly ordered Barney to take
ten men with rifles and five with spears and deal with the attackers
when their heads or hands appeared above the stockade.
"Keep out of sight until they're upon you," he added in a low tone.
"Fifteen men on the platform will be equal to more than double their
number trying to scramble over."
He had kept his face turned towards Elbel as he spoke, apparently
intent upon a serious consideration of what the Belgian was saying.
"I varn you. Dis is not child's play. Vunce more I say gif up de
people; den I interfere no more. I am satisfied. But if you refuse,
den I repeat: I will haf de people, and you shall see vat it is to defy
de officers of de Free State."
Jack was spared the necessity of replying. A series of yells and cries
of pain told that the rear attack had begun. Next moment a couple of
shots rang out from the trees behind Elbel, and Jack, whose head just
appeared over the stockade, felt one bullet whistle close above his
topee, while a second embedded itself beside him in one of the saplings
of which the stockade was constructed. Taken in conjunction with the
attempted surprise, this was as close an approximation to the methods
of an assassin as could well be imagined; and Jack, as he dodged down
out of harm's way, felt, not for the first time, that he had to deal
with a man who was not only astute but quite unscrupulous.
In less than a minute the attack on the stockade had become general.
The assailants showed no want of dash. Perhaps they were encouraged by
the impunity with which they had hitherto made their assaults on native
villages similarly protected. But the conditions were different now.
The defenders were armed with weapons as precise and deadly as those of
the attackers themselves. Elbel's men came forward at a rush, in a
more or less compact body, and Jack was amply satisfied with the result
of his training as his men, at a sign from him, poured a volley through
the loopholes bored in the stockade, while the enemy were still a dozen
yards distant. Several of them dropped; Jack's men were completely
screened from any effectual reply.
The moral effect of white leadership became apparent when the forest
guards, scarcely realizing their losses in the excitement of their dash
towards the stockade, helped one another to swarm up, many effecting a
lodgment on the top. It was at this point that in ninety-nine cases
out of a hundred the defenders of an African village would have flung
away their arms and run. But the discipline of the past two months
told. At Jack's command, before the enemy on the stockade had made
their footing sufficiently sure to enable them to use their weapons,
the men within, clubbing their rifles, sprang at them and hurled them
to the ground.
Meanwhile Barney, who thanks to Samba's watchfulness had been enabled
to forestall the surprise in the rear, had beaten off the attack and
sent the enemy scurrying for cover. Leaving only three or four men
under Lepoko to watch the position there, Jack was able to bring almost
the whole of his force to bear on repelling the main attack. Elbel had
greatly reduced his chances of success by detaching a third of his
body; and he entirely lost their co-operation, for when they were
repulsed by Barney they made no attempt to rally, but simply
disappeared from the fight.
Elbel and his men were crouching at the foot of the stockade in
temporary security, for in that position the defenders could not bring
their rifles to bear upon them. Jack heard him give his men an order;
in a few seconds a crowd of black heads again appeared above the
stockade, but now some thirty yards from the point where the first
assault had been made. With Barney at his right hand Jack led his men
to the spot. From his platform he might have shot the attackers down
with comparative ease; but he was determined from the first to do his
best to avoid bloodshed, never forgetting his uncle's injunction to use
rifles only in the last resort. The enemy themselves had no chance of
firing, for they no sooner showed their heads above the palisade than
they were beset by the defenders. There was a brisk five minutes in
which Jack and Barney found plenty to do leading their men wherever the
show of heads, hands, and shoulders over the stockade was thickest.
Barney was in his element. His rifle fell like a flail, and for every
blow that got home he shouted a wild "Hurroo!" which evoked responsive
yells from the negroes beside him, catching his enthusiasm. Jack's
heart glowed as he saw how stoutly they fought.
It was not until the enemy had made two attempts to mount the stockade
that they realized how very different their present task was from the
massacre of unresisting men, women, and children that had hitherto
represented their idea of fighting. The first repulse merely surprised
and enraged them: they could not understand it; they were not
accustomed to such a reception; and they yelled forth threats of
exacting a terrible vengeance. But when for the second time they found
themselves hurled back, they had no heart for further effort. Suddenly
Elbel discovered that he was alone, except for one man lying stark
beside him; the unwounded had scampered across the open to the shelter
of the nearest trees. Some half dozen who had been hit with rifle
bullets or clubbed at the palisade, were dragging themselves painfully
towards the same shelter.
Jack, watching from his platform, perceived that Elbel was not among
the retreating crowd. Was he hurt, he wondered? The next moment,
however, he saw the Belgian sprint after his men, bending his head
between his shoulders as a boy does to avoid a snowball. Several of
Jack's men who had joined him on the platform brought their rifles to
the shoulder, and only a curt stern order from Jack to drop their
weapons saved Elbel from almost certain death.
"Bedad, thin, 'tis a pity not to let them have their way, sorr,"
expostulated Barney.
"That may be," replied Jack, "but I'm only on the defensive, remember.
We're in no danger for the present; they've had enough of it; it's not
for me to continue the fight. I hope Elbel has learnt a lesson and
will leave us alone."
"Sure I do not agree wid you at all at all, sorr," said Barney, shaking
his head. "To judge by the phiz uv him, Elbel is a disp'rate bad
character. And isn't it all his deeds that prove it, with his whips
and his forest guards--blagyards I call 'em--and all? Why, sorr, whin
ye knocked him down the other day, why didn't he stand up fair and
square and have it out wid ye? 'Twas an illigant chance which no
gentleman, no Irishman, bedad! would have missed for worlds.
Gentleman! 'Tis not the fortieth part uv a gentleman he has anywhere
about him. 'Twas not the trick uv a gentleman to try to take ye by the
back stairs while he blarneyed ye at the front door. And did he not
try to murder ye before the fight began? A dirty trick, sorr; I would
have let my men shoot him widout the hundredth part uv a scruple."
Jack was compelled to smile at Barney's honest indignation.
"All you say is very true," he said, "but we couldn't take a leaf out
of his book, you know, Barney. Besides, look at it in another way.
Suppose we shot Elbel? What would happen to uncle's mining venture?
There's another Belgian here--I wonder where he came from. Apparently
he has skedaddled. He'd certainly go and report to the authorities
what had happened. You may be sure he wouldn't put our side of the
case; and even if he did, there's no knowing how the Free State people
would twist the evidence. They say the Free State judges are
completely under the thumb of the executive. No doubt Elbel
himself--who I suppose has to account for the cartridges his men
use--will report this fight as a little affair with natives revolting
against the rubber collection. He hasn't come well enough out of it to
be anxious to call general attention to the matter. We've got off with
a few bruises, I'm thankful to say; and we may very well be satisfied
to let the quarrel rest there if Elbel takes no further steps."
Barney shook his head.
"Ye're a powerful hand at argyment, sorr," he said, "and ye'd be
elected at the top uv the poll if ye stood as mimber uv Parlimint for
Kilkenny. But an Irishman niver goes by argyment: he goes by his
feelings, and my feeling is that there's no good at all in a man who
refuses such an illigant chance uv a stand-up fight."
"Well, he's not altogether a ruffian. Look! there are three of his
negroes coming with a flag of truce, to fetch the poor fellow who was
killed, I expect. The State officials as a rule look on the negro as
so much dirt; but Elbel seems to have some of the instincts of a human
being."
"Bedad thin, I wouldn't be surprised if they're cannibals come for
their dinner."
"Shut up, Barney. It's too terrible to think of. You'll take away my
appetite; here's Samba, coming to tell us, I hope, that dinner's ready."
Jack scanned the neighbourhood. Save for the negroes carrying their
dead comrade there was no sign of the enemy. He left two sentries on
guard and returned to his hut, hot and famished. The sultry heat of
the tropical afternoon settled down over the camp. Outside the
stockade all was still; inside, the natives squatted in front of their
huts, volubly discussing the incidents of the morning, and watching the
antics of Pat, who, having been tied up, much to his disgust, during
the fight, was profiting by his liberty to romp with the children.
The victory did not pass unchronicled. Before the negroes retired to
rest, one of them had composed a song which will be handed down from
father to son and become a tradition of his tribe:--
To the house of the dog
To fight Lokolobolo.
Inglesa was he,
Brave Lokolobolo,
Lion and leopard,
Friend of Imbono,
Chief of Ilola.
Came Elobela,
(_Chorus_) Yah!
Bad Elobela,
(_Chorus_) Yo!
To the house of the dog
Came Lokolobolo,
(_Chorus_) Yah! Yo!
Short was the fight.
Where is he now,
Sad Elobela?
Gone to the forest,
Beating his head,
Hiding his eyes
From Lokolobolo,
Friend of Imbono,
Lion and leopard,
Brave Lokolobolo.