WAR DANCE OF MIRAMBO'S FOLLOWERS.
At the time of Stanley's second journey in Africa to Lake Tanganyika the war was over, and the king had resumed business relations with his neighbors. He made terms of friendship with Stanley, and told him that hereafter any white man or Arab might travel through his territory or come there to trade, and he would be welcome. Stanley and the king exchanged presents, and the latter gave his visitor all the guides and porters he wanted to accompany him on his journey.
The peaceful relations established by Stanley continued at the time Doctor Bronson and his companions arrived at the southern end of the Victoria N'yanza. As soon as Mirambo received the letter informing him of the approach of the strangers, and also the letter of M'tesa introducingthe travellers as his friends, he sent two of his officers to meet them and conduct them to the capital.
NATIVES BRINGING PROVISIONS FOR SALE.
Our friends started on their journey three days behind the delegation which carried the letter to Mirambo. They had no great difficulty in engaging porters, as the country bordering on the lake is well peopled, and the natives were quite desirous of earning some of the white man's cloth and beads. The Doctor's liberality to M'tesa's sailors had been noised about, and the porters were eager to be employed by a man who paid for services when an African tribunal had decided that he need not give anything. They brought various articles for sale, and there was a liberal offering of whatever the country produced. A couple of riding donkeys were obtained by Abdul, and also an ox that had been trained to the saddle. These animals, added to what they had brought from Rubaga, served to mount the entire party, including Abdul andAli, and left an extra donkey for use in case of accident to any of the others.
There was some delay at starting, owing to the tendency of the porters to seek the lightest loads. The matter was finally arranged by placing the loads in a row, and then forming the men in line a little distance away and out of sight of the burdens they were to carry. Then they marched forward, and each man picked up the load which chance assigned to him and marched off without a murmur. Frank observed that they were finely-shaped, muscular fellows, and their countenances showed them to be quite the equals of the people of Ugunda, if not of a superior intelligence.
Fred took note of the clothing worn by the porters and others of the people of Unyamwezi, and remarked that a very little writing was sufficient to describe it. The principal garment was a cloth around the loins. Some of the better class had leopard or other skins thrown over their shoulders; and the boys were told that only a chief or man of high authority is allowed to wear the hide of a lion. The capture of a lion was a sufficiently rare occurrence to make the clothing of the chiefs equal the supply of the skin of the king of beasts.
Doctor Bronson and the boys waited at the camp-ground till the last of the porters had left with his load and the whole caravan was under way; then they mounted the donkeys and followed close to the rear, while Abdul hurried to the front. An Arab named Mohammed had been engaged to accompany them to Ujiji, as he knew the language of Unyamwezi, and was familiar with the country between the two lakes. He proved of great assistance in managing the caravan and keeping the men at a good pace while on the road. He said he accompanied Stanley from Unyamyembe to Zanzibar on his first journey; and though he never travelled with Livingstone he had often seen him.
The road was through a rolling country, greatly resembling the region between Fatiko and Rubaga. There was the same succession of forests and open ground, and there were level plains that became pestiferous marshes during the rainy season. Villages were numerous, and there were many fields of bananas, plantains, sweet-potatoes, and that peculiar kind of corn which the Arabs call "sesame."
A PROTECTED VILLAGE.
Many of the villages had herds of cattle grazing in the vicinity, under the care of herdsmen. Most of the villages were surrounded with stockades, and there was at one side of each village a yard with a high fence, where the cattle were driven at night. The herders were provided with huts in the middle of these yards, so that they could be constantlywith the animals, for whose safety they were responsible. The fence was considered a sufficient protection against wild animals, while the approach of a human foe was sure to bring all the fighting-men from the village to defend their property. Many of these enclosures had hedges of a peculiar kind of thorn-bush, that was really more difficult of penetration than a palisade of trunks of trees. The thorns are cruel things, two or three inches long, and many of them curved like fish-hooks. Getting loose from one you get caught on another, and perhaps on two or three; and a person who enters one of these bushes unawares will leave behind him the greater part of his clothing, together with many souvenirs from his skin.
The general direction of the route was toward the south-west, and the guides said it would take five or six days to reach Mirambo's residence. If they wanted to hunt on the way they could do so, as the country abounded in game. Doctor Bronson thought it would not be well to stop for that purpose, as they would be likely to lose time by doing so; and besides, it might not suit the fancy of the king if they went to shooting in his dominions. But there could be no objection to their killing anything which came in their way, and with this understanding they continued the journey.
A messenger came from the front with the information that a herd of zebras was in a valley to the right of the road, and not more than a quarter of a mile away. With the Doctor's permission Frank and Fredwent in pursuit of the new game, under the guidance of Mohammed, and accompanied by a couple of natives, who served as gun-bearers.
THE ZEBRA AT HOME.
They were fortunate enough to get near the zebras without being "winded," as the slight breeze that blew was directly in the faces of the young hunters. Three zebras were grazing together, close to a small grove, and two or three others were visible among the trees. The youths managed to creep quite close, and each selecting his victim, they fired at the same instant.
One animal fell on the spot; the other sprang high in the air and ran a few yards before the bullet brought him to the ground. The boys rejoined the column, while Mohammed summoned several of the natives who followed the caravan, and persuaded them to carry the meat to camp.
"He looked much like a striped horse," said Fred, when recounting the adventure to the Doctor.
"More like a donkey than a horse," said Frank.
"The zebra is more like the donkey than the horse," replied Doctor Bronson. "It has hairs at the tip of the tail only," he continued, "and his hind legs are without warts. For these reasons, and also for his voice and his powerful kick, he has been classed with the donkey, and you will find him named in the scientific books as theAsinus zebra."
"But can the zebra be tamed, and made to work, like his long-eared cousin?" Fred inquired.
"Yes," responded the Doctor, "he can be domesticated, but not easily. He is occasionally employed as a beast of burden, but is liable to manifest the same peculiarities of waywardness and stubbornness as the mule."
"There is everything in a name," he farther remarked, "as you will find when the game you have killed is brought into camp. The Arabs and all their followers will eat the flesh of the zebra, and think it excellent; but they would not touch a bit of horse or donkey to save their lives."
"Perhaps they are not alone in their prejudice," replied one of the boys. "I am impatient to have a taste of our prizes, but should hesitate for some time to dine off a donkey or a horse."
The Doctor smiled as he nodded approval of the sentiment of the youth, and the conversation changed to some other topic.
The camp was made in a little valley, close to a native village. While they were pitching the tents there was an alarm of "Snake! snake!" and the Doctor seized his shot-gun to make an end of the unwelcome visitor. The man who had shouted pointed in the direction of the village, and our friends hastened there as fast as they could go.
It seemed that a large snake had entered one of the huts, and was making himself thoroughly at home. He had seized a chicken, and was leisurely engaged in devouring it. The Doctor was about to shoot his snakeship, when the owner of the hut begged him not to do so. All he desired was to have the creature leave the premises, and he would not consent that he should be harmed.
Mohammed came up while the Doctor was wondering at the native's concern for the welfare of the serpent. He explained that the people regard the snake as a sort of ghost or spirit, and if it should be harmed by them in any way it would be sure to bring about a calamity. "If you had shot the snake," said the Arab, "it would have been necessary to move the village immediately, to evade the vengeance of the ghost."
Jackals howled around the camp during the night, but their music did not interfere with the sleep of our friends. They were up and off in good time in the morning, and soon entered upon a plain five or six miles wide, with a few calabash-trees scattered over the level expanse. On the edge of the plain was a tembé, a building of a kind peculiar to this part of Africa, and only rarely met with in the regions north of the equator. Cameron thus describes the first one he saw:
AN AFRICAN TEMBÉ.
"The tembé is formed simply of walls running parallel, subdividedby partitions, and having a roof nearly flat, sloping only slightly to the front. It is usually built to form a square, inside which the cattle are penned at night. It is about the most comfortless form of habitation that the brain of man ever devised; and as the huts are shared by the fowls and goats they are filthy in the extreme, and swarm with insect life."
The boys entered the tembé only for a few moments, as the caravan was not allowed to halt, and they did not wish to be left in the rear. Besides, there was very little to be seen in the place, and the inhabitants had nothing to sell except a few eggs, which were quickly bought.
Frank discovered a strange-looking skin hanging to one of the inner walls of the tembé, and called the attention of his companions to it. The Doctor regarded it carefully, and then said it was the skin of a soko.
As soon as they were on the road again Fred referred to the soko, and asked if they were in the region inhabited by that animal.
"I think he is occasionally found here," was the reply, "but his proper habitat is on the other side of Lake Tanganyika. At any rate he was seen there frequently by Livingstone, Stanley, and Cameron, and the Arabs say that sokos are sometimes killed in the neighborhood of the Victoria N'yanza."
"Dr. Livingstone has given the fullest account of this denizen of theAfrican forest, and when we get into camp I advise you to look it up in his 'Last Journals.'"
Fred followed the Doctor's advice, and from the book in question he read as follows:
"Four gorillas, or sokos, were killed yesterday. An extensive grass-burning forced them out of their usual haunt, and, coming on the plain, they were speared. They often go erect, but place the hand on the head, as if to steady the body. When seen thus the soko is an ungainly beast. The most sentimental young lady would not call him a 'dear,' but a bandy-legged, pot-bellied villain, without a particle of the gentleman in him.MANYUEMA HUNTERS KILLING SOROS."His light-yellow face shows off his ugly whiskers and faint apology for a beard: the forehead, villanously low, with high ears, is well in the background of the great dog-mouth; the teeth are slightly human, but the canines show the beast by their large development. The hands, or rather the fingers, are those of the natives. The flesh of the feet is yellow, and the eagerness with which the Manyuema devour it leaves the impression that eating sokos was the first stage by which they arrived at being cannibals. They say the flesh is delicious. The soko is represented by some to be extremely knowing, successfully stalking men and women at their work, kidnapping children, and running up trees with them. He seems to be amused by the sight of the young native in his arms, but comes down when tempted by a bunch of bananas, and as he lifts it he drops the child."The soko kills the leopard occasionally by seizing both paws and biting them so as to disable them; he then goes up a tree, groans over his wounds, and sometimes recovers, while the leopard dies; at other times both soko and leopard die. The soko eats no flesh; small bananas are his dainties and other fruits. Some of the natives believe their buried dead rise as sokos, and one was killed with holes in his ears, as if he had been a man. He is very strong, and fears guns, but not spears. He never catches women."If a man has no spear the soko goes away satisfied; but if wounded he seizes the wrist, lops off the fingers, and spits them out, slaps the cheeks of his victim, and bites without breaking the skin. He draws out a spear, but never uses it, and takes some leaves and stuffs them into his wound to staunch the blood."
"Four gorillas, or sokos, were killed yesterday. An extensive grass-burning forced them out of their usual haunt, and, coming on the plain, they were speared. They often go erect, but place the hand on the head, as if to steady the body. When seen thus the soko is an ungainly beast. The most sentimental young lady would not call him a 'dear,' but a bandy-legged, pot-bellied villain, without a particle of the gentleman in him.
MANYUEMA HUNTERS KILLING SOROS.
"His light-yellow face shows off his ugly whiskers and faint apology for a beard: the forehead, villanously low, with high ears, is well in the background of the great dog-mouth; the teeth are slightly human, but the canines show the beast by their large development. The hands, or rather the fingers, are those of the natives. The flesh of the feet is yellow, and the eagerness with which the Manyuema devour it leaves the impression that eating sokos was the first stage by which they arrived at being cannibals. They say the flesh is delicious. The soko is represented by some to be extremely knowing, successfully stalking men and women at their work, kidnapping children, and running up trees with them. He seems to be amused by the sight of the young native in his arms, but comes down when tempted by a bunch of bananas, and as he lifts it he drops the child.
"The soko kills the leopard occasionally by seizing both paws and biting them so as to disable them; he then goes up a tree, groans over his wounds, and sometimes recovers, while the leopard dies; at other times both soko and leopard die. The soko eats no flesh; small bananas are his dainties and other fruits. Some of the natives believe their buried dead rise as sokos, and one was killed with holes in his ears, as if he had been a man. He is very strong, and fears guns, but not spears. He never catches women.
"If a man has no spear the soko goes away satisfied; but if wounded he seizes the wrist, lops off the fingers, and spits them out, slaps the cheeks of his victim, and bites without breaking the skin. He draws out a spear, but never uses it, and takes some leaves and stuffs them into his wound to staunch the blood."
Doctor Bronson said it was not positively settled whether the soko was identical with the gorilla, described by Du Chaillu, and found in the western part of Africa. Naturalists are of opinion that it is not the gorilla, but a distinct species of chimpanzee, which Dr. Livingstone was the first to describe. The men who accompanied the eminent missionary were shown the specimen of the gorilla in the British Museum. They said it was not the soko, though closely resembling it, and they believed the two animals were nearly related to each other.
The march to King Mirambo's capital was without any incident of consequence. When within a few miles of the place they met a delegation, consisting of one of the officers who had accompanied them down the lake and two other personages of rank near the king. Doctor Bronson received them after the customary form—with presents of cloth and beads—and messengers were sent back to tell the king that his visitors were near.
ROCKS BY THE WAYSIDE.
As they entered the capital there was a large assemblage along the principal road leading into the town, and in some places the crowd was so dense that it was not easy to proceed. In a little while a company of the king's soldiers cleared the way, and the strangers were conducted to the presence of the man whom Stanley describes as the "Mars of Central Africa."
Drums were beaten and hundreds of muskets discharged by the people around the king, and one might have thought from the uproar that a battle was in progress. The king met them in front of his palace, which was a plain building, something in the style of M'tesa's at Rubaga, though smaller. The king shook hands with our friends in true European fashion, and said he was glad to see them in his country. He was dressed in Arab costume, and wore a scimitar at his side. His officers were similarly clad, and it seemed to Frank and Fred almost as though they were once more in the presence of M'tesa, so much did the manners of Mirambo's court resemble that of the ruler of Ugunda.
CROSSING A STREAM.
Frank endorsed fully the description which Stanley gives of this famous warrior. "He was the reverse," said the explorer, "of all my conceptions of the redoubtable chieftain and the man I had styled 'the terrible bandit.'
"He is a man about five feet eleven inches in height, and about thirty-five years old, with not an ounce of superfluous flesh about him—a handsome, regular-featured, mild-voiced, soft-spoken man, with what one might call a 'meek' demeanor, very generous and open-handed. The character was so different from that which I had attributed to him, that for some time a suspicion clung to my mind that I was being imposed upon; but Arabs came forward who testified that this was indeed Mirambo. I had expected to see something of the M'tesa type, a man whose exterior would explain his life and rank; but this unpresuming,mild-eyed man, of inoffensive, meek exterior, whose action was so calm, without a gesture, presented to the eye nothing of the Napoleonic genius which he has for five years displayed in the heart of Unyamwezi, to the injury of Arabs and commerce and doubling the price of ivory."
Presents were exchanged as tokens of friendship, and then the conversation turned upon the plans of the travellers. When the journey to Tanganyika was mentioned Mirambo said it was just then impossible.
This was a piece of intelligence the reverse of pleasing, and Doctor Bronson proceeded at once to ascertain what it meant.
"I have no objection to your going there," said Mirambo, "but I have recently received news of war between Uhha and Uvinza, two petty kingdoms that lie in your way."
The Doctor thought with dismay of the troubles of Stanley and others with these rapacious rulers, who demanded enormous tribute, and several times threatened to take by force what they wanted if it was not voluntarily surrendered.
"If there was no war," continued Mirambo, "you might buy the privilege of crossing those countries; but at present they have stopped all commerce, and any caravan attempting to go that way will certainly be plundered. Your fire-arms would not be so powerful against the fighting-men as in many parts of Africa, as the most of them are supplied with muskets, which they have bought from the Arab merchants."
WEAPONS OF THE NATIVES.
Mirambo farther said that the war was caused by quarrels among the slave-stealers, and each side was engaged in making as many captivesas possible and selling them to the Arabs. "It will be kept up," said he, "till they have stolen most of each other's people, and are compelled to stop for want of more villages to plunder, and more men and women to carry away."
Mirambo invited the strangers to remain in his country as long as they liked; and, as their future movements would require a little while for arrangement, he would give them anything they wanted in the way of provisions for their men.
The audience then broke up, and our friends went to the camp—which had been arranged during the interview—to discuss the new turn of events.
MAN OF MASSI KAMBI.
Abdul and Mohammed were sent to obtain all the information in their power, and in the course of a couple of hours they returned with a considerable budget. Mirambo had not exaggerated the state of affairs in Uhha and Uvinza. Abdul had talked with two Arab merchants who had been plundered of all they possessed while endeavoring to pass through Uhha. Their goods were stolen, their porters held for sale as slaves, and they only escaped by promising to send fifty bales of cloth from Unyamyembe. A third Arab who accompanied them was held as a hostage, and the King of Uhha had threatened to put him to death unless the cloth was received within thirty days.
Under the circumstances it was deemed advisable to abandon the journey to Lake Tanganyika and proceed to Zanzibar by way of Unyamyembe. Of course the decision was a great disappointment to Frank and Fred, and not much less to Doctor Bronson, but all of them had too much philosophy to grieve over what could not be helped.
"We can do one thing, if we can't do another," said Frank. "We will question everybody who can give us any information, and perhaps we can say something about the great lake, even if we don't see it."
Fred agreed to join Frank in the effort to give an account of the country beyond them, and for a couple of days they attended to little else than the collection of news concerning it. They talked with the Arab merchants, read all the books in their possession which had anythingto say about Tanganyika and the Congo, questioned the Doctor, and in other ways showed that they were not to be set down as inattentive travellers.
HILL-COUNTRY NEAR MIRAMBO'S CAPITAL.
They were already aware that the lake was discovered by Burton in 1858, was partially explored by Stanley and Livingstone a few years later, and that Stanley in his second visit to Central Africa completed the circumnavigation. Other investigations were made by Lieutenant Cameron, and the geographers are able to define the boundaries of the lake very distinctly. It is about four hundred miles long, and varies from ten to sixty miles in width; it lies between the third and ninth degrees of south latitude, and the twenty-ninth and thirty-second degrees of east longitude. Its position is south-west of the Victoria and Albert lakes, and north-west of Lake Nyassa, and its shores are for the most part mountainous.
PORTERS AND WOMAN AND CHILD OF USAGARU.
The dispute as to its outlet, the Lukuga, was attributed by our friends to the fact that in the dry season the evaporation is equal to the amount of water received from tributary streams and the fall of rain, so that there is no flow whatever from the lake. In the rainy season the Lukuga becomes an important river, a thousand feet in width, and flowing with a strong current, while in the dry season a sand-bar is formed across it, and there is no outflow at all. The Arab traders declared that this was the case, and so we can understand how Cameron found a good-sized river where Stanley said there was none, and the flow, if any, was into the lake rather than out of it.
At his second visit to Ujiji, where he met Livingstone, Stanley observed that the lake had risen considerably; and a later visitor says that the bar at the outlet of the lake had broken away, so as to allow theexit of the water, and the consequent sinking of the lake. All travellers agree that the shores of the lake are very beautiful, and in most portions thickly peopled. The principal town is Ujiji, on the eastern shore, and it will always be famous in history as the place where Stanley first shook hands with Dr. Livingstone, and offered the relief which had been sent to the great missionary by the proprietor of theNew York Herald.
HUT AT KIFUMA.
In his second journey Stanley crossed the lake from Ujiji, and plunged into the wilderness beyond its western shore, in a determination to reach the Atlantic Ocean by descending the Lualaba River. He believed the Lualaba flowed into the Congo, and by following its course he could reach the coast. The country was entirely unknown, as not even the Arab traders had ever explored it, and no one could tell what the explorer would encounter. There was a rumor that powerful tribes dwelt on the Congo, but no one could give an idea of their numbers and strength, or say whether they would be friendly or hostile.
The work accomplished by Stanley is thus described by an able writer[7]inHarper's Magazinefor October, 1878:
"Stanley gave nine months to the exploration of the Lualaba, or rather to the Livingstone, as he called it, and as it must be called for all time. Before he went out on this mission we knew there were two rivers—the Congo and the Lualaba. We knew that the Congo ran into the Atlantic Ocean, but its source was lost in cataracts. The Portuguese were content to scatter a few settlements about its mouth, and trade for gums and ivory along its banks. But it was an unknown river beyond the cataracts. We knew there was a river in the middle of Africa called the Lualaba; we knew it had a swift current, that it was a river of large volume. But beyond that we knew nothing. Some had one theory, others had another. Livingstone was convinced that it ran into the Nile, was really the source of the Nile; and who would question even the theory of so great a master? What Stanley did was to show that the Congo and Lualaba were one and the same; that the Congo, instead of losing itself among the rapids, was to force itself into the very heart of the continent; that the Lualaba, instead of going north and submitting to the usurping waters of the Nile, was to turn to the west and force its way to the sea; that these two rivers were to disappear from the map, and be known as one river—the Livingstone; that this river was to be two thousand nine hundred miles in length; that for nearly ten degrees of longitude it was to be continuously navigable; that its volume was one million eight hundred thousand cubic feet a second; that the entire area it drains is eight hundred thousand square miles—in other words, that here was an immense waterway three thousand miles into the centre of Africa, navigable, with the exception of two breaks, which engineering science can easily surmount—a waterway into a tropical empire, rich in woods and metals and gracious soil, in fruits and grains, the sure home of a civilized empire in the years to come. As Petermann, the eminent German geographer, put it, Stanley's work was to unite the fragments of African exploration—the achievements of Livingstone, Burton, Speke, Du Chaillu, Baker, Cameron, of all the heroic men who had gone before him—into one consecutive whole, just as Bismarck united the fragments of the German people, lying about under various princes and dukes, into one grand and harmonious empire. Even as Bismarck had created imperial Germany, so Stanley created geographical Africa.STANLEY'S VOYAGE ON THE LIVINGSTONE.—BATTLE WITH THE NATIVES."There was a battle at the outset at Ruiki River, which had no special result except to show the ugly temper of the savages. Then came the first cataract—the falls of Ukassa. This seems to be a rapid current, like the first cataract of the Nile, and the boats and canoes were allowed to float over. A month was passed in these explorations, when, on December 6, Stanley came to the country of Usongora Meno, inhabited by a powerful tribe. Stanley's party was weakened by the fact that his people were suffering from small pox. Dysentery came and ulcers, and in three days eighteen of the Arab escort died from various diseases, mainly small-pox. Stanley was one hundred and twenty-five miles from his starting-place, with small-pox affecting seventy-two of his party, when he had another battle, the enemy coming in force, and firing poisoned arrows. Stanley made a camp, and defended his army as well as he could. 'Through the night the poisoned arrows flew, and were heard tapping trees and huts most unpleasantly.... Two days and two nights we bore cruel attacks by land and water. The entire country was aroused against us. Bowmen climbed tall trees, and any person showing himself in the broad street of the little town became a target at once. We were unable to bury our dead or to attend to the delirious wounded.' From this difficult position Stanley released himself by a successful night foray, cutting away the canoes of the attacking party.FRANK POCOCK, STANLEY'S COMPANION ON THE LIVINGSTONE."It was necessary, in the eighteen hundred miles from Nyangué to the ocean, to pass fifty-seven water-falls and rapids. After the river reached fourteen hundred miles, onits journey to the sea, it narrowed and ran through close-meeting, uprising banks of naked cliffs, or steep slopes of mountains, fringed with tall woods. Here the river was as rough and stormy as a sea, sometimes a steep glassy fall, sometimes boiling around isles of stone and bowlders, sometimes whirlpools and caldrons, the air filled with a roar like that of Niagara. This part of the journey, although not more than one hundred and eighty miles, required five months to make. Stanley, looking back, regards the attempt as insanity. But he had resolved to cling to the river, and not to leave it until it bore him, whether over smooth beaches or stony bowlders, to the sea. If he had gone around the cataract region in a land march he would have lessened his journey, avoided fearful hardships, and saved lives. But this knowledge he bought for himself and for mankind by experience. Hard as was the task, it was better done in this way; otherwise there would have been a farther mystery. As it is, we now know every mile of the river from the source to the mouth. But the perils of these falls were the severest of the trip, and it was here that he lost Kalulu, the faithful black boy whom he found in Livingstone days and educated in England, and, more than all, his last remaining white associate, Frank Pocock.STANLEY'S EXPEDITION RECUPERATED AND RECLAD AFTER CROSSING THE "DARK CONTINENT.""Stanley, having battled with tempest, disease, and armed enemies, now came to a halt, and sent a messenger for relief. Already he was within easy marches of the sea,within four days of Embomma. His small army had been reduced to one hundred and fifteen souls. His message was 'to any gentleman who speaks English at Embomma.' 'We are now,' he wrote, 'in a state of imminent starvation.... The supplies must arrive within two days, or I may have a fearful time of it among the dying.... For myself, if you have such little luxuries as tea, coffee, sugar, and biscuit by you, such as one man can easily carry, I beg you, on my own behalf, that you will send a small supply.... You may not know me by name; I therefore add, I am the person who discovered Livingstone in 1871.' This was on August 6, 1877, and in two days supplies arrived. The letter fell into the hands of A. Motta Viega and J. W. Harrison, whose names are worthy of remembrance, and Stanley wrote, in an ecstasy of delight over 'the rice, the fish, and the rum,' the 'wheat bread, butter, sardines, jam, peaches, grapes, beer (ye gods, just think of it!), three bottles of pale ale, besides tea and sugar!': 'The people cry out joyfully, while their mouths are full of rice and fish, "Verily our master has found the sea and his brothers, but we did not believe him until he showed to us the rice and the rum."... It will be the study of my lifetime,' continued Stanley, 'to remember my feelings of gratefulness when I first caught sight of your supplies, and my poor faithful and brave people cried out, "Master, we are saved—food is coming!" The old and the young, the men, women, and children, lifted their weary and worn-out frames and began to chant lustily an extemporized song in honor of the white people of the great salt sea who had listened to their prayers. I had to rush to my tent to hide the tears that would issue despite all my attempts at composure.' This closed the journey, which, beginning at Nyangué, November 5, 1876, lasted nine months and one day; and counting from the time he left Zanzibar, the entire journey across the 'Dark Continent' occupied nine hundred and ninety-nine days, or two years and nine months!"
"Stanley gave nine months to the exploration of the Lualaba, or rather to the Livingstone, as he called it, and as it must be called for all time. Before he went out on this mission we knew there were two rivers—the Congo and the Lualaba. We knew that the Congo ran into the Atlantic Ocean, but its source was lost in cataracts. The Portuguese were content to scatter a few settlements about its mouth, and trade for gums and ivory along its banks. But it was an unknown river beyond the cataracts. We knew there was a river in the middle of Africa called the Lualaba; we knew it had a swift current, that it was a river of large volume. But beyond that we knew nothing. Some had one theory, others had another. Livingstone was convinced that it ran into the Nile, was really the source of the Nile; and who would question even the theory of so great a master? What Stanley did was to show that the Congo and Lualaba were one and the same; that the Congo, instead of losing itself among the rapids, was to force itself into the very heart of the continent; that the Lualaba, instead of going north and submitting to the usurping waters of the Nile, was to turn to the west and force its way to the sea; that these two rivers were to disappear from the map, and be known as one river—the Livingstone; that this river was to be two thousand nine hundred miles in length; that for nearly ten degrees of longitude it was to be continuously navigable; that its volume was one million eight hundred thousand cubic feet a second; that the entire area it drains is eight hundred thousand square miles—in other words, that here was an immense waterway three thousand miles into the centre of Africa, navigable, with the exception of two breaks, which engineering science can easily surmount—a waterway into a tropical empire, rich in woods and metals and gracious soil, in fruits and grains, the sure home of a civilized empire in the years to come. As Petermann, the eminent German geographer, put it, Stanley's work was to unite the fragments of African exploration—the achievements of Livingstone, Burton, Speke, Du Chaillu, Baker, Cameron, of all the heroic men who had gone before him—into one consecutive whole, just as Bismarck united the fragments of the German people, lying about under various princes and dukes, into one grand and harmonious empire. Even as Bismarck had created imperial Germany, so Stanley created geographical Africa.
STANLEY'S VOYAGE ON THE LIVINGSTONE.—BATTLE WITH THE NATIVES.
"There was a battle at the outset at Ruiki River, which had no special result except to show the ugly temper of the savages. Then came the first cataract—the falls of Ukassa. This seems to be a rapid current, like the first cataract of the Nile, and the boats and canoes were allowed to float over. A month was passed in these explorations, when, on December 6, Stanley came to the country of Usongora Meno, inhabited by a powerful tribe. Stanley's party was weakened by the fact that his people were suffering from small pox. Dysentery came and ulcers, and in three days eighteen of the Arab escort died from various diseases, mainly small-pox. Stanley was one hundred and twenty-five miles from his starting-place, with small-pox affecting seventy-two of his party, when he had another battle, the enemy coming in force, and firing poisoned arrows. Stanley made a camp, and defended his army as well as he could. 'Through the night the poisoned arrows flew, and were heard tapping trees and huts most unpleasantly.... Two days and two nights we bore cruel attacks by land and water. The entire country was aroused against us. Bowmen climbed tall trees, and any person showing himself in the broad street of the little town became a target at once. We were unable to bury our dead or to attend to the delirious wounded.' From this difficult position Stanley released himself by a successful night foray, cutting away the canoes of the attacking party.
FRANK POCOCK, STANLEY'S COMPANION ON THE LIVINGSTONE.
"It was necessary, in the eighteen hundred miles from Nyangué to the ocean, to pass fifty-seven water-falls and rapids. After the river reached fourteen hundred miles, onits journey to the sea, it narrowed and ran through close-meeting, uprising banks of naked cliffs, or steep slopes of mountains, fringed with tall woods. Here the river was as rough and stormy as a sea, sometimes a steep glassy fall, sometimes boiling around isles of stone and bowlders, sometimes whirlpools and caldrons, the air filled with a roar like that of Niagara. This part of the journey, although not more than one hundred and eighty miles, required five months to make. Stanley, looking back, regards the attempt as insanity. But he had resolved to cling to the river, and not to leave it until it bore him, whether over smooth beaches or stony bowlders, to the sea. If he had gone around the cataract region in a land march he would have lessened his journey, avoided fearful hardships, and saved lives. But this knowledge he bought for himself and for mankind by experience. Hard as was the task, it was better done in this way; otherwise there would have been a farther mystery. As it is, we now know every mile of the river from the source to the mouth. But the perils of these falls were the severest of the trip, and it was here that he lost Kalulu, the faithful black boy whom he found in Livingstone days and educated in England, and, more than all, his last remaining white associate, Frank Pocock.
STANLEY'S EXPEDITION RECUPERATED AND RECLAD AFTER CROSSING THE "DARK CONTINENT."
"Stanley, having battled with tempest, disease, and armed enemies, now came to a halt, and sent a messenger for relief. Already he was within easy marches of the sea,within four days of Embomma. His small army had been reduced to one hundred and fifteen souls. His message was 'to any gentleman who speaks English at Embomma.' 'We are now,' he wrote, 'in a state of imminent starvation.... The supplies must arrive within two days, or I may have a fearful time of it among the dying.... For myself, if you have such little luxuries as tea, coffee, sugar, and biscuit by you, such as one man can easily carry, I beg you, on my own behalf, that you will send a small supply.... You may not know me by name; I therefore add, I am the person who discovered Livingstone in 1871.' This was on August 6, 1877, and in two days supplies arrived. The letter fell into the hands of A. Motta Viega and J. W. Harrison, whose names are worthy of remembrance, and Stanley wrote, in an ecstasy of delight over 'the rice, the fish, and the rum,' the 'wheat bread, butter, sardines, jam, peaches, grapes, beer (ye gods, just think of it!), three bottles of pale ale, besides tea and sugar!': 'The people cry out joyfully, while their mouths are full of rice and fish, "Verily our master has found the sea and his brothers, but we did not believe him until he showed to us the rice and the rum."... It will be the study of my lifetime,' continued Stanley, 'to remember my feelings of gratefulness when I first caught sight of your supplies, and my poor faithful and brave people cried out, "Master, we are saved—food is coming!" The old and the young, the men, women, and children, lifted their weary and worn-out frames and began to chant lustily an extemporized song in honor of the white people of the great salt sea who had listened to their prayers. I had to rush to my tent to hide the tears that would issue despite all my attempts at composure.' This closed the journey, which, beginning at Nyangué, November 5, 1876, lasted nine months and one day; and counting from the time he left Zanzibar, the entire journey across the 'Dark Continent' occupied nine hundred and ninety-nine days, or two years and nine months!"
Stanley went again to Africa in 1879, to establish colonies on the upper waters of the Livingstone, in the interest of the International African Society, of which the King of Belgium is president. The object of the society is to open Africa to trade and civilization, and it has been liberal in the expenditure of money to accomplish its purposes.
It was near the end of 1879 that Stanley arrived at the mouth of the Livingstone, with a force of fifteen Europeans, sixty-eight Zanzibaris, and some twenty or more natives of other parts of Africa. The white inhabitants on the African coast were hostile to him, as they naturally feared his operations would interfere with their business.
TRADING STATION ON THE WEST COAST OF AFRICA.
The native traders, who act as intermediaries between the whites and the people of the interior, were also opposed, as they did not care to have Europeans establish trading stations away from the coast; and the same was the case with the tribes living near the falls of the great river. Stanley managed to avoid trouble with any of these interests, and at once began the work of establishing stations and building roads, to open up the heart of Africa to European traffic.
What he accomplished in three years may be summed up as follows:
He negotiated with the chiefs of the tribes on the river along thewhole line of cataracts for the right to establish stations and build roads, paying a rental for the ground he occupied, and dealing liberally with them in every way. He made two hundred miles of road through the wilderness, carrying it sometimes over mountains and through country which presented a great many difficulties. In one place his whole force was occupied twenty-six days in making twelve hundred feet of road around the flank of a mountain of nearly solid quartz. At each end of the road there is a permanent station, consisting of a central house or residence, with numerous huts and storehouses around it, and with fields and gardens for the production of anything that will grow in the country.
CURIOUS HEAD-DRESS.
There are three intermediate stations between the first and the last, built in the manner just described. The road through its whole length is about fifteen feet wide, and suitable for wagons of any kind, and it has been built with a view to permanency. By his exploit in going around the mountain Stanley received the name of "The Breaker of Rocks," by which he is now known in all that region.
In his account of the work the great explorer says:
"The weight and labor of our transport may be imagined when I say that we had no less than two thousand two hundred and twenty-five loads or packages, each weighing from sixty-five to seventy pounds. We had seven large store tents, and besides this we had enormous wagons, built on purpose for us in Belgium, whereon to transport the two steamers and two large steel boats, with boilers and machinery, which we hadbrought with us to put together on the Upper Congo. We had to go over the ground no less than thirty-three times, and our rate of progress, calculating the number of days we travelled, was only a quarter of a mile a day. After eleven months of unceasing toil the two steamers were put together at the second station above the Isangila cataract, the place where I left theLady Aliceafter her seven thousand mile journey with me in the Anglo-American expedition across the Dark Continent."
THE HEIGHT OF FASHION.
From this point the river is navigable for a distance of seventy-four miles, and the steamers transported the men and material of the expedition to the foot of the next cataract. Then came more road-building, then another navigable distance, and then more roads, till at last the widening of the river was reached, at the foot of Stanley Pool. From here the great river is navigable nine hundred miles farther inland; and there are several tributary rivers where steamers can go. On one of these tributaries a lake has been discovered about seventy miles long, to which Stanley gave the name of Leopold II., in honor of the King of Belgium.
The association has now seven steamers on the river: four on the lower portion, and three above Stanley Pool. By road and river there is now a direct way of communication between Central Africa and the sea-coast, where the mails are regularly carried to the officers and men in charge of the stations and the merchants engaged in business there. In speaking of his achievements Stanley says as follows:
"I am ambitious only to leave permanent traces of my work on the east side of the Dark Continent. Expedition after expedition has followed my track. On the shores of the Victoria N'yanza and on the shore of the Tanganyika communities of white men are engaged in disseminating what they think beneficial to the dark outcasts of this continent. Why should I not hope that the Congo basin throughout its vast extent, and the bank of the superb river, will be ultimately studded with civilized communities as well? We have begun well. Even now Belgians, Germans, English, Americans, Danes, Swedes, enlisted in our service, are devoting their best energies to accomplish this. Sofar we have been welcomed by the natives. Our object they can appreciate and understand, and they are the only ones as yet benefited by it. We have spent a large sum, and shall have to spend more yet. For we look upon ourselves as husbandmen, tilling and sowing that others may reap. As yet the Congo basin is a blank, a fruitless waste, a desolate and unproductive area. The energies of its denizens are benumbed. No prospect has dawned on them. It has been our purpose to fill this blank with life, to redeem this waste, to plant and sow that the dark man may gather, to vivify the wide, wild lands so long forgotten of Europe. Accursed be he or they who, animated by causeless jealousy and the spirit of mischief, will compel us to fire our station, destroy our work so auspiciously begun, and abandon Africa to its pristine helplessness and savagery."
"I am ambitious only to leave permanent traces of my work on the east side of the Dark Continent. Expedition after expedition has followed my track. On the shores of the Victoria N'yanza and on the shore of the Tanganyika communities of white men are engaged in disseminating what they think beneficial to the dark outcasts of this continent. Why should I not hope that the Congo basin throughout its vast extent, and the bank of the superb river, will be ultimately studded with civilized communities as well? We have begun well. Even now Belgians, Germans, English, Americans, Danes, Swedes, enlisted in our service, are devoting their best energies to accomplish this. Sofar we have been welcomed by the natives. Our object they can appreciate and understand, and they are the only ones as yet benefited by it. We have spent a large sum, and shall have to spend more yet. For we look upon ourselves as husbandmen, tilling and sowing that others may reap. As yet the Congo basin is a blank, a fruitless waste, a desolate and unproductive area. The energies of its denizens are benumbed. No prospect has dawned on them. It has been our purpose to fill this blank with life, to redeem this waste, to plant and sow that the dark man may gather, to vivify the wide, wild lands so long forgotten of Europe. Accursed be he or they who, animated by causeless jealousy and the spirit of mischief, will compel us to fire our station, destroy our work so auspiciously begun, and abandon Africa to its pristine helplessness and savagery."
In our account of Stanley's work in Africa we have gone outside of the information possessed by Frank and Fred, as the details of his expedition in behalf of the International Association were not known to them at the time they were in Africa. We trust the readers of their narrative will pardon the liberty we have taken, and accept the assurance that what we have given would have been faithfully chronicled by "The Boy Travellers," if they had known it in season.
The above apology being accepted, the author will take the reader into his confidence and show him a personal letter from Stanley, in reply to an invitation to run over to New York and meet several of his old friends, who promised to have dinner ready on the day of his arrival. If any one believes Stanley otherwise than a genial man in his social relations, he can now have an opportunity to change his opinion:
"Brussels, November 4, 1882.
"My dear Knox,—I have been trying ever so much to cross from Europe to the 'land of the free and the home of the brave,' but there are so many fetters binding me in this fierce, stirring world, that I fear I cannot break them, or even have them loosened long enough for the journey. It was my dream in Africa to seek repose in lounging—loafing is the New York term—for a spell about any town: it really did not matter which. A village would do, so that I could rove about unnoticed, and re-gather by degrees a store of vitality to replace that which the cruel fever of West Africa scorched and almost consumed. I mourn now that my dream cannot be realized. When I leave Paris I go to London, which is like 'from the frying-pan into the fire,' and then farewell all...."As you know, this is winter, and the East Wind strikes me everywhere; he catches me round street-corners; at the street-door I find him; he waits for me late at night from the warm saloons, with bundles of small fevers, coughs, bronchial irritation, catarrh, chest complaint. He shrivels me up till there is scarcely a resemblance of manhood left in the benumbed wretch."Ah! had it been September, or had it been April, oh, blessed Heaven! I should seek theAlaska, or theWerra, or Bennett'sNamouna."I intend to go presently to Nice, Cannes, Mentone, Andalusia, or where? Anywhere, where I can see man other than in an overcoat.THE FIRST CATARACT OF THE LIVINGSTONE."Yet it may be. America is dear, you know—New York has joys, and sometimes you do catch men without overcoats. There are good dinners there, too, and the Lotoshas been ever since it was born a most welcome place; and you know, don't you know. —— himself is a host! And when added to him you have the jolly ——, and the courteous ——, and amiable ——, and the rest—why, I will come!"But no, not yet. I fear the walls of snow in New York—the hilly ridges of frozen water, mud-colored and ancient."Some time I will come. And then I will seek you, and revive as well as we may the memories of our days in Paris in 1878—good dinners, without one unpleasant face; good wine, of a good vintage, heightened by the sparkling pleasantries of friendship. Meantime, dear old fellow, until we meet, adieu; and whisper, with my regrets that I cannot come at present, the sweet hopes that my firm soul shall entertain to all our mutual friends, and that I am, now as ever,
"My dear Knox,—I have been trying ever so much to cross from Europe to the 'land of the free and the home of the brave,' but there are so many fetters binding me in this fierce, stirring world, that I fear I cannot break them, or even have them loosened long enough for the journey. It was my dream in Africa to seek repose in lounging—loafing is the New York term—for a spell about any town: it really did not matter which. A village would do, so that I could rove about unnoticed, and re-gather by degrees a store of vitality to replace that which the cruel fever of West Africa scorched and almost consumed. I mourn now that my dream cannot be realized. When I leave Paris I go to London, which is like 'from the frying-pan into the fire,' and then farewell all....
"As you know, this is winter, and the East Wind strikes me everywhere; he catches me round street-corners; at the street-door I find him; he waits for me late at night from the warm saloons, with bundles of small fevers, coughs, bronchial irritation, catarrh, chest complaint. He shrivels me up till there is scarcely a resemblance of manhood left in the benumbed wretch.
"Ah! had it been September, or had it been April, oh, blessed Heaven! I should seek theAlaska, or theWerra, or Bennett'sNamouna.
"I intend to go presently to Nice, Cannes, Mentone, Andalusia, or where? Anywhere, where I can see man other than in an overcoat.
THE FIRST CATARACT OF THE LIVINGSTONE.
"Yet it may be. America is dear, you know—New York has joys, and sometimes you do catch men without overcoats. There are good dinners there, too, and the Lotoshas been ever since it was born a most welcome place; and you know, don't you know. —— himself is a host! And when added to him you have the jolly ——, and the courteous ——, and amiable ——, and the rest—why, I will come!
"But no, not yet. I fear the walls of snow in New York—the hilly ridges of frozen water, mud-colored and ancient.
"Some time I will come. And then I will seek you, and revive as well as we may the memories of our days in Paris in 1878—good dinners, without one unpleasant face; good wine, of a good vintage, heightened by the sparkling pleasantries of friendship. Meantime, dear old fellow, until we meet, adieu; and whisper, with my regrets that I cannot come at present, the sweet hopes that my firm soul shall entertain to all our mutual friends, and that I am, now as ever,
"Theirs and yours most faithfully,"Henry M. Stanley."
STANLEY'S EXPEDITION DESCENDING THE LIVINGSTONE.
Having finished our journey down the Livingstone to the shores of the Atlantic, in company with Stanley, we will return to our young friends in Unyamwezi.
Three days sufficed to arrange the plans for their future movements. On the morning of the fourth day the servants packed the tents and baggage, and the party was ready to move in the direction of Unyamyembe and Zanzibar. Previous to starting they made a farewell visit to Mirambo, to whom they gave additional presents. The king was not to be outdone in generosity, and ordered his officers to see that they had all the provisions that would be needed for the journey to Unyamyembe.
Just as they were about to make their farewells to Mirambo, Abdul came to the Doctor's side and whispered a few words in his ear.
The quick eye of the king saw that something was wrong, and he asked what was the matter.
Doctor Bronson replied that some twenty or more of the pagazi refused to move unless they were paid in advance, and they demanded double wages for the journey before starting.
Evidently the king was accustomed to this sort of thing, as he beckoned to one of his officers and spoke briefly to him, in a low tone. The officer left the audience-hall immediately, and Mirambo assumed an attitude of waiting for something to turn up.
In a quarter of an hour or so there was a commotion outside, and the officer returned to the royal presence. The whole party followed him into the open air, and found the rebellious porters, their hands bound together with strong cords, and a guard of spearmen standing by to see that none of them escaped.
Mirambo's manner was decisive, and our friends had no reason to complain of the sluggishness of African justice.
He told the pagazi they would be sold as slaves unless they went peacefully with the strangers without any pay in advance. Of coursethey promised obedience on the instant, and in less than three minutes the whole matter was arranged. Mirambo added that they might consider themselves very fortunate if they received any pay at all after such rebellious conduct.
Abdul marched the men back to camp, accompanied by the guard of Mirambo's men. At the request of the Doctor a guard was detailed to accompany them on the road, to keep the porters from straying. More presents were given to the king for his administration of justice, and it was agreed that the guard should be paid in cloth and beads on their arrival at Unyamyembe. The soldiers were delighted at the prospect of occupation for which they would be paid, as it was not the custom of the king to waste his property by giving them anything for their services. One of them told Mohammed that they only received their food and clothing. As they wore next to nothing, and helped themselves to bananas and other fruits wherever they could find them, there was reason to believe that the army of Mirambo was not an expensive one.