CHAPTER 12

Crossing the river the two hunters had a long and toilsome march and in addition to the intense heat they could not find any water and neglected to take any with them, a mistake not often committed afterwards. They went on until it was well into the afternoon and were just about to return, when to their great joy they discovered fresh elephant “spoor”. Alpeus offered to lead them either to the elephants, which he did not think could be very far off, or to water which all were beginnng to feel greatly in need of, but with no hesitation the two wearied whites elected to go after the big game, and with hopes refreshing them, followed the trail as fast as the long grass would allow them. After going for nearly three miles they came upon the elephants; the herd consisted of four females with their calves. It was necessary to crawl something like one hundred yards to get into a favorable position and as quietly as possible. Alpeus, on all fours, led C. followed by one of the natives and then Fenwick, with the remainder in single file ,up to the tree from behind which they proposed to fire the first shots. The native who crawled behind C. kept the latter in a fever of alarm the whole time. He had an old flintlock gun loaded with a heavy ball and stuffed with the Lord only knows how many drachms of powder, and this gun he lugged along by the muzzle which was pointed to the small of C.’s back on full cock, and by no sign and afraid even to whisper, could C. make him understand his recklessness. The other native also did the same, which made those in front very uncomfortable, and rarely could we make the men alter their custom of stalking after us in the long grass with their guns on full cock.

Safely gaining the tree C. and Fenwick fired together at the nearest elephant, the solid two ounce ball of hardened lead from the former’s gun making her reel dead, after going about ten yards; and then they went for the others. Fenwick wounded one badly and C. with Alpeus by his side, brought a third on her knees but she got up again, and before they had time to make another attack the alarm was raised and the fourth, an enormous brute, came rushing back with her trunk in the air, and trumpeting with rage as she missed her calf in the confusion. Right and left ran the natives, and the two white hunters with unsuccessful shots also separated to find cover. C. However went up wind and she went straight for him, and finding escape impossible he turned and waiting steadily with his gun to his shoulder he let her have both barrels right in the forehead. The blow twisted her right round and still shrieking she crashed through the trees and undergrowth after her companions, while C. stood still and wiped the perspiration off his brow. It is sensation which has perhaps, no equal, that of being charged by an elephant, and in spite of all that hunters may say to the contrary, the sight of an enraged elephant looking for you is enough to make one anxious to be a few miles off, and when compelled to stand the pulse must beat a little faster. It astounded us, the rapidity with which an elephant could twist round and run. Going at the top of their speed when the belly seems to be close to the ground, no horse could beat them for the first hundred yards regardless of trees or anything that crosses their line, nothing can arrest the wild rush except a well-planted bullet.

Having leisure now to inspect the mighty brutes they had killed they found she had two tusks of moderate length and thickness, and after a rest started back for the river, feeling very done up with their thirst. According to Fenwick he drank two gallons right off directly they got to the riverbank, and the natives plunged into the water at a shallow place clear of crocodiles, and relieved their no less intense thirst. K.-H. could not believe his companions had been so successful and asked where the tusks were, but having no tomahawks with them, they had left the operation of cutting them out until the morrow. But the tail which C. triumphantly produced was enough, and it only remained for the wretched victim of the fever to turn his face to the side of the tent, and curse his bad luck in most sincere terms.

Alpeus amused C. and Fenwick very much after the elephant was shot. The men got on top of the mountain of flesh and commenced a song of triumph whereupon Alpeus, jealous of his master Rhodes’ reputation made them desist asking them if they were children and whether other white men – meaning Rhodes – had not also slain the Jobeu, the native name for elephant. This faithful fellow was a splendid hunter and rarely showed the slightest hesitation to lead up to an elephant although the natives are by no means endowed with pluck. We took a great fancy to him, and missed him very much on the lake where our men either never could or would attempt to follow up the “spoor” of a wounded elephant.

As soon as the daylight broke on the following day C. and Fenwick started off after the elephants they had wounded and starting from the dead one they came across patches of blood now and then which showed that one at least had been hit pretty hard. After travelling some ten miles, and Alpeus giving it as his opinion that the traces were some hours old, they reluctantly abandoned the search and returned to the party of men engaged cutting up the one that had been killed. The negroes all worked with a will and four or five men at a time would be out of sight inside the great brute. The heart and kidneys and all the inside fat were got out, and at last the camp where K.-H. was still lying ill with fever was full of elephant meat cut in strips and hung in the sun to dry. We had heard and read so much about the tit-bits of an elephant, the tip of the trunk and the foot especially, that of course we tried them and found them as insipid as a pair of old boots would be, and about as tough. A little of the flesh from the cheek was slightly better but we were never partial to elephant meat although the blacks swear by it. They used to lug meat about with them until the stench nearly drove us mad, and felt quite aggrieved when we insisted on their throwing it away and having fresh buck meat instead or else none at all. The eating of elephant meat endows a man with strength, courage and the power of frightening his enemies but they allowed that buffalo meat was also very good to eat to obtain the same “virtues”. During the night either the meat in the camp or something else made the mosquitoes assemble in myriad’s and we all spent a very wretched time of it.

Just about daybreak Fenwick heard a hippopotamus close to the tent and rushed out with one of the elephant guns and gave it a couple of shots in the rear just as it plunged into the river. They come on shore at night to feed on the long, rank grass, returning to the water as soon as the sun begins to become warm. On land, as a rule, they are rather timorous although amusing stories are told of white men who, taking a short stroll before breakfast have been surprised when unarmed and obliged to run for their lives. The natives told us that a very heavy fall of rain just before day break when one of these animals has wandered far from the river during the night, causes it to go nearly mad with fright, as the quantity of water resting on the ground prevents it scenting in which direction the river lies, and to come across a surly rhinoceros or half a dozen natives armed with spears would be must decidedly unpleasant for the hippopotamus. About an hour before we started up the river C. shot a buck, which had a fine set of horns which we preserved and the fresh meat was more acceptable to us than the coarse flesh our black friends were so partial to, indeed, the quantity of elephant meat stowed in the boat took up a considerable amount of room.

At nine o’clock we stopped and K.-H. who was worse again was laid under a tree with two natives to watch him, while his companions started away in search of game, but returned soon after having been unsuccessful. We went on in the boat until nearly six o’clock when we came to a small village called Nsape, a place that does a business by having wood always ready cut for the use of the Livingstonia steam launch the Ilala. The next morning, which was Sunday September 7^th we all woke up covered with ants, which it required a bath to get rid of. For breakfast this morning we had some very nice fish which was fried in elephant fat which made a middling substitute for lard.

All day long the men belonging to our party were busily engaged rendering all the fat down into gourds, and every article they could get hold of, including all our empty bottles, which latter they rather prized, and while they sat by their fires they kept gorging on the meat in a way which considerably reduced the stock. In the evening we had an audience listening to the concertina and Fenwick, as in duty bound, doing the “White-choker” before them, sang them some Moody and Sankey hymns in the Manganza tongue. In the morning we watched some villagers making Pombë, their beer. They pound mapira into a flour and boil it in large pots and then “spring” some of the grain and use it for malting the liquor, which is then put on one side to ferment. It is then ready for drinking in three or four days and we tasted it in its various stages at this village. For ourselves, we never cared for it although some Europeans like it, the sickly taste to some is a slightly acid flavor to others. As it will not keep very long, not more than four or five weeks, the natives get very drunk.on their stock and remain sober until there is some more made. A bucket or two, if you got it down, would probably make an ordinary white man feel a little tipsy. Pombë is made in different ways but the one described is the only real and original recipe according to our Nsape friends. About eleven we started down the river, which flows rapidly here and with a slashing breeze behind us travelled so fast that we reached Pimbi early in the afternoon. On our run down we shot two or three hippopotami which were too dangerously inquisitive and one fellow rasped his back under us, but we were going at such a pace in the heavy old Portuguese that we did not fear them much. We were treated to a magnificent sight after dark on the opposite side of the river. The grass some miles up had caught fire and was burning right through the forest, the smaller trees catching fire also. Here and there we saw a larger tree in flames and the crashing of the branches and the roar of the fire came across the river quite distinctly. The natives said it was one of the biggest fires they had seen in their district for some time.

On the Tuesday Fenwick left us to return to Blantyre and C. went with him in the boat as far as Matopi, leaving K.-H. who was recovering fast, in the stockade. On their way down they came to grief – an angry hippopotamus rushing at them and smashing a plank clear in; the natives lost their heads and jumped into the water, the riverbank being close at hand, leaving Fenwick and C. with one or two more in the sinking boat, which was going round and round in the rapid current. Fortunately they came to a point in the river, and got her onshore half full of water and had to camp there, sending a messenger back to the stockade to forward tin, nails, white lead, etc. to repair damages and C.’s valise. It took the latter nearly all the next day to repair the boat and Fenwick went across country to Matopi, while it was very late in the evening in the face of a gale of wind before C. returned with the Portugal navigating her with grim cheerfulness as may well be imagined, seeing she was leaking badly, the hippo as numerous and audacious as ever, and the daylight waning fast. We had her pulled up on the shore the next day and took the plank out and appropriating one which belonged to the Messrs. Moir, made shift to repair the damage. We were quite satisfied after daubing on two inches thick of red lead that no leaks would come through at that spot, and the other leaks were stopped with canvas and red lead, and in some of the worst places, pieces of tin which we flattened ourselves were rather neatly put on making things sound.

We spent a few days quietly at Pimbi as we were expecting to get news of Rhodes, Fenwick having promised to let us know as early as possible whether he was on the way up. We treated everyone far and wide to medicine, a thing the native will give anything for as he imagines there is some sort of fetish in a white man’s physic. One boy came led by his father with bad eyes, apparently a kind of sand blight. All we could advise the father was to wash the lad’s eyes, an idea that had not occurred to the parent before, and then we lent him a pair of goggles to wear a pair that happened to be amongst the odds and ends we had. Later in the day the father came back and, bringing the goggles, said his child looked “like the evil one” with them on, and all the children of the village were afraid. It took us some time to explain that it was to keep the glare of the sun out of his boy’s eyes and putting them on him we showed the man himself the relief they afforded, whereupon he thanked us very much and left them ! Pills were the things they liked most, something that twisted them. On one occasion a man kept bothering C. for pills and as we had not too many to spare C. only presented him with two, which the rascal objected to, wanting a whole boxful. If it had not been for the fear of running short his wish would doubtless have been gratified, but he came after some time to K.-H. when C. was out of the way, thinking the former knew nothing of the incident. This time he got a dose, in half a pannikin of water, of nearly thirty grains of sulphate of quinine which we had any amount of and he was knocked completely silly as anyone who is accustomed to quinine can easily imagine. He bothered us no more though he must have bragged of its goof effects to his friends for they all anxiously enquired after the “white powder”. Probably, although he had not read the fable, his feelings were identical with the fox who lost his caudal appendage.

Sometimes we made cures in the most ridiculous way. One man received a cut on his shoulder and came to have it put right. It was little more than a scratch, not even worth wasting any sticking plaster over, but he insisted upon something being done and pleaded so hard that at length to gratify him we took a burning glass and bringing the rays of the sun to bear on him let him feel the warmth. Directly he winced he was told he had had enough and he departed well pleased. To our surprise he came again the following forenoon ready for “another burn”, which a length was given him and the “bringing the sun down” as they termed it, was a favorite remedy for pains and aches of all kinds. The patients declared it did them good, and if they chose to state so we were not going to deny the possibility! White people believe that cures are affected by nostrums, and means not a wit more probable than “a burn for the sun”.

Without flattering ourselves overmuch we were certainly able to effect a good many cases of relief, if not cures, to persons who came to us. Ulcerated legs which by washing and giving the poor wretch some carbolic acid with directions how to use it, and lint with bandages, made the suffering negro get a slight chance for recovery, were among the more common cases.

CHAPTER 13

One day when C. was out shooting by himself behind the stockade K-H was awoke out of a feverish doze by a terrible row in the camp. The women and children were screaming and the men running hither and thither getting their guns. On going to the door of his hut K. -H. was unable to ascertain what the matter was, as C. had both Johnny and Kwa-wa with him. The old capitoe in the centre of the square was haranguing a number of the men, and gesticulating with an assegai in his hand, and there the fighting men, taking ridiculous long steps like a boy takes when going to do a “hop, step and jump”, commenced a sort of war dance while the capitoe went on hollering out at the top of his voice in a sort of delirium of rage, standing now on one fat leg and then on the other and striking attitudes like Mr. Barry Sullivan in Richard III. At last 40 men sallied through the gate with guns, assegais, poisoned arrows and bows and other weapons; and the great slabs of wood were pushed into place to bar the entrances to the stockade. K.-H. now began to be seriously alarmed, fancying the men had gone out to help C. in some trouble, and hailing the capitoe desired in forcible language to know what it all meant. All the reply he could get was “War! War!” and absurd attitudes. Taking his revolver, he insisted on the gates being opened, and on getting outside, to his relief, he saw C. coming home in an entirely different direction to that taken by the valiant negroes. Before time was had for explanation the small army was seen flying precipitously homewards and on arriving it appearing that they had not engaged the enemy as the opposing force was very large.

We at length assembled everyone and through Kwa-wa and Johnny heard exactly what the excitement was about. To put it shortly, Suzi, one of the stockade men was accused of having made unlawful love to a black damsel living at a village some four miles distant, a discontented community who disliked Rhodes and all his belonging. Suzi foolishly ventured into the village, got into a row, and was attacked, getting away with a cracked skull. The wounded man was here produced, and showed a gash on his head which he swore was an assegai wound. Thereupon the capitoe as in duty bound, had declared war against the villagers and sent his army out, but the villagers expecting an attack had bespoke the services of a large number of well armed Ajawa men who happened to be hunting in the vicinity and the little force belonging to Rhodes on discovering how great was the superiority of the enemy incontinently fled homewards for fear they were massacred. And now the capitoe wound up, he “looked to us for revenge”. Not knowing things so well then as we did afterwards, we proceeded to do what might have turned out a most dangerous thing. We decided to visit the villagers ourselves with the capitoe, Suzi, Johnny, and Kwa-wa only and ask an explanation and we therefore told the capitoe with the habitual self-confidence of Englishmen that “it was all right” and to dismiss his warriors to their huts.

We put our revolvers on under our coats, and taking ordinary sticks, and not letting any of the four men who accompanied us to take any weapon, set out for the village, which we reached after a little more than half an hour’s walking. We found them all armed to the teeth with guns, assegais and the never-failing poisoned arrows and bows, and the Ajawa men in addition were armed with murderous looking long knives. There were at least 80 of the latter, who looked as villainous a lot of Africans as any we had met. Up to the present we had never met Ajawa men and they scowled at us as we approached and looks grew very black when C. went up to the “baolo” or tree set apart for discussions, etc., generally the centre of a cleared space, coolly ordered one or two to move off some large sitting stones upon which we sat ourselves down. Having demanded to speak to the chief and finding that he was “not at home” we informed them that their chief was a chicken when he was afraid to meet two white men who had come to make inquiries into a quarrel between his people and theirs, and having given Johnny his instructions, that individual commenced his oration with a loud “A li kutl!” which did duty for “Listen!” – literally it means “Where is he?” – and when he told the crowd that we would not permit them to attack our people, and if they did, we should come and burn their huts down (murmurs) If they killed any of our people we should hunt them all out the district and shoot any of them we saw (angry expressions) and white men were always just which was the reason we had come to hear what they had to say. If our man Suzi was to blame we should punish him ourselves but we would not permit them to touch our people. What had they got to say?

After a long pause one old man got up and said we talked reason and though they were ready to fight they were not quarrelsome. Suzi had stabbed a villager who was still ill. On asking Suzi, it appeared that that was a long time ago and the wounded man – a hulking big fellow – was sitting amongst them. C. went up to the wounded man and asked if that was the place, making a movement to place his hand on an old cicatrice. The fellow winced and gave a cry, whereupon C. asked the crowd whether all the men cried out before they were hurt, which made them smile and then with a rough clap on the wounded shoulder, C. laughed in the man’s face, and the latter was so surprised that he forgot to cry out in his pain and the whole lot joined in laughing against him.

The end of it was that we left them in a very friendly humour and told them Suzi should not go near the village any more to entice away the affections of their wives. Suzi was a good-looking scamp and perhaps was really a bete noire to the married men. On our return Kwa-wa told us we had run a great risk for several times he heard two or three propose to rush upon us and kill us and at one time he had drawn near to us to prevent two Ajawa men with native tomahawks in their hands standing so close behind us, from the way they whispered to each other. Since that day these tribes have been in constant war with the whites in Blantyre and have massacred parties of men belonging to the station, so we were really, unknown to ourselves, in more than risky company.

These Ajawa men whom we met are a very different set to the Makololo and Manganja. The latter especially are a weak effeminate race compared to the Ajawa, and suffer terribly from the slaving depredations of their stronger enemies, who sell them to the Arabs and Portuguese traders; but during the last few years the Ajawas themselves are being decimated by the Ma Viti, a fierce warlike tribe akin to the Zulus. On the Lake we met one chief, who was at one time very powerful, living on the very edge of the water, and always ready to take canoes and flee to the islands for refuge from his pursuer, yet his people numbered many thousands.

A great amusement to us on off days, when weakness from fever prevented us hunting, was fishing, and the peculiar fish we hauled out of the water sometimes struck us with wonder. A very fine fish was the sanjika which was sometimes two feet in length, and something like carp. It was very good eating and another kind caught in the nets we used to like for breakfast, little white fishes like sprats. Fishing is a great occupation, and the natives do a large business in dry fish, particularly on the Lake. But the most disgusting thing to a European is the mania for eating fish in as putrid a state as possible. You can sometimes smell fish a mile off, and our own men would rejoice when there was a lot of stinking fish bought for their eating, and the camp nearly unbearable to us.

The Manganja living near us were a very hard-working lot of people, and would have been happy enough if untroubled by the slavers. They dig iron ore out of the hills and smelt it and manufacture knives, tomahawks, assegais. hoes, needles, and various utensils. It is instructive to watch a Manganja blacksmith hard at work, squatting on his hams, his anvil very similar in shape to the ordinary one, his fire built between two stones, while his assistant, generally a lad, is engaged blowing away under his order with bellows made in the most ingenious manner with goatskin. The basket-makers make articles of all sizes, from pretty little things, some of which they made us take away, fit for a lady’s work-basket, to great concerns holding any number of bushels of grain, and some six feet high. These latter are constructed so well that, placed on a wooden frame, grain is stored in them safe from ants and rats. Near us there were several fields being cultivated; maize and cotton were the most conspicuous. Outside our stockade, under the superintendence of the capitoe, the women and children used to hoe the ground and work away until the sun was right overhead, when they returned to spell for a bit. The maize is grown all year round, and also mipira from which the flour ava is made. In this primitive way a village lives owing allegiance to some chief, perhaps, until in the night, just before daybreak, the usual hour for an attack, a slaving gang burst upon them, and they see their place in flames as they march away to join the main body, which is being assembled some fifty or sixty miles off. As they pass through the village they see the men who showed fight lying dead or dying. A child, if too big to be carried, or likely to encumber the mother, is killed on the spot to save further trouble, and never again is the village occupied. We used to come upon these villages very frequently, and see here and there the remains of the huts, the rank mipira or maize, growing uncared for, and pieces of crockery lying about. The saddest, however, was to see the bleaching skeleton of a man or the frail remains of a little child.

One day we met a gang on the river bank, marching to the coast with ivory. They were headed by a rascally looking Arab with many folds of cloth round his head, and he had with him some dozen negroes, armed with flintlock guns. We only got a glimpse of the slaves, for although the Arab came and talked civilly enough to us, we saw they were keeping their party in the background among some trees. But we saw nearly two dozen slaves before they disappeared from our sight, all chained in single file with the goree on, and among them were women with little children. It was useless to show any feeling about it, but after we left them and went on with our shooting we felt as if the rest of the day was spoilt and we returned to Pimbi wishing we had sufficient numbers to go after the scoundrels and release the wretched victims toiling along with their heavy loads of ivory, malachite, copper, etc. The ivory galls the shoulder terribly after a few days marching and it is a common thing to see a man with the scars on his shoulders, if he has once been a slave.

The journey to the coast is a fearful tramp and the shocking atrocity that takes place is nearly incredible. We learnt from an Arab on the lake who offered to escort us by a route to the coast never traversed by white man, that the gangs travel as fast as possible from sunrise to sunset without a halt. At night a handful of ava and water is given to the slaves and in the morning they start again at first streak of day, one meal at night sufficing the wretched beings in the chains, iron neck rings and gorees. If a man or woman knocks up, he or she is cut down with a heavy sword or an axe and hardly stopping to hack the wrists off that confine the corpse to the chain the shuddering victims move on. We at first entertained the idea, but having a difficulty about getting our own men back to their homes, we abandoned it, and it was just as well we did from what we heard subsequently. It is improbable that we should have reached the coast alive. Along this particular route in 1880 upwards of 50,000 slaves from the interior are computed, at the very lowest estimate, to have passed in twelve months. We ourselves saw nearly a thousand in the latter end of 1879 preparing to cross the lake. Just imagine the frightful loss of human life to get the slaves to the coast, when only about 60 per cent survive the journey, and this is not taking into account the villages laid waste, and the lives lost in capturing the slaves. People often wonder where this large number go to. They supply the demand for labor on the clove plantations all along the East Coast, and the islands off the coast. Persia takes a great many and Arabia is another good customer. The Consul-General at Zanzibar, Sir John Kirk and the naval authorities on the coast, estimate that the small percentage of five is all that is captured on the high seas by the British cruisers, and for every one dhow caught, a dozen escape, and it cannot be stopped, except by going to the fountainhead and putting small armed steamers on Lakes Nyassa and Tanganyika with the power to release slaves by force. But it is a subject too wide to discuss at present. It is dreadful to think of the horrors that are being enacted at this very moment in Central Africa, and yet people listen in the most callous manner to the sad story of slaving in these regions while they warm up to fever pitch over outrages a little nearer home which are not quarter as bad.

Shortly before we met the Arab and his party we had landed and stalked some water buck and one that C. shot at gave us an astonishing proof of extra vitality possessed by animals in this part of the world. It received the shot just behind the shoulder at a distance not exceeding fifteen yards and turning round ran with the rest of the herd for half a mile before it fell. On getting up to it we found the bullet (a conical one) from an express rifle by Henry had not only penetrated the heart but had gone clean through and left a hole on the other side of the animal. This was only one of many similar cases and we frequently lost buck even when shot clean through the heart, by their running to cover where we could not find them.

Two or three days later after this occurrence we determined to hunt for a week away up the left bank of the river and to walk instead of taking the boat. Accordingly one morning we started very early from the stockade taking with us about a dozen men, some carrying guns, others provisions, our canteen and tent. We marched until midday when we were glad to halt under the shady side of an enormous “Boabab” tree and on it for the only time in Africa, we carved our initials and date with a tomahawk.

Shortly after leaving the place we sighted a small herd of Zebra and were both successful in our efforts to secure one. They seem so inquisitive that they allowed us to approach very close before it was necessary to creep on the ground, and then their attention was diverted by our men who standing still quietly waved a cloth around. The one C. shot was a fine grown male and the other was a young female, which furnished our “meat” for everybody that night. If we could have found any means of carrying the skins with us we should not have left them there, but our party had heavy enough loads as it was.

Just before camping for the night we shot a couple of Guinea Fowls which we were glad of afterwards for neither of us cared much for the Zebra flesh. It tasted very dry and we could not divest ourselves that we were making a meal of donkeys. Everyone has seen the Zebra in the Zoological Gardens and a description of them is unnecessary but the male seemed to us the most beautifully striped one of any we had seen.

At the place where we camped we were not half a mile from the river and close behind us commenced a dense forest of trees. Before it got dark a number of monkeys discovered our presence and commenced a most unearthly row. As far as we could judge their language savored of blasphemy by the way they jabbered at us when we hailed them to “Shut Up”. We never shot the little devils although a monkey according to some people makes a capital dinner. It seemed too much like killing defenceless children. One unfortunate white who tried to murder them lost his life by an accident which is probably unique in the annals of history. He was a German and ascended the Shire River about two years before we did in search of botanical specimens and to do some shooting in addition. He left the Blantyre Mission Station which he visited for a few weeks and went on his way rejoicing on the upper Shire. He was always shooting monkeys and one day he bailed a wretched victim up a tree. He fired at it with a double-barrelled shotgun and the monkey fell badly wounded out of the tree. Thinking it was not worth a second shot he clubbed his gun intending to knock its brains out and just as he was swinging the gun down, his companions and a few blacks standing by watching this, the poor monkey dodged and before he raised his gun again the little animal gave a melancholy cry and sprang towards the butt end of the gun to which it clung. Few men would have the heart to slaughter in such a position but the unfortunate man paused a moment too long before acting and the monkey clinging to the gun accidentally placed its paw on the trigger and the second barrel went off the contents nearly blowing one side of the man’s head off. He died a few minutes after and a message being sent to Blantyre, some of the whites went and buried him. We could never find put what happened to the monkey, whether it lived or died, but it deserved to live after making such an effort to save its own life. To finish the story it needs to be added that it was not want of meat which induced the luckless German to shoot at the monkey, but it was habit.

During the night there was a disturbance in the camp owing to a large snake attempting to make itself warm and comfortable with one of the men who woke up and was very frightened when he found what an unpleasant companion he had been aroused by. The snake by the description of the men who saw it was a small boa-constrictor about ten feet long and although its bite is not poisonous, still it can give the most unpleasant bites and squeezes. Dr. Stewart who helped to establish the Livingstonia Mission woke up one night and found a large Boa constrictor coiled on his body sound asleep. It need hardly be added that the Doctor was very quickly relieved from this unpleasant situation. We heard curious stories of the way Boa constrictors attempt to swallow sleeping natives. The slightest touch on the head would wake any native and besides he sleeps with his head on a pillow of some kind even if it is only a stone. The Boa constrictor would not find things so easy if it commenced at the upper end of a man. The wily reptile therefore commences operations by gradually swallowing the intended victim’s foot and quietly with -out inflicting the slightest pain it gradually moves on in its process of swallowing until to its great amazement it comes to the fork formed by the two legs and then is unable to proceed. If the negro wakes and has the presence of mind not to move all will go well, for the Boa-constrictor having discovered what the cessation of easy swallowing is caused by “Harks” back and slowly the hidden limb comes to light again and watching his opportunity the negro only has to jump up and clear off. We were told so frequently by different natives that we could see no reason to disbelieve them, that in places where these snakes abound, it is customary for the natives to sleep with one leg crossed at right angles over the knee of the extended one on purpose to foil any attempt during the darkness of the night. Cases have happened frequently where both legs have been taken into the jaws of the snake. The unconscious slumbering negro has never woke again in this world. It seems a horrible thing the stillness and the silent swiftness with which a human being can be swallowed alive by this African Boa-constrictor in the dead of night without ever waking up or having time to realize the position until too late. The tales we heard around the camp fire from some of the men used to sound at times as if they were idle inventions but we found afterwards that they were strictly true and on no single instance did we ever find the natives tell us stories about themselves, their customs and experiences which were devoid of truth.

We were up long before daybreak the following morning and rousing the men up set them to pack everything. While breakfast was being made the tent and valises were rolled up and by the time we had finished our pannikins of coffee and grilled bones of Guinea Fowl, the men had also got through their meal and the camp was a thing of the past as soon as we could see our way to walk. It was always the best part of the day for walking and more ground could be got over with less fatigue than by starting a few hours later, By the time the sun began to feel warm the longest part of the day’s journey was completed. About 10 o’clock we rested close to a number of small trees bearing a purple colored plum. As our men greedily devoured them we followed their example at first with indifferent success but found at length that not only was it necessary to remove the skin very carefully, but also the inner skin which tasted as bitter and nauseous as it could. One removing both of these skins without breaking the fruit to pieces, the part inside which surrounded the stone was most delicious with a flavor all its own. We ate a great quantity of the fruit when we found how good it was, and kept some of the stones to raise the tree out in Australia if possible. The wild fruit was always very good and by keeping our eyes open we never failed to see men eating something fresh in fruits or herbs and as a rule liking everything in this line that they did themselves.

Towards evening of this day we came across a solitary Manganja who told us he had seen elephants across the river on the previous day, and he had a tiny canoe hidden in the reeds on this side and finally we decided to cross over the following morning and try to find the herd, taking the man with us as a guide. We therefore set up our camp early and the poor Manganja had the greatest feed with tea and tobacco that he had ever had in his life.

CHAPTER 14

We were down at the river bank at a very early hour on the morning of the 25^th of September and surveying with some dismay the wretched little dug-out canoe that was to transport us all one by one across the river. To add to the discomfort there was a dense forest fog arising on the river and although we could not see them we could hear any number of our river enemies, the hippopotami. There was no other way of getting across so we were compelled to embark in the little canoe and after some anxiety caused by the difficulty of keeping out of the way of the hippopotami we were all safely landed on the opposite side. Hauling the canoe on the shore, the proprietor of which was to be our guide, we mustered our forces and marched off in Indian file, first the guide, then C. with his gun-carrier, then K-H and his man and the remainder including Alpeus all close up. We tramped along through the tall dry grass coming now to a stretch of cane break, then clumps of trees with “monkey ropes” hanging in thick festoons from them, and making the passage through troublesome, and then undulating country with numerous anthills until about mid-day we came suddenly upon fresh elephant “spoor”. This discovery animated everyone and we pushed on following the track which was very plain, stopping frequently at the taller anthills to climb up and reconnoitre with the field glass.

From the top of one of these mounds the guide announced an elephant feeding in the middle of the cane break beneath a large tree and we were immediately prepared to do battle with him. From the direction of the wind we had to make a wide circuit and we reached a spot at last from which we decided to stalk the elephant, who seemed from the last indistinct view we had of him to be sound asleep on his legs. Carefully we wormed our way through the cane break and at last rose with our guns to let drive at an anthill. There was some bad language floated about on the air for a few moments, but the mistake was excusable for the anthill, a good sized one, bore a remarkable resemblance to an elephant’s head and back. After this disappointment we walked on a short distance and sat down for a smoke on the edge of a dried up swamp. The natives with us began to complain for the want of water and searched all over the swamp to find likely place to dig but it was as dry as a brick.

The holes made in it by elephants when water was in it some months before were very, very large, great basin shaped cavities, where they had rolled in the mud to get some relief from the stinging flies and insects. Smaller basins were made by buffalo of which there seemed an immense number about, although we did not see any all day. We had no water and as we also began to feel thirsty thought it better to return to the river, which was some fifteen miles off. After resting for half an hour we started back and had not gone for a hundred yards before we came upon a porcupine which C. killed with his shotgun. The men apparently did not want the carcass so after taking a number of quills we left it. Close by here we entered a thick clump of trees and without the slightest warning came upon five elephants who in blissful ignorance of our close proximity were lazily flapping their huge ears and enjoying the cool shade of the large leafy trees. We immediately retreated to get on the leeward side of the herd and shinning up a small tree Alpeus picked out a fine bull to stalk. The grass was very tall and very dry, which made caution in approaching necessary. The slightest sound when everything was so silent might cause one of the great brutes to come towards us to see what the noise was, and then it didn’t follow that a wild rush at us might not happen, and when an elephant rushes at you, if you cannot depend on your nerves, it is unpleasant.

When everything was ready and some of our men crammed enough powder and iron balls into their gun to burst them we crawled on our hands and knees in single file towards the bull. K-H very nearly spoiled the stalk by toppling over into a hole from out of which he had to be helped. A long pause ensued, everyone holding their breath, but the elephants heard nothing and we crept on. When about ten yards from the victim who was standing a little apart from the rest with his broad side turned full towards me C. rose and planted a magnificent shot just behind his right ear following it up with his second shot behind the shoulder. Everyone rose and let drive simultaneously some firing at the same one and others at a rather small cow. The bull that C. fired at fell on his knees, got up again, and fell once more on his knees with his trunk extended. The rest of the herd turned and fled. Suddenly the natives gave a shriek and turning we saw an enormous brute we had not noticed before come from behind a tree with his trunk in the air and his wicked eyes flashing with rage. To say that we all ran would hardly express the manner in which we unanimously skedaddled. We flew from the presence of the awful apparition and the men scattered right and left. The guns were all unloaded and the elephant came forward so suddenly, and as we fled we heard the hoarse trumpeting of the elephant as it came after us, and the sound made us run even harder.

A ridiculous scene happened in the midst of the panic. K-H being a tolerable hand at running laid hold of the waist-band of a powerful negro called Paterina who raced past him and with commendable presence of mind K-H insisted on holding on. Paterina, terrified at being thus encumbered in flight attempted to slip his waistband but K-H lay hold of his wrist and with a kick on his native seat of honor ordered him to run. There was no time for argument and Paterina went off like a stag towing his unwelcome companion after him. We all worked well to the leeward and although we had re-loaded we were all separated and out of sight of each other, and the sound of the elephant as he crashed through the timber round and round the prostrate one made some of the party quake when it seemed to draw nearer and it was some little time after it had ceased before the first man and then another crept out from some of the dense thicket in the midst of which he had been hiding, or slipped down some tree he had got up into.

A “Coo-ee” soon brought all together and keeping a smart lookout we returned to where the dead elephant was lying. It took some trouble to convince our men that the other elephant was not getting ready to rush out at them and for a long time they refused to put down their guns. At last however they gave themselves up to the joy of a prospective feast of elephant meat afforded them and set to work with a will, hacking the tusks out with the tomahawks. We were all now feeling terribly thirsty but the natives found relief in a manner which we could not overcome our repugnance to follow. They made a large hole in the elephant’s belly and two of them who seemed to understand the elephant’s anatomy in a surprising way began to pass out water to their companions after satisfying their own thirst. The water had been in the elephant’s inside some hours so they said or it would have been fresher. Although they drank it nothing would induce us to do so, and we thought we could manage to hold on until we returned to the river.

It took a long time to get the tusks out and at last in an evil moment we consented to let our guide lead us further inland; a short distance off, he declared, a small river he knew of flowed into the big river. The men cut a quantity of meat off and took out the kidneys and with good loads we marched off with the tusks and the tail to the river the guide knew of. Before we had gone a couple of miles we came to a tree where a large quantity of honey was stored and obtaining permission for a halt the men proceeded to rob the bees. They took a quantity of dry elephant dung up to the tree and lighting it created a dense stinging smoke. They then, sitting in the smoke, cut into the hive with tomahawks and presently great pieces of honeycomb were in each man’s hand. The natives ate it very sparingly, warning us that we should find our thirst ever so much worse, but paying no heed to them we chewed the honeycomb and felt greatly refreshed though there were no means when we had finished to get the general feeling of stickiness off ourselves. Some of the honey was very bitter and unpleasant in taste and out of the same hive came delicious honey.

About four o’clock when we must have been nearly twenty-five miles from the Shire we came in sight of the little river and the natives ran forward eagerly to gratify their intense longing for water. We followed after and to our speechless dismay found the sandy river bed staring us in the face, as dry as it could be. The honey made us, as the natives had foretold, perfectly parched. We had crossed over the Shire about half past five, had been marching about on a terribly hot day up to the present without seeing a drop of water and with the evening coming on there was no possibility of reaching the river again until the next day. It is of course out of the question marching in the dark through forest and tall grass even if there were no wild beasts to consider this part of Central Africa. We didn’t swear, we were too dismal for that, but the looks all hands gave the miserable “guide” were enough to make him coil up his legs and die. After a moment’s reflection it struck us that sitting still would not bring water so we dispatched one party up the riverbed and another down to look if by some good luck a pool might be left. The men who remained with us commenced to dig, but after digging some eight feet gave it up, hotter and thirstier than ever, as not the slightest sign of water appeared in the dry sand. For ourselves we laid down under the shade of a tree and after seeing that it was useless making the men go on digging, waited impatiently for the return of our two water-searching parties.

In some two hours the party which had been down the river returned with the tidings that they had found water a sample of which they brought in a calabash. There was nothing for it but to drink it but of all the most horrible compounds this was the worst. As thick as pea soup and nearly as black as ink the stuff was of indescribable taste. Oh how we longed for the “ post and rails” of the sheep stations or even colonial wine. We left a couple of men to tell the other party to follow and pushed on for the pool as fast as we could but it was nearly quite dark before we reached it – and what a place it was. Wading through the accumulation of elephant, buffalo, lion, hyena and every other kind of wild beast dung we found the wretched puddle some four or five feet square churned by the nightly visitants into a mixture impossible to describe. The first thing was to cut wood for it was pretty certain that in a short time we should have plenty of visitors and fire would be our only protection. The party of men we had sent up the river soon appeared having found nothing and it’s amusing now to look back at the selfish feeling our want of water caused us to display. One of the three fellers went to a hole we had dug and into which the water was running very slowly from the pool and while we were busy superintending the building of some shelter he commenced drinking it, putting his head into the hole. Then another one came and when we went to our private water hole they had caused it to cave in and all our water was gone. We were very angry at losing the water we had intended for our supper but made another one at once. The taste of the water to this day gives one a shudder – it was so strong and intoxicating.

We began to feel very cold after the night had set. C. had on only a pair of duck trousers and a flannel shirt and his companion had on a blue jumper which he was wearing for the first time, the result being that his neck was as neatly skinned by the sun as could be. The enormous fires we kept up threw a lurid light on the scene. We had placed the boughs and dry grass under which we intended to sleep close up against the bank and in front of us, sitting between two large fires were the men, a third burning between the pool and ourselves. On sticks the men cooked the elephant meats and the two kidneys, one for each of us, furnished us with more than ample supper, in fact the remainder of the kidneys which we could not finish provided us with our breakfast.

After a smoke we extended our tired frames on the dry grass our men had gathered and tried to sleep but that idea was soon banished. In the far depths of the forest surrounding us came the low long sullen roar which made each reclining native sit suddenly bolt upright with a shiver. Lions were evidently going to be about and fresh fuel was piled on the fires while we thanked our stars we had foreseen this and laid in plenty of wood. A hideous laugh close at hand which made one’s blood curdle though it was only a hyena showed us that this water-hole was a regular rendezvous. Then on the opposite bank in the light made by the fires we could see several indistinct forms moving about. After a long silence, whenever the sound of the wind rustling the leaves and tall grass was less, a terrific roar which seemed to shake the very earth came from the opposite bank and it was impossible not to feel uncomfortable. The roar of a lion goes into you like a big drum when struck and when there is only a paltry fire to protect one in the dark even the boldest of hunters may be excused if they do not feel inclined to go to sleep. We did not. We sat with our elephant guns handy and smoked our pipes and by midnight we were listening to the most awful forest music which if we had been safe up a tree would have been simply grand. From every quarter of the darkness surrounding came the rolling roars of the lions answering each other and seeming to upbraid us for interfering with their drinking place. When they paused the hyenas kept the noise up and the different sounds and coldness kept us wide awake all through the night.

We heard some buffalo come to the waterhole and in a whisper the nearest native declared he could see them watching us but they would not come any closer to the fires and had to do without their drink. It is almost needless to say our men were as scared as they could be and in mortal dread lest the smell of the elephant meat should make the lions come to our camp. And so the night wore on until the last hyena had gone and a deathly silence with the intense chill in the atmosphere which foretells the near approach of daylight made us creep close to the fires and overcome by the fatigue and warmth we fell into a long sleep, broken occasionally by a sudden snort now and again as the cries of the night re-echoed in our dreams.

When we roused ourselves in the morning after the events of the night we found ample proof of the presence of the lions. Not far from the water hole were the remains of a good-sized buck which had been pulled down and its carcass very nearly finished during the hours of darkness. Attracted probably by the camp fires it had come close to us with a want of its usual caution, and had fallen victim to some lion that had had ample time to study our fires before the buck arrived. By the “spoor” the men judged that there must have been some ten or twelve lions round us during the night, while the hyenas and jackals were in troops.

The warmth of the sun revived us, and as soon as we finished our breakfast, which consisted of what was left of the elephant kidneys and some honey, we went off in search of another elephant. The water we had to wash our meal down with seemed more filthy than ever and it was a relief to chew tobacco to get the taste out of our mouths. Our course lay in a northerly direction, and we had some trouble with the men who put the guide up to leading us back to the elephant we had killed the day before, so that they might obtain a further supply of meat. At last we informed the guide that we should give him no calico if he led us to the dead animal, and we told our own men that we should not allow them to take any more meat if we did reach the spot again. We were hunting for big game, and did not intend to spend the day cutting up meat. We had a long tramp, taking good care to work towards the Shire, and at last we came to some thick clumps of trees about noon, in which we expected to find game enjoying the shade. We started a leopard from the thicket, but it bounded off like a cat before we had time to take a sure aim, and to hazard a shot only spoils sport if a miss takes place, everything within the sound of the report getting away as fast as possible. Not two hundred yards from the place where the leopard was resting we found some buffalo and C. who was in front killed a cow, the rest going off at top speed. Sitting on the carcass we were smoking while the men cut off strips of meat, when one of the men came and told us he thought a lion was close at hand in a large boabab tree which was close by. We went to the tree and down on the ground was a large hole through which a lion might easily pass and a serious muffled sound came out of it every now and again, and at last we fired a shot into it. Hearing no sound we put a quantity of dry grass in and set it on fire. The result was that a poor wretched hyena, who had intended to make the place his tomb, crawled out as mangy and miserable looking an object as it is possible to conceive. A shot soon sent him to his happier land, wherever it may be situated.

About half past one we struck a bee-line for the river, as we began to feel thirsty, and when we reached it late in the afternoon the men all threw their guns and loads down and, regardless of crocodiles, rushed into the water where they splashed about in their delight – some drinking out of the hollowed palm of the hand and others licking it up into their mouths. The latter manner of drinking looks very peculiar and reminds one of a dog lapping up water; it is the usual manner of drinking unless out of a gourd. For ourselves the waters of the Shire tasted like nectar, and we filled ourselves with it until we could swallow no more.

We had to travel some distance up the river to reach the place where the canoe was hidden in the rushes, and on our way we turned off to look at a curious phenomena. Two springs are within three hundred yards of each other, forming a large pool about a foot deep, the water trickling out of one of them into the river. One is quite hot and the other cold; the former is the largest and we waded into it in our long hunting boots, and were astonished at the warmth. A hot spring in itself is nothing wonderful, but the cold one bubbling up so close is certainly strange, and both of them are close to the river.

When we reached the canoe we had great trouble in crossing thanks to the ubiquitous hippo which kept chasing us. The process of going over one by one made it very tiresome, and some of the men had narrow escapes avoiding one particular fellow who kept in mid-stream waiting for the canoe to make an attempt to cross over. When a shot was fired at him he would go under and then come up again snorting with anger, but he was too far off to hit from the bank. Firing at them out of the leaky little canoe was out of the question, as it required the exercise of caution to prevent capsizing, the passenger and ferryman being too much of a load. Reaching our camp we were glad to hurry the evening meal and go to sleep in the tent again on our blankets which were all the more comfortable by contrast with the previous night.

Part V continues at PAGE6945