PART VI - CENTRAL PART LAKE NYASA
[November 1879]
CHAPTER 20
We stayed at this village for a few days as K.-H. was knocked over with fever and on the second day the village people, who had been very unfriendly came to regard us in a different light. First of all the older women followed our male visitors and at last a solemn and inquisitive number of ebony damsels used to sit nearly all day long in a circle looking at us. We had not brought anything from the camp with us, and therefore slept on the floor of the hut alongside a fire burning in the centre, and the villagers gave us fowls and the native ava. What we received from them with greater pleasure was baskets of maize and honey. The girls got very friendly and once four of them sat in a corner of the hut watching one of us lying half-asleep under the influence of quinine in large doses, and they laughed and chatted away as they got to know us better, growing more confidential and at last would examine the nature of the hair on our heads and the color of our skins.
C. was much amused at a very good-looking girl's actions who kept running her hand through his "luxuriant locks" and expounding thereon to her female friends. The third day we shot some buck and gave them the meat, and in the evening half the village assembled to serenade us. The songs all tended
to glorify the white man and the melodies they sang were rendered wild by the rude musical instruments with which they accompanied their chanting. On the fourth day there was, early in the forenoon, a great deal of running to and fro, and we were told that the neighboring chief belonging to the Ma Viti had found some pretext to make a descent upon them and was expected in the afternoon with his men. All of the women and children went away into the bush and a number of men with them, most of the latter remaining in the hopes of conciliating their oppressors.
We took it upon ourselves to announce that we should not permit any fighting while we were staying amongst them and in the afternoon sent a message to the enemy that they were only to come to the village as friend, we having decided to stand by our hosts. The end of it was that the chief sent word that he only wanted some calico, which he considered, was due to him and that he desired to be friends with us. These friendly assurances brought the women and children back shortly after the sun had gone down and our calm assumption of the position of protectors of the village for the time being raised us still higher in the estimation of our hosts. The chief put in an appearance the next morning with his men and after the usual courtesies had been exchanged his warriors went through a war dance in our honor. We squatted down on the ground in tailor fashion with our men standing behind us and alongside of us sat the Ma Viti chief, while the onlookers formed two lines on our right and left. About six men went through the performance which commenced with a warrior coming straight at us with terrific strides and while his left arm carried the well-known bullock hide shield, the right arm was raised in the air with a formidable assegai as if he were about to pin one of us to the ground. It required some composure to sit with a very stolid and wooden expression of countenance when this warrior threw his hand forward with a wild yell and the barbed point was quivering within a few inches of one's breast. The next man approached in a different fashion, jumping from the ground and lifting his right leg up high, with his knees bent, while in one hand he flourished a tomahawk and in the other an assegai. He was making a peculiar sound which seemed to come from the lowest recesses of his stomach when he came closer and closer. He leaped higher and higher, his voice getting louder and louder until with a shriek which is supposed to strike terror into the foe he made a spring at us, his eyeballs rolling and his face working as if mad with passion and whirled his tomahawk round bringing the assegai forward at the same time.
We expressed ourselves as greatly pleased though to tell the truth did not at all appreciate them making their feints at us and felt very much afraid an assegai might accidentally slip from the hand of one of the performers and go clean into our bodies. They kept the war dance up sometimes singly and
sometimes together all the while working themselves into a frenzied state until at a signal from the chief they suddenly ceased amidst the applause of the bystanders. We then gave them our performance which consisted in exhibiting our weapons and knives etc. and firing some shots at a mark with a revolver all of which were successful. Finally the chief came to our hut and had some buck steaks with us and then received a present of tobacco.
Tommy turned up having gone with one of the men left with the boats to the camp, and from the latter place he had followed us on to the village. Naturally surprised at his appearance, an explanation was asked, when he stated that so many lions roared around the boats at night that he had felt afraid. As he had taken Kwa-wa's place in charge of the boats without permission, when dispatched from the camp for rations, and had now left them with no one there, we were very nearly administering summary chastisement to Master Tommy, but for our anxiety to give no grounds for the missionaries to accuse us of wrongdoing should have done so. We contented ourselves with bundling him, back again with two men and giving him to understand that he had incurred our serious displeasure, and ridiculed him for his cowardice, though no doubt he did feel nervous. About midnight a negro is apt to start at the slightest sound.
A day or two after we were both bound back to the camp and while marching along suddenly started a lion who commenced to sneak off with his tail down. He did not travel nearly fast enough and he bit the dust, both of us firing together, C.'s shot being beautifully placed behind the shoulder. He was not one of the largest of his kind but he was a pretty fair specimen and we were glad to have the skin. C. remained behind to skin him with some of the men and decided to push on to the Lake as soon as he had done so, intending to reach the boats that night, but he failed to do so and had to light a fire and camp alongside it until daylight. His companion went on to the camp and reached it late in the evening. The men in the camp had just caught some fish which furnished us a very good meal after the few days living upon native food.
One day after at an early hour, K.-H. had had the tent struck, and had scarcely crossed the swamp and gone four miles, when the ague-like fits of the African fever came on, accompanied with vomiting. The stench of the decayed elephant meat which the men were carrying was overpowering, and the order for those with meat to keep well in front was totally disregarded. We never had a better illustration of the callousness of these men of ours, all of whom had come from the vicinity of Blantyre than on this occasion. When about seven miles from the boat the impossibility of going on much longer until the fever went off was amply demonstrated by K. -H. suddenly reeling and falling to the ground with weakness from the exhaustion brought on by the great pain trying to vomit. There was no water and the fever made one's mouth and tongue like hot bricks and the men refused to go and search for water. At length K,-H. was laid under a tree and the men were ordered to go on to the boats, Johnny and the bed-carrier Makalowsa only remaining. After trying to sleep without success owing to the continual interruptions of Johnny, who kept wanting to know when a start was to be made, the fever-stricken invalid got perfectly enraged with Johnny and ordered him to sit at the foot of the valise without daring to move. Presently Johnny commenced again, Two lions by bush, sir." °D— the lion," was the reply" didn't I tell you not to speak to me?" Then a five minute's pause and K.-H. tossed about on the blankets cursing everything in general. "Dem lion looking this way," said Johnny, "Ought to move" As a matter of fact two lions had moved away as we approached the place and Johnny never saw them at all. The obstinate negro was determined to make a move somehow and in an undertone directed Makalowsa to set fire to the grass on the windward side of the valise a little way off and a few minutes after the long dry grass was blazing and K.-H. was compelled to rise, but could only go far enough to get on the other side of the fire.
It is dangerous to irritate a man suffering from African fever at certain stages, and Johnny was fast wearing out the patience of the sick man. At length he became insolent and wanted to know whether they were staying all night and at last handed the quinine so carelessly to K.-H. that he spilt half of it on the ground. This was too much and he received such a crack on the pate from the butt end of a revolver that he commenced to swear in English and dance in his rage. Some tall talk about his returning blow for blow was effectually stopped by threatening to shoot him if he did not hold his tongue and sit quiet, and on being ordered to leave his gun on the ground he at first refused and fearing he was allowing things to go too far K.-H. had to cover him with his revolver to make the scoundrel obey. This blackguard as already stated was educated by missionaries, was taken to the Cape of Good Hope, and was about the biggest rascal in Cape Town. He was one of Captain Faulknor's servants when the natives murdered the unfortunate soldier and probably knew more about the affair than he pretended to.
About the end of the afternoon K. -H. was sufficiently recovered to start on, Makatowsa giving him a supporting arm; but it was dark long before the boats were reached and the light from the big campfires C. had lit were fortunately discernable a long way off. C. had also been ill and had spent a very bad night and when his companion arrived was still in a high state of fever. We had undoubtedly contracted this particular attack at the village where we had been staying and where we had been living upon very indifferent food. In the morning C. was very bad indeed and felt greatly weakened but towards the evening the fever left him quite suddenly. Old Kwa-wa always proved a most attentive nurse and we managed to pick up very much after a day or two of perfect rest on the shores of the Lake.
As soon as we had rested sufficiently to feel well enough to start cruising again we launched the boats and went along the western shore. Livingstone's description of Lake Nyassa is so vivid that it is well worth inserting here for there are no changes of any note since he first sailed on its blue waters. The great traveller writes:"
We pulled along the western shore, which is a succession of bays, and found that where the bottom was sandy near the beach and to a mile out the depth varied from six to eleven fathoms. In a rocky bay about latitude 11 deg. 14 min. S we had soundings at 100 fathoms. Looking back to the southern
end of Lake Nyassa, the arms from which the Shire flows was found to be about thirty miles long and from ten to twelve broad. Rounding Cape Maclear (where the Mission Station now stands) and looking to the southwest, we have another arm which stretches some eighteen miles southward and is from six to twelve miles in breadth. These arms give the southern end a forked appearance and with the help of a little imagination it may be liked to the "boot shape" of Italy. The narrowest part is about the ankle, 18 to 20 miles. From that it widens to the north and in the upper third or fourth it is 50 or 60 miles broad."
This likeness to the similarity both of this lake and Italy to a "boot is very apt, and though the more or less accurate surveys since made by missionaries, the Doctor has been a little out in some of his measurements, still the outline is marvellously correct. He noticed that the:
"white marks on the rocks showed that for some time during the rainy season the water of the lake is three feet above the point to which it falls towards the close of the dry period of the year. The rains begin in November and the permanent rise of the Shire does not take place until January. The western side of Lake Nyassa with the exception of the bay to the west of Cape Mac/ear is, as has been said before, a succession of small bays of nearly similar form, each having an open sandy beach and pebbly shore, and being separated from its neighbor by a rocky headland with the attached rocks extending some distance out to sea."
"The land immediately adjacent to the Lake is low and fertile though in some places, marshy and tenanted by large flocks of ducks, geese, herons, crowned cranes and other birds. In the southern part we have sometimes ten or a dozen miles of rich plains bordered by high ranges of well-wooded hills, running nearly parallel with the Lake. Northward the mountains become loftier and present some magnificent views, range towering beyond range, until the dim lofty outlines projected against the sky bound the prospect. Still further north the plain becomes more narrow until it disappears altogether and the mountains rise abruptly out of the Lake forming the north-east boundary of what was described to us as an extensive tableland, well suited for pasturage and agriculture and now only partially occupied by a tribe of Zulus who came from the south some years ago. These people ran large herds of cattle and are certainly increasing in number by annexing other tribes.
The land immediately adjacent to the Lake was the spot where we had been hunting and the "tribe of Zulus" has now developed in the powerful war-like and numerous Ma Viti people. Further in his account Livingstone says:
"Never before in Africa had we seen something like the dense population on the shores of Lake Nyassa. In the southern part there was an almost unbroken chain of villages. On the beach of well nigh every little sandy bay, dark crowds were standing gazing at the novel sight of a boat under sail and whenever we landed were surrounded in a few seconds by hundreds of men, women and children who hastened to have a stare at "chirombo" (wild animals). To see the animals feed was the greatest attraction, never did the Zoological Societies 'lions or monkeys draw more sightseers than we did. Indeed we equalled the hippopotamus on his first arrival among the civilized on the banks of the Thames. The wondering multitude crowded round us at meal times and formed a thicket of dark ladies, all looking or apparently with the deepest interest."
It will almost seem incredible that the "dense population'1 has within a comparatively short time since Livingstone visited them, entirely disappeared before the slavers. The poor wretches little expected that such a fate would ere long be before them and we read that:
"They are open-handed enough, if one of us, as was often the case, went to see a net drawn a fish was always offered. Sailing one day past a number of men who had just dragged their nets ashore at one of the fine fisheries at Pamalombe we were hailed and asked to stop and received a little donation of beautiful fish. Arriving late one afternoon at a small village on the Lake a number of the inhabitants manned two canoes and took out their seine, dragged it and made us a present of their entire haul. The northern chief Marenga, a tall handsome man, with a fine aquiline nose, who we found living in his stockade in a forest about twenty miles north of the mountain Kowirwe, behaved like a gentleman to us. His land extended from Dimbo to the north of Makuza Hill. He was specially generous and gave us bountiful presents of food and beer."
The chief was killed not many years after by Mponda whose village we visited just before we entered the Lake and whose wives, as related in a former chapter, entertained us. The numerous sites of villages and the broken pottery which we saw in November 1879 is all that remains of the "dense population" that Livingstone saw living at the place in 1861, only eighteen years before our visit. In that time the thousands of dwellers at this part of the Lake had vanished into slavery. We had had some difficulty with our men before starting, which had delayed us for one day. They all, with the exception of old Kwa-wa and Tommy, demanded to be paid the calico due to them up to date, a request which we declined to accede to. It was obvious that they had some reason for making the demand and we suspected that they intended to walk round the southern end of the Lake and reach Livingstonia with the man who had been lent to us. From our camp, Cape Maclear being in sight, it would take them about two days to make the march and they were hoping that, finding they were tired of hunting with us, we should go back to Livingstonia and send them to their chief. Such however we had no intention of doing. The guide started away, and with him went the two men who were supposed to be "hunters", and we saw no more of them until our return to Livingstonia. The rest, after absenting themselves nearly all day in the bush trying to make us believe that they had also departed, dropped in on the camp again one by one as the afternoon wore on, and the disagreeable reflection came upon them that perhaps their chief might punish them by deducting a yard of calico each from the amount already due to them, and as for Johnny, he should have a good thrashing at the first opportunity. In the course of the next day or two we found what a dangerous customer this fellow was, and we nearly lost our lives through him..
CHAPTER 21
We had a fair wind and sailed away from the spot we had camped at with a bright sun and a fresh cloudless sky, C. in the Portugal his companion in the Bella. We intended to reach the place where a chief named Mpemba resided and pushed on steadily, the men working at the oars and paddles as the breeze died away about mid-day. We passed about twelve o'clock several canoes, the natives in them visibly engaged fishing. They were Ajawa's men and did not seem at first inclined to be civil, but we landed at length among a crowd of them on the beach and lighting a fire got some dinner for ourselves. They gave us a few fishes, but we had very little appetite for them, from the stench caused by the quantities offish drying in the sun, most of them being simply in a putrid condition. They like them high and eat a dead fish washed ashore in a rotten state with great gusto.
After some conversation between some of the men and Kwa-wa they came and sat down with our men and as usual a friendly kind of feeling arose when we showed them the burning glasses, mirrors, etc. etc. They told us that their village was close at hand and that Mpemba's father lived in it. In reply to our enquiries after Mpemba we got nothing but what proved to be lies. They said he was away slaving, then they said he had been fighting with Ma Viti. When we asked what sort of man he was in his personal appearance they described him as a very little man, not everything in fact that they stated turned out untrue, though we could not see what object they had in view in telling us lies after we had informed them we were about to visit their chief. At three o'clock we made sail again and travelled through the water pretty fast so that about five o'clock we reached Mpemba's place. Just before landing C. shot some kind of waterfowl and we had a regular duck hunt after it. A large crowd gathered on the shore and amongst them was Mpemba himself, naked save for a small cloth round his middle, and with nothing to distinguish him from his subjects. It was some time before we were aware of the fact that Mpemba was present, for when we asked to see the chief they said he was absent, and a tall fellow with a long white calico cloak and much scarred from wounds stepped out and said he was the chief man of Mpemba. To his evident annoyance we did not seem impressed with the importance of his position and he was evidently "flabbergasted" at K.-H. calmly surveying him and everything else through an eyeglass. This latter thing the natives could never understand. However C. gave him a piece of bar lead and a plug or two of tobacco and we proceeded to pitch our tent on the beach. First of all we took the oars of the Bella, and making a square on the sand with them requested the bystanders not to come inside the margin. The Portugal anchored out in deep water, our men swimming on shore from her.
After they found we did not intend to trouble ourselves about them Mpemba stepped out of the crowd which must have amounted to considerably over fifteen hundred and stated that he was the "great man" himself. We greeted him politely and he then sat down at the door of our tent. He was a tall, powerful man with an evil countenance and shifting deep-set eyes. Leprosy was breaking out upon him and his lips were disgusting to look at from the same disease. But even if he had not been a leper his appearance was enough to inspire distrust. Every now and then he smiled in a sneering manner and passed some remark to his attendants who, immediately he revealed himself, were most deferential to him. This "gentle savage" who now sat with his heavy legs stretched carelessly out on the sand upon one of our bales of calico was by far the most blood-thirsty scoundrel we had had the pleasure of meeting and it was here that Johnny behaved in such a treacherous manner to us.
To conciliate him K.-H. poured out a pannikin of brandy which he offered neat to Mpemba but the latter intimated that he preferred to see the donor drink it first in case it was poisoned. This was done without hesitation and K.-H. with his eyes watering and his throat pretty raw then offered Mpemba an even more generous "nobbler". To our great surprise he insisted with a frown that this also should be drunk by K.-H. and the latter, annoyed at Mpemba's suspicions was about to refuse to do it when C. said “Drink it up or he'll insist its doctored”, and the unfortunate victim had to gulp down another and larger dose of more brandy. It was no sooner down than Mpemba stretched his hand out and taking hold of the jar assured us that we should have the jar back again in the morning. This act nettled us considerably but we did not wish to quarrel with him, and allowed him to take it. Indeed we could hardly have prevented him doing so. When he left for the night we gave him two bars of lead and a few other trifles, telling him he should have a present in the morning. He seemed half drunk on pombe when he first sat down and we began to fear that before the night was over the spirits he had taken from us would make things become slightly mixed. While we were at our evening meal, after he had gone, the crowds pressed upon us most uncomfortably, and were insolent to the last degree when requested to keep off. Kwa-wa did not like the aspect of affairs while Johnny disappeared up at the villages.
We had a foreboding that something was wrong and could not but wish we had landed further away from Mpemba. Towards midnight the wind, which had been rising, began to blow a gale, and the fine sand of which the beach was composed was drifting in clouds. There was just enough moon to see the big waves running in the Lake and the Portugal, which was fortunately under the lee of a sandbank, was dipping her nose in and sending up showers of spray. About daylight K.-H. who had been sitting on the beach on the canteen for the greater part of the night, saw the tent go clean away up in the air and disappear, leaving C. rolled up in his blankets underneath. The latter, as soon as he discovered that was wrong rolled himself up tighter and went to sleep again, putting some bales of calico to windward to keep the driving sand off. By the time the sun was up we had finished breakfast and the natives soon after came crowding down again. This time we noticed that a large number of them were armed with assegais, flintlock guns, and the usual bows and poisoned arrows. Why they were armed we could not imagine, but if they wanted a cause to pick a quarrel they got it quicker than they expected.
Johnny had turned up having been with Mpemba and when we enquired what the devil he meant he said the chief had been asking him what things we had in our possession. Not many minutes after this Johnny was insolent and received a slap on the head which made him furious. Then K.-H. went up to Mpemba with the "present a couple of blue shawls, some lead, brass wire, and a few other things. The villagers looked with some curiosity at K.-H. as he passed on his way to Mpemba's house and when he arrived at the chief’s he found Mpemba sitting on a leopard skin on a sort of raised balcony which ran round the building. For a moment a glimpse of a very fair woman as seen inside the main entrance, but Mpemba did not invite his visitor to enter the house, and the conversation was carried on, on the verandah. Presently a calabash with pombe in it was brought and from one end Mpemba took a deep draught, looked at his visitor, took another pull, then handed it to K.-H, with intimation that he was expected to finish the pombe. It wasn't very nice drinking after a leper like Mpemba but without pausing to ponder the disagreeable drink was taken. After showing Mpomba various things he noticed K.-H. had a revolver in a case on his belt and insisted upon seeing it. Extracting all the cartridges K.-H. handed it to him and he then desired to fire it. The refusal to give him a loaded revolver seemed to annoy him, and at length the interview ended, Mpomba saying he should come down to the boats and look at our things. In the meantime C. had taken all the guns to pieces and the men were busily engaged cleaning the fine dusty sand out, the storm of the night before having made the sand penetrate everything.
On the return of K.-H. to the camp an accident happened which was nearly the cause of our being murdered by the Ajawas and it was a narrow escape for us.
CHAPTER 22
Seated on a bale of calico C. was engaged cleaning a gun, talking at the same time to Johnny, who was standing on his left. Around us were a large number of natives, some of whom were amusing themselves by making what they intended to be insulting remarks about us. The author of the mischief, on return from the village, sat down alongside C. and taking the revolver lying on the bale in his hand, the weapon went off with the most direful results. The bullet crossed C.'s knees within an inch of his stomach, causing him to fall off his seat backwards with astonishment; and a terrific yell came from Johnny who dropped to the ground, the bullet having gone clean through the muscles of his left thigh making two holes the size of a sixpence, most unfortunately for himself a native was sitting on the other side of Johnny and the bullet went right through his heart out at his back close to the spine, and into the foot of another man. The most extraordinary thing was the fact that the native who had been shot through the heart jumped up and turning round ran some ten yards before he fell on his face.
As soon as we had recovered from our surprise we picked Johnny up, and never imagining that the bullet had travelled further began to feel whether any bone was broken. The natives around had fled from the spot and it was not until Tommy trembling like an aspen leaf, had drawn our attention to the native lying on the sand, that we found what a serious accident had occurred. Proceeding to the dead native first K.-H. was hoping that fright had made the man fall, but a tiny hole in the chest and back showed it was a case of death. We covered him over with a fumba and then had to cut the bullet out of the foot of the other man, the bones being smashed and the lead bulging out on the opposite side of the foot to the side it had penetrated. This wretched being was suffering from leprosy and his right arm and leg were disgusting to look at. We made a shade for him to lie under, and then giving Johnny some whisky, as he said he felt faint, told our own men to prepare for starting. With the exception of old Kwa-wa they swam off to the big boat and deserted us so that we were left in the lurch on the beach unable to launch the Bella and all our things lying about. The only thing to be done was to put a bold face on and K.-H. accompanied by Kwa-wa went away to interview the chief. At first Mpemba was friendly but the old scoundrel was only trying to delay for a few minutes. Of his own accord he remarked that it was “the act of God" being an accident, and he took up his gun (involuntary movement of his visitor) and pointing it at several of his people who at once cleared off, added "I shoot who I like and you have only killed one of my people; I do not mind.” Talking in this way he airily dismissed the subject and at last, seeing everybody running about armed K.-H. got suspicious and went back to the beach while C. was busy putting the things into the Bella, which however we couldn't launch.
Almost immediately after Mpemba's two head men arrived and forbidding us to attempt launching the boat commenced a violent harangue threatening us from time to time with tomahawks. The black-hearted Johnny informed us that he himself was "an Ajawa man" and that he meant to stay with Mpemba's people and we should have to pay him for the injury he had received. He used the vilest language he had picked up at the Cape in abusing us, and Kwa-wa told us he was inciting them to murder us. It seems strange that we did not shoot him on the spot but we were now in a regular trap. Mpemba demanded all our guns, all our powder and calico, and one of the boats as a white man who caused the accident to be delivered up to him and his warriors. We informed the head men that we fully intended to pay for the death of the native but we should not give them all they asked, and that their request for K.-H. to be left with them was simply out of the question.
On our right hand grew long, tall reeds and in these reeds were assembled some hundreds of armed men, some carrying muskets others assegais, and the majority the deadly poisoned arrows and bow. Now and again to intimidate us they would come out from their cover and sometimes as many as
one hundred men were surrounding us with uplifted tomahawks, poised assegais and with their arrows on the string. It may be imagined we did not intend to be slaughtered like sheep so we awaited their next move with our revolvers in our hands and arranged the calico and boxes so as to form a barricade with our backs to the Lake. To tell the truth, we really gave ourselves up, and so much so that K.-H, scribbled a few hasty lines in a book which he gave to Johnny, asking the latter to at least let the Livingstonia missionaries have it at some time or other. Through Kwa-wa we told the head men to tell Mpemba that we would treat with no one but himself personally, but for two hours Mpemba stuck out and threatened to kill both of us. He sent us a message that very recently he had murdered an Arab who had been paying him a visit and had taken all his things, women included. This we found afterwards to be a fact, the treacherous deed having been committed only a few weeks before our arrival. He said he saw no reason why he should not do the same to us, if he did not get everything he wanted and gave us until the sun was overhead to yield to him or take the consequence.
After some talking C. went away to the village, Johnny being carried on a litter to act as interpreter and after some trouble Mpemba agreed to see him. To the threats made C. replied that we should kill a lot of his people before we were killed and even the white men and our 'brother" whose name he had heard of - Rhodes, would come and kill him and all his people concerned in the murder. After a long wrangle C. returned to the beach where his companion had been anxiously waiting his return and said Mpemba wanted everything we had. This would not do and another hour or two was spent in arranging the price of the permission to depart. Finally we gave some bales of calico, six guns, a large number of beads, and two kegs of damaged gunpowder. This was in the afternoon and we had been standing about in the sun with an excited and bloodthirsty crowd around us from about half past six in the morning until four in the afternoon so that we were "full up" of the affair. We had no help from our own men, none of whom would come ashore, and we were indeed thankful when at last peace was declared. Men came and carried the corpse away and shortly after Mpemba gave orders for the leper to be knocked on the head with a club which was accordingly done.
Once or twice things had come very nearly to a climax. Up at the village C. had drawn his revolver more than once to avert what seemed a suspicious movement and down on the beach K.-H. had at one time a trying moment through the father or brother of the dead man coming at him to attack him. In the latter case, with many fierce cries, a powerful native tried to throw an assegai at K.-H. while half a dozen of the other natives hung on to his legs and arms telling him to wait until the chief gave permission. The only thing to do was to look unconcerned, while the sight of a revolver held in full view gave notice that someone else would die if any assegai was thrown. The most anxious time for both of us was when we were separated from each other and the knowledge that a shot or an arrow might come at any moment from the reeds added to the unpleasantness of our position. After all we did the best we could under the circumstances, and from what we afterwards learnt from the Arabs ought to consider ourselves very lucky to have escaped with our lives, when such an opportunity to enrich himself had offered itself to Mpemba.
We said nothing to Johnny until we got him into the Bella and there, drunk with pombe he went on with his abuse until K.-H. threatened to throw him overboard. If he had not been wounded he would have been well thrashed for his conduct. The rest of the men who had by their desertion prevented us launching the Bella lost some pay and so for the present this matter ended.
CHAPTER 23
The morning after the fatal affair at Mpemba's it was blowing and we had to get the boats onshore and pull them up on the beach on account of the surf. A number of natives turned up, subjects of Mpemba, and as they were all aware of the previous day's events, we were not at all pleased at our inability to get further away from there. To prevent Johnny talking to them in a solicitous manner we
made him lie in front of the tent and told Kwa-wa to prevent any of the visitors entering into conversation with him. His wound was healing very rapidly and we gave him jam, potted meat and chicken broth, so that in the event of anything going wrong we could say "we had pampered" the blackguard to the best of our ability! He found this course of living so pleasant that he pretended to be ill for a long time and was lifted in and out of the boats etc. until one morning C. looking out of the tent just as daylight broke about ten days after, saw master Johnny running about on the sand with the other men. About breakfast time, when ordered to fetch something, pain and misery appeared from his countenance to be his lot, and he feebly moved on his crutches to perform the order given. His surprise was certainly genuine when he was promised "rope's ending" if he didn't throw his crutches away and walk property. On his protesting that his leg was very bad he was told that if he could run about when we were not looking he could do the same when we were, and finding that we were in earnest, he threw up the sham and resumed work.
On 13th of November we were able to launch the boats again, the surf having gone down considerably, and we coasted along all day until at last we reached a lovely little bay under a promontory called Mount Rifu by the natives. The monkeys on the hill gave us a warm welcome and kept up their cousinly greeting until a late hour. No larger animals putting in appearance, neither did we hear any, and the place being very free from mosquitoes, we both enjoyed a most pleasant night's rest. We had some work the next morning getting round Mt. Rifu, the current setting strong against us, and the choppy waves became very disagreeable, tumbling into the boats every now and again in a manner which necessitated constant baling. After getting round Mt. Rifu we hoisted our sails, and sped along much faster, until a little past mid-day, when the wind fell light. Off a rock which starts up abruptly out of the Lake and which is marked on the charts as the Mpambe Rock we descried a distant sail and thinking it might be an Arab slaver we stood towards it out of curiosity.
A novel sight was presented as we drew near. It was an old boat belonging to Herbert Rhodes and in it were some ‘boys' who, tired of waiting for their master to rejoin them at the north end of the Lake, were bound for Livingstonia to seek information as to the time he intended to return. They were a fine strong lot and had sailed two hundred odd miles in about as crazy a craft as any that ever floated. The boat had been shattered by hippos some time ago and never repaired until these adventurous negroes had to use her. She was a clinker built boat some thirty feet in length and her planks were split here and there and covered with ordinary calico. In her starboard side was a hole nearly a foot square which was also covered with calico and they had to keep two men baling the whole time even while they hove alongside of us. For oars they had poles with pieces of board from boxes lashed on with palm leaf. A bamboo was the yard for a sail, the latter being made from a piece of calico, and the whole concern leaking like a sieve, made us wonder how on earth they had escaped foundering. Either the men were very plucky or they were ignorant of the danger they ran. They told us they had had no rough weather and a fair wind so far, and were afraid to land in case they were captured by the slavers. We strongly advised them to keep closer inshore so that if it came on to blow in earnest they would have some chance of getting in to safety. After telling them that Mr. Rhodes was at Quilimane or on his way to the Lake we left them, giving them some provisions and a letter for Dr. Laws explaining the affair at Mpemba's.
We were obliged to land about sunset to find a camp and found ourselves on the margin of a large swamp. We found a sheltered place inside a bank of reeds for the boats, and after getting through the surf which was rolling on the shore as if the waters of the Indian Ocean instead of Lake Nyassa were in front of us. We anchored them both. One of the rollers caught the Bella under the counter and slewing her round very nearly capsized her. As it was she gave such a lurch that K.-H. was thrown right out of her and, having to swim ashore got a thorough ducking.
This swamp is very large and is placed on the map as being opposite to the Mpambe Rock. It was very nearly impenetrable and we found it arduous work when we ventured into it in search of game. On the right the swamp was on fire and the wind blowing towards us carried smoke and flakes of burnt reeds right over our heads for miles, the fine black dust which kept falling proving a great nuisance. We found on examination that there was any amount of elephant "spoor" about, and the following day we killed two buffaloes, one of them after a hard fight, the brute making repeated charges after it ought by all the laws of sport and anatomy, to have been dead with a bullet through its heart. We never ceased wondering at the extraordinary tenacity of life shown by the wild beasts and very often we lost animals in the long grass and reeds, which had received a mortal wound, supposed to drop and animal dead in its tracks. As soon as sufficient meat had been obtained for present use we were off again after waiting until past noon for the surf to moderate. Coming out of the little cove C.'s boat nearly capsized and half filled with water, which she took over the bows, her build as far as buoyancy being something execrable, but we made a good day's journey and had some sport in the evening with a number if hippopotami. Before it was quite dark C. shot an Eland, and we had supper of his liver and enjoyed good steaks the next morning. While looking for "buck" we started a leopard and we fired at him and he rolled over, but getting up at once he dashed into a dense thicket and we were unable to find him. Seeing another we tried to track him, but gave it up after a time.
On 16th November, which was a Sunday, we had intended to rest, but thinking the wind was too favorable to be lost, we made a move standing well off the land. The wind got fresher and fresher until the Bella, out sailing the Portugal, we got separated and at last K.-H. who was in the former found that the Lake Nyassa waves were certainly equal to their reputation. With the rough sea the negroes got very frightened and they laid in the bottom of the boat shedding tears. At last it was advisable to get ashore before darkness came on, and the Portugal, making very bad weather got ashore some distance lower down. The size of the waves may be more easily understood by the fact that when running for nearly three miles before the wind it was necessary to guard against the boat broaching and the sail of the Bella at length was becalmed in the hollow of the waves, and on rising it would fill suddenly in a manner which threatened to tear the cleats out. The Bella however was always a good sea boat, but the other boat was so full of water that she sank, fortunately close to the shore, as C. was running for it.
When paddling along close inshore the following day, which was very hot and sultry, we spotted six or seven elephants on the rocks just before coming to the entrance to Lake Chia. We landed at once, and making a wide circuit, came upon them very quietly. They were just below our hiding place and were enjoying their bathing to the utmost, splashing the water over themselves and grunting in their contentment. We picked out a fine bull with handsome tusks and at the first discharge from our guns he fell on his knees. The others scrambled up the rocks and bolted into the scrub, one of them badly wounded. The one we had attacked first was too sick to climb up the rocks, and another shot or two at close quarters finished him. Cutting the tusks out delayed us nearly the whole of the afternoon, and then we had to push on to find a safe place for the boats. If it had come on to blow, the spot where we killed this elephant would have been very unsafe on account of the rocky nature of the shore.
About five o'clock we landed again having passed numbers of villages. The teeming population about here surprised us, and we noticed that an immense amount of fish curing was going on. The natives were all subjects of Jumbe, the Arab chief, who lived on the western shore of the Lake. Some of them were wearing their hair in a most fantastic style; a favorite fashion apparently was shaving the head on both sides and letting it grow from the centre of the top of the brow to the nape of the neck, very much like the blacking-brush arrangement on the helmets of Bavarian troops. Others had horns standing out stiffened with clay and grease. We noticed some of the women wore the hideous pelele in both the upper and lower lip, which rendered the dusky damsels less inviting than ever. The majority of them were in a state of nudity and were running in and out of the water in the warm afternoon sun; and then standing by us glistening like "patent leather" would chatter away in a most friendly style. When the pelele was not worn, it was possible to do a little mild flirtation but the loveliest figure was forgotten when the pelele was conspicuous.
In the twilight we started again to camp at some place beyond these villages and late that night went ashore about six miles below the island of Kota-Kota opposite to which Jumbe lived in a large town called Marienbe. The fact of our being there soon spread for on the following day large numbers of visitors turned up. We busied ourselves cleaning everything in spite of the multitude who never seemed weary of watching us. We had spread a sail on oars to make some shade and as the day went on it got very hot and sultry. The sand was so hot that, although the sole of a negro's foot is covered with a very thick skin, they had to keep walking into the water and every now and then, and borrowed things from our men to stand on such as the lid of a box, a piece of sail, etc. Only to watch one of these natives chipping away with a knife at the sole of his foot is sufficient to create surprise at the great thickness of the skin, but the whole time the sands were so hot that they were continually shifting from one foot to the other, just like a cat on hot bricks.
The heat seemed to increase during the afternoon tenfold, and about five o'clock C. was down with a bad attack of fever which had come upon him when it was least wanted. He was very bad during the night, and the shivering stage took a long time to pass off. Copious doses of quinine in water at last relieved him and we hoped it had passed off, but about daybreak the following morning he was worse than ever. This was the first bad attack of fever that C. had suffered and it pulled him down very much indeed. We had intended to reach Kota-Kota very early, but there was no possibility of moving C, until the middle of the day, and then he was lifted on to the Bella and laid on the bottom of the boat. It was a rather rough day and the plunging and rolling of the boat did not tend to relieve his illness. Old Kwa-wa followed us in the Portugal hoisting sail, the Bella thrashed through the water close-hauled until we rounded the point and passing between the mainland and the island of Kota-Kota into a stretching bay we came in sight of Marienbe, where Jumbe lived.
We saw some dhows half way down the bay onshore and we supposed that the Chief - or Sultan, as the Arabs styled him - lived close by, and accordingly we sailed straight to the spot. They soon saw us approaching and an immense crowd, far larger than any we had yet met with, assembled to see us land, and amidst the dark masses numbers of Arabs appeared in the little round white hats and long white garments they effect. The Arabs crowded round the Bella when we beached her, jabbering and gesticulating in the most energetic manner, and then marched us through the crowd after a few minutes delay in friendly procession to their chief. The distance was not very far and, as we drew near the sounds of music greeting us with a crash as we turned into the square facing "the Palace", showed that Jumbe had every intention of honoring us. We must have looked queer persons to the Arabs, most of whom had been in Zanzibar, and all of whom knew the flag flying from the mast of the Bella. C. was nearly staggering from weakness and bent like an old man while his companion arrayed in 'duck' which had once been white, had a face the color of blotting paper from the continual "peeling" on the part of the sun.
Two chairs were brought out with cane bottoms, evidently chairs of state, and placed in front of Jumbe who sat in a divan sort of verandah on a piece of green cloth, he claiming to be a descendant of the Prophet. We sat with him some time exchanging civilities and answering his questions relative to the health of our Chieftess as if we were in the enjoyment of constant personal intercourse with her Majesty. He was glad to hear that Queen Victoria was quite well and desired his compliments to be sent to her.
Young's description of Jumbe seemed hardly just. He did not appear to us to be the "miserable dissipated wretch" that the traveller found him and he treated us in a very friendly way. All the time we were talking to him the Arab band kept up a ceaseless din, and a number of Arabs danced in a slow, peculiar manner of their own. In appearance Jumbe was tall and very spare, high cheekbones and hollow cheeks gave him a rather spectral look, added to the piercing black eyes, and he had a very prominent hawk-like nose which seemed covered with parchment. His mouth was rather large, with teeth nearly all gone, and thin nervous lips completed his general "skinny" tout ensemble. He wore a cloth folded many times round his bald head and the wrinkles in his high forehead denoted age. His complexion was similar to coffee.
Returning to our boats we were accompanied by a very light-colored Arab whose name we afterwards found was Ahmourie Ben Hassan Ben Solom Burwani - long enough certainly! We always called him Ahmourie and found him a very good fellow. As his master's complexion might be likened café noir Ahmourie's resembled the color of cafe au lait, and he was fair indeed, much more so than most of our Portuguese friends at Quilimane. We received salt, by the way, from Jumbe when we first met him. A bowlful of grey dirty salt being held by a slave between the chief and ourselves. He took a pinch of salt and ate it, we following his example. An Arab is supposed to have sworn friendship after performing this ceremony! Jumbe made us a present of the bowl of salt which was a generous enough gift as salt is very difficult to get among these people. This salt came from some salt pans nearly three hundred miles away so Ahmourie told us when we knew him better. On getting back to the boats we sent Jumbe a present of blankets and some whisky, and then Ahmourie, stepping into the Bella showed us round to another landing place where we were nearer to Jumbe, and which was a safer spot for the boats. They made us pitch our tent in front of the entrance to Jumbe's house and assisted us in every way, in fact made every effort to show their friendliness and pleasure at seeing us. Both of us feeling tired we turned in early, but the mosquitoes were very troublesome. We were also kept awake by the hacking asthmatic cough of poor old Jumbe while every now and then a silent white-clothed patrol of Arabs would flit past our tent.
Early next morning we were roused by the strains of Jumbe's band which daily tormented us during our visit. The musicians consisted of two men with long horns which they blew incessantly without any regard to the rest of the performers, two drummers who banged away on big drums with drumsticks made of twisted palm leaves, two men with brass cymbals, a triangle and a small kettledrum. The noise made by the long horns was most discordant. To honor us Jumbe killed a bullock, his herd numbering just a dozen. As they are so difficult to keep alive on the Lake it was very generous of him. All his cattie seemed to be the same breed as Indian cattle, having a similar hump on the back. We were quite surprised at their good condition but found that each animal had two personal attendants.
As usual a large crowd watched us all day long, but the Arabs made the natives keep their distance, and one man who was coming to us through Kwa-wa suddenly got too familiar for Ahmourie's taste and the latter gave him a sounding slap on the face and ordered him to be gone. The servants of Jumbe cooked big bowls of rice for us, and never before or since have we seen rice cooked like it was here. Every grain was separate and as clear as alabaster and piled on the dishes looked like snow. The meat was cooked in little lumps like the usual Turkish style as kibabs.
About midday Jumbe asked us to visit his other house about half a mile off and accompanied by his headmen we proceeded there. Dinner was ready when we arrived and it consisted of rice and curried chicken, a separate course being served to the "unbelievers" which category we were in. As we had no spoons we had to follow the example of Jumbe and his Arabs and feed ourselves with our hands, but the bungling way in which we handled the rice created great merriment. The town was much larger than we had thought and probably six thousand souls live at this place. It is the principal place on the Lake for the slave trade and is also a depot, many hundreds sometimes waiting for the passage across the Lake. On returning to the tent we found a very graceful present from Ahmourie - a basket of sweet cakes of mysterious ingredients, bananas, and pieces of sugar cane.
We spent the afternoon buying curiosities and had great fun haggling at the price of things. We bought some ivory from Jumbe, which we afterwards sold at Quilimane and the bartering over a wretched hippopotamus tusk was sometimes very long. It would be offered in exchange for so much soap and after Kwa-wa had translated the price we would express astonishment and ask whether we were to go unwashed for the future, as all our soap would go at that rate. Then the vendor would propose to take a large number of handkerchiefs of various colors and on being pressed whether he had ten to twenty wives to whom he intended to give them, would confess he had none but wanted the handkerchiefs for himself. Then we would insist that one handkerchief was not only all the price the ivory was worth but quite sufficient to make him look a great man, and finally half a yard of calico and a piece of soap a couple of inches square would send him away a happy man. At other times we put on looks of injured indignation and wanted to know, through Kwa-wa if the person desiring to sell thought we were children or wished "to make fool" - the latter a favorite expression of Kwa-wa's. A drop would then take place in the amount of goods demanded for the ivory and at last the buyer and seller would be satisfied. Another dodge was the generosity one, asking a preposterous price and then on finding the offer would not be entertained for one moment the seller would insist upon making the article in question a present to the buyer, and amid a torrent of jabbering call upon his father and mother to bear witness to the sacrifice made.
Kwa-wa perspired freely under his arduous labors of translating and the excessive amount of "thinking" he was let in for, and getting dry, he kept on appeasing his thirst with rather liberal drafts of pombe, and at last became so drunk that his English was perfectly unintelligible. To many remonstrances he at last replied with idiotic laughs "Me no know" so we put him in the shade of the reeds on the beach with a heavy dose of jalop to cure him, and one of our men told off to see he came to no harm. Jumbe at last wished to buy some red velvet amongst the things we showed him and sent Ahmourie to purchase it. The latter would haggle away in buying until we either yielded or he had to return to Jumbe and come back to negotiate afresh. We had to go to Jumbe himself on several occasions and the chief would enter into the discussion and great would be the little pleasantries, pretended astonishment, and exorbitant demands or gross flattery to make one side or the other yield. The whole time a crowd of the tribesmen were crowding around and making the air suffocating with the "common herd" outside pressing upon them. Now and then we requested Jumbe to make them stand back. A terrific uproar would then ensue certain words uttered by the chief would cause them all to fall back a few steps and some of the head men, including Ahmourie, would yell and shriek and lay about with sticks, clouting everybody in the most impartial manner over the head and shins until the crowd fled howling to a safe distance. In a few minutes they drew nearer and presently it was as bad as ever, and old Jumbe would pretend to go mad with rage and the scene of the uproar would take place again. We found everyone begging for soap and all sorts of tricks were tried to obtain it, such as asking to see the stuff and then trying to beg a small piece. If a native gets a piece of soap he hies him away to the edge of the water and soaps himself from head to foot until he is in a white lather and he continues to rub away until the soap is all gone. He thinks it incumbent on him to exhaust every particle of the piece at one operation.
During the evening of this first day we spent at Jumbe's place, the Arab band kept in full swing and Arabs of all ages went round and round in a large circle like children, shuffling their feet with a peculiar sidelong motion and keeping up the most comical expression of countenance. They pursed their lips tight and drew down the corners of their mouths, and craned forwards as they shuffled around. It was by no means a gentle exercise for they persuaded us to join in and their delight was great when they saw the Englishmen showing signs of getting warm after a few rounds. They were always dancing this dance and Ahmourie said the exercise kept all the Arabs - young and old - in good health. Every one of them wore a long white robe like a nightdress and a little round white hat.
Jumbe's eldest son, and the Chief Hunter - the latter a sort of Cabinet Minister - danced a duetto for our special delectation, bearing the Swords of State in their hands and it looked very graceful. The young Jumbe was about fourteen or fifteen years of age, and was a very mild-looking boy, and the Chief Hunter was a big surly looking man of decidedly negro birth. They danced in steps of slow swinging cadence right up to the band where they waved their swords and gradually retired to the spot where Jumbe, with fond looks upon his son, was sitting. The backward steps were very curious and when they had got to Jumbe's seat they turned round and saluting him, retired. After this dance Jumbe told us he was delighted to see us, etc, etc, and to show friendship would one of us dance the dance of state with him. C. was weak and already lying down and the duty fell upon K.-H. who, after a long expostulation agreed to dance which was greeted with loud applause by all present. Jumbe put a long faded red robe of Persian manufacture upon his white partner, and putting clogs on his own feet, proceeded to dance, both of the dancers holding swords. It was a sight which made poor C. sick in bed nearly die from laughing. Jumbe's brown skinny heels on top of the clogs and K.-H. with heavy jack-boots up to his knees. The dance went on very well until the starting point was nearly reached, both the dancers were doing a backward step to slow music when K.-H. tripped over his long robe, and trying to make a recovery, his heavy nailed boots came down on Jumbe's fleshless feet with cruel force and, knocking him clean off his sandals the poor old gentleman, with a loud groan, hobbled back to his seat grinding his teeth with the pain and anguish. But his dignity soon returned and he was quite pleasant as he sat and talked in the twilight, though the way he nursed his foot proved it had hurt him.
All this time C. was again bad with fever and after a time he tried to sleep, but the band was too effectual an instrument of torture for European ears for him to succeed, We had some beef for our tea, thanks to the chief, and he sent us plenty of rice. And as he got to know us better he enjoyed having pannikins of tea at our meals immensely. As he suffered from a bad cough we gave him this night a bottle of Dr. Collis Browne's Chlorodyne and full instructions how he was to use it. He was perfectiy astonished at the relief it gave him and his gratitude was very great. It is only fair to add that we found in Dr. Collis Browne's preparation the best friend we had while we were in Africa.
CHAPTER 24
The morning after Jumbe had used the chlorodyne he was fully convinced that we were regular "medicine men" and he insisted upon our "doctoring" the whole of the inmates of his harem, we accordingly marched off to another part of town and after walking through plantations of sugar cane and palms we were ushered in to a large square courtyard surrounded on three sides by the dwelling rooms and on the other by a high bamboo fence. A very large brazen bowl was produced by our orders and filled with water and into it we emptied a bottle of chlorodyne, and putting some sugar in stirred the mixture up. To us entered some forty children of all ages, the begotten of Jumbe's loins and each was placed in his turn in front of the white men, and made to drink half a pannikin of the medicine. They all, down to the very youngest unable to walk, liked it and we had to brew another big bowl for the ladies of the harem to whom Jumbe did not introduce us. We got rather nervous about the chiefs fondness for chlorodyne in case he took a whole bottleful at one dose, and again and again impressed upon him through Kwa-wa that a big dose would kill him. He nearly exhausted our stock and it really was nothing to be surprised at for he was a perfect martyr to his asthmatic cough, and the relief was most grateful. On our return to our tent our fame as "medicine men" had been spread abroad and we had to eat our dinner surrounded by the most loathsome diseases and objects. One man would want a sore leg cured, another a sloughing cancer; one woman was unable to move from elephantiasis and the number of lepers was great. The latter are very disgusting when the disease is in an advanced state and we did not care much for their presence. We did all we could for them, and where we knew our service was useless we could only promise to let a white man "Dr. Laws", know there was "plenty sickness, Kota-Kota". In most cases we recommended careful cleansing of the sores and gave away lint, ointment, etc. Ophthalmia was very prevalent also and similar afflictions. We were hardly surprised at the amount of disease for the filth at Mariemba is excessive. The place looks as if Jumbe had gone in for the sewerage business on a large scale. With the thousands living here and no attention whatever being paid to the sanitary arrangements the state of affairs can be better imagined than described. Even the edge of the shore was so foul that we sent a boat well out into the Lake to fetch water in for our drinking purposes.
Every night Ahmourie and the Arabs would come and sit with us while tea was prepared and Jumbe always joined us after the drinking of tea had started. Kwa-wa and Tommy had plenty of boiling water all the time for making fresh tea. As the chief was, or pretended to be a strict Mussulman neither he nor his co-religionists would put the cup or pannikin to their lips after unbelievers and they therefore ladled the tea out with wooden scoops of their own until we gave Jumbe an unused spoon which delighted him immediately. This strictness however was rather palpable humbug for though they would not eat our fowl fried in bacon fat in the frying pan; they ate pancakes made in the same fat and were always ready for "grog". There was a great run on our scones and they used to sit around the fire eating them piping hot, as fast as we made them. We made Jumbe a present of tea, for we had more than enough for ourselves and we also gave some to our friend Ahmourie.
C. found it difficult work sleeping in the tent for after our second night Arabs celebrated all through the night one of their feasts and it was perfectly impossible to sleep with the discordant noise going on all around us. The band played and the dancing was maintained every night alongside the tent. As for K.-H. he preferred sleeping in the big boat which was not however very safe for the heavy poisonous mists in the morning made the blankets over him wringing wet by the time he woke up. On Friday morning, the 31st November, C. was very much better but still unable to rise from his bed. K.-H. went with Jumbe, Ahmourie, and two of the Chief Hunters on the Bella across to the island of Kota-Kota on the eastern side of the bay where Jumbe said we should find any number of hippopotami. Landing, a long walk ensued, Jumbe with his long skinny legs striding along in style over the sand which soon pumped his companions. We had a long search but although we came across plenty of fresh "spoor” we met no animal. We came across four or five naked women in one of the swamps looking for some kind of weed from which they made the stuff to be worked into native rope for fishing. Soon after we met their lords and masters very busy hauling in a net to the shore and Jumbe commanding a halt stood still and waited for the result of their labors. After a brief inspection he confiscated all those worth having and our attendants being loaded with fresh fish we departed. He gave the largest and best to us and they were very nice to eat. By the time we returned it was mid-day and Jumbe finding C. better, prevailed on us to go up to his other house for dinner, which we did. This time we had popped teaspoons into our pockets and when the curried fowl and rice was produced we pulled our weapons out mid the laughter of the Arabs. To our surprise Jumbe at the same
time produced from the folds of his garments a couple of large tablespoons and handing them to us intimated that they were a present. We thought it a very polite action on his part remembering the difficulty we were placed in on the previous day.
We had a long talk about the filthy state of the town but Jumbe wanted to know whether animals were different to men; and gave us to understand that he was most careful in the prevention of disease. When any infectious disease broke out he usually bundled the sufferer out of the place to a hut some way off and the invalid remained a close prisoner until cured. Some of the chiefs a little further off had such a dread of contagious diseases that they adopt very stringent measures for its confinement to one spot. When a fever breaks out in any of the villages not far from Jumbe's territory it is frequently surrounded by a large force and the place is set fire to and every single being is massacred. This is more especially done in the Matabele country where diseases introduced by Europeans have sometimes scourged thousands of the tribe. Up at one place Jumbe showed us his guns and in addition to his innumerable flintlocks he had a number of muzzle-loading percussion-cap guns of the Tower brand, but he complained that he found it difficult to get the caps and he was always running short. He had a beautiful double-barrelled fowling piece, inlaid with silver, and made in London a good many years ago, while among other things that he greatly valued were two ancient-looking horse pistols with flints, which dated back to the middle of last century.
In the course of conversation he mentioned that he intended to visit Zanzibar in about "two moons" and offered to convoy us thither, which at the time seemed a very tempting offer, if we could only have sent our men back to their own chief on the Shire River, which however was out of the question. We should have travelled along the great highway for the slaves and gained a valuable amount of information respecting this inhuman traffic. All the time we had been staying with the Chief we had seen nothing very open in the way of slaves, but on the very evening that Jumbe offered to escort us to the coast an Arab came outside our tent, where the English flag was flying, and stood there with a miserable wretched slave wearing a heavy goree one end of which the owner held up while he cried out in Ajawa so that our men could inform us of what he was saying, something to the effect that "no one could touch him or his slaves etc. etc", and finally ended by making signs of contempt for the English flag, which did not affect us in the slightest degree, and what was more important did not appear to cause Jumbe any concern. We were always just a little bit on our guard with the Chief, for once he played some of the Livingstonia people a very dirty trick when they first visited him. In the middle of the night a raging mob seized everything and Jumbe declared he was frightened for his life and did not dare to restrain them they were beyond his control, and if the whites showed fight it would end in a general massacre, including him. This was Jumbe's yarn and the next day when order was supposed to be restored Jumbe returned about a fiftieth of the stolen things and maintained his inability to recover anything more, though the missionaries found the old rascal had got nearly everything himself.
CHAPTER 25
During our stay at Kota-Kota we had the opportunity of seeing what the slave trade was, for Jumbe does a very large business in it. The first slaves we saw were some who had been waiting some weeks for a caravan to be formed, when they would proceed to Kilwa on the coast, carrying ivory and other merchandise, after which they themselves would be sold to the traders. It was a Sunday morning. Jumbe had not put in an appearance and until noon we saw nothing of Ahmourie. Some of the Arabs of lower degree wanted to buy and sell but, assuming a virtue which neither of us really possessed, we declined business because it was the Lord's Day. We rather taken aback when one of the Arabs, a man whom we named, Usi, from his continual worrying for thread to sew with, that being the word he used in his demand, asked us if the Sunday was "our religious day when we worshipped God" and our answering in the affirmative, he wished to know whether it would not be as well if we put on "clean clothes" and otherwise show some outward and visible sign in honor of the Almighty. Our linen trousers and coats were decidedly stained and dirty and we had to acknowledge the force of the remarks made by the Arabs and telling them that they were quite right we put on clean clothes and made ourselves look a little more presentable. From Usi we at last learnt that Jumbe, Ahmourie, and the rest of the leading men were away at the Chiefs other place, buying slaves from a number of Ma Viti men who had just brought a good many in for sale. We were anxious to see the traffic in slaves and told Usi as much, but that sapient individual shook his head and said Jumbe would be very angry if he thought we knew anything about it, and as a matter of fact it appeared that Usi had been told off to watch us, and not to let us know anything, but the old fellow's love of gossip let the information out. Of course all the conversation was carried on through Kwa-wa and the latter told us that he believed a large number of slaves were in a stockade on the other side of town. This he had learnt by the remarks of the bystanders while we were talking to Usi.
When Ahmourie at last arrived we asked him point blank to take us to the place where the slaves were being bought. The request disturbed him very much and he begged us as a friend not to think of asking such a thing. However we were obstinate and declared that if he would not ask Jumbe's permission we would send Kwa-wa direct to the Chief to ask whether we might see the slaves. ‘But you are English’ was Ahmourie's cry and it seemed to him an absurd thing that an Englishman could look on at any man being a slave. Of course Ahmourie had never heard of Queensland or Kanakas and thought we should feel compelled to interfere. It took a long time to convince our friend that it was merely curiosity, nothing but a desire to see the business that made us urge him so, and at length he consented to ask Jumbe's permission. After the Chief had arrived and squatted down on his mat we put him in a good humor with some tea and scones and then sent Ahmourie direct from the tent across the square to ask the question. The anger of Jumbe was most marked, his eyes flashed, and he commenced to rave at his own people and to judge from Ahmourie's face he was threatening the latter for having made such a request. Seeing that the old man was working himself up into a passion, we thought it would be a good move to go and sit down by him and talk the matter out, and accordingly we sat down close to him with Kwa-wa, who was weeping copiously and telling us that Jumbe would now "make war" upon us.
Through our lachrymose interpreter we desired to know from Jumbe what was the cause of his wrath and why his heart changed towards us. Jumbe at length stated that he had treated us kindly as far as he could and he was glad to see us. He didn't ask us our business on the Lake, and he didn't interfere with us. Why therefore should we interfere with him, and in addition insult him. Then we asked him in what manner had we insulted him and he replied that he thought it an insult our asking to see the slaves, when everybody knew Englishmen would not allow it. After this part of the conversation had been arrived at, Jumbe had cooled down considerably and then we explained that we were merely two inquisitive travellers. We agreed that Englishmen did not permit slavery by their laws, and our great Chief Queen Victoria punished all who were caught doing it. As for the men o' war on the coast, they had to do what they were ordered to do and if Jumbe and his friends suffered by their actions well, we couldn't help it. After persuading him that we had a great regard for him himself, and knew that he treated his slaves well, he at last yielded and we got his permission to see some of the slaves.
Ahmourie took us away to a house about a quarter of a mile off and then in the yard behind showed us something like a dozen men sitting on the ground each wearing a goree. The captives were sullen-looking and glanced up at us with surprise when we entered. They were well fed and comfortable looking and in fact, looked in such good condition, that we began to suspect that a fraud was being played on us. “These slaves" we said to Ahmourie "are not the kind we mean! Show us the lean ones. the men with wounds, the women and little children, the slave you have been buying from the Ma Viti.” But Ahmourie would not take us anywhere else without Jumbe's permission and we returned very discontented. On our meeting the Chief wanted to know whether we were now satisfied and we informed him that we considered ourselves very badly treated. He had promised to show us his slaves and all we were permitted to see were some men who were fat and happy looking and for aught we knew were not slaves at all. We put on an aggrieved air, and said we wanted to see slaves, and by taking this course he promised after a long deliberation with his head men to let us look on at the purchasing of slaves on the morrow.