How I Found Livingstone, Henry M. Stanley [best fantasy books to read txt] 📗

when they had passed these, they came to a city in

which all the inhabitants were of the same size as their conductors,

and black in colour: and by the city flowed a great river, running

from the west to the east, and that crocodiles were seen in it.”

Thus far I have set forth the account of Etearchus the Ammonian;

to which may be added, as the Cyrenaeans assured me, “that he said

the Nasamonians all returned safe to their own country, and that

the men whom they came to were all necromancers.” Etearchus also

conjectured that this river, which flows by their city, is the Nile;

and reason so evinces: for the Nile flows from Libya, and intersects

it in the middle; and (as I conjecture, inferring things unknown

from things known) it sets out from a point corresponding with the

Ister. For the Ister, beginning from the Celts, and the city of

Pyrene, divides Europe in its course; but the Celts are beyond

the pillars of Hercules, and border on the territories of the

Cynesians, who lie in the extremity of Europe to the westward;

and the Ister terminates by flowing through all Europe into the

Euxine Sea, where a Milesian colony is settled in Istria. Now

the Ister, as it flows through a well-peopled country, is generally

known; but no one is able to speak about the sources of the Nile,

because Libya, through which it flows, is uninhabited and desolate.

Respecting this stream, therefore, as far as I was able to reach by

inquiry, I have already spoken. It however discharges itself into

Egypt; and Egypt lies, as near as may be, opposite to the

mountains of Cilicia; from whence to Sinope, on the Euxine Sea,

is a five days’ journey in a straight line to an active man; and

Sinope is opposite to the Ister, where it discharges itself into

the sea. So I think that the Nile, traversing the whole of Libya,

may be properly compared with the Ister. Such, then, is the

account that I am able to give respecting the Nile.

***

<end of Herodotus’s account)

***

2. Webb’s River must be traced to its connection with some portion

of the old Nile.

 

When these two things have been accomplished, then, and not till

then, can the mystery of the Nile be explained. The two countries

through which the marvellous lacustrine river, the Lualaba, flows,

with its manifold lakes and broad expanse of water, are Rua (the

Uruwwa of Speke) and Manyuema. For the first time Europe is made

aware that between the Tanganika and the known sources of the Congo

there exist teeming millions of the negro race, who never saw, or

heard of the white people who make such a noisy and busy stir

outside of Africa. Upon the minds of those who had the good

fortune to see the first specimen of these remarkable white races

in Dr. Livingstone, he seems to have made a favourable impression,

though, through misunderstanding his object, and coupling him with

the Arabs, who make horrible work there, his life was sought after

more than once. These two extensive countries, Rua and Manyuema,

are populated by true heathens, governed, not as the sovereignties

of Karagwah, Urundi, and Uganda, by despotic kings, but each

village by its own sultan or lord. Thirty miles outside of their

own immediate settlements, the most intelligent of these small

chiefs seem to know nothing. Thirty miles from the Lualaba, there

were but few people who had ever heard of the great river. Such

ignorance among the natives of their own country naturally

increased the labours of Livingstone. Compared with these, all

tribes and nations in Africa with whom Livingstone came in contact

may be deemed civilized, yet, in the arts of home manufacture,

these wild people of Manyuema were far superior to any he had

seen. Where other tribes and nations contented themselves with

hides and skins of animals thrown negligently over their shoulders,

the people of Manyuema manufactured a cloth from fine grass, which

may favorably compare with the finest grass cloth of India. They

also know the art of dy/e/ing them in various colours—black, yellow,

and purple. The Wangwana, or freedmen of Zanzibar, struck with

the beauty of the fabric, eagerly exchange their cotton cloths

for fine grass cloth; and on almost every black man from Manyuema

I have seen this native cloth converted into elegantly made damirs

(Arabic)—short jackets. These countries are also very rich in ivory.

The fever for going to Manyuema to exchange tawdry beads for its

precious tusks is of the same kind as that which impelled men to go

to the gulches and placers of California, Colorado, Montana, and

Idaho; after nuggets to Australia, and diamonds to Cape Colony.

Manyuema is at present the El Dorado of the Arab and the Wamrima

tribes. It is only about four years since that the first Arab

returned from Manyuema, with such wealth of ivory, and reports

about the fabulous quantities found there, that ever since the

old beaten tracks of Karagwah, Uganda, Ufipa, and Marungu have

been comparatively deserted. The people of Manyuema, ignorant

of the value of the precious article, reared their huts upon

ivory stanchions. Ivory pillars were common sights in Manyuema,

and, hearing of these, one can no longer, wonder at the ivory

palace of Solomon. For generations they have used ivory tusks

as door-posts and supports to the eaves, until they had become

perfectly rotten and worthless. But the advent of the Arabs

soon taught them the value of the article. It has now risen

considerably in price, though still fabulously cheap. At

Zanzibar the value of ivory per frasilah of 35 lbs. weight

is from $50 to $60, according to its quality. In Unyanyembe

it is about $1-10 per pound, but in Manyuema, it may be

purchased for from half a cent to 14 cent’s worth of copper

per pound of ivory. The Arabs, however, have the knack of

spoiling markets by their rapacity and cruelty. With muskets,

a small party of Arabs is invincible against such people as

those of Manyuema, who, until lately, never heard the sound of

a gun. The discharge of a musket inspires mortal terror in them,

and it is almost impossible to induce them to face the muzzle

of a gun. They believe that the Arabs have stolen the lightning,

and that against such people the bow and arrow can have little

effect. They are by no means devoid of courage, and they have

often declared that, were it not for the guns, not one Arab would

leave the country alive; this tends to prove that they would

willingly engage in fight with the strangers who had made

themselves so detestable, were it not that the startling explosion

of gunpowder inspires them with terror.

 

Into what country soever the Arabs enter, they contrive to render

their name and race abominated. But the mainspring of it all is

not the Arab’s nature, colour, or name, but simply the slave-trade.

So long as the slave-trade is permitted to be kept up at Zanzibar,

so long will these otherwise enterprising people, the Arabs,

kindle gainst them the hatred of the natives throughout Africa.

 

On the main line of travel from Zanzibar into the interior of

Africa these acts of cruelty are unknown, for the very good

reason that the natives having been armed with guns, and taught

how to use those weapons, are by no means loth to do so whenever

an opportunity presents itself. When, too late, they have perceived

their folly in selling guns to the natives, the Arabs now begin

to vow vengeance on the person who will in future sell a gun to

a native. But they are all guilty of the same mistake, and it is

strange they did not perceive that it was folly when they were

doing so.

 

In former days the Arab, when protected by his slave escort, armed

with guns, could travel through Useguhha, Urori, Ukonongo, Ufipa,

Karagwah, Unyoro, and Uganda, with only a stick in his hand; now,

however, it is impossible for him or any one else to do so. Every

step he takes, armed or unarmed, is fraught with danger. The

Waseguhha, near the coast, detain him, and demand the tribute,

or give him the option of war; entering Ugogo, he is subjected

every day to the same oppressive demand, or to the fearful alternative.

The Wanyamwezi also show their readiness to take the same advantage;

the road to Karagwah is besieged with difficulties; the terrible

Mirambo stands in the way, defeats their combined forces with ease,

and makes raids even to the doors of their houses in Unyanyembe;

and should they succeed in passing Mirambo, a chief—Swaruru—

stands before them who demands tribute by the bale, and against

whom it is useless to contend.

 

These remarks have reference to the slave-trade inaugurated in

Manyuema by the Arabs. Harassed on the road between Zanzibar and

Unyanyembe by minatory natives, who with bloody hands are ready

to avenge the slightest affront, the Arabs have refrained from

kidnapping between the Tanganika and the sea; but in Manyuema,

where the natives are timid, irresolute, and divided into small

weak tribes, they recover their audacity, and exercise their

kidnapping propensities unchecked.

 

The accounts which the Doctor brings from that new region are most

deplorable. He was an unwilling spectator of a horrible deed—a

massacre committed on the inhabitants of a populous district who

had assembled in the market-place on the banks of the Lualaba, as

they had been accustomed to do for ages. It seems that the

Wamanyuema are very fond of marketing, believing it to be the

summum bonum of human enjoyment. They find endless pleasure in

chaffering with might and main for the least mite of their currency—

the last bead; and when they gain the point to which their peculiar

talents are devoted, they feel intensely happy. The women are

excessively fond of this marketing, and, as they are very beautiful,

the market place must possess considerable attractions for the male

sex. It was on such a day amidst such a scene, that Tagamoyo, a

half-caste Arab, with his armed slave escort, commenced an

indiscriminate massacre by firing volley after volley into the dense

mass of human beings. It is supposed that there were about 2,000

present, and at the first sound of the firing these poor people all

made a rush for their canoes. In the fearful hurry to avoid being

shot, the canoes were paddled away by the first fortunate few who

got possession of them; those that were not so fortunate sprang

into the deep waters of the Lualaba, and though many of them became

an easy prey to the voracious crocodiles which swarmed to the scene,

the majority received their deaths from the bullets of the

merciless Tagamoyo and his villanous band. The Doctor believes,

as do the Arabs themselves, that about 400 people, mostly women

and children, lost their lives, while many more were made slaves.

This outrage is only one of many such he has unwillingly

witnessed, and he is utterly unable to describe the feelings

of loathing he feels for the inhuman perpetrators.

 

Slaves from Manyuema command a higher price than those of any

other country, because of their fine forms and general docility.

The women, the Doctor said repeatedly, are remarkably pretty

creatures, and have nothing, except the hair, in common with

the negroes of the West Coast. They are of very light colour,

have fine noses, well-cut and not over-full lips, while the

prognathous jaw is uncommon. These women are eagerly sought

after as wives by the half-castes of the East Coast, and even

the pure Omani Arabs do not disdain to take them in marriage.

 

To the north of Manyuema, Livingstone came to the light-complexioned race, of the colour of Portuguese, or our own

Louisiana quadroons,