The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, Samuel White Baker [inspirational novels .TXT] 📗

to be beaten, and men

collected to accompany the Turks on a razzia in the Madi country.”

 

Ibrahim started with 120 armed men and a mass of Obbo people on the

marauding expedition.

 

On the following day Katchiba came to see us, bringing a present of

flour. I gave him a tin plate, a wooden spoon, the last of the tea-cups,

and a tinsel paper of mother-of-pearl shirt buttons, which took his

fancy so immensely, that my wife was begged to suspend it from his neck

like a medal. He was really a very good old fellow—by far the best I

have seen in Africa. He was very suspicious of the Turks, who, he said,

would ultimately ruin him, as, by attacking the Madi tribe, they would

become his enemies, and invade Obbo when the Turks should leave. Cattle

were of very little use in his country, as the flies would kill them; he

had tried all his magic art, but it was of no avail against the flies;

my donkeys would all assuredly die. He said that the losses inflicted

upon the various tribes by the Turks were ruinous, as their chief means

of subsistence was destroyed; without cattle they could procure no

wives; milk, their principle diet, was denied them, and they were driven

to despair; thus they would fight for their cattle, although they would

allow their families to be carried off without resistance; cattle would

procure another family, but if the animals were stolen, there would be

no remedy.

 

Flies by day, rats and innumerable bugs by night, heavy dew, daily rain,

and impenetrable reeking grass rendered Obbo a prison about as

disagreeable as could exist.

 

The many months of tiresome inaction that I was forced to remain in this

position, I will not venture to inflict upon the reader, but I will

content myself with extracts from my journal from time to time, that

will exhibit the general character of the situation.

 

“Aug. 2d.—Several of my men have fever; the boy, Saat, upon receiving a

dose of calomel, asked, `whether he was to swallow the paper in which it

was wrapped?’ This is not the first time that I have been asked the same

question by my men. Saat feels the ennui of Obbo, and finds it difficult

to amuse himself; he has accordingly become so far scientific, that he

has investigated the machinery of two of my watches, both of which he

has destroyed. I am now reduced to one watch, the solitary survivor of

four that formed my original family of timekeepers. Having commenced as

a drummer, Saat feels the loss of his drum that was smashed by the

camel; he accordingly keeps his hand in by practising upon anything that

he can adapt to that purpose, the sacred kettle inverted, and a tin cup,

having been drummed until the one became leaky, and the bottom of the

other disappeared.

 

“Saat and the black woman are, unfortunately, enemies, and the monotony

of the establishment is sometimes broken by a stand-up fight between him

and his vicious antagonist, Gaddum Her. The latter has received a

practical proof that the boy is growing strong, as I found him the other

day improving her style of beauty by sitting astride upon her stomach,

and punching her eyes with his fists, as she lay upon the ground

furrowing Saat’s fat cheeks with her very dirty nails. It is only fair

to the boy to say that Gaddum Her is always the aggressor.

 

“It is absurd to see the self-importance of the miserable cutthroats

belonging to Koorshid’s party, who, far too great to act as common

soldiers, swagger about with little slave-boys in attendance, who carry

their muskets. I often compare the hard lot of our honest poor in

England with that of these scoundrels, whose courage consists in

plundering and murdering defenceless natives, while the robbers fatten

on the spoil. I am most anxious to see whether the English Government

will take active notice of the White Nile trade, or whether diplomacy

will confine them to simple protest and correspondence, to be silenced

by a promise from the Egyptian Government to put a stop to the present

atrocities. The Egyptian Government will of course promise, and, as

usual with Turks, will never perform. On the other hand, the savages are

themselves bad; one tribe welcomes the Turks as allies against their

neighbours, and sees no crime in murder, provided the result be

‘cattle.’ This, of course, produces general confusion.”

 

“AUG. 6TH.—The difficulties of procuring provisions are most serious:

the only method of purchasing flour is as follows. The natives will not

sell it for anything but flesh; to purchase an ox, I require molotes

(hoes): to obtain molotes I must sell my clothes and shoes to the

traders’ men. The ox is then driven to a distant village, and is there

slaughtered, and the flesh being divided into about a hundred small

portions, my men sit upon the ground with three large baskets, into

which are emptied minute baskets of flour as the natives produce them,

one in exchange for each parcel of meat. This tedious process is a

specimen of Central African difficulties in the simple act of purchasing

flour. The Obbo natives are similar to the Bari in some of their habits.

I have had great difficulty in breaking my cowkeeper of his disgusting

custom of washing the milk bowl with cow’s urine, and even mixing some

with the milk; he declares that unless he washes his hands with such

water before milking, the cow will lose her milk. This filthy custom is

unaccountable. The Obbo natives wash out their mouths with their own

urine. This habit may have originated in the total absence of salt in

their country. The Latookas, on the contrary, are very clean, and milk

could be purchased in their own vessels without fear.”

 

“Aug. 8th—Having killed a fat ox, the men are busily engaged in

boiling down the fat. Care should be taken to sprinkle a few drops of

water in the pot when the fat is supposed to be sufficiently boiled;

should it hiss, as though poured upon melted lead, it is ready; but if

it be silent, the fat is not sufficiently boiled, and it will not keep.

 

“Three runaway female slaves were captured by Koorshid’s people this

morning, two of whom were brutally treated. On the whole the female

slaves are well kept when very young, but well thrashed when the black

bloom of youth has passed.”

 

“Aug. 11th.—At this season immense beetles are at work in vast

numbers, walking off with every species of dung, by forming it into

balls as large as small apples, and rolling them away with their hind

legs, while they walk backwards by means of the forelegs. Should a ball

of dung roll into a deep rut, I have frequently seen another beetle come

to the assistance of the proprietor of the ball, and quarrel for its

possession after their joint labours have raised it to the level.

 

“This species was the holy scarabaeus of the ancient Egyptians; it

appears shortly after the commencement of the wet season, its labours

continuing until the cessation of the rains, at which time it

disappears. Was it not worshipped by the ancients as the harbinger of

the high Nile? The existence of Lower Egypt depending upon the annual

inundation, the rise of the river was observed with general anxiety. The

beetle appears at the commencement of the rise in the river level, and

from its great size and extraordinary activity in clearing the earth

from all kinds of ordure, its presence is remarkable. Appearing at the

season of the flood, may not the ancients have imagined some connexion

between the beetle and the river, and have considered it sacred as the

HARBINGER of the inundation?

 

“There is a wild bean in this country, the blossom of which has a

delicious perfume of violets. I regret that I have not a supply of paper

for botanical specimens, as many beautiful flowers appeared at the

commencement of the rains. Few thorns and no gums form a strong contrast

to the Soudan, where nearly every tree and shrub is armed.”

 

“AUG. 13TH.—I had a long examination of a slave woman, Bacheeta,

belonging to one of Koorshid’s men. She had been sent two years ago by

the king, Kamrasi, from Unyoro, as a spy among the traders, with orders

to attract them to the country if appearances were favourable, but to

return with a report should they be dangerous people.

 

“On her arrival at Faloro, Debono’s people captured her, and she was

eventually sold to her present owner. She speaks Arabic, having learnt

it from the traders’ people. She declares that Magungo, the place of

which I have heard so much, is only four days’ hard marching for a

native, direct from Faloro, but eight days’ for the Turks; and that it

is equidistant from Faloro and from Kamrasi’s capital in Unyoro. She

had heard of the Luta N’zige, as reported to Speke, but she knew it only

by the name of ‘Kara-wootan-N’zige.’

 

“She corroborated the accounts I had formerly received, of large boats

arriving with Arabs at Magungo, and she described the lake as a ‘white

sheet as far as the eye could reach.’ She particularized it as a

peculiar water, that was unlike other waters, as it would ‘come up to a

water-jar, if put upon the shore, and carry it away and break it.’ By

this description I understood ‘waves.’ She also described the ‘Gondokoro

river,’ or White Nile, as flowing into and out of the lake, and she

spoke of a ‘great roar of water that fell from the sky.’

 

“I trust I may succeed in reaching this lake: if not, my entire time,

labour, and expenditure will have been wasted, as I throw sport entirely

aside for the sake of this exploration. Were I to think of shooting in

preference to exploring, I could have excellent sport on the Atabbi

river during the dry season, as also on the Kanieti, in the vicinity of

Wakkala; but I must neglect all but the great object, and push on to

Kamrasi’s capital, and from thence to the lake. My great anxiety lies in

the conduct of Koorshid’s party; should they make razzias south, I shall

be ruined, as my men will be afraid to advance through a disturbed

country. I MUST keep on good terms with the chief of the party, as I

depend upon him for an interpreter and porters.

 

“My plan is to prevail on Ibrahim to commence an ivory trade in

Kamrasi’s country that might be legitimately conducted, instead of the

present atrocious system of robbery and murder. I like Koorshid, as he

is a bold-spoken robber instead of acting the hypocrite like the other

traders of Khartoum; thus, as he was the only man that was civil to me,

I would do him a good turn could I establish an honest trade between

Kamrasi and himself; at the same time, I should have the advantage of

his party as escort to the desired country. The case commercially lies

as follows:—

 

“Kamrasi’s country, Unyoro, is a virgin land, where beads are hardly

known, and where the king is the despotic ruler, whose word is law. All

trade would be conducted through him alone, in the shape of presents, he

giving elephants’ tusks, while, in return, Koorshid would send him beads

and various articles annually. Koorshid would thus be the sole trader

with Kamrasi according to White Nile rules, and the abominable system of

cattle robbery would be avoided.

 

“The great difficulty attending trade in a distant country is the want

of means of transport, one tribe, being generally hostile to the

adjoining, fears to afford porters beyond the frontier. If I can