Presented to
Gbe Xibrarp
oftbe
of Toronto
MR. S. JAMESON.
RELIF
J3I5
THK STORY OF
THE REAR COEUMN
OK THI.
EM IN PASHA RELIEF EXPEDITION
BY THE LATE
JAMES S. JAMESON
NATURALIST TO THE EXPEDITION
EDITED LY
MRS. JAMES S. JAMESON
TT.LTTSTRATF.1N BY C. WHYMPER FROM THK AUTHOR'S ORIGINAL SKETCHES
WITH NKW MAP AND FAC SIMILE LETTER FROM TIPPU T I li
NATURAL HISTORY APPENDIX : BIRDS, BY R. R. BOWDLER SHARPE, F. Z. S.
COLEOPTERA, BY ir. w. BATES, F. R. s. LEPIDOPTERA, RHOPALOCERA AND HETEROCI.RA
BY OSBERT SALVIN, F. R. S., F. DU CANE GODMAN, F. R. S., H. DRUCE, F. L. S.
Edition
•a
^ '
<K
NATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY.
CONTENTS.
LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS
. . . ix
EDITOR'S NOTK
xm
PREFACE
xv
INTRODUCTION
xxvii
CHAPTER I. EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS.
Joining Stanley ana Oincers of the Expedition.— Zanzibar — Tippu-Tib. —War between Soudanese and Zanzibaris — Stories about Tippu-Tib.— Cape Town.— Buying dogs' — Stanley refuses carrier for Jameson's collecting-things0 and big rifle.— Banana Point
CHAPTER II.
DIARY.— JOURNEY UP THE CONGO. 1887.— March 19th to April 30th.
Boma.— Ango-Ango. — Mpalaballa Mission Station.— March to Congo da Leraba.— Banza Manteka.— Day's march resembling dare-driving.— Kuila River. -March to Vombo.— Stanley doing rear-guard.— Bartlelot sent on with Soudanese.— Sick chief. — Lutete. — Kindness of the missionaries.— Stanley settling a row.— Inkissi River. -Thief.— Stanley's punish- ment of chiefs. — Off to shoot hippo. — Difficulty about steamers. — Kinshassa.— Ward joins the Expedition . . . . 1Q
iv CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.
THE UPPER'CONGO.
May 1st to June 7th.
Start up the Upper Congo.-Scenery on the Pool.- ' -Mswata.-Bula Matadi.-Man proposes and
_Bolobo -Buffalo hunt.-Jameson is informed that tot loft at Yambuya.-Looting.-Lukulela.-Sceneswith S.*v!-l*te Station.-Dine with Mr. Glave.-Lranga. — Bangala.-Houssas eaten by natives.-Fever.- Stanley's distrust of his officers
CHAPTER IV.
OCCUPATION OF YAMBUYA.
June Sth to July 31s<.
Letter to Mrs. Jameson.-Pass burning villages.-AiTival at Am- wimi River —Conical-shaped huts.— Occupation of Yambuya. -Arrival of the Henry Jfe«*.- Stanley's letter of mstruc
tions.-Re-packing bales for Emin.-Barttelot made "blood- brother" with native chief.— Rations for six monl " Beggars must not be choosers."— Stanley's departure.- Building boma.-Extraordinary flight of butterflies.-Palaver with natives,-- Collecting" captives.^- Natives capture Oman. —Woman escapes.— Uselessncss of chiefs.— Gum-copal . .
CHAPTER V.
YAMBUYA CAMP.
July 27th to December 31s«.
Letter to Mrs. Jameson.— No news of Tippu-Tib.- Promise to protect natives.— Reported arrival of Tippu's men.— Return of deserter from Stanley's party.— His statement.— Arrival
CONTESTS.
of tin- Xttinlrif. — Raid on the native l»y Tippu-Tih'.s people.
Final departure of the N/J////M/. First vi-if «>t' Tippu Til/H A ralis to Yambnyii Camp. — Bonny emsse> river to native village.- Abdullah punished lor stealing an ;ixo. — Jameson and Ward start for Stanley Falls. Natixrs ofl'.T to make them princes. Yalisula. — Arrival at the Falls. — Kee.eivcii hy Tippu -Tib. — He explains non-arrival of men. — Native wrestling-match. — Jameson makes Tippu present of big rifle.
lleturn to Yambuya. — Soudanese punished for theft. — Selim bin Mahommed. — Arabs sboot down natives. — Dis- appointing news from Tippn-Tib. — Rumours of Stanley's return. — Barttelot and Troup start for Falls. — A man pos- d by a devil. — Deserter's story. — Bonny's surgical skill. —The Major returns. — Omaha.— Report of a white man coming down river. — Fresh disappointment. — Jaundice. — Arabs try to prevent trade with natives. — Burgari Mahom- med steals meat from Ward's house. — Living skeletons. — Three dreams. — Ungungu captured by Arabs. — Christmas Day. — Fresh trouble between Arabs and natives .. .. 99
CHAPTER VI. YAMBUYA CAMP.
1888. — Ji.ui nart/ 1st to February 13th.
New Year's Day. — Natives return with captured Arab. — Barttelot and Jameson have palaver with natives. — Natives consult the oracles and inspect white men. — More reports from Stanley's deserters. — Assad Farran sees a whale. — Visit from Arab Yenuscs.— Hobarus Poytjei beetle. — Dead bodies floating down river. — Wretched state of Zanzibaris in camp. — One fifth of entire force lost. — Goliath beetle. — Conversation with Selim Mahommed. — Probable dangers to Mr. Stanley's force from death and desertion. — Arabs attack natives. — Arabs tight among themselves. — Natives steal canoes from Arabs. — Anniversary of Jameson's wedding. — More raids on the natives. — Burgari Mahommed at large. — Natives eat cap- tnred Arabs. — Burgari captured, and shot 177
VI
CHAPTER VIL
KASSONGO. February 14th to April '26th.
Start with the Major for Stanley Falls,_Meet a number of men from Kassongo.-Singatini.-Interview with N/ige.- news of Stanley .-Hunting for game in the j tingle. -Lett from Yambuya Camp.-Shock of earthquake.-Anxious waiting.-Sketching regarded as sorcery by Mahommedans _Fever —Letter from Troup.— Bar ttelot. arranges to sen< Jameson to Kassongo.-Lettcr to Mrs. Jameson.-Start for Kasson-o —Yankcwe. — Wild-looking natives. — Wamanga Rapids.-Meet men from Kassongo.— Kibonge.— Jameson writes to Stanley.— Kapruta.-Assad Farran hunts for onions. -Kasuku.- Kindness of Arab chief. - arrows.-Riba-Riba.-Shooting hippos.-Three great chiefs. Tippu-Tib s names.— Dangerous natives.— Head men fear t night attack.-Quanga,-Nyangwe.-Kindness of Arabs.- Arrival at Kassongo.— Tippu-Tib.— Fertile conn try .-Salem Masudi. — Tippu agrees to provide men. — Sketching.— Jameeon writes to Mr. Mackinnon. -Letter to Mrs. Jameson. —Arab customs.— Conversation with Tippu-Tib.— Muni Katomba . . . .
CHAPTER VIII.
RETURN TO YAMBUYA.
April 21th 1o June 10//1.
Start back for Yambuya.— Delay at starting-point on the river.— Thirty-four of Tippu's men run away.— Tippu and Cameron. —Chiefs arrive to bid farewell to Tippu-Tib.— Miresa.— Tippu's conversation in Swahili.— Two canoes sunk.— A narrow escape.— Assad Farran's uselessness.— Riba-Riba.— Wacusu dance.— Cannibals.— Conversation with Tippu.—
COA/'/:\ />. vi i
Muni Somai. -Kibmigr. - Chiinj)aii/.crs. Tippu t, of
a journey \\ith Stanley.- Stanley Falls. Hart I riot 's inter- view with Tippu-Tib. — Start, lor Yanilmya. — Troup sends in application to he sent home. — Hard at work reducing loads. — Caps turn out to be bad. — Letter to Mrs. Jameson . . . . 277
CHAPTER IX.
THE LAST MARCH.
June 11th to August 8th.
Final start from Yambuya Camp. — Manyemas loot the Camp. — Abdullah's village. — Muni Somai has trouble with Manyemas. Fourteen men. desert. — Jameson returns to Yambuya in search of missing loads. — Selirn Mahommed guarantees to recover loads and rifles. — More desertions. — Small-pox. — Muni Somai goes in search of deserters, and is fired at. — Theft of beads. — Trouble with the Muniaparas. — A long day of disaster. — Major Barttelot returns to Stanley Falls, leaving Jameson in command. — Fresh trouble with Manyemas. — Jameson arrives at Ujele. — Takes over command from Bonny. — Muni Somai utterly useless as a commander. — Mquan- gandy. — Letters from Barttelot ordering whole force to pro- ceed to Vnaria. — War amongst head men. — Anight fusillade. —Bonny loses his way. — Muni Hamela hands over to Jameson 40,000 Enfield caps. — News of Major Barttelot's death. — Arrival at Unaria. — Interview with three head Manyemas. — Jameson offers reward for Sanga's arrest. — Jameson proceeds to Stanley Falls. — Finds the Manyemas camped in forest. — Meets Muni Somai. — Nasoro Masudi warns Jameson that Manyemas have threatened to shoot him. — Anival at Stanley Falls. — Interview with Tippu. — Muni Somai tried and convicted of desertion. — Letter to Andrew Jameson. — Letter to Mrs. Jameson. — Rachid declines to accompany Jameson. — Tippu volunteers to do so for £20,000. — Trial and death of Sanga. — Jameson determines to go to Bangala in order to obtain reply from Committee. — Mr. Stanley's letter to Jameson 308
viii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER X.
LAST SCENES. August 9th to August 18th.
PAGE
Last Journey. — Mr. Ward's diary. — Death 367
APPENDICES I.-XI 377-391
Facsimile of Agreement written by Mr. Jameson forms
Appendix IX. Facsimile of Tippu-Tib's letter faces translation on page 391.
NATURAL-HISTORY APPENDIX 392-452
EXPLANATION OF MAP OP UPPER CONGO 453-455
MAP or RIVER CONGO, from Stanley Falls to Kassougo (end of volume).
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
7A0K
Portrait of the Lite JAMES S. JAMESON Front'** r
Whitc or Square-mouthed Rhinoceros (Ithinoceros simus) . . . . xii
Slave Girl
Prter's Fetish
Buina
Ango-Ango
Mission lload near Mpalaballs.
Native Justice
Native Method of Bird-catching
Ivory War Horn
Diagram of Spiders' Webs
Head of Native of Mswata • • 37
Kwamouth
Fisherman's Hut . . >
Tattooing 58
Shields ?8
Native of Upoto
Native Village
Native Chief in top hat
Spears and Shield
Tattooing
Entrenched Camp, Main Street
orv
Rapids, from the Camp
Idol M
Water Pot, Yambuya
Native Jar
Wataku Box
Yambuya.— View looking down river from Entrenched Camp Plan of Entrenched Camp, Yambuya
Bell and Musical Instrument
Matajabu
Native Drinking-bowls
Chief's Grave, Yaweeko
Stanley Falls
x LTST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
. . 125 A Champion -^7
Singatini - • • • • 133
Elephant's Head 134
Tambau •)) ^gg
Selim bin Mahommed c. . . . • ^
A Native of the Upper Congo
•Sucking-Fish .... ^
Ynmbuya Palisade ^
Pattern on inside of Dish ^
Native Stool, 1'ambuya ^
Starving Zanribari 166
War-Knife, Upoto , •• ••
Dative Method of Bird-catching
Mr. Jameson, drawn by H. Ward J^
My Home .... ' ^
Tattooing 195
€owrie Head-dress
War-Knife from Lumami Eiver -
£t\j*y Wataku Pottery 2Q8
Tattooing ^09
A Glimpse across Aruwimi River
Small War-Knife ^
Slave Girl • • • •'• *
My Friend " Masudi "
« Mashukulu » ^i
« Curry-Eyes " ^
A Savage taking his case • •
My Bow Paddle f£
Waroanga Rapids
_,.. iioo
Kibonge
Native of Wamanga • •
** A long shove, and a strong shove, and up she goes . . . . **a
** And c^oty/i she comes with a run "
Knife from Kassongo • •
"Lukutula"
• Wagania Village, near Kassongo ^»
Landing-place, Kassongo ^^
Double Drum, and Striker *»*
Copper Money
Kassongo
RoadtoUjiji ^
Native of Unvancmbi . . . . c . . . " (
A/.s/f OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Drumnirr ami l>anr:-r of (jiiemha ........
Lamba-Lamba ..........
Tippn-Tili ..............
Wagania Huts ..............
* Nothing like [ndependence " ......
Native Woman in Market ............ •>-<)
One of Tippu-Tib's Chm-bearon .......... ^\
' ."ii^'i- Lon^a ....................
Muni Somai .><-
Hunch of Plantains ............
A Xc\v \\'ay of Catching Chickens ......
Ilivrr Scone ................
Major Jiurttelot seated on the old Drum ........ 300
Diagram of line of March ............ tt ^2'2
Xative of Upper Congo ............ ;^ j
A Canoe Journey .................. 3^5-
The House in which Mr. Jameson died at Bangala ...... ;^7o
The Last Journey ................ 3-0
Photograph of Grave .......... 3-4
Xative Vase ......................
Tattooing ............ ' ..........
War-Knife
WHITE OR SQUARE-MOUTHED RHINOCEROS.
[The above wa.s mounted, together with the larger portion of the late Mr. J. S. Jameson's Collection, by Mr. Rowland Ward, FZ.S.]
EDITOR'S NOTE.
THESE letters and diaries were not originally intended for pub- lication ; but it has been thought that they may be read with interest by many, and that, having regard to the accusations recently made against the leaders of the Rear Column, it is desirable that they should be published in what is practically their original form, with only such alterations as their private nature required.
In the preparation of this work, I have throughout had the advantage of the constant advice and sympathetic help of my brother-in-law, Mr. ANDREW JAMESON.
I have received much kindness from Mr. HERBERT WARD, who sealed and sent home those of Mr. Jameson's diaries and papers which he brought with him to the coast, and gave me several interesting sketches of his own for insertion in this volume. A still deeper debt of gratitude is due to him for the tender solicitude with which he nursed my husband during those last hours at Bangala.
I wish further to express my hearty thanks to several of my husband's friends who have rendered me valuable assistance by preparing the scientific parts of this book, contained in the Appendices.
To Mr. R. BOWDLER SHAKFK, r\/.S., I am indebted both for a sketch of Mr. Jameson's career as a naturalist, and for tis very valuable paper on the birds of the Aruwimi ; and
Xiv EDITOR'S XOTE.
to Messrs. H. W. BATES, F.R.S., OSBERT SALVIN, F.R.S., F. DuC.\NE GODMAN, F.R.S., and HERBERT DRUCE, F.Z.S., my thanks are most deservedly due for the care they have bestowed upon the Entomological portion of the Appendices. It is a matter of deep regret that only a remnant of the collec- tions made by Mr. Jameson on the Aruwimi ever reached my hands.
The Rev. J. M. ROUWELL has kindly rendered the translation of the Arabic letter from Tippu-Tib, and the Rev. Canon J. J. CARMICHAEL, LL.D., has merited my warmest thanks for his valuable help.
Finally, I would acknowledge the artistic skill with which Mr. CHARLES WHYMPER has reproduced the spirit of my husband's sketches, and the attention and courtesy shown me throughout by Mr. R. H. PORTER in the publication of this, book.
ETHEL JAMESON.
December 12th, 1890,
PREFACE.
"LET THERK BE LIGHT."
(Mr. Stanley's motto for 'In Darkest Africa?)
" Good name, in man and woman, dear nay lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls :
Who steals my purse, steals trash : 'tis something-, nothing j Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands ; But lie, that filches from me my good name, Robs me of that which not enriches him. And makes me poor indeed."
NEVER was the truth of these lines more vividly illustrated thiin in the case of the writer of this Diary. The dream of his early life was to add his name to the long roll of those who have striven for some good and useful object. At length the occasion offered itself, as he believed, in the Expedition in which he lost his life ; to join it he sacrificed his wealth, his home, his family joys and comfort, to live " laborious days," and find some scope for the pent-up energies within him. He went to his work with a strong zeal and lofty sense of right, did his duty with unselfish heroism in the face of treacheries and overwhelming difficulties, and died a martyr to the cause for which he had so nobly laboured. What is his reward ? He is sought to be made the scapegoat of his Commander's ill- judgment and neglect ! Charges of disobedience, disloyalty, forgetfulness of promises, desertion, cruelty, cowardice, and murder are brought against him, on the authority of discredited liars, by a man who is driven to his wits' end to sustain his
xvi PREFACE.
reputation against serious imperative accusations. The charges are brought against Jameson when he is in his grave, when the common usage of humanity suggests silence, and when a man of a noble and honourable cast of nature would altogether prefer to lie under an unjust suspicion rather than asperse and defame the voiceless dead. This, however, is not the course which Mr. Stanley has followed. Lest any tinge of discredit should rext on his own fame, he has striven to destroy that of others who are powerless to reply. Upon his remarkable Expedition into Central Africa there rests one dark blot — the disastrous fate of his Rear-Guard, and Mr. Stanley is not a man to admit that he can make mistakes : no blame of any sort can be allowed to sully his record ; if the Rear-Guard was wrecked, it was, of course, because his skilful plans and careful orders were neglected and disobeyed ; no statement, however desperate and imaginary, will be kept back if only it serve to sustain his egotistical demands upon the credulous admiration of his readers ; and so, apparently unconscious of the possibility of contradiction, and fully con- scious of the fact that the men whom he defames are dead, he casts the whole weight of blame upon their helpless heads. The first answer to Mr. Stanley's charges comes from Captain Walter Barttelot; and it is a crushing one. His reply to this is a flood of malevolent gossip as wicked as it is unproveu, in which good care is taken to make the least serious charges against the living, the gravest and most defamatory against the dead.
The amount of reliance that can be placed upon Mr. Stanley's accuracy is an easy question to determine. He suffers even abnormally from that shortness of memory which is, according to a well-known proverb, said to be characteristic of a certain class of people. Thus, on November 8th, 1890, he denies the truth of statements respecting the Rear-Guard made by himself in a book published in the month of June of that self-same year. In Volume I. of fln Darkest Africa/ page 478, after giving a history of all the information he could get from Mr. Bonny, he says, " I have never obtained further light from Mr. Bonny, though at every leisure hour it was a constant theme " (and indeed, from all accounts, it ap- pears that Stanley spared no pains to get from him all he
PREFACE. xvii
knew). Tn the brahmin- <•!' \"ol. II. we find ;m arrount of the examination of witnesses from unionist the survixors of the ("amp at Yambnya, and the conclusions arrived at plainly stated -the deaths at Yambnya were due to the manner in which the men cooked their food, anion^ the members of the garrison there were many thieves, and punish- ments were numerous, but were never inflicted except on those who deserved them. All this appears in the month of June 1SJM). Then Captain Walter 15,-irttelot's book is published, and Mr. Stanley must needs mend his hand, and so on the 8th of November, 1890, he comes forth with fresh allegations against his officers, and tells a tale quite different from that which he had already published in < In Darkest Africa/ His first statement about the November story easts the gravest doubt upon it, for he says be heard it all at Yambuya in August 1888 (Banalya, a place ninety miles from Yambuya, must be what is meant, as Mr. Stanley never returned to Yambuya, but the mistake, whether intentional or not, is very convenient for him, and, curious to say, he has not yet corrected it). A considerable part of the November story comes from the lips of Mr. Bonny, but if Mr. Stanley heard it all in August 1888, how could he, although omitting all mention of it in ' In Darkest Africa/ write that he had inserted therein all he had heard from Mr. Bonny ? Was then, the statement published November 8th, 1890, that whicli was told him by Bonny in August 1888, or was it not? If it was, then the above statement by Mr. Stanley on the subject, published in ' In Darkest Africa/ was not* true ; if it was not the story told him in 1888, then Mr. Stanley's account of the real reasons which led him to condemn his officers, given in the most public and final manner, is absolutelv false. On the second horn of this dilemma Mr. Stanley is inexorably fixed, for Mr. Bonny, in his statement to the ' Times/ declares that he told these things to Stanley for the first time on Sunday, October 26th, 1890, and not at Banalya, on the Congo, in August 1888. That is to say, the only justification which Mr. Stanley, when put on his defence, produces for The condemnation of his officers in 1888, is hearsay evidence procured by him in 1890.
i
xvijj PREFACE.
It is worth while to expatiate a little upon this bold attempt of Mr. Stanley's to mislead people into believing that the evidence upon which he grounded his charge was obtained from a general inquiry into the matter rn^de by him upon the Congo in 1888, and not upon the particular evidence of three witnesses obtained in 1890. For instance, he talks on this wise when in- troducing to public notice his charges of November 8th, 1890 : — " The sentence of my report with which Mr. Barttelot finds fault, and in which 1 censure the commander of the Rear Column, was written in August 1888, two days after I had met Mr. Bonny and the emaciated remnant of the Rear Column. On learning then the details of what had transpired during my absence, I wrote that the irresolution of the officers, the neglect of their promises, and their indifference to the written orders I gave them, had caused this woful collapse. You ask me to justify that censure, It will probably be the best way, in order to satisfy any legitimate interest in this question, to tell the story as I heard it at Yambuya, because in that way the public will better understand the shocking effect it had on me when, hastening to their relief, I ivas met by the following reve- lations*. And here comes the point. You will find in the log of my book ( In Darkest Africa,' even in its abridged form, that the men of the Rear Column came forward to present their complaints ; and much of the following information I obtained from Mr. Bonny, the Zanzibaris, the Arabs, and the Man- ye*ma." Then follow the statements which Stanley says were at that time made to him, the very first of them being the poisoning story, with which Mr. Bonny's most exciting state- ment has since made us familiar. But alas ! for the accu- racy of Mr. Stanley, Bonny informs us that he told Stanley that tale on Sunday, October 26th, 1890, two years and two months after the date which Mr. Stanley fixes for its first recital. The fact is that Stanley deliberately endeavours to lead the public to believe that the evidence upon which he bases his foulest charges against the officers of the Rear-Guard was obtained by him in August 1888, when, beyond yea or nay>
* The italics are my own.— A. J.
rn /•:/•'. i * he never -of if till October 1HDO, so i nny is concerned,
and Assail Karran only made liis statement, to him in Cairo in March of the same year.
In respect of the cannibal story, a reader of Mr. Stanley's statement of November Sth, 1 S'.M), would conclude that at Yam- bnya in 1SSS, an eye-witness of the scene drew up a statement in his own handwriting in the presence of witnesses; that this statement was shown to Mr. Stanley there, and is the one he publishes; that the evidence taken on the subject by the Congo 1-Yce State authorities was also shown to him there, and that these facts were the principal reasons for the letter which lie says he wrote to Jameson, but which has never since been seen, or even heard of, until now mentioned by Mr. Stanley himself. On the 10th November, 1890, however, he publishes another statement, in which he tells us that Bonny told him the story, that a Zanzibar! who had been at Stanley Falls corroborated it, and that he was told the Congo Free State authorities intended arresting Jameson. Where has the eye-witness gone to, and the evidence taken by the authorities which he relied on before? The eye-witness in this second statement is revealed in Assad Farran, and the evidence taken before the authorities dwindles to the story told him about their intentions. But how do the two statements look when read together? Was riot the first a plain attempt to make it appear that evidence obtained at a subsequent date was tendered to him at Yambuya, and does the second statement not show that Stanley's real "witnesses " were Bonny and Assad Farran ? Does not Stanley publish the story Assad Farran tells him in 1890, and Bonny vouch for the truth of it, only placing it all in the mouth of Jameson himself?
It is absolutely necessary to nail Mr. Stanley to names and dates. He wants the public now to believe, contra his own already expressed statement, contra the inexorable logic of proven facts, that he was acquainted in August 1888 with all the charges of his outrageous indictment of November Sth, 18VJ(), and that he then obtained the proofs of them from various witnesses among the survivors of the Rear-Guard, from Bonnv, Arabs, Zanzibaris, and Manyema, and that, on the information
PREFACE.
X.X.
^».^».
obtained in those two days of inquiry, he wrote his condemnation
•of his officers.
« I had a grandmother, she had a donkey,
And when that donkey looked her in the face, His face was sad, and you are sad, my pul
In the enthusiasm of an evanescent h«J£^^ JJj** T>ublic sinks occasionally tor a Xin
average s 5*^.^ .^ of itg temporary adoration; but woe o°h"m who would presume upon the constancy of that love; t i too fickle and fastidious to have fame o, temper for lovers' quarrels and their proverbial results. By an inevitable reae on it is certain soon to become as suspicious and exacting ^ 2 once full of loud and intolerant confidence; the more fTt comes to think that there is any attempt to trifle with ts' am ahl™ credulity. This is what Mr. Stanley will soon 0 feel The idea is already abroad that he is seeking to delude the public judgment, especially in the way of insinuating that he is embarrassed by the number of his witnesses, when point of fact, he has produced but three-Bonny, Assad Farran and Saleh ben Osman, his own Zanz.bari servant. That t is perfectly possible for Mr. Stanley to produce many Tore vi -eLsof'the type of Saleh ben Osman no one can doubt who is acquainted with the real nature of native evidence of this description ; and if the Congo Free State authorities had ny wish to adopt his peculiar line of conduct, it M equally certain the application of the "questioning" system would be attended with satisfactory results.
But in what a light does all this place the author of Darkest Africa'! Is it the pure light which shines round a n striving to make the truth known? or is it the baneful "earn of those darksome shades in which Mr. Stanley tells us a vast crop of lying is germinated ?
He deals with his evidence like the Irish planners of an alibi He changes the date to suit the necessities of his case; with a astounding unfairness, he condemns his officers first, and tries ttem afterwards. Having failed in his efforts at the time and rSe spot to obtain from Bonny and the coloured witnesses
PREFACE.
sufficient condemnatory e\idenee against those \\hom In- Ii;,,l drscrhd and misled, he strove to \\ork ii|> ;i Cate Rgaintf tlicin t>y straining the obvious sense and purport of his orders ; i,y twisting and misrepresenting the writings of HarttHot :md .lameson, so as to condemn them, if possible, out of their on n mouths, then silenced for ever; and even by daring to break open the seals upon Jameson's private diary and paper-.
Never, in the history of slander, were charges so inju- rious as those levelled against the officers dependent upon more worthless testimony. It is incomprehensible how any man, with the barest respect for his reputation, could make use of such instruments as two of Mr. Stanley's witnesses. Assad Tarran, the prime concoctcr of these shameless inven- tions, is a man who (as he himself puts it) would, if he were only questioned enough, " give all the information his examiners wanted ; " a man who, when he was asked by the Secretary of the Emin Pasha Relief Committee, Mr. Mac- Dermott, why he had told stories about the officers which he admitted were exaggerated and incorrect, replied " that he thought Major Barttelot and Mr. Jameson had not treated him well, that he had been sent away without clothes or food, and his feeling was bad : " and then he added, " that when those to whom he made his statement on the Congo kept questioning, questioning, and would not let him alone, he had to say all they wanted him to say/'
This is the man who, in March 1890, first told Mr. Stanley some of the stories which that gentleman stated he heard on the Congo in 1888. Nor is Saleh ben Osman, Mr. Stanley'* Zanzibari servant, a more reliable witness than the pitifully discredited Assad Farran. The statement of this worthy, who does not pretend to be an eye-witness of anything, is translated by Mr. Glave, and is a most extraordinary document, bearing its own refutation on its face. At the best it is a mere re- r/tai/Jfe of what he had heard concerning these events IV, m Zanzibaris, Arabs, Manyemas, and Soudanese, and if the in- formation derived at first hand from such witnesses is unreli- able, what does it become when filtered through the head of ;i Zanzibari servant two years after he had heard the talcs he tells ?
xxii PREFACE.
No one knows better than Mr. Stanley the utter untrust- worthiness of these Zanzibaris, and the ease with which they may be made to say anything by " questioning, questioning." Even his own character is not safe in their hands, for he is accused by one of the tribe of ordering # live baby to be drowned in the Congo (vide page 111 in Diary), and the Zanzibar! who made this statement had no apparent motive for telling a lie, which can hardly be asserted about Mr. Stanley's most useful witness.
Mr. Stanley is certainly unfortunate in being placed in a position where he must stake his credit on the veracity of such men as these. He has only produced three witnesses at the best : two of them have been proved unworthy of the slightest belief, and the third, his piece de resistance, Mr. Bonny, is far from being as satisfactory as the cause of justice would require.
Bonny is an ex-sergeant of the Army Hospital Corps, and was a paid servant of Mr. Stanley's, who styles himself his employer. Our trust in his accuracy of recollection and in- telligent appreciation of facts is somewhat enfeebled, when we remember that Mr. Stanley informs us how Bonny told him that Barttelot, in view of his possible death, had left to him (Bonny) the succession in command over Jameson, an absurd misapprehension, to say the least of it, complicated moreover by a most unpleasant controversy respecting the genuineness of certain orders produced by Bonny, and the alleged suppression of those he was bound to obey. There seems to be a certain amount of inaccuracy about Mr. Bonny. He is unable to adhere to one story, even in the case of such an important incident as that of Major Barttelot's murder, and varies his description of it, and the circumstances attending it, some three or four times in most vital particulars. But all the same, we are requested to believe that Mr. Bonny is a rare being, gifted with a sym- pathetic attractiveness that draws towards him the inmost confidences of all those with whom he comes in contact. According to Mr. Stanley's account, he must have been " fatlier- confessor " to all in the Camp, for to him, without any sig ilium confessionis , men appear to have confided the darkest records and intentions of their lives.
/'///./•• WE. \\iii
The terrible Harttelot reveals to him hia intention to (
Maliommed; tdls linn th;it he it getting his brother to to
take care of Trmip tliat lie \\ill tell no tales at home ; im: to him plots to start expeditions independent, of Stanley, at. last even begS of him a medical Certificate and leave to r
from the Expedition !
NO conditions of existence such as those which apply to ordinary human beings seem able to make such things credible ; and if reliance is to be placed on this part of Stanley's case, it can only be justified by a belief in some intense magnetic or hypnotic influence exercised by Bonny on those around him.
With all the elaboration, care, and publicity which Mr. Stanley has given to the evidence of these three witnesses, he has failed to produce a statement from their mouths which justifies his charge that " the Rear Column was wrecked by the irresolution, the neglect of promises, and the indifference to written orders of the officers he left in command of it/' and he has not lightened in the slightest degree the load of blame under which he himself at present lies.
One turns, as in search of a great relief, from this story of self-seeking, unfairness, and deception, to the record of a noble and unselfish life. It must indeed be a strongly prejudiced mind that can read this Diary without being impressed by the sense of the immediate presence of a gentle, loving, and sympathetic nature, keen and true of observation, quick-willed and suggestive, with a pleasant humour and a gallant heart. A man's diary is a self-revela- tion. His true personality is as certain to present itself continually as the refrain in a theme of music. No man lies to himself, when night after night, as his work is done, he sits down to write out the story of his life from day to day ; and the life which Jameson reveals to us in his Diary is one whose keynote is duty, kindliness, and hard work. " Little did I think," he writes to Mrs. Jameson a fortnight before his death, " when I spoke to you of ray feelings of duty, that I should ever be placed in such a position as I now am, in which all that I feel for you and for our little ones cries out against
xxiv PREFACE.
what I must do as an officer of this Expedition. With one word or even a show of weakness on my part, I could stop the whole Expedition, which seems fated to meet with nothing but reverses, and return to you. But God knows such a thought never entered my heart, although I could easily defend such an action on my part. The first thing that flashed across my brain on finding myself so placed was your father's favourite text, ' Know, O man, that to know and love justice and do the thing that is right, that shall bring a man peace at the last ; ' and you will see what a help every word in that verse has been to me now/'
On the same day he writes to his brother, "Whatever happens to me, old man, I tried to do my,duty to this blessed Expedition ; and many a time, when I have thought of Ethel and home, I would have liked to chuck the whole thing up when there were plenty of officers to take my place/' A brave resolve to go through with what he had undertaken sustained him to the last in the face of dreadful odds. The neglect and unfairness of the Commander of the Expedition — who, as he says, "it is evident takes the word of the Zanzibaris before that of the white men/' — the cruelty, dishonesty, treachery, and falsehood of the Arabs with w^hom he had to deal, the miserable conditions of existence growing worse from day to day, the hope deferred, the bitter consciousness that the slanderer was at work to defame his honour, — however these irons cut into his soul, they dimmed not that gallant sense of duty, which most touchingly displayed itself as a ruling passion, strong in death, when, as he breathed his last, with husky voice he answered to the faintly-heard roll of the drums, " They are coming ; they are coming. Let us stand together."
Numerous and suggestive also are the indications of his kindliness of heart in his anxieties about the sick people in the Camp — African and English, and the grief he so evidently feels at being utterly unable to give them the help they so sorely need. His pity for the natives, too, and the efforts that both he and Barttelot made to save them from the Arabs; the regret he expresses at the inevitable punishments and floggings, all indicate a kind, helpful, and unselfish nature. "Poor
PJUSFAi /;. xxv
old Dcrricr Moussa, ;i Somali,'' lie writes " who 1ms been our cook for the greater part of our journey, died to-day. He has been ill lor a long time. It is horrible to watch these men slowly dying before your face, and not be able to do anything for them." " 1'oor Alexander, one of the Soudanese in prefers, died to-day; he lias been ill for a long time." " I a sad, sad sight to see men dying round you every day, and not be able to put; out a hand to save them. Without a single tight \ve have lost close upon seventy men out of our >mall force, and then; an; many more who, I am sorry to say, will never leave that Camp. And now good night and good-bye. Kiss the little ones for me, and may God have you all in his safe keeping."
As to the flogging, he writes — "Two sentries, who deserted their post last night, were flogged this morning. It is sickening, this continual flogging, but there is no help for it;" and again — " Went the rounds last night. No sentries asleep, so no flogging this morning, thank goodness. "
The Diary abounds with indications of a vigorous, capable, and unflinching personality. His determination and skill in. working with and managing the Arabs, particularly displayed in his politic negotiations with Tippu-Tib, by which at last he
» obtained the carriers he required — his interview with Muni Katomba at Kassongo — his ungrudging labours at Yambuya before the last start from that home of misery — his unmur- muring endurance of toil and hunger in the march through the forest to Banalya — his fearless return march to Stanley Falls in the face of great dangers — his untiring efforts to secure another Arab commander to come with him — his splendid offer to pledge his fortune for the sake of the Expedition — his unflinching refusal to depart from the route which Stanley had ordered him to follow — his declaration that Barttelot, when he was murdered, was carrying out Stanley's orders, and that he meant to do the same — all of which acts show how he rose to the occasion of a great crisis : these are the doings of a competent and sagacious man, worthy of the part to which ho had been appointed and of the praise of which his Commander has most selfishly and ungenerously sought to rob him.
xxvi PREFACE.
Amidst all the toils and changes of camp-life Jameson found time to gratify his love of natural history and to employ his valuable powers of observation. Unhappily, a large part of his valuable collection was lost when the camp he had just marched from was looted by the Arabs, in whose charge it was
left.
There is no doub't that, if he had been possessed of more opportunity and had his life been spared, he would have con- tributed largely to the scientific results of the Expedition.
All noble lives are instinct with a purpose. They read the secret of their destiny, and find no rest until they work it out, wherever it may lead. Results they fear not, although it be their late, as that of many gone before, to « perish in the wilderness."
ANDREW JAMESON.
D-iblin, December 10th, 1890.
INTRODUCTION,
JAMES SLIOO JAMESON was born on the 17th of August, 18r>(>, at the Walk House, Alloa, dackmannanshire. His father, Andrew Jameson, was a son of John Jameson, of Dublin. He held agencies for sonic estates in Scotland, and was a man of great cultivation and refinement, possessed of both literary and scientific tastes. His wife, Margaret, daughter of James Cochrane, of Glen Lodge, Sligo, died a few days after the birth of their third son, James.
At a very early age the tastes of the child foretokened those which were to form the ruling interest of his after-life, viz. those for travel and natural history in all its branches. When quite a small boy, between four and five years old, his grand- mother once found him, at a late hour of the night, poring over a map, which, strangely enough, was the map of Africa. She asked him why he had not gone to bed, as it was some hours past his usual time. " Oh, grandmamma ! " he said, " I want to learn all about these strange countries, for 1 mean to be a big traveller some day/'
In 1867 Jameson was sent to Dreghorn, a boarding-school near Edinburgh, under Mr. Dalgleish, of which, in after-lii'e, he always spoke as " an ideal school for boys."
Dreghorn lies at the foot of the Pentland hills, surrounded by woods. Through the beautiful park flows a stream which then held many a trout; and here it was that Jameson first developed those instinctive tastes for natural history, love for all animals, and keen interest in their habits, which formed such a marked trait in his character, even in childhood, Many are the treasures which even in those early days \u-re
x \ viii I NT ROD UCTION.
accumulated, and which formed the nucleus of his later valuable collection.
Speaking of his childhood, his aunt, Mrs. Burd, writes : — " He knew every bird and live thing in the neighbourhood and their habits ; and his joy and pride when he found a Roseate Tern is a thing not to be forgotten. I do not think he knew what the word fear meant/'
He had long been anxious to procure some young Choughs which had built their nest high up on the cliffs at the back of Glen Lodge. At last he devised a plan by laying three ladders together, and, at the risk of his neck, succeeded in reaching the nest and bringing down four little, ones. He took the greatest trouble in preparing their food, making it as like what he thought their mother would give them as possible, and even feeding them with a match which he shaped like her bill. He kept them in his own room, so that he might hear them the moment they cried for food, which was usually about five in the morning, and he refused to go on a shooting expedition to which he had long looked forward, until one of his cousins promised faithfully to take charge of and feed them at the same early hour. He kept them for about three weeks, putting them, in the day- time, in a pheasant-box on the lawn. But, alas ! on the very night of his return from his shooting, a Bedlington named " Peachem " got at the box and killed them all ! The boy was dreadfully grieved, and retired to his own room for some time. When asked by his uncle whether he had " given Peachem a good licking/' he replied, ' ' No ; why should I hurt the poor brute and make him miserable as well as myself? It's only his nature, and he knew no better."
Small traits of this kind were an early indication of the kind and gentle nature which, in later life, so fascinated all who knew him.
Upon quitting Dreghorn, he went to the International College at Isle worth, until, in 1873, he began reading for the army. This, however, he abandoned in 1877, when he started m the first of his travels to Ceylon, Calcutta, Singapore, and Borneo. From Borneo he returned with a fine collection of birds, butterflies, and beetles.
INTRODUCTION. 01
At the close of 1S7S he unit out again, this time to South Africa, in search of big game.
After a IV\\ weeks' hunting on the borders ,>(' the Kalahari Desert, \\hcrc lie ol)tained excellent sport in the veldt belonging t)the chief Montsioa, he returned to Potchefstroom, to com mence preparations for a more extensive trip into the Xamlx M District. The town was at this time in a general state of excitement, owing to the presence of some 700 disaffected Hoers, who, fully armed, were camped just outside the town, blocking the road to Pretoria, and stopping all the mails. Their latest act of audacity had been to seize and detain a special despatch sent by Colonel Tucker, of the 80th Regt., then quartered in the town, to Sir Garnet Wolseley. Upon hearing of this, Jameson at once offered to ride to Pretoria with a second despatch. His offer was accepted, and he started that night bearing the important document, with power to shoot anyone who might attempt to detain him. The next morning he encountered a party of about sixty Boers, who stopped and closely questioned him. Having allayed their suspicions, Jameson rode on, making no pause and taking no rest until he reached Pretoria, and safely delivered the despatch to Sir (farnet Wolseley.
Having completed his outfit, he now started for the interior, leaving Zeerust as the last civilized town on his route. From here he trekked along the Great Marico River, where he had excellent fishing, up to the Crocodile or Limpopo River, meeting with large game in great abundance. At Shoshong lie was joined by Mr. H. Collison, who had been hunting in Africa for four years ; and at this place he also heard from Mr. F. C. Selous, the well-known African hunter, who pro- mised to join the party at Gubuluwayo. Pushing on, therefore, through the " Great Thirst-Land," Jameson arrived at Um- ganin, where he made acquaintance with Lo Bengula, King of the Matabeles, who received the travellers with great cordiality, granting them willing permission to hunt in his country. His friendly behaviour towards Jameson was on this, as on all subsequent occasions, unvarying.
Mr. Selous having joined them, they now took leave of the
XXX TNTROD UCTION.
King, who sent with them an induna to guard their waggons and property ; and the party proceeded into Mashona Land, where they obtained splendid shooting.
In July, Selous and Jameson started for six weeks' hunting in the Fly Country, and were able to demonstrate the junction of the two rivers, the Umvuli and the Umnyati *.
In connexion with this shooting-expedition of 1879, the following letter from J. M. Sadleir, Esq., will not be without interest to the reader : —
Eastern Neston, Towcester,
November 29, 1890. MY DEAR JAMESON,
.... 1 must say I can never forget your brother's kindness to me in Africa. 1 send you the particulars.
In the month oi April, 1879, I was travelling from Durban, Natal, up country. I was taken ill with dysentery at Colenzo. When I had been bad for a fortnight, and was lying in a shed attached to the hotel, your brother, who was trekking to the Zambesi, found me. He at once went back to his camp and brought Dr. Sketchly, one of his party, who attended to me for some days, till I could be moved. Jameson then had a hammock slung for me in one of his waggons, and took me up country with him, till I was strong enough to go back to Durban. To his treatment and care alone I believe I owe my life.
Very sincerely yours,
J. M. SADLEIK.
Andrew Jameson, Esq.
In the spring of 1881, Jameson returned to England, bringing with him a fine collection of large heads, as well as birds, butterflies, beetles, flowers, and grasses.
In the following year he went out to the Rocky Mountains with his brother, Mr. John A. Jameson. In the Crazy Mountains, and near the upper waters of the Musselshell in Eastern Montana, they shot several bear, wapiti, buffalo, deer, and antelope.
* See 'Proceedings of th\> Royal Geographical Society,' June 1881, F. C. Selous.
Tn 1883 they went through the Crow lle^ervat ion, Montana Territory, on to the North Fork of the Stinking Water, in M'areh of sheep, of whieh they obtained tliirty->i\, several Itiill'iilo, l)oars, wapiti, &C.
In L884 Jameson travelled through Spain and Algeria ;
upon his return in I SS."» he married Ktliel, daughter of the; late Major-general Sir Henry Marion Durand, R.E., K.C.S.I., C.I5.
Two years later, in January 1887, the attention and sym- pathy of all England were attracted to the Expedition for the relief of Emin Pasha — Gordon's worthy lieutenant and friend — which was on the eve of departure for Africa, under the com- mand of Mr. H. M. Stanley. The scheme was one which could not fail to appeal most strongly to Jameson's chivalrous nature; moreover, it promised almost boundless scope for the exercise of his special talent for natural history research. He at once volunteered his services to Mr. Stanley, who readily accepted them.
The following words are taken from a letter written on January 22, 1887, by him to Lady Durand : —
" . . . . Why all the ambitions of my lifetime should have been concentrated at this time, with a seemingly prosperous issue, I know not; but I assure you that I did not accept the position without weighing well all there was for and against it. Ever since my childhood I have dreamt of doing some good in this world, and making a name which was more than an idle one. My life has been a more or less selfish one, and now springs up the opportunity of wiping off a little of the long score standing against me. Do not blame me too much, ... I must thank you for your generous kind-hearted wishes. . . ."
A sadder tale than that contained in these diaries has seldom been told; for, strive as he would to lighten its hopeless misery, even Jameson's bright and dauntless spirit was weighed down by the wretchedness of the position in which he \\ as placed ; and, had it not been for the sincere friendship which arose between Edmund Musgrave Barttclot and himself, the talc would have been sadder still.
xxxii . INTRODUCTION.
The letters and diaries graphically describe his share in the Expedition, speaking more powerfully than any panegyric could do for the single-hearted, loyal, and courageous spirit in which he met all difficulties and bore every hardship and bitter dis- appointment, as he saw his dearest hopes, one after the other, shattered by the exigencies of a position in which the revolting duties of a slave-driver were forced upon him ; whilst every opportunity for scientific work was ruthlessly withdrawn.
We only add a few words, written by one who knew and appreciated him : —
" His character was one which it was impossible to know without loving — unselfish and generous, pure-hearted and brave ; a rare combination of manly strength and courage with the most tender sweetness and gentleness of spirit. Seldom, if ever, has such an instance been known to me of utter forget- fulness of self and thoughtfulness for others, at all times and under all circumstances/'
CHAPTER I.
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS.
Joining Stanley and Officers of the Expedition.-Zanzibar.-Tippu-Tib- War between Soudanese and Zanzibaris.-Storie.s about Tippu-Tib - Cape rown.-Buy ing do^.- Stanley refuses carrier for Jameson'a collecting-things and big rifle.— Banana Point.
UNTIL the start up the Congo, on March 19th, 1887 Jameson kept no regular diary. The following extracts are taken from letters to his wife :
S.S. Peshawur. Eed Sea.
February 1887.—. . . I met Stanley at Suez, with the 1887. black troops, awaiting the Navarino, which had not Februar7- yet come through the Canal. He advised me to o-0 on KedSea' to Aden, where I should meet Major Barttelot, who is one of the staff. We have got Dr. Parke as doctor to the Expedition, who went through the Soudanese War and behaved splendidly.
S.S. Oriental. Aden.
February IQt/i.— . . . I have met Barttelot, and like him very much indeed. He is to have command
the black troops, as he speaks their Lm-ua-r and has seen a good deal of them in Egypt. We are going to have a charming night of it. Another Hritish- India boat has just arrived, and tiny will be all ni-lit transhipping their cargo on to our steamer. Tomorrow
i,
2 STOR7 OF THE REAM COLUMN.
1887. we go into the outer harbour to await the , on rival Feb-10' If the Navarino ____ I have just tried to spear an Ad«" enormous cockroach with my pen, but he escaped me
February Vtth.— The Navarino has turned up at last, anfwe 2t some time to-day. Stanley and the whole party are here.
February 11 th.— Jephson is in my cabin; he is a
We are iiJve-ij tv7 g,^ TI_/-» fvv-i-ncr
own particular duties to attend to. . . . The trying of this Expedition will be the want of news from However, I am sure to get letters from you on arrival at the Congo.
8 S. Madura. Zanzibar.
unaer a hot sun, in shooting three birds-a species CSdae We saw a good many gazeUe, but did not £ anf 1 made a sketch of the village. Next day we Stopped at Mombasa, but I had no time to go on shore. Yesterday we arrived here; and I must say SSSy ^prised with the whole place-town, har- K and people. The streets are only about five feet wide • but the windows and doors are all carved in dit- feent designs, and the effect of the black carved wood aJainst thebpuVe white building is very picturesque. Si had time to etch some of them, or even to make rough sketches. This morning we got up at TAM and went on shore to the powder-magazine there we remained at work until 6.30 P.M I don think I ever put in a harder twelve hours work ; but it does one good. We packed 4,500 Ibs. of powder in
EXTRACTS i-'it<>.\i I.KTTKKX. 3
cases which came out from home, beside 1887
1<> of work with caps. To-morrow evening wear* F'b™ » dining at the British Consulate, and aextmorn^ Za"2lbar (thank ^MHlness!) we sail for the Congo. \\V ?. s.xty-one donkeys on board, and the braying that thly keep „,, at night is dreadful. One starts it, and he "H.ers prolong the chorus in different keys ad infinitum.
.-.norrow morning COO Zanzibaris are coming onboard !
1" -n we get at least 600 more at the Congo, S "ith the Soudanese troops, will make a good lot of men
February 25th.— I am not going to keep a diary hl I start up the Congo, that all the time thaH an give to writing may be given to you. So I shall mte every day, and send it all from' the Cape when we call there. . . . At Lamu, of which I spoke in my ast letter, there are the remains of a great battle, the vhole shore being covered with bones and skulls >ome of our party gathered very good specimens. I believe the fight was one between the Arabs and the Mombasa— a quaint old town, full of old Portuguese rums-possesses a pretty and almost land- locked harbour. Off the Island of Pemba we fished th land-lines over the stern of the steamer, and caught a number of fish, small, but of the most beau- iful colours— some bright red, others barred with blue liver, and brown-a kind of bream or sea-perch, I think . . . Ihe Sultan's Palace at Zanzibar is a won- .structure, quite square, with an enormous cor- gated iron roof, about four stories high— quite the ugliest building I have ever seen, looking very like an immense doll's house. Imagine my surprise when heard that the famous Tippu-Tib was comin- th us round to the Congo and on to Emin Bey hundred of his fighting men are to meet us at Hanley FaUs. After dinner, at the Consulate, we rare all introduced to Tippu-Tib, who is a fine old ib, very lively, and a thorough old gentleman.
STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
1887. We started to-day at day* Feb. 25. 9n xv;VpS on board, and, ii—
z"uiw' altogether. They have all been more or ^ ^ ^ with the exception of s ™*ajj™^ihe interpreter
amusing to see *JgJ lk straight, and make
and taken below, trying ; to wa ^ ^ ^
fnTo'e place and the Soudanese into aether ; but
broken one man's arm, and the finger
since.
JW,-«a« 26M.-Busy all day, making vocabulary
have been placed under my charge. -ave one
splendid boy amongst *em )vho is my mterpretei and whom I am going to teach to skin toe, , he * ^one of the most intelligent little chaps ] have ever^ To-day some of those troublesome Soudanese , oldier attempted to take liberties with some of ^PP^ wives • in consequence there has been a row, « special sentry placed over their apartments.
KXTRACTN l-'ltOM LKTTKRS. 5
After dinner Mr. Stanley told us a few stories about 1887. Tippu-Tib. It seems that at one time IK* borrowed At " about £4,000 from the Rothschild of Zanzibar, and stalled into the interior with a good many followers to trade for ivory. After some time he came to a very large native town, enclosed within double palisades. The town was so large that, if a gun was fired off at any point in the outer circle, it could not be heard at an opposite point in the same circle. The king kept all his ivory and wives within the inner palisade, and there were 10,000 warriors guarding him in the outer circle. After keeping Tippu for a long time in his town, the king gave an order that, should any of his men catch Tippu alone outside, they should kill him. One day he left the town by himself, and on his way back he met two of the king's men, who began to shoot at him with bows and arrows. He ran for the gate of the town, but just as he reached it an arrow struck him in the leg and brought him down ; he got up again and running towards his own camp, he shouted out to his people to bring him his gun. He was again struck and knocked down, but his wife managed to give him his gun, with which he shot both of the king's men. The shots roused the king's warriors, and brought all Tippu's men running into his camp. They first shot down a number of the natives, and when about one hundred of them had mustered, Tippu ordered them to rush for the gate of the big town, and to fire all together as the warriors came on. This they did, and burned the houses nearest to them. The fight lasted three days, by which time they had burned all the outer circle of the town. They then proceeded to fire through the inner palisade, until they had decimated the people gathered inside ; then they made a rush, seized and beheaded the king, and captured all the ivory and women. Tippu next went to all the smaller towns in the kingdom and collected enormous quan- tities of ivory, which he afterwards sold at the coast for £40,000. He became king of a whole country, entirely through his own cunning. He once came to
1887.
Feb. 26.
At Mft.
6 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
a strange country, where he was told that the king had been taken away years before, with t his little son and that the natives had long expected his return. Having ked numerous questions of every native he met, ±out ^ng who he was, Tippu-Tib at length said to one man, "Had your king not such and such coloured eyes!" The man said, "Yes." Tippu then exactly described the king, until the native said, "Why, that is the very man! "-when Tippu told him he was the son who had gone away with the old-king, and that he was to go and tell all the people. 1 his he at once did when they came to him with presents of all kinds : to make a long story short, he is king of that country at the present time. The following is a specimen of his cruelty -_He was once attacked by a tribe, of whom I succeeded in making some prisoners. He knew would be attacked by them again, so he killed all captives, and having cut them up small, he put them i large pots to boil, mixing up bananas and aU sorts < things, until a rich savoury aroma arose from the pots. When he was attacked by the natives, he pretended to retreat, and watched his enemies— who had found the pots on the fire— set to and ravenously eat up their own people.
March 2nd.— . . . This morning Mr. Stanley read to me Tennyson's c Ulysses/ ... All the spare time 1 had to-day I was reading the « Light of Asia/ . . . Stanley says he has got a copy with him, too. He gave us all the most lovely little medicine-chests to-day.
March 3rd.— Out of the tropics at last, and the weather is decidedly cooler. . . . Not an item of interest, again ! The only things which seem to change at all on board are the horrible smells from the crowd of natives ; and they only change in so far that they are at times much worse than at others. . . .
March 1th.— . . . I have heard the real story from Stanley as to how he got Tippu-Tib to come with us. Before leaving England, he heard that Tippu was in
EXTRACTS IWtM LKTTKIiX. 1
/aii/ibar. lie at mice telegraphed that he particularly wished to see him, and to keep him at any price until his arrival. "When Stanley saw him at Zanzibar, Tippu first said lie would stop our going in at all ; so Stanley assured him that we were quite willing and prepared to fight him, but that he had better take care what he was about. He then gave him the choice of fighting us and taking the consequences, or of helping us and being made Governor of Stanley Falls, under the King of the Belgians. Next day Tippu-Tib said he would accept the latter ; and Stanley telegraphed the same to Belgium, and received a reply confirming the appoint- ment. The night we dined at the British Consulate, Tippu-Tib signed an agreement to help us in every way, and was made Governor. He is not going with us further than Stanley Falls himself, but is sending his head men with us, and 600 fighting-men. We expect to reach Emin Bey in July; so that, if we come back down the Congo, we ought to be home in no time. A more definite time than this I cannot give you : I wish to God I could ! . . .
March 8th. — Arrived in Simon's Bay. . . .
March 2th. — Lady Hunt-Grubbe and her daughters came with the Governor and inspected the ship, and showed great interest in Tippu-Tib and especially in his wives. Reached Cape Town about 7 o'clock.
March Wth. — Went on shore with Jephson and Nelson to buy a lot of things and to get dogs. . . . Had a delicious breakfast on shore, . . . and searched all the morning for dogs. We collected a very curious lot, consisting of bull-dogs, bull-terriers, fox-terriers, a Bedlington, and several unknown species. Mr. Stanley bought the two fox-terriers — one for himself, and one as a present for Tippu-Tib. Jephson and I secured the two large bull-terriers, and tossed up for them. The large brindled one fell to me, and a horribly low white one to Jephson. They are about the two most ruffianly- looking dogs I have ever seen.
1887. Mar. 11
8 STORY OF THE HEAR COLUMN.
March llth.— . . The deck is quite lively with all the dogs ; but the increase of insects of the carnivorous
To™, species is much to be deplored
March 13th.— A donkey died: the first death on
board, with the exception of a few goats
Mmh Utk—A. Zanzibari died to-day, and was con- sicmed to the deep. It is horrible the way the natives SEbBfe their sick, or any one of them who is hurt. Busy most of the day in packing musket-caps into new boxes for Emin Pasha. . . .
March I&th.— Jephson, disgusted with the low habits and appearance of his dog, flung him overboard in t dead of the night, with a furnace-bar attached to him. Alas! poor Bill, his life on board was a short and any- thing but a merry one.
March 16f A.— Another Zanzibari died to-day, of in- flammation of the lungs.
March Ilth.— You cannot tell what real joy your letter and telegram brought me at the Cape. I could hardly believe my eyes when they brought them to me One thing that makes one sad is knowing that, after a time, it will be hard to send you any letters or news . To add to my cheerfulness, Mr. Stanley informed me yesterday that he would not give me a man either to carry my collecting-things, or my rifle and its ammunition. This is a bright look-out for me, who came to collect, and shoot meat for the Expedition. Mr. Stanley was present when was speaking to l)e Winton about my big rifle, and advised me to take shells for it. I have, however, reduced my Avrarins-apparel and my bedding to so little that 1 can take mnst of my collecting-things ; and some of the other fellows have been good enough to offer to carry some of them for me. I have reduced myself to one spare coat besides the one on my back, one pair of boots < and one pair packed, one blanket; and all the rest on the same scale. Thus, at the expense of all my own
EXTRACTS MOM LI-TTI-RX. 9
personal comfort, I can take my collect in^-tlm,<rs — or at least some of them. All this certainly takes a good deal of the gilt off the trip to me; but though I must say I was rather mad at first, I am now making the best of a bad business. I have had to give or throw away every ounce of my tobacco ; but the empty tins will come in beautifully for " bugs " and small bird- skins. ... I shall take the big rifle on shore, and hire men myself to carry it, whenever we have to go overland, until we reach Stanley Falls, where I hope to get a couple of men from Tippu-Tib to carry it on to Wadelai.
March 18th [Banana Point]. — . . . We start up the river to-morrow ; and as we begin to put everything on board at daybreak, I shall have no time to write to you in the morning, and must make up my mind to say "Good-bye;" for this is at last the great start of the Expedition : God knows, I can hardly pluck up courage to say it!
1887. Mar. 17.
Town.
SLAVK GIRL.
PETER'S FETISH.
CHAPTER II.
1887. Mar. 19.
Congo.
DIARY.
MARCH 19TH TO APRIL 30TH.
Boma. — Ango-Ango. — Mpalaballa Mission Station. — March to Congo da Lemba.-— Banza Manteka. — Day's march resembling slave- driving. — Kuilu River. — March to Vombo" — Stanley doing rear-guard. — Barttelot sent on with Soudanese. — Sick chief. — Lute'te'. — Kindness of the mis- sionaries.— Stanley settling a row. — Inkissi River. — Thief. — Stanley's punishment of chiefs. — Off to shoot hippo. — Difficulty about steamers. — Kinshassa. — Ward joins the Expedition.
March I$th, 1887. — Started up the Congo at last in the Dutch Co.'s steamer Nieman, Nelson, myself, and 232 men. We were the first to start. Next came the British Congo Co.'s steamer Albuquerque with cargo, and Dr. Parke and his company. Mr. Stanley follows in the Portuguese steamer Serpa Pinto, with about 300 men and the donkeys, and Major Barttelot and Jephson bring up the rear in another steamer with the remainder of the men. The view as far as Kishanga is very limited, as the banks are covered with dense tropical
DIARY. H
vegetation, and the high land at the back is only now 1887. and a-ain visible. After Kishan^a the river opens out, with beautiful undulating country on either side, and' we pass numerous large grass-covered islands. The English Mission Station appears on the sky-line of the uplands on the right, immediately after entering the river. A good fresh breeze blowing from the sea all day prevented one feeling the heat. At Mataba, the river opens out grandly. Here the banks are low, discovering beautiful undulating grassy country at the back. Anchored at Alligator River at one o'clock. From the top deck of the steamer we could see nearly twenty miles of country on every side. We lay opposite Peter's Fetish, a beautiful rock, partially covered with trees,
BOMA.
March 20th. — Passed Boma, the principal town (?) of the Congo Free State. It consists of a few factories or trading-houses, Dutch, French, Belgian, and Por- tuguese, also a French and English Mission. It is very prettily situated, and in a more flourishing condition of things may, I suppose, become a big place. There is a large, beautiful pool above Boma, after which the river runs between high barren hills on both rides, for although they appear brilliantly verdant, the hard
12
STORY OF THE 11KA11 COLUMN.
Message
Pinto for Matadi, and shouted out a I could not understand. Seat .me*
to walk with their men overland.
._ Stayed at the Dutch House with Mr
from Matedi in the Heron, and took off the reminder with my men. Arrived at Matadi about 5 o clock, halg h^d nothing to eat all day, and then had to tow
ANGO-ANGO.
up the cargo in a lighter to Stanley, who was at the IWtu'niese Factory. I tramped back in the dark, thoroughly disgusted with everyone and everything, t. get my first square meal that day. Visions of sketching &c. are rapidly fading.
13
. ... 22nd. — Hard at work all day breaking open 188?- and making up loads. Slept in the Portuguese
House. They are very kind to us, and feed and " drink "
us right royally.
March 2?>rd. — The cry is still wre break open cases and make up loads. Had a grand parade of men and distributed Remington rifles, with which I hope they won't shoot us, and spears, which from their rottenness are comparatively harmless, half of them being already without heads.
March 24:th. — Marched about three quarters of a mile over to the Congo State Station. They gave us breakfast, but after that left us entirely to ourselves. Had some practice with the Maxim gun, which worked wonderfully well. Mr. Walker left for the Mposo River, with the iron boat, in order to put it together.
March 25th. — Marched to the Mposo River, over one of the worst roads I have ever seen, up and down masses of cinder-like rock and broken quartz : my donkey fell three times, and it was lucky I did not attempt to ride him ; I very nearly shot him in simple disgust. Found the boat not put together, and when we did get it in the river, it took us hours to cross, pulling it backwards and forwards on a rope. This miserable little river is scarcely more than thirty yards wide.
March 26th. — Marched to Mpalaballa Mission Station. Went ahead of most of my men, and had a de- lightful walk. The road much better than yesterday, and the country very pretty indeed. Shot a Whydah finch, black, with yellow shoulders. Mr. Clarke, the head of the Mission, and the ladies treated us with the greatest hospitality.
March 27th. — Remained all day at Mpalahalla, waiting for men with loads from Matadi. Met Mr. Ingham, who is one of our staff, and came out here straight from England, coming down with native carriers to carry our loads up country, which are far in excess of the number
14 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
';„ of the Zanzibaris. He gave us a very bad account of tlio condition of the steamers on the Upper Congo. The country round here is very beautiful, but without any game, although bird and insect life seem to be on thr increase. I was very busy all day sorting loads, and parading men,
Mnrch 2Sth. — Marched to Massam Mankengi. The path seems to be made to cut the soles off one's boots, and the donkeys do nothing but tumble, up the hills, or tumble down them. The order was given this morning that we were to march in the rear of the men, and assist them with their loads, so good-bye to all chances of collecting.
March 29th. — Marched to the deserted native village of Congo da Lemba, which, until burnt by the Congo Free State, was a flourishing native town. The Congo Free State people have burnt the huts and driven away the natives from nearly every village on the road, consequently there is not a scrap of food to be obtained for love or money. They say that the natives inter- fered with their carriers on the road. The work we are doing is not fit for any white man, but ought to be given to slave-drivers. It is all very nice for Mr. Stanley, who rides ahead straight on to the next camp, where we arrive hours afterwards, having done nothing all day but kick lazy carriers, and put the loads* on to the heads of those who choose to fling them down. On arriving in camp one has to go over all the loads to see that they are correct, then stack them and interview the men about the loads that have gone wrong; so that it is dark before one has even time to wash. I have given up all hopes of collecting, although I have seen many birds, and especially butterflies, that I should dearly like to have obtained.
March Wth. — Rained nearly all morning, so did not start until late for the Lufu River. The Bembezi River was in flood, and having got all the men and loads over, we found Mr. Stanley had gone on miles
DIARY. 15
ahead. We eventually pulled up in the dark, in the ^ middle of a tropical forest, the men throwing down * ™ ' their loads, and going to sleep in every direction. Dr. Parke was in the front of the column, Stairs and myself in the centre, next came Jephson and Barttelot, Nelson bringing up the rear-guard. The column being over a mile long, when it became dark some of the most advanced had reached camp. Stairs and Parke soon gave it up as hopeless, and bolted for camp. I, finding myself deserted, lit my lantern and only piece of candle, and struck out for camp also, leaving the men hopelessly lost in the bush to make the best of the night. Shortly after arriving in camp (where Mr. Stanley regaled us with rice, biscuit, tea and brandy, and the latter was very acceptable, as I had waded the river and been soaking wet for hours), Barttelot and Jephson turned up, but Nelson slept in the wood, in the camp belonging to a man who was bringing up things for the Sanford Expedition. In consequence of this night, some of the loads were lost, and several of the men bolted. I slept on the ground in Mr. Stanley's tent, on my waterproof — about as hard a bed as I ever had. From this you will observe what a splendid expedition it is for a naturalist. It is some- times very hard to think of all the glory of relieving Emin Bey.
March 31s£. — Having got the men and the loads out of the wood, we started amidst much grumbling from the men, who had had nothing to eat, and marched to the Lufu River. Here there is a ford, and also a curious old swinging bridge of native construction, with large gaps in it every few yards, and a deep drop into the river if one fell. A couple of miles further on we camped.
Mr. Stanley here behaved to me in a way which was utterly undeserved, and which I did not expect from him. On passing the Lufu River he was attacked with acute dysentery, and although he was apparently all right again in the evening, he was weak, and had to bo
10 STORY OF THE 11KAR COLUMN.
carried from the river to the camp. When there I went
R' to him to reP°rt that one of my men had deserted witn his gun on the march, and at the same time said I was very sorry to hear that he had been so ill. He turned round very sharply and said, " No wonder. I have only you to thank for it. I have had nothing but tea for two days, whilst you have had meat for your breakfast yesterday, and I consider you are entirely to blame for my illness." I may here state that I had volunteered to take over the cooking and ration arrangements for a week, as no one else seemed inclined to look after them, and before we really could often get nothing to eat. The facts about his having had no meat for two days are the following : — The evening before leaving Congo da Lemba I sent a messenger to ask him if I should kill a goat or the four fowls which were in camp, as there was no meat. The message sent back by his own servant, William, was, " Save the goat and kill the four fowls, if they will be enough for to-night." I killed the fowls, and they were quite enough, for some of the other officers had some in the morning. Jephson, Stairs, and I breakfasted next morning in my tent on a tin of sardines, the last but one that I had, so that Mr. Stan- ley's taunt that I had meat when he had none falls to the ground. That morning it rained for hours, and he would not say whether we were to march or remain, so that it was utterly impossible to kill any meat. He then ar- ranged his march, so that in the middle of the night the goats were left in the wood, and he marched again next morning before they were out of it. He then turns round and says that it is entirely my fault that he is ill. Altogether I think the whole business is a very thank- less job, and the moment this week is over the cooking arrangements may go to the devil for all I care.
April 1st. — Marched to the American Mission Station, Banza Manteka, a beautifully situated spot, standing high and surrounded by wooded valleys, brilliant with tropical verdure. The water here is worse than any I have seen, too dirty to wash in.
April m.— Marched on to the Kuilu River, a muddy
"I'i'l stream, which we had to cross, ten men at a time,
old dug-out canoe. Such is the great road of the
'ongo Free State! This morning, in trying for the
DIARY. 17
nlii;iiiic(I M. number of jrn.,,1 l.uiiorflios out of the 1W.
Mission garden. After dinner a f^n-liil thunderstorm Apn"
(•jinie on, and blew in the end of the officers' tent. |£
<rom the door of mine, which was snug and dry I had <"The
a beautiful view of all the fun, in the middle of which *%*. a whole pile of ammunition-boxes fell down, to add to the confusion.
April 2nd.— In the morning we had a general parade of all the men, and Mr. Stanley addressed each com- pnny in turn, and I noticed that all the lazy blackguards who had given us the most trouble, were foremost in shouting out all sorts of fine things about going on to the end of the world with him ! After this came a renching storm of rain, and then we marched six or seven miles across the valley and camped.
April 3rd— Had an awful day's work. Had to go with Barttelot as rear-guard. Started at 6 A.M., and did not get into camp near the Kuilu River until nearly 6 P.M. I had nothing to eat the whole day but the fifth part of a tin of sardines, and did not sit down tor more than a quarter of an hour. The work was truly sickening, as every twenty yards one had to stop to put load on a man's head who had flung it down, and |T likely give him a good dose of stick before he ould go on. There was no rest upon gettin°- into camp either, for I had to go over all n/loads,8 stack em, and send out men to find those who had not m The work must greatly resemble slave- I succeeded in shooting a swallow, which is the same as the small South-African one, and a bee-eater vl.ich is new to me. Both were skinned by the li»ht fa small piece of candle, and the skins are worthless
them'0 PSCd bef°re * had a Chance of
lg STOUT OF THE REAR
1887 first time to ride my donkey . acroi
i r rimwnpd '-Drecipuauug m^ *««~ AP"U- fdl and was nearly drownea, I p which filled my
S mud (the blackest I ever have B^ ^ , Early in saddle-bags containing my collecu e ^^ e
donkeys across.
rM Marched to Mwembi. On reaching the
" " - t
dead beat.
7^.-Marched to Vombo, quite the quickest mae have done, owing to a good level n»d and Mr Stanley doing rear-guard with some of his Somali,
to s'trike them. The march was otherwise uninteresting,
DIARY. 19
over a hi-1, plateau, covered with ],)IU, rank ._, 1537.
which cut oil any view of the land. ( 'amped in an old Apri' 7"
native viUage amongst palms, and collected a small Vomba number <»1 butterflies.
A,,,-// SM.— Marched from Vombo to Lukungu Station I he road lay through beautiful country, affording glimpses on both sides of valleys filled with tropical vegetation. Shortly after leaving camp a severe thunderstorm came on. Barttelot and I were doin°- rear-guard, with Stanley a little ahead of us We both saw one of the lightning flashes strike the side of a hill 150 yards off, and a small cloud of dust and smoke immediately floated away from the spot It was a severe march, as some of the hills were bad, and the wet made them worse. Stairs had to shoot his donkey, as his >oy led it badly down a steep place, and it broke its leg I was getting intensely annoyed with the carriers, who' jince Mr. Stanley went ahead, had done nothing but sit .own, and was generally down on my luck towards the end of the march, when I saw Parke seated under a 3e. He gave me a drink of my own whiskey, thirteen years old, and then everything changed to a brighter hue ; but it also lent strength to my arm, when, within a mile from camp, I found all the men had flung down their loads and gone off looting in the native gardens seized a large stick and went for them. It was more [ could bear to be stopped within sight of camp, at he end of a long march. I laid about me, and soon hud them all in camp.
April 9th.— Barttelot was sent on in the afternoon
with the Soudanese, and all the worst men in camp, all
himself, to be always one day ahead on the road to
•Pool. It looks strange on Mr. Stanley's part to
send him by himself with the very worst and most
ebelhous lot in camp, who will not move a yard so
', as they know that all the food is behind them
Barttelot has done a lot of work which he need not
3 done, as it was beyond his actual duties, and it
seems a poor return for it all.
c2
20 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
A -7 in/7. After sending Jephson's men to Many-
Jft. 4!"' 2S?£ *£ t^Tdl^^d
Kimbara- > , -i . Trimbamwan°ra, where our aavaiu &u.t
mnrciieo 1,0 iviiiiuc*i*i tjj.^"-? _ . ^ ^ »^
wanga. unn-
me in a very false position with my men. Just we re starting, I told him that one of my chiefs ST^ffi indeed! and that I did not think he could ^ He told me not to bring him any reports of Se kind, that he would not listen to them and ihat ^ orders were for all the sick to go on, and that I was to see that they did so. I only said, « Very well, sir. I behaved very cruelly in making the man get up amidst the murmurl of all the chiefs, and then driving him on. In a few yards he fell down, and could not get up Mr Stanley, on passing, recognized him, and went up t seehowheW He'called to Dr. Parke to come to him, and told him that, as he was a good man we must lot lose him; gave him medicine then, and lett re wUh him, at'thl same time telling one of the officers of the State to look after him, get him into a hut and everything he could for him. Of course all the mei now look°upon me as a brute, and Mr. Stanley as a sort of guardian-angel, although I was only carrying out hi own orders. My dog Bull ran away back to the Station at Lukungu, and, poor beast, I am not sorry, tor ttu he will be well looked after, and in camp 1 could not get him enough to eat.
April 11*A.— Marched to the Mpwka River; a short march, brought to a close by the river itself being in Ml flood, with only an old rickety wicker-bndge, a lew I et wide over which to cross. We felled two trees ; but course they both fell in the wrong direction, as every- thing does in this beastly country! By the time donkeys were swum over it was nearly dark. _ was too thick to put up the big tent, which is the worst and most useless of its kind I have ever seen in my 1 Stairs and Nelson slept in part of it which they pu As it promised to be a fine night, Parke and I slept
DIARY. 21
our Ashantoe hammocks. Before retiring, we killed a iw. magnificent specimen of a centipede in Stairs' tent. I April was sleeping soundly when, towards morning, down came a fearful thunder-plump, and hefore I could get my waterproof sheet over me it wetted all my bedding and myself; the rest of the night was not pleasant. Saw two splendid kingfishers, and many beautiful butterflies on the river ; but it made me quite sick not to have a moment to collect anything. Got a beautiful shell- backed spider with horns on the back, the same that I have seen in Borneo ; but I lost it in the confusion of the next camp.
April 12fh. — Did a good long march over beautiful country to Lutete, where we found Jephson, who had got in before us from Manyanga. He gave me the most glowing account of the birds and insects on the river, which made my mouth water. Barttelot stayed with us, as half his men had gone on to Lutete, and the other half were so far behind that they were too late to go on. The whole idea of his going ahead with these men is a perfect farce. The march lay over beautiful country gradually rising all the way, the highest hill we climbed being 500 feet, measured by Stairs from the creek at its foot. From this point there was a lovely view down to the Congo on one side, to Lutete on another, and behind us to the Mpwka River. One of the Somalia died this morning, and several others are very bad indeed.
April \Wi. — Had a very easy day. Marched to Lutete, the English Baptist Mission Station, beautifully situated, standing very high, and I should say quite healthy. The missionaries received us with kindness, but did not ask us to feast with them ; I suppose we were rather a rough-looking lot. Personally, I must say I am not so " genteel " looking as when I left town, being of a kind of brick-colour, with an untrimmed beard of no great length, of a colour to match. One of the men was to-day placed in chains for stealing pota- toes. Poor Barttelot has a terribly rough time of it
22
STORY OF THE HEAR COLUMN.
1887. April 13.
with the Soudanese, as he cannot get them along at any price. It is a splendid sight to see Mr. Stanley settle Trow To-day some of the Soudanese and Zanzibar* be-an fighting about a cooking-pot, and awoke Mr. sSey, who was asleep. He seized a stick ran in, and whacked away right and left, gmng one fellow a regular facer with his fist, and, in less time than it takes to write this, there was perfect quiet !
April 14^.— Had a long march;, but the men did it splendidly. Made an early start, and camped Nzungi Bonny lost two of the pack-donkeys at Lutetl, but turned up about 5 o'clock in the evening with them, Mr. Stanley's orders to him being that he need not turn up at all unless he found them! Bonny suspects the missionaries of having hidden them • for, when he was left behind, they asked him to breakfast, and inquired how long he would wait t<
donkeys. He replied, probably three or four days, that all his boys would be with him, and that the
DIARY. 23
missionaries would have to find them in everything, as ls&- Mr. Stanley had left them nothing. Two of the mis- April sionaries then went out, and returned in about an hour Nlungi' with the two donkeys, saying that as they were taking a stroll they heard one of them bray in response to one belonging to the station. Bonny, however, thinks that the prospect of keeping him and his boys for three or four days produced the donkeys.
April 15th. — Marched to the Inkissi Eiver. It is now quite a pleasure to see the men walk along cheerily with their loads. Our road lay for a long distance close to the banks of the Congo. Some of the glimpses of the river were very beautiful. I would give anything to have time to make a sketch, no matter how rough, of some of them. The foliage is gorgeous in colouring. Some of the palms bear a bright scarlet flower, growing in great clusters down the centre of each branch. About half-an-hour from here we passed a dead native tied upright to a pole, by the side of the path. Mr. Stanley says it is the body of a thief, put up thus as a warning to others, and that he was executed by the natives themselves. The body was there when Mr. Stanley camped in the same place three or four years ago, and is mentioned in his book on the Congo free
State. The natives here have a curious method of catching birds by hanging long ropes, formed of
24 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
1887. creepers, from the trees on the edge of the forest to Aprill5> poles stuck up in the ground about 15 or 20 yards off. Hanging from these ropes are numbers of snares, made from finer creepers, in which the birds are caught as they fly past.
April 16th. — All day long crossing the Inkissi River. I luckily got across early with all my men, and had a glorious time amongst the butterflies, getting some magnificent ones, though I daresay the more insig- nificant, which I did not fail to catch also, will turn out to be the rarest, as is usually the case. Last night was a horrible one. We slept in a deserted native hut which looked waterproof, and retired with fond hopes of a good night; but about four hours before daylight it began to pour, and poured on until 7 o'clock. The water came in through the roof just above my head and shoulders in torrents ; and although I had an umbrella up, and two coats over me, I was drenched and all my bedding, which, by the bye, con- sists of one blanket and a waterproof sheet with some grass under it.
April 17th. — Had a long march. I had to do rear- guard, but now that the Zanzibaris go so well, it is not nearly so tedious or heart-breaking a business as it used to be. The birds all seem to be in bad plumage for skinning, as most of the feathers are still in the quill, and they make the most horribly bare-looking skins.
April 18th. — Marched to Nkalama. There is a most beautiful waterfall just below camp, where the Mpwka falls into the Congo. The Congo itself is remarkable for the masses of bare, black, horribly forbidding rocks which abound on either shore, and crop up here and there in reefs all over the river. Shot a warbler, the skin of which 1 saved. I found out that one of the ammunition-boxes carried by my company had been
DIAHV. ^
lost to-day, so I reported the matter to Mr. Stanley after 1887- sending back two chiefs all along the road to look for ' |'n it. Mr. Stanley ordered the whole company to fall in, Ri°egr° and then made each man take a load from the heap of loads brought in. lie asked the chief who had received the loads in camp to recognize those of the men who had brought in theirs. He did not remember seeing one unfortunate man, so Mr. Stanley fixed upon him as the man who had lost the box, although he is really one of my best carriers, and swore he brought in his box, and showed Mr. Stanley the tree he cut down to keep the boxes off the ground. Mr. Stanley then called the Somalis, and gave all my chiefs, with the ex- ception of the one who had received the loads in camp, fifty cuts each with a stick, whilst they were held down on the ground. He then gave to the man, whom he accused of having lost the box, a hundred lashes, asking him several times during the beating where the box was, — the man each time still swearing that his box was in camp. He then chained and padlocked the chiefs all together, and accused me of losing three boxes of ammu- nition (which I flatly denied), and told me that in 77 it would have been death*, and if it happened again we must part. If this sort of thing is to go on, and he speaks to me again as he did to-day before the men, I should not be sorry if we did part, for I certainly will not \ keep my temper again. Afterwards I went to his tent, and asked him to explain his statement that I had lost three boxes of ammunition ; and this he utterly failed to do. He said, " You have three times reported to me boxes lost." I then told him that the last time was only two days ago, when Dr. Parke and I had explained the matter to him, and Parke had handed over to me the box missing from my loads ; and the only other time I had reported a load lost, I had also reported to him its recovery. If he goes on much more like this, I shall get sick of the whole thing. He has failed to
* 1877 was the date of Mr. Stanley's return journey ' Through the Dark Continent.' — ED.
26 STOllY OF THE HEAR COLUMN.
1887. find out the man who lost the box, and has degraded April is. three Q£ my chief^ who were simply the best men I have ever seen. They are to carry loads to-morrow, and I don't know how to fill their places. I heard from Stairs to-day that at present the Stanley is the only steamer ready to take us up the Congo from the Pool. The English Mission has refused the use of its steamer, and the American Mission is awaiting in- structions. This is the magnificent fleet of steamers placed at Mr. Stanley's disposal for ninety days by the King of the Belgians ! !
April 19//L — This morning Mr. Stanley succeeded in breaking up my company, I think for good. He made my chiefs, all chained together as they were, carry loads of ammunition, and made new chiefs, picking out two of the worst men amongst them. We marched on to- the Luila River, and having crossed it, camped just above it.
April 20th. — Marched to Makoko's village. Herey thank Heaven, Tippu-Tib interceded on behalf of my chiefs with Mr. Stanley, and he ordered them to be unchained. I at once gave them back their rifles, and made chiefs of them again. Old Makoko, the chief here, is an extraordinary-looking object, possessing what the Americans call a chin-whisker, which he has divided into two, making each division into a ringlet. His old visage is wrinkled and of a perfect chocolate hue, Parke is very seedy with dysentery.
April 21st. — Arrived at Leopoldville, which is a pretty spot, looking right up the Pool, the views of which are rather too peaceful from this end to please me, and not what I had expected.
April 22nd. — Very busy until midday making out returns of men, rifles, hoes, axes, spades, billhooks, loads, &c. for Mr. Stanley. Then Major Barttelot came and told me I could start off at once and try and kill some hippos, for there were no more rations in
DIARY. 27
ramp for the men. I got my things together as quickly as possible, and of course, in my excitement and eager- ness, forgot the two most important things — food and a ni<>s<piito curtain! Such small details as these were quite secondary as compared to hippopotami. I trusted to getting some biscuits and tinned stuff at the Dutch trading-house, higher up the Pool, where I had to call for my big rifle ; but, on arriving there, found neither rifle nor edibles, but a most acceptable drink of very excellent cognac. I was in a fine big canoe with ten Bangalas to paddle me, and camped some distance above Kinshassa on the river-bank. Never did 1 spend a more miserable night. My boy had forgotten my waterproof; the rain came down in torrents ; and I was wet through before retiring to bed in my tent, and passed the whole night in this soaking condition. Sleep I could not, for the mosquitoes were in thousands; and next morning I was a perfect wreck.
April 23rd. — I started at daybreak ; and although I shot two hippos, I only succeeded in getting one of them, as the Bangala, whom I left to watch the first one rise, went sound asleep, and let it float down the Congo. I returned in triumph, however, with the meat to camp. The Bangalas are the greatest savages I ever came across, and about the most difficult to manage. They simply do nothing except when it suits their fancy, although they are splendid men when they do work. On returning to Leopoldville, I heard of great rows going on about the steamers. It appears that, after all, the missionaries had refused to lend the Henry Jteed, as one of them (the engineer) was going down to the coast to be married. (This steamer, with the Peace and the Stanley, are the only three available to take us up the river.) They had taken away some parts of the machinery to render her useless, so Mr. Stanley sent down a guard of Soudanese under Major Barttelot to the Mission House, with orders that if the pieces were not given up, the house was to be searched, and a second guard under Jephson to take
28 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
c^ar?e °f tne steamer. Then the chief of the station, M-r- Liebrichts, said that Mr. Stanley was wrong in Pool, acting as he had, but that he could make it all right, as the State has the power of taking the Mission steamers whenever they are required; so he removed the Soudanese, replacing them by his own guards. The missionary who was going to be married, said he had considered the whole matter over with God, as Mr. Stanley says, " even to the third watch," and that he could not lend her.
April 24:th. — This morning I hear the matter about the steamer is satisfactorily arranged ; and Mr. Walker goes as engineer, the steamer being lent under protest, although very well paid for. Meat is so badly wanted that I am off again up the Pool to shoot more hippos. This time, however, I am not going without food or a mosquito curtain. Mr. Liebrichts is sending one of the officers of the State also, as he wants meat for the men of the station. Mr. Stanley has the mails intercepted before reaching Leopoldville, so that the missionaries cannot receive unfavourable advice about lending their steamers.
April 25th. — The Free State officer started this morning in the large canoe, leaving me the small one, out of which it was simply impossible to shoot. His pro- position was that, when we saw hippos, one of us should go to the other side of them, that they might be driven from one canoe to the other. I did not quite see this, as the river is narrow between the islands, and I thought of the bullets that would be flying about when one rose between us ; so shortly after starting I took a line of my own, and soon shot one, more by good luck than good guidance, as the moment I raised the rifle to flre, over went the canoe on one side. I unfortunately lost this hippo, as I shot it in a rapid current between two islands, and it was carried down before rising. I had a tiresome wait on a sandbank in a scorching sun for four hours ; but no hippo came up. I shot another Inter, and it did not rise before dark; so we lost it also.
DIARY. 29
April 20M. — Got up with a distinct touch of fever, and very shaky ; but as I saw some hippos not far off, and succeeded in making some natives lend me a big Pool, canoe for the promise of meat, I started off after them, and with the very first shot killed a large cow stone dead — she just opened her jaws and sank. I then struck another, which came up, but I had shot it too far forward, and so it could not keep under water. This one gave me a lot of trouble, charging the canoe over and over again ; and although I stopped it each time with a bullet in the head, it was not until the fifth time that I killed it. The way that the Bangalas shouted, and darted round and round him in the canoe, was great fun. Went on shore to wait for the hippos to rise ; and while the natives were cutting them up I began a letter home.
Extract from a letter to Mrs. Jameson, dated April 26th : — " On a sandbank in the middle of Stanley Pool,
cutting up a hippopotamus just killed This is
the first chance of writing to you I have had since leaving Banana. It is a cloudy day and cool, so I am writing whilst waiting for a canoe from Leopoldville to take away the meat. I had rather a sharp touch of fever this morning at daybreak, the first I have had, although everyone else has been ill. Stanley has had a bad attack of dysentery, Parke is very ill with it, and Jephson, Stairs, and Nelson have all had fever, while Barttelot has had nothing but bad headaches, and your husband has been in splendid health ! There was little or no food for our 700 or 800 men at Leopoldville, so they have sent me to kill meat for them. I have shot a lot of hippos, and would have shot a number more if I had had my big rifle. I got it forwarded from Ango- Ango by the Dutch House, as Stanley would not give me carriers for it. I am shooting with an express of Barttelot's, which, although a good gun, is no weapon for hippopotami. The march from Matadi was one of the most disgusting pieces of work I have ever had to do, until the latter part, when the men marched
30 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
1887.^ better. A lot of slave-drivers of the old days would
stLe' have done it; much better> f°r that — slave-driving— is Pool? what it often resolved itself into. (There is a big hippo in the middle of the river looking at me, but I will not try to shoot him as I have not canoes enough to carry the meat.) I have no letters from you later than the one dated February 3rd ; the Portuguese mail having broken down, we are without any news, and it is awfully disheartening. The sport and natural-history part of this Expedition is a regular* farce, and I can see very little hope of its being any better later on. This is very tiring work to be at so long, sleeping in a swamp at night, and, after shooting a hippo, remaining for three or four hours on a sandbank in a blazing sun, until he rises to the surface, and two hours more, while the superbly lazy, though savage, natives cut it up. I have never been in a country where I believe there is more to be collected. The birds and insects are lovely, but with the work one has to do it is impossible to get anything. All my lovely dreams have been very roughly knocked on the head. I will give you a specimen of a day's work on the march. Barttelot and I started one day as rear-guard a little after 6 A.M., and did not reach camp until after 6 P.M., with not a quarter of an hour's rest all day. Nothing but beating niggers with a stick, and lifting their loads on to their heads, and day after day the same disgusting work. Jt must take a great deal of glory to make UD for it all. I am keeping a diary for you
" Wednesday, 21th. — Still on this sandbank; the canoes have not arrived. When I finished writing yesterday, I went and lay for over an hour in the sun to try and get that big hippo that I told you was looking at me. At last he got up on a bank, and I shot him through the heart, although it was a very long shot. It brought on the fever twice as bad, and I had a very bad time of it all yesterday and last night. ... It seems years since I left home, and the want of all news from you makes it seem much longer. I am very shaky this morning, so I will lie down for a little.
i-lXTHACT l-'i;n.M Lr.TTKR. 31
"8 P.M. The Cam]), Leopoldville. — I arrived here ^ safely a few hours ago; the canoes turned up at noon. The fever has quite left me. ... A moment ago a ])erfect tornado of thunder, lightning, rain, and wind came on, and I had to jump up and make the tent right. Thank Heaven, I am not on that sandbank! The natives here seem very much like those of the jSlashona country. They have the same kind of ' pianos ' *, and there is a great similarity of language, "but they are not nearly so far advanced in agriculture. The Bangalas who were with me in the canoe came from higher up the river, and are the people wrhom Stanley fought. They have never forgiven him for killing the brother of their chief. They are cannibals, and file all their teeth into points. They told me that one of their chiefs, wTho was very rich, is now quite poor from buying nice, fat, young women to eat ; this I know to be a fact. The price of one is from three to four hundred kantakas (short brass rods, wrhich are the money of the country). They eat all those whom they kill in battle. They remove the inside, stuff them with bananas, and roast them wrhole over a big fire. I can believe anything of them from the little I have had to do with them. The Pool is full of lovely birds, many of which I know to be very rare. We have all had one or two rather disagreeable moments with Mr. Stanley, but I think they are over for the present. I cannot help admiring him immensely for his great strength of will and po\ver of overcoming difficulties ; but there are some points in his character wrhich I cannot admire. I will give you an instance. One day, whilst talking to Dr. Parke, he told him that he had heard that two of the boxes of provisions had been opened by the white men — meaning the officers. Dr. Parke asked him who told him. He replied, some of his Zan/iharis. Parke then told him that the only two cases opened were opened to get out arrowroot and milk for himself (Stanley), when he had dysentery, and that he could not understand his listening to tales about the officers from
* See sketch on page 106.— ED.
32 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
the niggers. He had a row with Stairs in exactly the Leopold- same wa7- Stairs' donkey broke its leg *, and he had to shoot it. I saw the broken leg myself. When he reported the matter, Mr. Stanley informed him that he had been told that the leg was not broken, and that he shot it in a rage ; and when asked who had told him, said, " Some of Tippu-Tib's people." Stairs then gave him a real good piece of his mind on the subject. It is impossible for any one calling himself a gentleman, and an officer, to stand this sort of thing. The fact is, this is the first time Stanley has ever had gentlemen to deal with on an expedition of this sort."
DIAET (continued).
April 27th. — Arrived at camp about 5 o'clock. The meat had nearly all gone bad, and the voyage down the Pool, in a hot sun, with the stinking meat, was anything but pleasant in the condition I was in. I was greatly amused with the Bangalas' method of buying fish from the natives. I landed one day on a sandbank to wait for a hippo to rise, and I noticed all the Bangalas going off to the shore, where there were three native canoes full of fish. I asked my boy where they were going. He replied, "To buy fish." The Bangalas suddenly made a rush at the canoes, upset the natives from out of them, beat them with their paddles, and returned loaded with cooking-pots, young crocodile ready cut up, fish, native bread, and water-bottles made of gourds. I saw some very fine darters, larger than any I saw in South Africa. Shot a spur-winged plover, with beautiful bright orange wattles and pale lemon- green coloured legs.
April 28th. — Marched to Kinshassa. Dined with Mr. Greshoff, who gave us the best of everything.
April 29th. — I saw the natives bringing in a num- ber of fish exactly like our barbel — scales, beard,
* See Diary, April 6th.
33
mouth, tail, and everything. After dinner Mr. (ires- fcoff showed us a beautiful chart of the Kwanija River, which led to Mr. Stanley producing Dr. Junker's map (his original one), which he has kindly lent him, also a skeleton map of the country between Stanley Falls and Wadelai, ready to fill in all the unknown country. We had a long conversation about natives, geography, £c., and I spent quite one of the pleasantest evenings since I started. Mr. Stanley, when he throws off his reserve, is one of the most agreeable of men and full of infor- mation.
April oQth. — Two hundred men went off under Nelson and Stairs to try and get the Florida into the water, as the slips, on which she was, had broken down when they tried to launch her. Mr. Greshoff very kindly filled my large silver flask with spirits of wine for beetles*. This will be invaluable to me for collecting on the march. In about three hours' time the men returned, having successfully launched the Florida. About 3 o'clock the Stanley and Henry Seed came round from Kinshassa, followed by the Peace from Leopoldville, and by our iron boat, which has been christened the Advance. Before dark we had them all loaded, and ready for the men and donkeys to be put on board in the morning. Just as we were finishing, Ward and Troup turned up in a canoe from Leopold- ville. Mr. Stanley has decided to take Ward with him ; he was originally in the employ of the State, later on in the Sanford Expedition, and has now joined Mr. Stanley. Mr. Troup was formerly in the Free State service.
* This flask (containing beetles), with the bulk of Jameson's collec- tion, never reached England. — ED.
STORY OF TUB
CHAPTER HI.
MAY IST TO JUNE ?TH. Upoto.— Stanley's distrust of his officers.
,887. Sunday, May Irf.-At last we have made .our final Ma^ >• start up the Upper Congo, and on a lucky day SSf Si** -nt first with Tippu-Tib, all his PJjJjjJ Bonny and Walker on board, towing two whale-boat, full of men. We came next in the Stanley, towing he Florida. Towing is not the right word, as i both tne Henry Seed and the Stanley are stern paddle-wheel amers • they have to make both boats fast alongside. sSr^lson! Jephson and myself, the Captain, engi- neer, and 168 men, with three donkeys made up ou number. Next came the Peace with Mr Stanley his servant William, and Ward on board. We steamed or to Kimpoko, where the American Mission is (Bishop Taylor's) We landed all the men to cut wood :
nuar. 35
1887.
^•a,n,r an,l li,,isl,(-,l ,,v ,„„„„],• ,lt. My head has I,,.
very [,.,,! ever since that, dose of fevtr a I ,, , -» >•
«P ^e "o were at dinner, and complained bitterly of the r
SriTr °f TipPU'rib and his People onTe" Henry Reed, their ways not being European ways
like
crocodi^ numbers u ea^les with bro^n
aigu dna small lish rising at insects all A^
._At some places to-day I sl.,,,,1,1 „ the
D2
1887. May 4.
Congo
Ixiver.
36
STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
river was quite a mile and a Half wide. The hills are much lower, and on the right-hand bank the forest grows only along the water's edge. The landscape is altogether much tamer. Saw a beautiful pure white heron (about the size of our common English one), many spur-winged plover, hornbills, and geese. There
DIAGRAM OF SPIDERS' WEBS.
is almost a total absence of swifts and swallows, which is curious, as the Lower Congo abounded with different kinds. Saw a few guinea-fowl, of the common species, and not the crested variety I expected to see. Ele- phant-tracks again abounded in the forest, which is full of giant creepers. In it I noticed a curious colony of spiders. There were four trees at equal distances, iorming a square, and near to the top of each a spider had attached one corner of his web, so that it hung from the four corners just like a blanket. About a foot below this one was another exactly similar, and again a third below it, and so on to within a few feet of the
DIARY. 37
ground. There were at least six or eight webs. Each spider took up his station at the centre point of his c 0' wel), which was- a thicker part than the rest, and cup- K shaped. Between these suspended webs were others upright, connecting them, so as to catch anything flying between. Enormous quantities of ants, of every size and description, swarmed in the forest, and made it anything but a pleasure to walk therein. In the night the men started off to some manioc plantations a long way from the steamer, and returned loaded with roots ; and the noise with which the others in camp greeted them* was enough to waken the dead. For nearly the whole of the night they did nothing but shout, cook, and eat.
May §th. — Reached Mswata at 9.30 A.M., where we found Barttelot and Parke flourishing. Their tent was pitched right in the centre of the main street of the town, if it may so be called, and amidst quantities of bananas. The old chief was most friendly and anxious to see " Bula Matadi," as all the natives call Mr. Stanley. The meaning of the name is " Stone-breaker," and it was given him whilst at Vivi. One of the Zanzibaris was trying to break a large rock, and striking it in the wrong direction. Stanley noticed the lay of the cleavage and took the hammer, sending the stone flying in pieces with one blow. This so astonished the
natives that they at once called him Bnla Matadi, and he is universally known all over the country by this name and no other. Mswata in Stanley's time1 was one of the Congo State stations, but, like many others, has been abandoned. The chief has the same mark of
38 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
distinction as old Makoko, namely a chin-whisker, divided into two curls. They divide their hair into two long tails, one on each side of the forehead, bending outwards, exactly in the shape of buffalo horns, and sometimes have one in the middle also. The number of these horns is evidently a sign of the degree of rank of the wearer, the greatest swells having the largest number. I went for a stroll through a lovely forest, full of small streams, at the back of the town, and got a glorious lot of new butterflies. This is the first place where I have noticed a decided change in the butterflies irom those of the Lower Congo, some of them 'being very beautiful. Barttelot and Parke are to march to Kwamouth. They dined with us, and we spent a very pleasant evening. Mr. Stanley sent for Stairs after dinner, and told him we were to go on straight to Bolobo with as little delay as possible, and there to ask the chiefs leave to land our men for a few days, as the last time Stanley was there he was fired upon, and they had to burn down the town. Whilst it was a Free State station and Mr. Liebrichts was in command, they had no palavers, and burnt the town both times ; so no wonder the natives don't like the white man. Mr. Stanley says, if they refuse to let us land, wre must occupy one of the islands opposite to the town, and await his arrival. He thinks it is about even chances that we have a row.
May 6th. — Never came a saying more true than did the old one to-day, " Man proposes, and God disposes." We were hours ahead of both the other steamers, boasting by how far we should beat the Peace up to the Falls, if we were allowed to go ahead, all sitting in the top deck-house with the Captain, when there came a violent bump, then another, and another, and we were stuck fast on the top of a rock, with the water pouring into three compartments, through about five holes in our bottom, and we three or four hundred yards well out in the river! Luckily the Zanzibaris behaved splendidly, sitting perfectly still and doing as
DIARY. 39
they were told. With the aid of buckets we could just ^ keep the water from gaining, but could not get it \ down. Upon sounding, we found ourselves on the top River, of a large Hat rock, with not more than three feet of water on any part of it. Luckily the Florida, which was fastened alongside with 168 men on board, numerous loads and donkeys, was drawing so little water that she did not touch. The holes were all in the afterpart of the forward compartments ; and, as she is built in nine water-tight compartments, as long as we could keep the water from gaining and the steamer from bumping, we were safe. We shifted the whole of the cargo into the stern, and dropped two anchors. Just then a thunder- storm came up, with a strong breeze ; she at once swung round, and we started the engine full speed astern; with one more bump we swung clear right into the deep water, breaking one anchor, and leaving the other with a lump of chain on the rock. Then we went full speed ahead up-stream, and baled away with the buckets, as our lives depended upon it. We ran both boats on to a sandy beach on the mainland, half a mile above the scene of our disaster. That puff of wind just came in time, and saved us. Had we sunk, probably the Florida would have been wrecked too. In any case most of the ammunition, and all the European provisions and stuff to buy food, would have been lost in the Stanley. I thanked God, not once but a good many times, that we got out of it as well as we did. The view passing Kwamouth is very pretty. The Kwa, which is really only the mouth of the Kassai Biver (which runs into it), is the largest tributary of the Congo, being navigable for over 400 miles.
May 7th. — Up at daylight, but very sleepy. The Henry Eeed appeared in the mirage, down river, about 8.30 A.M., so wre sent our pilot off in a canoe, to warn them about the rock, as they were steering straight for it. Much later we saw the Peace going along close in to the opposite shore ; we signalled, and the Henry Rccd whistled, and they came across to us. Mr. Stanley,
40 STOUT OF THE REAR COLUMN.
Of course, was rather annoyed at our disaster, and told Congo the Captain he had no business to come over to this side of the river, but he replied that this side was the course marked on his chart, and explained to him by Captain Anderson, the late commander of the Stanley, and that the missionaries also used the same course. Mr. Stanley then took in hand the directions for patching up the steamer, and the Captain and the three engineers carried them out. We first of all removed all the cargo, and swung her round side on to the beach, then dug a trench with hoes right under her to the largest of the holes. A plate was passed through the water on to the outside and screwed on by bolts. Little hopes of starting to-morrow. Mr. Stanley said to-day that every day of delay cost the Expedition £25 in wages to the men alone.
KWAMOUTH.
May Sth. — Mr. Stanley, the Captain, and engineers worked away until about 8 o'clock at the leaks with a good deal of success.
May $th. — Loading up the Stanley ready for a start in the morning. Mr. Stanley and the engineers finished
DIARY. 41
putting the plates on by 11 o'clock; the former left for Boloboat L2.30. Congo
Mfft/ I ()///. — To-day the scenery became very beau- tiful. The river widened to about four miles, and was dotted all over with small islands cohered with tropical foliage. At the back of every sandbank or island, in the still water, the heads of the hippopotami could be seen moving up and down, or their long backs just above the water resting on the banks. Numbers of geese were wading on the shores, while large black and white eagles soared from island to island, and ever and again gorgeous bee-eaters and kingfishers darted out of the forest, the bee-eaters hawking away, then tumbling over and floating away to another tree, their colours glittering in the sun. The kingfishers would dart out, hover for a moment over the water, then ap- parently dive into it, to return to their perch, and sit pensively gazing down at the river below them. Large cranes stood solemnly on the banks, absorbed in the contemplation of some deep and momentous subject. Then a heavy thunderstorm passed over us, in the midst of which the far shore stood out in bright sunlight, with a background of exquisite mountains and valleys, and one longed for the skill of an artist to give to the people at home an idea of this magnificent river. The villages of brown huts, embedded in the gorgeous green of the plantains, with giant trees towering all around them, the canoes lying on the sandy beach, with the fishing-nets hung out to dry, here and there a native with spear in hand — all these scenes furnished splendid subjects for the artist — who is not with us !
May \\th. — Arrived at Bolobo, which is prettily situated, looking over one of the broadest parts of the river. Found fresh buffalo-tracks to-day, and for the first time saw the crested guinea-fowl which I expected to meet. The natives here paint themselves in an ex- traordinary fashion, some having a black band across the forehead with white lines drawn over and under the eyes. Others have long white lines running down
42 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
^- the shoulders and arms, and the same down the forehead and nose. Some of the lines are bine and yellow for a variety. The knives and axes are very fine, but they will not part with them. Their spears resemble the Mashona spears. Their gnns are old flint-muskets.
May 12th.— The Henry Reed arrived with the Peace in tow. Mr. Stanley came to the officers' tent in the afternoon, and had a long chat with ns. He is going to reorganize all the companies, and -only take on the best men, leaving the bad ones here with Major Barttelot to come on when the Stanley returns .down the river. Had to go off very early to cut wood lor the Stanley.
May 13th.— We are are all going to be put on short rations now ; i ounce of tea a day for each man, and everything else in proportion. Major Barttelot is to come on to the entrenched camp after all, and Ward is to be left here. I feel very sorry for him, as up to the very last moment he thought he was going on. Mr. Bonny is also being left here. Good news ! Mr. Stanley has given me leave to start at daybreak to-morrow lor a buffalo hunt, and get meat for the men.
May Uth. — After about three and a half hours' walk- ing, I came upon one of the most lovely valleys for game I think I have ever seen or dreamt of, and in any other country but this it would simply swarm. A few clumps of trees grew here and there close to some pools of water, the rest of the valley being covered with luxuriant grass, amongst which shone out patches of tender green, where it had once been burnt. After walking about a mile up along the pools, I came across the tracks of a bull buffalo, two cows and a calf, which had evidently passed just before I arrived on the scene. I tracked them until after 1 o'clock into the middle of a dense forest, so thick that I had to leave my helmet and go down on my hands and knees, and crawl nearly every yard of the road. I heard them break once quite close to me, but could not see them. Finally I gave it up,
DIARY. 43
and tried the rest, of the valley without finding a single fresh track. I broke one of my big-toe nails, right across the very centre, against a stump in the beast ]\ wood, and had to walk the six or seven miles back to camp in anything but a nice frame of mind. I was greatly surprised to find the Stanley had just arrived with Barttelot and Parke, for we did not expect them until to-morrow. Mr. Stanley has rearranged all the companies, and mine is entirely broken up; he has taken a lot of the best men from nearly every company to make up his own to its full strength. Mine was used to fill up the others, so at present I am without one. We all start to-morrow.
May 15t-h. — Alas for all my bright dreams about the march from the Falls to Wadelai. To-day Mr. Stanley informed me that I was to be left with Major Barttelot in command of the entrenched camp on the Aruwimi. Of course he tried to soften the matter as much as he possibly could, by telling me that as most of the ammu- nition and stores were being left here, he required two of the best men to remain and guard them, for if any- thing happened to them the whole Expedition would be at an end. He also told me that the men who went on must not think that they would have the larger share of honour ; but whatever he may say about it, it makes me mad to think of it. When he told me, I merely replied " Very well, Sir," as I knew that somebody must be left. I am quite sure that Major Barttelot had already asked him to leave me with him as his lieu- tenant, his chief reason being that he was afraid he would not pull so well with some of the other officers. It is frightfully hard luck on me. Mr. Stanley told me to get a canoe, and find out as much as I possibly could about the river. The natives are a bad lot, and I believe we will have to fight for food for the men by looting villages. The bright side of the whole thing is the splendid opportunity it gives me of collecting in i country never collected in before, and altogether, as thr as I can make out, we shall have rather an exciting time of it.'
44 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
1887.^ [Extract from letter to his wife, June Sth, 1887 : — May lo. u j_je (Stanley) also told me that those, who went on first " to the Albert Nyanza Lake, must not think that they " had one atom more honour attached to what they did, " as he himself would be the only one to meet Emin " Pasha in his steamers on the Lake ; the others would " be left in a camp on its shores."]
The Peace started first this morning, then the Henry Reed, and lastly ourselves in the Stanley. We made fast to the shore at a village about twelve miles above Bolobo, and when Stairs and Nelson landed with the axe-men, it seems the natives did not want to let them go through the village. Some of the men ran back yelling out that the natives were coming, and to bring all the guns. Barttelot thought they were being at- tacked, so he landed all the Soudanese and a box of ammunition, but on getting up into the village not a native was to be seen ; they had all run away. When the Soudanese returned to the shore, they made a rush across a small stream to the village on the opposite side, folloAved by the Zanzibaris, when an awful scene of loot commenced. They seized goats, fowls, bananas, manioc, spears, and everything that they could lay their hands on. I saw one man with an enormous wooden stool which he could not possibly have taken with him on the steamer, and I caught a Somali red- handed with an immense bundle of manioc and a spear; I smote him rather hard and he dropped the lot. The spear I attached to my person. The river to-day widened out very much, being dotted over with small and large islands. I am trying hard to look at the bright side of my being left at the entrenched camp — the collecting, sketching and fighting — but I cannot get over a thorough feeling of disappointment.
May ~LGtk. — Just as we were leaving the natives began to return, and were in a fearful rage when they missed their things, though some of them were willing to trade, and we got a few fish and bananas from them.
c
FISHERMAN'S HUT. [Page 47.]
D1ART. 4<
Mat/ llth. — Very soody. Last night T had to stand over half ;in hour iu water above my ankles waiting for "Con Q* the wood-carriers, who could not. find us in the dark, Kiver. the consequence of which is a bad internal chill.
Jfayl&th. — Too seedy to do anything. This evening we made fast to the shore at a little fisherman's hut, which had a regular palisade and gateway between it and the river. Our only hope of wood was a large* dead tree which stood inside the palisade.
May \Wi. — Still seedy. Reached Lukulela, after steaming for twelve hours. We saw two small elephants within 150 yards of the steamer in the long grass. Stairs and Barttelot landed and tried to get a shot, but the noise from the steamer had sent them away at a quick march. They saw any quantity of fresh tracks of both elephant and buffalo. It is great fun to see the Stanley start in the morning ; before they can get her head well up-stream, she waltzes round and round two or three times, sticking her stern and bows alternately into the bushes, exactly like .a toy boat in a stream. The Doctor came on board to-night and saw me. Thank goodness, I am much better.
May 2Qth. — This morning, I am sorry to say that the most disgraceful row I have ever heard of happened between Mr. Stanley and Jephson and Stairs. It appears that early this morning a number of the men and chiefs wTent to Mr. Stanley, and complained that the officers had flung away their rations for one day. Mr. Stanley sent for Stairs. The men swore they had bought the food from the natives last Sunday at the village they looted (for description of how they bought it, see diary of that day, May 15th). Stairs told Mr. Stanley this, assuring him that only stolen stuff was taken away from them, and sent for Jephson, who gave the same testimony. It is still quite evident that Mr. Stanley takes the word of the Zanzibaris on every occasion before that of the white men, and when he saw that he had hold of rather the wrong end of this stick, he attacked them about their
48 STORY OF THE HEAR COLUMN.
tyranny to the men- He attacked them in a frantic Lukuiela state, stamping up and down the deck of the Peace. He called Jephson all sorts of names, a " G — d d — n son " of a sea-cook," " You d - d ass, you're tired of me, of " the Expedition, and of my men. Go into the bush, get, " I've done with you. And you too, Lieutenant Stairs, " you and I will part to-day ; you're tired of me, Sir, I can "see. Get; away into the bush." Then he turned round to the men (about 150) sitting down, and spoke Swahili to the effect that the men were to obey us no more, and that if Lieutenant Stairs or Jephson issued any orders to them, or dared to lift a hand, they were to tie them up to trees. He had already told Stairs that he had only to lift his hand for the men to throw him into the sea. He lastly offered to fight Jephson, " If you want to fight, " G — d d — n you, I'll give you a bellyful. If I were " only where you are, I'd go for you. It's lucky for you " I'm where I am." Mr. Stanley was on the deck of the Peace, Jephson on shore. All this was said before the missionaries, Tippu-Tib, and every one. As for Stairs or Jephson being tired of the Expedition, no men could work harder or have their hearts more in it. I should think a repetition of this kind of thing would make them both pretty sick of Mr. Stanley arid the Expedition. He also called Jephson, " G — d d — d impudent puppy." Barttelot next interviewed him, and he told him that he was very sorry for Stairs, but had made up his mind they should stay where they were — that there was evi- dently a compact among us against, him. Barttelot assured him that there was nothing of the kind. Stairs next went to him, and after a long interview it ended in Mr. Stanley taking him back, and telling him that he had given orders to the chiefs to obey him as before. Imagine this being necessary, simply from what he had himself said to them! Jephson went last, and the interview ended by Mr. Stanley apologizing for the language he had used, and taking him back also. I had no idea until to-day what an extremely dangerous man Stanley was. Could there be anything more inciting to mutiny than what he had told the Zanzibaris ? He for-
/>/.i/;r. 49
gets one thing, however, that if they dared to lift a hand y to one of us there would be a terrible lot of them shot, ( which would rather weaken his Kxpedition. It is a curious fact, when one thinks over it, that the very men who complained to Mr. Stanley ought, by his own orders, issued when we left the Pool, to have been severely flogged. Such is life! Thank goodness, I am beginning to feel myself again. On his wray back from Mr. Stanley, Jephson brought me an enormous spider, quite the biggest I have ever seen, although rather mutilated. One of the men brought me a splendid crested lory ; I skinned it, but am puzzled how to carry it because of its size, which is about that of a hornbill. The village here stands amidst beautiful timber, and the huts shine out like gold in the sunset against the dark shadows of the forest, making a beautiful picture.
May %\.st. — We did not start for a good hour after the Peace and Henry Reed, the engineer said because the wood was too wet, and they could not get up steam. Mr. Stanley's orders were that all the steamers were to keep within sight of each other in case of anything going wrong. We came in sight of them early in the forenoon ; a little later they stopped because of a storm which came on, and we stopped to cut wood, having run short. They have now both gone on out of sight ; it is 4 P.M., and I should think there must be miles between us. The Henry Heed and the Peace took dif- ferent routes, and we are staying here for the night. This is keeping within sight of one another with a vengeance !
May 22nd. — Until about 12 o'clock to-day we were passing through the most lovely tropical forest scenery. Our passage lay through long lanes of water, that seemed to be cut like canals through the centre of the forest, the right bank being the mainland. Every, now and again we could catch a glimpse of the great river covered with islands. The rainy season has set in now, and every afternoon, as regularly as clockwork, at
i:
50 STORY OF THE HEAR COLUMN.
three or four o'clock, up comes a storm which lasts Coilg' until nightfall.
Hiver.
May 23rd. — Started at 5.30 well ahead of the Henry Eeed and Peace, which we had caught up yesterday evening, but ours was a short-lived glory, for we very •soon ran short of wood, and at 11 o'clock had to stop and cut some. Started again at 2 o'clock, and steamed until 5 o'clock. More woodcutting, dinner, and to bed. It is beginning to be decidedly monotonous,
May (24:t/i. — We all reached Equator Station shortly after 5 o'clock. This is one of the nicest looking stations we have yet seen. We have been passing numerous native villages very prettily situated on the edge of the forest, and of which the huts are now changing in shape altogether, and a good many of them are stockaded. Some are very long, with angular-shaped roofs, and many doors to them. ^ The spears, too, have changed in shape ; they are very light in shaft and blade, being used for throwing only, whereas those lower down the river are heavy-bladed and are used for stabbing. The palm-trees here are curiously ragged in appearance, owing to the attacks of the weaver-birds, who have stripped them of almost all their leaves, with which they build their nests on other trees. The natives are a finer-looking people, resembling the Bangalas I saw at the Pool. I was delighted to hear that the Peace had to stop and cut wood as well as ourselves, for Mr. Stanley had been blaming us for loitering on the road.
May 25th. — Went on shore early with the axemen to cut wood. In the afternoon, Mr. Glave, who now belongs to the Sanford Expedition*, came on board, and asked us all to dine. He was formerly in the service of the Free State, but has left it like many more, as rats leave a sinking ship. I notice that one of the chief occu- . pations of the Belgian officers at the different stations is to civilize the country by adding to the population
* The Sanford Expedition was an Ivory Trading Company, called the Sanford Exploring Company ; vide ' Darkest Africa,' vol. i. p. 93. — ED.
•">]
specimens of half-breeds, as they are all more or less ^ married to native women. 'This mode of civilization
tf
seems to be adopted by all the white men here, whether > officers of the State or not. I saw some beautiful perch, almost exactly like our own. We dined with Mr. Glave, and during dinner Captain Van Gele related a story about some wonderful river, a tributary of the Congo, which he had been exploring, and from which he had brought some ivory mallets, used for crushing corn or manioc. He produced them, and was greatly annoyed when both Dr. Parke and I declared them to be bone, and not ivory at all ! This, I am sorry to say, damped the conversation. The ivory here is very large indeed. Amongst a lot bought by Glave for the San- ford Expedition were tusks of 118, 111, 97, 95, and 90 Ibs. Much of it is greatly discoloured through having been buried. He only paid 2s. 2d. a Ib. for the 118 Ib. tusk, which is a fairly white one.
May 26th. — Steamed all day through the usual num- ber of wooded islands. Close to where we made fast for the night was a small bare sandbank, inhabited by a small colony of the most beautiful terns I have ever seen. The top of the head, neck, and back are all black ; throat, breast, and belly are pure white ; bill and legs red. They are, I think, similar to two which I observed at Stanley Pool. As I had no small boat, I could not get a shot. We had the usual woodcutting business in the jungle, became covered as usual with the ants, and later on up came the usual thunderstorm. Mr. Stanley's orders are that we are not to go ahead of the Peace, and the Henry Reed has to obey the same orders. Mr. Stanley has ordered Parke to come on with us in the Stanley, and Jephson to take his place in the Henry Reed, because he says there are so many sick on the Stanley and Florida. However that may be, it seems a mistake putting Jephson on the same steamer with Tippu-Tib and his men, as he has already had one rather nasty row with Salem, Tippu's brother-in-law.
May 27th. — After a very short piece of steaming and
E2
52 STOEY OF THE REAR COLUMN
&°ing frightfully slowly to keep behind the Peace, we reached Uranga at 10.30 A.M. Mr. Stanley is a " blood- brother " of the chief of this place. I try every conceiv- able plan to protect my specimens from the ants, but though I may succeed for a short time they are sure to defeat me at last. I noticed many of the spears here re- semble the Mashona ones, having a long piece of iron between the blade and the ordinary wooden shaft, which latter is bound round by rings of iron ; they also have the leaf-shaped blade. I unintentionally swindled an old chief out of a goat, but it served him right, as he swindled me about a spear which I bought from him with cloth, knowing that I was giving too much ; but as I wanted it badly I did not wrangle over the price. He then said he would make me a present of a goat, which in this country means that I had to give him a present in return. I told him I did not want it ; but when I came back, late in the evening, it had been sent on board. After dinner he came and made a great fuss, saying he must have the goat or a present. Nelson, who was on deck, turned him off. We started just after daybreak, and he tried to board us with his canoe, instead of coming for his present before we got under way. We left him in the middle of the river, evidently using anything but nice language. He will be rather chary of giving presents again, and we will eat the goat, which seems fat.
May 2Sth. — A most monotonous day's steaming. I am sorry to say I have read nearly all our small store of books.
May 29th. — Islands, river, scenery, natives, canoes, &c., just the same as yesterday. The only excitement was caused by a troop of large brown monkeys who appeared on some trees on the banks, and who seemed not to be the least bit frightened at the steamer, but went on scratching and hunting as though nothing out of the common was near them. Stopped for the night on an island opposite Bolombo.
May 30#A. — Numbers of natives in canoes came round the steamers, trying to persuade us to stop at Bolombo
DIARY. 53
iind trade Cor food ; but as Iboko, or Ran^ala, was only a j few hours ahead then* was not much chance of that. fia" Bolomho is on the south bank, and Iboko on the north bank of the river. We arrived at the hitter place at 12.30. Mr. Stanley was saluted from the Station by shots from one of the Kru]>p i^uns, of which they have two. The Houssas and Zanzibaris were drawn up in a line, and the excitement on shore was intense to know what on earth so many steamers and people had come for. They thought it was an Expedition to retake the Falls, as they had not heard any news for four months. The Station, which is the last, and one of the largest on the Congo, consists of three white buildings, constructed of mud, plaster, and stick walls, with a thatched roof, beneath which is built, I believe, a solid ceiling of mud to prevent it falling-in in case of fire. A French- man here, by trade a brickmaker, has utilized all the different kinds of clay to be found on the shore, with which he has constructed regular brick sheds, yards, and kilns ; when I saw them there were 300,000 bricks, principally on the floors, but one very large kiln was already made and burning. The women here dress in quite a different way to any I have yet seen, their cos- tume being composed of a light band of palm-fibres, made from the bark, and dyed — some orange, some lemon and orange, others black or deep lake-red ; they look for all the world like a ballet-dancer's skirts. Both men and women are a very fine-looking race. The new Station is defended by three palisades and a ditch ; at the corners are raised platforms for the Krupp guns. There is the making of a good garden, which is the result of Mr. Bailey's teaching, who seems to have taught them more than half of what they know on the Congo, especially in matters connected with sport, gardening, and planting. Mons. Baert give us dinner in the evening, after which Mr. Stanley rose, and in a speech proposed the health of the King of the Belgians, lie began by telling us of the state Banzai a and the other places on the river were in when he passed down ten years ago, and had the »;rejit fi^ht with the natives here. He continued: — "Now here 1 rind an lintel
54 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
(doubtful compliment to the Belgians, who call it a Free State station !), where one can have a good bed, good dinner, and everything that one wants." He then traced how this was all owing to the King of the Belgians, and went on to say that we were here at the very last point of civilization between us and Zanzibar. The speech ended by his proposing the health of the King of the Belgians, which was duly drunk.
Major Barttelot, with forty of the best of the Souda- nese, goes on to Stanley Falls in the Henry Eeed, where he leaves Tippu-Tib, and comes up 'the Aruwimi to where we are to make the entrenched camp, about 120 miles up the river. The reason that Stanley is sending the Soudanese instead of the Zanzibaris, is that he fears that if they saw Tippu's place and people, the discon- tented ones would come back to the camp, and persuade the others to desert us ; as, should they once get to Tippu-Tib's camp, it would be a simple matter for them to get out to Zanzibar with one of his caravans, or find employment in some of his towns. The tribes on the Aruwimi are very fierce and warlike, and are real cannibals, so they will be rather interesting to study. Mr. Stanley is the only white man who has been any distance up the river, and I believe he has not been so far as where we intend to make our camp.
Captain Hausen, in the Free State service, left three of his Houssas at one of the towns near the mouth of the Aruwimi, and the natives tied them to trees, and crammed them with food until they considered them sufficiently fat, when they ate two of them, but the third, being a thin old fellow, was reserved. How- ever, he escaped, and was caught and tied up again ; this happened twice, but the third time he got away to the river, and was picked up by one of the steamers. The same curious appearance is given to the palm-trees here as at Equator Station, by the weaver-birds stripping off all the leaves for their nests, which they have built on a large tree without any leaves in the centre of the Station. The hippopotami are becoming very scarce ; we have hardly seen one since leaving Equator Station.
56
May 31st.— The Henry AVW left for the Falls, with J Major l>art(elot and Tippn-Tih, at 0 A.M. Mr. Stanley V left in the Peace at noon. Our men strolled on board K evidently just as they pleased, and we did not get away for a good hour and a half after him. Since that speech of his to them at Lukulela they have lost what little sense of discipline they ever had. We all lunched with Mons. Baert, and a capital lunch he gave us.
Major Barttelot left nineteen of the Soudanese and Alexander (one of the interpreters) in my charge until he arrives at the Aruwimi camp. Alexander and four others are in a very bad state, and one of the men espe- cially I do not expect to live more than a few days. They are the most helpless and desponding lot of men when they are at all sick that I ever came across. I tried to buy a very curious knife from one of the Ban- galas this morning, but he asked such an absurd price for it that I told him he ought to keep it at home for fear of losing it. The Captain told us to-day that at Manyanga, on the lower Congo, a hippo that was on shore was fired at, and, charging through the village, ran clean through the middle of the walls of a house on to the roof of which a lot of people had retreated.
June 1st. — Kept steaming away all day behind the Peace until nearly sunset. Went to bed with a distinct touch of fever.
June 2nd. — Had to lie up all day.
June 3rd. — Bad night ; had to lie up again all day, but got better towards evening, thanks to old Parke, who has given me the right medicine to begin with, and topped it up with arrowroot, milk, and brandy. There are enormous quantities of orchilla-weed all along the south bank, and for the last three days we have passed through one continuous stream of the common white butterfly of the Congo, all migrating from the south bank to the north. A day or two before I saw them crossing the river I noticed them flying
56 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
T1887- through the trees on the south bank in enormous
June 3. - - -. . , •
C* f\r\ctf\ iJ. I_A.AAX IW-/A KJ^ i^*j_i.v,«. »*»• w^ - - » * • w^, w--«.^~ • • ~- — — —
River, as ourselves ; then suddenly they began to cross in
numbers, and all going eastward in the same direction as ourselves ; then suddenly they began to thousands, and have been crossing ever since.
June 4tfA.— Thank goodness, feel myself again. Steamed away all day through the same monotonous scenery, although I must say some of the gorgeous colouring can never seem anything but fresh and pleas- ing to the eye. A few monkeys looked at us, and helped to relieve the monotony of 'the scene. We never managed to catch up the Peace. The first hippos we have seen for a long time came up close to the steamer after we had made fast for the night, and Parke had a shot at one of them, but put the bullet just over his head. After he fired I noticed a very large flight of birds, all flying due south, and from their form and flight, seen in the dusky light, they appeared to be medium-sized owls. The flight continued for quite twenty minutes. One of the Somalis died to-day ; he had only been ill about twenty-four hours.
Sunday, June 5th. — Started very early — almost in the dark — in hopes of catching up the Peace ; this we failed to do. One of the Soudanese died to-day, the second death amongst them since leaving Bangala. When they once get sick they neither eat, drink, nor move ; in fact, like the Somalis, they simply make up their minds to die. I saw many very fine orchids in the jungle to-day, but none of them in flower, and one beautiful fern growing high up in the palm-trees. The leaves of it grow outwards for only a few inches, and then hang straight down in perfect masses round the trunk of the palm. This would be a most effective plant in a European hothouse.
June 6th. — Quite an exciting day. Made an early start, and after going through the most difficult passages between islands and sandbanks, we at last came within sight of Upoto, which stands at the foot of the first high ground we have seen for some time. No signs of either
JHARY. 67
tlio Peace or the II ami />YW ! There were tliree s<-pa- ]
• 11 i •
nite villages some distance apart, so we steamed up to ,
the one highest up river, to see if the steamers could he there. Not finding them, we made for the middle village, and upon our approach to land, all the natives rushed down to the shore with their spears, shields, and guns, yelling and shouting at us to keep back. They certainly meant an attack, so we started for the lowest village, the natives following us and running along the shore, where they were joined by all the men of the third village. As wood was very short, and we must get food for the men, we ran the steamer straight for shore, and they all stood about forty yards off, making a terrific noise. They at length listened to our spokes- man, and agreed to allow us to land if one of the white men would come on shore and be made blood-brother to their chief. Stairs and the Captain of the steamer landed, and the ceremony was performed with much pomp. Stairs' arm was slightly cut until blood came, and the chiefs also, then the bleeding parts were rubbed together, each man swearing to be a " true brother " to the other. All this time a wild song was kept up by the natives, beer was drunk, and the chief sent us a present of a goat. The fierce natives of half an hour ago were in one moment transformed into the sharpest and most eager traders, ready to sell everything they possessed. What little modesty one has left, after see- ing daily so many naked forms, here received rather a si lock, for the women are as Eve was before she went to Madame Figuier for her costumes. There were a few exceptions among the elder women, but their attempts at dress are so much of a failure that they had far better remain as their sisters. The people here are the genuine savage, without a vestige of civilization. I bought three very curious knives, two handsome spears, and a shield, which, if they ever reach home, will be great curiosit ies. In the afternoon up steamed the Peace. Mr. Stanley was in a fearful rage. It appears that after missing us yesterday he steamed back down river to look for us. thereby losing a whole day. He told us that had he
58
STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
1887. June 6.
Upoto.
not found the steamer here, he would have treated us all as deserters. Now this is hardly fair, as from what the Captain and Engineer of the Peace both say it is evident that he missed us owing to a fault of his own. He mistook a channel of the main river for a small river which he thought ran into the Congo at this place. He therefore steamed away outside an island when we went up the passage along the mainland. He used some very
hard words whilst talking to us, and it seems as if he did not trust us when one yard away from him. As for myself, I know I have done nothing, but then I have been so seedy until yesterday; but the other officers
have worked away as hard as any white man can, stand- ing for hours in the most horrible swamps till long after dark to get enough wood. What sickens one of the whole thing is the utter distrust which Mr. Stanley plainly tells us he has of us all ; and how long this state of things is going to last I cannot tell, but it is frightfully
disheartening. The necklaces in fashion hore are mostly of human or crocodile teeth, whicli are bored and hnii£ in larije numbers on a piece of string; the :\-u lilies worn by men, instead of the women, are of cowrie-shells. They had a lot of ivory to sell at absurdly low prices, but all very small and discoloured. Their huts, which are miserable, are built in small streets at right angles to the river-bank. Had an interesting chat with Mr. Charters of the Peace, who confirmed in every particular the story of the Houssas being eaten at Basoko.
June 1th. — The war-like natives of yesterday are peaceful traders now, coming up with a shield and spear in one hand, and two eggs or a fowl in the other, and begging one to buy. Mr. Stanley told them that had they attacked us yesterday, there would not have been a vestige of their village left this morning. We started at 12 o'clock, and steamed away into the usual maze of islands, quickly losing sight of the high mainland, which had been so refreshing to our eyes. We started this time with every intention of its not being our fault if we lose the Peace again. Both steamers stopped at 5 o'clock, and the usual cutting of wood in swamps was gone through. This time I was fit and went out too.
NATIVE OF UPOTO.
ss
NATIVE VILLAGE.
1887. June 8.
CHAPTER IV.
JUNE STH TO JULY 31sT.
Letter to Mrs. Jameson. — Pass burning villages. — Arrival at Aruwimi River. — Conical-shaped huts. — Occupation of Yambuya. — Arrival of Henry Heed. — Stanley's letter of instructions. — He-packing bales for Emin. — Barttelot made " blood-brother " with native chief. — Rations for six months. — "Beggars must not be choosers." — Stanley's departure. — Building boma. — Extraordinary flight of butterflies. — Palaver with natives. — "Collecting" captives.— Natives capture Omari. — Woman escapes. — Uselessness of chiefs. — Gum-copal.
FROM A LETTER TO MRS. JAMESON.
June Sth. — I will now give you a general idea of the plan of campaign. At present we have left behind us
l.XTRACT FROM LETTER. 61
a force of 124 men at Holohn under \V;ird and Hnnm. At Leopolds illr is an enormous ciuantily of stores and c,Mlgo ammunition \.\hieh we could not bring. When tlie steamers leave us at the entrenched cam]), they return down the Congo, and the Stanley will bring Uj) all the stores and ammunition with the 124 men from Holoho. In the meanwhile Stanley will have gone on with ;J")0 men (leaving 100 men with us in camp), carrying light loads, to make a forced march through the unknown country to Lake Albert Nyanza, where he expects Emin Bey to come down from Wadelai to meet him. On the return of the Stanley to the Aruwimi camp with the stores and the 124 men, our force will consist of a little over 200 men. Tippu-Tib will then send us about 400 men from Stanley Falls. When they arrive we shall take all the stores and ammunition and march after Stanley; he will have marked the trees on his route. And now I think I have told you as much as any of us, except Stanley, know about our plans for the future.
June Wth. — I must give you the menu of our mid- day meal, which we have just finished : —
Soup. Weevil-eaten beans, flavoured with goat.
Entree. Stewed goat and rice.
Roast. Roast leg of goat and rice.
Vegetable. Rice and fried manioc-flour.
Sweet. Fried bananas.
So you see we are not so badly off! We have no spirits of any kind, but drink boiled Congo water.
I enclose a little sketch I made of a native chief who came to make a present of a goat to Mr. Stanley at a
62 STORY Of THE REAR COLUMN.
June7io place called Nzungi, on the march from Matadi to Congo Stanley Pool.
River.
I have never been on any trip where there is so little enjoyment of any kind ; it is all so serious, and a sort of gloom hangs over it all. If one does say anything which raises a laugh, it is the most ghastly imitation of one, and dies a sudden death, not to be raised again, per- haps, that day.
DIARY (continued).
June Sth. — Just after starting this morning we dis- turbed an old hippo at his breakfast in the long grass, and he walked quietly into the water, giving us a splen- did view of his person. In the afternoon we passed one very large native village, which is the first I have seen really constructed on a definite plan. It was all built in small squares, the river forming the fourth side, with a regular landing-place for canoes to each little square, and roughly-made ladders up the bank. The people were very eager to trade, and followed us a long way in their canoes. The women, with few exceptions, still
DIARY. 63
continue to wear nothing whatever. I must say that at one village, however, most of the women li;nl lied round Co ' their waists large green banana-leaves, cut into fine long River. shreds, and just pulled off the trees, as if they knew we were com in ir. 'I he bright green against their dusky skins was very effective. I noticed one very large black monkey to-day, with an immensely long tail.
June $tk. — Cup-day at Ascot. What crowds of recollections suddenly spring up when one thinks of this, and how I wonder if, amongst the number of one's friends there, any of them will give a thought to those who are absent like myself. We passed great numbers of native villages, the inhabitants of which are a really savage-looking people, of whom it is very easy to believe all the stories of cannibalism ; they all, how- ever, wanted us to land and trade, holding up goats and fowls, and following us for long distances in their canoes. The whole of the deck-cabin nearly came down to-day, owing to the great pressure of the top deck, which is crowded with men. We had to move half the men off it on to the lower one, where they are now packed like sardines. If the top deck comes down, it will burst all the steam-pipes, scald a lot of us, and throw most of the men into the river.
June Wth. — Some of the villages we passed on the banks of the mainland are very large. The natives were collected in groups at every landing place opposite to the huts, some of them with their bodies entirely covered with bright red clay, and their black faces yet more blackened and shining, presented a very curious appearance. It is very funny to see them in some places, peering out of holes in the dense undergrowth of the forest, just like frightened animals. At one village their principal occupation seemed to be in making canoes ; they use a tool very like our adze. I noticed a great number of elephant tracks all through the forest. It was my turn to sit up and see the wood split for the steamer. Did not get to bed until 2.30 P.M.
64 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
June Ilth. — Passed some very large villages, one ol Congo them extending over two miles ; they seem to be very Elver, thickly populated. They are all built on the same plan as that one described above Upoto, in small squares, the river-bank forming the fourth side of the square, with a bare courtyard in the centre, where they make their pottery, &c. The native shields are nearly all made of hide of some kind, I think goat, but I saw one which looked very like bush buckskin ; they have a raised basin-shaped dome in the centre in some cases, made of metal. Between the small squares of the villages are either patches of plantains and bananas or jungle, while at the rear there is generally a strip of Indian corn or manioc, and then comes the forest. There are evidently great manufactures of pottery, for I saw great heaps of pottery in all stages. In all the squares is a great drum formed of a hollow log, covered at the end with skin. Many of the natives dye their bodies bright red with cam-wood, others are blackened all over with the forehead painted pure white, and a small patch under each eye. This gives them the most ghastly appearance. One of the largest villages, Mbunan, had just been burned the night before we passed, and some of the huts were still burning. A few of the in- habitants were wandering about in their war-paint, and looking at the ruins, but they all fled at our approach. They are anything but friendly, as at nearly every village they yelled and shouted at us, shaking their spears and shields, and making signs of cutting our throats, heaping all sorts of insults upon us. It is a bad look-out for our chances of trading for food at the entrenched camp.
June 12th. — Arrived at the Aruwimi at last. Did not pass as many villages as yesterday. One large one on the north bank is called Yalumbo. The natives seem to be of a much lighter colour than those we have seen on the south bank ; they are shorter and better built. Their paddles are very long in the blade, and beautifully shaped. We came in sight of the mouth of the Aruwimi about 4 P.M., and entered by the channel
DIARY. 65
on the north bank ; the other channel is hidden by a large island which stands in the centre of the mouth of the river. Mr. Stanley steamed across to Basoko, a large town on the opposite bank, and told the people he wished them to hring us food. He then returned to an old camping-place of his, and we put in a little lower down. At our approach immense numbers of canoes left the town for the opposite banks and islands. The view at the mouth of the river is very pretty, as there is a grand stretch of the Congo without islands, and the forest is very fine. Baruti, Stanley's native servant, originally came from Basoko, and I believe there was a most interesting scene when the Peace went over there, between him and his relations. Much weeping and kissing ! Basoko stands in lat. 1° 15" and long. 24° 12". The river here is just 900 yards wide. The natives all have their ears stretched in several places by pieces of stick placed in the holes.
June I3th. — Orders came from the Peace that we were not to start until 12 o'clock, in the hope that the people would bring us food, but no canoes came near us. The Stanley was the steamer which carried the men belonging to the Free State, who burnt the town about fourteen months ago, and they are still afraid to come near her. Not five minutes after we had started, a number of natives who must have been hidden quite close to us in the bush, ran down to our landing-place. AVe all went into fits of laughter at a few men on the bank (further up) who gave us a regular war dance, the principal features of which were insulting gestures. The banks of the river are far more thickly populated than the Congo. If they chose to attack us when we are scattered in small parties through the dense forest, woodcutting, where one could not use a rifle until they were close to one, they could easily finish us all. I was to-night in the dark, on one of the native paths, without a light of any kind for over an hour, not a dozen men with me, and I have not the least doubt that the natives were close to us in the bush. I
F
66
STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
see that the curious appearance of their ears is due to tufts of dry coloured grasses, bunches of teeth, and all sorts of things stuck into the holes bored all along
their edges. I saw one man to-day, with a long piece of stick, put right through both nostrils at right angles
to his nose. They have small oval shields, sharp-pointed at both ends, with a raised dome in the centre, different from any others down river.
DIARY. 67
June 14£/>. — Just before we started some of Mr. j1887- Stanley's company sot fire to the huts, a most uncalled- A"™im for piece of devilment, and a thing to be regretted, as River, it is more likely to set the natives against us than anything. Saw the first of the conical-shaped huts mentioned in Stanley's book ; they are made of the leaves of palms cut off near the trunk, and overlapping one another layer upon layer, like a shingle roof. The door is small and low, the huts being generally very high. Some of the natives came across and wished to trade. Most of their paddles have a knob of ivory on the end, and are of the most graceful shapes.
June 1.5th. — Last night ten rounds of ammunition per man were served out, and now we go about in fear of our lives that they will be trying the cartridges in their rifles, and letting them off by accident. The river is now very much narrower, not over 500 yards wide, and the north bank is much higher than the south. A little after 5 o'clock we came within sight of the rapids, and the town of Yambuya, where the entrenched camp is to be, and which is to be our home for so long. I was greatly disappointed with the rapids, which are nothing in appearance but a few lines of broken water, although a great volume of water must pass over them. We made fast to the bank opposite the town, and Stairs went over to see Mr. Stanley, and returned with the following orders. We were to have steam up at 6 A.M. The Peace was to start first, go over to the village, and if possible have a palaver with the natives. We were to steam out into the middle of the river, and just keep headway against the stream. No whistle would be blown except by the Peace, and that would be a signal that negotiations had failed. We were then to cross over to her, when Jephson would land his company, Stanley having already landed his ; they wrere to ascend the bank, and spread in skirmishing order through the village. Whilst the others were landing, Stairs, if necessary, was to work the Maxim gun from the top deck of the Stanley. As I had no company, I was
68 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
1887. prepared to do any general fighting. No shots were to Junel" be fired, and no damage done to the village unless the natives showed active resistance.
June 16**.— At 6 A.M. the Peace steamed over to the village, and Mr. Stanley had a very long palaver with the natives, who would not hear of our landing there. So the whistle was at last blown, and we at once ca off and joined the Peace, which had dropped down below the landing-place. The order* were carried exactly, and it was a ludicrous sight to see Jephsons chief going up the bank first, which was fearfully steep, and about 40 ft. high, holding his rifle as far out in front of him as possible, and peering on every side 1 a lurking foe. Not a native was to be seen when they did get up, and the whole village was occupied in perfect peace. We put up our tents, and destroyed the huts which were not required for our men. Alter dinner Mr. Stanley called us all to his tent, and had a long talk with us. He explained the plan of the fort, which was to be a triangle, with its base the river-bank, stockaded, and with an outside ditch of 6 ft. wide and 4 ft deep, 10 ft. from the boma (stockade). He told us that Tippu-Tib was coming with as many men as he could get together, seven days after our landing, and going on with him to the Lake. He would also send enough men to enable us to follow after him with all the stores left here, and those brought up by the Stanley on her return journey. He also said that where there was enough food for so many natives, there must be lar more than enough for us. He dwelt a long time on the great importance of Barttelot's and my position, being left in charge of the fort to guard all the stores, as, it anything should happen to them, the Expedition would be at an end. Mr. Stanley said he would finish the stockade, and as much of the defences as possible, and that he would not in any case leave us until we were in what he considered a position of perfect safety, told us of his intention of returning from Lake Albert Nyanza on the route which he will take from here, i:
DIARY. 71
case we had not enough men to roino on with the 1887- , e . , , June 16.
ammunition and stores; in any case we would meet on Yambu a
the road. The natives have removed every vestige of food. In the centre of this village are three poles between which are built up the most extraordinary collection of native skulls, baskets, and all sorts of implements.
June \ltli. — My orders for the day were to unload the Stanley and Florida, and stack all the stores and ammunition. This took the wliole day to finish. Nelson and his company were all day making a road up the liver through the villages in that direction, so as to <^ive Mr. Stanley and his party a fair start on their long journey. All the villages were deserted. Stairs finished the clearing round the camp, and began the stockade, Jephson and his men cut wood for the steamers, and Parke explored in search of manioc plantations. A few natives came in and told Mr. Stanley that the country further up the river becomes very hilly, the travelling stony and rough, but that there are plenty of villages. News gradually spread through camp that Baruti, Mr. Stanley's native boy, whom he has had for years, had run away, taking with him Mr. Stanley's belt with cartridges, revolver, and compass, and also a rifle be- longing to William Hoffman, his servant. Feruzi and Bulla, boys belonging to the Captain of the Stanley, and one of the Engineers had bolted too. This proves how the savage in a man will out, no matter how you train him. The natives have crossed the river, and formed a large camp on the opposite shore.
In a letter to his wife, dated the Uth June, Jameson writes : —
" I cannot get over the feeling of disappointment at being left alone here with only Major Barttelot, when all the others are marching on to the Lakes. We shall have to do afterwards by ourselves, with Troup, Ward, and Bonny, the same march through the same unknown country as the others are doing with Stanley as their
72 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
1887^ leader, and all the picked Zanzibaris in the Expedition. Yambu a ^ suppose we shall be here about two months before the steamer returns up river, and we can start. I am a giant of health just now, and once we are settled in the camp I shall have time to draw, paint, and write all sorts of things for you. I like to linger over my letters to you for hours, for then the Expedition and all its surroundings seem to fade far away, but I am rudely awakened, as usual, to the dry hard faets of our progress up this river . . . ."
And later on, from Yambuya, he says : — (June 18th) " This is an unfortunate place for me to be confined to, as there is not a single track of game of any kind . . June 19th. . . To-morrow morning we shall eat our last piece of the old milk-goat, and I expect it will be a good two months before Barttelot and I get any more, for the natives have brought in nothing. Stanley and his party, however, should get plenty, as they will come upon villages before the people have time to carry away anything . . . ."
DIARY (continued).
June ISth. — Nelson, Parke, and Jephson were all out cutting wood. Stairs was finishing poles for stockade, wliilst I was collecting wood, and seeing it stacked. No natives came in; not a bit of meat in Camp.
June I$th. — Nothing of interest.
June 20th. — Every one out woodcutting. I again superintended splitting and stacking. The Stanley left at last for Leopoldville, carrying aU our mails. There were many happy hearts when she started, we had had to cut ten days' wood for her, which was an enormous pile. The Peace is to remain and go back with the Henri/ Eeed. The Stanley is to make all haste en route, and return as soon as possible with all the stores and
DIARY. 73
ammunition from Loopoldvillo, and the men from Bolobo. Mr. Stanley has promised the ( 'upturn ;md Yambuya. Engineer £50 each, if they return in August, or at the latest in September, and handed to me the orders on the bank to give them if they do so.
June 2lst. — Have been very seedy for the last week, and felt worse to-day. Inspecting stacking and splitting wood again. Mr. Stanley began to build the store, which is also to be my house, and blamed me for not having done so before, although he must have known that for the last three days I could not have got a man or an axe to help me, and he himself told me to look after the splitting and stacking of wood. The Henry Reed, with Barttelot, never turned up, although over- due. Some natives came into camp to have a palaver with Mr. Stanley ; they proposed that we should send five Zanzibaris over with them to the other side of the river to show confidence, and make palaver. Stanley said no, but that they must send two goats and ten fowls to us, and then palaver. Still no meat in camp. Living on rice, manioc cakes, and beans with biscuit ; no sugar or salt — a fact ! The natives get manioc by crossing the river below camp at night, and going up into the plantations.
June 22nd. — Mr. Stanley was getting very anxious to-day about the Henry Heed, and ordered the Peace to start down the river with Stairs and 30 men on board to-morrow, and proceed to the Falls. He thought that perhaps Tippu-Tib might have seized the steamer —rather a curious fact, since he stated to us that he considered Tippu's word as good as any white man's. However, when we had given up all hope, late in the evening she appeared round the bend of the river, and Barttelot brought two magnificent, big, fat goats and some bananas and plantains. There was also a splendid fat cow on board, a present from Tippu-Tib to the native chief at Leopoldville, which I wish Mr. Stanley would have allowed us to seize, as I do not see a chance
74 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
1887. of our getting any meat after he is gone. The large Yamb!f2a town we saw Durning on tne Congo was burnt by the people on the Henry Eeed after all, as Tippu-Tib's people had been looting and were attacked, and some of them were badly wounded, after which they burnt the whole place. Tippu-Tib is not coming after all. but is going to send a chief and some men instead. It appears that in Mr. Stanley's contract with him, Mr. Stanley promised to supply all his men with ammuni- tion ; Tippu-Tib found out that he could not do this, as all the powder and caps are still at Leopoldville, so he is very much annoyed, and at first was not going to send anyone ; but Major Barttelot persuaded him, telling him that all the ammunition would be here on the return of the Stanley. Mr. Charters, the missionary engineer of the Peace, made me exceedingly anxious this morning by informing me that there is a great chance that my letters sent by the Stanley will never reach home, as they would almost certainly be opened, read, and destroyed at Boma ; he told me that letters are constantly stopped there*. This is a most dis- graceful thing, for if there is one thing ever respected in any country by the governing body, it is the mails.
June 23rd. — All day stacking stores and ammunition. In the afternoon four or five Soudanese came in, carrying one of their party, who had been speared by a native; they had been looting a village, when the natives attacked them. -Two Zanzibaris, who were with them, fired and killed a native, when the others all ran away. Dr. Parke says it is a dangerous wound (in the groin), although he ought to live. There was great beating of drums after this, but no further attack. Poor Alexander, one of the Soudanese interpreters, died to-day. He has been ill for a long time, and ought never to have been taken on the Expedition.
* In justice to the Congo authorities on this occasion, ifc must be stated that all the letters sent by Jameson arrived safe and unopened. —ED.
DIARY. 75
June 2±th. — The Henry Reed and Peace left early this morning. All men out cutting poles for palisade, which was partly finished by evening.
June 25th. — Jephson and I had to write a report upon the state of the bales of clothes &c. for Emin. In consequenc of the way in which they were packed, nearly the whole of them were rotten ; but there were a good many which, with patching, might still be made wearable, so we decided to repack these, and use the rest for medical bandages. Stairs is really very bad with fever ; in fact, so bad that Mr. Stanley warned me to be ready to go instead of him at a moment's notice. To-day Mr. Stanley gave Major Barttelot a long letter of instructions and advice, of which I had to make two copies *. I was very glad indeed to get the letter, as it cleared up many things, of which I had only a very hazy idea. It is clear upon every point, but as regards our relations with Tippu-Tib's people, I think more might have been told us on this subject.
June 26th. — Engaged all morning in re-packing the bales for Emin Pasha, which are now reduced from five to three. I had to use the cover of my tent to pack a good many of the things in, which is a great loss to me, but it is in a good cause. The chief of the natives came over to-day, with whom Major Barttelot was made " blood-brother," in order to increase our friendly rela- tions with them after Mr. Stanley's departure. A chicken (needless to say supplied by the natives) had its head cut off, the blood being scattered over the lookers on, then a cut was made both on the Major's arm and that of the chief; the bleeding parts were rubbed together, and then rubbed on the back of each other's necks. They then kissed one another, and are now supposed to be fast friends. Let us hope that it will induce them to bring us something to eat. The European provisions were opened to-day, and Nelson
* See Appendix II.
76 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
was busy all day in sorting them out in rations for each man for six months. Each man's allowance is the following : —
Coffee 2J Ibs. 1£ tin sausages.
Tea 1£ Ib. 1 tin flour.
3 tins of jam. ^ tin sago.
1£ tin sardines. 4 tins condensed milk
£ tin red herrings. •£ Ib. sugar.
\ tin tapioca. \\ tin cocoa.
1 small tin of salt. 2 tins biscuit.
3 small tins of butter. 2 pots Liebig.
£ tin chocolate.
When one reflects that the above have to be eked out over 180 days, one would really rather be without a great many of them than only have enough to make one wish for more! The tins are the ordinary small ones in general use in very small households. Here are Major Barttelot and myself left absolutely without one atom of meat, tinned or fresh, for several months, and no visible means of obtaining any, for the natives have brought in nothing, and have removed everything from all the villages within reach of this camp. There is not a pound of game-meat, either bird or animal, in the whole country round. Had Mr. Stanley only used three of his many men to carry tinned meat, the Major and I might have had \ Ib. a day each of good meat for the whole six months, far more than we should ever have used. When complaining of food some one might say, " Oh, you had such luxuries as chocolate, sausages, red herrings, and sardines! What have you got to com- plain of1? " One could only answer that \ a small tin of chocolate, \\ ditto of sausages, \ ditto red herrings, and \\ ditto of sardines was not tasting much luxury for 180 days. This evening Mr. Stanley sent round, to all the officers he is taking with him, his orders for the conduct of the march. Always first will be a company, commanded by him in person, of fifty men, who will clear the road; then the main bodv, consisting of all
D1MIY. 11
curriers and supernumeraries to help the tired or sick ; lastly tin- rearguard, of thirty nnned men, with no loads, and others to help those who fall out from the main body. There wen1 numerous other directions about communications between parts of the column, \< . Lastly he stated his intentions of forming a camp on the S.W. corner of Lake Albert Nyanza. From there
lie will cross in the boat to in Unyoro, where he
will meet Ni^iior , from whom he will find out the
whereabouts of Kmin Pasha. If in the neighbourhood of the Lake, he will meet him, and, after discovering his intentions, will start back for this Camp to bring on the rest of the stores and ammunition, should we not be already on the road to the Lake. If not, he would reach here some time in November most probably. The above is all in Mr. Stanley's letter of instructions to Major Barttelot.
June 27th. — All morning and forenoon were taken up in arranging the men who are going on, into companies, and sorting out those who are to be left behind. Seventy-six of the very worst were left, and only one chief called Munichandi, a man who is utterly worth- less, as the men do not care one rush for what he says. Had Mr. Stanley tried, he could not have left a worse man as chief over the class of men left behind. It was the greatest mistake not to leave us at least one good man whom the men would respect and obey, but I suppose beggars must not be choosers. He has taken ten of the best of the Soudanese, and the bugler who would have been a great help in camp. To-day the Major and I made our last good square meal of meat, 1 expect, for a long time. -Stairs is still very ill, but is going to be carried.
June 28th. — At 10 minutes past 8 A.M. Mr. Stanley started, after bidding us a very kind good-bye, with an exchange of wishes for the best of luck on both sides. A i^ood-bye and God-speed was exchanged with all the other officers, Nelson being the last to leave, as he had charge of the rear-guard. Then Major Harttelot and
78 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
1887« I began the real work of the camp, collected all the Yambu a wo°d from the deserted huts, and cleaned up the whole camp. I got ten men together and arranged the things left behind. Barttelot went out to cut poles for the boma. Having finished the work in the store, I brought up my things from my tent, bed and all, and made the place habitable. It is frightfully damp, and Mr. Stanley could net have chosen a worse place for it. Before dinner we set the following sentries :-— 2 Zanzibaris at bastion behind the store, 2 Zanzibaris at covered way to the water, 2 Soudanese on platform, 1 Soudanese at west end of boma, 2 Zanzibaris between western limit and path to landing-place, 1 Soudanese on path to landing-place, 4 Zanzibaris on open space of unfinished boma, 1 Soudanese at the main gate east. I went round of sentries at 8.30, 10, and 4 o'clock.
June 29th. — Off at 6 o'clock with 20 men to cut poles to finish boma. We have only been left five axes which can by any possibility be used, and of these only two can be called fairly good. We cut ninety poles, and returned to camp at 11.30. The chiefs are worse than useless, and the Major and I have to inspect every little thing that is done. There were one or two very small scraps of meat left last night in the stew, the last we are likely to see for a long time, so we ordered them to be kept for our mid-day meal to-day, although we should have turned up our noses at them a few days ago. When the pot arrived, Major Barttelot plunged his fork into it, and drew forth — not meat — but a filthy piece of old rag ! Heavens ! were'nt we in a rage ! — our last piece of meat, and we could not eat it ! Went out and cut more poles. Dined off three pigeons, which I shot, manioc and bananas. The manioc nearly finished me. Went round of sentries 7.30, 11, and 2.30 A.M.
June 30/A. — At 6.30A.M. I started off to cut poles for boma. When the natives on the opposite side of the river saw us, they evidently thought that the camp was deserted, and at least fifty canoes crossed over between us and camp. I at once ordered the men to turn, as I
DIARY. 79
thought we might ho cut off. Upon soring us return to the camp, the natives all holted and re-crossed the ri\vr, so we quietly proceeded to cut poles. Seedy all day and night. Pounded boiled rice, fried in cakes, quite a success.
July 1st. — 6 A.M., off again cutting poles for that infernal boma, but, thank heavens, finished it at last. I shall hate the sight of any kind of wooden paling aftor this. The Major began the big ditch round the boma to-day, 10 feet from boma, 6 feet wide, and 4^ feet deep. He shot a pigeon, and as there were three very, very small chickens which I was trying to rear, and as " two are company and three are none," I killed one of them, and we had a stew for dinner, which was a great success. Major Barttelot took night of sentries, as 1 am still seedy. We have begun from to-day to take night about in going the rounds.
July 2nd. — Three sentries were caught asleep last night. There is no excuse for them, as they have been warned two or three times they will be flogged if found asleep, and they go on duty two together, so that one may sleep while the other watches. They got 25 strokes each. My boy Matajabu succeeded in buying one small pot of honey and three ripe plaintains from some natives to-day. I would knight him, had I the power ! Went round sentries ; caught two asleep.
July 3rd, Sunday. — Began by flogging the sentries caught asleep. This sort of thing must be stopped, as we are a very small force, liable to be attacked at any moment. Nearly all hands at ditch again. Gave the men a half-holiday. Served out one mataka and six cowries to each man as their weekly allowance ; they at first refused to take the cowries, saying the natives would not take them, but I told them those were Mr. Stanley's orders. The rain came through my roof in streams, and wet my bed and everything.
July ith. — No sentries asleep last night. Nearly
80 STORY OF THE REAR COLUMN.
1837. all hands digging ditch again. Munichandi very muti-
Jul nous, but afterwards repentant. Finished plantains.
Dinner simpler than ever. Went round sentries.
July 5th.— Rahani Wadi Serum, a Zanzibar!, died last night; he had been ill for a long time. All morning at ditch. An extraordinary flight of butterflies passed over the camp all the afternoon, the same common white ones that I noticed in large flights on the Congo. This lot flew from north to south as straight as the compass could point. The damp in my house is very
-
-— ^ ,
" _ r »
BAPIDS, FKOM THE CAMP.
bad, and I fear some of the things will come to grief, although I have done all I could think of to remedy it. How I will bless the day when I get a little time for collecting and drawing ! But it seems far off still.
July Qth. — Two sentries who deserted their post last night were flogged this morning. It is sickening, this continual flogging, but there is no help for it. Nearly all
DIARY. 81
hands at ditch again. If the men would only show a little more spirit, and work less reluctantly, it would make it much easier for Barttelot and myself. The same curious flight of white butterflies is still going on. Had a new cook-house built this afternoon ; of course there is nothing to cook in it. I succeeded in buying a small fish cut in half from one of the boys to-day for two matakas, and gave him one for himself. Famine prices. It turned out to be the same fish exactly as those we used to catch in the rivers running into the Zambesi, with teeth outside the jaws, of which I have one stuffed at home I heard Matajabu holding an animated con- versation with some of the men to-day, and asked him what it was about. He told me that the men said they knew why the place was being made so strong : Mr. Stanley was going to sell it to the Belgians for two or three hundred pounds, for a new station, as it could not be for us only, for our guns were quite enough without the boma and trench to keep off the natives. It gave me a real good laugh, the first I have had for some time.
July 7th. — Went the rounds last night. No sentries asleep, so no flogging this morning, thank goodness. At the trench all morning. I succeeded in shooting a pigeon, which was unlucky enough to come near where we were digging, and Matajabu bought three small fish, so we had quite a day of it in the eating-line — fish for lunch, pigeon for dinner — though of course that ass of a cook kept the best fish for dinner, and it smelt so, having been left all day in the sun, that we nearly left the house when it came in. Edi, one of the little donkey-boys, died this afternoon ; he had been ill for some time, and I had given him medicine, but he had been on parade every morning. We let the men off work an hour earlier than usual to go and get manioc. No signs yet of Tippu-Tib's people. No chance of collecting yet, for one cannot leave the men for a moment ; the chiefs are perfectly useless.
July Sth. — Another morning without any flogging,
G
82 STORY OF THE HEAR COLUMN.
and another day at the ditch ! A native came who told us ^na^ they wanted to buy the canoes which we had seized when occupying the village, and that they were ready to pay for them in chickens, goats, and plantains. We told him we would let them have one, but that they must first produce the payment. This he said he was willing to do. He then told us he had a lot of plantains with him in his canoe, and if Matajabu would go with him, he might bring them back to camp. But unfortunately a number of Zanzibaris ran out with matakas, and, although Matajabu told them that the plantains were for us, they made the natives sell them to them. I was very angry at this, and when the men paraded at 1.15 I told them that when my boy was sent by the Major and myself to buy — especially in a case like this, when the natives had already promised the plantains to us — he should have the first chance of buying, and if prevented, I would shut the gates in future whenever a canoe came, and not let a man out until we had got what we wanted. Great beating of drums to-night in all the villages round. Ten canoes passed up the other side to-day, to the natives camped there.
July $th. — The sentries, I am glad to say, are now keeping awake. Finished the ditch to-day. Major Barttelbt still seedy. No sign of the native who was to buy the canoe with goats and chickens ; but in the morning a native — evidently a man of position — came into camp, and had a palaver with Barttelot and myself. He wished to know whether he could take any quantity of manioc, and re-occupy the village next this one. He said that, if allowed, he would bring us plenty of chickens, the price of each being five matakas. This is the price they ask for a chicken hardly fledged. After a lot of palaver, we told him that our terms were these — that he should bring us two goats, and we would give him a present, that he could then take the manioc in peace, and we would talk about the occupation of the village, and further that we should certainly not give
DIARY. 83
five matakas for any fowl. If he did not do this, we «w. told him we should take steps to stop their getting any 3al'9' manioc at all As things are now, they come across to Yan*"va' the villages above us at all times in the day, and carry away enormous quantities to the other side. He finally he would return in the evening with the two goats He has however, not turned up, so I am going to show them that we are in earnest to-morrow morning, by takin- twenty-five of the Soudanese with me, and stopping ail the river-paths to the manioc fields. I will try and capture a woman, and then they will come to terms I think. For the last two or three days there have been a number of large canoes coming up river to join them, and I flunk it looks ; like mischief, but we are now prepared
r"Aemfl- i?%Td was from the north again to-day, and the flight of those white butterflies in the afternoon was so dense as to resemble drifting snow.
July 10*A_ 1 .had a most delightful day, for instead
Digging the ditch I was out all day. I had deter-
mined to begin collecting to-day in the natural-history
W6' ^ ,SUCCe^ded in a mu^ larger way than I intended, by collecting two native women, one baby and a boy. After an inspection of rifles at 6 A.M., I started off with twenty-three Soudanese to stop the natives taking manioc, and to try and catch women
.owever no natives ventured near, so we returned to amp. After lunch the Soudanese reported that two canoes were made fast to the bank at some distance above camp, and that the natives had gone for manioc Major Barttelot asked me to take ten of his men, and to go and try to catch them. I went off, but found only one canoe. I went up about ten yards from it to place my men in the paths leading to the fields, when a woman and two men jumped out of the grass where we had been standing a moment before, and, bolting down the bank into the canoe, they got clean off. We must have been standing almost on the top of them! We looked dreadfully foolish, for we had been thoroughly
Id, and I was disgusted at the idea of going back to
STOBr OF THE REAR COLUMN.
ust be a «W ng
Knowing there must be a J«gjW ng fcst hesi. there, and having so ^^tS what a sudden tated about going up ; ^*dS?I started up the dt 1££^^2>ftge manioc planta- path. We pr< "" rfmuls told ns we were close
gous and thofe ra^tol I, jw.
lay a very large canoe with only
it • he tried to push off, but we made a
Presently down came a
- and waited, when along came another
a baby. We caught her too, but she
DIARY. 85
screamed fearfully, and I thought she would brin<j a perfect hornets' nest about us; but the noise of the rapids drowned her voice. In the meantime there were now five men and two boys standing up to their necks in the water, as we had got between them and the canoe. The Soudanese officer advanced to the edge of the water, and, pointing his gun at one of the boys, he swore he would shoot him if he did not come out. He came out, and we promptly collared him, tied the two women together, and went off at the double for
camp. We passed a great number of canoes full of natives, close to the bank, who, when they saw our prisoners, started off at once for their villages across river. Major Barttelot was delighted when I returned with the captives. He sent the boy away to his village to tell the chief that he would only give up the women for goats and fowls, and that he must come and have a palaver himself, as his people had not fulfilled their promises to us, for which reason we had taken the women. We gave the little chap four matakas for himself. He had hardly gone, when we observed a canoe coming down river straight for camp, and the enraged husband of the woman with the picaninny arrived. Luckily he turned out to be the same man who was here yesterday, and who had broken his promise of bringing us fowls and goats. He now assured us he would bring us five goats and ten fowls for his wife and baby, if he might take them away. We told him that
86 STORY OF THE EEAR COLUMN.
had he kept his former promises the women would not nave ke'en taken, that the moment ten goats, twenty chickens, and some honey for the baby were brought over, the two women and the child would be given back at once. He promised to come to-morrow morning without fail, and left camp quite gaily, shaking hands with everyone all round. This will bring things to a definite issue, either peace and trade, or war. The two surviving cheeping chickens were slaughtered for our Sunday dinner, and an excellent little stew they made — the first bit of meat we have had for a good many days, and oh such a small bit !
July Ilth. — After breakfast the native arrived to palaver about his wife. He brought one fowl and some fish to show that he was in earnest. We allowed him to see the women and the baby. He said the chief was up the river somewhere. I then went off to look after the men cutting poles, taking my small gun and butterfly-net with me ; so the collecting has begun at last ! The butterflies are rather disappointing, as there are not many different from those on the Congo, nor as large a variety. Returned at 11.45, and found Barttelot had been palavering nearly all morning with the native about his wife, and was very sick of it. He arrived again after lunch, but refused to come into camp. I went out with the men again, and heard tremendous shouting amongst them ; and found that the natives had seized Omari, one of the donkey-boys, and taken him across the river. He had strict orders not to go out of sight of the camp ; but he left the donkeys, and went to the next village where the natives sell fish, and there they seized him ; so he has only himself to blame for it. If the gentleman comes about his wife to-morrow, he will find himself tied up, and told he will be shot if Omari is not given up. I am sure they had not meant to capture any of our men, as they had a dozen fowls and a goat in the canoe, which they were bringing as part ransom for the woman. On seeing Omari, the sudden idea must have entered their heads
DIARY. 87
to take him prisoner. Ii.irlfelot is suffering from a , l,* kind of low fever. At present onr situation with tin-
/» /•
natives is this : — we have two fowls and some fish, two women and a baby; the natives have got Oman, I hope things will he straightened out a little to-morrow. Visited sentries last night as usual.
Jit/ 1/ Ylth. — Gave orders this morning that no man is to leave camp without an order from Barttelot or myself, nor without a rifle. One of the Somalis died to-day ; he has been ill for a long time, and had almost entirely lost the use of his legs. Barttelot still seedy ; he eats simply nothing. Certainly plain boiled rice and