The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile by Samuel White Baker (best ebook reader for chromebook .txt) 📖

narrow entrance,

would be impregnable when held, as now, by fifty men well armed with

guns against a mob whose best weapons were only lances. I sent men up

the watchmen’s stations; these were about twenty-five feet high; and the

night being clear, they could distinctly report the movements of a dark

mass of natives that were ever increasing on the outside of the town at

about two hundred yards’ distance. The rattle of the Turks’ drum

repeatedly sounded in reply to the nogara, and the intended attack

seemed destined to relapse into a noisy but empty battle of the drums.

 

A few hours passed in uncertainty, when, at about midnight, the chief

Commoro came fearlessly to the patrol, and was admitted to the

quadrangle. He seemed greatly struck with the preparations for defence,

and explained that the nogara had been beaten without his orders, and

accordingly the whole country had risen; but that he had explained to

the people that I had no hostile intentions, and that all would be well

if they only kept the peace. He said they certainly had intended to

attack us, and were surprised that we were prepared, as proved by the

immediate reply of the Turks’ drum to their nogara. He assured us that

he would not sleep that night, but would watch that nothing should

happen. I assured him that we should also keep awake, but should the

nogara sound once more I should give orders to my men to set fire to the

town, as I should not allow the natives to make use of such threats with

impunity. I agreed to use what little interest I had to keep the Turks

in order, but that I must not be held responsible by the natives for

their proceedings, as I was not of their country, neither had I anything

to do with them. I explained, that upon Ibrahim’s return from Gondokoro

things might improve, as he was the captain of the Turks, and might be

able to hold his men in command. Commoro departed, and about 2 A.M. the

dense crowds of armed men that had accumulated outside the town began to

disperse.

 

The morning broke and saw the men still under arms, but the excitement

had passed. The women soon reappeared with their water jars as usual,

but on this occasion they were perfectly unmolested by the Turks, who,

having passed the night in momentary expectation of an attack, were now

upon their best behaviour. However, I heard them muttering among

themselves, “Wait until Ibrahim returns with reinforcements and

ammunition, and we will pay the Latookas for last night.”

 

The town filled; and the Latookas behaved as though nothing out of the

common had occurred; but when questioned, they coolly confessed that

they had intended to surprise us, but that we were too “wide awake.”. It

is extraordinary that these fellows are so stupid as to beat the drum or

nogara before the attack, as it naturally gives the alarm, and renders a

surprise impossible; nevertheless, the war-drum is always a preliminary

step to hostilities. I now resolved to camp outside the town, so as not

to be mixed up in any way with the Turks, whose presence was certain to

create enmity. Accordingly I engaged a number of natives to cut thorns,

and to make a zareeba, or camp, about four hundred yards from the main

entrance of the town, on the road to the stream of water. In a few days

it was completed, and I constructed houses for my men, and two good huts

for ourselves. Having a supply of garden seeds, I arranged a few beds,

which I sowed with onions, cabbages, and radishes. My camp was eighty

yards long, and forty wide. My horses were picqueted in two corners,

while the donkeys and camels occupied the opposite extremity. We now

felt perfectly independent. I had masses of supplies, and I resolved to

work round to the southwest whenever it might be possible, and thus to

recover the route that I had originally proposed for my journey south.

My present difficulty was the want of an interpreter. The Turks had

several, and I hoped that on the return of Ibrahim from Gondokoro I

might induce him to lend me a Bari lad for some consideration. For the

present I was obliged to send to the Turks’ camp and borrow an

interpreter whenever I required one, which was both troublesome and

expensive.

 

Although I was willing to purchase all supplies with either beads or

copper bracelets, I found it was impossible to procure meat. The natives

refused to sell either cattle or goats. This was most tantalizing, as

not less than 10,000 head of cattle filed by my camp every morning as

they were driven from the town to pasturage. All this amount of beef

paraded before me, and did not produce a steak! Milk was cheap and

abundant; fowl were scarce; corn was plentiful; vegetables were unknown;

not even pumpkins were grown by the Latookas.

 

Fortunately there was an abundance of small game in the shape of wild

ducks, pigeons, doves; and a great variety of birds such as herons,

cranes, spoonbills, &c. Travellers should always take as large a supply

of shot as possible. I had four hundred weight, and prodigious

quantities of powder and caps: thus I could at all times kill sufficient

game for ourselves and people. There were a series of small marshy pools

scattered over the country near the stream that ran through the valley;

these were the resort of numerous ducks, which afforded excellent sport.

The town of Tarrangolle is situated at the foot of the mountain, about a

mile from the stream, which is about eighty yards wide, but shallow. In

the dry weather, water is obtained by wells dug in the sandy bed, but

during the rains it is a simple torrent not exceeding three feet in

depth. The bed being sandy, the numerous banks, left dry by the

fluctuations of the stream, are most inviting spots for ducks; and it

was only necessary to wait under a tree, on the river’s bank, to obtain

thirty or forty shots in one morning as the ducks flew down the course

of the stream. I found two varieties: the small brown duck with a grey

head; and a magnificent variety, as large as the Muscovy, having a

copper-and-blue coloured tinselled back and wings, with a white but

speckled head and neck. This duck had a curious peculiarity in a fleshy

protuberance on the beak about as large as a half-crown. This stands

erect, like a cock’s comb. Both this, and the smaller variety, were

delicious eating. There were two varieties of geese—the only two that

I have ever seen on the White Nile—the common Egyptian grey goose, and

a large black and white bird with a crimson head and neck, and a red and

yellow horny protuberance on the top of the head. This variety has a

sharp spur upon the wing an inch long, and exceedingly powerful; it is

used as a weapon of defence for striking, like the spurred wing of the

plover.

 

I frequeutly shot ten or twelve ducks, and as many cranes, before

breakfast; among others the beautiful crested crane, called by the Arabs

“garranook.” The black velvet head of this crane, surrounded by a golden

crest, was a favourite ornament of the Latookas, and they were

immediately arranged as crests for their helmets. The neighbourhood of

my camp would have made a fortune for a feather-dealer; it was literally

strewn with down and plumes. I was always attended every morning by a

number of Latooka boys, who were eager sportsmen, and returned to camp

daily laden with ducks and geese.

 

No sooner did we arrive in camp than a number of boys volunteered to

pluck the birds, which they did for the sake of the longest feathers,

with which they immediately decked their woolly heads. Crowds of boys

were to be seen with heads like cauliflowers, all dressed with the

feathers of cranes and wild ducks. It appears to be accepted, both by

the savage and civilized, that birds’ feathers are specially intended

for ornamenting the human head.

 

It was fortunate that Nature had thus stocked Latooka with game. It was

impossible to procure any other meat; and not only were the ducks and

geese to us what the quails were to the Israelites in the desert, but

they enabled me to make presents to the natives that assured them of our

good will.

 

Although the Latookas were far better than other tribes that I had met,

they were sufficiently annoying; they gave me no credit for real good

will, but they attributed my forbearance to weakness. On one occasion

Adda, one of the chiefs, came to ask me to join him in attacking a

village to procure molotes (iron hoes); he said, “Come along with me,

bring your men and guns, and we will attack a village near here, and

take their molotes and cattle; you keep the cattle, and I will have the

molotes.” I asked him whether the village was in an enemy’s country. “Oh

no!” he replied, “it is close here; but the people are rather

rebellious, and it will do them good to kill a few, and to take their

molotes. If you are afraid, never mind, I will ask the Turks to do it.”

Thus forbearance on my part was supposed to be caused from weakness, and

it was difficult to persuade them that it originated in a feeling of

justice. This Adda most coolly proposed that we should plunder one of

his own villages that was rather too “liberal” in its views. Nothing is

more heartbreaking than to be so thoroughly misunderstood, and the

obtuseness of the savages was such, that I never could make them

understand the existence of good principle;—their one idea was

“power,”—force that could obtain all—the strong hand that could wrest

from the weak. In disgust I frequently noted the feelings of the moment

in my journal—a memorandum from which I copy as illustrative of the

time. “1863, 10th April, Latooka.—I wish the black sympathisers in

England could see Africa’s inmost heart as I do, much of their sympathy

would subside. Human nature viewed in its crude state as pictured

amongst African savages is quite on a level with that of the brute, and

not to be compared with the noble character of the dog. There is neither

gratitude, pity, love, nor self-denial; no idea of duty; no religion;

but covetousness, ingratitude, selfishness and cruelty. All are thieves,

idle, envious, and ready to plunder and enslave their weaker

neighbours.”

 

CHAPTER VI.

 

THE FUNERAL DANCE.

 

Drums were beating, horns blowing, and people were seen all running in

one direction;—the cause was a funeral dance, and I joined the crowd,

and soon found myself in the midst of the entertainment. The dancers

were most grotesquely got up. About a dozen huge ostrich feathers

adorned their helmets; either leopard or the black and white monkey

skins were suspended from their shoulders, and a leather tied round the

waist covered a large iron bell which was strapped upon the loins of

each dancer, like a woman’s old-fashioned bustle: this they rung to the

time of the dance by jerking their posteriors in the most absurd manner.

A large crowd got up in this style created an indescribable hubbub,

heightened by the blowing of horns and the beating of seven nogaras of

various notes. Every dancer wore an antelope’s horn suspended round the

neck, which he blew occasionally in the height of his excitement. These

instruments produced a sound partaking of the braying of a donkey and

the screech of an owl. Crowds of men rushed round and round in a sort of

“galop infernel,” brandishing their lances and iron-headed maces, and

keeping tolerably in line five