The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile by Samuel White Baker (best ebook reader for chromebook .txt) đź“–
- Author: Samuel White Baker
- Performer: -
Book online «The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile by Samuel White Baker (best ebook reader for chromebook .txt) 📖». Author Samuel White Baker
fraternity. There was a peculiar charm in the association with children
in this land of hardened hearts and savage natures: there is a time in
the life of the most savage animal when infancy is free from the fierce
instincts of race; even the lion’s whelp will fondle the hand that it
would tear in riper years: thus, separated in this land of horrors from
all civilization, and forced by hard necessity into the vicinity of all
that was brutal and disgusting, it was an indescribable relief to be
surrounded by those who were yet innocent, and who clung in their
forsaken state to those who looked upon them with pity. We had now six
little dependents, none of whom could ever belong to us, as they were
all slaves, but who were well looked after by my wife; fed, amused, and
kept clean. The boy Abbai was the greatest favourite, as, having neither
father nor mother, he claimed the greatest care: he was well washed
every morning, and then to his great delight smeared all over from head
to toes with red ochre and grease, with a cock’s feather stuck in his
woolly pate. He was then a most charming pet savage, and his toilette
completed, he invariably sat next to his mistress, drinking a
gourd-shell of hot milk, while I smoked my early morning pipe beneath
the tree. I made bows and arrows for my boys, and taught them to shoot
at a mark, a large pumpkin being carved into a man’s head to excite
their aim. Thus the days were passed until the evening; at that time a
large fire was lighted to create a blaze, drums were collected, and
after dinner a grand dance was kept up by the children, until the young
Abbai ended regularly by creeping under my wife’s chair, and falling
sound asleep: from this protected spot he was carried to his mat,
wrapped up in a piece of old flannel (the best cloth we had), in which
he slept till morning. Poor little Abbai! I often wonder what will be
his fate, and whether in his dreams he recalls the few months of
happiness that brightened his earliest days of slavery.
Although we were in good health in Shooa, many of the men were ill,
suffering generally from headache; also from ulcerated legs;—the
latter was a peculiar disease, as the ulcer generally commenced upon the
ankle bone and extended to such a degree that the patient was rendered
incapable of walking. The treatment for headache among all the savage
tribes was a simple cauterization of the forehead in spots burnt with a
hot iron close to the roots of the hair. The natives declared that the
water was unwholesome from the small stream at the foot of the hill and
that all those who drank from the well were in good health. I went down
to examine the spring, which I found beautifully clear, while the
appearance of the stream was quite sufficient to explain the opposite
quality. As I was walking quietly along the bank, I saw a bright ray of
light in the grass upon the opposite side; in another moment I perceived
the head of a crocodile which was concealed in the grass, the brightness
of the sun’s reflection upon the eye having attracted my attention. A
shot with the little 24 rifle struck just above the eye and killed it;
—it was a female, from which we extracted several large eggs, all with
hard shells.
The shooting that I had while at Shooa was confined to antelopes; of
these there was no variety excepting waterbuck and hartebeest. Whenever
I shot an animal the Shooa natives would invariably cut its throat, and
drink the hot blood as it gushed from the artery. In this neighbourhood
there was a great scarcity of game the natives of Lira described their
country as teeming with elephants and rhinoceros; a fine horn of the
latter they brought with them to Shooa. There is only one variety of
rhinoceros that I have met with in the portions of Africa that I have
visited: this is the two-horned, a very exact sketch of which I made of
the head of one that I cut off after I had shot it. This two-horned
black rhinoceros is extremely vicious. I have remarked that they almost
invariably charge any enemy that they smell, but do not see; they
generally retreat if they observe the object before obtaining the wind.
In my rambles in search of game, I found two varieties of cotton growing
indigenous to the country: one with a yellow blossom was so short in the
staple as to be worthless, but the other (a red blossom) produced a fine
quality that was detached with extreme ease from the seeds. A sample of
this variety I brought to England, and deposited the seed at the Royal
Botanical Gardens at Kew. A large quantity was reported to be grown at
Lira, some of which was brought me by the chief; this was the inferior
kind. I sketched the old chief of Lira, who when in full dress wore a
curious ornament of cowrie shells upon his felt wig that gave him a most
comical appearance, as he looked like the caricature of an English
judge. The Turks had extended their excursions in their search for
ivory, and they returned from an expedition sixty miles east of Shooa,
bringing with them two donkeys that they had obtained from the natives.
This was an interesting event, as for nearly two years I had heard from
the natives of Latooka, and from those of Unyoro, that donkeys existed
in a country to the east. These animals were the same in appearance as
those of the Soudan; the natives never rode, but simply used them to
transport wood from the forest to their villages; the people were
reported as the same in language and appearance as the Lira tribe.
THE NATIVES IN MOURNING.
The hour of deliverance from our long sojourn in Central Africa was at
hand; it was the month of February, and the boats would be at Gondokoro.
The Turks had packed their ivory; the large tusks were fastened to poles
to be carried by two men, and the camp was a perfect mass of this
valuable material. I counted 609 loads of upwards of 50 lbs. each;
thirty-one loads were lying at an outstation: therefore the total
results of the ivory campaign during the last twelve months were about
32,000 lbs., equal to about 9,630 pounds when delivered in Egypt. This
was a perfect fortune for Koorshid.
We were ready to start. My baggage was so unimportant that I was
prepared to forsake everything, and to march straight for Gondokoro
independently with my own men; but this the Turks assured me was
impracticable, as the country was so hostile in advance that we must of
necessity have some fighting on the road; the Bari tribe would dispute
our right to pass through their territory.
The porters were all engaged to transport the ivory, but I observed that
the greater number were in mourning for either lost friends or cattle,
having ropes twisted round their necks and waists, as marks of sorrow.
About 800 men received payment of cattle in advance; the next day they
had all absconded with their cows, having departed during the night.
This was a planned affair to “spoil the Egyptians:” a combination had
been entered into some months before by the Madi and Shooa tribes, to
receive payment and to abscond, but to leave the Turks helpless to
remove their stock of ivory. The people of Mahommed Wat-el-Mek were in a
similar dilemma; not a tusk could be delivered at Gondokoro.
This was not my affair. The greater portion of Ibrahim’s immense store
of ivory had been given to him by Kamrasi; I had guaranteed him a
hundred cantars (10,000 lbs.) should he quit Obbo and proceed to the
unknown south; in addition to a large quantity that he had collected and
delivered at Gondokoro in the past year, he had now more than three
times that amount. Although Kamrasi had on many occasions offered the
ivory to me, I had studiously avoided the acceptance of a single tusk,
as I wished the Turks to believe that I would not mix myself up with
trade in any form, and that my expedition had purely the one object that
I had explained to Ibrahim when I first won him over on the road to
Ellyria more than two years ago, “the discovery of the Albert lake.”
With a certain number of presents of first class forty-guinea rifles and
guns, &c. &c., to Ibrahim, I declared my intention of starting for
Gondokoro. My trifling articles of baggage were packed: a few of the
Lira natives were to act as porters, as, although the ivory could not be
transported, it was necessary for Ibrahim to send a strong party to
Gondokoro to procure ammunition and the usual supplies forwarded
annually from Khartoum; the Lira people who carried my luggage would act
as return porters.
The day arrived for our departure; the oxen were saddled and we were
ready to start. Crowds of people came to say “goodbye,” but, dispensing
with the hand-kissing of the Turks who were to remain in camp, we
prepared for our journey towards HOME. Far away although it was, every
step would bring us nearer. Nevertheless there were ties even in this
wild spot, where all was savage and unfeeling—ties that were painful
to sever, and that caused a sincere regret to both of us when we saw our
little flock of unfortunate slave children crying at the idea of
separation. In this moral desert, where all humanized feelings were
withered and parched like the sands of the Soudan, the guilelessness of
the children had been welcomed like springs of water, as the only
refreshing feature in a land of sin and darkness. “Where are you going?”
cried poor little Abbai in the broken Arabic that we had taught him.
“Take me with you, Sitty!” (lady), and he followed us down the path, as
we regretfully left our proteges, with his fists tucked into his eyes,
weeping from his heart, although for his own mother he had not shed a
tear. We could not take him with us;—he belonged to Ibrahim; and had I
purchased the child to rescue him from his hard lot and to rear him as a
civilized being, I might have been charged with slave dealing. With
heavy hearts we saw him taken up in the arms of a woman and carried back
to camp, to prevent him from following our party, that had now started.
We had turned our backs fairly upon the south, and we now travelled for
several days through most beautiful parklike lands, crossing twice the
Un-y-Ame stream, that rises in the country between Shooa and Unyoro, and
arriving at the point of junction of this river with the Nile, in
latitude 3 degrees 32 minutes N. On the north bank of the Un-y-Ame,
about three miles from the embouchure of that river where it flows into
the Nile, the tamarind tree was shown me that forms the limit of Signor
Miani’s journey from Gondokoro, the extreme point reached by any
traveller from the north until the date of my expedition. This tree bore
the name of “Shedder-el-Sowar” (the traveller’s tree), by which it was
known to the traders’ parties. Several of the men belonging to Ibrahim,
also Mahommed Wat-el-Mek, the vakeel of Debono’s people, had accompanied
Signor Miani on his expedition to this spot. Loggo, the Bari
interpreter, who had constantly acted for me during two years, happened
to have been the interpreter of Signor Miani; he confessed to me how he
had been compelled
Comments (0)