Next Morning The Robber Party Came With About Thirty Yards Of Strong
Striped English Calico, An Axe, And Two Hoes
For our acceptance,
and returned the copper rings, as the chief was a great man, and did not need
the
Ornaments of my men, but we noticed that they were taken back again.
I divided the cloth among my men, and pleased them a little
by thus compensating for the loss of the ox. I advised the chief,
whose name we did not learn, as he did not deign to appear
except under the alias Matiamvo, to get cattle for his own use,
and expressed sorrow that I had none wherewith to enable him
to make a commencement. Rains prevented our proceeding till Thursday morning,
and then messengers appeared to tell us that their chief had learned
that all the cloth sent by him had not been presented; that the copper rings
had been secreted by the persons ordered to restore them to us,
and that he had stripped the thievish emissaries of their property
as a punishment. Our guides thought these were only spies of a larger party,
concealed in the forest through which we were now about to pass.
We prepared for defense by marching in a compact body,
and allowing no one to straggle far behind the others.
We marched through many miles of gloomy forest in gloomier silence,
but nothing disturbed us. We came to a village, and found all the men absent,
the guides thought, in the forest, with their countrymen.
I was too ill to care much whether we were attacked or not.
Though a pouring rain came on, as we were all anxious to get away
out of a bad neighborhood, we proceeded. The thick atmosphere
prevented my seeing the creeping plants in time to avoid them;
so Pitsane, Mohorisi, and I, who alone were mounted, were often caught;
and as there is no stopping the oxen when they have the prospect
of giving the rider a tumble, we came frequently to the ground.
In addition to these mishaps, Sinbad went off at a plunging gallop,
the bridle broke, and I came down backward on the crown of my head.
He gave me a kick on the thigh at the same time. I felt none the worse
for this rough treatment, but would not recommend it to others
as a palliative in cases of fever! This last attack of fever
was so obstinate that it reduced me almost to a skeleton.
The blanket which I used as a saddle on the back of the ox,
being frequently wet, remained so beneath me even in the hot sun,
and, aided by the heat of the ox, caused extensive abrasion of the skin,
which was continually healing and getting sore again. To this inconvenience
was now added the chafing of my projecting bones on the hard bed.
On Friday we came to a village of civil people on the banks
of the Loajima itself, and we were wet all day in consequence of crossing it.
The bridges over it, and another stream which we crossed at midday,
were submerged, as we have hitherto invariably found,
by a flood of perfectly clear water. At the second ford we were met
by a hostile party who refused us further passage. I ordered my men
to proceed in the same direction we had been pursuing,
but our enemies spread themselves out in front of us with loud cries.
Our numbers were about equal to theirs this time, so I moved on
at the head of my men. Some ran off to other villages,
or back to their own village, on pretense of getting ammunition;
others called out that all traders came to them, and that we must do the same.
As these people had plenty of iron-headed arrows and some guns,
when we came to the edge of the forest I ordered my men
to put the luggage in our centre; and, if our enemies did not fire,
to cut down some young trees and make a screen as quickly as possible,
but do nothing to them except in case of actual attack.
I then dismounted, and, advancing a little toward our principal opponent,
showed him how easily I could kill him, but pointed upward,
saying, "I fear God." He did the same, placing his hand on his heart,
pointing upward, and saying, "I fear to kill; but come to our village;
come - do come." At this juncture, the old head man, Ionga Panza,
a venerable negro, came up, and I invited him and all to be seated,
that we might talk the matter over. Ionga Panza soon let us know
that he thought himself very ill treated in being passed by.
As most skirmishes arise from misunderstanding, this might have been
a serious one; for, like all the tribes near the Portuguese settlements,
people here imagine that they have a right to demand payment
from every one who passes through the country; and now, though Ionga Panza
was certainly no match for my men, yet they were determined
not to forego their right without a struggle. I removed with my men
to the vicinity of the village, thankful that no accident
had as yet brought us into actual collision.
The reason why the people have imbibed the idea so strongly
that they have a right to demand payment for leave to pass through the country
is probably this. They have seen no traders except those
either engaged in purchasing slaves, or who have slaves in their employment.
These slave-traders have always been very much at the mercy of the chiefs
through whose country they have passed; for if they afforded a ready asylum
for runaway slaves, the traders might be deserted at any moment,
and stripped of their property altogether. They are thus obliged
to curry favor with the chiefs, so as to get a safe conduct from them.
The same system is adopted to induce the chiefs to part with their people,
whom all feel to be the real source of their importance in the country.
On the return of the traders from the interior with chains of slaves,
it is so easy for a chief who may be so disposed to take away
a chain of eight or ten unresisting slaves, that the merchant is fain
to give any amount of presents in order to secure the good-will of the rulers.
The independent chiefs, not knowing why their favor is so eagerly sought,
become excessively proud and supercilious in their demands,
and look upon white men with the greatest contempt.
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