My Principal Men
Paid Five Pieces Of Cloth And A Gun As An Atonement;
But The More They Yielded, The More Exorbitant He Became,
And He Sent Word To All The Surrounding Villages To Aid Him In Avenging
The Affront Of A Blow On The Beard.
As their courage usually
rises with success, I resolved to yield no more, and departed.
In passing through a forest in the country beyond, we were startled
by a body of men rushing after us.
They began by knocking down
the burdens of the hindermost of my men, and several shots were fired,
each party spreading out on both sides of the path. I fortunately had
a six-barreled revolver, which my friend Captain Henry Need,
of her majesty's brig "Linnet", had considerately sent to Golungo Alto
after my departure from Loanda. Taking this in my hand, and forgetting fever,
I staggered quickly along the path with two or three of my men,
and fortunately encountered the chief. The sight of the six barrels
gaping into his stomach, with my own ghastly visage looking daggers
at his face, seemed to produce an instant revolution in his martial feelings,
for he cried out, "Oh! I have only come to speak to you, and wish peace only."
Mashauana had hold of him by the hand, and found him shaking.
We examined his gun, and found that it had been discharged.
Both parties crowded up to their chiefs. One of the opposite party
coming too near, one of mine drove him back with a battle-axe.
The enemy protested their amicable intentions, and my men asserted
the fact of having the goods knocked down as evidence of the contrary.
Without waiting long, I requested all to sit down, and Pitsane,
placing his hand upon the revolver, somewhat allayed their fears.
I then said to the chief, "If you have come with peaceable intentions,
we have no other; go away home to your village." He replied, "I am afraid
lest you shoot me in the back." I rejoined, "If I wanted to kill you,
I could shoot you in the face as well." Mosantu called out to me,
"That's only a Makalaka trick; don't give him your back."
But I said, "Tell him to observe that I am not afraid of him;"
and, turning, mounted my ox. There was not much danger
in the fire that was opened at first, there being so many trees.
The enemy probably expected that the sudden attack would make us
forsake our goods, and allow them to plunder with ease.
The villagers were no doubt pleased with being allowed to retire unscathed,
and we were also glad to get away without having shed a drop of blood,
or having compromised ourselves for any future visit. My men were delighted
with their own bravery, and made the woods ring with telling each other
how "brilliant their conduct before the enemy" would have been,
had hostilities not been brought to a sudden close.
I do not mention this little skirmish as a very frightful affair.
The negro character in these parts, and in Angola, is essentially cowardly,
except when influenced by success. A partial triumph over any body of men
would induce the whole country to rise in arms, and this is the chief danger
to be feared. These petty chiefs have individually but little power,
and with my men, now armed with guns, I could have easily
beaten them off singly; but, being of the same family, they would readily
unite in vast numbers if incited by prospects of successful plunder.
They are by no means equal to the Cape Caffres in any respect whatever.
In the evening we came to Moena Kikanje, and found him a sensible man.
He is the last of the Chiboque chiefs in this direction,
and is in alliance with Matiamvo, whose territory commences
a short distance beyond. His village is placed on the east bank of the Quilo,
which is here twenty yards wide, and breast deep.
The country was generally covered with forest, and we slept every night
at some village. I was so weak, and had become so deaf
from the effects of the fever, that I was glad to avail myself
of the company of Senhor Pascoal and the other native traders.
Our rate of traveling was only two geographical miles per hour,
and the average number of hours three and a half per day, or seven miles.
Two thirds of the month was spent in stoppages, there being
only ten traveling days in each month. The stoppages were caused by sickness,
and the necessity of remaining in different parts to purchase food;
and also because, when one carrier was sick, the rest refused
to carry his load.
One of the Pombeiros had eight good-looking women in a chain
whom he was taking to the country of Matiamvo to sell for ivory.
They always looked ashamed when I happened to come near them,
and must have felt keenly their forlorn and degraded position.
I believe they were captives taken from the rebel Cassanges.
The way in which slaves are spoken of in Angola and eastern Africa
must sound strangely even to the owners when they first come from Europe.
In Angola the common appellation is "o diabo", or "brutu";
and it is quite usual to hear gentlemen call out, "O diabo! bring fire."
In eastern Africa, on the contrary, they apply the term "bicho" (an animal),
and you hear the phrase, "Call the ANIMAL to do this or that."
In fact, slave-owners come to regard their slaves as not human,
and will curse them as the "race of a dog". Most of the carriers
of my traveling companions were hired Basongo, and required
constant vigilance to prevent them stealing the goods they carried.
Salt, which is one of the chief articles conveyed into the country,
became considerably lighter as we went along, but the carriers
shielded themselves by saying that it had been melted by the rain.
Their burdens were taken from them every evening, and placed in security
under the guardianship of Senhor Pascoal's own slaves.
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