We Promised To Return Through His Town
When We Came Back From The Sea-Coast.
Manenko gave us some manioc roots in the morning, and had determined
to carry our baggage to her uncle's,
Kabompo or Shinte.
We had heard a sample of what she could do with her tongue;
and as neither my men nor myself had much inclination to encounter
a scolding from this black Mrs. Caudle, we made ready the packages;
but she came and said the men whom she had ordered for the service had not
yet come; they would arrive to-morrow. Being on low and disagreeable diet,
I felt annoyed at this further delay, and ordered the packages
to be put into the canoes to proceed up the river without her servants;
but Manenko was not to be circumvented in this way; she came forward
with her people, and said her uncle would be angry if she did not
carry forward the tusks and goods of Sekeletu, seized the luggage,
and declared that she would carry it in spite of me. My men succumbed sooner
to this petticoat government than I felt inclined to do, and left me no power;
and, being unwilling to encounter her tongue, I was moving off to the canoes,
when she gave me a kind explanation, and, with her hand on my shoulder,
put on a motherly look, saying, "Now, my little man, just do
as the rest have done." My feelings of annoyance of course vanished,
and I went out to try and get some meat.
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