Juma Said That No Money Would Induce Him To Part
With This Dhow.
He was very busy in transporting slaves across the
Lake by means of two boats, which we saw returning from a trip in the
afternoon.
As he did not know of our intention to visit him, we came
upon several gangs of stout young men slaves, each secured by the
neck to one common chain, waiting for exportation, and several more
in slave-sticks. These were all civilly removed before our interview
was over, because Juma knew that we did not relish the sight.
When we met the same Arabs in 1861, they had but few attendants:
according to their own account, they had now, in the village and
adjacent country, 1500 souls. It is certain that tens of thousands
had flocked to them for protection, and all their power and influence
must be attributed to the possession of guns and gunpowder. This
crowding of refugees to any point where there is a hope for security
for life and property is very common in this region, and the
knowledge of it made our hopes beat high for the success of a
peaceful Mission on the shores of the Lake. The rate, however, in
which the people here will perish by the next famine, or be exported
by Juma and others, will, we fear, depopulate those parts which we
have just described as crowded with people. Hunger will ere long
compel them to sell each other. An intelligent man complained to us
of the Arabs often seizing slaves, to whom they took a fancy, without
the formality of purchase; but the price is so low - from two to four
yards of calico - that one can scarcely think this seizure and
exportation without payment worth their while. The boats were in
constant employment, and, curiously enough, Ben Habib, whom we met at
Linyanti in 1855, had been taken across the Lake, the day before our
arrival at this Bay, on his way from Sesheke to Kilwa, and we became
acquainted with a native servant of the Arabs, called Selele
Saidallah, who could speak the Makololo language pretty fairly from
having once spent some months in the Barotse Valley.
From boyhood upwards we have been accustomed, from time to time, to
read in books of travels about the great advances annually made by
Mohammedanism in Africa. The rate at which this religion spreads was
said to be so rapid, that in after days, in our own pretty extensive
travels, we have constantly been on the look out for the advancing
wave from North to South, which, it was prophesied, would soon reduce
the entire continent to the faith of the false prophet. The only
foundation that we can discover for the assertions referred to, and
for others of more recent date, is the fact that in a remote corner
of North-Western Africa the Fulahs, and Mandingoes, and some others
in Northern Africa, as mentioned by Dr. Barth, have made conquests of
territory; but even they care so very little for the extension of
their faith, that after the conquest no pains whatever are taken to
indoctrinate the adults of the tribe. This is in exact accordance
with the impression we have received from our intercourse with
Mohammedans and Christians. The followers of Christ alone are
anxious to propagate their faith. A quasi philanthropist would
certainly never need to recommend the followers of Islam, whom we
have met, to restrain their benevolence by preaching that "Charity
should begin at home."
Though Selele and his companions were bound to their masters by
domestic ties, the only new idea they had imbibed from Mohammedanism
was, that it would be wrong to eat meat killed by other people. They
thought it would be "unlucky." Just as the inhabitants of Kolobeng,
before being taught the requirements of Christianity, refrained from
hoeing their gardens on Sundays, lest they should reap an unlucky
crop. So far as we could learn, no efforts had been made to convert
the natives, though these two Arabs, and about a dozen half-castes,
had been in the country for many years; and judging from our
experience with a dozen Mohammedans in our employ at high wages for
sixteen months, the Africans would be the better men in proportion as
they retained their native faith. This may appear only a harsh
judgment from a mind imbued with Christian prejudices; but without
any pretention to that impartiality, which leaves it doubtful to
which side the affections lean, the truth may be fairly stated by one
who viewed all Mohammedans and Africans with the sincerest good will.
Our twelve Mohammedans from Johanna were the least open of any of our
party to impression from kindness. A marked difference in general
conduct was apparent. The Makololo, and other natives of the
country, whom we had with us, invariably shared with each other the
food they had cooked, but the Johanna men partook of their meals at a
distance. This, at first, we attributed to their Moslem prejudices;
but when they saw the cooking process of the others nearly complete,
they came, sat beside them, and ate the portion offered without ever
remembering to return the compliment when their own turn came to be
generous. The Makololo and the others grumbled at their greediness,
yet always followed the common custom of Africans of sharing their
food with all who sit around them. What vexed us most in the Johanna
men was their indifference to the welfare of each other. Once, when
they were all coming to the ship after sleeping ashore, one of them
walked into the water with the intention of swimming off to the boat,
and while yet hardly up to his knees was seized by a horrid crocodile
and dragged under; the poor fellow gave a shriek, and held up his
hand for aid, but none of his countrymen stirred to his assistance,
and he was never seen again. On asking his brother-in-law why he did
not help him, he replied, "Well, no one told him to go into the
water.
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