Sequasha
Is The Greatest Portuguese Traveller We Ever Became Acquainted With,
And He Boasts That He Is Able To Speak
A dozen different dialects;
yet, unfortunately, he can give but a very meagre account of the
countries and people he
Has seen, and his statements are not very
much to be relied on. But considering the influence among which he
has been reared, and the want of the means of education at Tette, it
is a wonder that he possesses the good traits that he sometimes
exhibits. Among his wares were several cheap American clocks; a
useless investment rather, for a part of Africa where no one cares
for the artificial measurement of time. These clocks got him into
trouble among the Banyai: he set them all agoing in the presence of
a chief, who became frightened at the strange sounds they made, and
looked upon them as so many witchcraft agencies at work to bring all
manner of evils upon himself and his people. Sequasha, it was
decided, had been guilty of a milando, or crime, and he had to pay a
heavy fine of cloth and beads for his exhibition. He alluded to our
having heard that he had killed Mpangwe, and he denied having
actually done so; but in his absence his name had got mixed up in the
affair, in consequence of his slaves, while drinking beer one night
with Namakusuru, the man who succeeded Mpangwe, saying that they
would kill the chief for him. His partner had not thought of this
when we saw him on the way up, for he tried to excuse the murder, by
saying that now they had put the right man into the chieftainship.
After three hours' sail, on the morning of the 29th, the river was
narrowed again by the mountains of Mburuma, called Karivua, into one
channel, and another rapid dimly appeared. It was formed by two
currents guided by rocks to the centre. In going down it, the men
sent by Sekeletu behaved very nobly. The canoes entered without
previous survey, and the huge jobbling waves of mid-current began at
once to fill them. With great presence of mind, and without a
moment's hesitation, two men lightened each by jumping overboard;
they then ordered a Botoka man to do the same, as "the white men must
be saved." "I cannot swim," said the Batoka. "Jump out, then, and
hold on to the canoe;" which he instantly did. Swimming alongside,
they guided the swamping canoes down the swift current to the foot of
the rapid, and then ran them ashore to bale them out. A boat could
have passed down safely, but our canoes were not a foot above the
water at the gunwales.
Thanks to the bravery of these poor fellows, nothing was lost,
although everything was well soaked. This rapid is nearly opposite
the west end of the Mburuma mountains or Karivua. Another soon
begins below it. They are said to be all smoothed over when the
river rises.
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