We Trust He Will Realize The Fortune Which He So Well
Deserves To Earn.
Had Mr. Sunley performed the same experiment on
the mainland, where people would have flocked to him for the wages he
now gives, he would certainly have inaugurated a new era on the East
Coast of Africa.
On a small island where the slaveholders have
complete power over the slaves, and where there is no free soil such
as is everywhere met with in Africa, the experiment ought not to be
repeated. Were Mr. Sunley commencing again, it should neither be in
Zanzibar nor Johanna, but on African soil, where, if even a slave is
ill-treated, he can easily by flight become free. On an island under
native rule a joint manufacture by Arabs and Englishmen might only
mean that the latter were to escape the odium of flogging the slaves.
On leaving Johanna and our oxen for a time, H.M.S. "Orestes" towed us
thence to the mouth of the Rovuma at the beginning of September.
Captain Gardner, her commander, and several of his officers,
accompanied us up the river for two days in the gig and cutter. The
water was unusually low, and it was rather dull work for a few hours
in the morning; but the scene became livelier and more animated when
the breeze began to blow. Our four boats they swept on under full
sail, the men on the look out in the gig and cutter calling, "Port,
sir!" "Starboard, sir!" "As you go, sir!" while the black men in
the bows of the others shouted the practical equivalents, "Pagombe!
Pagombe!" "Enda quete!" "Berane! Berane!" Presently the leading-
boat touches on a sandbank; down comes the fluttering sail; the men
jump out to shove her off, and the other boats, shunning the
obstruction, shoot on ahead to be brought up each in its turn by
mistaking a sandbank for the channel, which had often but a very
little depth of water.
A drowsy herd of hippopotami were suddenly startled by a score of
rifle-shots, and stared in amazement at the strange objects which had
invaded their peaceful domains, until a few more bullets compelled
them to seek refuge at the bottom of the deep pool, near which they
had been quietly reposing. On our return, one of the herd
retaliated. He followed the boat, came up under it, and twice tried
to tear the bottom out of it; but fortunately it was too flat for his
jaws to get a good grip, so he merely damaged one of the planks with
his tusks, though he lifted the boat right up, with ten men and a ton
of ebony in it.
We slept, one of the two nights Captain Gardner was with us, opposite
the lakelet Chidia, which is connected with the river in flood time,
and is nearly surrounded by hills some 500 or 600 feet high, dotted
over with trees. A few small groups of huts stood on the hill-sides,
with gardens off which the usual native produce had been reaped.
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