"Why Did You Fire A Gun, A Little While Ago?" They
Asked.
"We shot a large puff-adder, to prevent it from killing men;
you may see it lying dead on
The beach." With great courage, our
Mokadamo waded to within thirty yards of the bank, and spoke with
much earnestness, assuring them that we were a peaceable party, and
had not come for war, but to see the river. We were friends, and our
countrymen bought cotton and ivory, and wished to come and trade with
them. All we wanted was to go up quietly to look at the river, and
then return to the sea. While he was talking with those on the
shore, the old rogue, who appeared to be the ringleader, stole up the
bank, and with a dozen others, waded across to the island, near which
the boats lay, and came down behind us. Wild with excitement, they
rushed into the water, and danced in our rear, with drawn bows,
taking aim, and making various savage gesticulations. Their leader
urged them to get behind some snags, and then shoot at us. The party
on the bank in front had many muskets - and those of them, who had
bows, held them with arrows ready set in the bowstrings. They had a
mass of thick bush and trees behind them, into which they could in a
moment dart, after discharging their muskets and arrows, and be
completely hidden from our sight; a circumstance that always gives
people who use bows and arrows the greatest confidence.
Notwithstanding these demonstrations, we were exceedingly loath to
come to blows. We spent a full half-hour exposed at any moment to be
struck by a bullet or poisoned arrow. We explained that we were
better armed than they were, and had plenty of ammunition, the
suspected want of which often inspires them with courage, but that we
did not wish to shed the blood of the children of the same Great
Father with ourselves; that if we must fight, the guilt would be all
theirs.
This being a common mode of expostulation among themselves, we so far
succeeded, that with great persuasion the leader and others laid down
their arms, and waded over from the bank to the boats to talk the
matter over. "This was their river; they did not allow white men to
use it. We must pay toll for leave to pass." It was somewhat
humiliating to do so, but it was pay or fight; and, rather than
fight, we submitted to the humiliation of paying for their
friendship, and gave them thirty yards of cloth. They pledged
themselves to be our friends ever afterwards, and said they would
have food cooked for us on our return. We then hoisted sail, and
proceeded, glad that the affair had been amicably settled. Those on
shore walked up to the bend above to look at the boat, as we
supposed; but the moment she was abreast of them, they gave us a
volley of musket-balls and poisoned arrows, without a word of
warning. Fortunately we were so near, that all the arrows passed
clear over us, but four musket-balls went through the sail just above
our heads. All our assailants bolted into the bushes and long grass
the instant after firing, save two, one of whom was about to
discharge a musket and the other an arrow, when arrested by the fire
of the second boat. Not one of them showed their faces again, till
we were a thousand yards away. A few shots were then fired over
their heads, to give them an idea of the range of our rifles, and
they all fled into the woods. Those on the sandbank rushed off too,
with the utmost speed; but as they had not shot at us, we did not
molest them, and they went off safely with their cloth. They
probably expected to kill one of our number, and in the confusion rob
the boats. It is only where the people are slavers that the natives
of this part of Africa are bloodthirsty.
These people have a bad name in the country in front, even among
their own tribe. A slave-trading Arab we met above, thinking we were
then on our way down the river, advised us not to land at the
villages, but to stay in the boats, as the inhabitants were
treacherous, and attacked at once, without any warning or
provocation. Our experience of their conduct fully confirmed the
truth of what he said. There was no trade on the river where they
lived, but beyond that part there was a brisk canoe-trade in rice and
salt; those further in the interior cultivating rice, and sending it
down the river to be exchanged for salt, which is extracted from the
earth in certain places on the banks. Our assailants hardly
anticipated resistance, and told a neighbouring chief that, if they
had known who we were, they would not have attacked English, who can
"bite hard." They offered no molestations on our way down, though we
were an hour in passing their village. Our canoe-men plucked up
courage on finding that we had come off unhurt. One of them, named
Chiku, acknowledging that he had been terribly frightened, said.
"His fear was not the kind which makes a man jump overboard and run
away; but that which brings the heart up to the mouth, and renders
the man powerless, and no more able to fight than a woman."
In the country of Chonga Michi, about 80 or 90 miles up the river, we
found decent people, though of the same tribe, who treated strangers
with civility. A body of Makoa had come from their own country in
the south, and settled here. The Makoa are known by a cicatrice in
the forehead shaped like the new moon with the horns turned
downwards. The tribe possesses all the country west of Mosambique;
and they will not allow any of the Portuguese to pass into their
country more than two hours' distance from the fort.
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