How I Found Livingstone Travels, Adventures And Discoveries In Central Africa Including Four Months Residence With Dr. Livingstone By Sir Henry M. Stanley
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"I am Mionvu, the great Mutware of Kimenyi, and am next to the
King, who lives yonder," pointing to a large village near some
naked hills about ten miles to the north.
"I have come to talk
with the white man. It has always been the custom of the Arabs
and the Wangwana to make a present to the King when they pass
through his country. Does not the white man mean to pay the King's
dues? Why does the white man halt in the road? Why will he not
enter the village of Lukomo, where there is food and shade - where
we can discuss this thing quietly? Does the white man mean to fight?
I know well he is stronger than we are. His men have guns, and the
Wahha have but bows and arrows, and spears; but Uhha is large, and
our villages are many. Let him look about him everywhere - all is Uhha,
and our country extends much further than he can see or walk in a
day. The King of Uhha is strong; yet he wishes friendship only
with the white man. Will the white man have war or peace?"
A deep murmur of assent followed this speech of Mionvu from his
people, and disapprobation, blended with a certain uneasiness;
from my men. When about replying, the words of General Sherman,
which I heard him utter to the chiefs of the Arapahoes and
Cheyennes at North Platte, in 1867, came to my mind; and
something of their spirit I embodied in my reply to Mionvu,
Mutware of Kimenyi.
"Mionvu, the great Mutware, asks me if I have come for war.
When did Mionvu ever hear of white men warring against black men?
Mionvu must understand that the white men are different from the
black. White men do not leave their country to fight the black
people, neither do they come here to buy ivory or slaves. They
come to make friends with black people; they come to search for
rivers; and lakes, and mountains; they come to discover what countries,
what peoples, what rivers, what lakes, what forests, what plains,
what mountains and hills are in your country; to know the
different animals that are in the land of the black people, that,
when they go back, they may tell the white kings, and men, and
children, what they have seen and heard in the land so far from
them. The white people are different from the Arabs and Wangwana;
the white people know everything, and are very strong. When they
fight, the Arabs and the Wangwana run away. We have great guns
which thunder,, and when they shoot the earth trembles; we have
guns which carry bullets further than you can see: even with these
little things" (pointing to my revolvers) "I could kill ten men
quicker than you could count. We are stronger than the Wahha.
Mionvu has spoken the truth, yet we do not wish to fight. I could
kill Mionvu now, yet I talk to him as to a friend.
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