The Misfits: The Film That Ended A

Marriage
John Huston's 'eastern Western' signaled the end of the careers of
three major Hollywood figures. It was Marilyn Monroe's last completed
film. Clark Gable died a fortnight after shooting ended. Montgomery
Clift rumbled on for a few years but witho

Author: Aubrey Malone

ISBN: 9798215807514
Category: Film
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Language: English
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.
 This dreadful visitation seemed to depress the spirits of our people very
much, and whispers as to the advisability of our surrendering began again to
be heard. At last I hit upon an idea to inspirit my companions, which, when
I mentioned it to Hatibu, he approved of immensely. Our besiegers, in order
to shelter themselves from the weather, had built thatched sheds close
against their boma, and, time hanging heavy on their hands, they had
amused themselves with making screens and divisions of grass, which now
through the action of the sun were as dry as tinder.
My proposal was that about four in the morning, when all would be
sound asleep, I should creep out with a fire-brand and set all these grass
erections on fire. Hatibu did not wish me to run the risk alone. I pointed out
that one man would have a better chance of success than many, and that as
through his kindness to me I owed my life to him, I begged to be allowed to
undertake the task by myself. After much discussion he consented. As he
saw we ran the same risk as our enemies if our camp was set on fire, and
unlike them had no place of retreat, he gave orders for all our thatch and
screens to be pulled down and burned, care being taken to prevent a general
conflagration.
The natives outside seemed to take this as a sign that we were about to
surrender, and in the evening we could hear drums and marimba and signs
of rejoicing. They kept up singing, dancing, and drumming till nearly two in
the morning. At this I was very glad, for I knew they would sleep extra
sound for the rest of the night. At last, all being quiet and still, I crept out
and made my way to a hut as big as a haystack where Mona Mkulla had his
head-quarters, and arriving at the boma of the natives I hurled my fire-brand
over it into the hut. I thought I had been the only one to quit our camp, but
as this big hut burst into flames I saw three other places had been fired
likewise, and on regaining our camp I found that Hatibu and two other men
had gone out the moment after me on a like errand.
The natives’ huts blazed up merrily, and we could see them working hard
to try to save their belongings. About five minutes after Hatibu and the
others had returned to the camp, the large hut that I had fired fell in, and
immediately after there was a great explosion. Evidently the keg of powder
which had been abandoned by our men had been placed there and had now
blown up. For a few moments after the explosion there was a deep silence;
but soon there arose shouts and yells and sounds of mourning, and it was
evident that some great person or persons had been killed by the
gunpowder.
When day broke we could see that not only all the huts had been burned,
but there were also great gaps in the boma of the natives. Men were busy in
repairing these, and drums were signalling to all the villages in the
neighbourhood. Some of our men who understood the drum-beats said that
they were spreading the news that Mona Mkulla was dead, and calling on
all their warriors to come and avenge him.
Hatibu said if that were the case we might expect to be attacked in our
camp, for now they would consider it necessary to kill us all as a sacrifice
to his spirit. Men would be selected for the task who would be given a
choice between being killed at his grave and attacking us. As for us, no
terms of surrender would be entertained, but all that we could do when the
attack was delivered was to die fighting. Now that there was no prospect of
escape, unless by some unheard of good fortune relief should come in time
from Hamees ibu Sayf, one and all rose to the occasion, and determined to
sell their lives as dearly as possible.
As our present enclosure was too large for us to defend if attacked on all
sides at once, we set about making a smaller one inside, into which we
could retreat when our assailants came close to the outer one, and from
which we could harass them considerably whilst they were making their
way through the remains of the old one. This kept us employed all day. At
night we divided ourselves into two parties, one to keep watch while the
other slept, for we did not know at what moment the attack might be
delivered, and we could make out that our besiegers were receiving
reinforcements every hour.
The night passed away without our being assailed. About an hour after
sunrise four bodies of about a hundred men each rushed at each side of our
camp. As soon as they came within effective range we fired our muskets
loaded with stones above the bullets. This discharge was most effective, and
staggered our assailants, some of whom broke and fled; but on reaching the
woods they were speared down without mercy by the people there. Seeing
that the only chance of life lay in killing us, the remainder pressed on again;
but we had time to reload and give them another volley before they reached
our outer defences, and to retreat into our inner citadel.
 Whilst the storming party were making their way through our outer
defences we were able to knock over many of them. Our ammunition soon
gave out. We could have still further decreased their numbers by hurling our
spears at them; but this would have left us destitute of weapons for the
hand-to-hand fight now imminent, save a few knives and hatchets, and we
had to look on passively while they tore away the tree trunks and branches
which we had piled up with so much care and toil.
At last this was done, and for a few moments they paused before
delivering their final onslaught. The position of affairs now was this:—
Inside a small circle, formed by a rude abattis which might be twenty yards
or rather more in diameter, was our party of twenty-four grasping their
weapons, and every man prepared to sell his life as dearly as he could.
Outside were assembled about two hundred and fifty men, animated like us
by the courage of despair, who were gathering up their energies for the
supreme moment. The masses of people who had kept within the shelter of
the woods while firing had been going on, were pressing forward, now that
our ammunition had given out, and doubtless in a few moments they would
be so carried away by their lust for slaying that they would rush in upon us.
For some minutes there was a lull and silence, which was broken by the
beating of the big drums of the natives. Then with a yell the storming party
rushed at us, hurling their spears before them and holding their shields
above their heads to cover themselves. The first flight of spears knocked
over four of our men; but now we were able to return them, and in the short
distance which the enemy had to cover I suppose each of our number killed
at least two of our assailants. It became sheer hand-to-hand fighting, and
gradually they made their way through and over our last shelter. We were at
last driven to the centre, where four or five of us, all that were now left
alive, stood back to back and resisted fiercely. The spear which I was using
I thrust so deeply into the body of a man that was opposed to me that I
could not withdraw it, and had to draw a hatchet from my belt for my last
means of offence and defence. The man whom I had just killed had his
place filled by another, who thrust fiercely at me. I managed to guide his
spear to one side, and buried my hatchet in his brain. My companions, too,
bore themselves like men, and a rampart of bodies was gradually being
formed around us. We were all wounded, and two were beaten down on
their knees.
 I thought my last moment had come as a huge fellow, tearing away the
corpses that sheltered us to some extent, raised his spear to thrust me
through. I threw my hatchet at him, and fortunately struck its edge full in
his face. He fell backwards, but his place was immediately filled. I was able
to seize the spear of my fresh foe, and a struggle for its possession began
between us. I knew my chance of life was hopeless, but the warlike spirit of
our Norse and Saxon forefathers was on me, and I felt that if only I could
kill this one man I should die happy.
Suddenly we heard the sound of guns, and in a few seconds the shouts of
men. Hatibu, who was by me, shouted, “Allah il Allah! Wanguana,
Wanyamwesi, Tipolo! Fight, men, fight! we are saved!”
Our assailants now broke and fled, and we could see some four or five
hundred men, armed with guns, driving our enemies before them like sheep.
 CHAPTER XX.

AT NYANGWE.

We were saved, but, alas! on looking round we found that two of the last
five who had stood back to back were mortally wounded. Only Hatibu,
myself, and another man named Bilal could hope to recover from our
wounds, and even we would have been considered serious cases in the
surgical wards of any hospital.
Soon we were surrounded by eager questioners, and our hurts were
attended to. Some of our rescuers pursued the routed enemy; others cleared
the ground of the tokens of the fray, reserving the bodies of our dead
companions for decent burial, while those of the Washenzi, or heathen, as
the natives were called, were thrown into the jungle, where they would
afford a repast to birds of prey, jackals, and hyenas.
Huts and shelters were soon built. After a time the men who had been
engaged in pursuit of the enemy came back, driving before them strings of
prisoners whom they had captured. Soon after another body of men came
in, among whom were several of
 HATIBU AND BILAL.
Page 268.

light complexion, attired in long white shirts, and with white cloths round
their heads.
Chief among these was a man rather over the ordinary height, with a
black beard and moustache in which the gray hairs were beginning to
appear. He was quite white, though of a sallow complexion, with a high-
hooked nose and deep black eyes of a most kindly expression, though it was
evident that if roused they could be stern and flashing. In his left hand he
carried a sheathed two-handed sword, innocent of guard. He was closely
followed by a boy about twelve years old carrying a double-barrelled
percussion rifle.
This was the famed Hamees ibu Sayf, otherwise known as Tipolo, the
principal among all the Arabs who in search of ivory and slaves had crossed
the Tanganyika. He exercised an authority among his fellows which few
cared to dispute. Upwards of two hundred freemen and slaves from “the
island,” and six hundred natives of Unyamwesi, all armed with muskets,
served him well and faithfully in the dual capacity of porters and irregular
troops.
Besides Hamees ibu Sayf, who alone was of the pure Arab blood of
Muscat, there were Wasuahili from “the island,” and Wamerima from the
coast, Muinyi Dugumbi, Habib wadi Nassur, Juma wadi Hamed, Muinyi
Heri and Hamad ibu Ghasib, all traders, but none of whom were able to
muster more than sixty or seventy guns individually. There were also
several men either free or the confidential slaves of men resident at
Zanzibar, who had followed the caravans of the larger traders with bodies of
ten or a dozen men each.
All these men may be dismissed without remark, save only Tipolo, who
was an extraordinary man, and who, if he had lived, might now be filling
the place occupied by Tipo-Tipo (Hamed ibu Hamed), who now exercises
what is practically supreme power from the Tanganyika to Stanley Falls on
the Congo. Tipolo was, I regret to say, a slave-trader. His followers were
often guilty of great cruelties, for he could not always be with them to
restrain them. He himself was a man of kindly disposition; and though
brave as a lion, and nothing loath to engage in war when he considered it
necessary or advantageous, was equally willing to make treaties with the
native chiefs, and was never known to depart from his plighted word.
Indeed, many times when other traders were engaged in hostilities with
chiefs whom he had promised to assist, if his words and remonstrances
were not heeded, he threw the weight of his armed men into the scale on the
side of the natives; and, contrary to the custom of many of the Zanzibar
travelling merchants, issued beads and other things to his men to buy food,
and would not permit them to live at free quarters among the natives.
He now came and sat down where Hatibu, Bilal, and I were lying, and
said, gravely and courteously, “Good morning.” It was so long since I had
heard a word of my mother tongue, that it awoke many emotions in my
breast, and unbidden tears forced themselves to my eyes as I eagerly
answered. The sound of English even from my own mouth seemed strange
to me. But great was my disappointment when I found he could not
understand me, and that his whole stock of English consisted only of the
two words “Good morning.”
He now questioned Hatibu about the recent occurrences. Some of the
slaves we had liberated proved faithful to their trust, and had brought him
news of our desperate plight. No time had been lost in coming to our relief.
He said that now he would utterly destroy the power of Mona Mkulla’s
successor, and give such a lesson to the natives that never again would they
dare to attack a follower of Tipolo.
For some days we remained in this place, and I am sorry to say that
Tipolo’s intentions were ruthlessly carried out. Every day strings of captives
laden with ivory and whatever else had value in the eyes of their captors
were brought into camp. News of villages burned, plantations destroyed,
and men killed fighting in defence of their liberty, their families, and their
homes, formed the sole topic of conversation.
I tried hard to cause Tipolo to give orders for the work of revenge and
extermination to cease; but he said his word was plighted to the other
traders that they would carry out the work of plunder to the utmost, and
having an opportunity such as rarely, if ever, had occurred before, they were
loath to desist. His Wanyamwesi also, unless they were permitted to make
slaves, would probably prove unruly, and might perhaps even desert en
masse, and leave him without the means of transporting the ivory he had
collected to the coast.
By degrees I won over Muinyi Heri, Habib wadi Nassur, and others to
the side of mercy; but Muinyi Dugumbi would not listen to my pleadings.
At last Tipolo said that for one man’s lust of wealth the war should no
longer be carried on, and gave the word for the march to Nyangwe. He told
Muinyi Dugumbi that if he did not tell his followers to cease from plunder
he would turn his Wanyamwesi against them; and Muinyi sullenly
consented.
The wounds of Hatibu, Bilal, and myself, which we had received in our
desperate defence of our lives, did not permit us to walk, and litters were
constructed on which we were carried. It was with feelings of joy and
thankfulness that we commenced our journey towards Nyangwe, the first
step towards the coast and of my return to my own people. I need hardly
say that my opinion about the delights of African travel had been
considerably modified since I and my brother Willie used to talk, on board
the Petrel, of the wonderful journeys of Livingstone.
Among Tipolo’s domestic slaves were some who understood the noble
art of cookery in a more extended sense than any persons I had hitherto met
with in the Dark Continent, and with good food, careful nursing, and
revived hope, my wounds recovered so quickly that before half the journey
to Nyangwe was

BANKS OF THE LUABBA.

Page 277.

completed, I was able for a good portion of each day’s march to quit my
litter and walk. When I did I always kept near Tipolo, and saw plenty of
proof that he carried out his orders about the proper treatment of natives. In
one village which we passed through some women came and complained of
some men, just gone before, who had gone into a hut and stolen a quantity
of plantains. He at once had the men recalled and made them restore their
plunder. He took from them some beads and gave them to the women, and
then dismissed the culprits with some sound blows from his walking-stick.
At last we sighted the large river on which Nyangwe is situated, and I
was astonished to see such a flow of water so far away from the sea. On the
side on which we approached there was a wide strip of low country, flooded
in the rainy season; whilst on the other, or right side, the banks of the river
rose in small cliffs about twenty or twenty-five feet high.
Close to the river on the left bank were villages which are deserted in the
rains, but which were now inhabited by people called the Wagenya. These
seemed one and all to be engaged in making pots of various shapes and
sizes out of the clay obtained from pools left by the river when falling.
While in the woods, we had come across men cutting down trees and
fashioning them into canoes.
We struck the river some little distance above Nyangwe, and from the
natives Tipolo managed to hire some canoes, in which he and his immediate
followers, together with Hatibu, Bilal, and myself, embarked, and with the
aid of a current which must have run from four to five knots an hour we
reached Nyangwe about nine o’clock in the morning, having left those who
were to follow by land about six. The river was full of islands. On the larger
were villages inhabited by a tribe quite different in their habits and pursuits
from the Wagenya, who lived on the left bank. On the numerous sand-banks
were quantities of duck and other wild-fowl, while the water abounded with
fish, hippopotami, and crocodiles. We passed many canoes between the
islands and the shore, some with their occupants engaged in fishing. Their
numbers kept on increasing as we drew nearer to Nyangwe, which I quite
expected to find a very large place from the number of people I saw going
there.
I tried to find out from my companions what was the cause of such a
concourse of people, but the only answer I could get was, “Soko leo”—that
is, Soko to-day. As I had seen the monkeys that had acted as masters of the
ceremonies on the occasion of my first introduction to Hatibu, the words
puzzled me exceedingly. What could “Monkeys to-day” mean? Was there
going to be a great hunt of these monster apes, and were all those people
going to take part in it? Thicker and thicker grew the canoes; and when a
bluff crowned with some large houses with high thatched roofs came in
sight, I was told it was Nyangwe, and
 GOING TO MARKET.
Page 281.

I saw that at the landing-place were literally hundreds of empty canoes.

Among these we made our way. We found that the other canoes which
were arriving at the same time were loaded with people bringing things for
sale, carried in large baskets upon the backs of women, the greater portion
of the weight being supported by a band over the forehead, similar to the
manner in which a fish-wife carries her creel.
On arriving at the houses we found a large open space close by crowded
with people buying and selling. On Tipolo saying to me, “There’s the soko,”
I learned that soko, besides being the name of an ape, also meant a market.
There must have been at least two thousand people present—the
representatives of many tribes, who, though hostile to each other in all other
places, met in this and other markets without fighting or strife. The
Wagenya were there with their pottery. Others brought fish, both dried and
fresh. Pigs, fowls, eggs, grain, ground-nuts, bananas, palm oil, goats, were
bartered for such things as their possessors wanted, while for a few beads
and cowries the Arab traders were able to obtain provisions for their
numerous followers. The noise and confusion were indescribable. Buyers
and sellers were so crowded together that it was almost impossible to make
way through them, though apparently there was space enough for the
market people to have spread themselves about and carried on their
business in comfort, instead of jostling against each other and damaging
many of their wares.
When we got through this mass of humanity we found ourselves before a
large house with a large veranda, the floor of which was raised about two
feet above the ground. Here mats and cushions were spread, and soon
traders and their men crowded round, longing to learn what our news was.
Hatibu and Bilal were welcomed by their wives with loud expressions of
joy. The wives of the poor fellows who had been killed were most noisy and
demonstrative in their grief, daubing themselves with white, and going
round to all the houses of the settlement, wailing and clapping their hands
in a measured cadence.
The news of the success of Tipolo in his expedition, was received with
much applause, while admiration was lavished on Hatibu, Bilal, and the
Mzungu (European) for the bravery they had displayed. We were likened to
simba (lions), mwamba (crocodiles), tembe (elephants), and mboys (or
buffaloes); and much wonder was expressed that I, a white man, had come
from the farther sea, of the existence and position of which the people
assembled had only a dim and distant knowledge. They were astonished
that I had passed years among the Washenzi, or heathen, as the people of
“the island” call all the pagan tribes of Central Africa, without being killed
and eaten. But their astonishment rose to its greatest height when they heard
that I had escaped from the dwarfs, whose quiver of poisoned
 NYANGWE MARKET.
Page 281.

arrows I had preserved, for they were indeed watu wabaya (bad men), and
mkali kama moto (hot as fire).
As soon as our budget was exhausted Tipolo inquired what had occurred
during his absence. Two men were brought to him who had arrived only the
evening before with the news that his brother Hamed ibu Sayf would arrive
in a few days from Ujiji, where he had been to bring up goods left behind
when Tipolo quitted that place; and that the road between it and
Unyanyembe, which had for some time been closed by the Watuta (a robber
tribe), was again open. As soon as he heard this, Tipolo said that when his
brother arrived he would at once despatch a caravan to the coast with part
of the ivory he had collected. He told me also that I should go with it, and
that its command would be given to Hatibu. To Hatibu and Bilal he now
gave their freedom, as a reward for their bravery, presenting Hatibu with
twelve slaves and six tusks of ivory, and to Bilal he gave eight slaves and
four tusks.
 By this time the market was over. Though the only traces of there having
been such an enormous assemblage of people gathered together were the
trampled condition of the ground and the litter left behind, on walking to
the bluff overhanging the river I could see the canoes dispersing in all
directions.
A comfortable room in Tipolo’s house was now placed at my disposal.
Clothes were given me to dress myself in, coffee with sugar in it, and bread
made of wheaten flour, were given to me—luxuries to which I had been a
stranger for many a long day. Though I knew that a long, toilsome, and
perhaps dangerous journey still lay before me, I had no forebodings. When I
retired to rest that night I thanked God truly and earnestly for having
preserved me from all the dangers through which I had passed in my years
of African travel, for the good treatment I had received at the hands of
Tipolo and Hatibu, and for having brought me at last to a place of safety.
 CHAPTER XXI.

DEPARTURE FOR THE COAST.

Tipolo and his immediate friends treated me with every kindness; but many
of the smaller traders, who would fain have been robbers and not traders at
all, and who chafed under the restrictions which Tipolo enforced in their
intercourse with the natives, did not regard me with any favour. They said
openly it was a mistake to let an Englishman who knew all about their
doings in Central Africa leave the country, as he would be sure to tell his
government that they traded in slaves; and that already the Beni har (sons of
fire), as they called our naval officers, interfered with the transport of slaves
from “the island” to Munculla and Muscat. To this Tipolo answered, that
here among the heathen it was for all civilized persons to assist one another;
that by all the laws of hospitality, by the traditions of the Arab race, and by
the teaching of Mohammed, the prophet of God, whom God bless,[C] they
were bound to assist me to the utmost, and should do so without any hope
of reward or fear of evil.
Though Tipolo was so kind to me, I longed for the day when we should
leave Nyangwe. In his presence I was free from insult, but many of the
baser sort among the traders did not scruple to insult me, calling me a dog
of a Nazarene, a hog, and unclean, and would doubtless, unless deterred by
fear, have ill-treated me in other ways. These people too, I found, lived a
life of debauchery. Such slaves as they had they treated in a very cruel
manner, quite different from that in which Tipolo treated those of his
household; but I am obliged to say that the captives he had made in his
recent campaign, though fairly fed, were but poorly lodged, and kept
chained in gangs of from ten to fifteen to prevent their escape.
One evening, as I was drinking coffee with him in his barazah, or
veranda, the only other person present being Hatibu, to whom he had been
giving orders about his journey to the coast, I ventured to speak to him
about slavery and the condition of those unfortunate people dragged away
from their wives and families.
 I was somewhat afraid he would resent my interference, but I was much
pleased to find that he did not. He only seemed to think that I and all
Englishmen were mad on the question of slavery, which he argued had
always been and always would be, adding that Daood, and Suliman ibu
Daood (David and his son Solomon), and the prophet Ayoub (Job), had all
possessed slaves, and that the Koran permitted slavery. To this I said that
surely the Koran did not permit wars for the purpose of making slaves; and
though I had never heard he had sent out slave-raids, still Muinyi Dugumbi
and other traders did, and it could not be right to keep numbers of men in
chains.
He answered, that with the doings of Muinyi Dugumbi and others like
him he had nothing to do; that he often used his influence to prevent them
from attacking the natives without provocation, and to induce them to treat
their captives kindly. As for himself and all true Arabs, he said the slaves of
their household were treated as members of the family, and had nothing to
complain of; indeed, they were better off than they would be as freemen,
and could always, if they desired it, become free. The captives he had made,
he confessed, were not so well treated; “but,” he said, “what can I do? I
have here ivory which I have collected at great cost and risk, and here it is
valueless to me. I must send it to the sea to sell it; and how am I to carry it?
If I send my own men, my people from ‘the island,’ and my Wanyamwesi
with it, I shall be left here without defence. The people of the country will
not travel far for hire. Slaves cost more than freemen. From Unyanyembe to
Kilwa and Bagamoyo the Wanyamwesi go as porters, and we pay and feed
them; that is better than employing slaves. Ten slaves are chained together,
—one man stops, all stop. Ten slaves cannot carry as much as five men who
are free. If I could carry my ivory without slaves I would, as it would be
better and cheaper for me. A freeman wants to end his journey and get his
payment; a slave does not care—one day is the same as another to him: so
that the freeman travels faster and further. No; if I could get pagazi (porters)
to carry my ivory, I would never use slaves. But if we did not have slaves,
what would become of the people the heathen make prisoners in war? They
would be killed and eaten. Surely it is better for them to be slaves.”
I was unable to reply; but he did not convince me at all that slavery was
right, or even excusable. I daily became more and more a hater of slavery,
from what I saw of the way the captives he had taken in the late fights were
treated, though their lot was far better than that of those who had fallen into
the hands of other traders. I had, however, not much time to argue with
Tipolo on the subject, for his brother arrived; and he was busy all day long
with him arranging about pushing their trading-parties further afield, and
about the despatch of ivory to the coast.
I was delighted to find that Hatibu, my first acquaintance among the
Arabs and their retainers, was selected for the charge of the down-caravan,
and that Bilal was to accompany him, as with them I felt myself safe. If any
of the many people who did not care about my freely expressed opinions
about slavery had been put in charge, they would not have treated me so
kindly as did Hatibu, with whom I had struck up a

WIVES OF HATIBU AND BILAL.

Page 293.
very warm friendship, increased by the memory of the perils we had gone
through together. I had the feeling that, under Providence, it was to him I
was indebted for my life and the prospect of returning to my own people
and my own country.
Our preparations were not very great. Besides Hatibu and Bilal and their
wives, Tipolo sent twenty men from Zanzibar, and thirty Wanyamwesi. A
hundred loads of ivory were loaded on as many slaves, and fifty more were
sent to be used in case the others broke down, or to be sold and bartered on
the road. In the meantime they carried the personal belongings of their
escort, and a small stock of beads and cowries with which to pay for food.
Muinyi Dugumbi and others also took the opportunity of this party leaving
for the coast to send away slaves and ivory, and gave the charge of their
ventures to some of their own adherents.
Before leaving Nyangwe, Tipolo told me to speak for him to the consul
of the English at Zanzibar, and say that he had done all that lay in his power
for me. He said that his agent there would provide me with means to return
home. His kindness quite overpowered me, and I did not know how I could
thank this generous and good-hearted man for all his kindness to me. It is
my duty to represent him as he appeared to me, and to mourn that such a
man should be almost compelled to be a trafficker in human flesh.
He accompanied us for a couple of hours on our first day’s march. When
we parted he said he had given into Hatibu’s charge, for my special use, a
bag of rice, some curry stuff, and a small quantity of coffee, to enable me to
live more comfortably than if I were to depend entirely on the products of
the country for food.
For the first three or four days our road led through a comparatively
open country, where there were but few inhabitants, and where the villages
lay far apart. Hatibu, in obedience to the orders of Tipolo, paid the people of
these villages for any supplies he got from them; but the other chiefs of
parties allowed their men to plunder and rob, and it was easy to see that if it
had not been for the fear entertained of our fire-arms, the sufferers would
have attacked us. As it was, the women and children all fled on our
approach, and only the men remained in the villages. Armed with heavy
spears and huge wooden shields, they seemed formidable fellows; and
every night a warning was given in camp that no one should straggle from
the caravan, as we were entering Manyuema, where the people were fierce,
and would kill and eat all strangers whom they found alone. Nor was this
warning unnecessary; for as I conversed with Hatibu and Bilal around our
campfire at night, they told me many instances of stragglers having been cut
off; and often in the day-time we could see bodies of men watching the
progress of our party, evidently ready to attack us if any favourable
opportunity offered itself.
As we advanced the country became more thickly populated; and in the
course of each day’s march we passed many large villages, which were
different in their arrangements from any I had seen in my wanderings in
Africa. They were all composed of long, parallel rows of huts, built of red
mud, with thatched roofs. The huts, instead of being as usual round or
square, were oblong, and the roofs had gable ends. In the smaller of the
villages there were only two rows of these huts, facing each other across a
wide open space. Along the centre of this was usually planted a row of oil
palms, between which were the village granaries and floors of hardened
clay, with trunks of trees sunk to half their diameter, and having holes cut in
them for the women and slaves to pound the corn required for food.
In the larger villages there were two, three, and even four of these double
rows, sometimes disposed abreast, and sometimes radiating from a large
open space. In every village were one or more large sheds, under which
were foundries where iron was smelted, the blast necessary to get up the
heat being produced by men working a curious kind of bellows, there being
sometimes ten or a dozen men squatting round the furnace, each working
away at his own pair of bellows. The iron was made into blooms weighing
about three or four pounds, shaped like a double cone, with a projection
about as big as a skewer, and four inches long at each end. These were used
by the producers to barter for all sorts of necessaries of life, and even
luxuries, as they are understood in Central Africa. Hatibu, who said they
would be of great use on our road for procuring provisions, laid in a stock
of them, as did all our followers.
The ironworkers did not confine themselves to making this iron
currency, for they were most skilful smiths. The blades of the knives,
spears, and axes which they made were often elaborately ornamented with
patterns chiselled on them, and in some cases were perforated. The most
valuable of all were inlaid with copper, the patterns being very good and
tasteful. Indeed, the arms of the chiefs were often such masses of ornament
that they became almost useless for purposes of offence.
The villages of these ironworkers were passed in about seven days; and
soon after we came to a river called the Luama, which we had to cross in
canoes. Here, while crossing, we were somewhat frightened by a herd of
hippopotami coming down the stream and blowing close to the canoes.
One, indeed, came so close to the canoe in which Hatibu and I were that I
could have touched its back with my hand, and I was in a great fright lest
we should be capsized.
As it was too late for us to continue our march when we were all across,
we had to form our camp on the bank of the river; and in the evening we
began speaking of the hippopotami. Some natives in the camp told us how
they were in the habit of waiting at night for the brutes to land, and spearing
them as they came out of the water. I was desirous to be quit with them for
the fear and annoyance they had caused us, and I proposed to Hatibu that
we should try our hand at this sport if we could find a place where they
were in the habit of coming ashore.
When the natives heard this, they said they would take us to a place
where there would be hippopotami in plenty, but as it would be too late for
us to go that night, they proposed that we should halt the next day to let the
people rest and get food. This suited us very well; for we found that corn
was cheap and plentiful, and Hatibu had intended to have made a stay two
days further on for the purpose of provisioning the caravan. By what he
now heard he found that the village where he had intended to halt had been
burned by the inhabitants of another some little distance away, so that we
should have been disappointed had we tried to get food there.
 CHAPTER XXII.

SPEARING HIPPOPOTAMI.

Next day, soon after noon, Hatibu and I left Bilal in charge of the camp.
With four men armed with muskets we went in a canoe with two natives
about three miles down the river, where we landed, and there found one of
the most extraordinary sights that one ever saw. The river was about ten feet
below its highest level in flood-time, and the water, falling, had left a huge,
swampy lagoon, separated from it by five or six hundred yards of muddy
ground. On the shores of this lagoon were the most extraordinary flocks of
storks and other birds, which, according to our guides, came there only at
certain times of the year, and then stopped for a few days. We could see
numbers of hippopotami wallowing about in the water, it in many places
not being deep enough to cover them. Lying on its banks were a lot of dark
objects, looking something like decayed trunks of trees. As we drew near
they began to move, and then I saw that they were crocodiles.

LAGOON NEAR LUAMA.

 Page 298.

Certainly we had been brought where there were plenty of hippopotami,

but it was a question how we could get at them. There was great danger,
especially if we waded into the water, of being attacked by the crocodiles. I
at first proposed that we should haul the canoe across the muddy strip
separating the river from the lagoon; but we soon found that we had not
men enough to do it. Hatibu began to scold the guides, telling them they
had brought us on a fool’s errand; but they begged of us not to be angry,
saying we should, by following a path which they pointed out, reach in half
an hour a village where we could rest till sunset, and close to this village
was a place where the hippopotami constantly came out to feed on the
growing crops, and where a proper ambuscade had been made to spear them
from.
At first Hatibu did not care about going to this village, as he feared some
treachery; and, even without treachery, the people belonging to the parties
with us might bring about a row with the natives, and we might be cut off
from our companions, and be unable to defend ourselves. I overruled his
scruples. Following the path, we struck through some tall cane grass, and
found the whole ground covered with tracks of hippopotami and crocodiles,
while occasionally we came across fresh tracks of elephants. As soon as we
saw these, Hatibu became eager to go on, the hope of adding to his stock of
ivory overweighing any feeling of caution.
We had not gone above five hundred yards along this path before we
heard screams and yells, and soon made out that they proceeded from some
Zanzibar people. Fearing that they might have got into some trouble, we
made our way with all haste in their direction, and breaking through the
grass we came upon a most exciting scene. A large portion of the grass was
trampled down. A number of the men who had gone out early in the
morning were brandishing their weapons, and some in the middle were
thrusting at some object which we could not very clearly discern. As we
drew closer we made out that this was an enormous crocodile, and we heard
that he had seized upon one of the party who had incautiously strayed from
the path.