Black Ivory Part 13

"Sit down, men, every one of you except Antonio," said Harold, in a quiet, but clear and decided voice.

His men, who, having left their guns in the canoe, were utterly helpless, quietly obeyed.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" demanded Antonio, by Harold's order.

To this a tall negro, who was obviously the leader of the band, replied in the native tongue,--"It matters little who we are; you are in our power."

"Not quite," said Harold, slightly moving his revolver. "Tell him that he _may_ overcome us, but before he does so my friend and I carry the lives of twelve of his men in our pistols."

The negro chief, who quite understood the powers of a revolver, replied--"Tell your master, that before he could fire two shots, he and his friend would have each twelve bullets in his body. But I have not time to palaver here. Who are you, and where are you going?"

"We are Englishmen, travelling to see the country," replied Harold.

The chief looked doubtfully at him, and seemed to waver, then suddenly making up his mind, he frowned and said sternly--"No; that is a lie.

You are Portuguese scoundrels. You shall all die. You have robbed us of our liberty, our wives, our children, our homes; you have chained, and tortured, and flogged us!"--he gnashed his teeth at this point, and his followers grew excited. "Now we have got free, and you are caught.

We will let you know what it is to be slaves."

As the negro chief stirred up his wrath by thus recounting his wrongs, and advanced a step, Harold begged Disco, in a low, urgent voice, not to raise his pistol. Then looking the savage full in the face, without showing a trace of anxiety, he said--"You are wrong. We are indeed Englishmen, and you know that the English detest slavery, and would, if they could, put a stop to it altogether."

"Yes, I know that," said the chief. "We have seen one Englishman here, and he has made us to know that not all men with white faces are devils--like the Portuguese and Arabs. But how am I to know you are English?"

Again the chief wavered a little, as if half-inclined to believe Harold's statement.

"Here is proof for you," said Harold, pointing to Chimbolo, who, being scarcely able to move, had remained all this time beside the fire leaning on his elbow and listening intently to the conversation. "See,"

he continued, "that is a slave. Look at him."

As he said this, Harold stepped quickly forward and removed the blanket, with which he had covered his lacerated back after dressing it.

A howl of execration burst from the band of negroes, who pointed their spears and guns at the travellers' b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and would have made a speedy end of the whole party if Antonio had not exclaimed "Speak, Chimbolo, speak!"

The slave looked up with animation, and told the rebels how his Portuguese owner had ordered him to be flogged to death, but changed his mind and doomed him to be drowned,--how that in the nick of time, these white men had rescued him, and had afterwards treated him with the greatest kindness.

Chimbolo did not say much, but what he did say was uttered with emphasis and feeling. This was enough. Those who would have been enemies were suddenly converted into warm friends, and the desperadoes, who would have torn their former masters, or any of their race, limb from limb, if they could have got hold of them, left our adventurers undisturbed in their bivouac, after wishing them a prosperous journey.

It was nevertheless deemed advisable to keep watch during the night.

This was done faithfully and conscientiously as far as it went. Harold took the first hour by way of example. He sat over the fire, alternately gazing into its embers while he meditated of home, and round upon the dark forest while he thought of Africa. True to time, he called Disco, who, equally true to his sense of duty, turned out at once with a deep "Ay, ay, sir." The self-styled first-mate placed his back against a tree, and, endeavouring to believe it to be a capstan, or binnacle, or any other object appertaining to the sea, stared at the ghostly stems of the forest-trees until they began to dance hornpipes for his special gratification, or glowered at the shadows until they became instinct with life, and all but induced him to rouse the camp twenty times in the course of his hour's vigil. True to time also, like his predecessor, Disco roused Antonio and immediately turned in.

The vivacious _chef de cuisine_ started up at once, took up his position at the foot of the tree which Disco had just left, leaned his back against it, and straightway went to sleep, in which condition he remained till morning, leaving the camp in unprotected felicity and blissful ignorance.

Fortunately for all parties, Disco awoke in time to catch him napping, and resolved to punish him. He crept stealthily round to the back of the tree against which the faithless man leaned, and reached gently round until his mouth was close to Antonio's cheek, then, collecting all the air that his vast lungs were capable of containing, he poured into Antonio's ear a c.u.mulative roar that threw the camp and the denizens of the wilderness far and near into confusion, and almost drove the whole marrow in Antonio's body out at his heels. The stricken man sprang up as if earth had shot him forth, uttered a yell of terror such as seldom greets the ear, and rushed blindly forward. Repeating the roar, Disco plunged after him. Antonio tumbled over the fire, recovered himself, dashed on, and would certainly have plunged into the river, if not into the jaws of a crocodile, had not Jumbo caught him in his arms, in the midst of a chorus of laughter from the other men.

"How dare 'ee go to sleep on dooty?" demanded Disco, seizing the culprit by the collar, "eh! we might have bin all murdered by rebels or eaten by lions, or had our eyes picked out by gorillas, for all that _you_ would have done to prevent it--eh?" giving him a shake.

"Oh, pardon, forgif. Nevair doot more again," exclaimed the breathless and trembling Antonio.

"You'd _better_ not!" said Disco, giving him another shake and releasing him.

Having done so, he turned on his heel and bestowed a quiet look, in pa.s.sing, on Jumbo, which of course threw that unfortunate man into convulsions.

After this little incident a hasty breakfast was taken, the canoes were launched, and the voyage was continued.

It is not necessary to trace the course of our explorers day by day as they ascended the Zambesi, or to recount all the adventures or misadventures that befell them on their journey into the interior. It is sufficient for the continuity of our tale to say that many days after leaving the coast they turned into the Shire river, which flows into the Zambesi about 150 miles from the coast.

There are many fountain-heads of slavery in Africa. The region of the interior, which gives birth to the head-waters of the Shire river, is one of the chief of these. Here lies the great lake Nya.s.sa, which was discovered and partly explored by Dr Livingstone, and hence flows a perennial stream of traffic to Kilwa, on the coast--which traffic, at the present time, consists almost exclusively of the two kinds of ivory, white and black, the former (elephants' tusks) being carried by the latter (slaves), by which means the slave-trade is rendered more profitable.

Towards this populous and fertile region, then, our adventurers directed their course, when they turned out of the great river Zambesi and began to ascend the Shire.

And here, at the very outset of this part of the journey, they met with a Portuguese settler, who did more to open their eyes to the blighting and withering influence of slavery on the land and on its people than anything they had yet seen.

Towards the afternoon of the first day on the Shire, they landed near the encampment of the settler referred to, who turned out to be a gentleman of a Portuguese town on the Zambesi.

Harold found, to his delight, that he could speak English fluently, and was, moreover, an exceedingly agreeable and well-informed man. He was out at the time on a hunting expedition, attended by a party of slaves.

Harold spent the evening in very pleasant intercourse with Senhor Gamba, and at a later hour than usual returned to his camp, where he entertained Disco with an account of his new acquaintance.

While thus engaged, he was startled by the most appalling shrieks, which proceeded from the neighbouring encampment. Under the impression that something was wrong, both he and Disco leaped up and ran towards it.

There, to his amazement and horror, Harold beheld his agreeable friend Senhor Gamba thrashing a young slave unmercifully with a whip of the most formidable character. Only a few lashes from it had been given when Harold ran up, but these were so powerful that the unhappy victim dropped down in a state of insensibility just as he reached the spot.

The Portuguese "gentleman" turned away from the prostrate slave with a scowl, but betrayed a slight touch of confusion on meeting the gaze of Harold Seadrift.

"Senhor!" exclaimed the latter sternly, with mingled remonstrance and rebuke in his tone, "how _can_ you be so cruel? What has the boy done to merit such inhuman chastis.e.m.e.nt?"

"He has neglected my orders," answered the Portuguese, as though he resented the tone in which Harold spoke.

"But surely, surely," said Harold, "the punishment is far beyond the offence. I can scarcely believe the evidence of my own eyes and ears when they tell me that _you_ have been guilty of this."

"Come," returned Senhor Gamba, softening into a smile, "you English cannot understand our case in this land. Because you do not keep slaves, you take the philanthropic, the religious view of the question.

We who do keep slaves have a totally different experience. You cannot understand, you cannot sympathise with us."

"No, truly, we can _not_ understand you," said Harold earnestly, "and G.o.d forbid that we should ever sympathise with you in this matter. We detest the gross injustice of slavery, and we abhor the fearful cruelties connected with it."

"That is because, as I said, you are not in our position," rejoined the Senhor, with a shrug of his shoulders. "It is easy for you to take the philanthropic view, which, however, I admit to be the best, for in the eyes of G.o.d all men are equal, and though the African be a degraded man, I know enough of him to be sure that he can be raised by kindness and religion into a position not very inferior to our own; but we who keep slaves cannot help ourselves we _must_ act as we do."

"Why so?--is cruelty a necessity?" asked Harold.

"Yes, it is," replied the Senhor decidedly.

"Then the abolition of slavery is a needcessity too," growled Disco, who had hitherto looked on and listened in silent wonder, debating with himself as to the propriety of giving Senhor Gamba, then and there, a sound thrashing with his own whip!

"You see," continued the Portuguese, paying no attention to Disco's growl,--"You see, in order to live out here I must have slaves, and in order to keep slaves I must have a whip. My whip is no worse than any other whip that I know of. I don't justify it as right, I simply defend it as necessary. _Wherever slavery exists, discipline must of necessity be brutal_. If you keep slaves, and mean that they shall give you the labour of their bodies, and of their minds also, in so far as you permit them to have minds, you must degrade them by the whip and by all other means at your disposal until, like dogs, they become the unhesitating servants of your will, no matter what that will may be, and live for your pleasure only. It will never pay me to adopt your philanthropic, your religious views. I am here. I _must_ be here. What am I to do?

Starve? No, not if I can help it. I do as others do--keep slaves and act as the master of slaves. I must use the whip. Perhaps you won't believe me," continued Senhor Gamba, with a sad smile, "but I speak truth when I say that I was tender-hearted when I first came to this country, for I had been well nurtured in Lisbon; but that soon pa.s.sed away--it could not last. I was the laughing-stock of my companions.

Just to explain my position, I will tell you a circ.u.mstance which happened soon after I came here. The Governor invited me to a party of pleasure. The party consisted of himself, his daughters, some officers, and others. We were to go in boats to a favourite island resort, several miles off. I took one of my slaves with me, a lad that I kept about my person. As we were going along, this lad fell into the river.

He could not swim, and the tide was carrying him fast away to death.

Dressed as I was, in full uniform, I plunged in after him and saved him.

The wish alone to save the boy's life prompted me to risk my own. And for this I became the jest of the party; even the ladies t.i.ttered at my folly. Next evening the Governor had a large dinner-party. I was there. Having caught cold, I coughed slightly; this drew attention to me. Remarks were made, and the Governor alluded in scoffing terms to my exploit, which created much mirth. `Were you drunk?' said one. `Had you lost your senses, to risk your life for a brute of a negro?' said another. `Rather than spoil my uniform, I would have knocked him on the head with a pole,' said a third; and it was a long time before what they termed my folly was forgotten or forgiven. You think I am worse than others. I am not; but I do not condescend to their hypocrisy. What I am now, I have been made by this country and its a.s.sociates." [These words are not fict.i.tious. The remarks of Senhor Gamba were actually spoken by a Portuguese slave-owner, and will be found in _The Story of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa_, pages 64-5-6.]

Senhor Gamba said this with the air of one who thinks that he has nearly, if not quite, justified himself. "I am no worse than others,"

is an excuse for evil conduct, not altogether unknown in more highly favoured lands, and is often followed by the illogical conclusion, "therefore I am not to blame," but although Harold felt pity for his agreeable chance acquaintance, he could not admit that this explanation excused him, nor could he get over the shock which his feelings had sustained; it was, therefore, with comparatively little regret that he bade him adieu on the following morning, and pursued his onward way.