Volume Ii Part 4 (1/2)
The upper depot of the Congo lies upon the north bank, accidente ground, poor, stony, and sandy soil, with rounded, gra.s.s-clad hills, The southern is less broken; there are long slopes and waves of land which trend in graceful lines, charmingly diversified, to the uplands, where the old capital, So Salvador, is situated; and upon the undulating blue ridges, distance behind distance, appear markings by Nature's hand, which the stranger's eye can hardly distinguish from villa or village. The view explains how the old expedition felt ”every day more in love with this beautiful country,” The sea-like river wants nothing but cattle on its banks to justify the description--
”Appunto una scena pastorale, a cui fanno Quinci il mar, quinci i colli, e d' ogn' intorno I fior, le piante, e l' ombre, e l' onde, e ?l cielo.
Unteatro pomposo.”
In the centre of the broad stream, whose southern arm is not visible, are three islets. The western most, backed by a long, gra.s.sy, palm-ta.s.selled bank, is called Zunga chya Bundika. This Chombae Island of the charts is a rocky cone, dark with umbrella- shaped trees. Its north-eastern neighbour, Simule Kete, the Molyneux Island of Mr. Maxwell, the Hekay of Tuckey, and the Kekay of the chart, contrasts sharply with the yellow stubbles and the flat lines of Zunga chya Ngandi. Here, since Tuckey's time, the trees have made way for gra.s.s and stones; the only remnants are clumps in the south-eastern, which is not only the highest point, but also the windy and watery direction. On the Congo course the foul weather is mostly from the ”sirocco,” where the African interior is a ma.s.s of swamps. At the mouth tornadoes come down the line of stream from the north-east, and I heard traditions of the sea-tornado, which blows in sh.o.r.e instead of offsh.o.r.e as usual. About the close of the last century one or other of these islands was proposed as a depot and settlement, which a few simple works would convert into a small Gibraltar.
The easternmost Buka, the Booka Embomma of the charts and maps, will presently be described. In this direction the Zaire a.s.sumes the semblance of a mountain lake, whilst down stream the broad bosom of the Ns.h.i.+bul branch forms almost a sea-horizon, with dots showing where tall, scattered palms spring from the watery surface. We cannot but admire the nightly effects of the wintry bush-fires. During the day livid volumed smoke forms c.u.muli that conceal their enemy, the sun, and discharge a rain of blacks ten times the size of Londoners. In the darkened air we see storms of fire fiercely whirling over the undulating ranges, here sweeping on like torrents, there delaying, whilst the sheets meet at the apex, and a giant beard of flame (<greek> ) flouts the moon. The land must be splendidly gra.s.sed after the rains.
The Boma factories are like those of Porto da Lenha, but humbler in size, and more resembling the wicker-work native houses. The river, which up stream will show a flood mark of twelve feet, here seldom rises above five, and further down three and four; consequently piles are not required, and the swiftness of the current keeps off the jacare. Formerly there were fourteen establishments, which licit trade in palm oil and ground-nuts, instead of men, women, and children, have reduced to ten. The air is sensibly drier and healthier than at the lower settlement, and apparently there is nothing against the place but deadly ennui and monotony.
We landed at once, and presented our letters to Sr. Antonio Vicente Pereira, who at once made us at home: he had seen Goa as well as Macao, so we found several subjects in common. The factory enjoyed every comfort: the poultry yard throve, far better than at Porto da Lenha; we saw fowls and pigeons, ”Manilla” ducks and ducklings, and a fine peac.o.c.k from Portugal, which seemed to enjoy the change. The fish is not so good as that caught further down, and the natives have a habit of narcotizing it: the Silurus electricus is exceptionally plentiful. The farmyard contained tame deer, and a house-dog fierce as a tethered mastiff; goats were brought whenever wanted, and the black-faced, thin-tailed sheep gave excellent mutton. Beef was impossible; the Portuguese, like the natives, care little for milk, and of the herd, which strangers had attempted to domesticate, remained only a bull and a cow in very poor condition--the deaths were attributed to poisonous gra.s.s, but I vehemently suspect Tsetse. A daily ”quitanda,” or market, held under the huge calabashes on a hill behind the house, supplied what was wanted.
Upon Market Hill executions also take place, the criminal being shot through the heart. M. Pereira's garden produces all that Porta da Lenha can grow, with less trouble and of a superior kind. Water-melons, tomatoes, onions, and pimento, or large pepper (pimento, siliquastrum, ndungu ya yenene), useful to produce ”crocodiles' tears;” mint, and parsley flourish remarkably; turnips are eatable after two months; cabbage and lettuce, beet, carrot, and endive after three or four. It is a waste of ground to plant peas; two rows, twelve feet by four, hardly produce a plateful. Manioc ripens between the sixth and ninth month, plantains and bananas once a year, cotton and rice in four months, and maize in forty days--with irrigation it is easy to grow three annual crops. The time for planting is before the rains, which here last six weeks to two months, September and October. The staple of commerce is now the nguba, or ground-nut (plural, jinguba), which Merolla calls inc.u.mba, with sometimes a little milho (maize), and Calavance beans. Of fruits we find trellised grapes, pines, and guavas, which, as at Fernando Po, are a weed. The agrumi, limes, oranges and citrons are remarkably fine, and hold, as of old, a high place in the simple medicines of the country. A cup of lime-leaf tea, drunk warm in the morning, is the favourite emetic and cathartic: even in Pliny's day we find ”Malus a.s.syria, quam alii vocant medicam (Mediam?, venenis medetur” (xii. 7). On the Gold Coast and in the Gaboon region, colic and dysentery are cured by a calabash full of lime- juice, ”laced” with red pepper. The peculiarity of European vegetables throughout maritime Congo and Angola is the absence of all flavour combined with the finest appearance; it seems as though something in the earth or atmosphere were wanting to their full development. Similarly, though in the upper regions the climate is delicious, the missionaries could not keep themselves alive, but died of privation, hards.h.i.+p, and fatigue.
Chapter VIII.
A Visit to Banza Chisalla,
Boma, at the head of the Congo delta, the great depot between the interior and the coast, owes its existence wholly to
”the cruel trade Which spoils unhappy Afric of her sons.”
Father Merolla (1682), who visited it from ”Angoij,” our ”Cabinda,” speaks of it as a pretty large island, tributary to the Mani-Congo, extremely populous, well supplied with provisions, and outlaid by islets belonging to the Count of Sonho. Tuckey's Embomma was an inland banza or town, and the site of the factories was called Market Point; the Expedition map and the hydrographic chart term it Loombee, the latter being properly the name of a large quitanda (market) lying two miles to the north-west. Early in the present century it is described as a village of a hundred huts, opposite which trading vessels anch.o.r.ed under charge of the ”f.u.ka or king's merchant;” no market was held there, lest, in case of dispute, the royal person might suffer. Although the main features of our maps are still correct, there have been great changes in the river-bed between Porto da Lenha and Boma, especially about the latter place, which should be transferred from its present site to Lumbi. The broad Chisalla Creek, which Mr. Maxwell calls Logan, between the northern bank and the island ”Booka Embomma,” is now an arm only 200 feet wide.
In fact all the bank about Boma, like the lower delta, urgently calls for re-surveying.
This part of the river belongs to the ”Rei dos Reis,” Nessalla, under whom are some ten chief officers called ”kings,” who buy and sell; indeed, Africa knows no other. The t.i.tle is prost.i.tuted throughout the West Coast, but it is nowhere so degraded as in the Congo regions; the whites abuse it to flatter the vanity of the astute negro, who accepts it with a view to results--a ”king- dash” must, of course, be greater than that of a subject. Every fellow with one black coat becomes a ”preese” (prince), and if he has two he styles himself a ”king.” Without permission of the ”King of Kings” we could obtain neither interpreter, canoe, nor crew; a visit to Banza Chisalal was therefore necessary and, as it would have been vain to ask anything empty-handed, I took with me a fine spangled cloak, a piece of chintz, and a case of s.h.i.+p's rum, the whole worth 9.
At 6.30 A.M. on September 5th we set out up stream in a fine canoe, wall-sided and rather crank, but allowing the comfort of chairs. She was of Mayumba make, superior to anything built on the river, and the six men that drove her stood up to pole, and paddle. Above Boma the hills, which are the outlines of the west African Ghats, form a graceful semicircle, separated from the water by a flat terrace garnished with little villages and tree- islets. On the north bank are many of the crater-like sinks which dot the coast from the Gaboon to Loango. We hugged the right side to avoid the rapid swirl; there was no backwater at the points, and hard work was required to prevent our being swept against the boulders of gneiss, schiste, and pudding-stone edging the sh.o.r.es and stretching into the stream. Here the fish is excellent as at Porto cla Lenha, and we found the people catching it in large spoon-shaped basins: I enquired about the Peixe mulher (woman- fish), the French sirene, which old missioners describe as an African mermaid, not exactly as she appeared to the ”lovely lord of Colonsay,” and which Barbot figures with ”two strutting b.r.e.a.s.t.s.” He makes the flesh taste like pork, and tells us that the small bones of the hand were good for gravel, whilst bracelets made of the left rib were worn near the heart, to stop bleeding. This manatus, like the elephant and the hippopotamus, has long disappeared before the gun.
After some three quarters of an hour we reached the entrance of Chisalla Creek, which is the northernmost branch of the main stream. On the left (north) was a plain showing traces of a large village, and we sighted our first gra.s.s-island--a compact ma.s.s of fibrous, earth-washed roots and reedy vegetation, inhabited by serpents and ardeine birds. To the right, or southward, rises the tall island of Boma, rocky and wooded, which a narrow channel separates from its eastern neighbour, Chisalla Islet. The latter is the royal Pere la Chaise, the graves being kept carefully concealed; white men who have visited the ground to shoot antelope have had reason to regret the step. Here also lie three officers of the Congo Expedition-- Messrs. Galwey, Tudor, and Cranch--forgotten, as Gamboa and Reitz at Mombasah.
The banks of the winding creek were beautified with the malaguetta pepper, the ipomsea, the hibiscus, and a yellow flower growing upon an aquatic plant like a magnified water-cress.
Animal life became somewhat less rare; we saw sandpipers, hawks, white and black fish-eagles, and long-legged water-hens, here supposed to give excellent sport. An embryo rapid, formed by a gneiss-band connecting the north bank with the islet, delayed us, and the rocks on the right showed pot-holes dug by the poling- staves; during the rains canoes from Boma avoid this place, and seek fuel down stream. After a total of two hours and a quarter we reached Banza Chisalla: it is a ”small country,” in African parlance, a succursal of Boma proper, the Banza on the hills beyond the reedy, gra.s.sy plain. The site is charming--a flat palm-orchard backed by an amphitheatre of high-rolling ground, and the majestic stream approaches it through a gate, whose right staple is the tall Chisalla, and whose left is a rocky islet with outlying needles.
We ascended the river-bank, greeted by the usual accidents of an African reception; the men shouted, the women rushed screaming under cover, and the children stood howling at the horrible sight. A few paces placed us at the ”palace,” a heap of huts, surrounded by an old reed-fence. The audience-room was a trifle larger than usual, with low shady eaves, a half-flying roof, and a pair of doorways for the dangerous but indispensable draught; a veteran sofa and a few rickety chairs composed the furniture, and the throne was known by its boarded seat, which would have been useful in taking a ”lamp-bath.”
Presently entered the ”Rei dos Reis,” Nessalla: the old man, whose appearance argued prosperity, was en grande tenue, the State costume of Tuckey's, not of Merolla's day. The crown was the usual ”berretta” (night-cap) of open work; the sceptre, a drum-major's staff; the robes, a ”parochial” beadle's coat of scarlet cloth, edged with tinsel gold lace. His neck was adorned with hair circlets of elephants' tails, strung with coral and beads; the effect, to compare black with white, was that of Beau Brummell's far-famed waterfall tie, and the head seemed supported as if on a narrow-rimmed ”charger.” The only other ornament was a broad silver ring welded round the ankle, and drawing attention to a foot which, all things considered, was small and well shaped.
Some of the chiefs had copper rings of home manufacture, with neatly cut raised figures. The king held in his right hand an article which at first puzzled us--a foot's length of split reed, with the bulbous root attached. He may not, like his va.s.sals, point with the finger, and without pointing an African can hardly give an order. Moreover, the Sangalavu or Malaguetta pepper (Amomum granum Paradisi), fresh or old, is not only a toothstick, but a fetish of superior power when carried on journeys.
Professor Smith writes ”Sangala woo,” and tells us that it was always kept fresh in the house, to be rolled in the hands when invoking the Fetish during war-time; moreover, it was chewed to be spat at the enemy. Possibly he confuses it with the use as a tooth-stick, the article which Asia and Africa prefer to the unclean hog's- bristle brush of Europe.
On the left of the throne sat the Nchinu, or ”second king,”
attired in a footman's livery of olive-coloured cloth, white-worn at the seams, and gleaming with plated b.u.t.tons, upon which was the ex-owner's crest--a cubit arm.
The stranger in Africa marvels why men, who, as Dahome shows, can affect a tasteful simplicity, will make themselves such ”guys.”
When looking at these caricatures, he is tempted to read (literally) learned Montesquieu, ”It is hardly to be believed that G.o.d, who is a wise being, should place a soul, especially a good soul, in such a black, ugly body,” and to consider the few exceptions as mere ”sporting plants.” But the negro combines with inordinate love of finery the true savage taste--an imitative nature,--and where he cannot copy the Asiatic he must ape the European; only in the former pursuit he rises above, in the latter he sinks below his own proper standard. Similarly, as a convert, he is enn.o.bled by El Islam; in rare cases, which may be counted upon the fingers, he is civilized by Christianity; but, as a rule, the latter benefits him so far only as it abolishes the barbarous and murderous rites of Paganism.