Stories of the Gorilla Country

I then determined to have a view from below. After some difficult climbing we got to the bottom, and there beheld, under the fall, a large hole in the perpendicular face of the rock, which evidently formed the mouth of a cavern. The opening of the cavern was partly hidden by the waterfall, and was cut through solid rock. Between the opening and the waterfall there were a few feet of clear space, so that by going sideways one could make good his entrance into the cavern without receiving a shower bath.

I determined to enter this cavern; but before venturing I went first and tried to get a peep at the inside. It was so dark that I could see nothing, so it was not very inviting. We lit torches; I took my revolver and gun, and, accompanied by two men, who also were armed with guns, we entered. How dark it was! Once inside, we excited the astonishment of a vast number of huge vampire bats. There were thousands and thousands of them. They came and fluttered around our lights, threatening each moment to leave us in darkness, and the motion of their wings filled the cavern with a dull thunderous or booming roar. It really looked an awful place, and the dim light of our torches gave to every shadow a fantastic form.

The cavern was rather rough inside. When we had advanced about one hundred yards we came to a stream, or puddle of water, extending entirely across the floor, and barring our way. My men, who had gone thus far under protest, now desired to return, and urged me not to go into the water. It might be very deep; it might be full of horrible water snakes; all sorts of wild beasts might be beyond, and land snakes also. At the word snake I hesitated, for I confess to a great dread of serpents in the dark, or in a confined place, where a snake is likely to get the advantage of a man. A cold shudder ran through me at the thought that, once in the water, many snakes might come and swim round me, and perhaps twist themselves about me as they do around the branches of trees. So I paused and reflected.

While peering into the darkness beyond I thought I saw two eyes, like bright sparks or coals of fire, gleaming savagely at us. Could it be a leopard, or what? Without thinking of the consequences, I levelled my gun at the shining objects and fired. The report, for a moment, deafened us. Then came a redoubled rush of the great hideous bats. It seemed to me that millions of these animals suddenly launched out upon us from all parts of the surrounding gloom. Some of these got caught in my clothes. Our torches were extinguished in an instant, and, panic-stricken, we all made for the cavern's mouth. I had visions of enraged snakes springing after and trying to catch me. We were all glad to reach daylight once more, and nothing could have induced us to try the darkness again. I confess that, though I think it takes a good deal to frighten me, I did not at all relish remaining there in entire darkness.

The scene outside was as charming as that within was hideous. I stood a long time looking at one of the most beautiful landscapes I ever beheld in Africa. It was certainly not grand, but extremely pretty. Before me, the little stream whose fall over the cliff filled the forest with a gentle murmur, resembling very much, as I have said, when far enough off, the pattering of a shower of rain, ran along between steep banks, the trees of which seemed to meet above it. Away down the valley we could see its course, traced like a silver line over the plain, till it was lost to our sight in a denser part of the forest.

I have often thought of these caverns since I saw them, and I have regretted that I did not pay more attention to them. If I had made my camp in the vicinity, and explored them and dug in them for days, I think that I should have been amply rewarded for the trouble. At that time I did not feel greatly interested in the subject. I had not read the works of M. Boucher de Perthes and others, or heard that the bones of animals now extinct had been discovered in caverns in several parts of Europe, and that implements made of flint, such as axes, sharp-pointed arrows, etc., etc., had been found in such places. If I had excavated I might perhaps have found the remains of charcoal fires, or other things, to prove that these caverns had been made by men who lived in Africa long before the negro. I feel certain these caverns must have been human habitations. I do not see how they could have been made except by the hand of man.

On my last journey I thought once or twice of going to them from the Fernand-Vaz, to explore and dig in them. I thought I might be rewarded for labour by discovering the bones of unknown beasts, or of some remains of primitive men.

These caverns are fortunately not far away from the sea – I should think not more than ten or fifteen miles – and are situated between the Muni and the Moonda rivers. Anyone desiring to explore them would easily find the way to them. The cavern under the waterfall would be extremely interesting to explore.

The valley itself was a pleasant wooded plain, which, it seemed, the hand of man had not yet disturbed, and whence the song of birds, the chatter of monkeys, and the hum of insects came up to us, now and then, in a confusion of sounds very pleasant to the ear.

But I could not loiter long over this scene, being anxious to reach the seashore. After we set off again we found ourselves continually crossing or following elephant tracks, so we walked very cautiously, expecting every moment to find ourselves face to face with a herd.

By-and-by the country became quite flat, the elephant tracks ceased, and presently, as we neared a stream, we came to a mangrove swamp. It was almost like seeing an old friend, or, I may say, an old enemy, for the remembrances of mosquitoes, tedious navigation, and malaria which the mangrove tree brought to my mind were by no means pleasant. It is not very pleasant to be laid up with African fever, I assure you.

From a mangrove tree to a mangrove swamp and forest is but a step. They never stand alone. Presently we stood once more on the banks of the little stream, whose clear, pellucid water, had so charmed me a little farther up the country. Now it was only a swamp, a mangrove swamp. Its bed, no longer narrow, was spread over a flat of a mile, and the now muddy water meandered slowly through an immense growth of mangroves, whose roots extended entirely across, and met in the middle, where they rose out of the mire and water like the folds of some vast serpent.

It was high tide. There was not a canoe to be had. To sleep on this side, among the mangroves, was to be eaten up by the mosquitoes, which bite much harder than those of America, for they can pierce through your trousers and drawers. This was not a very pleasant anticipation, but there seemed to be no alternative, and I had already made up my mind that I should not be able to go to sleep. But my men were not troubled at all with unpleasant anticipations. We were to cross over, quite easily too, they said, on the roots which projected above the water, and which lay from two to three feet apart, at irregular distances.

It seemed a desperate venture, but they set out jumping like monkeys from place to place, and I followed, expecting every moment to fall in between the roots in the mud, there to be attacked, perhaps, by some noxious reptile whose rest my fall would disturb. I had to take off my shoes, whose thick soles made me more likely to slip. I gave all my baggage, and guns, and pistols to the men, and then commenced a journey, the like of which I hope never to take again. We were an hour in getting across – an hour of continual jumps and hops, and holding on. In the midst of it all a man behind me flopped into the mud, calling out, "Omemba!" in a frightful voice.

Now, omemba means snake. The poor fellow had put his hands on an enormous black snake, and, feeling its cold, slimy scales, he let go his hold and fell. All hands immediately began to run faster than before, both on the right and the left. There was a general panic, and every one began to shout and make all kinds of noises to frighten the serpent. The poor animal also got badly scared, and began to crawl away among the branches as fast as he could. Unfortunately his fright led him directly towards me, and a general panic ensued. Everybody ran as fast as he could to get out of danger. Another man fell into the mud below, and added his cries to the general tumult. Two or three times I was on the point of getting a mud bath myself, but I luckily escaped. My feet were badly cut and bruised, but at last we were safe across, and I breathed freely once more, as soon after I saw the deep blue sea.

CHAPTER XIII

CAPE LOPEZ AND AN OPEN PRAIRIE ONCE MORE – KING BANGO AND HIS THREE HUNDRED WIVES – HIS FIVE IDOLS – SLAVE BARRACOONS – THE CORPSE AND THE VULTURES

Cape Lopez is a long sandy arm of land reaching out into the sea. As you approach it from the ocean it has the appearance of overflowed land. It is so low that the bushes and the trees growing on it seem, from a distance seaward, to be set in the water.

The bay formed by Cape Lopez is about fourteen miles long. Among several small streams which empty their water into it is the Nazareth river, one of whose branches is the Fetich river. The bay has numerous shallows and small islands, and abounds in all sorts of delicious fish. On the cape itself many large turtles from the ocean come to lay their eggs. I will tell you by-and-by what a nice time I had fishing at Cape Lopez; but I have many other things to talk about before I come to that.

I arrived at Cape Lopez one evening when it was almost dark. The next morning I prepared myself for a visit to King Bango, the king of the country. The royal palace is set up on a tolerably high hill, and fronts the seashore. Between the foot of this hill and the sea there is a beautiful prairie, over which are scattered the numerous little villages called Sangatanga. I never tired of looking at this prairie. I had lived so long in the gloomy forest that it gave me great delight to see once more the green and sunlit verdure of an open meadow. I found the royal palace surrounded by a little village of huts. As I entered the village I was met by the mafouga, or officer of the king, who conducted me to the palace. It was an ugly-looking house of two stories, resting on pillars. The lower story consisted of a dark hall, flanked on each side by rows of small dark rooms, which looked like little cells. At the end of the hall was a staircase, steep and dirty, up which the mafouga piloted me. When I had ascended the stairs I found myself in a large room, at one end of which was seated the great King Bango, who claims to be the greatest chief of this part of Africa. He was surrounded by about one hundred of his wives.

King Bango was fat, and seemed not over clean. He wore a shirt and an old pair of pantaloons. On his head was a crown, which had been presented to him by some of his friends, the Portuguese slavers. Over his shoulders he wore a flaming yellow coat, with gilt embroidery, the cast-off garment of some rich man's lacquey in Portugal or Brazil. When I speak of a crown you must not think it was a wonderful thing, made of gold and mounted with diamonds. It was shaped like those commonly worn by actors on the stage, and was probably worth, when new, about ten dollars. His majesty had put round it a circlet of pure gold, made with the doubloons he got in exchange for slaves. He sat on a sofa, for he was paralyzed; and in his hand he held a cane, which also answered the purpose of a sceptre.

This King Bango, whom I have described so minutely, was the greatest slave king of that part of the coast. At that time there were large slave depôts on his territory. He is a perfect despot, and is much feared by his people. He is also very superstitious.

Though very proud, he received me kindly, for I had come recommended by his great friend, Rompochombo, a king of the Mpongwe tribe. He asked me how I liked his wives. I said, very well. He then said there were a hundred present, and that he had twice as many more, three hundred in all. Fancy three hundred wives! He also claimed to have more than six hundred children. I wonder if all these brothers and sisters could know and recognise each other!

The next night a great ball was given in my honour by the king. The room where I had been received was the ball-room. I arrived there shortly after dark, and I found about one hundred and fifty of the king's wives, and I was told that the best dancers of the country were there.

I wish you could have seen the room. It was ugly enough; there were several torches to light it; but, notwithstanding these, the room was by no means brilliantly illuminated. The king wanted only his wives to dance before me. During the whole of the evening not a single man took part in the performance; but two of his daughters were ordered to dance, and he wanted me to marry one of them.

Not far from the royal palace were three curious and very small houses, wherein were deposited five idols, which were reputed to have far greater power and knowledge than the idols or gods of the surrounding countries. They were thought to be the great protectors of the Oroungou tribe, and particularly of Sangatanga and of the king. So I got a peep inside the first house. There I saw the idol called Pangeo; he was made of wood, and looked very ugly; by his side was his wife Aleka, another wooden idol. Pangeo takes care of the king, and of his people, and watches over them at night.

I peeped also into the second little house. There I saw a large idol, called Makambi, shaped like a man, and by his side stood a female figure, Abiala his wife. Poor Makambi is a powerless god, his wife having usurped the power. She holds a pistol in her hand, with which, it is supposed, she can kill anyone she pleases; hence the natives are much afraid of her; and she receives from them a constant supply of food, and many presents (I wonder who takes the presents away). When they fall sick, they dance around her, and implore her to make them well; for these poor heathen never pray to the true God. They put their trust in wooden images, the work of their own hands.

I looked into the third house, and there I saw an idol called Numba. He had no wife with him, being a bachelor deity. He is the Oroungou Neptune and Mercury in one – Neptune in ruling the waves, and Mercury in keeping off the evils which threaten from beyond the sea.

As I came away after seeing the king, I shot at a bird sitting upon a tree, but missed it, for I had been taking quinine and was nervous. But the negroes standing around at once proclaimed that this was a "fetich bird," – a sacred bird – and therefore I could not shoot it, even if I fired at it a hundred times.

I fired again, but with no better success. Hereupon they grew triumphant in their declarations; while I, loth to let the devil have so good a witness, loaded again, took careful aim, and, to my own satisfaction and their utter dismay, brought my bird down.

During my stay in the village, as I was one day out shooting birds in a grove, not far from my house, I saw a procession of slaves coming from one of the barracoons toward the farther end of my grove. As they came nearer, I saw that two gangs of six slaves each, all chained about the neck, were carrying a burden between them, which I knew presently to be the corpse of another slave. They bore it to the edge of the grove, about three hundred yards from my house; and, throwing it down there on the bare ground, they returned to their prison, accompanied by the overseer, who, with his whip, had marched behind them.

"Here, then, is the burying-ground of the barracoons," I said to myself sadly, thinking, I confess, of the poor fellow who had been dragged away from his home and friends; who, perhaps, had been sold by his father or relatives to die here and be thrown out as food for the vultures. Even as I stood wrapped in thought, these carrion birds were assembling, and began to darken the air above my head; ere long they were heard fighting over the corpse.

The grove, which was, in fact, but an African Aceldama, was beautiful to view from my house; and I had often resolved to explore it, or to rest in the shade of its dark-leaved trees. It seemed a ghastly place enough now as I approached it more closely. The vultures fled when they saw me, but flew only a little way, and then perched upon the lower branches of the surrounding trees, and watched me with eyes askance, as though fearful I should rob them of their prey. As I walked towards the corpse, I felt something crack under my feet. Looking down, I saw that I was already in the midst of a field of skulls and bones. I had inadvertently stepped upon the skeleton of some poor creature who had been lying here long enough for the birds and ants to pick his bones clean, and for the rains to bleach them. I think there must have been the relics of a thousand skeletons within sight. The place had been used for many years; and the mortality in the barracoons is sometimes frightful, in spite of the care they seem to take of their slaves. Here their bodies were thrown, and here the vultures found their daily carrion. The grass had just been burnt, and the white bones scattered everywhere, gave the ground a singular, and, when the cause was known, a frightful appearance. Penetrating farther into the bush, I found several great piles of bones. This was the place, years ago – when Cape Lopez was one of the great slave markets on the West Coast, and barracoons were more numerous than they are now – where the poor dead were thrown, one upon another, till even the mouldering bones remained in high piles, as monuments of the nefarious traffic. Such was the burial-ground of the poor slaves from the interior of Africa.

CHAPTER XIV

SLAVE BARRACOONS – A BIG SNAKE UNDER MY BED – A SLAVE SHIP OFF THE COAST

One day I passed by an immense enclosure, protected by a fence of palisades about twelve feet high, and sharp-pointed at the top. Passing through the gate, which was standing open, I found myself in the midst of a large collection of shanties, surrounded by shady trees, under which were lying, in various positions, a great many negroes. As I walked round, I saw that the men were fastened, six together, by a little stout chain, which passed through a collar secured about the neck of each. Here and there were buckets of water for the men to drink; and they being chained together, when one of the six wanted to drink, the others had to go with him.

Then I came to a yard full of women and children. These could roam at pleasure through their yard. No men were admitted there. These people could not all understand each other's language; and you may probably wish to know who they were. They were Africans belonging to various tribes, who had been sold, some by their parents or by their families; others by the people of their villages. Some had been sold on account of witchcraft; but there were many other excuses for the traffic. They would find suddenly that a boy or girl was "dull," and so forth, and must be sold. Many of them came from countries far distant.

Some were quite merry; others appeared to be very sad, thinking that they were bought to be eaten up. They believed that the white men beyond the seas were great cannibals, and that they were to be fattened first and then eaten. In the interior, one day, a chief ordered a slave to be killed for my dinner, and I barely succeeded in preventing the poor wretch from being put to death. I could hardly make the chief believe that I did not, in my own country, live on human flesh.

Under some of the trees were huge caldrons, in which beans and rice were cooking for the slaves; and others had dried fish to eat. In the evening they were put into large sheds for the night. One of the sheds was used as a hospital.

In the midst of all this stood the white man's house – yes, the white man's house! – and in it were white men whose only business was to buy these poor creatures from the Oroungou people!

After I had seen everything, I left the barracoon – for that is the name given to such a place as I have just described. I wandered about, and it was dark before I returned to the little bamboo house which the king had given me. I got in, and then, striking a match carefully, I lighted a torch, so that I might not go to bed in darkness. You may smile when I say bed, for my couch was far from bearing any resemblance to our beds at home, with mattresses and pillows, and sheets and blankets. Travellers in equatorial Africa are utter strangers to such luxuries.

After I had lighted the torch, I cast my eyes round to see if anything had been disturbed; for a thief, so disposed, could easily break into these houses. I noticed something glittering and shining under my akoko, or bedstead. The object was so still that I did not pay any attention to it; in fact, I could not see it well by the dim light of the torch. But when I approached the bed to arrange it, I saw that the glitter was produced by the shining scales of an enormous serpent, which lay quietly coiled up there within two feet of me. What was I to do? I had fastened my door with ropes. If the snake were to uncoil itself and move about, it might, perhaps, take a spring and wind itself about me, quietly squeeze me to death, and then swallow me as he would a gazelle. These were not comforting thoughts. I was afraid to cry out for fear of disturbing the snake, which appeared to be asleep. Besides, no one could get in, as I had barricaded the only entrance, so I went quietly and unfastened the door. When everything was ready for a safe retreat, I said to myself, "I had better try to kill it." Then, looking for my guns, I saw, to my utter horror, that they were set against the wall at the back of the bed, so that the snake was between me and them. After watching the snake intently, and thinking what to do, I resolved to get my gun; so, keeping the door in my rear open, in readiness for a speedy retreat at the first sign of life in the snake, I approached on tip-toe, and, in a twinkling of an eye, grasped the gun which was loaded heavily with large shot. How relieved I felt at that moment! I was no longer the same man. Fortunately, the snake did not move. With my gun in one hand I went again towards the reptile, and, fairly placing the muzzle of the gun against it, I fired, and then ran out of the house as fast as I could.

At the noise of the gun there was a rush of negroes from all sides to know what was the matter. They thought some one had shot a man, and run into my house to hide himself; so they all rushed into it, helter-skelter; but I need not tell you they rushed out just as fast, on finding a great snake writhing about on the floor. Some had trodden upon it and been frightened out of their wits. You have no idea how they roared and shouted; but no one appeared disposed to enter the house again, so I went in cautiously myself to see how matters stood, for I did not intend to give undisputed possession of my hut so easily to Mr. Snake. I entered and looked cautiously around. The dim light of the torch helped me a little, and there I saw the snake on the ground. Its body had been cut in two by the discharge, and both ends were now flapping about the floor. At first I thought these ends were two snakes, and I did not know what to make of it; but as soon as I perceived my mistake, I gave a heavy blow with a stick on the head of the horrible creature, and finished it. Then I saw it disgorge a duck – a whole duck – and such a long duck! It looked like an enormous long-feathered sausage. After eating the duck, the snake thought my bedroom was just the place for him to go to sleep in and digest his meal; for snakes, after a hearty meal, always fall into a state of torpor. It was a large python, and it measured – would you believe it? – eighteen feet. Fancy my situation if this fellow had sprung upon me and coiled round me! It would soon have been all over with me. I wonder how long it would have taken to digest me, had I been swallowed by the monster!

One fine day, while walking on the beach of this inhospitable shore, I spied a vessel. It approached nearer and nearer, and at last ran in and hove-to a few miles from the shore. Immediately I observed a gang of slaves rapidly driven down from one of the barracoons. I stood and watched. The men were still in gangs of six, but they had been washed, and each had a clean cloth on. The canoes were immense boats, with twenty-six paddles, and about sixty slaves each. The poor slaves seemed much terrified. They had never been on the rough water before, and they did not know what that dancing motion of the sea was. Then they were being taken away, they knew not whither. As they skimmed over the waves and rolled, now one way, now another, they must have thought their last day had come, and that they were to be consigned to a watery grave.