How I found Livingstone : $b Travels, adventures, and discoveres in Central Africa, including an account of four months' residence with Dr. LivingstoneStanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
History
How I found Livingstone : $b Travels, adventures, and discoveres in Central Africa, including an account of four months' residence with Dr. Livingstone
Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Livingstone, David, 1813-1873
The Doctor believes, as do the Arabs themselves, that
about 400 people, mostly women and children, lost their lives, while
many more were made slaves. This outrage is only one of many such he has
unwillingly witnessed, and he is utterly unable to describe the feelings
of loathing he feels for the inhuman perpetrators.
Slaves from Manyuema command a higher price than those of any other
country, because of their fine forms and general docility. The women,
the Doctor said repeatedly, are remarkably pretty creatures, and have
nothing, except the hair, in common with the negroes of the West
Coast. They are of very light colour, have fine noses, well-cut and not
over-full lips, while the prognathous jaw is uncommon. These women are
eagerly sought after as wives by the half-castes of the East Coast, and
even the pure Omani Arabs do not disdain to take them in marriage.
To the north of Manyuema, Livingstone came to the light-complexioned
race, of the colour of Portuguese, or our own Louisiana quadroons,
who are very fine people, and singularly remarkable for commercial
"'cuteness" and sagacity. The women are expert divers for oysters, which
are found in great abundance in the Lualaba.
Rua, at a place called Katanga, is rich in copper. The copper-mines of
this place have been worked for ages. In the bed of a stream, gold has
been found, washed down in pencil-shaped pieces or in particles as large
as split peas. Two Arabs have gone thither to prospect for this metal;
but, as they are ignorant of the art of gulch-mining, it is scarcely
possible that they will succeed. From these highly important and
interesting discoveries, Dr. Livingstone was turned back, when almost
on the threshold of success, by the positive refusal of his men to
accompany him further. They were afraid to go on unless accompanied by
a large force of men; and, as these were not procurable in Manyuema, the
Doctor reluctantly turned his face towards Ujiji.
It was a long and weary road back. The journey had now no interest for
him. He had travelled the road before when going westward, full of high
hopes and aspirations, impatient to reach the goal which promised
him rest from his labors--now, returning unsuccessful, baffled, and
thwarted, when almost in sight of the end, and having to travel the same
path back on foot, with disappointed expectations and defeated hopes
preying on his mind, no wonder that the old brave spirit almost
succumbed, and the strong constitution almost went to wreck.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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