In Darkest Africa, Vol. 1; or, The Quest, Rescue, and Retreat of Emin, Governor of EquatoriaStanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
History
In Darkest Africa, Vol. 1; or, The Quest, Rescue, and Retreat of Emin, Governor of Equatoria
Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Emin Pasha, 1840-1892
On the 7th, while we halted on the mount, the Manyuema monopolizing the
village, and our men in the bush, unworthy to be near their nobility,
there was a little storm between Saat Tato (Three o'clock), the hunter,
and Khamis, the chief of the Manyuema guides. It threatened, from the
sound of words, to explode hurtfully at one time. Khamis slapped him in
the face. Both were tall men, but Saat Tato was two inches taller, a good
soldier, who had seen service in Madagascar and with Sultan Barghash as a
sergeant, but who, from his habits of getting drunk by the third hour of
each day, was nicknamed "Three o'clock," and dismissed. He was an
excellent man, faithful, strong, obedient, and an unerring shot. Given
the benefits of twenty-five pounds of food, Saat Tato, at a hint, would
have smilingly taken hold of Khamis, and snapped his vertebrae across his
knee with the ease that he would have broken a spear staff. I observed
Saat Tato closely, for it must be remembered that it had become fully
impressed on my mind that my men were quite too broken-spirited. Saat
Tato looked at him a second severely; then, lifting his forefinger, said
to Khamis, "It is well, but I should like to see you repeat that blow a
little time hence, after I have a little food in me, and filled this
stomach of mine. Strike me again, do; I can bear it."
Advancing, and touching Khamis on the shoulder, I said, "Khamis, do not
do that again. I do not allow even my officers to strike my men like
that."
The ill-humour was increasing, and, little as the Manyuema imagined, they
were assisting me to restore the spirit of the Zanzibaris by their
cruelty. There were signs that the Christians would prevail after all.
The mutual affection expressed between the Moslem co-religionists at the
altar of which our men were ready to sacrifice our lives and liberties
and their own freedom, had been cooled by the cruelty, perverseness, and
niggardliness of the Manyuema. All we had to do was to watch it, bear
patiently, and be ready.
To our great comfort Khamis confessed that West Indékaru was the utmost
limit of his master Ismaili's territory.
We, however, were not to part from him until we reached Ibwiri.
We marched eleven miles on the 8th of November through a much more open
forest, and we could see further into the interior. The road was better,
so much so that our rate of marching increased to two miles per hour. The
gritty and loamy soil had absorbed the rain, and walking became pleasant.
The llianes were not so riotously abundant, only a strong creeper now and
then requiring severance. At several places there were granite
outcroppings of a colossal size, which were a novelty and added a kind of
romantic and picturesque interest to the woods, darkly suggestive of
gitanos, bandits, or pigmies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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