Stanley in Africa: The Wonderful Discoveries and Thrilling Adventures of the Great African Explorer, and Other Travelers, Pioneers and MissionariesBoyd, James P. (James Penny)
History
Stanley in Africa: The Wonderful Discoveries and Thrilling Adventures of the Great African Explorer, and Other Travelers, Pioneers and Missionaries
Boyd, James P. (James Penny)
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton), 1841-1904
By April 7th the camp was at Kimbanza opposite the mouth of the Lukunga
and in the midst of a land of plenty, and especially of crocodiles, which
fairly infest the river and all the tributaries thereof. Here, too, are
myriads of little fish like minnows, or sardines, which the natives catch
in great quantities, in nets, and prepare for food by baking them in the
sun. The population is quite dense, and of the same amiable mood, the
same desire to traffic, and the same willingness to enter into treaties,
as that on the river below.
Further up are the Ndunga people and the Ndunga Rapids, where the
river is penned in between high, forbidding walls and where nature has
begrudged life of every kind to the scene. But out among the villages
all is different. The people are thrifty and sprightly. Their markets
are full of sweet potatoes, eggs, fish, palm-wine, etc., and the shapely
youths, male and female, indulge in dances which possess as much poetry
of motion as the terpsichorean performances of the more highly favored
children of civilization.
The next station was Manyanga, a destination indeed, for here is a
formidable cataract, which defies the light steamers of the expedition,
and there will have to be another tedious portage to the open waters
of Stanley Pool. It was now May 1, 1881. Manyanga is 140 miles from
Vivi. The natives were friendly but adverse to founding a trading town
in their midst. Yet Stanley resolved that it should be a station and
supply point for the 95 miles still to be traversed to Stanley Pool. He
fell sick here, of fever, and lay for many days unconscious. Such was
his prostration, when he returned to his senses, that he despaired of
recovery, and bade his attendants farewell.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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