Stanley's Adventures in the Wilds of Africa: A Graphic Account of the Several Expeditions of Henry M. Stanley into the Heart of the Dark Continent — John Shaqi
Stanley's Adventures in the Wilds of Africa: A Graphic Account of the Several Expeditions of Henry M. Stanley into the Heart of the Dark ContinentHeadley, Joel Tyler
History
Stanley's Adventures in the Wilds of Africa: A Graphic Account of the Several Expeditions of Henry M. Stanley into the Heart of the Dark Continent
Headley, Joel Tyler
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton), 1841-1904
At 7 A. M. they drew near Nyambwa, where excellent water was found. The
villagers here crowded around them with shouts and yells, and finally
became so insolent that Stanley grabbed one of them by the neck and gave
him a sound thrashing with his donkey-whip. This enraged them, and they
walked backward and forward like angry tom-cats, shouting, "Are the
Wagogo to be beaten like slaves?" and they seemed by their ferocious
manner determined to avenge their comrade, but the moment Stanley raised
his whip and advanced they scattered. Finding that the long lash, which
cracked like a pistol, had a wholesome effect, whenever they crowded
upon him so as to impede his progress, he laid it about him without
mercy, which soon cleared a path.
The Sultan Kimberah was a small, queer and dirty old man, a great
drunkard, and yet the most powerful of all the Ugogo chiefs. Here they
had considerable trouble in arranging the amount of tribute, but at
length everything was settled and the caravan passed on and entered on a
vast salt plain containing a hundred or more square miles, from the salt
springs of which the Wagogo obtained their salt. At Mizarza, the next
camping-place, Stanley was compelled to halt and doctor himself for the
fever which was wearing him to skin and bones. Early in the morning he
began to take his quinine, and kept repeating the doses at short
intervals until a copious perspiration told him he had broken the fever
which had been consuming him for fourteen days. During this time, the
sultan of the district, attracted by Stanley's lofty tent, with the
American flag floating above it, visited him. He was so astonished at
the loftiness and furnishing of the tent, that in his surprise he let
fall the loose cloth that hung from his shoulders and stood stark naked
in front of Stanley, gaping in mute wonder. Admonished by his son--a lad
fifteen years old--he resumed his garb and sat down to talk. Stanley
showed him his rifles and other fire-arms, which astonished him beyond
measure.
On the 4th of June, the caravan was started forward again, and after
three hours' march it came upon another district, containing only two
villages occupied by pastoral Wahumba and Wahehe. These live in cow-dung
cone huts, shaped like Tartar tents. Stanley says:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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