Stanley's Story; Or, Through the Wilds of Africa: A Thrilling Narrative of His Remarkable Adventures, Terrible Experiences, Wonderful Discoveries and Amazing Achievements in the Dark ContinentFeather, A. G., Col.
History
Stanley's Story; Or, Through the Wilds of Africa: A Thrilling Narrative of His Remarkable Adventures, Terrible Experiences, Wonderful Discoveries and Amazing Achievements in the Dark Continent
Feather, A. G., Col.
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Livingstone, David, 1813-1873; Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton), 1841-1904
that the white man was a superior being to any he had ever seen.
‘Surely,’ said he, ‘he must have a friend; otherwise how came he to send
me such fine cloths? Tell the white man that I shall come and see him.’
Permission was at once given to his people to sell us as much corn as we
needed. We had barely finished distributing five days’ rations to each
man when the Chief was announced.
“Gunbearers, twenty in number, preceded him, and thirty spearmen
followed him, and behind these came eight or ten men loaded with gifts
of honey, native beer, holcus sorghum, beans, and maize. I at once
advanced and invited the Chief to my tent, which had undergone some
alterations, that I might honor him as much as lay in my power.
Ma-manyara was a tall, stalwart man, with a very pleasing face. He
carried in his hand a couple of spears, and, with the exception of a
well-worn barsati around his loins, he was naked. Three of his principal
men and himself were invited to seat themselves on my Persian carpet.
The revolvers and Winchester’s repeating rifles were things so wonderful
that to attempt to give you any idea of how awe-struck he and his men
were would task my powers. My medicine chest was opened next, and I
uncorked a small phial of medicinal brandy and gave each a teaspoonful.
Suffice it that I made myself so popular with Ma-manyara and his people
that they will not forget me in a hurry.
“Leaving kind and hospitable Ma-manyara, after a four hours’ march we
came to the banks of the Gombe Nullah, not the one which Burton, Speke,
and Grant have described, for the Gombe which I mean is about one
hundred and twenty-five miles south of the Northern Gombe. The glorious
park land spreading out north and south of the Southern Gombe is a
hunter’s paradise. It is full of game of all kinds--herds of buffalo,
giraffe, zebra, pallah, water buck, springbok, gemsbok, blackbuck, and
kudu, besides several eland, warthog, or wild boar, and hundreds of the
smaller antelope. We saw all these in one day, and at night heard the
lions roar and the low of the hippopotamus. I halted here three days to
shoot, and there is no occasion to boast of what I shot, considering the
myriads of game I saw at every step I took. Not half the animals shot
here by myself and men were made use of. Two buffaloes and one kudu were
brought to camp the first day, besides a wild boar, which my mess
finished up in one night. My boy gun-bearers sat up the whole night
eating boar meat, and until I went to sleep I could hear the buffalo
meat sizzing over the fires as the Islamized soldiers prepared it for
the road.
[Illustration: A FINE COVEY OF THE NOBLE GAME.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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