Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, Volume 2Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
History
Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, Volume 2
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Africa, West -- Description and travel; Congo River -- Description and travel; Ethnology -- Africa, West
The heat of the day was passed in the shade of the Lumba,
enjoying the sea-breeze and the novel view. It was debated
whether we should return viâ Masera, a well-known slaving
village, whose barracoons were still standing. But the bearers
dissuaded us, declaring that they might be seized as "dash,"
unless the white men paid heavy "comey" like those who shipped
black cargoes: they cannot shake off this old practice of
claiming transit money. So we returned without a halt, covering
some twelve of the roughest miles in two hours and a quarter.
The morning of the 26th showed an ugly sight from the tall
Kinsembo cliff. As far as the eye could reach long green-black
lines, fronted and feathered with frosted foam, hurried up to the
war with loud merciless roars, and dashed themselves in white
destruction against the reefs and rock-walls. We did not escape
till the next day.
Kinsembo does not appear upon the old maps, and our earliest
hydrographic charts place it six miles wrong.[FN#5] The station
was created in 1857-61 by the mistaken policy of Loanda, which
determined to increase the customs three per cent, and talked of
exacting duties at Ambriz, not according to invoice prices, but
upon the value which imported goods represented amongst the
natives. It was at once spread abroad that the object was to
drive the wax and ivory trade to São Paulo, and to leave Ambriz
open to slavers. The irrepressible Briton transferred himself to
Kinsembo, and agreed to pay the king £9 in kind, after "country
fashion," for every ship. In 1857 the building of the new
factories was opposed by the Portuguese, and was supported by
English naval officers, till the two governments came to an
arrangement. In February, 1860, the Kinsembo people seized an
English factory, and foully murdered a Congo prince and
Portuguese subject, D. Nicoláo de Agua Rosada, employed in the
Treasury Department, Ambriz. Thereupon the Governor-General sent
up two vessels, with thirty guns and troops; crossed the Loge
River, now a casus belli; and, on March 3rd, burned down the
inland town of Kinsembo. On the return march the column debouched
upon the foreign factories. About one mile in front of the point,
Captain Brerit, U.S. Navy, and Commander A. G. Fitzroy, R.N., had
drawn up 120 of their men by way of guard. Leave was asked by the
Portuguese to refresh their troops, and to house six or seven
wounded men. The foreign agents, headed by a disreputable M--M--,
now dead, protested, and, after receiving this unsoldierlike
refusal, the Portuguese, harassed by the enemy, continued their
return march to Ambriz. The natives of this country have an
insane hate for their former conquerors, and can hardly explain
why: probably the cruelties of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, not peculiar to the Lusitanians, have rankled in the
national memory. A stray Portuguese would infallibly be put to
death, and it will, I fear, be long before M. Valdez sees
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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