Chapter XIV

TREACHERY OF THE KING'S SONS.--THE GREATEST RASCAL OF AFRICA.--A PYTHON IN CAMP.--STANLEY POOL.--DOVER CLIFFS.--MANKONEH.--FIRST SOUND OF THE FALLS.--BARGAINING FOR FOOD.--LOSS OF THE BIG GOAT.--EXCHANGING CHARMS.--FALL OF THE CONGO FROM NYANGWÉ TO STANLEY POOL.--GOING AROUND THE GREAT FALL.--DRAGGING THE BOATS OVERLAND.--GORDON-BENNET RIVER.--"THE CALDRON."--LOSS OF THE _LONDON TOWN_.--POOR KALULU.--HIS DEATH IN THE RIVER.--LOSS OF MEN BY DROWNING.--SAD SCENES IN CAMP.

"The sons of the King of Chumbiri," said Frank, "proved treacherous. Soon after starting they lagged behind, and the explorers continued without them. Nothing of importance occurred during the day, and the camp was made for the night in a dense forest near the bank of the river. Hardly had the explorers landed before loud shrieks were heard from a boy who narrowly escaped being eaten by a python. Half an hour later the same python, or another, was found in another part of the camp trying to throw his folds about one of the women. There was great excitement, and the snake was promptly killed. He measured thirteen feet six inches in length, and was fifteen inches around the thickest part of the body.

"The next morning, just as they were preparing breakfast, they were attacked by a party of savages who opened fire upon them with muskets. Fourteen of Mr. Stanley's men were wounded before the assailants were put to flight; when the expedition continued on its journey it was found that their camping-place had been about two miles above the village to which their assailants belonged. All the warriors of the village came out to the bank of the river with their muskets and spears, but the travellers kept at a safe distance and were not harmed. The sons of the king came up with them shortly afterwards, but made such extraordinary demands for escorting the party to the falls that the explorer concluded to go along without them. He gives it as his opinion that this oily-tongued king is the greatest rascal in all Africa.

"And now," said Frank, "I will read to you about the approach to the famous falls of the lower Congo.

"About 11 A.M. of the 12th the river gradually expanded from
fourteen hundred to twenty-five hundred yards, which admitted us in
view of a mighty breadth of river, which the men at once, with
happy appropriateness, termed 'a pool.' Sandy islands rose in front
of us like a sea-beach, and on the right towered a long row of
cliffs, white and glistening, so like the cliffs of Dover that
Frank at once exclaimed that it was a bit of England. The grassy
table-land above the cliffs appeared as green as a lawn, and so
much reminded Frank of Kentish Downs that he exclaimed
enthusiastically, 'I feel we are nearing home.'

"While I was taking an observation at noon of the position, Frank,
with my glass in his hand, ascended the highest part of the large
sandy dune that had been deposited by the mighty river, and took a
survey of its strange and sudden expansion, and after he came back
he said, 'Why, I declare, sir, this place is just like a pool; as
broad as it is long. There are mountains all round it, and it
appears to me almost circular.'[10]

[10] "Frank described the crater of an extinct volcano, which is
six miles in length and four miles wide, as set forth more in
detail subsequently."

"'Well, if it is a pool, we must distinguish it by some name. Give
me a suitable name for it, Frank.'

"'Why not call it "Stanley Pool," and these cliffs Dover Cliffs?
For no traveller who may come here again will fail to recognize the
cliffs by that name.'

"Subsequent events brought these words vividly to my recollection,
and in accordance with Frank's suggestion I have named this
lakelike expansion of the river from Dover Cliffs to the first
cataract of the Livingstone Falls--embracing about thirty square
miles--the Stanley Pool. The latitude of the entrance from above to
the pool was ascertained to be 4° 3' south.

"The left shore is occupied by the populous settlements of Nshasa,
Nkunda, and Ntamo. The right is inhabited by the wild Bateké, who
are generally accused of being cannibals.

"Soon after we began our descent of the pool, skirting the right
shore, we observed a chalky mount, near which were two or three
columns of the same material. From a cove just below emerged two or
three Bateké canoes, the crews of which, after collecting their
faculties, consented to show us the cataract, the noise of which,
as they attempted to describe it, elicited roars of laughter from
the members of the expedition. This outburst of loud merriment
conquered all reluctance on the part of the Bateké to accompany us.

"After winding in and out of many creeks which were very shallow,
we approached the village of Mankoneh, the chief of the Bateké. His
people during the daytime are generally scattered over these sandy
dunes of the Stanley Pool attending to their nets and fish-snares,
and to protect themselves from the hot sun always take with them
several large mats to form sheds. Mankoneh, to our great delight,
was a bluff, hearty, genial soul, who expressed unbounded pleasure
at seeing us; he also volunteered to guide us to the falls. He was
curious to know how we proposed travelling after arriving near
them, for it was impossible, he said, to descend the falls. By a
ludicrous pantomime he led us to understand that they were
something very fearful.

"A few hundred yards below his village the pool sharply contracted,
and the shore of Ntamo--a projecting point from the crescent-shaped
ridge beyond--appeared at a distance of two thousand yards. It was
then that we heard for the first time the low and sullen thunder of
the first cataract of the Livingstone Falls.

"Slowly Mankoneh, in his canoe, glided down towards it, and louder
it grew on the ears, until when within one hundred yards of the
first line of broken water, he pointed forward and warned us not to
proceed farther. We made for the shore, and found ourselves on a
narrow, ledgelike terrace bristling with great blocks of granite,
amid a jungly tangle, which grew at the base of high hills. Here,
after a short busy period with axe and machete, we constructed a
rude camp. The only level spot was not six feet square.

"Mankoneh, the Bateké chief, pointed out to us the village of Itsi,
the chief of Ntamo, which is situated on the left bank, in a line
with the beginning of the first cataract, and spoke of Itsi with
great respect, as though he were very powerful.

"About 5 P.M. a small canoe was observed to cross over to our side
from the left bank, a mile above the falls. The canoe-men, through
the representations of our hearty friend Mankoneh, were soon
induced to land in our camp to converse with the white men, and
before long we had succeeded in making them feel quite at home with
us. As they were in a quiver of anxious desire to impart to the
chief Itsi all the wonderful things they had witnessed with us,
they departed about sunset, solemnly promising we should see the
famous Itsi of Ntamo next morning.

"Lashing our canoes firmly lest an accident should happen during
the night, we turned to our rude huts to sleep in peace. We were
all very hungry, as we had been able to purchase nothing from the
natives since leaving Chumbiri five days before, and we had been
more than usually improvident, having placed far too much reliance
on the representations so profusely made to us by the mild-voiced
but cunning king of Chumbiri. From very shame I refrain from
publishing the stores of goods with which I purchased the glib
promises of assistance from Chumbiri, not one of which was
realized.

"Morning of the 13th of March found us, from the early hours of
dawn, anxiously waiting the arrival of Itsi of Ntamo and the
reappearance of Mankoneh. From our camp we might easily with a
glass note any movement on the other bank. At 9 A.M.--Itsi
evidently was not an early riser--a large canoe and two consorts,
laden with men, were seen propelled up stream along the left bank,
and, a mile above the landing-place, to cross the river at a
furious pace. The rows of upright figures, with long paddles,
bending their bodies forward in unison, and their voices rising in
a swelling chorus to the sound of the steady beat of a large drum,
formed a pretty and inspiring sight. Arriving at the right bank,
with a perfect recklessness of the vicinity of the falls, they
dashed down towards our camp at the rate of six knots an hour. The
large war-canoe, though not quite equal to the monster of the
Aruwimi in size, was a noble vessel, and Itsi, who was seated in
state 'midship,' with several gray-headed elders near him, was
conscious, when he saw our admiration, that he had created a
favorable impression. She measured eighty-five feet seven inches in
length, four feet in width, and was three feet three inches deep.
Her crew consisted of sixty paddlers and four steersmen, and she
carried twenty-two passengers, close-packed, besides, making a
total of eighty-six persons. The other two canoes carried
ninety-two persons altogether.

"We cordially invited Itsi and his people to our camp, to which
they willingly responded. Some grass, fresh cut, in anticipation of
the visit of our honorable friends, had been strewn over a cleared
space close to the stream, and our best mats spread over it.

"There were four or five gray-headed elders present, one of whom
was introduced as Itsi. He laughed heartily, and it was not long
before we were on a familiar footing. They then broached the
subject of blood-brotherhood. We were willing, but they wished to
defer the ceremony until they had first shown their friendly
feelings to us. Accordingly the old man handed over to me ten
loaves of cassava bread, or cassava pudding, fifty tubers of
cassava, three bunches of bananas, a dozen sweet potatoes, some
sugar-cane, three fowls, and a diminutive goat. A young man of
about twenty-six years made Frank's acquaintance by presenting to
him double the quantity I received. This liberality drew my
attention to him. His face was dotted with round spots of
soot-and-oil mixture. From his shoulders depended a long cloth of
check pattern, while over one shoulder was a belt, to which was
attached a queer medley of small gourds containing snuff and
various charms, which he called his Inkisi. In return for the
bounteous store of provisions given to Frank and myself, as they
were cotton or grass-cloth-wearing people, we made up a bundle of
cloths for each of the principals, which they refused, to our
surprise. We then begged to know what they desired, that we might
show our appreciation of their kindness, and seal the bond of
brotherhood with our blood.

"The young man now declared himself to be Itsi, the King of Ntamo;
the elder, who had previously been passed off for the king, being
only an ancient councillor. It was a surprise, but not an
unpleasant one, though there was nothing very regal or majestic
about him, unless one may so call his munificent bounty to Frank as
compared to the old man's to me. We finally prevailed upon Itsi to
inform us what gift would be pleasing to him.

"He said, 'I want only that big goat; if you give me that, I shall
want nothing more.'

"The 'big goat' which he so earnestly required was the last of six
couples I had purchased in Uregga for the purpose of presentation
to an eminent English lady, in accordance with a promise I had made
to her four years previously. All the others had perished from heat
apoplexy, sickness, and want of proper care, which the terrible
life we had led had prevented us from supplying. This 'big goat'
and a lionlike ram, gigantic specimens of the domestic animals of
Manyema and Uregga, were all that survived. They had both become
quite attached to us, and were valued companions of a most eventful
journey of eleven hundred miles. I refused it, but offered to
double the cloths. Whereupon Itsi sulked, and prepared to depart;
not, however, before hinting that we should find it difficult to
obtain food if he vetoed the sale of provisions. We coaxed him back
again to his seat, and offered him one of the asses. The possession
of such a 'gigantic' animal as an ass, which was to him of all
domestic animals a veritable Titanosaurus, was a great temptation;
but the shuddering women, who feared being eaten by it, caused him
to decline the honor of the gift. He now offered three goats for
what appeared to him to be the 'largest' goat in Africa, and
boasted of his goodness, and how his friendship would be
serviceable to me; whereas, if he parted in anger, why, we should
be entirely at his mercy. The goat was therefore transferred to his
canoe, and Itsi departed for Ntamo, as though he were in possession
of a new wonder.

"Our provisions were only sufficient to prove what appetites we
possessed, and not to assuage them; all were consumed in a few
minutes, and we were left with only hopes of obtaining a little
more on the next day.

"On the 14th Itsi appeared with his war-canoe at 9 A.M., bringing
three goats and twenty loaves of cassava bread and a few tubers,
and an hour afterwards Nchuvira, King of Nkunda, Mankoneh, chief of
the Bateké fishermen near the Stanley Pool, and the King of Nshasa,
at the southeast end of the Stanley Pool, arrived at our camp with
several canoe crews. Each of the petty sovereigns of the districts
in our neighborhood contributed a little, but altogether we were
only able to distribute to each person two pounds of eatable
provisions. Every chief was eager for a present, with which he was
gratified, and solemn covenants of peace were entered into between
the whites and the blacks. The treaty with Itsi was exceedingly
ceremonious, and involved the exchange of charms. Itsi transferred
to me, for my protection through life, a small gourdful of a
curious powder, which had rather a saline taste, and I delivered
over to him, as the white man's charm against all evil, a
half-ounce vial of magnesia; further, a small scratch in Frank's
arm, and another in Itsi's arm, supplied blood sufficient to unite
us in one and indivisible bond of fraternity. After this we were
left alone.

"An observation by boiling-point, above the first cataract of
Livingstone Falls, disclosed to us an altitude of 1147 feet above
the ocean. At Nyangwé the river was 2077 feet. In twelve hundred
and thirty-five miles, therefore, there had been only a reduction
of 930 feet, divided as follows:

Distance
Feet. in miles. Fall per mile.

Nyangé 2077 }
Four miles below seventh cataract, }
Stanley Falls 1511 }
---- } 337 20 inches.
Feet, 566 }

Four miles below seventh cataract,
Stanley Falls 1511 }
River at Ntamo, above first cataract, }
Livingstone Falls 1147 } 898 5 inches,
---- } River nearly.
Feet, 364 } uninterrupted."

Frank paused a few moments, and, at the request of one of his auditors, repeated the figures he had just given. Then he continued the narrative as follows:

"The wide wild land which, by means of the greatest river of
Africa, we have pierced, is now about to be presented in a milder
aspect than that which has filled the preceding pages with records
of desperate conflicts and furious onslaughts of savage men. The
people no longer resist our advance. Trade has tamed their natural
ferocity, until they no longer resent our approach with the fury of
beasts of prey.

"It is the dread river itself of which we shall have now to
complain. It is no longer the stately stream, whose mystic beauty,
noble grandeur, and gentle, uninterrupted flow along a course of
nearly nine hundred miles ever fascinated us, despite the savagery
of its peopled shores, but a furious river, rushing down a steep
bed obstructed by reefs of lava, projected barriers of rock, lines
of immense boulders, winding in crooked course through deep chasms,
and dropping down over terraces in a long series of falls,
cataracts, and rapids. Our frequent contests with the savages
culminated in tragic struggles with the mighty river as it rushed
and roared through the deep, yawning pass that leads from the broad
table-land down to the Atlantic Ocean.

"Those voiceless and lone streams meandering between the thousand
isles of the Livingstone; those calm and silent wildernesses of
water over which we had poured our griefs and wailed in our sorrow;
those woody solitudes where nightly we had sought to soothe our
fevered brows, into whose depths we breathed our vows; that sealike
amplitude of water which had proved our refuge in distress, weird
in its stillness, and solemn in its mystery, are now exchanged for
the cliff-lined gorge, through which with inconceivable fury the
Livingstone sweeps with foaming billows into the broad Congo,
which, at a distance of only one hundred and fifty-five
geographical miles, is nearly eleven hundred feet below the summit
of the first fall.

"On the 16th of March, having explored as far as the Gordon-Bennett
River, and obtained a clear idea of our situation during the 15th,
we began our labors with energy. Goods, asses, women, and children,
with the guard under Frank, first moved overland to a temporary
halting-place near the confluence. Then, manning the boat, I led
the canoe-men from point to point along the right bank, over the
first rapids. We had some skilful work to perform to avoid being
swept away by the velocity of the current; but whenever we came to
rocks we held the rattan hawsers in our hands, and, allowing the
stream to take them beyond these dangerous points, brought them
into the sheltered lee. Had a hawser parted nothing could have
saved the canoe or the men in it, for at the confluence of the
Gordon-Bennett with the great river the entire river leaps headlong
into an abysm of waves and foam. Arriving in the Gordon-Bennett,
we transported the expedition across, and then our labors ended at
5 P.M. for the day.

"Itsi of Ntamo had informed us there were only three cataracts,
which he called the 'Child,' the 'Mother,' and the 'Father.' The
'Child' was a two hundred yards' stretch of broken water; and the
'Mother,' consisting of half a mile of dangerous rapids, we had
succeeded in passing, and had pushed beyond it by crossing the
upper branch of the Gordon-Bennett, which was an impetuous stream,
seventy-five yards wide, with big cataracts of its own higher up.
But the 'Father' is the wildest stretch of river that I have ever
seen. Take a strip of sea blown over by a hurricane, four miles in
length and half a mile in breadth, and a pretty accurate conception
of its leaping waves may be obtained. Some of the troughs were one
hundred yards in length, and from one to the other the mad river
plunged. There was first a rush down into the bottom of an immense
trough, and then, by its sheer force, the enormous volume would
lift itself upward steeply until, gathering itself into a ridge, it
suddenly hurled itself twenty or thirty feet straight upward,
before rolling down into another trough. If I looked up or down
along this angry scene, every interval of fifty or one hundred
yards of it was marked by wave-towers--their collapse into foam and
spray, the mad clash of watery hills, bounding mounds, and heaving
billows, while the base of either bank, consisting of a long line
of piled boulders of massive size, was buried in the tempestuous
surf. The roar was tremendous and deafening. I can only compare it
to the thunder of an express train through a rock tunnel. To speak
to my neighbor, I had to bawl in his ear.

"The most powerful ocean steamer, going at full speed on this
portion of the river, would be as helpless as a cockle-boat. I
attempted three times, by watching some tree floated down from
above, to ascertain the rate of the wild current by observing the
time it occupied in passing between two given points, from which I
estimate it to be about thirty miles an hour!

"On the 17th, after cutting brushwood and laying it over a path of
eight hundred yards in length, we crossed from the upper branch of
the Gordon-Bennett to the lower branch, which was of equal breadth,
but twenty feet below it. This enabled us the next day to float
down to the confluence of the lower branch with the Livingstone.
We could do no more on this day; the people were fainting from lack
of food.

"On the 18th, through the good-will of Mankoneh, the chief of the
Bateké, we were enabled to trade with the aborigines, a wild and
degraded tribe, subsisting principally on fish and cassava. A goat
was not to be obtained at any price, and for a chicken they
demanded a gun! Cassava, however, was abundant.

"From the confluence we formed another brush-covered road, and
hauled the canoes over another eight hundred yards into a creek,
which enabled us to reach, on the 20th, a wide sand-bar that
blocked its passage into the great river. The sand-bar, in its
turn, enabled us to reach the now moderated stream, below the
influence of the roaring 'Father,' and to proceed by towing and
punting half a mile below to an inlet in the rocky shore.

"Gampa, the young chief of this district, became very friendly, and
visited us each day with small gifts of cassava bread, a few
bananas, and a small gourd of palm-wine.

"On the 21st and the two days following we were engaged in hauling
our vessels overland, a distance of three quarters of a mile, over
a broad rocky point, into a baylike formation. Gampa and his people
nerved us to prosecute our labors by declaring that there was only
one small cataract below. Full of hope, we halted on the 24th to
rest the wearied people, and in the meantime to trade for food.

"The 25th saw us at work at dawn in a bad piece of river, which is
significantly styled the 'Caldron.' Our best canoe, seventy-five
feet long, three feet wide, by twenty-one inches deep, the famous
_London Town_, commanded by Manwa Sera, was torn from the hands of
fifty men, and swept away in the early morning down to destruction.
In the afternoon, the _Glasgow_, parting her cables, was swept
away, drawn nearly into mid-river, returned up river half a mile,
again drawn into the depths, ejected into a bay near where Frank
was camped, and, to our great joy, finally recovered. Accidents
were numerous; the glazed trap-rocks, washed by the ever-rising
tidal-like waves, were very slippery, occasioning dangerous falls
to the men. One man dislocated his shoulder, another was bruised on
the hips, and another had a severe contusion of the head. Too
careless of my safety in my eagerness and anxiety, I fell down,
feet first, into a chasm thirty feet deep between two enormous
boulders, but fortunately escaped with only a few rib bruises,
though for a short time I was half stunned.

"On the 27th we happily succeeded in passing the fearful Caldron,
but during our last efforts the _Crocodile_, eighty-five feet three
inches long, was swept away into the centre of the Caldron, heaved
upward, whirled round with quick gyrations, and finally shot into
the bay north of Rocky Island, where it was at last secured. The
next day we dropped down stream, and reached the western end of the
bay above Rocky Island Falls.

"Leaving Frank Pocock as usual in charge of the camp and goods, I
mustered ninety men--most of the others being stiff from wounds
received in the fight at Mwana Ibaka and other places--and
proceeded, by making a wooden tramway with sleepers and rollers, to
pass Rocky Island Falls. Mpwapwa and Shumari, of the boat's crew,
were sent to explore, meanwhile, for another inlet or recess in the
right bank. By 2 P.M. we were below the falls, and my two young men
had returned, reporting that a mile or so below there was a fine
camp, with a broad strip of sand lining a bay. This animated us to
improve the afternoon hours by attemtping to reach it. The
seventeen canoes now left to us were manned according to their
capacity. As I was about to embark in my boat to lead the way, I
turned to the people to give my last instructions--which were, to
follow me, clinging to the right bank, and by no means to venture
into mid-river into the current. While delivering my instructions,
I observed Kalulu in the _Crocodile_, which was made out of the
_Bassia Parkii_ tree, a hard, heavy wood, but admirable for canoes.
When I asked him what he wanted in the canoe, he replied, with a
deprecating smile and an expostulating tone, 'I can pull, sir;
see!' 'Ah, very well,' I answered.

"The boat-boys took their seats, and, skirting closely the cliffy
shore, we rowed down stream, while I stood in the bow of the boat,
guiding the coxswain, Uledi, with my hand. The river was not more
than four hundred and fifty yards wide; but one cast of the
sounding-lead close to the bank obtained a depth of one hundred and
thirty-eight feet. The river was rapid, with certainly a seven-knot
current, with a smooth, greasy surface, now and then an eddy, a
gurgle, and gentle heave, but not dangerous to people in possession
of their wits. In a very few moments we had descended the mile
stretch, and before us, six hundred yards off, roared the furious
falls since distinguished by the name 'Kalulu.'

"With a little effort we succeeded in rounding the point and
entering the bay above the falls, and reaching a pretty
camping-place on a sandy beach. The first, second, and third canoes
arrived soon after me, and I was beginning to congratulate myself
on having completed a good day's work, when to my horror I saw the
_Crocodile_ in mid-river far below the point which we had rounded,
gliding with the speed of an arrow towards the falls over the
treacherous calm water. Human strength availed nothing now, and we
watched in agony, for I had three favorites in her--Kalulu,
Mauredi, and Ferajji; and of the others, two, Rehani Makua and Wadi
Jumah, were also very good men. It soon reached the island which
cleft the falls, and was swept down the left branch. We saw it
whirled round three or four times, then plunged down into the
depths, out of which the stern presently emerged pointed upward,
and we knew then that Kalulu and his canoe-mates were no more.

"Fast upon this terrible catastrophe, before we could begin to
bewail their loss, another canoe with two men in it darted past the
point, borne by irresistibly on the placid but swift current to
apparent, nay, almost certain destruction. I despatched my boat's
crew up along the cliffs to warn the forgetful people that in
mid-stream was certain death, and shouted out commands for the two
men to strike for the left shore. The steersman by a strange chance
shot his canoe over the falls, and, dexterously edging it towards
the left shore a mile below, he and his companion contrived to
spring ashore and were saved. As we observed them clamber over the
rocks to approach a point opposite us, and finally sit down
regarding us in silence across the river, our pity and love gushed
strong towards them, but we could utter nothing of it. The roar of
the falls completely mocked and overpowered the feeble human voice.

"Before the boat's crew could well reach the descending canoes, the
boulders being very large and offering great obstacles to rapid
progress, a third canoe--but a small and light one--with only one
man, the brave lad Soudi, who escaped from the spears of the
Wanyaturu assassins in 1875, darted by, and cried out, as he
perceived himself to be drifting helplessly towards the falls, 'La
il Allah, il Allah'--There is but one God--'I am lost! Master!' He
was then seen to address himself to what fate had in store for him.
We watched him for a few moments, and then saw him drop. Out of the
shadow of the fall he presently emerged, dropping from terrace to
terrace, precipitated down, then whirled round, caught by great
heavy waves, which whisked him to right and left and struck madly
at him, and yet his canoe did not sink, but he and it were swept
behind the lower end of the island, and then darkness fell upon the
day of horror. Nine men lost in one afternoon!

"This last accident, I was told, was caused by the faithlessness of
the crew. One man, utterly unnerved by his fear of the river, ran
away and hid in the bushes; the two others lost their hold of the
tow-ropes, and thus their comrade was carried into the swift
centre."

Frank stopped at this incident, and said he would resume the story in the evening. His audience had listened with breathless interest to the sad story of the death of Kalulu and his companions, and when the party assembled for the evening session, all were eager to hear the continuation of the account of Stanley's perilous descent of the Congo.