BOSTON UNIVERSITY
College of Liberal Arts
Library
GRADUATE SCHOOL
AFRICAN STUDIES
xx\xxx\x\.
3
A
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R. M. the King of the Belgians.
L^e^r-a
ACTUAL AFRICA
OR, THE COMING CONTINENT
A TOUR OF EXPLORATION
BY
FRANK VINCENT
AUTHOR OF
'THE LAN)) OF THE WHITE ELEPHANT."" "THROUGH AND THROUGH THE TROPICS,
"NORSK, LAPP. AND FINN,"' "AROUND AND ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA,
"IX AXD OUT OF CENTRAL AMERICA.'''
JOINT AUTHOR OF "THE LADY OF CAWNPORE," ETC.
WITH MAP AND OVER ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1895
BOSTON UNWRSmr
Copyright, 1895,
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
Grh ac\ iua"t e
M o v e ) i . b
Ad ^r1
D /
/ /
DEDICATED, BY SPECIAL PERMISSION, TO
HIS MAJESTY LEOPOLD II
KING OF THE BELGIANS
AND FOUNDER AND SOVEREIGN OF THE CONGO FREE STATE
PREFACE.
When, some years ago, Victor Hugo said that in the twentieth
century Africa would be the cynosure of every eye, and when,
more recently, Lord Salisbury, apropos of the European situation,
remarked that foreign politics meant African politics, each state-
ment was an index to the immense resources of that great and
crowded continent in which the Twilight is now succeeding to the
Dark.
Africa contains about one-quarter of the land of the globe.
This area is more than thrice Europe's, or nearly as much as North
and South America's combined. This wonderful triangular con-
tinent, whose general configuration is not unlike that of South
America, is inhabited by one-eleventh of the human race, almost
equalling the population of the Western Hemisphere. One-fifth
of her surface is occupied by rich savannas, and one-half by tilled
fields, valuable forests, and fairly fertile soil as yet uncultivated.
Her variety and profusion of animal life are without a rival, and
her output of gold and diamonds is unparalleled in the history of
the world.
What Europe thinks of the natural advantages and early pos-
sibilities of Africa may be inferred from the latter's political par-
tition. Out of a total area of 12,000,000 square miles Europe has
left unappropriated only about 1,000,000, and these are confined to
the sandy seas of the Libyan Desert, and the inaccessible and
powerful States of the Central and Eastern Soudan. The number
of Europeans, and of persons of their descent, throughout the
continent is estimated at 1,500,000 — facts that make more than
plausible Lord Salisbury's dictum.
The Powers represented in Africa are, moreover, strenuously
seeking, and with considerable success, to develop the resources
of their respective possessions. The general salubrity tempts civil-
vi PREFACE.
isation. Only the tropical coastal belt and a few of the river val-
leys are in the main unhealthy. Elsewhere — as far, at least, as
climate is concerned — the foreign settler may live with impunity,
and speedily reap a plenteous reward. Settlement, therefore, is cer-
tain to expand, with peace and commerce following in its train.
Attracted by these circumstances, which promised to this strange
continent so near and prosperous a future, and encouraged by the
success attending one of my previous works, "Around and About
South America" (that enjoyed five editions here and three in
England), I wished to closely examine a division of the earth so
little known to the general public, and spent two years in accom-
plishing the task. Within that period not only was Africa com-
pletely circled, but many deep dips were also taken into her vast
and mysterious interior. Nearly all the capitals and important
towns (native and foreign) of the seaboard territories, were in-
spected ; the great island of Madagascar was traversed ; several of
the western archipelagoes were visited ; the peak of Teneriffe was
scaled in mid-winter; a long excursion was made through the
centre of the Boer Republics and British Colonies ; the Nile,
Quanza, Congo, Kassai, Sankuru and Kuilu rivers were ascended —
the latter for the first time by a white man ; and in the very core
of Africa's heart a most interesting point was reached — the curious
capital of the famous Basongo chieftain, Pania Mutembo. In
short, my attention was equally divided between native States, with
their tributary provinces, on the one hand, and European posses-
sions, protectorates and spheres of influence, on the other.
The present volume, then, like the one on South America, is
the result of personal observation. It is the kinetoscope of the
actual as revealed to me by my senses. Some special studies in
geography and ethnology are reserved for future publication as
monographs. My object now is simply to give, in a popular
manner, and as succinctly as possible, accurate general informa-
tion concerning certain imperfectly known regions — both savage
and settled — of the Africa of the present day.
F. V.
New York, March, 1895.
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Preface
CHAPTER I.
Tangier .
Crossing from Gibraltar— Tangier from the sea— Customs officials— Hotels-
Celebrating the Birthday of the Prophet— Tangier a cosmopolitan city— The
Kasbah, or Castle— The Pasha's residence, treasury, and prison— Mosques-
Mixed population— The soko, or market-Newspapers—" Moorish cafes chan-
tant "-Music of the cafes— Hasheesh— The Sultan of MoroccoHCollects his
taxes with the aid of his army— Not a cruel man— A rickety government— The
Sultan dominated by the despotic Koran.
CHAPTER II.
Into the Land of the Moors .
A start into the interior— Equipage and attendants— Prices of beasts of burden
in Morocco— Camp cooking— On the road— A night in camp— Fall of tempera-
ture after sun-down— Fondaks. or caravansaries to be avoided— A better piece
of country— Moorish guns and shooting— Villages of tents— Arzilla— Visit from
its governor— Panniers balanced with stones— A ride along the sea-shore— La-
rache and its harbor— Trade of the town— The muezzin's call— On to El Kasr—
Camp in an orchard— An olive mill and a water-wheel— Partridges— Mosquitoes.
CHAPTER III.
Town and Track 1 '
In El Kasr— Costumes of Moors and Jews— Shops— European goods predomi-
nate in the bazaar— The prison— Visit to a fondak— A glimpse into the mosques
—Entertained at lunch in a Jewish house— Curiosity of the natives— A pres-
ent of kous-koussou-Muck-heaps around the city— Native mode of washing
clothes— A treeless country— The dragoman appealed to— Hedges of prickly-
pear— A camp between two villages— Presents from the headmen of both—
Dogs but no mosquitoes— Palms and camels— A suggestion of the simoom-
Crossing the Seboo river— Women at work, men at play— Guarding against
robbers— Rains— More dogs— Camp near Muley Edris— Berbers, Arabs, Moors,
and Jews— Languages of the country— Preventives of sleep— Ruins of the Ro-
man Volubilis— View of the "holy city," Muley Edris.
vm
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
Mequinez v ~'
Situation of Mequinez— A Moorish gateway— Lodged in a native house— Shops
and manufactures of Mequinez— Europeans a rare sight>-Beggars— The Grand
Gateway— The Jewish quarter— In the house of a rich Jew— Trading in the f on-
daks— Appearance of the people— Slaves— Water-supply— The soko— The city
walls— Native laundry work— Departure for Fez— View of snow-covered moun-
tains.
CHAPTER V.
Sights and Scenes in Fez
Various sorts of travellers— Soldiers not readily distinguishable— Extending the
walls of Fez— Upper-class Moors— The bazaar in Fez— Breakfast in the house of
a Moor— Wives and concubines— Interior of a Moorish house— A " flat " over a
stable— The Sultan and his European officers— Fez divided into districts by
doors across the streets— Spare time in the bazaar— The mosque of El Karoubin
and its library— Schools and the university— Visit to an English general in the
army of the Sultan— An exhibition of rebels' heads— The Sultan's soldiers— A
snake-charmer in the soko— Fez viewed from the citadel— Visit to a Jew-
Treatment of Jews by the Sultan— A breakfast— A ride over the hills— The gate
entered by Muley Edris forbidden to Christians— Public baths.
CHAPTER VI.
A Holy City
A start in the rain— Arab shepherds and villages- Farming in Morocco— Begin-
ning of the rainy season—" Salaam aleikoom "—Ferried across a river— Prayers
of Mussulmans in camp— Approaching Wezzan— A house obtained in the town—
The Shereef of Wezzan— A present of green tea from the Shereef— The near-by
hill tribes great robbers— Origin of the Moors and of the Jews— Drunken sport
of a robber— Boar hunting— Douars, or villages, of Arab farmers and shepherds
—Native dogs— The women's work— Back in Tangier.
CHAPTER VII.
Morocco to Algeria
A visit to Gibraltar— Malaga and its products-A rough sea-The first seaport
in Algeria-Oran-Alf a fibre and Algerian wine-The French forts and barracks
-Source of the Numidian marble of the Romans-Vehicles— Character of the
population of Oran-Strategical importance of the place-Les Bains de la Reine
—The Roman Pomaria.
36
CHAPTER VIII.
The African Granada
4G
60
A French colonial railway-Three natural divisions of Algeria-Appearance of
the country between Oran and Tlemcen-The town of Sidi-Bel-Abbas-Cascades
of El-Ourit-Tlemcen-Care of its streets under the French-Its manufactures-
Arab baths-Mosque and tomb of Sidi Abraham-Mosque of Sidi Ahmed Bel
Hassan-el-Ghomari-Its interior decorations a beautiful specimen of Moor.sh
art-Arcba>ological museum in the City Hall-Mosques of Djamaa-el-Keb^ and
Sidi-el-Halawi-Their onyx columns and decorations— An ancient chandelier-
Concrete in wall construction-A beautiful mosque tower-Mosque and tomb of
Sidi Bou Meddin-An Arabic college— The teacher's hint for his fee.
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTEXTS.
IX
CHAPTER IX.
The '"White City" 68
Level country between Oran and Algiers- Jarrages, or dams, for irrigation-
Entering Algiers — Situation — " A diamond set in an emerald frame " — The old
town and the new — The harbor— Boulevard de la Republique — The Municipal
Theatre— Population, newspapers, fortifications— Steamer communication-
Mixture of nationalities in the streets— Costumes of Moorish women and Jew-
esses—Streets of the native town— Its houses— Roofs of the houses forbidden to
male Christians — The shops, restaurants, and cafes — Interior of the mosques-
Usual staff of a mosque— An Assaoui performance— "La danse du ventre" —
Decorations and treasures in the public buildings— A drive to Mustapha Sup6-
rieur — The Jardin d'Essai— An Arab cemetery— Water for the birds —Another
drive in the suburbs— Church of Notre Dame d'Afrique.
CHAPTER X.
The Gorge of the Chabet 81
By rail to Bougie — Algerian vineyards— Entering Kabylia — Good roads built by
the French— Interesting works of Nature and of man— Hamlets of the Kabyles
— Mountains and forests-HCandle-wax a chief product of Bougie — The name of
the town taken as the French word for candle — The hotel and its Arab guests —
By carriage to Setif — More Kabyles — Views of Bougie — Through the marvellous
Chabet Pass— Geological features-^Minerals— Farming among the hills— A fer-
ruginous spring— Arrival in Setif.
CnAPTER XI.
Constantine .90
An early start on a frosty morning— Constantine, the third city in Algeria-J-Its
corn-market and manufactures— First view of the city— Its peculiarly pictur-
esque situation — Its French and its Arab quarter — Public buildings — Old palace
of Ahmed Bey— Roman remains in the vicinity— Defences of the city— Warm
baths of Sidi Me(;id — Remains of a Roman aqueduct — The ancient Cirta —
Through arid lands— The gorge at El Kantara— Crossing an oasis— An embank-
ment carried away — Approaching the Sahara — Biskra, the terminus of the rail-
road—A notice to amateur photographers.
CHAPTER XII.
Biskra — Queen of the Desert 97
The oasis of Biskra— Dates and date-palms— The town and its suburbs— The
Jardin Publique— Camels and their value— Watch towers— The caul's falcons —
A negro village^Eye-diseases among the natives— Chateau and gardens of
Count Landon— Arab cafes— Dancing girls— Their dress and adornments— Les
FrSres Armes du Sahara— Instructions of Cardinal Lavigerie, the founder of
the order— Work and rules of the brothers— A drive to Sidi Okbar— A view of
the desert — Arabs of the Sahara— Mosque of Sidi Okbar, the most ancient monu-
ment of Islamism in Africa— The deeds and death of Sidi Okbar— Sunset on the
desert — Healthy life of the Bedouins— Climate of Biskra, " Queen of the Desert."
CHAPTER XIII.
An Algerian Pompeii 107
Batna, a French town in Africa— Its electric lights, illuminated clock, and hy-
drants—Roman ruins at Lambessa and Timegad (Thaumugas) — The Prgetorium
of Lambessa — Many architectural remains excavated at Timegad— The forum,
fortress, triumphal arch, and baths— Signs of the French department of public
x ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
instruction— Views from the hills Djebel Mes^id and Mansoura— French control
in Algeria— From Constantine to Tunis— Curious cars— Boiling springs of Ham-
mam Muskoutine— A ;' petrified rapid "—Saline, ferruginous, and sulphurous
springs— Views of woods and hills— Gorge of the Medjerda River— Nature of the
country in Tunisia— Through a gap in the aqueduct of Carthage.
CHAPTER XIV.
Tunis and Carthage 114
View of Tunis from its ancient Kasbah— The harbor— The Goletta, the port of
Tunis— Both towns built from the materials of ancient Carthage— Streets and
bazaars of the city— Maltese inhabitants— Manufactures— Ways of the native
merchants — Exquisite fabrics and inlaid work — Corpulent Jewesses— Costumes
of the Arabs— Restaurants and fondaks— Christians not allowed in the mosques
— The old slave market— Old stone palace of the Bey — Its lace-like arabesques —
The college and primary schools — One of the baths— Population— A visit to the
Bardo— The Tunisian army— Sentries knitting stockings— The Court of Lions—
The Hall of Glass— The Hall of the Pasha— A collection of clocks— An interest-
ing museum— Its mosaics— Palace where the French treaty was signed— The
ruins of Carthage— Cathedral built by Cardinal Lavigerie— Tombs of the Cardi-
nal and of Consul-General de Lesseps— Museum of Carthaginian relics— Cisterns
of the great aqueduct.
CHAPTER XV.
Roundabout the Regency 125
A visit to the Bey of Tunis— The Bey's retainers— Audience with His Highness
— More gilt clocks — The palace and its garden— Tunis under the Sultan of Tur-
key— As a French regency— Character of the reigning Bey— Obstacles to civilis-
ing the Arabs— By steamer to Tripoli— Cape Bon, the Hermean promontory—
Kerouan— Susa— A mosque tower used for a lighthouse— Character of the Mal-
tese inhabitants— Monastir— Mahadia— The Kerkena islands— A dangerous bit of
coast— Sfax— fPound-nets for tunny fish— The fine suburb of Sfax — Great res-
ervoir of the town-v-Exports— Only tides of the Mediterranean — Gabes — Houses
built of stone from Roman ruins— Scheme for an inland sea— Benefits of arte-
sian wells— Djerba— The "Island of the Lotophagi"— What was the Homeric
food ?— Roman and Greek remains— Sponge fisheries— What the French have
accomplished in their Barbary colonies.
CHAPTER XVT.
Tripoli 137
The city of Tripoli— Feeble Turkish men-of-war in the harbor— Government of
Tripoli by the Sultan of Turkey— Nature of the country— Streets and houses in
the capital— A quadrifrontal Roman arch— The finest of the three now in exist-
ence—Base uses of the interior— The Great Mosque and the mosque of Djamaa
Goorjee— Ivory and ostrich feathers— The Pasha and his residences-Large and
interesting weekly market— Poor quality of the Turkish troops— A curious little
cart — On the edge of the genuine desert-lCommerce of Tripoli— Four hundred
miles of coast without a village or tree— Across to Malta— To Brindisi, thence to
Port Said— In the Suez Canal— Ismailia.
CHAPTER XVII.
The Metropolis of Africa 145
In Cairo— The Ghizeh Museum— Funeral of Tewfik, Khedive of Egypt— Charac-
ter of Abbas Pasha II.— The road to Ghizeh— Location of the pyramids of Ghizeh
—Contrast between the hotel and its surroundings— The Sphinx— The " great "
pyramid— Mode of ascending and descending— Its interior— Pyramid of Che-
phren— Egyptian history re-entombed by the Mohammedans.
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. xj
CHAPTER XVIII.
Afloat upon the Nile 152
Navigation of the river— A Nile steamer— Drinking-water from the river— Da-
habeahs— Rhoda and its Nilometer— Quarries that yielded the stone for the
pyramids — The Nile's belt of verdure— Comical donkey-boys— Size and decora-
tions of the donkeys — " Backsheesh " — Ruins and colossal statue at Memphis —
Pyramids of Sakhara— The " step " pyramid— Fraudulent antiquities— The Se-
rapeum — Its sarcophagi — Decorations of the tombs at Sakhara — The baths at
Helouan— Difference between temperatures of day and night — High and low
■water in the Nile — Changes in its channel— A diversified country— Pigeon-towers
—Sights along the river— The Fayoum-^Sugar factory at Maghaghah— No croco-
diles below Assouan — Miles upon miles of sugar-cane— Convent of the Pulley —
Minieh and its picturesque buildings-tRum from the sugar factories— Rock
tombs of Beui Hassan — A tax on tourists— An artist domiciled in a tomb.
CHAPTER XIX.
The Capital of Upper Egypt 163
Hills of Gebel-Aboufaydah— Dog, cat, and crocodile mummies— Channel of the
Nile generally close to the eastern bank— Most of the fertile valley on the west
side of the river— Picturesque Assiout— Landing at its port, El Hamra— Its red
pottery and other manufactures— Railways of Egypt— A donkey ride to the
town— Ancient rock-hewn tombs— " Service de Conservation des Antiquites" —
View from the mountain near Assiout— Native boats— More pigeons— Appliances
for raising water from the river-|-Farming operations— Egypt the gift of the
Nile— Inhabitants of the country— Birds and fish of the Nile.
CHAPTER XX.
The Temple of Denderah 172
Scarabs for sale— Condition of the temple when discovered — Its beautiful col-
umns and decorations— The sanctuary and adjoining chambers— Vandalism of
the early Christians— Sculptured portraits of Cleopatra and Caesarion— The
Typhoni temple— Arrival at Luxor— A mingling of Occident and Orient— The
temple of Koorneh— Tombs of the kings— Archaeological work of Belzoni, Bruce,
Mariette, and Wilkinson -Tomb of Seti I.— Discovery of the royal mummies.
CHAPTER XXI.
Karnak: and Luxor 181
A choice between camels and donkeys— General appearance of the temple of
Karnak— Avenues of sphinxes— Nearly three thousand years in building— The
propylon— Importunate sellers of antiquities— The Hypostyle Hall— Obelisks cov-
ered with hieroglyphics— The Hall and Tablet of Ancestors— Great dilapidation
of the remains— The temple of Luxor— Gigantic granite statues— An exhibition
by dancing-girls— The Rameseum, or Memnonium— A nine-hundred-ton granite
statue— The temple of Medinet-Haboo— Its grand architecture and gorgeous
decorations— Battle scenes from the wars of Rameses HI.— The sitting Colossi-
Musical statue of Memnon— At the races in Upper Egypk+Luxor as a health-
resort— Ophthalmia.
CHAPTER XXII.
The First Cataract 191
(Geological features of Egypt— Esneh and its temple— The temple of Edfou— The
sacred hawk-/Ancient sandstone quarries— Double temple at Kom Ombo— As-
souan and the island of Elephantine— Favorable impression made by the Nu-
xii ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
bians— Rock tombs of the rulers of Elephantine— By rail to Shellah— Philas, the
most beautiful spot on the Nile— The great temple of Isis and "Pharaoh's
Bed "—Shooting the cataract-!- A quarry of red granite.
CHAPTER XXIII.
In Lower Nubia 200
A steamer of the upper Nile-^The country grows less fertile and more pictur-
esque—A remarkable gorge— The temple at Kalabshah, the largest in Nubia-
Henna and castor-oil for the toilet— Disturbed condition of the country— Why
the sakiahs are allowed to creak— Singular forms of the rocks— Scene of the
battle of Toski in the Soudan war— Crocodiles scarce— The rock-hewn temple of
Aboo Simbel, the finest in the world— Colossal statues outside the temple— An
immense battle-picture— Garrison at Wadi Haifa— By special train, with mili-
tary escort, to Sarras— The Second Cataract— The farthest point to which trav-
ellers may go— A very small donkey — "View of the cataract from the rock of
Aboosir— Back to PhilaB— View from the peak of A wes-el-Guarany— Temple of
Seti I. at Abydos— The famous Tablet of Abydos— Down the river to Cairo.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Mauritius and Madagascar 214
Through the Red Sea — Port Louis— Natural features and productions of Mau-
ritius— Its population, government, etc. — Hurricanes— The observatory and gar-
dens of Pamplemousses — Description of Reunion— First view of Madagascar —
Jolly negro boys— Tamatave — The filanzana, the universal carriage of Madagas-
car—Hovas and Betsimisarakas— Native method of fighting fire.
CHAPTER XXV.
Down the Coast 222
Equipment for a journey to the capital— " Cut money "—Learning Malagasy —
Filanzana travelling— Sights of the road — Many-syllabled native names— Cross-
ing a river in a forty-foot dug-out — Song of the boatmen— Provisions— Enormous
appetites of natives— Malagasy villages— Clever construction of native huts-
Pouring from a bamboo water-jar— Flies and other pests — The town of Ado-
voranty.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Over the Mountain Terraces 230
A five hours' canoe ride— In a hillocky region— Kept awake by singing and chat-
tering— Troops of coolies — A local dude— Scarcity of fire-wood — A load for twelve
men— Native music— The peoples of Madagascar— Un-martial soldiers— A slip-
pery trail — A two-room house, lined with straw matting— Natives bring a pres-
ent of oranges— Speech by the schoolmaster— A return gift of Liebig's Meat Ex-
tract and cigars — Education, missionary work, publications— Native costumes
and hair-dressing— Malay characteristics of the Hovas— How they manage their
long words— First views of Antananarivo— Entering the city.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Antananarivo 241
Situation of the capital on an isolated hill— Rough streets— Police regulations-
Sights of the city — The great palace — Figures of the national bird — The corona-
tion stone — In the weekly market-/Great variety of goods, native and imported —
Butchers' shops without roofs — Slaves — The French Resident General — A call on
His Excellency, the Prime Minister — An exchange of photographs — The Queen
not much seen in public — The Prime Minister's summer palace — A very large
and vicious ostrich — Native tombs.
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. x{\[
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Journey to the West Coast 251
The country to be traversed— Bad repute of the Sakalavas— Hiring bearers
and coolies— Long names of the men— Scenes on the road-f Occupations of old
women— Chilly mornings and evenings— A lodging over a [pig-sty— Native chil-
dren at their studies— Alarm of the fowls— A reed used as fuel— Animal and
insect fellow-lodgers-A series of military stations— A night in a clean house-
Jollity of the filanzana bearers— Less rain on the western side of the island than
on the eastern— Sakalava cattle-stealers— Picturesque cascades— Underground
passages— Manner of closing the gates of a village.
CHAPTER XXIX.
A Visit to a Gold Mine 261
Debatable land-M stop at a gold-washing— Antanimbarindratsoutsoraka— A
native woman gives her husband a bath— Characteristics of the Sakalavas— The
skull of a robber on a pole— Camping in " the open "—Arrival at Suberbieville
— " An excellent site for a city "—Mining concessions granted by the Malagasy
government— Mode of impressing laborers— Convicts at work in chains— Meth-
ods of mining— Features of the mining village— Embarking in canoes— Down
the Ikopa and Betsiboka rivers— Shots at crocodiles— The guards on the look-
out for pirates— A mutiny quelled by vigorous measures— Mine crocodiles— A
night voyage with mutinous rowers— The steamer reached at last— Mojauga, a
village of tinder-boxes.
CHAPTER XXX.
Madagascar to Zanzibar 271
By steamer up the west coast— The island of Nosy Be-^Fruits and vegetables
—A visit to the sanatorium on Nosy Komba— The steamer for Zanzibar— A call
at the island of Mayotta— Comoro island in the distance— The island of Zanzi-
bar—Native craft and foreign men-of-war in the harbor— Terrible heat in the
streets of the city— Abdallah has a good word for Stanley— Mixed population of
the island^rThe retail traders mostly Banians— Slaves and convicts— The Sul-
tan's army of 1,200 meu.-^Fnrei^n trade of Zanzibar— Government -Attacked
with Malagasy fever— Drives upanddown the island— Baobab trees — A palace of
the Sultan — Coney Island aspect of the grounds— Another palace— Concert of
the military band— The Sultan's well-guarded harem— Received by the Sultan
—The audience-room— Dress and bearing of His Highness— A walk through the
palace— Decorated with the Star of Zanzibar— A present of a painting from the
Sultan— A call on Tippoo Tib.
CHAPTER XXXT.
German East Africa 283
Zanzibar dhows — A sail to the mainland of Zanzibar— The town of Bagamoyo
— Dr. Emin Pasha's accident— An undignified landing-^Goods of the interior-
Copper wire and beads as money — A drive in the only carriage in town— The
French Catholic Mission — The Caravansary — Natives from the neighborhood of
Lake Tanganyika-AIvory in the rough— By German steamer to Port Natal— A
stop at Lindi— Mozambique town and island— Productions of the territory on
the mainland— Dr. Livingstone's servant, Chuma.
CHAPTER XXXII.
Mozambique and Lorenzo Marquez 291
Clean and lighted streets with name signs — A call on the Portuguese governor
—Fort St. Sebastian— The machilla, a kind of palanquin— Native beer— A cannon
xiv ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
salute to a fellow-passenger— Down the coast to Delagoa Bay— European aspect
of the town of Lorenzo Marquez— A conspicuous powder magazine— A railway
excursion into the Transvaal— Feathers for use, not for ornament— Native cos-
tumes with European additions— Women smoking at their work— Horns and
skins of animals for sale— Outside the bar at Cape Natal.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Natal . 298
In a thorough-going British colony— A first-class hotel of one story— A drive out
on the Berea— Durban, its streets, buildings, swimming bath, conveyances, na-
tive police, etc.— Off for the gold-fields by rail— Sleeping accommodations on the
train — Kaffir kraals — A Concord coach from New Hampshire — A tremendous
whip expertly used— Coaching in the Transvaal— Boer ox-teams— Bad meals en
route — First view of the gold hills.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Johannesburg — the City of Gold 307
A young city of fifty thousand inhabitants in the centre of the steppe— The gold-
fields and their history — California and Australia outdone — American machinery
in use— All sorts of products at auction — Trading in mining shares on the Stock
Exchange — Dust storms and thunder storms— A coach trip to Pretoria — The
Government House and the government — Dear living in the gold region— The
rail journey to Kimberley— Through the veldt— The capital of the Orange Free
State— The Karroo, or undulating plain — Flocks of sheep, goats, and ostriches.
CHAPTER XXXV.
The Diamond District 315
Kimberley— Its Botanical Garden devoured by locusts^The diamond mines— A
vast hole in the ground— Fifteen tons of diamonds !— Geology of the depos-
its—Some famous gems— Processes of mining— Prevention of theft— A "com-
pound " of native diggers— The valuing-rooms— The South African and Interna-
tional Exhibition— By rail to Cape Town— Ostrich farming— Bad provender at
the railway stations— The picturesque Hex River Mountains— Feats of railway
engineering— Inland towns of the Cape colony— Arrival in Cape Town.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Cape Town 323
Table Mountain and its " table cloth "—Streets and houses of Cape Town— The
old Dutch Castle— The people of the city and colony— Public buildings— Gov-
ernor Van der Stell's oaks— Marble statue of Queen Victoria— The Houses of
Parliament- The Public Library— The South African Museum— The Botanic
Garden— The Town Hall— Suburbs of the city— The Cape of Good Hope and its
lighthouse— Cape Agulhas, the most southerly point of Africa— Simon's Bay
and Sea Point— The Royal Observatory— The healthiest foreign military sta-
tion in the British possessions-/Van Riebeek's great farm— The Government
Wine Farm— Chief summer resort of the people of Cape Town— A pleasant
drive in a " Cape cart "—Climate at the Cape— A very roundabout journey— The
voyage to Madeira— The old beacon of Robbin Island— Infirmary for lepers and
lunatics— Through the tropics— A view of Cape Verd— Passing Teneriffe.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
A Detour by Madeira 333
View of Funchal from the roadstead— Boats full of native products— A strange
vehicle — Glorious singing of cage-birds— An uncomfortable pavement — Climate
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTEXTS.
xv
PAGE
of the Madeira islands— Three means of conveyance — A bullock drive up the
hills— The Mount Church — Down hill by " running sledge "—The Fish and Fruit
Markets— Christmas celebrated with fireworks— A visit to the Grand Curral—
Characteristics of the peasants— Wonderful vegetation— Dragon tree — The De-
sertas— The Canary Islands — Santa Cruz de Palma— O'Daly Street — View of
Teneriffe.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
A Mid-winter Ascent of Teneriffe 343
Approaching the island— By carriage to Puerta Orotava — " Humboldt's Corner "
— Preparations for ascending the peak — The road up the mountain — Vestiges of
volcanic action — The cabin for tourists on the cone — Cold and mountain sick-
ness— At the summit— A view never to be forgotten— The descent.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Peeps at Portuguese Islands 351
Convict fellow-passengers— The Cape Verd Islands— The harbor of St. Vincent —
At Praia on Santiago— In the " doldrums " — Phosphorescence of the sea— Fer-
tile Prince's Island— The town of St. Antonio— St. Thomas— Sharks abundant —
Natives unloading cargo to the music of tom-toms — A call on the governor —
Hammocks as conveyances— Dahomeyan bearers in the service of the govern-
ment— Dress and habits of the natives — Burdens carried on the head — Palm-
wine and sugar-cane rum — Arrival at Monte Koffee — A tropical plantation —
At Cabinda— The " factories "—San Antonio — The mouth of the Congo.
CHAPTER XL.
The Province of Angola 363
Ambriz— Hospitality of the governor— St. Paul de Loanda— The hotel and its
live creatures — Extent and population of Angola— Loanda formerly a seat of
the slave trade— Convicts— Products of the country— Scarcity of labor— The
bank, currency, wTater-supply— Customs and language of the natives— The har-
bor—Railway into the interior— Both windows and doors of the houses num-
bered—Markets—Dress of the natives— Public buildings— Fort San Miguel— The
native town— Amusements of the Portuguese residents— Novo Redondo— Ben-
guela— A terminus of exploring journeys— Native caravans.
CHAPTER XLI.
Mossamedes 373
Travel along the coast — In Little Fish Bay— Mossamedes— The colony of Boers
at Humpata— Railways needed— A railway trip from Benguela to Catumbella—
Native caravans— Fondness of the men for silk hats— A company of contract
laborers— Portuguese colonial officials— Products of the Benguela district — Car-
nival at Loanda.
CHAPTER XL1I.
Into the Interior 380
The beginnings of the Royal Railway Across Africa — Salt production — Baobabs
and euphorbias— The trading-station of Cunga— An African river steamer — The
voyage up the Quanza river— Crocodiles and hippopotami — Mosquitoes— Dug-
out canoes — Curiosity of the negroes — At Dondo — Native mode of washing
clothes— India-rubber and coffee— Caravans from the interior— Practices of the
carriers— Travelling in a tipoya— Hammock-bearers at dinner — A night in the
xvi ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
open air — Native mode of carrying burdens — The Cazengo district— The planta-
tion of Monte Bello— Grass twelve feet high— Extension of the railway — Oeiras
— Back to Loanda by rail.
CHAPTER XLIII.
Portugal vs. England 393
Value of the colony of Angola— Encroachments by England upon the posses-
sions of Portugal in Africa— English buccaneering in other regions— Recent
great extension of British possessions in Africa— Portuguese exploration along
the African coasts, and in Asia. — Validity of papal grants— The claims of power-
ful France better respected than those of weak Portugal— At the mouth of the
Congo— The Hotel de Banana— Former importance of the town of Banana.
CHAPTER XLIV.
Boma, the Capital 400
Up the Congo— A splendid stream— Boma— The Boma Hotel— Congo boys as
servants— Great heat and tremendous thunder-storms— The little railway of
Boma— Soldiers of the Free State— The Boma police— Belgian Catholic Mission.
CHAPTER XLV.
The Congo Free State 405
Result of Stanley's first journey across Africa— Extent of the Free State— Stan-
ley commissioned to make the region accessible — The African International As-
sociation— The Congo Free State formed and recognised — King Leopold of
Belgium its sovereign — Rights of Belgium in the State — Local government —
The eleven administrative districts — Mode of obtaining land — Exports and im-
ports—Postal arrangements — Currency— Cannibals as soldiers — The Congo peo-
ple are Bantus, not negroes— Characteristics of the Bantu family of languages
— The Balolos, or "iron people" — Cannibalism — Customs dues of the river
tribes— Course of the great river — " Tuckey's farthest " — Animal life along the
river — River steamers — Mission stations — Building a railway around the cata-
racts— The greatest difficulties already surmounted.
CHAPTER XLVI.
The Lower River 416
In a government steam-launch to Matadi— First sight of a hippopotamus— Fac-
tories and missions along the river — Matadi — The Belgian Commercial Com-
pany of the Upper Congo (Ltd. 1— Courtesies extended by its Managing Director,
Major W. G. Parminter— Trade with the natives— The start for a caravan jour-
ney— Dress and adornments of the porters — Fourteen miles by train — Difficul-
ties of travel— State stations for travellers— The " long rains'" — Ways of the
porters— Pleasures of the trip— Ivory and rubber caravans.
CHAPTER XLVII.
On the Caravan Road 424
Ferried across the Kuilu— Through grass twenty feet high— A suspension bridge
over the Lukungu — At Manyanga — Congo boats and boatmen— Difficulty of get-
ting porters in the wet season— Manyanga North and the near-by factories— The
road beyond Manyanga — Crossing swollen streams — A native market — Dress
and habits of the natives — The men fond of palm-wine — Across the Inkissi —
Leopoldville— Kinchassa the principal post of the Belgian Commercial Com-
pany—Stanley Pool— A change of plan— Prices of steamer passage and freight
carriage between Kinchassa and Lusambo.
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTEXTS. XY[[
CHAPTER XLVIII.
Towards the Heart op Africa 432
The steamer Arehiduchesse Stephanie— Tattooing of the natives— Nightly stop
of the steamer— Mode of procuring wood for the boiler— Steaming through
Stanley Pool— The Congo above the Pool— Taking soundings— A stop at Kwa-
mouth— Up the Kwa River— Herds of hippopotami— Water-fowl— Troublesome
insects— Native villages— A score of the crew flogged— A poor village — Hostile
natives along the Kassai River— Barter with natives in boats— Wissmann Pool
and Mount Pogge.
CHAPTER XLIX.
Condition of the Natives 439
Appearance of the Basungo-Menos— Suspicious inhabitants of Mangay — Found-
ing a factory— Noisy tree-toads— Physical, mental, and moral traits of the Ba-
kongos— Temporary and permanent marriages— Little feeling for each other
—Cruel, apathetic, and dishonest — Style of houses— Domestic life— Arts and for-
est craft — Religious ideas — Doubtful success of the missionaries.
CHAPTER L.
From the Lulua to the Sankuru 447
A wounded crocodile escapes— Passing the mouth of the Loange— A landing in
spite of forbidding signals— More hostile demonstrations— The forest along the
river- banks— Aground on a sandbank— Cowries as currency— Up the Lulua
River— The factory at Luebo— Vegetables and fruit trees planted here— The re-
turn to Bena Lindi— Women pounding manioc— The shop of an African black-
smith—Native battle-axes, spear-heads, knives, etc.— "Hippo " and fish traps—
The Catholic missionary, PSre De Deken— Modes of getting off from sand-
banks—Preparations for exploring the Loange— Sandbanks at the river's mouth
compel the abandonment of the plan— Into the Sankuru— The river and its
tributaries— Canoes of all sizes.— Palm wine at a cent a gallon— Too freely
used by the natives— Rubber-making— Customs of the Bakubas— Habits of
"crocs" and " hippos "—Terrific thunder and lightning— Timid natives— The
factory at Inkongo— Fluctuations in the value of beads— Native customs— A
woman potter— More tree-toads.
CHAPTER LI.
At Home with a Native King 460
The State post at Lusambo— Established as a defence against the Arabs— A pic-
turesque part of the river— A call from M. Paul le Marinel, State Inspector-
King Pania Mutembo and his town— Location of Wolf Falls— Curiosity of the
natives— Strange adornments— Costume of King Pania Mutembo— Market prices
of provisions— A visit to the King— Native houses— The King's dwelling— Wives
as property— Bleached skulls— Fetishes— The King gets a gay sunshade— A
cloud of locusts.
CHAPTER LII.
Big-Game Shooting _ 470
Arrows thrown upon the steamer— An amusing chief— Small-pox in a native
village— Establishing factories on the Sankuru— Trouble with sandbanks-
Shooting an elephant^Elephant soup and steaks— A feast for the crew— Up the
Kuilu River— Timidity of the natives— More elephants— Shooting " hippos "—In
an unexplored region.
xviii ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER LIII.
Exploration of the Kuilu River 477
A bustling market— Fear of the steamer's whistle— Much astonished natives-
Running over a swimming elephant — He escapes— The Kuilu a splendid river —
It runs through a promising region for trade— Low prices for food— The Kwenge
River— Excitement of the natives— A Roman helmet style of hair-cut— Further
up the Kuilu— Above the falls by canoe— Wonderful hair-dressing— Picturesque-
ness of the Kuilu— Archduchess Stephanie Fall.
CHAPTER LIV.
Back to Stanley Pool 485
Establishing a station on the Kwenge— A " walking-stick " insect— Crowds of
natives and plenty of goods for barter— Mode of obtaining palm juice— Fearless-
ness of the elephants along the river— A young one killed— Back at Kinchassa—
A visit to Brazzaville— The French Catholic Mission— Extent and products of
French Congo— Explorations of M. de Brazza— Du Chaillu's discovery of the
gorilla— The Anglo-American Mission at Stanley Pool— Major Parnrinter's re-
turn to Belgium and death.
CHAPTER LV.
Descending the Congo by Boat 494
Dinner with the State officials at Kinchassa — Appearance of the country in the
dry season — A quick journey to Manyanga — Down the Congo by boat— Singing
of the native rowers — A finely kept State station — Rapids at Isanghila — Two
roads to Matadi— Embarking for the Gulf of Guinea— Progress of the Congo
Free State— Negro colonists from the United States needed.
CHAPTER LVI.
In Cameroons and the Niger Territory 501
The German Protectorate of Cameroons — The town of Cameroons— Luxuriant
vegetation — Cameroons River and Mountains — Victoria Peak — At Old Calabar
—Palm oil and palm kernels— Trade of the region— The Oil Rivers District and
the Niger Territories — Fernando Po, a place of exile for Spanish political
offenders— Bonny Town — Former cannibalism in this region— Course of the
Niger River — Navigation and trade on this great stream — The river towns— Ad-
ministration of the Royal Niger Company— The great empire of Sokoto, the
largest in the Soudan— The importation of rifles and spirits into the Niger Terri-
tories prohibited — The Guinea Coast, comprising the Slave, Gold, Ivory, and
Grain Coasts.
CHAPTER LVII.
On and off the Guinea Coast . 511
The colony of Lagos— Its great towns — The Gold Coast — Important towns of
the colony — Exports, climate, and government — Accra, the capital— Surfboats
— At Axim — Loading logs of mahogany — Phosphorescence on the water— Vari-
ous stops along the coast — Intelligence and usefulness of the Kroomen — Cape
Palmas — Liberian productions — Establishment and present condition of Liberia
— The hills of Sierra Leone — Picturesque and thrifty Freetown — Sierra Leone
established as an asylum for destitute negroes in England— Its unwholesome
climate— The British colony of Gambier— Extension and consolidation of the
French possessions in Africa— Senegambia and its capital, St. Louis.
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. x{x
PAGE
CHAPTER LVIII.
At Las Palmas 522
Coast of the Sahara— Puerto de la Luz— The island of Grand Canary— Features
of its chief town, Las Palmas— From the Canaries to Marseilles — The Atlas
Mountains from the ocean — The mistral — Across to Algiers — Homeward bound
—End of a systematic tour of the globe extending over a quarter century.
Subject-Index 529
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PACING PAGE
H. M. the King of the Belgians Frontispiece.
Tangier 2
A Moor 17
Genera] View of Fez 36
A Moorish Soldier 50
Dwelling of a rich Arab, Algiers 74
Arab Dancing Girl 77
View in the Chabet el Akhra . .86
The Ravine of the Rouimnel, Constantine 91
The Gorge of El Kantara 95
A Camp in the Desert 97
Ouled Nail Girl, Biskra 101
Tonaregs, Southern Algeria ■ 105
General View of Timegad 109
Tunisian Street Costume 114
A Tunisian Jewess 117
Plaster Sculptures in the Bardo 121
H. H. the Bey of Tunis 125
A Lady of the Harem 127
General View of Susa 129
A Typical Tripolitan 137
View in the Oasis of Tripoli 140
A Soudan Negro , 143
H. H. the Khedive of Egypt 145
Hypostyle Hall of the Temple of Denderah 173
Head of Rameses the Great, from the Mummy in the Ghizeh Museum . 180
At Thebes " 186
A Nubian 194
Isis Colonnade, Island of Philae 197
The Rock Temple of Aboo Simbel 205
General View of the Second Cataract 210
The Summit of Peter Botte 215
Chanarel Falls, Mauritius 217
The Governor of Tamatave and his Family 220
xxi
xxii ILLUSTRATIONS.
FACING PAGE
On the Road in Filanzana 223
Native Canoes at Ivondrona 225
Madagascar Cattle 227
The Traveller's Palm 231
Some Styles of Hair- Dressing , . 238
The Great Palace, Antananarivo 243
The Zoma Market 245
Native Soldiers 247
H. B. the Prime Minister of Madagascar 250
Forest Scenery on the West Coast 2G9
A Clove Plantation, Zanzibar 276
H. H. the late Sultan of Zanzibar 279
Tippoo Tib 282
Ivory at Bagamoyo 287
The Governor General's Palace, Mozambique 291
Gathering Cocoanuts, Lorenzo Marquez 296
The Principal Street of Durban 298
A Zulu Venus 300
A Kaffir Kraal 302
Kaffirs taking Snuff 305
Commissioner Street, Johannesburg 307
Market Square, Johannesburg 309
General View of Pretoria 311
H. E. the President of the Transvaal 313
Kimberley Mine, 1873 316
Kimberley Mine, 1888 318
A Depositing Floor - . . 320
Diamond-Washing Machines 322
Typical Diamond Diggers 324
An Ostrich Farm, Cape Colony 326
General View of Cape Town and Table Mountain 328
A Funchal " Carriage " 333
A Hammock, Funchal 335
The Grand Curral, Madeira 337
Types of La Palma Islanders 339
Carting Wheat, Teneriffe 341
A Dragon Tree, Teneriffe 343
In a Ravine, Teneriffe 345
The Great Peak from Orotava 347
Above the Clouds, Peak of Teneriffe 350
Blu-Blu Waterfall, St. Thomas 358
A View of St. Paul de Loanda 365
Angola Types 371
A Boer Ox- Wagon 374
A Caravan, Catumbella 377
The Quanza River 383
A Coffee and Sugar Plantation, Cazengo 388
IL I USTRA TIONS. xxiii
FACING PAGE
Entrance to an Estate 391
The Flower of the Baobab Tree 405
A State Station on the Caravan Road 421
A Market on the Caravan Road 427
Kinchassa — Principal Post of the Belgian Commercial Company . . 430
Congo River Steamers 433
Bangala Types 437
Studies in Male Hair-Dressing 442
Women preparing Manioc for Food 451
The Palisades of the Sankuru 461
Sankuru" Corps de Ballet"! 463
Huts in Pania Mutembo's Capital 466
Worshipping Fetishes 470
View on the Kuilu River • 477
A Village on the Kuilu River 480
Natives on the Banks of the Kuilu 484
Climbing for Palm Wine 488
A Hippopotamus Hunt 494
Coffins of Native Chiefs 500
The Fort and Town of Axim 511
A Twenty-Ton Log, Axim 514
General View of Freetown, Sierra Leone 517
A Street in Freetown 521
Map of Africa, with Routes of the Author 528
ACTUAL AFRICA.
CHAPTER I.
TANGIER.
An" opportunity to cross from Europe to Africa, by way of
Gibraltar and Tangier, is daily afforded by means of little iron
paddle-wheel or screw steamers which usually make the trip of
thirty-eight miles across the straits, in about three hours and a
half. You will find on board a most heterogeneous representation
of man and nature, of arts and manufactures, of lands and seas
and their productions, animate and inanimate. There will of
course be a " babel of sounds," and owing to the varied dress of
the people the scene will be "picturesque, backed as it is by the
bright blue sea, the yellow Gibraltar or the distant sombre and
savage chains of African mountains. On leaving the circular
roadstead the little steamer usually heads for the southern point
of Spain and hugs the shore until the walled-town of Tarifa is
reached, then it turns directly across the straits and you are
treated to grand views of both continents — of the lion-like rock of
Gibraltar, of the bare brown hills and rugged coasts of Andalusia
behind you and of the great triple-massed bare summit of Apes'
Hill before you, and of other rough ridges gradually sloping away
past the region of Tangier and ending in the comparatively low
promontory of Cape Spartel. Besides the animation on board our
passage was further enlivened by the company of vast schools of
leaping and turning porpoises that covered the sea as far as one
could look. There were thousands of them, and as they rushed
tumultuously around and under the little vessel, the clearness of
the water enabled us to readily appreciate their beautiful outlines,
so admirably adapted for speed and endurance.
Tangier is situated on the southern side of a large semi-circular
bay. You do not begin to distinguish the city until some time
1
2 ACTUAL AFRICA.
after passing — on a low hill at the northeastern extremity of the
bay — an old stone tower and a small fort mounting what appear
to be 12-pounder cannon. There is no flag nor any sign of a
garrison. As you draw in toward the shore the white houses of
the town, sloping up the sides of a steep but low range of hills,
beo-in to outline themselves. To the left are rows of barren sand
dunes, to the right ridges covered with scrub and scant vegeta-
tion. The roadstead is protected somewhat by a short reef which
at low tide just appears above the surface of the water. An enor-
mously wide but gently inclining beach extends around the greater
part of the bay. At the right of the town, close to the water, is
an old citadel (Tangier is a walled-city) and near it a fort, peep-
ing from which you see several rows of curious long, slender
bronze cannon. The traveller is not disappointed at his first dis-
tant view of Tangier from the sea. The diversified lines of the
white, blue and yellow houses, massed together, rising one behind
the other, varied by the occasional green-tiled tower of a mosque,
or the presence of a splendid date-palm, the turreted and notched
walls, the background, on the one hand, of green hills dotted
with little dwellings of rich Moors or of some of the foreigners
engaged here in business, and of glossy brown sand hills on the
other, all glinting and glowing under the strong African sun,
make a novel and charming picture. It is not however necessary
to add that most of the charm is rudely dispelled upon landing,
owing to the dirt and odors with which this and all other oriental
towns abound.
A pier extends a short distance into the sea and to this the
small boats carry cargo and passengers at high tide, at low they
approach as near as possible and then both men and chattels are
carried ashore on the backs of lusty Moors. At the gate of the
citadel sat two grave, bearded patriarchs, clothed in white. They
constituted in their proper persons the entire paraphernalia of the
Custom-house, at least so far as simple travellers were concerned,
and the examination of baggage was brief and perfunctory. A
short clamber through roughly-paved and very crooked streets, ten
feet or less in width, between houses one or two stories in height
with small doors and smaller grated windows, disputing our pas-
sage with trains of laden donkeys and shouting Arab drivers, and
we enter a very modern and comfortable hotel, from whose windows
there is a good view of the bay and of a part of the city. Tangier
is much frequented by the people of Gibraltar who wish a change
Tangier.
TANGIER. 3
of air and scene and an opportunity to employ a few holidays in
sight-seeing or in hunting trips in the neighborhood. The city
therefore contains several good hotels. In that at which I stopped
I found a richly furnished parlor, a white marble staircase and
tiled floors in the halls, a reading-room supplied with papers in
many languages, a fair general library and a selection of the best
modern Avorks upon Morocco, a billiard-room, and a table d'hote
with a French bill-of-fare announcing ten courses. At sunset I
heard the sonorous voice of the muezzin calling the Faithful to
prayers from the minaret of the nearest mosque. At night I was
lulled to gentle slumber by the roll and splash of the surf upon the
great smooth beach. I dreamed that my baggage was being dis-
membered by the fighting, cursing horde of boatmen who boarded
our steamer the preceding afternoon and just as I was myself
about to enter the lists as a somewhat active combatant, I awoke
and found the rays of a great golden sun streaming in my window.
I had supposed the cannon in the citadel were more for ornament
than use but was disabused of this idea when a salvo was fired
almost directly under the hotel windows. This was to usher in
the festival of the Birthday of the Prophet, which continues for a
week. The salute was followed all over the city by the discharge
of firearms and by music from bands of flutes, guitars and tom-
toms, which continued for the space of an hour. At nine o'clock
there was another salvo of a dozen guns.
The first thing that strikes the stranger upon arriving in Tan-
gier is its strong cosmopolitan aspect and flavor. If you peram-
bulate the chief street — that running nearly east and west and
called the Siaguin — you are astonished at the variety of nationali-
ties and national costumes, and at the nonchalant manner of the
people, since no one seems to especially notice any one else but
each pursues his way quite unconcerned. The Kasbah or Castle,
divided from the rest of the city by a wall which is in part ancient
and in part dilapidated, will claim early attention from the visitor.
It is situated upon the northern and more elevated portion of the
slope of hill upon which lies the city. From a battery on the
northern side mounting two old and apparently useless 20-ton
Armstrong guns, a magnificent view is to be had of the straits,
the distant mainland of Spain, with Cape Trafalgar in the north-
west, the town of Tarifa in the centre, and Gibraltar towards the
northeast. Further around to the east you see the tops of the
range of mountains at whose base lies (though in Morocco) the
4 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Spanish town of Ceuta, and nearer to the eastward, are the hills
bordering the semi-circular bay of Tangier. The blue waters of
the straits dance before one, dotted here and there with a sail, a
fishing-boat, or a huge passing steamer. On another side of the
Kasbah, facing the south, you have a distinct survey of the houses
of the city lying at your feet. It gives one a capital idea of the
arrangement of the exterior of the Moorish dwellings and streets,
or rather of the former only, for the streets are too narrow for you
to specially notice their dividing lines. In the Kasbah is the
Pasha's residence, with the fine arches and columns of its interior
court, and the beautiful mosaic- work of its floor and walls and the
stucco and carved wood ornamentation of its upper walls and ceil-
ings. All these are largely of modern fabrication and well worth
seeing. They are in the well-known style and execution of the
Moorish remains in Spain. Also within the Kasbah walls is the
Treasury, a small room behind an entrance of graceful arches and
columns, guarded by an enormous open-work door fastened by
many old locks and bolts. Peering through its bars you notice
piles of boxes, said to be filled with coins, and huge padlocked
chests, supposed to be more or less full of the same. A few sol-
diers are lolling about, but no objection is made to the foreign-
er's presence. Near the Treasury is the Prison, a great vaulted
chamber in which you may peep through a small hole bored
through the wall, and see the prisoners, several of them wearing
heavy chains, and all engaged in making articles of use or orna-
ment out of straw or rushes. Some of these goods will be brought
to the orifice to be sold to you.
There are of course several mosques in Tangier as well as a
Jewish Synagogue and a Eoman Catholic church and convent.
No Christian or Jew is permitted to enter the mosques and though
the synagogue and church may be visited, you find nothing to
especially repay your trouble. Of the mosque you observe the
square minaret or tower, ornamented mostly in varied patterns
with green tiles— though some have them of lozenge shape and in
yellow and black— its windows and little topping steeple. You
also notice the long green-tiled peaked roofs which cover the great
corridors where the Faithful bow and kneel and prostrate themselves
upon the matted floor in their low monotonous prayers. The en-
trance on the street, with its graceful arch, will cause you to pause
and you will probably try to see something of the mysteries within,
but will not be able to do so on account of a guarding screen.
TANGIER. 5
The best shops of Tangier lie in the street called Siaguin, and
are kept by Spaniards, Englishmen, Germans, Italians, Moors and
Jews. The Jews in other Moroccan towns are walled in by them-
selves in a special quarter, but in a cosmopolitan city like Tangier,
which is greatly dominated by European influence, there is no
such division and you find Moors and Jews and Christians and
infidels all mingled together. There are about as many Spaniards
as Jews in Tangier; they consist almost entirely of the lowest
classes and are mostly emigrants from the province of Andalusia
in southern Spain. The population of Tangier is estimated at
20,000. The soko or market, just outside the town, on the south-
ern side, is well worth a visit on market-days — Sundays and
Thursdays. Here a large open space is quite crowded with
thousands of men, women and children coming from the neigh-
boring villages to sell provisions and animals, and to purchase
groceries and manufactured goods. The scene is exceedingly ani-
mated and a stranger will find it a capital place to study native
character and characteristics. You will see dervishes, beggars, the
representatives of various tribes, religious processions, the story-
tellers of the original " Thousand and One Nights " style, snake-
charmers, slaves, horses, mules, donkeys, dogs, all in one grand
heterogeneous mass through which it is with difficulty you can
make your way. There is a small daily newspaper published in
Spanish and a weekly in English in Tangier. When a railway is
built from here to Fez, as will undoubtedly be done at no dis-
tant day, Tangier from its fair harbor, which might with little
effort be made a very good one, its lying directly on one of the
greatest highways of commerce in the world, aud its mild and
agreeable climate, is sure to grow to be a place of considerable
commercial and political importance.
There is a popular institution in Tangier which deserves pass-
ing reference in order to correct an erroneous impression which
strangers are likely to form concerning it. I refer to what is lo-
cally styled a " Moorish cafe-chantant," or music-hall. These are,
it is true, owned and managed by Moors, but they are no special
characteristic of that nation. They are not to be found in any of
the large interior cities, such as Fez, Mequinez, or Marakash (Mo-
rocco city), but have sprung up in Tangier merely to supply a sort
of foreign-resident and tourist demand. It is the same with the
dancing girls, whose entertainment is not however, like the other,
public, and to be seen every night, but private, and only given by
6 ACTUAL AFRICA.
special arrangement. The dancing is of the ordinary oriental type
— say Egyptian or Indian — and consists mostly of posturing and
sentiment and passion as evidenced by rather too suggestive mo-
tions, gestures and looks. There are two or three of the better class
of cafes-chantant in Tangier. Some are located on the ground-
floor and others upon the second. Exteriorly they present no
attractions, in fact, the contrary. Interiorly, you have two or three
small connecting-rooms, or one room divided by pillars, the floor
covered with matting, the walls with tiles below and tawdry pic-
tures and brackets and clocks above. The ceilings are of carved
wood painted red. You pass a mass of slippers near the doorway,
wondering, as they are all of the same color, pattern and appar-
ently size, how each man ever finds his own, and see before you in
one of the rooms a circle of perhaps a dozen men sitting cross-
legged, and producing both from voice and instrument the most
extraordinary music you have ever heard. The instruments are
ordinarily two violins, two small mandolins, a curious sort of na-
tive viol, two eight-stringed guitars, two tambourines, a tom-tom
and a triangle. Most of the musicians also sing and clap their
hands in a lively sort of fandango cadence. The music thus evolved
may perhaps better be imagined than described. It is wild and
barbarous, chanting and monotonous, plaintive and sentimental by
turns, rarely however is it sweet or melodious. The words that
are sung are generally descriptive of love or war and oftentimes are
quite humorous. The key is pitched very high, so high in fact,
that occasionally a halt becomes necessary and a less aspiring start
is made. The men sit and sing and laugh like a lot of school
children just released from their tasks. Whatever may be the sen-
sations of the listeners at least the performers thoroughly enjoy
themselves. There does not appear to be any special beginning or
ending to the tune other than such as a necessity for rest compels
the performers to take. During these intervals they smoke little
pipes of hemp (hasheesh) mixed with tobacco and drink small cups
of strong black coffee. The hasheesh has the usual effect of at
first exciting and afterwards quieting the nerves. The coffee is
served also to the foreign visitors, for whom stools and benches are
provided. If you see natives there, they will generally be engaged
in playing cards — a Spanish playing card being used — to determine
who of their number must pay for the coffee they drink.
The (late) Sultan of Morocco was described to me as a man of
considerable intellectual power, and amiably disposed towards for-
TANGIER. 7
eigners, but he was tied " hand and foot " by the stem tenets of
his religion. Were he to have gone contrary to these, he could
not have kept his throne a day. He had a number of ministers
but paid comparatively little attention to them, except in such
cases as might please him. He was said not to be a cruel man
though a despot, but he had such a turbulent lot of tribes to gov-
ern that much had to be done by threats if not by actual use of his
troops. He divided the year usually between his three capitals
of Marakash, Fez and Mequinez, and when he travelled he was
generally accompanied by the greater part of his army — this how-
ever chiefly in order to collect his taxes. The alliances of the
wild mountain clans seem to extend no further than each to their
own chiefs — the old patriarchal system. The Sultan is reported
to have said that he did not wish to keep at war all the time with
his subjects, but they left him little alternative. Of course, as
might be expected, the whole government is quite rotten. The
ministers owe their positions to favor or to the money they furnish
the Sultan, and the officers under the ministers gain their places
through what they bring or do for their superiors. It seems a very
rickety unstable condition of affairs, and without the help of the
army could not long endure. As it is the Sultan is continually in
dread of assassination. In strictly upholding the Koran and its
tenets he has the strongest hold upon his savage and fanatical peo-
ple. He is, as I have said, a despot, but he has a despot above
and higher than himself, viz., the Koran, that wonderful explica-
tion of "the whole duty of Mohammedan man."
CHAPTER II.
INTO THE LAND OF THE MOOES.
A few days later (on October 17, 1891) I left Tangier for a
journey into the interior of Morocco, to Fez, Mequinez, Marakash
and Wezzan. My dragoman was Mr. E. P. Carleton, a young Eng-
lishman resident in Tangier, who had travelled all over the country,
and who spoke seven languages, including two dialects of Arabic.
Our outfit consisted of four horses for riding and six pack-mules
for our tents, mattresses and blankets, table and stools, provisions,
cooking utensils, guns and ammunition. We wore light but strong
suits, with leather leggings and cork helmets. We were furnished
by the government with a Moorish soldier as escort — without one
no foreigners are permitted to enter the interior — who was respon-
sible for our personal safety and for that of our effects. He was
armed with a Moorish sword and matchlock, the latter being
about seven feet long, a weapon reported to be nearly as dangerous
at the breech as at the muzzle. He was dressed in white, with red
tarboosh, white turban and yellow slippers, and was mounted
upon one of the prancing steeds of which all have read in many
travellers' books. His saddle was a sort of cross between the Mexi-
can and an arm-chair, an enormously large and thick leather affair
which seemed to nearly roof over his animal. His stirrups were
huge iron plates admitting readily the entire foot. The custom is
to use very short stirrups and to almost stand when proceeding at
a gallop. His bridle was most elaborately tasseled and fringed
over the eyes of the animal, more for ornament I fancy than to
protect from the sun or flies. Our baggage was borne either
by the pack-mules in large boxes or in palmetto plaited panniers.
The pack-saddles were huge thick cushions. The horses were tall,
thin and wiry but could hardly be called fine-proportioned. The
mules were of good size and strength, and seemed as lazy as their
family generally are the world over. A good Arab horse costs here
INTO THE LAND OF TEE MOORS. 9
about 1100. — a mule $50.— a donkey 120. — a camel $60. Often a
very fine mule is dearer than a horse. The soldier escort is not paid
by the government and is not obliged to assist in any caravan work,
though in our case he received a dollar a day to drive one of the
pack-mules. We had besides four Arabs, one serving as cook and
the others as muleteers and general help. The names of our ser-
vants were : Selim, the cook ; Hadj Gilali el Dowdi, the soldier ;
Hammed, Mohammed and Sidi el Arby, the muleteers. The sol-
dier, as might be learned from his title, had performed the hadj or
pilgrimage to Mecca, and was therefore a person of some standing
among his own people. They were all swarthy, bearded young
men, dressed in flowing robes once white, with red tarboosh and
white turban, and great yellow slippers, heelless, with the back
counter almost invariably turned down and inwards. They were
good-natured, obliging fellows, though, like most of their class
disinclined to exertion. Expecting to get some good shooting —
partridges, grouse, hares, bustards, pigeons, quail,- snipe, rabbits,
ducks, etc. — we were well supplied with shot guns and cartridges.
As defensive weapons we had also repeating rifles, revolvers and
bowie-knives. I was moreover " armed " with a snap-shot camera.
The camp equipage was despatched a couple of hours in ad-
vance and when we arrived at the end of our half day's ride — for
we did not start till midday — we found the tents all pitched
and a good dinner nearly ready. Charcoal was carried for cooking-
fires. A little trench is dug in the tent and the charcoal, ignited
by straw or any dry litter, is soon fanned into a hot glow by means
of a hand-bellows carried for the purpose. Our provisions con-
sisted of potatoes, bread and tins of condensed meat, vegetables
and fruits. Fowls, eggs, beef, mutton and milk are readily pur-
chased on the road. We crawled through the crooked, uneven
and filthy streets of Tangier, our saddle-bags almost scraping the
houses, passed through an old ruined gate in the southern wall of
the city and entered upon a wide road of deep sand fenced by
cactus and aloe. Many caravans of donkeys bearing poultry and
vegetable produce for town consumption, and of camels loaded
with great bags of grain or bundles of skins for export passed us.
We marched slowly along under a burning sun but through a
crystal, bracing atmosphere and over a roughly undulating coun-
try utterly bare of trees, but giving evidence of former rich fields
of maize and millet. Here and there were small villages of grass-
thatched huts fenced about by hedges of the coarse prickly pear.
3
10
ACTUAL AFRICA.
Much of the surface seemed covered with nothing but jagged
stones and clumps of rank grass and dwarf palmetto palms. We
gradually ascended until we reached a ridge from whence we had
a fine view of a small part of Tangier and its hay on the one side
and of the broad Atlantic on the other. We then descended into
a great plain which had been flooded in the rainy season but was
then as dry as sand and of a dark yellowish color. We saw many
herds of cattle, sheep and goats. There was a range of great
hills before us to the south which seemed covered with scrubby
vegetation and dwarfed trees. The vista could not in any sense
be called picturesque. Our camp was formed near a little Arab
village called El Mediar. We had advanced on our road about
twelve miles. My special tent was a sort of Moorish pavilion of
elliptical shape and made of stout red and blue cloth in alternate
stripes within and of white canvas covered with arabesque figures
without. My mattress was placed upon a canvas frame raised
a few inches above the ground upon which a rubber blanket and
a thick mat were first spread. The tent was about 14 feet long,
8 feet wide, and 8 feet high. Soon after arrival our animals were
tethered by attaching the hobbled forelegs of each to a long
rope pegged close to the ground, care being taken to have
them at considerable distances apart, for being all stud-horses
they fight fiercely with each other at every opportunity. The
instant the sun disappears there is a sudden fall of tempera-
ture, which is most acutely felt by new arrivals in the country,
and before morning two heavy blankets are very comfortable.
Notwithstanding the great change from midday to midnight
foreigners soon become acclimated and do not find it unhealthy.
About dark the headman of the village visited us and brought a
present of some excellent milk. The animals being fed with a
peculiar edible straw soon became quiet, but the monotonous
chanting of our neighbors in the village and the howling made by
hundreds— some of us thought thousands — of curs prowling about
our tents and neighborhood prevented sleep until a late hour.
Before this a beautiful full moon rose above a sharply-outlined
hill and then indeed our camp might have served an artist for
an admirable picture illustrative of nomad life in Morocco. There
are in most of the towns and villages of the interior houses set
apart for native travellers, and also general fondaks, caravansaries
or corrals similar to those one finds in India and Persia, where
the foreigner may stay, but they are so filthy that the usual cus-
INTO THE LAND OF THE MOORS. U
torn is to avoid for the most part the towns and encamp in suitable
locations near the main roads. The latter are merely rouo-h
tracks, from two to six or eight of them side by side, sometimes
deeply worn by much travel and not always following the most
direct routes. So far the country had been very thinly settled and
all but bare of vegetation other than the remnants of crops which
had been already gathered.
The following day we rose early, breakfasted, packed and loaded
the mules and were off about half-past seven, a crowd of Arabs
from the neighboring village looking curiously on, the men and
boys from quite near, the women from a distance. At first the
road led over a very rough stony district, supporting little more
than palmettos, ferns and grassy scrub. Then we entered upon a
more pleasing region, passing fields in which many larks were sing-
ing, and enjoying occasional views of the neighboring Atlantic.
The road, too, began to be more enlivened. There were fat but
not old men riding on donkeys and poor women and children toil-
ing along on foot. Occasionally appeared a woman on a donkey
and clothed all in white, her eyes only being uncovered. Two
postmen bearing letters in straw baskets upon their heads passed
by. Most of the men carried the long flint matchlocks, which are
manufactured in Tetuan, a town east of Tangier, and with which
all my readers are familiar through pictures and photographs of
this country. The Moors are fond of shooting and are fair marks-
men at game upon the ground but they do not succeed well with
that upon the wing.
Besides the small villages of stone or mud houses, were others
of tents, the lower part of reeds and the cover of dark cloth made
of camels' hair and Palmyra-palm roots. They are not above six
feet in height at the apex and bear a most funereal aspect. We
passed orchards of fig-trees inclosed by hedges of the prickly pear
— an impenetrable fence — and bearing a not unsavory fruit. Cross-
ing two small streams, the largest perhaps three hundred feet wide,
and at this the dry season of the year, not more than two feet in
depth, we soon after arrived upon a ridge from which we had a
good view of the town of Arzilla, situated on a point of land jut-
ting into the ocean. It is a walled town built originally by the Por-
tuguese, but has fallen into great decay. We gradually descended
to the shores of the ocean, upon which was beating a thunderous
■surf of much grandeur and beauty, and found our camp estab-
lished near a well on sloping ground back of the town. While we
12 ACTUAL AFRICA.
had halted at a spring by the roadside for a little rest and refresh-
ment our men had continued on with the equipment and formed
the camp. Soon after arriving we visited Arzilla, whose situation
and old walls are rather picturesque and interesting, but that is
about all to be said in its favor. It is small, dirty and dilapidated.
There are no Christians living there — only Jews and Moors — so we
found ourselves objects of some considerable interest to the citi-
zens. It being Sunday the flags of several European countries
were flying from the house-top of a prominent Jew, who is com-
mercial agent for each of them. The great metal-covered gates
of Arzilla are closed at night, though entrance may usually be ob-
tained by such a signal as firing off a rifle or revolver. From Ar-
zilla the point of Cape Spartel is plainly visible by day and its
light by night. We returned soon to camp and received a visit
from the governor, a young man richly clad and mounted upon a
splendid horse, which was sumptuously caparisoned with saddle
covered with bright-colored shawls, stirrups with gold inlaying,
bridle of fine leather gold-embroidered, and with silver-inlaid
bosses and buckles. A little tired by our walk and ride of twenty-
four miles, we were composed to sleep by the monotonous roar of
the neighboring surf, which sounded like a tremendous procession
of express-trains passing through a tunnel.
In loading the mules in the morning I noticed that the pan-
niers were carelessly filled and then the proper equipoise obtained
by placing small or large stones, as might be necessary, in the
lighter basket. The country which is now so dry and barren and
brown is in the spring, they told me, covered with green crops
and fine meadows of rich grass interspersed with vast quantities of
beautiful flowers. The surface is then especially lovely but even
at the end of summer, before the rains set in, the contrasts of
color produce a certain quiet beauty. We saw several flourishing
groves of olives, and had all the morning a grand range of moun-
tains to the eastward. We gradually ascended and followed along
a ridge of barren, sandy hills which gave very extensive views over
the plain. We then descended a narrow gorge to the coast, which
we followed nearly all the way to the town of Larache. It was a
charming ride along a very wide, smooth and gently-sloping beach
of the finest yellow sand, upon which huge combing waves curled
high and dashed themselves continuously in six or eight rollers of
whitest foam. The cliffs disclosed many interesting geological
features — curiously contorted oblique and vertical strata, stains of
INTO TEE LAND OF TEE MOORS. 13
various minerals, rock worn into honeycomb caverns, and also
giant pudding-stones.
We saw several white buildings with low domes, the tombs of
various marabouts or saints, above which float one or two flags,
and to which pilgrimages are constantly being made by the super-
stitious peasantry. At one point the cliffs decline abruptly to the
sea and so we had to make a long detour to reach Larache, which
is situated on a hill-side upon the southern bank of the river Kus
where it enters the ocean. This river opens into quite a little bay
in which lay a very small French steamer and three or four feluc-
cas, small coasting-vessels with two masts inclining towards either
extremity of the boat and a huge triangular sail upon the forward
one. The town, like Arzilla, was built originally by the Portu-
guese. It is surrounded by a notched wall of stone and small
brick, with a large towered fort on the ocean side and the gov-
ernor's palace behind the centre of the town. The mouth of the
river is not more than one hundred feet in width and is very
shallow, so that only the smallest vessels can enter, and even for
them it is very dangerous in squally weather. Sailing craft are
towed through the narrow channel and far out to sea by means of
a rope attached to a distant kedge. The pilot-boat is manned by
sixteen rowers, a steersman and a captain. We and our animals
and baggage were transported across in huge flat-bottomed scows,
and then we slowly filed through dirty, narrow, crooked and ill-
paved streets, between very dilapidated houses and through the
soko or market-place — with its colonnade of little arches contain-
ing all sorts of shops, and with a few dealers about, offering fish,
vegetables and fruits — and then on through a huge gate out upon
the bluff, near the edge of which we camped.
There is a considerable export as well as import trade at Larache,
and vast heaps of sugar were awaiting transport into the interior,
while equally as large ones of various grains were piled ready for
shipment. The wharf and streets were full of people — Moors,
Arabs, Jews, Spaniards, Syrians, Negroes, etc. One beheld every
shade of complexion and many picturesque styles of dress. There
is an immense ditch about the walls, which are pierced for muskets
and surmounted by long and slim bronze cannon. Two batteries
of heavy, but very rusty and apparently useless, cannon, lie at the
foot of the bluff without the walls. Not far from our camp were
several others of natives who had brought bags of grain from the
interior and whose droves of camels and donkeys would soon be
!4 ACTUAL AFRICA.
toiling back with all sorts of foreign manufactured goods. Larache
is more than double the size of Arzilla— it has a population of per-
haps 5,000 — but is not so picturesque. The distance between
these two places is about twenty miles. The surf roared loudly
all the night, and the change of temperature from midday to mid-
night was felt as keenly as ever.
We were awakened at sunrise by the muezzin monotonously
chanting the morning hymn and invitation to prayers from the
top of the minaret or square tower of the mosque : " Allah akbar,
ill 'ullah Mohammed rasoul ellah. Heyya alfalla, heyya alsaluto,
Allah akbar." (God is great and Mohammed is his prophet. In
the name of God and the prophet I call the people to prayers.
God is great, God is great and Mohammed is his prophet). This
was done in a very clear and loud tone of voice which was not
unmusical. It was continued at intervals in different key and
time for fully a quarter of an hour. I could hear not only the
men of our party occasionally uttering fervid " Aniens," but the
people also over the wall in the town. Then the strumming of
the tom-toms and the plaintive wailing of the flutes began in con-
nection with much singing — the feast of the Birthday of the
Prophet being in full force everywhere.
We started on at eight o'clock and travelled southeast and east,
about twenty miles, to the town of El Kasr. We marched first
over a great sandy plain covered only with scrub, and having a
large cork forest to our right and a distant range of mountains
before us and to the left. Numbers of muleteers passed, some
with loaded camels, others with donkeys. The sun became ex-
ceedingly hot though tempered by a gentle breeze. We lunched
under a great cork tree, and then passed through several small
valleys, whose green grass and running streams were in pleasing
contrast to the surrounding district, easily proving that water
alone is sufficient to change the most arid desert into a garden.
We next entered upon a great plain as smooth as the floor of a
house and covered everywhere with the remains of crops of grain.
We crossed this to the river Kus, here about two hundred feet in
width, and followed its banks until it became shallow enough to
ford. There were now beautiful ranges of mountains around us
in every direction, and above a great grove of cedar and olive
trees appeared here and there some of the white walls and minarets
of the mosques of the town of El Kasr. We soon entered one gate
and passed along the streets of the town, through the open market-
INTO THE LAND OF THE MOOES. 15
place, and out another gate at the south side where we pitched our
camp in a beautiful orchard of peach, orange, pomegranate, mul-
berry, olive and wild fig. The pinkish red of the pomegranates
and the golden hue of the oranges contrasted prettily with the
glossy green of the foliage. The soil was very rich, being carefully
manured, and I found growing in luxuriance, potatoes, tomatoes,
pumpkins, grapes, egg-plants, turnips, radishes, lettuces, parsley,
peppers and cucumbers. The garden is the property of a rich
Jewish merchant, a friend of my dragoman, who placed it at our
disposal. In one corner were an olive mill and a screw-press, both
most rude and primitive machines. To crush the fruit a huge
stone wheel was turned — by mule or donkey power— in a basin
made of stone masonry. The press consisted only of a large bowl
of very hard wood, with an emptying trough at the bottom, upon
which a plank was brought down with the necessary degree of
force by means of two large wooden screws standing at either side.
Near the gate was a water-wheel, very like the sakiah of Egypt.
It was a very crude affair looking as if it had been made with the
stone axes of prehistoric times. There was a circular flat mound
about six feet in height, the exterior of which was built of bricks.
The object of this mound was to give the water sufficient impetus
for flowing all over the garden. The well was oblong in sbape
(perhaps 10 by 4 feet), stoned up rudely, and about forty feet
deep. It was divided in the centre by a stone wall. There were
two wheels, the large vertical one, five feet in diameter and two
feet in width, was placed at the orifice, and its rough wooden axle
turned in wooden sockets. Pegs two feet in length were stuck
through its circumference at right-angles, and upon these wound a
long chain of small conical earthenware jars (a foot long and six
inches in diameter), each holding perhaps two quarts. The chain
was woven from stout brush, and the jars were fastened to this and
almost touched each other. As they turned they emptied them-
selves into a trough, whence the wrater entered a plastered brick
reservoir, twenty-five feet square and three feet in depth, and was
next conveyed in little canals all over the orchard and then passed
on the surface from tree to tree. The horizontal wheel was four
feet in diameter with two faces a couple of feet apart and joined by
sticks which caught upon pegs three inches in length upon the
face of the larger wheel. A mule, blindfolded to prevent dizzi-
ness, being attached by a pole to the axle of this — behold the mo-
tive power for raising the water, which we found cool and pala-
16 ACTUAL AFRICA.
table. The not unmusical droning of these wheels is heard day
and night in every direction, and seems to agree very well in char-
acter with the easy-going habits of the people. In walking care-
lessly about I raised a covey of at least twenty partridges from the
scrubby cover, but they were, of course, beyond reach before I
could bring my gun to bear. We had, however, already shot many,
and expected to find more as we penetrated the interior. It rained
heavily during the night — the mosquitoes swarmed and bit fiercely
— and the water-wheel creaked and groaned, but tired travellers
must sleep, and they did.
A Moor.
CHAPTER III.
TOWN A XI) TRACK.
The following morning we took a long walk through El Kasr,
which from a distance is as usual with these towns, very pic-
turesque with its seven or eight mosque towers, its solitary and
occasional clumps of date-palms, and its tiled roofs, giving more
variety than the usual flat ones. As we threaded the streets I
observed houses of two stories built of small burnt brick, with
little iron-barred windows, and doors carved and studded with
iron bosses and furnished with great hinges and locks. The
streets were full of Moors and Jews. The men of the former race
were clothed in their graceful white burnooses, either with tur-
bans or a sort of hood attached to the burnoose ; the women were
completely covered in white, excepting the eyes, and looked like
little bundles of blankets, being nearly as broad as long. All wore
yellow slippers. The Jews are distinguished by their long gowns
of dark cloth and their little skull-caps, their socks and shoes, the
wearing of their hair in large tufts upon the front and sides of
the head, the remainder being cropped close, and their faces fre-
quently ornamented only with moustache, whereas the Moors al-
ways wear a beard when able to grow one. We passed through a
bazaar like those at Cairo and Damascus on a small scale, the
shops being arranged in narrow streets which were badly paved
and surface-drained or rather surface-undrained. For shade these
were roughly roofed with coarse mats of straw and rushes. The
shops are merely little boxes — holes in the wall — five or six feet
square, about three feet from the ground, with no doors at back
or side, and in which place sits cross-legged the Moorish or Jewish
merchant, his goods disposed about him on shelves or in front of
him on a low narrow bench. Dealers in similar kinds of products
are generally grouped together. The shop-keepers sit in apathetic
manner, staring into the street, or perhaps they are curled up
18 ACTUAL AFRICA.
sound asleep. Here one is seen writing with a reed pen in his
account-book, another may be reading a book of Arabic tales,
while others are driving bargains with noisy hagglers. One finds
in these shops the most extraordinary mixture of Manchester,
Sheffield and Birmingham goods, and a comparatively small pro-
portion of native manufactures. The general provision market
was held in an open square, though you see a few stalls in the
bazaar. There was a good collection of meats, fish, vegetables
and fruits. Throughout the bazaar and in fact in all the streets
one has often to step into a doorway to allow a loaded donkey to
pass. We visited the prison, a large vaulted room with a small
door through which provisions are delivered and a narrow slit in
the thick brick walls through which the prisoners can speak with
their friends. In the roof of this chamber is a small grated open-
ing which allows some ventilation and also discloses to us the
terribly foul condition of the interior. There are some hundreds
of prisoners, some incarcerated for murder, more for theft, and a
few innocent victims, who are being " squeezed " by some power-
ful citizen. They are generally imprisoned for long terms. From
the roof we looked down upon them busily engaged in plaiting
baskets from the wild sugar-cane, for thus they have to earn their
food. They were a very villainous-looking set of men, many of
them wearing huge manacles and a few being chained by great
links to the pillars.
As a pleasant change we then visited a fondak, or native cara-
vansary, where we were served with thick and very hot coffee in
little tumblers. Here the American consular agent, Sidi Tami
el Shawi, a fine-looking and very amiable Moor joined us, and
afterwards visited our camp. El Kasr has about 15,000 inhab-
itants, but contains no special sights other than those common
to all Moroccan towns, and nothing at least of great impor-
tance to a traveller intending to see Fez and Mequinez. I got a
glimpse of the interior of some of the mosques with their grace-
fully arched corridors, suspended lamps, matted floors, but into
them no Christian is allowed to enter, not even on removing his
shoes as in Egypt, Turkey and India. The mosques of El Kasr
are not imposing or beautiful from without. They have single
square towers, with little central projections, and are perhaps
seventy-five feet in height. These Moroccan mosques have not
the graceful domes and minars of India, nor their Saracenic
honeycomb-work and stalactite ornamentation supporting the
TOWN AND TRACK. 19
galleries of the minarets — as the towers here are by courtesy
styled.
A Jewish friend of my dragoman, Shao Bendayan, invited us
to lunch with him. We found him established in a huge house in
the centre of the town, the lower story of which was used for
shops and the upper as a dwelling. It was in the usual oriental
style of rooms surrounding an open court. We were ushered up-
stairs and presented to his wife and several relatives, male and
female, and to his five small children. The latter and the women
were all dressed in white or light-colored robes, with gay silk
caftans and turbans with ends falling low down the back. They
all wore large circular gold ear-rings and many finger-rings and
bracelets. The table was set in a corner of the corridor, through
which chickens were freely promenading, though not especially
invited. Everything was served in European fashion. The bill-
of-fare however was peculiar. We began with radishes, olives,
sweet pickles and bread, drinking a strong but pure liquor re-
sembling absinthe, made from figs by our host. Next followed a
sort of broiled hashed beef which was very delicately spiced and
seasoned with peppers and served piping hot, packed upon iron
skewers. This was removed from the skewer and eaten with a
fork, the metal pin being returned for replenishment. A great
quantity of this was brought in, until we all cried " Enough and
more than enough." Then came broiled pigeons, accompanied
by a salad made of green peppers and a good white wine made
from the grapes of the country. To these succeeded roast fowls
and more wine. We had Moorish bread with all the courses.
The flour is dark and coarse but the bread, baked in flat loaves,
is tasteful and wholesome. A sort of plum-pudding — made of
almonds, eggs, cream and flour, and served with ground cinnamon
and sugar — and^ a very dainty and nutty red wine was the first
dessert and was followed by melon, pomegranates and luscious
white and black grapes. Coffee and cigarettes terminated what
was very modestly termed " lunch." There was a great profusion
of food and drink, and our hosts pressed us to partake until it
really became difficult to decline good-naturedly. Delicate com-
pliments were the handing to you of a skewer of meat so hot
it almost brought the tears to your eyes to hold it, and the lifting
and presenting to you of your own wineglass, already full, and
clicking glasses and drinking your health and the prosperity of
your fatherland. I took side glances into several of the rooms,
20 ACTUAL AFRICA.
and found them furnished quite in European fashion, though
with a profusion of lace and embroidery about the beds and of
beautiful plushy carpets upon the floor. After lunch we went
upon the flat roof and talked for a long time in Spanish — most of
the educated Jews speaking Spanish and some of them French as
well as Arabic. We then returned to our camp. We found the
people in the streets and shops very curious but not impertinent.
As there are no Europeans living in El Kasr we were naturally
something of a curiosity. In the evening, as we sat at dinner in
one of our tents, the servant of our late host, Shao Bendayan, ar-
rived, bearing the present of a huge bowl of kous-koussou. This
is one of the most popular of native dishes. It consists of boiled
chicken and a preparation of steamed maize, of which the grains
are of the size of the head of a pin. The chicken is covered with
sliced onions, butter, cinnamon and sugar. These occupy the
centre of the dish and are surrounded by the maize. They are
cooked in combination. The maize rests in a perforated earthen-
ware jar over the tin vessel in which the fowl is boiled, and so is
cooked by steam.
As we broke camp and started south the next morning we re-
marked particularly the huge muck-heaps (household garbage)
which rose fifty feet high and almost circumvallated the city.
Eoads extend through these ramparts of offal to the gates of the
town. The filth thus lies directly at every one's door, and if it
were not for the fine physical outfit of the Moors and their frugal
and largely open-air life, there certainly would be an epidemic of
some malignant fever. On leaving El Kasr we passed along an
old Eoman road of cobble-stone, and for a long distance through
the gardens and orchards of the citizens of that town. Then we
crossed the Kus river again, noticing many people busy washing
clothes. One method of doing this is to place a quantity of wet
garments in a sack and then to dance and tramp around upon it,
keeping time to a sort of sing-song music. The entire day was
consumed in marching along broad tracts through one plain and
over a ridge of round smooth hills into another. These plains
showed extremely fertile land for grain and rich meadows for
cattle. Occasionally we would cross a green valley with a small
stream flowing through its midst. The contrast between this rich
green — often it came from a grove of the soft, velvety orange trees
— and the surrounding brown aridness was very striking. The
one great and prominent feature of the country thus far has been
TOWN AND TRACK. 21
its treelessness. One occasionally sees here, but at long distances
only, small groups or groves of olive or cork trees or possibly a
planted and cultivated orchard. We passed many people upon the
road and many loaded camels, horses and donkeys. The men
were frequently bareheaded under the blazing sun ; sometimes two
men rode one diminutive donkey; none offered to salute us, but all
wore a queer grin as of utter scorn and contempt for the ridiculous
foreigners. After lunching under a huge cactus hedge, we pressed
on, there being smooth and dome-shaped hills in every direction.
The country, too, seemed very thinly peopled. At one point in
the road two natives rushed up to my dragoman, kissed his hand,
and threw themselves down at full length, striking the ground
with their foreheads, and begging him to help them, as they had
been terribly abused by the caid or governor, who had taken all
their sheep. The dragoman told them to put their grievance in
Avriting before a notary, and bring it to Tangier upon his return,
and he would endeavor to obtain some justice for them. It is thus
all over Morocco — it is a general " squeeze " and robbery all the
way from the highest down to the lowest. As we wound slowly
along we saw and heard in the distance a religious sect who were
proceeding on some pilgrimage with flags and music. The few
villages we encountered were surrounded by enormous fences of
the prickly-pear cactus — an impenetrable mass twenty feet in
height and as much in breadth. They were covered with thousands
of the purplish edible fruit, which made a pretty contrast to the
great, fleshy, spiny leaves. The villages were very dilapidated and
wretchedly poor, and one would see in them women, with babies
strapped to their backs, attending to various household duties,
while long rows of lazy men would be sitting and talking or sleep-
ing in the shade of some mud wall. We had now left the province
of Tanja and entered that of El Gharb. After making about
thirty miles we camped on a sloping hillside between two small
and wretched villages, in which we saw black slaves from the
Soudan at various kinds of work. Soon after we were settled the
headmen of each village came to us with presents of poultry, eggs,
milk and kous-koussou. These were friends of the dragoman and
expected no return, but generally when presents are given to
strangers a return, immediate or prospective, is expected. Hun-
dreds of wretched curs prowled about our camp, and howled and
fought through half the night. If we had the annoyance of the
dogs at least we had a respite from the mosquitoes, with which
22 ACTUAL AFRICA.
pest we were not visited. As yet the date-palm seems a very rare
tree. We only find about half a dozen in each large town.
These palms and the camels — representatives of the tropic vege-
table and animal kingdom — are of infinite and everlasting inter-
est. After years of familiarity one does not tire of them. We
saw frequently through the day large herds of cattle and camels
and flocks of sheep and goats — all had a rough and tough appear-
ance. With these and the abundant grain, vegetables and fruits
which the country affords, it is only laziness which prevents these
natives being well-fed. The young and middle-aged people have
a stout if not fat build and seem very well preserved.
We started on at our usual hour of 8 a. m., soon entering upon
an enormous plain, now of rich fertile land and again of sandy
barrenness. It was perfectly level and was bounded on nearly
half of the circle, that toward the west, by the horizon ; on the
east was a low range of smoothly rounded mountains. The num-
ber of Arab douars or villages increased, though their size dimin-
ished. By the middle of the day the wind, which generally had
been very agreeable and tonic, increased to a gale and the swirling
columns of hot sand gave us an idea of what the dreaded simoom
was like. We lunched in a grove of wild fig trees and continued
on until we reached the Seboo river, one of the largest in the
north of the Empire, here perhaps two hundred yards wide, and
running in a vertical-sided channel fifty feet below the level of
the plain. Its course is very tortuous. We were obliged to dis-
mount and unload our mules in order to cross in a huge flat-
bottomed scow, with our baggage and camp equipage, the animals
swimming. Native horsemen on arriving at the bank, remove
their saddles and most of their clothes, which they carry in their
arms while sitting their swimming animals. Our boat was towed
across by a man thus mounted. The ferrying was quite lively,
there being many people there. On one hand you saw two men
astride a swimming donkey or mule ; on another an animal alone
that had been driven from one bank and was striving for the
opposite. As we land, several Arab women come down to fill their
great earthenware jars with water. All of them have babies or
small children suspended in sheets and half resting upon, half
secured to, their backs, their little legs stretched around their
mothers, and their heads just peering forth from the sheets. On
returning with full jars placed upon their backs the small chil-
dren were changed to their shoulders and heads. It was a curious
TOWN AND TRACK. 23
sight to behold on the one hand the women staggering up the
steep hill, occupied with the severest toil, while on the other one
saw the men — it being the last day of the festival — gayly capari-
soned and riding at full gallop over the plain, and amusing them-
selves by frequently firing their guns in odd and awkward positions
here styled " powder-play." We pitched our camp for the night
near the ambitious mud-walled gate of a rather larger village than
we usually encountered. The headman came forth and begged us
to go inside the walls, but we preferred the extra cleanliness of our
chosen site and declined to move notwithstanding we were informed
that, being now south of the Seboo river, the country was ravaged
by a robber tribe named Beni Hassan, and that only a few nights
previously an Arab had been shot and his donkey stolen exactly
where we proposed to camp. As a sort of compromise we agreed
to corral our animals within the walls, sending one of our own
men to guard them, and took three men of the town to protect
our camp during the night. Native thieves are accustomed to
rush in and seize an animal, or anything loose in a tent, and gallop
off, so it is almost impossible to catch them. As something of a
protection against them all the villages are first surrounded with a
ditch, next by a mud wall covered with cactus, and next by a
great barrier of thorny bushes which are collected and fastened in
bundles. About five o'clock a rain storm came on, which contin-
ued all night.
We started on at nine o'clock in the morning, still traversing
the vast plain of the day before. The wind blew strongly and it
was exceedingly cold ; there were also frequent showers. The
villages seemed to occur oftener and to be larger, though of the
same general character. Some of them were very picturesque
with their barriers of red thorn, their brown straw huts and blue
camels' hair tents, their great domed ricks of yellow straw or hay,
their green cactus and agave hedges. We followed along the
course of a small river, a branch of the Seboo. In the middle of
the afternoon we approached a range of hills, beyond which are
situated the cities of both Mequinez and Fez, and it beginning to
rain hard we camped as usual near one of the villages, from
which later on we took two guards. If anything happened to us,
the village to which these men belonged would be responsible to
the Sultan for our safety. During the night a horse was stolen
from some one near our camp, but nothing occurred to our party.
Always while we are either pitching or breaking camp there are
24 ACTUAL AFRICA.
parties of natives sitting at a distance of a hundred feet, never
nearer, and carefully observing all we do, criticising everything
and often making remarks not at all to our advantage. It rained
very heavily and continuously all the night and blew a gale of
wind. The hundreds of dogs in the village made night very
decidedly hideous by their constant howling, fighting, yelping
and snarling. They never ceased until eight o'clock in the morn-
ing, when we proceeded on our journey. We marched at first
tli rough a very rough region, mostly of pasture land, and then
surmounting a rocky crest passed along a rolling country to the
base of the mountains, encountering on the way the tomb of a
great native saint named Sidi Kassam, its green tiled roof and the
neighboring mosque standing forth very prominently. Beyond
was a square-walled town and next this a beautiful oasis-like belt
whose rich green was everywhere sharply outlined against the
surrounding brown of the desert. There were here many fine
orchards of olives, the trees being thickly covered with the dark
fruit. Leaving here we passed through a vast expanse of coun-
try covered with low scrub, in which we raised coveys of par-
tridges and bustards. We crossed two or three small streams, their
banks being bordered with groves of flowering oleanders for miles
upon miles. We saw many Arab tent-villages, some arranged in
quadrangles, some in large circles. We had seen before us for a
long time the town called Muley Edris, where a very holy man is
buried and into which no Christian is allowed to enter. It is
the Moroccan Mecca. We approached as near as advisable — for
foreigners have been stoned for getting too near to suit the very
sensitive native soul — and camped in a fine orchard of figs, olives
and grapes. We were now in the mountains, the region of the
Berbers, fierce and warlike men, who hate all foreigners. So the
chief of the nearest village sent us six well-armed men to guard
our camp during the night. There seem to be several distinct
classes of people in Morocco, whose different localities may be
pretty clearly defined. Thus there are the Berbers in the moun-
tains, the Arabs in the plains, the Moors in the seaports and towns
along the coast and the three capitals (Mequinez, Fez and Mara-
kash), the Jews in the towns and the negroes, and a number of
mixed races everywhere. There are three great distinct languages :
Arabic, Sluh, and Guennaoui. Of the Arabic there are differ-
ing dialects or patois as spoken by the Berbers, Arabs and Moors.
The Sluh is spoken by the tribes inhabiting the Atlas; the
TOWN AND TRACK. 25
Guennaoui by the negroes. I may add that the total population
of Morocco as well as its area, the southern border not being well
defined, are both rather problematical. The former is estimated
at about 6,500,000 ; the area at 300,000 square miles. The popu-
lation of Morocco is double that of Algeria, three times that of
Tunisia, and five times that of Tripoli.
The headman all night long kept calling to the others sent to
our camp to see that all were awake, so that sleep was hardly pos-
sible to us, though it always seemed to be possible to the natives,
for they take their sleep by snatches, so to speak, that is, they
sleep for half an hour, wake up, talk, sing and laugh, or chant
passages from the Koran for another half hour, and so on. It
rained and blew by turns exceedingly hard during the night.
Unfortunately for the proposed extension of my journey to Mo-
rocco city it would seem that the rainy season had now set in,
during which travel in the interior is very uncomfortable and in
places quite impossible. The roads are so bad that but few miles
a day can be made, the rivers have to be swum, and camp has to
be formed and raised in heavy storms of rain and wind.
In the afternoon we took a walk to the old ruined Roman city
of Volubilis, a half a mile distant from our camp. It occupied
the whole of a smooth, oval hill, perhaps three hundred feet high,
a mile long, and half a mile wide. All the surface is strewn with
ruins, blocks of stone which have been for the most part broken
into small fragments. There are only three sections of wall stand-
ing, two of them belonging to what was once possibly a fine tem-
ple a hundred feet long and seventy-five wide. In the walls of
this are great round arches. The blocks of stone are large, nicely
cut, but not ornamented. Broken pillars smooth and round, capi-
tals of a sort of Corinthian order, bases, portions of pediments,
etc., are scattered about. The designs though simple are in good
taste, but the carving is rather coarse aud rude. The situation of
this city on a low hill at the extremity of the plain showed the
usual sound judgment of the Romans in the selection of sites for
their cities. There is, however, considerable mystery connected
with Volubilis. Several Frenchmen have in recent years dug
trenches in every direction in search of anything throwing light
upon the age of this city and its history, but though they have
found some coins and inscriptions, no clew to its age has rewarded
their labors. Many of the ruins and the best of the pillars and
ornamental portions have been removed by the Arabs to Mequinez,
4
26 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Muley Edris, and other towns, and used as building material.
From the hill of Volubilis one has a fine view of the walled town
of Muley Edris to the east, backed by its striking ranges of dark
mountains. The city slopes up the hill like that of Algiers from
the sea, and seems to exactly fit into its walls. The saint who is
buried here is the father of the Sultan who founded Fez and who
is buried in the mosque named after him there, the most famous
mosque in the country, though the one here is sufficiently impor-
tant to render the city " holy." It had cleared off at noon cold
and windy, but rained again all night. A thief attempted to
steal one of our horses and was fired at but missed by one of the
guard. It being clear in the morning we started on, taking the
direct road south to Mequinez.
CHAPTER IV.
MEQUIXEZ.
We passed the ruins of Volubilis and then took our last view
of the picturesque town of Muley Edris, with its rich orchards and
gardens and imposing background of savage mountains, and then
arriving gradually at the summit of a crest of rugged rock we had
our first look at the city of Mequinez, lying away in the centre of
an enormous, roughly-undulating plain, on the southern border
of which extended east and west a fine range of evenly-disposed
hills. As we went on the road began to broaden until near
Mequinez it had reached a breadth of two hundred feet, and the
travellers had also begun to increase in number. As we wound
down the steep hillside we saw three small towns perched in almost
inacessible positions to our left. The country was rich but wholly
treeless, excepting such occasional orchards of olives, pomegranates
and figs as had been planted and tended by the people. The
road was in terrible condition after the rains and the streams
were almost dangerous to cross, but we plodded on and after five
hours of travel reached the rich gardens by which Mequinez is
surrounded. This city, which is by the road that we followed
about twenty-two miles distant from Volubilis, is the most
southerly point to which our journey extended, being in about
latitude 34° north and longitude 6° west. It is about 1,600
feet above sea-level. It stands south of the Ordom river, a small
branch of the Seboo, which we crossed on a large brick and stone
bridge of a single arch and long, paved approaches. This bridge
was made by one of the former Sultans and is the first work of
the kind we have seen in the country. It is a very clumsy, crude
structure and its walls, which have half tumbled down, have been
left exactly as they fell. As we neared the gates our noses told us
we were in the neighborhood of a Moorish city and, sure enough,
the ranges of hills of garbage extended in every direction higher
28 ACTUAL AFRICA.
than the walls and produced an intolerable stench, but apparently
this was only remarked by the foreign visitors. The population of
Mequinez is estimated at 60,000. There are no Europeans living
here.
The city appears to lie upon the sloping top of a low hill. Its
appearance is not striking to one approaching from the north.
The uniform level of the houses is broken only by a half dozen of
the square minarets of the mosques. Mequinez is surrounded by a
wall sometimes of brick, sometimes of concrete, and often thirty
feet high. We entered by a large and imposing gateway — a high
Moorish arch, surrounded with colored tiles in inlaid work, a green
tint predominating, the arch being flanked by two large, square
towers. The archway could be closed by two enormous copper-
plated doors. We passed on into a filthy courtyard and under
other arches, flanked right and left by caravansaries, in which ani-
mals and men seemed equally at home, by entrances surmounted
by beautiful carved wood pediments, and through long streets of
shops in which artisans were busy making all sorts of articles for
war, husbandry and domestic use. My dragoman had ridden on
in advance, interviewed the Pasha or Governor, and obtained from
him the use of a house during our stay. Our entry, therefore,
with a soldier on foot, and a private orderly sent by the Pasha,
was not only imposing but a great treat apparently to the people,
who filled the shops and streets and stared and grinned at what
they thought the odd-looking heretics. There were in fact a few
muttered cries of " Infidels " and " Dogs of Christians," but we
pursued our way with the utmost sangfroid. The house in which
we were installed was situated near the centre of the city. It was of
the regular pattern, an open court surrounded by numerous small
rooms. The court had some carved and colored wood-work,
several feet deep, around its top, which was tipped with tiles.
There were also some carved wood- work arches, some diminutive
wooden windows, and a gayly-tiled floor laid out in pretty patterns.
The rooms extended upward to the roof, which was made of tiles
laid upon rafters. The walls were plainly whitewashed. Of
course none of the rooms contained furniture, but we did not re-
quire any, having our own with us. Niches were left in the walls
in which to put anything. We entered this house from a street
about six feet wide through a doorway, under which we had to
stoop, and a narrow and low hallway. The street door was covered
with huge iron bosses, and an old-fashioned iron latch might be
ME QU INEZ. 29
secured with a key. The rooms were lighted and ventilated only
from the court. Tall and slender Moorish arches covered with
great wooden doors led into the rooms. We installed our cook in
one of the rooms, and sent to the bazaar for a couple of cooking-
stoves, very thick earthenware pots with small holes bored in them
near the top through which a draught is produced by the bellows.
Charcoal is employed as fuel. A very narrow staircase with high
steps and sharp turns, leads up to the roof, passing two diminu-
tive rooms or closets which are apparently used for the storing of
food and clothes. The roof is flat and surrounded with a high
wall, so that you may neither see nor be seen — two essentials in
Moorish towns. In a hidden corner of the courtyard is a small
well. We enjoyed a night of undisturbed sleep, there being no
guards, dogs, fowls, cattle, or singing and talking of our own men
to disturb our repose.
In the early morning, accompanied by our soldier as escort, we
took a stroll through the city. There are, however, such a myriad
of objects to distract one's attention, and such crowds of natives,
that one feels at first quite bewildered and does not know what to
specially notice. The bazaar of the artisans, for instance, would
afford an interesting study for a week ; the people in the streets,
market-places and caravansaries for another. In the small shops
of the former one sees every sort of manufacture in progress, often
aided by very rude and primitive machinery, though some of it,
notably that of the silk weavers, evidences considerable ingenuity.
The shops and fondaks are generally closed during the greatest
heat of the day, say from 11 a. m. to 3 p. m., when the merchant
goes home for food, rest, or diversion. There is usually but one
opening to the box dignified by the name of shop, namely, that
upon the street, which is closed by a door of boards opening hori-
zontally in the middle and locked. Half of the door is let down
and the upper being elevated a little serves as an admirable sun-
shade. The shops are exteriorly mean and squalid structures of
brick which border certain streets and are separated from each
other by only about one foot. Certain business is in the hands of
Moors, certain in that of Jews. It is impossible to particularise
the various shops, as I have said, a week might readily be devoted
to them. I may just mention, however, that these people excel in
manufacturing rugs, cloths, silk cords and embroidery, leather
work, and silver-ware and jewelry. As you walk through the city
there is a strong pervading odor of olive oil, which is much used in
30 ACTUAL AFRICA.
cooking. It is of a similar character, though not so disagreeable
as the ghee or melted butter one everywhere smells in the bazaars
of Hindostan. But of the other odors and stenches and the ex-
treme filthiness of the streets, and even of the houses, in Mequinez,
it would be too repugnant to go into detail ; nor even to speak at
length of the squalor and disgusting appearance of many of the
people. You see every condition in life and every shade of color
from the lightest Moor to the darkest Soudanese. You pass fierce-
looking Berbers on horseback, who glare savagely at you. The
Moors stare, the Jews leer, the negroes grin and everywhere, as
you walk, you are followed by a crowd of a score of laughing, jok-
ing boys. The women, of whose persons you see only the eyes — for
they are so enveloped in their coarse white garments, you get no
idea of their figures — stare quite as sharply as the men. In short,
in Mequinez, where, as I have said, no Europeans reside, you find
yourself even more of a curiosity to the people than they are to
you.
From the shops we went to the large gateway which leads from
the city to the Sultan's palace, which is justly regarded as one of
the best sights in Mequinez. On the road we passed a black, whose
eyes had been destroyed by a hot iron for some crime, sitting and
begging piteously. There were many other beggars, all calling
upon the passers-by, in the name of Allah, or of some of their
Saints, for alms. The Bab Mansour el Halj, or Grand Gateway of
Mequinez, is very large, flanked by towers and marble columns with
a beautiful Corinthian style of capitals and bases which have prob-
ably been taken from the ruins of Volubilis. It is covered with
tiles of mosaic-work in beautiful ornamental patterns, a green color
predominating. Along the upper edge are passages from the Koran
in Arabic characters, these being in themselves very decorative.
The lower third part of this superb arch has unfortunately been
restored in white plaster, which, naturally, very much injures the
general appearance. Near this arch is another which is quite as
remarkable for its symmetry and beauty. Having passed through
the great gate you see the rough walls of the Sultan's palace and a
few minarets and small domes and towers just appearing above
them, but you are not permitted to enter. At this gate every
morning early the Pasha comes in state, with a guard of soldiers,
and sits as a judge to dispense justice, after the conventional Bib-
lical fashion.
Next we walked to the Jewish quarter, which is walled off by
MEQUINEZ. 3!
itself in the southwestern part of the city. The street which we
followed was a foot deep in miry muck, and the stench was ter-
rible, but we pursued our way to the house of a rich Jew, enter-
ing through a door not five feet high and passing along a narrow
hall of like height into a most beautiful court, guarded by an iron
grating above and surrounded by the customary small oblong
rooms. The floors and half of the walls were covered with very
pretty tile mosaic-work, the doors were of intricately carved and
colored wood, and the arches of the most graceful patterns and
enriched with plaster arabesques and scrolls, quite after the style
of the famous Moorish palace of Granada — the Alhambra. The
ceilings of the rooms were domed and of intricately carved and
colored woods. The women of the household were engaged in
various domestic duties and yet were clothed in heavy gold-em-
broidered dresses and gay silk bandannas, as if prepared for a fete.
A baby lay in a cradle in one room, and about a dozen children
all as richly dressed as the mother, were lolling around in another.
The chambers, up-stairs, were quite as lavishly decorated as those
below. We went upon the roof, where from a little belvedere, we
looked out upon the city, its walls, and those of the Sultan's
Palace. The city and walls have a very rough-and-tumble appear-
ance from without as from within : apparently nothing is ever re-
paired in Morocco. The male members of the Jew's family were
clothed in long dark gowns and black skull-caps. They also wore
great locks of hair extending outward above the ears like a pair of
horns. They were very amiable people and treated us to aguar-
diente and almonds. From the belvedere we looked down upon
the Jewish cemetery not far distant. The graves are in the usual
Hebrew style, simple outlines of head and foot stone and low
sides joining the two.
We returned to our house through the bazaars. Here horsemen
and loaded camels and donkeys are frequently passing and at cer-
tain hours of the day, with the haggling and fighting buyers, form
an exceedingly animated scene. We visited one fondak that was
crowded with itinerant dealers in second-hand dry goods and
clothes of all sorts. The buyers, men and women, were sitting
about near the walls and the sellers were walking around crying
out the character, quantity and price of their goods. Judging
from the specimens we saw, the filthy habits and surroundings of
the people have resulted in many horrid diseases such as leprosy
and ophthalmia. We noticed also great crowds of beggars, most
32 ACTUAL AFRICA.
of them crippled or greatly disfigured by various disorders. There
was one fondak in which nothing but Manchester goods were sold
and many shops contain European nicknacks of every sort, but the
stocks are so small that an American buyer would probably take
the entire lot and even carry it home with him. In conclusion, I
may remark that the great variety of manufactures and the gen-
eral good quality of the workmanship, considering the inferiority
of their tools or lack of knowledge of their best application, seem
very remarkable. We peeped into the best mosque, and were sur-
prised at its great size. It was of course the conventional quad-
rangle with three rows of arched corridors like those of the famous
mosque of Cordova in Spain, the floor covered with matting and
the ceiling hung with lamps. The entrance was a fine specimen
of a Moorish arch, with fretted and carved plaster and wood-work
above it. The minaret was covered with green tiles and the top
was surmounted by three gilded copper balls and a low flag-staff
with a cross-bar, from which the small flags announcing worship
are suspended. Many of the Moors are large, handsome men ;
the same can, however, hardly be said of the Jews, while the
majority of the mixed races and of the Soudanese are, to say the
least, exceedingly ill-favored people. One sees many Berbers in
Mequinez — wild, barbarous, alert and wiry-looking men. Their
stare at us was always cold and scornful. Occasionally a Moorish
woman in hastily attempting to cover her face would expose
enough of it to give one an opportunity to judge of her features.
I thus saw several shapely, straight noses and several pairs of pen-
etrating, jet-black eyes, but certainly no visage that would by us
be termed beautiful. Besides, most of them were very corpulent.
The Jewish women do not of course cover their features, and
some of them might be called pretty, though their beauty is of a
decidedly sensual character. Both Moorish and Jewish women
marry and have children at twelve years of age, but they fade
rapidly and at thirty are as withered and sickly as occidental
women at seventy. Many of the negroes one sees in Mequinez
are slaves — for the slave-trade in Morocco is as active as ever.
Every rich Moor is apt to own one or more of them. The supply
is drawn from the Soudan and the west coast of Africa. They
are sold on Fridays in the public markets of the interior but
never publicly at any of the seaports owing to adverse European
influence. There is a large traffic in Fez but Morocco city is the
greatest mart for them, where one may frequently see fifty men,
MEQUINEZ. 33
women and children sold at one time. The slave merchants find
the females more profitable from ten to fifteen years of age. Dur-
ing the time of my visit the Moorish caids gave the Sultan and
his son a present of two hundred male and female slaves, to cele-
brate the event of the marriage of the heir to the Moorish throne.
There are in Mequinez some three or four hundred soldiers be-
longing to the Pasha, numbers of strange races from the Soudan,
many dervishes or religious fanatics, and, thanks for our comfort
at night, comparatively few dogs. Though, as with us, there are
often wells in the courtyards of the houses, water also is brought
to Mequinez from the mountains in an aqueduct many miles long
and is received in a reservoir and then distributed about the city
in brick canals. These generally are tapped in the arched niches
of a wall which is covered with pretty tile-work and through
which a spout conducts the water into a large stone tub.
The next day we took a long ride on horseback and visited
first the soko or general market, which is held just without the
walls. I was much surprised at its great size and vast number of
little booths. These run in streets; some of them are of brick
and some simply of bamboo. The open spaces are filled with the
venders of vegetables and fruits, of animals, grain, skins, etc.
The market was full of "all sorts and conditions" of oriental
man, and the hubbub could be heard for at least a quarter of a
mile. Then we rode through one of the city gates and along the
exterior of the walls. Under the great door of the gate was a fine
marble column, lying half sunk in the dirt as a sill. I after-
wards noticed several other columns similarly employed. The
walls of the city average from twenty to fifty feet in height and
from three to six feet in width. They seem mostly to be built of
a sort of concrete which is hardened in sections in wooden frames.
The wall is frequently pierced for musketry. It has towers at
short intervals and huge bastions, quite fifty feet in height, at the
corners. These have large embrasures for cannon but I only
noticed two or three small " pieces." I should say that an ordi-
nary 12-pounder would speedily demolish any walls in the city.
The embrasures are lined with small brick, and the walls seem
occasionally composed of these, but never of cut stone. There is
no moat before the wall. Mequinez is not uniformly surrounded
by one single wall but there are walls within walls and outlying
walls, so that at times it is difficult to tell whether you are riding
within or without the city. We went to the extreme southeast-
34 ACTUAL AFRICA.
ern corner where the reservoir, a great tank about 1,500 by 1,000
feet in extent, is situated. This was full of weeds, frogs and
aquatic birds, and a number of washerwomen were busy plying
their vocation at one side. It seemed to me it was well that
Moorish garments are made without buttons, for they certainly
would not retain them long under the fierce and rapid blows
of great sticks wielded by strong women. The water entered at
one corner in great volume through a brick arched aqueduct per-
haps three feet wide and six high. Leaving the reservoir we
then passed through another gate and out upon the plain to a
walled town or suburb, in great decay and only inhabited by a few
Arabs, but containing a huge mosque, unused at present, and
styled the Sultan's mosque. Keturning to the city we passed the
prison — a great gloomy building with heavy walls and small win-
dows. Before the gate at which we entered, with the customary
vast ridges of decaying offal extending right and left, was an open
space in which were the corpses or skeletons of a score of horses,
camels, mules and donkeys. The flies buzzing hereabouts almost
darkened the sun.
We left for Fez, forty-five miles distant, on the morning of
October 30th, passing through the bazaar and the city and out of
a gate on the northeastern side. Here in a sort of pond were as
many as fifty men and women busily engaged in washing clothes,
the men dancing upon great bundles of them in the most comical
manner. With fine views of the gently-sloping city of white-
walled houses, the green minarets of mosques, and brown walls of
the fortifications, we soon got out of sight of Mequinez, and pro-
ceeded through great orchards of olive trees planted in straight
lines. Leaving the region of gardens and orchards we entered
upon a vast undulating plain covered with palmettos and mimosa
scrub and coarse grass. To the north was sharply limned the
range of mountains we had crossed to reach Mequinez, with its
scattered villages; to the south were long, low ranges of dark
hills. But the plain made a green sea of verdure bounded in
many parts only by the horizon. We crossed several small streams,
some of them on Moorish bridges built of concrete and paved with
small brick and cobble-stones. One of these of five arches, with
its sides delicately colored and ornamented, and a solitary date
palm standing at one end formed one of the most picturesque
sights we had yet seen. We lunched under a spreading olive,
drank good water from a neighboring brook, and bought a couple
MEQUINEZ. 35
of pounds of warm roast mutton from a native vender who had pur-
posely located himself there in order to supply passing travellers.
Besides the coarse scrub of the prairie there were great
patches of a beautiful purple flower, which curiously enough
sprang directly out of the soil without the usual branches and
leaves. As we went on we had splendid views of a large moun-
tain on the left hand streaked on top with a little snow and upon
the right hand away to the southeast, was the grand ridge of
Djebel Ait Youssi or Mount of the Sons of Joseph, covered far
down with great white sheets of snow. This mountain is situated
in one of the branches of the Atlas, and I believe is somewhat
less than two miles in height. The low points to which the snow
descends are therefore the more surprising. During the day we
crossed a sort of ridge between two great plains, and from this
caught a very distant glimpse of the city of Fez. There were
several Arab villages upon these plains, but we passed very few
caravans or even single travellers. At about five in the afternoon
we camped near a douar for the night, having made about thirty
miles during the day. "We were also near the banks of a little
river and were gently put to sleep by the murmuring of its water
over a pebbly bed.
CHAPTER V.
SIGHTS AND SCENES IN" FEZ.
We broke camp at 8.30 A. m., and again took our way to the
east and over the same kind of scrubby plain as on the previous
day. The two ridges of hills were upon our left, comparatively
near, and mountains upon our right, and distant, ran parallel to
our course. Many soldiers passed us on their way to Mequinez.
They were hardly to be distinguished from ordinary travellers, not
having any special dress, and their guns not classifying as espe-
cially military, for in Morocco every one, save those of the lowest
and poorest classes, travels always with a flint-lock musket. We
gradually moved from the sterile country into one of meadows and
fields and had interesting views of Fez, directly ahead. Many
people besides the soldiers were now met. The women often rode
astride behind the men, to whose bodies or arms they clung. The
men were generally mounted upon fine, fiery horses or sometimes
sturdy mules. Occasionally you would see a man sitting sidewise
on a donkey little larger than a St. Bernard dog. When this hap-
pened to be a grave, turbaned, white-headed old Arab, the sight
was very ludicrous. We also met caravans of laden camels and
donkeys, the jolly muleteers passing us either singing, or playing
upon rude flutes. Nearing the city, I noticed that it was pleasantly
situated in a sloping valley, was heavily walled and with its white
houses, occasional green-tiled roofs and minarets, presented a simi-
lar appearance to Mequinez, though I must qualify this assertion
by mentioning that Fez is divided by the little river Mufrassin into
two sections, that south of the river being styled Old Fez and
that to the north New Fez. The part of the city which we were
approaching was the latter, and one remarked a much less decayed
and tumble-down appearance than at Mequinez. We passed three
camps of tents. These were occupied by caids and their followers
selected from each of the mountain tribes, who accompany the
30
SIGHTS AND SCENES IN FEZ. 37
Sultan when he marches through the country to collect his taxes,
which, as I have written, he generally has to do by force, and the
use of his army as well as these faithful adherents. Some exten-
sions of the walls were in progress on this side of the city, Fez hav-
ing outgrown its old limits. These walls are built of a concrete of
mud, chalk, cobble-stones, and, in jiarts, of small bricks, have many
towers and bastions, and seem to be from thirty to fifty feet in
height. Therefore but little of the city appears above them. As
we neared the gate a grand old patriarchal chief, clad all in white,
with an escort in dark blue, passed us at full gallop. We next
rode through a corner of the new part of the city and crossed over
to the old, passing on the left a large cemetery and upon the right
mountains of offal and scores of dead animals in every stage of de-
composition. Soon after entering Old Fez, several of the wealthy
upper-class of Moors rode by, the fineness of their linen and the
general richness of their attire, and their very light and soft com-
plexion indicating more exalted strains of blood and more refine-
ment of life than ordinary, though, be it added, even these gen-
tlemen do not use knives and forks and chairs, but sit cross-legged
upon the ground around a table about a foot high and all thrust
their hands into the same dish, pull a fowl apart with their fingers,
and throw the bones to ever-expectant dogs close beside them.
We entered the bazaar, an ill-paved, dirty, narrow street: — eight
feet wide, and one of the widest in Fez — covered with matting
above and lined with little shops of infinite variety. The great
crowd of people of every color, and style of oriental dress, the
strange uproar of bargaining and wrangling, the uncouth cries of
the street venders, the slowly passing pack-trains and horsemen,
the flashing black eyes and white robes of women, the laughing
.and frolicking boys, made up a most romantic and picturesque yet
quite bewildering scene. All work ceased and all eyes were won-
deringly bent upon the odd strangers as they slipped and turned
and ducked and cried out, " Balak, balak," (Clear the way, clear
the way). Now we would be in the rancid butter and soft-soap
section, as our nostrils plainly informed us, though next they
would be gratefully saluted by odors of all sorts of drugs, perfumes
and delightful spices. So wound we slowly along gradually de-
scending until in some places the street became almost like a stone
staircase and finally, after quite half a mile, squeezed along lanes
just the width of our horses — positively another could not have
passed, but would have been obliged to return — we reached the
38 ACTUAL AFRICA.
house of Omar Barrada, a Moorish friend of my dragoman, and
obtained from him an adjoining floor for our use, with the privi-
lege of taking two of our meals at his table. Our animals were
sent to a neighboring fondak, as at Mequinez.
Soon after our arrival breakfast was served upon a large table
in the open court. In rainy weather a piece of canvas is spread in
a peaked fashion above the courts of the native houses. At the
top is an iron grating where many birds make their homes under
the inner tiles of the roof, so you seem to be sitting in a great
aviary. We were waited upon by female slaves and by one of the
concubines of the host. It may be explained that Mussulmans are
by their religion allowed only four wives, though they may have as
many concubines as they are able to support. The latter live in
the same house as the wife or wives, and make a sort of menagerial
" happy family," though frequently there are rivalries, jealousies
and quarrels, as might naturally be expected. Everything here is
exactly prescribed by the Koran for the Moors, as for Mussulmans
everywhere. It is the same from Fez to Calcutta. The cut of the
clothes, the style of wearing the hair and beard, the daily habits
and usages are always inflexibly the same. The wife of our host
we did not see nor were likely to see ; she remained hidden up-
stairs and all covered save the eyes. The concubines and slaves
are uncovered in the house but covered in the street. The china-
closet of our host was exceedingly limited, though he was a rich
man. There were no two glasses of the same size or shape, nor
hardly any two plates or dishes. Towels served for napkins. First
came mutton soup, then a mixture of delicate bits of beef from
the head of the animal, with tomatoes, pumpkins and peppers ;
next roast beef-tongue and fried sweet potatoes. A good native
white wine was lavishly served with all these and great slabs of
the dark, rich Moorish bread were added. Afterwards followed"
bunches of white grapes the size of one's head, little red apples the
size of one's thumb, and red-ripe pomegranates. Cups of stroug
black coffee concluded the meal.
The salient points of a Moorish house are all in the interior ;
the exterior shows only whitewashed walls, which are often dingy,
dirty and dilapidated. But having crawled through the low
door and narrow hall, you step at once into the courtyard, with
its surrounding rooms and usually another suite above. You
always find rich and elaborate ornamental tile-work, either of
glazed bricks or of marble and stucco. There will be a high
SIGHTS AND SCENES IN FEZ. 39
wainscot of these in all the rooms. The doors will be high,
double, carved and painted. A great colored glass lantern will be
suspended over the centre of the court. The staircases will be
very steep and with exceedingly high steps. The rooms will con-
tain raised floors at the ends for beds and possibly a low elevation
along the side for ottomans, but you will probably find neither
tables nor chairs. The floors are often covered with rich rugs.
Above the doors is generally an elaborate filigree or perforated
ornamentation, often in colors in imitation of screens and exactly
like those with which the Alhambra abounds and which have
been made familiar to those who have not had the satisfaction
of seeing the originals, by many books and pictures. Horse-shoe
arches and columns, cornices and niches in the interior walls are
also specialties in Moorish houses. Soon after we were settled in
our " flat " the rain began to fall heavily, and so continued for the
remainder of the day. Although we were over a stable at least
we congratulated ourselves we were under a roof and not camping
in the open.
The Sultan being in Fez at present and having a very large
following with him — it is " the season " whenever His Highness is
in town — it is extremely difficult to get a good house, and many
visitors are obliged to camp outside the walls. There are no Euro-
peans living in Fez excepting such as may come and go with the
Sultan and who hold official positions in the army. There are
thus engaged two Englishmen, two Frenchmen, three Italians, a
German and several Spaniards. It is understood at least by the
foreigners resident in Tangier, that these officers, under the guise
of being instructors of the Sultan's troops, are simply sent on pri-
vate missions to keep their respective governments posted as to
the condition and prospects of political and commercial affairs in
the Empire. The population of Fez, which is the principal city
in the country, is put at 100,000 : of these, 75,000 are Moors and
Arabs, 10,000 Berbers, Jews 10,000, and negroes 5,000.
Whenever we had any spare time we usually spent it in the
bazaars, which we found of unfailing curiosity and interest. For
greater safety the city is portioned into many districts, the streets
of which are divided from each other by means of great wooden
doors. It is no trouble of course thus to close a street barely six
feet in width. Fez is quite unlighted at night. The gates of the
city and of the inner barriers are closed about 9 p. m., when the
people are generally all at home. If they have occasion to go
40 ACTUAL AFRICA.
abroad after that hour they generally light their steps with a lan-
tern. The water which one sees running everywhere in fountains,
in open trenches, and in basins near the entrances of the mosques,
comes either from the river which courses through the heart of
the city or else from an aqueduct which brings it from springs in
distant hills. Now we passed a school and heard the boys (the
girls never go to school) conning in unison their lessons in the
Koran and its commentators, possibly also in alchemy and astrol-
ogy ; next we peered into an enormous mosque filled with worship-
pers, some prone upon the floor, others sitting and mumbling in
solemn assembly their long-drawn-out prayers. Then we smelt
and saw the shops of ready-cooked and cooking meat, the savory
kefta, hashed spiced meat broiling upon iron skewers ; afterward
we wondered at the splendid display of ripe fruit in another stall
or of dried fruit in still another. The variety of shops was im-
mense, the crowds of people enormous. It was a wonderful, an
odd, almost weird panorama, but one of which having had a
hasty, general impression, a mere look and taste, one would wish
to observe the curious detail in sections and at leisure. The mat-
ting over the streets of the bazaar is frequently utilized as a grape-
trellis, and you often halt in wonder at the sight of a vine quite
six inches in diameter. This street covering keeps out most of
the sun and part of the rain, but it also shuts off much of the
light. The widest and longest street — the business street, par ex-
cellence— is styled the Kaisaria, which means literally the Grand
Bazaar. There are very many crooked branches connected with
this, often an entire alley being devoted to a single manufacture.
The general bazaar is very large, there being a great commerce be-
tween Fez and interior provinces, her manufactures being famous
throughout the Empire. The Moors are natural-born shopkeepers.
They generally at first demand about double the prices they are
willing eventually to take, and it requires considerable patience
and some tact to effect a satisfactory bargain. At many of the
street corners we noticed basins of drinking water ; at others
coffee-sellers would be squatting at the side of the road — a large
tin pot resting upon an earthenware dish of live coals, and a few
cups constituting their entire outfit. Business hours in Fez are
short and when negotiations are not in progress, you often see
the shopkeepers curled up asleep in their little booths. Some-
times there are two men together — one of whom is asleep, the
other serving customers. You must not however regard the
SIGHTS AND SCENES IN FEZ. 41
former as a " sleeping partner," for each man owns his own stock
and is in business for himself alone.
In passing from our house to and from the bazaar, we always
glanced in at the many gates of the great mosque of El Karoubin,
the most important place of worship in Fez. It appeared to be
about four hundred feet square, had very many beautiful gates,
fountains, pavilions and 365 pillars. Its minaret however is sur-
passed in height by that of the mosque of Muley Edris, already
referred to as the founder of Fez. The mosque of El Karoubin
is the correct place for women to pray, and, in fact, they are not
allowed in any other. There is a library of ancient books con-
nected with El Karoubin, from which several valuable Eoman
classics have already come, and more are believed to exist there,
but it is of course impossible for any Christian to obtain permis-
sion to search for them. Opposite the mosque is a boys' school.
There are many of these in Fez, and also a university, where
grammar, logic and metaphysics are taught. Fez was once famous
as a seat of learning, and students flocked to it from many distant
lands.
One afternoon, accompanied by our host and his nephew gayly
dressed and mounted upon fiery chargers, we paid a visit to an
Englishman named John H. MacLean, a general of the Sultan's
army, in which he has now served sixteen years as an instructor and
commander. We rode slowly through the filthy streets of the city,
grazing our shins against the houses, or drawing up so that all other
horsemen might squeeze past. We finally crossed by a concrete
bridge the rushing river that bisects Fez — its force being utilised
by numerous mills lining its banks — and then passed on between
walls twice our height, mounted as we were, until in a short time
we halted at a gate and entered a beautiful orchard of peaches,
oranges and pomegranates, filled with flowers, singing birds and
canals of clear running water. As we approached a simple native
house, General MacLean came forth to greet us, a short, thick-set
gentleman about fifty years of age, and dressed in Moorish costume,
a dark blue suit, with a much-braided and many-buttoned jacket,
a flowing white cloak, brown leather riding boots and steel spurs,
a red tarboosh and white turban. With his brown skin, beard
worn in native fashion, and fluent Arabic talk, he might readily
have been mistaken for a native. He said he had but a few days
before returned with a part of the army from a raid which the
Sultan had made upon some of his utterly lawless, non-taxpaying
5
42 ACTUAL AFRICA.
subjects, that they had as usual been victorious, and that as
proof of their prowess twenty-seven heads of the slain had been
suspended for several days above a gate in Mequinez, then in Fez,
and now had just been sent to Morocco city. This grisly spectacle
was intended as a warning and timely suggestion to intending
rebels. The general told me the Sultan had thirty thousand regu-
lar troops — cavalry, infantry and a few battalions of light moun-
tain-artillery. About half the army are negroes and there are also
many Bedouins. The troops are armed mostly with the Martini-
Henry rifle, and a few with the Winchester. He described the
best of the troops as fairly well organized and disciplined. The
Moors are born horsemen and they are very plucky and brave.
Being fatalists, believing that all things happen by inevitable ne-
cessity, that when a man is born the day of his death is registered,
and that " cowardice will save no one from his fate," in a certain
sense they have nothing to lose and hence fight with the greatest
gallantry and determination. As the troops, after their recent
service had been granted a furlough I did not have an opportunity
to witness any manoeuvres or parades, or even to observe them in
camp or garrison.
It being Sunday, we next visited the soko or open-air market,
which is held along and about a road running out from the western
part of the city or New Fez. This market is held on Sundays and
Thursdays as at Tangier. We found a crowd of several thousand
people engaged in selling produce and animals. The story-tellers
and snake-charmers were also present and were the centre of ad-
miring circles, which at pauses in their entertainments, when the
flutes and tom-toms played, showered copper coins into their midst.
The snake-charmer performed with two hideous grayish serpents
said to be very poisonous. They were about three feet long and as
much as four inches in diameter. His entertainment consisted of
little more than holding and handling the reptiles and of talking
and singing to them. They appeared to me to be in a very dor-
mant condition, as if drugged or stupefied by some means. We
were accompanied by our soldier as upon all our excursions, and
whenever we halted to look at anything were at once made the
centre of astonished crowds and through the bazaars were always
followed by a rabble, mostly of boys, though occasionally also of
men. Leaving the soko, with its very extraordinary concourse of
people, we rode to the old Kasbah or Citadel, occupying a hill to the
north of the city. From here a splendid view of Old Fez and of
SIGHTS AND SCENES IN FEZ. 43
most of New Fez and the adjacent valley and surrounding hills, may
be had. The city seems crowded in the bottom of a valley extending
in an easterly and westerly direction, with a very decided slope, the
Mufrassin river running from west to east through this valley and
joining the Seboo, which may be plainly seen, to the eastward.
The easterly and westerly sections of the town are connected by
great expanses of green orchards, the appearance of the two parts
of the town at each end reminding one of the shape of an hour-
glass. On nearly every side also the city is surrounded by gardens
and orchards. On a rough hill on the opposite side of the town
was a similar citadel to that near where we stood and a large Moor-
ish cemetery, with its graves simply outlined by low ridges of
stones, with an occasional headstone and with several low, domed
towers, the special burial places of marabouts, saints or holy men.
The flat-roofed houses of the eastern part of the city had a terrace-
like effect owing to the steep pitch of the land. In the opposite
end appeared the many huge walls of the Sultan's palace, the
green-tiled minaret of his special mosque and the roofs of several
tombs. A dozen spires of mosques rose above the city, a few grace-
ful date-palms peeped forth, a heavy arched gateway caught the
eye for a moment, which next found rest in a velvety grove of olive
trees, or the distant green meadow land. It was altogether an ex-
ceedingly fascinating prospect, with an interest quite strange and
romantic. From its situation Fez ought to be well drained, and
from the great quantity of water everywhere at hand in the river
and the reservoirs, and the fountains so widely distributed, it ought
and might be made clean, but it is probably the filthiest city in the
world. The stench in the Jews' quarter, which we afterward vis-
ited, was so great that we felt quite unable to wait in the street for
a gentleman, upon whom we called, and for whom some of his
family had gone in quest. There are a number of curious caves in
the hill whence our view was taken. The pudding-stone formation
of these is filled with petrified bones, probably of old Moors, pos-
sibly of prehistoric men.
As we entered the Jews' quarter, in the southwestern part of
Fez, we passed the very ostentatious entrance to the new cartridge
factory, which some Italian officers are having constructed for the
Sultan. I had a letter of introduction to a rich Jew named Moses
Ben Amor Benazuli, by whom we were received with great cor-
diality. His house was situated near the entrance to the Sultan's
palace enclosure. In fact, it is so near to some extensions that the
44 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Sultan had been recently making, that this despot had built solid
walls against those of the Jew's house, thus closing all his win-
dows, for fear he might perchance look upon some of the women
of the harem, or perhaps learn a little of what was going on in
court circles. The lighting of the rooms and their ventilation
are thus ruined. Several other Jews in the immediate neighbor-
hood have been similarly treated. So it seems is this unfortunate
race persecuted and harassed the world over. Mr. Benazuli's is
one of the finest of the distinctly Moorish style of house I have
seen. It is one mass of color in the interior. Everywhere you see
rich and pretty tile mosaics, fretted stucco-work and carved and
painted wood-work. Floor, wall and ceiling produce different
effects in spots of mixed colors. In the tiles, blue and white seem
to preponderate; in the stucco white, gold and vermillion; in
the carved wood red, brown and yellow. Behind some of the ex-
quisite perforated windows or screens the light streams in through
beautiful stained glass. The tile-work is continuous from base-
ment and street-door to staircases and roof. Mr. Benazuli's family
were busy attending to various household duties, all the women
being gayly and richly dressed in red brocaded skirts, gold-braided
jackets, and horn-shaped turbans made of bright-colored silk hand-
kerchiefs. Great gold circlets were worn in their ears, and their
naked feet were thrust into yellow-leather slippers. The women
were fat, dumpy, little creatures. The girls were very pretty, with
their soft, olive-tinted skin, heavy dark hair, large lustrous eyes
and shining white teeth. The male members of the family were
dressed in dark gowns and skull-caps, and affected shoes and stock-
ings. All wore the customary tufts of long hair projecting over
the ears. Mr. Benazuli detained us to breakfast, which was served
in a little alcove of the court, around which a wooden bench had
been built. Our host alone sat at table with us. Small glasses of
aguardiente were first taken as appetizers. The leading course
was a delicious fish, caught in the Seboo river and resembling the
sea-mullet, served with garlic and a side-dish of radishes. Then
came a stew of mutton, with onions and quinces, accompanied by
a cucumber salad. A fine, home-made, red wine, resembling sherry,
escorted this course and was retained to the end of the meal.
Next followed a chicken soup and to this succeeded a boiled fowl.
Dessert began with a large plate of pomegranates, flavored with
rose-water, in which three spoons were placed and from which
the host and his two guests similarly ate. Walnuts and dates came
SIGHTS AND SCENES IN FEZ. 45
next and then candied lemon-peel. Tea flavored with mint, and
cigarettes closed a meal whose quality was to one at least more
grateful than its quantity. A short time after breakfast Mr. Bena-
zuli ordered his mule saddled, and accompanied us upon a long
ride on the northern hills, from the western to the eastern extrem-
ity of the city. We reached once again the locality of the cave,
passed through the old Moorish cemetery, and then between rich
orchards fenced in on either hand by thorn barriers backed by high
cane hedges. The orchards were full of singing birds, whose music
added to the general charm of the place. On the way back we
passed the mosque of Muley Edris, the founder of Fez, who is
venerated as a saint and whose remains are deposited here. This
mosque is the most sacred in the country and is said to be a sanc-
tuary for the most atrocious criminals. Its minaret is the loftiest
and handsomest in Fez. In returning we were obliged to make
a long detour in order to enter a special gate, that nearest to us
being the one by which the revered prophet, Muley Edris, entered
the city and no Christian being on this account permitted to pass
through it.
There are no specially fine edifices in Fez architecturally con-
sidered. There are of course what might be styled public build-
ings, such as the hospital for lunatics, which is richly endowed ;
the baths, containing water from the river ; the university, once
so famous ; and the caravansaries, of which there are said to be as
many as two hundred distributed about the city. There are many
public baths in which steam is used. The price is two cents each
for a native. Frequently a Moor will hire one of them for himself
and friends in the evening, and thus enjoy the privacy of home.
The Sultan's palace is the best in Morocco, and is his favorite resi-
dence. We crossed an old stone bridge of a single arch thrown
across the torrent Mufrassin, and soon thereafter entered once
again the city and reached our temporary home.
CHAPTEE VI.
A HOLY CITY.
At three o'clock in the afternoon of November 4th, in a pour-
ing rain, we left Fez for the town of Wezzan, camping for the
night near a little hamlet about six miles from the capital. The
next morning we were off in good season, though the rain was
falling heavily. The road was in a terrible condition, in parts a
perfect morass. We soon left the great plain, at the eastern ex-
tremity of which Fez is situated, and travelled in a westerly and
northwesterly direction through a very rough hilly country, part
in palmetto scrub and coarse grass but the greater part in culti-
vated fields, now fallow, but from which crops had recently been
reaped. The Arab villages were scattered far apart, but there
seemed the usual number of flocks of sheep and goats attended
each by two or three shepherds, but no dogs. The miserable curs
of the country are probably too stupid to learn the care of sheep.
Towards night we crossed a ridge and then saw away before us
Djebel Tselfa, the sharp peak which was in sight for several days
when on our way to Mequinez. "We had upon our left during
most of the day a fine ridge of hills thickly dotted with beautiful
large groves of olives and a few villages, and one walled town
situated in a seemingly impregnable position. Passing on we
noticed among the hills upon the left an amphitheatre, near each
extremity of which was situated a small town. The semicircle
from these points sloped evenly away to the lower hills. It was a
natural formation that had been taken advantage of by the natives
in a very remarkable manner. The towns looked as if the very
smallest of landslips would send both down into the plain. We
camped near a small village and near us were two caravans, one
of camels, the other of mules, and both carrying general Euro-
pean merchandise to Fez. We made about thirty miles this day.
In the morning we journeyed on through a hilly region, the
46
A HOLY CITY. 47
greater part of it being extremely fertile land used for crops of
corn, millet, barley and wheat. Just then the fields were white
with thistles, but the farmers were beginning to plough them, as
is customary as soon as the rainy season begins. All day long we
saw these men with their wooden ploughs, little more than crooked
sticks shod with iron, which do not turn the soil for a depth of
more than three or four inches. But this is enough, for the soil
is very fertile. They use, indiscriminately, teams of donkeys,
mules, or oxen, and often one animal will be double the size of
the other. Frequently an ox and a mule are harnessed together
and occasionally a camel and a donkey. The last is an enter-
taining misfit. The plough is drawn by a cross-bar attached to its
tongue and passing under the belly of the animal behind the fore-
legs. It is drawn by an ordinary collar, but the appearance of the
cross-bar is very striking. There is but one handle to the plough.
After the ploughing, a man follows with a basket and scatters the
seed broadcast, or sometimes the seed is spread first and then
ploughed in. The farmers do not use any sort of fertiliser in these
fields. We passed a few villages but no towns. The effect of the
recent heavy rains was everywhere perceptible. Two weeks before
everything was brown and sand-like. Now the hills were half-
green, the bottoms of the valleys wholly so, and grass was spring-
ing up even in the road. The streams were naturally very much
swollen, and it was with some difficulty we were able to ford the
Seboo river, here and then about three hundred feet wide. If
the rains continued a few days it could only be passed by swim-
ming, and this with considerable danger, owing to the force of the
current. In several of the fields women, many of them with babies
strapped to their backs, were collecting thistles for fuel, and sing-
ing merrily the while. During the afternoon we experienced an
exceedingly heavy shower, which in ten minutes turned the road
into a quagmire. The farmers simply turned their backs to the
storm and squatted down by their ploughs until it passed, when they
threw off their outer wet garments and resumed their work. The
appearance and dress of many of the people in Morocco and the
occupations and professions both of those in town and country
strongly recall the Biblical history and the scenes to be witnessed
to-day in Syria. Travellers often saluted us with " Salaam alei-
koom," peace be with you, to which we gravely replied " Aleikoom
salaam," with you be peace. We camped for the night on a
ridge commanding a beautiful and extensive view of the fertile
48 ACTUAL AFRICA.
plain and the tortuous Seboo to the west, and of encircling hills
to the other sides. The chief of the village near our camp sent us
a present of fowls and eggs, and of barley for our animals.
Towards noon the next day we reached the Werga river, a short
distance above its junction with the Seboo. It was so high from
the recent rains and its current was running so swiftly we found
it necessary to cross in a scow, which had to make three ferriages
in order to carry all our baggage and animals. This necessitated
a delay of two hours. Then we pressed on, passing several Arab
villages and finally camping near one, with the mountain on which
was Wezzan plainly visible directly ahead to the north. As we
were pitching our camp a characteristic picture of Moorish life
presented itself. The muezzin in the neighboring village gave the
conventional call to prayers, when several men sitting near us in
the open plain, immediately removed their slippers, faced the
mosque, and gravely began their prayers, bowing, kneeling, and
touching the earth with their foreheads in perfect unison. The
chief of the village sent us two enormous bowls of kous-koussou,
which, having already dined plentifully upon partridge and snipe,
we were obliged to bestow upon our men.
We made an early start the following day. After noon the
scene became more picturesque, the country being hillocky. To
the eastward were many distant ranges of mountains, one or two
bearing streaks of snow. We crossed a small river and followed its
winding, oleander-fringed banks for many miles. At about three
o'clock the density of the olive and fig orchards, and the partial
pavement and railing of the road told us we were nearing a town,
and soon thereafter we spied through the trees the houses of Wez-
zan, built upon a steep hill facing towards the east and reaching
down into a very fertile valley. The son of the Shereef, a friend
of my dragoman, gave us the use of a little house near the centre
of the town. In the courtyard was a spouting fountain, the basin
of which was full of gold-fish, and at one side a great tank into
which cool, clean water was continually running, the gently mur-
muring sound of which was calculated to favor somnolence both
by night and day. The court was full of flowers in beds and pots
and pretty vines, nestling in which were many sweetly-singing
birds. Around this agreeable square were our rooms, and one
which we allotted to our cook and kitchen. Wezzan is a resort of
pious pilgrims on account of its being the residence of an old
gentleman styled the Shereef of Wezzan, who being, it is said,
A HOLT CITY. 49
directly descended from the great Moslem Prophet, is regarded
and worshipped as a living saint. Generally saints only attain their
degree of sanctity after death, but here is a live specimen of the
customary supernatural species. Wezzan is therefore regarded as
a holy city, but unlike the town of Muley Edris, Christians and
Jews are allowed to enter it. Still it evidently is not very often
thus visited, for we found ourselves the objects of the very liveliest
curiosity, and as we dismounted to enter our house the street was
nearly blocked with citizens. Soon after our arrival the Shereef
sent us a tea-tray, nicely furnished with colored china and brittania-
metal tea-pot, a caddy of green tea — the Moors do not like black
tea — and a box of sugar. Accompanying the tray was a copper
stand containing a pot of live charcoal, upon which stood an urn
of boiling water. The water used in Wezzan comes from the hills
through an aqueduct. Owing to the sloping situation of the town,
it is conducted in little canals through the courtyards of the better
class of houses. One of the wives of the Shereef was an English-
woman to whom he had been married sixteen years and by whom
he had had two or three children. We had expected to see the
Shereef, but as he was very ill at the time of our visit, we were
not able to gratify our curiosity, not even his own children being
allowed to visit him at this time.
The hill tribes hereabouts are very fierce and arrogant. They
acknowledge no dependence upon the Sultan, and fight him
wdienever he comes near them. As they have a considerable ad-
vantage in their mountain fastnesses, the Sultan generally leaves
them alone and does not attempt to collect revenue from them
as from other tribes. They are great robbers and make no diffi-
culty about despatching a man who resists their demands. The
people of Wezzan never travel through this section of country
without being heavily armed. A very amiable and peaceable-
looking old gentleman who called upon us — the conversation turn-
ing upon these refractory hill tribes — somewhat surprised us by
lifting his burnoose and disclosing a huge revolver of well-known
American manufacture. And he informed us that nearly every
one went similarly protected. Though there are many tribes I
may say that the people of Morocco are roughly and broadly
divided into two great classes — Moors and Jews. The remote
ancestors of the former are believed to have come originally from
the east, from Egypt probably. One continually remarks a simi-
larity in very many things between the Moslems here and in
50 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Egypt. The Jews are the descendants of the Spanish Jews who
were driven from Spain a few centuries ago. These two great
classes thoroughly despise each other, and the Jews are nearly
always obliged to live apart by themselves in a separately walled
part of the towns. But the Jew here has the recognized charac-
teristics of his race the world over. He seems always thrifty and
well-to-do, and often richly independent. He trades and bar-
gains and acts as usurer and always gets on, in a worldly sense.
He is humble and servile, unctuous and specious. The Moor on
the other hand is proud and haughty, fierce and domineering.
His every look and movement betokens the master.
Leaving Wezzan at nine in the morning, we travelled all day
through a beautiful hilly region. It was in fact the finest scenery
we had yet enjoyed in Morocco. We crossed the Lucus river, the
same that enters the ocean at Larache ; here we easily forded its
muddy current. We saw numbers of Arab villages, of shepherds
tending large flocks of sheep and singing merrily the while, of
herds of sleek cattle, and of a few travellers by the road. Dur-
ing the afternoon we met some of the mountain tribes who are at
present in revolt against the Sultan, and who could not enter any
of the towns without risk of arrest. A number of these, all armed
with the long-barreled guns of the country, were quite drunk, and
one jokingly remarked to his friends as we passed, " Here is one
for each of us," and pointed his gun at me, but the sudden click
of a " Winchester " put at full-cock caused him to quickly change
his mind and continue on his way with his hilarious comrades,
cracking jokes at the expense of the foreign travellers. We marched
slowly on over hill and through valley, up and down and down
and up, until at 7 p. m. we reached the outskirts of El Kasr once
more and encamped on the east side near the walls, receiving a
night-watch in due course from the city. We made this day and
the following about seventy miles on the direct route to Tangier.
The rain and wind were heavy. We had to wait on the bank of
one little river for the tide to ebb before we could cross. We next
passed several large lakes and marshes, which at certain seasons
are much resorted to by hunters for the sport of pig-sticking —
killing wild boar, which are plenteous, with spears. In winter
and early spring boar hunts are organized at Tangier, and the
sportsmen proceed to the lakes, where they camp. Notice of the
spot where the boar hounds meet is given at the hotels in Tangier
and Gibraltar. The boars found are larger and blacker than those
A Moorish Soldier.
A HOLY CITY. 51
met with elsewhere in the mountains and hills, being a cross be-
tween the latter and some Spanish boars introduced by a former
British Minister to Morocco. They are not generally shot, but
preserved for spearing. There is also good snipe-shooting at the
lakes in the season.
Here I should like to add something further concerning the
douars or villages of the Arab farmers and shepherds, which are
scattered all over the Empire. There does not seem to be any
especially favorite situation for them. You see them in the plains,
on the steep sides of the hills, on their ridges, and often on their
seemingly inaccessible tops. There are several sorts of these vil-
lages. Some consist wholly of low tents, others of straw and cane
huts, others of mud and unburned brick, occasionally you will
notice in the larger ones many houses of uncut stone, with tiled
roofs, and frequently you find all these styles included in one
hamlet. In size these villages extend from three or four houses
to, say, a hundred ; above that, we should probably have the walled
town. Sometimes you observe a village of tents arranged in a
large circle, again in a great quadrangle, the interior being open
and vacant, or used for the safe-keeping of cattle at night. All of
these villages are more or less protected from thieves or intruders
and from straying cattle or prowling wild animals by narrow, shal-
low, waterless ditches and by massive hedges of the prickly-pear
cactus or of the agave, or of the acacia nettles and thistles of the
plains, matted together in great barriers through which no man
or animal could possibly pass. Sometimes these ramparts will
surround the entire village ; often each hut will have its own.
Generally just beyond the dwellings, and surrounded by a cactus
or other fence, will be some gardens filled with vegetables or or-
chards of olives, figs, oranges and pomegranates. There appears to
be no fear that any produce of this sort will be stolen by the not
small part of the population who live by thieving, for the only
care seems to be taken to guard their domestic animals. The
great packs of ugly, ill-favored mongrel curs which so much dis-
turb the traveller's rest, are no doubt a great protection to the vil-
lagers. Even a native finds it almost impossible to enter in the
daytime a village where he does not dwell, for the dogs rush at
him and grab at his naked shins in most discouraging fashion,
while for a stranger of other visage and dress, it is absolutely
necessary first to get the people to " call off their dogs " before
attempting to penetrate the town. I found that the natives did
BOSTON UNfVStfSITY
T)lLfQF Of i iocdii A1
52 ACTUAL AFRICA.
not generally like to have me enter their villages or huts, and this
was always, so far as I could learn, because they did not wish me to
see their women. They never made any objection to our camping
next their hedges, in fact the chiefs would always come to welcome
us, to point out the best locations, and bring us food for ourselves
and animals. But the complaisant and mildly persistent traveller
can accomplish much. He would find the mud-walled and straw-
thatched houses of oblong shape ; possibly many of the straw ones
in form like candle extinguishers, and reminding one of scenes in
the centre of the continent ; the tents would all be of the same
pattern, low, flat and almost square, with a little ridge in the
centre of the roof to shed the rain. He would find the dwellings
all mixed up, so to speak, with narrow and crooked lanes running
between them. Possibly the little house of the chief might have
two stories, but that would probably be the only one to reach
such unusual height. If the village was of any importance there
would undoubtedly be some sort of a mosque or a substitute for
one. Most of the men — the farmers and shepherds — are away in
the fields all day. Many of the women are also absen\ during
more or less of the day, drawing water from the wells, washing
clothes at a river's bank, gathering fire-wood, or thorns for the
village chevaux-de-frise, but never working in the fields with the
men or tending cattle with or without them. The men are far
too jealous to permit this. But you may find the women when at
home engaged in many household duties, such as weaving, baking
bread, washing clothes, etc.
We reached Tangier on the afternoon of the 13th, having been
absent in the interior just one month, during which we travelled
about five hundred miles. Had it been earlier in the season I
should have also visited Morocco city, but, as I have said, the
heavy rains and prospect of more, caused me to abandon the idea.
For a similar reason we changed our plan of returning from
Wezzan to Tangier by the way of Tetuan — where I wished to see
some palaces similar in architecture to the Alcazar of Seville and
the Alhambra of Granada — and took the more direct road. Other-
wise we would have been compelled to take a route through the
mountains, where the rains would have been heavier and their
effects more disagreeable and dangerous than upon the plains and
more open country.
CHAPTER VII.
MOROCCO TO ALGERIA.
On the 17th I took passage in a little steamer of the French
Compagnie Generate Transatlantique for Oran in Algeria, touch-
ing on the way at the ports of Gibraltar, Malaga, Melilla and
Nemours. Our vessel was of about 1,200 tons burden, clean and
comfortable, and furnishing a good table, with white and red wine
and cognac included in the fixed price. The passengers were few
in number but diverse in nationality. We had a pleasant sail of
about three hours across to Gibraltar. The great "Rock "shone
resplendent in the afternoon sun. It is hard to believe that the
town contains so many as 20,000 people, or, including the British
garrison, nearly 25,000 ; but the houses are of many stories each,
and very compactly placed. It is of course a " garrison town " and
not a colony, being under martial law, and the gates closing at
8 p. m. Permission to reside must be obtained from the governor.
Near the landing-place we were given tickets by an English officer
on which was printed, " Permit until first evening gunfire." This
means that with this ticket in your possession you will be allowed
to leave the town and return on board your steamer not later than
5.30 p. M. After that hour it will be necessary to exchange this
ticket for another, extending the time. I paid my second visit to
the Queen's Gallery, cut inside the " Rock " at its northern end.
It was not just then permitted to visit St. George's Hall, nor the
other galleries, which are several miles in extent, as the British
authorities were engaged in building new batteries all along the
crest. Nor might you then visit the Signal Tower, 1,300 feet, from
which there is such an extensive view. I may here refresh the
memories of my readers by stating that the famous Rock of Gibral-
tar is about two-and-one-half miles long from north to south by
three-fourths of a mile broad. Its highest point is a little less than
1,500 feet. Its wonderful resemblance in outline to a lion, lying
53
54: ACTUAL AFRICA.
outstretched with his head upon his paws, as you see in any well-
stocked menagerie, has been often remarked. The best point from
which to realize this effect is found in approaching from the straits
and the Atlantic.
Gibraltar, the ancient Calpe, the European " Pillar of Her-
cules," is about fifteen miles distant across the straits from Ceuta,
the ancient Abyla, the African " Pillar of Hercules." Of course
no gun of the thousand mounted in the fortifications has so great
a range as this. The furthest reach of any here placed is about
six miles, so that a hostile fleet could easily pass, especially as there
is deep water and no obstruction to navigation, quite up to the
barren rocks of Apes' Hill. But although the " Eock " does not
in this sense command the straits, yet in conjunction with a strong
British fleet, it could readily do so. Moreover Gibraltar in the
event of war would be of the greatest service to England as an
outfitting, refitting, provisioning and coaling station. The fortifi-
cations began with the Moorish castle of Tarik, the conqueror of
Spain in A. d. 711, and were continued by the Spanish kings. But
they were first greatly strengthened and improved when the Eng-
lish took possession in 1704, and more especially since the great siege
of 1779-'83. Now again owing to the rapid improvements and
changes in modern fortifications and war methods, it has been found
necessary to make new batteries, mounting heavier and other styles of
guns, and hence the restriction of travellers to which I have alluded.
During the night we proceeded to Malaga, where we arrived
with the daylight. Upon going on deck we found ourselves anch-
ored in a little harbor, a basin formed by two projecting moles.
Here were half a dozen small steamers and many trading vessels
and fishing-boats. The city lay in a circular form around us, but
owing to its comparatively low position in a plain, showed but a
mere fringe. Bough and ragged hills extended in each direction.
Upon a mound towards the right was an old Moorish castle with
its extending walls. Below this and down nearly to a level with
the sea was one of the ever-present bull-rings. The central part
of the town disclosed neat-looking, much-balconied houses, four
and five stories in height, among which were especially accentuated
the large yellow building of the Custom-house and the splendid
massive cathedral. Away to the left were many smoking chim-
neys, and buildings resembling factories. In fact, such they were,
for in Malaga are many sugar and cotton mills, and iron and barrel
works. The population of Malaga is 135,000. The sights of the
MOROCCO TO ALGERIA. 55
city are not many nor great ; but there is a really grand and im-
posing cathedral built of a hard brown stone, which takes a good
polish, and ornamented and faced in parts with different colored
marbles. Only one of the towers has been completed, and from its
summit a splendid view may be had of the city, the surrounding
hills and distant mountains, the harbor and the shipping. The
architecture of this church is of various schools ; there are many
and prominent Corinthian columns without and huge pillars bor-
dering the nave within. The ceiling is beautifully carved in many
concave domes like those pertaining to Norman architecture. The
wood-carving in the choir is also good. There are some excel-
lent paintings. This vast and massive cathedral was begun by
Philip II. (1527). The neighboring Episcopal Palace has a fine
marble facade above and about its doorway. The Alameda fur-
nishes about the only shade of the city, has a curious marble
fountain, and forms a very agreeable promenade, though the beg-
gars— hideous cripples and diseased people — are most annoyingly
importunate here and elsewhere throughout the city. The market
I found especially well supplied with fish and vegetables, and with
fruits — Muscatel raisins, figs, almonds, chirimoyos (or custard-ap-
ples), olives, pomegranates, lemons, oranges, loquats (or Japanese
and Chinese medlars, which were brought over by the Moors more
than four hundred years ago). A tramway built and owned by
an English company runs from the railway station through the
town to a suburb called Caleta, where most of the rich merchants
and the consuls reside. I got a very good breakfast with mountain
wine (Valdepeflas) at a fine large hotel near the Alameda. Around
the courtyard, with its pretty marble fountain in the centre, were
comfortable lounges and tables for refreshments, both wet and dry.
The hills about Malaga are all vine-clad. The trade of the
place consists principally of wine, olive oil, raisins and the well-
known grapes. Malaga is besides famous for its mild and even
climate, there being here none of the sudden and violent changes
so frequent in the Kiviera. It is consequently much resorted to
by invalids in winter. At eight in the evening our steamer left
for Melilla, like Tetuan a Spanish town, though in Morocco.
From Malaga our cargo consisted largely of wine and raisins.
We experienced a very bad cross-sea, and had a terribly rough
night of it, nearly everybody being sea-sick. In the morning
early I went on deck and saw a range of rugged and bare moun-
tains similar to Apes' Hill, opposite Gibraltar. The sea was still
56 ACTUAL AFRICA.
so high that the captain decided to pass Melilla — where the landing
is at all times more or less difficult — and go on to Nemours, which
is a little more sheltered, though here also in heavy weather ves-
sels must run for cover to the Zaffarin islands or the harbor of
Benie Saf to the eastward. We passed then the Cape of Tres
Forcas, Melilla and the small Zaffarin islands, all looking rocky,
steep and bare of vegetation. The islands belong to Spain. "We
reached Nemours about noon. This is the first seaport within
the limits of Algeria to one coming from the west. The boun-
dary between Algeria and Morocco is but twenty miles dis-
tant. We dropped anchor in an open roadstead perhaps half a
mile from shore. Before us, facing a fine semi-circular beach
at the base of a range of rough, rocky hills, stretched the little
village, which numbers only about 2,500 inhabitants. To the
right were? some richly-cultivated fields covering the steeply-slop-
ing ridge, and at the water's edge a low stone fort mounting a few
cannon. Among the houses of the village one noticed especially
only some barracks, the Custom-house, a church and a sign which
read : " Cafe du Nord." On the steep, rocky cavernous hill to the
eastward lie the ruins of an old Arab town. On the ojtposite
headland is a lighthouse, off which in the bay stand two curious
upright rocks, much worn by the ocean, which are quite pictur-
esque and which are known by the title — as good as any — of
" Les deux Freres." From Nemours a diligence runs daily to
the old Moorish capital of Tlemcen in about eleven hours. From
Tlemcen you may take the rail to Oran, or on to Algiers, if you
like. A great swell rolls into the roadstead of Nemours and there
being no pier, landing is difficult even in what is termed good
weather. The cargo is shipped in great flat-bottomed lighters.
On the eastern corner one sees the beginnings of a breakwater, be-
hind which the boats get a little protection from the swell. We
remained about three hours, engaged in loading sacks of wheat.
To the eastward extended a range of precipitous cliffs, all battered
and worn at their base into deep caverns, arches and bastions.
We left for Oran at five in the afternoon and arrived there about
two o'clock the next morning.
Upon going on deck I found we were lying at the stone quay
of a commodious harbor formed by a long jetty extending from the
western shore towards the east. Near us were several steamers and
a number of small trading- vessels. The quay was covered with
large casks of wine, and bales of Alfa fibre or Esparto grass.
MOROCCO TO ALGERIA. 57
There is considerable trade in these, and in wheat and marble,
with England. This Alfa fibre is said to be almost the sole vege-
table produce of the vast high plateaux of the interior. It is used
in the manufacture of paper, and for making mats, baskets, etc.
As to the wine, of which there are both red and white varieties,
the quality is said to be as good as the quantity is considerable.
It is universally used in Algeria, where at the hotels you may pur-
chase it for two francs a bottle. It is also very largely exported to
Bordeaux, where it is " manipulated " and afterwards exported as
the celebrated vintage of that country. The wine which is sold in
Paris as Algerian wine is too often only that largely mixed with a
wine manufactured from dry raisins. So that it was without won-
der I learned that the most promising culture in which the Alge-
rian colonist generally engaged was that of the vine. But I must
speak of the general appearance of Oran as viewed from the har-
bor. The city was close at hand rising on a steep slope of moun-
tain in a sort of triangular form. On the summit of a high and
precipitous hill to the right was the Fort of Santa Cruz, below
which was a little chapel with a tower surmounted by a colossal
statue of the Virgin, said to have been erected to commemorate
the cholera year of 1849. The fort contains several 85-ton guns,
which were mounted only with the greatest difficulty, the hill
being above a thousand feet in height. To the eastward of the
city are other cliffs quite as high. On every knoll and advan-
tageous point are French forts. The fortifications were formerly
confined to the wall of the city, which still stands, but they are
now mostly at a distance. It was in the immediate neighborhood
of Oran that the French had so long a continued war with the
fierce hill tribes commanded by the famous Abd-el-Kader. Seen
from the harbor there scarcely seems a level square foot of land in
Oran. The city is entirely French in character. You observe to
the right a great hospital, which is capable of accommodating four
hundred soldiers. Beyond this is the Kasbah, the old Citadel, the
lower part of which is used as a barrack. Further to the left on
a prominent knoll stands the Chateau Neuf, a part of which is
used by the general commanding the division, and the remainder
as a barrack. Then again, still further around to the left, you
have the large Civil Hospital, holding some six hundred patients.
But to see the old portions of the city, built in the ravines and
under the hills, you must leave the steamer. You will find these,
many of them, connected with the nearer quarters on the breezy
58 ACTUAL AFRICA.
heights, by great stone staircases occupying the width of the
streets. You will remark the almost entire absence of trees and
the difficulty with which anything more than date-palms, fig-
trees or oleanders are made to flourish. You will also notice
everywhere the copying of names familiar in Paris, as the Boule-
vard Malakoff, Rue Arago, etc.
The Custom-house examination is brief and superficial, and
entering a barouche drawn by the thin, wiry horses of the colony,
you ride up a good road, cut more or less from a cliff, to the eastern
and highest part of the town, to the Place d'Armes, a small square
with a garden in the centre, and surrounded by stores of two or
three stories. On one side stands the finest building in Oran, the
Mairie or City Hall, built in the modern Parisian stucco style, and
containing in the interior a very fine staircase of marble and onyx,
which are obtained in the province. You are shown the mountain
to the eastward of Oran whence comes the marble, which is be-
lieved to be none other than the celebrated Marmor Numidium
obtained by the ancient Komans, and which is said for beauty and
variety to be the finest that the world contains. The colors are
quite extraordinary : thus we have a creamy white, a pure ivory
tint, a distinct rose and a lovely yellow. Frequently you have a
combination of many of these, giving the appearance of peacocks'
plumage. These marbles moreover admit of being easily worked
either in large masses or in the most delicate ornamentation, and
it is said that trinkets may be made of the rose-colored variety to
so closely resemble coral as to quite deceive the casual observer.
There is a company of 'buses in Oran, but the place is far too
steep to admit of a tramway. Cabs are however always available.
For long rides into the suburbs three horses harnessed abreast are
used. A noticeable characteristic of the streets is the enormous two-
wheeled drays, drawn by " string " teams of four, five or six great
mules and bearing sometimes as many as ten huge casks of wine.
The drivers of these drays are always Spaniards. The mules come
also from Spain. The collar of their harness is ornamented by a
curious leather horn projection, which is covered with rows of
bells. Carts with diminutive donkeys are an important street fea-
ture, as are also the gay uniforms of the French soldiers and the
prancing horses of the officers. For the rest Oran has much the
appearance of a small town in the south of France. The shops are
well supplied and attractive, many of the best of them being kept
by Jews. Of course you everywhere find large cafes, with their
MOROCCO TO ALGERIA. 59
many rows of chairs facing the streets and covering the sidewalks.
The leading hotel, situated on the Place d'Armes, is large and
comfortable, with its great courtyard, its Moorish parlor and its
long dining-room having a pleasant outlook towards the port and
gulf. Arabs you behold here and there, but must visit their spe-
cial quarter to see many of them. The population of Oran is
given as 00,000, about equally divided into three parts, as follows :
one third French ; one third Spanish ; and one third miscellaneous,
as Jews, Mohammedans and others. These numbers of course in-
clude a large French garrison here and in the immediate neighbor-
hood. Oran is about 220 miles east of Gibraltar and 600 southwest
of Marseilles. It is the capital of one of the three great political
divisions of the province of Algeria. It is a place of strong strate-
gical importance to the French, who have now occupied it sixty
years and who have quite recently supplied all its forts with the
most modern guns and other war implements. Next to its mili-
tary character and value comes its commercial importance. But
other than from these standpoints it contains little of interest for
the traveller. If he have time, however, he may pass a pleasant
day in visiting the cathedral of St. Louis, the Grand Mosque, the
Theatre or Circus, and the environs. One of the most interesting
rides from Oran is that along the coast to the westward, to the
point of Mers el Kebir, where there are a village, fort, docks, etc.
The road is cut out of the solid rock for a great part of its length,
in one place even passing through a tunnel. You have a fine
view of the sea all along and pass Les Bains de la Reine, a warm
spring containing large quantities of salt and magnesia. These
baths are much resorted to for the cure of rheumatism. There are
several swell cafe-restaurants along the road. The fort occupies
the site of one built by the Romans and has undergone many vicis-
situdes. The French have built another fort above Mers el Kebir,
which is armed with two 14-ton guns. There is a subterranean
communication between these forts. The jutting out of the point
forms a secure and excellent harbor, with deep water. Here the
foreign men-of-war are accustomed to lie. But the most interest-
ing excursion from Oran is to Tlemcen, the Pomaria of the Ro-
mans, a city contemporaneous with and not less illustrious than
Granada, with a population of 150,000, the seat equally with the
Moorish cities in Spain, of civilization, commerce, trade, and the
capital of a powerful nation. It is reached by rail and lies to the
southwest of Oran about one hundred miles.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE AFRICAN GRANADA.
I left Oran at five in the morning for the town of Tlemcen.
At the station was a long train of mixed classes and of goods vans.
The carriages were very small, though the road was of a fair gauge.
They were not entered from the side but from the ends, though
iron transverse railings prevented a continuous walk through the
train. In the first and second class were three compartments to
each car — one first and two second, the latter being all open. The
third class was also open and confined to a single car. The loco-
motives were large and powerful. But the speed attained was very
slow, not over fifteen miles an hour, and the stops at stations were
frequent and often long. The railway system of Algeria and Tunis
is very extensive, it being the intention of the government to have
a continuous line from the city of Tunis to the borders of Morocco,
with frequent branches connecting with the seaports and the dis-
tant towns of the interior. The stations are neat edifices of stone,
either cut or rubble, and the whole business of transportation seems
as well arranged and executed as it would be in France. There
were many passengers of the second and third classes travelling in
our train but almost none in the first. The road to Tlemcen runs
south and then west, the city itself being distant only about thirty-
five miles from the Mediterranean. The country from Oran ap-
pears to be a general though irregular slope upwards to Tlemcen.
I might premise by saying that the natural, like the political,
divisions of Algeria, are three in number. You have first a region
of undulating cultivated land extending from the shores of the
Mediterranean from fifty to one hundred miles into the interior —
this is styled the Tell ; next you come to the High Plateaux, vast
plains separated by parallel ranges of mountains, increasing in
height from the Tell, and then decreasing towards the Sahara —
this is mostly the pasture land; lastly you come to the Sahara,
60
TEE AFRICAN GRANADA. 61
which is of two characters — (1) plateaux of low sandy soil and (2)
rocky steppes, with depressions filled with sand. The city of
Tlemcen is situated in the first-mentioned division but is nearly
surrounded by distant mountains which might properly be classed
in the second. We soon left the suburbs of Oran and its environ-
ing orchards of olives and other fruits, skirted a great sebkha or
salt lake, lying east and west upon the left hand, and reached a
town called St. Barbe de Kelat where we changed cars, as the
Oran train pursues the main road eastwardly to Algiers. As we
progressed I observed that the land was rich though not very well
cultivated. A great deal of it seemed covered with nothing more
than Alfa grass (used in paper making), and artemisia herb. There
seemed to be only villages on the road, and though the region was
dotted here and there with farms and dwellings, much of it pre-
sented a scene of desolation. The produce and export of this dis-
trict consists almost altogether of Alfa fibre, wheat and tan bark.
There are Konian ruins scattered at intervals along the route, but
nothing of any very special interest until you reach Tlerncen.
The first town of any great importance is called Sidi-Bel- Abbas,
the country around which is very fertile, producing fine wheat and
a very good quality of tobacco. The town, which has a population
of 18,000, is surrounded by a wall, with four gates. It has a very
important strategic position, and quite one-half of it is occupied
by the military, there being accommodations for 0,000 men. It is
also the centre of the alfa trade. At the little village of la Tabia
we turn off directly to the west for Tlemcen, the other road con-
tinuing on south for about fifty miles to the town of llas-el-Ma.
The line was built in this direction with the hope of getting some
of the traffic from the neighboring Empire of Morocco. From la
Tabia onwards to Tlemcen the road passes through a hilly and pic-
turesque region of rugged and rocky mountains, which are quite
treeless, as indeed is very much of the colony. Nearing Tlemcen
there is a fine piece of engineering to be witnessed in the winding
of the road for a considerable distance into, around and out of the
cul-de-sac of a great valley strewn with rocks of calcareous tufa
and stratified cliffs a couple of thousand feet in depth. At the
extreme end of this valley are the cascades of El-Ourit, which form
an object of interesting pilgrimage to the citizens of Tlemcen.
There are quite a number of these cascades, which are small as to
volume of water, while some of them appear to be over one hun-
dred feet in height. But still they form altogether a pretty pic-
62 ACTUAL AFRICA.
ture, with their surroundings of precipitous rock and huge cliffs of
tufa hollowed and honeycombed in fantastic caverns and recesses,
with the wild cherry trees which line their banks, and the pellucid
pools into which they fall, and with the adjoining background of
dark, rocky, barren hills. We go on through carefully irrigated
and cultivated fields, and pass many rich orchards of apple, pear,
peach, almond, fig, orange and olive trees, and then reach the city
of Tlemcen. This is pleasantly situated on the northern slope of
a low range of mountains, about 2,500 feet above sea-level. It was
once the capital of Abd-el-Kader. From the time of the Romans
and the Vandal invasion it has passed through extraordinary politi-
cal vicissitudes. Its chief interest at present to the traveller lies
in its Roman and Moorish architectural remains ; otherwise it is
the ordinary native town, modernized and semi-civilised by the
French. Its population, like that of Sidi-Bel-Abbas, is put at
18,000. While its situation is very beautiful, its climate cannot be
highly commended, for it is very unequal, the changes are sud-
den and frequent, the heat is very great in summer and snow occa-
sionally lies upon the ground for as much as two weeks in winter.
An omnibus of a sort of Noah's ark pattern, and with three horses
pulling abreast, conducts one from the railway station to the hotel.
Arrived here you are surprised at the enormous bunches of white
grapes which the vines covering the courtyard bear. You find a
plain but fairly comfortable hotel, setting a good-enough table.
Obtaining the services of a capable Arab guide, named Miloud
Koujabak, I started forth to view the sights of the city. The
Arabs do not seem like the Moors of Morocco for the reason that
they are more civilised, nor does Tlemcen seem at all like a Moor-
ish town, because its streets have been straightened, broadened,
macadamised and lighted (by kerosene burners) by the French.
Moreover the natives are obliged to daily clean and sweep the
streets, under immediate and severe penalties. These remarks ap-
ply especially to the Arab and Jewish quarter. In the European
part you do not seem to be at all in the vicinity of an Arab town.
For besides the large number of French troops stationed here,
there is a large civic following, and the shops and cafes and dwell-
ings again recall to you those of a small town in the south of
France. My guide first took me to the shops of the weavers,
some of the special manufactures of Tlemcen being gay-colored
blankets and red shawls. Leathern articles and carpets are also
specialties of export. From these shops, where we saw the men at
THE AFRICAN GRANADA. 63
work with most primitive looms, we went to the Arab baths.
These are hot-air baths, similar to those known as " Turkish."
You enter through a long narrow hall a corridored court upon
the floor of which are spread thin mattresses, and here you ob-
serve many men, some sleeping, others talking ; some taking
coffee, others dressing. In a neighboring corridor is the sweating-
room. I found this very dark and partly filled with natives going
through the well-known processes of this luxurious bath. The
floor was of stone and the walls of tiles. The temperature was not
very high. The natives pay for these baths, according to the qual-
ity and quantity of attention received, all the way from five sous
to two francs. Taking cups of fragrant coffee we departed, going
next to the mosque of Sidi Abraham or Lord Abraham, that is
not of so great interest as the neighboring tomb of this saint,
which contains a small courtyard of old pillars and several tomb-
stones. About and around the horse-shoe entrance to the tomb
proper are some very old tiles, mostly of yellow and green colors.
The interior contains the tomb of the saint and of an assistant
saint which are surrounded by many banners and rows of gayly
ornamented candles, the gifts of pious pilgrims. Very singular
indeed it seemed to a traveller just from Morocco, where the giaour
is not even allowed to enter a street leading to the tomb of a mara-
bout or holy man, to enter this tomb ami walk about and examine
everything at leisure, shod in the conventional European fashion.
From here we went to the Place d'Alger, one of the best squares
of the city, where a large open-air market was being held. The
great variety of vegetables, fruits and nuts especially attracted my
attention, though hardly less so than the cosmopolitan character
of the buyers. In this square is shown you the mosque of Sidi
Ahmed Bel Hassan el-Ghomari, which is small, and now utilized as
a school where the Arabs are taught the French language and
rudiments of knowledge. The exterior has been restored and not
in chronological or even good taste, but in the interior is one of
the most beautiful productions of Moorish art I have anywhere
seen. It is the plaster arabesques around the mihreb or niche in
which the Koran is usually deposited, whose artistic perforations
produce the exact effect of a lace handkerchief. They also contain
traces of their original coloring. In variety, richness and refine-
ment this arch and its facade is by a competent authority said to
be probably nowhere surpassed. The date of this work is inscribed
upon the centre of one of the arches — 696 a. h., or 1318 a. d.
64 ACTUAL AFRICA.
The mosque is supported by six columns of Algerian onyx and
nearly all the walls and arches have been covered with the plaster
arabesque decoration which still remains in good condition. On
another side of this mosque stands the City Hall, not a strikingly
imposing building but the lower rooms of which contain a sort of
archaeological museum of Eoman and Moorish remains. Here you
find many old Arabic tombstones, tile mosaics, pillars of Algerian
onyx, slabs bearing tumulary inscriptions, and several rough-
hewn round stones — some weighing as much as 250 pounds — cata-
pult balls, believed to have been used during the great sieges to
which Tlemcen was subjected by the Moroccans during the 14th
century. These relics were all obtained from Tlemcen and its
immediate neighborhood.
Perhaps the sight which most interested me within the walls
of Tlemcen was its chief mosque the Djamaa-el-Kebir, which oc-
cupies an entire large block on one side of the Place d'Alger.
Its exterior presents no attractive features, other than great walls,
many-peaked roofs and a not extraordinary tiled minaret. But
entering one of its seven gates, and putting on the clumsy pattens
which are furnished you, you walk slowly around and through its
many long corridors. You are surprised at its large number of
seventy-two columns — all of them square, save two round ones of
onyx — which are for the most part disposed in four or five rows
joined by arches which are round and plain, save a few which are
pointed or fluted, while a number are decorated on their inner
sides by plaster arabesques. The carpeting is of gay-colored alfa
mats, the ceiling of plain cedar wood, painted red. The corridors
are hung with many-colored lanterns and with simple oil lamps.
These are of modern manufacture, but in nearly the centre of the
corridors hangs an immense bronze and iron chandelier, which
would hold hundreds of candles. This is suspended by a great chain
and is very old. The mihreb is finely ornamented with arabesques
and has a very graceful arch. On it is the Moorish date 530, cor-
responding to our 1152. In the courtyard, with its bubbling
fountain and its trees full of singing birds, are many paving slabs
of onyx. A great incongruity it seemed for me to be walking
about this mosque with clumsy pattens while I still wore my hat
and carried my umbrella. But the pious adherents of many
religions, occidental as well as oriental, are not seldom incon-
sistent. There is a small but interesting mosque immediately out-
side the walls to the northeast of the town. It is known by the
THE AFRICAN GRANADA. 65
name of Sidi-el-Halawi, the Sweetmeat-maker. The mosaics on
its minarets are especially fine. But the chief interest is in its
eight low columns of onyx, with the Moorish capitals which sus-
tain its arches on the mihreb-side of the court. Its carved ceil-
ing is also of interest. Around and about this little mosque is a
small collection of mud huts inhabited by negroes.
The most interesting excursion that can be made in the imme-
diate neighborhood of Tlemcen is that to Mansourah, about one
and a half miles to the west. On your way to this place you pass
the remains of two of the three lines of fortifications by which the
city was originally defended. The third line is all gone but the
French walls are said to follow its general course. Such of the
walls and towers as are still standing seem built of a sort of con-
crete of mud and stones, sun-dried and almost as durable as burnt
brick or stone. Leaving Tlemcen by the Fez gate you pass first
near the road a large reservoir, built with walls of concrete and
strengthened with buttresses. Further on you pass what was once
probably a very beautiful gateway in one of the old series of walls,
but which has been restored in so free and careless a manner as to
have nearly lost the great charm it once possessed. You soon
after reach on a hill to the left the ruins of what was once a very
large mosque. The walls still standing are made of concrete but
the mosque tower is made of cut stone. Only one side and parts of
two others now remain, and these have been restored and strength-
ened by the French in a very incongruous style, one wholly like
that of a modern Gothic or Episcopal church. But the part of
the original that still stands — without its full height — easily per-
mits it to be called the most beautiful architectural monument of
Moorish times in Algeria. The proportions of this tower are per-
fect, and the decorations rich and original. The upper part is
ornamented with blue and green tiles, and a fewr of many onyx
columns yet remain in their proper situation. About a mile and
a quarter to the southeast of Tlemcen, on the slope of a hill, is a
small Arab village which contains the famous mosque of Sidi Bou
Medin. The road nasses through an enormous Arab cemetery
and you notice everywhere about you the customary low head and
foot stones. In ascending the hill on which the mosque is situ-
ated I paused several times to enjoy the magnificent prospect of
town and plain and distant mountains there presented. The
scenery much resembled that of Central Italy. The plain seemed
exceedingly fertile, and was besprinkled with beautiful dark olive
66 ACTUAL AFRICA.
groves. The white dust of the French macadamised roads could
be clearly traced for a long distance in several directions. It is
even said the sea may be beheld on a clear day. I was reminded
of the famous Vega of Granada. A Moorish porch of painted
woodwork gives access to the mosque. But first you enter the
koubba or dome of the tomb of Sidi Bou Meddin, who was the
patron saint of Tlemcen. This good man was born at Seville in
1126 A. d., and after travelling all over Spain and Algeria, and
reaching as far east as Baghdad, eventually died and Avas buried
at Tlemcen, in his seventy-fifth year. The interior of the tomb is
covered with fine old arabesque work and contains besides the
tomb of the saint that of a friend and disciple and many silk ban-
ners, votive candles, ostrich eggs, chandeliers and e\en a French
clock. The cenotaphs are covered with rich brocades, and the
walls are hung with pictures of Mohammed's birth-place at Me-
dina and his burial-place at Mecca in Arabia. In the courtyard
is a deep well, the marble coping of which has been nearly worn
away by the chains fastened to the bucket. You have a low stair-
case to mount to reach the adjoining mosque whose doorway is
surrounded by very beautiful mosaics of glazed tiles, said to have
come from Fez, in Morocco. The roof of the portico is formed of
the honeycombed pendatives so frequently occurring and so much
admired in the Alhambra. The original colors are gone and
have been replaced by a coating of whitewash, but the effect is
hardly less curious and beautiful. I was at once reminded of the
criticism of a traveller at Granada, that the domed ceilings seemed
formed of snow-balls which had been thrown and remained fixed
there. The large double doors were partly covered with fine
bronze plates, the design being a geometric laced pattern. The
huge knockers are especially noticeable. The roof and walls are
all decorated with plaster work of the most delicate curves and
sharpest angles. The painted wooden pulpit was the gift of Abd-
el-Kader. Next the mosque on the western side is the medresseh
or college, with more fine arabesques and a domed roof of open
wood- work. The place was full of small boys sitting in a circle
and conning loudly a few lines from the Koran which were written
upon pieces of pasteboard. Their teacher, an old man, was en-
gaged in walking about among them, and in vigorously applying
a stout stick he held in his hand. These bits of pasteboard are
changed from day to day and so continuing the boys learn much
of that part of the Koran which contains the duties, laws and
THE AFRICAN GRANADA. 57
etiquette of everyday life. But such a babble as they made ! It
was difficult to see how anything could be committed to memory
even in a poll-parrot fashion, in such a manner. The old teacher
followed me to the door and by tapping sharply on the side of a
column called to my mind the fact that he feared I was about to
forget a parting ceremony always interesting to him — viz., the
bestowal of a small fee. I returned in the late afternoon to Oran,
having greatly enjoyed my brief visit to the African Granada.
CHAPTER IX.
THE "WHITE CITY."
Ojst November 24th, at ten o'clock in the morning, I left by
rail for Algiers, a ride of twelve hours, as we were not due until
ten at night. The distance is 263 miles, and this is the first rail-
way constructed in Algeria. In this comparatively short distance
we were to make fifty stops, most of them but a couple of minutes
in duration, though a number were of five and one even of twenty.
So that you may easily discern that the speed is slow, and the
journey on the whole a tiresome one, for the scenery is not espe-
cially striking and in fact is quite monotonous, except at one point
where you get views of a high mountain to the south. The chief
impression that you receive of the country between Oran and Al-
giers is that of smoothness both in the plain through which for
the most part the line runs, and in the neighboring low hills. The
railroad could not have been very costly, for there are no deep
cuttings or high fillings, no great bridges or steep grades. You
simply roll along the plains, with ranges of hills following parallel
on either side, twenty to thirty miles distant from the Mediterra-
nean. You do not notice any trees to speak of, other than culti-
vated ones, that is, there are no woods or forests. The whole face
of the country is bare and brown, but after the rains it would cer-
tainly seem like another region. It appeared to be devoted mostly
to vineyards and fields of grain. The Arabs were ploughing every-
where, as in Morocco. The stations were the merest hamlets and
villages. The largest town upon the road is Blidah, of about 9,000
inhabitants, which is only thirty miles from Algiers. Orleansville,
about half way, which is down upon the maps in large type, has a
population of but 2,500. Scattered about the country you see occa-
sionally farm-houses of French origin, and, rarely, a small Arab
village of mud-walled and grass-thatched huts, surrounded with
hedges of thorns as in Morocco. Attached to our train was a
THE " WHITE CITY:' gg
dining-car, in which a good breakfast and dinner were served dur-
ing the day. At other times, the car was utilized as a cafe by the
colonists and army officers who were en voyage. The third-class
cars were full of Arab passengers. At the stations great efforts
seemed to have been made to secure some shade by planting the
eucalyptus, pine, fig, and other trees. The first town of any im-
portance which we passed was called St. Denis du Sig. It has
about 7,000 inhabitants and is the second in size on the road.
The country hereabouts was very fertile, owing however almost all
its fertility to careful irrigation. This is effected by obstructing
a neighboring river, the usual course resorted to in Algeria. The
French call the method a barrage or dam. That constructed near
the town of which 1 am speaking contains 18,000,000 cubic metres
of water. The next important stop was at Perregaux, where the
line from Arjeu on the Saida, and on into the desert 250 miles,
crosses the main line. A few miles from Perregaux there is a
great barrage, forming an immense lake capable of containing
38,000,000 cubic metres of water. Occasionally these vast dams
have given way under the pressure of exceptionally high floods, sub-
merging the whole district, drowning hundreds of people, and
destroying farms, gardens, bridges and roads. The country is of
course watered by canals extending from these great barrages or
artificial lakes in every direction. As we went on to the east I
noticed especially the great numbers of koubbas of local marabouts
as in Morocco. From the principal stations upon the road omni-
busses and diligences run to other towns in the interior. At Reli-
zane another road, from Mostagnem on the sea, crosses the main
line and runs to Tiaret towards the southeast. There are Roman
ruins distributed over this section and near Orleansville, but noth-
ing that need detain the general tourist. Ten or twelve miles
beyond Orleansville we had very fine views to the southward of one
of the highest peaks in Algeria, Kef Sidi Omar, 6,500 feet above
the sea. At Adelia the line passes through a tunnel over a mile in
length, and reaches its highest elevation, about 1,500 feet. Blidah,
the largest station on the road, is beautifully situated on the slopes
of the Atlas mountains, and surrounded by luxuriant orange
groves. It is a thoroughly French town, with barracks for 3,000
troops. Reaching Algiers at its southern extremity, I was attracted
first by the colored lights of the lighthouses in the harbor, the
scattered lights upon the steamers in port, and the long line of gas-
lights upon the Boulevard de la Republique facing the quays, in
70 ACTUAL AFRICA.
the station of which we soon drew up and, for a wonder, on time.
Soon thereafter I entered the omnibus of one of the leading hotels,
which soon deposited me at a doorway faced by a fountain, a flower
market, clumps of bamboos and rows of date-palms and other
tropical trees.
Viewed from almost any point of the compass Algiers is an ex-
ceedingly picturesque and attractive city, though its situation is
such as to prevent a grand prospect of the whole from a single
spot. The city, situated on the western shore of a large semi-cir-
cular bay of the same name, has the general form of an irregular
triangle, of which one side is formed by the seacoast and the other
two run up a steep hill which faces the north and northeast. The
houses rise gradually behind each other so that each has a view of
the sea from its roof or terrace. The buildings are all white ; it is
said they are whitewashed six times a year. In fact, so very white
is the prevailing tone of the city that from a distance it resembles
a chalk cliff. The Arabs poetically compare it to a diamond set
in an emerald frame. Hence also its appropriate sobriquet of
" White City." The shores of the bay on either side of the city are
covered with rich and luxuriant gardens in the midst of which
stand many handsome French and Spanish villas and Moorish pal-
aces, and on the hill lying to the south, called Mustapha Superieur,
many fine large hotels, and the summer palace of the governor-
general. The most striking view of Algiers is naturally from the
sea but there are other views nearly as good, as from the Kasbah
on the north and from the hills to the south. The survey from
the Citadel is over the town and port and away across the circling
bay of Algiers to a splendid range of hills and over and beyond
these to the snow-capped mountains of Djurjura, a branch of the
great Atlas range. The city is divided into two great sections, the
old town and the new. The former is peopled with Arabs, Jews,
Spaniards and negroes, the latter with French. This quarter
occupies the lower and more level parts of the city along the harbor
front. The native section extends from this up to the Citadel which
crowns the hill, and is about five hundred feet above the sea-level.
The modern French town is regularly laid out with elegant public
buildings, squares, shops, hotels, boulevards and six-story dwellings.
The streets are generally macadamised, though sometimes paved
with wood. Many of the sidewalks pass under the buildings in
the form of arcades. The best shops are located in a street of this
kind, which is also the fashionable promenade.
THE "WHITE CITY." fl
The harbor is artificially formed by two long jetties of huge
concrete blocks which extend from the shore and leave an open-
ing of about a thousand feet. They enclose some 225 acres, with
an average depth of forty feet. Within this ample area ships and
steamers are moored quite near the quays, which are very large and
perfectly flat, with room for the Custom-house, steamer offices and
warehouses, the railway station, and great quantities of merchan-
dise. From here two inclined roads lead up a low cliff to what is
the finest street in Algiers, the Boulevard de la Republique, a wide
avenue lined with five and six story houses, used as hotels, or
dwellings above, and offices, shops, and cafes facing the arcades
below. The street has been built on a series of great arches all
along the front of the city. These are forty feet in height and
contain two series of vaults, forming about 350 warehouses, stables,
wine vaults, shops and dwelling-houses. This great work was con-
structed by Sir Morton Peto during six years and at a cost of
$1,500,000. He obtained the concession from the city for ninety-
nine years, and it is still the property of an English company.
These great arches and the large, handsome buildings of this boule-
vard, extending for nearly a mile, constitute a very incongruous
facade for a city of such a thoroughly oriental cast. It presents a
strong contrast between the work of an enlightened and that of
a semi-barbaric race ; for in leaving here you are in two minutes
among another people and as it were in another land, where you
find no regularity of houses or streets and behold veiled women
and turbaned men, instead of silk hats and modes Parisiennes.
Overlooking the bay, harbor and shipping this boulevard is a favor-
ite promenade and lounging-place : here at any time of day you
may witness the detail of business in a bustling commercial port.
Steamers are coming and going and frequently men-of-war, or the
yachts of some rich English or American pleasure seekers making
the delightful cruise of the Mediterranean. It is said that the
harbor, quays, the inclined road and the boulevard have cost the
city of Algiers a total of $40,000,000. The French town is bril-
liantly illuminated at night. In one of the squares which is sur-
rounded by a double row of plane-trees and contains an equestrian
bronze statue of a former governor-general, the brass band of one
of the Zouave regiments performs on Sunday and Thursday after-
noons from four to five o'clock. This square is completely flagged,
but another opening on one side into the Boulevard de la Repub-
lique is filled with dwarf date-palms and bamboos and with many
72 ACTUAL AFRICA.
trees and plants not only of Algeria but of the Far East. On this
square stands the Municipal Theatre, a large and not inelegant
building supplied with visiting troupes, and being in turn devoted
to grand, comic or bouffe opera, to drama or to comedy. This
Opera House has four galleries and is handsomely decorated in
bronze and old gold. Up-stairs is a foyer with large and rather
" risky " paintings at either end. There is also a very common-
place bar and a small, dingy smoking-room. Between the acts
nearly the entire audience temporarily leave the auditorium. The
prices of admission are very reasonable.
Algiers is the seat of a French governor-general, of an arch-
bishop, of high courts, councils and tribunals, the headquarters of
an admiral and of a general commanding a corps cVarmee. Its
population is put at 70,000, of which number 30,000 are French,
20,000 Mohammedans, 5,000 Jews, and 15,000 Europeans of various
origin. There are published in Algiers twelve daily newspapers,
seven weekly, four magazines, and two illustrated periodicals.
There is one journal published in Arabic, which is the official
organ of the French government, printing the laws and regulations
concerning the Arabs.
Besides the various ancient fortifications surrounding the city
or located in the immediate neighborhood — built by various Beys
since the year 1516 — there are modern French works consisting of
solid masonry rampart, earthen parapet and ditch, strengthened
by bastions, and with huge gates prefaced by drawbridges. Several
old forts round and about the harbor have also been restored and
improved. There are moreover several isolated batteries which
have been constructed on the heights to the south of the town,
which are all armed with improved modern artillery — so that now,
with its thousands of troops and a few iron-clads in port, it may
justly be termed " a fortified place of the first-class." Algiers has
frequent steam communication with Spain, France and Italy.
There are daily departures, save Mondays and Fridays, from Al-
giers to Marseilles and vice versa, and the passage by the fastest
vessels of the Coinpagnie Generate Transatlantique occupies only
twenty-eight hours. So that adding the railway journey by the
" train rapide," you may go from Paris to Algiers in forty hours
or from London in forty-eight hours.
One of the first things which strikes the visitor to Algiers is
the diversity of nationalities and the great variety and picturesque-
ness of the costumes which you see in the streets — and more espe-
THE "WHITE CITY:' 73
cially in those of the French town, for here with the modern sur-
roundings the contrasts seem the greater, the mingling of the
Orient and Occident the more extraordinary. To begin with you
have a Parisian sort of omnibus plying in every direction, in which
soldiers, civilians and Arab men and women elbow each other ;
then you see the huge Spanish two-wheeled drays with their
" string " teams of five or six great mules ; next pass some dandy
French officers; then a swell barouche with French ladies and
gentlemen and an Arab driver. Then on foot you notice Zouaves
and Turcos and Spahis; Jews with their dark-colored turban,
braided jacket, sash and long gown, with blue stockings and
" congress " gaiters ; handsome Moors in dress of many colors, neat
and spruce; Arabs wrapped in white haik and burnoose; ugly
negroes from the Soudan ; dark, coarse Spaniards and Maltese, all
jostling one another in the crowded streets, yet (as in the main
thoroughfare of Tangier) no one seeming to take any special notice
of any one else. But most striking of all are the costumes of the
Moorish women, clothed all in white, with enormous baggy trou-
sers, slippers, generally without stockings, the haik being drawn
over the forehead to the eyes and the lower part of the face bound
with a handkerchief up to the level of the eyes. The next most
remarkable are the Jewesses, with bare olive-tinted face, and with
silk robes stiff with gold embroidery and extending from the neck
to the slippered feet. Then imagine what a contrast to these is
presented by the French woman in her latest mode — a mode that
she terms " a dream " — as she jauntily threads the mazes of the
arcades. Yet when one who has become somewhat accustomed
to this strange scene walks through the old native town it becomes
of great, and in my case of very great, and never ceasing interest
and delight. Of course the native is in every respect the very
opposite of the French town just sketched. Here the streets are
very narrow and very irregular, and so steep as to be wholly inac-
cessible for carriages. In fact so narrow are some of them that
it is about all that two pedestrians can do to pass each other. And
so steep are they, they have to be descended by staircases and one
of them, the longest leading up to the citadel, is ascended in part
by some four hundred steps. Their very narrowness however
makes them shady and cool, while naturally excluding some air
and the best ventilation. Many of the projecting balconies all
but touch each other and frequently houses are joined above the
streets by arched passage-ways. The streets are roughly paved
7
74 ACTUAL AFRICA.
and have a central surface drainage. They have been everywhere
lighted with gas and in many cases named by the French. Still
even now the houses are so much alike that about the only differ-
ence the stranger detects is in the brass-work of the doors or the
carvings surrounding them.
The Arab houses are, like those generally in Mohammedan
lands, built with an open square court inside, which is surrounded
on the four sides by a gallery of arcades, with pillars which sup-
port the roof or an upper gallery, where there is one, as there usu-
ally is in the large towns and cities. The rooms of this lower
court have more or less of a public character, such as kitchens,
storerooms and baths. The private apartments are similarly situ-
ated on the floor above. One wonders that these rooms are always
so narrow while being disproportionately long. They are seldom
more than twelve feet wide. It is said that the rafters by which
the roofs are upheld are made either of kharoub-wood or pine or
cedar and that it was the scantling of these, in times when the
communication with other countries was less easy than it is at
present, that regulated the width of all Arab rooms. All the
houses are flat-roofed, and the tops are used as terraces for drying
clothes, for seasoning grain, and especially for the private exercise
of the women. Years ago, under the Turkish government, these
roofs were in fact reserved for the women alone, no male Christian
being permitted to go on a terrace — not even his own — during the
daytime.
The shops in the native town are small and dark, though much
larger than those in Fez. They are however, like the latter,
merely recesses in the walls of the houses, the customer generally
standing outside and buying from the street. The cafes and
restaurants, of which there are many, are of course an exception
to this rule. In the shops you find all sorts and kinds of indus-
tries and many mechanical arts in actual process. Here may be
seen an embroiderer at work with his gold and silver threads ; next
the shoemaker with his kid slippers of every color and variety ;
then a jeweller hammering out his bangles and great circular ear-
rings ; next the seller of the rich and valuable attar of roses and
jasmine scents ; now you are before the stall of a potter or of a
worker in brass ; next you pass a barber shop and see a man sitting
cross-legged on a bench and having his head shaved ; then you
hear a great babble of children's voices and peering in at a little
window, behold a pedagogue with a circle of young Arabs squatting
Dwelling of a rich Arab, Algiers.
THE "WHITE CITY:' 75
about him and conning their tasks aloud ; while beyond is a cafe
with a row of Arabs drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes and play-
ing draughts. As you progress the scene is ever changing and
always of interest, for the Arabs do most of the things in public
that we do in private, and it is easy to see from the street very
many odd domestic manners and customs. With us the exterior
of our houses is apt to be rich and lavishly ornamented, but in
Northern Africa the exterior is exceedingly rough, plain and often
dirty and dilapidated, while the interior will be gay and elegant.
But the West and East are at extremes in nearly everything for
that matter. The Arab restaurants differ from those in Europe
and America and agree with those in China in that it is the
kitchen which is exposed to public view, while the dining-room
is hidden — by a mat suspended from a bamboo pole. Here you
will always see the popular dish kouskous, or kous-koussou, the
meat and farinaceous dish used also in Morocco, together with
many sorts of cakes and sweetmeats. The national drink of the
Arabs is supposed to be water, as that and that alone is what the
Koran ordains, but the town Arabs are becoming civilised (!) and
now often indulge in absinthe, anise-seed and other alcoholic
beverages. You will frequently see them thus engaged sitting in
the fashionable cafes of the French quarter.
The Arab cafes of Algiers are similar to those of Tangier,
without the music, though they are occasionally favored by stroll-
ing players. They are simple, long, narrow rooms containing
benches and mats, a few small tables, and a cooking-stove in one
corner round which small coffee pots and cups are hung. On
some neighboring brackets are small hasheesh pipes, awaiting the
smokers of a preparation of hemp and tobacco. The walls are dec-
orated with poor chromos and Koran maxims in flowery arabesques
and cheap frames. There are pretty certain to be several tiny
mirrors and one or more birds in cages. Each of the cafes possesses
its own clientele. One is patronized solely by Moors from Morocco,
another by water-carriers, another by fishermen, and another by
soldiers from the corps of Spahis or Turcos. In short, the native
streets seem curious rendezvous for Old Testament patriarchs and
the actors in the Arabian Nights. Nothing in them calls up the
European town of Algiers so near at hand. All is mysterious,
dreamy, poetic, romantic.
There are now only four mosques in Algiers that are regularly
used. They are all accessible to Christians, either by removing
76 ACTUAL AFRICA.
the shoes or by placing pattens under them. The largest and
oldest one is situated in the French quarter near the harbor. Ex-
teriorly it is marked by its minaret and by a row of beautiful
white marble pillars, each about two feet in diameter, joined by
graceful dented Moorish arches. In the centre of this arcade is a
handsome marble fountain. The interior is a large rectangular
hall divided into aisles by columns united by semi-circular arches.
The floor is covered by straw matting, which is also wrapped
around the columns to a height of four or five feet. The mosque
is said to cover an area of 2,000 square metres. Its appearance
is rather bare, the only furnishing being the carved mimbar or
wooden pulpit for the Imam or leader of prayers, and the chan-
deliers and hanging lamps. At one end is the usual highly
ornamented mihreb. At the entrance is a building which serves
as a court of justice, where ordinary cases are heard by the cadi.
What is called the New Mosque is situated on the Place du Gou-
vernement. It is surmounted by a large white dome and four
small cupolas. Its graceful square minaret now contains an illu-
minated clock and very incongruous it looks. This mosque is
kept scrupulously whitewashed, and is a very prominent object.
The fountain at the entrance is used by the Mohammedans for
their ablutions. The composition of the staff of a mosque is gen-
erally as follows : An Oukil, or manager of the funds and dona-
tions, a sort of collector and paymaster. A Chaouch, or assistant
Oukil. An Imam or chaplain for the daily common prayers, which
are five in number. A Khetib, who recites the prayer for the chief
of the government on Friday (the Moslem Sunday) of each week.
An Aoun, who carries the sceptre of the Khetib. Two Mueddins (or
more properly Muddenin, which is the Arabic plural for Mueddin),
who call the Faithful to prayer from the top of the minarets. Two
Hezzabin, readers of the Koran. Two Tolbas (plural for Taleb),
readers of litanies and religious commentaries, and a Mufti, an
expounder of the law. Leaving the bustling streets of the modern
town you turn out of the bright sunshine into the solemn gloom of a
mosque, where the only sound is the monotonous nasal chant of the
reader and the plashing of the fountain in the courtyard. Grave
men are noiselessly coming and going; some are washing their
hands and feet at the fountain, others are passing through their
genuflexions or lying prone upon the matting. These are all busi-
ness men praying during working hours, and quite as earnest as if
their occupation was a commercial transaction of vital importance.
/'^Si& t I
Arab Dancing Girl.
THE "WHITE GITY." 77
And this they do five times every day. There is a roseate op-
portunity here to make some invidious comparisons with other
religious sects who dwell far to the north and west of Barbary —
but I will not be so unkind.
One evening I paid a visit to a native Assaoui or religious per-
formance, and an Arab dance. The Assaoui are the fanatic mem-
bers of a religious confraternity who claim to be exempt from
pain through the intervention of their saint Sidi Mohammed Bin
Aissa. These religious performances are occasionally given in the
native town for the benefit of Europeans, who pay each ten francs
as entrance money and are expected also to give individual fees
during the progress of the entertainment. I was ushered up
several long, steep and narrow staircases and entered a small
pillared court or rather room, for it was roofed. Here next the
walls on two sides, the European audience was crowded, and upon
the others were the native performers and musicians. Doors led
from the court into several small rooms, one of them being fitted
up as a parlor. Here the directress of the entertainment greeted
us. She was a middle-aged woman, short and very fat, her face
being wholly bare. Her dress was stiff with gold embroidery, and
jewelry seemed to shine and glisten from every part of her person.
Around her neck were circlets of great gold coins, and across her
forehead rows of smaller ones. It was the style of dress made
familiar to us in Egyptian and Turkish pictures. Three or four
dancing girls were hardly less richly dressed. One or two had
some pretension to a certain style of beauty, though lacking in
expression and vivacity. The musical instruments consisted of
violins, mandolins and tambourines, and a number of different
styles of drums, the strumming upon which gave the time for the
dancers. The music produced was quite barbaric — noise seemed
its most prominent characteristic. The centre of the little court or
pavilion was reserved for the performers. The dances were simply
a series of postures and revolutions, the upper part of the body,
the neck and the head being held stiff and erect and the motion
being altogether from the waist downwards — in short, it was what
has been vulgarly called " la danse du ventre," which is so popular
in the Levant. The girls dance with bare feet upon a rug, but
their costumes being very long and baggy, their steps cannot be
seen. It is a very monotonous performance and the noisy music'
soon becomes tiresome. In addition to their loud playing all the
musicians sing at the top of their voices, so that an awful row is
78 ACTUAL AFRICA.
produced. The hostess herself favored us with one dance. Next
came the Assaoui, one of whom, supposed to be inspired, rushes
in, wags his head and distorts his body furiously over a fire,
upon which incense is frequently thrown, and then with a yell
begins a frantic dance, his body bending forwards and backwards
and rotating with great violence. He is soon joined by others
who continue the mad dance until they fall exhausted or are
stopped by the headman of the order. They next proceed to go
through a variety of bodily tortures which appear to be genuine
and to be performed under the influence of fanatical mania, the
men seeming to be, as they claim, quite insensible to pain. They
force out their eyes with iron spikes, they sear themselves with red
hot iron, and they eat live scorpions and serpents, chew broken
glass and the leaves of the prickly pear cactus. In these eating
tricks they make noises like ravenous wild animals, calling loudly
for " more, more." It is a curious exhibition, which you do not
regret having once witnessed, but would not care to see again.
There are a number of public buildings in Algiers which ought
to be visited for the beauty of their architecture and the interest of
their contents. Among these are the Cathedral, the Archbishop's
Palace, the Library and Museum, and the Palace of the Governor-
general. The Cathedral is built on the site of an old mosque and is a
curious combination of Moorish and Christian architecture. It con-
tains much delicate plaster-work, many beautiful marble columns,
stained-glass windows, and clever carvings in wood. Adjoining
the cathedral is the palace of the Governor-general, which was
formerly the abode of one of the old Beys and has been left as
nearly as possible in its original condition. The ancient tile work is
especially noteworthy. The courtyard is ornamented with plaster
busts of the famous Frenchmen — mostly generals — who have helped
to make Algeria the fine province she is to-day. The larger draw-
ing-rooms and the dining-rooms are decorated in a very ornate
Moorish style. These remarks would apply equally as well to the
palace of the Archbishop, which is situated in the same street and
nearly opposite. The library and museum are in the immediate
neighborhood in another fine old palace. The museum is on the
ground floor and the library above. There are some 20,000 vol-
umes and 1,000 Arab manuscripts. In the museum are many
fragments of ancient sculpture, sarcophagi, mosaics, etc.
While at Algiers I took two long carriage drives in the neigh-
borhood of the metropolis — one to the southeastward, the other to
THE "WHITE CITY:' 79
the northwestward. The first soon brought me to Mustapha Su-
perieur, about two miles from the city and the favorite residence
of the winter visitors to Algeria. Being at a considerable eleva-
tion above the sea, it is said to be healthier there than in town.
We pass the Governor-general's summer palace on the left, with
its beautiful gardens, and have charming views of the Mediterra-
nean and of the country about and city behind us. Turning into
the interior we perceive that very much of the land is covered
with vineyards. The road is good and we continue through nu-
merous pretty little villages, but finally we turn back and pass
through a long narrow ravine, in order to see some curious old
rock carvings and caves, apparently of mediaeval Christian work.
"We pass on until we at last emerge near the shore of the bay.
Here turning again to the north and towards Algiers, we soon halt
and alight in order to visit the celebrated Jardin d'Essai — a splen-
did, large botanical garden, full of plants from all parts of the
world. The garden is about fifty acres in extent, supplied with
excellent walks and carriage drives, with greenhouses, ponds,
fountains, a bandstand and cafe. It was formerly in the hands
of the government, but now belongs to a private company. It is
consequently largely of a commercial character, that is to say,
here ornamental plants are cultivated in great quantities and ex-
ported to the principal cities of Europe. One of the handsomest
streets is called the Avenue des Platanas — plane-trees. The great
variety of palms, magnolias, bamboos and other Asiatic plants is
especially noticeable as are also the plants from Australia, the
eucalypti, araucarias and acacias. There is also a pretty wood of
Canary pines.
Leaving the Jardin d'Essai we pass next upon the left a large
Arab cemetery, surrounded by a high wall. A sign at the en-
trance, in French and English, notifies the visitor that the ceme-
tery is closed to men on Fridays between sunrise and sunset.
This is because on that day — the Mohammedan Sunday — the
cemetery is visited by great numbers of Moorish women. The
Arab graves bore little head and foot stones and were outlined by
low slabs of marble or sandstone. The headstones were covered
with long Arabic inscriptions. At either end of the graves of
rich and poor alike were little receptacles of the same stone, in
which water is kept for the use of birds. This is a peculiar act of
charity, which the Arab believes will be highly recompensed in
the next life and will tend to bring his family good luck in this.
80 ACTUAL AFRICA.
It is a universal custom. Further on to the right of the road, is
the Champ de Manoeuvres, which contains a race-course as well as
a drill-ground for the troops.
The other drive which I took was to the west and then to the
north and east and hack to the city. I found the country very
fertile and given up to grain and the vine. The road returns by
the seacoast, where it is occasionally cut from the hills or built out
upon the rocks of the shore. Along this route there were fre-
quently little cafes and hotels for people coming from Algiers for
fishing, bathing and general picnicking. We next pass the large
suburb of St. Eugene, where is the general French cemetery and
where very many Jews reside. There are here also many pretty
French and Spanish villas, and up upon the hill in a conspicuous
place is the Church of Notre Dame d'Afrique. This is built in a
Byzantine style of architecture and is very gay in appearance.
Within the church above the altar is a black Virgin and around
the apse the inscription, " Notre Dame d'Afrique prie pour nous
et pour les Mussulmans." Going on we notice several seminaries
and Cardinal Lavigerie's former country residence. Omnibuses
run out here as also in several other directions from the city and
at frequent intervals.
CHAPTEK X.
THE GORGE OF THE CHABET.
From Algiers I went by rail to the town of Bougie on the sea-
coast, intending to proceed thence by carriage through the famous
Chabet Pass, and so return to the railway at the town of Setif, and
then go on to the city of Constantine. The distance from Algiers
to Bougie is 102 miles and the actual time taken in accomplishing
this by the fastest train is eleven hours, or fifteen miles an hour,
including stops. On leaving the metropolis we followed the coast
precisely to the eastward. It was the direct line to Constantine,
with a change of train at about two-thirds the distance to Bougie.
Our train was composed of freight, baggage, post, and three classes
of passenger cars, drawn by a huge locomotive, which certainly
seemed capable of making a greater speed than, say, twelve miles
an hour, especially as it burned, as do all the locomotives in Al-
geria, the prepared coal — coal in the shape of bricks and mixed
with tar. This comes, I believe, from Cardiff, Wales. Our Arab
passengers were confined to the second and third class cars, though
there is no law specified or understood to prevent their entering
the first-class carriages provided only they are willing to pay. In
general, I may say of the day's journey that while it was in a
sense tedious on account of the slow speed and long and frequent
stops, it was a most interesting one as regards the remarkable en-
gineering of the road, and the really splendid scenery. However
the speed (or lack of it) had undoubtedly its good element, for
railroad accidents are never known in Algeria, although so frequent
in Europe where " trains rapides " abound. "We started from the
great broad quay facing the harbor and, as I have said, for some dis-
tance skirted the beautiful bay of Algiers, affording us splendid
views of the hill of Mustapha, with its many fine hotels and villas
standing boldly out with their white walls against the masses of
soft green verdure. We rounded the beautiful Jardin d'Essai, and
81
82 ACTUAL AFRICA.
I had my last look at its fine avenue of plane-trees. Then we
turned into the interior and passed plains of richly cultivated land,
the market gardens of the capital, and to these succeeded great
fields of grain. Next we entered a more hilly region and here the
vineyards predominated, the steepest hills seeming to be monopo-
lised by the luscious fruit, some of which is used naturally for the
table, but more for the making of the very palatable and wholesome
wines of the country. Algeria may yet prove to be one of the
great vineyards of the world. Huge tracks of ground are broken
up with the steam-plow and planted with the vine. The province
even now supplies more than one-tenth as much wine as the whole
of France, about 1,500,000 hogsheads, and has over 300,000 acres in
vineyards, including young plantations. In France and Spain the
ravages of the phylloxera — the insect that infests the leaves and
roots of the vine and through its innumerable puncturings quickly
destroys the plant — have assisted in rendering the culture of the
vine in Algeria most profitable. Fruits and flowers are strictly
prohibited at the Custom-houses of Algeria in order to protect the
cultivation of the vine from the introduction of the phylloxera.
As a rule, the wine is more suitable for blending with French
wines than any other. The province of Algiers is said to supply
the finest quality and the wine most suited to drinking at table.
Oran, as I have mentioned, produces wine much valued for blend-
ing, and taking the place of Spanish wines. Those of Constan-
tine are not generally so good, but a considerable quantity is pro-
duced. Tunis has also lately entered the field and has attracted
large capital to be invested in vineyards. All these wines not only
possess good body and exquisite bouquet, but are very delicate and
pleasant, resembling in no respect the rough and unpalatable prod-
ucts of Hungary and Australia. The white wines have hitherto
not succeeded so well as the red. This is to be attributed to the
fact that the fabrication of them is more difficult and far more
costly, and consequently they are put on the European market at
a price which militates against their competition with small Ger-
man and Moselle wines. Of the " champagne " made in Algeria
the less said the better, and the same remark will apply to all sorts
of liqueurs.
At Menersville, about thirty-five miles from Algiers, we may
be said to have fairly entered the district called Kabylia, inhabited
by the Kabyles, the fierce mountain tribes which were so hard at
first to subdue by the French and which have since so often re-
THE GORGE OF TEE CHABET. 83
volted. In entering this district we for the most part left behind
the direct evidences of French occupation, otherwise than as
manifested by the railway and its European style of stations, and
a splendid macadamised highway which all day ran nearly parallel
to the track. I may say here that one of the first things that
strikes the traveller in Algeria is the number and excellence of the
common roads, which are as skilfully made as those of the ancient
Romans. They are always macadamised and as smooth and hard
as those of a park, provided with capital stone and iron bridges,
stone drains, barriers, tunnels, etc. They were a prime military
and strategical necessity for the French, and the best means of
opening up and connecting the different parts of the country until
they could be followed by the railway, and even then their useful-
ness was by no means at an end. Though the natives seem gen-
erally to take kindly to railway travel, of course that by the roads
and especially by cross-roads between the different lines must be
greater and must continue.
As we journeyed on through a hilly region the soil seemed very
fertile, and fig and olive trees and vineyards disputed the surface
between them. Everywhere quantities of the Australian eucalyptus
and other trees have been introduced on a large scale with a view
to increase the rain supply. We soon reached and followed the
course of a small river — the Isser — shallow now at this season, but
its great, bare, rocky bed showed what it was in times of heavy
rains and floods. We passed through a grand and beautiful gorge,
with this stream at the bottom. The cliffs on each side were very
steep and rocky, and approached each other at one place to within
about three hundred feet. The railway was cut and built up along
one side and the highway upon the other. Both passed through
tunnels, the railway many of them, and over fine stone and iron
bridges, both arched and columnar. The great gray rocks, the
brawling stream, grottoes above it, little Kabyle villages of stone
huts, with grass roofs, crowded together and perched aloft in the
shallow valleys, occasionally luxuriant vegetation, with the constant
winding of the gorge, gave to this section of the railroad very great
interest, both from the work presented by nature and by man.
As we proceeded there were less frequent evidences of cultiva-
tion and of habitation, other than the scattered hamlets of the
Kabyles. All the workmen upon the railway were of this class, a
wild, hardy looking set of men clothed in rags and very dirty.
We also saw them trudging on foot and on donkeys upon the road
84 ACTUAL AFRICA.
and loitering about the stations. On leaving the gorge of the
Isser the line passes around the eul-de-sac of a great valley in
horse-shoe form and running through many tunnels makes a
considerable ascent in a comparatively short distance. Then upon
the left we had for several hours a fine view of the splendid Djur-
djura range, its steep, rocky summits and serrated edges appearing
very clearly in the bright blue atmosphere. The contrast between
the bare gray precipitous rocks and the brown, dotted with green,
of the sub-hills and plains was as pleasing as picturesque. From
now on to Bougie we were gliding through a mountainous and
very diversified country, as different as possible from the all but
universal j)lains crossed in coming from Oran to Algiers. Occa-
sionally the very white tomb of some dead-and-gone Mussulman
saint would give a zest to a too prosaic landscape. We passed
through several so-called forests — we would call them simply woods
— composed of wild olives and cork or other kind of oak tree, or
otherwise the country would be covered with scrubby bushes of
various sorts, capital cover for partridge, bustard and such like
game. There was much good pasturage, though I saw no other
animals than goats. At about 7 p. m. we reached Bougie.
One of the chief products of the neighborhood is wax, which
is made into candles. It is even said that this town gave its name
to the French word for a candle. I had regarded this as interest-
ing but probably false, until I learned it was according to the best
authorities. I was driven along a winding way from the sea to a
small hotel placed in a hole dug from the steep hill-side, and saw
in a semi-circle around me the lights of the town, and a dark range
of mountains encompassing a bay. I mounted stony flights of
stairs to a small but comfortable room. I afterwards returned to
the first-floor and broke my fast in a large salle-a-manger, in which
Arabs were sitting in their native costumes and speaking their
uncouth tongue, but using knives and forks, and drinking claret
and sipping coffee and cognac just like their civilized conquerors
about them. Verily I said, this is a shaking hands of the Orient
and Occident. And then I went to bed with so many droll fan-
tasies in my head that it is a wonder no green toads or yellow
hobgoblins disturbed my needed rest.
The next was indeed to me a red-letter day, for on it I saw
the famous Chabet Pass — the Chabet-el-Akhra, signifying the
River of Death — one of the finest gorges in the world, and con-
taining some of the most splendid scenery I have ever beheld.
TEE GORGE OF TEE CEABET. 35
The region is truly marvellous and recalls the grandest and loveli-
est spots of Switzerland. At nine o'clock in the morning I left
Bougie in a barouche, drawn by two small but sturdy Algerian
horses, for the drive through the Chabet Pass to Setif, a distance
of seventy miles, intending to devote two days to the excursion,
remaining over night in a little village about half way and just
beyond the gorge proper. A diligence covers the ground every
day in about fourteen hours, but as it starts at 3.30 A. M., you lose
much of the fine scenery, to say nothing of being cooped so long
in a most uncomfortable vehicle, and often in too close contact
with very objectionable native passengers. I therefore decided to
take ;i private carriage and make the journey in two days as stated.
We rattled down the narrow, tortuous streets and wound around
the bay, keeping to the southeast and passing many little country-
houses and vegetable and fruit gardens. The road was full of
ragged and dirty Kabyles coming into town, and most of them
bringing some sort of provision. I soon had fine views of the
little town of Bougie, which is built on the slope of a steep hill in
the form of amphitheatre peculiar to Algiers. Its little port and
bay also remind one of those of the capital. But Bougie, unlike
Algiers, is backed by a grand spur of mountains, the highest point
of which is G,450 feet above the sea, and is topped by a koubba.
It is a French rather than an Arab town, and is surrounded by a
modern wall, and parts also of Roman and Arab walls are to be
seen. A large Saracenic archway stands by itself near the harbor.
To the left extend a series of gradually decreasing promontories
which end abruptly in the sea in the red perpendicular cliffs of
Cape Carbon. The site of Bougie is therefore most picturesque
and beautiful. The great circular bay is backed continuously by
a fine range of hills, which we skirted for several hours, the road
follbwing the curve of the bay, and in parts being hewn out of the
cliffs and built up with solid masonry on the sea side. Previous to
reaching these points however the road was lined with vineyards
for many miles. The neighboring hills were very pretty in their
diversified outlines ; their lower parts seemed cultivated and the
upper were covered with either trees or pasture. I noticed many
cork trees and passed a great yard filled with stacks of the bark in
pieces four or five feet long and one or two broad. Kabyles were
engaged here and there in planing the rough exterior, making a
uniform thickness of about two inches. The farm houses were
neat little structures of stone and stucco, shaded as well as might
86 ACTUAL AFRICA.
be by eucalyptus trees and surrounded by orchards of oranges and
pomegranates. But we soon left these behind, and rose to a height
of more than a hundred feet above the sea, the road having been
burrowed out of the great rocky cliffs, which descended sheer to
the water. We passed through a cut in a bold promontory styled
Cape Aokus, and soon after halted at a small inn — called " Rendez-
vous de Chasse " — for breakfast. Goiug on still to the eastward
we traversed a plain overgrown mostly with scrub, though with
many fine clumps of cork, ash and lime trees. The hills were now
covered with pines and cedars. Soon we made a distinct turn
from the bay to the south and followed the banks of a small river
called the Oued Agrioum. Next we came to the beginning of the
gorge proper, where there was an inscription carved upon the face
of a cliff, a few feet above the road, which read : " Ponts et Chaus-
sees, Setif, Chabet-el-Akhra, Travaux Executes, 1863-70." Near
this the driver called my particular attention to a sort of cavern in
the rock which contained a small, but very life-like figure of the
Virgin. At a distance the resemblance was most striking.
Now we were actually in the gorge, and I feel that only a true
artist or poet, not a prosaic and somewhat sated traveller, could do
justice to its grandeur and beauty. The enormous gray rocky
cliffs towered almost perpendicularly on either side, and seemingly
not more than two or three hundred feet apart. The river, just
filling the bottom of the ravine, roared and echoed. There was no
evidence of any human life but there were great flocks of pigeons,
a few solitary eagles and, further on — and most singular they
looked among such savage surroundings — troops of great monkeys
scampering from rock to rock. In several places I easily succeeded
in throwing stones entirely across the ravine. There were many
lateral valleys, some of which bore down beautiful silver ribbons of
water. But so steep were the mountains that it required no stretch
of imagination to readily believe that before the road was built not
even an Arab could pass on foot. This roadway excites one's won-
derment nearly if not quite as much as the gorge itself, for it is a
masterpiece. It is not only everywhere hewn from the rock and
built up with walls of solid masonry, but frequently the cliffs over-
hang it to its outer edge and in one place it is actually tunneled.
To prevent the friable land in some places from giving way thick
rows of trees have been planted. The road runs from one hun-
dred to four hundred feet above the torrent, from whose bed
many of the mountains rise to a height of 6,000 feet. I was at
View in the Chabet el Akkra.
THE GORGE OF TEE CEABET. 37
times strikingly reminded of scenes in the fiords of Norway, again
of our own splendid Yosemite. The defile is nearly four and one-
half miles in length. The road keeps upon the right bank for
nearly half this distance and then crosses, by a fine curved bridge
of seven arches, to the left side, where it continues to the end.
Somewhere about the middle a great stone slab, which has fallen
from one of the cliffs, lies in a slanting position by the side of the
river. This has been inscribed as follows: " Les premiers soldats
qui passerent sur ces rives furent des Tirailleurs, command es par
M. le Commandant Desmaisons, 7 Avril, 1864." There is very
little vegetation anywhere to be seen other than of shrubs and
coarse grass, save along the edge of the stream, where are occa-
sional thickets of oleanders. So tortuous is the gorge that you
hardly ever can see more than a thousand feet at a time, and an
exit in either direction seems an impossibility. The formation of
the mountains would delight a geologist. You see enormous cliffs
of very thin strata standing vertically. Many mountains are com-
posed of huge laminae not only reared upright, but in vast flutings,
that at a distance appear like giant pillars. Some of these cliffs
are 1,500 feet in height. So narrow is the gorge and so high the
cliffs and mountains that only a vertical sun can reach the bottom,
and frequently so much do the rocks overhang the road that even
at midday it seems quite dark. This road, as the tablet already
quoted states, was seven years in building, and I was informed cost
2,000,000 francs. Nearly 200,000 cubic metres of rock were blown
up to cut through the granite cliffs of the pass. The breast walls,
built of solid masonry, represent 16,000 cubic metres of construc-
tion. More than 100,000 kilos, of powder were consumed in the
works. There were altogether 12,000 laborers. The road was
originally planned in order to shorten the route between Setif, a
town of 6,000 inhabitants, and the sea, and to traverse regions less
likely to be impeded by snow in winter. It is about sixty miles
shorter than any other route. The road was traced by the French
military engineers and subsequently built by the Administration
of Bridges and Roads, as stated. So much for the practical facts
of the gorge as utilized for a highway. As to its sublimity I doubt
if it is surpassed anywhere in the wide world except in the Caucasus
or possibly in Corsica. The scenery is certainly grand enough in
itself to well repay a visit to Algeria, and makes more than am-
ple amends for the monotony and dulness of the long railway
journey from Oran to Algiers. We had been gradually ascending
88 ACTUAL AFRICA.
from the shores of the Bay of Bougie until at Kharata, near the
southern mouth of the gorge, we had reached 1,300 feet. At this
little village it is always cool and comfortable in the hottest days
of summer as the gorge acts as a sort of wind-sail or funnel
through which fresh breezes are always blowing from the sea.
Kharata contains a comfortable little hotel, which I reached at
five o'clock in the afternoon, much invigorated by the strong air,
and my mind filled with visions and with a rich experience which
will endure as long as life.
At nine the following morning I left Kharata for Setif. We
followed for many miles a most extraordinarily broken valley in
which ran a small stream, bordered with oleanders. We soon
crossed this on a well-made bridge. The hills continued most
varied in outline and mixed in position. All their lower parts
were carefully cultivated by the Arabs and it was curious to see
on what precipitous slopes the farmers were ploughing, and how
close to the edge of great precipices they would fearlessly go.
The geological formation continued interesting. Strata of vary-
ing thickness, though mostly in thin laminae and of varying
colors, were not only lying at various angles but often vertically
and in semi-circles. What mighty forces of nature must have
been brought to bear here ! Many mountains were so strongly
marked that you might easily have fancied the great flutings to
be waves of the sea, and the vast heaps looked very like great
sandbanks, with the marks of the billows which had washed them
into position. Much of the rock was a hard sort of slate, some
was gneiss, and more sandstone. There was evidence of great
rain-washing and the denuded parts of hills showed the presence
of many minerals. In fact, mines of iron, copper and argentif-
erous lead ore have been discovered in this region, but have not
been much developed or worked. We had splendid views behind
us of the range through which the gorge of the Chabet makes
its way and of Mount Babor, which is about G,500 feet above the
level of the sea. I did not observe any large Arab villages but
here and there a few scattered hamlets, wretched huts of stone,
with straw roofs. The fields were mostly devoted to barley. The
hills were treeless and entirely covered with scrub. The road
continued a splendid sample of engineering skill, long detours up
side valleys having frequently to be made in order to get on, and
much excavation and abutment being necessary. We stopped for
breakfast at a little village called Col de Ta Kitount. Shortly
THE GORGE OF THE CHABET. 89
before reaching this I saw on the summit of a hill the walls
and buildings of a French fort, which resisted all the attempts
of the Kabyles to capture it in 1871, during the great insurrection.
It is 3,500 feet above the sea and must command a very extensive
view. Just beyond the place at which I breakfasted there is a
spring of ferruginous aerated water, which is bottled and sent all
over the province. Going on, the Kabyle villages became more
frequent. The fields increased in size and seemed very fertile.
But the picturesqueness of the scenery gradually died away into
smoothly-rounded hills of pasture or of grain. Several flocks of
sheep and goats were seen during the day, but no herds of cattle.
During the last five miles of our journey hundreds of Kabyles
passed us. They were coming from a weekly market which is
held at Setif and nearly every one of them bore either some sort
of provision or merchandise. This market is said to be one of the
most important in Algeria, and is a rendezvous where not only
the Kabyle from the mountains and the Arabs from the plains,
but even tribes from the Sahara meet to exchange their products.
Sometimes this market is attended by as many as 10,000 people.
At last we approached Setif and passing a large parade ground
entered the modern walls through a handsome gateway, and for
some distance drove by great barracks, storehouses, hospitals and
officers' quarters. The citadel is walled off by itself to the north
of the town proper. There are accommodations for some 3,000
men. Passing these we entered the town, which seemed very
modern, with its wide, tree-lined streets bordered with good
houses, there being several arcades in which were many well-
furnished stores and of course many cafes. The hotel I found
fair, but the night very cold. A large fire was made in a porce-
lain stove in the dining-room, and I observed fires also in many
of the private rooms. Setif is 3,573 feet above sea-level and the
change from the temperature of Bougie is felt most acutely. As
I am now about to go on eastward to Constantine, I shall leave be-
hind me the mountains and hills inhabited by the Kabyles and
again enter the regions occupied by the Arabs. The latter
generally keep to the plains, and from the district of Setif to
Tebessa, a distance of about two hundred miles, there extend
plains similar to those from Oran to Algiers, though at an
average level of 3,000 feet above the sea.
CHAPTER XI.
CONSTANTINE.
The following day I was obliged to rise at the nerve- depress-
ing hour of 4 A. m., in order to take the train for Constantine,
about one hundred miles distant. I was glad to find in the car-
riage copper cylinders, about four feet long, filled with hot water.
These are refilled from time to time during the journey and not
only serve for warming the feet but the compartment. The route
was through a great plain with ranges of mountains in view on
either hand. So cold had it been during the night that the
fields were white with frost and it was nearly eleven o'clock before
a fierce sun in a cloudless sky could clear away the banks of fog
which veiled us about. The country seemed equally divided be-
tween scrubby pasture land and very fertile fields of grain. The
Arabs were busily turning the soil with their crooked wooden
ploughs. The one especially noticeable feature of the country
was the entire absence of trees and even of shrubs of any sort of
size. When there were any trees it was about the courses of the
brooks and around the farm-houses and villages. These had all
been planted, and were generally eucalypti, poplars and willows.
At El Guerah we passed the junction of the line which runs
south to the desert and Biskra, and a little further on, at
Khroubs, we passed the junction of the main line proceeding to
Tunis. At half-past eleven we reached Constantine. This is the
third city in Algeria as to size and the importance of its trade —
Algiers and Oran being the others. It has a population of about
35,000. It is the great commercial centre of the interior of the
province, having the most important corn market in Algeria. Its
special manufactures are leather goods and woolen fabrics. The
former consist chiefly of shoes, saddles, harness and various
articles of embroidered leather; the latter of the ordinary gar-
ments of the natives — haiks and burnooses — over 100,000 of
90
GONSTANTINE. 91
which are said to be yearly woven here. The cloth used for the
native tents is also extensively made. The chief exterior com-
merce is said to be in various cereals and in wool.
As we were going toward the north and nearing the railway
station I got my first view of the city — a compact mass of small
Arab huts backed by large several-storied French houses and
these by great barracks and hospitals sloping sharply upwards
in the distance. A few minarets with candle-extinguisher style
of tops lent an oriental air, which, however, the great barracks
rather emphatically counteracted. Leaving the station we crossed
a deep chasm, with a fierce torrent at its bottom, upon a fine
iron bridge of a single span with several arches of masonry at
either end. We then followed an ordinary French street called
Rue Rationale, and soon found a good hotel, facing a little square
on which were also the market and theatre. I spent the remain-
der of the day in walks about and around the city and in a drive
in the suburbs.
Constantine is one of the most picturesque cities in the
world. It stands some 1,800 feet above sea level. Not only has
it been made a fortress of the first order, but it would seem to
have been originally indicated by Dame Nature herself for such a
purpose. In short the grandeur and peculiarity of its site are
nowhere else equalled. It is situated on an isolated ledge of
rock, about a mile in length, by three quarters in greatest breadth,
encircled on all sides by a ravine from 150 to 250 feet deep, and
with a width varying from 15 to 400 feet. It is quadrilateral in
shape and extends north and south, the northern end being the
most elevated. It is connected with the surrounding land in only
one place, on the western side, by a narrow isthmus, that is, ex-
cepting by three low natural arches, which are not used as bridges,
upon the eastern side. The rocky plateau which holds the city
looks like a great island or a peninsula. I was at one point
strongly reminded of Monaco, at another of the Yosemite, and at
another of the grand canon of the Colorado. The splendid
modern iron bridge by which I crossed covers the position and
remains of several old Roman and Arab ones. The river Roum-
mel surrounds it on the east and north, and its sides rise per-
pendicularly nearly a thousand feet from the bed of this stream,
which varies in depth from a few feet in the dry, to twenty or
more in the wet, season. It is on the northwest, however, that the
precipices are highest. Here are situated the barracks, hospitals
92 ACTUAL AFRICA.
and arsenal, built close to the edge of a giant wall of gray rock
which has a sheer descent of one thousand feet. This huge
perpendicular cliff vividly recalls that termed El Capitan in the
Yosemite. It is called Sidi Rached. From the summit you have
a magnificent view of the fertile plains and valleys, called El
Hamma, toward the distant mountains and the north. You may
descend by a winding road outside the city to the bed of the
stream, and then look up at the vast walls of smooth rock, appar-
ently rearing themselves quite over you. Here also the river
tumbles in its rocky bed in three beautiful falls, and just above
them you behold one of the giant natural arches. Across the
stream the rocky walls rise quite as precipitately, and out of their
face a road has recently been cut and tunneled, which is to extend
out over the plain, and which is appropriately styled the Corniche
road. From it splendid views are obtained of the opposite city,
of the deep and dark ravine, of the enormous cliffs, with their
huge and massive strata, and out between, to the north, over
the great plains and away to ridges of great mountains. It is a
truly grand and superb scene. Above this road, on a slope of
the mountains, stands a very large hospital, a prominent feature in
almost every general view of the city. The rocks of the chasm
are honeycombed in great niches and caverns, the home of myriads
of crows, storks, jackdaws, hawks and occasionally of eagles.
While passing through this ravine the river is very much nar-
rowed and deepened, but both before and after it widens and
shallows out over a great pebbly bed. The remarkable position of
Constantine has pointed it out from the earliest times as a ready-
made fortress, for it is really only accessible at the point of the
isthmus, to which reference has been made. But while this is
quite true and its history has been most romantic, yet it is the
grandeur and picturesqueness of its appearance and environment
that will chiefly attract the traveller.
As to the city itself, it is divided into a French and an Arab
quarter. The latter is quite as curious as that at Algiers, with
its narrow streets in which the buildings nearly meet overhead,
its many shops and natives seen at work with a great number of
trades. The French quarter has its boulevards, its streets of
necessary shops, its hotels, numerous cafes, and theatre. The
barracks are capable of holding 3,000 men, and a strong garrison
is always maintained here. The Place du Palais is the chief
centre. Here is the cathedral, the old Palace of Ahmed Bey,
CONSTANTINE. 93
now the residence of the general-commanding, and several govern-
ment offices and of course cafes. Near here is the Prefecture,
the finest modern building in Constantine. The cathedral was
formerly a mosque, and contains some fine tiles and stucco work,
and a beautiful carved cedar pulpit. The old palace of the Bey
is an excellent and a very curious example of Arab architecture.
It is a large structure with three gardens, enclosed in three quad-
rangles. Around these gardens, which are filled with palms and
orange and citron trees and have pretty fountains loftily playing,
are galleries of beautiful marble pillars. The walls are covered
with splendid old tiles below, and curious frescoes above. All
the doors are of carved and inlaid oak and cedar, and are real
gems of Arab art. As many of the principal houses of Con-
stantine were despoiled of their treasures of art by the Bey who
reared this palace, you may imagine the incongruity of styles which
has ensued. It is especially noticeable in the pillars surrounding
the courts, scarcely two of which are alike, some being round,
others square, octagonal or fluted, and many being spiral. There
is the same diversity in capital and base, from the simple and
severe Doric to the flowery and ornate Corinthian. Everywhere
one notices quaint little closets or seats let into the wall or bal-
conies for musical performers. The arches also, and the darkly-
painted wooden ceilings, will excite admiration. There are many
Roman remains scattered in and around Constantine — bridges,
arches, walls, all built in the careful, substantial style for which
this great nation was noted. The grand mosque is reared on the
ruins of an old Roman temple. Another one however is more
worthy of a visit. This contains marble steps, columns, and
paved court. The pulpit is ornamented with marble, onyx, agate
and other kinds of stone.
Of course with its great natural ramparts and fosse Constan-
tine is not circumvallated except in such parts as a sort of sustain-
ing wall seemed necessary. In these cases you will notice frag-
ments of old Roman and Arab walls built into the more modern
French. The houses stand directly out upon the edges of the
cliffs, seemingly in most perilous position, and especially is this
true of the Arab dwellings. On each of the four sides boulevards
have been built from which splendid views of the neighborhood
may be obtained. On the southwest is a hill topped by a fort,
and on all sides of the bases of this are suburbs of many-storied
French houses. Toward the southeast is another height called
94 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Mansourah, covered by great barracks, from which a remarkable
view may be obtained. To the northeast the heights of Sidi
Metjid command the city. Near the path which conducts you to
the bottom of the great rocky cliff of Sidi Rached and the bed of
the Eoummel is another which in a few minutes brings you to
the warm baths of Sidi Mecicl. The water is of a sulphurous
character with a temperature of 86° Fahrenheit, and is distributed
through several private bathing-houses and two open ponds, the
one for men, the other for women. They are surrounded by
beautiful gardens and are much frequented by both French and
Arabs. There is also in the neighborhood of the same path a
flume which starting above from the Roummel is carried through
tunnels in the rock and constitutes the water-power of several
large flour and oil mills near the falls. One of the drives which I
took carried me out of the city by the Porte Valee, or isthmus of
land previously mentioned, between two squares planted with trees,
and so on out to the remains of a Eoman aqueduct which once
spanned the valley here. But five arches now remain. They are
some sixty feet high and are built of huge blocks of limestone
without mortar. They are in the usual grand style of the Ro-
mans, and have been partially restored by the French. I re-
turned by a great rock, from which it is said the Turks used to
throw suspected or faithless wives. An inscription stands upon
this rock, which is protected by a modern iron fence. From here
a passage has been made by tunnel, a bridge and a path cut from
the cliff around the southern extremity of the city. From the
bridge you have an interesting glimpse of the ravine, whose walls
here approach each other as near as fifteen feet, showing its great
height and many turns and excavations. The historical interest
of Constantine is as great as its topographical. It was the
ancient Cirta, the seat of the Massessylian kings. It was the
scene of the Jugurthine war, so graphically depicted by the his-
torian Sallust. In fact, Sallust had here a magnificent summer
palace and estate, where he was wont to come in his hours of
leisure to combine the charms of philosophy with the more
material pleasures of his life. Cirta was also celebrated in eccle-
siastical as well as profane history. St. Cyprian was exiled here.
Sylvain, primate of Africa, had a council here, at which the cele-
brated St. Augustine assisted. But I am not writing history !
I left Constantine at 7.35 A. m. for Biskra, where we arrived at
6.15 p. M. The distance being about 150 miles, the average speed
CONSTANTIXE.
95
was less than fifteen miles an hour. We first went south past the
two junctions of Khroubs and El Guerah, and then our course
was southwest to Batna and to Biskra, the furthest point reached
in this direction by railway. Leaving El Guerah we soon passed
between two large but shallow salt lakes or marshes, covered with
long grass and filled with wild fowl of many species, both geese
and flamingoes being among them. We rolled on all day through
a treeless, barren sort of region, some of the land being sown with
barley but more of it devoted to pasture. I saw- many flocks of
sheep and goats, tended always by one or two native boys. There
were many small and scattered villages of the Arab farmers,
most of them being simply low tents of very shabby and primi-
tive appearance. We saw also all day many natives at work
ploughing in the fields or travelling upon the highway, which
the railway generally follows. There was at least one very fertile
valley which we passed before reaching Batna : it was being culti-
vated by French colonists. But the greater part of the journey
was over a very arid plateau. Although we travelled in a plain
more or less broken, wre had ranges of mountains in view all day.
At Batna we reached an elevation of 3,350 feet above the sea, and
then continually descended until when we reached Biskra we
were but 3G0. At about twenty-five miles from Batna we entered
the valley of a small stream called Oued Fedala, which plainly
indicated by its great dry bed that it was many times as large in
the rainy season. Some of the hills hereabouts were covered with
cedars. We followed along the stream for many miles through an
exceedingly rough and sterile country. At El Kantara both the
railroad and the highway pass through a very extraordinary gorge.
The bare mountains of vertical strata, like the folds of a lady's
dress, are here abruptly parted for a distance of about 1,000 feet
and with a width of only 150 feet in the narrowest part. The
river roars at the bottom. The railway passes largely in tunnels.
The hills curiously enough dip towards each other on either side
of the gorge, and this for many miles. Their color is reddish.
They are of limestone partially filled with gypsum and quartz.
The cliffs are broken into pinnacles and pillars and are strikingly
desolate and wild in character, but as you pass out of the defile at
its southern end a very great contrast meets the eye — a vast green
sea of waving date palms. It is the oasis of El Kantara that
forms this striking picture. Here is a forest of some 30,000
date palms, interspersed with orange, mulberry, apricot and
96 ACTUAL AFRICA.
apple trees. There are three Arab villages in this oasis, one on
the right bank and two on the left. Their total population is
about 2,500. As to the palms they seem to form a dense glossy
mass, and are everywhere surrounded by mud and stone walls.
The line between sterile stony plain and green fertile oasis is
very sharply drawn. A few miles from the end of this oasis we
came to a fine iron bridge crossing the river just indicated and
had here to leave our train and walk nearly half a mile to take
another, as the track embankment had been carried away for
the distance of over a thousand feet by a recent rise of the river.
The rains are exceedingly heavy and the utmost precautions have
to be taken for both the highway and the railway, but this
spreading of the river over many hundred feet had never been
imagined. Going rapidly on we noticed that cultivation became
scanty and tufts of grass increased. The ground was everywhere
covered with small rough stones. The hills shone and glistened
in the setting sun. The limestone ranges became lower and
lower, the bare hills of sand increased, the plain stretched away
to the horizon with no special elevations. We saw many herds of
grazing camels, many caravans upon the road and many encamp-
ments of rough, wild and unkempt Arabs. I knew we were ap-
proaching the borders of the great Sahara. At Biskra, the ter-
minus, a big crowd had come to the station to greet their friends.
Here were three omnibuses for the three hotels. I entered one
and soon reached a large and comfortable two-story house built in
a quadrangle, with windows looking outward and doors opening
upon the court. Everything showed preparation for many guests,
but the season had not begun, and I met not a dozen people at
the rather formal table d'hote. I had heard that the amateur
photographer had already spread himself pretty widely over the
world, but I was rather unprepared to find indications of his
presence on the borders of the Sahara, as evidenced by the follow-
ing notice posted in my room : " Tourists having any photograph
apparatus with them are begged not to use the towels for cleaning
the objects of the apparatus. Towels soiled in this manner will
be charged to the account of the Tourist."
CHAPTER XII.
BISKRA — QUEEN OF THE DESERT.
I started forth early in the morning to view the sights of
Biskra. From a small ledge of rocks near the hotel one can ob-
tain a good general view of the town, the oasis, the desert and the
mountains to the north. The latter which are steep, bare, and
yellow and gray in color are called the Aures ; they correspond
to the Audon of Ptolemy. These form a barrier to the north of
the town, while to the south, the horizon of more than a semi-
circle is broken only by the palms of one or two oases. The
houses of the French are in the northwestern part of Biskra and
near at hand ; the lower dwellings of the Arabs are almost hid-
den by the palms. But a perfect prospect is had of the oasis
generally, which is about three miles long and from 350 feet to
half a mile wide. It is about two hundred miles distant from the
Mediterranean. It is fed by springs. In the whole Algerian
Sahara are about four hundred of these oases. The importance
of each is as a rule measured by the number of its date palms.
Biskra is one of the largest and has about 100,000. It has also
6,000 olive trees, besides many fig, orange, lemon, citron, pome-
granate, apricot and olive trees. The population of Biskra em-
braces 7,000 natives, 1,000 French troops and about 1,200 Euro-
peans, mostly French and Italians. Dates are the great staple
commodity of Biskra, which is the emporium of the Sahara for
the trade in this fruit. As many as 5,000 tons are annually sold
in her market. Occasionally caravans of three hundred camels
and fifty men arrive bearing little more than this nutritive and
luscious product from the oases of the Sahara. The palms stand
in such dense masses that at a considerable distance they resemble
woods. Besides a general environment of mud walls the oasis is
all divided up according to the several owners. Most of the date
groves are in small holdings. A man who owns 10,000 trees is
97
98 ACTUAL AFRICA.
here regarded as a rich man. The palms are very carefully irri-
gated. Each tree is taxed by the government. The great
bunches of dates are cut down in the months of October and
November. Early in the year when the trees show signs of
flowering they are cleaned and trimmed of dead leaves and wood.
In March they are climbed by the Arabs who rub the male flower
upon the great white buds to insure greater fructification. The
tree is reproduced by slips. A good palm is said to yield on an
average 120 pounds of dates, and an acre of palms should yield
about three tons. There are a hundred sorts of dates but they
may all be divided into two principal sections : the soft glutinous
and the dry kind. Nine-tenths of the palms of Biskra bear the
latter sort. The best kind are called deglatnour, which are large,
soft, transparent and have a sweet musky flavor. The date as
eaten here is of course not at all like the dried and pressed dates
of commerce. It is a large, plump, tender and juicy fruit, one of
that sort of which, like walnuts, one feels inclined always to take
" just one more."
The oasis of Biskra extends along the banks of a wide river,
the Oued Biskra (now dry). On the opposite side of this are two
smaller oases, which are considered as belonging to Biskra.
Though connected with the French town is an Arab quarter and
at a little distance a negro one, these do not form the whole town,
which may be said to consist of five villages which are scattered
through the oases. Biskra proper is surrounded by a wall and a
ditch. The suburbs are without walls and are a vast garden of
vegetables and grains. The town is laid out at right angles, with
good macadamised streets and narrow sidewalks, well-drained and
lighted, and this is true of the Arab as well as the French
quarter. In the fort about five hundred troops are garrisoned.
In front of the entrance to the fort is the Jardin Publique, a
fairly good park of palms, acacias, mimosas, etc., which are kept
alive by weekly fioodings, the surface being all covered with little
embankments and canals of water. In a private garden near here
is the very rare curiosity of a palm tree having six heads and be-
ing in healthy condition. The market is held in and around a
modern building erected in the middle of a square by the French.
It was crowded with Arabs all dressed in white or what were once
white, burnooses. I was surprised at the generally large stature
of these men. They were swarthy, with scant beards, and amiable
expression. The market contained a variety of provisions, in
BISKRA— QUE EX OF THE DESERT. 99
which dates, oats, barley, and vegetables and fruits seemed to pre-
dominate. I saw many of the caravans coming and going, the
camels with their curious movement and look of the head and
neck like that of a turtle protruding from its shell. They bring
chiefly dates in bags which they barter for European manufactures
and provisions, money being of no use in the Sahara. In a fon-
dak in the town I saw a large white camel, a very unusual color.
It was employed only for riding and was valued at $100. Some
of the best of the riding camels, which will cover one hundred
miles a day, are worth double this sum. A saddle-camel in
Biskra may be hired at from five to ten francs a day. The bag-
gage or transport camel will carry two hundred pounds and costs
about $50. The riding camels differ from these as much as a
thoroughbred from a draught horse. They are very carefully
bred, trained and managed by the Arabs. One of this kind once
made the distance of 227 miles between Biskra and Ouargla,
a town to the southwest, in thirty-six hours. Camels ordinarily
eat grass and every sort of herb and shrub, but the better class
are sometimes fed on dates. In winter they do not drink as a
rule unless the weather is very hot. Their flesh is eaten by the
Arabs and the tid-bit is the hump.
Of course I visited the Arab quarter, and peeped into the
always interesting shops. The houses are hereof one story with
a terrace. The wood-work of the doors and roofs is of palm.
There are usually no openings upon the streets save the doors.
The people are a very amiable, industrious race. The women are
generally seen unveiled. You notice large square towers scattered
throughout the oasis. These are occupied by watchers to guard
the dates when ripe. There are also on the sides of Biskra, as of
Batna, towers of solid masonry, loopholed for muskets and with
doors of iron half way up their walls. These have been built by
the French to be used as outposts in the event of war. The fort
at Biskra is however sufficiently large to shelter the civil popula-
tion and to resist any attacks made upon it by the Arabs. The
caid of Biskra has a very valuable collection of falcons which are
used for hawking in the desert. I next visited the Negro village
which is a little south of the Arab quarter. It is inhabited by
Soudanese who were formerly slaves. The houses are of sun-
dried brick and of most primitive character. I found all the
little doors locked and not more than a dozen of the population at
home. These people are very poor, and go out to work at about
100 ACTUAL AFRICA.
five o'clock in the morning, not returning before that hour in the
afternoon. The few whom I saw were jet-black in color, and
the women were loaded with, gold rings, earrings, bracelets and
anklets, and dressed generally in gay colors. I need hardly add
that both men and women were exceedingly dirty.
I might here speak of the great prevalence of blindness in
one or both eyes and of eye-diseases among the Arabs and the
negroes. It is the same in Egypt and doubtless for similar
reasons. My guide who, by the way, had only one serviceable eye
himself, could not give me a satisfactory explanation. He attrib-
uted it to the glare from the whitish soil, the blowing of the
sand, and the great swarm of flies which continually hover about
the face, and so persistently that the natives seem to become in a
manner resigned, for you occasionally see distinct fringes of them
clinging to their eyelids, and left quite unmolested.
One of the sights of Biskra is the chateau and gardens of
Count Landon, a French gentleman of fortune and education,
who usually passes his winters in this delightful climate. The
gardens cover fifteen acres and are laid out at great cost and
maintained at an annual expense of 25,000 francs. Here the
Count has acclimatised plants and fruit trees from all over the
world. Paths lead everywhere through these gardens, which are
surrounded by high walls made of sun-dried bricks. Count Lan-
don, besides his good taste, interest in botany and liberality to
the public, who are freely admitted to his beautiful and interest-
ing place, has, it seems, his eccentricities, at least one is very evi-
dent here. All the rooms of his establishment are in detached
and separate houses. Thus as you enter the gate you see a build-
ing containing nothing but bed-rooms and of these no two are
connected. Quite a distance off you enter the grand salon or
parlor, a large room in Arab fashion, with rugs, ottomans, arches,
arms, ornaments, etc., and importations in the shape of Indian
punkahs, furniture, and Chinese decorations. On many of the
tables are seen works of all kinds on Algeria and Tunis and the
Sahara. It is a very large, handsome room. Far from this in an-
other building is the dining-room, and far from that the kitchen,
the dishes being kept warm in transit by means of charcoal
pans or dishes. Walking on through the dense mass of foliage
above and flowers below, you enter a pretty little Arab smoking
pavilion, with open arches at the sides, and arranged within upon
a raised platform with ottomans and cushions for the smokers.
Ouled Nail Girl, Biskra.
BISKRA— QUEEN OF THE DESERT. 101
In the centre upon a pretty octagonal table rests a large brass tray
for holding a service of tea or coffee. The gardens are so ar-
ranged as to be capable of being flooded when necessary.
I paid several visits while at Biskra to the Arab cafes and es-
pecially to those where the famous Almees or dancing girls are to
be seen. The cafes were ordinary rooms, with tables and chairs,
a small bar of spirits, coffee and tobacco, and a raised stand of
masonry in which an Arab band performed the regular wild, mo-
notonous, cadenced and jingly music peculiar to all North Africa.
The instruments consisted of violin, mandolin, guitar, flute, tam-
bourine and drum. The performers were of both sexes. The
cafes were crowded with Arabs, who were chiefly engaged in
drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes, though I noticed that not
a few had evoluted from harmless sherbets to the subtle and
deadly absinthe. In each cafe there were half a dozen girls who
from time to time went through their dance — the danse du centre
— the upper part of the body above the waist being held perfectly
rigid, the arms only being waved, with or without holding scarves.
These girls belong to a particular tribe — that of Ouled Nail.
They seem very young and some of them are quite pretty, at least
from an oriental standpoint, though perhaps too corpulent to
please a European taste. They are of reddish-brown complexion,
which is made still darker by the use of tar and saffron. They
mix horse-hair with their own black locks, which are elaborately
arranged, with two enormous braids over the ears, and made
almost solid with grease. Like the Japanese they keep their hair
dressed for a week at a time. They are often disfigured by tattoo-
ing on face and arms. They stain their fingers and hands red-
dish-yellow with henna. They are unveiled and extremely dirt v.
Their loose dresses are of very gaudy colored, gauzy stuff which
veils but does not conceal. Upon their heads are gay silk turbans
fringed with small gold and silver coins and old gold ornaments.
Many necklaces of coins and corals are also worn, as well as great
gold earrings, circlets three or four inches in diameter. Their
fingers are covered with rings and their wrists and ankles with
great silver bangles. In short, they often carry about with them,
what in their country is a small fortune in jewelry. They wear
tiny, red, leather slippers. The dancing girls are, as might be im-
agined, cocottes, and are said after years of carnival at Biskra, to
return to their native oases and marry. As in Morocco the musi-
cians sing at the time of playing upon their instruments. The
102 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Arabs seem very fond of this dancing, though I was told it was
furnished quite as much for the entertainment of foreign visitors
and residents.
I paid a visit while at Biskra to the monastery or headquarters
of " Les Freres Armes du Sahara," a religious order of armed
brothers, instituted by Cardinal Lavigerie, and which had occa-
sioned much criticism in European journals. At a distance of
about a mile from the French quarter of Biskra, on the direct
road to Touggurt and Ouargla in the Sahara, I found a long cor-
ridored building, the quarters of the brothers. This was opened
in February 1891 and contained thirty-one members. I was
shown through the small chapel and the two large dormitories
where the members sleep in summer upon mats and in winter
upon mattresses on a raised platform of masonry surrounding each
room. Their meals are taken upon mats on the floor in the centre
of each room, sitting cross-legged in Arabic fashion. Surrounding
the building are several hectares of rich land which is sown with
grains and vegetables and cultivated by the brothers. I was also
shown the armoury, which contains the repeating rifles (with
sword bayonets) of the fraternity and the brass instruments of the
band. A pamphlet was given me containing a letter of the Car-
dinal to all those intending to join the association and presenting
a general idea of their life and duties and of the scope of the
organization. Shorn of the superfluous rhetoric in which it
abounds, it really seems as if there was an opportunity for such
an association — but whether it will be successful or not time
alone can tell. There is an advanced station of six members at
Ouargla, about two hundred miles to the southwest of Biskra.
The work of these brothers is described as both patriotic and hu-
manitarian. The chief object is the suppression of slavery. The
brothers are instructed by the Cardinal to carry out their work by
the force of arms, by introducing French industries and com-
merce, and by the power of devotion, which is to operate through
personal sanctification, through cooperation, through the care of
the sick, and through manual labor, principally in agriculture and
other works necessary for the creation of centres in the Sahara.
The rules of the Brotherhood are not especially strict : they vol-
unteer for five years' service, which may be three times renewed.
They form a religious society but without vows. They dress all
in white, tunic and trousers, with a red cross upon the breast,
and a red fez upon the head. As to food they are required to live
BISKRA— QUEEN OF THE DESERT. 103
as nearly as possible like the natives of the desert — fruit being
forbidden. They are placed under the government of one of
the " White Fathers " of Algiers, with a chief and under-chief
chosen directly by the Apostolic Vicar of the Sahara. They are
to learn Arabic and to assist the natives by sympathy and actual
contact in all ways possible. To further this they are all drilled
as soldiers. And this is one of the points that has occasioned so
much adverse criticism, that a body of Catholic monks, for such
in truth they are, should undertake their work as soldiers, first
and last. A conspicuous sign-board just within the gate informs
the stranger, in French and English, that no women are allowed
to enter the buildings. As I have said trial alone can tell what
good the Brotherhood may do — the circular of the Cardinal is far
too sentimental — the practical and material arts of civilization
must a long way precede any intellectual or moral changes among
such wild people as those dwelling in the Sahara.
One afternoon I drove in a victoria over a fairly good road to
the famous oasis of Sidi Okbar, about fourteen miles southwest
from Biskra. Leaving the walls of the town, and passing the
dry and stony bed of the Oued Biskra, here a quarter of a mile in
width, I passed through very extensive fields of barley, and alter
following the walls of the date-palm groves to their southern ex-
tremity, turned directly out into the desert, a vast plain of little
hummocks, stones, sand and saltpetre. There was no herbage but
the hummocks were covered with a plant between a grass and a
bush — a species of terebinth which is the principal food of the
camel and is said to be greatly relished by them. The distant
view is like that of the ocean only there were variations in color
in the surface of the desert, the eye had a better standard of com-
parison than with the monotonous sea, and the distance to the
horizon therefore seemed at least three times as great as it does
from a steamer's deck in the ocean. Taking great stretches of
the plain into view it seems almost a " dead " level, but in actual
fact it has a gentle smoothly-undulating surface. Scattered pretty
freely about the desert were encampments of the wandering or
Bedouin Arabs, with their low tents of dark camels' hair cloth
and their herds of camels, goats and sheep. Caravans were fre-
quently passing us. At the foot of the yellowish-red Aures
mountains to the left of the point at which we started forth were
a series of small oases, but when we reached the village of Sidi
Okbar we were away out in the desert, with no oases, large or
104 ACTUAL AFRICA.
small, in view towards the southern horizon. Sidi Okbar is a
genuine Arab village, with low single-story houses of sun-dried
brick and mud, and narrow crooked streets. I passed near the
entrance to the oasis a large Arab cemetery, the graves almost
touching each other and consisting only of mud mounds with
low mud head and foot slabs. Passing into the town I walked
through the chief street of shops — curious quaint little " holes in
the wall," filled with French nicknacks and dry-goods, and along
into the market, which was full of vegetables and fruits. The
streets were crowded with Arabs, and a rabble of boys followed
me from this time forth and begged incessantly for backsheesh or
a present of money. The natives impressed me as a rough wild set,
and gave me a good general notion of what travellers exj^erience
who penetrate far to the south in Algeria. As to the town I
fancy it is a good type of those in the oases of the Sahara, and
in parts of the Soudan. The casual peeps I got into the huts
revealed scarcely any furniture other than a few mats, cooking
utensils and a scanty supply of provisions. The women I ob-
served were as usual loaded with jewelry and wore gay but very
dirty clothes. Those of the men were also not only very dirty
but ragged as well. The object of chief interest in Sidi Okbar is
however the mosque, which is said to be the most ancient monu-
ment of Islam ism in Africa.
I was enabled to inspect this mosque without taking off my
shoes, the straw matting on the floor being first removed for my
sacrilegious passage. It is a very plain building without, about
one hundred feet square, with horse-shoe arches and a flat wooden
roof. The mimbar and mihreb are very richly colored and above
them are some beautiful perforated windows. In one corner is the
koubba or shrine of Sidi Okbar in a sort of chancel. The tomb
is like those in general of marabouts or holy men, hung round
with silk and filled with offerings of banners, candles, ostrich
eggs, mirrors, etc. At one side of the koubba on one of the pil-
lars is carved in early Cufic characters, the oldest Arabic inscrip-
tion in Algeria. It says : " This is the tomb of Okbar, son of
Nafa. May Allah have mercy upon him." The minaret should
be ascended for a remarkably fine view over the town and the sur-
rounding desert. On the eastern side of the mosque is a curiously
carved wooden door of very old Arab work. Sidi Okbar is the re-
ligious, as Biskra is the political, capital of the Ziban, a territory
of about 11,000,000 hectares and 100,000 inhabitants. It is a
^
BISKRA— QUEEN OF THE DESERT. 105
great place of pilgrimage. Every year thousands of Mohamme-
dans from all parts of Northern Africa undertake the journey to
the tomb of the famous saint, who is worshipped probably next to
Mohammed. Sidi Okbar was the famous warrior who in the six-
teenth year of the Hegira conquered the whole of Northern Africa
from Egypt to Morocco, and who spurred his horse into the At-
lantic, declaring that only this barrier would prevent him from
forcing every nation beyond it, who knew not Allah and his
Prophet to worship him only or die. Many revolts took place be-
fore his power was consolidated, and in one of them, at an oasis
about half a mile from that of Sidi Okbar he, with about three
hundred of his followers, was massacred by a certain Berber chief,
whom he had subjected to great indignity. When later the Arabs
had reconquered the country in which Biskra stands, they buried
their leader at the place which now bears his name.
As I drove back to Biskra across the desolate desert the de-
scending sun lit with a ruddy hue the rugged flanks of the Aures,
and falling still lower formed a beautiful orange-colored back-
ground on which the great forests of palms were superbly limned,
their fronds delicately showing, and beyond were the dark hard
outlines of mountains backed by a naming sea of gold. It was a
gorgeous picture and riveted my attention until the sun was gone
and a splendid full moon endeavored to counterfeit its light. No
sooner however had the "great luminary of day " taken his de-
parture than the peculiar desert chill fell upon the air, and by the
time I reached the hotel I was thoroughly cold. The day had
been a magnificent one, clear as crystal, without a cloud, with a
fierce sun throwing a blaze of pure light. There was an exhilara-
tion, a tonic in the air, and I could realize how the Bedouins keep
their health and great strength ami endurance in the wilds of the
desert. They have the purest of atmospheres to breathe, a suffi-
ciency of exercise and rest, and a diet consisting of dates, mutton
and camels' milk, three of the most wholesome and nutritious of
known foods.
Biskra is called by the Arabs the " Queen of the Desert," a
name to which its magnificent forest of dark glossy palms justly
entitles it. Its climate is delightful during six months of the year,
being practically rainless, and the sole drawback is the prevalence
of high winds. When Nice, Mentone and the chief winter re-
sorts of Italy experience the severest of frosts and most inclement
weather, Biskra has a clear sky and a most genial climate. While
106 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Rome, Cadiz and Malaga have recorded averages of 50° to 60°
Fahrenheit, Biskra rarely registers less than 70° in the shade. In
summer however the heat is intense, the thermometer frequently
standing at 110 Fahrenheit in the shade, and as high as 124°
having been observed. At this time you will very likely have a
temperature of 90° during the night. ,
CHAPTER XIII.
AN ALGERIAN POMPEII.
Ox December loth I left Biskra at 7 a. m. for Batna, duly
arriving at 1 P. M. The town of Batna presents no special interest
to the traveller, but very great interest however rests in the neigh-
boring Roman ruins of Lambessa and Timegad (Thaumugas).
The former is celebrated for the remaing of its military colony and
the camp of the famous Third Legion of the Emperor Augustus,
and the Praetorium ; the latter for its Triumphal Arch, and Tem-
ple to Jupiter Capitolinus. Though there are many other archaeo-
logical remains of the Roman period — forums, baths, theatres,
temples, markets — these just mentioned are in the best state of
preservation. Batna lies in a plain some 3,400 feet above sea
level and contains about 2,500 inhabitants. It is an ordinary
French town surrounded by a square wall, with a gate on each
side. It is laid out with wide streets and sidewalks, and contains
some large barracks capable <>f holding 4,000 men, it being the
headquarters of a military subdivision. The buildings are of one
and two stories, stuccoed and painted yellow. There are a church
and a mosque, and without the walls a dilapidated negro village,
made of mud bricks. The town is lighted by electricity, has a
clock, illuminated at night, which strikes the quarters and hours,
and its hydrants have running water !
The following day I visited the ruins of Lambessa and Timegad,
leaving the hotel in a barouche drawn by a pair of sturdy native
horses, at half-past seven. The morning broke clear, bright and
cold. As we left the walls of the town the fields were white with
frost and such water as we happened to see was covered with a thin
sheet of ice. Our general direction was southeast, over a good
macadamised road, which however after leaving Lambessa was ex-
ceedingly crooked in order to preserve a good average level. We
wound all day from one valley to another, with low mountain
lor
108 ACTUAL AFRICA.
ranges on either hand. There were no trees in sight but the fields
of barley and other grains seemed especially rich. There were a
few camps of Bedouin Arabs, and a few French farmhouses but
the country was anything but settled. The ruins of Lambessa are
only about six miles from Batna. Near them is a large French
prison and just beyond, a small French village. The prison, a
huge four story building, is simply a convict establishment for na-
tives and Europeans alike. Lambessa was, as I ha,ve said, a mili-
tary town, the headquarters of the Third Augustan Legion. It
however grew at one time to be a city of some 60,000 inhabitants.
It was built about 150 a. d. At the intersection of the two main
streets of the camp stands the principal ruin — the Prastorium.
This is a large quadrangular edifice which has been partially re-
stored by the French. It is about 100 feet long, 60 wide and 50
high. It is in two stories exteriorly, with five round arches. All
is built of large blocks of stone and the columns, with a sort of
Corinthian capital, are very handsome. Between the large arch-
way and the smaller ones are niches intended to hold statuary.
The keystone of the lower central arch contains the remains of a
sculptured eagle, that of the arch above it a hand holding a wreath.
The interior however is but of one story with large attached or
" engaged " columns. In parts the building is very much weath-
ered, in others in surprising good condition when one reflects upon
its great age. The interior has been fenced and now contains
a museum of statues, columns and capitals, and inscribed slabs
which have been found here or in the vicinity, but it is said the
finest remaius have been sent to the Louvre in Paris. The mate-
rial of the Prgetorium seems to be the ordinary lime-stone of the
country, though many of the statues are of white marble. Every-
thing is in the most solid and careful style customary with the
Romans. In the neighborhood are many detached ruins — arches,
amphitheatres, tombs, palaces. There is a large garden adjoining
the Prastorium which contains in a small shed, a very fine mosaic
pavement, left exactly as it was found, and also a detached one,
both in very good preservation and of excellent workmanship.
But the chief interest of the Roman remains centres in Time-
gad, which is about twenty-two miles from Batna by the same road
as that by which Lambessa is reached. I drove on to these
through fertile valleys, passing many Arabs at work ploughing
their fields, turning from the main road about a mile from where
there was an old column sunk in the ground and bearing this in-
'
AN ALGERIAN POMPEII. 109
scription : " Ministere de l'Instruction Publique et des Beaux Arts.
Monuments Historique. Ville Komaine de Thaumugas." We
went directly to the south and crossed the cultivated fields by
a rough road to a semi-circular ridge of low smooth hills upon
which stood the old city. The location was most admirable, backed
by mountains on two sides and with an extended view over the
valley in two others. The city of Timegad was built in the first
century of the Christian era and devastated by the Moors in the
sixth, its destruction being completed by successive shocks of earth-
quake. Built upon one of the spurs of the Aures mountains, it
was a place of fashionable resort like Pompeii and like the Italian
city, it has preserved the pavement of its streets, with ruts made
by the chariot wheels, a forum with a number of ornamental
statues, a basilica, a tribunal of commerce, several temples and
public halls, a theatre with seats for the spectators, galleries, and
entrance places for the public and the actors, fountains, baths, and
a covered market with granite tables still in their places. To the
southwest of the towu upon a hill designated by the name of Capi-
tol rises a temple of colossal dimensions, surrounded by spacious
porticoes. This building, dedicated to Jupiter, is now being ex-
cavated, and ornamental friezes, balustrades, and heads of columns
are already clear of earth, while the fragments of a gigantic statue
have also been brought to light. There is a broad paved road,
quite intact, traversing the city from east to west, with several
triumphal arches spanning it, one of which, built by Trajan and
having three gateways through it, is but little injured and has
been partially restored by the French. Above the gateways are
niches for statues, one of them being in place. The well preserved
columns are of the beautiful Corinthian order of architecture.
They are entirely of white marble, though the remainder of the
monument is of sandstone. This triumphal way was the road from
Lambessa to Tebessa, a city about one hundred miles to the east-
ward, which possesses the first Christian monastery in the world,
built at the close of the fourth century by the disciples of St.
Augustine and recently excavated by the French Administration
of Public Monuments. There is also in Timegad the Byzantine
fort or citadel, built in haste by the troops of Solomon, the suc-
cessor of Belisarius in Africa, out of the debris of the southern
part of the city, several Christian basilicas, and various other con-
structions which will in due course be excavated. The ruins ex-
tend over a very large space of ground and consist of columns, .capi-
110 ACTUAL AFRICA.
tals, bases and walls in every stage of decay and breakage. The sur-
face is covered with stone debris, bricks and broken earthenware.
Pompeii was destroyed by a volcano and Timegad by a fire, to
which, as already mentioned, have been added several earthquake
shocks, so that now you will hardly find any relics entire. The
principal ruins may be said to consist of a fortress, forum, tri-
umphal arch and baths. The theatre was cut in the abrupt side
of a hill. The forum has all been cleared and contains many
columns, pedestals and inscriptions. Some of the columns are of
a very beautiful pink marble. A street on one side is paved with
huge blocks placed diagonally and much worn by cart-wheels.
This leads between diminutive shops and rows of broken columns,
to the triumphal arch, which is said to be the finest monument in
Algeria. A small rest-house for travellers has been built in the
centre of the ruins. It is of solid masonry, in and around which
many of the most interesting of the remains have been placed.
Near here are also several tents of Arabs who have charge of the
ruins, and signs are everywhere displayed that it is against the
law for any one to disturb or carry away any portions of the " his-
torical monuments." Timegad, or Thaumugas, is well-known to
history and the many slabs of inscriptions have been easily read.
Undoubtedly further excavations will bring much of great interest
to light. Here, as at Pompeii, the life of the people may be readily
studied. And the finds so far have been similar to those at Pom-
peii : statues, urns, coins, jewels, household furniture and utensils.
Let us hope that the rich results of this and previous excavations
will encourage the French government to undertake others.
I returned to Constantine in the morning and in the afternoon
took a drive to the summits of the two neighboring hills for pano-
ramic views. One hill was situated to the north of the city and
was called Djebel Mescid ; the other styled Mansoura, was to the
east and considerably lower, but commanding a fine view of the
sloping city and its environing gorge. A good road winds about
Djebel Mescid to the summit, where there is a modern French
fort. Upon the edge of the cliff a summer-house has been erected
and from here the view is very grand and beautiful. One sees
before him a long and fertile valley through which winds the
Ptoummel, and gets a fine view of the houses of Constantine fur-
ther around to the left. The cliff is very steep and seems to de-
scend 1,500 feet almost abruptly to the railway at its base which
goes to Philippeville. On the summit of Mansoura are some
AN ALGERIAN POMPEII. m
large cavalry barracks which are occupied by about 1,000 of the
chasseurs d'Afrique.
The police system in Algeria is on the whole most excellent.
Though the country is peopled with diverse races and towns in the
interior are often far apart, travel is quite safe, and there are no-
where any brigands. The French I may add are in the main
kindly conquerors towards an inferior race, and their rule in
Algeria is on the whole beneficial. Though it was all France
could do to keep hold of her colony in the terrible uprising of the
Arabs in 1871, that rebellion was so sternly repressed, and the
paternal form of government which has since followed has been
so judiciously administered that there is no probability of further
discontent and trouble. Of course, as with the English in India,
the occupation depends largely upon a military support. But
Algiers, it should be remembered, is but twenty-eight hours steam-
ing from Marseilles and not like England, three weeks from her
Indian possessions.
I left Constantine at the uncanny hour of 5 a. m. direct for
Tunis, a distance of 230 miles, which we succeeded in covering in
twenty hours. The average speed thus achieved was eleven and a
half miles an hour ! At Khroubs, eleven miles from Constantine,
we changed cars and turned directly to the east. The carriages
of the train were of a curious construction for which I was at a
loss to recognize any advantage. A gallery extended along one
side half the length of the car and crossing through the middle —
where there were lavatories, though kept locked— ended at the
other extremity. Into this gallery the small compartments of the
first- and second-class passengers opened. You entered by platforms
at each end, and a passage was arranged from car to car, though for
some reasons not used, being fenced across. One of the carriages
had a coupe compartment, and this I selected for the greater light
and broader views. The scenery however was of no special merit
until we reached the station of Hammam Muskoutine. Previous
to this we passed a number of villages and the road was carried by
able engineering along the gorge of a small river for many miles.
Its massive stone bridges as well as those of the adjacent road
always commanded attention and praise. Hammam Muskoutine
is famous for its boiling springs, which can plainly be seen steam-
ing away near the railway line. The temperature of the water is
203° Fahrenheit, which taking into consideration the altitude of
the place is just about the heat of boiling-water, and is only sur-
112 ACTUAL AFRICA.
passed by the Geysers in Iceland and Las Trincheras in South
America, the former of which rises at 208° and the latter at 200°
temperature. These Algerian springs are similar in character to
those in the Yellowstone Park, though on a very much smaller
scale. There are here also cones of exhausted springs like those
in the above mentioned Park, the largest of them being thirty-
five feet in height and forty in circumference. The surface of the
rock where the springs rise is thickly encrusted with carbonate of
lime. They fall in little series of cascades into a prettily wooded
glen, and then turn away in a small stream to join the larger one
which the railway has been following so long. Many date palms
bordered this stream, receiving from it their necessary heat and
moisture, and in the lower part of it were many natives cooking
their food, and washing their clothes. The scenery in the neigh-
borhood— wooded hills and fertile fields — is very pretty. And
this is the background you have for this interesting natural curi-
osity, which has been happily termed a " petrified rapid." These
springs however differ from those in the Yellowstone Park in
being more efficacious in the cure of rheumatism and skin dis-
eases. The Romans knew their value and some of their baths, cut
out of the rock, are still used by the patients of a hospital which,
in addition to a good hotel, is now located here. A little over half
a mile from the hospital are some springs, of a temperature of
170° Fahrenheit, which are ferruginous and sulphurous. The
convenience of being able thus to use both saline and ferreous
springs placed so near together will undoubtedly make Hammam
Muskoutine an important and popular watering-place, to which the
beauty of its surrounding scenery will add a very great attraction,
as does in the case of so many of the most celebrated spas and
baths of France and Germany.
For a long time after leaving Hammam Muskoutine the coun-
try is very charming. There are great woods of olive and cork
trees, with much cultivated and pasture land. In the neighbor-
hood of Guelma, a modern French town of some 4,000 inhabitants,
we entered the valley of the Seybouse river and followed it to the
village of Duvivier, where we breakfasted and again changed cars,
our former train going on to the city of Bone, on the sea-coast.
At some eighteen or twenty miles from Duvivier, we ascended and
crossed a range of densely wooded hills by a very long series of
windings. Hereabouts the views of distant hills, mountains and
plains were really superb. We passed through very many tunnels,
AN ALGERIAN POMPEII. 113
one of them being half a mile in length. The woods were espe-
cially pleasing to me after having become accustomed to the ordi-
nary barrenness, grayness and brownness of this part of Africa at
this season. The principal trees were cork and olive, though there
were many others and of varying tints of green, together witli a
dense underbrush of heath, thorn and broom. Souk-Ahras was
the next town of any importance, though it only numbers some
2,500 inhabitants. After leaving Souk-Ahras we reached the val-
ley, or more properly gorge, of the Medjerda river, which flows into
the gulf of Tunis, and which we did not leave until in the neigh-
borhood of that city. The gorge of rough rocks and well-rounded
hills is very picturesque. In a distance of forty miles the railway
crosses the Medjerda river a dozen or more times. At a small
place by the name of Ghardimaon we passed the frontier between
Algeria and Tunis, and had to submit to a mild Custom-house
examination. We here took a hurried dinner. It was now dusk
and so I could see nothing of the appearance of the country, but
I was told that Tunis or Tunisia, as it is now called by many —
and this is a good idea, for it serves to distinguish the name of the
country from that of the capital — differed from Algeria in having
more plains than hills, in being less wooded, and in having less
rain. Throughout a great part of Tunisia the soil is so sterile
that it will only produce harvests when irrigated or supplied with
more than the usual amount of rain. In the extreme north there
is the most water and here are also the largest forests, then towards
the south comes a region like the Tell or elevated plateau of Alge-
ria; next might be distinguished the Sahel or coast regions, great
plains productive only after rains or when irrigated, the remainder
being a desert — first what is called the " little Sahara " which is
covered with weeds and " camels' food," and then the vast, arid,
sandy, rocky and hilly Sahara proper. About six miles from
Tunis we passed through a portion of the great aqueduct of Car-
thage, for which it seems two piers and three arches have been
destroyed, when this might easily have been avoided by making a
slight detour either to right or left.
CHAPTER XIV.
TUNIS AND CARTHAGE.
We did not reach Tunis until half-past twelve at night, when
we alighted at a fine, large station, and riding through a wide boule-
vard, with double rows of trees in the centre, reached a commodi-
ous hotel, with marble staircases and tiled floors. The next day
was spent in the bazaar and in walks round and about the city.
From the ancient Kasbah in the northern part an extensive view
is had of Tunis, its environment, and the distant sea. It appears
that the city is situated on a sort of isthmus between two large and
shallow salt lakes. The inner communicates with the outer and
that again with the sea through a narrow artificial cut. The city
is built on a plain with a gentle slope towards the east and the
larger salt lake, which is called the Little Sea by the natives. The
shipping is obliged to lie without this lake in an open roadstead in
the lower part of the gulf of Tunis. The " little sea " is about
seven miles across and from the artificial opening just men-
tioned, a ship canal was being excavated, which was to be 150
feet wide and 25 feet deep. This will allow the greater part
of the steamers to come directly to the edge of the city. This
canal was finished early in 1894. At the opening connecting with
the sea was, at the time of my visit, the port of Tunis — called the
Goletta — in the northern part of which were the town and fort,
and in the southern an old summer palace and seraglio of the
Bey, the arsenal and Custom-house. The Goletta, like Tunis, has
been almost wholly constructed with the materials of ancient Car-
thage, but a few kilometres distant. The Goletta and Tunis are
connected by a railway about twelve miles in length, upon which
half a dozen trains run each way daily. As to the general appear-
ance of Tunis viewed from the Goletta, the dull uniformity of the
houses is in the native quarter only broken by the minarets, domes
and cupolas of a few mosques. The city covers a large expanse
Tunisian Street Costume.
TUNIS AND CARTHAGE. 115
of ground extending north and south, and is surrounded by a
bastioned wall on all sides except that towards the east and the
laro-e lake. This wall has a number of gates. The city has four
avenues broad enough to be used by carriages, the remainder being
narrow and very crooked, though well-paved and well-lighted by
gas. The drainage is open and in the centre of each street. By
strict enactment the French have all the streets regularly cleaned,
and for an oriental city it must be called quite free from dirt and
foulness. The French quarter is in the northeastern part, next
comes the Maltese and then that of the Jews, while the Arabs
keep to themselves the western and higher parts of the city. The
French town is comparatively new, but already contains many line
streets running at right angles, and lined with handsome public
buildings, hotels, shops, churches, markets, etc. A small public
garden has been laid out east of the station — that of the railway
connecting with Algeria. It is not necessary to give any further
details of the French town, which is rapidly extending itself north
and south and towards the lake. The Resident-General of France
has a fine palace in the midst of a beautiful garden in this quarter,
while the Bey lives for the most part in a pretty village to the
northeast and about ten miles distant. There are several lines
of tramway that skirt the city. The plant is Belgian. Tunis
is surrounded by low ranges of hills and by very fertile vege-
table gardens. There arc also old Arab and Spanish forts on
nearly every side. These have been restored and are now garri-
soned by the French, who keep some 5,000 troops in the immedi-
ate vicinity ; and there are 5,000 more scattered over the country.
You notice in the Arab quarter a slight difference from the streets
of Algiers in that they are not nearly so steep and are wider, with
a generally better class of buildings bordering them. They pass
through many arches, above which one often sees dainty little
oriel windows and balconies, and most of those in the bazaar are
either roofed by planks or matting, or run through corridors of
brick. The chief interest of Tunis may be said to consist in the
many and varied attractions of its bazaars. The Arabs and Mal-
tese— there are 8,000 of the latter — are very interesting, sober and
ingenious people. The Maltese especially form a valuable class in
the community as they work hard and live abstemiously.
Tunis is noted for its manufacture of silk and woolen stuffs, its
shawls and carpets, its burnooses and fez caps, its saddlery and
leather embroidery, its jasmine and attar of roses. The different
116 ACTUAL AFRICA.
manufactures and trades generally keep together, so that a
purchaser has the advantage of comparing the various articles of
the same sort in one place. Thus there is the street or market of
the perfumers, that of the bed, carpet and mattress makers, that
of the saddlers, that of the armourers, that of the embroiderers of
table-cloths, portieres, caftans, etc. In passing through the bazaar
you will be frequently invited into a shop, the door locked, pre-
sumably to avoid interruption, and the proprietor will politely in-
form you that after having taken a cup of coffee with him, he
will have the honor of showing you some of the best of his goods,
which you may purchase or not at discretion. After that every-
thing that you admire will be placed aside as if you had already
decided to take it and only waited for an agreement as to the
price. The merchants, as in Cairo, Damascus and Stamboul, are
great cheats and will at first demand three times what they will
eventually accept. You will be confidentially informed that all
the elegant embroideries in gold and colored silk upon rich, gay-
tinted velvets have been worked by the ladies of the Bey's harem,
and bear His Highness's special monogram. You will be as-
sured with great gravity and suavity that to any one else the price
would be so and so, but to you it would be a half or a third less.
And you will be importuned and pressed until you feel like break-
ing down the locked door and escaping, but you are not free
even when the door has been opened, for the merchant will fol-
low you through the streets and even invade your hotel. This is
all very annoying but in palliation it may be added that the
products in silk of the native looms are really exquisite, as are the
rugs and carpets. The old gold and silver inlaid arms are also
very interesting and attractive. But knowing the trickery of the
dealers one is always afraid to buy. In the Jewish quarter you
are greatly surprised, as well as amused, at the universal corpu-
lency of the women. This abnormal fat seems to pertain chiefly
to the bust, and is displayed to a greater extent by contrast with
their extraordinary costume of almost skin-tight white trousers
and richly embroidered vests. They are always overloaded with
jewelry and of course do not cover their olive-colored faces. Oc-
casionally you see a very young girl who might be called pretty,
but the others have very sensual expressions, wholly devoid of
character or vivacity. To a male Jew however this corpulence is
supposed to constitute their special attractiveness. I went into
several Jewish houses and always found very large families, with
^Jjfe ^sr*
^4 Tunisian Jewess.
TUNIS AND CARTHAGE. 117
the women at work in various household duties or weaving the
silk fabrics so lavishly exposed in the bazaars. You are not per-
mitted to enter any of the Arab houses, but you frequently see
the women in the street clothed all in white save only the hand-
kerchief which covers the forehead and lower part of the face
and which here is always black in color, producing a remarkable
effect, and one not nearly so pleasing as that of the delicate white
gauze worn in Fez, Algiers and Cairo. As to the male popula-
tion, while dressed generally in a similar fashion to that of Mo-
rocco and Algeria, you observe that stockings are more frequently
worn and a sort of red-topped boot. The fez cap also appears
oftener. The Tunisians are generally a large and fine-looking
people, amiable and courteous. Restaurants and cafes especially
abound. The natives sit cross-legged upon high mat-covered
benches, drink cups of very thick and hot coffee, smoke cigarettes
and play at games like our draughts and cards. The fondaks
are very dirty : they contain cattle below, people above. The
houses are generally of one and two stories, and over all the city,
built into the mosques, bazaars, houses and gateways, you observe
the old weather-worn remains of Carthage.
There are many mosques in Tunis, but you are not permitted
to enter any of them, not even upon removing your shoes. This
is singular since in the old holy city of Kerouan, about two days'
travel to the south, a place that until the French occupation
was surpassed in fanatical exclusiveness by only El Medina and
Mecca, where formerly no Christian could enter without a special
order from the Bey, and a Jew did not dare even approach —
you may now freely enter any of the mosques. The largest place
of worship in Tunis is called the " Mosque of the Olive Tree."
It has exteriorly a double row of arches supported by pillars
taken from old Carthage. In the northern part of the city is
another large mosque, which is always a conspicuous object in any
view that may be had of Tunis. It has a large central doorway
surrounded by four smaller ones, and all white- washed the whitest
of white. Another one has green-tiled domes and is decorated ex-
teriorly by rose-colored marble columns, inlaid marbles, and in-
scriptions from the Koran. Near the bazaar the old slave market
is shown you. The courtyard is surrounded by arcades the pillars
of which are all of old Roman fabrication. Around this court are
the little chambers or cells in which the slaves were kept, the men
below, the women in the storv above.
118 ACTUAL AFRICA.
In front of the Kasbah is a square containing a small garden,
and faced on two sides with government offices. One side con-
tains the Dar-el-Bey or old stone palace of the Bey. This is the
great show-sight of Tunis. It covers a large extent of ground
and is two and three stories in height. The lower rooms are oc-
cupied as offices and courts, and a large chemical assay depart-
ment. Externally it is not a prepossessing building — Arab build-
ings seldom are — but interiorly there are many remarkably fine
gems of Arabic architecture. This palace was built more than a
century ago. It contains the Bey's private apartments and offices,
the Grand Vizier's Room, the Judgment Room, the Audience
Chamber, dining saloon etc., decorated with splendid old glazed
faience, delicate arabesques of raised and perforated plaster, inlaid
marbles and onyx, red granite, and carved wooden ceilings blazing
with gold and vermilion ; together with a long series of more
modern state rooms painted in tawdry fashion, and filled with
equally tawdry Louis XVI. furniture. Some of the delicate and
intricate arabesque plaster work, an art for which Tunis was once
so celebrated and which has now become almost extinct, equals any-
thing in the Alhambra. You can compare it with nothing better
than specimens of the best Brussels lace. Most of the rooms are
very small, with low doors and many crooked connecting halls and
passages. The tiles extend quite the entire height of the walls
and the ceilings are lofty domes or oblong vaults covered with
arabesque tracery of beautifully patterned and gay-colored wood.
Marble columns, slabs and pavements from Carthage everywhere
abound and many of these show their great age by the weathering
they have undergone. It is an extremely interesting building,
but I fear to fatigue the reader by giving more minute detail.
In the southwestern part of the city is a large high school or
college founded by the present Bey, for the original purpose of
educating a class of teachers capable of spreading the French lan-
guage and influence in the interior of the country. Another ob-
ject is to educate Arab youth for administrative functions. The
teachers are either French or Arabs, and the pupils, of whom
there are nearly two hundred, average about seventeen years of
age. They are taught the Arabic language and literature, French
and Italian, mathematics, physics, history and geography. I was
very courteously shown through the establishment by the Director.
There were rooms for sleeping and eating, a library, a room for
physical apparatus, a hospital and many class-rooms, in some of
TUyiS AND CARTHAGE. 119
which the boys were squatting upon the floor conning aloud their
lessons from wooden tablets, and in others sitting upon benches
and studying silently from yellow-leaved books. There are also
some fifty or so primary schools in Tunis, which are attended by
upwards of 8,000 pupils, of whom it is said nearly one-third are
girls.
There are a number of so-called " Turkish " or hot-air baths
in the city, which are much resorted to by the Arabs. Three of
them are available for Christians. I examined the largest and
best. The entrance from the street was through a barber-shop,
in which hundreds of razors of all shapes and sizes were displayed
upon the walls for sale. Xext came a covered court with arcades
having stone pillars, a handsome marble fountain being in the
centre. Around the court were raised platforms, to recline upon
after the bath. Two or three connecting rooms were used for the
same purpose. A row of niches under the edge of these platforms
furnished receptacles for slippers. On one side was a small stove
for making coffee. Leaving this chamber the bather passed through
a series of vaults, each hotter than the other, and divided by double
wooden doors. In each were little rooms for applying water in
various fashions and all contained tanks of water, and large stone
slabs on which to shampoo the customers. The place was full of
men and fairly recked with noisome odors. My desire to essay a
bath was suddenly chilled notwithstanding the temperature. A
bath of this character costs about twenty-five cents.
The population of Tunis is stated as 190,000, considerably more
than double that of Algiers, but it is only an estimate, for no regu-
lar census has ever been taken. Of the total, 145,000 are believed
to be Mohammedans, 25,000 Jews and 20,000 Europeans. There
are also Moors and negroes who are included in this rating. In
the entire Regency, with an area of about 70,000 square miles, there
are believed to be about 2,000,000 people. The Italians outnumber
the French and the Maltese nearly equal them.
The most interesting sight in the -more immediate neighborhood
of Tunis is the Bardo, a large palace and citadel of the old Beys.
It lies about a mile and a quarter northwest of the city. The rail-
way from Algeria passes close by and another road leads to it from
Tunis, but the latter is only used on state occasions by the reign-
ing Bey himself. Leaving the city you pass through many fertile
gardens and soon come to the old Spanish aqueduct. This is about
fifty feet in height, raised upon piers and arches, and extends across
120 ACTUAL AFRICA.
the plains for several miles. It is of a similar style to the great
aqueduct of Carthage, previously mentioned, \tfhich is about six
miles distant from the city, but it is very inferior in construction
to that great work. Few, if any, people of ancient times equalled
the Komans in the high general quality of their masonry work.
You soon arrive at the Bardo, which has the appearance of a small
walled town, rapidly going to decay. The palace buildings loom
up some three stories or so in height, but can hardly be called im-
pressive. Besides the palace proper, there are many edifices which
were used by the court and the officials, and the village of depend-
ants and servants which would naturally spring up around them.
Loitering about were several native soldiers, wearing a European
style of uniform, with the addition of a fez cap. They are armed
with the Chassepot rifle. The Tunisian army has been reduced to
a single battalion mostly used as a guard of honor for the Bey,
though you occasionally see soldiers employed as servants about
the public buildings. They are said to be well-drilled and also in
every way properly equipped. Formerly they were frequently to
be seen bare-footed and while mounting guard to be engaged in
the very unmartial occupation of knitting stockings ! Entering a
huge gateway, with great copper-covered doors we follow a street
of what once were small shops and enter a spacious paved court,
surrounded by several lofty buildings, with irregularly placed win-
dows, and curious little balconies projecting oddly above your head.
Here is the entrance to an interesting museum of Roman antiqui-
ties and Tunisian arts, of which I shall soon speak. You leave
your carriage here and enter a second and smaller court surrounded
by arcades supported by marble pillars. On the side opposite the
entrance is a marble staircase guarded by marble lions, three on
each side and several of them most admirable counterfeits of the
king of beasts. This therefore is naturally termed the " Court of
Lions." The staircase gives access to the " Hall of Glass," a large,
oblong room whose walls are of vari-colored marbles, tiles and
arabesque plaster-work. The concave roof is very curious, being
composed of interlaced wood and plaster gayly-colored and mounted
upon mirrors. The Bey formerly gave audience here every Satur-
day, but now it is only used on the occasion of the two great an-
nual Mohammedan festivals. I should state that a part only of
the palace is at present occupied, and by the family of the late
Bey. The reigning Bey lives at the little village of La Marsa,
near the coast, about ten miles from the city. Many parts of the
J Urn
•■'
Plaster Sculptures in the Bardo.
TUNIS AND CARTHAGE. 121
palace have fallen into so ruinous and dilapidated a condition that
they have had to be pulled down, and others have actually fallen.
These are now being very gradually reconstructed as they formerly
existed.
Ou the same floor as the Hall of Glass is the Hall of the Pasha,
the finest room in the palace. It is built in the shape of a cross,
though without any special significance attached to this form.
The walls are all of inlaid marbles, stone mosaic and ancient
tiles. The furniture is not very handsome and gilt clocks are
too numerous. In fact, there is not a room in the palace which
has not from four to twelve clocks in it ; some of these however are
old and curious, and as big as sentry-boxes. There are altogether
quite enough clocks in the palace to* set a watchmaker up in busi-
ness. The Hall of the Pasha contains some large and interest-
ing historical pictures illustrating Tunisian history. The Hall of
Justice, near by, is also a fine room, with its row of columns down
the centre and its tiles. It contains a great chair of state in
which the Bey himself periodically administers Moslem justice to
his subjects, quite in the old patriarchal style. This therefore
may be called the Supreme Court, the highest tribunal. In the
upper story is a large state apartment or Throne Room, which is
now being reconstructed. Its ceiling is painted in a very tawd re-
fashion. The pictures that it formerly contained I saw in another
room. They were mostly of large size, portraits of many Euro-
pean sovereigns and princes, presented by themselves, of deceased
Beys and of living magnates. The private living apartments of
the Beys are also shown. They are generally small rooms, not
richly or even comfortably furnished with huge beds in recesses
and many ottomans or divans. There is also a Salle de Musique,
with galleries at either end. A hall with a magnificent arabesque
plastered dome contains four separate rooms, the quarters of the
four wives of former Beys.
A society for the collection, study and preservation of his-
torical monuments — antiquities and works of art — throughout the
Regency, has been formed in Tunis. The same French scholar
who organized this society, M. Rene de la Blanchere, is the di-
rector of the museum ' at is established in the outer court of the
Bardo, where it occup.:1 the quarters of the old Harem. It is
called the Musee Alaoue, was opened in 1888, and is free to
the public. A catalogue is in preparation and soon to be pub-
lished. There are two great halls which contain this very inter-
10
122 ACTUAL AFRICA.
esting collection : one is a lofty pillared court, which has been
roofed over, the other is a very large and lofty chamber. The
walls of both are covered with superb tiles and the ceilings or-
nately painted and gilded. The former contains a great number
of inscribed stones, and many fragments of sculptures and other
antiquities. The latter, called the Grand Salle, is sixty-five feet
long and fifty broad, with a ceiling quite fifty feet above. Nearly
the whole of the floor is occupied by the famous mosaic pave-
ment found in Susa — a town on the east coast— which is un-
doubtedly one of the largest and finest in the world. It repre-
sents Neptune in his chariot surrounded with fifty-six medallions
of gods and goddesses, each set in a beautiful garland of foliage.
The walls are covered with other mosaics, all framed and many of
them large and excellent. There are also many Christian tumu-
lary inscriptions, and several fragments of valuable sculpture.
Around the lower walls are cases containing lamps, glass, terra-
cottas, bronzes, votive stones, tear bottles, and pottery of every
kind. No visitor to Tunis should miss seeing the mosaics of this
museum which constitute its chief attraction.
I drove from the Bardo to another palace near at hand, be-
longing to the late Bey, but at present unoccupied. It contains
some elegant rooms decorated by Arabic and Italian and Spanish
workmen, but derives its chief interest from the fact that here
the French treaty, officially absorbing Tunis into French terri-
tory, i. e. placing it under the protectorate of France, was signed
in 1881. The palace is called Kasr-es-Saeed. It is almost com-
pletely surrounded by a beautiful orange grove, and at the time of
my visit the trees were actually bent to the earth with the thick
clusters of large golden fruit they bore. There is also attached
to this palace a great garden of fruits, vegetables and flowers
through which gracefully wind pretty hedge-bordered paths.
One afternoon I visited the site of the ruins of Carthage, driv-
ing out to it the distance of twelve miles from Tunis. The road
followed the northern shore of the great lake of Tunis nearly all the
way. We passed over a very level and fertile plain which extends
towards the north to another large and shallow lake, this one of
fresh water. I enjoyed fine views in every direction and especially
of the hills or mountains which stand to the southeast of Tunis.
The views of the city from a distance are disappointing, at least
on this side. It is too fiat and too little diversified but its
minarets and domes give it under a strong sunlight a thoroughly
TUNIS AND CARTHAGE. 123
oriental appearance. Its situation alone prevents its being quite
as picturesque as Algiers or Tangier. At the southeastern corner
of the lake is the small village of Redas and a little beyond and
bordering on the gulf the village of Hammam-el-Enf, which con-
tains several thermal springs. To the left as we approached the
site of Carthage was the village of La Marsa, which besides the
palace of the Bey contains those of many rich Tunisians and of
the late Cardinal Lavigerie. To the right was an extensive pros-
pect of the town of Goletta, and of the distant shipping in the
roadstead of the gulf of Tunis. Several small villages dotted the
country in both northerly and southerly directions. The situation
of Carthage was superb, being built upon a low range next the sea
and extending over a large space of country. Nothing however
now remains of the once famous city except some cisterns and
great shapeless masses of masonry. All that there is valuable
and interesting has been carried off to build the city of Tunis
and the town of Goletta, and to enrich the various museums of
Europe — all at least excepting an important collection which is
preserved in a seminary on the spot. Near the coast the ancient
ports of the city, filled with water, still remain. A fine modern
cathedral now occupies what may be termed the crest of the
hill. This was erected a number of years ago by Cardinal Lavi-
gerie and contains his tomb. The cathedral has from a distance,
owing to its many small and narrow windows, more the appear-
ance of a penitentiary than a church, but inside it is very beau-
tiful, being wholly in the Moorish style as regards arches and
columns and windows, though the latter are filled with stained-
glass. There is a splendid ceiling of interlaced wood-work, highly
colored, and covering the walls in every direction are tablets con-
taining the names and family crests and coats-of-arms of those
who have contributed to the cost of the building. There is so
much white in the large structure that the amount of gay-color-
ing and ornamentation strikes the beholder very agreeably. Ad-
joining the church is the " Seminaire," a college for priests, wdio
wear the Arab burnoose. Back of this is the chapel of St. Louis,
erected in honor of Louis IX. Within this chapel have been in-
terred the remains of a former Consul-General, de Lesseps, father
of the celebrated Count Ferdinand de Lesseps. In the lower
story of the Seminary is a waiting-room on the walls of which
are large paintings representing scenes in the Prince's life and
death at Tunis. The portrait of the Pope's Legate throughout
124 ACTUAL AFRICA.
the series is that of Cardinal Lavigerie. The paintings are very
well executed, especially that representing a battle with the Arabs.
Within this building is the interesting museum, above mentioned,
which was formed by the present chaplain of St. Louis, the Rev.
Pere Delattre, who has been occupied in exploring the site of
Carthage for many years under the auspices of the late Cardinal
Lavigerie. It is contained in a large hall on the ground -floor
and embraces many terra-cotta vases, lamps, iron and bronze im-
plements, glass vessels, coins, fragments of sculptures and many
valuable inscriptions and beautiful mosaics of the Punic period,
both pagan and Christian. The garden contains very many
columns and statues too large to enter the hall and a great num-
ber of fragments of sculptured stones, statues, tombstones and in-
scriptions which have been built into the inner face of its walls.
Of the Punic inscriptions nearly all are votive tablets. The
hills are still being explored in different directions, and I saw
many fine columns, slabs and so forth recently unearthed. But
most of the surface, though bestrewn with broken bits of earthen-
ware, bricks and small stones used in the massive rubble foun-
dations, is cultivated and covered with fine crops of beans and
barley. Outside the ramparts of the ancient city are the remains
of a very large basilica, divided into naves and transepts, with
an apse and baptistry. The great solid foundations of the pil-
lars and the walls are about all to be seen now, excepting many
fragments of beautiful columns of marble, granite, slate and
sandstone. In the place where once were the great cisterns of
the aqueduct which came from Zaghouan, to the south of Tunis,
the French have recently built large reservoirs which supply
Goletta wholly and Tunis in part. A large number of cisterns on
the opposite side of the old city have been utilized by the Arabs
as dwellings for themselves and their domestic animals. Car-
thage presents but little interest to the traveller now other than
indicating to him its unrivalled situation on the coast of the Medi-
terranean, and giving his imagination some idea of what the city
must have been in the days of Augustus.
H. H. the Bey of Tunis.
CHAPTER XV.
ROUNDABOUT THE REGENCY.
One morning, by special invitation, I paid a visit to His High-
ness Sidi Ali, the Bey of Tunis, at his palace in the village of La
Marsa, about ten miles northeast of the city, which is his perma-
nent place of residence, though he has a number of other palaces
in the capital and its environs. The journey is accomplished by
the Italian railway which runs to Goletta, with a branch line con-
necting with La Marsa. I was obliged to leave at the early hour
of 7.30 a. m., and met at the station Gen. Valensi, the first in-
terpreter of the Bey, who speaks no French. The General was
dressed in the Tunisian uniform, a dark blue coat covered with
embroidery, red trousers and a fez cap. Three silver stars on his
sleeve indicated his rank. In a button-hole he wore the ribbon of
the Legion of Honor. At the station of La Marsa one of the
Beylical carriages was in waiting. It was a dark-blue close car-
riage, with the arms of the Bey upon the door. An Arab in a
gold-laced uniform was the driver of the team of handsome mules.
The palace covers a considerable extent of ground and the build-
ings are in better condition than those usually seen in Tunisia. We
entered a large square, having on one side the guard room full
of native troops, and on two others stood a battery of light field
guns. On the third was the entrance proper to the palace and
here we alighted, and passed into another square surrounded
by large two-story buildings. Walking through the guard room,
in which was a motley assembly of Tunisian officers and soldiers,
and great, tall, grinning, jet-black eunuchs, six feet and upwards
in height, and clothed in long, dark gowns and red fez caps, we
entered a small sitting-room and awaited command to enter the
Presence. This soon came and we crossed the corner of the
court, mounted a marble staircase, halted in an antechamber full
of officials and servants, and then entered a long, narrow apart-
125
126 ACTUAL AFRICA.
ment, from one side of which His Highness the Bey and his
First Minister arose and advanced to meet me. He was an old
gentleman of very amiable expression, rather short, and clothed
in undress uniform, without any display of finery or any decora-
tions. The minister was still more plainly attired ; both wore the
national red caps. After bows, handshaking and taking seats the
interpreter translated my French into Arabic for the benefit of
His Highness, who addressed me in a similar roundabout fashion.
The reception-room was quite ordinary in its appearance and
furnishings. I noticed however that it contained a number of
framed texts from the Koran, also several gilt clocks and many
small pictures.
After the audience I was courteously shown through a part of
the palace and the gardens. The Throne Eoom is a long and nar-
row apartment of no special artistic merit, but contains some good
portraits of former Beys and of the present one — and six clocks.
Behind the palace is a remarkably fine large garden, in one cor-
ner of which is a menagerie of large and small animals, birds and
fishes. Among the large animals are some interesting lions and
panthers. In the gardens are several pretty summer-houses, one
being on an island in the centre of a pond and approached by a
drawbridge. At every doorway of the palace there loitered crowds
of soldiers, officers, servants and eunuchs. Though the palace is
large it does not contain any grand or beautiful rooms ; these must
be sought at the Bardo and the Dar-el-Bey, or town palace. The
present Bey of Tunis is seventy-five years old. He succeeded his
brother in 1882. The reigning family has given occupants to the
throne for two hundred years past. Until 1881 the government
was a hereditary Beylick. The old Beys acknowledged the suze-
rainty of the Sultan of Turkey and paid tribute until 1871, when
the reigning Bey obtained an imperial firman, which liberated
him from the payment of tribute, but clearly established his posi-
tion as a vassal of the Sublime Porte. Tunisia is now styled a
" Regency " and France is said to have over her a protector-
ate. In other words a Minister-Resident of France, backed
by a corps of occupation of 10,000 troops, is now the virtual
ruler of the country — the Bey reigns but does not govern. By
the treaty of May 12, 1881, already alluded to as having been
signed in the palace of Kasr-es-Saeed, the occupation is to cease
when the French and Tunisian authorities recognize by common
accord that the local government is capable of sustaining order.
A Lady of the Harem.
ROUNDABOUT THE REGENCY. 127
France therefore administers the country and collects the taxes in
the name of the Bey, who is granted a civil list of $200,000. The
princes, of whom there are many, receive a total of $150,000 per
year. The French Representative governs the country under the
direction of the French Foreign Office, which has a special " Bu-
reau des Affaires Tunisiennes." The cost of maintaining the army
is borne by the French government. The present Bey was de-
scribed to me as an intelligent, kindly man, benevolent and liberal,
who is greatly devoted to the welfare of his people. He is much
liked both by Arabs and Jews, Maltese and French. He is espe-
cially desirous of spreading the French language and literature,
and thoroughly believes in the benefit of their influence, both ma-
terial and intellectual. I heard however on the other hand that it
is impossible to civilize the Arabs to an appreciable extent. Their
religion, to which they are bound by bands of iron, prescribes their
daily life in minutest detail, as set forth by the Koran, and is an
impassable barrier to the great bulk of the population. Still cer-
tainly their physical condition in the cities and towns has been
improved, and it would seem that the constant contact and influ-
ence of the French must gradually, even if indirectly, work some
change. The chief exports of the country in order of value now
are : wheat, esparto grass, olive oil, tan, wool and woolen goods, bar-
ley, sponges and wine. The imports, which are at present nearly
double the value of the exports, are, half of them, from France.
From Tunis I went to Tripoli in a steamer of the Compagnie
Generate Transatlantique, visiting the ports on the east coast of
the Regency by the way. We went by rail to Goletta and then
took a steam-launch to the " Ville de Rome," a fine vessel of 1,900
tons, with a saloon lined with white marble, a cabin cle luxe, smok-
ing room, etc. "We steamed out of the artificial passage which
connects the lake with the gulf of Tunis and bisects the town of
Goletta. The Ville de Rome carried a great quantity of merchan-
dise, chiefly of European manufacture. There were a goodly num-
ber of third-class passengers, less of the second and but three
of the first, including myself. We sailed at half-past five in the
afternoon and at six the next morning had reached the important
town of Susa, where we intended to stop twenty-four hours. At
all the calls of these steamers they remain from four to twenty-four
hours — excepting at the island of Djerba, which cannot be ap-
proached nearer than four miles, and where there is no steam-
launch — so that the traveller has ample time to go on shore and
128 ACTUAL AFRICA.
see everything of interest. In leaving the gulf of Tunis we headed
towards the northeast and passed between the island of Zembra
and Cape Bon — the Hermean promontory, beyond which the Car-
thaginians so often stipulated that no Eoman ships should pass.
Susa is the seaport of the city of Kerouan, and is connected with
it by a horse tramway which makes the journey in about six hours.
Kerouan is the holy city, the Kome, of Tunisia. Next to Mecca
and Medina it is the most sacred in the eyes of western Moham-
medans. It possesses one of the most elegant mosques in North
Africa. The appearance of Susa from the sea is very picturesque.
It lies upon the flank of a low range of hills, somewhat after the
style of Algiers, and descends quite to the border of the sea. It is
oblong in shape, extending north and south, and is surrounded by
a lofty crenelated wall having towers and bastions at frequent in-
tervals. At the summit is the old Kasbah which has been turned
into barracks by the French and is the residence of the general
commanding the post. A mosque tower here has been secularized
as a lighthouse. The French quarter lies mostly without the walls
to the north ; to the south are several large manufactories of olive
oil, the oil trade of Susa being very important. Pretty villages
nestling in bosky gardens are also seen scattered along the shore
in either direction. Many date palms appear. There are four
gates to the town, two being upon the sea side. All of them are
curiously painted in distemper. We anchored about half a mile
from shore in an open roadstead. The old Eoman harbor was
slightly protected by a curve in the coast, and by a breakwater
whose remains may still be seen. The population of Susa is about
15,000, of whom 2,000 are Jews and 5,000 Europeans. It is an
important military station, a large French camp being located just
beyond the citadel, without the walls. Susa contains many shops
and warehouses. There is also a good hotel. But it is in general
so similar to the greater part of Tunis as to hardly merit a special
description. The view from the terrace of the Kasbah is very fine.
A considerable part of the trade of Susa is in the hands of the
Maltese, of whom there are about a thousand in the city. These
people are industrious, frugal and law-abiding. As with the Span-
iards in Oran and Algiers, who quite monopolize the carrying
trade with their huge two-wheeled drays and string-teams, so with
the Maltese here with their light carts and single horse or mule.
Early on the morning of the 26th we left Susa for Monastir.
This is a little town situated about a mile from the shore with
ROUNDABOUT THE REGENCY. 129
which, and the quay and Custom-house and a pier built by the
French, it is connected by a good carriage road. The town is of
the usual Tunisian type, with a wall and citadel. North of the
landing-place is an old Arab fort and scattered along the coast are
a number of pretty country-houses. The whole shore seems cov-
ered with olive groves, interspersed with date palms. Monastir is
only twelve miles from Susa, and the next stop is at Mahadia,
thirty-one miles from here. The trade of Monastir is chiefly in
olive oil. The town is situated on a promontory, near the ex-
tremity of which stands its very picturesque Kasbah with a lofty
round tower at one angle of its buttressed walls. We were about
four hours in reaching Mahadia. This also is a picturesque but
very dilapidated town situated on a narrow promontory. On the
point of the Cape is a lighthouse ; next a large space is occupied
by an Arab cemetery ; and then comes an old Spanish citadel
which has been thoroughly restored and repaired by the French,
and contains quarters for the commandant. Under its walls are
the ruins of an ancient Phoenician harbor. The country hereabouts
is low, and covered with olive and date trees. In going on to the
south in the evening we passed between the Kerkena islands and
the mainland, from which they were distant twenty-five miles,
though such extensive sandbanks surrounded them that the navi-
gable channel is not more than a mile wide. It is regarded as so
dangerous a part of the coast that the channel has been marked
out by a series of luminous buoys. The two principal islands,
which are low and covered with olive and date trees, have a popu-
lation of about three thousand. These live on the produce of the
sea, and cereals which grow well in the less sandy parts. The peo-
ple also export mats and baskets made from the alfa grass, which
grows abundantly.
Sfax is 150 miles from Mahadia. It is the second town of
Tunisia in population and general importance. It has a valuable
trade in alfa, and is also one of the centres of the sponge trade.
The inhabitants number 42,000, of whom 1,200 are Maltese and
800 of various European nationalities. We arrived at the anchor-
age early the following morning. The low-lying Kerkena islands
may be readily seen with a marine-glass. We were about two
miles distant from the city, which lies upon low ground and con-
sequently does not present a handsome appearance from the sea.
The coast in either direction was extremely low but as usual cov-
ered with olive and date trees. Near us a couple of small mer-
130 ACTUAL AFRICA.
chant brigs were anchored. On the horizon was a large fleet of
fishing-smacks, while coming out to us from the city were several
large lighters — boats sharp at each end, having two masts, each with
a broad triangular sail. Some of these were sailing, others being
towed to us by a little steam-launch. Along the shore were many
great fish-pounds. These are the " tonnara," which abound so
much in this sea. They are intended for the capture of tunny
fish, which is like the Spanish mackerel though much larger and
highly esteemed along the Mediterranean as food. They make an
annual migration from the ocean to the Grecian Archipelago and
Black Sea, and following either the southern or northern shores of
the Mediterranean in all their windings are caught in great num-
bers by these barriers of nets. For so strong are the migratory
instincts of these fish that they never retrace their course, but
always endeavor to find a way to the east. Thus they pass from
one enclosure of nets to another until as many as a thousand fish
are sometimes secured in a single catch. The tunny fish — called
" scabeccio " — is preserved in oil, and largely used in the countries
bordering on the Mediterranean. Oil also* is extracted from the
heads and refuse of the fish which is much used by curriers and
tanners.
Sfax I found to consist of three portions. The European town
is to the south, along the seashore, where roads and piers are being
built and where there are two ordinary hotels. Next this quarter,
towards the north, comes the Arab town which is surrounded by
a high wall flanked by towers, some of which are round, others
square. Beyond this is the French military camp. The distinc-
tive feature however of Sfax, and one which you notice best from
the deck of your steamer, is its great suburb extending along the
low hills to the north for four or five miles. Here all the rich
families of the city have orchards and gardens in which are villas
where the owner passes always the summer and frequently the en-
tire year, riding to town and out again every day from his work.
The general appearance of Sfax is so like that of other Tunisian
towns already described that I will only add that probably its most
curious sight is the great reservoir for collecting rain-water, a series
of several hundred bottle-shaped cisterns, within a walled enclosure
almost as large as the Arab town itself.
We remained all day at Sfax, both embarking and disembark-
ing much freight. The staple products of this place besides alfa
and sponges, are dates from the southern plains of Tunisia, the
ROUNDABOUT TEE REGENCY. 131
so-called Belad-el-Jerid or " laud of the date " ; woolen cloth from
the oasis of Gafsa; olive oil from the rich country inland; and
the rose and jasmine oil, so highly prized in Tunis and Con-
stantinople, from the gardens of the town itself. Leaving
Sfax at midnight we went on across the gulf of Gabes — the
ancient Syrtis Minor — to our next halting-place, the town, or
more properly the assemblage of villages, styled Gabes. This
corner of the Mediterranean is about the only part which has
any tide. At Sfax there is a rise and fall of five feet and at
Gabes of seven.
We reached Gabes early the next morning. In the roadstead
were two little merchant vessels. We anchored about half a mile
from a pier which projects out into the sea some seven or eight
hundred feet. But little of the town was in sight and that had a
very dilapidated air. In the south a great number of single-story
barracks appeared, since Gabes is an important military station,
containing a large number of troops intended to protect the south-
ern parts of the Regency. The coast in sight was undulating and
very sandy, and utterly bare of trees save in the large oases of date
palms in which Gabes is situated. Beyond, in the interior, were
ranges of low, smooth hills. You notice many groves of palms
thriving vigorously in the clear white sand. They make a splen-
did appearance from the sea, nor are you disappointed at a nearer
view upon landing. Then you perceive that Gabes is not a single
town, but consists of many villages scattered through large oases,
just as with the villages that constitute Biskra, as hereinbefore
described. In two of these villages you will be surprised to find
most of the houses constructed of cut stone and broken columns.
These came from the ruins of an old Roman town in the neigh-
borhood. The number of date palms in this and the neighboring
oases is estimated at 400,000. The population of all the villages
is put at 16,000 — of whom some 500 are Europeans, including 200
Maltese. The trade, like that of all the seaports of eastern Tunisia,
is in oil, dates and alfa grass.
A number of years ago, before the French occupation and pro-
tectorate, a scheme was mooted in France for the cutting of a
canal near Gabes, and flooding large portions of the upper Sahara,
thus making a great inland lake and reclaiming vast tracts of arid
land and introducing fertility, commerce, and life into the desert.
It seems there is a vast depression 235 miles long extending from
the gulf of Gabes to a point about fifty miles south of Biskra in
132 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Algeria, with an extreme width of twenty-five miles and occupied
by three chotts or salt lakes, simply low-lying marshes, which are
separated from each other and from the Mediterranean in no place
by more than ten miles. While the lakes are all below the level
of the sea the isthmuses are on the other hand considerably above
it. These marshes have been examined by several French and
Italian scientific commissioners and especially by Commandant
Roudaire for the French government. The most easterly of the
chotts is called " el Fedjij," which means " dread," since its quick-
sands are likely to engulf any caravans deviating from the regular
tracks. The spot where it was proposed to connect this chott by
a canal with the Mediterranean is about nine miles north of Gabes,
at a place where the work would be facilitated by another small
chott and by the depression through which a small river enters
the sea. The most westerly of the marshes is called " Melrir,"
and its level is about fifty feet below that of the Mediterranean.
The river on which Biskra is situated, as well as many others, flows
into this lake. M. Eoudaire proposed first to cut through the
narrowest portion of the inland isthmus, thus leaving the three
basins prepared to receive the waters of the Mediterranean. The
quantity of water that he estimated would be necessary to flood
this depressed area would be about two hundred milliards of cubic
metres. The admission of so much water would undoubtedly by
affording a large evaporating surface tend to give a permanent
moisture supply and restore fertility to the lands round its bor-
ders. The practicability of thus inundating a comparatively small
district in Tunisia and Algeria has been generally conceded ; not
so however that of a wild scheme projected some years ago in
England for the inundation of the whole western Sahara, the
greater part of which has been found to be above sea level. The
French commission however did not make a favorable report.
They thought that the advantages likely to accrue from the sub-
merging of these chotts would not be proportioned to the large
cost involved in its execution. Even if ships should be able to
circulate in the interior, the region possesses nothing save dates.
Though the French government declined to undertake this daring
work, a private company, under the auspices of M. de Lesseps, was
some time afterwards organized and received important concessions
from the Tunisian authorities. It has however so far done little
more than sink a number of artesian wells, and has been so suc-
cessful in producing verdure and fertility in this manner that it
ROUNDABOUT TEE REGENCY. 133
is extremely doubtful if any more attention will be given to the
formation of an inland sea, which after all appeals much stronger
to the imagination and sentiment than it does to the support and
endorsement of hard scientific facts. This somewhat sensational
scheme may therefore be considered as definitely abandoned. To
give an idea of the importance and value of these artesian
wells, it is only necessary to say there is one near Gabes which
throws a column of water into the air equal to 10,000 tons a
day, a quantity sufficient to redeem 1,500 acres of land from
sterility and irrigate 60,000 palm trees ! In this simple man-
ner then can the desert gradually be redeemed with infi-
nitely les3 labor and cost than with any colossal project of
inundation.
We left Gabes at noon and heading to the east across the gulf
of Gabes, reached the island of Djerba in three hours, the distance
being but thirty-six miles. Owing to the shallowness of the sea
we could not approach nearer the town than four miles, a point
where there is anchored a light-ship belonging to the Compagnie
GenSrale Transatlantique. From here the island seemed very
large, low and smooth, and covered thickly with olive and date
trees. Though Djerba possesses but little water it is said to be
very fertile. Besides dates and a fine quality of olive oil it exports
a great quantity of alfa. We could plainly see the capital, stretch-
ing for a great distance along the shore though not directly upon
it. Close to the sea, however, at about the centre of the town, is a
large walled fortress, which has been the scene of many sanguinary
struggles between Christians and Mohammedans. A pier has been
built at the landing-place and a good road leads to the capital,
which is called Houmt-es-Souk. Two or three sailing boats came
off to us.
Djerba is mentioned by many ancient writers — by Ilomer, He-
rodotus, Strabo and Pliny. It was immortalized by Homer as the
" Island of the Lotophagi." Who does not remember reading in
his Odyssey : " Now whoever did eat the honey-sweet fruit of the
lotus had no more wish to bring tidings nor to come back, but
there he chose to abide with the lotus-eating men, ever feeding on
the lotus, and forgetful of his homeward way " ? There has been
some controversy as to what this honey-sweet fruit could be. Sev-
eral writers have identified it as the Ziziphus lotus of botanists,
a fruit that not only is hardly eatable, but which does not exist
upon the island. But there is a honey-sweet fruit with which the
134: ACTUAL AFRICA.
island is covered, and which was undoubtedly the Homeric food —
I refer of course to the date, the most nourishing fruit in the world.
The population of Djerba is estimated at 35,000, of whom only
300 are Maltese and 60 of other nationalities. The Arabs who
manned the boats were very dark, clothed in coarse brown bur-
nooses, but barefoot. The Mohammedans are to a great extent
of Berber origin. There is a large Jewish community who in-
habit two separate towns. There are a number of villages on the
island and the ruins on the southern side of what must have been
at one time a magnificent city. It is situated about the middle of
the strait which though accessible to the trading vessels of ancient
times was still sufficiently shallow to admit of a causeway being
built to the westward of it which joined the island with the main-
land. Here there was a great bight or inland sea about ten miles
long and eight broad. This connected with the gulf of Gabes on
the west by a strait only one and one-half miles wide, and on the
east by one a little longer and broader. These channels are said
to be narrow and intricate but perfectly navigable for vessels of
about two hundred tons burden. Roman ruins are scattered all
over this region, indicating that the island was at one time a place
of considerable importance and a haven of safety. The remains
found at El Kantara, about the middle of the larger strait, are all
of Greek origin. They consist of richly-colored marbles — capitals,
shafts, vases, broken sarcophagi, sculptured stones of immense size,
etc. The highest point of the island is only about one hundred feet.
A considerable trade is done in sponges by Maltese and Greeks.
They are fished for chiefly in the winter months, and are either
obtained by spearing with a trident or iron grains, by dredging, or
by descending in divers' dress. Sponges are found along the whole
length of the coast of Tunisia, but are not of the finest quality.
There are large local manufactures of burnooses and colored
blankets, which are much prized throughout north Africa. We
left Djerba at seven in the evening for Tripoli. The boundary
line is drawn near a small village called Zarzis, not many miles to
the eastward of Djerba, and which is little frequented except by
the sponge-fishers. Beyond this point it is said the coast consists
only of sandy downs, stretching as far as the eye can reach, an
absolute desert. What few inhabitants are scattered about this
region live principally by robbery and brigandage on a large
scale.
It has been the habit of late years in certain quarters to sneer
ROUNDABOUT THE REGENCY. 135
at the work of Frenchmen as colonists, and to contrast their efforts
disadvantageous^ with those of England and Germany. To any
one of such an opinion I would recommend a journey through the
province of Algeria to see what France has done in fifty years ; for
during the first ten or fifteen years of occupation nothing was
effected towards civilization. Also let the disparager learn some-
thing of what has been done in the Regency of Tunis in a brief
ten years — in the way of remodelling native towns, of building new
ones and of making French quarters in old ones, of railways and
telegraphs introduced and of common country roads and bridges
constructed. Colonisation is now proceeding rapidly in Tunisia.
But it is rather of Algeria that I wish at present to speak. Here
French colonisation and its concomitants are certainly a splendid
work. To begin with the pirates have everywhere been ousted
from a large extent of seacoast, and law and order have been given
to the vast interior where before naught but anarchy reigned. Cul-
tivation and fruitfulness have succeeded barrenness and infertility.
The low marshes of the seacoast have been carefully drained, the
great plains of the interior have been covered with barrages, arte-
sian wells and other works of irrigation, and trees have been
planted which have tended to decrease the temperature and in-
crease moisture. In short colonisation and culture have long since
begun to restore this country to its old condition when it was the
granary of southern Europe. Kail ways and good macadamised
roads and fine substantial bridges have everywhere connected and
opened out these regions. For many years the French government
has borne the cost of establishing agricultural colonies here and of
making various improvements, building public edifices, and more-
over for those arriving without means of any kind lands have been
freely conceded, houses, implements and seed given, and the means
of living comfortably until after the first harvest. The govern-
ment has also always liberally assisted those having some small
means. Vast numbers of the Australian eucalyptus have been in-
troduced. This has not only a tendency to gradually change the
climate of dry regions, but of malarious ones, since this quick-
growing tree has also the property of absorbing miasma. The
greater part of the European vegetables and fruits have been in-
troduced, the soil and climate producing them in great perfection.
The most promising culture is, "as I have before said, believed to
be that of the vine, which seems to prosper everywhere. Great
quantities of wheat, barley and rye are grown. The wheat is much
136 ACTUAL AFRICA.
sought for in Europe for the manufacture of macaroni and vermi-
celli. A very important production is the natural one — alfa fibre,
or esparto grass, of which it is calculated there exists an area of
some 20,000,000 acres. There are now about 250,000 French in
Algeria, in addition to the army of 60,000 men.
A Typical Tripolitan.
CHAPTER XVI.
TRIPOLI.
Early on the morning after leaving Djerba we were at anchor
in the roadstead of Tripoli. The entire line of coast hereabouts is
flat and uninteresting. The harbor is formed by a long reef run-
ning out into the sea to the northeast, and the city lies upon the
western side of a semi-circular bay, and is but a very few feet
above the sea-level. There is a rocky projection to the northwards
similar to that at Algiers and on this stands an old Spanish fort.
The city is built upon a sort of peninsula and though mostly flat
is very picturesque when seen from the harbor. It is surrounded
by a huge wall with many bastions. The houses are of the ordi-
nary type, square with flat roofs, but several round and octagonal
minarets break the otherwise hard Hues and with their pretty little
galleries, frequently tile-inlaid, and their green copper-plated cones,
lend the expected oriental glamour, which is enhanced by the
large Kasbah close at the water's edge and the large straggling
suburbs, half concealed by date palms, which extend away to the
south. The houses are mostly white, though several gayer colors
are seen. The suburbs are many times larger than the city within
the walls. Following these around to the south and east you come
upon rich gardens of vegetables, olives and dates and other fruits
which end in a low bluff at the sea's edge. In the roadstead lay
two or three old Turkish men-of-war, their top-masts " sent down "
and their funnels capped. They showed a few small guns, but
none of them seemed capable of going many miles from land, not
at least in bad weather. There were also at anchor a dozen or so
small merchantmen of various nationalities and many fishing boats
with their huge lateen sails. The Kasbah displayed a large, high
square building with rows of windows closed by green Venetian-
blinds. This is the residence of the Turkish governor-general. I
might here recall to the reader's mind that Tripoli is a province or
11 137
138 ACTUAL AFRICA.
vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. It has an area of 400,000 square
miles and a population estimated at 1,000,000. It is a country
without rivers, perhaps the only one in the world. It is under the
rule of a governor-general who is appointed by the Sultan. Here-
tofore these governors have been very frequently changed, but the
present one has proved so satisfactory that he has been retained
for the past ten years. He is very popular with both natives and
foreigners and under his rule, supported by a force — an " army of
occupation " — of about 10,000 Turkish troops, who are kept in
great barracks and in a large camp to the south of the city, the
country has enjoyed peace and progress. The population of the
capital is now 35,000 — of which about 2,000 are Maltese. There
are but few Jews and not many citizens of other nationalities.
The province of Tripoli is about eight hundred miles in length
and four hundred in width, though of course its southern bound-
ary is not very well defined. Along the coast, and it is said for a
distance of from fifty to eighty miles inland, there are fertile tracts,
that is, tracts which become fertile by the free use of water in irri-
gation, but beyond these limits it is mostly desert — the desert of
Sahara — with oases few and far between. The whole country,
with the exception of regions near the coast, may be said to be
treeless, or treeless excepting only the date palm, which seems
capable of growing directly in the sand, but which will only pro-
duce the best fruit and in large quantities when freely watered.
In the southern part is the rich oasis of Fezzan, in which the sur-
face is undulating and there are ranges of hills. The capital of
Fezzan is Mourzuk, which is on the direct caravan route to the
Soudan — to the powerful Negro states of Bournu, Haussa and
Wadai. Tripoli is the fourth of the old Barbary States, as they
were called, which included all to the north of the great desert
proper and as far east as Egypt.
Soon after our anchor was down I went on shore and spent the
day. There are two small hotels, kept by Maltese, and which are
dirty and uncomfortable, but you can find a sort of apology for
a meal, and reflect that you would fare even worse on a visit to
Mourzuk. I succeeded in getting a very good Arab guide, who
could speak Italian. The city has four gates. The streets are
broader than in Tunis, are macadamised and sufficiently illumined
at night by petroleum lamps. There is no special quarter for for-
eigners. The houses are mostly but one story in height and all
seem more or less crude in construction and dilapidated in condi-
TRIPOLI. 139
tion. There are resident consuls of several European countries,
but the United States has no representative. Tripoli was origi-
nally founded by the Phoenicians, but when Carthage was destroyed
it became a Eoman province, and with the neighboring cities
of Leptis and Sabrata constituted a sort of federal union. You
frequently see old columns and other remains used in the modern
buildings. These were brought mostly from Leptis. When the
Mohammedans overran all north Africa Tripoli fell in the general
wreck. The finest relic of the ancient city, and the object to
which you are first taken, is a Roman Triumphal Arch, a quadri-
frontal arch of white marble — that is, a gateway with a carriage
road in both directions. There are only two others of a similar
character in the world. One is at Tebessa, in Algeria — that of
Caracalla — about eighty miles south of Souk-Ahras, near the fron-
tier of Tunisia, and reached by a branch line of railway from that
which runs between Constantine and Tunis. The other of the
two arches is that of Janus Quadrifrons, at Rome. But the Tripoli
arch is the finest of the three. It is buried up to the spring of
the arches in sand and rubbish, and is situated on one of the main
streets in the heart of the old town. The remainder of the arches
have been stoned and bricked up and the interior has been utilized,
but much profaned, as a Maltese wine cellar in the centre and by
a butcher's shop facing on the street ! " To what base uses," etc.
But the traveller can see evidence of magnificent work, though
now all is terribly broken and weather- worn. The arch is of pure
white marble and completely covered with the richest sculpture
and ornamentation. The general order of architecture is Corinth-
ian. It bears an inscription which records that it was erected
in the reign of Antoninus Pius, and subsequently dedicated to his
successors, Marcus Aurelius and L. Aurelius Verus.
There are several handsome mosques in Tripoli, which, after
obtaining permission from the cadi Christians may enter upon
removing their shoes. The largest of them is styled, par excellence,
the Great Mosque. This has exteriorly a beautiful colonnade of
sixteen Doric marble columns, and within contains the tombs of
several of the old Pashas. The mosque however is remarkable in-
teriorly chiefly for its size. Not so however the mosque styled
Djamaa Goorjee, which is most beautifully and tastefully orna-
mented within. Here the doorway leading to the street is sur-
rounded by exquisite tiles, and has above it a marble slab carved
with a raised Arabic inscription. Entering the courtyard you
140 ACTUAL AFRICA.
have the mosque directly before you and surrounded by a colon-
nade. The walls are covered with artistic tiles. You leave your
shoes at the door and enter the rather dark interior, but the per-
forated windows filled with stained-glass show you walls of white
marble inlaid with many colored stones, fine old tiles and delicate
frescoes extending to the tops of the domes. The mimbar is a
splendid work of inlaid marbles, the mihreb is also richly orna-
mented in marble tiles. The floor is spread with soft and rich
Turkish carpets. Huge bronze and crystal chandeliers depend
from the half-dozen smaller domes. There are galleries on three
sides with finely carved and painted balustrades. It is therefore
altogether a very pretty and attractive little mosque. The minaret
is especially graceful, being octagonal in form, with two galleries
ornamented with variously colored tiles, and a sharp cone of green
copper to cover the top. I ascended this minaret by a winding
stone staircase and enjoyed an extensive view of the city, the sub-
urbs, harbor, neighboring palm groves and distant desert. The
interior of this tower was covered with little glass lamps in wooden
boxes. These are fastened about the building as illuminations on
the many fetes, and especially on those immediately following the
long and rigid fast of Eamadan or the Mohammedan Lent, when
during thirty days the good Mussulman is forbidden to eat, drink
or smoke, from sunrise to sunset.
Within the walls of the city there are several bazaars — the
Turkish and the Arab being the most interesting. They are not
however of sufficiently distinctive character from those already
described to merit special reference. I visited the store of a Turk-
ish merchant who dealt in ivory and ostrich feathers. The latter
came from the oases in the desert and beyond in the Soudan.
They arrive in Tripoli, indiscriminately packed in great leather
bags and are then carefully sorted into three or four sizes. The
smallest feathers and the least valuable are but a few inches in
length, while the most expensive are often two feet long. The color
of the short is apt to be black, that of the long, white. I was shown
some elephant tusks six feet in length, and as much in weight
as a man could comfortably carry. These were worth about $200.
each. I next visited several fondaks, which were like those in
other Barbary states, great quadrangular buildings, used by travel-
lers and merchants, the animals and merchandise below, while the
people occupied the rooms of the upper story. The Pasha's castle
and palace presented little of interest. The walls and buildings
K2tm. l
TRIPOLI. 141
are all in a half ruinous condition. The palace contains no fine
halls or rooms, and such as there are are not shown to visitors.
His Excellency however has some very extensive gardens a few
miles south of Tripoli, where he has a very pretty little summer
residence in which he lives during the hottest part of the year. I
afterwards met the governor riding in a barouche followed by a
small mounted escort. He was plainly dressed in black, save his
bright red fez. Within the castle are the large prisons, which my
guide told me were generally full, the chief crimes being murder
and theft. Formerly the law was decapitation for murder, but
now it is only imprisonment for fifteen years. The guide gave
the troops rather a bad character in the perpetration of various
crimes, notably robbery.
Beyond the walls of the city to the south is a large sandy
plain, adjoining the sea beach, and here I saw altogether a most
interesting sight — a great weekly market to which came thou-
sands of natives from all the neighboring district and occasionally
from a distance of many days' travel. Near this market is a little
park, struggling hard for existence on account of infertile soil
and lack of water. Here a military band plays on one afternoon
of the week. The large Turkish camp adjoins this and here I
saw many of the troops — Arabs and negroes besides the Turks —
armed with Martini- Henry rifles, and going through the custom-
ary military manoeuvres, not in very good style, it must be con-
fessed. Further out in the country there are large garrisons of
cavalry and light artillery. The various harbor forts seemed
mostly to contain small, old, useless guns. The great market was
a most extraordinary sight. It must have been attended by at
least five thousand people. You saw every shade of color and
every quality and style of dress. In one part was the camel
market, in another the horse, in another the donkey, in another
the ox, and there were several thousand animals. Many cattle
and camels were killed, skinned and cut up on the spot. There
were long streets of dealers in olive oil contained in huge earthen-
ware jars ; there were great areas covered with bales of alfa and
straw ; there was every sort of food the country produced. There
were long lines of little coarse brown cloth tents, each just large
enough to hold a man squatting upon the ground, his display of na-
tive or European manufactures before him. There were itinerant
merchants passing through the great crowd and loudly proclaim-
ing the quality and cheapness of their wares. There were migra-
142 ACTUAL AFRICA.
tory restaurateurs, with pots aud pans filled with food simmering
over charcoal fires. Here you might see gathered together the
types of most of the inhabitants of the desert and the Soudan, as
well as the Tripolitans ; you might observe the chief products and
manufactures of many lands ; and you might study the varied
costumes and many of the habits and usages of native peoples.
It was by far the largest and most interesting market I have ever
seen in any part of the world. It began at daylight and at sun-
set not a native was to be seen anywhere upon the plain.
Late in the afternoon I took a drive through the suburbs out
to the borders of the desert. Every road I traversed was filled
with natives bearing something purchased at the great market
or driving animals heavily laden with the same. I rode in a
curious little cart, a small box upon two wheels which almost
touched the horse. The Arab driver sat upon the shafts. We
passed over roads of fine sand and between high mud walls
topped with prickly cacti. These walls surrounded rich gardens
which extended more or less along the shore for many miles.
Water was raised by the endless rope of jars and an animal work-
ing in a circle. The houses or rather mud huts were few in
number. In twenty minutes after leaving the city we had
reached the edge of the desert — a vast smoothly-undulating sur-
face of fine sand and small stones. This was indeed the genuine
desert of our school-boy geographies. There was not even a weed
in sight. The track stretched away to the south, to Fezzan, and
branched to Lake Chad and Timbuctoo. Caravans, large and
small, were descried upon this track, the brown of the camels and
the dirty white of their drivers being difficult to distinguish save
by their motion. The date-palms stood forth sharply upon the
horizon. It was an extraordinary contrast. This patch of desert
however is said to continue but for a distance covered in four or
five hours, when you come again to a hilly and fertile country.
But after this you arrive at the vast wastes of the great Sahara
which are, as everybody knows, only broken at long intervals by
fertile oases.
Here I must briefly refer to the commerce of Tripoli, the most
important item of which is alfa. The collection and preparation of
this valuable fibre afford occupation to the greater part of the in-
habitants. Ostrich feathers and gold dust are also large elements
of export. Cereals are exported in seasons when the rains are
profuse ; at others, not enough is grown for the use of the in-
<*■
A Soudan Negro.
TRIPOLI. 143
habitants. An article of considerable native manufacture is a sort
of warm over-cloak. The total exports in 1891 were valued at
12,300,000.
I had wished to continue my journey to Alexandria and Egypt
across the Syrtis Magna and calling at the various towns in
the great promontory of Barca, the ancient Cyrenaica, but there
is here a break in the steam-communication, which otherwise
nearly encircles the great continent of Africa. Much of this
region however is a desert and uninhabited, and it is even said
that for a distance of as much as four hundred miles along the
shores of the gulf of Sidra there is not only not a single village, but
not a single tree. So it was with comparatively little disappoint-
ment that I arranged to go to Port Said and Cairo by the way of
Malta and Brindisi. I continued in my French steamer on to
Malta, where I not only attended the grand opera but the New
Year's Day levee at the palace of the governor-general, and
visited the British ironclad " Victoria," little dreaming of the sad
fate that awaited her. From Malta I went in a large steamer of
the Peninsular and Oriental Company to Brindisi, being favored
with charming views of snow-capped Etna en route, and then
skirted the islands off the west coast of Greece — Corfu, Cephalo-
nia and Zante being distinctly visible with their steep hills and
widely spread-out towns. AVe also enjoyed fine views of the
mountains of Crete, their topmost ridge covered with snow. We
halted at Port Said only long enough to coal. This town has
grown to 16,000 people and is now a very bustling place. The
Suez Canal, too, has greatly improved in every way. It is now a
quarter of a century since it was opened and nearly twenty years
since the British government purchased 820,000,000 worth of
shares. A convention was signed in 1888 by which the canal
was exempted from blockade, and vessels of all nations, whether
armed or not, are to be allowed to pass through it in peace or war.
The traffic is now ten times what it was during the first year.
In 1891 4,206 vessels of 8,699,020 net tons passed through. The
traffic receipts for that year were 83,421,504 francs. The canal
is now in so prosperous a condition that there is talk of widening
it, or even of building a parallel one. Of the total number of
vessels more than two-thirds were English and then came German
(one-thirteenth), Dutch (one-nineteenth), French, Austrian, Ital-
ian, Norwegian, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, Portuguese, Egyptian,
Belgian, with about 250 of other nationalities. They carried over
144 ACTUAL AFRICA.
200,000 passengers, 80,000 of whom were soldiers. The average
duration of transit is now only twenty hours. All vessels pro-
vided with electric light are permitted to navigate the canal by
night. Our engines are put at " dead slow." We pass the village
Ras-el Esh, on the south side of Lake Menzaleh, next part of a
dried-up lake and then the Kantara siding, 1,300 feet long, a
spot where the sands drift heavily in east winds. This is on the
old road and telegraph route to Syria. There is a small cafe
here. Next we are in the old Ballah lakes and pass through clay
swamp and low hills. We see the villages of El Ferdane and El
Gruisr, the latter with its mosque and floating bridge. We have a
cutting between banks seventy to eighty feet in height. Then
we enter Lake Timsah, pass the Viceroy's chalet and see the town
of Ismailia on the western side of the lake. A steam-launch
comes off to us and we are soon landed in Ismailia. At this
place, twenty-two years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting M. de
Lesseps in his pretty Swiss cottage, but I should hardly recognize
the locality in the handsome town of the present day. It is
named after the former Viceroy, whose old palace is here, and
forms the central office of the Canal Company. It has a popula-
tion of 3,000, and has been built with great taste, with pretty
squares and long shaded boulevards, capital macadamised roads, a
Catholic church, two hotels, and a railway-station. Here is the
Sweet or Fresh Water Canal, by which and the railway there is
communication with Cairo. I took the express train for the
capital, passed through the Land of Goshen, halted for a little at
the great cotton mart of Zagazig, and arrived at my destination in
about three hours' time.
H. H. the Khedive of Egypt.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE METROPOLIS OF AFRICA.
Though I had thoroughly explored Cairo many years pre-
viously I did not now neglect to refresh myself with further visits
to the chief objects of interest and to any new ones that had arisen
in this splendid oriental city. First and foremost came the Ghizeh
Museum, the richest in the world in portraits, statues of private
individuals, in funeral tablets, and in amulets and personal relics
of the ancient Egyptians. The mummies, too, of the Pharaohs dis-
covered in 1871, the celebrated statues of Prince Rahotep and his
wife, Princess Nefert, the " wooden man," G,000 years old, are all
of superlative interest. The jewels and gems of Queen Aoh-hotep
are finer than those from Pompeii preserved in the Naples mu-
seum.
While I was in Cairo, Tewfik, father of the present Khedive,
suddenly died of influenza and pneumonia at his Helouan palace,
on the Nile, and was buried with great ceremony and displav in
the Khedivial mausoleum at Imam Chaffee on the outskirts of
the city. The body was brought by rail to the Abdin Palace,
whence the funeral procession marched through Cairo to the
cemetery. The remains were enclosed in a plain Arab coffin, cov-
ered with a shawl of rich material and embroidered with golden
flowers. On it lay the Khedive's sword. At the head of the
coffin, upright on a short staff, was the Khedive's fez, and below
this his ribbons and decorations of the Imtiaz, Osmanieh and
Medjidieh orders. The coffin was borne by seamen of the Khe-
dive's yacht. Immense crowds thronged the whole route of the
procession, which was also lined by police and detachments of
British and Egyptian troops. Immediately after the coffin came
groups of native women, weeping and wailing and throwing sand
on their heads. The procession was headed by mounted police,
and camels laden with gifts to be distributed among the crowd.
145
146 ACTUAL AFRICA.
All the British and Egyptian officers and officials of state were
present. There was a regiment of Egyptian infantry with its
English officers ; a squadron of British cavalry ; a body of Sheiks
of different degrees intermingled with dervishes ; Ulemas — imams
or ministers of religion, muftis or doctors of law, and cadis or
judges ; pupils from the government schools ; and the members of
the Diplomatic Corps in full uniform. At the mausoleum the
mollahs or priests recited prayers while the coffin was being low-
ered into the vault where the ancestors of the deceased Khedive
repose. The obsequies were simple but imposing. The sorrow
felt at the death of the Khedive was sincere and universal. He
was very popular and his death was regarded as a national ca-
lamity.
The present Khedive, Abbas Pasha II., whom I frequently saw
riding through the streets of Cairo, is a young man of medium
height and powerful build. He was educated in Vienna, where
he was a most assiduous pupil, being jmrticularly fond of exercises
in law and in military and political science. He is a brilliant
linguist and an admirable horseman. He is frank, dignified and
considerate, and in the few years he has been Khedive has shown
himself well qualified to preside over the destinies of his country,
to attend to the onerous and often delicate duties that have de-
volved upon him.
I propose now to describe a visit to the Great Pyramids and
afterwards a journey up the Nile, in accordance with the plan of
my book to touch upon as great a variety as possible of the inter-
esting parts of Africa which I inspected. I am aware that I shall
here be upon well-trodden ground, but do not know that any recent
work gives a general view of the present actual appearance and
condition of these world-famed antiquities ; and besides I have some
special experiences to recount. I am able, moreover, to present
the reader with some interesting illustrations made from recent
photographs ; and so with this brief explanation will speak first of
a day spent at Grhizeh.
As every one knows, the " great " pyramids are situated upon
the edge of the desert, on the west bank of the Nile, about eight
miles from Cairo. You may reach them by carriage in about an
hour and a quarter. The route leads through the new or Euro-
pean town to and across the great iron bridge called Kasr-el-Nil,
then along the Nile to the south through the suburbs of Boulak
and Ghizeh, where it takes a sharp turn to the west and leads
THE METROPOLIS OF AFRICA. 147
directly to the base of the pyramid of Cheops. In crossing the
river yon pass several palaces of government officials, large three-
story buildings, more remarkable exteriorly for their size than
any special architectural merit, each standing in a great garden
and being surrounded by high walls entered by iron gates. The
great museum of Ghizeh especially arrests your gaze, knowing full
well the priceless and fascinating treasures it contains. Across
the river are other palaces, with gaylv-painted walls, with glimpses
of old Cairo, and the buildings of the citadel and the domes and
slender minarets of the mosque of Mehemet Ali. The road
stretches away wide, macadamised and shaded by rows of splendid
large acacias. As I ride along it is full of camels, donkeys, car-
riages, equestrians and pedestrians, oriental and occidental, a very
motley of nation and costume. Now I am opposite the island of
Ehoda, and soon I turn away from the river towards the western
desert. The road here takes the form of a high and broad cause-
way or embankment, built some eight or ten feet above the level
plain and its rows of trees form a beautiful arch as far as the eye
can see. This road was built especially for the use of the Prince
of Wales and his party in 18G8. Formerly these pyramids could
only be reached by a long donkey route, which was rendered diffi-
cult by the collection of water from the annual inundations.
These shallow lakes now lie on each side of the road and extend
nearly all the way to the pyramids. The plain is covered with
rich verdure — wheat, barley and beans being the food plants most
frequently observed. Before us, a little to the left, appear the
three pyramids of Ghizeh, the Sphinx being in too low a situation
to be seen. As we draw near I notice several small villages in
different directions, a large modern hotel at the right of the road,
opposite the " great " pyramid, and at its corner a building erected
by the Khedive Ismail to entertain some of his distinguished guests
at the opening of the Suez Canal. The pyramids stand upon the
very edge of the Libyan desert on a slightly elevated ridge — here
perhaps fifty feet above the plain — which is twenty-five miles in
length and which contains the remains in better or worse condi-
tion of some seventy pyramids. These though so much scattered are
built always in groups. A few some six miles to the north are be-
lieved to be older than those of Ghizeh. The point has been much
disputed but it would seem that the weight of evidence for believ-
ing them all to be tombs was in greatest favor, since they are only
found in cemeteries. All about the pyramids of Ghizeh are
148 ACTUAL AFRICA.
old tombs. From here you see very plainly the pyramids of Sak-
hara — including the famous " step " pyramid — away to the south.
Owing to the absence of objects for comparison and the tone of
color of the pyramids, so much attuned to that of the desert land-
scape, they appear no larger when you are near them than when at
a distance. It is only when you stand at their very base — say at
the centre of one of the sides — and look up and out, that their
immensity is brought home to you.
We draw up in front of the hotel, which is very near and di-
rectly facing the pyramid of Cheops. The incongruity and ex-
travagance of the scene are most striking. The hotel — before
which stand stylish broughams and landaus, and camels and don-
keys— is built of stone and will accommodate 150 people, with
charges the same as at the most fashionable hotels in Cairo. Its
parlor and reading-room are decorated in ancient Egyptian style,
while the dining-room is modelled after the interior of a mosque.
In the afternoon a string orchestra upon the piazza play selections
from the French and Italian operas, which are partly drowned by
the clash of billiard-balls upon one side and the shouting of a
lawn-tennis party upon the other. Before us stands in majesty
the masterpiece of Cheops, around is the desert and the fertile cul-
tivated land and the fellaheen at work with primitive method and
material. Two days in the week an English four-in-hand coach,
including the conventional guard and horn, plies between Cairo
and this hotel. By all the mummies of Egypt, was there ever such
a violent contrast ! After lunching, in the great mosque afore-
mentioned, on pate de foix gras, pigeon, gruyere and Margaux, I
proceeded to inspect the pyramids and the Sphinx, walking all
around them and then ascending the " great " pyramid and enter-
ing it. The pyramids stand upon a plateau of limestone, of which
rock also these and all the other pyramids — save the sandstone one
at Philae — are built. The limestone for the Ghizeh pyramids was
brought from the quarries of Toora and Mokattam on the opposite
side of the Nile. After taking good general views of the pyramids
from many different points and angles I approached the colossal
Sphinx, that great mystery called by the Arabs the " Father of
Immensity." Though its features are greatly mutilated, still vari-
ous strong expressions can be noted — at one angle an exceedingly
pleasant and amiable one, at another a much firmer and more
forceful one, and at still another a peculiar mystic look not as if
across the valley and at Cairo (towards which it faces), but as if for-
THE METROPOLIS OE AFRICA. 149
ward into the vistas of time, into endless futurity. I may remind
the reader that this celebrated statue is hewn out of the living
rock, with a few additions of masonry where necessary. The face
was once most brilliantly colored and even now bears traces of paint.
The length of the body of the Sphinx is about 150 feet. The head
is thirty feet long and the face fourteen feet wide. From the top
of the head to the base of the figure the distance is about seventy
feet. The paws are fifty feet in length. These are the actual
measurements, but you find yourself quite unable to appreciate the
enormous proportions which they indicate. The Sphinx is a very
common figure among the monuments of Egypt. It is an emblem
of sovereign power, of intellect joined with strength. This Sphinx
— par excellence the Sphinx — is regarded as of immense antiquity,
having been in existence when Cheops reared the " great" pyramid.
Between its paws sacrifices were offered to the divinity it was sup-
posed to represent. Within the last few years many excavations
have been made around it, but the sands of the desert seem to blow
in about as fast as they are dug out. A little to the southeast is a
large granite and limestone temple, which was excavated by M.
Mariette in 1853. Round about are the ruins of many tombs.
They are those of high officials and others connected with the serv-
ices carried on in honor of the kings who built the pyramids.
From the inspection of the Sphinx I returned to that of the
" great " pyramid. The four sides measure about 755 feet each,
though the length of each was originally about twenty feet more.
The present height is 451 feet but the former was 481 feet. The
apex is now wanting and the flat space at the top is about thirty
feet square. To ascend to this point a payment of two shillings
has to be made to a native official styled the Sheikh of the Pyra-
mids, and a like charge is made to visit the interior. This entitles
you to two or three guides or helpers. If there are three, two pull
you in front and one pushes from behind. Every one knows that
the courses of stone are very high, often three and occasionally
four feet in height, and that therefore the ascent is very laborious,
as is also of course the descent. You go down face outwards, two
guides leading as before, and one behind holding you by his sash
previously secured about your body. I halted twice but reached
the top in sixteen minutes — very good time, they told me. On the
summit is a flagstaff. Here you obtain a very extensive view over
the Nile valley and to Cairo, but the range of rocky sand hills does
not permit a wide prospect towards the west. The second pyramid
150 ACTUAL AFRICA.
appears very near and seems, as it really is, nearly as large as that
upon which you stand. The third pyramid looks especially small
and obscure, in comparison scarcely worth one's notice. A good
conception of the enormous size and massiveness of the " great "
pyramid is obtained from its top. Herodotus has told us long ago
how this pyramid was built, how it took ten years to make even
the causeway to bring the stone from its quarries, how twenty years
more were consumed in its erection, 100,000 men being employed,
and being relieved at intervals of three months. Authorities dif-
fer regarding its age, which however may be set down as probably
about 6,000 years. Having descended, I next proceeded to visit
the interior. The entrance is at about the centre of the northern
side, some forty or fifty feet from the present base. The opening
is quite small and slopes sharply down, the floor being as smooth
as glass. Steps have been cut in the pavement, otherwise it would
be quite impossible to enter or certainly to return. The guides
bring candles and magnesium wire. The passage-way is 347 feet
long, 3^ feet high and 4 feet wide and is almost choked with sand
and rubbish. It leads to a subterranean chamber about 50 X 30
feet and 10 feet in height, which M. Mariette believed the build-
ers of the pyramid intended should be mistaken for its principal
chamber, and so serve to conceal the real resting-place of the royal
mummy. He thought also that the Queen's Chamber was built
with a similar misleading object. At about seventy feet from the
entrance an upward passage, once carefully closed by an immense
block of stone, leads towards the centre of the pyramid and opens
first into a hall having a ceiling 28 feet high. Just here is a hori-
zontal passage leading directly to the centre of the pyramid and
opening into what is known as the Queen's Chamber, 18 X 17 feet
and 20 feet high, with a painted ceiling. The large passage-way
continues on to the King's Chamber, the chief room of the pyra-
mid, about 34 feet in length, 17 feet broad, and 19 feet high. At
one side stand the remains of a coverless sarcophagus of red gran-
ite. This chamber is built of enormous smooth slabs of granite,
has a flat ceiling, and two air shafts leading to the outer casing of
the pyramid. It is 140 feet above the base of the pyramid. Above
this chamber are a number of smaller rooms, one over the other,
and apparently constructed to lessen the immense weight of the
upper part of the pyramid. The heat of the interior was very
great, and the dust raised by our scrambling nearly stifled us. The
odor of bats was moreover extremely pungent. The " great " pyra-
THE METROPOLIS OF AFRICA. 151
mid was forced open more than one thousand years ago by the
Caliph El-Mamoon, a son of the famous Haroun-al-Kaschid. He
was of course incited only by the hope of finding treasure.
The second pyramid — that of Chephren — is of nearly the same
size as that styled " great." It has a base line of 690 feet and is
447 feet in height. Towards the top the ancient polished casing
still exists. This makes the ascent of this pyramid too difficult
for the traveller, but if he cares to see the feat performed, an Arab
will run down from the top of Cheops, across to the second, and
scramble to its summit, all in less than ten minutes, and for a
couple of shillings. It contains but one chamber, into which there
are two openings, on the north side, one at the base and the other
about fifty feet above it. The chamber once held a granite sar-
cophagus in which Chephren was buried. Both the first and sec-
ond pyramid stand upon solid rock foundations. The fact that
the second rests upon a higher level makes it appear nearly the
size of the first. The second pyramid was first explored by Belzoni
in 181G. The third pyramid though 215 feet in height and with
a base line of 350 feet, seems, as I have said, quite a pygmy beside
the other two. It contains two chambers, in one of which a splen-
did sarcophagus was found, but was afterwards lost through the
wreck of the ship in which it was sent to England. The cause-
ways that were built to bring the material for this pyramid, as
well as that of the first, still exist, though in diminished propor-
tions ; that leading to the " great " pyramid is 85 feet in height
and 32 feet broad. It is well known that the outer casings of
these grand monuments have been removed by the Caliphs and
Sultans in order to erect their palaces and mosques at Cairo and
elsewhere. These blocks were covered with sculptures and hiero-
glyphics which the fanatic Mohammedans turned to the interior
in their walls, so that vast amounts of ancient Egyptian history
are thus re-entombed. The Citadel and the mosque of Sultan
Hassan in Cairo are altogether built of stone taken from the pyra-
mids of Ghizeh. I drove back to the capital in the evening, the
three pyramids in profile, one a little behind the other, making a
splendid picture in the mellow rays of the setting-sun and its
gorgeous afterglow.
CHAPTER XVIII.
AFLOAT UPON THE NILE.
On January 12, 1892, I left Cairo for a voyage up the Nile to
the second cataract, having taken passage in a steamer belonging
to Cook's Nile Flotilla. There are now many ways of ascending
the Nile. Formerly — say fifteen years ago — the only method was
by a sailing-vessel called a dahabeah, which would make the jour-
ney in six weeks, or possibly it might be in three months. But
now there are two lines of steamers regularly running once a
week during the season, which extends from about the middle of
November to the middle of March. These go to the first cataract,
and a branch connected with one of these companies goes on still
further to the second cataract. Here passengers must now stop.
There is a railway built around the second cataract, some thirty-
six miles, but it is only used for military purposes. And the
country is too unsettled to allow the traveller at present to pro-
ceed further south. Besides these two lines of steamers there are
flotillas of small steam dahabeahs, and of steam-launches which tow
dahabeah s, and also of large dahabeahs with steel hulls. There
are also still many craft of the old type. There are over a hun-
dred of these dahabeahs upon the river, owned by half a dozen
different companies. All these latter methods of travel are neces-
sarily very expensive and require parties of ten or more in order
to share the cost. The dahabeah remains the pleasantest convey-
ance for a long voyage — for passing the greater part of the winter
in Upper Egypt — but for the ordinary tourist the regular weekly,
or one of the extra steamers during the busiest part of the season,
will prove the most convenient.
I found the steamer on which I had taken passage lying against
a landing-stage on the bank of the river just above the Kasr-el-Nil
bridge. This steamer being typical of a Nile boat deserves a special
description. I was surprised at its size and comfortable accom-
152
AFLOAT UPON THE KILE. 153
modations. It was the largest vessel in the flotilla, and was very
happily named " Rameses the Great." About 225 feet long and
thirty broad and drawing but three feet when loaded with coal suffi-
cient for a round voyage to the first cataract and back, it carried
a total list of seventy-five passengers. The indicated horse-power
was 500, and I afterwards discovered that we made an average
speed of seven miles an hour up the river, against the current, and
twelve to fourteen miles when coming down. The steering was
done by steam. It was an iron paddle-wheel steamer with three
decks and fitted throughout with electric light and electric bells.
The cabins were arranged some of them for two and many for but
one passenger. All were large and comfortably furnished. For-
ward on the upper-deck was the dining-saloon. Next there was
a large open space, extending over the paddle-wheels, where the
easy chairs furnished by the steamer were placed, and where also
there was a piano. Next to this was a reading-room, well supplied
with guide-books and writing material, with small tables for games
of various kinds, which were also provided. Then came a number
of single berth cabins extending to the stern, where were tables
and chairs for an open-air, yet protected, smoking-room. The
main deck contained the galley, the Manager's office, the baths
and many cabins, mostly with two berths each. On the lower
deck were rooms for the officers, the doctor, the crew, the stores,
several large cabins and in the stern two cabins fitted especially
for invalids or others willing to pay an advance of $50. on the
regular fare, which, by the way, is from Cairo to the first cataract
and back, first-class throughout, $250., or to the second cataract
and back, $355. The table was very good, meals being served at :
8.30 a. m., breakfast; hot lunch 1 p. m., afternoon tea at 4.30 r. m.,
and dinner at 7 p. m. We were constantly supplied with machine-
made ice. The water drunk aboard is taken from the river and
twice filtered through great porous jars. It is not only wholesome
but has a clean, clear and pleasant taste. The lime-rock which so
much abounds seems to counteract the vegetable matter which
it must contain in greater or less solution. In short, the steamer
was well adapted to supply all necessary creature comforts, while
making the most interesting single journey to be found on earth.
The steamer of which I am speaking and the others of the same
company are only for first-class tourists. But there is also a Nile
Mail Service which takes native as well as foreign passengers. "We
carried a full list — Americans, English, Germans and French.
12
154 ACTUAL AFRICA.
The river where we lay seemed to be about a thousand feet in
width. It was of a dark, coffee color, full of sediment, and ran
with a swift current. Near us were some smaller steamers of the
same company. On the opposite bank were a number of the
dahabeahs, with their huge fore-sail and their after-one, smaller
but of the same shape, like the wing of a bird. These dahabeahs
have great cabins that are built up from the deck, along which
they extend nearly the entire length of the vessel. The crew
seem to be crowded into a very small space forwards.
We lost no time in storing our trunks and small baggage under
our berths, and started promptly at the advertised hour of 10 A. m.
on our voyage of two weeks to Assouan. We soon were gliding
past old Cairo and many large palaces lining the banks, the river
being generally retained in its bed by great stone walls. Beyond
we could catch glimpses of the city, and always had in view the
Citadel and the dome and graceful minarets of the mosque of
Mehemet Ali and, further off, the barren, yellow, rocky bluffs
extending far north and south. We passed the island of Ehoda,
with its pretty gardens and groves. The celebrated Nilometer is
on the south end of the island. This consists of a simple grad-
uated column marking the gradual rise and fall of the Nile as the
annual inundation comes and goes. What is styled a " good
Nile" consists of a rise from eighteen to twenty-five feet — a
greater height would do much mischief. At Ehoda it is tradi-
tionally asserted that Moses was found amongst the bulrushes by
Pharaoh's daughter. Proceeding, we pass on the west bank the
village of Ghizeh, and see on each side of the town great quantities
of mimosa, and many sycamores and date palms. Above these
appear the summits of the giant pyramids of Ghizeh — the blunt-
topped Cheops and the sharp-apexed Chephrenes. On the east
bank Toora and Mokattam are passed. Here are the immense
quarries from which were taken the stone for the pyramids. These
quarries have supplied stone for building purposes for six thousand
years. The builders of the pyramids made their workmen tunnel
into the mountains for hundreds of yards until they found a vein
or bed of stone suitable for their work. Every one knows that
there is a broad belt of verdure which follows the course of the
Nile through Egypt and Nubia. This belt is sometimes ten miles
in width and sometimes but one or two. Frequently the fertility
will extend on one bank seven or eight miles, and the desert will
begin almost directly at the other. Situated then all along the
AFLOAT UPON THE NILE. 155
river, at varying distances, are the grand remains of antiquity —
the ruins of ancient cities, the temples, pyramids and monuments.
A railway follows the left bank of the river as far as Assiout, or
250 miles from Cairo. The steamer halts at the main points of
interest and the travellers mounting donkeys in waiting ride to
them and then return to the steamer, which at once proceeds to
the next port of call. It runs only during the day so that tourists
can see all of the banks. At night the steamer simply drops
anchor in the stream or else runs in to shore and ties up at one of
the landing-stages.
Our first stop was at Bedrashayn, fifteen miles from Cairo,
which is a railway station also, and the place of departure for the
neighboring ruins of Memphis. As we drew in to the west bank
we saw awaiting us over a hundred saddled donkeys with their boy
drivers. There were native saddles — long narrow affairs, with
huge leather pommels like those used in Morocco — for the men,
and English side-saddles for the women. Below us were a number
of ordinary native boats, which are engaged in transporting cattle
and provisions from point to point on the river. But what a hub-
bub the donkey boys made ! As we landed they surrounded us, and
each one pressed forward to recommend his special beast, and the
few words they used were very comical. For instance, they called
their tough little animals " Telegraph," " Telephone," " Flying
Dutchman," " Mrs. Langtry," etc. They furthermore appealed to
our supposed preference by telling us " Cook very good, Gaze no
good " — these being the names of the two tourist agencies upon
the river. Having at last mounted our chosen donkeys — most of
them the size of Newfoundland dogs — with the hide of their hips
and legs trimmed in fancy circles, and wearing upon their necks
many chains of copper coins or beads, which made a great jingling,
we started into the interior, passing through a date grove, across the
railway track, and through a large native mud village. Our drago-
mans or guides and interpreters — each steamer carries several of
these — who spoke passable English — accompanied us. We found
the village of single-story huts, made of sun-dried bricks, very di-
lapidated and wretched-looking. Men and women half clothed in
coarse blue gowns stared at us as we passed. Children of both
sexes rushed upon us demanding in loud tones " backsheesh," a
gift — the cry so universally heard in the land of Egypt. It is
not necessary that anyone should have done anything for you to
demand a present, to see you is sufficient to make a general rush
156 ACTUAL AFRICA.
and outcry. Leaving this village we passed through fertile fields
and several groves of beautiful date palms, until we reached the
site of ancient Memphis, the modern Sakhara. The circuit of the
old city was about thirteen miles. Nothing now remains of this,
once the great capital of Egypt, save mounds of bricks, broken
earthernware and rubbish. In one building, though, there is shel-
tered a colossal statue of Rameses II. It was presented by Me-
hemet Ali to the British Museum a number of years ago, but
owing to its great weight and to lack of necessary funds, it was
never removed to London. The statue lies upon its back and is
about forty-two feet in length. It is cut from hard limestone, and
though the legs are badly fractured, the face is admirably preserved
and bears the well-known amiable smile so frequently noticed in
the Egyptian monuments. We next rode across a wide stretch of
fields covered with barley, maize, sugar-cane, tobacco, and towards
the pyramids of Sakhara, one of which, called the " step " pyramid,
is built in six terraces seven feet in width on top and decreasing
in height from thirty-eight feet at the bottom to twenty-nine at the
top. The total height of this pyramid is about 200 feet. It is
thought to be the oldest in the world — 700 years older than Cheops,
or nearly 7,000 years ! These pyramids — there are eleven of them
— were in sight all the afternoon. Leaving however the cultivated
fields, where we followed the low lines of soil used to retain the
water in times of irrigation, we entered upon an enormous dyke of
earth built to restrain the waters of the Nile itself and to protect
the positions of the native towns and villages. The dykes are
always used as the roads of the country. Natives were everywhere
at work in the fields, some with their crooked wooden ploughs,
others with clumsy hoes. Files of laden camels and grave Arabs
on diminutive donkeys passed us. And as we neared the edge of
the cultivated land and proceeded to ascend the sandy hillocks of
the great necropolises "of Memphis, native after native met us with
various antiquities — jars, beads, idols, skulls — most of them fraud-
ulent— to sell. They offered many of these articles for ten cents
each, which naturally made all of us too suspicious to purchase.
In the centre of these ruins stands the old mud-walled house
which was the headquarters of the famous French savant, M. Ma-
riette, where he and his staff lived during several years while en-
gaged in making excavations hereabouts. Near this house is the
entrance to the great Serapeum or Apis Mausoleum. It is all
underground and the entrance contains a wooden door, which the
AFLOAT UPON THE NILE. 157
guardian Arab unlocked for our party. You enter through a
steep incline of soft sand, and find many long corridors, hewn
from the solid rock, in which the heat is oppressive. Candles are
placed at intervals, and the guides furthermore occasionally burn
magnesium wires. Eight and left of the arched corridor are the
chapels containing huge stone sarcophagi in which the sacred
bulls of ancient Egypt were buried. The sarcophagi are of blu-
ish granite, and many of them are covered with hieroglyphics
which have been found of the greatest historical importance.
There are twenty-four of these sarcophagi and each measures
about 13 X 8 X 11 feet. All of them have been rifled (it is said
by Canibyses) in search of treasure. You observe that all the huge
lids have been moved from their proper place far euough to allow
the entrance of a man's body. The sarcophagi consisted of only
two enormous blocks of stone, the lower part being hollowed out
for the reception of the mummy and the upper serving as lid.
These sarcophagi are believed to have belonged to different pe-
riods, and the oldest is thought to be about 3,500 years old. The
Serapeum, which is described by Strabo, the Greek geographer,
once had pylons or gateways to which an avenue of sphinxes led
and was surrounded by a wall. The tombs of the necropolis of
Sakhara range from 1500 B. C. to about 50 B. C. We visited two
of the best preserved of them. These were the tombs of Thi and
Plitah-hotep, both belonging to the ancient empire or those built
during the first eleven dynasties. Thi was a royal councillor, a
confidant of the king. His tomb is nearly covered with sand, but
a steep and narrow incline leads to a door, and a narrow passage
conducts to several chambers containing some very beautiful
sculptures in low relief, many of them being delicately colored.
Thi was a rich man having large agricultural estates, and the
scenes on the walls of his tomb, from bottom to top, represent all
the operations connected with a large farm, also with hunting and
fishing and a country life. And I may say that the subjects of
the paintings and sculptures of the tombs generally are illustrative
of the daily life of the deceased. Directly under the chamber that
we entered was that for the mummy. On certain anniversary oc-
casions the relatives met in the upper chamber. What surprised
me in the carvings were the sharp lines after so many centuries,
and the often bright colors which adorned many of them. Here
might one study not only the features of the builders of these
tombs, but their costumes (there was not however much of this,
158 ACTUAL AFRICA.
only a kilt of cloth generally), their habits and usages, etc. Op-
posite Bedrashayn is the large town of Helouan, and not far dis-
tant, and reached by a railway from Cairo, are the baths of Helouan
— sulphur springs much resorted to by the citizens of the capital,
both native and foreign. The late Khedive had a palace here, and
it was here that he died, as hereinbefore mentioned. Helouan has
a good hotel and is rapidly becoming a fashionable watering-place.
At five P. M. we started on up the river, but anchored in midstream
at dusk, near the village of Ayat, which is thirty-six miles from
Cairo.
At daybreak we were under weigh. The night had been very
cold. Awnings were dropped all around the steamer and all the
port-holes were closed. The difference in temperature between
midday and midnight is very great and is keenly felt, though it
does not prove unwholesome — colds and so forth being almost un-
known. The river, as with all shallow rivers, was very tortuous,
with a swift current and averaging perhaps half a mile in width.
At this season — January — the flood is at about half its height. Of
course when at full height the river often extends in each direction
as far as the eye can see, while in midsummer it dwindles to a
mere thread quite unnavigable even by the lightest draught steam-
ers. The channel changes year by year from bank to bank, and
the pilots depend upon local reports and upon the constant sound-
ings with marked poles of two men stationed in the bow for this
purpose. Should the steamer run upon a bank her engines, as-
sisted by the long poles of the crew, are usually sufficient to get
her off. In extreme cases it might be necessary to employ a small
kedge to warp the vessel free. We went steadily on all day, there
being nothing of very special interest to visit on shore. The coun-
try was extremely diversified. Much of it lay in immense level
and very fertile plains. Then again rocky and sandy hills would
approach quite down to the bank, or great stretches of undulating
plain would be too high above the river to admit of irrigation and
hence would be utterly barren or with only fringes of date-palms
or occasionally groves of these beautiful trees. Villages, some upon
the banks, some inland, were frequent. Most of them were of
one type — primitive, mud-walled, flat-roofed huts, with possibly a
few of two stories, and the slender spire of a mosque appearing
above all. The groves of palm trees seemed to be the favorite
locations for these villages. In all of them you would notice the
curious round towers, with sticks protruding in every direction,
AFLOAT UPON THE NILE. 159
used as the abode of pigeons, which are much raised for their
manure and less as an article of diet. The little turreted tops of
these pigeon-houses made them look at a distance like Indian tem-
ples and many of them being colored white heightened the illu-
sion. Great flocks of pigeons were always flying about the native
villages. There was also much movement of life along the banks.
Natives were travelling with loaded camels and donkeys, boats
were loading or unloading, men were at work in the fields, or tend-
ing the water-wheels which raise water from the river, women
were filling the huge water-jars which they poise so gracefully
upon their heads, children were playing and old people sitting
and looking at the passing steamer or watching their own clam-
oring countrymen bargaining for produce with the boatmen. At
a long distance from the west bank could be seen all day the
low smooth chain of the Libyan Mountains, and upon the eastern
bank much nearer the river, the strangely rough and rugged lime
rock of the Arabian Hills. "We overtook a great many dahabeahs,
all bound up stream, and politely exchanged salutes with each.
There were also a great many native boats, slowly working their
way with oars up the river or sailing rapidly downwards. The
sails of the latter, turned to either side, like the wings of a bird,
were very pretty. They often added the necessary picturesque
element to the long, smooth, lines of shore, plain or hill. "We would
frequently pass large sugar factories, their chimneys being in sight
for many miles. All these belong to the Egyptian government.
During the day we passed a town called Wasta, whence a branch
line of railway connects with that fertile spot called the Fayoum,
and a large town called Medinet-el-Fayoum. The district, which
has an area of 850 square miles, is watered by a branch of the Nile.
Seventy-three miles from Cairo we passed, on the west bank, the
large town of Benisouf, the capital of one of the most productive
provinces of Egypt. It is governed by a Mudir. At dark we
reached the town of Maghaghah, where we spent the night — 106
miles from Cairo, on the west bank. Maghaghah is in what is
styled Upper Egypt. One of the largest sugar factories is here,
and we paid a visit to it. It was a very large establishment, with
machinery of the most modern make, French mostly, and with a
branch railway for bringing the sugar-cane into town. The great
buildings are lighted by gas, and all the different processes of the
manufacture seemed to be under the manipulation of natives, over
two thousand of whom are employed. During the day we saw
160 ACTUAL AFRICA.
great quantities of aquatic birds and of many species, but as yet
no crocodiles. The latter are not now to be found, I learned,
below Assouan. After dinner each day the head dragoman entered
the dining-saloon and briefly informed the passengers of the pro-
gramme of sight-seeing proposed for the morrow, an admirable
custom, since it gives ample time for those not well read up to
prepare.
The following day we started at daylight, and noticed many
islands in the river, which at high water are doubtless wholly cov-
ered. Many native boats were seen carrying miscellaneous cargoes.
Others were engaged in ferrying passengers across the river. Upon
the banks were miles upon miles of sugar-cane. This is ripe now
and sugar making is at its height at all the factories. We pass
on the eastern shore a range of limestone cliffs, several hundred
feet in height, called Gebel-el-Tayr, on one part of which is an old
Coptic convent called the Convent of the Pulley, from the fact
that there is a hole or fissure in the rocks from which the convent
may be reached from the water's edge by means of a rope and a
pulley. The convent is simply a church surrounded by a small
village of priests and their families, all walled in for protection
from the Bedouins. Continuing our journey we pass on the west
bank the town of Minieh, which is 156 miles from Cairo. This
is the capital of an extensive province, and presents a very pictur-
esque appearance from the river. There are many fine two-storied
buildings with arched windows, gardens, spires of mosques octag-
onal below and with tops like sharpened lead-pencils, with two
iron-railed galleries, and among them all the modern chimneys of
large sugar factories. Some of these factories, in spite of Moham-
medan law, annually produce several thousand gallons of rum.
The late Khedive had a fine palace here.
About two o'clock in the afternoon we reached the village of
Beni Hassan, on the east bank. This place is remarkable for the
interesting and valuable rock tombs, which are situated at a dis-
tance of about half a mile, in the range of limestone hills, some
hundreds of feet above the river. We land and mount donkeys
to visit them, passing first through the native village, nearly every
member of which seems to have turned out and to be busy beg-
ging us for backsheesh. At least half of these poor people are
suffering from eye disease or are already blind of one or both eyes.
The children of both sexes are quite nude and their elders at least
half. The tombs extend for a long distance along the cliffs, on
AFLOAT UPON TEE NILE. 161
about the same level, and are all cut from the solid rock. We first
however visited what is called the Speos Artemidos, a cavern about
twenty feet square, whose walls outside are covered with hiero-
glyphics. There is a small niche in one side of this chamber in-
tended to hold a statue of the lion-goddess Sechet. There are
about fifteen rock tombs at Beni Hassan. Leaving the village
with its mud walls and overshadowing palm groves and crossing
a narrow flat of fruitful gardens you reach the desert, and ascend
a yellow range of hills until you arrive at the tombs. From their
openings you have a splendid view over the valley of the Nile, a
brief fringe of green near you, then the meandering river and
then a wider expanse of fertility, until your eyes reach the dis-
tant Libyan Mountains. The tombs, which are nearly five thou-
sand years old, are very simple in their architecture. You have
generally an entrance door between two outer columns forming a
portico like the Doric. The chamber into which you enter has a
double row of pillars with either lotus-bud capitals or those of the
plain Doric type. In one corner is a shaft which leads down to a
corridor ending in a chamber which contained the sarcophagus
and mummy. Some of the tombs have .smaller chambers contain-
ing statues of the dead who were buried beneath. The pillars like
the chambers are all hewn out of the solid rock. The walls are
completely covered with pictures representing in general the pri-
vate life of the old Egyptians, and in particular of the occupant
of each tomb. The daily occupations and amusements are por-
trayed with such wonderful fidelity that you need no descriptions
to comprehend all. Of ancient Egypt are shown pictures of the
gods, animals, plants, manufactures, domestic work of the women,
foreign visitors, soldiers, priests, vessels, hunting-scenes, agriculture,
etc. The walls were first covered with a thin layer of plaster upon
which the paintings were made. A few of the colors are as bright
as if laid on but yesterday, though most are considerably faded.
Below these paintings long inscriptions, with ornamental borders
extending all around the chamber, have been cut in the rock. The
ceilings are vaulted and gayly painted. The columns which have
lotus capitals have four fluted or rounded sides, those of the Doric
style sixteen sides. Some of the latter are twenty feet in height
and the chambers are as much as forty feet square. The tombs
are those of generals and officers of various Egyptian sovereigns,
but two of the finest of them are of old feudal lords and governors
of provinces. These latter have been protected with iron gates by
162 ACTUAL AFRICA.
the authorities and it is necessary to show our tickets — purchased
from the Egyptian government for $5.12 each, and granting us
permission to visit all the monuments of Upper Egypt, " fermes
ou enclos " — to the native guardian before entering. This tax is
devoted to the maintenance and preservation of the monuments,
and judging by the depredations — the wanton mutilation and in-
jury— of tourists, Arabs and dealers in antiquities, is a check and
protection greatly needed. In one of the smaller tombs we found
a young English artist had temporarily taken up his abode while
copying the scenes upon the walls. He was employed by the
" British Archaeological Survey of Egypt," aud the " Egypt Ex-
ploration Fund " of which the learned lady Egyptologist, the late
Amelia B. Edwards was Vice-President and Honorary Secretary.
We returned to the steamer and went on to the village of Ehoda,
on the west bank, where there is a large sugar factory employing
several hundred hands. We anchored for the night in mid-stream
opposite this village.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE CAPITAL OF UPPER EGYPT.
On at daylight the next morning, passing a range of great
rocks on the eastern bank which was some ten or twelve miles in
length and in some places descended perpendicularly into the river.
It was mostly of stratified limestone and the valleys were filled with
winding rivers or glaciers of the finest yellow sand. The colors of
the hills were brown, yellow and gray — rock, sand and lime. The
terraces of the cliffs where they descended to the river were full of
tombs with square entrances like those at Beni Hassan, and cav-
erns where once dwelt the celebrated ascetics of Upper Egypt.
There were also to be seen many pretty natural grottoes and many
holes, the abodes of numerous wild fowl. The range of hills is
called Gebel-Aboufaydah, and towards the southern end of it are
the famous crocodile mummy pits. These reptiles were found
here in thousands. Many dog and cat mummies were also discov-
ered in this neighborhood. And cat mummies carefully rolled and
still having a distinct natural odor were offered for sale to us at
Beni Hassan. The Nile was only about a quarter of a mile wide
at the cliffs and is quite deep here. The opposite shore presented
a great level plain but little above the surface of the river, and the
cultivated fields approached to the very edge of the water. The
fields bore mostly maize and beans. The channel seems to prefer
one or the other bank, so far the eastern ; it does not generally run
in the centre, as might be supposed. "We next passed on the west-
ern bank the very picturesque village of Manfaloot, with its domes
and minarets, its gardens and the Theban or doum palm which
now began to mingle with the date. The houses of many of the
villages are no more than the height of an Arab. Some are made
solely of coarse straw, bundles of which are set on end for the
walls. Occasionally we see the tomb of a marabout standing out
in the desert quite by itself. As far as Assiout (250 miles from
163
164 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Cairo), the fertile valley of the Nile lies mostly upon the western
side, never is there over a mile of it on the eastern bank, where the
desert is generally seen but a few hundred yards back and fre-
quently it comes directly to the water's edge. Not so however
upon the western bank, where the plains are so vast that the des-
ert chain of the Libyan hills is generally but faintly discernible.
We saw the town of Assiout several hours before reaching it,
the river here taking some very long curves. The city is a mile
from the river bank, lies upon sloping ground and with its several-
storied houses with white and light-colored walls, a dozen octago-
nal minarets with three and four galleries each and smooth cone
apexes, very many large and small domes, and interspersed gardens,
palms and acacias it makes a very picturesque appearance, backed
as it is by a range of steep bare yellow mountains. The port of
Assiout is El Hamra and here we moored to a barge secured to the
bank and near several other steamers of the same line, a half a
dozen dahabeahs, and a small fleet of trading-boats. The usual
crowd of native merchants and donkey boys lined the bank to re-
ceive us and our surplus cash. From here an excellent road raised
a few feet above the plain (on account of the annual inundation)
leads to the city. The latter stands actually on an island formed
by a branch of the river which is crossed by an arched stone bridge.
Assiout has a population of about 25,000. It is the capital of Upper
Egypt and the seat of an Inspector- General. It is more like Cairo
than any town we have seen — has spacious bazaars, handsome
mosques, luxurious baths. It is famous for its market held once
a week, to which wares are brought from as great a distance as
Arabia, to say nothing of far parts of Egypt. It is also celebrated
for its red pottery, in which there is a considerable trade as well as
in linen and woolen cloth, opium and pipe bowls. The present
terminus of the railway from Cairo is at Assiout, but at a not very
distant day this road will probably be extended to Assouan and the
First Cataract. It is already completed thirty miles beyond Assi-
out. All the Egyptian railways belong to the government. Lower
Egypt is covered with a perfect network of them. The first rail-
way opened was that between Cairo and Alexandria, 131 miles, in
1855. The total number of miles now in operation is about one
thousand.
We were called early for a visit on shore, so that the voyage
up stream might be continued at noon. We found the donkeys
and their saddles of a much better quality than any previously
THE CAPITAL OF UPPER EGYPT. 165
employed. A branch line connects the river port with the railway
at Assiout and this we followed to the town, passing through the
usual rich gardens and groves of palm trees. Near the station
were several handsome large houses of wealthy residents, the con-
sulates of several nationalities, the prison and some barracks. We
rode through a corner of the town and then followed a great dyke
up to the base of the mountains, crossing a substantial bridge of cut
stone over a wide canal, near which were the ruins of an old bridge.
A fine new canal runs from Assiout to below Cairo. We crossed this
in visiting the ruins of Memphis. It is navigable for native boats
and for steam-launches. The yellow limestone range back of Assi-
out is full of old Egyptian tombs similar to those at Beni Hassan,
only that here there are very many more of them and they extend
in horizontal rows from the bottom to the top of the ridge. They
were afterwards tenanted by Christian monks and hermits, and
many have been destroyed for the sake of the limestone forming
the walls. We visited first the tomb of the " sacred wolf." Assi-
out in ancient times was called the " wolf city " probably because
the jackal-headed Anubis was worshipped there. The tomb con-
sisted of a large number of chambers, opening into each other, all
hewn from the solid rock. The mountain was pierced in this
manner for a distance of perhaps two hundred feet and a width
of fifty. Some of the chambers were thirty or forty feet in height.
They were all half choked with debris and before them were great
heaps of broken bricks, earthenware, mummies of animals, etc.
Two sides of the largest chamber were crowded with carved hiero-
glyphics, showing traces of much coloring, with a frieze above.
The ceiling had been covered with ornamental designs in blue and
pink. In other of the chambers were figures of kings, divinities,
and pictorial scenes too dim to make them comprehensible. A
few minutes' walk up the steep hill brought us to the large tomb
of Merikara, a king of the XHIth dynasty, (about 4,000 years old),
which contained some well-preserved hieroglyphics and the king's
royal cartouche. All these tombs held also many small niches for
the mummies of sacred wolves. In fact the whole surface of the
hill seemed honeycombed, one opening led to another and there
were several tiers of them. The best of these tombs were secured
with high iron fences and gates, to which our "Monuments'
Tickets" procured us ingress. Inside all these tombs was a
printed notice headed " Service de Conservation des Antiquites de
l'Egypte," and which in three languages— French, English and
166 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Arabic — begged visitors most earnestly not to cut or write tbeir
names upon any of the monuments. A few of us on leaving these
tombs climbed to the top of the mountain, where we enjoyed a
very magnificent and extended view of the Nile valley. At our
feet on the edge of the desert lay a large Arab cemetery, its white
walls and little domes, packed closely together, looking very oddly.
Further off was a capital prospect of the city of Assiout, with its
low brown houses, interspersed with a few white ones of several
stories, the domes and beautiful minarets of its mosques producing
a fine effect. The octagonal many-galleried minarets with rounded
tops reminded me strongly of those in India in their style of archi-
tecture. Nearing them afterwards I saw that they were delicately
sculptured and that the pretty railings of their balconies were of
carved wood. Beyond and all around were the rich green plains
of the valley of the Nile. The line between the verdure of the
valley and the sterility of the desert was most acutely drawn. The
glistening river and its neighboring canal wound away in the dim
distance. The crystal air and bright morning sun heightened all
the effect and produced a picture of extraordinary beauty — a plain
of emerald, a river of silver and two deserts of gold.
We descended to the town and visited the bazaar and the
weekly open-air market. The latter was held in a large square
which was packed with blue-robed natives buying and selling
camels, bullocks, sheep, goats, chickens, vegetables and fruits. We
had noticed the river full of boats and the roads full of animals
bringing supplies to this weekly market. The bazaar consisted
mostly of one long street of roofed shops. It was about ten feet
wide and was a perfect mass of yelling, gesticulating and scram-
bling natives, loaded camels and donkeys and small hand-carts.
The crowd of men, women and children was however extremely
amiable and good-natured as our donkey boys shouted for passage
and pushed us eagerly along. The shops stood partition to parti-
tion, mere boxes, as usual in Mohammedan towns, but they were
filled with a marvellous variety of foreign goods and nicknacks,
in addition to local manufactures and conventional assortments of
cloths, embroideries, slippers, jewelry, etc. But there is no need
of a special characterisation for it was like all oriental bazaars, of
which so many have been already described in these pages. We
returned to the steamer, which soon threw off its moorings and
headed away up the swiftly flowing river. In a few hours we
passed the town of Abootizh on the western bank, a mud village,
TEE CAPITAL OF UPPER EGYPT. 167
with a mosque having two most beautiful minarets. As we
steamed near the bank we saw that a market, attended by a great
crowd, was in progress. Surrounding the town were several large
walled gardens containing orange, pomegranate, olive, date, fig
and banana trees and grape vines. Along the bank were many
native boats in course of construction. The average size of these
is thirty feet long by ten wide. They usually have two low masts,
one near each end, with the enormously long yards made so famil-
iar to all through pictures. The boats being " pitched both within
and without " have a dull dark appearance. We have seen many
ferry-boats passing from bank to bank and always crowded with
passengers. The appearance of a crowd of blue-gowned natives
quite filling the interior of a boat suggested the amusing reference
to the theatrical announcement dear to all managerial hearts of
"standing-room only." We continued on by the light of a beau-
tiful moon until 10 p. m., when we anchored in the river op-
posite the village of Gow-el-Gharbeeyah, about 285 miles from
Cairo.
" Up anchor and on at daylight " seems to be our formula for
beginning each succeeding day. We pass this morning several
villages on either bank, the characteristics of all being the same —
low, brown, mud-walled houses, here and there graceful minarets,
many square turrets of pigeon houses, with their chevaux-de-frise of
roosting perches and rows of earthenware pots fringing the tops,
lines of boats tied to the banks, women coming and going with
great water-jars, men building boats, hundreds of children shout-
ing at us, strings of camels and donkeys or women with baskets of
provisions upon their heads entering town, farmers at work in the
fields, sometimes ploughing, a camel and a buffalo being incon-
gruously yoked together — it is always an entertaining scene of life
and activity. Before noon we passed the town of Bellianeh on the
west bank. This is the starting point for the beautiful temple of
Abydos, reached by a six mile donkey ride across the plain to the
edge of the desert. But for the more convenient division of our
journey, the visit to Abydos is deferred until the return voyage.
We went steadily on all day, the scenery being very varied and
interesting. There were rougher, higher and steeper hills on both
banks. The absolute sterility of these hills made a very decided
contrast with the fertile green plains. At many of the villages
the pigeon business seemed conducted on a great scale ; there were
mud towers occupied by these birds which seemed in number often
168 ACTUAL AFRICA.
to vie with the houses of the villagers. About the latter were
always thick growths of date and doum palms and acacias. The
fields bore much maize, beans and sugar-cane. The Libyan hills,
which we have been following along from the neighborhood of
Sakhara, vanish as the Nile takes a decided turn to the eastward.
We anchor for the night in the river opposite the village of Dish-
neh, 387 miles from Cairo.
I was always interested in watching the various mechanical
appliances and methods used in raising water from the river for
the purpose of irrigating the fields. What is called the shadoof
seems to be the most popular arrangement. This consists simply
of a long pole, made heavy at one end, generally by simply sticking
a huge ball of mud upon it, and resting on a pivot. To a short
pole attached to the opposite end is a water-tight basket or goat-
skin bucket, which is pulled down to the water and filled, and as
the heavy end of the pole descends, the water is raised and emptied
into a little gutter whence it flows to a basin where another man
is stationed and afterwards to a third— it generally requiring at
this season of the year (mid-winter) three, and occasionally four,
lifts to get the water from the surface of the river to a level with
that of the plain. This apparatus is an imitation of the old-fash-
ioned well-sweep once so prevalent throughout the New England
States — or rather that is probably an imitation of this. Another
style in vogue was the sakiah or water-wheel of cogged wheels
turned by a buffalo, camel or yoke of oxen generally blindfolded,
each revolution of the wheel working up a series — an endless
chain — of earthenware jars, which in turning empty themselves
into a trough leading into a pool. A girl or boy often rides upon
the shafts of the sakiah to drive the animals. This is the water-
mill encountered throughout all North Africa. It stands near the
bank and the water is let fall into the wells by a canal or tun-
nel from the river. But the most primitive method of all — and
one without the intervention of any mechanical contrivance — is
that in which two men, standing in the river or canal, hold a
water-proof basket between them, which they swing into and out
of the water with clock-like regularity, and throw the water into a
pool upon the banks. Little canals distribute the water over the
fields, upon which are low mud retaining-walls. The natives work
the water along from the river bank into these sections, always
using their feet for the purpose. The shadoofs line the steep side
of the river — there is generally but one abrupt bank at one part
THE CAPITAL OF UPPER EGYPT. 169
— every thousand feet or less, and occur in groups. The most of
them were in steady operation.
In the level plains of rich loam covered with emerald verdure I
have been constantly reminded of the great herbage-covered steppes
of Holland and of the curiously contrasted facts that here the con-
stant effort is to get water upon the land while there it is to get it
off. In addition to produce already mentioned I have noticed
here lusty crops of barley, wheat, lentils, vetches, peas, tobacco,
flax, hemp, lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, water-melons and lupins,
a coarse kind of clover. The coating of mud from the inundation
renders the use of manure generally unnecessary, though that of
pigeons is frequently used on bad land or in order to force crops.
Often no ploughing is attempted, the seed being simply scattered
and trampled in by oxen, sheep or goats let loose upon it. Arti-
ficial irrigation is however kept up at intervals between the inun-
dations, and is especially necessary for the crops which are raised
in the summer season — millet, sugar-cane, coffee and cotton. The
chief article of export, I may add, is cotton, and the next in impor-
tance is sugar. The forest scenery of Egypt consists mostly of the
palm groves which are found everywhere in the Delta and through-
out the valley of the Nile. One notices however many other
plants, such as sycamores, tamarisks, mimosas, acacias and plane
trees. The lotus, that famous water-lily of the Nile, which was
considered sacred by the old Egyptians, is frequently seen in the
Delta but not in Upper Egypt. It is used nowadays for making
a kind of bread. The papyrus plant, from whose delicate white
stem the ancients made paper, has become extinct. There is prose
as well as poetry in saying that Egypt is the gift of the Nile.
The country actually consists only of its valley, for the rest is
desert with a few scattered oases. Egypt owes its existence and
fertility alone to this river. And to the same is also due its grad-
ual increase of productive territory. For as the river bed rises
higher, the amount of land covered by the inundation of course
grows more and more. The alluvial soil of the valley of the Nile
varies from twenty to forty feet in depth. The rich mud which
the river carries down increases the level of the land on each side
Of its course at the rate of about six inches in a century. The
land around Thebes has been raised about nine feet in 1,700 years.
This is known partly by the depth to which the Colossi are em-
bedded in a stratum of alluvium which has been deposited about
their base. The annual inundation, it may not generally be re-
13
170 ACTUAL AFRICA.
memberecl, reaches its greatest height about the 1st of October,
remains for two or three weeks at an average of about twenty-five
feet above low-water level, and then gradually subsides. The
usual rise in various parts of the river varies greatly. Thus when
it is twenty-five feet at Cairo, it will be thirty-eight at Thebes and
forty-one at Assouan. A few feet of water more or less is always
accompanied with disastrous results. A rise of less than eighteen
feet is apt to result in famine in many parts. There are now culti-
vated about 12,000 square miles of Egypt out of a total of 500,000
available for cultivation — about half of this is in the Delta and
half in the oasis of Fayoum and in the Nile valley.
Having spoken of the land of Egypt let me add a few words as
to her people. The present population is generally put at 7,000,000,
though it is next to impossible to obtain an accurate census in a
country where an increase in population always means an increase
in taxation. The great majority of the inhabitants — about four-
fifths, it is said — are the fellahs or fellaheen, peasant-tillers of the
soil, who are the descendants of those who adopted the Moslem
faith of the conquerors and intermingled with them. These people
greatly resemble the ancient Egyptians as depicted on the monu-
ments. The whole of the cultivation of Egypt is in the hands of
this race. Next there are the Copts, some 400,000 of them. They
embraced Christianity during the Byzantine period of Egyptian
history — about 400-650 a. d. — and did not intermingle much with
the Arab conquerors. The clerks in government and commercial
establishments, the goldsmiths and cloth-workers in the bazaars,
are largely recruited from this class. The nomad Bedouin or des-
ert tribes of to-day are the descendants of some of the Arab in-
vaders who held themselves aloof from the conquered race of origi-
nal inhabitants. Then there are Berbers from Nubia, negroes from
the Soudan provinces, and Turks. The latter are believed to num-
ber about 15,000, and have mixed but little with the natives. The
European population is estimated at 100,000 — Greeks (40,000),
Italians (20,000), French (15,000), Austrians, English, Germans.
There are also many Syrians, Armenians and Jews. The latter, in
fact, count some 10,000, and as is usual with this race the world
over, include bankers, merchants, money-changers, and bric-a-brac
venders.
Ever since leaving Cairo we have seen great quantities of birds
on and about the river — standing in flocks upon its sandbanks or
flying about its shores. There have been herons, hawks, kites,
THE CAPITAL OF UPPER EGYPT. 171
ibises, crows, pelicans, cranes, flamingoes, snipe, plover, larks,
sparrows, linnets, eagles and vultures. Some of the latter are enor-
mous, said to be as much as fourteen feet across the wings. There
are also many kinds of fish in the Nile which while they make rather
unpalatable eating for foreigners, being thin and soft, are much used
by the natives, whom we have frequently seen fishing with poles
and nets. Among several to me unknown species exposed for sale
in the town-markets I have noticed barbel, perch, and a sort of
minnow.
CHAPTER XX.
THE TEMPLE OF DENDERAH.
About eight o'clock on the morning of the 18th we were made
fast to the western bank nearly opposite the grand temple of Den-
derah. On the other side of the river was the town of Keneh, be-
tween which and the seaport of Kosseir on the Eed Sea, about
eighty miles distant, there is a caravan road which is usually trav-
ersed in three days. Kosseir carries on a considerable trade with
the Arabian peninsula. We intend to visit Keneh on our return
voyage. We found donkeys and drivers awaiting us, and follow-
ing the river bank for a little started inland northwestwardly to
the famous temple. An Egyptian officer and two or three soldiers
accompanied us. Our route was lined by natives vociferously cry-
ing for backsheesh and offering coins, statuettes, scarabs, etc., for
sale. The scarabs or scarabaeus, it will be remembered, is the figure
of a beetle, plain or inscribed with characters, which was habitu-
ally worn by the ancient Egyptians as an amulet. Its use and
meaning as a sacred symbol are unknown. We passed several
sakiahs to which water is conducted in tunnels or the wells are
filled by infiltration from the Nile. Both the eastern and western
banks of the river were bordered in the distance by picturesque
limestone hills, some of them table-topped and others with sharp
ridges. Their steep gray sides were often covered with great
mounds of sand. Tamarisks and acacias, date-palms, and doum
palms singular in their bifurcated forms and fruit the size of an
orange, appeared on every hand. Larks chirped in the great fields
of barley. We soon saw before us on a low ridge of rubbish the
ruins of Denderah, pylons or gateways, the great temple and sev-
eral smaller ones. After half an hour's ride we reached the grand
entrance, dismounted, and showing our " Monuments' Tickets " to
the official guardian, were allowed to proceed. This splendid tem-
ple was begun under Ptolemy XII. and completed under Tiberius
Hypostyle Hall of the Temple of Denderah.
THE TEMPLE OF DENDERAH. H3
and Nero. It cannot therefore be older than the beginning of our
era. Moreover it shows a considerable admixture of Greek and
Roman with Egyptian ideas. We halted at the detached pylon in
front of the main entrance. Huge mounds of rubbish surrounded
us on every side. In fact when discovered by M. Mariette, the
temple was not only nearly buried among the rubbish which cen-
turies had accumulated about it, but a whole village of mud huts
actually stood upon the roof ! The pylon consists of little more
than jambs and lintels but clearly indicates what it must have
originally been. Two enormous blocks remain in position above
the opening. The sides and top are completely covered with beau-
tiful bas-reliefs and inscriptions, and faded colors can be easily
traced. The avenue of sphinxes — the dromos — which led from
here to the entrance, 250 feet, have been replaced by brick walls.
The appearance of the temple from without is very imposing. The
walls and columns are massive yet simple. The edifice is oblong in
shape, with a flat roof. Its material is a hard yellow limestone.
To enter you descend through an unlocked door a long wooden
staircase to the portico or " Hypostyle Hall," Hall of Columns,
which is open in front. It is 140 feet broad, 80 feet deep, and 50
high, and contains twenty-four columns arranged in six rows!
As exalted as had been our imaginings we found ourselves over-
whelmed with the actuality. Everything is greater, grander and
more gorgeous than we had expected. The temple is most won-
derfully preserved. Every part of it both without and within is
covered with high or low reliefs and inscriptions, and everywhere
are traces of the beautiful colors which once ornamented it. The
figures are many of them of life size and are disposed in large
tablets or frames made of hieroglyphics. Friezes of lotus stalks
and flowers border the ceilings, all of which are sculptured in a
design of little stars. The capitals of the huge columns have four
heads of the goddess Hathor surmounted by miniature temples.
The round smooth surfaces of the columns are completely covered
with figures and writing. Generally the pictures represent one
subject — the royal founder adoring the divinities of the temple,
and the various ceremonies observed by the king in connection
with this adoration. The ceiling of the noble portico has in sev-
eral places a representation of the Zodiac. The floor is formed of
great stone slabs. There is sufficient light from without to see
everything here to advantage, but for the inner chambers and
crypts we were provided with candles, and in specially interesting
174 ACTUAL AFRICA.
spots our dragomans burned magnesium wire which, as is well
known, affords a very brilliant illumination.
Leaving the portico by a doorway facing the entrance you enter
a second hall, having six huge columns, and three small chambers
on each side. Proceeding, two smaller chambers on the right and
left are passed and then you enter an oblong room which was the
sanctuary. Behind this, but reached by outside passages, is a small
chamber in which the emblem of the goddess worshipped in the
temple was placed. There was a decided slope upwards from the
entrance to this room. A staircase on either side leads to the roof.
The walls of these are covered with large figures of the grand pro-
cessions which on the occasion of festivals wound through the tem-
ple, mounted to the terraces and descended to perform their rites
in exterior enclosures. On each side of the sanctuary are smaller
chambers. These were employed for the assembling of the priests,
the consecrations of the offerings, the guardianship of the sacred
emblems, the preparations of holy oils and essences, and the preser-
vation of the vestments. In the walls of the temple were two con-
cealed crypts, wherein the most valuable gold statues and other
sacred treasures were kept. We had literally to crawl into these
upon hands and knees, but once within, found long halls perhaps
seven feet in height and four feet in width, whose walls were
covered with admirably preserved low-relief pictures of gods, and
carved hieroglyphics. Many of the colors here were in capital
preservation. A few of the chambers above, on the ground-floor,
were consecrated to other divinities, such as Isis, Osiris, Pasht and
Horus. Throughout this magnificent temple the heads and figures
of the gods and goddesses had been chiselled away by the fanatic
hands of the early Christians, who proved themselves in this re-
spect quite equal to the Moslems here and elsewhere. On the roof
were several smaller temples — one symbolizing the death of Osiris,
another his resurrection. From the top of the walls I had a splen-
did view of the temple, its surrounding mounds of rubbish, which
to the east are higher than the edifice itself, the neighboring fer-
tile plain and villages, and distant Nile, desert and mountains. The
interior chambers and the crypts were full of bats and the exterior
walls were covered with the cells of bees whose humming sounded
strangely in one's ears. The outer smooth yellow walls are cov-
ered from top to bottom with sculptures which look as if they
might have been cut but yesterday. The temple exactly faces the
north. On the south wall, among the great sculptures of the chief
THE TEMPLE OF DENDERAH. 175
gods and goddesses of the Greek Pantheon, you find the famous
portraits of Cleopatra and Caesarion, her son. Both have been
much damaged by the chisel of the bigoted Christian. The pro-
file of Cleopatra however still bears physiognomical evidence of the
extraordinary qualities which history has ascribed to her. Near by
on this side stands a small temple dedicated to Isis. It consists of
three chambers and a corridor whose walls are covered with carved
pictures. On the north side of the great temple is a small one,
called the Typhoni, about 120 X 60 feet, which has not been all
excavated. It has a peristyle of twenty-two columns, many of
them with most beautiful fluted exterior and massive yet graceful
lotus capitals. The ceiling of the first chamber bore a famous
Zodiac, which was cut out, with the permission of Mehemet
Ali, in 1821, and is now preserved in the Louvre at Paris. The
temple of Denderah was dedicated to Hathor or Venus, who is
represented as a woman, wearing a headdress in the shape of a
vulture, and above it a disk and horns. She is sometimes
represented with the head of a cow. The edifice seems from
its completeness and from its wonderful preservation to give
a good idea of the general arrangements of the great temples
of ancient Egypt. We had voyaged up the Nile for nearly a
week and had as yet seen nothing of startling grandeur or
beauty, but in the visit to Denderah we all felt more than re-
paid for our trouble, and were delighted at our good fortune.
We returned to the steamer and soon started on up the river
for Luxor.
Leaving Keneh we turned once again to the south. The Libyan
Mountains approached nearer the river and became higher, steeper
and more picturesque. There were huge table-topped hills, sharp
serrated ridges, vast walls of stratified rocks and winding-sheets of
finest yellow sand. Late in the afternoon the ruins of the temple
of Koorneh — dedicated to the memory of Seti I., the father of
Rameses the Great — and others appeared on the edge of the desert
upon the western bank, and soon afterward the village of Luxor
was seen almost directly ahead on the eastern bank, some twenty
or thirty feet above the river. The plain opened out on each side
of the Nile and was backed by peaked mountains in the distance.
Then as we steamed rapidly on I caught a glimpse through and
over the thick groves of tamarisk, acacia, date and doum palms,
of the vast ruins of Karnak — the massive main propylon and tem-
ple walls, the huge pylons, the lofty obelisk and the giant columns.
176 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Luxor just beyond and 450 miles from Cairo, is a town of only a
few thousand inhabitants which owes its importance solely to the
fact that it is situated close to these ruins and to other grand ruins
across the river. Ancient Thebes occupied the whole plain on
each side of the Nile, a space sufficiently large to contain the city
of Paris. The chief portion of the city was situated on the east
bank, while the western was devoted to the temples, palaces and
tombs. Our arrival at Luxor seemed almost as great an event for
that town as it did for ourselves. The flags of four or five con-
sulates were flying and the Egyptian standard was also liberally
displayed. Guns were fired on shore and our steamer's whistle
was kept in continual action. The appearance of Luxor was very
strange and incongruous. First upon the bank, thirty feet above
the river, came the long single-storied, brown-colored " Grand
Hotel," then the smaller white-colored " Karnak Hotel," next the
two- and three-storied and pink-walled houses of the consuls, then
several great mud towers set apart for the pigeons, behind these
appeared the mud-walled native town, the white tower of a mosque,
and the splendid great columns of the grand temple of Luxor,
which is built quite at the edge of the river, then a Franciscan
chapel and mission, and finally the " Luxor Hotel " situated in a
pretty garden, and the whole backed by and interspersed with the
ever-strange and beautiful date palm. In the river were a dozen
native boats, two or three steamers, and the landing-stage, to which
we were soon made fast. On the bank above, awaiting our arrival,
were several hundred Copts, Arabs and fellahs, together with a
score of temporary foreign residents, gentlemen in tennis "blazers"
and ladies with racquets in their hands. It was altogether an ex-
traordinary scene, this mingling of the ancient and modern, the
Occident and Orient, one only equalled by that already described
as witnessed at the Great Pyramids. We went early to rest, in ex-
cited expectation of visiting the principal monuments of Thebes,
on the western bank, in the morning.
We started at half-past eight and crossed a part of the Nile in
boats to the large, low, sandy island opposite Karnak, where we
took donkeys, crossed this island, and then were ferried over the
other branch of the river, ourselves in one style of boat, the don-
keys in another. Then we again mounted our diminutive beasts
and proceeded along the bank of a large empty canal and across
vast fields of wheat and barley. In the latter were farmers en-
gaged in winnowing grain by simply throwing it in the air from
THE TEMPLE OF DENDERAH. 177
trays and letting the wind carry away the chaff. In the distance
to the west along the edge of the desert were first the ruined tem-
ple and palace, Medinet-Haboo, and next the Rameseum or Mem-
nonium of Kameses II. Between the two and some distance out
in the green plain were the sitting Colossi, which, being backed
by the great range of gray and brown rocks and sand, looked rather
small by comparison. To the east across the river were the walls
of the temple of Karnak, the propylons and obelisk, and behind
us the great temple of Luxor, all appearing above the thick groves
of palm trees. After half an hour's ride we reached the temple
of Koorneh, surrounded by great heaps of rubbish and backed by
a precipitous range in which we could see the openings of many
rock tombs. The temple of Koorneh was built by Seti I., in
memory of his father Rameses I., the remainder was added by
Rameses II., who rededicated it to the memory of his father Seti I.
It is therefore about 3,000 years old. It is situated facing the east
and the Nile, at the entrance of a gorge called Bab-el-Molook, which
leads to the famous Tombs of the Kings. It is built of yellowish-
brown sandstone. The architecture is simple and massive. In
the central hall are six great columns. The roof is formed of slabs
of stone 20 X 3 X 2 feet. It is carved without and within by rather
large figures and hieroglyphics, some raised in low relief and then
engraved. Many of them bear traces of coloring. The ceiling is
also carved in places. The interior is divided into many small
chambers, in one of which is a finely sculptured head of Seti,
showing a very amiable but tibt very strong individuality. The
sculptures on the walls represent Rameses II. making offerings to
the gods, among whom appear the faces of Rameses I. and Seti I.
This temple is in a very dilapidated condition. From a part of
its roof I got a fine view of the surrounding plain with its various
ruins, which could be easily differentiated, and of the remarkable
Libyan Mountains to the west, with their many precipices of yellow
rock and their tombs, and the mud villages scarcely to be distin-
guished from the tawny hills on which they stood. AVe did not
tarry but mounted our donkeys for another ride of half an hour
to the Tombs of the Kings. These are approached through a
narrow, rocky ravine which is an awful picture of utter barren-
ness, and yet which from its contrasting forms and colors is never-
theless quite picturesque. In many of the conglomerate pillars I
was strongly reminded of the " Garden of the Gods " in Colo-
rado. Here however there is much limestone rock and the
178 ACTUAL AFRICA.
surface is covered with coarse gravel, large pebbles, flint stone
and sand.
The tombs are hewn out of the living rock in the upper part
of the desolate valley, which is situated some three or four miles
from the Nile. It is a hard, milk-white, fine-grained stone, called
"marble limestone." It takes a polish like flint. Twenty-five
tombs have been opened. The most of them contained the mum-
mies of the kings of the XlXth and XXth dynasties^say from about
1400 b. c. to 1100 b. c. All these tombs are of about one pattern,
consisting of long, narrow inclined planes, leading to a large cham-
ber in which was the sarcophagus and to several smaller ones, some
of these extending into the mountain a distance of five hundred
feet horizontally, and with a depth, measured perpendicularly from
the end of the entrance, of eighty feet. These tombs were so built
up and covered over as to afford no trace of the spot where the
royal mummy was deposited. But Belzoni, Bruce and Mariette
have been instrumental in bringing many to light and in excavat-
ing their wholly sand-choked halls and chambers. We entered
several of the most interesting, amply provided as usual with can-
dles, and our dragomans with magnesium wire. All were full of
more or less beautiful wall sculptures and paintings from hall to
crypt, and in several were huge granite sarcophagi. The tombs
have all been numbered by the famous Egyptologist Sir John Gard-
ner Wilkinson. The first which we entered was No. 2, the tomb
of Barneses IV., containing a huge granite sarcophagus, the lid of
which had been nearly demolished in getting at the mummy. The
fine dust raised by our footsteps nearly choked us and greatly irri-
tated our eyes. The tomb of Barneses IX. (No. 6) contains many,
pictures representing the idea of resurrection after death and of
immortality. Tomb No. 9 — that of Barneses VI. — is remarkable
for the astronomical designs on the ceiling. The granite sarcopha-
gus of the king lies at the bottom of this tomb. It is much broken.
The tomb of Barneses III. is curiously called Bruce's tomb, be-
cause it was discovered by that celebrated traveller. It is some-
times also called the " Tomb of the Harper," because in one cham-
ber near the middle of the tomb are represented some men playing
harps. In other rooms interesting warlike, domestic and agricul-
tural scenes and objects are depicted. Tbere was once a sarcopha-
gus of red granite in the principal chamber of this tomb which
contained the mummy of the king. But the latter and the parts
of the former are now widely separated. The mummy is in the
THE TEMPLE OF DENDERAH. 179
Egyptian Museum at G-hizeh. The body of the sarcophagus is in
the Louvre, while its lid is in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cam-
bridge, England.
We reserved the most splendid tomb for the last visit. It was
that of Seti I., No. 17, commonly called Belzoni's tomb, because it
was discovered by that great antiquarian, in the early part of this
century. When found by him it had already been rifled, but the
beautiful alabaster sarcophagus, which may be seen in the Sir John
Sloane Museum in London, was still lying in its chamber at the bot-
tom of the long inclined plane. The mummy of Seti I. is preserved
in the Ghizeh Museum. This tomb is entered by an inclined way
and by several steep staircases. From the long hall you enter a
small chamber about twelve feet square, beyond which is a hall
perhaps twenty-five feet square, having four pillars, and to the left
are some passages and small chambers leading to a grand six pil-
lared hall, about thirty feet square, and on to a vaulted chamber
in which once stood the sarcophagus. The whole tomb is adorned
with artistic and beautiful paintings, sculptures and inscriptions.
They are said to form parts of the " Book of being in the under
world " and to refer to the life of the King in the lower world.
The walls are covered with strange gods, serpents and uncouth
monsters. The judgment of the soul and its admission to happi-
ness are tersely pictured forth, while the many inscriptions run-
ning along the wall, the dragoman said, were hymns to the divini-
ties supposed to be uttered by the spirit of the dead. The pictures
in one of the chambers had never been finished, but the designs
had all been marked out — first sketched in outline in red, and then
when approved, more firmly in black by the master artist. We
took lunch in the entrance hall of a neighboring tomb and then
walked and rode by turns, according to the steepness of the path,
over the mountain chain to the plain back of the Eameseum.
From the eastern side we had a remarkably beautiful prospect —
said by many to be the finest in Egypt — of the Nile, its valley, and
of the various ruins of Thebes, including Karnak and Luxor. It
was a bird's-eye view of the general plan of Thebes which was
most instructive, while as to the ensemble of scenery it certainly
was the most picturesque and grand of any I had hitherto seen in
Egypt. About half way down we stopped at the temple of Queen
Hatasou, who ruled for a brief time about 1500 b. c. It is built
of marble-limestone in stages, at different levels up the mountain
side, which are connected by inclined planes. The chambers con-
180 ACTUAL AFRICA.
tain some excellent sculptures. Not ten minutes' walk from this
temple is the entrance to the shaft which leads to the tomb where
the royal mummies were discovered in 1881. This was the most
remarkable and important " find " recorded in the history of Egyp-
tian exploration and excavation. A pit 40 feet deep led, by irregu-
lar passages 220 feet long, to a nearly rectangular chamber 35 feet
long, which was found literally filled with coffins, mummies, jars,
vases, scarabs and papyri. Among the thirty or so mummies of
kings and queens and royal personages, priests and scribes were
those of the royal mummies of two of the Thothmes, of Seti I.,
and of two of the Rameses. The discovery of this tomb was made
by an Arab, a native of the neighboring village of Koorneh. The
royal mummies were removed here by one of the kings in order to
prevent their being destroyed by thieves, who were sufficiently
numerous and powerful to defy the government of the day. We
passed through the aisles of the great Rameseum, skirted the im-
posing Colossi, crossed the plain and the two branches of the river,
and reached the steamer late in the afternoon after a day of ab-
sorbing interest, but one which we believed would be altogether
surpassed on the morrow, when we were to visit the remains of
the world-famed Karnak.
Head of Ravieses the (treat, from the Mummy in the (•'Itizeh Museum.
CHAPTER XXI.
KARNAK AND LUXOR.
Our donkey boys were waiting for us at 8.30 a. m., and a
choice of a few camels was also offered. These were furnished
with large leather covers, half arm-chair, half saddle, and were
preferred by a few on account of the novelty of locomotion. Hav-
ing had considerable experience of these, however, I concluded to
retain the services of my donkey of the previous excursion. We
filed through the narrow streets of the town and along the top of
a huge dyke until we reached an avenue of ram-headed or, now,
no-headed, sphinxes, which led to a splendid great pylon of sand-
stone built by Ptolemy Euergetes II. about 180 years B. c. This
gateway is carved with striking figures, and surmounted by the
winged globe and serpents. Passing through it a smaller avenue
of broken sphinxes leads to the temple of Rameses III. This is
covered with deeply-cut figures and hieroglyphics and also with
many low-relief sculptures. It is composed of enormous blocks of
stone and contains many beautiful papyrus-headed pillars. This
however, like the neighboring temple of Mut, is only an annex of
the great temple. All about are mutilated statues and fragments
of all sorts bestrewing the ground. The whole of the buildings
occupy an area nearly two miles in circumference, and from the
top of the great propylon, about one hundred feet in height, you
can have an extensive view of the plan of Karnak, its surrounding
rubbish-heaps and native villages, and of the green fields coming
close up to it on every side. The temples of Karnak and Luxor
were formerly united by an avenue over a mile in length and eighty
feet wide, lined by great stone sphinxes, only a few of which how-
ever now remain, and these are greatly mutilated. Though the
great temple at Karnak is on the whole regarded as the most won-
derful of any in Egypt I confess that I was not impressed by it as
much as I expected to be. This was explained by several facts :
181
182 ACTUAL AFRICA.
having just seen the noble temple of Denderah, I had looked for
too much, and did not dream the remains were in such a very
dilapidated condition, and it was difficult at a first visit to appre-
ciate the enormous scale on which some parts of it are built.
Karnak was nearly three thousand years in building— begun by
Osirtasen I. 3000 b. c, greatly added to by Thothmes III. 1600 B. c,
and succeeding kings to about 100 b. C. These kings vied with
each other in adding to its many and great attractions, so that as
we now behold it Karnak is a dozen times its original size. It
was dedicated in the first instance to Amen-Ra, one of the mem-
bers of the Theban trinity, the others being Mut and Chonsu, to
both of whom fine temples are reared.
We remount our animals and ride around to the main entrance
of the temple, which fronts the west and the Nile. Here a small
avenue of mutilated ram-headed sphinxes leads up to the great
gateway, the propylon. Natives are engaged carrying away the
mouldy dust as a fertiliser for their fields. The propylon before
us is most impressive on account of its massive size, being made
of nicely-joined dressed blocks of sandstone. It is 370 feet in
breadth and one of its towers, not the original height, is now 140
feet high. We dismount here and, passing through the opening
of the propylon, enter a great open court surrounded by pillared
corridors and having down its centre a double .row of pillars.
Unfortunately only one splendid calyx-capitaled pillar is still stand-
ing. The sellers of antiquities, more or less counterfeit, and the
local guides now became a great nuisance in their numbers and
importunities. " No ! " was an unappreciated term ; to drive
them off was to have them return in a moment. The only re-
course seemed to be to hire two or three to keep the others
away, so that we could inspect the temple at leisure. Opposite
the entrance were the remains of a second pylon, covered with
large sculptured figures, all the faces of which had been chiselled
away by the fanatical early Christians. On one side of this stood
a much mutilated red granite statue of Rameses II. Its com-
panion on the opposite side had altogether disappeared. Passing
through this pylon you enter the grand Hypostyle Hall. Here
are twelve columns, forming a double row in the centre, which are
each 69 feet high and 35 feet in circumference. The other col-
umns, 122 in number, are 40 feet high and 27 feet in circumfer-
ence. There is now no roof. Light formerly entered by the
grilled upper windows, some of which still remain. Many col-
KARNAK AND LUXOR. 183
umns are toppling over or already lie prostrate. They have papy-
rus-bud capitals and are covered with sculptures. A few have
been restored in order to preserve them in position. The walls
of this part of the temple, mostly thrown down, were originally
80 feet high and 25 feet thick at the base. So closely are these
columns placed, however, and so enormous is their size — as large
as Trajan's column at Rome — that the proper effect is lost. It
would perhaps be better were half of them removed. The Hall
is 338 feet broad and 170 feet deep, an area sufficiently great to
accommodate the entire church of Notre Dame at Paris. A smaller
propylon next conducts us to a court surrounded by pillars bearing
the figure of Osiris. Here stands an imposing red granite obelisk
covered with beautifully-preserved hieroglyphics. Its pyramid-
shaped top is quite sharp. It is said to be the largest known, being
92 feet in height and 8 feet square. A few obelisks lie prostrate,
broken into several huge pieces. Beyond this court comes a ruined
sanctuary, with some splendid carvings in red granite which are
very brilliantly and delicately colored, another obelisk, the columns
of Osirtasen I., 3000 b. c, the oldest portion of the edifice, the
columnar hall of Thothmes III., and the Hall of Ancestors, and
then to the east you see a pylon, another to the north, and the two
approaches on south and west of which I have just spoken. In
the Hall of Ancestors was found the famous Tablet of Ancestors,
now in the Louvre, a record of the greatest value to Egyptian
history since it contains the names of sixty-one of the ancestors of
Thothmes III. On the south side of the great temple is a small
lake which is filled by infiltration from the Nile. Its waters were
originally used in the services of the temple. There are very in-
teresting bas-reliefs on the exterior wall of the " great hall." On
the north side are some striking scenes from the battles of Seti I.
against the Assyrians and Armenians. The king is represented as
having conquered all these people, and returned to Thebes laden
with much spoil and many captives. In one extraordinary pic-
ture he is shown with numerous arms seizing his enemies by the
hair and proceeding to slay them before the god of Thebes. On
the south wall are sculptures exhibiting King Shishak smiting a
group of kneeling prisoners. The god of the temple Amen-Ra, in
the form of a woman, stands by and presents him with weapons of
war. Near here you come to a projecting wall on which there are
hieroglyphics of the famous poem of Pen-ta-urt, celebrating the
victory of Rameses II. over the Khetas in northern Syria. A
184 ACTUAL AFRICA.
treaty of peace between the great king and the prince of the Khe-
tas may also be seen here. The great dilapidation of these re-
mains seemed to astonish all our party. And unless steps of res-
toration and reparation are soon undertaken, these marvellous
relics must all be thrown down. A huge column not only ruins
itself in falling but destroys all about it. It would seem as if the
government tax gathered from each tourist ought of itself to create
a fund sufficient for such a purpose. The wonders of Karnak are
so many and of such varied interest that one visit, even of half a
day, serves only to give the traveller a very general and hasty if
not mixed impression. The temple is worthy of many visits and
of much collateral reading of history and of the commentaries of
learned Egyptologists.
In the afternoon we inspected the great temple and the bazaars
and town of Luxor. The temple which, as already stated, comes
directly to the edge of the Nile, and which has been built upon an
irregular plan in order to follow the course of the river, has been
largely excavated by the Egyptian government during recent years.
It was half buried by rubbish and a native village was over and
about it and even now an Arab mosque is quite within its walls.
Luxor was founded in the XVIIIth dynasty in the reign of Amu-
nophis III., 1500 b. c, and was added to by various suceeeding
kings. It consists of a large court surrounded by a double row of
columns, of a huge pylon, of chambers, obelisks, colonnades and
giant granite statues. About forty of the latter have been un-
earthed, one of them being a very perfect one of Rameses II., with
his wife carved in miniature standing beside him and scarcely ex-
tending to his knee. This juxtaposition indicates the superior posi-
tion in the social scale of the women of those days. The features of
this noble statue are said to exactly resemble those of the royal
mummy (of Rameses II.) which is preserved in the museum of
Ghizeh. In one spot are two granite Colossi and near them is an
obelisk, a companion of that now in the Place de la Concorde,
Paris, and which is justly regarded as one of the finest specimens
of sculpture known. It stands 82 feet high, with several feet
below the surface, and is covered with very deeply and sharply cut
hieroglyphics, which look as if they were carved but yesterday.
The large court is nearly 200 feet square. Certain parts of this
great temple have been used as a Coptic church, as evidenced by
the columns of mixed architecture, and the walls of ancient sculp-
ture plastered over and painted with figures of Christian saints.
KARNAK AND LUXOR. 185
The huge granite figures, of which so many abound, are all, save
one, terribly mutilated and defaced, but the temple on the whole,
while not equal to Karnak, yet with its great rows of papyrus-
headed pillars and its halls of lotus-topped columns, is not with-
out great majesty and beauty. Further excavations will undoubt-
edly reveal other interesting remains.
In the evening we were invited to the house of the American
Consular Agent to witness a dance of the ghawazee or native dancing
girls, which proved to be only a modification of the " danse du ven-
tre." The " band," which produced very shrill and plaintive music,
squatted in the corner and consisted of two violins, a flageolet and
two tom-toms. There were four dancing girls, who were dressed in
white linen gowns and wore heavy gold ear-rings and finger-rings,
and many necklaces of gold coins. Their black hair was gathered
into little gold-fringed white turbans, and they wore silver anklets
next their daintily slippered feet. None of the girls possessed any
beauty. Snapping little brass castanets they moved about the room
with bodies stiff above the waist and wriggling and twisted below
it. Their movements were certainly graceful, if too suggestive,
and as the music quickened they showed less reserve and threw
more passion into their gyrations. After a brief pause one of the
girls placed a bottle, full of water and containing a lighted candle,
upon her head, and nicely poised it during a long dance of both
slow and rapid movements, including lying down and turning over
and over upon the floor. The dance was a wholly conventional
one, but there are others vaguely hinted at in Luxor in which pas-
sion is much more vividly portrayed and the " nude in art " is lav-
ishly exemplified. It is a singular fact that in this country among
such a variety of ruins, there are none found of any Egyptian
theatre. Perhaps amusements here in olden times were similar to
those of the present day — almehs or singing girls, ghawazees or
female daucers, jugglers, serpent-charmers, magicians, fortune-
tellers, and wandering comedians who act rude farces.
The following day we rose early and took boats and donkeys
for the Eameseum, or Memnonium as it is also called, built by
Rameses II., in honor of the god Amen-Ra. We crossed the main
branch of the river, the flat sandy island, the minor branch, and
the plain to the edge of the desert, as we did when visiting the
temple of Koorneh, a little further to the north. This fine temple
faces the Nile in a nearly east direction. It is in great ruin and at
least one-half of it has been carried off, probably for building ma-
14
186 ACTUAL AFRICA.
terial. Still we see evidence of two pylons, one of them in fair
condition and representing battle-scenes from the various cam-
paigns of Eameses. The second court had a double row of round
columns and a row of pilasters to which large figures of Eameses
II., under the form of Osiris, are attached — " engaged " is the cor-
rect architectural term. Just without this court lie the fragments
of a colossal red granite representation of Eameses II., the most
gigantic statue ever carved in Egypt from a single block of stone.
It measured sixty feet high and is calculated to have weighed nearly
nine hundred tons. Tradition relates that it was thrown down by
Cambyses. But just how so enormous a block of hard granite could
have been so broken without the use of drills and gunpowder is a
mystery to us modern travellers. Near here are the fragments of
a huge gray granite sitting statue, of which the head, lacking a
part of the nose, shows considerable character in its expression.
The Eameseum is, like all the Egyptian temples, oblong in shape.
The grand hall contains twelve huge columns with open lotus
flower capitals and thirty-six smaller ones with bud or closed lotus
flower capitals. The former are arranged in two rows, the latter
in six. Numerous scenes from the wars of Eameses II. are sculp-
tured on the walls of this temple — chiefly battles with the Khetas
on the banks of the Orontes, in Syria. There are also reliefs rep-
resenting the king making offerings to the gods of Thebes. On
the ceiling of one of the chambers is an astronomical picture of
some interest, on which the Egyptian months are mentioned.
We next mounted and took a ride of ten minutes towards the
south, to the great temple of Medinet-Haboo, situated on and sur-
rounded by a huge mound of rubbish and ruined dwellings. This
temple actually consists of two, one of Thothmes III. and another
of Eameses III. The former is very old and dilapidated and calls for
no special mention. The latter is perhaps the most remarkable and
the most impressive monument we have yet seen in Egypt. It
cannot be called second to Karnak — on account of the grandeur
of its architecture and the gorgeousness of its decoration. It is
an immense labyrinth of great courts, innumerable pillars and
superb colonnades. The view from the entrance gate through the
various courts to the western extremity of the temple is very strik-
ing. The distance must be 1,500 feet, and right and left as you
progress you see the huge mounds of rubbish and of houses on each
side and even upon the roof of the temple. It is only recently that
the western portion of the building was freed from Coptic ruins.
***r • taw
At Thebes.
EARNAK AND LUXOR. 187
All about these ruins, which surround the temple to nearly the
height of its gateway and to much above its walls and roof, natives
were at work as at Karnak collecting dry dusty soil in baskets to
be transported on donkeys as fertilisers for the adjacent fields.
Passing through the first pylon, which is sculptured with battle
scenes from the wars of Rameses III. against the people of Arabia
and Phoenicia, we approach the second, where the domestic life of
the king is portrayed. In one place he is seen playing at draughts,
and in another he is caressing a favorite. Continuing we enter
a great court 135 X 110 feet, with a corridor running round its
four walls. This corridor is supported on two sides by eight Osiris
columns — bearing the king himself, with the attributes of Osiris.
On the other sides are five circular columns, with lotus capitals.
The surrounding walls contain sculptures commemorating the vari-
ous warlike achievements of the king. We pass from this court
into another measuring 123 X 133 feet and 40 feet in height.
This, like the former, has corridors covered with brilliantly colored
sculptures. The lower range of these sculptures chiefly consist of
battle-scenes, while the upper series are for the most part represen-
tations of the ceremonies attendant on the dedication of the
temple. The color of the ceilings of these impressive corridors is
of the brightest blue. On the north exterior wall of this grand
temple are ten historical scenes of the greatest interest. They
represent the expedition of Rameses against the Libyans in the
ninth year of his reign. The following are the subjects : 1. The
king and his army setting out to war. 2. Grand victory, with
fearful carnage, the king fighting in person. 3. Slaughter of the
enemy by thousands, and the prisoners led before the king. 4.
The king addresses his victorious army, and an inventory is made
of the spoil captured. 5. Troops defiling to renew the war. En-
comiums on the king, and thanksgiving to the gods, in hieroglyph-
ics. 6. Second encounter and defeat of the enemy ; their camp
is captured, and women and children flee away in all directions.
7. March through a country infested by lions. One slain and
another wounded by the king. 8. Naval battle-scene. The fight
takes place near the sea-shore, and Rameses and his archers distress
the enemy by shooting at them from the shore. [This is the only
known Egyptian representation of a naval combat]. 9. Halt on
the march towards Egypt. Hands of the slain counted. Pris-
oners defile. The king harangues his generals. 10. Return to
Thebes. The king presents his prisoners to the gods Amen-Ra,
188 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Mut and Chonsu. Speech of the prisoners who beg the king to
allow them to live that they may proclaim his power and glory.
From this grand and interesting temple we recrossed the plains
and river to the steamer, passing by the famous Colossi. These
gigantic sitting statues represent the same monarch Amenophis
III., and once stood before the pylon of the temple of that king,
which has now entirely disappeared. The Colossi are quite a dis-
tance from the edge of the desert, and have their foundations
marked by the " high " Nile which covers all the plain. They
once stood sixty feet high, but now appear somewhat lower, owing
to the deposition of vegetable soil around their base. Originally
each was monolithic but that on the north, having been thrown
down by an earthquake, was restored as to the head and shoulders
by five layers of stone. This is the famous vocal Memnon, whence
musical sounds were said to issue when the first rays of the morn-
ing sun fell on the statue. These sounds, the reader will remem-
ber, were said to be produced either by a priest hidden in the
Colossus or by the expansion of fissured portions under the influ-
ence of the sun's rays. Though many celebrated persons of an-
tiquity— such as Strabo, Aelius Gallus and Hadrian — testified as to
hearing this peculiar music, its particular character and cause
have never been satisfactorily explained. The features and whole
front of the Colossi have been destroyed and the statues are now
in such a mutilated condition as to make considerable imagination
and their gigantic proportions necessary to arouse much interest
in them.
In the afternoon we attended the races of the " Luxor Sporting
Club," organised by the managers of the Luxor Hotel and sup-
ported by the guests of all the hotels and by the tourists of visiting
steamers. The races were held on a smooth, hard, thickly-grassed
plain just south of the town. There was here a straightway course
of half a mile outlined with flags. At one part was an enclosure
surrounded by ropes in which rows of old fruit crates and chairs
did duty as a grand-stand — admittance to these was five piastres or
twenty-five cents. A tent here contained a bar, which was most
liberally patronised during the entertainment. Several hundred
foreigners were present, having come on donkey, horse or camel-
back, or upon foot. Opposite the foreign section were at least a
thousand natives, lining the track for a long distance. It was evi-
dently a field-day for modern Luxor. All the world was on hand,
with field-glasses, and enthusiasm and excitement ran high, not-
KARNAK AND LUXOR. 189
withstanding the very great heat and wholly unprotected location.
None but natives took part in the nine " events " which were neat-
ly printed on a programme that was handed to each visitor. These
were : 1. Foot race for small boys. 2. Donkey-boys' Eace, facing
tail of Donkey. This was very amusing, for the donkeys had no
bridles and could only be guided by occasional slaps upon the neck,
and the boys were kept too busy in remaining seated to look
around much. 3. was a Camel Race in which several very tall,
long-legged and long-necked animals made great speed with their
sprawling strides. 4. was a race between little water-girls, bearing
full goolahs or earthenware jars of water upon their heads. 5. was
set down as a Buffalo Eace, but for some reason or other this did
not occur. G. was a foot-race between six natives of the Bisharee
tribe. These are Nubians whose home is in that part of Nubia
lying between the Nile and the Eed Sea and the 19th and 23rd
degrees of south latitude. They are slight thin men, scantily
dressed, and wearing their hair in a very extraordinary coiffure — a
huge mop upon the crown, and a great bunch of little braids hang-
ing down all around. Neither their speed nor their ambition to
excel seemed great. 7. was a horse-race and the piece de resistance.
About half a dozen horses were ridden without saddles by as many
little boys clothed only in shirts. This race was run in great style
and dash and with considerable speed. Next (8) came some wrest-
ling on donkeys, several couples of boys engaging in this feature
of the programme. The donkeys had neither saddle nor bridle
and the boys having locked their legs each under his animal en-
deavored to pull the other to the ground, the one succeeding win-
ning a prize. The prizes were all small amounts of money for
which the entrance fees of the foreigners amply sufficed. The
wrestling of the donkey boys afforded a great deal of amusement.
The last event (9) was a " tug of war " between six natives of the
town aud six waiters of the " Luxor Hotel." After an exciting
contest this was won by the hotel employes.
During our visit to Luxor — in January and February — the
three hotels were all nearly full of foreigners, some spending the
winter and others visitors preferring a longer stop than the itinera-
ries of the steamers permitted. Luxor is in fact rapidly becoming
a popular winter health-resort. I can testify to its magnificent,
crystal-clear atmosphere, the heavens all day without a cloud and
flooded with the brightest of sunlight, a tonic in the dry smooth,
balmy air that is a stimulant like champagne without its succeed-
190 ACTUAL AFRICA.
ing depression, and cool, comfortable nights in which one rested
peacefully under three blankets. Though hot in the day from
eleven o'clock to four, it was never a depressing or suffocating
heat— one liked to bask in the sun, to drink in the pure whole-
some air. Here you live out-of-doors all the day, and as the com-
plexion of my fellow-travellers darkened with the sun, I could see
their eyes brighten with the life-giving atmosphere and their faces
become rounder and fuller with the generous diet of steamer or
hotel. The average temperature of this part of Egypt in winter is
between 60° and 70° Fahrenheit. Eain almost never falls, and the
prevailing wind is from the north. It is said that the health also
of the native inhabitants of Upper Egypt is exceedingly good not-
withstanding the great filth of their habitations and their persons
—this being counteracted by the wonderful climate, by proper
food and by sufficient agricultural work. Lung diseases are ex-
ceedingly rare. The ophthalmia which is so very prevalent in
Egypt— so that quite half the population seem to have some dis-
ease of the eyes or to be blind of one or both of them— has been
attributed to various causes : the glare of the sun, the fine dust-
sand wafted from the surrounding deserts and which, when a
strong wind blows, quite fills the atmosphere, and damp night air
in a climate so dry by day. It is however most common during
the floods of the Nile and in places where the effluvium is offen-
sive. Ophthalmia is moreover often hereditary. The swarm of
biting flies also tend to increase this complaint, and you frequently
see babies and children and even grown people whose sore eyelids
are fringed with these irritating insect pests. The natives never
seem to take the trouble to brush them away. Then again the
flies serve to transport the virus from afflicted to well people.
Foreigners who have trouble with their eyes are advised to wash
them frequently with Nile water and to wear eye glasses or spec-
tacles of a neutral tint. Should these methods not suffice resort
must be had to a zinc lotion or a weak solution of nitrate of silver.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE FIRST CATARACT.
We left Luxor the next morning at daylight for the town of
Esneh, on the west bank and about thirty-five miles distant. "We
were to remain there only about an hour in which to visit a famous
temple. It is interesting to note that, with the exception of the
ruins of Karnak and Luxor, the rock-tombs of Beni Hassan and
the obelisks, all the great and remarkable ruined cities, temples
and tombs of Egypt are situated upon the western side of the
river. Perhaps this is to be accounted for from the fact, that
from Cairo to the second cataract by far the greater parts of the
Nile's fertile and level valley is upon this bank of the river. It is
interesting to remark also the geological features of Egypt with
reference particularly to her grand architectural remains. The
valley of the Nile is enclosed by limestone ranges as far as Esneh,
nearly five hundred miles from Cairo ; from Esneh to Assouan or
the first cataract, about one hundred miles, the mountains are of
sandstone ; and above Assouan, for a distance of nearly one hun-
dred and fifty miles, comes a region of granite. These three were
the chief building stones of the ancient Egyptians. The pyramids
of Ghizeh are built of limestone, Thebes of sandstone, the obelisks,
sarcophagi and colossal statues of granite.
Esneh I found to be a town of some 7,000 inhabitants, built
upon the bank twenty or thirty feet above the river and extend-
ing back in terraces of picturesque, though dilapidated mud walls.
Acacias and palms abounded, as did native boats along the bank,
which in several places was faced with old Roman walls. We land
and walk through a well-stocked bazaar, to the temple, which is
situated near the centre of the town. It was formerly all but cov-
ered by the rubbish heaps of the ancient city and by modern dwell-
ings, but the old Viceroy Mehemet Ali staying here, some half
century ago, had a part of it — the portico — cleared ; the remainder
191
192 ACTUAL AFRICA.
has not yet been explored, but was probably a large oblong temple
like the others. We descend by a long staircase from near the
level of the roof to the floor of the portico. This grand hall is
similar to that at Denderah. It contains twenty-four huge col-
umns, sixty-five feet high and nineteen feet in circumference,
nearly all the capitals being dissimilar and representing the doum
palm, papyrus, lotus and composite orders of fruits and flowers.
The walls and columns are completely covered with sculptures and
hieroglyphics. The temple is built of brown sandstone and dates
only from just before our own era. The sculptures as usual repre-
sent kings and princes making offerings to the deities. The col-
umns and capitals are remarkably handsome. Greek grace and
ornament seem in them to have been added to Egyptian simplicity
and seriousness. On one part of the ceiling are carved several of
the signs of the Zodiac. I noticed some cartouches of Eoman
emperors — of Domitian, Commodus and Caracalla.
Not long after leaving Esneh we find a considerable change in
the scenery of the river. The region of sandstone, of which I have
just spoken, is entered and great masses of it are seen lining the
banks. The fertile valley becomes narrower. At about three
o'clock in the afternoon we reached the landing-stage of Edfou
on the west bank, the town being a quarter of a mile back from
the river. For an hour before reaching this point the great propy-
lon of the famous temple had been in sight. Edfou is 515 miles
from Cairo and in itself contains nothing of special interest for the
traveller, since the temple is a little to the west of the town. We
mounted donkeys, rode across the fields and past the low mud-
walled houses to the sacred edifice, which we found considerably
below the level of the town proper. It was excavated some thirty
years ago by M. Mariette, who found the rubbish outside reaching
to the top of its walls, and certain parts of the roof covered over
with dwellings and stables. The temple of Edfou was begun by
Ptolemy Euergetes I. B. c. 237 and was finished b. c. 57. It was
therefore 180 years in course of construction. In general plan
and arrangement this temple resembles that at Denderah, but it
is more complete than the former, and is even said by some critics
to be the most perfect specimen of an Egyptian temple extant.
The space enclosed by the walls measures 450 X 120 feet. The
propylon is gigantic, being 250 feet in width and 115 feet in height.
The outer walls are carved in intaglio relievato — a peculiar kind
of engraving in which the highest parts of the figure are on a level
THE FIRST CATARACT. 193
with the original surface of the stone — with enormous figures of
gods and goddesses, and kings and queens of the usual religious
character. The pylons are covered with battle-scenes, the figures
being of huge proportions. Passing through the doorway you find
yourself in a court about 140 X 150 feet. The temple is oblong in
shape and built of brown sandstone. The gallery of the court is
supported on three sides by thirty-two dissimilar columns. Before
going further I ascended one of the towers of the propylon by an
interior staircase of 252 steps and was rewarded for the toil by a
very interesting view of the building, of the town of Edfou and
of the Nile Valley. To the north was a modern cemetery, to the
west the gray Libyan hills. Descending I went from the court to
a hall full of immense columns covered with well-preserved hiero-
glyphics. Next came the adytum — the " holy of holies " — with its
twelve bulbous columns, and then at the extreme end came the
Naos or sanctuary where stands a huge gray granite monolith
which was the depositary of the sacred hawk, emblem of Horus,
son of Osiris and Isis, to whom the temple was dedicated. On the
frieze of this was a beautiful colored sculpture of Horus, with his
customary hawk's head. The walls of this temple are completely
covered with choice sculptures and neat inscriptions. The sub-
jects are about equally divided between war and religion. We
returned to the steamer, the majority of us while not wishing to
detract from the glories of Edfou yet not thinking it on the whole
equal to that of Denderah.
At eight o'clock the following morning we passed a portion of
the river only a thousand feet broad, called Gebel Silsileh, with
hills on either bank. On both sides are the great quarries from
which the ancient kings procured the sandstone for many of the
proud Nile cities. The stone immediately on the bank of the river
being porous passes were cut directly through this right into the
heart of the mountain chain. Several of these avenues are sixty
feet wide, eighty deep and nearly half a mile in length. As we
proceeded the previous narrow strip of cultivated land in many
places vanished altogether and the desert on either hand came
directly to the water. "We seemed also to pass a greater number
of islands, most of which would be covered at " high " Nile. At
about eleven o'clock we reached a place called Kom Ombo where
on the eastern bank is the small remnant, as now partially un-
earthed, of what must have been a very splendid temple. We
halted a half an hour to visit it. It is situated upon a high mound
194 ACTUAL AFRICA.
of sand, rubbish and gravel, or rather in it, for it is still more than
half buried. The river sweeps against the bank and is gradually
undermining the temple, the ruins of which have fallen down into
the river in great heaps. It was a sort of double temple, that is
it was dedicated to Horus, the principle of light, and to Sebek, the
principle of darkness. Sebek was the crocodile god, Horus the
morning sun. The temples were reared by Greek princes, suc-
cessors of Alexander, and bear tbe names of various of the Ptole-
mies. They are believed to measure about 200 X 100 feet, and
are enclosed by a brick wall. A great tower sculptured all over,
and a little out of the perpendicular, stands on the very edge of
the river, into which it is destined undoubtedly to tumble. The
portico was supported by fifteen splendid great pillars, only a few
of which are now standing. The hall adjoining this contained
ten. All the walls and columns are covered with fine pictures and
hieroglyphics, many of which still betray traces of bright coloring.
The cornice which extends around the portico is very graceful.
In short, it is an admirable little bit of ancient architecture, and
would seem to deserve complete excavation. Standing on top of
its knoll of rubbish the view of this temple, as we steamed away
up the Nile, was especially effective. Great quantities of the castor-
oil plant seemed now to be grown, and so dry was the cultivated
land that the shadoofs almost touched beams. Sandbanks barely
above water-level also increased. On the sides of the hills were
huge banks and ridges of the softest, smoothest, tawny sand, and
the strong north wind blew this in great clouds which caused the
face to smart and hurt the eyes exceedingly. The hills were very
diversified and picturesque. The telegraph line which has followed
us on the western bank from the pyramids of Ghizeh is always in
strong contrast with the works of both nature and man here. We
pass many beautiful date-palms, some in clumps and some in long
stretches, backed by the yellow desert and making a very pretty
picture. The fertile land is often but a few feet in width and
extends thus for long distances on either bank. Even this little
fertility has to be wrestled for by the poor inhabitants. Notwith-
standing we are now near the 24th degree of north latitude we
find the nights cool — we still require three blankets as covering —
the middle portions of the days are of course very warm, especially
in the direct rays of the sun. At about 2 p. m. the hills around
Assouan, crowned with forts and tombs of marabouts, become clear
to sight, and a little later we see the white barracks and houses of
A Xubian.
THE FIRST CATARACT 195
the town, on the east bank of the river, in the midst of many date
palms. At the right lay the green fields and trees of the north
end of the island of Elephantine.
Assouan is at the southern limit of Egypt, 585 miles from Cairo,
and contains but 4,000 inhabitants. It is one of the three British
garrisons, the other two being Cairo and Alexandria. It lies in
terraces twenty or thirty feet above the river. Along the bank
are two-story white-walled houses, back of them a shelf of brown
mud-brick walls, a white mosque tower, and then the station of
the railway around the cataract to Shellah or Pbilaj and the
smoothly-worn rocks of the river below it. To the bank of the
island of Elephantine opposite were moored a long string of daha-
beahs, steam and sail, and the Khedive's yacht. Along the shore
of the town were many native boats. Soon we ourselves were
properly moored, and then we all took ferriage to Elephantine,
landing near the remains of a massive Roman quay. The upper
end of this island seems to consist of no more than great mounds
of ruins and rubbish, and a part of the gateway of an old temple
once dedicated to Alexander III. The entire barren half of the
island is covered by a native cemetery. From the highest point
an extensive prospect is had of the two branches of the Nile, and
their rocky shores and islands and of the extremely barren and
desolate hills. Nearly opposite Assouan is an old Nilometer, a
narrow stone-lined passage descending by a flight of stone steps
to the level of the river, whose waters, high or low, are marked by
lines cut in its stone sides. Upon the island of Elephantine the
natives nearly pestered us to death by offering for sale various
arms and bead-work clocks and necklaces, to say nothing of all
sorts of so-called antiquities. The great heaps of ruins on Ele-
phantine will corroborate its history in having been magnificent
under Pharaohs, Persians, Greeks and Romans — but now, alas, all
is gone. Here we saw many Nubians, tall and slender persons,
very black, but with a bright amiable expression. They all had
the curious arrangement of the hair already described of the
Bisharees seen at Luxor. They dress in a long piece of cotton
cloth which is never too white. Assouan is a very cosmopolitan
place. One meets here Egyptians, Turks, Bisharees, negroes and
British soldiers. On the island of Elephantine one sees none but
Nubians or Berbers. These are the aboriginal inhabitants of this
part of Africa. They are a bold and frank race, and impress one
more favorably generally than the natives of the Egyptian portion
196 ACTUAL AFRICA.
of the Nile valley. Nubia may be said to extend from the First
Cataract to Khartoum and, more specifically, Lower Nubia is be-
tween the first two cataracts and Upper above the Second Cataract.
The following morning a few of us rose at six and after a cup
of coffee and rolls visited some interesting rock-tombs on the side
of the hills opposite Assouan. These were opened and excavated
a few years ago by Gen. Sir F. W. G-renfell of the Egyptian army.
We were rowed in large dahabeahs past the island of Elephantine,
with its pretty hospital buildings with verandahs covered with
vines, and over to the western shore, where we had to ascend the
steep hillside to the rock tombs, which lie in terraces. The best of
these tombs were made for the rulers of Elephantine who lived be-
tween the Vllth and Xllth dynasties. These are mostly small and
rather rude and simple in their carving and sculptures, but some
of them contain paintings whose colors might for aught you could
tell have been laid on yesterday. From the entrance of these
temples we had a splendid view of the island of Elephantine, the
upper river choked with islands and rocks, and of Assouan and
its picturesque surrounding hills. After breakfast we took the
train for Shellah and the island of Philse, about six miles distant,
the time required being half an hour and the price six piastres or
thirty cents. It is called the Assouan-Shellah Railway, and is under
military control, which despatches one train each way four days
in the week. There are arrangements for three classes of passen-
gers, the third having to stand in open carriages, and the first being
accommodated in carriages with side seats covered with leather.
The line runs through the desert, and shows nothing more of in-
terest than great heaps of smooth black, glistening rocks, and
great expanses of sand. Shellah we found to be a long, straggling
mud- walled village, with a few field-pieces and barracks for the
troops. In the river were a dozen small steamers, many of them
rickety affairs intended for the transport of troops, and a few
being the tourist steamers of the upper river, i. e. running between
the first and the second cataract. Most of them were "stern-
wheelers." Round about were fine umbrageous sycamore trees
and groves of date- interspersed with a few doum-palms. In the
middle of the river was the little island of Philae, upon whose sur-
face— thirty or forty feet high — were many large temples. We
were soon ferried over and gave a long inspection to the splendid
relics of Egyptian civilization.
Phila3 consists of a great granite rock about 1,300 feet long by
THE FIRST CATARACT. 197
750 broad. Its sides have been scarped and have had firm solid
walls built on them, several of which exist at this day. The sur-
face is nearly covered with interesting remains and with the ruins
and rubbish of a small town. I ascend immediately the propylon
of the great temple, about sixty feet high, to obtain a general view
of the island, river and environs. Philse has been styled the most
beautiful spot on the Nile, and so far as its picturesque location is
concerned seems to well merit this praise — at least it is the centre
of the most interesting bit of scenery we have so far found on the
Nile. On the neighboring island of Biggeh we notice some pretty
columns and a portal. On some great rocks upon the opposite shore
are several inscriptions of former royal visitors and of those on
their way to and from Nubia. The Nile to the north is full of
black masses of rocky islands and to the south the hills come close
to either bank. The lines are everywhere broken and variegated :
it is wholly different from the uniformly smooth and level scenes
of the Nile between here and Cairo. The monuments on Philae
belong to a comparatively recent date, but none have been found
later than the time of Nectanebus, the last native king of Egypt,
358 b. c. Philae was dedicated to three gods — Osiris, Isis and
Horus. It was said to be the last stronghold of the ancient faith.
The worship of these gods flourished here until a. d. 453, i. e.
seventy years after the famous edict of Theodosius against the re-
ligion of Egypt. The principal ruins on the island are those of
the great temple of Isis, which was founded by Ptolemy II. On
each side of the path which led to it is a corridor — the line of col-
umns following the curves of the shore — that in the west having
thirty-two columns and that on the east sixteen. Many of the
columns were never completed, their capitals being still uncarved
and of those carved scarcely any two are of the same design.
Passing mounds of ruins and a mutilated stone lion, the massive
propylon is reached. Its face is sculptured with very natural and
lively figures and scenes representing Ptolemy VII. triumphing
over his enemies. These are reliefs en creux, or projections in a
hollow. Through the propylon you enter a court and proceed
through a pylon into a portico with ten columns. This is the gem
of the temple and is really of great beauty. The colors are mar-
vellously fresh, the capitals being of vivid blue and green, with
delicate mixtures of red, crimson and orange. The ceiling is light
blue with bright stars set upon it. Round and about are many
small chambers, all covered with excellent sculptures — some rep-
198 ACTUAL AFRICA.
resenting the king slaying hostile nations, others describing the
death and resurrection of Osiris, and still others covered with
mythological hieroglyphics. In the courtyard is a great block of
red granite giving the famous Eosetta Stone inscription, though
unfortunately without the Greek text. Very many of the sculp-
tures have been defaced with hammers by the early Christians.
In 577 a. d. the interior of this temple became, under Bishop
Theodoras, the church of St. Stephen, and at a later period, a Cop-
tic church was built from the ruins. On the southeastern corner
of the island stands the beautiful little temple called the Kiosque
of Philae or " Pharaoh's Bed," dedicated to Isis. This is a most
elegant example of the lighter architecture of the Ptolemaic era,
and in its situation and general appearance — its beautiful columns
and entablatures — reminded me at once of the Greek remains upon
the Acropolis at Athens. A little to the north of this is a small
and attractive temple built by Ptolemy IX. There are several
other ruins and a Nilometer upon the island. The latter is like
that at Elephantine, a sort of staircase whose sides are marked
with measured lines, leading down to the water. Phila? is an ex-
ceedingly beautiful, picturesque and interesting place. We visited
it again on our return voyage.
At Philae we took boat — a sailing craft about thirty feet long
and eight broad — and proceeded to pass down or " shoot " the
cataracts or rapids to Assouan. There were eight rowers to the
boat and two men at the rudder, our sail being furled. The first
cataract begins just below the island of Philae and ends a little
before reaching Assouan. There are said to be eight cataracts
reckoned on the Nile, or six before reaching Khartoum, which are
about two hundred miles apart, but the first cataract is that most
generally known. It is not a cataract in the sense of being a
waterfall, but is rather a series of rapids, the river dashing through
a wild profusion of rocks, though in no part dangerous to a careful
steersman. The river here flows between two mountain ranges of
granite which descend quite abruptly to its banks. The so-called
cataracts are about five miles in length, but only at two points is
there any very great commotion. There are some twenty " cata-
ract islands," half a dozen of them being large. They are covered
with, or consist of, smoothly rounded granite rocks, which are
glazed like dark enamel or hard coal. The scenery of this part of
the river is exceedingly wild. Many of the rocks are of spherical
shape. This is due to the attrition of detritus washed down
THE FIRST CATARACT. 199
the stream. The dark color is said to penetrate but a little dis-
tance and is believed to be caused by the protoxide of iron precipi-
tated over the stones by the Nile water. In starting from Philas
we had near views of several of the rocks inscribed with the names
of kings who reigned during the Middle Empire. Eeddish-brown
rocks and stones were piled up on the islands and banks about us
in the wildest disorder. Near the surface where these rocks are
washed by the river they become black and glistening. At the vil-
lage of Mahatah on the east bank the real passage begins. Here
the crew of Nubian sailors commence the cries, shouts and chants
which they continue until we reach Assouan. The large rocks of
the cataract are also covered with hieroglyphic names of princes or
generals commemorating their expeditions, and with sculptures
adoring the gods of the cataract. As we threaded the rocky islands
the channel was occasionally not more than one hundred feet wide.
Here the crew who had lately been amusing themselves with a
quiet solo song and chorus, broke out into the greatest excitement.
They would call upon all the saints of their calendar, especially upon
Said, the rescuer from sudden dangers. Keeping time to their
oars one would cry " ya Mohammed," or Allah is gracious, while
the others responded in chorus "ya Said " (0 Said). We passed a
small village on the east bank called Biban-esh-Shellah, gates of
the cataract, and then a headland known as Bab-el-Kebir or great
gate. We were an hour and a quarter in making the run from
Philae to Assouan, the men rowing all of the way and the wind
blowing strongly from the north — the prevailing winter wind.
In the afternoon I took a donkey ride through the bazaars,
which are large and well-furnished with local manufactures and
goods brought from the Soudan ; through a Bisharee village in the
desert to the eastward of the town, in which were their diminu-
tive and wretched straw-matting tents ; and to the quarry — the
famous red granite quarry — whence all the obelisks and most of
the great statues and sarcophagi of Egypt have come, and where
may still be seen an obelisk, partly detached and still lying in the
quarries, a monolith ninety-two feet in length. There were marks
of wedges upon many surrounding rocks, showing how the ancient
Egyptians split off evenly the immense masses used in their pon-
derous works of art. Near here I passed through great Arab
cemeteries and by many ruined mosques and tombs of marabouts.
CHAPTER XXIII.
IN LOWER NUBIA.
The next morning I left Assouan for Shellah and the steamer
to go on to the second or " great " cataract. I took a donkey and
proceeded upon what is styled the desert route, a track over the
sand at least a hundred feet in width. The scene is similar to
that obtained from the railway, the road being a little nearer the
river. There were the same sandy waste and the same heaps and
ridges of smoothly rounded dark rocks, scenery of an extraor-
dinary wildness, the rocks looking like lava hurled from a volcano.
Arrived at Shellah we went on board a little stern-wheel steamer
which was to take us to Wadi Haifa and the second cataract.
There are only two of these tourist steamers at present plyiug be-
tween the first and second cataracts. They were originally built
for the transport of troops, and were then of course without
cabins. There were sufficient passengers to fill the two, each
having a maximum limit of fourteen persons. I found myself
on a vessel about eighty feet long by twenty broad, and drawing,
with its cargo of coal for a week's voyage, but thirty inches. It
was a flat-bottomed iron boat, with two decks, the lower being but
a few inches above the water. Here, forward, was the boiler and
aft, the engine, they being so arranged to secure a good balance.
Between them the deck was reserved for the necessary table pro-
visions and live stock, the cabins of the engineer and chief
steward. On the deck above were, forward, the kitchen and room
of the manager, next came our cabins, and near the wheel, the
dining-room and bath-room. Upon the roof of this deck was the
wheel-house and the awning-cOvered sitting-room of the pas-
sengers, where were a table and several easy chairs. We started
promptly on time, at 10 A. m., the other steamer following. Our
fellow passengers from Cairo were to spend the day at Philae, and
returning to Assouan, depart on the morrow for Luxor on the re-
200
IN LOWER NUBIA. 201
turn voyage to Cairo. We soon left behind the lovely Philse, and
entered a very different Nile region from that traversed during
the past two weeks. The river was more tortuous and had high
ridges of dark, low, rocky hills, half buried in yellow sand, border-
ing it. On these granite hills tombs of saints or marabouts were
frequent. There was only a very narrow cultivated strip on each
side, which frequently covered no more than the steep low bank,
and even this had to be wrested from the desert, as was evidenced
by the frequent sakiahs, which the new dragoman informs me are
obliged to run during the night as well as the day. The annual
deposit between Phike and Wadi Haifa — 210 miles — averages
only from six to sixty yards ! We make about six miles an hour.
There are narrow fringes of date- and doum-palms, tamarisks, aca-
cias, and the henna shrub, the powdered leaves of which, made
into a paste, are used for dyeing the finger-nails of a reddish-
brown hue. The country is thinly peopled ; the villages being
simply single strings of mud-huts. We pass old ruined temples
of little importance, but the scenery becomes increasingly interest-
ing, the mountains being very diversified and affording strong
contrasts between their granite rocks, the verdant shores and the
huge mounds of yellow sand out of which the peaks rise like Alps
from their snowfields.
In the early afternoon we passed the elegant brown sandstone
columns of a temple at a place called Kardash. This unlike
most Egyptian temples stands out boldly on the sloping hills, and
is accordingly very effective to a passer by steamer. There is a
quarry near at hand containing many inscriptions, mostly of the
times of the Roman emperors. Gazelles are occasionally met with
in the ravines of the desert of the neighborhood. The panorama
continues wholly different from the greater part of that below the
first cataract — that is low, level strata of alluvium — this is largely
mountain broken, peaked and steep-cliffed. Soon after passing
Kardash we enter a very remarkable gorge where the river, about
a thousand feet in width, is confined between great cliffs of black
and smooth rocks. This grand and savage scenery continues
about four miles and the river is here a hundred feet in depth.
On leaving we reach on the west bank the village of Kalabshah
and two interesting temples, one the largest in Nubia, the other a
small rock temple. Kalabshah is 629 miles from Cairo, and
enjoys the distinction of standing directly upon the Tropic of
Cancer. The large temple is in very great ruin. The propylon is
15
202 ACTUAL AFRICA.
112 feet long, 60 feet high and 20 feet broad. This temple dates
from the time of Augustus, and has had additions by Caligula,
Trajan and Severus. The portico had twelve columns, with
capitals of palm and vine leaves. The sculptures are many but
not very good. Several of the chambers have been plastered over
and used for chapels by early Christians. A short distance from
here on the mountain side is the rock-hewn temple which com-
memorates the victories of Rameses II. over the Ethiopians. On
the walls of the court leading into the small hall are some excel-
lent sculptures representing Ethiopians bringing before the king
gifts of wild and tame animals and quantities of articles of value.
The sculptures are full of life, motion and spirit. There are here
representations of various animals from the interior of Africa,
conducted by Ethiopians of the negro type. The country re-
mained wild, bare and varied, with several small rocky islands in
the stream, which in one place seemed to have rapids almost as
large as those in the first cataract ; these we passed at dusk, fre-
quently turning from side to side of the river, until at about eight
o'clock we drew in to the bank at Dendour and made fast for
the night. Being now in the Tropics we beheld for the first
time the glorious constellation of the Southern Cross. There
were ruins of small temples at various points along this part of
the river, but nothing of special interest — at least to one who
has recently beheld the splendors of Thebes and of Denderah.
We started on at four o'clock in the morning and about eight
halted at Dakkeh on the west bank in order to visit a Greek tem-
ple here. The pylon is in an almost perfect state of preservation
but the remainder is all but destroyed. Still you can make out
that the paintings and sculptures must have been very good. On
the opposite side of the river is Kuban, where are some old Egyp-
tian fortifications. The river continued all day from half a mile
to three-quarters in width, was tortuous as usual, and had in the
distance back from either bank many picturesque hills and ranges
of mountains. There were also many striking peaks, seemingly of
volcanic origin. Several of these, on account of the discoloration
of their rocks, looked as if covered with trees or shrubs, and their
hard dark color made a strong contrast to the soft yellow desert.
Small villages were at intervals strung along the banks, generally
lying quite in the sands, as fertile land is here too precious to
build upon. The date palm predominated, and henna was much
cultivated. It seems to be regarded as quite necessary that fertile
IN LOWER NUBIA. 203
laud, though very scarce, should be set apart for this shrub, as well
as for the castor oil plant, from which the oil is obtained with
which the people soak their hair and smear their bodies. Every
time we go on shore we are pestered to buy all sorts of " antiqui-
ties," mostly of a suspicious character as to their origin and habi-
tat. We are also followed and jostled by crowds of jabbering,
chaffering, laughing boys and girls, to whom the arrival of a
steamer is as good as a holiday. So far we have seen very few
native sail boats and no dahabeahs upon this section of the river.
Formerly, before the war with the Mahdists and the abandonment
of the Soudan, in 1885, the dahabeahs were here the same as below
the first cataract, but now in the disturbed condition of the country
they do not come above the first cataract. The natives never molest
the steamers but would the dahabeahs, which, being without steam
power, would be more at their mercy. The people hereabouts are
poor and there is little or no exchange of commodities. In the
great fields of tawny sand and in the valleys and slopes of the
dark, rocky mountains we were continually reminded of the snow-
fields, glaciers and bare peaks of Switzerland. All the afternoon
we saw many beautiful date palms bordering the banks. In some
clumps I noticed as many as ten trees springing apparently from a
large general root-stem. The sunset was very splendid, the rocky
hills turning purple and the glossy palm tufts standing strongly
out from the yellow saud-fields. At about seven in the evening
we reached the village of Korosko, a considerable point of traffic
on the high eastern bank, to which we moored for the night.
There is a small oasis here. The inhabitants know only Nubian ;
Arabic here ceases to be spoken. Korosko is a starting-point for
Abu llamed, across the Nubian desert on another part of the Nile,
which here makes a great circle to the westward. The caravan
route is two hundred miles in length. It is said to be a very bad
one, not at present feasible for foreigners, water being procurable
only at one stopping-place, and the wild Bedouins being very trou-
blesome. When the caravan route arrives at Abu Hamed, the
river is followed to Khartoum, in the Soudan, about two hundred
miles further.
We reached Amada early the next morning. Here in the des-
ert near the river, and half buried in the sand, is a very small but
interesting temple, which was founded by Usertsen II. about 2500
b. c, and repaired by some other king a thousand years later. It
is greatly worn by the sand and weather and much dilapidated but
204 ACTUAL AFRICA.
contains some beautiful sculptures of a spirited and life-like design,
which still betray much of their original vivid coloring. The
hieroglyphics are also well executed. Standing upon the roof of
this little temple we had a fine view of the surrounding desert
and the river, and listened to the droning music of a dozen sakiahs,
while a solitary Nubian warrior went through a pantomime of at-
tacking his foe with his long and slender assegai. One wonders
that some sort of grease or oil is not used to stop the creaking of
the water-wheels, but the people do not wish this, believing that
the peculiar sound encourages the oxen in their work, in the same
manner that the natives in the interior of Brazil regard the creak-
ing of their great block-wheeled carts. We did not tarry at Ama-
da but went on slowly against the strong current, passing on the
east bank the village of Derr, which straggles for a long distance
along the river and is half hidden in a large and very dense oasis
of date palms. The dates of this neighborhood have the reputa-
tion of being the best in Egypt. Derr is the capital of Lower
Nubia, but contains only some three hundred inhabitants, and
with the exception of having a mosque and a large house for the
Sheik is in no particular different from other mud-walled and
straw-covered Nile villages. As we proceed the rocks become
bolder and sharper and assume very singular forms — one is fanci-
fully thought to resemble the pyramid of Cheops and another has
been compared to the Sphinx. During the afternoon we pass
Toski, on the west bank, which was the furthest point north
reached by the dervishes (the Mahdists), and where a decisive bat-
tle was fought in the late war, in which the British troops won a
great victory. From Toski to Aboo Simbel the scenery is wholly
of the desert type. Ibreen, the ruins of an old Roman town, is on
the top of a steep, rocky, sandstone cliff some two or three hundred
feet above the river. In the same cliff were several rock-hewn
tombs, on the walls of which we could distinctly see the customary
pictures. The town dates back to the time of Augustus — the
tombs to that of Thothmes III. Although there was sterility along
this part of the river — many enormous banks of sand which made
you think you were somewhere upon the shores of the ocean —
there were also occasionally perfect forests of date palms, the tree-
trunks being so thickly placed that it was quite impossible to see
between them. Crocodiles are said to abound in this part of the
Nile, but though we scoured every sandbank with our binoculars,
we discovered but one during all the afternoon.
IN LOWER NUBIA. 205
At about five o'clock we saw, a long distance before us, upon
the west bank of the river, the rocky ridge, some three or four
hundred feet in height, which runs at right angles to the river and
in the interior of which has been excavated the famous rock-temple
of Aboo Simbel. There were low ranges and peaks in sight all
around the distant horizon, and along the east bank vast groves of
palm trees and some straggling villages. Before us we could see a
longer and straighter stretch of river than I had noticed hereto-
fore. There is no village at Aboo Simbel, but as we drew in to the
shore a number of natives came running to us from every direc-
tion, all bringing something to sell — coins, spears, bridles, bits of
Dervish manufacture, etc. Aboo Simbel or Ipsambool, is 170
miles south of Phila? and 46 from the second cataract. We passed
a small excavation in the face of the cliff in which we could dis-
tinctly see a sitting-figure — some member of the Egyptian Pan-
theon. This would have been almost inaccessible except by ropes
let down from the top of the cliff. Next we saw, at a height of say
twenty feet above the surface of the river, a rock-hewn temple which
is dedicated to Hathor. The face of the rock had been planed, and
covered with sculptures of Rameses and members of his family. But
the highest interest centred in the great temple near at hand, and
before which we moored for the night. Notwithstanding our con-
siderable expectation and the knowledge that this monument is not
only the greatest attraction Nubia has to offer the antiquarian
student, but perhaps the finest rock-temple in the world — not even
excepting those at Ellora and Elephanta in western India — and
the chief reason for visiting the Nile between the first and second
cataracts, we were in no particular disappointed. The sun was
just setting and threw a peculiarly mellow light upon the cone-
shaped mountain and the colossal figures of Eameses the Great.
There they sit in serene and amiable majesty looking out over the
Nile valley as they have done for over 3,000 years. Their sim-
plicity, grandeur and beauty are very impressive. At a distance the
great statues are somewhat qualified by the background of rock
and sand, but when you approach and stand below them, you are
overwhelmed at their huge proportions.
This grand temple was built by Rameses II. to commemorate
his victory over the Khetas. It is hewn out of the solid grit-stone
rock — a sort of brown sandstone — to a depth of 185 feet. The
cliff, which originally sloped down to the river, has been hewn
away and smoothed for a space about 120 feet square to form the
206 ACTUAL AFRICA.
front of the temple. This has made a great niche in the moun-
tain, seventy-five feet deer) at the bottom, and here in very high
relief have been carved four gigantic statues of Rameses II. seated
on thrones like other Egyptian colossi. Each has the royal car-
touche cut upon the upper arms. These splendid figures are sixty-
five feet high and twenty-five feet across the chest, and well pro-
portioned. The nose of each is three-and-one-half feet long ; the
forefinger three feet. The countenances are especially intelligent
and pleasant-looking. The statue to the left of the entrance has
lost its head, shoulders and arms, which lie on the ground in front.
The colossus on the other side of the doorway has been restored by
Seti I., and that to the extreme right by the Egyptian govern-
ment. The statue in the left hand corner is the most perfect.
To the right and left of each of these statues stand small figures
of the mother, wives and children of Eameses. The cornice and
frieze at the top of the facade is ornamented by a row of twenty-
one little cynocephali, or apes with dogs' heads. These are regarded
as worshippers of the sun-god, whose statue, in full relief, is just
below. Beneath these are rows of hieroglyphics and cartouches.
Over the door is the statue of Hermachis or. Re the sun-god, to
whom the temple was dedicated, and on each side of him is a
figure of the king offering adoration. An enormous bank of sand
has drifted down the mountain to the right and across the foot
of the temple, nearly closing the entrance, though it has been four
times cleared away— by Belzoni in 1817, Lepsius in 1844, Mariette
in 1869 and by the Egyptian government, for the visit of the late
Khedive, in 1891. The cliff may be ascended by means of this
great sand drift — a stiff climb — but the view from the summit,
above the statues, repays the effort. The temple is perhaps fifty
feet above the river, which is very deep hereabouts.
Well supplied with candles and magnesium wire we enter the
lofty and narrow doorway, and proceed to inspect the various
chambers, of which there are about a dozen, the side ones being
of irregular size and location, though all of them are of an ob-
long shape, as seems to be the universal rule in Egyptian archi-
tecture. We enter first the grand hall, in which are eight great
square columns with " engaged " figures of Osiris, 18 feet high,
upon them — i. e. figures of the king portrayed as Osiris. These
statues with their calm, dignified countenances and folded arms
are very impressive. The ceiling, columns and walls are covered
with deeply carved — intaglio — sculptures which show many traces
IN LOWER NUBIA. 207
of having once been very brilliantly colored. The tableaux on the
wall represent the victories of Rameses. On the north side is an
enormous battle-piece covering a space 58 feet in length by 25 in
height and containing nearly 1,200 figures ! There are also many
pictorial decorations. All these were first chiselled in the stone,
and then covered with a thin coating of plaster and painted. The
great hall is sixty feet square, with a ceiling twenty-five feet high.
Directly behind this hall is a smaller one, 35 X 25 feet, with four
square columns. Xext there is a corridor and then comes the
" holy of holies," containing an altar and four seated figures, which
are much mutilated. They represent Ptah, Amen-Ra, Rameses II.
and Hermachis. Several of the other chambers have sculptured
walls and a high and narrow shelf or scat running around the sides.
Some of them are without sculptures or only show them in process
of formation. These chambers were full of hundreds, if not thou-
sands, of bats. A little distance to the left of the great temple is
a small one — about 12 X U X 10 feet, which has some interesting
sculptures. It is believed that this temple was used in connection
with the larger. To the north of the great temple and close to the
river, hewn in the living rock, is the smaller one, to which allu-
sion has already been made. It is eighty-four feet deep, and is
dedicated to Hathor, who is symbolized in the form of a cow, by
Rameses II. and his wife Xefert Ari. The cliff has been smoothed
for a breadth of ninety feet for the facade of this temple. The
front is ornamented with six large statues standing (the colossi are
sitting) and sloping back from the base like those of the great
temple. They are those of the king, his wife and some of his chil-
dren. Between the statues are vertical rows of hieroglyphics. In-
side the main hall are six Hathor-headed pillars. This room is
about 35 X 25 feet in dimension. The interior chambers are simi-
lar in character to those of the large temple, but the execution of
the sculptures is inferior to them.
We go on at four o'clock in the morning. The scenery is
somewhat tamer, but hardly less interesting. We pass several cas-
tles, towns and columns of Roman and Arab ruins, with some few
grottoes, tombs and tablets in the hills. We notice sakiahs far out
in the river, at the edge of great sandbanks, which connect with
other sakiahs on the permanent banks, and thus work in combina-
tion like the shadoofs already mentioned. The Nile keeps of
about the same width, but is shallower. We ran aground several
times, but almost immediately backed off. Extremes of tempera-
208 ACTUAL AFRICA.
ture have been very great. I remarked one day on which there
was a difference of 45° between 6 a. m. and 4 p. m. — 45° to 90°.
At about eleven o'clock we reached Wadi Haifa, 802 miles from
Cairo. The houses of the town are scattered along the eastern
bank for several miles, and are mostly single-story mud huts ; a
few of them are of two stories, and have whitened walls. Groves
of palms line this bank, but the opposite is all desert. Wadi
Haifa is so called from the halfa (called alfa throughout Bar-
bary) or coarse grass which springs up everywhere outside the
irrigated portions of land. The town is about in latitude 21° 50'
north and longitude 31° 20' east. It contains 4,000 Egyptian
troops, officered by Englishmen. A permanent garrison has been
stationed here since the war in the Soudan. There are many
negro soldiers, and these are said to be quite as brave as the Egyp-
tians, and much truer. There are several mud forts, mounting
small repeating guns, and outlying citadels for pickets in every
direction on the summit of the ridges and knolls and even upon
the opposite bank of the river. The town itself contains nothing
of any special interest, but there is a narrow-gauge railway running
from here around the cataract, which it is worth employing for a
trip as far south as possible.
The second cataract begins a few miles south of Wadi Haifa
and extends about seven miles. The railway was laid down by the
English a number of years ago to transport troops and stores above
the cataract. It at first ran a distance of eighty-six miles to Ferket,
but fifty miles of it were afterwards destroyed by the Mahdists,
who threw the rails into the river and used the sleepers to boil
their kettles and cook their food. The telegraph wire they twisted
together to form their spurs. Thirty-six miles of this road have
been put in order by the Egyptian army, and trains are now run
regularly on Mondays and Thursdays at 8 A. m., returning at 4 P. m.
The line extends to a place called Sarras, where is a large fort and
camp, the outpost of the Egyptian army, all beyond this being
since 1885 in the hands of the Mahdists. Thursday was the day
on which we had arrived, and the train having gone out regularly
in the morning, it was necessary for us to engage a special train,
which we did at the rate of about $2.50 each for the excursion.
There were some twenty of us, and so the railway people received
$50.00. We had first to get permission of the military authorities,
and then a guard of twelve soldiers, armed with Martini-Henry
rifles, being deputed to accompany us, we left at 2 p. m. The car-
IN LOWER NUBIA. 209
riages were of miniature pattern, the third-class passengers having
to stand in open vans. The rolling-stock was of English manu-
facture. Our small but powerful locomotive was curiously enough
called the " Gorgon." No train, even of goods, is allowed to run
without an escort of soldiers. The little road in leaving Wadi
Haifa passes the large walled enclosure of the garrison and the
level space used as a parade, drill ground and shooting range, and
then heads across the desert until it reaches the banks of the Nile,
which it follows to Sarras. We crossed a number of Arab ceme-
teries, the graves being placed close together, and only marked by
low head and foot stones and covered with white pebbles. We
soon entered the region of the cataracts — rapids and rocks similar
to those in the first cataract. Along the banks were hills com-
posed wholly of smoothly-rounded rocks, in the river were thou-
sands of rocky and sandy islets, about which the muddy Nile roared
and ran— some of these islets only large stones, others great heaps
of them, others rocks with banks of sand, and still others large
islands, cultivated and tree- or shrub-covered, and inhabited. The
river was hereabouts several miles in width, and the black polished
rocks and swirling water made a very extraordinary picture. The
first cataract cuts through granite, but the second through ferreous
sandstone boulders, which are stained and coated with Nile mud
as those at Assouan-Philoe. At Sarras, the present terminus of
the line, we found an Egyptian garrison in camp, and upon a
neighboring isolated rock a strong fortress. The troops consisted
of a battalion of infantry, a company of cavalry and a small camel-
corps. The camels especially attracted our attention and admira-
tion, being all of them white and fine animals. We found three
English officers in charge of the outpost. The river continues
southwards, between high banks, of about the same width, but is
said to be scarcely navigable for a long distance. Sarras is the
farthest point to which travellers are now permitted to go — it is
in about latitude 21° north, or a thousand miles from the Medi-
terranean. We arrived back at Wadi Haifa at 7 p. m.
A few of us rose early the next day and made an excursion to
the famous rock of Aboosir, which is about the centre of the
cataract region, upon the west bank, the object being to get the
view from thence of the cataract. We crossed diagonally to the
opposite shore, a distance of about three miles, where we found
donkeys to take us over the desert to our destination. I had so
small a donkey that I actually feared he might trip over my feet.
210 ACTUAL AFRICA.
A very strong breeze from the northwest was blowing, and we were
able to stem the strong current in about an hour. The donkeys
carried us for a short distance along the river bank and then took
a direct line across the desert to the great rock. The undulating
surface was covered with fine deep sand. All about us were cu-
rious low, weather-worn outcroppings of rock. In an hour and a
quarter we had made the distance of six miles. The rock rises
solitarily about fifty feet above a huge cliff facing the river and
three hundred feet above it. It not only affords a capital pros-
pect of the second cataract, but of the country in every direction.
In the south the long range of blue mountains is that of Dongola,
150 miles distant. The third cataract is near them. The view
over the Nile is one of grandeur but of savage desolation. The
polished black rocks look like heaps of coal or carbon crystals as
they sparkle in the sunlight. The rapids on the western side of
the river are much larger than those upon the eastern, and one
sees better here the myriads of small islands which dot and
break up the Nile into so many swirling streams. The roar of
these rapids is plainly heard, but is not so prodigious as some
travellers and geographers have maintained. The desert side of
the rock of Aboosir is carved with thousands of names of visitors.
Among them I noticed several of famous explorers and Egyptol-
ogists—those of Belzoni, Champollion, Warburton and Lord
Lindsay. We returned to Wadi Haifa at noon, and our steamer
almost immediately thereafter started upon the return voyage to
Philse. The strong head wind did not neutralise the power of
the strong current, and we proceeded down stream at nearly
double our upward rate. We arrived at Aboo Simbel at 5 p. m.,
and spent two hours in studying the splendid old temple, both ex-
terior and interior.
In the morning we found lying near us a little Egyptian gun-
boat, which came in late the previous night. It was a " stern-
wheeler " of much the same model as our own boat. It mounted
a small Hotchkiss gun in an iron turret forward, and two Norden-
feldt guns on a little deck above. The steamer was plated with
bullet-proof sheets of iron. We had risen early in order to see
the interior of the great temple illumined by the morning sun—
it facing the east. It was not a specially bright morning, still we
could see the sculptures and paintings to good effect. The ap-
pearance of the wall pictures was quite like that of old tapestry,
and showed a very harmonious blending of colors. The spirit and
IN LOWER NUBIA. 211
life of the various figures of Rameses once more called forth our
heartiest praise and delight. We spent about three hours more
in and about this very interesting temple, and then left for Ko-
rosko. On the way a large crocodile was discovered asleep on a
sandbank. Late in the afternoon we reached the village of Ko-
rosko and remained a couple of hours in order to visit the peak of
Awes-el-Guarany, some five or six hundred feet in height, from
which an extensive survey is to be had, on the one side, of the
Nile valley and, on the other, of the desert-road leading due south
to Abu-Hamed. Korosko was from the earliest times the point
of departure for caravans going to and from Shendy, Senaar and
the Soudan. It was sometimes possible to see here at one time as
many as two thousand camels. The peak of Awes-el-Guarany is
held sacred by the natives and is a place of pilgrimage. On the
summit are very many tablets and inscriptions recording the
names of pilgrims from all parts of Egypt. The top is now sec-
ularised by the Egyptian government as a lookout and signal-
station. There is a stone watch-house here manned by three or
four soldiers. In the village there is a large garrison of native
troops. The mountain is of curious shape and composed of sand-
stone and other rocks apparently of volcanic formation. The
path is very steep but you are well repaid for the toil of the as-
cent by the view, which gives you a capital idea of Nubian
scenery. We returned to the steamer and went on down the
river until ten o'clock, when we halted for the night at Sihala.
We arrived at Shellah the following day, having had a very
strong head-wind all the way. We then crossed to Philae and
spent a couple of hours in re-inspecting the temples. From there
we were ferried to the island of Biggeh, where are some ruins of a
small Egyptian temple. From the summit of the rocky hill be-
hind this, a splendid view is had of Philae and a little further on
of the first cataract and its many islands, and of the hill on the
western side of the river opposite Assouan where we had previ-
ously visited some interesting rock-temples. All along the west-
ern bank were great hilly ranges of yellow sand. The scenery of
the first cataract is weird and strange, but not nearly so much so
as that of the second. We returned to the steamer late in the
afternoon, and left the next morning for Assouan by a road
which for the most part follows the bank of the cataracts. On
arriving we at once boarded the " Rameses," a steamer a little
smaller but of the same general style as' the " Rameses the Great,"
212 ACTUAL AFRICA.
and with a full complement of passengers, viz. seventy-five. We
remained all day in Assouan, busy revisiting many places and ob-
jects seen on our upward passage, and left at daylight for Luxor,
where we arrived early in the evening, and afterwards visited the
temple of Luxor by bright starlight and were much impressed by
the grandeur of the rows of great lotus-headed pillars. In the
morning I rode out to Karnak on camel-back and spent two hours
re-examining the ruins. I was more impressed by the magnitude
of the grand hall, but found the pillars, as upon my previous
visit, much too close to properly estimate and appreciate their
massive proportions. We left Luxor at noon for Keneh, where
we arrived four hours later, and took donkeys across the plain
about a mile to the town. Keneh is noted for its manufacture of
porous jugs and filtering bottles, for its dates, and its dancing
girls. Its bazaars are large though not specially interesting. We
remained but an hour, and then went on down the river to Disneh,
where we moored for the night. Soon after leaving the port of
Keneh we had a distinct view of the distant temple of Denderah
on the western plain. This majestic monument we had explored
on our upward journey and only regretted that the steamer did
not allow us a second call.
The next morning early we were at Bellianeh, the port of Aby-
dos, which is seven miles in the interior. Donkeys were in waiting,
and immediately after breakfast we started. The road led across
an enormous plain covered with wheat, barley, beans and lentils.
The ruins at Abydos consist of the temples of Seti I., and Eameses
II., and of the Necropolis. The temple of Seti is alone of any
great interest. Great heaps of rubbish lie all about it and are
higher than its walls. It is built of a fine, white, calcareous stone,
and is renowned for its splendid bas-reliefs and highly-finished
hieroglyphics. The stones of the roof are of great size, laid on
edge, and then having an arch cut through them. It is the only
roof of the kind in Egypt. In the general appearance of this
temple one is strongly reminded of that at Mediuet-Haboo. The
portico contains twenty-four columns, and has seven doors which
lead into the great hall of thirty-six columns. This hall again
leads into seven parallel sanctuaries. There are also a number of
small halls and chambers connected by corridors. The walls of
the sanctuaries are very delicately sculptured and most brilliantly
colored — all is in marvellously good preservation. In one room is
the famous Tablet of Abydos, which gives the names of seventy-six
IN LOWER NUBIA. 213
kings of Egypt, beginning with Menes and ending with Seti I.
The Necropolis is near by — vast heaps of rubbish, masses of graves
one upon another, in historic strata. Abydos was one of the most
renowned cities of ancient times and was famous as the chief seat
of worship of Osiris in Upper Egypt. We lunched in the great
temple and, returning to the steamer by the middle of the after-
noon, went on to Souhag, a village on the west bank, at which we
spent the night. We reached Assiout the next day at noon, the
following night were at Maghargha, and arrived at Cairo at four
in the afternoon of the day after, February 11th, thus completing
a Nile tour of a month — one of the most instructive, fascinating
and delightful journeys I ever made.
CHAPTER XXIV.
MAURITIUS AND MADAGASCAR.
I went from Cairo to Alexandria and then to Constantinople,
whence I paid a visit to Eussian Turkestan, returning to Con-
stantinople and Alexandria after an absence of five months. This
was a detour incidental to my main journey, thus spending in a
salubrious part of Asia the months in which it would be unsafe or
disadvantageous to travel in tropical Africa. From Alexandria I
took a little Eussian boat around to Port Said, my object being to
try and find a steamer going thence to Mauritius, for since this
island is usually regarded as belonging to Africa, I had determined
to see it, as well as Madagascar, in my projected circumnavigation
of the continent, and this for climatic reasons was the best place
to visit next. I found, however, at Port Said that I had missed by
a week a French mail steamer of the Messageries Maritimes run-
ning monthly from Marseilles to Aden, and Mahe in the Seychelles
islands, whence there was a connecting steamer to Mauritius. I
also learned that by waiting a few days a choice of routes still re-
mained open to me : either to go direct in French steamer by way
of Aden, Zanzibar and Madagascar to Mauritius, or in English
steamer to Colombo in Ceylon, where I could change to another
vessel for Mauritius. The latter though a considerably longer
route would, by reason of but a single stop and greater speed of
one of the steamers, bring me to my destination one day earlier
than by the French course. I therefore accepted this plan, being
also not unwilling to see again Ceylon, an island which I had
visited twenty years before. From Port Said to Mauritius by the
way of Colombo the steaming distance is 5,640 miles and the least
time required twenty-four days. I left Port Said on July 14th in
a splendid large steamer of the Orient Line. This vessel after
calling at Colombo would go on to Australia — to Albany, Ade-
laide, Melbourne and Sydney.
Suez looked rather pretty from the southern entrance of the
214
The Summit of Peter Botte.
MAURITIUS AND MADAGASCAR. 215
Canal, but its glories have departed and its rival, Port Said, now
contains double its population. We had fresh breezes in the Red
Sea, but so hot was it — the thermometer ranging from 92° to 98°
— that we wer only comfortable when upon deck, and on the
windward side of the vessel. I arrived at Colombo on the 25th,
and left for Mauritius on the 30th, in the British India Company's
steamer " Wardha," 3,000 tons burden, duly arriving on August
8th. As there would have been little or nothing to describe on
my projected voyage from Port Said to Mauritius by way of Aden
and the Seychelles, I have for convenience marked my route on
the Map, accompanying this narrative, as continuous between these
points.
As we approached the island of Mauritius from the north the
promiuent objects were the famous peak of Peter Botte, with its
curious cylindrical boulder poised aloft, and another peak in the
same range, called very appropriately La Pouce, from its striking
resemblance to a gigantic thumb. The harbor of Port Louis, the
capital, is long and narrow, with a good depth of water. Upon
either side as you enter are sunken forts mounting heavy modern
guns. The town lies upon land gently sloping backwards to the
hills, but so little above the sea and so thickly dotted with trees
that it does not show to advantage from the harbor. It contains
some 60,000 inhabitants — French and English. These do not
mingle, and though Mauritius has been a British dependency for
over eighty years the island is full of people who cannot speak a
word of English, and who preserve their own laws, habits and
usages. Behind the town, on a prominent knoll, stands a strong
citadel. The higher hill to the right is used as a signal-station.
You land upon the stone jetty, and see across a plaza a bronze
statue of one of the earlier French governors and beyond, through
a little park full of curious tropical trees, the government-house,
a plain stucco-covered building, with many broad verandahs. The
streets are macadamised. The houses are mostly but one story in
height and are built of stone or wood.
Mauritius was called by the French Isle de France. It is situ-
ated about 20° south of the Equator, and 450 miles east of Mada-
gascar. It is some 39 miles long and 34 broad, and its highest
point is but 2,600 feet above sea-level. I had been told that the
scenery of Mauritius surpassed in beauty that of Tahiti, in the
South Pacific, but failed to discover the slightest resemblance be-
tween the two. The greater part of Mauritius is plain, or smoothly-
216 ACTUAL AFRICA.
rolling country, with here and there precipitous cones and ridges
of volcanic formation. Once it was covered with forest but now
you see scarcely a tree, and save in Port Louis, firewood is very
dear. The island is in fact simply a great sugar plantation, 100,-
000 acres being under culture. The staple article of export is un-
refined sugar. Others are hemp, aloe and similar fibres, vanilla,
cocoanut oil, rum, drugs and caoutchouc. The soil is very fertile
and besides these exports, rice, coffee, indigo, cotton and spices are
cultivated. There are altogether about a hundred sugar estates,
upon which nearly sixty thousand laborers, mostly immigrants
from India, are employed. There is a large trade with India and
Great Britain. Mauritius is said to be the most thickly peopled
country in the world, having 534 to the square mile — Belgium has
470, China 300. The population was given me as 375,000 — over
two-thirds of whom were from India (mostly Hindoos), Africans,
Chinese, Malagasies, mixed races and whites. One-third of the
inhabitants are engaged in agricultural pursuits. As to seasons,
the climate is cool and genial from May to October ; warm the
remainder of the year. Hot during January to March. Being a
British colony one expects to find good means of communication,
and is not disappointed. There are 367 miles of macadamised
roads and about 100 of railway. There are two lines of the latter,
one serving the northern and the other the southern parts of the
island. Little narrow-gauge roads from sugar-estates connect with
these. There is also a complete system of telegraphs. The stand-
ard coin is the Indian rupee, about 50 cents. The government of
Mauritius and its dependencies (small archipelagoes in the con-
tiguous or neighboring Indian Ocean) is vested in a Governor aided
by an Executive Council. There is also a Council of Government
consisting of the Governor and twenty-seven members. Ten of
these members are elected under a moderate franchise, one for
each of the districts into which the colony is divided and two
for the capital. The Governor has a salary of 50,000 rupees per
annum.
Mauritius is widely known for the terrific hurricanes which
periodically visit it, and I had arrived only a few months after the
greatest ever experienced. Quite one-third of Port Louis was ut-
terly destroyed, stone edifices seeming to fare as badly as wooden
ones. The total number of houses blown down, or more or less
damaged, amounted to 1,450. In the capital and island 1,200 peo-
ple were killed, and one-half of the sugar crop was destroyed. The
Cliauarel F'alls, Mauritius.
MAURITIUS AND MADAGASCAR. 217
greatest velocity which the wind attained was 120 miles an hour !
The estimated loss caused by this hurricane amounted to 18,000,-
000 rupees. One of the first things that struck me when walk-
ing through the streets was the great number of people wearing
mourning. These Mauritius hurricanes invariably occur on the
inner borders of the southeast trade wind and northwest monsoon,
and are supposed to be the meeting of those two opposite currents
of air, under the influence of solar heat and the earth's diurnal
motion. Their range is from 6° to 30° south latitude. The sea-
son lasts from November to April. The average number of hurri-
canes in a 37ear is eight. The most of them observed in the south-
ern Indian Ocean in any one month has been, during the years
1848-1885 — 71 in January. In August and September there were
during the same period none, and in July two. Of the hurricanes
which at various times have devastated this island, those of 1771,
1773, 1861, 1868, and 1879 were especially violent. That of 1771
raged uninterruptedly for eighteen hours and completely destroyed
the harvest; that of 1773 threw down three hundred houses in Port
Louis and devastated all the neighboring plantations ; that of 1861
lasted six days, and was accompanied with an extraordinary fall of
rain ; that of 1868 raged during three days ; and that of 1879 lasted
two days during which the wind acquired an occasional velocity of
100 miles per hour. The island was not visited by a hurricane
from 1879 till 1892, a period of thirteen years.
During my stay of a week, I visited all parts of the island.
Distant about an hour from Port Louis to the northeast are the
observatory and the famous gardens of Pamplemousses. The ob-
servatory is very well equipped, and is constantly engaged in mete-
orological work. The gardens, once among the finest in the world,
are a sad wreck and will never recuperate. The hurricane of 1892
has completely destroyed all the splendid trees and plants. To the
south of the capital in nearly the southern centre of the island is
the little town of Curepipe, 1,800 feet above the sea. This may be
called the sanitorium of Mauritius, for the climate is moderately
cool and you need two blankets every night. The greater part of
the troops are garrisoned here. The only hotel in the island wor-
thy of the name is in Curepipe. There is a neat little park, where
the English regimental band plays once a week, and there is an
old extinct crater to which a short walk may be taken, while a
drive of less than an hour will carry you to Tamarind Falls, one of
the prettiest bits of scenery in the island.
16
218 ACTUAL AFRICA.
I wished next to visit Keunion, or Bourbon, 135 miles from
Mauritius, but as this could only be done after undergoing a quar-
antine of fifteen days, I decided to pass on to Madagascar. Ke-
union has belonged to France since 1764. Its scenery was de-
scribed to me as bolder and grander than that of Mauritius, as it
has an extinct volcano 10,000 feet high and an active one over
7,000. Otherwise Bourbon is similar in many i"espects to the other
island. It has a population of 165,000, of whom 120,000 are Cre-
oles, the remainder being Hindoos, Africans, Malagasies and Chi-
nese. Saint Denis is the capital, with a population of 40,000. It
is 360 miles distant from Tamatave in Madagascar. The franchise
was given to the former slaves in 1870. Maize, rice, wheat, beans
and various vegetables are cultivated. Horses, mules, oxen, sheep,
and goats are raised. The exports are sugar, coffee, and vanilla.
There are eighty miles of narrow-gauge railway. On August 18th
I left Port Louis for Tamatave in the " Garth Castle," a fine
steamer of 3,000 tons burden, belonging to the well-known Castle
Line of Liverpool. The distance is five hundred miles, which we
made in forty hours.
At daylight I went on deck to get my first glimpse of the great
island of Madagascar — several ranges of mountains, the one rising
behind the other with smoothly flowing lines, and covered with
trees and grass. In the foreground were low undulating hills
overspread with scrub, and sloping down to the sea a great broad
beach of yellow sand. A vast plain studded more or less with hil-
locks seemed to extend from the water away north and south as
far as the eye could see. The distant mountains appeared steep,
but with flat smooth ridges ; nothing of a volcanic character was
anywhere noticeable. As we drew rapidly in the town of Tama-
tave, half concealed by trees, became visible on a flat point of sand
which jutted from the shore towards the southeast. The harbor
or roadstead is to the north of this peninsula and is partially pro-
tected by a semi-circular coral reef, with a deep opening, perhaps
half a mile in width, through which the ships and steamers safely
pass. In this harbor were anchored a little native gun-boat and
three or four coasting-smacks. The appearance of the town from
our anchorage was very pretty, the different colored wooden shops,
cottages and warehouses, shaded by cocoanut palms, mango, orange,
pandanus, bamboo, and umbrella trees, with the long lines of
breaking, foaming surf contributing to the general effect. A few
church towers and steeples, and a dozen flag-staffs of foreign con-
MAURITIUS AND MADAGASCAR. 219
sulates diversified the long level of verdure. At the land extremity
of the peninsula is a large native town, and here stands an old dis-
mantled stone fort. Back of the beach here was a great fringe of
scrubby trees and beyond this beautiful soft meadows and culti-
vated land extending to the hills. Boats manned by the negro-
like inhabitants of the east coast came off to us, a bargain was
soon struck and I went ashore. There was no pratique on board
the steamer, nor any inspection upon the shore. There was no
pier or proper landing-stage, so I ran the boat upon the beach and
was carried ashore upon men's shoulders. But such a crowd as
was assembled to carry my baggage ! They were colored boys and
men, some of the negro type with curly, woolly hair — these were
Betsimisarakas ; and others with straight hair and Malay features
— these were Hovas. All were dressed in straw hats and great
white cotton sheets, which they wore very gracefully like Roman
togas. Their legs and feet were bare. Laughing, skylarking and
good-humoredly fighting, showing great rows of splendid white
teeth, at last about twenty of them succeeded in getting jwssession
of my " traps " and followed by twenty more of their friends
started for the principal street, which extends along the centre of
the peninsula. It is perhaps twenty feet in width, filled with deep
sand, without sidewalk but with a little narrow-gauge track upon
which merchandise trucks are pushed from warehouse to harbor.
This street is lined with one and two-story wooden houses, the
offices, dwellings and warehouses of the European merchants —
there are about twenty in Tamatave — and with the foreign and
native retail shops. The houses were half concealed by the rich
tropical vegetation and were always surrounded by pretty little
flower gardens. The street was full of natives, some passing on
foot, but the most squatting by the roadside and waiting for jobs,
which apparently they hoped would not come. Occasionally I
would meet a European merchant riding by in his filanzana, or
palanquin, his bearers going at a jog trot, and chattering and
laughing joyfully among themselves. There is no hotel in Tama-
tave, and I considered myself fortunate in having a letter of intro-
duction to an old resident, the Vice-Consul of my government,
R. M. Whitney, who kindly took me in, cared for me during my
brief stay, and carefully fitted me out for the journey to the capi-
tal. Mr. Whitney had been many years in Madagascar and was
one of the oldest established merchants and most popular of citi-
zens of Tamatave. I was greatly grieved to learn that only a few
220 ACTUAL AFRICA.
months after my visit he succumbed, comparatively a young man,
to a sharp attack of the dangerous Malagasy fever.
There is no provision for lighting the narrow streets of Tama-
tave ; at night people carry lanterns and the better class ride in
the filanzanas. This is the universal carriage of Madagascar.
Each man keeps his own, together with four bearers whom he pays
about ten francs each per month and supplies with food. There
are no proper wheeled vehicles in the island and but very few
horses. The roads in the interior are mere trails and often too
steep and bad for a horse or even a mule. The filanzana consists
of two strong but slender poles, about eight feet in length, fastened
together by two iron rods. Secured to other iron rods in the cen-
tre is a sort of chair made of heavy canvas. Before this is a narrow
flat piece of wood suspended by ropes from the poles and used as a
foot-rest. The poles are borne on the shoulders of four men, two
in front and two behind, who lock arms and keep step. They
carry you at a brisk walk or a trot. These bearers are stout, lusty
young fellows. You may generally recognize them by large cal-
losities upon both shoulders and collar-bone produced by the poles
of the filanzana which rest there. When changing bearers they
allow the poles and your weight to fall upon them in a manner you
would think might fracture a bone. The motion is of course easy
and agreeable over level ground but in hilly tracks you are natu-
rally much tossed about. Some find the filanzana on long journeys
very tiresome, since its construction admits of but little change of
position, but such was not my experience. Those used by women
are sometimes made a little larger, and have a light canopy as pro-
tection from sun and shower, but men generally trust to their large
pith hats for the former and an umbrella for the latter.
Tamatave is in latitude about 18° south. Its total population
is 7,000 souls. Of this number about 200 are Europeans and there
are perhaps 1,000 Creoles. There is a French Resident — Madagas-
car being now a protectorate of France — and a Hova governor.
The latter lives in the fort, in a small house built upon the walls.
I called there, and found him a dignified and courteous gentleman,
speaking English fairly well. There are in Tamatave many Hovas
though the greater part of the population are Betsimisarakas. In
general the men are short, thick-set and muscular, with scanty
beards. Their color is light-brown and their skin smooth and
satiny. Their hair is jet-black and bushy. The women dress
their hair in a very elaborate manner, one performing this service
MAURITIUS AND MADAGASCAR. 221
for another. The hair seems to be parted into many small sections,
which are separately braided, coiled and combined. It is dressed with
cocoanut oil and is arranged but once a week. The men wear usu-
ally only the great white cloth toga ; the women very high-waisted
gowns of bright-colored calico. Both sexes go barefoot, the women
without head covering, and the men with large yellowish straw hats,
with black ribbons, which much resemble the Panama product,
being very neatly plaited out of fine straw. Some of the girls are
quite slender and comely, but too early marriages and improper
sanitary precautions soon change this to plainness and corpulency.
Both Hovas and Betsimisarakas are a smiling, rollicking, amiable
set of people. The native town of Tamatave consists of two or
three long streets of huts, built in the level sandy plain. The
streets are crooked and not more than six or eight feet in width.
The houses are all of one story, small and oblong in shape, with
peaked roofs and generally with but one opening, the door. The
floor is usually raised a few inches above the ground and covered
with matting. The walls or sides are made of the split ribs of the
traveller's palm and the roofs of the leaves of the same useful tree.
There is but one room, which must be used for every purpose and
be occupied by both sexes and several generations. Many of the
huts are native hotels, where the merchants from the interior and
the bearers of produce stay when in town. They can be easily rec-
ognised by the presence of many bottles and a large cask of rum
standing near the door. These people are excessively fond of
spirits but it is remarkable that you scarcely ever see a drunken
man in public streets or places. In front of many of the huts are
displays of vegetables, meats and fruits, and occasionally a small
general stock of miscellaneous manufactured goods. The houses,
being built of palm ribs and leaves and filled with grass mats, are
as dry as tinder. A considerable fire once started and aided by a
strong wind would certainly burn the whole town. The native
method of fighting a fire is by tearing down the huts and throw-
ing sand upon the burning embers.
CHAPTER XXV.
DOWN THE COAST.
For a journey to the capital, distant about 215 miles from
Tamatave by the travelled trail (though only 118 from point to
point), which first follows the coast towards the south for some 72
miles and then when about opposite, proceeds nearly due west —
it is necessary to engage a double set of filanzana bearers or eight
men, the one set alternating work with the other ; to take pro-
visions, cooking utensils, camp-bed and bedding, mosquito-netting
and folding chair ; also bearers for these and for one's personal
effects, since everything for the interior must be carried upon poles
resting upon men's shoulders. The journey up is an affair of
about a week of ordinary travelling, though it has been made, with
frequent relays of bearers, in four days, and special government
runners have covered it in three. Coming down to Tamatave the
ordinary journey is uniformly two or three days less. There are
no established posting men or stations ; it is a matter of individual
contract. In the villages travellers generally select the best hut
and its occupants temporarily move out for their accommodation,
receiving a small fee therefor.
On August 24th at 9 a. m. I left Tamatave for Antananarivo.
My preparations, thanks to Mr. Whitney's knowledge and kind-
ness, were quickly effected. I had eight bearers for my filanzana
and six for my luggage, which was packed in small tin boxes.
Two men will carry suspended from a stout pole of bamboo about
120 pounds weight. When one man bears a burden he divides it
if possible into equal portions, which he carries at the ends of
a shorter piece of bamboo than that used by two men. I took
a generous supply of provisions, mostly in a condensed or else
canned form, besides the special camp articles mentioned above.
All these things, save only the chair, were packed in tin boxes
and all were further protected by covers of tarred cloth. The
DOWN THE COAST. 223
money current in Tamatave is French coin, gold, silver and cop-
per, but for the journey to Antananarivo what is called "cut
money " is employed, and in fact only this sort is current in the
capital and generally in the interior of the island. Five-franc
silver coins are cut up into irregular-shaped pieces — the largest
being of about the value of a franc and the smallest of one-half of
an American cent. With such a small coin as the latter naturally
it is not necessary to cut up copper coins. These " cut " pieces
pass only by weight among dealers, every native merchant keeping
a little pair of metal scales. The maromitas or bearers receive
about fifty cents each per day. Then I had a captain or head
man who was to walk at my side, carrying my umbrella, macin-
tosh, a water-jug and other necessaries, ready for instant use. Of
course none of my men could speak anything but Malagasy, but
this language is so easy that with the help of a phrase-book and
the frequent correction of my pronunciation by my chief, I soon
could make my most urgent wants known. My men were a mus-
cular set of young fellows, very good-natured, and always laughing
and chatting among themselves when on the road. They were
rather scantily dressed, having on only a loin cloth and two shirts,
the outer being sleeveless, made of coarse sacking like a gunny-
bag, and colored and striped like the uniform of a prison-gang.
Their legs and feet were bare, but they all wore straw hats, no
two being of the same pattern or same kind of straw, or bear-
ing the same color of ribbon. They carried an extra shirt in a
pocket curiously placed on the back of their gunny-bags "between
the shoulders. The filanzana bearers are rather disposed to look
down upon the baggage bearers, who, however, when accompanying
travellers, receive the same wages as the others. On the road your
bearers will carry you on good ground four or five miles an hour.
They keep step two by two, but not four by four. One takes hold
with his disengaged hand of the engaged wrist of the other and
this secures their movement in unison. With eight bearers, four
walk a little ahead and relieve the others at intervals of two or
three minutes. In this respect of frequent change they differ
greatly from the palanquin bearers of India who do not alternate
until one set is quite tired. The bearers change without slacken-
ing speed, even when going down a steep hill at a brisk trot or
while in the middle of a river, and if well done, you scarcely feel
it, but when on a long march they are not over particular and you
generally receive a decided jar every time a relay comes in. When
224 ACTUAL AFRICA.
changing, the new men duck under the poles and the others simply
slide away at the ends. The bearers occasionally run with you,
but only for short distances, and as a sort of rest for themselves.
Over a fairly good road I prefer the filanzana to the horse, since
you have no animal to watch and no fear of a spill, and thus are
more at liberty to observe the country and the people. Tamatave
is considered a healthy place for Europeans during the winter
months, and a foreigner should always if possible enter the country
at that time. All the seaboard of the island is permeated with
miasma during the wet season. Besides, to say nothing of discom-
fort, the rains are so heavy and continuous it is almost impossible
to enter the interior at that time. August, September and Octo-
ber are perhaps the best months for travel, and this was the time
of year during which my visit was made. I found the days bright
and warm, almost too warm in the middle of the day on the coast
and low-lying plains, but the nights were always cool and com-
fortable, and necessitated the use of one or two blankets.
The road follows at first the line of the seacoast, from which
you are never more than half a mile distant, and constantly in hear-
ing of the heavy surf produced by the southeast trade winds beat-
ing upon the broad beach. For some three or four miles inland, as
far as Adevoranty, or seventy-two miles along the coast, the plain
consists of sand which has been heaped up in great billows and is
covered with scanty pasture or scrubby trees and low bush, except
in parts where you pass through genuine woods or forests. The
rivers coming down from the hills have been stopped in their
courses and great lakes or lagoons have thus been formed along
the coast. It is said that some four hundred miles of inland navi-
gation by boats is thus afforded, the occasional obstructions of land
being few and unimportant. The track which I followed ran
along these great sandbanks of islands between the sea and the la-
goons. I met many natives coming in to Tamatave, the men in
plain white togas, the women in gay gowns. There was great dig-
nity as well as grace in their gait and manner. All carried um-
brellas. Many coolies bearing the products of the country also
jogged along. A large number bore the hides of cattle, four of
which seemed to be considered a sufficient load for one man. All
these coolies carried a short spear with a slender staff and iron
head, which, being also shod with a sharp iron prong, served as
a sort of alpenstock as well as weapon. Several men bore old-
fashioned flint-lock muskets. I will spare the reader the names of
DOWN THE COAST. 225
most of the villages at which I stopped, since they are all of ex-
traordinary length and nearly unpronounceable. A Malagasy how-
ever will pronounce a word with twenty-seven letters as quickly
and glibly as we would one with five. The geographical nomen-
clature of the island embraces a great number of these many-sylla-
bled words, but in the conversational language are very many
words of one syllable and but few letters.
About two hours from Tamatave — distances in Madagascar are
reckoned by hours' or days' travel, never by miles — I reached the
Ivondrona river, a swiftly-flowing and tolerably deep stream some
three or four hundred feet in width. This we crossed in a dug-out
canoe about forty feet in length, four feet wide and three feet deep.
The wood tapered to about an inch at the gunwales ; the ends were
sharp. Though these canoes are as round as a barrel, they are
left so thick at the bottoms as to be quite stiff when loaded. All
my men, with the iilanzana and baggage, and a couple of boatmen
sitting on the low seats, crossed to the shore further down the
river. Eight men worked our passage with short paddles having
wide blades and a cross-stick for handle at the opposite end. The
paddle is grasped in both hands, one on the shank and the other
on the cross-piece, so that thus the men can easily push and pull.
One stands in the bow and continually sounds with a long pole
and another sits in the stern and steers. The men sang several
songs to which they kept time by striking their paddles against
the side of the canoe. The music was soft and melodious, at times
lively, and again plaintive. The time would change with the
rapidity of the paddling. The voices though light were in good
accord. One man generally sang the air and the others kept up
an almost continuous accompaniment, somewhat like our part-
songs. It was much more than a chorus, though there was a con-
siderable repetition. I afterwards frequently heard the same and
similar songs in the villages of the interior, and always with de-
light. For this canoe voyage and incidental music I did not
grudge the sum demanded, viz. half a franc. I stopped for lunch
at a little village consisting of but a single street through which
the highway passes, as is the custom in Persia and Turkestan. For
the use of a house during the two hours' noon halt I had to pay
half a franc and for a night's rest about a franc. The natives
would generally sell me chickens and eggs, and firewood to boil
my coffee, make soup, etc. In some of the larger villages I could
buy beef and cooked manioc, in others small fish and sometimes
226 ACTUAL AFRICA.
milk. During the first day's travel I saw a great many herds of
cattle — large, long-legged and long-tailed beasts, many of them
plain black in color and others curiously mottled. The long
horns of these cattle gracefully curve forwards. They have a curi-
ous large conical hump upon the middle of the fore-shoulders and
a long pendulous under neck which flaps when they move. The
Madagascar beef is very good and being plentiful and cheap no
doubt greatly contributes to the plump, strong and healthy condi-
tion of the Malagasy. My bearers had enormous appetites. The
first day at breakfast I was much amused, as well as surprised, to
see two of them consume a huge platter of rice and beef, accom-
panied by a great bowl of melted fat, which I had supposed was
to serve for my eight men. They sat cross-legged upon the floor
of the hut and ate from the same two dishes with large wooden
spoons. They were accustomed to have two meals a day ; the first,
consisting of a portion of boiled manioc packed in a piece of
banana leaf, which they always begged me to buy them in the
first village through which we might pass in the early mornings,
could only have served them as a " whet " for their midday break-
fast. The eight packages of manioc cost but half a franc. And
to keep my men friendly disposed to the route and to myself I
was in the habit of giving them — fourteen persons all told — every
night a grand total of ten cents, which was always received with
profound salaams and benedictions, and I suppose went likewise
for a general supply of the inevitable manioc.
During the afternoon our route lay along the sea-shore and we
traversed its soft sand for a long distance. The beach is here very
steep, saving a narrow strip adjoining the land, which is thus
gradually being heaped up by the constant trade-winds. I passed
the night in the village of Ampanirano, about thirty-five miles
from Tamatave. These native towns through which you pass con-
sist generally of but one long tortuous street from ten to twenty
feet in width, lined by palm-thatched-and-sided houses which are
of a dull brown color, and whose gable ends nearly touch. You
will pass geese, fowls, pigs and dogs and see people squatting be-
fore their houses, the women generally engaged in dressing each
other's hair and the men busy with gossip or looking up and down
the street. The proportion of old men and women seems quite
large. Through the small doors of the huts you see women either
weaving upon primitive looms, or else engaged in some domestic
operation. In front of some of the huts, under little verandahs
DOWN THE COAST. 227
made by continuing the roof beyond the eaves, are small shops of
meat, fish and fruit, or perhaps some cooked food. Other huts
will have their little store of goods just within their doorways.
There are small fenced enclosures about each village for raising
vegetables or herding cattle. In the immediate neighborhood are
cemeteries placed always upon a ridge shaded by a few trees,
each family plot being surrounded by rough palisading and the
graves marked with tall rough-hewn blocks of stone. The fences
most in vogue for other purposes are simple limbs of trees placed
near together and often half of them sprouting vigorously. The
hut where I passed my first night was a typical one. It was
slightly oblong in shape, the walls being about ten feet high and
the length perhaps twenty-five feet, with a width of twenty. To
the ridge-pole it must have been thirty feet. The whole house,
excepting the light frame, was made of different parts of the
traveller's palm, and there was not a nail in it. The floor was raised
a couple of feet above the ground, and upon a layer of split palm
ribs was a covering of nicely woven mats, sewed together, and the
walls were similarly lined. This hut was of but one story and all
was open within to the peak of the roof and showed very clever
and neat arrangement and fastening of the palm-leaf roof. There
were two doors near one end, one directly opposite the other to
insure a draught of air, in which the people like to squat or recline
during the heat of the day. There were no windows and no ar-
rangement for allowing the smoke to escape. A large space in
one corner was taken up by the fire-place — a square box filled with
sand and containing a number of conical stones for supporting
pans and kettles, fires for cooking being kindled beneath them.
A framework of split bamboos, a few feet above it, contained the
few cooking utensils used, and a neighboring shelf the quite as
little crockery and earthenware. Leaning against the framework
which is over the fire-place stand several pieces of bamboo perhaps
six feet in length and three or four inches in diameter. The
joints of these save the bottom one have been bored out, and a
wood or metal stopper has been inserted at the top. They are
used as water jars. The mouth is shaped like that of a pitcher
and I found it required some practice to pour from them — first you
did not have enough water and then of a sudden you had a deluge.
Besides holding them in the middle it is always difficult to hit the
mouth of a tumbler. Nevertheless they keep the water sweet and
fresh, and comparatively cool. People travel with these poles as we
228 ACTUAL AFRICA.
do with a convenient " cooler " or " filterer." Extra mats and
straw pillows for use at night were suspended from various parts
of the walls. A straw-covered stool stood at one side, but there
was neither chair nor table. I did however afterwards see reclin-
ing-chairs, covered with straw matting, and a bed like a small table,
but I imagine these were innovations intended to gratify the taste
of foreign visitors. In addition to the above-mentioned furniture
there is usually a wooden mortar in which the women pound their
rice with a large wooden pestle. I suspect that the people who va-
cated this house for my accommodation took little with them save
some extra clothing and their supply of food. I have been describ-
ing one of the best houses in a village ; the majority are smaller
and more shabby. Flies and mosquitoes abound in the native huts
at most seasons. Chickens, dogs, lizards, rats, mice, scorpions, and
spiders the size of a teacup, are also regular visitors. At night light
doors made of the central rib of the palm leaves are slid before the
two entrances. I managed to get a fair amount of sleep notwith-
standing the intrusion of my uninvited guests. There are many
houses in each village set apart for the sole use of the merchandise-
carrying coolies who travel between Tamatave and the capital.
The owners live in adjoining huts.
I started on at six in the morning. The scenery was at first of
the character of great billows of sand, covered now with rough and
scant pasture, and now with scrubby underbrush and squat trees,
the Casuarina Pandauus, the screw pines, and the areca and other
graceful palms predominating. The vegetation seemed to improve
later on, and I especially remarked its rich deep green and very
glossy appearance. There were a few flowers noticeable, including
some very beautiful white orchids, having long spikes with a
double row of curious pitcher-shaped blossoms. The singing of
various small birds was a pleasing accompaniment to my march.
I took lunch at Vavony, and during the afternoon we were again
wading for a long distance through the deep soft sand of the sea
beach and deafened by the thunder of four or five rows of huge
billows. I had passed several small hamlets during the day and
at night reached the town of Adovoranty situated at the southern
extremity of a narrow island of sand, at which point there runs
into the sea the Iharoka river, here some 300 yards wide. Ado-
voranty being the point where all routes turn westwardly into
the interior is a place of bustle and importance. Canoes loaded
with merchandise are continually coming and going. The dis-
DOWN THE COAST. 229
tance from here to the capital as the crow flies is said to be but 70
miles, but the road is so tortuous, to avoid marshes and hills gen-
erally, and so uneven, including a gradual rise of nearly 5,000 feet
above the sea coast, that the actual distance to be covered is 143
miles. A few Frenchmen are settled in Adovoranty for business
purposes. Their houses are easily distinguished from those of the
natives by being of two stories and constructed of wood. I stopped
at the rest-house for travellers, a small building reared upon posts
some four or five feet from the ground, and consisting of but a
single room, which however was provided with a bed, table and
chairs. In the evening I took a walk through the long crooked
and sandy main street. The only light was from the open door of
the houses. Most of the shops seemed engaged in the retailing of
rum and were all supplied with laughing and singing customers.
This singing and general tattle over the town you could hear
until a late hour at night owing to the flimsy construction of the
houses.
CHAPTER XXVI.
OVER THE MOUNTAIN TERRACES.
My men woke me at 4 a.m., for we had to take a long canoe
voyage, and the wind is apt to blow rather fresh later in the morn-
ing. At the landing close beside my windows I found a dozen
great canoes busy lading merchandise and preparing to go up the
Iharoka river. We selected a suitable one for which, including the
services of two men, I had only to pay five francs, and this for a
journey of nearly five hours. My own men did the paddling. As
we started away by bright star-light, with the dark shores of the
river dimly showing, and my men breaking out into wild songs
something like those of the Georgia Jubilee Singers or the " col-
ored minstrels " at home, and racing with neighboring canoes, the
steerers exhorting their several crews to extreme exertion, I felt
as if just arrived on a wholly new planet. The banks of the river
were low and covered with large-leaved plants and delicately-fringed
reeds. After about three hours' paddling, and when the river had
narrowed to something like 100 yards, we entered a smaller one to
the right and kept on for an hour and a half, the stream scarcely
wide enough for two canoes to pass and flowing with a current of
four knots an hour. In these rivers were many fish fykes, as in
fact there were in all the lagoons that we had seen. Fish traps
consisting of great square wicker-baskets, with funnel-shaped en-
trances, are also used. Along the banks much rice, tobacco and
sugar-cane are grown. Our canoe reaching the headwaters of the
river at last grounded, and I was carried on shore on two of my
men's shoulders to a village called Maromby, built on a ridge and
part of its steep sides. The crew had sung nearly all of the canoe
journey, giving at least a dozen tunes, some fast, some slow, now
loud and dashing, now low and plaintive. I resumed the filan-
zana. The aspect of the country was wholly different. I had left
behind me the flats of the coast and found myself in a hillocky
OVER THE MOUNTAIN TERRACES. 231
region that at once reminded me of certain parts of central Brazil.
Instead of the sand of the shore I found a clayey soil covered with
rich pasture, the depressions between the hillocks being crowded
with masses of the traveller's palm (Ravenala) strongly resembling
the setting sun, of the stout, gaunt roffia (Raphia) palm, and the
graceful feathery bamboo. There was not wanting color also to the
picture. The ground was often bright red, the leaves of the trav-
eller's palm dark glossy green, the roffia purple, and the bamboo a
bright yellow. The bamboos were growing largely in separate
plants instead of the clumps usually seen, and with their very deli-
cate foliage and gracefully drooping plumes gave great beauty to
the general effect. In other places the enormous variety of plants
of totally different form on a single definite space caused one to
think the landscape-gardener had been giving aid to Dame Nature.
The country is but thinly inhabited, the villages being small and
far apart. You see but very few secluded farm houses here as in
most other lands. The people are too amiable and sociable not to
be gregarious. The track endeavors as far as possible to follow
ridges and avoid valleys, but this is quite impossible, for it holds its
way up and down steep hills in a terribly rough and washed-out
condition, and with hard clay rendered very slippery by much
travel. It does not wind or run in tangents but goes straight at
the steepest hills. My men struggle and perspire but never seem
to lose their footing. The strain upon them was intense and con-
tinuous, but only once did they ask for a few minutes' rest and put
me down. By having a plenty of curves and inclines the road
might be made available for mules or even horses, but a railway
could only be built at an enormous outlay. It would probably
have to be three times as long as the present track. None is likely
however to be built, for the Ilovas do not wish their country to be
too accessible in either times of war or peace. I travelled this day
fifteen miles in canoe and seventeen in filanzana, a total of thirty-
two, and halted for the night in a small village on the top of one
of the hills, asking the occupants of the best hut to be good enough
to turn out for my accommodation, which they were only too glad
to do — in view of an expected payment. I went to bed but not to
sleep. The chattering and jabbering and singing in the streets
and houses of a Madagascar village must be heard to be believed.
You would think every other house was a cafe chantant. If you
happen to understand the language your neighbors on every side
will cheerfully acquaint you with all the gossip and some of the
232 ACTUAL AFRICA.
scandal of the village even while you are in your closed (!) house.
One good thing may however be said for these houses, the ventila-
tion is always of the best, and plenty of fresh air is no small matter
where local odor as well as local color prevails. But joking aside,
no sleep can be had by a visitor before midnight and none after
five in the morning. The natives are accustomed to make up for
this deprivation by sleeping a part of each day.
The following morning I started at half-past six, the weather
being pleasant and not too cool. The hills were more sharp and
clearly defined, though the vegetation consisted largely as before of
the traveller's palm and grass land. The meadows became greener
and the whole country began to improve in beauty and individu-
ality. There were splendid views in every direction, especially
backwards towards the sea and upon the lower region of hillocks.
The hills now, though quite as diversified as before, yet seem to
partake of the general character of narrow parallel ranges, with
much broken ground between them. I recalled the island of Do-
minica in the West Indies in this connection. The road became
exceedingly steep, deeply gullied and full of rough stones, alter-
nating with smooth and slippery clay. It frequently ran at an
angle of 35°, and so crooked and uneven was it that I do not be-
lieve there was a straight level stretch 100 yards in length. We
passed many more beautiful clear brooks, their waters running
over pebbles and flat black and white stones, and having their sur-
face often literally covered with pretty lilies. There were also
cool pools, cascades and whirling rapids. Along the banks the
vegetation grows in astonishing luxuriance, frequently completely
arching the streams. From one of the ridges the houses of Ado-
voranty, but fifteen miles distant as the crow flies, may be dis-
tinctly seen. Descending this hill we crossed the Mahela river,
about fifty feet wide and two or three feet deep. We overtook
many coolies. There was one troop of about a hundred and an-
other of fifty. They were carrying canned provisions and miscel-
laneous merchandise to the capital. Several other troops passed
us on their way down to Tamatave, either bearing hides or only
their bamboo poles and ropes. As there was not business for the
latter sort in the capital, they were going to look for imported
goods at the seaport. The shoulders of some of these men were
galled like the back of a horse under a bad saddle, while upon
others were great excrescences of flesh, all produced by their bam-
boo poles and heavy loads. But these people smiled at me quite as
OVER THE MOUNTAIN TERRACES. 233
pleasantly as the others. The traveller's palm had now altogether
disappeared and in its place were great groves of ordinary forest.
These trees were not of very large girth, but they were very tall
and almost without limb or foliage except at the extreme top. It
seemed as if there was a race between them to get up to the light
and air. The number of vines, lianas and creepers was great and
there were many saplings, but the forests were by no means so
dense as those in Brazil. Tree-ferns, orchids and parasitic plants
in plenty were seen, and the woods were pleasantly vocal with the
sweet notes of many birds. We next began to see quite extensive
valleys which were given up to rice culture, and I noticed upon the
terraces little elevated guard huts where, when the crops are ripen-
in ^, men sit to frighten off the birds. We had several showers dur-
ing the afternoon, which rendered the road like a toboggan slide,
but though there were occasional slips not a man went down. To
give an idea of the character of the surface of this region I have
only to mention that the direct distance between two villages to-
day was fifteen miles, but by the road thirty. At night we reached
a good-sized village called Ampasimbe, lying in a beautiful amphi-
theatre of green hills, some 1,600 feet above the sea. In the centre
of the plaza was a flag-staff and near it a little butcher-shop stand-
ing apart by itself. In all the villages this place of honor seems to
be given to a butcher-shop alone. The largest house in the village
was put at my disposition by its owner, a local dude with mous-
tache and short side-whiskers, and a colored jacket under his white
toga. I afterwards saw this gentleman parading the streets smok-
ing a cigar stuck in a crooked meerschaum holder. This was the
first native I had seen smoking. Many of them however chew a
powdered tobacco or sort of snuff, which they carry about their
person in a little section of bamboo. There seems to be a good
deal of fever among the inhabitants even at this the best time of
year. When I would halt natives would come to me to give them
something, and sometimes parents would bring in a little child suf-
fering from some throat or lung disease. As I always carry a small
medicine chest with me, and very seldom find it necessary to have
recourse to it myself, I was often able and very glad to help these
poor people. Dry firewood is scarce everywhere. I always had to
pay ten or fifteen cents for enough to " boil my kettle."
We went on at the usual early hour the next morning, march-
ing up and down, up and down, until we passed a depression in a
ridge — a sort of pass — which is nearly 4,000 feet high. Then we
17
234 ACTUAL AFRICA.
gradually descended till we reached a wretched little village
called Anuvoka, where I halted for rest and lunch. The road was
filled with coolie-carriers. One large box which might have been
a piano was being carried on the shoulders of twelve men, with
five more holding it back and steadying it in deep descents and
hauling in front in ascents. There were two or three men in
charge of this party. The coolies kept up a series of the most
remarkable howls and shouts and grunts that would have done
honor to a North American Indian. At times they would laugh-
ingly encourage each other and they seemed on the whole to be
having a very enjoyable time. They were large, splendidly devel-
oped men, strong and wiry, and belong to a tribe occupying a fine
plain between here and the capital. Soon after leaving this party
I heard a terrible row of men's voices some distance ahead and
upon coming out of the woods into a clearing, discovered about
fifty villagers tugging at two long ropes attached to a sort of
wooden drag which bore a great conical slab of granite intended
to serve as a monument or tomb-stone. Some three or four men
were directing this removal and twenty or thirty more were on-
lookers. The laborers were working as usual to the time and tune
of one of their lively songs, and shouting, laughing and skylark-
ing as if they were demented. They were dragging this huge
stone across the country to their cemetery. I was reminded of
the labors of the ancient Egyptians. The going on the road was
even worse than in the morning ; the mud was nearly a foot deep
in places, and the men floundered and slipped about and had to
grasp at roots and rocks to prevent going down on " all fours."
Some of the gullies were so narrow and so deep as to seem almost
like tunnels. We crossed brook after brook — they call many of
these " rivers " here — some of them upon the rough trunks of
small trees, hand-rails being sometimes, not always, provided.
Gradually the forest became less dense and the vegetation lower
and smaller. In the middle of the afternoon we passed the
frontier Hova station of Analamazaotra, a neat village situated in
a clearing of forest and surrounded by fields of bananas and
sugar-cane. We had risen again, some 1,500 feet in about seven
miles. There are now many hills and valleys covered with
pasture, but still we have to ascend and descend ridges at angles
of 35° and 40°, and so we kept on until at night I reached the vil-
lage of Ampasimpotsy. At this altitude and coming so recently
from the warm coast we find it quite cold, but the houses are of
OVER THE MOUNTAIN TERRACES. 235
the same flimsy construction as at the level of the sea, and the
people do not seem to wear any heavier clothing, though when
walking abroad early or late they generally cover their mouth with
their white winding-sheet — alias toga. They are, as I have said,
predisposed to throat and chest troubles, and hence this super-
stition of covering the mouth. I can only find quarters in a
wretched house whose roof is so threadbare that as I lie upon my
cot I can clearly trace all the constellations in the Southern Heav-
ens. As I am endeavoring to go to sleep natives are strumming
on a sort of mandolin on one side, a large party is singing on the
other, and pandemonium reigns in a drinking-saloon opposite.
Speaking however of native musical instruments, there was one
which I frequently heard and which I thought particularly soft
and sweet. It consists of a piece of bamboo with three joints, the
middle one of which has sixteen slender strips cut from its
surface and drawn taut by one or two stops arranged at such
distances as to form a sort of musical scale. The strings are
played upon with the fingers like the harp. It resembles in part
a harp and a mandolin, and the simple native melodies are well
adapted to its qualities. It is called the valiah.
During the next morning we had a fine view over the plain of
Ankay, a rolling prairie of long grass with several lines of smooth
downs. This is a great elevated plateau of sedimentary clay, nearly
two hundred miles long and from ten to twenty in breadth. To the
east was a chain of hills some five hundred feet in height, while to
the west was another perhaps two thousand feet highi We de-
scended to the large town of Moramanga, surrounded by gardens
of coffee, tea, manioc, bananas, sugar-cane and peaches. The
main street was some thirty feet in width, and many of the houses
were of wood. One of them was two-stories in height, probably
the residence of the mayor. On each side of the street were small
tents in which many Manchester goods and nicknacks were ex-
posed for sale. A suburb extended quite half a mile along our
route. We then had six miles of travel across the grassy plain, on
which were large herds of sleek-looking cattle. I met many
Hovas with their bright, pleasant, intelligent faces. Two or three
riding in filanzanas saluted me cordially. I had left behind me
the country of the Betsimisarakas, who dwell in the eastern part
of the island and was now fairly in that of the Hovas, who occupy
the central, the most fertile and salubrious section. Besides the
great leading divisions of the people — Hovas, Betsimisarakas and
236 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Sakalavas, the latter occupying the western part — they are sepa-
rated into a great many clans, which seldom intermarry. There
is said to be a total population of not over 2,500,000 — only the
census of the city of Paris — in an island the third largest in the
world, with an extreme length of 1,000 miles and a breadth of
350, and an area twice that of Great Britain and Ireland. Of the
entire number the races are estimated as follows : 1,700,000 Hovas,
500,000 Sakalavas and 300,000 Betsimisarakas. The Hovas are
the most intelligent, powerful and enterprising. They form the
governing class and have been dominant for over fifty years.
Their language is understood over a large part of the island.
They, like the rest of the inhabitants, are chiefly devoted to agri-
culture and cattle-breeding. Slavery still exists among them,
though in a sort of patriarchal form. They have an army of
20,000 men, most of whom are armed with modern rifles. I met
a battalion of these troops, marching in single file on their way
down to Tamatave. They wore no distinctive uniform and most
of them used their rifles to carry their kit at one end and their
ammunition at the other. The officers were only to be distin-
guished from the men by their drawn swords ; they had no
scabbards. Many women accompanied this troop, some of them
carrying the men's rifles.
The western part of the plain of Ankay is deeply scored with
little valleys through which run small streams. All these valleys
are terraced with rice fields. As I observed a " bird-scarer " sitting
in his little hut and knew that there he sits all day long, and day
after day, I thought that at least he had an excellent opportunity
to realise the child's desire of sitting to see the plants grow. Bice
seems to be the principal culture and production of all this region
of country. I descended from the great plain into a little valley
through which ran the Mangoro, a swiftly flowing stream about
one hundred feet wide. It rises far to the north of the latitude of
Tamatave and, flowing due south for most of its course, finally
takes a sharp turn to the eastward and enters the Indian Ocean.
I crossed it in a very narrow and cranky canoe. There is a small
village here on either bank. Again I mounted and crossed a sharp
chain of hills — part forest and part meadow-land — and then en-
tered another rough valley. At one point the trail was so pre-
cipitous, and so smooth and slippery, that my bearers could not
carry me up. The recent showers had made the tenacious clay
like glass. So I had to climb and, being without an alpenstock,
OYER THE MOUNTAIN TERRACES. 237
made two of the men pull me, as the Arabs do on the great pyra-
mid of Egypt. One of the men however slipping and falling,
came near bringing us all down to the bottom when about half
way up. We had forgotten to rope ourselves together. Some
three or four times I had also to alight and crawl along the slip-
pery logs which often serve as bridges over the brooks. One of
my filanzana bearers fell several times, and it was always the same
one. I wished to get rid of him as I would of an animal that
stumbled badly. But there was no one to take his place, so I had
to put up with him as well as go down with him. I next followed
along a small river and across a valley which was quite wide and
full of rice fields. The hills, or mountains if you like, were now
just before me, covered with verdure and beautiful in outline. I
halted for the night high up on the western side of the valley in a
Hova village called Avarati-Asobotsy. I was put in a fine wooden
house, with two rooms both of which were completely lined— ceil-
ing, walls and floor— with fine straw-matting. One room con-
tained moreover a chair and a large table. Soon after my arrival
the schoolmaster of the village, at the head of a considerable party,
called to bid me welcome and brought me a present of a basket of
luscious oranges. He spoke in English. In returning thanks —
in fluent Malagasy — I begged him to accept the gift of a small pot
of Liebig's Meat Extract together with two Bengal cigars. The
delegation withdrew overwhelmed by my graciousness. The school-
master told me the Prime Minister had some large plantations of
coffee and tea in the neighborhood. He further said he had been
taught English — he knew perhaps twenty words altogether — by the
missionaries at Antananarivo, that he had thirty-five boys and
thirty girls in his school, and that he taught reading, writing,
arithmetic, geography and history. Education is compulsory in
Madagascar wherever the influence of the central government ex-
tends. All the missionary societies — English, Norwegian and
French— at work in the capital, have high-schools and colleges.
There are also many missionaries stationed in different parts of the
island, and very many religious and other books have been trans-
lated into the native tongue. There are a number of foreign
printing-presses in Antananarivo and from them issue, in the Mala-
gasy, besides the religious, many educational and purely literary
works. The foreign and native periodicals of the capital consist
of a government gazette published at irregular intervals, three
weekly newspapers, six monthly magazines and a quarterly. The
238 ACTUAL AFRICA.
missions have had great success, though five-sixths of the Malagasy
still remain pagans. I was much amused at one old lady in this
village feeding her large brood of chickens with one hand and
with the other holding a long pole and driving away the chickens
belonging to her neighbors ! How she could distinguish her own
property from that of others, I could not guess. You see but few
dogs in Madagascar, and these are such miserable curs that their
absence is much to be preferred to +heir company.
The next day we reached the capital, but we had some very
hard climbing in getting dver the range of hills upon whose flanks
we had been travelling. The filanzana seemed often to overhang
precipices a thousand feet deep. But reaching at last the summit,
called the Angavo Pass, we plunged once more into a dense forest
and progressed over a very steep and rough road, on the whole
rapidly rising until we reached the large village of Anderamadinika
(I am glad my duty extends only to the spelling of this word), 4,620
feet high and the first village in the finest province of Madagascar
— Imerina. This portion of road was quite as bad as any yet ex-
perienced, and in addition to the four bearers it required the almost
constant pushing or holding of two other men to get me along. It
was curious with the cool air of our altitude to see the merchan-
dise-coolies jogging cheerfully along with nothing on but a breech-
cloth. There were a goodly number of these men and of other
natives travelling, the greater part on foot but a few in filanzauas.
The band of the battalion which passed us the day before went by.
They were in full undress uniform — that is to say, they were nearly
nude. A funny sight it was to see a crowd of Hova men, dressed
in white sheets as if just about to step into a bath, with large high-
crowned straw hats and with bare, chocolate-colored legs and feet.
Nor was the effect made the more sober by the large white um-
brellas they carried. Several of the women had their hair braided
in tiny strings which either were laid flat upon their heads or hung
down all around, and others had theirs frizzed into " beau catchers "
— as I believe they are termed by our more highly civilized ladies.
Both these styles of chevelure were matted with lard, so that the
general effect was somewhat marred. Many women were noticed
also whose hair was sticking out almost a foot all over the head.
They thus resemble some of the African tribes. Their hair is not
long, but very thick and jet-black. This particular method of wear-
ing the hair is a badge of mourning.
Going on we again entered a region of grassy downs, with great
&5
OVER THE MOUNTAIN TERRACES. 239
granite and gneiss rocks cropping out in every direction. One
huo-e round bare rock was of just the shape, color and character
of the great Half Dome in the Yosemite Valley, California. The
houses now became more frequent and were of better style. The
most of them seemed made of red or yellow clay bricks (un-
burned), and were two stories high. Their height indeed was
much out of proportion to their length and width. They looked
at a distance like towers. The inmates must ascend from floor to
floor by ladders. They all had sharply-pitched grass roofs, the
ridge poles being ornamented by pretty little pillars. The country
itself was now becoming more cultivated, and was divided into
small fields. A round pit used as a threshing-floor with cattle
was seen in some part of every farm. There was no fine scenery,
the hillocks still continued. I descended into a sort of large
basin in the hills and halted in the town of Manjakanduina. All
about the neighborhood were little clusters of villages, and three or
four churches were in sight. Everything seemed to indicate the
gradual approach to an important centre of society and business.
In many of the Hovas I could plainly distinguish a strong resem-
blance to the Malay family. They had the same type of features,
eyes and hair. They follow similar customs and their language is
of the same general character, though I do not remember any such
extraordinarily long words in the Malay. These words however,
which at first give the foreign visitor so much trouble, do not bother
the Hovas in the least. They seem to clip off the beginning, slur
over the middle, and omit the ending. It is a good thing perhaps
that the loug Malagasy words can be thus shortened, otherwise, as
with German, you would get quite tired waiting for the thought
or idea that a sentence might be supposed to convey.
Resuming the road after lunch I was especially surprised at the
great number of villages in sight from one point : I counted fifty
that must have been situated within a radius of six miles. The
surface of the country was all up and down as before. Away to
the south was a fine range of blue mountains, and in every other
direction nothing but hills and hills. In one large depression were
great dome-shaped hillocks of sedimentary clay, and quite a per-
fect amphitheatre which needed only its stone benches to have
come directly from Italy or Greece. The land was quite treeless,
and the few shrubs and bananas about the hamlets had a very for-
lorn look. From the crest of one of the hills I had my first view
of Antananarivo, some twenty miles away. Even at that great
240 ACTUAL AFRICA.
distance the Queen's Palace, a lofty building on the highest point
of the hill on which stands the capital, could be seen. Later I
got another view and could distinguish very well the general posi-
tion of the city. Finally there was had a view, distant some
eight miles as the crow flies, which allowed me to discern sev-
eral of the larger edifices. The scene now became more invit-
ing. The brown meadows, the cultivated fields, the threshing-
floors, the pits for fattening cattle, the red or yellow clay houses
with grass roofs a foot thick, the little roadside bazaars, the nu-
merous churches, the streams bordered by great flat rice fields, all
these kept the eye occupied and the mind interested. Whenever
I mounted the successive billows of clay I caught glimpses of the
city. It seemed built upon the top and steep sides of a short range
of hills rising almost abruptly from the downs, about the last place
one would naturally have selected for the position of a large town.
The Queen's Palace and the Prime Minister's House were the two
conspicuous buildings. The remainder of the city seemed to con-
sist of brick — both burned and unburned — and to be mostly of the
tower style already described, although there were many houses
quite in the fashion of Swiss chalets. The churches with which
the city appeared to abound were of brick and stone. And now
it became dark, and I could only discern that we passed many rice-
fields. We then entered the outskirts of the city and ascended
almost perpendicularly through its streets, some of which were
roughly paved with huge blocks of stoue. After a long circuitous
course I was at last set down by my tired bearers at the house of
Mr. J. 0. Kyder, a gentleman connected with the same firm as
Mr. Whitney, at Tamatave, who had favored me with a letter of
introduction. Mr. Kyder has been in Madagascar nearly forty
years, having been stationed at points on both the east and west
coasts, as well as in the capital. The interest and pleasure of my
visit were much enhanced by this gentleman's knowledge and kind
attentions.
CHAPTER XXVII.
ANTANANARIVO.
One of the first things that strikes a visitor to the capital of
Madagascar is the modern character of so many of the houses.
My original impression was derived largely from the work of the
missionary Ellis, who gives a wood-cut of Antananarivo in which
one recognizes the same hill hut in which the buildings are of
mud with straw roofs. The city has in fact had three eras, ex-
tending over a period of more than a century. First were the
mud huts, then a reign of wooden houses, and now all are to be
of burned brick or stone. Antananarivo lies in latitude about 19°
south and longitude 48° east. It is in marly the centre of the
great island from north to south but not in the centre from west
to east, being a little nearer to the eastern coast. It stands 4,790
feet above sea level. It is built upon the summit and steep sides
of a hill that is 500 feet above the plain and about a mile and a
half in length. The northern end branches into two arms or
spurs which gradually slope down to the plain and are covered
with houses. As for several miles around there is no eminence
of like size and elevation, the city hill is a conspicuous object. It
is of granite and basalt. The western, south and eastern sides are
especially steep, and parts of the western are even precipitous. The
country around is comparatively level, and hence the view is very
extensive and embraces hamlets, moors, cultivated fields and hills
and mountains in every direction. The prevailing color of the
plains is in the dry season red and brown, and in the wet a rich
green. To the west of the capital is the great plain of Betsimita-
tatre, which was anciently a lake but is now an immense field of
rice. The word " Antananarivo " signifies in Malagasy " city of a
thousand " and was doubtless so named when a thousand houses
were considered a very great city. The object of placing it upon
the summit of an almost inaccessible hill was in accordance with
241
242 ACTUAL AFRICA.
the ancient idea, and generally a very necessary one, of defence.
It rests, in short, upon the Acropolis of Madagascar. It is un-
walled at present. Spaces have been dug out of the surface of the
hill and on these the houses have been built. Thus you see them
a dense mass, terrace above terrace, with no regularity of arrange-
ment nor is there of the streets which wind around and about
them. So uneven is the surface of the city that you will frequently
see houses facing the road, upon which you are passing, fifty feet
above it and reached only by stone staircases. The narrow streets
are usually faced by mud walls from ten to twenty feet in height,
so that one can see into many places only from a considerable dis-
tance. In fact all except the houses of the poorest classes are en-
closed by high mud walls. I have said that the houses were nearly
all two and two and a half stories in height. This attic or upper-
most story is always used for the cooking — a good way of getting
rid of unpleasant smells and a sort of safeguard against fire. The
number of houses in Antananarivo is put at 1G,000, which would
give an average of about eight persons to a house. The city has
a peculiar reddish hue, either a natural color of the bricks or an
artificial one of the stucco covering them. There are only three
or four principal streets — the largest dividing the city east and
west — and from these branch innumerable pathways in every direc-
tion. Some of the latter are so narrow that it is as much as two
people can do to squeeze by one another. The streets are greatly
washed by the heavy rains that prevail at certain seasons, and being
for the most part unpaved, or ouly very unevenly and irregularly,
with huge undressed blocks of stone, they are very many of them
little better than great rough gulleys, and walking is consequently
of so great labor that foreigners and the better class of natives
patronise very liberally the filanzanas. Great patches of the rough
natural rock often appear as sections of pavement. Yon frequently
see prisoners, wearing heavy chains as in Siberia, passing along
the roads. These are convicts, and are employed by the govern-
ment in repairing the highways. Every portion of the city has
a special name, generally given from some feature of the topog-
raphy. The palaces and houses of the nobility occupy the summits
of the central parts, while the houses of the poorest classes are at
the northern and southern extremities and along the lower slopes
of the hill. The latter are still built of sun-dried brick. The city
is not lighted at night; those who go out generally carry lanterns.
At ten o'clock a gun is fired and no natives are permitted in the
The (ireut Palace, Antananarir
ANTANANARIVO. 243
streets after this hour ; foreigners are however not bound by this
law. There are some half dozen foreign merchants settled in An-
tananarivo and about thirty missionaries, teachers and doctors.
There is a French Eesident and staff, with a guard of seventy-five
French troops. The capital is policed at night by a sort of semi-
civil, semi-military watch, who arrest any native walking after
gun-fire. These guards are distributed all through the city in the
yards of houses from which they can overlook the roads. At
irregular intervals all through the night they keep up a long drawl-
ing cry of " Zovy f " which means literally " who ? " and which
proves a great nuisance to the nerves of sleepless strangers. The
population of Antananarivo numbers 128,000.
The next morning I started forth in a filanzana, with a native
guide, for a cursory inspection of the city. I proceeded directly
to the southern end of the hill, and then paused at the points of
special interest on the way back. The crest at the southern ex-
tremity is marked by*i small stone church, one of the first erected.
From here you look away over the rice-fields and villages of the
valley, some small lakes, and the little Ikopa river, which flows
northwesterly and empties into the Mozambique Channel at Mo-
janga, the second city of the island, with a population of some
14,000. This is nearly opposite the town of Mozambique on the
mainland of Africa. You also look down upon one of the Queen's
summer palaces, a large structure of wood standing in the centre
of a great level square, unsurrounded by trees. Turning about
and proceeding along the ridge of the city towards the north you
pass the Palace of Justice, a large wooden building with a high-
peaked roof also of wood. Next comes the great palace called
Manjakamiadana ("reigning prosperously "), an imposing edifice
of yellow stone, about 100 feet long, 60 broad and 120 high. It
has three stories, and a high pitched roof, covered with shingles, in
which appear three or four dormer-windows. At each corner is a
square turret of stone. The roof is surmounted by a great bronze
figure of the voromahery, a bird something like a falcon, and the
national emblem. The walls are ornamented by many balconies
and pretty stone pillars. This palace occupies the centre of a wall-
enclosed space perhaps 150 feet square. It may be justly called
an imposing building, though sadly out of repair and greatly in
need of a general furbishing. The chief entrance faces the north
and consists of a sort of triumphal arch. Above it is the figure of
another voromahery. The ground- floor of the palace is said to be
244 ACTUAL AFRICA.
divided into two immense rooms, where treaties are signed and
grand receptions held. The Queen and her husband, who is the
Prime Minister, live in the upper rooms, notwithstanding what is
styled the Prime Minister's Kesidence stands a short distance to
the northward and a little lower down. This palace, the second
finest native building in the city, is occupied at present by various
members of the Prime Minister's family. It is a square three-
storied brick edifice, with towers at each corner and a conical dome
in the centre. Like the great palace it also is much in need of re-
pair. Passing many three-storied dwellings of nobles and govern-
ment officials, each surrounded by high walls and a few trees, we
enter the largest public square in the capital, the intersection of
several roads. It is an open space of some six or eight acres,
which was formerly the place of public assembly and has always
been used as a coronation-ground. In the centre there is a slight
depression in which the bare blue granite comes to the surface.
This is called the " sacred stone," and standing upon this the
sovereign made his or her first public appearance on the corona-
tion day. Around the square are many fine houses, a number of
stone and brick churches, and a few shops. At one side is an open-
air bazaar, the little shops being only covered by canvas roofs.
Eeviews are sometimes held here, about 5,000 troops being garri-
soned in the city. I saw some of these native soldiers on guard at
the Queen's Palace. They were active, smart-looking young fel-
lows, uniformed in dark trousers and white jackets, with canvas
skull-caps. They were armed with Snider rifles. A little dis-
tance to the west of this square is the Rock of Ampamarinana, a
precipice 150 feet deep, over which criminals were thrown until
Avithin the last twenty-five years. Near the foot of this is a large,
level, grassy plain called Imahamasina. It contains 180 acres and
forms the Hova Champ de Mars. There is another " sacred stone "
in the centre of this parade-ground, enclosed in a circular structure
of masonry eight feet high by twelve in diameter. Standing upon
this after the coronation the sovereign is presented to the assem-
bled multitudes. South of the great square stands a curious dome-
shaped hill whose sides are deeply scored by long parallel trenches,
too straight and uniform to be made by water, too narrow and
direct to be quarries of stone. The true explanation is that these
trenches were made by one of the old kings, who had the inten-
tion of here levelling a site on which to erect a palace. North of
the Champ de Mars is a pretty little lake, partly natural, partly
ANTANANARIVO. 245
artificial. In its centre is an island upon which are summer-
houses and gardens, connected with the mainland by a long nar-
row causeway. In passing from the central square of the city to
the northern suburb, in which was the residence of my kind host,
I moved along a precipice in a paved road shaded with fine large
fig-trees, under which, lying upon the ground on a sort of old ram-
part, were some score or so of antique cannon. These bear the ini-
tials G. R., and were presented to one of the Radamas, former sov-
ereigns, by George IV. of England. They seemed quite useless.
Seeing the streets full of people all walking in the same gen-
eral direction I learned that they were going to the principal
market-place, where a great market is held every Friday, and
called from the name of the day, Zoma. The main road passing
through the market continues on to the northwest, where on a
slight elevation is situated the tomb of the Prime Minister's
family, a large, low, square building with towers and minarets.
This road then descends to the plain and runs off in the direction
of Mojanga. The street nearing the market was lined with
shops dealing in filanzanas. The hire of one of these by the day
costs, in Antananarivo, fifty cents. The market proper was held
in a large open space on the side of the hill, with a sort of annex
in a square below. In the first were rows of little grass-thatched
booths, with very narrow passages between them. These con-
tained English and American cotton goods, and domestic utensils
in small quantities but endless varieties. Here was also every sort
of native manufacture, clothing, hats, silks, furniture, mats,
earthenware, baskets, hardware, dyes, medicines, books, musical
instruments, etc., etc. Each character of article was contained in
a street or quarter by itself. In one part were great quantities of
fruit : pineapples, oranges, lemons, bananas, guavas, peanuts and
sugar-cane. In another section were the butchers, in shops singu-
larly enough without roofs, cutting up and bartering their meats
in the full glare of the sun. In one corner was the slave-market.
Slavery here is altogether domestic ; no slaves are allowed to be
imported, this by treaty made long ago with England. The slaves
were a well-appearing set of people, both physically and mentally.
In fact I could see no difference between their outward character
and conduct and that of their purchasers. About fifty of them
of both sexes and all ages were squatting in a long row against a
wall, and would-be purchasers simply stood looking at them and
asking them questions — there was no physical examination, no
246 ACTUAL AFRICA.
tests applied. Slaves are here treated very well by their owners,
often living in the same hut and eating of the same food. Some-
times they are hired out as laborers. They seemed to me a happy,
contented lot. In another part of the market the larger and more
bulky articles were exposed for sale, such as timber, fodder, fire-
wood, hides, oxen, and poultry. There were also a few sheep, but
this animal is not numerous in the island. It is easy to give an
idea of the contents of the market but of the enormous crowd of
people, of their appearance and of the babel of voices, both hu-
man and animal, it is difficult to give any adequate conception.
The natives come from all the country round about to attend
these weekly markets. There were many hundreds of booths and
stalls and from two to four persons in each, while standing before
them and surging between them, and in the open-air spots where
there were no paths, there were such crowding and pushing one
could scarcely move at all in any direction. The appearance of
so many dark faces, contrasted with the white lambas or shawls,
was very striking. You see these white figures all the day long
walking in single file in great numbers over the surrounding red-
dish plain. The market is open from dawn to dusk. To describe
it more minutely would be to simply give a catalogue of the prod-
ucts and manufactures and the imports of the country. I have
never anywhere seen a greater variety of goods exposed for sale in
a like space.
Facing the little lake of which I have spoken, in the northern
part of the city, is the French Eesidency. It is a fine large palace,
two stories in height and built, in true Versailles style, of brick
with yellow-stone trimmings. It is surrounded by barracks and
pretty gardens leading down to the placid lake. I called one day
upon the French Eesident General, M. Lacoste, with a letter of
introduction from M. Massicault, then French Eesident at Tunis.
M. Lacoste was very agreeable and offered to do anything in his
power for me, and so I accepted several letters of introduction to
French officials, including the Vice-Consul at Mojanga.
Another day I called by special invitation upon His Excellency
Eanailivony, the Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of
Madagascar. This nobleman, now about sixty years of age, is far-
and-away the ablest statesman the island has yet produced. He
is in fact the government, for though having a cabinet and many
ministers, he is the real ruler of the country. He has been Prime
Minister for thirty years, and has served under three queens. The
Native Soldie.rs.
ANTANANARIVO. 247
present Queen, who is only about thirty years old, is his wife, and
their home is, as I have said, in the Royal Palace. They have also
several residences in the suburbs, which they visit at certain seasons.
An officer was sent to conduct me to the palace gate, where I was
gravely saluted by a guard drawn up on either side. These men
all come from the eastern parts of the island and are said to make
very good soldiers. Their uniform was a picturesque sort of blouse,
made of native cloth, and short knee-breeches. Their head gear
was a curious conical straw turban. The officers had various styles
of semi-European uniform — I remarked one in bright scarlet.
The Malagasy troops are drilled by a colonel who was formerly in
the British army. Having entered the courtyard I proceeded
across the great square, passing two tombs of former kings, with
their curious pyramidal covers of wood, with my hat in hand, as
etiquette enjoins. I then arrived at a building, styled the Silver
Palace from some fanciful idea, for silver by no means enters into
its construction, either without or within, nor is it the royal treas-
ury. It is a high, peak-roofed building of brick, with columned
verandahs. Hereabouts were scores of natives who displayed great
curiosity to see who could have the honor of a visit to their
greatest official. They very gravely and respectfully saluted me.
Here I met the aide-de-camp and first secretary and interpreter of
the Prime Minister, and my guide withdrew. Walking clown a
long line of saluting officials, I was ushered into the Silver Palace,
where stood the Prime Minister, who bowed and shook hands with
me, and motioned me to enter a reception-room, a small, plainly
furnished apartment, with a large empty table in the middle and
several chairs along the walls. His Excellency waved me to a
large arm-chair at one side and himself took the seat at the head
of the table. At the opposite end of the room now entered and
sat down several secretaries, ministers and officers of the army.
The Prime Minister was short and of slight build, with small
hands and feet, but with a fine head, a high, broad and prominent
brow and bright piercing eyes. His face was close shaven ex-
cepting only a long jet-black moustache. His manner was quiet
and dignified, but he was very affable and genial, and his counte-
nance fairly beamed when interested in conversation. He was
dressed in a long tunic of striped yellow and green brocade, from
a pocket of which depended a massive gold chain and locket.
About his neck was a yellow silk handkerchief, fastened with a
great diamond and pearl brooch. I could not determine the char-
248 ACTUAL AFRICA.
acter of his trousers, if such he wore, but his feet were encased in
red silk gaiters. Upon a little table at one side lay his hat — a
curious flat and round affair of white satin. His Excellency wore
no decorations, though he possesses many which he has from
time to time received from European monarchs and govern-
ments. The remainder of our company were in plain European
civilian dress or that modified by Malagasy canons of taste and
conventionality.
After a few complimentary speeches and considerable reference
to the picturesque side of Malagasy life and landscape, the Prime
Minister was good enough to say that the United States had al-
ways been very friendly to Madagascar, a feeling which he cor-
dially reciprocated and hoped might always endure. He then
offered to do everything to facilitate my tour through the island
— I intended to cross to the west coast — and in the meantime
alluded to a summer palace of his, distant about two miles to
the north, which I could visit whenever I wished. I named the
same afternoon and he deputed his nephew, a major in the army,
his second secretary, and an aide-de-camp to escort me there and
do the honors. Our conversation lasted about twenty minutes and,
before leaving, the Prime Minister graciously acceded to my re-
quest to give me his photograph and to place his autograph upon
its back. Several servants crouched into the room bringing writ-
ing material, and with a very large heavy gold pen His Excellency,
while standing, wrote in a bold hand the name so popular through-
out Madagascar, Kanailivony. One of the officers was then directed
to add " Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of Madagascar,"
and I was rather unexpectedly invited to present my own photo-
graph in reciprocation, a compliment which I fully appreciated,
and with which I afterwards duly complied. Neither the Queen
nor the Prime Minister has ever been out of Madagascar. Upon my
telling the latter that he would find much to interest him in the
United States, he said he should like very much to go, but it was so
far and he was so busy. The Queen was described to me as a hand-
some, clever woman, who spoke English very well, having been edu-
cated at one of the missionary schools. She does not hold receptions
or audiences, and is not much seen in public. Her birthday how-
ever is observed with great ceremony, such as parades, processions,
music, ovations and fireworks. The Prime Minister impressed me
as a man of great reserve force who was quite able to hold his own
with any political intriguers. Though his power is almost absolute,
ANTANANARIVO. 249
yet it would seem that this could hardly be intrusted to abler or
more patriotic hands. After giving me his photograph His Ex-
cellency asked if he could do anything else for me, and upon my
replying he had already honored me far beyond my deserts, he
rose, shook hands cordially, and said to me laughingly " Good-bye,"
the sole English words he knew. Then shaking hands with the
principal officials, I left the Silver Palace, the Prime Minister
politely accompanying me to the door. I passed through the
crowds of gaping people, went hat in hand by the royal tombs, was
again saluted by the guard at the archway, and entering my filan-
zana, was gently wafted back to my temporary home.
I found the Prime Minister's summer-palace standing in the
midst of a great garden of mango and other fine trees peculiar to
the country, and whose names are not known to me. We passed
through a double series of high mud -brick walls and entered
upon a long broad path which had but a short hour before been
ordered swept in anticipation of my visit. At least fifty men and
women were just finishing this work, with large bundles of twigs,
as I approached the house. This proved to be a long and lofty
single-story brick building, upon whose broad verandah stood the
Prime Minister's nephew to welcome me. He was a pleasant-
looking young man, not speaking English or French, but who
had, he told me, once been connected with a diplomatic mission
that visited Paris. He did not much care for Paris, it was too
gay. I said I feared most Americans could not agree with him
there. The palace contains large high-ceilinged rooms and is
furnished throughout in elegant and appropriate European style.
I was ushered through the grand hall and the library into the
saloon, a noble room upholstered in red velvet, with velvet carpet,
large mirrors, crystal chandeliers, and many tables of rare woods,
loaded with silver ware and choice bric-a-brac. Above the mantel-
piece hung a fine water-color portrait of His Excellency in full
official dress. In his bedroom I afterwards saw another water-
color representing him in his military uniform, with breast cov-
ered with decorations. After a lively chat with the major,
through the secretary, who spoke English perfectly, champagne
and cake and cigars were served, and afterwards I was shown
through the remainder of the palace, with its fine dining and
breakfast and sitting-rooms, etc. We all then took a stroll around
the grounds, and paid particular attention to a South African
ostrich which is one of the " show sights " of the place. It was
18
250 ACTUAL AFRICA.
the largest ostrich I ever saw and at a distance, with its long neck
and small head, reminded me of a giraffe. It was moreover very
vicious. When it was not biting, it was kicking. In the grounds
is a large pond full of beautiful gold-fish. The Prime Minister
was the first to import this pretty fish into Madagascar. I was fol-
lowed everywhere by a crowd of at least a hundred retainers, whose
curiosity though respectful seemed quite insatiable. On the way
back to the city my guides halted to show me a native tomb. The
rich families generally have large stone vaults, of pyramidal shape,
above ground, upon their own premises and frequently quite near
their houses. Others seem to prefer any open spot by the wayside.
There are no general public cemeteries. I saw many large flat
slabs of granite lying by the road on the way from Tamatave to
the capital and supposed that these covered tombs, but I was
mistaken. They were instead intended in each case to be built
into vaults. These are made of great rough slabs, well fitted
together and entered by a door of a single stone, which turns upon
pivotal hinges fashioned from itself and which are very exactly
and neatly adjusted. A square chamber within contains tiers of
stone shelves upon which the bodies rest without coffins, being
simply covered and rolled in very many silk lambas or togas of the
best class. The simple vaults have a pyramidal stepped mass of
stone above them ; the others are of a like type, with columns sup-
porting flat stones and cone-shaped ornaments. My escort were
very entertaining, and only took leave of me at the gate of my
abode.
H. E. the Prim? Minister of Madagascar.
CHAPTEE XXVIII.
JOURNEY TO THE WEST COAST.
Early on the morning of September 10th I left Antananarivo
for Mojanga. My chief reason for not returning to Tamatave
was that I preferred to see new country, and the second, that I
wished to visit some gold mines worked by a Frenchman, named
Suberbie, who had a concession of a large tract about half way
between the capital and the coast. This gentleman has a house
in Antananarivo and spends much of his time there. I had the
pleasure of meeting him and he favored me with letters of intro-
duction to his manager at one place and a mining-engineer at
another. The bulk of my baggage had been left in Tamatave,
and was to be sent on by the next monthly French mail steamer
to Zanzibar, my ultimate destination. I expected to meet a like
steamer at Nosy Be, a French port and island on the northwest
coast, with which I learned I might connect by means of a small
French steamer which periodically served the principal ports on
the west coast of the island. By thus crossing Madagascar I
hoped to familiarise myself with its three great races. The Sa-
kalavas on the western portion of the island have always borne a
bad name, which they have in part merited, though high-handed
aggressions of foreigners ought often to be urged in mitigation
thereof. I was warned to keep my revolver in readiness and my
escort near at hand, and so determined to take chances of a safe
passage to the sea. The direct distance from the capital to Mo-
janga is 240 miles in a general northwest direction, though this
distance, by many deviations and changes of level, is lengthened
by the travelled route into about 311 miles. Of this latter dis-
tance some 200 miles are by land in filanzana and the remainder
by water in pirogue and dhow, or small sailboat. The total
journey may readily be accomplished in ten days. The country
through which I would have to pass was said to divide itself
251
252 ACTUAL AFRICA.
naturally into three sections : the first was similar to that east-
ward of the capital, a treeless region of moors and hills. This
was the most inhabited. It consisted of four broad terraces
which fell rapidly towards the sea. The road however leading as
it did obliquely across these terraces presented on the whole easy
gradients. Then came a section of nearly uninhabited wilderness,
wooded and undulating. The third section contained the culti-
vated hills and plains of the Sakalavas. I re-engaged for this
journey four of the filanzana bearers and the captain, Mazoto,
who had come up from Tamatave with me. This Mazoto was a
bright intelligent fellow, who besides being the chief of the men,
acted as my body-servant, and assisted me in cooking and the gen-
eral duties of vagrant housekeeping. He was born in the country,
but of Mozambique parents. His descent showed itself very
clearly in his curly hair, his features and his manner. I then
engaged four more filanzana bearers and six baggage coolies.
This made a following of fifteen persons. I took a little larger
stock of provisions, but otherwise the outfit was quite the same as
when coming to the metropolis from Tamatave. I hired my men
only as far as the land journey extended and was therefore obliged
to pay one-half more for their return, which seemed no more than
just. The bulk of this payment was arranged to be made when
they arrived in Antananarivo and I promised them each also a small
present to be earned only by faithful attention to duty and good
behavior. So that by these means I had the men pretty well
under control. And now it was necessary to call the roll of my
assembled bearers and coolies and this was no easy or quick mat-
ter, for scarcely one name was of less length than six syllables.
Biographical names in Malagasy are quite as long as geographical.
Two of the men were slaves belonging to Mr. Eyder's clerk. In
appearance they could not be distinguished from the others, and
in amiability and faithful work they proved rather superior to
them. All the names singularly enough began with the letter R.
Here are some of them : Rataimiandra, Ramahamay, Rainivelon-
andro, Rainizanakolona. The baggage was soon packed in three
parcels, and covered with tarred cloth for fear of stray showers.
These parcels then being lashed to thick bamboo poles, each
borne by two men, were sent on in advance. My filanzana stood
waiting and after a hasty, but none the less heartfelt, parting from
my kind entertainer, I " mounted " and started away north
through the deeply gullied streets of the capital, past the edge of
JOURNEY TO TEE WEST COAST. 253
the great Zoma, by the tomb of the Prime Minister's family
and down onto the great plain of Betsimitatatre, covered as far
as the eye could see with variously tinted rice fields and everywhere
traversed by large and small canals of water obtained mostly from
the Betsiboka river. The large canals are utilised by boatmen
in bringing their supplies in canoes to market. Squatting by
the banks of many of the rice fields were natives armed with
guns with which to kill the numerous birds that eat the young
growing rice.
The Betsiboka river is here about fifty feet wide in the dry sea-
son, but so high and powerful does it become in the wet season
that it has to be restrained in its bed by a huge levee of earth some
fifty feet in width. On the top of this lay our road for many miles.
The other great embankments crossing the plain were nearly cov-
ered with mud-walled dwellings. We next reached the banks of
the Ikopa, here only a muddy stream about fifty feet wide but one
of the largest rivers of Madagascar, whose general course I was now
to follow, though at some distance to the eastward, until I reached
the sea. I soon left the plain and entered upon a country similar
in general character to that found east of the capital, except that
the treeless moors were smoother and the road far better. For a
long way I enjoyed fine views of Antananarivo, sitting proudly
upon her Acropolis, and then crossing a high ridge, she was gone,
to be seen by me no more. Afterwards we passed at some distance
a great bazaar or weekly market like the Zoma of the metropolis,
being held on the top of one of the great smooth downs. The
thousands of white shrouded figures collected there were a queer
sight. I stopped to eat my lunch in a little roadside hut, and rested
upon a comfortable mattress made of palm leaf ribs and covered
with straw matting. On the wall hung a sort of fiddle, with two
strings stretched upon a small gourd. The doorway of this hut
was only three feet in height and I had almost to go on " all fours "
in order to enter. A very old decrepit woman was the only one
about, though I had noticed others in other huts. The sole occu-
pations of these poor old creatures consist in sitting in the sun
and gazing at nothing, or, while lying half asleep on a mat, in
driving chickens from the rooms with a long pole or with simple
hisses. As the doors are always wide open and the fowls always in
search of scraps of food, the crones are not idle at least when in-
side the huts. No one seems to pay any attention to these remi-
niscences of humanity and they themselves appear to wait only for
254 ACTUAL AFRICA.
reluctant nature to dissolve. Going on there were many outcrop-
pings of granite now to be seen and many curious shaped erratic
boulders. One hill looked like the round dome of an observatory,
another like an ordinary haystack. Everywhere possible rice ter-
races were placed, and there were many small cultivated fields, but
before night the country had become quite deserted, and the road
after those to which I had been accustomed was positively lone-
some. The strong pitiless wind which unobstructed sweeps these
moors added to this feeling. Travelling at this season is very try-
ing also, for as you sit so long in your filanzana you are chilled and
cold until midday, then positively roasted until about four in
the afternoon, when you again feel cold until your fire warms
you at night. You must have a fire, for although the houses
hereabouts are built of mud bricks, they are by no means
tight about doors and roofs. While I was in Antananarivo the
weather was cool and delightful morning and evening, per-
haps a trifle too warm in the middle of the day only. But
the air was always clear and bracing, and there was generally a
light breeze blowing.
Many of the hamlets were now surrounded by a deep ditch, a
huge fence of cactus and a very wide low wall. They reminded
me at once of pictures of scenes in Central Africa. The ditch
generally has some sort of drain for fear of its overflowing during
the heavy rains of the wet season. The ground within the en-
closure is quite smooth and level, and the houses usually stand
in two rows right and left of the low and narrow entrance-gate,
which is partially closed by a great stone slab or by piles of logs.
I stopped for the night in one of these villages and was shown
quarters in a wretched hut half full of pigs. That is to say, I
was offered a room adjoining the pig-sty, into which the door of
the house directly opened, while the people scrambled into the
dwelling-room by a window about two feet square, to which they
mounted by a pile of rough stones. Up stairs there was a dirty
kitchen to which you had access from the pig-sty by a flight of
dark, narrow steep steps in which there was a turn at right-angles,
for otherwise the house was so small the steps would have had
to be vertical. Adjoining this kitchen was a room just large enough
to contain my camp-bed, and this I accepted — fleas and all — for if
I had to be in the same house as the pigs at least I preferred an-
other Stage. All these villages seemed to allot a large portion of
their ground-floors to a horrible little black and white spotted pig.
JOURNEY TO THE WEST COAST. 255
The infrequency of pigs on the east coast is more than balanced
by their frequency in the central districts.
We continued on during all the next day in a sort of rough
valley bordered by ranges of hills. The soil was poor, the grass
was coarse, and there was much red clay. The country was very
thinly settled and few people were met upon the road. I stopped
for my lunch in one of the circular, ditched villages, in a very
dilapidated dirty hut in which the only door, as usual, opened di-
rectly into the pig-sty, while the family scrambled through a little
bit of opening several feet from the ground. To facilitate the exit
of smoke two large holes had been made at either end of the roof.
This let in some daylight, which was much needed, but looked as
if much unneeded rain must enter by the same orifices. In the
centre of the room next the piggery was a fire, and against the
walls a few cooking utensils, a rice mortar and pestle, a basket of
young squawking ducks, some rolls of matting and a few clothes.
In one corner sat two little bright-eyed boys who were studying
from some paper-covered books — their readers and spellers. I ob-
served that they had also a catechism and a small testament. All
were of course in the Malagasy language. They had also a slate
which was used for writing their exercises. I took a little stroll
afterwards among the houses, and was surprised and amused to see
how frightened the chickens were at my approach. I had expected
this of the few curs about, but hardly of the fowls. The hens ex-
hibited the greatest alarm and strove to marshal and drive away
their chickens. Apparently even a glimpse of civilization, as rep-
resented in my humble self, was altogether too much for these
creatures, so naturally more distrustful than their owners, who
cheerfully look at everything foreign but will adopt nothing.
During the afternoon we passed through the large village of
Ankozobe, pleasantly situated on a smooth hill like the whole coun-
try hereabouts entirely devoid of trees. The people burn a small
reed for their cooking, and charge the same price for this as for
firewood. Just outside the capital a great field is covered with huge
bundles of this reed, there kept for sale. Nearly all the houses of
Ankozobe were built in the shape of wall-tents, i. e. they had mud
walls two or three feet high upon which directly rested the high-
peaked grass roofs. The governor came from his house to invite
me to rest and partake of some refreshment, but I was obliged to
decline his hospitality, wishing to reach a certain town before dark.
This was called Ambatvarana, with deep wide moat and a square
256 ACTUAL AFRICA.
full of cattle. Pigs swarmed everywhere. Just to the westward
was a magnificent great mass of gneiss, with precipitous sides
showing vertical striae which looked like the basaltic columns of
the Giant's Causeway of Ireland. The range ends a little to the
northward of the village in a vast dome of gneiss, with a big con-
ical top which itself rises all of a thousand feet above the roughly
undulating plain. It is called Mount Angavo. The highest point
is said to be 4,880 feet above sea-level, or about one hundred feet
above the site of Antananarivo. I visited several houses in this
village that were tendered me, but each seemed worse than the
other. Finally, I accepted a room in one, on condition that the
pigs should sleep away from home for that night. After putting
up my camp-bed and mosquito-netting, I found I could not get in
all my very limited baggage and myself at the same time unless I
suspended the most of the former from the walls, which accord-
ingly I did, having driven wooden pegs into the interstices of the
mud bricks. The upper floor into which the family were crowded
was reached by a vertical bamboo ladder. Soon after lying down
for the night I heard so much noise in the pig-sty that I was afraid
my hostess had forgotten her promise. On searching I did not, it
is true, discover any pigs, but there were a cat, a litter of pups and
a brood of chickens. These, at least at my distance, did not smell,
and I supposed would not indulge their respective vernaculars all
the night, so I returned decided to make the best of the situation.
But little did I know that by no means had a complete roster of
the inmates been taken. I found long before morning that the
place swarmed with vermin of all sorts : lice, fleas, mosquitoes,
bugs, cockroaches, spiders and even scorpions. I arose at 2 A. m.
and wished to take to the road at once, but had not the heart to
waken my tired men before five. Within an hour we were off.
The face of the country now presented a very extraordinary
appearance, and was of a wild and broken character not without
a certain picturesqueness. The land was still of sedimentary clay
but the smooth hills were deeply scarred by land-slides and washed
by the heavy rains of summer. The brown grass having slipped
or been worn away exposes vast red or yellow rents, making ex-
posures of gneiss and granite. It reminded me of similar sights
in eastern Brazil. The valleys were pretty hard travelling for my
bearers, but on the moors the track was quite smooth and without
rocks or gullies. It was however a very desolate region. Not a
single hut did I see during the entire morning, and we met but
JOURNEY TO THE WEST COAST. 257
two or three travellers. We forded several small and crystal-clear
streams. There was a hard climb up a long and narrow gulch, a
sort of pass in fact from one valley to another. The highest point
reached was 4,800 feet, and here the east wind blew with great
force. We then descended a little and reached the large town of
Kinazy. This is one of a series of Hova military stations, five in
number, which stretch in the direction of the west coast and the
Sakalava country, and aloug the line of easiest access to the capital.
They thus form a series of defensible posts, within easy communi-
cation of each other, being only about fifteen miles apart. Each
of these posts has its commander and garrison. Each is at the
same time a cattle preserve and general depot. Great herds are
always to be seen in their immediate neighborhood. These forti-
fied towns clearly indicate the character of the Sakalava people,
at least as they were a few years ago. Between them and the
Hovas there seemed to exist a perpetual feud. The forts are now,
however, in a sadly dilapidated condition and the moats full of
trees, though they are still regarded as useful for the protection
of cattle from marauders, and the gates are regularly barricaded at
night. Kinazy numbers some eighty or so houses, built along the
spur of a hill. It has double gateways and the inner one may be
closed by a great round slab of stone, rolling it before the opening
in the wall, as was the custom of closing the old tombs in Syria.
We passed on up the valley, and then crossed a high and steep
ridge into still another, this one quite narrow, with hilly moors
upon one side, and high rocky hills, with steep bare " palisades,"
upon the other. After crossing many small streams we forded the
Firingalava river and then mounted to the extremity of a short
level spur upon which was situated the town of Ambohinarina —
thirty or forty houses and a chapel. The houses were built of
reeds, thickly plastered with mud, and lined with mud bricks. The
governor lent me one of his spare houses — a neat little hut of one
story, containing but a single room, draped throughout with straw
matting. The roof projecting on either side made comfortable
verandahs. A cook-house adjoined, and the whole were surrounded
with a paling of stout sticks. The style of house indicates that I
have descended so much that the climate is warmer here ; the next
step will probably be the pure reed or palm-leaf hut. The other
houses seemed full of squeaking pigs. I suppose the people en-
deavor to squeeze into any space that might by chance remain.
This town is the second of the Hova frontier stations and is da-
258 ACTUAL AFRICA.
fended by moat, wall and cactus hedges. There is a small Hova
garrison. After my experience of the past night in a sort of ver-
min " happy family " cage, I greatly appreciated having a clean
room and being comparatively alone — there were in fact fleas, mos-
quitoes, cockroaches and mice — but I could not mention these in
the same day, or even the day after, the events recorded above.
We had here also a concert of local professional talent, with a very
long programme and not very long intermissions — lowing cattle,
grunting swine, crowing roosters and baying, growling and fight-
ing dogs — but I managed to snatch some sleep, and started on early
the next morning.
My filanzana bearers are a jolly set. They take turns when on
the march in relating diverting stories, and all shout and laugh
like merry children at play. The fellows enjoy the most robust
health and the utmost gayety of spirits, yet their life seems to me a
hard one. There must be compensation here as elsewhere. Their
endurance is remarkable. They will march from thirty to forty
miles a day over the worst roads of any country in the world, over
tracks upon which no animal could possibly carry you, much worse
than the worst in any part of the Andes or the Himalayas, and
they will continue marching this way and carrying a load of sixty
or seventy pounds for a month at a time. We followed the little
river Feringalava up the valley for a few miles, and then climbed
a steep ridge and went along its crest and down into another val-
ley, passing on the left a fine gneiss mountain, four miles long, and
a little further another, this time a sharp-peaked one. Much of
the region had been burned over and was quite black. When the
red path ran through this it looked in the distance like a line of
bright flame. The old dry grass is burned in winter to improve
the quality of the young grass which comes up in the spring, it
thus acting as a species of fertiliser.
I halted for lunch at Ampotaka, the third garrison town, which
seemed to consist of about fifty houses, and contained several hun-
dred cattle in its great fold — not to mention innumerable pigs.
This station is 3,000 feet above the sea, or 1,800 below Antana-
narivo. Coming from the comparatively high level of the latter
we found the afternoon exceedingly warm. Two of my coolies
were in fact prostrated with the heat. I doctored and encour-
aged them a little, and was glad to see them all right the follow-
ing morning. We were much tormented by a little black fly in
the deeper valleys. The country thus far from the capital has
JOURNEY TO THE WEST COAST. 259
been very dry, the regular rains not only setting in somewhat
later on the western than the eastern side of the island but
being very much less in amount. The forest belt of the eastern
side has doubtless much to do with this phenomenon, together
with the strong and constant trade-winds which waft the clouds
towards the high lands of the interior, where they are speedily con-
densed to rain. During the afternoon we arrived upon the summit
of a long ridge whence the view of mountains and hills in every
direction was really magnificent. There was a pretty valley, also,
with green trees throughout its length, and a stream which tore
along over a rough granite bed in many whirling rapids. Then
we came to a river which most deserved this title of any we had
seen since leaving Antananarivo — the Mahamokomita. We de-
scended to its banks, which we followed for a long distance.
Here we saw a couple of Sakalavas driving away a small herd of
stolen cattle. One of them, a wild-looking fellow, armed with
rifle and spear, passed near us, and gave us a greeting equivalent to
" good-day." We were glad to have our acquaintance with him
cease with that commonplace. The scenery all aloug had been
bold and picturesque, but at one point the river of which I have
just spoken — it may have been two hundred feet wide — rolled over
a tremendous ledge of granite in four cascades very like those of
Trenton Falls, New York, only that here there was a double series,
one on each side of the river.
An hour or so afterwards we entered a great amphitheatre, a
basin perhaps ten miles across, in the centre of which stands the
fourth of the Hova garrison posts. It is called Mangasoavina,
and is a station of some eighty or ninety houses. The hut in
which I had to take up my quarters was small and filthy, and
swarming with vermin enough to fill one wing of a zoological
museum with interesting specimens. I had stipulated in advance
that the pig members of the family should be sent on a brief
visit for their health. On arising during the night for a drink
of water I was much surprised to find a battalion of immense
cockroaches reconnoitering the spot where I had taken my even-
ing meal. They scampered off with a great clatter upon the ap-
pearance of a light and myself upon the scene. Fortunately I
had taken the precaution to lock up everything in my tin boxes
so they could neither defile nor extract any of my provisions. In
the morning I noticed one of my men lifting and peering under
what I had taken for a bamboo mat. My curiosity was excited,
260 ACTUAL AFRICA.
and I found the opening to an underground passage leading to
another hut and then to the ojjen air. The whole village was un-
dermined in this manner, and these tunnels are used for escape
from a raid of the ever-distrusted Sakalavas. In every hut is a
drum which the occupants beat on occasion of attack, and, if too
hard pressed, rush for their burrows. To assist in its defence
there were four gates to this little village, one behind the other.
These gates are closed by small trunks of trees, which are sus-
pended from a cross-stick piercing one end, and thus you can dur-
ing the day time push them aside, in order to pass, and they will
naturally swing back to their places. At night a tier of logs en-
closed in two upright tree trunks is placed behind them.
CHAPTER XXIX.
A VISIT TO A GOLD MINE.
By six in the morning we were off again, and after a few miles
passed on the left a splendid great mass of gneiss called Mount
Andriba. We journeyed much along the crest of a high ridge
which gave us in every direction fine views of the mountainous
country. We then worked slowly up a long narrow and very rough
pass and next entered a valley in the depressions of which I no-
ticed many beautiful roffia and traveller's palms. There was here
a considerable river, as far as width goes, though it was shallow
and ran over smooth sand, and its banks were terraced with rice
fields and supported a few shade trees. The little ribbon of sil-
ver and green looked very pretty amidst the brown and yellowish
hills, with their great " beauty spots " of red clay. Especially
noticeable were these washings, weatherings and land-slips. Great
peaks of hard material had been left standing in precipitous abysses,
whose clean mineral walls displayed a dozen shades of color. The
characteristics were like those of the grand canons of the Colorado
and the Yellowstone rivers. During the day I passed the fifth
and last of the Hova garrison towns, Malatsy, situated on a steep
spur of hills. Malatsy numbers about fifty houses. There were
also many little hamlets scattered about the valley, and among
them was a Sakalava village. The Hova frontier proper may be
said to terminate here, for beyond there is a belt almost unpeopled.
This forms what was until quite recently a sort of debatable land
between the wild coast tribes and the more civilized ones of the
interior. This region used to be the resort of criminal outcasts
and runaway slaves, and the transit across it was always considered
hazardous. Leaving Malatsy I entered upon a rough but rather
picturesque district with much running water, and many dells with
trees like those on the edges of the forests of the eastern half of
the great island. The road led through long valleys and over
361
262 ACTUAL AFRICA.
pass after pass. The clay ridges were sprinkled with much quartz
gravel, which caused even my rhinoceros-footed bearers to walk
gingerly. There now appeared bamboos, wild citrons, guavas, fig-
trees, gourds and acacias.
Descending from a long ridge I had been following toward the
north, I arrived at the town of Ampasaritsy, pleasantly situated
upon a low, smooth knoll, adjoining which are the residences of
the officers of one of M. Suberbie's rich alluvial gold-washings.
The precious metal is not found in quartz in this locality. I
remained all night with the mining-engineer in charge of the
works here, and there being nothing special for one not a pro-
fessional to see, started early in the morning upon my last day's
march before beginning the canoeing. We passed through a
rough sterile section of country without a hut in sight, and with-
out meeting a single traveller upon the road, and then crossing
several smaller rivers, came down to the banks of the Ikopa, here
about a thousand feet in width, rushing along its half exposed
rocky bed, and full of small tree- and grass-covered islands. The
rushing water, falling in cataracts of foam over ledges of rock, with
borders of high yellow grass and green trees, made a very pretty
sight. We reached this river at a point suffering from the ex-
traordinary name of Antanimbarindratsontsoraka (I believe I have
not omitted any syllables), and then followed its banks for several
miles until we reached the half-way village between Ampasaritsy
and Mevatanana. The view this morning had greatly opened
toward the west, where you almost seemed to distinguish the sea-
line. At last we were fairly out of the mountain region where we
could never see more than ten miles in any one direction. We
next turned a little inland from the river and entered a plain of
drift, debris and huge boulders. At one of the villages at which
I halted for the midday rest, a man sitting quite nude on a stone
near his door, was being given a bath by his wife. She would
pour the water over him and then rub him down as if he were a
child. He sat grinning and seemed to be enjoying himself im-
mensely. Though both men and women were continually passing,
I was apparently the only one who perceived anything at all pe-
culiar. Whether the wife afterwards received her bath in similar
fashion at the hands of the husband, I did not inquire. It was
only too probable that she did.
The region in which we were now was covered with scattered
hamlets of Sakalavas. You can generally know a Sakalava by his
A VISIT TO A GOLD MINE. 263
more coarse and brutal appearance and less intelligent eye than
the Hova. The men, moreover, always " do up " their hair in little
braids that hang down all around their head, and give them the
look of women when they happen to be without beard. Physically
they are small but stocky, sturdy men, like the Hovas. Their huts
on this coast are exactly like those of the Betsimisarakas in the
same latitude and altitude upon the east coast. As I stood upon
the ridge where the gravel drift is most noticeable I saw near the
road a human skull reared upon a pole. This once belonged to a
Sakalava who was a notorious robber, and is thus placed as a warn-
ing and threat to would-be evil doers. The special outlook in the
westerly distance was over an enormous undulating plain, part cov-
ered with trees, part with pasture, and part with cultivated crops.
This remarkable view was bounded only by the horizon, which in
places one was apt to mistake for the line of the sea. I had wished
this day to reach the town of Mevatanana, and could have done so
easily had not my men been an hour late in coming to me in the
morning, and had they not taken two hours instead of one in which
to eat their breakfast. As it was, night overtook us upon the deso-
late plain, and with no huts in the immediate neighborhood. I
had pressed on hoping to reach the town or rather the headquar-
ters of the gold mines of M. Suberbie in the vicinity. At last,
however, it was evident that I must halt, or run the risk of broken
limbs. There was nothing for it but to pass the night in the
plain, so I had my camp-bed put up quite in " the open," and
after my usual supper, turned in for a good sleep, and did not
dream of hostile Sakalavas and skulls reared on poles. My men
all lay down in the tall grass around me and drawing their white
sheets over them were soon all joining in a great but not harmoni-
ous snoring chorus. As I lay thus surrounded by my faithful
henchmen I felt almost like a King of the Cannibal Islands.
At three o'clock in the morning I roused them all up and after
treating them to a pail of tea, a large loaf of bread and one of
my tins of bouilli and soup, I started on, our trail illumined by
the planet Venus and a faint last-quarter moon. In half an hour
we reached the quartz mines and then followed the track of a nar-
row-gauge railway which serves to transport the ore from the
mines to the mill. We passed a large village of the laborers, and
soon after saw before us the several dwellings of the European
employes and officers, and near them on a low ridge the large two-
story house of M. Suberbie, at one side of which was the residence
264 ACTUAL AFRICA.
of M. Victor Guilgot, Director of the Mines at Suberbieville, for
all these houses, and those of the laborers, constitute a small town
thus given in compliment the name of the concessionnaire. I re-
ceived a kindly welcome from M. Guilgot, and was appointed to a
room in a neighboring cottage, taking my meals with him, his
pretty young wife, and his charming mother-in-law. Mevatanana
is but a little way from here. The name means " an excellent
site for a city " and is appropriate, for it stands on a high ridge of
clay, 240 feet above sea-level. It is splendidly fortified by Nature
and reminded me at once of the general appearance of the city of
Constantine, in Algeria. With modern guns and soldiers it would
certainly be an impregnable post. From the northern end of the
hill — where stands the house originally occupied by M. Suberbie —
you have a magnificent panorama. To the east and south the
country is empty, to the west, across the river Ikopa, at long inter-
vals, are small Sakalava villages. Mevatanana contains two hun-
dred houses. That of the governor is in a broad open square, close
to which are the principal shops. It is two miles from here to the
Ikopa at the point to which in the wet season the river is navi-
gable for canoes.
The gold of Madagascar is nearly the purest in the world, being
only surpassed, I believe, by that of Ballarat, in Australia. It has
been known since the time when the island was first visited by the
English missionaries, but no systematic mining has been done
until comparatively recent years, and this always by foreigners.
Concessions have been from time to time granted by the Malagasy
government. That of M. Suberbie covers one hundred miles square
and is to run for sixty years, of which but eight have as yet trans-
pired. He has several alluvial works, but only one quartz-digging.
Fifty-five per cent of the gold has to go to the government, which
provides the native laborers, fortunately, for with such a large
bonus to pay, M. Suberbie could hardly do so himself. It is, how-
ever, a system of forced labor which prevails. The government
claims a right to three months out of the twelve for the work of
all natives. A Hova official will go to a village, impress every
man, woman and child there, and send them away to work in the
mines. This forced labor seems especially hard on the people
because, when they are drafted, their farms and cattle must neces-
sarily be neglected. Many of them escape and, taking to the deso-
late parts of the country, lead the life of banditti. They are of
course unwilling to return to their homes for fear of being again
A VISIT TO A GOLD MINE. 265
drafted. All this has greatly added to the danger of travel in this
section of the country. Criminals also are compelled to labor, and
in chains. There were a score or more of these wretched creatures
at Suberbieville, and the perpetual clanking of their chains was
really distressing. But I confess they themselves seemed to have
no sense of shame, and were apparently quite as well contented
without as they would be with their freedom. Most of them had
been convicted of robbery ; a few of mining and selling on their
own account. For this the severe penalty of death was at first
ordained, but has since been commuted into long imprisonment
in chains. The greater part of M. Suberbie's work has been so
far in the alluvial washings of the beds and banks of streams. In
the diggings the gold is found in pure quartz-rock. Near Suberbie-
ville are several shafts and galleries from which the rock is re-
moved in little iron cars. American powder is used in the blasts.
The gold is exported in the form of bricks and dust. Two Ameri-
can stamping mills are at work, a third is nearly erected, and a
huge turbine wheel is being mounted, so that water-power may
largely take the place of steam, since firewood is very scarce and
costly. About eight hundred natives are at present employed by
M. Suberbie. Formerly he had three or four thousand, but the
fear of being forced to work has caused a general exodus of the
people from this part of the country, and it is now very difficult
to get enough men. Besides M. Guilgot, the able and active man-
ager, there are several other Frenchmen and two Americans em-
ployed. There are commodious and appropriate buildings for
offices, for stores, for drug, blacksmith and carpenter shops, etc.
The houses of M. Suberbie and M. Guilgot are surrounded by large
vegetable and flower gardens, and great boxes of orchids line the
verandahs. There are small ponds, and in one place a cage in
which there are three tame monkeys who will eat from your fingers
and lick your hand like a dog. The houses of the other Europeans
are clustered around. They all have broad verandahs and roofs
of galvanised iron, and are very comfortable, when one considers
the great heat which always prevails. The pretty little gardens
of which I have spoken, are only to be maintained by great and
continual labor and with a lavish use of water, the land being very
sterile and in the winter, or dry season, as parched as the Sahara.
Another concession has lately been granted by the government to
some German capitalists interested in the gold mines of Johannes-
burg, South Africa, for a large district to the south of M. Suber-
19
266 ACTUAL AFRICA.
bie's tract, and they intend to set vigorously to work to prospect
thoroughly their acquired territory.
From Mevatanana the route to Mojanga is generally by water,
when there is enough to float the canoes — a species of dugout —
the large ones carrying forty men. The canoe takes you down the
river to the town of Marovoay, to the salt water, and here it is
necessary to exchange it for a dhow, a boat about thirty feet long,
eight broad and six deep. This has a wide and partially decked
stern, aud carries a big lateen sail. But when in winter there is
not sufficient water to float a large canoe, the route then follows
the course of the river at a distance of from five to ten miles. On
September 19th I left Suberbieville for Mojanga. The canoes
were awaiting me about a mile down the river. There were a
large and a small one. M. Guilgot was sending the monthly
produce of gold and some merchandise, and as I had an escort
of eight soldiers and an officer, two canoes were necessary. The
country through which we were to pass was in a disturbed state,
and an escort was therefore furnished by the Hova governor of
Mevatanana. These men had no distinguishing uniform but were
armed with Snider rifles. Each canoe had four Sakalava rowers
and a coxswain, a native of the Comoro islands, a sort of Arab, but
speaking a lingo understood by the Sakalavas. The rowers sit in
the bow and use a broad, short paddle, alternating a long with a
short stroke, and often singing while working. When my baggage
was placed in the long narrow canoe and the soldiers and crew were
aboard, there was scarcely room enough for me to sit, and I had
before me a voyage of several days in the burning sun without any
sort of canopy. We started late in the day as we only intended to
make a few miles and then, camping for the night, to reach as
soon as possible a little steamer of M. Suberbie's which ascends
the river as far as the shallow water will permit, and whose exact
whereabouts were not then known. After a couple of hours' row-
ino-, crossing frequently from bank to bank as the channel seemed
to veer, and several times getting aground, when the men would
jump into the water and lift or push us free immediately, we
reached our camping place — an ordinary hut in an ordinary vil-
lage. The river thus far had been from a quarter to half a mile
in width, and everywhere extremely tortuous and shallow. In the
morning at daylight we started on down the river, and soon arrived
at a spot where it debouches into the muddy Betsiboka, a more im-
portant stream. The banks were flat and low, and covered with
A VISIT TO A GOLD MINE. 267
vegetation. The country from here to the coast is occupied by
semi-independent tribes of Sakalavas, who pay a nominal tribute
to the central government at Antananarivo. The population how-
ever is thin and scattered, the villages numbering from ten to twenty
houses. These houses are often well and artistically made of split
bamboo reeds and palm leaf ribs and leaves, though so airy are
some of them they look quite like great bird cages. The plains
are frequently diversified by pretty chains of hills and the vege-
tation is very tropic ; traveller's, roffia and fan palms, mango and
tamarind trees, the banana, and quantities of the via, an arum lily
of large size, abound. The banks are frequently composed of great
terraces of fine sand, and indicate a rise in the rainy season of at
least twelve feet. There are many aquatic birds and a few croco-
diles, some of the latter being as much as fifteen feet in length. I
frequently fire at them, but though often wounding, never know
if I kill them, as they glide from the low smooth sand spits into
the bottom of the river, and do not soon afterwards come to the
surface. Lower down, the river is quite full of these uncanny
monsters, and though they are never known to upset a canoe or
attack its occupants, they occasionally mangle or kill a native who
is careless in bathing, and frequently seize and drown an ox who
may advance too far into the stream while drinking. We went on
until dark along a part of the river said to be infested with pirates,
and regarded as so dangerous that my soldiers sat holding their
rifles in their hands, as if expecting an attack any moment
from hidden foes. But nothing happened, and not being
able to quite reach our originally planned point, we halted
for the night in a Hova garrison town, surrounded with a
heavy wooden palisade. The governor kindly gave up his house
to me, and after a comfortable night, I continued the journey at
daylight.
We soon left the main stream, which has a current of about
four miles an hour, and, entering a small affluent, proceeded up this
to a place where we expected to exchange the canoe for the steamer.
We were, however, destined to be disappointed, for, owing to the
very low water, the steamer had not come up so far. My men now
informed me they had only agreed to take me to this point, and
that they would not carry me on. I nevertheless was determined
to reach the steamer at Mojanga, which once a month connects at
Xosy Be with the other from Tamatave to Zanzibar. So I sent
for the Hova commandant and explained my situation, begging
268 ACTUAL AFRICA.
him to use his authority and influence with my men. He, how-
ever, seemed quite afraid of them, and was of no service to me. A
palaver went on at intervals for a couple of hours. Neither bribes
nor threats seemed of any avail. Then my patience was exhausted,
and nothing being settled, I ordered the men to cook and eat their
breakfast, for I thought that my personal persuasion might be
more effectual in appealing to full stomachs, but, upon calling the
roll, was surprised to find that half the men had deserted. Things
were now getting serious, and I saw that I must make a demon-
stration. So revolver in hand I advanced savagely upon the two
Comoro men, whom I believed had instigated the others to mutiny,
and threatened to shoot either of them who should not at once
get into his canoe. At the same time I sent a messenger to the
Hova official to tell him my determination, and that if he did not
get my missing boatmen together in fifteen minutes, there would be
very serious trouble for which he would be held responsible by his
government, to which I should report him. The ruse— although
there was more in it than a mere ruse, for I certainly " meant busi-
ness "_had its effect, and I started with but one man short, and
his place I bribed a soldier to fill. We went rapidly on during the
afternoon, through thick woods and plantations of the Sakalavas,
amidst pretty scenery of hill and plain, passing a score of croco-
diles lying log-like upon the sandbanks, and meeting a small fleet
of canoes bound with various merchandise up-stream to Suberbie-
ville. In ascending the river the boatmen stand two on either side
of the bow, and pole the boat rapidly along. There were no in-
habitants upon the banks, the little hamlets being situated at some
distance inland. The birds increased in number : egrets, flamin-
goes, ducks and pigeons. At dusk having first driven a half a
dozen crocodiles from a sandbank, we landed and cooked and ate
our dinner, and then entered the canoes to continue the journey,
as there was no neighboring village where we could pass the night.
We had reached the head of tide- water, which rose so fast that we
had several times in the course of our meal to move further inland.
My men had during the day been somewhat more civil, but in the
evening became again mutinous, notwithstanding my promise of
liberal gifts upon the completion of the voyage. I never closed
my eyes throughout the night, and had literally to drive the men
on at the point of my revolver. One would quietly draw in his
paddle and go to sleep, when I would rush upon him from my
seat, put the paddle in his hands, and compel him to continue his
A VISIT TO A GOLD MINE, 269
work. So we went slowly on all night, our progress being further
delayed a part of the way by a strong head wind.
Early in the morning we entered a small stream, a few miles
up which is the town of Marovoay, where we expected to find
the steamer or, if not, at least a dhow which would take us
across the Bay of Bembatoka to Mojauga. We reached this
place at eight o'clock, after sitting almost continuously for
twenty hours in a canoe three feet broad and two deep ! The
steamer proved to be in. It was of iron, about ten tons burden,
and had side-wheels. A Frenchman was the only foreigner con-
nected with its management and he informed me it would leave
the next morning at four o'clock for Mojauga. The town of
Marovoay was half a mile distant from the landing, lying on a
plain at the base of a prominent hill, upon which was an old fort
and the residence of the governor. The town was built of the
customary palm stems and leaves, the houses standing on either
side of long crooked sandy streets, shaded by many great mango
and tamarind trees. From the summit of the hill a splendid view
of the surrounding plain and winding river is obtained. The
governor received me with much courtesy, treating me to cham-
pagne, and sending after me to the steamer the present of a pair
of ducks and a pair of geese. The little vessel started promptly
at daylight and proceeded at its best pace — including the impetus
of the current, about five miles an hour. The country is mostly
level and covered with forest from Marovoay to the bay. The
river is from one to two miles in width. It is about thirty miles
from the mouth of the Betsiboka — which has been ascended for
one hundred miles — to the town of Mojauga. The bay is in parts
eight or ten miles in width. The shores present no striking or
beautiful scenery. Mojauga has a little port, which is somewhat
sheltered by a sandy spit curving from north to south. There are
two towns — the upper is on a ridge from one hundred to two hun-
dred feet high, while the lower extends along the sandy shore for a
mile or more. The houses in the latter are huddled together in the
sand, as at Tamatave, and are made of palm-leaves as dry as tinder.
A fire consequently is exceedingly dangerous, and in connection
with a strong wind is fatal. One occurred a few years ago, and
burned down the entire native town. The houses of the few Euro-
peans and the Banian (British India) and Arab merchants, however,
escaped, being made either of stone or brick. Formerly Mojanga
was an important place, with many Arabs, principally engaged in
270 ACTUAL AFRICA.
the slave trade, but now its population is much dwindled and it
is quite dead commercially. The streets are sandy, dirty and un-
lighted at night. There are two mosques, an Arab and an Indian.
The governor resides in a stone circular fort at the extremity of
the point near which the town is built, but it is not garrisoned at
present. On the hill and in the neighborhood are many splendid
specimens of the mango and baobab trees.
CHAPTER XXX.
MADAGASCAR TO ZANZIBAR.
After stopping two days in Mojanga I took passage in a little
French steamer of 400 tons burden, belonging to the Messageries
Mar i times Company for the island of Nosy Be, on the northwest
coast, and about 150 miles distant. This steamer, as before men-
tioned, makes a monthly tour of the ports on the west coast and
connects at Nosy Be with the large mail steamer running between
Marseilles, Tamatave and Zanzibar. It carries only first and fourth
class passengers. We had a few of each class, French and Bom-
bay merchants. We kept in sight of land during most of the voy-
age, and as we neared Nosy Be beheld some pretty ranges of moun-
tains, which stand about 2,500 feet above sea-level. We also saw
some curious conical rocks along the shore. Crossing Ampasin-
dara Bay we had before us the island of Nosy Be — perhaps fifteen
miles square — and several other smaller ones, the most of them
being covered with trees. Nosy Be has belonged to France for
over half a century, and has an administrateur principal — at pres-
ent M. Joseph Francois — for its governor. The general aspect of
the island is altogether tropical, with its dense mass of vegetation
peculiar to regions approaching the Equator. Thus I noticed
mango and tamarind trees, cocoanut-palms, bananas, the bread-
fruit— splendid large trees in fine perfection — custard-apples, papa-
yas, lemons and limes. The inhabitants grow many vegetables,
salads and pimentos, or hot spicy peppers. They also raise great
quantities of poultry. The neighboring sea supplies a profusion of
good fish and a variety of small oysters. The town stands upon the
south side of the island. It has several quarters or, more properly,
distinct settlements : one of Sakalavas, another of Bombay and Arab
merchants, and a third of French, Malagasies, Comoro islanders
and negroes from the African coast. The latter village is nearly
concealed from view by the large mango and other trees which so
271
272 ACTUAL AFRICA.
greatly abound. The chief administrator's house, that of the
agent of the Steamer Company, and some warehouses alone being
prominent. As to the dwellings they are of palm-leaf, with a few
brick and stone ones belonging to French people. There are good
macadamised streets shaded by long rows of great trees, faintly
illumined at night by kerosene-lamps, a quaint stone church, a
small market, a large public garden, and many buildings used by
the government or, formerly, by the troops — none of the latter be-
ing now stationed here, though there is generally a French man-
of-war or two in the harbor. From many of the streets you catch
pretty views of the surrounding sea and hilly islands. The inhab-
itants seem largely composed of Comoro islanders, the women in
particular being bright and gay, and often speaking French quite
fluently. I landed at a long stone jetty and there being no hotel,
hired a small house, and took my meals at a neighboring cafe.
Nosy Be is warm, but a sea-breeze generally prevails during a
great part of the day which renders the heat quite endurable.
The climate is healthy but the summit — 1,800 feet above the sea
— of one of the neighboring islands, that of Nosy Komba, is
used by a few of the foreign residents as a sanatorium. The ad-
ministrator, in particular, has a comfortable house here, which,
at his kind invitation, I visited in company with one of his
staff-officers. We crossed the bay in the Harbor-master's boat,
some ten miles, to a small Sakalava village, on the shore of Nosy
Komba. Here we took filanzanas and started for the top of the
hill. The path, which led through beautiful forests of palms
and bamboos, was very rough and steep. We passed a small
house belonging to the chief priest of Nosy Be, and next the
better-made dwelling of a French merchant, and then came the
house of the administrator, a plain wooden affair with an iron roof.
From its verandah we had a superb view of Nosy Be and the sur-
rounding islands and sea, of the town, and the ships in the harbor.
A short distance back of the town a huge extinct crater was promi-
nently visible. The island had greatly indented shores and was
hilly, partly covered with forests, with grazing land, and sugar and
vanilla plantations. We descended in half an hour, a half part of
the time necessary to come up, the bearers going at a rapid trot.
Arrived at the Sakalava village, the wind was found too strong to
cross at once, and so we dined at the house of one of the adminis-
trator's secretaries, and sailed back to town about midnight. At
Nosy Be I concluded my Madagascar tour of 750 miles.
MADAGASCAR TO ZANZIBAR. 273
I had to wait four days for the French steamer going to Zanzi-
bar which calls also at the island of Mayotta, a couple of hundred
miles nearly due west from here. There were on board a number
of officers and soldiers going home, a few merchants, and a civic
official from the island of Bourbon, the only first- cabin passenger
except myself. Early the following morning Mayotta was in sight,
a very pretty island of volcanic formation, with a peak exactly like
that called La Pouce, or The Thumb, in Mauritius. As we drew
in I noticed that the vegetation was rather sparse, though there
was much pasture-land. Mayotta produces little beyond sugar,
vanilla and cacao. It is completely surrounded by a large reef be-
tween which and the island are several pretty islets, on one of
which to the eastward of the large island, the French colony is
built. We followed a long winding channel, between several out-
lying islands, first to the west and then to the north until we
dropped anchor near the little town. The surface of Mayotta
was very rough and hilly. Here and there were palm-leaf villages,
interspersed with large sugar estates. The town consists of little
more than cottages for officials and military officers, and barracks
for troops. There is also a little fort mounting some small old-
fasbioned cannon. Within it is the dwelling of the local adminis-
trator.
Late in the afternoon we left for Zanzibar, going out by the
same tortuous channel by which we had entered. Early the fol-
lowing morning I caught a very distant glimpse of the great Co-
moro island, some of whose mountains reach an altitude of 8,600
feet. There is here also a volcano which, though inactive during
the past twenty years, is not considered extinct. There are sugar
and vanilla plantations. But unfortunately there is no water sup-
ply and the inhabitants have to depend wholly upon what they
collect during rainfalls and preserve in tanks. There are two other
islands of the Comoro group : Johanna and Mohilla. Ma}^otta is,
as I have said, a French colony, the others are under a French pro-
tectorate. About all there is on Mohilla is one large sugar planta-
tion. Johanna is the most fertile and healthy island of the four.
It has a splendid water supply, there being several rivers in
the island. It has a fine harbor and several sugar plantations,
the largest one being owned by an American, named Wilson, whom
I had the pleasure of meeting in Port Louis, Mauritius. Vanilla,
tobacco, cotton and coffee are also grown. There is a Sultan here.
The next morning we had a view of the mainland of Africa — a
274 ACTUAL AFRICA.
low, smooth, wooded country, with some ranges of hills just dis-
cernible in the far distance, and a great sandy beach at the sea's
edge. A few hours afterwards we caught sight of the large, low
island of Zanzibar, covered with a rather scrubby vegetation in
which palms, bananas and mangoes take a prominent place. The
shores were great sloping beaches of white sand. The Arabians
who first looked upon this island named it Zanzibar, which means
Paradise, and such it is in comparison with the shores of the Per-
sian Gulf. As we threaded our way along between the mainland
and the island, the sea was everywhere dotted with Arab dhows, or
sloops with great lateen sails. The mainland, twenty-five or thirty
miles distant, could only be seen in spots. The city of Zanzibar
stands about the centre of the western side of the island. Nearly
opposite upon the mainland is the town of Bagamoyo, the chief
point of departure (and arrival) of caravans which pass into or out
from the great central lake region by one or the other of several
nearly parallel routes.
The island of Zanzibar is about fifty miles in length and fif-
teen in width. It is about equally distant — say 2,400 miles — from
the Suez Canal, from India, and from the Cape of Good Hope.
It is 1,332 miles from Tamatave direct to Zanzibar. Off the coast
are several small, low islands, and some large sand-banks, but navi-
gation is not difficult and there is a plenty of water for the largest
of ships to enter its commodious and safe harbor. We soon saw
the great white buildings of the city, which is situated on a broad
point of land, with a slight slope towards the sea. Beyond is a
range of prettily wooded hills. Before reaching the city we passed
a large summer-palace belonging to the Sultan — a plain three-
story building having much more the appearance of a factory than
a palace. The city from the water and at a distance was quite
picturesque. At one side, near the shore, was a great collection
of brown palm-leaf huts, the home of the poorer natives, and be-
yond them rose the spire of the English church. On the extreme
point stood the British Consulate and the warehouses of Euro-
pean merchants. A great square three-storied edifice with ve-
randahs to every story, near the harbor, particularly claimed atten-
tion. The upper floor seemed opened to the air all around, the
roof being raised above it. The walls were of a coarse kind of
coral or of a light-colored lime-stone ; the roof of galvanized iron.
The windows, of which there were continuous rows all round the
building, opened down to the floors. The only attempt at orna-
MADAGASCAR TO ZANZIBAR. 275
mentation of any kind was in the gilded Arabic inscriptions on
the balcony railings. This was the palace of the Sultan. Near it
stood a lofty, many-storied, square tower, containing a clock giving
Turkish time, which is six hours behind our own. There are here,
in striking contrast with the glaring white walls of the houses,
clumps of mangoes, palms, bananas, papayas and other tropical
plants. The flags taffs and flags of many consulates broke some-
what the hard, stiff lines of the flat-roofed houses. In the harbor
there lay at anchor four small British and a German man-of-war,
four or five cargo steamers, a yacht or two of the Sultan's and,
near the beach, in a sort of bay, a great fleet of native dhows and
coasting vessels. In the distance, along the shore to the north,
were a couple of old stone palaces of the Sultan, together with a
few residences of the city's rich men. The Sultan has several
so-called palaces scattered about the island, but he does not dwell
in them for any length of time.
On going ashore my first surprise was that there should be no
Custom-house examination or even inquiry regarding my baggage.
My second surprise was at the terrific heat of the narrow un-
covered streets, which average from four to twenty feet in width,
and are very crooked. They are lighted by lamps suspended from
the walls of the houses. They are either macadamised, or covered
with concrete. There are of course no sidewalks. The only
method of getting about the city is on foot. For trips into the
suburbs or country, horses are to be had. There are also many
carriages used outside the town, the English dog-cart seeming to
be the favorite style. The Sultan has a large stable, containing
some good Arab horses. Most of those used by Europeans are
the tough little ponies of the Comoro islands. I had a long walk
between dingy, tumble-down houses — whose only remarkable fea-
ture was the prettily carved wood- work of their doors — until I
reached a small German hotel, situated near the edge of the sea,
where I found very good clean and airy rooms, and where my
special servant was a Zanzibari who had been across Africa with
Stanley on the Emin Pasha relief-expedition. He spoke a few
words of English, and informed me that " Mr. Stanley he good
man, but dwarfs very bad people." The fellow's name was Ab-
dallah, and he was a splendid bronze Hercules as to physique.
Zanzibar lies about 6° 30' south of the Equator, but owing to its
fortunate position enjoys nearly always a refreshing breeze. The
average temperature of the year is very equable, ranging, it is said,
276 ACTUAL AFRICA.
between 70° and 80°. The island is believed to contain a total of
some 225,000 inhabitants, of which number about 100,000 are al-
lotted to Zanzibar city. During the northeast monsoon — Decem-
ber, January and February — foreign traders increase the latter esti-
mate by 30,000 to 40,000. The population is very mixed. There
are Arabs, half-caste Arabs and Africans or Suahelis, Comoro
islanders, Parsees, Malagasies, and Indians or Banians, as they are
usually called, who come from the west coast of India. Almost
all the retail trade is in the hands of this race, who live so eco-
nomically that no European can compete with them. When rich
they generally return to their own country. More than half the
native population are said to be slaves. Those already in servitude
are allowed to be owned as slaves, though no more may be bought,
sold or imported. The British Agency here, assisted by several
gun-boats, is giving rigid support to this law. You frequently
see in the streets of Zanzibar a half a dozen or more men and
women — women quite as frequently as men — who are passing
along, chained together by the neck or waist with large and heavy
links. These are not slaves, but convicts. The most of them are
thus punished for comparatively minor offences, such as theft
and assault. They are always laughing and talking, and seem
as happy and contented as ordinary non-criminals. There are
about a hundred foreigners living in the city : British, Ger-
mans, French, Portuguese and Americans. Many of these are in
the employ of the Sultan in civil or military capacities. His
Prime Minister is an Englishman who once had command of the
native army. The latter, by the way, numbers about 1,200 men,
armed with Snider rifles. I afterwards saw the whole number on
parade. They were led by two English officers, one a general, the
other a captain. The men marched in very soldierly fashion.
They were dressed in a neat white uniform of European style,
and wore small red caps. The only irregularity seemed to be in
their foot-gear — some having leather shoes, some canvas, and some
going barefoot. The men were all Suahelis, who are said, when
properly led, to make good fighters, though not so good as the
Soudanese. The remainder of the foreigners are settled as mer-
chants or agents.
Zanzibar is the largest town and the centre of the trade and
commerce of East Africa. The chief exports seem to be ivory,
caoutchouc, sesame seed, skins, cloves, copra, orchilla and gum
copal. In 1891 the exports were valued at $7,000,000. Nearly
MADAGASCAR TO ZANZIBAR. 277
one-half of this was ivory. Of cloves nearly a million dollars'
worth were exported. The principal imports are raw and un-
bleached cotton, and manufactured goods, the value of the latter
being about double the former. The British Indian rupee (50
cents), and the new rupee of the German East Africa Company
are the coins current. As to the government, the protectorate of
England was conferred in 1890. The Zanzibar dominions, origi-
nally acquired by the Imams of Muscat by conquest from native
chiefs and the Portuguese, were formerly held as appanages of
Muscat, but in 1861 became independent of that State. The
Sultan at the period of my visit was AH bin Said. He succeeded
to the Sultanate in February, 1890, and was only on the throne
about three years, dying of dropsy March 5, 1893, thirty-five
years of age. The succession is not from father to son, as in
most monarchical countries, but from brother to brother, and
then starting afresh with the son of the last brother. The new
Sultan is Hamed Said bin Tweni, son of the Sultan Said Tweni
of Muscat — a grand-nephew of the late Sultan of Zanzibar.
On the day of my arrival I had a sharp attack of Malagasy
fever which kept me in bed for four days. It was probably con-
tracted during my canoe voyage down the Ikopa and Betsiboka
rivers, and was waiting until my system should be sufficiently ex-
hausted to assert itself. This it certainly did, quite making up for
any lost time by its vehemence. This fever, like so many of the
African ones, generally commences in the afternoon with chills,
and rises rapidly to its climax, with constant and terrific pain
in the head, vomiting, profuse perspiration, frequently delirium,
and then, on the following morning, great prostration and continu-
ation of the pain in the head. This pain, by the way, is something
that " must be felt to be appreciated." Sometimes it is a sharp
pang that will pierce one part steadily for a period of twenty-four
hours, without ceasing its power for a second. Sometimes the
agony will be that produced by a tremendous pressure upon every
portion of the skull, as if the blood were being forced into the
head with a pump. The nausea continues, and you are quite un-
able to eat until the fever is broken, and even then it may be weeks
before you have a natural relish for your food. This fever increases
every afternoon and evening, and gradually diminishes day by day
until it ceases. The treatment usually followed is the heroic : first
to give strong purgatives and afterwards heavy doses of quinine —
thirty to fifty grains. As the fever lessens, the doses of quinine are
278 ACTUAL AFRICA.
diminished but not omitted for several days, or, sometimes, weeks.
This is the fever which Madam Pfeiffer, the celebrated Austrian
traveller, contracted in Madagascar, and of which she afterwards
died. '
One day I took a drive of six or seven miles down the coast
towards the south, to one of the Sultan's palaces — that which we
passed in entering port from Madagascar. The road was good, be-
ing macadamised the whole way. The vegetation consisted mostly
of mango and cocoanut-palm trees, and much manioc was cultivated.
Very striking in appearance were a few baobab trees, looking, with
their branchless trunks and leafless limbs, like huge turnips stand-
ing on their tops. Some of these trees bore at a distance the ap-
pearance of a clump of half a dozen growing closely together.
Some of their massy bodies were as much as twelve feet in diame-
ter. There were but few native houses on my road, but several
pretty bungalows of European merchants and of rich Banians
doing business in the neighboring town. The palace of the Sul-
tan is finely situated on a bluff at the edge of the beach, and a
grand view may be had of the sea, the mainland of Africa, and of
the city of Zanzibar. The palace seen near by is very plain and
somewhat dilapidated. At one side were a large merry-go-round,
and a huge vertical wheel fitted with swinging chairs. Both of
these machines were turned by steam power. They gave a decided
Coney Island flavor to the scene. At another spot were some pretty
gardens full of bright flowers and curious-leaved plants, and sev-
eral tanks and fountains. The interior of the palace is said to be
handsomely furnished in European style, but it is only exhibited
to visitors through special order from the Sultan. His Highness
sometimes spends a day here, but never more, and consequently
everything is allowed to go to " rack and ruin " in true Moham-
medan fashion. On another occasion I took a drive in the oppo-
site direction, along the coast towards the north. After passing
through the Portuguese and Arab quarters, there came a very long
street of Hindoo shops and huts, and then the open country. Soon
thereafter I halted at the entrance of another of the Sultan's palaces
and, alighting, visited the house and grounds. The latter are very
extensive and are surrounded by a high coral-rock wall. They are
full of palms and mango trees. A broad stone causeway leads from
the gate directly to the building, which is large, two stories high,
and faced by two pretty fountains, and a flower and vegetable gar-
den. Eeturning to my dog-cart, I drove on through a fine grove
H. H. the late Sultan of Zanzibar.
MADAGASCAR TO ZANZIBAR. 279
of trees under which nestled several little villages. I then passed
two or three old ruined palaces of former Sultans, and returned to
town in the early evening.
The Sultan has a band of thirty Portuguese musicians who play
in a small square before his city palace every Wednesday afternoon
from five to six, and for a short time at eight every evening. This
serves also as the military band for the troops, who have besides a
Suaheli drum and fife corps. For the weekly concert a circle of
chairs is placed about the band for the exclusive use of the foreign
residents. On one side of the square is the Sultan's harem. It is
a large three-storied building, with several field-pieces stored upon
the lower verandah, and Persian guards on duty at the door. The
windows of the upper floors are carefully screened from too prying
eyes by green jalousies, through which the ladies of the harem are
supposed to be peeping during many of their waking hours. The
Sultan is said to have some fifty or sixty women in his seraglio
— Circassians, Georgians, Persians and Arabs — who are strictly
guarded by black eunuchs and mutes. A covered bridge leads
from the great palace to the quarters of the harem. Lying upon
the ground near the palace were a score of old bronze cannon, some
of them being twenty feet in length. Along the sea front here are
also several large brass cannon, one of which is used for signals.
There is also a large stone tank filled with water for public use,
and drawn from faucets placed at frequent intervals. The tank
has been fancifully fashioned in the form of a steamer. Here are
also confined in cages a large African lion and lioness. At the
time of my visit several hundred natives were grouped about the
band, and were kept at a proper distance by an Arab armed with
a huge stick. The band played a selection of operatic and mili-
tary airs very well indeed, in fact I was agreeably surprised at the
softness and sweetness of their music. But with such oriental
surroundings a selection from " Martha " did seem rather bizarre.
The concert terminated promptly at six by playing " God save the
Queen," while the signal-gun boomed, the guards, drawn up in line,
saluted, and the red flag of Zanzibar fell from its staff. It was
quite a dramatic scene.
During my stay in Zanzibar the (late) Sultan honored me with
an invitation to visit him in the great palace which was reserved
for audiences, balls and fetes, he himself living in a neighboring
house connected with it by several enclosed bridges passing from
floor to floor. Mr. C. W. Dow, the American Consul, who speaks
280 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Suaheli fluently, was invited to accompany me. We went in full
evening-dress, the Sultan sending for us one of his own carriages,
with coachman in the royal livery. On alighting at the grand
entrance of the palace we were received at the steps by the
chamberlain. Then passing between double lines of the Persian
guard, who presented arms at command of their officer, we
entered the huge carved and bossed doors, passed under a massive
crystal chandelier and then mounted a long wooden staircase to
the second floor. The building is erected in a quadrangle and the
great covered court is filled with double lines of staircases which
connect the several floors. There are two flights running in op-
posite directions between each floor, the ceilings being very high.
At the top of our staircase the Sultan, surrounded by some of
his head men and a few guards, stood waiting to receive us, bow-
ing and shaking hands in most graceful and friendly fashion. He
then led the way into a reception-hall, which extends the entire
length of the building, and asked us to take chairs at a large
round table near the centre of the room. Around the walls was
a row of ordinary cane-seated chairs ; the rest of the furniture was
in old gold and crimson brocade. Enormous chandeliers of crys-
tal and silver depended from the lofty ceiling. Along the inner-
wall of the room were niches which were filled with rare clocks,
vases, and costly and curious bric-a-brac. On the opposite side
was a row of windows reaching to the floor, and above them were
wooden tablets covered with inscriptions in Arabic from the
Koran, in gold letters upon a green background. Great mirrors
in rich frames extended quite around the room and added much
to its brilliancy. A single officer alone remained, and he was at a
considerable distance. A long and spirited conversation then took
place, Mr. Dow kindly acting as interpreter.
His Highness was a medium-sized man of rather light-brown
complexion, with bright dark eyes, having a pleasing expression,
and wearing a beard and a moustache which were cropped close
according to Moslem fashion. His voice was soft and rather thin
and high, as if he was suffering from some throat or lung trouble,
though he did not look in ill health. He was dressed in fine linen
undergarments, over which was worn a dark cloth tunic, broidered
heavily with gold lace. His feet were bare and thrust into leather
sandals ; upon his head he wore a little white cap of very fine lawn.
He had donned no jewelry of any description, nor any decorations,
though, besides his own order, he has the Grand Cross of the Star
MADAGASCAR TO ZANZIBAR. 281
of India, received from Queen Victoria. There was a strong scent
of attar of roses about His Highness. In conversation he showed
himself very curious but courteous, asking many questions about
America, and also concerning my travels in Africa and other parts
of the world. He was graceful, dignified, and charmingly unaf-
fected. During our interview fragrant coffee was served in little
silver-mounted cups, and afterwards goblets of cool sherbet deli-
cately flavored with bitter almonds. The Sultan then kindly offered
to show us his palace, himself leading the way and explaining every-
thing as we passed. All the walls of the interior corridors of each
floor are covered with pictures, some by foreign, some by native
artists, some of merit and many of none. I noticed portraits of
the chief monarchs of Europe, several having been presented by
themselves, and of Said Burgash, a former Sultan and brother of
the late Sultan. There were also a number of pictures of local
history. In one corner stood the as yet unused apparatus of a
short line of telephone. In others were several cases full of
Arabic books, among which the Koran and its commentaries
were conspicuous. These corridors were full of furniture, gilded
and plushed, of bureaus and sideboards and tables of choice
woods, deftly carved. Rich gilded doors led from the corridors
into various large parlors, reception-halls, ball and banquet rooms.
They were of similar style of decoration and furnishment to the
great reception-hall below. The Sultan took us from one of the
upper floors out upon its wide verandah where the view of the
harbor, the little islands, and even the distant mainland was very
fine. He walked the entire length of this verandah with us, halt-
ing some time in the corner nearest the harem. This I learned
afterwards was to allow his ladies to have a peep at us through
their Venetians. After resting a little in the reception-hall, where
the Sultan kept up a lively and often humorous conversation with
us, we took leave, His Highness coming to the top of the staircase,
shaking hands, and wishing us every prosperity. At the outer door
the Persian guard were again in line and saluted as we entered our
carriage, around which a crowd of curious natives had collected
and, thinking we must be people of some consequence, gravely
salaamed to us as we drove away, well pleased with our courteous
reception. The following day the Sultan did me the honor to
bestow upon me his order of the Star of Zanzibar, and a large
photograph of himself in his state robes, bearing his autograph in
Arabic. I at once called at the palace to personally thank him
20
282 ACTUAL AFRICA.
for his gracious kindness and, upon leaving, he surprised me by
presenting me with a fine water-color painting which I had par-
ticularly admired on my first visit. Its subject was the city of
Zanzibar, with the foreign men-of-war, gayly decked in bunting,
steaming past the palace, and firing salutes on the occasion of his
succession to the Sultanate.
I called one afternoon upon Tippoo Tib, the Arab governor of
a large district of the Congo Free State, who was first made known
to the world in the books of the explorer Stanley. Tippoo Tib ten
or fifteen years ago was comparatively poor. He is now said to be
the richest native in Africa, having property to the value of about
$800,000. He is just building a fine large three-story house in the
city of Zanzibar, and intends to reside here permanently after a visit
to Europe, and one more to the Upper Congo. Tippoo received
me at the street door and led me to a long narrow sitting-room
upon the second floor. Here were ottomans and pillows, but the
remainder of the furnishing was altogether in European style.
Upon the wall hung many fine swords, daggers and pistols, and
upon the centre-table were a set of tea-things and smoking uten-
sils in delicate filigree silver-work. Tippoo is a large broad-shoul-
dered man of more than middle-age. His head is shaved and his
iron-gray beard trimmed close. He was dressed in a long tunic of
fine white linen. His naked feet were in leather sandals, and upon
his head he wore a cap of embroidered white linen. We took chairs,
and through an interpreter had a long chat about Central Africa,
Stanley, Zanzibar and Europe. Tippoo Tib's sons were administer-
ing his province during his absence, and, learning that I intended
to visit the Congo, he promised to give me letters of introduction
to them. One of these, Sefu, the eldest, and a most bitter enemy
of the Congo Free State, has since been killed in a fight with the
Belgians. During our talk the customary small cups of coffee and
large goblets of sherbet were served. Tippoo then took me all
over his new house, with its wide view of the sea from the terraces.
On leaving he insisted not only upon accompanying me to his door,
but into the street for a distance of a hundred yards, as a special
mark of respect, and appreciation of my call.
Tippoo Tib.
CHAPTER XXXI.
GERMAN EAST AFRICA.
Before continuing my journey I paid a visit to the mainland
at Bagamoyo, in company with two gentlemen connected with the
American Consulate at Zanzibar. The distance across as sailed is
about thirty miles. A strong current to the north sets through
the channel between Zanzibar island and the continent, and there
are many great sandbanks, some a little above, some a little below,
the surface, both to be carefully avoided. The navigation is there-
fore especially dangerous for steamers, which have to thread their
way into port whether coming from the north or the south. We
hired one of the Arab dhows to take us across. There are many
hundreds of these boats which ply in and out of Zanzibar. They
hear the letter Z and a number upon their sails, and nearly all carry
the British flag. The special vessel that we hired was about thirty
feet long, fifteen wide and ten deep. It had a long sharp prow and
broad square stern. It was decked only a little space in the bow
and in the stern. Under the latter was a small cabin capable of
holding four people. The centre of the boat was roofed with palm-
leaf and mats, upon which were placed great coils of rope and on
one side a row-boat. The mast was about twenty-five feet in
height and held a single lateen-sail attached to a yard perhaps
forty feet in length. There were anchors in both bow and stern.
In one place stood a large tank of drinking water, in another a
box of sand where fires were made for cooking food. The crew
numbered six Suaheli boys, with but one officer, the Arab captain.
The men were quite naked, save for their small loin cloths. When
the sail had been swung to one side, the stays were shifted to the
opposite, thus giving additional support to the mast. The ropes
were coarse but strong, being made of cocoanut fibre ; the blocks
were crude enough affairs but seemed to answer their purpose. In
fact the whole boat was coarse and primitive, roughly but very
283
284 ACTUAL AFRICA.
strongly built of hard wood. These dhows will carry considerable
cargo and are very good sea-boats. The Arab captains are capable
and brave seamen, and are not afraid to carry sail in heavy weather.
We started at half past twelve, our chief presenting a very pic-
turesque appearance, standing upon the little quarter-deck dressed
in a long yellow gown, over which was worn a short embroidered
jacket, and a huge white turban, and giving his orders in a loud
authoritative voice to weigh the anchor and hoist the sail. We
were soon speeding over the roadstead and headed for Bagamoyo,
which lies southwest of Zanzibar. The Sultan's tower remained
in sight for a long time, and when we were half way across we
could just discern both the island of Zanzibar and the low country
in the neighborhood of Bagamoyo. We passed several dhows, and
many men fishing with hook and line from little outrigger canoes
far away in the middle of the channel, generally locating them-
selves upon the edge of the great sandbanks. The water over
these is of the most beautiful bright green tint, while all around it
is of a dark purple. Upon some of the banks the sea breaks in
long lines of foam. Their tawny yellow, and the varying tints of
the water have a very pleasing effect. The wind generally rises
about ten o'clock in the morning, and blows quite freshly during
the remainder of the day. At night there is a land breeze and
this is frequently used in returning from Bagamoyo, leaving there
very early in the morning. At last we passed a large sandbank
upon which a spindle had been placed, and now saw dimly before
us the town of Bagamoyo. The coast here is low and level and
is prefaced by a very wide and gently-sloping beach. Cocoanut
palms are a prominent feature of the landscape. A score of two-
and three-story residences of the German officials and merchants,
and another score of Banian shops, owing to the density of the
vegetation, alone appear from the sea, but beyond these stands a
large native town with huts of mud and palm-leaf. The view is
pretty, but tame. At the southern extremity is a small fort which
was built by Major Wissmann. This mounts a few good modern
cannon, and is garrisoned by a company of Soudanese. Near this
is the building of the officers' mess, which contains also a reading-
room and a billiard-table. It was through one of the windows of
the dining-room of this house that Dr. Emin Pasha fell and frac-
tured his skull on the occasion of a banquet given to him and to
Stanley upon their return from Central Africa a few years ago.
The windows at that time extended to the floor ; they have since
GERMAN EAST AFRICA. 285
been half blocked up to prevent further accidents. In the centre
of the town facing the sea is the building of the German East
Africa Company, a large two-story edifice reared upon stone and
iron pillars. Behind this is the " Grand " Hotel, a little house
with good accommodation, and a bowling alley iu course of con-
struction. As we anchored in the semi-circular roadstead, near
half a dozen other dhows, the wind was blowing very fresh and a
high sea was rolling in upon the smooth beach. We had made the
voyage in three hours, a very quick passage. We were rowed
ashore in our small boat, or rather, we were rowed half-way ashore
and then, mounted upon the backs of members of our crew, were
carried in undignified but amusing positions to the dry land. The
customs officials passed us at once and we walked to the hotel over
a very sandy road.
The whole location of Bagamoyo is sandy, and soil for the gar-
dens has to be brought from the interior. Then, with the free
use of water, most European vegetables can be grown. The offi-
cials of the East Africa Company use an imported windmill for
drawing water and, besides a fine large garden, exult in a pretty
fountain. The Banian and foreign part of Bagamoyo consists
mostly of two narrow parallel streets, covered with concrete. The
houses are one and two stories in height and have little half-open-
air shops under their front verandahs. The negro town has been
largely laid out by the Germans and has grown very much of late
years. The whole place is said to have a population of 30,000 and
there are about thirty Europeans. The negro quarter is built quite
upon the level sand, the streets are broad and straight, fenced off
with cactus plants or pineapple shrubs, and rows of small cocoanut-
palms have been set out for shade. The huts have high peaked
roofs, which extend in front and make narrow verandahs, but the
walls of the houses are very low and the doors too small even for
the entry of an ordinary dog. In the bazaars we noticed that each
merchant had for sale great quantities of very fine copper and
brass wire, and bunches of beads in many colors and sizes. These
constitute the money of the interior, the former corresponding in
value to gold and the latter to silver. Cotton drillings and sheet-
ings would probably in like manner correspond with a copper
coinage. There were also many things from the distant interior
exposed for sale : spears with broad, flat heads, and shields of
bull's hide or wicker-work, short swords, war clubs, ostrich eggs,
etc. Among the foods there were many grains and much manioc,
286 ACTUAL AFRICA.
many eggs, bananas, plantains and great heaps of unsavory dried
shark's flesh. We called upon the highest German official resident
in Bagamoyo and were received most courteously, being invited to
take a drive in the only carriage in town, and over the sole road,
and afterwards to dine at the officers' mess. The usual locomo-
tion here and, in fact, in most parts of tropical Africa, is by foot,
though there are many donkeys and a few saddle-horses used.
The carriage belongs to one of the rich Parsee merchants. It is
a victoria, with one horse, and a coachman in a fancy blue cloth
uniform that is gayly trimmed with red. The road, made of
broken shells, extends away to the north, parallel with the bay and
passing through a splendid large cocoanut plantation and along a
beautiful avenue of large mango trees, until you reach the French
Catholic Mission. One of the brothers kindly showed us through
the grounds, which are very extensive and embrace cocoanut and
vanilla plantations, and gardens in which a great variety of Euro-
pean vegetables are grown. This mission has been established
nearly thirty years. It is intended for the education, both literary
and technical, of native boys and girls. About thirty French men
and women are at present connected with the mission, and are
styled fathers, brothers and sisters. There are some three hun-
dred pupils. The mission embraces comfortable modern dwellings
for the children, school-houses, buildings where the brothers teach
practically various manufactures and trades, a chapel, hospital, etc.
The grounds are full of European trees mixed with the tropical,
and there are several pretty shrines and statues of bronze which
give the place a very cheerful civilised appearance. To my ques-
tion, " Was the mission successful in its evangelical work ? " the
reply was, simply, " We are getting on." The mission constitutes
one of the chief sights of Bagamoyo, the other being what is called
the Caravansary. We reserved a visit to this until the following
day.
On the outskirts of the town the Germans have set apart a con-
siderable space and erected several barracks for the use of the great
caravans that come down from the interior with ivory, hippopota-
mus teeth and other commercial products. In the middle is a
large stone-built quadrangle of godowns, or warehouses for storing
the valuable goods, and in it is the residence of the manager of the
caravansary. Frequently these caravans number one or two thou-
sand men. They remain in Bagamoyo until cottons and manu-
factured goods are to be carried into the interior. Unfortunately
GERMAN EAST AFRICA. 287
just at the time of our visit there was no great caravan nor were
there any goods in the caravansary, but there were still a few na-
tives who had not yet returned to their homes. These were from
the country lying between Lakes Tanganyika and Victoria. They
were a very dark people, scantily clothed, but all wearing a piece
of a shell attached to a string of blue beads, as a charm, about
their necks. Around their Avrists they wore sometimes as many
as fifty bracelets of silver or brass wire, and, wound around their
ankles, as many as ten yards of copper wire, which stuck up in a
great bunch. They were not tall, and the men were generally
thin and muscular, while the women were fat and glossy. The
short hair, or wool rather, of their heads was frequently shaved in
small patches of various concentric patterns. Very curious were
their houses, simply little hollow hay-cocks, perhaps four feet high
and five feet in diameter, with a hole a foot square for entrance.
They were made of bundles of hay in the form of a bee-hive, and
in them we generally found a native man or woman lying upon an
ox-skin spread upon the ground. There was no furniture of any
kind, but just outside and surrounded by a grass or palm-leaf
fence, two or three feet high, were a few earthenware bowls and
pots for cooking, a bark pail for holding water, and perhaps some
cocoanut-shell saucers and some bottles made of gourds. These
huts were generally massed under the large trees. Sometimes two
or three of them would open into the same little yard, in which
case they were probably owned by the same family. These na-
tives seemed very stolid and unintelligent, although they did dis-
play some curiosity about our personal appearance. They fre-
quently march with their loads for a thousand miles and are many
months on their way from the centres of the continent. At Baga-
moyo I had an opportunity to see a great quantity of ivory as it
comes to market, quite in the rough. The tusks were of all sizes
and of many shapes and colors. They seemed to be hollow for
about half their length. A large tusk would be some eight feet in
length, would weigh 175 pounds, and be worth 8600. The best
ivory is used for making billiard-balls, and no good substitute has
ever been found for their manufacture. Ivory, as I have already
indicated, is at present the principal export of the Zanzibar mer-
chants and when we know of one single house there sending away
in one year 6,000 tusks and are told that 65,000 elephants are killed
annually in Africa, it certainly looks as if this splendid animal,
like the American bison, must at no distant day become extinct.
288 ACTUAL AFRICA.
What then shall be the substitute for ivory? Doubtless when that
time arrives, if not before, some product will be found or some
manufacture invented. We left Bagamoyo at eight o'clock in the
morning but owing to light and partially adverse winds did not
reach Zanzibar until three in the afternoon, more than double the
time required for the voyage in the opposite direction. I was
very glad to have made this little flying visit to Bagamoyo, asso-
ciated in my mind, as it always has been, with the inland journeys
of Burton, Speke, Stanley and Cameron, and as once a great slave
entrepot, but afterwards simply the terminus and the port of great
highways leading into Central Africa.
After a round of calls upon the foreign officials and merchants
of Zanzibar, who had shown me so much attention during my
stay, 1 took passage in one of the German steamers for Port
Natal, with stops at Mozambique, and Lorenzo Marquez in Dela-
goa Bay. There are only two lines of regular mail and passen-
ger steamers plying between Zanzibar and Port Natal — a Portu-
guese and a German. Both of these have small connecting steam-
ers at Zanzibar and Mozambique in which you may visit the
smaller intermediate seaports. By either line the traveller has an
opportunity of remaining two or three days at Mozambique. My
steamer was of about 2,500 tons burden, and very clean and com-
fortable. There were only two passengers besides myself in the
first cabin and but three or four in the second, while in the third
were some score of Englishmen, Germans, Italians and Greeks going
out to the gold fields of the Transvaal. Early the next morning
the mainland was in plain sight— smooth ranges of hills covered
with forest. About ten o'clock we entered the Bay of Lindi
and in half an hour more were anchored some three miles from
the town of the same name, and distant about midway between
Zanzibar and Mozambique. It is a German possession. The
country round about was covered with rough forest, conspicuous
on the borders of which were the uncouth baobabs which, with
their gnarled and bulbous trunks and branches, reminded one of
Dore's illustrations to Dante. In one of the largest groves of
cocoanut" palms stood the town of Lindi, a great collection of
grass huts, and a few large stone buildings inhabited by foreigners.
Anchored near the beach were a number of dhows. A small river
enters the head of the bay and through a break in the hills in
which it flows we had a distant view of the interior. This river
is navigable for native boats some twenty miles. The shores of
GERMAN EAST AFRICA. 289
the bay held several small villages, and solitary huts could be
seen in clearings of the forest. As we lay at anchor I observed
many huge sun fish coming to the surface for food, and occa-
sionally also the triangular fin of a shark prowling about the
steamer. We remained only an hour at Lindi and then once
more headed south for Mozambique.
Early the following morning I obtained my first view of
Mozambique town and island, and of a large square stone light-
house which is built upon a low island in the sea some distance
to the eastward. The mainland was covered with forest and along
the sandy beach were great groves of cocoanut palms. The island
was low and mostly filled by the town and its suburbs of grass
huts. At the northern end stood a great fortress, with massive
stone walls, forty feet in height, from embrasures in which there
peeped the muzzles of many cannon of small calibre. Above the
walls appeared the spire of a church or two and the flagstaffs of
a number of foreign consulates. As we steamed slowly along we
saw that the town was mostly built of single-story stone houses,
plastered and variously colored red, pink, yellow, or lavender, or
simply left white. Broad sandy beaches and coral reefs seemed
to fringe the island. There were many cocoanut palms and a few
other trees. The effect from a distance was thoroughly oriental
and tropical. The island is about a mile and a quarter long and
only a quarter of a mile broad. It extends northeast and south-
west. Its northerly and southerly points are separated from the
mainland by channels perhaps each a mile in width. The north-
erly is the only one navigable by steamers. The anchorage is
upon the west side in a large and secure bay, which extends far
into the interior of the continent, with heavily wooded shores.
In the distance a few pointed hills are seen. The steamer en-
trance to this commodious harbor is narrow and tortuous, and you
pass near the great fort, whose arched and ornamented gateway
carries one in imagination back to the middle ages. A long iron
pier runs out from the shore and provides a convenient landing.
Near it was a small fleet of dhows at anchor, and other boats
were drawn up upon the beach. We passed a small Portuguese
man-of-war, three or four Portuguese steamers, a German one —
that connecting with our own for the minor coast ports — and a
Swedish brig, and then we dropped anchor perhaps half a mile
from the town, and nearly opposite its centre. From this position
we could look through both channels out to sea. A dilapidated
290 ' ACTUAL AFRICA.
fort occupied the southern end of the island. The health officers
came off to us and after a considerable discussion agreed to allow
us to " communicate " with the shore, without the quarantine
which, the steamer coming previously from the then cholera-in-
fested port of Hamburg, we had reason to expect. Natives in
small canoes filled with great varieties of most beautiful shells and
corals, paddled beside us, vociferously praising their wares and
prices. The little German steamer then came alongside to receive
her supply of coal and to give and receive cargo.
Mozambique and its dependencies on the mainland consist of
some 200,000 square miles, and contain a population estimated at
1,000,000. The island, which lies in 15° of south latitude, is said
to hold about 8,000 people. The province is administered by a
governor-general, who is appointed by the Crown of Portugal,
and armed with almost unlimited authority. He is aided by a
provincial council and district governors, and a small military
force. The neighboring mainland peninsula of Cabaccira is the
cultivated portion of Mozambique— rice, maize, cassava, oranges,
cocoanuts and coffee being raised in large quantities. The ex-
ports of Mozambique are ivory, rubber, ground nuts, sesame seeds,
wax, skins, tortoise-shell, gum copal, sago and timber. A large
trade is carried on with India by Banian merchants, chiefly in
Arab vessels manned by Arab seamen. At the head of the bay is
the village of Messuril, where a large annual fair is held by
Africans who come from the interior in caravans of sometimes
3,000 men, bringing native products to exchange for the manu-
factured goods of Europe and America. The greater number of
the people who attend this fair belong to the Wahiao tribe. This
is the tribe of which Chuma, Dr. Livingstone's faithful servant,
was a member. It will be remembered that Chuma was with
Dr. Livingstone during his nine last years of travel, and after his
death accompanied his remains to England. Mozambique island
being entirely covered with houses produces nothing, and its in-
habitants receive all their food from the mainland. Every
morning the bay is dotted with boats coming over to the island
and every evening the bulk of travel is in the reverse direction.
CHAPTEK XXXII.
MOZAMBIQUE AND LORENZO MARQUEZ.
Upon landing at the town, I was agreeably surprised at the
cleanliness of the streets, so different from most oriental towns.
They were narrow and crooked, but they were smoothly macad-
amised and had little sidewalks, covered with hard plaster, at the
curb of which were useful gutters. The streets were named by
large enamel signs, and were lighted at night by lamps bracketed
to the walls of the houses. Occasionally they would cross each
other in such a way as to leave little triangular parks, and here
you would find ambitious bronze candelabra recalling a European
town. The dwellings are mostly of but one story, though several
of the public buildings have two. There are a number of very
old and curious small churches, massively built of coral rock. The
municipal building is quite interesting from its quaint architecture,
its doorways and plaster ornamentations. It is now used as a prison.
The governor-general's palace is a large two-storied building facing
the landing-pier. It was formerly a Jesuit convent. There is
an open tree-lined space in front, and a band-stand where mili-
tary music is performed three times a week. I was the fortunate
bearer of a letter of introduction from the Minister of Foreign
Affairs of Portugal to the governor. One of the native guards at
the gate took my card to an aide-de-camp, and I passed through a
long corridor and entered the patio or inner court of the palace.
This was neatly paved with tiles and embellished with a flower
garden and a fountain. At one side a grand double staircase,
surmounted by elaborate coats-of-arms and national paraphernalia
sculptured in plaster in high relief, led to the second floor. I
was ushered into a very large ante-room with lofty ceiling, com-
fortably though not grandly furnished. The walls were covered
with groups of African weapons arranged in ornamental patterns.
Here I forwarded my letter to the governor, and was soon sum-
291
292 ACTUAL AFRICA.
moned to the reception-parlor, on one wall of which hung a large
oil portrait of the King of Portugal. The governor-general, His
Excellency Eaphael d'Andrada, entered, a bright pleasant young
man of medium height and light complexion. He received me
most courteously and offered to assist my travels in any way in his
power. He had formerly been the captain of a man-of-war and
had visited all parts of the world. He spoke French and also
English very well. He gave me permission to visit the great
fortress, parts of which, he said, were nearly four hundred years
old. The fort is called St. Sebastian, and is approached from
the town by a long avenue of beautiful wild fig-trees. I visited
it after leaving the governor. A young lieutenant showed me
around. It has been enlarged and modernised and is now in
good condition, though it could hardly withstand the fire of one
of the war-cruisers of the present day. The walls are of cut
coral rock. There are massive bastions on each of the corners,
where through notches in the parapet some fifty cannon protrude
their muzzles. These are mostly old-fashioned iron 24-pounders,
but there are a few new, though very small, brass guns. On top
of one of these bastions there is quite a pretty garden of fig-trees,
acacias, grape-vines, oleanders and other flowering plants. About
three hundred troops under command of a major, are now in
garrison. They are mostly half-castes or Creoles. They wear a
uniform of yellow drilling, with small cloth skull-caps, a curious
head-gear for such a latitude. The greater part of the population
of Mozambique are Africans, then come Asiatics — Indians and
Goanese from Hindoostan — Creoles and half-castes and some two
hundred Europeans, the most of whom are Portuguese, there
being only about a score of other foreigners — English, French,
Dutch and German. The town being small you can generally
get about on foot, though all the well-to-do inhabitants use a sort
of palanquin called a machilla, which is borne by four men. It
is simply an oblong cane-seated chair or lounge, in which you sit
or recline, and is attached by ropes to a long bamboo pole, above
which a canvas awning is fastened. It is much like the cango of
Japan, though being larger is more comfortable. I visited the
market, a small fenced enclosure with two large sheds and a pave-
ment covered with smooth plaster. There seemed as many vend-
ers squatting in the sun as under the iron roofs of the buildings.
There was not a great variety of food offered for sale but there
was an active business done in native beer brewed from the cachou
MOZAMBIQUE AND LORENZO MARQUEZ. 293
fruit. It was dispensed in large earthenware jars. This beer is
light and wholesome, and its flavor is not displeasing to a Euro-
pean palate.
After stopping two days at Mozambique we went on to Delagoa
Bay, having with us three additional passengers in the first cabin.
As we were passing the old fortress the serried ranks of cannon
suddenly belched forth a thundering salute of twenty-one " guns."
This was in honor of Conselheiro Antonio Ennes, who was on his
way to Lorenzo Marquez as special commissioner on the part of
Portugal for the delimitation of the Anglo-Portuguese frontier in
East Africa, and for determining the interpretation to be placed
on some of the terms of the Convention of 1891 with England.
Senhor Ennes was formerly a major in the army, and afterwards
Minister of the Marine and Colonies at Lisbon. He is not only
a diplomatist of proved ability, but a very amiable and highly
accomplished gentleman, being distinguished as a dramatist and
journalist as well as a soldier and statesman. The other new
passengers were an Englishman in the Telegraph Service and a
Boer, a resident of Johannesburg, in the gold-fields of South
Africa. In a few hours the low-lying town and island were out of
sight, as was also the distant tree-covered coast of the continent.
Our general course was south-southwest down the Mozambique
Channel, the great island of Madagascar lying some 250 miles to
the eastward. On November 1st we crossed the Tropic of Capri-
corn, and on the same day brought into sight the mainland in the
neighborhood of Cape Corrientes and the town of Inhambane—
steep, sandy bluffs and smooth shrub-covered hills bordering the
coast. About noon on the following day we reached Delagoa Bay
and Lorenzo Marquez. Directly at the mouth of the bay lies the
large island of Inyack, of a sandy soil and overgrown with dense
scrub. There are many reefs about and the channel is rather
tortuous. The color of the water changes rapidly from dark-
blue to dark-green and then to a dirty yellow. A small point of
land projected from the northern shore upon which were a light-
house, signal-station and some barracks for troops. The bluff
showed a peculiar red soil. The opposite shore was low, smooth
and lightly wooded. Passing the lighthouse we entered what is
called English river, here perhaps a couple of miles in width.
This stream is said to be navigable for light-draught steamers a
distance of some seventy miles. Having rounded the point, the
town of Lorenzo Marquez suddenly appeared before us, lying upon
294 ACTUAL AFRICA.
the side and foot of a range of low hills facing the west. The
gay colors of the houses and the quantities of trees between them
made a very agreeable picture. The appearance of the town,
which has a population of about six thousand, was altogether
European and very striking by contrast with Zanzibar and Mo-
zambique, which I had just left.
We anchored near a little Portuguese man-of-war, a couple of
steamers, and a few native trading-boats. Along the river's edge
was a stone embankment, from several parts of which piers pro-
jected. Here in the centre were two very large sheds belonging to
the Custom-house. Away to the right, high up the hill, was a
square stone building with castellated spires at the corners. I
thought this might be a general mausoleum, with mural niches,
and was surprised to learn that it was a powder magazine, for a
more conspicuous building or site could hardly have been found.
In about the centre of the town stood a very pretty white church
and near it a large hospital. Away to the left upon a projecting
knoll, were half a dozen large yellow barracks, and before them
stood a saluting battery. At this extremity of the town were a
railway station, machine shop, and car and locomotive sheds. The
railway is to run eventually to Pretoria, the capital of the Trans-
vaal Republic, and already covers 143 miles, the total distance being
350. Loaded trains were passing, and added greatly to the Euro-
pean aspect of the place. I went on shore and found a very clean
little town with straight macadamised streets and concrete side-
walks. The dwellings and shops were mostly of one story ; two or
three hotels were of two stories. Most of the houses have iron
roofs and sides. This makes a cool and lasting dwelling. Upon
one side of a neat square was the governor's residence, an unpre-
tentious building. You pass abruptly from the streets of the
town to those running into the country, which are laid out with
great width and bordered with rows of trees. I visited what is
called the Botanic Garden and found it small, though full of a
great variety of trees belonging both to tropical and temperate
zones. As Lorenzo Marquez stands at the beginning of the short-
est route from the coast to the gold-fields of Barberton and
Johannesburg, and as it possesses a splendid harbor in which large
steamers can anchor within -a short stone's throw of the shore, I
expected to find it a place of considerable business activity, and I
was not disappointed. About two hundred foreigners are engaged
in business here — mostly Dutch and German, with a few English
MOZAMBIQUE AND LORENZO MARQUEZ. 295
and French. The remainder of the population is made up of
Portuguese, Creoles, Banians and the representatives of many races
of Africans.
As my steamer was to remain in port for a day or two, I
availed myself of the opportunity to make an excursion by rail to
the Portuguese frontier and the town of Komati Poort, some
sixty-three miles distant. The daily train started at 7 a. m.,
and I could spend about three hours at Komati Poort and
return to Lorenzo Marquez by 6.30 p. m. The railway is of nar-
row gauge. The locomotives have been built in England and the
cars and vans either in Holland or Germany, that is to say, their
parts have been made there, and brought out and put together
here. A Dutch company has the contract for continuing and
completing the road to Pretoria. Komati Poort is really a few
miles beyond the Portuguese frontier, in the Transvaal. I was
therefore only able to buy a " round " ticket to Ressano Garcia,
the actual frontier station, and then to purchase another there
to Komati Poort. The cars were diminutive little affairs, built
partly on the English and partly on the American plan. You could
pass from end to end of the train. The cars were of four classes,
those of the first having comfortable leather-covered seats. The
fourth were simply open freight ears, in which the natives stand
or lie like animals. There were however but few passengers.
The blacks proved interesting. They belonged mostly to the
Amatonga and Swazi tribes. The men were of good size and
muscular ; the women were fat and sleek. All were very dark,
with short woolly hair, in which one or two feathers were generally
stuck, not, as one would think, for ornament, but to use in scratch-
ing the head. These gave a funny look indeed to the faces be-
neath them. The natives were always chatting, laughing and
skylarking. The dress of the women was simply two pieces of
gay-colored calico or cotton, the one worn as a chemise, the other
as a gown. They wore much jewelry : silver finger rings and
buttons in their ears, bangles around their wrists, and rings of
copper around their ankles. The men were clothed only in loin
cloths, over which were suspended two pieces of an animal's skin,
a flap before, another behind. They had sometimes many yards of
copper or brass wire coiled about their ankles, sometimes several
strings of coins or shells, or both. They often wore charms of
bone or shell about their necks. Occasionally you might see one
who had eked out his scanty costume with a European-made vest
296 ACTUAL AFRICA.
or hat, or a military coat. One fellow strutted up and down the
platform of one of the stations with a pair of antelope horns fas-
tened to his neck and standing out from his head in a very divert-
ing fashion. These natives are either employed upon the railway
or the plantations of foreigners. Many of them live in hamlets
along the line, where the women till the fields and the men and
boys bring food — chickens, eggs, fruit and bottles of milk — to the
stations to sell to passing travellers. We followed the banks of
the English river for a short distance, and then turned away and
pursued a northwest course to our destination. The country
throughout was of the same general character, low and level, and
covered with grass and scrubby trees. You especially remarked
the juxtaposition of vegetation belonging to widely separated
zones. There were many species of palms and cacti, and a great
number of calabash trees. At the stations were little else than
the necessary railway buildings, and no towns appeared between
them. The scattered houses of the natives were made of grass in
beehive form, with an entrance not two feet in height. I saw
many half-naked women at work in the fields, using great clumsy
hoes, and often smoking pij)es. Sometimes they had a child
strapped to their backs. Much maize and wheat seemed to be
grown, but the greater part of the country was simply covered
with coarse grass and with a squat sort of tree with gnarled
branches. I noticed very few cattle, and these were not of good
appearance. The scenery was altogether tame until the end of
the journey was approached. Here we followed the banks of the
Incomati river for a considerable way and then saw a distant
chain of mountains to the left. These trend north and south, and
are called the Lombobo Range. They serve as a division between
the possessions of Portugal and the Transvaal. The southern fron-
tier of the former is only seventy miles south of Delagoa Bay.
Komati Poort consists of about a score of European houses, and a
small settlement of blacks lying on the gentle slope of a wide
valley. It boasts a hotel, many drinking saloons, and a few shops
of provisions and miscellaneous manufactured goods. I was at-
tracted to one of the latter by the great quantity of horns of ani-
mals peculiar to South Africa lining the verandah. I found
Koodoo horns selling for 15 shillings a pair, Buffalo £2, Hartbeest
5 shillings, Sable Antelope £2, and the skull of a Hippopotamus
for £4. Inside the shop were Leopard skins worth £2 each, and
a splendid skin of a huge yellow Lion, for which the moderate
MOZAMBIQUE AND LORENZO MARQUEZ. 297
price of £5 was demanded. After lunch at the " Eailway Hotel,"
I returned to Lorenzo Marquez.
The next day at noon we left for Port Natal, a voyage of three
hundred miles. The continent, ten or fifteen miles distant, was in
sight most of the way — a smooth, wooded country. Owing to a
strong head-wind and very heavy sea we reached Port Natal too
late to pass the bar on the flood tide, and were obliged to anchor
off shore for the night. Cape Natal, a wooded bluff some three
hundred feet high, and bearing a lighthouse whose splendid flash-
light may be seen from a distance of thirty miles, juts into the sea
towards the northeast, where is the outlet of a large interior bay
that is fed by three rivers. There is a bad bar here and, though
long and costly breakwaters have been built with a view of im-
proving the channel, it has been found impossible to retain a suffi-
cient depth for the largest steamers. Upon the northern shores of
the bay, and three miles from the extremity of Cape Natal, is situ-
ated the English town of Durban, of which Port Natal is simply
what its name implies. We anchored near a large steamer of the
Castle Line. A steam-tender, with the Health Officer, came out to
us, and gave us permission to enter port the next morning, when
there would be the greatest depth of water on the bar. To the
north, above our position, was a long high ridge, mostly cleared of
trees and covered with sugar-cane plantations. Directly facing us
was a range of hills, about five hundred feet in height, which was
thickly dotted with the residences of Durban officials and mer-
chants. This is called the Berea and may be regarded as the
largest suburb of Durban. But little of the city proper can be seen
from the ocean. It lies too low and level. You observe, however,
the tall tower of the fine Town Hall, a spire of a church, and a few
large houses along the shore — the hospital, and the large " Beach
Hotel." To the extreme left, near the entrance of the port, are
seen the masts of several ships lying in the bay. Port Natal is
1,200 miles from Mozambique, or 1,800 from Zanzibar, and about
800 from Cape Town. Including the stops I was twelve days on
the voyage.
21
CHAPTER XXXIII.
NATAL.
At five o'clock we crossed the bar, and passing the long break-
waters, slowly entered the port of Durban and drew up at the
wharf, making fast in line with a dozen or more vessels of medium
tonnage. On shore were various shipping offices and a large brick
hotel. Cars were standing on several tracks of railway. Tugs
were busy hauling lighters. A 'bus stood near by, and a uniformed
customs official was at the gangway. I realized that I had reached
a thorough-going British Colony. Making a simple " declaration "
regarding my baggage, it and myself were soon bundled into a car-
riage, and all started for the town, two miles distant. A tramway
connects the port and a suburb, called Addington, with Durban, but
it was not running at the early hour of our arrival. We drove
rapidly along a broad, clean, macadamised avenue, lined with small
single-story cottages surrounded by beautiful trees and flowers, and
turning into one of the three principal parallel streets of the city,
passed a small but neat hotel, some Law Courts, and then the
handsome Town Hall, appearing beyond and above a fine park,
furnished with the conventional bandstand. Opposite this park
was the hotel to which I had been recommended. And a more
extraordinary structure I have never beheld in any part of the world.
Apparently the citizens of Durban and visitors from this section of
Africa dislike to mount staircases, for this hotel is but a single story
in height, and is therefore spread over several acres. The front
gardens were ablaze with lovely flowers which exhaled the rich-
est perfumes. Entering I found halls like lanes running in every
direction and most of them lined with pots of flowers and plants,
and hung with heads and horns of South African game. Passing
through a number of offices, reception-rooms and corridors, I came
out into a large paved courtyard full of flowers and vines, and fur-
nished with a fountain. Here were placed rows of great reclining-
298
^ "5
NATAL. 299
chairs, and on every side were rooms for guests. I wandered about,
discovering one by one all the apartments necessary for the equip-
ment of a first-class hotel, but this I did at great risk of getting
lost. Flitting about in every direction with bare feet were Hindoo
(Madrassee) servants, neatly and cleanly clad in white tunic and
trousers, and wearing graceful white turbans. I afterwards found
the hotel to be as well arranged and comfortable as it was novel
and curious. Durban has a population of 30,000, of which number
about one-half are English, one-quarter negroes, and one-quarter
natives of India.
In the afternoon I took a long drive through the city and out
into the country to the top and along the crest of the Berea. Here
there is a small hotel which commands, on the one side, a splendid
view over the town, the port and the ocean, and upon the other, of
the beautiful green hills and valleys of the interior. The view in
this direction reminded me of many parts of England, with its
general style of park-land, groves of trees and open country.
There were cultivated here also much sugar-cane, tea, coffee, and
tropical fruits and vegetables. Right at one side of the very Eng-
lish-looking hotel and surrounding gardens, stood a mango tree
and a huge roffia palm. The principal roads are broad and ma-
cadamised. A tramway line runs nearly the whole length of the
Berea. The open cars are drawn by three horses harnessed abreast.
The country houses are of pleasing architecture, and some of them
of brick and two stories in height, of Queen Anne style, sur-
rounded by extensive grounds laid out in lawns, flower-gardens
and paths, would be no discredit to a watering place like Long
Branch. There is a very good Botanical Garden on the Berea, to
which the public are admitted free. A small greenhouse contains
a capital collection of orchids.
I reached the TTmgeni river on the north and returned by the
great plain upon which lies Durban, and which would contain a
city three times the size. In the evening we had very heavy rain,
which as the rainy season is coming on, will occur frequently now,
and to which is due the deep rich green of the verdure all about
the city and extending along the coast of the colony for a distance
of about thirty miles inland. This has caused Natal to be called
the " Garden of South Africa." Here tropical agriculture gener-
ally prevails. To this region succeeds one where English styles of
farming are carried on, and wheat, oats, barley and Indian corn are
grown. Next comes the veldt or grazing country, where sheep-
300 ACTUAL AFRICA.
farming and the breeding of horses and cattle are the chief pur-
suits of the inhabitants.
The streets of Durban always afford interesting sights and
scenes. As with the commingling of the vegetal products of two
zones in this semi-tropical colony, so with the varied and pic-
turesque blending of things English and things African, of life
and customs at home and of those adopted abroad. In the first
place Durban is a very pretty and lively town. It is laid out at
right angles, with very wide macadamised streets and flagged side-
walks. The majority of the buildings are but a single-story in
height, and are made of brick and plaster with iron roofs, although
plain brick and even stone are rapidly coming into use. There are
many fine and useful public buildings. The Town Hall, near the
centre of Durban, would be an ornament to any city. It occupies
an entire square and is built of a gray sandstone, with a lofty tower
in which a clock strikes the hours, halves and quarters, together
with additional chimes. In the centre of the building is a large
hall, with gallery and stage suitable for political meetings, concerts
and balls. Other parts are occupied by the Post Office, the Museum,
and the various municipal offices. The Museum, which is free to
the public, is small but interesting, being devoted almost exclu-
sively to collections from Natal and South Africa generally.
There are minerals, shells, coins, animals, plants, and the dress
and weapons of native tribes. All are well arranged and carefully
labelled. Near the Town Hall is a public swimming bath, admis-
sion to which is little more than nominal. The swimming tank is
ninety feet long, thirty broad, three feet deep at one end and eight
at the other. Durban boasts of a pretty little theatre, which has
two galleries and eight stage-boxes. It is used at present only by
travelling companies. There are also a free public library and
reading-room. In short, most of the institutions thought neces-
sary at home are here represented, and it is with difficulty one
comes to believe one's self actually in " savage " Africa. There are
but few cabs in Durban, but there is the tramway, with its one-
and also two-deck cars, and there are regular stands of single and
double 'ricshaws, a sort of baby-carriage, like those in use in Japan,
where the idea originated, pulled by a native at a fast trot and
costing a sixpence by the course. These vehicles are used also in
Ceylon, and might with advantage be introduced elsewhere. Very
odd it is to see occasionally in the streets — amid smart English
drags, and dog-carts with tandem teams, and young men astride
A Zulu Venus.
NATAL. 301
bicycles — huge four-wheeled wagons holding four tons and drawn
by nine yoke of sturdy oxen. Curious also are the native police-
men with their helmets and uniforms like those of the London
police, but with knee-breeches only, their chocolate-colored calves
being quite bare. They are picked men, however, and of fine
physique. The streets are diversified and enlivened also by the
features and costumes of the different neighboring tribes, of Zulus,
Swazis, Amatongas, Basutos, and Pongos, to all of whom the gen-
eral name of Kaffir seems to be indiscriminately applied. Then
there are, moreover, Banians, Chinese, Madrassees, Boers and vari-
ous European nationalities. The principal exports of Port Natal
are wool, sheep- and ox-skins, and sugar.
Having seen everything of interest in Durban, I left for the
gold-fields and diamond-mines of the interior. My objective for
the former was the city of Johannesburg, in the centre of the
diarsrmsrs, which is in a general northwesterly direction from Dur-
ban and is reached by 304 miles of railway to the borders of the
Transvaal Republic, and then 135 miles by coach — the total dis-
tance by this route being therefore -439 miles from the coast. It
is traversed in forty-eight hours, including brief stoppages for food
and sleep. The railway is eventually to be extended from the
frontier of Natal across the Transvaal to Johannesburg. There
are several lines of railway running from different parts of South
Africa towards Johannesburg, but only one-1— that from Cape Town
— as yet reaches it ; by the others the latter part of the journey
has always to be made by coach. As the tariff is very high, and
the coaches used in the interior cannot carry much baggage,
I sent nearly all of mine by sea to Cape Town, there to await my
arrival. An express train leaves Durban daily at 6 p. m. for
Charlestown, the present terminus, arriving at 11.30 A. M. the
following day. The coach is advertised to leave half an hour
later. The railway is a narrow-gauge single-track, the road-bed is
" metalled," the bridges are of cut stone, and the signals embody
the latest improvements. At the station I found a short train
of small carriages arranged in three classes, with a baggage van
and powerful locomotive. Owing to the hilly character of 'the
country and its rapid rise from the sea the line is very tortuous.
There were not many passengers of the first and second class, but
two carriages were crowded with Kaffirs. For a long distance
from Durban the country was covered with the suburban resi-
dences of her citizens, and with fruit and vegetable gardens. The
302 ACTUAL AFRICA.
broken character of the surface, and the intense green of the
glossy verdure had a very pleasing appearance. In two hours'
time we had ascended 2,500 feet and reached another climate.
Much tea and many bananas were grown hereabouts. We saw
several huts of the Zulus and numbers of these nearly wholly nude
people. In two hours more we had reached Maritzburg, the capi-
tal, a pretty town about half the size of Durban. Here I pur-
chased for five shillings a " sleeping-ticket," which entitled me to
have brought into my comjmrtment a heavy blanket, a sheet and
two pillows, this being the nearest approach to a sleeping-car yet
known upon this road. In the fine, large, brick station in which
we halted were trucks bearing great piles of this bedding, which
natives wheeled opposite each compartment and gave to those
willing to pay the extra price. It was removed early in the morn-
ing at another station. We stopped several times for refreshments,
there being a choice offered of sitting at a table for a regular
meal, or getting a lunch at a bar. The bars were always large and
profusely supplied with " wet goods." The English governor of
Natal resides at Maritzburg. Ladysmith, a little village of iron-
roofed houses, which we reached at half-past five the following
morning, is 3,300 feet above the sea. As we went on I saw that
we had attained an entirely new style of country — undulating
plains, for the most part treeless, and with a range of mountains,
the Drakensburg, to the westward. One part of this range, nearly
due west of Ladysmith, is 10,000 feet high. The Drakensburg
forms the dividing line between Natal and the Orange Free State.
We passed many Kaffir kraals or villages, with their circular en-
closures for cattle, around which were placed their beehive-shaped
grass and reed huts. On the grassy plains were occasionally to be
seen small herds of cattle or flocks of sheep. English or Boer
farms were few and far between. At Newcastle, a small town 268
miles from Durban, and nearly 4,000 feet above it, we halted for
breakfast. From here on, the engineering of the road was quite
remarkable. It was full of loops, horseshoe curves, sometimes
almost complete circles, steep grades, and in one place several
tangents, the locomotive pulling first at one end of the train and
then at the other. Coal of seemingly good quality was being
mined at several points upon the railway between Newcastle and
Charlestown. Four or five miles from the latter we passed through
a rough ridge in a long tunnel. Charlestown I found to be a small
village of two or three long, wide streets, with houses of hasty and
NATAL. 303
4
flimsy construction, and everything betraying a temporary town,
for when the railway is continued it will relapse into merely a sta-
tion. Charlestown is 5,400 feet above the sea-level.
At the side of the depot stood our coach, which I was surprised
to find was of the " Concord " pattern, from New Hampshire, U.
S. A. It was a huge structure, swung upon great leather straps,
and carried twelve passengers inside and six outside. It was
drawn by a team of eight mules and two horses, the latter leading.
We employed mules over the rougher parts of the road, but else-
where the teams consisted entirely of horses. All these animals
were in fine condition, fat, strong and willing. Forty pounds only
of bao'crage was allowed free to each passenger, all above that hav-
ing to be paid for at a dear rate. The baggage having been
weighed and our tickets shown, we took our seats, the coach being
about half full. I therefore was able to obtain an outside seat,
while reserving that in the inside which I had engaged for shelter
in case of rain. There mounted before me two Boers, the one the
driver, the other the conductor, a man whose duty it was to tend
the break and castigate the team. I was surprised to find the
driver employed but two pairs of reins, one being for the wheelers
and the other for the leaders, though the latter passed through
rings in the headstalls of all the others, with an outside rein
attached to each animal. This arrangement was as admirable as
simple, for the team was at all times under complete control. The
driver was moreover exceedingly expert, but no less so was the
conductor, who was armed with a whip of which the bamboo
stock was about twelve feet iu length, with a leather lash of at
least twenty feet. With a team of horses this was not much used,
but with one of mules it was in almost constant application. The
wielding of it is an art which I never tired of watching. The
Boers will hit any part of any animal of the team that they wish,
easily reaching the leaders and slashing them right and left with
lightning rapidity, accompanied with snaps of the lash like the
report of a pistol. They also have many peculiar cries for instruct-
ing or encouraging their animals. The team draws by a long
chain attached to, the pole of the coach. The stages varied from
an hour to an hour and a half in length, and we alternated a trot-
ting with a galloping pace. Our speed would vary from eight to
ten miles an hour. At some of the stations there would be a store
and hotel, and perhaps three or four other houses, at others only
the stable of galvanised iron sheets. The stores contained a very
304 ACTUAL AFRICA.
miscellaneous collection of the necessities of life and travel in the
interior of South Africa. As we drew up the fresh teams would
always be standing in line, ready to be " put to " by their native
hostlers in five or ten minutes' time.
Leaving Charlestown and entering the Transvaal, we found
ourselves in that vast prairie of smoothly undulating land called
the veldt. Not a tree or bush was in sight, nothing but smooth
pasture. The road is merely a track across this vast sea of grass.
It is like the steppes of Central Asia. There are some distant low
hills to be seen, but owing to the wavy character of the surface, ex-
tensive views are not often possible. We would pass many miles
of country without seeing a single house or meeting a person.
The Boer homesteads are neat little structures, always surrounded
by such trees as can be made to grow. We would occasionally
meet their owners driving in a sort of two-wheeled gig, covered
with a canvas hood, and drawn by a pair of horses or maybe a
four-in-hand team. Occasionally we would pass natives walking
to Johannesburg and carrying upon their backs all their worldly
goods, consisting of a pair of shoes, a blanket and a pail or kettle
of food. These people work in the mines for a few months, and
then return home to spend what they have earned, or it may be
to live in luxury for several years. We passed many of the great
wagons going in either direction, loaded with wool and hides, or
with all sorts of merchandise and provisions. The rear part of
many of the wagons was covered with a canvas hood and here the
transport men sleep and keep their cooking utensils and personal
effects. Each wagon has a huge break attached to the rear-wheels
and worked with a screw from behind. The oxen are driven by
a man on foot with a long whip like that already described,
though a native boy, called a forelouper, generally leads the first
yoke by a leather strap attached to their horns. The oxen are
fastened to the wagons by long chains or wire cables, and they
pull with light and comfortable yokes. These animals were all
large and sleek, though I was told that in the dry season they
become very lean and ill-favored. Frequently by the side of the
road you will see several of these teams " outspanned," unharnessed
or unhitched, as we should say, for rest and feeding. At frequent
distances along the road stones are set up informing the transport
men that teams may feed thereabouts, or in other words these are
public outspanning places. The land belongs to Boer farmers,
but they have such enormous farms that they permit this use of
NATAL. 305
their pasture at stated spots. I found the track for the most part
very good, being as smooth and hard as the floor of a house,
though on the latter part of the journey, owing to recent rains
and a rougher surface, we were a good deal shaken and jostled.
During the afternoon we stopped at a wretched little inn for din-
ner. This meal consisted only of chicken, rice and potatoes with
tea and coffee, all bad, and the chicken sufficiently hard and tough
to macadamise a road. We reached the town of Standerton about
seven in the evening, first crossing the Vaal river — the principal
branch of the great Orange river — upon a fine iron bridge resting
on stone pillars. The stream was at that time not more than a
hundred feet in width, but its banks plainly showed that before the
end of the rainy season it became many times that width, with a
swift current that would ill brook obstacles. Standerton is a
straggling sort of village of small single-story houses, with a great
shed of a hotel and a pretty stone church. It has, like all South
African towns, enormously wide streets, and some attempts have
been made at introducing the blue gum or eucalyptus trees of
Australia. In the gardens of several of the houses you see peach
and other fruit trees, though all seem to thrive with difficulty. In
the hotel was a large billiard-table, and a bar which was constantly
crammed with Boer citizens. We had a passable dinner, slept two
in each room, about ten feet square, and were called at half-past
four in the morning to dress, drink a cup of coffee, and re-enter
the coach.
The stars were shining brightly, and we found our overcoats
none too heavy in the fresh light air. At eight we halted fif-
teen minutes to partake of a bad Boer breakfast and then went
on to Heidelburg, which we reached at half-past one. This
town, lying on the slope of a smooth range of hills, is larger and
more important than Standerton, though like the latter its only
fine building is its church. After an unsatisfactory dinner at the
hotel, we started on for Johannesburg. I speak so much of, our
meals because this being one of the shortest and most travelled
routes to the gold-fields, one expects and is entitled to far better
accommodation. The road became wet and heavy but we kept
steadily on, passing herds of splendid cattle and large flocks of
sheep and goats. We crossed the track of the new railway run-
niug between Johannesburg and Pretoria, which was completed a
few months later. And about here we obtained our first view of
a suburb of Johannesburg. The last stage was a short one of but
306 ACTUAL AFRICA.
six miles, and soon after entering upon it, we crossed a ridge from
whose summit we had a good general view of the range of hills
called the Witwatersrand, or simply Rand, for brevity, in which
lies the reef now being worked for gold. This reef extends in a
general east and west direction for some forty or fifty miles, and
all around the horizon we saw the wooden towers containing the
hauling-gear of the shafts, and the smoke-pipes and buildings of
the batteries or stamping mills.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
JOHANNESBURG — THE CITY OF GOLD.
Coming from the almost uninhabited, desolate and lonesome
steppe, the first view of the metropolis of the Transvaal, scattered
over the bottom and sides of an immense valley, is by contrast
very striking. No very large or grand buildings appear, but the
great mass of houses, the activity indicated by the many smoking
chimneys, and the subdued roar of the mills take strong hold of
the imagination. We pass an occasional outlying mill or a dis-
used shaft, see on the distant left the grand-stand of the race
course, in the centre the hospital, and along the range to the right
a long row of batteries. The soil hereabouts is red and sandy,
and these characteristics prevail throughout the city. The latter
is laid out at right-angles, with wide, unpaved and for the most
part unmacadamised streets, with bare sidewalks, lighted by gas
or electricity, and bordered by buildings mostly of a single-story,
which look more like sheds than proper houses. Then there are
pretentious great stores of two and even three stories, some built
of brick, some of iron, a few of stone. The prevailing color is
like the soil, a dark red. The streets are full of people of every
shade and nationality.
We enter the city, our conductor playing quite an extended
tune upon his brass-bugle. Following one of the principal streets
and soon turning up another Ave deliver our mails at the Post
Office, cross a large square, on one side of which is the handsome
brick market, and rounding another corner, halt at the coach
office, our ride of 135 miles completed. I descend and enter a cab
like the gigs of the Boer farmers, already described. They have
two seats, a half of the front one being raised to permit passage to
that in the rear. I am driven to the " Grand National Hotel," a
large rambling, shed-like structure, but the best hostelry in town.
The rooms were very small and crude, though lighted by elec-
307
308 ACTUAL AFRICA.
tricity. The table and wines were good. Before the house ran a
tramway, with cars exactly such as may be seen in the streets of
New York. There were billiard-tables, reading-room, and of
course a bar, with conventional English bar-maid. Buying a
newspaper I saw that amusement for the evening might be sought
in two theatres, an amphitheatre, a gymnastic exhibition, a con-
cert, and several music halls. Just think of it, a city of 50,000
inhabitants has in seven years been built here in the centre of
the steppe, and all the material of the houses and nearly all their
contents have been brought in ox- wagons by tiresome journeys
of from 400 to 1,000 miles from the sea-coast ! Only the magic
power of gold could have effected this.
The Transvaal is not only wonderfully rich in gold, but copper,
silver, lead, iron and coal are all found here in quantities and sit-
uations that will pay for mining. A great belt of auriferous
country, varying both in width and riches, stretches right across
the continent from Delagoa Bay to Walwich Bay. Johannesburg
is the centre of the richest and most promising of these gold-
fields. So far back as 1854 gold is said to have been discovered
in this locality, but no serious efforts were made to turn the dis-
covery to practical account until thirty years afterward. And it
was not until July, 1886, that the government proclaimed the
district public gold-fields and the Witwatersrand or AVhite Waters
Range was then " rushed " by gold seekers from all parts of
South Africa, and soon from all parts of the world. In less than
two years from the proclamation of the fields there were a thou-
sand head of stamps at work. The gold-bearing strata, to speak
geologically, consist of reefs or lodes of conglomerate rock, formed
of quartzose pebbles bedded solidly in disintegrated schists.
This region is cut out into an almost continuous line of claims
for a distance of fifty miles. The deposits in many cases are of
great width, and shafts have been sunk six hundred feet, proving
the stability of the formation. The mines are chiefly in the
hands of a large number of joint-stock companies, over one hun-
dred of which are registered at the Stock Exchange. The quan-
tity of gold mined in the Rand has long since beaten the best
records of California and Australia. Thus the output for the
month previous to my visit was 112,167 ounces. Its value was
nearly $2,000,000. As a rule each month's supply has shown a
steady increase on that of its predecessor. The total output for
ten months of the year 1892 was 234,423 ounces greater than
JOHANNESBURG— THE CITY OF GOLD. 309
for the corresponding months of the previous year. It was
thouo-ht by experts that the amount of 200,000 ounces a month
would be reached within three years' time. The shipment of gold
from South Africa during 1893 amounted to $27,500,000 ! The
output from the Witwatersrand district for May, 1894, amounted
to 169,773 ounces, worth about $3,000,000. The crushing power
is constantly being increased — one mill now has 1G0 stamps in
operation. I visited this mill and its mine, one of the oldest and
richest in the neighborhood of Johannesburg. It is the property
of the Langalate Estate and Gold Mining Company. The bat-
teries in operation are a grand sight, and the clatter is appalling.
The stamps have been furnished by the great Chicago firm of
Fraser, Chalmers & Co. Very much of the other machinery has
been provided by American firms. There are three shafts to the
mine. On the upper levels the rock is a sort of coarse red con-
glomerate or pudding-stone, but below this a hard gray sandstone
is reached. There are about 1,000 natives and 200 Europeans em-
ployed in the mine and mills. The latter run continuously night
and day, and Sundays, but the mine is closed on Sundays.
Street scenes are even more interesting in Johannesburg than
in Durban. The great squares are full of long ox-teams and huge
wagons. They come into town in the morning with produce of
all sorts, which is frequently sold by auction. Saturday is the day
on which extensive general auctions are also held in the plazas or
squares, every conceivable article is thus offered and sales are gen-
erally brisk, if prices are not always high. Besides the single- and
double-deck tram-cars and the cabs or two-wheeled gigs, you see
elegant barouches and victorias, many fine saddle-horses, and not
a few bicycles. On the sidewalks ladies fashionably attired are
eagerly engaged in shopping, Boers and miners swing recklessly
along, and natives of many tribes peer like children into full store
windows. During business hours, which are short, there is a great
rush and turmoil, and the street in front of the Stock Exchange
is usually blocked with a crowd of excited men, either discussing
matters in groups, or calling out their " bids " and " takes " for
mining shares. The Exchange is a large and well-appointed
building where bulls and bears, as in Europe and America, do
congregate and vociferate. The two little theatres of Johannes-
burg would be ornaments in either London or Paris and are largely
attended by ladies and gentlemen in full evening dress. Life is
interesting in Johannesburg and would be pleasant were it not for
310 ACTUAL AFRICA.
the almost constant dust storms which prevail. These are often
so dense you cannot see the buildings across the street. Thunder
storms are also fierce and frequent, and much damage is done by
lightning.
I paid a flying visit to Pretoria, distant thirty-five miles to the
north. The railway was not completed, but the coach made three
trips a day, taking five hours for the journey. I started about three
in the afternoon. We had a full load of passengers. We soon left
the suburbs of Johannesburg and entered the veldt, a rolling prai-
rie which continued all the way to the capital. The latter portion
of the ride was made quite in the dark, in fact we neither could
see our leaders nor the road, but on we went at full speed just the
same. The electric lights of the city shone forth for a long dis-
tance, and exactly on schedule time we dashed up to the coaching-
office, amid the usual excessive quantity of bugling from the con-
ductor. A good little hotel was near at hand, and there I found
accommodation. Pretoria lies in a large uneven valley, nearly
everywhere surrounded by low grassy hills. Its appearance from
the flanks of any of these is very pretty, and the profusion of green
foliage is in marked contrast to Johannesburg. The great major-
ity of the trees have been planted. You are sure to take delight
in the willows and the great blue-gums. The city is only a quar-
ter of the size of Johannesburg. It is regularly laid out, and the
streets are illumined at night by the electric light. In general
appearance the business quarters are like those of the " city of
gold " but the dwellings are of a better class and are very attract-
ive, with their large gardens and fruit trees and bright flowers.
The most conspicuous building is nearly in the centre of the
town, and occupies an entire square. It is the Government House,
three stories in height and built of brick covered with cement,
which gives it at a distance the appearance of gray sandstone. It
faces the principal square and the largest church. It is, however, a
rather curious sample of architecture and seems too ambitious for
its surroundings. It cost $750,000. On the central facade is the
motto, in raised gilt letters : " Eight makes Might "—or rather its
Dutch equivalent : " Eeudragt Maakt Magt." Besides all the gov-
ernment offices — save those of the law courts — it contains the two
Chambers, called the First and Second Volksraad. These are
rather plain halls, with stained-glass windows. The seats for the
members are arranged in circles facing the platform, the tables
and desks being covered simply with green baize. On the floors lie
JOHANNESBURG— THE CITY OF GOLD. 311
rough matting. The walls of the First Chamber are decorated with
portraits of President Kriiger and General Joubert, in their cere-
monial dresses. The members of the Volksraad are elected by their
constituents for four years. There are thirty-four representatives
in all. The Executive consists of the President, who is elected for
five years by a general election throughout the State, the State
Secretary elected by the Volksraad for four years, and four un-
official members, chosen for three years by the two chambers.
President Kriiger was just completing his second term of office,
and was a candidate for a third. His opponent was General Jou-
bert, who had long been the Commandant-General. Kriiger
seemed likely to be chosen, though it was thought the polling
would be very close. (He was re-elected in April, 1893). The
President lives in a plain little single-story house, backed by large
trees, but situated directly on one of the principal streets. In one
part of the city is a fine large park, surrounding which are the
best residences. At another side is the race-course, with commo-
dious grand-stand. I passed the prison, near which, enclosed by
a high brick wall and all but covered by a great orchard of peach
trees, stood the public gallows, the black cross-beam alone loom-
ing ominously. Living is very dear in Pretoria, as also in Jo-
hannesburg. You get a good variety of meats in the hotels,
though but few fruits and vegetables. There is some reason for
the high cost of all such manufactured goods as come up from the
coast ports in ox- wagons ; there is less reason for the absence of
market-gardeners' stuff, for the soil and climate are well adapted
to almost every sort. Travel also, both by coach and rail, and
along the coast by steamer, is very costly. Pretoria is in frequent
connection with all the neighboring mines and towns by coach,
and in a few weeks there will be communication with Johannes-
burg and Cape Town by rail. It is also connected by coach with
Bechuanaland to the west, and with Matabeleland and Mashona-
land to the north. A weekly line of coaches runs through direct
from Pretoria to Fort Salisbury, in Mashonaland — at present the
most northerly outpost town of the gold regions — for $140., doing
the journey in sixteen days. One's food would cost $30. addi-
tional. Fort Salisbury is in about latitude 18° South, nearly due
west of the Portuguese town of Quilimane, and due east of, and
about 400 miles distant from, the celebrated Victoria Falls of the
Zambesi river.
Having returned to Johannesburg, a day or two later I left for
312 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Kimberley and the diamond mines. The railway does not go
directly there by the shortest route, but one has to pass through
the Orange Free State from north to south, and having entered
Cape Colony, to cross westwardly to a railroad which extends from
Cape Town to Vryburg in British Bechuanaland and passes Kim-
berley en route. You reach this line at De Aar Junction, almost
at a point equidistant from Johannesburg and Cape Town. The
time consumed on the journey of 1,013 miles between these two
latter points is fifty-six hours, and the first-class fare, exclusive of
meals and " tips," is £11. 12s. Every Monday a " saloon sleeping
and dining train," consisting of first-class carriages only, leaves Jo-
hannesburg by this route, and every day of the week there is an
ordinary train of three classes, which completes the distance in
about five hours' more time. The line had only been opened
directly through to Cape Town about two months before my
visit to the Transvaal. When extended to Pretoria it will cover
a total distance of 1,050 miles. There was talk also of the West-
ern System, or Kimberley route, being continued to Johannesburg,
a distance of 250 miles. All these railroads are of a three-and-
one-half foot gauge, are of single-track, and belong to the Cape
Colony Government, with the exception of the roads in the Trans-
vaal, which are being built for that government by the " Nether-
lands Company of South Africa." My train started at the rather
uncomfortable hour of 5.15 a. m. There were about a dozen car-
riages, drawn by a very powerful locomotive with six small driv-
ing-wheels. Some of the carriages were labelled as passing through
direct to Port Elizabeth or East London, ports on the southeast
coast, or to Cape Town or to Kimberley. Then there were a num-
ber of dilapidated old freight-cars which had been cheaply fitted
for excursions. These were at that time running to the local and
foreign exhibition being held at Kimberley, to which cheap return
rates were being offered by all the railroads. I found the Orange
Free State Bailway to be well made, with a stone-ballasted track,
substantial stone and iron bridges, and frequently pretty and com-
modious little station-houses, built of a hard cut stone. All along
the road were wretched huts of Kaffirs, who had been employed
in building it, or were now engaged in keeping it in order. Some
of the huts were made of pieces of sheet iron, others of iron sleep-
ers, others of old rugs. The country through which we passed all
day was simply the veldt, a great treeless rolling prairie, with but
very few farmhouses, and still fewer villages. The stations ordi-
H. E. the President of the Transvaal.
JOHANNESBURG— THE CITY OF GOLD. 313
narily contained only the buildings appropriate to the railway
service, and a miserable little store, hotel and bar. Our speed was
slow and we made long stops at seemingly unimportant places.
Meals of not very good quality, and with little or no attendance,
were served at the uniform rate of two-and-sixpence per head.
Occasionally you might see several ox-wagons with their great
teams "trekking," or travelling, away across the plains. On leav-
ing Johannesburg we passed for a long distance through a mining
region. There were plenty of shafts and mills, and great heaps
of " tailings." These were gold diggings, but upon reaching the
frontier of the Orange Free State I noticed many coal mines.
About three o'clock the next morning we passed through Bloem-
fontein, the capital of the Orange Free State, a small town of low
houses, though of a picturesque appearance, in strong contrast
to the surrounding prairie. The government of this State is car-
ried on through legislative powers vested in an assembly called the
Volksraad, as in the Transvaal. There are fifty-eight members,
who are elected by their constituents for the term of four years.
The Executive power rests in the President, who is elected by
suffrage of burghers throughout the State.
Going on from Bloemfonteiu, the character of the country
changed somewhat, being much more rough and hilly. This kind
of surface is here styled the Karroo, and it is mostly covered with
a low scrub called Karroo bush. In this part of the State I saw
many great flocks of sheep and goats, and a few of ostriches. The
latter sitting close together, with their long necks craning directly
upwards, made an odd sight. The railway is not yet fenced, and
the engineer had frequently to blow his whistle to scare away ani-
mals, and sometimes we had to come to a " dead-stop," since the
railway company are obliged to pay for any destruction of life.
The line will eventually be fenced, as are the Natal railways. The
southern border of the State is the Orange river, which we crossed
upon a fine iron-girder and stone-pier bridge, about 1,200 feet long
and fifty or sixty feet above the water. The river is crooked, very
muddy, and not very deep, but subject to floods in the rainy sea-
son that greatly increase its depth and velocity. We were now in
Cape Colony proper and still in the Karroo, great undulating
plains from which spring here and there curious peaked or table-
topped hills with almost precipitous flanks. Not a tree, other
than such as have been planted, appears. In the valley of the
Orange river and other smaller streams which we crossed there was
22
314 ACTUAL AFRICA.
a little verdure, consisting of dwarf trees and bush. At the De
Aar Junction we found a train that had just arrived from Kim-
berley, and was going on to Cape Town, after attaching several
carriages of our train destined for the same point. From De Aar
to Kimberley the distance is 147 miles. Late in the evening we
crossed the Orange river again, and by a bridge similar to that just
mentioned. To sum up, the greater part of the country through
which we passed from Johannesburg to De Aar and to Kimberley
was simply a vast, wind-swept, treeless, grass- or bush-covered up-
land steppe. We reached Kimberley at half-past two the follow-
ing morning, and I was driven at once to a comfortable little
three-story brick hotel, situated near Market Square.
CHAPTEE XXXV.
THE DIAMOND DISTRICT.
Kimberley is the capital and the centre of the greatest dia-
mond mining district in the world. It is situated on an open
windy plain, about 4,000 feet above the sea-level, and has a popula-
tion of 30,000. Here are t nun ways, the electric light, cabs, good
shops, hotels, theatres and daily newspapers. The city is irregu-
larly planned, but has smooth macadamised streets. Its suburb of
Beaoonsfield, to the south, is laid out at right-angles. The houses
are most of them but single-story, of brick or iron, and with iron
roofs. Around the residences, which are walled, trees and flowers
and lawns have been planted, but they are maintained with great
difficulty, owing principally to lack of water. There is a small
Botanical Garden, which upon the very day I visited it was being
devoured by an enormous cloud of locusts. The flower section
especially suffered, and was all but completely removed during the
hour of my stay. The locusts were short and thick, and of a dark
yellow color. They had recently been making great ravages in
the Orange Free State, and had destroyed nearly all the growing
crops.
On the extreme northern edge of the town is the famous Kim-
berley Mine, now a vast hole of a tunnel shape, whose surface
covers fifteen acres and whose depth is G50 feet. A few men
were working near the bottom, where a shaft has been sunk, but
the great cobweb of wire ropes, with which the diamondiferous
soil was formerly hoisted, was all gone. The sides of the huge
funnel seemed composed of loose earth, small rocks and stones.
The mineral coloring was quite pretty. There were tints of light
and dark blue, black, gray, and various shades of red. This is the
largest open mine in the world. Upon its northern edge work is
still going on by means of shafts, inclines and levels. Beyond
these are the washing-machines and the great depositing floors.
315
316 ACTUAL AFRICA.
The De Beer's Mine, with its depositing and washing sites, and its
" compound " or enclosure for the native miners, lies upon the
western side of the town, while directly south of Beaconsfield and
quite near together, are the Bulfontein and Dutoitspan Mines. A
circle three-and-one-half miles in diameter would enclose the four,
and the great diamond output of past years has been chiefly from
these four mines. Upon the discovery of diamonds here in 1870,
the land was divided into claims under government control, and
then these claims became the property of many companies. These
have now, however, for the most part been united under one vast
control — the De Beer's Consolidated Mines, Limited. Their cap-
ital is $20,000,000, and their present annual output, the value of
diamonds exported, is of about the same amount, and this appears
to be the maximum the market can take without unduly affecting
the price. It is said that during the past twenty years there have
been exported from South Africa over fifty millions of carats of
diamonds, of a total value of 1375,000,000. Bearing in mind that
a carat equals four grains, the weight of diamonds exported has
amounted to about fifteen tons ! If piled in a heap, they would
form a pyramid 6 feet high, with a base 9x9 feet, or they would
fill a box 5x5x6 feet. Before the diamond mines were discov-
ered more than three-quarters of the total exports of Cape Colony
— which amounted to about two millions sterling per annum — con-
sisted of wool. To-day the exports are six-fold that sum, to which
diamonds contribute more than one-half, and wool but a fifth.
These mines are situated about 650 miles northeast of Cape
Town and 500 miles from the sea-coast. The diamonds were first
obtained on the surface in a yellow earth, the result of the decom-
position of strata. Then going down they were found in a sort of
tough blue clay, a hard lava-like earth which extends to a great
depth, as a shaft sunk 1,200 feet shows nothing but this species of
diamond-bearing soil. At a depth of 600 feet hard rock has been
found containing some shale. It is said that this rock has been
altered by the action of heat produced by penetration of volcanic
forces through it, and this heat causing the liberation of some
volatile hydrocarbon, has produced the diamond. The funnel of
blue ground, surrounded by various hard and soft rocks and mixed
with angular pieces of carbonaceous shale, garnet, mica, etc., with
the crater-like mouth, support this hypothesis of a volcanic origin of
the mines. And this agrees with the popular theory of the forma-
tion of diamonds — an outburst of heat or force from below, result-
^S,*'
-*-\ ■»
TEE DIAMOND DISTRICT. 317
ing in the conversion of carbon into the crystalline form which we
call diamonds. At Kimberley the diamonds occur in a great va-
riety of colors — green, blue, pink, brown, yellow, orange and white
— and in a variety of tints from pure white to dark yellow, from
light to deep brown. The precious stones vary in size from that
of a pin's head to one that was found a few years ago in the De
Beer's Mine, which weighed in the rough 428 §■ carats and after
cutting 228£. This is undoubtedly the largest brilliant in the
world. It measured when uncut 1-J inches through the longest
axis, and 1\ inches square. This remarkable stone was exhibited
at the Paris Exposition of 1889. There are many other famous
South African gems, but I have space to mention only two. In
18G9 a Dutchman purchased a stone from a Gricqua native for
$2,000. worth of goods, and immediately sold it for $50,000. Its
value to-day is estimated at $125,000. It was the famous " Star
of South Africa," a pure white diamond of 83£ carats, and is at
present amongst the jewels of the English Countess of Dudley.
What is called the " Tiffany " yellow diamond, the largest stone
in America, and the finest yellow diamond in the world, weighing
125 carats and valued at $100,000, was found in the Kimberley
Mine.
The mining processes are as follows : The blue ground is
hoisted by the shafts and being emptied into iron cars is drawn
by machinery to the depositing or pulverising floors. That of the
De Beer's Mine is three miles by one in extent — fairly level land,
cleared of bush, rolled and made as smooth and hard as possible.
Here the blue ground is spread out to be pulverised by exposure
to the air and sun. This requires a period of from three to six
months, varying according to the season of the year and the
amount of rain. The next step is that of passing the blue stuff
through rotary washing machines where the lighter portions are
washed away and the heavier remain. In this washing process
one hundred tons of blue ground are concentrated into one load
of diamondiferous stuff. After being washed in the machines,
the diamonds are cleaned of any extraneous matter by boiling
them in a mixture of nitrate and sulphuric acids. They are then
carefully assorted with reference to size, color and purity. Parcels
are made up and sold to local buyers, who represent the leading
diamond merchants of Europe. What is called the Diamond
Market, at Kimberley, consists of several streets of the offices of
these merchants. The size of a parcel varies from a few thousands
318 ACTUAL AFRICA.
to tens of thousands of carats. In one instance, a few years ago,
nearly a quarter of a million of carats was sold in one lot to one
buyer. These parcels are sent to Europe by registered post. There
are about 12,000 natives at present working in these mines, under
the supervision of some 1,300 Europeans. The natives receive
$5. a week. Work goes on both day and night by different gangs
of men. It is said that $5,000,000 are annually expended for labor
in the mines, shops and offices. Formerly there was a great deal
of diamond stealing by native diggers and buying by white mer-
chants. It is even told that these thieves stole one quarter of the
entire yield. Improved methods of surveillance are rapidly dimin-
ishing this loss. Now none but authorised agents are permitted
to purchase or possess rough diamonds, a large detective force is
employed, and the natives are domiciled and confined in " com-
pounds," or villages, enclosed by high walls or fences, with doors
made of sheet iron.
The deepest shaft in the mining district is that of the Kimber-
ley — 1,200 feet. The hauling machinery here was manufactured
by the Chicago house of Fraser, Chalmers & Co., and is of course
of the latest and best pattern. Near this shaft is what is called
the " mechanical haulage," a sort of endless chain by which loaded
trucks are carried a mile or so to the pulverising floors and at the
same time unloaded ones are returned to the mine. Here I saw
one of the " compounds " of the native diggers. It was a great
open square lined by iron sheds and surrounded by a high iron
fence. Entrance to this compound is had only from the shaft,
the men thus going to and returning from work in narrow under-
ground passages. The period of service for which they engage is
usually three months. During this time they may have special
permission to visit their relatives or friends for a few days if de-
sirable, but otherwise they are in effect prisoners. They, however,
do not object to their isolation as they are thus preserved from
temptation to drink, and have an opportunity to save some of their
wages, which are for their limited wants comparatively high. Fre-
quently they come and beg to be taken into the compound. In
the one of which I am speaking there were 2,500 men and boys,
mostly belonging to the Basuto tribe, splendid specimens phys-
ically and going all but entirely naked, save only when visiting
their homes. Ample space is allotted to each, though several are
put together in a room. They seem to have very few personal
effects or domestic paraphernalia — a suit of coarse cotton, a blanket
f*,
" >. » 'IS***"*^
Kimberley Mine, 1SSS.
THE DIAMOND DISTRICT. 319
or two, and a few kettles and pans suffice. Everything is done
for their comfort and cleanliness by the company. There is a
shop in which they can buy their simple food of appointed persons
at reasonable prices. A general kitchen is also provided, but they
seem to prefer doing their cooking each before his own doorway,
buying firewood from a great store of it heaped in the centre of
the compound. Near this is a place set apart for their washing.
The diggers are almost invariably docile, a good-natured lot of
children. A curious effect is produced by a wire netting which
extends over a large part of the compound. This has been ar-
ranged to prevent any one throwing diamonds concealed about
their persons to pals waiting outside the barriers. There are a
hospital and a post-office on the premises.
In the general office of the company, I visited the valuing-
rooms, where the diamonds are sorted by size and color in little
heaps upon white paper placed on long narrow benches under
strong light. Here they are viewed by the local buyers and prices
are arranged. The transactions are naturally frequently very large.
A single sale of $750,000 was made the day before my visit. The
De Beer's Mine, Works, Compounds and Floors are enormous,
covering several square miles of surface. This mine, which closely
resembles the great funnel of the Kimberley, is not now worked
in the open. I visited all parts, and witnessed many interesting
processes. The machinery of the " Pulsator," where the diamonds
are found, and that of the washing-machine is, however, too intri-
cate for detailed description here. The smooth pulverisation fields,
covered about a foot deep by blue earth, extended away almost to
the horizon. . On one side were huge gray hills composed of " tail-
ings," or soil from which the diamonds had been extracted. A
little locomotive was hauling a train of trucks loaded with the
precious gravel. Smoke issued from many chimneys, and the
clatter of machinery resounded on all sides. I was in the
centre of the mining works of the greatest stock company in the
world.
While at Kimberley I also paid several visits to the " South Af-
rican and International Exhibition." The buildings and grounds
occupied a considerable space on the outskirts of the town, and
neither were very impressive. The buildings were merely tempo-
rary sheds, while as to the grounds the great difficulty to make
anything else than coarse shrubs live and thrive was only too ap-
parent. The Exhibition was open every day except Sundays, from
320 ACTUAL AFRICA.
11 A. m. to 11 p. m. General admission was two shillings. Besides
the railway excursion tickets, with accompanying six to twelve free
admissions, there were the usual enticements of organ recitals,
promenade concerts, side-shows, children's games, and illumina-
tions and fireworks. The Exhibition was a considerable success.
It had only been open a little over two months and had already
been visited by 300,000 people. There were eight hundred gold,
silver and bronze medals awarded to successful exhibitors. A
striking object in the centre of the main building was a great yel-
low shaft — perhaps thirty feet high and three feet square at the
base — which represented the bulk of all the gold so far taken from
the Witwatersrand reef of the Transvaal.
From Kimberley I went direct by rail to Cape Town, the dis-
tance being 647 miles and the time consumed on the journey
thirty-four hours. We reached De Aar Junction late in the after-
noon and attaching several carriages of the Johannesburg train,
which arrived at the same time, we went on in a southwesterly di-
rection. The country consisted still of great bush-covered prairies,
interspersed with many ranges of low hills. There were also many
isolated flat-topped, or sometimes peaked, hills which from a dis-
tance had the appearance of islands rising from a great green sea.
During the night we passed Beaufort West, a town of considerable
importance, on the banks of the Gamka river, and situated about
2,800 feet above the level of the sea. Going on we halted at a
number of stations whose names were supplemented with the word
" Eoads." It seems many of the villages are distant from the rail-
way—one of them Fraserburg, as much as sixty-seven miles — and
at the stations there are simply roads which lead to them. Farm-
houses were few and far between. In the Karroo were many large
flocks of sheep and goats, this being a great wool and mohair pro-
ducing region. The sheep farms of Cape Colony are of very great
extent, running from 3,000 to 5,000 acres each. Beyond Beaufort
West I saw flocks of ostriches almost as frequently as of sheep. It
was always interesting to observe these great birds quietly feeding,
strutting about, or squatting in the sand, with their long slim
necks reared aloft. Ostrich farming has long been a staple indus-
try of Cape Colony. In 1865 there were but eighty domesticated
birds in the Colony ; now the number is put at 150,000. Naturally
therefore the price of ostriches has fallen very much of late years.
Whereas formerly they fetched $1,000 a pair, now a young one may
be bought for $10. The total weight of feathers exported from
THE DIAMOND DISTRICT. 321
the Cape during the past thirty years is more than one thousand
tons, and their value about $50,000,000.
We arrived at the village of Matjesfontein at eight o'clock the
following morning and were served a most abominable breakfast.
I may say that the food, beverages and cigars at all the railway
stations in South Africa are especially bad, though very high
charges are made for everything. Matjesfontein is about 3,600
feet above sea-level. From this point we g:adually descended,
until at Cape Town we were at the level of the sea. We left be-
hind the " great " Karroo and passed through several large villages
with steep rocky ranges on either side, called the Hex River
Mountains. These are utterly devoid of vegetation and seem as if
nearly altogether composed of lava. The highest peaks were
slightly flecked with snow. These mountains are very picturesque,
frowning savagely above level valleys covered with verdure and
crops of grain, and dotted with pretty farm-houses. From the top
of one range we had a magnificent view of what is specifically
styled the Hex River Valley, some 2,000 feet below. The road
descends by a stupendous feat of engineering. At one place it
has to make an enormous triangle. For upwards of twenty miles
it is very steep in gradient, very sharp in curve, deep in rock-
cutting, with several long tunnels, many high embankments and
some great gullies spanned by fine iron viaducts. In the steepest
places the grade is one foot in forty feet. Within a distance of
thirty-six miles you descend 2,500 feet.
Leaving the beautiful Hex River Valley we entered upon an
enormous plain, surrounded by rough rocky mountains, where the
bush of the Karroo had given place to rich grass and great fields
of oats and rye. We halted at the pretty town of Worcester,
thickly ensconced in trees, amongst which very large blue gums
were prominent. There are no natural-grown shade trees in this
part of Cape Colony, everything has been planted and is sustained
by great labor and care. Around Worcester were gardens of beans,
potatoes, cabbages and lettuce. Wellington was a similar town,
some fifty or sixty miles further on. And then we came to a chain
of mountains, called the Paarl because they were fancifully sup-
posed to resemble a string of pearls. These mountains supply
granite for the public buildings of Cape Town. There is a long
line of neat farm-houses along their base, where grapes are largely
cultivated. In fact, the Paarl is the centre of a famous wine dis-
trict. Then we had a great stretch of the Karroo again, with the
322 ACTUAL AFRICA.
massive Table Mountain, half-covered with clouds, in view directly
ahead. Next I caught sight of a wide sandy beach and the At-
lantic, and realised that I had crossed South Africa.
We passed through the outskirts of Cape Town with glimpses
of Table Bay, a long breakwater and several large steamers upon
the right and the Lion's Head and more distant Devil's Peak upon
the left. Our journey terminated in a fine, large two-story station,
and I at once took a hansom — the city is well supplied with a
serviceable variety — for one of the many good hotels. The thor-
oughly English character of most of the houses struck my atten-
tion— though in the flat roofs and yellow-colored walls there was
also an oriental flavor — but the words " Coffee Eoom " on the doors
of a cheerful refectory did not lessen my first impression.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
CAPE TOWN.
Cape Town is situated in nearly the 34th degree of south lati-
tude. It is built on the steep slopes of Table Mountain and Lion's
Head, and a level expanse around the circular shore of Table Bay.
The perpendicular sides of the dark, gray, rocky, flat-topped Table
Mountain, flanked by the two other eminences known as Lion's
Head and Devil's Peak, make a grand background for the town.
Table Mountain reaches 3,850 feet above the sea ; the lower part
is composed of granite, the upper of sandstone. When the wind
is from the southeast a peculiar sight is witnessed upon the top
and edge of this mountain, which is then fringed by a thin line of
fleecy cloud. This lying flat and low on top, and gracefully falling
over the edges, has happily been called the " table-cloth." The
slopes of this mountain were once thickly wooded, but now the
comparatively small amount of vegetation seen is mostly the result
of planting. The streets of Cape Town are regularly and well
laid out, macadamised or paved with wood, and lighted by gas.
In general appearance it is like an English provincial city. There
are large and well-built stores of two and even three stories, which
are mostly of brick and stucco or cement. In nearly the centre
of the town is the Botanical Garden, a beautiful mass of green,
and in the upper or more modern portions— called the Gardens, a
belt of foliage here surrounding the city proper — are the greater
part of the English dwellings, many of them handsome cottages
or pretentious villas with slate roofs, and standing in enclosures
prettily arranged with lawns and flower beds. Besides the cabs
and hansoms there are several lines of tramway and omnibuses.
The hansoms, with their white hoods and fanciful names in addi-
tion to their numbers, are a prominent feature, standing in long
lines in the centres of the principal streets. At one side near the
shores of the bay is the parade-ground and near it the old Dutch
323
324 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Castle, a fort laid out by Van Riebeek, the first Dutch governor,
240 years ago. This is a quaint specimen of the ancient citadel,
built of brick and stone, in pentagonal form, with ravelins, glacis,
ditch, gate, sally-port and all the other features characteristic of
old fortifications. The military headquarters of the commander of
H. B. M.'s forces and his staff are at present in the Castle. At the
other extremity of the town are the docks, which are very exten-
sive and commodious, and the breakwater, which is nearly two-
thirds of a mile long. Ten million dollars have been spent on the
various harbor works.
Cape Town is now misnamed " town," for it is a city of 62,000
inhabitants. The population is very mixed — white and colored,
passing gradually from a pale yellow to a deep black. There are
English, Dutch, Malays, Indians, Kaffirs, and many half-castes. A
large proportion of the white inhabitants are of Dutch, German
and French origin, mostly descendants of the original settlers.
The white population of Cape Colony is 350,000 ; while blacks,
half-castes and others bring up this number to a gross total of
1,500,000. The water supply of Cape Town is excellent. There
are several large reservoirs in the upper part of the city which are
supplied from springs and rain-water running down the face of
Table Mountain. Iron pipes distribute the water everywhere, and
the pressure on the hydrants is sufficient to throw a good volume
seventy feet in the air. This is most useful for the local fire-
brigade. Some of the business and public buildings are handsome
and appropriate. In the principal thoroughfare — Adderly Street
is an especially striking edifice, the headquarters of the Stand-
ard Bank of South Africa. It cost $160,000. The style is strictly
classic, with massive facade and portico, and a domed tower in the
centre ninety feet high, surmounted with a marble figure of Brit-
annia. Further up the same street is the capacious Dutch Re-
formed Church, with its quaint old vane-topped Flemish spire.
It contains an interesting pulpit carved from timber brought from
India. Two enormous lions support the pulpit, which is orna-
mented with the Netherlands coat-of-arms, an upright anchor on
a shield, with cable on either side. This church might properly
be called the " Colonial Westminster Abbey," for beneath its pave-
ment lie the bones of no less than seven Dutch governors of the
Cape.
In several of the streets the old-fashioned Dutch mansions of
the early colonists may still be seen. The houses are spacious and
CAPE TOWN. 325
lofty, with flat roofs, massive white or yellow colored fronts, nu-
merous windows with very small panes, and a terrace or stoop
(stoep) rising from the street at the entrance. The extension of
Adderly Street to the south is called Government Avenue. This
runs in the direction of Table Mountain for a distance of three-
quarters of a mile, a fine, broad, gravelled walk through rows of
grand old oaks, a veritable tunnel of glossy green foliage. These
now massive gnarled trees were set out as young plants over two
hundred years ago by one of the old Dutch governors, Van der
Stell by name. The new Parliament Houses and the Public Li-
brary and Museum are close to the entrance of this avenue, and
adjoining it are the Botanical Garden, the Government House,
and the Fine Art Gallery. Government House is the official resi-
dence of the Governor of Cape Colony. It is a heavy, irregular
building of brick and stucco, colored yellow. It was originally
commenced by the Dutch officials more than a century and a half
ago, and has been altered and modernised from time to time since.
Before the entrance there is a military patrol, day and night. The
rooms are large but very plainly furnished. On either side and
in the rear of the house are beautiful flower gardens and many
shade trees.
The handsomest of the public buildings of Cape Town is that
containing the Houses of Parliament. It stands in neatly-laid-out
gardens, surrounded by a high iron fence. Before one of the side
entrances is a marble statue of Queen Victoria. This is about ten
feet in height, and represents Her Majesty in robes of state. In
the right hand is the sceptre, in the left the orb. A diadem is on
the head, and the ribbon and star of the Garter are conspicuous.
The likeness is said to be good, and the statue as a whole has a
pleasing effect. The edifice is of brick, with pilasters and window-
dressings of Portland cement. There are three stories, and the
base is of Paarl granite. The general style of the architecture re-
minds one of the palaces at Versailles. The principal front is 264
feet in length. The portico is of massive dimensions, with a com-
manding flight of granite steps. Passing in by the main entrance
I found myself in a lofty hall or vestibule with a tessellated pave-
ment, and a gallery and many pillars in imitation of dark gray
granite. Adjoining this hall is the Parliamentary Library, a fine
apartment about 50 X 30 feet, with two galleries. There are also
on this floor a number of committee rooms and offices for the
President and Speaker, and officials of the Legislature. There are
326 ACTUAL AFRICA.
also refreshment, smoking, reading, and billiard rooms for the
comfort and diversion of members. The two debating chambers
are in the right and left pavilions. They are of the same size —
67 X 36 feet — or only ten feet in length and breadth less than the
House of Commons in London. The Upper-House or Legislative
Council Chamber is upholstered in red leather, and the chair of
the President is of fine carved-wood. In the Lower-House or
Assembly Chamber, the benches are covered with green leather,
and the Speaker's chair is also elaborately carved. Behind it,
upon the wall, hangs a large portrait of the Queen. Both these
halls are very simply and plainly frescoed. The ground-floor of
the building is occupied by the premier department of the govern-
ment, the offices of the Colonial Secretary and other officials, and
by fire-proof safes in which the records of Parliament and the
archives of the Colony are deposited. The entire cost of the
building, furniture and grounds has been $1,100,000. Parliament
meets once in each year, and oftener if necessary. Its sessions are
usually held during the months from May to August. There are
seventy-four members in the Assembly and twenty-two in the
Council.
The Public Library and South African Museum are located in
a large building of Grecian design, situated nearly opposite the
Houses of Parliament. The library contains about 50,000 vol-
umes, in every branch of science and literature. In addition to
the library itself — which is free to the public for consultation,
though a subscription of $10. per annum is made by those who
wish to take out books — there are several valuable collections
which have either been bequeathed or purchased. One of these
has some 4,500 volumes of a rare character, including 130 manu-
scripts on vellum or parchment. In this collection are two very
old maps of the world, the one dated 1489 and the other 1546,
both of which, singularly enough, show the Central African lakes.
There are also very valuable manuscripts of the native languages
of Africa, Polynesia and New Zealand, and many photographs and
paintings of types of the South Africans. In the wing opposite
that occupied by the library is the collection of curiosities forming
the Museum, which is free to the public. This is chiefly devoted
to products of South Africa, and combines zoology, geology and
ethnology. It occupies a large hall with two galleries, and is a
very interesting and creditable exhibit. It is supported by an an-
nual grant of $5,000 from the public funds, and some special sub-
CAPE TOWN. 327
scriptions of private individuals. The Botanic Garden faces the
Public Library and Museum building on the north. It covers
some fourteen acres, and is well worth a visit. It is laid out with
trees, flowers, vegetables, shrubberies, conservatories, nurseries,
fountains, statues, and a herbarium. It is said to contain up-
wards of 8,000 varieties of plants, embracing rare exotic produc-
tions, as well as specimens of the indigenous flora. The greater
part are designated by neat, enamelled iron labels. The sole re-
maining " public building," and dating from the olden time, is the
Town Hall, situated on a square in the central part of the city.
Outwardly it is a plain, two-storied, stuccoed structure, built in
the heavy Dutch style with a balcony and massive stoop, and with
large windows filled with many small panes. Its corner stone was
laid in 1755. It is now used by the Mayor and Town Council to
carry on the municipal administration. The Council Chamber is
the only interesting room. This occupies the front of the build-
ing on the second story. It is a very plain and bare oblong room,
with ceiling supported by thick rough-hewn rafters, and floor de-
void of carpeting. The chair of the Mayor, which faces a horse-
shoe oval of desks, is surmounted by the old coat-of-arms — shield,
anchor and cable, carved in wood. On the wall behind the chair
is a painting of the first Dutch governor, Van Riebeek. Above
the door leading out upon the balcony is a very curious old carv-
ing in wood, representing a couple of cannon, pyramids of balls,
and kegs of gunpowder. In the centre is the coat-of-arms, with
an inscription in Dutch. The present Council meets once a week.
The suburbs of Cape Town extend for long distances in two
opposite directions, one to the southeast around the side of Table
Mountain, and the other towards the northwest, along Table Bay,
and to Sea Point fronting directly upon the ocean. In the former
direction the buildings stretch some ten miles, in the latter three.
The capital is connected with both by railway, and with Sea Point
also by tramway. From the east side of Table Mountain the rail-
way runs on towards the south for a distance of twenty-three miles
to Simon's Bay, a great naval station, where generally a half dozen
British men-of-war are maintained. Cape Town is situated upon
the northern portion of a long narrow peninsula whose southern
extremity, forty miles distant, is the world-famous Cape of Good
Hope. This great cliff bears a lighthouse whose top is eight hun-
dred feet above the surface of the ocean, and holds a splendid re-
volving light which may be seen thirty-six miles at sea. About
328 ACTUAL AFRICA.
one hundred miles southeast of this cape is that of Agulhas, which
is the most southerly point of Africa, and not that of Good Hope,
as many people seem to imagine. I paid a visit to Simon's Bay
and returning about two-thirds of the way — to Wynburg — drove
across the peninsula behind Table Mountain and by the ocean
around to Sea Point and back to town, a distance of about twenty-
five miles. The railway has a double-track most of its course, and
trains run very frequently during the day. The villages, which
thickly adjoin each other, lie in a long flat valley, with the gaunt
rugged Table Mountain and its comrades upon the west, and upon
the east a distant range of mountains which runs north and south
and circles around False Bay to its eastern extremity. We passed
through many fine forests of fir, oak, willow, pine and eucalyptus.
Though there is much wild wood, there seems to be more that has
been planted and cultivated. All along the line were pretty little
cottages, nestling in beautiful gardens of fruits, vegetables, and
flowers, and half concealed by vines, with fences composed of rose-
bushes in full-bloom. The country roads led through perfect tun-
nels of green foliage and were as smooth and hard as those of a city
park. This is a much healthier place of residence than Cape Town,
or at least more comfortable, for in summer the difference of tem-
perature is as much as ten degrees. The scenery all along the railway
is very interesting, the sylvan beauty of the foreground being en-
hanced by a grand background of precipitous mountains.
A few miles from town, on the left, I saw the domes of the
Eoyal Observatory, which was designed by Telford and completed
in 1829. Here Sir John Herschel made his long and valuable
survey of the southern heavens. Perhaps the prettiest and most
attractive of the little villages at which we halted was Eondes-
bosch. It contains the country residence of the governor. Here
also are grounds for cricket and football clubs, and a few miles
further, the race-track of the South African Turf Club. At Wyn-
burg, eight miles from town, is the hospital, and the military camp
which is said to be the healthiest and most agreeable foreign sta-
tion in the British possessions. The old Dutch governor Van
Riebeek once had a farm here, upon which a good deal of labor
was bestowed. It is recorded that in 1661 there were on it over a
thousand young orange, lemon and citron trees, ten banana plants,
two olive, three walnut, five apple, two pear, nineteen plum and
forty-one other fruit trees, besides some thousands of vines. Near
Wynburg is the Government Wine Farm, where there are 150,000
CAPE TOWN. 329
vines, besides many fruit trees of every description. During the
latter part of the journey the rich fertile soil changed rapidly to
a very sandy one, and I finally came out directly upon the shores
of False Bay, on the western side of which, about its centre, lies
the further small indentation of Simon's Bay. There were several
hamlets along the shores and many hotels, and boarding and bath-
ing houses. The people of Cape Town spend a part of the sum-
mer here, to inhale the fresh and invigorating sea air. The fishing
industry is also lucrative hereabouts, and eagerly pursued. Simon's
Town is a small village of a single street, winding around the steep
chain of hills that extends from here down to the Cape of Good
Hope. In the bay lay four British men-of-war and a number of
small gunboats. On shore was a large Naval Dockyard, which is
fitted with every appliance requisite for repairing modern war
ships. There are two hospitals, a residence for the Admiral, and
buildings for many officials.
Eeturning to Wynburg, I alighted from the train, and took an
open " Cape cart " back to the capital. It proved a most inter-
esting and charming drive of three hours, at the very good speed
of about eight miles an hour. The road was faultless and the team
fresh and frisky. The air was by turns redolent of the perfume
of flowers or the rich resinous odors of firs and pines. In gliding
over the plains and up the gradual incline of the mountains I
passed through many great vineyards and fruit-orchards. All
sorts of European vegetables seemed also to be raised, and were
growing in perfection. The grape vines were very low, squat
bushes, not trained on trellises or supported by sticks, but planted
thickly in rows close together. The red and white Cape wines are
good and cheap. Sherry and brandy of fair quality are also made.
We mounted a low ridge between Table Mountain and other simi-
lar-topped mountains to the south, and enjoyed a magnificent pros-
pect behind us over the rich green plain of Wynburg and Constan-
tine, and off over the bright blue waters of False Bay. Then we
crossed a great barren valley, containing a few poor houses, and
turning towards the south came out upon the wide, flat beach of
Host's Bay, which is mostly bordered by savage rocky mountains
that start straight up from the water's edge. Near here was a
comfortable little hotel, patronised by the city people as a bathing
and fishing place, and as a sort of road-house for those who simply
come for the drive from Cape Town. Turning about I went a
few miles further north, and then crossing a ridge found myself
23
330 ACTUAL AFRICA.
directly by the ocean's side, though upon cliffs several hundred
feet above it. The road now wound in and out around these cliffs
and gradually descended until we were nearly at the level of the
sea. Upon the right was a long line of rough, rocky, crags, styled
the Twelve Apostles, which extend quite to the edge of Table
Mountain. About the centre of these is a tunnel whence an inex-
haustible supply of water is obtained, and carried to Cape Town
through several miles of iron pipes. The views of the sombre
cliffs of Table Mountain, of the sharp peak of Lion's Head,
and of the sea are very grand all along this side of the penin-
sula. Gradually we approached Sea Point, passing first a toll-gate
where the modest sum of sixpence was charged ; little enough for
the pleasure of using such capital roads. Near here we turned
sharply around and followed the tram-line, through a wide street
lined with pretty villas, back to the city. On the left, in the dis-
tance, was a great hospital, of three stories and six castellated tur-
rets, situated within spacious grounds, well planted with trees and
flowering plants. Next came the Breakwater, and the Docks and
circular bay with their crowd of steamers and ships, and soon
thereafter I arrived at my hotel, having enjoyed a picturesque
excursion, with perfect weather. The seasons at the Cape come of
course in the reverse order to those in Europe and North America.
The climate is warm and dry. I found it a little hot in the mid-
dle of the day in November, the Cape summer, but not uncomfort-
able, and the nights were always cool and agreeable. It is a land
of sunshine, pure buoyant air, clear blue skies, and pleasant tem-
perature. The air is especially sweet and exhilarating ; it is as
" clear as crystal," and a vitalising tonic.
I had desired to continue my journey from Cape Town up the
western coast of the continent to Mossamedes, the most southerly
town in the Portuguese Possessions, and but four hundred miles
from Loanda, the capital. But I was unable to find any direct
means of communication, either by steamer, ship, coaster, yacht or
man-of-war. There was formerly a Portuguese line and for a brief
period a German, but both of them had been withdrawn. At
present this is the only part — save that between Tripoli and Alex-
andria— of the whole 16,000 miles of African sea-coast not served
by several lines and nationalities of steamers. There was abso-
lutely no way for me to reach Mossamedes except by making a very
long detour by way of the island of Madeira. I would have to
accomplish a voyage of 10,000 miles in order to reach a point but
CAPE TOWN. 331
1,200 miles from Cape Town ! I could go directly to Funchal in
an English steamer and return in a Portuguese, calling at several
ports upon the west coast. So being quite unwilling, unless abso-
lutely compelled, to forego any part of my projected tour, I decided
upon this course, being the less reluctant as I wished to see Ma-
deira. I took passage in the " Moor," of the Union Royal Mail
Steamship Company, which sailed on the evening of December 7th.
We passed slowly out of the Docks, crept along the Breakwater,
and turning abruptly, steamed away to the north. But little of
the city is visible from beyond the roadstead, and the great preci-
pice of Table Mountain is half hidden by the Lion's Head and
Signal Hill. In half an hour we reached Robbin Island, a low,
sandy stretch of land, about two miles long from north to south,
and seven or eight miles distant from the shore. In 1657 a plat-
form was erected on this island upon which a fire was kept up
at night whenever ships belonging to the Dutch East India Com-
pany were seen off the port. But nowadays a fine, round light-
house, sixty feet high, warns the navigator to steer clear of the
heavy breakers which surround it. It was also formerly used as a
convict station and place of banishment for political offenders.
The Cape Colony general infirmary for lepers and lunatics is upon
the southern part of this island. More than half the population —
of 650 — are patients of one kind or another. The annual expen-
diture upon the maintenance of the institution is $100,000. A
little steamer makes bi-monthly trips from Cape Town to the
island. We carried few passengers, for, as it was the cold season
in England, people accustomed to the hot weather of the Cape pre-
ferred visiting home in the summer time. The grand old Table
Mountain and the gigantic crags of the Twelve Apostles were in
view for several hours, or until the darkness of night came down
upon us. We went on with a cool fresh breeze, and a tremendous
"following swell," which caused the most extraordinary rolling
of the steamer and continuing the next day, made nearly all the
passengers very ill.
The distance from Cape Town to Funchal is 4,761 miles. On
the 10th we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn — my tenth entrance
into the Tropics. Both air and water were much colder than in
the same latitudes of the East coast. This is doubtless explained
by the South Atlantic and Equatorial currents which run from
Polar Regions northerly and northwesterly along this coast and
then bend to the westward through the Tropics and along the
332 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Equator. Our track was very lonely ; we saw no vessels until near
Cape Verd. We crossed the Equator on the 15th, and afterwards
entered the region marked on the charts, " Variables and Calms,"
between 2° and 10° north latitude, and situated west of the Afri-
can State of Liberia and the British Colony of Sierra Leone. We
then followed the coast of the continent until we reached the
Tropic of Cancer, when we headed off a little towards the Canary
Islands. We passed Cape Verd about ten miles to the westward.
Well does it deserve its title of the Green Cape. It is a long,
narrow peninsula upon the extremity of which are two knolls,
the most westerly one being crowned by a tall lighthouse. These
knolls seemed covered with grass and shrubs, and extending a
short distance on both sides of the point were forests of palms and
other trees. Cape Verd is in the French Colony of Senegambia
and on its southern side lies the town of Dakar and the neigh-
boring island and town of Goree. Cape Verd is situated almost
exactly in latitude 15° north. The Cape Verd Islands lie 350
miles due west. We sighted the island of Grand Canary late on
the afternoon of the 20th. In the evening we steamed between
the islands of Teneriffe and Gomera, where is a deep channel about
twelve miles wide. By starlight we saw the hard, black outlines
of the famous peak, though it did not show to advantage, as we
were too near and there was an intervening stretch of high land.
It is 250 miles from the Canaries to Madeira.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
A DETOUR BY MADEIRA.
A heavy squall of wind and rain prevented our seeing Madeira
until we had almost entered the roadstead of Funchal, its capital,
which is situated on the southeastern side of the island. There
is great depth of water, and we drew in to less than a quarter of
a mile from the shore and anchored, just fourteen days from Cape
Town. The view of Funchal was remarkably fine. The town is
built upon the steep sides of a vast amphitheatre of high hills,
which are dotted to their top with villas interspersed with gardens,
orchards and vineyards. So steep are the hills that it is necessary
to cover them with minute terraces. The villas are mostly but
one or two stories in height, and their gay-colored walls and red
tiled roofs make a very pretty appearance amidst the glossy green
foliage of the diversified hills. At the right was an old stone fort,
at the extreme left, not far from shore, upon a high rough rock,
was another, and quite a distance up the hills upon a sharply pro-
jecting spur, was a third. In the centre was a short stone pier,
the landing place for boats. On one side of this was the palace
of the governor, a yellow, two-storied edifice standing in an old
fort. Near by was the theatre, a great plain white building.
Prominent also in several directions were the large three and four
storied English hotels, built for the accommodation of winter
visitors and invalids. The towers of several old churches appeared
above much rich foliage of trees and tropical plants. The beach
was composed of gray and black pebbles and large stones which
the furious surf was rolling up and down with a noise like the
booming of distant cannon. No sooner was our anchor down than
a score of boats full of native products and manufactures were
rowed off to us, and our quarter-deck was soon converted into a
bazaar. There were wicker-work furniture — chairs, tables and
baskets — feather flowers, fine embroidery and filigree jewelry, and
333
334: ACTUAL AFRICA.
an extraordinary profusion of fruits — oranges, apples, chirimoyas
or custard-apples, bananas, lemons, pears, mangoes, pineapples,
loquats and granadillas. The island also produces mulberries,
pomegranates, grapes, guavas, figs, gooseberries and alligator-pears.
Though the waves were running " mountain high," I succeeded
in getting ashore in a little haven behind the rock-topped fort.
When the wind does not blow too strongly and the sea is calm,
the landing is made directly at the pier, or even on the neighbor-
ing shore, the boats being beached before their occupants leave
them. Where I was taken there stood a line of strange-looking
sledges, drawn by bullocks. They are called carros, or cars, and
are the national vehicles of the island. The streets are all paved
with small cobble-stones, a sort of slippery pummice over which
these sledges, shod with iron, glide as smoothly as if over snow.
The carro has two cushioned seats, vis-a-vis, and a black water-proof
canopy. The body is hung on springs, and is only about a foot
above the ground. The bullocks are small but strong. They are
driven by a man and boy, the latter walking directly before them,
like the forelouper of a South African ox-team. The man walks
at the side and occasionally prods the animals with a goad which
he carries. I suffered no delay at the Custom-house and pro-
ceeded to one of the English hotels, centrally located, and which
had been established upwards of forty years. Nearly all the hotels
of Funchal belong to the same English family. I found mine
exceedingly comfortable and well-conducted. It offered for the
delectation of its guests a beautiful large garden, filled with rare
plants and pretty flowers, fountains, and cages of birds and mon-
keys. Under great magnolia trees were easy extension-chairs, in
which invalids passed the greater part of the day reading, chatting
and dozing. The paths were paved with smooth pebbles in pretty
ornamental patterns, and kept scrupulously clean. There was a
billiard-table in a detached cottage, and of course a convenient
lawn-tennis ground. Every morning I was awakened by the glori-
ous singing of birds, the most of whom were captives. The wild
canaries sing admirably. They are generally dark in color. Every
family seems to keep a number of song birds, half a dozen or
more together in a cage, canaries being in the majority. It is the
same in the Canary Islands; every town inhabitant has many
specimens.
The houses and streets of Eunchal reminded me of Lisbon.
The features and complexion, too, of the inhabitants closely re-
A DETOUR BY MADEIRA. 335
semble the Portuguese. The houses in the heart of the city are
two and three and, sometimes, even five stories in height. They
are adorned with many little balconies, and their lower windows
are barred and grated like those of a prison. There are three
mountain torrents that come down from behind the city and pass
through it in deep, walled canals which are crossed by occasional
bridges. On either side of these streams are avenues with rows of
great trees which produce a grateful shade and have a pretty ap-
pearance. The streets are narrow and crooked. They are lighted
at night by oil lamps suspended from the walls by brackets. Many
of them are a bright green color from the fine grass which springs
vigorously from the interstices of the pebble-pavement. This
pavement by the way is very disagreeable for the foreign pedes-
trian. The natives wear a heelless, low-legged boot, made of tanned
goat-skin, which is said to be much more comfortable than the cus-
tomary European foot-gear. Occasionally there are narrow side-
walks. I passed the Public Gardens, which are very beautiful.
In Madeira you have the rose, fir, myrtle, laurel, bay, cypress,
chestnut, oak, pine and cedars of southern Europe mixed with the
plants of the Tropics — magnolia, mango, banana, coffee and palm.
The profusion of flowers and vines growing upon the walls of the
houses is remarkable, and with the myriads of birds hovering about
produces a very fascinating scene. There are many shops selling
the special industries of the island, though most of the inhabitants
are engaged in the culture of the grape and sugar-cane, and in the
manufacture of wine. The prosperity of Funchal is largely due to
the winter residence of many foreigners. Every one knows that the
islaud is much resorted to by consumptives on account of the mild-
ness and uniformity of the climate. In the capital the mean an-
nual temperature is 67°, and there is an average difference of only
10° between the hottest and coldest months. Madeira is situated
approximately in latitude 32° north, about four hundred miles to
the westward of Morocco, and is kept at the high and even tem-
perature by the Gulf Stream, which, dividing at the Azores, sweeps
southwards and envelops the island in its warm embrace. Ma-
deira, I may mention, is the name of a group of islands as well as
of that containing Funchal, though only one besides this is in-
habited— Porto Santo. The population of the two is 140,000.
Madeira proper is a volcanic mass of basaltic rock. Its extreme
length is thirty-eight miles and breadth sixteen. The highest
point is Pico Ruivo — 6,050 feet. The capital has a population of
336 ACTUAL AFRICA.
30,000. It is only three-and-one-half days by fast steamer from
Southampton.
There are three methods of transport about the city of Fun-
chal — horses, hammocks and bullock-carros — and they are all of
the same cost per hour, about forty cents. The horses are very
good, and carefully shod with high heels and prominent nails in
the front of their shoes, on account of the steep and slippery streets.
A boy usually runs behind you. The hammocks are very com-
fortable, being furnished with thin mattress, pillow, and with a
canopy for the head. They are slung from light, bamboo poles
borne upon the shoulders of two men. These bearers, neatly
dressed in white trousers and dark vest, with cloth or straw hat,
carry long forked poles which they use to support the hammock
when resting, and as alpenstocks when marching. They carry you
at a fast walk, or jog-trot. For long distances two extra men are
taken, who alternate with the others. They do not change so fre-
quently as in Madagascar, but two go on until tired and are then
succeeded by the other couple, and so on. The bullock sledges have
already been described. These can only penetrate a short distance
into the country through lack of suitable roads. In fact, there is
only one carriage road in the island. It is in Funchal, is about
six miles long, is macadamised and planted with trees, and ex-
tends along the shore to the westward, to a quiet little fishing
village.
One day I paid a visit to what is called the Mount Church,
situated behind the town, and 2,000 feet above the sea. I engaged
a small wicker-work bullock sledge, with one seat facing back-
wards, and uncanopied for the better view. The sledge runners
were shod simply with hard wood — the others have them of iron —
and from time to time they were cleaned and oiled by passing
under them a wad of greasy rags. After a little winding we went
straight away up the hills by a very steep road, where the pavement
was put down in low ridges for better foothold. The road was
walled the greater part of the way and lined with quintas, or villas,
all of which had solid masonry terraces covered with gardens,
pavilions, and seats for enjoying the wide prospect over town and
sea. The huge camellias were a mass of flowers. Many grape
vines grow upon trellises which frequently projected half across the
road. I was just one hour in making the ascent of two miles to
the church, which is reared upon a great platform of masonry, and
is approached by a long flight of stone steps. The facade is
A DETOUR BY MADEIRA. 337
flanked by two towers. The interior is roughly decorated with in-
different altars and paintings. The small image of the Virgin on
the high altar is covered with jewelry ; gifts of the pious. She is
much venerated on account of the miracles she is said to have per-
formed— in token of which, witness an assortment of wax arms
and legs hung upon the wall at one side. This church is four
hundred years old. In returning to town it is customary to omit
the service of the bullocks, the car descending by gravity, and be-
ing directed by one or two men who run at the side or behind,
holding ropes which are attached to the forward end of the run-
ners, as with our ordinary sleds. This then is called a " running
sledge," and well does it merit the title. You go down at a fear-
ful pace ; I was but ten minutes in covering a part of the road that
took fifty to mount. x\ll these steep mountain roads are thus
utilised by the peasants for carrying their morning market supplies
down to town.
The Fish and Fruit Markets on the beach at Funchal are
worthy of a visit. Both are well adapted for their purposes. The
fish are exposed for sale on stone slabs plentifully supplied with
running water. Here are to be seen turtles, mackerel and horse
mackerel, red and gray mullet, sardines and tunny fish. The
tunny is often enormous, weighing several hundred pounds. Its
flesh is coarse but said not to be unpalatable. Then there are a
great number of bright-colored, odd-looking fish, whose names
convey no meaning to us. The Fruit Market displayed an ex-
traordinary variety of well-conditioned products. In the centre
of its quadrangle is a pretty marble fountain, with an allegorical
statue.
The Funchal citizens seem very fond of noise. About noon of
the day before Christmas, they commenced letting off all sorts of
fireworks — rockets and crackers predominating — and this amuse-
ment continued at intervals during the night, all of Christmas Day
and all of the two succeeding days. The only holidays these peo-
ple have are connected with religious festivals, processions and
pilgrimages. On Christmas Eve the churches had extra musi-
cal services, and balls also were in great vogue. Parties of gay
young men paraded the streets singing a lively fandango style of
songs to the accompaniment of violins and guitars. The voices
though light were often good, and the instruments were managed
with much skill.
Undoubtedly the first natural sight in Madeira is what is called
338 ACTUAL AFRICA.
the Grand Curral. The word curral means sheepfold or cattlefold.
It is simply an immense valley, surrounded by hills or mountains
with perpendicular sides nearly 2,000 feet high, which lies eleven
miles to the northwest of Funchal, and nearly in the centre of the
island. The valley extends north and south. Its bottom is 2,080
feet above the sea level, and bears a small torrent called the Eio
dos Soccoridos. The visit is generally made on horseback. You
pass through the narrow streets of Funchal, always rising, and in
three-quarters of an hour reach the church of San Antonio. From
here there are splendid prospects backward over the city and road-
stead. A half an hour further and you come out upon the top of
a ridge 3,305 feet high, whence a good view is had into the Curral
Ravine, with its river flowing away to the ocean. I was much
reminded of the Grand Cation of the Yellowstone, excepting that
you have not the exquisite coloring of that renowned gorge, for
here all is green, not of trees, but of grass and shrubs. The road
is paved to this point, but beyond only in the most dangerous
places. The greater part is very steep, often you have a rise of
one foot in four feet. The peculiar characteristics of Madeira
scenery may be said to be steep mountain ridges and peaks sepa-
rated by deep valleys and yawning chasms. At the bottom of
these are stony torrent beds, almost or quite dry in summer, but
in winter covered with rapid streams which rush over them with
great noise. All the hills are terraced and carefully tilled, the
limit of cultivation being 3,000 feet. The terraces, as I have said,
are absolutely necessary by reason of the steep inclination of the
country. The houses of the peasants are generally small, of rough
basalt, and thatched with straw. A better class are faced or stuc-
coed, and have tiled roofs. There are some wooden huts, and
caves in the rocks which are walled up. The peasants are of
course descendants of Portuguese settlers. They live simply, dress
roughly, are not clean in person or dwelling, are hardy and strong,
are superstitious, hospitable, conservative, ignorant, and generally
respectful and polite.
As I proceeded the road narrowed to three or four feet, and in
places was quite appalling, there being a vertical wall of rock
above you, on the one hand, and a sheer precipice of 1,500 feet
below you, upon the other. I was astonished at the variety and
fecundity of vegetable life. There were hedges of box-trees twenty
feet high, and heaths of even greater height. The display of ferns
and mosses was also remarkable. There are said to be forty-two
A DETOUR BY MADEIRA. 339
varieties of ferns found in the island. Flowers, as already stated,
covered the walls and crowded the gardens everywhere. There
are 650 species of flowering plants known to botanists in the
Madeira group. Among the curious vegetable products is the
Dragon tree, originally a native of Teneriffe. This odd plant lives
several thousands of years ! It resembles the asparagus in that the
dead branches serve as a support for the tufts or crowns, the roots
of which encircle and conceal the original stem, which gradually
rots away inside, leaving a hollow trunk. The roots which fail to
grasp the stem hang withered from the branches. Dragon's blood
or sap is an article of commerce. As regards the great variety of
trees in Madeira I may mention that the United States Consul at
Funchal collected, and sent to the Columbian Exhibition at Chi-
cago, samples of two hundred species. As I went on up the moun-
tains to a point commanding a special view of the Grand Curral,
I saw peaks like those in the wonderful canon of the Colorado,
save that here all is verdure, there all is rock.- In about two hours
from Funchal you arrive upon the brink of the most interesting
part of the Curral, where you may look down 2,000 feet below
you to a comparatively level expanse, upon which are a church, a
few comfortable houses, and a village of grass-thatched huts. The
entire bed of the valley is carefully cultivated, and upon its pre-
cipitous sides browse many flocks of goats and sheep. You dis-
mount and climb a neighboring pinnacle, and then enjoy a
broader view below, around, and above. The air is like crystal, and
mountains of 6,000 feet seem only half this height. The hills are
mostly covered with grass and shrubs, and often the bare rock
crops out, showing a purple hue that contrasts well with the green
of the foliage, the white of the houses, the blue of the sky. The
precipices are fearful, sheer descents to the bed of the stream, and
often accentuated by silver ribbons of falling cascade. In spots
the river has worn itself a deep and tortuous channel through the
rocks, and hereabouts the picture is most impressive. The pano-
rama is alternately wild and savage, graceful and beautiful. One
marvels how the peasants ever get down to the bottom of the Cur-
ral, but occasionally you will observe their zigzag paths scratched
upon the flank of some giant precipice.
After seeing the principal objects of interest in Madeira, and
having still some ten days to await the arrival from Lisbon of
the mail steamer for Mossamedes and other Portuguese towns on
the west coast of Africa, I determined to pay a flying visit to the
340 ACTUAL AFRICA.
neighboring Canary Group, and try and make the ascent of the
volcanic peak of Teneriffe. For this purpose I took passage in one
of the Mersey Steamship Company's fortnightly steamers plying
between London, Madeira and the Canary Islands. This vessel
was to call first at La Palma, then at Teneriffe, and then at Grand
Canary, and to return to Madeira, stopping only at Teneriffe. My
plan was to leave the steamer at Santa Cruz, the capital of Ten-
eriffe, to visit Orotava and the peak on the opposite side of the
island, and to rejoin it on its return to Funchal. This would give
me three or four days upon the island of Teneriffe. The steamer
was only of 800 tons burden, so small it was quite full with our
dozen cabin passengers. On leaving port we had the Desertas,
three uninhabited islands of the Madeira group, in sight for many
hours. These are steep and barren, save for a few pine trees. They
contain, however, rabbits and wild goats, which are sometimes
hunted by parties from Funchal. Deserta Grande, the largest, is
but six miles long, and 1,600 feet high. Madeira belongs of course
to Portugal and the Canaries to Spain. The latter were once known
as the " Fortunate Isles " or " Isles of the Blessed " by the ancients.
They lie between 27° 30' and 29° 30' north latitude, opposite the
desert of Sahara and Morocco, and one of them — Fuerteventura —
is but sixty-four miles distant from Cape Juby. There are seven
large islands — of which Grand Canary and Teneriffe are the most
important — and many small ones. They are all of volcanic forma-
tion, containing many craters of extinct volcanoes, hilly and rugged,
and generally rise sheer and precipitous out of the deep waters of
the ocean. Their climate is one of the finest in the world, warm
and equable, and less humid than that of Madeira. The population
of the Canaries is placed at 284,000. They are a mixed people,
descendants of Spaniards and a native race— called Guanches, now
wholly exterminated — mingled also with Norman, Flemish and
Moorish blood. The aboriginal Guanches, supposed to have be-
longed to the Berber family, were a brave, powerful, moral shep-
herd race. The inhabitants at the present day are chiefly engaged
in agriculture, cattle-breeding, and the cultivation of cochineal and
the vine. About 20,000 pipes of Canary sack — a dry red wine —
are exported annually to England and America.
Early the following afternoon we were at anchor in the circular
roadstead of Santa Cruz de Palma. The island is high, steep and
very broken like Madeira, the loftiest point nearly reaching 8,000
feet. The little capital is situated in a valley facing the sea, and
A DETOUR BY MADEIRA. 341
just north of a huge extinct crater. Landing upon a small stone
pier I took a stroll through the town, which contains about 6,000
inhabitants. The principal street bore the astounding name of
O'Daly, many Irish having once emigrated here. There is a good
English hotel. The sights of the place appear, however, to be of no
very great number or interest. I pass a circular building once
used for cock-fights, but now occupied as a wine store. The Town
Hall presents a fine old facade of cut stone, with arches and a coat-
of-arms bearing the date 1563. The Cathedral of San Salvador
also has its original tower and a fine doorway still standing, but
the interior presents little more of note than a carved wooden ceil-
ing. The Alameda or public garden is very small and but illy
supplied with trees and plants. The interest of the island is not
however in the capital but in the Gran Caldera, an enormous
crater, 6,780 feet deep, and from five to seven miles across, broken
on one side by a great barranca, or ravine, through which once
rushed a gigantic river of molten lava. Unfortunately I could not
visit this great crater — perhaps the largest in the world — as the
round journey requires three days upon mule-back.
We remained twelve hours at La Palma and then sailed to
Teneriffe, directly to the eastward, and about fifty miles distant to
its nearest point, though one hundred to its seaport of Santa Cruz
de Teneriffe, on the northeastern side. The names of these capi-
tals are very confusing, and it is necessary always to add those of
their respective islands. There also seems to be an unnecessary
similarity in the name of the island La Palma and of the town
Las Palmas, the capital of Grand Canary. From La Palma I had
a fine view of the snow-capped peak of Teneriffe, and the high
land of the island. This is the largest of the Canaries, notwith-
standing there is a Gran Canaria — another misnomer. It is sixty
miles long and thirty-seven broad at the widest point. It extends
northeast and southwest and is of a rough, pear shape, the peak
being in about the centre of the broadest part. Teneriffe is of
course chiefly renowned for its wonderful peak, which was first
ascended by some members of the Koyal Society of London, at the
instigation of King Charles II., and the Duke of York, with the
purpose of weighing the air and taking other observations. But
it was the memorable ascent of Humboldt, nearly a century ago,
which brought it prominently before the world. The name Tene-
riffe is derived from two words in the ancient dialect of La Palma,
thener, mountain, and ife, white, in allusion to its appearance when
342 ACTUAL AFRICA.
covered with snow, which it is during a great part of the year. It
is 12,200 feet high, and has been seen from the hills of Madeira,
250 miles distant, and from the level of the ocean at a distance of
125 miles. This peak in relation to its surroundings is second to
none on the globe. As Humboldt long ago said, rising as it does
directly from the level of the sea, it presents one of the most strik-
ing objects Nature has to offer us in any part of the world, and its
situation is heightened by its form, character, and the marvellous
grouping around its base and lower heights of all the climates and
vegetable products of both hemispheres.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
A MID-WINTER ASCENT OF TENERIFFE.
The next morning we were favored with a magnificent un-
clouded view of the peak and the island, some ten or twelve miles
distant. The peak shows to best advantage from a considerable
distance at sea, for the whole island is so elevated that the great
height of the mountain is dwarfed when you are near. At least
4,000 feet of the beautiful cone were covered with snow. We could
just discern the town of Puerta Orotava, at the sea's edge, and, about
the centre of the celebrated valley, the town called Villa Orotava.
The valley was very green and beautiful, though almost destitute
of trees. It was bordered by two long, steep and lofty ridges, and
seemed but an enormous flow from the volcano. The scenery at
the northeastern end of the island is exceedingly wild, precipitous
and broken. We passed between two huge rocks, and turned
around to the south and west. Far away in the dim east were the
islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, and to the south, Grand
Canary. A long breakwater makes a small but safe port of Santa
Cruz de Teneriffe. The town lies upon the gently-sloping hills,
with two tall churches very conspicuous, and many pretty villas
dotting the hills. In the distance, just appearing above the ridge
of green mountains, was the top of the cone of the great snowy
peak. The city contains about 23,000 inhabitants, and is of a bet-
ter character than Funchal. The streets, though narrow, are well
paved and provided with sidewalks. All the houses are surmounted
by little towers, or miradores, which afford fine views of the town,
the port and the sea. I, however, did not tarry here, but took car-
riage at once for Puerta Orotava, twenty-six miles distant, first tele-
graphing for a horse, pack-mule and guides for beginning the as-
cent of the peak on the following morning. I was furnished with
a comfortable barouche drawn by three horses abreast. The road,
which wound slowly up the hills, was most excellent. It was ma-
343
344 ACTUAL AFRICA.
cadamised, and provided with stone bridges and long causeways
when necessary. The country was terraced and covered with cere-
als and the cochineal plant. All the villas with their gay-colored
walls were surrounded by pretty flower and vegetable gardens.
After a drive of about six miles I reached the old town of La
Laguna, 1,840 feet above sea-level, and rattled through its strag-
gling suburbs and flat-paved streets for a long time, passing several
curious old churches, the Town Hall, and a plaza ornamented with
a large marble fountain. I had left Santa Cruz at four in the
afternoon and now was favored with a clear full-moon. On leav-
ing Laguna the road was bordered with rows of eucalyptus trees
and led through an undulating, fertile and carefully cultivated
country. Then I caught a glimpse of the sea, and the road fol-
lowed the general trend of the coast, though at some distance, and
descended gradually to the valley of Orotava. From now on I
had charming views of the peak, the snow-fields glistening in the
strong moonlight. Finally I reached the eastern barrier of the
valley and saw the point called " Humboldt's Corner," as it was
near here, on the old road, that the great traveller threw himself
on the ground, and saluted the sight as the finest in the world.
Though it certainly was remarkably fine by night, and afterwards
as I saw it by day, still I could not wholly agree with the judg-
ment of Humboldt.
Driving on, the road was lined for miles with eucalypti, cacti,
geraniums, roses and oleanders. The whole air was filled with per-
fume. We passed many sumptuous villas and rich fields. Gradu-
ally turning towards the ocean, I saw upon the great sloping plain
two low cones of extinct volcanoes, now mere cinder heaps. Then
came an enormous new hotel — it contains 150 rooms — standing on
a hill, three or four hundred feet high, and just back of the town
of Puerta Orotava, which lies upon a flat peninsula, fringed with
great reefs of lava rock upon which the billows break and foam
and roar. At last I reached my destination, and made final ar-
rangements for the ascent of the peak. The hotel was surrounded
by a beautiful garden with walks, ponds, fountains and aviaries.
It was full of invalids, most of whom were of English nationality.
Puerta Orotava is an ordinary Spanish town of some 4,000 inhabi-
tants, with an old convent in which cockfights are held on Sun-
days. My visit was in mid-winter when Teneriffe is rarely as-
cended. There were but two guides in the town. One believing
it too dangerous, refused me point-blank, but the other would take
'S
•fp
f^'^
In a Ravine, Teneriffe.
A MID-WINTER ASCENT OF TENERIFFE. 345
the risk, though he added that if it were a week later in the season
he should not think of it. The snow descending so much lower,
and being so much deeper and harder in winter than in summer,
makes the ascent more difficult. Besides the cold is much greater,
and sudden and heavy snow-storms might prove in many ways
very dangerous. However I was determined to make the attempt,
having had considerable experience in ascending some of the
highest accessible mountains and volcanoes of the world. My out-
fit consisted of a small, wiry horse, shod with flat and nearly
elliptical shoes, and a stout mule to carry provisions and blankets.
I secured an English saddle with strong crupper and chest-strap.
My guide and the driver of the mule were both natives of the
island, and had made the ascent many times. The excursion to
the peak requires two days and a night, or thirty-six hours. Dur-
ing this time you generally ride some forty or fifty miles and
climb six or eight hours.
We started at six. It was a beautiful bright morning, the
summit of the peak, which just appeared above the western ridge
enclosing the valley, being wholly free from clouds. Still at that
time of year it was quite impossible to prognosticate fine weather.
"We followed the macadamised road as far as Villa Orotava. This
town stands about 1,000 feet above the sea and has 10,000 in-
habitants. It contains a good English hotel, some interesting old
churches and tombs, some curious facades surmounted by the
arms of the Spanish aristocracy of olden days, and some lofty
buildings whose top-floor windows are faced by beautifully-carved
and delicately-painted balconies. The general plan of my ascent
was now to cross the valley to the base of its western walls, and
then to zigzag upwards until I reached the great rough plain
upon which rests the peak. I intended to return by another trail
to the northward and along the coast. The road was narrow and
paved until I reached the really steep beginning of the ascent, and
afterwards a mere trail, though the rise actually commences at once
upon leaving Puerta Orotava. We passed between great gardens
of oranges, lemons, figs, peaches and pears, and fields planted with
cereals and vegetables. There were many wild and also cultivated
plants and flowers in full and gorgeous bloom. The houses of the
peasants sparsely line the road and there are occasionally small
villages. At one of these, La Cruz Santa, we had reached an alti-
tude of 1,450 feet. At 3,000 feet vegetation ceases, and I have
reached the level of the clouds. The boundary ridge is called
24
346 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Monte Verde, from the quantity of green heather which covers its
precipitous flanks. I had now entered a region of heath and
grasses, and at 4,000 feet found the valley behind me quite con-
cealed by an ocean of white fleecy clouds, which spread far out
over the sea. Next the heather gave place to the codeso, a sort of
leguminous plant like the thorny acacia of South Africa, with
branches somewhat like a miniature cedar tree. The ground was
of gravel and rough stones. Then the codeso ceased and the
retama began and continued, becoming gradually thinner, lower
and more scrubby, to the limit of vegetation. This retama is a
kind of mountain broom, a shrub said to be found nowhere else
in the world. It looks like a member of the great cactus family,
is very odoriferous, and full of nectar which is utilised by the bees
to such an extent that the native palm-tree beehives are often
filled with honey from this source during the summer.
I soon reached El Portillo, a pass (7,150 feet high) to a great
rough desert called the Cafiadas, with ranges of red and black
walled mountains in the distance, and a good view of the great
white peak around to the right. From here it seemed a huge
dome-shaped mass, like Chimborazo in Ecuador, and from this
rose its cone, very similar to that of Cotopaxi in the same South
American State. The Portillo is, as its name implies, simply a
vast gateway or gap down which has poured the enormous river
of lava which spread itself over the valley of Orotava and then
reached the sea. The Cafiadas is a huge crater, some eight miles
in diameter, with walls 2,000 feet high, and for sterility hardly
paralleled, save in the moon itself. It is a veritable Sahara of un-
dulating yellow gravel, jagged brown lava, pumice-stone, white
sand and red rocks. The beautiful blue mountains in the distance
were simply the walls of the gigantic crater. I observed several
cliffs that were quite black and glistened like streams of water in
the sunlight. This effect was due to the presence of obsidian.
The plaiii was covered with lava flows, some of which had the
appearance of a petrified stormy sea. Elsewhere were great hum-
mocky heaps — bergs of lava — slag, and unearthly-looking black
stones. The oldest lava was of a yellow color, then came the
brown streams, and last of all the black. Besides the scant and
scrubby retama bush there are grasses and lavender, and in sum-
mer even a species of violet is said to grow. The heat and light
were both intense in crossing this plain, and the scenery wild and
awful almost beyond conception. The poetry and romance of the
A MID-WINTER ASCENT OF TENERIFFE. 347
place require the pen of a Di Amici, the pencil of a Dore. Every-
thing was witness of confusion, desolation and destruction, of
violent energy, of unlimited power. This wild wilderness might
well be called a " Malpays." I took lunch in the bright sun,
which blinded but hardly warmed me, and then continued on
across the crater and over a sort of spur of the peak, called Mon-
tana Blanca, which is 8,985 feet high, and covered with a yellowish
pumice and with great scattered balls of black lava ten and fifteen
feet in diameter. Some of these were in fragments, but most
were whole. They had been hurled from the terminal crater and
had fallen at distances of many miles. I tried to picture to myself
this peak in actual eruption at night, the slag, pumice, stones,
gravel, sand, playing thousands of feet upwards continuously, and
from time to time hundreds of great lava bombs shot through this
gigantic pyrotechnic " flower-pot," and falling red-hot in the dis-
tant plain, the rim of the crater meanwhile pouring over with vast
rivers of liquid fire ! The very thought of such terrific forces
of Nature at work is enough to freeze the marrow in one's bones.
I do not wonder that the early Spanish settlers imagined some
connection between the peak and the infernal regions, and called
it El Pico de Teyde, or the Peak of Hell.
I had now reached the Lomo Tiezo, or cone proper. A very
zigzag path climbs this upon its eastern face, mounting a steep
valley lined by two enormous streams of great blocks of a blue-
black lava resembling chunks of coal. These streams, hundreds of
feet in depth and thousands in width, show magnificently against
the yellow and brown sand and pumice-stone on the snow-fields,
and have also a very powerful contrast in the white clouds and
blue sky. I soon found the snow had covered the path, and being
soft and hard by turns, and its depth unknown, I had to dismount
and struggle upwards on foot over the lava blocks and loose
cinders. At five in the afternoon we reached the bifurcation of a
giant stream of lava, where a stone cabin has been built for the
accommodation of mountaineers. This point is called Alta Vista,
and is 10,702 feet above sea-level. The angle of ascent to this is
about 28°.
The cabin is known as the Estancia de los Ingleses, and it is
representatives of this nationality almost exclusively who make
the ascent. There was formerly a small wooden hut here, but
about two years ago the present one of stone was built by sub-
scription, costing, with its furnishings, at this altitude, some
348 ACTUAL AFRICA.
It is about fifty feet long, fifteen wide and twenty high, with a con-
ical roof also of stone. The walls are of solid masonry, and three
feet thick. It is divided into three chambers, one for women,
one for men, and the third a stable for animals, but where
the guides and drivers also bivouac. I was greatly surprised to
find here six camp-beds, washstands, tables, chairs, small iron
stoves, with great baskets of coal standing ready for use, and even
looking-glasses. The stable bad space for six animals. In one of
the rooms was a huge boiler for melting snow for washing or for
the animals to drink. Travellers bring their own drinking-water
— more likely wine or spirits — in bottles, and require no ice. For
all this accommodation you have to pay but one dollar. From the
Estancia the view down the mountain into the huge crater, out
over the ocean and away to the Grand Canary, is superb. You
behold great lakes of lava blown this way or that like the sur-
face of a ruffled sea. The ocean itself is only noticed here and
there through the thick stratum of clouds. The peak cannot be
seen from Alta Vista, but at sunset and sunrise its grand dark
shadow is projected like a giant pyramid against the sky, where,
profiled with marvellous clearness, it looks like another Vesu-
vius. I was exceedingly lucky in having a clear sunset, then a
crater illumined by a full moon, and in the morning a sunrise of
surpassing grandeur, in which the sun was beheld reflected in the
sea as a huge round red ball. The clouds at night were especially
beautiful, looking like a vast plain covered with heaps of the
whitest and fleeciest cotton. The direct ascent of the peak had
been so rapid — nearly 11,000 feet in a less number of hours —
that I suffered greatly from the cold at night, notwithstanding
there was a good fire in my room. Outside the hut water froze
half an inch thick. I also fell a victim to " mountain sickness " —
headache and vomiting — and both my men were also troubled with
the latter.
In the morning, though extremely weak and still affected with
nausea, I started for the summit. In summer the horses and
mules can go a little higher up, but I had to travel on foot, and a
hard climb it was over the great rough blocks of lava flows. In
an hour, however, I had reached the Pambleta, an altitude of
11,700 feet, the highest shelf of the peak, and the special crater
from which the Piton, or Sugar-Loaf rises. It was exceedingly
cold, and we all suffered much from the rarefaction of the air.
The Piton, now directly before us, was a comparatively smooth
A MID-WINTER ASCENT OF TENERIFFE. 349
cone covered with sand and pumice-stone, and fields of snow and
ice. It rose, at a mean angle of 33°, five hundred feet above
us. Its contrasting colors — white, red, yellow and gray — added
beauty to its majesty. In about an hour more, after halting every
ten steps to breathe, I had with the aid of my alpenstock zig-
zagged to the summit — 12,200 feet above the sea-level. The
terminal crater is about four hundred feet in diameter and sev-
enty deep. Its northern wall is nearly two hundred feet higher
than the southern. The edge of the crater is very narrow, and the
slope abrupt on both sides. I descended to the bottom, which
is covered with white, yellow and greenish sulphur, and tinged
here and there with red. There are many steam jets and also
sulphureous acid vapors which it is well to keep to leeward, the
wind generally blowing quite strongly here. The ground is every-
where warm. The temperature of the jets of steam coming from
small crevices is from 100° to 122° Fahrenheit's scale, and this
condensing on stones gives means of support to a few mosses.
There is also sometimes a little animal life : birds, bees, flies and
spiders being congregated for the warmth. The view from the
summit is, as might have been expected, grand and beautiful in
the extreme. The peak slopes rapidly on the northern side, and
you can see the vast lava flows which in 170G overwhelmed the
town of Garachico. To the west rises the great crater of Chajora,
three-fourths of a mile in diameter, 10,500 feet high. Between
this and the sea are the smaller cones or cinder heaps of several
extinct craters. On the remaining sides you have the semi-cir-
cular basin of the Canadas. The back-bone or ridge of the moun-
tain range may be seen distinctly from end to end of the island.
And away down below, the towns in the valley of Orotava, others
dotting the coast, next the sea, and then the six remaining islands
of the Canary archipelago— satellites of mighty Teneriffe, floating
in the hazy distance. It is a view never to be forgotten, a view
unequalled in character and ease of possession throughout the
world. It being New Year's Day I left evidence of my call in the
guise of a large stone which I placed upon the topmost pinnacle,
and then began to descend. We were at the bottom of the cone
in fifteen minutes, in an hour more at the Alta Vista, where all of
us were still too sick to eat. I next walked down to the Montana
Blanca, rode across the Canadas in a more northerly direction than
that in which we had come, and took lunch near a steep ridge of
red rocks, appropriately styled the Fortaleza. We then descended
350 ACTUAL AFRICA.
by the range of Monte Verde nearly to the sea's edge, at the
northwestern corner of the valley of Orotava, but some 1,500 feet
above it. From here I enjoyed a splendid prospect over the
whole valley, with its rich fields of disintegrated lava, its pretty
houses, and stately churches. We descended the precipice by an
exceptionally steep and winding paved road, going very slowly, for
the stones were so slippery from recent showers that I had several
times to dismount, and, crossing the valley, reached the hotel at
six o'clock, after a very tolerable day's work. The next morning
I returned to Santa Cruz, and a day later took the little English
steamer back to Funchal.
fe
CHAPTER XXXIX.
PEEPS AT PORTUGUESE ISLANDS.
On" January 8th, 1893, the Portuguese mail steamer arrived
from Lisbon, and I at once took passage for Mossamedes, the end
of the route, a voyage of about a month. The line is styled the
" Empreza Nacional." It calls only at ports in Portuguese pos-
sessions, some ten altogether, four of them being at islands and
the remainder at towns on the mainland. The first stop we were
to make was at Sao Vicente, or St. Vincent, in the Cape Verd
group of islands, about a thousand miles from Madeira. I found
myself on board a steamer of 3,000 tons burden, with large com-
fortable cabins, and, on deck, a fine great dining-saloon, walled
about with vari-colored marbles. There were about thirty cabin
passengers and a lesser number in the second and third cabins.
Among those in the latter were about twenty convicts who were
being transported to Loanda, where they would have their liberty
but not be allowed to leave the colony. They were mostly exiled
for political crimes or theft or murder.
Early on the morning of the 12th the Cape Verd Islands were
in sight. There are some ten chief islands in this group, most of
which are fertile and one of which, Fogo, has an active volcano
9,157 feet above sea-level. The large group seems to be divided
into two smaller ones — St. Vincent being one of the northern,
and Santiago one of the southern. The surface of the islands
where uncultivated is generally rocky and arid, they being appar-
ently of volcanic formation. We passed several small islands with
steep red and brown sides and sharp tops, as barren as the moun-
tains of Nubia, and with their numerous pinnacles and odd con-
tours reminding me of the scenery of Mauritius. At intervals
were the cinder cones of extinct volcanoes. We saw but little evi-
dence of habitation. Water is said to be scarce. In more fertile
parts cotton, sugar, indigo and fruits are cultivated. Salt is a
351
352 ACTUAL AFRICA.
principal article of export. Donkeys, mules, goats, poultry and
turtle are plentiful. These islands form a separate Portuguese
province, with a governor who resides at Praia, on Santiago. The
population of the group is put at 111,000 and consists for the most
part of European and African half-breeds, though the pure negro
type prevails in many of the islands. The inhabitants are Roman
Catholics. They are occupied as husbandmen, and in oil and sugar
refining, weaving and distilling.
We passed the island of Sao Antonio and turning to the left,
near a lighthouse erected on a great lava rock, were soon lying
at anchor in the deep and commodious harbor of St. Vincent.
The town lay at the foot and on the slope of some steep brown
rocky hills, one of them recalling Table Mountain. St. Vincent
is perhaps the best known of the group. It is rather barren, and
its sole importance is derived from its being a much frequented
coaling port, and a station of the Anglo-Brazilian telegraph cable.
In the harbor were lying a German man-of-war, three or four
merchant steamers, and a few ships. Not a blade of grass was
to be seen on the island. It was all either solid lava, or lava lying
disintegrated at the foot of the cliffs. The semi-circle of sharp
broken ridges and odd-shaped peaks, with their varying colors
— red, brown, gray or black — made a very picturesque setting to
the simple town. A visit to the shore revealed many great
sheds filled with coal from Cardiff, Wales, a small market, nar-
row paved streets, and mean-looking dwellings crowded with poor
people, a park without trees, a government-house or town-hall,
and an alleged " palace " of the governor. The town has but 3,000
inhabitants, and though it seems quite dead the harbor at least
is a place of business activity. Some half a dozen steamers, of
as many nationalities, entered and left during our brief stay.
We remained at anchor but seven hours and then steamed away
to Praia, on Santiago, the largest and most fertile of the group,
and 160 miles southeast of St. Vincent. The highest point of
this island is about 7,400 feet above the sea. Early the next
morning we were coasting along Santiago, which resembled the
others of the group already seen, though it was said to be quite
fertile in the valleys and upon the opposite side from us. At seven
o'clock we were at anchor in the roadstead of Praia. Before us
and perhaps a mile distant, was the town, situated upon the flat
top of a large hill with vertical rocky sides a hundred feet in
height. It was a natural fortress. In valleys to right and left
PEEPS AT PORTUGUESE ISLANDS. 353
were large groves of cocoanut-palms, but they afforded the sole
vegetation in sight. The circle of hills about the roadstead was
all of lava, and several of the peaks were tilted from the perpen-
dicular like those in Mauritius. There was a little pier projecting
from the Custom-house, and a road wound up the cliff to the
plateau of the town, where was a row of about twenty old-fash-
ioned cannon, which might have been of some use in firing
salutes, but certainly for nothing else. I went on shore but
found only a dead place like St. Vincent. There was an attempt
at a grand plaza, but nothing would grow in it save a few stunted
palms, and orange and mulberry trees. The population, of some
4,000, was mostly of Creoles and negroes. They seemed very poor
both in person and dwelling. Their few clothes were patched or
in rags, and they were almost universally barefoot. They were of
light-brown complexion, and had the good-natured expression and
temperament of the American negro. The women were dressed
in bright colors, and wore bandanas. Occasionally we would see
a Portuguese officer in full uniform strutting about the paved
streets, or a native policeman in dark cloth coat and white hel-
met. Shops were small and ill-furnished ; the market, save for
its display of fruit, scarcely worth a visit. Donkeys were used as
beasts of burden, and there were a few bullock-carts with block-
wheels. Hotel there was none, but a cafe and billiard-room. We
spent the day coaling here, instead of at St. Vincent, and did not
resume our voyage until near midnight.
Our next port of call is to be at the island of Principe or
Prince's Island, in the Gulf of Guinea, near the Equator, and about
150 miles from the mainland of Africa and the territory of French
Congo. The distance is 2,100 miles from Santiago, and the time
of the voyage in good weather about a week. On the continent
at about 12°, north latitude, and a little south of the parallel
of the Cape Verds, lies the Portuguese colony of Guinea, with a
population of some 5,000. We experienced a great deal of rain,
and suffered from the heat and lack of air in the " doldrums."
We saw but one or two vessels the whole way. But at night there
was always interest in the phosphorescent sea. All around the
steamer for a width of five or six feet, and with a trail forty or
fifty feet astern, the water was like molten silver, soft and ex-
ceedingly luminous and sparkling. Our trail was like a gorgeous
" milky- way," alive with stars and glorious suns. We descended
almost to the Equator — within less than a degree of it — and then
354 ACTUAL AFRICA.
began to feel the effects of a current, which flows directly through
the Gulf of Guinea, and which increased our daily run by a score
of miles.
We reached Prince's Island on the morning of the 22d. From
a distance it is very pretty, and evidently of volcanic formation,
with peaks, pinnacles and knife-like ridges. It is covered with
trees even to the tops of the hills, though there are many out-
croppings of rough rocks, some conical, others domed. The gen-
eral appearance of the island recalled those of the South Seas. At
a little distance from the shore we passed a huge naked rock with
narrow vertical strata. Prince's Island is about ten miles long and
six wide. Its highest point is 4,000 feet above the sea. It is very
fertile, producing coffee and cacao chiefly. The population is al-
most entirely native, though there are a few Portuguese who carry
on business or form the local government. We skirted the pre-
cipitous shore, noticing many huge cotton-trees, baobabs, and
many cocoanut-palms in the general mass of verdure. There was
also the usual tropical profusion of vines and creepers. The vary-
ing shades of green gave a pleasing effect, and a strong odor of
flowers came off to us. In truth, Prince's Island has been called
a " volcanic flower-garden."
We dropped anchor at the mouth of a long, narrow bay, at
whose head, a couple of miles distant, stands, in a beautiful amphi-
theatre, the little town of Sao Antonio, the capital, with about
2,000 inhabitants. Our steamer carried a small steam-launch to
transport passengers and tow lighters, and in this we paid a
visit to the land. The town is rather dilapidated in its general
appearance. The houses are built of wood, with tiled roofs, and
are generally raised upon wooden posts some four or five feet
from the ground. A few of the churches and shops are built
of stone. The streets with one exception are mere tracks. The
inhabitants are mostly blacks from Angola. They are strong and
amiable, but lazy and improvident. The combination of great
heat and humidity — being so near the Equator, it rains more or
less during a great part of the year — is well adapted to produce a
riant vegetation, but it produces also a very unhealthy climate, not
only for foreigners but even for the natives. In the evening we
left for the island of Sao Thome or St. Thomas, a little to the
southwest and some ninety miles distant. The southern extremity
of St. Thomas almost touches the line of the Equator. This island
is about double the size of Prince's. It is mountainous and fer-
PEEPS AT PORTUGUESE ISLANDS. 355
tile, and live-stock is abundant. It boasts one peak 7,000 feet
high. It is directly opposite, and 250 miles distant from, the mouth
of the Gaboon river and the town of Libreville in the French Congo.
The official name of the capital of St. Thomas is Santa Anna de
Chaves. The population of the whole island is 30,000 and of the
chief town about 4,000. They are mostly blacks, and settlers and
their descendants from the province of Angola — members of the
great Bantu family of Central and Southern Africa.
Early in the morning we were anchored in the roadstead, some
two miles from land. The water about us actually swarmed with
huge and voracious sharks. Lying at anchor near by was a small
Portuguese gun-boat, a ship, and a little French steamer which
connects with ours and carries passengers and the mail to several
of the French colonies on the mainland. Like Prince's the
island is covered with trees from sea-surface to mountain-top, but
it is not so rough and savage as the former. The town stands
upon the northwestern corner, lining the semi-circular bay. Be-
hind it rise the hills, some of them being of true volcanic pinna-
cles, recalling once more Mauritius, save that these in St. Thomas
are wooded. Here and there, in small clearings on the sides, little
farm-houses could be seen. Upon the highest parts cinchona of a
very good quality is grown, a little lower coffee and cacao, and grass
for cattle, and still lower sugar-cane. Travel into the interior is
by trails on horses or mules, or in hammocks borne by men as at
Madeira. There is, however, one road suitable for bullock-carts.
The climate, as at Prince's, is unhealthy, fevers abounding. A
Portuguese governor-general for both Prince's and St. Thomas
resides in the latter. The area of the island is 145 square miles.
The capital seemed to possess no special character. A few gayly-
colored walls, a great church, the red-roofed Custom-house, an old
square fort, with rows of small cannon, alone break its dull uni-
formity. To the right under the groves of cocoanut-palms stretch
away the huts of the natives. Next come the cemetery and the
buildings of the Lazaretto. Away to the left appear the three-
storied prison, and the building of the Eastern and South African
Telegraph Company.
Our steamer was scheduled to stop two days at St. Thomas,
so a few of us passengers determined to spend as much of the
time as possible ashore. We landed at a pier where a dozen na-
tives were busy taking cargo from the lighters, all singing to-
gether, and being accompanied by tom-toms six feet in length
356 ACTUAL AFRICA.
and not more than six inches in diameter at one end and three at
the other. The men will not work without this music. The
houses of the town are one and two stories in height, built of
boards, with tile roofs generally, though some are of stone and
plaster, notably the Custom-house in the principal square. Here
are some fine acacia trees, and a band-stand and seats. The
streets are macadamised, and lighted at night by oil lamps. There
were many shops filled with a miscellaneous stock of goods, and
several cafes and billiard-saloons. I called upon the governor,
Senhor Francisco Eugenio Pereira de Miranda. His palace was a
large two-storied stone and stucco building, surrounded by pretty
flower gardens, fountains, sentry-boxes, etc. I was ushered into a
large high-ceilinged room, handsomely furnished in carved wood
and leather, and bearing upon one wall a fine large painting of
the present King of Portugal, in brilliant uniform. The governor
was very courteous and amiable. He proffered some choice Ma-
deira wine and some fragrant cigars, and then, after a general chat,
proposed to order some hammocks and bearers and send myself
and friends to visit a large plantation of coffee, cacao and cin-
chona which is situated on what is called Monte Koffee, back
of the town, and about 2,500 feet above sea-level. We had pre-
viously been invited by the manager of this estate, a German and
fellow-passenger from Madeira, to visit him if there was time,
and finding that there was, I gladly accepted the offer of the
governor.
There were sent for us ordinary cotton hammocks, slung from
long bamboo poles, and covered by awnings which might be rolled
up if the sun was not too warm and a more extended view was de-
sired. There were six bearers to each hammock, two only carrying
at a time. They were natives of Dahomey, engaged by the govern-
ment, which gave them their food and about twenty-five cents a
day. It seems that there were about one thousand of these Daho-
meyans who, being prisoners of war, were ordered to be killed by
their King, but were liberated at the request of the Portuguese
government, which sent a gun-boat to bring them from Whydah
to St. Thomas. Here they were generally employed in the Public
Works Department. We entered upon a road adapted to small
bullock-carts, which had trails leading in every direction to villages
and plantations. This road is macadamised in parts, but at the
time of my visit was in a terrible condition owing to an excess of
recent rain. The estate which we intended to visit is twelve miles
PEEPS AT PORTUGUESE ISLANDS. 357
distant from the town. It belongs to a wealthy family named
Bister, of German extraction, though residing for several genera-
tions in Portugal, and owning beautiful houses in Cintra and in
Lisbon. They possess altogether 9,500 hectares of land, includ-
ing the highest peak in the island. About 8,000 hectares are un-
cultivated, being covered with forest. The remainder is devoted
to coffee, cacao and cinchona, with some vanilla, cinnamon and
nutmegs. There are thirty Europeans, mostly Portuguese, and
seven hundred natives employed upon the estate. The manager,
Mr. Eichard Spengler, has held that position for fourteen years.
The road passes through plantations of coffee and cacao, and a
grand forest of cocoanut and roffia palms, bananas, bamboos,
breadfruit, papayas, mangoes, acacias, baobabs and cotton trees,
arums, orchids, vines and flowers. The vegetation is extremely
riant, dense, and of velvety green. The cotton trees rear their
lofty heads high above the rest, their smooth, straight trunks and
cap of verdure being always very impressive. The forest, however,
is not so dense as that of Brazil, or even of Madagascar, though
similar in character and as interesting as it is beautiful. Now and
again we pass a small hut, raised a few feet above the ground, and
of one or two stories in height, the sides made of boards, the roof
of straw or tiles. The fences were simply paling of small tree
trunks. The natives that we encounter are simple, good-natured
people, the men clothed in loin cloth and some sort of jacket or
sack-coat, the women in calico gowns, with gay-colored handker-
chiefs about their heads, both sexes going barefoot. Everything
is carried upon the head — a bottle, a jack-fruit, a bundle of hay,
an umbrella — even, sometimes, the poles of the hammocks, instead
of on the shoulders. Babies are borne in sheets fastened to
their mothers' backs. The women smoke pipes, as well as the men,
a funny sight. These islanders live upon cassava, bananas, and
poultry and fish. Owing to the mass of vegetation by which their
huts are surrounded, and the great heat and humidity of the climate,
they suffer a good deal from fever, dysentery and anaemia. At
various points were venders of fresh palm-wine and sugar-cane
rum. My bearers seemed to partake rather too freely of both.
I tasted the new-made wine, a milky fluid of pleasant flavor, and
quite refreshing. It is said to be good for foreigners as an anti-
dote for biliousness. The road was in such a muddy and slippery
condition that we did not reach the estate until seven o'clock in
the evening, having been four hours on the way. When the road
358 ACTUAL AFRICA.
is in proper order saddle-horses are used. Goods are transported
in carts drawn by one, two or four bullocks, small animals having
enormous branching horns. We had telephoned from the town
a notice of our approaching visit, and, immediately upon our arri-
val at Monte Koffee, we were given a most sumptuous dinner, in
French style. The manager's house was large, of stone and plas-
ter, the rooms being all lined with various handsome native woods.
We soon retired to rest, somewhat fatigued by our journey. The
night was sufficiently cool to require a blanket. At this altitude
the air is pure and wholesome, but it is very unhealthy in the town
below.
In the early morning, after a cup of delicious cacao, we started
forth to see something of the estate, the buildings and the plants.
Directly before our dwelling were three or four enormous terraces,
paved with tiles on which to dry the coffee, and several long houses
in which to dry the cacao and also stow the coffee during tem-
porary showers. To the left was the hospital, to the right build-
ings for the European workmen, in the distance opposite, others
for the natives, a village of their primitive little huts, and a large
several-storied house for drying and packing the quinine. We
walked about for a couple of hours. Just back of Mr. Spengler's
house is one of the most splendid collections of flowers and plants
I have ever seen. It covers several acres, and is neatly laid out in
ornamental beds and paths. Here you see flourishing robustly,
and in the highest perfection, a most varied assembly of plants
and flowers, which are so rare or valuable with us as to be found
only in the green-houses of the very wealthy, or in those of some
public botanical gardens. The combination of heat and moisture
is well calculated to produce an astonishing quantity of both tropic
and temperate growths. I am sure I have never seen such bril-
liant coloring of flowers, such smoothness and richness of the
beautiful family of curious-leaved plants. Also to be remarked
were the great trees covered with blossoms where we at home
would only expect to find shrubs so endowed. Near here was a
large vegetable garden — maize, manioc, beans, cabbage, yams
and sweet-potatoes growing side by side. We strolled along
avenues of cinnamon, nutmegs, oranges and bananas, through
arbors of vanilla and grapes, between rows of pineapples and by
beds of strawberries. There were streams and fountains, and rus-
tic couches stood under small mountains of shade, while birds of
gay and odd plumage or bright and quaint song flew from tree to
PEEPS AT PORTUGUESE ISLANDS. 359
tree, or dipped to hastily pick at luscious fruits. It was altogether
an enchanting spot, a little paradise of fruit and flower, of color
and odor. We could hardly tear ourselves away to study the more
prosaic commercial aspects of the estate. The cacao is a small
melon-shaped fruit which grows in bunches directly upon the
trunk of the tree. It contains forty seeds shaped like almonds —
the cacao of export. The trees are grown in long rows and shaded
by banana plants, there being about three rows of the former to
one of the latter. The coffee shrubs are also partially shaded by
the same giant-leaved plant. The machinery for hulling the coffee
and cleaning the cacao is of American manufacture. We came
upon a great crowd of women and boys sitting upon the ground,
and engaged in breaking open the cacao pods and removing the
seeds. Several of the negresses had their babies strapped to- their
backs, but this proved no hindrance to their work. In one build-
ing the cinchona bark, laid upon shelves of wire matting, was
being dried in a temperature of about 100° Fahrenheit.
After lunch and a long look from the verandah of the man-
ager's house at the superb view over the forests and plantations,
out to the vessels in the roadstead and two small islands, and
away to the water horizon, we entered our hammocks and returned
to town, descending in three hours, an hour less than the time
occupied in the ascent. After returning thanks to the governor
for his kindness, we went on board our steamer, which late in the
afternoon sailed away towards the south and Cabinda, the next
port, and situated in the little Portuguese colony of Congo, about
latitude 5° south, and just north of the mouth of the great Congo
river. Before midnight we crossed the Equator, and by noon of
the next day were opposite the small Spanish island of Annobon,
which is of volcanic formation, about four miles long and two
broad. In the interior is an extinct crater that is filled by a pretty
lake. Unlike Prince's and part of St. Thomas islands, Annobon
is regarded as healthy, though it contains but a few hundred
people.
Early the following morning, and while still a hundred miles
from the mouth of the Congo, the water became of a dark olive
color, and as we neared Cabinda was greatly streaked with patches
of foam. This was to the north of the river and near shore ; the
water is discolored for a much greater distance to the westward,
more directly opposite the mouth. As we drew in towards Ca-
binda the coast bore a very pleasing appearance, being smoothly
360 ACTUAL AFRICA.
undulating, alternating with forest and pasture — the trees being a
very dark green, the grass a very light — and ending in bluffs at
the edge of the sea. Cabinda is situated upon roughly sloping
ground on the southern side of a great circular bight. This is so
shallow that we had to anchor about three miles from land, and
we got aground even at that distance. Near us was a large white
hulk used for temporary storing of cargo, and beyond it two small
coast and river steamers, the one English, the other Portuguese.
The town is quite small and straggling. At one side are some
barracks, and on the highest point the dwelling of the governor.
A small landing-pier projects into the bay. Away to the north,
near the wide ocean beach, were a number of white buildings
belonging to a Dutch factory or trading-station. The absence of
cocoanut or other palms on the shores was remarked. Owing to
the configuration of the land it was impossible to see far into the
interior. Travel thither is generally by hammock along narrow
forest trails. The country is at first of a sort of park character.
There is now, however, scarcely anything grown for export, the
business of Cabinda consisting almost wholly of imports. For-
merly there were some exports of palm oil, gum, wax, orchilla,
copper and ivory. There are several large factories — Portuguese,
Dutch, English — which serve as deposits or depots for miscellane-
ous collections of European manufactures, which are distributed
about the country by bearers and by small steamers, and either
sold for Portuguese copper coins, or bartered with the natives for
wire, beads, or cottons.
I went on shore and took a walk about the town. The for-
eign houses are substantially built of wood, with iron roofs,
and are raised a few feet above the ground upon posts. The
region of the town has been cleared of trees. The soil is of
a reddish color, very porous and sandy. This while detracting
from its fertility is greatly conducive to the health of the residents,
as the rain soon soaks away and leaves the air dry and bracing.
Cabinda is therefore one of the healthiest locations along the
coast. I visited the English factory, a collection of great ware-
houses filled with merchandise, of dwellings and refectories, of
offices, etc. There are eight young Englishmen employed in this
factory, which has been established over thirty years. Several of
the foreign agents or managers of factories have cottages upon
the tops of the hills, surrounded by pretty little flower gardens
and embracing extensive views of town, country and sea. I should
PEEPS AT PORTUGUESE ISLANDS. 361
explain that the word factory, as used in this part of the world,
means simply a warehouse or magazine of goods stored as a circu-
lating centre. The European part of Cabinda contains thirty or
forty houses ; the native town is at some distance, and consists of
little thatched huts. The natives are mostly from Angola, with
sprinklings from various points in the more immediate neighbor-
hood. The latter are rather small and weak, though said to be
skilled in many industries. Cabinda was formerly a great slave
mart.
We left the following day for San Antonio, about fifty miles
distant, on the southern bank of the Congo, near its mouth.
The distant coast was low, smooth and thinly wooded. The south-
ern bank of the Congo projects for a considerable distance beyond
the northern, and terminates in Cape Pedras. Not far inland
from this is Shark Point, a narrow spit of sand on which are
located a light-house and signal-station, and about a dozen native
huts. North of this, upon the low, sandy peninsula of Banana Point,
is the collection of factories called Banana. The flat land all
around is covered with mangroves, palms and forest trees. Banana
is directly opposite Zanzibar on the East Coast. The town of San
Antonio is merely a dozen houses on a level point of land. We
dropped anchor in the river near an English and a Portuguese
steamer. To the eastward extended the Congo towards a horizon
of sky and water. At its mouth the river is eight miles wide and
150 fathoms deep in mid-channel. It is of a rich coffee color,
with a current of about five knots an hour. This immense stream
discharges 1,000,000 tons of water per second, as great a volume
probably as of all the other rivers of Africa together. It has
worn a channel 6,000 feet deep for a distance of 300 miles into
the ocean, the banks being mountains of detritus and slimy mud
brought down by the river. It is said that this dark soft mud is
even found 600 miles at sea at depths of 3,000 fathoms. As with
the Amazon, nearly opposite on the coast of South America, the
water of the sea surface is perfectly fresh a hundred miles from
land. This great volume and force of current therefore effectu-
ally prevents the formation of a bar or delta. The Congo is about
3,000 miles in length, and most of its area is thought to have been
at one time a vast lake or inland sea. It is second only to the
Amazon in point of drainage and annual discharge of water. It
was styled the "Congo" because it formed the northern limit of
the ancient kingdom of that name which extended from Loanda
25
362 ACTUAL AFRICA.
northward. It was called the Zaire by the Portuguese. Mr. Stan-
ley re-named it the " Livingstone," in honor of the great English
missionary and explorer, a title, however, which has not been adopted
by geographers. In the evening we left San Antonio for Ambriz,
in the province of Angola, and about 160 miles to the south-
ward.
CHAPTER XL.
THE PROVINCE OF ANGOLA.
We reached Ambriz in the early morning, and anchored quite
three miles from shore. The coast hereabouts is low, smooth and
sparsely wooded. In the distance are pretty chains of hills. As
we steamed towards the shore the houses of the small village of
Ambrizette appeared to the north. Ambriz is situated upon a
long ridge of sandy soil, with a clayey bluff at its northern ex-
tremity perhaps seventy or eighty feet in height. Just to the
north of the town the small river Loje enters the sea. I went
ashore in one of the cargo lighters which came out to us — a very
wide flat boat, sharp at each end, and bearing an enormous lateen-
sail. The situation of Ambriz is very similar to that of Praia, on
Santiago, the Cape Verd island previously described. There is a
semi-circular roadstead with a wide, sandy beach near which are
the several buildings of the Custom-house. I am carried to land
upon the shoulders of the black crew. A road winds up to the
town, which contains about two hundred Europeans and perhaps
two thousand natives. Here are several large factories — English,
Dutch, French and Portuguese. The houses are of wood, with
iron or felt roofs, and but a single story in height. The native
huts are apart by themselves, very small, of wood or mud, and
with grass roofs. The main street is wide and bordered with trees,
but it is a mere track of sand. There is a plaza with small houses
at each corner which are used for a market. Upon the bluff by
the sea is a small fort and another, with stone walls and an arma-
ment of old bronze guns, is at the southern end of the town. The
views of the country inland are very pretty.
I called upon the governor and he, with the courtesy always
found among his race, made me at home in his house, introduced
me to his wife, and treated me to wine, coffee and cigars. After-
wards he guided me all over the town and accompanied me to the
363
364 ACTUAL AFRICA.
landing, sending me on board my steamer in the Custom-house
boat. Ambriz is the fourth town of Angola in point of size and
importance. Coffee is about the only export worthy of mention.
The imports are, however, very varied and considerable in amount.
Though the town is apparently so dry and well-drained, it is not
a healthy place, but gives rise to bad fevers. Near Ambriz there
are some large deposits of copper, and an English company is be-
ing formed for working them. To the south of Ambriz the shore
for a considerable distance is a low, sandy bluff, with a smooth
wide beach.
In the afternoon we weighed anchor for St. Paul de Loanda,
a distance of about sixty miles as our steamer was to take her
course. We arrived at ten in the evening. The city lies at the
southwestern corner of the extension of a fine large arm of the sea —
Bengo Bay— and is protected from the westerly and northwesterly
winds by long, narrow and low sand banks. This bay of Loanda
makes one of the best harbors on the whole west coast. The en-
trance to the port or inner harbor was marked by a flash light on
the main land, and a fixed light on a shoal projecting to the north-
ward of a long sand bank. We were obliged to anchor at least
three miles from the city. Near us were two or three old coal
hulks, a guard-boat and a few small ships, while several Portuguese
men-of-war were lying at anchor opposite a naval station on one of
the sand islands. Our anchor down, gun fired and whistle blown,
we were soon approached by at least a dozen boats, coming out to
seek friends, in addition to those belonging to the port and health
officers. It was my intention to leave the greater part of my bag-
gage at Loanda until my return from Mossamedes, and as the
steamer was to stop three days, to see and learn as much as pos-
sible during that time. After inspection, we were allowed to take
our small luggage on shore, while trunks were to be sent to the
Custom-house early in the morning. I went to the solitary hotel
of Loanda, a large two-story building, faced by a small garden of
bananas and flowers, and obtained a room with a pleasant outlook
upon the bay. This hotel was like a huge warehouse. It was
built of brick and stucco, with a tile roof. The interior walls ex-
tended only to the eaves, and the fittings were of the plainest and
most primitive description. In an inner courtyard goats were
herded, a monkey was chained, and a cage full of many kinds of
odd birds was located. Mosquitoes, fleas, bugs and mice abounded,
while in a tank before the house there wriggled a small alligator.
THE PROVINCE OF ANGOLA. 365
The province of Angola, formerly Lower Guinea, of which
Loanda is the chief town and seat of government, is about eight
hundred miles square, and is therefore one of the largest terri-
torial divisions on the new map of Africa. It includes the great
native district, in the northeastern corner, called Muatayamvo's
Kingdom, over which there is a protectorate. The population of
Angola is put at 2,000,000. Loanda, which lies in 8° 48' south
latitude, may be called the finest city of western Africa. It is
served by four regular lines of steamers from Europe : the Portu-
guese " Empreza IVacional" which runs two steamers a month
from Lisbon, the " British and African Steam Navigation Com-
pany," one monthly from Liverpool, the " Woermann Line," one
monthly from Hamburg, and the " Gompagnie Chargeurs Reunis"
one monthly from Havre. Loanda has a population of about
15,000, of which number some 2,500 are Europeans, mostly Portu-
guese. It was founded by the Portuguese in 1575, and was for-
merly notorious as a seat of the slave trade to Brazil and Cuba.
Here, and in the coast ports from the Congo to Mossamedes, there
were as many as 100,000 slaves exported annually. Slavery con-
tinued in Angola until quite a recent date, being only completely
abolished in 1878. There are about a thousand convicts in
Loanda. I have already spoken of a batch which we brought in
our steamer. The better class are allowed to work outside the
town, their employers giving bail for them. The system is said to
be abused, and it is now proposed to adopt the more rigid confine-
ment used elsewhere. Coffee is the staple export of Loanda, the
quantity shipped exceeding in value all other exports together.
Next in importance come rubber, wax, palm oil and kernels,
hides, cotton, gums, ivory, orchilla, and kola and ground nuts.
The total exports in 1890 amounted to about $5,000,000. India-
rubber is found in most of the interior forests and could be culti-
vated in many districts. Coffee grows spontaneously and is much
cultivated in the mountain region. Copal and other gums are ob-
tained in the coastal belt. Wax is produced everywhere in the
province. Hides are mostly from the plateau region. Orchilla
weed is found in the coast zone. Palm oil and kernels are pro-
duced on river banks of the northern and central parts of the
province. Cotton, which compares favorably with other kinds as
regards quality and staple, grows spontaneously in the coast dis-
trict and on the plateaux. Ivory is brought from the hunting
grounds of the distant interior. Kola nuts grow wild in the coffee
366 ACTUAL AFRICA.
district. The agricultural and industrial machinery is English
and American. That for hulling coffee and distilling is entirely
American. Distilling is a great industry in Angola. It is in the
form of rum. The distilleries are situated on the sugar-cane plan-
tations, the spirit being manufactured direct from the juice of the
cane. Most of the coffee planters of the interior also have some
portion of their land under cane, from which a large quantity of
rum is distilled. The labor question is at all times a serious one
in Angola ; the native being easily and quickly supplied with all
his necessaries of life, will not labor constantly, and the climate
prevents white men from long working at manual labor while ex-
posed to the sun. The most important imports are Manchester
cotton fabrics of every kind — nearly all of which are used in a
sort of barter trade with the people of the interior — powder, hard-
ware, provisions in casks and boxes, and tinned goods.
The Banco National Ultramarino, or National Colonial Bank,
of Lisbon, has a branch at Loanda, established in a fine large and
well-furnished building. This bank enjoys a monopoly and many
privileges putting it on a footing different from banks in other
countries. The currency is nearly all paper, a portion of which is
issued by the treasury of the province and guaranteed by the
public revenue. The bank also issues notes of the same value.
The major part are of the latter complexion. There is no silver
but some copper coin in circulation. Most of the copper money
passes into the interior and does not return, which causes it to
rise sometimes, at some of the trading stations, to the high pre-
mium of 15 per cent. Loanda is well supplied with water, coming
in pipes from a small river about sixteen miles distant. It is
a monopoly and there are hydrants in the streets where it is
sold to the natives, while most of the houses in the town have it
" laid on." There are also a few ornamental marble fountains,
supplied with drinking cups, for public use. The staple food of
the natives is the manioc root, though the ground nut is also
largely consumed. The latter is a beautiful annual plant, of which
great quantities are exported to be crushed for oil. The inner
bark of the baobab is used by the natives for making bags and
rope, and is also exported for paper manufacture. The natives
believe in fetishes, nearly all of them wearing some sort of charm.
Circumcision is widely practised. Polygamy everywhere prevails.
Every wife has her own house, garden and private property. The
head wife has a limited authority. Tattooing is also very general,
THE PROVINCE OF ANGOLA. 367
the bodies being covered with rows and geometric figures of little
raised cicatrices, and lumps of flesh as big as ordinary marbles.
Each tribe has peculiar marks of its own. The language of the
Angola people is called Kimbundu. It is the western branch of
the great South African or Bantu family of languages, a sort of
lingua franca of this region, as is the Suaheli of the east coast.
From several points on the bluff back of the city, and from the
fort of San Miguel at its western extremity, you have fine views
over harbor and coast. The former is large and secure, though, as
we have seen, so shallow that vessels have to anchor far from
shore. On the ridge, at the left hand, as you cross the bay and
enter the long harbor, is a small fort. Then comes a large build-
ing formerly used as a barranca or slave depot. Xext at the edge
of the water is another small fort, and then your eye alights on the
outskirts of the city and the new three-story building of the rail-
way station. A railway running in a southeasterly direction to
the rich coffee plantations of the interior, is now in operation 145
miles, and is to be extended some 85 miles further. On the right
hand, or sea side of the harbor, extends the long narrow sandbank
already mentioned, which bears several groves of cocoanut-palms,
quite a settlement at the naval station, and a few collections of
fishing-huts. Small sailing vessels or steam-launches can alone
pass between the mainland and this long sandbank. The city is
divided into two parts, an upper and a lower, the latter contain-
ing the Custom-house and the foreign mercantile houses, the for-
mer the residence of the governor, the public offices, and the best
dwellings. Around the circular end of the harbor extends a broad
sandy road, partially shaded by banyan and other trees. The
houses are one and two stories in height, built of brick or stone
covered with stucco, and with tile roofs. A curious custom is
that of numbering the windows as well as the doors of each dwell-
ing. It is only thought necessary to number the windows on the
ground floor. Several causeways of stone masonry lead from the
lower to the upper town. These are roughly paved and partially
shaded. There is no attempt at sidewalk, save before a few of the
houses. The town is lighted at night by kerosene lamps, which
are placed in high iron posts such as are used for gas in European
cities. In several of the squares are small bamboo booths where
natives offer for sale various goods of Manchester and Birming-
ham manufacture. There are four markets : two large quadri-
lateral ones, one a simple shed, and one held out-of-doors upon the
368 ACTUAL AFRICA.
beach. The two latter are for fish, one of the others is for grain,
and the remaining one is devoted to fruits and vegetables. Both
of the latter are surrounded by small shops of miscellaneous goods.
The fish markets contain a score of varieties varying in size from
a few inches to several feet in length. Some of them were remark-
ably cheap. A good fish four or five inches long sold for the equiva-
lent of a cent. Among other curious specimens were the gelatin-
ous cuttle-fish, here esteemed a delicacy. All the sections, save
only the butchers' stalls, were served by women. In the general
market they squatted upon the ground, with their goods exposed
for sale in wicker-work baskets placed around them. I noticed
cooked fish, jars of palm oil, and heaps of kernels and of kola nuts,
which last are used as food and as a stimulant. There were also
a few indigenous manufactures — baskets, earthenware jars, and
pipes with carved wooden stems. The women were simply dressed
in dark cotton gowns, secured about their waist, and a band of
cloth about their chest just beneath their arms. Their neck, arms
and feet were bare, as was often also their head, though some-
times this was bound about with a gay handkerchief. They often
wore gold earrings, or simply one if too poor to buy a pair. On
their wrists and ankles they frequently wore thin iron bands.
These women were very smiling, amiable creatures. The men
also impress you favorably, except for their laziness. They wear a
long loin cloth and a jacket, sometimes a cap or hat, but more
often not. They all go barefoot. The machilla, like that used in
Mozambique, is the prevailing vehicle, though one occasionally
sees mule carriages. The governor's palace is situated upon the
bluff. It is a long two-storied building, with public government
offices below. The rooms are large, but simply furnished. Here
I was most courteously received by the governor — Senhor Brito
Grodins — who gave me letters of introduction to the governors of
Benguela and Mossamedes. Opposite the palace is a little square
in which is a marble statue to the first Portuguese governor of
Angola. At one side is a pretty garden filled with flowers, and
having a promenade which on "band-nights" — two nights in the
week — is filled by all the fashionable world of Loanda. In another
square, near the Custom-house, in the lower town, is a bronze
statue, also to a former governor. These two statues constitute
the sole art embellishments of the city. A large Town Hall of
stone has been begun and, if ever completed, will be an ornament.
There is a good meteorological observatory whose reports are regu-
THE PROVINCE OF ANGOLA. 369
larly published in the official bulletin. But the pride of the citi-
zens is the great hospital, high up upon the bluff, and the most
conspicuous building in the town as seen from the harbor. It has
four hundred beds, and is as well appointed as those of Europe.
Of course I paid a visit to Fort San Miguel, a very old structure
standing upon a natural base, with a most commanding position,
the walls being a couple of hundred feet above the sea. The
commandant lives upon the top of one of the bastions and pos-
sesses here a garden of flowers and vegetables, and even some siz-
able trees, like those of a similar one in the old fortress of Mo-
zambique. This fort mounts a large number of guns, but they are
all old smooth-bores of but little use in these days. Several hun-
dred prisoners, both men and women, dejjorted from Portugal, are
confined in this fortification. The views from its walls are very
extended and interesting. The purely native town stands by
itself on the eastern side. The new parts are laid out in streets, but
in the older the houses are massed in every conceivable fashion.
The dwellings are small, oblong in shape, built of wattles plastered
with mud, and roofed with grass. They have one or two doors
and one or more windows. In the better class a sort of hall passes
from one door to another, giving on each side two good-sized
rooms. They cook in half-open sheds near by. They have little
yards surrounded by high and tight grass fences. These natives
are very fond of strong drink, rum being their preference, and
as one wanders about their quarter it is no unusual thing to come
across a drunken man or woman. The Portuguese residents have
so few amusements that it does not seem unnatural that they
should be fond of gambling. In the hotel there was a large rou-
lette-table which was greatly patronised. The theatre is small and
very rude, and only occupied by an occasional travelling company.
There are several small cafes, with inferior billiard-tables. In the
interior good shooting is to be had, both birds and beasts, on land
and river. A weekly newspaper is published in Loanda, but it
contains little more than new laws and regulations.
On resuming our voyage the next port of call was Novo Re-
dondo, 170 miles distant. About fifty miles south of Loanda we
passed the mouth of the Quanza river, which extends in a south-
easterly direction into the interior, and is navigable for 120 miles,
as far as the town of Dondo, which I afterwards visited. The
railway, of which I have already spoken, furnishes one means of
entering the interior and the Quanza river, which is served by
370 ACTUAL AFRICA.
a Loanda line of light-draught steamers and barges, the other.
Elsewhere the universal travelling appliance is a hammock — called
tipoya — borne on the shoulders of natives along the narrow forest
paths. We reached Novo Redondo the next afternoon, and an-
chored about three miles from shore. The country hereabouts is
hilly, with sandy and clayey bluffs immediately upon the sea, and
a considerable range of mountains dimly appearing in the far
distant interior. Novo Redondo is a small town. From the an-
chorage you do not see more than a dozen Portuguese houses which
are built upon a rough ridge of steep hills, some distance up from
the sea and facing the north. There is a small fort on a point.
Just to the left of the village is a large level space covered with
sugar-cane and cocoanut plantations. Here are the buildings also
of several large Portuguese factories. Not another tree is any-
where in sight and the hills are — at least at this time of year —
brown and yellow, and quite desolate-looking. The only commerce
of Novo Redondo is in sugar and rum. A number of lighters
soon sailed out to us, and we began at once to discharge cargo.
We left the next morning for Benguela, about ninety miles dis-
tant, keeping the coast in view all the way. It continues for the
most part hilly, sandy and treeless. Where the Catumbella river en-
ters the ocean — about fifteen miles north of Benguela — was, however,
an exception, for upon a plain here there were trees and sugar-cane
plantations. The river cuts its way through the hilly range, and
discolors the sea for a considerable distance. In the evening we an-
chored in a large semi-circular bay, lined with a great yellow beach,
about a mile and a half from Benguela. Near by us lay a Portu-
guese merchant steamer, nearer the shore a few small coasting ves-
sels, and still nearer quite a fleet of lighters. The town is situated
on a large flat plain covered with trees, and backed by ranges of
bare yellow sand hills and, in the distance, several high and prettily
diversified ranges. One peak — Olombinga — rises to a height of
nearly 5,000 feet. The place and surroundings were therefore
picturesque. Though its low situation and the trees prevent your
seeing much of the town from the anchorage, still at the right
hand may be distinguished the Custom-house, and the " palace "
of the governor, which looks like a large Swiss chalet, behind these
the building of the Telegraph Cable Company, and beyond, the
walls and chapel of the cemetery. In about the centre of the
view, near the shore, is an enormous low-walled fort, containing
a large prison, back of which may be seen the white towers of a
Angola Types.
THE PRO VINCE OF ANGOLA. 371
church. Away to the left lies a great collection of the native
brown huts. Benguela is the second town of Angola in commer-
cial importance but the third in point of population, being sur-
passed in this particular by Mossamedes. It has been the point of
arrival or departure of many of the great explorers who have
crossed Africa. From here started the well-known expeditions of
Serpa Pinto, and Capello and Ivins, and here arrived from the east
coast those of Livingstone and Cameron. I went on shore in our
steam-launch, landing at an iron pier upon which lines of rail led
directly up to the Custom-house, a very large building filled with
merchandise. Merchants are allowed to leave their imports here
free for six months, after which, however, they have a heavy duty
to pay. Across the street stood the very European-looking house
of the governor, with its high-pitched slate roof, its many angles,
and its garden full of flowers and great cages of pretty singing
birds, and encircled by a tall iron fence. Beyond this again were
the very long, white walls of the fort, above which projected
the muzzles of a score of small old-fashioned cannon, and, still
further off, the first story of a new stone hospital in course of erec-
tion. The main street runs directly fro^fthe beach through the
town. It is a broad macadamised avenue, lined by rows of trees,
and lighted at night by kerosene lamps placed on iron posts. The
town lies upon an immense sandy and very level plain. It is
much spread out, the streets being wide and the houses mostly of
but one story. The soil is so sterile that it is with difficulty any
plants or flowers can be cultivated, though there are plenty of
great rough trees and cocoanut-palms. It rains very little in Ben-
guela. I follow up the grand central avenue leading by the fine
two-story building of the English Telegraph Cable Company, all
the material for which was brought out from England and put
together here by English workmen. I pass the park full of acacias
and oleanders, and surrounded by a neat iron fence. It contained
a band-stand, and a fountain which was waterless. The market I
found established in several large iron-roofed sheds, in which a few
natives were squatting upon the ground and offering for sale fruits,
vegetables, tobacco and bead-work. There are a number of Euro-
pean business houses in Benguela, whose trade with the interior is
very great. This trade consists chiefly of India-rubber and wax,
which are brought down to the coast by native caravans. I saw
one of these caravans of about thirty men, women and children,
marching along in single file, and bearing their goods upon either
372 ACTUAL AFRICA.
head or shoulder, or suspended in baskets from a pole carried upon
the shoulder. They were a poor-looking, half-fed and half-clothed
set, wearing only the skin of some small animal about the loins,
and the women being, like the men, naked to the waist, and neither
sex wearing any head-covering. In the town I remarked the fre-
quency of the native rum shops and their great number of noisy
patrons.
CHAPTER XLI.
MOSSAMEDES.
In the afternoon we started on for Mossamedes, 180 miles dis-
tant, having taken on board quite a number of passengers for that
town. The travel from point to point up and down the coast has
been considerable, and so comparatively few are the Portuguese
settlers that all seem to be more or less acquainted, and so there is
a great deal of jollity on the steamers. These passengers vary in
color from the pale white of the Portuguese to the light brown of
the mulattoes and the jet-black of the negroes. Notwithstanding
these varying tints all seem to be on a perfect equality. At the
southwestern part of the bay in which Benguela is situated, upon a
hilly point, is a huge round mass called " sombrero rock " from its
resemblance to a hat. This remained in sight a long time and
then we saw the light upon Cape Salinas. "We kept on, never
out of sight of land, which gradually became lower and smoother,
and utterly devoid of trees and shrubs. About midday we
reached Mossamedes, for which I had started from Cape Town
just two months before. We anchored near the shore in one
comer of a beautiful expanse called Little Fish Bay, quite a mile
from the iron pier which projects before the Custom-house, where
the landing is made. It is a fine anchorage of deep water, and well
protected on three sides. The country all around is a great yellow
desert, and in the interior is a long sandy ridge of hills reminding
me once again of Nubia. It is said to continue of this character
for nearly a hundred miles to the eastward. There are no trees,
shrubs, or even grass. Near us is anchored a hulk loaded with coal
and extra cable belonging to the Telegraph Cable Company. A
massive turtle comes to the surface for some food which has been
thrown overboard. I notice the fins also of several huge sharks
swimming around the steamer.
Mossamedes is in about latitude 15° south, in almost exactly
373
374 ACTUAL AFRICA.
the same parallel as Mozambique on the eastern coast. The town
lies upon level ground along the circular beach of the bay,
which here is ornamented with a long line of cocoanut-palms.
Several windmills for pumping water appear. Upon the opposite
side of the bay is a long narrow green strip of foliage, the fruit
and sugar-cane plantations of several Portuguese factories. A
river enters the sea here when not dry, which it is during the
greater part of the year. To the west of the town upon the edge of
a steep bluff is first a fort, with its rows of guns peeping over the
wall, a little further on is the palace of the governor, a fine large
stone edifice, of two lofty stories, painted blue with white trimmings.
A little beyond this are the unpretentious buildings of the old and
new hospitals. Near by is a twin-Aowered church whose yellow
walls can hardly be distinguished from the sands of the surround-
ing desert. In short, with the vari-colored walls of its houses, the
green palms backed by yellow sand and brown rocky hills, Mossa-
medes has quite an Egyptian aspect. As in Egypt, too, owing to the
great evaporation, the cold is most felt at night, the difference of
temperature between midday and midnight being very considerable.
The city is quite modern, having been founded in 1849 by a Portu-
guese colony from Brazil. Since that year immigration has con-
tinued, until now the district has by far the largest white popula-
tion of Angola.
At Humpata, in the mountainous region east of Mossamedes, is
a colony of Boers who " trekked " from the Transvaal, and set-
tled here in 1882. They were by royal decree declared to be
Portuguese citizens, though they do not mix with either the Por-
tuguese or the natives, but live here just as they did at home, as
independent farmers. They have, however, rendered valuable serv-
ices to this district by building a canal and a road to Mossamedes
from the plateau, by carrying freight on their great ox- wagons, and
by their valor in the wars against the native tribes. Mossamedes
is situated about two hundred miles from the Kunene river, the
southern boundary of the province of Angola. Between it and
Cape Town are only two important ports, one, Walfish Bay, belong-
ing to Great Britain, in Damara Land, over which there is a Ger-
man Protectorate, and Port Nolloth, in Cape Colony, fifty miles or
so south of the mouth of the Orange river. A railway sixty miles
in length runs from here to the rich copper mines of Ookiep.
Walfish Bay affords a good anchorage, and is the point from which
several tracks lead into the interior.
§4&»
pa^«
^ •
V
MOSSAMEDES. 375
Our steamer stays two days at Mossamedes and then returns to
Lisbon, calling at the same ports as on the outward voyage. I
visited the shore in the launch, took a walk about the town, and
called upon the1 governor. I landed at a commodious little iron
pier covered with great piles of baskets of dried fish, ready for ex-
port to other parts of the coast of Angola. Coast-fishing is one of
the great industries of Mossamedes. There were also on the pier
some bags of cotton and sugar, and several hogsheads of rum.
Cattle are also a prominent export. Mossamedes is a compact little
town, not spread out like Benguela. There is no village of poor
natives adjoining, and so the place has a fresh and clean appear-
ance. The streets, which run inwards from the bay, end abruptly
in the sandy desert. They had apparently been macadamised at
one time, though they were everywhere ankle-deep in sand, the glare
from which was very trying to the eyes. Along the bank a double
row of cocoanut-palms has been planted and many flowering shrubs,
of which latter the oleanders succeed best. There is a small public
garden in which the scrubby trees, plants and shrubs have to be
frequently irrigated, the beds being specially arranged for this pur-
pose. In one square was a monument to a former Minister of the
Colonies at Lisbon, who was a great friend of the slaves. A paved
road leads up the hill to the westward to the fort, governor's palace
and hospitals. The lower part of the palace is used for the public
offices of the local government. The floor above is occupied by the
governor and his family. The then incumbent received me very
kindly, and we enjoyed a long chat about colonial matters in Africa,
and affairs Portuguese generally. As I returned to the pier files
of loaded camels and ox-carts were bringing merchandise to town.
I also saw one of the great teams and stout wagons which the Boers
and settlers use in South Africa, and which are occasionally em-
ployed here for trips into the interior, though nearly all the prod-
ucts, as at Benguela, are brought down on native carriers' heads or
shoulders, a slow, costly and precarious system. A railway running
directly into the fertile and healthy land of the interior — say for a
distance of two hundred miles — is very much wanted both at Mossa-
medes and Benguela. The railway at Loanda is good, as far as it
goes, but ought to be extended another hundred miles. Portugal
well knows the necessity and value of this method of tapping and
opening up the country, but pleads poverty. How then would it
do to sell her territory on the eastern coast — there would be a ready
market — to some richer Power near by, and concentrate her energy
376 ACTUAL AFRICA.
and resources upon the western ? In this way at least Angola
might be made to yield a much handsomer revenue than she does
at present.
On our return we arrived at Benguela early in the morning,
and in the afternoon I made an excursion to Catumbella, with
which it is connected by a narrow-gauge railway fifteen miles in
length. There is one train each way every day. The cars are
miniature. Those for the first-class had transverse seats, covered
with cushions, and were open on every side, with canvas curtains
to ward off the fierce sun ; the second-class passengers had to con-
tent themselves with benches, and the third to squat upon the floor,
or stand. There were, besides, several platform cars for freight.
The little railway has been built some ten years, and is owned by
a Portuguese Company. The speed attained is about ten miles an
hour, though occasional stops have to be made to keep up a suffi-
cient head of steam. We had quite a full train. The road runs
all the way across level sandy plains, which are covered with a coarse
scrub of thorns and bushes, with a few baobabs. On one side was
the sea, on the other a low range of barren mountains. Nearing
Catumbella, however, the scene changed. Much vegetation and
many villages appeared. There were great groves of the palm-oil
trees and, by the ocean, of cocoanut-palms. The native huts were
of wattle and mud sides and grass-thatches, surrounded by thick
fences of coarse grass.
We reached Catumbella in one hour and a half, there being no
stations on the road. Just above the point at which the journey
terminated were two knolls, upon one of which was a fort and
upon the other the residence of the mayor of the town. I walked
to a Dutch trading-house for whose manager, Mr. Kamerman, I
bore a letter of introduction. I crossed on the way the Catum-
bella river — a swift, shallow, muddy stream, here perhaps three
hundred feet wide — upon a neat iron bridge. The town lies on
level ground, bounded on every side, except that towards the sea, by
a circle of steep bare hills and by its side winds the river, its banks
bordered by beautiful tropical trees. Further up country this river
contains both crocodiles and hippopotami. A road leads from the
town to the sea, some four or five miles distant, where are several
factories engaged in the salt trade. Catumbella consists of two or
three long straggling macadamised streets. It is a town of single-
story houses, and contains a population of about one hundred whites
— Portuguese and Dutch — and some two thousand natives. It is a
» 4
MOSSAMEBES. 377
great trading centre. A trade route from the distant interior termi-
nates here, or rather it actually terminates at Benguela, to which
the railway has been built for its accommodation. A carriage
road, which runs much of the way alongside the railway, is also
used by the Europeans for carts, mules and hammocks, while
the natives pass on foot. Behind the town you see the trails
of the carriers passing over the steep hills. They enter the interior
by the valley of the river, which affords an easier route than is
available to the eastward of Benguela. Caravans of natives are
coming and going throughout the year. All day long you see
them toiling over the hill, each bearing upon the head or shoul-
der a bundle of India-rubber, hides or gum copal, or a bag of wax
or orchilla, or a small tusk or tooth of ivory. Physically these car-
riers are generally very ugly, being thin and misshapen, and many
being afflicted with loathsome diseases. Both men and women are
nearly naked and children wholly so. The few rags which they
wear are filthy, but no more so than their bodies. Yet many of
them, especially the children, have bright, intelligent faces. The
women wear brass and iron wire bangles and anklets, necklaces of
beads, and all, both men and women, attach fetish charms in small
boxes or cylinders about their necks. Some of these caravans
number two hundred people, and come from several hundred miles
in the interior, being months upon their journey. Those living
nearer make perhaps two visits a year. At the busiest season
there are sometimes as many as ten thousand carriers temporarily
staying in the town. The products and goods are brought chiefly
by the natives of Bailundo, Bihe, Caconda and Ganguellas. For
what they bring they are paid in barter by the many Portuguese
traders, whose shops are filled with cheap cotton cloths, beads,
wire, head-kerchiefs and clothing, gin and aguardiente, ordinary
cheap guns, powder and last, but not least, old silk tall hats. A
native of any means and pretensions to gentility is never happy
until he has bought a high silk hat, with which, and wearing
probably nothing else than a dirty loin cloth, with a pipe in
his mouth, and being more or less under the influence of liquor, he
struts about town, a very ridiculous show to a foreigner, but an
object of admiration and envy to all his compatriots. These na-
tives generally remain in Catumbella only so long as their credit is
good, when they walk in easy stages back to their distant villages.
They carry only an earthenware pot for cooking their manioc, a
gourd for water, a stick to assist their climbing in difficult places,
26
378 ACTUAL AFRICA.
and perhaps a rusty old flint-lock musket, which has been tightly
bound with strips of hide from end to end with the idea or hope
that this will prevent its explosion.
I remained over night in Catumbella and took the morning
train back to Benguela. We carried with us some thirty or forty
laborers who were going to Prince's and St. Thomas' islands under
contract to work for five years in the coffee and cacao plantations.
Each wore around the neck a tin badge inscribed with his or her
number, the name of the plantation, and the locality. These
people had been neatly fitted out with gay-colored cotton suits and
fancy caps, of all which finery they seemed exceedingly proud. I
breakfasted with the governor, Senbor Francisco de Paula Cid,
Junior, and received from him a fine collection of photographs,
and much interesting information concerning Beuguela. This
gentleman was formerly a captain in the navy. The provincial
and district governors, who have great power, are by tradition
naval officers, while the chiefs of the counties into which the
districts are divided, are, as a rule, officers of the army. The
counties are again divided into townships, which are presided
over by resident traders or, often, educated natives. I also received
a number of similar courtesies from the governor at Loanda, but
why should I specialise ? — one is always sure of favor and hospital-
ity from a Portuguese official. Governor Paula Cid told me that
in the year 1887 the exports of Benguela took a sudden jump
upwards, owing to the appearance in the markets of a new kind of
India-rubber, which is extracted from the roots of a small shrub
that grows spontaneously on the banks of certain rivers in the
interior. This rubber is not so good as the Brazilian, but is found
in greater quantity and is more readily extracted. The value of
the exports in 1892 was 1,466 contos of reis (or about $1,650,000)
and of this total, rubber amounted to 1,207 contos, wax coming
next with 188, and ivory next with but 34 contos. In the same
year the district of Benguela produced 3,000,000 litres of aguar-
diente, most of which was sent to London and St. Thomas. The
value of the importation in 1892 was 900 contos. The port of
Benguela is annually visited by an average of 100 vessels, of which
number 70 are steamers and the remainder ships. The two prin-
cipal rivers of the district are tbe Kunene and the Kubango
which flow from the north to the south and west, and whose banks,
some four or five thousand feet above the sea-level, are very fertile.
Between these two rivers are found several sorts of iron, and in
MOSSAMEDES. 379
great quantities. Some mines of copper and sulphur, and some
small traces of gold are met with upon the high plateau. The
climate here is excellent, and well-suited to Europeans. There is
in Beno-uela a branch of the Banco National Ultramarino, the
business of which in 1892 amounted to over $3,000,000. We
received on board a large shipment of India-rubber, wax and
orchilla, and left for Novo Redoudo, where we received more cargo,
and then went on to Loanda, arriving at noon on the following
day.
Before leaving Loanda I witnessed " Carnival " as celebrated by
the natives and Portuguese. It lasted three days, during which
time the blacks did not work, but kept on a perpetual spree, con-
suming great quantities of aguardiente. There were processions in
bal-masque costume by day and night, and fireworks also at all
times. The order of the processions was something like this : there
was a march, then a halt and dance, a grand " walk-round" to the
music of tom-toms, mandolins and tambourines, the whole accom-
panied with much singing and chanting. The dances were quite
barbaric, and the din of the native music was terrific. The other
people would crowd around at these halts and clap their hands and
laugh like the children they are. Very many of the maskers copied
the uniforms of generals, with cocked-hats, much gold-lace and deco-
rations. There were, besides, many ridiculous caricatures. These
simple people save their wages and prepare for these carnivals for
weeks beforehand. Flags were displayed all over the city, which
was thoroughly en fete. On the last afternoon there was a proces-
sion of the Portuguese in gayly-decked carriages, and a great pelt-
ing of bonbons and flowers quite in the style of the bataille des
fleurs at Nice. Many were in fancy-dress. At night a military
band discoursed very agreeable music in the little park upon the
hill near the governor's palace.
CHAPTER XLIL
INTO THE INTERIOR.
A few days afterwards I started on a tour to see something of
inner Angola. My general plan was to proceed by railway to a
point distant about seventy-five miles from Loanda, on the Quanza
river, and there to take steamer to a town seventy-five miles fur-
ther, situated at the head of navigation upon the river, a place
called Dondo, and of considerable importance as a trading station
and general warehouse for goods brought by carriers from the in-
terior, like Catumbella, only much larger. From here it was my
intention to go to Cazengo, to a large coffee plantation called
Monte Bello, in a tipoya with native bearers, and from there again
by the same conveyance to the terminus of the railway, which, as I
have said, is at present some 145 miles from Loanda. I carried
letters of introduction from the well-known English house of
Newton, Carnegie and Company, at Loanda, to its branches at
Dondo and Cazengo. This firm, which has also branches in
London and Lisbon, are agents for several lines of West African
steamers, and deal as coal and general merchants, ship brokers,
etc. The railway has a rather ambitious title : Companhia Real
dos Caminhos de Ferro Atravez d' Africa, the Eoyal Railway
Company Across Africa. But of the 2,000 miles from coast to
coast only 145 are as yet completed. It was projected in 1877, but
only floated in 1885, and work was begun in 1886, the first por-
tion of twenty-eight miles being opened in 1889. The plaut
comes from Belgium, the coal from England. The building of
the railway has been greatly hampered by scarcity of labor and by
heavy rains. In December, 1891, there was an enormous loss. In
one part the completed road was washed away in eighteen different
places in less than as many miles, the gaps varying from two hun-
dred to five hundred feet in width.
There are two railway stations in Loanda, one in the lower
380
INTO THE INTERIOR. 381
town at the northeastern corner, and the other in the upper town
near the hospital. I walked to the latter up a broad sandy street,
and found at the station a train of small cars in waiting. The
road is a narrow-gauge. The carriages, for three classes of pas-
sengers, naturally, in such a climate, consist chiefly of windows.
The line is exceedingly winding, to avoid difficulties of construc-
tion, and for the first half of its length has almost no cuttings or
fillings. The speed was good, but we halted too long at the
stations — from ten minutes to half an hour at each. There is only
one train per day in each direction, so that freight and passengers
are carried at the same time. We passed through a gently un-
dulating country of alternate moors and woodland. There was
much grass, which was coarse and strong like reeds. There were
hamlets of mud huts, surrounded by little gardens of beans,
maize and manioc. The first station was situated upon the shore
of Bengo Bay. There was a large trading-house here, and many
salt pans, salt being the chief industry of the place. It is coarse,
but being cheaper than imported salt, is sent in large quantities
into the interior. It is also an article of considerable foreign ex-
port. At the next village — Quifangondo — were the steam water-
works which supply Loanda. The vegetation of the district
through which we now passed was always interesting. The pre-
vailing trees were cocoanut and oil palms, euphorbia, baobabs and
ceibas. The baobabs were especially remarkable. Occasionally
these huge and curious products are seen in small groves, though
they seem ordinarily to prefer a solitary existence, dotting the
landscape at considerable intervals. Their trunks, like towers,
almost as large atop as below and ending abruptly, the huge
gnarled limbs starting at right-angles, the general lack of grace
and symmetry, always rivet the attention of the foreign visitor.
Some of them look like huge hollow bottles made of pasteboard or
plaster-of-Paris ; as a livmg vegetable substance they are most un-
real in appearance. The tropical euphorbias also strangely accen-
tuate the green background of trees which have a guise as of the
temperate zone, with their small straight trunks and odd branches
pointing upwards in curves something like the arms of candelabra.
We were served a good breakfast at nine o'clock at one of the
stations, and reached our terminus of Cunga at midday. With car-
riers for our light baggage we walked across to the Quanza river,
perhaps a mile distant, the path leading through grass ten feet high,
and the sun beating down upon us with great force. So far the
382 ACTUAL AFRICA.
country had been thinly peopled. It was one of the trading-sta-
tions, called also Cunga, where we arrived. There were here a large
single-storied house, containing a store and dwelling, and some
outlying warehouses. Moored to the bank was an iron side-wheel
steamer of about 100 tons burden, one of the Quanza river steamer
company's boats, the company having been founded in 1865 by
an American named Archer Silva. This had a flat bottom and
drew but three feet of water. It had in tow two iron lighters,
loaded with cargo. The captain and engineer were Portuguese,
the crew were blacks. The steamer had been built in England,
and had a long awning-shaded deck where the passengers sat and
ate. There was also a small upper-deck accessible to them. In a
general cabin in the stern were some six or eight beds, though on
account of the great heat, it is customary to sleep upon deck on
little camp-bedsteads covered with mosquito nettings. I strolled
into the trader's store and found that his stock was confined to a
sort of blue cotton sheeting, used as dress by both sexes, to casks
of rum, gay-colored bandanas, old hats and little toy drums.
The steamer started soon after our arrival. The river here was
about two hundred yards wide, of a dark green color, and running
with a very swift current. The remainder of the day we steamed
slowly along, almost touching one shore or the other, not making,
it seemed to me, more than two miles an hour. The banks were
about ten feet above the river, which was exceedingly tortuous
and filled with sandbanks that made the navigation very diffi-
cult. Sometimes the steamers get stuck upon these for several
days at a time. When the water is high, two trips each way are
generally made in a month. It takes about five days to make the
upward voyage from Loanda, the steamers having to pass around
the long sand islands and out into the ocean to the mouth of the
river. They could return in half this time, but generally have to
wait at the stations for cargo. We carried two or three passen-
gers in the first cabin and half a dozen in the second. The
river passed through great plains of luxurious grass, with low
and smooth tree-clad ranges in the distance. The forests were
not so dense as one might expect in a latitude so near the
Equator, and doubtless much of the country had been burned
over, giving rise to a second-growth. Towards night we saw
several huge crocodiles, and took shots at some of them. There
are said also to be hippopotami in some portions of the river,
though we did not happen to see any of them. At the villages
'• ■
INTO THE INTERIOR. 383
there is always a little section fenced off for the use of the washer-
women and others, who come to fetch water, to prevent their be-
ing caught by a sly crocodile. At dusk we dropped anchor in the
stream for the, night, and were at once boarded by thousands of
mosquitoes. We were opposite a trading-station, though it was
too late to venture ashore. Notwithstanding our nettings we
passed a very disagreeable night, for it seemed impossible to es-
cape the voracious pests. The heat too was something terrific,
and there was no compensating breeze.
At daylight we were glad to move on. The scenery began to
improve a little, and the banks would often be lined for great dis-
tances with villages. The trees here were of larger size, and the
houses were half concealed by these and by the banana plants.
The huts were oblong in shape, with peaked roofs, and with doors
and windows. They were made of wattles and mud, with grass for
the roofs. Drawn up at convenient landing-places were always a
number of " dug-out " canoes. Some of these were of great size,
as much as forty feet in length, three or four feet wide and as many
deep. The bottoms were quite flat. They were often made of
very crooked trees. They were propelled by paddles or long poles.
As we steamed slowly along the natives would stand upon the bank
in groups or rows, always grinning and pointing out to each other
some thing or other about the steamer, or its occupants, which
struck their curiosity. They were very dark curly-headed people,
scantily dressed in dirty cotton sheeting. Neither sex wore hats
even under the fiercest sun. About noon we reached the town of
Muxima, on the left bank. Here upon the top of a steep hill is a
white-walled fort and below, near the river, is a large heavy- walled
church. There seem to be but one or two Portuguese dwellings,
though there is a considerable assemblage of brown native huts.
As we proceeded the vegetation became more dense, and the
proportion of oil-palm trees greatly increased. Towards night we
passed the trading station of Barraca, some three or four houses,
situated on the side of a steep hill, a high and dry location. Here-
abouts the scene was the most diversified and the prettiest of any I
had yet encountered. We anchored for the night in the middle of
the river, a little beyond the settlement. Flames of fire were seen
in several directions, being built by the natives in order to drive
away the mosquitoes. In the middle of the river, however, and
much further from the sea than on the previous night, we were not
very much troubled. We hove anchor at daylight and about mid-
384 ACTUAL AFRICA.
day passed the fort, church and few huts of Massangano, upon the
top of a precipitous hill. In the middle of the afternoon we had a
distant view of Dondo down a long, straight, stretch of river. In
every direction in the distance were mountains, some of them
oblong and table-topped, and others peaked and pinnacled. The
sides of the nearer ones were thinly timbered, and covered with
coarse grass. Dondo is situated on a sort of peninsula, the river
here making a direct turn, and just beyond it are the falls of Cam-
bembe. We first saw the brown huts of the principal native quar-
ter, then, between the trees and along the river, a few of the Portu-
guese houses. We drew in to the bank — upon which were standing
or sitting at least a hundred natives and a dozen Portuguese — and
tied up to an enormous tree trunk. On the opposite side of the
river were a few hamlets. All around the town were low smooth
hills. The natives were a very motley crew — various tints as to
complexion, and various garments as to covering. Scarcely any
one had a full equipment of the latter. Beyond this crowd were at
least a hundred women and children engaged in washing clothes.
It is lucky no buttons are employed by these people, for the popu-
lar method of washing is to hammer the clothes upon flat stones,
which are placed in the water a few feet from shore. I landed and
walked up a sandy street, past the governor's residence, to the
house of Senhor Abreu, to which I had been recommended. It
was a large one-storied building, in part store, warehouse, office
and dwelling. The warehouse was full of bags of coffee and India-
rubber. Before it was a large square, planted about the sides with
rows of small acacias. I had a good dinner in company with a
half dozen Portuguese clerks, and retired early to rest, but not to
sleep, for the heat was excessive all night, the thermometer regis-
tering 95° Fahrenheit at four o'clock in the morning.
Dondo has some 15,000 inhabitants, of whom perhaps one hun-
dred are Portuguese. It was first occupied in 1857, and owes its
prosperity to the Quanza river steamer company, and to the neigh-
boring plantations of Cazengo, which produce a large quantity of
the coffee that is shipped from Loanda. The berry of this coffee
is small, and does not command such a high price as the Brazilian
coffee, but still meets with a ready sale in the European markets.
Dondo is well laid out with macadamised streets, lined with acacias.
Along the river is a grand esplanade with a double row of trees.
On nearly all the corners of the streets are the shops of the traders,
where you will generally find a lot of native carriers standing,
INTO TEE INTERIOR. 385
sitting, or singing out for articles which they wish in barter for the
India-rubber and coffee that they bring down from the interior.
As at Catumbella the streets are full of caravans. Those coming
in bear their goods, bound up in palm-leaves, upon their heads or
shoulders. Those leaving may be plainly distinguished by the
fact of oue wearing a gay worsted cap, another a waistcoat, a
third a fancy loin cloth, a fourth carrying a red cotton umbrella,
and a fifth with his neck covered with strings of beads. These
people seem to belong to many different tribes, as judged by the
variety of their tattooing, the shaving of the head, arrangement of
the hair, style of dress, or lack of dress. Many of the women wear
only small handkerchiefs around their pendulous breasts, and an
equally small loin cloth. Some of them dress their hair in many
little plaits hanging around their head from the crown. In most
of the trading-houses there are large yards set apart for the ac-
commodation of these carriers. They sleep in long sheds, and pass
the day under large trees, cooking their simple food, or lounging
and dozing. At night they sing and dance, as if mad, continuously
for a couple of hours but generally by nine o'clock all is quiet and
so remains until daylight, when the din recommences and is con-
tinued during the whole day. There is a market of Manchester
fabrics held in little booths of reed mats, under the trees in one of
the squares. The general market is held in and around a series of
huge sheds. The dealers are, as usual with semi-civilised people,
nearly all women and children. They squat upon the ground in
long rows and sell manioc, flour, bananas, dried-fish, tobacco, beans,
palm-oil, packages of crude manioc, great bundles of sugar-cane,
and earthenware of rude and simple manufacture. The natives
seem much affected with elephantiasis, and I have even seen a dog
who was suffering from this skin disease. The native houses are
mostly crowded together in certain outer quarters of the town, sur-
rounded by fences of palm leaves and coarse grass. The Portuguese
houses are of stone and stucco, with red tiled roofs.
The next morning I left Dondo in a tipoya for the fazenda, or
coffee plantation, of Monte Bello, in Cazengo. I was furnished by
my kind host, Senhor Abreu, with several letters of introduction
to Portuguese planters on the road, and also with a supply of food
for a journey of probably two days. The tipoya was simply a
canvas hammock, slung from a long and light but stout pole, borne
on the shoulders of two natives. I took eight cargadores, or bear-
ers, so that I might travel rapidly. These men on a good road
386 ACTUAL AFRICA.
will cover four and even five miles an hour. They relieve each
other every half hour or so, and they change the pole from shoulder
to shoulder every few minutes. To keep it from cutting the flesh
they use a thick pad of cotton covered with leather. It was in-
teresting to contrast the method and style of these bearers with
those in Madagascar. Both races have remarkable strength and
endurance, but in Madagascar you remain seated on the steep-
est hills, while here you are politely requested to dismount and
walk at every trivial incline. When in motion the bearers have a
habit of singing very loudly, one giving the refrain and the other
coming in as a sort of chorus. At other times one will give two
or three funny grunts, always in the same key, and be in like
manner sympathetically answered by the other. The tipoya was
covered with a flat awning, and had waterproof curtains all around,
which could be rolled up in good weather, and thus enable you to
get a view of the country, though, as you lie on your back, almost
in a horizontal position, with your head upon a low pillow, it is
awkward and almost impossible to get a good idea of the charac-
ter and appearance of the country you are passing through. I much
prefer the filanzana, where you sit upright, and I found that much
less tiresome than the tipoya. My porters were dressed in nothing
but waist cloths, in which they generally stuck a huge wooden
spoon, a pipe, and a tobacco pouch of primitive make. One of
them carried an earthenware jar or two and a kettle, together with
some manioc flour and some dried fish for their food. They were
paid a little money in advance, with which to buy provisions on
the road, and the remainder they were to receive upon their re-
turn to Dondo, for I intended to keep them with me on my cir-
cuitous journey as far as Oeiras, at the terminus of the railway,
whence they could walk to Dondo in about six hours' time. We
soon passed out of the town, and entered upon a good ox-cart
road on which were streams of carriers coming in to Dondo in
caravans of ten, twenty and even fifty. Thousands of these na-
tives passed me during the day, men, women and children, all
bearing upon head or shoulder products for barter at Dondo.
Bags of coffee seemed the usual load. These caravans were
an interesting study. The natives were fully two-thirds naked,
without head-covering of any kind, and ail jogging on in the blaz-
ing sun at a fast trot, sometimes singing, more often chatting and
laughing, occasionally passing in dead silence. All were exceed-
ingly curious to get a peep at me under my tipoya-awning, and I
INTO THE ISTEEIOB. 387
certainly was no less eager to have a look at them. They are
accustomed to halt under the trees for midday rest and food, and
at night sleep on the road whenever darkness may happen to
overtake themy lying upon straw mats on the ground, and covering
their whole body and head with sheets, which cause them to look
like bundles of merchandise. At some much-frequented halting-
place where there is water, rude straw beehive-shaped huts have
been erected by themselves for their accommodation. During
the day, while on the march, my bearers would occasionally ask my
permission to stop to drink water, and I was always surprised, not
to say disgusted, to see them using puddles of muddy or slimy
water.
The country through which I passed was rough and covered
with scrubby trees and tall yellow grass, with prettily diversi-
fied hills in every direction. There were many baobabs, and a
few oil-palms and euphorbias. There were but few villages, and
these of mud and grass huts. At noon I halted in a sort of pub-
lic rest-house, containing a plain table and chairs, and a curious
stool with four legs and a stand, all carved from a single block
of wood. Here I ate a frugal lunch, my bearers looking on
with great interest. When I had finished they began to cook
their food just outside the hut. It was now my turn to do the
staring, and I adjourned to their al fresco kitchen, where one
earthenware bowl was boiling and bubbling with its contents of
manioc flour, and another was quietly simmering with some dried
cod-fish. At long intervals on the roadside, provisions were
offered for sale, and my men had added to their store a few ba-
nanas and a basket of peanuts. Their food was soon cooked, the
manioc being stirred with one of the alpenstocks, and then they
all set to like wolves, those happening to have wooden spoons
using them and the others their fingers. They were no sooner
done than all filled their pipes and, squatting around the fire in a
circle, had a comfortable and sociable smoke.
I went on during the afternoon, through a similar country,
and intended to pass the night with some one of the planters to
whom I bore letters of introduction. But it was quite dark by
the time we reached the banks of the Lucalla river — a stream
about one hundred yards wide, which runs with a swift current
and empties into the Quanza — and the canoes necessary to cross
it were chained upon the opposite bank, while the ferryman had
gone home for the night. I called across to some natives to go in
388 ACTUAL AFRICA.
search of this man, but was informed that he would not cross after
dark for fear of the jacarays, or crocodiles, which the river is said
to contain in plenty. My idea of a warm supper and soft bed was
thus rudely overturned, and as a heavy shower seemed imminent
I had to look quickly for some sort of shelter. I remembered
nothing nearer than a small mud hut, a quarter of a mile or so
back from the road, near which, under the trees and in some little
" beehive " huts, several hundred carriers were bivouacking. So
thither I felt my way — I could not see — and entered a hut, which,
however, contained but two rooms, in one of which, huddled to-
gether upon the mud floor, were eight natives, and in the other, six.
I suddenly changed my mind about sleeping in a hut, and rigging
my hammock up in two forked sticks — for I could not lie ujoon
the ground on account of a dangerous sort of tick prevalent — and
putting down its curtains, I slept comfortably in the open air.
Fortunately there was no rain, otherwise I should have had to don
my waterproof and pass the night standing under a baobab.
At daylight I roused up my men, who had been sleeping on
their straw mats near by, and we went on to the bank of the river,
and waited until some one poled across a canoe. A tax of two
cents is levied upon all who use this ferry. When I reached the
other side there was a long row of carriers in waiting, with their
loads resting on two sticks before them. All these loads are lashed
between the extremities of two long small poles, which are then
fastened together at the opposite ends, and thus a purchase is
gained which holds the bundle tightly together. Long narrow
wicker-work or palm-leaf baskets are always used for carrying
loads of many and smaller pieces, but the two sticks are never
forgotten, and are in use all over central and southern Africa. In
marching one hand or the other grasps one of these sticks to sup-
port the load, and when wishing to take it from head or shoulder
they greatly assist, and are also used to support it against a tree,
thus keeping it out of mud or water and away from voracious
insects. I was surprised at the number of young boys and girls
bearing large bags of coffee.
Soon after crossing the Lucalla, I entered quite another sort
of country, all the valleys being filled with dense masses of tropical
vegetation, and the tops of the hills alone being covered with coarse
grass and scrubby trees as before. I saw some enormously stout
baobab trees, with trunks ten feet in diameter and not more than
thirty high. I had entered the district of Cazengo, which is now
INTO THE INTERIOR. 389
the most important agricultural country of Angola and, as I have
said, the centre of the great coffee production. The first planta-
tion was established here in 1835. The railway from Loanda is
being rapidly pushed on into the heart of this region. I passed
through the little village of Caculo, the capital of Cazengo ; a large
Portuguese flag was flying in the centre of the principal square.
Few people were around. Malange, an important town, fifty miles
or so to the east, owes its existence to the rubber trade, but all
around Cazengo there is little else than coffee, as I soon had occa-
sion to notice, for I left the little town and began the ascent of
Monte Bello. This hill was so steep that I had to take to my feet
and walk or rather climb upward through grass ten feet in height,
which almost concealed the path in places, and past hamlets of
native laborers, on through acres and acres of coffee, and a mag-
nificent virgin forest full of splendid trees — among them many
giant ceibas (Bombax) — bound into an almost solid mass with curi-
ous velvety creepers. It was Monte Koffee in St. Thomas over
again, a region the very reverse of that in which I had been jour-
neying from 'Dondo. I kept onward and upward, with occasional
backward glimpses of beautiful valleys, until I attained an eleva-
tion of about 2,000 feet, and had passed through a good half of
the fazenda of Monte Bello, when, finally, marching along a good
road, shaded by bananas, I reached the house, factory and trading-
store of Messrs. Newton, Carnegie & Co.
The distance from Dondo to Monte Bello is about fifty miles.
The heat had been very great during my journey, it being the hot-
test period of the year in Angola. Although the whole of this great
and wealthy province lies in the Tropics the climate in the greater
part of it is as salubrious as any in the temperate zone. On the
coast the temperature is advantageously modified by the sea-breeze
and in the interior by the elevation of the land. The coast belt,
from fifty to one hundred miles wide is, as we have seen, hot and
rather sterile, but would become productive and rich were irriga-
tion liberally introduced. Between the coast and the plateau belt
is a sort of mountain region, not only of luxuriant vegetation but
of untapped mineral treasures. Copper is found at many points,
iron is abundant everywhere, and gold has been discovered in the
sand of the Lombigi river, and this district is now being pro-
spected by an English company — the Great Gold Zone Company —
who have a large concession. It is expected that payable gold will
be found there. Silver is said to have been known to the natives
390 ACTUAL AFRICA.
in olden times. Going on into the interior from Cazengo, the
highland belt rises gradually from 2,000 to 6,000 feet, and here
you find grass and bush, prairie and park land, where cattle and
live-stock will flourish as in the temperate zone. The white man
soon gets acclimated here, flourishes, and lives to a hale and ripe
old age.
I was cordially received at Monte Bello by the English man-
agers, Messrs. Thomson and Holt. The fazenda contains sc me fif-
teen hundred acres of forest, grass, sugar-cane and coffee land.
About eight hundred acres are in coffee and some sixty acres are in
cane. At present two hundred natives are employed on the estate.
The coffee grows wild in all these valleys, but is greatly improved
by cultivation. I found its flavor soft yet strong, with a delicate
insinuating bouquet. Cacao is not now grown, but could be, and
to advantage. Much maize, manioc and bananas are raised as food
for the laborers. There is a distillery for making rum, none of
which is, however, exported. Every sort of tropical fruit, including
very excellent pineapples, is grown for the consumption of the
managers. The natives are treated with great consideration and
kindness. They receive no money for their services, but a sum
the equivalent of fifty-four cents a week in "trade-tickets,"
which may be exchanged for clothes and provisions in the com-
pany's store. The laborers are also allowed as much land as they
are able to cultivate for their own use, and are given Sundays in
which to work in these gardens. Every other Saturday is a holi-
day. The foods they chiefly raise are manioc, maize, beans, cab-
bages, bananas and vegetable-marrow. They are permitted to sell
as much of this produce as they like in the neighboring village
markets, and for this they receive pay in copper money. Twice a
year they are given a present of eight yards of cloth — the cloth
which they use for their solitary covering. There is a doctor to
care for them when sick, and a hospital where they can receive
shelter. During the day I walked with my obliging hosts to the
summit of a neighboring hill, whence was a splendid prospect over
the surrounding country— a region of pretty park-land, hills, and
occasional mountains, with outcropping ridges and peaks of rock.
The following day I left in my hammock for Oeiras, at that
time the railway terminus. We descended the hills by a road lead-
ing to the west through the forest and then over a rough region
covered with grass ten and twelve feet in height, the stalks of
which were as large as one's finger and quite like reeds. The path
Entrance to an Estate.
INTO THE INTERIOR. 391
was almost closed by the luxuriant growth of this grass and fre-
quent thorn bushes, and the men had so much difficulty in bearing
my tipoya along that I descended and walked for a long distance.
This region was full of gayly-plumaged birds, and their bright and
dainty songs constantly greeted my ears. Two or three large
snakes, not so agreeable, were seen gliding silently and swiftly
away.
Early in the afternoon I reached the end of the railway, that
is, the end of its road-bed, and as I could not get through to
Oeiras that day, I gladly accepted the hospitality proffered by one
of the contractors and engineers, Senhor Moraes, who was living
in a comfortable though temporary house, surrounded by a small
village of his laborers. The country is exceedingly rough here-
abouts, and there are many cuttings and fillings necessary, but,
nevertheless, so rapidly is the road being pushed that it was to be
completed to Canhoca — 180 miles from Loanda — in January, 1894.
From there it will eventually be carried on to Ambaca, fifty miles
further. At seven the next morning I started for Oeiras, follow-
ing the railway bed most of the way. Though this had been but
recently made, so prolific is the vegetation of these tropical lati-
tudes, it was often covered with shrubs and coarse grass ten feet
in height. Towards noon I reached the valley of the Lucalla
river, which the railway follows for some distance and afterwards
crosses on a fine stone-pier bridge. In one place the road-bed is
cut from the rocky side of a steep hill, .several hundred feet above
the surface of the river, and then runs in a semi-circle upon an
enormous embankment to another series of hills, upon whose sides
it continues all the way to Oeiras. To this point the rails were
then laid, and many hundred men were at work. There are some
6,000 laborers on the entire line. As I was inspecting the road
two engineers hailed me, insisted upon my stopping to breakfast
with them, aud afterwards arranged for my siesta in a comfortable
room, and provided me with smoking material and reading matter.
So it ever is with these hospitable people — you carry an outfit of
provisions, but seldom have an opportunity to use them. You are
invited to dinner or breakfast, or to pass the night, or at least to
rest, take a refreshing drink, and smoke a cigarette. In the cool
of the afternoon I passed on to Oeiras, five or six miles distant.
This little village is altogether surrounded by hills, in a very hot
and unhealthy situation. I was the guest of a Portuguese trader
here, who could not do too much for my comfort.
392 ACTUAL AFRICA.
At six in the morning I took the train for Loanda. We got
out of the dense forest at the first village — Cassoalalla. A few sta-
tions further on and I had exchanged the fresh velvety green foli-
age of the valleys and hills for the monotonous yellow of the grass
land and the baobabs and eujDhorbias of the coast regions. There
are about a dozen villages on the road between Oeiras and Loanda,
but only two or three are of any great size. One sees always a few
Portuguese houses and a neighboring hamlet of native mud and
grass huts. We had a long train, with many passengers and much
freight, and stayed so long at the stations that we did not reach
Loanda until 8 p. m. — fourteen hours to make 145 miles ! Appre-
ciating a refreshing sea-breeze after the torrid heat waves of the
afternoon, I repaired at once to the comfortable and commodious
house of my friend Mr. Nightingale, the Acting British Consul,
and thus happily ended my tour of five hundred miles in the in-
terior of the province of Angola.
CHAPTER XLIII.
PORTUGAL VS. ENGLAND.
There is a very large mulatto population in Angola, but the
white is relatively much more numerous than in any other part of
tropical Africa. The people are very anxious to have direct
steamer communication with the United States. There are no
American traders settled here at present, but there is a good field
for them, and they would be cordially received both by the colonists
and by the government, which encourages immigration. Includ-
ing women and children there are now about fifty American
missionaries in Angola. In Loanda there is a German and an
English firm, and the employes of the cable company are English.
In Benguela and Mossamedes the only foreigners, other than
Portuguese, are Englishmen, also connected with the cable com-
pany. Owing to its geographic position, variety of climate, natu-
ral resources, and to the progress already accomplished in the civ-
ilisation of the natives, the intrinsic value and immediate possibili-
ties of Angola surpass those of any other European possession of
tropical Africa. With reference to educational work and facili-
ties : there is a High School in Loanda, and there are many
primary schools both here and at Benguela and Mossamedes, and
every county has a school of some sort. The district of Loanda
has thousands of natives who can read and write to some extent,
many of them having been taught by volunteer native teachers.
The best schools in the interior are those of the Catholic missions.
The colony of Angola extends to the south bank of the river
Congo from its mouth to a distance of about 135 miles, or to the
town of Matadi. The small territory called Congo, in which is
the town of Cabinda, to the north, is now separated from Angola
by a long narrow strip of the Congo Free State, on the north bank
of the river and extending to the ocean. Formerly Congo and
Angola were joined, and very properly and justly. Portugal has
27 393
394 ACTUAL AFRICA.
been treated most cavalierly in respect of her African territory upon
both this and the east coast. The Portuguese rights to the region
between Congo and Angola, and including the mouth of the
Congo, are based on a papal grant, on priority of discovery, on
actual possession, and on intentions and manifestations constantly
expressed by word and act of maintaining its sovereignty. A
papal grant, accompanied by the customary " Bull," was made to
Portugal in 1481 by Pope Sixtus IV., by which he conveyed to
the Portuguese the sovereignty of all the lands they should dis-
cover on the entire coast line of the African continent. Three
years later the mouth of the Congo was discovered by the Portu-
guese voyager, Diego Cam, who set up on the southern side of it
one of the padraos, or pillars, by means of which the Portuguese
were wont to mark the progress of their discoveries. It is not
true, as has been asserted, that Portugal made no special claim to
this territory until it was perceived that the commerce of the
Congo must prove considerable, and would therefore enable her to
impose dues and charges which would enhance her revenues, for
the possession of it has been a subject of debate between the Brit-
ish and Portuguese governments at various times since 1845.
While the region seemed of no very great importance to the world
the claims of Portugal were disputed only by the great colonial
aggressor, England. So matters stood until finally the Berlin
Conference took away the mouth of the river and adjacent north-
ern territory from Portugal, and gave her instead that part of
Angola now extending from Ambriz to the southern bank of the
Congo, a region in no proper sense an equivalent.
In eastern Africa Portugal has been used even more shabbily
than in western. I refer more especially to the ultimatum which
England sent to Lisbon in 1890, requiring the immediate aban-
donment on the part of Portugal of all pretensions to rights in the
Shire Highlands and in Nyassaland, as well as in Manica, Mata-
bele and Mashonaland on the moral plea — Professor Drummond
distinctly admits that England has made no other than a " moral
claim " — that the Portuguese cannot govern their foreign posses-
sions so well as the English, that they have not properly colonised
and developed them. The fact that the actual occupation of some
of the Portuguese territories has been occasionally interrupted by
considerations of an economical or political nature certainly cannot
invalidate a claim to their real possession. Nor is it at all a ques-
tion as to the superiority of methods of colonisation, but simply
PORTUGAL VS. ENGLAND. 395
to which nation belongs the truest " claim of possession." It is
not, as the English seem to think, which would be best, to convert
the African to Protestantism or to Catholicism. Whether England
can the betted civilise inferior races, whether she can the sooner
stop or oppose slavery or intertribal wars, whether she were the
ablest to establish lucrative commerce are interesting inquiries but
can have nothing whatever to do with the present matter, which is
solely a question of ownership of ground, or what in Africa has
always constituted ownership. England, however, wished these
territories in order to assist in the development and aggrandise-
ment of her neighboring colonies, and hence she has completely
set all rights at defiance and simply taken them, leaving poor weak
Portugal no alternative but to yield her point — which she has
done under protest; but what is a protest against overwhelming
force and the determination of a Great Power? — and to content
herself with a naturally intense resentment, an ever-existing enmity.
In this political partition England has exactly reversed the
maxim, the grand fundamental principle, emblazoned on the
facade of the Boer Parliament House at Pretoria, that " right
makes might," and has taken a course with Portugal like that
which she recently took with Venezuela, regarding the frontier of
Guiana, and has previously taken several times with many smaller
and feebler nations throughout the world. She breaks the Zulu
power, but not the Russian. Her policy of expansion is always
out of Europe ; in Europe she does nothing until she can find an
ally. She has been thoroughly immoral in her dealings with
weaker States, and seems always ready and eager to follow up her
" moral claims " with very material troops and ironclads. Is it
not time that the motto " Dieu et mon droit " was changed to
" Dieu et ma force " ? Many prominent Englishmen have ex-
pressed similar views. It is the doctrine of Mr. Chamberlain that
the British Empire has been built up by generations of successful
buccaneering. Rider Haggard more than once has spoken very
strongly of the heavy responsibility which rested upon England as
the outcome of the unjustifiable war which she waged upon the
Zulus. Mr. Labouchere has declared that the entire history of
the Matabele war was disgraceful, alike in its inception and in the
mode in which it was carried through. It was one of which, as a
nation, Englishmen ought to be thoroughly ashamed.
Already possessing more than one-third of the fairest and
richest parts of the globe — the British Empire is now about as
396 ACTUAL AFRICA.
large as the whole of Africa — it really looks as if England's greed
for territory would never be satisfied. And Africa affords a capi-
tal illustration of this fact in the enormous growth of British
Colonies, protectorates and " spheres of influence " there during
the last eighteen years. In 1876 the total area was a little less
than 280,000 square miles, now it is 2,300,000, nearly one-third of
European Africa. The West Coast Colonies have increased from
15,000 to 45,000 square miles, and Cape Colony and its depend-
encies from 240,000 to 500,000, while to these territories must
now be added the 500,000 square miles of the Eoyal Niger Com-
pany and the Oil Eivers District, the 750,000 square miles of
the South African Company, the 468,000 square miles of British
East Africa, and several districts of smaller extent. The Portu-
guese possessions in Africa are but a third the area of the British.
To Portugal the merit of early discovery in Africa, in so far as
the maritime regions are concerned, chiefly belongs. In the fif-
teenth and sixteenth centuries she was the foremost of the mari-
time powers of Europe. Her colonies girdled the globe, and far
exceeded in population and extent the mother country. When the
Portuguese began their explorations the Atlantic coast of Africa
was only known as far as Cape Nun, scarcely three hundred miles
distant from the Strait of Gibraltar. In 1406 A. D. Prince Henry,
the Navigator, a son of King John L, took up his residence at
the town of Sagres, at Cape St. Vincent, with the view of lending
systematic encouragement to the prosecution of discovery along
the African shores. His first vessel of exploration was fitted out
in 1412, and for several subsequent years he despatched a ship
annually. By this means little by little the headlands of Bojador,
Blanco and Verd were passed, the island of Madeira was discov-
ered, and the shores of Senegambia and Guinea visited and partially
explored. Prince Henry — the five hundredth anniversary of whose
birth was last year celebrated at Oporto — expired at Sagres in
1463, but the spirit of maritime enterprise survived. The Portu-
guese continued the prosecution of discoveries along the African
coasts, and the results were seen in the grand achievements of Bar-
tholomew Diaz and Vasco da Gama. The former of these bold
adventurers reached and rounded the southern apex of the con-
tinent in 1486, and eleven years afterward was followed by the
latter, who was the first to sail up the east coast, and to lead a
Portuguese fleet across the Indian seas.
Besides their vast possessions in Africa the Portuguese made
PORTUGAL VS. ENGLAND. 397
stations on the borders of the Red Sea, at Socotra, Muscat, at
Ormuz, on both the Malabar and Coromandel coasts of India, and
in the peninsula of Malacca. They got a footing also in Ceylon,
and in the East Indian archipelago, and established commercial
relations even with China and Japan. On the other side of the
world they made equally extensive discoveries, conquests and an-
nexations. It being necessary for the maintenance of their power
to depend mainly upon material force, they established military
stations and forts all up the eastern coast of Africa — at Lorenzo
Marquez, Sofala, Quillimane, Mozambique, Melinda and Zanzibar.
Their immense territory stretched along the mainland from Dela-
goa Bay to Cape Delgado. A great part of this region — namely
that from and including the Zambesi river as far as Mozambique
— was re-bestowed upon Portugal by a pope coming after Sixtus
IV., — Alexander VI. The important point now arises : have these
papal grants — of which public notice was always promulgated by a
Bull — have these grants been regarded by European nations as valid
titles ? History distinctly affirms that they have been always so
regarded until these particular questions of the rights of Portugal
in East and West Africa have been denied by England. Undoubt-
edly Portugal has a just and abiding, a well-founded, right to the
territories I have mentioned. The French claim a sphere of in-
fluence— undisputed by the other nations having investments in
African soil — over the vast territory of the Sahara lying between
their colonies of Algeria and Senegambia, which are nearly 1,500
miles asunder. Have not therefore the Portuguese as good, if
not a better, right to the Central African territory between their
east and west possessions, which are but 400 miles apart? French
influence is acknowledged to extend over territory nearly four
times greater than is demanded for that of Portugal. But France,
of course, is a very much more powerful nation than Portugal.
The " pirating " of her colonial possessions to-day cannot, how-
ever, efface the glories of Portuguese history, for it will never be
forgotten that this small kingdom took the lead of Europe in
the variety and extent of its memorable maritime explorations
and discoveries during the later Middle Ages. The enthusiasm
and heroism of her earlier navigators have never been surpassed,
and that much of the result of their gigantic efforts should have
lately been lost to her, is a disgrace to the Great Powers of
Europe, who have without protest permitted a weak nation to be
ruthlessly despoiled by a strong.
398 ACTUAL AFRICA.
On the 27th of February I went, in a steamer of the Empreza
National, from Loancla to San Antonio, at the mouth of the Congo,
halting only twelve hours at the town of Ambriz. From San
Antonio I then crossed to Banana Point, a distance of about eight
miles, in a small steam-launch which came over for the mails.
Banana Point is a sandy peninsula but a few feet above the level
of the sea. It is some two miles long, though but a few hundred
feet wide, and extends southerly into the river. It is formed by
the ocean, and a creek which contains two or three fathoms of
water. The Point, being almost pure sand, sustains little save
cocoanut-palms, fig-trees, magnolias, coarse grass, and a few pretty
wild flowers. In the interior, to the north and east, are some grass-
covered ranges of hills three or four hundred feet in height. We
steamed slowly up Banana Creek, passing first the great Dutch
factory, with its many huge warehouses and dwellings, rough
single-story buildings reared on iron pillars or stone posts three or
four feet from the ground. Then we passed the French factory,
before which lay several little steam-launches and lighters. Then
came the official buildings and trading stations, the police head-
quarters, and warehouses of the Congo Free State, with her pretty
flag — a blue field bearing a gold five-pointed star in the centre —
floating above them. In a square before the house of the governor
of the station was a large flower-garden, with a few small cannon
standing about. Beyond here was the Portuguese factory, and
then came the mainland and the forests. I went ashore and
walked in sand nearly covering my shoes to an avenue of small
palms which led directly to the " Hotel de Banana." This was a
quite rough verandah-faced building, containing large dining,
billiard and reading rooms. Between it and the ocean cocoanut
palms had been planted in straight lines, and paths had been
neatly outlined with shells. The sleeping-rooms were in long
detached buildings, with partitions which extended only to the
eaves. The roofs were steeply pitched and covered with heavy
felt, which was tarred, sanded and thickly painted. In this hotel
I found a Danish missionary and his wife, waiting for a steamer to
take them up to Matadi, at the top of the lower river, whence they
would go on to their station near Stanley Pool. Two or three
officials engaged in the service of the State were also living here.
But there is very little need of a hotel at Banana, for it is no
longer the busy place it once was. Formerly all merchandise for
the Congo was landed and stored here, and then transshipped to
PORTUGAL VS. ENGLAND. 399
small steamers belonging to the State or to those of the various
trading-stations. But now Boma, the capital, and Matadi are in
a way the distributing centres, while the European steamers call
directly at many of the trading-stations. There are only about
twenty white people in Banana, and perhaps five hundred natives.
It is very hot here, notwithstanding the frequent strong sea-breezes,
but it is not an unhealthy place when proper care is observed in
the habits of life. At night I lay awake a long time listening to
the thunderous surf, which beat upon the smooth wide beach, not
one hundred feet from my room, and almost drowned the buzzing
of the innumerable mosquitoes.
CHAPTER XLIV.
BOMA, THE CAPITAL.
I had to wait an entire week in Banana for a steamer to carry
me to Boma, but at last took passage in one belonging to the State.
It was of about 200 tons burden, and the largest on the Lower
Congo. It was built in Belgium, and brought out in three weeks
by the present captain. In the stern are some handsome cabins
for the use of the governor-general, but there is no accommodation
for ordinary passengers other than the rather confined decks, and
no food at all is served. Still the journey up the river from Banana
to Boma only occupies seven or eight hours, and downwards, half as
much time. Owing to the swift and often eddying current, and
the presence of many sandbanks it is necessary to have very power-
ful engines. We were to leave at six in the morning, but a terrific
rainstorm delayed us an hour or so. There were four or five pas-
sengers of the first-class, mostly officials of the State, and about
twenty natives who were huddled together in the bows. I secured
standing-room on the little bridge, and when the sky had cleared
a little, could see the river and its banks very well. It was a splen-
did great stream, in parts eight miles wide, and full of large wooded
islands. Leaving Banana Creek we soon rounded Boolambemba
Point, which is the commencement of the Congo proper, here about
four miles wide, or as wide as the Hudson in the Tappan Zee. This
northern peninsula is covered with mangroves and dense forests of
large trees, interspersed with many palms. Both the north and
south banks for a long distance are full of creeks which form per-
fect networks, and most of which are navigable for small steamers.
The shores all the way to Boma were in general low and flat and
thickly wooded, with ranges of grassy or thinly-wooded hills, three
or four hundred feet in height, in the near distance. We passed
the Portuguese trading-station and factory of Kissonga on the
south bank — several houses on a low point backed by forest, a most
400
BOMA, THE CAPITAL. 401
unhealthy-looking spot. There were very few native huts in sight
along the banks. The tribe dwelling to the north is called the
Kacongo and that to the south the Moussorongo.
About half way to Boma we pass a narrow reach of the river
where is the village of Ponta da Lenha, with the Dutch, Portu-
guese, English and Belgian factories lining the water — simply
huge sheds with iron or felt roofs. A long island lying about at
right-angles to the course of the river nearly completely chokes it
here, but there is ample depth in the strait, which, moreover, is
almost half a mile wide. Going on from Ponta da Lenha the river
opens out in many directions in grand reaches and contains many
large islands along both banks. The thick luxuriant forests have
now been left behind, and the country seems to become drier and
more open and hilly. I may say here that the coastal zone of
Africa is from one hundred to three hundred miles wide, with an
average elevation of six hundred feet. This zone contains most of
the European colonies. The eastern settlements, it will be remem-
bered, are mostly situated along the coasts, or islands near the
shore, and on peninsulas. Finally we reached a curious, boldly
projecting cliff on the south bank, which is styled " fetish rock,"
and taking a short turn saw before us, over a long expanse, the
houses of Boma, straggling over the sides of a range of grassy hills
which here had approached and extended along the north bank
for a considerable distance. A few trees — among them baobabs
and oil-palms — were distributed among the houses, but the country
generally was simply grass-covered. There are several islands in
midstream opposite Boma, and the river here is two-and-one-balf
miles wide, but a short distance higher, however, it suddenly nar-
rows to a mile, and so continues to Matadi, or the head of naviga-
tion on the Lower Congo. On the hillside a short distance below
Boma a fort is being built, and two 30-ton guns have already been
mounted. Six more of the same calibre are to follow. The posi-
tion is very strong, as the cannon completely rake the river for
their extreme range.
As we approached Boma several of the more important build-
ings were pointed out to me : on the crest of the range of low
hills, the sanatorium, below it the barracks of the native troops,
to the right a small iron church, and a little further a curious
building with cupolas and verandahs, the residence of the gov-
ernor-general. A brick building was occupied as a convent by the
Sisters of Mercy. A small wooden edifice was a hospital for white
402 ACTUAL AFRICA.
people, another larger one was for blacks. Along the top of the
hill was a row of European dwellings and government offices. By
the side of the water bank were several trading stores and the
great warehouses of the foreign factories, of which an English one
was at the greatest distance up the river. Several iron piers jutted
out from the bank, and at wooden wharves lay half a dozen small
steamers and steam-launches, either the property of the State or
the trading-houses. We drew in to one of the piers, and I engaged
some loitering natives to carry my baggage, while I myself walked
to the neighboring " Boma Hotel." This' is certainly the most
extraordinary hostelry in the world as far as its construction and
arrangement are concerned. There is a large central building
with three wings. It is two stories in height, built wholly of
wrought-iron plates and raised, for the better sanitation, upon
slender iron pillars eight feet high. It has two or three roofs,
which range above each other like those of a Chinese temple.
There are wide verandahs to each floor. Under a part of the
great structure is a general store, the remainder is carefully covered
with a masonry and tile floor to prevent noxious exhalations from
the soil. Above the store is a cafe and billiard-room, and then
come several public and private dining-rooms. The floor above
contains the bed-rooms, whose walls and ceilings are of large gray
iron plates, screwed together, and having a very cold and sombre
aspect. In some of the public rooms the walls and ceiling are
painted white, which is a great improvement. I found the hotel
quite full, and but one small room remaining. Very many of the
foreigners board here, meals being given at both first and second
class " tables." There is a small army of Congo boys, who act as
servants and make a tremendous clatter. They do not understand
much save their own language, in which I remarked that many of
the officials addressed them. It was not possible to get a very
varied bill-of-fare, and our meals never contained more than four
courses. There was generally but one kind of meat, which was
beef, and this cooked in different fashions did duty for two courses,
and rarely was there any vegetable except potatoes. Dessert often
consisted of only a bunch of raisins, or a few sweet biscuits. Fresh
fruit I never saw. In the morning coffee, tea, and bread and butter,
with sardines or other canned small fish, would be on the table at
6.30, breakfast was at noon, and dinner at 7 p. m. After dinner
most of the patrons appeared to adjourn to the cafe and billiard-room,
to hold noisy carnival there till midnight and frequently much later.
BOHA, THE CAPITAL. 403
There are about 150 Europeans, including all those in the
factories, at present in Boraa, and the place has a very bustling
appearance. I had reached it during the hot and rainy season.
The mornings were always sultry, and the heat so rapidly in-
creased that, but for a fresh breeze coming up the river between
two and five of the afternoon, it would have been almost unbear-
able. The average temperature, during the two weeks or so I spent
in Boma, was 95° Fahrenheit. The nights, however, were fre-
quently cool and comfortable, and sometimes in the very early
morning even a blanket was necessary. Every two or three days
we had a tremendous tropical rain, which would be ushered in by
squalls accompanied by much thunder and lightning, and would
continue a steady downpour for six hours at a time. The streets
would then become rivers, and water would fill every small depres-
sion, but after a few hours of the fierce sun all would be dry again.
The lightning that accompanied these rainstorms was of the two
varieties called " sheet " and " forked," and both sorts were in-
cessant in their play. One could almost see to read out-of-doors
during the night. You are especially liable to an access of fever
if much exposed during or immediately after one of these storms.
The season of rains causes the Congo to rise from eight to ten feet.
A little narrow-gauge railway connects the lower town with
the upper, and a small engine and a single open car make the
round journey six times a day, before and after each meal, for
many of the officials who live upon the hill get their food at the
hotel. The railway was built a couple of years ago by the Bel-
gian Commercial Company, but is now about to be taken over
by the State authorities. The train takes half an hour to make
the round journey, up and down. By payment of half a franc
you can, if you like, patronise this line all day. The drinking
and cooking water used upon the hill has all to bo carried up in
hogsheads and emptied into large cisterns. The line runs along
the river bank and over the grassy plain, and then winds around
and up the range, halting at its furthest extremity. From here
you have a fine view, backward, of the river, both above and below,
and of the surrounding grass-covered hills. By the side of the
governor's little iron chalet is an especially large baobab, which at
a distance looks like three great trees grown together. Here also
is a sentry-box, with a black soldier always on guard, and a flag-
staff upon which waves the pretty blue flag and golden star of the
Free State. There is a large company of these black troops in
404 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Boma. They are mostly men from the Guinea coast, sturdy and
strong, and make very good soldiers. Boma is policed also by
men from the same district. They wear a sort of Zouave suit of
blue, with red facings, and a white helmet. Their feet and their
legs from the knee down are bare. At work upon buildings and
roads about the town you see many black men who are chained by
iron collars, two and two together. These are convicts, mostly
being punished for thefts. Rounding the governor's house I saw
in the valley, on the right, a pretty little cemetery. Next came a
large brick building where a Belgian Catholic Mission holds a
school, which is at present attended by about 150 native boys. A
large and fruitful garden is connected with this useful establish-
ment. The hill being some hundreds of feet above the river, with
better air and drainage, is naturally a more healthy place of resi-
dence than the low-lying banks.
CHAPTER XLV.
THE CONGO FREE, STATE.
I will now interrupt the record of my journey into the inte-
rior in order to refresh the reader's memory with the general facts
— and perhaps add some new ones — as to the founding, character,
and progress of the Congo Free State. This description is based
upon much careful observation and inquiry extending over the
whole period of my travel and residence in the country, and I
trust will render more intelligible the detailed recital to follow.
The first journey of Henry M. Stanley across Africa was one
of the greatest feats of exploration of modern times. He travelled
a total distance of 7,000 miles in 1875-'77, emerging at the mouth
of the Congo on the west coast 999 days after he had left Zanzibar
on the east. This opened to the world the great Congo basin with
its 12,000 miles of navigable rivers, an area of 1,500,000 square
miles — almost the size of India — inhabited by 30,000,000 people,
speaking 200 languages and dialects.
The Congo Free State extends, in round numbers, from 4°
north latitude to 12° south latitude ; and from 12° to 30° east
longitude. It includes a small section on the north bank of the
river, about 200 miles long, extending as far as the mouth of the
Ubangi. Opposite the half of this, or extending as far as Matadi
to the east, is, as already explained, a corner of the Portuguese
province of Angola. Then comes, on the north bank, the terri-
tory of French Congo. To the exact north of the State lies the
great Soudan, a territory yet for the most part unexplored. To
the east you find British East Africa, Lake Tanganyika, German
East Africa, and the possessions of the African Lakes Company.
To the south are the great British and Portuguese " spheres of
influence." The State has an area of 827,000 square miles, almost
exactly the dimension of German, or of Turkish, Africa. Its popu-
lation is estimated at 16,000,000 souls.
405
406 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Soon after Stanley's journey, and his return to Europe, an
influential association was formed in Belgium, with the King at
its head — bearing the title of the Comite d'Etudes du Haut Congo
— whose object was to study on the spot what could be done to
introduce civilisation and commerce into the great basin of the
mighty river. Stanley was then sent out by this Association to
open up the region and plant stations therein, to make roads
around the cataracts, to introduce steamers upon the river, and to
make treaties with the many native tribes. This he most energet-
ically and successfully accomplished during a period of three years.
When he returned to Europe the Comite d'Etudes du Haut Congo
had been merged into the African International Association. The
possibility of profitable intercourse between Europe and Central
Africa had now been clearly demonstrated. A thousand subjects
had been fully elucidated by actual experiment. The next object
was to procure for this vast region a good government and alright
for all nations to trade freely therein. So the King of the Bel-
gians presented the International Association to the Belgian Con-
ference in possession of four hundred treaties made with African
chiefs, who had for substantial consideration transferred to it their
rights of sovereignty. Combining these into one whole the Asso-
ciation asked for recognition of its rights to govern the territory
thus acquired, as a free state constituted by international law.
After considerable discussion and delay all the Great Powers
came to recognise the Congo Free State, the United States of
America taking the initiative. The General Act of this Confer-
ence, constituting and defining the Congo Free State, was signed
at Berlin, February 26, 1885. The State was then declared neutral
and free to the trade of all nations, the Powers, however, reserving
to themselves, until the end of a period of twenty years, the right
of deciding whether freedom of entry shall be rescinded or not.
An International Conference, which met at Brussels five years
later, authorised the government of the Free State to levy cer-
tain duties on imports. Soon after the signing of the original
General Act a Constitution was elaborated and the monarchical
form was selected, as under the circumstances the most suitable.
Brussels, which had been the headquarters of the " Comite " and
the " Association," became naturally the seat of government, and
King Leopold became the Sovereign of the Congo Free State.
Black men and white men were declared equal before the law,
slavery was forbidden, peace was to be secured by international
THE CONGO FREE STATE. 407
warrant, commerce was to be fostered, freedom for person and
property was assured, and religious toleration was guaranteed.
The success of this great and costly enterprise is almost wholly
due to the personal interest and enthusiam, the philanthropy and
generosity of the noble King of the Belgians, the illustrious bene-
factor of the Dark Continent. For many years from the organisa-
tion of the Comite His Majesty had borne out of his private purse
all the enormous expense of this gigantic undertaking, and the
revenue still receives a subsidy of 1,000,000 francs a year from
him. The budget of expenditure of the Free State is now esti-
mated at 5,000,000 francs. By will dated August 2, 1889, the
King bequeathed to Belgium all his sovereign rights in the State.
On July 3, 1890, a Convention between Belgium and the Free
State reserved to the former the right of annexing the latter after
a period of ten years. So that probably in the year 1900 little
Belgium will be proudly represented among the great European
Powers, who have partitioned nearly the whole of the vast conti-
nent of Africa between themselves. But, in fact, the Congo has
virtually become a Belgian colony since 1889, when the Belgian
Parliament voted a subsidy of 25,000,000 francs, payable in ten
annual instalments. On July 31, 1890, the territories of the State
were declared inalienable.
The central government of the Free State is located, as I have
said, at Brussels. Then there is a local government at Boma,
which embraces a Governor-General (who is appointed by the
King and whose salary is 50,000 francs), Vice-Governor-General,
State Inspector, General Secretary, Director of Justice, Director
of Finances, and Commander of the Forces. The power of the
King, the founder and sovereign, is exerted through three general
administrators, who direct respectively the Department of the
Interior, of Foreign Affairs and of Finances. These three form a
Council for the consideration of the interests of the country, and
submit their resolutions to the approbation of the King. At his
instance they issue decrees and make laws. A legal code in two
volumes has been published, and a bulletin is issued monthly,
enacting fresh decrees as required. These laws are mainly founded
on the Belgian code, adapted as requisite. (1) The Department
of the Interior undertakes the administration of the police, the
development of internal connections, the service and transports,
the public forces, native politics, and the provisioning of the
stations. (2) The Department of Foreign Affairs regulates the
408 ACTUAL AFRICA.
connection of the State with foreign countries, the posts and the
administration of justice. (3) The Department of Finances con-
siders all questions relating to the imposition of taxes, and expense
of improvements, and it will gradually introduce a currency. The
State governs without interfering in any way with the customs of
the people, except where these involve murder or the slave trade.
All questions about native laws are left to be settled by native
customs.
The provinces or administrative districts in Africa, which are
represented by governors, are at present eleven in number. The
principal stations now occupied have the same names. The prov-
inces are : 1. Banana, and the district to the north of the mouth
of the river. — 2. Boma, the capital, and the country behind it. —
3. Matadi, the port and the starting point of the railroad which is
being built around the falls, including also the Vivi and Isanghila
district north of the Congo. — 4. The Falls or Cataract Eegion to
the Inkissi river, both sides. — 5. Stanley Pool, including all the
territory between the Inkissi and the Kassai, and eastward to the
Kwango. — 6. Kassai, the immense central district through which
flow the Kassai, the Sankuru and their tributaries. — 7. Equator,
including the whole Balolo country, with its six rivers — the
upper part of the great horseshoe bend of the Congo. — 8. Ubangi-
Welle, the western half of the great forest district lying between
the Congo and the TJbangi. — 9. Aruwimi- Welle, or eastern half
of the same region, including the dense forests on the course of
the Aruwimi, explored by Stanley. — 10. Stanley Falls, the country
to the east of the Congo and between it and the great lakes. — 11.
Lualaba, extending from the south of Balolo land to the Zambesi
watershed, west of Lake Bangweolo, and from Lake Tanganyika
on the east to about the twenty-third degree of longitude on the
west.
The lands of the Free State are divided into three classes :
those in the actual occupation of natives, those occupied by for-
eigners, and those that are at present unoccupied. The natives
themselves do not recognise private property in the soil. It be-
longs to him who cultivates it as long as he does so. Before the
constitution of the State, lands occupied by foreigners were held
direct from the natives, but they are held now under a government
title. Any foreigner can appropriate unoccupied tracts to the ex-
tent of twenty-five acres, on condition of coming to an understand-
ing with the natives about it, being required only to give notice as
THE CONGO FREE STATE. 409
soon as possible to the governor of the province. Properties, when
purchased, are registered, so that there is permanent right of pos-
session. Timber cannot be cut, nor can mines be worked without
a concession from the government ; thus the grant of territory is
not held to involve possession of any mineral treasures con-
tained.
The principal articles of export of the Free State are, in order
of importance, ivory, palm kernels, palm oil, rubber, ground nuts,
coffee, gum copal, wax, orchilla-weed and cam-wood. The coffee-
plant, sugar-cane and cotton grow wild. Gold, iron, lead and cop-
per have been found. The chief imports are, also in order of
importance, textile fabrics, guns, powder, spirits and tobacco. The
exports in 1891 were valued at $1,275,000. In the same year 893
vessels of 247,689 tons entered the Congo ports. The Free State
is included in the Postal Union, and the telegraph and telephone
are being introduced. Post Offices have been established at all the
stations up the river and the State has a very tasteful series of
postage-stamps. Around the 220 miles of Congo cataracts it will
be necessary, until the railway is completed, to carry the mails on
the backs of men. All the State steamers convey the mail. The
number of pieces of mail despatched to the Congo in 1890 was
75,000. Barter still prevails over the whole State, though a money
currency is being gradually introduced. It consists of silver and
copper coins made in Belgium. The silver coins are of the size
and value of five, two, one, and half franc pieces. They are very
neat coins. On the obverse is the profile medallion of King
Leopold, with his special title of Sovereign of the Congo Free
State ; on the reverse are the arms of Belgium, the date, denomi-
nation, and, on the five-franc pieces, the motto " Travail et Pro-
gress Its rim bears the same suggestive and appropriate legend
in raised letters. The copper coins are of the value of five and ten
centimes. They have a hole in their centre, like the " cash " of
China, for convenience in transport, many of them being strung
together on a wire and carried about the waist, for the native has
no pockets in his primitive dress.
The army of the Free State — a sort of military police — con-
sists of 3,500 natives, who are uniformed, and are commanded by
white officers. These natives, who are mostly Bangala cannibals,
from a district on the Congo about two hundred miles above the
mouth of the Ubangi, are soon made subject to discipline, and
prove good soldiers. There are four camps of instruction, and
28
410 ACTUAL AFRICA.
the men are regularly drilled. They are distributed over the
provinces of the State, guarding the main and sub-stations.
The natives of the Congo State live mostly in independent
groups under the command of a king or chief, whose dominions
comprise, it may be, only a few villages or towns, or it may be a
considerable extent of country. The large states or kingdoms
are not well organised. To go only a short distance from home
is to go among enemies. The approaches to a village are pur-
posely made tortuous and inconspicuous as a precaution, and
mutual distrust, instead of mutual confidence, is the rule. The
Congo people belong in general to the great Bantu family, which
extends over the whole of Southern Africa, from six degrees
north of the Equator to the Cape of Good Hope, and from the
Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. These natives are entirely distinct
from negroes. They are generally of a chocolate color, are finely
developed physically, have thin aquiline noses, small hands and
feet, slight beard, and moustache. The popular notion that all
Africans are negroes is entirely erroneous. The proper home of
the negro is in the Soudan, between the Congo and the Sahara,
and Egypt and Senegambia. To this great Bantu family belong
also all the Congo languages, the Suaheli of the east coast, the
Kimbundu of the west ; the languages of the highlands of the
Shire and the shores of Lake Nyassa ; the Bechuana, Basuto,
Damara, Zulu and Kaffir tongues, and many others. All these,
though spoken over such enormous areas, and by widely different
nations, are said not only to have multitudes of words and roots
identical or similar, but their entire grammatical construction is
similar, their idioms are often identical, and one striking and dis-
tinctive peculiarity is common to them all. This family feature
of the Bantu language is their alliterative concord, or the agree-
ment of all the inflected words in a sentence with the governing
nouns, as regards their initial letter or syllable. Thus the same
words change their form, from sentence to sentence, according
to the commencing syllable or letter of the governing nouns in
the sentence, a most curious and elsewhere unknown form of
grammatical concord. A language spoken in the cataract region
from Matadi to Leopoldville, and whose dialects prevail over a wide
extent, in fact, a great part of the main river, is called Kacongo or
Fiote. It has been reduced to writing by some of the missionaries,
and published in various forms of grammar, phrase-book and dic-
tionary. It is not very difficult to acquire a few hundred words
THE CONGO FREE STATE. 411
relating to such useful and important subjects as food, barter,
guides, paths, canoes, tribes, and household matters, and I soon
found myself on " speaking-terms " with the dark denizens of
Congoland. I will give some examples of this curious tongue :
Go and buy some bananas, Kivenda Jcousoumba mounJcondo. Is
the road good ? Njila Tcala mbote ? We will leave to-morrow
very early, Mbaji beto kivenda nsouha nsouka. Good Day, Mbote.
Stop here, Konsala vava. Make a fire, Vanga tuja. 1. Moxi, 2.
Mole, 3. Tatou, 4. la, 5. Tanou, 6. Sambanou, 7. Sambeidi, 8.
Nana, 9. Voi, 10. Koumi.
One of the finest tribes on the Congo are the Balolos. The
word signifies " iron people," equivalent to the " strong tribe."
Their country fills the southern central or horseshoe bend of the
great river, a territory five times as large as England. There are
believed to be as many as 5,000,000 of these people. They are
experts in the working and smelting of iron and brass, producing
axes, hoes, spades, planes, knives, and other useful implements,
besides such ornaments as bracelets, necklaces and anklets. They
are industrious and understand division of labor, as you find
among them farmers, warriors, boat-builders, weavers, cabinet-
makers, and blacksmiths. Physically they are powerfully and
finely developed. Their physiognomy is in strong contrast to that
of the pure negro. The forehead is high, the lips and lower jaw
comparatively delicate, the nose aquiline, and the general exjores-
sion animated and intelligent. The Balolos are also better dressed
than the people of the lower river. The streets of their towns
are straight and regular, running at right-angles ; their houses
are large and well-made. Every river town possesses a consider-
able flotilla of canoes, in whose workmanship and management
these natives are very expert. Many of the other tribes on the
river are cannibals. On several of its great affluents boat-loads of
poor victims are still met with, who are destined to be fattened for
food, and who are constantly passing down to the markets. Crim-
inals are sold by some tribes for the same savage diet. The
native population having few wants and abundant food, indus-
tries are at a low ebb among them. The river dwellers are, how-
ever, born traders. The natives trade with the coast, but each
tribe levies customs dues. It is said that formerly it took five
years before an article of European manufacture arrived at the
upper part of the Congo. This is what makes exploration so
difficult for a European, for every few miles he enters the terri-
412 ACTUAL AFRICA.
tory of a fresh " king," whose favor must be propitiated, and
whose avarice must be gratified with presents.
The Congo is believed to be about 3,000 miles long and its
main source to be found in the Lualaba river. Its mouth is in
about 6° south latitude and 12° east longitude ; its source is about
13° south latitude and 26° east longitude. Between these points
it makes a great bow or bend which reaches as far north as lati-
tude 2°. The river flows first north, then west, then southwest.
From its rise to its southwesterly bend it runs almost directly
through the centre of the Free State. It is divided into the lower
and the upper river. The first part is only 115 miles long, and
extends to Matadi. Here it is fifty fathoms deep, and in one spot,
just above, ninety, and this section is consequently navigable for
ocean steamers of the largest size. A little beyond Matadi there
begins a series of cataracts and furious rapids, some thirty in num-
ber, and other impediments, which continue to Stanley Pool, a
distance of 220 miles. From Stanley Pool there is a clear and
uninterrupted course of 1,000 miles, where vessels as large as those
on the Mississippi can readily float. The lower of these cataracts
is styled the Yellala Falls. This portion may be traversed by a
road upon the north bank cleared by Stanley for his wagons, or
upon the south side, at some distance from the river, by a native
trail, upon or near which are several mission and trading stations.
Stanley's road is now seldom used except for the transport of
steamers, heavy machinery, and bulky merchandise. The cataracts
extend at first for a distance of 52 miles by a narrow gorge
through the mountains, which here form the margin of the
African plateau. This 52 miles brings you to the station of
Isanghila, on the north bank, 73 miles higher is the station of
Manyanga, on the south bank, and 95 more brings you to Stanley
Pool. It is possible to go by small steamer from Isanghila to
Manyanga, and some steel whaleboats placed on this section still
remain. Until Stanley's great journey nothing of the river above
these cataracts was known. Tuckey, an officer of the American
navy, was in 1816 sent out at the head of a carefully selected and
amply provisioned government expedition charged to explore the
country. It however failed, and its leader and most of its mem-
bers perished in the attempt. The spot ultimately reached was
scarcely half way to Stanley Pool, and was long marked on the
maps as " Tuckey's farthest." The first steamer carried along
Stanley's road in pieces was launched on Stanley Pool in Decern-
THE CONGO FREE STATE. 413
ber, 1881. Above Stanley Pool the river opens out four or five
miles in width, with a current of three or four miles an hour.
Within 175 miles you come to an enormous tributary on the
south — the Kassai, which is about 2,000 miles in length. This
river, and its affluent the Sankuru, are together navigable for 950
miles. Going on about 300 miles further you reach a great tribu-
tary from the north — the Ubangi, which also is about 2,000 miles
in length, but owing to rapids is only navigable for 600 miles.
From Stanley Pool to Stanley Falls the Congo is very broad all the
way — sometimes as much as fifteen miles, and even, in one place,
twenty-one miles across. Stanley Falls consists of seven cataracts,
at considerable distances apart. Three hundred and fifty miles
above Stanley Falls is the important town of Nyaugwe, which is
itself about 250 miles from Lake Tanganyika and a little to the
north of the latitude of Ujiji, on the eastern shore, celebrated
as the meeting-ground of Stanley and Livingstone in 1872. The
Congo is full of animal life — crocodiles, hippopotami and fish —
while elephants, buffalo, antelope and other game are common on
its borders. The banks yield excellent timber, gums, palm-oil and
edible fruits. There are many large towns, though the native huts
are more apt to be scattered than to extend along for great dis-
tances together.
In 1893 there were 6 steamers plying on the Lower Congo and
42 on the Upper. Of the latter 13 belong to the State, 5 to
French Congo, 14 to the Belgian Commercial Company, 4 to the
Dutch Company, 4 to the Anglo-American Mission, 1 to the
French and 1 to the Belgian Eoman Catholic Missions. Those
plying on the lower river all belong to the State. There were in
the same year some fifty European establishments on the Congo,
between the Pool and the Falls. The Belgian Commercial Com-
pany had a total of fifty factories throughout the State. Eleven
missionary agencies were in the field — 3 Roman Catholic and 8
Protestant. Of the former 1 is Belgian, 2 are French ; of the latter 3
are American, 4 British, and 1 is Swedish. There are thirty mission
stations in the State, and upwards of one hundred missionaries are
at work. At Leopoldville and Kinchassa, on Stanley Pool, are two
ship-building establishments, where all the river steamers have
thus far been put together. At the latter a Belgian machinist
is in charge of the ship-yard. He has at work under his orders
ten European machinists, blacksmiths and carpenters, and fifteen
colored blacksmiths from the Guinea coast, besides thirty local
414: ACTUAL AFRICA.
workmen. When the iron shell reaches the ship-yard, the boat is
in hundreds of small pieces, none of which weigh more than one
porter can conveniently carry, or say sixty pounds. It requires
three to four months to fit a steamer of thirty or forty tons for
launching. Afterwards the fittings are put in, and then the vessel
is ready for service on the thousands of miles of navigable waters
above Stanley Pool. None of these steamers draw more than four
feet of water, loaded, and some of the steam-launches draw but
little more than one-third of this. There are half a dozen lines of
steamers which ply between the Congo and Europe, two of them
being direct monthly lines to Belgium.
Stanley said years ago that the vast resources and capabilities
of the Congo basin would be practically useless, and it would be
impossible to introduce men, material and commerce to develop
the country until a railway should be built around the cataracts.
All goods and luggage have to be transported on the head and
shoulders of lazy, irresponsible natives. And besides, it is often
difficult to get enough men, although in the past four years as
many as 50,000 carriers have been employed in the transport serv-
ice. A ton of goods is conveyed from London to the Lower
Congo for £2, but costs £50 for carriage from Matadi to Stan-
ley Pool. A railway is, however, at last in process of construc-
tion around this chief physical obstacle to the admission of com-
merce and civilisation. The route was surveyed in 1888, and the
work was undertaken in January, 1890, by a Belgian company,
whose government liberally subscribed to the capital and gave
them also valuable concessions. It is calculated that 25,000,000
francs will cover all cost of construction and rolling-stock, and
pay interest on the capital during the estimated seven years of its
construction. When this road is completed inner Africa will be
within a few weeks of the capitals of Europe. The length of the
line, which is to be run from thirty to fifty miles distant from the
left bank of the river — south of the usual caravan route — will be
268 miles. Only the first twenty-five or thirty miles of this ji>re-
sent any serious engineering difficulties. The gradients are com-
paratively easy and sharp curves will only be required in the first
section. But three rivers of any size will need to be bridged — the
M'poso, the Kivilu, and the Inkissi. The longest of the bridges
will only be 300 feet. At all places where large torrents occur
steel aqueducts are building that will carry the floods down the
hills and under the railway track. The line starts at Matadi and
THE CONGO FREE STATE. 415
terminates near the station of Kinchassa, on Stanley Pool, where
the trucks of goods can be unloaded directly into the river steam-
ers. The railway is now completed but thirty miles. Matadi has
been a base of supplies for railroad and steamship operations for
several years past. Very many employes of the railroad are quar-
tered here. Five years ago there were only two buildings and ten
Europeans here, but to-day the town contains 300 Europeans — be-
sides the railway employes, officials of the State, traders and mis-
sionaries— fifty more than Stanley left behind him in the entire
Congo region, when he returned to Europe after founding his sta-
tions. The white population includes Belgians, French, English,
Germans, Dutch, Italians, Swedes, Americans and Greeks. Fully
one-third of the entire railway work has centered in the thirty
miles recently completed, for this has been built under very ad-
verse circumstances, much of it having been blasted out of solid
and very tough quartzite rock, and the rest being in an exceedingly
hilly region. Within ten miles from Matadi the road mounts, 1500
feet. This, however, is the worst part of the line, and progress is
now expected to be rapid. There are about 200 whites and 2,000
natives engaged in building the road, of whom nearly half came
from various points on the Guinea coast. At present seven loco-
motives and thirty cars are on the tracks, and have been kept busy
carrying railway material and provisions as the road advanced.
CHAPTER XLVI.
THE LOWEK RIVER.
From the summary of the preceding chapter I return to my
personal narrative. After a stay of sixteen days I left Boma for
Matadi. The Acting-Governor, M. Fuchs, kindly placed at my
disposition for the journey one of the State's steam-launches, a
neat craft of about ten tons burden, which, steaming close to one
shore or the other, brought me comfortably to my destination in
six hours' time. The launch was covered with a wooden roof
from stem to stern, a necessity in this climate. She burned
blocks of pressed coal, and worked under a pressure of seventy-
five pounds of steam. We started at six o'clock in the morning
and, rapidly passing the warehouses and trading-stores of the
Dutch, Portuguese and English factories, were soon out of the
great broad river and puffing along a reach not more than half
a mile in width. The Congo from Boma to Matadi may be said
to average from half a mile to a mile broad. It makes several
turns almost at right-angles, and the current is very strong, the
water averaging in the middle from thirty to ninety fathoms in
depth. The banks are covered with coarse reedy grass, and are
backed by grass-clothed hills bearing scant groves of palms, bao-
babs, and cotton- woods. Occasionally we pass the low rough build-
ings of a factory which extends along the water's edge. Then we
come to quite a large settlement, on the south or Portuguese side
of the river, called Moussouko. Near here are some pretty tree-
covered spots of land, in mid-stream, and styled the Sisters' En-
chanted Islands. Here we quit the swift-flowing central stream
for a long narrow creek, where I see my first hippopotamus, who
dives at our approach, but soon comes up to breathe, and then
swims away, only the top of his huge flat head appearing above
the surface.
The next Portuguese settlement is that of Noki, which is situ-
416
TEE LOWER RIVER 417
ated in the extreme corner of the Portuguese possessions. There
is a sharp curve in the river here, and the factories are built at the
mouth of a little valley and upon the sides of the hills, a short
distance up from the water. In one place the north bank is lined
for several miles with a fringe of beautiful Palmyra palms. You
notice no native settlements along the river, save a few huts about
each of the factories, nor is there any movement of canoes. As we
go on into the interior, the country continues hilly and becomes
more bare. You see only grass and scrub-covered hillocks. Now
upon the top of a hill on the south bank are the trim buildings of
the English Mission. Nearly opposite in a sharp turn of the river
there is a precipitous bluff standing some eight hundred feet above
the surface. Here so acute is the angle that, at certain seasons of
flood, whirlpools are formed which are dangerous to small boats.
We round the hill on which stands the English Mission, and see
straight before us, upon a bare range facing the west, the houses
of Matadi. On the north bank, far up the hills, is the solitary
house now remaining of Vivi, Mr. Stanley's original station, but the
line of his road can be plainly seen winding up and over the hills,
which are here both high and steep. Navigation ends at Matadi,
and the river makes an abrupt bend so that your view to the east
is closed. We pass an English factory, then a Swedish Mission,
next a Dutch factory, and now we are opposite Matadi. Project-
ing into the river is a long, high iron pier, which leads to great
iron warehouses, belonging to either the State or the Congo rail-
way. On a detached knoll stands the hotel, a building smaller but of
exactly the same style as that at Boma, and belonging to the same
company. Little cottages are scattered all over the very rough
stony hillside, that of the governor, a long, low, narrow building
being about half way up, and near it is quite a large Catholic
church, also of iron. I land and walk along the railway track
and through several great machine shops, and mount the steep
incline to the hotel. This is surrounded by a number of dormi-
tories, or sleeping annexes, made all of plates of galvanised iron.
I find the hotel full either of people connected with the State, the
new railway, or the factories. The houses of Matadi are con-
nected only by crooked and often very steep paths. There are
several small collections of wretched native shanties. Some loco-
motives and construction trains are plying up and down, and alto-
gether it is a very busy and un-African scene. The hills rise high
and bare all around Matadi, making the place very hot and un-
418 ACTUAL AFRICA.
healthy. The flies were most troublesome in the day-time and
though the mosquitoes were less so at night, my room was overrun
with huge rats, some of whom seemed determined to share my
bed with me. Fortunately I had to spend but one night in the
hotel.
The factory the furthest up the river at Matadi belongs to the
Societe Anonyme Beige pour le Commerce du Haut Congo, in
short, The Belgian Commercial Company of the Upper Congo
(Ltd.). This organisation, of which I have already spoken, is one
of the oldest on the Congo. It has a capital of 5,000,000 francs.
The central offices are in Brussels, and its Managing Director at
the time of my visit was Major W. G. Parminter, an Englishman
who had been in central and south Africa some sixteen years,
and who was chiefly instrumental in establishing and perfecting
the very extensive business of the company. He served in the
British army through the Boer and Zulu campaigns in South
Africa, where, for his gallantry, he was rapidly promoted from lieu-
tenant to major. He afterwards entered the service of the King
of the Belgians, was chief of the station of Vivi, and for some
time director of finances at Boma. He next joined the Belgian
Commercial Company. He had just come out from Belgium on
a tour of inspection, and to found a number of new stations.
Fortunately, I brought a letter of introduction from a high official
at Boma to this gentleman, whom I found at Matadi making
preparations for an early start into the interior. He most kindly
invited me to accompany him over the caravan road to Leopold-
villej on Stanley Pool, and then, as I might prefer, either ascend
the great river to Stanley Falls, in one of the State steamers, or
go to Kinchassa, and ascend the Kassai and Sankuru to Lusambo
with him, in one of the steamers belonging to his company. He
promised to fit me out from his own stores with tent, camp-bed
and provisions, guns and ammunition ; and I bought in Matadi
a hammock, woollen blankets, pillow, mosquito netting, rubber-
blanket, etc. For carrying my personal effects I had brought
with me from Boma two small iron trunks, which, when packed,
were not intended to weigh more than sixty pounds each, the regu-
lation load for a porter. I had also at Boma engaged a boy from
Lagos, on the Guinea coast— with the decidedly English name of
James Coker— to accompany me as servant. He spoke some Eng-
lish, and several of the dialects of the interior, where he had been
before. There is often a difficulty in getting porters enough for
THE LOWER RIVER. 419
one's baggage and bearers for one's hammock, but the major
kindly supplied me from among his own men. I could not but
esteem myself very fortunate in having the companionship of
a gentleman so thoroughly understanding the country and its
people.
There are some half dozen iron buildings of the factory at
Matadi — warehouses, a general dining-saloon, dormitories, offices,
etc. — all of which are raised upon brick pillars some ten feet or so
above the ground. The chief products in which the company
deals are ivory and rubber, the first being the chief item. The
tusks are of all sizes from one foot to eight in length. The
rubber comes to market in little lumps the size of small oranges,
half a dozen of which are strung together, and a porter's load of
them is then sewed up in a long narrow sack. Several of the
great iron warehouses are filled with miscellaneous merchandise to
barter for the ivory and rubber, for no money is yet used in
central Congo. Powder and wire at present represent gold, and
beads, silver. Besides these are great quantities of crockery, huge
boxes of knives, and large bales of Manchester cottons, second-
hand European hats and clothes, earthenware statuettes and or-
naments, coarse American smokiug tobacco, and flint-lock muskets
worth about 11.50 each.
On March 28th, everything being in readiness, we began our
journey. We took with us a total of seventy porters, including
those for the tents, the hammocks and the provisions. My tent
was one of the English make of Edgington, a wall- tent about
eight feet square, with an exterior " fly " or roof above, which
serves as a capital break for very hot sun or very heavy rain. My
camp bed was of canvas, with leather-covered cushions for mat-
tress, and a very necessary mosquito-netting. My hammock was
of canvas, with an awning of the same material, like that previ-
ously used in Angola. I had six bearers for it. The two iron
trunks contained all needful clothes. The porters were all Congo
boys or men, rather slight and under-sized black people, wearing
only a loin cloth and some ornaments, such as a bead necklace, a
brass bangle around the ankle, or an iron bracelet. All were more
or less tattooed, or, rather, marked by gashes, upon the chest, back
and shoulders. It was, however, in the dressing and arrangement of
the hair that their supreme ingenuity seemed to be employed. A
few wore it in its natural short woolly state. Some twisted it into
little strings two or three inches long and matted together with
420 ACTUAL AFRICA.
palm oil, their heads thus resembling our window-mops. A few
had their hair trained and gummed together on the crown, like a
woman's chignon with us. Nearly all had their front teeth filed
to points, a few only had the upper ones notched, which always
gave them a disagreeable expression when opening the mouth.
All these people were exceedingly dirty and odoriferous. For the
caravan journey they are paid in goods of an equivalent value of
forty francs, and they must find their own food. This latter
does not incommode them, for it consists generally of manioc,
bananas and palm-oil kernels. They do not require any food or
drink when starting in the morning on a day's march, but eat
whenever a halt is made, and always have a big feed at night.
They are quite like children, and their wants are almost nothing.
Each one, as I have said, carries a load of about sixty pounds.
They are marshalled and kept in order by a head-man, who is
styled the captain.
As the new railway virtually follows the caravan road for a
short distance, we determined to take advantage of this, and had
chartered a train to carry us to the terminus, about fourteen miles
from Matadi, and then we were to walk some three miles further
and camp. We crowded all our men, wdth their loads, into two
open cars, and started from the factory about eight o'clock in the
morning. The road is a very narrow-gauge and the rails are fas-
tened in " chairs " directly to the iron sleepers, without the use of
any spikes. There are many steep grades and many short curves.
At first you follow the bank of the Congo to the entrance of the
M'poso river, and then turn directly south up the valley of this
brawling stream. As soon as we leave Matadi I notice some
small rapids extending nearly across the Congo. The banks on
each side are high and steep. Vivi, with its single house, is
nearly opposite the mouth of the M'poso. The falls of Yellala
are four or five miles above. After running some distance along
the banks of the M'poso, whose yellow flood rushes swiftly over a
rocky bed far below us, we cross the river upon the single span of
an iron girder bridge. Then we turn more to the east and wind
through an exceedingly hilly country, rising rapidly until we reach
the height of 1,500 feet. Then we gradually descend until the
terminus is reached. The road so far runs through a hilly, grass-
covered and treeless region, excepting only in the narrow valleys
of some of the streams, where you see a few oil palms, baobabs,
cotton-woods, and other less well-known trees. The rolling-stock
THE LOWER RIVER. 421
of the line is all of Belgian manufacture. The engineers are
white men, and their assistants natives of the Guinea coast, who
are quite clever at their work. We pitched our tents near the
temporary house of the chief of this section of the railway, and
took breakfast with him in his cool and comfortable grass thatched
and walled salle-a-manger. The general direction of the caravan
road to Stanley Pool is northeast. The first half of the way it
runs at some distance from the river, but the second half is nearer
and follows almost its exact course.
Early the next morning we started on our route and followed
the graded embankment of the railway to its end, where some of
the officials hospitably invited us to rest and take lunch with them.
The country had been very hillocky, and covered with grass and
scrubby trees. It was not cultivated, nor settled. The few habi-
tations we saw were those of the men at work upon the railway.
After lunch we continued on through much swampy ground, and
grass ten or twelve feet in height, which so filled the path that we
had a hard struggle to get through it. In some of the wettest places
I had to quit the hammock and take to the back of the strongest
of my men. We had some difficulty in finding the caravan road
after leaving the line of the railway, but succeeded at last, and
arrived at the State station of Congo da Lemba early in the even-
ing. This station has been made upon the level summit of a long
ridge. There were half a dozen houses, grass topped and sided,
and some large gardens of peas, maize, bananas and ground-nuts.
Bound about were several monster baobabs. We camped, and
started on at six in the morning, the road being a mere trail wind-
ing up and down very steep hills. In the valleys were dense for-
ests and brooks and rivers. We forded one of the latter called the
Bembizi, and, about noon, crossed the Lufou on a chain suspen-
sion bridge a hundred feet long, and halted at a State station of
a few huts, one of which was for the use of white travellers,
while an open shed was for the carriers. An Egyptian was in
command here. The bridge had been made by the State. A nar-
row place being chosen, the chains had been secured to huge
baobabs on each bank. It was then about twenty-five feet above
the water, but weeds attached to the guy ropes spoke plainly
of a rise of the river of many feet, during the wet season. This
river has a swift current, and empties into the Congo. From the
tops of some of the ridges we had very extensive views of the sur-
rounding country — hilly, grass-covered and for the most part tree-
422 ACTUAL AFRICA.
less save in the valleys and depressions. The sun was terrific, and
the bits of forest through which we passed were like Turkish
baths to us. The great heat and malarious air, and the rough
steep roads together make a journey of five hours and fifteen miles
a good average day's work. In fact, this is the customary length
here, the afternoon being employed in looking after the car-
riers and their loads, bathing, changing clothes, reading, writ-
ing, sleeping, preparing for dinner, etc. The houses of the State,
which may be used by white travellers, are simple grass and reed
made structures, with a verandah all around, and generally two
rooms, without furniture other than, possibly, a rude couch made
of split bamboo.
We took to the road at 6.30 A. M., and kept steadily on until
we reached another State station, nicely situated on a high plateau,
and surrounded by gardens of manioc, sweet potatoes, beans, toma-
toes, maize, bananas, pimentoes, pineapples and ground-nuts. At
each of these stations there is always a sign-board giving in hours
the distance to the next in each direction. After breakfast we
went on an hour further to Banza Manteka, where, upon the lev-
elled top of a ridge, about 1,300 feet above sea-level, is one of the
American missionary stations, with church, school-house, etc.
There is a small native village in the immediate neighborhood.
From here there are very extensive and beautiful views of the
hilly region, whose rich green color proves most attractive.
Soon after arrival a perfect tornado of wind and rain broke over
us. We were making our journey, unfortunately, in the middle of
the rainy season, or, rather, of that styled the " long rains," for there
are two of these seasons in the Congo State, and so every after-
noon or night we might expect rain. We were hospitably enter-
tained at the mission and, much refreshed, went on early in the
morning. The country became more open and there were great
plains covered with grass. We halted at one station to rest, and to
allow the men an opportunity to buy food from half a dozen native
women, who had come from some neighboring villages with ma-
nioc, maize, bananas and palm-kernels. They bore their produce
in large and well-made funnel-shaped baskets. Our men bought
this food with gay-colored handkerchiefs and coarse, blue glass-
beads. We then went on for a couple of hours more, the sun
beating upon us with tremendous force, and halting near another
station, made camp on the bank of a small and swift stream, run-
ning northwesterly into the Congo. A chain was stretched here
THE LOWER RIVER. 423
across the river between two trees, and a large canoe attached to
this served as a primitive but serviceable ferry. Our porters are
quite a study, and afford me much amusement. In the morning
as soon as they prepare their loads they start off, without partaking
of any food, straggling along the track for a mile or so, only anx-
ious to get to the previously-understood halting-place as soon as
possible. Sometimes, when tired, they rest by the roadside, and if
they happen to have any food, eat it, often making little fires to boil
their manioc or roast their maize. If we ourselves halt anywhere
they occupy this time in taking a regular breakfast. As soon as
we get to our camping-place they all throw down their loads and
squat beside them, very close together, watching everything that
we do. If there is shade they utilise it, but if not, sit quite con-
tented in the blazing sun. When they are quite rested they begin
their cooking and gabbling, both of which continue until they go
to sleep, about nine in the evening. In sleeping they lie down
upon the ground without pillow, mat, or covering, ordinarily,
though sometimes they have a piece of cotton cloth over them.
As for us, we have breakfast or luncheon soon after arriving in
camp, placing our table under a tree, or in one of the tents. If we
are near one of the many small rivers, we always indulge in a bath
before dinner. This meal is served late in the evening, and, after
a brief chat and smoke, we go early to bed to get fortified for the
morrow's march. We live well, for, besides all our tinned provi-
sions, we have with us two milch goats, a crate of live fowls, and
several demijohns of Portuguese wine, and cases of claret and
hock. Fresh eggs and fruit are often to be bought from the na-
tives who visit the stations. The country to-day was uncultivated
and uninhabited, at least to any extent near our route. Though
we have our hammocks we walk a good deal, in order to vary our
travel. We met many caravans of fifty and even a hundred men,
carrying ivory and rubber down to Matadi. A large tusk was a
load for one man, and was carried upon the head, resting upon a
small cushion and being supported by one or both hands. The
rubber was enclosed in long and narrow baskets of palm-leaf, car-
ried upon either the head or shoulders.
CHAPTER XLVIL
ON THE CARAVAN" ROAD.
We broke camp at our usual early hour, and our porters forded
the river, which came a little above their waists. The country
through which we then passed was hilly but smoother than here-
tofore. We halted for breakfast at one of the State buildings, a
rather good quality of house, with grass-roof and reed-mat sides.
On a rough pole outside floated the flag of the Congo State. The
custodian — a black man — lived in a hut at one side. There was
also, near at hand, a large open shed for the use of the porters.
After our meal we went on for three hours more over a good, clayey
track, and through many bosky glens. Several small streams were
crossed upon bridges made of trunks of small trees plastered with
clay. At every muddy pool our men drank enormously of water
which no white man could have touched with impunity. The
heat was very great, and our clothes were as wet with perspiration
as if they had been thrown in a river. Late in the afternoon we
reached the Kuilu, a deep and swiftly flowing river, about two
hundred feet wide. It is said to abound with crocodiles, though
we did not happen to see any. We were ferried over this stream
in an enormous canoe, made from a single tree trunk, and found
one of the stations on the opposite bank. These State stations, I
may explain, occur regularly upon the caravan road, at distances
of about four hours' march — distances in the Congo, as in Mada-
gascar, being estimated by hours, not miles — all the way from
Matadi to Leopoldville. We camped in a shady grove of palm
and other trees. The chief of the station treated us to fresh palm
wine, which had a flavor closely approaching that of the milk
of a cocoanut which has become slightly fermented. During the
two following days we marched through much grass twenty feet
high, which formed a cover over the path where the heat was
stifling. We had distant views of a fine range of mountains in the
424
ON THE CARA VAN ROAD. 425
northeast. There were terrific tornadoes at night. On the third
day we reached the pretty valley, the town, and the river of Lu-
kungu. It was a large open valley, with a few trees. At one side
were a number1 of iron-roofed buildings belonging to the mission-
aries and upon a knoll in the centre was the station, while in sev-
eral directions stood little native villages. We rested a short time,
and then pushed on, crossing the Lukungu upon a suspension
bridge made of wire cables, with a roadway of small tree trunks.
We then had some deep swamps to wade and some steep hills to
climb. We stopped for breakfast on one of the latter, and greatly
enjoyed the wide and fair prospect. At night, not finding a suit-
able camping place near water, we hired a hut — a building made
of reeds, with a cylindrical roof. This is the usual native house
hereabouts. They are about eight feet wide, the same high, and
twelve long. It rained very heavily all the night.
We made an early start, and after an hour got glimpses of the
Congo, lined by low hills. From here we gradually descended to
the bank of the river and to the town of Manyanga, having first
to cross by canoe a small stream that here enters the Congo. Man-
vano-a consists of the houses of the chief of the station, those of
the Belgian Commercial Company, and a small native settlement.
Just beyond, some swirling rapids, that would be quite impassable
for a steamer, fill the entire Congo. But from here large whale-
boats descend the river as far as Isanghila. Formerly the Zanzi-
baris operated these boats, and were accustomed to sing while at
their work. No Zanzibaris are now on the river, but their wild
songs remain, having been learned by the Congo natives — an utter
novelty for them. On the opposite side of the river upon the top
of the high bank is the French station of Manyanga North and a
Dutch factory, which are in the territory called French Congo.
The river is crossed in huge canoes, formed of single tree trunks,
or in one of the large iron whaleboats, and, though the current is
strong and eddies abound, quick and safe ferriage is made. The
river is about a mile wide here, and contains many small, and a
few very large, fish. All kinds are esteemed by the natives and
some are relished by Europeans. Huge crocodiles also abound.
We were forced to remain two weeks at Manyanga awaiting
porters, ours only having been engaged as far as this. The special
cause of delay in our case was that, it being the height of the rainy
season, a less number of natives than usual were upon the road
on account of their dislike to ford deep rivers, to wade through
29
426 ACTUAL AFRICA.
swamps, and to forego dry places in which to camp. There is also
at this time of year less likelihood of there being a variety and
quantity of food in the markets, which are held for their use at
varying intervals along the caravan route. They are thus apt to
become sick, and, unless absolutely necessary, the most of them pre-
fer to work only during the dry season — from May to November —
when it is always easy to get as many porters as one wants. When
the railway is completed, however, this whole cumbersome system
will be done away with, for the caravan-road will then be deserted
by Europeans, and used only by those of the natives whose villages
are in its immediate vicinity. Several times a number of carriers
came in to Manyanga, but not enough for our wants, and we could
not detain them till others came. While awaiting these people we
paid a visit across the river to the French post of Manyanga North,
to the neighboring Dutch factory, and to a factory of the Belgian
Commercial Company situated an hour's walk from the river. We
crossed in one of the large iron whaleboats, first rowing up the
river along the shore for a considerable distance, and then heading
almost directly across. The current was very swift, but with our
men vigorously rowing, and the assistance of a small three-cornered
sail, we were able to get over in an hour. Upon arriving we had
a stiff climb to the top of the hills, where are the factory and the
post. These consisted of half a dozen houses each. From them
we had a most splendid view up and down the river, over the sur-
rounding country, and the great rapids almost at our feet. After
a walk to the Belgian factory — a few dwellings and warehouses —
also situated on the top of a smoothed hill — we returned and break-
fasted with the chief of the French post, M. Croz, and in the late
afternoon recrossed the river to our temporary home.
At last w,e obtained the requisite number of porters, and started
for Leopoldville. On leaving Manyanga the road at once mounts
the hills which border the river, and so continues on, with exten-
sive views of the country in every direction. It was still the same
character of surface, grass-land scantily covered with scrubby trees
and bushes. Many great land-slides and deep gullies appeared,
the different colors of the soil showing very brilliantly. The vil-
lages were mostly at a distance from the caravan route. The road
had in many places been cleared of vegetation to a width of some
ten or twelve feet ; it was hard and dry. The streams were greatly
swollen, and one of them we had to swim. It was not broad but
deep, and had a very swift current. There had once been a bridge
ON THE CARA VAN ROAD. 427
over it, but this had been swept away by some flood. A strong
liana was stretched across, and to this the porters clung with one
hand while supporting their burdens upon the head with the
other. In crossing two of the men lost their footing and dropped
their loads into the water, which unfortunately were trunks con-
taining our clothes, all of which, of course, were completely soaked,
and some of our books and maps were quite ruined. It was an
accident that frequently happens during the rainy season. We
also traversed several rapid streams either on narrow wooden
bridges, erected by the State, or sitting upon the shoulders and
clinging to the heads of our men. We heard the songs of many
birds, and saw a few crows and ducks, and a few small snakes.
Many carriers passed us, the most of them bearing tusks of ivory.
The highest point on the road from Matadi to Leopoldville is
1,050 feet above the sea, and about here we enjoyed a very fine and
extensive survey of the Congo, bounded by ranges of steep hills,
down which coursed several streams, with large cataracts plainly
visible. The scenery was really interesting, a thing not always to
be said of the Congo region. Near one station a market was being
held on the top of a round hill. The people, who had come from
all the neighboring region, were arranged in a large circle of three
or four ranks, squatting upon the ground. The sellers were nearly
all women. There was a good variety of local produce, but no
manufactures. Perhaps four hundred people were present — half of
whom were dealers — and their chaffering produced a perfect Babel.
These markets are held regularly twice a week. They are gener-
ally only for food. You see manioc in several styles, cooked and
uncooked and ground into flour, palm oil and kernels, beans,
maize, salad, fowls, eggs, plantains, sweet potatoes, mushrooms,
peanuts, peppers, tobacco, large fish from the Congo, several kinds
of fruit, etc. These things will be bartered for cheap blue cotton
cloth, colored handkerchiefs, and bits of coarse brass wire, shaped
like staples. These last pass for change, and are generally carried
in large bunches. They serve also for bracelets and anklets, when
their ends are fastened together, and for many useful, as well as
these ornamental, purposes. The asking and taking price are
widely divergent. With us the people demanded such exorbitant
sums that it required much patience to make any purchases at
all. They seemed quite indifferent about the disposal of their
wares, that were placed before them in covered baskets to prevent
thieving, which greatly prevails. We, however, were repaid by ob-
428 ACTUAL AFRICA.
serving the market. The venders, as I have said, were mostly fe-
males, and many of them had their babes slung upon their backs.
The unmarried girls were nude to the waist, the married women
covering their breasts only by small — too small — square pieces of
cloth attached by strings around the shoulders. Otherwise they
were more scantily dressed than even the men. They wore huge
brass rings upon their ankles, two and three together, and so
heavy were' these that pieces of cloth had to be fastened under
them to save the skin. Necklaces and circlets of beads about the
head were also worn. The men, besides, wore necklaces and brace-
lets, and nearly always a bone or tooth or piece of wood, as a
fetish. Many of the women had their hair dyed red, and several
of the men had their faces painted in bright colors, generally, how-
ever, there were only three or four short lines extending outwards
from the corners of their eyes. They looked for all the world
like the home-made demons of our pantomimes. But as usual it
was in the arrangement of the hair that the greatest attempts at
fashion were displayed. Though they had but little, they tortured
that little into a dozen different patterns, giving it a variety of
partings, longitudinal, circular and vertical, twisting it into a mop
of little curls, turning it into a miniature coil at the back of the
head, cutting all but a long strip from the centre of the forehead
to the nape of the neck, which at a distance had the effect of
a Roman helmet, while still others had all the head shaved. Very
few of the men had any beard, and this was always thin and
scanty. Both men and women are accustomed to smoke pipes,
made of hard wood, in which they burn tobacco that is mild
enough, but hardly what we should call of good flavor. The men
are exceedingly fond of the fresh palm wine, which they call
malafou, and which, taken in large quantities, proves very intoxi-
cating. Both sexes are of small stature, and most of the men
are meagre, but some have fine development of chest and
shoulders. The poverty of their diet, or at least the general ab-
sence of meat, and the privations and hardships of their existence
would account for their physical condition, and explain their short
lives, for rarely do you see old, gray-haired or wrinkled people.
They seem, however, to have great endurance, if not very great
strength. But all — men, women and children — were exceedingly
dirty and strong-smelling. They were a laughing, good-natured set,
always ready for a joke, though their chief pleasure in life seemed
to be a big feed. During the afternoon some of our porters drank
ON TEE CARAVAN ROAD. 429
a good deal of malafou and afterwards, without permission, went
and spent the night at neighboring villages, and did not return
the next morning. We, however, went on without them, taking
only our tipoyas and bearers.
Towards noon we reached the Inkissi, the largest river on the
caravan road. It was about three hundred feet wide, with a
swift current, and with high banks covered with trees. We crossed
in a canoe about thirty feet long, having sharp ends somewhat like
those of a gondola. It was adroitly managed by four men, who
paddled standing in the stern. On the opposite bank was a sta-
tion of the State, with several houses, one of which, plastered
with mud inside and out, and whitewashed, made quite a civilised
appearance. Our drunken porters turned up with our baggage
and provisions about four hours after our arrival, and we told them
that their spree would cost them each several pieces of cotton cloth
and handkerchiefs, which would be docked from the wages they
were to receive on the termination of the journey.
The second day afterwards we came down almost to the borders
of the Congo, which was here full of rapids and whirlpools, and
bordered by pretty hills. As we went on the size of the forest trees
increased and there seemed a large proportion of oil palms. At
one point we had a fine prospect of the rapids and small islands
where Stanley Pool flows into the river proper. We continued on
over a wooded, undulating country, passed an open space where a
large market was being held, and from here descended a hill to
Leopoldville, the broad smooth road being lined with pineapple
plants and mango trees. The town is situated at the southwestern
corner of Stanley Pool, upon a little bay opening from the latter.
First we passed long rows of huts, the homes of native soldiers and
laborers. Then came the house of the Commissaire, or superintend-
ent of the station, the post-office, a fine brick building used as a
general mess for the officers and agents of the State, and, further
on, the buildings of the engineers and carpenters where the Congo
steamers are built, or put together, and repaired. Away to the
right, some miles distant, were the buildings of an American Mis-
sionary Station. We did not stop at Leopoldville, but passed on
to Kinchassa, two hours distant to the east, crossing some great
swamps on the way. Here the Belgian Commercial Company has
a large establishment, its principal post. We first entered upon
a broad avenue lined with several rows of native huts, the houses
of laborers in the employ of the company, at the present time
430 ACTUAL AFRICA.
upwards of three hundred. We then passed through a fine avenue
of acacias and bananas, and saw before us an octangular building
mounted on posts. This was the general dining-room of the
European employes. Eound about, separated by neat, clean and
smooth paths bordered by flowers and ornamental plants, and here
and there a huge baobab tree, were the various offices, dwellings
and warehouses of the station. Some twenty white people, mostly
Belgians, are employed here. At one side was a large vegetable
garden, while at the opposite, and bordering the Pool, were the
steamer construction yards of which I have already given some
details. In the water and drawn up on ways were half a dozen
steamers of from five tons burden to forty-five, some with stern
paddles, some with single, some double, screws.
Kinchassa was one of the prettiest and best located stations I
had yet seen. As we arrived a large square was nearly covered
with bundles of rubber, and a peep into a warehouse disclosed a
great pile of tusks of ivory. Gangs of blacks, superintended by
whites, were carrying boxes and bales of goods and provisions down
to some steamers about to depart up the river. Here was a busy
scene of men at work on the steamers and in the shops, from which
came the noise of forges, of hammers and saws, like that of great
shipyards at home. From the point of land on which Kinchassa
is situated you obtain a fair general view of Stanley Pool, which
extends like a vast lake in a northeast and southwest direction
about twenty miles, with a greatest breadth of nearly half this
amount. In the centre is a very long island, covered with forest
which is tenanted by elephants, panthers and other wild animals,
but there are no human inhabitants save a few fishermen. Eound
about are many small wooded islands, which make a very pretty
picture. Though called a " Pool," the current is strong here, fre-
quently bringing down quite sizable islands of reeds and bushes
which have been torn from the banks, and which sail rapidly and
quietly by. All around are ranges of low hill, covered with grass
or forest. Almost directly north of Leopold ville, on the opposite
bank and clearly discernible from Kinchassa, is the post of Brazza-
ville, in the French Congo, near which is a French Mission Sta-
tion, a little further to the east a Belgian factory, and still further,
a Dutch. On the bank of the Pool north from Kinchassa are
some curious white cliffs which, from a considerable likeness to
those in England, are called " Dover Cliffs."
I had originally intended to ascend the Congo, if possible, as
ON THE CARAVAN ROAD. 431
far as Stanley Falls, or 1,500 miles from the Atlantic, but, upon
my arrival at Leopoldville, learned that, owing to the war with the
Arabs, all the steamers of the State were at that time far in the
interior, and there was no possibility of my getting one for at least
a month. Nor were any other of their steamers which ascend
the branches of the great river available for a considerable time.
I then determined to accept the invitation of Major Parminter,
and take passage in one of the largest steamers of the Belgian
Commercial Company, to leave almost immediately for the Kassai,
the principal affluent of the Congo from the south, to the factory
of Luebo and then, returning to its great branch, the Sankuru, to
ascend that river to Lusambo, in what may be styled the southern
centre of Africa. The view of the interior afforded by this ex-
tensive journey seemed to me to be even more than an equivalent
for the well-known journey up the Congo to Stanley Falls. The
Kassai rises in about latitude 12° south — its exact sources not
having yet been discovered — and flows north and northwesterly,
and empties into the Congo, 175 miles above Stanley Pool. On
the steamers of the State — and those of the Belgian Commercial
Company are approximately the same — the price of a passage from
Leopoldville or Kinchassa to Lusambo is 200 francs for a white
man and 50 for a black, the return voyage being at half these
rates respectively. This charge does not include food, which the
passenger may either provide for himself, or obtain on board at
the uniform rate of 15 francs per day. Each European traveller
has the right of carrying GO kilogrammes of baggage free. There
are a few cabins on each steamer, for the use of one of which a
supplementary charge of 5 francs a day is made. Missionaries
and philanthropic associations are allowed a discount of 50 per
cent upon the above rates. Merchandise destined for any of the
stations of the Kassai or its affluents costs 300 francs a ton of
1,000 kilogrammes, from Stanley Pool. And from any of these
stations down to Stanley Pool ivory costs 500 francs, rubber and
other native products 200 francs, and other goods 150 francs the
ton.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
TOWAEDS THE HEART OF AFRICA.
A few days afterward all our preparations had been made
and we left Kinchassa for the Kassai and Central Africa. Our
steamer, named the " Archiduchesse Stephanie," was of forty-five
tons burden, about ninety feet long and twenty broad, with a flat-
bottomed iron hull and an upper-deck. The lower-deck, which
was plated with iron, was less than two feet above the surface of
the water, and the upper was completely covered by a wooden roof.
The steamer was a " stern- wheeler," and exactly like those used on
the South American rivers. She drew when loaded about four
and one half feet. The weight of the engine and wheel in the
stern were balanced by the boiler and fire- wood in the bow. On
the upper-deck first came, in the bow, the steering-wheel and the
captain's cabin, then an open space, next a large passenger cabin,
the dining-saloon, another passenger cabin and that of the en-
gineer. The black crew consisted of eighty men — members of
several tribes, though mostly Bangalas, distinguished by their tat-
tooing and mode of coiffure. They were strong, well-developed
men, wearing almost no clothing. A favorite fashion of tattooing
was that of making a corrugated and protuberant mass of flesh
extending from the base of the nose across the centre of the fore-
head. Their women have a similar line or lines up and down
the middle of their chests. Both sexes wear brass bracelets and
anklets, and torture their hair into various curious shapes, or shave
narrow paths across their heads. Before the principal deck-house
stood a stand of some two dozen rifles, to serve as defensive
weapons in case of possible native attack. Wood is the present
fuel of these steamers, but probably when the railway is completed
pressed coal will be adopted. Though we had but little room on
board, there were some eleven passengers. These included two
American missionaries and their wives, who were going to join a
432
TOWARDS THE HEART OF AFRICA. 433
station already established at Luebo, and several Belgians in the
employ of the Commercial Company, besides Major Parminter,
his private secretary, and myself. Our body servants numbered
about thirty, and these and the crew made what they could of the
lower-deck. For ourselves there were two cabins, the dining-
saloon utilised as a dormitory, and tents erected about the deck.
It is the custom of these steamers to run nearly all the day and
drawing in to the bank late in the afternoon, to make fast for the
night. Those passengers then who have no possible room aboard
put up their tents on shore, and these are brought back early in
the morning just before we start.
The spot where the nightly halt is made is determined solely
by the presence of available fuel. The steamer burns only " dead "
wood, green could not be used to advantage. As soon as we arrive,
the men rush into the forest and each marks some trees which he
will during the night cut into short lengths and bear to the bank
by the steamer. Then when it is seen that every one has done his
share properly, all is carried on board. Each man takes ashore a
small box containing his food and few clothes, and sometimes a
blanket. They do not at once begin to cut up the trees when
found, but must first have their evening meal, perhaps sleep a little,
and certainly talk a great deal. They then start with axes and
saws, and during the most of the night your rest will be disturbed
by the noise of their tools or their cries to each other, for those
in the forest only find the steamer by the sound of their compan-
ions' voices. On the bank a large place is marked out with stakes,
to fill each division of which just so many men are allotted. Be-
sides piling up all that the forward part of the lower-deck will
hold, two large canoes lashed on either side the steamer are also
filled. The extra large crew is necessary to cut and carry this
wood, which the steamer requires every night. Our cargo con-
sisted of canned and other provisions for the various stations on
the rivers, and cotton cloth, beads, wire and handkerchiefs to be
employed in barter. As to our table it was largely furnished with
canned food, Portuguese wine was liberally supplied, and filtered
river-water was used. Poultry, goats, eggs and fruit we intended
to buy on the route. Our steamer was one of the largest in the
State, and bore the Congo flag in the stern and the Belgian at
the prow. The captain was a Belgian, the engineer a Swede.
On leaving the port of Kinchassa, where several hundred
natives and the entire staff of the station came to see us off, we
434 ACTUAL AFRICA.
turned at once into the midst of Stanley Pool. Sitting on deck
in our canvas and cane extension-chairs, we had a good opportu-
nity to see everything, and to enjoy the breeze. I was surprised
at the vastness of the Pool, with its — in places — horizon-bounded
shores. The swiftly flowing water was of a chocolate hue, and the
many large islands and great masses of floating vegetation reminded
me of the Amazon. We crossed to the great central island and
followed close along its level shores and then straight on until we
reached the northern end of the Pool, and anchored for the night
at the southern bank, some distance from the small station of
Kimpoto. In the morning we were soon out of the Pool and in
the river proper, which from here to the mouth of the Kassai
varies from one to two miles in width. Our steamer puffed slowly
along, at a rate of about six miles an hour, all the day. On the
return journey we would descend the river at double the speed.
The borders were hilly and mostly covered with forest, but with
some grass-land. These hills, which were smooth and would range
from 500 to 1,000 feet in height, seemed to join the river in spurs,
which prevented extensive views in either direction. The banks
proper were not visible at that season of the year, for the vegeta-
tion projected for some distance into the water. We saw no vil-
lages or canoes, but passed two small French steamers. Our men
not doing their work properly at night, we were obliged to stop in
the middle of the next day to gather more firewood. During the
trip the absence of well-known tropical trees was so remarkable that
I might have thought I was sailing on the Hudson. The river is
generally very deep, but though we steam in nearly its middle, two
men are kept constantly busy in the extreme prow sounding with
poles about ten feet long. They only cry out naturally when the
water is of less depth than the length of their poles. The use of
these men became more apparent later on. The quartermasters
or those who two at a time do the steering, are selected for their
special intelligence and experience, and are generally Bangala
men. Early in the morning of the following day we reached the
mouth of the Kassai or, more properly, the Kwa, the special desig-
nation of its lower course, and a small station belonging to the
Belgian Commercial Company, which is appropriately named Kwa-
mouth. It consists of only three or four small houses, which are
situated at the southern side of the mouth of the Kwa river, on a
point of land that has been cleared of forest for their reception.
In the vicinity is a small native village. The Kwa at its mouth is
TO WARDS TEE EEART OF AFRICA. 435
about three-fourths of a mile wide. Its water being more muddy
than the Congo is considerably lighter in color. It is very deep,
and the current is strong and swift. The northern bank consists
of grassy and tree-covered hills, upon one of which are the build-
ings of a Roman Catholic Mission. As soon as we tied up to the
shore several long and sharp canoes, paddled by men standing,
crossed to get its mail and merchandise. There were two white
men and thirty natives connected with the factory at Kwamouth.
Formerly the State had two or three stations on the south bank
of the Congo just below Kwamouth, but these have been given up
as not sufficiently advantageous for either government or trading
posts. We left 150 carrier loads at Kwamouth — cottons, brass
wire, provisions, wine, and the sections of a small boat for the
mission. It took about three hours to land this freight, and then
we resumed our voyage, turning directly up the Kwa, and for sev-
eral miles being barely able to stem the fierce current. For some
distance the river remained about half a mile wide, the banks
being fringed with deep grass and bordered with woods, behind
which were long, smooth, low hills running parallel with the river.
The water was of a coffee color and had a peculiar greasy appear-
ance, said to be common to all West African rivers. It contained
much floating vegetation in detached pieces, instead of compact
islands, as so noticeable in the Congo. At first the Kwa ran in
long straight reaches, but afterwards it opened out to two or more
miles, and was indeed a noble river. We saw no habitations dur-
ing the afternoon, and towards night drew in and secured our-
selves to the north bank. Owing to the dense grass and weeds it
was not possible to get the steamer quite to terra firrna, and so our
two great canoes were fastened end to end and used as a causeway.
It was warm at night, but cold enough in the early morning for a
heavy blanket.
The next day the river broadened still more, was even in parts
five or six miles wide, and full of large, low, level grass-covered
islands. These and the sunken sandbanks near them were the
haunts of many hippopotami. I counted twenty-three in one
herd. Some were standing, some lying down, but none showing
more than their huge heads and backs above the water. As we
passed they would one after the other open wide their enormous
jaws and, throwing back their heads, indulge in long yawns. Once
or twice I saw one come to the surface in the centre of the stream
to breathe, but observing us it would descend at once. I noticed
436 ACTUAL AFRICA.
that ordinarily they could not remain below more than one min-
ute. They were too distant for us to get a shot. The best time to
see " hippos " and " crocs " (crocodiles) is when the rivers are low
and the sandbanks more exposed. We saw also many herons,
flamingoes, ducks and Guinea-fowl. As we went on, the sur-
rounding hills became lower, smoother and less covered with forest,
and gradually the country became so flat and low, and the straight
reaches of the river were so long that in some places you actually
had a water-horizon. The current continued very strong. As
soon as our lamps were lighted we were always visited by myriads
of every species and size of flying insect, and by the time dinner
was over the table was quite black with them. They were a great
nuisance, getting into all our food, our hair, beard, and down our
necks, but they were not so bad as mosquitoes, from which we hap-
pened to be exceptionally free in regions notorious for them.
Some vast sandbanks were covered with grass and resembled great
swamps. It was often difficult to determine where the real bank
of the river occurred and where the overflow ended. There was
abundance of the pretty papyrus grass. On the right shore we
passed a dozen or more villages, each having from ten to thirty
huts, which were scattered along the edge of the water for several
miles, embosomed in banana trees and surrounded by gardens of
manioc and yams. Before each were several large canoes, in which
we saw the nets employed in fishing. These scattered villages are
governed by chiefs and the whole are under the rule of a queen.
The generic name given to the villages is Muchie. Some distance
beyond here was the mouth of the Mfini river, into which Lake
Leopold II., a fine large, though rather shallow, expanse, empties.
The Mfini has been explored for about six hundred miles.
We halted one day to get wood, when about twenty of our men
bolted to the nearest village, and kept us waiting a couple of
hours. This was a breach of discipline that, together with the
fact that the previous night being ordered to cut green wood,
since they could not find dry (we intended to dry it afterwards),
they " struck," and did not cut any, and so the captain decided to
give all the twenty a flogging of twelve lashes each. The victims
were summoned on deck and stood in a tight mass, stolidly and
with but faint curiosity awaiting their turn. They were made to
lie flat upon their stomachs on the deck and their arms and legs
were held by four comrades, while the boatswain laid on the blows
with a long sharp-edged strip of hippopotamus hide. The men
Bangala Types.
TOWARDS TEE EEART OF AFRICA. 437
walked quietly up and laid themselves down, but after receiving
the first two or three lashes, made the most frantic efforts to get
free, and bellowed and blubbered as if they were about to be killed.
They were, however, much more scared than hurt, and perhaps
increased their wails in the hope of having the blows less vigor-
ously applied.
The scenery soon changed to dense forest on each bank and
many wooded islands in the middle of the stream. Owing to the
high water the vegetation came abruptly to an edge like a wall.
It was very pretty, with its varying tints of green and smooth
foreground of yellow river. The many palms and giant forest
trees served to accentuate the general mass of verdure. The river
here had again narrowed to a mile or less. We called at a small
village to get food for our men, but the people were very suspicious
and came running out of their huts armed with spears in one
hand and guns in the other. We however made them aware of
our pacific intentions by holding up to their gaze pieces of copper
wire and cotton cloth. Many of our crew went ashore, but could
obtain little food, for the villagers were so poor they had nothing
save some fish and manioc. We afterwards passed some villages
of little conical straw huts almost concealed by trees, and situated
close to the river's bank, and then came the mouth of the Kwango,
on the left bank. This is a large river which rises near the
Kassai, to the eastward of the Portuguese town of Benguela, and
flows almost directly north. It is over 600 miles in length, and
is navigable by steamers for 175 miles. The regions back from
either side of the great river we were following are as yet unex-
plored. Many of the inhabitants, especially those dwelling upon
the south bank are hostile, and have a disagreeable custom of firing
arrows or balls at foreigners. There is little danger from the
latter, for their old flint-lock muskets will not carry very far and
they are anything but expert marksmen, but the former, at short
range, are more dangerous, the barbs of the arrows being frequently
covered with strong poison. We occasionally saw a big " dug-
out " canoe, paddled by four or five standing natives. These glide
along very swiftly, the men handling them with great dexterity
in the swirling stream. An especially wide part of the river, full
of islands, has been called " Wissmann Pool," in honor of the
great German explorer. Afterwards the banks were very change-
able : now we had a width of half a mile, now one of four or five
miles. Sandbanks were getting to be troublesome, and we had to
438 ACTUAL AFRICA.
go slowly and steer with great care. One day several canoes full
of people offering for sale pigs, manioc, chickens, fish and small
dogs, came alongside. The dogs are not pets, nor used in hunting,
but are an esteemed article of diet, when roasted whole. I was
much amused by the suspicion of these natives. While bartering
they stood up in their narrow canoes, which one or two others
would paddle to within arm's length of our men, but never nearer.
They seemed to fear something would be stolen from out their
stores. When they gave any article with one hand, they always
took the brass wire or cotton cloth at the same time with the
other. They probably had good cause for their fears, yet they
were laughing and cracking jokes all the while. These people
were nearly naked, and the women less clothed than the men.
They arranged their hair in long plaits sticking out in every direc-
tion from the crown of the head. Some of the women wore rings
on every finger and as many as thirty bangles, together with mass-
ive brass collars that would weigh six or eight pounds, and also
huge anklets, two or three on a limb. Fetishes of animals' teeth
were also hung around their necks. We bartered some wire, and
cotton goods for their provisions. The next day we passed a
grass-covered dome-shaped hill, called Mount Pogge, in honor of
the fellow-traveller of Wissmann, when he first descended the
Kassai. Hereabouts were several low ranges of hills, one behind
the other, which proved the first exhibition of variegated scenery
we had yet enjoyed. The banks had been but thinly covered with
hamlets, but nearly opposite Mount Pogge was a large settlement
styled Bangulu. We had experienced several tornadoes, but they
did us no damage, and greatly cooled the air.
CHAPTER XLIX.
CONDITION OF THE NATIVES.
One day we landed and walked nearly to a village in the in-
terior, but its people appearing in the grass armed with spears, and
bows and arrows, presented so warlike a mien that we went no fur-
ther for fear of trouble. All aloug the shore were great ant hills —
eight and ten feet high — built in the form of cones. We stopped
at a village on the south bank where a considerable market was
beings held, though chickens seemed about the only food suitable
for ourselves. Here were collected several hundred natives of the
most extraordinary appearance of any we had yet seen. They be-
longed principally to the Basungo-Menos, dwelling on the north
bank, and to the Bakongo, on the south bank. There are several
large tribes besides these on the Kassai, as the Batende, Badima,
Bakutu and Bakuba. They were a small-sized race, but sturdily
built. Many of them had covered their face and the upper part of
their body with ash powder, which gave them a very hideous ap-
pearance. These people were in full mourning. The men were
all armed with bows and arrows. The bows were long and very
strong. The arrows were tipped with various-shaped iron barbs,
and at short range were calculated to do great harm. Many be-
sides carried large, flat, wide, double-edged knives in their belts.
Their bodies were covered with the raised weals of tattooing, which
was generally done in a series of geometrical patterns. Great
bulging eyebrows had been produced by the same cruel art. Many
of the women had their skin stained red and their hair a bright
yellow, and this with their numerous tattoo marks, gave them a
very barbaric appearance. The men wore only an apology for a
breech-cloth, and the covering of the women was even more ex-
traordinary. Sometimes it was a surcingle of straw matting the
width of one's hand, sometimes bunches of grass or leaves worn
before and behind, or an infinitesimal piece of cloth. None of
439
440 ACTUAL AFRICA.
them, of any age, covered the bosom. Some of them carried babies
astraddle of their hips or lashed to their backs. Both sexes were
liberally supplied with great brass anklets and necklaces of coarse
beads. Fresh palm wine was being plentifully dispensed and
many of the people, as well as our own crew, were rapidly becom-
ing intoxicated. We only stopped, therefore, a short time, and went
on a little way to a village on the same bank called Mangay. As
we were drawing in the natives crowded on the shore, urging us by
vigorous pantomime not to stop, but to go on our way up the river.
One man suddenly shot an arrow at us, and we took shelter behind
the captain's cabin, and went at once for our guns, but it was not
necessary to use them. By holding up to the people boxes and
strings of beads, bundles of brass wire, and pieces of cloth we
gradually succeeded in calming their timid spirits, and soon had the
flukes of our anchors fast in the bank. It seems that this was the
very village which some eighteen months before rose at a steamer's
crew, attempting to land, and wounded some twenty of them with
arrows. The Europeans, however, generally get on friendly terms
with the natives much sooner than the different tribes with each
other. These seem to be always at war, and there is good reason
for the alertness and prudence which we so often saw exhibited, for
they are accustomed to kill and eat all prisoners who are captured.
The village consisted of perhaps twenty little peaked-roof huts,
made of various kinds of leaves and grasses, standing close together
upon a long narrow street. The roof projects almost to the ground
on the front and thus makes a sort of verandah in which the peo-
ple like to sit and see what is going on in the local world. We
remained here five days in order to found a factory. A large space
of ground was cleared of forest and a house erected for the two
white men we intended to leave. Some thirty of our black peo-
ple were also to remain, and these would afterwards erect the
usual style of huts for themselves. The residents brought us some
dozen or so small tusks of ivory which we bought, as we also did
upwards of two hundred chickens and a gross of eggs to take with
us on the steamer. Our sleep was much disturbed at Mangay by
the terrific croaking or singing of a species of small tree-toad. It
was like an enormous rattle. One reptile seemed to lead off and
an entire forest-full to follow. What made it worse was that it
was regularly intermitted for a couple of minutes. We were, how-
ever, fortunately not pestered by mosquitoes, nor by any other in-
sects. During our stay here I had an opportunity to see much of
CONDITION OF THE NATIVES. 441
this particular tribe — they were Bakongos — and I shall now con-
dense into a few paragraphs my general impressions of their phys-
ical, mental and moral condition.
First then, as to the bodily constitution of the Bakongos : they
are rather short and slight of stature, and though often muscular
are not especially strong or enduring. They have not the necessary
nervous force to cause the muscles to act vigorously, nor the moral
to persist and persevere against obstacles. The privations and
hardships of their lives wear them out prematurely. You see very
few old people. A gray-headed man or woman is a curiosity.
Many of them are afflicted with disease — dysentery, ameniia and
ulcers being common, also elephantiasis, and occasionally leprosy
and syphilis. Their complexion is of a chocolate hue, though gen-
erally much darker than it really is, through accumulation of dirt.
For though they frequently bathe, and are all good swimmers, the
dirt is far too thick and hard to be thus removed, and besides they
have the habit of greasing themselves with palm-oil, frequently
rubbing their hands upon their hair, which is always soaked with
it, and then polishing their bodies. So little does the water touch
them that I have often noticed that a man when coming out of the
river became quite dry and shiny by the time he had reached the
bank. A very pungent odor exhales from their bodies, so that a
European can not endure the presence of a great crowd. I have
been made quite sick by staying too long in a full market. It is
not the result of accumulated dirt alone, but the natural exhalation
of this particular race, such as may be recognised in the different
animals of a menagerie. Their hair is woolly and kinky, like a
negro's, but grows quite long. Many of the men have fine silky
beards, of which they are very proud, frequently twisting them into
a point which is passed through a string of beads, that is in turn
fastened to a cord worn about the neck. I need hardly add that
the effect of this is most droll. As regards the features you have
a copy of those of the negro, with the flat and very broad nose, the
large mouth, and protruding lips. A great disfigurement is the
habitual custom of removing every other tooth in the upper jaw,
and of filing the remaining ones very narrow and sharp. The face
too is always disfigured by the weals of the tattooing, a great ridge
of horizontal lumps of flesh extending from the base of the nose to
the hair of the forehead. I have frequently seen this ridge half an
inch in height. Then, often, just before the ears there has been
tattooed a pattern like two leaves of a tree, the one above the other,
30
442 ACTUAL AFRICA.
also executed in high-relief. This style of mutilation is performed
when they are quite young, a little being done at a time, and the
wounds kept open for months together by the use of various acrid
vegetable juices. A row of these lumps is also seen upon the cen-
tre of the chest and another along the spine. But, as I have already
said of other tribes, it is in the great variety of arrangements of the
hair that the most ingenuity is displayed. Sometimes it is worn thin,
but is plotted out into tiny patches by shaving narrow lines ; often
this shaving is done in the style of a part at one side ; again, the
head is wholly shaved save only the crown, where the hair is left
long and matted with palm-oil into a solid yellow mass ; or, perhaps
the entire head is shaved except only two little horns of hair left
standing on each side of the crown. This last mode, together with
large white or yellow circles painted around the eyes, makes a good
substitute for an embodiment of the traditional Satan.
As far as the outline of the figure goes there is little difference
between the sexes, the broad hips and stout thighs, found among
Caucasian races, being conspicuous by their absence. All the women
are married ; no such thing as an " old maid " is known. Polyga-
my is practised. The women are very prolific. Child-bearing gives
them no anxiety or trouble. It causes only the cessation of a few
hours of their customary work. Babies are not weaned until two
years old. It is no unusual sight to see a woman carrying a child
nearly as big as herself. Babies with us at home often cry lustily
on the approach of a stranger, and so I suppose we ought not to be
astonished at these African cherubs being frightened out of their
five senses when we approached them. Their aspect of intense
terror and aversion, however, quite overleaped the proverbially nar-
row bar between the sublime and the ridiculous. The marriage
contract is a matter of barter, though a superior article may be
bought for two fathoms of ordinary cotton cloth, worth, say, fifty
cents ! These unions are permanent or temporary at the option of
the man. Thus very many of our servants on board the steamer —
those who could afford the luxury — were wedded to " wives " who
were to be their companions only for the round voyage.
As regards the qualities of the minds of these people, it is, of
course, difficult to acquire more than hasty opinions during a brief
tour. They are in most respects in a similar condition mentally
to that of children eight or ten years old. They do not seem to
think, reflect, or remember. The experience of one is not always
utilised by another. They always make play of their work, or at
CONDITION OF TEE NATIVES. 443
least endeavor so to do. The least trifle is sure to entertain them ;
an accident or a mistake proves a great source of merriment. One
day I thought to amuse, or possibly frighten, some boys through pro-
ducing a shrill whistle by placing two of my fingers in my mouth
and blowing vigorously, but I had no idea that I should be pestered
all the rest of the day by a crowd of full-grown men begging me
to repeat the trick. These people are great chatterers and racon-
teurs, though the subjects of their stories usually refer to such
material matters as eating and drinking, hunting or war. Fear
they possess in no unstinted degree, but love, other than the mere
animal fondness of the mother for her offspring, seems entirely
wanting. They have but little feeling for each other, and none
whatever for domestic animals. Sick persons are generally left to
shift for themselves as best they can ; no one seems to notice them.
A corpse is generally buried, though sometimes only thrown into
the high grass or the river. We saw several corpses, both of adults
and children, floating in the Kassai. One night we were kept
awake by the loud wailing of a mother for her dead babe, and a
liberal supply of malafou being served out, all her neighbors
seemed to be assisting her to the best of their not small abilities.
The next day I met the mother walking about the village, and
wailing at intervals most perfunctorily. Her grief was wholly
automatic.
I have already spoken of the fact that dogs are a regular arti-
cle of diet. They are killed in a most cruel manner with clubs,
and frequently are put to roast while still alive. Chickens are
plucked while living. Prisoners of war are, as already men-
tioned, always killed and eaten. They seem quite oblivious of
the needless suffering they cause. I have seen women hold-
ing their pet dogs with one hand, while with the other they
whipped them with a bunch of reeds for ten minutes together,
deriving great pleasure from the poor creatures' howls and contor-
tions. The men, too, often beat their wives in a very brutal man-
ner. There seems to be no progress whatever with this tribe ; a
man does a thing in exactly the same fashion to day that it was
done a hundred years ago. They appear to have no capacity or
at least inclination for learning anything new. As our steamer
would pass near the villages every one would come out to gaze at
us, but five minutes afterwards the interest waned and could only
be resuscitated by some startling novelty. Their constitutional
apathy seems ineradicable. The brighter boys are chosen by the
444 ACTUAL AFRICA.
European residents, missionaries, and travellers as servants, but
even these have often to be told the same thing every day. They
are, moreover, great beggars and even thieves, if they think they
can escape detection. The cooks and table boys constantly robbed
us of provisions. It is needless to say that mendacity is universal.
When they have overcome their natural timidity and suspicion
they are often very amiable and friendly, though a gift here — as
I fear often in more civilised lands — is generally tendered in ex-
pectation of another of at least as great value or interest. One of
their most marked traits was their suspicion of us in bartering.
This plainly shows their own character. They would cheat and
rob when they could and so, they suppose, would we. I have
already given an example of this peculiarity in the mode of keep-
ing their canoes just beyond reaching distance while trading, and
not giving up an article in one hand until they had its equivalent
in beads or wire or cloth in the other. When they came out from
their huts to see us pass they were always armed with spears or
bows and arrows. In many of the villages the small and solitary
opening of the huts is situated near the peak of the gable, several
feet from the ground — so that some form of ladder is necessary to
reach it, and also to descend into the interior. The outer ladder
being drawn at night into the huts, a sort of defence is thus pro-
vided for the occupants. I do not remember, however, of seeing
any village fortified or surrounded by a chevaux cle frise of briars
or trees, natural or artificial, the reason of this probably being
that in case of an attack they generally leave their huts and take
to the jungle, scattering in every direction.
As regards the domestic state of this tribe, I have already given
some hints. They live generally in small villages, where they pass
such part of their lives as are not occupied with fishing or hunting,
or fighting their neighbors. Their huts contain little furniture
beyond a few mats, some earthenware utensils for cooking, and
perhaps a piece of cotton cloth to cover themselves with at night.
Tables and chairs are, of course, unknown, but a low stool is some-
times used. Their only dress is a loin cloth, worn in various styles.
A peculiarity of these, and, in fact, all the Congo people is the ab-
sence of a hat, or any head-covering whatever, even when on a long
day's march under the blazing sun. They are very fond of brass
rings worn about the neck, wrists, fingers and ankles. Bead neck-
laces are also very popular. They do not lay up any store of food,
providing generally only for the day or at most a few days.
CONDITION OF THE NATIVES. 445
Manioc may be called their chief article of diet and to this are
sometimes added maize, plantains, beans, fish, dog-meat, chickens,
and, occasionally, the flesh of a crocodile or hippopotamus. All
the members of a family eat from the pot in which the food is
cooked, squatting in a circle around it, and using their fingers for
knives and forks. They are very fond of malafou as a beverage,
but use also water. They sleep on mats spread upon a low plat-
form, and employ little wooden pillows which fit the neck. Dur-
ing the day they squat in their verandahs or roam about the village,
gossiping with everybody, or, if it is very hot, lie stretched asleep
in the shade of their huts. Upon the women falls a good part of
the daily work, the men contenting themselves with cultivating a
little manioc, or collecting a little firewood. The patriarchal sys-
tem of the ancient Hebrews prevails in the family life. Each
village has a headman, and certain numbers of villages a chief or
" king." In case of war all the villages unite against the common
enemy. They are possessed of a few simple arts, notably that of
smelting in iron and copper, making axes, knives, spear and arrow-
heads. They carve plain but serviceable bowls from hard wood.
They weave or plait strong cloth, from palm and banana fibre, in
ornamental patterns which are dyed several colors. They show
much cleverness in the plaiting of the straw or reed sides of their
huts, and in the securing of the grass roofs. They make service-
able wicker fish-traps, mat baskets for transporting goods, and
strong earthenware vessels. Their "dug-out" canoes astonish
one by their great size, and by the adroitness with which they are
managed. They are well acquainted with forest-craft, knowing
how to speedily avail themselves of lianas for cords, of large leaves
for shelter, being able to detect the presence, or recent passage, of
wild animals, to discover, readily, edible roots, or wood suitable for
fuel, etc.
They seem to have few religious ideas, and fewer institutions.
Like all such forest-folk the expression of their religious feeling
seems due to fear, fear of all the processes and phenomena of
Nature they cannot comprehend. They are first of all fetish- wor-
shippers, personifying and deifying many common natural objects.
A stone, a tree, a feather is the supposed residence of spirits, and is
selected for temporary worship. Nearly all wear charms — a tooth
of an animal, a shell, or a bit of wood suspended around their
necks. I did not discover that they had any special form of game
or amusement other than dancing. They seem to get some fun
446 ACTUAL AFRICA.
out of even the soberest work, being nearly always skylarking,
singing, and even whistling. They have a number of musical
instruments — tom-toms of various sizes, and a little metal comb
like that in our music-boxes, upon which they play with the
fingers by pressing the points down in rapid succession. The
missionaries have now been at work some ten years among this
and kindred tribes, but their success has been very dubious. Sat-
isfactory statistics are not forthcoming to outside inquirers. The
trouble is the natives lack capacity. They cannot comprehend
the Christian scheme of salvation, though they may be bribed to
say they do, and to lead lives for a time in partial accordance
therewith. But they are liable at any moment to relapse into
paganism, and return to savagedom. As regards the elements of a
European education, progress is also exceedingly slow and diffi-
cult. Possibly by selecting a few of the brightest of the boys, and
beginning their instruction when very young, isolating them in
the missions, and then pursuing the same course with their chil-
dren for a few generations something might eventually result, but
what would such small leaven effect in such a vast mass of igno-
rance and superstition ? For it is exceedingly doubtful whether
the alleged native converts would have the requisite nerve and en-
thusiasm to start forth and preach the new gospel to their own peo-
ple. When I observe the prognathous heads and the utter bestial
expression of these natives I am fully persuaded of the correctness
of the Darwinian hypothesis. Any number of " missing-links "
may here be found. It requires no stretch of imagination to be-
lieve that this form of man, instead of being a little lower than
the angels, is simply a trifle higher than the monkeys.
CHAPTER L.
FROM THE LULUA TO THE SANKURU.
On" May 18th we bade adieu, until our return down the river, to
the two white men who were by this time installed at Mangay,
and headed the steamer again up stream. The general appear-
ance of the Kassai seemed to change only in respect to an increase
of sandbanks, which frequently all but barred our way. During
the day we enjoyed shots at several " crocs " and " hippos."
We nearly succeeded in getting one of the former, having wounded
him so badly that our men jumped into the water and, grabbing
the animal by his body and legs, almost rolled him upon the shore.
He was, however, still too strong and active for them, and got away,
for we could not fire again for fear of wounding or killing a na-
tive. It was very plucky or, rather, foolhardy for these fellows thus
to tackle so dangerous a reptile without knowing of his precise
condition or whereabouts. But they are exceedingly fond of
crocodile meat and this, together with their childish excitability,
accounted for the spirit displayed. Early the next morning
we arrived at a station of the company pleasantly situated on a
wooded hill. There are here a few dwellings and warehouses,
and the usual complement of two whites and thirty or forty
blacks. We went on at midday and passed the mouth of the
Loange river, whose reddish-brown water made a sharp line on
meeting the flood of the Kassai, and kept its color for a long dis-
tance. The Loange is about two hundred yards wide at its mouth,
which is nearly closed by a huge sandbank a short distance above.
This river has never been explored, but from hearsay is believed to
flow nearly parallel with the Kassai for a distance of some four
hundred miles. It is also reported navigable for steamers some
two hundred miles. When we return down the river without our
present heavy cargo, and drawing half as much water, it is our
intention to make some exploration of the Loange, with a view of
447
448 ACTUAL AFRICA.
establishing a factory upon it. A short distance to the east of its
mouth, in a cleared space of forest on the southern bank of the
Kassai, is the town of Ngun, of some hundred and odd huts,
massed irregularly together, with narrow connecting lanes. This
is by far the largest town we have yet seen upon the banks of the
river. It is said, however, that there are many much larger ones
but short distances in the interior, though these it is dangerous
for a white man to visit, for the natives regard them as their
special retreats. A few miles above Ngun the Kassai, which,
nearly always since we had left its affluent the Kwango, had been
a great stream from three to eight miles wide, suddenly narrowed
to less than half a mile. A little further on and we drew in to a
small village for the night. The inhabitants, with their bows and
arrows in hand, came down to the bank and signalled us not to
land but to go elsewhere, while we held up colored handkerchiefs
and went steadily in and anchored. AVhen we ascended to the
village there was not a soul in it. However we saw some human
heads here and there in the tall grass, and gradually induced a few
of the least timid to come out, when we offered to trade some
handkerchiefs for a few chickens and some yams. But as they said
they preferred beads, we sent back to the steamer for some.
The next day the river was bordered with dense forests, in the
trees of which we frequently saw a species of large monkey scam-
pering from bough to bough. We passed a number of little vil-
lages and at one of them, at which we wished to land to get some
malafou to use in making bread, the people made so hostile a
demonstration that we deemed it the more prudent to continue
our voyage. Before noon we passed the mouth of the Sankuru,
the largest affluent of the Kassai, though its source has not yet
been explored. At the junction of this great stream with the
greater Kassai there stand the houses of Bena Bendi, an old sta-
tion of the Belgian Commercial Company, which has, however,
long been abandoned, as there was not enough trade at that par-
ticular spot. The scenery to-day was a great improvement. The
forest was full of palms, ferns and vines, and there were many
gigantic trees with straight trunks and only a tuft of foliage atop.
"What with the smaller trees and the undergrowth, the forest
seemed to be one solid mass of verdure, like the great forests of
the Amazon. We threaded our way often in narrow channels
between wooded islands, in the style, likewise, of frequent Amazon
navigation. The banks were one hundred to five hundred feet
FROM THE LULU A TO TEE SANEURU. 449
high. Occasionally we would catch sight of low ranges of wooded
hills in the distance. Sometimes the channels between the islands
and the bank were but little wider than our steamer, though there
was sufficient depth. One place of this character, with dense
wooded hills on the bank, was used as a vantage-ground from
which the natives shot their arrows upon the first steamer that
ascended the river. Soon after starting, at our usual hour, the
next day we got aground on a sandbank, and remained there three
hours, notwithstanding all our efforts. We had the entire crew in
the water, pushing against the sides of the vessel, put out kedges,
went full-speed ahead and astern, and after trying in every direc-
tion at last got away, but not before we had unloaded all our fire-
wood and sent it temporarily ashore in our canoes. We had, how-
ever, not steamed more than a couple of hours before some of our
machinery got out of order and we were obliged to continue at
half speed. Still, late in the afternoon we reached the factory of
Bena Lindi, situated in a rough clearing of the forest on the south
bank. There were several houses here, including a large one for
the superintendent, whom we found sick abed with fever. There
were the usual number of blacks, with their assemblage of dog-
like kennels. Cowries form the currency here, and in all this
section of the interior. We took 450 bags of them from Kin-
chassa, each bag weighing sixty pounds, to distribute to the various
factories. The cowries come from India by the roundabout way of
Liverpool.
At midday we started on, soon entering a branch of the Kassai,
called the Lulua, which is about five hundred feet wide at its
mouth. The Kassai turned away to the right, extending nearly
due south. It is navigable by steamer two days further up, to
Wissmann Falls. The Lulua is very tortuous, and averages from,
two hundred to five hundred feet in width, with high forest-clad
banks. It contains many large wooded islands. In the evening
we reached the head of steam-navigation, and the factory of the
company, called Luebo. A river, perhaps fifty feet wide, the Luebo,
enters the Lulua here, and, on a low and level point of land be-
tween the two, are situated the buildings of the pleasant station.
Further up the Lulua is situated the large settlement of Lulua-
borg, where the Congo State has also a post. It is in latitude 6°
south, the same parallel as Banana, and is about equi-distant be-
tween Luebo and Lusambo, the large town on the Sankuru to
which we intend next going. At Luluaborg both Catholic and
450 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Protestant Missions are established. The river is, however, so
full of rapids, rocks and sandbanks that the usual communication
is by land, six or seven days being necessary for the journey. A
large space of ground has been cleared for the station at Luebo,
and has been neatly laid out with paths and rows of palm trees.
In one part is an attempt at a flower-garden. There are several
large buildings made of wattles and mud, and roofed with grass —
some of these are used for residence, and some for the storage of
rubber and various goods used in barter. The native huts are
apart at one side, and sejDarated from the European houses by a
high fence, covered with the vines and fruit of the passion-flower.
Behind the large houses is a good garden full of tomatoes, beans,
peas, cabbages, radishes and salad. All about many plantain and
banana trees have been planted, also papayas and pineapples, and
several large fields of manioc. A considerable amount of work has
been done at this station. Two fine, broad smooth lanes, bordered
with banana plants and pineapples, lead into the neighboring forests.
One of these takes you, in about fifteen minutes, to a small fall
on the Luebo, which blocks all passage by canoe, though a portage
is easy. Here is a large shallow expanse in the river and soft
sandbanks which afford a capital opportunity for a refreshing bath.
On the opposite bank from the station of Luebo, and about twenty
minutes' distance afoot, are a Portuguese factory and a Protestant
Mission. The four American missionaries, whom we brought up
the river, were bound for this mission, which was founded about a
year since. The factory of Luebo was established some eight years
ago. It is a great centre for rubber, but not so important for
ivory. We took 350 wicker crates — each about three feet long
and one foot square — of rubber as cargo down the river. We left
at the factory two of our white men, and a large variety of barter
goods and provisions. Luebo is perhaps, by the tortuous river, 750
miles from Leopoldville. And Lusambo has been estimated at as
much as 1,025. The district between the two great rivers — the
Kassai and the Sankuru — is inhabited by a powerful tribe called
the Bakuba. There is a tribe, called Bakete, in the neighborhood
of Luebo.
Early in the morning we left Luebo for Bena Lindi, arriving
at midday, and making the journey down in just half the time of
the ascent. As we landed the women were busy pounding their
manioc roots into flour in great mortars,' which were hollowed out
of solid blocks of wood. The pestles were bars of wood two or
FROM THE LULU A TO THE SANKURU 451
three inches in diameter, and three or four feet long. Frequently
you see two or even three women working in the same mortar,
throwing up their pestles and catching them very deftly. They
pound the manioc three times over, making it as fine as the finest
flour with us. But what interested me the most on shore was the
open-air shop of a native blacksmith. A circle of palm branches
had been so arranged as to form a fairly well shaded interior in
which was the smith, his two boy assistants, the fire and bellows, a
box of old pieces of iron, and a few tools. The bellows was a very
crude and primitive affair. It was small, shell-shaped, and made
of wood, with four circular hollows which were covered with goat-
skin. Long sticks were inserted into the tops of these and two
boys worked them up and down, thus producing a quantity of air
which was forced out through a pipe containing four small holes.
This was directed against a fire of charcoal through a small hole in
a little barrier of clay. The boys work the sticks, one in each hand,
alternately, and seem to regard the operation as very jolly sport.
The only tools used by the smith were a hammer, a chisel, and a
pair of pincers. He was busy fashioning a battle-axe, to sell to
white traders. It was in fretwork of twisted and ornamented iron,
and showed considerable ingenuity and some grace. Its general
style was like that of the old Nuremberg iron-work. These black-
smiths make similar axes of copper and wry good spear-heads, flat
wide-bladed knives, and curiously-barbed arrows. During the
afternoon I especially observed the "hippo" and the fisb-traps
along the banks. The former are erected upon the paths these
creatures tread in travelling from the water into the grass. They
were simply upright poles, with cross-bars from which heavily-
weighted spears were suspended. The fish-traps occurred at fre-
quent intervals and were simply little barriers of matting, extending
from the shore into the stream where the current ran the swiftest,
with long conical wicker-work baskets just sunk in the water and
making an angle with the fence. Stakes driven into the bottom
and guyed by ropes of stout vines secured the whole. There are
great quantities of fish in the Kassai, large and small, but they are
all coarse and tough, and have a muddy flavor that is unpleasant to
the foreign palate.
At Luebo we had received a new passenger, a Belgian Roman
Catholic priest, named Pere De Deken, who goes with us as far as
the mouth of the Sankuru, where he hopes to intercept one of the
State steamers which will be due soon on its way from Lusambo to
P
452 ACTUAL AFRICA.
Leopoldville. Pere De Deken has been stationed as a missionary
in Semapalatinsk, in southwestern Siberia, for the past eleven years.
He is only forty-one years old, but has seen very much of the world.
He speaks Russian, Mongolian and Chinese, and is a well-informed
and very agreeable gentleman. He was the Chinese interpreter of
the expedition of Prince Henry of Orleans and M. Bonvalot across
Asia a few years ago. He has been in the Congo Free State now
for about a year, on a tour of inspection of the Catholic Missions.
When his business here is concluded he will return to Semapala-
tinsk, where he has two Belgian comrades, and where he tells me
he has met with fair success in teaching and propagandising among
the Chinese- Siberians. He describes his experiences in the long-
journey across central and southern Asia — the desert of Gobi,
Thibet, Suchouan, Yunnan and Tonquin— as exceedingly interest-
ing. The expedition was well-equipped, and suffered only from
cold, upon the high and bleak steppes. In passing the vast desert
of Gobi not a native was encountered for seventy-two days. M.
Bonvalot was the scientist and historiographer of the party, though
Pere De Deken has also published an account.
On leaving Bena Lindi we ran upon several sandbanks, which
delayed us altogether some four or five hours. The Kassai has
fallen considerably since our former voyage and, besides, it is more
difficult to detect deep water and the channel when going down,
than up, a river. At each time we stuck all our crew would at
once leap into the water and try and push us off, the engines
assisting. Failing these they would plant our anchors far away,
and then we would try and warp up to them. When all these
methods proved unavailing, they would generally succeed in clear-
ing us by drawing a chain along the bottom of the steamer from
stem to stern. When working thus together the men are ac-
customed to sing, one man leading and the rest joining in the
chorus, and all pulling or pushing at the end of certain stanzas.
Of course the noise and splashing in the water would frighten
away all crocodiles and hippopotami. The next day at noon we
reached N'zounzadi, the factory on the north bank just below the
confluence of the Loange. Here we landed temporarily all our
cargo in order to make the steamer as light as possible for the con-
templated exploration of this river. We remained during the rest
of the day, in order to give our men an opportunity to buy some
food and to cut for us a supply of firewood.
We started at 7 a. m. to try and ascend the Loange. This
FROM THE LULU A TO TEE SANKURU 453
river is believed to have an almost direct south to north course
and, as I have said, to be about four hundred miles in length.
Near a town called Muata Kumbana, about half way in its course,
it has a branch called the Lushiko, which is thought to be nearly
as long as the present river. This town has been visited by the
traveller Van de Velde in 1889, during a journey which he was
making from Matadi eastward by land to Luebo. The remainder
of the river is known only from native report. In endeavoring to
steer between the sandbanks at the mouth we got aground, and
then determined to run in to the bank of the Kassai and to first
take sonndings. As we turned about I saw a huge yellow croco-
dile swimming the reddish-colored flood. As soon as we were
anchored we took twenty men to paddle our canoe and sound, and
started to try and find a channel deep enough for the steamer.
We could not detect a greater depth than three feet anywhere
across the mouth. Half a mile further up occurs the big sand-
bank which closes the river, save for a distance of about thirty
yards, and of this we found one-half to be very shallow and the
other very deep, and with a current of twelve to fifteen miles an
hour, a rapid, in short. Above this the river opened out very like the
Lulua, though with a swifter current, and it had the appearance of
being easily navigable by our steamer. But had we been able to
thread the sandbanks at the mouth, Ave could not have stemmed
the narrow and swift channel just above. With a small steam-
launch, however, one might have entered and warped through the
limited passage by ropes made fast ashore. It was a disappoint-
ment to all of us not to be able to explore this river, for it might
at least have been done in canoes, but we had not the time nor the
provisions for such a delay.
After breakfast we returned to the neighboring station and
remained all night. In the morning we continued our voyage on
to Lusambo, reaching the Sankuru about midday. The mouth
of this great branch of the Kassai is full of low grass- and bush-
covered islands, so that it is actually some four or five miles in
width. The main channel, however, is not more than half a mile
wide, and it also contains a number of small islands. The San-
kuru is of a more muddy color than the Kassai, and flows with
a swifter current. A few miles up, it narrows to a quarter of a
mile, and in a few more to about two hundred yards, with mostly
low forest-clad banks. We stopped for an hour at the old aban-
doned factory of Bena Bendi. From the bluff on which it stands
454 ACTUAL AFRICA.
you have a very extensive view of the two great rivers, the islands,
and the surrounding distant ranges of wooded hills. The San-
kuru is quite as important as the Kassai so far as population is
concerned, but the Kassai is the best region for the supply of
rubber. The Sankuru is believed to rise in about latitude 10°
south, and it flows almost due north as far as the town of Lu-
sambo. It then turns northwest and west, until it enters the
Kassai in about latitude 4° 30' south and longitude 20° east. It
is not as long as the Kassai, probably by a couple of hundred
miles. About a third-part of its length from the mouth, on the
north bank, is a large branch called the Lubef u, and above its junc-
tion the Sankuru is known also as the Lubilach. The Sankuru
has also an affluent from the south, the Lubudi, and several smaller
branches, but these do not appear to have been explored. Steamers
can ascend the Sankuru for two days, or say one hundred miles,
beyond Lusambo, and then come rapids named, in honor of their
discoverer, Wolf Falls, M. Wolf being at one time a companion of
Major Wissmann. The right bank of the Sankuru, and all the
country to the north, is peopled by a great tribe called the Basongo,
while on the south bank are the Bakubas. South of Lusambo are
the Balubas, one of the most advanced tribes in this section of
Africa. We saw many canoes. The smaller ones are generally
occupied by two men, who paddle standing, one being in each end.
When we came suddenly upon any such people they would skulk
along close to the shore and perhaps land and hide until we had
passed by, or if engaged in crossing the river, they would paddle
with the greatest vigor, as if half-frightened to death. We found
many small wooded islands extending along the centre of the river,
which would thus with its various channels be widened to a mile
or two, and then we would pass a spot without islands and not
more than a couple of hundred feet wide. The river was very
tortuous and the channel constantly changed from bank to bank.
We saw great quantities of water-fowl — pelicans, storks, herons,
flamingoes, geese, ducks, and also numbers of eagles, crows, vul-
tures and pigeons. The current was strong, but as we carried
165 lbs. of steam, or eleven atmospheres, as the Belgian measure-
ment goes, causing our stern-wheel to revolve thirty-two times
per minute, we succeeded in making a speed of about six miles an
hour. At first the river was bordered with low and level wooded
banks, which, as we progressed, became higher, and there were
many ranges of hills which, terminating sharply at the water's
FROM THE LULU A TO THE SANKURU. 455
edge, made pretty, natural gateways where we had vistas of the
river before us. The large quantity of commingled ferns and
vines smoothed and softened the surface of verdure presented to
the river, and to us reclining in our easy-chairs and gazing with
delight as the steamer slowly tugged along. The evidence of great
population continued. Canoes of every size were almost continu-
ally in sight, and there were many small villages directly upon the
banks, while frequent well-beaten paths leading back into the for-
est told of many others near at hand. Many of the sandbanks
contained also small fishing villages, with wretched half-open huts.
Everywhere the people came down to the shores, and gazed and
grinned at us while holding up some manioc roots, or a chicken, or
a calabash of malafou, as an invitation for us to land and trade.
We stopped at one place just long enough to get a calabash of the
fresh palm juice, which we found useful in making bread, it being
both a leaven and a sweetener. For a demijohn holding two gallons,
about thirty cowries, in value two cents, were given. Thus it was
without doubt the cheapest " made drink " in the world. This,
however, is a forest quotation that I am giving ; the same quantity
at Manyanga, in the cataract region of the Congo, would cost fifty
cents. Both Europeans and natives like the malafou best when it
is not over six hours old. In from eight to twelve hours it be-
comes quite sharp and strong. The natives make altogether too
free use of this liquor, and on occasions of special joy or sorrow
entire villages — women as well as men, and even the larger chil-
dren— will frequently become drunk upon it. Malafou makes a
pleasant diluent for claret or the light Portuguese wine universally
used by foreigners in the Free State.
The next day we arrived at a factory on the south bank, just
above the entrance of the Lubudi. This river is yet unexplored,
but by native report could only be navigated by canoes. It flows
northwesterly, and is about two hundred miles long. Its mouth is
less than one hundred feet in width. Here we saw a large fish-
pound made of stakes and mats, and filled with cylindrical traps.
For the factory, of half a dozen houses, a semi-circle of forest has
been cleared on the sloping hillside. The principal house is made
of split reeds, with a roof of the coarse leaves of a certain water-
plant. This factory is comparatively new. The present superin-
tendent is an American, who has been here eight months. He
brought with him ten negroes from Jamaica, and some Spaniards
from Nicaragua and Costa Rica, where they were familiar with the
456 ACTUAL AFRICA.
rubber trade, to try and see what they could do in Central Africa.
The rubber here is all of the vine variety, and is found in great
abundance. The tapping of the caoutchouc tree generally causes
its death, but the vines are not much affected by this operation,
and soon spring forth afresh. The sap is boiled in iron pans, and
then made into great flat cakes for export. Eubber prepared in
this manner is more valuable than that made into the small balls
already described. Near the factory are many large villages of the
Bakubas, who are generally a very peaceable, well-disposed people,
in this respect differing entirely from the Basongos on the north
bank, who are savage and intractable, and constantly at war with
the Bakubas. The latter are of good physical stature, and much
given to elaborate tattooing. Many of the men wear their hair on
the crown in a thick bunch which is covered by a little plaited
straw cap, oddly enough secured by being transfixed with a long
needle in the same way as our girls at home fasten their hats.
They have the Occidental custom of shaking hands, each adding to
this simple process, however, the clasping of their own hands twice,
once before and once after the mutual grasp. In the garden to-
matoes, pumpkins, carrots, cabbages, turnips, radishes and salad
were vigorously growing. Less than a mile in the interior dry
open grass land alternates with forest. We landed three hundred
bags of cowries.
It is impossible now to start in the mornings much before eight
o'clock, on account of thick fog. The river is, however, in general
deeper than the Kassai, and the navigation is much easier. You
are not so apt to get aground as in the main river. As we go east
the country seems to be becoming more open. It was interesting
to observe that scarcely a single brooklet entered the river but its
mouth held a wicker barrier and a fish-trap. This would seem to
confirm the impression of a large population in the neighborhood.
We saw one herd of half a dozen " hippos." This animal is much
more sociable and domestic than the " croc." It is always seen
with others, but the latter is generally solitary. The " crocs " are
usually observed on the narrow points of sand-spits, while the
"hippos" most do congregate upon sandbanks not appearing
above, or but a trifle above, the surface, and frequently in the
middle of the river. During the afternoon we experienced a very
heavy thunder and lightning storm, accompanied by but little rain,
it being now the dry season. The lightning was terrific, and
struck several times very near us. You frequently see giant mon-
FROM THE LULU A TO THE SANKURU. 457
arclis of the forest that have lost half their height by these fierce
electric bolts.
We were obliged the next morning to halt for wood. It seems
that the night before we stopped near a village, and our men spent
their time in trying to steal food from its inhabitants instead of
attending to their proper business of getting wood. Only six of
the whole crew did any work. So, soon after starting, the punish-
ment of twenty-five lashes was meted to each of the delinquents.
The little wood that we did receive was also bad, and we could not
steam with it more than four miles an hour. After getting on
board a fresh supply of better wood, at a cost of some four hours'
time, we proceeded. That evening, as we were making fast to the
south bank, about a dozen people who stood upon the shore ran
away in great fright into the interior. We sent a few of our men
to one of their villages to buy some food, but the inhabitants re-
fused to sell anything, and said they wanted nothing to do with us.
The next day we stopped nearly opposite the mouth of the
Lubefu, a river originally explored by Wolf, and up which steamers
have run for a journey of two days. There is, however, as yet no
factory or post upon it. We were now at a point about 250 miles
west of the well-known town of Nyangwe, on the right bank of
the Congo. The following day we halted at a large village near
the north bank. The people in great fright all left it and took
to the woods. We decoyed a few back with offerings of bright
beads and gay-colored handkerchiefs, and succeeded in buying a
few carved wooden pillows and stools from them, but they had no
food to sell us. In the centre of the village was a large fetish — a
circle of short sticks surrounding two or three larger ones daubed
different colors and standing in a bank of plastered mud, the whole
covered with a low palm-leaf thatch. The huts were exceedingly
small, many of them being not more than four feet high, the same
in width, and perhaps six feet long. They were made of a split
wood like bamboo, and were lined with large leaves. The roofs
were made of several layers of a large stout leaf of the consistency
of India-rubber. The small doors of wickerwork slid back and
forth, held by loops working on reed stems. We passed several
other villages, and saw many natives at the landings, where their
canoes were drawn up. At one sandbank we noticed a number
of fishermen drawing a large net ashore. It was made of the fine
fibres of certain plants, and was floated by blocks of wood. These
natives also fish along the shores and edges of the sandbanks at
31
458 ACTUAL AFRICA.
night with torches of gum copal, which is found in large quanti-
ties in the forest.
The factory at which we next arrived was Inkongo, situated
on a sandy bluff, some ten or fifteen feet above the river, on the
south bank, where a large space has been cleared of trees and set
out in fine gardens. Soil has to be brought to form tbe raised
beds, and the fierce rays of the sun have to be warded off by cover-
ings of palm leaves. Many avenues of bananas, plantains, papayas,
pineapples and passion-flowers have been planted about the place.
The country round about being hilly and a good deal of it open
and covered only with grass, and the ground of the station being
dry and porous, I was not surprised to learn that Inkongo was a
healthy place of residence. In one of the warehouses was a large
number of cases of the goods here used in barter — beads, wire,
cottons, brass-balls, looking-glasses, gay-colored sunshades and,
more especially, the circulating medium of this region, great flat
crosses of copper, worth about fifteen cents each. A dozen sizes,
styles and colors of beads are needed, and the value of these fluc-
tuates like " active " stocks at home. The demand, besides, is not
only for one article in one section and another in another, as
sometimes wire is wanted, again cotton, but beads of one color or
size will be worth double those of another, or the latter may be
refused altogether, and fashion also governs this matter of beads
in that the style changes from year to year. White beads seemed
to me the most universally in request, possibly because they show
so strongly against the black skins. So that the trader in supply-
ing himself with beads, or the buying material, of a certain section
must consult the local market very carefully or he will find him-
self without funds for conducting his business. A short distance
back of the factory a sort of model native village has been laid out
by the white men. Here you find a broad avenue lined by ba-
nanas, and well-built huts properly separated from each other.
The natives seem to have taken very kindly to this scheme. In
the centre of the street, at long distances apart, are some half a
dozen open houses — sheds only covered by roofs, under which
the people congregate and chat by the hour together. This tribe
were Bakubas. They appreciate the many advantages of being
near a European factory for purposes of trade, but do not like to
relinquish any of their native customs. Both men and women
wear a sort of short cloth skirt, and they stain their bodies a shade
of red with the powder of the cam- wood. The men are armed
FROM THE LULU A TO THE SANKURU. 459
with bows and poisonous arrows, the latter being carefully carried
in a quiver. They are simply stout, straight reeds, whose notched
tops are steeped in a virulent poison. The light arrows are
winged with pieces of banaua-leaf, instead of feathers, as are the
barbed iron ones. Spears and broad, flat-bladed daggers are also
carried. They are greatly given to tattooing, which covers those
parts of the body that even by savages are not generally exposed to
public view. I saw a woman engaged in making earthenware
cooking-bowls, which were of seemingly perfect circles, and this
without the intervention of any potter's wheel. They use here a
curious sort of pillow or head rest, a long, narrow piece of wood,
with central legs, the point resting on the ground and the upper
part containing a circular support for the neck or side of the
head. At night we were treated to a concert of the same kind
of tree-toads as those that caused us so much annoyance at the
new station which we founded at Mangay, on the Kassai, though
here fortunately the pitch of the music (!) was considerably lower.
CHAPTER LI.
AT HOME WITH A NATIVE KING.
A day later we reached Lusambo. The scenery had become
much more picturesque, with higher hills, alternate forest and
grass-land, and there were many bluffs of soft sandstone. The
country continued to bear evidence of dense settlement. Lusambo
is pleasantly situated on the north bank, upon a large open plain,
with a semicircle of grassy hills behind it. This plain is twenty
or thirty feet above the Sankuru, and is quite sandy. Across the
river, here perhaps two hundred yards wide, are more grass-
covered hills and the beehive-shaped huts of a few villages. The
houses of the station — it is a State post — extended in several streets
along the river-front. There are perhaps a dozen of these, with
mud-plastered walls, and grass peaked roofs which stretch beyond
the walls, making cool verandahs. As we steamed along we first
saw many huts of the laborers belonging to the post. Then came
the Belgian houses, a tall staff in the centre displaying the flag
of the State, underneath which a soldier, in blue uniform and red
fez, paced up and down. Directly behind these buildings was a
large open space, the parade-ground, and around this was a great
circle of soldiers' huts. Beyond, to the left, were immense ma-
nioc fields and countless banana plants and oil-palms, while to the
right were other habitations and more bananas. Steps cut in the
hard clayey bluff led from the landing up to the station, and near
here was a little fort mounting four small guns. Several hun-
dred of the natives assembled to greet us, men and women of
various shades of complexion and colors and style of dress, though
undress was really most prevalent. There were also at the land-
ing several Belgian officers, in uniform, the superintendent, the
judge and the doctor of the post, and some others. These escorted
us to the superintendent's house. Everything was clean and in
good order, and of a very tidy appearance. Soldiers saluted grave-
460
AT HOME WITH A NATIVE KING. 461
ly in European style. Women, engaged in pounding manioc, stared
and grinned at us. A monkey, tied to a verandah-post, simpered
and danced ; a beautiful captive leopard ceased his nervous tramp-
ing and allowed us to pat him. And so we came to a large vine-
covered summer-house, surrounded by pretty gardens, and, reclin-
ing in extension-chairs around a large table, were served Portu-
guese wine, and a liqueur which is made from palm wine, and
which I found remarkably good.
Lusambo is the largest and one of the most important stations
in the whole Congo Free State. It is situated in about latitude
5° south, and 23° 30' east longitude. It was founded five years
ago by the famous Belgian explorer, M. Paul le Marinel, a gentle-
man who has made many important journeys in the southeastern
part of the country. He has been ten years in the service of the
Free State, and is at present a " State Inspector." He has a
brother who has done good exploration in the upper waters and
branches of the great northern tributary of the Congo, the Ubangi.
Lusambo was established originally with the view of being the
headquarters of soldiers to operate against the hostile Arabs, who
it was feared would raid the region in its neighborhood. There
have been three battles with the natives to the east and south, at
distances of fifty and sixty miles, but none with the Arabs, who
have not thought best to visit Lusambo. There are here some
twenty whites and six hundred soldiers. There is a magazine of
1,500 guns, with a liberal supply of ammunition. In the vicinity
are some big villages, containing several thousand natives. Within
a radius of fifty miles from Lusambo there are seven smaller sta-
tions. We only remained long enough to deliver the mails and
take a walk about the place. Everything about the post was on
a large scale. There was a plantation of manioc over a quarter of
a mile square. There were a garden, many orchards, and every-
where broad and smooth roads, lined with bananas and pineapples.
The parade-ground was sufficiently large for the manoeuvring of a
thousand men. There is another State post a day further up the
river, called, from the name of its " King," Pania Mutembo, and to
this we were now bound. Nearly opposite Lusambo, the Lubi en-
ters the Sankuru. This is a small, though long, river, not naviga-
ble by steamers. Its mouth is only about one hundred feet wide.
From Lusambo the Sankuru runs for a distance directly east and
then bends towards the south. It was now almost without islands,
other than low sandy ones, and it had narrowed to a breadth of
462 ACTUAL AFRICA.
from one hundred to two hundred yards. It became more pic-
turesque, and we had glimpses of much high and open country
beyond the immediate banks. Frequently the wooded hills came
to an abrupt descent of one hundred or two hundred feet at the
water's edge. These bluffs were of sandstone. With their varying
colors of red, yellow, brown, drab and black, a surface almost as
smooth as that of the river, and their framework of dark green
foliage, they were very attractive, and recalled to my mind the
appearance of the famous " Pictured Rocks " in Lake Superior.
In one place we passed an almost perfect circle of the river only
one hundred feet broad, full of sandbanks, and with a swift cur-
rent. Two steamers could hardly have passed each other here.
The river continued very tortuous, now running in horseshoe
bends, now turning at right angles.
Early in the afternoon we saw up a long reach of the river,
on the left bank, an enormous field of bananas, which almost hid
from view the little conical grass-huts of the large town of King
Pania Mutembo. On the hill back of this were the buildings of
a State post— one with only black officials— and many scattered
huts. On the hills opposite were many more huts, and, in short,
all the region gave evidence of the centralisation of a great popu-
lation. Anchored by the town was the steamer " Stanley," belong-
ing to the Congo State, and having on board, as we afterwards
found, M. Paul le Marinel. We drew swiftly in and anchored
next this steamer, while great numbers of natives were running
from every direction, and covering all the bank for a look at the
new-comer. They rapidly accumulated to more than a thousand,
and stood and sat and stared, gossiped, laughed and criticised all
the remainder of the day, only dispersing with darkness. The
" Stanley " was of a similar model to the " Archiduchesse Ste-
phanie," though smaller. She was the first steamer that ascended
the Congo after Stanley's exploration. She was brought out from
Belgium in eight pieces, which had to be transported on iron
carriages over the rough road made round the cataracts by the
great explorer, a work of immense difficulty and labor. After-
wards the steamers were brought out in many small pieces whose
transport over the caravan road was easy, if slow.
As soon as we were made fast to the bank, a short, stout gentle-
man with a cropped beard, wearing a uniform of blue coat, white
trousers, white. canvas shoes, and a blue cloth cap bound with three
wide bands of gold-lace, paid us the honor of a visit. It was M. le
Sankuru " Corps de Ballet " ?
AT HOME WITH A NATIVE KING. 463
Marinel, the State Inspector. With him came King Pania Mutem-
bo, distinguished from his people by wearing a turban and by
possessing a more Arab style of features ; a large fat man wear-
ing a skull-cap and European clothes and shoes, the chief of the
large villages beyond Lusambo ; and a number of native soldiers
with red fezes and muskets. Pania Mutembo's town and the sub-
urbs count some 10,000 people. It is the largest settlement in the
Congo Free State. Its situation is very fine, being upon the sides
of a great smooth hill lying parallel to the river. From here to
Wolf Falls, the head of steam navigation, is a voyage of only four
hours. The river is narrow, full of rocks, and has a very strong
current.
The Falls are situated in about latitude 5° 36' south and 24°
east longitude, 1,500 miles from Banana Point on the Atlantic.
They are, therefore, in about the same longitude as Stanley Falls,
half way across Africa, or in almost exactly the southern centre of
the great continent. From here to Lake Tanganyika the distance is
about 350 miles, the intervening country — except along the valley
of the Congo and its branches, which are filled with forests —
being mostly open grass-land, with few large or important villages.
We sat on the steamer's deck and returned the stares of the great
crowd of natives on the banks. They were pleasant, smiling peo-
ple, of many tints, from bright yellow to dull black. They wore
loin cloths of original manufacture, which looked like coarse
gunnv-saoking. Some of the women bore a great circular bunch
of grass about their waists, which made them look as if members of
a very advanced coiys de ballet. Several of them had their bushy
hair arranged a la Pompadour, and ornamented with large round
shells and innumerable cowries. The people here have less tattoo-
ing than ordinarily witnessed, and it seems to be confined to the
stomachs of the women, where the patterns are most artistically
done. Many of the men wore only the brims — or what would be
the brims with us — of straw hats, with a bunch of feathers stuck
on one side. Apart from the feathers, which were not always
present, these men might have posed as black saints, with ma-
terial nimbuses. All were much addicted to the wearing of
strings of white beads about the neck and wrists and copper rings
around the ankles. The women had also a habit of wearing great
strings of beads over one shoulder and under the opposite arm.
Many of them had very frank, winning faces and a more feminine
expression than we had before noticed. Some of the people
464 ACTUAL AFRICA.
brought provisions to trade for beads. Others stood gaping at us
and playing upon two-stringed guitars, the body of the instrument
consisting of the half of a round calabash. Still others stood in
long massed rows, their hands clasped about their necks, and their
eyes almost falling out in wonderment at the strange fire-boat.
Both sexes and all ages were curiously grouped and mingled and
huddled together. Take all this scene, with a background of huts
resembling haystacks, and a forest of bananas, maize and sugar-
cane, with a great noise of much uncouth babble, and a general
all-pervading odor certainly not from Araby the blest or Ceylon
the spicy, and you have a glimpse of life and character in distant
Central Africa. Major Parminter and myself had the honor of
dining with M. le Marinel, whom we found exceedingly well-in-
formed about this region and its inhabitants, and able and willing
to convey his knowledge in forcible and agreeable style.
At daylight the throng of natives was renewed upon the bank,
and the hubbub was if anything greater than on the day before.
The " Stanley " left for Lusambo at ten o'clock, having first taken
aboard two hundred men, who were prisoners of war, to work in
various stations of the State. During the morning the king paid
us a second visit. He appeared as a dignified old gentleman, bear-
ing a long wand as a badge of authority. He was dressed in a
white shirt, open in front and worn over a colored silk waist- cloth,
which descended like a skirt to his bare feet. Over the shirt he
wore a light sack-coat, after the approved manner of Syrian and
Egyptian dragomans. His turban of blue cloth was arranged with
the ends extending at the sides like the head-gear of the conven-
tional Egyptian Sphinx. Around his neck he wore four or five
chains of immense blue beads, and also many bracelets of the same.
Upon one finger was a copper ring, and upon his ankles were bands
of leather. He was accompanied by four or five soldiers, and by
half a dozen of his great men, who were almost nude save their
strings of beads. The chief of the villages near Lusambo was
present as interpreter. Several of our bags of beads and bales of
goods were displayed before the king, and a long talk ensued as to
the relative purchasing power of each, for we wished to fill up our
depleted larder as far as possible. The king went as he came with
much hauteur, his people fleeing in every direction before his ap-
proach.
The natives now began to bring us provisions, but so little
did each one carry at a time that we had several of our men
AT HOME WITH A NATIVE KING. 465
engaged all day buying for us. This was not because they were
poor and could spare but little of their stock, but because they
believed they would be paid more by this method of petty retail-
ing. We had always, standing in the water at the steamer's side,
fifty or more women and young girls who chaffered and bargained
with our men, who were squatting on the lower deck. Back of
the traders were some hundreds of people who simply sat or stood
and looked on at the others, or stared at the steamer. The prices
were extraordinarily low, small white beads being the circulating
medium. These were doled out by filling an empty cartridge
case, which was the standard of value, though cloth and hand-
kerchiefs were also used. The equivalent in our money of several
articles we purchased was : maize, fifty ears for one cent ; beans,
one bushel, eight cents ; a goat, twenty cents ; a chicken, two cents ;
a big bunch of bananas, two cents ; and eggs twelve cents a gross !
The people were always having some local joke among themselves,
at which all would heartily laugh. On the approach of the king,
or of any fancied cause of alarm, they would run away like a flock
of frightened sheep, only to immediately return, all laughing and
vociferating as if crazy. Though it was the " dry season," we were
treated in the afternoon to a tremendous shower of rain and hail,
accompanied with thunder and lightning, and this turned into a
steady downpour which lasted till midnight.
In the morning we went ashore to call upon the king, and to
see something of the great town, or rather towns, for there are
many villages all about this section of country. We took two in-
terpreters with us, since it was necessary to pass through two lan-
guages before reaching that understood by the king. We carried
several chairs with us, feeling sure that none would be found where
we were going. We passed along a smooth wide path, lined with
rows of huts around which bananas, maize, millet and manioc were
growing. The people gave us the friendly greeting of, "It is
peace with you." Just before the entrance gate a goat's head had
been stuck on a spear — a sort of fetish. The king lives in a great
enclosure, surrounded by a palisade of tree trunks ten feet high.
At the main entrance is the reception-hall, a small but very well
made peaked-roof house. " His Majesty " was within, holding a
palaver, but he immediately came out and, approaching, took in
turn each of our hands in his, and then, ordering the people to stand
aside, led the way into the building. Mats were spread upon the
floor, and in one corner was a low platform, also covered with mats,
466 ACTUAL AFRICA.
upon which the king sat upon a low stool. He wore a very aged
" Derby " hat, with a bunch of feathers stuck through one side,
which gave him a rather rakish look, and was not nearly so digni-
fied and appropriate as his blue turban. As soon as seats were
taken, about fifty natives came in, and crowding together in semi-
circles, squatted upon their haunches behind us. After the ex-
change of a few compliments, our presents were offered, and we
were all carefully scrutinised, counted and audibly criticised, as if
apprehensive of some bad faith. This was not simply looking a
gift horse in the mouth, it was trying to peer into his stomach.
But the king made some amends by clapping his hands gayly when
all had been shown him. This is the usual indigenous expression
of delight and satisfaction. Our presents embraced several fathoms
of black and white cloth, some old clothes, small looking-glasses,
case-knives, red handkerchiefs, and beads of half a dozen sizes and
colors.
We then asked permission to see the royal residence and that
of the harem, and spoke also of our intention to walk over the
town, and ascend the hill for an extensive view. So the king rose
and led the way into the above-mentioned enclosure, which must
have contained a hundred houses, placed in parallel rows almost
touching each other. Pania Mutembo is reported to glory in up-
wards of five hundred " wives," who, besides their children and
many slaves and servants, all live in this quarter. We walked all
about it, and entered several houses, including that of the king.
These houses are about ten feet square and eight feet high, with a
roof coming to a central point about four feet above the line of the
walls. These are made of stout tree trunks placed close together,
and between each two run round bent twigs which form the frame-
work of the roof, and are fastened in the ground. The whole
is then thickly covered with long grass, the bunches of which are
trimmed, in several places on the angles of the roof, for ornament.
There is no opening save a low and narrow door, which in most
cases is provided with a curved portico to exclude sun and storm.
Within, the general arrangement is always the same. About one-
half is partitioned off, and this is again divided. In the part next
the door are the fire, the cooking utensils, and the food, which is
suspended in baskets from rafters. There is no special egress for
smoke, which finds its way out as best it may. The adjoining
room — it is square and very small — is the sleeping place, the
floor being covered with mats, and a few wooden pillows lying
AT HOME WITH A NATIVE KING. 467
about. In the corners of the open-half of the house stand great
jars of water, and spears, bows and arrows. This is about the ex-
tent of the furniture. I should have mentioned that the floor,
raised about a foot above the surrounding ground, is of smooth
and hard mud, which is not only healthful but easily kept clean.
The king's house was no better than the others, but double their
size. It had also no means of lighting save by the small open door,
and, though we were specially invited to enter it, we could not see
its contents as well as we wished. It was arranged about as the
others, but contained the royal gala dress, a gown of coarse, stiff
native cloth, half covered with a large leopard's skin. In one
corner were a keg of powder and half a dozen rifles. In another
many bowls of wicker-work, well-made and prettily ornamented
pottery, and a few iron trunks. The walls held a large looking-
glass, several broad-bladed knives in fantastic scabbards of leopard
or monkey skin, the tails being always suspended from the lower
end. There were also several large baskets full of corn, beans, and
manioc. These houses and contents being of such inflammable
materials, I thought a fire would be terribly destructive, and was
not surprised to learn that by this means the town had been sev-
eral times nearly completely destroyed. Near the royal abode a
poor woman was squatting upon the ground, fastened to a peg by
a heavy iron chain which had been put around her neck. I did
not regard it as etiquette to inquire as to her crime. A little
further on we encountered a large group of the " wives " — plump,
oily creatures, covered with bead ornaments, and most of them en-
gaged in attending to the importunate demands of very big fat
babies. We told the king that in our countries the married men
were accustomed to have but one wife each. He replied that there
our wealth was in other things, in gold and silver, and in ships
and factories, but here his property was in these wives, whom if he
chose he could barter for anything he wanted. He followed
us to the gate, and, after shaking hands, we started for a long
walk.
The chief or central town is quite a mile in length and half
a mile in width. The houses, for the most part, extend in regu-
lar rows along the wide paths. The immense quantity of ba-
nanas furnish an agreeable shade for them, and for pedestrians.
Maize, manioc and sorghum are also much grown, while the whole
of the smoothly-swelling hills, for miles around, are covered with
millet, for such a large population must need much food. In
468 ACTUAL AFRICA.
many of the huts the people were busy weaving cloth from the
long, tough fibres of a local bush. This cloth is strong, and makes
very good bags for European use. A handful of beads will buy a
piece six feet long and three wide. Before the entrances to many
huts we saw great masses of small, glittering objects which we
learned were the refuse wings of locusts, these insects being a
popular article of diet among the Basongos. We afterwards saw
great quantities of them, that had been smoked, placed upon mats
to dry in the sun. All the people were curious but respectful, and
pleasantly saluted us with their " Mbote," or good-day of welcome.
In one place, by the side of our path, was a circular enclosure in
which had been planted, in rows, the white and now bleached skulls
of sixty prisoners, who had been taken in war and afterwards killed
and eaten. We saw many fetishes, which generally consisted of a
hideous head carved upon a rough block of wood, that was stuck
in a mound of clay and surrounded by a row of plain sticks.
Sometimes these heads were more elaborate, with eyes made of
cowries and nose of copper. Occasionally instead of being stuck
in the ground they were attached to a liana which was stretched
across our path. But I was struck by the general absence of any
industries, useful or ornamental. We walked to the end of the
main town, but saw others around on every side. A narrow, but
thick, belt of forest indicated the direction of the river, coming
from the falls and the south. The king has a great reputation as
a warrior, and has brought very much of the surrounding country
under his sway. Some of his soldiers are armed with flint-lock
muskets and "Winchesters," but the most of them only with
spears and knives. There are a few minor chiefs who have estab-
lishments of houses and wives similar to that of the king, only on
a greatly reduced scale, for he will take no chance of a rival, his
power is absolute. He may consult some of the head men, but
always has his own way.
We returned to the steamer by another road, and found that
our wants as regarded food were mostly supplied, and the market
was beginning to flag. The king called soon after, bringing us
the present of several crates of chickens and one of ducks. He
also brought us some of the large copper crosses used as money,
which we wanted to trade elsewhere for ivory and rubber, and for
which we paid in black cloth. This cloth he measured off with
his extended arms, so many fathoms' length. He then begged for
a sunshade, and we afterwards sent him a gem made in three colors,
AT HOME WITH A NATIVE KING. 469
red, yellow and blue, and worth about five cents. He also asked
for one of our rifles, which, of course, we could not give him.
Later in the afternoon a long and very black line of cloud was
pointed out to me, on the opposite side of the river, as simply a
great incursion of locusts. Fortunately this noxious swarm did
not visit us, but passed away to the south.
CHAPTEK LIL
BIG-GAME SHOOTING.
We were only six hours in returning to Lusambo, where we took
on board one hundred laborers, to be distributed among the fac-
tories. At several of the villages which we passed, the natives were
very hostile, freely shying their arrows at us — one, of a poisonous
character, catching in a chain, and another, an iron-barbed one,
penetrating the planks of the dining-cabin, just by my side, nearly
an inch. As no one, fortunately, was wounded, we did not delay
our voyage to punish them, either by burning their villages or
pursuing them into the woods, to which they would immediately
flee, had we landed. A few days afterwards we stopped at noon
near a large village to try and get a supply of food for our men.
The village was at a little distance back from the river, over the
hill. Soon after our arrival, and while we were at breakfast, the
chief called on board. He was a large brawny man with a chin
beard, three sleigh-bells worn upon the apex of his head, a loin cloth
like a short skirt, and a little pouch of medicine suspended from a
liana about his neck. He carried a broad-bladed spear, and a small
bunch of long thin reeds, with which to whisk away flies and other
troublesome insects. This chief marched straight into our dining-
saloon, and greeted us as if he was addressing a regiment on parade.
He then sat down beside us on the divan and kept up his shout-
ing for fully ten minutes, the Major making humorous replies in
French, and repeating and imitating many of the chief's phrases.
It was a very funny scene. The chief smiled and seemed as con-
tented as if every one understood all he was saying, and we, of
course, were convulsed with laughter. We pressed our self-invited
guest to eat and drink, but he would do no more than taste an ome-
lette, which, however, he pronounced " beautiful " — we happened to
understand this word of his dialect. We gave him a small round
mirror, which he tied to the liana about his neck, and afterwards,
470
Worshipping Fetishes.
BIG- GAME SHOOTING. 471
walking about among his people on shore, was the observed of all
observers, and the recipient of many compliments upon his novel
adornment. We gave him also a handful of beads, and he pulled
up a corner of his dress and tied them in it with a " hard " knot.
He afterwards made another impromptu pocket for a small bell
that was given him. He accompanied us to his village, which was
built in a large oval, with the houses so close together as to make
a certain form of defence in case of attack by enemies. The
houses were of a much better character than usual, being of split
reeds, secured together in ornamental patterns with natural cord-
age, dyed different colors. We were shocked to find almost half the
villagers sick with small-pox, and, to the chief's piteous appeal for
some remedies, we were obliged to confess we had none. These
people were very friendly, and were glad to sell us specimens of
their cloth manufacture, some leopard skins, some small fetishes
of carved wood, some boxes, pipes and wooden pillows. At night
our many people go ashore, and, squatting around a score of fires,
cook their simple dinner of dried fish and beans amid a roar of
gossip such as would shame the largest cafe in southern Europe.
The clatter, interspersed with singing or, rather, shouting, contin-
ues for an hour after their meal, and, in fact, lasts until daylight,
with a few slight interruptions to replenish their fires. The early
mornings are cool enough for winter clothes, while even white
duck feels too warm during the afternoons. There was frequently
actually a difference of fifty degrees Fahrenheit between the hours
of 5 a. m. and 3 p. m.
We spent the following week in establishing several factories
on the banks of the Sankuru. At some of these we left a white
superintendent, at others a mestizo from Central America, or a
negro from Jamaica, together with the usual complement of black
laborers. Then we again ascended the Kassai and the Lulua to
Luebo, where we received a freightage of two tons of ivory and
thirty-five of rubber. We also took one hundred and twenty
laborers, men and women, for the new factories on the Sankuru,
whither we now headed once more. Unfortunately on leaving
Bena Lindi we ran upon a sandbank before we were out of sight
of the factory and, notwithstanding our most strenuous exertions,
remained fast. During the night the strong current silted the
sand up about us so that we had nothing to do but remove our
cargo to a dry sandbank near at hand, and then make a final at-
tempt to get off. It was very curious to find only a few inches of
472 ACTUAL AFRICA.
water where the night before we had measured a depth of three
feet. The whole bed of the Kassai seems to be of fine sand, and
the strong currents change the channels almost weekly. Many
places, which we safely passed in ascending the river, were quite
impassable on the downward journey. Upon removing nearly all
our cargo, we succeeded in finally getting free, but after reloading
and going on, at half-speed, were unfortunate enough to get
aground once more. After again sending the most of our cargo
to the nearest sandbank, and six hours' work, we got off, but,
owing to the slipping of an anchor, once more ran aground, and
so remained all night. It was nearly noon the next day before
we were again en route.
The day after, early in the morning, as we were rounding a
sharp point, we were greatly surprised at seeing a large elephant
quietly walking across the river, and half out of the water, just
before us. Within a minute we had fired five shots at him, three
taking effect, and bringing him to his knees. He quickly recovered
himself, however, and kept on his way, but soon fell again, and
kicked and rolled frantically. Then he gained his feet once more,
but we saw that he was badly hurt. He walked a few paces further,
and then fell again, and lost by drowning what little of life was left.
A few feet of his back remained above the surface of the water.
Our men then set up a ringing shout, for they knew we would
give them a great feast of meat, and as for ourselves we were no
less eager, for the elephant had a fine pair of tusks fully five feet
long. We anchored the steamer at the nearest bank, and, taking
our two boats and some fifty men, started across the river to secure
the game. The elephant proved to be quite dead, having received
two shots in the head, and one which passed entirely through his
lungs and huge body. He was about eight feet high at the shoul-
der. We attached our stoutest cable to him and dragged him to a
neighboring sandbank. The men then set to and cut up the great
carcass in pieces which might go into our boats. The head and
the legs were soon removed, and then great chunks of the body and
the entrails, for the natives eat every part of an elephant except
the skin and bones, as they do also of a crocodile or hippopotamus.
For dismembering the monster our wood-saws, axes and machetes
were used. After taking the pieces ashore they were again sub-
divided into chunks, which were given each one to four men, who
had to further divide it among themselves. All our people, some
two hundred in number, had enough for three huge feeds. The
BIG- GAME SHOOTING. 473
natives so seldom have any meat other than occasionally poultry, or,
still less frequently, goat, that when they capture any of the great
wild animals, they gorge themselves to the wonderment of a white
man. They boiled a part of their allotment for immediate con-
sumption, and smoked the remainder, placing it upon little wooden
frames over their fires. We prepared for ourselves some elephant
soup and steaks, both of which were quite good. The meat tastes
very like beef, and has the appearance of coarse corned-beef, but is
nearly black in color. The tusks were so firmly planted in the
skull that it took several hours to cut them out with axes. The
native method is to place the head in water for a long time and let
the tusks rot out. It required the whole day to cut up the ele-
phant and to apportion the flesh among our people, who sat up
half the night cooking and eating it, having altogether quite a
saturnalia.
Our journey was one long experience of getting on and off
sandbanks. We saw many large herds of hippopotami — one num-
bered forty-two — also many crocodiles, and some large red buffalo.
One day we saw four large elephants browsing near the bank, one
a splendid great fellow with enormous tusks. We tried to get
a shot, but they set off for the forest at a swinging gait. After
completing our business on the Sankuru we returned to the Kassai,
and went on down this to the Kwango, where Major Parminter
desired to establish a factory. The Kwango is a swiftly flowing
flood of a darker brown than the Kassai. Its mouth, like that of
the Sankuru, is several miles in width, and is full of large flat
sandy or grass-covered islands. Going up a short distance, the
Kwango is about half a mile in width. On both banks are large
villages of round conical-topped grass huts, half concealed in
groves of bananas. The Kwango is navigable by steamers as
far as the station of Kingunchi, about 175 miles, then by
canoes to the Francis Joseph Falls, 250 miles further. A
little beyond these falls are those of the Emperor William —
so that two members of the Triple Alliance are here com-
memorated. The largest branch of the Kwango is the Kuilu,
which enters it about fifteen miles above its junction with the
Kassai.
Not finding at the junction of these two rivers, as we had
hoped, a suitable place to erect a factory, we decided to explore the
Kuilu, a clear, clean stream, almost wholly devoid of the usual
greasy surface. It averaged about a quarter of a mile in width,
32
4:74 ACTUAL AFRICA.
and the navigation was good. There were a few tree-covered is-
lands and large sandbanks, which could, however, be easily avoided.
The river was very tortuous, and ran with a swift current. It was
bordered by narrow strips of forest, and beyond lay great smooth
plains of thick, coarse and tall grass. We saw several large villages,
nestling as usual in banana groves, and there was also evidence of
dense population in the many canoes seen at landing-places, with
well-worn paths leading back into the country, and many fish-
traps scattered along either bank. As soon as they beheld us the
natives took flight at once and, running their canoes into half-
concealed creeks or thick grass, hid themselves in the bush and
doubtless peeked out at us as we passed. These people seemed
exceedingly timid, although they could not have been maltreated
by any white man. There are no stations or factories on the
Kuilu, only a small part of which has, in fact, ever been ex-
plored. It is known only for about one hundred miles from
its mouth, where its branch, the Inzia, enters. After making
fast for the night, we proceeded to a neighboring village,
where the people were very unfriendly, begging us to go
away, and saying they would bring us every kind of food we
wanted. They however never came near us. We saw many
elephant tracks, several "hippos," many parrots, and a few
monkeys and ducks. The banks of the river were about twenty
feet in height, and covered with trees, vines, ferns, bush and
grass.
The next day we reached the Inzia. The Kuilu runs here
nearly parallel with the Kassai, and we were now almost di-
rectly south of, and only some forty miles distant from, Mount
Pogge, on that great river. With most of these Central Afri-
can rivers the upper reaches are much larger than the lower
and their mouths. The Kuilu has thus far averaged from a
quarter to half a mile in width. The villagers, whom we ap-
proached, all ran away from us, and would not give us any
food for our men, though we tried to entice them with gay-
colored handkerchiefs, brass bells, mirrors and vari-colored
beads.
The next afternoon we saw three large elephants, each with
fine great tusks, crossing the river ahead of us. They walked
nearly all the way over, having only once or twice to swim short
distances, and refreshed themselves by diving and by squirting
water over themselves. We ordered " full-steam ahead," but failed
BIO-GAME SHOOTING. 475
to get within range for a " killing " shot. These animals, appar-
ently, did not see our steamer, for they neither hurried nor dis-
played any fear. One of them was a huge fellow, much larger
than the one which we killed in the Kassai. The next day we saw
another very large one, also crossing the river, but we were out of
range again. Frequently, for long distances, fish-traps occurred
every forty or fifty feet along the banks. Generally such of the
people as we observed would scamper away out of sight as soon as
possible, though several times crowds of them collected on the
sandbanks, and either stood dumb with amazement at their first
sight of the pale-faced stranger, or ran along abreast of us shout-
ing to each other various criticisms of our strange appearance.
During this day we shot two " hippos," but their bodies sank
or were carried far down the river, and we had not the time
to stop and search for them, though we would have liked some
of the meat for ourselves and men. The flesh of the young
animal is said to be almost exactly like good beef. It was quite
difficult to shoot them from the steamer's deck, for they would
only come to the surface for an instant, to get air, and then go
down and swim long distances away. We also shot a large yel-
lowish-green snake, about six feet long, which was swimming
the river.
The Kuilu has turned directly south and now runs parallel
with the Loange. We are some thirty miles distant from the
Kassai, in a direct line, and have reached the latitude of Lusambo.
Where the Kuilu took a turn to the south we were only about forty
miles distant from the large native town of Ngun, on the Kassai,
of which mention has already been made. All this region of
country through which we are voyaging is quite unexplored. The
Belgian traveller, Van de Velde, had, however, in 1889, passed from
the Kwango east to Luebo, crossing the Kuilu, or what he sup-
posed to be that river, in about latitude 6° 20' south. Another
traveller, named Buchner, crossed it higher up, going from east to
west, in 1881. The point of his passage was in about latitude 8°
south. The region of the supposed source, in Angola, some three
hundred miles due east of the town of Dondo, was visited by Wiss-
mann and Pogge in 1881. There seems every probability that
these travellers have described the same river. We intended to ex-
plore it until stopped by sandbanks and shallow water, or by falls
or rapids. We expected to encounter the last named, as navigation
of the Central African rivers is almost invariably terminated in
476 ACTUAL AFRICA.
their upper waters by such obstructions. Though steam travel
must then cease, they are almost all available for canoes some
hundreds of miles further. The Kuilu is believed to have but
one name throughout its course, but its branch the Inzia is known
above the points where it has been crossed as the Saie and the
Koengo.
CHAPTER LIII.
EXPLORATION OF THE KUILU RIVER.
At about ten o'clock the next day we drew in to a large village
upon the right bank. A few of the inhabitants were at the river-
side, but ran away at once. We, however, sent two or three of our
men with handkerchiefs, wire, cowries and beads to explain to
them that the object of our visit was of a pacific character, as
we simply wanted to buy food. This explanation was satisfactory,
and one by one the people very slowly and timidly came down to
the steamer. We found the village an ordinary collection of grass
and mud huts, containing several hundreds of people. There was
an abundance of grain and vegetables, and goats and fowls. We
had served out some rations of cowries to our men, and for three
hours, both in the village and at the steamer's side, a most bustling
market was held. The food was remarkably cheap : thus a basket
of manioc, holding perhaps half a bushel, was sold for a handful
of cowries ; bananas and plantains were given two for a cowrie ;
eggs were two cowries each ; a chicken was ten ; maize was a cow-
rie an ear ; and a double handful of tobacco brought but eight of
the little shells. Cowries are divided into two classes in Central
Africa : large and small, some tribes preferring one and some the
other.
These people had of course never before seen a steamer nor,
probably, a white man, and their wonder was unbounded. The
men were all armed with bows and metal-tipped arrows. They
were a small slightly-built race, who had made their dark bodies
even darker by rubbing upon them charcoal and ashes. Several of
them were also most alarmingly painted with stripes of yellow clay.
When the steamer's whistle was blown, as a signal of departure, the
hundreds who had collected on the bank at once stampeded pell-
mell over each other and into the wood and tall grass. Our men
greeted them with shouts of laughter and calls to come back, as
477
478 ACTUAL AFRICA.
there was no danger and no harm would be done them, but it
was to no purpose, they would not again come so near. Upon a
second whistle being sounded, they ran as before, though now
laughing and skylarking among themselves. A discharge of steam
from the engine seemed to fill them with no less terror. It was
amusing to notice the bearing of these people even up to the
moment of our departure. It was clear they apprehended some
trickery on our part : that would be their manner of dealing with
another and weaker tribe, and hence they feared something of the
same sort from us. We felt, however, that we had made a record
for the white man as a friendly visitor, and a just and liberal bar-
terer, and left, with our steamer quite overladen with the provisions
we had purchased.
From now on, the people came in crowds to the river banks,
though remaining mostly hidden by the trees. They were per-
fectly frantic with mingled dread and curiosity at sight of the
steamer. They shouted and danced, and waved their arms in imi-
tation of our revolving stern-wheel. They followed us, running
along the banks for miles together. Occasionally some specially
brave ones would rush out into the water to have a long unobstructed
look at us. Fortunately they were not hostile, and did not shoot
any arrows at us, as is too often the habit of these wild tribes.
The steamer is provided with large wire screens, called " arrow-
guards," which, when danger is anticipated, are placed about the
men who are steering, for a native is always apt to be panic-stricken,
and to drop the wheel and run behind the deck-houses. The ex-
pression on the countenances of the natives on the shores would
make the fortune of an actor who could imitate it. They would
stand with their bodies partly turned away, in order to dart into
the bush at the slightest indication of danger, overwhelmed with
awe and inquisitiveness, a few only daring to laugh, while the
whole river echoed with their exclamations of astonishment and
their crazy shouts.
About noon a large elephant undertook to cross the river almost
directly before our bows. We hastily got our rifles and fired sev-
eral shots at his head, now out, now half under the water, as he
lumberingly swam along. Our steamer had such headway that it
ran right atop of him, and he passed directly under us, and soon
was so far astern, and towards the further bank, that it was diffi-
cult to hit him at a vulnerable point. Though we blazed away
we had the mortification to see him mount the bank and enter the
EXPLORATION OF THE KUILU RIVER. 479
forest. We were, however, so certain that he was mortally wounded,
and could not get far, that we sent some of our most trusty men
to follow his tracks. They were gone a couple of hours, but did
not succeed in coming up with him, so we had to reluctantly give
up the chase and continue our voyage.
The Kuilu is really a splendid river, by far the most beautiful
of any I have yet seen in Central Africa. It is now the dry season
and, therefore, the stream is far from its greatest depth, yet, though
we are heavily laden and drawing three-and-a-half feet of water,
we have come thus far about 250 miles without grounding on a
single sandbank, rock or snag. There are many smaller steamers
of this company which draw but eighteen inches of water, so that
undoubtedly these, if not our own, could ascend the river in the
very driest season. The country is high and looks healthy. It is,
as we have seen, full of food and peaceable inhabitants. It also
must be full of elephants. So far five have crossed the river ahead
of us, and probably as many more that we have not seen, behind us.
So there is a plentiful supply of ivory to be had. Whether there
is also a good quantity of rubber we have yet to discover. From
our point of view, on the river, it is impossible to say whether the
valley is simply lined by narrow belts of trees, or immense forests
stretch away on either hand. As we have found but a very few small
affluents we are at a loss to know how its great flood is maintained,
whether by a lake or by big and frequent springs. There are so
many parallel rivers hereabouts that its drainage area can not be
very large. That the people are prosperous and the region fertile
is indicated by the extraordinary cheapness of food. Only think
of the price of one article, an egg, being but two cowrie shells.
This is at the rate of 520 for a cent ! Though this rate indicates
not only the great value of money (cowries) and the special pro-
fusion of eggs, yet it would probably take several days to collect so
great a quantity, it being native fashion to bring in produce in
small instalments, as already shown upon the Sankuru. During the
night one of our men, who was trying to steal some food from the
village in the neighborhood, got an arrow in his back for his pains.
He was severely but not fatally injured. In the morning the peo-
ple brought in a quantity of large sour oranges, which we bought
at the rate of one cowrie each. We also bought peanuts at five
cowries per peck, the basket holding about that quantity.
Villages followed one another in quick succession, and there
were immense tracts covered almost wholly with oil-palms. The
480 ACTUAL AFRICA.
hills bore great fields of manioc. At about noon we came to a
confluent whose thick muddy current contrasted strongly with the
clear dark water of the Kuilu. We afterwards learned that the
native name of this river is the Kwenge. The Kuilu held a course
somewhat to the eastward, while the branch trended to the south-
west. The confluence was, as nearly as I could calculate, in lati-
tude 6° 30' south. We decided to ascend this branch first, and then
attempt the main stream. The mouth was, as usual, so narrow and
shallow and the water so full of sand and silt that we thought we
should not be able to ascend very far, but after a little, we passed
from a width of twenty-five yards to one of one hundred, and found
sufficient water to enable us to go on for twenty miles. It grad-
ually lost its silt and changed its color and clearness until it rivalled
the Kuilu. Its banks were two or three hundred feet high — hills
which sloped steeply back from the water and were mostly open
grass-land, with occasional clumps of large trees. Clearings for
manioc were always in sight, and hundreds of natives kept coming
from the tops of the hills, in every direction, down to the banks,
which they ran along for miles — men, women and children — clap-
ping their hands to their mouths and shouting like North American
Indians, now crawling through the high grass, now running in the
river around some obstacle, now climbing trees for a longer view.
They would hide and skulk behind trunks and leaves, nervously
peering at us, with the mingled curiosity and fright of a wild ani-
mal, and just like the animal quite prepared to flee at the merest
hint of danger. They waved their arms, they called each other's
attention to something or other about the steamer or ourselves,
they danced, they shouted, they laughed, and on they ran and
scrambled for miles together. The people all had the same style of
" hair-cut," a ridge of hair being allowed to grow from centre of
forehead to nape of neck and, being stiff and straight, giving their
heads the appearance of being covered with ancient Eoman hel-
mets. Suspended from the waist they wore little black skirts, which
were sometimes embellished with banana leaves. These natives are
closely allied in appearance, language and customs to the great
Bakongo tribe, which are found between Matadi and Leopoldville,
and also west of the upper portion of the Kassai. Their speech is
in fact so much like the Bakongo that we were quite able to make
ourselves intelligible to them.
Our presence has thoroughly aroused the whole country. Some
of the people might possibly have heard rumors of the advent of
EXPLORATION OF THE EUILU RIVER. 481
the strange white man, with his wonderful guns and big boat, but
hardly comprehended or realised that such things could be. We
are greeted by constant shouts during the day, and at night we
hear everywhere the singing around the camp fires, where our visit
may possibly be the special theme for many months to come. Dur-
ing the afternoon, within the same hour, three elephants, each by
himself, crossed the river ahead of us, but all of them were unfor-
tunately beyond a satisfactory range, though we altered the sights
of our " Mausers," and blazed away as usual. We also saw an ele-
phant at a considerable distance in the plain. This made thirteen
elephants altogether that we had seen on the Kassai, the Kuilu
and the Kwenge.
The next day we went on for an hour and then, coming to a
place full of rocks, where by careful sounding we could find no
more than four feet of water, we decided to turn back. We had
ascended the river about twenty-five miles. With a lighter draught
boat it would doubtless have been possible to voyage somewhat
higher, and we regretted we did not have one, and lacked the
time to explore the river by canoes. We returned in three hours
to the Kuilu, receiving a great popular ovation all the way. We
drew in to a bank to have a chat with some people, but they were
in such a tremendous state of excitement we could not get any
information from them. They sold us some cloth, cleverly made
of palm-leaf fibres, with very neat and regular patterns. Many
of the men had beards, of which they seemed quite proud, twisting
them to points. The hideous custom very generally prevailed of
anointing the entire body with charcoal and palm-oil, which made
them as black as Nubians, and as shiny as satin. Frequently they
would also mark their faces with streaks of color, which imparted
a very demon-like aspect.
The Kuilu is only about fifty yards wide at the junction of the
Kwenge, but just above it opens out to a width of two hundred
yards. We found it deep, crooked and lined with steep banks four
or five hundred feet high, covered with very dense woods, promi-
nent in which were many large trees. There were very few canoes
and fish -traps visible, and no villages or people on the banks. The
scenery was the finest we had yet seen. The narrow and winding
river with its clear clean flood, the dark massive forests of the steep
hills mirrored on its placid bosom, the great groves of palms, the
dense masses of vines and creepers, the many large flowering shrubs,
the silence and majesty of Nature, untouched by the hand of man,
482 ACTUAL AFRICA.
savage or civilised, proved of remarkable attraction and interest.
We steamed on till dark, making some twenty-five miles.
In the morning, two hours after leaving our stopping-place,
and going still in a southerly direction, we arrived at the head of
steam navigation on the Kuilu. We had accomplished the entire
voyage in eight days, and without grounding upon a single rock
or sandbank, although our steamer of forty-five tons burden was
drawing, as I have said, three-and-a-half feet of water. The river
is here a fine stream, one hundred yards in width and twelve feet
in depth. Before us a ledge of rock, about five hundred feet long
and two hundred broad, crossed the river diagonally, nearly from
shore to shore. The water sweeps over this ledge at the rate of
seven miles an hour, and its plunge of six feet presents a very
beautiful sight, and creates a roar that can be heard a mile away.
As we could go no further in the steamer we proceeded in our
largest canoe to explore the falls and the river above them. We
took with us twenty paddlers, a steersman, a man to sound from
the bow, two gun-bearers, a native interpreter and our white mate.
Major Parminter and the writer made up a complement of twenty-
eight people. A passage was only possible close to the right bank,
where the water rushed with such force that we were fifteen minutes
in making a distance of two hundred feet, and only succeeded, at
last, by grasping the tree boughs and pulling ourselves along by
them. Where the reef did not appear for two or three feet above
the water, it was seen immediately beneath it, and, besides, great
boulders were scattered about so promiscuously that no steamer,
however small the size, light the draught, or powerful the engine,
could force a passage, and the descent would be still worse than
the ascent. Above the falls the river is of about the same width and
depth as below. Keeping close in to one shore or the other, we
paddled on for three miles, and then found the stream again
blocked by other but much smaller ledges and rapids, which we
had the same difficulty in passing. Both banks were crowded
with shouting natives. We halted at a broad path leading, as we
supposed, to a considerable village, and here gradually some hun-
dreds of people assembled. Many of them were strongly-built, and
all had frank and pleasant faces. Their coiffures were really
works of art, the centre ridge of hair being some three inches
high, braided, and matted with palm-oil. They wore also small
braids, terminating in cowrie shells, over the forehead and around
the sides of the head. Their beards, when they happened to have
EXPLORATION OF THE KUILU RIVER. 483
them, were either twisted or matted into two or three little round
pendant balls, or into a point terminated by a cowrie shell. The
men were all armed with strong bows, five feet in length. They
readily sold these to us for a few cowries. They also sold us some
curious broad-bladed iron axes and some broad-bladed knives.
Most of the men wore little human images of carved bone as
fetishes. Here, as elsewhere, the women seemed the foremost and
bravest in approaching us. One old man much amused us by his
frantic dancing, and continued declaration that the white men had
come down from the clouds to see them.
As we went on, we saw other great crowds on each bank, all of
whom begged us, with the wildest gesticulations, to visit them,
and buy some of their food or utensils. We stopped again, and so
many men crowded into a canoe, to trade with us, that it filled,
and all but sank. Another was actually upset in the eager desire
for traffic, but the men stood in the water up to their shoulders,
and continued their bargaining. All this was accompanied by
babble and laughter that were quite deafening. Every one was
good-natured though, and the utmost cordiality and friendliness
prevailed. Several of the women had kindly feminine faces. Many
carried little naked babies astride their hips, and one had her twins
with her, one on each hip, a heavy load. I approached one of the
babies, but it screamed and struggled as if mad. All the women
laughed at this, though some of them were at first quite as scared
as the baby.
A quarter of a mile above the second reef we found a great
series of furious rapids, and, half a mile further, still another. It
would have taken several hours to force our canoe through the
latter, could we even have passed them at all, and so we decided
to rest content. Above this the river was wide, deep and tranquil,
and the natives said it continued on for several days' journey,
wholly unbroken by rocks.
We returned to the steamer in a quarter of the time required
for the ascent. Judging by the great volume of water here in
the Kuilu, and the improbability of any more large affluents, owing
to the general configuration of the country, and other watersheds, it
is probable that it does actually, as is supposed, extend some hun-
dreds of miles to the southward. The extreme point which we
had reached was 360 miles from the mouth of the Kuilu, or some
385 from the Kassai. So far as natural scenery goes the Kuilu, I
repeat, is much the most picturesque river I saw in the Congo
484 ACTUAL AFRICA.
State. The interest was owing to its many wooded ridges, its
frequent points, curves and circles, its horseshoe-shaped arch-
ings, and its bends at right-angles. To this add the varying shades
of green foliage, the extraordinary shapes of many of the trees,
and the spurs of hills, which overlap each other in very charming
fashion as we turn and run in our swift descent. The falls are
situated in latitude 6° 50' south and longitude 19° east, 256 miles
from the confluence of the Inzia, or 356 from the Kwango and
371 from the Kassai. I took the liberty of naming this beautiful
cataract " Chute Archiduchesse Stephanie " (Archduchess Stepha-
nie Fall), in honor of Her Imperial Highness of Austria, second
daughter of Leopold II., Sovereign of the Congo Free State.
CHAPTER LIV.
BACK TO STANLEY POOL.
We quickly descended to the confluence of the Kwenge and,
after inspecting several points thereabouts, on which to locate a
factory, decided, upon the sloping grass-covered, hillside of the
right bank of this river, a quarter of a mile from its junction
with the Kuilu. We will erect a temporary building by the side
of the river, and afterwards the white men and their black laborers
will build a large and. suitable factory back upon the hill. At
daylight the next morning I found the bank covered with several
hundred natives, all armed with bows and arrows — they seem to
keep these with them all the day long— and most of them brought
some sort of food to barter with us, either maize, manioc, plan-
tains, goats or fowls. On the opposite shore stood another crowd
of perhaps a hundred, most of them also bearing food. All the
people stood or sat gazing at the steamer and ourselves throughout
the day. Eventually there must have been a thousand assembled.
They were so thick they greatly incommoded our men, who were
engaged with their machetes in clearing a space of forest and
bush for the temporary settlement. A large level spot was opened,
and by night the framework of the house was in position.
During the day one of our men found a very curious and in-
teresting insect in the woods. It was one of the most wonderful
" mimicries of nature " I ever saw, a large creature, resembling
somewhat the grasshopper family. Its cylindrical body, eight inches
in length and the size of one's little finger, had the color and ap-
pearance of the roughened bark of a tree. It had three pairs of
legs, like the branching spray of a twig, the articulations exactly
imitating the buds. On ordinary inspection no head appeared, or
likeness of tail, or feet. As it hung sluggishly from a string to
which it had been attached, I at first thought that my friends were
trying to palm off the dead branch of a tree for an animal, simply
485
486 ACTUAL AFRICA.
on account of the resemblance to one. But suddenly the creature
jerked up its legs, and I was quite as much surprised as if a dead
bough of a tree had all at once moved its branches. I then made
a close inspection of the insect, and discovered that one end of it
was in the form of a snake's head, with two eyes, a mouth and a
pair of short slender feelers. It hung quite limp, but, upon touch-
ing it, there opened, from the middle of the body, a pair of wings
like those of a butterfly and transparent as isinglass. These wings
were disproportionately small for the length of the body and legs,
and could only be intended for a momentary transport to a safer
place. Being let alone it soon shut its wings, wrapping them
tightly around the body like the bark of a branch, so that they
were absolutely concealed. This opening and closing of the wings
recalled the movements of a fan or, rather, of an umbrella. I had
often seen, on the branches of a tree, insects which imitated in ap-
pearance its leaves, but never anything so perfect as this resemblance
to an old dried gray branch. I learned that Central Africa pos-
sesses many examples of the " mimicry of nature," but rarely is an
insect found of so great size as that of which I have been speaking.
These creatures are known to naturalists as " walking-sticks." They
abound in the Tropics all over the world, and nearly one thousand
species of them have been already described. The object of the
mimicry is, of course, protection against attack, though this is not
the only safeguard, for many have a sort of gland from which they
can spurt a poisonous fluid. They have also the wonderful power
of reproducing injured or lost parts. Walking-sticks are propa-
gated from eggs.
Natives from different villages in the neighborhood kept com-
ing into our camp all the morning. They might be seen walking
over the hills in " Indian file," a hundred together, nearly every one
bringing something for barter. Some bore great baskets of maize,
manioc and peanuts upon their heads, others a fowl or two in their
hands, while still others led goats for us, or puppies for our black
laborers. We bought some goats at the rate of a small brass bell,
or ten cents, each. A few of the men had their bodies stained an
ochre hue, others only the face and shoulders daubed with a thick
red powder. They brought pretty pieces of cloth to sell, which in
two shades of yellow, with light-brown raised figuring, were quite
like tapestry. They were ornamented with geometrical patterns that
were very cleverly designed. Some brought cats or parrots or the
skins of leopards and tiger-cats, others carried small tusks of ivory,
BACK TO STANLEY POOL. 487
and a few brought little balls of rubber, strung together, a dozen
on a stick. Several brought bundles of strong tobacco, which after
soaking in water, we found very fair. These natives were not
themselves much addicted to smoking. They occasionally use large
wooden pipes, with long stems, and sometimes a big calabash is so
arranged that it may likewise thus be employed. In this latter
case great quantities of smoke are taken into the mouth at a time,
and then the ]npe is passed on to a friend.
All these people, when not busy trading, remained gazing at
us, with open-mouthed wonder, all the morning. They were the
most timid and impressionable people we had yet seen, remind-
ing us of startled deer. About every hour some one or other
would take fright at something, or, more probably, nothing, and,
he and his immediate companions beginning to run for the cover
of the bush, the whole crowd of several hundred would also stam-
pede, dropping their bundles and baskets and even their weapons,
and knocking each other over and falling down in their great ter-
ror and excitement. Almost immediately some one would explain
that there was no danger, that nothing was the matter, and then
all would return, laughing and shouting, and accusing each other
of being cowards and fools to run away. It was very funny.
The temporary building was by this time completed. The
framework was of saplings, bound together with lianas. The
peaked roof was made of thick bunches of long grass, tied to the
rafters, and the sides were also of grass. We stored, for the use of
the white men, a full assortment of tinned provisions and of articles
to bo used in barter, and left on the downward voyage to Kwa-
mouth and Kinchassa. Two hours later we stopped at one of our
upward halting- places and went to see a large village, distant about
ten minutes' walk through the forest. Here I found some fifty or
sixty houses in a grove of bananas and palms, and not arranged in
any regularity of streets. They were long, narrow, peak-roofed
houses, the sides made of split palm ribs, and the roof of grass.
About one-third of the interior was partitioned off as a sleeping
quarter, entered by a small door from the large room, which con-
tained the fire-place, and cooking utensils, and the roof of which
was generally thickly hung with ears of corn. The door was
merely a square opening, several feet from the ground, access to
which was had by two steps of simple palm-trunk on the outer and
inner sides. A sliding blind closed the aperture, when desirable.
The roof projected a little at the front end, making a sort of ves-
488 ACTUAL AFRICA.
tibule. Here were hung a variety of fetishes — the skulls and tails
of small wild animals, birds'-nests, feathers, and carved wooden
and bone images. Several hundred of the villagers collected about
us, offering many kinds of food, and a few of their axes, knives,
arrows, cloth, and baskets for sale. I here saw the manner of ob-
taining the malafou. The natives ascend the tree by means of an
oblong loop of stout osiers and a rough piece of palm-leaf. The
latter is lifted by the hands up and down the rough trunk, the
former supporting the back of the climber who, with his feet
braced against the trunk, thus mounts rapidly to the crown. Here
he makes incisions in the green stem, and fastens a small calabash
at each, to fill with the sap. When any " wine " is desired he
ascends a tree and empties the small calabashes into a large one
attached to his waist, and then descends. You observe that very
many of the palm trees contain these little calabashes, and that
nearly every hut has hanging against it one of the climbing-loops,
a plain proof of the popularity of the beverage. The villagers
were, like all the Kuilu people we had met, exceedingly friendly and
good-natured. I wished very much to learn the authentic names
of the larger villages near the river banks, but was not able to
gather them, owing to the conflicting statements of their too ex-
cited or too secretive inhabitants. We bought a great number of
fowls and eggs, also some large war-horns made from elephant
tusks. We could not find ivory in any other form, nor did we
discover any rubber, though the people said they knew the vine
and could get us some if we would remain a few days. But we
could not stop, and, after four hours of bartering and talk, re-
sumed our journey.
Soon we came suddenly upon a huge elephant, bathing in the
river, close to the bank. We at once opened fire upon him, but
our speed was so great we could not get a good shot, and though
we thought we had mortally wounded him, he quietly walked up
the bank and into the forest. These creatures will stand a " power
of killing." We at once stopped and sent a canoe ashore, with
some men to follow him, and see if he was seriously wounded.
They returned after a while and reported that, though he was
bleeding profusely, they had not come up with him. An hour
afterwards we saw, far ahead of us, another elephant, which was
crossing the river, and late in the afternoon still another, just
leaving the river on the opposite side, and both too distant for a
satisfactory shot. The general absence of fear and surprise at the
m &
Climbing for Palm Wine.
BACK TO STANLEY POOL. 489
sight of our steamer is a curious characteristic of these animals.
They do not show any fright by movement of trunk or tail, they
do not trumpet, nor do they hurry away at a rapid pace. They
simply quietly and deliberately endeavor to continue their intended
routes, seemingly without once looking aside or behind them.
This fearlessness, and their presence in such thickly settled re-
gions, would seem to indicate that they are not hunted by the
natives.
The next morning, about seven o'clock, we saw a small ele-
phant crossing the river a long distance ahead. We at once " put
on full-steam " and bore down upon him — almost all that we had
seen were males. We fired half a dozen shots, and thought that
nevertheless he would escape, when, just as he was mounting the
bank, a bullet penetrated the brain, dropping him dead without
a single tremor. Of course each of us claimed this particular
shot. We at once drew in to the bank near by, and crawled
through the high grass, which was full of "hippo" and buffalo
tracks, and then through the thick lianas of the forest, until we
came to the body of the elephant. He was young, very plump,
and carried a fine pair of tusks. We had not the time to spare
to cut him up for food, but with some fifty men we hauled the
body by a stout rope up the bank, and cut off the head and took
enough flesh to give each of the crew a large piece. The whole
time consumed was but three hours, and then we went on down
the river, passing the mouth of the Inzia. The elephant we shot
this day makes a total of four killed out of the eleven we saw on
the Kuilu.
The following day we steamed down the Kwango and into the
Kassai, which latter river had fallen considerably even since our
visit to the Kuilu. Many large herds of " hippo " were seen. A
strong breeze blew directly up the river, which, with our excessive
top-hamper, retarded us somewhat, but still we went on at full
speed, the strong current favoring us. We would have been in the
neighborhood of Kwamouth by dark, had we not unfortunately
run upon a sandbank about noon, and been obliged to remove four
canoe-loads of rubber and all our crew to the bank, in order to get
afloat. To do this, and to put the rubber aboard again, took all
the remainder of the day. We, however, reached KAvamouth, and
the mouth of the Kassai, the next evening, a total journey of ten
hours, and about 135 miles, from the mouth of the Kwango. Since
our previous visit a fine large house had been built by the agents
33
490 ACTUAL AFRICA.
of the Belgian Commercial Company. It was situated back from
the river, and commanded a fine view of the Congo and its op-
posite high banks, covered with grass and trees, and also of the
mouth of the Kassai and its shores. Very early in the morning
we went on to Kinchassa, and arrived about noon. Our crew were
quite beside themselves with joy at the conclusion of the long
voyage, singing, beating on tom-toms, and clapping their hands in
very lively fashion. We were only ten hours in making the voyage
from Kwamouth to Kinchassa, a distance of 175 miles. The
Congo and Stanley Pool were five or six feet lower than upon our
upward journey, and many new islands of rock and sand now ap-
peared. The entire station turned out to welcome us, a score of
white men and several hundred blacks. We had been absent
ninety days, and had made the steamer our home during all that
time.
A few days afterwards, accompanied by Major Parminter, I paid
a visit, in a small steam-launch, to the French side of the river, the
Colony and "sphere" of French Congo. In crossing the Pool,
in the early morning, there were fine views of Brazzaville, the
French Catholic Mission, and the houses of the Dutch and Bel-
gian factories. As we drew in to the landing of Brazzaville —
named of course in honor of the famous French explorer and
governor, who is still in the field, and doing good work— we saw
several small French steamers lining the bank. Brazzaville is
finely situated on the top of an extended hill, which presents to-
wards the river almost a bluff. This we surmounted by means of
a long, steep staircase, improvised from tree trunks. On the top
we passed a lofty flagstaff, the tricolor at its summit, a small brass
cannon at the base. Everywhere were wide avenues, lined with
pineapple plants, and before several buildings were gardens, filled
with many varieties of pretty flowers. The post or station was
like many already described in these pages — neat little cottages
for officials, large warehouses for the storage of ivory and rubber,
and villages of native laborers. We called upon M. Chaumot,
Chief Administrator, who received us most courteously, and with
whom we had a pleasant talk of half an hour. We then walked to
the eastward, for perhaps twenty minutes, passing along a wide
sandy avenue, bordered with fruit trees and great fields of manioc
and sweet potatoes, until we arrived at the French Catholic Mis-
sion. Here we were received by Mgr. Ouguard, the bishop, a most
genial gentleman, who has been engaged in missionary work on
BACK TO STANLEY POOL. 491
the Congo ever since the founding of the Free State. After a chat
in his comfortable dwelling, we proceeded to inspect the buildings
of the Mission, which are in process of rapid completion. They
are all situated on high ground, commanding a splendid view of
Stanley Pool and its extensive shores. Round about are large
vegetable and fruit gardens. An establishment of Sisters is at the
right, a little lower down the hill. Four Sisters are at work here,
and are meeting with some success among the girls, though not
with as great as is usual with the boys who attend the Catholic
Missions. As we walked about, Monseigneur spoke with pride of
the various edifices of the Mission, which are built of brick, made
on the premises, and of the labor, most of which has been fur-
nished by the Fathers and Brothers. The church is quite large,
with an iron roof, and a rose-window of stained glass at one end.
It is a prominent feature in the landscape of the lower part of
Stanley Pool. In a school-house behind the church, the walls are
covered with maps and pictures illustrating the various kingdoms
of Nature. I was amused at seeing on several of the desks the old-
fashioned slates of our own boyhood and country. A number of
native students were about, and very bright and happy young peo-
ple they seemed.
It will be remembered that I had already touched French terri-
tory at one point, Manyanga North, in the cataract district of the
great river. The region of French Congo is bounded on the north
by about 2° 20' of north latitude, on the east by the Ubangi river,
on the south by a part of the Free State and the Portuguese posses-
sion of Congo, and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. It should be
noted, however, that while about one-half of the northern frontier
is exactly fixed by the juxtaposition of the German Colony of Cam-
eroons, the other half is in process of being gradually pushed fur-
ther back, north and east, towards the great Negro Kingdoms of
the Soudan and along the upper Ubangi. It is here that M. de
Brazza is believed to be at present exploring, and engaged in making
treaties with native chiefs, with the view of the enlargement of the
French Central African sphere. We are greatly indebted for our
present knowledge of western Equatorial Africa to this intrepid and
indefatigable French explorer. Indeed it was upon his proposition
that the vast regions explored by him during a period of over ten
years were originally placed under the protection of France. The
area of French Congo is at present about 300,000 square miles,
and its population is estimated at 6,000,000. The country is
492 ACTUAL AFRICA.
largely covered with forests, and is without roads save only the na-
tive footpaths, though there are several large rivers, which are navi-
gable far into the interior. The Ogowe is the largest of these and
may be ascended by steamer upwards of two hundred miles. A
dozen stations or factories— French, Dutch and English— are
established upon its banks. There are as many more scattered
over the province, with a total of some three hundred Europeans,
exclusive of several hundred troops. The only exports at present
are the natural products of the country— ivory, India rubber, palm-
oil and kernels, and ebony — but successful experiments have been
made in growing coffee, cotton, sugar-cane, tobacco and vanilla.
The commerce of the territory, both exports and imports, amounts
to about 7,500,000 francs per year. There are eight schools for
boys and two for girls.
I might add that the region watered by the Ogowe and the
Gaboon, on which stands Libreville, the capital, was explored first
by M. Paul du Chaillu, in 1856, and again in 1865. Here he dis-
covered the gorilla, that great ape which so strikingly resembles
man. It will be remembered that his account of this animal was so
extraordinary as at first to be discredited in Europe and America,
though it was afterwards fully accepted. There seems little doubt
but that the gorilla is the connecting link between man and the rest
of the animal kingdom. It is interesting to note that several na-
tive tribes reject his flesh as food, regarding him as a member of
the human family.
Having breakfasted at the Belgian factory we steamed across to
Leopoldville, calling on the way at the Anglo-American Mission,
which is at present ably represented by Dr. Sims, a gentleman who
has been out upon the Congo nearly twelve years, with but one
single visit home. On the stocks here was the now historic steamer,
" Henry Reed." Among the buildings of the Mission is a neat
little brick church, and, besides the dwelling for future missionaries,
an edifice is in course of erection which is to serve for a technical
school. Elsewhere the boys are now taught carpentry, and brick
and tile making. At Leopoldville, where were lying three or four
of the State steamers, one or two of them being just built, we
called upon the Commissioner and upon M. Paul le Marinel, the
State Inspector, whom we had met on the Sankuru. Here I re-
luctantly took leave of Major Parminter, my companion on the
Kassai and its tributaries, including the memorable exploration of
the Kuilu. It was his intention to leave, in a few weeks, for Brus-
BACK TO STANLEY POOL. 493
sels, but by that time I expected to be far on ray way towards the
Niger. I afterwards learned that the Major arrived home late in
October, was taken seriously ill, and went to Nice, where he died,
early in February, or only a little over three months after his re-
turn from Africa. He was one of the most clever and amiable
men I ever met, and his death was a deep affliction to me, and a
great loss to the Belgian Commercial Company, that he had so
ably and faithfully served.
CHAPTER LV.
DESCENDING THE CONGO BY BOAT.
It was my intention to leave the next day, on my return to
Matadi. Twenty-one porters, with two headmen, had already been
engaged for the journey. I had a hammock, tent, bed and provis-
ions, and my faithful Lagos boy, " James," agreed to accompany
me, though he would have to return immediately to Kinchassa, as
he had obtained a position in the Commercial Company. I dined
with M. le Marinel at the general mess of the officials of the State,
both local and visiting, some fifty gentlemen, sitting at an immense
table, in the neat little brick house mentioned in the account of my
upward trip. The dinner, wine and cigars were worthy of Brussels,
and not to be expected in Central Africa. My caravan arrived
during the evening, and I arranged to start early in the morning.
I passed the night in M. le Marinel's little cottage, enjoying a long
talk with this genial gentleman — officer, explorer and administrator.
There had been parades of native soldiers about the post during the
afternoon, so I was not surprised to be awakened by a loud bugle-
call. Soon thereafter I was once more on the caravan road, a very
different one now from that which I had traversed some four
months before. Then all was green and rank in the vegetation,
and there were almost daily rains, and a rough muddy track. Now
I found a dusty road of sand or baked clay, the leaves of the trees
frequently discolored, the grass dry, and the country much burned
over, according to native custom. As I approached the foot of
Stanley Pool I could hardly recognise the locality ; the river had
shrunk to a third of its former width, and its furious channel was
lined with dark rocks, alternating with huge white sandbanks. It was
simply the difference between the wet and the dry season in a trop-
ical region near the Equator. After about four and a half hours of
alternate walking, and riding in my hammock, I stopped for the
night in the same station of the State in which I had slept before.
494
■HMHEKV
DESCENDING TEE CONGO BY BOAT. 495
I made six hours' march on each of the two following days, and
reached the Inkissi river. The streams were all shrunken to a
third of their previous dimensions, and I found that the State au-
thorities had been everywhere making good, strong bridges of huge
tree trunks, with transverse saplings for the roadways. They had
also been building new travellers' houses and repairing the old
ones. We met very many caravans, carrying the sections of new
iron steamers, to be put together at either Leopoldville or Kin-
chassa, and also articles of barter and provisions for the many
ports, stations, missions and factories of the interior.
Crossing the Inkissi by canoe I moved rapidly on until I
reached a market — one of the weekly affairs held on the top of a
hill under big trees — where I halted in order to give my men time
to buy some food. I then went on for three hours more, crossing
on a long narrow bridge the small, swift river that I had to swim
before, and spent the night at one of the State stations, but by
preference in my tent, as the house was not in good enough order
to keep out the strong wind. The mornings at this season are
remarkably cool, the sky is cloudy, and there is considerable fog in
the valleys. Though there are no rains, and the soil is parched,
the dews are heavy, and a very early march is undesirable on ac-
count of the necessity of passing through high wet grass. The
heavens look as though they would melt in heavy rain at any
moment, but usually at midday the sun comes forth with fervor
and it is very hot until four in the afternoon, when, though still
shining brightly, his sting is not much felt. At five it is again
cool, and one may always expect a comfortable night undisturbed
by mosquitoes. The dry season is of course much the best for
caravan travel, the roads being hard, and with no fear of sudden
showers one goes on with a certainty of making good speed. On
the third day after leaving the Inkissi river, after a steady walk
of six hours, I reached Manyanga, thus, excluding the delay caused
by the market, making the journey from Kinchassa in the quick
time of five days.
In order to vary my journey as much as possible I decided to
go down the Congo by boat to Isanghila, a distance of seventy-
three miles. Mr. Stanley, on his great journey, passed by land
along the north side of the river to Manyanga, and then took boat
to Isanghila, when he again removed to the land until reaching
Matadi. The Belgian Commercial Company have no boats upon
this part of the river, but the State has four, one or more of them
496 ACTUAL AFRICA.
generally running each week, and carrying cargoes of ivory and rub-
ber. They are the large steel whaleboats, or barges, of which I have
already spoken, being some thirty feet in length, six in breadth,
and four in depth. Each has a crew of twelve men, six of whom
row at a time, and two steersmen, who regularly relieve each other,
and one of whom is the " captain." At high water, the downward
voyage is made in a day-and-a-half, at low, in two or two-and-a-half,
and the return, in from eight to twelve. In descending, you gen-
erally keep to the centre of the river, in returning, to one bank or
the other, where a slight reverse current is often found. A small
sail is frequently used in coming up the river. At night you land
and camp. The rowers use long sweeps, and usually accompany
their work with singing or, rather, shouting. I have never heard
such barbaric music in my life. There is generally a leader or
" shanty-man," as sailors would say, and the others join in as a
very powerful chorus. They have but a short scale, which they
continually repeat until with the noise and the monotony you are
quite worn out. But these men cannot, or will not, work other-
wise, and so the traveller has to suffer. A long, steady stroke is
pulled, and the oars are even artistically " feathered."
We started about nine o'clock in the morning, our boat having
a heavy cargo of ivory, some 119 great tusks altogether. I placed
my baggage and blankets and wraps upon the ivory in the stern,
and arranged as comfortable a place as possible. There was no
awning, so I made use of my umbrella. During the greater part
of the day a fresh breeze blew up the river. The current was very
strong, and full of eddies, whirlpools and small rapids. The river
varies in width from a quarter of a mile to nearly two miles, is tor-
tuous, and full of large fish, for which the natives set nets along
the shores. The banks are often picturesque, with their thin fringes
of trees and their smooth grass-covered hills. You see no villages,
but there are many at a distance back from the north side, while
on the south, they are mostly confined to the immediate neighbor-
hood of the caravan road. No canoes, or but very few, are seen.
On both banks a number of rivers enter, the largest being the
Kuilu, on the south, which I had already crossed about twelve
miles above its mouth. This is not the " great " Kuilu, but a small
namesake. There are said to be both " crocs " and " hippos " in
this part of the Congo, though we did not happen to see any of
either species of animal. The general course of the river between
Manyanga and Isanghila is a little south of west. Formerly there
DESCENDING TEE CONGO BY BOAT. 497
were attempts made to use small steamers on this section of the
Congo, but they were not found available, and were in fact de-
stroyed by the sunken rocks. The banks of sand, the dark reefs
of rock (which seems a sort of slate, and is much broken and tilted
upon edge, as if by volcanic force), the brown grass, the green trees,
the swirling, chocolate-hued water, the rush and roar of the rapids,
the manoeuvring of the boat, the yelling and chanting of the crew,
each in turn claimed my interested or perfunctory attention.
I was hardly sorry, at five in the afternoon, to reach a station of
the State, situated on a low hill a short distance back from the
river, on the north bank. This is called M'bulu. The top of the
hill has been smoothed and laid out in streets, along one of which
was a row of huts, used as barracks for native soldiers. Behind the
station is a range of low hills, some of which are faced with cliffs
of dark rock. Before it the river takes a great turn, and you have
a fine view of its course and bordering hills in both directions.
We had a huge sandbank to cross, and then ascended to the post
and were welcomed by the superintendent, M. Charles Delgouffre,
whom I was able afterwards to compliment as having altogether
the best arranged, best made, and best kept station I had seen
anywhere in the Congo State. I spent the night with this gentle-
man, whose little sitting-room was ornamented with a variety of
pictures upon the walls, and filled with native curiosities, and large
cases full of useful books and journals in several languages.
I went on in the morning, took lunch on a sandbank, camped
on the south bank at night, and reached Isanghila at noon the
next day. This station was founded by Mr. Stanley, and the
framework of the house, which he built, still stands, though it has,
of course, received several roofings of grass since. Isanghila occu-
pies the smoothed top of a spur which projects into the river on
the north bank, a most breezy and commanding situation. Di-
rectly in front is the largest rapid I had seen, and one which no
boat of any kind could pass. A huge rough reef extends quite
across the river, in places being several feet out of the water. A
short distance below this the whole volume of the Congo is forced
between rocky walls not more than one thousand feet apart. A
fine bluff, with a great rough face of red and black rock, stands on
the left bank, directly opposite Isanghila. The rapids — they are
cataracts in one place — rush, and roar, and throw themselves up in
great masses of spray. And below them are long streaks of white
foam, shining forth in the dark body of the river. The wild
498 ACTUAL AFRICA.
aspect of Nature strikes you forcibly, and you see no native dwell-
ings, though to the north of Isanghila there are several large vil-
lages. The whole top of the station-hill has been faced about
with stone, before which is a ditch now filled with trees. It is
like a citadel. On one side is a neat little octagonal summer-
house, standing amidst pretty flowerbeds. On another side is a
large vegetable garden. From Isanghila to Matadi and Vivi the
general course of the river is due south, though in detail it re-
mains tortuous. There are two caravan roads on the west bank —
the " old " road, built by Mr. Stanley, which is the easiest and short-
est, and the " new " road, which is longer and follows the course
of several villages in the interior. The old road takes about three
days to traverse. There are at present no villages nor any State
posts or stations upon it, so that you have to sleep in your tent,
unless perchance you might find, for a night, hospitality at an
American Mission.
I proposed to make a combination of the two routes. As soon
as I arrived at Isanghila the superintendent sent to one of the
interior villages to try and get twenty porters for me, so that I
might continue my journey in the morning. But not until the
third day was he successful. These porters belonged to a much
sturdier and wilder tribe than those found upon the south bank
of the river. They were also darker in complexion, and most of
them wore large hoops of brass or silver wire in their ears. We
followed the bank of the river for a considerable distance, and
then headed inland and passed through as rough a bit of country
as I had seen in the Congo State. The hillocks were covered with
grass, and all the depressions and valleys were filled with forest.
We passed through much grass fifteen feet in height, and travel
here was very disagreeable, for whether you were on foot or in
your hammock, the canes were constantly striking against your
face and body. Native roads in Central Africa are as a rule only
kept open by the frequent passage of people.
After a march of eight hours I camped for the night in the
centre of a small village. A couple of hours after starting in the
morning I reached a village where most of my porters lived, and
here I waited some hours to give them time to get together enough
food to last them the remainder of our journey. A few hours
further and I arrived at a State post, one, however, having only a
black in charge. Here I spent the night in my tent. . The next
day I marched nine hours, crossing many small streams, some of
DESCENDING THE CON GO BY BOAT. 499
them upon good wooden bridges, built by the State authorities.
The road led through great grass-covered upland plains, and past
many villages. These usually consist of a single long street, lined
with huts built of palm-leaf ribs and grass. As upon our fashion-
able streets at home, the fronts of the houses here are always much
finer than the backs or sides, having facings of narrow strips of
wood, arranged in pretty geometric patterns. The doors are a
couple of feet from the ground. The natives seemed very partial
to huge brass anklets and wire bangles. When I entered a village
the leading men would always come up and welcome me with a
shake of the hand.
On the following day, after a march of eight hours, I reached
Matadi. During the early afternoon we had crossed the Lufu,
which is a considerable stream in the rainy season. From the sum-
mits of the hills which we passed, we got glimpses of Matadi some
two hours before reaching it, and also of the railroad, as it winds
along its rock-cut way, on the south hunk of the Congo. The scene
hereabouts is very picturesque. Matadi seemed about the last place
in the world suitable for founding a town, but necessity has chosen
the site, at the head of the Lower Congo navigation and the termi-
nus of the railway which is to circle the falls and rapids. Finally,
we came out upon the edge of the range of steep hills that borders
the river, and descended, by a very rough and precipitous zigzag
path, to a small sub-station of the State. Here I left my porters,
and crossed the river, in a large iron whaleboat, to the Belgian
Commercial Company's factory. Three steamers were at anchor
in the river, and these, together with the great iron hotel, the busy
railway yards, and the frequent puffs and shrieks of the locomo-
tives, produced quite a European impression. I stopped a day at
the factory, and then took passage in one of the British Africa
Company's steamers, a vessel of about 2,500 tons burden, for the
towns in the Gulf of Guinea. We were to go by the way of Am-
brizette, and St. Paul de Loanda, which would make my third visit,
within the year, to the capital of the Portuguese West African
possessions. We left Matadi at daylight, and spent six hours at
Boma, where my journey, of six months' duration and 4,000 miles'
extent, in the Congo Free State, was satisfactorily brought to a
close, and where I had the honor and pleasure of receiving a letter
of congratulation from the Governor-General, Major Wahis.
Five Powers— Great Britain, Germany, France, Portugal and
Belgium — have divided Equatorial Africa amongst them. The
500 ACTUAL AFRICA.
largest slice is the Congo Free State, which is four times the size
of France and more than seventy times that of little Belgium,
which rules its destiny. Seeing that the State is not yet a decade
old, it has made very rajiid progress. It is being carefully explored
in every part. It has about one hundred posts or stations now
established, while the Belgian Commercial Company has fifty fac-
tories, the Dutch have twelve, and the Portuguese twelve. A
number of these are at present only peopled by blacks, but still,
including the Protestant and Catholic Missions, there is a total of
quite 150 foreign settlements, with 1,000 Europeans. The exports
of the State amounted, in 1891, to 6,375,000 francs — more than
half of which, in value, was in ivory, and a quarter in palm-kernels.
The two succeeding articles were palm-oil and rubber. Latterly,
however, rubber is coming strongly to the front. This and ivory
will, doubtless, for a long time remain the chief products of the
State, though the exports will, probably, not increase very much
until the agricultural resources of the country are developed. The
people have few wants, and these being easily supplied, the ultimate
value of this region will depend more upon its plantations and
exports than its stations and imports. But nothing can be done
in dealing directly with the natives. What is really needed to
push civilisation into the interior of the Congo Free State is the
method that has proved so successful in the Negro Eepublic of
Liberia, of importing civilised negroes from the plantations of the
United States, and planting small settlements of them upon the
rivers of the interior. These negro farmers would take up lands,
push out among the natives, and set the example of industry, and
improved mechanical and agricultural operations. They would
raise for export the crops best suited to the Congo region — cotton,
sugar, coffee, rice, tobacco, indigo and ground-nuts — crops with
which they are perfectly familiar at borne. The natives would
gradually be led to follow the example of these settlers in house-
building, road and bridge making, farming and, eventually, even
school-going, and so, without friction or violence, would fall into
the paths of civilised life. The negroes of the Southern United
States have generally a strong desire to return to Africa, and I feel
sure that, at this moment, at least 50,000 picked men might be en-
gaged for service and settlement in the Congo Free State.
■I
Coffins of Native Chiefs.
CHAPTER LVL
IN CAMEROONS AND THE NIGER TERRITORY.
We spent one clay at Ambrizette, and one at Loanda and, return-
ing, stopped a day at Ambriz, and two more at three English fac-
tories in the vicinity, engaged mostly in loading coffee and rubber,
and then we left for Cabinda, where we only remained half a day,
and then went to Landana, two hours' steaming distant, staying
there also half a day. From Landana we proceeded direct to Came,
roons, passing along the coast of French Congo and by the months
of the Ogowe and the Gaboon, and crossing the Equator, near
which is Libreville, the capital. I had wished and intended to
have paid a visit there of a few days, having been honored with a
letter of introduction to the Governor from M. Ribot, who was so
long the French Minister of Foreign Affairs and afterwards for a
briefer period the Premier, but my particular steamer of the Eng-
lish line did not call at the French ports, and so I was forced to
pass on to Cameroons. We were soon in the Bight of Biafra, the
northern and eastern corner of the Gulf of Guinea. To the north-
west lay the beautiful island of Fernando Po, which I afterwards
visited.
The German Protectorate of Cameroons has a coast-line of 120
miles on the Bight of Biafra, and longitude 15° east may be re-
garded as its present eastern or inland limit, though this is grad-
ually being extended. Towards the north its barrier is the Benue
river, the great easterly branch of the Niger, and a geographical
line drawn northeasterly from the corner of the Bight of Biafra to
the town of Yola, on the Benue. The area is now placed at 130,000
square miles, and the population at 2,500,000. Among the inhab-
itants there are upwards of one hundred whites, of whom two-
thirds are Germans, and the remainder mostly English. There is
an Imperial Governor, who is assisted by a local council. The
country is fertile, and there is an active trade in palm oil and ker-
501
502 ACTUAL AFRICA.
nels, and ivory. The cultivation of coffee and cacao has been suc-
cessfully introduced, and several stations have been established in
the interior, but various attempts to penetrate far, and to make set-
tlements, have been frustrated by the hostile attitude of the natives.
The Cameroons river is some six or eight miles wide at its
mouth, with low and level, thickly wooded banks. We ascended
for a few miles, and then anchored for the night. The river was
quite like an estuary, with a yellowish and thick flood. We went
on at daylight, and anchored opposite Cameroons — the capital takes
the name of the territory and river— which is about forty miles
from the sea, the river being here some three miles wide. Near
us lay a small German man-of-war, a hospital ship, and two or three
old-fashioned hulks used as trading-shops, two of them flying the
British flag. Cameroons is upon the left bank, a high wooded bluff,
on which the vegetation is very dense and of a rich velvety green
color. There was an abundance of palm and banana trees. In the
centre the German flag floated from a tall staff, and near it were
the neat dwelling of the Governor and several government offices,
most of them being built of iron and raised upon columns of
masonry. Along the shore were wooden wharves and piers, and
many workshops for making and repairing the small steamers and
launches used hereabouts. Above the German settlement, were
the buildings of two or three foreign factories, and plying about
the river were many long, narrow, and sharp canoes, full of chat-
tering natives.
Upon landing, and walking about Cameroons, one is at once
impressed by the great exuberance of the vegetation, the two essen-
tial requisites for obtaining which, heat and moisture, being here
found in abundance. Good roads lead in every direction. Bound
about the Governor's residence is a beautiful flower garden, and a
park which contains many rare and interesting plants. At a little
distance back from the river are the two large native villages of
Aqua Town and Bell Town, which adjoin each other. The Cam-
eroons river extends a considerable distance into the interior, has
forest-clad banks, and is full of pretty, wooded islands. A little
north of Cameroons, across the estuary, are the Cameroons moun-
tains, a lofty volcanic ridge extending nearly north and south, and
densely covered with forest. The highest peak is called " Victoria,"
and reaches an altitude of 13,120 feet. It is not yet wholly ex-
tinct. Owing to clouds and haze we could not see this range.
We passed the day in loading rubber and palm oil, and left early
IN CAMEEOONS AND TEE NIGER TERRITORY. 503
the next morning for Victoria, a small German settlement, with
several large native villages, lying at the hase of the peak of like
name. In a few hours we entered a semi-circular roadstead lined
with beautiful forest-clad hills, and containing several pretty little
islands and a row of picturesque rough rocks. One of the islands
belongs to England, and has a commodious house for her consul,
which is not however at present occupied. On shore are several
large buildings, the abodes of German officials and of the members
of an English trading-house. The range of mountains is very
broken and striking. A sharp peak to the left of the settlement is
about a mile in height, but " Victoria Peak " was so constantly
covered with clouds we could not see one- half of its height.
We remained the rest of the day, engaged in loading palm oil
and kernels, and ebony, and then headed away for Old Calabar,
which is situated on the left bank of the Old Calabar river, about
fifty miles from the shores of the gulf. At six o'clock the next
morning we were entering the estuary of the river, which is about
fifteen miles in width. The water was muddy and full of drift
wood. The banks were low and flat, and thickly covered with
forest, with a fringe of mangroves along the water's edge. We
passed many wooded islands and ran often within a stone's throw
of the shore, where there was always a good depth of water. We
passed the mouth of the Cross river, which is about a mile in
width. It is down this stream that the greatest amount of palm
oil and kernels comes. The tree producing these flourishes for a
long distance inland all along the borders of central West Africa,
though more especially round the coasts of the Gulf of Guinea.
It is a comparatively low and thick-stemmed palm, with long
coarse pinnated leaves. At the point where the leaves branch from
the stem hangs the fruit, a large bunch of reddish-yellow plums,
which when ripe are picked, and boiled in huge kettles to extract
the oil of commerce. Some of these bunches contain as many as a
thousand nuts and weigh fifty pounds. It is from the palm-oil, of
course, that the greater part of our common soap is made.
We reached Old Calabar about ten o'clock, and anchored near
the shore. In the river, which is here half a mile in width, were
lying a small British steamer, a two-decked, flat-bottomed stern-
wheeler, and a number of steam launches. Long row-boats belong-
ing to the factories, and many canoes, filled with natives, passing
hither and thither, gave animation to the scene. The town lies
upon a high bluff and along the river's edge. In a cleared space
504 ACTUAL AFRICA.
above, in a prominent position, are the iron government build-
ings ; in a low break in the bluff is the large native town, com-
prising houses with mud plastered walls and grass roofs, and a
few scattered ones of iron, two stories in height, and raised upon
pillars. The buildings of the different factories are generally
built on wharves extending into the river. They are neat and
commodious, and give the place quite an air of business pros-
perity. Around the town are thick forests of palms, bamboos
and bananas. On the opposite bank are a few isolated facto-
ries. The chief exports from here are palm oil and kernels,
India rubber, ivory and ebony. Large items in the imports are
spirits, tobacco, guns and gunpowder. The exports of the district
of which Old Calabar is the capital average in value 14,500,000
per annum, and the imports $3,500,000. Almost the entire trade
is in the hands of British merchants, who have been established
here upwards of a century. A few years ago the majority of these
traders amalgamated into the African Association, Limited, of
Liverpool, with a nominal capital of $10,000,000, and with power
to increase as high as $25,000,000. The subscribed capital is
$2,500,000. What are specifically termed the " Oil Rivers," of
West Africa, are the many-branched mouths of the Niger, the Old
Calabar and Cross rivers, and the Cameroons river. They are, of
course, so styled on account of the immense quantity of palm-oil
trees which grow on their banks and the intervening plains, and
whose oil and kernels are brought down them for export from the
seaboard. Old Calabar is the capital of a territory called the Oil
Rivers District, of which the government is administered by an
Imperial Commissioner and Consul- General. It was the able and
genial Sir Claude M. Macdonald who held this position at the time
of my visit. I may further explain here, that what is known as the
Niger District Protectorate, extends from the Cameroons on the
east to Lagos on the west, about four hundred miles, and north-
wards embraces the Niger and its branch the Benue, and the vast
triangle of country between these as far as 14° north latitude, or
about eight hundred miles. It is a region 500,000 square miles
(ten times the State of New York) in area, with a population
estimated at 17,000,000. It is divided into two separate systems :
the Niger Territories, between the great river and its branch, and
the Oil Rivers District, along the Gulf of Guinea. They were ob-
tained by means of nearly four hundred treaties with native states
and tribes and by international agreements by a British Company
IN CAMEROONS AND TEE NIGER TERRITORY. 505
called the National African Company, Limited, which was founded
in 1882, for the express purpose of obtaining these regions for
Great Britain. The Niger Territories are governed at present by
the Royal Niger Company, under a charter issued in July, 1886.
Its nominal capital of $5,000,000 is fully subscribed, and it has
power to increase indefinitely.
We remained three days at Old Calabar, loading palm-oil and
India rubber, and then left for Clarence, on the island of Fernando
Po. On the way we enjoyed a fine view of Victoria Peak, and of
Clarence Peak in Fernando Po. The latter is a gently sloping
cone, and just at the side of the summit you can see the plain of
the old crater. The peak is 2,000 feet lower than, and not nearly
so impressive as, Teneriffe. The island, which belongs to Spain, is
twenty or thirty miles distant from the mainland. It is about
forty miles long and twenty broad, and extends almost due north
and south. It is thickly covered with forest, and shows no Euro-
pean settlement save only Clarence (or Santa Isabel, as it was first
named by the Spaniards) the capital, situated at the northern base
of the peak. The island is, however, inhabited by a peculiar tribe,
who are repulsive in appearance, and whom it seems impossible to
civilise. Clarence is a small decayed town, built upon the top of a
steep bluff, some fifty or sixty feet in height. This extends a little
distance northwards from the shore, and upon the western side
forms a semi-circular roadstead, which is so deep that a large
steamer can lie within a cable's length of the shore. Here we
anchored near an old hulk, used by the captain of the port, and a
little gun-boat. Along the shore were a few warehouses, and
some wharves covered with casks of palm-oil. Towards the end
of the point were large iron buildings used for government offices
and as a residence for the Spanish governor. The houses of the
town, which extend along the edge of the bluff, were mostly small,
of a single story, and built of iron. Among them was a small
church. Scattered about were many clumps of palms and bananas.
Fernando Po is used chiefly, by Spain, as a place of exile for polit-
ical offenders.
We remained but four hours, and departed for Bonny Town,
situated in the Niger Delta, on the left bank of the Bonny river,
near the shore of the gulf. We arrived the following day. The
mouth of Bonny river is about eighty miles due west of that of
the Old Calabar. The sea is very shallow all along this coast,
and the entrance to each of these rivers is marked by long lines
34
506 ACTUAL AFRICA.
of iron buoys. The land is low and level, and covered with thick
forest. As we passed in towards Bonny river great rows of break-
ers foamed and roared on either side of the channel. To the
left lay an island having a few small iron houses upon it. This
is used by the people at Bonny as a sanatorium. Near here a
small English gun-boat lay at anchor. We steamed slowly up the
river and anchored opposite the settlement. This is very small,
and consists of the one- and two-story iron buildings of three or
four large factories, which have long piers to facilitate the ship-
ping of their palm-oil, etc. Just appearing behind these factories
were the huts of a good-sized native town. In the river was an-
chored one of the great old-fashioned hulks — with a peaked iron
roof covering houses built upon its deck — used as trading-stores,
and formerly as dwellings also, by all the white traders, who found
them more healthy than a residence on shore. The river Bonny,
which is one of the eastern mouths of the Niger, was one of the
first places on the coast known to Europeans. From the sixteenth
century to the end of the first quarter of this, it was the favorite
mart of the slave ships, from 15,000 to 20,000 slaves being tran-
shipped here annually. There is a dense native population in the
delta of the Niger. These people are repulsive-looking, savage,
grossly superstitious, and still addicted to human sacrifices. They
were formerly great cannibals, and human flesh was openly exposed
for sale in their markets like so much beef. They ate also the
bodies of their captives of war, believing that this food was con-
ducive to bravery.
At noon we raised anchor and started on for Lagos, in the
Bight of Benue, passing the principal outlet of the Niger — the
Nun mouth — on which is the town of Akassa, the starting point
of the flotilla of river steamers. I had originally intended to as-
cend both the Niger and the Benue as high as possible, but the
unexpected journey from Cape Town to Funchal and Mossamedes,
and subsequent delay in the Congo Free State, added four months
to my scheduled itinerary, and I found the water so low in the
Niger that the steamers were only running upon its lower reaches.
I therefore can only present the reader with such brief general in-
formation regarding the present condition of this interesting part
of Africa, as was furnished me by the officials of the Boyal Niger
Company.
The Niger is one of the largest and most important rivers in
the " dark continent." Its length is about 2,300 miles. Its upper
IN CAMEROONS AND TEE NIGER TERRITORY. 507
waters are also known as the Joliba, and the lower as the Qnorra.
Its great easterly branch is recognised both as the Benue and the
Chadda. The Niger, by which name the whole of the main river
is familiar to us, rises about two hundred miles east-north-east of
Sierra Leone and flows first northeastwards towards the famous
town of Timbuctoo, on the borders of the Great Sahara ; next it
turns east through the desert and continues in a general south-
easterly direction to its mouth — or rather mouths, for there is a
delta of twenty-two of them — between the Bights of Benue and
Biafra. I may mention that Timbuctoo, now in possession of the
French, is not, as many people imagine, directly upon the Niger,
but nine miles distant. Its port is called Kabara, and between the
two the short tract is quite desert. The Niger is navigable for six
hundred miles. The Benue or Chadda — which is wider at the
confluence than the Niger — joins it at four hundred miles from its
mouth. This stream is also navigable six hundred miles, making
a total distance of 1,000 miles from the gulf. The Benue rises to
the south of Lake Chad and flows in a west-south-west direction to
the Niger. Its waters are clear and blue, in direct contrast to the
muddy brown of the Niger. Factories were built along the main
river, by the English, at the same time the African Steamship
Company was established, in 1852. Sow the navigation is regu-
larly carried on, by some thirty steamers, throughout the year,
and extends as high as the varying seasons of flood will permit.
These steamers are all armed, for the natives along the banks are
occasionally hostile. They carry up a great variety of European
goods, and bring down palm oil and kernels, hides, India rubber,
ivory, gums, and " shea " butter. This latter is a sort of vegetable,
or tree, butter which is derived from the oil contained in the seeds
of a tree allied to the genus Bassia. The seeds are boiled, and the
" butter " extracted is not only whiter and more solid than that
made from cow's milk, but it has a very pleasant taste, and will
keep for a year without salting. The oil-palm district is in the
lower part of the river; from the upper river comes the great
variety of products.
The delta of the Niger is a dead flat. Its many branches
here are connected by a network of creeks, which naturally in-
jure the navigation in the few large channels. Beyond this low
delta land, covered mostly with dense forests of oil-palms, the
Niger opens out into a beautiful stream, studded with pretty
islands, and lined with forests in which cotton-trees and many
508 ACTUAL AFRICA.
varieties of palm are prominent features. The first important
town is Abo, at the head of the delta and in the very centre of the
palm-oil district. Near the town of Iddah, some miles above, red
sandstone cliffs rise perpendicularly from the river, and the scenery
becomes greatly improved, consisting of great plains and table-
lands, with distant mountains. The character of the natives seems
also to improve as you go up the river. They are much more
civilised, and are devoted to agriculture. Nearly opposite a town
called Igbegbe, just below the mouth of the Benue, is Lukoja,
where a " model farm " was founded in 1841 by an expedition sent
out by the British government, but which failed through the great
mortality of the Europeans. It is now one of the chief trading
stations on the river. Beyond Lukoja the Niger winds through a
rich and cultivated valley, ten to thirty miles wide, as far as the
important town of Egga, which has a population of about 50,000.
This is a Mohammedan town, as all the countries in the Central
Soudan profess this faith. Yola, on the Benue, is only 250 miles
from Lake Chad. It is the capital of the native state of Adamawa
— which lies north of the Cameroons, and south and southwest of
the Benue — whose inhabitants are said by the French explorer,
Mizon, to be intelligent and industrious. They are of handsome
appearance, and have yellowish-red complexions.
The Eoyal Niger Company has at present forty-two stations,
the most important being Akassa, with workshops for the repair of
steamers ; the capital, Asaba, 150 miles up the river, the adminis-
tration headquarters, where are the local official buildings, the su-
preme court, the central prison, civil and military hospital, and a
botanical garden ; and Lukoja, with the headquarters of the mili-
tary force. This numbers about 1,000 men, chiefly Haussas, and
is officered by Europeans. In addition to this, each administrative
district has its magistrate, supported by a small police force. The
central government is conducted by the Council in London. The
governor is the Et. Hon. Lord Aberdare, and the deputy-governor,
Sir George Taubman-Goldie, who had kindly given me letters of
introduction to the local authorities. Control has so recently been
taken of this immense and populous region that trade is yet in its
infancy. But it is known to be a rich agricultural country, produc-
ing rice and other grains, onions, dates, honey and cotton. There
are also extensive manufactures of sandals, saddles, harness and
other leather goods. The chief imports are cotton-goods, earth-
enware, hardware, beads, salt, tobacco, silks and woolen goods.
ffl CAMEROONS AND THE NIGER TERRITORY. 509
All imports are free, except tobacco and salt. The revenue is
principally raised by export duties.
The Niger Territories include the great empire of Sokoto or
Haussa-Land, the largest and most populous in the Soudan. It
is a state about the size of Spain. The dominant race is remark-
ably courteous and intelligent, and, though Moslem, not bigoted.
The internal commerce of the Soudan is mainly carried on by the
Haussas. The social system is chiefly based upon slavery. Ful-
lah is the official language, but Haussa is the chief medium of
intercourse, in fact, Haussa is the lingua franca of the whole
Central Soudan, and is spoken by probably 15,000,000 people.
Wurno on the river Gandi, a branch of the Niger, with a popu-
lation of 15,000, is the present capital. Large towns are Kano,
with 100,000, and Katsena, with 00,000 inhabitants. It is said that
the present Emperor of Sokoto exercises direct jurisdiction over
only a comparatively small portion of his dominions, most of
which are ruled by vassal kings and chiefs, enjoying royal pre-
rogatives, and attached to the central government only by the pay-
ment of an annual tribute. The Emperor has a Council of State
comprising the prime minister, the commander of the army, the
heir-apparent, the treasurer, and the chief of the slaves. The
army is estimated at 90,000 infantry and 30,000 cavalry, which,
however, are scattered over the country, and levied and controlled
mainly by the vassal kings. The revenue is raised by the tribute
above mentioned, and by direct taxation. The Royal Niger Com-
pany has full sovereign power through a large part of this empire,
and complete jurisdiction — civil, criminal and fiscal — over all non-
native residents throughout the remainder. The authority of
the company is exercised for the suppression of all slave-raiding,
and the chiefs are required to submit their disputes to arbitra-
tion, instead of resorting to intertribal war. The importation of
rifles and cartridges into any part of the protectorate has been
prohibited. Spirits are charged a heavy import duty, and cannot
be imported at all into the districts lying to the north of lati-
tude 7° north. Their consumption, as a consequence, is said to be
not now one-fourth of what it was before 1886.
The northern coast of the Gulf of Guinea, and even that ex-
tending to Sierra Leone, was formerly called by European traders
the Guinea Coast, and beginning at the eastern corner, the Bight
of Biafra, was divided into the Slave Coast, Gold Coast, Ivory
Coast and Grain Coast, from the various products — human, vege-
510 ACTUAL AFRICA.
table and mineral — which, coming from the interior, thereabouts
reached the sea. These names have, however, lost their signifi-
cance and, save only that of the Gold Coast, are now rarely used,
though frequently appearing upon our maps. The Grain Coast
was not so called from the production of any cereals in that
region, but from the grain of the pepper plant, which grows
there in abundance. The Ivory Coast now affords no ivory, pro-
ducing nothing but cocoanut groves. The Gold Coast retains
its title with propriety, for a recent development of gold-mining
has given it much importance.
CHAPTER LVII.
OX AND OFF THE GUINEA COAST.
Early in the morning of the third day after leaving Bonny
we were at anchor — in company with six other steamers — some
fonr or five miles from the island and town of Lagos. There
were heavy breakers in every direction. We could plainly discern
the distant dwellings and warehouses, interspersed with many trees.
The Lagos river, which drains a large interior lagoon, is narrow,
and somewhat obstructed by a bar at its mouth. The trans-ship-
ment of cargo is therefore usually made into small steamers,
though several of the ocean-going vessels do not draw too much
to enter. Lagos is a British Colony and, besides the town and
island of this name, embraces a strip of territory on the main-
land nearly 250 miles long. The total area is about 1,000 square
miles, and the population 85,000. The town is the most popu-
lous one on the west coast of Africa — having 50,000 inhabitants
— and is a place of great commercial importance. The low island
upon which it lies is separated from the continent by the lagoon,
which is fifteen miles wide. The soil is sandy and covered with rank
vegetation. There are also many swamps which, together with
the presence of the lagoon, make the place very unhealthy. Lagos
was formed into a colony about thirty years ago. The present
governor is Sir Gilbert Carter, to whom I was indebted for several
courtesies. There are said to be 150 Europeans in the colony.
At the English, French and German trading-stores }rou can buy
anything from a fish-hook to a cask of rum, from a coral neck-
lace to a slice of cheese. The most important exports are, of
course, palm oil and palm kernels. About three days' journey
inland to the north, in the great province of Yoruba, is the town
of Abbeokuta, with a population of 80,000, and a couple of days'
journey farther to the northeast, is Ibadan, with a population of
150,000, being one of the largest cities in Africa, with long and
wide streets, lined with shops.
511
512 ACTUAL AFRICA.
In continuing our voyage, we first passed the French Possession
of Dahomey, of which the most important town and port upon the
coast is Whydah. The capital, Abomey, since the late war in the
occupancy of the French, is seventy miles inland to the north. It
had formerly a population of 15,000. Next we passed the German
Protectorate of Togoland, having about the same area as Dahomey,
but double the population. Lome is the chief port. The com-
merce is the usual barter-trade for palm-oil and ivory. Having
passed Togoland, and left the Bight of Biafra, we reach the im-
portant British Possession called Gold Coast Colony, which extends
along the shore of the Gulf of Guinea for a distance of about 350
miles — from Togoland to the French sphere or area of influence —
with a protectorate extending inland to an average distance of 150
miles. The total population of this colony is nearly 2,000,000, in-
cluding 150 Europeans.
The Gold Coast was known more than five hundred years ago.
The French, Portuguese, Dutch, Danes and British have all had
settlements here. It is now, however, entirely in the hands of
the British, who first bought the factories and possessions of the
Danes and then of the Dutch. Western Africa has been known
from immemorial times as a gold-producing country, and it is said
that in the seventeenth century Elmina — a town situated in about
the centre of this coast — alone exported $1,500,000 worth of the
precious metal. The gold was washed in the rudest way, by the
negroes, from the alluvial soil, but latterly the country has been
prospected anew, and much improved machinery has been intro-
duced. Some twenty or more English and other companies, it
is reported, are now at work there. The seat of government is at
Accra, the chief port of the eastern part of the coast, and our next
calling station. It has a population of about 20,000. Other notable
towns are Cape Coast Castle, 25,000 ; Elmina 6,000 ; and Adda
7,000. Adda is situated near the mouth of the Volta river — a large
and important stream, navigable by small steamers in the rainy
season for two hundred miles. From Cape Coast Castle, which
is eighty miles to the west of Accra, a road, one hundred miles
long, leads northerly to Coomassie, the former capital of the
Ashantee kingdom. Elmina, near Cape Coast Castle, was the
earliest European settlement in this region, having been founded
by the Portuguese in 1481. The Dutch Admiral De Euyter took
it by stratagem in 1637, and it remained the capital of the posses-
sions of Holland on the coast till its transfer to Great Britain in 1873.
ON AND OFF TEE GUINEA COAST. 513
The exports from the Gold Coast, besides the produce of the
palm tree and gold, are rubber, timber, ivory, camwood, gum-
copal and monkey-skins. The exports in 1892 were valued at
£655,000, and the imports at £597,000. Coffee and cocoa are be-
ing widely cultivated. Eailways are about to be constructed for
the transit of produce from the interior to the coast. Telegraphs
and telephones are largely employed, and the parcel-post and
money-order system are established. The climate, unfortunately, is
hot, damp and malarious. Great efforts are now being made by
the government to improve the sanitary condition of the coast
towns. The natives, like the foreigners, suffer greatly from ma-
larial fever. The Gold Coast and Lagos — as well as Sierra Leone
and Gambia, further to the westward and north — are all British
Crown Colonies, with a governor, and executive and legislative
Councils.
We reached Accra at nine in the morning and anchored in its
semi-circular roadstead, two miles from shore, and near another
steamer, belonging to the same company, and a small brig. Round
about were some fifty or more native fishing canoes. The town
lies upon the top of a high bluff, and is backed by pretty, smooth
hills, covered with grass and scant woods. The shore presents a wide
beach of fine white sand. The neighboring country is in strong
contrast to that which we have seen since leaving Old Calabar, be-
ing much higher, and covered with pasture instead of forest. The
town has the appearance of those upon the east coast, like Zanzibar,
having many large buildings of two stories, with flat roofs. Each
of the foreign consuls has a large " bungalow " standing in a " com-
pound " of trees, and surrounded by stone walls. There is a suburb
to the east of Accra, called Christiansborg, where are the residence
of the governor and the government buildings. An old-fashioned,
bastioned, buttressed and towered fort stands here, and another is
at the opposite, the western end. These mount a number of good-
sized cannon. The native settlements are of mud-walled, grass-
peak-roofed huts, standing end to end close together, with wide
streets between the rows. It being Sunday all the consular flags
were flying, and gave a pleasing color and life to the scene. Accra
stands near the 0° of longitude, the meridian of Greenwich.
Though it is so high and open it is reported to be very un-
healthy for the white visitor or settler, and even for the native resi-
dent. The canoes and whaleboats, which came off to us from
shore, were comparatively small, wide and high, as is necessary for
514 ACTUAL AFRICA.
a good surf-boat. The paddles used are small, with short handles,
and blades carved into three points like the calyx of a flower re-
versed. The blacks here are a well-developed race physically, very
bright, lively and good-natured. Their actual strength and endur-
ance, however, does not bear out their fine muscular appearance.
They paddle quickly, sitting four or six on a side, either directly
on, or close to, the gunwale, often singing merrily as they go. Not
finding at Accra any cargo we went, on the same day, to our next
port, Axim, about 160 miles to the westward, upon the same " gold
coast."
We arrived at Axim about ten the following morning, and an-
chored in its circular roadstead, some two miles from shore, near
another steamer of the same company, bound for Hamburg, and
engaged in loading great square logs of a species of mahogany, for
the shipment of which this port and a few neighboring ones are
especially noted. The wood is not so valuable, though perhaps as
useful, as that obtained in Honduras. These logs, weighing from
one to four tons each, cut and squared in the forests of the interior
and floated down the rivers to the coast, are towed out to us from
the beach by large row-boats, or by long cables attached to our
steam-winches, and hoisted aboard by the same power. The
country about Axim is very picturesque, with greatly diversified
wooded hills, faced by a rocky and sandy shore. The town is a
considerable place. On a knoll in the centre is a queer old fort
with massive walls, but which in its dilapidated condition looks an
easy prey to a 12-pounder cannon. There are several native vil-
lages and, scattered among them, some large two-storied dwellings
and warehouses, belonging to white settlers. Many palm and
banana trees appear, as also a few huge cottonwoods. At night
I witnessed the most extraordinary display of phosphorus upon
the surface of the sea I have ever observed in any part of the
world. It was the midnight sky transplanted to the ocean. Every
ripple broke into great masses and points of soft silver light, and
glowed momentarily with supernatural effulgence. The horizon
showed a long line of flashing, burning light, like a row of break-
ers upon a sunken reef. Along the windward side of the steamer
were great patches of opaque fire that seemed like silver islands.
The golden glare of glow-worms and fire- flies of the shore was re-
placed by the silver spots and satin sheen of the sea. It was a
most fairy-like scene, and continued with little loss of extent or
degree for several hours. Think of the number of millions of the
ON AND OFF THE GUINEA COAST. 515
little animalcules that are said to produce this curious and beauti-
ful phenomenon !
The process of loading logs is naturally slow, and we remained
five days at Axim, and at a little village called Prince, some ten
miles to the eastward. Then we went to Assini, a port about
eighty miles to the westward, and in French territory. Assini is
simply a large village running for some distance along a very nar-
row ridge of sand which separates a large interior lagoon from
the sea. It contains three or four sizable two-story houses, the
dwellings of English traders, the rest are the ordinary small wicker-
work huts of the natives of this part of Africa. We have left be-
hind the "gold " coast, and are now at the so-called " ivory " coast.
Into the lagoon there enters a small river, called the Bia, down
which the logs are floated, then rolled over the long ridge of sand,
and next drawn through the surf to the steamer. We stopped
here three days, and then proceeded to Grand Bassam, also in
French territory, and distant fifty miles from Assini. A small
French steamer and two brigantines were anchored here. We
drew in as close as possible to the shore and began to load logs.
At Grand Bassam is a small native town and about a dozen two-
story houses belonging to foreigners. These stand upon low level
ground and face the great sandy beach. The country hereabouts
is covered with forest. As at Assini a large lagoon lies behind
the town and into it empties a river called the Kamoe. The la-
goon is connected with the sea by a narrow opening. We stopped
here two days and completed our cargo of logs, nearly 1,000 of
them, which it took several days to carefully stow and secure.
The next point of call was Cavally, on the Kroo coast, and about
three hundred miles from Grand Bassam.
The " Kroo coast " means the eastern part of the shore of
Liberia. The aboriginal people here are the Kroos, Kroomen
or Kroo " boys " as they are diversely called. Their chief seats
are at Cavally, Grand Sesters and thereabouts, in the vicinity of
Cape Palmas, the most southerly point of the country. This por-
tion of Liberia bears the familiar title of Maryland. The natives
here are superior to any other of the negro race as navigators.
They are robust and industrious, though timid, thievish and super-
stitious. They readily acquire foreign languages, though succeed-
ing best with English. I was once much surprised at meeting
one who could speak, and fairly well, English, French, Portu-
guese and German. Without these hardy natives the commerce
516 ACTUAL AFRICA.
of Western Africa would be carried on with great difficulty. It
is customary for all vessels trading on this coast to take gangs
of Kroomen to do the rough work of the ships and to land and
ship cargo. This is to save the white crew from too much labor
in the sun. They are also extensively employed by men-of-war.
The gangs are organised by head men, who become responsible for
the proper treatment of the " boys " when away from home. They
generally engage themselves only for a single round- voyage down
the western coast and back, or at most for no longer a period than
one year. The Kroos are fully capable of civilisation but inva-
riably after their terms of service return to their barbarous condi-
tion in their native place, as is so often the custom with semi-
enlightened people. Off the town of Cavally we were met by a
fleet of small sharp canoes, each propelled by two men. These
were Kroos, men looking like so many pugilists. They were
clothed only in narrow loin-cloths ; a few sported naval or other
caps. Their sole desire in the way of extra dress seemed to confine
itself to some sort of head-gear. They had come out from their
village to take home a portion of our black crew, their relatives
and friends, and such a shouting, scrambling and fighting crowd I
never beheld. They ran into each other, their canoes becoming
half full of water, and one of the two occupants seemed to confine
his time and strength to the process of baling. Our men quickly
lowered themselves into the canoes, by ropes from the steamer's
deck, and their many small boxes of baggage followed in the same
fashion. A woman was let down in a chair, which was secured to
a rope attached to a winch. We had to stop but a few minutes,
and then went on to Cape Palmas. In the roadstead here a Brit-
ish man-of-war and a Liberian gun-boat were anchored. The
former had been cruising along the coast to maintain some sort of
order among the blacks, who are very turbulent, one village being
frequently at war with another. Cape Palmas is a low and narrow
promontory, on whose extremity is the high stone tower of a light-
house, and, near it, the great several-storied building of a Protes-
tant Mission. Where the promontory adjoins the main land are
large native villages and many European factories. The point and
surrounding country are prettily covered with palms — and hence
the name of the Cape. We left a number of our crew here and
at Eocktown, a little to the westward, and then headed for Grand
Sesters, where we parted with the remainder. At Grand Sesters
the large native village was of circular huts, which looked like an
ON AND OFF TEE GUINEA COAST. 517
assembly of yellow candle-extinguishers. From here we bore away
to Sierra Leone.
We were now skirting the " grain " coast of Liberia. We had
frequent views of the land, which is either flat and sandy or steep
and rocky. From twenty to thirty miles inland, however, the face
of the country is said to change to wooded hills and then to moun-
tains, fertile valleys and table-lands. Upon the latter wheat, barley,
and oats will grow. In lower regions are freely produced rice and
maize, cotton and sugar-cane, and many useful dye-woods, rich
cabinet-woods, and gum and medicinal plants. The country is
extremely fertile and well-watered. There are a great variety of
profitable products — coffee, palm nuts and oil, cocoa, sugar, arrow-
root, wax, ginger, indigo, and also ivory, hides and gold dust. All
these products are now exported. In 1889 1,000,000 pounds of
coffee were produced. Iron ore, copper and other minerals exist
in the interior.
I take this opportunity to interpolate a few facts respecting
Liberia, or more exactly the United States of Liberia, which form
an independent negro republic, whose centre is in about latitude
7° north. It extends for five hundred miles along the coast,
with an inland breadth of about one hundred miles. Liberia was
founded by the American Colonisation Society in 1820, as an
asylum for such of the negroes of the United States as had at-
tained their freedom. It was declared an independent state in
1847, its constitution and government being modelled upon that
of the United States. It now has treaty relations with all the
Great Powjrs. It has a President, Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives. The President and members of the House are elected
for two years, members of the Senate for four. At present there
are eight Senators and thirteen Representatives. The President
must be thirty-five years of age, and have real property to the
value of $600. He is advised and assisted by a cabinet of five
ministers— the Secretary of State, of the Treasury and of the
Interior, the Attorney-General and the Postmaster-General. Li-
beria is the only African negro state constituted on a European
or an American basis — the Congo Free State not being governed
by black men. It has a population of 20,000 colonists, who are
either American freedmen or their descendants, and about 1,000,-
000 aboriginal inhabitants. It could easily accommodate the
whole negro population of the United States, should there ever
be any general emigration of our black citizens. The annual
518 ACTUAL AFRICA.
revenue of Liberia, the principal part of which is derived from
customs duties, is about $200,000, while the expenditure, which
embraces chiefly the cost of the general administration, is a little
less. The national debt is about $1,000,000. The money used in
the country is that of Great Britain, though accounts are generally
kept in our decimal system of dollars and cents. Monrovia, the
capital, with a population of 6,000, is pleasantly situated on the
high promontory of Cape Mesurado. The town called Harper,
just to the east of Cape Palmas, is the largest in Liberia, having
a population of 8,000. We pass too far off to distinguish much
of Monrovia, which I was told looked quite like a town in our
Southern States. Trading-stores and wharves face the sea, and
there are many small hotels and retail shops. Like Washington
Monrovia has its " White House," though it is not white but built
of red brick. It is the official residence of the President. The
Monrovian Senate House is made of wood. Many difficulties were
at first experienced in founding the Colony of Liberia, but now it
is in a flourishing condition. Agriculture is extensively pursued
and commerce is increasing. A direct trade has been opened with
the interior tribes, who are beginning to get their supply of Euro-
pean goods, chiefly cotton manufactures, through the republic.
They are gradually being induced to give up their traditional hab-
its and customs, and adopt many of those of civilisation. Liberia
is said to possess an excellent system of schools.
We saw the mountain of Sierra Leone for a long distance at
sea, and found, on a nearer approach, a beautiful series of green
hills, dotted with pretty villas, cultivated fields below and scrub
above. It was a very welcome sight after so much low and level
land. The town faces the north, on the borders of the corner of
a large semi-circular bay, which has deep water close up to the
shore. Here lay a British man-of-war, a large Liverpool liner,
half a dozen small coasting steamers, a ship or two, and a fleet
of lighters and small native boats. The latitude of Freetown is
about 8° 30' north. The greater part of the town is situated on
low ground, gently sloping up from the bay. Upon a prominent
knoll are the three and four storied brick barracks, and upon a
high point further back the summer quarters of the troops, the
officers' residences and the hospital. The town has broad streets,
covered often with grass, save a narrow path in the centre, and
well lighted and drained. The buildings are mostly detached cot-
tages of brick or stone, or one of these materials below and wood
ON AND OFF THE GUINEA COAST. 519
above, with iron or slate roofs. Along the shore are several large
four-storied warehouses. Two or three massive stone piers project
into the harbor. Scattered all about are palm trees, bamboos and
bananas.
The situation of the town and its outlying hills is extremely
picturesque, and recalled to my mind several of the British Colo-
nies in the West Indies. There was the same general air and ap-
pearance of adaptability, thrift, neatness and business rarely to
be seen save in a colony of British nationality. Freetown is, in
fact, one of the greatest seaports in West Africa, while its harbor
is perhaps the best. It has recently been strongly fortified with
three batteries, mounting heavy guns. The garrison consists of
black soldiers from the West Indies, though with English officers.
Freetown is used as a coaling station by the British navy. The
population numbers 32,000. As we dropped anchor, great num-
bers lined the shore and occupied the piers. They were a fine,
large, amiable race, and were dressed in every color of the rainbow.
The peninsula of Sierra Leone was ceded to Great Britain by
the native chiefs, over a century ago, to be used — similarly to Li-
beria— as an asylum for the many destitute negroes then in Eng-
land. Great numbers of liberated Africans from the United
States and the West Indies have also been settled here, and these
negroes coming from all parts of Africa, it is said that no less than
sixty different languages are spoken in Freetown. Sierra Leone
was long known as the " white man's grave," so unhealthy and
deathly was it. This was owing chiefly to the want of drainage and
the presence of a species of malarious fog — I saw it lying low over
the town as we entered the harbor — which, drawn up by the fierce
sun, spreads over the lowlands in its most dangerous form after
heavy rains. The climate is, moreover, humid and enervating,
and malarial fevers are prevalent. Still, I was informed that
Sierra Leone had been rather unjustly specialised by so bad a
name, as there were many places on the Guinea coast quite as
deleterious and dangerous for the abode of the white man. The
words " Sierra Leone " signify the lion hill, a name derived
from the fancied appearance of the peninsula. To this colony
have been added Sherbro Island and various territories extending
along the coast from the French possessions on the north to the
Republic of Liberia on the south. The total population in 1891
amounted to 75,000, more than half being liberated negroes and
their descendants, and the remainder — save some two hundred Euro-
520 ACTUAL AFRICA.
pean residents— belonging to neighboring tribes. The exports of
Sierra Leone are mainly palm oil and kernels. We took on board
eighty tons of the kernels, and then left for Las Palmas, Grand
Canary. About seventy-five miles south of Cape Verd is Bath-
urst, the capital of the British Colony of Gambia, situated on an
island on the south side of the mouth of the Gambia river. It is
in this colony that the English, not long ago, had such serious
conflicts with the natives. Bathurst has a population of 6,000.
In the whole colony there are 15,000 natives and about fifty whites.
The climate is unhealthy in the rainy season— from June to Octo-
ber—though said to be fairly healthy during the remainder of
the year. Ground-nuts form nearly nine-tenths of the total ex-
port. They are sent chiefly to Marseilles, where the oil is ex-
tracted, and used for the same purposes as olive oil. The Gambia
river is 600 miles long, and navigable for half of this distance.
Vessels drawing twenty-five feet can go 250 miles up this fine
waterway. There are several English trading-posts on the river.
In the colony are a number of good roads. There are eighty ele-
mentary and six high schools. The natives are skilled workers
in gold and silver.
We next passed Cape Verd, five miles distant, and the towns
of Goree and Dakar, in Senegambia, where I had intended to stop,
but was prevented by the presence of the cholera. It was a great
disappointment not to be able to visit this French Colony, since I
wished to ascend the Senegal river six hundred miles, as far as
the cataracts of Felu, and then make my way southeasterly about
four hundred miles, to Bammaku and Sego, on the Joliba or
Upper Niger.
France is at present the holder of the largest territory in
Africa, and is making serious and successful efforts to extend and
consolidate her possessions. She even dreams of the formation of
a great African empire stretching from the Mediterranean to the
Congo. Her territory to-day is continuous from Algeria to the
Guinea coast. Railway routes have been surveyed across the Sa-
hara to Lake Chad and Timbuctoo. In 1883 a fort was built at
Bammaku, and a steamer was launched upon the Niger the follow-
ing year. Since that time the progress of France has been con-
stant. Kinedugu, the kingdom of Tieba, became French in 1888 ;
Kong and Bontuku were forced to accept a protectorate in 1889 ;
Sego was occupied in 1890 ; the capital of Wasulu was captured in
1891 ; Timbuctoo fell in 1893. The kingdom of Dahomey is now
ON AND OFF THE GUINEA COAST. 521
French territory, and it is claimed that the whole of the region
extending from Yola on the Benue to the Sanga, a tributary of
the Congo, has also, in virtue of treaties made by Lieutenant
Mizon, become French. Just now the French, as I have already
mentioned, are pushing up the right bank of the Ubangi, the great
northerly branch of the Congo, in the direction of Darfur and the
Upper Nile.
The capital of French West Africa is St. Louis, situated on an
island at the mouth of the Senegal river. It is connected with the
seaport town of Dakar by a railway 164 miles long. The popula-
tion of Dakar is about 9,000 ; of St. Louis 20,000 ; while that of the
whole of Senegambia is estimated at 1,000,000. The town of
Goree with a population of 2,000, stands upon a basalt island, of
the same name, three-quarters of a mile long and one-quarter
broad, which lies at the entrance to the harbor of Dakar. On
the opposite mainland is the town of Ilufisque, with 8,000 inhab-
itants. The settled portion of the country covers 150,000 square
miles, with a population of about 3,000 French colonists and 3,000
other Europeans. There are about 2,500,000 acres under cultiva-
tion. The elacis palm, yielding the red wine so highly prized by
the natives, grows freely. The principal exports are gum, India
rubber, ground-nuts, woods and skins; the imports are textile
goods, provisions and spirits. The total value of the exports is at
present 17,500,000 francs ; of the imports 30,000,000 francs. The
debt of the colony is comparatively trifling, only about 500,000
francs. Senegambia is administered by a governor-general, resid-
ing at St. Louis, to whom I had been honored with a letter of
introduction from M. Roustan, the same who " gave Tunis to
France," was afterwards Minister to the United States, and is now
Ambassador at Madrid.
CHAPTER LVIII.
AT LAS PALMAS.
In leaving the vicinity of Cape Verd we had entered upon a
great maritime highway, and accordingly soon saw numbers of
steamers and ships heading in many directions. We struck the
northeast trade-winds, and a cool northerly current with a heavy
swell. The temperature, however, continued high, and we suffered
considerably from humidity. We lost two whole days on the pas-
sage to Las Palmas, owing to a breakdown of our engine. It was
repaired as well as possible, but we could not make thereafter more
than about eight knots per hour. During the repairs to the engine
we drifted helplessly about the ocean, for the fires had to be nearly
extinguished so that the men could wo^k below. We gradually,
however, left behind us the French territory of Senegambia and
came opposite the Sahara Desert, though out of sight of land,
which is low thereabouts. The French claim a narrow strip of the
coast as far as latitude 21° north — up to Cape Blanco — and then
Spain claims as far as latitude 28° north, a point opposite the Canary
Islands, and next to the territory of the empire of Morocco. Cape
Juby, about 150 miles due east of Grand Canary, however, now
belongs to France.
We were ten days in reaching Las Palmas and dropping anchor
off the mole of Puerto de la Luz or the Port of the Light, situ-
ated at the northeastern extremity of the island and about three
miles south of the capital, where there is not sufficient depth
of water for a harbor. Near us were lying four large steamers,
while within the protection of the mole were half a dozen more, as
many barks and schooners, and a score of lighters and row-boats.
La Luz is a mean collection of single-story, flat-roofed houses, and
extends, on either side of the road, nearly to Las Palmas. A
high and hilly peninsula forms the northern part of the island
and on top of this are a lighthouse and signal-station. This point
522
AT LAS PALM AS. 523
is of a pear-shape and the stem joins the main part of the island
in simply a low, narrow sandy isthmus, which explains the native
name of the peninsula, Isleta or Island, since it must once have
been detached. From the anchorage Grand Canary appears very
high and hilly and quite bare of trees and shrubs. In fact all the
surface looks like black and brown lava and, save where cultivated,
makes a very desolate picture. There are several coal depots at
La Luz, for Las Palmas has now become one of the great coaling
stations of the Atlantic, an average of over a hundred steamers
calling every month. The massive breakwater, still in process of
construction and already over a mile in length, will, when com-
pleted, form a large and safe harbor. This mole is made of huge
blocks of concrete.
The distant view of Las Palmas from her port is exceedingly
picturesque. The city, starting at the edge of the sea, slopes back
over a smooth space and up some steep hills, by which it is im-
mediately backed. Upon the top of one of these is a large stone
fortress. The walls of the houses are of every gay color imagin-
able, and from their general regularity stand forth the dark, almost
black, stone walls of the great Cathedral, and the sharp outlines of
the new Opera House. As I was leaving the deck of the steamer
for shore I had a fine view, over the lower part of the isthmus, of
the splendid great peak of Teneriffe, which I had ascended some
ten months previously. My baggage had to be fumigated in a large
building set apart for that purpose, and then I was ready to seek a
hotel. A good macadamised road and a tramway connect the port
with the capital. Steam is the motor of the tramway and the
housed locomotives draw a short train of open first- and second-
class carriages. They run about once an hour all day, oftener on
Sundays and fete-days. As I did not wish to wait for a train I
hired a public conveyance called a tartana, a small two-wheeled
cart, with a cross-seat for the driver and one passenger, and two
longitudinal seats, facing one another, and holding each two passen-
gers comfortably or three if crowded. This rather rough vehicle
is drawn by a small wiry pony at a good rate of speed. About half
way to town, and near the shore, are located two fine spacious
hotels, built of brick and wood respectively, and surrounded by large
pleasure gardens of fruits and flowers. These hotels have been
built and are managed by Englishmen. They are filled during the
winter months mostly by English people, with a few of other
nationalities, some being ill, and others wishing only to avoid the
524 ACTUAL AFRICA.
inclement season at home. I found accommodation at the larger
of the two hotels, and was much surprised at its outfit and comfort.
Here I spent several delightful weeks, but will have to condense my
observations and experiences into a brief space.
Grand Canary is nearly a circle in form, about thirty-eight
miles long and thirty-two broad. It is a volcanic island, like Ten-
eriffe, and its highest peak, almost in its centre — the Pico del Pozo
de las Nieves — is 6,400 feet above the sea-level. Grand Canary is,
as I have already said, mountainous and devoid of forest. There
are many extinct volcanoes, the most perfect and interesting of
which is the Gran Caldera de Bandama, some eight miles south of
Las Palmas. This crater is an enormous cup, which has been
caused by the subsidence of the volcanic crust, when the gas which
had thrown it up has escaped. No lava outflow followed, for there
is no break in any part. Its diameter is about one-and-a-half miles
and its depth a thousand feet. On the uplands the chestnut and
eucalyptus, the olive, laurel and fig abound, and still higher than
these, several species of euphorbia. At a goodly altitude, also,
wheat, corn and other cereals are cultivated, and in the valleys,
which are very fertile, sugar-cane, oranges, lemons, tobacco, cotton,
bananas, the cochineal cactus, the vine and many kinds of vege-
tables. Irrigation is generally necessary, the water being cleverly
carried about in small open channels and iron pipes. There is a
large export of fruit and vegetables. The best wine of the island
— the famous Canary sack — is derived from vines grown in the
crater of Bandama. The island contains some 75,000 inhabitants,
who are scattered in half a dozen towns and nearly two hundred
hamlets. There still remain many traces of the aboriginal Guan-
ches throughout the archipelago. Not far from the Gran Caldera
is the curious and interesting cave-village of Atalaya — with a thou-
sand inhabitants, the descendants of Spanish outcasts — where the
troglodyte dwellings may conveniently be inspected. This village,
which was formerly an ancient Guanche stronghold, is still inhab-
ited by a race pursuing exactly the same industry — pottery — as the
race that had preceded it, and that never intermarries with its neigh-
bors. Several of the towns of the island are connected with the
capital by first-rate macadamised roads. Elsewhere there are horse
and donkey trails and foot-tracks. I have spoken of the vegetal
produce of the island. The chief industries are embroidery,
coarsely woven cloths, knives with ornamental handles, rough red
pottery, drip-stone filters, and tanned goat-skins. The various
AT LAS PALM AS. 525
islands of the archipelago are connected by local steamers plying
weekly and bi-weekly.
Las Palmas is naturally the chief town of the island. Its full
name is " La Real Ciudad de las Palmas de Gran Canaria." It is
mostly a city of single-story and fiat-roofed houses, though in the
principal street — called the Triana — which is but a continuation
of the road from the port, there are handsome stone buildings of
two and even four stories in height. The present population is
20 000. Where the walls of the houses are of brick, or coarse stone
and stucco, the jambs and lintels of the doorways and windows are
often of a dark stone — a sort of lava — neatly cut and dressed.
There are many good shops in the Triana, where the various in-
dustries of the island, as well as large assortments of imported
goods, may be purchased. The town is very animated. The
women of the poorer classes wear a dark skirt, and a white shawl
over the head and shoulders. Occasionally you see a pretty sefio-
rita with the traditional high shell-comb and black lace mantilla.
Besides the tartanas, you meet barouches drawn by three horses
abreast, and dashing caballeros mounted upon prancing ponies.
Among the places and buildings of special interest may be men-
tioned the Cathedral of St. Anne, the Museum, the Library, the
Palace of Justice, the new Opera-House, the Market, the Alameda
or public garden, and a hospital where the torno, or receptacle for
foundlings, may be seen. The Cathedral is large and imposing,
with two towers, but, as very frequently the case with Eoman
Catholic churches, unfinished. It contains two fine pulpits, orna-
mented with gilt bronze. Directly opposite, and separated by a
small garden, is the neat building of the Municipality, in the third
story of which is the Museum, a valuable collection mostly confined
to products and productions of the archipelago and its people.
The rooms are well lighted and each article is distinctly labelled,
though there is no catalogue, one perhaps not really being neces-
sary. The Museum is especially rich in old Guanche remains,
there being a very large osteological department. There is also a
fine natural history section — zoology, mineralogy and conchology
being well represented. The anthropological collection is supple-
mented by casts of the heads of all races. Down stairs, in the
same building, is the Library, which contains many interesting old
MSS. The new Opera-House is quite large, and has an elegant
interior of four tiers of boxes, painted in white and gold. The
market is located in several commodious stone buildings, with iron
526 ACTUAL AFRICA.
roofs. There is usually a great display of fruits and vegetables,
and in one special section, exposed upon neat stone slabs, with a
plentiful supply of running water, are a great variety of fat
fish. There are quite a number of small, but pretty, gardens dis-
tributed about the city, and in them you find a few statues of Cana-
rian celebrities. A narrow, stony ravine divides Las Palmas into
two portions, which are joined by several bridges, one of them
being of stone, with pleasing architectural effect. There is, of
course, a " plaza de toros," or bull-ring, though it is made simply
of rough unpainted planks.
On December 15th I left Las Palmas for Marseilles en route to
Algiers, in the steamer " Meuse," of 800 tons burden. The Meuse
belonged to the Compagnie Navigation Marocaine et Armenienne,
N. Paquet and Company, a bi-monthly line of French steamers
plying between Marseilles, Morocco, and the Canary. Islands. The
latter part of the name of this company is explained by the fact of
its also running a line of steamers to the Black Sea. Two days
later we passed Mogador, the seaport of the capital of Morocco,
distant, to the eastward in the interior, four days on horse-back.
We were too far off to see the little town, which lies low upon the
sandy shore. Not so, though, was it with the splendid great range
of the Atlas — running from southwest to northeast, and prefaced
by half a dozen rows of sub-hills, rising like a gigantic staircase
from the level of the sea. The Atlas here is a sharp range, with
steep jagged walls — so at least upon its southern side — covered
with snow, and abounding with pyramidal peaks, some of them
reaching an altitude of nearly 12,000 feet. With the bright sun
shining full upon their great snow-fields, the wild, rough range
presented a magnificent sight. We followed along the coast for
this and the succeeding day, being rarely out of sight of land,
which, however, soon afterwards became low, smooth, treeless and
brown, with great banks and beaches of yellow sand bordering the
ocean.
On the night of the 18th we passed through the Straits of
Gibraltar, and during all the following day enjoyed superb views
of the snow-capped Sierra Nevada of Spain — in fact, we were in
sight of the coast, the many towns and cities, and the mountains,
nearly all the way to Marseilles. The Pyrenees stood clearly forth,
with grand effects of dark rock, snow-field and fleecy cloud. Be-
sides the experience of these beautiful and interesting panoramas,
we were treated, in the Gulf of Lions, to that species of northwest
AT LAS P ALMAS. 527
gale peculiar to this part of the Mediterranean, and called the
" Mistral." This rises often very suddenly and the seas become
high and choppy, and the surface white with foam, almost before
a vessel can prepare for the furious onset. On the other hand it
will frequently abate quite as quickly. The mistral of the Eiviera
is a milder form of the same wind.
We arrived safely at Marseilles, after a voyage of seven days
from Las Palmas. On "Christmas Day" I left for Algiers, by
one of the fine large steamers of the Compagnie Generate Trans-
atlantique. In good weather these boats — or rather those of them
belonging to what is termed the " service rapide " — cross to Al-
giers, a distance of 435 miles, in twenty-eight hours. There are
four of these fast steamers per week. We had a very rough pas-
sage, and were three hours behind our scheduled time. The landing
at Algiers — or more exactly the arrival in the Straits of Gibraltar —
completed my circumnavigation of the continent of Africa, which
has a coast-line of 16,000 miles.
On April 17, 1894, I quitted Africa for Europe, and returned
slowly homeward by way of Marseilles, Paris, Brussels, London
and Liverpool ; and as each of these cities, which I had visited so
often, faded from my view, to be replaced by the one I was ap-
proaching, I felt stealing over me that melancholy which is always
the accompaniment of a final farewell. On several previous occa-
sions I had returned to my native land by much the same route,
but always with the prospect of retracing my steps in part, in
order to make some re-visited metropolis the starting-point for
further travel.
But now travel was virtually ended, and the plans for making
a systematic tour of the globe, organised twenty-five years before,
had been pushed to completion. As the steamer which was to
bear me to New York (after an absence of three years and a jour-
ney of sixty-five thousand miles) receded from the shore, my
thoughts reverted to the burning enthusiasm with which, a quarter
of a century ago, I sat out for " The Land of the White Elephant,"
to collect material for the volume destined to bear that name. The
panorama of the multitudinous places — unknown or little known
to the world in general — that I had visited since then, swept before
me, filmy and fascinating with the glamour of the past. The vigor-
ous and crowded civilisations, and the strange and fantastic barbar-
isms through which I had picked my way, jostled each other in
the eager march of memory, and reminded me that my fifteen
528 ACTUAL AFRICA.
years devoted to travel, research and discovery had not been spent
in vain. Of these, one had been given to the great islands and
archipelagoes ; two to the United States and British America ;
three to Europe; three to Asia; three to Central and South Amer-
ica; and three to Africa. The total distance covered was not
less than 355,000 miles, or more than fourteen times the earth's
equatorial girth. Gazing through the pensive yet enchanting
vista thus opened, including so many pleasures and pains, crowded
with everything that was wonderful in the achievements of Man,
and everything that was more wonderful in the achievements of
Nature, I could not forget that I had, approximately, travelled
7,000 miles by coach, carriage, palanquin and hammock ; 11,000
by foot; 22,000 by horse, mule, camel, elephant and donkey; 50,-
000 by rail ; and 265,000 by steamship, steamboat, sailing craft
and canoe. Marvellous to relate, during the whole of these wan-
derings, notwithstanding all the toil, hazard and privation they
involved, no serious accident or virulent malady had been in-
curred. Hair-breadth escapes, indeed, had been everywhere, but
hurts nowhere.
Five years having been consumed in preparations for my jour-
neys, and five in writing, illustrating and publishing accounts of
them — making in all twenty-five years dedicated to the full scheme
of exploration — confirm me in the opinion that the ten leading
countries of the world, in the order of their novelty, variety, and
degree of interest, are Egypt, India, Japan, Turkestan, Persia,
Morocco, Brazil, Mexico, Italy and the United States.
I cannot close my eyes upon these retrospective dreams, tinged
as they are with the sadness of a last good-bye, without expressing
to my many readers the deepest gratitude for the encouragement
which has aided me to accomplish a novel, if not unique, enter-
prise, conceived in youth and finished in early manhood. More-
over, I feel sure that the same readers will not now deny me their
congratulations, since it is given to few to carry out to the very
close a project of such magnitude and detail, requiring such a
special combination of aspiration and outfit, predisposition and
opportunity. If the goal attained be worth the struggle, there
remains the consoling thought that
" That life is long which answers life's great end."
SUBJECT-INDEX.
Abbas Pasha II., character, 146.
Aboo Simbel, grand rock-hewn temple,
205 ; enormous battle-picture, 207.
Aboosir, view of Second Cataract from,
209, 210.
Abydos, temples and Tablet, 212; ne-
cropolis, 213.
Accra, situation and aspect, 513.
Adovoranty, a busy Malagasy town, 228.
Africa, extent and importance, v ; western
coastal zone, 401.
Agriculture, practice in Morocco, 47; in
Egypt, 169 ; extent of farming lands in
Egypt, 170 ; winnowing grain, 176 ; dust
from ruins as a fertilizer, 182, 187 ; wheat,
barley, beans, and lentils raised, 212;
rice-fields of Madagascar, 233, 236.
Alfa fibre, an important product of Algeria,
57, 61 ; exported from Tunisia, 127, 129,
133 ; acreage in Algeria, 136 ; most im-
portant export of Tripoli, 142; called
halfa in Nubia, 208.
Algeria, three kinds of lands, 60; benefi-
cence of French rule, 111, 135.
Algiers, the " White City," 70 ; Boulevard
de la Republique, 71 ; defences, 72 ; cos-
mopolitan character, 72 ; old town, 73 ;
houses and shops, 74 ; mosques, 75 ;
public buildings, 78 ; Jardin d'Essai,
79 ; church of Notre Dame d'Afrique,
80 ; steamer from Marseilles, 527 ; com-
pletion of thecircumnavigation of Africa,
527.
Ambriz, situation, 363; copper deposits
near, 364.
American traders, would be welcome in
Angola, 393.
Ancestors, Hall and Tablet of, at Karnak,
163.
Angola, extent and population, 365 ; dis-
tilleries, 366 ; customs of natives, 366 ;
need of railroads, 375 ; coffee, 384, 389 ;
caravans, 386 ; natives from the interior 7
385; native mode of cooking and eating,
387 ; encampment of a caravan, 387 ;
aspect of the Cazengo district, 388;
climate, 389 ; minerals, 389 ; condition
and prospects, 393.
Annobon, 359.
Antananarivo, approaching the city, 239;
situation, 241 ; streets and houses, 242 ;
police regulations, 242 ; public build-
ings, 243 ; two sacred stones, 244 ;
market day, 245 ; the French Residen-
cy, 246 ; the Prime Minister's summer
palace, 249.
Antique monuments of Egypt, fee charged
to visitors, 162; notice to vandals, 165.
Antiquities, importunate peddlers, 156
182, 195.
Arabesques, lace-like, 63, 64, 66; Tunis
once famous for, 118.
Arabs, Christians not allowed to enter
their houses, 117; costumes in Tunis,
117.
Arch, Eoman quadrifrontal, at Tripoli,
139.
Archiduchesse Stephanie, steamer, 432;
Fall, 484.
Arrows, poisoned, used by the Congo
natives, 437, 459 ; iron-tipped, 439.
Artesian wells, successful irrigation by,
132.
Arzilla, character and inhabitants, 11.
Ascetics of Upper Egypt, 163.
Assaoui, 77.
Assiout, picturesque aspect, 164 ; resembles
Cairo, 164.
529
530
A8S0 UAN— CAMELS.
Assouan, first view, 194 ; the town, 195.
Astronomical delineations, ancient Egyp-
tian, 186,192.
Atlas Mountains, view from the Atlantic,
526.
Aurcs Mountains, sunset on, 105.
Awes-el-Guarany, fine outlook from, 211.
Axim, picturesque surroundings, 514.
Backsheesh, demanded in Egypt when no
service is rendered, 155 ; whole villages
clamor for, 160.
Bagamoyo, situation, 284; negro quarter,
285 ; a market for the interior, 285 ; one
carriage in the town, 286 ; French
Catholic Mission, 286 ; caravansary, 286.
Bakongo tribe, physical, mental, and
moral condition, 441-446.
Balolos, an important tribe of the Congo
territory, 411.
Bamboo, used for water-jars, 227; mode
of growth in Madagascar, 231.
Banana, location and former importance,
398 ; the Hotel de Banana, 398.
Bananas, in Madagascar, 234, 235 ; in An-
gola, 383, 390; on the Congo, 422,
450.
Banians, shop-keepers in Zanzibar, 276 ; in
trade at Mozambique, 290.
Bantu family, characteristics and lan-
guage, 410.
Baobab trees, in Zanzibar, 278 ; strange
shapes, 381, 388.
Barca, break in steam-communication at,
143.
Bardo, palace of the old Beys of Tunis,
119.
Baths, public, in Fez, 45 ; " Turkish," in
Tlemeen, 63 ; of Sidi Mecid, 94 ; " Turk-
ish," in Tunis, 119; of Helouan, 158.
Batna, European features, 107.
Bats, swarms in rock-temple, 207.
Beads, the money of the interior, 285 ;
fluctuations in value, 458.
Bedouins, camps on the desert, 103 ; health-
ful life, 105 ; troublesome in Nubia, 203.
Beer, of Mozambique, 292.
Beggars, Moorish, 30, 31; Egyptian, 155,
160.
Belgian Commercial Company of the Up-
per Congo, 418.
Belzoni, archaeological work, 178, 179 ;
excavation at Aboo Simbel, 205.
Benguela, picturesque surroundings, 370;
trade, 371, 378 ; bank, 379.
Beni Hassan, rock tombs, 160.
Berbers, character, 24.
Berea, a suburb of Durban, 297 ; pleasing
features, 299.
Betsimisarakas, features, 219; dress, 220;
region, 235 ; number, 236.
Birds, water for, in cemeteries, 79 ; Egyp-
tian, 170 ; of Madagascar, 233, 267, 268 ;
cage-birds in Madeira, 334 ; of Angola,
391 ; of the Congo country, 436, 454.
Biskra, arrival at, 96; fruits, 97; arrange-
ment, 98 ; Arab and negro quarters, 99 ;
chateau and gardens of Count Landon,
100 ; delightful climate, 106.
Blacksmith, native, on the Congo, 451.
Boar-hunting in Morocco, 50.
Boats, of Upper Egypt, 167; whaleboats
on the Congo, 496 ; surf-boats at Accra,
513.
Boers, neat homesteads, 304; ox-teams,
304.
Boma, situation, 401 ; peculiar hotel, 402 ;
weather in the rainy season, 403 ; garri-
son, 403 ; police, 404 ; Belgian Catholic
Mission, 404.
Bonny Town, situation, 505; the river
Bonny long known to Europeans, 506.
Book of being in the underworld, inscrip-
tions from, 179.
Bougie, production of wax, 84 ; picturesque
site, 85.
Brazzaville, neatly laid out, 490 ; French
Catholic Mission, 490.
Bridges, suspension, in the Congo country,
421, 425; built by the State, 495.
Bruce, archaeological work, 178.
Burnooses, worn by Moors, 17 ; manufac-
tured largely in Djerba, 134.
Butter, vegetable, 507.
Cabinda, location, 359 ; factories, 360 ;
healthfulness, 360.
Cafes, chantant, Moorish, 5 ; Arab, in Al-
giers, 75.
Cairo, the Ghizeh Museum, 145 ; funeral of
Tewfik Pasha, 145.
Camels, value and use, 99 ; terebinth their
principal food, 103; one yoked with a
buffalo, 167 ; offered to tourists, 181; race
of, 189; fine animals used by an army
corps, 209.
CAMEEOONS PROTECTORATE— CONGO FREE STATE. 531
Cameroons Protectorate, extent, 501 ; pro-
ductions, 501 ; town of Cameroons, 502.
Cameroons Eiver, like an estuary at the
mouth, 502.
Canal, Suez, 143 ; from Assiout to Cairo,
165.
Canary Islands, location and inhabitants,
340 ; confusing names, 341 ; Grand Ca-
nary and Las Palmas, 522-526.
Cannibalism, on the Congo, 411 ; skulls of
victims displayed, 468; in the Niger
delta, 506.
Canoes, dug-out, in Madagascar, 225, 266;
on the Quanza River, 383 ; on the Congo,
425, 429.
Cape Agulhas, the most southerly point of
Africa, 328.
Cape Colony, inland towns, 321 ; sea-coast
towns, 327 ; Royal Observatory, 328 ;
Government Wine Farm, 328 ; wines of
the country, 329 ; climate, 330 ; Robbin
Island lighthouse and lunatic asylum,
331.
Cape Town, arrival in, 322; general ap-
pearance, 323 ; old Dutch Castle, 323 ;
population, water-supply, and public
buildings, 324; the Government House
and Houses of Parliament, 325 : Public
Library and South African Museum,
326; Botanic Garden, 327; Town Hall,
327 ; suburbs, 327, 329 ; chief summer
resort, 329.
Cape Verd, deserves its title, 332.
Cape Verd Islands, 351-353.
Caravans, a bad route in Nubia, 203 ; in
Madagascar, 232 ; of men, women, and
children in Angola, 371 ; appearance of
the carriers, 377 ; mode of travel in
Angola, 386 ; how burdens are carried,
388 ; few in the wet season on the Congo,
426.
Caravansaries, in Morocco, 10 ; cattle be-
low, people above, 117 ; in Zanzibar,
286.
Carnival, at St. Paul de Loanda, 379.
Cart, curious, used in Tripoli, 142 ; Boer
ox-carts, 304 ; the Canarian tartana, 523.
Carthage, ancient aqueduct broken through
for a railway, 113 ; tine site, 123 ; remains
nearly all removed, 123 ; modern cathe-
dral and seminary, 123 ; museum of
antiquities, 124; ancient cisterns, 124.
Cascades of El-Ourit, 61.
Castor-bean, grown in Egypt, 194; its oil
in the Nubian toilet, 203.
Cataract, First, of the Nile, 198; Second,
209.
Catumbella, 376.
Cemeteries, Arabic, 79 ; arrangement, 209.
Chabet Pass, 84 ; road in, 86.
Chephren, pyramid of, 151.
Chickens, may be bought in Madagascar,
225 ; intrude in the houses, 228 ; tended
by old women, 238, 253; afraid of a
white person, 255.
Children, how carried in Morocco, 22; of
Congo natives, 442.
Chuma, Dr. Livingstone's servant, 290.
Cinchona, grown on St. Thomas, 355.
Cirta, 94.
Cities, holy, 26, 49.
Cleopatra, portrait at Denderah, 175.
( 'leeks, numerous in Tunisian palaces, 121,
1 26.
Cloth, of Congo natives, 486.
Coach, "Concord," in Natal, 303; mode
of driving, 303.
Goal, mined in Natal, 302; in the Orange
Free State, 313.
Cocoanut palms, numerous in Zanzibar,
284, 285, 286; one of the chief trees of
Angola, 881.
Coffee, raised in Mauritius, 216; in An-
gola, 384, 389 ; visit to a plantation, 390;
in the Cameroons, 502; production in
Liberia, 517.
Coker, James, Lagos servant, 418, 494.
College, in Fez, 41 ; in Tunis, 118.
Colossal statues, largest from a single
block, 186; famous, at Karnak, 188; of
Rameses [I. at Aboo Simbel, 205, 206.
Comoro Islands, distant view, 273.
Congo Free State, region explored by
Stanley, 405; extent, 405; Stanley sent
to open up the region, 406 ; Free State
formed, 406 ; labors of King Leopold,
407 ; local government, 407 ; adminis-
trative districts, 408; land tenure, 408 ;
trade, currency, and army, 409 ; natives
and their language, 410 ; missions, 413,
446; need of a railway, 414; prepara-
tions for a caravan journey, 419 ; native
porters, 419, 423 ; caravans from the in-
terior, 423; stations for travellers, 421,
422, 424 ; two rainy seasons, 422 ; modes
of crossing streams, 426 ; native market,
532
CONGO— EDFOU.
427 ; hostility of natives in parts little
visited, 437, 439, 440, 470 ; suspicious
when not hostile, 438, 444, 448, 454
characteristics of the Bakongos, 441-446
native blacksmith and armorer, 451
habits of Bakubas, 456 ; articles fancied
by natives, 458 ; native pottery, 459 ;
curiosity of natives, 462, 463, 478 ; cheap-
ness of provisions at native towns, 465,
477, 479 ; establishing factories, 471 ; ap-
pearance of the country in the dry sea-
son, 494 ; importance of the region, 500 ;
negro colonists from the United States
needed, 500.
Congo, French, extent, 491 ; products, 492.
Congo Kiver, discolors water far out to
sea, 359 ; length and volume, 361 ; other
names, 362 ; width near the mouth, 400 ;
course, 412 ; animal life, 413, 425; steam-
ers on, 413 ; between Boma and Matadi,
416; a canoe and whaleboat ferry, 425,
426; above Stanley Pool, 434; steel
barges, 496.
Constantine, commerce, 90 ; picturesque
situation, 91 ; public buildings, 92 ; his-
torical interest, 94 ; view of, from neigh-
boring hills, 110.
Convent of the Pulley, 160.
Convicts, in the prison at Tangier, 10;
usual crimes in Tripoli, 141 ; labor in the
gold mines of Madagascar, 265 ; Portu-
guese, transported to Loanda, 351, 365.
Cooking-stoves, Moorish, 29.
Copper, deposits in Angola, 379 ; in Li-
beria, 517.
Cork, planing, 85.
Court, held at the gate of Mequinez, 30.
Cowries, used as money on the Congo,
449, 477.
Crete, view of its mountains, 143.
Crocodiles, in the Lower Nile, 160; in the
Upper Nile, 204, 211 ; in Madagascar,
267 ; in the Quanza Kiver, 382, 383 ; in
Angola, 388 ; wounded, struggle of na-
tives with, 447 ; solitary habits, 456.
Dahabeahs, different kinds on the Nile,
152 ; rigging, 154; why none above the
First Cataract, 203.
Dahomey, 512.
Dahomeyans, employed by the Portu-
guese government, 356.
Dancing-girls, in Moorish cafes chantant,
5 ; at an Assaoui performance, 77 ; at
Biskra, dress and adornments, 101 ; at
Luxor, 185.
Dates, cultivation on the oases of the Sa-
hara, 97 ; in Tunisia, 129 ; the Belad-el-
Jerid, 130 ; probably the lotus of Homer,
133; will live in the sand, 138; grow
in clumps, 203 ; best in Egypt, 204.
De Deken, Pere, missionary and explor-
ing work, 451.
Delagoa Bay, its low shores and tortuous
channel, 293.
Denderah, Temple of, when built, 172;
condition when discovered, 173 ; beau-
tiful columns and decorations, 173 ; the
sanctuary and adjoining rooms, 174;
sculptures on the outside, 174 ; dedi-
cated to Hathor, 175.
Desert, general aspect, 103 ; healthful con-
ditions of life in, 105 ; appearance from
Tripoli, 142.
Dhows, Malagasy, 266 ; Zanzibari, 283.
Diamonds, the Kimberley mines, 315 ; out-
put in twenty years, 316 ; how obtained,
316 ; famous gems, 317 ; the mining
process, 317 ; prevention of theft, 318 ;
valuing rooms, 319.
Djerba, shallow sea around the island,
133 ; Homer's Island of the Lotophagi,
133.
Dogs, in Morocco, 51 ; used as food on the
Congo, 438, 443.
Doldrums, 353.
Dondo, general appearance, 384; inhab-
itants and trade, 384.
Donkey -boys, Egyptian, comical talk, 155.
Donkeys, Egyptian, size and decorations,
155; good quality at Assiout, 164; race
of, 189; wrestling on, 189 ; a very small
specimen, 209.
Dow, C. W., American Consul at Zanzi-
bar, 279.
Du Chaillu, Paul, exploration of the
French Congo territory, 492.
Durban, situation, 297 ; its fine single-
story hotel, 298; its town hall, museum,
theatre, swimming bath, etc., 300 ; negro
police, 301.
Dykes, used as roads in Egypt, 181 ; in
Madagascar, 253.
Edfou, temple of, plan, 192 ; depositary of
the sacred hawk, 193.
ED UCA TION— G UNS.
533
Education, compulsory in Madagascar,
237 ; small progress among the Congo
natives, 446.
Egypt, tax on visitors to its monuments,
162 ; preservation of its antiquities, 165 ;
population, 170 ; most interesting coun-
try of the world, 528.
El Kantara, gorge near, 95 ; forest, 95.
Elephantiasis, afflicts the natives of An-
gola, 385; among the Congo natives,
441.
Elephantine, its cemetery and ruins, 195.
Elephants, shooting, on the Congo, 474,
478 ; steaks and soup, 473 ; more seen,
473, 474 ; fearlessness, 4S8 ; another
killed, 489.
Emin Pasha, Dr., injury at Bagamoyo,
284.
England, encroachments upon Portuguese
possessions in Africa, 393 ; grasping and
bullying policy, 395.
Ennes, Conselheiro Antonio, an accom-
plished diplomatist, 293.
Esneh, the town and its ancient temple,
191.
Eucalyptus, introduced into Algeria, 83,
135 ; in South Africa, 305, 310, 321, 328 ;
in Teneriffe, 344 ; in the Canaries, 524.
Euphorbias, like great candelabra, 381.
Eye-diseases, in Algeria, 100 ; in Egypt,
160; in Upper Egypt, 190.
Factory, meaning on the African coast,
361.
Fayoum, a fertile spot, 159.
Feluccas, 13.
Fernando Po, peculiar natives, 505; a
place of exile, 505.
Ferry, a Moroccan, 22 ; across the Congo,
425.
Fetishes, of animals' teeth, 438 ; common
objects chosen as, 445 ; a village fetish,
457 ; carved wooden heads, 468 ; carved
from bone, 483 ; great variety, 488.
Fez, aspect, 36 ; bazaar, 37, 40 ; a Moorish
breakfast, 38 ; population, 39 ; mosque,
41 ; university, 41 ; market 42 ; view of,
from the citadel, 43 ; breakfast at a Jew's
house, 44.
Filanzana, construction and motion, 220 ;
rate of travel, 223 ; dress of bearers and
mode of working, 223.
Fish, of the Nile, 171 ; taken by fykes
and traps in Madagascar, 230 ; taken in
traps by Congo natives, 451 ; also with
nets, 457.
France, beneficent rule in Algeria, 111,
135; in Tunisia, 127,135; possessions in
Africa, 520, 522.
Freetown, picturesque and thrifty appear-
ance, 518.
Freres Amies du Sahara, life and duties,
102 ; women not allowed to enter the
monastery, 103.
Funchal, harbor, 333 ; good hotels, 334 ;
features of the city, 334 ; means of con-
veyance, 336 ; celebration of Christmas
Eve, 337.
Gabes, an important military station, 131.
Gambia, population and climate, 520.
Gazelles, in Nubia, 201.
Geological phenomena in Algeria, 87, 88 ;
in Egypt, 191.
Ghizeh, road from Cairo, 146; European
hotel, 148 ; the Sphinx, 148.
Gibraltar, aspect from the Strait, 1 ; visit
to, 53 ; military importance, 54.
Gold, fields of the Transvaal, 308 ; de-
posits in Angola, 379, 389.
Gold Coast, on the Gulf of Guinea, 509 ;
n nt production of gold, 510; former
and present condition, 512 ; trade, 513 ;
chief ports, 513-515.
Goletta, the port of Tunis, 114.
Gorilla, discovered by Paul du Chaillu, 492.
Grain Coast, on the Gulf of Guinea, 509 ;
why so named, 510.
Grand Canary, general aspect, 523 ; surface
and productions, 524.
Granite, quarries of ancient Egypt, 199.
Grass ten to twenty feet high, 381, 390,
424.
Greek islands, distant view, 143.
Greek remains near Djerba, 134.
Grenfell, Gen. Sir F. W., excavations of
tombs, 196.
Guanches, remaining traces, 524, 525.
Guilgot, Victor, of Suberbieville, atten-
tions from, 264.
Guinea Coast, includes the Slave, Gold,
Ivory, and Grain Coasts, 509.
Gum copal, used for torches by Congo na-
tives, 457.
Guns, Moorish, 8 ; made at Tetuan, 11 ;
generally carried in Morocco, 36.
534
HAD J— LAGOS.
Hadj, significance, 9.
Hair-dressing, on the Congo, 441, 442 ;
like Roman helmet, 480, 482.
Hammocks, for riding in Funchal, 336 ;
on St. Thomas, 356.
Hasheesh, effects, 6.
Hathor, temple at Aboo Simbel, 207.
Hats, silk, fondness of Africans for, 377.
Helouan, baths, 158.
Henna, use in Nubia, 201 ; land devoted
to, 202.
Hermachis, temple at Aboo Simbel, 206.
Hermean promontory, 128.
Hex Kiver Mountains and Valley, 321.
Hippopotami, first view, 416 ; herd in the
Kassai, 435; traps of Congo natives,
451 ; social habits, 456 ; two shot, 475.
Horns and skins, on sale in the Trans-
vaal, 296.
Horses, Arab, price, 8.
HoruB, sculpture of, 193 ; temple at Kom
Ornbo, 194.
Hovas, features, 219 ; dress, 220, section,
235 ; the dominant tribe in Madagascar,
236.
Humpata, Boer colony, 374.
lbadan, large population, 511.
Inkissi Kiver, ferry across, 429.
Irrigation in Algeria, 69 ; by artesian wells
in Tunisia, 132; in Tripoli, 138; by the
Nile, water retained by low banks, 156 ;
artificial, in Egypt, 168 ; in the Cana-
ries, 524.
Isanghihi, rapids at, 497 ; station, 498.
Isis, ruins of temple at Phila3, 197.
Ismailia, a handsome town, 144.
Ivory, large tusks, 140 ; market in Zanzi-
bar, 287 ; most important export from
the Congo, 404 ; sizes of tusks, 419.
Ivory Coast, on the Gulf of Guinea, 509 ;
yields no ivory now, 510 ; ports, 515.
Jews, not segregated in Tangier, 5 ; dress,
17 ; mode of life in Mequinez, 30 ; ap-
pearance of women, 32 ; quarter in Fez,
43 ; in Morocco, origin, 50 ; character,
50 ; corpulence of the women, 116 ; do-
mestic life in Tunis, 116.
Jinrickshaws, used in Natal, 300.
Johannesburg, approaches, 301 ; first view
of the gold hills, 306 ; entering the city,
307 ; its wonderful rise, 308 ; the gold
mines, 308; remarkably varied street
scenes, 309 ; Stock Exchange, 309 ; dust
and thunder storms, 310.
Kabyles, fierce character, 82; work on
the railway, 83 ; ragged and dirty, 85.
Kaffirs, indiscriminate use of the name,
301 ; their kraals, 302.
Kalabshah, its large and small temples,
201.
Kardash, prominent site of its temple,
201.
Karnak, first view, 175 ; temple, disap-
pointing after Denderak, 181 ; when
built, 182 ; its gateways and columns,
182; Hall and Tablet of Ancestors,
183.
Karroo, character, 313.
Kassai Kiver, lower part named Kwa,
434 ; current and banks, 435 ; appear-
ance of the upper river, 447, 448 ; mode
of getting oft' sandbanks, 452, 472.
Kerkena Islands, their dangerous sand-
banks, 129.
Kerouan, holy city of Tunisia, 128.
Khedive of Egypt, Tewfik, funeral, 145 ;
palace at Helouan, 158; Abbas Pasha
II., character, 146.
Kimberley, how reached from Johannes-
burg, 312 ; general appearance, 315 ; its
Botanical Garden overrun by locusts,
315 ; the diamond mines, 315 ; com-
pounds of the native diggers, 318 ; op-
erations of various machines, 319.
Kinchassa, principal port of the Belgian
Commercial Company, 429 ; steamer
construction yards, 430 ; return to, 490.
Knitting, formerly done by Tunisian sen-
tries, 120.
Kom Ombo, ruins of temple, 193.
Komati Poort, railway to, 295 ; shops, 296.
Kous-koussou, of what made, 20.
Kroomen, value as cargo handlers, 515.
Kuilu River, exploring, 473-489.
Kwa Kiver, 434.
Kwamouth. commercial station, 434.
Kwango River, course, 437.
Kwenge River, exploring, 480 ; establish-
ing a factory on, 485.
La Luz, mean appearance, 522.
La Palma, 341.
Lagos, commercial importance, 511.
LAMBESSA— MAIZE.
535
Lambessa, a Roman military town, 107 ;
ruins of the Prtetorium, 108.
Larache, harbor and trade, 13.
Las Palmas, its ' port, 522 ; view of, 523 ;
inhabitants, 525 ; public buildings, 525.
Lavigerie, Cardinal, founder of the Freres
Armes du Sahara, 102 ; late residence,
123; tomb, 123; portraits, 123; explora-
tions at Carthage, 124.
Le Marinel, Paul, explorations, 461 ; visit
from, 462; hospitality, 4H4.
Leopoldville, factory buildings and mis-
sion, 429 ; visit to, 492.
Lepsius, work at Aboo Simbel, 206.
Lesseps, de, Consul-General, tomb, 123.
Lesseps, Ferdinand de, organized com-
pany for irrigating Tunisia, 132.
Liberia, Kroo Coast, 515 ; grain coast,
517; government and population, 517;
chief towns, 518.
Library, in Fez, 41 ; in Cape Town, 326.
Lightning, terrific on the Congo, 403,
456.
Lindi, a stop at, 288.
Loanda, convicts, 351, 365, 369 ; fine har-
bor, 364, 367 ; primitive hotel, 364 ; trade,
365; bank and currency. 366; public and
private buildings, 367, 368 ; markets. 367 ;
appearance of natives, 368; Fort San
Miguel, 369; carnival, 379.
Loange River,reputed course, 447 ; unsuc-
cessful attempt to enter, 452.
Locusts, destructiveness at Kimberley,
315 ; eaten by Congo natives, 468 ; swarm
seen at a distance, 469.
Lorenzo Marquez, pleasing aspect, 294 ;
conspicuous powder magazine, 294 ; be-
ginning of the shortest route to the
gold fields, 294.
Lotus, Homeric, probably the date, 133 ;
of the Nile, used for making a bread,
169.
Lulua River, tortuous course, 449.
Lusambo, situation, 460 ; garrison, 460.
Luxor, ceremonious arrival, 176 ; mingling
of Occident and Orient, 176 ; temple of,
when built, 184; obelisk in, 184; races
of the Sporting Club, 188 ; as a winter
resort, 189.
Machilla, construction, 292; in Angola,
368.
Machinery, American, at Johannesburg,
309 ; at Kimberley, 318 ; on a St. Thomas
plantation, 359 ; in Angola, 366.
MacLean, John H., a general in the Mo-
roccan army, 41.
Madagascar, aspect from the sea, 218;
native tribes, 220, 235; travelling in,
222, 252; use of "cut money," 223;
climate, 224 ; coolie porters, 224, 232,
234; many-syllabled names, 224, 239,
252, 262 ; native cattle, 226 ; big appe-
tites of natives, 226 ; native villages,
226 ; a typical hut, 227 ; insects and
vermin, 228, 256, 259 ; vegetation, 228,
231, 233, 267 ; productions, 230, 234, 271 ;
features of the interior, 231, 232, 235 ;
a Malagasy dude, 233 ; native music,
235 ; population, 236 ; government
troops, 236, 244, 247 ; education, 237,
255 ; missionaries, 237 ; native costumes,
238; the Prime Minister, 246-249;
the Queen, 248 ; stone tombs 250; the
Sakalava country, 251 ; temperatures of
the morning and midday, 254 ; pig-
styes in native houses, 254 ; reeds used as
fuel, 255; military stations, 257, 258, 259,
261 ; jollity of natives, 258 ; a debatable
land, 261 ; gold fields, 262, 264-266 : a
bath in public, 262; an example to
robbers, 263 ; forced labor, 264 ; croco-
diles, 267, 268; a mutiny quelled, 267,
268 ; on board a river steamer, 269 ;
Mojanga, 269; Nosy Be, 271; Nosy
Komba, 272.
Madeira, bullock sledges, 334, 336, 337;
cage birds, 334 ; Funchal, 333, 334 ; na-
tive boots, 335: climate, 335; visit to
Mount Church, 336 ; fish and fruit
markets, 337 ; Grand Curral, 338, 339 ;
its hillsides and their cultivators, 338 ;
botanical riches, 338 ; the Desertas,
340.
Magnesium wire, used for lighting interi-
ors of pyramids, temples, etc., 150, 174,
178.
Mahadia, 129.
Mahdists, furthest northern advance, 204 ;
destroy a railway and telegraph line,
208.
Mahogany, manner of putting on ship-
board, 514, 515.
Maize, raised in Morocco, 9 ; in Reunion,
218 ; in Angola, 390 ; in the Congo State,
422.
536
MALAGA— MOROCCO.
Malaga, view from the harbor, 54 ; sights
and industries, 55.
Malagasy fever, attacked by, in Zanzibar,
277.
Malagasy language, easily learned, 223.
Malta, a call at, 143.
Maltese, valuable class of the population
in Tunis, 115 ; monopolize the cartage
in Susa, 128 ; keep hotels in Tripoli,
138.
Manioc, a staple food in Madagascar, 225,
226 ; used in Angola, 387 ; a product of
the Congo State, 422 ; mode of making
Hour, 450.
Mangay, founding a factory, 440.
Mansoura, beautiful mosque tower, 65.
Manyanga, 425.
Manyanga North, 425, 426.
Marble, Marmor Nuinidium, 58.
Mariette, M., temple excavated by, 149 ;
opinions on the pyramid of Cheops, 150 ;
houses occupied by him at Memphis,
156; discovered temple of Denderah,
173 ; excavations in the Tombs of the
Kings, 178 ; excavations at Edfou, 192 ;
work at Aboo Simbel, 206.
Market, at Tangier, 5 ; at Mequinez, 33 ;
at Tripoli, 141 ; at Assiout, 166 ; at the
Malagasy capital, 145; on the Congo,
427.
Marriage, among the Congo natives,
442.
Matadi, a busy and uncomfortable town,
417 ; factory buildings, 419 ; site afchead
of Lower Congo navigation, 499 ; em-
barking for the Gulf of Guinea, 499.
Mauritius, how reached from Port Said,
214; natural features, 215; productions
and climate, 216 ; large population, 216 ;
hurricanes, 216 ; observatory of Pample-
mousses, 217 ; its sanitoriuin, Curepipe,
217.
Mayotta, a stop at, 273.
Medinet-Haboo, a very remarkable ruined
temple, 186.
Memnon, musical statue, 188.
Memnonium, ruins, 185.
Memphis, approached from Bedrashayn,
155 ; ruins and colossal statue, 156; the
Serapeum, 156.
Mequinez, situation, 27 ; streets and houses,
28 ; shops, 29 ; odors, 29 ; Grand Gateway,
30 ; Jewish quarter, 30 ; bazaars, 31 ;
people, 32; water-supply, 33; market,
33 ; city walls, 33.
Metals, work of Congo natives in, 451 •
deposits in Liberia, 517.
Minieh, its buildings, 160.
Missions, French Catholic, in the Sahara.
102; English, Norwegian, and French,
in Madagascar, 237 ; in Zanzibar, 286 ;
Belgian Catholic, at Boma, 404 ; number
in the Congo Free State, 413 ; American
at Banza Manteka, 422; American, at
Leopoldville, 429; Koman Catholic, on
the Congo, 435 ; doubtful success, 446 ;
Catholic and Protestant, at Luluaborg,
449 ; Protestant, near Luebo, 450 ; Pere
De Deken, inspector of Catholic, 452 ;
Catholic, in French Congo, 490; Anglo-
American, on Stanley Pool, 492 ; Protes-
tant, in Liberia, 516.
Mistral, experience of, 526.
Mohammedanism, birthday of the Prophet
celebrated, 3, 14; an aid in governing,
7 ; dominates customs and habits, 38 ;
the Koran an obstacle to civilization,
127 ; prevails in the Soudan, 508.
Mojanga, harbor and town, 269 ; danger
from fire in the native quarter, 269.
Monastir, 128.
Money, cut, of Madagascar, 223.
Monkeys, on the Congo, 448, 461.
Monrovia, general appearance, 518.
Monte Bello, a West African plantation,
389.
Monte Koffee, situation, 356 ; productions,
357, 358.
Moors, contempt for foreigners, 21, 24, 28 ;
manners and habits, 37 ; origin, 49 ;
character, 50.
Morocco, character of the Sultan, 6; ex-
tortion by officials, 7, 21 ; vegetation, 9,
11 ; presents from headmen of villages,
10, 21 ; treelessness, 20, 34, 90, 135 ; Eu-
ropean goods in the bazaars, 18, 32;
Moorish foods, 19; guards supplied to
travellers, 23, 24; "powder play," 23;
classes of inhabitants, 24; population
and area, 25 ; slavery, 32 ; walls of
Moorish cities, 33, 37 ; snow-covered
mountains, 35 ; architecture, 38 ; army
of the Sultan, 39, 42 ; a Jew's house in
Fez, 44 ; farming methods, 47 ; hill
tribes, 49, 50; villages of farmers and
shepherds, 51 ; roofs forbidden to Chris-
MOSAICS— PALM.
537
tian men, 74 ; aspect from the Atlantic,
526 ; one of the most interesting coun-
tries of the world, 528.
Mosaics, in the Museum at Tunis, 122.
Mosques, in Tangier, 4 ; rude architectu-
ral specimens, 18 ; in Mequinez, 32 ; in
Fez, 41 ; in Tleincen, 63, 64 ; of Sidi Bou
Meddin, 65 ; in Algiers, 75 ; usual staff
of a mosque, 76 ; mosques of Constan-
tine, 93 ; in Tunis, Christians not al-
lowed to enter, 117 ; Great Mosque in
Tripoli, 139 ; interior of Djamaa Goor-
jee, 139.
Mosquitoes, voracious, in Angola, 383.
Mossamedes, difficulty of reaching, 330 ;
situation, 373 ; Egyptian aspect, 374 ;
special features, 375.
Mount Church, 336.
Mount Pogge, 438.
Mozambique, first view of the island, 289 ;
government and trade of the country,
290 ; clean and lighted streets with
name signs, 291 ; a call on the governor-
general, 292; Fort St. Sebastian, 292;
inhabitants, 292.
Muezzin's call, 14.
Muley Edris, town, 24 ; mosque-at Fez, 45.
Mummies, dog, eat, and crocodile, 163; of
kings of Egypt, 178, 179; royal, impor-
tant find, 180.
Museum, of antiquities, in Tunis, 121 ; on
the site of Carthage, 124; South Afri-
can, at Cape Town, 326.
Music of Morocco, 6 ; of Malagasy natives,
235 ; a Malagasy fiddle, 253 ; work ac-
companied by tom-toms, 355 ; guitars of
Congo natives, 464.
Natal, the " Garden of South Africa," 299.
Negroes, do not include all Africans, 410.
Nemours, harbor, 56.
Newspapers, in Tangier, 5 ; in Algiers,
72 ; in Madagascar, 237.
Niger District Protectorate, comprises Ni-
ger Territories and Oil Kivers District,
504.
Niger Eiver, length, 506 ; navigation, 507 ;
delta, 507 ; Eoyal Niger Company, 508,
509.
Nile, dahabeahs and steamers, 152 ; the
river's belt of verdure, 154; dykes used
as roads, 156 ; changes in its course and
width, 158 ; navigating, 158 ; channel
36
not in the centre, 163; fertile valley
mostly west of the river, 164; annual
inundation, 169 ; birds and fishes, 170 ;
shooting the First Cataract, 198 ; view
of Second Cataract from the rock of
Aboosir, 209; end of tour, 213.
Nilometer, on the island of Ehoda, 154 ;
opposite Assouan, 195 ; at Philae, 198.
Nosy B6, the island and town, 271 ; in-
habitants, 272.
Nosy Komba, sanatorium of Nosy Be, 272.
Novo Eedondo, 369, 370.
Nubia, travellers not allowed beyond Sar-
ras, 209.
Nubians, foot race, 189; characteristics,
195; boatmen's cries, 199; pantomime
of attack, 204.
Oases, in the Algerian Sahara, 97 ; Biskra
98 ; Sidi Okbar, 103.
Obelisks, at Karnak, 183.
Offal-heaps, at Moroccan city gates, 20, 34.
Oil Eivers District, 504.
Old Calabar, its river, 503 ; situation of
the town, 503.
Olive oil, mode of extracting, 15; used for
cooking in Morocco, 29; export of Tu-
nisia, L29, 131.
Ophthalmia, afflicts natives of Upper
Egypt, 190.
Orau, appearance from the harbor. ">7 ;
characteristics, 58 ; strategical impor-
tance, 59.
Oranges, at Malaga, 55: in Tunis, 122 ; in
Madagascar, 237 ; in the Canaries, 524.
Ostriches, source and grades of feathers,
140 ; a large and vicious bird, 249 ; in
South Africa, 313, 320.
Oysters, in Madagascar, 271.
Palace of Ahmed Bey, at Constantine, 93.
Palanquins, the filanzana of Madagascar,
220; the machilla of Mozambique, 292;
the hammock of Funchal, 336 ; the
tipoya of Angola, 370, 3S5.
Palm kernels, from Sierra Leone, 520.
Palm wine, flavor, 424 ; fondness of the
Congo people for, 428, 440; useful for
making bread, 455 ; bow obtained, 488.
Palm. Theban or doum, in Upper Egypt,
163 ; its fruit, 172 ; doum, in Nubia,
201 ; traveller's and roffia, 231 ; cocoanut,
at Mozambique, 289, 290; oil, in An-
538
PAN I A MUTEMBO— RYDER.
gola, 383 ; tree producing the oil and
kernels of commerce, 503.
Pania Mutembo, King, personal appear-
ance, 463 ; his town, 463, 467 ; visit
from, 464 ; visit to, 465 ; residence, 466 ;
wealth of wives, 467 ; exchange of goods
with, 468.
Papyrus, plant extinct, 169.
Parminter, Major W. G., services to the
Belgian Commercial Company, 418 ;
parting from, 492 ; his death, 493.
1'eanuts, used as food in Angola, 387 ; a
product of the Congo State, 422 ; chief
export of Gambier, 520.
" Pharaoh's Bed," example of lighter Ptol-
emaic architecture, 198.
Philffi, description, 196; picturesque fea-
tures, 197 ; ancient ruins, 197.
Phosphorescence of the sea, 353; in the
Gulf of Guinea, 514.
Photographers, notice to, in the Sahara,
96.
Pigeons, large numbers kept in Egypt,
158, 167.
Pigs, of central Madagascar, 254, 256.
Pillow, of Congo natives, 459.
Pineapples, in Angola, 390 ; on the Congo,
450.
Pirates, Barbary, ousted from Algeria, 135.
Port Louis, harbor and buildings, 215.
Port Natal, entrance to the harbor, 297 ;
bustling appearance, 298.
Port Said, a bustling place, 143.
Portugal, rights in Africa encroached upon
by England, 393 ; early explorations in
Africa, 396 ; in Asia and America, 397 ;
disgracefully robbed, 397.
Portuguese colonial officials, universal
courtesy, 378 ; hospitality in Angola, 391.
Pottery, of Congo natives, 459 ; of the
Canaries, 524.
Praia, 352.
Pretoria, regular plan, 310; the Govern-
ment House, 310 ; expensive living and
travelling, 311.
Prickly pear as a village hedge, 23, 51.
Prince's Island, a " volcanic flower-gar-
den," 354.
Prison, in Tangier, 4 ; in El Kasr, 18 ; of
Tripoli, generally full, 141.
Pyramids of Ghizeh, situation, 147 ; prob-
ably tombs, 147 ; source of the stone, 148,
154; Pyramid of Cheops, mode of as-
cending and descending, 149 ; how built,
150 ; its interior, 150 ; second (Chephren)
and third at Ghizeh, 149, 151 ; stone
casings removed by Caliphs and Sultans,
151 ; of Sakhara, 156 ; " step" pyramid,
156.
Quanza River, navigation, 369, 382.
Railways, Algerian, 60, 81 ; slow travelling
in Algeria, 111 ; style of cars used, 111 ;
Egyptian, 164; between Assouan and
Shellah, 196 ; at Second Cataract of the
Nile, partly destroyed by Mahdists, 208 ;
mode of operating, 208; from Lorenzo
Marquez, 294, 295 ; from Durban, 301 ;
its sleeping accommodations, 302; re-
markable engineering, 302 ; in the Cape
Colony and the Transvaal, 312 ; en-
gineering feats, 321 ; needed in Angola,
375; line from Benguela to Catumbella,
376 ; Royal Railway Company across
Africa, 380, 391 ; at Boma, 403 ; in the
Congo Free State, 414, 420.
Ramadan, the Mohammedan Lent, 140.
Rameseum, ruins, 185.
Ranailivouy, Prime Minister of Madagas-
car, received by, 246.
Re, temple at Aboo Simbel, 206.
Rebels, how punished in Morocco, 41.
Relics, fraudulent, sellers of, 156, 182.
Reunion, or Bourbon Island, 218.
Rice, a product of Reunion, 218; an un-
important crop in Madagascar, 233,
236.
Roads in Algeria, 83 ; on dykes in Egypt,
181 ; also in Madagascar, 253.
Robbers, protection from, in Morocco, 23 ;
hill tribes in Morocco, 49 ; none in Al-
geria, 111 ; in Tripoli, 134 ; an example
to, in Madagascar, 263.
Roman classics, in library at Fez, 41.
Roman ruins, city of Volubilis, 25 ; at Con-
stantine, 93, 94 ; at Timegad, 109 ; at
Tebessa, 109 ; furnish stone for Gabes,
131 ; near Djerba, 134 ; in Nubia, 204,
207.
Rubber, exported from Angola, 371 ; dis-
covery there, 378 ; how brought to mar-
ket, 419 ; attempt to make a better grade,
455.
Ryder, J. O., of Antananarivo, hospitality,
240.
SAHARA— TANGIER.
539
Sahara, proposed inland lake, 131 ; coast
divided between France and Spain, 522.
St. Thomas, 354 ; its capital, 355, 356 ; the
governor's hospitality, 356 ; scenes in the
interior, 357.
St. "Vincent, 352.
Sakalavas, region and number, 236 ; bad
name, 251 ; hostile to the Hovas, 257 ; a
wild-looking specimen, 259 ; general ap-
pearance, 262.
Sakhara, pyramids, 156 ; tombs, 157.
Sakiahs, construction and use, 168 ; al-
lowed to creak, 204.
Salt, produced at Bengo Bay, 381.
San Antonio, 361.
Sandstone, quarries of ancient Egypt, 193.
Sankuru Kiver, course, 453, 454 ; bluffs
above Lusambo, 461.
Santa Cruz dc Palma, 340.
Santiago, 352.
Sarcophagi, in the Serapeum at Memphis,
157 ; in tombs of the Kings, 178, 179.
Scarabseus, what it is, 172.
Schools, Moorish, 40, 41 ; Algerian, 66 ;
eight thousand pupils in those of Tunis,
119; mission, in Zanzibar, 286.
Sebek, temple at Kom Ombo, 194.
Senegambia, chief towns, 521 ; trade, 521.
Serapeum at Memphis, 156.
Serpent-charmer, 42.
Setif, town and market, 89.
Sfax, trade and population, 129 ; great
suburb, 130.
Shadoof, construction and use, 168.
Sharks, at Lindi, 289 ; at St. Thomas, 355.
Sheep, largely raised in Cape Colony. 320.
Shereef of Wezzan, 49.
Shops, Moorish, arrangement and stock,
17 ; closed during heat of the day, 29 ;
in Fez, 40 ; ways of shop-keepers in
Tunis, 116.
Sidi Ok bar, location of the oasis, 103 ;
houses, shops, natives, and the mosque;
104.
Sidi Okbar, tomb, 104; his conquest of
Northern Africa and murder, 105.
Sierra Leone, distant view of the moun-
tain, 518; founding of the colony, 519;
the " white man's grave," 519 ; exports,
520.
Singing, of Malagasy boatmen, 225, 226 ; of
tipoya bearers, 386 ; of Congo boatmen,
425, 496.
Slave Coast, on the Gulf of Guinea, 509.
Slavery, in Morocco, 32 ; slave-market in
Tunis, 117 ; in Madagascar, 236, 245 ; in
Zauzibar, 276 ; in Angola, 365.
Small-pox, in a Congo village, 471.
Sokoto, largest empire of the Soudan, 509 ;
government, 509.
South African and International Exhibi-
tion, 319.
Spaniards, in Tangier, 5.
Speos Artemidos, 161.
Sphinxes, the " Father of Immensi-
ty," 148; avenues of, at Karnak, 181.
182.
Sponges, fishery in Tunisia, 129, 134.
Springs, boiling, of" Hammam Muskou-
tine, 111 ; ferruginous and sulphurous,
of Hammam Muskoutine, 112.
Stanley Fool, view from Kinchassa, 430 ;
extent, 434.
Steamers, Mediterranean, 53 ; of the upper
Nile, 200 ; Egyptian gunboat, 210 ; on
the Quanza Kiver, 382 ; on the Congo.
400, 413 ; putting together, 413 ; rates for
passage and freight, 421 ; the Archi-
duchesse Stephanie, 432 ; mode of ob-
taining fuel on the Congo, 433.
Stone, of the pyramids, where quarried.
148, 154.
Subcrbie, M., gold diggings in Madagaa
car, 251, 262, 264.
Suez Canal, traffic, 143 ; passing through,
144.
Sugar, factories in Egypt, 159, 160,162;
fields of cane on the banks of the Nile,
160 ; rum produced at the factories, 160 ;
staple product of Mauritius, 216 ; of Re-
union, 218; raised in Madagascar, 230^
235; in Angola, 390; in Liberia, 517 ; in
the Canaries, 524.
Susa, seaport of Kerouan, 128 ; the town
and its inhabitants, 128.
Table Mountain and its " table-cloth,''
323.
Tamatave, harbor, 218; native luggage-
carriers, 219 ; inhabitants, 220 ; streets
and houses, 221.
Tanganyika, Lake, natives from vicinity.
287 ; distance from head of Congo navi-
gation, 463.
Tangier, picturesque appearance from the
sea, 1 ; streets and houses, 2 ; hotels, 3 ;
540
TART ANA— WINES.
cosmopolitan aspect, 3 ; the castle, 3 ;
mosques, 4 ; mixed population, 5.
Tartana, construction, 523.
Tattooing, in Angola, 366 ; favorite fashion
of the Bangalas, 432 ; of the tribes along
the Kassai, 439 ; among the Bakongos,
441; the Bakubas, 459; of women in
Pania Mutembo's town, 463.
Tea, black not liked by Moors, 49; grown
in Natal, 302.
Tebessa, ruins of first Christian monastery,
109.
Temperature, difference between day and
night, in Morocco, 10 ; in Egypt, 158 ; of
the Upper Nile valley, 194 ; difference
between day and night on the Congo,
471 ; at Mossamedes, 374.
Temple of Koomeh, 177 ; of Queen
Hatasou, 179 ; Typhoni, at Denderah,
175; rock-hewn, near Kalabshah,
202; at Amada, built by Usertsen II.,
203; rock-hewn, at Aboo Simbel, 205;
rooms generally oblong in Egypt,
206.
Teneriffe, passing at night, 332 ; remark-
able character, 341 ; scenery of the
island, 343 ; arrangements for ascending
the peak, 344 ; ride up the lower slopes,
345-347 ; cabin for tourists, 347 ; climb
up the cone, 348 ; interior of the cra-
ter, 349 ; grand view, 349 ; descent,
349.
Thebes, extent, 176; view of its general
plan, 179.
Timegad, ruins of its temple of Jupiter,
109; of its forum and other structures,
110.
Tipoya, construction, 385 ; less comfort-
able than the filanzana, 386.
Tippoo Tib, a call on, 282.
Tlemcen, European character, 62.
Togoland, 512.
Tombs, of marabouts, 13 ; of a saint in
Algeria, 63 ; at Sakhara, 157 ; of Beni
Hassan, 160 ; an artist domiciled in one,
162 ; rock-hewn, at Assiout, 165 ; of the
Kings, 177 ; contained mummies of kings
of the XlXth and XXth dynasties, 178 ;
wall sculptures and paintings, 178 : rock-
hewn, opposite Assouan, 196 ; rock-
hewn, at Ibreen, 204.
Toski, scene of a decisive battle in the
Soudan war, 204.
Transvaal, its veldt, 304.
Tree-toads on the Congo, terrific croaking,
440, 459.
Tripoli, city of, situation, 137 ; vessels in
the harbor, 137 ; hotels, houses, 138 ;
great weekly market, 141.
Tripoli, province of, subject to Turkey,
137 ; nature of the country, 138 ; founded
by the Phoenicians, 139 ; the Pasha and
his residence, 140 ; punishment for
crime, 141 ; Turkish garrison, 141 ; ex-
ports, 142.
Tuckey's exploration of the Congo coun-
try, 412.
Tunis, harbor, 114; city built from the
materials of ancient Carthage, 114, 117 ;
the French and the Arab quarters, 115 ;
manufactures, 115, 116 ; restaurants and
fondaks, 117; palace of the Bey, 118;
college, 118; schools, 119; population,
119 ; the Bardo, palace of the old Beys,
119 ; disappointing aspect from a dis-
tance, 122.
Tunisia, nature of the country, 113;
army, 120 ; place where the French
treaty was signed, 122; visit to the
Bey, 125 ; his palace at La Marsa,
126 ; present government, 126 ; benefit
of French influence, 127, 135 ; exports,
127.
Tunny-fish, mode of taking, 130 ; uses,
130.
Wadi Haifa, garrison, 208.
Walking-stick insect, 485.
Washing clothes, one method in Morocco,
20; beating, 34; native mode in Angola,
384.
Water, wheel for raising, 15 ; supply of
Mequinez, 33, 34 ; of Wezzan, 49 : of the
Nile, filtered for drinking, 153 : means
of raising from the Nile, 168 ; bamboo
jars for, 227 ; muddy and slimy water
drank by the natives of West Africa,
387, 424.
Wezzan, situation, 48 ; Shereef of, 48 ;
water supply, 49.
Whip, remarkable kind used by the Boers,
303.
Whitney, K. M., of Tamatave, hospitality,
219, 222 ; death, 220.
Wines, Algerine, 57, 82 ; Canary sack,
524.
WISSAfANN POOL- ZANZIBAR.
541
Wissmann Pool, 437.
Wives, number a Mussulman may have,
38 ; of King Pania Mutembo, 467.
Wolf Falls, location, 463.
Wolf, sacred, tomb of, 165.
Women, Moorish, 32 ; mosque for, in Fez,
41 ; work, in Morocco, 52 ; East African,
at work in the fields, 296.
Zanzibar, appearance of the island and
city, 274 ; terrific heat in the city streets,
275 ; a former servant of Stanley, 275 ;
climate, 275 ; mixed population, 276 ;
army, 276 ; exports, 276 ; government,
277 ; palaces of the Sultan, 278 ; the
Sultan's military band, 279 ; his harem,
279 ; an audience with the Sultan, 279-
282; another palace of the Sultan,
281 ; decorated by His Highness,
281 ; a call upon Tippoo Tib, 282 ;
harbor, 283, 284 ; steamers for Port Natal,
288.
THE END.
OTHER WORKS OF TRAVEL BY FRANK VINCENT.
I.
A round and About South America :
Twenty Months of Quest and Query. By Frank Vincent,
author of " Actual Africa," etc. With Maps, Plans, and
Fifty-four full-page Engravings. Fifth edition. 8vo,
xxiv+473 pages, ornamental cloth. Price, $5.00.
CRITICAL ESTIMATES.
" Any one who Las read one of the books of Frank Vincent — who first made a hit
with ' The Land of the White Elephant ' — will always take another on trust, confident
that it will be full of interest." — The Chronicle (San Francisco).
" ' Around and About South America ' is a capital book, and the maps and illustra-
tions excellent." — The Times (New York).
" He is a traveler of unusual experience and capacity." — The Sun (New York).
" The story of this wonderful journey is fascinatingly told, and its interest is largely
increased by the illustrations which are plentifully scattered through its pages." —
Transcript (Boston).
" Frank Vincent is an indefatigable traveler, a keen observer, and a graphic and
entertaining writer, and thus combines qualities which afford a ready explanation of
the large popularity of his books." — Boston Journal.
" It is probably the most thorough book of travel that has yet been written on South
America. Every page is readable, and one goes from chapter to chapter as in a ro-
mance."— Commonwealth (Boston).
"Mr. Vincent is one of the most delightful of traveling companions. He never
wearies his reader with personal or irrelevant details, and yet his pages sparkle with
just the sort of small observations that are needed to give one a stereoscopic view of the
strange foreign life through which he passes. His book is full of information, much of
it being of the most fresh and novel character." — Newark Advertiser.
"A readable, instructive, entertaining, and handsome book." — Standard- Union
(Brooklyn).
" A charming story of interesting travels in every part of South America. . . . The
illustrations are exceptionally excellent, and give a vivid impression of the places and
peoples in the great southern continent." — Journal and Courier (New Haven).
" Mr. Vincent is an alert, wide-awake, and cheerful traveler, with genial sympa-
thies, by which he very easily gains an insight into the character of the people among
whom he journeys." — New York Evangelist.
" An indefatigable traveler and clever writer." — Christian Union (New York).
" He is one of the most persistent and enterprising explorers of the day, and the
author of a number of capital books of travel." — Sentinel (Indianapolis).
"Mr. Vincent should be put among the first of literary travelers." — Morning
Journal (New York).
II.
Jn and Out of Central America ;
And Other Sketches and Studies of Travel. By Frank
Vincent, author of "Actual Africa," etc. With Maps
and Illustrations. Third edition. 12mo, ornamental cloth.
Price, $2.00.
CRITICAL ESTIMATES.
"Mr. Vincent's 'Around and About South America ' was the most imposing and
satisfactory account of other countries in our own hemisphere that we have recently
had. The same writer's studies of Central America are characterized by similar traits
of candor and animation." — Brooklyn Times.
" The author of ' In and Out of Central America' has a faculty of seeing every-
thing of interest that comes before his vision, and of picturing it with his pen to the
delight of all who read his narrative."— Journal of Commerce (New York).
" He sees well and tells his story charmingiy."— Inter-Ocean (Chicago).
" A book of travel by Mr. Frank Vincent is always certain of a hearty reception.
He invariably has something new to tell, and tells it in a manner that is as attractive
as it is edifying. The happy faculty of seeing what less intelligent and less enthusiastic
travelers fail to observe is one of his peculiar gifts, and the reader may rely upon de-
riving equal entertainment and instruction from his brilliantly written pages. ... Mr.
Vincent possesses to an uncommon degree the rare talent for condensing, and is thus
enabled to compress within a small compass an extraordinary amount of information."
— Evening Gazette (Boston).
" Mr. Vincent is always an agreeable writer. He is never hackneyed, never com-
monplace. His personal impressions are rapid, and bear the stamp of fidelity. After
reading his vivid, animated, comprehensive account one has in mind a series of new
ideas which are pretty certain to be permanent and beneficial."— Beacon (Boston).
" His books of travel are always welcome."— Boston Post.
" A pleasing and often brilliant writer. His work is lively, sparkling, and full of
interest."— Hartford, Times.
'"In and Out of Central America ' is a book sure to be appreciated by all lovers of
travel. Mr. Vincent has the raconteur's happy knack, and takes his readers right into
the heart of the country described. His pages teem with life and facts, and are con-
densed so as to be both interesting and easy of comprehension."— Kansas City Times.
" Mr. Vincent's works of travel have been a great literary success. His descrip-
tions of foreign countries and a traveler's experience in some of the wonderlands which
he visits are always brilliant and entertaining."— The Press (Portland, Me.).
" A model traveler."— Toronto Mail.
" Mr. Vincent has now seen all the most interesting parts of the world. His per-
sonal knowledge of man and Nature is probably as varied and complete as that of any
person living."— Home Journal (New York).
D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, 72 Fifth Avenue, New York.
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