would be hooted by the women and jeered at by the boys, and never again would a man trust them as a companion in a fight or a hunt.

When I had finished speaking, the youngest of all, Chaka, a lad of my own age, rose up and said, “Listen! The words of Franki are good words. All may return, but Chaka will remain with Franki,” and then he sat down again.

For some moments there was silence, and then Wanda said, “I have been waiting to hear the words of those who want to leave Fumo to die. Franki will stop, and Chaka will stop, and I Wanda, I, too, am a man, and will stop with my friends when they are in trouble. Go back, and Karema will take your spears from you, and put hoes in your hands, and you shall work in the fields with the women.”

No answer was given to this appeal, and soon we saw our recreant companions packing up their little belongings and preparing to leave us. This was a most curious phase of the negro character. Here were men who only a few hours before had been ready to risk their lives to help the man whom now they proposed to leave to die alone and untended, and this simply because they had some idea that he was unlucky, or, in other words, that his fetich was bad. It was indeed fortunate that the two brave fellows, Wanda and Chaka, had consented to remain with me and their wounded companion.

Those who had made up their minds to return did not linger over their preparations; and though they could only make a short distance on their journey that night, they started off at once, refusing even to help Chaka and Wanda to make a fence round our huts as a protection against wild beasts.

When they left, Chaka and Wanda set about this necessary work, and, as the deserters had collected a considerable quantity of wood and branches before I had unfortunately proposed sending to tell Karema of Fumo’s mischance, we were able by sunset to make ourselves tolerably secure, and have big fires lighted to scare away wild beasts. My arms, which the leopard had torn, had by this time become so painful that I was unable in any way to assist in this most necessary work. Poor Fumo was in great pain, and groaned pitifully. During the whole night I could not sleep at all, and in the morning I was seized by an attack of fever. For days I was ill, and conscious only at intervals, during one of which my faithful friends told me that Fumo was dead.

I was slowly recovering from the fever, and was greatly rejoiced in finding that my arms were nearly healed, when one day, Chaka and Wanda having gone out to try to kill some game for our larder, I was sitting in the door of our hut, and I suddenly heard shouts of “Franki, Franki!” Thinking that perhaps Karema, hearing of our having remained with Fumo, had sent men to our relief, I got on my feet to go in the direction whence the sound came. Walking slowly thither I saw Chaka and Wanda burst from the jungle, and spears and arrows flying after them.

Evidently they had fallen in with a party belonging to some hostile tribe. They shouted out, “Franki, get in the camp, or we’ll be killed!” and poor Wanda, before he could reach that haven of comparative safety, fell down dead with a couple of spears right through him.

As soon as he reached our little camp, Chaka closed up the entrance, and then said, “O Franki, Wanda and I had just killed an antelope, and were busy skinning and cutting it up, when we were startled by some arrows flying past us, and looking up we saw many men among the trees, and we ran, and as we ran we called to you.”

The party who had attacked my two friends and killed poor Wanda now showed themselves all round the open space in which our little camp was situated. By their arms, shields, and the manner in which they were decorated with beads and feathers (which was different from anything I had yet seen), I could see that they were members of a tribe who were entire strangers to me.

They shouted out to us to come out of our camp or they would kill us all; their language, though different from that of the Adiana, in which I was now a proficient, being sufficiently allied to it for us to understand.

Chaka was evidently in a dreadful state of fright. He begged me not to resist, but to speak to the strangers and endeavour to make terms with them, for he said they were a very fierce people and ate the bodies of those killed in battle. “How dreadful it is to be eaten!” said Chaka.

I shouted that if our lives would be spared we would come out, but if they would not promise not to injure us we would resist to the utmost. At first they laughed at us, but when they saw that I was a white man and had a gun they said they would not kill us. Chaka and I, as soon as the promise was given, ran to where Wanda was lying, but could render him no assistance. The spear which had pierced him having gone clean through his heart, death must have been instantaneous.

We were not allowed much time to mourn over the death of our companion, for the strangers surrounded us at once, and after seizing our weapons, bound our arms behind our backs, and then put a cord round our necks. Having rifled our camp of all that was of value in their eyes, they cut up Wanda’s body into pieces, which they distributed among themselves, and then commenced their return to their own camp, which was situated about five miles away.

Here we found a large body of men on a hunting and plundering expedition, who had made several captives from neighbouring tribes. Among these unfortunates Chaka and I were made to take our place, and large logs of wood were fitted round our ankles, so that it was impossible for us to do more than hobble along very slowly.

We soon had unwelcome proof that our captors were indeed cannibals, for before our eyes they ate the body of poor Wanda; and Chaka, becoming terror-stricken, said constantly to me, “Then you see if we had resisted we should have been eaten.” I own I did not feel philosophical enough to argue, and felt quite as much horror at the idea as he did.

Next morning at daylight our captors broke up their camp. We gathered from their conversation they intended to make the best of their way back to their own villages, which lay a long way up the Ogowai, on the banks of which we were to find some canoes they had hidden, and in which we were to travel up-stream. This was very good news to me; for it was weary and painful work to hobble along with my leg in a log, which I had with both hands to lift at every step by a loop of rope made fast to it. Indeed, in my weak state I was only urged on by fear of being left fettered and helpless to be the prey of jackals and hyenas, or, if I escaped from them, to die of thirst and hunger.

My sufferings were intense. My leg, from my ankle to my knee, was soon a mass of sores; and if ever I halted for a moment, our captors forced me on with blows and jeers. Poor Chaka, who was tied to me by a rope round our necks, though faring even worse than I did, kept on trying to cheer me up by saying that when we got to the river we should be sure to find means of escaping, or that the people whom Karema would be sure to send to look for us would manage to release us.

No hope of either entered into my mind. As we wearily dragged along, I could not help thinking how all this fresh trouble had come on me from not complying with Karema’s desires, whose slightest wish should have been law to me, when I considered how great and consistent had been his kindness to me during the whole time I had lived with him.

I did not think it was possible that Karema could send enough men to attack our enemies with any prospect of success, for it seemed unlikely for him to have any knowledge of the fresh misfortunes which had befallen us. In this I was mistaken, as the event shortly proved.

CHAPTER XIV.

WORSE THAN DEATH.

Soon we saw them advancing towards us, and heard their shouts and cries. We thought that in another two or three minutes we should be released from the torture which the logs were causing us. Soon we could recognize their faces, and I was astonished to see that they were headed by Dala. I augured ill from this, more especially as I could soon see that he was accompanied by his own friends, and by a party from a village near Karema’s which was considered as his special property.

Instead of releasing me, Dala stood over me and said, “Franki, you will never see your people, nor will you ever go back to pour poison into the ears of Karema.”

I protested I had never done him any harm, and that all my wish was to get home to my own country as soon as possible. He would not listen to me, but gave orders for a call to be beaten on his drums which would tell the runaways that his intentions were peaceful and not warlike.

We soon heard their shouts, and a parley was carried on for some time between Dala and their leaders at the top of their voices. Soon they all came back into camp, laughing, singing, and talking, on the best of terms with the Adiana, whom Chaka and I had fondly hoped had come to rescue us.

After a time a man came and, striking me across the face with a strip of hippopotamus hide, so as to bring blood, told me to accompany him to where the chief of our captors and Dala were sitting on a log near a fire. I got up and followed, and when I got near, Dala, with much coarse language, told me to listen to what he had to say. First he summed up a number of imaginary injuries which he said I had done him, and accused me of having always poisoned Karema’s mind

against him—which was totally untrue—and next of not having obeyed Karema’s orders in returning at the proper time, and thereby having caused the death of Fumo and Wanda.

I tried to speak and defend myself, but he said I had the tongue of a serpent and should never again poison the ears of Karema. Raising his spear, I thought he was about to strike me dead, when his companion, whose name I learned was Kifura, prevented him. Dala said, “It is well; let him live; but I will do worse than kill him;” and then addressing me said, “Franki, the English are in the river and waiting for you. Hararu has sent canoes to take you to your own people.”

A rush of thankfulness went through my whole being, and I cared not for pains nor logs nor any discomforts, and said, “O Dala, take me, take me quickly, that I may go to my own people; and when I reach them I will give you many things—guns, powder, beads, cloth—all that you wish shall be yours.”

“Listen to his words,” said Dala. “A slave, a dog promises me guns; he promises me cloth. Know that if all that white men make in their country were given me I would not take you to the English ship, for I hate you.”

I fell on my knees and, weeping and crying, implored this hard-hearted savage to have pity on me. I pointed out how Karema could not possibly make me his heir if I left the country, and I promised that not one word would I say of his present behaviour; but all without effect, and again he raised his spear as if to kill me, but again Kifura stopped him.

“Listen, Dala of the Adiana,” said Kifura. “Why should you kill this white man? Mine he is, and mine he will continue; if you kill him, my words will go to Karema, and you will never be chief in his place. Take counsel with me and be wise. The men who are with you, will their words be as your words?”

“Truly, what I say they say. They are my own, and their lives are in my hands.”

“Take wisdom in your hands, and return to Karema and say unto him, ‘I have found the place where Franki was, but he was dead when we came; and I followed after other people, for I found the traces of many men, and I found that one other of our people—he who is even now a prisoner—was with them, and I came and found him in their hands, and they released him.’ Go your way with this man, and the English will give you guns for having gone after this white man.”

“But, Kifura, this slave, this Chaka, is a friend of Franki’s, and he will say unto Karema that Franki lives. I will kill him, and his tongue will be silent.”

“Stay your hand, Dala. While the man lives he may work, and I can use him. Let him remain, and say that he also is dead.”

“Surely, Kifura, the life of this slave is nothing to me; but he may come back and make me a liar before Karema.”

“No, Dala, he shall never come back. They who fall into the hands of Kifura never escape.”

“Then let him live; but this Franki, let me slay him, for while he lives I shall not have peace.”

“No, he may not be slain; for never before has Kifura had a white man in his hands. And when I go to my own people they will say Kifura is indeed a warrior; the women will dance, and they shall sing that there is no man among the Balaba like unto him, for never before has a man of the Balaba brought a white man as a slave.”

There was a further discussion between these two worthies as to the question of my being killed. At last it was settled that Chaka and I were to remain in the hands of the Balaba, and that Dala was to return to Karema and say we both were dead. In consideration of Dala foregoing his wish to murder me he was to be given a canoe to return down the river in, which he could say he had captured from the Balaba in fight.

I was ordered to return to where Chaka was lying, and I told him of the conversation between Dala and Kifura.

“Oh that I were free,” said he, “that I might kill him and die. He is a dog, and the son of a dog. But, Franki, while Chaka is with you he will be your slave, and what service he can render you he will render.”

It was long ere I could close my eyes in sleep, for I was tortured by despair at my evil fortune and the thought that if I had not disregarded Karema’s desires I might even now have been among my own people and probably with my own father and brother. At last I was exhausted by the very violence of my emotions, and fell into a deep and dreamless sleep, from which I was awakened by a great noise and shouting.

I raised myself up to see what was the cause, and I found the whole camp in commotion. On looking for Chaka I found that he was no longer by my side. After a bit I heard a piercing shriek, as if some one was killed. I tried to drag myself towards the noise, for I feared that my faithful companion was the victim; but I was soon seized upon by two men and dragged before Kifura. By his side lay the dead body of Dala, with a knife in its breast; and close by the corpse of Chaka, riddled with spears.

Kifura gave orders for me to have, in addition to the log on my ankle, a slave-fork put round my neck and my hands lashed behind my back.

While his orders were being carried out I gathered what had occurred. I found that Chaka, notwithstanding the encumbrance of the log on his leg, had managed to creep close to where Dala was sleeping, and drawing the latter’s knife from his girdle had driven it into his heart. As he rose to do so the light of a neighbouring fire fell on him, and one of the Balaba seeing what he was doing, raised an alarm. Before Chaka could get a dozen feet from the body of his victim he was speared to death.

The men who had followed Dala were now furious for my death, but Kifura would not give me up to them. The day breaking shortly after, the Balaba and Adiana separated—the latter returning to their own village, and the Balaba making their way to the Ogowai.

I dragged my weary steps along as best I could, every symptom of flagging being rewarded with a lash from a hippopotamus-hide whip; but at last I stumbled and fell, and was powerless to rise again. Flogging and burning with hot coals were resorted to by my savage captors in order to force me on my feet again; but I was so thoroughly weary and sick of life that nothing could induce me to stir. At last Kifura, fearing that I would die, gave orders to have the log and slave-fork taken off me, and then he and his followers tried again to force me on my feet. But hoping that they might kill me, I stubbornly refused to move. At last a pole about eight or nine feet long was cut from a neighbouring tree, and having lashed me tightly to it with strips of bark and hide, four men were told off to carry me.

They had no more mercy than if I had been totally destitute of feeling. They bumped me against trees, dragged me through thorns, and hauled me over fallen trunks, bruising me all over and tearing nearly all the skin off my body. At the same time flies, stinging ants, and other noisome insects, attracted by my sores, fattened on my blood and clustered so thickly round my eyes that I thought I should have been blinded. When I felt myself thrown down like a log in the bottom of a leaky canoe I thought I had undergone the extremity of torture, and that though I was trampled on by the people crowding on board, and had all sorts of things flung on me, I might now have comparative rest and peace. I was fated to find that I had still more exquisite agony to endure; for though the water in the bottom of the canoe was cool, and the abominable insect pests had left, my lashings became tightened by the wet and cut into me like lines of fire; my limbs and body swelled; one lashing round my neck almost throttled me, so that every breath I drew was torture, and another across my forehead seemed to be eating in to my very brain.

I felt that it was impossible to endure such intensity of pain and still to exist, and I begged and prayed to be released. For some time my entreaties were unheeded; but at last Kifura, fearing that I should die, and that he would be deprived of the triumph of bringing a live white man as a prisoner into his country, gave orders for my lashings to be cut. I felt instant relief, even though I was so stiff and helpless that I was unable to sit up, and had to continue lying in the bottom of the canoe, kicked, trampled, and spat upon by its other occupants.

All day long we paddled up the river, and at night camped on its bank, the canoes being hauled up on shore. Rejoicing in being close to their own homes, the Balaba, notwithstanding the fatigues of the day, sang and danced round huge fires nearly the livelong night. To my fevered imagination they seemed like a company of demons rejoicing over the pains of some condemned soul.

In the morning we were early under way again. About eight o’clock, judging by the height of the sun, I heard the sound of rushing water, and presently the canoes put into the bank. All the men went ashore and began stripping the bark from trees and twisting it into ropes. From their conversation I gathered that we were at the foot of some rapids up which it was necessary to haul the canoes.

Unable to walk, I managed to sit up and look about me, and I could see that our numbers had been largely increased. There were many women whom I had not previously seen among the party, so I supposed that we could not be far from the end of the journey.

At first I did not attract much attention, but some of the women coming down to the canoes with bundles of rope noticed me, and cried out that there was a white man. I was soon surrounded by a crowd, who pulled my hair, looked into my eyes, examined my toes and fingers, and shouted and screamed with wonder at the whiteness of my skin, or rather at such portions of it as remained light-coloured. I was so grimed with dirt and tanned with the sun and weather that I doubt if any Englishman would from my appearance have owned me as a fellow-countryman.

I tried to appeal to them to do something to relieve my sufferings; but they only laughed at my speaking, as if I were a strange species of ape, until one old woman came down bending under a heavy load of twisted bark.

When this good old woman saw me she rebuked the crowd of gapers who were standing around, saying—

“Is he not a man, and suffers pain like us? Go, get leaves and get drink for him.”

Getting into the canoe, she seated herself by my side, and began to bind up the worst of my wounds with plantain leaves, which she arranged as deftly as any member of the College of Surgeons would have done a bandage.

I felt instant relief from her services, and when she gave me a bowl of fresh plantain wine which one of the other women brought her, I began to have hope once more. Whilst she was busied about me Kifura came to see what she was doing, and rebuked her for wasting her time about a slave and a prisoner.

She answered: “O Kifura! he is a slave and a prisoner, it is true; but even slaves and prisoners have feelings, and die like other men; and this man is a white man. Now when Kifura comes to-night to his home, people at the dance will say there is no chief like Kifura, who has brought a white man to Kitaka; and words will go to all that Kifura has a white man at Kitaka, and people will come from all places to see him, and say that Kifura is indeed a big chief. But if he die, it is finished, and people will say that the words of Kifura are emptiness, and that he is no better than another.”

Kifura was somewhat convinced by her arguments, and told her she might continue her care of me; but that, if I escaped, her life would be the forfeit. Having obtained permission to attend on me, the old woman, whose name she told me was Teta, managed to rig up a place so that I could sit up in the canoe. Having done all she could for my comfort, she said that I would have to remain in it while it was hauled up the rapids, for it would be impossible for me to climb the hills, and that in the evening when we arrived at Kitaka she would take me to her own hut and tend me as if I were a son.

The canoes were now cleared of their contents, and only three men left in each canoe to manage them and fend them off rocks and snags while they were hauled up the rapids by the ropes which all hands had been busy preparing.

Shoving off from the shore we pushed round a small point and came full in sight of the rapids. I confess as I saw what was before us I did not care about making the ascent in the helpless condition in which I was; for the waters were rushing down at an angle of sixty degrees with the horizon, and huge and ugly rocks showed their heads above the surface, the foam flying wildly round them.

One by one the canoes were brought out of the still water, where they had been made fast to long ropes which were manned by men on shore and on the rocks above. Even before they commenced the actual ascent they were knocked about in the Witches’ Caldron into which the waters fell, as if they were certain to be swamped or capsized. The canoe in which I was a helpless passenger was the last to make the journey, so I had lots of time to contemplate the risks that we were about to undergo. The first canoe went safely through the boiling and seething water at the foot of the rapids, and was dragged to the ascent. At the commencement she dipped her bow and shipped a huge quantity of water; but recovering herself it went flying out over her stern, washing out a quantity of small articles which their owners had been too lazy or careless to remove. I at once saw that if the same thing happened to ours I myself should be washed out and drowned to a certainty.

My kind old woman Teta was standing on the bank near me. I called to her and told her of my fears. She laughed, and comforted me like a wayward child, and tried to persuade me that it was impossible; but at last she yielded to my persuasions, and taking off a cloth she wore she passed it behind my back and under my armpits, and knotted it securely to a piece of wood running across the canoe.

By the time she had finished a great shout announced the safe arrival of the first canoe at the summit of the rapids; and the ropes were brought down

again and made fast to the second canoe. I could see, as the ascent commenced, that she made a dip like her predecessor, and was very glad that Teta had consented to lash me. Having nothing else to attend to, I now watched the ascent most carefully, and could see that it was with the utmost difficulty the men inside kept her from being smashed on the rocks, and that she often came perilously near capsizing; but she too was got up in safety, so was the third canoe, and then it came to our turn to make the ascent.

I did not feel very comfortable as we were dragged through the broken water, which flew into the canoe until she was half full. As we made the dip and drive into the rapids at their foot, the water struck me with such force as to knock all the breath out of my body; but the send we gave as the canoe recovered herself sent all flying out over the stern and left her nearly free.

I watched as we made our slow and perilous ascent, sometimes not going ahead an inch, and sometimes even receding and coming dangerously close to the rocks,—the men in the canoe with me exerting their utmost strength and skill to prevent her being stove in.

After a bit I saw we were getting more to the middle of the rapids than the other canoes had done, and that the rope from the shore was singing like a harpstring as the water struck against us. I do not know why it was, but one knot about a couple of fathoms from the canoe seemed to have a peculiar fascination for me, and I soon saw that it was giving. The men in the canoe saw this too, and shouted with all their strength for their friends on shore and on the rocks to ease us down again so as to secure it afresh; but the noise of the rapids drowned their voices, and their cries being understood to be cries of encouragement, the men manning the ropes hauled away all the more vigorously.

The spare ends of the knot grew shorter and shorter, and it became a question whether the knot would hold out or slip before we arrived at the top of the rapids. Slowly we made our way, and were almost in safety, when a log coming down the river struck against the bow of the canoe. This extra strain was too much for the knot, and it slipped.

Instantly the canoe swung out against the rocks and hung below one of them, with the water rushing over her, half capsized, and then the three men who formed her crew were thrown out into the rapids. I was in a most perilous position, half suffocated by the water tearing over me, and expecting every moment that the other rope would be cut through by the rocks against which it was grinding, and that I and the canoe would be dashed to pieces. I could do nothing to help myself; and there I hung in the canoe for a time which seemed to me an eternity, only waiting for the end.

I had entirely given myself up for lost, and was trying to frame a prayer imploring forgiveness for my sins, when I felt that the grating of the rope over the rocks, which was causing the whole canoe to vibrate, had ceased. Then I felt myself being again hauled through the water, sometimes under and sometimes above water, the canoe rolling over and over as we were hauled over the edge of the rapids.

Just at the last moment I received a blow on my head which stunned me, whether from a piece of wood or a rock I know not. When I recovered consciousness I found myself lying on a rock with old Teta bending over me and bathing my forehead. As I opened my eyes she bade me be of good cheer, as I had a strong fetich and the river could not kill me. I do not know that I felt much comfort from her assurance, for I thought if the future had as much suffering in store for me as the past, death would be a merciful release to me. She told me the three men who had been in the canoe with me were all drowned, and I could not help feeling how fate seemed to be against all those who were in any danger with me. First Fumo, then Wanda, then Chaka and Dala, and now these three Balaba, all dead, but I, who had undergone more perils than all of them, was still alive.

As I was thinking of this a feeling of thankfulness to God for my preservation took the place of despondency, and aided by Teta I sat up and looked round. I saw that the rapids up which we had been dragged were only a portion of the ascent which had to be made; for on the other side of a pool of still water were a series of vertical falls about twenty feet high, and men were busy hauling the canoes over the rocks that divided them.

I was now put in another canoe and paddled across the pool, with my head resting in Teta’s lap, who had now removed the cloth with which she had tied me into the canoe, and which had formed the principal portion of her dress. Under her direction I was carefully carried up the rocks, and put into another canoe, in which we soon reached Kifura’s village, the principal village among the Balaba.

Here Teta carried me to her own hut, where she nursed and tended me carefully. Though my recovery was slow and tedious, I was at length restored to health and strength. As soon as I was able to go about I turned all my attention to get away and, if possible, descend the river and again get in communication with my friends Karema, Tom, and Jack Sprat. I found, however, that my every movement was so jealously watched that it was impossible to think of getting away; and when I confided my intentions to Teta she said it would be no good trying to escape, but I had much better sit down quietly where I was and trust that in time Kifura would let me go.

I asked if there was any chance of people coming up to the Balaba to trade. She said they never allowed people living below the rapids to come above them, and by that means they managed to keep the whole trade of the river in their own hands.

I saw several parties sent away down the river with

slaves and ivory, and endeavoured by most lavish promises of reward to induce the men forming them to convey the news to Karema that I was still alive; but my doing so only resulted in a closer guard being kept on my actions, and my being removed from Teta’s guardianship and put to lodge in a hut close by Kifura’s, where I was never left alone for a moment. During the period of my stay with the Balaba I was never ill-treated, being regarded as a sort of sacred being. I was amply supplied with food and cloth. With the cloth I managed to make myself clothes after the European fashion, which were so much admired that I was constantly employed as tailor for Kifura and his principal men.

Having a sufficiency of food and drink, I gradually sank into an apathetic condition, and did not care for more than the occurrences of the day, and I quite lost my reckoning of the lapse of time. From this state I was at last aroused by the following incidents.

Kifura and the Balaba were constantly engaged in war with some of the neighbouring tribes in search of ivory and slaves; and in one of these many of the Balaba were slain, and Kifura himself was taken prisoner. The news of his defeat and capture was brought in by a fetichman, who was instructed to ask for a large quantity of cloth, beads, and other goods for his ransom.

A council of the elders was summoned to discuss the matter, and, attracted by the noise, I went and listened to the discussion. As soon as the fetichman saw me he asked from whence I had come, and what a white man was doing in Kifura’s village. When he was told I was Kifura’s white man, he said it could not be endured that Kifura should have a white man while those who had conquered him had none; but if I were given over to him, Kifura and his fellow-prisoners would be liberated without any further payment.

Now that the novelty of my presence had worn off, the elders did not attach any great importance to my possession, and gladly accepted the offer. Next day a party of men set off, taking me with them to the place where the exchange was to be made. Before leaving I was permitted to say farewell to my kind protectress Teta, who wept at losing me, and said that her husband and children being dead I had been to her in the place of a son. Opening a bark box which contained her choicest treasures, she took from it a string of beads to which hung the polished base of a sea-shell, and this she said had come into her husband’s hands from a man who travelled almost to the world’s end, and would protect me from many dangers.

I myself felt greatly at parting from my benefactress, and I think it no shame to my manhood to own that I shed many and bitter tears when my escort dragged me from her and forced me to commence my march.

My new masters lived beyond the sources of the Ogowai, and our march to their country was long and wearisome. I was not unkindly treated, but only carefully watched to prevent my escaping. When we arrived I found the village of the chief was situated on a river called the Alima, which, I heard, after many days’ journey fell into a great river where the people traded with the white man.

CHAPTER XV.

ESCAPE AND RECAPTURE.

Some argued that if other tribes, through whose country we were to pass, saw me they would be so desirous of possessing themselves of me that they would attack my masters, and therefore my presence would add immensely to the risks of the journey. Others held that many tribes had only heard of white men, and knowing that from their country came the beads, brass rods, napkins, and cloths, so highly prized by the natives of Africa, attribute the production to the possession of some powerful and wonder-working magic by white men. When these tribes saw that one of that strange and supernatural race was a slave to the passers through their territories, they would consider their fetich was even stronger than that of the white men, and therefore immensely superior to that of any other tribe of blacks. Accordingly, they would abstain from interfering with or molesting us in any way.

The pros and cons were eagerly urged on both sides, and, as may be imagined, I listened with great interest. I hoped, when we reached the great river at the end of the journey, to find among the people there buying the slaves and ivory, if not a white man, at all events some in constant communication with the coast, whom I might induce to ransom me, and send me to where white men came. I thought that, even if I fell into the hands of slave-dealers, the story of my sufferings and adventures might induce the hardest-hearted of them all to assist me to return to my own country.

For days the argument went on. At last it seemed as if those who were for my being left behind would prevail, when one morning the wife of the chief announced that during the night she had had a dream in which she had been told that the white man’s presence would bring good fortune to the travellers. As she was generally credited with having a more than ordinary intimacy with the spirits of evil, her words were listened to; and when, three days later, the party set out, I was among those composing it, though placed under the special guard of four men, with strict orders to kill me if I attempted to escape or communicate in any way with strangers.

Precautions were taken in order that I might not elude the vigilance of my guard. At all times, except when liberated to feed myself, my hands were tied behind my back, and a line from my wrists was made fast to the waist of one of the guards, while a sort of bag or hood was put over my head, so that I might not see the way we were going.

Fettered and blindfolded in this manner I was placed in a canoe. I soon felt that the crew were paddling vigorously. They sang of all the wonderful things they were to obtain in exchange for their ivory and slaves; and how, when they returned, they would be able to enjoy themselves in perfect idleness, and do nothing but sing, dance, and drink from morn to eve and from eve to morn.

I could, of course, see nothing of the country we passed through; but as we were going down a river, I thought we must be getting nearer and nearer to the sea. I cared little for the discomforts of my situation, as I hoped that every day was bringing me closer to liberty and the companionship of white and, I trusted, civilized men.

At night, when we camped on the river bank, or when we halted at one of the numerous villages which we passed by, I was brought out and unhooded to show my pale face to the people whose countries we were passing through. Loud boasts were made by my owners of the great powers of their fetich, which enabled them to become the fortunate proprietors of a white man, and many and strange were the powers which were also attributed to me.

Fortunately, when I was shown, the people who came to gaze at me seemed to be desirous of propitiating me, and of getting me to exercise these powers on their behalf. Presents of fowls, eggs, yams, plantains, and ground-nuts were often laid at my feet, and sometimes even their desire for good fortune so far overcame their innate avarice that a goat or a pig was brought as a present. I always smiled and tried to look pleased, as I found that the more that was brought the better my masters treated me. Though but a small portion of these gifts and offerings fell ultimately to my lot, still I hoped my masters would get more and more free in showing me, and that the hood, which in that hot climate was almost an intolerable nuisance, would in time be removed, as often as I could hear people on the banks crying out to have the white man shown to them, and offering gifts for even a glimpse of his face.

At last this was done, and a few days after we came into what seemed to me a lake with islands bounded in part by steep hills of white sand. I afterwards found it was only a widening of the great river into which the Alima fell, and which was no other than the mighty Congo.

The Bateke, as the people living on the northern side of this river-lake were called, were keen and eager traders. A few days after our arrival among them, I was most strangely affected by a very simple occurrence, which seemed to me an omen of approaching deliverance from my unhappy lot.

This happened when a village chief, who was desirous of buying the slaves and ivory which we had brought with us for sale, came to bargain with my masters. He brought several large vessels filled with native beer, and instead of the usual gourd or basket as a drinking vessel, he used a common white earthenware mug, on which was a view of Clifton, with “A present for a good boy from Clifton” printed below it.

All European manufactures, save beads and a few pieces of cloth, had long been strangers to my sight, and now to see this mug, of which I had seen hundreds of counterparts for sale in the shop windows during the days of my happy school life, brought a flood of memories into my heart, and seemed like a message to me that I should not despair. Doubtless that cup, leaving England in some Bristol ship, perchance the Petrel herself, had penetrated into that strange and unknown country by a road by which I might find my way to the sea-coast.

I thought of good Dr. Poynter, old Abe, and my schoolfellows, and this cup seemed a direct message to me from them not to lose heart. As I looked at it I became so powerfully and strangely affected that I burst into tears, and my hands at the time not being fastened, I seized upon the senseless piece of clay and covered it with kisses.

My owners, when they saw how the sight of this cup had worked upon me, instantly became possessed with the belief that it was some mighty fetich, and that if I was allowed to handle it I would be able to work them some evil and obtain my freedom. The Bateke chief also thought it was a fetich, and it was instantly torn from my hands lest by its aid I should render all around subservient to my wishes. My hands were again tied behind my back, and I was taken away and lashed to a post at a little distance, where I could see all that went on.

My owners were so desirous of possessing the mug that they offered its owner tusks of ivory and slaves. As he saw their desire to possess it was very keen, he refused all their offers; and at last, by their gestures and the looks which were constantly directed towards me, I made out that it was being discussed whether I should not be exchanged for the mug.

The Bateke chief had seen many mugs and cups like the one in question now, but he had never before seen a white man; and my owners, though they were very proud of possessing a white slave, were still more eager to possess this mug, which they thought, from the emotion it had caused in me, must be a most powerful fetich. As I afterwards found out, they argued that it might be dangerous for them to have both it and me, lest in some unguarded moment the precious object might fall into my possession, and I might, with its aid, revenge upon them all the miseries and insults they had lavished on me. At last they consented to exchange me for this mug, which possibly might have been worth fourpence.

No sooner was the bargain concluded than I was untied from the post and turned over to my new master. He put me in his canoe and took me to his village, which was about four miles below the place where my late owners had camped, and there he gave me in charge of his mother, an old and wrinkled woman of at least seventy, who ruled over his numerous wives and slaves with an iron hand.

I soon found that this old dame had not much superstitious reverence for me as a white man. I had to go and work on her plantations and collect firewood like any ordinary slave—the only difference between me and others being that I was more jealously guarded, though, as being more valuable, having slightly better food and shelter.

My old masters left for their own country soon after I had passed from their hands. Before long I found there seemed to be little chance of my getting away from the Bateke and making my way to the sea-coast. Nevertheless, after some time the guard over me became less severe. The old hag who had charge of me becoming more blind and feeble, and not being able to keep so strict a watch over her son’s belongings as she had hitherto done, I found opportunities of conversing with some of my fellow-slaves, and struck up a kind of friendship with one called Duma, a fellow a year or two older than myself.

Duma told me he belonged to a tribe that lived some distance down the river, below some vast and fearful cataracts; and if it were not that he was afraid of passing these he would long ago have stolen a canoe and made his way by the river to his own people and his own home.

I asked why he had not tried to make his way past the cataracts on foot. He replied the way was very long and difficult. So many and great were the dangers to be encountered from wild beasts and wilder men that he had been loath to make the attempt by himself. Among all our fellow-slaves there was not one whom he could trust to go with him. Indeed, he was afraid even to speak to them about escaping, for fear of being betrayed to our master. But if I would share the hazard of the undertaking with him he would make an attempt to steal a canoe and to escape about the time of the next new moon, when the nights would be long and dark.

About a fortnight had to elapse before the proper time for our start would arrive. Duma and I employed it in secreting a store of provisions to serve us on our journey, and in getting together a few spears, a bow and arrows, a small fishing-net, and other little things, such as a stick for making fire, an earthen pot, and a small hatchet. All these things we hid in a hole in the bank of the river not far from where the canoes of the village were usually kept. To prevent suspicion from attaching to us for being much in the neighbourhood of the canoes, we employed ourselves in fishing, and were most careful to bring all our prey to our old mistress, who was exceedingly fond of fish for food, and who was thus kept in good humour.

About three days before that fixed upon for starting, Duma came to me in a state of great excitement. He told me that one of the women slaves, who was a countrywoman of his, had found out our intention of absconding, and insisted on joining us in our flight. If we did not consent, she threatened to inform the chief that we were going to run away.

I was nothing loath to have a third person to join us in our attempt. I own I had rather it had been a man. Still the spirit she showed was evidence she would not stick at anything, and of this she soon gave us further proof.

At Duma’s request I went with him to see his countrywoman, who proved to be a tall powerful lass of eighteen or nineteen years of age. She asserted she was as good a hand at paddling a canoe as any man, and that she could carry heavy loads and march far and fast. As soon as she saw me she asked me if I could use one of the white man’s iron sticks out of which fire came.

I, of course, knew she meant a gun, and said that I could certainly use it. She then told me that the chief had one in his hut, and she would try to steal it for me. I told her the gun would be of no use without the black powder which it ate and the firestones belonging to it, and that if she got the gun she would have to find ammunition also. This she said would not be quite so easy a matter; but if I would give her the shell and beads my old friend Teta had hung round my neck on parting from me, she would try to bribe one of the chief’s wives under whose charge the pouches and belts of the gun were, and bring them to us at the canoe.

She also said we must be ready to start any night, and must get leave for fishing at night, so that our absence from the slaves’ quarters need occasion no surprise. Indeed, now that she had become one of our party, she showed more spirit and energy than Duma and myself put together. Agreeably to her instructions, we got leave, and a little before sunset put out from the shore as if we were going a fishing; but when it was well dark we came back again, took our provisions out of their hiding-place, and stowing them in the canoe, waited the coming of Pipa, as our confederate was called.

Presently, while we were anxiously expecting her arrival, we could see dimly a number of canoes floating down the stream. Fearing that she had betrayed us, we were about to restore our goods to their hiding-place, when we were pleasantly surprised by her calling to us she had got the gun and the things belonging to it, and had set adrift the canoes that we had seen and which had caused us so much fright, and now she wanted our assistance to launch some which were too heavy for her to move by herself.

I confess I was both astonished and delighted by the courage and address of Pipa. With Duma I hurried at once to her assistance. We soon had all the canoes belonging to the village in the water and drifting away down-stream, save three or four which were too big for our united efforts to move. In order that when our escape was discovered they should be of no use to the Bateke if they desired to pursue after us, we damaged these, so as to render them useless. As soon as this most wise and necessary precaution had been taken, we got on board our own craft. Duma and Pipa taking the paddles, I had an opportunity of examining the weapon brought us, which was the only fire-arm owned at that time by the Bateke.

It was a curious-looking affair, and in England would have been deemed fitter for a place in a museum or a curiosity shop than to be fired off. The barrel was immensely long, and bound to the stock by a number of little brass bands, while close to the breech a piece of the skin of an elephant’s tail had been shrunk on to it to guard against bursting. The butt, which was ornamented with cowries and a fly-flapper made of a zebra’s tail, was very straight and awkward. However, though it was but a clumsy, unwieldy piece, I found that the lock was in fair working order. In the pouches obtained with good old Teta’s parting gift there were half-a-dozen flints, besides powder and some iron bullets. I fitted in a flint, and proceeded to load and prime the piece. Then I laid it down carefully, ready for use if occasion should arise. Seizing a paddle, I added my efforts to those of Duma and Pipa in putting as much distance as possible between us and our quondam masters before our flight should be discovered.

Favoured by the current, we must have been some seven miles away before the lighting of fires told us that the village was alarmed. Soon we found that not only behind us but also in front danger was to be feared. The alarm rapidly spread, and not only astern and abreast of us, but also ahead, we saw fires burning. It became a question whether we should run the risk of putting out into the middle of the stream, and possibly missing the passage out of its lake-like widening, or whether by keeping near the bank we should make sure of striking it.

Pipa was for the latter course and Duma for the former. I had so much faith in our female companion’s address and bravery that I sided with her, and we kept along about five or six hundred yards from the shore. Though we had sometimes to cease paddling and keep silence in order to avoid attracting the attention of the crews of canoes which put out from villages we passed by, we managed to elude all pursuit and without being stopped to get where the river narrowed again to its ordinary width of about half a mile or so. The current was now so strong that we hoped before daylight to be beyond the last village of the Bateke, and among a people who would be willing to aid Duma and Pipa in their escape.

Soon after daylight we found ourselves near a village where Pipa said she remembered to have been when on a trading expedition with one of her brothers, and she counselled our putting in there boldly and claiming protection before any of our pursuers arrived. We agreed, as Duma and I were both spent and weary with our night of toil. Running into the landing-place, Pipa boldly asked for the chief by name, who soon came down to see what had happened.

When Pipa had told her tale, the chief said that he was unable to resist any attack that the Bateke might make on him. If, however, we gave him my ancient piece of artillery he would hide us and our boat, and when the Bateke came he would tell them that we had been seen going down the river but had not stopped. Afterwards he would give us guides to the nearest way by land to Pipa’s own village, which he averred might be reached in four or five days of hard marching.

Evidently this was our best course to pursue. We immediately landed, and our canoe was hauled into a neighbouring creek and there sunk. Under the chief’s guidance, we went away with him to a place where he said we would safe from our pursuers, and where we could lie hid until they gave up the search after us. To avoid attention being attracted by my white face, I had smeared myself all over with the river mud, and keeping myself in the background, and allowing Pipa and Duma to do all the talking, I fortunately managed to pass unobserved. Though our new friends might deceive the Bateke about so small a matter as the flight of three slaves, it was not to be expected that they would not betray us if they knew me to be a white man.

The hiding-place the chief led us to was the hollow trunk of a great tree, which we got into by climbing up some creepers and going through a hole in its side some fourteen or fifteen feet from the ground. Inside we found a pretty commodious place where there was ample room for us all three to lie down. The bottom of the cavity being covered with decayed wood and dead leaves, it made pretty soft lying for us. As soon as we were safely stowed away the chief left us, saying he would send some one to bring us food and drink when the sun went down, but that in the meantime we were not to quit our place of refuge.

As soon as we were left alone, we fell asleep, being very tired after our night’s work. We must have slept soundly for some hours, when we were awakened by some people talking loudly near the bottom of our tree. I thought that these would be the people whom the chief had promised to send with food, and would have at once gone to the hole to see who the people were; but Pipa caught hold of me and prevented me from doing so, and made signs for us to be silent and listen.

We soon made out that the speakers were some Bateke in chase of us, and that our landing had been found out through the vanity of the chief. Proud of the brass-bound, antique weapon obtained from us, he had not been able to refrain from firing it. The unaccustomed sound had brought a number of the Bateke to the spot; for it was known that no one in the neighbourhood possessed a gun besides that which we had stolen.

Pipa listened eagerly to make out if the chief had betrayed us. He had made an excuse that he supposed we were people in pursuit of fugitives, and the gun had been given him as a pledge of amity and a token that we were sent out by our master. The Bateke were consulting as to what course they should take in pursuit, and as far as we could make out the river was the only avenue to safety left open.

After some time the Bateke who had aroused us started off again. Soon after a messenger arrived from our friendly chief to say how sorry he was his indiscretion had betrayed that we had landed, and to lead us to a place where a canoe and provisions were in readiness.

We did not wait long before following the messenger. He led us by wild-beast tracks and hippopotamus paths to a creek where the canoe was. We immediately put out and recommenced our voyage down-stream; and drifting and paddling during the night, we halted for the day on a small uninhabited island.

Nothing occurred to frighten or disturb us. At sunset we again launched our frail vessel; but we soon found that the stream was increasing in rapidity, and hearing the sound of falling water ahead, both Duma and Pipa said we must now abandon the canoe and take to the shore.

We accordingly put into the southern bank, just missing, owing to the force of the current, a little creek that we had been aiming for; but catching hold of some branches, we began to land our scanty belongings. I was carrying away the paddles, which we intended to take with us as weapons, or in case we might be fortunate enough to find another canoe below the rapids, when I heard a splash and a cry. Rushing to the bank, I saw that one of my companions had fallen overboard and that the other had let go the tree which he or she had been holding on to, and that both were rapidly drifting with the canoe down-stream.

I was powerless to assist. Forgetting my own safety, I made my way as well as I could along the bank, only to arrive, long after the catastrophe had occurred, at the head of the falls, over which they must have been swept.

Though it did not seem probable, I imagined there might possibly be a chance of their surviving, and with great difficulty made my way down the rocks by the side of the river, and at the foot of the falls I cried long and loudly, “Duma! Pipa!” No answer came in response to my shouts save the scream of some night birds which I scared and the howl of a prowling hyena. When the rising sun put an end to a long night of agonizing suspense, I found that the bruised and battered bodies of my two friends and the broken remains of the canoe had been cast ashore almost at my feet.

I think now my brain and mind must have given way for a time, for I have only an indistinct memory of being recaptured and bound and taken back to the care of the old hag, my master’s mother, who was a perfect mistress of the art of ingenious torture. I often fancied that I must have fallen into the hands of friends. It is still a wonder to me how I survived what I must have undergone at this time, as several large and ugly scars prove it was not a dream but an absolute reality.

CHAPTER XVI.

FRIENDLY ARABS.

I lost all interest in life, and mechanically ate and drank what was given me, but scarcely noticed what occurred around. Of this part of my life it would be very hard for me to give a connected description. I have vague memories of many journeys, of fevers, of fights, of times of starvation and times of plenty, but perhaps least vague of all of a party I was with being attacked from trees and bushes by dwarfs with tiny poisoned arrows, the wounds from which proved fatal almost immediately. That this is a true memory I know, because I have even now a basket-work quiver, covered over with a substance like pitch, full of these arrows. This was the only thing I had with me when found wandering in the woods, some two hundred miles west of Lake Tanganyika, by Hatibu, one of the slaves of Hamees ibu Sayf, an Arab merchant.

The way I fell in with him was on this wise. My companions had, I suppose, all been killed by the poisoned arrows of the dwarfs, or had made good their escape from them without caring to wait to see whether I was among the slain or not. I had been wandering alone in the jungle for some days, subsisting on berries and lichens gathered from the trees. I had to devour these raw, having no means of making a fire to cook them or to warm myself. Nearly starved and quite weary I laid me down, as I thought, to die, and was in a sort of semi-torpid state. I was roused up by yells and shrieks. Lifting my head, I saw that some men were attacking a troop of sokos or gorillas, and that one of the sokos had seized a man by the hand with his teeth.

Evidently these men were only a portion of those engaged in the chase of the gorillas, for I heard the sound of guns. I soon saw a man coming up with a white skull-cap on his head. Besides a cloth round his loins, he wore a kind of sleeveless waistcoat, and bore in his hand a gun which had been recently discharged.

The sight of a gun brought a flood of memories rushing into my head, and raised hopes that people who