The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-03-20
Sir Samuel Baker in Central Africa.

4~SSs
When Sir Samuel Bakers expedition
reached Gondokoro, on the White Nile,
he opened out to the chiefs the objects
that had brought him to their country,
VIZ, the suppression of the slave trade,
and the establishment of commercial
relations between their people and the
rest of the world. To one chief he
preached almost a sermon" upon the
evils of the slave trade, and the chief
appeared to be profoundly affected by
the discourse his emotion, however,
was but transient, for at the end of the
sermon he offered to sell his son for q
spade, which, in the dearth of iron in
that country, is an article of consider
able value. This story Sir Samuel
Baker gives as an instance of the peo-
pies obtuseness !; the best proof of
friendship is, in their estimation, that
you should help them to kidnap the
women and children of some other
tribe.
At Masindi Sir Samuel found about
eight thousand men, among whom could
not be seen single woman. This was
regarded as a bad sign, for whenever
you saw plenty of women among the
natives you are pretty sure of peace !;
the absence of women was a sure sign
of hostility. Accordingly the king, a
very bad fellow, behaved most treacher-
ously, killing some men who had been
sent back to Fattiko, and sending into
the camp jars of sort of native cider,
which was poisoned The result was
that forty of the troops were lying on
the ground at one time, suffering acute
~. The next morning the expedition
airy force was attacked by seven or eight
thousand negroes. Bakers men-four
hundred Egyptian troops-being well
drilled, protected the camp effectually,
and the fifty Snider riffs with which
they were armed saved the expedition.
With their rockets also they set fire to
and destroyed the whole town. Unfor-
tunately the king escaped. This young
man had distinguished himself by muir
dering his family under these circum-
stances: When a king dies, his body
is laced in a sort of huge gridiron, and
is then toasted by a fire kindled be-
meath. The body then lies in state IN
buried, and is the signal for civil dis
cord. The sons fight until one of them
is victorious, and he sticks his spear
into the body of his parent Z a symbol
of victory. Then the funeral rites take
place, corresponding with those record
ed of the ancient Scythians.
A large pit is dug in which some of
the deceased kings wives are put, and
the corpse is lowered down till it rests
on its knees. Then there is raid on
some neighboring villages, and the peo-
pie captured are brought to the brink
of the pit, where their arms and legs
are broken, and in this mutilated con-
dition they are thrown down to the
corpse beneath. Then the earth is piled
upon them, the people stamp it down
upon this mass of writbing humanity,
and the horrid rites are complete. Such
had been the ceremony observed at Ma
sindi, and the son who had succeeded
to the throne then invited his relations
to dinner and caused them all to be
massacred.
On their arrival in the territory of Ri
Onga Baker Pasha exchanged blood"
with the chief-a process which consists
in drawing blood from the arm of each
of the contracting parties, who takes a
drop of his friends blood on his tongue.
This ceremony not only gives you an
ally, but renders him faithful unto
death; you belong henceforth to his
family