The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1876-03-18
1FRIC1f.
Letter FROM GU r,,, a..
EriI,S. UT"

as follows:
| am just in receipt of news that young
Ernest Linant, who WAS sent to MISE
by Col. Gordova, with forty soldiers, to
make a typographical survey of the
country, was attacked on his rcturn by
a part of the same band that attacked
me at MKoole on Aug. II, 1874. Linant
and all his men, excepting three, were
massacred by the savagcs. This dreadful
affair is only repetition of the bloody
affair which | had with them, accompa-
MED by two soldiers, killing eighty-two.
My book may wait upon the certain
opening of a road from this coast to
MTse. This expedition, of which am
to be commander, numbers about seven
hundred troops. 1t is in its inception,
but | will give you a few details. The
river Juba is undiscovered country. The
mouth of the river is stormy and wild,
as the waters of the river and sea meet
here in angry conflict for mastery. That
renders entrance very difficult. In the
attempt we were obliged to go further
to Fort Kisenager, garrisoned by the
ratical-looking soldiers of Said Ber-
garsch, Sultan of Zanzibar. Shortly after
occupation of this place by me with a
detachment of artillery and infantry, the
Chick (governor) fled. Twelve and a
half miles march along the sea shore
brought me to the banks of the river
Juba, where, on a high bluff, command
ing view of the Indian ocean upon the
north, may be seen a deserted village on
the opposite bank, while westward a
great plain upon which may be seen the
ostrich, lion, leopard, wild ass and zebra,
etc. In a short time l may explore this
river, and with every means at my dis
posal it may be done quickly and with
little danger. l will write you again
when things may have taken some def
mite direction. 1t is said that Col. Cor
dova is already en- route to open road
to the sea. He will doubtless come
quickly, as Stanley has been before him
and already, perhaps, submitted his work
and published it to the world. Gordova' S
coming will doubtless he the signal for
some definite form of government here,
and as am not an aspirant l hope that
the month of April may see me back on
the way to Cairo.
The government doubtless called me
back peremptorily thinking that we
should have hot work here, but, as the
case has proved, our occupation has been
welcomed by the natives. The "Sou-
malich" is Mussulman by faith, and his
origin is doubtless Arab. Their resem-
blance to the people of Ugunda is but
another proof of my impressions as to
the origin of the people of Ugunda, on
the Lake Victoria N'Yanza. l repre-
sented in my speech before La Societe
de Geographic de Paris, in July last, that
the Arab nomad, since the days that the
standard of Arab invasion was planted
upon these shores and in India, invaded
the interior and lett change of color in
the negro as well as an idea of Deity,
an idea which is not innate with the
negro. His highness, the khedive, thus
pushes the frontier of Egypt to this
point on the east coast to strike the in
terror of Lake Victoria, and perhaps
westward to the Atlantic, carrying civil
ization in his wake, reuniting the savage
tribes, and thus, with that magnetic tai
isman, the bond of Islamism, preparing
a speedy revolution and amelioration in
the state of the negro-invincible to the
Ito him) cold and unmeaning religion OF
the European. This is not all. The
Arab is patriarchal in his government,
and his slavery becomes a boon to the
negro. Livingstone, the great African
traveller, wrote to Stanley that he wished
some commencement person (meaning
that Spoke was fooD would visit M'Tse
and rsfute the horrid stories of the negro
propensity for blood, and said that Da-
honey was a very humane and intelIi-
gent gentleman. Stanley was then in
Ashantee, writing up the "bIoody
doings" at Coomassie, Mt which my
story of Mise and the thirty decapi-
tated in my honor was insignificant
The lamented DIR. Livingstone permitted
himself, in his zeal for the negro, to
throw shadow upon the veracity of his
countryman, the late Capt. Spoke, who
once visited Mise, going from Zanzibar
And the perfdious Albionites, drunk
with the greatness of the great explorer
dared not, in the name of an honest and
intelligent traveller, meet the insult.
Since the above was written, l have
made an exploration up the Juba river
to point inland $50 miles from the
mouth. The river is deep and rapid,
and filled with crocodiles, and it banks
inhabited by monkeys and the natives,
who cry Yambo! yambo in saIuta-
ton great crowds of naked and ugly
women, sprinkled here and there with
beautiful Abyssinian girls. There is a
luxuriant vegetation. 1 propose to
push to this point as reconnaissance.
BELKNIP,S VITES