Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1877-12-04
a little distrustful. instantly distinguished it,

a little distrustful instantly distinguished it,
hearty sincerity, and repeated 1t with equal
feryor Until fuT a time, even after they had
ended, the forests across the river seemed e.
thunder mySteI iouSly, "SeRnenei Sennencf'
We dropped our stone anchors abreast, and
near enough To the vast crowds on the banks,
and invited the warriors in the canoes To ap-
preach.
From childish shyness they would not come
nearer than 20 yards or 81, and two old wO-
men-ladieS, ought to call them-''manned'
small canoe, and. coming straight To my
boat. they brought their tiny vessel alongside.
and. after an Introductory laugh. offered Us
palm wine and couple of chickens, Presently
The warriors, shamed out of their shyneSS-it
was not fear drew their canoes alongside
great. enormous things, twice the length of
our boat, and completely hid. almost crushed,
The tiny canoe of the women; but the most
pleasing sight to me, Ia which my eyes were
constantly attracted. was the faces Of the two
women, and the Tiny messenger of peace and
comfort 10 us in the midst of our days of trial.
ON looking into the great war canoes of this
tribe | observed with pleasure that there was
not one spear or bow and arrow in any of
Them which caused me To confirm my opinion
of their tact and delicacy. To look more at
ientiyely at the crowds on the back. and
there was not one weapon of war yisi
ble anywhere. Presently observed one huge
canoe make of for the shore. load gourds OF
palm wine and baskets of potatoes, and re
turn, each man singing enthusiastically. The
potatoes were for me, the palmwine for my
people
When asked how it happened they were so
KIND 10 strangers when we had fought three
times the day before. they said that though the
drums above river summoned them To fight us
some of their people had been up river fishing
among the islands the day before, and the
drums had caused them to hide themselves
and see what took place. They had seen u
talk To the natives. offer cloths and beads. and
han seen them refuse all profiers and fight us
They are always fighting us and stealing on
people: we are not strong enough to kill them
This morning when YOU left that island where
you slept last night we sent very early a canoe
with two slaves-a boy and a woman in it
with potatoes and paln-wine if you were had
people you would have caught that canoe and
made those two slaves your OWN. but when you
allowed IL To pass you, saying 'Sennene' We
knew that YOU were good people and we did
not beat our drum for war. but for peace. III
you had taken that little canoe this morning
You would have had To fight us now You
killed our enemies yesterday, and you did not
lhJure our two slaves this morning. You are
our friends.
TIE TERRIBLE PASSAGE OF THE C,r,RAcTs.
now come 10 a tragic period. before which
our running The gauntlet through the cannibal
lands thousand miles seems child's play Our
days OF battle and our days of hunger may be
Forgotten as years OF peace and rest may roll
over our heads, but our months of toll and wild
energy IN the caiaracts never, for each day of
that period has its own terrible tale of narrow
escapes. OF severe injuries, of despair and
death. Nearly 1.p0 miles had been passed
The Congo became Strengthened by close meet
ing. aspiring banks OF naked cliffs, or steep
Slopes OF mountains. shaggy with tall woods.
or piles upon piles of naked. craggy rock. and
presently swept impeiuously down i'm serpen-
llne curves. heaying upward in long lines of
brown blll0WS. sometimes as though ruftied by
tempest. or with steep. CLASSY fall. or thun-
derlng down steep after steep, tossing lis Wa
terS upwards in huge waves, with their cresis
disSOlying in spray and mist. or boiling round
isles of powders, which diSparted il into two
branches with fearful whirlpools. with uprising
Whlrllng cadrOnS. and as il varied its wild as
pect so ii varied its thunder. moan and plant
While We were fighting our tragical way over
these $50 miles, which occupied us five months
Tended by the thunderOus crash of passing
trains.
There is no fear that any other explorer will
attempt what we have done i'm the cataract
region. IL will be insanity i'm successor He
may travel overland, and the native will point
out the 2,WD feet altitude up which we dragged
our three, four and five ton canoes. He will
perhaps point out the stumps of the giant trees
we cut down and from which We carved out
our canoes within eight and ten days. working
night and day. whereas no canoe was ever
made in that region under three months. He
may show him where We cut a grove of tall
trees down To fill the great pits between the
rocks. He may point out localities where the
white men entered their canoes and brought
river. TO the fright of all who saw them and
against all advice. He may point out the ter
rible falls where the boat with the white chief
and his boats crew were swept over and
whirled round and tossed and smitten by
brown waves until his native friends, who
were spectators of the expected catastrophe
were in an agony of fear; and finally. with
younger chief was carried over the falls. taken
down in whirlpool and lost But there is no
fear of any other explorer attempting to imi-
tate our work here.