The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1878-01-24
THE Battle WITH THE DWARrS-
A Story old by One of StanieY's rabs'

When Mr.. Stanley, the African eX-
plorer. arrived at Cape Town, he was
invited to deliver a lecture before the |
Philosophical Society of that place. |
In the course OF the lecture Mr.. STAN
lev said that when he came to Nyan-
give. the uttermost limit of previous !
exploration. he called all his Arabs |
tocether. and asked them. ''What lies
ahead OF this, and why did not the
other white men go forward = Then
the Arabs, one after another, told
him of the horrors, real and imagln-
arv. which would beset the path OF
any bold adventurer who should dare
attempt to explore this unknown re-
gion. .sThere are the biggest men in
the world, and there are the smallest
men in the world up there. These
little men are just 50 high about
three feet) No, they are only so
high (about the length of a mans
ARM They are, altogether, the very
worst people under the sun. why,
Their must be genii or devils. They
have little bits of bows and little bits
of arrows with lots of little hicks IN
them. and in these hicks they Tx some
deadly poison or other, and the min
ute YOU get scratch with one OF these
arrows it is all over, there is nothing
more Of you, There are the gorillas,
more terrible. The way they roar in
the forests is awful. The forests re-
sound with it.
LAS for the river, it goes toward q
big mountain. and then tumbles down,
down, down and then. after it has
whirled itself about, it goes on down,
down again, and there is nothing left
of it. Oh, master" said the man.
s'that forest goes from Nyahgwe, and
it goes on north and north, and south
and. and over the country, every
where. Laughter. There is posi-
lively no end to it. And in this for
est all is dark. O master! in this
forest you can t see the sun anywhere.
The trees are all matted together.
Then there, are snakes, oh SO long,
and then they hang on the boughs of
the trees. You can't see them, and
as soon as they get near you they i'm
mediately pounce down upon you and
there is no more of you left. There
are leopards, very big, and they
crouch down on the branches of the
trees 50 that you can see them, either
They wait until Il poor wayfarer come
along. and then-IIom he is gone.
There is nothing left of him. Then
as for the ants, they are everywhere
They are always at you. They bite
your legs until it is just like hot
water.
And as for the dwarfs, they are
| little things of about thirty inches
The first thing youYknow when you
get into their country is that you heal
II pift-piff in the air, and the mex
moment you feel like bits Of arrows
sticking all over You like the quilts OF
a'porcupine. If You want to see one o.
my men who has seen all this ant
done some fighting with the dwarfs
| will send him to you.
'sNell. 90 and find your man whot
can tell the story of the dwarfs.
After little while the man: is sen
for and comes to us. He is Il fine
looking specimen of a native of Fan
zibar. and very richly dressed. II,
is II man of affaible and quite de
meanor. / ask him to be seated. III,
salaams and sits down. Then coffe,
is served to him, and he begins some
thing like this:
You ask me to tell you of ltha
terrible fight we has with the dwarfs
We started with several Arab chiefs
and they all took their men and go
together and made one expedition o
lao guns. After going five days w
came to Uzimba, and then through
the forest 20 Urega. For mont
we travelled on and at length crosse,
the l.auhala. There we entere
Ukusu until we came to the Lumaui
l.
into Yakima,
Next day we came into the dwar
country. Then we made another nd
vance into the interior another day
march. That was a three days
journey into the land of the dwarfs
Here we got right into the centre 0
the dwarfs' country. The king of tn
dwarfs came up To lis and we negc
tiated with him. All things wer
going on well. because we wanted onl
ivory. and it was SO cheap and goo
that we were quite happy. The frs
notice that we had of any disturbanc
WAS one day when one of our womel
went down to get water. We hear
her scream. and went down TO Sc
what was the matter. We saw Their
WAS an arrow IN her breast. We aske
her who did il. and she said one o
the little men. Then they all swarme
about us Just like bees. They hega
.piT-pin with their bows and arrows
The war cries OF these little savage
were perfectly deafening. Nthoug
they were such little men. they mad
the forests wiring with their erie:
We were not prepared for this attack
and began Ia pull down the village /
order 10 surround ourselves with
palisade, so that we might have som
defence against the arrows. The Ia
tie began. and very dreadful 1t was
There was no rest. II was ShootlI
day and night. ana always clouds
arrows pouring in on us. These Ittl
men fought in relays. one troop r
heyinC the other. Just as soon ;
one troop was tired they got anoth'
force TO take their place. As the
fought in relays day and night, "
90, wearied out, and many of us dit
AT first. and most were wounde
Then we had fired away all our sho
although we had plenty of powd
left. so we were obliged to PCT bea