Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1885-06-26
LIFE IN AFRICA.
Queer Incidents of Travel Among
wild Tribes.

When an African chief travels he
takes the whole or part of his house
hold with him. The simple aborigines,
therefore, are apt to look upon the soil
tary white traveller who wanders through
their country without a single wife in
his train as a suspicious character. They
are quite sure he needs close watching to
prevent his running off with some of the
females Of the tribe. DR.. Barth, the ex-
plorer, said, after living five years in
Africa, that it would be better for trav-
eler in those regions to take his wife
with him, if possible. He said the ma
tives would respect him more, and he
would get along better. "They had
nothing to object to me, +" he wrote, tex
cept my being a bachelor"
II the traveller has no wife the native
chiefs, as rule, are not backward about
Offering to supply the deficiency. Nearly
all the explorers have had some annoy
ing experiences with kings who were
anxious to have them settle down, marry
into the royal family, and grow up with
the country. Some travellers have felt
compelled to leave very abruptly in order
to escape the attentions of women who
were determined to detain them as their
husbands.
DR.. Buchner, the German traveller, who
lived for six months at the capital. OF
the Muata Yanvo about five years ago,
was much distressed by the deep inter
est with which ne had unwittingly in
spired the sister Of that Central African
potentate. He Describes her as a mid
dle-age and remarkably unprepossess-
ing person of great avoirdupois. She
insisted that Buchner take her for his
wife and settle down comfortably as the
joint proprietor of her extensive herds
and fields. She impOrtuned him so fire.
queutly that lie was glad to escape her
at last by quitting the country.
One of the daughters of the king of
the Ambuellas, near the Zambesi river,
fell desperately in love with Serpa Pin
to, the Portuguese explorer, who re-
turned to Africa few months ago. Her
elder sister, who ably abettcd her matri-
monal designs, was very indignant when
Pinto refused to marry the young girl.
She wanted to know in the shrillest of
tones, if there were any prettier women
in the country he came from, and what
sort of man he was anyway. The
sharp wtted wife of one of Pinto's por-
tiers heard the row and entered the hut.
Assuming an air of great indignation,
she told their royal highnessesthat Pinto
was her husband, and they had better let
him alone. She bundled them out OF
the hut, and Pinto and his party left
early next morning to avoid any further
complications. In the picture Pinto's
book contains of the infatuated young
woman she appears to be quite fine
specimen of an African beauty.
Explorers have learned by experience
that it is best to permit their porters to
take their women along with them, even
if their journey is to be thousands OF
miles in length. When a carrier has his
wife with him he is not likely to run
away. Beside the women carry bur.
dens nearly as heavy as those of The men.
They wash and cook better than the
men, endure fatigue better, carry their
burdens more cheerfully, and work fol-
less pay. African women have proved
valuable adjuncts of nearly every expedi-
ton that has penetrated the continent
in the past ten years.
Mr. Hore, missionary on the great Lake
Tanganyika, found near the southern
coast three years ago flourishing tribe
whose ru err was woman. She was {
good-Iooking negress, nearly forty years
old, and she was attended everywhere
she went by train of fifty ladies in
xroitipop Hora tho fret W hi ~
man Queen Mwema had seen, and sht
thought she would like to have the pale
faced stranger permanently near her res
idence. She begged him to live in he
town, and when he insisted that h.
could not, she did not let him 60 until hi
had promised to send some of his breth
rem to res de in her district. The queer
said she would give them houses ant
plenty of land. At last accounts mis-
sion station was about to be established
IN Queen Mwcna's town.
The late King Mtcsa, whose subject
inhabit the beautiful shores of Lake Vic
toria Nyanla, made a unique respons,
when m ssionary applied to him TO
food supplies two or three years ago
He listened in silence to the good man
petition, and then sent an attendant GU
into the streets of Rubaga with instruc
tions that the missionary did not hear
Presently the attendant returned with
dozen damsels of Uganda in his wake
Then his majesty informed the poor mis-
sionary that he was tired of supplyin,
HIM with food. He had concluded t,
present him with these women as hi
wives. They would plant his garden
prepare his dinner, and support him YER
handsomely, and he mustn't come bother
ing around the place any more. Mites
was very angry when the missionary de
clined to accept this wholesale matrmo
NAL offer. He told him to shift for him
self, and the poor fellow and his com
rades would doubtless have had to fe
from the country if Mtesa's ENJOYS t
England hadn't OPPORTUNITY rcturne
with such wonderful stories of what the
had seen that the polite despot though
it best to keep on good terms with tn
whites, He restored The missionaries t
favor. Last year all his daughters wer
permitted to receive religious instruction
and one of them, who was converted
now occupies as kings sister, positio
OF large importance and influence anon
the Waganda.
On the great interior plateaus of Afr
ca, whose inhabitants are generally niue
superior in mental and moral develot
ment to the coast negroes the men e,
hiDi. good deal of affection for the
women Livingstone, who usually speak
of African women as "ladies, "makes man
illusions to this fact, and so do Schweil
furth, Burton, and other explorers. Tn
red skinned Nyam Nyams are as note
as the Zulus for their intelligence an
bravery, but if any of their women al