The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-23

An African Queen-Terrifying the Natives
Capturing African.

| Extracts from Staueys Book.
Among the notables along the River Congo not
the least in Importance was Queen Gankabi
! who is thus described
About an hour after we left our camp we
| were met by two wellmanned canoes, in the
| foremost of which there was female padding
vigorously for few strokes and then, with
! peculiar style. bringing her right arm to her
waist. Ankoli recognized her and cried out
There is Gankabir Naturally, to meet such
celebrity the pricipal person on the river, we
halted very quickly, and without the slightest
sign of timidity she steered her forty five foot
canoe alongside. This very action on her part
showed a person of character. She probably
was listening to Ankoli, who like all
other natives, begin at the very beginning
of story and continue to the end. Her
attentive survey of myself was returned with
| interest. Excepting her hair and color she had
nothing negroid about her Draw figure with
| the Martha Washington style of face, color it
| rich bronze put the short, frizzly hair of the
negro above, and one has a striking likeness of
| the Queen Gankabi. Among negro women this
| face of the Washington type is very unusual.
| Probably have seen 200 000 African women in
my travels and cannot remember to have seen
more than half dozen such women. certain
! feminine softness apparent; they were
narrow browed with narrow, receding chins,
but the best of this formidable type were gov
ernlng women, great IN their own way, such as
the Queen Mother of Uganda, and Gankab,
| Queen of Musye. That the latter was not
greater is due solely to a lack of opportunity.
| Perhaps Candace of Ethiopia, and Corneia, the
mother of the Gracci may have been women of
| the same type. Her people were a Withholding
! set Their women affect heavy collars of brass,
| from ten to sixty pounds in weight, while their
| leglets and armlets were also very heavy"
| All the chiefs met by Stanley were not, how
| ever. friendly those who had enjoyed his
| bounty, and IN some localities he had to be con
tinEally on the alert to prevent surprise OF his
! camp On one occasion he was satisfied that the
! chief whom he had Just met intended treacherv,
a { ha Afrip all tO he
! constantly increasing bodies of armed men he
resolved to teach him lesson. When he thought
| the native plot was ripe for execution, he con-
cealed all the forces of the expedition about the
! camp and awaited an expected visit. The chief
came, accompanied by his usual train, and all
| seated themselves for a palaver. The subject
of this was the design of Stanley topass through
his country, while ne equally deter
mined the whites should not The meeting
was stormy, but wound up with no open
outbreak but evidently to the great dissatisfac
ton of the chief. When passing out of the tent,
he spied the gong which was used in the camp for
giving signals as is drum among soldiers. The
chief inquired what it was, and was told that it
was war fetish. He insisted that it should be
struck, but was told that if that were done
armed men would arise from every quarter He
still insisted
with all my force struck the gong: the loud
bell-like tone sounded in the silence caused by
| the hushed attention of all upon the scene was
startling in the extreme, but as the rapid strokes
seemed to them like thunder. They had not re-
covered from the first shock of establishment
when the forms of men were seen bounding over
the gunwae of the boat, right over their heads,
and war whooping in their ears. From my tent
and from the gorge behind them a stream of
frantic infuriates emerged though from the
earth. The store tent was violently agitated
| and finally collapsed and yelling crowd of
demonlac madmen sprang out one after the
other every apparently madden than his
| neighbors. The listless, slecpy-eyed straggerS
burst out into perfect frenzy of action. From
under the mats in the huts there steamed into
view such frantic mob of armed men that to
the panic-stricken natives the sky and the earth
seemed to be contributing to the constantly
| increasing numbers of death dealing warriors.
Every native present. woulG-be friend and
would-be foe, lost his senses completely; the
seated warriors forgot their guns and fled before
| this strange deluge and awful scene. The
ammunition bearers threw their gourds away.
some broken and the powder and
| slugs scattered on the ground, and as
| Ngalyema was standing, paralyzed with
| fear, and with his faculties benumbed, seized
him by the arm and said softly to him: BE not
| afraid; remember Bula Matari is your brother
Stand behind me, / will protect you The Fan
zbaris were now yelling crowd in front of me,
| calling out tauntingly and menacingly: 'Ha, ha,
| Ngalyema. You come to fight Bula Matari.
! Where your warriors, NgalyemaV There
could not be better representation Of relentless,
| blood-thirsty fury than that which was shown
| by these amateur black actors in the suddenly
| improvised scene Their assumed frenzy was
| the next thing to reality. Had | not been in the
| secret [ should also have been duped; while the
valor with which defended my poor brother,
who with his two hands grasped me round the
waist, danced from side to side to avoid furious
strokes from the wild-eyed men, while young
| Enjeli chung to his father and followed his move
ments, reminded me of the long -forgotten play
| of hen and-chickens But the camp
empted of our visitors, much Of the ammunition
was strewn on the ground, the guns were lying
| about and the play was we'll acted. Attention.
| Fall inr called out the captains, and the we'll
| trained fellows fell into line at shoulder arms
| with all the precision of well-traned veterans.
| Then, as Ngalyema allowed his hands to fall
| in mute surprise at this sudden transformation,
| took hold of his hands and said: Well what
| do you think of the white mars fetishP 'Ah, |
| was not afraid, was /! See all my people have
run away. All, such braves! But tell me, Bua
! Matari, where did all these people come fromr
'Ah, that is the bad fetish told you of. Do you
want to see any more? Come, l will strike the
| fetish again, and the next scene will be still
more wonderful What! he screamed No.
no, don't touch it. Verify, that must oe a bad
fetish, he said gravey, he looked at the
round, innocent face of the gong
About 10 o'clock, as we were issuing out of a
| long blight in the shore, we saw half dozen
small canoes we'll out in the lake, and one
! probably two miles out; and after passing a
| rocky point saw the village to which those
| canoes evidently belonged. | thought this an
excellent opportunity to obtain some informa
ton respecting the country, and perhaps obtain
/ fresh fish and food. We bore down upon the
fishermen, who, ali engrossed in hauling their
seines aboard, permitted US to approach within
| mile of them before they of our
presence. And such presence as we must have
| been to them. A large white boat, with sail
outSpread, of ample width, emitting strange
noises, which were unlike the sound sent
out by any animal they had ever heard.
| They lift up their hands in dismay.
One, with more presence of mind
| than the others claSnad his hand tn his naddIa
and instnctively skins away. An admirable
idea, the others seem to cry and ali strike their
paddles deep into the black water, and urge
their tiny dugouts till they appear to fly over the
| lake. But the other, the canoe all alone in the
watery waste in which the fisherman profound
| " abstracted in his task sits heedlessly hauling