Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1886-11-27
CONFLICTS ON THE CONGO,
THEpANoERs OF EXPLORATION IN
AFRICAN wILDs.
One Traveller Has Fifteen Battles
With Native Tribes-Scared by

One Traveller Has Fifteen Battles
With Native Tribes-Scared by
Steam WhistIes-Forts in Trees.
Not few conflicts with the natives
have occurred during recent explorations
in Africa. In the Congo valley especially,
among tribes that have never seen white
men until within the last year and half,
the intruding Europeans have been
gaeeted with showers of arrows. Many
of the hostiles when they have come to
know something about their unwelcome
visitors have become their friends, and
many skirmish with the blacks might
have been avoided altogether had the ex-
plorers the tact and patience of Living
stone.
The deck of the little missionary
steamer Peace, which has made its way
up more of the large tributaries of the
great river than all tho rest of the Congo
fleet, is protected by an arrow-proof wire
netting, within which Mr.. Grenfell has
on more than one occasion sat serenely,
scarcely noticing the poisoned arrows
that natives, hidden in the grass on shore
have harmlessly launched against the
netting. When one tribe far up the
Mobangi river saw the little craft putting
her way up stream all the men, women,
and children deserted their huts and took
refuge in fortlets which they had built
in the branches of tall, straight trees.
There were no branches within about
thirty feet of the ground, and the natives
reached their fortlets by means of rope
ladders, securing their retreat by pulling
the ladders up after them. From these
perches in the air they sent their showers
Of arrows against the sides of the steamer,
which went on its way after Mr.. Grenfell
had vainly tried to enter into parley
with the excited aborigines.
Mr. Grenfell has generally made friends
of the new tribes he has met, and he is
one of the few Congo travellers who have
not been tempted by any provocation to
resort to firearms. Several tribes that
attacked him on his way up rivers, hear
ing of his friendliness from other natives,
have heartily welcomed him when no
came back.
Lieutenant Kund, of the last German
expedition, had fifteen fights last year
with the natives in the vicinity of the
Sankuru River, south of the Congo. His
work in an entirely new region added
good deal to geographical knowledge,
but the fact that he fought his way
through the country detracts from the
lustre of his achievements. He asserts,
however, that he did oil he could to
conciliate his enemies, and that he never
resorted to firearms except in self-de-
fence. The weapons of the natives were
flint guns, bows and arrows, and num-
Der OF his followers were killed. Some
days, Lieutenant Kund says, he rarely
saw native, but he could hear inces-
sanity the beating of their drums and
the war rattles of their priests. In one
fight Kund was struck by three arrows,
which were cut out with razor by his
white companion. He reached Stanley
Pool suffering from wounds.
Some lucky incident haAnow and then
saved recent explorers from serious
trouble. When Or. Buchner reached
the Kuango River early last year, a
large force of natives advanced to at
tack his little party. Just as they
were posing their spears Buchner
shouted that he was a friend of
Bula Matari. Instantly every arm
dropped, and the party was allowed to
go on its way unmolested. Bula Matari
Is the name by which Stanley is known
in the Congo Valley. Though he had
never been within a hundred miles of
these natives, they feared his vengeance
if they injured any of his friends. The
fame of few white men has spread
from tribe to tribe throughout the greater
part of savage Africa. DR.. Holub says,
for instance, that in part of the Fam
best Valley never before visited by a
white man he was asked if he knew DIR.
Livingstone.
Sir Francis de Winton says the natives
stand in great awe of steamboats, when
they first see them, and that to whistle
or blow off steam stampedes an entire
village. Sometimes Mr.. Grenfell has
been mistaken for ghost, and nearly
all the natives have taken to- the woods
until he has convinced the few who
dared to face him that he ate and slept
as they did and was a man like them
selves. For several days on the Mo-
bangi he and his party nearly starved,
the natives refusing to sell him food, as
they thought him supernatural being,
and were afraid to communicate with
him.
The Congo State Government decided
last year to punish all natives who at
tackled its agents. Early this year &C.
cordingly half dozen large villages on
the upper Congo were burned, and their
inhabitants driven into the woods in re-
taliation for injuries inflicted upon the
whites.-NeW York Sun.