The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-10-17
A RICH AFRICAN.
Tippu lib the Greatest Slave and
Ivory Trader in the World.

The wealthie;t man in Central Africa
is now an his way to the Indian Ocean
in response to letter from the sultan OF
Zanzibar requesting visit from him.
His name is Tippu lib, and he lives not
far from Nyangwe, the great trading
point OF many black tribes on the upper
Congo. Readers OF African books of
travel have heard good deal of Tippu
lib. and as recent years have greatly
increased his power and wealth, We are
likely to hear much OF him.
Tippu lib is only As years old, as
black as coal, and of negroid blood
which means that he comes of an ad .
mixture of the coast tribes of East
Africa and has very little Arab blood in
his veins. He has been in Central Africa
for twenty-five years, and is to-day the
greatest slave and ivory trader in the
world. He has outslipped all his COM
petitors through sheer force of intellect
and strength of character. As long ago
as the time when Cameron introduced
him to our notice, he visited Nyangwe
and told the bullying Arob traders there
that if they did not leave certain native
allies of his alone it would be the worse
for them, They lost no time in pledg
ing eternal peace with Tip lib and al
his friends.
Cameron says Tippu lib was the
greatest dandy he saw among the trad
ers of Africa, and that, although of
negroid blood, he was a thorough Arab
in manners and ideas. All his white
visitors speak of the elegance OF his
Arab attire and his courtly and afable
bearing. Stanley says that at his first
meeting with Tippu lib he regarded him
as the most remarkable man he had met
among the Arabs, Wa Swahili and half
castles of Africa. Lieutenant Van Gale,
of the Congo state, who met Tippu lib
in January last, says he was surprised
by the extent of his information on
European topics. He was familiar with
events occurring in Europe, and was par.
ticularly interested in the Germans, and
Belgiaus. The questions he asked me,
says Van Gale, showed that he is
neither an ignorant man nor one of or
binary mind" He said he intended
some day to go TO Europe, visit the
king of the Belgians. and also spend
some time in Constantinople.
l Tippu Tbs home, south of
Nyangwe, Cameron says that large
gangs of slaves walking about in chains
met his eve at every turn. They were
leading easy lives, were we'll fed, and he
saw no acts of curelty there. All had
been victims, however, of the crying
wrongs that are still decImating the
simple savages Of Africa. They had
been surprised in their peaceful homes
by the sudden onslaught of Tippu Tbs
ruthless soldier slaves, who had burned
their huts, killed their friends, and
dragged them off into captivity Tippu
lib is the most noted representative of
those men who are to-day inficung
more suffering upon their fellow crea-
lures than other human beings-the
professional slave trade of Africa. Few
of Tippu Tbs slaves ever reach the In
dian ocean. They are sold among the
numerous tribes on the way to the sea.
Long caravans, however, richly laden
with his ivory, are often dispatched to
the coast.
1t was Tippu lib who bel ed Stanley
start down the Congo from Nyangwe,
the point where Livingstone and Cam
eron were defeated in their efforts to fol-
low the river further. For some to weeks
Stanley'S little party was augmented
by over TWO hundred of Tippu Tbs
men. Twenty very dark beauties from
the great traders harem accompanied
him on his first trip down the Congo,
where ne is now in absolute control of
the river and the adjoining territories
for about $50 miles below NyangWe. 1t
was his slave pen near Stanley falls, in
which $500 wretched captiVes were
found two years ago when the agents of
International Association reached that
point.
For many miles below these falls Stan
ley was chased by large fleets of canoes,
and his party suffered severely from the
lances and arrows of the most ferocIous
savages whom he met on the Congo.
These natives are among the most
peaceable on the Congo now, and one
good reason is that they have no Wea-
pons to fight with. They have all been
disarmed by Tippu lib for distance of
about eighty miles along the river for
daring to attack some of his men. DR..
LEM, the explorer, wrote from S anley
falls III March last that between the fall
and the AruWani River the natives were
incapable of making and resistance.
One can rarely find among them" he
writes, "a lance or any other weawon
except small knives" DR., LEM adds
that 1.-THE influence of the opuIent T1ppu
lib is far greater all through this region
than that of the Free Congo state.
Tippu lib has thus far maintained
very amicable relations with the whites
He has invited missionaries to settle
near him, and has promised them pro-
tection.-New York Sun.