Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1888-11-07

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srANIET's nARDEsT DA1TLl
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! Atssck - ~ Expssfsr.
The bloolliest and most furious baftle
Stanley had with the Congo natives dur.
ling his Arst descent Of that river was
| with the Ba-Ngala. Everybody has
read his graphic account Of that combat.
il which sixty-four canoes loaded with
the Aercest of Congo fighters were pre-
cipitated npDn the little band Of tray-
elerH, and had not spears been pitteI
agninst firearms Stanley's party would
never have reached the sea. A wlile
ag1 Mnele, one Of the officers Of the
BaNgala, gave 10 Capt. Coquilhat the
native version Of that memorable day.
The white men on the Congo bring
homo few stories Of the time when the
unknown whites first came among them,
and Of tile connection these strangers,
with their wonderful trade goods and
their still more astonishing weapons,
everywhere produced.
I'VE had never seen white man, !"
said Muc!e, whose tribe. thickly popu-
Ilating the river bank for many miles,
numbers over 1O0, 900 people. "We had
not the slightest idea that such beings
existed. Tine day, some dozen moons
ago DIVA, on February IA, 1870, at the
,nomca. when the sun stood right above
our heads, a fotilla OF canoes Of form
We had never seen before, preceded by
a canoe Of extraordinary size, suddenly
eame into view. In the swiftest part OF
the carsent they were quietly passing in
front Of onr villages. We We're aston
ished to see that the men, even to their
heads, were covered with white cloths,
and we thought it very singular, for the
richest chiefs We knew wore only little
rag made Ut banana fiber; and a fact
that was absolutely new to us and that
upset oil our notions Of humanity, was
the sight OF two white beings, yes, as
white as our pottery clay, who appeared
to command the expedition. They
seemed to have about the same form as
other men, but their hair, their eyes,
and their coler, were very strange to us.
We asked one another: Were not
these men ENJOYS from Ibanza, the mys-
ferrous spirit, and why did they so sud
denly appear Oh our river? Their pur-
pose could only be bad, Tor suddenly
they landed on an island opposite us in
stead OF coming to our shore as all peo-
pie did whose intentions were not hos
tile. AT first, before we were able to
see them distinctly. we thought they
were an expedition from our enemies of
Mobeka. Our alarm drums sounded
and We crowded To our canoes, all ready
for fight. But the clothing OF the
warriors, strange form OF their weapons,
and the unheard-of aspect OF the white
men soon undeceived us. Still, we
launched our canoes and rapidly APP
preached those OF the unknown stran-
gers.
"'rhe older Of the two white men had
straight, gray hair. and his eyes We're
the color OF water. He stood up in his
canoe and held toward us red cloth
and some brass wire. We still APP
preached him, discussing excitelly the
meaning Of his strange attitude. The
other white man frank Pocock, who
was drowned a few weeks later in the
cataracts Of the lower Congo) aimed his
weapon at us and the older man talked
to him rapidly in q language we did not
understand. Those OF our friends who
We're the nearest the strangers thought
the actions Of the white men BODIED MS
no q 'od, and SO they Judged it best at
once to attack these mysterious whites
who had come from no one knew where.
" Then the battle began and it was
the most terrible We ever fought. Our
spears fell fast among the enemy, and
we killed some Of them and their bodies
lay half over the sides OF their canoes.
But oh. what fetch gave their weapons
such wonderful power. Their bullets,
made OF heavy. gray metal we had never
seen before, reached us at enormous
distances. Women and old men who
were following the combat from the
shore We're hit. The walls OF our huts
were perforated. Some goats which
were wandering far of ON the fields
dropped dead OF their wounds, As for
ns who We're on the water, our stout
been bananas MANY Of MS were killed
and wounded and others were drowned,
for the bullets knocked holes in some Of
our wooden canoes, which filed with wa
ter aud sank. Still We kept fighting des-
perately, and We followed the white be-
ings some distance below our villages.
Their band finally escaped us and raised
loud cries of triumph as we ended the
q yXy \ q
what they saitl.v
Muele added that Mata Bulke, the
chief of the Ba-Ngala, exerted every eff
fort to dissunde his ardent people from
approaching the whites, who he de-
clared could not be human beings. It
was this same chief who, three years
ago this month, wept as he babe fare
well to Capt. Coquilhat the founder of
the Ba- Ngala station, who was about to
90 back to Europe. Return soon,' he