Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-05-10
WHY THEY FOUGHT STANLEY.
A Congo Native Throws Light Upon the Man
Attacks on the Explorer.

Congo Native Throws Light Upon the Many
Attacks on the Explorer.
During SANKEY'S first great trip down
the Congo his little party for hundreds
of miles heard almost constantly the
thunder of the big war drums. At many
bend of the river they saw the canoes OF
the natives pushing out from The
shore filled with bowling savages bent on
the destruction of the little baud who
wished for nothing so much as to glide
peacefully down stream to the sea. 1t is
not always easy to fathom the exact mo-
tives that insp ire the acts of uncivilized
peoples, and now that the whites are well
established on the Congo, some of them
have inquired with great interest of the
natives what they thought of Stanley
when he first appeared to them, and why
they gave him such an unfriendly recep-
ton. A conversation that Rev. Mr..
Bently bad with native at Bolobo on the
subject, while ago, gives an interesting
insight into the workings of the savage
mind.
''Why did the Bayansi attack the white
man?' Mr.. Bently asked.
sob, we did not attack aim but we meant
to. We had heard from far up the river
that one of the strange white men we had
never seen, who made the cloth our trad
ers brought Us, was coming down the
river. We heard that everybody above
US had gone out 30 fight him just for the
glory of winning victory from this
wonderful kind of men. Do you think
we could be behind the rest? Why, we
would have been the laughing stock of
the whole river if we had not at least
shown that we dared to go out and fight
him. When we went to trade in friendly
towns and Joined in the dance all the
girls would laugh at us and sang how
their braves had gone out to fight the
great white man while the bravest ran
away and hid like women. We could not
miss such a chance to show that we were
brave men, too.
$50 we filled our biggest canoes with
men, and hid behind the long point above
our town. We waited there, and by and
by we saw the white mans canoes far up
the river. All our assegais and lances
were sharp, and we intended to make a
good fight. Down came the white man,
and we were just getting ready to push
out from shore, when much to our sur
prise, he turned the prows of his canoes
toward the opposite shore, just a little
above ds, and soon he landed on the
other side of the river.
"We thought we would watch him
awhile and see what happened. There
were hundreds of us, and we were all
looking through the grass to see what the
white man did. We saw his men ming
ling with the tribe on the other shoe.
By -and-by some of our friends over the
river came across. They told US the white
man was good fellow, and that he want
ed to be FRIENDS, and that he was buying
lots of food, for which he was giving
beads and brass wire and many wonder
full things.
"That was too much for US. Every
man rushed to the village, and soon We
had several canoes loaded Tith plantain,
cassava pudding, fowls, and other things,
and over we went to trade. We got good
prices for our food, and SO you see We
didn't fight after ALL"
1t will be mentioned that Stanley men
toned this very tribe at BolObo as among
the frat who sold him food and gave him
a friendly rece ption after he had run the
gauntlet of scores OF hostile villages.
Perhaps he never knew how narrowly he
escaped having battle with the peop ole
of Bolobo, who, as it turned out, became
his very good friends. When Stanley
went back 30 the Congo one of the first
stations he established above Stanley
was at Bolobo. The story this native
told very likely explains the persistsncy
of the attacks upon Stanley all the way
from Stanley Falls to Bolobo, about six
hundred miles.