The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1894-07-14


fired assegais at his tax.gatherers. They
were the cave dwellers Of Katanea
and Msidi's soldiers never dared to-
follow them into their UNDERGROUND
retreats. Msidi received his first Wis
itors very kindly, but when the Congo
state sent it's officers into the land the
king made up his mind that the coun-
try was not big enough for two sets Of
rulers. One day he raised a spear to
throw at Capt. Bodson, when the Euro
pean quick as flash, shot the old man
dead, and received his own death
" ounds from the blacks around, al
most before Msidi fell. Now white sta
lions are scattered over the country,
and the native power is parceled out
among dozen small chiefs, who have
sworn to be faithful subjects Of tho
sovereign of the Congo State.
An Ancient Empire CrumbIed.
The strangest news from Africa in a
long time was that the empire of the
Muata Yamvo had tumbled to pieces.
Centuries before the world knew what
Central Africa was the fame of the
Muata Yamvo, as the ruler of Lunda
was called, had reached beyond the
seas. GeOgrapherS specuEated ingen4
u.
A native traveller once described his
itinerary to the capital of Lunda, and
geographers used these data to fix the
position of the kings big town. They
placed it on the maps about 300 miles
from where it really was. The Ger
mans and Portuguese have told us
about all we know Of Lunda, with its
large population, it's Astounding herds
and it's strange division of the supreme
power between the Muata Yamvo and
one of his sisters. The statesmen of
the Berlin congress did not think it
was wise for the Congo State to med
die with the ugly customer in the south
and they carefully drew the boundary
line so as to exclude Lunda They did
not know that at that very time the
Muata Yamvo was beset with enemies
on all his borders, who were whiting
off big slices of his territory. There
seemed to be simultaneous movement
on all sides to despoil him, and he was
finally left with the mere vestige of his
former power and territory. He is no
longer feared, and Portugal and the
Congo State have agreed how they will
divide Lunda between them.
A few weeks ago, steamer took Be
hanzin, the young king of Dahomey,
away to an island home, and it is
doubtful if he ever sees Africa again.
He is the victim of vanity. If he had
known enough to respect the treaty he
signed with the French he would have
been lording it over his women war
riors to-day. But he resumed his raids
for slaves into French territory, where
he had promised never to encroach
again, and when the French protested
he told them he would drive them into
the sea, and he really believed he could
do it. A few months later he was
skulking a wretched fugitive, in the
bush north Of Dahomey, where a long
season of semi-starvation finally Undue
ed him to give himself up. There will
be no more of the terrible human sac
rifces that gave Dahomey it's evil re.
pute.
So all these kings, and Lo Bengula,
whose tragic fate is we'll known, and
many of lesser note have fallen, and
there is left now only Lewanika, on
the upper Zambesi who has a big coun-
try and many thousands Of subjects.
He is a sensible sort of barbarian,
and although he does not yearn for a
knowledge of the gospel, he takes a
very practical view Of the white teach
ers who have come to him. He be-
lieves that if his people learn how to
read and write, and especially if they
become expert as carpenters, black
smiths, cabinet makers and so on, his
power and prosperity will be increased.
He says he wants his people to become
wise like the Europeans. The land of
the BarOtse is so extremely unhealthful
that white men are not likely to go
there in any numbers. The throne of
LeWanika bids fair to be long conspi-
cious as the sole survivors of the old re
gime Of powerful African kings
CYRUS C. ADAMS, in Globe-Demo
crat.