The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-04-04
Commander of the District.

Behind the COaSt-l1ne OF w est Africa,
from the Gambia to the Congo, lies a
wild country of dense forest and dismal
swamp intersected here and there by
sluggish rivers and shallow lagoons.
Although the Portuguese, Dutch and
English have traded along the coast
for more than four hundred years civil
ization has but lightly touched the saw
/ age Inhabitants of the interior, and
s'battle, murder and sudden death, the
s'Ju Jul or fetch worship, with its hor-
rible rites of human sacrifice, and in
many places cannibalism, are preva-
lent
In British dominions, few district
commissioners and other officers in
charge of small detachments of Haus-
sas who are Mohammedan black
troops, maintain, or struggle to main
tain, some kind of order along the from
tier, among many thousands of saw
ages.
Now it happened that one morning in
April, Captain Wayne, in command of
a dozen Haussas, sat out on the veran-
da of his house, which was situated
near the headwaters of muddy river
on the frontier of the Gold Coast and
| Tic CudlttG GUILTY., dllu lOOhcQ dCIoSo
the misty landscape that lay before
him. By-and-by as the sun rose the
mist gathered itself together into heavy
wreaths and rolled away to seek a hid
ing-place till nightfall among the
swaYnps, leaving open to view mile af-
ter mile of dense forest that stretched
away to the blue line of distant noun
tains on the northern horizon, while
near at hand three winding rivers and
a wide lagoon lay glittering in the ear
1y sunshine. The captain lay YEARLY
back in his chair, haggard and yellow
faced from constant attacks of the ma
1aria fever, the scourge of the land, and
oppressed by the intense loneliness, for
he had seen no white man for more
than a year. Instead of the slight cool
ness that might have been hoped for in
the morning breeze, the air was hot
and heavy with the smell of vegetation
rotting in the swamps and the river
mud.
At this moment, Akoo, Sergeant of
Haussas, came up the stairway leading
to the veranda, and saluting the officer,
said: "Bushman come in, sab, bring
little word say Kasro people chop two
men, make Ju Ju."
"Hang the Kasro people" said the
captain aside. Il must stop the Ju Ju
sacrifice and yet if there's any blood
shed,it will mean the sending up of an
expedition, and unending trouble.
Akoo get ten men ready, rifles and
twenty rounds of ammunition
The sergeant saluted as he went
away, and shortly afterwards a bugle-
4at. VI
weak and trembling from fever,
marched into the forest at the head of
his men. Tall, splendidly developed
negroes from the far north, staunch
Mussulmans, lighter in color and in ev-
cry way superior to the coast tribes,
the Haussas will follow their white Off
GERS with a courage and devotion equal
to that of any of her Majestys troops.
Meanwhile, in the Shantee town of
Kasro, a great Ju Ju feast was being
held, at which the chief administered
Justice and various rites We're per-
formed by the fetch men to propitiate
their gods The mud-built, palm
thatched huts lay in rows beneath the
shade of feathery palm trees around a
Great open square. In the center of
this, beneath the shade of a huge tree
consecrated to the Ju Ju or fetch gods,
sat Chief Kasro, attired in cast-off
steamboat officers uniform and dra-
goons brass helmet. Over his head
stretched the spreading arms of the
tree from which hung long strings of
charms human skulls, bones, sharks
teeth, leopards' claws, and similar odds
and ends, the symbol of the fetch au-
hority, for over native warfare, trade
Ind justice. or rather injustice, the Ju
u man reigns supreme. Round the
chief stood rows of native warriors,
naked with the exception of a narrow
trip of cloth round the loins, while the
Whole of the square was filled by an
xcited crowd of men and women,
qually scantily attired. singing and
tancing in groups round crouching
musician tapping the native skin drum,
ring their long fiintlock guns in the
ir, or Keeling about hopelessly intoxi-
ated with palm wine. Two stalwart
laves held large umbrella the sym
lol of authority. over the chiefs head.
lille on either side stood a Ju Ju man
act as counsellor, as the chief dis
Missed, one after another, the trem-
ling prisoners who awaited his SEN