Daily Kennebec journal., 1901-01-12

lHey Astohlsh tne Natives and Describe
Interesting Sights
Miss Helen Caddick Of England. has
been astonishing both the whites and
blacks in Central Africa by her five
months journey all alone save for her
black attendants, into the far interior
Miss Caddick has courage. independence
and money. all of which are essential for
successful journey by white woman in
regions where the means of transporta-
tion are still primitive. She was deter
mined 10 form her own impressions of
some OF the parts of Central Africa where
white pioneers are beginning to establish
their enterprises; and she also Travelled
for several hundred miles through regions
where there Is not single white settle
ment She has just published a book in
England giving her impressions of the
lower Zambesi. the Shire river and Lakes
Nyassa and Tanganyika, where she spen'
nearly half a year, undergoing in the
most plucky manner all the privations
thai are inseparable from life in a tropi-
cal country, most of whose inhabitants
are still in state of barbarism.
The things that interest a woman trav-
eler often differ from those that attract
the attention of male explorers. II Is
not strange, therefore, that Miss Caddick
writes at length OF the care and food that
native mothers give to their babies L
topic that is usually ignored by white
men who write on Africa. Seeing every
thing with woman's eyes. she gives
somewhat new impressions OF many
things that men have already described
They have told. for example. of shooting
on the Lambesi. but 1t was left for Miss
Caddtck to protest against the perfectly
reckless way in which the native boa;
crews blaze away at water fowl for the
simple pleasure of seeing them drop. She
says they are apparently not discour
Of animal life simply for the fun it gives
them to take life. Large game. she says
is also being destroyed in the same rcck-
less way.
The writer save that thera is NJ ,,a,,h,
that the natives living in a wide area
around Blantyre are becoming less prof.
cient in their native arts on account OF
the proximity of Europeans. through
whom they now obtain many articles
which they formerly made for them
selves. When the whites came into the
country the natives were quite proficient
in iron smelling and rude iron manufac-
lures, and in weaving and basket max
ing; but now they buy many household
and other articles from white merchants
and are forgetting their native industries
She doubts that this dependence upon the
incomers is having beneficial effect up
on the native character.
Miss Caddick intended to visit Cjiji. the
Arab settlement far north on the east
shore of Tanganyika. but after she had
crossed the wide stretch of country be
tween Lake Nyassa and that lake she
was unable to get transportation for the
more northern journey.
Fourteen years earlier another white
woman, Mrs Pringle, Travelled over a part
pany with her husband. an English mer-
chant, who had occasion to visit the
Zambesi river. The great change tha,
has come over the natives through the
whites is illustrated by the different i'm
pressionS which these two white women
made upon them. Many of them had new
cr seen a white woman when Mrs. Prin-
gle came among them, and the sight of
this woman in long skirts so frightened
many of the half nude native damsels she
met that they fled into the bush as fast
as their legs could carry them.
Mrs. Pringle made a sensation whenev-
er she cOmbed her hair in public. and she
usually found 1t most comfortable in that
hot climate to arrange her nair while
seated before a looking-glass at the door
of her tent. The aborigines thought ner
long and straight hair was worth going
miles to see. Her gloves also excited
much comment. One inquisitive cnler.
who saw her with a veil over her race,
desired to know how it happened that she
was black while her husband was white.
and also why she wore boots on net'
nands.-Syracuse Telegram.