Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-08-25
GOOD FELLOWSHIP IN AFRICA.
Agents of European Governments On
Friendly Terms.

Future historians will note that the
partition of Africa was effected with
far better temper, far less bloodshed
and cruelty than the division of the
two Americas among the nations of
Spain, Portugal, Holland, France, Brit
ain and Denmark.
Often when the press or the govern
ments of European countries were
wrangling at home over the explora-
ton and exploitation Of Africa, their
agents out in Africa itself were agree
ing to differ in political aims, but were
remembering first and foremost that
they were brother white men engaged
from scarcely different motives in a
great struggle not so much with the
black man or the Arab as with the re-
calcitrant forces Of nature-diseases.
insects, scorching sunshine, food and
thirst, wind and wave, lightning and
fire, starvation and fatigue.
AS go over my memories, writes
Sir H. H. Johnston in the Youths
Companion, 1 find myself far more Of
ten dwelling on instances Of camara-
derie and chivalrous help from strang-
ers or rivals than on acts Of spitful-
ness or hostility. I can recall almost
as much to the good of the Arab as to
the bad, and as much wholehearted
devotion, sympathy and obedience
from the negro as the reverse.
My first experiences in Africa of an
adventurous kind were with the French
in Tunis a year before the official in
vasion of that regency by a French
army. 1 was permitted by the French
minister in Tunis to accompany small
force of French (Algerian) troops sent
to cooperate with the haphazard, dis
organized army Of Tunis in dispensing
or capturing the so-called Kroumirs
along the eastern Algerian frontier.
1t was a surprise to me-then a
young man of Eleven at that distant
date Of 1880 to find that French mill
tary officers very much resembled Brit
ish military officers, that their tents
and tent furniture and methods Of life
were singularly like those Of my fell
low countrymen in camp life engaged
on such mild military manoeuvres as
then took place in England.
The colonel was emphatically the
father of the regiment and his de-
lightful wife the mother. This buxom
lady-a more refined edition Of Thack-
ery's Peggy ODowd-accompanied her
husband on part of the expedition and
her interest extended in q most kind
and practical fashion not only to the
affairs of all the officers, old and young,
married, betrothed, or single, but to
those Of the non commissioned officers
and private soldiers. She might al
most have been the matron Of a great
boys school.
How far the French army may have
changed since then l cannot say from
personal experience, but the paternal
and fraternal spirit that then pulsated
through its divisions in Algeria struck
me very forcibly. AS to the French
soldiers in these and in similar pic
MICS" in which I participated long
years afterward in the same region
can only say that they are admirable
travelling companions-so gay, so re-
sourceful, so civil and so respectable.
Then the scene Of my remembrances
shifts to the open country near the
Kunene river in southwest Africa.
Here are slowly travelling caravans Of
Dutch Beers, moving in wagons with
their wives and children and horde
Of native followers-Bushmen, Hotten-
tos and Bantus-toward the unknown
north; one Of those migrations Of peo-
pie characteristic of South Africa and
North America in the nineteenth CEN
tury which recall the unreasoning
westward march of Tartars and Bull
garians, Huns and Magyars.
This was only one year after Maju-
ba, but beyond very little mild chaff.
which passed harmless over my head
owing to my very imperfect knowl-
edge Of Cape Dutch, there was hardly
an allusion from man or woman among
these Beers to the almost state OF war,
the bitter resentment seething between
Boer and Briton far away to the south.
Their milk and honey, their good
roast beef and wheaton pancakes, their
coffee and Cape wine were freely Of
fered to the hungry, travel weary Eng
iishman who by accident had become
detached by many miles Of divergent
track from his own particular friends
and followers. l slept under their
wagons or shared their hastily con-
huts when for big game shoot
ing we stayed for several days in the
same locality and ate and drank from
their excellent provender, unable
to forget the taste of their
coffee and milk, their roast meat, their
honey cakes and grilled maize
And at the end of the long journey,
when l turned north to explore the
possessions, not only was
no payment asked but 1t was with diff
ficulty that forced a few presents on
my hosts. They did not like to deprive
me Of any necessary part of by slender
In my journeys through East and
West Africa l received from the Portu-
guese great hospitality and unstinted
help. My somewhat considerable ex-
of Portuguese West Africa
in the years 1928 could never have
been carried through If / had had to
rely on my own pecuniary resources.
Portuguese officials, merchants, natu-
ralists and planters made 1t possible
for me to explore great deal Of An
COLA, south of Congoland, the islands
and mainland territory Of Portuguese
Guinea But it was when a temporary
of political interest in East
Africa almost brought about a quarrel
between Great Britain and Portugal
that the chivalry Of the Portuguese Of
pecially when they were being unfairly
maligned by the British and South Af-
rican press.
l used at this time to be amused
when l read in English newspapers and
in the short notices of imperialist
writer's descriptions of the average
officer as he presented himself to the
lingo" imagination. He was always
described or pictured as a monkeylike
mulatto of small stature and hysteri-
cal demeanor. /, who was a temporary
of Great Britain in Nys-
saland and Mozambique, was of decid-
edly short stature; my Scottish as
sistant was no taller; black haired and
bearded, he was Of that Iberian type
so common in the western Highlands.
On the other hand most of our Portu-
guese contemporaries and friendly ri
and military-ranged from
five feet eight to five feet eleven and
several of them were Of the Gothic
race so common in northern Portugal,
with blue eyes and golden hair. The
darkest was no swarthier than the
black avised Cornishman or southwest
Ifishman.
Col. Sirpi Pinto and met on the riv-
er Shire in July, 1889. He proposed
asserting the claims Of Portugal to
the Shire highlands and perhaps to the
east coast of Lake Nyassa. He also
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