Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1916-01-08

ISCOVERING a vast new dia-
mond field which the smart
est and widest awake of men
in the diamond mining busi-
ess didn't know anything about; dis
pvering a new tribe of African saw
e.o~S the very heart of the dark
faynt which the smartest and wild
hehke of professors didn't know
about; getting shot at by hordes
fesentful natives; barely escaping
ing powdered into medicine" for
ative use; suffering the chills and
levers and tortures of malaria and
other jungle diseases and coming safe
ly through 1t not only alive and COM
I paratively well but also with an inval-
liable collection from the art and eth
biological standpoint of savage must
cal instruments. idols. fetiches. grass
weaving and instruments of warfare.
this in a paragraph is the star
Ting accomplishment of Frank M.
Rapp, young American mining engi-
neer, who recently landed in New
York from his expedition, still shak-
ing with fever.
The Bachokes Of the great tribe of
the Bantus is the name of the new
, tribe that Mr.. Rapp and his party dis
covered. II is all in one the richest,
the LATEST, the most immoral and the
most interesting of all the tribes of in
terror Africa. To get to 1t you have
to sail up the great Congo river as far
as 1t Is possible to float anything on
1t and dodge native bullets which
come as thick sometimes as a dozen
to the mile. And after you can go no
farther on the river 1t is necessary
to hire q hundred or so natives and
Egwaiking the rest of the way, Just as
the famous Stanley did SO many years
ago. A. --
Live on . Lofty Plateau.
The country of these Bachokes Is a
plateau about 300 feet in the air.
Only the river valleys are inhabited as
the sections between the rivers are but
little else than a desert waste. The
grass on the plateau is from eight to
fifteen feet high, while that in the val.
leys only comes to the disgustingly
low height of four or five feet. Here
the Bachokes reside and here too
reside some amazingly valuable dia-
mond fields-just how valuable and
Just how situated Mr.. Rapp refuses
to say for purely business reasons
According to Mr.. Rapp the Bachokes
are a fairly wealthy tribe as far as
wealth among the African savages
goes. They are wealthy enough. the
men are, to sit around all day and
smoke and gossip. while the women
.work the fields.
As was the case with many an
other moderB fortune the wealth of
the Bachokes was founded upon the
misfortune and exploitation of their
fellow men. The Bachokes were the
original slave traders. They were at
the source of the evil. Upon them
II fell to attack the weaker tribes In
the interior of Africa and to take cap
tive all that they did not STAY or leave
dying of wounds. These prisoners
were passed on to the tribes inhabit-
ing the coast, who. In turn at the great
slave port Of St. Paul Loanda on the
west coast sold them to English.
F., American and other traders for Euro
pean and American consumption.
Through their shaving operations
the Bachokes came to roll in wealth.
1t Is a poor Bachoke indeed who can
not wear at least three strings of blue
ano red beads. buy very costly and
powerful spirit medicines from the
medicine man. keep a wife or two to