Ismailia - Sir Samuel White Baker (best mystery novels of all time .txt) 📗

natives the principle that industry and peace will create prosperity.

A few extracts front my journal will describe the gradual progress of the settlement:

"Mr. Higginbotham shot a waterbuck during an exploratory ramble that we took through the forest, in search of large timber for building purposes. The main forest begins about two miles from this station, in which is an unlimited supply of wood, including the most magnificent tamarind-trees. These beautiful specimens are dotted about the country, like park timber in England. There is a tamarind-tree about a mile from this station, beneath which about a thousand cattle might find shade. (It must be remembered that the Bari cattle are very small.)

"There is a native, named Tomby, who speaks excellent Arabic. This fellow has been twice to Khartoum, and he wears clothes, instead of walking about in a state of absolute nudity like his countrymen. He has an excellent rifle that was given to him by his old master, a French trader, Monsieur Bartholome. Tomby has been employed as interpreter; and having been born and bred in these parts, he is a perfect chronicler. It appears that Abou Saood treacherously murdered the sheik of Belinian, a country about twelve miles distant from this station. He feared the sheik of Belinian, who was a powerful neighbour: he therefore, professing friendship, invited him and his family to an entertainment at Gondokoro. The sheik and his people, not suspecting evil, arrived, bringing with them the usual presents. Abou Saood received them very politely, and when they were seated, and had entered into conversation, he had them seized by his people, and murdered them on the spot in cold blood. Owing to this treacherous conduct, the entire neighbourhood is hostile, and anarchy prevails throughout the country; thus I cannot send a letter to the traders' camp at Latooka, as no one dares to travel.

"April 24. --Thermometer, 6 A.M., 74 degrees F; noon, fell to 72 degrees F. We had a picnic at the old mission station, where I went accompanied by Lieutenant Baker, Mr. Higginbotham, and my wife, to measure out the camp and fort. As usual in England, the picnic brought on heavy rain, which lasted from 9.30 a.m. till 2 p.m., to the great benefit of the garden.

"April 25. --Thermometer, 6 A.M., 69 degrees F; noon, 80 degrees F. We completed the large garden; the soldiers' allotments are also complete. The camp of the "Forty Thieves" is very neat; a spirit of industry has seized upon the whole party. The women have made gardens around their huts, and agriculture appears to be the prevailing fashion. I am surrounding the cultivation with a live fence of euphorbia. Julian has been unwell for some time past.

"The natives appear to have gained confidence, as they are bringing their cattle across the river from the islands to our fine pasturage. It is curious to see the manner in which the herd follows the man who swims before them as their guide, while other natives direct them while swimming by striking them upon the horns with long bamboos.

"Yesterday the river rose about two feet, but it fell almost as suddenly, showing that the rise was only the effect of the heavy rain upon the mountain ranges throughout the country.

"One of the boys, Said, caught three fish, weighing about eight, ten, and twenty pounds each. These were of the Siluras species, and are excellent eating.

"The white ants are now issuing from the ground in vast numbers in the winged state, and are taking flight. Myriads of the black and white tern and the white storks are following them. The lizards are also at work in the general persecution.

"April 26, 27. --Made new garden beds. All the seeds sown by the troops are above ground, to the great delight of the men. We cleared and sowed about an acre with Indian corn to-day."

We thus continued working and improving, until we had in a comparatively short time produced a great result. About ten acres of corn were above ground, as a few showers had started the seeds like magic. My men were comfortably housed in a neat station on the high ground, while my servants had a pretty little village of their own situated on the knoll, by the river side, about fifty yards from my diahbeeah. This vessel was moored alongside the bank, the fine grass of which was kept closely cut, so as to resemble a lawn, that extended for about thirty yards; this was bounded by prickly pears and ornamented by a large and showy butter-nut-tree, which formed our out-door drawing room.

It was all very well to establish a government, and to commence the civilization of Central Africa, but we were very hungry, and we could procure nothing from the natives. We had no butchers' meat, neither would the Sheik Allorron or his people sell us either sheep or cattle.

For several days we lived upon sparrows, which Monsoor shot by sprinkling corn upon the ground and firing into the assembled flock of hundreds. The country was swarming with these small birds, which are no doubt delicacies; but if you have a good appetite they are a little too light on the stomach. In the mean time, although the natives could now venture to drive their cattle to the rich pasturage under our protection, which they could not before enjoy for fear of their enemies the Loquia, they absolutely refused to sell, or to supply us in any manner. In spite of my explanations to the sheik by the interpreter Tomby, he refused to bring either grass or wood for the expected soldiers' huts, or in fact to do anything to serve us.

Upon one occasion, as my men were sowing and clearing the land for planting, he employed natives to work at the same kind of cultivation in front of the troops, in order to claim a right to the soil. On this occasion he came himself, prepared with a cup formed of a small gourd-shell slung by a string upon his neck. He explained that this was his cup for drinking araki, with which he requested to be supplied.

"How long are you going to remain here?" he asked. He continued, "You had better go back to Khartoum, and I will eat the corn you have planted when it becomes ripe."

I explained that Gondokoro would be head-quarters, and that troops would always remain there, and we should cultivate a large extent for corn. He replied: "Then who does this land belong to?--to you or to me?" I explained that his people had been driven out by a superior force, and that we had found it abandoned; at the same time, neither he nor his people dare remain here without my protection, therefore the land belonged to the Khedive of Egypt; but if the natives wished to re-settle I would give them their original property.

He simply replied, "Who does this tree belong to?" (we were standing beneath its shade). "It belongs to the Khedive of Egypt," I replied, "who is now protector of the whole country, and I am his representative to establish his government."

He replied: "Then you had better be off to Khartoum, for we don't want any government here."

There can be no doubt that in the abstract of people's rights, any annexation of the territory of another is an infringement. Had this principle been adhered to throughout the history of the world, there would have been no progress. Savages of all countries are prone to strife; and a state of chronic warfare with neighbouring tribes is the example of African politics. A strong government is a necessity.

I had always expected trouble with the Baris, as I had known them during my former journey as a tribe of intractable savages. The Austrian missionaries had abandoned them as hopeless, after many efforts and a great expenditure of money and energy.

The natives had pulled down the neat mission house, and they had pounded and ground the bright red bricks into the finest powder, which mixed with grease formed a paint to smear their naked bodies. Thus the only results of many years' teaching were the death of many noble men, the loss of money, the failure of the attempt; and instead of the enterprise leaving a legacy of inward spiritual grace to these "men and brethren," the missionary establishment itself was converted into an external application for the skin: the house of God was turned into "pomade divine." This was a result that might have been expected by any person who had practical experience of the Baris.

The extent of country occupied by this tribe was about ninety miles in length from north to south, and seventy in width. Although the people who inhabited this district were all Baris, there was no cohesion among them. They were divided into numerous small chiefdoms, each governed by its sheik or head man. Thus Allorron represented Gondokoro, while every petty district was directed by a similar sheik. The Bari country was thickly inhabited. The general features of the landscape were rolling park-like grass lands;--very little actual flat, but a series of undulations, ornamented with exceedingly fine timber-forests of considerable extent, and mountains rising to about 2,500 or 3,000 feet above their base. From these mountains numerous streams drained to the Nile: these were generally dry in the summer season. The soil was poor in the neighbourhood of Gondokoro, but at a distance from the river, the country was fertile; the rocks were throughout granitic; the mountains yielded the finest iron ore, especially those of Belinian, twelve miles from Gondokoro, where the natives were expert black smiths. Cultivation was carried on to a large extent throughout the country; the corn generally used was the common dhurra (Sorghum vulgare). This was usually the dark-red variety, which, being rather bitter, has a chance of escape from the clouds of small birds which ruin the crops. Sesame was common throughout all portions of Central Africa, and throve well upon the poor and light soil of Gondokoro.

The Baris were exceedingly neat in their dwellings, and their villages were innumerable. Each hut was surrounded by a small court composed of cement made from the clay of the white-ant hills mixed with cow-dung and smeared with ashes: these courts were always kept scrupulously clean. The Bari hut differs from that of other tribes, as it contains an inner circle, which can only be used by creeping on the hands and knees-first through the entrance, which is only twenty-four inches high, and secondly from the passage formed by the inner circle. The inner walls are formed of wattles and clay neatly smeared or plastered with cement. They are quickly attacked by the white ants, which destroy the wattles, but the clay is sufficiently tenacious to form a wall when the wood or reeds may have disappeared.

The granaries are formed of wicker-work supported upon upright pedestals of either hard wood or of stone, to resist the white ants; the wicker-work is smeared with clay and cow-dung, and the roof is thatched in a manner similar to the house.

The Baris are a great pastoral people, and possess immense herds of cattle. These are generally small active animals with humps; white is the prevailing colour. The sheep are small and the mutton is good; but although the fine pasturage of the Bari country is eminently adapted for sheep and goats, these animals are delicate, and require much attention during the heavy rains, at which time they are always kept beneath a roof at night, with fires composed of dry cow-dung to create a smoke that will drive away flies or mosquitoes.

Like most of the tribes of the White Nile, the Baris have a strong