But the strange thing was that the arm [[73]]appeared to have been cut a little below the elbow. The explanation was that the ends of the bones had become sharp, and were constantly scratching other parts of his body, so he had cut them off from time to time with his own knife. He, with the white man of God, went a long journey to the white man in charge of the rubber work, and showed him the wound.

But nothing was done, as all his people were too much afraid to bear witness to the deeds of the sentries. If they had done so they might have been treated in the same way, or even worse. For there was nothing, not even murder, that the sentries were afraid to do, and nothing too cruel for them to think of and put in practice.

I think I have told you enough to make you see that we rubber men were not the only ones who suffered from the presence of the white men; and now I must tell you more of my own story. [[74]]

[[Contents]]

CHAPTER VI

Some Horrors of Our Lot

Our work grows harder—I consult the white man of God—A strange contrast—My plea unavailing—My rubber short—I am sent to the prison—The captives—Their work and their punishments—The sick—The new-born babe—The dead and their burial—The suspected—How they were tortured—The steamer—The rubber chief—The prison opened—A procession of spectres—The place of the dead—For a time peace—Work for the man of God—How we fared—My reward—I wish to go home.

I am afraid that you white people will get tired of listening to a constant repetition of the same story, but that is just what my life and the lives of my people have consisted of ever since the coming of Bokakala—rubber, chicotte, prison, rubber, prison, chicotte; and again rubber, nothing but rubber. We see no chance of anything else until we die. [[75]]

If you are tired of hearing about it, what do you think we must be of living in it?

The rubber vines were getting worked out in our part of the forest, and almost every time we had to go further to get any, but at last we found a way of getting it quicker. It was this: when we found a good vine, instead of making incisions and waiting for the sap to drip from them, we cut the vine down, dividing it into short lengths. These we placed endways in a pot, and left them to drain off all the sap into the pot. In this way we got quite a lot of rubber from the one vine, and we rejoiced accordingly.