No food or water had they tasted all day, so they were parched with thirst. They pled for water, none was given; for a covering for their shame, no notice was taken; and at last, in sheer despair, they entreated that they might be shot—they would rather, far rather, die than endure the shame of remaining any longer in a public place in such a condition.
At night they were released from their agony, only to be sent to prison, and finally exiled up river. The charge was never proved against them. But the white man of God heard about the affair, and talked the palaver with the rubber chief, and eventually they were released and came back to their own villages.
One day we heard a steamer whistle; it was coming to our landing-place. “Oh, joy! perhaps the white man will let us go,” we thought. [[82]]He often did send prisoners off to their homes when a steamer whistled, which seemed strange to us in those days, but it mattered not to us why he did it, if only we might get free.
To our disappointment he did not do so on this occasion, and we soon heard that the big chief of rubber had come. We wondered what he would do to us, if things might be worse, although we did not see how that could be.
Afterwards we found that the white men of God had been writing many letters to him about us and the way in which we were treated, and he had come to see for himself. He did so, with the result that he opened the doors of the prison house, and told us to walk out. He commenced to count us, but gave it up: we were so many. He told us we were free, and could go to our homes. We could scarcely believe it, it seemed to be too good to be true; but we immediately set off with hearts full of joy.
You may think what a merry procession we must have been, perhaps even that we were singing and dancing with delight, because we were free! Not so; we must have looked more like a procession of spectres. Some, too weak to walk, were carried on the backs of others not [[83]]much stronger than themselves; women weak and ill, some soon to become mothers, and others with young babes looking as sickly as themselves; men and women both so famished with hunger that they had tied strips of plantain fibre tightly round their stomachs to try and stay the craving for food!
How eagerly we drank the water and devoured the little food that was given to us by friendly people as we passed, and how the old men and women called out blessings on the head of the chief of rubber and the white man of God who had interceded for us! We noticed that as we passed through their compound the white men and women of God were actually crying with tears for our sorrows, and yet how glad they were to see us free!
Yes, we were free, but many who lived at a distance and were old or sick never reached their homes again. One died at the place of the white man of God, two or three in villages a little further on, and many who entered the forest were never heard of again; they probably died of hunger, and their bodies must have been devoured by wild animals.
I was one of the last to leave the prison, and as I did so the great chief was making [[84]]inquiries about the prison grave of which he had heard. He said to me, “Will you show me the place?”
I answered, “Oh, yes, white man, it is not far. Just over in the bush yonder; but if you come, bring a cloth to hold your nose; for you will not reach the place without it.”