CHAPTER VII

[BACK TO SLAVERY] 88

My welcome at home—My respite and its end—The forest sentry—The little boy—My father’s appeal and its result—I intervene—The sentry’s revenge—A rubber slave once more—I appeal to the man of God—Disappointment—“Nothing but rubber till I die!”—The hopeless toil—The coming of the pestilence—The witch-doctor’s medicine—The desolation—But still the rubber!

CHAPTER VIII

[OTHER CHANGES. HOPE DEFERRED] 98

A change of labour—We become hunters—A new demand—And new difficulties—Failure—The sentry’s demand—The old men’s plea—Murder—We tell the men of God—And complain to the rubber man—The white chief—The things written in a book—And no remedy comes—Hunting again—The English visitor—The white woman—Results of making complaints—The sentries’ threats—The one way of escape—“Better to be with the hunters than the hunted”—Another sorrow—The sleeping-sickness—“Just a little while, and they die”—We cry to the white people.

CHAPTER IX

[THE ELDERS OF EUROPE] 112

More white men from Europe—Fears and curiosity—The white men inquire about us—We tell them of our [[14]]state—And our oppressors—The knotted strings and their story—“These things are bad”—The white man’s promises—Better times—Soon ended—Rubber again—The old toil—The men of the river—The demands on the villages—The chiefs in power—Chiefs and the sentries—The death wail and the white man—“We are very poor.”

CHAPTER X