The village on the other side, in which we encamped, was typical of many another village we passed through on our journey. Just behind our tents were three spirit-huts; all around us were native houses built of straw and mud, and then came an enormous growth of kaffir-corn about twelve feet high. Surrounding this was forest, save where the river wound its tortuous course. In the clear light of the evening the somewhat sparse foliage stood out with great distinctness against the blue of the sky, each twig and leaf being defined as if seen through a stereoscope. The neighbourhood abounds with lions, leopards, elephants, buffaloes, rhinoceros, zebras and hyenas.
Half-way on our journey we camped for one night at Fort Rosebery, the Government centre for the district. There we were the guests of the Native Commissioner, Mr. Denton Thompson, one of the small band of young Cambridge men who are now being employed by the Chartered Company as Magistrates and Native Commissioners. It is satisfactory to be able to state that almost without exception the Government officials we came across in Northern Rhodesia were men really interested in the welfare of the natives and anxious to do their duty by them. Here as elsewhere we received the kindest hospitality. Whenever we visited the Government station we were invariably entertained by the officials, to whom no trouble seemed too great which ministered to our comfort.
During the following week we passed through country infested with lions. At Mupeta we saw the skin of an enormous lion which had been killed the day before. During the previous week this lion had killed five natives. The people in the village laid a trap for him by tying a goat in an empty hut, on each side of the door of which they had dug a pit and had covered them over with laths smeared with mud. At the bottom of the pits they had fixed spears pointing upwards. The lion fell into one of them and the natives, who were on the watch, speared him from above. There were at least a dozen holes in his skin. In this neighbourhood twenty-two natives had been killed by lions in a fortnight. We passed through one village where on the previous day a man had been carried off by a lion, and a day or two before a woman and a child, who were laying fish traps in the stream, had been killed and carried away.
On our arrival at Mbereshi we received a very warm welcome. About five miles from the station some fifty boys met us and ran with us along the broad road, which has been made by Mr. Nutter, for some distance into the forest. The men in charge of the bush-cars raced at full speed. Groups of people met us nearer the station, all of whom joined the racing cavalcade. Loud peals of thunder kept reverberating overhead and drowned the reports of the guns which were fired to welcome us. We arrived just as the first drops of a terrific thunderstorm fell. Mr. Nutter’s house was soon crowded with natives, and there was endless shouting and hand-shaking. Never had the natives had such a time in Mbereshi. The whole village rose to the occasion and turned out to give the representatives of the L. M. S. a hearty welcome. On the following day we were the recipients of numerous presents of fowl, flour, goats and eggs.
Photo by] [Bernard Turner.
Native with Fish Trap.
Mbereshi is a delightful station with a magnificent view to the westward from the front of the Mission Houses, rolling parkland and forest, with the Mofwe Lagoon four miles away on the horizon. Along the shores of this lake and beyond there are about thirty villages with a large population, which has settled there as a result of the regulations to combat the sleeping-sickness. These have had the effect of driving the Natives from the east and south shores of Lake Mweru to the Mofwe villages. All the missionary activities of a flourishing Mission station are in operation. There are Sunday services, schools, classes for hearers and catechumens, and prayer meetings. The Christians from the head-station go out to the villages on Sundays to conduct services. Industrial work is being carried on under the able superintendence of Mr. Bernard Turner. The fame of the cabinet-making and carpentry of the boys trained by him is spread far and wide over Northern Rhodesia. Much of the furniture in the houses of the Government officials was manufactured here or at Kambole. Medical work, too, has been carried on at this station, and for several years a doctor was in residence. Leprosy is common. In the district there are 147 registered cases, and probably not less than 200 people are suffering from the disease. Our Mission work was commenced here in 1900, and the early days were times of great trial. One of the first missionaries, Mr. Purvis, died there in 1901, a fortnight after Mr. Nutter’s arrival, and his grave is to be seen under a tree near the Mission houses. In 1903 a missionary and a missionary’s wife died on two successive days. God buries his workmen, but carries on His work.
During our stay at Mbereshi we visited Kazembe, the paramount Chief of the district, who nominally rules over 30,000 people. His town is some six miles away from Mbereshi, through the thick forest and the long grass. He received us outside his hut in the centre of the kraal, in which are a hundred huts for his hundred wives. He was seated on the ground, gorgeously and grotesquely adorned with beads and skins and gaily coloured skirts, and wore four large bells, gaiters of beads, and numerous heavy anklets above his bare feet.
We sat down on low stools and Mr. Nutter helped us to talk to him. He showed us his treasures. One was a bloodthirsty-looking dagger which had belonged to ten chiefs before him, and had often been used to kill men. He produced a large number of charms, which he believes keep the lions away, and played tunes on a wooden drum cut by himself out of a solid tree trunk and decorated with brass-headed nails. He uses this to call his servants when he wants them. The heads of the drum-sticks are made of raw rubber. He sent for another and much larger drum made in the same fashion, and carried by two men on a pole, and also showed us two dulcimers made of wood and calabash. He gave us some raw green mealies (Indian corn) to eat. Kazembe smoked cigarettes, and when a member of the party offered him one he wanted to keep the silver cigarette-case. Then he took us to the Mission School where there were 186 black boys and girls, many of whom were quite naked, and most of the rest were dressed in pieces of string!
A day or two afterwards Kazembe came to pay us a return visit, accompanied by hundreds of his followers. He was seated on a platform suspended between two tree trunks and carried by thirty men, a great umbrella being held over his head. He himself beat his wooden drum to tell us he was coming, and a man carrying great yellow and black flags walked in front of him, and when he got off the platform he strutted about like a peacock.