AFRICAN BALL. KING OLENGA-YOMBI DANCING.
[CHAP. XXII.]
CHAPTER XXII.
I BUILD A VILLAGE, AND CALL IT WASHINGTON—I START FOR THE INTERIOR—MY SPEECH ON LEAVING—THE PEOPLE APPLAUD ME VOCIFEROUSLY, AND PROMISE TO BE HONEST—WE REACH ANIAMBIA—THE "BIG KING," OLENGA-YOMBI—A ROYAL BALL IN MY HONOUR—THE SUPERSTITIONS OF THE NATIVES—A MAN TOSSED BY A BUFFALO.
I immediately began building a substantial settlement, not an olako. I collected from a kind of palm tree a great many leaves, with which to cover the roofs of the buildings I had to construct. I gathered also a great quantity of branches from the same palm trees, and sticks, and poles, and all that was necessary to make a house; and finally I succeeded in building quite a village, which I called Washington. My own house had five rooms; it was forty-five feet long by twenty-five wide, and cost me about fifty dollars. My kitchen, which stood by itself, cost four dollars. I had a fowl-house, containing a hundred chickens (and such nice little tiny chickens they are in that country) and a dozen ducks. My goat-house contained eighteen goats, and funny goats they were. You had to milk a dozen of them to get a pint of milk. I built a powder-house separate, for I do not like to sleep every day in a place where there is powder. I had a dozen huts for my men.
This was Washington in Africa, a very different place from Washington in America.
At the back of my village was a wide extent of prairie. In front was the river Npoulounai winding along; and I could see miles out on the way which I was soon to explore. The river banks were lined with the mangrove trees; and, looking up stream, I could at almost any time see schools of hippopotami tossing and tumbling on the flats or mud banks.
I was now ready to explore the country, and go to Aniambia, where the big king of the country lived. I bought a splendid canoe, made of large trees, which I hoped would be serviceable to me in my up-river explorations. I was now anxious to be off.