One day a big nshiego with her little one was wandering in the great forest in search of food, but without being aware of it they came near a region inhabited by human beings that had guns. The mother was killed by some hunters, and her baby was captured by them and brought to their village. She was tied to a long pole with a ring round it to allow her to go up and down.
Everything in the village looked very strange to the little nshiego, it was so unlike the dark gloomy forest where she had lived. At first she was afraid of the human beings, but in less than three days she became very friendly because they brought her nuts, berries, and fruits to eat. She was especially fond of her master. Her mistress did not like to handle her, for she thought she was too much like a human being.
The poor little captive nshiego always had a sad expression, and when looking at her one could see that she was thinking, at which times she looked more human than ever; but no one could ever guess of what she was thinking. She had partly learned the language of the nshiego, which had been taught to her by Papa and Mamma Nshiego. Her father had been shot a few weeks before her mother had perished, so that she was now an orphan.
She had a very quick temper, although she was very affectionate and loved to be petted. When they brought her food and she was pleased, she would say, “Whoe! whoe!” When displeased, she would utter the most piercing shrieks and strike the ground with her feet and hands. If she could not have her own way, she would at once become angry and shriek. In a short time she learned to eat cooked food, and was especially fond of boiled meat. She learned also to drink the intoxicating beverages of the people and liked these very much.
It happened one day that some people of another tribe nearer the sea came to the village where the nshiego was, to buy slaves. When they saw her they wanted to buy her also, for there was a great demand for men of the woods by the traders on the Atlantic coast. They bought the poor nshiego for a small bunch of red beads.
When the time came for the departure of the strangers, the nshiego and the slaves they had bought went with them. She felt very badly, for she had become much attached to the people who had been so kind to her.
On the journey to her new master’s home, she felt her change of condition still more. The slaves were chained round the neck, and the poor nshiego’s head was put in the fork of a very long stick with a cross-stick in front. After three days she came to the village where her new master lived, and she was glad when they released her from her horrid shackles and tied her to a pole, for her poor neck had become very sore from chafing. From the pole she could see a large river near the village where she was.
She had not been in her new place long when some men living still nearer the sea, who came to buy elephants’ tusks, saw her, and they bought her for a large hollow copper ring, a small looking-glass, and a file. When the time came for these people to depart, they tied the nshiego on the forward part of their canoe, for they were to travel by the river. The poor nshiego wondered at all she saw on the journey, and in the course of two days they arrived at a village by the sea.
One day they took her to see the big ocean. At first she was very much alarmed when she saw the heavy breakers, foaming white, rolling toward the shore. But she soon got accustomed to them. She looked at the ocean and could see no land on the other side and wondered why, for she thought it was a big river like those she had been accustomed to see in the forest while wandering with her mother and father. Then she uttered a peculiar plaintive sound. Was she thinking of them?
The dry season came, and it was cold, and she loved to sit by the fireside with the people. She was now entirely free and never thought of running away. When night came she would fix her little bed of leaves by shaking them, and put over herself rags that had been given her to keep warm.