The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, And Explorations of the Nile Sources

by Sir Samuel White Baker

Now, as the negro was originally imported as a labourer, but now refuses to labour, it is self-evident that he is a lamentable failure. Either he must be compelled to work, by some stringent law against vagrancy, or those beautiful countries that prospered under the conditions of negro forced industry must yield to ruin, under negro freedom and idle independence. For an example of the results look to St. Domingo!

Under peculiar guidance, and subject to a certain restraint, the negro may be an important and most useful being; but if treated as an Englishman, he will affect the vices but none of the virtues of civilization, and his natural good qualities will be lost in his attempts to become a "white man."

Revenons a nos moutons noirs. It was amusing to watch the change that took place in a slave that had been civilized (?) by the slave-traders. Among their parties there were many blacks who had been captured, and who enjoyed the life of slave-hunting—nothing appeared so easy as to become professional in cattle razzias and kidnapping human beings, and the first act of the slave was to procure a slave for himself! All the best slave-hunters, and the boldest and most energetic scoundrels, were the negroes who had at one time themselves been kidnapped. These fellows aped a great and ridiculous importance. On the march they would seldom condescend to carry their own guns; a little slave boy invariably attended to his master, keeping close to his heels, and trotting along on foot during a long march, carrying a musket much longer than himself: a woman generally carried a basket with a cooking-pot, and a gourd of water and provisions, while a hired native carried the soldier's change of clothes and oxhide upon which he slept. Thus the man who had been kidnapped became the kidnapper, and the slave became the master, the only difference between him and the Arab being an absurd notion of his own dignity. It was in vain that I attempted to reason with them against the principles of slavery: they thought it wrong when they were themselves the sufferers, but were always ready to indulge in it when the preponderance of power lay upon their side.

Among Ibrahim's people, there was a black named Ibrahimawa. This fellow was a native of Bornu, and had been taken when a boy of twelve years old and sold at Constantinople; he formerly belonged to Mehemet Ali Pasha; he had been to London and Paris, and during the Crimean war he was at Kertch. Altogether he was a great traveller, and he had a natural taste for geography and botany, that marked him as a wonderful exception to the average of the party. He had run away from his master in Egypt, and had been vagabondizing about in Khartoum in handsome clothes, negro-like, persuading himself that the public admired him, and thought that he was a Bey. Having soon run through his money, he had engaged himself to Koorshid Aga to serve in his White Nile expedition.

He was an excellent example of the natural instincts of the negro remaining intact under all circumstances. Although remarkably superior to his associates, his small stock of knowledge was combined with such an exaggerated conceit, that he was to me a perpetual source of amusement, while he was positively hated by his comrades, both by Arabs and blacks, for his overbearing behaviour. Having seen many countries, he was excessively fond of recounting his adventures, all of which had so strong a colouring of the "Arabian Nights," that he might have been the original "Sinbad the Sailor." His natural talent for geography was really extraordinary; he would frequently pay me a visit, and spend hours in drawing maps with a stick upon the sand, of the countries he had visited, and especially of the Mediterranean, and the course from Egypt and Constantinople to England. Unfortunately, some long story was attached to every principal point of the voyage. The descriptions most interesting to me were those connected with the west bank of the White Nile, as he had served some years with the trading party, and had penetrated through the Makkarika, a cannibal tribe, to about two hundred miles west of Gondokoro. Both he and many of Ibrahim's party had been frequent witnesses to acts of cannibalism, during their residence among the Makkarikas. They described these cannibals as remarkably good people, but possessing a peculiar taste for dogs and human flesh. They accompanied the trading party in their razzias, and invariably ate the bodies of the slain. The traders complained that they were bad associates, as they insisted upon killing and eating the children which the party wished to secure as slaves: their custom was to catch a child by its ankles, and to dash its head against the ground; thus killed, they opened the abdomen, extracted the stomach and intestines, and tying the two ankles to the neck they carried the body by slinging it over the shoulder, and thus returned to camp, where they divided it by quartering, and boiled it in a large pot. Another man in my own service had been a witness to a horrible act of cannibalism at Gondokoro.

The traders had arrived with their ivory from the West, together with a great number of slaves; the porters who carried the ivory being Makkarikas. One of the slave girls attempted to escape, and her proprietor immediately fired at her with his musket, and she fell wounded; the ball had struck her in the side. The girl was remarkably fat, and from the wound, a large lump of yellow fat exuded. No sooner had she fallen, than the Makkarikas rushed upon her in a crowd, and seizing the fat, they tore it from the wound in handfuls, the girl being still alive, while the crowd were quarrelling for the disgusting prize. Others killed her with a lance, and at once divided her by cutting off the head, and splitting the body with their lances, used as knives, cutting longitudinally from between the legs along the spine to the neck.

Many slave women and their children who witnessed this scene, rushed panic-stricken from the spot and took refuge in the trees. The Makkarikas seeing them in flight, were excited to give chase, and pulling the children from their refuge among the branches, they killed several, and in a short time a great feast was prepared for the whole party. My man, Mahommed, who was an eyewitness, declared that he could not eat his dinner for three days, so great was his disgust at this horrible feast.

Although my camp was entirely separate from that of Ibrahim, I was dreadfully pestered by his people, who, knowing that I was well supplied with many articles of which they were in need, came begging to my tent from morning till evening daily. To refuse was to insult them; and as my chance of success in the exploration unfortunately depended upon my not offending the traders I was obliged to be coldly civil, and nothing was refused them. Hardly a day passed without broken guns being brought to me for repair; and having earned an unenviable celebrity as a gunsmith, added to my possession of the requisite tools, I really had no rest, and I was kept almost constantly at work.

One day Ibrahim was seized with a dangerous fever, and was supposed to be dying. Again I was in request: and seeing that he was in a state of partial collapse, attended with the distressing symptoms of want of action of the heart, so frequently fatal at this stage of the disease, I restored him by a very powerful stimulant, and thereby gained renown as a physician, which, although useful was extremely annoying, as my tent was daily thronged with patients, all of whom expected miraculous cures for the most incurable diseases.

In this manner I gained a certain influence over the people, but I was constantly subjected to excessive annoyances and disgust, occasioned by the conduct of their party towards the Latookas. The latter were extremely unwise, being very independent and ready to take offence on the slightest pretext, and the Turks, being now 140 strong, had no fear, and there appeared every probability of hostilities. I was engaged in erecting huts, and in securing my camp; and although I offered high payment, I could not prevail on the natives to work regularly. They invariably stipulated that they were to receive their beads before they commenced work, in which case they, with few exceptions, absconded with their advanced payment.