In Savage Africa / Or, The adventures of Frank Baldwin from the Gold Coast to Zanzibar.

by Verney Lovett Cameron

I lay like this for a long time, thinking that perhaps it was all a dream, and that I should wake up to my old life of hardship and privation. The door was opened, and Hatibu came in with an earthen bowl full of stewed meat and boiled rice, and made signs for me to get up and eat. This I did with right good will, and I soon found myself so much invigorated that I felt inclined to get up and go outside to have a look round.

As soon as Hatibu saw my intention, he went and opened a bundle in the corner, and brought from it a pair of high wooden clogs, with a peg on the upper side. I took them up and examined them, but could not make out what they were intended for. At this Hatibu smiled, and taking them from me placed them on the ground. Then standing on them he grasped the pegs between his great and second toes and walked across the hut with them; then coming back he signed that they were for me to wear.

I tried to follow his example, but could not manage it, and, much to the good fellow’s disappointment, I had to go out with bare feet. When I got outside the hut I found myself in the middle of a small but neat camp of about forty huts built in a circle. In the centre was an open shed, under which were stowed a few bales and some five-and-twenty large tusks of ivory. Men were sitting about, some cooking, some smoking, and others gossiping, while in one corner some people who seemed quite different from my new friends were squatting down with a couple of large tusks.

I went to look at them, thinking that perhaps some might belong to the tribes with whom I had passed so many weary days. I spoke to them, but they did not understand a word I said. Hatibu came up and listened with interest to my ineffectual attempts at conversation, and then spoke to me in what were evidently different languages. I could not understand a word he said, so after a bit he stopped trying to speak to me, and commenced bargaining with these people for their ivory.

I was astonished to see that they sold these two tusks, each of which may have weighed about seventy pounds, for four or five copper bracelets and a handful of cowries, and seemed much delighted with their bargain. As soon as he had finished the purchase, Hatibu pointed to the tusks, and holding up one hand made me to understand that when he had ten more tusks he would leave this place. By pointing to the sun and holding up his hands he explained that in twelve days’ time we should arrive at a place called Nyangwe, where there would be many Arabs, and where one named Hamees ibu Sayf would take care of me.

I was glad to hear this, and looked anxiously for the arrival of ivory. Days passed without any more being brought in, and as well as I could I urged Hatibu, whom I was gradually commencing to understand, to start at once. His orders were to bring so much ivory, and not come back without it unless his stores were exhausted, and he would not on any account disobey his master. At last some natives came into camp, bringing with them two more tusks; also they brought news that in a village a few days distant there was a large quantity, which, if Hatibu sent men for, he might obtain.

Hatibu instantly decided on going himself with twenty men, while he left the rest to take care of the camp and the ivory he had already collected. As I was now able to travel, at his request I went with him. The baggage which we took with us was not extensive. It consisted simply of the men’s sleeping-mats and cooking-pots, one load of copper bracelets and another of cowries. Hatibu himself carried a piece of coarse red woollen cloth to give as a present to the chief of the village to which we were going.

Our road lay through a pleasant open country, large stretches of grassy land being diversified by clumps of trees, while along the banks of numerous small streams there was always a strip of jungle. Here and there plantations of maize and ground-nuts with the broad-leaved plantain gave signs that men were in the neighbourhood, and occasionally we saw the villages in which they lived embowered in groves of the oil palm.

After travelling about three hours we came to the bank of a large stream, far too deep and wide for us to wade, where there were no canoes. Hatibu turned to the natives acting as our guides, and evidently was scolding them for having brought him to such a place. They only smiled, and pointing to the path, which here turned and followed the stream, they made him understand that a crossing-place would soon be found.

After walking for about a mile by the side of the river we came in sight of a huge fishing-weir formed of poles thirty or forty feet long. We found also that the stream was not very deep at this spot, and could be easily forded; and soon, some scrambling over the fishing-weir, others wading across, our party reached the other side in safety.