COMMANDER CAMERON'S WALK ACROSS AFRICA.*
[SECOND NOTICE.]
IN February, 1874, Commander Cameron reached Tanganyika ; and the strictly exploratory portion of his task commenced, with his striking off to the west and south of the great lake. His first sight of the lake was an exciting moment, and a much-needed compensation, for he had been suffering long from fever, and had discovered that he was being robbed by his men, to what extent only a halt would enable him to ascertain. "The scenery," he says, "was grand. To the west were the gigantic mountains of Ugoma, while on the eastern shore was a dense growth of cane-grass, of a bright green. Occasional open spaces disclosed yellow, sandy beaches, and bright red miniature cliffs, with palm-trees and villages close to the water's edge. Numerous canoes moving about, and gulls, divers, and darters, gave life to the scene, and distant floating islands of grass had very much the appearance of boats under sail." During his stay at Kawele, the traveller ascertained that Livingstone's papers were in safety, and that the thieving among his own men surpassed his worst apprehensions. Of all the explorers whose experiences we can • Across Africa. By Verney Lovett Cameron, C.B., Sc. London: Daldy, Iabieter, and Co. call to mind, Commander Cameron has been the most unfor- tunate; his "people" were thoroughly heartless and dishonest. His description of Kawele and the thriving community of traders there is interesting. One of the leading traders, Mohammed Ibn Salib, a half-caste Arab, had passed twenty years of his life as a prisoner in a hostile "country." Most of that time he was either in chains, or had a slave-fork round his neck. He is a very jolly person now. The natives are a fine-looking race ; good smiths and porters, and expert fisher- men and e,anoemen. The traveller found the arrangements for the survey of the lake very difficult and expensive, and the natives, who had conceived a not very unnatural notion that he was "unlucky," broke engagements with him as often as they made them. At last he secured two interpreters, at a price which he justly considers a long one, "to pay two naked fellows for a couple of months," and sailed, in a sailless boat called the Betsy,' with a little one as tender, called Pickle,' on a voyage which, but for fever, which hardly ever spared him, would have been delightful, and in spite of fever and loneliness, was most interesting. A writer of more picturesque power might have made more, for literary purposes, of such a description as the following, but if one considers the situation a little, it has a terrible as well as a comic side :— " The beauty of the scenery along the shores of the lake requires to be seen to be believed. The vivid greens of various shades among the foliage of the trees, the bright red sandstone cliffs, and blue water, formed a combination of colour, gaudy in description, but in reality harmonious in the extreme. Birds of various species,—white gulls, with grey backs and red legs and beaks ; long-necked black darters, divers, grey and white kingfishers, and chocolate-coloured fish-hawks, with white heads and necks, wore most numerous; whilst the occasional snort of a hippopotamus, the sight of the long back of a crocodile looking like a half-tide rock, and the jump- ing of fish, reminded one that the water, as well as the air, was thickly populated. During the night I was knocked over by a severe attack of fever, but tried to go on next day. However, I found my head and compass spinning in opposite directions, so was compelled to give in, and camped at Kabongo, where I remained two days. Some very curious sensations were experienced by me whilst laid up with this attack. One night I thought I was at least twenty people, all of whom were in pain, and that each one had the same feeling as all the rest. Another night the fancies were more distinct, and I experienced a com- plete sense of duality. I imagined that another person, a second self, was lying on the opposite side of the boat, and I was perfectly conscious of every shako of ague and pang of headache that he suffered. I thought, too, that the teapot full of cold tea which had been placed on that aide of the boat was for his sole benefit, and when in my tossing about I rolled over to that side, I seized the teapot and drank like a whale, and chuckled at the idea of the other thirsty mortal being done out of his tipple."
A dreary monotony of rascality marks the story of the water- journey as well as that of the land ; but the traveller kept up his spirits wonderfully, under what Keats calls "the inhuman dearth of noble natures ;" made his map of Tanganyika, much to the astonishment of the natives, and leaving the lake, started for the west country with high hopes. From this point of his narra- tive we find much more frequent mention of the beauty of the scenery, and we get charming descriptions of the streams. Of one of them, the Lugnngwa, he says :—" It had cut, a short distance below the ford, a channel fully fifty feet deep in the soft sandstone, and not more than eight feet wide at the top. On the projections of its cliff-like sides most lovely ferns and mosses grew, and large trees on both banks mingled their branches, and formed a perfect arch of verdure over the river." Now we come upon descriptions of horrible idols, and of fetish-worship of the most degrading kind, and also on details of curious customs, such as the "making brothers," which the writer believes to be of Semitic origin, and to have been introduced into Africa by the heathen Arabs trading there before the time of Mahommed. The preparations for making brothers of two local potentates at Pakwangwa's village were imposing ; they included the painting of Mrs. Pakwangwa's forehead, a serious affair. "The artist, having the different colours prepared with oil—each in a separate leaf—plastered them on with a knife, and then carefully scraped the edges of the various tints until they were exactly true, and formed the required pattern." Commander Cameron bestowed on this much decorated lady, whom he describes as "a merry sort of person, and really lady-like in her manners," a looking-glass. She _ had never seen one before, and her delight was great, and frankly expressed. The solemnity itself went off as follows :— "After a certain amount of palaver, Syde and Pakwangwa exchanged presents, much to the advantage of the former, more especially as he borrowed the heads from me and afterwards forgot to repay me. Pakwangwa then played a tune on his harmonium, or whatever the instrument might be called ; and the business of fraternising was pro- ceeded with ; Pakwangwa's headman acted as his sponsor, and one of my askari performed the like office for Syde. The first operation con- sisted of making an incision in each of their right wrists, just sufficient to draw blood, a little of which was scraped off and smeared on the other's cut, after which gunpowder was rubbed in. The concluding part of the ceremony was performed by Pakwangwa's sponsor holding a sword resting on his (Pakwangwa's) shoulder, whilst he who acted for Syde went through the motions of sharpening a knife on it. Both sponsors meantime made speeches calling down imprecations on Pak- wangwa and all-his relations, past, present, and future, and praying that their graves might be defiled by pigs, if he broke the brotherhood, in thought, word, or deed. The same form having been gone through with respect to Syde, the sponsors changing duties, the brother-making was complete."
At Manyuema the traveller encountered cannibalism for the first time, and in its most disgusting form, and was entertained with a horrible song in honour of the custom. In all respects, the people seem to be lower and more repulsive as the explorer nears the Lualaba, which it was his hope and purpose to trace from Nyangwe to the sea.
In the second volume we find the full and painful details of the enormities of the slave-trade in the interior, which, as we have already said, Commander Cameron has investigated under different circumstances from those of any other writer, and in hitherto unknown regions. The geographical and zoological por- tions of this volume are important, but it is not so anecdotical as the first, being much concerned with the doings of one par- ticular chief, a certain Kasongo, whom the writer designates as "a thorough blackguard," and who is, with perhaps the exception of the King of Dahomey, the most detestable savage of our large acquaintance. His cruelty, debauchery, chicanery, and cowardice are prodigious, and the patience, tact, and endurance of the traveller can have undergone no more severe test than his negotiations and manoeuvring with this wretch, and his un- fortunate people. The author was anxious to visit the lake villages on, or rather in, Lake Mohyra, but was unable to do so, as the dwellers on the shore had no canoes, and the dwellers in the lake, being very chary of admitting visitors, would not give them any assistance, so that he could only get a sight of these strange habitations through his field-glass :— " I could easily distinguish the hats, and noticed that they were built on platforms, raised about six feet above the surface of the water, supported on stout poles driven into the bed of the lake. Some were oblong and others round, the former usually having a projecting roof over the door. Their roofs and walls appeared to be constructed in a manner precisely similar to that of the hats on shore. Underneath the platforms canoes were moored, and nets hang to dry. Mon were swimming from hut to hut, notwithstanding reports I had heard of enormous snakes, whose bite was fatal, inhabiting the lake. Their canoes were simple dug-outs,' and their paddles were like large, circular, shallow spoons, with long, straight handles."
We find in the second volume of Commander Cameron's book many interesting particulars of the diablerie of savage Africa, and no writer makes clearer than he does the sad contrast between the beauty of the "dark continent" and the debasement of its people.
The results of the toilsome journey are too well known to need recapitulation here. But even though the end has long been forestalled, the reader follows Commander Cameron with un- flagging interest, from his landing on one side of Africa, to the moment when he reported himself, at Loanda,—" From Zanzibar, —overland !"
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