The Curse

“ You need not tell me that Ham was the father of Africa • I knew it long ago.’*

“ Why so, Lewanika? ”

' Ah, my father— the Curse! ”

(King Lewanika to Fran<;ois Coillard.)

A ND what about King Sekeletu all this

time? Livingstone heard rumours about his old friend which made him anxious to go and see him. It had been a very busy year, and he and Dr Kirk had been thoroughly exploring the Zambesi, from its great falls to its muddy mouths and back again. At last they paid a visit to the King’s kraal near Sesheke. It was rather a lamentable visit, for things had gone very far wrong with poor Sekeletu. The King had suddenly been attacked by leprosy, and in his horror had gone nearly mad. He declared some wizard had “ overlooked ” him, and after a dreadful “ smelling out ” he had slain a number of his own people. His kingdom was falling to pieces, and Sekeletu himself lay sullen and stricken in an ox wagon within the royal enclosure. When Livingstone and Kirk entered this dismal lair, the King was alone with a witch doctress, and broke into mad

Ordeal
by
Poison

A luckless

person
ha^
perhaps
incurred
the
enmity

or
jealousy
of
a
neighbour
and
is
accused
of
witchcraft,
and

recourse
is
had
to
the
Poison
Ordeal.

If
the
poison
is
retained
ihe
accused
is
condemned
to
death,
but
if
vomited
back
the

accuser pays

a
heavy
indemnity.

The witch-doctor for a consideration regulates the effect of the poison.

THE CURSE 177 complaints against his aunt’s husband, Moriantsiane, who, he declared, had bewitched and poisoned him.

His two white friends did what they could for him, and treated their professional rival at the bed-side with great politeness, which the wicked old woman returned. In time the King began to improve a little, but both Livingstone and Kirk very nearly caught the horrible disease themselves, a danger which, of course, did not deter them for a moment from doctoring Sekeletu.

Sekeletu’s people amused Livingstone very much during this visit. He made special friends with the young men of the royal bodyguard, who were most daring horsemen. Their horseraces were wild scenes, the jockeys riding without bit or bridle, and with arms stretched out above their heads. They were a fine, manly set, these Makololo, and Livingstone took a great liking to them. He was glad, too, to see that they were brought up on porridge, though their way of eating it shocked him as a Scotsman. Their method was to scoop it into their left hands with a spoon, and then to cram the porridge into their mouths. Livingstone was not long in discovering that the disapproval was mutual, for the Makololo women thought it horribly bad manners to eat bread and butter. “ Look at them! Look at them! ” they cried. “ They are actually eating raw butter 178 THE CURSE Ugh! How nasty! Hand it here to be melted, and then you can dip your bread into it decently! ” Another Makololo lady, Tselane, was much amused when she saw Livingstone examining the bulb of a thermometer. She quite thought it was the white man’s toy, and giggled audibly as she remarked: “ Poor thing, playing like a little child! ”

Livingstone held religious services regularly while he was there, and tried especially to tell these people about a future life, of which they had no sort of conception.

When they left Sesheke, Livingstone and Kirk had a very narrow escape in Kebrabasa rapids. Their canoe was overturned and they lost nearly everything. At the beginning of the year 1861 they once more reached the Kongone mouth of the Zambesi. It was a joyful day when the new ship, the Pioneer, arrived there from England. She had been sent out for Livingstone to explore the tributaries of the Zambesi, and with her came two British cruisers, and the missionary expedition headed by Bishop Mackenzie. Bishop Gray of Cape Town (“a prince of a man” Livingstone called him) had strongly backed up the efforts to start the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa, and Livingstone’s challenge to Oxford and Cambridge men, “Come out and bear a hand,” had resulted in this splendid contingent. Bishop Mackenzie had five Englishmen with him, and

THE CURSE 179 Livingstone received them with open arms. He and Mackenzie were soon fast friends. “ The Bishop is Al,” said Livingstone enthusiastically, “ and in his readiness to put his hand to anything resembles much my good father-in-law, Moffat.”

The difficulty at first was to hold the Bishop in, for he was so keen to sail up the Shire at once that it required all Livingstone’s efforts to prove to him that the Pioneer was too deep in the keel for the shallow waters farther up the river. Far the best thing to do was to explore another river, the Rovuma, and see if that did not lead them to the heart of Nyassaland.

On this expedition Livingstone was again “ skipper,” for the naval officers were all down with marsh fever. From first to last their voyages up the Rovuma were a disappointment. On the third attempt Livingstone took the whole mission party up to Tshibisa’s (nowadays the headquarters of British gunboats on that river); but the Pioneer drew too much water, and made exactly seven miles in three weeks. Most of the time was spent on sandbanks, the Bishop and Livingstone working like navvies to get their ship afloat, or helping the men to cut down trees for fuel. When they did reach their goal, they found the whole country in a ferment, owing to the slave raiders.

It was really not Livingstone’s fault that the 180 THE CURSE Rovuma proved a disappointment. In later years Sir John Kirk showed clearly that it is the natural waterway to Nyassa. Had we only taken his advice in time, the whole country would have come under British control, and a British railway would have run along the banks of the Rovuma into the heart of Africa. But we were too slow about it, and events since 1914 have proved what a mistake we made.

When Livingstone and Bishop Mackenzie reached the beautiful country which they hoped so much from, they saw that the slave hunters were going to make their work impossible. Soon there would be no natives left at all if this went on much longer. Great tracts of Africa as large as Britain were being absolutely laid waste by the slavers. As they advanced they saw signs of the slave hunters’ cruelty in every direction.

Bishop Mackenzie in one of his letters describes the long procession of native porters, Livingstone’s men leading with guns. Livingstone himself “ wore his jacket and trousers of blue serge,” and his blue-peaked consul’s cap, and “tramped along with a steady, heavy tread.” He laughed at the Bishop’s broad “wideawake,” for, unlike Mackenzie, he was “a salamander ” and didn’t seem to mind the sun a bit. So they gradually followed the narrow native path and got nearer and nearer the mountains.

THE CURSE 181 The Yao people were the terror of that country. They acted on the convenient Kaiserism that God had given them all the cattle on the earth. The unfortunate Mananja tribes lived in constant fear of Yao slavers, and the whole dreadful business was soon brought before the Bishop’s eyes at the village of Mambame. He had gone down to a stream for a dip, when suddenly he heard strange sounds in the village, and a man arrived hotfoot to tell him that Livingstone had just freed eighty-four slaves. The armed slavedrivers had entered the village with their train of wretched captives, all in chains and stark naked, with the heavy wooden slave-yokes on their necks. The sight had proved too much for Baba Daud. When the Bishop arrived on the scene the poor creatures were already freed, and their cruel yokes were piled upon a fire. The slave hunters had fled. One of the slaves told Mackenzie that on the previous day two slave women had been shot down in the track when they were too weak to go forward, and one of their babies had been dashed to death against the stones.

On the following two mornings Livingstone and Mackenzie met and freed ninety-six slaves, the slavers vowing vengeance on them as they fled. It was difficult to get the heavy yokes off the necks of the unfortunates, as an iron rod had been firmly riveted across the

182 THE CURSE forked end. But Livingstone sawed the wood through and set them free. As they marched along through this country they saw smoke rising in every direction from burning villages, and heard the wailing cry of the women mingled with the triumphant shouts of the slavers.

Livingstone and Mackenzie were at a white heat of indignation, but they determined if possible not to seem to take a side in a native war. When a long line of Yao warriors appeared round a hill-side with their captives the white men resolved to try what persuasion would do. But one of their own men “ gave them away ” by shouting derisively, and in a moment the cry of “ Nkondo! ” (“War!”) rose from the Yao slave-drivers. In another second they were all around them, and the little poisoned arrows began to fly thick and fast through the air. On they came in great numbers, dancing hideously and shooting Livingstone’s followers. But the Doctor’s men had muskets, and the slavers realised that guns against arrows must win. So they suddenly broke and took to flight. It was “ a most unpleasant day,” said Livingstone; and his friends quite felt that it was a mild way of describing it.

The Bishop by now was “ spoiling for a fight”; he and his party were all for carrying on the war and simply driving the Yao slavers out of the country. But Livingstone, though

THE CURSE 183 he yearned to teach the bullies a lesson, and loved the Bishop for his sentiments, knew Africa better than Mackenzie could, and strongly advised him not to take part in a native war. It might succeed for the moment, but it was not the statesmanlike or true way of dealing with the slave trade. As we shall see later on, the Bishop did not take this advice, and very sorely he suffered for it, and his cause also. In the meantime he and the freed slaves settled down in a strong position by the river at Magomero, and there the Bishop reigned like a Highland chief over his faithful clan, and made them all obey and love him.