OLD CALABAR

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 6371, 20 November 1907, Page 5

OLD CALABAR

TEE WEST COAST OF AFRICA. LIFE AT THE EQUATOR. (By Richard Harding Davis, in “Collier's ’Weekly.") After a careful stiffly of the sailing list of the Nigeria, an Blder-Dempster Height and pest-enger steamer of -ix thousand tons, we judged that of her weeks' voyage to Liverpool aG much time would bo srpont at anchor ns at sea. And, as, on our voyage .home from tho Congo, we wished to see as many as possible of the ports on tho West Coast, we “booked” cabins on the Nigeria. Going aboard was a simple ceremony. The Hotel Splendid© tho bank of the Congo River. After saying “Goodbve" to her proprietor, I walked to- the edge of the water and waved my helmet. In tho Congo, a white man standing in the sun without a hat is a spectacle sufficiently thrilling to excite the attention of all, and at onco Captain Hughes of the Nigeria sent a cargo boat to the rescue, and on the shoulders of naked Kroo boys, Mrs Davis and tho maid, and the trunks, spears, tents, bathtubs, carved idols, native mats', and a live mongoos wore dropped into it, and we were paddled to the gangway. Our first port of call was Landana, In PcrtugiK-se iorritory, but two ships of the Woermann Line were there ahead of us and had gobbled up all the freight. So w© could but up anchor and proceed to Libreville; formerly the capital of th© French Congo. At five in the morning by the light of a shin’s lantern, wo were paddled ashore to drum up trade. TTe found two traders. Ivor and Thomas, who had waiting for the Nigeria at the mouth of the Gabun River, six hundred logs of mahogany, and, in cotvrequeue©, there was general rejoicing, and Scotch and 'Vnarklcto," and .even music from a German music-box that would burst into song only after it had he r n fed wlh a copper. One of the clerics said that Ives had forgotten how to c-vkract ho cc purrs, and in coubc-que-nye was using tho mude-box as a Barings bav.k. Lihrr-rille a vety pretty town, but when it was laid out the surveyors jud. mis-Rod placing th© equator in its main street. H is easy to understand why with ©rmh a Mve’ wire to the victoity Iflhrevillo is warm. From the sumo eras© it also isj rich in flowers, vines, and trees, growing in generous, und;scirlinod abniHlnnce, making of Libreville on© vast botantorv 1 . garden, and burying the tow.-r. and its bungalows under screens of given and branches of scarlet and purple flowers. Close to tlio sun' run© an iwvnuo boi dored by giant coeoanut palm© and, after the pun is down, ibis is th© fasducnabla promen ade. Here every evening may be seen in their freshest linen the six married while men of Libreville, and, in the latest Paris frocks, Ike eix married ladies, while from the veranda© of the factories that line tho sea and from under tho paper lanterns of the Cafo (biion th© clerk© and traders sip their absinthe and play dominoes, and aoisfc envious glance** at tho six fortunate feMow oxibus. For several days wo lay a few miles south of Libreville, off tlic mouth of tho Gabun - River, in the logs of mahogany. It was a continuous performance of tho greatest interest I eJbill do pot understand why all those engaged in it were not drowned, or pound'd to a pulp. Just before.we touched at tho Gabun River, two tramp strainers, chartered by Americans, carried off a full cargo of this mahogany to tho States. It wao an experiment the resalt of which the traders of L’brcviUe are awaiting with intejost. The mahogany that tho'reader sf-os in America probably ccinciS from Ttoyti, Cuba, or Rdizc, and is of much finer quality than that. of tho Gabun River, which latter is used for making what tho trade calls "fjnqr" cigar-boxes and furniture*'But before it becomes a cigar-box it passes through many adventures. Weoks before tho steamer arrives tho trader, .fellcwod by his black boys, explores the jungle and blazes the trees. Then the beys cut trails through the forest, and. using logs for Toilers, drag and pw»h the trap trunksto the bank of tho river. Theto tho troo is cut into huge cubes, weighing about a ton. and measuring twelve ■to fifteen feet in length and three feet across cnclx face. A boy can “si ape" one of these , logs in a day.

PLAYING TAG WITH ONE-TON LOGS Although his pay varies according to whether tho tributaries of the river are full or low,. so making the moving of the logs easy or difficult, he earn earn about three pimnds ten phillinge a month, paid in cash. Compared with the eighty cents a month paid only a. few miles'away in the Congo Free State, and in “trado" goods, those are good wagfs. When the log is shaped the mark of the t-.ader is branded on it with an iron, just as wo brand cattle, end it is turned I cope on the river. At Ithe mouth of the river there is lilt.lednngor of the log escaping, for the waves e.ro stronger than the tide, 1 and drive the logs upon the shore. There wo found them pounding against-each other in the surf. Tn tbo shin's steam .launch were iron chilli's; a hundred yards long, tc which, Af intervals, wore fastened “dng«," rtt #->ikca. Those f-ipikcs were driven into fhe end of a log, the brand norm the log was noted by the eapta.ln and trader, and the logs, like tho vertebrae of a great sm-son-ont, were towed to the shin’s s : de. Thore there were made fast, aiid throe Kroo boys knocked the spike out of inch log, warpr)l a chain around it, and made fast that chain to the steel hawser of the winch. As it was’ drawn to tap deck, a Senegalese soldier, acting for tlm Customs gave it a seecnd blow with a branding hammer, and. thundering and sums 1 ; tig, it swung into the hold. In the "round un" of tho logs the star- performers wore the three Kroo '•"■As at the shin’*; ride, . For days, in fasoilisted horror,' tho six pass-siger? watched them, pinyed' for them, and made bets as to which would be the 0-M: to die. One nnih rAn nils that a Kroo boy is as much at home in 'he «>a as on shore, but these hoys nritmt’were in the sea nor cn shore. Tvprwere balancing themselves on block. l slippery wood that weighed a ton. hot • •-i, Vere hurled about ai= though thev

witw b'fi* holts. All ptoht the hrvnmerutg of the logs made the ship echo like a monster drum, and all day without an instant's pause each log reared and pitched, spun like a barrel, dived like porpoise, or, broadiridc, battered itself '’gainst the iron plates. But; no mattor what tricks it played, a Kroo boy rode it as easily though it were n hr»i*c© in a mcrry-vo-round. It was a wdiderful exhibition. It furnished all th© thrills that one goto when watching a cowl cv on a bucking bmp oh n or a trained seal. Again and again n log, in nicked conspiracy with another log, would plan to oiirico a Kroo boy between them, and smash him. At tlio sight the pa Mongers would hhriek a warning, the boy would dive between the logs, and a'pure© of twelve hundred pounds of mahogany would crash mass weighing fiftoen hundred with like colliding with freight cars, ....

And then, as breathless wo waited to see what onco was a Eroo boy float to rhe Burfaco, he would appear sputtering ■•ml grinning, and saying to us as clearly as a Kroo smile can say it: "Ho never to-vhed mo!” The morning after we sailed from Duala w. ancbo’cd in tho liver in front of Calabar, the c:.ratal of Southern Nigeria. Of all the ports at which wp iovebod on tho Oast, Calabar was the hottest, the best locking, and the best adniin ; ,sh-vel. lit i« a morW colony, but ho bring it to tti» (bate it now enjoy? ha? (yvst sums of money entirely out of proportion to thuoo the colnov Ice? wnerl. Ttie nwnev has bc»n spent in cut-

-uvn the'jungle, filling in swamp? that breed mosquitoes and fever, and in ■.-ring out gravel walks, water mains, and open cement gutters, and in erect-

ing model hospitals, barracks, and administrative offices. Even - gras* lias been made to grow. imwl tho high bluff upon which aio situaled tJie homos of tlio white officials and Government House has boon trimmed and cultivated and tamed until it lnoL> »iko tui English park, it is a complete imitation, oven ta golf links and tenuis courts. Hut right that has boon made against the ■ ' t "o has not stopped with golf links. In 1596 the death-rate was ton in on out of ovoiy limdrcd. That corresponds to hat in warfare is a decimating fire, upon which an officer, without danger of reproof, imc will draw his mon. But at Calabar the English doctors did not withdraw, and now the dcathrato is ns low as thretfout of every Imndrod. That Calabar, or any j a:t of the IVcsi Coast, will ever bo nwido entirely healthy, is doubtful. Man can cut /town a forest and fill in a swamp* but ho can not reaeh up, ns to n gas jet, and turn off the sun. And at Calabar, oven at night when the sun Ims turned itself off, Iho humidity and the heat leave one sweating, tossing, and gasping for air. In Calabar the first thing a while xr.au loams is not to take any liberties with the sun. "When he dresses, eats, drinbn and movos about the sun is as constantly cn his m : nd. as it is cu tlio face of tho sun-dial. The chief tmeonfc to the top of the bluff while the while poop’o live is up a steexj cement walk about - i.vi.fv vards lona At the foot of this a white man will bo met by four ham•mo rk-boarers, and you will seo him get into the hnmrtiock and be carried in It the eighty yards. KEEPING UP APPEARANCES.

For even that short distance he ffi taking u>) clianeos. But while he nursv.a IDs vitality and cares for his health lie do«% npt uso the sun as an excuse for laziness or for slipshod work. I have never seen a place in the tropics where, in spite of the handicap of damp, Jierco heat, the officials are so keenly and crnstantly employed, where the- bright work wan so bright, and the whitewash sj white. & Out at the barracks of the Wo<=t African Frontier Force, the W.A.F.TVs, the officers, instead 'of from tho shade of the veranda watching tl*c non-coms, teach a native the manual, wore t-lmm-polvcfl at work, and each was howling orders at the black recruits and munching a gun against hm hip and shoulder as smaitiy as a drill sergeant. I found the stnrdaid maintained at Calabar the more interesting because the men were almost entirely their own audience.. If they make the place hcvdthy and «ttraotivo-lcoking, and dress for dinner, and shy at cocktails, and insist that their tan shoes shall-' glow like meerschaum pipes, it is not beeon&c- of tffie refininc prcFcnoe of .lovoly wannn* bat because the men themselves like things that way The men of Calabar iuuo learned that when the sun is at ' l O degrees* morals, (ike material things, disintegrate, and that, though ' the temptation is to go about in bathroom slippers and pyjamas, ono is wiser to boisor up bis drenched and drooping spirt ■with a stiff ehiit and a mess iW'kcyfc. They tell that in a buoli fotati ra in upper Nigeria, one officer ; got his D.S.O. because with aai audience of only .a white sergeant, ho persisted in a habit of shaving bunco a day. There ars very few women in Calabar. There ore three or four who an> wives of officials, two nurses employed by the Government, and the Mother Superior and Six-dors of the Order of StJosoph, and, of course, all of them aro great belles. For the Sisters, especially the officers tho Govoniment. people, tho traders, the; natives, even tho rival misksaomarice, have tho .most tremendous respect and admiration. The sacrifice of the woman who, to be near her husband on the Coast, consents to sicken and fade and grow’ old before her time, and of the nurse, who, to preserve , tho ■health of others, risks her own, is very groat; but tho sacrifice of tho Siftterr., who Imre renounced all thought of homo and husband, and who have exiled thrmselrefi to this steaming swaraplond, seams the most unselfish. In order-to support the 150 little black .boys' and gills who are at school at the minion, '•lk* Sistc:« rob themselves of everything except the little that will keep them alive. Two, in addition to their' work at the mission, act as nurses in the English hospital, and for that they receive together C’oo dollars. This forms the i-ole regular income of tho five women;’for each.l2o,dollars a year. With anything els 3 tliat is given them in charity, thev buy supplies for the little converts.' They lire in a house of sandstone and zinc thait holds the boat like a, flat-iron, they arc obliged to wear a uniform that is, of 'material and fashion so unsuited to the tropics, that Dr in. chanro of tho hospital, has written in protest against it to Rome, and on many days they fast, not because the Church bids thorn so to do, but because they have no food. And with it,all, these five gentlewomen r aro always eager,’ cheerful, sweet of temper, and a living blessing to all who meet them. What now troubles them is that they have no room to accommodate tho many young heathen who come to them to bo fjinsrlit to wear clothes and to,bo good little boys and girls. This is causing the -Sisters great distress. Any one who does not believe in that selfish th-M>ry that charity begins at home, but who would like to Mr» to spread Christianity an darkest Africa and give happinoss to five noble women, who aro giving their lives for others, should send a postal money order to Marie T. Martin, the Reverend Mother Superior of the Catholic 'Mission of Old Calabar, -Southern Nigeria. , And if vou are going to do it, as they say in the advertising pages, "Do it now!” MEN WHO THREW J>ICE WITH ' DEATH.

When wo departed from Calabar, the only thing that reconciled mo to leaving it and its charming people, was tho fact that when tho shin moved there wan a hrct,*o. T v t ; c.t anchor in the river T had found that hot being able’to Breathe by day or to sloop by night in time is Irving, even to tho stoutest constitution.

Ono of (no married ladies of CMnbnr, her husband, an offiror of the W.A.F.F.’s, and the captain of the police, sailed on tho Nigeria "on leave/’ and all Calabar came down to do them honour. Thera was tho Commissioner’s gig, and tho marine captain’s gig, and the gig f-om "Matilda’s," tho English trading house, and one from the Dutch house and the French house, and each g'g was manned by black boys in beautiful uniforms and fezzes, and each crew fought to tie un to the foot of tho accommodation ladder. It was 'an cay no a regatta On the quarter-deck the officers drank 1 champagne, in the captain's cabin Hughes treated the traders to beer jn the "square." the n m enus, of the W.A.P.F.’s drank ale. The men who were going away on leave tried not to look too happy, and those who were going back to the shore drank deep and tried not to appear too carelessly gay. A billot on the West Coast is regarded by tho man who accepts it as a sort of sporting “proposition, as a game of three innings of nine months each, during which he matches his health against the Coast. If ho lives he wins; if he dies the Coast wins. After Calabar, at each port off which we anchored, at Bonny, Fccardos, Lagoa, Accra, Cape Coast Castle, and Sekondi, it was always tho same. Always there came over tho side the man going "Home," the man who had fought with the Coast and won. Ho was as excited, as jubilant as a prisoner sentenced to death who had escaped his executioners. And always the heartiest in their congratulations were tho men who were left behind, his brother officers, or his fellow traders, tho men of the Sun lint Brigade, in their unofficial uniform, in shirtwaists, broad bolts from which dangled keys and a whist!*, beautifully nolvhed tan boot*, and with a wand-like whip or stick of elephant hide- They swarmed ths decks and overwhelmed the escaping refugee with good wishes. He had cheated, their common enemy._ By toieroly keeping alivo he had achieved a glorious victory. In their eyes lie had performed a feat of endurance like

swimming tho English Channel. They i crowded to congratulate him as people, at the pil-mouvh congratulate tho en-v-D tombed miuer, who, after many days on \\ breathing noisome gases, drip las the pure air. Even tho black boys seem to foci the triumph of the while master, and ,sj their padcllus never flushed m> bravely, l A n.ud their songs never rang so wildly, a«. when they wore racing l him away fror,t '| flits brooding Coast with its poisonous‘ ‘I vapours toward-the big white ship that: i meant, health and homo. '-i THE "MAMMY-CHAIR'S” PERILS. Although most of the ports wo saw 1 ;;j only from across a mile or two of break- .’j or;s, they always sent us something--of ?.i interest. Sometimes all the male pus- A ttimgcns came With tfioA miners of tho Gold Oofe and tho ‘Talm j Oil Ruffians” it used to lie a matter < of etiquette not to .leave the 1 Coast' ta any other condition. Not. to so your escape scrim d uugem-vous. and vui- -A grateful. At Sekondi one of tho minors ; ; from AeUuuti was. to .completely dnndc;Vl that ho was swung over the side, -tied L: up like a plum-pudding, in a bag. When ho omergocl from the bag hi a Aj expression of polite inquiry was one wit)pK which all could sympathise. 1 - To kwo *• .coufrciousncfls on. tho veranda of a cajio it'j: and awake with a bump on the dock . of a ■ steam or many miles -at sea, must ■ ■ strengthen onc e belief in magic earpeps. . J Another entertainment lor the whito v»\ passengers was when the: boat i fought for the black passengers as they 4X\ word dowered in the mammy-chair. Aar a rule, in the boats from the there: wore twelve boys to paddle and d three or four extra men to Jiandle and ;-] unhook the mammy-chair and : the gage. -While the , boy*? with the puddla* | manoeuvred to bring their boat next to •*! the ship's side, the extra -boys. l4ied'toU::| puli their rivals overboard, thoir hands from lopes and gun and beating them' With paddles. They did this while every second the : boat , A under, them was spinning in tho air or ;.« divixig ten foot., into the hollow of waves, and trying .to fmash itself ajid every other boat into drittwood. the deck the second officer would n mammy-chair over the side with the ’[4 idea of-dropping it into one of tlioje. boats. ', But. before the chair;.;could lowered, a rival boat would fslifovc the 4] first ono ,away f and with a third- boat, would, he fighting for its place. : 'Mod'll* .-<0 whiltv, hig.i above the angry Bea,tho'dmir and its’ cargo-of. black women would be, twirling like,a .weathercock mid banging’ against: the ship's side.;. The muinmiru;, i'l were too terrified to scream,but: .th«?s|i chip's officers yollcd and swore, tho boats*.. 'I crews : shrieked, and the black howled. Bach baby was strapped bo- : ;1 ( tween tho shouldem of the inotJior. •„ mammy-chair is ,like one of tbcio two-’! k] touted swings in wliich iveoplc sit, facing ; '.5 one another. If to tho ehouldcrtf of: eacii person in the swing was .a it is obvious that should tho swing bump ■into anything* tho baby would ; get thor ! ;:j| worst of it. . That-: is. -what in tlio mummy-chair. : -Every;;iimo'!;tho : j chair spun aivnnul, the’head of a babryll s would come "Crack !’* ogaiiLst tlio side. So the babiee bowled, and no ono of rho .-ship's i-paseijßgere, • rrpw<lc<l along the tail; 'blamed them. The slniU; ,-.'' of tuo Ethiopian may be hard, is jacet uni ail* to be swathed like a mummy eo that you: neither can ‘ kick ’ noi fitiiko back, and then have your head battered against a fivc-thouHatid-ton .ship. ■■ ® How tlio bo3'fi who paddled tho sliojo boats live long enough lo loam howf | to handle them is a groat puzzle, \Ve ; ; wero toldi that the method was to i take f'.« out one gi-eeu boy with: a Cippj-lfi. But how did tin- ouginul <‘h .i'u I become i 'experts ?•, At Accra, w:h ! er<: • waves are very bißli and rough, aie the 1 best, boye‘ on' tho Coast.: Wo' the Cu.'dom ; House boat : : acrcfr, the tuo milcn of euif lo Uiu - shore. 5 Tiie fi(fht !.-u.tr<i two hours. It was as thrilling -ns watching oroK-i NiagAivi Halls oh greater part of tho two Jiouiw the boat . . 1 stood straight iu tho nir, as. though ;:it:il|;}| meant to ohahe the crew, into the. soa, and the rest of the tirao.itvriui.djetjv'ocii ,jgSl| walls of water ton. tccl: high, and wan wd entirely lost:to : sight. Two tiiiiiga about*Ji|i the paddling on the Wed Coast make i! i peculiar, ", '.tho':. dreys , .sit,-'. hot..: : -ba-/: tihfV-iiiSil thwarts,.: but on : the gunwolwf,'.,«.->*,M woman rides a sidpiaddlc,' and dlt •tthaSrj'rM pails of tho Coast the boys u'=e paddles . , shaped:■ like a 1 fork or a trident;■-■ipasf.-ffsj asks how, frilling os they do, they aie : able 1 to brace themselves, and how with .. ,; their forked paddles they, obtain wuilici- ■ • out resk-tance. A coaster’s expiration, of the split pgddlo was did not want any more icsislaiKO than ,i they could! prevent. ..nil ■ I,know T had left the Wcet.Oiuwl - the, very night we sailed from Bicri'a ’ 3>onc, for greater comfort, I loathed > for a linen .bedspread , that stifling, ' rooking weeks ; htul:• lain ' uhd.isi.t turbed nt the foot of the .berth.::,; that time X hat! haled it as a monstroUa j thing i n« isoraothing as, hot micThenvy a red flannel blanket, os, a buiTn.lo' : robe. . And. when,, on tho f6llowiiiß.!'-nij{b^,f; , 3&l'Sj!s| found tho wind-screen was not ui tho nir port," and that, novertholess, I was still alive, X knew cut of reacli of Iho all that followed would bo ns conventional l as tho "trippers" ■ who: ai iho Canary Isles; and as familial ns (ho low, grey skies, the green, rain-soak- ./ { cd".'hilte,: and ■ :tho>, compiainingi Cliaanw:,; Harbour.