THE KNEE OF AFRICA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2251, 22 April 1897, Page 49

THE KNEE OF AFRICA.

IThe Fever-Gbeek op Masabjto.

The little, half-dead country of Portugal owns a long, lean strip of land, of small consequence to the world, that rims the Knee of Africa with, a bar of steaming mareb.

It is a world in itself, and of a surety one of the queerest places on earth. The inhabitants, chiefly thick-lipped blacks, bunch together here and there in little collections of hovels, and they are one or two degree 3 better than the orang-outang of Borneo or the gorillas that haunt the inner forests. They are surpassed in pure savsgery by the sprinkling of Whites that dot the territory, in the main half-caste Portuguese, dealing In slaves andivoiy. The true inwardness of the ways of these man-animals, black and white, is too horrible to publish in an ordinary way, and I am trjicg to forget it. The Knee of Africa is interesting, but not a nice place. I I shipped on a little white trading steamer s at Port Natal, and we began a heavy beat- ' out through the howling currents tbat wbip the coast up to Zanzibar. Various weary days of 3trri&gling with tide-rips brought U3 nearly to Dalagoa Bay, where the little steamer smelt another kind of water. The currents were tb«re, rough *nd strong ; but it was an oily, scummy sea that churned round the Knee, and

A GBEY^MAZE OF MUDBAKKS j spoke of ship-killing shallows on the land- .' ward side. We groped along up the coast, through a glorious desert of brown water, past a fenny ooast that glowered in colours that are colours of that coast and no other — bronzes and purples that would ' dim the clenrest hues in the whole of the world, for there is no dye like swamp colour under an East African sun.

By-and-bye we turnedjip . a muddy creek, which lay at right angles to the sea, reedfringed and thick with the warm fever-reek of the stewing swamps. It had rich colours to show from a distance— bands of purple that faded -into green scum and clog-weed as oar bows cut them through. The river was tenantlese, except for teeming clouds of wildfowl and gaunt, long-legged wading birds. As the fiery sunset dropped we moored for *tbe night; a long, swelling chorus of bullvoices boomed out of the dark, and we knew that the deep-mouthed river frogs had floated np to lift their heads above the fever-acum and chant their evensong. It is a wonderful chorus, the calling of the creek frogs, and •well in tune with the other strange things of ray pet corner of Bast Africa. Next day two of the crew were down with fever; but that is no new thing in swamp navigation, and in any case we.did not need many hands to take the steamer up our creek. We dosed onrselves with ample quinine and held way. So we churned along through the turgid water, always watching for signs of unfriendly natives along the banks. But even a black swamp man would scarcely thread a path through

THE SHAKING DEATH- TBAPS OF SOFT OOZE

that guard the creek-sides. Frogs can exist there, and so can water-fowl, but man has no place in the African sea-fens. From the scarce parts that were firm and dry our snorting steamer would generally scare up antelopes in abundance, and often larger game, to say nothing of the evil-headed snakes that dozed on patches of hot, halfdried mud.

Another man was disabled for the time by fever ; but presently the river narrowed, the green dross thinned away, and we passed into a drier world. The banks bore trees here and there, and the great, rank rushes of the swamps gave way in favour of dry landgrass, broad-bladed and coarse. Presently we rounded a carve, and on the right bank the first native village dawned on us. "

A CLUSTER OP REED-THATCHED BEEHIVES,

tenanted by inky-hided savages, it was ; but a wholesome sight after the solitude of frogs and fever. We dropped anchor off the Tillage, and went ashore in the ship's dlDgey. The chief of the apiary came down to meet us with an escort of followers^and greeted Mansfield, our skipper, as an old friend. The leader was effusive. Black, of coarse, but neither be nor bis drove of warriors wore the earpins or noserings that exaggerate the hideousness of the more northern tribes. There was a grim kind of dignity about him, too. He wore a tuft of feathers and skins round hia hips, and garnished his shining chest with a few necklaces of human teeth. These tribes are not cannibals, by the way. The chiefs headgear was a triumph. Much woolly hair, twisted into the shape of a

rhinoceros horn, tacked several inches on to his stature, and .he wore a pair of amall antelope horns strapped evenly to his bony skull.

He shook hands with me seven or eight times, whereby I understood that he wad glad to see me. He and his inky gang conducted us to the village in state, and we found his dominion fairly well organised, but not too clean. If sojourn in Africa had not trained me not to notice such things in native villages I should have thought it dirty, for hides, bones, and other trifles paved the fairways between the huts. The whole population was out in force to do us honour.

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