A MISSIONARY'S ADVENTURES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2428, 26 September 1900, Page 63

A MISSIONARY'S ADVENTURES.

AMONG DWARFS AND CANNIBALS. Writing of "In Dw#rf_Land and Cannibal Country," 'by A. B. -Lloyd, just published by. Fisher Unwin, the Daily INews says : — The author of this most interesting book is one of the Church Society's missionaries. For more than four years 'he has served "in Uganda aiyl the regions around it, "v\ ithin the confines of the British Protectorate." Coming home on furlough lasit year he struck out a new line for himself. Instead of travelling comfortably by Zanzibar he made for the Belgian Con^o and the Atlantic coast. His route brought him through the land of the Pigmies and among numerous tribes of cannibals, and he made friends among them all. In a ,>ense unrealised by those whose lives are absorbed in the dull routine of civilisation, our good missionary has made the best of both worlds. He is a crack shot — as, indeed, the gentlest of saints must be who, in the African wilderness, must either bag his day's dinner or lay him down and perish. We gather, nioreover, from the narrative of one of his performances that familiarity with a wrestling dodge or two may come handy to a missionary in the event of a mutiny among his native camp-followers. His story of the bishop and the wild as,s does pleasant violence to one"s preconceptions of episcopal decorum. It was Bishop Tucker who overtook Mr Llo3'd's caravan on the way to the great lake. * And after the bishop's ai rival "a wild ass got into camp and commenced fighting with our donkeys." The whole camp turned out, bishop, missionaries, and all. They chivvied the vi ild ass. * '"The Bishop was very much to the front in this hunt, and made several good attempts to lassoo the little cieature, but. still it avaded us. At last, however, while the ass stood foi a rest at a good distance from its hunters, n\c of the men leapt from the grass where he was completely hidden, almost under its nose, and swinging his arms right round its neck, clung on, in spite of all its plunging."' But thr picture of the journey to Uganda. > has its dark side. It must be so until roads and railways make an end of "human porterage."' Even a, missionary bound upon an errand of mercy may learn to regard the sufferings of his human beasts of burden with a stoic composure as incidents in the day's work. In the agony of famine some of Mr Lloyd's own porters 'had recourse to cannibalism ; — "The porters could

buy no food ; they must get it somehow or el«e die. They were in a terrible state and ready to do anything. One day they came upon it he corpse of a man who had. been dead .some days and was quite decomposed, and yet so famished were the poor fellows that they actually took the corpse and devoured it, and this was repeated the next day when some natives were seen carrying the body of a man who had just died in.to the bush — they seized it and consumed it." Another scene : — "We next came upon a .poor boy, a .porter's slave, who carried a small load of cooking pots for It's master, lying in the mud in a dying state. We gave him what food we had and tried to urge him on, but ii was useless. Finally !-we took his load and carried it <nu.selves, and I think I never fully with our porters until I had that small load of cooking pot 3 on my shoulder; ibut the boy could not even walk then, ,%o we gave fhe load to one of our boys and then took it in turns to corry the rioov little slave." Incidents of this kind let the reader in*o the secret of the great influence the missionaries have acquired in Uganda. As to Mr Lloyd's account of the Pigmies it may be recollected many monuments bear witness to the ancient Egyptians' knowledge ox the Pigmy races. Herodotus mentions them. Mr H. M. Stanley traversed their haunts in the Central African forest. And there Mr Lloyd "chummed" with them little more than a year ago. No longer is the Pigmy a mystery. Indeed, there is some likelihood that the missionaries may fhortly take him in head ; and stranger things have happened than that a Pigmy deacon may some day pddress a crowded tmcl audience in Exeter Hall — perched upon the table, of course, beside rlio ink bottle, so thsit he may be seen as well as heard. • Mi* Lloyd's first interview with the Pigmies took place in a clearing in the forest. While reading a book Mr Lloyd '"became aware of a number of little face's peering at" him through the thicket. "I 3 was like being in fairyland, and having visits pold to one by. the fairies themselves." Air Lloyd held out his hand in sign of friendly'greeting. "Slowly and very shyly" a Pigmy advpneed, staved at the white man in amazement, "and hid his face behind his hands." Other Pigmies advanced, lurking behind their leader. "I now had a complete view of my visitors, raid what stiuck' me first of all was naturally the shortness of their stature. Bub although they were so very short (about 4ft, by subsequent measurement), yet there was a powerfulncss about their build that is not' often seen in African races. Broad-chested, with muscles finely developed, short, thick neck, and small bullet head, the lower limbs were massive and strong to a degree. The chest was coverd with black, curly hair, and most of the men wore thick, black beards. Each earned a bow and quiver of arrows, or ?hort throwing spears. Round their arms they wore iron rings, and some of them hr.4 these round their necks also. I chatted away to the little man, who knew™, the Toro language, and I was very much amazed at the smart way in which he answered my questions. His knowledge of the language was not perfect by csay means, and he often used words that were strange to me, and savoured of Pigmy Land, yet he spoke sufficiently -well for* liie to be able to follow him." The Pigmy leader explained that his country was seven days' journey in length by six in breadth. "I next asked him the number of his people, and he took a piece of stick and broke it up into little pieces, about 40 in all, p.nd said that each piece represented a chief, and he then went on to tell me the number of followers of each ; some had 200, others only 50. and a few as many as 500. It was very simple, then, to calculate that the total number would bs somewhere about 10,000. '•Then the Pigmy chief told me that he knew long a.go of my coming, and J asked him 'How?' He said that several days ago he saw me. 'Saw me?' I said. 'When did you see me?' '1 -have seen yon in the forest for six days.' 'But I did not see you,' I said ; and then he "laiicthed most* heartily, and said, 'No, I could not see him. but he saw me.' Upon fuither inquiry I found that a large party of these lit tie "creatures had been watching our every movement all through the forest, while we were in the most blissful ignorance of the fact. At every camp they had hc.vered about us, peering at us through the thicket as we passed. - Why did they not attack us? is the question that kept coming up into mv mind. _ 'If they are the thievish, wicked little people that they have been represented, why did they not molest us?' We were entirely in their power, and had been for the past six days. Perhaps it was our very helplessness that protected vs — they saw that we were not as the ether w liite men who had passed tin e ugh their forest, armed with guns, and having a big following of soldiers; or perhaps I had been overheard speaking in the language of the Toro to my boys, and this hod given them confidence. I firmly believe, however, that they are- not untrustworthy folk, aa is usually supposed, but. like most Africans, when not interfered with, they are perfectly harmless." Mr Lloyd gives up some particulars about Pigmy life, including the hunting of the elephant, with those tiny poisoned arrows. He made the beginning of an inquiry into Pigmy ideas about God and the- world. Whv'ditl he not go on with it? Mr Lloyd's next accuiaintances were Lhe Bangwas— cannibals all, and, says our" missicnarv adventurer, "I confess that a -jollier set of blr.ck men T never in all mv life had to do with; they were brimful of fun. and entered most heartily into all my jokes. My English concertina, my dog Sally, camera, and binoculars, to "ay nothing of my bicvele, all tended to create the most lieorty feelings of good fellowship possible." These' jolly cannibals lowed Mr Lloyd down the rivers." A handsome, stalwart, iutellige'H rpice they were, and not a whit ashamed of their culinary /iftfes. Mr Lloyd was so Avell received by all ihe natives he met between the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic just because he treated them all tactfully, and with kindness. That the worst savages in the Africa of the Congo

avj neither poison-shooting Pigmies nor cannibal Bangwas, but w hite officials in the service of ti Christian Government — that of Belgium — becomes painfully evident from Mr Lloyd's testimony.