WOMAN'S JOURNEY THROUGH AFRICA.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12772, 25 May 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

WOMAN'S JOURNEY THROUGH AFRICA.

EIGHT DAYS' MARCH ACROSS A HUGE BOG.

MEETING' WITH HIPPOS

NATIVES WONDERSTRUCK AT SIGHT OF A WHITE WOMAN.

Th-S Rev. Johri H. Harris and Mrs Harris, who 'have just returned to England'after "a twelve months' trip across Africa, related to a representative of the Daily' Chronic! c sortie ' intensely interest; ing' incidents' of ' their ; experiences' iii stratige' laVids arid anioilg 'strange people. Mr and "Mt.s Harris ; are well-known to all those people who helped to overturn the hideous regimo,bf King Leopold m Hho' Congo. . It 'was' purely upori' their ovid^YiC:^ Ti\s~. lnissionari-es' and as eyewiT^fies^e^'6rrihe s, af>oci6u6 brutalities ; of the^oßi 'B'el^iaiv aslmni{stration that the Cdngo* 'ReioirfC ''based its 'great indlctfiSent,"' which triumphed at. last over allV'ttte eneaiiesiof truth and humanity. Thep" they '.paid..an other visit to the Cdhgo to jiivestigate the conditions of the^natiyes iii tlie rubber countries under the^ne'w' adnyriisiration,' and to go" beyoS_l the Uralf "of those territories m a S^nerai" exploration' of the conditions of _f^',j'and ', labor amdhg the natives of Southern Nigeria 'arid other parts; of Central "Africa/':' '"" " '". 'y The • tribes' in* ike ' territories explored by Mr arid' Mrs'" Hams include the Aniwimi peoples,', famous for their hostility to Stanley's expedition; the Bangalas, who XUffeVqd from the atrocious crudities of 'Tiacro^: arid. Arnold; the. warlike Budja4, I d^pr^s§ed-Dy'. the iron hand. of LothtdrV;ftdmiriietratiori.; arid the Mongos, decimated by the Abir. Tliey also made a tour. of' a. area m the'Krisai'.terr'itoTyi'^liierb iri.' niftriy districts the natives are iri "revolt against t'he present system of taxation .and ' labor., . : -NIGHT .IN- THE. FOREST. - ; Mr ' Harris gladly admits that under the new regime atrocities appear to have ceased: In territories where .King Leopold's agents, formerly ruled by organised torture the natives have new hope arid a bhaltce-for ordinary human life. Nevertheless, > there ' arp still many abuses which call 'for '-remedy, and the ne"w system of taxation -presses' h-savily upon people Avho firid it difficult to provide the number of;: fra-ncs demanded by the officials. Yet anything is better than the old. tribute Of rubber, the v-ery memory of which still has a terror for the nativ^'niind.- ?:v - ' i' •' ''

Mr and Mrs Harris travelled for the greater 'part of their ; lbhg journey on foot}! with a bbdy bf native carriers with tlreir stores and baggage. They suffered many hardships, and the long marches were' a' severe test for a lady's courage. For days on end they tramped their way through the tropical undergrowth of great forests, where the high trees shut out the light of the sun, and at night they would pitch- their camp and sleep iiv : a little ■tentj m these solitudes. Mr Harris, tired out, would sleep soundly, but Mrs Harris, with more highly-strung nerves.; would often he awake listening to the Strang)!?' sbunds that came from ther dark-> forest.

"I used to hear," she said, "the cries of •> birds, which sounded like wild shrieks, or ' ; with ' liarsh •' arid horrible notes; Then there 'would be the bellowing of a hippopotamus, ■ arid sometimes the^' fierce voice" of a leopard." The. natives wrire' afraid of leopards, and many a time' at night' they '-vfould abandon their 1 posts of duty* -round ' the tent : and stool 1 '; away, because they ' believed they heard the a£pij6ach of one of these beats, leaving the "tent iirigarded. On one march m the Bangala district the husband and wife had to walk acrpss miles of marsh-land, so boggy that they, saiik up to their knees. A frightful smell rose from . the rotteri vegetation and. foul water, which splashed them Up to the^neck, wetting them' to the. skin. "It w-as'«just N li^ke, walking' over, a prodigious sponge,"; said Mr Harris. BARRIER OP HIPPOPOTAMI. Wet- ' continually; they tramped for eight days at the- rate of twenty miles a day,., and one day, when ! they had been, walking from seven m the morning until eight at night m search of a village which they had been told existed on^a tributary of the Bangala river, they; -were lashed by a terrific tornado. Shivering and soaked they arrived at the (Spot where they hoped to get shelter and refreshment to find that the village wo longer existed. ! They were without water and fobd for thie carriers, they were exhausted by. their long jburney, they had been cut, and pricked m the bush, and now, when they realised that they would have to push on further, some of the tall : fellows, who. were strong irien and brave men, broke down and. : wept. ' r As .they were travelling down the riyer, iiit four light skiffs m the darkness of night, Mr and Mrs- Harris; with their black companions} had ■ a strange and perilous adventure. Presently ahead of them they saw' a « native village, with camp fires burning, arid with new hbpe the' men 'paddled fast towards this goal. But suddenly Mr Harris^ 'who was m the leading , boat, saw 'a' long dark line v stretched. Zip front* -of them. The line moVea, and Mr Harris saw the black bodies of big beasts making a living barrier, across the "river. • - ' '

\yith' tbo^swift sense of fear that they were, t paddling straight into a herd of elephants, he shouted to "" his men to steer for the bank. They plunged into the thick sedge, and instantly 'there rose about ithem. swarms of mosquitoes, stingin? ..^ -biting them. .It turned out that the animals m the river were hippos, and not elephants; but' in any case the peril a great one. That night theyv slept, thankfully '-hi the shelter of a little Roman . Catholic chapel built m this -far, wilderness. ' The trackers fed largely upon fruit and vegetables, but the carriers required meat, and had sharp teeth for monkey flesh. " .

"Paddling down the rivers;" said Mrs HarrisV ' -we , used to hear the monkey's chattering and calling ?to each' other In the /"hush, ' and „ sometimes, by a bough swaying -up and .down across the water we knew that monkeys were having a game there,. *Thcii our men would sit yei X .B*4ll, and quiet until one of them; with a gun. wojild , kill ,hfs victim. As soon as the body, fell, all the men would give' ','a deep groan, nnd then plunge overboard to swim ;f or 'the. dead monkey, leaving rii'e alone r in: the' canoe tipping, up and down , niost -dangerously. "The natives may almost be said to speak the mmikeyi- language. At least, they know the meaning of various cries and can imitate .-'thorn -perfectly: One day 'wfy'en there were- monkeys , m sight, and tho men/ wanted a ' dinner, ond of thefiT .squatted down j , and, putting, his fingers' tq his nostrils,'; made peculiar beaSjUfke cr,ies, like the female monkey calling for* her comrades.; .Sure enough, after., a little while two monkeys approached m answer to the call." 1 ' While Mr Harris was fighting his way through" the undergrowth,- Mrs Harris hadjbusy eyes fpr all the sights of Nature m the. African bush. With a: notebook m hand she jotted down, while she walked, notes of the, strange things she passed on. hep way— queer forest birds, new orchids and tropical flowers, and the rimrvels of insect life. ''jEjirly m the morning," she said, "one saw the life of the, bush most intimately. It was m the early hours' after dawn, for instance, that I used to see armies pf ants marching m great batta-, lions from .one camp to another.'!

'CHASED BY ELEPHANTS. One peril" of the African forest was always present— --the poisonous fangs of deadly "shakes. ' One day Mrs Harris was sitting ' hidbors when she saw a green picture frame \.on the wall suddenly move. '-From" 'behind 'it there darted out the " he'id' of -a green whip snake, .which was killed with the blow of an axe by Mr Harris before 'it had obtained a victim..: On another occasion a' yellowish snake 1 was coiled up. on a cane-chair, so exactly suhilar m color that the casual eye would not observe* the intruder.' Mrs' Harris has faced the whole range of perilous - adventures . m Darkest Africa, and ! orie ! of the 'narrowest . escapes was in? an' elephant hunt. . Four big elephants were within range, of. fire, arid one of them was wounded. 'At the noise of the guns two of them raised their trunks and came charging along m the direction of Mrs Harris. At the shouts of .the natives she turned and ran towards thej river bank, but found herself faced by an impassable bog.

Death seemed very close to her, but fortunately the elephants wheeled round and 1 went off at a hot pace. Afterwards, frorii the branches of a tree, she photographed her husband firing at one of the great beasts. ' ' "f have liave'r seen so niany' elephants," s-.iid Mrs Harris, ''as in' this' district. .Prom the deck- of a" steamer that hud cohie. down the river I could see great herds of them moving about like cows m an ."English pasture." To many of "the' wild 'people met with Mrs Harris' was a living miracle. They 'hatl never seen a. " white woman, and some of them would not 1 believe their eyes. Not even her long hair which She' showed to them convinced them that she was not a man. And those whb'" believed were shocked when she told them that shi> had' left a baby at home m her own country m order to visit them. The African women accused her of 'being cruel. 'EVENING DK ESS FOR NEGROES.;

I Mrs Harris - herself- saw-' strange types of humanity, distorted sometimes out of ail human likeness by diseases that tuvn'raon into living horros. She met old chiefs whose beards are long enough to touch the ground. She met friendly lepers who smiled at her, from races without features— grinning masks of terror. She met men and women whose le.js and- heads and breasts had swollen monstrously— -the victims of elephantiasis. She met. .many cases of that awful sleeping sickness which the tsetse fly spreads through villager and' tribes so that men and women sleep themselves to death. Fortunately,^ these diseases are decreasing m proportion as the reform m administration is spreading over the Congo and other parts of Central Africa. '^Below the Mohammedan belt, says Mr Harris, "paganism is breaking up, and the Christian, miesions-^-of all denominations—are doing splendid work*" At homes m Togolarid, for instance, there is a wonderful mission where the people are taught tailoring, engineering, carpentry, bootmaking, and' other trades, which they practise with as grout a. skill a^s European workers." " ! Mrs Harris mentioned that she found pc-op:?' making evening dress suits m thfe district ' for rich black, gentlemen who 'ive m European •style. ' :' Mr Harris ' has many criticisms to make upon the existing condition of 'aLor m the Congo, and m Portuguese -Ifrhi. and he points out there is nothiu.r io prevent tlhe old ; Leopold regime returning, with' all its abuses : if the new spirit oi reform is not vigilant and enduring. Maiiv of the old Belgian officials are still m Africa with their bad traditions, but now, says Mr Harm, "these men know that their misdeeds will not be tolerated by the .Belgian throne." -