George Grenfell and the Congo: A History and Description of the Congo Independent State and Adjoining Districts of Congoland, Together with Some Account of the Native Peoples and Their Languages, the Fauna and Flora; and Similar Notes on the Cameroons and the Island of Fernando Pô, the Whole Founded on the Diaries and Researches of the Late Rev. George Grenfell, B.M.S., F.R.G.S.; and on the Records of the British Baptist Missionary Society; and on Additional Information Contributed by the Author, by the Rev. Lawson Forfeitt, Mr. Emil Torday, and Others, Volume 1 |
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Africa already amongst Arabs Aruwimi authority bank Bantu Baptist Baptist Mission Belgian Bolobo British called Cameroons canoes carried cataract Central chief coast Company Congo basin course direction district east European expedition explorer extend Falls feet followed force forest four Free German Government Grenfell Grenfell's hand hills hundred important interest island journey Kasai killed King known Kwango Lake land language Leopold less Lomami lower Lunda means miles Mission missionaries mountain mouth Mubangi natives navigable nearly negro northern notes officers passed Peace Photograph Portuguese present reached regard region remarkable returned rise river round Salvador shore side slaves Society soldiers Stanley Falls Stanley Pool station steamer stream thousand town trade traveller trees tribes Upper Congo villages visited western women writes
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Page 41 - Old sanguinary customs,' he says, ' have to a large extent been abolished ; witchcraft hides itself in the forest ; the fetish superstition of the people is derided by old and young ; and well-built houses are springing up on every hand. It is really marvellous to mark the change that has taken place in the natives in a few years only. From actual cannibals many have become honest, intelligent, skilled artisans. An elementary literature has been established, and the whole Bible translated into their...
Page 112 - Certain victims die by the knife alluded to above, and others have to afford to the bloodthirsty spectators the pleasures of the chase. These last are given a certain start across country, and then are pursued in full cry by all the people armed with spears and bows and arrows. An obstinate victim who will not run well causes disappointment, but others are said to make a ' fine run ' before they fall, pierced with arrows and spears. " The death by the knife is given thus.
Page 109 - ... African, they did not keep them for long. The great Baptist pioneer George Grenfell (1849-1906), travelling up the river with his companion Thomas Comber, wrote home that the chief characteristics of Bolobo people appear to be drunkenness, immorality, and cruelty, out of each of which vices spring actions almost too fearful to describe. In hearing of these, one living out here almost gets to feel like calling the people terrible brutes and wretches rather than poor miserable heathen. The light...
Page 477 - At times in the morning we might find before the door of our cabin the corpse of some negro dead during the night, placed there by his exasperated comrades as a protest. . .The men who still remained untouched by sickness were demoralized by fear, and had to be compelled to work by dint of sheer force, the force used being the negative one of depriving them of all salary or even rations. . . It was, in fact, forced labour. But what were we to do ? It was vitally necessary to construct this line of...
Page 396 - When times were bad these poor starving wretches might often be seen tied up in their towns, just kept alive with a minimum of food. A party would be made up, and two or three canoes would be filled with these human cattle. They would paddle down the Lulongo, cross the main river when the wind was not blowing, make up the Mobangi, and sell their freight in some of the towns for ivory.
Page 109 - Liebrecht of the Association Internationale, we walked through all the towns of Bolobo and Moie. In Bolobo it was a great day, a gala day, indeed. The wife of one of the chiefs had died somewhere away, and, of course, there must be four or five days and nights of orgies — any amount of dirty sugar-cane-beer swilling, unbridled license in every species of sensuality, and a grand finale of four human sacrifices, each victim being a poor wretch of a slave bought for the purpose ! Drums beating briskly,...
Page 396 - They fought the unsuspecting and unprepared people, overpowered them, killed many in the process, and brought the rest home with them. They divided up their human booty, and kept them in their towns, tied up and starving, until they were fortunate enough to catch or buy some more, and so make up a cargo worth taking to the Mobangi. When times were bad, these poor starving wretches might often be seen tied up in their towns, just kept alive with a minimum of food. A party would be made up, and two...
Page 40 - Cameroon river, thirty-five years of sacred, self-denying labour for the salvation of human souls, marvellously upheld through disease and danger until a work had been accomplished of which Dr. Livingstone said : ' Take it all in all, especially having regard to its many-sided character, the work of Alfred Saker at Cameroons and Victoria is, in my judgment, the most remarkable on the African coast.
Page 396 - What was left over, if there was much on the market, would be dried on a rack over the fire, or spitted, and the end of the spit stuck in the ground by a slow fire, until it could be kept for weeks and sold at leisure. " Sometimes a section of the town would club together to buy a large piece of the body wholesale, to be retailed out again ; or a family man would buy a whole leg to divide up between his wives, children and slaves. Dear little bright-eyed boys and girls grew up accustomed to these...
Page 396 - There was a much greater demand for human flesh than the local markets could supply. The people did not, as a rule, eat their own townsfolk and relatives, but they kept and fattened slaves for the butcher, just as we keep cattle and poultry. There used to be a constant traffic in slaves for the purpose between the Lulongo river and the Mobangi.