Jules Verne (37 page)

Along with Alvez appeared his friend Coimbra, the son of Major Coimbra
of Bihe, and, according to Lieutenant Cameron, the greatest scamp in
the province. He was a dirty creature, his breast was uncovered, his
eyes were bloodshot, his hair was rough and curly, his face yellow;
he was dressed in a ragged shirt and a straw petticoat. He would have
been called a horrible old man in his tattered straw hat. This Coimbra
was the confidant, the tool of Alvez, an organizer of raids, worthy of
commanding the trader's bandits.

As for the trader, he might have looked a little less sordid than his
attendant. He wore the dress of an old Turk the day after a carnival.
He did not furnish a very high specimen of the factory chiefs who
carry on the trade on a large scale.

To Dick Sand's great disappointment, neither Harris nor Negoro
appeared in the crowd that followed Alvez. Must he, then, renounce all
hope of finding them at Kazounde?

Meanwhile, the chief of the caravan, the Arab, Ibn Hamis, shook hands
with Alvez and Coimbra. He received numerous congratulations. Alvez
made a grimace at the fifty per cent. of slaves failing in the general
count, but, on the whole, the affair was very satisfactory. With
what the trader possessed of human merchandise in his pens, he could
satisfy the demands from the interior, and barter slaves for ivory
teeth and those "hannas" of copper, a kind of St. Andrew's cross, in
which form this metal is carried into the center of Africa.

The overseers were also complimented. As for the porters, the trader
gave orders that their salary should be immediately paid them.

Jose-Antonio Alvez and Coimbra spoke a kind of Portuguese mingled
with a native idiom, which a native of Lisbon would scarcely have
understood. Dick Sand could not hear what these merchants were saying.
Were they talking of him and his companions, so treacherously joined
to the persons in the convoy? The young man could not doubt it, when,
at a gesture from the Arab, Ibn Hamis, an overseer, went toward the
pen where Tom, Austin, Bat and Acteon had been shut up.

Almost immediately the four Americans were led before Alvez.

Dick Sand slowly approached. He wished to lose nothing of this scene.

Alvez's face lit up at the sight of these few well-made blacks, to
whom rest and more abundant food had promptly restored their natural
vigor. He looked with contempt at old Tom, whose age would affect his
value, but the other three would sell high at the next Kazounde sale.

Alvez remembered a few English words which some agents, like the
American, Harris, had taught him, and the old monkey thought he would
ironically welcome his new slaves.

Tom understood the trader's words; he at once advanced, and, showing
his companions, said:

"We are free men—citizens of the United States."

Alvez certainly understood him; he replied with a good-humored
grimace, wagging his head:

"Yes, yes, Americans! Welcome, welcome!"

"Welcome," added Coimbra.

He advanced toward Austin, and like a merchant who examines a sample,
after having felt his chest and his shoulders, he wanted to make him
open his mouth, so as to see his teeth.

But at this moment Signor Coimbra received in his face the worst blow
that a major's son had ever caught.

Alvez's confidant staggered under it.

Several soldiers threw themselves on Austin, who would perhaps pay
dearly for this angry action.

Alvez stopped them by a look. He laughed, indeed, at the misfortune
of his friend, Coimbra, who had lost two of the five or six teeth
remaining to him.

Alvez did not intend to have his merchandise injured. Then, he was of
a gay disposition, and it was a long time since he had laughed so
much.

Meanwhile, he consoled the much discomfited Coimbra, and the latter,
helped to his feet, again took his place near the trader, while
throwing a menacing look at the audacious Austin.

At this moment Dick Sand, driven forward by an overseer, was led
before Alvez.

The latter evidently knew all about the young man, whence he came, and
how he had been taken to the camp on the Coanza.

So he said, after having given him an evil glance:

"The little Yankee!"

"Yes, Yankee!" replied Dick Sand. "What do they wish to do with my
companions and me?"

"Yankee! Yankee! Yankee!" repeated Alvez.

Did he not or would he not understand the question put to him?

A second time Dick Sand asked the question regarding his companions
and himself. He then turned to Coimbra, whose features, degraded as
they were by the abuse of alcoholic liquors, he saw were not of native
origin.

Coimbra repeated the menacing gesture already made at Austin, and did
not answer.

During this time Alvez talked rapidly with the Arab, Ibn Hamis, and
evidently of things that concerned Dick Sand and his friends.

No doubt they were to be again separated, and who could tell if
another chance to exchange a few words would ever again be offered
them.

"My friends," said Dick, in a low voice, and as if he were only
speaking to himself, "just a few words! I have received, by Dingo, a
letter from Hercules. He has followed the caravan. Harris and Negoro
took away Mrs. Weldon, Jack, and Mr. Benedict. Where? I know not, if
they are not here at Kazounde. Patience! courage! Be ready at any
moment. God may yet have pity on us!"

"And Nan?" quickly asked old Tom.

"Nan is dead!"

"The first!"

"And the last!" replied Dick Sand, "for we know well—"

At this moment a hand was laid on his shoulder, and he heard these
words, spoken in the amiable voice which he knew only too well:

"Ah, my young friend, if I am not mistaken! Enchanted to see you
again!"

Dick Sand turned.

Harris was before him.

"Where is Mrs. Weldon?" cried Dick Sand, walking toward the American.

"Alas!" replied Harris, pretending a pity that he did not feel, "the
poor mother! How could she survive!"

"Dead!" cried Dick Sand. "And her child?"

"The poor baby!" replied Harris, in the same tone, "how could he
outlive such fatigue!"

So, all whom Dick Sand loved were dead!

What passed within him? An irresistible movement of anger, a desire
for vengeance, which he must satisfy at any price!

Dick Sand jumped upon Harris, seized a dagger from the American's
belt, and plunged it into his heart.

"Curse you!" cried Harris, falling.

Harris was dead.

Dick Sand's action had been so rapid that no one could stop him. A few
natives threw themselves upon him, and he would have been murdered had
not Negoro appeared.

At a sign from the Portuguese, the natives drew back, raised Harris's
corpse and carried it away. Alvez and Coimbra demanded Dick Sand's
immediate death, but Negoro said to them in a low voice that they
would lose nothing by waiting. The order was given to take away the
young novice, with a caution not to lose sight of him for a moment.

Dick Sand had seen Negoro for the first time since their departure
from the coast. He knew that this wretch was alone responsible for
the loss of the "Pilgrim." He ought to hate him still more than his
accomplices. And yet, after having struck the American, he scorned to
address a word to Negoro. Harris had said that Mrs. Weldon and her
child had succumbed. Nothing interested him now, not even what they
would do with him. They would send him away. Where? It did not matter.

Dick Sand, heavily chained, was left on the floor of a pen without a
window, a kind of dungeon where the trader, Alvez, shut up the slaves
condemned to death for rebellion or unlawful acts. There he could no
longer have any communication with the exterior; he no longer dreamed
of regretting it. He had avenged those whom he loved, who no longer
lived. Whatever fate awaited him, he was ready for it.

It will be understood that if Negoro had stopped the natives who were
about to punish Harris's murderer, it was only because he wished to
reserve Dick Sand for one of those terrible torments of which the
natives hold the secret. The ship's cook held in his power the captain
of fifteen years. He only wanted Hercules to make his vengeance
complete.

Two days afterward, May 28th, the sale began, the great "lakoni,"
during which the traders of the principal factories of the interior
would meet the natives of the neighboring provinces. This market was
not specially for the sale of slaves, but all the products of this
fertile Africa would be gathered there with the producers.

From early morning all was intense animation on the vast "tchitoka" of
Kazounde, and it is difficult to give a proper idea of the scene. It
was a concourse of four or five thousand persons, including Alvez's
slaves, among whom were Tom and his companions. These four men, for
the reason that they belonged to a different race, are all the more
valuable to the brokers in human flesh. Alvez was there, the first
among all. Attended by Coimbra, he offered the slaves in lots. These
the traders from the interior would form into caravans. Among these
traders were certain half-breeds from Oujiji, the principal market
of Lake Tanganyika, and some Arabs, who are far superior to the
half-breeds in this kind of trade.

The natives flocked there in great numbers. There were children, men,
and women, the latter being animated traders, who, as regards a genius
for bargaining, could only be compared to their white sisters.

In the markets of large cities, even on a great day of sale, there is
never much noise or confusion. Among the civilized the need of selling
exceeds the desire to buy. Among these African savages offers are made
with as much eagerness as demands.

The "lakoni" is a festival day for the natives of both sexes, and if
for good reasons they do not put on their best clothes, they at least
wear their handsomest ornaments.

Some wear the hair divided in four parts, covered with cushions, and
in plaits tied like a chignon or arranged in pan-handles on the front
of the head with bunches of red feathers. Others have the hair in bent
horns sticky with red earth and oil, like the red lead used to close
the joints of machines. In these masses of real or false hair is worn
a bristling assemblage of skewers, iron and ivory pins, often even,
among elegant people, a tattooing-knife is stuck in the crisp mass,
each hair of which is put through a "sofi" or glass bead, thus forming
a tapestry of different-colored grains. Such are the edifices most
generally seen on the heads of the men.

The women prefer to divide their hair in little tufts of the size of
a cherry, in wreaths, in twists the ends of which form designs in
relief, and in corkscrews, worn the length of the face. A few, more
simple and perhaps prettier, let their long hair hang down the back,
in the English style, and others wear it cut over the forehead in a
fringe, like the French. Generally they wear on these wigs a greasy
putty, made of red clay or of glossy "ukola," a red substance
extracted from sandal-wood, so that these elegant persons look as if
their heads were dressed with tiles.

It must not be supposed that this luxury of ornamentation is confined
to the hair of the natives. What are ears for if not to pass pins of
precious wood through, also copper rings, charms of plaited maize,
which draw them forward, or little gourds which do for snuff-boxes,
and to such an extent that the distended lobes of these appendages
fall sometimes to the shoulders of their owners?

After all, the African savages have no pockets, and how could they
have any? This gives rise to the necessity of placing where they can
their knives, pipes, and other customary objects. As for the neck,
arms, wrists, legs, and ankles, these various parts of the body are
undoubtedly destined to carry the copper and brass bracelets, the
horns cut off and decorated with bright buttons, the rows of red
pearls, called
same-sames
or "talakas," and which were very
fashionable. Besides, with these jewels, worn in profusion, the
wealthy people of the place looked like traveling shrines.

Again, if nature gave the natives teeth, was it not that they could
pull out the upper and lower incisors, file them in points, and curve
them in sharp fangs like the fangs of a rattlesnake? If she has placed
nails at the end of the fingers, is it not that they may grow so
immoderately that the use of the hand is rendered almost impossible?
If the skin, black or brown, covers the human frame, is it not so as
to zebra it by "temmbos" or tattooings representing trees, birds,
crescents, full moons, or waving lines, in which Livingstone thought
he could trace the designs of ancient Egypt? This tattooing, done by
fathers, is practised by means of a blue matter introduced into the
incisions, and is "stereotyped" point by point on the bodies of the
children, thus establishing to what tribe or to what family they
belong. The coat-of-arms must be engraved on the breast, when it
cannot be painted on the panel of a carriage.

Such are the native fashions in ornament. In regard to garments
properly so called, they are summed up very easily; for the men,
an apron of antelope leather, reaching to the knees, or perhaps a
petticoat of a straw material of brilliant colors; for the women, a
belt of pearls, supporting at the hips a green petticoat, embroidered
in silk, ornamented with glass beads or coury; sometimes they wear
garments made of "lambba," a straw material, blue, black, and yellow,
which is much prized by the natives of Zanzibar.

These, of course, are the negroes of the best families. The others,
merchants, and slaves, are seldom clothed. The women generally act as
porters, and reach the market with enormous baskets on their back,
which they hold by means of a leathern strap passed over the forehead.
Then, their places being taken, and the merchandise unpacked, they
squat in their empty baskets.