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THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
and children, the home life, have ever been portrayed from a superficial, biased point of view; dor the white man has, by his own confession, been denied a full and complete acquaintance with the more intimate lives of the East African women.
It is a conceded fact that a caravan going into the interior or up country in Africa is like a migratory community; and, with forethought and great discrimination, must be provisioned and armed for the entire term of the expedition, whether for three months or three years. Sufficient goods, consisting of iron, brass and copper wire of different sizes, beads of all colors, styles and sizes, cotton cloths, ten or twelve varieties, to barter with the natives and itinerant Arab traders for food and to purchase the right of way, called toll or hongo, as well as blackmail, through a sultanate; also a nameless variety of all sorts of articles varying from penknives to music boxes, velvets and brooches, shawls and fancy blankets to trumpery trinkets for tribute and gifts to natives of importance or merely as souvenirs. Then, too, there must be a good supply of medicines and certain tinned goods and little luxuries and camping outfit, for one must live under canvas.
As a community, a caravan on Safari must have order and laws of its own for the safety of the every individual and the whole; it must in itself form a body politic to enforce these laws and each and every one conform to or assist in the preservation of order and discipline. The first manifestation of insubordination or mutiny has to be promptly quelled and as promptly chastised. Responsibilities, anxieties and hardships grew apace, yet I was not willing to shirk or relegate to hirelings any part of the same which legitimately belonged to a leader. My caravan consisted of one hundred and thirty-eight slaves, porters and subsequently recruits, raising the number to two hundred, coming from every tribe throughout Africa, and, with few exceptions, only a brief time removed from their primitive condition, but called collectively Zanzibaris. A Zanzibari porter proper never carries a load on his shoulders or back, and his head seems provided with a thickness of scalp for his accustomed duty peculiar to his race. The loads are carefully apportioned and weighed so as not to exceed fifty-six to sixty pounds.
The native porters have been denounced as untrustworthy, lazy, vagabondish, unfaithful and doing nothing without full compensation. This much am I constrained to say—that when I looked with considerable amazement over all the strange black and every conceivable shade of brown faces of my caravan, discerning - much brutality imprinted thereupon, with few exceptions, I marveled if I should always be able to control them and make them subservient to my commands, and for a moment was somewhat dubious as to my ability; however, after experience with them, when I had to trust my life to them, they proved faithful, uncomplaining, chivalrous, and marvels of patience, endurance, and consistent marching day after day.
Useless to deny that constantly obstacles arose on all sides, and many a time I quaked silently under the forecast of possible defeat; but I soon learned that several honest failures need not necessarily mean defeat, but to the contrary developed caution and latent resources which eventually made success more secure.
My aim was ever to protect the natives, to meet the men of tribal importance in their own sultanates,as a woman of breeding should meet the highest officials in any land, under any circumstances, and be civil and polite for favors granted; to extend amity to those who are amicable, and avoid disturbances with those who might decline the friendship of a white woman. Having at heart the desire to study the natives’ habits and customs in their homes; to know the women as wives, mothers and sisters; to know the men as husbands, fathers, brothers and lovers, and see the children as they were; in fact, to obtain an unprejudiced insight into the general social condition, and consider the future possibilities of these people, it would have been more than rash to have entered Africa as a freebooter.
It seems to be the popular thing for travelers to demonstrate how exceedingly difficult and hazardous have ever been their expeditions; they delight in depicting in graphic language thrilling adventures and hair-breadth escapes from the dangers which