Jules Verne For Children: 16 Incredible Tales of Mystery, Courage & Adventure (Illustrated Edition). Jules Verne
the form of plantain wine, “pombe,” a liquor in great demand, “malofou,” sweet beer, made from the fruit of the banana-tree and mead, a limpid mixture of honey and water fermented with malt.
But what made the Kazounde market still more curious was the commerce in stuffs and ivory.
In the line of stuffs, one might count by thousands of “choukkas” or armfuls, the “Mericani” unbleached calico, come from Salem, in Massachusetts, the “kanaki,” a blue gingham, thirty-four inches wide, the “sohari,” a stuff in blue and white squares, with a red border, mixed with small blue stripes. It is cheaper than the “dioulis,” a silk from Surat, with a green, red or yellow ground, which is worth from seventy to eighty dollars for a remnant of three yards when woven with gold.
As for ivory, it was brought from all parts of Central Africa, being destined for Khartoum, Zanzibar, or Natal. A large number of merchants are employed solely in this branch of African commerce.
Imagine how many elephants are killed to furnish the five hundred thousand kilograms of ivory, which are annually exported to European markets, and principally to the English! The western coast of Africa alone produces one hundred and forty tons of this precious substance. The average weight is twenty-eight pounds for a pair of elephant’s tusks, which, in 1874, were valued as high as fifteen hundred francs; but there are some that weigh one hundred and seventy-five pounds, and at the Kazounde market, admirers would have found some admirable ones. They were of an opaque ivory, translucid, soft under the tool, and with a brown rind, preserving its whiteness and not growing yellow with time like the ivories of other provinces.
And, now, how are these various business affairs regulated between buyers and sellers? What is the current coin? As we have said, for the African traders this money is the slave.
The native pays in glass beads of Venetian manufacture, called “catchocolos,” when they are of a lime white; “bouboulous,” when they are black; “sikounderetches,” when they are red. These beads or pearls, strung in ten rows or “khetes,” going twice around the neck, make the “foundo,” which is of great value. The usual measure of the beads is the “frasilah,” which weighs seventy pounds. Livingstone, Cameron, and Stanley were always careful to be abundantly provided with this money.
In default of glass beads, the “pice,” a Zanzibar piece, worth four centimes, and the “vroungouas,” shells peculiar to the eastern coasts, are current in the markets of the African continent. As for the cannibal tribes, they attach a certain value to the teeth of the human jaw, and at the “lakoni,” these chaplets were to be seen on the necks of natives, who had no doubt eaten their producers; but these teeth were ceasing to be used as money.
Such, then, was the appearance of the great market. Toward the middle of the day the gaiety reached a climax; the noise became deafening. The fury of the neglected venders, and the anger of the overcharged customers, were beyond description. Thence frequent quarrels, and, as we know, few guardians of the peace to quell the fray in this howling crowd.
Toward the middle of the day, Alvez gave orders to bring the slaves, whom he wished to sell, to the square. The crowd was thus increased by two thousand unfortunate beings of all ages, whom the trader had kept in pens for several months. This “stock” was not in a bad condition. Long rest and sufficient food had improved these slaves so as to look to advantage at the “lakoni.” As for the last arrivals, they could not stand any comparison with them, and, after a month in the pens, Alvez could certainly have sold them with more profit. The demands, however, from the eastern coast, were so great that he decided to expose and sell them as they were.
This was a misfortune for Tom and his three companions. The drivers pushed them into the crowd that invaded the “tchitoka.” They were strongly chained, and their glances told what horror, what fury and shame overwhelmed them.
“Mr. Dick is not there,” Bat said, after some time, during which he had searched the vast plain with his eyes.
“No,” replied Acteon, “they will not put him up for sale.”
“He will be killed, if he is not already,” added the old black. “As for us, we have but one hope left, which is, that the same trader will buy us all. It would be a great consolation not to be separated.”
“Ah! to know that you are far away from me, working like a slave, my poor, old father!” cried Bat, sobbing aloud.
“No,” said Tom. “No; they will not separate us, and perhaps we might——”
“If Hercules were here!” cried Austin.
But the giant had not reappeared. Since the news sent to Dick Sand, they had heard no one mention either Hercules or Dingo. Should they envy him his fate? Why, yes; for if Hercules were dead, he was saved from the chains of slavery!
Meanwhile, the sale had commenced. Alvez’s agents marched the various lots of men, women and children through the crowd, without caring if they separated mothers from their infants. May we not call these beings “unfortunates,” who were treated only as domestic animals?
Tom and his companions were thus led from buyers to buyers. An agent walked before them naming the price adjudged to their lot. Arab or mongrel brokers, from the central provinces, came to examine them. They did not discover in them the traits peculiar to the African race, these traits being modified in America after the second generation. But these vigorous and intelligent negroes, so very different from the blacks brought from the banks of the Zambeze or the Loualaba, were all the more valuable. They felt them, turned them, and looked at their teeth. Horse-dealers thus examine the animals they wish to buy. Then they threw a stick to a distance, made them run and pick it up, and thus observed their gait.
This was the method employed for all, and all were submitted to these humiliating trials. Do not believe that these people are completely indifferent to this treatment! No, excepting the children, who cannot comprehend the state of degradation to which they are reduced, all, men or women, were ashamed.
Besides, they were not spared injuries and blows. Coimbra, half drunk, and Alvez’s agents, treated them with extreme brutality, and from their new masters, who had just paid for them in ivory stuffs and beads, they would receive no better treatment. Violently separated, a mother from her child, a husband from his wife, a brother from a sister, they were not allowed a last caress nor a last kiss, and on the “lakoni” they saw each other for the last time.
In fact, the demands of the trade exacted that the slaves should be sent in different directions, according to their sex. The traders who buy the men do not buy women. The latter, in virtue of polygamy, which is legal among the Mussulmans, are sent to the Arabic countries, where they are exchanged for ivory. The men, being destined to the hardest labor, go to the factories of the two coasts, and are exported either to the Spanish colonies or to the markets of Muscat and Madagascar. This sorting leads to heart-breaking scenes between those whom the agents separate, and who will die without ever seeing each other again.
The four companions in turn submitted to the common fate. But, to tell the truth, they did not fear this event. It was better for them to be exported into a slave colony. There, at least, they might have a chance to protest. On the contrary, if sent to the interior, they might renounce all hope of ever regaining their liberty.
It happened as they wished. They even had the almost unhoped for consolation of not being separated. They were in brisk demand, being wanted by several traders. Alvez clapped his hands. The prices rose. It was strange to see these slaves of unknown value in the Kazounde market, and Alvez had taken good care to conceal where they came from. Tom and his friends, not speaking the language of the country, could not protest.
Their master was a rich Arab trader, who in a few days would send them to Lake Tanganyika, the great thoroughfare for slaves; then, from that point, toward the factories of Zanzibar.
Would they ever reach there, through the most unhealthy and the most dangerous countries of Central Africa? Fifteen hundred miles to march under these conditions, in the midst of frequent wars, raised and carried on between chiefs, in a murderous climate. Was old Tom strong enough to support such misery? Would he not fall on the