Great Falls High School - Roundup Yearbook (Great Falls, MT)

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M ROUNDUP our heads, so we have great difficulty in keeping track of our directions. Trees are not plentiful but we have no trouble in finding palms of many varieties, mangoes and bananas. Limes and lemons are plentiful, and so are pineapples, but other fruit is almost unknown. We had supposed the country was full of all kinds of fruits but such is not the case. The natives cultivate little but a sort of sweet potato and a few peanuts. They plant the seed and leave it to nature to produce a crop. If the season be poor the na- tive starves, and right now the entire province of Mayumbe is suffering from a famine, for the little that last season yielded was soon destroyed for want of warehouses. They say the natives are dying in many places, though we have seen none of that as yet. We have found though that our maps are nearly worthless, for most of the villages they show have either been abandoned for more healthy places, or else the entire population has died of sleeping sickness. At present the few villages we come across are composed of about fifteen huts each, whereas we are told that ten and twenty years ago there were twice the number of villages and each village was very small if it had less than one hundred huts. The missionaries claim that gin and alco- hol have done much to kill the negro off. Each village is ruled over by a Fumu, who has almost unlimited power when he cares to exert him- self. He really is the head of a huge family, the rest of the village being- composed of his wives, slaves, sons- in-laws, and descendants. He is us- ually the oldest man in evidence (I believe they kill off all the other old people), but little revernce is paid to his years. His people will argue a point with him and show anything but re- spect. He endures a lot of abuse, but once he has asserted his regal will his word is final and obeyed absolute- ly. Besides these Fumus there is a Bula Matadi or big chief who is above the several Fumus and ' has jurisdiction over several villages. These latter are recognized as native princes by the Belgian government. They are dignified old fellows, but quite comical as they come marching into camp, always clad in long Prince Albert coats, that may be hanging to- gether by one thread only. In mak- ing a visit it is customary for them to carry a fowl or several eggs as a present to their host, and they always expect a present, or as they say matabish, in return. One old fel- low came into camp one day with a forty-year-old goat which we declined with thanks. He became highly in- dignant and would have nothing more to do with us for over a week. We finally won his heart with a pound of Virginia tobacco, but it taught us to refuse nothing that was offered us. Had he remained unpacified we could have secured no porters nor laborers in his province where we wished to work. Did you ever hear of mariguoi- uns? I never did before I landed on Africa ' s shore, but I now enjoy their acquaintance every morning and evening. It is a small sand fly, that hardly is large enough to have wings, but it must have an awful appetite for the white man ' s red cor- puscles. In the cool of the morning they swarm around one in millions and where they land they bite. They have not the song of the merry mos- quito to warn one of their approach, nor do they hurt at first, but after they have satiated themselves and de- parted one ' s hands and face are a sight to behold. My hands are like hams and I can not describe my face, for I have been unable to open my

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ROUNDUP A Letter from David A. Hoffman 13 Village of Luibi, Congo Beige, Africa. Jan. 8, 1912. 1 believe I kept you informed of our trip as we came only from Ant- werp, as far as Sierre Leone on the west coast of Africa. The only place we touched after that was a French port in the province of Senegal; but as we were not allowed to go on shore, we saw no more of the land until we anchored at the mouth of the Congo, December 14. Banana, Congo Beige, is the town at the Congos mouth, but the steamer stopped only long enough to get her papers of health and then went up the river to Boma, the capital of this glorious country. Boma impressed me very much as I imagine old Fort Benton must have appeared to the pioneers when they landed there — only instead of Indians the shore was lined and perfumed with negroes. The cargo is dumped out on the river bank and one has to see to the un- loading of his cargo himself or else it is very liable to go up river. We were three or four days getting our stuff through the customs, or rather in getting the officials sufficiently awake to attend to business — they say one soon becomes inoculated with the germ of laziness in this country, and we have had ample proof that the Belgians are very susceptible. From Boma we went north, by rail fifty kilos. When I say, by rail, it means on a road of iron, whose rails are twenty-two inches apart and whose engine is stopped most of the time because the negro engineer has forgotten to get any water. We were eight hours traveling the fifty kilometers, which is considered ex- ceptionally fast time. Had we been in a hurrv we would have walked. The railroad ends at Lukula where we waited eight days more for the neigh- boring chiefs or Formus to send in enough men to transport our goods to the west. We needed about one- hundred men but only secured about thirty, so we started with what sup- plies we needed most. These porters would surprise you with the heavy loads they can carry. The average load for a hundred and ten pound man to carry fifteen miles a day, is thirty kilos, or about sixty-six pounds. This load is balanced on his head at six in the morning and by eleven o ' clock he is fifteen miles away. If he is paid by the trip he will cover twenty- five to thirty miles each twenty-four hours, but when working by the day he dislikes traveling in the afternoon when the sun is hot. We, ourselves, find it best to arise at half past five with the sun, work until eleven or twelve, and then rest until four o ' clock. After four it is cool and pleasant and it is then we figure on making our maps and reports. At half past six the sun sinks and in fifteen minutes it is intensely dark. There is neither dawn nor twilight in this part of the world. When the moon comes up though, one would imagine it were day. for, like the sun, it shines from directly over head and one could see for miles were it not for the dense foliage. The country we are in is not con sidered very fertile, but along all the si reams is a growth of brush and brambles so heavy as to be almost impassable. To force one ' s way through is impossible, for the vines appear alive, the way they reach out and grab one: but the natives are quite expert in thrusting their way through. The hills are covered with a coarse grass that comes as high a-

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ROUNDUP l 5 eyes sufficiently to look in a mirror. The} ' tell me that after three or four months my blood will lie thinner and they won ' t bother, but just think of being the source of supply for mil- lions for those three months. Mos- quitoes are not plentiful, in fact I have not seen any; however, we al- ways sleep under a canopy of netting to avoid the malaria germ. In addi- tion to this we tenderfeet are instruct- ed to dose ourselves with four grains of quinine each day. I do — some days — but it has no attractions and so far we have had perfect health. Health conditions appear tine and I believe in this part of the country we will suffer very few ills, provided we do not expose ourselves to the heat of the sun which, together with booze. is the source of most of the tropical sickness. Although the porters made a fifteen mile trip today, they are now getting ready to dance and unless we shut them up. they will cake-walk — genuine Memphis nigger style — until long after midnight. They have a long hollow log, over one end of which they have stretched an antelope hide. On this drum one black beats time and the rest circle about him. They all have different steps, but each is in perfect harmony with his neighbor, and the whole group really would get con- siderable applause on a vaudeville circuit. They chant a sort of cry as they dance, but there is no meaning to their sound and seemingly they have no knowledge of music other than that of beating time. They do make a kind of instrument out of which they sometimes pick a mourn- ful tune, but there are no skilled play- ers amongst them. You asked about my outfit. Principally it consists of an eight by ten tent. In this I lay a heavy canvas tarpaulin as a carpet, for it is sure death to come in contact with Africa ' s soil. On this is my bed. a contrap- tion that unfolds from a one by two foot box into a lounge of luxury. This bed is supplied with clean linen sheets and a pair of heavy army blankets — I also have a heavy mohair blanket, for the nights get cold. Around the bed, suspended from the top of the tent is a canopy of mosquito netting, without which one would last but a short time in the tropics — but with which one could sleep right in a malaria swamp. Over this eight by ten tent I have a twelve by fourteen fly which gives me a veranda under which I have my table for eating and map-mak ing. The kitchen is well supplied — a double table, set of dishes, all the necessary cooking utensils — including a three-pieced iron stove. My cook has rigged up an oven out of the earth and an oil can and he really turns out many surprises. He makes dandy bread and I understand that he is the only cook in the Congo who does. He uses the sap of a palm tree for yeast. It ferments in the sun. We carry about three iron boxes each, one of which is used as a bath tub, in which we have our clothing. We each have a cook and a boy who does — or should do — everything, which in the States we would do for ourselves. It ' s nice to come in from the field to have your boy ready with a bath and clean clothes and a cup of tea to cheer you up. If you are feel- ing irritable, the boy is a bandy vic- tim and you soon get rid of your spleen. His ignorance is inexhaust- able, but it does no good to fume and frel for they are all alike. You may expect another white man to dinner and so give orders to the cook to have everything fine. He does — not. When alone I have sat down to some meals that any Christmas table would be proud of — and then when I have company we get the worst hashup that a Chinese restaurant ever served. DAVID A. IK FFMAN.