1884.
Jan. 7.
Iboko.
litic. The town-criers were therefore despatched in all
directions to announce the doom that would surely
befall the grandson of Mata Bwyki and two other
sons of the Bangala if the goods were not restored.
As Iboko is a very large settlement, this restitution
could not he effected immediately, hut on the 9th,
one by one the plundered articles were brought to
Mata Bwyki, and the old chief returned them to me.
Then when a due inspection of the goods had been
made, and not one of the dozens of articles abstracted
was found missing, the prisoners were set free, and
conducted to Mata Bwyki, who was seen to smile
grimly on his wicked grandson, and was heard to
admonish the assembled Bangala to leave the property
of Bula Matari severely alone in future lest a dreadful
fate might overtake the guilty party.
On the 10th a treaty was entered into with Iboko;
and, in peace with all the Bangala, at evening we
steamed away down the Congo.
Arriving at Equator Station, a curious story was
related to us by two European eye-witnesses of the
proceedings, the narration of which recalls to our
memories the sanguinary customs of Dahomey. We
had heard of cruel sacrificing of life before; but the
stories were told by Africans, who have the habit of
relating events of this kind in the most matter-of-fact
manner. When, however, Europeans describe them
they strike home to our sense of horror with a shocking
force.
An important chief of the neighbourhood—an old
A HORRIBLE MASSACRE. 181
and long-ago superannuated potentate, of whose exist-
ence I had previously been unaware—died, and, Equator,
according to the custom of the By-yanzi and Bakuti,
slaves had to be massacred to accompany him to the
land of spirits. Accordingly the relatives and freemen
began to collect as many slaves as.could be purchased.
Lieutenant Vangele was chief of about fifty
men, and on account of the good discipline of the station,
and the prompt obedience paid to his commands
by the garrison, the Bakuti imagined the soldier-
labourers in the pay of the Association to be slaves,
and proposed to purchase a few of them. Vangele
was curious to know why they wanted the men, and
he was then informed of the preparations being made
to celebrate the burial of their chief with an execution
of slaves. Of course the proposal was rejected with
horror, and the garrison chased the Bakuti with sticks
out of the precincts of the station.
The mourning relatives finally secured fourteen men
from the interior, and, being notified by the villagers
that the execution was about to begin, M. Vangele
and his friend proceeded with a few of their men to
view the scene.
They found quite a number of men gathered around.
The doomed men seen were kneeling with their arms
bound behind them in the neighbourhood of a tall
young tree, near the top of which the end of a rope
had been lashed. A number of men laid hold of the
cord and hauled upon it until the upper part of the
tree was bent like a bow. One of the captives was