ivory especially, by every possible means. What is the
use of cultivating the land when one can send natives
to hunt ivory? Observe that I say to hunt ivory, not to
hunt elephants. It is very seldom that the man who
kills an animal gets the profit of the ivory; it is probably
stolen half a dozen times before it comes finally into the
hands of the white men. The lessees employ a large
number of hunters, and make heavy profits out of them.
For instance, they advance them a certain number
of guns, put down at say £ y apiece, a keg or two of
powder, caps, and a few trading goods, all reckoned at
the same exorbitant price. When the hunters return after
an expedition of five or six months the masters pay, it
is true, for the ivory very nearly at the price it fetches in
Tete, but then they pay in goods, on which, according
to their valuation of them, they make four or five hundred
per cent, profit. An arroba (15 kilogrammes of ivory)
never costs them more than £4, and they sell it for
about £ 20 at Tete. Evidently it does not need many
arrobas a month to bring in a comfortable income. After
the lessee has bought the hunter’s ivory in this way, he
will make him another advance of guns, powder, and
the like, so that in a few years the unfortunate man
will find himself some hundreds of pounds in debt, while
the ivory merchant has already made ^1000 profit out
of him. It must also be remembered that -some of the
hunters in the employment of these gentlemen possess
as many as fifty or sixty guns. It may well be imagined
what very extensive and various kinds of hunting they are
able to pursue with such resources.
Why indeed cultivate the soil when you can get ivory ?
It is a sight to see these traffickers gloating over their
ivory—the arrival of a consignment is a feast-day. It is
a cruel thought that every tusk has cost the life of one
man at the very least. Ivory in Portuguese Africa is the
synonym for slavery, theft, and murder. For instance, one
day the lessee of a prazzo said to me, quite as a matter of
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course, “ I am expecting a great deal of ivory from such
and such a place,” and he named the kraal of a native
chief; “ only I do not know when it will come, because
the chief will have to make war to get it; but he told
me that he was going to war, as he knew that I should
give him a good price just now.” The truth is that the
ivory trade will never be anything but a scandal until
THE A R R IV A L OF AN IVORY CARAVAN.
every one who deals in it is obliged to take out a licence,
pay a heavy fee, and be subject to a rigid supervision.
Another extraordinary institution of Portuguese Africa
is the Capitao Mor. These gentlemen are a kind of
militia officers, usually with the honorary rank of
Lieutenant - Colonel in the Portuguese army. They
are blacks. They raise their irregulars themselves, and
Government supplies them with thousands of guns to arm
them. In no part of Africa have I seen such a profusion
of guns, most of them lent by Government, which will
never see them again. So many guns and so much
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