Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1895 — CANNIBAL ORGIES. [ARTICLE]

CANNIBAL ORGIES.

hideous scenes witnessed IN THE DARK CONTINENT. An Amazing Story of Mingle* Civilization and Barbarism. Prisoners of War Slain and Divided Among the Victors. A Savage Frenzy. Father J. Dubendorf, Superior of a mission at Onitska, Africa, on on the Niger, 150 miles above its mouth, tells an amazing story of mingled civilization and barbarism among the natives near the mouth of the river. Father Dubendorf journeyed down the river by canoe some months ago along with Nathaniel, an African boy of Brass, educated and Christianized at the mission. The Father and his companion were entertained at a Zenobian trading post, six or eight hours from the native city of Brass, and there the king of Brass had a pirogue waiting, with the request that the lad be visit his people. Brass is one of the Niger, not far from the .qeiSF On another of the mouths is th»*nval city of Akassa, the seat of the British Royal Niger Company, a trading concern which, according to the Father, has driven out of the region by severe action three other companies, two French and one English, and hks earned, by alleged brutality, the hatred of the natives. Father Dubendorf reached the region when this feeling was at its most intense point, and the natives were ripe for revenge.

When the request of the King that Nathaniel be sent to Brass reached the Father he determined to accompany the boy, lest the latter be detained in captivity by the King, and in time relapse into barbarism. The journey was successfully accomplished, and the Father found Brass 'a considerable town of palm-leaf-thatched huts. Some had great platforms to catch rain water because the water of the river at that point is peculiarly unwholesome. The King clad in a silk robe, a cravat of .like material, and a felt hat, received the Father most graciously, offered him lodging,and invited him to share the royal table. The King, who, was once a pupil of a mission, was now an old man of venerable mien, but abundant strength and activity. Near the King’s great house was a house built on a European pattern and covered with zinc. It was comfortably furnished with European chairs and tables, and had a coal oil lamp. There were glasses and mural decorations. The King’s supper was an elegantly served meal in the European style, and the Father, knowing that earlier Kings of Brass had been notable barbarians, could hardly believe his senses. Early the next morning the Father called on the King, but learned that he was too busy to be seen. Waiting an hour, he was astonished to see the King come forth from a council with the chiefs, painted, with white rings under his eyes, a musket in his hand and a knife in his belt. The benevolent old King of the rright before was transformed into a savage of ferocious aspect. Sixty canoes laden with arms were drawn up along the river bank, and the King was walking back and forth delivering incoherent orders. At the sound of a cannon he hastily gave the Father his hand, bade him live as if the house in which he lodged was his own, assured him that orders had been given for his comfortable entertainment, and went off, leaving the priest to understand that the exhibition about to start was to make war upon a neighboring tribe. The Father saw the King pause before an assemblage of idols near the river bank, sprinkle his warriors with a liquid, and join in the war dance. Nearly all the men of Brass went on the expedition. An old chief was left behind in charge of the village, and the women were forbidden in the absence of their lords to enter the houses. No sooner were the warriors gone than the women fell to quarrelling among themselves over the possession of various household utensils. They wailed over the departure of their sons to the battle and prophesied their return with wounds or their death in the fight. The quarrelling kept up until after nightfall, and then the women crept to bed wherever they could find shelter outside the houses.

The first returning canoe reached Brass at 6 o’clock next morning, and a quantity of booty was carried into the King’s house. Then it was that the Father first learned that the attack had been the headquarters of the Royal Niger Company. Father Dubendorf represents that the English would have been destroyed but for a French naval officer. Lieutenant Guigues, accidentally at the headquarters, whose courage and address delayed the attack and gave some of the whites time to escape. A young African of the returned party leaped upon a cannon just after it had been fired and displayed the company’s flag in token of triumph. Other canoes rapidly arrived, bringing more booty, and many of the warriors wore white breech clouts in token of enemies slain. By noon nearly all the canoes but the King’s had returned. He and some of the warriors had stopped at an island some miles from Brass and taken ashore six captive Kroumen Africans of the slave coast, who had been employed at the company’s agency and had come to hate the people of Brass. These six men were beheaded on the island, and some iiours later the King, with a dozen white-clouted warriors arrived in his canoe, and the six corpses in another. Other captives, still alive, were also brought home. Then began a scene of savage rejoicing and cannibalism. The bodies were cut up in pieces, the children being stationed around that they might be inured to the sight, and whole limbs wero carried off to be cooked and eaten. One young African who, the Father declares, had been educated at a mission, taking in one hand the sabre of Mr. Flint, General Agent of the Royal Niger Company, and in the other a limb of one of the victims, danced in savage joy about the company’s flag, with a crowd of. onlookers applaud'ng I The division 6f the plunder fol-

lowed, accompanied with qnarreia and a sort of savage frenzy. The madness of gin and palm brandy was added to that of slaughter, and the scene was so hideous that the Father refuses to describe it. He notes that several parts of a human body were brought to him and he was courteously asked to take his choice. His refusal was evidently not understood. Later, in looking from his window, the Father saw a roast thigh taken to the King’s house, and mentally resolved to be careful at his next meal The supper at which the King was not present, was served in the European style and with European dishes, save for a large roast which the priest recognized and sent away. His mind was now made up to get away from Brass as soon as possible with the boy Nathaniel. The King was not to be seen, so the priest sent word of his wishes. The King answered that the boy must remain at Brass. “Then I remain, too.” was the Father’s answer, for he knew that the King desired to make a sorcerer of Nathaniel. The latter was eager to be gone, and declared that if the King made him a sorcerer, in return he would, in that character, transform the King into a gorilla. The Father and Nathaniel, neither being guardod, concerted an escape. The village was sound asleep early in the evening, and the two visitors also pretended to go to bed. Between 11:80 and 10 they stole to the river, took a light pirogue, already fixed upon at a reconnoissanco early in the evening, and made off. They paddied until exhausted, and then tho boy fell asleep. At 4 in the morning they heard a large pirogue pass their hiding place. They had lost their way during the night, but, conjecturing that this pirogue was laden with merchandise bound for one of the white settlements, they followed it cautiously, and after some hours reached the European factory where they had already been entertained.