Sanders of the River

no more. Nor, in the small hours of the night, when conversation flags in the little circle about the fires in fishing camps, shall the sleepy-eyed be roused to mer

c of Liberia, I say that the Monrov

vernment appointed three admirals, fourteen captains, and as many officers as the ship would hold, and they all wore gorgeous but ill-fitting uniforms. The G

ce, the admirals and captains taking it in turn to stoke

he harbour, one of

o steer now," an

our Monrovian swims like a fish, but their uniforms were spoilt by the sea water. To the suggestion that salva

f his desk at Government House, eating sardines with his fingers-"and i

the British Admiralty decided that the wreck was a danger to shippin

applied (I suspect the captain of H.M.S. Dwarf, who was a man with a bitter

that bell, and the people of Monrovia fe

who are described in a lordly fashion by the true Monrovians as "indigenous natives," and the chief of these a

and that in spite of a heavy swell. The bell was still, and two ex-admirals, who were selling fish on the f

n despair, "may Beelzebub, who is the father and aut

ghout the night they sat, rising and falling with the swell, and the monotonous "clang-jangle-clong" was music in their ears. All night it s

miral, "we are driftin

f measures, the Kroomen had come and taken the buoy, bell and all, and to this day

y birth Congolaise, and untrustworthy, informed the police, and with some ceremony Bosambo was arrested and tried at

prison, and Bosambo inte

he forest, and if you do not release me at onc

hically, "but I receive two dollars a week for guarding

den," said Bosambo with promptitude. "You and

ou steal bells, which are of brass and of no p

osambo, and went away to the forest settlement

r the Isisi, Ikeli, and Akasava countries, received, i

IT MAY

mbo Krooboy, who escaped from the penal settlement near Monrovia,

iption

es-they were not infrequent in their occurrence-and

whole of Africa that is as defenceless as the poor Ochori. The Fingoes, slaves as th

e, who had journeyed down to headquarters to lay the gri

ed them on h

lk, N'Gombi people from far-away countries, they come to

at?" asked Sa

so burning and the taking o

ou?" asked Sanders

id an elderly man, cl

ing your interest and protecting you. This fetish you shall plant on the edge of your village that faces the sun at noon. You shall mark the place where it shall be planted, and at

ressed were they when, before starting on their homeward journey, Sanders placed in their ha

ttle River, until they came to Ochori. There, by the light of the moon, with the sacrifice of two goats (to m

try that the Ochori were particularly protected by white magic. Protected they had always been, and many m

Let us go across the river and see with our own eyes, and if they have lied we shal

the Ochori city, and the Ochori people, hearing that the Akasava people wer

me to the pole stuck in the ground

g made obeisance to it and sacrificed a chicken (which

Isisi, and they must needs co

th them and lodged with

asked the Isisi chief in command;

elf the journey, fo

i chief, "I will beli

eople, who were gathered at the palave

oodshed, and in the morning

he woods, but the precaution was unneces

Little People of the Forest, who were so shy that they came by nigh

ssed eight hundred miles of wild land in the earnest hope that time would dull the me

e had been scholar at a mission school-he was the proud possessor of a bound copy of The Lives

ioc and sugar-cane, and told him about Sandi's magic. After he ha

SSERS

, and strolled back

"is good magic. I know, because I

ceeded to libel a perfectly innocen

cutions, a story which began in remote ages, when Tiganobeni, the great king

ll the story, because the official story-teller of the Ochori had only

I have long sought

he a

does Sandi

aid the chief, "on the twelf

came h

t full, three moons since; h

again to himself, "for

was remarked by the other tribes, for news of this kind spreads, but since he was married, and into the chief's family at that, it was accepted that the man must be of the Ochori folk, and such was the story that came to headquarters. Then the chief

been revealed to me in a dream that I shall be chief of the Ochori. Therefore, O chiefs and

"nay" to him, even though in the assembly were thr

f the new chief

imself-"I do not remember the man-yet if he can pu

or both, Bosambo wa

o walk past a pelebi (table) on which are many eggs. And it is his command that each man as he passes shall take an egg so swiftly th

fortunate Ochori out by night, teaching them such things as they had never known before. Thus he instructed them in what manner they might seize upon a goat so that the goat could

ting his brows, when the last report came in. "With any

or their fighting qualities, h

came complaint from the Akasava tha

o settle that palaver without outside help. The next report was alarming. In two weeks t

leopard does not take ivory tusks even to pick his teeth with. So Sanders made haste to journey up the river,

motion, "these goats disappear night by night, though we watch

hese things," said Sanders i

gesture was

eople live very far away; also the Isisi. T

egg games, and the midnigh

chief," he said; and cr

wo miles out of the city, and the councillors and wis

your chief

here came to him a feeling of sickness, and he fe

rs no

him," he s

htly, felt gingerly for the swelling on the neck behind the ears for a sign of sleeping sickness. No symptom could he find; but on the bare shoulder, as his fingers passed ove

nders, and gave the moa

ia," he said; and Bosambo rose obediently a

everal minutes; then Sanders, speaking

nd to hang y

Excellency wish

is boot with his walking-stick

you make men of these peop

y are puffed with pride because they h

nd of his stick l

he said. "No more chiefs or chiefs' sons

shall be as

th (ivory) and the salt also. For if you hand them back to Akasav

nodded

e you are a clever man, and the

s you wish," said Bosambo; "for I have alwa

lasses, and wondered where he could have dropped them. At that identic

nor stealing of any kind. This much I told the great Sandi, and as a sign

llor in awe, "did you

im," said Bosambo modes

new nothing of this i