CHAP. XII
Of the mode of Dress, and of some particular Usages.
THESE people have no species of vestment which answers to our shirts ; they are uncovered down to the waist in all seasons; and they go always bare-foot and bare-legged. Their dress consists of a small under, petticoat which we call pagne, and which resembles that worn by our bakers 'boys and brewers' apprentices. It reaches half way down the leg some of them, leave a long tail to it. The poor make it of their own country cloth; the rich make it of a cotton cloth, or of other light stuffs brought from Europe. This petticoat is surmounted with a broad girdle, commonly of red or blue cloth, most of them have only one dress, which they wear night and day, until it is too much worn or too dirty, for they never wash their clothes. By a usage very different from ours, the men have always caps on, and the women go bareheaded; they wear their hair, the men shave their heads. The heads of those who aspire to glory in apparel, resemble a parterre; you see alleys and figures traced on them with a great deal of symmetry. Allowing for this difference, the women are dressed pretty much like the men ; and the author of the "General History of Asia, Africa, and America", has been ill informed, when he says in Vol. XII. of his work that their petticoats are not surmounted by a girdle like those of the men; it is however remarked, that they have less inclination than the men for glittering ornaments; on feast days, for want of jewelry they attire themselves in rascades ; the rascade is a bead of glass, of which chaplets are made in Europe.
They make collars and bracelets of them, and even put them round their legs : some men envy them this brilliant attire ; but instead of employing the rascade in collars and bracelets, they make a sort of bandolier of it. The men as well as the women and even the children carry in their girdle a sheathed knife; like our head cooks. This knife, which is always well sharpened, serves as a razor for their beard, and as scissors for their poll. A modern historian, ill informed on the usage's of the country, says, that the inhabitants of Loango make their bed posts of the palm tree. If these people used bed posts, they might find in their forests many trees preferable to the palm for this purpose; but their bed is merely a mat for the poor, and an European carpet for the rich ; this does not binder them from sleeping soundly. The most diligent are never up before sunrise, and the greater part not till long afterwards. If they have any work to do, it is commonly done before dinner. They make only two meals ; the first at ten o'clock, and the second at nightfall. Although they tire themselves very little in the forenoon, they rest almost the whole afternoon; except when they take a fancy to go a hunting or a fishing, we have shown that their most common pastime, is talk. Many of them play at a game very like our games of draughts and chess ; they amuse themselves also at a hand game, which consists in beating, themselves in cadences quicker or slower, in different parts of the body, so as just to meet and strike at the same time each other's hands ; they often gather together in a public place, under the shade of a well-tufted tree, to hold concerts. Each is admitted to play his part ; they are less harmonious, but more noisy than ours. They use all sorts of stringed instruments made by themselves in their own way; trumpets, fifes, and drums, comprise also a part of their symphonies ; they always mix their verses with the sounds of their instruments. The more noise is made, the better the piece is performed ; these concerts, which flatter and transport the Africans, also amuse the Europeans, who cannot help laughing at this strange result of an infinity of voices accompanied by hoarse braying instruments of all kinds. If some of our military musicians were to land in these countries, they would become new Orphei, and draw after them the towns and villages ; but the tender and impassioned airs of our best opera musicians would be laughed at.
Although dancing is a fatiguing exercise in such but countries, it is much practiced. It is sometimes a diversion ; but oftener a religious ceremony. The Natives dance when they are in sorrow, just as they do when they are joyful ; at the funeral of their fathers, as at their own wedding, the song ever accompanies the dance; the most qualified of the troop, or he who can sing best, begins alone, and the others repeat the song, and dance to it as our provincial peasants do. They have no songs composed, they make them offhand; and take their subject from existing circumstances. The missionaries one day heard of a woman, who, dancing on the occasion of her husband's death deplored his lot and that of her children ; she compared the defunct to the roof of a house, the fall of which soon involves that of the whole edifice ; " Alas ! (cried she, in her language,) the ridge has fallen ; there lies the building exposed to the weather, all is over ; the ruin is unavoidable."
The more remote the natives are from sweetness and nature in their concerts, the more sentiment and truth they throw into their dances and rustic songs. Be they provoked by grief, or excited by joy, they are always the faithful expression of nature.
The hearer is moved with them, in spite of, himself ; especially when he beholds their action. One day, when two missionaries were passing through a village, they heard of a mother whose son some robbers had stolen, and sold as a slave to the Europeans. This woman, in the first transport of woe, sallies from her house dissolved in tears, holding her daughter by the hand; she immediately fell to dancing with her, chaunting, her misfortune in the most piteous and touching tone. Now she cursed the day when she became a mother; then she called her son making, imprecations against the wretches who had borne him away ; at other times she reproached for their most cruel avarice those European merchants who buy from all hands those who are offered to them as slaves.
Struck by the novelty of the fight, the missionaries flopped a moment : the song of the desolated mother, the abundance of her tears, the irregular movement which agitated her by turns, even the disorder of the dance all rendered the sentiment, all expressednature with such energy, that the missionaries themselves, pierced with profound grief, felt their tears flow and retired weeping. The women, like the men, have their assemblies for diversion and dancing: but only on feast days, or when they have finished their toils of the field, and the business of the household. They are never confounded with the men ; even the wife does not dance with her husband, nor the sister with her brother.
They never work above three days in succession ; the fourth is for them a general rest day, during which they are not allowed to busy themselves in tillage. The men, who repose habitually, work still less on that day. They walk, sport, and go to market. The missionaries have never been able to procure from the natives any explanation of this period of four days, which forms their week. They know neither months nor years.When they reckon time, which they rarely do, it is by moons and seasons; thus to make them understand that our Lord offered himself for the salvation, of men at thirty three years of age, we tell them that he was sixty-six seasons old.
It was matter of surprise to see people who count nothing, not even their age, should have like us the use of numbers, which they carry even to infinity. They begin by numerating like us, one, two, three, &c. &c. as far as ten: instead of saying ten, they say tithing, and they continue tithing one, tithing two, tithing three, up to twenty : then they say two tithings, next two tithings one, two tithings two, two tithings three, &c. they numerate them as far as nine tithings nine ; then they say a hundred, and begin again; when they come to ten hundreds, they employ a term which answers to a thousand ; and they thus continue to numerate as far as millions and milliards. Numbers are sometimes matters of entertainment to the sages of the country.
It is commonly at nightfall that the natives make their second repast ; it is not more splendid than the first. In the evening they light torches, which are of the size of those which our lacqueys carry behind carriages ; they are made of an odoriferous gum, which distills plentifully from one of the forest trees, and which petrifies in rollers. Instead of putting their wick in the torch, they put the torch into the wick, by investing the rollers with flax and bits of dry wood. These torches throw up a light smoke, which spreads aneagreeable odour to a great distance. Although the nights are never cold, they commonly light a fire in the evening to purify the air, which by the continual exhalations from the earth, is rendered thick and unwholesome. Their hearth, when no rain falls, is ill the middle of the court. That is also the place where they take their evening repast. Immediately after supper they retire to their huts, and lie down on their mats unless some neighbour comes to talk, or they have to dance in honour of a dead person, which very often happens; because they are accustomed, as we shall see in the sequel to dance for several months for their nearest relatives, and in proportion for others, and each for their friends. On these occasions they watch the greater part of the night, and sleep by day.
CHAP. XIII - Of the Government.
THE government with these people is purely despotic. They say their lives and goods belong to the King ; that he may dispose of and deprive them of them when he pleases without form of process, and without their baying any thing to complain of.
In his presence they pay marks of respect which resemble adoration. The individuals of the lower classes are persuaded that his power is not confined to the earth, and that he has credit enough to make rain fall from heaven: hence they fail not, when a continuance of drought makes them fearful about the harvest, to represent to him that if he does not take care to water the lands of his kingdom, they will die of hunger, and will find it impossible to make him the usual presents.
The King, to satisfy the people, without however compromising himself with heaven, devolves the affair on one of his ministers, to whom he gives orders to cause to fall without delay upon the plains as much rain as is wanted to fertilize them. When the minister sees a cloud which he presumes must shed rain, he shows himself in public, as if to exercise the orders of his Prince. The women and children troop around him, crying with all their might Give us rain, give us rain : and he promises them some.
The King, who reigns as a despot over the people, is often disturbed in the exercise of his power, by the princes his vassals, many of whom are not much inferior to him in force. These princes voluntarily acknowledge their dependence so long as the King exacts nothing from them which impairs their privileges or pretensions; but should the Sovereign authority seem inclined to constrain them, they endeavour to withdraw themselves from it by open force and by dint of arms.
The slaves are not the most ill-treated persons in these states : the King and the princes spare those who belong to them, under the apprehension, lest , having nothing which attaches them to their native soil, they should pass into the service of foreign Princes, who always very willingly seize the opportunity of augmenting their possessions, by assuring to fugitive slaves who are willing to surrender themselves to them, the same lot and condition in life which they have left. The free natives are more to be pitied, with respect to their condition. They are obliged to make presents to the king, in proportion to the number of their slaves, of the lands they till, and the cattle they breed. If the king thinks they do not give enough, he sends slaves to their places to take what they have. Just and humane kings do not permit themselves to make these cruel exaction's ; but their Ministers, the governors of provinces, and other subaltern officers, often execute them in their name. The people suffer without complaining, being persuaded that the King in despoiling them, only exercises his right, and console themselves with the thought in that they shall always find a few roots of manive to subsist upon.
This form of administration, as it may be easily imagined, stifles the very germ of emulation; the arts do not improve, every thing languishes. Even supposing the king to be sole proprietary of the whole kingdom, if his subjects by paying him a fixed tax, in proportion to the lands they could till, might promise themselves, like the farmers of our lords, to gather in quietness the fruits of their labours and their industry ; their rich plains which are now abandoned would be tilled with care, or covered with cattle ; the Prince would be the richer for it, and the people would live in a state of enjoyment. But, contented with a small field which yields, them a few insipid roots, and the tillage of which they leave to the females, they pass their lives in idleness, despising the riches, of which the king when he pleases, may say, "they are mine".
Though the kings do not employ the most proper means for promoting the welfare of their subjects, they hold this as a principle, that it is their interest as well as their duty, to occupy themselves with the care of rendering them happy, and maintaining peace and justice among them. Every day they pass several hours in deciding the processes. of those who have appealed with them to their tribunals; they hold frequent Councils; but it is rare that they have a real friend, and a disinterested man among those whom they invite thither. The ministers stand charged with the execution of whatever has been determined in the king's council; but as this prince blindly defers to them, it frequently happens, that, while occupied with the details of justice, he pacifies the differences of a few families, one of his ministers, in his name, though without his knowledge, spreads trouble and desolation over a whole province.
The principal ministers are the Ma-Ngovo, the Ma-Npontou, the Ma-Kaka, the M-Fouka, and the Ma-Komba. The Ma-Ngovo, whom we call Mangovo, is the Minister for Foreign affairs, and the introducer of foreigners at court. The Ma-Npontou is associated to the department of the Mangovo, and represents him when absent. The Ma-Kaka is minister of war, and even generalissimo of the armies. It is he who causes the troops to be mustered in time of war, who appoints their officers, reviews them, and also leads them to battle. The M-Fouka, whom the French call Mafouque, is minister of commerce. He makes frequent voyages on the Sea coasts, where are the warehouses and factories of the Europeans. He is obliged, by the nature of his office, to make frequent representations of the State of the exchanges which are made between the Europeans and the Africans, and to take care that no frauds are committed on either side. He also presides over the recovery of the droits which the king exacts from strangers who trade in his states; and he is charged with the general police of the markets. The Ma-Kimba is Grand Master of the waters and forests. It is he who has the inspection of all the boatmen, fishermen, and hunters ; and it is to him that the fish and game intended for the King are directed. They reckon also in the number of ministers a Ma-Nibanza, a Main-Bile, and some others whose functions are unknown.
These ministers have no offices or houses of business as ours have ; they even know not how either to read or write: with the exception of a small number of important affairs, they dispatch all others on the spot, and as soon as they present themselves, in order not to run the risk of forgetting them. Their clerks are intelligent slaves whom they send into the towns and provinces, to signify to private individuals, as well as persons in place, the king's intentions. In all the provinces and in all the towns, there is a Governor for the King. The Chiefs of the, villages are also king's officers; they administer justice in his name. They are the more exact in requiring that every one shall make presents proportioned to his revenues, inasmuch as they themselves are charged with the receipt and transmission of them to court. The peasants are frequently obliged to compound with them, and to make them particular presents in order to ransom themselves from the vexations which those officers are disposed to inflict in the name of the King. He, for example, who has four goats, in order not to be constrained to give three of them to the King, or even to give up the whole four, begins by making a present of the finest among them to the Chief of the village, who will then content himself with a second for the King. The King alone nominates persons to all state offices, and he does it in council. There is no examination as to who might be the subjects most worthy of holding them, but who are they who offer most for them. The lucrative governments are usually adjudged to the relatives of the ministers, or to the ministers themselves. The day on which the, King has nominated a person to an important place, is always a feast day in the capital. The province also, in which the officer is to exercise his charge, makes great rejoicing when he arrives to take possession of it: and the poor people, who when they are suffering always expect that a change must be for the better, run singing and dancing before him who has just bought, at the highest price, the right of despoiling them with impunity, and on behalf of the King.
CHAP. XIV. - Of the Princes and the Rights of The Crown.
The crown among these people is not hereditary, as several authors aver, who in this point as well as in an infinite number of others, merely copy each other's errors.
There is in each kingdom a family, or if you please a class of Princes, for they are very numerous, and they know not the order of their genealogy so correctly as to know if they be of a common origin. It is sufficient to be Prince in order to have the right of pretending to the crown : and it must necessarily be so, in order to possess certain noble fiefs which are held more immediately on that tenure.
No nobles are known in these countries, except the Princes, and nobility does not descend except by the females, so that all the children of a Princess-mother are Princes or Princesses, though begotten by a plebeian father; as, on the other hand, the children of a Prince, or even those of a King, are not nobles, unless their father has married a Princess, which scarcely ever happens, because the Princesses, as we have already remarked, have the privilege of obliging their husbands to have only a single wife, and because the Princes and the Kings generally prefer marrying plebeian females, and seeing their nobility terminate with them, to renouncing the rights of polygamy.
On the death of every King there is always an interregnum, during which are celebrated the obsequies of the defunct, who is commonly interred after the lapse of some years. The Kingdom, is then governed by a Regent, who takes the title of Ma-Boman, that is to say, Lord of terror, because he has the right of making himself feared throughout the whole Kingdom. It is the King who in his lifetime nominates the Ma-Boman: the law itself, in order to prevent the inconveniences of anarchy, obliges him to designate two of them, the second of whom, in case the first dies, is charged with the affairs of state until they have proceeded to the election of a new King, It is during this interregnum, that the pretenders to the crown, from their canvass and by means of presents and promises, try to render the electors favourable to themselves.
These electors are the Princes, the Ministers, and the Regent. The actual King of Loango was not elected till after an interregnum of seven years, and his predecessor, who died in 1766, is not yet buried; this delay was occasioned by a contest which arose between the citizens of Loango, who pretend that the Prince ought to be interred in his capital; and those of Loanguilli, the usual burial place of the Kings, who will not cede their privilege. However, as the difference was not made up, and the time determined by usage for the interment of the King had expired several years before, it was thought that the election of his successor might be proceeded in, and he has now occupied the throne four years.
In certain Kingdoms the Prince himself designates his successor but all the Sovereigns have not this right ; it is contested against the Kings of Loango and N'Goyo. The King designates his successor by putting him in possession of a fief which cannot be possessed except by him who is to succeed to the crown. This fief is called Kaia, and the Prince to whom the King gives the investiture of it, quits all other titles to assume that of Ma-Kaia. From the day on which the Ma-Kaia has taken possession of his lordship, entrance into the capital is forbidden him, until the King be dead and buried. The King, either in order not to remove to a distance from his person him whom he loves well enough to make his successors or to bold all the princes strictly attached to his interest, by letting each of them enjoy his hope of having the choice fixed on him, defers as long as he can the having a Ma-kaia proclaimed. It even happens sometimes that not being able to resolve, on creating a number of mal-contents by preference of one, he dies without having nominated his successor. It is but a few years since the King of Loango, now very old, declared his. Though according to the laws of certain States the right of the Ma-Kaias to the crown be incontestible, as it has not been conferred but by the choice of one man, it is never respected so much as that would be, which should be founded on the order of truth ; and after a powerful prince, jealous of a preference with which he perhaps had flattered himself, raises a part of the kingdom in revolt, and declares war on the new King. No one doubts, in the Kingdom of Kakongo, that after the death of the actual King the crown may be disputed against the Ma-kaia by, the Ma-nboukou, or Prince who is below him in dignity, but surpasses him in power, and neglects nothing to conciliate the favour of the people.
It is here rather than any where else, that every one is enabled to feel how advantageous it is for a State, that the Sovereign authority should be perpetuated in the same family by an invariable order and succession ; and if those pretended sages, who pass themselves for protectors of mankind in matters of government as well as of religion, had gone through a course of politics in these countries in the school of experience, they would doubtless not be seen to attack with their pens a form of government the most wisely established for ensuring the happiness and tranquillity of the people; and they would be forced to agree that hereditary sovereignty with all its inconveniencies, a necessary consequence of all human establishments, has inestimable advantages over an elective form of government. In fact when a King dies without having designated his successor and in Kingdoms where he has no right to designate one, it is as it were become customary to celebrate his obsequies by battles, and for the country to become the theatre of civil war, such results are expected and prepared for. This happened very lately in the little Kingdom of N'Goyo : The Prince who was elected King had to sustain his election with arms in hand, against the Ma-ntoakou of the same Kingdom. The latter, finding himself too weak to maintain a campaign against the Royal Army with his own forces alone, contracted an alliance with the Count of Logno, a powerful Prince, feudatory at Congo, the States of which border on the Kingdom of N'Goyo.
The Count gathered his troops together, led them in person to the Ma-nboukou, who by the help of these succours law, himself in a condition to seek out his enemy, before whom he was flying previously. The armies met, and battle was given, the King's troops were defeated ; he himself made prisoner, and the Ma-nboukou, who felt no horror at confirming the crime of rebellion by a still greater crime, had his Sovereign's head chopped off. Deeming himself in peaceable possession of the Kingdom he had just usurped, he wanted to dismiss the army of his allies but this war what the Count of Logno did not understand, and assuming a tone of authority with the pretended King, told him that every body knew he held the crown by incontestible rights; that if he would himself acknowledge them, he would treat him as a friend ; but if he pretended to dispute them with him, he knew how to avail himself of the arms in his hand. In fact, the war was renewed, and lasted several years, during which the trade of the Europeans was interrupted on those coasts ; it has just been terminated, but no one yet knows whether by a treaty of peace, or by the death of one or both of the combatants.
CHAP. XV. - Of the Laws, and the manner in which Justice if administered.
THERE are few laws among these people, and they are not written. These are preserved by usage and tradition ; there is no one ignorant of the cases which incur pain of death, and of those for which the offender becomes the slave of the person offended ; murder and poisoning are punished with death, and confiscation of a part of the culprits goods to the profit of the heirs of the deceased. It is very rare that a native openly attempts the life of another : but the Europeans, according to an old prejudice, believe that many die among them by poison; and they themselves, through an excess of simplicity believing their nation capable of hurrying into atrocities which are by no means characterestic of it, do not fail to attribute to poison all sudden deaths, and those which are preceded by certain violent diseases. The relatives of the deceased on these occasions consult divines and sorcerers, and know whom they are to come upon ; but it is enough to dwell awhile in the country in order to perceive that they slander themselves, and that these vague suspicions of poison or malefactions, the pretended authors of which are never convicted, are with them, as with all credulous people in, our country places, the pure effect of ignorance, and the chimera of a clouded imagination.
Robbery is not punished with death ; but he who is taken in the act of stealing, even things of the smallest value, is condemned to become the slave of the person he has robbed, unless he can make it up with him, by furnishing him with a slave in kind or in value. The faint penalty lies against any one who shall insult a Prince, or a Minister, even by words. We have seen that he who was convicted of adultery, was given up as a slave to the offended party. Only the Princesses have the right of insisting on the punishment of death for the faithlessness of their husbands.
All the ordinances of the King are arbitrary, and commonly bear the stamp of the most absolute despotism. It is a maxim generally adopted by Sovereigns, and regarded as a cardinal point of their policy, that the multitude may be restrained by severe rules ; but each makes an application of this principle with more or less discretion, according to his humanity, his sense or his council. By an ill judged zeal with regard to order and policy, Princes, otherwise well, intentioned, sometimes proscribe as crimes and on pain of death abuses which would disappear on the menace of the slightest punishment. The missionaries, on their arrival at Kakongo, having been troubled for several days in succession by some individuals who affected to sing and cry around their dwelling, carried their complaints to the King, when they had occasion to go and see him; he promised them that he would restore order; in fact, they were very much surprised on the same day to hear proclaimed an ordinance, denouncing pain of death on all persons, of whatever age or condition, they might be, who should dare in future to disturb the repose of the missionaries. The first time they went to salute the Prince he asked them, if any one had since molested them, and he told them, the first man denounced should lose his head. The reason they assign for this severity in punishing slight faults with the same vigor as the greatest is, that the easier it is to abstain from the thing forbidden, or to do what is ordained, the less executable is the disobedience; and the more of course does it deserve to be severely punished.
When the King is inclined to pass a law, he assembles his ministers and principal officers, and after having taken their advice, he declares his final will, which they cause to be known immediately by the governors of the provinces. The latter publish the law, by a herald, in all the markets which they hold in all the towns and villages of their government ; and they are charged jointly with the governors of the towns to see it duly executed, It is also in council that the King appoints persons to vacant charges and offices
fixes the price of goods, and regulates all that concerns trade and police.The governors of the towns and the chiefs of villages are at the same time judges civil and criminal. They have a right of sentencing to slavery and even to death; but it is open to every one to appeal from their sentence to the tribunal of the governor general of the province, and in the last resort to the King himself.
The room where the King gives his audiences and administers justice, is a sort of Hall ; he is seated on the ground upon a carpet, having round him several assessors whom he consults on difficult cases. There are always seen a great number of natives at his audiences. Some attend from curiosity, others from the interest they take, in the affairs that are to be decided. When the King is ready to hear the parties, he orders the officers to confront them in his presence; often in this country they do not plead by counsel, unless in case of sickness, when one of the nearest relatives takes charge of the affair. The pleaders in appearing before the judge always begin by making him a small present. The party pretending to be lesed, speaks first, and as long as he pleases. The women plead their causes themselves, like the men. One party never interrupts the adverse party; he waits till the other has done, in order to repel falsehoods and bad faith. If the facts be contested, and there be witnesses, the King orders them to make deposition of what they know ; if there be no witnesses, and the affair be of some importance, as those generally are in which appeal is made to the King, the decision is deferred until ampler information is brought; then the ministers charge certain intelligent Natives whose employ pretty nearly answers to that of our police spies, to discover the truth. They repair to the places where the people of the country talk; and some times address the parties themselves and try to insinuate themselves into their confidence, in order to worm out the secret. They rarely return without having the information necessary to serve as foundation for judgment.
When any one is accused of a crime of which they cannot convict him, they permit him to justify himself by drinking the Kassa.
The Kassa is prepared by infusing in water a bit of wood so called. This potion is a true poison to weak stomachs, which have not strength to throw it up immediately. He who stands the proof is declared innocent, and his accuser is condemned as a slanderer. If the fault of which the pretended culprit is accused does not deserve death, as soon as they perceive, him just ready to expire they make him take an antidote, which excites vomiting and brings him back to life ; but they condemn him as a culprit to the penalty fixed by law.
The inhabitants of the country have the greatest faith in this cordial. The Princes and lords sometimes cause kassa to be taken in order to clear up their suspicions, but they must first obtain the King's permission to do so, which is not difficult when the suspicions are of weighty concern.
About two years ago, a Prince of the Kingdom, of Kakongo, who suspected that a design had been entertained of poisoning him, caused all the people of his household to take kassa ; a great number of them died, and among others, a man of his officers whom he most loved, and who passed in the country for the honesties man in his service.
If the accused does not appear to answer him who prefers a complaint against him, the King sends servants to seek him who, are at once tipstaves, sergeants, bailiffs, marshal men. Those who have to dread being condemned to death try to quit the Kingdom, and take refuge with some foreign prince, who receives them among his slaves.
There are no public prisons. When the King thinks fit to superintend the execution, of any criminals, they are held by the neck to a piece of forked wood, eight or ten feet long, and too heavy for them to bear up in their hands, so that they remain captives in the open plain. It has been sometimes seen that not being able to walk forward because the, piece of wood cut their breath, they tried to drag themselves backwards : but no one ran after them, because it is well known they could not go very far. These vagabond prisoners have no other nourishment than that which is, given them through compassion. No one thinks of delivering them ; he who did so, would be put in their, place, if discovered.
As there are few laws in this country, the science of jurisprudence is not, properly speaking, any thing but the knowledge of the human heart, which is acquired by experience. The causes moreover, being, never distorted by the subtitles of chicanery ; let but the Kings apply themselves ; and the necessity they are under of terminating every day of themselves the differences of their subjects, puts them, in a, way to judge with wisdom and equity. When the King has pronounced sentence the parties retire, testifying by exterior marks of respect, that they abide by his judgment. The governors of the provinces, towns and villages, follow the same method as the King, in the administration of justice.
CHAP. XVI. On some, particular usages of the Kings of Kakongo.
BY an usage of which the inhabitants are equally ignorant of the origin and the end and which they regard as holding essentially to the constitution of their monarchy, the Kings of Kakongo cannot possess or even touch the different sorts of merchandise which come from Europe, except metals, arms, and articles made of wood and ivory. The Europeans and the Africans who are cloathed in European stuffs are not admitted into their, palaces. ( The King of Kakongo is permitted to receive European goods in his palace, provided he do not touch them. They who wear clothes made of foreign stuff take great care to keep at a certain distance from his person, for fear of touching him. He drinks to the sound of, a little bell in the Audience Hall. I stated the present King to be 126 years of age: he is turned 128. A gentleman, M. De Foligny, captain of a vessel of Nantes, who saw him last year, and hunted with him, assures me, that his age was known to all the vessel navigators who frequent the coast of Loango. ) It is to be presumed that the first legislator of the nation must have imposed this law on the Sovereigns in order to retard the progress of luxury, and attach the people by the example of their masters to do without any thing from foreigners, and seek supplies for their wants in their own industry. But as the law binds the King, alone, he is the only one who observes it. All the subjects, even his ministers, traffic indiscriminately in all kinds of goods that are brought them; they make use of the victuals and liquors of Europe and those who are, clad in foreign stuffs are exonerated from the offence by changing their dresses when they go to the, King's houses.
This Prince eats in one room, and goes to drink in another: he eats in private, and drinks in public : his common beverage is palm-wine. The hall where he drinks is closed only on three sides, and is pretty much like a great coach-house. There is always a great number of Natives who assist in the ceremony of the King's drinking that is the time they choose for paying court to him When the king appears, every body places himself in, the most respectful attitude; his cup-bearer gives him drink in a vessel of the country make; and at the fame time a ganga, who is at once his physician, his sorcerer, and his major-domo, begins to ring a little bell, crying with all his might Tina foua, tina foua, prostrate your selves or begone. Then all present, except the ganga, fall flat with their faces on the ground. They think the king would die if any of his subjects were to fee him drink. When he has drunk the ganga leaves off ringing and crying; every one rises, clapping his hands, and the king goes to finish his dinner.
By an usage equally singular the King of Kakongo is obliged to drink a draught at every cause which he decides; and sometimes he decides fifty at a fitting; but palm wine is merely a refreshing liquor. If he were not to drink the sentence would not be legal. They then observe the fame ceremonial as when he drinks during his repasts, He holds his audience daily from sunrise, that is to say, about fix o'clock, until there are no more causes to try. He is very rarely at liberty before eleven in the forenoon.
The now reigning King is generally beloved and esteemed by his subjects, for his patience in hearing and his wisdom in judging. His age (one hundred and twenty-six years) which gives him the superiority of experience over all the judges in this kingdom, has not weakened the vigour of his mind.
When the King falls sick the first care of his physicians is to publish the intelligence in all the provinces of his Kingdom. At this news every one is obliged to kill a cock nobody knows why. The most sensible among them laugh at this foolery, and say that the dead cock does more good to them, than to the King, because they eat it. But they raise a great outcry against a usage equally whimsical and more hurtful to society; it is, not to till the ground throughout the whole extent of the Kingdom for several months from the date of the King's death, and during a similar space of time in the province where a Prince or a Princess has died. The missionaries one day heard some Natives laying to each other, “We must surely be very mad to submit to filch ridiculous usages. How! because the King is dead of sickness, shall all his subjects expose themselves to die of hunger Yet gage and superstition prevail over reason.
CHAP. XVII - Of the Trade
THE principal trade of these people is that in slaves, whom they fell to the Europeans that is to say, to the French, the English, and the Dutch, who transport them to their American Colonies. The slaves taken from Loango and other neighboring Kingdoms, pass for the blackest and most robust in Africa. They are taken in war by those who sell them. In the interior of the territory there are hostile people irreconcilable to those of whom we are speaking. The latter say they are cruel and ferocious, that they drink human blood, and eat as many victims as they can take. It is by way of reprisals that they themselves wage open war on them, and they pretend that they, treat them humanely, contenting themselves with felling them to the Europeans at the fame time when they have a right to deprive them of life. This war, though continual, does not however trouble the tranquility of the Kingdom, because it is carried on far beyond the frontiers by certain individuals, and, properly speaking, it is less a war than a chase; but one in which the hunter is often liable to become the prey of the game he follows.
Those who have made captives fell them to merchants of the country, or bring them to the coasts ''but they are not allowed themselves to fell them to the Europeans: they are obliged to address themselves to brokers, nominated by the minister of commerce, who treat with the captains of ships. These slaves are estimated according to their age, sex, and strength they pay for them in European goods.
Though the different Kingdoms of which we are speaking be not far distant from each other; the manner of valuing goods and turning slaves to account is not uniform among them. On the coasts of Malimha and Cabinda, that is to Say, in the Kingdoms of Kakongo and N'Goyo, they reckon by goods; and in Loango by pieces; what they call goods, is a piece of cotton or Indian cloth ten or fourteen ells long. The Natives before striking a bargain go and mark off at the captain's store, which is on the sea side, the pieces of Ruffs they choose to take; and he who has fold four slaves at fifteen goods a head, goes to receive sixty pieces of the stuffs marked off. In the Kingdoms where they buy by goods it is customary to give for each slave what is called the over and above, which commonly consists of three or four guns and as many swords; fifteen pots of brandy, fifteen pounds of gunpowder, and some dozens of knives. If these articles be not always given them, others are substituted as an equivalent.
At Loango they reckon by pieces, and every fort of goods is entered in a line of the account with the stuffs to form the piece; thus, when they say a slave costs thirty pieces, it does not mean be costs thirty pieces of stuffs, but thirty times the ideal value Which they think fit to fix on, and call apiece; so that a single piece of stuff is sometimes estimated at two or three pieces, as sometimes several objects must form a single piece. This difference in the manner of reckoning is nothing at bottom, and the price of slaves is nearly the fame in all the Kingdoms bordering on Loango.
It is possible by inspecting the following account to estimate the real value of the piece, and to see what are the goods which commonly pass among the Africans in exchange for slaves.
I have paid to the Ma-Nboukou, for the slave Makviota, twenty-two years of age, whom he has fold me at thirty pieces,
An indienne of fourteen ells valued at two and a half pieces
2 ˝
Two guineas (they are cotton cloths dyed deep blue) each valued at two and a half nieces
5
A chaffelat (white grape), and a bajutapeau (hog's cheek). fourteen ells each (they are cotton cloths),
estimated at four pieces
4
A neganopeau of 14 ells and a great nicane of 9 ˝ ells (other cotton cloths), estimated at three
and a half pieces
3˝
A piece of handkerchiefs of 9 ells, estimated at a piece and a half
1˝
A rod (about an ell and a quarter of thick woollen stuff) estimated at a piece .
1
A girdle of red cloth (an ell long by one foot broad) estimated at apiece
1
Two common guns, valued at two pieces
2
Two barrels of gunpowder (about 5lbs. each) valued at two pieces
2
Two bags of leaden musket balls, (weight 3lbs. each) valued at half a piece
0˝
Two swords, valued at each a quarter of a piece
0˝
Two dozens of common sheath knives, estimated at half a piece
0˝
Two bars of iron (weight both together 2olb.) valued at a piece
1
Five pots of Dutch ware, valued at half a piece
0˝
Four barrels of brandy, each containing five pots, valued at four Pieces
4
Ten strings of bugles (glass beads, of which chaplets are made) valued at half a piece
0˝
Total - 30 Pieces
I have paid moreover to the broker for his trouble the value of six pieces in guns, powder,
swords, and brandy
6 pieces
General total 36 pieces
Besides the pieces determined, on for each slave, the captain must also, ere the bargain be closed, make a present to the Mafouka and the brokers who have served him best, and whom he is very glad to attach to himself: these presents are made in coral, services of plate, carpets, and other movables, more or less precious.
Slaves are at present much dearer than formerly, at least to the French; for they may be dear with respect to one nation and not to another; the French, English and Dutch alike make their exchanges with goods, but these goods differ; so that the dearth of slaves to one nation depends on the price which the herself puts on the goods she carries to the Natives, and this price, as it may be imagined, must vary by reason of the better or worse understanding which reigns among individuals engaged in the fame commerce. It would be easy for them not to pay for slaves more than their just value, or even below it, if it were moreover allowable to exercise monopoly and be more unjust towards the barbarian and the stranger than to the citizen, but through want of good understanding among the captains the reverse always takes place; the slaves are bought as it were by auction, and at more than their value. A reasonable price however is sometimes fixed, which they agree not to exceed in their purchases; but even then, every one for himself, desiring to make a ready bargain, renders this convention illusory, by a tacit agreement with the brokers, to pay them in secret a higher price for him whom they have publicly bargained for, to save appearances. The matter at present has come to this pitch, that the Natives are themselves afraid left the French should in the end make up their minds to renounce a commerce which becomes daily more and more expensive to them.
An old Mafouka one day came to see a missionary respecting this subject, and imagining that the king of France was to be treated with in the same way as the King of Kakongo, and that a missionary could indiscriminately preside over commerce or announce the gospel; thou must, says he, “write to the king of France, and advise him, for his own advantage. and ours, to, establish thee here to see that the captains of ships do not buy any more of our slaves below the reasonable price, for we see very well, that after having bought them of us too dear they will finish by buying no more of us at all."
The function of the brokers is not limited to facilitating the slave trade; they are also charged with superintending the execution of the regulations established by the King or the Mafouka, the most important of which is, that there shall not be fold any slaves to the Europeans except those which have been taken in war or purchased from abroad.
Every slave born in the Kingdom is under the protection of the Mafouka, and may appeal against his master, should he be inclined to fell him to the Europeans unless he have given him that right through his own misconduct; for the law authorizes a master to rid himself of a slave, who may have been guilty of bad faith, rebellion, or any other crime. The Mafouka of Kakongo, to prevent the violences and frauds which might be exercised in this trade, has issued prohibitions against the brokers from trafficking in slaves during the night time, or even from introducing, them into the stores of the Europeans, under pretext of showing them to the captains. They are equally forbidden to receive, without an express permission, advance or earnest for the price of the slaves who have not as yet been delivered up.
(The prohibition made by the Mafouka of Kakongo to the brokers, against receiving advances on the price of the slaves they had to deliver, is habitually transgressed under the very eye of that minister).
The slave trade is the only one which the French carry on, upon these coasts of ivory, that in monkeys, parrots, and some other merchandise of that kind, forms an object of so little, importance that they reckon nothing of it. The English obtain yearly from the forest of Jomba several ships cargoes of a very good red wood for dying, though of an inferior quality, to that of Brazil. The trade carried on upon the coasts With foreigners, interests, as I have just observed, only the small number of individuals who may be regarded as the rich and mighty ones of the country. As to the people; knowing no need, but that of food and clothing in the grossest and simplest manner, they confine their traffic to a very few things; there is a market daily in all the towns and great villages, it is held in the public place under the shade of some thick trees. They sell smoke-dried fish, manioc and other roots, salt, palm-nuts, sugarcanes, bananas, fig bananas, and some other fruits. It is on feast days that the greatest afflux of buyers and sellers is seen. No fraud is known in the market; a mother sends thither a child six years old, convinced that they will not deceive him. It is not necessary to understand the language in order to buy, no one ever cheapens or bargains; all goods are divided equally in small portions of the standard weight, and each portion is worth a macouta. There is not much greater risk of being cheated in the quality than in the quantity; one persons salt and manioc is worth the salt and manioc of another. Thus, without taking the trouble of comparing one dealer's goods with those of another, they take from the first they find as many small packets as they have macoutas to give, and make room for others.
CHAP XVIII - Of Wars
In these countries where the crown is elective, the death of the Kings, according to a remark already made, is as it were the signal of a civil war. A Prince who, ambitious enough to direct his views to the throne, has no reason to count on the favour of the electors, makes his vassals take up arms to force their suffrages, or to dispute the crown with him whom they may have preferred. If he fears that his party may not be the strongest, he addresses himself to a foreign Prince, who, for a few pieces of European stuffs, or vessels of silver, sends him a whole army.
The reciprocal pretensions of the sovereigns to certain provinces, or even on the states bordering on theirs, are the common pretext of all wars between people of different Kingdoms. All these Kings have their chimaera in this respect, which they realize when a favourable opportunity offers; it is thus that the count of Sagos has just availed himself of his pretensions to the Kingdom of N'Goyo. The King of Congo claims the Kingdom of Kakongo as a province of his states; and the King of Kakongo, doubtless by way of reprisals, never calls himself any other title than Ma-Congo, king of Congo, instead of Ma-Kakongo King of Kakongo, a title given him by foreigners, and the only one that suits him. These pretensions are not always unfounded; many small Kingdoms or Sovereign States, which at the present day share Africa among them, were originally provinces dependent on other Kingdoms, the particular governors of which usurped the sovereignty. It is not a long time since the Sogno ceased to be a province of the Kingdom of Congo.
The sovereigns of these countries maintain no regular troops. When a King has determined on war, his Makaka, minister of war and generalissimo of his armies, transmits orders to the Princes and governors of provinces, to levy troops; the latter never fail to load to the rendezvous the quota demanded of them. If the Makaka in the review he makes of his armies thinks it does not cover a sufficient space of ground, he has only to say a word in the King's name and in a few days he finds it more numerous by half. Among these people, as among the ancient Romans, every citizen in a state to bear arms is a soldier of need; but a very bad soldiers.
They who march on some military expedition never fail to paint their whole bodies red, confident that this colour will render them invulnerable to fire arms; part of them wear panache's, even greater and richer in colours than those with which our ladies of the great world adorn themselves at the present day; but they regard them less as ornaments than as scarecrows to inspire their foes with dread. Many are also persuaded that certain feathers of certain birds arranged in a certain guide on their caps have the virtue of putting danger aside, and placing their head in safety. All take with them victuals for a few days, and what arms they can procure, for they have none furnished them. These troops advance on either part without order and without discipline; and the chiefs who command them seem rather to perform, the function of shepherds or herdsmen than that of generals of armies. If a meeting take place they fall to directly, and each, regardless of rank, inattentive to order, goes right upon the enemy he has in his head; the battle always begins with disorder and confusion, soon ending by a general rout or a complete, victory. All depends on the first shock, the party that sustains it with most vigour cannot fail to remain master of the field of battle. The combats are neither bloody nor obstinate the action is scarce commenced cry fright seizes one or both armies. To determine on a general flight, there only needs that of some soldiers who have seen a comrade of theirs fall by their sides, in an instant all is dissipated and the whole is disbanding. Then the victors pursue the vanquished, sticking to no, employs but that of making prisoners, whom they sell as slaves to the Europeans.
But it is, very rare that the armies advance thus to encounter each other with the intention of coming to blows. The great art of making war is to avoid an enemy and to pounce on the villages known to be abandoned, in order to pillage them, reduce them to ashes, and take some prisoners there. So that no resistance be found, they advance fiercely, burn and sack every thing, and often both armies are despoiling, each on their side, at once, on the hostile territories. They then return, always avoiding an encounter except in case a favourable opportunity occurs for making prisoners. If the Makaka hears that a hostile party is to pass along a wood, or through some defile, he puts a much stronger body in ambush, which bounces suddenly upon it, surrounds it, and masters it without fighting.
The armies in general do not make long campaigns, a war is sometimes over in less than eight days. When the soldiers have eaten the provisions they brought with them, and find none in the hostile country, or when they want powder and lead, nothing can hold them; all, without asking leave, take the road home; and if the King is not satisfied with this expedition, it rests only with him to prepare another, which terminates by desolating the country, without however occasioning any more bloodlhed. The Kings sometimes make war in person; but if they be taken, they have no mercy to expect. Their heads are chopped off on the field of battle; a piece of cruelty which always implies weakness in him who performs it, a dastardly and timid foul which fears to repent in future of having been generous to an enemy who had fallen into its power.
It is less by their strength as we see, than by their respective weakness that these different states maintain themselves; and because the soldiers of one Kingdom are neither braver nor better commanded than those of another. Two hundred men of our troops. would conquer as much of the country as they could run over; but after triumphing over Kings and nations, they soon, as if in turn besieged by the action of the climate, and by, all the wants of, life, would find themselves at the discretion, of those whom they had insulted but a few days before. It is thus that providence seems to have wished to protect these poor people, by their very misery and their weakness, against the ambition and cupidity of polished nations.
Though the Natives do not pique themselves on courage and valour in fight, they however passionately desire the reputation of brave men; no greater wrong could be uttered to a man, than to call him a coward; as, on the other hand, no more flattering compliment could be paid him, than to say he has an intrepid and martial air. Beauty of countenance is regarded as a defect in men; every one envies him whom the smallpox have worst used. Many, in order to give themselves a terrible air, and through a foolish ostentation of firmness and courage, make incisions on their visages on their shoulders and arms. It might be thought, on seeing them after this cruel operation, that they had just been engaged in a sanguinary battle.
They use nothing for staunching blood but gunpowder, and their wounds cicatrise in a short time. A Missionary one day asked a native, who was getting his visage furrowed, why he condemned himself to so much suffering? "For honour," said he, and because, on seeing me, people will say, there's a man of heart." Doubtless greater and truer courage would be shown, in exposing the person to the steel, of his foes, than in getting himself slashed with the edge of a knife: but it must nevertheless be allowed, that men who have constancy enough to submit, through, vainglory, to such painful operations, would not be incapable of generous actions of another description. Nor can it be doubted, that the form of the government which naturally invites the people to repose and sloth is also one of the causes which most contributes to sustain their cowardice. A slave, whose condition is independent of all revolutions, will never rush headlong into dangers, like a soldier whose interest is confounded with that of his sovereign, and who knows that in fighting for his country, he is also fighting for the little inheritance which he has received from his fathers.
CHAR. XIX - Of the Language
Among that prodigious mass of narratives, from which has been formed the general history of Voyages and Travels, and an infinity of others published every day, no mention is made of the languages which are, spoken in the different countries, the manners and usages of which are described to us; and if the authors did not from time to time put into the mouths of the inhabitants of those distant regions, some words of which they know the meaning, we should be tempted to believe, that only dumb people had travelled among those nations. All seem to have agreed on observing the profoundest silence on this matter, either because it appeared to them foreign to the province of history, and far from proper to stimulate the curiosity of the readers, or more probably, because they had not made a stay long enough among the people of whom they speak to us, to learn their languages and undertake to give us an idea of it. Be it as it may, all will agree at least, that whatever relates to the language, its genius, its relation with other known languages, even its mechanism and its flow are not traits which would look misplaced in the historical picture of a nation; and if we have to dread offending the delicacy of some of our readers, by referring them to the a, b, c, we dare hope that the greater number, and those especially who love the sciences, and cultivate the languages, will not be sorry to add to their acquirements, some succinct notions of a language which, considering it to be that of a barbarous people, is not on that account less interesting.
The idiom of Kakongo, nearly the same with that of Loango, N'Goyo-samba and other small circumjacent States, differs essentially from that of Congo. Several similar articles, and a great number of common roots, seem however to indicate that these languages had a common origins; but they know not which of the two is the mother tongue. The cleverest among the Natives have not the smallest idea of the origin and progress of their language; they speak, say they, as they have heard their fathers speak. It has been thought that there might be perceived some marked connections between this language and some ancient tongues, especially the Hebrew Greek, and Latin.
Though the Missionaries, in considering the richness and beauty of the language, Suspected that it was formerly written, nothing however has been found capable of convincing them; they have nowhere found any traces of writing, nor any vestiges of signs which might stand in its stead. The Natives consider it as a sort of prodigy, that the Europeans, by means of certain characters, communicate ideas, and converse at a hundred, or a thousand leagues distance, as if they were present; but they did not even suspect that it was possible to introduce this marvellous art into their language, and still less that it could be practised even with the most limited capacity. Writing, in fact the finest invention of the human mind, if its origin be not divine, has something in it which astonishes reason; and, had we not the use of it, we should doubtless feel the same sentiments as did these barbarians, at the recital made to them of its valuable advantages, which often equal arid, sometimes surpass even those of speech.
The Missionaries, deeming themselves the first writers of the language, used the right which belonged to them in that capacity, of determining the figure of the characters, and of regulating the orthography. They consulted the pronunciation in order to fix the number of letters which were to be employed in writing. They have taken them from our alphabet, only to the number of eighteen, which seemed to them sufficient; A, B, D, E, F; G, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, S, T, U, V, Z. The S, is put for the C, before the vowels a, e, i; the K stands for it before o, u, and all the consonants; it also stands for the Q on all occasions. The pronunciation of the language is soft and easy; it excludes the H aspirate, and hence that letter becomes as useless as it is with us in the words horloge, hirondelle, heures, and others, the first syllable of which in nowise participates the sound of the H, with, which they are spelt. The R is of no use to them, their organ admits not the roughness of its pronunciation; they change it into L, and if you tell them to pronounce ra, re, ri, they say la, le, li. They know not the found, of the U, which they, pronounce ou. The X is useless in their alphabet. The J, consonant, is equally unnecessary; they never use our syllables ja, je, jo, ju; but they always pronounce it hard, ga, gue, gui, go, gou.
Almost all the syllables are simple, and form only one sound, this renders the protunciation light and rapid; there are, however, many words in the language, which begin with m, or n, as in the words m-Fouka, N'Goyo, but these letters are pronounced so slightly that they who are strangers to the language, would pronounce after them Fouka and Goyo. The letters a and o are, often repeated, and terminate a great number of words. Many liquid syllables also contribute to soften the, pronunciation.
The language has not, properly speaking, either genders, numbers, or cases. To express the diference or genderin animated things, they add the word bakala, male, or kento, female; thus, n-foufou-ba kala signifies a cock; n-foufuo-kento, a hen. We say likewise, a male, or female canary; a soft-roe’d or a hard-roe’d carp, &c. The cases, are distinguished, as with us, by articles, and it is the same with the nouns. The nominative of the verb has its case distinguished by the place it, occupies in the phrase.
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