The Prospective Civilization of Africa [pp. 171-191]

THE PRTNCETON E VIEW.
or twenty warriors besides, who run up and down the middle
part of the boat, or occupy a platform at one end. He can
bring to the attack, on the rivers, fleets of fifty or sixty such
"monsters," and on the great lakes fleets of 200 or 300 war.
canoes.
A double motive animates the attacks upon strangers. Strangers, especially whites, are feared and hated in consequence of
the many iniquitous plundering expeditions and slave-hunts conducted by private individuals for a number of centuries in all
parts of the peninsula, whereby an amount of suffering has been
inflicted on the black races which one shudders to contemplate.
There is scarcely a tribe but has injuries to avenge, or which
does not regard itself as having a perpetual blood-feud with the
whites. But this justifiable motive of a hostility provoked by a
thousand acts of wrong-doing is reinforced by a second less
venial ground of attack. The African is an epicure, and to his
taste no food is so delicious as the flesh of a man, especially of a
white. Strangers are viewed primarily as so much "meat;" and
when a peaceful expedition is seen descending one of the magnificent reaches of the Congo or the Ogobai,' the first feeling of
the dwellers upon the banks is apt to be that there is delivered
into their hands an abundant supply of the food which best
pleases their palates. "Meat! meat!" they shout, as the unknown craft comes into sight. "Hurrah! we shall have meat
to-day! Meat! meat! Plenty of meat!" Their feelings seem
to be hurt if the "meat" steers off and by a vigorous use of
sails or oars, or both combined, dashes past them and makes
its escape. It is as if a herd of red deer swept by the sportsman in the highlands of Scotland, without giving him time to
snatch up his rifle, cock it, and take an assured aim. The bitterness of disappointment succeeds to the delirium of hope,and
the savage steers his canoe back to shore, a sadder and a hungrier man.
Explorers and merchants have not, perhaps, any serious objection to being eaten after they have been killed; but they
take exception to the killing; and the great danger to life from
the almost universal savagery of the natives must be regarded
as one of the main reasons why Africa is still "the Dark Continent." Another peculiarly African practice has also a strong
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