Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 19, 2025
They were trophies of the early days when Fort M'Bassa was really a fort, and from those woods down there clouds of soot-black devils, with filed teeth, raided the place, only to be swept away by rifle fire.
They had been on the march for an hour when Adams, fussing like a person who is making his first journey by rail, stopped the guide to make sure he was leading them right. "M'Bassa?" said Adams. "M'Bassa," replied the other, nodding his head. Then with outspread hand he pointed before them and made a semicircular sweep to indicate that he was leading them for some reason by a circuitous route.
It was a terrible thing for him to leave his post, but the white men were from M'Bassa and wished to return to M'Bassa, and M'Bassa was the head centre of his work and the terrible Mecca of his fears. White men from there and going to there must be obeyed. This was the last phase of the great hunt.
They were making for this place now, which was to be the base from which they would start on the great hunt. The fort of M'Bassa is not used to-day as a fort, only as a collecting-place for rubber.
He told of the Hostage House at Yandjali, and the wretched creatures penned like animals eating their miserable food; he told of M'Bassa and the Hostage House there, with its iron rings and chains; he told how all over that vast country these places were dotted, not by the hundred but by the thousand; he told of the misery of the men who were driven into the dismal forests, slaves of masters worse than tigers, and of a task that would never end as long as rubber grew and Christ was a name in Europe and not a power; he told the awful fact that murder there was used every day as an agricultural implement, that people were operated upon, and suffered amputation of limbs, not because of disease; and that their sex and age those two last appeals of Nature to brutality had no voice; he told the whole bitter tale of tears and blood, but he could not tell her all, for she was a girl, and it would be hard to speak even before a man of the crimes against Nature, the crimes against men, against women, and against children, that even if the Congo State were swept away to-morrow, will leave Belgium's name in the world's history more detestable than the names of the unspeakable cities sunk in the Dead Sea.
Félix was not leading them through the uttermost depths of this place; he was following the vague indications of a road by which the rubber from M'Bassa was carted to the river. They were travelling along a highway, in fact, and the dimmest indication of a track where other men have been before is a thing which robs the wilderness of much of its terror.
"I have no doubt at all that I will be able to bring these people into line. I do not boast. I only ask you to keep your eye on the returns." Next day Van Laer, escorted by the soldiers, left M'Bina to take up the station at Fort M'Bassa left vacant by the death of Chef de Poste Andreas Meeus.
Cheer up, this man will take us to Fort M'Bassa and there you will find the road again." "Are you sure?" said Berselius, a touch of hope in his voice. "Sure? Certain. You've forgotten Fort M'Bassa. Well, when you see it, you will remember it, and it will lead you right away home.
"M'Bassa," said he, nodding his head, pointing to the collector, and then away into the forest. That was all, but it meant that they were saved. Adams gave a great whoop that echoed away through the trees, startling bats and birds in the branches and losing itself without an echo in the depths of the gloom. Then he struck himself a blow on the chest with his fist. "My God!" said he, "the tent!"
It will be remembered that it was a two days' march from Fort M'Bassa through the isthmus of woods to the elephant country. At the edge of the forest the trees were very thinly set, but for the rest, and a day's march from the fort, it was jungle. Would Berselius be able to penetrate that jungle? Time would tell. Berselius knew nothing about it; he only knew what lay before his sight.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking