The Sunday Oregonian., January 19, 1908, Magazine Section, Page 8, Image 52

8
Europe is Swallowing the Continent
Inhabited by a Very Curious People
" "3S " " J'-"T 4S ' WlL T TOOK A. ST&P-3HVT OF TWO gtjuls rrnrniRj? Gnnva- rrrt
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,-4 STZAmmHTT. . THE HOUSES -ARE OFJXUJ), THATCHED '
BY FRANK O. CARPENTER. '
1HAVE loft the rocky desert of Arabia
end am now on the Island ot Mom
basa, 'half way down the coast of
East Africa, and just below the equator,
where old mother earth Is widest and
thickest. If I should stick a pin in the old
lady's waist and go westward in a
straight line I would soon reach the up
per end of pake Tanganyika, and a little
later would come out on the Atlantic just
above the mouth of the Congo. Crossing
that great ocean, my next landing place
would be South America, at the mouth
of the Amaxon, and, going up the Amazon
-alley, I snould pass Quito, in Ecuador,
on my way to the Pacific. Wom there
on, the trip to the pin stuck in at Mom
basa would comprise 16 or more thousand
miles of water travel. I should cross
the Paclflo and Indian oceans, and the
oijy solid ground on the way would be
the Islands of New Guinea, Borneo and
Sumatra.
East African Steamship Rates.
This place Is far below the latitude of
the Philippines, and is just about a day
by ship north ot Zanzibar. It Is 30
days from New York, and yet It may be
readied easily and cheaply. The through
fare from the United States on the best
. steamers would not be over $300, and
there are boats from London that make
the trip In 21 days, at a cost of 250.
The German East African line, which
has vessels going around the whole con
tinent of Africa, has a rate of $300 from
JTamnurg to Mombasa, and fhe Austrian
l-loyd ho3 a service from Trieste which
costs just J25 less. In addition there
are- French boats that call here on their
way from Marseilles to Madagascar, and
there are occasional steamers from Aden
and the Sues canal which are still cheap
er. My trip here was made on the German
East African line, and the accommoda
tions were fairly good. Our decks were
covered with canvass; we had electrical
fans in the cabins and other arrange
ments for modifying the heat of tropical
travel. I bought my ticket to Mombasa,
but afterward arranged with the captain,
by the payment of a few dollars more, to
make it read to Botra, in Portuguese East
Africa, which is about two weeks south
of here. This allows me to stop off at
the ports and saves more than $50 in the
passage money. ' The buying of through
tickets with stop-overs is the best way' to
travel along this coast. The German
East Afrfiean line has boats every two or
three weeks, and I shall not be delayed
by rho transaction.
The Horn of Kast Africa.
Have you ever heard of the great Horn
of Africa? It is In the easternmost point
if the continent and it ends in Cape
luariiafui. It brRins at the 9trait of
Kab-el-Mamli:b and runs for 700 or JiOO
miles out Into the Indian ocean. It was
along the Horn that I traveled in coming
here. Leaving Aden we lirst nkirted Brit
isli Somaliland, a thinly populated desert
THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTLAND, JANUARY 19, 1908.
ITAL
country as big as Georgia, and then sailed ,
for hundreds of miles along other deserts
utriuiigiug tu naiy. ' ine Italian posses
sions -begin some distance before one
reaches Cape Guardfui. We went quite
close to the cape and rounded it, start
ing south. It is a mighty bluff rising al
most straight up from the blue waters of
the Indian ocean. Its sides are of black
rock, ragged and rugged, and its top is
covered with sand. There is sand at its
foot, and the sand has lodged in the crev
ices, making yellow streaks against the
black background. Beyond the cape ex
tend sandy hills, which roll over one an
other until they are lost in the distance.
The country all about is desert, and
neither trees, bushes, habitations nor an
imals are to be seen. The clouds hang
low over the cape, and out at sea the air
is as moist as that of Virginia in April.
Going a little further on we rounded the
horn, and looked back. The great bluff
had now assumed the outlines of a sleep
ing lion, with Its tail in the sand. Later
still the lion's head was lost, and there
was only a great rock rising like a forti
fication straight up from the sea.
They All Belong to Europe.
Sailing southward we steamed about a
thousand miles along a dry and desert
coast, before we reached the Juba river,
where the British possessions begin. Ital
ian Somaliland is about as big as Mon
tana. It consists of a strip of desert
as wide as from New York to Boston
and as long as from Philadelphia to Chi
cago. Its population is made up of no
madic Somalia and Gallas, tall, straight,
black people, who live largely in tents and
drive their flocks about from place to
place to find pasture. As far as I can
learn the country is practically worth
less, and this is also true of Eritrea, on
the Red Sea, Italy's only other possession
on the continent She tried to get Abys
sinia, but her soldiers were defeated by
Menellk, and I am told she has now
her eyes on Tripoli, which lies Just over
the way from Sicily.
At present, with the exception of Abys
sinia, the whole of East Africa belongs
to the- great powers of Europe. Egypt
and the Sudan, which are ten times as
big as the state of Colorado, are practi
cally controlled by the British, and the
same is true of this great protectorate
where I now am, which is more than ten
times as big as the state of Ohio. A
few miles below here, on the other side of
the Rovuma river, German East Africa
begins. That terltory is ten times as
big as Indiana. It runs several - hun
dred miles along the coast, and below it
is Portuguese East Africa, which is ten
times the size of South Carolina. South
Africa, an empire of itself, is a British
possession, and John Bull has also great
territories in the central part of the con
tinent. With the exception of Italy and
Portugal the powers are doing all they
can to improve their territories, and
many important development projects are
under way which I shall describe during
my travels.
The Island of Mombasa.
I find Mombasa refreshing after my
long stay in the desert. So far the most
of my way through this continent has
TTCTIT STRAW
been In the sands, with only a patch
of green now and then. I was close to
the Sahara in Morocco, and I traveled
many hundreds of miles over it while in
Algeria and Tunisia. In Tripoli my eyes
were made sore by the glare of the Lib
yan wastes and their dust blew across
the Nile valley during my stay in Egypt
and the British Sudan. The Arabian
desert was on both sides of us as we
came down the Red Sea, and its sands
several times sprinkled the ship.' - We
had the rockiest of all deserts in southern
Arabia and that of Italian Somaliland
was not any better.
The surroundings here remind me of
Solomon's song. All nature seems joy
ful. The rain has conquered the sun and
there are moss, vines and trees every
where. The shores of the mainland are
bordered with . cocoanuts, we have on
Mombasa, mighty baobaba loaded with
green and even its cliffs are moss grown.
The island is, in fact, a jungle of green
on a foundation of coral. It is only a
mile or so wide and four miles in length,
but it rises well up out of the sea and
is so close to the continent that one can
almost hear the wind blow through, the
cocoanut groves over the way. On the
island itself the jungle has been cut up
into wide roads. There is a lively, town
with a polyglot population at one end of
it, and the hills are spotted with the
homes of the British officials. There are
two good harbors, a little one and a
big one. The little one is the. main
part of the town and is frequented by
small craft. The other could hold all
the ships that sail the east coast and
the people say here is to be the great
port of this side of the continent. The
big harbor is called Kilindini, a word that
means "deep water." It has only a few
warehouse sheds and a pier above it, and
the main settlements are across the island
four miles away.
It was In Kilindini that I landed and
that unedr difficulties. Our ship was an
chored far . out and our baggage was
taken ashore in native boats. I found
the main quay was crowded, and had my
boatman go direct to the custom house
and let us out on the beach. . The custom
house is a little shed about big enough
for one cow. It Is situated high up
above the water, and our. trunks had to
be carried in upon the heads of the
negroes. The water came up to their
middles, but nevertheless they waded
through it and took both us . and our
baggage to the land. The custom ex
amination was lenient. The officers looked
through our trunks for guns and am
munition and warned us that we could
not hunt elephants and hippotami with
out a $230 license. . A little later the
negroes again took our trunks and car
ried them about a quarter of a mile to
the top of a hill, where we got the cars
for Mombasa. -
A Human Trolley.
The word cars savors of electricity or
steam. The cars I took were. run by men.
Here in East Africa human muscle forms
the cheapest power. The Wages of the
natives run from five cents a day upward,
and in the interior there are many who
will work all day for three cents. The re-
suit is that the trolley cars are pulled by
fffflfffl
men. Each consists of a platform about
as big as a kitchen table, with wheels
underneath and an awning averhead. On
the middle of the platform is a bench
accommodating two or four persons. The
wheels run on a track about two feet '
in width, and each car is pushed from
behind by one or more bare-legged and
bare-headed men, who run as they shove
it up hill and down. There are such
car tracks all over the island, with
switches to the homes of the various
officials. Tb.ere are private cars as well
as public ones, and every one who Is
any one has his own private car with his
coolies to push him to and from work. At
the beginning and closing of his office
hours, which are from 8 until 12 and
from 2 until 4, the tracks are filled with
these little cars, each having one or more
officials riding in state to the government
buildings.
Old .Mombasa.
I .wish I could show you this old town
of Mombasa. It began 'before Columbus
discovered America, and the citizens can
show you the very" spot wher Vosco da
Gama landed when he came here from
India shortly after he discovered the new
route to Asia by the Cape of Good Hope.
He landed here in 1498 at just about the
time that Columbus was making his third
voyage to America. Even then Mom
basa was a city and da Gama describes
it. A little later it became the property
I of the Portuguese and about 100 years
after that time they built a lort nere, a
part of which still stands. ' It has been
rebuilt and is now used by the British
as a prison. After 4he Portuguese were
driven out, the Arabs held the island for
many years, and it was an Arab ruler,
the Sultan of Zanzibar, who owned it
when the British came in. It still be
longs to him in a nominal way. He has
leased it to the British for so much a
year: and his flag floats above the Brit
ish flag everywhere on the island..
The Capital of British East Africa.
Notwithstanding this lease. Mombasa
really belongs to the British, and the
British can force the sultan at any time
to give them a clear title to it. This is
what the Germans have done as to Ger
man East Africa and what the British
will probably do at some time in the fu
ture. '
As it is now, the place is the capital
of British .East Africa. It has the
chief government buildings, including
the treasury and law -courts and the
state's prison as well. The town has
now about 40,000 people, and of these
less than 200 perhaps are Europeans.
There are altogether about a half
dozen different settlements, each in
habited by a different class of Asiatics
or Africans. There is an Asiatic mer
cantile quarter, a residence quarter, 'a
large Swahill village and a business
street, which is almost European in
character. There are two hotels which
claim to be first-class, an English club,
the Bank of British India and quite a
number of respectable stores. The na
tive people of the "city are of all shades
of yellow,, black and brown, and they
come from every part of the African
Coast. . -
Some Queer Asiatics.
But first let me give you some idea
of the Asiatics who have come here
from Arabia and East India. The
- ' lit, tl
HZEW OF HBMBASA. LAW
Arabs wear turbans and gowns and
constitute an important element of the
community. They were formerly slave
traders, and until the British took hold
and built the Uganda Railway they
did a big business in toting ivory down
from Lake Victoria and other parts of
Central Africa on the heads of slaves,
selling both slaves and ivory here at
Mombasa. This business has all been
dtyie away with, and the ivory now
comes in on the railway.
As to the East Indians, they are
mostly retail merchants and traders.
There are Parsees with tall hats, Hin
dus in white sheets and other East
Indians who wear little round gold
caps, gay vests and calico trousers.
Indian women are to be. seen every
where, and some of them, the wives
of Mohammedans, go about clad in
yellow from head to foot. I saw two
women on my way across the island
who were apparently moving without
seeing at all. , Their yellow dresses
were . fitted over padded skull caps,
covering the head and face and falling
clear to the ground. I could not see
how the women could make their way
along without stumbling until I ob
served a little veil about the size ot
two postage stamps sewed over a hole
in front of the eyes. These womei.
never go on the street except when
so clad, and they are the strictest of
the Mohammedans.
The African Village.
The most of the population of itom
basa is African. There are people here
from all parts of the interior, some of
them as black as Jet, with a scatter
ing few who are chocolate brown or
yellow. These natives live in huts off
by themselves, adjoining the European
and Asiatic quarters, and comprise a
large village. Their houses are of mud
plastered upon a framework of poles
and thatched with straw. The poles
are put together without nails. There
Is not a piece of iron in any of them,
'except on the roof, where here and
there a hole has been patched up with
a rusty Standard Oil can. Very few
of the huts are more than eight feet
high and some are so low that one has
to stoop to enter them. They are so
small that the beds are usually left
outside the house during the daytime,
and the majority of each family sleep
on the floor.
Among the Swahilis. , ,
I find this African village the most
interesting part of Mombasa. Its in
habitants number 20,000 or more and
they comprise natives of perhaps 100
tribes, each of which has Its own dress
and its own customs. The most of the
women are bareheaded, bareshouldered
and to a large extent barelegged, and
Bome of the men are clad in little
more than breechcloths. Now and then
one sees a girl bare to the waist, and
the little ones wear only Jewelry. On
the mainland all go more or less
naked.
The most numerous of the natives
here are the Swahiiis. These are of a
mixed breed which is found all along
the central coast of East Africa. It is
said to have some Arab blood ' in it,
and for this reason perhaps its people
are brighter and more businesslike
than the ordinary native- The Swahilis
EAST AFRICA
COURTS JIT THE .RIGHT
are found everywhere. They have lit
tle settlements in the interior in the
midst of other tribes, and the Swahill
language will carry one through the
greater part of Central and East
Africa. The British officials are re
quired to learn it; and one can buy
Swahili dictionaries and phrase books.
I shall take a Swahili guide with me
during most of my Journey, or rather
a black Swahill boy, who will act as a
servant and also a guide.
I wish I could show' you a picture
of the Swahili women as I see them
here. Their skins are of a rich choco
late brown and they shine as though
oiled. They have woolly hair, but they
comb It in a most extraordinary way,
using a razor to shave out partings
between the rows- of plaited locks, so
that when the hair is properly dressed
the woman seems to have on a hood
of black wool. I took a snapshot of
two girls who were undergoing the
process of hair dressing yesterday,
trembling the while for fear that their
calico gowns, which were fastened by
Bookbinding Present-Day Craze
OF all the fads which the American
girl has taken up within the last
few years, that of bookbinding is the
most interesting, as well as being for
many besides the' most worth while.
Nor is it exactly fair to call this book
binding a fad, for a large majority of
those who have gone Into it have kept
conscientiously at the work throughout
the: necessary Winter's course, and
have also kept up their enthusiasm to
no small extent afterward, while, con
trary to most fads, this one has al
ready survived three or four years, and
there is no abating in interest among
those who have really gone hard to
work at the profession. Nor Is book
binding easy work far from it in fact
for in order to succeed one must
work conscientiously many hours a
week, and the work is both difficult
and fatiguing.
If a girl. is possessed of any talent
for drawing or designing, bookbinding'
Is a delightful work, as it calls for all
the originality and individuality of
which she is capable. Naturally, any
one at all Interested in the best in liter
ature and art will find the work all
absorbing, for in no" other way is it
possible to come into such personal
touch with an author as in the select
ing of a design for tne cover of a book
or In originating chapter headings that
will be in keeping with the story.
From a financial point of view also
there le much in favor of learning the
art of bookbinding. Many girls, while
possessed of a fairly comfortable in
come, would still like to feel that
should anything dire occur they would
be capable of earning a livelihood, and
bookbinding is a real and recognized
profession that, once learned, could at
any time be turned to account. There
is really more to be made in getting up
a class in bookbinding than in the ac
tual work itself, for a book to be well
bound by hand requires some weeks of
steady and patient labor, but for a rare
a single twist under the armpits, might
slip.
A little further on Jack made a
photograph of another giddy maiden
clad In two strips of bright-colored
calico and numerous earrings, while I
gave her a few coppers to pose for the
picture.
At the same time on the opposite
side of the street stood a black girl
gorgeous with Jewelry. She had a
brass ring as big as the bottom of a
dinner bucket in her nose, and her
ears had holes in their lobes so big
that a hen's egg could be put through
them without trouble. Not only the
lobes, but the rims were also punc
tured, each ear having five little holes
around the edges of about the size
of my little finger. These holes were
filled with rolls of - bright-colored
paper cut off so smoothly that, they
seemed almost a part of the ear. The
paper was' of red, green and blue and
it looked very quaint. As I started
on, the girl looked at me out of the
' tail of her eye and smiled.
old edition a good price will be paid,
and for a handsomely pound collection
of the works of a long-familiar author,
a most satisfactory sum can always be
obtained.
To learn the art well at least an en
tire Winter must be pretty well given
up, and at the end of that time a girl
with the least enthusiasm will invest
in her own implements, and these are
by no means few, set apart a room in
her home, and go at the work in ear.
-nest, binding old volumes for herself,
and making gifts for her friends. -or. If
she is at all hard up, she will turn out
editions for sale.
If it appeals at all bookbinding Is s
fascinating occupation, and as a pro
fession is assuredly far and away more
interesting than the average means of
earning one's daily bread, and for thil
very reason has It grown so tremen
dously popular among girls who, al
though at present possessed of all
that money can buy, nevertheless feel
that they would like to have something
upon which to 'fall back.
Are They?
New York Times. .
I have an Income, safe and ound, .
A house, a yard or two of grountl;
Am healthy, temperate (fairly so).
Feel never sick nor clammy;
I fihouid be happy here below. .
No doubt I am. But am I?.
I've pals of various sorts who treat
Me decently whene'er we meet:
There's Jones, with whom I often quaff
The Kin-and-soda fizzy;
He has a frank and merry laugh
Seems white, acta white! But is hT
There to a. girl I mean to wed
Not very many weeks ahead;
She vowa that when X am oppressed
With goblin, ivpook, or banschee,
She'll take my head upon her breast.
And drive them off. But can she?
At Intervals to church I walk.
To hear the hopeful parson talk;
He eays, to gild the colors dun
Which cloud our earthly billet.
" That Fate-will furnish better fun
In Ttincdom Come. But will 1W