Zero the Slaver: A Romance of Equatorial Africa

by Lawrence Fletcher

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

  IN FREEDOM'S CAUSE.

  Owing to the difficulty of transporting so many wounded men, it took ourfriends quite four days to accomplish the distance which they hadcovered on a former occasion in less than one-half that time; but by thefourth night all had safely reached the mountains of the north, andafter Amaxosa had carefully reconnoitred the vicinity of the hermit'scave, the party took undisputed possession thereof, and madearrangements to defend the place in the event of an attack, by throwingup a great earthwork round the outlet of the cavern.

  This important matter attended to, Grenville and Kenyon next proceededto explore, by torchlight, the labyrinth of caves with which the heartof the mountain proved to be honeycombed, and in the furthest of thosenatural vaulted chambers they finally discovered Muzi Zimba the Ancient.The old man was in a state of very great prostration, and was obviouslydying from sheer decay of all his faculties. Kenyon at onceadministered to him a spoonful of brandy, and afterwards prevailed uponhim to swallow some beef-tea. This grateful nourishment soon appearedto revive his sinking form, and, recognising Grenville, he accorded hima hearty welcome, and congratulated him kindly upon his marvellousescape from death, and then, speaking very lucidly, his mental facultiesseeming to grow clearer as his bodily vigour gradually died out, hedilated at some length to the attentive pair, upon their presentdangerous position, and regarding the cause and the remedy for thehorrors of the slave-trade.

  It must not, however, be supposed that the conversation given here, iswritten down precisely as it was spoken; for at times our friends hadmuch ado to keep the poor old man alive, and it was only by continuallygiving him weak stimulants, that body and soul were kept together untilhis work was done. Often, too, his halting tongue refused to frame themeanings he desired to convey, and Grenville had thus frequently to cometo his assistance, and express his thoughts for him in clear, every-dayEnglish.

  "My sons," said the aged man, "I came hither many, many years ago--howmany, I know not, for my mind has for a long and weary time been under avery darksome cloud, but it is clearer now, and in the light whichstreams through heaven's wide-open gates. I once more see, with the eyeof faith, and know that all will yet again be well. Hearken, my sons,for I can tell ye much that may avail ye to escape from the hands of thedemon who dwells in yonder city of evil.

  "Ye are brave men, and I have heard how that ye have already rescuedmany precious lives from this fiend in human form, and have thricebrought defeat and disaster upon his hateful arms. Nevertheless, be yeware, my sons, for he has, indeed, a very great army of bloody-mindedand wicked men, and he has, moreover, sworn to entirely eat you up.Know, therefore, that in the third cave from here is a spot where, bymoving a great black stone, a narrow passage can be found, but wideenough for two men to walk abreast, and this leads gently downwards,step by step, right through the bowels of the mountain, and so into thetown of the evil ones, where there are many white and black slaves, bothof men and women. Mark this passage well, my children, for if once yonmonster wins the secret of the way, ye, too, will exist only as I do--even midway between the bitter memories of the unforgotten past and thegolden shores of the great hereafter.

  "And now, my sons, bear with me yet, regarding this shameful trade inhuman flesh and blood. Long years ere Zero came hither, like a curse,this country was peaceful and all happy, and much did I teach the simplepeople that tended to the welfare of both soul and body; but since thecoming of this man of sin, all has been turned again to evil, and theland everywhere weeps tears of sorrow and of blood.

  "What can we do more, my sons, we who, simply placing our lives in thehands of the good God who gave them, penetrate unarmed, and with naughtof defence but the Gospel of Peace, to the furthest confines of thisdark land? What, I say, can we do, when the misguided rulers ofChristian countries at home daily permit--nay, encourage--theunrestricted sale to the wretched natives, of millions of gallons of avery evil drink, which goes by the name of `square face,' but which thetraders declare to be but harmless gin. Gin! my sons, _the first coatof which is under one shilling a gallon_, and which is poured into theland, after it has paid the British governors upon the western sea-girtborder of this mighty continent _a duty of half-a-crown a gallon_, orequal to two-and-a-half times its cost. Look what follows. The alreadydebased African is at once reduced below the level of the very beaststhat perish. He must have this fiery spirit, the first fatal draught ofwhich has inflamed his soul, and brought into active being every viciousslumbering detail of his fallen human nature, and in order to obtain thewherewithal to purchase the beloved `Square Face,' he falls unawaresupon his next-door neighbour, so to speak--perhaps upon his own familiarfriend, who trusts him--and carrying him off by night, secretly sellshim to the highest bidder, white or black, that he can find within easydistance of his home.

  "The trade in gin and rum is at the bottom of one-half of this evilslave-dealing, and so long as this crying sin is not only permitted, butencouraged, amongst a simple people, who have no more judgment toexercise, than have a third of the weak-minded ones sheltered from thecruel world in many a private mad-house, so long will Central Africaremain a country where cruelty and misery, and the shedding of blood,prevail, where men bow down to stocks and stones, where Satan's kingdomis, and where the missionary, my sons, is little more than a uselessmartyr, his precious life expended in the lively faith that the mightypower of his God will cause the barren soil he waters with his blood toprove a fruitful field before the great day of reckoning comes formissionary, for slaver, and for the miserable aboriginal African, whosebody and soul these opposing forces contend for mightily both night andday.

  "Hear me further, my sons, for much good may yet be done, in spite ofZero and of the Arabs, who accomplish a world of evil, if someone of thegreat white nations of the world will but come forward and use itsGod-given strength for the purpose of putting down the slave-trade,suppressing entirely the sale of gin and rum in Africa, and supportingthe missionaries. Africa! The whole country is being depopulated, andevery acre of it watered with the tears of a people torn from theirhappy homes and sold into slavery in distant lands, or sent across theseas, and soon this vast and fertile region, as yet almost unknown tothe white races, will become in all directions an impenetrable anduseless jungle, through which even the mammoth elephant must fail toforce his way--a dark continent in very deed and truth, an eyesore toboth God and man.

  "In the earlier days of my sojourn in this place, my sons, I looked tofree and happy England to do all that this rich and fruitful landrequired to make it perfect; and I taught the natives, under God, toreverence and to pray for the Great White Queen, their mother, in whoseall-powerful name I came to them in Freedom's cause. Alas! my sons, thefirst slaver who entered here and broke up their quiet homes was thisshameless scoundrel Zero; and, speaking with the same tongue as my own,naught of difference could this people see between his land and mine;and then worse, far worse, when the horrible slave traffic attractedhither the native dealers from the farther west, these brought with themword that slaves could be freely sold under French and German, and--oh!the shame of it--under British rule, ay, under Freedom's own flag on theutmost coast of Western Equatorial Africa.

  "My sons, I credited it not, and I sent my trusted runner a journey ofmany, many weary moons, and he brought me back a faithful word--alas!that it should have been a true one.

  "`The thing is even so, my father,' he said. `Almost within the verycities of the Great White Queen, where the moving water beats, evermurmuring, upon the yellow sands, and within hearing of the guns ofBritish forts, I saw very many slaves; and these were sold from house tohouse, or from land to land, as their owners in the towns desired.Also, day by day I watched great caravans of slaves from the peoples ofmany, many powerful kingdoms, bringing in native produce and dust ofgold, and carrying out very many cases of square face and of rum.'

  "`It is a false report that ye bring,' I said; `how know ye that the menwere slaves? the
Great White Queen frees all who come beneath the shadowof her glorious flag.'

  "`That may be,' he said, `as I saw not the Great White Queen herself,but the slaves were there, all marked with a brand on the cheek, myfather. Also, I had speech of some of these, and they said that theywere slaves. More, my father, there are also in the cities many nativeguards, and most of these men are also slaves, who serve under theQueen's ruler for money, which they give to the owners of their bodieswhenever the Queen pays them; and so, my father, I would even live hereunder your shadow, where I and my people are free by the strength of ourown right hands, than be a pining slave under the flag of the GreatWhite Queen, my mother, who is too far away to help her sufferingchildren when they cry out of wrong and find none to hear them.'

  "Then it was, my sons," said the aged man, "that I lost my reason; Icould not eat my food, and my sleep at nights went from me; I could onlykneel and humbly pray, both night and day, to the good God on high thatlie would wake the ear of our gracious Queen to hear the pitiful cry ofthese poor defenceless creatures, over whom he has given her an empire,and power, and glory, and who, though they are so far from her, are yether loyal subjects, and very near to the great God Himself, in whosehand her breath is, and whose are all her ways.

  "And now, my sons, my eyes are closing fast, and I leave ye to follow mealong the weary road which leads to the great hereafter. Take, then,the last blessing of a very aged and a defenceless man, to whom ye wereboth kind and good. Fear God, and follow that which is good, so shallwe meet again in the land where sorrows are forgotten, and where peaceand rest await both you and me. Greeting, then, my sons, to you andyours--greeting and farewell!"

  And so he died, this one staunch witness for freedom and his God, in aland where all else was foul and evil. Very peacefully his life slippedfrom him with the dawn of day, and his loyal spirit soared to the verypresence of Him who gave it life.

  "God rest him," said Grenville gently; "God rest His faithful servant.May I too die the death of a brave man, and may my last end be even asthe end of Muzi Zimba the Ancient."

  That same day the little band buried the hermit's body, the nativesfollowing him to the grave with many marks of respect and reverence, andthe white men firing a farewell salute over the last resting-place ofthis gallant soldier, who had given up his life for the truth, and diedin freedom's cause, in this far-distant land.