By and by I saw how the hut was furnished. These people had probably never seen a chair in their lives. They meant that it was mine as long as I would stay with them.

They immediately took me to one of these houses, and said they gave it to me. There were no windows, and the door was very small. The length of these huts was about ten or twelve feet, and they were seven or eight feet wide. The top of the roof was only about seven or eight feet from the ground. No! These wild people lived in queer little huts, the walls of which were made of the bark of trees, and were not more than four or five feet high. It was the first African village I had ever seen and it was unlike those built in Southern Africa.ĭon't think for a moment that I am going to speak to you of stone or wooden houses. On one side of the village was a prairie. I was led to the village, which stood not far from the sea, and was hidden from view by the very large trees and the great forest that surrounded it. As I landed I was surrounded immediately by crowds of natives, who looked so wild and so savage that I thought they would kill me at once.

I left the vessel and went ashore with some others. It was not far from a river called Benito. Our captain knew the coast for he had long been an African trader, though he had never been at this place before. One of them had a fowl to sell another brought an egg or two and another a few bunches of plantains. They made so great a noise that I thought I should become deaf. No one on board appeared to understand them. How they shouted and hallooed as they came about the vessel! They seemed to speak such a strange language. Some had only an old ragged shirt, and some again had nothing on except an old hat. Others had an old pair of trousers which probably had belonged to some sailor these wore no shirt or coat. What a queer way of dressing they had too! You would have laughed to see them. Indeed, some of the men paddled with their feet and one man carried his canoe ashore on his shoulder.Īt last, the natives came on board, and what funny people they were! I could not discern one from another they seemed to me all alike. Some of them were so small that they looked like mere nutshells. The canoes approached the vessel in great numbers. Some years ago a three-masted vessel took me to a wild country on the West Coast of Africa near the Equator.Īs we came in sight of the land, which was covered with forest, canoes began to start from the shore towards us and, as we neared the land, we could see the people crowding down on the beach to look at the strange sight of a vessel. CHAPTER II.ĪRRIVAL ON THE COAST-A KING AND HIS PALACE-DANCING AND IDOL-WORSHIP. Published by Good Press, 4064066233044 Table of Contents Du Chaillu Stories of the Gorilla Country, Narrated for Young People

King Mombo by Paul Belloni du Chaillu