MR JAMESON’S DESCRIPTION OF THE CANNIBAL INCIDENT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2161, 10 February 1891, Page 3

MR JAMESON’S DESCRIPTION OF THE CANNIBAL INCIDENT.

following is the description given in the lata Mr Jameson’s diary of the infamous ; cannibal outrage which occurred during the progress of the recent Stanley expedition, and with which his name has been so intimately connected. It shows that the story told at first by Tippo Tib was in the main correct :—“ Tippo Tib, who came in before it was over, told me that they usually kill several people, and have a grand feast, for the Wacusu are terrible cannibals. He then told me, among other stories, that long ago, when fighting near Malela, they killed a great many of the enemy. The natives who were with them were cannibals, and not a body could be found next morning. (He tells me that two men will easily eat one man in a night.) He sent for water in the night to wash his hands and to drink, the water there being in a well. When it was brought he could not make out why it stuck to his bauds, aud. was so oily and bad to drink. Next day he and several Arabs went up to see what was the matter with the water, and there they saw the most horrible sight. The top of the water was all covered with a thick layer of yellow fat, which was running over the side, and he found that the natives had taken all the human meat to the well to wash it before eating. At the next place he camped by a stream, and made the natives camp below him. I told him that people at Home generally believed that these, were only ‘ travellers’ tales,’ as they are called in our country, or, in other words, ‘ lies.’ He then said something to an Arab called Ali, seated next to him ,who turned round to me and said, ‘ Give me a bit of cloth, and see;’ I aentmy boy for sixhandkerchiefs,thinking it was all a joke, and that they were not in earnest; but presently a man appeared, leading a young girl of about ten years old by the hand, and I then witnessed the most horribly sickening sight I am ever likely to see in my life. He plunged a knife quickly into her breast twice, and she fell on her face, turning over on her side. Three men then ran forward and began to cut up the body of the girl; finally her head was cut off, and not a particle remained, each man taking hia piece away down to the river to wash it. The most extraordinary thing was that the girl never uttered a sound, nor struggled until she fell. Until the last moment I could not believe that they were in earnest.” The girl was a slave who had been captured from a neighboring village, and the cannibals were slaves. When Mr Jameson went home he tried to make some small sketches while still fresh in his memory. “ I have heard many stories of this kind since I have been in this country,” he remarks, “ but he never could believe them, and I never would have been such a beast as to witness this, but I could not bring myself to believe that it was anything save a ruse to get money out of me, until the last moment,” Jameson’s explanation of his conduct is hardly worthy the name.