How I Found Livingstone | Page 5

often thought, would fill many a book of
thrilling adventures.
For the half-castes I have great contempt. They are neither black nor
white, neither good nor bad, neither to be admired nor hated. They are
all things, at all times; they are always fawning on the great Arabs, and
always cruel to those unfortunates brought under their yoke. If I saw a
miserable, half-starved negro, I was always sure to be told he belonged
to a half-caste. Cringing and hypocritical, cowardly and debased,
treacherous and mean, I have always found him. He seems to be for
ever ready to fall down and worship a rich Arab, but is relentless to a
poor black slave. When he swears most, you may be sure he lies most,
and yet this is the breed which is multiplied most at Zanzibar.
The Banyan is a born trader, the beau-ideal of a sharp money-making

man. Money flows to his pockets as naturally as water down a steep.
No pang of conscience will prevent him from cheating his fellow man.
He excels a Jew, and his only rival in a market is a Parsee; an Arab is a
babe to him. It is worth money to see him labor with all his energy,
soul and body, to get advantage by the smallest fraction of a coin over a
native. Possibly the native has a tusk, and it may weigh a couple of
frasilahs, but, though the scales indicate the weight, and the native
declares solemnly that it must be more than two frasilahs, yet our
Banyan will asseverate and vow that the native knows nothing
whatever about it, and that the scales are wrong; he musters up courage
to lift it--it is a mere song, not much more than a frasilah. "Come," he
will say, "close, man, take the money and go thy way. Art thou mad?"
If the native hesitates, he will scream in a fury; he pushes him about,
spurns the ivory with contemptuous indifference,--never was such ado
about nothing; but though he tells the astounded native to be up and
going, he never intends the ivory shall leave his shop.
The Banyans exercise, of all other classes, most influence on the trade
of Central Africa. With the exception of a very few rich Arabs, almost
all other traders are subject to the pains and penalties which usury
imposes. A trader desirous to make a journey into the interior, whether
for slaves or ivory, gum-copal, or orchilla weed, proposes to a Banyan
to advance him $5,000, at 50, 60, or 70 per cent. interest. The Banyan
is safe enough not to lose, whether the speculation the trader is engaged
upon pays or not. An experienced trader seldom loses, or if he has been
unfortunate, through no deed of his own, he does not lose credit; with
the help of the Banyan, he is easily set on his feet again.
We will suppose, for the sake of illustrating how trade with the interior
is managed, that the Arab conveys by his caravan $5,000's worth of
goods into the interior. At Unyanyembe the goods are worth $10,000;
at Ujiji, they are worth $15,000: they have trebled in price. Five doti, or
$7.50, will purchase a slave in the markets of Ujiji that will fetch in
Zanzibar $30. Ordinary menslaves may be purchased for $6 which
would sell for $25 on the coast. We will say he purchases slaves to the
full extent of his means--after deducting $1,500 expenses of carriage to
Ujiji and back--viz. $3,500, the slaves--464 in number, at $7-50 per
head-- would realize $13,920 at Zanzibar! Again, let us illustrate trade
in ivory. A merchant takes $5,000 to Ujiji, and after deducting $1,500

for expenses to Ujiji, and back to Zanzibar, has still remaining $3,500
in cloth and beads, with which he purchases ivory. At Ujiji ivory is
bought at $20 the frasilah, or 35 lbs., by which he is enabled with
$3,500 to collect 175 frasilahs, which, if good ivory, is worth about $60
per frasilah at Zanzibar. The merchant thus finds that he has realized
$10,500 net profit! Arab traders have often done better than this, but
they almost always have come back with an enormous margin of profit.
The next people to the Banyans_in power in Zanzibar are the
Mohammedan Hindis. Really it has been a debateable subject in my
mind whether the Hindis are not as wickedly determined to cheat in
trade as the Banyans. But, if I have conceded the palm to the latter, it
has been done very reluctantly. This tribe of Indians can produce scores
of unconscionable rascals where they can show but one honest
merchant. One of the honestest among men, white or black, red or
yellow, is a Mohammedan Hindi called Tarya Topan. Among the
Europeans at