Station studies; being the jottings of an African official

Preface

Lest wrath be aroused — and squandered — at the spectacle of an official dealing freely, and sometimes satirically, with his employer's affairs, I must mention that I no longer serve John Bull, and am therefore in as fair a position as any one to chaff him for his foibles. These, I feel almost convinced, will survive my book.

" The Great War," it should be added, is, unlike the remaining stories and sketches, entirely unfounded on fact ; and, being conceived in a spirit of extravaganza, must not be taken to represent an actual or a possible state of affairs. Friction is no greater in Africa than in other parts of the world where official bodies come in contact.

I have to thank the Editor of the Monthly Review for giving temporary lodging to a part of " My Day's Work," the first of a series of similar sketches projected in that magazine.

L. P.

Contents

PAGE

Eldala I

(1) A.M II

II My Day's Work

A.M.

I.

At six o'clock, when I am aroused by the bugle and look from my window, the dawn is just breaking through a sky of passing shadows, surely and gradually winning to victory, but as yet unable to chase them quite away. Dark clouds still hold their own above ; a chaplet of mist rests upon each mountain peak ; a grey veil floats over the lake ; the plain lies hid beneath a robe of haze. For a moment darkness lingers, fading but not defeated, and the light grows but slowly to its strength. Then the moment passes, and with a joyous sudden charge the day is upon us. Rosy lights flash out across the sky ; the mists fade swiftly into space, revealing a sheet of glittering water, mile upon mile of tanned prairie, and behind all a range of grim mountains. From every corner of heaven the last shadows are caught aside like a curtain : infinite blue dimmed by the tawny glare of day takes their place, and I know that far behind me in the east the sun, spurning all gorgeous ceremony and flinging his crimson robes about him, has stepped forth to run his course, fully and vividly astir within a moment of his rising.

As yet, however, he has but httle power of heat to shed, and there is a hint of frost in the air, which makes me shiver as I pass along the verandah to urge Hamis to action. We stand five thousand feet above the sea at Eldala ; and the sun, for all that he can bake us to 120° at mid-day, can do little at this early hour to change the 45° of the night and unborn morning. As a result of this I am in a mood to call down fire from heaven on any who fall short of their duty ; and until the natural sources of warmth gain ground it is very unwise for my boys to provoke me. Nevertheless they frequently take the risk, and this morning is one selected by them for a trial of my patience. There is no smoke or sign of life about their huts. They are asleep half an hour longer than my law allows.

" Hamis," I call — with toleration as yet : he may just be astir.

No answer ; he is not.

" Hamis," I repeat, still calmly, but with such acids in my tone as will consume him if awake. A long pause. Then the ineffably drowsy sound —

He hears me, but only in his dreams — an unsafe environment at such a time.

"Hamis!"

" 'Ndio, bwana (Yes, sir) ? " is queried slowly and with some surprise. The dreams are passing.

'^Majimoto; w/^j-j-/ (Hot water ; hurry up)." This is thundered, and awakes him thoroughly to the sense of panic and impending disaster which I desire him to feel.

" 'Ndio, bwana; baada kidogo (Yes. sir ; directly.

sir)," he snaps back with an air of reassurance and concihation intended to persuade me that he has for long been watching my interests and the water boils.

It does not ; the fire is not even laid. I rate him soundly for a few minutes, to his great terror and temporary improvement ; then return to feast my eyes on the great scene before me.

The sun is soon on his way, gathering power with each rushing step, and pouring abroad a flood of light as he hastens up the sky, with a promise of white heat in later hours. The lake, under his rule, has changed in hue from iron to steel, from steel to silver, from silver to unruffled glass ; till now at length in the still radiance of the morning it is able to drink in and flash back with unerring accuracy every line of the cleancut mountains that guard it, every tree and feather of the papyrus brakes that fringe it, every film of the soft flesh-tinted clouds. Far away round its shores, and round each of the islands that float upon its central waters, it shows a deep duplicate of reed and rock, bank and bush, and in the midst a sky as bright and vivid as that above. Only on the hither side of its broad face, near to the hill from which I am looking, is there any dimness to spoil the mirror. Here, right up to the rocks beneath my feet, and stretching far out into the deeper waters, there lies a great garden of water-lilies, whose broad leaves roof the surface against all light, and carry the lines of the sweeping prairie out beyond the shore. Here are great purple blossoms opening from their sleep as the sun touches them ; here too clusters of white egrets sunning themselves after their morning bath : and all along the waterside tribes of birds — teal, coot, spoon-bill, ducks, geese, and a hundred more — fluttering from bay to bay, splashing, feeding, playing among the shallows. A fat white pelican is waddling through a bank of mud in search of food. Beyond him a line of white flamingoes stalk arrogantly, apart from the common herd, on a cape which they have made their own. Guinea-fowl call and chatter from the bushes close at hand, and a bell-bird rings his strange notes among the larger trees behind them.

To the brown caked shore too comes a string of huge hump-backed cattle, filing slowly over the bright green marsh-land into the water, to cool their lips before the sun becomes too hot for movement. Behind them, on the edge of the plain, hundreds of scattered sheep and a senate of thoughtful donkeys crop busily at the rich grass of the meadows. A few herds of goats, a team of mules, and a pony or two are dotted here and there amongst them, making the most of their pasture while the dew still hangs heavy upon it. And when I take a telescope and scan the long plains which sweep away, on the right to a low line of jagged hills, on the left to a gaunt volcanic peak, I can see a host of varied kinds of game. Quite close at hand are two herds of gazelle boldly feeding in the open, the broad fringe of black from shoulder to loin plainly distinguishable on their rich brown coats ; a few fisi ^ are slinking cautiously home after their night feast of camp remnants ; a pair of bustards are quarrelling angrily over food. Further away, close to a belt of trees, stand half a dozen brick-red

\Hyena.

'mpala ; ^ beside them a cluster of grey zebra, whose dim rounded outlines suggest through the haze a cloud at rest upon the plain ; and still further, in the open ground, a score of tawny harte-beest, guarded at each corner of their pasture by a sentinel on the alert for danger. Beyond them again are more and more gazelle, more and more clouds of zebra ; a knot of water-buck moving slowly among the trees which line the river ; and just within the glass's utmost sight a dark spot of black, which by all the laws of Africa should mean a pair of ostrich.

After a long look at this scattered assembly of the plain, I turn to the day's business. The water has at length boiled. I dress speedily in the thinnest of flannels and take my chhota hazri (tea, toast, and bananas) in the verandah. Hamis attending me too closely, as he always does when anxious to propitiate me for his sins, receives a rough reminder of his error, and retires to his right place round the corner, within a call. Another offender also forgets that the hour of breakfast is not one of peace and goodwill to all men with me, and barely escapes condign penalties, in the person of Mahamadi Winyamwezi, askari (native soldier), who, being in charge of a chain-gang en route to the lake for water, unwisely suffers it to lag and even to stop for a while in conversation before my very eyes. I am up a little earlier than usual this morning, and he does not think of me. He chats to another askari who is passing, gazes carelessly over the lake, chats a little longer, yawns, and is actually on the point to sit down, when suddenly he turns towards the boma, ' A larger type of antelope frequenting thin bush country.

and behold I am standing up to look at him! I can see him positively shake, here at eighty yards' distance, as he hastens to urge his charges to movement ; and he almost breaks into a run as he drives them on their way out of my sight. A second offence of that sort and Mahamadi will infallibly suffer hamsi-assharini (twenty-five), the last penalty of the law.

Breakfast finished, I issue flour, sugar, and oatmeal sufficient for the day's needs to 'Mpishi (cook), who is a Swahih and has no eighth commandment, nor would obey it if he had ; and then at half-past seven it is time for the day's work to begin, and I stroll to the office with a cigarette and a comfortable sense of independence and virtue.

I want you to understand this very clearly, whose daily fate it is to rise early, snatch a fleeting breakfast, and spur in hot haste and steaming crowds to the city. I stroll to my office. It lies ten yards from my front door. I can smoke there without interruption. My work is done as, when, and in what raiment I please. And if it languishes for a moment I have but to pass from my chair to the window to see a land blazing with light, and rich with life of plant, bird and beast ; a sky that is never clouded, majesty of hills, the flash of silver water, and long dignity of the rolling plain.

In the outer room of the office Manuel, a man of Goa, is already at his desk, making out forms and documents of all sorts for a horde of Indian traders who stand at the door, desiring to pass their goods into Lunda. With affected reverence and real fear and malice in their eyes, they break off their murmur of talk as I approach, scatter, and salute me gravely. Hosain, head man of the station, who is Joseph to me Pharaoh, a long, lean Somali, daintily apparelled in white linen garments and patent leather boots ; and Majaliwa bin Suhman, Swahili orderly, by nature's design an ape, by man's and a blue uniform turned into a peacock, to himself an idol, to me Ariel and scapegoat in one, leap from their seats like corks from a pop-gun to do me honour. I acknowledge their greetings, have a host of papers thrust into my hands by Manuel, and pass into the inner shrine, thereby relieving the assembly, who promptly resume their seats.

For some reason or other I can never enter the inner room at this hour without expecting to see the ghost of a former chief seated in the Bwana ' Mkubwas chair. Long ago laid in the grave by fever, his memory will yet live long in the minds of all who served with him, so wintry were his tempers and so summer-like in proportion his gentler moods. Perhaps it is because the former were more shrewd and nipping in the early morning than at any later period of the day that I seem to see his image more clearly then than at any other time. He would be sitting, as I entered the room, overwhelmed in a great snow of work, ominously silent, and plainly in a very brittle mood. How the world went with him — for there were many degrees in this mood — you could soon tell from his greeting. If he had not broken his fast he could say " Morning," and often would, though it was with an obvious effort. But after breakfast he seemed unable to trust himself in speech, and all white men who approached him had to be contented with a barely perceptible nod, unless, that is, they came on matters of business. In that event he was a different man. He showed himself able to speak, not only with absolute composure and with a smooth icy poHsh, but even at times with geniality and a smile. The latter, indeed, he held to be a necessary supplement to, if not actually part of his official duty, and he was most punctilious in producing it when required, though it was only by a powerful forcing of the lips that he managed to do so ; and even then the eyes remained set like steel, as though trying to compensate by their awful stillness for the back-slidings of the mouth. But he did smile. And no business man could possibly demand more. I think the natives who were about him would have liked him to attempt less ; for it was upon them naturally that the full force of his rage, rendered all the greater by confinement, would afterwards burst. At any rate none of them ever liked to be seen by him during the morning ; and even I, who soon grew to understand his moods, and learnt to converse with him by signs rather than speech, felt no real confidence in being within his reacfi before mid-day.

After that hour, however, the whole man began to change. Luncheon was the first point in a journey of improvement which lasted till a late hour of the night A deep but gentle melancholy took the place of his anger as he ate ; and he would talk with gloomy resignation of the changes and chances of the service — the iniquity of such and such a promotion, the impossibility of getting leave, the unfitness of men with whom he had quarrelled for their posts. About the beginning of the afternoon's work he cast even this off, brightened in temper and countenance, and showed some faculty of long-suffering in his decisions. If things prospered he even acquired a grim humour and occasionally laughed — litigants always strove to have their suits postponed till three o'clock. The ineptitude and baseness of the natives with whom he had to deal tickled the cynic in him. The number and weight of his tasks became at times so huge as to fill him with amusement and goodwill. And the end of office hours bringing him relief, leisure, and the calming influence of tea, he so progressed gradually from strength to strength till at length by the time of " pegs " and pipes he was a spring of hilarity and good stories, revelling in the day's humours, breaking his hearers with the strain of continuous laughter, and convincing all who came near him that he could never again by any possibility frown.

The next morning would speedily show the fallacy of this conviction ; for then he would be once more as formidable a ruffian as ever, full of terrible silences or savage abuse of the world about him. Yet one soon came to judge him by the evenings rather than the mornings of his life. And taking him at his worst, he was never so ill to bear with as another bwana of whom I have heard, who could by no means whatever be induced to break silence except officially until the end of the day. Nor so embarrassing a companion as that notorious fellow — gifted with a temperament something similar — who had the happy practice of exclaiming, at the cheeriest point of a cheery evening, when the day's events were passing under humorous review and all moods were softened in a mist of amity,

" Yes, it was a stormy morning, wasn't it ? Puff — puff. By gad, old chap — puff, puff — how I loathed you this morning ! "

II.

Accounts, correspondence, law-suits — which shall I take first this morning ? The correspondence strikes me as the most unpleasant task, and, therefore, the first to be tackled. I settle down to finish some long outstanding letters and answer those which have just come in.

Of the many waiting for my reply one in particular has been shouting to me for days, " You must answer me," while I have as often returned, " Not so ; you may wait till to-morrow ". It relates to the case of Private Mongorora bin Hassan, of the Company of Lunda Rifles in my charge, who has created an insoluble problem. At the present moment he is lamentably useless to the King, owing to a legion of disorders, pronounced by the Doctor incurable ; and I wish to discharge him. But this apparently cannot be done in a moment, if at all. Once upon a time Mongorora was a deserter ; then he was recaptured, found to be ailing, re-made in hospital, taken back into the ranks, and given the wages of his calling from that date onwards. Now he is what a young American of my acquaintance (a man, of course) once described to me as a " goner for keeps ; " and to retain and pay him as a soldier of Edward VII. would be to waste twenty-two excellent rupees belonging to the latter every month. Yet, despite this waste, and for all His Majesty's apparent power, he cannot, as it seems, say to and of the man, " Go ; and he goeth ". When I write to the officer commanding Lunda Rifles and recommend his discharge, he is all afire with indignation, and snorts back that it is impossible.

" No," he writes, you cannot discharge a man who deserted. Mongorora deserted on March 21, and ceased from that date to be part of the army."

" But he was taken back," I reply. And the correspondence proceeds on the following lines : —

O.C.L.R. " He should not have been taken back."

Self. " He was."

O.C.L.R. " That is a mistake on your part, which must not occur again. As it is I shall probably be compelled to bring it to the notice of H.M. Chief Commissioner."

Se/f. " I regret the error. But civil officers placed in charge of military work cannot be expected to be infallible. The man was taJ<en back, and is now incurably ill. He ought not to be kept."

O.C.L.R. " He cannot possibly be discharged. He deserted on March 21."

Se/f. " But was recaptured March 28.

O.C.L.R. " Is that on the books .? "

Seif. " Yes ; and since then he has been paid his wages and ration allowance."

O.C.L.R. " How much, in all ? "

Self. " Six months' pay, 120 rupees; and rations, 15 rupees."

O.C.L.R. " Has he drawn all his money ? Can't you get some of it back and strike him off from March 21?"

Self. " No ; I cannot recover the rations, and as for his wages, he has been fined fully half what he earned by me, sitting as a criminal court, for a criminal offence."

O.C.L.R. (furiosd) " You cannot possibly try a member of the Armed Forces in this Protectorate except by court-martial."

Self. " I am sorry for the error ; but as a civil officer I felt some diffidence about forming myself into a military court."

O.C.L.R. " That is beside the point. The only possible course now is to consider the trial as having not taken place, and for you to refund the money."

Self. " 1 cannot possibly do that, as it would disturb the accounts for some months past."

O.C.L.R. " I cannot take that fact into consideration. The error was yours, and I must ask you to pay in the money without delay."

Self. " Such a course of action would cause widespread confusion throughout the books. I cannot admit that your demand is correctly founded, and I must decline to accede to it."

O.C.L.R. " If you fail to transfer the money within a period of two months, I shall have to request H.M. Chief Commissioner to set the liability for it against your private account."

Self. " I dispute the liability, and adhere to my former contention. Besides the records and entries in my own books the man is down in the Doctor's as having taken quantities of medicine. As he is now pronounced incurable, the only possible course is to discharge him."

O.C.L.R. " A man who has no official existence cannot be discharged. As you persist in your refusal to set the matter right I shall now place it in the hands of H.M. Chief Commissioner."

So far, up to the present. It looks as if I have but a poor chance of victory. But of Mongorora bin Hassan I must and will be rid. I contemplate the whole correspondence for some time to seek an outlet, then give up the search in despair and send in my version of the history to headquarters, hoping that I may there find an ally, and gain peace with honour. But let no man suppose that I am likely to do so. This is but a common example of the risks to which a civihan's pocket is exposed when he has to undertake military duty as well as his own. No one complains much of the additional work, for in Africa a man is Jack-of-all-trades, and does — as, indeed, he must do — all that comes to him, whatever its nature, as best he can. In point of fact many civilians have spent quite as much of their time in the field as in office, and though receiving on the average but half the soldier's salary have frequently proved themselves of far more value than he by solving military difficulties which he could not. But considering the low rate of their salaries they might surely be held free of loss arising from such extraneous work as this either in the field or the station — ^work that is put upon them entirely owing to the paucity of military officers. The latter are too few because the Treasury will not pay any more. Is it fair that the civilians should suffer for the Crown's love of parsimony.'

The other letters laid before me do not take long to answer. Two of them, I can see at once, come from Indians, for I know the hand of Haku, writer of petitions to the nobihty and gentry of my District, as well as I know my own, depend upon him indeed for half the amusement of my life.

The first explains itself — for a wonder ; Haku is seldom able to express his meaning at the first attempt.

" Honoured Sir (it runs),— With utmost possible respect I beg to pray that it is now many days I apply to you for a licence to shop to which your goodness replied sanction will be obtained now we shall feel divine if your honour will inform us with the result and grant us a leave which to gain we send rupees one hundred and fifty and shall ever pray for your long life and prosperity,

" Your respectful servants,

" Ram Ditta and KiRPA Singh."

Trading licence issued — the evidence tending to show that this is what they want — receipt for Rs. 1 50 made out in triplicate ; caution given to the applicants' messenger against their selling liquor or opium ; the whole transaction entered in the day-book ; rupees counted through twice and placed in heaps of twenty-five in the cash-box.

Haku's other effort is less lucid.

To the Sub-Commissioner and Magistrate.

" Illustrious Sir, — I most humbly and respectfully beg to pray to bring to your kind notice that

Allah Din late Jemadar of first earthworks sub-division has complained against me falsely of Rs. 270, and I beg to state he is a player of tricks and was dismissed by his misconduct and mischieves and I beg to pray that I am a poor man kindly go through the matter and kindly inquire from Allah Din that for what purpose he gave me the above mentioned sum of money. I am not a gambler and your honour can inquire about my conduct and about the money from the men of Din for which he complained against me cind if he has any false receipt with him kindly let me know the writer of it and I beg to state that kindly inquire the matter fully whether who is liar and who is true. For which act of kindness I shall ever pray your long life and prosperity.

" Wadhawa

" (Coolie of Ram Surru's gang)."

What does Wadhawa require ? Who is he ? Where does he live ? To whom has Allah Din complained falsely ? And is his complaint false ? All these questions occur to me as being, on the face of the matter, obstacles to the execution of justice in the complaint of Wadhawa v. Allah Din. In addition, who am I that I should try a case of defamation of character between two Indians } Solomon himself could not solve such a tangle as this must be, and I am not even Oriental by birth or training. The letter is docketed and filed — put in preserve, so to speak — and I pass on without further consideration to the next.

It is in a hand unknown to me, and I open it with the feeling of flatness which I always experience after reading one of Haku's letters or an intensely exciting story. But, though Haku's mark is not on the title-page I find it to be a work of even richer material than any which he has yet produced. It comes from a railway camp lying eighty miles away, just beyond the hmits of my district, and properly it should have been sent to the next Station. But I read it, in spite of all the laws of red-tape, and soon become exceedingly glad that I have done so.

" Honoured Enormity," it begins, thereby arousing my interest at once ; for though I have been approached as " Respected Magistrate," " Most Gracious Light," " Sanctified Effulgence," and, of course, " Honoured Presence," and " Protector of the Poor," I have never before encountered these exact terms.

" Honoured Enormity, — I beg to pray that Fazel Din promised me for Rs. 25. But when I ask him for the sum he denies and has a mind to kill me : and the whole gang is of his district and only I am poor, being a other district man so that I go in fear of my life : wherefore plaintiff solicits the honourable Court to put a mark on eight asses belonging to the defendant so that your poor petitioner may be benefited by your renowned justice. Even your own holy Church teaches that those who help themselves will be helped. Therefore I implore with much hope that you would be kind enough to give me a judge for which act of kindness may the almighty whom your honour much resembles send to you a long Ufe happiness and much prosperity from your most most respected servant,

" IZAMDIN."

Poor Izamdin ! I feel that he is not leading a very comfortable life ; and I should like to assist him if possible ; for he is certainly respectful, even respectable if his own evidence may be beheved. More than that, he has given me a laugh such as I too seldom experience in this valley of pigeon-holes and dockets, and therefore he undoubtedly has a claim upon me. Yet he does not live in my district, and, strictly, I ought not to interfere. Can I do anything to help him ? " No," says my official conscience, " let him apply in the right quarter." " No," also would say the inexperienced who read his letter ; for considerable knowledge an3 wisdom are required to detect what he means. " Yes," however, say I, very wrongly obeying my personal conscience. The man has made me laugh, and he comes from a camp lying only just beyond the border of my district. Equity itself demands that I reward him, even though I risk the displeasure of my neighbour by doing so. This, as a matter of fact, is not likely to be very terrible, for he would go down on his knees to thank me if he knew that I had taken even one from his load of Indian law-suits ; as would I to him. So I determine to do him this illegal kindness, and write to the District engineer, under whom Izamdin serves, asking him to explain to the latter the process whereby he may bring the law to bear upon Fazel Din.