Latest / Lost Continent (Beyond Thirty) / 08 - Lost Continent (Beyond Thirty) by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Transcript

08 - Lost Continent (Beyond Thirty) by Edgar Rice Burroughs · Lost Continent (Beyond Thirty)

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter eight of the Lost Continent. This LibriVox recording is
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. The Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burrows,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Chapter eight. Belcart and Taylor were now in midstream, coming
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: towards us, and I called to them to keep aloof
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: until I knew whether the intentions of my captors were
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: friendly or otherwise. My good men wanted to come on
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: and annihilate the Blacks, but they were upward of a
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: hundred of the latter, all well armed, and so I
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: commanded Delcart to keep out of harm's way and stay
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: where he was till I needed him. A young officer
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: called and beckoned to them, but they refused to come,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: and so he gave orders that resulted in my hands
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: being secured at my back, after which the company marched
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: away straight toward the east. I noticed that the men
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: wore spurs, which seemed strange to me, But when late
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: in the afternoon we arrived at their encampment, I discovered
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: that my captors were cavalry men. In the center of
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: a plane stood a log fort with a blockhouse at
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: each of its four corners. As we approached, I saw
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: a herd of cavalry horses grazing under guard outside the
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: walls of the post. They were small, stocky horses, but
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: the telltale saddle galls proclaimed their calling. The flag flying
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: from a tall staff inside the palisade was one which
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: I had never before seen nor heard of. We marched
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: directly into the compound, where the company was dismissed, with
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: the exception of a guard of four privates, who escorted
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: me in the wake of the young officer. The latter
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: led us across a small parade ground where a battery
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: of light field guns was parked, and toward a log building,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: in front of which rose the flag staff. I was
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: escorted within the building into the present of an old negro,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: a fine looking man with a dignified and military bearing.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: He was a colonel, I was to learn later, and
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: to him I owe the very humane treatment that was
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: accorded me. While I remained his prisoner, he listened to
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: the report of his junior, and then turned to question me,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: but with no better results than the former had accomplished.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Then he summoned an orderly and gave some instructions. The
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: soldier saluted and left the room, returning in about five
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: minutes with a hairy, old white man just such a savage,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: primeval looking fellow, as I had discovered in the woods
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: the day that Snyder had disappeared with the launch. The
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: colonel evidently expected to use the fellow as interpreter, but
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: when the savage addressed me, it was in a language
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: as foreign to me as was that of the blacks.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: At last, the old officer gave it up, and, shaking
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: his head, gave instructions for my removal from his office.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I was led to a guard house, in which I
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: found about fifty half naked whites clad in the skins
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: of wild beasts. I tried to converse with them, but
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: not one of them could understand Pan American, nor could
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: I make head or tail of their jargon. For over
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: a month I remained a prisoner there, working from morning
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: till night at odd jobs about the headquarters building of
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: the commanding officer. The other prisoners worked harder than I did,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: and I owe my better treatment solely to the kindliness
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: and discrimination of the old colonel. What had become a
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: victory of del cart of Taylor, I could not know,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: nor did it seem likely that I should ever learn.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: I was most oppressed, but I whiled away my time
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: in forming the duties given me to the best of
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: my ability, and attempting to learn the language of my captors.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Who they were or where they came from was a
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: mystery to me. That they were the outposts of some
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: powerful black nation seemed likely, Yet where the seat of
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: that nation lay I could not guess. They looked upon
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: the whites as their inferiors, and treated us accordingly. They
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: had a literature of their own, and many of the men,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: even the common soldiers, were omnivorous readers. Every two weeks,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: a dust covered trooper would trot his jaded mount into
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: the post and deliver a bulging sack of mail at headquarters.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: The next day he would be away again upon a
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: fresh horse, toward the south, carrying the soldier's letters to
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: friends in the far off land of mystery. From whence
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: they all had come. Troops, sometimes me mounted and sometimes afoot,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: left the post daily for what I assumed to be
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: patrol duty. I judged the little force of a thousand
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: men were detailed here to maintain the authority of a
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: distant government in a conquered country. Later I learned that
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: my surmise was correct, and this was but one of
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: a great chain of similar posts that dotted the new
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: frontier of the Black nation into whose hands I had fallen.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Slowly I learned their tongue so that I could understand
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: what was said before me and make myself understood. I
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: had seen from the first that I was being treated
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: as a slave, that all whites that fell into the
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: hands of the blacks were thus treated all most daily,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: new prisoners were brought in, and about three weeks after
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: I was brought in to the post, a troop of
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: cavalry came from the south to relieve one of the
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: troops stationed there. There was great jubilation in the encampment
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: after the arrival of the newcomers. Old friendships were renewed
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: and new ones made. But the happiest men were those
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: of the troop that was to be relieved. The next morning,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: they started away, and as they were forced upon the
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: parade ground, we prisoners were marched from our quarters and
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: lined up before them. A couple of long chains were brought,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: with rings in the lynks every few feet. At first
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: I could not guess the purpose of these chains, but
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: I was soon to learn. Couple of soldiers snapped the
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: first ring around the neck of a powerful white slave,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: and one by one the rest of us were herded
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: to our places, and the work of shackling us neck
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: to neck commenced. The colonel stood watching the procedure. Presently
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: his eyes fell upon me, and he spoke to a
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: young officer at his side. The latter stepped toward me
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: and motioned me to follow him. I did so, and
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: was led back to the colonel. By this time I
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: could understand a few words of their strange language, and
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: when the colonel asked me if I would prefer to
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: remain at the post as his body servant, I signified
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: my willingness as emphatically as possible, for I had seen
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: enough of the brutality of the common soldiers toward their
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: white slaves to have no desire to start out upon
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: a march of unknown length, chained by the neck, and
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: driven on by the great whips that a score of
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: the soldiers carried to accelerate the speed of their charges.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: About three hundred prisoners, who had been housed in six
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: prisons at the post marched out of the gates that morning.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: To what fate and what future I could not guess.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Neither had the poor devils themselves more than the most
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: vague conception of what lay in store for them, except
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: that they were going elsewhere to continue in the slavery
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: that they had known since their capture by the Black conquerors,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: a slavery that was to continue until death released them.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: My position was altered at the post. From working about
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: the headquarters office, I was transferred to the colonel's living quarters.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: I had greater freedom, and no longer slept in one
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: of the prisons, but had a little room to myself
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: off the kitchen of the colonel's log house. My master
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: was always kind to me, and under him I rapidly
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: learned the language of my captors, and much concerning them
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: that had been a mystery to me before. His name
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: was Abu Belick. He was a colonel in the Cavalry
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: of Abyssinia, a country of which I do not remember
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: ever hearing, but which Colonel Bellick assured me is the
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: oldest civilized country in the world. Colonel Bellick was born
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: in Addis Abeba, the capital of the Empire, and until
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: recently had been in command of the Emperor's palace guard.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Jealousy and the ambition and intrigue of another officer had
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: lost him the favor of his emperor, and he had
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: been detailed to this frontier post as a mark of
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: his sovereign's displeasure. Some fifty years before, the young emperor
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Menelek the fourteenth was ambitious. He knew that a great
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: world lay across the waters far to the north of
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: his capital. Once he had crossed the desert and looked
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: out upon the Blue Sea that was the northern boundary
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: of his dominions, there lay another world to conquer. Menelek
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: busied himself with the building of a great fleet. Though
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: his people were not a maritime race. His army crossed
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: into Europe, it met with little resistance, and for fifty
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: years his soldiers had been pushing his boundaries farther and
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: farther toward the north. The yellow men from the east
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: and north are contesting our rights here now, said the colonel.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: But we shall win. We shall conquer the world, carrying
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Christianity to all the benighted heathen of Europe and Asia
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: as well. You are a Christian people, I asked. He
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: looked at me in surprise, nodding his head affirmatively. I
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: am a Christian, I said. My people are the most
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: powerful on earth. He smiled and shook his head indulgently,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: as a father to a child who sets up his
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: childish judgment against that of his elders. Then I set
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: out to prove my point. I told him of our cities,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: of our army, and of our great navy. He came
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: right back at me, asking for figures, and when he
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: was done, I had to admit that only in our
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: navy were we numerically superior. Menelek the fourteenth is the
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: undisputed ruler of all the continent of Africa, of all
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: of ancient Europe except the British Isles, Scandinavia and Eastern Russia,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: and has large possessions and prosperous colonies in what once
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: were Arabia and Turkey. In Asia. He has a standing
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: army of ten million men, and his people possess slaves
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: white slaves, to the number of ten or fifteen million.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Colonel Bellick was much surprised, however, upon his part, to
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: learn of the great nation which lay across the ocean,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: and when he found that I was a naval officer,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: he was inclined to accord me even greater consideration than formerly.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: It was difficult for him to believe my assertion that
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: there were but few blacks in my country, and that
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: these occupied a lower social plane than the whites. Just
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: the reverse is true in Colonel Bellicks's land. He considered
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: white's inferior beings creatures of a lower order, and assuring
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: me that even the few white freemen of Abyssinia were
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: never accorded anything approximating a position of social equality with
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: the blacks. They live in the poorer districts of the cities,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: in little white colonies, and a black who marries a
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: white is socially ostracized. The arms and ammunition of the
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Abyssinians are greatly inferior to ours, yet they are tremendously
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: effective against the ill armed barbarians of Europe. Their rifles
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: are of a type similar to the magazine riffles of
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: twentieth century Pan America, by carrying only five cartridges in
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: the magazine in addition to the one in the chamber.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: They are of extraordinary length, even those of the cavalry,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: and are of extreme accuracy. The Abyssinians themselves are a
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: fine looking race of black men, tall muscular with fine
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: teeth and regular features which incline distinctly towards Semitic mold.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: I referred to the full blooded natives of Abyssinia. They
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: are the patricians, the aristocracy. The army is officed almost
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: exclusively by them. Among the soldiery, a lower type of
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: Nego predominates, with thicker lips and broader, flatter noses. These
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: men are recruited, so the colonel told me, from among
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: the conquered tribes of Africa. They are good soldiers, brave
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: and loyal. They can read and write, and they are
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: endowed with a self confidence and pride which, from my
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: readings of the words of ancient African explorers, must have
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: been wanting in their earliest progenitors. On the whole, it
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: is apparent that the Black race has thrived far better
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: in the past two centuries under men of its own
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: color than it had under the domination of whites during
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: all previous history. I had been a prisoner at the
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Little Frontier posts for over a month when orders came
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: to Colonel Bellick to hasten to the Eastern Frontier, with
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: the major portion of his command, leaving only one troop
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: to garrison the fort. As his body servant, I accompanied him,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: mounted upon a fiery little Abyssinian pony. We marched rapidly
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: for ten days through the heart of the ancient German Empire,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: halting when night found us in proximity to water. Often
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: we passed small posts similar to that at which the
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: colonel's regiment had been quartered, finding in each instance that
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: only a single company or troop remained for defense, the
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: balance having been withdrawn toward the northeast in the same
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: direction in which we were moving. Naturally, the colonel had
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: not confided to me the nature of his orders, but
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: the rapidity of our march and the fact that all
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: available troops were being hastened toward the northeast assured me
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: that a matter of vital importance to the dominion of
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Menelek the fourteenth in that part of Europe was threatening
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: or had already broken. I could not believe that single
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: rising of the savage tribes of White would necessitate the
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: mobilizing of such a force as we presently met with.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Converging from the south into our trail, there were large
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: bodies of cavalry and infantry, endless streams of artillery wagons
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: and guns, and countless horse drawn covered vehicles laden with
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: camp equipage, munitions, and provisions. Here for the first time
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: I saw camels, great caravans of them, bearing all sorts
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: of heavy burdens, and miles upon miles of elephants doing
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: similar service. It was a scene of wondrous and barbaric splendor,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: for the men and beasts from the south were gaily
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: caparisoned in rich colors, in marked contrast to the gray,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: uniformed forces of the frontier with which I had been familiar.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: The rumor reached us that Menelek himself was coming, and
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: the pitch of excitement to which this announcement raised the
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: troops was little short of miraculous, at least to one
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: of my race and nationality, whose rulers for centuries had
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: been but ordinary men holding off at the will of
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: the people for a few brief years. As I witnessed it,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: I could not but speculate upon the moral effect upon
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: his troops of a sovereign's presence in the midst of battle,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: or else being equal in war between the troops of
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: a republic and an empire. Could not this exhilarated mental state,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: amounting almost to hysteria on the part of the imperial
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: troops weigh heavily against the soldiers of a president, I wonder.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: But if the Emperor chanced to be absent, what then, again,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: I wonder. On the eleventh day we reached our destination,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: a walled frontier city of about twenty thousand. We passed
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: some lakes and crossed some old canals before entering the
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: gates within beside the frame buildings, where many built of
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: ancient brick and well cut stone. These I was told
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: were of material taken from the ruins of the ancient
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: city which once had stood upon the site of the
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: present town. The name of the town, translated from the
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Abyssinian is New Gondar. It stands, I am convinced, upon
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: the ruins of ancient Berlin, the one time capital of
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: the old German Empire. But except for the old building
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: material used in the new town, there is no sign
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: of the former city. The day after we arrived, the
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: town was gaily decorated with flags, streamers, gorgeous rugs and banners.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: For the rumor had proved true the Emperor was coming.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Colonel Bellick had accorded me the greatest liberty, permitting me
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: to go where I pleased. After my few duties had
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: been performed. As a result of his kindness, I spent
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: much time wandering about New Gondar, talking with the inhabitants,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: and exploring the city of black men. As I had
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: been given a semi military uniform which bore insignia indicating
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: that I was an officer's body servant. Even the blacks
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: treated me with as species of respect, though I could
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: see by their manner that I was really as the
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: dirt beneath their feet. They answered my questions civilly enough,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: but they would not enter into conversation with me. It
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: was from other slaves that I learned the gossip of
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: the city. Troops were pouring in from the west and south,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: and pouring out toward the east. I asked an old
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: slave who was sweeping the dirt into little piles in
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: the gutters of the street where the soldiers were going.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: He looked at me in surprise. Why to fight the
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: yellow men? Of course, he said, they have crossed the
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: border and are marching toward Ugonda. Who will win, I asked.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: He shrugged his shoulders. Who knows, he said, I hope
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: it will be the yellow men, but Menelek is powerful.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: It will take many yellow men to defeat him. Crowds
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: were gathering along the sidewalks to view the emperor's entry
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: into the city. I took my place among them, although
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: I hate crowds, and I am glad that I did,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: for I witnessed such a spectacle of barbaric splendor as
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: no other Pan American has ever looked upon. Down the
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: broad main thoroughfare, which may once have been the historic
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: unto den Linden, came a brilliant cortege. At the head
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: rode a regiment of red coated husars, enormous men black
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: as night. There were troops of riflemen mounted on camels.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: The emperor rode in a golden hawder upon the back
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: of a huge elephant, so covered with rich hangings and
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: embellished with scintillation gems that scarce more than the beast's
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: eyes and feet were visible. Menelek was a rather gross
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: looking man, well past middle age, but he carried himself
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: with an air of dignity, befitting one descended in unbroken
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: line from the prophet, as was his claim. His eyes
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: were bright but crafty, and his features denoted both sensuality
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: and cruelness. In his youth. He may have been a
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: rather fine looking black, but when I saw him, his
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: appearance was revolting to me, at least. Following the Emperor
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: came regiment after regiment from the various branches of the service,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: among them batteries of field guns mounted on elephants. In
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: the center of the troops, following the imperial elephant marched
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: a great caravan of slaves. The old street sweeper at
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: my elbow told me that these these were the gifts
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: brought in from the far outlying districts by the commanding
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: officers of the frontier posts. The majority of them were women, destined,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: I was told, for the harems of the Emperor and
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: his favorites. It made my old companion clench his fists
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: to see those poor white women marching past to their
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: horrid fates, And though I shared his sentiments, I was
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: as powerless to alter their destinies as he. For a week,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: the troops kept pouring in and out of Ugonda, in
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: always from the south and west, but always toward the east.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Each new contingent brought its gifts to the Emperor. From
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: the south, they brought rugs and ornaments and jewels from
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: the west, slaves for the commanding offices of the western
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: frontier posts had nought else to bring. From the number
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: of women they brought, I judged that they knew the
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: weakness of their imperial master. And then soldiers commenced, coming
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: in from the east, but not with the gay assurance
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: of those who came from the south and west. No,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: these others came in covered wagons, blood soaked, and suffering.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: They came at first in little parties of eight or ten,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: and then they came in fifties, in hundreds, and one
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: day a thousand maimed and dying men were carded into Ugonda.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: It was then that Menelekt the fourteenth became uneasy. For
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: fifty years, his armies had conquered wherever they had marched.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: At first he had led them in person. Lately, his
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: presence within one hundred miles of the battle line had
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: been sufficient for large engagements. For minor ones, only the
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: knowledge that they were fighting for the glory of their
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: sovereign was necessary to win victories. One morning, Nugonda was
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: awakened by the booming of cannon. It was the first
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: intimation that the townspeople had received that the enemy was
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: forcing the imperial troops back upon the city. Dust covered
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: couriers galloped in from the front. Fresh troops hastened from
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: the city, and about noon Menelek rode out, surrounded by
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: his staff. For three days thereafter we could hear the
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: cannonading and the spitting of the small arms, for the
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: battle line was scarce two legs from New Gonda. The
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: city was filled with wounded. Just outside, soldiers were engaged
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: in throwing up earthworks. It was evident to the least
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: enlightened that Menelek expected further reverses. And then the imperial
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: troops fell back upon these new defenses, or rather they
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: were forced back by the enemy shells commenced to fall
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: within the city. Menelek returned and took up his headquarters
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: in the stone building that was called the Palace. That
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: night came a lull in the hostilities. A truce had
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: been arranged. Colonel Bellick summoned me about seven o'clock to
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: dress him for a function at the palace. In the
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: midst of death and defeat. The Emperor was about to
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: give a great banquet to his officers. I was to
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: accompany my master and wait upon him. I Jefferson Turk,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: lieutenant in a Pan American navy, in the privacy of
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: the colonel's quarters. I had become accustomed to my menial duties,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: lightened as they were by the natural kindliness of my master.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: But the thought of appearing in public as a common
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: slave revolted every fine instinct within me. Yet there was
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: nothing for it but to obey. I can not even
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: now bring myself to a narration of the humiliation which
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: I experienced that night, as I stood behind my black
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: master in silent civility, now pouring his wine, now cutting
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: up his meats for him, now fanning him with a
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: large plumed fan of feathers. As fond as I had
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: grown of him, I could have thrust a knife into him.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: So keenly did I feel the affront that had been
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: put upon me. But at last the long banquet was concluded,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: the tables were removed, the Emperor ascended the dais at
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: one end of the room and seated himself upon a throne,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: and the entertainment commenced. It was only what ancient history
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: might have led me to expect. Musicians, dancing girls, jugglers
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: and the like. Near midnight, the master of Ceremonies announced
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: that the slave women who had been presented to the
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Emperor since his arrival in Ugonda would be exhibited, that
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: the royal host would select such as he wished, after
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: which he would present the balance of them to his guests. Ah,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: what royal generosity. A small door at one side of
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: the room opened, and the poor creatures filed in and
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: were ranged in a long line before the throne. Their
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: backs were toward me. I saw only an occasional profile
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: as now, and then a bolder spirit among them turned
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: to survey the apartment and the gorgeous assemblage of officers
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: in their brilliant dress uniforms. They were profiles of young
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: girls and pretty, but horror was indelibly stamped upon them.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: All nodded as I contemplated their sad fate and turned
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: my eyes away. I heard the master of ceremonies command
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: them to prostrate themselves before the Emperor, and the sounds
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: as they went upon their knees before him, touching their
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: foreheads to the floor. Then came the official's voice again,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: in sharp and peremptory command. Down, slave, he cried, make
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: obsense to your sovereign. I looked up attracted by the
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: tone of the man's voice to see a single, straight,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: slim figure standing erect in the center of the line
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: of prostrate girls, her arms folded across her breast and
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: little chindin in the air. Her back was toward me.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: I could not see her face, though I should like
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: to see the countenance of this savage young lioness standing
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: there defiant among that herd of terrified sheep. Dam Down,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: shouted the master of ceremonies, taking a step toward her
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: and half drawing his sword. My blood boiled to stand
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: there inactive while a negro struck down that brave girl
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: of my own race. Instinctively, I took a forward step
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: to place myself in the man's path, But at the
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: same instant Menelek raised his hand in a gesture that
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: halted the officer. The emperor seemed interested, but in no
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: way angered at the girl's attitude. Let us inquire, he said,
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: in a smooth, pleasant voice, why this young woman refuses
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: to do homage to her sovereign? And he put the
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: question himself directly to her. She answered him in Abyssinian,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: but brokenly and with an accent that betrayed how recently
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: she had acquired her slight knowledge of the tongue. I
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: go on my knees to no one, she said, I
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: have no sovereign. I myself am sovereign in my own country. Mennelek,
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: at her words, leaned back in his throne and laughed uproariously.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: Following his example, which seemed always the correct procedure, the
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: assembled guests vied with one another in an effort to
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: laugh more noisily than the emperor. The girl, but tilted
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: her chin a bit higher in the air even her back,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: proclaimed her utter contempt for her captors. Finally, Menelek restored
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: quiet by the simple expedient of a frown, whereupon each
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: loyal guest exchanged his mirthful mane for an emmulative scowl.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: And who asked, Menelek, are you, and by what name
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: is your country called? I am Victory, Queen of Rebritton,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: replied the girl, so quickly and so unexpectedly, that I
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: gasped in astonishment. End of Chapter eight