Thinking black; 22 years without a break in the long grass of Central ...

THUS FAR AND NO FARTHER 259
on the 20th of October, and the following 25th of June
saw the very same negroes shrieking death. Yet Carter
in his death is even more famous than the Carter who
petrified Central Africa with his marvellous Indian
elephants. Attacked at Pimbwe on the 23rd June,
Cadenhead fell dead to the first bullet. Seeing one white
man dead, their 150 Zanzibaris fled, leaving Carter alone
to face the murderers—no, not wholly abandoned, for his
faithful mahouts and servant Mahomed—honour the
brave !—stuck to their master. Far into the marshes of
Africa they still tell the tale of that brave British Consul
who sold his life so dearly, and even the Belgians call it
*' une sc^ne terrible, un combat digne des anciens heros."
Seventeen times his Winchester speaks, and seventeen men
lie dead. But this is not all. The carbine cartridges are
now finished, but with a defiance born of desperation he
falls back on his revolver, the circle of fire narrowing in
on him—a pack of howling wild beasts. Of course, they
too could shoot, and indeed, quite early in the fight, a
bullet had pinned poor Carter to the ground, the warning
this, that escape is now impossible. Seeing death ahead,
he coolly and carefully pulled out his watch, wrote a
farewell note, and begged Mahomed to make off with his
papers to Karema. Then, after making good practice with
his revolver for some time, " death and he lay down to-
gether," as the murderers say. Nor do they blush to tell me
how they mutilated the poor body with revolting cruelty.
So there you have the meaning of Mushidi's dark hint
to us : " Whites ? Oh, we killed several."