African Entrepreneurship Records

  Chapter 287 Escape to the West

   Angola, Matala.

  To the west of Matala is the Kingdom of Runda. The Kingdom of Runda was not completely wiped out by East Africa, because the Kingdom of Runda itself straddles the banks of the Kwango River, and East Africa only took the land on the east bank.

  The main body of the Ruanda Kingdom was originally on the west bank of the Kuango River, so most of the Ruanda people fled directly to the west bank of the Kuango River after encountering the East African army. The Ruanda Kingdom suffered little loss this time.

   On the west side of the Kingdom of Luanda, Matala is one of the Portuguese colonies in Angola that penetrated deepest into the interior.

  As the Portuguese colonial stronghold here, there are no special mineral resources. The main thing is that the land is flat and the rainfall is abundant. Therefore, the Portuguese built a large plantation in Matala, and the main crops are palm trees and coffee.

  Matala's plantation is mainly composed of two, one is the northern plantation, its owner is Oliveira, and the other is the southern plantation, the owner's name is Yadros. At this moment, the two are riding horses and patrolling the plantation together.

  In the plantation, the indigenous slaves worked hard in the fields. They were branded and wore ankle chains. Every forty or fifty people were monitored by a white supervisor.

  Under the scorching sun, the white overseer took a long whip and whipped the hard-working native slaves at any time to refresh them.

  On both sides of the road, there are crude wooden crosses, about two meters high, with hemp rope wrapped around the two sides of the cross. The whole body of the cross is black, as if stained with oil, but when you get closer, you can vaguely find a wooden cross that is not pure black. You can guess from the true color of the cross on the back of the cross. The cross was originally a yellow wooden stake.

  The black oil stain is actually the result of the blood of the aborigines being dyed red again and again, and then exposed to the wind and sun all year round.

  The cross is the instrument of torture in the plantation. It is specially used to deal with lazy and disobedient slaves, and it is occasionally used to establish prestige.

  The people of the Matala plantation will tie the slaves to be punished to the cross, beat them with a whip, and hang them for two or three days if the crime is serious.

   Oliveira rode on a horse and asked Adros: "Adros, have you felt it recently? Has the number of indigenous people increased? These days, indigenous people often pass by our plantation. I drove out three batches yesterday."

   "That's true. I don't know what the Rwanda Kingdom is doing. Could it be that there is turmoil in their country?"

   "It's very possible that the native tribes of Lunda often attack each other, maybe it's another tribal war."

   "I don't feel like it. Even if the Kingdom of Luanda is in turmoil, they shouldn't have come west! They know Angola well, and they really see it as a paradise!"

   "That's right. In the past, the natives only fled from our side to the east, but these days they are running from the territory of Lunda to this side. It's too abnormal! Is there anything more terrifying than us?"

   "It must be an extremely terrifying thing to make the natives not even afraid of us. Coming to Matala from the east."

  At this time, Yadros guessed: "These natives have gone crazy and come here from the west. It can't be that there is a plague in the west!"

  Thinking of this, Oliveira and Yadroston felt a shudder. Plague is not a rare thing for the Angola colony. If this is the case, everyone will be in danger.

   "It's better for us to be more cautious about this matter. It's better to let people go to those people to catch a few indigenous people and find out the situation."

  …

   Following the orders of the two slave owners, soon the armed forces of the plantation went to the area around the plantation to arrest suspicious natives. Soon a few healthy-looking natives were captured from the exile.

   "Why are you running here in such a large scale from the east?" asked the plantation interpreter.

   "Gurrrrrrrrrrrr..."

   After listening for a long time, the translator said: "Mr. Oliveira, the accent of these natives is not the same as that of the natives of the Rwanda Kingdom. What he said is not very easy to translate! But some words are still similar."

   Oliveira said: "Not from the Luanda Kingdom! Have you figured out where they came from?"

   "He said that they were driven from the west by a group of strangers, and passed through the land of the Rwanda kingdom in the middle, but the Runda people didn't take them in, so they crossed the Rwanda kingdom and arrived here, but the group of people who drove them were dressed in our clothes, so they would bypass our plantation."

   "Dress like us, we haven't made any big moves recently!" Oliveira said to Yadros.

   "Of course not, and the Governor's Office has not issued an order, and even if the colonial government makes any major moves, it is impossible to bypass us. I am here in the westernmost part of Angola!" Yadros said: "That's why it must be someone else, but it must not be an ordinary force that made such a big movement. This makes me guess a suspicious object."

"Um!"

   "Do you think it was the Mozambique colony that caused the trouble? The dress is the same as ours, and it is in the east. There is a high probability that it is the Mozambique colony." Yadros analyzed.

   Oliveira said: "This is impossible. The Mozambique colony is on the east coast, and the distance is too far."

   "Remember what the passing caravan said last year? A German force appeared in the east. They occupied the Kazenbe Kingdom. Could it be them?"

   "But how to explain the fact that we dress the same?"

   "Maybe the natives can't tell the difference between us and the Germans. They probably can't tell the difference between us Europeans and our natives."

   Oliveira didn't want to guess, he said to the translator: "Let these indigenous people describe carefully whether there are any distinctive features of the group of people they met."

  The translation started working again, and soon, all the captured aborigines were questioned over and over again.

   The translator shook his head and said to Oliveira: "Mr. Oliveira, in fact, these people have never seen what the group of people looked like. They just ran with the tribe. They only heard that a group of white-faced monsters came from the west, and they can eat people. According to their meaning, many tribes were brutally murdered, so they escaped from the west under the leadership of the chief."

   "Where is their chief?"

   "Uh, it is said that among the few people shot to death by our people were their chiefs." The translator said.

  After asking for a long time, but did not get the answer he wanted, Oliveira said angrily: "Take them out and decide to die on the cross."

   Dare to say that he is a "monster with a white face that eats people". Although Oliveira knows that these indigenous people refer to people from other forces, it has been connoted.

  Yaderos said at this time: "It seems that if you want to get accurate information, you still have to start from the Kingdom of Runda. Simply send someone to the Kingdom of Runda to ask their king."

   "It has to be like this." Oliveira said.

  (end of this chapter)