The rapids were near, and an uninterrupted, uniform, headlong, rushing noise filled the mournful stillness Stepped into the gloomy circle of some Inferno. My purpose was to stroll into the shade for a moment but no sooner within than it seemed to me I had I discovered that a lot of imported drainage-pipes for the settlement had been Then I nearly fell into a very narrow ravine, almost no more than a scar in the hillside. It might have been connected with the philanthropic desire of Somebody had been digging on the slope, the purpose of which I found it impossible to divine. Finally I descended the hill, obliquely, towards the trees I had seen. For a moment I stood appalled, as though by a warning. How insidious he could be, too, I was only to find out several months That in the blinding sunshine of that land I would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly. But as I stood on this hillside, I foresaw Violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire but, by all the stars! these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men - men, I tell you. I've had to resist and to attack sometimes - that's only one way of resisting - without counting the exact cost, according to the demands of such sort of life as I had blundered into. You know I am not particularly tender I've had to strike and toįend off. My idea was to let that chain-gang get out of sight before I climbed the hill. "Instead of going up, I turned and descended to the left. Was a part of the great cause of these high and just proceedings. He was speedily reassured, and with a large, white, rascally grin, and a glance at his charge, seemed to take me into partnership in his exalted trust. This was simple prudence, white men being so much alike at aĭistance that he could not tell who I might be. He had a uniform jacket with one button off, and seeing a white man on the path, hoisted his weapon to his shoulder with alacrity. Behind this raw matter one of the reclaimed, the product of the new forces at work, strolled despondently, carryingĪ rifle by its middle. They passed me within six inches, without a glance, with thatĬomplete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages. All their meagre breasts panted together, the violently dilated nostrils quivered, the eyes stared stonily uphill. They were called criminals, and the outraged law, like the bursting shells, had come to them,Īn insoluble mystery from the sea. It was the same kind of ominous voice but these men could by no stretch of imagination be called enemies. Another report from the cliff made me think suddenly of that ship of war I had seen firing Iron collar on his neck, and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them, rhythmically clinking. I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope each had an Black rags were wound round their loins, and the short ends behind waggled to and fro like tails. They walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets full of earth on their heads, and the clink Six black men advanced in a file, toiling up the path. "A slight clinking behind me made me turn my head. The cliff was not in the way or anything but this objectless blasting was all the work going on. A heavy and dull detonation shook the ground, a puff of smoke came out of the cliff, and that was all. A horn tooted to the right, and I saw the black people run. To the left a clump of trees made a shady spot, where dark things seemed to stirįeebly. I came upon more pieces of decaying machinery, a stack of rusty rails. The thing looked as dead as the carcass of some animal. It turned aside for the boulders, and also for an undersized railway-truck lying there on its back with its wheels in the air. "I came upon a boiler wallowing in the grass, then found a path leading up the hill. In this excerpt, pay attention to the description of Africans.
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