Chapter 287 Escape to the West
Mattala, Angola.
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 spanned both sides of the Kwango River. East Africa only took the land on the east bank.
The main body of the Kingdom of Runda was originally on the west bank of the Kwango River, so most of the Runda people fled directly to the west bank of the Kwango River after encountering the East African army. The Kingdom of Runda did not suffer much loss this time.
On the west side of the Kingdom of Ruanda, Matala was one of the Portuguese colonies deepest in Angola.
As a Portuguese colonial outpost, this place does not have any special mineral resources, but the land is flat and the rainfall is abundant. Therefore, the Portuguese built large plantations in Mattala, and the main crops grown were palm trees and coffee.
Matala's plantations are mainly composed of two, one is the northern plantation, whose owner is Oliveira, and the other is the southern plantation, whose owner is named Yadros. At this moment, the two are riding horses and patrolling the plantation together.
The native slaves on the plantation worked hard in the fields. They were branded and wore shackles, and every forty or fifty of them were monitored by a white overseer.
Under the scorching sun, white supervisors would whip the hard-working indigenous slaves with long whips at any time to keep them alert. If anyone tried to cheat, their fate would be horrible.
On both sides of the road, there are simple wooden crosses, about two meters high, with hemp ropes wrapped on both sides of the crosses. The crosses are black due to wind and sun, as if they were stained with oil, but when you get closer, you can vaguely see that it is not a pure black wooden cross. From the original color of the cross on the back, you can guess that the cross was originally a yellow wooden stake.
The black oil stains are actually the result of being dyed red by the blood of the indigenous people and then exposed to wind and sun for many years.
The cross was an instrument of torture on the plantation, used specifically to deal with lazy and disobedient slaves, and was occasionally used to establish authority.
The people of the Matala plantation would tie the slaves to be punished to a cross and whip them with a whip. Those who committed serious crimes would be hung on it for two or three days.
Oliveira asked Yadros while riding on his horse, "Yadros, have you noticed recently? Are there more natives? There are often natives passing by our plantation these days. I drove away three groups yesterday."
"That's true. I wonder what the Kingdom of Luenda is up to. Is there unrest in their country?"
"It's very likely. The native tribes of Luenda often attack each other. It might be another tribal war."
"I don't think so. Even if the Kingdom of Lunda is in turmoil, they shouldn't come west! They know Angola well and really think it's paradise!"
"That's right. In the past, the natives would only flee from us to the east, but these days they are running from Lunda to this side. It's so abnormal! Is there something scarier than us?"
"It must be something extremely terrifying that can make the natives come to Matala from the east without fear of us."
At this time, Adros guessed: "What's wrong with these natives? They came here in large numbers from the west. Could it be that there is a plague in the west?"
Thinking of this, Oliveira and Adros suddenly felt a shudder. Plague was not uncommon for the Angolan colony. If this was true, then everyone would be in danger.
"We'd better be cautious about this matter. Let's first have someone capture a few natives from among those people and find out the situation clearly."
…
Following the orders of the two slave owners, the plantation's armed forces soon went to the areas around the plantation to capture suspicious natives. Soon, several healthy-looking natives were captured from the exiled natives.
"Why are you running here in large numbers from the east?" asked the plantation's translator.
“Gurgle gurgle gurgle…”
After listening for a long time, the translator said, "Mr. Oliveira, the accents of these natives are different from those of the natives of the Kingdom of Luenda. It is not easy to translate what they say! But some of the words are similar."
Oliveira said, "They are not from the Kingdom of Luenda! Have you figured out where they are from?"
"He said they were driven here from the west by a group of strangers. They passed through the land of the Kingdom of Luenda, but the people of Luenda did not take them in, so they crossed the Kingdom of Luenda and came here. However, the group of people who drove them here were dressed like us, so they would bypass our plantation."
"Dress like us. I guess we haven't done anything big recently!" Oliveira said to Yadros.
"Of course not. The Governor's Office has not issued any orders. Even if the colonial government has any major actions, they can't bypass us. We are in the westernmost part of Angola!" Yadros said, "So it must be someone else. However, they must not be an ordinary force to make such a big fuss. This makes me guess that there is a suspicious person."
"Um!"
"Do you think it could be the work of the Mozambique colony? They are dressed the same as us and are in the east. There is a high probability that it is the Mozambique colony," Yadros analyzed.
Oliveira said: "That's impossible. The Mozambique colony is on the east coast. It's too far away."
"Remember what the passing caravan said last year? A German force appeared in the east and they occupied the Kingdom of Kazembe. Do you think it could be them?"
"But how do you explain the fact that you're dressed the same as us?"
"Maybe the natives can't tell the difference between us and the Germans. They probably can't tell us Europeans apart just like we can't tell them apart."
Oliveira didn't want to speculate, so he said to the translator, "Let these natives describe in detail whether there are any distinctive features of the group of people they met."
The translator started working again, and soon all the captured natives were questioned.
The translator shook his head and said to Oliveira, "Mr. Oliveira, in fact, these people have never seen what those people look like. They just followed the tribe. They only heard that a group of white-faced monsters came from the west and they would eat people. According to them, many tribes were killed, so they fled from the west under the leadership of the chief."
"Where is their chief?"
"Well, it is said that their chief was among the people shot dead by our people," said the translator.
After asking for a long time without getting the answer he wanted, Oliveira said angrily: "Drag them out and crucify them."
They actually dared to call themselves "man-eating white-faced monsters." Although Oliveira knew that these natives were referring to people from other forces, he still felt the implication.
At this time, Adros said: "It seems that if we want to get accurate information, we still have to start from the Kingdom of Luenda. We might as well send someone to the Kingdom of Luenda to ask their king."
"That's all we can do," Oliveira said.
(End of this chapter)
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