Chapter 287 Escape to the West
Angola, Matala.
To the west of Matara is the Rwanda Kingdom. The Rwanda Kingdom was not completely wiped out by East Africa because the Rwanda Kingdom itself spans both banks of the Kuango River, and East Africa only took away the land on the east bank. .
The main body of the Luenda Kingdom was originally on the west bank of the Kuango River, so most of the Luenda people fled directly to the west bank of the Kuango River after encountering the East African army. The Luenda Kingdom suffered no losses this time. big.
On the west side of the Kingdom of Luenda, Matala is one of the most inland Portuguese colonies in Angola.
As a colonial stronghold of the Portuguese, there are no special mineral resources here. The land is mainly flat and the rainfall is abundant. Therefore, the Portuguese built large plantations in Matala. The main crops grown are palm trees and coffee.
Mattala's plantation is mainly composed of two families, one is the northern plantation, whose owner is Oliveira, and the other is the southern plantation, whose owner is named Adros. At this moment, the two Individuals are riding horses and patrolling the plantation together.
In the plantations, the indigenous slaves worked hard in the fields. They were branded and wore anklets, and every forty or fifty of them were monitored by a white overseer.
Under the scorching sun, the white overseers took long whips and whipped the hard-working indigenous slaves at any time to cheer them up. If someone cheated, the consequences would be even more disastrous.
On both sides of the road, there are simple wooden crosses, about two meters high, with hemp ropes wrapped on both sides of the cross. The weathered cross is completely black, as if it is stained with oil, but if you get closer, you can faintly see it. Yueyue discovered that it was not a pure black wooden cross. He could guess from the true color of the cross on the back of the cross that the cross was originally a yellow wooden stake.
The black oil stain is actually the result of the indigenous blood dyeing red again and again, and then being exposed to wind and sun all year round.
The cross was a torture device on the plantation, specially used to deal with lazy and disobedient slaves. It was occasionally used to establish authority.
The people in the Matara plantation would tie the slaves to be punished to a cross and beat them with whips. Those who committed serious crimes would hang on them for two or three days.
Oliveira rode on the horse and asked Adros: "Adros, have you felt it recently? Has the number of indigenous people increased? These days, there are often indigenous people coming from our plantings. I drove three groups away from the park yesterday."
"That's true. I wonder what the Luenda Kingdom is doing. Is there a turmoil in their country?"
"It is very possible that the native tribes of Luenda often attack each other, and maybe it is a drama of tribal war."
"I feel a little different. Even if the Kingdom of Luenda is in turmoil, they They shouldn’t come west! They know Angola well, and they really regard it as a paradise!”
“That’s right. In the past, the natives only fled from our side to the east. These days But running here from Luenda is so abnormal! Is there anything more terrifying than us?”
“The indigenous people can come to Matala from the east without being afraid of us?” , It must be an extremely terrifying thing."
At this time, Adros guessed: "Why are these natives crazy and coming here from the west? It can't be that there is a plague in the west! ”
Thinking of this, Oliveira and Adros suddenly felt a shudder. Plague was not a rare thing for the Angolan colony. If this was the case, then everyone would be in danger.
“It’s better for us to be more cautious about this matter. It’s better to have people go and capture a few natives among those people and find out more about the situation.”
……
Following the orders of the two slave owners, soon the plantation armed forces went to the areas around the plantation to capture suspicious natives. Soon, a few healthy-looking natives were captured from the exiled natives.
“Why are you running in large numbers from the east to this side?” asked the translator at the plantation. "Gulu gulu gulu..."
After listening for a long time, the translator said: "Mr. Oliveira, the accent of these natives is different from that of the natives of the Rwanda Kingdom. What he said is not easy to translate! But some words are still the same. "
Oliveira said: "They are not from the Luenda Kingdom! Do you know where they come from?"
"He said they were stolen by a group of strangers. Driven from the west, they passed through the land of the Kingdom of Luenda, but the Luenda people did not take them in, so they crossed the Kingdom of Luenda and arrived here. However, the group of people who drove them out were dressed like us, so they They will bypass our plantation."
"Dress up like us, we haven't done anything big recently," Oliveira said to Adros.
"Of course not, and the Governor-General's Office has not given any orders. Moreover, even if the colonial government makes any big moves, it is impossible to bypass us. This is the westernmost part of Angola!" Adros said: "That's why it must be someone else, but Making such a big movement must be unusual. "Li, this makes me guess a suspicious person."
"Hmm!"
"Do you think it was the Mozambique colony that caused the problem? They are dressed like us and are in the east. , there is a high probability that it is a colony of Mozambique," Yadros analyzed.
Oliveira said: "This is impossible, the Mozambique colony is on the east coast, too far away."
"Remember what the passing caravan said last year? The east coast A German force has appeared and they have taken over the Kingdom of Kazembe. Do you think it could be them? ”
"But how to explain the fact that we dress the same as us?"
"Maybe the natives can't tell the difference between us and the Germans. They probably can't tell the difference between us Europeans and us the natives. "
Oliveira didn't want to guess, he said to the translator: "Let these natives describe in detail whether there are any distinguishing 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 that group of people looks like. They just followed the tribe. They only heard People said that a group of white-faced monsters came from the west and could eat people. According to them, many tribes were brutally attacked, so they escaped from the west under the leadership of the chief. "
"Where is their chief?"
"Well, it is said that their chief was among the few people shot to death by our people." said the translator.
After asking for a long time and not getting the answer he wanted, Oliveira said angrily: "Pull them out and condemn them to death on the cross."
How dare you say that you are "White-faced monsters that eat people", although Oliveira knew that these indigenous people were referring to people from other forces, they did not take it into consideration.
Adross said at this time: "It seems that if you want to get accurate information, you should start from the Kingdom of Luenda, and simply send someone to the Kingdom of Luenda to ask their king."
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"That's all we have to do," Oliveira said.
(End of this chapter)