John Ames, Native Commissioner: A Romance of the Matabele Rising

  CHAPTER TWO.

  JOHN AMES.

  John Ames was Native Commissioner for the district of Sikumbutana.

  Now, the area of the said district contained about as many square milesas did one half of England. It likewise contained some thousands of itsoriginal inhabitants, a considerable percentage of which were Matabele,and the residue Makalaka, the bulk of whom had, prior to the war ofoccupation, been incorporated into the ranks of Lo Bengula'sfighting-men. Indeed, they reckoned themselves as integral with thenation--as much so as the original Abezantzi, even then fast dwindlingnumerically--and by no means welcomed their so-called emancipation atthe hands of the British with the acclaim our theoretically humanecivilisation had striven to persuade itself they would. They weresettled upon reservations there as in other districts under the chargeof Native Commissioners appointed by the Government of the CharteredCompany.

  Now the duties of these Native Commissioners were multifarious, ifill-defined. They involved the collection of hut tax; the keeping of avigilant eye upon the people at large; the carrying out of thedisarmament programme; the settlement of all local disputes that werepotient of settlement; and of about half a hundred other questions thatmight arise from day to day. These officials were expected to act thepart of benevolent uncle all round, to the natives under their charge;and in order to effect this thoroughly, they had to be continually onthe move, keeping up a constant system of patrol in order to becomeacquainted with every nook and corner of their somewhat vast area, andsee that things were going on all right in general; and bearing in mindthe extent of that area, it will be seen that this alone constituted avery laborious and responsible side of their duties. For it was no caseof progressing in a fairly comfortable conveyance: neither the naturalformation of the country nor the not very munificent travellingallowance granted by their government would admit of that. It meantreal downright roughing it. Day after day of long rides on horseback,over mountain and plain and low-lying fever belt in all weathers, and acamp under rock or tree at night; and when it is remembered that suchperegrinations amounted in the aggregate to about half the year, itfollows that the faculties both physical and mental, of these usefulpublic servants were not likely to stagnate for lack of use.

  There was one other duty which devolved upon them at the time of ourstory; the collecting of the cattle which the Chartered Company exactedas a war indemnity from the not thoroughly conquered Matabele; andremembering that cattle constitutes the whole worldly wealth of anative, it may be imagined what a thankless and uningratiating task wasthrown upon their hands.

  John Ames was an excellent specimen of this class of public official.Born on a Natal farm, he could speak the native languages fluently, andhad all the idiosyncrasies of the native character at his fingers' ends,a phase of useful knowledge which a few years spent at an English publicschool had failed to obliterate, and which, on his return to the land ofhis birth, he was able to turn to practical account. He had come toRhodesia with the early Pioneers, and having served through the Matabelewar of 1893, had elected to remain in the country. He was of goodlyheight and proportion, standing six feet in his socks, handsome withal,having regular features, and steadfast and penetrating grey eyes; and atthe time we make his acquaintance had just turned thirty, but lookedmore.

  "Here's a pretty kettle of fish," he was saying, as he sat in hiscompound on the day following the events recorded in the last chapter."This thing will have to be gone into, Inglefield, and that prettythoroughly."

  "Certainly, old chap, certainly. But what is the `thing' when all'ssaid and done, and what sort of fish are in the kettle? You forgetyou've been pattering away to these chaps for the last half-hour, andexcept for a word or two, I haven't caught any of it. Even now I don'tknow what it's all about."

  "These police of yours seem to have been rather playing the fool," wasthe direct answer.

  He addressed as Inglefield was the sub-inspector in charge of theMatabele Police, whose camp lay about a mile away. Inglefield was anEnglish importation, an ex-subaltern in a line regiment, who havinglived at the rate of about double his means for a few years, had, incommon with not a few of his kind, found it necessary to migrate withthe object of "picking up something;" and he had duly "picked up" acommission in the Matabele Police. Now Inglefield twirled his moustacheand looked annoyed.

  "Oh, the police again!" he retorted, somewhat snappishly. "I say, Ames.Can they by any chance ever do anything right according to youfellows?"

  The two men were seated together outside the hut which Ames used for anoffice. In front of them about a dozen Matabele squatted in asemicircle. One of these--a ringed man--had been speaking at somelength, but the bulk of his conversation was utterly unintelligible toInglefield.

  "Granting for the sake of argument they never can, it is hardly to bewondered at," replied Ames, tranquilly. "Their very existence as atpresent constituted is a mistake, and may prove a most serious one someof these days. First of all, the Matabele have never been more thanhalf conquered, and having given them peace--on not such easy terms,mind--the first thing we do is to pick out a number of them, arm them,and teach them to shoot. And such fellows are turned loose to keeptheir own crowd in order. Well, it isn't in human nature that the planwon't lead to ructions, and this is only another of them. I knownatives, Inglefield, and you don't, if you'll excuse my saying so. Now,every man Jack of your Matabele Police imagines himself a bigger manthan the old indunas of the country before whom he used to shake in hisshoes. And the Matabele won't stand that for ever."

  "Oh, come now, Ames, you're putting things rather strong. Besides, weseem to have heard all that before."

  "And so these fellows can swagger around in their uniforms and put onside, and crow over the old indunas, and bully the crowd at large, and--what is worse, use their position to pay off old grudges. Which is justwhat seems to have been done in the present case."

  "The devil it does! Who says so?"

  "The man who has been talking the most is Samvu, the brother of Madula,"went on Ames. "He is here to complain of your men. They appear to haveacted in a pretty high-handed way at Madula's, and the wonder is theydidn't come to blows. You remember what the orders were to Nanzicele?We gave them conjointly."

  "Yes. He was to remind Madula that more cattle were due from him, andthat it is time they were sent in."

  "Precisely. Well, what do you think the fellow has been doing? He senthalf his patrol to drive off all Madula's cattle, while he kept thepeople of the kraal busy with _indaba_. Even then he seems to havecheeked the chief and played Harry all round. The wonder is he didn'tbring on a fight. As it was, the whole kraal turned out, and simply ranall the cattle back again."

  "If he did that, of course he exceeded his orders," allowed Inglefield,albeit somewhat grudgingly. "But how do we know these chaps are notlying?"

  "I don't think they are, but of course we must have a fullinvestigation. We can begin it this afternoon. It's dinner-time now.Come in and have a bite, Inglefield."

  "No thanks, old chap. I've got something going at the camp, and my cookwill get careless if I keep disappointing him. I'll look round in anhour or so. But--I say. Why the deuce should Nanzicele--oh, dash it, Ican't get round these infernal clicks!--why should he have played thefool at that particular kraal?"

  "There comes in what I was saying before about paying off old grudges.He had a squabble about a girl at that very kraal a little while back,and now sees his chance. Well, so long. We'll go thoroughly into thething."

  The police officer mounted his horse and rode away in the direction ofthe camp, and John Ames, having said a few words to the squattingMatabele, dismissed them for the present, and turned into the hut whichhe used as a dining and general sitting-room. This was a large,circular hut, rough and ready of aspect outside, with its plastered walland high conical thatch, but the interior was not without comfort andeven tastefulness. It was hung around with a dark blue fabric commonlycalled by the whites "
limbo," being a corruption of the native name"ulembu," which signifieth "web." Strips of white calico constitutedthe ceiling, and thus both thatch and plastered walls being completelyhidden, the interior, hung around with framed photographs and prints,wore a comfortable and homelike aspect. Two small glass windows let inlight and air when the door was closed, which it seldom was. Four otherhuts similarly constructed stood within the compound, doing duty foroffice, bedroom, kitchen, and store-house respectively, and the wholewere enclosed by a palisade of woven grass, standing about breast high.

  The life was a lonely one, and there were times when John Ames wouldfeel very tired of it. The place being more than a long day's journeyfrom anywhere, visitors were few and far between, and beyond Inglefield,the police sub-inspector, he rarely saw a social equal. Inglefield wasa married man, but his wife, a soured and disappointed person, had madeherself so disagreeable to John Ames on the few occasions they had met,that the latter had dropped all intercourse which involved associatingwith Inglefield at that worthy's own home. If Inglefield wanted to seehim for social purposes, why, he knew his way up; and truth to tell, itwas a way Inglefield not seldom found, for if there is one state morelonely than the man who lives alone in an out of the way locality, it isthe man who lives in it with an entirely uncongenial partner. But evenwith Inglefield the position was occasionally strained, by reason oftheir official relations Inglefield thought the force under his commandcould do no wrong; Ames knew that it could, and not infrequently did.

  The latter sat down to his solitary meal, which on the whole was a goodone; for the game laws were not at that time rigidly enforced, nor had acombination of rinderpest and prospector decimated the larger kinds; andsteaks of the roan antelope, hot and frizzling, are by no meansdespicable. Add to this brown bread and tinned butter, the whole washeddown with a couple of glasses of whisky and aerated water from aselzogene, and it will be seen that our lonely official did not fare sobadly. The era of "bully" beef and other canned abominations had notyet set in.

  His dinner over, John Ames lit a pipe and adjourned to a cane chairbefore his office door to await the appearance of Inglefield. The daywas hot and drowsy, and he wore the light attire customary in Rhodesia--shirt and trousers to wit, and leather belt--and on his head awide-brimmed hat of the "cowboy" order; but the heat notwithstanding, ashiver ran through his frame, bringing with it a not unwarrantedmisgiving.

  "This infernal fever again," he said to himself half aloud. "How themischief am I going to get through the rainy season? No. I really mustapply for three months' leave, and get to some cool place at theseaside. If they won't give it me I'll resign. I'm not going to turninto a premature wreck to please anybody."

  There was very little fear of this alternative. John Ames was far toovaluable an official for his superiors to bring themselves to part withso readily. His thorough knowledge of the natives and their ways, hisconsummate tact in dealing with them, and his scrupulous andunquestionable probity, had already rendered him a man of mark in hisdepartment; but withal it never occurred to him for a moment tooverestimate himself, or that his chances were one whit better thanthose of anybody else.

  In due course Inglefield arrived, and with him Nanzicele and the squadof police whose conduct was under investigation. John Ames was attendedby his native messengers--a brace of stalwart Matabele--and, Madula'speople having been convened, the investigation began.

  Even here the picturesque element was not wanting. The open space ofthe compound was nearly filled; the police ranged in a double file onthe one side, the people of Madula under Samvu, the chief's brother,squatting in a semicircle on the other. Inglefield occupied a chairbeside John Ames, his orderly behind him, and his interpreter--for hisacquaintance with the language was but scanty--rendering the words ofeach witness. And these were legion; and as the hearing progressed,both sides became more and more excited, to such an extent that whenNanzicele was making his statement, audible murmurs of dissent anddisgust, among which such epithets as "liar" were not undiscernible,arose from Samvu's followers. More than once John Ames would intervene,quiet but decisive; but even his influence seemed strained under thetask of preserving order among these rival bands of savage and slightlycivilised savage.

  But Nanzicele had no chance. When it came to cross-questioning him,Samvu and another ringed man of Madula's simply turned him inside out.There could be no question but that he had exceeded his orders, and hadacted in a grossly provocative and arbitrary manner, calculated to bringabout serious trouble.

  Yet not all at once was this decision arrived at. Inglefield, promptlysick of the whole thing, would have slurred the proceedings over--anything to finish them that day--but Ames was built of different stuff.Calm and judicial, he gave both sides a thoroughly patient hearing, andthe investigation indeed was not concluded until late on the followingday. Then the above decision was arrived at and reported to the properquarter, and in the result, it not being his first offence of the kind,Nanzicele was adjudged to lose his stripes.

  There were three parties to whom this decision was exceedinglyunwelcome. The first was represented by the comrades of the degradedman, who looked up to him on account of the very derelictions which hadbrought him into trouble--his high-handed thoroughness, to wit. Thesecond was Inglefield, who felt that he had lost a particularly smartnon-com., and one that was useful to him in another capacity, forNanzicele was a skilful hunter, and could always show his officer wheresport was to be obtained; whereas now, Nanzicele, sulky and reduced tothe ranks, would probably revenge himself by a falling off in thisdirection.

  The third was Nanzicele himself, and, his fierce and sullen spiritsmouldering with bitter resentment, he inwardly vowed vengeance againstMadula and his following. But greater vengeance still did he vowagainst the white race in general, and John Ames in particular. Therewas point in this, because he was in a position to suppose that the daymight not be so very far distant when his vow should be repaid to theuttermost.