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- Жюль Верн
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- Стр. 271/354
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Kazounde
,
like
all
the
large
towns
of
Central
Africa
,
is
divided
into
two
distinct
parts
.
One
is
the
quarter
of
the
Arab
,
Portuguese
or
native
traders
,
and
it
contains
their
pens
;
the
other
is
the
residence
of
the
negro
king
,
some
ferocious
crowned
drunkard
,
who
reigns
through
terror
,
and
lives
from
supplies
furnished
by
the
contractors
.
At
Kazounde
,
the
commercial
quarter
then
belonged
to
that
Jose-Antonio
Alvez
,
of
whom
Harris
and
Negoro
had
spoken
,
they
being
simply
agents
in
his
pay
.
This
contractor
's
principal
establishment
was
there
,
he
had
a
second
at
Bihe
,
and
a
third
at
Cassange
,
in
Benguela
,
which
Lieutenant
Cameron
visited
some
years
later
.
Imagine
a
large
central
street
,
on
each
side
groups
of
houses
,
"
tembes
,
"
with
flat
roofs
,
walls
of
baked
earth
,
and
a
square
court
which
served
as
an
enclosure
for
cattle
.
At
the
end
of
the
street
was
the
vast
"
tchitoka
"
surrounded
by
slave-pens
.
Above
this
collection
of
buildings
rose
some
enormous
banyans
,
whose
branches
swayed
with
graceful
movements
.
Here
and
there
great
palms
,
with
their
heads
in
the
air
,
drove
the
dust
on
the
streets
like
brooms
.
Twenty
birds
of
prey
watched
over
the
public
health
.
Such
is
the
business
quarter
of
Kazounde
.
Near
by
ran
the
Louhi
,
a
river
whose
course
,
still
undetermined
,
is
an
affluent
,
or
at
least
a
sub-affluent
,
of
the
Coango
,
a
tributary
of
the
Zoire
.
The
residence
of
the
King
of
Kazounde
,
which
borders
on
the
business
quarter
,
is
a
confused
collection
of
ill-built
hovels
,
which
spread
over
the
space
of
a
mile
square
.
Of
these
hovels
,
some
are
open
,
others
are
inclosed
by
a
palisade
of
reeds
,
or
bordered
with
a
hedge
of
fig-trees
.
In
one
particular
enclosure
,
surrounded
by
a
fence
of
papyrus
,
thirty
of
these
huts
served
us
dwellings
for
the
chief
's
slaves
,
in
another
group
lived
his
wives
,
and
a
"
tembe
,
"
still
larger
and
higher
,
was
half
hidden
in
a
plantation
of
cassada
.
Such
was
the
residence
of
the
King
of
Kazounde
,
a
man
of
fifty
--
named
Moini
Loungga
;
and
already
almost
deprived
of
the
power
of
his
predecessors
.
He
had
not
four
thousand
of
soldiers
there
,
where
the
principal
Portuguese
traders
could
count
twenty
thousand
,
and
he
could
no
longer
,
as
in
former
times
,
decree
the
sacrifice
of
twenty-five
or
thirty
slaves
a
day
.
This
king
was
,
besides
,
a
prematurely-aged
man
,
exhausted
by
debauch
,
crazed
by
strong
drink
,
a
ferocious
maniac
,
mutilating
his
subjects
,
his
officers
or
his
ministers
,
as
the
whim
seized
him
,
cutting
the
nose
and
ears
off
some
,
and
the
foot
or
the
hand
from
others
.
His
own
death
,
not
unlooked
for
,
would
be
received
without
regret
.
A
single
man
in
all
Kazounde
might
,
perhaps
,
lose
by
the
death
of
Moini
Loungga
.
This
was
the
contractor
,
Jose-Antonio
Alvez
,
who
agreed
very
well
with
the
drunkard
,
whose
authority
was
recognized
by
the
whole
province
.
If
the
accession
of
his
first
wife
,
Queen
Moini
,
should
be
contested
,
the
States
of
Moini
Loungga
might
be
invaded
by
a
neighboring
competitor
,
one
of
the
kings
of
Oukonson
.
The
latter
,
being
younger
and
more
active
,
had
already
seized
some
villages
belonging
to
the
Kazounde
government
.
He
had
in
his
services
another
trader
,
a
rival
of
Alvez
Tipo-Tipo
,
a
black
Arab
of
a
pure
race
,
whom
Cameron
met
at
N'yangwe
.
What
was
this
Alvez
,
the
real
sovereign
under
the
reign
of
an
imbruted
negro
,
whose
vices
he
had
developed
and
served
?
