Matala, Angola.

To the west of Matala is the kingdom of Luenda, which was not completely wiped out by East Africa, because the kingdom of Luenda itself straddles both sides of the Kwango River, and East Africa only took the land on the east bank.

The main body of the Luenda Kingdom was originally on the west bank of the Kuanguo River, so most of the Luenda people fled directly to the west bank of the Kuanguo River after encountering the East African army, and the Luenda Kingdom suffered little loss this time.

On the western side of the Kingdom of Luenda, Matara was one of the Portuguese colonies that went deepest inland in Angola.

As a Portuguese colonial stronghold, there are no special mineral resources, mainly flat land and abundant precipitation, so the Portuguese built a series of plantations in Matala, and the main crops are palm trees and coffee.

Matara's plantation consists of two main families, one is the northern plantation, whose owner is Oliveira, and the other is the southern plantation, whose owner is Yadros, and at this moment, the two men are riding horses and patrolling the plantation together.

The indigenous slaves of the plantations toiled in the fields, branded and chained, and every forty or fifty were watched by a white overseer.

Under the scorching sun, the white overseers whipped the hard-working native slaves with long whips at any time to refresh them, and if anyone cheated and cheated, the end would be even more miserable.

On both sides of the road, there are simple wooden crosses, about two meters high, hemp ropes are wrapped on both sides of the cross, and the crosses exposed to the wind and sun are all black, as if they are stained with oil, but when you get closer, you can vaguely find that it is not a pure black wooden cross, and you can guess through the true color of the cross on the back of the cross, the cross was originally a yellow wooden stake.

The black oil stain is actually the result of the aboriginal blood staining red again and again, and then being exposed to the wind and sun all year round.

The cross was a torture instrument on the plantation, used against lazy and disobedient slaves, and was occasionally used to establish authority.

The men of the Matala plantation would tie the slaves to be punished to the cross, whip them, and hang them for two or three days if they committed serious crimes.

Oliveira sat on his horse and asked Adros, "Adros, have you felt it lately?" Isn't the number of natives getting bigger, these days there are often natives passing near our plantations, and yesterday I drove three batches. ”

"That's true, I don't know what the hell the Luenda Kingdom is doing, is there turmoil in their country?"

"It's very likely that the tribesmen of Luenda often attack each other, maybe it's a tribal war."

"I don't feel like it, even if the kingdom of Luenda is in turmoil, they shouldn't come west! They know Angola and really see this place as a paradise! ”

"That's right, in the past, the natives only fled from our side to the east, but these days they are running from the territory of Luenda, which is too abnormal! Is there anything more terrible than us? ”

"It must be a terrible thing to make the natives not even afraid of us, to come to Matala from the east."

At this time, Aderos guessed: "What kind of madness did these natives come from the west, it can't be that there is a plague in the west!" ”

Thinking of this, Oliveira and Yadros suddenly felt a shudder, the plague was not uncommon for the Angolan colony, and if this was the case, then everyone would be in danger.

"It's better for us to be cautious about this matter, and let people go to those people to catch a few natives and find out about the situation."

……

With the orders of the two slave owners, the plantation forces soon went to the area around the plantation to arrest the suspicious natives. Soon a few healthy-looking natives were captured from the exile.

"Why are you running this way in large numbers from the east?" The interpreter of the plantation asked.

"Gurgling ......"

After listening for a long time, the interpreter said: "Mr. Oliveira, the accent of these natives is not the same as that of the natives of the Kingdom of Luenda, and what he says is not very easy to translate!" But some of the words are pretty much the same. ”

Oliveira said, "Not from the Kingdom of Luenda! Do you know where they came from? ”

"He said that they were driven from the west by a group of strangers, passing 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 to get here, but the group that drove them in the first place was dressed like us, so they would bypass our plantation."

"Dress up like us, we haven't had any big moves lately!" Oliveira said to Adros.

"Naturally not, the Governor's Palace has not ordered it, and even if the colonial government makes any big moves, it is impossible to bypass us, I am the westernmost part of Angola!" Yadros said: "So it must be someone else, but it must not be an ordinary force to make such a big move, which makes me guess a suspicious object." ”

"Hmm!"

"Do you think it's the Mozambican colony that is doing the same thing, dressed like us, and in the east, it's very likely the Mozambican colony." Yadros analyzed.

"It's impossible, the Mozambican colony is on the east coast, it's too far away," Oliveira said. ”

"Remember what a passing caravan said last year? There is a German force in the east, and they have occupied the kingdom of Kazenbe, so I wonder if it will be them? ”

"But how do you explain the fact that we are dressed the same?"

"Maybe the natives can't tell the difference between us and the Germans, and they probably can't tell the difference between us Europeans and us as we see them as natives."

Oliveira didn't want to speculate, he said to the interpreter, "Let the natives describe in detail if there are any distinguishing features of the group they met." ”

The interpreter began to work again, and soon the captured natives were questioned again.

The interpreter 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 ran with the tribe, they only heard that a group of white-faced monsters came to the west, and they can eat people, according to their meaning, many tribes have been murdered, so they escaped from the west under the leadership of the chief. ”

"Where's their chief?"

"Well, it's said that among the few people who were shot dead by our men was their chief." The translator said.

After asking for a long time, but not getting the answer he wanted, Oliveira said angrily: "Pull them out and die on the cross." ”

Dare to say that he is a "monster with a white face that eats people", although Oliveira knows that these natives refer to people from other forces, but there is a connotation.

Yadros spoke at this time: "It seems that if you want to get accurate information, you still have to start with the Luenda Kingdom, and simply send someone to the Luenda Kingdom to ask their king." ”

"That's it." Oliveira said.

(End of chapter)