The trail broke out into the open, heading downhill toward a small river. On the other side, we could make out fires and huts in the dusk. The leader stopped at the edge of the river and waited for all of us to gather. Then he said something to Jeremiah, which made the others laugh and point.
Jeremiah said, "He wants us to wash in the river before we cross into the village. He says stink does not make a good first impression. We need to be presentable to his chief, and the Big Mama." No one asked what the Big Mama was; we were too tired to express much interest. As we waded knee-deep into the river to begin washing, some of the locals escorting us approached the women and started scrubbing them everywhere. At first the ladies shied away and tried to fight them off, but soon relented and resigned themselves to the fact this was something they would need to get used to... strange hands on private parts of their bodies.
We sank to our knees and dunked our heads. The water felt good, and it was a relief to wash away the sweat, the urine and feces from our bodies. The locals took extra time to rub the brown away from Alison's and Elizabeth's rear ends and inner thighs. As we were told, stink would not make a good impression. The women were too tired to resist further as their legs were spread wide, and water was forced up into their vaginas and rear crack to make them fresh as well.
We waded to the other bank, and stood there dripping while a large crowd of black men, women and children surrounded us, pointing and chattering loudly. The women wore brightly colored wraps of thin material; men wore loin clothes, while toddlers ran naked or were held on the hips of women. For some reason, I had the impression that African villages were small, with no more than 50 to 100 people. But this crowd was already larger than that, and more were still coming down the hill to the river. Huts and fire pits spread up the hill in every direction.
Our captors transferred responsibility for our custody to an unusual collection of men and women. Each was taller than average, muscular and serious looking. Their hair was dyed a bright orange-yellow color. However, unlike the other villagers, they were completely naked but carried large knives or long spears, and were apparently responsible for managing the captives.
They took us up the hill a hundred or so yards to the right, to what appeared to be fenced-in corrals of some sort. Vertical sticks woven together to make penned enclosures a little over four feet high. As we approached, we could see men and women standing up in the pens, curious about the excitement being generated. Two gates were pulled open. Burgess, Jeremiah and I were pushed into the one in the middle. The women went in the right one; we soon discovered the left one held some cattle and goats. Their stink did not make a good impression, either. We were being treated as livestock! Placed in pens, not even covered huts.
Once inside, we were approached by two naked white men. One was about my height but much heavier; the other was a short, wiry man who was bald on the top of his head but had long, stringy hair on the sides and back. He spoke first.
"I am Andre, and this is Jacques. He is from France, but speaks a little English. I'm from New Orleans and speak a little bit of French." Pointing to another man sitting against the fence, he said, "That guy's from Portugal, but doesn't speak French or English. He only arrived a short while ago; so far we have not communicated much, only sign language."
I introduced myself, then Burgess and Jeremiah. "What is this place, and why were we brought here? We are on a mission to build a church and school farther up the coast. We've done these people no harm. They've stripped our women naked as well, and touched them... well, in private areas."
Andre chuckled, and then translated to the other man. "They will very soon be more than just touched. Your women were brought here to breed with the locals. You three were kept alive as a mere convenience to service them and to be used as leverage to make sure they are more willing to participate. I don't understand why they kept him, though," nodding at Jeremiah. "They've only used whites and Asians in the breeding since I've been here."
I explained that Jeremiah was essentially part of the family, having been raised with us since an early age, and he also understood the local language. I didn't elaborate about the price Mother paid to keep him with us.
"Have a seat, and I will tell you how we got here and about our experiences since arriving three, maybe four, years ago now. There are no seasons here, so it is hard to tell."
"I was captured and brought here with my wife and two daughters. We owned a brothel in New Orleans, a successful one. I ran the business while my wife, Monique, managed the prostitutes. She had some favorite clients she would take upstairs herself on occasion. It was just business, nothing to get jealous about. We wanted our daughters to live different lives, so we married them off. But one husband died, and the other ran off with another woman. Lulu and Melissa, or Missy, were forced to come back home and work in the family business. It was awkward at first. I only saw them nude a couple of times when they were moving from one room to another. And I never had any physical interactions with them, until we got here, that is."
"I made some foolish gambling decisions, and we were forced to leave New Orleans on very short notice. We gained passage on the first ship leaving, which happened to be on its way to Hong Kong in the Orient. Bad weather forced our ship to go farther up the African coast than anticipated. It was badly damaged in the storm, so we took to the long boats hoping to find shore. As far as I know, ours was the only one to make land. It was just our family, an elderly woman and one of the crew men."
Andre continued with his story. "A couple of hours after we landed, a group of black men emerged from the jungle onto the beach. Of course, we couldn't understand a word they were saying, but they proceeded to strip us all down, jewelry, shoes, everything. We're there naked on the beach, and some of the men begin examining the women, checking their tits, cunts, asses." I wasn't familiar with those terms, so Andre took a few minutes to explain about pussies and dicks, assholes and peckers, orgasms and cum, various forms of oral, anal and vaginal sex; and a lot of other new words and concepts that I would be using soon.