THE CONGO FREE STATE.
Mr. Stanley's discoveries, and the enterprise of the "Committee for the
Study of the Upper Congo"--which was the real name of the company under
which he was sent out--soon attracted universal attention, and that,
too, of a most practical kind. It became evident that the Congo Valley
must have a fixed and potent government. King Leopold did not desire to
assume the sole responsibility, nor, indeed, would the other European
powers have agreed to his transform so large a slice of the African
continent into a Belgian colony. Accordingly, an international
conference was summoned to meet at Berlin, and the result of its
deliberations was the erection of the entire valley into a potentially
independent commonwealth, called the Congo Free State. On February 25th,
1885, treaty was signed by the representatives of the United States and
the chief European powers. A Constitution and Government were provided
for the new state, with King Leopold at its head, under the protection
of the treaty-signing powers. Thenceforward civilization made rapid
progress. The state was admitted to the International Postal Union, and
post-offices were opened at Banana, Boma, Vivi, and elsewhere. Courts,
schools, etc., were also established. A railroad has been constructed
over the route of Mr. Stanley's roads around the cataracts, connecting
with the steamer routes, and making an unbroken line of steam
transportation from Stanley Falls to the Atlantic Ocean.
The entire area of the Congo basin is estimated by Mr. Stanley at one
million five hundred and eight thousand square miles. Some of it is
claimed by France, some by Portugal, and some is yet unapportioned. But
the overwhelming bulk, one million sixty-five thousand and two hundred
square miles, belongs to the Congo Free State. It has not all yet been
surveyed, of course, but its character is pretty well known. It has vast
forests, extensive and fertile plains, and unsurpassed systems of lakes
and rivers. Its lakes cover thirty-one thousand seven hundred square
miles; among them being Lakes Leopold II., Muta Nzige, Tanganyika,
Bangweola, and Mweru. The Congo, of course, is the principal river. It
is one of the five or six longest streams in the world, and in point of
volume surpasses all but the Amazon.
Unlike the Amazon, Mississippi, Nile, Ganges, Volga, and, indeed, almost
all other great rivers, the Congo has no delta. It discharges itself by
a single unbroken estuary seven miles and a half broad, in many places
over two hundred fathoms deep, and with a current of from five to seven
knots an hour. The volume of water brought down has been variously
estimated; the lowest estimate being two million cubic feet per second.
The Mississippi, when at the height of its March flood, has an outflow
of one million one hundred and fifty thousand cubic feet per second; so
that its volume must be very greatly exceeded by that of the Congo.
The scenery along the banks of the Congo is affirmed by all who have
seen it to be magnificent. Mr. Stanley has seen none to equal it. In his
opinion neither the Indus nor the Ganges, the Nile nor the Niger, nor
any of the rivers of North or South America has any glories of mountain
or foliage or sunlight which are not greatly excelled by those of his
favorite river, and many of the finest passages in his volumes are
devoted to descriptions of the beauty and magnificence seen along its
banks.
The population of the Free State of the Congo Mr. Stanley estimates at
about forty-five millions. According to the latest trustworthy
calculations, the population of the whole of Africa is represented by
two hundred millions. Some place it at one hundred and seventy millions.
The data on which these calculations are based are, of course,
imperfect, and Mr. Stanley's seem to have been based chiefly upon the
density of population he found on the banks of the upper Congo. But in
other parts, and especially away from the rivers, there must be large
tracts of country where the population is much less dense than it is
along the banks of the Congo, and any generalization for the whole of
the country, based upon the latter, must manifestly give too high a
figure.
Of the climate of the country, Mr. Stanley is entitled to speak with
authority, and justly, as no European has had so large an experience of
it. With care as to food, clothing, and exposure, Europeans, it would
seem, may live as long, and enjoy as good health on the banks of the
Congo as they may in most other places. But care is absolutely
requisite; without it the climate proves as hurtful as the climate of
the west coast of Africa is generally said to be.
As a field for commerce, Mr. Stanley speaks of the country in the most
glowing terms, and believes that it excels all other known lands for the
number and rare variety of precious gifts with which nature has endowed
it. He says: "The forests on the banks of the Congo are filled with
precious redwood, lignum vitae, mahogany, and fragrant gum-trees. At
their base may be found inexhaustible quantities of fossil gum, with
which the carriages and furniture of civilized countries are varnished;
their boles exude myrrh and frankincense; their foliage is draped with
orchilla-weed, useful for dye. The redwood, when cut down, chipped and
rasped, produces a deep crimson powder, giving a valuable coloring; the
creepers, which hang in festoons from tree to tree, are generally those
from which india-rubber is produced (the best of which is worth fifty
cents per lb.); the nuts of the oil palm give forth a butter, a staple
article of commerce; while the fibres of others will make the best
cordage. Among the wild shrubs is frequently found the coffee-plant. In
its plains, jungle, and swamp luxuriate the elephants, whose tusk
furnishes ivory worth from $2.00 to $2.75 per lb.; its waters teem with
numberless herds of hippopotami, whose tusks are also valuable; furs of
the lion, leopard, monkey, otter; hides of antelope, buffalo, goat,
cattle, etc., may also be obtained. But, what is of far more value, it
possesses over forty millions of moderately industrious and workable
people. The copper of Lake Superior is rivaled by that of the
Kwilu-Niadi Valley, and of Bembe. Rice, cotton, tobacco, maize, coffee,
sugar, and wheat would thrive equally well in the broad plains of the
Congo. I have heard of gold and silver, but this statement requires
corroboration, and I am not disposed to touch upon what I do not
personally know. A large portion of the Congo basin, at present
inaccessible to the immigrant, is blessed with a temperature under which
Europeans may thrive and multiply. There is no portion of it where the
European trader may not fix his residence for years, and develop
commerce to his own profit with as little risk as is incurred in India."
Such is the country which the skill, tact, courage, and, in brief, the
genius of Mr. Stanley have rescued from the degradation and barbarism of
ages, and given a place among the great nations of the world. It is his
fame to have been not merely an intrepid explorer, not merely a peaceful
and almost bloodless conqueror, but in fully equal measure a civilizer,
a trade-bearer, a statesman; the finder, the founder, and the builder of
a great and mighty state.