of its vast domain, had sublet large tracts of it to monopolist companies,
in absolute contradiction to Article V. of the Berlin Treaty. Up to the
year 1897, these companies were registered in Belgium, and had some
pretence to being international in scope. The State had no open or direct
control over them. This was now altered. The State drew closer the bonds
which united it to these commercial undertakings. They were, for the most
part, dissolved, and then reconstructed under Congo law. In most cases, in
return for the monopoly, the State was given control, sometimes to the
extent of appointing all managers and agents. Half the shares of the
company or half the profits were usually made over to the State. Thus one
must bear in mind in future that whether one talks of the Abir Company, of
the Kasai, the Katanga, the Anversoise, or any other, it is really with
the State--that is, with King Leopold--that one has to do. He owned the
companies, but paid them fifty per cent. commission for doing all the
work. As their profits were such as might be expected where nothing was
paid either for produce or for labour (varying from fifty to seven hundred
per cent. per annum), all parties to the bargain were the gainers.
Another new factor in the situation was the completion, in 1898, of the
Lower Congo Railway, which connects Boma with Stanley Pool, and so
outflanks the cataracts. The enterprise itself was beneficent and
splendid. The means by which it was carried out were unscrupulous and
inhuman. Had civilization no complaint against the Congo State save the
history of its railway construction with its forced labour, so different
to the tradition of the tropical procedure of other European colonies, it
would be a heavy indictment. Now it sinks to insignificance when compared
with the enslavement of a whole people and the twenty years of
uninterrupted massacre. As a sketch of the condition of the railway
district here is a little pen picture by M. Edouard Picard, of the Belgian
Senate, who saw it in the building:
"The cruel impression conveyed by the mutilated forests," he wrote,
"is heightened in the places where, till lately, native villages
nestled, hidden and protected by thick and lofty foliage. The
inhabitants have fled. They have fled in spite of encouraging palavers
and promises of peace and kind treatment. They have burnt their huts,
and great heaps of cinders mark the sites, amid deserted palm-groves
and trampled-down banana fields. The terrors caused by the memory of
inhuman floggings, of massacres, of rapes and abductions, haunt their
poor brains, and they go as fugitives to seek shelter in the recesses
of the hospitable bush, or, across the frontiers, to find it in French
or Portuguese Congo, not yet afflicted with so many labours and
alarms, far from the roads traversed by white men, those baneful
intruders, and their train of strange and disquieting habits." The
outlook was as gloomy when he wandered along the path trodden by the
caravans to the Pool and back again. "We are constantly meeting these
carriers, either isolated or in Indian file; blacks, blacks, miserable
blacks, with horribly filthy loin-clothes for their only garments;
their bare and frizzled heads supporting their loads--chest, bale,
ivory-tusk, hamper of rubber, or barrel; for the most part broken
down, sinking under the burdens made heavier by their weariness and
insufficiency of food, consisting of a handful of rice and tainted
dried fish; pitiful walking caryatids; beasts of burden with the lank
limbs of monkeys, pinched-up features, eyes fixed and round with the
strain of keeping their balance and the dulness of exhaustion. Thus
they come and go by thousands, organized in a system of human
transport, requisitioned by the State armed with its irresistible
_force publique_, supplied by the chiefs whose slaves they are and who
pounce on their wages; jogging on, with knees bent and stomach
protruding, one arm raised up and the other resting on a long stick,
dusty and malodorous; covered with insects as their huge procession
passes over mountains and through valleys; dying on the tramp, or,
when the tramp is over, going to their villages to die of exhaustion."
It will be remembered that Captain Lothaire, having been acquitted of the
murder of Mr. Stokes, was sent out by King Leopold to act as
managing-director of the Anversoise Trust. In 1898, he arrived in the
Mongalla District, and from then onward there came to Europe vague rumours
of native attacks and bloody reprisals, with those other symptoms of
violence and unrest which might be expected where a large population
accustomed to freedom is suddenly reduced to slavery. How huge were the
rubber operations which were carried through under the ferocious rule of
Captain Lothaire, may be guessed from the fact that the profits of the
company, which had been 120,000 francs in 1897, rose to 3,968,000 in
1899--a sum which is considerably more than twice the total capital. M.
Mille tells of a Belgian agent who showed 25,000 cartridges and remarked,
"I can turn those into 25,000 pounds of rubber." Captain Lothaire believed
in the same trade methods, for his fighting and his output increased
together. It is worth while to slaughter one-fourth of the population if
the effect is to drive the others to frenzied and unceasing work.
No definite details might ever have reached Europe of those doings had not
Lothaire made the capital mistake of quarrelling with his subordinates.
One of these, named Lacroix, sent a communication to the _Nieuw Gazet_, of
Antwerp, which, with the _Petit Bleu_, acted an honourable and independent
part at this epoch. The Congo Press Bureau, which has stifled the voice of
the more venal portion of the Belgian and Parisian Press, had not at that
time attained the efficiency which it afterward reached. This letter from
Lacroix was published on April 10th, 1900, and shed a lurid light upon
what had been going on in the Mongalla District. It was a confession, but
a confession which involved his superiors as well as himself. He told how
he had been instructed by his chief to massacre all the natives of a
certain village which had been slow in bringing its rubber. He had carried
out the order. Later, his chief had put sixty women in irons, and allowed
nearly all of them to die of hunger because the village--Mummumbula--had
not brought enough rubber. "I am going to be tried," he wrote, "for having
murdered one hundred and fifty men, for having crucified women and
children, and for having mutilated many men and hung the remains on the
village fence." At the same moment as this confession of Lacroix, _Le
Petit Bleu_ published sworn affidavits of soldiers employed by the Trust,
telling how they had put to death whole villages for being short with
their rubber. Moray, another agent, published a confession in _Le Petit
Bleu_, from which this is an extract:
"At Ambas we were a party of thirty, under Van Eycken, who sent us
into a village to ascertain if the natives were collecting rubber, and
in the contrary case to murder all, including men, women and children.
We found the natives sitting peaceably. We asked them what they were
doing. They were unable to reply, thereupon we fell upon them all, and
killed them without mercy. An hour later we were joined by Van Eycken,
and told him what had been done. He answered: 'It is well, but you
have not done enough!' Thereupon he ordered us to cut off the heads of
the men and hang them on the village palisades, also their sexual
members, and to hang the women and children on the palisades in the
form of a cross."
In the face of these fresh revelations there was an outburst of feeling in
Belgium, showing that it is only their ignorance of the true facts which
prevents the inhabitants of that country from showing the same humanity as
any other civilized nation would do. They have not yet realized the foul
things which have been done in their name. Surely when they do realize it
there will be a terrible reckoning! Some were already very alive to the
question. MM. Vandervelde and Lorand fought bravely in the Chamber. The
officials, with MM. Liebrichts and De Cuvelier at their head, made the
usual vague professions and general denials. "Ah, you can rest assured
light will be forthcoming, complete, striking!" cried the former. Light
was indeed forthcoming, though not so complete as might be wished, for
some, at least, of the scoundrels implicated were tried and condemned. In
any other European colony they would have been hanged offhand, as the
villainous murderers that they were. But they do not hang white men in the
Congoland, even with the blood of a hundred murders on their hands. The
only white man ever hanged there was the Englishman Stokes for competing
in trade.
What is to be remarked, however, is that only subordinates were punished.
Van Eycken was acquitted; Lacroix had imprisonment; Mattheys, another
agent accused of horrible practices, got twelve years--which sounded well
at the time, but he was liberated at the end of three. In the sentence
upon this man the Judge used the words, "Seeing that it is just to take
into account the example which his superiors gave him in showing no
respect for the lives or rights of the natives." Brave words, but how
helpless is justice when such words can be said, and no result follow!
They referred, of course, to Captain Lothaire, who had, in the meanwhile,
fled aboard a steamer at Matadi, and made his escape to Europe. His
flight was common knowledge, but who would dare to lay his hand upon the
favourite of the King. Lothaire has had occasion several times since to
visit the Congo, but Justice has indeed sat with bandaged eyes where that
man was concerned!
There is one incident which should be marked in the story of this trial.
Moray, whose testimony would have been of great importance, was found dead
in his bed just before the proceedings. There have been several such
happenings in Congo history. Commandant Dooms, having threatened to expose
the misdeeds of Lieutenant Massard before Europe, was shortly afterward
declared to have been mysteriously drowned by a hippopotamus. Dr. Barotti,
returning hot with anger after an inspection of the State, declares
vehemently that he was poisoned. There is much that is of the sixteenth
century in this State, besides its views of its duties to the natives.
Before passing these revelations with the attendant burst of candour in
the Belgian Press, it may be well to transcribe the following remark in an
interview from a returned Congo official which appeared in the _Antwerp
Nieuw Gazet_ (April 10th, 1900). He says:
"When first commissioned to establish a fort, I was given some native
soldiers and a prodigious stock of ammunition. My chief gave me the
following instructions: 'Crush every obstacle!' I obeyed, and cut
through my district by fire and sword. I had left Antwerp thinking I
was simply to gather rubber. Great was my stupefaction when the truth
dawned on me."
This, with the letter of Lieutenant Tilken, as quoted before, gives some
insight into the position of the agent.
Indeed, there is something to be said for these unfortunate men, for it is
a more awful thing to be driven to crime than to endure it. Consider the
sequence of events! The man sees an advertisement offering a commercial
situation in the tropics. He applies to a bureau. He is told that the
salary is some seventy-five pounds a year, with a bonus on results. He
knows nothing of the country or conditions. He accepts. He is then asked
if he has any money. He has not. One hundred pounds is advanced to him for
expenses and outfit, and he is pledged to work it off. He goes out and
finds the terrible nature of the task before him. He must condone crime to
get his results. Suppose he resigns? "Certainly," say the authorities;
"but you must remain there until you have worked off your debt!" He
cannot possibly get down the river, for the steamers are all under
Government control. What can he do then? There is one thing which he very
frequently does, and that is to blow out his brains. The statistics of
suicide are higher than in any service in the world. But suppose he takes
the line: "Very well, I will stay if you make me do so, but I will expose
these misdeeds to Europe." What then? The routine is a simple one. An
official charge is preferred against him of ill-treating the natives.
Ill-treating of some sort is always going forward, and there is no
difficulty with the help of the sentries in proving that something for
which the agent is responsible does not tally with the written law,
however much it might be the recognized custom. He is taken to Boma, tried
and condemned. Thus it comes about that the prison of Boma may at the same
time contain the best men and the worst--the men whose ideas were too
humane for the authorities as well as those whose crimes could not be
overlooked even by a Congolese administration. Take warning, you who seek
service in this dark country, for suicide, the Boma prison, or such deeds
as will poison your memory forever are the only choice which will lie
before you.
Here is the sort of official circular which descends in its thousands upon
the agent. This particular one was from the Commissioner in the Wille
district:
"I give you _carte blanche_ to procure 4,000 kilos of rubber a month.
You have two months in which to work your people. Employ gentleness at
first, and if they persist in resisting the demands of the State,
employ force of arms."
And this State was formed for the "moral and material advantage of the
native."
While dealing with trials of Boma I will give some short account of the
Caudron case, which occurred in 1904. This case was remarkable as
establishing judicially what was always clear enough: the complicity
between the State and the criminal. Caudron was a man against whom 120
cold-blooded murders were charged. He was, in fact, a zealous and
efficient agent of the Anversoise Society, that same company whose
red-edged securities rose to such a height when Manager Lothaire taught
the natives what a minister in the Belgian House described as the
Christian law of work. He did his best for the company, and he did his
best for himself, for he had a three per cent. commission upon the
rubber. Why he should be chosen among all his fellow-murderers is hard to
explain, but it was so, and he found himself at Boma with a sentence of
twenty years. On appealing, this was reduced to fifteen years, which
experience has shown to mean in practice two or three. The interesting
point of his trial, however, is that his appeal, and the consequent
decrease of sentence which justified that appeal, were based upon the
claim that the Government was cognisant of the murderous raids, and that
the Government soldiers were used to effect them. The points brought out
by the trial were:
1. The existence of a system of organized oppression, plunder, and
massacre, in order to increase the output of india-rubber for the
benefit of a "company," which is only a covering name for the
Government itself.
2. That the local authorities of the Government are cognisant, and
participatory in this system.
3. That local officials of the Government engage in these rubber
raids, and that Government troops are regularly employed there on.
4. That the Judicature is powerless to place the real responsibility
on the proper shoulders.
5. That, consequently, these atrocities will continue until the system
itself is extirpated.
Caudron's counsel called for the production of official documents to show
how the chain of responsibility went, but the President of the Appeal
Court refused it, knowing as clearly as we do, that it could only conduct
to the Throne itself.
One might ask how the details of this trial came to Europe when it is so
seldom that anything leaks out from the Courts of Boma. The reason was
that there lived in Boma a British coloured subject named Shanir, who was
at the pains to attend the court day by day in order to preserve some
record of the procedure. This he dispatched to Europe. The sequel is
interesting. The man's trade, which was a very large one, was boycotted,
he lost his all, brooded over his misfortunes, and finally took his own
life--another martyr in the cause of the Congo.
VI
VOICES FROM THE DARKNESS
I will now return to the witnesses of the shocking treatment of the
natives. Rev. Joseph Clark was an American missionary living at Ikoko in
the Crown Domain, which is King Leopold's own special private preserve.
These letters cover the space between 1893 and 1899.
This is Ikoko as he found it in 1893:
"Irebo contains say 2,000 people. Ikoko has at least 4,000 and there
are other towns within easy reach, several as large as Irebo, and two
probably as large as Ikoko. The people are fine-looking, bold and
active."
In 1903 there were 600 people surviving.
In 1894 Ikoko in the Crown Domain began to feel the effects of "moral and
material regeneration." On May 30th of that year Mr. Clark writes:
"Owing to trouble with the State the Irebo people fled and left their
homes. Yesterday the State soldiers shot a sick man who had not
attempted to run away, and others have been killed by the State
(native) soldiers, who, in the absence of a white man, do as they
please."
In November, 1894:
"At Ikoko quite a number of people have been killed by the soldiers,
and most of the others are living in the bush."
In the same month he complained officially to Commissaire Fievez:
"If you do not come soon and stop the present trouble the towns will
be empty.... I entreat you to help us to have peace on the Lake.... It
seems so hard to see the dead bodies in the creek and on the beach,
and to know why they are killed.... People are living in the bush like
wild beasts without shelter or proper food, and afraid to make fires.
Many died in this way. One woman ran away with three children--they
all died in the forest, and the woman herself came back a wreck and
died before long--ruined by exposure and starvation. We knew her well.
My hope in 1894 was to get the facts put before King Leopold, as I was
sure he knew nothing of the awful conditions of the collection of the
so-called 'rubber tax.'"
On November 28th he writes:
"The State soldiers brought in seven hands, and reported having shot
the people in the act of running away to the French side, etc."
* * * * *
"We found all that the soldiers had reported was untrue, and that the
statements made by the natives to me were true. We saw only six
bodies; a seventh had evidently fallen into the water, and we learned
in a day or two that an eighth body had floated into the landing-place
above us--a woman that had either been thrown or had fallen into the
water after being shot."
On December 5th, he says:
"A year ago we passed or visited between here and Ikoko the following
villages:
Probable population
Lobwaka 250
Boboko 250
Bosungu 100
Kenzie 150
Bokaka 200
Mosenge 150
Ituta 80
Ngero 2,000
-----
Total 3,180
"A week ago I went up, and only at Ngero were there any people: there
we found ten. Ikoko did not contain over twelve people other than
those employed by Frank. Beyond Ikoko the case is the same."
April 12th, 1895, he writes:
"I am sorry that rubber palavers continue. Every week we hear of some
fighting, and there are frequent 'rows,' even in our village, with
the armed and unruly soldiers.... During the past twelve months it has
cost more lives than native wars and superstition would have
sacrificed in three to five years. The people make this comparison
among themselves.... It seems incredible and awful to think of these
savage men armed with rifles and let loose to hunt and kill people,
because they do not get rubber to sell at a mere nothing to the State,
_and it is blood-curdling to see them returning with hands of the
slain and to find the hands of young children, amongst bigger ones,
evidencing their 'bravery.'_"
The following was written on May 3rd, 1895:
"The war on account of rubber. The State demands that the natives
shall make rubber and sell same to its agents at a very low price. The
natives do not like it. It is hard work and very poor pay, and takes
them away from their homes into the forest, where they feel very
unsafe, as there are always feuds among them.... The rubber from this
district has cost hundreds of lives, and the scenes I have witnessed
while unable to help the oppressed have been almost enough to make me
wish I were dead. The soldiers, are themselves savages, some even
cannibals, trained to use rifles and in many cases they are sent away
without supervision, and they do as they please. When they come to any
town no man's property or wife is safe, and when they are at war they
are like devils.
"_Imagine them returning from fighting some 'rebels'; see, on the bow
of the canoe is a pole and a bundle of something on it.... These are
the hands (right hands) of sixteen warriors they have slain.
'Warriors!' Don't you see among them the hands of little children and
girls (young girls or boys)? I have seen them. I have seen where even
the trophy has been cut off while yet the poor heart beat strongly
enough to shoot the blood from the cut arteries to a distance of fully
four feet._"
"A young baby was brought here one time; its mother was taken
prisoner, and before her eyes they threw the infant in the water to
drown it. The soldiers coolly told me and my wife that their white man
did not want them to bring infants to their place. They dragged the
women off and left the infant beside us, but we sent the child to its
mother, and said we would report the matter to the chief of the post.
We did so, but the men were not punished. The principal offender was
told before me he would get fifty lashes, but I heard the same mouth
send a message to say he would not be flogged."
Compare with this the following extracts from King Leopold's _Officiel
Bulletin_, referring to this very tract of country:
"The exploitation of the rubber vines of this district was undertaken
barely three years ago by M. Fievez. The results he obtained have been
unequalled. The district produced in 1895 more than 650 tons of
rubber, bought (_sic_) for 2-1/2_d._ (European price), and sold at
Antwerp for 5_s._ 5_d._ per kilo (2 lbs.)."
A later bulletin adds:
"With this development of general order is combined an inevitable
amelioration in the native's condition of existence _wherever he comes
into contact with the European element_....
"Such is, in fact, one of the ends of the general policy of the State,
to _promote the regeneration of the race by instilling into him a
higher idea of the necessity of labour_."
Truly, I know nothing in history to match such documents as these--pirates
and bandits have never descended to that last odious abyss of hypocrisy.
It stands alone, colossal in its horror, colossal, too, in its effrontery.
A few more anecdotes from the worthy Mr. Clark. This is an extract from a
letter to the Chief of the District, Mueller:
"There is a matter I want to report to you regarding the Nkake
sentries. You remember some time ago they took eleven canoes and shot
some Ikoko people. As a proof they went to you with some hands, of
which three were the hands of little children. We heard from one of
their paddlers that one child was not dead when its hand was cut off,
but did not believe the story. Three days after we were told the child
was still alive in the bush. I sent four of my men to see, and they
brought back a little girl whose right hand had been cut off, and she
left to die from the wound. The child had no other wound. As I was
going to see Dr. Reusens about my own sickness I took the child to
him, and he has cut the arm and made it right and I think she will
live. But I think such awful cruelty should be punished."
Mr. Clark still clung to the hope that King Leopold did not know of the
results of his own system. On March 25th, 1896, he writes:
"_This rubber traffic is steeped in blood, and if the natives were to
rise and sweep every white person on the upper Congo into eternity
there would still be left a fearful balance to their credit._ Is it
not possible for some American of influence to see the King of the
Belgians, and let him know what is being done in his name? _The Lake
is reserved for the King_--no traders allowed--and _to collect rubber
for him hundreds of men, women and children have been shot_."
At last the natives, goaded beyond endurance, rose against their
oppressors. Who can help rejoicing that they seem to have had some
success?
_Extracts from letter-book commencing January 29th, 1897_: