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[Illustration: A CATARACT OF THE CONGO, FROM THE BAYNESTON STATION.
_From an Original Sketch._]
LIFE ON THE CONGO
BY THE
REV. W. HOLMAN BENTLEY
_Of the Baptist Mission_
With an Introduction
BY THE
REV. GEORGE GRENFELL
_Explorer of the Upper Congo_
LONDON
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY
56, PATERNOSTER ROW; 65, ST. PAUL’S CHURCHYARD; AND
164, PICCADILLY.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
INTRODUCTION 7
I. THE DISCOVERY OF THE CONGO 13
II. THE PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE CONGO 20
III. VEGETATION, CLIMATE, AND PEOPLE 28
IV. HOME LIFE ON THE CONGO 49
V. THE RELIGIOUS IDEAS OF THE NATIVES 62
VI. CANNIBALISM, FREEMASONRY AND CHARMS 77
VII. MISSIONS IN CENTRAL AFRICA 95
VIII. MISSIONS ON THE CONGO RIVER 109
INTRODUCTION.
[Illustration]
Although only four years have elapsed since my colleague penned the
accompanying chapters, yet events have followed each other so fast that
another short chapter seems to be needed to bring them up to date.
During this brief interval, our knowledge of the geography of the
country and the distribution of its waterways has been considerably
extended; important political events have transpired on both the
eastern and western boundaries of the Congo Free State; commerce has
seriously undertaken the task of exploiting the resources of the
interior; and missions also have been moving onward, and at the same
time have succeeded in strengthening their old positions.
The length of navigable waterway accessible from Stanley Pool has
already been proved to be more than 5,000 miles; and there are several
important rivers which flow into the Congo, still to be traced to their
ultimate points, besides tributaries of which we know nothing, save
that their volumes promise long navigable channels into the interior.
These unvisited waterways at a very moderate estimate will add another
1,000 or 1,500 miles to that wonderful system of natural canals which
is destined to prove such an important factor in the civilization
of this portion of Central Africa. So important are the facilities
afforded by the Congo water system that, notwithstanding the increased
distance involved, Mr. Stanley has taken advantage of them in making
his attempt to relieve Emin Pasha, who is encamped at Wadelai on the
Upper Nile; and if the proposed railway for connecting the Upper with
the Lower Congo does but become an accomplished fact, these waterways
will be the usual routes for communicating with the Central Soudan,
Lakes Albert, Muata Nzige, and Tanganika, as well as with Nyangwe and
the empire of the Muata Yamvo.
The political event of importance which has transpired on the western
boundary has been the delimitation of the frontier between the
French territory and that of the Congo Free State, extending between
to sea-coast and Manyanga, and also the bringing of the dividing
line between the two from 17° East longitude to the right bank of
the Mobangi. These disputed boundaries were matters with grave
possibilities in their wake till the signing of the treaty settled the
questions involved and removed all uneasiness. On the eastern side the
loss of Stanley Falls Station and its occupation by the Arabs was for
some time the source of great anxiety, but a treaty has been entered
into with the principal Arab chief, and if its stipulations are but
observed (and it will be to the interest of the Arabs to observe them),
the result will by no means be so disastrous as was feared.
The interest which the commercial world is taking in the Congo is
manifested by the operations of three separate enterprises--one
Belgian, one Dutch, and one French. Their energies are directed to the
purchase of ivory, making use of the waterways to reach the far-away
markets, and even the districts where, as yet, ivory has no commercial
value. With this end in view, the Belgian enterprise has already
launched a fine steamer on the Upper Congo, and the other competitors
are preparing to follow their example. The trade at present is only
limited to the supply of carriers for the transport of barter goods.
The cargo brought up country by large caravans is exchanged in a few
hours for the ivory, which even as low down as the Pool, seems to be
always waiting for buyers. Under these circumstances the competition
for carriers is very keen, and neither the State nor commercial
houses, nor the missionaries are able to meet their wants. The need
for a railway is very seriously felt, and already three separate lines
of survey are being run up country with a view of determining the best
possible route. This is an enterprise which has the best sympathies of
everyone, and if realised will speedily produce wonderful changes in
the very heart of Africa,--changes, however, which will not all prove
to be unmitigated blessings, as the facilities which will be afforded
for the introduction of strong drink will undoubtedly result in much
evil.
At the present time there are seven missionary organizations at work on
the Congo: these are represented by about seventy-five missionaries,
occupying twenty stations. Three of these organizations are Roman
Catholic, and four are Evangelical. The French Society, _Du Sainte
Esprit_, has two stations on the lower river,--one in the cataract
region, and one on the upper river, about a hundred miles beyond
Stanley Pool. The Portuguese Mission has a station on the lower
river, and one at Salvador. The Algerian Mission, under the direction
of Cardinal Lavigerie, has one station on the upper river. At these
various stations there are some seventeen or twenty missionaries.
Of the fifty-five Evangelical missionaries, five or six belong to the
Swedish Missionary Society, which has one station in the cataract
region, nine belong to Bishop Taylor’s (American Methodist Episcopal)
Mission at Stanley Pool, and the remaining forty or so are about
equally divided between the American and English Baptists--the former
possessing six stations, and the latter five. These two Societies also
possess valuable auxiliaries in the shape of steamers on the upper
river, which furnish ready access to vast populations scattered over
ten degrees both of latitude and longitude.
Bishop Taylor’s Mission also possesses a steamer larger than either
of the others; but as yet it is not at its destination, being on its
way up country past the cataracts, in the shape of plates, frames, and
portions of machinery, which will have to be put together at the Pool.
Besides these seven distinct enterprises, and that of the London
Missionary Society, which has reached from the east coast the far-away
waters of the Upper Congo, at the point where the Lukuga river leaves
Lake Tanganika to flow to the Lualaba, another mission has entered the
field. This mission is represented by Mr. F. S. Arnot, who, after a
series of perilous wanderings, and after enduring many hardships, has
established himself at Kagoma, about 250 miles north-west of the point
where Livingstone died.
The Swedish Society has published a translation of the Gospel according
to John. The American Society has printed the _Peep of Day_ in
Kilolo (the language spoken on the Equator for about six degrees of
longitude), and has one or two Gospels in Kishi-Congo ready for the
press.
A dictionary and a grammar have been published by the Livingstone
Inland Mission (the precursors of the A.B.M.U.), and also Kiteke and
Kiyansi vocabularies. A grammar and dictionary is being published by
the Baptist Missionary Society, and the Religious Tract Society has
published the _Peep of Day_ in Kishi-Congo.
Not only are agencies for good being increased, but gratifying results
are following the efforts that are made. At Mukimbungu, Lukunga, Banza
Manteka, and San Salvador, native Christian churches have already been
formed, and the sincerity of the change of heart which is professed
by the members is attested by the self-denial and consistency of
their lives. At other points besides these the good seed is being
persistently sown, and there are evidences manifesting themselves which
encourage the missionaries to hope that it is taking root, and that the
harvest will ere long follow in these places also.
[Illustration: HENRY M. STANLEY.]
CHAPTER I.
The Discovery of the Congo.
In 1484 Diogo Cam, a Portuguese navigator, first sighted the mouth of
the Congo River. Four centuries have since elapsed, and only now have
we the definite knowledge of the course of that mighty flood. Seven
years after the discovery of the river, an embassy was sent to the
capital of the Congo country, known as San Salvador; Roman Catholic
missionaries followed, who in time penetrated some 250 miles into the
interior. They made, however, San Salvador their head-quarters and
cathedral city, but were finally expelled by the Governor of Angola
some 130 years ago. They appear to have kept away from the river; what
records of their work remain throw no light as to its course. The slave
trade flourished in the mouth of the river, but interiorwards the land
remained unknown.
In 1816 Captain Tuckey was commissioned by the Admiralty to endeavour
to solve the mystery, and was instructed to ascertain whether there
was any connection between the Niger and the Congo. This ill-fated
expedition penetrated to a distance of 150 miles from the coast. And
this was the extent of our knowledge of its lower course until recently.
In 1871 Dr. Livingstone, travelling westward from the Lake Tanganika,
discovered a great river flowing northward, called by the natives
Lualaba. After three and a half months he returned to the Tanganika,
and finally striking south, died at Ilala, on the south of Lake
Bangweolo, the upper waters of the Congo-Lualaba, in April, 1873.
Lieut. Cameron, commissioned by the Royal Geographical Society to
carry fresh supplies and aid to Dr. Livingstone, met his dead body
being conveyed to the coast by his faithful servants. Continuing his
journey with the material he hoped to deliver to the Doctor, he crossed
the Tanganika, and reached Nyangwe, the point where Dr. Livingstone
had first sighted the Lualaba. He would have followed the course of
the mysterious river; but was unable to induce his men to attempt the
solution of the problem, and striking southwards skirted the lower edge
of the Congo Basin, and reached the west coast at Benguela in November,
1875.
In 1874 the _Daily Telegraph_ and _New York Herald_ combined to send
Mr. Stanley to Africa, to complete the geographical discoveries of Dr.
Livingstone.
In _Les Belges au Congo_, the excellent Christmas number of _Le
Mouvement Géographique_, the official organ of the International
African Association, we have a sketch of the life of the greatest
living explorer. Born at Denbigh, in North Wales, in 1840, John
Rowlands lost his father at two years of age; he was educated at the
parish school of St. Asaph. At the age of sixteen he worked his
passage to New Orleans, where he obtained employment in the house of
a merchant named Stanley. He rose rapidly in favour and esteem, until
the sudden death of his employer destroyed his hopes. Assuming the
name of his benefactor, Henry Moreland Stanley was enrolled in the
Confederate army when the War of Secession broke out in 1861. He was
made prisoner at the battle of Pittsburg, in 1862, but effected his
escape. Constantly exposed to arrest as an escaped prisoner, he engaged
himself as a sailor in the Federal Marine, in which he obtained rapid
promotion, becoming secretary to the Captain of the Ticonderoga, and
later held the same position under the Admiral.
He accompanied his vessel on a European cruise, and obtained his
discharge at the end of the war. He was next correspondent of the
_Missouri Democrat_, and the _New York Tribune_, and later became
travelling correspondent to the _New York Herald_, for which he
accompanied the British forces during the Abyssinian and Ashantee
wars. After those he made a journey through Asia Minor, the Caucasus
and Persia to India, thence by Egypt to Spain, where he received his
commission to find Livingstone.
That successful expedition marked him as the man to carry on further
exploratory work in Africa; and when the news of Dr. Livingstone’s
death reached Europe, fired with the desire to carry on the work of
the great Doctor, he gladly accepted the commission of the _Daily
Telegraph_ and _New York Herald_.
Starting from Zanzibar November 17, 1874, he circumnavigated the Lakes
Victoria Nyanza and Tanganika for the first time, carefully charting.
Thence he struck across to Nyangwe. In spite of the obstacles and
difficulties that had hindered others, his immense determination, his
resources, and knowledge of the Swahili language, enabled him to induce
his men to follow him down the river.
He recalled to their minds the long weary marches, the terrible dank
forests of Urega, how easy it would be to sit in canoes, and paddle
down this great river, which must flow into the sea. They agreed, and
met the first serious impediment to navigation at the Equator, where a
series of seven cataracts in forty miles caused them to transport their
canoes overland round these obstacles.
Clear of these Stanley Falls they had an uninterrupted course for 1,060
miles, the river widening out in some places to as much as twenty-five
miles in breadth, studded with low sandy tree-covered islands. As
he neared the end of this grand reach of waterway, hills appeared,
the river narrowed, and the banks grew steeper until they towered a
thousand feet above him. The river widened out once more into a pool
some seventy miles in circumference, which is now named Stanley Pool,
at the western end of which the explorer heard the thunder of the Ntamu
Cataracts. From this point his difficulties were to be of a different
nature. Along the 1,000 miles of clear waterway which he had just
passed, he had been exposed to the constant attacks of wild, fierce
savages, now he had to struggle with a wilder, fiercer river. The next
one hundred miles occupied four months. Dragging his canoes overland,
past the Ntamu Cataracts, he took once more to the water, only to
find another cataract a few miles lower down. This was his constant
experience, while the porterage past these obstacles often involved
the conveyance of his heavy canoes, stores, etc., 700 and 1,000 feet
up the steep banks of the river, four or five miles overland, and down
again into the deep gorge. Stores were running short, food was scarce,
canoes were lost in the rapids, some of his men were drowned, including
Frank Pocock, his only surviving white companion. Privations, sickness,
and murderous natives had thinned his ranks, but he struggled on.
Clearing the Ntombo Mataka Falls, he found a reach of ninety miles of
very bad, but navigable water, and at the end of which were the great
Isangila Falls. There, learning that he was within a few days’ journey
of factories and white men, he left the river, and his weary company
toiled over the steep quartz hills and reached Mboma in August, 1877,
in an almost starving condition. A year of drought and great scarcity
of food had added much to his difficulties. However, the journey
was accomplished, the Congo River had been traced, the highway into
the heart of Africa had been explored. Taking his people down the
last quiet sixty miles of the river, he arranged for their return to
Zanzibar, via the Cape of Good Hope. Having seen them safe home again,
and rewarded their devotion and toil, he reached England to announce
his great discovery.