Through the Dark Continent, Vol. 1 (of 2)

‘Through the Dark Continent’ was first published in June, 1878, and now that, after an interval of twenty years, another fully illustrated edition is to be issued, it has been thought desirable by the publishers that I should employ the opportunity of reviewing a few of the amazing changes that have taken place in the regions described in the book.

Public speakers, I observe, when they have occasion to refer to the remarkable progress made of late years in Equatorial Africa, vaguely date it as having begun some twenty-five or thirty years ago. In reality, however, the first glimmerings of the dawn only appeared in the latter part of 1875, which was soon after the publication of my appeal for missionaries to Uganda. Although the appeal was almost immediately responded to by the Church Missionary Society, and a sum of £24,000 was collected, the missionaries did not leave England until April, 1876, and it was the 30th June, 1877, before two of the band landed in Uganda.

These two pioneer missionaries, and a third, who had been left behind at the south end of Lake Victoria, were, with myself, the sole Europeans in all Equatorial Africa on that date. I happened to be then about two hundred miles from the west coast, laboriously working my way down the cataracts of the Congo, to put the finishing touch to my exploration of the course of that river, while over two thousand miles eastward of me my two fellow-countrymen were preparing for the great work of converting Uganda to Christianity.

But, after all, the arrival of the missionaries, though an important event, and one that has had large consequences, was but a sign of the dawn. Scepticism as to any good resulting from the bold missionary venture was very general in England, and the publications of the C. M. Society prove that, for some years afterwards, no great hope of success was entertained, and, as if to add to the public disbelief in the efficacy of missionary effort among negro pagans, there came, almost simultaneously with my return from Africa early in the following year, the sad news that two out of the three missionaries had been massacred. Thus, at the beginning of that year, 1878, the surviving missionary in Uganda was the sole white man in all the regions bordering the African equator.

The publication of this book in the following June excited unusual, indeed, I may truly say extraordinary, interest throughout Europe. It was translated into many languages, and the aggregate sales were prodigious. In this country, in France, Germany, Belgium, and Italy, it was discussed from every point of view. It led to much controversy, personal and general, but the British public did not take kindly to the suggestions for immediate action in Africa contained in it. England lost the opportunity of selecting unquestioned her field for enterprise, and so long was she indifferent to the Continent, and the splendid possibilities that awaited her, that Equatorial Africa was well-nigh closed to her altogether.

It happened that there was one person on the Continent who manifested much more than an abstract interest in Africa, and had, indeed, solicited my services for the development of the Dark Continent—within a few minutes of my return to Europe—but had generously admitted that the people in whose interest I had made my explorations should have the first claim on them. This person was King Leopold II., whose wonderful character and extraordinary ability were then unknown to the world. No Englishman living, not even the geographical expert, paid such close attention to my letters in the Daily Telegraph, my book and speeches on African subjects, as did the King, and no man shared my zeal and hopes for Africa as did His Majesty. I waited from January to November, 1878, to see if on this side of the Channel any serious notice was likely to be taken of my suggestions; but finding public feeling impossible to be aroused here, I then crossed the Channel, and accepted the post of chief agent to the Comité des Etudes du Haut Congo, of which King Leopold was President.

As an illustration of the general indifference in this country to what had been written and spoken about Africa during 1878, I quote what took place between two members of the Royal Geographical Council and myself on a certain date of June of that year.

These two gentlemen called at my rooms, and, seeing my original map of the Congo hanging up, one of them, after a perusal of some of the notes written along the course, turned to me and asked—

“How long do you think it will be before a white man revisits Stanley Falls?”

“Two or three years, I suppose,” I replied.

“Two or three years!” he exclaimed. “I expected you were going to say fifty years.”

“Fifty years!” I cried. “Why, I will venture to wager that, before twenty years are over, there will not be a hundred square mile tract left to be explored in the entire Continent.”

“Oh, come,” said the other gentleman, “that is too sanguine a view altogether. I will take your bet—shall we say £10?—and book it.”

We booked it there and then. The twenty years have lately expired, but though I cannot claim to have won the wager, it must be admitted that my hasty prediction has closely approached fact.

About the same time, Sir Rutherford Alcock, then President of the Royal Geographical Society, remarked, in his Annual Address, that I had told him that, with money enough, Africa could not only be explored, but civilised and converted into orderly states. It did not seem to me that there was anything surprising in that, but to Sir Rutherford it appeared worthy of public notice. It is of value here only as an indication of the general ignorance that then prevailed in all circles as regards Africa.

Seven years later, after seeing the establishment of one of the African states that promised to be civilised some day, I was introduced by a Canon of Westminster Abbey to a well-known Bishop as one who had “done good work on the Congo.”

“Oh, indeed!” said his Lordship, smilingly, “how very interesting; but,” he added, hesitatingly, “I am really not sure that I know where the Congo is.”

As may be imagined, I was a picture of wide-eyed surprise. For every newspaper in the country had been for months daily publishing something or other about the Congo Conference, and I thought that surely one of the princes of the Church must have caught sight of the name; but such had been the Bishop’s culpable inattention to great events in Africa, that the name even had not attracted his notice.

Resuming my proper subject, I became chief agent on the Congo. Every now and then during the six years that I occupied that position, directing the advance into the Congo basin, reports of our doings frequently reached England in one form or another, and still the trend of events seemed unperceived there, though there was considerable stir in Germany, France, Portugal, and Belgium.

Neither, apparently, were the actions of the Germans on the borders of Cape Colony in 1883-84 of a character to excite alarm, suspicion, or even intelligent alertness in the British mind. Lord Derby was not in the least disturbed by the curious inquisitive tone of Bismarck’s despatches relating to South Africa, and Lord Granville failed to comprehend the drift of Bismarck’s anxiety about the German settlement at Angra Pequena, or that the presence of a German warship in South African waters signified anything.

When it was too late, however, to prevent the seizure of a large territory neighbouring Cape Colony, the British rubbed their eyes, and found that a European Power, which might make itself unpleasant some day to our South African colonists, had wilfully planted itself in close proximity to the Boer states, with which we had already more than once grave misunderstandings. It was then inferred that a similar move, a little further inland, by either the Boers or Germans, would perpetually confine British South Africa to within the narrow limits of Cape Colony, and a suspicious manœuvre of a German ship of war in Eastern South Africa confirmed the British Government that longer delay would be disastrous to British interests, and the Warren Expedition, which secured to us Bechuanaland, and an open way to the Zambesi, was the result. But before the Berlin Conference of 1884-5 was held, Germany had become the owner of important possessions at various places in Occidental Africa, and was projecting other surprises of a similar kind.

During the sittings of the Conference, which had met to decide the future of the Congo, the words and acts of the assembled Plenipotentiaries received due attention from every journal of importance in the United Kingdom, but they did not appear to impress the public mind as closely affecting British interests. Yet much was happening that, had the warning which was sounded occasionally by experts been taken properly to heart, the significance of the Conference would have been easily recognised.

On the Continent, however, the diplomatic discussions had a most stimulating effect. The people of every state now studied their African maps with a different purpose from the acquisition of mere geographical knowledge. Societies, miscalled “commercial, geographical, or scientific,” sprang into existence like mushrooms throughout France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, and Sweden, and in a short time numerous expeditions, disguised by innocent titles, were prepared for Africa.

Within two days after the signing of the General Act of the Conference, the German Emperor proclaimed a protectorate in East Africa over countries whose names were even unknown until the appearance of this book. Our Foreign Secretary was in such dread of Prince Bismarck that he not only acquiesced in this bold act, but obsequiously hastened to instruct our representative at Zanzibar to use his undeniable influence in promoting German interests, and lessen his zeal for our own.

To-day, living as we do under a powerful Unionist Government, which has just triumphed over the Mahdi’s successor, and recovered nearly all that the Government of that period had lost, these events may appear incredible, but 1884-85 was a singularly disastrous period for British prestige. The aged statesman who then presided over England’s affairs was fast declining in power and ability; but as his influence still continued supreme, the nation was powerless to avert the blunders and misfortunes that so repeatedly shocked us. However, not to dwell upon this painful subject, let me say that when Lord Granville signified to Prince Bismarck that England would oppose no obstacles to German designs in Africa, it naturally followed that the Prince would interpret this as meaning that England would surrender all claims to territory that the Germans might think desirable, and accordingly the East African Protectorate expanded in a marvellously brief time from the coast to the Tanganika, and threatened to absorb the whole of East Africa from Mozambique to the Gulf of Aden. Though priority of discovery and exploration may not under all circumstances constitute a full title to territory, it is certainly aggrieving to find another nation rudely thrusting itself into the field and forcibly seizing upon it.

Fortunately, however, a Company had been formed in 1885 to take over a small concession obtained by Mr. H. H. Johnston at Taveta in East Africa, and as the Germans encroached upon it, Lord Rosebery, who had become Foreign Secretary, took the opportunity of making a firm protest against it, which served to arrest the wholesale absorption that had been meditated, and gave the necessary time for a fuller development of the British project. A delimitation of territory was determined upon to define that which was claimed by Great Britain, Germany, and Zanzibar, and meanwhile the operations of the British Company were suspended to avoid a clashing of interests, and through Lord Rosebery’s protest the Germans likewise agreed to prevent their agents from making any new acquisitions in the debatable zone.

In November, 1886, an understanding was arrived at which recognised the sovereignty of Zanzibar as existing over Zanzibar and Pemba, and the smaller islands, within a radius of twelve sea miles of them, as also over those of Lamu and Mafia, and a strip of the mainland ten sea miles in depth.

East Africa was delimited into two spheres of influence, divided by the mouth of the Umbe River, the northern base of Kilimanjaro Mountain, and thence by a line stretching to the eastern shore of the Victoria Nyanza at the 1st degree of south latitude.

On the 25th May, 1887, the Sultan of Zanzibar signed a fifty years’ concession of all his rights remaining to him, after the lease he had given to Germany on the 4th December previous, to the British East African Association. In April of the following year the Association, having through its agents concluded treaties with the native tribes to a distance of two hundred miles inland, became the Imperial British East African Company with the nominal capital of £2,000,000, for the purpose of administering the Zanzibar Concession, acquiring territory, and to undertake trading operations.

Meantime, early in 1887, four months previous to the formation of the British East African Association, I had started on my fourth expedition into the Dark Continent, with the object of carrying relief to Emin Pasha, to whom had been entrusted the government of the Egyptian provinces near the Equator, by the late General Gordon. Few persons at the time knew that Emin Pasha was only another name for a Dr. Edouard Schnitzer, and that he was a German Israelite by birth. The fund for the relief was contributed to equally by the Egyptian Government and Sir William Mackinnon’s personal friends.

The story of the march to Emin’s relief and his arrival at the Zanzibar coast with my expedition, has been related in detail in ‘Darkest Africa,’ and there is no necessity to give even a summary of it here.

During the journey through the Aruwimi Forest and thence to Zanzibar, we were able to add considerably to our knowledge of the Equatorial regions. That of the great forest itself, with its pigmies and cannibals, was no mean addition, but our march eastward led to the discovery of the snowy range called Ruwenzori, the interesting Semliki Valley and its river, which by following upward brought us in view of the Albert Edward Nyanza, and enabled me to identify it as the lake I had first seen in January, 1876. The topography of the intra-lake region became also much better known; and a little later the outline of the Victoria Nyanza received enlargement by the finding of an unknown south-western bay of important dimensions.

These discoveries were, however, unimportant compared to the effects following our return home and the publication of our experiences. The Brussels Conference of 1890 was preparing to sit, and it was not difficult to impress the Plenipotentiaries with the immediate necessities of the Dark Continent, such as railways, prohibition of importing fire-arms, the suppression of slave-raiding, etc., etc. On the Congo State authorities our revelations had a still more marked effect. Preparations were then commenced to deal with the slave-raiders of the Congo, and the despatch of Vankherkhovin’s Expedition to the Upper Welle, that of Captain Stairs to Katanga, and for the definite construction of the railway to Stanley Pool. The spirit of annexation was once more roused, and there was what might be called a race for the possession of the undelimited region west of Lake Victoria. The British East African Company’s troops were pushed into Uganda, and the expeditions under Mr. Jackson, Captain Lugard, Major Eric Smith, and Mr. Piggott, performed excellent service in their various explorations.

One of the most important effects of this renewed furore was the conclusion in July of a Treaty between Great Britain and Germany, which nullified the efforts of Emin Pasha and of Dr. Peters to seize upon Uganda and the lake regions west of it. The German Government agreed to surrender all the territory it occupied or claimed north of the British sphere, and the protectorate of Witu and the coast up to Kismayu was transferred to England. This Treaty not only extended the British possessions to the Abyssinian frontier, thus excluding any European competitor for influence on the Upper Nile, but established a British Protectorate over the Sultanate of Zanzibar. In return for the claims surrendered by Germany, England ceded Heligoland, and for the sum of £200,000 Germany received the sovereignty and revenue of the African coast between the Rovuma and the Umbe Rivers.

From the following list of African explorers who have crossed Africa since this book was issued, it will be recognised at a glance how rapid has been the increase of geographical knowledge:—

While previous to the book, since the beginning of the century, there had only been three trans-African explorations:—

With regard to the numerous other expeditions which took place since 1878, there is no space for mention, but Joseph Thomson’s travels, viâ Nyassa, to the Tanganika, and his brilliant journey through Masai Land; Count Teleki and Von Hohnel’s travels in Eastern Africa, which resulted in the discovery of Lakes Rudolf and Stephanie; Captain Bottego’s journey through Somali Land, and Dr. Donaldson Smith’s exploration of Somali and Galla Lands were of the first importance. It has, however, required the services of some hundreds of travellers since 1878 to fill up the sum of our present knowledge of the Continent.

In 1878 there was not one European-built boat in all Equatorial Africa. By 1881 there were five, but by December 31st, 1898, there were seventy-two steamers and one hundred and sixty-four steel boats or barges, while there is a very large addition to the African flotillas either on its way, or in process of construction. It may be imagined how much these vessels have expedited exploration when I say that out of the seventeen trans-African explorers no less than thirteen of them were transported with their followers and effects some hundreds of miles on their way.

Even as late as 1890 the construction of railways in Equatorial Africa had not been begun, though years of zealous efforts had been made by myself and others to induce capitalists to undertake them, knowing as we did that they were the best instruments that civilisation could employ for the moral, material, and social elevation of the dark peoples. But just as it took years upon years of publications and speeches to dissipate the unreasoning terror of Africa in the European mind, it required years of preaching and encouraging to induce railway constructors to try Africa as the theatre of their operations. Soon after the conclusion of the Emin Expedition the Congo Railway was commenced, and to-day it is fully employed in traffic, and the 500-franc shares are worth 1700 francs per share, which may be taken as a proof that the shareholders’ faith has been munificently rewarded. By the latest news from East Africa we learn that two hundred and forty miles of the Mombasa and Nyanza Railway have been laid, and it is predicted that by May next the locomotive will reach the half-way point to Lake Victoria. In German East Africa thirty miles of railway have been in operation for some time, but there are serious railway projects under consideration, and, it may be, an attempt will shortly be made at construction on an important scale. Meantime, however, the coloured troops are being employed in making a road suitable for wheeled traffic between the port of Dar-es-Salaam and Ujiji, viâ Kilossa and Tabora, and thus far mules have been used with great success.

But though there are not yet five hundred miles of railway open for traffic in Equatorial Africa, considerable extensions are under construction, or being meditated. The British East Africa Railway will, of course, be continued as far as Lake Victoria, as Parliament has provided the necessary money. The Congo State having successfully completed the railway connecting the lower with the upper river, is carrying out surveys for other railways on the Upper Congo. The Zambezi will also in a short time be connected by rail with Lake Nyassa, and we learn that the Bulawayo Railway is to be extended to the Tanganika Lake. My predictions in regard to Africa have so singularly approached realisation thus far that I am tempted on a safer prophecy, which is, that by 1918, there will be five thousand miles of iron roads where there are now not five hundred.

When my letters, calling attention to the spiritual and material needs of Africa, used to appear in the columns of the Daily Telegraph in 1874-77, there was neither mission, school, church, nor any legitimate trade started in the regions near the African Equator. But since 1877 wonderful changes in this respect have taken place. The statistics we have received from the Uganda Protectorate alone tell a remarkable tale of progress. According to these there have been 372 churches and missions established, at which there are 97,575 Christian converts. About 100 Europeans are living in the Protectorate, and the first official report (for 1897) announced that trade to the value of £30,000 had been begun. It will be remembered, perhaps, that it was for long a debatable question whether we should retain Uganda or abandon it.

The country of which the first few chapters of this book treat is now mainly German East Africa. What a change has come over it! No one could have foreseen or dreamed at the time of my march through it that Germany could ever have become the controller of its destiny. I dreamed visions of the future often in the wilds, such as that described in Chapter X., but I saw no Teuton in my dreams. However, it may be all for the best that Germany has annexed it, and England owes too much to Germany for waking her out of her somnolence to begrudge what Bismarck obtained so boldly. The white population of this colony at the end of last year numbered 922, of whom 678 are Germans, and the trade amounted in value to £600,000. It will, no doubt, be a long time before the Arab coast towns undergo any external change, but within their character and scenes are altogether altered. German militarism, which as we know is of the strictest kind, bears no resemblance to Arab supineness and neglect or to Arab customs. The small boys have taken kindly to the dominant spirit, and practise the forms in vogue among the military. There are custom-houses at every port, and permits for travel and sport inland can only be obtained through the goodwill of the Governor. The drastic measures of Von Wissman have long ago suppressed the slave-trade, and the slave-market is now only a memory.

The coast towns are connected by telegraph with each other, and there is cable communication, viâ Zanzibar, with Europe. Ujiji, the port on Lake Tanganika where I met Livingstone in 1871, possesses now quite a civilised appearance. Its Government buildings are of stone and two-storied, and a long wide street, shaded by mangoes and other fruit trees, runs through the centre of the town. German capital, to the value of £697,000, has been invested in tobacco, coffee, cocoa, tea, cardamom, and vanilla plantations; and I am glad to learn that the Game Laws are strict and effective.

The change in Equatorial Africa is nowhere more conspicuous than in that part described in Chapters XXI.-XXXIV. It may be imagined from the fact that a Brussels statistician has collected the titles of 3800 printed works which have been published since 1878 and refer to this part, and in his chronological table he records forty-eight separate explorations of the region.

The progress of trade in the Congo basin can be best represented by the following brief table of imports and exports:—

The average value of the annual exports during each of the five preceding years (1888-92) amounted to only £207,921.

From the inception of the Congo State in 1879 to the year 1890 the King of the Belgians personally defrayed all the expenditure; but on July 3rd, 1890, the Belgian Government came to His Majesty’s assistance with a lump sum of £200,000, and an annual subsidy, to last ten years, of £80,000 per annum. This amount, with the King’s personal subsidy, was for some years later the main support of the State; but in 1898 the revenue from all sources is estimated to amount to £590,608, while the expenditure is £99,477 in excess.

This excess of expenditure some unkindly critics in this country attribute to extravagance, ambition, and what not; but the King justifies his policy by comparing himself to one who had come to a great but wholly undeveloped estate, which was bound to remain unproductive unless a liberal expenditure was incurred for such improvements as would expose its resources and make all parts of it accessible. Now what the Congo State was in 1879 can best be seen by Chapters XXIV.-XXIX. To the ordinary white man it was what may well be termed impenetrable, except at constant peril of his life. It was ravaged by cannibals, fierce warlike tribes, and slave-raiders, and destructive influences of every kind tended to maintain its humanity in an eternal struggle for life and liberty. There were no roads, or means by which the country could be explored. Every tribe barred the ingress of the traveller; and its frontiers on all sides lay exposed to any white stranger who took the trouble to plant a flag; and finally it was made incumbent on every Power owning African possessions to make its occupation effective. Such primary necessities of the State involved large and endless expenses, and few men other than King Leopold would have so long sustained the great undertaking from his private purse. From 1879 to 1890 His Majesty spent about £900,000, and since then the total expenditure of the State has been nearly £3,000,000. To meet this His Majesty’s subsidies, amounting to £360,000, the aid from Belgium, £200,000, the Belgian annual subsidies, £720,000, customs duties and taxes, £1,900,000, make a total revenue of £3,180,000, and prove a deficit of £720,000.

As an offset against the deficit, the State possesses nineteen steamers and forty steel barges of the value of £100,000; Government establishments, which we may estimate at £500,000; arms, ammunition, goods, coal, and lumber, at £100,000; investments in the railway, telegraph, and commercial societies, and plantations, to the value of about £400,000—the whole of which aggregate £1,100,000. To these, which may be rightly taken as assets of the State, should be added the increment of the land which at present in some places sells at £80 the hectare, for factories and commercial purposes at £4 the hectare, and for agriculture at 8s. the hectare. If the State were offered for sale the value of the land made accessible to market by railway and steam communication would have to be considered. Beyond what has been specified as the State assets, consideration must be given to the now assured growth of the revenue. To-day, exclusive of the subsidies, it amounts to £470,602. When the State reaps the results of its generous aid to the planters of coffee, tea, cocoa, etc., to the railway, now completed, and to the commercial companies, who are now not restricted in their transport of goods and produce, there must necessarily be a material increase each year in the revenue. From all of which summary it does not appear to me that the position of the State is financially unsound; indeed, I am inclined to think it to be otherwise.

His Majesty’s policy has been to start the State on lines that must end in prosperity, without regard to personal labour or personal cost, and by his munificent pecuniary advances to the railway, commercial societies, planters, timber merchants, and agriculturists, the result has been that capital to the amount of several millions sterling has gravitated to the Congo. Personally, he may never recover a penny of the £900,000 he devoted to the creation of the State, but to that he is indifferent. Whatever surplus the revenue may furnish will certainly be devoted to assist new enterprises, new railways, increase of shipping, telegraph lines—to anything, in short, that promises expansion of the resources of the State, and enhances the value of the legacy he proposes to bequeath to the people of whom he is King and loyal servant.

An honourable friend of mine has lately delivered a lecture before the Statistical Society with a view to prove that the Congo State was financially a failure. It would be useless, in this place, to do more than present the balance sheet of four African territories, and ask him and those who agree with him to give it a fair consideration.

The Uganda Protectorate, having been established but lately, would naturally present a still more unsatisfactory balance sheet than any of the four territories above mentioned, but it is not derogatory to either British or German Africa that their deficits are so large, for the Congo, during the state of undevelopment, had absolutely no receipts at all, except King Leopold’s subsidy, to meet the expenditure. There is no necessity to labour this matter, but I think it is sufficiently proved that my honourable friend has been mistaken in his views about the financial condition of the Congo State.

As a fitting conclusion to this preface, I here append a table which will exhibit at a glance the advance of Equatorial Africa during the last twenty years.

Remarkable as has been the progress of the above territories hitherto, my most sincere wish is that there may be still greater acceleration of it during the next twenty years.

January 1st, 1899.