Rested and refreshed, Stanley resumed his journey from this point, following the left bank of the river; but in three days after leaving the friendly village he found himself in the country of a powerful tribe whose warriors were armed with muskets, and who disputed his passage, refusing all attempts at conciliation. Here for the first time since leaving Nyangwe, Stanley found himself opposed to an enemy of equal footing as to arms. No sooner was his approach discovered than the enemy manned fifty-four canoes and put off from the bank of the river to attack him. For twelve miles down the river the battle raged, and though the expedition came out of the conflict with comparatively small loss, considering the severity of the combat, it was an escape rather than a victory. This was the last save one of thirty-two attacks upon Stanley’s party after leaving Nyangwe.

The Lualala, or Congo, as it runs through the great basin which lies between 16° and 17° east longitude, has an uninterrupted course of over 700 miles, with magnificent affluents, especially on the southern side. Thence, clearing the broad belt of mountains between the great basin of the Atlantic Ocean, the river descends about thirty falls and furious rapids, to the great river between the falls of Yellala and the Atlantic.

Stanley’s losses during this long and terrible journey across the continent were fearfully severe. From Isangila, which he had reached on July 31, 1877, Stanley left the river, as the object of the journey had been attained—the connection of the great river of Livingstone with that of the Congo of Tuckey.

The announcement of this fact—the abandonment of the river—gave great delight to Stanley’s people. “At sunset,” says Stanley, “we lifted the brave boat, after her adventurous journey across Africa, and carried her to the summit of some rocks about five hundred yards north of the fall, to be abandoned to her fate. Three years before Messenger of Teddington had commenced her construction; two years previous to this date she was coasting the bluffs of Usongora on Lake Victoria; twelve months later she was completing her last twenty miles of circumnavigation of Lake Tanganyika, and on the 31st July, 1877, after a journey of nearly 7000 miles up and down broad Africa, she was consigned to her resting-place above Isangila cataract, to bleach and to rot to dust!”

* * * * * * * *

“A wayworn, feeble, and suffering column were we,” says Stanley, “when, on the 1st of August, we filed across the rocky terrace of Isangila and sloping plain, and strode up the ascent to the table-land. Nearly forty men filled the sick list with dysentery, ulcers, and scurvy, and the victims of the latter disease were steadily increasing. Yet withal I smiled proudly when I saw the brave hearts cheerily respond to my encouraging cries. A few, however, would not believe that within five or six days they should see Europeans. They disdained to be considered so credulous, but at the same time they granted that the ‘master’ was quite right to encourage his people with promises of speedy relief.

“So we surmounted the table-land, but we could not bribe the wretched natives to guide us to the next village. Ever and anon, as we rose above the ridged swells, we caught a glimpse of the wild river on whose bosom we had so long floated, still white and foaming, as it rushed on impetuously seaward through the sombre defile.

“An hour afterwards we were camped on a bit of level plateau to the south of the villages of Ndambi Mbongo. A strong healthy man would reach Embomma in three days. Three days! Only three days off from food—from comforts—luxuries even! Ah me!

“The next morning we lifted our weakened limbs for another march. And such a march!—the path all thickly strewn with splinters of suet-colored quartz, which increased the fatigue and pain. The old men and the three mothers, with their young infants born at the cataracts of Massassa and Zinga, and another near the market town of Manyanga, in the month of June, suffered greatly. Then might be seen that affection for one another which appealed to my sympathies, and endeared them to me still more. Two of the younger men assisted each of the old, and the husbands and fathers lifted their infants on their shoulders and tenderly led their wives along.

“Up and down the desolate and sad land wound the poor, hungry caravan. Bleached whiteness of ripest grass, grey rock-piles here and there, looming up solemn and sad in their greyness, a thin grove of trees now and then visible on the heights and in the hollows—such were the scenes that with every uplift of a ridge or rising crest of a hill met our hungry eyes. Eight miles our strength enabled us to make, and then we camped in the middle of an uninhabited valley, where we were supplied with water from the pools which we discovered in the course of a dried-up stream.”

The experiences of the third day were but a repetition of the previous one, and by the close of that day they had reached the settlement of Nsanda. Here, through the aid of the chief, who furnished him with two messengers to accompany Uledi and Kachéché to Embomma, as bearers, Stanley wrote and sent a letter asking for immediate relief in the shape of food. On the 5th the expedition resumed its march, and at 3 o’clock P. M. covered a further distance of twelve miles, reaching the village of Mbinda. On the 6th, they were aroused for a further effort and at 9 o’clock A. M. reached Banza Mbuko.

“Ah! in what part of all the Japhetic world would such a distressed and woeful band as we were then have been regarded with such hard, steel-cold eyes?” writes Stanley. “Yet not one word of reproach issued from the starving people; they threw themselves upon the ground with an indifference begotten of despair and misery. They did not fret nor bewail aloud the tortures of famine, nor vent the anguish of their pinched bowels in cries, but with stony resignation surrendered themselves to rest under the scant shade of some dwarf acacia or sparse bush. Now and then I caught the wail of an infant and the thin voice of a starving mother, or the petulant remonstrance of an elder child; but the adults remained still and apparently lifeless, each contracted within the exclusiveness of individual suffering.”

In this condition these people were found by Uledi and Kachéché who had returned from Embomma with relief in the shape of provisions, forwarded through bearers, rapidly despatched by the proprietors of the English factory into whose hand Stanley’s letter had fallen. And it may be readily imagined what a change was wrought in the camp by the timely arrival of these provisions.

As to Stanley, he speaks for himself: “With profound tenderness Kachéché handed to me the mysterious bottles, watching my face the while with his sharp detective eye as I glanced at the labels, by which the cunning rogue read my pleasure. Pale ale! Sherry! Port wine! Champagne! Several loaves of bread—wheaten bread, sufficient for a week. Two pots of butter. A packet of tea! Coffee! White loaf sugar! Sardines and salmon! Plum pudding! Currant, gooseberry, and raspberry jam!

“The gracious God be praised forever! The long war we had maintained against famine and the siege of woe were over, and my people and I rejoiced in plenty! It was only an hour before we had been living on the recollections of the few peanuts and green bananas we had consumed in the morning; but now, in an instant, we were transported into the presence of the luxuries of civilization. Never did gaunt Africa appear so unworthy and so despicable before my eyes as now, when imperial Europe rose before my delighted eyes and showed her boundless treasures of life, and blessed me with her stores.”

On the 9th August, 1877, the 999th day from the date of his departure from Zanzibar, he prepared himself to greet the van of Civilization. He was met on the road by an escort of Europeans, residents of Boma, who accorded him a gracious welcome to the town. Three little banquets were given him, and he was generously toasted by everybody.

On the 11th, at noon, the expedition embarked on the Kabinda, an English steamer, for the town of Kabinda. “A few hours later,” says Stanley, “and we were gliding through the broad portal into the ocean, the blue domain of Civilization!

“Turning to take a farewell glance at the mighty river on whose brown bosom we had endured so greatly, I saw it approach, awed and humbled, the threshold of the water immensity, to whose immeasurable volume and illimitable expanse, awful as had been its power and terrible as had been its fury, its flood was but a drop. And I felt my heart suffused with purest gratitude to Him whose hand had protected us, and who had enabled us to pierce the Dark Continent from east to west, and to trace its mightiest river to its ocean bourne.”

The expedition, after a stay of eight days at Kabinda, was kindly taken on board the Portuguese gunboat Tamega to San Paulo de Loanda. From thence through the kindness and courtesy of the English officers of the Royal Navy, who had placed H. M. S. Industry at Stanley’s disposal, the expedition was given passage to Cape Town.

On arriving at Simon’s Bay, Cape of Good Hope, on the 21st of October, Stanley was agreeably surprised by a most genial letter, signed by Commodore Francis William Sullivan, inviting him to the Admiralty House as his guest, and who, during the entire stay of the party at the Cape, extended the most hearty courtesy and hospitality. He had also made preparations for transporting the entire expedition to Zanzibar, when a telegram from the Lords of the British Admiralty was received authorizing him to provide for the transmission of Stanley’s followers to their homes.

On the 6th of November, H. M. S. Industry was fully equipped and ready for her voyage to Zanzibar. Fourteen days later the palmy island of Zanzibar hove into sight, and in the afternoon the steamer was bearing straight for the port.

Of the return home, and the final scene which closed this wonderful expedition, we must let Stanley speak: “As I looked on the Wangwana, and saw the pleasure which now filled every soul, I felt myself amply rewarded for sacrificing several months to see them home. The sick had all but one recovered, and they had improved so much in appearance that few, ignorant of what they had been, could have supposed that these were the living skeletons that had reeled from sheer weakness through Boma.

“The only patient who had baffled our endeavors to restore her to health was the woman Muscati, unfortunate Safeni’s wife. Singular to relate, she lived to be embraced by her father, and the next morning died in his arms, surrounded by her relatives and friends. But all the others were blessed with redundant health—robust, bright, and happy.

“And now the well-known bays and inlets and spicy shores and red-tinted bluffs of Mbwenni enraptured them. Again they saw what they had often despaired of seeing: the rising ridge of Wilezu, at the foot of which they knew were their homes and their tiny gardens; the well-known features of Shangani and Melindi; the tall square mass of the Sultan’s palace. Each outline, each house, from the Sandy Point to their own Ngambu, each well-remembered bold swell of land, with its glories of palm and mango-tree, was to them replete with associations of by-gone times.

“The ship was soon emptied of her strange passengers. Captain Sullivan, of the London, came on board and congratulated me on my safe arrival, and then I went on shore to my friend Mr. Augustus Sparhawk’s house.

“Four days of grace I permitted myself to procure the thousands of rupees required to pay the people for their services. Messages had also been sent to the relatives of the dead, requesting them to appear at Mr. Sparhawk’s, prepared to make their claims good by the mouths of three witnesses.

“On the fifth morning the people—men, women, and children—of the Anglo-American Expedition, attended by hundreds of friends, who crowded the street and the capacious rooms of the Bertram Agency, began to receive their well-earned dues. The women, thirteen in number, who had borne the fatigues of the long, long journey, who had transformed the stern camp in the depths of the wilds into something resembling a village in their own island, who had encouraged their husbands to continue in their fidelity despite all adversity, were well rewarded.

“The children of the chiefs who had accompanied us from Zanzibar to the Atlantic, and who, by their childish, careless prattle, had often soothed me in mid-Africa, and had often caused me to forget my responsibilities for the time, were not forgotten. Neither were the tiny infants—ushered into the world amid the dismal and tragic scenes of the cataract lands, and who, with their eyes wide open with wonder, now crowed and crooned at the gathering of happy men and elated women about them—omitted in this final account and reckoning.

“The second pay-day was devoted to hearing the claims for wages due the faithful dead. Poor faithful souls! With an ardor and a fidelity unexpected, they had followed me to the very death. True, negro nature had often asserted itself; but it was, after all, but human nature. They had never boasted that they were heroes; but they exhibited truly heroic stuff while coping with the varied terrors of the hitherto untrodden and apparently endless wilds of broad Africa.

“The female relatives filed in. With each name of the dead, old griefs were remembered. The poignant sorrow I felt—as the fallen were named after each successive conflict in those dark days, never to be forgotten by me—was revived. Sad and subdued were the faces of those I saw—as sad and subdued as my own feelings. With such sympathies between us we soon arrived at a satisfactory understanding. Each woman was paid without much explanation required—one witness was sufficient. Parents and true brothers were not difficult to identify. The settlement of the claims lasted five days, and then—the Anglo-American Expedition was no more.”

On the 13th of December, Stanley sailed from Zanzibar for Aden, on board the British India Steam Navigation Company’s steamer Pachumba. His late followers had all left their homes early in the morning that they might be certain to arrive in time to witness his departure. Mr. Stanley says of them: “When I was about to step into the boat, the brave, faithful fellows rushed before me and shot the boat into the sea, and then lifted me up on their heads and carried me through the surf into the boat. We shook hands twenty times twenty I think, and then at last the boat started. I saw them consult together, and presently saw them rush down the beach and seize a great twenty-ton lighter, which they soon manned and rowed after me. They followed me thus to the steamer, and a deputation of them came on board, headed by the famous Uledi, the coxswain; Kachéché, the chief detective; Robert, my indispensable factotum; Zaidi, the chief, and Wadi Rehani, the storekeeper, to inform me that they still considered me as their master, and that they would not leave Zanzibar until they received a letter from me announcing my safe arrival in my own country. I had, they said, taken them round all Africa to bring them back to their homes, and they must know that I had reached my own land before they would go to seek new adventures on the Continent, and—simple, generous souls!—that if I wanted their help to reach my country they would help me!

“They were sweet and sad moments, those of parting. What a long, long and true friendship was here sundered! Through what strange vicissitudes of life had they not followed me! What wild and varied scenes had we not seen together. What a noble fidelity these untutored souls had exhibited! The chiefs were those who had followed me to Ujiji in 1871; they had been witnesses of the joy of Livingstone at the sight of me; they were the men to whom I trusted the safeguard of Livingstone on his last and fatal journey, who had mourned by his corpse at Mullala, and borne the illustrious dead to the Indian Ocean.

“And in a flood of sudden recollection, all the stormy period here ended rushed in upon my mind—the whole panorama of danger and tempest through which these gallant fellows had so staunchly stood by me—these gallant fellows now parting from me. Rapidly, as in some apocalyptic vision, every scene of strife with Man and Nature through which these poor men and women had borne me company, and solaced me by the simple sympathy of common suffering, came hurrying across my memory: for each face before me was associated with some adventure or some peril, reminded me of some triumph or of some loss. What a wild, weird retrospect it was, that mind’s flash over the troubled past! So like a troublous dream!

“And for years and years to come, in many homes in Zanzibar, there will be told the great story of our journey, and the actors in it will be heroes among their kith and kin. For me, too, they are heroes—these poor ignorant children of Africa—for, from the first deadly struggle in savage Iturue to the last staggering rush into Embomma, they had rallied to my voice like veterans, and in the hour of need they had never failed me. And thus, aided by their willing hands and by their loyal hearts, the expedition had been successful, and the three great problems of the Dark Continent’s geography had been fairly solved.”

CHAPTER XXIII.
THE WONDERFUL RESOURCES OF THE CONGO.

The Dark Continent had been traversed from east to west, its great lakes, the Victoria Nyanza and the Tanganyika, had been circumnavigated, and the Congo River had been traced from Nyangwe to the Atlantic Ocean. The members of the late exploring expedition had been taken to their homes, the living had been worthily rewarded, and the widows and orphans had not been neglected.

When Stanley finally reached Europe in January, 1878, slowly recovering from the effects of famine and fatigue endured on that long journey, little did he imagine that before the close of the same year he should be preparing another expedition for the banks of that river on which he had suffered so greatly. But on arriving at the Marseilles railway station, in France, he was met by two commissioners from His Majesty, the King of the Belgians, Leopold II., who informed him that the King proposed doing something substantial for Africa, and that he expected him to assist him in the work. To this Stanley’s reply was: “I am so sick and weary that I cannot think with patience of any suggestion that I should personally conduct another expedition. Six months hence, perhaps, I should view things differently; but at present I cannot think of anything more than a long rest and sleep.”

However, after having enjoyed a season of quiet rest, regaining his wonted strength and health, upon the continent, during which time he became the recipient of many honors wherever he went, he was induced by the society called Comité d’Etudes du Haut Congo of Belgium, to undertake another expedition into Africa—this one directed to a survey and exploration of the river Congo.

The object of this expedition was defined by the society in these words:

“Within the vast basin known in geographical parlance as the basin of the Congo there is a vast field lying untouched by the European merchant and about three-fourths unexplored by the geographical explorer. For the most part it is peopled by ferocious savages, devoted to abominable cannibalism and wanton murder of inoffensive people; but along the great river towards the Livingstone Falls there dwell numerous amiable tribes who would gladly embrace the arrival of the European merchant, and hasten to him with their rich produce to exchange for Manchester cloths, Venetian beads, brass, wire, hardware and cutlery, and such other articles as generally find favor with friendly Africans.

“Our purpose is threefold—philanthropic, scientific, as well as commercial. It is philanthropic, inasmuch as our principal aim is to open the interior by weaning the tribes below and above from that suspicious and savage state which they are now in, and to rouse them up to give material aid voluntarily. Our purpose is also scientific, because we intend to make a systematic survey of that country lying between the Stanley Pool and Boma, either on the north or the south side of the Congo, and to determine with exactitude the positions of all important towns and villages, and all prominent points which shall be of interest to the geographer and the merchant. Our aims are commercial also, because we intend to experiment how far people may venture into commercial relationship with the tribes above, by inviting them to exchange such products as they may possess for the manufactured goods of civilized States.”

On the 12th of August, 1877, Stanley had arrived at Banana Point, after crossing Africa and descending its greatest rivers. On the 14th of August, 1879, two years later, he again arrived before the mouth of this river to ascend it, with the novel mission of “sowing along its banks civilized settlements, to peacefully conquer and subdue it, to remould it in harmony with modern ideas into National States, within whose limits the European merchant shall go hand in hand with the dark African trader, and justice and law and order shall prevail, and murder and lawlessness and the cruel barter of slaves shall forever cease.”

And what have been the results of this second exploration of the mighty Congo? Want of space will not permit us to follow the fortunes of Stanley in the course of his ascent of the great river, of the new discoveries made, and of the complete survey he made of its tortuous line; but we shall give a brief outline of the great work he performed, and an account of the wonderful resources which he has shown this remarkable region of country to possess.

On the commercial possibilities of this region, Stanley’s recent communications show no change as to his views of African promises to commercial enterprise.

He holds that there is less sickness by half in the Congo basin, even in its present unprepared condition, than there is in the bottom lands of Arkansas. The great basins of the Nile, Congo, Niger and Shari, he thinks, furnish fine opportunities for commercial exploit. But these require railways to connect their upper basins with the sea. About 800 miles of railroad, he says, properly directed, would open to the world of commerce 22,600 miles of river bank of these four streams. But $17,000,000 of capital would be required to build this railway. The area of country and the masses of population which it would make immediately accessible, according to careful calculation, are: Congo basin, 1,090,000 statute square miles, 43,000,000 population; Nile basin, 660,000 square miles, 23,760,000 population; Niger basin, 440,000 square miles, 8,800,000 population; Shari basin, 180,000 square miles, 5,400,000 population. Total for four basins, 2,370,000 square miles; 80,960,000 population, or one-fourth more than the total population of the United States.

The least explored portion of the African coast line, 2900 miles long, is that from the Gambia to St. Paul de Loanda, which gives an annual trade of $160,000,000. The banks of these four rivers, if equally developed, ought to furnish a trade seven and a half times greater, or $1,200,000,000. The gross sum required to create this enormous trade is only $17,000,000.

Supposing that a continent abounding with tropic produce, populated by 81,000,000 of working people, and showing a coast line of 22,600 miles in length, suddenly rose from the bosom of the Atlantic, imagine the scramble for possession which would be made by the Powers. Yet here are four river basins offered to civilization at the rate of 1³⁄₄ pence per acre, with an annual trade of over three shillings per acre almost guaranteed. Any two rich men in Great Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Spain, Portugal or Sweden and Norway may combine together and build the Congo Railway. “I have a strong hope,” said Stanley, “that Manchester will unite with Berlin, Paris and Brussels in the subscription of $3,000,000 to build this railway.” The Congo basin, Stanley thinks, is much more promising than the Mississippi basin was previous to its development.

“The forests on the banks of the Congo,” he says, “are filled with precious redwood, lignum vitæ, 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 barks 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 nuts of the oil-palm give forth a butter, while the fibres of others will make the best cordage. Among the wild shrubs are frequently found the coffee plant. In its plains, jungles and swamps luxuriate the elephant, whose teeth furnish ivory worth from eight shillings to eleven shillings per pound. If we speak of prospective advantages, the copper of Lake Superior is rivaled by that of the Kwiln-Niadi Valley and of Bembi. Rice, cotton, tobacco, maize, coffee, sugar and wheat would thrive equally well on the broad plains of the Congo. I have heard of gold and silver.”

And Stanley also gives the testimony of many others, who have traversed the regions of country bounding the course of the Congo. Tippoo Tib, the great Arab trader in the interior, who has traversed the southeast portion of this section, describes his astonishment at the density of the population. He had passed through several towns which took a couple of hours to traverse, told of the beauty of savannah, park, and prairie country he saw, and how the sight of the camp left in the morning might be seen from the evening camp after a six hours’ march.

Dr. Schweinfurth says: “From the Wellé to the residence of the Monbuttu King, Munza, the way leads through a country of marvellous beauty, an almost unbroken line of the primitively simple dwellings extending on either side of the caravan route.”

“The vegetable productions of this section,” says Stanley, “are rich and varied; but until intercourse is facilitated, little use will be made of them. This might be readily surmised from the country’s bisection by the equatorial line, the ten months’ rains, and the humid warmth which nourishes vegetation with extraordinary prolific power.”

The most remarkable among the vegetable growths are the palms, of which there are an immense variety; but the most useful to commerce is the oil-palm. Its nut supplies the dark red palm-oil so well known on the west coast, while its kernel is valuable for oil-cake for cattle. Not a grove, nor an island scarcely, can be found without this beautiful and most useful palm; in some places, such as the district between the lower Lumani and Congo, there are entire forests of it.

The next most valuable product of the forest, as yet untouched in this region, is the india-rubber plant. There are three kinds of plants producing this article, but that which exudes from Euphorbia is not so elastic in quality, although it may have its uses. “On the islands of the Congo,” says Stanley, “which in the aggregate cover an area of 3000 square miles with 800 square miles of the banks of the main river, I estimate that enough rubber could be collected in one year to pay for a Congo railway.”

Vast extents of forest are veiled with the orchilla moss. Between Iboko and Langa-Langa, Stanley saw a forest of about sixty miles in length draped with orchilla lying on the woods like a green veil. Every village contains its manufactured rolls of redwood powder, and few settlements between the equator and the Kwa could not furnish a few hundredweights at short notice. Every trading canoe floating on the upper Congo possesses among its salable wares a certain store of this universally-demanded article.

“For purely tropical scenes,” says Stanley, “I commend the verdurously rich isles in mid-Congo, between Iboko on the right bank and Mutembo on the left bank, with the intricate and recurrent river channels meandering between. There the rich verdure reflects the brightness of the intense sunshine in glistening velvet sheen from frond and leaf. The underwood presents varied colors, with their tufted tops or the climbing serpentine form of the llianes and their viny leaves. Each and all have their own separate and particular beauties of coloring that renders description impossible. At all times I believe the same refreshing gladness and vigor of tropical nature may be observed about this latitude. Some of the smallest islets seemed to be all aflame with crimson coloring, while the purple of the ipomœa and the gold and white of the jasmine and mimosa flowered, bloomed and diffused a sweet fragrance. Untainted by the marring hand of man, or by his rude and sacrilegious presence, these isles, blooming thus in their beautiful native innocence and grace, approached in aspect as near Eden’s loveliness as anything I shall ever see on this side of Paradise. They are blessed with a celestial bounty of florid and leafy beauty, a fulness of vegetable life that cannot possibly be matched elsewhere save where soil with warm and abundant moisture and gracious sunshine are equally to be found in the same perfection. Not mere things of beauty alone were these isles. The palms were perpetual fountains of a sweet juice, which when effervescing affords delight and pleasure to man. The golden nuts of other trees furnish rich yellow fat, good enough for the kitchen of an epicure, when fresh. On the coast these are esteemed as an article of commerce. The luxuriant and endless lengths of calamus are useful for flooring and verandah mats, for sun-screens on river voyages, for temporary shelters on some open river terrace frequented by fishermen, for fish-nets and traps, for field baskets, market hampers, and a host of other useful articles, but more especially for the construction of neat and strong houses, and fancy lattice-work. Such are the strong, cord-like creepers which hang in festoons and wind circuitously upward along the trunk of that sturdy tree. The pale white blossom which we see is the caoutchouc plant, of great value to commerce, and which some of these days will be industriously hunted by the natives of Iboko and Bolombo. For the enterprising trader, there is a ficus, with fleshy green leaves; its bark is good for native cloth, and its soft, spongy fibre will be of some use in the future for the manufacture of paper. Look at the various palms crowding upon one another! Their fibres, prepared by the dexterous natives of Bangala, will make the stoutest hawsers, the strength of which neither hemp, manilla fibre, nor jute can match; it is as superior to ordinary cord-threads as silk is to cotton. See that soft, pale-green moss draping those tree-tops like a veil! That is the orchilla weed, from which a valuable dye is extracted. I need not speak of the woods, for the tall, dark forests that meet the eye on bank and isle seem to have no end. We are banqueting on such sights and odors that few would believe could exist. We are like children ignorantly playing with diamonds. Such is the wealth of colors revealed every new moment to us, already jaded with the gorgeousness of the tropic world.”

The vegetation of the upper Congo is also remarkable for the quantities of fibres it produces for the manufacture of paper, rope, basket-work, fine and coarse matting and grass cloths.

In this region, among the many minor items available which commercial intercourse would teach the natives to employ profitably, are monkey, goat, antelope, buffalo, lion, and leopard skins; the gorgeous feathers of the tropic birds, hippopotamus teeth, beeswax, frankincense, myrrh, tortoise-shell, cannabis sativa, and lastly, ivory, which to-day is considered the most valuable product. “It may be presumed,” says Stanley, “that there are about 200,000 elephants in about 15,000 herds in the Congo basin, each carrying, let us say, on an average fifty pounds weight of ivory in his head, which would represent, when collected and sold in Europe, £5,000,000.

“For climate,” says Stanley, “the Mississippi Valley is superior; but 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 profit with as little risk as is incurred in India.”

Thus we find Stanley has succeeded in solving the Congo problem. While other travellers have only speculated on the probable identity of the Lualala with the Congo, he has put the matter beyond a possible doubt. To his deeds of discovery on the Nyanza and Tanganyika, which have already been recounted, Stanley has, by his second tour of the Congo, added a fresh and incomparable triumph which will forever link his name with the history of the continent that his irresistible zeal has done so much to open up to civilization. His explorations will also have most important commercial and, it may be, political, results.

Having traversed the entire length of the Congo as far as Vivi, and made several exploring detours from that point, together with discharging the duties of his mission, Stanley sailed for home, arriving at Plymouth, England, on July 29th, 1884. Four days later he presented his report to His Majesty, the King of the Belgians, who was then spending the summer at Ostend.

CHAPTER XXIV.
FOUNDING OF THE FREE CONGO STATE.

The expedition of the Upper Congo and the Bureau of the Association had now performed their duties, but the Royal Founder of the State was compelled, in order to insure its prosperity and continuity, as the work advanced, to apply to the various Governments of Europe and America for recognition, and for security and peaceful safeguards of its frontiers, to make treaties with France and Portugal, which would delimit the boundaries, and arrange with all of them for the preservation of neutrality.

The Association was in possession of treaties made with over 450 independent African chiefs, whose rights would be conceded by all to have been indisputable, since they held their lands by undisturbed occupation, by long ages of succession, by real divine right. Of their own free will, without coercion, but for substantial considerations, reserving only a few easy conditions, they had transferred their rights of sovereignty and of ownership to the Association. The time had arrived when a sufficient number of these had been made to connect the several miniature sovereignties into one concrete whole to present itself before the world for general recognition of its right to govern, and hold these in the name of an independent State, lawfully constituted according to the spirit and tenor of international law.

In consequence of negotiations entered into between the British and Portuguese Governments, beginning November, 1882, and ending February 25th, 1884, a treaty was finally concluded, by which the whole of the southwest African coast between S. latitude 5° 12´ and S. latitude 5° 18´ was recognized by the British Government as Portuguese territory. This included the lower Congo, of course, by which the territory of the Association became excluded from the sea. The treaty was signed on the 26th of February, 1884, by Earl Granville on the part of Great Britain, and by Senhor Miguel Martins d’ Antãs on behalf of the Government of Portugal.

Earl Granville however declared, previous to the signature of the treaty, that the acceptance by other Powers of the Anglo-Portuguese treaty was indispensable before it came into operation, and that there was reason to believe that this acceptance would be refused, which would necessarily delay the ratification.

Heretofore the territory now proposed to be given up to Portugal, so far as Great Britain was concerned, had been regarded as neutral; and the treaty, thus concluded, marked a radical change in British policy—for a long series of British Ministers had, during over half a century, peremptorily declined to recognize the Portuguese claims.

When the Anglo-Portuguese treaty was published the European Powers, especially France and Germany, emphatically protested against it, and in England men of all shades of politics combined to denounce it, principally through a fear that the restrictions imposed upon trade in other colonies belonging to Portugal would be so severe as to render commerce impossible in the Congo region.

The most signal protest came, however, from the United States Government. The United States Senate also, on the 10th of April, 1884, passed a resolution authorizing the President to recognize the International African Association as a governing power on the Congo River. This recognition gave birth to new life of the Association, seriously menaced as its existence was by opposing interests and ambitions, and the following of this example by the European Powers subsequently affirmed and secured its place among sovereign States. This act, the result of the well-considered judgment of the American statesmen, was greatly criticised abroad, as was the participation of the United States in the Berlin Conference, to which it directly led up, by the press of America. It was an act well worthy of the Great Republic, not only as taking the lead in publicly recognizing and supporting the great work of African civilization in history, and in promoting the extension of commerce, but of significant import in view of its interest for the future weal of 7,000,000 people of African descent within its borders.

The British Chambers of Commerce—notably those of Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow—resolutely opposed the treaty concluded with Portugal; but withal the strenuous opposition maintained to it in commercial circles and in the House of Commons, had not the Royal Founder of the Association obtained the assistance of the German Chancellor and the sympathies of the French Government, it is doubtful whether anything done in England would have succeeded in averting the effectual seal being put upon enterprise in the Congo basin by this treaty. Much more liberal terms would be needed to tempt Congress within its borders than any provisions that the treaty contained. Some such arrangement as that made by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, whereby liberty of navigation was proclaimed to the great rivers of Europe, such as the Rhine and the Danube, would be necessary; and now that an association had absorbed unto itself hundreds of petty sovereignties along a large portion of it, and France had proceeded in the same manner to absorb other portions of the Congo banks, while Portugal pressed her claims to territories washed by the great African river, it was absolutely and imperatively incumbent on the Powers to step forward and impose such obligations on the riveraine Powers as would not imperil or strangle the commerce already thriving on the banks of the lower Congo.

On the 7th of June, 1884, Prince Bismarck, in a communication to Count Munster, set forth his objections to the Anglo-Portuguese treaty, and concluded with the following words:

“In the interests of German commerce, therefore, I cannot consent that a coast of such importance, which has hitherto been free land, should be subjected to the Portuguese colonial system.”

In West African trade, Great Britain stood almost alone at one time. Her traders were busy on the Gambia, on the Roquelle, on the Gold Coast, at Lagos in the oil rivers, at Gaboon and Kabinda, and the Glasgow and Liverpool and Bristol merchants were represented by a host of agents, who had planted themselves at various points along the 2900 miles of coast; but of late years, through the apathy of the English merchants, Germany, by her enterprise, had also established herself at various places, and great houses like that of Woerman’s were looming upward, overtopping all individual English firms, which could number their factories by dozens and their agents by scores. Hamburg and Bremen were outrivalling Liverpool and Glasgow. Hence Germany had solid and substantial reasons for watching and jealously guarding her mercantile interests; and France, aided by the energy and talents of Monsieur de Brazza, in territories beyond and contiguous to the Gaboon colony, naturally wished to establish herself beyond dispute in the districts acquired by the devotion and intelligence of her agents. German savants had explored territories unclaimed by any Power; German merchants were honestly established at certain places on the West African coast; out of the most intelligent and enterprising of the sons of Germany twenty-four geographical societies had been formed, and a dozen colonial associations, besides African societies, were being constituted in Germany. Already Bascian, Gussfeldt, Peschuel Loesche, Buchner, Von Mechow, Pogge, Weissman, had been equipped by a German African Society, and it was preparing to despatch more. These facts were published in the reviews and magazines. There was no secrecy in the movement. All was honest and above-board, and all the world was told of the modest effort Germany was making to expand its colonial strength.

Like the great statesman that he is, Prince Bismarck bent his genius to the creation of a sound system of colonial policy—not rashly, though to those without the orbit of his genius it might be supposed to be eccentric.

On the 13th of September he wrote to Baron de Courcel, French Ambassador at Berlin:

“Like France, the German Government will observe a friendly attitude towards the Belgian enterprises on the banks of the Congo, owing to the desire entertained by the two Governments to secure to their countrymen freedom of trade throughout the whole of the future Congo States, and in districts which France holds on the river, and which she proposes to assimilate to the liberal system which that State is expected to establish. These advantages will continue to be enjoyed by German subjects, and will be guaranteed to them in the event of France being called upon to exercise the right of preference accorded by the King of the Belgians in the contingency of the acquisitions made by the Congo Company being alienated!”

Baron de Courcel, in reply, stated that he had not failed to convey to his Government Prince Bismarck’s note, which in its substance was similar to the views they had exchanged at Varzin; also, that the French Republic was completely in accord with the Imperial Government of Germany about the desirability of arriving at a mutual understanding respecting the delimitation of territory over the west coast of Africa, especially where the German possessions border on those of the French. He likewise acknowledged that the friendly accord between the two Governments was connected with principles of the highest importance to trade in Africa, of which the chief are those which must govern the freedom of trade in the basin of the Congo. He also assented to the idea that whereas the African International Association, which had established a number of stations on the Congo, declares itself ready to admit that principle over all the territory under its control, France should grant freedom of trade over that which she now owns, or may hereafter own on the Congo, and that France declared her willingness to permit this freedom to continue in the event of her reaping the benefit of the arrangements touched upon by the Prince, which assures to France the right of preference in case of alienation of the territories acquired by the Association. He defined freedom of commerce to mean free access to all flags, and the interdiction of all monopoly or differential duties; but not excluding the establishment of taxes to compensate for useful expenditure incurred in the interests of commerce. While freely extending these beneficial concessions to commercial enterprise in the Congo basin, Baron de Courcel stated that France was not willing that Gaboon, Guinea or Senegal should share them; but solely the Congo and the Niger.

Prince Bismarck then, with the acquiescence of France, extended an invitation through the representatives of the different nations to a Conference to be held at Berlin on the 15th of November following. The sittings of this Conference were held in the German Chancellor’s palace on Wilhelmstrasse, in the same room where the Berlin Conference sat in 1878.

When the members of the Conference had assembled, Prince Bismarck rose to formally open it, and in a short address he declared that the Conference had met for the solution of three main objects, to wit:

1. The free navigation, with freedom of trade on the river Congo.

2. The free navigation of the river Niger.

3. The formalities to be observed for valid annexation of territory in future on the African continent.

To this conference Mr. Stanley had been appointed technical delegate for the United States, and was introduced by the American Minister in highly complimentary terms. On the expression of views by the several delegates, Mr. Stanley, when called upon in the order on the roll, arose and said:

“To define the geographical basin of the Congo, whether explored or unexplored, is a very easy matter, since every school-boy knows that a river basin, geographically speaking, includes all that territory drained by the river and its affluents, large and small. The Congo, unlike many other large rivers, has no fluvial delta. It issues into the Atlantic Ocean in one united stream between Shark’s Point on the south and Banana Point on the north, with a breadth of seven miles and an unknown depth. Soundings have been obtained over 1300 feet deep. The Niger has a fluvial delta extending over 180 miles of coast line. The Nile and the Mississippi have deltas extending over a considerable breadth of coast line; but when you ask me as to what I should consider as the commercial basin of the Congo, I am bound to answer you that the main river and its most important affluents running into it from the north and south and from the northeast and northwest, east and west, southeast and southwest, constitute means by which trade ascending the river and its affluents can influence a much larger amount of territory than is comprised within the geographical basin.

“For all practical purposes the geographical basin of the Congo might be permitted to stand for the commercial basin of the Congo as well. When we begin to consider the commercial outlets from this basin of the Congo we must bear in mind that they extend, as a commercial delta to a commercial basin, from St. Paul de Loanda, to the south of the mouth of the Congo, as far north and including the Ogowai River. Whereas much of the littoral through which the commercial delta debouches is already occupied, we find that the breadth of what may be considered as the free commercial delta of the commercial basin of the Congo extends along the coast line from 1° 25´ S. latitude to near 7° 50´ S. latitude 385 geographical miles, for the following reason: At Stanley Pool, 325 miles up the Congo from the sea, we encounter fleets of trading canoes which have descended the main river from as far up as the Equator, from the affluents Mohindu, or Black River, and the Kwango, or Kwa, who wait patiently months at a time for the caravans from Loango, the Kwilu, Landana, Kabinda, Zombo, Funta, Kinzas, Kinsembo, Ambrizette and other places on the coast, which bring European goods from the coast to Stanley Pool to exchange for the produce of the upper Congo, notably ivory, rubber and camwood powder; and after a time, having exchanged their goods, march back with such produce of the upper Congo as will repay transportation to the European traders settled along the free coast line of 385 geographical miles just mentioned. These various channels of trade, formed by uninstructed barbarism, may then well be compared to a commercial delta. To define the commercial basin of the Congo by boundaries is very simple after the above remarks, and I will describe them as follows: Commencing from the Atlantic Ocean, I should follow the line of 1° 25´ S. latitude east as far as 13° 13´ longitude east of Greenwich, and along that meridian north until the water-shed of the Niger-Binué is reached, thence easterly along the water-shed separating the waters flowing into the Congo from those flowing into the Shari, and continuing east along the water-parting between the waters of the Congo and those of the Nile and southerly and easterly along the water-shed between the waters flowing into the Tanganyika and those flowing into the affluents of Lake Victoria, and still clinging to the water-shed to the east of the Tanganyika southerly until the water-parting between the waters flowing into the Zambesi and those flowing into the Congo is reached; thence along that water-shed westerly until the headwaters of the main tributary of the Kwango, or Kwa, is reached, whence the line shown runs along the left bank of the river Kwango, or Kwa, to 7° 50´ S. latitude; thence straight to the Loge River, and thence along the left bank of that river westerly to the Atlantic Ocean. By this delimitation you will have comprised the geographical or commercial basin and its present commercial delta.”

Being asked by Baron de Courcel as to what might be the estimated value of the trade in the Congo basin, Mr. Stanley replied:

“The lower Congo and the immediate free littoral make a shore line 388 miles in length. This mileage produces a present trade of £2,800,000 annually. The upper Congo is much more fertile, and, as it has a river shore of 10,000 miles, it ought to produce, if equally developed, a trade worth £70,000,000 annually. Or, if we reckon it in this manner, from the river Gambia to Loanda, along a coast line of 2900 miles in length, there are employed forty-five steamers and eighty sailing vessels every year. The Congo basin, with river banks over three times longer, ought to employ, if equally developed and equally exploited, three times that number, or say 135 steamers and 240 sailing vessels.”

In answer to Hon. M. Kasson, U. S. Minister, when asked to explain if a further extension of the free commercial territory to the eastward would not be advantageous to commerce, Mr. Stanley proceeded to state, after briefly referring to his overland journey across the continent in the years 1874, 1875, 1876 and 1877, with some of its incidents, his reasons why the free commercial territory across Central Africa should be comprised within certain limits, which he then also briefly defined. And in conclusion said:

“I respectfully submit that the more unrestricted this spacious commercial domain shall be the sooner it will be subjected to the influences of Christianity, civilization and commerce. It bears within itself all the products required by the necessities of Europe, and all the elements that might be needed for its conversion from being an unproductive waste to be a material and moral profit to humanity. Within its bosom it contains nearly 80,000 square miles of lake water, the second largest river and river-basin in the world, fertility that no equatorial or tropical regions elsewhere can match, a population I should estimate at ninety millions of people, great independent native empires, kingdoms and republics, like Uganda, Ruanda, Unyoro, and the pastoral plain country like the Masai land, gold and silver deposits, abundant copper and iron mines, valuable forests producing priceless timber, inexhaustible quantities of rubber, precious gums and spices, pepper and coffee, cattle in countless herds, and people who are amenable to the courtesies of life, provided they are protected from the attacks of the lawless freebooter and the merciless wiles of the slave traders. These facts, I respectfully submit, are sufficient to justify me in suggesting that the more comprehensible yet simple limits just described should form the boundaries of the free commercial territory of Equatorial Africa, and that free, unrestricted means of access should be secured to it, both from the east as well as the west.”

The deliberations of the Berlin Conference were finally closed on February 26th, with the result that the International Association received satisfactory recognition from the several nations represented, and the limits of the respective colonial possessions of other nations in Africa were fully defined and set forth. The protocol was duly signed by all the plenipotentiaries, and published. Mr. Stanley in speaking of the labors of the Conference and its results, said: “Two European Powers emerge out of the elaborate discussions, protracted for such a long period principally through the adroitness and skill of Baron de Courcel and the concurrence of Prince Bismarck, with enormously increased colonial possessions. France is now mistress of a West African territory noble in its dimensions, equal to the best tropic lands for its productions, rich in mineral resources, most promising for its future commercial importance. In area it covers a superficies of 257,000 square miles, equal to that of France and England combined, with access on the eastern side to 5200 miles of river navigation; on the west is a coast line nearly 800 miles, washed by the Atlantic Ocean. It contains within its borders eight spacious river basins, and throughout all its broad surface of 90,000,000 squares hectares, not one utterly destitute of worth can be found.

“Portugal issues out of the Conference with a coast line 995 English miles in length, 351,500 square statute miles in extent—a territory larger than the combined areas of France, Belgium, Holland, and Great Britain. On the lower Congo its river bank is 103 miles in length.”

The International Association in return surrendered its claims to 60,366 squares miles of territory to France, and to Portugal 45,400 square miles, for which it also received 600 square miles of the north bank between Boma and the sea, and recognition of its remaining territorial rights from two powerful neighbors, Germany and England.

The territories surrendered by the Association have been consecrated to free trade, which, along with those recognized as belonging to the Association and which were pre-ordained for such uses, and those as yet unclaimed by any Power, but still reserved for the same privileges, form a domain equal to 1,600,000 square miles in extent, throughout which most exceptional privileges have been secured by the cordial unanimity of the riveraine of the United States and European Powers for commerce.

The merchant adventurer is fenced all about with guarantees against spoliation, oppression, vexation and worry, and his Consul, the representative of his Government, is charged with the jurisdiction of his person and property. At the gateway to the free commercial realm the Commissioner, with his colleagues, will have position, and will there remain to protect his interests.

These officials constitute a court of law called the International Commission, to whom he can always appeal for redress and protection. Only on the exportation of the produce he has collected can a moderate charge be made, sufficient to remunerate the riveraine Government for its expenditure. The liquor traffic is placed under proper control, slave-trading is prohibited, the missionary is entitled to special protection, and scientific expeditions to special privileges.

The United States Government was the first to publicly acknowledge the great civilizing work of King Leopold II. by recognizing the flag of the International Association of the Congo as that of a friendly government. This flag is a blue flag with a golden star in the centre.

Mr. Stanley while at Berlin, in attendance upon the sessions of the Conference, was the recipient of very marked attentions from the nobility, and had conferred upon him the rank of honorary membership in the leading geographical and scientific societies of Germany. He lectured in some of the most prominent cities upon the subject of Central Africa, and was listened to by large and appreciative audiences, who gave him most cordial and generous receptions.