CHAPTER II.

L'ETAT INDÉPENDANT DU CONGO.

THE CONGO STATE-DISCOVERY OF THE CONGO-TUCKEY'S EXPEDITION, 1816-LIVINGSTONE DISCOVERS THE CHAMBEZI-CAMERON AT NYANGWÉ-STANLEY'S EXPLORATIONS-THE ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONALE AFRICAINE" - STANLEY'S TWO EXPEDITIONS, 1879, 1884-SIR FREDERICK GOLDSMID AT VIVI-SIR FRANCIS DE WINTON'S GOVERNORSHIP-CHANGES IN THE ADMINISTRATION -CONSTITUTION OF THE CONGO STATE-GENERAL SURVEY OF THE RIVER.

THE Congo river, the raison d'être of the Congo Free State, was, until the beginning of the present decade, nothing more than a name to the majority of Europeans. Few, except members of geographical societies, or others who had some special interest in the subject of African exploration, could have definitely stated the course of the great river. When Stanley returned from one of the most extraordinary explorations on record-the tracing of this river to the sea in 1877-the Congo was, of course, in every one's mouth; but it was, like all other sensations, gradually being forgotten, when the general interest was suddenly revived by the

news that the International African Association, under the presidency of Léopold II., King of the Belgians, had taken the country under its fostering care, and was going to-ah! that was the question. What was the Association going to do? Everything was at first kept so quiet, that Stanley had already been some time on the Congo before it was generally known that he had gone to found a Free State in Africa. Then ensued another brief period of excitement about the Congo, which, however, soon died away; and for two or three years it was seldom noticed by the papers, except when some new tributary was discovered, or some event of extraordinary interest occurred. It was during this period that a friend of the author's presented himself at the Bureau de l'Etat Indépendant du Congo, at Brussels, and offered his services as an engineer, without even knowing where the Congo was. Finding, on his arrival at Boma, that he was appointed to a steamer on the upper river, and would have to march some 235 miles before reaching his destination, he would gladly have returned home again!

Once more-in 1886-attention was drawn to the Congo by the news that it was one of several routes suggested for the expedition sent out to the relief of Emin Pasha; and the interest was kept up when it became known that Stanley had finally decided to go that way.

SOURCE OF THE CONGO.

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The mouth of the Congo was discovered in 1485 by Diego Cão, who, by setting up a pillar on the southern side of the estuary, took possession in the name of Portugal. The Portuguese have, in recent times, made this fact the pretext for claiming the whole of the coast between St Paul de Loanda and the Congo mouth,-though they had never founded any settlements in the northern part of this region.

For over three hundred years the river's course above the falls of Yellala was utterly unknown. It was supposed to come from the north-east: there was even a theory-seriously supported as lately as 1816—that it was the lower course of the Niger. Tuckey's expedition in that year did little or nothing towards solving the problem, and its disastrous results discouraged further attempts in that direction.

In 1867, Livingstone, in the course of his last exploring journey, discovered a large river flowing westwards, called by the natives Chambezi, and said to rise in the Chibalé Hills, in the country of Mambwé. Tracing the downward course of this river, he found that it entered Lake Bangweolo, and issuing thence, flowed north under the name of Luapula, and passed through another lake, Moero. Having ascertained this by personal observation, he learned from native report that, still flowing northward, it was joined by an important tributary, the Lualaba, by which name-according to the curious

African fashion of transferring to the main stream the name of every affluent which enters it-it was thenceforth known. He last saw this river at Nyangwé in Manyema, whence-as is well known— he was forced to return to Ujiji. Convinced that he had met with the upper course of the Nile (though, as his diary shows, he was sometimes assailed by doubts and suspicions that it might, after all, turn out to be the Congo), he once more, after his meeting with Stanley in 1872, left Ujiji, with the intention of reaching Katanga by a circuitous course round the south of Lake Bangweolo, striking its head-waters, and following it down to the sea.

But it was on this journey that death overtook him, at Chitambo's, in Ilala.

Cameron, in his expedition across Africa, reached the Lualaba near Nyangwé, August 2d, 1874, but had to relinquish his plan of following it down, owing to the impossibility of obtaining canoes. Finding the altitude of this river at Nyangwé to be less than that of the Nile at Gondokoro, he came to the conclusion that, as it could not possibly be the Nile, it must be the Congo.

The expedition which finally determined the course of the great river left England August 15th, 1874, under the command of H. M. Stanley. The detailed history of this exploration may be read in Through the Dark Continent.' On his return home, in January 1878, Stanley was at once brought

COMITÉ D'ETUDES DU HAUT CONGO.

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into communication with the King of the Belgians regarding the further opening up of the regions whose existence was thus, as it were, for the first time revealed to Europe.

It will be necessary here to state that, some time previously, an association had been formed, under the auspices of King Léopold II., for the purpose of developing the hitherto almost untouched resources of Africa, and finding new markets for European produce in that little-known continent. This was known as the "Association Internationale Africaine." The news of Stanley's successful expedition turned the attention of this body to the Congo basin, and the best means of gaining access to it. In November 1878, Stanley was invited to Brussels, to furnish information on the subject to the representatives of the Association. It was then resolved to raise a fund for the equipment of an exploring expedition, which was to obtain accurate statistics with regard to the resources of the country; to build three stations on ground leased or purchased from the natives; to launch a steamer on the upper river, and to keep open a communication between the latter and the sea. The subscribers to this fund were called the Comité d'Etudes du Haut Congo, and included in their number representatives of the English, French, Belgian, Dutch, and American nations.

Stanley, on being intrusted with the direction of