"Four hours and a half brought us to a place called Sa.... On the way
    we passed two villages with more people than we had seen for days.
    There may have been 120. Close to the post was another small village.
    We decided to stay there the rest of the day. Three chiefs came in
    with all the adult members of their people, and altogether there were
    not 300. And this where, not more than six or seven years ago, there
    were at least 3,000! It made one's heart heavy to listen to the tales
    of bloodshed and cruelty. And it all seemed so foolish. To kill the
    people off in the wholesale way in which it has been done in this Lake
    district, because they would not bring in a sufficient quantity of
    rubber to satisfy the white man--and now here is an empty country and
    a very much diminished output of rubber as the inevitable
    consequence...."

Finally Mr. Scrivener emerged in the neighbourhood of a "big State
station." He was hospitably received, and had many chats with his host,
who seems to have been a very decent sort of man, doing his best under
very trying circumstances. His predecessor had worked incalculable havoc
in the country, and the present occupant of the post was endeavouring to
carry out the duties assigned to him (those duties consisting, as usual,
of orders to get all the rubber possible out of the people) with as much
humanity as the nature of the task permitted. In this he, no doubt, did
what was possible as one whom the system had not yet degraded to its
level--one of the rare few: and one cannot wonder that they should be
rare, seeing the nature of the bonds, and the helplessness in which an
official is placed who does not carry out the full desires of his
superiors. But he had only succeeded in getting himself into trouble with
the district commander in consequence. He showed Mr. Scrivener a letter
from the latter upbraiding him for not using more vigorous means, telling
him to talk less and shoot more, and reprimanding him for not killing more
than one man in a district under his care where there was a little
trouble.

Mr. Scrivener had the opportunity while at this State post, under the
_régime_ of a man who was endeavouring to be as humane as his instructions
allowed, to actually see the process whereby the secret revenues of the
"Crown Domain" are obtained. He says:

    "Everything was on a military basis, but, so far as I could see, the
    one and only reason for it all was rubber. It was the theme of every
    conversation, and it was evident that the only way to please one's
    superiors was to increase the output somehow. I saw a few men come in,
    and the frightened look even now on their faces tells only too
    eloquently of the awful time they have passed through. As I saw it
    brought in, each man had a little basket, containing, say, four or
    five pounds of rubber. This was emptied into a larger basket and
    weighed, and being found sufficient, each man was given a cupful of
    coarse salt, and to some of the head-men a fathom of calico.... I
    heard from the white men and some of the soldiers some most gruesome
    stories. The former white man (I feel ashamed of my colour every time
    I think of him) would stand at the door of the store to receive the
    rubber from the poor trembling wretches, who after, in some cases,
    weeks of privation in the forest, had ventured in with what they had
    been able to collect. A man bringing rather under the proper amount,
    the white man flies into a rage, and seizing a rifle from one of the
    guards, shoots him dead on the spot. Very rarely did rubber come in
    but one or more were shot in that way at the door of the store--'to
    make the survivors bring more next time.' Men who had tried to run
    from the country and had been caught, were brought to the station and
    made to stand one behind the other, and an Albini bullet sent through
    them. 'A pity to waste cartridges on such wretches.' Only the roads to
    and fro from the various posts are kept open, and large tracts of
    country are abandoned to the wild beasts. The white man himself told
    me that you could walk on for five days in one direction, and not see
    a single village or a single human being. And this where formerly
    there was a big tribe!...

    "As one by one the surviving relatives of my men arrived, some
    affecting scenes were enacted. There was no falling on necks and
    weeping, but very genuine joy was shown and tears were shed as the
    losses death had made were told. How they shook hands and snapped
    their fingers! What expressions of surprise--the wide-opened mouth
    covered with the open hand to make its evidence of wonder the more
    apparent.... So far as the State post was concerned, it was in a very
    dilapidated condition.... On three sides of the usual huge quadrangle
    there were abundant signs of a former population, but we only found
    three villages--bigger, indeed, than any we had seen before, but sadly
    diminished from what had been but recently the condition of the
    place.... Soon we began talking, and, without any encouragement on my
    part, they began the tales I had become so accustomed to. They were
    living in peace and quietness when the white men came in from the Lake
    with all sorts of requests to do this and to do that, and they thought
    it meant slavery. So they attempted to keep the white men out of their
    country, but without avail. The rifles were too much for them. So they
    submitted, and made up their minds to do the best they could under the
    altered circumstances. First came the command to build houses for the
    soldiers, and this was done without a murmur. Then they had to feed
    the soldiers, and all the men and women--hangers-on--who accompanied
    them.

    "Then they were told to bring in rubber. This was quite a new thing
    for them to do. There was rubber in the forest several days away from
    their home, but that it was worth anything was news to them. A small
    reward was offered, and a rush was made for the rubber; 'What strange
    white men, to give us cloth and beads for the sap of a wild vine.'
    They rejoiced in what they thought was their good fortune. But soon
    the reward was reduced until they were told to bring in the rubber for
    nothing. To this they tried to demur, but to their great surprise
    several were shot by the soldiers, and the rest were told, with many
    curses and blows, to go at once or more would be killed. Terrified,
    they began to prepare their food for the fortnight's absence from the
    village, which the collection of the rubber entailed. The soldiers
    discovered them sitting about. 'What, not gone yet?' Bang! bang! bang!
    bang! And down fell one and another, dead, in the midst of wives and
    companions. There is a terrible wail, and an attempt made to prepare
    the dead for burial, but this is not allowed. All must go at once to
    the forest. And off the poor wretches had to go, without even their
    tinderboxes to make fires. Many died in the forests from exposure and
    hunger, and still more from the rifles of the ferocious soldiers in
    charge of the post. In spite of all their efforts, the amount fell
    off, and more and more were killed....

    "I was shown around the place, and the sites of former big chiefs'
    settlements were pointed out. A careful estimate made the population,
    of say, seven years ago, to be 2,000 people in and about the post,
    within a radius of, say a quarter of a mile. All told, they would not
    muster 200 now, and there is so much sadness and gloom that they are
    fast decreasing.... Lying about in the grass, within a few yards of
    the house I was occupying, were numbers of human bones, in some cases
    complete skeletons. I counted thirty-six skulls, and saw many sets of
    bones from which the skulls were missing. I called one of the men, and
    asked the meaning of it. 'When the rubber palaver began,' said he,
    'the soldiers shot so many we grew tired of burying, and very often we
    were not allowed to bury, and so just dragged the bodies out into the
    grass and left them. There are hundreds all round if you would like to
    see them.' But I had seen more than enough, and was sickened by the
    stories that came from men and women alike of the awful time they had
    passed through. The Bulgarian atrocities might be considered as
    mildness itself when compared with what has been done here....

    "In due course we reached Ibali. There was hardly a sound building in
    the place.... Why such dilapidation? The Commandant away for a trip
    likely to extend into three months, the sub-lieutenant away in another
    direction on a punitive expedition. In other words, the station must
    be neglected, and rubber-hunting carried out with all vigour. I stayed
    here two days, and the one thing that impressed itself upon me was the
    collection of rubber. I saw long files of men come, as at Mbongo, with
    their little baskets under their arms, saw them paid their milk-tin
    full of salt, and the two yards of calico flung to the head-men; saw
    their trembling timidity, and, in fact, a great deal more, to prove
    the state of terrorism that exists, and the virtual slavery in which
    the people are held....

    "So much for the journey to the Lake. It has enlarged my knowledge of
    the country, and also, alas! my knowledge of the awful deeds enacted
    in the mad haste of men to get rich. So far as I know, I am the first
    white man to go into the _Domaine Privé_ of the King, other than the
    employees of the State. I expect there will be wrath in some quarters,
    but that cannot be helped."

So far Mr. Scrivener. But perhaps the reader may think that there really
was a missionary plot to decry the Free State. Let us have some
travellers, then. Here is Mr. Grogan from his "Cape to Cairo":

    "The people were terrorized and were living in marshes." This was on
    the British frontier. "The Belgians have crossed the frontier,
    descended into the valley, shot down large numbers of natives, British
    subjects, driven off the young women and cattle, and actually tied up
    and burned the old women. I do not make these statements without
    having gone into the matter. I remarked on the absence of women and
    the reason was given. It was on further inquiry that I was assured by
    the natives that white men had been present when the old women had
    been burned.... They even described to me the personal appearance of
    the white officers with the troops.... The wretched people came to me
    and asked me why the British had deserted them."

Further on he says:

    "Every village had been burned to the ground, and as I fled from the
    country I saw skeletons, skeletons everywhere. And such postures! What
    tales of horror they told."

Just a word in conclusion from another witness, Mr. Herbert Frost:

    "The power of an armed soldier among enslaved people is absolutely
    paramount. By chief or child, every command, wish, or whim of the
    soldier must be obeyed or gratified. At his command with rifle ready a
    man will ... outrage his own sister, give to his persecutor the wife
    he loves most of all, say or do anything, indeed, to save his life.
    The woes and sorrows of the race whom King Leopold has enslaved have
    not decreased, for his Commissaire officers and agents have introduced
    and maintain a system of deviltry hitherto undreamed of by his
    victims."

Does this all seem horrible? But in the face of it is there not something
more horrible in a sentence of this kind?--

    "Our only programme, I am anxious to repeat, is the work of moral and
    material regeneration, and we must do this among a population whose
    degeneration in its inherited conditions it is difficult to measure.
    The many horrors and atrocities which disgrace humanity give way
    little by little before our intervention."

It is King Leopold who speaks.

VII

CONSUL ROGER CASEMENT'S REPORT

Up to this time the published reports as to the black doings of King
Leopold and his men were, with the exception of a guarded document from
Consul Pickersgill, in 1898, entirely from private individuals. No doubt
there were official reports but the Government withheld them. In 1904,
this policy of reticence was abandoned, and the historic report of Consul
Roger Casement confirmed, and in some ways amplified, all that had reached
Europe from other sources.

A word or two as to Mr. Casement's own personality and qualifications may
not be amiss, since both were attacked by his Belgian detractors. He is a
tried and experienced public servant, who has had exceptional
opportunities of knowing Africa and the natives. He entered the Consular
Service in 1892, served on the Niger till 1895, was Consul at Delagoa Bay
to 1898, and was finally transferred to the Congo. Personally, he is a man
of the highest character, truthful, unselfish--one who is deeply respected
by all who know him. His experience, which deals with the Crown Domain
districts in the year 1903, covers some sixty-two pages, to be read in
full in "White Book, Africa, No. 1, 1904." I will not apologize for the
length of the extracts, as this, the first official exposure, was an
historical document and from its publication we mark the first step in
that train of events which is surely destined to remove the Congo State
from hands which have proved so unworthy, and to place it in conditions
which shall no longer be a disgrace to European civilization. It may be
remarked before beginning that at some of these conversations with the
natives Mr. Scrivener was present, and that he corroborates the account
given by the Consul.

The beginning of Mr. Casement's report shows how willing he was to give
praise where praise was possible, and to say all that could be said for
the Administration. He talks of "energetic European intervention," and
adds, "that very much of this intervention has been called for no one who
formerly knew the Upper Congo could doubt." "Admirably built and admirably
kept stations greet the traveller at many points." "To-day the railway
works most efficiently." He attributes sleeping sickness as "one cause of
the seemingly wholesale diminution of human life which I everywhere
observed in the regions re-visited; a prominent place must be assigned to
this malady. The natives certainly attribute their alarming death-rate to
this as one of the inducing causes, although they attribute, and I think
principally, their rapid decrease in numbers to other causes as well."

The Government work shop "was brightness, care, order, and activity, and
it was impossible not to admire and commend the industry which had created
and maintained in constant working order this useful establishment."

These are not the words of a critic who has started with a prejudiced mind
or the desire to make out a case.

In the lower reaches of the river above Stanley Pool Casement found no
gross ill-usage. The natives were hopeless and listless, being debarred
from trade and heavily taxed in food, fish and other produce. It was not
until he began to approach the cursed rubber zones that terrible things
began to dawn upon him. Casement had travelled in 1887 in the Congo, and
was surprised to note the timidity of the natives. Soon he had his
explanation:

    "At one of these village, S----, after confidence had been restored
    and the fugitives had been induced to come in from the surrounding
    forest, where they had hidden themselves, I saw women coming back,
    carrying their babies, their household utensils, and even the food
    they had hastily snatched up, up to a late hour of the evening.
    Meeting some of these returning women in one of the fields I asked
    them why they had run away at my approach, and they said, smiling, 'We
    thought you were Bula Matadi' (_i. e._, 'men of the Government'). Fear
    of this kind was formerly unknown on the Upper Congo; and in much more
    out-of-the-way places visited many years ago the people flocked from
    all sides to greet a white stranger. But to-day the apparition of a
    white man's steamer evidently gave the signal for instant flight."

    "... Men, he said, still came to him whose hands had been cut off by
    the Government soldiers during those evil days, and he said there were
    still many victims of this species of mutilation in the surrounding
    country. Two cases of the kind came to my actual notice while I was in
    the lake. One, a young man, both of whose hands had been beaten off
    with the butt-ends of rifles against a tree, the other a young lad of
    eleven or twelve years of age, whose right hand was cut off at the
    wrist. This boy described the circumstances of his mutilation, and, in
    answer to my inquiry, said that although wounded at the time he was
    perfectly sensible of the severing of his wrist, but lay still fearing
    that if he moved he would be killed. In both these cases the
    Government soldiers had been accompanied by white officers whose names
    were given to me. Of six natives (one a girl, three little boys, one
    youth, and one old woman) who had been mutilated in this way during
    the rubber _régime_, all except one were dead at the date of my visit.
    The old woman had died at the beginning of this year, and her niece
    described to me how the act of mutilation in her case had been
    accomplished."

The fines inflicted upon villages for trifling offences were such as to
produce the results here described:

    "The officer had then imposed as further punishment a fine of 55,000
    brass rods (2,750 fr.)--£110. This sum they had been forced to pay,
    and as they had no other means of raising so large a sum they had,
    many of them, been compelled to sell their children and their wives. I
    saw no live-stock of any kind in W---- save a very few fowls--possibly
    under a dozen--and it seemed, indeed, not unlikely that, as these
    people asserted, they had great difficulty in always getting their
    supplies ready. A father and mother stepped out and said that they had
    been forced to sell their son, a little boy called F, for 1,000 rods
    to meet their share of the fine. A widow came and declared that she
    had been forced, in order to meet her share of the fine, to sell her
    daughter G, a little girl whom I judged from her description to be
    about ten years of age. She had been sold to a man in Y----, who was
    named, for 1,000 rods, which had then gone to make up the fine."

The natives were broken in spirit by the treatment:

    "One of them--a strong, indeed, a splendid-looking man--broke down and
    wept, saying that their lives were useless to them, and that they knew
    of no means of escape from the troubles which were gathering around
    them. I could only assure these people that their obvious course to
    obtain relief was by appeal to their own constituted authorities, and
    that if their circumstances were clearly understood by those
    responsible for these fines I trusted and believed some satisfaction
    would be forthcoming."

These fines, it may be added, were absolutely illegal. It was the officer,
not the poor, harried natives, who had broken the law.

    "These fines, it should be borne in mind, are illegally imposed; they
    are not 'fines of Court'; are not pronounced after any judicial
    hearing, or for any proved offence against the law, but are quite
    arbitrarily levied according to the whim or ill-will of the executive
    officers of the district, and their collection, as well as their
    imposition, involves continuous breaches of the Congolese laws. They
    do not, moreover, figure in the account of public revenues in the
    Congo 'Budgets'; they are not paid into the public purse of the
    country, but are spent on the needs of the station or military camp of
    the officer imposing them, just as seems good to this official."

Here is an illustrative anecdote:

    "One of the largest Congo Concession Companies had, when I was on the
    Upper River, addressed a request to its Directors in Europe for a
    further supply of ball-cartridge. The Directors had met this demand by
    asking what had become of the 72,000 cartridges shipped some three
    years ago, to which a reply was sent to the effect that these had all
    been used in the production of india-rubber. I did not see this
    correspondence, and cannot vouch for the truth of the statement; but
    the officer who informed me that it had passed before his own eyes was
    one of the highest standing in the interior."

Another witness showed the exact ratio between cartridges and rubber:

    "'The S. A. B. on the Bussira, with 150 guns, get only ten tons
    (rubber) a month; we, the State, at Momboyo, with 130 guns, get
    thirteen tons per month.' 'So you count by guns?' I asked him.
    'Partout,' M. P. said. 'Each time the corporal goes out to get rubber
    cartridges are given to him. He must bring back all not used; and for
    every one used, he must bring back a right hand.' M. P. told me that
    sometimes they shot a cartridge at an animal in hunting; they then cut
    off a hand from a living man. As to the extent to which this is
    carried on, he informed me that in six months they, the State, on the
    Momboyo River, had used 6,000 cartridges, which means that 6,000
    people are killed or mutilated. It means more than 6,000 for the
    people have told me repeatedly that the soldiers kill children with
    the butt of their guns."

That the statement about the cutting off of living hands is correct is
amply proved by the Kodak. I have photographs of at least twenty such
mutilated Negroes in my own possession.

Here is a copy of a dispatch from an official quoted in its naked
frankness:

    "Le Chef Ngulu de Wangata est envoyé dans la Maringa, pour m'y acheter
    des esclaves. Prière a MM. les agents de l'A.B.I.R. de bien vouloir me
    signaler les méfaits que celui-ci pourrait commettre en route.

        "Le Capitaine-Commandant,
            (Signé) "SARRAZZYN."

    "_Colquilhatville, le 1er Mai, 1896._"

Pretty good for the State which boasts that it has put down the slave
trade.

There is a passage showing the working of the rubber system which is so
clear and authoritative that I transcribe it in full:

    "I went to the homes of these men some miles away and found out their
    circumstances. To get the rubber they had first to go fully a two
    days' journey from their homes, leaving their wives, and being absent
    for from five to six days. They were seen to the forest limits under
    guard, and if not back by the sixth day trouble was likely to ensue.
    To get the rubber in the forests--which, generally speaking, are very
    swampy--involves much fatigue and often fruitless searching for a
    well-flowing vine. As the area of supply diminishes, moreover, the
    demand for rubber constantly increases. Some little time back I
    learned the Bongandanga district supplied seven tons of rubber a
    month, a quantity which it was hoped would shortly be increased to ten
    tons. The quantity of rubber brought by the three men in question
    would have represented, probably, for the three of them certainly not
    less than seven kilog. of pure rubber. That would be a very safe
    estimate, and at an average of 7fr. per kilog. they might be said to
    have brought in £2 worth of rubber. In return for this labour, or
    imposition, they had received goods which cost certainly under 1_s._,
    and whose local valuation came to 45 rods (1_s._ 10_d._). As this
    process repeats itself twenty-six times a year, it will be seen that
    they would have yielded £52 in kind at the end of the year to the
    local factory, and would have received in return some 24_s._ or 25_s._
    worth of goods, which had a market value on the spot of £2 7_s._ 8_d._
    In addition to these formal payments they were liable at times to be
    dealt with in another manner, for should their work, which might have
    been just as hard, have proved less profitable in its yield of rubber,
    the local prison would have seen them. The people everywhere assured
    me that they were not happy under this system, and it was apparent to
    a callous eye that in this they spoke the strict truth."

Again I insert a passage to show that Casement was by no means an
ill-natured critic:

    "It is only right to say that the present agent of the A.B.I.R.
    Society I met at Bongandanga seemed to me to try, in very difficult
    and embarrassing circumstances, to minimize as far as possible, and
    within the limits of his duties, the evils of the system I there
    observed at work."

Speaking of the Mongalla massacres--those in which Lothaire was
implicated--he quotes from the judgment of the Court of Appeal:

    "That it is just to take into account that, by the correspondence
    produced in the case, the chiefs of the Concession Company have, if
    not by formal orders, at least by their example and their tolerance,
    induced their agents to take no account whatever of the rights,
    property, and lives of the natives; to use the arms and the soldiers
    which should have served for their defence and the maintenance of
    order to force the natives to furnish them with produce and to work
    for the Company, as also to pursue as rebels and outlaws those who
    sought to escape from the requisitions imposed upon them.... That,
    above all, the fact that the arrest of women and their detention, to
    compel the villages to furnish both produce and workmen, was tolerated
    and admitted even by certain of the administrative authorities of the
    region."

Yet another example of the workings of the system:

    "In the morning, when about to start for K----, many people from the
    surrounding country came in to see me. They brought with them three
    individuals who had been shockingly wounded by gun fire, two men and a
    very small boy, not more than six years of age, and a fourth--a boy
    child of six or seven--whose right hand was cut off at the wrist. One
    of the men, who had been shot through the arm, declared that he was Y
    of L----, a village situated some miles away. He declared that he had
    been shot as I saw under the following circumstances: the soldiers had
    entered his town, he alleged, to enforce the due fulfilment of the
    rubber tax due by the community. These men had tied him up and said
    that unless he paid 1,000 brass rods to them they would shoot him.
    Having no rods to give them they had shot him through the arm and had
    left him."

I may say that among my photographs are several with shattered arms who
have been treated in this fashion.

This is how the natives were treated when they complained to the white
man:

    "In addition, fifty women are required each morning to go to the
    factory and work there all day. They complained that the remuneration
    given for these services was most inadequate, and that they were
    continually beaten. When I asked the Chief W why he had not gone to D
    F to complain if the sentries beat him or his people, opening his
    mouth he pointed to one of the teeth which was just dropping out, and
    said: 'That is what I got from the D F four days ago when I went to
    tell him what I now say to you.' He added that he was frequently
    beaten, along with others of his people, by the white man."

One sentry was taken almost red-handed by Mr. Casement:

    "After some little delay a boy of about fifteen years of age appeared,
    whose left arm was wrapped up in a dirty rag. Removing this, I found
    the left hand had been hacked off by the wrist, and that a shot hole
    appeared in the fleshy part of the forearm. The boy, who gave his name
    as I I, in answer to my inquiry, said that a sentry of the La Lulanga
    Company now in the town had cut off his hand. I proceeded to look for
    this man, who at first could not be found, the natives to a
    considerable number gathering behind me as I walked through the town.
    After some delay the sentry appeared, carrying a cap-gun. The boy,
    whom I placed before him, then accused him to his face of having
    mutilated him. The men of the town, who were questioned in
    succession, corroborated the boy's statement. The sentry, who gave his
    name as K K, could make no answer to the charge. He met it by vaguely
    saying some other sentry of the Company had mutilated I I; his
    predecessor, he said, had cut off several hands, and probably this was
    one of the victims. The natives around said that there were two other
    sentries at present in the town, who were not so bad as K K, but that
    he was a villain. As the evidence against him was perfectly clear, man
    after man standing out and declaring he had seen the act committed, I
    informed him and the people present that I should appeal to the local
    authorities for his immediate arrest and trial."

The following extract must be my final quotation from Consul Casement's
report:

    "I asked then how this tax was imposed. One of them, who had been
    hammering out an iron neck-collar on my arrival, spoke first. He said:

    "'I am N N. These other two beside me are O O and P P, all of us
    Y----. From our country each village had to take twenty loads of
    rubber. These loads were big: they were as big as this....' (Producing
    an empty basket which came nearly up to the handle of my
    walking-stick.) 'That was the first size. We had to fill that up, but
    as rubber got scarcer the white man reduced the amount. We had to take
    these loads in four times a month.'

    "_Q._ 'How much pay did you get for this?'

    "_A._ (Entire audience.) 'We got no pay! We got nothing!'

    "And then N N, whom I asked again, said:

    "'Our village got cloth and a little salt, but not the people who did
    the work. Our chiefs eat up the cloth; the workers got nothing. The
    pay was a fathom of cloth and a little salt for every big basketful,
    but it was given to the chief, never to the men. It used to take ten
    days to get the twenty baskets of rubber--we were always in the forest
    and then when we were late we were killed. We had to go further and
    further into the forest to find the rubber vines, to go without food,
    and our women had to give up cultivating the fields and gardens. Then
    we starved. Wild beasts--the leopards--killed some of us when we were
    working away in the forest, and others got lost or died from exposure
    and starvation, and we begged the white man to leave us alone, saying
    we could get no more rubber, but the white men and their soldiers
    said: "Go! You are only beasts yourselves; you are nyama (meat)." We
    tried, always going further into the forest, and when we failed and
    our rubber was short, the soldiers came to our towns and killed us.
    Many were shot, some had their ears cut off: others were tied up with
    ropes around their necks and bodies and taken away. The white men
    sometimes at the posts did not know of the bad things the soldiers did
    to us, but it was the white men who sent the soldiers to punish us for
    not bringing in enough rubber.'

    "Here P P took up the tale from N N:

    "'We said to the white men, "We are not enough people now to do what
    you want us. Our country has not many people in it and we are dying
    fast. We are killed by the work you make us do, by the stoppage of our
    plantations, and the breaking up of our homes." The white man looked
    at us and said: "There are lots of people in Mputu"' (Europe, the
    white man's country). '"If there are lots of people in the white man's
    country there must be many people in the black man's country." The
    white man who said this was the chief white man at F F----; his name
    was A B; he was a very bad man. Other white men of Bula Matadi who had
    been bad and wicked were B C, C D, and D E.' 'These had killed us
    often, and killed us by their own hands as well as by their soldiers.
    Some white men were good. These were E F, F G, G H, H I, I K, K L.'

    "These ones told them to stay in their homes and did not hunt and
    chase them as the others had done, but after what they had suffered
    they did not trust more any one's word, and they had fled from their
    country and were now going to stay here, far from their homes, in this
    country where there was no rubber.

    "_Q._ 'How long is it since you left your homes, since the big trouble
    you speak of?'

    "_A._ 'It lasted for three full seasons, and it is now four seasons
    since we fled and came into the K---- country.'

    "_Q._ 'How many days is it from N---- to your own country?'

    "_A._ 'Six days of quick marching. We fled because we could not endure
    the things done to us. Our chiefs were hanged, and we were killed and
    starved and worked beyond endurance to get rubber.'

    "_Q._ 'How do you know it was the white men themselves who ordered
    these cruel things to be done to you? These things must have been done
    without the white man's knowledge by the black soldiers.'

    "_A._ (P P): 'The white men told their soldiers: "You kill only women;
    you cannot kill men. You must prove that you kill men." So then the
    soldiers when they killed us' (here he stopped and hesitated, and then
    pointing to the private parts of my bulldog--it was lying asleep at my
    feet), he said: 'then they cut off those things and took them to the
    white men, who said: "It is true, you have killed men."'

    "_Q._ 'You mean to tell me that any white man ordered your bodies to
    be mutilated like that, and those parts of you carried to him?'

    "P P, O O, and all (shouting): 'Yes! many white men. D E did it.'

    "_Q._ 'You say this is true? Were many of you so treated after being
    shot?'

    "All (shouting out): 'Nkoto! Nkoto!' (Very many! Very many!)

    "There was no doubt that these people were not inventing. Their
    vehemence, their flashing eyes, their excitement, was not simulated.
    Doubtless they exaggerated the numbers, but they were clearly telling
    what they knew and loathed. I was told that they often became so
    furious at the recollection of what had been done to them that they
    lost control over themselves. One of the men before me was getting
    into this state now."

Such is the story--or a very small portion of it--which His Majesty's
Consul conveyed to His Majesty's Government as to the condition of those
natives, who, "in the name of Almighty God," we had pledged ourselves to
defend!

The same damning White Book contained a brief account of Lord Cromer's
experience upon the Upper Nile in the Lado district. He notes that for
eighty miles the side of the river which is British territory was crowded
with native villages, the inhabitants of which ran along the bank calling
to the steamer. The other bank (Congolese territory), was a deserted
wilderness. The "Tuquoque" argument which King Leopold's henchmen are so
fond of advancing will find it hard to reconcile the difference. Lord
Cromer ends his report:

    "It appears to me that the facts which I have stated above afford
    amply sufficient evidence of the spirit which animates the Belgian
    Administration, if, indeed, Administration it can be called. The
    Government, so far as I could judge, is conducted almost exclusively
    on commercial principles, and, even judged by that standard, it would
    appear that those principles are somewhat short-sighted."

In the same White Book which contains these documents there is printed the
Congolese defence drawn up by M. de Cuvelier. The defence consists in
simply ignoring all the definite facts laid before the public, and in
making such statements as that the British have themselves made war upon
natives, as if there were no distinction between war and massacre, and
that the British have put a poll-tax upon natives, which, if it be
reasonable in amount, is a perfectly just proceeding adopted by all
Colonial nations. Let the possessors of the Free State use this system,
and at the same time restore the freedom of trade by throwing open the
country to all, and returning to the natives that land and produce which
has been taken from them. When they have done this--and punished the
guilty--there will be an end of anti-Congo agitation. Beyond this, a large
part (nearly half) of the Congo Reply (_notes sur le rapport de Mr.
Casement, de Dec. 11, 1903_), is taken up by trying to show that in one
case of mutilation the injuries were, in truth, inflicted by a wild boar.
There must be many wild boars in Congo land, and their habits are of a
singular nature. It is not in the Congo that these boars are bred.

VIII

KING LEOPOLD'S COMMISSION AND ITS REPORT

The immediate effect of the publication as a State paper of the general
comment of Lord Cromer, and of the definite accusations of Consul
Casement, was a demand both in Belgium and in England for an official
inquiry. Lord Landsdowne stipulated that this inquiry should be impartial
and thorough. It was also suggested by the British Government that it
should be international in character, and separated from the local
administration. Very grudgingly and under constant pressure the King
appointed a Commission, but whittled down its powers to such a point that
its proceedings must lose all utility. Such were the terms that they
provoked remonstrance from men like M. A. J. Wauters, the Belgian
historian of the Congo Free State, who protested in the _Mouvement
Géographique_ (August 7th, 1904) that such a body could serve no useful
end. Finally, their functions were slightly increased, but they possessed
no punitive powers and were hampered in every direction by the terms of
their reference.

The _personnel_ of the Commission was worthy of the importance of the
inquiry. M. Janssens, a well-known jurist of Belgium, was the president.
He impressed all who came in contact with him as a man of upright and
sympathetic character. Baron Nisco's appointment was open to criticism, as
he was himself a Congo functionary, but save for that fact there was no
complaint to make against him. Dr. Schumacher, a distinguished Swiss
lawyer, was the third Commissioner. The English Government applied to have
a representative upon the tribunal, and with true Congo subtlety the
request was granted after the three judges had reached the Congo. The
Englishman, Mr. Mackie, hurried out, but was only in time to attend the
last three sittings, which were held in the lower part of the river, far
from the notorious rubber agents. It is worth noting that on his arrival
he applied for the minutes of the previous meetings and that his
application was refused. In Belgium the evidence of the Commission has
never been published, and it is safe to say that it never will be.
Fortunately the Congo missionaries took copious notes of the proceedings
and of the testimony which came immediately under their own notice. It is
from their evidence that I draw these accounts. If the Congo authorities
contest the accuracy of those accounts, then let them confute them forever
and put their accusers to confusion by producing the actual minutes which
they hold.

The first sitting of any length of which there are records is that at
Bolobo, and extended from November 5th to 12th, 1904. The veteran, Mr.
Grenfell, gave evidence at this sitting, and it is useful to summarize his
views as he was one of the men who held out longest against the
condemnation of King Leopold, and because his early utterances have been
quoted as if he were a supporter of the system. He expressed to the
Commissioners his disappointment at the failure of the Congo Government to
realize the promises with which it inaugurated its career. He declared he
could no longer wear the decorations which he had received from the
Sovereign of the Congo State. He gave it as his opinion that the ills the
country was suffering from were due to the haste of a few men to get rich,
and to the absence of anything like a serious attempt to properly police
the country in the interests of the people. He instanced the few judicial
officers, and the virtual impossibility of a native obtaining justice,
owing to witnesses being compelled to travel long distances, either to
Leopoldville or Boma. Mr. Grenfell spoke out emphatically against the
administrative _régime_ on the Upper River, so far as it had been brought
under his notice.

Mr. Scrivener, a gentleman who had been twenty-three years on the Congo,
was the next witness. His evidence was largely the same as the "Diary"
from which I have already quoted, concerning the condition of the Crown
Domain. Many witnesses were examined. "How do you know the names of the
men murdered?" a lad was asked. "One of them was my father," was the
dramatic reply. "Men of stone," wrote Mr. Scrivener, "would be moved by
the stories that are unfolded as the Commission probes this awful history
of rubber collection."

Mr. Gilchrist, another missionary, was a new witness. His testimony was
concerned with the State Domain and the Concessionnaire area, principally
on the Lulanga River. He said:

    "I also told them what we had seen on the Ikelemba, of the signs of
    desolation in all the districts, of the heartrending stories the
    people told us, of the butcheries wrought by the various white men of
    the State and companies who had, from time to time, been stationed
    there among whom a few names were notorious. I pointed out to them the
    fact that the basin of the Ikelemba was supposed to be free-trade
    territory also, but that everywhere the people of the various
    districts were compelled to serve the companies of these respective
    districts, in rubber, gum copal or food. At one out-of-the-way place
    where we were on the south bank, two men arrived just as we were
    leaving, with their bodies covered with marks of the chicotte, which
    they had just received from the trader of Bosci because their quantity
    had been short. I said to the Commissaire, given favourable
    conditions, particularly freedom, there would soon be a large
    population in these interior towns, the Ngombe and Mongo."

In answer to questions the following facts were solicited:

    "_Unsettled condition of the people._ The older people never seem to
    have confidence to build their houses substantially. If they have any
    suspicion of the approach of a canoe or steamer with soldiers they
    flee.

    "_Chest disease, pneumonia, etc._ These carry off very many. The
    people flee to the islands, live in the open air, expose themselves to
    all kinds of weather, contract chills, which are followed by serious
    lung troubles, and die. For years we never saw a new house because of
    the drifting population. They have a great fear of soldiers. In the
    case of many the absence from the villages is temporary; in the case
    of a few they permanently settle on the north bank of the river.

    "_Want of proper nourishment._ I have witnessed the collecting of the
    State imposition, and after this was set aside the natives had nothing
    but leaves to eat."

Also, that fines, which the Commission at once declared to be illegal,
were constantly levied on the people, and that these fines had continued
after the matter had been reported to the Governor-General. In spite of
this declaration of illegality, no steps were taken in the matter, and M.
de Bauw, the chief offender, was by last accounts the supreme executive
official of the district. At every turn one finds that there is no
relation at all between law and practice in the Congo. Law is habitually
broken by every official from the Governor-General downward if the profits
of the State can be increased thereby. The only stern enforcement of the
laws is toward the foreigner, the Austrian Rubinck, or the Englishman
Stokes, who is foolish enough to think that an international agreement is
of more weight than the edicts of Boma. These men believed it, and met
their death through their belief without redress, and even, in the case of
the Austrian, without public remonstrance.

The next considerable session of the Commission was at Baringa. Mr. Harris
and Mr. Stannard, the missionaries at this station, had played a noble
part throughout in endeavouring within their very limited powers to shield
the natives from their tormentors. In both cases, and also in that of Mrs.
Harris, this had been done at the repeated risk of their lives. Their
white neighbours of the rubber factories made their lives miserable also
by preventing their receipt of food from the natives, and harassing them
in various ways. On one occasion a chief and his son were both murdered by
the order of the white agent because they had supplied the Harris
household with the fore-quarter of an antelope. Before giving the terrible
testimony of the missionaries--a testimony which was admitted to be true
by the chief agent of the A.B.I.R. Company on the spot, it would be well
to show the exact standing of this Corporation and its relation to the
State. These relations are so close that they become to all intents and
purposes the same. The State holds fifty per cent. of the shares; it
places the Government soldiers at the company's disposal; it carries up in
the Government steamers and supplies licenses for the great number of
rifles and the quantity of cartridges which the company needs for its
murderous work. Whatever crimes are done by the company, the State is a
close accomplice. Finally, the European directors of this bloodstained
company are, or were at the time, the Senator Van der Nest, who acted as
President; and as Council: Count John d'Oultremont, Grand Marshal of the
Belgian Court; Baron Dhanis, of Congo fame, and M. van Eetevelde, the
creature of the King, and the writer of so many smug despatches to the
British Government about the mission of civilization and the high purpose
of the Congo State. Now listen to some of the testimony as condensed by
Mr. Harris:

    "First, the specific atrocities during 1904 were dealt with, including
    men, women, and children; then murders and outrages, including
    cannibalism. From this I passed on to the imprisonment of men, women
    and children. Following this I called attention to the destruction of
    the Baringa towns and the partial famine among the people in
    consequence. Also the large gangs of prisoners--men, women and
    children--imprisoned to carry out this work; the murder of two men
    whilst it was being done. Next followed the irregularities during
    1903. The expedition conducted by an A.B.I.R. agent against
    Samb'ekota, and the arming continually of A.B.I.R. sentries with
    Albini rifles. Following this I drew attention to the administration
    of Mons. Forcie, whose _régime_ was a terrible one, including the
    murder of Isekifasu, the principal Chief of Bolima; the killing,
    cutting up and eating of his wives, son and children; the decorating
    of the chief houses with the intestines, liver and heart of some of
    the killed, as stated by 'Veritas' in the _West African Mail_.

    "I confirmed in general the letter published in the _West African
    Mail_ by 'Veritas.'

    "Following this I came to Mons. Tagner's time, and stated that no
    village in this district had escaped murders under this man's
    _régime_.

    "Next we dealt with irregularities common to all agents, calling
    attention to and proving by specific instances the public floggings of
    practically any and every one; quoting, for instance, seeing with my
    own eyes six Ngombe men receive one hundred strokes each, delivered
    simultaneously by two sentries.

    "Next, the normal condition has always been the imprisoning of men,
    women and children, all herded together in one shed, with no
    arrangement for the demands of nature. Further, that very many,
    including even chiefs, had died either in prison or immediately on
    their release.

    "Next, the mutilation of the woman Boaji, because she wished to remain
    faithful to her husband, and refused to subject herself to the
    passions of the sentries. The woman's footless leg and hernia testify
    to the truth of her statement. She appeared before the Commission and
    doctor.

    "Next, the fact that natives are imprisoned for visiting friends and
    relatives in other villages, and the refusal to allow native canoes to
    pass up and down river without carrying a permit signed by the rubber
    agent; pointing out that even missionaries are subject to these
    restrictions, and publicly insulted, in an unprintable manner, when
    they do so.

    "Next point dealt with was responsibility--maintaining that
    responsibility lay not so much in the individual as in the system. The
    sentry blames the agent, he in turn the director, and so on.

    "I next called attention to the difficulties to be faced by natives in
    reporting irregularities. The number of civil officials is too small;
    the practical impossibility of reaching those that do exist--the
    native having first to ask permission of the rubber agent.

    "The relations that are at present necessary between the A.B.I.R. and
    the State render it highly improbable that the natives will ever
    report irregularities. I then pointed out that we firmly believe that
    but for us these irregularities would never have come to light.

    "Following on this the difficulties to be faced by missionaries were
    dealt with, pointing out that the A.B.I.R. can and do impose on us all
    sorts of restrictions if we dare to speak a word about their
    irregularities. I then quoted a few of the many instances which found
    their climax in Mrs. Harris and I almost losing our lives for daring
    to oppose the massacres by Van Caelcken. It was also stated that we
    could not disconnect the attitude of the State in refusing us fresh
    sites with our action in condemning the administration. I then
    mentioned that the forests are exhausted of rubber, pointing out that
    during a five days' tour through the forests I did not see a single
    vine of any size. This is solely because the vines have been worked in
    such a manner that all the rubber roots need many years' rest, whereas
    the natives now are actually reduced to digging up those roots in
    order to get rubber.

    "The next subject dealt with was the clear violation both of the
    spirit and letter of the Berlin Act. In the first place we are not
    allowed to extend the Mission, and, further, we are forbidden to trade
    even for food.

    "Next the statement was made that, so far as we are aware, no single
    sentry had ever been punished by the State till 1904 for the many
    murders committed in this district.

    "I next pointed out that one reason why the natives object to paddle
    for the A.B.I.R. is because of the sentries who travel in the A.B.I.R.
    canoes, and whose only business is to flog the paddlers in order to
    keep them going.

    "After Mr. Stannard had been heard, sixteen Esanga witnesses were
    questioned one by one. They gave clearly the details of how father,
    mother, brother, sister, son or daughter were killed in cold blood for
    rubber. These sixteen represented over twenty murders in Esanga alone.
    Then followed the big chief of all Bolima, who succeeded Isekifasu
    (murdered by the A.B.I.R.). What a sight for those who prate about
    lying missionaries! He stood boldly before all, pointed to his twenty
    witnesses, placed on the table his one hundred and ten twigs, each
    twig representing a life for rubber. 'These are chiefs' twigs, these
    are men's, these shorter are women's, these smaller still are
    children's.' He gives the names of scores, but begs for permission to
    call his son as a reminder. The Commission, though, is satisfied with
    him, that he is telling the truth, and therefore say that it is
    unnecessary. He tells how his beard of many years' growth, and which
    nearly reached his feet, was cut off by a rubber agent, merely because
    he visited a friend in another town. Asked if he had not killed
    A.B.I.R. sentries, he denied it, but owned to his people spearing
    three of the sentry's boys. He tells how the white man fought him, and
    when the fight was over handed him his corpses, and said: 'Now you
    will bring rubber, won't you?' To which he replied: 'Yes.' The corpses
    were cut up and eaten by Mons. Forcie's fighters. He also told how he
    had been chicotted and imprisoned by the A.B.I.R. agent, and further
    put to the most menial labour by the agent.

    "Here Bonkoko came forward and told how he accompanied the A.B.I.R.
    sentries when they went to murder Isekifasu and his wives and little
    ones; of finding them peacefully sitting at their evening meal; of the
    killing as many as they could, also the cutting up and eating of the
    bodies of Isekifasu's son and his father's wives; of how they dashed
    the baby's brains out, cut the body in half, and impaled the halves.

    "Again he tells how, on their return, Mons. Forcie had the sentries
    chicotted because they had not killed enough of the Bolima people.

    "Next came Bongwalanga, and confirmed Bonkoko's story; this youth went
    to 'look on.' After this the mutilated wife of Lomboto, of Ekerongo,
    was carried by a chief, who showed her footless leg and hernia. This
    was the price she had to pay for remaining faithful to her husband.
    The husband told how he was chicotted because he was angry about his
    wife's mutilation.

    "Then Longoi, of Lotoko, placed eighteen twigs on the table,
    representing eighteen men, women and children murdered for rubber.
    Next, Inunga laid thirty-four twigs on the table and told how
    thirty-four of his men, women and children had been murdered at
    Ekerongo. He admits that they had speared one sentry, Iloko, but that,
    as in every other such instance, was because Iloko had first killed
    their people. Lomboto shows his mutilated wrist and useless hand,
    done by the sentry. Isekansu shows his stump of a forearm, telling the
    same pitiful story. Every witness tells of floggings, rape,
    mutilations, murders, and of imprisonments of men, women and children,
    and of illegal fines and irregular taxes, etc., etc. The Commission
    endeavours to get through this slough of iniquity and river of blood,
    but finding it hopeless, asks how much longer I can go on. I tell them
    I can go on until they are satisfied that hundreds of murders have
    been committed by the A.B.I.R. in this district alone; murders of
    chiefs, men, women and little children, and that multitudes of
    witnesses only await my signal to appear by the thousand.

    "I further point out that we have only considered about two hundred
    murders from the villages of Bolima, Esanga, Ekerongo, Lotoko; that by
    far the greater majority still remain. The following districts are as
    yet untouched: Bokri, Nson-go, Boru-ga, Ekala, Baringa, Linza,
    Lifindu, Nsongo-Mboyo, Livoku, Boendo, the Lomako river, the Ngombe
    country, and many others, all of whom have the same tale to tell.
    Every one saw the hopelessness of trying to investigate things fully.
    To do so, the Commission would have to stay here for months."

What comment can be added to such evidence as this! It stands in its naked
horror, and it is futile to try to make it more vivid. What can any of
those English apologists of the Congo who have thrown a doubt upon the
accounts of outrages because in passing through a section of this huge
country upon a flying visit they had not happened to see them--what can
Lord Mountmorris, Captain Boyd Alexander, or Mrs. French Sheldon say in
the face of a mass of evidence with the actual mutilated limbs and
excoriated backs to enforce it? Can they say more than the man actually
incriminated, M. Le Jeune, the chief agent at the spot? "What have you to
say?" asked the President. M. Le Jeune shrugged his shoulders. He had
nothing to say. The President, who had listened, to his honour be it
spoken, with tears running down his cheeks to some of the evidence, cried
out in amazement and disgust. "There is one document I would put in," said
the agent. "It is to show that 142 of my sentinels were slain by the
villagers in the course of seven months." "Surely that makes the matter
worse!" cried the sagacious judge. "If these well-armed men were slain by
the defenceless villagers, how terrible must the wrongs have been which
called for such desperate reprisals!"

You will ask what was done with this criminal agent, a man whose deeds
merited the heaviest punishment that human law could bestow. Nothing
whatever was done to him. He was allowed to slip out of the country
exactly as Captain Lothaire, in similar circumstances, was allowed to slip
from the country. An insignificant agent may be occasionally made an
example of, but to punish the local manager of a great company would be to
lessen the output of rubber, and what are morality and justice compared to
that?

Why should one continue with the testimony given before the Commission?
Their wanderings covered a little space of the country and were confined
to the main river, but everywhere they elicited the same tale of slavery,
mutilation, and murder. What Scrivener and Grenfell said at Bolobo was
what Harris and Stannard said at Baringa, what Gilchrist said at Lulanga,
what Rushin and Gamman said at Bongadanga, what Mr. and Mrs. Lower said at
Ikan, what Padfield said at Bonginda, what Weeks said at Monscombe. The
place varied, but the results of the system were ever the same. Here and
there were human touches which lingered in the memory; here and there also
episodes of horror which stood out even in that universal Golgotha. One
lad testified that he had lost every relative in the world, male or
female, all murdered for rubber. As his father lay dying he had given him
the charge of two infant brothers and enjoined him to guard them tenderly.
He had cared for them until he had been compelled at last to go himself
into the forest to gather the rubber. One week their quantity had been
short. When he returned from the wood the village had been raided in his
absence, and he found his two little brothers lying disembowelled across a
log. The company, however, paid 200 per cent.

Four natives had been tortured until they cried out for some one to bring
a gun and shoot them.

The chiefs died because their hearts were broken.

Mr. Gamman knew no village where it took them less than ten days out of
fifteen to satisfy the demands of the A.B.I.R. As a rule, the people had
four days in a month to themselves. By law the maximum of forced labour
was forty hours in a month. But, as I have said, there is no relation at
all between law and practice in the Congo.

One witness appeared with a string knotted in forty-two places, and with a
packet of fifty leaves. Each knot represented a murder and each leaf a
rope in his native village.

The son of a murdered chief took the body of his father (all names, dates
and place specified) to show it to the white agent, in the hope of
justice. The agent called his dog and set it on him, the dog biting the
son on the leg as he carried the corpse of his father.

The villagers brought their murdered men to M. Spelier, director of the La
Lulanga Company. He accused them of lying and ordered them off.

One chief was seized by two white agents, one of whom held him while the
other beat him. When they had finished they kicked him to make him get up,
but the man was dead. The Commission examined ten witnesses in their
investigation of this story. The chief was Jonghi, the village Bogeka, the
date October, 1904.

Such is a fractional sample of the evidence which was laid before the
Commission, corroborated by every detail of name, place and date which
could enforce conviction. There is no doubt that it did enforce thorough
conviction. The judges travelled down the river sadder and wiser men. When
they reached Boma, they had an interview with Governor-General
Constermann. What passed at that interview has not been published, but the
Governor-General went forth from it and cut his own throat. The fact may,
perhaps, give some indication of how the judges felt when the stories were
still fresh in their minds, and their nerves wincing under the horror of
the evidence.

A whole year elapsed between the starting of the Commission and the
presentation of their Report, which was published upon October 31st, 1905.
The evidence which would have stirred Europe to its foundations was never
published at all, in spite of an informal assurance to Lord Lansdowne that
nothing would be held back. Only the conclusions saw the light, without
the document upon which they were founded.

The effect of that Report, when stripped of its courtly phrases, was an
absolute confirmation of all that had been said by so many witnesses
during so many years. It is easy to blame the Commissioners for not having
the full courage of their convictions, but their position was full of
difficulty. The Report was really a personal one. The State was, as no one
knew better than themselves, a fiction. It was the King who had sent them,
and it was to the King himself that they were reporting upon a matter
which deeply affected his personal honour as well as his material
interests. Had they been, as had been suggested, an international body,
the matter would have been simple. But of the three good care had been
taken that two should be men who would have to answer for what was said.
Mr. Janssens was a more or less independent man, but a Belgian, and a
subject all the same. Baron Nisco was in the actual employ of the King,
and his future was at stake. On the whole, I think that the Commissioners
acted like brave and honest men.

Naturally they laid all stress upon what could be said in favour of the
King and his creation. They would have been more than human had they not
done so. They enlarged upon the size and the traffic of the cities at the
mouth of the Congo--as if the whole loot of a nation could pass down a
river without causing commerce and riches at its mouth. Very early in the
Report they indicated that the question of the State appropriation of the
land had forced itself upon their notice. "If the State wishes to avoid
the principle of the State appropriation of vacant lands resulting in
abuse," says the Report, "it should place its agents and officials on
their guard against too restrictive interpretation and too rigorous
applications." Weak and trimming, it is true, but it was the cornerstone
of all that the King had built, and how were they to knock it rudely out?
Their attitude was not heroic. But it was natural. They go on:

    "As the greater portion of the land in the Congo is not under
    cultivation, this interpretation concedes to the State A RIGHT OF
    ABSOLUTE AND EXCLUSIVE OWNERSHIP OVER VIRTUALLY THE WHOLE OF THE LAND,
    WITH THIS CONSEQUENCE: THAT IT CAN DISPOSE--ITSELF AND SOLELY--OF ALL
    THE PRODUCTS OF THE SOIL; PROSECUTE AS A POACHER ANY ONE WHO TAKES
    FROM THAT LAND THE LEAST OF ITS FRUITS, OR AS A RECEIVER OF STOLEN
    GOODS ANY ONE WHO RECEIVES SUCH FRUIT: FORBID ANY ONE TO ESTABLISH
    HIMSELF ON THE GREATER PART OF THE TERRITORY. THE ACTIVITY OF THE
    NATIVES IS THUS LIMITED TO VERY RESTRICTED AREAS, AND THEIR ECONOMIC
    CONDITION IS IMMOBILIZED. THUS ABUSIVELY APPLIED, SUCH LEGISLATION
    WOULD PREVENT ANY DEVELOPMENT OF NATIVE LIFE. IN THIS MANNER, NOT ONLY
    HAS THE NATIVE BEEN OFTEN FORBIDDEN TO SHIFT HIS VILLAGE, BUT HE HAS
    EVEN BEEN FORBIDDEN TO VISIT, EVEN TEMPORARILY, A NEIGHBOURING VILLAGE
    WITHOUT SPECIAL PERMIT. A NATIVE DISPLACING HIMSELF WITHOUT BEING THE
    BEARER OF SUCH AN AUTHORIZATION, WOULD LEAVE HIMSELF OPEN TO ARREST,
    TO BE TAKEN BACK AND EVEN PUNISHED."

Who could possibly deny, after reading this passage, that the Congo native
has been reduced from freedom into slavery? There follows a curious
sentence:

    "Let us hasten," says the Report, "to say that in actual fact so great
    a rigour has not been shown. Almost everywhere certain PRODUCTS OF THE
    DOMAIN have been abandoned to the natives, notably palm kernels, which
    form the object of an important export trade in the Lower Congo."

This palm kernel trade is an old-established one, affecting only the mouth
of the river, which could not be disturbed without obvious international
complications, and which bears no relation to the great Upper Congo
populations, whose inhuman treatment was the question at issue.

The Report then proceeds to point out very clearly, the all-important fact
which arises from the expropriation of the native from the land. "Apart
from the rough plantations," it says, "which barely suffice, to feed the
natives themselves and to supply the stations, all the fruits of the soil
are considered as the property of the State or of the Concessionnaire
societies." This being so, there is an end forever of free trade, or,
indeed, of any trade, save an export by the Government itself, or by a
handful of companies which really represent the Government, of the whole
wealth of the country to Europe for the benefit of a ring of millionaires.

Having dealt with the taking of the land and the taking of its products,
the Commission handles with kid gloves the third great root proposition,
the forcing of the natives, for nothing, under the name of taxes, for
trifles under the absurd name of trade, to work for the sake of their
oppressors. It expends many words in showing that natives do not like
work, and that, therefore, compulsion is necessary. It is sad to see just
and learned men driven to such straits in defending what is indefensible.
Do the blacks of the Rand gold mines like work? Do the Kimberley diamond
hunters like work? Do the carriers of an East German caravan like work? No
more than the Congolese. Why, then, do they work? Because they are paid a
fair wage to do so. Because the money earned by their work can bring them
more pleasure than the work does pain. That is the law of work the whole
world over. Notably it is the law on the Congo itself, where the
missionaries, who pay honestly for work, have no difficulty in getting it.
Of course, the Congolese, like the Englishman, or the Belgian, does not
like work when it is work which brings a benefit to others and none to
himself.

But in spite of this preamble, the Commission cannot escape the actual
facts.

    "Numbers of agents only thought of one thing: to obtain as MUCH AS
    POSSIBLE IN THE SHORTEST POSSIBLE TIME, and their demands were often
    excessive. This IS NOT AT ALL ASTONISHING, AT ANY RATE AS REGARDS THE
    GATHERING OF THE PRODUCE OF THE DOMAIN....

    that is to say, the revenues for Government;

    FOR THE AGENTS THEMSELVES WHO REGULATED THE TAX AND SAW TO ITS
    COLLECTION, HAD A DIRECT INTEREST IN INCREASING ITS AMOUNT, SINCE THEY
    RECEIVED PROPORTIONAL BONUSES ON THE PRODUCE THUS COLLECTED."

No more definite statement could be made of the system which had been
attacked by the Reformers and denied by the Congo officials for so many
years. The Report then goes on to tell that when the State, in one of
those pretended reforms which were meant for European, not for Congolese,
use, allotted forty hours of forced labour per month as the amount which
the native owed the State, the announcement was accompanied by a private
intimation from the Governor-General to the District Commissioners, dated
February 23rd, 1904, that this new law must have the effect, not of
lessening, but "of bringing about a constant increase in the resources of
the Treasury." Could they be told in plainer terms that they were to
disregard it?

The land is taken, the produce is taken, the labour is taken. In old days
the African slave was exported, but we progress with the ages and now a
higher intelligence has shown the folly of the old-fashioned methods when
it is to easy to enslave him in his own home.

We may pass the Report of the Commission in so far as it deals with the
taxation of the natives, food taxes, porterage taxes and other imposts. It
brings out very clearly the curse of the parasitic army, with their
families, which have to be fed by the natives, and the difficulty which it
causes them with their limited plantations to find the means for feeding
themselves. Even the wood to the State steamers is not paid for, but is
taken as a tax. Such demands "force the natives in the neighbourhood of
the stations in certain cases to an almost continuous labour"--a fresh
admission of slave conditions. The Report describes the result of the
rubber tax in the following terms:

    "This circumstance [exhaustion of the rubber] explains the repugnance
    of the native for rubber work, which in itself is not particularly
    painful. In THE MAJORITY OF CASES the native must go one or two days'
    march EVERY FORTNIGHT, until he arrives at that part of the forest
    where the rubber vines can be met with in a certain degree of
    abundance. There the collector passes a number of days IN A MISERABLE
    EXISTENCE. HE HAS TO BUILD HIMSELF AN IMPROVISED SHELTER, WHICH
    CANNOT, OBVIOUSLY, REPLACE HIS HUT. HE HAS NOT THE FOOD TO WHICH HE IS
    ACCUSTOMED. HE IS DEPRIVED OF HIS WIFE, EXPOSED TO THE INCLEMENCIES OF
    THE WEATHER AND THE ATTACKS OF WILD BEASTS. WHEN ONCE HE HAS COLLECTED
    THE RUBBER HE MUST BRING IT TO THE STATE STATION OR TO THAT OF THE
    COMPANY, AND ONLY THEN CAN HE RETURN TO HIS VILLAGE, WHERE HE CAN
    SOJOURN FOR BARELY MORE THAN TWO OR THREE DAYS, BECAUSE THE NEXT
    DEMAND IS UPON HIM.... It is hardly necessary to add that this state
    of affairs is A FLAGRANT VIOLATION OF THE FORTY HOURS' LAW."

The Report deals finally with the question of the punishments meted out by
the State. These it enumerates as "the taking of hostages, the
imprisonment of the chiefs, the institution of sentries or capitas, fines
and military expeditions," the latter being a euphemism for cold-blooded
massacres. It continues:

    "Whatever one may think of native ideas, acts such as taking women as
    hostages outrage too much our ideas of justice to be tolerated. The
    State has prohibited this practice long ago, but without being able to
    suppress it."

The State prohibits, but the State not only condones, but actually
commands it by private circular. Again the gap which lies betwixt law and
fact where the interest of gain is concerned.

    "It was barely denied," the Report continues, "that in the various
    posts of the A.B.I.R. which we visited, the imprisonment of women
    hostages, the subjection of the chiefs to servile labour, the
    humiliations meted out to them, the flogging of rubber collectors, the
    brutality of the black employés set over the prisoners, were the rule
    commonly followed."

Then follows an illuminative passage about the sentries, capitas or
"forest guards," or messengers, as they are alternatively called. It is a
wonder that they were not called hospital orderlies in the efforts to make
them seem inoffensive. What they actually were was, as we have seen, some
twenty thousand cannibals armed with Albini repeating rifles. The Report
says:

    "This system of native supervisors (_surveillants_) has given rise to
    numerous criticisms, even on the part of State officials. The
    Protestant missionaries heard at Bolobo, Ikoko (Lake Mantumba),
    Lulonga, Bonginda, Ikau, Baringa and Bongandanga, drew up formidable
    accusations against the acts of these intermediaries. They brought
    before the Commission a MULTITUDE OF NATIVE WITNESSES, WHO REVEALED A
    LARGE NUMBER OF CRIMES and excesses alleged to have been committed by
    the sentinels. According to the witnesses these auxiliaries,
    especially those stationed in the villages, abuse the authority
    conferred upon them, convert themselves into DESPOTS, CLAIMING THE
    WOMEN AND THE FOOD, NOT ONLY FOR THEMSELVES BUT FOR THE BODY OF
    PARASITES AND CREATURES WITHOUT ANY CALLING WHICH A LOVE OF RAPINE
    CAUSES TO BECOME ASSOCIATED WITH THEM, AND WITH WHOM THEY SURROUND
    THEMSELVES AS WITH A VERITABLE BODYGUARD; THEY KILL WITHOUT PITY ALL
    THOSE WHO ATTEMPT TO RESIST THEIR EXIGENCIES AND WHIMS. The Commission
    was obviously unable in all cases to verify the exactitude of the
    allegations made before it, the more so that the facts were often
    several years old. However, TRUTH OF THE CHARGES IS BORNE OUT BY A
    MASS OF EVIDENCE AND OFFICIAL REPORTS."

It adds:

    "OF HOW MANY ABUSES HAVE THESE NATIVE SENTINELS BEEN GUILTY IT WOULD
    BE IMPOSSIBLE TO SAY, EVEN APPROXIMATELY. SEVERAL CHIEFS OF BARINGA
    BROUGHT US, ACCORDING TO THE NATIVE CUSTOM, BUNDLES OF STICKS, EACH OF
    WHICH WAS MEANT TO SHOW ONE OF THEIR SUBJECTS KILLED BY THE CAPITAS.
    ONE OF THEM SHOWED 120 MURDERS IN HIS VILLAGE COMMITTED DURING THE
    LAST FEW YEARS. Whatever one may think of the confidence with which
    this native form of book-keeping may inspire one, a document handed to
    the Commission by the Director of the A.B.I.R. does not allow any
    doubt to remain as to the sinister character of the system. It
    consisted of a list showing that from 1st January to 1st August,
    1905--that is to say, within a space of seven months--142 sentries of
    the Society had been killed or wounded by the natives. Now, it is to
    be assumed that in many cases these sentries had been attacked by the
    natives by way of revenge. One may judge by this of the number of
    bloody affrays to which their presence had given rise. ON THE OTHER
    HAND, THE AGENTS INTERROGATED BY THE COMMISSION, OR WHO WERE PRESENT
    AT THE AUDIENCES, DID NOT EVEN ATTEMPT TO DENY THE CHARGES BROUGHT
    AGAINST THE SENTINELS."

That last sentence seems the crown of the arch. If the agents on the spot
did not attempt before the Commission to deny the outrages who shall
venture to do it in their name?

The remainder of the Report, though stuffed with courtly platitudes and
with vague recommendations of reform which are absolutely unpractical, so
long as the root causes of all the trouble remain undisturbed, contains a
few positive passages which are worth preserving. Talking of the want of
definite instructions to military expeditions, it says:

    "The consequences are often very murderous. And one must not be
    astonished. If in the course of THESE DELICATE OPERATIONS, WHOSE
    OBJECT IT IS TO SEIZE HOSTAGES AND TO INTIMIDATE THE NATIVES, constant
    watch cannot be exercised over the sanguinary instincts of the
    soldiers when orders to punish are given by superior authority, it is
    difficult that the expedition should not degenerate into massacres,
    accompanied by pillage and incendiarism."

Again:

    "The responsibility for these abuses must not, however, always be
    placed upon the commanders of military expeditions. In considering
    these facts one must bear in mind the deplorable confusion still
    existing in the Upper Congo between a state of war and a state of
    peace; between administration and repression; between those who may be
    regarded as enemies and those who have the right to be regarded as
    citizens of the State and treated in accordance with its laws. The
    Commission was struck with the general tone of the reports relating to
    operations described above. Often, while admitting that the expedition
    had been sent out SOLELY FOR SHORTAGE IN TAXATION, AND WITHOUT MAKING
    ALLUSION TO AN ATTACK OR RESISTANCE ON THE PART OF THE NATIVES, WHICH
    ALONE WOULD JUSTIFY THE USE OF ARMS, the authors of these reports
    speak of 'SURPRISING VILLAGES,' 'ENERGETIC PURSUIT,' 'NUMEROUS ENEMIES
    KILLED AND WOUNDED,' 'LOOT,' 'PRISONERS OF WAR,' 'CONDITIONS OF
    PEACE.' Evidently these officers thought themselves at war, acted as
    though at war."

Again:

    "The course of such expeditions grave abuses have occurred; men, women
    and children have BEEN KILLED EVEN AT THE VERY TIME THEY SOUGHT SAFETY
    IN FLIGHT. OTHERS HAVE BEEN IMPRISONED. WOMEN HAVE BEEN TAKEN AS
    HOSTAGES."

There is an interesting passage about the missionaries:

    "Often also, in the regions where evangelical stations are
    established, the native, instead of going to the magistrate, his
    natural protector, adopts the habit when he thinks he has a grievance
    against an agent or an Executive officer, to confide in the
    missionary. The latter listens to him, helps him according to his
    means, and makes himself the echo of all the complaints of a region.
    Hence the astounding influence which the missionaries possess in some
    parts of the territory. It exercises itself not only among the natives
    within the purview of their religious propaganda, but over all the
    villages whose troubles they have listened to. The missionary becomes,
    for the native of the region, the only representative of equity and
    justice; he adds to the ascendancy acquired from his religious zeal,
    the prestige which, in the interest of the State itself, should be
    invested in the magistrates."

I will now turn for a moment to contemplate the document as a whole.

With the characteristic policy of the Congo authorities, it was originally
given to the world as being a triumphant vindication of King Leopold's
administration, which would certainly have been the greatest whitewashing
contract ever yet carried through upon this planet. Looked at more
closely, it is clearly seen that behind the veil of courtly phrase and
complimentary forms, every single thing that the Reformers have been
claiming has been absolutely established. That the land has been taken.
That the produce has been taken. That the people are enslaved. That they
are reduced to misery. That the white agents have given the capitas a free
hand against them. That there have been illegal holdings of hostages,
predatory expeditions, murders and mutilations. All these things are
absolutely admitted. I do not know that anything more has ever been
claimed, save that the Commission talks coldly of what a private man must
talk of hotly, and that the Commission might give the impression that they
were isolated acts, whereas the evidence here given and the general
depopulation of the country show that they are general, universal, and
parts of a single system extending from Leopoldville to the Great Lakes,
and from the French border to Katanga. Be it private domain, crown domain,
or Concessionnaire territory, be it land of the Kasai, the Anversoise, the
Abir, or the Katanga companies, the tale still tells of bloodshed and
horror.

Where the Commission differs from the Reformers is in their estimate of
the gravity of this situation and of the need of absolute radical reforms.
It is to be borne in mind that of the three judges two had never been in
Africa before, while the third was a direct servant of the attacked
institution. They seem to have vaguely felt that these terrible facts were
necessary phases of Colonial expansion. Had they travelled, as I have
done, in British West Africa, and had it been brought home to them that a
blow to a black man, Sierra Leone, for example, would mean that one would
be taken by a black policeman before a black judge to be handed over to a
black gaoler, they would understand that there are other methods of
administration. Had they ever read of that British Governor of Jamaica,
who, having in the face of dangerous revolt, executed a Negro without due
forms of law, was recalled to London, tried, and barely escaped with his
life. It is by such tension as this that Europeans in the Tropics,
whatever be their nation, must be braced up to maintain their civilized
_morale_. Human nature is weak, the influence of environment is strong.
Germans or English would yield and in isolated cases have yielded, to
their surroundings. No nation can claim much individual superiority in
such a matter. But for both Germany and England (I would add France, were
it not for the French Congo) can claim that their system works as strongly
against outrage as the Belgian one does in favour of it. These things are
not, as the Commissioners seemed to think, necessary evils, which are
tolerated elsewhere. How can their raw opinion weigh for a moment upon
such a point when it is counterbalanced by the words of such Reformers as
Sir Harry Johnston or Lord Cromer? The fact is that the running of a
tropical colony is, of all tests, the most searching as to the
development of the nation which attempts it; to see helpless people and
not to oppress them, to see great wealth and not to confiscate it, to have
absolute power and not to abuse it, to raise the native instead of sinking
yourself--these are the supreme trials of a nation's spirit. We have all
failed at times. But never has there been failure so hopeless, so
shocking, bearing such consequences to the world, such degradation to the
good name of Christianity and civilization as the failure of the Belgians
in the Congo.

And all this has happened and all this has been tolerated in an age of
progress. The greatest, deepest, most wide-reaching crime of which there
is any record, has been reserved for these latter years. Some excuse there
is for racial extermination where, as with Saxons and Celts, two peoples
contend for the same land which will but hold one. Some excuse, too, for
religious massacre when, like Mahomet the Second at Constantinople, or
Alva in the Lowlands, the bigoted murderers honestly conceived that their
brutal work was in the interest of God. But here the real doers have sat
remote with cold blood in their veins, knowing well from day to day what
they were doing, and with the sole object of adding more to wealth which
was already enormous. Consider this circumstance and consider also the
professions of philanthropy with which the huge massacre was inaugurated,
the cloud of lies with which it has been screened, the persecution and
calumny of the few honest men who uncovered it, the turning of religion
against religion and of nation against nation in the attempt to perpetuate
it, and having weighed all this, tell me where in the course of history
there is any such story. What is progress? Is it to run a little faster in
a motor-car, to listen to gabble in a gramophone?--these are the toys of
life. But if progress is a spiritual thing, then we do _not_ progress.
Such a horror as this of Belgium and the Congo would not have been
possible fifty years ago. No European nation would have done it, and if it
had, no other one would have failed to raise its voice in protest. There
was more decorum and principle in life in those slower days. We live in a
time of rush, but do not call it progress. The story of the Congo has made
the idea a little absurd.

IX

THE CONGO AFTER THE COMMISSION

The high hopes which the advent of the Commission raised among the natives
and the few Europeans who had acted as their champions, were soon turned
to bitter disappointment. The indefatigable Mr. Harris had sent on after
the Commission a number of fresh cases which had come to his notice. In
one of these a chief deposed that he had been held back in his village
(Boendo) in order to prevent him from reaching the Commission. He
succeeded in breaking away from his guards, but was punished for his
enterprise by having his wife clubbed to death by a sentry. He brought
with him, in the hope that he might lay them before the judges, one
hundred and eighty-two long twigs and seventy-six smaller ones, to
represent so many adults and children who had been murdered by the
A.B.I.R. Company in his district during the last few years. His account of
the methods by which these unfortunate people met their deaths will not
bear printing. The wildest dreams of the Inquisition were outdone. Women
had been killed by thrusting stakes into them from below. When the
horrified missionary asked the chief if this was personally known to him,
his answer was, "They killed my daughter, Nsinga, in this manner; I found
the stake in her." And a reputable Belgian statesman can write in this
year of grace that they are carrying on the beneficent and philanthropic
mission which has been handed down to them.

In a later communication Mr. Harris gives the names of men, women and
children killed by the sentries of a M. Pilaet.

    "Last year," he says, "or the year before, the young woman, Imenega,
    was tied to a forked tree and chopped in half with a hatchet,
    beginning at the left shoulder, chopping down through the chest and
    abdomen and out at the side." Again, with every detail of name and
    place, he dwelt upon the horrible fact that public incest had been
    enforced by the sentries--brother with sister, and father with
    daughter. "Oh, Inglesia," cried the chief in conclusion, "don't stay
    away long; if you do, they will come, I am sure they will come, and
    then these enfeebled legs will not support me, I cannot run away. I am
    near my end; try and see to it that they let me die in peace; don't
    stay away."

    "I was so moved, your Excellency, at these people's story that I took
    the liberty of promising them, in the name of the Congo Free State,
    that you will only kill them in future for crimes. I told them the
    Inspector Royal was, I hoped, on his way, and that I was sure he would
    listen to their story, and give them time to recover themselves."

It is terrible to think that such a promise, through no fault of Mr.
Harris, has not been fulfilled. Are the dreams of the Commissioners never
haunted by the thought of those who put such trust in them, but whose only
reward has been that they have been punished for the evidence they gave
and that their condition has been more miserable than ever. The final
practical result of the Commission was that upon the natives, and not upon
their murderers, came the punishment.

M. Malfeyt, a Royal High Commissioner, had been sent out on pretence of
reform. How hollow was this pretence may be seen from the fact that at the
same time M. Wahis had been despatched as Governor-General in place of
that Constermann who had committed suicide after his interview with the
judges of the Commission. Wahis had already served two terms as Governor,
and it was under his administration that all the abuses the Commission had
condemned had actually grown up. Could King Leopold have shown more
clearly how far any real reform was from his mind?

M. Malfeyt's visit had been held up as a step toward improvement. The
British Government had been assured that his visit would be of a nature to
effect all necessary reforms. On arriving in the country, however, he
announced that he had no power to act, and only came to see and hear. Thus
a few more months were gained before any change could be effected. The
only small consolation which we can draw from all this succession of
impotent ambassadors and reforming committees, which do not, and were
never intended to, reform, is that the game has been played and exposed,
and surely cannot be played again. A Government would deservedly be the
laughing-stock of the world which again accepted assurances from the same
source.

What, in the meanwhile, was the attitude of that A.B.I.R. Company, whose
iniquities had been thoroughly exposed before the Commission, and whose
manager M. Le Jeune, had fled to Europe? Was it ashamed of its
bloodthirsty deeds? Was it prepared in any way to modify its policy after
the revelations which its representatives had admitted to be true? Read
the following interview which Mr. Stannard had with M. Delvaux, who had
visited the stations of his disgraced colleague:

    "He spoke of the Commission of Inquiry in a contemptuous manner, and
    showed considerable annoyance about the things we had said to the
    Commission. He declared the A.B.I.R. had full authority and power to
    send out armed sentries, and force the people to bring in rubber, and
    to imprison those who did not. A short time ago, the natives of a town
    brought in some rubber to the agent here, but he refused it because it
    was not enough, and the men were thrashed by the A.B.I.R. employees,
    and driven away. The director justified the agent in refusing the
    rubber because the quantity was too small. The Commissioners had
    declared that the A.B.I.R. had no power to send armed sentries into
    the towns in order to flog the people and drive them into the forests
    to seek rubber; they were 'guards of the forest,' and that was their
    work. When we pointed this out to M. Delvaux, he pooh-poohed the idea,
    and said the name had no significance; some called the sentries by one
    name, some by another. We pointed out that the people were not
    compelled to pay their taxes in rubber only, but could bring in other
    things, or even currency. He denied this, and said that the
    alternative tax only meant that an agent could impose whatever tax he
    thought fit. It had no reference whatever to the natives. The A.B.I.R.
    preferred the taxes to be paid in rubber. This is what the A.B.I.R.
    says, in spite of the interpretation by Baron Nisco, the highest
    judicial authority in the State, that the natives could pay their
    taxes in what they were best able. All these things were said in the
    presence of the Royal High Commissioner, who, whether he approved or
    not, certainly did not contradict or protest against them."

Within a week or two of the departure of the Commission the state of the
country was as bad as ever. It cannot be too often repeated that it was
not local in its origin, but that it occurred there, as elsewhere, on
account of pressure from the central officials. If further proof were
needed of this it is to be found in the Van Caelchen trial. This agent,
having been arrested, succeeded in showing (as was done in the Caudron
case) that the real guilt lay with his superior officers. In his defence
he

    "Bases his power on a letter of the Commissaire-Général de Bauw (the
    Supreme Executive Officer in the District), and in a circular
    transmitted to him by his director, and signed 'Constermann'
    (Governor-General), which he read to the Court, deploring the
    diminished output in rubber, and saying that the agents of the
    A.B.I.R. should not forget that they had the same powers of
    '_contrainte par corps_' (bodily detention) as were delegated to the
    agent of the Société Commerciale Anversoise au Congo for the increase
    of rubber production; that if the Governor-General or his
    Commissaire-Général did not know what they were writing and what they
    signed, he knows what orders he had to obey; it was not for him to
    question the legality or illegality of these orders; his superiors
    ought to have known and have weighed what they wrote before giving him
    orders to execute; that bodily detention of natives for rubber was no
    secret, seeing that at the end of every month a statement of
    '_contrainte par corps_' (bodily detention) during the month has to be
    furnished in duplicate, the book signed, and one of the copies
    transmitted to the Government."

Whilst these organized outrages were continuing in the Congo, King
Leopold, at Belgium, had taken a fresh step, which, in its cynical
disregard for any attempt at consistency, surpassed any of his previous
performances. Feeling that something must be done in the face of the
finding of his own delegates, he appointed a fresh Commission, whose terms
of reference were "to study the conclusions of the Commission of Inquiry,
to formulate the proposals they call for, and to seek for practical means
for realizing them." It is worth while to enumerate the names of the men
chosen for this work. Had a European Areopagus called before it the head
criminals of this terrible business, all of these men, with the exception
of two or three, would have been standing in the dock. Take their names in
turn: Van Maldeghem, the President--a jurist, who had written on Congo
law, but had no direct complicity in the crimes; Janssens, the President
of the former Commission, a man of integrity; M. Davignon, a Belgian
politician--so far the selection is a possible one--now listen to the
others! De Cuvelier, creature of the King, and responsible for the Congo
horrors; Droogmans, creature of the King, administrator of the secret
funds derived from his African estates, and himself President of a Rubber
Trust; Arnold, creature of the King; Liebrechts, the same; Gohr, the same;
Chenot, a Congo Commissioner; Tombeur, the same; Fivé, a Congo inspector;
Nys, the chief legal upholder of the King's system; De Hemptinne,
President of the Kasai Rubber Trust; Mobs, an Administrator of the
A.B.I.R. Is it not evident that, save the first three, these were the very
men who were on their trial? The whole appointment is an example of that
cynical humour which gives a grotesque touch to this inconceivable story.
It need not be added that no result making for reform ever came from such
an assembly. One can but rejoice that the presence of the small humane
minority may have prevented the others from devising some fresh methods of
oppression.

It cannot be said, however, that no judicial proceedings and no
condemnation arose from the actions of the Congo Commission. But who could
ever guess who the man was who was dragged to the bar. On the evidence of
natives and missionaries, the whole white hierarchy, from Governor-General
to subsidized cannibal, had been shown to be blood-guilty. Which of them
was punished? None of them, but Mr. Stannard, one of the accusing
witnesses. He had shown that the soldiers of a certain M. Hagstrom had
behaved brutally to the natives. This was the account of Lontulu the
chief:

    "Lontulu, the senior chief of Bolima, came with twenty witnesses,
    which was all the canoe would hold. He brought with him one hundred
    and ten twigs, each of which represented a life sacrificed for rubber.
    The twigs were of different lengths and represented chiefs, men, women
    and children, according to their length. It was a horrible story of
    massacre, mutilation and cannibalism that he had to tell, and it was
    perfectly clear that he was telling the truth. He was further
    supported by other eye-witnesses. These crimes were committed by those
    who were acting under the instructions and with the knowledge of white
    men. On one occasion the sentries were flogged because they had not
    killed enough people. At one time, after they had killed a number of
    people, including Isekifasu, the principal chief, his wives and
    children, the bodies, except that of Isekifasu, were cut up, and the
    cannibalistic fighters attached to the A.B.I.R. force were rationed on
    the meat thus supplied. The intestines, etc., were hung up in and
    about the house, and a little child who had been cut in halves was
    impaled. After one attack, Lontulu, the chief, was shown the dead
    bodies of his people, and asked by the rubber agent if he would bring
    in rubber now. He replied that he would. Although a chief of
    considerable standing, he has been flogged, imprisoned, tied by the
    neck with men who were regarded as slaves, made to do the most menial
    work, and his beard, which was of many years' growth, and reached
    almost to the ground, was cut off by the rubber agent because he
    visited another town."

Lontulu was cross-examined by the Commission and his evidence was not
shaken. Here are some of the questions and answers:

    "President Janssens: 'M. Hagstrom leur a fait la guerre. Il a tué
    beaucoup d'hommes avec ses soldats.'

    "To Lontulu: 'Were the people of Monji, etc., given the corpses to
    eat?'

    "Lontulu: 'Yes, they cut them up and ate them.'

    "Baron Nisco: 'Did they flog you?'

    "Lontulu: 'Repeatedly.'

    "Baron Nisco: 'Who cut your beard off?'

    "Lontulu: 'M. Hannotte.'

    "President Janssens: 'Did you see sentries kill your people? Did they
    kill many?'

    "Lontulu: 'Yes, all my family is finished.'

    "President: 'Give us names.'

    "Lontulu: 'Chiefs Bokomo, Isekifasu, Botamba, Longeva, Bosangi,
    Booifa, Eongo, Lomboto, Loma, Bayolo.'

    "Then followed names of women and children and ordinary men (not
    chiefs).

    "Lontulu: 'May I call my son lest I make a mistake?'

    "President: 'It is unnecessary; go on.'

    "Lontulu: 'Bomposa, Beanda, Ekila.'

    "President: 'Are you sure that each of your twigs (110) represents one
    person killed?'

    "Lontulu: 'Yes.'

    "President: 'Was Isekifasu killed at this time?'

    "Reply not recorded.

    "President: 'Did you see his entrails hanging on his house?'

    "Lontulu: 'Yes.'

    "_Question_: 'Were the sentries and people who helped given the dead
    bodies to eat?'

    "_Answer_: 'Yes, they ate them. Those who took part in the fight cut
    them up and ate them.... He was _chicotted_ (flogged), and said, "Why
    do you do this? Is it right to flog a chief?"' Gave a very full
    account of his harsh treatment and sufferings."

The action was taken for criminal libel by M. Hagstrom against Mr.
Stannard, for saying that this evidence had been given before the
Commission. Of course, the only way to establish the fact was a reference
to the evidence itself which lay at Brussels. But as Hagstrom was only a
puppet of the higher Government of the Congo (which means the King
himself), in their attempt to revenge themselves upon the missionaries it
was not very likely that official documents would be produced for the mere
purpose of serving the end of Justice. The minutes then were not
forthcoming. How, then, was Mr. Stannard to produce evidence that his
account was correct? Obviously by producing Lontulu, the chief. But the
wretched Lontulu, beaten and tortured, with his beard plucked off and his
spirit broken, had been cast into gaol before the trial, and knew well
what would be his fate if he testified against his masters. He withdrew
all that he had said at the Commission--and who can blame him? So M.
Hagstrom obtained his verdict and the Belgian reptile Press proclaimed
that Mr. Stannard had been proved to be a liar. He was sentenced to three
months' imprisonment, with the alternative of a £40 fine. Even as I write,
two more of these lion-hearted missionaries, Americans this time--Mr.
Morrison and Mr. Shepherd--are undergoing a similar prosecution on the
Congo. This time it is the Kasai Company which is the injured innocent.
But the eyes of Europe and America are on the transaction, and M.
Vandervelde, the fearless Belgian advocate of liberty, has set forth to
act for the accused. What M. Labori was to Dreyfus, M. Vandervelde has
been to the Congo, save that it is a whole nation who are his clients. He
and his noble comrade, Mr. Lorand, are the two men who redeem the record
of infamy which must long darken the good name of Belgium.

I will now deal swiftly with the records of evil deeds which have occurred
since the time which I have already treated. I say "swiftly" not because
there is not much material from which to choose, but because I feel that
my reader must be as sated with horrors as I who have to write them. Here
are some notes of a journey undertaken by W. Cassie Murdoch, as recently
as July and September, 1907. This time we are concerned with the Crown
Domain, King Leopold's private estate, of which we have such accounts
from Mr. Clark and Mr. Scrivener dating as far back as 1894. Thirteen
years had elapsed and no change! What do these thirteen represent in
torture and murder? Could all these screams be united, what a vast cry
would have reached the heavens. In the Congo hell the most lurid glow is
to be found in the Royal Domain. And the money dragged from these tortured
people is used in turn to corrupt newspapers and public men--that it may
be possible to continue the system. So the devil's wheel goes round and
round! Here are some extracts from Mr. Murdoch's report:

    "I remarked to the old chief of the largest town I came across that
    his people seemed to be numerous. 'Ah,' said he, 'my people are all
    dead. These you see are only a very few of what I once had.' And,
    indeed, it was evident enough that his town had once been a place of
    great size and importance. There cannot be the least doubt that this
    depopulation is directly due to the State. Everywhere I went I heard
    stories of the raids made by the State soldiers. The number of people
    they shot, or otherwise tortured to death, must have been enormous.
    Perhaps as many more of those who escaped the rifle died from
    starvation and exposure. More than one of my carriers could tell of
    how their villages had been raided, and of their own narrow escapes.
    They are not a warlike people, and I could hear of no single attempt
    at resistance. They are the kind of people the State soldiers are most
    successful with. They would rather any day run away than fight. And in
    fact, they have nothing to fight with except a few bows and arrows. I
    have been trying to reckon the probable number of people I met with. I
    should say that five thousand is, if anything, beyond the mark. A few
    years ago the population of the district I passed through must have
    been four times that number. On my return march I was desirous of
    visiting Mbelo, the place where Lieutenant Massard had been stationed,
    and in which he committed his unspeakable outrages. On making
    inquiries, however, I was told that there were no people there now,
    and that the roads were all 'dead.' On reaching one of the roads that
    led there, it was evident enough that it had not been used for a long
    time. Later on, I was able to confirm the statement that what had once
    been a district with numerous large towns, was now completely
    empty....

    "With the exception of a few people living near the one State post now
    existing on this side of the Lake, who supply the State with _kwanga_
    and large mats, all the people I saw are taxed with rubber. The rubber
    tax is an intolerable burden--how intolerable I should have found it
    almost impossible to believe had I not seen it. It is DIFFICULT TO
    DESCRIBE IT CALMLY. What I found was simply this: The _'tax' demands
    from twenty to twenty-five days' labour every month_. There never was
    a 'forty hours per month labour law' in the Crown Domain, and so long
    as the tax is demanded in rubber, there never will be--at least in the
    section of it I visited. If that law were applied, no rubber would, or
    could possibly, be produced, for the simple reason that _there is no
    rubber left in this section of the Domain_.

    "It was some time before I made the discovery that in the Domaine de
    la Couronne west of Lake Leopold there is no rubber. On my way through
    I was continually meeting numbers of men going out on the hunt for
    rubber, and heard with amazement the distance they had to walk. It
    seemed so impossible that I was somewhat sceptical of the truth of
    what I was told. But I heard the same story so often, and in so many
    different places, that I was at last obliged to accept it. On my
    return I followed up this track, and found that it was all true. And I
    found also that the rubber is collected from the Domaine Privé in
    forests from ten to forty miles beyond the boundary of the Crown
    Domain.

    "Once the vines had been found the working of the rubber is a small
    part of the labour. I have made a careful calculation of the distance
    the people I met have to walk, and I find that the average _cannot be
    less than 300 miles there and back_. But walking to the forest and
    back does not occupy from twenty to twenty-five days per month. They
    will cover the 300 miles in ten or twelve days. The rest of the time
    is used in hunting for the vines, and in tapping them when found. I
    met a party returning with their rubber who had been six nights in the
    forest. This was the lowest number. _Most of them have to spend ten,
    some as many as fifteen, nights in the forest._ Two days after I left
    the Domain on my way back I saw some men returning empty-handed. They
    had been hunting for over eight days and had found nothing. What the
    poor wretches would do I cannot imagine. If they failed to produce the
    usual amount of rubber on the appointed day they would be put in
    '_bloc_' (imprisoned).

    "The workmen of the _chef de poste_ at Mbongo described a concoction
    which is sometimes administered to capitas when their tale of rubber
    is short. The white man chops up green tobacco leaves and soaks them
    in water. Red peppers are added, and a dose of the liquid is
    administered to defaulting capitas. This wily official manages to get
    thirteen monthly 'taxes' in the year. At one village I bought a
    contrivance by which the natives reckon when the tax falls due. Pieces
    of wood are strung on a piece of cane. One piece is moved up every
    day. On counting them I found there were only twenty-eight. I asked
    why, and was told that originally there were thirty pieces, but the
    white man had so often sent on the twenty-eighth day to say the time
    was up, that at last they took off two.

    "Individual acts of atrocity here have for the most part ceased. The
    State agents seem to have come to the conclusion that it is a waste of
    cartridges to shoot down these people. BUT THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS A VAST
    ATROCITY INVOLVING THE PEOPLE IN A STATE OF UNIMAGINABLE MISERY. One
    man said to me, 'Slaves are happy compared with us. Slaves are
    protected by their masters, they are fed and clothed. As for us--the
    capitas do with us what they like. Our wives have to plant the cassava
    gardens and fish in the stream to feed us while we spend our days
    working for Bula Matadi. No, we are not even slaves.' And he is right.
    _It is not slavery as slavery was generally understood: it is not even
    the uncivilized African's idea of slavery. There never was a slavery
    more absolute in its despotism or more fiendish in its tyranny._"

It will be seen that, so far as the people are concerned, the problem is
largely solved, the bitterness of death is past. No European intervention
can save them. In many places they have been utterly destroyed. But they
were the wards of Europe, and surely Europe, if she is not utterly lost to
shame, will have something to say to their fate!

X

SOME CATHOLIC TESTIMONY AS TO THE CONGO

It must be admitted that the Roman Catholic Church, as an organized body,
has not raised her voice as she should in the matter of the Congo. Never
was there such a field for a Las Casas. It was the proudest boast of that
church that in the dark days of man's history she was the one power which
stood with her spiritual terrors between the oppressor and the oppressed.
This noble tradition has been sadly forgotten in the Congo, where the
missions have themselves, as I understand, done most excellent work, but
where the power of the Church has never been invoked against the constant
barbarities of the State. In extenuation, it may be stated that the chief
Catholic establishments are down the river and far from the rubber zones.
It is important, however, to collect under a separate heading such
testimony as exists, for an unworthy attempt has been made to represent
the matter as a contest between rival creeds, whereas it is really a
contest between humanity and civilization on one side and cruel greed upon
the other.

The organization of the Catholic Church is more disciplined, and admits of
less individualism than that of those religious bodies which supplied the
valiant champions of right in the Congo. The simple priests were doubtless
as horrified as others, within the limit of their knowledge, but the means
of expression were denied them. M. Colfs, himself a Catholic, said in the
Belgian Chamber: "Our missionaries have less liberty than foreign
missionaries. They are expected to keep silence.... There is a gag. This
gag is placed in the mouth of Belgian missionaries."

Signor Santini, the Catholic and Royalist Deputy for Rome, has been one of
the leaders in the anti-Congo movement, and has done excellent work in
Italy. From his own sources of information he confirms and amplifies all
that the English and Americans have asserted. Speaking in the Italian
Parliament on February 4th, 1907, Signor Santini said:

    "I am proud to have been the first to bring the question of the Congo
    before this House. If at the present day we are spared the shame of
    seeing again officers of our Army, valorous and perfectly stainless,
    serving under and at the orders of an association of sweaters,
    slave-holders and barbarians, it is legitimate for me to declare that
    I have, if only modestly, at least efficaciously, co-operated in this
    result."

There is no conflict of creeds in such an utterance as that.

Catholic papers have occasionally spoken out bravely upon the subject.

_Le Patriote_, of Brussels (Royalist and Catholic), in its issue of
February 28th, 1907, has an indignant editorial:

    "The rebellion in the A.B.I.R. territory extends. The Government
    itself forces the rubber, and delivers it on the Antwerp quay to the
    brokers of the A.B.I.R.... Nothing is altered on the Congo. The same
    abominable measures are adopted; the same outrages take place.... The
    Government is adopting the same measures as in the Mongalla, flooding
    the A.B.I.R. territory with soldiers to utterly smash the people, whom
    it thinks will then work, and the rubber output be increased.... The
    memory of these deeds will remain graven in the memory of men, and in
    the memory of Divine vengeance. Sooner or later the executioners will
    have to render an account to God and to history."

There is one order of the Catholic Church which has always had a most
noble record in its treatment of native races. These are the Jesuits. No
one who has read the "History of Paraguay," or studied the records of the
Missions to the Red Indians of the eighteenth century, can forget the
picture of unselfish devotion which they exhibit. Father Vermeersch, a
worthy successor of such predecessors, has published a book, "La Question
Congolaise," in which he finds nothing incompatible between his position
as a Catholic and his exposure of the abuses of the Congo.

In all points the position of Father Vermeersch and of the English
Reformers appears to be identical.

On the rightful possession of the land by the natives he writes in terms
which might be a paragraph from Mr. Morel:

    "On the Congo the land cannot be supposedly vacant. Presumption is in
    favour of occupation, of a full occupation. By this is meant that it
    is not sufficient to recognize to the natives rights of tenure over
    the land they actually cultivate, or certain rights of
    usage--wood-cutting, hunting, fishing--on the remainder of the
    territory; but these rights of usage, which are much more important
    than with us, appear to imply a full _animus domini_, and to signify a
    complete appropriation, which is carried out amongst us in different
    fashion. It is not, in effect, indispensable in natural law that I
    should exhaust the utility of an article or of land in order to be
    able to claim it as my own; it suffices that I should make use of it
    in a positive manner, but of my own will, personally, and that I
    should have the will to forbid any stranger to use it without my
    consent. Hence effective occupation is joined to intention, and all
    the constituent elements to a valid title of property exist. Let us
    suppose, moreover, that some great Belgian landowner wishes to convert
    portions of his property into sporting land--that land, nevertheless,
    remains in his entire possession. Amongst the Congo natives, no doubt,
    occupation is usually collective; but such occupation is as worthy of
    respect as no matter what individual appropriation."

He continues:

    "To whom does the rubber belong which grows upon the land occupied by
    the Congo natives? To the natives, and to no one else, without their
    consent and just compensation."

Again:

    "To sum up, we recognize it with much regret, the State's
    appropriation of so-called vacant land on the Congo confronts us with
    AN IMMENSE EXPROPRIATION."

He makes a bold attack upon King Leopold's own preserve:

    "Humanity, whose cause we plead, Christian rights, whose principles we
    endeavour to inculcate, compel us to touch briefly upon a curious and
    mysterious creation which is peculiar to the Congo State--the _Domaine
    de la Couronne_."

    "What are the revenues of this mysterious civil personality?
    Estimates, more or less conjectural in nature, elaborated by M.
    Cattier appear to establish the profits from the exploitation of
    rubber alone, at eight to nine millions of francs per annum. M. le
    Comte de Smet de Naeyer reduces this figure to four or five millions.
    Short of positive data one can only deal in conjectures. But we regret
    still more that an impenetrable veil hides from sight all that takes
    place in the territory of this _Domaine_. IT IS EIGHT OR TEN TIMES THE
    SIZE OF BELGIUM, AND THROUGHOUT THIS VAST EXTENT OF TERRITORY THERE IS
    NEITHER MISSIONARY NOR MAGISTRATE."

Only one missionary at that date had entered this dark land, and his
exclamation was: "The Bulgarian atrocities are child's play to what has
taken place here."

Father Vermeersch then proceeds to deal with the Congo balance-sheets. His
criticism is most destructive. He shows at considerable length, and with a
fine grasp of his subject, that there is really no connection at all
between the so-called estimate and the actual budget. In the course of the
State's development there is an excess running to millions of pounds which
has never been accounted for. In this Father Vermeersch is in agreement
with the equally elaborate calculations of Professor Cattier, of Brussels.

He puts the economical case in a nutshell thus:

    "X----, District Commissioner, commits every day dozens of offences
    against individual liberty. What can be done? These violations of the
    law are necessitated by a great enterprise which must have workmen. In
    such cases the intervention of the magistrate would be a ruinous
    imprudence, calculated to bring trouble into the region."

    "But the law?"

    "Oh, law in the Congo is not applicable!"

    "But if you offered a decent remuneration, would you not get free
    labour?"

    "That is precisely what the State will not listen to. It maintains
    that the enterprise must be carried out for nothing!"

And disposes once again of the "forty hours a month" fiction:

    "It is IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE STATE TO OBTAIN THE AMOUNT OF RUBBER IT
    SELLS ANNUALLY, BY LABOUR LIMITED TO FORTY HOURS A MONTH, especially
    when it is borne in mind that a number of these hours are absorbed in
    other _corvées_. Of two things one, therefore. Either the surplus is
    furnished freely; and if so, how can coercion be logically argued? Or
    this supplementary labour is forced; and if so, the law of forty hours
    is shown to be merely a fraud."

He shows the root causes of the evil:

    "So long as an inflexible will fixes in advance the quantity of rubber
    to be obtained; so long as instructions are given in this form:
    'Increase by five tons your rubber output per month' (instance given
    by Father Cus and van Hencxthoven in their report), we cannot await
    with confidence a serious improvement, which is the desire of all...."

    "The Governor-General dismisses and appoints magistrates at his will,
    suspends the execution of penalties; even sends back, if need be,
    gentlemen of the gown to Europe. Who does not realize the grave
    inconvenience of this dependence? That is not all. No proceedings can
    be attempted against a European without the authority of the
    Governor-General."

And, finally, his reasons for writing his book:

    "The contemplation of an immeasurable misery has caused us to publish
    this book. The gravity of the evil, its roots causes, had long escaped
    us. When we knew them we could not retain within ourselves the
    compassion with which we were imbued, and we resolved to tell the
    citizens of a generous country, appealing to their religion, to their
    patriotism, to their hearts."

Surely after such evidence from such a source there must be some
heart-searchings among those higher members of the Catholic hierarchy,
including both Cardinals and Bishops, who have done what they could to
cripple the efforts of the reformers. Misinformed through their own want
of care in searching for the truth, they have stood before the whole world
as the defenders of that which will be described by the historian as the
greatest crime in history.

XI

THE EVIDENCE UP TO DATE

I shall now append some extracts from the reports of several British
Vice-Consuls and Consuls sent in during the last few years. These bear
less upon outrages, which have admittedly greatly decreased, but mainly
upon the general condition of the people, which is one of deplorable
poverty and misery--a slavery without that care which the owner was bound
to exercise over the health and strength of the slave. I shall give
without comment some extracts from the reports of Vice-Consul Mitchell,
which date from July, 1906:

    "Most of the primitive bridges over the numerous creeks and marshes
    had rotted away, and we had some difficulty in crossing on fallen
    trees or a few thin sticks. This was the case all the way to Banalya,
    and I may here state that this condition of the roads, even of the
    most frequented, is universal in this province. The reason is that the
    local authorities have neither men, means, nor time at their disposal
    for the making of decent roads. _The parsimony of the State in this
    respect is the more remarkable in the 'Domaine Privé,' whence large
    amounts are derived, and where next to nothing is expended._

    "So long as the policy of the State Government is to extract all it
    can from the country, while using only local materials, and spending
    the least possible amount on development and improvements, no increase
    in the general well-being can be expected....

    "... At all the posts on the north (right) bank, between Yambuya and
    Basoko, I found the European agents absent in the interior, and at
    Basoko itself only the doctor was left in charge, all the rest of the
    staff _being away_ '_en expédition_,' that is, on punitive
    expeditions.

    "I stayed at Basoko for five days, partly at Dr. Grossule's request,
    and partly in the endeavour to learn something of the operations
    going on in the interior. Three canoe-loads of prisoners arrived, all
    heavily loaded with chains. But all I could learn was that they were
    sent in by Lieutenant Baron von Otter, who had been sent to the
    promontory lying between the mouth of the Aruwimi and the Congo to
    enforce the Labour Ordinances.

    "In all the Basenji villages through which I have passed on my two
    journeys, the natives assert that it _takes them three weeks every
    month to find and make their tale of rubber, besides taking it once
    every three months to the State post, from four to six days distant_.

    "This country is taxed to the utmost, not one penny of the proceeds of
    which is spent on the roads. This condition of the most important
    highway in the province is nothing less than disgraceful, and yet this
    is the road of which the authorities are really proud.

    "Thus, with the exception of a trivial payment for some things, the
    Government carries on the work of the country at no expense beyond the
    wages and the European rations of the white agents, and these are
    excessively few in number. It is true there are the _Force Publique_
    and some _travailleurs_. These are recruited by conscription and
    receive pay and rations, but it is at the lowest possible rate....

    "Coming to the Basenji, the following particulars of a village in the
    forest will show their liabilities. This village has fourteen adult
    males; its neighbour, which works with it, the chiefs being brothers,
    has nine. Each man has to take to the State post a large basket,
    holding about twenty-five pounds of rubber, once every month and a
    half. To get this rubber, though they find it only one day's journey
    distant, takes them thirty days. It then takes them five days to carry
    it to the State post, and three days to return. Thus they spend
    thirty-eight days out of forty-five in the compulsory service of the
    State. For the basket of rubber they receive 1 kilog. of salt,
    nominally worth 1 fr. The chief receives 1 kilog. of salt for the
    whole. If the rubber is deficient in quality or quantity, the man is
    liable to be whipped and imprisoned without trial. As it is supposed
    to be the equivalent of the forty hours' monthly labour, I fail to see
    by what right the man can be held responsible for the quality, even if
    he wilfully adulterates it with other substances.

    "The people are all disheartened, and are unanimously of the opinion
    that they were better off under the Arabs, whose rule was
    intermittent, and from whom they could run away....

    "I must say that during more than nineteen years' experience in
    Northern and Central Africa, _I have never seen such a miserably poor
    lot as the Basenji in this State_....

    "It is perfectly clear that the Inspectors, however conscientious,
    hard-working, and faithful they may be, _cannot remedy the excessive
    impositions on the natives under the present system_....

    "The grant of land and seed to the natives is of _absolutely no use_
    to them _till they are left time to use them_....

    "To say that the State cannot afford the expense is absurd. The Congo
    is taxed unmercifully, and I do not suppose any country has less money
    spent upon it. The taxpayer gets literally nothing in return for the
    life of practical slavery he has to spend in the support of the
    Government.

    "If trade and navigation were really free, and guarded by proper
    police, German trade through Ujiji, which already exists to some
    extent, might be greatly developed, as well as that with the British
    colonies and Zanzibar.

    "The operations of the Dutch traders, who up to a few months ago had
    quite a considerable fleet of steamers on the Upper Congo and its
    affluents, and of the French at Brazzaville, and of the Portuguese,
    would also benefit greatly.

    "_All these have practically disappeared from the Upper Congo._

    "Here, as elsewhere, the natives appeared to me to be so heavily taxed
    as to be depressed and to regard themselves as practically enslaved by
    the 'Bula Matadi.' The incessant call for rubber, food and labour,
    leaves them no respite nor peace of mind."

The following are extracts from Vice-Consul Armstrong's report, dated
October, 1906:

    "As the result of my journey through this portion of the country, I am
    forced to the conclusion that the condition of the people in the
    A.B.I.R. territory _is deplorable_, and although those living in the
    vicinity of the mission stations are, comparatively speaking, safe
    from ill-treatment by the rubber agents and their armed sentries,
    those in other parts are subjected to the gravest abuses.

    "There is no free labour, the natives being forced to work at a
    totally inadequate wage. In visiting the various rubber-working towns,
    one would expect to see some signs of European commodities that had
    been given in exchange for the millions of pounds' worth of rubber
    that has been extracted from them, but the native residents possess
    actually nothing at all.

    "_Their conditions of living are deplorable_, and the filth and
    squalor of their villages is only too apparent. _The people live in a
    state of uncertainty as to the advent of police officers and soldiers,
    who invariably chase them from their abodes and destroy their huts,
    and for this reason it is impossible for them to better their
    condition of living by the construction of suitable dwellings._

        "_No change of system to be looked for._

    "No change in the existing system can be looked for until a more
    reasonable method of taxation is adopted. The present system permits
    the rubber agents to extract the largest possible quantity of rubber
    from the native at the lowest possible wage, and allows the employment
    of armed sentries to enforce this deplorable system."

In these despatches Vice-Consul Armstrong gives evidence of a plot against
the sturdy Mr. Stannard upon the part of the infamous A.B.I.R. Company.
Their idea, no doubt, was to break down his health and embitter his
existence by successive law-suits. In May of 1906, the natives of a
village called Lokongi rose up against his murderous sentries and burned
their houses. A charge was at once made against Mr. Stannard of having
instigated them to this very natural and commendable action. Natives had
been suborned or terrified into giving evidence against him, and it might
have gone ill with him had it not been for the prompt action of the
Consul. He set off for the village, accompanied by Mr. Stannard and the
A.B.I.R. director. The natives were assembled and asked to speak the
truth. They said, without hesitation, that Mr. Stannard had had nothing to
do with the matter, but that the representatives of the company had
threatened to torture them unless they said that he had. The A.B.I.R.
director held his peace before these revelations and had no explanation to
offer. Consul Armstrong then pointed out to the Public Prosecutor in good,
straight terms, which his official superiors might well imitate, that the
matter had gone far enough, that English patience was almost exhausted,
and that Mr. Stannard should be baited no longer. The case was dropped.

I shall pass straight on now to the most recent reports received from the
Congo, to show that there is no difference at all in the general
condition, so far as it is reported by the impartial men at the spot, save
that the actual killings and maimings have decreased. The great oppression
and misery of the people seem to grow rather than abate. The following
extracts are from Consul Thesiger's report of his experiences in the
Kasai Company's district. This company, it may be worth remarking, has
paid the enormous dividend of seven hundred per cent. The first paragraph
may be commended to the consideration of those British or American