_River-side Villages on the Upper Congo._ B 26 45 1.875 14 15 29 1.115 0.644 C 41 54 1.317 5 4 9 0.222 0.166 D 16 42 2.625 10 6 16 1 0.380 _Hinterland Village, Upper Congo._ E 31 69 2.225 23 20 43 1.387 0.623 _Remote Hinterland Village, Upper Congo._ F 196 319 1.627 171 148 319 1.627 1 In group “C,” the principal polygamist possessed fifteen wives, but only two children. Sixteen monogamists had no children. Group “A” is taken from the Kasai, where monogamy most widely prevails, but of the two hundred and one monogamists, one hundred and three had no children. The principal polygamists possessed six, eight and thirteen wives respectively. The two first had no children at all and the chief with thirteen wives had two boys and three girls. From these figures no deduction is possible as to the advantage of either polygamy or monogamy upon the question of birth rate. One deduction only is clear. The birth rates in the following order are with estimated distance from effective civilized Government:— Average birth-rate Distance from effective per woman. civilized Government. Group C 0.166 10 minutes’ walk ” D 0.380 30 ” ” ” A 0.477 1 hour’s ” ” E 0.623 1 ” ” ” B 0.644 1½ ” ” ” F 1 2 days’ ” The birth rate figures are lamentably low, and being selected from areas so widely apart give anything but an encouraging indication for the future of the Congo. The deductions from these figures is unmistakable and only confirms what one hears everywhere, not only in the Congo but all over the West Coast of the utter demoralization which is flooding these territories. The Congo is by far the worst. Europe was staggered at the Leopoldian atrocities and they were terrible indeed, but what we, who were behind the scenes, felt most keenly was the fact that the real catastrophe in the Congo was desolation and murder in the larger sense. The invasion of family life, the ruthless destruction of every social barrier, the shattering of every tribal law, the introduction of criminal practices which struck the chiefs of the people dumb with horror—in a word, a veritable avalanche of filth and immorality overwhelmed the Congo tribes. [Sidenote: THE ONLY HOPE]