[37] For statistics supporting this statement, see page 287. [38] Sale of Government Land in the Anglo-Egyptian Soudan, _Times_ (London), July 18, 1904. [39] _Annual Colonial Report_, Lagos, 1899. [40] Approximately twenty-four and one-half acres. [41] Two Liverpool firms, Messrs. Hatton & Cookson and John Holt & Co., have alone figured in the cases brought before the Courts of Libreville. [42] Italics by the author. [43] See Appendix. CHAPTER XXIX THE NEMESIS OF LIBEL On Friday, the 25th of March, 1904, in the King’s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice, London, the case of Captain Henri Joseph Leon De Keyser, and his colleagues-in-arms, Commandants Chaltin and Dubreucq, against Captain Guy Burrows, an Englishman, one time in the service of the Congo Free State, and his publishers, Messrs. R. A. Everett & Co., London, came on for trial before Mr. Justice Ridley and a special jury. The trial of this action for libel is the first which has, so far, been determined against those who are charged with traducing the men whose courage in, and devotion to, the Congo cause has erected a prosperous State in the heart of savage Africa. The case irradiates much that has been long proceeding in Great Britain, and that has recently received significant impetus in the United States through the action of certain persons operating from the city of Boston. The author has no acquaintance with any of the parties to this case, but deems it incumbent upon one who essays to write a full history of the Congo Free State to include an account of litigation which in its proceedings and result reveals and explains many things with which the present work will not otherwise specifically deal. Belgian officers brought this action against an English officer, whom they charged with libel and attempted blackmail, before a British jury. Captain Guy Burrows, the defendant, had published a book containing false statements of atrocities in the Congo. He had followed the Liverpool and Boston custom of attributing villainy to the officers of the Congo State Government. But unlike the Liverpool and Boston general allegations, Captain Burrows attributed the wrongful acts to Captain De Keyser and Commandants Chaltin and Dubreucq. What the Court thought of the case as it sensationally unfolded itself may be gleaned from the observations and summing up of Mr. Justice Ridley. What the jury felt is indicated in its verdict for damages against the defendants in all the cases. To ensure the fairest statement of this interesting and informing suit, the following quotations, _verbatim et literatim_, are taken from a stenographic report of the trial.