The Congo has not the most enviable climate in the world. The maladies contracted there are often debilitating, and things are seen and things are described through the malady, which distorts the _morale_ and changes the optic. I had on the Congo under my orders 300 men—English, Germans, Dutch, Portuguese, Belgians. There were 80 English, but the majority were Belgians. I found no difference between them. All did their best, according to their means. All were, in the course of duty, the object of some charge. I examined the charges minutely, and always found them to be without foundation. That did not prevent these stories reaching Banana, and from there Europe. Well, that is what happened on the Congo in my time; that is what is happening there to-day. The sentiment that inspires the charges against the Congo is jealousy. The Congo is succeeding better than any other State of Africa. I do not think that the Congo State would be administered better by France, the United States, or Germany. Under French administration the Congo would retrogress. Germany would content itself with fortifying it in a military sense. And commerce does not develop when it is covered with a coat of mail. Germany does not permit and will not permit the English to penetrate into its territory, except under certain restrictions. England would not have managed the Congo better than King Leopold has done if she had been mistress of it, as she might have become in 1877. The white man must remain master of the Congo. Drive him out of it, and you will see war arise anew between one native village and another, a return to barbarism. It is difficult to govern so vast a country; yet, in a limited number of years, the King of the Belgians has put an end to the horrible Arab slave trade. I do not think there is another sovereign living who has done so much for humanity as Leopold II. SIR HARRY JOHNSTON, G.C.M.G., K.C.B. About a year previous to the publication of Stanley’s vindication of the Congo Administration, appeared a remarkable book, entitled _The Uganda Protectorate_, written by the distinguished English traveller, Sir Harry Johnston, from which the following passage is taken: