The story of the Congo Free State : $b Social, political, and economic aspects of the Belgian system of government in Central AfricaWack, Henry Wellington
History
The story of the Congo Free State : $b Social, political, and economic aspects of the Belgian system of government in Central Africa
Wack, Henry Wellington
Belgium -- Colonies -- Africa -- Administration; Congo (Democratic Republic) -- History -- To 1908
The region around Tanganyika is noted for its beautiful scenery, and
a large part of it is said to be unusually healthful. Like Kivu, this
lake is situated in an immense plateau, six thousand feet above the
sea. The angular inclination and general configuration of all these
lakes in the eastern part of the Congo is, in fact, very similar;
each lake, however, has its individual scenery, climate, and peculiar
flora. Moore found Tanganyika floored with the shells of millions
of molluscs, the zoölogical remains of a dead sea. He discovered
here also three kinds of sponges. On the eastern shores abound huge
swamps and immense tracts of mimosa. The dark red cliffs on the West
Coast form a brilliant contrast to the blue African sky and the
white clouds. Between Tanganyika and Nyangwe, the old slave-capital
of Tippo Tip, the country is tenanted by the Manyema, famous as
collectors of ivory. Surveys are now being made for a railway from
Beni to Tanganyika. This it is proposed to continue to Stanleyville
on the Middle Congo.
Lake Moero, one hundred miles south-west of Tanganyika and the
south-eastern boundary between British territory and the State,
was discovered by Livingstone. It was first explored, however, by
the Belgian officers, Bia and Francqui. This lake, which is one
hundred miles long and about half as broad, is now patrolled by a
steam-yacht.
[Sidenote: Looking Backward.]
Only a few years ago the immense basin of the Congo was an untamed
wilderness, “a slave-park” Stanley called it, bare to raids of
murderous marauders. Bands of predatory Arabs swooping down upon the
defenceless natives decimated whole tribes, and carried away men,
women, and children by the thousand. The slave-trader stalked like a
pestilence through the land, leaving in his wake the smoking ruins of
a hundred villages and the charred skeletons of his black victims.
It was not only the natives who suffered from the raids of merciless
ravagers; but the Europeans, explorer, merchant, and missionary, were
also subject to their tyrannical impositions. And when, as in the
case of Emin Pasha, they opposed the designs of these despoilers,
they were ruthlessly murdered. Flame and sword, robbery and
massacre,—such, until ten years ago, were the chief episodes in the
epic of the Congo.
To-day this vast region is not only geographically determined,
occupied, and effectually protected, but the power of the Arab
raider has been for ever annihilated. Regions which for ages were
the scene of carnage and holocaust have now been pacified. Where
all was insecurity and turbulence a reign of law and order has been
substituted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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