Nature has here been so prodigal of her gifts that her very extravagance renders in some respects the task of colonisation less easy. Before roads could be built it was necessary to hew down huge forests; before stations could be established it was needful to explore and to conquer the wilderness. The paths that plunged into the jungle ended in trackless solitudes. The vastnesses bristled with unknown terrors. There was call for the explorer and the pioneer, but it seemed as if ages must elapse before there was need of the carriers of commerce. To conduct broad highways from the coast to the centre, through a territory so vast in extent, so dangerous, and so impenetrable, would seem indeed a task for centuries. Such, too, it is safe to assume, would still be the situation had it not been for the magnificent water-system of the region and the great colonising genius who turned its natural destiny to the civilising course of an onward industry. Without these splendid flowing highways of commerce, pulsing from the heart of the continent to the sea, the wonderful progress of the last quarter of a century would not have been possible. Following the lead of the Congo and its tributaries, Belgian pioneers have moved through the great wilderness, planting the plough and the cross, until to-day Central Africa, so long curtained from the eyes of civilised man, lies bare to the world. It was by this instrument that the siege of the great unknown was prosecuted. It was thus that that citadel of despair, the stronghold of Darkest Africa, was subjugated. And as we look at the magnificent results, and at the still more magnificent future which those results foreshadow, we cannot but conclude that this natural aid to the efforts of a heroic band of explorers was more than the mere manifestation of blind chance. [Sidenote: King and Journalist.] The campaign of exploration planned by King Leopold, and executed by his courageous subjects and his able ally, Stanley, was the first of those remarkable achievements of practical utility that have no parallel in the history of modern colonisation. In the Congo and its affluents these State-builders found a providential and generous auxiliary. These wide rivers, the veins of the civilisation of the Congo, are the key to a situation of which triumphant Belgian sacrifice and valour in Central Africa will yet perfect the sequel. To the existence of these natural allies, then, is largely due the speedy extirpation of the slave trade, the suppression of cannibalism, the control of the country, the gradual conversion of its populations to the saving influences of civilisation, the effective system of communication between port and port, and the beginnings of the development of those vast resources which already excite the cupidity of nations less successful. Indeed, without such advantage it is doubtful whether the King of the Belgians would have been equal to the onerous responsibilities he so cheerfully assumed.