[Sidenote: “Change in all Around.”] But now with more than nine thousand miles of waterways open to navigation, few sections of this immense domain are to-day inaccessible. Great areas which but a few years ago were virgin forests are now under successful cultivation. The jungle, once the lair of the cannibal, is safe and peaceful. Where the raider ravished his shrieking victims, the State and the Mission instruct in the attributes of a useful life. Chaos has at last yielded to order, and another triumph has been added to civilisation in the short term of twenty years. It is a great story, and the Prince who wrote it on the face of Africa need not deign to hear the hiss of envy straining at the gorge. Let Leopold II. find consolation in that rugged philosophy of Carlyle which mocked at the timid temper of his own time: “To subdue mutiny, discord, widespread despair by manfulness, justice, mercy and wisdom, to let light on chaos and make it instead a green flowery world, is great beyond all other greatness, work for a God.” CHAPTER VI THE STATE AND INTERNATIONAL LAW In view of the confused controversy that has prevailed between the friends and the enemies of the Congo Free State, concerning its legal foundation and its existence _de facto_ before the Conference of the Powers which recognised its statehood at Berlin (November 15, 1884-February 26, 1885), it seems pertinent at this point to examine the issue at some length. [Sidenote: Central Africa Reviewed.] For unknown centuries Central Africa had been peopled with many millions of savage, semi-savage, and barbarian black men, hidden from all civilising influence. Their social condition varied. Many were cannibals, some were living in a rude state of primitive tribal order, others were at incessant war with hostile tribes, all were living in the gloom of an interminable night of barbaric existence. Their only touch with the human family had been through the slave trade, of which they were the object and the victims. The white man knew of their lot in this respect many years before he listened attentively to an appeal for deliverance from the Arab marauders who enslaved them. The natural law of human solidarity had not as yet inspired civilised nations with an energetic movement to ameliorate the condition of the savage black in Mid-Africa. Indeed, Stanley’s explorations had not gone to completion save for the enlightened and philanthropic moral and material support of Leopold II. When Great Britain declined to provide Stanley with the means to further his brave work, the King of the Belgians, having several years before openly associated himself with sentiments seeking the organisation of a consistent civilising movement in Central Africa, sent for this intrepid explorer and fortified his hopes and plans from his private purse. It was with the highest motives, from an elevated point of view, that his Majesty considered the situation of these cannibal tribes.