The change in Equatorial Africa is nowhere more conspicuous than in that part described in Chapters XXI.-XXXIV. It may be imagined from the fact that a Brussels statistician has collected the titles of 3800 printed works which have been published since 1878 and refer to this part, and in his chronological table he records forty-eight separate explorations of the region. The progress of trade in the Congo basin can be best represented by the following brief table of imports and exports:— ──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬────────── │ Years. │ Imports. │ Exports. │ Total. │ ──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────── │ │ £ │ £ │ £ │ │ 1893 │ 367,004│ 300,592│ 667,596│ │ 1894 │ 447,789│ 441,268│ 889,057│ │ 1895 │ 427,434│ 485,426│ 912,860│ │ 1896 │ 609,111│ 603,645│ 1,212,756│ │ 1897 │ 887,258│ 698,284│ 1,585,542│ ──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴────────── The average value of the annual exports during each of the five preceding years (1888-92) amounted to only £207,921. From the inception of the Congo State in 1879 to the year 1890 the King of the Belgians personally defrayed all the expenditure; but on July 3rd, 1890, the Belgian Government came to His Majesty’s assistance with a lump sum of £200,000, and an annual subsidy, to last ten years, of £80,000 per annum. This amount, with the King’s personal subsidy, was for some years later the main support of the State; but in 1898 the revenue from all sources is estimated to amount to £590,608, while the expenditure is £99,477 in excess.