Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, Volume 2Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
History
Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, Volume 2
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Africa, West -- Description and travel; Congo River -- Description and travel; Ethnology -- Africa, West
I have thus attempted to trace a picture of the Congo River in
the latter days of the slave-trade, and of its lineal descendant,
"L'Immigration Africaine." The people at large are satisfied, and
the main supporters of the traffic--the chiefs, the "medicine-
men," and the white traders--have at length been powerless to
arrest its destruction.
And here we may quote certain words of wisdom from the "Congo
Expedition" in 1816: "It is not to be expected that the effects
of abolition will be immediately perceptible; on the contrary, it
will probably require more than one generation to become
apparent: for effects, which have been the consequence of a
practice of three centuries, will certainly continue long after
the cause is removed." The allusion in the sentence which I have
italicized, is of course, to the American exportation--domestic
slavery must date from the earliest ages. These sensible remarks
conclude with advocating "colonization in the cause of
civilization;" a process which at present cannot be too strongly
deprecated.
That the Nzadi is capable of supplying something better than
slaves may be shown by a list of what its banks produce. Merolla
says in 1682: "Cotton here is to be gathered in great abundance,
and the shrubs it grows on are so prolific, that they never
almost leave sprouting." Captain Tuckey ("Narrative," p. 120)
declares "the only vegetable production at Boma of any
consequence in commerce is cotton, which grows wild most
luxuriantly, but the natives have ceased to gather it since the
English have left off trading to the river," I will not advocate
tobacco, cotton and sugar; they are indigenous, it is true, but
their cultivation is hardly fitted to the African in Africa.
Copper in small quantities has been brought from the interior,
but the mineral resources of the wide inland regions are wholly
unknown. If reports concerning mines on the plateau be
trustworthy, there will be a rush of white hands, which must at
once change, and radically change, all the conditions of the
riverine country. Wax might be supplied in large quantities; the
natives, however, have not yet learnt to hive their bees. Ivory
was so despised by the slave-trade, that it was sent from the
upper Congo to Mayumba and the other exporting harbours; demand
would certainly produce a small but regular supply.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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