CHAPTER XXIII.

THE WONDERFUL RESOURCES OF THE CONGO.

The Messengers of King Leopold II. of Belgium -- Meet Stanley at Marseilles, France -- Object of the Interview -- Another Expedition to Africa, to Explore the Congo in the Interests of Commerce -- The Comité d’Etudes du Haut Congo -- Object of the Expedition Defined -- Stanley Returns to Africa -- Arrival at the Mouth of the Congo -- Commercial Possibilities of the Congo Basin -- Railways Necessary -- The Population -- Statistics of Trade -- Products of the Immense Forests -- Marvellous Beauty of the Country -- Vegetable Products -- Palms -- India-Rubber Plants -- The Orchilla -- Redwood Powder -- Vegetable Fibres -- Skins of Animals -- Ivory -- The Climate -- Importance of the Expedition, both Commercially and Politically -- Stanley Returns to England.

The Dark Continent had been traversed from east to west, its great lakes, the Victoria Nyanza and the Tanganyika, had been circumnavigated, and the Congo River had been traced from Nyangwe to the Atlantic Ocean. The members of the late exploring expedition had been taken to their homes, the living had been worthily rewarded, and the widows and orphans had not been neglected.

When Stanley finally reached Europe in January, 1878, slowly recovering from the effects of famine and fatigue endured on that long journey, little did he imagine that before the close of the same year he should be preparing another expedition for the banks of that river on which he had suffered so greatly. But on arriving at the Marseilles railway station, in France, he was met by two commissioners from His Majesty, the King of the Belgians, Leopold II., who informed him that the King proposed doing something substantial for Africa, and that he expected him to assist him in the work. To this Stanley’s reply was: “I am so sick and weary that I cannot think with patience of any suggestion that I should personally conduct another expedition. Six months hence, perhaps, I should view things differently; but at present I cannot think of anything more than a long rest and sleep.”

However, after having enjoyed a season of quiet rest, regaining his wonted strength and health, upon the continent, during which time he became the recipient of many honors wherever he went, he was induced by the society called Comité d’Etudes du Haut Congo of Belgium, to undertake another expedition into Africa--this one directed to a survey and exploration of the river Congo.

The object of this expedition was defined by the society in these words:

“Within the vast basin known in geographical parlance as the basin of the Congo there is a vast field lying untouched by the European merchant and about three-fourths unexplored by the geographical explorer. For the most part it is peopled by ferocious savages, devoted to abominable cannibalism and wanton murder of inoffensive people; but along the great river towards the Livingstone Falls there dwell numerous amiable tribes who would gladly embrace the arrival of the European merchant, and hasten to him with their rich produce to exchange for Manchester cloths, Venetian beads, brass, wire, hardware and cutlery, and such other articles as generally find favor with friendly Africans.

“Our purpose is threefold--philanthropic, scientific, as well as commercial. It is philanthropic, inasmuch as our principal aim is to open the interior by weaning the tribes below and above from that suspicious and savage state which they are now in, and to rouse them up to give material aid voluntarily. Our purpose is also scientific, because we intend to make a systematic survey of that country lying between the Stanley Pool and Boma, either on the north or the south side of the Congo, and to determine with exactitude the positions of all important towns and villages, and all prominent points which shall be of interest to the geographer and the merchant. Our aims are commercial also, because we intend to experiment how far people may venture into commercial relationship with the tribes above, by inviting them to exchange such products as they may possess for the manufactured goods of civilized States.”

On the 12th of August, 1877, Stanley had arrived at Banana Point, after crossing Africa and descending its greatest rivers. On the 14th of August, 1879, two years later, he again arrived before the mouth of this river to ascend it, with the novel mission of “sowing along its banks civilized settlements, to peacefully conquer and subdue it, to remould it in harmony with modern ideas into National States, within whose limits the European merchant shall go hand in hand with the dark African trader, and justice and law and order shall prevail, and murder and lawlessness and the cruel barter of slaves shall forever cease.”

And what have been the results of this second exploration of the mighty Congo? Want of space will not permit us to follow the fortunes of Stanley in the course of his ascent of the great river, of the new discoveries made, and of the complete survey he made of its tortuous line; but we shall give a brief outline of the great work he performed, and an account of the wonderful resources which he has shown this remarkable region of country to possess.

On the commercial possibilities of this region, Stanley’s recent communications show no change as to his views of African promises to commercial enterprise.

He holds that there is less sickness by half in the Congo basin, even in its present unprepared condition, than there is in the bottom lands of Arkansas. The great basins of the Nile, Congo, Niger and Shari, he thinks, furnish fine opportunities for commercial exploit. But these require railways to connect their upper basins with the sea. About 800 miles of railroad, he says, properly directed, would open to the world of commerce 22,600 miles of river bank of these four streams. But $17,000,000 of capital would be required to build this railway. The area of country and the masses of population which it would make immediately accessible, according to careful calculation, are: Congo basin, 1,090,000 statute square miles, 43,000,000 population; Nile basin, 660,000 square miles, 23,760,000 population; Niger basin, 440,000 square miles, 8,800,000 population; Shari basin, 180,000 square miles, 5,400,000 population. Total for four basins, 2,370,000 square miles; 80,960,000 population, or one-fourth more than the total population of the United States.

The least explored portion of the African coast line, 2900 miles long, is that from the Gambia to St. Paul de Loanda, which gives an annual trade of $160,000,000. The banks of these four rivers, if equally developed, ought to furnish a trade seven and a half times greater, or $1,200,000,000. The gross sum required to create this enormous trade is only $17,000,000.

Supposing that a continent abounding with tropic produce, populated by 81,000,000 of working people, and showing a coast line of 22,600 miles in length, suddenly rose from the bosom of the Atlantic, imagine the scramble for possession which would be made by the Powers. Yet here are four river basins offered to civilization at the rate of 1³⁄₄ pence per acre, with an annual trade of over three shillings per acre almost guaranteed. Any two rich men in Great Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Spain, Portugal or Sweden and Norway may combine together and build the Congo Railway. “I have a strong hope,” said Stanley, “that Manchester will unite with Berlin, Paris and Brussels in the subscription of $3,000,000 to build this railway.” The Congo basin, Stanley thinks, is much more promising than the Mississippi basin was previous to its development.

“The forests on the banks of the Congo,” he says, “are filled with precious redwood, lignum vitæ, mahogany and fragrant gum trees. At their base may be found inexhaustible quantities of fossil gum, with which the carriages and furniture of civilized countries are varnished. Their barks exude myrrh and frankincense; their foliage is draped with orchilla weed, useful for dye. The redwood, when cut down, chipped and rasped, produces a deep crimson powder, giving a valuable coloring; the creepers, which hang in festoons from tree to tree, are generally those from which india-rubber is produced; the nuts of the oil-palm give forth a butter, while the fibres of others will make the best cordage. Among the wild shrubs are frequently found the coffee plant. In its plains, jungles and swamps luxuriate the elephant, whose teeth furnish ivory worth from eight shillings to eleven shillings per pound. If we speak of prospective advantages, the copper of Lake Superior is rivaled by that of the Kwiln-Niadi Valley and of Bembi. Rice, cotton, tobacco, maize, coffee, sugar and wheat would thrive equally well on the broad plains of the Congo. I have heard of gold and silver.”

And Stanley also gives the testimony of many others, who have traversed the regions of country bounding the course of the Congo. Tippoo Tib, the great Arab trader in the interior, who has traversed the southeast portion of this section, describes his astonishment at the density of the population. He had passed through several towns which took a couple of hours to traverse, told of the beauty of savannah, park, and prairie country he saw, and how the sight of the camp left in the morning might be seen from the evening camp after a six hours’ march.

Dr. Schweinfurth says: “From the Wellé to the residence of the Monbuttu King, Munza, the way leads through a country of marvellous beauty, an almost unbroken line of the primitively simple dwellings extending on either side of the caravan route.”

“The vegetable productions of this section,” says Stanley, “are rich and varied; but until intercourse is facilitated, little use will be made of them. This might be readily surmised from the country’s bisection by the equatorial line, the ten months’ rains, and the humid warmth which nourishes vegetation with extraordinary prolific power.”

The most remarkable among the vegetable growths are the palms, of which there are an immense variety; but the most useful to commerce is the oil-palm. Its nut supplies the dark red palm-oil so well known on the west coast, while its kernel is valuable for oil-cake for cattle. Not a grove, nor an island scarcely, can be found without this beautiful and most useful palm; in some places, such as the district between the lower Lumani and Congo, there are entire forests of it.

The next most valuable product of the forest, as yet untouched in this region, is the india-rubber plant. There are three kinds of plants producing this article, but that which exudes from _Euphorbia_ is not so elastic in quality, although it may have its uses. “On the islands of the Congo,” says Stanley, “which in the aggregate cover an area of 3000 square miles with 800 square miles of the banks of the main river, I estimate that enough rubber could be collected in one year to pay for a Congo railway.”

Vast extents of forest are veiled with the orchilla moss. Between Iboko and Langa-Langa, Stanley saw a forest of about sixty miles in length draped with orchilla lying on the woods like a green veil. Every village contains its manufactured rolls of redwood powder, and few settlements between the equator and the Kwa could not furnish a few hundredweights at short notice. Every trading canoe floating on the upper Congo possesses among its salable wares a certain store of this universally-demanded article.

“For purely tropical scenes,” says Stanley, “I commend the verdurously rich isles in mid-Congo, between Iboko on the right bank and Mutembo on the left bank, with the intricate and recurrent river channels meandering between. There the rich verdure reflects the brightness of the intense sunshine in glistening velvet sheen from frond and leaf. The underwood presents varied colors, with their tufted tops or the climbing serpentine form of the llianes and their viny leaves. Each and all have their own separate and particular beauties of coloring that renders description impossible. At all times I believe the same refreshing gladness and vigor of tropical nature may be observed about this latitude. Some of the smallest islets seemed to be all aflame with crimson coloring, while the purple of the ipomœa and the gold and white of the jasmine and mimosa flowered, bloomed and diffused a sweet fragrance. Untainted by the marring hand of man, or by his rude and sacrilegious presence, these isles, blooming thus in their beautiful native innocence and grace, approached in aspect as near Eden’s loveliness as anything I shall ever see on this side of Paradise. They are blessed with a celestial bounty of florid and leafy beauty, a fulness of vegetable life that cannot possibly be matched elsewhere save where soil with warm and abundant moisture and gracious sunshine are equally to be found in the same perfection. Not mere things of beauty alone were these isles. The palms were perpetual fountains of a sweet juice, which when effervescing affords delight and pleasure to man. The golden nuts of other trees furnish rich yellow fat, good enough for the kitchen of an epicure, when fresh. On the coast these are esteemed as an article of commerce. The luxuriant and endless lengths of calamus are useful for flooring and verandah mats, for sun-screens on river voyages, for temporary shelters on some open river terrace frequented by fishermen, for fish-nets and traps, for field baskets, market hampers, and a host of other useful articles, but more especially for the construction of neat and strong houses, and fancy lattice-work. Such are the strong, cord-like creepers which hang in festoons and wind circuitously upward along the trunk of that sturdy tree. The pale white blossom which we see is the caoutchouc plant, of great value to commerce, and which some of these days will be industriously hunted by the natives of Iboko and Bolombo. For the enterprising trader, there is a ficus, with fleshy green leaves; its bark is good for native cloth, and its soft, spongy fibre will be of some use in the future for the manufacture of paper. Look at the various palms crowding upon one another! Their fibres, prepared by the dexterous natives of Bangala, will make the stoutest hawsers, the strength of which neither hemp, manilla fibre, nor jute can match; it is as superior to ordinary cord-threads as silk is to cotton. See that soft, pale-green moss draping those tree-tops like a veil! That is the orchilla weed, from which a valuable dye is extracted. I need not speak of the woods, for the tall, dark forests that meet the eye on bank and isle seem to have no end. We are banqueting on such sights and odors that few would believe could exist. We are like children ignorantly playing with diamonds. Such is the wealth of colors revealed every new moment to us, already jaded with the gorgeousness of the tropic world.”

The vegetation of the upper Congo is also remarkable for the quantities of fibres it produces for the manufacture of paper, rope, basket-work, fine and coarse matting and grass cloths.

In this region, among the many minor items available which commercial intercourse would teach the natives to employ profitably, are monkey, goat, antelope, buffalo, lion, and leopard skins; the gorgeous feathers of the tropic birds, hippopotamus teeth, beeswax, frankincense, myrrh, tortoise-shell, _cannabis sativa_, and lastly, ivory, which to-day is considered the most valuable product. “It may be presumed,” says Stanley, “that there are about 200,000 elephants in about 15,000 herds in the Congo basin, each carrying, let us say, on an average fifty pounds weight of ivory in his head, which would represent, when collected and sold in Europe, £5,000,000.

“For climate,” says Stanley, “the Mississippi Valley is superior; but a large portion of the Congo basin, at present inaccessible to the immigrant, is blessed with a temperature under which Europeans may thrive and multiply. There is no portion of it where the European trader may not fix his residence for years, and develop commerce to his profit with as little risk as is incurred in India.”

Thus we find Stanley has succeeded in solving the Congo problem. While other travellers have only speculated on the probable identity of the Lualala with the Congo, he has put the matter beyond a possible doubt. To his deeds of discovery on the Nyanza and Tanganyika, which have already been recounted, Stanley has, by his second tour of the Congo, added a fresh and incomparable triumph which will forever link his name with the history of the continent that his irresistible zeal has done so much to open up to civilization. His explorations will also have most important commercial and, it may be, political, results.

Having traversed the entire length of the Congo as far as Vivi, and made several exploring detours from that point, together with discharging the duties of his mission, Stanley sailed for home, arriving at Plymouth, England, on July 29th, 1884. Four days later he presented his report to His Majesty, the King of the Belgians, who was then spending the summer at Ostend.