CHAPTER XXIV.

FOUNDING OF THE FREE CONGO STATE.

The International Association seeks Recognition from Foreign Powers -- Treaty between England and Portugal -- Earl Granville -- Claims of Portugal -- Concession of England -- Protest of the United States -- Opposition in England -- King Leopold Obtains the Assistance of the German Chancellor and the Sympathies of the French Republic -- Prince Bismarck Protests -- Letter to Baron de Courcel, French Ambassador at Berlin -- The Baron’s Reply -- France and Germany in Accord -- Call for a Conference of the Powers at Berlin -- Conference Assembles -- Prince Bismarck Opens the Conference with an Address Stating its Object -- Mr. Stanley a Delegate -- Asked to give his Views -- Mr. Stanley’s Suggestions -- Deliberations of the Conference -- Results of the Conference -- Protocol Signed by all the Plenipotentiaries -- The United States the first to Publicly Recognize the Flag of the Free Congo State -- Honors to Mr. Stanley in Germany.

The expedition of the Upper Congo and the Bureau of the Association had now performed their duties, but the Royal Founder of the State was compelled, in order to insure its prosperity and continuity, as the work advanced, to apply to the various Governments of Europe and America for recognition, and for security and peaceful safeguards of its frontiers, to make treaties with France and Portugal, which would delimit the boundaries, and arrange with all of them for the preservation of neutrality.

The Association was in possession of treaties made with over 450 independent African chiefs, whose rights would be conceded by all to have been indisputable, since they held their lands by undisturbed occupation, by long ages of succession, by real divine right. Of their own free will, without coercion, but for substantial considerations, reserving only a few easy conditions, they had transferred their rights of sovereignty and of ownership to the Association. The time had arrived when a sufficient number of these had been made to connect the several miniature sovereignties into one concrete whole to present itself before the world for general recognition of its right to govern, and hold these in the name of an independent State, lawfully constituted according to the spirit and tenor of international law.

In consequence of negotiations entered into between the British and Portuguese Governments, beginning November, 1882, and ending February 25th, 1884, a treaty was finally concluded, by which the whole of the southwest African coast between S. latitude 5° 12´ and S. latitude 5° 18´ was recognized by the British Government as Portuguese territory. This included the lower Congo, of course, by which the territory of the Association became excluded from the sea. The treaty was signed on the 26th of February, 1884, by Earl Granville on the part of Great Britain, and by Senhor Miguel Martins d’ Antãs on behalf of the Government of Portugal.

Earl Granville however declared, previous to the signature of the treaty, that the acceptance by other Powers of the Anglo-Portuguese treaty was indispensable before it came into operation, and that there was reason to believe that this acceptance would be refused, which would necessarily delay the ratification.

Heretofore the territory now proposed to be given up to Portugal, so far as Great Britain was concerned, had been regarded as neutral; and the treaty, thus concluded, marked a radical change in British policy--for a long series of British Ministers had, during over half a century, peremptorily declined to recognize the Portuguese claims.

When the Anglo-Portuguese treaty was published the European Powers, especially France and Germany, emphatically protested against it, and in England men of all shades of politics combined to denounce it, principally through a fear that the restrictions imposed upon trade in other colonies belonging to Portugal would be so severe as to render commerce impossible in the Congo region.

The most signal protest came, however, from the United States Government. The United States Senate also, on the 10th of April, 1884, passed a resolution authorizing the President to recognize the International African Association as a governing power on the Congo River. This recognition gave birth to new life of the Association, seriously menaced as its existence was by opposing interests and ambitions, and the following of this example by the European Powers subsequently affirmed and secured its place among sovereign States. This act, the result of the well-considered judgment of the American statesmen, was greatly criticised abroad, as was the participation of the United States in the Berlin Conference, to which it directly led up, by the press of America. It was an act well worthy of the Great Republic, not only as taking the lead in publicly recognizing and supporting the great work of African civilization in history, and in promoting the extension of commerce, but of significant import in view of its interest for the future weal of 7,000,000 people of African descent within its borders.

The British Chambers of Commerce--notably those of Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow--resolutely opposed the treaty concluded with Portugal; but withal the strenuous opposition maintained to it in commercial circles and in the House of Commons, had not the Royal Founder of the Association obtained the assistance of the German Chancellor and the sympathies of the French Government, it is doubtful whether anything done in England would have succeeded in averting the effectual seal being put upon enterprise in the Congo basin by this treaty. Much more liberal terms would be needed to tempt Congress within its borders than any provisions that the treaty contained. Some such arrangement as that made by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, whereby liberty of navigation was proclaimed to the great rivers of Europe, such as the Rhine and the Danube, would be necessary; and now that an association had absorbed unto itself hundreds of petty sovereignties along a large portion of it, and France had proceeded in the same manner to absorb other portions of the Congo banks, while Portugal pressed her claims to territories washed by the great African river, it was absolutely and imperatively incumbent on the Powers to step forward and impose such obligations on the riveraine Powers as would not imperil or strangle the commerce already thriving on the banks of the lower Congo.

On the 7th of June, 1884, Prince Bismarck, in a communication to Count Munster, set forth his objections to the Anglo-Portuguese treaty, and concluded with the following words:

“In the interests of German commerce, therefore, I cannot consent that a coast of such importance, which has hitherto been free land, should be subjected to the Portuguese colonial system.”

In West African trade, Great Britain stood almost alone at one time. Her traders were busy on the Gambia, on the Roquelle, on the Gold Coast, at Lagos in the oil rivers, at Gaboon and Kabinda, and the Glasgow and Liverpool and Bristol merchants were represented by a host of agents, who had planted themselves at various points along the 2900 miles of coast; but of late years, through the apathy of the English merchants, Germany, by her enterprise, had also established herself at various places, and great houses like that of Woerman’s were looming upward, overtopping all individual English firms, which could number their factories by dozens and their agents by scores. Hamburg and Bremen were outrivalling Liverpool and Glasgow. Hence Germany had solid and substantial reasons for watching and jealously guarding her mercantile interests; and France, aided by the energy and talents of Monsieur de Brazza, in territories beyond and contiguous to the Gaboon colony, naturally wished to establish herself beyond dispute in the districts acquired by the devotion and intelligence of her agents. German _savants_ had explored territories unclaimed by any Power; German merchants were honestly established at certain places on the West African coast; out of the most intelligent and enterprising of the sons of Germany twenty-four geographical societies had been formed, and a dozen colonial associations, besides African societies, were being constituted in Germany. Already Bascian, Gussfeldt, Peschuel Loesche, Buchner, Von Mechow, Pogge, Weissman, had been equipped by a German African Society, and it was preparing to despatch more. These facts were published in the reviews and magazines. There was no secrecy in the movement. All was honest and above-board, and all the world was told of the modest effort Germany was making to expand its colonial strength.

Like the great statesman that he is, Prince Bismarck bent his genius to the creation of a sound system of colonial policy--not rashly, though to those without the orbit of his genius it might be supposed to be eccentric.

On the 13th of September he wrote to Baron de Courcel, French Ambassador at Berlin:

“Like France, the German Government will observe a friendly attitude towards the Belgian enterprises on the banks of the Congo, owing to the desire entertained by the two Governments to secure to their countrymen freedom of trade throughout the whole of the future Congo States, and in districts which France holds on the river, and which she proposes to assimilate to the liberal system which that State is expected to establish. These advantages will continue to be enjoyed by German subjects, and will be guaranteed to them in the event of France being called upon to exercise the right of preference accorded by the King of the Belgians in the contingency of the acquisitions made by the Congo Company being alienated!”

Baron de Courcel, in reply, stated that he had not failed to convey to his Government Prince Bismarck’s note, which in its substance was similar to the views they had exchanged at Varzin; also, that the French Republic was completely in accord with the Imperial Government of Germany about the desirability of arriving at a mutual understanding respecting the delimitation of territory over the west coast of Africa, especially where the German possessions border on those of the French. He likewise acknowledged that the friendly accord between the two Governments was connected with principles of the highest importance to trade in Africa, of which the chief are those which must govern the freedom of trade in the basin of the Congo. He also assented to the idea that whereas the African International Association, which had established a number of stations on the Congo, declares itself ready to admit that principle over all the territory under its control, France should grant freedom of trade over that which she now owns, or may hereafter own on the Congo, and that France declared her willingness to permit this freedom to continue in the event of her reaping the benefit of the arrangements touched upon by the Prince, which assures to France the right of preference in case of alienation of the territories acquired by the Association. He defined freedom of commerce to mean free access to all flags, and the interdiction of all monopoly or differential duties; but not excluding the establishment of taxes to compensate for useful expenditure incurred in the interests of commerce. While freely extending these beneficial concessions to commercial enterprise in the Congo basin, Baron de Courcel stated that France was not willing that Gaboon, Guinea or Senegal should share them; but solely the Congo and the Niger.

Prince Bismarck then, with the acquiescence of France, extended an invitation through the representatives of the different nations to a Conference to be held at Berlin on the 15th of November following. The sittings of this Conference were held in the German Chancellor’s palace on Wilhelmstrasse, in the same room where the Berlin Conference sat in 1878.

When the members of the Conference had assembled, Prince Bismarck rose to formally open it, and in a short address he declared that the Conference had met for the solution of three main objects, to wit:

1. The free navigation, with freedom of trade on the river Congo.

2. The free navigation of the river Niger.

3. The formalities to be observed for valid annexation of territory in future on the African continent.

To this conference Mr. Stanley had been appointed technical delegate for the United States, and was introduced by the American Minister in highly complimentary terms. On the expression of views by the several delegates, Mr. Stanley, when called upon in the order on the roll, arose and said:

“To define the geographical basin of the Congo, whether explored or unexplored, is a very easy matter, since every school-boy knows that a river basin, geographically speaking, includes all that territory drained by the river and its affluents, large and small. The Congo, unlike many other large rivers, has no fluvial delta. It issues into the Atlantic Ocean in one united stream between Shark’s Point on the south and Banana Point on the north, with a breadth of seven miles and an unknown depth. Soundings have been obtained over 1300 feet deep. The Niger has a fluvial delta extending over 180 miles of coast line. The Nile and the Mississippi have deltas extending over a considerable breadth of coast line; but when you ask me as to what I should consider as the commercial basin of the Congo, I am bound to answer you that the main river and its most important affluents running into it from the north and south and from the northeast and northwest, east and west, southeast and southwest, constitute means by which trade ascending the river and its affluents can influence a much larger amount of territory than is comprised within the geographical basin.

“For all practical purposes the geographical basin of the Congo might be permitted to stand for the commercial basin of the Congo as well. When we begin to consider the commercial outlets from this basin of the Congo we must bear in mind that they extend, as a commercial delta to a commercial basin, from St. Paul de Loanda, to the south of the mouth of the Congo, as far north and including the Ogowai River. Whereas much of the littoral through which the commercial delta debouches is already occupied, we find that the breadth of what may be considered as the free commercial delta of the commercial basin of the Congo extends along the coast line from 1° 25´ S. latitude to near 7° 50´ S. latitude 385 geographical miles, for the following reason: At Stanley Pool, 325 miles up the Congo from the sea, we encounter fleets of trading canoes which have descended the main river from as far up as the Equator, from the affluents Mohindu, or Black River, and the Kwango, or Kwa, who wait patiently months at a time for the caravans from Loango, the Kwilu, Landana, Kabinda, Zombo, Funta, Kinzas, Kinsembo, Ambrizette and other places on the coast, which bring European goods from the coast to Stanley Pool to exchange for the produce of the upper Congo, notably ivory, rubber and camwood powder; and after a time, having exchanged their goods, march back with such produce of the upper Congo as will repay transportation to the European traders settled along the free coast line of 385 geographical miles just mentioned. These various channels of trade, formed by uninstructed barbarism, may then well be compared to a commercial delta. To define the commercial basin of the Congo by boundaries is very simple after the above remarks, and I will describe them as follows: Commencing from the Atlantic Ocean, I should follow the line of 1° 25´ S. latitude east as far as 13° 13´ longitude east of Greenwich, and along that meridian north until the water-shed of the Niger-Binué is reached, thence easterly along the water-shed separating the waters flowing into the Congo from those flowing into the Shari, and continuing east along the water-parting between the waters of the Congo and those of the Nile and southerly and easterly along the water-shed between the waters flowing into the Tanganyika and those flowing into the affluents of Lake Victoria, and still clinging to the water-shed to the east of the Tanganyika southerly until the water-parting between the waters flowing into the Zambesi and those flowing into the Congo is reached; thence along that water-shed westerly until the headwaters of the main tributary of the Kwango, or Kwa, is reached, whence the line shown runs along the left bank of the river Kwango, or Kwa, to 7° 50´ S. latitude; thence straight to the Loge River, and thence along the left bank of that river westerly to the Atlantic Ocean. By this delimitation you will have comprised the geographical or commercial basin and its present commercial delta.”

Being asked by Baron de Courcel as to what might be the estimated value of the trade in the Congo basin, Mr. Stanley replied:

“The lower Congo and the immediate free littoral make a shore line 388 miles in length. This mileage produces a present trade of £2,800,000 annually. The upper Congo is much more fertile, and, as it has a river shore of 10,000 miles, it ought to produce, if equally developed, a trade worth £70,000,000 annually. Or, if we reckon it in this manner, from the river Gambia to Loanda, along a coast line of 2900 miles in length, there are employed forty-five steamers and eighty sailing vessels every year. The Congo basin, with river banks over three times longer, ought to employ, if equally developed and equally exploited, three times that number, or say 135 steamers and 240 sailing vessels.”

In answer to Hon. M. Kasson, U. S. Minister, when asked to explain if a further extension of the free commercial territory to the eastward would not be advantageous to commerce, Mr. Stanley proceeded to state, after briefly referring to his overland journey across the continent in the years 1874, 1875, 1876 and 1877, with some of its incidents, his reasons why the free commercial territory across Central Africa should be comprised within certain limits, which he then also briefly defined. And in conclusion said:

“I respectfully submit that the more unrestricted this spacious commercial domain shall be the sooner it will be subjected to the influences of Christianity, civilization and commerce. It bears within itself all the products required by the necessities of Europe, and all the elements that might be needed for its conversion from being an unproductive waste to be a material and moral profit to humanity. Within its bosom it contains nearly 80,000 square miles of lake water, the second largest river and river-basin in the world, fertility that no equatorial or tropical regions elsewhere can match, a population I should estimate at ninety millions of people, great independent native empires, kingdoms and republics, like Uganda, Ruanda, Unyoro, and the pastoral plain country like the Masai land, gold and silver deposits, abundant copper and iron mines, valuable forests producing priceless timber, inexhaustible quantities of rubber, precious gums and spices, pepper and coffee, cattle in countless herds, and people who are amenable to the courtesies of life, provided they are protected from the attacks of the lawless freebooter and the merciless wiles of the slave traders. These facts, I respectfully submit, are sufficient to justify me in suggesting that the more comprehensible yet simple limits just described should form the boundaries of the free commercial territory of Equatorial Africa, and that free, unrestricted means of access should be secured to it, both from the east as well as the west.”

The deliberations of the Berlin Conference were finally closed on February 26th, with the result that the International Association received satisfactory recognition from the several nations represented, and the limits of the respective colonial possessions of other nations in Africa were fully defined and set forth. The protocol was duly signed by all the plenipotentiaries, and published. Mr. Stanley in speaking of the labors of the Conference and its results, said: “Two European Powers emerge out of the elaborate discussions, protracted for such a long period principally through the adroitness and skill of Baron de Courcel and the concurrence of Prince Bismarck, with enormously increased colonial possessions. France is now mistress of a West African territory noble in its dimensions, equal to the best tropic lands for its productions, rich in mineral resources, most promising for its future commercial importance. In area it covers a superficies of 257,000 square miles, equal to that of France and England combined, with access on the eastern side to 5200 miles of river navigation; on the west is a coast line nearly 800 miles, washed by the Atlantic Ocean. It contains within its borders eight spacious river basins, and throughout all its broad surface of 90,000,000 squares hectares, not one utterly destitute of worth can be found.

“Portugal issues out of the Conference with a coast line 995 English miles in length, 351,500 square statute miles in extent--a territory larger than the combined areas of France, Belgium, Holland, and Great Britain. On the lower Congo its river bank is 103 miles in length.”

The International Association in return surrendered its claims to 60,366 squares miles of territory to France, and to Portugal 45,400 square miles, for which it also received 600 square miles of the north bank between Boma and the sea, and recognition of its remaining territorial rights from two powerful neighbors, Germany and England.

The territories surrendered by the Association have been consecrated to free trade, which, along with those recognized as belonging to the Association and which were pre-ordained for such uses, and those as yet unclaimed by any Power, but still reserved for the same privileges, form a domain equal to 1,600,000 square miles in extent, throughout which most exceptional privileges have been secured by the cordial unanimity of the riveraine of the United States and European Powers for commerce.

The merchant adventurer is fenced all about with guarantees against spoliation, oppression, vexation and worry, and his Consul, the representative of his Government, is charged with the jurisdiction of his person and property. At the gateway to the free commercial realm the Commissioner, with his colleagues, will have position, and will there remain to protect his interests.

These officials constitute a court of law called the International Commission, to whom he can always appeal for redress and protection. Only on the exportation of the produce he has collected can a moderate charge be made, sufficient to remunerate the riveraine Government for its expenditure. The liquor traffic is placed under proper control, slave-trading is prohibited, the missionary is entitled to special protection, and scientific expeditions to special privileges.

The United States Government was the first to publicly acknowledge the great civilizing work of King Leopold II. by recognizing the flag of the International Association of the Congo as that of a friendly government. This flag is a blue flag with a golden star in the centre.

Mr. Stanley while at Berlin, in attendance upon the sessions of the Conference, was the recipient of very marked attentions from the nobility, and had conferred upon him the rank of honorary membership in the leading geographical and scientific societies of Germany. He lectured in some of the most prominent cities upon the subject of Central Africa, and was listened to by large and appreciative audiences, who gave him most cordial and generous receptions.