Thus did Stanley work from point to point along the river to establish stations, which later were to form the links by which the State was to be held in peace and harmony, in civilization and progression.
The achievements of Stanley's expedition were wonderful, when we consider that he had held councils and made treaties with more than four hundred and fifty chiefs.
As a result, these "great men" had sold to him, for large sums in the "currency" of their territory, tracts of land which they or their ancestral fathers, had owned for countless ages. With the transfer of land they had also yielded their rights as rulers, and given to the new owners the rights and the privileges belonging to a sovereign. Thus was laid the foundation of the present Congo Free State.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE LAKE REGION OF AFRICA.
Almost all the lakes of Africa are, comparatively speaking, quite shallow, and bear evidence of being the remains of much greater bodies of water that existed in past ages. It is believed that the whole district now drained by the Zambesi River and its tributaries was, at one time, a great fresh water lake.
Many traces of the lake still exist. The whole of the vast area drained by the Zambesi system is covered with a bed of tufa, which is a soft, porous stone formed by deposits from water. This bed of tufa in the Zambesi region is more or less hardened, according to the exposure it has had to atmospheric changes.
The great fissure of the Victoria Falls has, no doubt, drained in no small degree an enormous valley, to leave only the deeper portion of what was originally a sea, but is now known as Lake Nyassa.
Traces of ancient beaches along its borders afford proof that the lake is much diminished in size.