The story of the Congo Free State

by Henry Wellington Wack

It is hardly necessary to say that so great an enterprise was not possible of achievement without loss of life, and much personal sacrifice and suffering; that many men of high intellectual power and indomitable courage fell by the way, martyrs to disease, treachery, and the innumerable accidents by flood and field which ever dog the footsteps of pioneer explorers. The official records of the expeditions, for the most part vouched for by independent testimony (chiefly English), establish beyond possibility of dispute the patient forbearance and humanity of the explorers in their dealings with the natives. The dignity of truth is lost with too much protesting, and that some few mistakes were committed here and there, the result of over-zealousness on the part of particular individuals, is frankly admitted, such admission in no way detracting from the confident assertion that no exploration of unknown lands had ever before been made which occasioned so small an amount of friction with their indigenous occupiers. A sound discretion is not so much indicated by never making a mistake as by never repeating it. Mistake, error, is the discipline through which we all advance, and the greatest of faults is to be conscious of none.

A Bad Start.

The first Belgian expedition arrived at Zanzibar in December, 1877, having been three months on its voyage from Ostend. It was commanded by Captain Crespel, an officer of the Belgian Army, and included, besides Lieutenant Cambier, also of the Belgian Army, Dr. Maes, and M. Marno, an Austrian. Some time was spent by these explorers in Zanzibar, purchasing supplies and engaging an escort, before starting for the interior; a task in which they were assisted by the Sultan, Seyyid Burghash, an enlightened ruler, opposed to slavery and sympathetic with the expedition and its objects. Unfortunately, these favourable auspices were not followed by correspondingly happy events. In less than a month after the arrival of the expedition in Zanzibar, Dr. Maes was dead of fever; and Captain Crespel, who was ill from the first moment that he set foot on African soil, survived Dr. Maes only a few days.

Shortly before these two sad events, Cambier and Marno had started on their journey into the interior, and at once became the victims of every sort of misfortune. Their cattle were tormented and destroyed by the tsetse fly, which in that year assumed the proportions of a plague, and, their route lying through a marshy region, progress was rendered impossible. Two months later they returned to Zanzibar worn out and dispirited, having achieved nothing, only to be greeted by the melancholy news of the death of Captain Crespel and Dr. Maes. Command of the expedition now devolved upon Lieutenant Cambier, who resolved to await reinforcements from Belgium.

It was not until September of the following year that Lieutenant Cambier, accompanied by Lieutenant Wautier and Dr. Dutrieux, ventured to move forward. On the occasion of his second attempt he started from Bagamoyo. His difficulties, if not so great as on his previous journey, would have daunted any ordinary mortal. His native carriers gave great trouble, continually deserting or threatening to desert him, while crossing the Mgonda-Mkali desert. However, after passing through infinite danger and difficulty, Cambier succeeded in reaching the territory of Mirambo, and prospered so well in his efforts to secure the friendship and assistance of that powerful chief that the two entered into a treaty of alliance, and went through the strangely barbarous ceremony of taking the oath of blood; after which, according to African superstition and custom, they became brothers. This was the first example of a Belgian officer and a native chief taking the oath of blood. It was entered into by Cambier only after he had informed himself that it was a ceremony the sanctity of which the Negro race held to be inviolable, and was therefore exactly suited to his purpose.

A Saddle Ox, Kassai.

European Travelling in the Uelle District.

The object of the expedition was to found a station on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. Having been provided with some necessary supplies by his newly made “blood brother,” M. Cambier was about to resume his journey, of which another hundred and fifty miles remained, when he learned with consternation of the death of M. Wautier, the able lieutenant to whom he had entrusted the difficult task of keeping open his communications with the coast, who had succumbed to the climate after prolonged exposure to torrential rain. M. Wautier was the third Belgian who had lost his life in the cause of African exploration. His place was taken by M. Bryon, a Swiss traveller of much experience, who rendered good and faithful service. But though so near to his destination, M. Cambier’s difficulties were by no means ended. As before, it was his carriers who made the trouble. They were insubordinate, quarrelled among themselves, and deserted in great numbers, on the slightest provocation, and often for none at all. Finally, however, on August 12, 1879, Karema, on Lake Tanganyika, was reached in safety, and the first station of the International Association for the Exploration and Civilisation of Central Africa established by the Belgian Committee. The site chosen for the station was about five thousand acres of land, very healthfully situated, which Cambier obtained by treaty with a local chief. Thus through difficulty and danger, by the expenditure of energy, money, and of life itself, was the object of the first Belgian expedition successfully accomplished, and M. Cambier set out to return to Belgium. When he reached the coast he was surprised to meet a second expedition, of whose existence he knew nothing, which had just arrived from Belgium. In consequence, M. Cambier decided not to return to Europe, but to remain in Africa for a while to assist, so far as he was able, in this second enterprise. The period was May, 1879. The new expedition, under command of Captain Popelin, of the Headquarters Staff, assisted by Dr. Van den Heuval and Lieutenant Dutalis, had not completed their arrangements for their inland journey when the latter fell ill and was obliged to return at once to Belgium. The expedition had brought with it four Indian elephants, attended by two English keepers accustomed to the management of those animals, it having been suggested to King Leopold that elephants were better adapted for transport purposes in Central Africa than oxen. The experiment proved a costly failure. All four of the elephants died before any use could be made of them, and their English keepers were waylaid by brigands and murdered on their way back to Zanzibar. Notwithstanding these misfortunes, MM. Cambier and Popelin persevered bravely with their task, stocked the station at Karema with provisions, and organised a native guard for its protection.