As I went up the Nile I heard the same stories Lord Cromer did—as to how all the natives were flying across the river from the Belgian country owing, I was told, to ill-treatment. As I spent a month hunting all the district 40 miles inland from Lado and Kiro, looked after by the two big Bari chiefs, Kenion and Fariala, I took great interest in learning all I could, and, owing to my capitow talking Arabic, the chiefs’ favourite language, I had excellent chances for finding out all I wanted.
To my question as to whether many of their tribes went over the river, and why, they replied: “A few boys ran away the other side, but mostly bad boys who won’t work.” Asked again, if a few good men went, and, if so, why, they answered: “English pay in money; some boys, if once had money, like it better than being paid in cloth or beads,” but no mention of ill-treatment.
Lord Cromer considers because the native villages happen at these particular posts to be several hours’ distant, that this is also owing to bad treatment. I wish to point out that the villages must either be right on the Nile bank, or inland where they are, for the whole country between is waterless during four months. Another reason given for not living on the Nile was that in olden days the few who did so were all killed or taken prisoners by the Dervishes; hence the survivors kept clear of waterways.
Again, there are no sites for villages near the river, as nearly all the banks, lying low, are covered with marsh and sudd, harbouring millions of mosquitoes, whereas a few miles inland there is good water, not a single mosquito, plenty of game, with good grass and tillage land.
Village near Coquilhatville. A Native Attempt to Copy the European Style.
When I visited Gondokoro every one was complaining at having the station on the Nile, instead of a few miles inland, for similar reasons.
One of the wisest rules of the Congo is not to allow native villages adjoining the posts; and I hear we are copying the same on the West Coast; it means a reduction of 75 per cent. in sickness.
That no natives live near Lado arises from purely natural causes. Lord Cromer would find plenty of posts in the interior, with thousands of natives settled as near as they are allowed to.
Another statement, that “the soldiers are allowed full liberty to plunder the natives,” is by no means correct. During my journey I saw hundreds of soldiers being sent off on different work—such as postal, Government despatches, fetching in porters, etc.; but not one ever left without having received cloth, beads, or wire sufficient to purchase all necessary food. I quite admit a few of the soldiers helped themselves now and again, and I found the worst sinners in this respect were our own Sierra Leone boys, a number of whom take service in the Congo. Should their acts be reported they are quickly dealt with.