“It is known that in 1662 the chief of a tribe of Indians granted to George Durant the neck of land which still bears his name.”—(Ibid., p. 410.)
We owe it as a duty to our African population that we should endeavour to secure to them the right to freely return to their fatherland, and as freely to agree with their kindred people upon any concessions they may choose to make to them as individuals or as associated colonists, looking to their re-establishment in their own country. The deportation of their ancestors from Africa in slavery was contrary to the now accepted canons of the laws of nations, and now they may return under those laws to their natural inheritance. In exercising this right they should not be obstructed by a power that had more to do with their enslavement and expulsion, in bondage, from their own country than any other, and that never held a claim upon that country for any purpose of advantage to the people there, but held it chiefly, if not entirely, for the mere purpose of enslaving them.
It is stated, with the support of strong testimony, that Portugal is still protecting the slave trade on the West Coast of Africa under a thin guise of the voluntary emigration of the negroes to other countries.
Extracts appended to this report, from Earl Mayo’s De Rebus Africanus, in which he gives an account of his personal examination, in 1882, of the Portuguese trading posts, supported by the report of M. du Verge, our United States consul at St. Paul de Loando, show that slavery still exists in the country claimed by Portugal on the Congo, and is fostered there and at St. Paul de Loando by the Portuguese residents.
This violation of the slave-trade treaties renders the occupancy by Portugal of any African territory at the mouth of the Congo dangerous to all the tribes of the interior, and cannot be sanctioned by the treaty powers while it is attended with such incidents without an abandonment of all treaty obligations and duties relating to the slave trade.
The importance of the Congo River to the continent of Africa as a channel through which civilisation and all its attendant advantages will be introduced into a region inhabited by 50,000,000 of people cannot be too highly estimated.
After Stanley had made his journey of exploration of nearly 7000 miles across the continent of Africa, and had revealed to the world the extent and importance of this great river Congo, all the great commercial nations at once began to look earnestly in that direction for a new and most inviting field of commerce, and with the high and noble purpose of opening it freely to the equal enjoyment of all nations alike.
The merchants of Europe and America insist upon this equal and universal right of free trade with that country, and their Chambers of Commerce have earnestly pressed upon their respective Governments the duty and necessity of such international agreements as would secure these blessings to the people of Africa and of the entire commercial world.
The enlightened King of the Belgians has supplied the means from his private purse to inaugurate civilisation in the Congo country under the authority of its native rulers. He has no thought of extending the power of his realm over that country, but has engaged in this movement only as any citizen might.