“On the 15th of November two corvettes and the frigate La Guadiana left Loando. The little fleet, commanded by M. Viegas de C——, headed for the Congo. The commander hoped to surprise the Negroes. Arrived at a place considered sacred, and which is called the “Stone of the Fetish,” they anchored, and M. Viegas himself, with one company, ascended the creek in a steam gunboat and effected a landing, which the savages endeavoured at first to oppose; but soon afterwards, dislodged by the showers of grape shot from the frigate, moored a few cables’ length only from the shore, they retired in good order. Meanwhile, the little band of whites, finding no serious resistance, advanced. The corvettes shelled the villages in sight. Some groups of Mussorangos, who had stood firm till then, feeling themselves vanquished fled in every direction, returning and stopping, from time to time, behind trees to discharge their guns at the whites. The commander burned all the villages he found. That was all that could be done. It would not have been prudent to march at a venture into an unknown country in search of an unapproachable enemy, always fleeing. It was necessary to re-embark; the ships came back to Banana, where they remained some days, and then returned to Saint Paul.”
This is a very recent occurrence, which does not very well bear out the assertions of the Portuguese Government relative to the efficacy of its jurisdiction as remedy for the disorders of the Congo.
“The Congo [says the author of the circular dispatch] and the territories bordering its mouth are already the seat of an important commerce, and of European establishments of diverse nationalities, but there is no security either for life or property, no police, no courts, nor any of the institutions so necessary to all civilised people, and which can only be established under a recognised and effective jurisdiction. And such jurisdiction can only be exercised by Portugal, because no other nation possesses or claims any rights of sovereignty over these territories.”[65]
I repeat, the good intentions of Portugal are not in dispute. What is wanting is energy and material power; and it is necessary to have these in order to civilise the country discovered by the agents of the International Association. Four centuries have elapsed since Diego Cam, a Portuguese cavalier, erected a column upon the Point del Padron, the end of the south bank of the river’s mouth, in commemoration of the fact that a subject of the crown of Portugal had discovered the great river Congo. This same point is to-day in the hands of a native tribe, which not only does not recognise the sovereignty of Portugal, but openly defies it. Nevertheless, the author of the circular finds much fault with the resolution of the Institute of International Law, because that resolution implies, according to him, forgetfulness of the rights of Portugal. What rights? There exist rights based upon the discovery of the country, but considering that the fleets of Pharaoh Neco, King of Egypt, made the circuit of Africa, we cannot admit that the legal discovery of the Congo was effected by Diego Cam. But rights founded upon the discovery of the country are only imperfect rights; occupation should follow, within a reasonable time, to render them perfect; otherwise the discovery becomes inoperative, like an abandoned title. Has Portugal occupied both banks of the Congo to acquire possession of its waters? Have we the proof of it? On the contrary, the very territory where Cam erected this column is to-day in the power of a native tribe, who have always resisted Portuguese sovereignty, and who openly claim to be (a thing almost incredible) the enemies of the human race (hostes humani generis). And, on the other hand, England, which pretends to no sovereignty over the waters of the Congo, has been obliged to land a force upon the north bank to chastise an act of piracy committed by the inhabitants of the creeks in the neighbourhood of Banana.
It is evident that very soon the problem of the free navigation of the Congo will assume such proportions that the solution cannot be longer deferred. Should this solution wait upon a state which up to now has only demonstrated its powerlessness to civilise the countries on the south bank of the Lower Congo, its sovereignty over which is not disputed by any European state?
London, November 21, 1883.
FOOTNOTES:
[57] The Schloss Hauptmann of the Castle of Marienbourg, formerly the palace of the grand master of the order, is now appointed by the King of Prussia.
[58] The old Teutonic Order was suppressed in the year 1809 at the peace of Luneville, when the grand master of the order was secularised for the archduke to be chosen by the emperor. It may be said of the Teutonic Order that it was renewed in 1824 and reorganised in 1840 and 1865, but that it is the shadow of a great glory—magni stat nominis umbra.
[59] Vol. xii. of the Revue above cited, p. 224.