King and Cardinal.
The zealous labours of Cardinal Lavigerie, Archbishop of Algiers, who had founded the Mission of the White Fathers in 1878 to convert the Soudan and the Congo regions to Christianity, had always been generously supported by the personal munificence of King Leopold. The rescript issued to this devoted and untiring apostle by Pope Leo XIII. had inaugurated endeavours on behalf of civilisation unexcelled in any colony in the world. King Leopold’s earnest and generous encouragement of this evangelistic work equalled the broad-minded and hopeful manner in which he supported Stanley and others in their early expeditions through the unknown forests of the Congo. There was, therefore, a sympathetic tie between His Holiness, the King, and the Cardinal in the world’s task in Congoland.
The Anti-Slavery Crusade.
Early in 1888 Cardinal Lavigerie visited Belgium, and, being convinced by his long African experience of the necessity for an organised anti-slavery crusade, opened a campaign in the Brussels Cathedral which, by its popular interest, carried him to many parts of Europe. The eloquence of this truly great prelate was born of that deep sympathy for the African black derived from his intimate knowledge of the debasing conditions still prevalent in those parts of the Congo Basin where, for many practical reasons, the Belgians had not penetrated with their work and influence. The Cardinal exhorted the Belgians, first of all, to support and emulate their King, who, he said, “would open before you a country seventy times as large as your own—an immense field for the spread of your religion and for charity.... You have not given to the struggle with barbarism all the assistance that was incumbent upon you.”
Postmaster’s House, Suruango, 1904.
House of Vice-Governor-General, Stanleyville.
To the avowed support given by his Majesty to the movement which the Cardinal’s numerous sermons inspired, may largely be attributed the Belgian campaigns against the Arab slave-raiders which the Brussels Conference of the following year urged upon the interested Powers.
The hundred admirable articles of the General Act of the Conference do not all concern the reader. Their general purpose, already indicated in a previous chapter, was the suppression of the slave trade, the protection of the natives, and the provision of revenue from import duties wherewith to maintain a practical executive to accomplish both aims.