The remainder of the twenty-seven acres of his estate would furnish him with timber, rubber, gums, dye stuffs, etc., for sale.
There is a clear stream every few hundred yards, the climate is healthy and agreeable.
Eight navigable rivers course through it. Hills and ridges diversify the scenery and give magnificent prospects.
To the negroes of the South it would be a reminder of their own plantations without the swamps and depressin’ influence of cypress forests.
Anything and everything might be grown in it, from the oranges, guavas, sugar-cane and cotton of sub-tropical lands, to the wheat of California and the rice of South Carolina.
If the emigration wuz prudently conceived and carried out, the glowin’ accounts sent home by the first settlers would soon dissipate all fear and reluctance on the part of the others.
But to make this available, it would have to be undertaken at once, says Stanley. For if it hain’t taken advantage of by the American negro, the railways towards that favored land will be constructed, steamers will float on the Congo, and the beautiful forest land will be closed to such emigration by the rule, first come first served.
And then this beautiful, hopeful chance will be lost forever.
Victor read this, and more, from Stanley’s pen, and felt deeply the beautiful reasonableness of the skeme.
With all the eloquence of which he wuz master he tried to bring these facts home to his people, and tried to arouse in them something of his own enthusiasm.