A NATIVE OF THE LOWER CONGO.
"Mr. Stanley says the navigable waters of the Congo basin that would have their outlet through the Congo railway are more than five thousand miles in length, draining a country of more than a million square miles, much of which is well peopled. The free State of Congo, as defined by the Berlin Conference, includes a territory of one million five hundred and eight thousand square miles, with a population estimated at forty-two million six hundred and eight thousand. North of the Congo State is the French possession of sixty-two thousand square miles and two million one hundred and twenty-one thousand six hundred inhabitants, and on the south is the Portuguese territory of thirty thousand seven hundred square miles and three hundred thousand inhabitants. So you see the Congo State, which our friend has created, is one third the area of the United States and more than one half its population.
"And here," said the Doctor, "is a speech made by Mr. Stanley at a dinner which was given to him by the Lotos Club of New York, in November, 1886. I will read an extract from it, with your permission."
Everybody signified a desire to hear it, whereupon Doctor Bronson read as follows:
"I set out to Africa intending to complete Livingstone's explorations, also to settle the Nile problem as to where the head-waters of the Nile were, as to whether Lake Victoria consisted of one lake, one body of water, or a number of shallow lakes; to throw some light on Sir Samuel Baker's Albert Nyanza, and also to discover the outlet of Lake Tanganika, and then to find out what strange, mysterious river this was which Livingstone saw at Nyangwé—whether it were the Nile, the Niger, or the Congo. Edwin Arnold, the author of 'The Light of Asia,' said, 'Do you think you can do all this?' 'Don't ask me such a conundrum as that. Put down the funds and tell me to go. That's all.' And he induced Lawson, the proprietor, to consent. The funds were had, and I went.
"First of all we settled the problem of the Victoria; that it was one body of water; that instead of being a cluster of shallow lakes or marshes, it was one body of water, twenty-one thousand five hundred square miles in extent. While endeavoring to throw light upon Sir Samuel Baker's Albert Nyanza, we discovered a new lake, a much superior lake to the Albert Nyanza—the Dead Locust Lake—and at the same time Gordon Pasha sent his lieutenant to discover and circumnavigate the Albert Nyanza, and he found it to be only a miserable one hundred and forty miles, because Baker, in a fit of enthusiasm, had stood on the brow of a high plateau and, looking down on the dark-blue waters of Albert Nyanza, cried, romantically: 'I see it extending indefinitely towards the southwest!' 'Indefinitely' is not a geographical expression, gentlemen.
"We found that there was no outlet to the Tanganika, although it was a sweet-water lake. After settling that problem, day after day, as we glided down the strange river that had lured and bewildered Livingstone, we were in as much doubt as Livingstone had been when he wrote his last letter and said: 'I will never be made black man's meat for anything less than the classic Nile.' After travelling four hundred miles we came to the Stanley Falls, and beyond them we saw the river deflect from its Nileward course towards the northwest. Then it turned west, and visions of towers and towns and strange tribes and strange nations broke upon our imagination, and we wondered what we were going to see, when the river suddenly took a decided turn towards the southwest, and our dreams were terminated. We saw then that it was aiming directly for the Congo, and when we had propitiated some natives whom we encountered by showing them crimson beads and polished wire that had been polished for the occasion, we said: 'This for your answer. What river is this?' 'Why, it is the river, of course.' That was not an answer, and it required some persuasion before the chief, bit by bit, digging into his brain, managed to roll out sonorously the words: 'It is the Ko-to-yah Congo'—'It is the river of Congoland.'
"Alas for our classic dreams! Alas for Crophi and Mophi, the fabled fountains of Herodotus! Alas for the banks of the river where Moses was found by the daughter of Pharaoh! This is the parvenu Congo! Then we glided on and on, past strange nations and cannibals—not past those nations which have their heads under their arms—for eleven hundred miles, until we arrived at a circular extension of the river, and my last remaining white companion called it the Stanley Pool, and then, five months after that, our journey ended.
"After that I had a very good mind to come back to America and say, like the Queen of Uganda, 'There, what did I tell you?' But you know the fates would not permit me to come over in 1878. The very day I landed in Europe, the King of Italy gave me an express train to convey me to France, and the very moment I descended from it at Marseilles, there were three ambassadors from the King of the Belgians, asking me to go back to Africa.
"'What! Back to Africa? Never! I have come for civilization. I have come for enjoyment. I have come for love, for life, for pleasure. Not I. Go and ask some of those people you know who have never yet been to Africa. I have had enough of it.' 'Well, perhaps, by and by—' 'Ah, I don't know what will happen by and by, but just now, never, never! Not for Rothschild's wealth!'
"I was received by the Paris Geographical Society, and it was then I began to feel, 'Well, after all, I have done something, haven't I?' I felt superb. But you know I have always considered myself a republican. I have those bullet-riddled flags and those arrow-torn flags, the Stars and Stripes, that I carried in Africa for the discovery of Livingstone, and that crossed Africa, and I venerate those old flags. I have them in London, now jealously guarded in the secret recesses of my cabinet. I allow only my best friends to look at them, and if any of you gentlemen ever happen in at my quarters, I will show them to you.
"After I had written my book, 'Through the Dark Continent,' I began to lecture, using these words: 'I have passed through a land watered by the largest river of the African continent, and that land knows no owner. A word to the wise is sufficient. You have cloths and hardware and glass-ware and gunpowder, and those millions of natives have ivory and gums and rubber and dyestuffs, and in barter there is good profit.
"'The King of the Belgians commissioned me to go to that country. My expedition when we started from the coast numbered three hundred colored people and fourteen Europeans. We returned with three thousand trained black men and three hundred Europeans. The first sum allowed to me was $50,000 per year, but it has ended at something like $700,000 a year. Thus you see the progress of civilization. We found the Congo having only canoes. To-day there are eight steamers. It was said at first that King Leopold was a dreamer. He dreamed he could unite the barbarians of Africa into a confederacy and call it a free state; but on February 25, 1885, the powers of Europe, and America also, ratified an act recognizing the territories acquired by us to be the free and independent State of the Congo.'
"Perhaps when the members of the Lotos Club have reflected a little more upon the value of what Livingstone and Leopold have been doing, they will also agree that these men have done their duty in this world, and in the age that they live, and that their labor has not been in vain, on account of the great sacrifices they have made, to the benighted millions of dark Africa."
Here the Doctor paused to enable his listeners to ponder a few moments on the magnitude of the work which their hero had accomplished, and also to wait for any question which might be asked. The first interrogatory referred to Mr. Stanley's present mission to Africa, for which he had abandoned his lecturing tour in America.
"What is he going to Africa for now?" said one of the youths. "I have read that it is to relieve somebody who is shut up in the middle of the country and can't get out."