CENTRAL AFRICA. 



147 



calling to it the attention of the public in all coun- 

 tries, soliciting aid, and raising subscriptions." 



The noble idea of the King of the Belgians 

 was duly appreciated by those to whom it had 

 been submitted, and a number of travelers, ge- 

 ographers, and philanthropists, from the various 

 countries of Europe, came together in answer to 

 the call. France was represented by Admiral La 

 Ronciere Le Noury, President of the Paris Geo- 

 graphical Society; M. Manoir, secretary of the 

 same society; Henri Duveyrier, the explorer of 

 the Sahara ; the Marquis de Compiegne, then just 

 back after his perilous travels in the unexplored 

 regions of the Ogowai. M. de Lesseps visited 

 Brussels later, and fully approved the project. 

 Germany sent her three most distinguished trav- 

 elers, G. Pohlfs, Schweinfurth, and Nachtigal, of 

 whom the last-named had a little before received 

 the grand medal of the Paris Geographical So- 

 ciety. Besides these, there were present, from 

 Italy, the Commendatore Negri : from Prussia, 

 the Baron von Richthofen, President of the Geo- 

 graphical Society of Berlin : from the Austro- 

 Hungarian monarchy, Herr von Hochstetter, 

 President of the Geographical Society of Vienna ; 

 Count Edmond Zichy; Baron Hoffmann, Minister 

 of Finance ; and Lieutenant A. Lux, who had just 

 returned from his brilliant excursion to an unex- 

 plored portion of the basin of the Coango : from 

 England, Sir Rutherford Alcock, President of the 

 Geographical Society of London ; Sir Bartle Frere, 

 Vice-President of the Council of the East Indies, 

 and now Governor of Cape Colony ; Sir Henry 

 Rawlinson, well known on account of his discov- 

 eries at Nineveh ; Colonel Grant, who, with his 

 friend Speke, made known the existence of the 

 great lakes of Central Africa ; Commander Came- 

 ron, whose march from the east to the west coast 

 of Africa, by way of Lake Tanganyika and the 

 Lualaba, is now famous ; together with such emi- 

 nent philanthropists as Sir Harry Verney, Sir 

 John Kennaway, Sir T. Fowell Buxton, Mr. W. 

 Mackinnon, and Admiral Sir Leopold Heath. 

 Belgium, not having any distinguished travelers, 

 was represented only by men whose cooperation 

 might contribute to the success of the work at 

 home ; and one of the Belgian members, Emile 

 Banning, has just published a work of merit, in 

 which he sets forth the present state of our 

 knowledge with regard to Central Africa, and 

 also gives a synopsis of the work done by the 

 congress. 1 After four days of discussion, the 

 conclusion was reached that it would be advisable 



1 "L'Afrique et la Conference Geographique de Bru- 

 xelles," 1S77. 



to establish a line of permanent stations reaching 

 from Bagomoyo on the coast of Zanguebar to St. 

 Paul de Loanda on the Atlantic coast, in the 

 Portuguese possessions, the first stations being 

 fixed at Ujiji, on the eastern shore of Lake Tan- 

 ganyika, at Nyangwe on the Lualaba, Living- 

 stone's farthest point northward, and at a point 

 to be yet fixed in the dominions of Muata Yamvo, 

 one of the most powerful chiefs of Central Africa. 

 This is the route so gloriously followed by Com- 

 mander Cameron. 



But what is to be the character and the pur- 

 pose of these stations ? English and German 

 travelers are unanimously agreed that they must 

 not be military in any sense. As was well said 

 by Sir Bartle Frere, they must act by gentleness, 

 by persuasion, by the natural ascendency of civ- 

 ilized man over barbarous races. Armed force 

 provokes hostility on the part of the chiefs, 

 and then, if we must defend ourselves, we have 

 war, conquest. The colony should be small in 

 numbers, but active, disinterested, and able- 

 bodied. At its head should be a man accus- 

 tomed to command — a naval officer, for instance ; 

 there should be a physician-naturalist, and a few 

 skilled artisans, especially a carpenter and a ma- 

 chinist. According to a communication which I 

 have received from Sir Fowell Buxton, the Free 

 Church of Scotland has collected 260,000 francs 

 and founded a station, known as Livingstonia, on 

 the shore of Lake Nyassa, from which flows one 

 of the affluents of the Zambesi ; the personnel of 

 this station comprises a naval lieutenant as com- 

 mandant, a carpenter, a machinist, a weaver, and 

 three agricultural laborers, besides two mission- 

 aries. The station of Mombasa, on the coast of 

 Zanguebar, is after the same model, as is also the 

 Anglican Church Expedition to Uganda, whose 

 object is to establish a post between Lakes Victo- 

 ria and Albert. 



Of course, the stations founded by the Inter- 

 national Congress could not take part in a relig- 

 ious propaganda, inasmuch as they would have to 

 be supported by contributions from persons be- 

 longing to every sect. While sympathizing fully 

 with the efforts made to spread the gospel, they 

 would themselves be exclusively laic. Their main 

 object is to serve as bases of operations for trav- 

 elers en route to the interior with a view to pene- 

 trate regions as yet unexplored. At present the 

 explorer, on quitting the coast, must take w r ith 

 him provisions, instruments, and, above all, goods 

 for barter sufficient to supply his wants for 

 months, or even for years. Hence he must keep an 

 endless string of porters, who quickly use up his 



