Nov. 2, 1888, and Feb. 1, 18S9.1 459 [Phillips. 



An Account of the Congo Independent State. 



By Henry Phillips, Jr. 



{Read before the American, PhilosopJdcal Society, November 2, ISSS, and 

 February 1, 1889.) 



HISTORY. 



The creation of the Congo Independent State may be considered as one 

 of the most curious and most characteristic episodes of the nineteenth 

 century. All settlements formerly made in unexplored countries were the 

 results of missionary labors, or of wealth- or fame-seeking adventurers. 

 Motives of policy on the part of European governments then came into 

 play to facilitate the reduction and colonization of the new-found lands. 

 To no such causes was the founding of the Congo Independent State in- 

 debted, neither religious fervor nor thirst of gold caused it to see the light. 

 The philanthropy of the King of the Belgians, together with his love of 

 geographical explorations, were to be the means of pouring the light of 

 civilization upon "the dark continent." 



It was not even upon the soil of Africa that the Congo Independent 

 State took its origin : its birth place was at Bruxelles, in the palace of a 

 monarch. 



On the 12th of September, 1876, King Leopold the Second, of Belgium, 

 held at his royal residence, in Bruxelles, a conference of the most celebra- 

 ted modern geographers and the most famous explorers of all nations, to 

 discuss and to formulate the best methods of planting firmly on the soil 

 of the African continent the standard of civilization. This assemblage 

 laid the foundation of the "Association Internationale Africnine," which 

 subsequently selected for the field of its labors that portion of "the black 

 continent " lying between the western coast and the great lakes of Cen- 

 tral Africa. 



Two years later, on November 25, 1878, under the auspices of His Ma- 

 jestj"-, was held a second congress, " Le Comite d' etudes du Haut- Congo," 

 whose object was to penetrate barbarous Africa by ascending the Congo 

 river, whose course had lately been ascertained by Stanley, and to seek 

 practicable means of establishing regular communications along the Upper 

 and Lower Congo, and to create amicable relations for commercial purposes 

 with the tribes that dwelt in the interior, offering to them, in exchange for 

 their objects of value, the varied productions of European industry. Len- 

 der the auspices of this Society, formed of English, French and Belgian 

 philanthropists and capitalists, the explorer, Stanley, undertook his voy- 

 ages. The amicable measures pursued by the agents of the Associa- 

 tion caused the indigenous populations to look with, a friendly eye on 

 the new scheme, and an uninterrupted chain of stations was created 



