CONGO, INDEPENDENT STATE OP TUE. 



135 





French territory on the northwest. Lake Bang- 

 \veolo, Lake Moero, Lake Tanganyika, and Lake 

 Albert Edward, and connecting lines, form the 

 eastern boundary and in the northeast, where the 

 meridian of thirty degrees of east longitude and 

 the water parting between the Nile and the Congo 

 make the political boundary, a district in the 

 Anglo-Egyptian sphere leased by arrangement 

 with Great Britain gives access to the Nile. The 

 territories of the Independent State are divided 

 into the districts of Banana, Boma, Matadi, the 

 Cataracts, Stanley Pool, East Kwango, Lake 

 Leopold, Bangala, the Equator, Ubangi, Welle, 

 Stanley Falls, Aruwimi, and Lualaba-Kassai. 

 The entire area is estimated at 900,000 square 

 miles, and the population at 30,000,000. 



The number of whites on Jan. 1, 1900, was 1,958, 

 of whom 1,187 were Belgians, 176 Italians, 99 Eng- 

 lish, 95 Dutch, 81 Swedes, 72 Portuguese, 53 

 French, 39 Danes, 33 Americans, 25 Norwegians, 

 13 Swiss, 6 Spaniards, and 30 others. There are 

 300 missionaries in 76 missions, 180 of the mis- 

 sionaries being Roman Catholics and 120 Protes- 

 tants. 



Finances. The revenue for 1899 was estimated 

 at 19,966,500 francs, and expenditure at 17,251,975 

 francs. For 1900 the estimate of revenue was 

 26,256,500 francs, of which 2,000,000 francs came 

 from the Belgian treasury, 1,000,000 francs from 

 the sovereign, 4,680,000 francs from customs, 

 3,800,000 francs from transport, 11,200,000 francs 

 from the State domains, 2,950,000 francs from 

 former budgets, and 626,500 from various sources. 

 The expenditure for 1900 was estimated at 27,731,- 

 254 francs, of which 110,360 francs were for cen- 

 tral administration, 11,050,013 francs for the De- 

 partment of the Interior, 15,423,681 francs for the 

 Department of Finance, 158,000 francs for the 

 Department of Foreign Affairs and Justice, and 

 989,200 francs were for contingencies. 



The Congo State issued 70,000,000 francs of 

 bonds under a decree in 1888 authorizing the issue 

 of 150,000,000 francs; next 14,000,000 francs at 

 4 per cent, in 1896; and in 1890 and subsequent 

 years received an advance of 25,000,000 francs 

 from the Belgian Government, to be paid with 3J 

 per cent, interest after 1901, provided the territory 

 of the State should not be annexed by that date. 

 In 1895 the Belgian Government advanced 6,804,- 

 415 francs more. 



Military Force. The defensive force of the In- 

 dependent State consists of 23 companies of native 

 troops, numbering 11,850 men, commanded by 200 

 European officers and 241 European non-commis- 

 sioned officers. At Boma, the station of the 

 Cataracts, and the Equator station, and in the 

 Ubangi-Welle, Aruwimi, and East Kwango dis- 

 tricts single companies were kept in 1900, while 

 at Stanley Falls there were six, in the Ubangi- 

 Bomu territory two, and in the territories of the 

 Welle four companies. The army is recruited 

 partly by voluntary enlistment, but by the decree 

 of July 30, 1891, all the natives between the ages 

 of fourteen and thirty are liable to service, and 

 an annual recruit, which was 2,000 men in 1896, 

 is drawn by lot. The period of service is five 

 years. At need all the workmen and employees 

 can be called to arms to form an auxiliary corps. 



Commerce and Production. The general 

 commerce, including the produce of adjacent re- 

 gions exported by way of the Congo and imports 

 destined for those regions, as well as the exports 

 and imports of the Congo State's own territories, 

 amounted in 1899 to 27,103,000 francs for imports 

 and 39,138,000 francs for exports. The principal 

 article of export is caoutchouc, exports of which 

 amounted to 28,974,000 francs. Next comes ivory, 



exports of which were 7,555,000 francs in value; 

 then palm-nuts, exported to tin- amount of 1,554,- 

 000 francs; and palm-oil, of the value of 834,000 

 francs. The special imports amount <<! in ISO!) to 

 22,326,000 francs, and special exports to ::<i,0(;s,000 

 francs. The values in francs of import-, from and 

 exports to various countries in 181)13 arc -jivon in 

 the following table: 



The special imports were valued at 22,325,847 

 francs, special exports at 36,067,959 francs. The 

 special imports of textiles and clothing were 

 5,147,610 francs in value; of articles of food, 

 3,887,912 francs; of steamboats, 2,704,819; of arti- 

 cles of drink, 1,718,627 francs; of metals and 

 metal manufactures, 1,667,391 francs; of machin- 

 ery, 1,492,310 francs; of arms and ammunition, 

 932,073 francs. The Government gives a bounty 

 for every area planted with coffee-trees when these ' 

 have a height of 30 inches. Cacao plantations are 

 similarly encouraged. Enormous numbers of cof- 

 fee-trees have been set out with the objct of get- 

 ting the reward, but many of the plantations are 

 on unsuitable land and many are unfruitful 

 through neglect. The Congo railroad has ful- 

 filled the highest expectations of its promoters, 

 and, in connection with the steamer service on the 

 navigable waterways, reaching to the farthest 

 confines of the Congo territories, the imports grew 

 from 12,500,000 francs in 1894, and exports nearly 

 trebled in the same time. The ivory trade con- 

 tinues to be large, and rubber exports are increas- 

 ing. The coffee-plantations are coming into 

 bearing, and spice-plantations are springing up. 

 The bulk of the trade is in the hands of the Bel- 

 gians, and almost the entire export of rubber goes 

 to Belgium, 2,031,599 kilograms out of a total 

 of 2,113,465 kilograms in 1899. The imports 

 in 1900 reached the total of 32,000,000 francs, and 

 exports rose to 51,000,000 francs. 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. The 

 railroad connecting Matadi on the lower Congo 

 with Ndolo and Leopoldville on Stanley Pool was 

 opened to traffic on July 6, 1898. It has a length 

 of 260 miles. In Mayumbe a railroad is being 

 built for local traffic, of which twenty miles were 

 completed before the end of 1900. Surveys are in 

 progress for a railroad to connect the head of 

 navigation on the upper Congo with the great 

 lakes. The Government has 4 steamers for the 

 transport service between the mouth of the Congo 

 and Matadi, and more than 100 on the upper Con- 

 go. The Belgian Premier planned in case of an- 

 nexation to purchase the railroad for 70,000,000 

 francs, 40,000,000 francs representing the deben- 

 ture shares, and 30.000,000 francs the ordinary 

 shares. Owners of the stock objected so strongly 

 that he withdrew the proposal. A Franco-Belgian 

 syndicate has proposed to build a railroad from 

 Stanley Pool to Tanganyika, with a branch to 

 Lado. 



The post-office in 1898 forwarded 104,032 pieces 

 of mail matter in the internal and 343,645 in the 

 international service; in 1899 the numbers were 

 105,924 for the internal and 332,520 for the inter- 



