CONGO, FREE STATE OF THE. 



191 



conditions to be observed in order that new oc- 

 cupations on the coast of Africa may be held 

 effective. These require that a power occupy- 

 ing new territory or establishing a protectorate 

 shall notify the other signatory powers in 

 order that they may advance any claims of 

 their own over the tract. The powers occu- 

 pying territories on the coast are expected to 

 insure the establishment of authority sufficient 

 to protect existing rights, and free trade and 

 transit, if the power has bound itself to secure 

 them. The seventh chapter contains general 

 dispositions with reference to the ratification 

 and amendment of the general act and its adop- 

 tion by any other power at any time. 



The Partition of the Lower Congo. The Inter- 

 national Association was unable to secure the 

 support of the powers to its claim to the whole 

 of the lower Congo and Atlantic coast-line 

 from the Loge to the Niadi- Kwilu river. The 

 entire district was placed under the free-trade 

 system, but in respect to sovereign rights it 

 was obliged to come to a compromise with 

 Portugal and France, and divide the territory 

 with those powers. Portugal claimed both 

 banks of the estuary of the Congo and the 

 littoral north of Ambriz, as far as latitude 5 

 12' south. This claim, based on traditional 

 rights of sovereignty, was recognized in the 

 provisional Anglo - Portuguese treaty, which 

 was rejected by the other powers, led by Ger- 

 many. Since then Portugal had attempted 

 to perfeot her title to sovereignty by effect- 

 ive occupation of certain places in the dis- 

 puted district. North of 5 12' south latitude 

 there were spots along the coast under the 

 protectorate of France, and others under the 

 protectorate of Portugal. At Rudolfstadt, at 

 the mouth of the Niadi Kwilu, began the 

 chain of stations of the International Associa- 

 tion, extending to Leopoldville. Along the 

 Congo, beginning at Vivi, on the north bank, 

 another line of stations follows the road built 

 by Stanley on the southern bank of the river. 

 France claimed the coast from where the coast- 

 line claimed by Portugal ended to the river 

 that flows into the ocean at Sette Gamma, 

 thus depriving the Association of all frontage 

 on the Atlantic. France claimed also, in vir- 

 tue of treaties concluded with native chiefs by 

 De Brazza, the whole interior north of the 

 Congo, except a strip on the Congo, and at 

 Stanley Pool laid claim not only to the right 

 bank, which was conceded to her, but to the 

 left bank also, where the International Asso- 

 ciation was established. The French claim to 

 both banks of the Congo extended from below 

 Stanley Pool to the mouth of the Kwango. 



By the arrangements concluded between 

 Portugal and the Association, the Portuguese 

 claim to the sea-coast up to south latitude 5 

 12' was recognized, and her right to the south- 

 ern bank of the Congo as far as Nokki and to 

 the country south of a line running due east 

 from Nokki to the Kwango. In return, Port- 

 ugal ceded to the Association the right bank 



of the Congo estuary, with a coast-frontage of 

 thirty-eight miles, extending to lied Point. 

 By this arrangement the Association secured 

 a river terminus to the projected railroad, to 

 be built along the cataract-broken stretch from 

 Stanley Pool to Vivi, as well as a short coast- 

 line and a position at the mouth of the Congo. 

 England and France united with Germany in 

 exercising pressure upon Portugal to secure 

 this compromise, and France contributed a 

 territorial sacrifice, ceding to Portugal a strip 

 of the coast north of the Chiloango river, the 

 limit of the coast-line claimed by Portugal, 

 about equal to the strip ceded to the Associa- 

 tion at the mouth of the Congo. Portugal 

 was thus secured in possession of the coast- 

 region north of the Congo, including the dis- 

 tricts of Kabinda, Molembo, Landana, and 

 Massabe, where a large trade has long been 

 carried on without any organized administra- 

 tion except that supplied by the traders. The 

 Association obtained Banana, the most impor- 

 tant trade-center on the west coast of equatorial 

 Africa, with the exception of Loando. 



Before the arrival of the decisions of the 

 Berlin Conference on the Congo, and as late as 

 March, 1885, the Portuguese naval authorities 

 and mercantile agents in the lower Congo re- 

 gion were busy making treaties with natives 

 on both banks of the Congo. The Portuguese 

 flag was hoisted at various places on the coast 

 between Banana Point and Kabinda. 



The compromise arranged with France left 

 the Association undisputed master of the left 

 bank of the Congo around and above Stanley 

 Pool. It was obliged, in return, to abandon 

 to France the whole of the Kwilu district 

 lying north of the Chiloango, and to evacuate 

 the line of stations along the Niadi-Kwilu 

 river, fourteen in number. The boundary be- 

 tween the French territory of the Gaboon, 

 thus extended, and the territory of the Free 

 State, follows the Chiloango river from where 

 it enters the Portuguese enclave up to its 

 source, thence runs in an easterly and south- 

 easterly direction till it joins the Congo at a 

 point just above Manyanga, and thence follows 

 the channel of the Congo to a point just north 

 of the equator and east of the Likona river, 

 where it leaves the Congo for the junction of 

 the Likona water-shed with the 17th meridian, 

 and then follows that meridian northward. 



Institution of the Congo Free State. A constitu- 

 tion for the new state was devised by Prof. 

 Ahn, and the work completed, since his death, 

 by Col. Strauch and Sir Travers Twiss. It 

 followed the principles of an English colonial 

 administration. At the head of the state was 

 to be a governor, with the title of chef d'etat, 

 and under him three deputy- governors, presid- 

 ing over different districts. The headquarters 

 of the administration were to be in Brussels. 

 The King of the Belgians had expended on the 

 Association 25,000,000 francs down to the 

 close of the conference, and promised to en- 

 dow the state with an income of 1,000,000 



