CONGO, FREE STATE OF THE. 



CONGREGATIONALI3TS. 193 



The cost of transportation per ton from Eu- 

 rope to Leopoldville is about $25 to Banana, 

 $75 up the river to Vivi, and $300 from Vivi 

 to Stanley Pool. The country supplies fowls 

 and goat-meat, and mandioca, ground-nuts, ba- 

 nanas, and corn, but most of the food and all 

 other supplies are brought from Europe. In 

 January, 1885, the British Government re- 

 voked the permission to enlist Houssas and 

 Lagos men. The supply of Zanzibar boatmen 

 and porters was cut off in April. 



Missionaries on the Congo. In the wake of 

 Stanley's progress in the establishment of sta- 

 tions on the middle and upper Congo the Bap- 

 tists of England and the Livingstone Inland 

 Congo Society founded missions. Comber, 

 Grenfell, Sims, Craven, Peres Carr6 and Au- 

 gouord, settled at various places along the river. 

 The American Baptists undertook later to share 

 the task with the English Livingstone Congo 

 Missionary Society, and sent out missionaries 

 of both sexes. In the lake-region the field is 

 divided between the Scotch Free Kirk, the 

 London, the Church, and other British socie- 

 ties and the Roman Catholics. The Roman 

 Catholic Church, as well as the Livingstone 

 Congo Society, afterwards established missions 

 on the Congo. There were in the Congo region 

 in the summer of 1885 fourteen Protestant and 

 four Catholic missions. 



Commerce of the Congo. The trade of the 

 Congo region has increased but little since the 

 establishment there of the International Asso- 

 ciation. The commercial houses founded un- 

 der the auspices of the Association have not 

 been successful. The trade remains principally 

 in the hands of the New African Trading Com- 

 pany, of Amsterdam, and the English house of 

 Hatton & Cookson. The remainder is divided 

 between a French, a Portuguese, and an Eng- 

 lish house. Numerous small Portuguese firms 

 act as middle-men. The leading exports are, 

 in the order of their importance, palm-oil, pea- 

 nuts, palm-kernels, caoutchouc, and ivory. The 

 development of the trade of the upper Congo 

 depends on the construction of the railroad to 

 Stanley Pool. Mr. Stanley endeavored in 1885 

 to enlist capital in the construction of this rail- 

 road. The trade prospects of the Congo val- 

 ley and the profitableness of the railroad were 

 the subject of controversy between the agents 

 of the Free State and various critics. Mr. N. 

 P. Tisdell, Agent of the United States to the 

 Congo states, reported that the low country 

 within one hundred miles of the coast fur- 

 nished substantially all the exports, and that 

 these were brought by the long-established 

 caravan routes to Ambriz, St. Paul de Loando, 

 Benguela, Ambrizette, Banana, and other posts 

 north and south of the mouth of the Congo, 

 and to stations on the Coanzo river in Angola. 

 Ivory is brought from the far interior, but in 

 diminishing quantities. The natives on the 

 lower and middle Congo are described as 

 treacherous, cruel, thievish, lazy, and drunk- 

 en. The promoters of the Congo Association, 

 VOL. xxv. 13 A 



without contradicting these assertions, hold 

 the belief that a railroad to Stanley Pool 

 would open up a trade seven times greater 

 than that on the coast of Guinea from the 

 Gambia to St. Paul de Loando, which amounts 

 to about $150,000,000 per annum. They base 

 their estimate on the length of open river navi- 

 gation on the Congo and its main tributaries, 

 which is over 11,000 miles. The climate and 

 resources of the upper Congo valley are de- 

 clared to be much superior to those of the 

 lower part of the valley visited by the critics 

 of the enterprise. The character and habits 

 of the people are said to be more favorable for 

 trade. The total population of the region that 

 would be opened up to commerce is estimated 

 at over 80,000,000. The products that would 

 bear transportation comprise not only palm- 

 oil and the other common exports of the coast 

 districts, but also rubber in inexhaustible quan- 

 tities, spices, medicinal herbs, drugs and dye- 

 stuffs, valuable woods, and a variety of other 

 tropical produce. The healthful, elevated re- 

 gions in the eastern part of the commercial 

 basin of the Congo contain, moreover, bottom- 

 lands of extraordinary fertility and rich grassy 

 plains, affording an attractive prospect for 

 European colonization. 



CONGREGATIONALISM. I. Congregationalisms in 

 the United States. The following is a summary of 

 the statistics of the Congregational Churches in 

 the United States, compiled from the "Ameri- 

 can Congregational Year-Book " for 1885 : 

 Number of churches, 4,092, of which 3,080 

 are designated as "with pastors" and 1,012 

 as "vacant"; number of ministers, 3,889, of 

 whom 2,769 are designated as "in pastoral 

 work" and 1,126 as "not in pastoral work"; 

 number of members, 401,549 ; of additions 

 during the year by profession, 17,923 ; of bap- 

 tisms, 8,290 of adults and 5,801 of infants; 

 of persons in Sunday schools, 478,357 ; of 

 families represented in the churches, 196,106. 

 Amount of contributions, so far as reported : 

 for benevolent objects, in which are included 

 the contributions for foreign missions, for col- 

 lege and educational funds, for the Congrega- 

 tional Union, for home missions, for the Amer- 

 ican Missionary Association, and for the Con- 

 gregational Publishing Society, $1,523,924; for 

 home expenditures, $3,884,105. The figures 

 show net gains, during the year, of 82 churches, 

 5,340 members, and 11,220 persons in Sunday 

 schools. They show, however, a considerable 

 falling off in the amount of collections, but so 

 many of the churches failed to report that it 

 is difficult to make a fair comparative estimate 

 on this point. The seven theological semina- 

 ries of Andover, Bangor, Chicago, Hartford, 

 Oberlin, Pacific, and Yale, return 44 profess- 

 ors, 18 instructors or lecturers, 16 members of 

 graduating classes, and 322 students. 



American Congregational Union. The thirty-sec- 

 ond annual meeting of the American Congre- 

 gational Union was held in New York, May 

 14. The Rev. J. S. Roberts, D. D., presided. 



