I-'IJKK STATE. 



195 



of the King, for working the mines of Ka- 

 and tin- de\clopmcnt of the whole region 

 IMi.-i li'il-.-i. <'ii ili,- Loiuami, including 

 i.'ina, l'nt;i. niid Katanga. The abandon- 

 "f I lie Si MI ih Alrica ( 'ompany's pretensions 

 1'ortugue-e territory north of the /amlx-si 

 lessened tin- immediate danger of a British an- 

 "ii of this region. The Katanga Company, 

 i mil 1 half of \\hoso shares must be held 

 Igiatis. undertakes within three years to 

 three steamers on the upper Congo, to es- 

 tablish three or more new stations, and to organ- 

 nv of police. The Congo State concedes 

 in the company one third of the public lands in 

 that district, with right to work the minerals 

 fur ninety-nine years. Commander Cameron 

 for the Knglish promoters, who furnished 

 one third of the capital of 3,000,000 francs. The 

 \pedition, leu by M. Delcommune. was fol- 

 in 1S91 by one equipped by the Katanga 

 Company, the leader of which, Lieut. Lemarinel, 

 induced Msiri, whose refusal to treat a few 

 months before with Mr. Sharpe, the British South 

 Africa Company's agent, had saved the Congo 

 State from a vexatious boundary dispute, to ac- 

 knowledge the suzerainty of the Free State. 

 Captain Stairs led a well-equipped expedition 

 from the east coast across German territory for 

 the purpose of taking actual possession of the 

 country on behalf of the Anglo-Belgian Katanga 

 Company and the Congo Free State. 

 Finance and Taxation. The budget of the 

 ' State amounts at present to about 4,000,- 

 <HM) francs a year. The Kingof the Belgians ha- 

 made great sacrifices to institute and maintain 

 the State, and recently contributions have been 

 made by the Belgian treasury in the shape of a 

 loan of _'."). 0(10,000 francs authorized by theCham- 

 (100,000 francs to be advanced immediately 

 aft.-r i In- paage of the bill on July 3, 1890, and 

 J.i " ii i.i MM) franc- a year for the next ten years, at the 

 end of which Belgium can annex, if she will, the 

 Congo State with all its possessions. At no time 

 has the State been able to pay more than one 

 third of its expenses out of the taxes and imposts 

 collected. The protection and facilities for trade 

 afforded by the Congo Free State have attracted 

 merchant- of various nationalities to its domin- 

 ion- and caused a wonderful expansion of the 

 export commerce. The progress thus achieved 

 failed a corresponding increase in the ex- 

 - of administration and police. The whole 

 cost was sustained by the gratuitous sacrifices 

 of King Leopold until it began to exceed his 

 means, when a partial monopoly of the ivory 

 trade was established and other resources were 

 d for the benefit of the Government. A- 

 the merchants complained of this the ivory mo- 

 nopoly was abandoned on condition that house 

 and land taxes, export duties, and duties on ex- 

 -lionld In- substituted. These taxes were 

 irily high. The costs of the Government 

 were greatly enhanced by the efforts made to 

 suppress the slave trade, which was one of the 

 ina in objects for which the State was founded. 

 Enemies of the Free State alleged that theoihVials 



Of the Free State were tl.em.-eUe- slave-holders 



T employers of slave labor. As slavery is the 



custom of Africa, there is often no other labor to 



be had. as the Knglish and Germans have di 



d in their attempts to exploit the east- 



coast region. Whatever abuses are practised by 

 individuals, the system countenanced by the au- 

 thorities is that followed also in Britisl, 

 Africa, of hiring slaves for fixed terms from 

 their masters and allowing them wages, to be ap- 

 plied to buying their freedom. Slave raids an- 

 cheeked wherever the authority of the Congo 

 State is exercised, at one time as far east ax 

 Stanley Falls. After that station was aban- 

 doned the co-operation of Tippoo Tib was se- 

 cured at the time of the Stanley expedition for 

 Kmin Pasha's relief. More recently Lieut. Des- 

 champs, meeting a band of 7,000 slavers on the 

 River Sankuru, put them to flight with 200 

 trained native soldiers and released 1,000 slaves. 

 The ultimate results of Emin's rule in the equa- 

 torial provinces and of Stanley's expedition for 

 his relief depend on future developments. Egypt 

 still asserts her claim, England tacitly includes 

 it in her sphere of activity, Germany by the aid 

 of accomplished facts may establish a right, and 

 Belgium nas aspirations based upon its co-oper- 

 ation in the Stanley expedition. Activity in the 

 northeastern part of the Free State's territory, 

 where so many rivals were seeking to extend 

 their influence, was a matter of necessity. On 

 the western side of the continent the fourth par- 

 allel of north latitude was fixed as the northern 

 boundary of the Congo State by agreement with 

 France. The region of the Welle, which is the 

 upper course of the Mobangi, may be claimed as 

 Hinterland by either the French, the Germans, 

 or the Congo "State. North of that river, in 5 

 of north latitude, Capt. van Gele in 1890 made a 

 treaty with the powerful chief Bangasso, who rules 

 on the northern bank of the Mbumo tributary 

 of the Mobangi. A subsequent expedition, con- 

 sisting of 300 soldiers and 8 European officers, 

 with 5,000 carriers, was dispatched under ('apt. 

 van Kerkhoven, whose object was to ascend the 

 banks of the Welle, and penetrate beyond its source 

 into the Nile basin and, if possible, to reach the 

 Bahr-cl-Gazelle or Lado, on the White Nile. 

 This considerable force got under way in March, 

 1891. In the early summer an Arab slave con- 

 voy was defeated between the Aruwimi and the 

 Welle, and 2.000 slaves were set free. Capt. 

 Ponthies led an expedition to the upper Ilimbiri 

 Roubi, with the object of proceeding thence to 

 the northward, erecting a line of fortified camps 

 as a bulwark against Arab slave raiders. He 

 had several encounters with parties of these that 

 he met. 



The cost of these distant expeditions, the ne- 

 cessity under which the Free State was placed of 

 engaging, in the scramble for Africa, and the 

 concomitant work of suppressing the slave 

 trade, together with the growing expense of 

 protecting commerce, placed the State in a diffi- 

 cult financial position. When an export tax of 

 Id per cent, was levied on ivory from thebanksof 

 the Congo, of 25 per cent, on ivory from 

 where, and of 10 per cent, on rubber, in addition 

 to heavy taxes mi houses and building land, and 

 a duty of from 10 to 30 francs for every servant, 

 the Dutch merchants who had settled on tin- 

 Belgian bank of the Congo threatened to go 

 over to the Portuguese bank to escape a jmrtion 

 of the taxation. To relieve the State and enable 

 it to fulfill its international obligations, the 

 powers at the Brussels conference authori/.ed it 



