CONGO FREE STATE. 



187 



ent State of the Congo at Banana, July 13, 1885. 

 The frontiers have since been more exactly de- 

 fined by conventions with France and Portugal, 

 ami extended north of the Congo by treaties 

 with native chiefs. The sovereign in his will, 

 dated Aug. 2, 1889, bequeathes all his rights of 

 sovereignty over the Congo State to Belgium, 

 and a convention between Belgium and the In- 

 dependent State of the Congo, concluded on July 

 3, 1890, assures to Belgium the right to annex 

 the Free State, after the lapse of ten years, with 

 all the property, rights,' advantages, and obliga- 

 tion-; appertaining to the sovereignty. By a 

 codicil, dated July 21, 1890, attached to the 

 testament, the territories of the State are de- 

 clared inalienable, and the convention was rati- 

 fied by the Belgian chambers, July 25, 1890. At 

 the International Conference for the Suppres- 

 sion of the Slave Trade which met at Brussels 

 in 1890, the powers revoked the condition of the 

 general act which declared free trade through- 

 out the basin of the Congo, and empowered the 

 Government to levy certain duties on imports. 



The Congo is an international river, free to 

 the flags of all nations. The Free State pos- 

 sesses the territory on the north bank of the 

 Congo from its mouth to Manjanga, above which 

 the north bank, up to the mouth of the Mobangi, 

 belongs to France. The south bank is Portu- 

 guese territory as far as Nokki, just above which 

 the navigation of the Congo is interrupted by 

 rapids which extend for over 200 miles from 

 Vivi to Stanley Pool. A railroad from Vivi to 

 Leopoldville, on Stanley Pool, has been begun. 

 From Nokki the boundary of the Free State runs 

 due east to the Kwango, follows the course of 

 that river up to 8 of south latitude, runs east for 

 150 miles, then north to 7, east again to the Kas- 

 sai, and follows that river southward up to its 

 source, about 24 of east longitude from Green- 

 wich. From that point eastward to Lake Tan- 

 ganyika the Free State is conterminous with the 

 British sphere in South Africa, and the boundary 

 has not been settled, although by the convention 

 of May, 1891, between Portugal and the Independ- 

 ent State of the Congo it runs eastward from the 

 source of the Kassai to Lake Bangweolo. The 

 eastern frontier, dividing the Congo State from 

 British South Africa, is not determined. Farther 

 north, Lake Tanganyika and a line from the 

 northern extremity of the lake to Mfumbiro di- 

 vides it from German East Africa, and from that 

 point northward the thirtieth meridian of east 

 longitude divides it from the British sphere in 

 East Africa. Westward from that meridian to the 

 boundary of the French Congo, on the Mobangi, 

 the Free State is bounded on the north by the 

 northeastern watershed of the Congo. The total 

 area of the Congo State is roughly estimated at 

 900.000 square miles, and the population at from 

 14,000.000 to 17.000,000. The capital is Boma, 

 on the lower Congo. There were 774 resident 

 Europeans at the beginning of 1891, of whom 

 388 were Belgians. 



The heads of departments in the Central Gov- 

 ernment at Brussels, which is presided over by 

 the sovereign, were in the beginning of 1893 as 

 follow : Foreign Affairs, Posts, and Justice, E. 

 de Grelle Kogier : Finance and Domains, C. 

 Janssen ; the Interior, Public Forces, and Marine, 

 E. van Eetvelde. The local government was 



composed of the Vice-Governor-General, Major 

 Charles Wagis, the governor-generalship being 

 vacant; State Inspectors, A. C. van Uele aim 

 Capt. Baert ; the Directors of Finance and Jus- 

 tice, A. Bolle and Dr. F. Fuchs ; the Command- 

 er of the Public Forces, Capt. van der Mens- 

 brugghe ; and the commissaries of the 11 admin- 

 istrative districts of Banana, Boma, Matadi, the 

 Cataracts, Stanley Pool. Kassai, the Equator, the 

 Ubanji and Welle, the Aruwimi and Welle, 

 Stanley Falls, the Lualaba, and East Kwango. 

 The public forces numbered 3,792 native troops, 

 divided into 8 companies commanded by Euro- 

 peans. A decree, issued on July 30, 1891, au- 

 thorizes an annual conscription of the native 

 Africans between the ages of fourteen and thirty. 

 The Government in 1892 had 5 steamers on the 

 lower and 11 on the upper Congo. 



The public revenue is derived from an annual 

 subsidy, formerly of 2,000,000 francs and after- 

 ward of 1,000,000 francs, granted by the sov- 

 ereign out of his private means, an advance of 

 2,000,000 francs a year from 1890 from the Bel- 

 gian treasury, and taxes, duties, license fees, 

 and receipts from sales and leases of public lands. 

 The budget for 1891 estimates the receipts, over 

 and above the 3,000,000 francs contributed by 

 the King of the Belgians and the Belgian Gov- 

 ernment, at 1,554,932 francs, of which 730,966 

 francs are derived from customs, 193,667 francs 

 from licenses, 255,838 francs from other local 

 sources, and 874,461 francs remained unexpended 

 from the Belgian advance for 1890. The princi- 

 pal estimated expenditures were. 2,271,628 francs 

 for the public forces, 829,198 francs for the 

 marine, 648,201 francs for civil administration in 

 Africa, 187.045 francs for the civil service in Eu- 

 rope, and 372,790 francs for caravans, etc. The 

 budget for 1892 was 4,731,981 francs; for 1893, 

 5,440.681 francs. On July 25, 1892, a decree was 

 issued by the sovereign declaring that the right 

 of hunting elephants is interdicted throughout 

 the territories of the State, except by special per- 

 mission. Another decree prohibited all private 

 trade with natives in caoutchouc. The latter de- 

 cree, in answer to the protests of the mercantile 

 community in Africa, was afterward modified 

 so as to allow rubber to be gathered and sold to 

 traders, subject to a duty of 25 centimes per kilo, 

 except in the forests of" the north, in the basins 

 of the Welle, the Mbomu, the Aruwimi, the Him- 

 biri, and some other rivers. But it is forbidden 

 to cut the plants that produce the caoutchouc. 



The total imports in 1891 were valued at 10,- 

 535,619 francs, and the exports at 5,353.519 

 francs. The principal exports were ivory, 8,318,- 

 000 francs ; caoutchouc, 2,320,000 francs ; palm 

 nuts, 1,864.000 francs; coffee, 1,648,000 francs; 

 palm oil, 1,227.000 francs. During 1891 the 

 number of vessels entered at the ports of Banana 

 and Boma was 893, of 247,689 tons. 



Expedition to the Upper Welle. On Feb. 

 3. 1891, Capt. Van Kercknoven, state inspector, 

 set out from Leopoldville with two steamers 

 containing the first part of an expedition con- 

 sisting of 600 black soldiers armea with Albini 

 rifles, 18 officers, as many under officers, and 2 

 surgeons, with auxiliaries armed with muskets 

 and a huge body of followers, as was necessary 

 for the transport of the stores and material for 

 such an expedition, which included a Krupp 



