188 



CONGO FREE STATE. 



cannon, a Hotchkiss rapid-fire gun, and 4 other 

 guns. The purpose of the expedition was to 

 traverse the region of the Welle from Yakoraa 

 to the Monbuttu country, conclude treaties with 

 the rulers, and put the tribes in a condition to 

 defend themselves against both the Arab slavers 

 and the Mahdists, who were extending their 

 conquests from the Soudan. Before setting out, 

 Capt. Van Kerckhoven went to Stanley Falls to 

 secure the loyal support of Rashid, the vali who 

 had succeeded Tippoo Tib. Lieut. Fievezi com- 

 mandant of the post of Basoko, opened the line 

 of communications from the Congo to the Itim- 

 biri and Welle, and made sure of the friendly 

 attitude of the powerful Sultan of Djabbir. 

 Capt. Ponthier preceded the expedition to open 

 this route, reaching the confluence of the Bo- 

 mokandi and the Welle. Itembo, at the head of 

 navigation on the Itimbiri, was fortified so as to 

 serve as a base of supplies. A second advance 

 guard, under Lieut. Milz, proceeded northward 

 toward the sultanate of Senno. The expedition 

 made good progress, and the diplomatic tact of 

 the leader and the imposing display of military 

 force not only secured a peaceful passage, but 

 persuaded the native rulers to accept the pro- 

 tection and alliance of the Congo State. The 

 Arabs disputed the way, and there were frequent 

 bloody encounters with them. In April, 1892, 

 the expedition was heard from as having reached 

 the Monbuttu country, on the confines of the 

 Free State's territory. A few months later there 

 were rumors that it had broken the power of the 

 dervishes on the upper Nile and established a sta- 

 tion at Wadelai. or, according to other accounts, 

 even at Lado, in the abandoned Equatorial Prov- 

 ince of Egypt. The Congo Government had ap- 

 proached the British Minister of Foreign Affairs 

 and had obtained his assent to a proposition that 

 the expedition should occupy the Nile province 

 provisionally in furtherance of its mission to 

 check the slave trade. Lord Salisbury may have 

 thought that there was little prospect of the 

 establishment of Belgian stations on the upper 

 Nile, and that any success that the expedition 

 could attain in rallying the populations against 

 the slave raiders and damming back the power 

 of the Khalifa would further the British policy 

 in East Africa and help to conserve British inter- 

 ests in Uganda. There were reports that Capt. 

 Van Kerckhoven had established himself at Lado ; 

 that the Khalifa had sent a force under the 

 Emir Abugingeh ; that the latter had been in- 

 duced to desert the dervish cause and join in an 

 anti-Mahdist movement that had broken out in 

 southern Kordofan. Either a better knowledge 

 of the rebellious mood of the Shilluks, Denkas, 

 and other warlike tribes on the Nile, who were 

 likely to join hands with the whites and favor 

 their establishment on the Nile and their ad- 

 vance northward, or some other reason, impelled 

 Lord Salisbury to veto the permission granted 

 to the Congo Government by the President of 

 the British East Africa Company, to which he 

 had previously given his assent. He refused to 

 listen to any compromise that would allow the 

 Congo forces to set foot within the English 

 sphere, and Lord Rosebery maintained the same 

 attitude. It was evident that any occupation of 

 the Nile region by the Congo State forces would 

 give a colorable legal title to sovereign rights, 



because the Congo Free State was not a party to 

 the Anglo-Italian and Anglo-German arrange- 

 ments that conceded it to Great Britain, and 

 international law, as defined in Anglo-German 

 and other treaties respecting the coast of Africa 

 and unclaimed countries in general, requires that 

 there must be effective occupation to establish 

 territorial rights. From Lado, or whatever point 

 he reached in the Nile region, Capt. Van Kerck- 

 hoven was eventually compelled to retreat. 

 While returning, he was killed, on Aug. 10, 1892, 

 by the accidental discharge of a rifle. His party 

 of 20 whites was much reduced by deaths, and 

 the troops suffered losses in many conflicts with 

 the Soudanese, the Niamniams, and the Mon- 

 buttus. Yet the powerful chiefs of the north- 

 east Bangasso, Djabbir, Semio, and others re- 

 mained loyal to the Independent State, and the 

 league against the slave-traders was organized 

 by the survivors of the expedition. Capt. Baert, 

 who was sent to succeed Capt. Van Kerckhoven, 

 was stopped by hostile Niamniams on Bamo- 

 kandi river, but worsted them after ft severe en- 

 counter, and succeeded in joining Capt. De- 

 langhe, who took command after the death of 

 Van Kerckhoven. With the consent of the na- 

 tive chiefs, who have considerable armies organ- 

 ized in military fashion, the country was divided 

 into military districts placed under the command 

 of Belgian officers. 



Antislavery Posts at Tanganyika. The 

 west shore of Lake Tanganyika was intrusted to 

 the action of the Algerian missionaries by the 

 Independent State of the Congo after the Con- 

 gress of Berlin in 1885. It was thus that the 

 post of Mpala, founded for the International 

 African Association by Capt. Storms, in 1883, 

 became an antislavery center. Capt. Joubert, 

 an old soldier of the Papal Zouaves, organized a 

 little army recruited from pupils of the Carmel- 

 ite mission and liberated slaves, and carried on 

 a constant war with the Arab raiders. Many 

 chiefs of natives tribes sought protection against 

 the slavers. The latter redoubled their attacks, 

 and in a battle which took place on June 4, 1890, 

 when a series of sanguinary encounters had deci- 

 mated the force and left it with not more than 

 100 rifles in good order, the post was saved by a 

 storm that scattered the enemy's boats. 



The Belgian Antislavery Society fitted out an 

 expedition under Capt. Jacques, which arrived 

 at Rumbi, one of Joubert's stations, on Sept. 27, 

 1891. Jacques, who took the chief command, 

 extended the field of operations, founding the 

 post of Albertville, north of Mpala. on Dec. 30, 

 1891, as a barrier against Arab incursions. The 

 Arab chiefs collected their forces and hurled 

 them against the two posts, and after each re- 

 pulse returned in stronger numbers. In an- 

 swer to the call for re-enforcements the Anti- 

 slavery Society fitted out a third expedition, 

 which left Amsterdam on April 2, 1892, under 

 the command of Lieut. Long, and in the spring 

 of 1893 a fourth, xinder Capt. Descamps, who 

 took a large supply of arms and ammunition and 

 stores of victuals. This last expedition took the 

 route of the Zambesi, reaching it by way of the 

 Cape of Good Hope, and passing through Nyassa- 

 land with the assistance of the British African 

 Lakes Company to Karenga, north of Lake 

 Nyassa, which is a month's journey from the 



