188 



CONGO INDEPENDENT STATE. 



tobacco, which is also grown in the native villages, 

 KubU-r found in the public domain is claimed by 

 the Government. The imports from Belgium in 

 1896 amounted to 10,204,477 francs; exerts to 

 Belgium, 10.NJ6.060 francs. The British and Dutch 

 have iii<>-t of the remaining trade. In 1897 the 

 total value of exports was 17,450,000 francs, and of 

 imi'.r- '::. I-J.'I.OIHI francs. The imports from Bel- 

 gium have increased from 4,000,000 francs in 1893 

 *er 10.000,000 francs, while of the export trade, 

 which was miev in the lianls of the Dutch, two 

 thirds is now carried on by Belgians. The rubber 

 -\|H.I-|N t,i Belgium have increased from 250,000 

 kilogrammes in 1N93 to 1,500,000 kilogrammes in 



Navigation. The number of vessels in the for- 

 eii;n trade entered at Banana and Boma during 

 1896 was 155, of 257,384 tons ; cleared, 153, of 254,- 

 076 tons. The number entered in the coasting 

 trade was 885, of 11,067 tons ; cleared, 410, of 12,683 



Communications. The post office in 1896 

 transmitted 74,526 internal and 207,156 foreign 

 letters, papers, etc. Six steamers belonging to the 

 State run up to Matadi, the head of navigation 

 on the lower Congo, and 14 ply on the upper river, 

 which is navigable for 1,000 miles from Stanley 

 Pool to Stanley Falls. The railroad along the rapids 

 above Matadi was completed and in operation for 164 

 miles in the beginning of 1898, leaving only the 96 

 miles Iwtween Tumba and Stanley Pool over which 

 the |x>rterage of goods was still necessary. The 

 whole line was completed in March and opened to 

 truffle in April. The construction of the road was 

 begun in 1889, when the Belgian state subscribed 



of the line was laid. The Belgian state once more 

 came to the rescue, giving 15,000,000 francs more. 

 The public subscribed 20,000,000 francs to complete 

 the work, making the total cost 60,000,000 francs, 

 equal to about $50,000 a mile. Before the end of 

 the year work was begun on a railroad in the upper 

 Congo region connecting the head of navigation 

 on the Lobefu, an affluent of Sankuru which flows 

 into the Kassai, with the Lomami. Another line 

 connecting the Lomami with the Lualaba is pro- 

 jected ; also one from the Lualaba and Manyema to 

 Lake Tanganyika. The Independent State has the 

 right of expropriating the Congo Railroad, but by a 

 convention signed on Feb. 10, 1898, has bound itself 

 not to exercise the right til 1 1909. 



Progress under the Belgians. Although 9 

 out of every 10 of the State officials die or are in- 

 valided in three years, the activity of the Belgians 

 and the civilizing effect of their rule, though it has 

 not been free from cruel abuses, is now acknowl- 

 edged by disinterested witnesses. Great benefit has 

 resulted from the suppression of the liquor traffic, 

 which flourished on the lower Congo when they 

 came. It is now permitted only at Matadi anil 

 along the border of the French and Portuguese 

 possessions, where it would be impossible to stop 

 contraband traffic. No liquor for natives is al- 

 lowed to be carried on the railroad, and to render 

 the decree effective the zone of prohibition has been 

 extended on the south bank for nearly 50 miles 

 down to the Mpozo river. The prohibition of ex- 

 ports of spirits from neighboring European posses- 

 sions into a colony where sales to natives are illegal 

 was one of the chief measures to be proposed at the 

 new conference which the Belgian Government at 



FISHING AT STANLEY I 



IN CONGO RIVER. 



10.000.000 francs of the estimated capital required 



is a per|H>tual loan at 3 per cent., enabling the 



miiwiiy to obtain the remaining 15,000.000 franca 



rom private capitalists in Belgium. The capital 



was used up in three years, and only a fiftieth part 



the suggestion of Great Britain intended to convene 

 at Brussels. Cannibalism is dying out in the Free 

 State, not only through direct repression, but 

 through the growth of a feeling against the practice, 

 which is the outcome of the mingling of tribes 



