CONGO, INDEPENDENT STATE OF THE. 



CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



129 



The general commerce for 1900, including prod- 

 ucts brought down from beyond the confines of 

 the State for export and imported merchandise 

 sent beyond the borders, amounted to 31,803,214 

 francs for imports and 51,775,978 francs for ex- 

 ports. The special imports were 24,724,109 francs 

 in value, and the special exports were 47,377,401 

 francs. The special imports of textile fabrics and 

 clothing were 6,673,563 francs; of articles of food, 

 4,316,158 francs; of machinery, 1,939,653 francs; 

 of beverages, 1,803,125 francs; of steamers and 

 parts of steamers, 1,783,302 francs; of hardware 

 and metals, 1,355,148 francs; of arms and ammu- 

 nition, 761,804 francs. The special exports of 

 rubber were 39,874,005 francs in value; of ivory, 

 5,253,300 francs; of palm-nuts, 1,318,810 francs; 

 of palm-oil, 813,300 francs; of woods, 39,886 

 francs; of coffee, 27,825 francs; of skins, 2,811 

 francs. Of the total value of the special imports 

 Belgium furnished 17,270,483 francs; Great Brit- 

 ain, 2,959,590 francs; Netherlands, 1,507,490 

 francs; Germany, 1,302,336 francs. Of the special 

 exports Belgium received 42,694,998 francs; Neth- 

 erlands, 2,604,617 francs; Portuguese Africa, 

 1,565,352 francs; Great Britain, 270,090 francs. 

 The general commerce was distributed as follows : 



The special imports in 1901 amounted to 23,- 

 100,000 francs; special exports, 50,500,000 francs, 

 including 43,900,000 francs for rubber, 5,700,000 

 francs for palm-kernels, 3,900,000 francs for 

 ivory, 300,000 francs for copal. Coffee, earthhuts, 

 cacao, and tobacco are represented by petty 

 sums. 



Navigation. The number of ocean vessels 

 that were entered at the ports of Banana and 

 Boma during 1900 was 230, of 465,674 tons; 

 cleared, 227, of 458,562 tons. Of the tonnage en- 

 tered 273,059 tons and of that cleared 270,111 tons 

 were Belgian, while 81,842 tons entered and 

 80,330 cleared were British and 62,394 tons en- 

 tered and cleared were German. There were en- 

 tered coastwise 408 vessels, of 18,232 tons, and 

 cleared 428, of 18,746 tons. 



Communications. The Congo and its tribu- 

 taries have 3,000 miles of navigable water. The 

 Congo itself is navigable for 1,000 miles above 

 Stanley Pool. On the lower Congo the State had 

 7 steamers plying from Banana to Matadi. The 

 Congo railroad transports goods and passengers 

 from this point to Leopoldville, 200 miles above. 

 The railroad has a length of 250 miles. On the 

 upper river the Government transport service 

 comprises 28 steamers. A railroad is under con- 

 struction in Mayumbe, of which 20 miles were 

 completed at the beginning of 1902. A Belgian 

 syndicate has obtained a concession for ninety- 

 nine years for railroads from Stanleyville, on 

 the upper Congo, to Lake Albert, and from 

 Nyangwe to Lake Tanganyika. The head of 

 navigation on the Lualaba will be connected 

 with the southern frontier of the Free State by 

 i line 350 miles long which is destined to form 

 part of the Cape to Cairo line planned by Cecil 

 Rhodes, and in the meantime will open up the 

 metalliferous district of Katanga. There are 744 

 VOL. XLII. 9 A 



II 



miles of telegraph connecting Leopold ville 

 with Boma and with Equator, and 51 miles of 

 short lines in Mayumbe and between Lrsala and 

 Umangi. 



The post-office in 1900 forwarded 138,788 pieces 

 of mail-matter in the internal and 358,451 in the 

 external service. 



Internal Affairs. The Manyema district was 

 pacified before the middle of 1902 by Major Mal- 

 fait, and in the Belgian portion of the Bahr el 

 Ghazal the Ababuas and other tribes that had 

 been troublesome were quiet. Posts on the Nile 

 and in the Makraka region were reenforced. A 

 joint commission surveyed the territory in dis- 

 pute between Germany and the Congo State in 

 the region of Lake Kivu. In the autumn disturb- 

 ances occurred in the region of the Welle, necessi- 

 tating the reenforcement of the native troops sta- 

 tioned there. When an English philanthropic so- 

 ciety appealed to the British Government to 

 draw the attention of the powers responsible for 

 the general act of the Berlin conference of 1885 

 and the Brussels conference of 1892 to the viola- 

 tion of the provisions as regards protection of 

 the native populations and improvement of their 

 conditions of life, as well as those prohibiting 

 monopolies and other restraints on freedom of 

 trade, and at a public meeting called attention 

 to grievous wrongs to which native populations 

 were said to be subjected, the King of the Bel- 

 gians telegraphed that the Government of the 

 Congo Free State would open an inquiry into 

 any specific charges brought before it. A repre- 

 sentative of the Congo Government denied that 

 any official or soldier had committed atrocities, 

 such as cutting off the hands of natives who 

 failed to collect a certain quantity of rubber in 

 a given time, but persons calling themselves 

 agents of the State were reputed to have done 

 such things. By a decree of the sovereign of 

 the Free State 50 per cent, of all personal and 

 direct taxes payable by religious, charitable, and 

 scientific societies in the Congo State is remitted 

 from July 1, 1902. 



CONGREGATIONALISTS. The statistical 

 tables published in the Congregational Year- 

 Book for 1902 give the following total numbers 

 for the American Congregational churches: Of 

 churches, 5,753, of which 1,045 were "vacant"; 

 of ministers, 5,717, of whom 1,814 were "without 

 charge"; of members, 645,994; of members added 

 during the year on confession, 28,398 ; of baptisms 

 during the year, 11,740 of adults and 12,355 of 

 infants; of families, 449,555; of members of Sun- 

 day-schools, 658,405, with an average attendance 

 of 394,905; of Young People's Societies of Chris- 

 tian Endeavor, 3,655, with 178,407 members. 

 These figures show an increase during the year 

 of 43 churches, 149 ministers, and 10,356 members, 

 and a decrease of 13,934 pupils in Sunday-schools 

 and 12,041 members of Christian Endeavor Socie- 

 ties. The contributions of the churches for the 

 year were: For foreign missions, $490,024; for 

 education, $164,082; for church building, $100,- 

 877 ; for home missions, $508,866 ; for the American 

 Missionary Association, $126,020; for Sunday- 

 schools, $52,180; for ministerial aid, $20,876; 

 other contributions, $770,797 : total contributions 

 (according to the footings of the table) for benev- 

 olent objects, $2,233,722; legacies, $461,718; con- 

 tributions for home expenditures, $7,580,665. The 

 8 theological seminaries at Andover, Atlanta, 

 Bangor, Chicago, Hartford, Oberlin, Oakland, 

 Cal. (Pacific), and New Haven, Conn. (Yale), re- 

 turn 61 professors, 27 instructors or lecturers, 13 

 resident licentiates or fellows, 45 in the advanced 

 or graduate class, and 320 undergraduates. 



