HUNTING AND HUNTED IN BELGIAN CONGO 



themselves when they are away from civilization and let 

 their brutal natures get the upper hand. He must be 

 a man of great principle who goes to shut himself away 

 from the outer world for years, beyond the restraints of 

 civilization ; and it behoves all Governments to be 

 careful in selecting as their representatives in the heart 

 of a great country like the Congo only men of character 

 who can be relied on always to play the game with the 

 people over whom they are placed. Force must some- 

 times be employed to punish wrong-doers, but some of 

 the methods adopted in carrying out the sentence have 

 formed a blot on the page of Christianity that can never 

 be effaced. 



Since writing the account of my trip, I have learnt 

 the sad news of the death of Mr. Rodgers, the gentleman 

 of whom I have spoken as having walked up from Ratanga, 

 the star of the Congo, to Lake Albert. When I met 

 Rodgers he was prospecting. The papers, in reporting 

 his death, however, refer to him as one of the elephant 

 hunters, but even if big game had been the object of his 

 journey, that would have been no justification of his 

 murder in cold blood by the Sudanese askaris in the 

 Lado Enclave. 



This furnishes an instance of native troops getting 

 out of control when sent out on an expedition without 

 a responsible officer in charge, and I have no hesitation 

 in declaring that the official, whoever he may be, 

 who was responsible for sending out askaris, with- 

 out a European in command, to escort Rodgers 

 into his boma is directly responsible for that horrible 

 crime. 



The very fact of sending natives to escort, or I should 

 say forcibly drag, a white man in to a Government station 

 is an enormity. I suppose this official was too busy with 

 his whisky and cigars. This is typical of the Sudanese 

 Regime. 



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