CHAPTER XVIII 



THE CONGO FREE STATE 



' I cannot fall out, or condemn a man for an error, or con- 

 ceive why a difference in opinion should divide an affection : 

 for controversies, disputes, and argumentations, both in 

 philosophy and in divinity, if they meet with discreet and 

 peaceable natures, do not infringe the laws of charity : in all 

 disputes, so much as there is of passion, so much there is of 

 nothing to the purpose ; for then reason, like a bad hound, 

 spends upon a false scent, and forsakes the question first 

 started.' — Sir Thomas Browne. 



When I first contemplated writing an account of 

 my wanderings in Africa, nothing was farther from 

 my thoughts than to enter on the thorny paths of 

 Congo controversy : more than that, indeed, it was 

 my fixed intention to avoid the question altogether. 

 During the last few months, however, the subject 

 has been brought forward to such a point of pro- 

 minence that it is impossible to be altogether silent, 

 and I am assured by people whose opinion I value 

 very highly that silence on my part might be very 

 seriously misconstrued, or at the best that it might 

 be taken as a sign of indifference to the gravity of 

 the situation. A misconstruction of silence would 

 be unpleasant ; a suggestion of indifference would 

 be infinitely worse. So it is inevitable that I should 



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