262 THE CONGO FREE STATE 



The ' testimony of other eye-witnesses ' is, of 

 course, of great value, and worthy of all considera- 

 tion, but it is not quite easy to understand why 

 greater credence should be given to the testimony 

 of vice-consuls and missionaries than to that of dis- 

 interested travellers. 



Part of the reason may be found in that side of 

 the human character which formerly sent people in 

 their thousands to witness an execution, and is now 

 represented by the doubled sale of newspapers at 

 the time of a particularly revolting murder. So 

 long as it does not occur in his own respectable 

 house and cannot bring discredit upon himself, the 

 ordinary citizen feels a certain sense of smug satis- 

 faction in hearing of the misdeeds of other people, 

 whether it is atrocities from Bulgaria or the Congo, 

 or from the divorce courts, and he is secretly not at 

 all sorry that these things should happen. To the 

 majority of people it is the ' atrocities ' which con- 

 stitute the chief point of interest in the Congo. It 

 is always more pleasant to believe what you wish to 

 believe, and I was quite prepared to be treated with 

 open incredulity, when I answered inquirers about 

 atrocities in a way not quite to their satisfaction. 

 But I confess I was astonished (being ignorant of 

 that trait of humanity) at the genuine and hardly 

 concealed disappointment with which many good, 

 and otherwise right-minded and kind-hearted, people 

 have received my remarks. 



During the last three years three English travellers 



