274 THE CONGO FREE STATE 



we had intended. Here the critic will object that of 

 course I did not see any ill-treatment of the natives, 

 because the officials were on their good behaviour, 

 when they knew that the watchful, and probably 

 hostile, eyes of Englishmen were upon them. Such 

 a suggestion is to credit them with a degree of 

 duplicity which I find it impossible to concede. 

 They have little enough reason, Heaven knows, to 

 feel much liking for Englishmen, but the kindness 

 and consideration with which we were invariably 

 treated, and the manner in which many of them 

 went out of their way to help us in difficulties, make 

 it inconceivable to me that these people can be guilty 

 of the crimes with which they are charged, I have 

 been present when the natives have brought in their 

 tax of rubber ; I have come unexpectedly upon an 

 official paying the paddlers of a village their monthly 

 wages ; I have seen them travelling with porters or 

 in canoes along the rivers ; I have been present at 

 the Sunday ' palavers ' with the chiefs, and, as a 

 rule, the prevailing spirit has been one of bonhomie 

 and good-nature. 



With regard to the taxation of the people, if 

 the taxes were spread uniformly over the whole 

 population they would not be unduly heavy, but 

 in the majority of cases they affect the few rather 

 than the many, and unquestionably entail a large 

 amount of hardship. For instance, a village has 

 to supply, say, fifty kilos of rubber a month. If 

 the whole adult population saw fit to bestir them- 



