EXPLORATION OF THE KIBALI 339 



Mobatti chief whether his people hked the coming of the white 

 man to his comitry, and he repHed : " Since the white man 

 has come we have no longer any fear for om' women or 

 property. Before his coming, the chief next to me, who 

 is stronger than I am, used to raid my villages continually. 

 No man could travel from one village to another without 

 going in fear of being waylaid and killed ; but now we work 

 for the white man and he is strong for all." 



For the protection thus afforded them the Congo Govern- 

 ment, like other administrations in Africa, imposes obliga- 

 tions upon the natives. These take the form of each chief 

 supplying to the post of the district a certain amount of 

 labour and produce, the latter varying according to the things 

 his country yields, but it is generally plantains, rubber or 

 palm oil. The work for which his men are employed also 

 varies ; it may be rubber-collecting, or canoe work, or 

 carrying, but in every case the men are paid. Canoe men 

 and carriers get twenty-five centimes a day, the value of 

 which is taken out by the men in cloth from the magazine of 

 the post. 



In the Welle region the circulation of the Congo State 

 money is hardly known, and all pay is given in kind. The 

 wonderful system of waterways by Hghtening the labour of 

 carrying has enabled the Belgians to use trade goods to the 

 utmost advantage. The natives are ignorant of cloth 

 making, and so cloth to them is a valuable article, and for 

 payment goes a much longer way than in many of our own 

 colonies. 



The Belgian system of labour organisation is a sound one. 

 A post is seldom if ever more than five days' distant from the 



