Truth About the Congo 



813 



"Of frightful outrages, such as I had ex- 

 pected to meet everywhere, I may say 

 there was nothing. 



"On the contrary, I found at many 

 places a condition of the negro population 

 far happier than I had dreamed it pos- 

 sible. The negro of the Congo — or Bantu, 

 if vou please — is a born trader. He is 

 imitative to a degree. He is acquisitive 

 and charmed with novelties. He is bright 

 and quick, remarkably intelligent. He 

 readily acquires new languages, and it is 

 no uncommon thing to find a Congo 

 Bantu who can speak six or seven lan- 

 guages besides his own. In disposition 

 variable and emotional, he quickly for- 

 gets his sorrow. I saw hundreds of na- 

 tives who were working happily, living in 

 good houses, dressing in good clothes, of 

 European stuff and pattern, and saving 

 oroperty. That this number will rapidly 

 increase I have no doubt." 

 ^Ir Wack is equallv positive : 

 "The o-rowth of the Con°^o Free State 

 has from the first been skillfully directed 

 by clever men of thoua'ht and action. 

 Now that the transformation is complete, 

 and what but three short decades ago was 

 the verv heart of savagery hss become a 

 valuable commercial and political asset, 

 the forcible eiectment from the African 

 Continent of the authors of all this good 

 is openly discussed I Such is the reward 



which it is proposed should be meted out 

 to the gallant, self-sacrificing little nation 

 which has replaced the horrors of barbar- 

 ism by the blessings of civilization, and 

 incidentally discovered vast material 

 wealth." 



Mr Wack also describes the political, 

 social, and economic aspects of the Bel- 

 gian system of government and the al- 

 most boundless natural wealth of the 

 Congo Free State : '"The forests of the 

 Congo are the finest in the world. They 

 contain a great variety of hard and soft 

 wood, fruit-bearing trees, rubber trees 

 and vines and gum trees and constitute an 

 industrial wealth which is being preserved 

 by enforcing rigorous laws." The Free 

 State is one-third the size of the United 

 States. It lies squarely across the heart 

 of Africa with an outlet to the sea on the 

 west coast, which brings it comparatively 

 near the European markets. It separates 

 the British African Empire — the Soudan 

 and the Nile country on the north from 

 the Cape and Rhodesia territory — in a 

 manner most aggravating to the British. 

 .\s Mr Wack puts it, the British states- 

 man who is ambitious to develop his 

 country's influence in Africa, feels as an 

 American would who saw the Louisiana 

 Purchase territory owned by a small 

 foreign power. 



GEOGRAPHICAL BOOKS OF 1907 



The South Americans. The story of the 

 South American Republics, their charac- 

 teristics, progress, and tendencies : with 

 special reference to their commercial rela- 

 tions with the United States. By Albert 

 Hale, A. B., M. D. Pp. 361. 9 x sH inches. 

 Illustrated. Indianapolis : The Bobbs-Mer- 

 rill Co. 1907. 

 Dr Hale lived many years in South America, 

 visiting every country he describes. He makes 

 many startling statements of the wonderful 

 possibilities of the continent. For instance, 

 speaking of the 800.000 square miles of Argen- 

 tina embraced in the basin of the Parana, he 

 says : 



"Nearly every acre of this land in Argentina 

 is, with the simplest of railway construction, 

 within reach of the Atlantic Ocean. There are 



no natural barriers to overcome, such as we 

 have in the Alleghanies on the east, or in the 

 Rockies on the west. Produce that cannot be 

 floated down a river to tide-water could be 

 loaded on to cars and with slight expense and 

 a short haul be mechanically transferred to 

 modern ships in modern harbors, with the 

 whole consuming world of Europe closer to 

 their producing areas than are the fields of our 

 Middle West. How immense are these store- 

 houses of nature and how close to markets can 

 scarcely be grasped except by a close study of 

 their geography." 



The Continent of Opportunity. The South 

 American Republics — their history, their 

 resources, their outlook. Together with a 

 traveller's impressions of present-day con- 



