Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1882-10-25

Paris Letter.
PARIS, FRANCE, Oct. ., 's2.

The return of Mr.. Stanley to Europe
from the stations he has planted on his
mighty river, the Congo or Livingstone,
has given rise to lively controversy in
the French journals. If the American
public were not so absorbed in political
questions, itis'probable that their attention
would he engaged by the efforts being
now made in France to wrong the greatest
living traveller and to lilch from the asso-
citation which he serves, the golden fruit
of his tolls The fact is that French poll
ticians and journalists are rather ION the
rampage" just at present for prestige and
territory, to make up for recent rebuits
and losses. Hence their remarkable
activity abroad in Cochin, China, NADIA
gascar, and elsewhere, and their excit ement
at home overithe Egyptian control, and
this last affair of NJ. De Brazza. To couple |
two such questions rs that of the Nile and
the Congo may seem to some absurd; but
the day will come, believe, when the
control of the navigation and commerce
of the central African river will not be a
much smaller matter than any Egyptian
traffic, and when the splendid and prodig-
ious service wrought for civilization by
Henry Stanley-irst in tracking the Won
drous channel from its source, and next in
opening itslwaters to trade and intercourse
will place his name among the chief
benelactors of mankind.
None were more forward than the
Frenchmen to acclaim and welcome STAN
ley when his magnificent discovery was
announced. Frenchmen are enlightened
and gen erous-when their interests are
not concerned; and no Paris journal, at
that date found any fault with the explor-
er's conduct. They praised him to the
skies for all he had achieved, and after
wards hailed the benlficent mission which
sent him forth under illustrious auspices
to open the river he had given to the world,
by making a road from below the Congo
cataracts TO Stanley pool. that lake-like
enlargement Of the stream down to which
navigation is clear and easy from the far
interior. Bat while Stanley was patiently
toiling at his roads and stations, a French
lieutenant, NJ. De Brazza, groping about
the country of the Gaboon, found, or
thinks that he found, Il shorter way to the
f pool by the Ogowe and Alimo rivers.
There is, doubtless, such path, and De
Brazza came by it to point opposite the
chief station of Stanley upon the pool, but
he had no appliances, followers, or funds,
to prove the capabilities of his route; what
he did was by some hocuspocus with the
natives to obtain what he calls, and what
the French journalists maintain to be, ga
treaty of occupation" giving him, in the
, name of France, possession of this very
important region Of the river If ever a
noble work should have been left to its
s protector and his enlightened friends to
5 complete and TO profit by, this, by every
2 rule of equity and chivalry, was the work
: Let, therefore, the plain truth be told as TO
y. the mole in which M. De Brazzl has
: sought to steal tho credit and the reward
of Sankey's vast labors; and what mis-
cradle pretence it is which the French
journals are not ashamed to sustain, be-
cause they hope for cheap anncxations in
Africa.
- De Brazzl boasts the possession of a
= "treaty' with Makoko, the chief of the
Stanley pool country, granting him ces-
ii sion of the land lying between the Jue
and the Impila. But this was in reality
only an ordinary permission to build at
=, Mfwa, which De Brazza calls Ntamo and
y. De Lesseps Brazzavile. Mfwa is on the
: north bank, and consists of two small vii.
: lagos, inhabited by ivory-buying b. teke
- who sell ivory to the Blcongo and Bah
= wende This cession of privilege is thus
no more than has been made to any trav
;, cler or missionary by Makoko's chiefs
> and merely mems, you may build houses
- make gardens as many as you please, bu
we will not give our fathers land away
10 to the stranger. 1t is not the custom Of
$ the Bateke!" This, indeed, has been the
very language used by Gancho, the grea
5 chief of Makoko, to those who have asker
" for land. In return for SO very mild 6
: favor D. Brazzt gave n similarly small
; gull pro qW0, VIZ, Il French flag, four fee
'' long, which was too short for a loin cloth
= or otherwise might have breeched a saw
y age, twenty four cotton handkerchefs, ant
% three fathoms of striped cloth, with doz
VI en- glass beads, the value of all being $3.50
u A good idea of the transaction will b,
IS derived from knowing that the Gancho
v who brought De Brazza to Stanley pool
II offered to build another person n grass hu
% twenty feet long, ten feet broad and eigh
st feet high, for 200 brass rods, valued a
ID 81 %. One does not purchase kingdoms
e. at this rate! D3 Brazzl, therefore, per
verified leave to build into cession Of terri
, tory. believe he wrote piece of paper
- got Gancho and his friends to touch thu
!, pen, ignorant of what they were doing
- then left his sergeant and two sailors will
flag us an earnest, that he would return
= to build afterwards, distributing it'll
=, French tricolors to unsophisticated villa
- gers of Mfwa, us one might distribute
=, coppers or sweetmeats to children; slappet
- them all on tho shoulders in Jolly, goot
~ mode AMI amablc temper with all th
-, world, and then went of, us friend,
fratornizo with Stanley at Ndambi-Mbongo
all The first issue OF this slratagem was tina
ry two English missionaries, coming nto tn
ne region with British ensign, were drive
loc out by riot, raised II nshassa, probabl
Of through the intriguos of Do Brazzis ror
nd resentatives. But when. by and by. Mr.
CO Stanley himself appeared, the mirlh {
", annexation and occupation seems to hay
!. vanished very quickly. Do Brazzl's sci
lit geant cooled down into quietude, and Il