Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1883-09-20
CONGO EXPLORATIONS.
A coRREsPoNDENT's OBSERVATIONS.
Interesting Description of Some of Stan
ley's@StatioDs-The Real Difficulty in
Exploring the Rivera Graphic
Account of Stanley Pool.
ICor. London Telegraph

[Cor. London Telegraph
Leopoldville, like most of Mr.. Stanley's
stations, is placed on rising ground, but it
does not occupy for its site the exact sum-
NIT of hin, being built on what may be
called a semi-circular ledge round the
slope facing the expanding pool. The
principal edifice of the station is q
large two-storied house, made of wood,
brick, and sort of mud-plaster. The
roof is of thatch, for the sake of
GOODNESS, and all the framework of the
house is composed of huge beams of wood,
apparently of great strengthen really a
source offweakness, as the wood is Being
constantly eaten through by the white ants
and other insect pests, 500 that frequently
beam gives way, and is renewed only
just in time to save the structure.
From this promenade views of great
beauty may be obtained over the distant
pool and the neighboring forest, and in the
81. cool eyening-tim it formsa pleasant walk
to stroll on while waiting for dinner
Here, too, in the early morning, the Chief
of the station passes all the Zanzibaris in
review.
Leopoldville boasts of a convenient little
harbor in front of the station, protected by
spit of woodland which projects into the
Congo. i-Of course, here all the falls are
over, or rather, following the course of
the stream, have not yet begun-the first
takes place close to Leopoldville, a
little behind the station-so that
navigation from this little port
is open and unchecked for nearly thou
sand miles into the interior. There are,
however, minor difficulties still to be en-
countered. When the wooded spit of low
ground forming the port is rounded the
land begins to raise and the forest
to disappear, and at Calina Point a
cliff of about fifty feet rises abruptly
from the water. "A fearful current races
round this promontory~ difficult to stem
even in "a steamer, but really dangerous
for native canoes going against the stream.
Here last December Lieutenant Calina, an
Austrian member of the expedition, was
drowned. He would insist on ascending
the Congo in small native canoe, and
being, moreover, q very tall man,
and for some reason choosing to seat HIM
self on a large chest in the stern, he rem
dered the balance very. unstable. The
little craft was badly steered, met the rush
of the current broadsides as, it whfrled
round this point, and was instantly cap
sized. Lieutenant Calina was drowned,
and his name has since been given to'this
precipitous cliff.
Almost opposite to Calina Point, which
might from it's commanding situation be
called the Gibraltar of the pool, is Mfwa, a
little native village, so insignificant
in size and situation that it ?, would
be passed over without remark were
it not that it has been noisely
christened before all Europe as
"Brazzaville." 1t is here that De Brazza
claims to have secured a session of ter
ritory to the French Republic nine miles
in length. Brazzaville" consists of a
very few native huts, half buried in ba-
nsnas and backed by thick forest On the
left-hand side, facing the pool, there is a
small creek, which, might be developed
into a tiny harbor, and there is
fine and fertile - island, as yet
uninhabited save by chance fisher
men, which might be successfully
DEVELOPED by the French; but save these
two Advantages, not rare anywhere in
Stanley Pool, it is difficult to discover any
favorable point in this sihIationy or even
to avoid the conclusll lon. that 1T Ais badly
chosen site for a station. Calina Point is
not likely to come into the hands of the
French, as L believe a previous contract
vicinity and Mr.. Stanley.
Before proceed to further description
of Stanley Pool and its inhabitants, might
men; ION. foE those>who like statistics, that
this great expanse of the Congo is about
twenty five miles long by sixteen broad, and
thatits depth. varies from two to three feet
to thirty fathoms. There are about seven
teen islands of note, the largest being thir-
teen miles long. Many sand-banks also
strew the waters of the pool, and floating
islets are often seen, masses of reeds, pa
pyrus and aquatic vegetation, which have
become so solidly knit together that man
can stand on them. These are often of
some extent, and may be taken for real
islands until their motion with the current is
observed. White egrets and many water
birds frequent them, and the hippopotami
play round their edges. On the lsfgeislands
are many elephants and buffaloes, which
creatures swim backward and forward from
the mainland with ease. Innumerable water
birds, storks, pelicans, cormorants, herons,
egrets, sacred ibises, spur-winged and
Egyptian geese, terms and ,'sscissorbiusp
frequent the thick tangles Of high grass
and the many sand-bankS, where they form
strange groups with the crocodiles, who
are wont to lie basking in the sun with a
fixed grin playing about their closed jaws.
The people inhabiting the shores Of STAN
ley Pool belong to the Bateke race, but
they would seem to be recent arrivals and
to have dispossessed the older inhab ita nts
and driven them into the interior. Where
the Bateke have settled on the south or
eastern bank of the Congo theyforIaanersly
riverine colonies, and never extend their
settlements many miles from its banks.