Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1884-01-25
STANLEY,S KINGDOM.
Adventures Of the African Explorer at
His Post on the Congo-What is he.
ing Done to Develop That Section.


and then first showed the world that
there was highway into the interior
along its banks, and that once the
cataracts We're passed, 1000 miles of
navigable river lay open through the
heart OF Africa. Upon this civilization
began, at first slowly, to turn her eyes
in that direction, and the king of the
Belgians, as president of the African
International association, sent Mr..
Stanley out again to the Congo TO
open up that river and to make way
into Central Africa, where the worlds
commerce might follow In 1879 Mr..
Stanley first arrived with his person
mel and began the great work in which
he is still engaged. Nivi Station was
founded at the furthest point up the
river before the cataracts, at 10 miles
from the sea, with which it is in direct
communication. When he had chosen
his eagles nest-an admirable site on a
towering cliff above the river-and
by his influence over the neighboring
tribes that had habituated them to the
presence of the white men, the old
establishments on the Congo began to
take courage and extend their opera
tons along its banks, 50 that in three
years since Vivi was founded some
dozen trading stations have been open
ed between that place and Bona.
THE MISSIONARIES.
Two mission societies also began to
direct their attention to the great
river. The Baptists went to San Sal
,,,I hn In land
mission founded their first station at
an important station-Pallaballa-a
few miles from the Congo and nearly
opposite Vivi. In comparatively
short time these two missionary socl-
cites had founded severally four or
five stations along the river as far as
Stanley Pool, while the Roman Cath
olics, later IN the field began to estab-
lish themselves at the mouth of the
river and at Bona. But the eXpedit-
ion of Mr.. Stanley was naturally the
precursor in all these advances, and it
was in his footsteps that the mission
aries and the men of commerce came.
When the Baptists announced that
they were going to call their little
steamboat Peace, a Belgian writer
remarked, Eyes, because it comes
behind our guns" As the advance
went forward, not impelled by brutal
force of arms, but by dint of endless
patience and persuasion, the scruples
of the natives were gently dispelled,
their fears as to aggression allayed by
fair dealing, and soon-marvelously
soon, when one thinks how slowly
things march in Africa the inhabi
tants of regions which a few years
before were utterly unknown and sup
posed to be inhabited by ferocious
cannibals, were beginning to welcome
tha purpose and ends of this great in
cursion of white men into their lands.
Station after station was founded with
the glad consent of the local chiefs,
who let the best sites in their terrific
ries to the Expedition or to "Bula
Matade" III person, to the great
'Stonebreaker. us they call the al
most deified Stanley, by reason of mis-
having blasted some enormous rocks
that distracted his road. Sometimes
the progress was checked, sometimes
a white man succumbed TO the arduous
work and hard living which were at
first the lot of the pioneers of the ex-
petition.
\ LITTLE WAY.
at one station, Manyanga, while
Stanley was absent dragging his boats
on to Stanley pool, the natives, like
all negroes, whose love can only be
gained by inspiring respectful fear,
imagined that the lives of the few oc-
| cupants of Manyanga station We're at
their mercy, and became in conse-
quence increasingly insolent with the
consciousness of their comparative
strength, until at last peace had to be
broken, and the little garrison We're
| obliged to sally forth and drive away
| their besiegers. A few grass houses
| in the distant villages We're burned as
| reprisals for the robberieS committed
| by the natives, and a fine of land was
imposed and paid But SO great an eff
| feet had this unexpected display of
latent force on the native mind that
only two months after the little war
was over the natives were on better,
and if possible, more intimate terms
with the whites than elsewhere, the
young men willingly hiring them
| selves as carriers to the number of
fifty at a time, while the women of
the surrounding villages came every
day into the station to work III the
gardens or to bring their many pro
ducts for sale. This war at Manyanga
and a small Skirmish in the denSely
populated village of Lutete (where
there is now a tlourishing station,
Guarded by one white man and two
Zanzibaris) formed the only Interrupt
tons which have taken place in the
friendly intercourse existing between
Mr.. Stanley's expedition and the in
ha5itants along the Congo. These,
too, far frora leaving any disagreeable
or resentful feeling in the native
mind, have rather, as it were, con
duced to more durable friendship,
founded, as far as the black man is
concerned, on firm basis of respect
for his white friends.
THE CHIEF STATION.
The native district OF klntamo,
around Leopoldville, is poor as food
producing country This place
called after the king ofthe BelgianS-
ueStlHGu 10 DS lilt SuI pre- CITY vi ltlC
Stanley Pool region. 1t stands rather
at the entrance to this great expansion
of the Congo, and from its hilltops
commands the fertile valleys and
lovely meadow lands which lie spread
around the watery basin. Cimpoko
is situated at the other end of the
pool, near where the Congo enters it
from the northeast. All the stations.
with their gardens and plantations,
their workshops and "corrals" for
stock breeding, have been founded in
three years time. Within three
years the influence of Stanley's ex-
p:dition over the natives has so
gained ground that now q white man
may travel, accompanied by only
three Zanzibaris, a distance of $50
miles beyond Stanley Pool, treated
everywhere with kindness and cor
diality by the pleasant tempered
natives So much for what Mr.. Stan
ley has done under the generous aid
of Leopold IL.