Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-27
WHITE MEN ON KONGO.
The New Census Shows That $50 Of Them
Are Living There-The Country Build
ing Up-Conditions Constantly Growing
Better,

The New Census Shows That $50 of Them
Are Living There-The Country Build
ing Up-Conditions Constantly Growing
Better.
The Kongo Free State has taken the CEN
sus of its white population. On December
81 last year there were living within the
limits OF the State $50 white men, of whom
912 we're Europeans and q Americans, be-
sides a few Arabs, Indians and Malays
Four hundred and forty-fYe of
the Europeans are Belgians. The
principal centers of white population are
Matadi, Bona, Banana, and Leopoldville.
The greatest number are living at Matadi,
where there are 279 white men, most of
them engaged on the Kongo Railroad,
though there are also quite Z number of
State officers, commercial agents, and mis-
sionaries. The capital of the country,
Bona, which is about 80 miles from the
mouth of the Kongo. has 146 white resi-
dents Bona is an important center for
trading companies. 1t has become very
comfortable place of residence. Like Ma
tadi, it has a good hotel and o sani-
tarium, and it has steam tramway to carry
passengers from the river front to the hills,
mile or two distant, where most of the
buildings of the State are situated. Banana
is inhabited almost wholly by agents of
various trading companies, and 123 white
men live there. Leopoldville is the largest
town on the upper Kongo, and the starting
point of the steamboats, which leave Stanley
Pool to ply upon the upper river. Ninety
seven white men and some women live
| there, while at Kinchassa, only four or five
miles distant, are 33 more white men.
This is the country where, according to
Burton's testimony few years ago, white
men could not live. He had spent little
while on the lower Kongo, and got the idea
that the climate was particularly deadly.
No man ever said more uncomplimentary
things about the Kongo climate than this
great traveller. He thought white man
might as we'll commit suicide as to go to the
Kongo, and yet, in spite of the forebodings
of Burton and others, the white population
is rapidly growing In 1889 there were 430
white men in the country. Two years
later, with $50 white residents, the foreign
population has more than doubled. All
over the upper river and its tributaries
these white people are spread. Even
far away in Katanna, on the western head
waters of the Kongo, a country which was
not knowd at all seven years ago when the
Congo State was formed, 45 white men are
now living At Basoko, at the mouth of
the Aruwimi river, where the natives pur-
sued Stanley on his first journey, crying,
''Meatl MeatT'. as they fired their arrows at
him, 40 white men are now living in the
big State station at the confluence of the
rivers, and at other posts up the Aruwimi.
At Equatorville there are IA and at Ban
gala % whites. These two places are where
the military training schools of the State
are maintained.
The conditions of life on the Kongo are
constantly growing better. Doctors are
now within reach when they are needed;
supplies of medical stores and European
food of all kinds are kept in abundance.
Most of the whites live in houses exported
from Europe and the houses are well fur
nished. In fact, the whites have been max
ing a study of how to live in good health,
and how to make life as comfortable as pos
sible; and it is to their increased knowledge
in these respects that they are now able to
live in the Kongo region for some years in
very good health. The rate of mortality
has greatly decreased within the past four
years