The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-02-24
MISSIONARY TELLS
STORY OF HORROR
CONGO RUBBER HUNTERS PRAC-
TICE cANNIBALIsM.
Atrocities Too Terrible for Belief Laid
at Doors Of Native Agents Of Belgian
Trust That Controls District-Men,
Women and Children Killed and
Eaten.

Gruesome and terrible in the extreme
are the experiences thru which Mrs. J.
IL. Harris, today guest at the West
hotel, has passed in the Congo Free
State, where, with her husband she
spent the last seven years in mission
airy work. Her stories of murder and
cannibalism are almost beyond belief,
tho their truth and accuracy cannot be
doubted. Mrs. Harris has seen a father
who escaped from a slaughter by armed
sentries of a rubber trust which con-
trolls great district Of the country,
holding an arm Of his murdered child
in one hand and the child 8 foot in the
other. These he brought to a govern
m ad b efei to og e tha the IT, ehd
serted that his wife had met like fate.
In describing this terrible incident and
others, Mrs. Harris said:
Mrs. Harris Story.
cat Nsongo, near our mission sta
ton of Baringa, 1900 miles inland from
| the west coast, a raid was made on the
village by sentries of the ABR in May,
five were shot down, two chiefs, a young
lad, a mother and, child. ~ -
20 Nsala, the father of the child. es-
capped and, hearing that his child was
being cut up in order to be cooked,
he emerged from the bush, saw the
mutilated body, and. snatching up a
hand and foot, took them early next
day to the white man in charge at
cruelty.
'These limbs I saw and photo
graphed. I heard from the man that
his wife also had been eaten by the
sentries, who carried with them the salt
with which to season their victims.
At Esanga in April, 1905, sentries
led by a notorious captain named Bonn
Pasu, raided the towns, and, accusing
the people of hunting for meat instead
Of working rubber, fred on them, kill
ing chief and his son, and taking
them from husbands and families and
transporting them to their rubber fac
tory. ~ = - 49,. 80. =, i..... =.
- ~ =: !. Effects Of Invasion. 49,. .
."Visiting Nsongo-M hoyo early in
1908, We found the once-populous dis
trict devastated, the people living in a
forest. clearing, under the bushes, in
holes in the earth, anywhere that they
could find temporary shelter. Their
food consisted Of forest roots and nuts,
their hunting. nets, fishing tackle, and
any weapons Of defense having been
carried off by sentries. We saw tree,
the trunk of which was covered with
been tied up and shot thru. From the
branch Of that same tree a woman,
whose husband was said to have been
short in his quantity of rubber, was sus-
pended and chopped to pieces by the
sentry. =: -. ..-...' -.
Another woman named Ekila was
shot and. her right hand hacked off, as
evidence to the white man, that his
cartridges had been expended inC the
production of rubber. Not having been
shot in vital part, Ekila recovered
consciousness, but only to find that her
left foot had also been cut off in order
to obtain heavy brass anklet which
she wore. -
$50 kila is. living today with a little
baby, born since the mufilation. MANY
mutilated people were taken before
King Leopoldas commission Of inquiry.
before which. I was a witness. and
which was sent out subsequent to the
investigating tour Of the British con.
sui The commissioners were convinced
of the awful state Of things existing in
the country, and expressed the opinion
that the missionaries had understated
the case. - -..-@ -
~rooa2z; i Punish the Witness. go
.'esince the departure of the commits.
sion many natives, especially the chiefs
who gave evidence, have been arrested
and transported, ostensible for shortage
in rubber, in reality as punishment for
witnessing against the company. Sure
~ it is time there was an international
inquiry, and the helpless victims of Leo
pold s rule freed from the bondage in
which they are heidi
Mrs. Harris will speak at the First
congregational church Sunday morning
at Westminster church in the evening,
and to the Ministers Alliance at the
Y; w. G. A., Monday, at 1880 am.
She will at. each of these meetings tell
of her terrible experiences.
The meeting at Westminster church
will be union meeting presided over
by President Cyrus Northrop of the
University of Minnesota, who is: one of
the vice presidents of the Congo Re
form association. Bishop s. C. Edsall
will also speak. ---.. 49,,