Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-06-09

chiefs who had either fought against or
helped him remembered Stanley. one
native who remembered the explorer
we'll, when asked how Great Bula Mem
tart or Stone Breaker as Stanley was
called, from the fact that he blasted
rocks from the river channel, impress
ed him, replied in a few awestricken
words:
He could kill man with a glance Of
his eye
I'VE saw in the possession of n mis-
sonary the identical camera Stanley
abandoned because he did not have a
professional photographer who under
stood it's operation. We also obtained
photographs of Stanley's Island, Star
walton camp, the cataract where he lost
his precious little steamer, and Of the
surviving steamer, which is still run
ming.
THE Congo in the last three years
has undergone a metamorphosis and is
no longer commercially paying. The
progress when the country was under
the regime of King Leopold has been
checked. Commercially the change has
been enormous. Five years ago the
profits accruing from rubber eXporta-
ton under forced labor amounted to
millions of sterling. Now not ten tons
of rubber are leaving the country. r"
rubber industry is dead in the Congo.
The hold of the Belgian officials upon
natives is slowly waning, the blacks
themselves showing signs Of getting
out Of hand.
The beautiful country around the
lakes and some rivers has been devas-
tated by plague. and sleeping sickness
has wiped out 250,OOO inhabitants in
the last ten or fifteen years.
LAS regards the future of the Congo
from observations of our rather hur-
ried trip there is but one answer. The
great burning question is neither COM
mercial nor political, but the necessity
of combating the scourge or sleeping
sickness. Fully half the inhabitants
who used to live along the Congo river
have fallen victims. Vast territories
once teeming with human life are now
uninhabited. You can't imagine it. It's
simply awful.
THE rubber industry, owing to low
price and difficulties with native labor,
is dead issue, but mineral wealth and
newly discovered diamond fields hold
tap,yt;pU possibilities
Forest People Shy.
only two really live commercial
propositions are in the hands of Eng
lish and Americans. The Guggenheim
and Ryan interests are spending large
sums, pushing forward not only pros
pecting, but are actually producing
gold and diamonds, while the Sunlight
soap people, who are in search Of palm
oil, have instituted a regular steamer
service.
A corps of efficient organizers and
managers is building railways and
really developing sections Of the Congo
the mines north of Banalai, we found
gold nuggets weighing more than seven
pounds. We had some difficulty in
getting movies Of Mbuti or pigmies. The
forest people, the tallest under four
feet, when they saw us coming, desert
ed their villages and ran and left only
an old woman behind.
Mosquitoes which are supposed to
exist in large numbers, l may dismiss
with a passing remark I've seen more
in one evening in New Jersey than l
encountered in a whole year in Africa.
Interesting films were obtained of
native customs and dances. They did
about everything except the tango.
Also we made interesting phonograph
records of native songs and music I'm
fortunately the greater part of these
was lost as the porters intrusted with
the boxes grew tired and threw them
away in the forest. This and the COM
plete loss of our collection Of scarabs,
which disappeared in the same way
We're our only severe disappointments.
the expedition obtained
nearly five miles of films, showing 33
different specimens of animal life, un-
larassed and unwounded.'