Congo Basin

“ Not only has geographical acquaintance with the Congo Basin revealed the wealth of the vast regions it comprises, but European commerce, which was blocked at a short distance from the coast, has penetrated the heart of Africa, in countries hitherto utterly unknown. Civilisation, in divers forms, has made no less progress, and has been permanently established in the very centre of Africa. ”

“ Where is our Christian enterprise, that such a work, with such a field and such promise, should wait for workmen and for money! What do our converted young men want, as a chance to crowd life with heroic service, that the Congo Basin does not attract them! Here what a century ago would have taken fifty630 years to accomplish, may be done in five. The unexplored interior is open, the ‘Dark Continent’ waits to be illuminated. Nature has cast up her highway of waters, and there is no need to gather out the stones. ”

“ Congo Basin as known in 1887. region, which of all others offers the greatest geographical interest, and which will probably one day prove to be the most important, for here is situated the water-parting between the Nile and Congo basins. But even here Junker's exploration of the Welle to within 120 miles in a straight line of the Congo valley, no longer leaves any doubt that this-river belongs to the Conga sates and that through it will sooner or later be opened the route to the White Nile. ”

“ Some geographers still believed thirty years ago that all the waters of its upper basin might be tributary to the Nile. Map-makers have been kept very busy recording discoveries on the Congo. About one hundred explorers, some of them missionaries and many employees of the Congo Free State, have mapped the whole basin along its water-courses, and discovered the ultimate source of its main stream. Our ideas of the hydrography of this great basin have been revolutionized since Stanley, second only to Livingstone among the great African explorers, in 1877 revealed the course of the main river. ”

“ You will see on your map that the great northern bend of the Congo is like a bent bow, and far below it is the string of the bow—the Sankuru—pieced out at one end by the Kassai River, which unites it with the Congo, while the other end stretches far across, almost to the other end of the bow. Dr. Wolf's discovery added almost 800 miles of navigable waters to the Congo basin, stretching almost due east to central Africa. ”

“ This Africa is typed by the Congo Basin, which stretches practically across Africa, interweaving with the Zambesi water system on the south and the Nile system on the north. The Congo is the feature of its basin, and the kernel of the greatest commercial465 problem of the age. To understand it, is to understand more of African resource than any other natural object furnishes. It has its maritime region, which is the African rind before alluded to. ”

“ Chapter I.—Declaration relative to Freedom of Trade in the Basin of the Congo, its Mouths, and circumjacent Regions, with other Provisions connected therewith.
Article 1. The trade of all nations shall enjoy complete freedom—
1. In all the regions forming the basin of the Congo and its outlets. This basin is bounded by the watersheds (or mountain ridges) of the adjacent basins, namely, in particular, those of the Niara, the Ogowé, the Schari, and the Nile, on the north; by the eastern watershed line of the affluents of Lake Tanganyika, on the east ”

“ The Congo has a length of more than three thousand miles. The maritime region of the Congo River basin is restricted in its character. For a few miles inward the ground has an upward slope; then the traveler is confronted by ridge upon ridge of hills, which gradually assume the character of high mountains.
The Congo rushes on through this mountainous section, as though through one of our western cañons, till it reaches Stanley Pool. Here the channel becomes much broader, the stream attaining a width of five miles, with an extraordinary depth of water. ”

“ It varies in altitude from 5000 to 10,000 ft. The eastern escarpment is precipitous, but on its western face it slopes more gently into the Congo basin. North of the Lukuga river the main chain throws out into the central zone, in a north-westerly direction, a secondary range known as the Bambara Mountains, which forms one of the boundaries of the Manyema country. The interior or lake zone is a high plateau with an average elevation of 3000 ft. ”

“ The mouth is 1100 ft. wide. The Muni river, the northernmost in the colony, is obstructed by cataracts in its passage through the escarpment to the coast.
Nearly all the upper basin of the Shari (q.v.) as well as the right bank of the lower river is within French Congo. The greater part of the country belongs, however, to the drainage area of the Congo river. In addition to the northern banks of the Mbomu and Ubangi, 330 m. of the north shore of the Congo itself are in the French protectorate as well as numerous subsidiary streams. ”

“ The other Powers saw no123 advantage in allowing either France or Portugal to annex, and keep for herself, this newly-found continent; so, first, they agreed that the whole region of the Congo Basin should be thrown open to the commerce of all nations. ”

“ It is a rolling surface sinking towards the Atlantic, in parts broken by hills and dwarf chains, either detached or pushed out by the Ghats; a land of short and abnormally broad rivers, which cannot, like the Congo, break through the ridges flanking the Central African basin, and which therefore are mere surface drains of the main ranges. The soil is mostly sandy, but a thin coat of rich vegetable humus, quickened by heavy rains and fiery suns, produces a luxuriant vegetation; whilst the proportion of area actually cultivated is nothing compared with the expanse of bush. ”

“ They form, both from the point of view of the physical geography and the commercial development of the colony, its most important feature; but next in importance are the forests. The wooded savannas are mostly situated on the higher lands of the central zone, where the land dips down from the Mitumba Mountains to the Congo.
The part of the colony within the Nile basin is geographically of great interest. It includes some of the volcanic peaks which, north of Lake Kivu, stretch across the rift-valley and attain heights of 13,000 and 14,000 ft. ”

“ NATIVES RUNNING TO WAR.
Through the second section the Congo sweeps in the shape of an ox-bow, 1068 miles, crossing the Equator twice. Here is that467 mighty system of tributaries which more than double the navigable waters of the great basin. On the south are the Kwa, navigable up to Lake Leopold II, a distance of 281 miles; the Lukanga with its shores lined with shrewd native traders; the Mohindu, navigable for 650 miles; the Ikelemba, seat of the Bakuti tribe, navigable for 125 miles; the Lulungu, reported to be more populous than the Congo, navigable for 800 miles ”

“ Passing his former station at Mswata, he sailed for Bolobo, passing through a country with few villages and alive with lions, elephants, buffaloes and antelopes,51 proof that the population is sparse at a distance from the river. Beyond the mouth of the Lawson, the Congo leaves behind its bold shores and assumes a broader width. It now becomes lacustrine and runs lazily through a bed carved out of virgin soil. This is the real heart of equatorial Africa, rich alluvium, capable of supporting a countless population and of enriching half a world. ”

“ Congo, the second in length and largest in volume of the African rivers, rises NE. of the Muchinga Mountains in Rhodesia, flows SW. through Lake Bangueola, then N. to the equator; curving in a great semicircle it continues SW., passes in a series of rapids through the coast range, and enters the S. Atlantic by an estuary 6 m. broad. It brings down more water than the other African rivers put together. The largest affluents are the Kassai on the left, and the Mobangi on the right bank; 110 m. are navigable to ocean steamers, then the cataracts intervene, and 250 m. of railway promote transit ”

“ A mile or two lower down the Lualaba passes through a narrow gorge called the Porte d’Enfer. From this point as far north as 3° 10′ S. the course of the river is interrupted by falls and rapids, the chief being the rapids (in 3° 55′ S.) below the Arab settlement of Nyangwe and those at Sendwe in 3° 15′ S. In this part of its course the Congo becomes a majestic river, often over a mile wide, with flat wooded banks, the only real impediments to navigation between the Dia Rapids and Stanley Falls being those named. Between the junction of the two main upper branches, about 1700 ft. ”

“ It holds on the coast only the mouth of the river, its main possessions lying in the interior, Belgium is the only country that has planted colonies inland. Like all the interior of equatorial Africa, the valley of the Kongo is well watered and has continuous rains. The land is rich and fertile, but is practically inaccessible, and, before any extensive commerce can be carried on, must be connected by railroad with the ocean. The Compagnie du Congo has just completed a survey for a railroad on the south side of the Kongo, from Matadi, opposite Vivi, to Stanley Pool. ”

“ The growth of commerce, and the security and advancement of the native population, are, in fact, coexpansive with the extension of the facilities of intercommunication. The larger rivers—the Kassai, the Kwango, the Lualaba and the Ubanghi—are all patrolled by government steamers.
The Congo Lakes.
Of hardly less importance than the rivers of the Congo are the lakes. Besides the larger and navigable lakes are hundreds of smaller ones. There are thousands of shallow pools along the courses of the rivers, as those along the upper Luapula. ”

“ Issuing from it the Nile flows north, and between 7 deg. and 10 deg. N. traverses a vast marshy level during which its course is liable to blocking by floating vegetation. After receiving the Bahr-el-Ghazal from the west and the Sobat, Blue Nile and Atbara from the Abyssinian highlands (the chief gathering ground of the flood-water) , it crosses the great desert and enters the Mediterranean by a vast delta. The most remote head-stream of the Congo is the Chambezi, which flows south-west into the marshy Lake Bangweulu. From this lake issues the Congo, known in its upper course by various names. ”

“ From Bangweulu to Mweru the fall of the river in a total distance of 350 m. is about 700 ft. The river (known now as the Luvua) makes its exit at the N.W. corner of the lake, and bending westwards in a winding course, passes, with many rapids, across the zone of the Kebara and Mugila mountains, falling during this interval nearly 1000 ft. In about 6° 45′ S., 26° 50′ E. it joins the Kamolondo (otherwise Lualaba) , the western main branch of the Congo, which, as it flows in a broad level valley at a lower level than the eastern branch, is held by some to be the true head-stream. ”

“ Everywhere sharp angular bends in the gloomy defiles, rocky cirques filled with boiling waters, cascades, opposing currents, raging whirlpools, vast liquid masses tearing along at tremendous speed, tranquil bays with unruffled surface, followed by fresh rapids, where the mighty stream again plunges into the wild gorges of its rocky bed. Here depth and velocity have to compensate for a broader channel, the whole body of the Congo rushing along in some places at the fearful rate of 30 miles Villages. ”

“ As surely as the sun stands over the southern hemisphere in our winter and the northern in our summer, bringing the rains and the swellings of the tropical rivers when it is in the zenith with regard to them, so surely can it be predicated, from a comparison of the rainy seasons and times of rising, that the Lualaba belongs to no river of the northern hemisphere; in the southern hemisphere Africa possesses only one river, the Congo, which could take up the vast water supply of the Lualaba. ”

“ It is seldom that we find trees turned to all the uses of which they are capable: the Congo people despise the nutritious and slightly laxative flour of the "monkey bread," and the young leaves are not used as pickles; the bast is not valued for cloth and ropes, nor are the boles cut into cisterns.
As will be seen, we ought to have insisted upon being paddled to Kala cliff and bight, the Mayumba Bay of the Chart, where the bed trends west-east, and shows the lowest rapids: the First Congo Expedition went up even higher. ”

“ From the bare rocky ridges of N'safu there is a perceptible decline to the Congo valley, and the country becomes, in appearance, more sterile—a sparse population dwelling in a mere skeleton village in the centre of bleakness. Shingly rocks strewed the path and the waste, and thin, sere grass waved mournfully on level and spine, on slope of ridge and crest of hill ”

“ The most important are the Lualaba and the Kasai. Others include the Itimbiri, the Aruwimi and the Mubangi. Scores of smaller streams, many of them navigable for launches, empty into the main river. This is why there is such a deep and swift current in the lower region where the Congo enters the sea.
The astonishing thing about the Congo River is its inconsistency. Although six miles wide in many parts it is frequently not more than six feet deep. This makes navigation dangerous and difficult. As on the Lualaba and every other river in the Colony, soundings must be taken continually. ”