Congo River

“ The broad interior of the continent, the mighty plateau region watered by the great Congo River and its innumerable affluents, first traversed by the daring Stanley not many years in the past, has been erected into the extensive and promising Congo Free State, under the suzerainty of the king of Belgium. It is the most populous and agriculturally the richest section of Africa, while its remarkable extension of navigable waters give uninterrupted communication through its every part. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Maxwell, there are other testimonies to the magnitude of the Congo, shewing it to be a river of the first class, and larger probably than the Nile. In a journal (which the editor has seen) of an intelligent and respectable naval officer, Captain Scobell, who visited the coast of Africa in the year 1813, in H.M. sloop of war the Thais, the Congo is described as "an immense river from which issues a continued stream at the rate of four or five knots in the dry, and six or seven in the rainy season." ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The Congo is divided into the lower, the middle and the upper river. The lower river is navigable for its entire length up to the rapids, a distance of 110 miles, for steamers of 18-foot draught; the middle river is un-navigable through the cataract region, extending 255 miles to Stanley Pool. The upper river, as far as Stanley Falls, is navigable for 1,068 miles to steamers of four-foot draught. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In short, a colony of Europeans was to be founded in the Congo Basin, whose great fertility, healthy climate, and enormous population seemed to especially favor the development of African civilization. The action of Leopold evidently grew out of Stanley’s declarations that “the question of this mighty waterway (the Congo) will become a political one in time,” and his conviction that any power possessing the Congo would absorb the whole enormous trade behind, as this river was and must continue to be, the grand commercial highway of West and Central Africa. ”

“ 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. ”

“ But my most vivid recollection of the Congo is that one of my bearers managed to drop an iron box containing my papers into the river. Unfortunately it leaked and considerable damage resulted.
The village on the other side, in which we encamped, was typical of many another village we passed through on our journey. Just behind our tents were three spirit-huts; all around us were native houses built of straw and mud, and then came an enormous growth of kaffir-corn about twelve feet high. Surrounding this was forest, save where the river wound its tortuous course. ”

“ The people from the river-mouth up to Stanley Pool and the Equator line are being civilized by contact with white traders, and their pagan customs largely modified. They speak one language, musical, of large capacity of expression and easy of acquisition, and along this line the seven Congo stations are already planted. Beyond the point where the Congo crosses the Equator, lies another vast population, more degraded, less civilized, and needing at once the full array of Christian institutions, but yet entirely destitute. ”

“ These, according to the Portuguese traders, who have their own plans of the river, extend some seventy miles south to Ambrizette: slavers keep all such details very close, and doubtless for good reasons—"short-cuts" greatly facilitate shipping negroes. The lesser Congo delta is bounded north by the Banana or Malela stream, whose lower fork is "Pirates' Creek;" and south by the mangrove-clad drains, which subtend the main line: the base measures 12-15 miles. ”

“ Stanley's breech-loaders soon forced the enemy to retreat in confusion. After receiving, in latitude 0° 20' south, longitude 19° 40' east, the waters of a great river, Ikelembo, otherwise the Kasai, coming from the south, and a little below, another river from the north, the Congo flows southwesterly in a mighty stream, till at the mouth of the Kwango it is compressed between two ranges of hills. ”

“ It is found that more water pours into the ocean through the Congo's mouth, which is six miles wide, than from all the other rivers in Africa put together. The soft, dark-colored mud brought down by the river has been distinctly traced on the ocean bottom for six hundred miles from the land. In no other part of any ocean do the influences of the land waters make themselves felt so far out to sea. ”

“ Accordingly, the French boundary is extended from the Gaboon down to 5° S. latitude, thence, following the line of the Chiloango River to its northernmost source, whence the line strikes the Congo a little above Manyanga; the river becomes the boundary until near the Equator, then the eastern watershed of the Likona is the limit. ”

“ The soil of Upper Congo is very rich, the forests are exceedingly valuable, the climate quite favorable, and the people numerous and kind.
“A few years ago the trade of the Congo was only a few thousand dollars yearly. It is now, so soon, from $10,000,000 to $20,000,000 a year. Trading houses and steamers are multiplying.
“The Congo Valley contains over 5,000 miles of navigable river and lake. The nations can be supplied from this region with cotton, coffee, sugar, gum copal, ivory, rubber, valuable dyes, iron, gold, copper, and many other things—when it shall be civilized and a market formed. ”

“ The natives dwelling upon the Congo banks have, as usual in Africa, no comprehensive generic term for the mighty artery of the West Coast. Each tribe calls it by its own name. Thus even in Fiote we find "Mulángo," or "Lángo," the water; "Nkoko," the stream, "Mwánza," the river, and "Mwanza Nnenne," the great river, all used synonymously at the several places. The only proper name is Mwánza Nzádi, the River Nzadi: hence Zaire, Zaïre, Zahir, Zaira the "flumen Congo olim Zaida" (C. Barlé) —all corruptions more or less common. ”

“ Congo ought to be more productive of useful geographical results than any other branch of African exploration, as it will bring to the test of experiment the navigability of the Congo above the Falls, and thus possibly open out a means of introducing traffic by steam into the heart of the continent at least two thousand miles from the mouth of the river. ”

“ The Congo basin lies entirely within the zone of the south-east trade-winds, which prevail in the interior wherever the normal direction is not disturbed by the trend of the mountain ranges. In the south they take a northerly direction, FLORA OF THE CONGO BASIN. 437 following the parallel river valleys of that region, while in the west, as far as and beyond the TJ-Banghi confluence, they are similarly changed to south-western or even western monsoons. ”

“ Only among savages or among civilized people who have temporarily reverted to primitive conditions in virgin colonial lands, do we find genuine riverine folk, whose existence is closely restricted to their bordering streams. The river tribes of the Congo occupy the banks or the larger islands, while the land only three or four miles back from the stream is held by different tribes with whom the riverine people trade their fish. The latter are expert fishermen and navigators, and good agriculturists, raising a variety of fruits and vegetables. ”

“ On the coast a cool breeze blows in from the sea from about eleven o’clock in the morning; commencing somewhat35 later in proportion to the distance in the interior. This same cool sea-breeze blows freshly on the upper river, and even when high temperatures can be taken in the sun the air is cool. Very frequently thick clouds cover the sky and temper the heat. In this respect the Congo compares very favourably with India, and with other parts of the African coast. On the Congo a punkah is quite unnecessary at any time, in a house built on a reasonable site. ”

“ The velocity of the stream in the middle Congo varies considerably. At the Aruwimi confluence the rate is from 300 to 350 ft. a minute; in the broader stretches lower down the current is not more than 200 ft. a minute. Through the Chenal the pace is greatly accelerated, and as it flows out of Stanley Pool the current is not less than 600 ft. a minute.
The Lower Congo.—The cataracts below Stanley Pool are caused by the river forcing its way through the mountains which run parallel to the western coast of the continent. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We stay here one day and then descend the Lomani, and turn up the Congo. The banks of the river now have a new appearance, for they are higher and no longer densely wooded and at short intervals are villages thickly populated and containing a high percentage of children. Most of the men fish or build canoes, and all the people seem to be constantly trading with each other, selling food or curiosities for mitakos or cloth. ”