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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..871c825 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #62739 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62739) diff --git a/old/62739-0.txt b/old/62739-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 3bae14a..0000000 --- a/old/62739-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1908 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of King Leopold's Soliloquy, by Mark Twain - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: King Leopold's Soliloquy - A Defense of his Congo Rule - -Author: Mark Twain - -Release Date: July 23, 2020 [EBook #62739] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KING LEOPOLD'S SOLILOQUY *** - - - - -Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - KING LEOPOLD’S SOLILOQUY - - - - - “IT IS I” - - - “Leopold II is the absolute - Master of the whole of the in- - ternal and external activity of - the Independent State of the - Congo. The organization of - justice, the army, the industrial - and commercial regimes are established freely by himself. - He would say, and with greater accuracy than did Louis XIV., - ‘The State, it is I.’” _Prof. F. Cattier, Brussels University._ - “Let us repeat after so many others what has become - a platitude, the success of the African work is the work of - a sole directing will, without being hampered by the hesita- - tion of timorous politicians, carried out under his sole respon- - sibility,—intelligent, thought- - ful, conscious of the perils - and the advantages, dis- - counting with an admirable - prescience the great results of - a near future.” _M. Alfred Pos- - kine in “Bilans Congolais.”_ - -[Illustration: - - “A memorial for the perpetuation of my name.”—_Page 27._ -] - - - - - KING LEOPOLD’S SOLILOQUY - A DEFENSE OF HIS CONGO RULE - - - BY - MARK TWAIN - - - SECOND EDITION - - - THE P. R. WARREN CO. - BOSTON, MASS. - 1905 - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1905 - BY SAMUEL L. CLEMENS - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - King Leopold’s Soliloquy - - -[_Throws down pamphlets which he has been reading. Excitedly combs his -flowing spread of whiskers with his fingers; pounds the table with his -fists; lets off brisk volleys of unsanctified language at brief -intervals, repentantly drooping his head, between volleys, and kissing -the Louis XI crucifix hanging from his neck, accompanying the kisses -with mumbled apologies; presently rises, flushed and perspiring, and -walks the floor, gesticulating_] - -—— ——!! —— ——!! If I had them by the throat! [_Hastily kisses the -crucifix, and mumbles_] In these twenty years I have spent millions to -keep the press of the two hemispheres quiet, and still these leaks keep -on occurring. I have spent other millions on religion and art, and what -do I get for it? Nothing. Not a compliment. These generosities are -studiedly ignored, in print. In print I get nothing but slanders—and -slanders again—and still slanders, and slanders on top of slanders! -Grant them true, what of it? They are slanders all the same, when -uttered against a king. - -Miscreants—they are telling _everything_! Oh, everything: how I went -pilgriming among the Powers in tears, with my mouth full of Bible and my -pelt oozing piety at every pore, and implored them to place the vast and -rich and populous Congo Free State in trust in my hands as their agent, -so that I might root out slavery and stop the slave raids, and lift up -those twenty-five millions of gentle and harmless blacks out of darkness -into light, the light of our blessed Redeemer, the light that streams -from his holy Word, the light that makes glorious our noble -civilization—lift them up and dry their tears and fill their bruised -hearts with joy and gratitude—lift them up and make them comprehend that -they were no longer outcasts and forsaken, but our very brothers in -Christ; how America and thirteen great European states wept in sympathy -with me, and were persuaded; how their representatives met in convention -in Berlin and made me Head Foreman and Superintendent of the Congo -State, and drafted out my powers and limitations, carefully guarding the -persons and liberties and properties of the natives against hurt and -harm; forbidding whisky traffic and gun traffic; providing courts of -justice; making commerce free and fetterless to the merchants and -traders of all nations, and welcoming and safeguarding all missionaries -of all creeds and denominations. They have told how I planned and -prepared my establishment and selected my horde of officials—“pals” and -“pimps” of mine, “unspeakable Belgians” every one—and hoisted my flag, -and “took in” a President of the United States, and got him to be the -first to recognize it and salute it. Oh, well, let them blackguard me if -they like; it is a deep satisfaction to me to remember that I was a -shade too smart for that nation that thinks itself so smart. Yes, I -certainly did bunco a Yankee—as those people phrase it. Pirate flag? Let -them call it so—perhaps it is. All the same, _they were the first to -salute it_. - -[Illustration: - - “They were the first to salute it” -] - -These meddlesome American missionaries! these frank British consuls! -these blabbing Belgian-born traitor officials!—those tiresome parrots -are always talking, always telling. They have told how for twenty years -I have ruled the Congo State not as a trustee of the Powers, an agent, a -subordinate, a foreman, but as a sovereign—sovereign over a fruitful -domain four times as large as the German Empire—sovereign absolute, -irresponsible, above all law; trampling the Berlin-made Congo charter -under foot; barring out all foreign traders but myself; restricting -commerce to myself, through concessionaires who are my creatures and -confederates; seizing and holding the State as my personal property, the -whole of its vast revenues as my private “swag”—mine, solely -mine—claiming and holding its millions of people as my private property, -my serfs, my slaves; their labor mine, with or without wage; the food -they raise not their property but mine; the rubber, the ivory and all -the other riches of the land mine—mine solely—and gathered for me by the -men, the women and the little children under compulsion of lash and -bullet, fire, starvation, mutilation and the halter. - -These pests!—it is as I say, they have kept back nothing! They have -revealed these and yet other details which shame should have kept them -silent about, since they were exposures of a king, a sacred personage -and immune from reproach, by right of his selection and appointment to -his great office by God himself; a king whose acts cannot be criticized -without blasphemy, since God has observed them from the beginning and -has manifested no dissatisfaction with them, nor shown disapproval of -them, nor hampered nor interrupted them in any way. By this sign I -recognize his approval of what I have done; his cordial and glad -approval, I am sure I may say. Blest, crowned, beatified with this great -reward, this golden reward, this unspeakably precious reward, why should -I care for men’s cursings and revilings of me? [_With a sudden outburst -of feeling_] May they roast a million æons in—[_Catches his breath and -effusively kisses the crucifix; sorrowfully murmurs, “I shall get myself -damned yet, with these indiscretions of speech.”_] - -Yes, they go on telling everything, these chatterers! They tell how I -levy incredibly burdensome taxes upon the natives—taxes which are a pure -theft; taxes which they must satisfy by gathering rubber under hard and -constantly harder conditions, and by raising and furnishing food -supplies gratis—and it all comes out that, when they fall short of their -tasks through hunger, sickness, despair, and ceaseless and exhausting -labor without rest, and forsake their homes and flee to the woods to -escape punishment, my black soldiers, drawn from unfriendly tribes, and -instigated and directed by my Belgians, hunt them down and butcher them -and burn their villages—reserving some of the girls. They tell it all: -how I am wiping a nation of friendless creatures out of existence by -every form of murder, for my private pocket’s sake, and how every -shilling I get costs a rape, a mutilation or a life. But they never say, -although they know it, that I have labored in the cause of religion at -the same time and all the time, and have sent missionaries there (of a -“convenient stripe,” as they phrase it), to teach them the error of -their ways and bring them to Him who is all mercy and love, and who is -the sleepless guardian and friend of all who suffer. They tell only what -is against me, they will not tell what is in my favor. - -They tell how England required of me a Commission of Inquiry into Congo -atrocities, and how, to quiet that meddling country, with its -disagreeable Congo Reform Association, made up of earls and bishops and -John Morleys and university grandees and other dudes, more interested in -other people’s business than in their own. I appointed it. Did it stop -their mouths? No, they merely pointed out that it was a commission -composed wholly of my “Congo butchers,” “the very men whose acts were to -be inquired into.” They said it was equivalent to appointing a -commission of wolves to inquire into depredations committed upon a -sheepfold. _Nothing_ can satisfy a cursed Englishman![1] - -Footnote 1: - - This visit had a more fortunate result than was anticipated. One - member of the Commission was a leading Congo official, another an - official of the government in Belgium, the third a Swiss jurist. It - was feared that the work of the Commission would not be more genuine - than that of innumerable so-called “investigations” by local - officials. But it appears that the Commission was met by a very - avalanche of awful testimony. One who was present at a public hearing - writes: “Men of stone would be moved by the stories that are being - unfolded as the Commission probes into the awful history of rubber - collection.” It is evident the commissioners were moved. Of their - report and its bearing upon the international issue presented by the - conceded conditions in the Congo State, something is said on a - supplementary page of this pamphlet. Certain reforms were ordered by - the Commission in the one section visited, but the latest word is that - after its departure conditions were soon worse than before its - coming.—M. T. - -[Illustration: - - “They tell only what is against me.”—_Page 10._ -] - -And were the fault-finders frank with my private character? They could -not be more so if I were a plebeian, a peasant, a mechanic. They remind -the world that from the earliest days my house has been chapel and -brothel combined, and both industries working full time; that I -practised cruelties upon my queen and my daughters, and supplemented -them with daily shame and humiliations; that, when my queen lay in the -happy refuge of her coffin, and a daughter implored me on her knees to -let her look for the last time upon her mother’s face, I refused; and -that, three years ago, not being satisfied with the stolen spoils of a -whole alien nation, I robbed my own child of her property and appeared -by proxy in court, a spectacle to the civilized world, to defend the act -and complete the crime. It is as I have said: they are unfair, unjust; -they will resurrect and give new currency to such things as those, or to -any other things that count against me, but they will not mention any -act of mine that is in my favor. I have spent more money on art than any -other monarch of my time, and they know it. Do they speak of it, do they -tell about it? No, they do not. They prefer to work up what they call -“ghastly statistics” into offensive kindergarten object lessons, whose -purpose is to make sentimental people shudder, and prejudice them -against me. They remark that “if the innocent blood shed in the Congo -State by King Leopold were put in buckets and the buckets placed side by -side, the line would stretch 2,000 miles; if the skeletons of his ten -millions of starved and butchered dead could rise up and march in single -file, it would take them seven months and four days to pass a given -point; if compacted together in a body, they would occupy more ground -than St. Louis covers, World’s Fair and all; if they should all clap -their bony hands at once, the grisly crash would be heard at a distance -of—” Damnation, it makes me tired! And they do similar miracles with the -money I have distilled from that blood and put into my pocket. They pile -it into Egyptian pyramids; they carpet Saharas with it; they spread it -across the sky, and the shadow it casts makes twilight in the earth. And -the tears I have caused, the hearts I have broken—oh, nothing can -persuade them to let _them_ alone! - -[_Meditative pause_] Well ... no matter, I _did_ beat the Yankees, -anyway! there’s comfort in that. [_Reads with mocking smile, the -President’s Order of Recognition of April 22, 1884_] - - “... the government of the United States announces its sympathy with - and approval of the humane and benevolent purposes of (my Congo - scheme), and will order the officers of the United States, both on - land and sea, to recognize its flag as the flag of a friendly - government.” - -Possibly the Yankees would like to take that back, now, but they will -find that my agents are not over there in America for nothing. But there -is no danger; neither nations nor governments can afford to confess a -blunder. [_With a contented smile, begins to read from “Report by Rev. -W. M. Morrison, American missionary in the Congo Free State”_] - - “I furnish herewith some of the many atrocious incidents which have - come under my own personal observation; they reveal the _organized - system_ of plunder and outrage which has been perpetrated and is now - being carried on in that unfortunate country by King Leopold of - Belgium. I say King Leopold, because he and he _alone_ is now - responsible, since he is the _absolute sovereign_. _He styles - himself such._ When our government in 1884 laid the foundation of - the Congo Free State, by recognizing its flag, little did it know - that this concern, parading under the guise of philanthropy, was - really King Leopold of Belgium, one of the shrewdest, most heartless - and most conscienceless rulers that ever sat on a throne. This is - apart from his known corrupt morals, which have made his name and - his family a byword in two continents. Our government would most - certainly not have recognized that flag had it known that it was - really King Leopold individually who was asking for recognition; had - it known that it was setting up in the heart of Africa an _absolute - monarchy_; had it known that, having put down African slavery in our - own country at great cost of blood and money, it was _establishing a - worse form of slavery right in Africa_.” - -[_With evil joy_] Yes, I certainly was a shade too clever for the -Yankees. It hurts; it gravels them. They can’t get over it! Puts a shame -upon them in another way, too, and a graver way; for they never can rid -their records of the reproachful fact that their vain Republic, -self-appointed Champion and Promoter of the Liberties of the World, is -the only democracy in history that has lent its power and influence to -the establishing of an _absolute monarchy_! - -[Illustration: - - “They go to them with their sorrows” -] - -[_Contemplating, with an unfriendly eye, a stately pile of pamphlets_] -Blister the meddlesome missionaries! They write tons of these things. -They seem to be always around, always spying, always eye-witnessing the -happenings; and everything they see they commit to paper. They are -always prowling from place to place; the natives consider them their -only friends; they go to them with their sorrows; they show them their -scars and their wounds, inflicted by my soldier police; they hold up the -stumps of their arms and lament because their hands have been chopped -off, as punishment for not bringing in enough rubber, and as proof to be -laid before my officers that the required punishment was well and truly -carried out. One of these missionaries saw eighty-one of these hands -drying over a fire for transmission to my officials—and of course he -must go and set it down and print it. They travel and travel, they spy -and spy! And nothing is too trivial for them to print. [_Takes up a -pamphlet. Reads a passage from Report of a “Journey made in July, August -and September, 1903, by Rev. A. E. Scrivener, a British missionary”_] - - “... Soon we began talking, and without any encouragement on my part - the natives began the tales I had become so accustomed to. They were - living in peace and quietness when the white men came in from the - lake with all sorts of requests to do this and that, and they - thought it meant slavery. So they attempted to keep the white men - out of their country but without avail. The rifles were too much for - them. So they submitted and made up their minds to do the best they - could under the altered circumstances. First came the command to - build houses for the soldiers, and this was done without a murmur. - Then they had to feed the soldiers and all the men and women—hangers - on—who accompanied them. Then they were told to bring in rubber. - This was quite a new thing for them to do. There was rubber in the - forest several days away from their home, but that it was worth - anything was news to them. A small reward was offered and a rush was - made for the rubber. ‘What strange white men, to give us cloth and - beads for the sap of a wild vine.’ They rejoiced in what they - thought their good fortune. But soon the reward was reduced until at - last they were told to bring in the rubber for nothing. To this they - tried to demur; but to their great surprise several were shot by the - soldiers, and the rest were told, with many curses and blows, to go - at once or more would be killed. Terrified, they began to prepare - their food for the fortnight’s absence from the village which the - collection of rubber entailed. The soldiers discovered them sitting - about. ‘What, not gone yet?’ Bang! bang! bang! and down fell one and - another, dead, in the midst of wives and companions. There is a - terrible wail and an attempt made to prepare the dead for burial, - but this is not allowed. All must go at once to the forest. Without - food? Yes, without food. And off the poor wretches had to go without - even their tinder boxes to make fires. Many died in the forests of - hunger and exposure, and still more from the rifles of the ferocious - soldiers in charge of the post. In spite of all their efforts the - amount fell off and more and more were killed. I was shown around - the place, and the sites of former big chiefs’ settlements were - pointed out. A careful estimate made the population of, say, seven - years ago, to be 2,000 people in and about the post, within a radius - of, say, a quarter of a mile. All told, they would not muster 200 - now, and there is so much sadness and gloom about them that they are - fast decreasing.” - - “We stayed there all day on Monday and had many talks with the - people. On the Sunday some of the boys had told me of some bones - which they had seen, so on the Monday I asked to be shown these - bones. Lying about on the grass, within a few yards of the house I - was occupying, were numbers of human skulls, bones, in some cases - complete skeletons. I counted thirty-six skulls, and saw many sets - of bones from which the skulls were missing. I called one of the men - and asked the meaning of it. ‘When the rubber palaver began,’ said - he, ‘the soldiers shot so many we grew tired of burying, and very - often we were not allowed to bury; and so just dragged the bodies - out into the grass and left them. There are hundreds all around if - you would like to see them.’ But I had seen more than enough, and - was sickened by the stories that came from men and women alike of - the awful time they had passed through. The Bulgarian atrocities - might be considered as mildness itself when compared with what was - done here. How the people submitted I don’t know, and even now I - wonder as I think of their patience. That some of them managed to - run away is some cause for thankfulness. I stayed there two days and - the one thing that impressed itself upon me was the collection of - rubber. I saw long files of men come in, as at Bongo, with their - little baskets under their arms; saw them paid their milk tin full - of salt, and the two yards of calico flung to the headmen; saw their - trembling timidity, and in fact a great deal that all went to prove - the state of terrorism that exists and the virtual slavery in which - the people are held.” - -[Illustration: - - “Some bones which they had seen” -] - -That is their way; they spy and spy, and run into print with every -foolish trifle. And that British consul, Mr. Casement, is just like -them. He gets hold of a _diary which had been kept by one of my -government officers_, and, although it is a private diary and intended -for no eye but its owner’s, Mr. Casement is so lacking in delicacy and -refinement as to print passages from it. [_Reads a passage from the -diary_] - - “Each time the corporal goes out to get rubber, cartridges are given - him. He must bring back all not used, and for every one used he must - bring back a right hand. M. P. told me that sometimes they shot a - cartridge at an animal in hunting; they then cut off a hand from a - living man. As to the extent to which this is carried on, he - informed me that in six months the State on the Mambogo River had - used 6,000 cartridges, which means that 6,000 people are killed or - mutilated. It means more than 6,000, for the people have told me - repeatedly that the soldiers kill the children with the butt of - their guns.” - -When the subtle consul thinks silence will be more effective than words, -he employs it. Here he leaves it to be recognized that a thousand -killings and mutilations a month is a large output for so small a region -as the Mambogo River concession, silently indicating the dimensions of -it by accompanying his report with a map of the prodigious Congo State, -in which there is not room for so small an object as that river. That -silence is intended to say, “If it is a thousand a month in this little -corner, imagine the output of the whole vast State!” A gentleman would -not descend to these furtivenesses. - -[Illustration: - - FOOT AND HAND OF CHILD DISMEMBERED BY SOLDIERS, BROUGHT TO - MISSIONARIES BY DAZED FATHER. FROM PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AT BARINGA, - CONGO STATE, MAY 15, 1904. SEE MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS, JANUARY, 1905 - - “Imagine the output of the whole vast State!”—_Page 18._ -] - -Now as to the mutilations. You can’t head off a Congo critic and make -him stay headed-off; he dodges, and straightway comes back at you from -another direction. They are full of slippery arts. When the mutilations -(severing hands, unsexing men, etc.) began to stir Europe, we hit upon -the idea of excusing them with a retort which we judged would knock them -dizzy on that subject for good and all, and leave them nothing more to -say; to wit, we boldly laid the custom on the natives, and said we did -not invent it, but only followed it. Did it knock them dizzy? did it -shut their mouths? Not for an hour. They dodged, and came straight back -at us with the remark that “if a Christian king can perceive a saving -moral difference between inventing bloody barbarities, and _imitating -them from savages_, for charity’s sake let him get what comfort he can -out of his confession!” - -It is most amazing, the way that that consul acts—that spy, that -busy-body. [_Takes up pamphlet “Treatment of Women and Children in the -Congo State; what Mr. Casement Saw in 1903”_] _Hardly two years ago!_ -_Intruding_ that date upon the public was a piece of cold malice. It was -intended to weaken the force of my press syndicate’s assurances to the -public that my severities in the Congo _ceased_, and ceased utterly, -_years and years ago_. This man is fond of trifles—revels in them, -gloats over them, pets them, fondles them, sets them all down. One -doesn’t need to drowse through his monotonous report to see that; the -mere subheadings of its chapters prove it. [_Reads_] - - “Two hundred and forty persons, _men, women and children_, compelled - to supply government with _one ton_ of carefully prepared foodstuffs - _per week_, receiving in remuneration, all told, the princely sum of - 15s. 10d!” - -Very well, it was liberal. It was not much short of a penny a week for -each nigger. It suits this consul to belittle it, yet he knows very well -that I could have had both the food and the labor for nothing. I can -prove it by a thousand instances. [_Reads_] - - “Expedition against a village behindhand in its (compulsory) - supplies; result, slaughter of sixteen persons; among them three - women and a boy of five years. Ten carried off, to be prisoners till - ransomed; among them a child, who died during the march.” - -But he is careful not to explain that we are _obliged_ to resort to -ransom to collect debts, where the people have nothing to pay with. -Families that escape to the woods sell some of their members into -slavery and thus provide the ransom. He knows that I would stop this if -I could find a less objectionable way to collect their debts.... Mm—here -is some more of the consul’s delicacy! He reports a conversation he had -with some natives: - - Q. “How do you know it was the _white_ men themselves who ordered - these cruel things to be done to you? These things must have been - done without the white man’s knowledge by the black soldiers.” - - A. “The white men told their soldiers: ‘You only kill _women_; you - cannot kill men. You must prove that you kill men.’ So then the - soldiers when they killed us” (here he stopped and hesitated and - then pointing to ... he said:) “then they ... and took them to the - white men, who said: ‘It is true, you have killed _men_.’” - - Q. “You say this is true? Were many of you so treated after being - shot?” - - All [_shouting out_]: “_Nkoto! Nkoto!_” (“Very many! Very many!”) - - “There was no doubt that these people were not inventing. Their - vehemence, their flashing eyes, their excitement, were not - simulated.” - -Of course the critic had to divulge that; he has no self-respect. All -his kind reproach me, although they know quite well that I took no -pleasure in punishing the men in that particular way, but only did it as -a warning to other delinquents. Ordinary punishments are no good with -ignorant savages; they make no impression. [_Reads more sub-heads_] - - “Devastated region; population reduced from 40,000 to 8,000.” - -He does not take the trouble to say how it happened. He is fertile in -concealments. He hopes his readers and his Congo reformers, of the -Lord-Aberdeen-Norbury-John-Morley-Sir-Gilbert-Parker stripe, will think -they were all killed. They were not. The great majority of them escaped. -They fled to the bush with their families because of the rubber raids, -and it was there they died of hunger. Could we help that? - -[Illustration: - - On Dress Parade -] - -One of my sorrowing critics observes: “Other Christian rulers tax their -people, but furnish schools, courts of law, roads, light, water and -protection to life and limb in return; King Leopold taxes his stolen -nation, but provides _nothing in return but hunger, terror, grief, -shame, captivity, mutilation and massacre_.” That is their style! I -furnish “nothing”! I send the gospel to the survivors; these -censure-mongers know it, but they would rather have their tongues cut -out than mention it. I have several times required my raiders to give -the dying an opportunity to kiss the sacred emblem; and if they obeyed -me I have without doubt been the humble means of saving many souls. None -of my traducers have had the fairness to mention this; but let it pass; -there is One who has not overlooked it, and that is my solace, that is -my consolation. - -[_Puts down the Report, takes up a pamphlet, glances along the middle of -it_] - -This is where the “death-trap” comes in. Meddlesome missionary spying -around—Rev. W. H. Sheppard. Talks with a black raider of mine after a -raid; cozens him into giving away some particulars. The raider remarks: - - “‘I demanded 30 slaves from this side of the stream and 30 from the - other side; 2 points of ivory, 2,500 balls of rubber, 13 goats, 10 - fowls and 6 dogs, some corn chumy, etc.’ - - ‘How did the fight come up?’ I asked. - - ‘I sent for all their chiefs, sub-chiefs, men and women, to come on - a certain day, saying that I was going to finish all the palaver. - When they entered these small gates (the walls being made of fences - brought from other villages, the high native ones) I demanded all my - pay or I would kill them; so they refused to pay me, and I ordered - the fence to be closed so they couldn’t run away; then we killed - them here inside the fence. The panels of the fence fell down and - some escaped.’ - - ‘How many did you kill?’ I asked. - - ‘We killed plenty, will you see some of them?’ - - That was just what I wanted. - - He said: ‘I think we have killed between eighty and ninety, and - those in the other villages I don’t know, I did not go out but sent - my people.’ - - He and I walked out on the plain just near the camp. There were - three dead bodies with the flesh carved off from the waist down. - - ‘Why are they carved so, only leaving the bones?’ I asked. - - ‘My people ate them,’ he answered promptly. He then explained, ‘The - men who have young children do not eat people, but all the rest ate - them.’ On the left was a big man, shot in the back and without a - head. (All these corpses were nude.) - - ‘Where is the man’s head?’ I asked. - - ‘Oh, they made a bowl of the forehead to rub up tobacco and diamba - in.’ - - We continued to walk and examine until late in the afternoon, and - counted forty-one bodies. The rest had been eaten up by the people. - - On returning to the camp, we crossed a young woman, shot in the back - of the head, one hand was cut away. I asked why, and Mulunba N’Cusa - explained that they always cut off the right hand to give to the - State on their return. - - ‘Can you not show me some of the hands?’ I asked. - - So he conducted us to a framework of sticks, under which was burning - a slow fire, and there they were, the right hands—I counted them, - eighty-one in all. - - There were not less than sixty women (Bena Pianga) prisoners. I saw - them. - - We all say that we have as fully as possible investigated the whole - outrage, and find it was a plan previously made to get all the stuff - possible and to catch and kill the poor people in the ‘death-trap.’” - -[Illustration: - - MULUNBA CHIEF OF CANNIBAL TRIBE NEAR LUEBO, CONGO STATE FIGURE - REPRODUCED FROM PHOTOGRAPH - - “Mulunba N’Cusa explained.”—_Page 24._ -] - -_Another_ detail, as we see!—cannibalism. They report cases of it with a -most offensive frequency. My traducers do not forget to remark that, -inasmuch as I am absolute and with a word can prevent in the Congo -anything I choose to prevent, then whatsoever is done there by my -permission is my act, my _personal_ act; that _I_ do it; that the hand -of my agent is as truly my hand as if it were attached to my own arm; -and so they picture me in my robes of state, with my crown on my head, -munching human flesh, saying grace, mumbling thanks to Him from whom all -good things come. Dear, dear, when the soft-hearts get hold of a thing -like that missionary’s contribution they quite lose their tranquility -over it. They speak out profanely and reproach Heaven for allowing such -a fiend to live. Meaning me. They think it irregular. They go shuddering -around, brooding over the reduction of that Congo population from -25,000,000 to 15,000,000 in the twenty years of my administration; then -they burst out and call me “the King with Ten Million Murders on his -Soul.” They call me a “record.” The most of them do not stop with -charging merely the 10,000,000 against me. No, they reflect that but for -me the population, by natural increase, would now be 30,000,000, so they -charge another 5,000,000 against me and make my total death-harvest -15,000,000. They remark that the man who killed the goose that laid the -golden egg was responsible for the eggs she would subsequently have laid -if she had been let alone. Oh, yes, they call me a “record.” They remark -that twice in a generation, in India, the Great Famine destroys -2,000,000 out of a population of 320,000,000, and the whole world holds -up its hands in pity and horror; then they fall to wondering where the -world would find room for its emotions if I had a chance to trade places -with the Great Famine for twenty years! The idea fires their fancy, and -they go on and imagine the Famine coming in state at the end of the -twenty years and prostrating itself before me, saying: “Teach me, Lord, -I perceive that I am but an apprentice.” And next they imagine Death -coming, with his scythe and hour-glass, and begging me to marry his -daughter and reorganize his plant and run the business. For the whole -world, you see! By this time their diseased minds are under full steam, -and they get down their books and expand their labors, with me for text. -They hunt through all biography for my match, working Attila, -Torquemada, Ghengis Khan, Ivan the Terrible, and the rest of that crowd -for all they are worth, and evilly exulting when they cannot find it. -Then they examine the historical earthquakes and cyclones and blizzards -and cataclysms and volcanic eruptions: verdict, none of them “in it” -with me. At last they do really hit it (as they think), and they close -their labors with conceding—reluctantly—that I have _one_ match in -history, but only one—the _Flood_. This is intemperate. - -But they are always that, when they think of me. They can no more keep -quiet when my name is mentioned than can a glass of water control its -feelings with a seidlitz powder in its bowels. The bizarre things they -can imagine, with me for an inspiration! One Englishman offers to give -me the odds of three to one and bet me anything I like, up to 20,000 -guineas, that for 2,000,000 years I am going to be the most conspicuous -foreigner in hell. The man is so beside himself with anger that he does -not perceive that the idea is foolish. Foolish and unbusinesslike: you -see, there could be no winner; both of us would be losers, on account of -the loss of interest on the stakes; at four or five per cent. -compounded, this would amount to—I do not know how much, exactly, but, -by the time the term was up and the bet payable, a person could buy hell -itself with the accumulation. - -Another madman wants to construct a memorial for the perpetuation of my -name, out of my 15,000,000 skulls and skeletons, and is full of -vindictive enthusiasm over his strange project. He has it all ciphered -out and drawn to scale. Out of the skulls he will build a combined -monument and mausoleum to me which shall exactly duplicate the Great -Pyramid of Cheops, whose base covers thirteen acres, and whose apex is -451 feet above ground. He desires to stuff me and stand me up in the sky -on that apex, robed and crowned, with my “pirate flag” in one hand and a -butcher-knife and pendant handcuffs in the other. He will build the -pyramid in the centre of a depopulated tract, a brooding solitude -covered with weeds and the mouldering ruins of burned villages, where -the spirits of the starved and murdered dead will voice their laments -forever in the whispers of the wandering winds. Radiating from the -pyramid, like the spokes of a wheel, there are to be forty grand avenues -of approach, each thirty-five miles long, and each fenced on both sides -by skull-less skeletons standing a yard and a half apart and festooned -together in line by short chains stretching from wrist to wrist and -attached to tried and true old handcuffs stamped with my private -trade-mark, a crucifix and butcher-knife crossed, with motto, “By this -sign we prosper;” each osseous fence to consist of 200,000 skeletons on -a side, which is 400,000 to each avenue. It is remarked with -satisfaction that it aggregates three or four thousand miles -(single-ranked) of skeletons,—15,000,000 all told—and would stretch -across America from New York to San Francisco. It is remarked further, -in the hopeful tone of a railroad company forecasting showy extensions -of its mileage, that my output is 500,000 corpses a year when my plant -is running full time, and that therefore if I am spared ten years longer -there will be fresh skulls enough to add 175 feet to the pyramid, making -it by a long way the loftiest architectural construction on the earth, -and fresh skeletons enough to continue the transcontinental file (on -piles) a thousand miles into the Pacific. The cost of gathering the -materials from my “widely scattered and innumerable private graveyards,” -and transporting them, and building the monument and the radiating grand -avenues, is duly ciphered out, running into an aggregate of millions of -guineas, and then—why then, (—— ——!! —— ——!!) this idiot asks me to -_furnish the money!_ [_Sudden and effusive application of the crucifix_] -He reminds me that my yearly income from the Congo is millions of -guineas, and that “_only_” 5,000,000 would be required for his -enterprise. Every day wild attempts are made upon my purse; they do not -affect me, they cost me not a thought. But _this one_—this one troubles -me, makes me nervous; for there is no telling what an unhinged creature -like this may think of next.... _If he should think of Carnegie_—but I -must banish that thought out of my mind! it worries my days; it troubles -my sleep. That way lies madness. [_After a pause_] There is no other -way—I have got to buy Carnegie. - -[Illustration: - - “My yearly income from the Congo is millions of guineas.”—_Page 29._ -] - -[_Harrassed and muttering, walks the floor a while, then takes to the -Consul’s chapter-headings again. Reads_] - - “Government starved a woman’s children to death and killed her - sons.” - - “Butchery of women and children.” - - “_The native has been converted into a being without ambition - because without hope._” - - “Women chained by the neck by rubber sentries.” - - “Women refuse to bear children because, with a baby to carry, they - cannot well run away and hide from the soldiers.” - -[Illustration: - - “Women chained by the neck” -] - - “Statement of a child. ‘I, my mother, my grandmother and my sister, - we ran away into the bush. A great number of our people were killed - by the soldiers.... After that they saw a little bit of my mother’s - head, and the soldiers ran quickly to where we were and caught my - grandmother, my mother, my sister and another little one younger - than us. Each wanted my mother for a wife, and argued about it, so - they finally decided to kill her. They shot her through the stomach - with a gun and she fell, and when I saw that I cried very much, - because they killed my grandmother and mother and I was left alone. - I saw it all done!’” - -It has a sort of pitiful sound, although they are only blacks. It -carries me back and back into the past, to when my children were little, -and would fly—to the bush, so to speak—when they saw me coming.... -[_Resumes the reading of chapter-headings of the Consul’s report_] - - “They put a knife through a child’s stomach.” - - “They cut off the hands and brought them to C. D. (white officer) - and spread them out in a row for him to see. They left them lying - there, because the white man had seen them, so they did not need to - take them to P.” - - “Captured children left in the bush to die, by the soldiers.” - - “Friends came to ransom a captured girl; but sentry refused, saying - the white man wanted her because she was young.” - -[Illustration: - - FROM PHOTOGRAPH, IKOKO, CONGO STATE - - “Somehow—I wish it had not laughed” -] - - “Extract from a native girl’s testimony. ‘On our way the soldiers - saw a little child, and when they went to kill it the child laughed, - so the soldier took the butt of his gun and struck the child with it - and then cut off its head. One day they killed my half-sister and - cut off her head, hands and feet, because she had bangles on. Then - they caught another sister, and sold her to the W. W. people, and - now she is a slave there.’” - -The little child laughed! [_A long pause. Musing_] That innocent -creature. Somehow—I wish it had not laughed. [_Reads_] - - “Mutilated children.” - - “Government encouragement of inter-tribal slave-traffic. The - monstrous fines levied upon villages tardy in their supplies of - foodstuffs compel the natives to sell their fellows—and children—to - other tribes in order to meet the fine.” - - “A father and mother forced to sell their little boy.” - - “Widow forced to sell her little girl.” - -[_Irritated_] Hang the monotonous grumbler, what would he have me do! -Let a widow off merely because she is a widow? He knows quite well that -there is nothing much left, now, _but_ widows. I have nothing against -widows, as a class, but business is business, and I’ve got to live, -haven’t I, even if it does cause inconvenience to somebody here and -there? [_Reads_] - - “Men intimidated by the torture of their wives and daughters. (To - make the men furnish rubber and supplies and so get their captured - women released from chains and detention.) The sentry explained to - me that he caught the women and brought them in (chained together - neck to neck) by direction of his employer.” - - “An agent explained that he was forced to catch women in preference - to men, as then the men brought in supplies quicker; but he did not - explain how the children deprived of their parents obtained their - own food supplies.” - - “A file of 15 (captured) women.” - - “Allowing women and children to die of starvation in prison.” - -[_Musing_] Death from _hunger_. A lingering, long misery that must be. -Days and days, and still days and days, the forces of the body failing, -dribbling away, little by little—yes, it must be the hardest death of -all. And to see food carried by, every day, and you can have none of it! -Of course the little children cry for it, and that wrings the mother’s -heart.... [_A sigh_] Ah, well, it cannot be helped; circumstances make -this discipline necessary. [_Reads_] - - “The crucifying of sixty women!” - -How stupid, how tactless! Christendom’s goose flesh will rise with -horror at the news. “Profanation of the sacred emblem!” That is what -Christendom will shout. Yes, Christendom will buzz. It can hear me -charged with half a million murders a year for twenty years and keep its -composure, but to profane the Symbol is quite another matter. It will -regard this as serious. It will wake up and want to look into my record. -Buzz? Indeed it will; I seem to hear the distant hum already.... It was -wrong to crucify the women, clearly wrong, manifestly wrong, I can see -it now, myself, and am sorry it happened, sincerely sorry. I believe it -would have answered just as well to skin them.... [_With a sigh_] But -none of us thought of that; one cannot think of everything; and after -all it is but human to err. - -It will make a stir, it surely will, these crucifixions. Persons will -begin to ask again, as now and then in times past, how I can hope to win -and keep the respect of the human race if I continue to give up my life -to murder and pillage. [_Scornfully_] When have they heard me say I -wanted the respect of the human race? Do they confuse me with the common -herd? do they forget that I am a king? What king has valued the respect -of the human race? I mean deep down in his private heart. If they would -reflect, they would know that it is impossible that a king should value -the respect of the human race. He stands upon an eminence and looks out -over the world and sees multitudes of meek human things worshiping the -persons, and submitting to the oppressions and exactions, of a dozen -human things who are in no way better or finer than themselves—made on -just their own pattern, in fact, and out of the same quality of mud. -When it _talks_, it is a race of whales; but a king knows it for a race -of tadpoles. Its history gives it away. If men were really _men_, how -could a Czar be possible? and how could I be possible? But we _are_ -possible; we are quite safe; and with God’s help we shall continue the -business at the old stand. It will be found that the race will put up -with us, in its docile immemorial way. It may pull a wry face now and -then, and make large talk, but it will stay on its knees all the same. - -[Illustration: - - “Made on just their own pattern” -] - -Making large talk is one of its specialties. It works itself up, and -froths at the mouth, and just when you think it is going to throw a -brick,—it heaves a poem! Lord, what a race it is! - - A CZAR—1905 - - “A pasteboard autocrat; a despot out of date; - A fading planet in the glare of day; - A flickering candle in the bright sun’s ray, - Burnt to the socket; fruit left too late, - High on a blighted bough, ripe till it’s rotten. - - By God forsaken and by time forgotten, - Watching the crumbling edges of his lands, - A spineless god to whom dumb millions pray, - From Finland in the West to far Cathay, - Lord of a frost-bound continent he stands, - Her seeming ruin his dim mind appalls, - And in the frozen stupor of his sleep - He hears dull thunders, pealing as she falls, - And mighty fragments dropping in the deep.”[2] - -Footnote 2: - - B. H. Nadal, in _New York Times_. - -It is fine, one is obliged to concede it; it is a great picture, and -impressive. The mongrel handles his pen well. Still, with opportunity, I -would cruci—flay him.... “A spineless god.” It is the Czar to a dot—a -god, and spineless; a royal invertebrate, poor lad; soft-hearted and out -of place. “A spineless god _to whom dumb millions pray_.” Remorselessly -correct; concise, too, and compact—the soul and spirit of the human race -compressed into half a sentence. On their knees—140,000,000. On their -knees to a little tin deity. Massed together, they would stretch away, -and away, and away, across the plains, fading and dimming and failing in -a measureless perspective—why, even the telescope’s vision could not -reach to the final frontier of that continental spread of human -servility. Now _why_ should a king value the respect of the human race? -It is quite unreasonable to expect it. A curious race, certainly! It -finds fault with me and with my occupations, and forgets that neither of -us could exist an hour without its sanction. It is our confederate and -all-powerful protector. It is our bulwark, our friend, our fortress. For -this it has our gratitude, our deep and honest gratitude—but not our -respect. Let it snivel and fret and grumble if it likes; that is all -right; we do not mind that. - -[_Turns over leaves of a scrapbook, pausing now and then to read a -clipping and make a comment_] The poets—how they do hunt that poor Czar! -French, Germans, English, Americans—they all have a bark at him. The -finest and capablest of the pack, and the fiercest, are Swilburne -(English, I think), and a pair of Americans, Thomas Bailey Eldridge and -Colonel Richard Waterson Gilder, of the sentimental periodical called -_Century Magazine and Louisville Courier-Journal_. They certainly have -uttered some very strong yelps. I can’t seem to find them—I must have -mislaid them.... If a poet’s bite were as terrible as his bark, why dear -me—but it isn’t. A wise king minds neither of them; but the poet doesn’t -know it. It’s a case of little dog and lightning express. When the Czar -goes thundering by, the poet skips out and rages alongside for a little -distance, then returns to his kennel wagging his head with satisfaction, -and thinks he has inflicted a memorable scare, whereas nothing has -really happened—the Czar didn’t know he was around. They never bark at -me; I wonder why that is. I suppose my Corruption-Department buys them. -That must be it, for certainly I ought to inspire a bark or two; I’m -rather choice material, I should say. Why—here _is_ a yelp at me. -[_Mumbling a poem_] - - “... What gives thee holy right to murder hope - And water ignorance with human blood? - - · · · · · - - From what high universe-dividing power - Draw’st thou thy wondrous, ripe brutality? - - · · · · · - - O horrible.... Thou God who seest these things - Help us to blot this terror from the earth.” - -... No, I see it is “To the Czar,”[3] after all. But there are those who -would say it fits me—and rather snugly, too. “Ripe brutality.” They -would say the Czar’s isn’t ripe yet, but that mine is; and not merely -ripe but rotten. Nothing could keep them from saying that; they would -think it smart. “This terror.” Let the Czar keep that name; I am -supplied. This long time I have been “the monster”; that was their -favorite—the monster of crime. But now I have a new one. They have found -a fossil Dinosaur fifty-seven feet long and sixteen feet high, and set -it up in the museum in New York and labeled it “Leopold II.” But it is -no matter, one does not look for manners in a republic. Um ... that -reminds me; I have never been caricatured. Could it be that the corsairs -of the pencil could not find an offensive symbol that was big enough and -ugly enough to do my reputation justice? [_After reflection_] There is -no other way—I will buy the Dinosaur. And suppress it. [_Rests himself -with some more chapter-headings. Reads_] - -Footnote 3: - - Louise Morgan Sill, in _Harper’s Weekly_. - - “More mutilation of children.” (Hands cut off.) - - “Testimony of American Missionaries.” - - “Evidence of British Missionaries.” - -It is all the same old thing—tedious repetitions and duplications of -shop-worn episodes; mutilations, murders, massacres, and so on, and so -on, till one gets drowsy over it. Mr. Morel intrudes at this point, and -contributes a comment which he could just as well have kept to -himself—and throws in some italics, of course; these people can never -get along without italics: - - “It is one heartrending story of human misery from beginning to end, - and _it is all recent_.” - -Meaning 1904 and 1905. I do not see how a person can act so. This Morel -is a king’s subject, and reverence for monarchy should have restrained -him from reflecting upon me with that exposure. This Morel is a -reformer; a Congo reformer. That sizes _him_ up. He publishes a sheet in -Liverpool called “The West African Mail,” which is supported by the -voluntary contributions of the sap-headed and the soft-hearted; and -every week it steams and reeks and festers with up-to-date “Congo -atrocities” of the sort detailed in this pile of pamphlets here. I will -suppress it. I suppressed a Congo atrocity book there, after it was -actually in print; it should not be difficult for me to suppress a -newspaper. - -[Illustration: - - “The only witness I couldn’t bribe” -] - -[_Studies some photographs of mutilated negroes—throws them down. -Sighs_] The kodak has been a sore calamity to us. The most powerful -enemy that has confronted us, indeed. In the early years we had no -trouble in getting the press to “expose” the tales of the mutilations as -slanders, lies, inventions of busy-body American missionaries and -exasperated foreigners who had found the “open door” of the Berlin-Congo -charter closed against them when they innocently went out there to -trade; and by the press’s help we got the Christian nations everywhere -to turn an irritated and unbelieving ear to those tales and say hard -things about the tellers of them. Yes, all things went harmoniously and -pleasantly in those good days, and I was looked up to as the benefactor -of a down-trodden and friendless people. Then all of a sudden came the -crash! That is to say, the incorruptible _kodak_—and all the harmony -went to hell! The only witness I have encountered in my long experience -that I couldn’t bribe. Every Yankee missionary and every interrupted -trader sent home and got one; and now—oh, well, the pictures get sneaked -around everywhere, in spite of all we can do to ferret them out and -suppress them. Ten thousand pulpits and ten thousand presses are saying -the good word for me all the time and placidly and convincingly denying -the mutilations. Then that trivial little kodak, that a child can carry -in its pocket, gets up, uttering never a word, and knocks them dumb! - -... What is this fragment? [_Reads_] - - “But enough of trying to tally off his crimes! His list is - interminable, we should never get to the end of it. His awful shadow - lies across his Congo Free State, and under it an unoffending nation - of 15,000,000 is withering away and swiftly succumbing to their - miseries. It is a land of graves; it is _The_ Land of Graves; it is - the Congo Free Graveyard. It is a majestic thought: that is, this - ghastliest episode in all human history is the work of _one man - alone_; one solitary man; just a single individual—Leopold, King of - the Belgians. He is personally and solely responsible for all the - myriad crimes that have blackened the history of the Congo State. He - is _sole_ master there; he is absolute. He could have prevented the - crimes by his mere command; he could stop them today with a word. He - withholds the word. For his pocket’s sake. - -[Illustration: - - FROM PHOTOGRAPHS, CONGO STATE - - “The pictures get sneaked around everywhere.”—_Page 40._ -] - - “It seems strange to see a king destroying a nation and laying waste - a country for mere sordid money’s sake, and solely and only for - that. Lust of conquest is royal; kings have always exercised that - stately vice; we are used to it, by old habit we condone it, - perceiving a certain dignity in it; but _lust of money—lust of - shillings—lust of nickels—lust of dirty coin_, not for the nation’s - enrichment but for _the king’s alone_—this is new. It distinctly - revolts us, we cannot seem to reconcile ourselves to it, we resent - it, we despise it, we say it is shabby, unkingly, out of character. - Being democrats we ought to jeer and jest, we ought to rejoice to - see the purple dragged in the dirt, but—well, account for it as we - may, we don’t. We see this awful king, this pitiless and - blood-drenched king, this money-crazy king towering toward the sky - in a world-solitude of sordid crime, unfellowed and apart from the - human race, sole butcher for personal gain findable in all his - caste, ancient or modern, pagan or Christian, proper and legitimate - target for the scorn of the lowest and the highest, and the - execrations of all who hold in cold esteem the oppressor and the - coward; and—well, it is a mystery, but _we do not wish to look_; for - he is a king, and it hurts us, it troubles us, by ancient and - inherited instinct it shames us to see a king degraded to this - aspect, and we shrink from hearing the particulars of how it - happened. _We shudder_ and _turn away_ when we come upon them in - print.” - -Why, certainly—_that_ is my protection. And you will continue to do it. -I know the human race. - -[Illustration: - - FROM PHOTOGRAPH, IKOKO, CONGO STATE - - “To THEM it must appear - very awful and - mysterious.”— - Joseph Con- - rad -] - - - - - AN ORIGINAL MISTAKE - - - “This work of ‘civilization’ is - an enormous and continual - butchery.” “All the facts we - brought forward in this cham- - ber were denied at first most - energetically; but later, little - by little, they were proved by documents and by official texts.” - “The practice of cutting off hands is said to be contrary - to instructions; but you are content to say that indulgence - must be shown and that this bad habit must be corrected - ‘little by little’ and you plead, moreover, that only the hands - of _fallen_ enemies are cut off, and that if hands are cut off - ‘enemies’ not quite dead, and who, after recovery, have - had the bad taste to come to - the missionaries and show - them their stumps, it was - due to an original mistake in - thinking that they were - dead.” _From Debate in Bel- - gian Parliament, July, 1903._ - - - - - SUPPLEMENTARY - - -Since the first edition of this pamphlet was issued, the Congo story has -entered upon a new chapter. The king’s Commission concedes the -correctness of the delineation contained in the foregoing pages. It -affirms the prevalence of frightful abuses under the king’s rule. For -eight months the king held back the Report but his commissioners had -been too deeply moved by the horrors unfolded before them in their visit -to the Congo State and the testimony presented to them had reached the -world through other sources. The digest of the report, as forwarded from -Brussels to the European and American press, was skilfully edited; and -the report itself does its best to gloss over the king’s responsibility -for the shame; but the story told in the genuine document is essentially -as hideous as anything found in the depositions of plain-speaking -missionaries. So the facts are clear,—indisputable, undisputed. The -train of revilers of missionary testimony, whose roseate pictures of -conditions under the king’s rule have beguiled the uninformed, hurries -out at the wings and Leopold is left to hold the stage, with the -skeleton that refuses longer to stay hidden in his Congo closet. - -One thing the report omits to do. It does not brand or judge the system -out of which the foul breed of iniquities has sprung,—the king’s claim -to personal ownership of 800,000 square miles of territory, with all -their products, and his employment of savage hordes to realize on his -claim. Judgment of this policy the Commission holds to be beyond its -function. Being thus disqualified for striking at the roots of the -enormity, the commissioners propose such superficial reforms as occur to -them. And the king hastens to take up with their suggestion by calling -to his assistance in the work of reform a new Commission. Of this body -of fourteen members all but two are committed by their past record to -defense and maintenance of the king’s Congo policy. - -So ends the king’s investigation of himself; doubtless less jubilantly -than he had planned, but withal as ineffectively as it was foredoomed to -end. One stage is achieved. The next in order is action by the Powers -responsible for the existence of the Congo State. The United States is -one of these. Such procedure is advocated in petitions to the President -and Congress, signed by John Wanamaker, Lyman Abbott, Henry Van Dyke, -David Starr Jordan and many other leading citizens. If ever the -sisterhood of civilized nations have just occasion to go up to the Hague -or some other accessible meeting place, a foreordained hour for their -assembling has now struck. - - - - - SOME THINGS THE REPORT OF THE KING’S COMMISSION SAYS. - - -“Apart from the rough plantations which barely suffice to feed the -natives themselves and to supply the stations, all the fruits of the -soil are considered as the property of the State or of the -concessionaire societies.... It has even been admitted that on the land -occupied by them the natives cannot dispose of the produce of the soil -except to the extent in which they did so before the constitution of the -State.” - -“Each official in charge of a Station, or agent in charge of a factory, -claimed from the natives, without asking himself on what grounds, the -most divers imposts in labor or in kind, either to satisfy his own needs -and those of his Station, or to exploit the riches of the Domaine.... -The agents themselves regulated the tax and saw to its collection and -had a direct interest in increasing its amount, since they received -proportional bonuses on the produce thus collected.” - -“Missionaries, both Catholic and Protestant, whom we heard at -Leopoldville, were unanimous in accentuating the general wretchedness -existing in the region. One of them said that “this system which compels -the natives to feed 3000 workmen at Leopoldville, will, if continued for -another five years, wipe out the population of the district.” - -“Judicial officials have informed us of the sorry consequences of the -porterage system; it exhausts the unfortunate people subjected to it, -and threatens them with partial destruction.” - -“In the majority of cases the native must go one or two days’ march -every fortnight, until he arrives at that part of the forest where the -rubber vines can be met with in a certain degree of abundance. There the -collector passes a number of days in a miserable existence. He has to -build himself an improvised shelter which cannot, obviously, replace his -hut. He has not the food to which he is accustomed. He is deprived of -his wife, exposed to the inclemencies of the weather and the attacks of -wild beasts. When once he has collected the rubber he must bring it to -the State station, or to that of the Company, and only then can he -return to his village where he can sojourn for barely more than two or -three days because the next demand is upon him.” - -“It was barely denied that in the various posts of the A. B. I. R. which -we visited, the imprisonment of women hostages, the subjection of the -chiefs to servile labor, the humiliations meted out to them, the -flogging of rubber collectors, the brutality of the black employees set -over the prisoners, were the rule commonly followed.” - -“According to the witnesses, these auxiliaries, especially those -stationed in the villages, convert themselves into despots, claiming the -women and the food; they kill without pity all those who attempt to -resist their whims. The truth of the charges is borne out by a mass of -evidence and official reports.” - -“The consequences are often very murderous. And one must not be -astonished. If in the course of these delicate operations, whose object -it is to seize hostages and to intimidate the natives, constant watch -cannot be exercised over the sanguinary instincts of the soldiers, when -orders to punish are given by superior authority, it is difficult to -prevent the expedition from degenerating into massacres, accompanied by -pillage and incendiarism.” - - - - - THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT AND THE CONGO STATE. - - -The International Association of the Congo was recognized by the United -States April 22, 1884. Nine months afterward, recognition was secured -from Germany and, later, successively from the other European Powers. -Two international conferences were held at which the Powers constituted -themselves guardians of the people of the Congo territory, the -Association binding itself to regard the principles of administration -adopted. In both these conferences the United States government -prominently participated. The Act of Berlin was not submitted by the -President of the United States for ratification by the Senate because -its adoption as a whole was thought by him to involve responsibility for -support of the territorial claims of rival Powers in the Congo region. -The Act of Brussels, with a proviso safeguarding this point, was -formally ratified by the United States. Whether we are without -obligation to reach a hand to this expiring people, the intelligent -reader will judge for himself. - - “Stanley saw neither fortress nor flag of any civilization save that - of the United States, which he carried along the arterial water - course.... The first appeal for recognition and for moral support - was naturally and justly made to the government whose flag was first - carried across the region.”—_Mr. Kasson in North American Review, - February, 1886._ - - “This Government at the outset testified its lively interest in the - well-being and future progress of the vast region now committed to - your Majesty’s wise care, by being the first among the Powers to - recognize the flag of the International Association of the Congo as - that of a friendly State.”—_President Cleveland to King Leopold, - September 11, 1885._ - - “The recognition by the United States was the birth into new life of - the Association, seriously menaced as its existence was by opposing - interests and ambitions.”—_Mr. Stanley, “The Congo,” vol. 1, page - 383._ - - “He (the President of the United States) desires to see in the - delimitation of the region which shall be subjected to this - beneficent rule (of the International Association of the Congo) the - widest expansion consistent with the just territorial rights of - other governments.”—_Address of Mr. Kasson, U. S. Representative at - Berlin Conference, 1884._ - - “So marked was the acceptance by the Berlin Conference of the views - presented on the part of the United States that Herr Von Bunsen, - reviewing the action of the Conference, assigns after Germany the - first place of influence in the Conference to the United - States.—_Mr. Kasson in North American Review, February, 1886._ - - “In sending a representative to this Assembly, the Government of the - U. S. has wished to show the great interest and deep sympathy it - feels in the great work of philanthropy which the Conference seeks - to realize. Our country must feel beyond all others an immense - interest in the work of this Assembly.”—_Mr. Terrell, U. S. - Representative at Brussels Conference, 1st session, November 19, - 1889._ - - “Mr. Terrell informs the Conference that he has been authorized by - his Government to sign the General Act adopted by the Conference. - - “The President says that the U. S. Minister’s communication will be - received by the Conference with extreme satisfaction.”—_Records of - Brussels Conference, June 28, 1890._ - - “Claiming, as at Berlin, to speak in the name of Almighty God, the - signatories (at Brussels) declared themselves to be ‘equally - animated by the firm intention of putting an end to the crimes and - devastations engendered by the traffic in African slaves, of - protecting effectually the aboriginal populations and of ensuring - the benefits of peace and civilization.’”—_“Civilization in Congo - land,” H. R. Fox Bourne._ - - “The President continues to hope that the Government of the U. S., - which was the first to recognize the Congo Free State, will not be - one of the last to give it the assistance of which it may stand in - need.”—_Remarks of Belgian President of Brussels Conference, session - May 14, 1890._ - -[Illustration: - - A WITNESS BEFORE THE COMMISSION REV. JOHN H. HARRIS MISSIONARY AT - BARINGA, CONGO STATE -] - -[Illustration: - - A WITNESS BEFORE THE COMMISSION LOMBOTO A NATIVE OF BARINGA, CONGO - STATE -] - - “There, great chiefs from Europe, stands the man who has murdered - our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters for rubber. Why, why I - say, has he done this?”—_The witness Lomboto, confronting the - Director of the A. B. I. R. Society at the hearing at Baringa._ - - - - - OUGHT KING LEOPOLD TO BE HANGED?[4] - - INTERVIEW BY MR. W. T. STEAD WITH THE REV. JOHN H. HARRIS, BARINGA, - CONGO STATE, IN THE ENGLISH REVIEW OF REVIEWS FOR SEPTEMBER, 1905. - - -For the somewhat startling suggestion in the heading of this interview, -the missionary interviewed is in no way responsible. The credit of it, -or, if you like, the discredit, belongs entirely to the editor of the -_Review_, who, without dogmatism, wishes to pose the question as a -matter for serious discussion. Since Charles I’s head was cut off, -opposite Whitehall, nearly two hundred and fifty years ago, the sanctity -which doth hedge about a king has been held in slight and scant regard -by the Puritans and their descendants. Hence there is nothing -antecedently shocking or outrageous in the discussion of the question -whether the acts of any Sovereign are such as to justify the calling in -of the services of the public executioner. It is not, of course, for a -journalist to pronounce judgment, but no function of the public writer -is so imperative as that of calling attention to great wrongs, and no -duty is more imperious than that of insisting that no rank or station -should be allowed to shield from justice the real criminal when he is -once discovered. - -Footnote 4: - - The above article which came to hand as the foregoing was in press is - commended to the king and to readers of his Soliloquy.—M. T. - -The controversy between the Congo Reform Association and the Emperor of -the Congo has now arrived at a stage in which it is necessary to take a -further step towards the redress of unspeakable wrongs and the -punishment of no less unspeakable criminals. The Rev. J. H. Harris, an -English missionary, has lived for the last seven years in that region of -Central Africa—the Upper Congo—which King Leopold has made over to one -of his vampire groups of financial associates (known as the A.B.I.R. -Society) on the strictly business basis of a half share in the profits -wrung from the blood and misery of the natives. He has now returned to -England, and last month he called at Mowbray House to tell me the latest -from the Congo. Mr. Harris is a young man in a dangerous state of -volcanic fury, and no wonder. After living for seven years face to face -with the devastations of the vampire State, it is impossible to deny -that he does well to be angry. When he began, as is the wont of those -who have emerged from the depths, to detail horrifying stories of -murder, the outrage and torture of women, the mutilation of children, -and the whole infernal category of horrors, served up with the -background of cannibalism, sometimes voluntary and sometimes, incredible -though it seems, enforced by the orders of the officers, I cut him -short, and said:— - -“Dear Mr. Harris, as in Oriental despatches the India Office translator -abbreviates the first page of the letter into two words ‘after -compliments,’ or ‘a.c.,’ so let us abbreviate our conversation about the -Congo by the two words ‘after atrocities,’ or ‘a.a.’ They are so -invariable and so monotonous, as Lord Percy remarked in the House the -other day, that it is unnecessary to insist upon them. There is no -longer any dispute in the mind of any reasonable person as to what is -going on in the Congo. It is the economical exploitation of half a -continent carried on by the use of armed force wielded by officials the -aim-all and be-all of whose existence is to extort the maximum amount of -rubber in the shortest possible time in order to pay the largest -possible dividend to the holders of shares in the concessions.” - -“Well,” said Mr. Harris reluctantly, for he is so accustomed to speaking -to persons who require to be told the whole dismal tale from A to Z, -“what is it you want to know?” - -“I want to know,” I said, “whether you consider the time is ripe for -summoning King Leopold before the bar of an international tribunal to -answer for the crimes perpetrated under his orders and in his interest -in the Congo State.” - -Mr. Harris paused for a moment, and then said:—“That depends upon the -action which the king takes upon the report of the Commission, which is -now in his hands.” - -“Is that report published?” - -“No,” said Mr. Harris; “and it is a question whether it will ever be -published. Greatly to our surprise, the Commission, which every one -expected would be a mere blind whose appointment was intended to throw -dust in the eyes of the public, turned out to be composed of highly -respectable persons who heard the evidence most impartially, refused no -_bona fide_ testimony produced by trustworthy witnesses, and were -overwhelmed by the multitudinous horrors brought before them, and who, -we feel, _must_ have arrived at conclusions which necessitate an entire -revolution in the administration of the Congo.” - -“Are you quite sure, Mr. Harris,” I said, “that this is so?” - -“Yes,” said Mr. Harris, “quite sure. The Commission impressed us all in -the Congo very favorably. Some of its members seemed to us admirable -specimens of public-spirited, independent statesmen. They realized that -they were acting in a judicial capacity; they knew that the eyes of -Europe were upon them, and, instead of making their inquiry a farce, -they made it a reality, and their conclusions must be, I feel sure, so -damning to the State, that if King Leopold were to take no action but to -allow the whole infernal business to proceed unchecked, any -international tribunal which had powers of a criminal court, would upon -the evidence of the Commission alone, send those responsible to the -gallows.” - -“Unfortunately,” I said, “at present the Hague Tribunal is not armed -with the powers of an international assize court, nor is it qualified to -place offenders, crowned or otherwise, in the dock. But don’t you think -that in the evolution of society the constitution of such a criminal -court is a necessity?” - -“It would be a great convenience at present,” said Mr. Harris; “nor -would you need one atom of evidence beyond the report of the Commission -to justify the hanging of whoever is responsible for the existence and -continuance of such abominations.” - -“Has anybody seen the text of the report?” I asked. - -“As the Commission returned to Brussels in March, some of the contents -of that report are an open secret. A great deal of the evidence has been -published by the Congo Reform Association. In the Congo the -Commissioners admitted two things: first, that the evidence was -overwhelming as to the existence of the evils which had hitherto been -denied, and secondly, that they vindicated the character of the -missionaries. They discovered, as anyone will who goes out to that -country, that it is the missionaries, and the missionaries alone, who -constitute the permanent European element. The Congo State officials -come out ignorant of the language, knowing nothing of the country, and -with no other sense of their duties beyond that of supporting the -concession companies in extorting rubber. They are like men who are dumb -and deaf and blind, nor do they wish to be otherwise. In two or three -years they vanish, giving place to other migrants as ignorant as -themselves, whereas the missionaries remain on the spot year after year; -they are in personal touch with the people, whose language they speak, -whose customs they respect, and whose lives they endeavor to defend to -the best of their ability.” - -“But, Mr. Harris,” I remarked, “was there not a certain Mr. Grenfell, a -Baptist Missionary, who has been all these years a convinced upholder of -the Congo State?” - -“’Twas true,” said Mr. Harris, “and pity ’tis ’twas true; but ’tis no -longer true. Mr. Grenfell has had his eyes opened at last, and he has -now taken his place among those who are convinced. He could no longer -resist the overwhelming evidence that has been brought against the Congo -Administration.”[5] - -Footnote 5: - - Mr. Grenfell’s station is in the Lower Congo, a section remote from - the vast rubber areas of the interior. - -“Was the nature of the Commissioners’ report,” I resumed, “made known to -the officials of the State before they left the Congo?” - -“To the head officials—yes,” said Mr. Harris. - -“With what result?” - -“In the case of the highest official in the Congo, the man who -corresponds in Africa to Lord Curzon in India, no sooner was he placed -in possession of the conclusions of the Commission than the appalling -significance of their indictment convinced him that the game was up, and -he went into his room and cut his throat. I was amazed on returning to -Europe to find how little the significance of this suicide was -appreciated. A paragraph in the newspaper announced the suicide of a -Congo official. None of those who read that paragraph could realize the -fact that that suicide had the same significance to the Congo that the -suicide, let us say, of Lord Milner would have had if it had taken place -immediately on receiving the conclusions of a Royal Commission sent out -to report upon his administration in South Africa.” - -“Well, if that be so, Mr. Harris,” I said, “and the Governor-General -cuts his throat rather than face the ordeal and disgrace of the -exposure, I am almost beginning to hope that we may see King Leopold in -the dock at the Hague, after all.” - -“I will comment upon that,” Mr. Harris said, “by quoting you Mrs. -Sheldon’s remark made before myself and my colleagues, Messrs. Bond, -Ellery, Ruskin, Walbaum and Whiteside, on May 19th last year, when, in -answer to our question, ‘Why should King Leopold be afraid of submitting -his case to the Hague tribunal?’ Mrs. Sheldon answered, ‘Men do not go -to the gallows and put their heads in a noose if they can avoid it.’” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES - - - 1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling. - 2. Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed. - 3. 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border-width:5px; } - </style> - </head> - <body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of King Leopold's Soliloquy, by Mark Twain - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: King Leopold's Soliloquy - A Defense of his Congo Rule - -Author: Mark Twain - -Release Date: July 23, 2020 [EBook #62739] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KING LEOPOLD'S SOLILOQUY *** - - - - -Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class='tnotes covernote'> - -<p class='c000'><b>Transcriber’s Note:</b></p> - -<p class='c000'>The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='section ph1'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>KING LEOPOLD’S SOLILOQUY</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='section ph2'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>“IT IS I”</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='mono'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div>“Leopold   II  is   the  absolute</div> - <div>Master of  the whole  of the  in-</div> - <div>ternal and  external activity  of</div> - <div>the  Independent  State   of  the</div> - <div>Congo.   The   organization   of</div> - <div>justice, the army, the industrial</div> - <div>and  commercial  regimes  are  established  freely  by  himself.</div> - <div>He would say,  and with  greater accuracy  than did  Louis XIV.,</div> - <div>‘The State,  it is I.’”  <em>Prof. F. Cattier,  Brussels University.</em></div> - <div>“Let  us   repeat   after   so  many  others   what  has  become</div> - <div>a platitude,  the success  of the  African work  is the  work of</div> - <div>a sole  directing will,  without being  hampered by  the hesita-</div> - <div>tion of timorous politicians, carried out under his sole respon-</div> - <div>sibility,—intelligent,   thought-</div> - <div>ful,   conscious  of  the  perils</div> - <div>and   the   advantages,   dis-</div> - <div>counting   with   an   admirable</div> - <div>prescience  the great results  of</div> - <div>a  near future.”  <cite>M.  Alfred Pos-</cite></div> - <div><cite>kine   in   “<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Bilans   Congolais</span>.”</cite></div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/i_frontispiece.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p>“A memorial for the perpetuation of my name.”—<em>Page <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.</em></p> -</div> -</div> - -<div class='titlepage'> - -<div> - <h1 class='c003'>KING LEOPOLD’S SOLILOQUY<br /> <span class='xlarge'>A DEFENSE OF HIS CONGO RULE</span></h1> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div>BY</div> - <div><span class='large'>MARK TWAIN</span></div> - <div class='c002'>SECOND EDITION</div> - <div class='c002'>THE P. R. WARREN CO.</div> - <div><span class='small'>BOSTON, MASS.</span></div> - <div>1905</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div><span class='sc'>Copyright, 1905</span></div> - <div><span class='sc'>By Samuel L. Clemens</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span> - <h2 class='c005'>King Leopold’s Soliloquy</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>[<em>Throws down pamphlets which he has been -reading. Excitedly combs his flowing spread of -whiskers with his fingers; pounds the table with -his fists; lets off brisk volleys of unsanctified language -at brief intervals, repentantly drooping -his head, between volleys, and kissing the Louis -XI crucifix hanging from his neck, accompanying -the kisses with mumbled apologies; presently -rises, flushed and perspiring, and walks the -floor, gesticulating</em>]</p> - -<p class='c007'>—— ——!! —— ——!! If I had them by -the throat! [<em>Hastily kisses the crucifix, and -mumbles</em>] In these twenty years I have spent -millions to keep the press of the two hemispheres -quiet, and still these leaks keep on occurring. -I have spent other millions on religion -and art, and what do I get for it? Nothing. -Not a compliment. These generosities are -studiedly ignored, in print. In print I get nothing -but slanders—and slanders again—and still -slanders, and slanders on top of slanders! Grant -them true, what of it? They are slanders all the -same, when uttered against a king.</p> - -<p class='c007'>Miscreants—they are telling <em>everything</em>! -Oh, everything: how I went pilgriming among -<span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>the Powers in tears, with my mouth full of Bible -and my pelt oozing piety at every pore, and implored -them to place the vast and rich and populous -Congo Free State in trust in my hands as -their agent, so that I might root out slavery and -stop the slave raids, and lift up those twenty-five -millions of gentle and harmless blacks out of -darkness into light, the light of our blessed Redeemer, -the light that streams from his holy -Word, the light that makes glorious our noble -civilization—lift them up and dry their tears -and fill their bruised hearts with joy and gratitude—lift -them up and make them comprehend -that they were no longer outcasts and forsaken, -but our very brothers in Christ; how America -and thirteen great European states wept in sympathy -with me, and were persuaded; how their -representatives met in convention in Berlin and -made me Head Foreman and Superintendent of -the Congo State, and drafted out my powers and -limitations, carefully guarding the persons and -liberties and properties of the natives against -hurt and harm; forbidding whisky traffic and -gun traffic; providing courts of justice; making -commerce free and fetterless to the merchants -and traders of all nations, and welcoming and -safeguarding all missionaries of all creeds and -denominations. They have told how I planned -and prepared my establishment and selected my -horde of officials—“pals” and “pimps” of mine, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>“unspeakable Belgians” every one—and hoisted -my flag, and “took in” a President of the United -States, and got him to be the first to recognize it -and salute it. Oh, well, let them blackguard me -if they like; it is a deep satisfaction to me to -remember that I was a shade too smart for -that nation that thinks itself so -smart. Yes, I certainly did bunco -a Yankee—as those people -phrase it. Pirate flag? -Let them call it so—perhaps -it is. All the -same, <em>they were the -first to salute it</em>.</p> - -<div class='figright id002'> -<img src='images/i_007.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p>“They were the first to salute it”</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>These meddlesome -American missionaries! -these frank British -consuls! these blabbing -Belgian-born traitor officials!—those tiresome -parrots are always talking, always telling. -They have told how for twenty years I have -ruled the Congo State not as a trustee of the -Powers, an agent, a subordinate, a foreman, -but as a sovereign—sovereign over a -fruitful domain four times as large as the -German Empire—sovereign absolute, irresponsible, -above all law; trampling the -Berlin-made Congo charter under foot; barring -out all foreign traders but myself; restricting -commerce to myself, through concessionaires -<span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>who are my creatures and confederates; -seizing and holding the State as my personal -property, the whole of its vast revenues as my -private “swag”—mine, solely mine—claiming -and holding its millions of people as my private -property, my serfs, my slaves; their labor mine, -with or without wage; the food they raise not -their property but mine; the rubber, the ivory -and all the other riches of the land mine—mine -solely—and gathered for me by the men, the -women and the little children under compulsion -of lash and bullet, fire, starvation, mutilation and -the halter.</p> - -<p class='c007'>These pests!—it is as I say, they have kept -back nothing! They have revealed these and -yet other details which shame should have kept -them silent about, since they were exposures of a -king, a sacred personage and immune from reproach, -by right of his selection and appointment -to his great office by God himself; a king -whose acts cannot be criticized without blasphemy, -since God has observed them from the -beginning and has manifested no dissatisfaction -with them, nor shown disapproval of them, nor -hampered nor interrupted them in any way. By -this sign I recognize his approval of what I have -done; his cordial and glad approval, I am sure -I may say. Blest, crowned, beatified with this -great reward, this golden reward, this unspeakably -precious reward, why should I care for -<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>men’s cursings and revilings of me? [<em>With a -sudden outburst of feeling</em>] May they roast a -million æons in—[<em>Catches his breath and effusively -kisses the crucifix; sorrowfully murmurs, -“I shall get myself damned yet, with these indiscretions -of speech.”</em>]</p> - -<p class='c007'>Yes, they go on telling everything, these chatterers! -They tell how I levy incredibly burdensome -taxes upon the natives—taxes which are a -pure theft; taxes which they must satisfy by -gathering rubber under hard and constantly -harder conditions, and by raising and furnishing -food supplies gratis—and it all comes out that, -when they fall short of their tasks through hunger, -sickness, despair, and ceaseless and exhausting -labor without rest, and forsake their homes -and flee to the woods to escape punishment, my -black soldiers, drawn from unfriendly tribes, -and instigated and directed by my Belgians, hunt -them down and butcher them and burn their -villages—reserving some of the girls. They -tell it all: how I am wiping a nation of friendless -creatures out of existence by every form of -murder, for my private pocket’s sake, and how -every shilling I get costs a rape, a mutilation or -a life. But they never say, although they know -it, that I have labored in the cause of religion at -the same time and all the time, and have sent -missionaries there (of a “convenient stripe,” as -they phrase it), to teach them the error of their -<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>ways and bring them to Him who is all mercy -and love, and who is the sleepless guardian and -friend of all who suffer. They tell only what is -against me, they will not tell what is in my -favor.</p> - -<p class='c007'>They tell how England required of me a -Commission of Inquiry into Congo atrocities, -and how, to quiet that meddling country, with its -disagreeable Congo Reform Association, made -up of earls and bishops and John Morleys and -university grandees and other dudes, more interested -in other people’s business than in their own. -I appointed it. Did it stop their mouths? No, -they merely pointed out that it was a commission -composed wholly of my “Congo butchers,” -“the very men whose acts were to be inquired -into.” They said it was equivalent to appointing -a commission of wolves to inquire into depredations -committed upon a sheepfold. <em>Nothing</em> -can satisfy a cursed Englishman!<a id='r1' /><a href='#f1' class='c008'><sup>[1]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='footnote' id='f1'> -<p class='c007'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. This visit had a more fortunate result than was anticipated. -One member of the Commission was a leading Congo official, another -an official of the government in Belgium, the third a Swiss -jurist. It was feared that the work of the Commission would not -be more genuine than that of innumerable so-called “investigations” -by local officials. But it appears that the Commission was -met by a very avalanche of awful testimony. One who was present -at a public hearing writes: “Men of stone would be moved by the -stories that are being unfolded as the Commission probes into the -awful history of rubber collection.” It is evident the commissioners -were moved. Of their report and its bearing upon the international -issue presented by the conceded conditions in the Congo -State, something is said on a supplementary page of this pamphlet. -Certain reforms were ordered by the Commission in the one section -visited, but the latest word is that after its departure conditions -were soon worse than before its coming.—M. T.</p> -</div> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/i_010f.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p>“They tell only what is against me.”—<em>Page <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.</em></p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>And were the fault-finders frank with my private character? They could not be more so if -I were a plebeian, a peasant, a mechanic. They -remind the world that from the earliest days my -house has been chapel and brothel combined, -and both industries working full time; that I -practised cruelties upon my queen and my -daughters, and supplemented them with daily -shame and humiliations; that, when my queen -lay in the happy refuge of her coffin, and a -daughter implored me on her knees to let her -look for the last time upon her mother’s face, I -refused; and that, three years ago, not being -satisfied with the stolen spoils of a whole alien -nation, I robbed my own child of her property -and appeared by proxy in court, a spectacle to -the civilized world, to defend the act and complete -the crime. It is as I have said: they are unfair, -unjust; they will resurrect and give new -currency to such things as those, or to any other -things that count against me, but they will not -mention any act of mine that is in my favor. I -have spent more money on art than any other -monarch of my time, and they know it. Do -they speak of it, do they tell about it? No, -they do not. They prefer to work up what they -call “ghastly statistics” into offensive kindergarten -object lessons, whose purpose is to make sentimental -people shudder, and prejudice them -against me. They remark that “if the innocent -blood shed in the Congo State by King Leopold -<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>were put in buckets and the buckets placed side -by side, the line would stretch 2,000 miles; if -the skeletons of his ten millions of starved and -butchered dead could rise up and march in single -file, it would take them seven months and four -days to pass a given point; if compacted together -in a body, they would occupy more ground than -St. Louis covers, World’s Fair and all; if they -should all clap their bony hands at once, the -grisly crash would be heard at a distance of—” -Damnation, it makes me tired! And they do -similar miracles with the money I have distilled -from that blood and put into my pocket. They -pile it into Egyptian pyramids; they carpet Saharas -with it; they spread it across the sky, and -the shadow it casts makes twilight in the earth. -And the tears I have caused, the hearts I have -broken—oh, nothing can persuade them to let -<em>them</em> alone!</p> - -<p class='c007'>[<em>Meditative pause</em>] Well ... no matter, I -<em>did</em> beat the Yankees, anyway! there’s comfort in -that. [<em>Reads with mocking smile, the President’s -Order of Recognition of April 22, 1884</em>]</p> - -<p class='c009'>“... the government of the United States announces -its sympathy with and approval of the humane and benevolent -purposes of (my Congo scheme), and will order the -officers of the United States, both on land and sea, to recognize -its flag as the flag of a friendly government.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>Possibly the Yankees would like to take that -back, now, but they will find that my agents are -<span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>not over there in America for nothing. But -there is no danger; neither nations nor governments -can afford to confess a blunder. [<em>With -a contented smile, begins to read from “Report -by Rev. W. M. Morrison, American missionary -in the Congo Free State”</em>]</p> - -<p class='c009'>“I furnish herewith some of the many atrocious incidents -which have come under my own personal observation; they -reveal the <em>organized system</em> of plunder and outrage which has -been perpetrated and is now being carried on in that unfortunate -country by King Leopold of Belgium. I say King -Leopold, because he and he <em>alone</em> is now responsible, since -he is the <em>absolute sovereign</em>. <em>He styles himself such.</em> When -our government in 1884 laid the foundation of the Congo -Free State, by recognizing its flag, little did it know that this -concern, parading under the guise of philanthropy, was really -King Leopold of Belgium, one of the shrewdest, most heartless -and most conscienceless rulers that ever sat on a throne. -This is apart from his known corrupt morals, which have -made his name and his family a byword in two continents. -Our government would most certainly not have recognized -that flag had it known that it was really King Leopold individually -who was asking for recognition; had it known that -it was setting up in the heart of Africa an <em>absolute monarchy</em>; -had it known that, having put down African slavery in our -own country at great cost of blood and money, it was <em>establishing -a worse form of slavery right in Africa</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>[<em>With evil joy</em>] Yes, I certainly was a shade -too clever for the Yankees. It hurts; it gravels -them. They can’t get over it! Puts a shame -upon them in another way, too, and a graver -<span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>way; for they never can rid their records of the -reproachful fact that their vain Republic, self-appointed -Champion and Promoter of the Liberties -of the World, is the only democracy in history -that has lent its power and influence to the -establishing of an <em>absolute monarchy</em>!</p> - -<div class='figleft id002'> -<img src='images/i_014.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p>“They go to them with their sorrows”</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>[<em>Contemplating, with an unfriendly eye, a -stately pile of pamphlets</em>] Blister the meddlesome -missionaries! They write tons of these -things. They seem to be always around, always -spying, always eye-witnessing -the happenings; and -everything they see they -commit to paper. They -are always prowling from -place to place; the natives -consider them their only -friends; they go to them -with their sorrows; they -show them their scars and -their wounds, inflicted by -my soldier police; they hold up the stumps of -their arms and lament because their hands have -been chopped off, as punishment for not bringing -in enough rubber, and as proof to be laid before -my officers that the required punishment -was well and truly carried out. One of these -missionaries saw eighty-one of these hands drying -over a fire for transmission to my officials—and -of course he must go and set it down and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>print it. They travel and travel, they spy and -spy! And nothing is too trivial for them to -print. [<em>Takes up a pamphlet. Reads a passage -from Report of a “Journey made in July, August -and September, 1903, by Rev. A. E. Scrivener, -a British missionary”</em>]</p> - -<p class='c009'>“... Soon we began talking, and without any encouragement -on my part the natives began the tales I had -become so accustomed to. They were living in peace and -quietness when the white men came in from the lake with all -sorts of requests to do this and that, and they thought it -meant slavery. So they attempted to keep the white men -out of their country but without avail. The rifles were too -much for them. So they submitted and made up their minds -to do the best they could under the altered circumstances. -First came the command to build houses for the soldiers, and -this was done without a murmur. Then they had to feed -the soldiers and all the men and women—hangers on—who -accompanied them. Then they were told to bring in rubber. -This was quite a new thing for them to do. There was -rubber in the forest several days away from their home, but -that it was worth anything was news to them. A small -reward was offered and a rush was made for the rubber. -‘What strange white men, to give us cloth and beads for -the sap of a wild vine.’ They rejoiced in what they thought -their good fortune. But soon the reward was reduced until -at last they were told to bring in the rubber for nothing. -To this they tried to demur; but to their great surprise several -were shot by the soldiers, and the rest were told, with many -curses and blows, to go at once or more would be killed. -Terrified, they began to prepare their food for the fortnight’s -absence from the village which the collection of rubber entailed. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>The soldiers discovered them sitting about. ‘What, -not gone yet?’ Bang! bang! bang! and down fell one and -another, dead, in the midst of wives and companions. -There is a terrible wail and an attempt made to prepare the -dead for burial, but this is not allowed. All must go at once -to the forest. Without food? Yes, without food. And -off the poor wretches had to go without even their tinder -boxes to make fires. Many died in the forests of hunger -and exposure, and still more from the rifles of the ferocious -soldiers in charge of the post. In spite of all their efforts the -amount fell off and more and more were killed. I was -shown around the place, and the sites of former big chiefs’ -settlements were pointed out. A careful estimate made the -population of, say, seven years ago, to be 2,000 people in -and about the post, within a radius of, say, a quarter of a -mile. All told, they would not muster 200 now, and there -is so much sadness and gloom about them that they are fast -decreasing.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“We stayed there all day on Monday and had many talks -with the people. On the Sunday some of the boys had told -me of some bones which they had seen, so on the Monday -I asked to be shown these bones. Lying about on the grass, -within a few yards of the house I was occupying, were -numbers of human skulls, bones, in some cases complete -skeletons. I counted thirty-six skulls, and saw many sets of -bones from which the skulls were missing. I called one of -the men and asked the meaning of it. ‘When the rubber -palaver began,’ said he, ‘the soldiers shot so many we -grew tired of burying, and very often we were not -allowed to bury; and so just dragged the bodies out into the -grass and left them. There are hundreds all around if you -would like to see them.’ But I had seen more than enough, -and was sickened by the stories that came from men and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>women alike of -the awful time -they had passed through. -The Bulgarian atrocities -might be considered as -mildness itself when compared -with what was done here. How -the people submitted I don’t know, -and even now I wonder as I think of -their patience. That some of them -managed to run away is some cause -for thankfulness. I stayed there two days and the one -thing that impressed itself upon me was the collection of -rubber. I saw long files of men come in, as at Bongo, with -their little baskets under their arms; saw them paid their milk -tin full of salt, and the two yards of calico flung to the headmen; -saw their trembling timidity, and in fact a great deal -that all went to prove the state of terrorism that exists and -the virtual slavery in which the people are held.”</p> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/i_017.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p>“Some bones which they had seen”</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>That is their way; they spy and spy, and run -into print with every foolish trifle. And that -British consul, Mr. Casement, is just like them. -He gets hold of a <em>diary which had been kept by -<span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>one of my government officers</em>, and, although it -is a private diary and intended for no eye but its -owner’s, Mr. Casement is so lacking in delicacy -and refinement as to print passages from it. -[<em>Reads a passage from the diary</em>]</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Each time the corporal goes out to get rubber, cartridges -are given him. He must bring back all not used, and for every -one used he must bring back a right hand. M. P. told me -that sometimes they shot a cartridge at an animal in hunting; -they then cut off a hand from a living man. As to the -extent to which this is carried on, he informed me that in -six months the State on the Mambogo River had used 6,000 -cartridges, which means that 6,000 people are killed or -mutilated. It means more than 6,000, for the people have -told me repeatedly that the soldiers kill the children with the -butt of their guns.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>When the subtle consul thinks silence will be -more effective than words, he employs it. Here -he leaves it to be recognized that a thousand -killings and mutilations a month is a large output -for so small a region as the Mambogo River -concession, silently indicating the dimensions of -it by accompanying his report with a map of the -prodigious Congo State, in which there is not -room for so small an object as that river. That -silence is intended to say, “If it is a thousand a -month in this little corner, imagine the output of -the whole vast State!” A gentleman would not -descend to these furtivenesses.</p> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/i_018f.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p><span class='left'><span class='xsmall'>FOOT AND HAND OF CHILD DISMEMBERED BY SOLDIERS, BROUGHT TO MISSIONARIES BY DAZED FATHER. FROM PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AT BARINGA, CONGO STATE, MAY 15, 1904. SEE MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS, JANUARY, 1905</span></span><br /><br />“Imagine the output of the whole vast State!”—<em>Page <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>.</em></p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>Now as to the mutilations. You can’t head -off a Congo critic and make him stay headed-off; -he dodges, and straightway comes back at -you from another direction. They are full of -slippery arts. When the mutilations (severing -hands, unsexing men, etc.) began to stir Europe, -we hit upon the idea of excusing them with a -retort which we judged would knock them dizzy -on that subject for good and all, and leave them -nothing more to say; to wit, we boldly laid the -custom on the natives, and said we did not invent -it, but only followed it. Did it knock them -dizzy? did it shut their mouths? Not for an -hour. They dodged, and came straight back at -us with the remark that “if a Christian king can -perceive a saving moral difference between inventing -bloody barbarities, and <em>imitating them -from savages</em>, for charity’s sake let him get what -comfort he can out of his confession!”</p> - -<p class='c007'>It is most amazing, the way that that consul -acts—that spy, that busy-body. [<em>Takes up -pamphlet “Treatment of Women and Children -in the Congo State; what Mr. Casement Saw -in 1903”</em>] <em>Hardly two years ago!</em> <em>Intruding</em> -that date upon the public was a piece of -cold malice. It was intended to weaken the -force of my press syndicate’s assurances to the -public that my severities in the Congo <em>ceased</em>, -and ceased utterly, <em>years and years ago</em>. This -man is fond of trifles—revels in them, gloats -over them, pets them, fondles them, sets them -<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>all down. One doesn’t need to drowse through -his monotonous report to see that; the mere subheadings -of its chapters prove it. [<em>Reads</em>]</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Two hundred and forty persons, <em>men, women and children</em>, -compelled to supply government with <em>one ton</em> of carefully -prepared foodstuffs <em>per week</em>, receiving in remuneration, all -told, the princely sum of 15s. 10d!”</p> - -<p class='c007'>Very well, it was liberal. It was not much -short of a penny a week for each nigger. It -suits this consul to belittle it, yet he knows very -well that I could have had both the food and the -labor for nothing. I can prove it by a thousand -instances. [<em>Reads</em>]</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Expedition against a village behindhand in its (compulsory) -supplies; result, slaughter of sixteen persons; among -them three women and a boy of five years. Ten carried -off, to be prisoners till ransomed; among them a child, who -died during the march.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>But he is careful not to explain that we are -<em>obliged</em> to resort to ransom to collect debts, -where the people have nothing to pay with. -Families that escape to the woods sell some of -their members into slavery and thus provide the -ransom. He knows that I would stop this if I -could find a less objectionable way to collect -their debts.... Mm—here is some more of -the consul’s delicacy! He reports a conversation -he had with some natives:</p> - -<p class='c009'>Q. “How do you know it was the <em>white</em> men themselves -<span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>who ordered these cruel things to be done to you? -These things must have been done without the white man’s -knowledge by the black soldiers.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>A. “The white men told their soldiers: ‘You only kill -<em>women</em>; you cannot kill men. You must prove that you -kill men.’ So then the soldiers when they killed us” (here -he stopped and hesitated and then pointing to ... he said:) -“then they ... and took them to the white men, who -said: ‘It is true, you have killed <em>men</em>.’”</p> - -<p class='c009'>Q. “You say this is true? Were many of you so treated -after being shot?”</p> - -<p class='c009'>All [<em>shouting out</em>]: “<em>Nkoto! Nkoto!</em>” (“Very many! -Very many!”)</p> - -<p class='c009'>“There was no doubt that these people were not inventing. -Their vehemence, their flashing eyes, their excitement, were -not simulated.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>Of course the critic had to divulge that; he -has no self-respect. All his kind reproach me, -although they know quite well that I took no -pleasure in punishing the men in that particular -way, but only did it as a warning to other delinquents. -Ordinary punishments are no good with -ignorant savages; they make no impression. -[<em>Reads more sub-heads</em>]</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Devastated region; population reduced from 40,000 to -8,000.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>He does not take the trouble to say how it -happened. He is fertile in concealments. He -hopes his readers and his Congo reformers, -of the Lord-Aberdeen-Norbury-John-Morley-Sir-Gilbert-Parker -<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>stripe, will think they were all -killed. They were not. The great majority of -them escaped. They fled to the bush with their -families because of the rubber raids, and it was -there they died of hunger. Could we help that?</p> - -<div class='figcenter id003'> -<img src='images/i_022.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p>On Dress Parade</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>One of my sorrowing critics observes: “Other -Christian rulers tax their people, but furnish -schools, courts of law, roads, light, water and -protection to life and limb in return; King Leopold -taxes his stolen nation, but provides <em>nothing -in return but hunger, terror, grief, shame, captivity, -mutilation and massacre</em>.” That is their -style! I furnish “nothing”! I send the gospel -to the survivors; these censure-mongers know -it, but they would rather have their tongues cut -out than mention it. I have several times required -my raiders to give the dying an opportunity -to kiss the sacred emblem; and if they -obeyed me I have without doubt been the humble -means of saving many souls. None of my traducers -have had the fairness to mention this; but -let it pass; there is One who has not overlooked -<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>it, and that is my solace, that is my consolation.</p> - -<p class='c007'>[<em>Puts down the Report, takes up a pamphlet, -glances along the middle of it</em>]</p> - -<p class='c007'>This is where the “death-trap” comes in. -Meddlesome missionary spying around—Rev. -W. H. Sheppard. Talks with a black raider of -mine after a raid; cozens him into giving away -some particulars. The raider remarks:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“‘I demanded 30 slaves from this side of the stream and 30 -from the other side; 2 points of ivory, 2,500 balls of rubber, -13 goats, 10 fowls and 6 dogs, some corn chumy, etc.’</p> - -<p class='c009'>‘How did the fight come up?’ I asked.</p> - -<p class='c009'>‘I sent for all their chiefs, sub-chiefs, men and women, to -come on a certain day, saying that I was going to finish all -the palaver. When they entered these small gates (the walls -being made of fences brought from other villages, the high -native ones) I demanded all my pay or I would kill them; -so they refused to pay me, and I ordered the fence to be -closed so they couldn’t run away; then we killed them here -inside the fence. The panels of the fence fell down and -some escaped.’</p> - -<p class='c009'>‘How many did you kill?’ I asked.</p> - -<p class='c009'>‘We killed plenty, will you see some of them?’</p> - -<p class='c009'>That was just what I wanted.</p> - -<p class='c009'>He said: ‘I think we have killed between eighty and ninety, -and those in the other villages I don’t know, I did not go -out but sent my people.’</p> - -<p class='c009'>He and I walked out on the plain just near the camp. -There were three dead bodies with the flesh carved off from -the waist down.</p> - -<p class='c009'>‘Why are they carved so, only leaving the bones?’ I asked.</p> - -<p class='c009'>‘My people ate them,’ he answered promptly. He then -<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>explained, ‘The men who have young children do not eat -people, but all the rest ate them.’ On the left was a big -man, shot in the back and without a head. (All these -corpses were nude.)</p> - -<p class='c009'>‘Where is the man’s head?’ I asked.</p> - -<p class='c009'>‘Oh, they made a bowl of the forehead to rub up tobacco -and diamba in.’</p> - -<p class='c009'>We continued to walk and examine until late in the afternoon, -and counted forty-one bodies. The rest had been -eaten up by the people.</p> - -<p class='c009'>On returning to the camp, we crossed a young woman, -shot in the back of the head, one hand was cut away. I -asked why, and Mulunba N’Cusa explained that they always -cut off the right hand to give to the State on their return.</p> - -<p class='c009'>‘Can you not show me some of the hands?’ I asked.</p> - -<p class='c009'>So he conducted us to a framework of sticks, under which -was burning a slow fire, and there they were, the right hands—I -counted them, eighty-one in all.</p> - -<p class='c009'>There were not less than sixty women (Bena Pianga) -prisoners. I saw them.</p> - -<p class='c009'>We all say that we have as fully as possible investigated -the whole outrage, and find it was a plan previously made to -get all the stuff possible and to catch and kill the poor people -in the ‘death-trap.’”</p> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/i_024f.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p><span class='left'><span class='xsmall'>MULUNBA CHIEF OF CANNIBAL TRIBE NEAR LUEBO, CONGO STATE FIGURE REPRODUCED FROM PHOTOGRAPH</span></span><br /><br />“Mulunba N’Cusa explained.”—<em>Page <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>.</em></p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span><em>Another</em> detail, as we see!—cannibalism. -They report cases of it with a most offensive frequency. -My traducers do not forget to remark -that, inasmuch as I am absolute and with a -word can prevent in the Congo anything I -choose to prevent, then whatsoever is done there -by my permission is my act, my <em>personal</em> act; -that <em>I</em> do it; that the hand of my agent is as truly -my hand as if it were attached to my own arm; -and so they picture me in my robes of state, with -my crown on my head, munching human flesh, -saying grace, mumbling thanks to Him from -whom all good things come. Dear, dear, when -the soft-hearts get hold of a thing like that missionary’s -contribution they quite lose their tranquility -over it. They speak out profanely and -reproach Heaven for allowing such a fiend to -live. Meaning me. They think it irregular. -They go shuddering around, brooding over the -reduction of that Congo population from 25,000,000 -to 15,000,000 in the twenty years of -my administration; then they burst out and call -me “the King with Ten Million Murders on his -Soul.” They call me a “record.” The most of -them do not stop with charging merely the 10,000,000 -against me. No, they reflect that but -for me the population, by natural increase, would -now be 30,000,000, so they charge another 5,000,000 -against me and make my total death-harvest -15,000,000. They remark that the man -who killed the goose that laid the golden egg was -responsible for the eggs she would subsequently -have laid if she had been let alone. Oh, yes, -they call me a “record.” They remark that -twice in a generation, in India, the Great Famine -destroys 2,000,000 out of a population of -320,000,000, and the whole world holds up its -hands in pity and horror; then they fall to wondering -<span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>where the world would find room for its -emotions if I had a chance to trade places with -the Great Famine for twenty years! The idea -fires their fancy, and they go on and imagine the -Famine coming in state at the end of the twenty -years and prostrating itself before me, saying: -“Teach me, Lord, I perceive that I am but an -apprentice.” And next they imagine Death -coming, with his scythe and hour-glass, and begging -me to marry his daughter and reorganize -his plant and run the business. For the whole -world, you see! By this time their diseased -minds are under full steam, and they get down -their books and expand their labors, with me for -text. They hunt through all biography for my -match, working Attila, Torquemada, Ghengis -Khan, Ivan the Terrible, and the rest of that -crowd for all they are worth, and evilly exulting -when they cannot find it. Then they examine -the historical earthquakes and cyclones and blizzards -and cataclysms and volcanic eruptions: -verdict, none of them “in it” with me. At last -they do really hit it (as they think), and they -close their labors with conceding—reluctantly—that -I have <em>one</em> match in history, but only one—the -<em>Flood</em>. This is intemperate.</p> - -<p class='c007'>But they are always that, when they think of -me. They can no more keep quiet when my -name is mentioned than can a glass of water control -its feelings with a seidlitz powder in its -<span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>bowels. The bizarre things they can imagine, -with me for an inspiration! One Englishman -offers to give me the odds of three to one and bet -me anything I like, up to 20,000 guineas, -that for 2,000,000 years I am going to be the -most conspicuous foreigner in hell. The man -is so beside himself with anger that he does not -perceive that the idea is foolish. Foolish and -unbusinesslike: you see, there could be no winner; -both of us would be losers, on account of -the loss of interest on the stakes; at four or five -per cent. compounded, this would amount to—I -do not know how much, exactly, but, by the -time the term was up and the bet payable, a person -could buy hell itself with the accumulation.</p> - -<p class='c007'>Another madman wants to construct a memorial -for the perpetuation of my name, out of my -15,000,000 skulls and skeletons, and is full of -vindictive enthusiasm over his strange project. -He has it all ciphered out and drawn to scale. -Out of the skulls he will build a combined monument -and mausoleum to me which shall exactly -duplicate the Great Pyramid of Cheops, whose -base covers thirteen acres, and whose apex is -451 feet above ground. He desires to stuff me -and stand me up in the sky on that apex, robed -and crowned, with my “pirate flag” in one hand -and a butcher-knife and pendant handcuffs in the -other. He will build the pyramid in the centre -of a depopulated tract, a brooding solitude covered -<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>with weeds and the mouldering ruins of -burned villages, where the spirits of the starved -and murdered dead will voice their laments forever -in the whispers of the wandering winds. -Radiating from the pyramid, like the spokes of a -wheel, there are to be forty grand avenues of -approach, each thirty-five miles long, and each -fenced on both sides by skull-less skeletons standing -a yard and a half apart and festooned together -in line by short chains stretching from -wrist to wrist and attached to tried and true old -handcuffs stamped with my private trade-mark, -a crucifix and butcher-knife crossed, with motto, -“By this sign we prosper;” each osseous fence to -consist of 200,000 skeletons on a side, which is -400,000 to each avenue. It is remarked with -satisfaction that it aggregates three or four -thousand miles (single-ranked) of skeletons,—15,000,000 -all told—and would stretch across -America from New York to San Francisco. It -is remarked further, in the hopeful tone of a -railroad company forecasting showy extensions -of its mileage, that my output is 500,000 corpses -a year when my plant is running full time, and -that therefore if I am spared ten years longer -there will be fresh skulls enough to add 175 feet -to the pyramid, making it by a long way the -loftiest architectural construction on the earth, -and fresh skeletons enough to continue the transcontinental -file (on piles) a thousand miles into -the Pacific. The cost of gathering the materials -from my “widely scattered and innumerable -private graveyards,” and transporting them, and -building the monument and the radiating grand -avenues, is duly ciphered out, running into an -aggregate of millions of guineas, and then—why -then, (—— ——!! —— ——!!) this idiot -asks me to <em>furnish the money!</em> [<em>Sudden and effusive -application of the crucifix</em>] He reminds -me that my yearly income from the Congo is -millions of guineas, and that “<em>only</em>” 5,000,000 -would be required for his enterprise. Every day -wild attempts are made upon my purse; they do -not affect me, they cost me not a thought. But -<em>this one</em>—this one troubles me, makes me nervous; -for there is no telling what an unhinged -creature like this may think of next.... <em>If -he should think of Carnegie</em>—but I must banish -that thought out of my mind! it worries my -days; it troubles my sleep. That way lies madness. -[<em>After a pause</em>] There is no other way—I -have got to buy Carnegie.</p> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/i_028f.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p>“My yearly income from the Congo is millions of guineas.”—<em>Page <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</em></p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>[<em>Harrassed and muttering, walks the floor a -while, then takes to the Consul’s chapter-headings -again. Reads</em>]</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Government starved a woman’s children to death and -killed her sons.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Butchery of women and children.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“<em>The native has been converted into a being without -ambition because without hope.</em>”</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>“Women chained by the neck by rubber sentries.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Women refuse to bear children because, with a baby -to carry, they cannot well run away and hide from the -soldiers.”</p> - -<div class='figleft id002'> -<img src='images/i_030.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p>“Women chained by the neck”</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c009'>“Statement of a child. ‘I, my mother, my grandmother -and my sister, we ran away into the bush. A great number -of our people were killed by -the soldiers.... -After that they saw a -little bit of my -mother’s head, and -the soldiers ran -quickly to where -we were and caught -my grandmother, -my mother, my -sister and another little -one younger than us. -Each wanted my -mother for a wife, -and argued about it, -so they finally decided -to kill her. They shot her through the stomach with a -gun and she fell, and when I saw that I cried very much, -because they killed my grandmother and mother and I was -left alone. I saw it all done!’”</p> - -<p class='c007'>It has a sort of pitiful sound, although they -are only blacks. It carries me back and back into -the past, to when my children were little, and -would fly—to the bush, so to speak—when they -saw me coming.... [<em>Resumes the reading -of chapter-headings of the Consul’s report</em>]</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>“They put a knife through a child’s stomach.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“They cut off the hands and brought them to C. D. -(white officer) and spread them out in a row for him to -see. They left them lying there, because the white man had -seen them, so they did not need to take them to P.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Captured children left in the bush to die, by the -soldiers.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Friends came to ransom a captured girl; but sentry -refused, saying the white man wanted her because she was -young.”</p> - -<div class='figright id002'> -<img src='images/i_031.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p><span class='left'><span class='xsmall'>FROM PHOTOGRAPH, IKOKO, CONGO STATE</span></span><br /><br />“Somehow—I wish it had not laughed”</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c009'>“Extract from a native girl’s testimony. -‘On our way the soldiers saw a little child, -and when they went to kill it the child laughed, -so the soldier took the butt of his gun and -struck the child with it and then cut off its head. -One day they killed my half-sister and -cut off her head, hands and feet, because -she had bangles on. Then they -caught another sister, and sold her to -the W. W. people, and now she is a -slave there.’”</p> - -<p class='c007'>The little child laughed! [<em>A long pause. -Musing</em>] That innocent creature. Somehow—I -wish it had not laughed. [<em>Reads</em>]</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Mutilated children.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Government encouragement of inter-tribal slave-traffic. -The monstrous fines levied upon villages tardy in their -supplies of foodstuffs compel the natives to sell their -fellows—and children—to other tribes in order to meet the -fine.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“A father and mother forced to sell their little boy.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Widow forced to sell her little girl.”</p> - -<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>[<em>Irritated</em>] Hang the monotonous grumbler, -what would he have me do! Let a widow -off merely because she is a widow? He knows -quite well that there is nothing much left, now, -<em>but</em> widows. I have nothing against widows, as -a class, but business is business, and I’ve got to -live, haven’t I, even if it does cause inconvenience -to somebody here and there? [<em>Reads</em>]</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Men intimidated by the torture of their wives and -daughters. (To make the men furnish rubber and supplies -and so get their captured women released from chains and -detention.) The sentry explained to me that he caught the -women and brought them in (chained together neck to neck) -by direction of his employer.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“An agent explained that he was forced to catch women -in preference to men, as then the men brought in supplies -quicker; but he did not explain how the children deprived -of their parents obtained their own food supplies.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“A file of 15 (captured) women.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Allowing women and children to die of starvation in -prison.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>[<em>Musing</em>] Death from <em>hunger</em>. A lingering, -long misery that must be. Days and days, -and still days and days, the forces of the body -failing, dribbling away, little by little—yes, it -must be the hardest death of all. And to see -food carried by, every day, and you can have -none of it! Of course the little children cry for -it, and that wrings the mother’s heart.... [<em>A -sigh</em>] Ah, well, it cannot be helped; circumstances -make this discipline necessary. [<em>Reads</em>]</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>“The crucifying of sixty women!”</p> - -<p class='c007'>How stupid, how tactless! Christendom’s -goose flesh will rise with horror at the news. -“Profanation of the sacred emblem!” That is -what Christendom will shout. Yes, Christendom -will buzz. It can hear me charged with -half a million murders a year for twenty years -and keep its composure, but to profane the Symbol -is quite another matter. It will regard this -as serious. It will wake up and want to look -into my record. Buzz? Indeed it will; I seem -to hear the distant hum already.... It was -wrong to crucify the women, clearly wrong, manifestly -wrong, I can see it now, myself, and am -sorry it happened, sincerely sorry. I believe it -would have answered just as well to skin them.... -[<em>With a sigh</em>] But none of us thought -of that; one cannot think of everything; and -after all it is but human to err.</p> - -<p class='c007'>It will make a stir, it surely will, these crucifixions. -Persons will begin to ask again, as now -and then in times past, how I can hope to win -and keep the respect of the human race if I continue -to give up my life to murder and pillage. -[<em>Scornfully</em>] When have they heard me say -I wanted the respect of the human race? Do -they confuse me with the common herd? do they -forget that I am a king? What king has valued -the respect of the human race? I mean deep -down in his private heart. If they would reflect, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>they would know that it is impossible that -a king should value the respect of the -human race. He stands upon an eminence -and looks out over the world and sees -multitudes of meek -human things worshiping -the persons, -and submitting to the -oppressions and exactions, -of a dozen -human things who are -in no way better or -finer than themselves—made -on just their own -pattern, in fact, and out of the same quality -of mud. When it <em>talks</em>, it is a race of whales; -but a king knows it for a race of tadpoles. Its -history gives it away. If men were really <em>men</em>, -how could a Czar be possible? and how could I -be possible? But we <em>are</em> possible; we are quite -safe; and with God’s help we shall continue the -business at the old stand. It will be found that -the race will put up with us, in its docile immemorial -way. It may pull a wry face now and -then, and make large talk, but it will stay on its -knees all the same.</p> - -<div class='figleft id002'> -<img src='images/i_034.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p>“Made on just their own pattern”</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>Making large talk is one of its specialties. It -works itself up, and froths at the mouth, and just -when you think it is going to throw a brick,—it -heaves a poem! Lord, what a race it is!</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in16'><span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>A CZAR—1905</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“A pasteboard autocrat; a despot out of date;</div> - <div class='line in2'>A fading planet in the glare of day;</div> - <div class='line in2'>A flickering candle in the bright sun’s ray,</div> - <div class='line'>Burnt to the socket; fruit left too late,</div> - <div class='line in2'>High on a blighted bough, ripe till it’s rotten.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>By God forsaken and by time forgotten,</div> - <div class='line'>Watching the crumbling edges of his lands,</div> - <div class='line in2'>A spineless god to whom dumb millions pray,</div> - <div class='line in2'>From Finland in the West to far Cathay,</div> - <div class='line'>Lord of a frost-bound continent he stands,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Her seeming ruin his dim mind appalls,</div> - <div class='line'>And in the frozen stupor of his sleep</div> - <div class='line in2'>He hears dull thunders, pealing as she falls,</div> - <div class='line'>And mighty fragments dropping in the deep.”<a id='r2' /><a href='#f2' class='c008'><sup>[2]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote' id='f2'> -<p class='c007'><a href='#r2'>2</a>. B. H. Nadal, in <cite>New York Times</cite>.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>It is fine, one is obliged to concede it; it is a -great picture, and impressive. The mongrel -handles his pen well. Still, with opportunity, I -would cruci—flay him.... “A spineless -god.” It is the Czar to a dot—a god, and spineless; -a royal invertebrate, poor lad; soft-hearted -and out of place. “A spineless god <em>to whom -dumb millions pray</em>.” Remorselessly correct; -concise, too, and compact—the soul and spirit of -the human race compressed into half a sentence. -On their knees—140,000,000. On -their knees to a little tin deity. Massed together, -they would stretch away, and away, and -away, across the plains, fading and dimming and -failing in a measureless perspective—why, even -<span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>the telescope’s vision could not reach to the final -frontier of that continental spread of human servility. -Now <em>why</em> should a king value the respect -of the human race? It is quite unreasonable to -expect it. A curious race, certainly! It finds -fault with me and with my occupations, and forgets -that neither of us could exist an hour without -its sanction. It is our confederate and all-powerful -protector. It is our bulwark, our -friend, our fortress. For this it has our gratitude, -our deep and honest gratitude—but not -our respect. Let it snivel and fret and grumble -if it likes; that is all right; we do not mind that.</p> - -<p class='c007'>[<em>Turns over leaves of a scrapbook, pausing -now and then to read a clipping and make a -comment</em>] The poets—how they do hunt that -poor Czar! French, Germans, English, Americans—they -all have a bark at him. The finest -and capablest of the pack, and the fiercest, are -Swilburne (English, I think), and a pair of -Americans, Thomas Bailey Eldridge and Colonel -Richard Waterson Gilder, of the sentimental -periodical called <cite>Century Magazine and Louisville -Courier-Journal</cite>. They certainly have uttered -some very strong yelps. I can’t seem to -find them—I must have mislaid them.... -If a poet’s bite were as terrible as his bark, why -dear me—but it isn’t. A wise king minds -neither of them; but the poet doesn’t know it. -It’s a case of little dog and lightning express. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>When the Czar goes thundering by, the poet -skips out and rages alongside for a little distance, -then returns to his kennel wagging his -head with satisfaction, and thinks he has inflicted -a memorable scare, whereas nothing has really -happened—the Czar didn’t know he was around. -They never bark at me; I wonder why that is. -I suppose my Corruption-Department buys -them. That must be it, for certainly I ought to -inspire a bark or two; I’m rather choice material, -I should say. Why—here <em>is</em> a yelp at me. -[<em>Mumbling a poem</em>]</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“... What gives thee holy right to murder hope</div> - <div class='line'>And water ignorance with human blood?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><hr class='dotted' /></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>From what high universe-dividing power</div> - <div class='line'>Draw’st thou thy wondrous, ripe brutality?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><hr class='dotted' /></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>O horrible.... Thou God who seest these things</div> - <div class='line'>Help us to blot this terror from the earth.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>... No, I see it is “To the Czar,”<a id='r3' /><a href='#f3' class='c008'><sup>[3]</sup></a> after -all. But there are those who would say it fits -me—and rather snugly, too. “Ripe brutality.” -They would say the Czar’s isn’t ripe yet, but that -mine is; and not merely ripe but rotten. Nothing -could keep them from saying that; they -would think it smart. “This terror.” Let the -Czar keep that name; I am supplied. This long -time I have been “the monster”; that was their -<span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>favorite—the monster of crime. But now I -have a new one. They have found a fossil -Dinosaur fifty-seven feet long and sixteen feet -high, and set it up in the museum in New -York and labeled it “Leopold II.” But it -is no matter, one does not look for manners -in a republic. Um ... that reminds me; -I have never been caricatured. Could it be -that the corsairs of the pencil could not -find an offensive symbol that was big enough -and ugly enough to do my reputation justice? -[<em>After reflection</em>] There is no other way—I -will buy the Dinosaur. And suppress it. [<em>Rests -himself with some more chapter-headings. -Reads</em>]</p> - -<div class='footnote' id='f3'> -<p class='c007'><a href='#r3'>3</a>. Louise Morgan Sill, in <cite>Harper’s Weekly</cite>.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c009'>“More mutilation of children.” (Hands cut off.)</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Testimony of American Missionaries.”</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Evidence of British Missionaries.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>It is all the same old thing—tedious repetitions -and duplications of shop-worn episodes; -mutilations, murders, massacres, and so on, and -so on, till one gets drowsy over it. Mr. Morel -intrudes at this point, and contributes a comment -which he could just as well have kept to himself—and -throws in some italics, of course; these -people can never get along without italics:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“It is one heartrending story of human misery from -beginning to end, and <em>it is all recent</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>Meaning 1904 and 1905. I do not see how a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>person can act so. This Morel is a king’s subject, -and reverence for monarchy should have -restrained him from reflecting upon me with that -exposure. This Morel is a reformer; a Congo -reformer. That sizes <em>him</em> up. He publishes a -sheet in Liverpool called “The West African -Mail,” which is supported by the voluntary contributions -of the sap-headed and the -soft-hearted; and every week it -steams and reeks and festers with -up-to-date “Congo atrocities” of -the sort detailed in this pile of -pamphlets here. I will suppress -it. I suppressed a Congo atrocity -book there, after it was actually -in print; it should not be -difficult for me to suppress a -newspaper.</p> - -<div class='figright id002'> -<img src='images/i_039.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p>“The only witness I couldn’t bribe”</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>[<em>Studies some photographs of -mutilated negroes—throws them -down. Sighs</em>] The kodak has -been a sore calamity to us. The -most powerful enemy that has -confronted us, indeed. In the early years -we had no trouble in getting the press to -“expose” the tales of the mutilations as -slanders, lies, inventions of busy-body American -missionaries and exasperated foreigners who had -found the “open door” of the Berlin-Congo -charter closed against them when they innocently -<span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>went out there to trade; and by the press’s -help we got the Christian nations everywhere to -turn an irritated and unbelieving ear to those -tales and say hard things about the tellers of -them. Yes, all things went harmoniously and -pleasantly in those good days, and I was looked -up to as the benefactor of a down-trodden and -friendless people. Then all of a sudden came -the crash! That is to say, the incorruptible -<em>kodak</em>—and all the harmony went to hell! The -only witness I have encountered in my long experience -that I couldn’t bribe. Every Yankee -missionary and every interrupted trader sent -home and got one; and now—oh, well, the pictures -get sneaked around everywhere, in spite of -all we can do to ferret them out and suppress -them. Ten thousand pulpits and ten thousand -presses are saying the good word for me all the -time and placidly and convincingly denying the -mutilations. Then that trivial little kodak, that -a child can carry in its pocket, gets up, uttering -never a word, and knocks them dumb!</p> - -<p class='c007'>... What is this fragment? [<em>Reads</em>]</p> - -<p class='c009'>“But enough of trying to tally off his crimes! His list -is interminable, we should never get to the end of it. His -awful shadow lies across his Congo Free State, and under -it an unoffending nation of 15,000,000 is withering away -and swiftly succumbing to their miseries. It is a land of -graves; it is <em>The</em> Land of Graves; it is the Congo Free -Graveyard. It is a majestic thought: that is, this ghastliest -episode in all human history is the work of <em>one man alone</em>; -one solitary man; just a single individual—Leopold, King of -the Belgians. He is personally and solely responsible for all -the myriad crimes that have blackened the history of the -Congo State. He is <em>sole</em> master there; he is absolute. He -could have prevented the crimes by his mere command; he -could stop them today with a word. He withholds the -word. For his pocket’s sake.</p> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/i_040f.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p><span class='left'>FROM PHOTOGRAPHS, CONGO STATE</span><br /><br />“The pictures get sneaked around everywhere.”—<em>Page <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>.</em></p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>“It seems strange to see a king destroying a nation and laying -waste a country for mere sordid money’s sake, and solely -and only for that. Lust of conquest is royal; kings have always -exercised that stately vice; we are used to it, by old habit -we condone it, perceiving a certain dignity in it; but <em>lust of -money—lust of shillings—lust of nickels—lust of dirty coin</em>, -not for the nation’s enrichment but for <em>the king’s alone</em>—this -is new. It distinctly revolts us, we cannot seem to reconcile -ourselves to it, we resent it, we despise it, we say it is -shabby, unkingly, out of character. Being democrats we -ought to jeer and jest, we ought to rejoice to see the purple -dragged in the dirt, but—well, account for it as we may, we -don’t. We see this awful king, this pitiless and blood-drenched -king, this money-crazy king towering toward the -sky in a world-solitude of sordid crime, unfellowed and apart -from the human race, sole butcher for personal gain findable -in all his caste, ancient or modern, pagan or Christian, -proper and legitimate target for the scorn of the lowest and -the highest, and the execrations of all who hold in cold -esteem the oppressor and the coward; and—well, it is a -mystery, but <em>we do not wish to look</em>; for he is a king, and it -hurts us, it troubles us, by ancient and inherited instinct it -shames us to see a king degraded to this aspect, and we shrink -<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>from hearing the particulars of how it happened. <em>We shudder</em> -and <em>turn away</em> when we come upon them in print.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>Why, certainly—<em>that</em> is my protection. And -you will continue to do it. I know the human -race.</p> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/i_042.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p><span class='left'>FROM PHOTOGRAPH, IKOKO, CONGO STATE</span><br /><br />“To <span class='fss'>THEM</span> it must appear<br /> very awful and<br /> mysterious.”—<br /> Joseph Con-<br /> rad</p> -</div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span> - <h2 class='c005'>AN ORIGINAL MISTAKE</h2> -</div> - -<div class='mono'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div>“This work of  ‘civilization’ is</div> - <div>an   enormous   and   continual</div> - <div>butchery.”  “All  the  facts  we</div> - <div>brought  forward  in  this cham-</div> - <div>ber  were denied  at first  most</div> - <div>energetically; but later, little</div> - <div>by little, they were proved by documents and by official texts.”</div> - <div>“The practice  of cutting  off  hands  is  said  to be  contrary</div> - <div>to instructions;  but you  are  content  to say  that indulgence</div> - <div>must  be  shown  and  that  this  bad habit  must  be  corrected</div> - <div>‘little by little’ and you plead,  moreover, that only the hands</div> - <div>of <em>fallen</em>  enemies  are cut off,  and that if hands  are cut off</div> - <div>‘enemies’  not  quite  dead,   and  who,  after  recovery,  have</div> - <div>had  the  bad  taste  to come to</div> - <div>the   missionaries   and   show</div> - <div>them   their   stumps,   it  was</div> - <div>due  to an  original  mistake in</div> - <div>thinking   that   they   were</div> - <div>dead.”   <cite>From  Debate   in  Bel-</cite></div> - <div><cite>gian  Parliament,   July,  1903.</cite></div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span> - <h2 class='c005'>SUPPLEMENTARY</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>Since the first edition of this pamphlet was issued, the -Congo story has entered upon a new chapter. The king’s -Commission concedes the correctness of the delineation contained -in the foregoing pages. It affirms the prevalence of -frightful abuses under the king’s rule. For eight months the -king held back the Report but his commissioners had been too -deeply moved by the horrors unfolded before them in their -visit to the Congo State and the testimony presented to them -had reached the world through other sources. The digest of -the report, as forwarded from Brussels to the European and -American press, was skilfully edited; and the report itself -does its best to gloss over the king’s responsibility for the -shame; but the story told in the genuine document is essentially -as hideous as anything found in the depositions of -plain-speaking missionaries. So the facts are clear,—indisputable, -undisputed. The train of revilers of missionary testimony, -whose roseate pictures of conditions under the king’s -rule have beguiled the uninformed, hurries out at the wings -and Leopold is left to hold the stage, with the skeleton that -refuses longer to stay hidden in his Congo closet.</p> - -<p class='c007'>One thing the report omits to do. It does not brand or -judge the system out of which the foul breed of iniquities has -sprung,—the king’s claim to personal ownership of 800,000 -square miles of territory, with all their products, and his -employment of savage hordes to realize on his claim. -Judgment of this policy the Commission holds to be beyond -<span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>its function. Being thus disqualified for striking at the roots -of the enormity, the commissioners propose such superficial -reforms as occur to them. And the king hastens to take up -with their suggestion by calling to his assistance in the work -of reform a new Commission. Of this body of fourteen -members all but two are committed by their past record to -defense and maintenance of the king’s Congo policy.</p> - -<p class='c007'>So ends the king’s investigation of himself; doubtless less -jubilantly than he had planned, but withal as ineffectively as -it was foredoomed to end. One stage is achieved. The -next in order is action by the Powers responsible for the existence -of the Congo State. The United States is one of -these. Such procedure is advocated in petitions to the -President and Congress, signed by John Wanamaker, Lyman -Abbott, Henry Van Dyke, David Starr Jordan and many -other leading citizens. If ever the sisterhood of civilized -nations have just occasion to go up to the Hague or some -other accessible meeting place, a foreordained hour for their -assembling has now struck.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span> - <h2 class='c005'>SOME THINGS THE REPORT OF THE KING’S COMMISSION SAYS.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>“Apart from the rough plantations which barely suffice -to feed the natives themselves and to supply the stations, all -the fruits of the soil are considered as the property of the -State or of the concessionaire societies.... It has even -been admitted that on the land occupied by them the -natives cannot dispose of the produce of the soil except to -the extent in which they did so before the constitution -of the State.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“Each official in charge of a Station, or agent in charge -of a factory, claimed from the natives, without asking himself -on what grounds, the most divers imposts in labor or in -kind, either to satisfy his own needs and those of his Station, -or to exploit the riches of the Domaine.... The agents -themselves regulated the tax and saw to its collection and had -a direct interest in increasing its amount, since they received -proportional bonuses on the produce thus collected.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“Missionaries, both Catholic and Protestant, whom we -heard at Leopoldville, were unanimous in accentuating the -general wretchedness existing in the region. One of them -said that “this system which compels the natives to feed -3000 workmen at Leopoldville, will, if continued for -another five years, wipe out the population of the district.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“Judicial officials have informed us of the sorry consequences -of the porterage system; it exhausts the unfortunate -people subjected to it, and threatens them with partial -destruction.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“In the majority of cases the native must go one or two -days’ march every fortnight, until he arrives at that part of -the forest where the rubber vines can be met with in a -certain degree of abundance. There the collector passes a number -<span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>of days in a miserable existence. He has to build himself -an improvised shelter which cannot, obviously, replace his -hut. He has not the food to which he is accustomed. He -is deprived of his wife, exposed to the inclemencies of the -weather and the attacks of wild beasts. When once he has -collected the rubber he must bring it to the State station, or -to that of the Company, and only then can he return to his -village where he can sojourn for barely more than two or -three days because the next demand is upon him.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“It was barely denied that in the various posts of the -A. B. I. R. which we visited, the imprisonment of women -hostages, the subjection of the chiefs to servile labor, the -humiliations meted out to them, the flogging of rubber -collectors, the brutality of the black employees set over the -prisoners, were the rule commonly followed.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“According to the witnesses, these auxiliaries, especially -those stationed in the villages, convert themselves into despots, -claiming the women and the food; they kill without pity all -those who attempt to resist their whims. The truth of the -charges is borne out by a mass of evidence and official -reports.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“The consequences are often very murderous. And one -must not be astonished. If in the course of these delicate -operations, whose object it is to seize hostages and to intimidate -the natives, constant watch cannot be exercised over the -sanguinary instincts of the soldiers, when orders to punish -are given by superior authority, it is difficult to prevent the -expedition from degenerating into massacres, accompanied by -pillage and incendiarism.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span> - <h2 class='c005'>THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT AND THE CONGO STATE.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>The International Association of the Congo was recognized -by the United States April 22, 1884. Nine months -afterward, recognition was secured from Germany and, later, -successively from the other European Powers. Two international -conferences were held at which the Powers constituted -themselves guardians of the people of the Congo territory, -the Association binding itself to regard the principles of -administration adopted. In both these conferences the United -States government prominently participated. The Act of Berlin -was not submitted by the President of the United States for ratification -by the Senate because its adoption as a whole was -thought by him to involve responsibility for support of the -territorial claims of rival Powers in the Congo region. -The Act of Brussels, with a proviso safeguarding this point, -was formally ratified by the United States. Whether we -are without obligation to reach a hand to this expiring -people, the intelligent reader will judge for himself.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Stanley saw neither fortress nor flag of any civilization -save that of the United States, which he carried along the -arterial water course.... The first appeal for recognition -and for moral support was naturally and justly made to the -government whose flag was first carried across the region.”—<cite>Mr. -Kasson in North American Review, February, 1886.</cite></p> - -<p class='c009'>“This Government at the outset testified its lively interest -in the well-being and future progress of the vast region now -committed to your Majesty’s wise care, by being the first -among the Powers to recognize the flag of the International -Association of the Congo as that of a friendly State.”—<cite>President -Cleveland to King Leopold, September 11, 1885.</cite></p> - -<p class='c009'>“The recognition by the United States was the birth into -new life of the Association, seriously menaced as its existence -<span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>was by opposing interests and ambitions.”—<cite>Mr. Stanley, -“The Congo,” vol. 1, page 383.</cite></p> - -<p class='c009'>“He (the President of the United States) desires to see -in the delimitation of the region which shall be subjected to -this beneficent rule (of the International Association of the -Congo) the widest expansion consistent with the just territorial -rights of other governments.”—<cite>Address of Mr. Kasson, -U. S. Representative at Berlin Conference, 1884.</cite></p> - -<p class='c009'>“So marked was the acceptance by the Berlin Conference -of the views presented on the part of the United States that -Herr Von Bunsen, reviewing the action of the Conference, -assigns after Germany the first place of influence in -the Conference to the United States.—<cite>Mr. Kasson in -North American Review, February, 1886.</cite></p> - -<p class='c009'>“In sending a representative to this Assembly, the Government -of the U. S. has wished to show the great interest -and deep sympathy it feels in the great work of philanthropy -which the Conference seeks to realize. Our country must -feel beyond all others an immense interest in the work of this -Assembly.”—<cite>Mr. Terrell, U. S. Representative at -Brussels Conference, 1st session, November 19, 1889.</cite></p> - -<p class='c009'>“Mr. Terrell informs the Conference that he has been -authorized by his Government to sign the General Act -adopted by the Conference.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“The President says that the U. S. Minister’s communication -will be received by the Conference with extreme satisfaction.”—<cite>Records -of Brussels Conference, June 28, 1890.</cite></p> - -<p class='c009'>“Claiming, as at Berlin, to speak in the name of -Almighty God, the signatories (at Brussels) declared themselves -to be ‘equally animated by the firm intention of putting -an end to the crimes and devastations engendered by the -traffic in African slaves, of protecting effectually the aboriginal -populations and of ensuring the benefits of peace and civilization.’”—<cite>“Civilization -in Congo land,” H. R. Fox Bourne.</cite></p> - -<p class='c009'>“The President continues to hope that the Government -of the U. S., which was the first to recognize the Congo -Free State, will not be one of the last to give it the assistance -of which it may stand in need.”—<cite>Remarks of Belgian -President of Brussels Conference, session May 14, 1890.</cite></p> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/i_050a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p>A WITNESS BEFORE THE COMMISSION REV. JOHN H. HARRIS MISSIONARY AT BARINGA, CONGO STATE</p> -</div> -</div> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/i_050b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p>A WITNESS BEFORE THE COMMISSION LOMBOTO A NATIVE OF BARINGA, CONGO STATE</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c009'>“There, great chiefs from Europe, stands the man who has murdered -our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters for rubber. Why, why I say, -has he done this?”—<cite>The witness Lomboto, confronting the Director of the -A. B. I. R. Society at the hearing at Baringa.</cite></p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span> - <h2 class='c005'>OUGHT KING LEOPOLD TO BE HANGED?<a id='r4' /><a href='#f4' class='c008'><sup>[4]</sup></a></h2> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div><span class='xsmall'>INTERVIEW BY MR. W. T. STEAD WITH THE REV. JOHN H. HARRIS, BARINGA, CONGO STATE, IN THE ENGLISH REVIEW OF REVIEWS FOR SEPTEMBER, 1905.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>For the somewhat startling suggestion in the heading of -this interview, the missionary interviewed is in no way -responsible. The credit of it, or, if you like, the discredit, -belongs entirely to the editor of the <cite>Review</cite>, who, without -dogmatism, wishes to pose the question as a matter for serious -discussion. Since Charles I’s head was cut off, opposite -Whitehall, nearly two hundred and fifty years ago, the sanctity -which doth hedge about a king has been held in slight -and scant regard by the Puritans and their descendants. -Hence there is nothing antecedently shocking or outrageous -in the discussion of the question whether the acts of any -Sovereign are such as to justify the calling in of the services -of the public executioner. It is not, of course, for a journalist -to pronounce judgment, but no function of the public -writer is so imperative as that of calling attention to great -wrongs, and no duty is more imperious than that of insisting -that no rank or station should be allowed to shield from -justice the real criminal when he is once discovered.</p> - -<div class='footnote' id='f4'> -<p class='c007'><a href='#r4'>4</a>. The above article which came to hand as the foregoing was in press -is commended to the king and to readers of his Soliloquy.—M. T.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>The controversy between the Congo Reform Association -and the Emperor of the Congo has now arrived at a stage in -which it is necessary to take a further step towards the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>redress of unspeakable wrongs and the punishment of no less -unspeakable criminals. The Rev. J. H. Harris, an English -missionary, has lived for the last seven years in that region -of Central Africa—the Upper Congo—which King Leopold -has made over to one of his vampire groups of financial -associates (known as the A.B.I.R. Society) on the strictly -business basis of a half share in the profits wrung from the -blood and misery of the natives. He has now returned to -England, and last month he called at Mowbray House to -tell me the latest from the Congo. Mr. Harris is a young -man in a dangerous state of volcanic fury, and no wonder. -After living for seven years face to face with the devastations -of the vampire State, it is impossible to deny that he does -well to be angry. When he began, as is the wont of those -who have emerged from the depths, to detail horrifying -stories of murder, the outrage and torture of women, the -mutilation of children, and the whole infernal category of -horrors, served up with the background of cannibalism, -sometimes voluntary and sometimes, incredible though it -seems, enforced by the orders of the officers, I cut him short, -and said:—</p> - -<p class='c007'>“Dear Mr. Harris, as in Oriental despatches the India -Office translator abbreviates the first page of the letter into -two words ‘after compliments,’ or ‘a.c.,’ so let us abbreviate -our conversation about the Congo by the two words -‘after atrocities,’ or ‘a.a.’ They are so invariable and so -monotonous, as Lord Percy remarked in the House the other -day, that it is unnecessary to insist upon them. There is no -longer any dispute in the mind of any reasonable person as to -what is going on in the Congo. It is the economical -exploitation of half a continent carried on by the use of -armed force wielded by officials the aim-all and be-all -of whose existence is to extort the maximum amount of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>rubber in the shortest possible time in order to pay the -largest possible dividend to the holders of shares in the concessions.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“Well,” said Mr. Harris reluctantly, for he is so accustomed -to speaking to persons who require to be told the -whole dismal tale from A to Z, “what is it you want to -know?”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“I want to know,” I said, “whether you consider the -time is ripe for summoning King Leopold before the bar of -an international tribunal to answer for the crimes perpetrated -under his orders and in his interest in the Congo State.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>Mr. Harris paused for a moment, and then said:—“That -depends upon the action which the king takes upon -the report of the Commission, which is now in his hands.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“Is that report published?”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“No,” said Mr. Harris; “and it is a question whether -it will ever be published. Greatly to our surprise, the -Commission, which every one expected would be a mere -blind whose appointment was intended to throw dust in the -eyes of the public, turned out to be composed of highly respectable -persons who heard the evidence most impartially, -refused no <i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">bona fide</span></i> testimony produced by trustworthy witnesses, -and were overwhelmed by the multitudinous horrors -brought before them, and who, we feel, <em>must</em> have arrived -at conclusions which necessitate an entire revolution in the -administration of the Congo.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“Are you quite sure, Mr. Harris,” I said, “that this is -so?”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“Yes,” said Mr. Harris, “quite sure. The Commission -impressed us all in the Congo very favorably. Some of -its members seemed to us admirable specimens of public-spirited, -independent statesmen. They realized that they -were acting in a judicial capacity; they knew that the eyes -<span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>of Europe were upon them, and, instead of making their inquiry -a farce, they made it a reality, and their conclusions -must be, I feel sure, so damning to the State, that if King -Leopold were to take no action but to allow the whole -infernal business to proceed unchecked, any international tribunal -which had powers of a criminal court, would upon the -evidence of the Commission alone, send those responsible to -the gallows.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“Unfortunately,” I said, “at present the Hague Tribunal -is not armed with the powers of an international assize -court, nor is it qualified to place offenders, crowned or otherwise, -in the dock. But don’t you think that in the evolution -of society the constitution of such a criminal court is a -necessity?”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“It would be a great convenience at present,” said Mr. -Harris; “nor would you need one atom of evidence beyond -the report of the Commission to justify the hanging -of whoever is responsible for the existence and continuance -of such abominations.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“Has anybody seen the text of the report?” I asked.</p> - -<p class='c007'>“As the Commission returned to Brussels in March, some -of the contents of that report are an open secret. A great -deal of the evidence has been published by the Congo Reform -Association. In the Congo the Commissioners admitted -two things: first, that the evidence was overwhelming as to -the existence of the evils which had hitherto been denied, and -secondly, that they vindicated the character of the missionaries. -They discovered, as anyone will who goes out to that -country, that it is the missionaries, and the missionaries alone, -who constitute the permanent European element. The -Congo State officials come out ignorant of the language, -knowing nothing of the country, and with no other sense of -their duties beyond that of supporting the concession companies -<span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>in extorting rubber. They are like men who are -dumb and deaf and blind, nor do they wish to be otherwise. -In two or three years they vanish, giving place to other -migrants as ignorant as themselves, whereas the missionaries -remain on the spot year after year; they are in personal -touch with the people, whose language they speak, whose -customs they respect, and whose lives they endeavor to -defend to the best of their ability.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“But, Mr. Harris,” I remarked, “was there not a certain -Mr. Grenfell, a Baptist Missionary, who has been all -these years a convinced upholder of the Congo State?”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“’Twas true,” said Mr. Harris, “and pity ’tis ’twas -true; but ’tis no longer true. Mr. Grenfell has had his eyes -opened at last, and he has now taken his place among those -who are convinced. He could no longer resist the overwhelming -evidence that has been brought against the Congo -Administration.”<a id='r5' /><a href='#f5' class='c008'><sup>[5]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='footnote' id='f5'> -<p class='c007'><a href='#r5'>5</a>. Mr. Grenfell’s station is in the Lower Congo, a section remote -from the vast rubber areas of the interior.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>“Was the nature of the Commissioners’ report,” I resumed, -“made known to the officials of the State before -they left the Congo?”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“To the head officials—yes,” said Mr. Harris.</p> - -<p class='c007'>“With what result?”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“In the case of the highest official in the Congo, the man -who corresponds in Africa to Lord Curzon in India, no -sooner was he placed in possession of the conclusions of the -Commission than the appalling significance of their indictment -convinced him that the game was up, and he went into -his room and cut his throat. I was amazed on returning to -Europe to find how little the significance of this suicide was -appreciated. A paragraph in the newspaper announced the -suicide of a Congo official. None of those who read that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>paragraph could realize the fact that that suicide had the same -significance to the Congo that the suicide, let us say, of -Lord Milner would have had if it had taken place immediately -on receiving the conclusions of a Royal Commission -sent out to report upon his administration in South Africa.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“Well, if that be so, Mr. Harris,” I said, “and the -Governor-General cuts his throat rather than face the ordeal -and disgrace of the exposure, I am almost beginning to hope -that we may see King Leopold in the dock at the Hague, -after all.”</p> - -<p class='c007'>“I will comment upon that,” Mr. Harris said, “by -quoting you Mrs. Sheldon’s remark made before myself and -my colleagues, Messrs. Bond, Ellery, Ruskin, Walbaum and -Whiteside, on May 19th last year, when, in answer to our -question, ‘Why should King Leopold be afraid of submitting -his case to the Hague tribunal?’ Mrs. Sheldon answered, -‘Men do not go to the gallows and put their heads in a noose -if they can avoid it.’”</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='tnotes'> - -<div class='section ph2'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - - <ol class='ol_1 c002'> - <li>Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling. - - </li> - <li>Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed. - </li> - </ol> - -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of King Leopold's Soliloquy, by Mark Twain - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KING LEOPOLD'S SOLILOQUY *** - -***** This file should be named 62739-h.htm or 62739-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/7/3/62739/ - -Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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