Brazza

Brazza, PIERRE SAVORGNAN DE, a French explorer, of Italian descent, was born at Rome in 1852. He studied at Paris, entered the French navy in 1870, and served on the Gaboon station. In 1876-78 he made a famous exploration of the Ogoway, and of some of the northern tributaries of the Congo. In 1878 the French government gave him 100,000 francs for exploration and the promotion of French interests in the country north of the Congo, where he secured vast grants of land for France, and founded several stations, that called Brazzaville being on the northern shore of Stanley Pool. In 1883 he again returned to extend the territory secured to France, this time with a government grant of 1,275,000 francs, besides stores and provisions of all kinds; and by the end of 1885 he had established twenty-six stations, Franceville being the chief. The securing for France of her great dependency lying between the Gaboon and the Congo is mainly his work; and of that dependency he was made governor in 1886.