Congo. The earlier history of the Congo, the great equatorial river of Central Africa, may be briefly summed up as follows. In the year 1484-85 Diego Cam (q.v.) discovered the mouth of a large river in 7° S. latitude while sailing along the West African coast in command of an expedition having for its object the discovery of the East Indies. He erected a pillar on the south bank, and gave it the name of Rio Padrão, or Pillar River. The country in its vicinity, and for some distance to the south, as far as Cape Negro, was known by the name of Congo Land. During the 15th and 16th centuries several attempts were made by the Portuguese to penetrate into the interior, but they never reached farther than San Salvador. The Jesuits established a large missionary station at this place, and made it the capital of the Congo. At the outset this attempt to convert the nations met with considerable success, but towards the end of the 17th century, ravaged by native wars, it had almost ceased to exist. At this time the Portuguese called the great river the 'Zaire,' which is only a corruption of Nzari, Nzadi, Nyali, Niadi, all of which mean 'river' in the many dialects spoken within the limits of what was then called the kingdom of the Congo. The native name for the river was Moenzi Nzadi, or the 'Receiver of all the Waters;' and the European map-makers give it the name it at present enjoys of 'the Congo.'
In 1816 an expedition under Captain Tuckey was despatched by the British government to solve the question which then agitated the minds of geographers, whether the Congo was one of the mouths of the Niger. Captain Tuckey penetrated with his boats to the head of the navigable portion of the lower river—a distance of 110 miles—and he then proceeded by land to a place called Issangila, about 52 miles farther on; but his expedition had a most melancholy result, for within three months—the period which they remained in the river—eighteen out of fifty-six Europeans succumbed to the climate. This great mortality gave the river a bad name, and, with the exception of slave-traders, it was little frequented by Europeans for some years. Valuable additions to geographical science, however, resulted from Captain Tuckey's expedition, as it proved that the Congo was the outlet of some vast riverine system, and it dispersed much of the fable and myth with which the imaginations of earlier writers had surrounded this region.
From 1867 to 1871 Dr Livingstone, in his researches between Lakes Nyassa and Tanganyika, and from thence to Nyangwe, proved the existence of a large river flowing to the north under the native names of Luapula and Lualaba, which he imagined to be the Nile, and this opinion was shared by many men of science on receipt in England of the maps and journals recording these explorations. In October 1876, five years later, Mr H. M. Stanley, despatched to Central Africa under the auspices of the New York Herald and Daily Telegraph, to complete Livingstone's explorations, arrived at Nyangwe, and he too gazed on that mighty stream with its waters flowing ceaselessly to the north. He determined to follow its course, and in 1877 news was received of the successful accomplishment of his adventurous journey, and the establishment of the fact that the Luapula, Lualaba, and the Livingstone (the name given by Stanley to that part of the river below Nyangwe) are in reality the Congo—the great equatorial river of Central Africa, the second largest river of the world.
The Lake of Bangweolo noticed by Lacerda in 1795, and by other earlier Portuguese explorers, of which the Chambezi, traced by Livingstone, is the largest feeder, and into which also flow numerous streams from the Lokinga Mountains on the south, is the reservoir from which this great river issues under the name of the Luapula. Flowing in a northerly direction, it expands into Lake Moero, on leaving which it is called, as far as Nyangwe, the Lualaba; from Nyangwe to Stanley Falls (Arab name for which is Zingatini) Stanley christened it the Livingstone; and from Stanley Falls to the mouth it is known by the name of the Congo.
Its length has been calculated at over 3000 miles; it drains an area of more than 1,300,000 sq. m.; and it discharges a body of water into the ocean second only to the Amazon. Such is the power and force of this mighty stream that no delta exists at its mouth. Vessels take in fresh water at its entrance into the sea, and, during the rainy season, when the river is at its highest, vessels approaching the Congo enter discoloured water, and pass through floating debris more than 300 miles from land. The two largest tributaries of the Congo are the Kassai from the south, whose waters were thoroughly explored (1885) by Lieutenant Wissmann of the German army; and the Mobangi, from the north, explored (1884-85) by the Rev. Mr Grenfell, who penetrated beyond the 4th degree of N. lat., and whose explorations were afterwards continued by Lieutenant Vangele of the Belgian army. This officer reached 21° 53' of E. long., or within about 60 miles of Dr Junker's lowest point on the Makua-Welle, thus proving that the Welle of Schweinfurth is the same as the Mobangi of Grenfell. Besides these two great affluents, the Congo has many other tributaries. The most important of these are the Kwa or Kwango, the Jnapa and Bosira, the Ikeiemba, the Lulongo, and the Lumami rivers on the south or left bank; and the Aruwimi, the Mbura, the Loika, the Ngala, the Lokinga Nkundji, &c., on the north or right bank.
As regards commerce and navigation, the Congo may be divided into three parts—Lower, Middle, and Upper. The lower region extends from Banana at the mouth to the foot of the first rapids, a distance of 110 miles. Ocean steamers, drawing not more than 18 feet, can safely navigate this portion. The middle or cataract region extends from Vivi to Stanley Pool, a distance of about 235 miles—a portion of this part of the river—viz. from Issangila to Manyanga, a distance of 70 miles, is navigable for small steamers or iron whaleboats. The upper region from Stanley Pool to Stanley Falls has an extent of 1068 miles of navigable water for steamers of a draught not exceeding four feet. The length of navigable tributaries which enter in this section of the river has been calculated at over 3000 miles, forming a unique system of waterways.
These discoveries by Mr Stanley led, in 1878, to the formation of the Association Internationale under His Majesty the King of the Belgians, and this subsequently expanded into the Congo Free State, which, recognised by the European powers assembled at the conference at Berlin in the year 1885, has the following boundaries: The northern bank from the mouth, with a strip of territory averaging about 60 miles in width, as far as Manyanga, situated about 240 miles from Banana, the entrance part of the river. At Manyanga the French territory commences and continues along the north bank, passing Stanley Pool as far as the Mobangi. The territory of the Congo Free State recommences at this river, and the boundary line runs along the left bank as far as the fourth parallel of N. latitude, which then becomes the northern boundary of the central portion of the state.
North-east it extends to the watershed of the Congo basin, eastwards to 30° E. long. and Lake Tanganyika, south-east to Lake Bangweolo and the southern watershed of the Congo basin as far as Lake Dilolo, south-west to the Kassai river, to 7° S. lat., the Kwilu, the Kwango, and the parallel of Nokki. These boundaries were only finally settled by the neutrality declarations of 1894 and 1895, after a series of treaties. The area is stated at 900,000 sq. m., the pop. at 30,000,000.
The Congo Free State is governed by an administrative bureau at Brussels, consisting of three secretariats—Control, Finance, and Foreign Affairs, under the direct supervision of His Majesty the King of the Belgians; also by an administrator on the Congo who has his headquarters at Boma, 60 miles from the sea, on the right bank of the river. The state has stations at Banana, Vivi, Boma, and Matadi on the Lower Congo; at Lukungu, Issangila, Manyanga, Lintete on the Middle Congo; and at Leopoldville, Kinshassa, Kwamouth, Lukolela, Equator, Bangala, and Stanley Falls on the Upper Congo. Besides these the state has erected two stations on the Kasai, Lucbo, and Luluaberg. All imports are free, and only such export duties are levied as are necessary to carry on the work of administration. It has a coinage and postal service, and has entered into the Postal Union. A road has been surveyed between Matadi and Leopoldville, and by the introduction of ox-wagons the facilities for transport will be largely increased. It is intended to follow this up by a railway. Its present income is derived from an endowment of £40,000 a year bestowed upon it by His Majesty the King of the Belgians, and such other sums as are produced by its export dues.
The inhabitants of the Congo basin belong to what has been termed the Bantu race. They are a happy, inoffensive people, not so dark as the Fan or Ethiopian. Split up into numberless tribal communities, they can offer but slight resistance to the advance of civilisation; and as they are born traders, they take very readily to commerce. The dialects throughout the country are very numerous, but many of them would appear to have a common origin (see BANTU). Even the Swaheli language, spoken by the natives of Zanzibar (who come as porters, &c. into this region), has much in common with the Kishi Congo, or language spoken on the west coast. Of this typical member of the Bantu family, the Rev. W. Holman Bentley has furnished an excellent Dictionary and Grammar (Lond. 1888). The religion is mainly fetichism; and domestic slavery exists everywhere. The name of French Congo is now given to what was known as the Gaboon (q.v.) territory; and Portuguese Congo is the coast country to the south of the Independent State.
The climate of the Congo State is tropical, the average temperature ranging between 78° and 82°. Malarial fevers, especially on the coast, are not infrequent; but with care and attention to diet Europeans can remain in the country for several years without change. The interior is more healthy than on the coast. The principal products are ivory, palm-oil, palm-kernels, india-rubber, various gums, ground-nuts, camwood, beeswax, orchilla; also coffee, tobacco, hill rice, maize, and sorghum. Tropical fruits, such as bananas, pine-apples, and mangos, abound. The total value of the special exports of the Independent State proper vary in value from 5,000,000 to 8,000,000 francs; the general exports from 8,000,000 to about 15,000,000 francs. About 50 miles of the railway, past the rapids to Léopoldville (250 miles), are open. In 1889 the king of Belgium bequeathed his rights in the state to Belgium; and in 1890 Belgium reserved the right of annexing the state.
The introduction of civilisation into new and wild countries demands time and patience, and the progress of the State has not been so rapid as its friends hoped. The European officers have been few in number, and some of them not well chosen. And gross cruelties seem to have been practised by native functionaries and troops, especially in forcing the collection of caoutchouc for the government.
See map of Africa in Vol. I, and the articles AFRICA, STANLEY; also Stanley, Through the Dark Continent (1878), and The Congo and the Founding of its Free State (1885); H. H. Johnston, The River Congo from its Mouth to Bolobo (1884); Bentley, Life on the Congo (1887); works in French by Wauters (1885 and 1893), Coquilhat (1888), Alexis (1888), Dupont (1889), Jeannent (1889), Chapaux (1893); Ward, Five Years with the Congo Cannibals (1890); E. G. Glave, Six Years in Congoland (1893); German works by Pechuel-Loesche (1887), Büttner (1890), and Raab (1892); S. L. Hinde, The Fall of the Congo Arabs (1897).