OCCASIONAL PAPER OF THE East London Institute for Home and Foreign Missions, AND OF The Livingstone Inland Mission on the Congo. EDITED BY MRS. H. GRATTAN GUINNESS. The Regions Beyond. P THE CONGO. UBLIC attention has of late been frequently called to the subject of the Congo Valley in connection with the much to be regretted antagonism between Mr. Stanley and M. Savorgnan de Brazza as to the occupation of the shores of Stanley Pool. M. de Brazza reached the Upper Congo by the Ogowe route before Mr. Stanley did so, making his way past the cataracts of the Lower Congo. The latter was seeking to open a permanent road, while the other mcrely made his way through without doing anything of the kind. M. de Brazza claims that the Ogowe route is the easier and the better of the two. As far as we can judge from careful comparison, there is however little to choose, either as to time or facility, between the two routes. In virtue of a treaty made with one of the native chiefs, M. de Brazza claims to have annexed three-fourths of the territory around Stanley Pool, and the French Government have ratified the treaty. As he went out, not as a political agent of France, but as a member of the Belgium International Association with which Mr. Stanley is also connected, the latter naturally feels that he ought not to have turned his journey to political account for one particular nation. Without entering into the rights of this question we would ask the friends of our Mission to join in praying that this difference between the two leading explorers of the district may not be permitted to cause war and bloodshed on the Congo, or in any way to hinder the progress of the gospel. Our own Government standing so completely aloof as it does from all interference in the matter, we for our part would be glad to see any good government established in the district which would protect the natives from the oppression of traders, put down tribal wars, and open up the country to commerce and civilization; but that strife or rivalry between white men should lead the poor ignorant natives into fresh dissensions would indeed be deplorable. Annexation of territory in such a climate, and among such a people, seems a foolish policy for any European power. The possible advantage that can accrue to the white man from possession of the black man's country can never equal the expense and difficulty of governing it. Equatorial Africa is not a region to be colonised by Europeans, like Algiers on the north or Cape Colony on the south; nor is it a region whose own resources can defray the cost of ruling, protecting, and developing it like India. White men can scarcely exist there, on account of the climate. Products are at present few and of comparatively little value. Owing to the barbarism of the people, the tribes on the Congo can give little in any way, but need first to receive; and benevolence and Christian compassion, not selfish ambition, will for many a year be the only motives strong enough to sustain men under the difficulties and trials of life on the Upper Congo. Hence we are inclined to think that, for the present at any rate, French annexation will be a fancy rather than a fact. If indeed France would make a railway from the Ogowe to the Upper Congo she would be doing the world a service; and we would fain hope that whatever influence she does acquire in this region will be more beneficial to the natives than Portuguese influence has been. M. Savorgnan de Brazza, as well as Mr. Stanley, has shown much courtesy, kindness, and good will towards our missionaries. He has assured us that he would willingly assist us in any way should we wish to enter the Congo Valley by the Ogowe route, and that he thought the Belgium Association would rejoice to see Protestant missions planted on the Alima and Upper Congo. He kindly offered, if we wished it, to take one of our missionaries up with him on his return. Whatever nation may attain predominant influence on its shores, the neutrality of the river Congo ought, in any case, to be stipulated for by the powers of Europe. The most accessible highway into the heart of the new world of Central Africa ought neither to be French, Belgian, Portuguese, or English, but cosmopolitan; and Europe should see to it that it is kept open. In the House of Commons, Nov. 28th, the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs was asked whether the Government could give any assurance that territorial changes which were said to be contemplated on the Congo river would leave unimpaired the freedom of commercial intercourse which had hitherto existed between this country and that part of Africa; to which Sir C. W. Dilke replied that her Majesty's Government are most desirous that there should be complete liberty of navigation and commerce on all the great rivers of Africa, and the matter is having their most careful consideration at the present time. W DEATH OF MR. WILLIAM APPEL. E have already informed our friends by letter of the painful fact that another precious life has been sacrificed in the attempt to evangelize the Congo valley. While the London Missionary Society are mourning the tragic death of their able and valued agent, Dr. Southon, at Mirambo's Town, and while the Universities Mission have had to sustain a triple bereavement in the deaths of Bishop Steere and two other clerical members of their mission; while the Church Missionary Society have to regret the early decease of the Rev. J. S. Bradshaw after only a few months in Yoruba, and the breakdown and retirement of several members of the Nyanza Mission: we too have to mourn the most unexpected removal of our beloved young brother WILLIAM APPEL, after a residence of only four weeks in Africa! He sailed in May, arrived out in June, and died in July! We were spending a few weeks in Scotland in September, and had reached Glasgow from the north late one evening to give an address on the needs and claims of Central Africa next day, when we were met by these heavy tidings. They stunned us completely for a time; we could scarcely believe them true! None of the deaths that had previously taken place in the Mission took us so completely by surprise. He had left us so recently, seemed so well suited to the climate, had written so cheerfully by the last mail, and had been exposed to no severe strain or great danger. It seemed so mysterious a providence too! We had hoped much from his labours; he was better prepared than many to render valuable service to the Mission, and no one who had joined it had seemed more full of faith and zeal, or more devoted in heart. And was all this thrown away and lost? For a moment we felt as if it was. We were inclined to say amid our tears, Why this waste? Might not this life have turned to more account elsewhere? But then we remembered that the alabaster box of ointment broken on His head, |