d discoveries of the British corporation. The Union
Miniere is now the leading industrial institution in the Katanga and its
story is really the narrative of a considerable phase of Congo
development.

Within ten years it has grown from a small prospecting outfit in the
wilderness, two hundred and fifty miles from a railway, to an industry
employing at the time of my visit more than 1,000 white men and 15,000
blacks. It operates four completely equipped mines which produced nearly
30,000 tons of copper in 1917, and a smelter with an annual capacity of
40,000 tons of copper. A concentrator capable of handling 4,000 tons of
ore per day is nearing completion. This bustling industrial community
was the second surprise that the Congo disclosed.

Equally remarkable is the mushroom growth of Elizabethville, the one
wonder town of the Congo. In 1910, when the railway arrived, it was a
geographical expression,--a spot in the jungle dominated by the huge
ant-hills that you find throughout Central Africa, some of them forty
feet high. The white population numbered thirty. I found it a thriving
place with over 2,000 whites and 12,000 blacks. There are one third as
many white people in the Katanga Province as in all the rest of the
Congo combined, and its area is scarcely a fourth of that of the colony.

The father of Elizabethville is General Emile Wangermee, one of the
picturesque figures in Congo history. He came out in the early days of
the Free State, fought natives, and played a big part in the settlement
of the country. He has been Governor-General of the Colony,
Vice-Governor-General of the Katanga and is now Honorary Vice-Governor.
In the primitive period he went about, after the Congo fashion, on a
bicycle, in flannel shirt and leggins and he continued this
rough-and-ready attire when he became a high-placed civil servant.

Upon one occasion it was announced that the Vice-Governor of the Katanga
would visit Kambove. The station agent made elaborate preparations for
his reception. Shortly before the time set for his arrival a man
appeared on the platform looking like one of the many prospectors who
frequented the country. The station agent approached him and said, "You
will have to move on. We are expecting the Vice-Governor of the
Katanga." The supposed prospector refused to move and the agent
threatened to use force. He was horrified a few minutes later to find
his rough customer being received by all the functionaries