wo traders, Ives and Thomas, who had
waiting for the _Nigeria_ at the mouth of the Gabun River six
hundred logs of mahogany, and, in consequence, there was general
rejoicing, and Scotch and "sparklets," and even music from a German
music-box that would burst into song only after it had been fed with
a copper. One of the clerks said that Ives had forgotten how to
extract the coppers and in consequence was using the music-box as a
savings bank.

In the French Congo the natives are permitted to trade; in the
Congo Free State they are not, or, rather, they have nothing with
which to trade, and the contrast between the empty "factories" of
the Congo and those of Libreville, crowded with natives buying and
selling, was remarkable. There also was a conspicuous difference in
the quality and variety of the goods. In Leopold's Congo "trade"
goods is a term of contempt. It describes articles manufactured only
for those who have no choice and must accept whatever is offered.
When your customers must take what you please to give them the
quality of your goods is likely to deteriorate. Salt of the poorest
grade, gaudy fabrics that neither "wear" nor "wash," bars of coarse
soap (the native is continually washing his single strip of cloth),
and axe-heads made of iron, are what Leopold thinks are a fair
exchange for the forced labor of the black.

But the articles I found in the factories in Libreville were what,
in the Congo, are called "white man's goods" and were of excellent
quality and in great variety. There were even French novels and
cigars. Some of the latter, called the Young American on account of
the name and the flag on the lid, tempted me, until I saw they were
manufactured by Dusseldorffer and Vanderswassen, and one suspected
Rotterdam.

In Ives's factory I saw for the first time a "trade" rifle, or Tower
musket. In the vernacular of the Coast, they are "gas-pipe" guns.
They are put together in England, and to a white man are a most
terrifying weapon. The original Tower muskets, such as, in the days
of '76, were hung over the fireplace of the forefathers of the Sons
of the Revolution, were manufactured in England, and stamped with
the word "Tower," and for the reigning king G.R. I suppose at that
date at the Tower of London there was an arsenal; but I am ready to
be corrected. To-day the guns are manufactured at Birmingham, but
they still have the flint lock, and still are stamped with the word
"Tower" and the royal