ime Germany took decisive action, as described
on p. 524.

CHAPTER XIX

THE CONGO FREE STATE

"The object which unites us here to-day is one of those which
deserve in the highest degree to occupy the friends of
humanity. To open to civilisation the only part of our globe
where it has not yet penetrated, to pierce the darkness which
envelops entire populations, is, I venture to say, a crusade
worthy of this century of progress."--KING LEOPOLD II.,
_Speech to the Geographical Congress of 1876 at Brussels_.

The Congo Free State owes its origin, firstly, to the self-denying
pioneer-work of Livingstone; secondly, to the energy of the late Sir
H.M. Stanley in clearing up the problems of African exploration which
that devoted missionary had not fully solved, and thirdly, to the
interest which His Majesty, Leopold II., King of the Belgians, has
always taken in the opening up of that continent. It will be well
briefly to note the chief facts which helped to fasten the gaze of
Europe on the Congo basin; for these events had a practical issue; they
served to bring King Leopold and Mr. Stanley into close touch with a
view to the establishment of a settled government in the heart
of Africa.

In 1874 Mr. H.M. Stanley (he was not knighted until the year 1899)
received a commission from the proprietors of the _Daily Telegraph_ to
proceed to Central Africa in order to complete the geographical
discoveries which had been cut short by the lamented death of
Livingstone near Lake Bangweolo. That prince of explorers had not fully
solved the riddle of the waterways of Central Africa. He had found what
were really the head waters of the Congo at and near Lake Moero; and
had even struck the mighty river itself as far down as Nyangwe; but he
could not prove that these great streams formed the upper waters of
the Congo.

Stanley's journey in 1874-1877 led to many important discoveries. He
first made clear the shape and extent of Victoria Nyanza; he tracked the
chief feeder of that vast reservoir; and he proved that Lake Tanganyika
drained into the River Congo. Voyaging down its course to the mouth, he
found great and fertile territories, thus proving what Livingstone could
only surmise, that here was the natural waterway into the heart of "the
Dark Continent."

Up to the year 1877 nearly all the pioneer work in the interior of the
Congo basin was the outcome of Anglo-American enterprise. There