They have not yet realized the foul things which have been done in their name. Surely when they do realize it there will be a terrible reckoning! Some were already very alive to the question. MM. Vandervelde and Lorand fought bravely in the Chamber. The officials, with MM. I.iebrichts and de Cuvelier at their head, made the usual vague professions and general denials. "Ah, you can rest assured light will be forthcoming, complete, striking!" cried the former. Light was indeed forthcoming, though not so complete as might be wished, for some, at least, of the scoundrels implicated were tried and condemned. In any other European colony they would have been hanged off-hand, as the villainous murderers that they were. But they do not hang white men in the Congo land, even with the blood of a hundred murders on their hands. The only white man ever hanged there was the Englishman Stokes for the crime of competing in trade.

What is to be remarked, however, is that only subordinates were punished. V---- was acquitted; Lacroix had imprisonment; Mattheys, another agent accused of horrible practices, got twelve years -- which sounded well at the time, but he was liberated at the end of three. In the sentence upon this man the judge used the words, "Seeing that it is just to take into account the example which his superiors gave him in showing no respect for the lives or rights of the natives." Brave words, but how helpless is justice when such words can be said, and no result follow! They referred, of course, to Captain Lothaire, who had, in the meanwhile, fled aboard a steamer at Matadi, and made his escape to Europe. His flight was common knowledge, but who would dare to lay his hand upon the favourite of the King. Lothaire has had occasion several times since to visit the Congo, but Justice has indeed sat with bandaged eyes where that man was concerned!

There is one incident which should be marked in the story of this trial. Moray, whose testimony would have been of great importance, was found dead in his bed just before the proceedings. There have been several such happenings in Congo history. Commandant Dooms, having threatened to expose the misdeeds of an official before Europe, was shortly afterwards declared to have been mysteriously drowned by a hippopotamus. Captain Baccari,(2) returning hot with anger after an inspection of the State, declares vehemently that he was poisoned, and corrosive sublimate was actually found in his wine. There is much that is of the sixteenth century in this State, besides its views of its duties to the natives.

Before passing these revelations with the attendant burst of candour in the Belgian Press, it may be well to transcribe the following remark in an interview from a returned Congo official which appeared in the Antwerp Nieuwe Gazet (April 10th, 1900). He says:

"When first commissioned to establish a fort, I was given some native soldiers and a prodigious stock of ammunition. My chief gave me the following instructions: 'Crush every obstacle!' I obeyed, and cut through my district by fire and sword. I had left Antwerp thinking I was simply to gather rubber. Great was my stupefaction when the truth dawned on me."

This, with the letter of Lieutenant Tilkens, as quoted before, gives some insight into the position of the agent.

Indeed, there is something to be said for these unfortunate men, for it is a more awful thing to be driven to crime than to endure it. This is the sequence of events. The man sees an advertisement offering a commercial situation in the tropics. He applies to a bureau. He is told that the salary is some seventy-five pounds a year, with a bonus on results. He knows nothing of the country or conditions. He accepts.