King Leopold's Ghost

by Adam Hochschild

  [>] "bottles of gin": Stanley 3, vol. 1, p. 185.

  [>] "property of the said Association": Stanley 3, vol. 2, pp. 196–197. Stanley biographer Tim Jeal staunchly maintains that Stanley's treaties with the chiefs were far less onerous, and that Leopold substituted doctored versions them in diplomatic files and in his editing of Stanley's book (Stanley 3). The full story will never be known, since, probably on the king's orders, the originals of almost all of Stanley's treaties have vanished.

  [>] harsh as warfare elsewhere: Vellut, p. 701; Vansina 2, p. 144, p. 343.

  [>] spot in the rain forest: Vansina 1, p. 100.

  [>] "take in a herring": Stanley to Sanford, 4 Mar. 1885, reprinted in Bontinck, p. 300.

  5. FROM FLORIDA TO BERLIN

  [>] "a gentleman ... evidently a good feeder": New York Times, 6 Apr. 1883, 13 Apr. 1883.

  [>] President Arthur's trip to Florida: New York Times, 5–15 Apr. 1883. On Arthur generally, see Reeves.

  [>] Sanford's Florida business troubles: Fry 1, pp. 100–106.

  [>] a special code: Bontinck, pp. 139–140.

  [>] "population of several millions": Leopold to Arthur, 3(?) Nov. 1883, quoted in Bontinck, pp. 135–136.

  [>] The copy, however, had been altered: Stengers 3, p. 128 fn. and p. 130 fn.

  [>] "discovered by an American": Sanford to Frelinghuysen, 30 Dec. 1882, quoted in Carroll, p. 115.

  [>] "the neutrality of the valley": President Arthur's message to Congress, 4 Dec. 1883, quoted in Bontinck, p. 144.

  [>] "ENCHANTED WITH éMILE": Strauch to Sanford, 6 Dec. 1883, quoted in Bontinck, p. 146.

  [>] "gastronomic campaign": Anonymous letter-writer in the Times of Philadelphia, 31 Jan. 1885, quoted in Bontinck, p. 160.

  [>] "queenly presence too": Latrobe to Sanford, 18 Mar. 1884, quoted in Bontinck, p. 189.

  [>] "enforced negro rule ... innocent woman": Fry 2, pp. 56–57.

  [>] "general exodus": Fry 2, p. 56.

  [>] "home of the negro": Fry 2, p. 185.

  [>] "field for his efforts": Congressional Record, 7 Jan. 1890, quoted in Carroll, pp. 332–333.

  [>] footnote: Carroll, p. 337.

  [>] "more congenial fields than politics": Sanford to Evarts, 21 Jan. 1878, quoted in Bontinck, p. 29.

  [>] "modern Israelites": "American Interests in Africa," The Forum 9 (1890), p. 428, quoted in Roark 1, p. 169.

  [>] "over the Southern states": ibid., p. 428, quoted in Meyer, p. 28 fn.

  [>] "adjacent rivers": Bontinck, p. 171.

  [>] "secure their welfare": U.S. Senate, Occupation of Congo in Africa, S. Rept. 393, 48th Congress, 1st sess., 1884, p. 9, quoted in Normandy, p. 171.

  [>] "both the King and Queen": Gertrude Sanford to Henry Sanford, April 1884, quoted in Fry 1, p. 148.

  [>] "flag of a friendly Government": Bontinck, p. 201.

  [>] statement was reprinted: Stanley 3, vol. 2, p. 420.

  [>] "new life of the Association": Stanley 3, vol. 2, p. 383.

  [>] large monthly stipend: of 1000 francs. Stengers 7, p. 48.

  [>] "be established in the Congo": Leopold to Strauch, 26 Sept. 1883, quoted in Pakenham, p. 245.

  [>] "its work was completed": Emerson, p. 108.

  [>] "and eradicate it": Emerson, p. 108.

  [>] "get away with anything": Emerson, p. 109.

  [>] the role of Bleichröder: Stern, p. 403–409.

  [>] "slaughtered game during our travels": Hall, p. 265.

  [>] "end be their improvement": J. S. Mill, "On Liberty" In Focus, eds. John Gray and G. W Smith (London: Routledge, 1991), p. 31.

  [>] owed a large sum of money: Anstey 1, p. 68; Pakenham, p. 247.

  [>] "of that continent very well": Stanley's journal, 24 Nov. 1884, quoted in McLynn 2, pp. 86–87.

  [>] "the utmost freedom of communication": John A. Kasson, an American delegate, in U.S. Senate, Report of the Secretary of State Relative to Affairs of the Independent State of the Congo, p. 42., quoted in Clarence Clendenen, Robert Collins, and Peter Duignan, Americans in Africa 1865–1900 (Stanford: The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, 1966), p. 57.

  [>] "its illustrious creator": H. L. Wesseling, Divide and Rule: The Partition of Africa, 1880–1914 (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1996).

  [>] "as the Congo's 'proprietor'": Stengers 2, p. 262. See also Jean Stengers in La Nouvelle Clio IX (1950), p. 515.

  6. UNDER THE YACHT CLUB FLAG

  [>] the king was named: Pall Mall Gazette, 10 Apr. 1885, p. 9; and 11 Apr. 1885, p. 3.

  [>] umbrellas and parasols: New York Times, 5 June 1917 and 15 June 1917.

  [>] "topic of conversation around me": Louise, p. 32.

  [>] "and they have not": Hilaire Belloc, The Modern Traveller (1898).

  [>] 430 whites working in the Congo: census taken 31 Dec. 1889, reported in Le Mouvement Géographique, 23 Mar. 1890.

  [>] "offer my services": Henry Sanford to Gertrude Sanford, 30 Aug. 1884, quoted in Fry 1, p. 150.

  [>] the Sanford Exploring Expedition: Fry, pp. 157–163; White.

  [>] this was not true: Van der Smissen, vol. 1, p. 127.

  [>] "with your Congo!": Stinglhamber and Dresse, p. 142.

  [>] honorary president: Lagergren, p. 198 fn.

  [>] "receptions and balls": Kirk to Wylde, 24 Apr. 1890, quoted in Miers, p. 102.

  [>] "a new pretty woman": Liebrechts, pp. 29–30.

  [>] the king had betrayed him: Meyer, p. 37; Fry 1, p. 168.

  [>] "greatest sovereign is your own": Emerson, p. 149.

  [>] "over l'État Indépendant du Congo": Mutamba-Makombo, p. 32.

  [>] "throws away the peel": August Beernaert in Jean Stengers, Belgique et Congo: L'élabora-tion de la charte coloniale (Brussels: La Renaissance du Livre, 1963), p. 98, quoted in Emerson, p. 64.

  [>] "in ample time to prepare": Stanley to Mackinnon, 23 Sept. 1886, quoted in Bierman, p. 256.

  [>] "I can't talk to women": Hall, p. 274.

  [>] "her sweet scented notes": Stanley to Mackinnon, 23 Sept. 1886, quoted in Bierman, p. 256.

  [>] "I will never give it up!": Stengers 2, p. 287.

  [>] "resources of civilisation": the Times, 14 Jan. 1887, quoted in Emerson, p. 157.

  [>] "to overcome barbarism": Globe, 19 Jan. 1887, quoted in McLynn 2, p. 146.

  [>] "frenzy of rage": The Diary of A. J. Mounteney Jephson, ed. Dorothy Middleton (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969), p. 228 (26 Feb. 1888), quoted in Bierman, p. 289.

  [>] "catch some more of their women": James'S. Jameson, The Story of the Rear Column of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, ed. Mrs. J. A. Jameson (London: R. H. Porter, 1890), p. 92 (21 July 1887), quoted in Bierman, p. 297.

  [>] "burn all the villages round": The Diary of A. J. Mounteney Jephson, ed. Dorothy Middleton (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969), p. 203 (10 Dec. 1887), quoted in Bierman, p. 286.

  [>] "poured into the village": Stairs's journal, 28 Sept. 1887, quoted in Bierman, p. 281.

  [>] by his Piccadilly taxidermist: Bierman, p. 298.

  [>] "peace of mind": Stanley 4, vol. 1, p. 396.

  [>] "leave without me!": Die Tagebüchen von Dr Emin Pascha, ed. Franz Stuhlmann (Hamburg: G. Westerman, 1916-1927), vol. 4, p. 202, 14 Jan. 1889, quoted in McLynn 2, pp. 262-263.

  [>] "well-selected and iced": Stanley 4, vol. 2, p. 458.

  [>] "was most exhilarating!": Funny Folks, quoted in Bierman, p. 340.

  7. THE FIRST HERETIC

  [>] several different lives: unless otherwise noted, biographical facts about Williams are taken from Franklin.

  [>] he had never earned: Marchal 1, p. 176.

  [>] "That day will come!": Franklin, pp. 10–11.

  [>] "so much native ability": New York Times, 22 Jan. 1883, quoted in Franklin, p. 116.

  [>] "greatest historian of the race": W.E.B. Du Bois, "The Negro in Literature and Art," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 49 (Sept. 1913), p. 235, quoted in Franklin, p. 133.

&n
bsp; [>] Williams, Arthur, and Sanford: Bontinck, pp. 221, 442.

  [>] when he visited London: Marchal 1, p. 178.

  [>] "with complete success": L'Indépendance Belge, 1 Nov. 1889, quoted in Marchal 1, p. 180.

  [>] "a pleasant and entertaining ... mercy, and justice ... good listener": Boston Herald, 17 Nov. 1889, quoted in Franklin, pp. 181-182.

  [>] "within a few days": Williams 3, p. 265.

  [>] "loaded on to the steamer": J. Rose Troup, With Stanley's Rear Column (London: Chapman & Hall, 1890), p. 124, quoted in Sherry, p. 59. See De Premorel pp. 42-44 for another description of steamer travel.

  [>] "Siberia of the African Continent": Williams to Huntington, 14 Apr. 1890, quoted in Franklin, p. 191.

  [>] Open Letter quotations: Williams 1, pp. 243–254.

  [>] "introduced this ... just, not cruel": Williams 3, pp. 277–279.

  [>] "crimes against humanity": Williams to Blaine, 15 Sept. 1890, quoted in Bontinck, p. 449.

  [>] "attempt at blackmail": New York Herald, 14 Apr. 1891.

  [>] "natives of that country": Huntington to Mackinnon, 20 Sept. 1890, quoted in Franklin, p. 208.

  [>] "truth in his pamphlets": Vivian to Salisbury, 4 Apr. 1891, quoted in Franklin, p. 210.

  [>] "un vrai scandale": Emile Banning, Mémoires politiques et diplomatiques: comment fut fondé le Congo belge (Paris: La Renaissance du Livre, 1927), p. 295, quoted in Bontinck, p. 448.

  [>] "First of all ... not a colonel": Journal de Bruxelles 12, 13, 14 June 1891, quoted in Franklin, pp. 211–212.

  [>] "the American traveler": La Réforme, 15 June 1891, quoted in Marchal 1, p 195.

  [>] "in its own defense": Franklin, p. 213.

  [>] "Colonel Williams and others": Gosselin to Salisbury, 19 July 1891, quoted in Franklin, p. 215.

  [>] "an embarrassingly formidable opponent": Cookey, p. 36.

  [>] "action of the State": Grenfell to Baynes, 23 June 1890; quoted in Franklin, p. 194.

  8. WHERE THERE AREN'T NO TEN COMMANDMENTS

  [>] Boma in the 1890s: see numerous articles in La Belgique Coloniale, esp. 18 Dec. 1897, p. 607, and 28 Aug. 1898, p. 411.

  [>] "learn to stoop": Aronson pp. 141–142.

  [>] Fischer's of Strasbourg: Gann and Duignan 2, p. 106.

  [>] brides from Europe: Leclercq, pp. 284–285.

  [>] "ivory had disappeared": Obdeijn, p. 202.

  [>] "lessen its deficit": Leopold to Beernaert, 19 June 1891, reprinted in Van der Smissen, vol. 2, p. 212.

  [>] "the sanctity of work": Interview by Publishers' Press, in the New York American, 11 Dec. 1906.

  [>] four francs per kilo: Marchal 1, p. 212.

  [>] twenty-two pounds: Constant De Deken, Deux Ans au Congo (Antwerp: Clément Thibaut, 1902), p. 72 fn., cited in Samarin, p. 118.

  [>] "A file of poor devils ... up to the job": Courouble, pp. 77, 83.

  [>] three thousand porter loads: Samarin, p. 120.

  [>] "overwork in their villages": Picard, pp. 96–97.

  [>] not one returned: Marchal I, p. 202.

  [>] "each of the children": Marchal 4, p. 317.

  [>] "give the military salute": Marchal 4, pp. 325–326. Lefranc's account, which he wrote for the Belgian newspaper L'Express de Liège on 1 June 1908, was also reprinted as a pamphlet by the Congo Reform Association.

  [>] "A mediocre agent": Marchal 4, p. 318.

  [>] "without asking questions": quoted as epigraph in Katz.

  [>] "become used to it": Sereny, p. 200.

  [>] "never made any lethal injections": KL Auschwitz Seen by the SS:Hoess, Broad, Kremer, ed. Jadwiga Bezwinska and Danuta Czech (Oswiecimiu, Poland: Panstwowe Museum, 1978), quoted in Katz, pp. 54–55.

  [>] "punishment for his own gang": De Premorel, p. 63.

  [>] footnote: Jules Marchal unearthed this remarkable photo, which was first used by Morel before he became editor of the West African Mail. Marchal 2, p. 116; Marchal 3, p. 39.

  [>] "walk into fire as if to a wedding": Bricusse, p. 85.

  [>] more than nineteen thousand officers and men: Gann and Duignan 2, p. 79.

  [>] more than half the state's budget: Marchal i, p. 354.

  [>] different ethnic groups staged major rebellions: Isaacman and Vansina is the best short summary.

  [>] Mulume Niama: Marchal 4, pp. 27–28; Flamant, pp. 182–183.

  [>] fifty thousand men a year by the mid-1890s: Marchal 1, p. 323.

  [>] "cannot feel surprised": Karl Teodor Andersson, 28 Dec. 1893, Missionsforbundet 1894, p. 83.

  [>] "the rebels have not fled ... leaders in those times": C. N. Borrisson, 2 Feb. 1894, Missionsförbundet 1894, pp. 132–134.

  [>] Rommel and Nzansu: Axelson, pp. 259–260; Marchal 1, pp. 320–321.

  [>] "rather than with the hunted": Casement 3, p. 166.

  [>] ordered her killed: Marchal 1, p. 373.

  [>] Kandolo: One thing that can mislead the unwary researcher is that three different men named Kandolo figure in Congo history of this period, one of whom was a leader of another mutiny, that of 1897 in the northeast.

  [>] snatched the whip out of his hands: Van Zandijcke, p. 182.

  [>] thirteen years after the uprising began: De Boeck, pp. 104, 125. See the other extensive treatments of the uprising in Flament and Van Zandijcke, and a summary in Marchal 1, pp. 372–376.

  [>] "worthy of a better cause": Flament, p. 417. The best treatment of this uprising is in De Boeck.

  [>] quotations from Father Achte: De Boeck, pp. 224–228. De Boeck has rescued this valuable piece of testimony, earlier accessible only in truncated versions.

  [>] starting in the 1960s: De Boeck's entire book is premised on this point.

  [>] Bongata in 1892: Vangroenweghe, p. 43.

  [>] instead of paying chiefs for them: Marchal 1, p. 216.

  [>] "drowned trying to escape": Marchal 1, p. 224.

  [>] instead of heavy iron ones: Marchal 1, p. 227.

  [>] "pulls the whole file off and it disappears": Marchal 1, p. 231.

  [>] the campaign against the "Arabs": See Marchal 1, chapter 14.

  [>] "to the white men's town at Nyangwe": Canisius, pp. 250–256.

  [>] the rigors of Leopold's regime: see Marchal 2, part V, for the best treatment of the role of Catholic missionaries.

  [>] "1500 children and administrative personnel": Leopold to Van Eetvelde, 27 Apr. 1890, quoted in Marchal 2, p. 209.

  [>] "the most male children possible": Governor general's circular, 4 June 1890, quoted in Marchal 2, p. 177.

  [>] "was sounded by bugles": Het H. Misoffer. Tijdschrift van de Norbertijner Missiën 1899, p. 226, quoted in Marchal 2, p. 298.

  [>] often over 50 percent: Marchal 2, pp. 181–182.

  [>] within the following few weeks: Marchal 2, p. 179.

  [>] "praying for our great king": Marchal 2, p. 221.

  [>] "Once more, I thank you": Bauer, p. 216.

  [>] "that shepherd": Daye, p. 399.

  [>] "That is forbidden!": O'Connor, p. 346.

  [>] "in the face of the enemy": Gann and Duignan 2, pp. 62–63.

  [>] only fined five hundred francs: Lagergren, p. 195.

  [>] "trader!! Why not!": Slade 2, p. 116.

  [>] Léon Rom's career: The principal sources (ali more or less hagiographic) are Biographie coloniale belge, vol. 2, cols. 822–826; Janssens and Cateaux, vol. 1, pp. 125–132 and voi. 2, pp. 197–200; Lejeune-Choquet, pp. 114–126; Bulletin de l'Association des Vétérans coloniaux, June 1946, pp. 3–5; Sidney Langford Hinde, The Fall of the Congo Arabs (New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969; reprint of 1897 edition), pp. 232, 235, 244–245; and Rom's own unpublished Notes. Mes Services au Congo de 1886 à 1908. The first three, as well as Arnold, are useful guides for career details, sanitized, of many other Congo state European personnel of this time.

  [>] "as proof of surrender": Janssens and Cateaux, voi. 2, pp. 199–200.

  [>] "Master, they're going to kill you!": Lejeune-Choquet, pp. 123–124.

/>   [>] many butterfly specimens: Albert Chapaux, Le Congo (Brussels: Charles Rozez, 1894), p. 470.

  [>] "can raise a thirst": from "Mandalay" in Barrack Room Ballads (London: Methuen, 1892).

  [>] a third of white Congo state agents died there: Marchal 1, p. 210. See Gann and Duignan 2, p. 68, for a similar figure, almost as high, for military men only, prior to 1906.

  [>] "plein de tristesse/Pour le Congo": Picard, pp. 145–146.

  [>] "the river will kill the white man": L. Dieu, Dans la brousse congolaise (Liège: Maréchai, 1946), pp. 59-60, quoted in Slade 2, p. 72.

  9. MEETING MR. KURTZ

  [>] "I shall go there": Joseph Conrad, A Personal Record (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1912), p. 13, excerpted in Conrad, p. 148.

  [>] Conrad in the Congo: Unless otherwise noted, biographical facts about Conrad in the Congo are taken from Nadjer, the most careful biographer when it comes to this period of the novelist's life.

  [>] "realities of a boy's daydreams!": Joseph Conrad, "Geography and Some Explorers," in Last Essays, ed. Richard Curie (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1926), p. 17, excerpted in Conrad, pp. 186–187.

  [>] missionary doctor: Lapsley, p. 83. Conrad's various biographers have not noticed this.

  [>] "not a thought in his head": Edward Garnett's introduction to Letters from Conrad 1895–1924, p. xii. (London: Nonesuch Press, 1928), excerpted in Conrad, p. 195.

  [>] "Soundings in fathoms: 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2": Joseph Conrad, Congo Diary and Other Uncollected Pieces, ed. Zdzislaw Najder (New York: Doubleday, 1978), reprinted in Conrad, p. 182.

  [>] "everything you had known": Conrad, p. 35.

  [>] "lost in the depths of the land": Conrad, p. 12.

  [>] "narrow white line of the teeth": Conrad, p. 57.

  [>] "beyond the actual facts of the case": Joseph Conrad, "Author's Note" to Youth: A Narrative; and Two Other Stories (London: William Heinemann, 1921), reprinted in Conrad, p. 4.

  [>] "bights swung between them, rhythmically clinking": Conrad, p. 19.

  [>] "now and then ... bullet-hole in the forehead": Conrad, p. 23.

  [>] "met an off[ic]er ... Saw another dead body ... tied up to a post": Joseph Conrad, Congo Diary and Other Uncollected Pieces, ed. Zdzislaw Najder (New York: Doubleday, 1978), reprinted in Conrad, pp. 160, 161, 165.

  [>] "several abandoned villages": Conrad, p. 23.