1884. sident of the Association will serve to explain this April.
Vivi. and several other , matters.
“ Mr. E. Massey Shaw has been appointed Chief of Vivi Station, and
Mr. John Eose Tronp Chief of Police.
“ Major Parmenter, who was the most superior chief of Vivi we have
had yet, was obliged to retire owing to domestic matters at home. He
was a man of marvellous industry, but the regret of it is that I have
lost him just as he was restoring this place to order, which needs a strong
man.
“ Mons. Monet’s capabilities are of a very high order. He fills the
place of the retiring accountant. Mons. del Comune is the Chief
Transport Agent of the Lower Congo, and I feel assured the Expedition
will feel the benefit of this change. His headquarters will be at Boma,
and he will he responsible for all goods received in future, and for the
good behaviour of the staff on the steamers.”
“ Vivi, 23™! April.
“ Two days ago I reached Vivi, and I have been since in a fever of
dismay at what I have seen here. The buildings are precisely as they stood
in 1882. I exempt the accountant’s, of course, which does look passable.
I found twenty-five whites here. The new house, which cost 29,000
francs, is utterly ruined, many sections of it having been employed for
trivial and pitiful purposes. I am informed by a humorous person that
each of the many chiefs who have retired during the several months
that have elapsed since its arrival, has expressed boundless thanks for
the gift of the timely and munificent donation. What is left of it, however,
now will make a small frame-house or cabin thirty-five feet long.
“ Two events occurred to-day which inform one greatly of the state of
mind these young gentlemen are in who have been so long without a leader.
One declares that he will not leave the station, though he has been dismissed
for four gross offences, and mutters strangely about violence.
Another says, ‘Well, I don’t care ; I will go and do that little job at
Boma, then I will go home and explain to the Comité.’
“ At dinner-time I took advantage of their presence and delivered a
lecture to them upon the lamentable state I discovered the station and
themselves were in. I sketched out the state of Vivi as I left it, and
how I found it. I repeated the dismal tale of changes and scenes that
had occurred in my absence. I took the trouble of defining what was
generally understood by the term duty, and how each was legally and
morally bound to perform that which he had contracted to do to the best
of his ability. Mine was to execute the orders of the Committee; theirs
to abide by their contracts; if they failed to do so they must abide the
consequences.
“ I had arrived at Vivi to bring order out of chaos before leaving the
command of the Expedition to General Gordon, who will be as little
likely to sympathise with indolence and thriftlessness as I am.
“We have been so extremely patient, paternal, and lenient with them,
and they have been left so long without a chief, that the conduct of
some of them has been most shameful.
“ The new steamer Ville d’Anvers is a capital little steamer, and exceedingly
staunch. If well looked after she will be a great acquisition.
, Le Stanley, stern wheeler for the Upper Congo, will be at once dismantled
for transport to her destination.
“ Mons. del Commune has to-day informed me that he has treated suc-
pessfully with the natives of Boma for the Protectorate. Mons. Kirk-
hoven has extended our territory until Vivi is now joined to Boma.
“ Between Nokki and Stanley Pool the sovereignty has been ceded to
the Association by thé native chiefs. Thus, from Boma to the Lubamba
Biver on the right bank, and thence north to the Kwilu—Niadi, through
the efforts, of Hanssens, Van de Velde, Destrain, Mickic, Grant Elliott,
and Spencer Burns, the territory is all one—intact; and from Nokki on
the left bank to Stanley Ealls. Such places as are already 'unoccupied
on the left bank Hanssens will complete by July. Signor Massari goes
up the Kwa to. perform the same services for our political interests.
“ While coming down the south bank, I learned enough to satisfy me
that three-fourths of the transport required for up river will be accomplished
by our enlistments of natives; the rest will go up by north bank
1884.
April 28,
Vivi.
as before. Voonda Station, on south bank, will be established to give
more employment to the boats on the mid-section of river.
“ I beg to enclose copies of the Treaties securing the sovereignty to the
Association of all the districts between Nokki and Stanley Pool. All
VOL. II. Q