Excerpt from The Journal of Race Development, 1912, Vol. 2
Thirty-five years ago, we knew practically nothing of tropical Africa, more than ten or twelve miles inland, excepting along a few great rivers and the other routes of pioneer explorers. European traders had few direct relations with the east coast. The western shores were more easily accessible and here were many white men at their stations near the river mouths, engaged in a thriving barter trade. But they did not go inland. Sierra Leone has been a crown colony of the United Kingdom for more than a century, but, twenty-five years ago, its Hinterland was geographically unknown.1 European enterprise was content to hug the coast though much trade came to it from the interior. Catholic missionaries at Gaboon and Landana, when asked why they did not extend their work into the interior, said they had no resources for traveling inland.2 On the broad estuary of the Congo it was thought phenomenal if traders ever ventured as far as the Yellala Falls, some ninety-five miles from the mouth of the river. Trading stations were sometimes attacked and many were kept on a war-footing.
The modern transformation began in 1879 when Stanley was sent by the African International Association, with King Leopold at its head, to make a practical study of the Congo plateau, above the 235 miles of cataracts, for purposes of possession and exploitation.
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