In comparison with the historic tales the Nile and Niger have to tell us, the story of the Congo is only very modern. The early history of the great river is very meagre indeed, and we search the ancient classics in vain for any mention of even its existence.
The river was, and is to this day, known to the Portuguese as the Zaire, but the actual meaning of the word is doubtful. Some consider it to simply mean river. The country through which the great river flows was known to the Portuguese as the kingdom of the Congo. The Zaire, therefore, appeared upon the early Portuguese maps as Rio de Congo, which, when translated, became, of course, on English maps, River of Congo, and finally simply Congo, as we now know it.
Although the mouth of the Congo was discovered by the Portuguese over four hundred years ago, very little was known of the geography of the river itself until our own century. Jesuit missionaries certainly settled in the kingdom of the Congo, and they doubtless collected much information from the native travellers regarding the geography of the interior.
The English geographer, Peter Heylyn, writing in 1657, speaks of the Zaire, or River of Congo, rising in Lake Zembre. After naming the rivers of the Country of Congo, he goes on to say: “This last (the Zaire), the greatest of them all, if not of all Africk also: Of which, though we have spoke already, we shall add this here, that it falleth into the Æthiopic Sea with so great violence, that for ten miles commonly, for fifteen sometimes, the waters of it do retain their natural sweetness: not intermingled nor corrupted with the Salt Sea-water: Nor can the people sail above five miles against the stream of the cataracts, or huge falls which it hath from the Mountains; more terrible and turbulent than those of the Nile.”
The great discoveries connected with the Congo have been in almost all cases the result of inquiries set on foot for other purposes, and not the outcome of direct research. This is especially the case with regard to the long and tedious wanderings of Dr. Livingstone, between the years 1866 and 1873, which terminated only in his death in the latter year. When Livingstone started upon his last and greatest expedition in 1866, it was with the idea of clearing up certain doubtful points connected with Lakes Tanganyika and Nyasa, and of establishing, if possible, the southern limit of the Nile watershed. He had no intention of working at the Congo at all, and, in fact, remarks in his journal, in a half jocular manner, that he had no desire to become “blackman’s meat” for anything less than the Nile.
Stanley’s great journey from Nyangwe to Boma made known, of course, only the main stream of the river, but it opened the way, and from that day down to the present a whole legion of travellers, both British and European, have devoted themselves to the filling in of the details. The great traveller himself shortly after discovered lakes Leopold II. and Mantumba; and so recently as 1887 explored the great Aruwimi territory, following it to its source in the neighbourhood of the Albert Lake, when engaged in his last great journey through “Darkest Africa.”
The Nineteenth Century has been what we may call the age of discovery, so far as the Congo is concerned. The geography of the river is now fairly well known, the discoveries of the past twenty years having undoubtedly transcended all possible expectations or even conceptions. The next century will in all probability be one of Congo commerce and Congo engineering. Already we find a railway some 250 miles in length, in course of construction, which, when completed, will overcome the natural difficulties of transport in the neighbourhood of the Livingstone Falls, and throw open to the world the mighty natural highway to the heart of the Continent. Already we find, in spite of the difficulties of the cataract region, that some thirty odd steamers are daily ploughing their way up and down the Congo’s giant stream. Thus has the great river begun the work of bearing the naturally rich products of the Congo basin to the coast, and of carrying the return commodities into the interior.
The work of the explorer, the trader, and the missionary is already beginning to bear fruit. In their wake will follow civilization, commerce and Christianity. Cities--centres of industry and light--will be founded, and in due time the peoples of the “Heart of Africa” will take their place in the progress of the world.
THE MACKENZIE RIVER
WILLIAM OGILVIE
Fort McPherson stands on a high bank of gravel and slate, on the east side of the Peel River, about fourteen miles above the point where it divides and joins the Mackenzie delta, which is common to both rivers. The height of this bank rapidly decreases towards the mouth of the river, where it almost entirely disappears. The country surrounding has evidently at one time been a part of the Arctic Ocean which has been gradually filled up with alluvial deposits brought down by the two rivers.
On this rich soil, the timber, mostly spruce, with some tamarack, birch and poplar, is, for the latitude, very large. When I arrived at Fort McPherson, on the 20th of June, the new buds on the trees were just perceptible, and on the evening of the 22d, when I left, the trees were almost fully in leaf.
Between Peel River and the Mackenzie about two-thirds of the channel in the delta averages more than a quarter of a mile wide; the remainder about one hundred yards. All of it was deep when I passed through, and the Hudson’s Bay Company’s steamer, _Wrigley_, drawing five feet of water, finds no difficulty in navigating it. The banks do not rise more than ten or fifteen feet above the water, and the current is continually wearing away the soft deposit and carrying it down to the lower part of the delta and to the Arctic Ocean.
Where we enter the Mackenzie proper, the channel is three-fourths of a mile wide, but it is only one of four, there being three large islands at this point. The whole width of the river cannot be less than three or four miles. Looking northward, down the westerly channel, the view is bounded by the sky, and widens in the distance so that one can fancy he is looking out to sea.
A north wind raises quite a swell here, and the salty odour of the sea air is plainly perceptible above the delta. The banks continue low, and the country flat on both sides of the river, for some nine or ten miles above the islands. The shore on the east side is sloping, while that on the west is generally perpendicular, showing the action of the current, which is wearing into and carrying away portions of it. This form of bank changes into steep shale rock on both sides, gradually increasing in height as far as the Narrows, where they are probably one hundred and fifty feet above the water.
On the Mackenzie I did not stay long enough to learn much about the Indians in the district, nor did I see many of them. While we were in the delta, nine large boats loaded with Esquimaux from the coast passed us on the way up to Fort McPherson to do their trading for the season, in one of which I noticed a young woman devouring a raw musk-rat with evident relish. These people come up from the coast in “skin” boats, called _oumiaks_, made, it is said, of whale skin put round a wood frame. These boats present a very neat appearance, and are capable of carrying about two tons each. Whale oil is one of the principal articles which they bring in for sale.
A few miles above the Narrows the banks change from rock to clay and gravel, and continue generally steep and high as far as Fort Good Hope. In a few places the bank recedes from the river for a short distance, forming a low flat, on which generally grows some fair spruce timber. No rivers of importance flow into the Mackenzie between Red and Hare Indian Rivers. One hundred and thirty miles further on, Loon River enters from the east, and, twenty miles above this Hare Indian River also enters from the same side. The Indians report that Hare Indian River rises in a range of hills on the north-west side of Great Bear Lake, but about its navigability I could learn nothing.
We reached Fort Good Hope on Saturday, the 24th of July, and remained over Sunday. The Fort is built on the east side of the Mackenzie, about two miles above Hare Indian River, and two below the “Ramparts.” The Hudson’s Bay Company has quite a large establishment at this point, consisting of half a dozen houses and some stables. The Roman Catholic Church has a flourishing mission here, and the church is said to possess one of the best finished interiors in the country.
Two miles above the Fort we enter what is known in the vicinity as the “Ramparts,” though in the more south-westerly it would be called a “Cañon.” Here, for a distance of seven miles, the river runs perpendicular and occasionally over hanging walls of rock. At the lower end they rise one hundred and fifty feet above the water. But their height decreases as we near the upper end, at which point they are not more than fifty or sixty feet. The river, at the lower end of the “Ramparts,” is nearly a mile wide, but its walls gradually converge until, about three miles up, the width is not more than half a mile, and this continues to the end. Sir Alexander Mackenzie, when passing through, sounded at its upper end, and found three hundred feet of water, which accounts for the fact that although the Cañon is so narrow the current is not perceptibly increased.