THE FOUNDING OF THE CONGO INDEPENDENT STATE 23 
better known as the “International African Association,” 
was formed, with headquarters at Brussels under the im- 
mediate direction of Leopold, and with national committees 
in practically all the European countries and in the United 
States, whose business it was to arouse interest in the 
movement and to raise funds. 
During the years 1876 and 1877, Henry M. Stanley had 
returned to Zanzibar, crossed with great difficulty the deserts 
and forests to the headwaters of the Congo, via Lakes 
Victoria Nyanza and Tanganyika, and descended the river 
some two thousand miles, amid dangers and adventures, to 
its mouth. On his return he was met at Marseilles by two 
of Leopold’s agents, and later summoned to Brussels, where 
he gave to King Leopold and the chief promoters of the 
International African Association an impressive account of 
his discoveries and of the wonderful natural wealth of the 
Congo region. The result was that the “ Committee for the 
Study and Investigation of the Upper Congo” (Comité 
d'Etudes), appointed in November, 1878, became a definite 
organization under the chairmanship of Colonel Strauch, 
and assumed the direction of all the activities of the Asso- 
ciation after January, 1879. 
The services of Stanley were secured, and in August of 
the year 1879, he had begun his mission, — to explore the 
Congo carefully, to make treaties with the native chiefs, to 
establish stations along the river for the advancement of 
trade and the protection of the natives, and to exert every 
effort to end the interior slave trade. So skillfully and 
energetically did the great explorer carry out this work that, 
when he returned to Europe in August, 1884, a vast area of 
900,000 square miles, with an estimated population of 15,- 
000,000, had been mapped out for the Association. In 
its early stages this enterprise was intended to be as philan- 
thropic as it was commercial. Leopold hoped to found a