EUROPE AND AFRICA
the burden fell on the honest and the timid. Unfortu-
nately the matter did not end here. The demands of the
Government increased year by year; and, when they were
ignored, severe punishments were meted out to chiefs and
villages. “It is the incessant and varying requirements
from the people on the part of the representatives of the
Government that constitute in my opinion a grave danger
for the future of the State,” to quote again the words of
Grenfell — the mildest critic of the Congo administra-
tion.
Conditions in the districts under the concessionnaire com-
panies, to whom the Government had given political powers
as well as commercial rights, were even worse, — particu-
larly on the domains of the Anglo-Belgian Indiarubber
Company and the “Société Anversoise du Commerce au
Congo.” And as time went on, the pressure on the natives
steadily increased until whole districts were depopulated or
raised to the verge of revolt. Inferior officers were seldom
called to account by their superiors as long as the proper
returns came in; and the depredations of these men in more
than one instance became notorious. The terrible cruelties
perpetrated upon the inhabitants went unpunished to a large
degree, because the officials were afraid to punish the sol-
diers. Chieftains were slain; men and boys horribly mu-
tilated; villages burned; and men, women, and children
killed, because a certain number of laborers were not fur-
nished, the taxes not paid, or the required amount of rubber
had not been brought in. Armed sentries were stationed
in numerous villages to enforce the payment of the tithes
and to compel the gathering of the native products. Beat-
ings and imprisonments were frequent; and “it is very evi-
dent,” wrote Consul Nightingale to Sir Edward Grey as
late as 1906, “that an idea prevails that the native is as
much part and parcel of the concessionary Companies’
16