A Journal of a Tour in the Congo Free State | Page 7

We anchor some distance
from the beach and several open boats at once put off. These are each
propelled by ten or twelve natives, who sit on the sides of the boat and
ply their paddles, lustily singing as they work together and with a will.
The paddles are shaped somewhat like those of a Canadian canoe,
except that the blade is star shaped. All the cargo is swung overboard
into these boats or canoes as they are called, and the passengers are
lowered in a kind of chair. As there is a heavy ground swell running,
the canoes are bobbing up and down like corks alongside. The chair is
suspended in mid air and lowered rapidly as the canoe washes up, while

all hope that it and its occupant will descend at the right moment.
One of the passengers was an English officer, Captain Wheeler, with
whom we had played many games of deck cricket on the voyage. First
his regulation seventy cubic feet of baggage was lowered--an
extraordinary amount, for no one without the aid of a slide rule and
logarithms could possibly calculate it--and then he himself made the
perilous descent--without a ducking. He would next have 240 miles of
train journey to Coomassie and then a walk--or rather a journey in a
hammock--for another 300 miles to his station.
We now travel parallel to the Gold Coast which looks hot and
uninviting, for there are but few patches of green or trees until Cape
Coast Castle is reached. Here is a fort which must have impressed
natives and slave dealers greatly in the past, a few houses and an
imposing looking church dotted in the red sand. The whole line of the
Coast here, somewhat recalls the Atlantic sea board of Georgia, U.S.A.
and the towns look as though they would be as hot as Aden at its best
or rather worst.
After leaving the Gold Coast, our course is shaped across the Bight of
Benin straight for the Congo. There is plenty of time therefore, to study
the system of justice in the Congo. This, like everything else in the
country, is essentially simple and practical. There is a Court of
Première Instance at Boma and others called Territorial Courts at
Matadi, Stanley Pool, East Kwango, The Equator, Bangalas, Aruwimi,
Stanley Falls and Kassai[1]. In each Court is a Judge, an Officer of the
Public Ministry and a Registrar, but in the Territorial Courts, the judge
may assume the functions of all. These courts hear all civil cases,
whether European or native, but the Court at Boma is alone competent
to hear trials for capital offences, whether committed by soldiers or
civilians. The Court of Appeal consists of the President, two Judges, an
Officer of the Public Ministry and a Registrar, and hears all appeals
from the judgments of the other Courts, and also from those given by
Courts Martial against civilians who are not natives in those regions
subjected to special rule. Natives who commit offences against other
natives, are left to be dealt with by the local Chief[2]. The Public

Minister can however interfere if he thinks the crime will not be
punished if left to the Chief.
The Public Ministry consists of a Procureur d'État appointed by the
Sovereign, who acts in the Court of Appeal and of substitutes appointed
by the Governor General, who act in the other Courts. Their duty is to
discover all infractions of the law in the whole territory of the State and
to see that all decrees, arrests, ordinances and penal regulations are
carried out. They are especially instructed to arrange that any native
who has been injured receives full compensation before any fine is
taken to the profit of the State.
Any region can be placed under military law by a decree of the
Governor General. Civilians however, are only subject to the ordinary
penal laws, and those who are not natives, can appeal against any
decision of a Court Martial. In practice these simple methods work
admirably and it is difficult to understand why they should not be
equally successful in old civilised countries and a good substitute for
the complicated and cumbrous machinery of to-day.
[Illustration: THE NATIVE HOSPITAL AT BOMA.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] This list is taken from _Justice Repressive (État Indépendant du
Congo)_ and is based on a Decree of 1896. Since then other Territorial
Courts have been or are about to be added.
[2] Some of the greater Chiefs and Sultans have the power to inflict the
death sentence.

CHAPTER II.
Banana to Leopoldville.
The amount of sand in the bath water on the morning of July 12th
indicated that we were approaching the mouth of a large river. The

Atlantic indeed, which had varied in colour from dirty green near the
English