the attempt to compel "by force of arms" some nine million African natives, or as many of that total who could be reached, to submit not only to be robbed, but to spend their lives in the extremely arduous and dangerous task of gathering and preparing india-rubber in the virgin forests, on behalf of a few wealthy financiers in Brussels, Paris and Antwerp.
The Concessionaires settled down to their work, and the local Administration, which under the concession decrees received a royalty of 15 per cent, upon the Companies' output, associated itself still more closely with the latter by establishing a direct tax payable in rubber, the proceeds of which were turned over to the Companies. The local Administration and the Concessionaires thus became partners in a common object, that of forcing as much rubber as possible out of the natives. In the lower part of the French Congo the effect was immediate. Here, as already explained, the native population had been traders with white men, directly and indirectly, for decades. To their bewilderment they found themselves suddenly faced with a demand for rubber as a "tax" from the Administration, and with a demand for rubber as by right divine from strange white men who claimed to OWN it, and claimed power to compel the real owners to collect it for whatever the former chose to pay. The trading stations where the natives had been wont to carry their produce and barter it—and haggle over the price, as the native knows so well how to do—they were forbidden to approach. The natives of the French Congo did what any other people would have done. They declined to be despoiled of their property and robbed of the fruits of their labours. The chiefs appealed to the authorities and asked what they had done to be so "punished." Appeals were in vain. Refusal to "work rubber" was met with attempted compulsion. The natives rope, with that absence of combination and with that virtual powerlessness in the face of modern weapons of offence which characterises the unhappy inhabitant of the equatorial forest. The first year of the new "System" closed amid scenes of chaos and destruction, with raiding bands armed by the Concessionaires, and punitive expeditions conducted by the Administration carrying fire and sword from one end of the country to the other. The work of twenty years had been undone in twelve months.
