Here  are  a  few  short  extracts : —

"  Meanwhile,  on  the  Luapula  similar  abuses  existed,  and  women
were  raped  and  riftade  to  serve  both  white  and  black,  until  many
of  the  best  and  biggest  villages  crossed  into  British  territory,
where  they  live  in  peace.  [Follows  a  long  list  of  the  villages  which
have  migrated.]  The  wholesale  exodus  is  due  to  Belgian  laiding,
the  sentry  sy.^tem,  and   the  maltreatment  of  the  natives."

Under  the  "  Sentry  system  "  Mr.  Campbell  says:  —

"  I  have  known  them  tie  up  chiprs  for  a  week  in  ropes,  and  keep
them  tied  until  a  sufficient  ransom  was  brought.  .  .  I  have  met
them  on  the  road  on  plundering  expeditions,  travelling  in  hammocks
with  from  twenty  to  thirty  carriers — these,  of  course,  impressed
into  the  work^  besides  other  carriers  who  carried  their  pots,  cloth,
provisions,  and  guns  wherever  they  went.  .  .  It  was  a  common
practice  to  remove  sentries  who  were  unsuccessful  in  securing  suffi-
cient ivory  and  to  replace  them  by  olheis  more  ruffianly  disposed,
whose  ivory-extorting  powers  had  been  previously  tested."

Banks,  of  the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union,
reporting  locally  from  Bolengi  in  1896  (Area :  central
region) :  —

Describes  raid  of  State  troops  upon  the  villages  of  Bandaka
Wajiko.     Cause,  poor  quality  of  rubber.     Questions  soldiers,  and  is


46  RED  RUBBER

told  fifty  people  have  been  killed  and  twenty-eight  taken  prisoners.
