Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/614

 502 WEST AFRICA. missions, hitherto directed by French priests, are now placed under the jurisdiction of the Mechlin diocesan authorities. The chief local official, who takes the title of governor-general, is assisted by a consulting committee comprising an inspector, a secretary, a judge of appeal, anl one or more directors named by the central Government. The flag of the new state is a gold star on a blue ground — the same as that of the old native Congo State — and the official language is French. The territory is divided into districts managed by special commissioners, who dispose of a small force of about two thousand Haussas and Ba-Ngalas, with twelve guns and two mitrailleuses. These troops, as well as the ten gunboats forming the flotilla, are officered by Belgians. In virtue of treaties concluded with the natives, the Congo State already possesses vast landed estates, which, however, yield no revenue, so that the expenditure is almost exclusively met by yearly advances made by the sovereign. The state revenue is limited to the proceeds of registration, the post office and the slight dues levied on exports, all imports being declared free by various international conventions. One of the chief prospective resources of the state are the elephants, estimated by Stanley at about two hundred thousand, each yielding on an average sixty pounds of ivorj^, and collectively representing a capital of £5,000,000. But these are secondary considerations compared with the great fact of half a continent and a whole family of mankind brought far the first time into direct contact with the outer world.