KONGO or CONGO FREE STATE, or BELGIAN KONGO, a territory in Africa which, recognized by the Euro pean powers assembled at the confer ence at Berlin in 1885, has the following boundaries: The N. bank from the mouth, with a strip of territory averag ing about 60 miles in width, as far as Manyanga, about 240 nines from Ban ana, the entrance part of the river. At Manyanga the French territory com mences and continues along the N. bank, passing Stanley Pool as far as the Mobangi. The territory of the Kongo Free State recommences at this river, and the boundary line runs along the left bank as far as the 4th parallel of N. latitude, which then becomes the N. boundary of the central portion of the state. On the N. E. it extends to the watershed of the Kongo basin, E. to lon. 30° E. and Lake Tanganyika, S. E. to Lake Bangweolo and the S. watershed of the Kongo basin as far as Lake Dilolo, S. W. to the Kassai river, to lat. 7° S., the Kwilu, the Kwango, and the parallel of Nokki. These boundaries were only finally settled by the neutrality declara tions of 1894 and 1895, after a series of treaties. The area is stated at 900,000 square miles; pop., about 10,000,000. The Kongo Free State is governed by an administrative bureau at Brussels, also by a Governor-General, resident in Kongo who has his headquarters at Boma, 60 miles from the sea, on the right bank of the river. The state has stations at Banana, Vivi, Boma, and Ma tadi on the Lower Kongo; at Lukungu, Issangila, Manyanga, Lutete on the Mid dle Kongo; and at Leopoldville, Kin shassa, Kwamouth, Lukolela, Equator, Bangala, and Stanley Falls on the Upper Kongo, etc. Besides these the state has
erected two stations on the Kasai, Luebo, and Luluaberg. All imports are free, and only such export duties are levied as are necessary to carry on the work of ad ministration. It has a coinage and postal service, and has entered into the Postal Union.
The inhabitants of the Kongo basin be long to what has been termed the Bantu race. They are a happy, inoffensive people, not so dark as the Fan or Ethi opian. Split up into numberless tribal communities, they can offer but slight re sistance to the advance of civilization; and as they are born traders, they take very readily to commerce. The Swaheli language has much in common with the Kishi Kongo, or language spoken on the W. coast. The religion is mainly fetich ism; and domestic slavery exists every where. The name of French Kongo is now given to what was known as the Gaboon territory; and Portuguese Kongo is the coast country to the S. of the in dependent state. The climate of the Kongo State is tropical. The interior is »lore healthful than on the coast. The principal products are ivory, palm oh, palm kernels, india-rubbcr, various gums, ground nuts, camwood, beeswax, orchilla; also coffee, tobacco, hill rice, maize, and sorghum. Tropical fruits, such as ba nanas, pineapples, and mangos, abound.