[Illustration: "Prisoners" of the State in Chains at Matadi.]
Boma is built at the foot of a hill of red soil. It is a town of
scattered buildings made of wood and sheet-iron plates, sent out in
crates, and held together with screws. To Boma nature has been
considerate. She has contributed many trees, two or three long
avenues of palms, and in the many gardens caused flowers to blossom
and flourish. In the report of the "Commission of Enquiry" which
Leopold was forced to send out in 1904 to investigate the
atrocities, and each member of which, for his four months' work,
received $20,000, Boma is described as possessing "the daintiness
and _chic_ of a European watering-place."
Boma really is like a seaport of one of the Central American republics.
It has a temporary sufficient-to-the-day-for-to-morrow-we-die air.
It looks like a military post that at any moment might be abandoned.
To remove this impression the State has certain exhibits which seem
to point to a stable and good government. There is a well-conducted
hospital and clean, well-built barracks; for the amusement of the
black soldiers even a theatre, and for the higher officials
attractive bungalows, a bandstand, where twice a week a negro band
plays by ear, and plays exceedingly well. There is even a
lawn-tennis court, where the infrequent visitor to the Congo is
welcomed, and, by the courteous Mr. Vandamme, who plays tennis as
well as he does every thing else, entertained.
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