Routledge Research in Travel Writing

EDITED BY PETER HULME, University of Essex,

AND TIM YouNGS, Nottingham Trent University
1. Travel Writing, and Empire
The Poetics end Politics of Mobility
Edited by Julia Kuehn and
Paul Smethurst
2. Visualizing Africa in Nineteenth-
Century British Travel Accounts
Leila Koivunen
3. Contemporary Travel Writing of
Latin America
Claire Lindsay
4. Travel Writing and Atrocities
Eyewitness Accoun1s of Coloniaiism in
the Congo. Angola. and the Putumayo
Robert M. Burroughs
Travel Writing and Atrocities
Eyewitness Accounts of Colonialism in the
Congo, Angola, and the Putumayo
Robert M. Burroughs
R
Nrw York london
First published 2011
hy Routledge
270 :\hdison Avenue. Nev.; York. NY 100! 6
Simult:ll1cous!y published in the UK
by Routlnlftc
2 P;lrk i\ililtnn P<Jrk, Ahin)!.don, Oxon OX14 4RN
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l.thr,ny of Crmgrcss ( :,lf11/ngi11g i11 Puh!ication Dat11
Hurrnnghs, Rohcn t'd., 1 9RO-
Travd writing and ;Hrodties: cycwitncss <Kcourll"s of colonialism in the Congo,
Angnb. <lnd the Putumayo I hy Robert M. gurrou!-ths.
p. cm.-(Routkdgc rcsrard1 in travel writing: 4)
"Simult<'lm'ou.s!y puhlislwd in the UK"-T p. vcrs<>.
lndudcs hih\iographic<'ll rdcrcn<:.TS and index.
1. Congo (Democratic Republic)- ( :olonization -1--Iistory -Sources. 2. Angola-
(:olnnization-I-IisHlf)"-S<)l!n:cs . .i. Putt!mayo Rivn Rcgion-(;<)loniwtion-
S()llfCcs. 4. i\tf()citics-C:nngo (Democratic Rcpublic)-History-Sourccs.
'l. Atrocities-Angola-History-Sources. 6. Atrocitics-Putumayo Rinr
Rcgion-llistory-Sourc{'S. 7. ( Republic)- Race rdations-
J--Iistnry-Snun:cs. S. Angob-R<lu" 9. Putumayo River
Region- Rae<' rcbtions- Hisrory-Stmrccs. I 0. Tr<lnkr, \vritings. British. I. Titk.
D.T.6.'\S.B:-::7 2010
.U5'.3--dc21
20090S 19RS
ISBN 13: 97:-::-0-41 S-992.18-1 (hhkl
ISBN ! 3: 97S-0-2!l3-S4<J 1 G-.) (chk)
Contents
List of Figures
List of Ahhreuiations
Note> 011 Place Names
Ack11owledgments
1
2
3
Introduction
Unspeakable Voyage: Explorers and Colonialists in the Congo
"The Subtle Consul": Roger Casement's Congo Report
In Transit and Transition: Congo Missionaries
4
Cocoa and Antislavery: Henry W. Nevinson's A Modern Slaue1y
5 England's Eyewitness: Casement's Amazon Journal
Conclusion
AfJfJnulix: Il<embc's Letter to 1\eu, ]osefJ/, Clark
Notes
llibliography
lnd('x
Vl!
IX
Xl
XIII
20
49
72
98
122
144
153
155
193
209
Figures
1.1 Portrait of Henry M. Stanley by Herbert Ward, from
Fiue Years with the Congo Cannibals (1890).
1.2 E.J. Glavc and his porters at the "Livingstone "rrcc",
29
July 1894, from Century (1896). C:omtesy of Cornell
University Library, i\'1aking of America Digital Collection. 43
2.1 "Jack Turns the Tables", from Herbert Strang, SamfJa:
A Story of the Ruhher Slaues of the Congo I 1906 ).
3.1 John H. Weeks, "The Yandjali Tally", BatJtist
Missionary "Herald", September 1907. Photograph
reproduced with the kind permission of BMS World
Mission.
3.2 Alice Seeley Harris, "Nsala of Wala with His
69
83
Daughter's Hand and Foot". Anti-Slauery International. 87
3.3 Swedish missionary holding mutilated arm of a boy.
Anti-Slauery International. 89
3.4 Body of man murdered by the rubber sentries. From
the Official Organ o( the Congo Reform Association.
April 1907. A nti-Slauery International. 90
4.1 "i\1ap of Europe Showing, in Red, the Proportionate
Area Covered hy the Congo Rivers and Its Affluents'',
from E.D. Morel, Red Rubber 11906). 100
4.2 Front cover of .John l-1arris, Portuguese Slauery:
Britain's Dilemma 11913). 112
4.3 "Skeleton of Slave on Path through the Hungry
Country", from Henry \f/. Nevinson, A Modern
Slauery I 1906 ). 11.>
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Abbreviations
ABJR:
AlA:
ASAPS:
BMS:
BMSa:
CBM:
EPRE:
HWN:
PAC:
PRO:
TNA:
Anglo-Belgian India-Rubber Co.
Association International Africainc
Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society archives,
Rhodes House, Oxford University
Baptist Missionary Society
Baptist i\1issionary Society archives, Angus Library, Regent's
Park, Oxford
Congo Balolo Mission
Emin Pasha Relief Expedition
Henry W. Nevinson papers, Post-medieval manuscripts,
Bodleian Library, Oxford
Peruvian Amazon Co.
Public Record Office
The N<ttional Archives
Note on Place Names
To avoid incongruities \Vith quotations from late nineteenth-century and
early twentieth-century sources, 1 use late nincteenth-cemury and early
twentieth-century names for places in the Congo, Angola, and the Puru-
mayo. If these arc known to be o s o l e t e ~ then I also give modern-day
place names in parenthesis fo!lov.'ing the hrst mention in each chapter
and in the Index.
Acknowledgments
I have accumulated a number of sizeable debts of gratit'tldc during the years
in v .-hich this research was written up as a PhD thesis and then converted
into its present form. The director of my studies at PhD level, Tim Youngs,
was, and continues to a constant source of encouragcrnent, guidance,
and a hove all great insight. Phil Leonard, who also supervised my studies,
gave incisive close readings of my thesis. As the examiners of my thesis,
Peter Hulme and Carl Thompson not only encouraged me to write this
book but also made helpful suggestions for it. The English department of
Nottingham Trent university, in particular its Centre for Travel \X'riting
Studies, was a supportive base for this research. At Erica \"'\fetter
and Liz Levine gave convivial advice to me at all stages of the production
of this hook.
A number of librarians and archivists also have given me their time
and expertise. I am grateful to the staff at Nottingham Trem University,
the University of Nottingham, the Wellcome Library for the History and
Understanding of Medicine, the National Archives, the British Library,
the British Library of Political and Economic Sciences, i\nri-Sbvcry Inter-
national, Angus Library of Regents Park College, Oxford, the Bodleian
Library and R bodes House Library of the University of Oxford, the Library
of Congress, Washington, DC, and the American Baptist Historical Soci-
ety, Atlanta, GA. I am much obllged to Roy Bridges and Charles Swais-
land for providing invaluable tips in navigating collections at The National
Archives and Rhodes J--louse, respectively. This book's notes and Bibliog-
raphy make clear which scholarship has contributed to my understanding
of its subject, hut here I should like to express my appreciation of !"he \Vork
of Angus Mitchell and, working together, SCarnas () Sloch::iin and i\1ichael
O'Sullivan, v.d10se diligent transcriptions and editing of Roger Casement's
various private writings from his Congo and Amazon travels have facili-
tated this research.
For their counsel and couches I thank Tara .i\1cGrath, Tim c;rimwood,
Joe Halls, Janine Dillon, and Alicia i\1oran. For their unconditional
port 1 thank Gemma, Steve, and Nunta\van. I ovve special reu.>gnition to
my wife, Antoinette, for her kindness, humour, and intelligence, as V.'ell as
XJY 1\rknotufr:dgmr:nts
much technical assisLJnce of my work. But above all, for every lesson that
no one else could I'C<lch, f !'hank my mother, Jacqui. It is to her. and the
memory of my father, A./lichacl, that I dedicate fhis hook.
The Art's and Humanities Research Council funded the research for my
PhD thesis. Quot;;Hions from The Amazon Journal ol Roger Casement, cd.
Angus Mitchell {Dublin: Lilliput, 1997) arc by permission of the Lilliput
Press of Dublin. Permission to quote from rhc Anti-Slavery and Aborigines
Protection Society archives is courtesy of Ami-Slavery International. Grate-
ful appreciation is expressed to Bi'v'15 \Xior!d Mission (Baptist Missionary
Society) of Didcot, UK, for permission to consult and select my own quota-
tions from their archive material which is housed at Regent\ Park College.
Quotations from the papers of Henry \'N'. Ncvinson arc coun-esy of the
Trustees of the l'v1ichael Aynon Estate. Figure 1.2 is reproduced courtesy of
Cornel! University Library, J\.1aking of America Digital Collection. Figure
3.1 is reproduced with the kind permission of BJ\1S \Xlorld Mission. Figures
3.2, 3 . .3. and 3.4 are reproduced courtesy of Anti-Slavery International.
Every endeavour has heen made to trace holders of copyright for all of the
manuscripfs quoted and images reproduced in this hook.
Introduction
That blessed v-..-ord "Empire" th;n bvars so paradoxical et rcscmhl8ncc
to charity! For if ch<Jrity hegins at "Empire'' begins in other
men's homes, and both may cover a multitude of sins. (Roger
mcnt, Speech from the Dock, 191h)
In the two decades before the First \Xlorld War, humanitarian organisations
in Britain mounted three large-scale movements against colonial exploita-
tion in territories outside of the British Empire: King Leopold I! of Bel-
gium's Congo Free State, Portuguese-ruled Angola and its islands,
and the Putumayo district of the Amazon rainforest. These campaigns were
for the most parr directed from v..rithin Britain by humanitarian le;1dcrs
working in concert-although, as Kevin Grant has shown, not ;:dways in
harmony-v-.rith politicians and government officials, religious bodies, and
industrialists who had economic interests in the three territories.' They
were also significantly influenced, and arguably only made possible, hy
travel reports of atrocities perpetrated upon the subjects of colonial rule.
Travellers' accounts were indispensable in the practical sense th<it they were
virtually the sole source of knowledge of relativciy inaccessible parts of
Central and Western Africa and the Amazon rainforest. But they were fur-
thermore important because of the particular kind of evidence dut they
offered. Thomas \f/. Lacquer writes that the detailed description of bodily
pain is the "sign of truth'', which "'engenderfsl compassion" that ''comes to
he understood as a moral imperative to undertake ameliorative action" in
modern humanitarian discourscs.
1
In providing eyewitness delineations of
acts of extraordinary physical violence, travellers' narratives enabled the
visu:disation of the suffering of little-known and geographically remote
others hy sympathetic readers in Europe and the USA. Desk-bound critics
of colonial violence, including the renowned authors Arthur Conan Doyle
and Mark Twain, paid homage to the descriptive power of travelling infor-
mants' testimonies, and they relied in large part upon extended quotations
from those sources in their puhlic<lf'ions.-' In these ways, they attributed the
status of authority and accuracy-truth-to travellers' accounts.
The present study examines narratives of travelling and \:v-itnessing that
played paramount roles in the movements against cblonial violence in the
Angola, and the Putumayo. Without disputing that these texts
afford much information about the real violence that occurred in the
ritories that they describe, this study asks what they can tel! us about the
writers and practices of travel that produced them, the cultures to which