Judges, an Officer of the Public Ministry and a Registrar, and hears all appeals from the judgments of the other Courts, and also from those given by Courts Martial against civilians who are not natives in those regions subjected to special rule.  Natives who commit offences against other natives, are left to be dealt with by the local Chief[2].  The Public Minister can however interfere if he thinks the crime will not be punished if left to the Chief.

The Public Ministry consists of a Procureur d’Etat appointed by the Sovereign, who acts in the Court of Appeal and of substitutes appointed by the Governor General, who act in the other Courts.  Their duty is to discover all infractions of the law in the whole territory of the State and to see that all decrees, arrests, ordinances and penal regulations are carried out.  They are especially instructed to arrange that any native who has been injured receives full compensation before any fine is taken to the profit of the State.

Any region can be placed under military law by a decree of the Governor General.  Civilians however, are only subject to the ordinary penal laws, and those who are not natives, can appeal against any decision of a Court Martial.  In practice these simple methods work admirably and it is difficult to understand why they should not be equally successful in old civilised countries and a good substitute for the complicated and cumbrous machinery of to-day.

[Illustration:  THE NATIVE HOSPITAL AT BOMA.]

FOOTNOTES: 

[1] This list is taken from Justice Repressive (Etat Independant du Congo) and is based on a Decree of 1896.  Since then other Territorial Courts have been or are about to be added.

[2] Some of the greater Chiefs and Sultans have the power to inflict the death sentence.

CHAPTER II.

Banana to Leopoldville.

The amount of sand in the bath water on the morning of July 12th indicated that we were approaching the mouth of a large river.  The Atlantic indeed, which had varied in colour from dirty green near the English Channel to ultra marine at Teneriffe, was now of a fine amber tint.  As yet land was not in sight; it was comparatively cool and a slight breeze was blowing.  About midday the low lying coast of Central Africa became visible as a dark line and half an hour afterwards a simple break could be seen in this line which was the clearly defined mouth of the Congo.  On reference to the chart it became clear that although the lower Congo forms a delta in some places twenty miles in width, all the streams coalesce and flow through an opening not more than five miles wide.  On both sides the coast is low lying and well wooded.