Kong

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

a district of west Africa, along the upper course of the Comoe. The district is a plateau, whose average elevation is 2,300 feet above sea-level, rising in a few groups of peaks up to 6,000 feet. The Kong Mountains of the geographers are isolated granitic peaks only 300 feet above the plateau. The people, Mandingoes by race and Mohammedans by religion, manufacture cotton stuffs and carry on indigo dyeing. The capital of the state is the town of Kong, population, about 12,000. This district was declared a protectorate of France in 1889. KONG-FU-TSE. See CONFUCIUS. KONGO or CONGO FREE STATE, or BELGIAN KONGO, a territory in Africa which, recognized by the European powers assembled at the conference at Berlin in 1885, has the following ital of the state ocated about 188 Bomba The state by the Mahrattas, produces cereals, Population of 000. Population of 00. IN, a town of Bohe 33 miles E. by S. of battle was fought inity between 54, Marshal Daun and ander Frederick II eated with a total loss Austrians lost 8,000. mar, a city in Alsace. OGNE. -lösh'an), a linguis- American Indians. 30 or 12 tribes, numnearly all of whors J-ma'), a river of wing from the Stanmiles N. E. of the is only free from ice the year. Its waters and fortress in Schült, in the of the strong in the end of greatly enlarged Matthias Corvints; -1809. Though taken 1527, it successfully in 15-19, 1594, and it for the Hungarustrians from October, , 1849. rict of west Africa, of the Comoe. average sen-level, sup to ns of the tic peaks au. The Mohammanufacture cotton on indigo dying. The the town of Kong, 12,000. This district otectorate of France in the See CONFUCIUS. ONGO FREE STATE, CONGO, & territory in cognized by the Euro embled at the cor fer- 1885, has the following boundaries: The N. bank from the principal products are ivory, palm oil, mouth, with a strip of territory averag- palm kernels, india-rubber, various gums, ing about 60 miles in width, as far as Manyanga, about 240 miles from Banana, the entrance part of the river. At Manyanga the French territory comand continues along the N. mences bank, passing Stanley Pool far as 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 declarations 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 se, on the right bank of the river. The state has stations at Banana, Vivi, Boma, and Matadi on the Lower Kongo; at Lukungu, Issangila, Manyanga, Lutete on the Middle Kongo; and at Leopoldville, Kinshassa, 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 adcoinage and ministration. It has a postal service, and has entered into the Postal Union. The inhabitants of the Kongo basin belong to what has been termed the Bantu a happy, inoffensive They are race. people, not so dark as the Fan or Ethiopian. Split up into numberless tribal communities, they can offer but slight resistance to the advance of civilization; and as they are born traders, they take The Swaheli very readily to commerce. language has much in common with the Kishi Kongo, or language spoken on the W. coast. The religion is mainly fetichism; and domestic slavery exists everywhere. 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 independent state. The climate of the Kongo State is tropical. The interior is more healthful than on the coast. The KÖNIGSBERG ground nuts, camwood, beeswax, orchilla; also coffee, tobacco, hill rice, maize, and sorghum. Tropical fruits, such as bananas, pineapples, and mangos, abound.