Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 05.djvu/441

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LEFT
365
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KONGO 365 KONIGSBERG boundaries: The N. bank from the niouth, with a strip of territory averag- ing about 60 miles in width, as far as Manyanga, about 240 miles 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 Ion. 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 more healthful than on the coast. The Vol. principal products are ivory, palm oil, palm kernels, india-rubber, 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. KONGO RIVEB, a Central African river, which Stanley proposed to call the Livingstone. At its mouth on the At- lantic seaboard the Kongo is an immense body of water, nearly 10 miles wide, and over 1,300 feet in depth. Its upper coui-se remained unknown till Stanley identified the Kongo with the Lualaba, and so connected it immediately with the great system of lakes S. and W. of Lake Tanganyika, and less directly with Tan- ganyika itself. From the Chibale Moun- tains to its mouth it has a length of 2,900 miles; by its great and numerous tributaries (such as the Alima, Kwango, Kasai, Ruru) it is said to drain an area of 1,300,000 square miles. It has but one mouth and no delta, and brings down a volume of water exceeded only by the Amazon. From the great lake-like ex- panse of Stanley Pool vessels can steam 1,000 miles into the heart of Africa. KONIGGRATZ (-grats), a town of Bohemia, Austria, on the Elbe; 73 miles E. by N. of Prague. A signal victory was gained here by 240,000 Prussians over 220,000 Austrians on July 3, 1866. The Austrians name the battle Sadowa from an adjoining village nearer the cen- ter of the battlefield. Pop., 11,000. KONIGSBERG, a town and fortress in East Prussia, Germany, on the Pregel river; 366 miles N. E. of Berlin. The original nucleus of the place was the blockhouse built in 1255 by the Knights of the Teutonic Order. It was the head- quarters of the grandmaster of the Or- der, and from 1525 to 1618 was the resi- dence of the Dukes of Prussia. In the castle chapel (built in 1592) Frederick I. crowned himself first king of Prussia in 1701, and William I. was crowned in 1861. The Kneiphof parish church is a Gothic structure, erected in 1333; in an adjoining building Kant (q. v.) lies buried. The university was founded as a Lutheran institution in 1544. The towTi was first fortified in 1626. By the treaty signed here in 1656 the duchy of East Prussia acknowledged the suzer- ainty of Sweden, instead of Poland. Konigsberg was occupied by the Russians in 1758 and by the French in 1807. In the World War the place suffered by the Russian invasion in 1914, but the (Ger- mans soon recovered the town. Pop. about 250,000. V— Cic— X