Within the limits of the Congo Free State, as arranged by the Berlin Congress, was a great district often marked Kasongo or Manyema in the map of Africa, over which the Government of the Congo Free State had no control, except through Tippu Tib, Raschid, and one or two other Arabs, who were appointed officials in their own country by the Congo Free State Government. In this great district a powerful Arab organisation was established, which was in constant communication with Zanzibar by the direct road through Ujiji, and by other more roundabout routes. This Arab power recognised that as soon as the European influence was sufficiently strong in then Congo Basin a collision between the two forces was inevitable.

The Arabs, moreover, realised that, in the event of a European success, the greater part of the ivory and rubber