On his journey to Leopold's Congo in 1890...

"There were instances in which Mr. Henry M. Stanley sent one white man, with four or five Zanzibar soldiers, to make treaties with native chiefs. ... All the sleight-of-hand tricks had been carefully rehearsed, and he [the white man] was now ready for his work. A number of electric batteries had been purchased in London, and when attached to the arm under the coat, communicated with a band of ribbon which passed over the palm of the white brother's hand, and when he gave the black brother a cordial grasp of the hand the black brother was greatly surprised to find his white brother so strong, that he nearly knocked him off his feet in giving him the hand of fellowship. When the native inquired about the disparity of strength between himself and his white brother, he was told that the white man could pull up trees and perform the most prodigious feats of strength.

Next came the lens act. The white brother took from his pocket a cigar, carelessly bit off the end, held up his glass to the sun and complaisantly smoked his cigar to the great amazement and terror of his black brother. The white man explained his intimate relation to the sun, and declared that if he were to request him to burn up his black brother's village it would be done.

The third act was the gun trick. The white man took a percussion cap gun, tore the end of the paper which held the powder to the bullet, and poured the powder and paper into the gun, at the same time slipping the bullet into the sleeve of the left arm. A cap was placed upon the nipple of the gun, and the black brother was implored to set up off ten yards and shoot at his white brother to demonstrate his statements that he was a spirit, and, therefore, could not be killed. After much begging the the black brother aims the gun at his white brother, pulls the trigger, the gun is discharged, the white man stoops, and takes the bullet from his shoe!

By such means as these, too silly and disgusting to mention, and a few boxes of gin, whole villages have been signed away to your Majesty."

- George Washington Williams, 1890, "An Open Letter to His Serene Majesty Leopold II". Williams, an African-American civil war veteran, journeyed to the Congo in 1890 (the same year Conrad visited). He came, like Conrad, expecting to see the fruits of colonialism - hospitals, schools, gay adventuring. Instead he walked into one of the largest genocides in history: over a twenty-three year period, an estimated ten million Congo natives died from starvation, disease, and murder. This genocide was commanded by Leopold II of Belgium, who reaped humongous profits from Congo rubber and ivory.