An Original Mistake
“This work of ’civilization’ is an enormous and continual butchery.” “All the facts we brought forward in this cham-
ber were denied at first most energetically; but later, little by little, they were proved by documents and by official texts.”
“The practice of cutting off hands is said to be contrary to instructions; but you are content to say that indulgence must be shown and that this bad habit must be corrected
‘little by little’ and you plead, moreover, that only the hands of fallen enemies are cut off, and that if hands are cut off
‘enemies’ not quite dead, and who, after recovery, have had the bad taste to come to the missionaries and show them their stumps, it was due to an original mistake in thinking that they were dead.” From Debate in Bel-
gian Parliament, July, 1903.