He entered the service of the Congo Free State, under the control of Belgium, and arrived in Vivi on 12 June 1883.

Henry Morton Stanley, King Leopold's colonial agent in the Congo, was impressed by the young Glave.

When his contract with the Congo Free State expired in April 1886, he returned to England on June 10, 1886.

Glave then offered his services to the American diplomat and businessman Henry Shelton Sanford and was back in the Congo in 1887.

[3]: 39 After his travels on the American continent, Glave wanted to go back to Africa, this time to report on the slave trade.

Poet Richard Watson Gilder wrote of his death, "Hero and martyr of humanity, // ⁠Dead yesterday on Afric's shore of doom!