[2] On 2 March 1883 Pagels took leave from the Swedish army and entered the services of the International African Association (AIA).

[1] He was one of a number of Swedes recruited for service in the Congo by King Leopold II of Belgium, apparently on the advice of Henry Morton Stanley, who considered them capable people.

On 12 June 1883 Pagels and Charles Liebrechts left Vivi, at that time the AIA headquarters, en route to Léopoldville.

At the end of August 1883 Liebrechts visited it on the way up the Congo River to help Êmile Brunfaut in Bolobo station in Bayanzi country, which had been burned down.

[1] On 13 May 1885 Sir Francis de Winton sent Pagels to Ecuador Station to replace Guillaume Casman, who had died.

If at the conclusion of a purchase, or for that matter at any other time, one can cheat one's neighbor, one is considered to have a superior personality... As a rule, the natives were not allowed to cross the threshold of the white man's house, the reason for this is thievishness, which constitutes one of the basic traits in the negro character".

[1] He returned to the Congo in 1890 as a private individual to start trade relations for a Swedish company.