Narrative of an expedition to the Zambesi and its tributaries and of the discovery of the lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, 1858-1864 / by David and Charles Livingstone

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Bound by rooks (Oxford) Ltd.

I

Preface

It has been my object in this work to give as clear an account as I was able of tracts of country previously unexplored, with their river systems, natural productions, and capabilities ; and to bring before my countrymen, and all others interested in the cause of humanity, the misery entailed by the slave-trade in its inland phases; a subject on which I and my companions are the first who have had any opportunities of forming a judgment. The eight years spent in Africa, since my last work was published, have not, I fear, improved my power of writing English; but I hope that, whatever my descriptions want in clearness, or literary skill, may in a measure be compensated by the novelty of the scenes described, and the additional information afforded on that curse of Africa, and that shame, even now, in the 19th century, of an European nation, — the slave-trade.

I took the " Lady Nyassa" to Bombay for the express purpose of selling her, and might without any difficulty have done so ; but with the thought of parting with her arose, more strongly than ever, the feeling of disinclination to abandon the East Coast of Africa to the Portuguese and slave-trading, and I determined to run home and consult my friends before I allowed the little vessel to pass from my hands. After, therefore, having put two Ajawa lads to school under the eminent Missionary the Rev. Dr. Wilson, and having provided satisfactorily for the native crew, I started homewards with the three white sailors, and reached London July 20th,

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PREFACE.

1864. Mr. and Mrs. Webb, my much-loved friends, wrote to Bombay inviting me, in the event of my coming to England, to make Newstead Abbey my headquarters, and on my arrival renewed their iuvitation : and though, when I accepted it, I had no intention of remaining so long with my kind-hearted generous friends, I stayed with them until April, 1865, and under their roof transcribed from my own and my brother's journal the whole of this present book. It is with heartfelt gratitude I would record their unwearied kindness. My acquaintance with Mr. Webb began in Africa, where he was a daring and successful hunter, and his continued friendship is most valuable, because he has seen missionary work, and he would not accord his respect and esteem to me had he not believed that I, and my brethren also, were to be looked on as honest men earnestly trying to do our duty.

The Government have supported the proposal of the Eoyal Geographical Society made by my friend Sir Roderick Murchison, and have united with that body to aid me in another attempt to open Africa to civilizing influences, and a valued private friend has given a thousand pounds for the same object. I propose to go inland, north of the territory which the Portuguese in Europe claim, and endeavour to commence that system on the East which has been so eminently successful on the West Coast ; a system combining the repressive efforts of H.M. cruisers with lawful trade and Christian Missions— the moral and material results of which have been so gratifying. I hope to ascend the Rovuma, or some other river North of Cape Delgado, and, in addition to my other work, shall strive, by passing along the Northern end of Lake Nyassa and round the Southern end of Lake Tanganyika, to ascertain the watershed of that part of Africa. In so doing, I have no wish to unsettle what with so much toil and danger

POSTSCRIPT TO PREFACE.

vii was accomplished by Speke and Grant, but rather to confirm their illustrious discoveries.

I have to acknowledge the obliging readiness of Lord Eussell in lending me the drawings taken by the artist who was in the first instance attached to the Expedition. These sketches, with photographs by Charles Livingstone and Dr. Kirk, have materially assisted in the illustrations. I would also very sincerely thank my friends Professor Owen and Mr. Oswell for many valuable hints and other aid in the preparation of this volume.

New stead Abbey, April 16, 1865.

POSTSCRIPT TO PKEFACE.

The credit which I was fain to award to the Lisbon statesmen for a sincere desire to put an end to the slave-trade, is, I regret to find, totally undeserved. They have employed one Mons. Lacerda, to try <o extinguish the facts adduced by me before the meeting of the " British Associa- . tion for the Advancement of Science," at Bath, by a series of papers in the Portuguese Official Journal ; and their Minister for Foreign Affairs has since devoted some of the funds of his Government to the translation and circulation of Mons. Lacerda's articles in the form of an English tract. Nothing is more conspicuous in this official document than the extreme ignorance displayed of the geography of the country of which they pretend that they possess not only the knowledge, but also the dominion. A vague rumour, cited by some old author, about two marshes below Murchison's Cataracts, is considered conclusive evidence

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POSTSCRIPT TO PREFACE.

that the ancient inhabitants of Senna, a village on the Zambesi, found no difficulty in navigating the Shire to Lake Nyassa up what modern travellers find to be an ascent of 1200 feet in 35 miles of latitude. A broad shallow lake, with a strong current, which Senhor Candido declared he had visited N.W. of Tette, is assumed to be the narrow deep Lake Nyassa, without current, and about N.N.E. of the same point. Great offence is also taken because the discovery of the main sources of the Nile has been ascribed to Speke and Grant, instead of to Ptolemy and F. Lobo.

But the main object of the Portuguese Government is not geographical. It is to bolster up that pretence to power which has been the only obstacle to the establishment of lawful commerce and friendly relations with the native inhabitants of Eastern Africa. The following work contains abundant confirmation of all that was advanced by me at the Bath meeting of the British Association ; and I may here add that it is this unwarranted assumption of power over 1360 miles of coast — from English Kiver to Cape Delgado, where the Portuguese have in fact little real authority — which perpetuates the barbarism of the inhabitants. The Portuguese interdict all foreign commerce, except at a very few points where they have established customhouses, and even at these, by an exaggerated and obstructive tariff and differential duties, they completely shut out the natives from any trade, except that in slaves.

Looking from South to North, let us glance at the enormous seaboard which the Portuguese in Europe endeavour to make us believe belongs to them. Delagoa Bay has a small fort called Lorenzo Marques, but nothing beyond the walls. At Inhambane they hold a small strip of land by sufferance of the natives. Sofala is in ruins, and from Quillimane north-

POSTSCEIPT TO PEEFACE. ix

wards for 690 miles, they have only one small stockade, protected by an armed launch in the mouth of the Eiver Angoxa to prevent foreign vessels from trading there. Then at Mosambique they have the little island on which the fort stands, and a strip about three miles long on the mainland, on which they have a few farms, which are protected from hostility only by paying the natives an annual tribute, which they call " having the blacks in their pay." The settlement has long been declining in trade and importance. It is garrisoned by a few hundred sickly soldiers shut up in the fort, and even with a small coral island near can hardly be called secure. On the island of Oibo, or Iboe, an immense number of slaves are collected, but there is little trade of any kind. At Pomba Bay a small fort was made, but it is very doubtful whether it still exists; the attempt to form a settlement there having entirely failed. They pay tribute to the Zulus, for the lands they cultivate on the right bank of the Zambesi ; and the general effect of the pretence to power and obstruction to commerce, is to drive the independent native chiefs to the Arab dhow slave-trade, as the only one open to them.

It is well known to the English Government, from reliable documents at the Admiralty and Foreign Office, that no longer ago than November, 1864, two months after my speech was delivered at Bath, when the punishment of the perpetrators of an outrage on the crew of the cutter of H.M.S. "Lyra," near a river 45 miles S.W. of Mosambique, was demanded by H.M.S. "Wasp," at Mosambique, the present Governor-General declared that he had no power over the natives there. They have never been subdued, and being a fine energetic race, would readily enter into commercial treaties with foreigners, were it not for the false assertion of power by which the Portuguese, with the tacit consent of

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POSTSCRIPT TO PREFACE.

European Governments, shut them out from commerce and every civilizing influence.

This Portuguese pretence to dominion is the curse of the negro race on the East Coast of Africa, and it would soon fall to the ground, were it not for the moral support it derives from the respect paid to it by our own flag. The Emperor Napoleon III. disregarded it in the case of the " Charles et Georges," while only by the aid of English sailors has the Government of Mosarabique, on more than one occasion, been saved from being overturned. Our squadron on the East Coast costs over 70,000£. a year, and, by our acquiescence in the sham sovereignty of the Portuguese, we effect only a partial suppression of the slave-trade, and none of the commercial benefits which have followed direct dealing with the natives on the West Coast. A new law for the abolition of slavery has been proposed by the King of Portugal ; but it inspires me with no confidence, as no means have ever been taken to put similar enactments already passed into execution, and we can only view this as a new bid for still further acquiescence in a system which perpetuates barbarism. Mons. Lacerda has unwittingly shown, by his eager advocacy, that the real sentiments of his employers are decidedly pro-slavery. The great fact that the Americans have rid themselves of the incubus of slavery, and will probably not tolerate the continuance of the murderous slave-trade by the Portuguese nation, has done more to elicit their king's recent speech than the opinions of his ministry.

Introduction

Page

Hopes of the Authoe. Failure of search of Portuguese for Ophir. Early Catholic Missions. Sir E. Murchison's theory. Lord Palmerston's policy. Objects of Expedition .. .. .. 1

CHAPTEE I.

Concealment of Mouths of Zambesi by Portuguese. The Zambesi and its banks. "Free Emigrants." Mariano. Senna and its "one virtue/' Senhor Ferrao. Major

SlCARD AND MAKOLOLO. LuPATA GORGE .. .. .. .. 14

CHAPTEE II.

Meet Makololo. Superstitions. Voluntary slavery. Tette, plants, coal, gold, and iron. Kebrabasa. Morumbwa 42

CHAPTEE III.

Native musicians. African fever. Eiver Shire, first ascent of. murchison's cataracts. second trip up the Shire. Lake Shirwa. Eeturn to Tette. Steamer, failure of 63

CHAPTEE IY.

Third trip up the Shire. Mount Morambala. Hot fountain. Portuguese geographical knowledge ! Shire marshes. Birds. Brackish soil and cotton. Chibisa 87

CHAPTEE V.

Manganja highlands. Belief in a Supreme Being. Discovery of Lake Nyassa. Dr. Eoscher 104

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE VI.

Page

Beturn to Vessel. Direct route from Chibisa's to Tette. Off to Kongone. Eeturn to Tette. Banyai and Portuguese. Tette, laws and society. Zulu taxgatherers 130

CHAPTEE VII.

Start to take Makololo home. New path. Survey of

Kebrabasa completed. Sandia's report 155

CHAPTEE VIII.

Chicova. Native Discussions. The march. " The fear of you and the dread of you." solo and duet by our

DONKEYS 174

CHAPTEE IX.

Tette grey sandstone and coal. Sagacity of Elephants.

Ants. Salt-making. African Empires. Sequasha .. 184

CHAPTEE X.

Zumbo. Catholic missions, their failure. Fruits. " Smokes."

E. Chongwe. E. Kafue 203

CHAPTEE XI.

Mission to Moselekatse. The Bawe and Baenda pezi. Batoka highlands. Dogged by the slave-trade. Attempt TO SHUT UP THE EOVUMA. ElRST GLIMPSE OF

Mosi-oa-tunya 219

CHAPTEE XIL

MOSI-OA-TUNYA 250

CHAPTEE XIII.

Servitude of interior. Sekeletu's leprosy. Doctress and doctors. Trade with west coast. Mr. Helmore's party 262

CHAPTEE XIV.

The Makololo. Dr. Livingstone revisits Linyanti. Native

doubts of the Eesurrection 281

CONTENTS. • xiii

CHAPTEE XV.

Page

Departure prom Sesheke. Kalunda and Moamba Falls.

Native fruits. Golongwe. Sinamane 303

CHAPTEE XVI.

MOEMBA. KARIBA RAPIDS. EAPIDS OF KeBRABASA."7 EeACH

Tette 23rd November, 1860 317

CHAPTEE XVII.

Down lro Kongone. The end of the " Asthmatic." Kon-

GONE AND THE MANGROVE SWAMPS 338

CHAPTEE XVIII.

The "Pioneer." Bishop Mackenzie. The Eovuma. The

Shire. Slaves liberated. The Ajawa. Magomero .. 348

CHAPTEE XIX.

Start again for Nyassa. Description of Lake and its shores. Horrors of inland slave-trade. Mazitu.

Arab geography 365

CHAPTEE XX.

Napoleon III. Arrival of H.M.S. "Gorgon." Death of Bishop Mackenzie and of Mr. Burrup. Eeverend J. Stewart. Death of Mrs. Livingstone 400

CHAPTEE XXI.

Connivance of Governor - General in slave-trade. Launch of the "Lady Nyassa." ^Up the Eovuma again. eocky barrier. eeturn to ploneer 418

CHAPTEE XXII.

quillimane. eeturn to shupanga. famine, the blshop's grave. Mr. Thornton: his death. Desolation. Separation. Dr. Meller 445 xiv

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Page

Start for upper cataracts of Shire. African poisons.

Eecall of Expedition 464

CHAPTER XXIV.

Our English sailors. Kirk's range. Ajawa migrations. The Negro type. A superhuman Instructor 481

CHAPTER XXV.

Kota-kota Bat. Africans and Mohammedans. African religion. Rains. Inundations. Climate. Watershed. Native geography 511

CHAPTER XXVI.

Reasons for returning. African Women, their employments .. .. 539

CHAPTER XXVII.

Resemblance of African Hunters to Egyptian figures.

Dialects. Direction of wind. Wet clothes and fever 546

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Rest of tropical trees. Bishop Mackenzie's successor. Abandonment of Mission. Zambesi in flood. Taken in tow. Hurricane. Arrival at Bombay 569

CHAPTER XXIX.

Results of Expedition. Slave-trade a barrier to all progress. The African. African stagnation. Statistics of Sierra Leone. Expeditions and Settlements 585

LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS.

1. Bird's-eye View of the Great Cataracts of the Zambesi .. .. Frontispiece.

2. Pandanus or Screw Palm, covered with climbing plants, near the

Kongone Canal of the Zambesi .. ..Thos. Baines, ft. To face page 19

3. View of Mazaro. — Fight between Portuguese and Rebels in the

distance .. .. „ 28

4. Dance of Landeens, or Zulus, come to lift the Annual Tribute

from the Portuguese at Shupanga .. Thos. Baines, ft. ,, 30

5. The Grave of Mrs. Livingstone under the Baobab-tree, near to

Shupanga House 31

6. The Ma- Robert in the Zambesi above Senna, with the saddle-

shaped Hill Kevramisa in the distance . . Thos. Baines, ft. „ 34

7. Landeens, or Zulus, who lift Tribute of the Portuguese at Senna,

exhibiting War Exercises Thos. Baines, ft. „ 36

8. Weapons for killing the Hippopotamus 38

9. View of a portion of Kebrabasa Rapids , . .. To face page 53

10. Women with Water-pots, listening to the music of the Marimba,

Sansa, and Pan's Pipes „ 63

1 1 . Mamvira Cataract, the first or lowest of Murchison's Cataracts . . „ 78

12. African Fiddle of one String 93

13. View of Steamer, Traps, and dead Hippopotamus 95

14. Fish-basket 100

15. Native web, and Weaver smoking the huge tobacco-pipe of the country .. 112

16. Blacksmith's Forge and Bellows of Goatskin , .. 113

17. Pelele, or Lip-ring of Manganja Woman .. .. 115

18. " Goree," or Slave-stick 125

19. Wedding Procession at Tette .. .. Thos. Baines, ft. To face page 144

20. Group of Hippopotami 186

21. Tunnels of Ants 188

22. Musical Instruments 237

23. Bellows and other Tools 314

24. Waist-belt 316

25. Gang of Captives met at Mbame's on their way to Tette .. To face page 356

26. An old Manganja Woman, showing the Pelele or Lip-ring and the tattooing

in intersecting lines on face, arms, and body 394

27. Beehive. Baskets employed by Women to catch Fish . . .. To face page 439

28. View of Quillimane and of the " Pioneer" 446

29. Poisoned Arrows 466

30. Females Hoeing 499

31. Chia Hand Net 506

32. Manganja Spears 507

33. Woman grinding 543

34. Native Mill for grinding Corn 544

35. Maravi Bow 557

Map to Illustrate Dr. Livingstone's Travels . . At the end.

THE

ZAMBESI AND ITS TRIBUTARIES.

INTBODUCTION.

Objects of the Expedition — Portuguese Expedition in search of the Ophir of King Solomon — India and not Africa indicated by the merchandise sought — Failure in Sofalla — Second Portuguese Expedition after gold-mines — Eepulsed by large bodies of natives — Catholic Missions — Want of reliable information regarding them — Erroneous ideas as to the interior of Africa — Sir Roderick Murchison's hypothesis correct — Decrease of slave-trade, and increase of lawful commerce on West Coast owing to Lord Palmerston's policy — Fatality of the murderer attends the slave-trader — Opinion of Rev. J. L. Wilson on the slave-trade — The operations of our cruisers — 111 effects of sealing up the East Coast — Instructions to the Expedition.

When first I determined on publishing the narrative of my 6 Missionary Travels/ I had a great misgiving as to whether the criticism my endeavours might provoke would be friendly or the reverse, more particularly as I felt that I had then been so long a sojourner in the wilderness, as to be quite a stranger to the British public. But I am now in this, my second essay at authorship, cheered by the conviction that very many readers, who are persoually unknown to me, will receive this narrative with the kindly consideration and allowances of friends ; , and that many more, under the genial influences of an innate love of liberty, and of a desire to see the same social and religious blessings they themselves enjoy, disseminated throughout the world, will sympathize with me in the efforts by which I have striven,

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INTRODUCTION.

however imperfectly, to elevate the position and character of our fellow-men in Africa. This knowledge makes me doubly anxious to render my narrative acceptable to all my readers ; but, in the absence of any excellence in literary composition, the natural consequence of my pursuits, I have to offer only a simple account of a mission which, with respect to the objects proposed to be thereby accomplished, formed a noble contrast to some of the earlier expeditions to Eastern Africa. I believe that the information it will give, respecting the people visited and the countries traversed, will not be materially gainsaid by any future commonplace traveller like myself, who may be blest with fair health and a gleam of sunshine in his breast. This account is written in the earnest hope that it may contribute to that information which will yet cause the great and fertile continent of Africa to be no longer kept wantonly sealed, but made available as the scene of European enterprise, and will enable its people to take a place among the nations of the earth, thus securing the happiness and prosperity of tribes now sunk in barbarism or debased by slavery ; and, above all, I cherish the hope that it may lead to the introduction of the blessings of the Gospel.

The first expedition sent to East Africa, after the Portuguese had worked a passage round the Cape, was instituted under the auspices of the Government of Portugal, for the purpose, it is believed, of discovering the land of Ophir, made mention of in Holy Scripture as the country whence King Solomon obtained sandal-wood, ivory, apes, peacocks, and gold. The terms used by the Jews to express the first four articles had, according to Max Miiller, no existence in the Hebrew language, but were words imported into it from the Sanscrit. It is curious then, that the search was not directed to the Coast of India, — more particularly as Sanscrit was

INTRODUCTION.

known on the Malabar Coast, — and there also peacocks and sandal-wood are met with in abundance. The Portuguese, like some others of more modern times, were led to believe that Sofalla, because sometimes pronounced Zophar by the Arabs, from being the lowest or most southerly port they visited, was identical with the Ophir alluded to in Sacred History.

Eastern Africa had been occupied from the most remote times by traders from India and the Bed Sea. Vasco da Gama, in 1497-8, found them firmly established at Mosambique, and, after reaching India, he turned with longing eyes from Calicut towards Sofalla, and actually visited it in 1502. As the Scriptural Ophir, it was expected to be the most lucrative of all the Portuguese stations; and, under the impression that an important settlement could be established there, the Portuguese conquered, at great loss of both men and money, the district in which the gold-washings were situated ; but, in the absence of all proper machinery, a vast amount of labour returned so small an amount of gain, that they abandoned them in disgust.

The next expedition, consisting of three ships and a thousand men, mostly gentlemen volunteers, left Lisbon in 1569 for the conquest of the gold mines or washings of the Chief of Monomotapa, west of Tette, and of those in Manica, still further west, but in a more southerly direction ; and also to find a route to the west coast. In this last object they failed ; and to this day it has been accomplished by only one European, and that an Englishman. The expedition was commanded by Francisco Barreto, and abundantly supplied with horses, asses, camels, and provisions. Ascending the Zambesi as far as Senna, they found many Arab and other traders already settled there, who received the strangers with great hospitality. The horses, however,

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INTRODUCTION.

having # passed through a district abounding with tsetse, an insect whose bite is fatal to domestic animals, soon showed the emaciation peculiar to the poison; and Senna being notoriously unhealthy, the sickness of both men and horses aroused Barreto's suspicion that poison had been administered by the inhabitants, most of whom, consequently, he put to the sword or blew away from his guns. Marching beyond Senna with a party five hundred and sixty strong, he and his men suffered terribly from hunger and thirst, and, after being repeatedly assaulted by a large body of natives, the expedition was compelled to return without ever reaching the gold-mines which Barreto so eagerly sought.

Previous to this, however, devoted Koman Catholic missionaries had penetrated where an army could not go ; for Senhor Bordalo, in his excellent Historical Essays, mentions that the Jesuit father Gon^alo da Silveira had already suffered martyrdom by command of the Chief of Monomotapa. Indeed, missionaries of that bodv of Christians established themselves in a vast number of places in Eastern Africa, as the ruins of mission stations still testify ; but, not having succeeded in meeting with any reliable history of the labours of these good men, it is painful for me to be unable to contradict the calumnies which Portuguese writers still heap on their memory. So far as the impression left on the native mind goes, it is decidedly favourable to their zeal and piety ; while the writers referred to roundly assert that the missionaries engaged in the slave-trade ; which is probably as false as the more modern scandals occasionally retailed against their Protestant brethren. Philanthropists sometimes err in accepting the mere gossip of coast villages as facts, when asserting the atrocities of our countrymen abroad ; while others, pretending to regard all philanthropy as weakness,

INTRODUCTION.

yet practising that silliest of all hypocrisies, the endeavour to appear worse than they are, accept and publish the mere brandy-and-water twaddle of immoral traders, against a body of men who, as a whole, are an honour to human kind. In modern missionary literature, now widely spread, we have a record which will probably outlive all misrepresentation ; and it is much to be regretted that there is no available Catholic literature of the same nature, and that none of the translations which may have been made into the native tongues can now be consulted. We cannot believe that these good men would risk their lives for the unholy gains which, even were they lawful, by the rules of their order they could not enjoy ; but it would be extremely interesting to all their successors to know exactly what were the real causes of their failure in perpetuating the faith.

In order that the following narrative may be clearly understood, it is necessary to call to mind some things which took place previous to the Zambesi Expedition being sent out. Most geographers are aware that, before the discovery of Lake Ngami and the well watered country in which the Makololo dwell, the idea prevailed that a large part of the interior of Africa consisted of sandy deserts, into which rivers ran and were lost. During my journey in 1852-6, from sea to sea, across the south intertropical part of the continent, it was found to be a well watered country, with large tracts of fine fertile soil covered with forest, and beautiful grassy valleys, occupied by a considerable population ; and one of the most wonderful waterfalls in the world was brought to light. The peculiar form of the continent was then ascertained to be an elevated plateau, somewhat depressed in the centre, and with fissures in the sides by which the rivers escaped to the sea ; and this great fact in physical

INTRODUCTION.

geography can never be referred to without calling to mind the remarkable hypothesis by which the distinguished President of the Eoyal Geographical Society (Sir Roderick I. Murchison) clearly indicated this peculiarity, before it was verified by actual observation of the altitudes of the country and by the courses of the rivers. New light was thrown on other portions of the continent by the famous travels of Dr. Barth, by the researches of the Church of England Missionaries Krapf, Erkhardt, and Rebman, by the persevering efforts of Dr. Baikie, the last martyr to the climate and English enterprise, by the journey of Erancis Galton, and by the most interesting discoveries of Lakes Tanganyika and Victoria Nyanza by Captain Burton, and by Captain Speke, whose untimely end we all so deeply deplore. Then followed the researches of Van der Decken, Thornton, and others ; and last of all the grand discovery of the main source of the Nile, which every Englishman must feel an honest pride in knowing was accomplished by our gallant countrymen, Speke and Grant. The fabulous torrid zone, of parched and burning sand, was now proved to be a well watered region resembling North America in its fresh- water lakes, and India in its hot humid lowlands, jungles, ghauts, and cool highland plains.

In our exploration the chief object in view was not to discover objects of nine days' wonder, to gaze and be gazed at by barbarians ; but to note the climate, the natural productions, the local diseases, the natives and their relation to the rest of the world ; all which were observed with that peculiar interest which, as regards the future, the first white man cannot but feel in a continent whose history is only just beginning. When proceeding to the West Coast, in order to find a path to the sea by which lawful commerce might

INTRODUCTION. 7

be introduced to aid missionary operations, it was quite striking to observe, several hundreds of miles from the ocean, the very decided influence of that which is known as Lord Palmerston's policy. Piracy had been abolished, and the slave-trade so far suppressed, that it was spoken of by Portuguese, who had themselves been slave-traders, as a thing of the past. Lawful commerce had increased from an annual total of 20,000?. in ivory and gold-dust, to between two and three millions, of which one million was in palm oil to our own country. Over twenty Missions had been established, with schools, in which more than twelve thousand pupils were taught. Life and property were rendered secure on the Coast, and comparative peace imparted to millions of people in the interior, and all this at a time when, by the speeches of influential men in England, the world was given to understand that the English cruisers had done nothing but aggravate the evils of the slave-trade. It is so reasonable to expect that self-interest would induce the slave-trader to do his utmost to preserve the lives by which he makes his gains, that men yielded ready credence to the plausible theory; but the atrocious waste of human life was just as great when the slave-trade was legal; it always has been, and must be, marked by the want of foresight characteristic of the murderer. Every one wonders why he, who has taken another's life, did not take this, that, or the other precaution to avoid detection ; and every one may well wonder why slave-traders have always, by over-crowding and all its evils, acted so much in direct opposition to their own interests, but it is the fatality of the murderer ; the loss of life from this cause, simply baffles exaggeration.

On this subject the opinion of the Eev. J. L. Wilson, a most intelligent American Missionary, who has written by

INTRODUCTION.

far the ablest work on the West Coast that has yet appeared, is worth a* host. He declares that the efforts of the English Government are worthy of all praise. Had it not been for the cruisers, and especially those of England, Africa would still have been inaccessible to missionary labour ; " and it is devoutly to be hoped," he adds, " that these noble and disinterested measures may not be relaxed until the foul demon be driven away from the earth." The slave-trade is the greatest obstacle in existence to civilization and commercial progress; and as the English are the most philanthropic people in the world, and will probably always have the largest commercial stake in the African continent, the policy for its suppression in every possible way shows thorough wisdom and foresight.