XXXVI.] A BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR AFRICA. 471 



been accompanied by so mucli aggression and cruelty that, in 

 the words of Colonel Gordon, " it is impossible for an explorer 

 to push his way except by force, as the natives are suspicious 

 of the intentions of all strangers." Indeed, Mr. Lucas, after a 

 considerable expenditure of time and money, has been obliged 

 reluctantly to yield, and abandon all idea of proceeding to Ny- 

 angwe from the Nile basin. 



Thirdly, the routes from the West Coast ; of which those 

 only at present used by Europeans or their agents are via Bihe 

 and Kassanji. But here the Kongo would seem to offer a high- 

 way to the remotest parts of the continent. 



Lastly, a route from Xatal through the Transvaal by the Dra- 

 kensberg to the tropical highlands, which has the advantage of 

 possessing a terminus in British territory, and of avoiding the 

 unhealthy coast districts ; two facts which point to it as likely 

 to prove hereafter one of the great highways into the interior. 



The export of india-rubber to the value of forty thousand 

 pounds from the Zanzibar ports, and the stoppage of the export 

 of slaves from the East Coast — in which we have been so loyal- 

 ly aided, by the sultan — are circumstances the significance of 

 which it is impossible to overrate, showing that a brighter fut- 

 ure is already dawning upon Africa. The fact that a new ar- 

 ticle of export has thus been profitably worked at a time when 

 the depression of trade at Zanzibar is very great — owing to the 

 suppression of the traffic in slaves — proves incontestably that a 

 portion of the capital hitherto employed in that detestable traf- 

 fic has been diverted into a more legitimate channel. 



The whole trade of tropical Africa is at present dependent 

 on human beings as beasts of burden ; and valuable labor, which 

 might be profitably employed in cultivating the ground or col- 

 lecting products for exportation, is thus lost. 



Besides this, in the countries where ivory is cheapest and 

 most plentiful, none of the inhabitants willingly engage them- 

 selves as carriers, and traders are obliged to buy slaves to ena- 

 ble them to transport their ivory to a profitable market. 



When the export slave-trade was fiou]-ishing, the carriers 

 who brought the ivory to the coast were sold, and added to the 

 gain of the trader. And it is to be feared, now that there is no 

 market for tliese people, that they will be even more reckless- 



34 



