CAPTAIN TUCKEY'S NARRATIVE. 187 



tend greatly to improve Africa, by rendering the com- 

 munication between different parts of the country i\ee from 

 the danger of being kidnapped, which now represses all 

 curiosity, or all desire of the people of one banzato go be- 

 yond the neighbouring one. Every man I have conversed 

 Avith indeed acknowledges, that if white men did not come 

 for slaves, the practice of kidnapping would no longer 

 exist, and the wars, which nine times out of ten result from 

 the European slave trade, would be proportionally less 

 frequent. The people at large most assuredly desire the 

 cessation of a trade, in which, on the contrary, all the great 

 men deriving a large portion of their revenue from the 

 presents it produces, as well as the slave merchants, who 

 however are not numerous, are interested in the con- 

 tinuance. It is not however to be expected that the effects 

 of the abolition will be immediately perceptible; on the 

 contrary, it will probably rec[uire more than one generation 

 to become apparent : for effects, which have been the 

 consequence of a practice of three centuries, will certainly 

 continue long after the cause is removed ; and in fact, if we 

 mean to accelerate the progress of civilization, it can only 

 be done by colonization, and certainly there could not be a 

 better point to commence at than the banks of the Zaire. 



