HOPEFUL PROSPECTS. 427 



But Europe possesses energy for anything, and if one man dies, 

 another will take his place and carry on his work. It is strange 

 that Europeans have left our countries quite out of sight, 

 and prefer to pour money into the interior by the somewhat 

 worn-out route from Zanzibar, and to enhance the greatness 

 of Sultan Mirambo, and heroes of his stamp, by tribute. If 

 only a thousandth part of the sums expended on those 

 expeditions, which were, however, intended to form stations, 

 had been employed in fitting out a small expedition — of 

 Germans of course, I should prefer — and sending it here, I 

 would have sent it forward into the still unoccupied country 

 to the south of Makraka — a real paradise. The men would 

 have been within a few days' march of us and in constant 

 contact with the world, in a healthy mountain region, and 

 would have become a protection and a blessing to the sur- 

 rounding Negroes. Small stations would in a very short time 

 have been thrown forward to the Congo through the entirely 

 unknown district extending from the western shore of the 

 Albert Nyanza to Nyangwe, or an advance might have been 

 made to the Beatrice Gulf, and finally to the Tanganyika. Has 

 the King of the Belgians no means of forming such a station ? 

 And would it be quite impossible for you to start something 

 of the sort ? Of course, you must not mention me in con- 

 nection with it, but you may be sure that the men who come 

 may depend on my complete and most zealous support. I 

 must, however, make one remark : I am not speaking of an 

 exploring party, but of the founding of a station, a centre, 

 in fact, for future explorations. The station should maintain 

 itself by hunting, tillage, gardening, &c. (ivory ! !). The staff 

 should be chosen with a view to this — men who are not only 

 able to command and to take the altitude of a star, but who 

 know how to work occasionally, and do not disdain to take a 

 look into the cooking-pot. As an experienced traveller, you 

 will certainly admit that a man who wishes to live and work 

 here would also do better to leave the spirit-bottle behind in 

 Europe. - What boundless advantages the country itself would 

 derive from such beginnings ! Much more effective support 

 to our struggles against slavery would be afforded by the 

 presence of several Europeans than by that of ten Consuls in 



