172 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. ix. 



convinced Mm that there was a something in them not 

 quite barbarised. On one point he was very clear — the 

 Portuguese settlements among them had not unproved 

 them. Not that he undervalued the influences which 

 the Portuguese had brought to bear on them ; he had 

 a much more favourable opinion of the Jesuit missions 

 than Protestants have usually allowed themselves to 

 entertain, and felt both kindly and respectfully towards 

 the padres, who in the earlier days of these settlements 

 had done, he believed, a useful work. But the great 

 bane of the Portuguese settlements was slavery. Slavery 

 prevented a good example, it hindered justice, it kept down 

 improvement. If a settler took a fancy to a good-looking 

 girl, he had only to buy her, and make her his concubine. 

 Instead of correcting the polygamous habits of the chiefs 

 and others, the Portuguese adopted like habits themselves. 

 In one thing indeed they were far superior to the Boers — 

 in their treatment of the children born to them by native 

 mothers. But the whole system of slavery gendered a 

 blight which nothing could counteract ; to make Africa a 

 prosperous land, liberty must be proclaimed to the captive, 

 and the slave system, with all its accursed surround- 

 ings, brought conclusively to an end. Writing to Mrs. 

 Livingstone from Bashinge, 20th March 1855, he gives 

 some painful particulars of the slave-trade. Beferring to 

 a slave-agent with whom he had been, he says : — 



" This agent is about the same in appearance as Mebalwe, and 

 speaks Portuguese as the Griquas do Ditch. He has two chainsful of 

 women going to be sold for the ivory. Formerly the trade went from 

 the interior into the Portuguese territory ; now it goes the opposite 

 way. This is the effect of the Portuguese love of the trade : they can- 

 not send them abroad on account of our ships of war on the coast, yet 

 will sell them to the best advantage. These women are decentdooking, 

 as much so as the general run of Kuruman ladies, and were caught 

 lately in a skirmish the Portuguese had with their tribe ; and they 

 will be sold for about three tusks each. Each has an iron ring round 

 the wrist, and that is attached to the chain, which she carries in the 

 hand to prevent it jerking and hurting the wrist. How would Nannie 



