464 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. 



Executive to carry out its provisions. Our conventions 

 with Turkey have come to little or nothing. They have 

 shared the usual fate of Turkish promises. Even the 

 convention announced with considerable confidence in the 

 Queen's Speech on 5th February 1880, if the tenor of it 

 be as it has been reported in the Temps newspaper, leaves 

 far too much in the hands of the Turks, and unless it be 

 energetically and constantly enforced by this country, 

 will fail in its object. To this end, however, we trust 

 that the attention of our Government will be earnestly 

 directed. The Turkish traffic is particularly hateful, for 

 it is carried on mainly for purposes of sensuality and 

 show. 



The abolition of the slave-trade by King Mtesa, chief 

 of Waganda, near Lake Victoria Nyanza, is one of the 

 most recent fruits of the agitation. The services of 

 Mr. Mackay, a countryman of Livingstone's, and an 

 agent of the Church Missionary Society, contributed 

 mainly to this remarkable result. 



Such facts show that not only has the slave-trade 

 become illegal in some of the separate states of Africa, 

 but that an active spirit has been roused against it, which, 

 if duly directed, may yet achieve much more. The trade, 

 however, breeds a reckless spirit, which cares little for 

 treaties or enactments, and is ready to continue the traffic 

 as a smuggling business after it has been declared illegal. 

 In the Nyassa district, from which to a large extent it 

 has disappeared, it is by no means suppressed. It is quite 

 conceivable that it may revive after the temporary alarm 

 of the dealers has subsided. The remissness, and even 

 the connivance, of the Portuguese authorities has been a 

 great hindrance to its abolition. All who desire to carry 

 out the noble objects of Livingstone's life will therefore 

 do well to urge her Majesty's Ministers, members of 

 Parliament, and all who have influence, to renewed and 

 unremitting efforts towards the complete and final aboli- 



