176 SLAVE TRADE OP LOANDA. 



" moon and a half" unloading " stones that burn/' and quit 

 leaving plenty in the vessel. Indeed, everything in civilized 

 life is wonderful to these sons of the distant wilderness lands. 

 And the effect on the minds of these Makololo of their few 

 months' contact with Europeans, who treated them with special 

 kindness — a kindness secured by their association with the great 

 explorer — suggests the most hopeful results for efforts made in 

 the true spirit of Christ for the enlightenment of Africa. If 

 there had been no slave trade from Loanda ; if there had been 

 fair dealing with the natives ; if there had been a generous re- 

 cognition of their manhood at the different posts of the Portu- 

 guese authority ; if there had been clear Christian instruction 

 by the priests ; if there had been no new superstitions engrafted 

 on their ignorance ; if the open Bible had been given them in- 

 stead of the mysterious crucifix and the pictures of saints ; if 

 love and honest instruction had been given in the place of 

 cruelty and vigorous mysticism, who will say that Angola 

 would not have been the bright spot on this continent long ago, 

 toward which the world might look with pride, and for which 

 the churches might glorify God ? We do not need to charge 

 the Portuguese with bringing about the slave trade beyond the 

 coasts. There is reason to believe that it was a part of African 

 life long before the settlement of Loanda. But it is a pity that 

 the cupidity of nominal Christians was so eager to embrace the 

 opportunity which the degradation of a people presented. It is 

 a shame in Christendom that the miseries discovered in a ne- 

 glected land could excite commiseration only when they had 

 satiated covetousness. No one thing so engaged the heart of 

 Livingstone as the suppression of the slave trade. We do not 

 need to confess our faith in all the venomous charges which are 

 brought against those who have owned men. We do not need 

 to question whether the actual condition of Africans held in 

 bondage in civilized communities is really better than the condi- 

 tion of those who shrink and shudder or curse and kill in the 

 wild land of their nativity. We do not need to consider the 

 question of the absolute guilt or innocence of slaveholding in 

 the light of the Scriptures, before we offer our hearty sympa- 

 thies for the noble, life-long efforts of this singularly consecrated 

 man to engage the heart of the world for Africa. And we 



