EFFECTS OF SLAVE TEADE. 



279 



amount of gold obtained annually by the Portuguese is from 

 eight to ten pounds only. When the slave trade began, it 

 seemed to many of the merchants a more speedy mode of becom- 

 ing rich to sell off the slaves than to pursue the slow mode of 

 gold washing and agriculture, and they continued to export 

 them until they had neither hands to labor nor to fight for 

 them. It was just the story of the goose and the golden egg. 

 The coffee and sugar plantations and gold washings were aban- 

 doned, because the labor had been exported to the Brazils. 

 Many of the Portuguese then followed their slaves, and the 

 government was obliged to pass a law to prevent further emi- 

 gration, which, had it gone on, would have depopulated the 

 Portuguese possessions altogether. As it was, the remaining 

 representatives of Portugal were little better than none, so far 

 as asserting any authority was concerned. The late war, which 

 only terminated a few months before Livingstone arrived from 

 the interior, had demonstrated how unable they were to cope 

 with the tribes about them in case of revolt. Kasika on the 

 north had plundered and burned all the plantations of the 

 wealthy merchants on that side of the river, and Nyaude, who 

 had placed his stockade just below the village, at the confluence 

 of the Luenya, had completely blockaded it during two years, 

 so that they had been compelled to send overland to Kilimane 

 for goods enough to buy food with. 



The priests at Tete had no more power than the captains ; 

 the church did not amount to any more than the fort. The 

 natives were careful to keep out of the range of the guns from 

 the fort, but acknowledged their authority no further. So they 

 kept out of the church, but cared nothing for the religion. The 

 Portuguese do not seem to have concerned themselves about the 

 religious beliefs of their wild associates. Indeed, they were 

 rather inclined to make capital of the superstitions which they 

 should have sought to overcome. Certainly their metropolis 

 might also be regarded as the metropolis of heathen absurdi- 

 ties. Being made up of the representatives of various tribes, 

 it was also a focus of superstitions. They believe that many evil 

 spirits live in the air, the earth, and the water. These invisible 

 malicious beings are thought to inflict much suffering on the 

 human race; but, as they have a weakness for beer and a crav- 



