INTRODUCTION. 9 



wild. It seemed, therefore, that if this region could be 

 opened to lawful commerce and Christian Missions, it would 

 have the effect of aiding or supplementing our cruisers in 

 the same way as had been done by the missionaries and 

 traders on the West Coast, and that an inestimable service 

 would be thereby rendered to Africa and Europe. 



The main object of the Zambesi Expedition, as our instruc- 

 tions from Her Majesty's Government explicitly stated, was 

 to extend the knowledge already attained of the geography 

 and mineral and agricultural resources of Eastern and Cen- 

 tral Africa — to improve our acquaintance with the inhabi- 

 tants, and to endeavour to engage them to apply themselves 

 to industrial pursuits and to the cultivation of their lands, 

 with a view to the production of raw material to be exported 

 to England in return for British manufactures; and it was 

 hoped, that, by encouraging the natives to occupy themselves 

 in the development of the resources of the country, a con- 

 siderable advance might be made towards the extinction of 

 the slave-trade, as they w r ould not be long in discovering 

 that the former would eventually be a more certain source 

 of profit than the latter. The Expedition was sent in ac- 

 cordance with the settled policy of the English Government ; 

 and the Earl of Clarendon, being then at the head of the 

 Foreign Office, the Mission was organized under his imme- 

 diate care. AVhen a change of Government ensued, we 

 experienced the same generous countenance and sympathy 

 from the Earl of Malmesbury, as we had previously received 

 from Lord Clarendon ; and, on the accession of Earl Russell 

 to the high office he has so long filled, we were always 

 favoured with equally ready attention and the same prompt 

 assistance. Thus the conviction was produced that our work 

 embodied the principles, not of any one party, but of the 



