128 THE TRADE OP CAZEMBE. Chap. V. 



at the same time teaching them, by precept and example, 

 the great truths of our Holy Keligion. 



Our stay at the Lake was necessarily short. We had found 

 that the best plan for allaying any suspicions, that might 

 arise in the minds of a people accustomed only to slave- 

 traders, was to pay a hasty visit, and then leave for a while, 

 and allow the conviction to form among the people that, though 

 our course of action was so different from that of others, we 

 were not dangerous, but rather disposed to be friendly. We 

 had also a party at the vessel, and any indiscretion on their 

 part might have proved fatal to the character of the 

 Expedition. 



The trade of Cazembe and Katanga's country, and of other 

 parts of the interior, crosses Nyassa and the Shire, on its 

 way to the Arab port, Kilwa, and the Portuguese ports of 

 Iboe and Mosambique. At present, slaves, ivory, malachite, 

 and copper ornaments, are the only articles of commerce. 

 According to information collected by Colonel Rigby at 

 Zanzibar, and from other sources, nearly all the slaves shipped 

 from the above-mentioned ports come from the Nyassa district. 

 By means of a small steamer, purchasing the ivory of the 

 Lake and River above the cataracts, which together have a 

 shore-line of at least COO miles, the slave-trade in this quarter 

 would be rendered unprofitable, — for it is only by the ivory 

 being carried by the slaves, that the latter do not eat up all the 

 profits of a trip. An influence would be exerted over an enor- 

 mous area of country, for the Mazitu about the north end of the 

 Lake will not allow slave-traders to pass round that way through 

 their country. They would be most efficient allies to the Eng- 

 lish, and might themselves be benefited by more intercourse. 

 As things are now, the native traders in ivory and malachite 

 have to submit to heavy exactions ; and if we could give 



