390 



THE LAKE SLAVE-TRADE. 



Chap. XIX. 



would be an old grey-headed man before he got there. I 

 never heard of such a thing being attempted." We were 

 told on the Rovuma that that river flowed out of Nyassa ; and, 

 on the lower half of the lake every one assured us that a 

 canoe could sail out of Nyassa into the Eovuma ; but above 

 that, their testimony differed, some saying that it ran near the 

 lake but not out of it, and others were equally positive that it 

 was several days' journey from Lake Nyassa. Mankambira 

 had never heard of any large river in the north, and even 

 denied its existence altogether ; giving us at the same time 

 the names of the different halting-places round the head of 

 the lake, and the number of days required to reach the coast 

 opposite his village; which corresponded, as nearly as we could 

 judge, with the distance at which we have placed its end. 



The Lake slave-trade was going on at a terrible rate. 

 Two enterprising Arabs had built a dhow, and were running 

 her, crowded with slaves, regularly across the Lake. We 

 were told she sailed the day before we reached their head- 

 quarters. This establishment is in the latitude of the Portu- 

 guese slave-exporting town of Iboe, and partly supplies that 

 vile market ; but the greater number of the slaves go to 

 Kilwa.* We did not see much evidence of a wish to 



* On one occasion one of our crui- 

 sers, the Wasp, when calling at Iboe, 

 was taken for a large si aver just then 

 expected. The slaves in the vicinity- 

 were all hurried into the town, and, 

 when Captain J. C. Stirling landed, it 

 was full of them. Our friend Major 

 Sicard was at the time Acting-Go- 

 vernor of Iboe, though very much 

 against bis own wishes. It had be- 

 come public that the late Governor 

 had left, in certain boxes, vast sums 

 of money accumulated by slave-trad- 

 ing, and the Governor- General was 



said to be very much shocked that 

 his confidential subordinate should 

 have behaved so shamefully. Major 

 Sicard had just received the thanks 

 of our Government for his most 

 disinterested kindness to the Expe- 

 dition (and now that he has gone, 

 as we trust, to a better world, we 

 would say never were public thanks 

 accompanied by more fervent private 

 gratitude), and he was selected by 

 the Governor-General to fill the vacant 

 post of Governor at Iboe, until the 

 then recent scandal had passed away 



