Chap. XX. WISDOM OF NAPOLEON III. 407 



than the single system of sending them down to the Coast 

 for exportation. One merchant at Tette, with whom we were 

 well acquainted, sent into the interior three hundred Man- 

 ganja women to be sold for ivory, and. another sent a 

 hundred and fifty. The process by which the Island of 

 Bourbon was supplied with slaves was carried on with even 

 greater effrontery than the Manganja raids. The Commandant 

 at Tette, having found that a cargo of slaves had been 

 taken down the river by a woman of bad character, for form's 

 sake sent an officer after her. He followed, overtook her, 

 but returned without her. When spoken to on the subject, 

 the Commandant said, with an air of triumph, " The English 

 cannot now interfere, while we have the French flag to pro- 

 tect us." And this flag did protect slaving till May, 1864. 

 Of all the benefits which the reign of Napoleon III. has 

 conferred on his kind, none does more credit to his wisdom 

 and humanity than his having stopped this wretched system. 

 As much was done as lay in his power, in the way of 

 regulating the system of abstraction of labour from Africa, 

 by the appointment of officers to prevent abuses in its work- 

 ing ; but, in spite of every precaution, the " engagee system " 

 became neither more nor less than the abominable slave- 

 trade in all its horrors, not so much by French agency, as 

 by that of Portuguese and half-castes. Until the people 

 are enlightened, every attempt of the kind must always 

 promote the slave-trade and nothing else. 



We anchored on the Great Luabo mouth of the Zambesi, 

 because wood was much more easily obtained there than 

 at the Kongone. On the 30th, H. M. S. Gorgon arrived, 

 towing the brig which brought Mrs. Livingstone, some ladies 

 about to join their relatives in the Universities' Mission, and 

 the twenty-four sections of a new iron steamer intended for 

 the navigation of Lake Nyassa. The Pioneer steamed out, 



