Chap. XXV. SLAVE EOUTE. 519 



our legs and lungs, from the sad fact that this was part of the 

 great slave-route now actually in use. By this road many 

 "Ten thousands" have here seen "the Sea," "the Sea," but 

 with sinking hearts ; for the universal idea among the captive 

 gangs is, that they are going to be fattened and eaten by the 

 whites. They cannot of course be so much shocked as we 

 should be — their sensibilities are far from fine, their feelings 

 are more obtuse than ours — in fact, "the live eels are used 

 to being skinned," perhaps they rather like it. We who are 

 not philosophic, blessed the Providence which at Thermopylas 

 in ancient days rolled back the tide of Eastern conquest from 

 the West, and so guided the course of events that light and 

 liberty and Gospel truth spread to our distant isle, and eman- 

 cipating our race freed them from the fear of ever again 

 having to climb fatiguing heights and descend wearisome 

 hollows in a slave-gang, as we suppose they did when the 

 fair English youths were exposed for sale at Eome. 



Looking westwards we perceived that, what from below 

 had the appearance of mountains, was only the edge of a 

 table-land which, though at first undulating, soon became 

 smooth, and sloped towards the centre of the country. To 

 the south a prominent mountain called Chipata, and to the 

 south-west another named Ngalla, by which the Bua is said 

 to rise, gave character to the landscape. In the north, masses 

 of hills prevented our seeing more than eight or ten miles. 



The air which was so exhilarating to Europeans had an 

 opposite effect on five men who had been born and reared in 

 the malaria of the Delta of the Zambesi. No sooner did they 

 reach the edge of the plateau at Nclonda, than they lay down 

 prostrate, and complained of pains all over them. The tem- 

 perature was not much lower than that on the shores of the 

 Lake below, 76° being the mean temperature of the day, 52° 

 the lowest, and 82° the highest during the twenty-four hours; 



