560 BEISK SLAVE-TRADING. Chap. XXVII. 



adopted the exacting system of the Banyai, or of the people 

 whose country was traversed by Speke and Grant. 



In our way back from Chinsamba's to Ckembi's, and from 

 his village to Nk win da's, and thence to Katosa's, we only saw 

 the people working in their gardens, near to the stockades. 

 These strongholds were strengthened with branches of acacias, 

 covered with strong hooked thorns ; and were all crowded 

 with people. The air was now clearer than when we went 

 north, and we could see the hills of Kirk's Kange five or six 

 miles to the west of our path. The sun struck very hot, and 

 the men felt it most in their feet. Every one who could get 

 a bit of goatskin made it into a pair of sandals. 



While sitting at Nkwinda's, a man behind the court 

 hedge-wall said, with great apparent glee, that an Arab 

 slaving party on the other side of the confluence of the Shire 

 and Lake were "giving readily two fathoms of calico for a 

 boy, and two and a half for a girl ; never saw trade so brisk, 

 no haggling at all." This party was purchasing for the 

 supply of the ocean slave-trade. One of the evils of this 

 traffic is that it profits by every calamity that happens in a 

 country. The slave-trader naturally reaps advantage from 

 every disorder, and though in the present case some lives may 

 have been saved that otherwise would have perished, as a rule 

 he intensifies hatreds, and aggravates wars between the tribes, 

 because the more they fight and vanquish each other the 

 richer his harvest becomes. Where slaving and cattle are 

 unknown the people live in peace. As we sat leaning against 

 that hedge, and listened to the harangue of the slave-trader's 

 agent, it glanced across our mind that this was a terrible 

 world ; the best in it unable, from conscious imperfections, to 

 say to the worst "Stand by! for I am holier than thou." 

 The slave-trader, imbued no doubt with certain kindly feel- 

 ings, yet pursuing a calling which makes him a fair specimen 



