92 " GOREE," OR SLAVE-STICK. CHAP. IV. 



encamped close by. They had been up to Cazembe's 

 country the past year, and were on their way back, with 

 plenty of slaves, ivory, and malachite. In a few minutes 

 half a dozen of the leaders came over to see us. They 

 were armed with long muskets, and, to our mind, were a 

 villanous-looking lot. They evidently thought the same 

 of us, for they offered several young children for sale, but, 

 when told that we were English, showed signs of fear, and 

 decamped during the night. On our return to the Kon- 

 gone, we found that H.M.S. " Lynx " had caught some of 

 these very slaves in a dhow ; for a woman told us she first 

 saw us at Mosauka's, and that the Arabs had fled for fear 

 of an uncanny sort of Basungu. 



This is one of the great slave-paths from the interior, 

 others cross the Shire a little below, and some on the lake 

 itself. We might have released these slaves, but did not 

 know what to do with them afterwards. On meeting men, 



' Goree," or Slave-stick. 



led in slave-sticks, the Doctor had to bear the reproaches 

 of the Makololo, who never slave, " Ay, you call us bad, 

 but are we yellow-hearted, like these fellows — why won't 

 you let us choke them?" To liberate and leave them, 

 would have done but little good, as the people of the sur- 

 rounding villages would soon have seized them, and have 

 sold them again into slavery. The Manganja chiefs sell 

 their own people, for we met Ajawa and slave-dealers in 

 several highland villages, who had certainly been encou- 

 raged to come among them for slaves. The chiefs always 

 seemed ashamed of the traffic, and tried to excuse them- 



