CHAP. X. HORRORS OF THE SLAVE-TRADE. 275 



yearly destroys ! for we feel sure that were even half the 

 truth told and recognized, the feelings of men would be bo 

 thoroughly roused, that this devilish traffic in human 

 flesh would be put down at all risks ; but neither we, nor 

 any one else, have the statistics necessary for a work of 

 this kind. Let us state what we do know of one portion 

 of Africa, and then every reader who believes our tale 

 can apply the ratio of the known misery to find out the 

 unknown. We were informed by Colonel Eigby, late 

 H.M. Political Agent, and Consul at Zanzibar, that 19,000 

 slaves from this Nyassa country alone pass annually 

 through the Custom-house of that island. This is ex- 

 clusive of course of those sent to Portuguese slave-ports. 

 Let it not be supposed for an instant that this number, 

 19,000, represents all the victims. Those taken out of the 

 country are but a very small section of the sufferers. We 

 never realized the atrocious nature of the traffic, until we 

 saw it at the fountain-head. There truly "Satan has his" 

 seat." Besides those actually captured, thousands are 

 killed and die of their wounds and famine, driven from 

 their villages by the slave raid proper. Thousands perish 

 in internecine war waged for slaves with their own clans- 

 men and neighbours, slain by the lust of gain, which is 

 stimulated, be it remembered always, by the slave pur- 

 chasers of Cuba and elsewhere. The many skeletons we 

 have seen, amongst rocks and woods, by the little pools, 

 and along the paths of the wilderness, attest the awful 

 sacrifice of human life, which must be attributed, directly 

 or indirectly, to this trade of hell. We would ask our 

 countrymen to believe us when we say, as we conscien- 

 tiously can, that it is our deliberate opinion, from what we 

 know and have seen, that not one-fifth of the victims of 

 the slave-trade ever become slaves. Taking the Shire 

 Valley as an average, we should say not even one-tenth 

 arrive at their destination. As the system, therefore. 



