Chap. XI. EXPLORE THE ROVUMA. 299 



Mr. Sunley, the Consul, from whom we always received 

 the kindest attentions and assistance. He now obliged us 

 by parting with six oxen, trained for his own use in sugar- 

 making. Though sadly hampered in his undertaking by 

 being obliged to employ slave labour, he has by indomi- 

 table energy overcome obstacles under which most persons 

 would have sunk. He has done all that under the circum- 

 stances could be done to infuse a desire for freedom, by 

 paying regular wages ; and has established a large factory, 

 and brought 300 acres of rich soil under cultivation with 

 sugar-cane. We trust he will realize the fortune which 

 he so well deserves to earn. Had Mr. Sunley performed 

 the same experiment on the mainland, where people would 

 have nocked to him for the wages he now gives, he would 

 certainly have inaugurated a new era on the East Coast of 

 Africa. On a small island where the slaveholders have com- 

 plete power over the slaves, and where there is no free soil 

 such as is everywhere met with in Africa, the experiment 

 ought not to be repeated. Were Mr. Sunley commencing 

 again, it should neither be in Zanzibar nor Johanna, but 

 on African soil, where, if even a slave is ill-treated, he can 

 easily by flight become free. On an island under native 

 rule a joint manufacture by Arabs and Englishmen might 

 only mean that the latter were to escape the odium of flog- 

 ging the slaves. 



On leaving Johanna and our oxen for a time, H.M.S. 

 " Orestes " towed us thence to the mouth of the Rovuina at 

 the beginning of September. Captain Gardner, her com- 

 mander, and several of his officers, accompanied us up the 

 river for two days in the gig and cutter. The water was 

 unusually low, and it was rather dull work for a few hours 

 in the morning ; but the scene became livelier and more 

 animated when the breeze began to blow. Our four boats 

 they swept on under full sail, the men on the look out in 

 the gig and cutter calling, " Port, sir ! " " Starboard, sir ! " 



