326 SKELETONS, THEIR POSITIONS. Chap. XII. 



village no fewer than twenty drums had been collected, 

 probably the ferryman's fees. Many had ended their 

 misery under shady trees — others under projecting crags 

 in the hills — while others lay in their huts, with closed 

 doors, which when opened disclosed the mouldering corpse 

 with the poor rags round the loins — the skull fallen off 

 the pillow — the little skeleton of the child, that had 

 perished first, rolled up in a mat between two large 

 skeletons. The sight of this desert, but eighteen months 

 ago a well peopled valley, now literally strewn with 

 human bones, forced the conviction upon us, that the 

 destruction of human life in the middle passage, however 

 great, constitutes but a small portion of the waste, and 

 made us feel that unless the slave-trade — that monster 

 iniquity, which has so long brooded over Africa — is put 

 down, lawful commerce cannot be established. 



We believed that, if it were possible to get a steamer 

 upon the Lake, we could by her means put a check on 

 the slavers from the East Coast ; and aid more effectually 

 still in the suppression of the slave-trade, by introducing, 

 by way of the Eovuma, a lawful traffic in ivory. We 

 therefore unscrewed the " Lady Nyassa " at a rivulet about 

 five hundred yards below the first cataract, and began to 

 make a road over the thirty-five or forty miles of land 

 portage, by which to carry her up piecemeal. After 

 mature consideration, we could not imagine a more noble 

 work of benevolence, than thus to introduce light and 

 liberty into a quarter of this fair earth, which human lust 

 has converted into the nearest possible resemblance of 

 what we conceive the infernal regions to be — and we 

 sacrificed much of our private resources as an offering for 

 the promotion of so good a cause. 



The chief part of the labour of road-making consisted 

 in cutting down trees and removing stones. The country 

 being covered with open forest, a small tree had to be cut 



