EVIL EFFECTS OF SLAVERY. 231 



them were suffering from it at the time. It is still unknown here. This case 

 is analogous to ships leaving diseases at the South Sea Islands. After many- 

 had perished, a native doctor pointed out a root which, when used in time, 

 effects a speedy cure. The Portuguese now know the remedy and value it 

 highly. I am not disposed to believe everything marvellous ; but from 

 excoriations having been made, by means of the root, on the tongue of the 

 patient, and abstraction of blood so near the seat of the disease having been 

 successful in this very intractable disease, I think the black doctor deserves 

 some credit. The fact, too, that certain plants are known by widely separated 

 tribes all over the country as medicinal, is an additional reason for recom- 

 mending those who have nothing but travel and discovery on hand to pick 

 up whatever fragments of aboriginal medical knowledge may come in their way. 



" In addition to the articles of commerce mentioned above, I saw 

 specimens of gum copal, orchilla-weed, caoutchouc, and other gums. There 

 are two plants, the fibres of which yield very strong thread and ropes. Bees 

 abound beyond Tete, but the people eat the honey and throw the wax away. 

 There are several varieties of trees which attain large dimensions, yielding 

 timber of superior quality for durability in shipbuilding. I saw pure negroes 

 at Senna cutting down such trees in the forest, and building boats on the 

 European model, without the superintendence of a master. Other articles of 

 trade are mentioned by writers, but I refer to those only which came under 

 my personal observation. 



"I feel fully persuaded that, were a stimulus given to the commerce of 

 the Zambesi by a small mercantile company proceeding cautiously to develop 

 the resources of this rich and fertile country, it would certainly lead to a 

 most lucrative trade. The drawbacks to everything of this sort must, however, 

 be explicitly stated : and though anxious to promote the welfare of the teeming 

 population of the interior by means of the commercial prosperity and inter- 

 course of the coasts, I should greatly regret any undue expectations from 

 unconsciously giving a too high colouring to my descriptions. I shall therefore 

 try to explain the causes of the miserable state of stagnation and decay in 

 which I found the Portuguese possessions. 



" I have already stated that the slave-trade acted by withdrawing labour 

 from every other source of wealth in this country, and transferring it to the 

 plantations of Cuba and Brazil. The masters soon followed the slaves ; hence 

 this part of Africa contains scarcely any Europeans possessing capital and 

 intelligence or commercial enterprise. Of those who engaged in the slave- 

 trade in both eastern and western Africa, it is really astonishing to observe how 

 few have been permanently enriched by it. There seems a sort of fatality 

 attending these unlawful gains, for you again and again hear the remark, ' He 

 was rich in the time of the slave-trade.' Beyond all question, it has impover- 

 ished both the colonists and the country. And when our cruisers, by their 



