DEATH OF DR. LIVINGSTONE. 511 



anchored off the island. This vigorous and unmistakable support of their 

 Envoy, on the part of the British Government, settled the question, and a 

 treaty was signed, by which the slave-trade, both foreign and domestic, ceased 

 to be recognised or supported by any of the three contracting parties. 

 The Euler of Muscat did not even contest the question, but submitted to the 

 proposal of Sir Bartle Frere at once. The treaty took effect on the 5th of 

 June, 1873. The English cruisers have succeeded in capturing several dhows 

 laden with slaves since that date; and there can be no doubt that the 

 traffic in slaves on the East Coast of Africa is for ever at an end. How 

 Livingstone would have rejoiced if he had lived to know of the mission of 

 his old friend Sir Bartle Frere and its result. But this was not to be : he 

 died exactly one month before the treaty took effect. 



Not less important in its results — and no less gratifying would it have 

 been to him, who was emphatically the Friend of Africa, to have known — 

 was the consummation of the abolition of slavery on the Gold Coast, on 

 November 3, 1874. The "Newcastle Daily Chronicle" says: — 



"For a long time now the British Government has been endeavouring, 

 in one way or another, to suppress the crying barbarities of the African slave- 

 trade. Various influences have been brought to bear on African chiefs, 

 threats and expostulations have been used, and repeated promises of amend- 

 ment have been given ; but the trade in human flesh has continued briskly 

 and to as large an extent as ever. But one, and not the least, of the advan- 

 tages connected with a powerful Government like that of England, is that 

 princes, more or less barbarous, who are within reach of its influence, must, 

 sooner or later, succumb to its wishes, even when they are not more forcibly 

 expressed than by means of moral suasion. 



"Up to the present time the abominable traffic in slaves has flourished 

 within the British Protectorate, in spite of the efforts which have been made 

 for its suppression, and the native chiefs have clung to it as one of their 

 dearest privileges. The recent conquest .of Ashantee, however, has put a new 

 face upon affairs, and has established a nearer claim over the slave-dealing 

 African potentates. 



"The necessary trouble and expense of a difficult and dangerous war, 

 undertaken in the interests of the natives of the British Protectorate, have 

 given the Government the right to ask, and even to demand, the immediate 

 suppression of the trade in human flesh. It is gratifying to observe that the 

 desired opportunity has not been lost. The Queen, through her official 

 representative, has spoken out her mind, and the slave trade on the Gold 

 Coast is practically at an end. 



"In a speech distinguished for excellent common sense and for that sim- 

 plicity of language which was rendered necessary by the occasion, Governor 

 Strahan has explained to the native chiefs the trouble which the English 



