512 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



Government has undertaken on their behalf, and has pointed out the salu- 

 tary fact that England is determined to put an end to the buying, selling, 

 and pawning of slaves. 



" England, as Governor Strahan explained, has prosecuted the war 

 against the Ashantees at a cost ten times greater than all the gold there is in 

 Ashantee, Akim, or Wassaw. She had done this not because any compen- 

 sating advantages were to be obtained, but simply because she desired to 

 protect her African subjects from wrong and oppression. Of all the money 

 which England has expended in this war nothing is to be asked back. What 

 the British Government has done, it has done for its own honour, and from 

 its sense of duty to those tribes which it had undertaken to protect. But 

 whilst it may not demand any pecuniary recompense, it did demand a variety 

 of concessions as the price of its future protection, and the first of these is the 

 suppression of the slave-trade. 



" It was in this intelligible light that Governor Strahan placed the matter 

 before the African chiefs in the Hall of Palaver. ' All that the Queen requires 

 and expects from you, ' he said, ' is obedience to her wishes and those of her 

 people in England. The foremost of those wishes, and the one which re- 

 quired immediate and distinct expression, was that an end should be put to a 

 trade which English people abhor.' Governor Strahan left the assembled 

 chiefs no choice. ' It is right that I should tell you distinctly,' he said ' that 

 if you require the Queen's protection you must do as she wishes — as she 

 orders. When the Queen speaks in this way, it is not a matter for palaver, 

 question, hesitation, or doubt, but she expects obedience and assent.' 



"Speeches of this kind will teach the African slave-sellers how white 

 people govern ; and its effect was to be seen in the readiness with which the 

 assembled chiefs appreciated the matter as it was put before them. They 

 had small time allowed them for decision, but they soon arrived at the con- 

 clusion that the profit accruing from the slave-trade was not to be weighed 

 against the advantages of British protection. In future there is to be no 

 traffic in slaves. The slaves which are already the property of their owners 

 will remain in their possession as long as they are treated with humane con- 

 sideration, but no slave can be retained who is subjected either to hardship or 

 cruelty. We may congratulate ourselves that the trade has been suppressed 

 with so little demonstration on either side, and that the chiefs of the Gold 

 Coast have seen the wisdom of acquiescing without compelling a resort to 

 force. The circumstance will be a serious blow to the slave-trade over the 

 whole of Africa, and we may hope not only that before long it will become 

 a thing of the past, but that the mere holding of slaves will be suppressed 

 also." 



The following is the text of the speech delivered by His Excellency 

 Governor Strahan at a meeting of all the kings and chiefs of the Western 



