650 LIFE OF DA VID LI VING STONE, LL.D. 



coast Arabs, most of them having been two or three months on the way, and 

 all exclaiming at the scarcity and dearness of provisions. We found afterwards 

 at Makochero's — where we had bought most of our provisions in going up, 

 and amongst us we had eaten some hundred fowls — that nothing was now to 

 be had, and everything about the place looked hungry. These nine caravans 

 would represent from one thousand five hundred to two thousand slaves, and 

 possibly some ten thousand for the whole year. 



" Here we saw some of the horrors of the slave trade, as we were close 

 behind a caravan which had left in each day's journey one or more of its 

 number cruelly murdered by the road side, and the very last day before 

 reaching the villages we came upon a man lying in the path in the very act 

 of dying of hunger and fatigue. He was far beyond all help, and we could 

 only watch his last sighs. Surely if there can be a holy war it would be one 

 against a traffic which bears such fruits as these. If we had the means to 

 hire and feed some hundred or two of men to clear, and plant, and build, and 

 defend themselves if necessary, I think this line of trade at least might be 

 finally closed, but it would be madness to attempt force unless one had ample 

 means, and at least the passive support of the English Government. The 

 true cure must be the abolition of slavery itself on the coast, and I think the 

 English Government could easily procure it. ■ Let all present slaves be held 

 indebted to their masters in a sum equal to their market value, to be paid in 

 labour or in money as the two may agree, and all further comers to be ipso 

 facto free. There would then be no great hardship on the owners, a fitting 

 gift might be found, which would save the Sultan's honour in yielding to our 

 wishes, and the presence of the Admiral for a few weeks would satisfy his 

 people that he was only submitting to the inevitable. I heard good news at 

 Kilwa on my return, which was that the land route northwards was stopped 

 by war near the Lufiji. We have got beyond half measures, and no native 

 would be surprised at fresh action. If we need a pretext, the fact that Pemba 

 has notoriously imported large numbers of slaves under the eye of the Sultan's 

 officials, and in direct violation of the treaty, is more than a pretext, it is 

 substantial justification. None can find pleasure in detailing horrors, but 

 the actual sight of such cruelties as abound on the slave routes moves one 

 strangely." 



