LETTER TO THE "DAILY TELEGRAPH." 825 



to work for us. Even the slavers think we are humane, for just after we came 

 here a gang of about five hundred slaves were on their way to the coast and 

 passed within fifty miles of us. One poor creature could not travel further, 

 so, instead of killing him, which it is their practice to do, they let him go, 

 at the same time telling him there was a people called the English living at 

 such a place, and if he could only reach them they were sure to take care of 

 him. After great hardships he arrived here very bad with diseased spine, 

 and here the poor fellow is now. He was frightened when he saw people 

 with white skins and straight hair. 



" Hitherto we have been successful in everything we have taken in hand, 

 and I earnestly pray that our Heavenly Father will still guide, guard, and 

 protect us." 



The following day, Mr. Young thus writes to the ' Daily Telegraph :' — 

 " I know you will be pleased to hear of the success of our mission hitherto. 

 No doubt you know that we succeeded in conveying our steamer and a 

 wooden boat past the Murchison Cataracts, and that it took eight hundred 

 natives to convey everything across. We built the steamer and launched her 

 tight and sound, and steamed into the lake on the 12th October, since when 

 we have been successful in every way. We obtained a good site for our set- 

 tlement, with a good anchorage for our little craft ; we then set to and built 

 houses and store, and got all finished before the rains began, after which I 

 took a cruise round the lake. It is truly a wonderful and beautiful sea, and 

 extends north to 9° 20' south latitude, having a coast of not less than eight 

 hundred miles. Bottom could seldom be got with one hundred fathoms of 

 line, in some places, even at the same distance from the shore. At the N.E. 

 end there is a range of mountains extending one hundred miles along the 

 lake, with almost perpendicular sides to them, and ranging in height from 

 ten thousand to twelve thousand feet. There are many islands and nume- 

 rous rivers, but none of the latter are navigable for any great distance. 

 Many delightful parts are depopulated by the slave trade, and hundreds of 

 skeletons were seen in many places. In some spots, principally at the north- 

 ern end, those that have escaped are living in villages built on piles in the 

 lake, others are lingering out a miserable existence on barren rocks. Some 

 of the scenes are indeed quite heart-rending. There are five dhows, which 

 all convey slaves across from the west side ; and by what I can gather, I 

 should think not less than from fifteen thousand to twenty thousand are 

 transported annually. 



" The Arabs are combined with the chiefs on the south and west fighting 

 and capturing slaves further inland. Is not this a frightful state of things, 

 and why should it continue, when a small vessel similar to mine, with a 

 dozen resolute Englishmen, could paralyse the whole trade ? All that would 

 be required would be a few bales of calico and beads to buy up the ivory. 

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