834 LIFE OF DA VI D LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



the victory, and take slaves from the prisoners. It is needless to say that in 

 such intestine wars as these, many lives are lost ; also in the famine that fol- 

 lows. Loaded with chains, these poor slaves have to walk hundreds or thou- 

 sands of miles ; and if any of them show any signs of lagging, in order to 

 prevent their falling into other hands, the drivers either cleave their heads 

 open with a hatchet, shoot them, stab them, or, more generally, strangle 

 them, by tying them to a tree. 



"I cannot tell what may have been the experience of Lieutenant Cameron, 

 but Livingstone says that, in one of his journeys, 'I found that day after day, 

 in certain regions, I met on the road such sights as these continually.' And 

 within the past few weeks all this has been corroborated by Bishop Steere, who 

 has made a most adventurous trip across from the east coast northward to Lake 

 Nyassa by himself. In a pamphlet he published on his return, he says — 

 1 Scarcely a day passed that I did not witness such sights as these.' There- 

 fore you will cease to wonder at the statistics presented to us. Even the 

 slavers themselves calculate on losing four out of every five slaves before they 

 reach the coast, but, of course, the profit they make out of the remaining one 

 of the five is enormous. According to Bishop Steere, the price of a slave in 

 the interior is two yards of calico, or 9d. ; at the coast he is worth £5, and 

 when he gets to Arabia his value has increased to £50. The blue books I 

 mentioned are not books with which we should look for exaggeration or 

 poetry, but you will find stated in one of them that the route from Nyassa to 

 the shore is literally lined with skeletons. I think none of us, if we endeavour 

 to realise those facts, can help recognising the great enormity of this evil, and 

 perhaps be actuated by a desire to see England putting forth her hand to 

 strike down the tyrant. 



"It is not so plain, perhaps, how we are to do so. There are many modes. 

 Some advise the making of treaties with the Oriental potentates — to root out 

 slavery out of the countries where it still exists. I do not depreciate such a 

 course. Let all means be tried. There are difficulties, I think ; for to uproot 

 this custom would be like uprooting the ceremony of marriage in this country, 

 so closely is it entwined around the institutions of the country. And this 

 difficulty presents itself. We cannot enforce — neither can these potentates — 

 any treaties we can make. We may put cruisers on the coast ; we do do so, 

 and we catch about one per cent, of the dhows. During the past week, how- 

 ever, a competent authority told me that we do not catch more than one in a 

 thousand. However, let us put them there, and catch one in a thousand. 

 But we must try other things as well, and there is one proposition to which 

 I wish especially to call attention. I will not call it mine, but Living- 

 stone's — it is that of going to the fountain-head of the evil — go to the coun- 

 try, out-bid the dealers, and you will see that the natives are eager enough 

 in many parts to receive you, to take your part against the Arab slavers. 



