BISHOP ST E ERE ON THE SLAVE TRADE. 853 



Referring to Bishop Steere's plan for arresting the slave trade, the car- 

 rying out of which was the object of his journey into the interior, the Rev. 

 Horace Waller, who speaks from knowledge, says : — " There can be no doubt 

 that Bishop Steere's plan is the correct one. Forty men, carefully selected 

 under a competent leader, might not only establish themselves within a few 

 months upon some favourable spot near Lake Nyassa, but, if properly con- 

 stituted, the little detachment should hold its own against any possible dis- 

 turbance, and induce every village within two days' march, under offer of 

 good reward, to report the presence of any slave caravans in the country. 

 The party should certainly contain, say, ten sappers, one blacksmith, two car- 

 penters, one mason, two bricklayers, taught to make bricks, one sergeant, two 

 seamen, one cook, two agriculturists, and a medical man. It would be hard 

 if the remaining hands could not be gathered from the ranks that have already 

 sent such men to Africa as those which make up the 'Livingstonia' party. 

 The prospect of an intensely interesting and adventurous life and a deter- 

 mination to put an end to the slave trade would attract many, whilst the 

 bold and unsparing eye of the leader would sift out such as could not furnish 

 unmistakable evidence that their previous life and reputation would stand 

 the test of severe discipline and thorough obedience. 



" That some one or two men would beg to be allowed to join as mission- 

 aries and teachers from the outset, we may be certain, and with the proba- 

 bility of a large population quickly springing up around the City of Refuge, 

 their presence, from all points of view, would be indispensable. The outlay 

 on such an undertaking would not reach that needed for the maintenance of 

 a guard-ship on the coast. With Lindi as a first-rate harbour, and Zanzibar 

 frequented by ships of all nations within easy reach, stores could be landed 

 on the coast at any season, and at each trip the cost of porterage and time 

 expended on the road would be worked down. Trading should be vigorously 

 carried on in all directions, in order that the natives might find the same 

 goods procurable in exchange for the products of their lands and forests that 

 they have hitherto alone been able to secure by the sale of their fellow crea- 

 tures. The home Government might well afford to be answerable for the 

 military and naval element in the undertaking, as it would form part of the 

 suppressive policy at work on the coast, whilst private enterprise might sup- 

 port the remaining cost. The news would spread with incredible speed that 

 any fraction of a tribe could settle down in the vicinity of the settlement safe 

 from attack, and with equal speed it would become known, as of old at Mago- 

 mero, that no slaver would be tolerated in the land. Indeed, the writer of 

 these observations can ill conceal that he is jotting them down in full recol- 

 lection of what five or six men once proved to be possible in this way, and 

 within one hundred and fifty miles of this same chief Mataka ; and he ven- 

 tures to state that every one who has had actual experience of the native 



