CHURCH CONGRESS AT PLY MO UTH. 855 



thai the English, under Mr Young, were ruining the slave trade there ! In 

 singular confirmation of this we find Bishop Steere stating that he believes, 

 from what he saw, as many as ten thousand slaves per annum passed along the 

 particular path (one of two leading to the coast) that he happened to be tra- 

 velling upon. 



" But we must now leave them to speak for themselves. That the slaver 

 has altered his plans, we cannot doubt ; that he has dropped his lucrative 

 trade, it is absurd to imagine ; but we are equally sure that in contrast to 

 this unsatisfactory state of things the right measures for real suppression 

 have been ably propounded. 



"It is with extreme delight that we now see an extraordinary impetus 

 given to an old scheme, formed many years ago, for dealing a most effectual 

 blow at the very heart of this dreadful state of things. Originating first of 

 all in the practical mind of Dr Livingstone, it has stood the test of many 

 years' criticism, and has never seemed otherwise than precisely the one tiling 

 wanted when regarded by those who have personally watched the slave trader 

 at his work in the country." 



In October, 1876, the annual meetings of the Church Congress were held 

 at Plymouth ; and one of the subjects discussed was, " Central Africa in re- 

 lation to Mission Work, Slave Trade, and Commerce." A paper which had 

 been prepared by Sir Bartle Frere was read, in which he said he proposed 

 to lay before the Congress a short account of the recent development of Chris- 

 tian Missions on the East Coast of Africa, and to indicate the mode in which 

 they were likely to be affected by the plan for an international association for 

 the exploration and civilisation of Central Africa which the King of the Bel- 

 gians had lately placed before a Conference of geographers and others at 

 Brussels in September last. Central Africa had for ages been almost closed 

 or lost to the rest of the world, except as a nursery or hunting ground for 

 slaves. Admirably adapted by nature for producing and exporting almost 

 every kind of tropical or sub-tropical raw produce, and for consuming in 

 large quantities the products and manufactures of the rest of the world, Cen- 

 tral Africa had for three centuries exported little except slaves, every one of 

 whom had been proved in the clearest manner to be procured at the cost of 

 many other human lives, while the process of hunting for them kept the 

 whole country in a state of perpetual insecurity and barbarism. The annual 

 loss of life had been repeatedly proved to be some hundred times greater than 

 the slaughter in Bulgaria, which had so recently shocked the whole civilised 

 world. No one who had any instinct of humanity could refuse to aid in put- 

 ting a stop to such a horrible waste of human life, and of the good gifts of 

 the Almighty ; but how was this to be effected ? 



Governments and diplomatists had done, and were doing, their part, 

 but they could achieve little without the aid of explorers and enterprising 



